City Council

CITY OF BRITT – BRITT IOWA – APRIL 21st, 2020 The City Council of the City of Britt, Iowa met in pursuant to law and the rules of said Council in regular session via ZOOM meeting at 7:00 o’clock P.M. the 21st day of April 2020. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Arndorfer, and the following Council members were: PRESENT: Stacy Swenson, Curt Gast, Karrie Wallen, and Chad Luecht ABSENT: Paul Verbrugge The Mayor presented the agenda for approval. It was moved by Luecht and seconded by Wallen to approve the agenda as presented. Motion carried by unanimous vote. It was moved by Luecht and seconded by Swenson 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 04/07/2020 Council Meeting b. Claim list in the amount of $38,817.07 A roll call vote was had which was as follows: Ayes: Swenson, Gast, Wallen & Luecht Nays: None The motion carried, and the Consent Agenda items were approved and adopted. Vance Hagen, Public Works Director, reviewed the information on the generators which we spoke about during the last meeting. He received one additional quote from CEC Electric in Fort Dodge to add to the original quotes from P&P Electric of Webster City we presented at the last meeting. The quotes are as follows: The 60W generator for City Hall from P&P Electric is $31,704.60/CEC Electric $32,460, the north lift station 20W generator from P&P Electric $20,188.53/CEC Electric $26,325 (this is a 30W-they don’t have a 20W), and finally to move the current generator to the WWTP quote from P&P Electric $7,004.53/CEC Electric $7,690. It was moved Swenson and seconded by Wallen to accept the quote from P&P Electric of Webster City for the following equipment: 60W generator for City Hall at $31,704.60, the 20W for the north lift station at $20,188.53 and move the existing generator from City hall to the Wastewater Treatment Plant at $7,004.53 for a total of $58,897.66. A roll call vote was had which was as follows: Ayes: Swenson, Gast, Wallen, and Luecht Nays: None Next, the quote for the handheld meter reader was discussed. Our current Trimble (which is the handheld reader we use to read water meters) is no longer going to be supported by the company and the last time it went out (a few weeks ago), we were lucky to get it back up. The replacement Trimble, which would be able to support our current meters and the new meters, will cost us $13,334. There will also be some software expenses, but we do not have that information at this time. It was moved by Swenson and seconded by Luecht to approve the quote from Metering & Technology Solutions for the updated Trimble in the amount of $13,334. A roll call vote was had which was as follows: Ayes: Swenson, Gast, Wallen, and Luecht Nays: None The motion carried. Hagen reported he got the quote from Heartland Asphalt for the 2nd Street NW project in the amount of $165,146.95. This project will be done in conjunction with Hancock County’s project, so we were able to get better pricing since they are already working on the same area for the county. The details for this project are: 1) Mill headers to tie into existing pavement at the beginning and end of the project & 5 intersections, 2) Clean & tack existing pavement and install 2” asphalt overlay, & 3) adjust manholes after surface paving with concrete boxout. It was moved by Swenson and seconded by Luecht to approve the quote from Heartland Asphalt in the amount of $165,146.95 for the 2nd Street NW project as outlined above. A roll call vote was had which was as follows: Ayes: Swenson, Gast, Wallen, and Luecht Nays: None The motion carried. Mark Anderson, Police Chief, was available to discuss the replacement the officer who left. Information was provided to the council regarding the cost incurred to have a 5th officer added again. Anderson proposes we open the position to certified officers only. We are currently running a 3-man schedule (includes the Chief of Police) as one officer is on administrative light duty right now which leaves them open for overtime for two of the officers. The Chief is salaried; therefore he does not get compensated for all the extra hours he is putting in. The monies spent in overtime far outweighs the money we spend maintaining the 5th officer. If we have 5-man force, we will not need to use part-time officers or have overtime or on-call time pay outs. In 2017, when we were short and needed to use outside help and overtime/on-call time paid we spent $247,411 compared to an estimated $217,000 for a 5-man police force this year. It was moved by Gast and seconded by Swenson to hire an additional police officer to replace Officer Holbrook space. The officer must be a certified police officer. A roll call vote was had which was as follows: Ayes: Swenson, Gast, Wallen, and Luecht Nays: None The motion carried. City Administrator presented her report. First up were the quotes for waste hauling/recycling in Britt. We have two quotes, as discussed at the last meeting. Sawyer had been instructed to reach out to Waste Management (WM) and see if they would give us a shorter contract. They said they would do 2 or 3 years and the price did not change. Absolute Waste Removal (Absolute) came back and provided us with a longer contract of 5 years, which matched the original contract WM provided us. With the new quote Absolute was in line with WM, coming in with the same or less costs. The contract with Absolute has a lower annual increase of not to exceed 2% versus WM annual increase of 3%. In addition, Absolute will not charge any fuel surcharge fees and WM will. It was moved by Luecht and seconded by Wallen to approve the quote provided by Absolute Waste Removal for waste removal/recycling services beginning 07/01/2020 to 06/30/2025. Prices for services will not change at this time. A roll call vote was had which was as follows: Ayes: Swenson, Gast, Wallen, and Luecht Nays: None The motion carried. Next, Sawyer presented Resolution 11-2020 Ordering Bids, Approving Plans, Specifications, and Form of Contract and Notice to Bidder, Fixing Amount of Bidder’s Check, and Ordering Clerk to Publish Notice and For a Public Hearing on Plans, Specifications, Form of Contract and Estimate of Costs for the Diagonal Street Watermain Improvements (Alliant Energy Project). It was moved by Wallen and seconded by Gast to approve Resolution 11-2020 Ordering Bids, Approving Plans, Specifications, and Form of Contract and Notice to Bidder, Fixing Amount of Bidder’s Check, and Ordering Clerk to Publish Notice and For a Public Hearing on Plans, Specifications, Form of Contract and Estimate of Costs for the Diagonal Street Watermain Improvements (Alliant Energy Project). Per the engineer Wes Brown of Bolton & Menk, the project is currently sitting at $380,000. The public hearing will be on Tuesday, May 19th at 7 p.m. A roll call vote was had which was as follows: Ayes: Swenson, Gast, Wallen, and Luecht Nays: None The motion carried. Lastly, Sawyer informed the council that the codification of Britt’s Code of Ordinances has been completed and we now need to have a public hearing to adopt the proposed Britt Code of Ordinances 2020. It was moved by Luecht and seconded by Swenson to approve the public hearing for the proposal to adopt the Britt Code of Ordinances 2020. The public hearing will be on Tuesday, May 5th, 2020 at 7p.m. A roll call vote was had which was as follows: Ayes: Swenson, Gast, Wallen, and Luecht Nays: None The motion carried. Mayor Arndorfer discussed the City’s revolving loan fund payments. Other cities and Hancock County Economic Development have made the decision to suspend payments and charge no interest for a certain duration or forgive the payments for a certain amount of time. The Council discussed this, and it was moved by Luecht and seconded by Wallen to suspend payments and charge no interest on the revolving loans currently being paid to the City of Britt for 6 months. These payments will be added onto the end of the loan period. A roll call vote was had which was as follows: Ayes: Swenson, Gast, Wallen, and Luecht Nays: None The motion carried. Finally, Arndorfer discussed the Hancock County Small Business Grant Fund. A grant fund has been created and is being offered to small businesses in need in Hancock County to assist with expenses during the COVID-19 crisis. At this time they have already collected $27,500 out the target amount of $30,000. They may, at some point, ask for additional donations for assistance if the cities being served are in your city. More information to come at the next meeting. 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 ALLIANT ENERGY ALLIANT $9,675.71 ALLIED ENS LLC COMPUTER TECH WORK $1,132.60 AMAZON DVD $289.76 BOOK LOOK IF BOOKS $305.81 BRITT FOOD CENTER SUPPLIES $54.56 BROAD REACH BOOKS NF BOOKS $141.65 CANINE DEVELOPEMENT GROUP HANDLER SUBSCRIPTION $100.00 CARD SERVICES TRAINING $1,243.18 CENTER POINT LARGE PRINT LP BOOKS $206.96 CENTURION TECH INC COMPUTER SOFTWARE $80.00 CLEAN AIR CONCEPTS MUNICIPAL HALL $2,856.25 COLLECTION SERVICE CENTER GARNISHMENT $163.93 EFTPS FED/FICA TAX $4,858.61 GREAT AMERICA FINANCIAL COPIER LEASE $221.21 GWORKS W-2/1099 FORMS $190.07 H C SECONDARY ROADS SAND $629.10 HANCOCK CO CLERK OF COURT GARNISHMENT 2 $219.50 IA DEPT OF NAT'L RESOURCE Nat Pollutant Dischg App Fee $85.00 INGRAM BOOKS $342.71 KIOW PUBLISHING/ADVERTISING $111.59 LANG'S CARPET CARE CARPET CLEANING $644.85 MICRO MARKETING AUDIO $89.80 NATIONWIDE RETIREMENT DEFERRED COMP $20.00 PAYROLL CHECKS PAYROLL CHECKS ON 04/08/2020 $14,372.03 PSI SUPPLIES $56.05 THE IOWAN MAGAZINE 1 YR - LIBRARY $24.00 THIS OLD HOUSE 1 YR LIBRARY $25.00 UNPLUGGED WIRELESS BATTERIES $581.99 WASTE MANAGEMENT MONTHLY WASTE SERVICES $95.15 CLAIMS TOTAL $38,817.07