The Slayton City Council held their regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025 with all members present. The Agenda was approved, as well as the minutes from the last meeting and the claims. Brad Pagel, representing the American Legion was present to invite the Council members to attend an upcoming event. The American Legion National Commander will be in Slayton on March 28 at noon in the 4-H building. He will be speaking on Suicide Awareness and a meal will be served. The public is invited to attend. City Administrator, Josh Malchow, then gave a brief review on the day he and Mayor Miron Carney spent with the Coalition. They met with 4 legislators and came away with the basic message that they are hoping to get the next budget done and that’s as much as people should expect at this time.
Public Works Director Weston Mahon was present to discuss the Water Plant Pump Project. The proposed plan for replacement of the original pipes falls within the budgeted water fund in 2025. The Council discussed this project and possible options. This was approved. The Slayton Fire Department was next with a few requests. First, a Forestry Skid Unit. It was not budgeted, but they have money from a sold Ranger and a $2000 donation from Currie. This purchase was approved. The second request was to send 2 firefighters to Lake Crystal Fire School on March 8-9. This was a budgeted item. Several firefighters attend each year. This was approved. Lastly, was a request to send Fire Chief Chris LeTendre and Terry Giesen to the National Volunteer Fire Council 2025 Training Summit in Utah in June. This money will come from the training budget. The Council Approved.
The next topic was to discuss the Natural Gas Utility Purchase. Since this was initiated by Northwest Natural Gas, there are no unknowns, as there had been in the Electric Utility discussions. The city has reached a mutually acceptable purchase price of $4,000,000 with Northwest Natural Gas. They opened the public meeting with no one present in person. Mr. Aaron Witte did submit a letter in person to City Hall prior to the meeting explaining his concern as a landlord whose tenants do not always pay their utility bills. This was presented at the open meeting. After further discussion, the Council went on to approve the resolutions to go forward with necessary steps toward this purchase, including setting dates for community meetings and a special election. City Administrator Malchow has prepared an informational statement that can be found elsewhere in this newspaper to explain this further. They will get a final version of the fuel transport, purchase agreement and operational agreements before the community meetings.
The City Council went into closed session from 6:46PM to 7:00PM. Upon coming out of closed session, Councilman Jacobson moved and Heronimus seconded the following motion: Negotiations with Xcel Energy on a distribution system purchase price under the Minnesota Statutes, Section 216B.45 compensation provisions have reached an impasse. There, I move that the City bring a petition to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to commence a contested case proceeding to determine the compensation to Xcel required for a City purchase of Xcel’s electric distribution system in the City; and that City staff be authorized to do all things necessary to file such a petition. The motion was carried with all member voting Aye.
With no other business the meeting was adjourned.
