City Council

CITY OF BRITT – BRITT IOWA – SEPTEMBER 3RD, 2019 The City Council of the City of Britt, Iowa met in pursuant to law and the rules of said Council in regular session in the Council Chambers in City Hall at 7:00 o’clock P.M. the 3rd day of September 2019. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Arndorfer, and the following Council members were: PRESENT: Stacy Swenson, Curt Gast, Karrie Wallen, Paul Verbrugge and Chad Luecht ABSENT: None The Mayor presented the agenda for approval. It was moved by Luecht and seconded by Swenson to approve the agenda. Motion carried by unanimous vote. Verbrugge noted he would abstain from voting during the review of the website providers due to a conflict of interest. It was moved by Luecht and seconded by Wallen that the following items contained in the Consent Agenda be approved and adopted: All items listed under the Consent Agenda will be enacted by one motion with a roll call vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a request is made prior to the time Council votes on the motion. Consent Agenda items may include any non-controversial subjects. a. Approve Minutes of the 08/20/2019 Council Meeting b. Claim list in the amount of $92,159.45 A roll call vote was had which was as follows: Ayes: Swenson, Gast, Wallen, Luecht and Verbrugge. (Verbrugge requested a correction be made to the motion made on August 6th, 2019 to reflect the following changes “It was moved by Verbrugge and seconded by Swenson to rent the property lot directly west of Pritchard’s in the amount of $1,000 per month. The lease will be month to month with a 30-day notice to vacate the property if any of the land is sold. Pritchard’s will be responsible to maintain the property.”) Nays: None The motion carried, and the Consent Agenda items were approved and adopted. Present to be heard was Bryce and Pam Juhl regarding the tree located in their front yard. Mr. Juhl expressed to the City Council that the company who did the work for the City of Britt destroyed the tree in the front of their home and it is now ruined (he provided council with pictures). He stated they were not notified that the tree needed to be trimmed and would have done so if they were given the opportunity to do so. They were informed, during the meeting, it is the normal practice of the city to trim back branches hanging over our city streets if those trees are located in the city right-of-way. It is not our normal practice to trim back a tree so far inside the property line. Council agreed that in the future any trees that need to be trimmed back and they are not in the city right-of-way the owner of the house will be notified and given the chance to remedy the situation. To stay within accordance of the city ordinance (Chapter 8 Section 6-8-4), trees limbs that hang over the street must be at least 15 feet above the street level and tree limbs that hang over a sidewalk must be 8 feet above the sidewalk. If a tree is not trimmed within the accordance of the law the resident can be issued a nuisance abatement citation. Present to be heard was Cody Witte regarding a controlled burn request on a nuisance property he purchased. Mr. Witte bought a nuisance property on the far east side of town and wanted to make sure there were no additional steps he needed to take to perform a controlled burn on the house. He has already done asbestos testing and has covered all the requirements set forth by the fire department. He and his fellow fire fighters will use the controlled burn as a training exercise. The City Council had no issue with the request for a controlled burn but requested they pay attention to the direction the wind was blowing on the day they did it. They would prefer he not blanket the city in a cloud of smoke. Witte agreed that he would take that into consideration prior to beginning the burn. It was moved by Gast and seconded by Verbrugge to approve the request from Cody Witte for a control burn of a nuisance property he now owns. Motion carried by unanimous vote. Present to be heard was Wes Brown of Bolton & Menk to discuss the proposal for the Water Treatment Facility Engineering Project. Brown explained in order to stay on track with the integrated plan they presented to DNR on our behalf, we needed to get an agreement in place for the engineering services. He asked if the Council had any questions. The estimate, as presented, is $45,200. It was moved by Verbrugge and seconded by Gast to approve the agreement with Bolton & Menk for engineering services in the amount of $45,200 for the Water Treatment Facility Project. Motion carried by unanimous. Mayor Arndorfer asked the Council if they minded if agenda item 5.a.i - payment of invoice for tree trimming for work done in 2017 (new invoice dated 2019). Members representing Treeback, Inc. were present to discuss the services rendered in 2017 and the reasoning for the delayed billing. It was determined the City overpaid the December 2017 invoice in the amount of $650. We paid for the removal of a tree when the tree was only trimmed. Council reduced the 2019 invoice by $650 and added $44 back to the invoice for trimming the tree in 2017. This would bring the current outstanding bill to $4,366. It was moved by Swenson and seconded by Wallen to approve the payment of Treeback’s 2019 bill in the amount of $4,366 for services rendered in 2017. Vote as follows: Ayes: Swenson, Gast, Wallen, and Luecht. Nays: Verbrugge. Motion carried. Department heads presented their reports. Vance Hagen, Public Works Director, presented the council with several options for a new snowplow blade. The current blade, which is mounted on one of the pick-up’s in the winter, is in need of replacement and it is imperative we have one in good working order as this is one of the ways we keep parking spaces cleaned out on Main Ave when it snows. It was moved by Verbrugge and seconded by Gast to approve the purchase of a new snowplow blade in the amount of $5,800 from Trulson Auto Parts. The price includes a VXF95 Gen II snowplow with extra forward lighting and the installation of the new snowplow blade/separate switch for the extra front lighting. Motion carried by unanimous vote. The City Administrator gave her report. Issues with the current printer’s speed and capability has become more of a problem lately. Sawyer did research to find out what types of deals were available. Our current contract does not expire for another year and half but if we stay with the current vendor, they will cancel our current contract and allow us to update our copier/fax/scanner for less money a month. Sawyer presented 2 options for copier replacement. The first is a new HP Color LaserJet Copier. It has all the current functions we have now but is twice as fast. Our current model prints 25 pages per minute; the new HP will print 50 pages per minute. It also has the ability to print one-sided automatically, even if the pages being copied are double-sided, it has a pull-out keyboard and a robust scanner which can scan up to 240 images per minute. It will save us $70.90/month compared to the amount being paid right now. The second option is a Ricoh IMC4500. This option is very similar to what we the city has now. It will print 45 pages per minute. It will also scan up to 240 scans a minute but will not automatically print both sides if you are set to one-sided printing. This option will save us $68.54 per month compared to what is being paid right now. Sawyer’s recommendation is to go with the HP Color LaserJet Copier with a lease price of $199.96 per month. It was moved by Luecht and seconded by Wallen to approve the recommendation to upgrade to the new HP Color LaserJet Copier with a lease price of $199.96 per month. Motion carried by unanimous vote. Lastly, Sawyer presented the Annual Urban Renewal Report as of 06/30/2019. Since the City has not certified any TIF debt yet the report reflects this by reporting $0. It was moved by Swenson and seconded by Verbrugge to approve the Annual Urban Renewal Report as of 06/30/2019. Motion carried by unanimous vote. Mayor Arndorfer presented his report. He presented an update on our project with HueLife. He said it went very well. The process was much more in depth than he thought it would be and he stated he was really pleased with the end result. One of the important items that came out of the sessions was the importance of the council’s accountability. We have a white board in the city council chambers that hasn’t been used to it’s full potential. From now on the council will be accountable to follow through on the items listed on the board. In addition, HueLife will present the city with a full report along with follow up sessions that will happen at strategic periods throughout the year. Next, Mayor Arndorfer presented the 3 quotes for a new website design. Those included one from Coloff Digital in the amount of $5,945. The second was from Laura Meyer Creative Studio in the amount of $ 6,300. The third was from Revize in the amount of $4,620.00. Discussion was had and it was moved by Swenson and seconded by Wallen to accept the proposal from Coloff Digital in the amount of $5,945. Vote as follows: Ayes: Swenson, Gast, Wallen, and Luecht. Nays: None. Abstain: Verbrugge. Motion carried. With no further business it was moved by Gast and seconded by Luecht to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried by unanimous vote. Debra R. Sawyer, City Administrator/Clerk Ryan L. Arndorfer, Mayor “These minutes are as recorded by the Clerk and are subject to Council approval at the next regular meeting.” VENDOR DESCRIPTION AMOUNT ACCO INJECTION CHECK VALVE $53.20 AFLAC AFLAC-PRE-TAX $85.52 ALLIED ENS LLC COMPTER DIAGNOSIS/HAGEN $40.00 BARCO MUNICIPAL PRODUCTS SURVEY FLAGS $55.30 BASE MEDICAL REIMB $262.52 BOLTON & MENK BIDDING SERVICES $1,238.00 BRITT LUMBER LLC CONCRETE $41.99 COMM 1 TELEPHONE $604.41 DALE DOUGLAS REPLACE TIRE $218.28 DELTA DENTAL OF IOWA DNTL/VISN-PRETX $522.84 EARL HILL ADVANCE FOR 2019 IOWA CODE $280.00 EFTPS FED/FICA TAX $6,015.11 EZ-LINER MISC SUPPLIES $270.25 FIRE SERVICE TRAINING BUR TRAINING/FIRE $100.00 GLOBE GAZETTE NEWSPAPER $45.00 GREAT AMERICA FINANCIAL COPIER LEASE $518.01 HANCOCK CO CLERK OF COURT GARNISHMENT $219.50 HANCOCK CO TREASURER SUNSET RIDGE TXS $5,018.00 HUNTS ELECTRIC LIGHTING FOR GAZEBO $2,782.80 IMWCA INSTALLMENT 3 $1,153.00 IOWA ONE CALL IOWA ONE CALL $18.90 IPERS POLICE IPERS $7,008.26 JOHN DEERE FINANCIAL BLADE $144.24 LARRY'S SAW SHOP BLADE SHARPENING $5.00 MALEK'S LAWN & TREE SERV TREE TRIMMING $19,400.00 MONSON & SONS BULK WATER REFUND $3,929.00 MYRNA HEYWOOD SIDEWALK CEMENT REIMBURSMENT $56.00 NATIONWIDE RETIREMENT DEFERRED COMP $20.00 PAT TRULSON SIDEWALK CEMENT $136.50 PAYROLL CHECKS PAYROLL CHECKS ON 08/28/2019 $18,483.46 PAYROLL CHECKS PAYROLL CHECKS ON 08/29/2019 $1,106.57 PRESTO-X-COMPANY PEST CONTROL $47.00 SIDEWALK CONCRETE RICHARD KARDOES REIMBURSMENT $220.88 STATE FARM FIDELITY BOND $334.00 STATE TREASURER STATE TAXES $1,831.00 SWENSON'S HARDWARE AUGUST BILLING $565.86 TRULSON AUTO FIRE $2,195.95 UHC HEALTH-PRE-TAX $5,510.51 WASTE MANAGEMENT CITY TRASH $11,622.59 CLAIMS TOTAL $92,159.45