City of Pembina, ND

Official Minutes for March 8th, 2021, Pembina City Council Meeting

Council Members Present: Mayor Mike Fitzgerald, President Jeff Watts, VP Ron Fritz, Greg Koropatnicki, Jennifer Martin, Pat Burton and Allen Huttunen (via phone)

 

Absent: none

 

City Employees Present: Lisa Hall/Auditor, Gary Helland/Public Works Superintendent

 

City Attorney Present: Rob Fleming

 

City Engineer: Brad Bail

 

Others present: Blaine Eisenbeis-PFD Chief, Crystal Volk, Harold Rotunda

 

Public Portion-   Crystal here to get answers for questions she presented last month. (mosquito fee, lagoon fee and snow)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Meeting called to order by Mayor Fitzgerald at 6:00 p.m.

 Changes to Agenda

 Add vacation of 4^th Street and employee job descriptions under attorney, flood committee, table and chairs for meeting area at professional building, Buzz Irving’s water bill under new business, snow under employees, and commercial applicators license under council. Motion by Burton second by Watts to approve agenda with changes. Ayes all present.   Motion carries.

 

Motion by Watts, second by Martin to approve February’s meeting minutes with changes. Ayes all present. Motion carries.

 

Old Business

• Ambulance budget- Table until April meeting as it was just received tonight.

• Budget-Harold here presented council with a couple other formats to look at.

• Polar Franchise agreement 2^nd reading- Motion by Watts second by Burton to approve the second reading of the Polar Franchise agreement. Ayes all present. Motion carries.

• Mosquito fee- Motion by Huttunen second by Fritz to suspend the mosquito fee and revisit in July when the weather is better. Ayes: Huttunen, Fritz Nays: Martin, Koropatnicki, Burton and Watts. Motion fails.   Motion by Burton second by Koropatnicki to charge $1.00 across the board for mosquito fee per physical address. Burton amends motion. Motion by Burton second by to charge residential and commercial $1.00 across the board.   Burton amends motion. Motion by Burton second by Fritz to charge residential and commercial $1.00 mosquito fee with apartment buildings being charged $1.00 per unit. Ayes by all present. Nays none. Motion carries.

• Lagoon fee- Discussion on current rate. Motion by Watts second by Burton to adjust lagoon fee to $0.10 per 1,000 gallons for both residential and commercial. Ayes all present. Nays none. Motion carries.

   

  Committee Reports:  

   

• Fire Department-  The new pumper was delivered last week.   Equipment is all on order and should be operational by end of the month. The rescue rig should be here as well by end of month and only take a day or two to make operational. Chief Eisenbeis went to Bismarck to speak to ND Senate regarding the decrease in funds. Senators took 10% of the Fire Insurance Reserve Funds that had previously all gone back to the fire departments. There were 1.9 million dollars that were not dispersed to fire departments.

  Employee Report/Concerns-

• Snow- Gary advised where the snow was that was being pushed out into the street by contractor that was an issue.

   Engineer Report/Brad Bail –  

• Survey-   The final report is completed.

• Gastrak Ditch- Brad presented what the cost of $34,190.00 if we would have just fixed the problem by putting an open ditch. The cost of what was done came to $77,049.10. Motion by Watts second by Huttunen to bill Gastrak the difference of $42,859.10 and the city pay the $34,190.00. Ayes all present. Nays none. Motion carries

   

  Attorney Update / Rob Fleming-

• Update condemned buildings- No update other than on the shed. It is owned 2/3 by owner on south and 1/3 to owners of north section from Florida. Rob will send all of the owners of the condemned houses notice to attend either in person or zoom meeting.

• OTPCO municipal application for streetlights- Motion by Burton second by Martin to authorize Lisa to sign the application for streetlights from Ottertail Power. Ayes by all present. Motion carries.

• Vacation of 4^th Street- Motion by Watts second by Koropatnicki to approve the petition for vacation of half of 4^th Street by Blake Skinner. Ayes: Martin, Fritz, Koropatnicki, Huttunen and Watts. Nays none.   Burton abstains. Motion carries.

• Job Descriptions-To update job descriptions same group of 3 council will get together again and present to council after.

   

  Update & Business: Mayor –

   

  Council business/concerns-

• Employee handbook- Mayor Fitzgerald, Watts and Koropatnicki have made the few changes from last month and gave final copies to every one of the updated handbook. Motion by Burton second by Watts to adopt the revised handbook. Ayes: Watts, Koropatnicki, Burton, Fritz and Martin. Nays none. Huttunen abstains. Motion carries.

• Commercial mosquito spraying license- Koropatnicki went and took 5 different tests successfully. He will help take some spraying shifts throughout the season. City will reimburse for the study material as long as tests are passed. Motion by Fritz second by Huttunen to reimburse cost of the study materials that Koropatnicki paid out for them. Ayes all present. Nays none. Motion carries.

• 5^th Street parking overnight- We have had complaints about the trucks parking along 5^th Street for Saturday morning USDA inspection. Watts will go talk to Theresa at the Livingston warehouse.

   

  Update & Business: City Auditor/Lisa Hall

• Motion by Watts second by Burton to approve the February financials and March bills as presented. Ayes all present. Motion carries.

• Abatement-Motion by Huttunen second by Koropatnicki to approve the application for abatement from Burton’s. Ayes Watts, Koropatnicki, Fritz, Huttunen and Martin. Nays none. Burton abstains. Motion carries.

• PSN- Lisa informed council that Payment Service Network will soon be accepting PayPal and Venmo as form of payment as well. No date known of when yet.

   

  New Business:

• Salon Space- For someone to remove sink and cap off it would be no more than $300 if we wanted to pursue for regular office space.

• Buzz Irving’s water- Buzz contacted Burton because of his high water bill. Gary advised he had given him a new meter to install last week. Lisa spoke with him and let him know that unfortunately because the water ran through the meter it is the homeowner’s responsibility.

• Grants- Koropatnicki asked about some grants he had seen in paper. Lisa let them know she is signed on for grantfinder.com and receives notifications when there are new grants.

• Flood committee-Koropatnicki asking if we currently have a committee set up. Lisa advised there has not been an active separate flood committee the last few years. Council was making the decisions. Will think about it and discuss again at later date.

• Tables & Chairs/PCO- Koropatnicki had a couple bids for new tables and chairs for the meeting area in the Professional Building. Council will think about it and revisit next month.

   

   Motion to adjourn by Fritz at 7:47 p.m.

     By: Mayor, Mike Fitzgerald

   Attested to: Lisa Hall, Auditor