The Slayton City Council met on Monday, August 16th. The meeting was called to order and the agenda was approved with additions. The meeting minutes were reviewed and approved as were the claims for the beginning of August.
City Administrator Josh Malchow gave the Board an update on the Broadband Grant the City had applied for through the small cities’ coronavirus funding. It was approved for Slayton/Murray County in the amount of $2,822,278 for “Broadband Improvements”. More info will be coming in the future. Malchow also updated the Board on the progress, or halt in progress, at the Golden Living Center site. He has spoken with MN Signature Care and due to construction costs at this time they are going to delay the project until the spring of 2022. Councilmember Blake Heronimus voiced concern about selling them the extra land parcel with no real indication that the project was happening. He felt the City should have made the purchase contingent on the project moving forward. This was discussed. Malchow explained that the project hasn’t been stopped completely just delayed, it appears and that there is no final purchase agreement for the land either, so the City can make changes if the Council feels necessary.
Moving on to unfinished business, the Council was presented with a final concrete disposal permit for review. The wording was adjusted to say that the first 2 yards of concrete disposed would be free and then $5 per cubic yard after that. They encourage people to stop into the City Hall office to get the permit before starting any project. However, if you can’t, please stop in after so the amount can be verified. All concrete must come from within the City Limits, be broken into smaller pieces and have any re-bar and/or mesh removed. The Council approved this permit form.
Moving on to new business, the first item was a request from the Slayton Fire Department for a pension increase for 2022. This is something asked for each year. They did receive one in 2021 and prior to that in 2017, 2014. The Council has two members that can vote on this matter, and it was discussed to add to the budget talks later this month to see if it is financially possible this year. The other Board members agreed.
The next item to discuss was the south lift station pump. City Works Director Weston Mahon was present to share with the Council what he has learned about the pump situation and what has been suggested to him. A 10HP pump was recently purchased from Quality Flow. During the install and set up of the new pump they are finding that the pump does not want to properly connect to the base elbow point at the bottom of the well and keeps “lifting off”. This has been researched in depth by Corey with Quality Flow and Mahon expressed his trust in Corey’s knowledge and ability. The suggestion that Corey has is to replace the elbow point at the bottom to properly fit the pump. The quote does include doing both wells as this will possibly happen when they go to replace the second pump in the near future. The quoted amount is for $6,328. Mahon asked for direction from the Council, and they approved moving forward with the recommendation.
The last items of business for the evening were road closure requests. The first was for the Fair’s Prairie Days Parade on Saturday, August 21st. This was approved with the route going down 28th street by the soccer fields to Forest Ave by West Elementary to 26th street to Broadway Avenue ending at the Court House. The next request was from Pete Beerman for the road closure from Broadway Ave to Linden by his home on September 1st and October 31st. These were both approved.
With no other business, the meeting was adjourned and the next City Council meeting will be Wednesday, September 8th.
