City of Randolph
Regular Council Meeting
February 8, 2023
The regular Randolph City Council meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Mayor Marie Jacob.
Roll Call
Present were Mayor Marie Jacob, Council Members Sarah Podritz, Jacob Friedrich and Todd Carlock, Treasurer Sandy Nicolai and Clerk Mary Haro.
Approval of Agenda
There were two items to be added to the agenda, the first being the Randolph-Hampton Fire District City Fire and Rescue Contract and the other is adding signers on our Merchants Bank accounts. Also discuss the tree branch at the well house. Motion to approve the agenda was made by Haro, and seconded by Friedrich. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0
Public Comments
None.
Minutes
A motion to approve the January 11, 2023 regular council meeting minutes with the change of adding "splitting the CD's equally" was made by Friedrich, seconded by Podritz. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Approval of Treasurer Report and Payment of Bills
It was noted that the water bills did get mailed out and we received a lot of payments towards them. Sandy indicated that the $90 payment to Mary Haro for cleaning should be subtracted from the balance remaining in our account.
Motion to approve the treasurers report and payment of bills as presented was made by Friedrich, and seconded by Podritz. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Old Business
Civil Defense Director
It was asked if Reed Kosir will accept the Civil Defense Director and he indicated he will accept the position.
It was also noted that the monthly first Wednesday siren did not go off this month. She told Reed about it and he was going to check with Dakota County.
ADA Compliance – City Hall Restrooms
Korine prepared a memorandum outlining the ADA compliance. Our building inspector looked into what the occupancy for the building is and indicated it should be 114. The building is classified as an assembly hall. The need for that type of classification is a water closet which is the toilet piece and it needs to be 1 for every 125 men and 1 for every 65 women and the sink piece of it needs to be 1 for every 200 male and female. Suggestion is to convert them to single stalls or make them unisex. We do not currently have this included in our budget for this year but we could look into obtaining a grant. It was our building inspector's opinion to do a major remodel it may cost as much as $100,000. However he concluded that we could operate with a single-use bathroom for both men and women. Renovating to single-use restrooms the cost would be approximately $10,000 per bathroom for a total of $20,000. We should obtain at least 2 quotes from qualified contractors. Korine indicated that the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) have grants available and they pay for us to hire a grant writer. Essentially it would all be paid for. If the grant is successful we would not have to pay for the cost of the renovations. Korine will send us a link to the program to start the application. We will need to get estimates. We could also do a fundraiser for the costs. Grants are available for small communities to update their facilities to make them ADA compliant. Put this on next month's agenda.
New Business
Gambling Permit for Nates Garage
Nate came before the council to ask for a charitable gambling permit for his nonprofit organization. He needs permission from the city first and then we need to go through the county It was asked what charitable gambling he wanted to do and he indicated pull tabs, meat raffles and bingo. He indicated the reason for this is he has asked them to offer meat raffles and/or bingo and they don't have the staff available to run these gambling items. He would like to be able to offer these items to customers and the proceeds going to his 501(c) benefit for repairing vehicles for service members and/or low income people. We did ask if he planned to take out the pull-tabs that he currently has for the Fire Department because this is something that benefits the whole community and he indicated he does not plan to do that. It was noted to him that 10% of the proceeds does come back to the city. It was noted that some firemen were not in favor of this permit.
A motion to approve the charitable gambling permit for Nate's Garage 501(c)(3) organization was made by Friedrich, seconded by Carlock. Voting in favor, Carlock, Jacob, Friedrich and Haro, Podritz abstained. None opposed, motion passed 4:0
Fire Department Contract
The Fire Department submitted a new contract for the years 2023, 2024, and 2025. Haro made a motion to approve the City Fire and Rescue Contract for the year 2023 - 2025, seconded by Podritz. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Joint Powers Agreement with Randolph/Hampton Fire Department
We discussed the need to move forward with updating the bylaws and joint powers agreement as we discussed last year. Clerk Haro reached out to Hampton to ask if they had discussed it at any council meeting and was told they have not. Mayor Jacob indicated she will be attending Hampton's next council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, February 14th and will be discussing it with them. We need to move forward with this to make sure all parties are in agreement with the procedures. Korine indicated that Hampton told Korine at our council meeting that she needed to talk to their counsel and she reached out to them and they told her that they needed council approval to talk to Korine and she is still waiting. Will include this as an agenda item next month.
People Service – Service Maintenance
Matt Blazer asked People Service to attend our meeting to discuss the maintenance for the sanitary sewer in Randolph.
Herb from People Service discussed the type of work they do. He is the Southern Minnesota Region Manager and oversees all of the operators who takes care of the facilities in the cities. They operate and maintain water and waste water facilities. For the water side they cover from the water pumped out of the well and water tower cleaning, reports, they treat the water, flush hydrants, turn water off and on, will read water meters. For the sanitary sewer side they make sure the collection system is working, man hole inspections, oversee sewer cleaning (this is done by a third party) and they treat the water and make sure it is safe for spraying. They have a typical 30 minute response time. They take care of the lift station but if the pump goes out they outsource that to a company. What level of service do we need to be compliant.
We will be a C-Waste Water Facility which requires a certified operator to be on site for 2 hours a week to cover the certification per the MPCA rules. We do not have to a certified person to fill out the monthly reports it is recommended but it is not required. We have to do quarterly influent samplings which would be the water from town to the ponds. The irrigation site would have to include ground water monitoring wells and they need to be tested 2 to 3 times a year. They collect the samples and report it to the state.
He asked what do we want them to do for us. We will start with the sanitary sewer and if needed, we will add things. We would need to have someone available starting approximately November, 2024 once the facility has been turned over to the city. He indicated we do not need a full time operator.
He will put a proposal together for our next month's meeting which will be an estimate cost of what we need to do and we can add things or take things off that we don't want included.
Merchants Bank
Motion to approve the check signers for the City to be Mary Haro, Sarah Podritz and Marie Jacob, and remove Robert Appelgren as a signer on the accounts and to also issue a debit card for Marie Jacob with a limit of $3,000 and cancel Robert Appelgren’s debit card made by Haro, seconded by Podritz. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Bolton & Menk Sewer Update
Matt Blazer of Bolton & Menk discussed the need for the city to have a locator to locate utilities. He contacted ZoneOne Locating in Minneapolis and they are willing to do it at a price of $185.00/trip and $25/quarter hour. He will ask them to prepare a proposal and invite them to a meeting.
Matt is working on the final plans and he hopes to have them to us by next week so we can review them prior to approving them. We will have to have a special meeting to approve them which we will plan for Wednesday, February 22nd at 7 pm. He will email Clerk Haro a link with the plans so she can forward to council’s review prior the special meeting. He will do a presentation at the meeting. The public is invited.
Miscellaneous
Tree Limb by Water Tower
Todd Carlock noted there was still a tree limb hanging down that needs to be dealt with. Friedrich thought it was already down so he will contact Otte's Excavating and ask them to take it down.
Live Stream Council Meetings
Marie asked about interest in making our council meetings live steamed so the public can watch. There is interest so Marie will do more research on this and report back.
CD’s
Sandy indicated the process is the close out the 3 CD’s at Merchant and then bring them to Castle Rock and open them up there. Sandy wanted to know if we want two signers on the accounts. Sarah indicated she will call and check on this process.
Water Bills
Sandy received a call from a company asking about the meter fee that is on their invoice. It is a fee that is charged to everyone who has access to water, including just a curb stop. It is a water utility and it is the price you pay for having property in the city.
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn the meeting made by Podritz, seconded by Carlock, the meeting was adjourned at 8:42 p.m. All voting in favor, none opposed, motion passed 5:0.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Haro
