OSMOND — The Osmond City Council met Monday, June 9, in the conference room. A number of items were on the agenda, including food trucks, pool repairs, cemetery guidelines, and an upcoming parade.
Food Truck Fees Clarified
Food truck peddler fees were discussed again, with Clerk Brittney Timmerman stating that with a coffee truck coming to town to do business five to seven days a week, she wanted clarification on what fee they would need to pay.
Mayor Kuhl provided more information on the business and stated it is a 20-ft. trailer that will be parked on a private lot downtown, hooked up to city water and sewer and have a block foundation around it. Council agreed that since it will be hooked to city water and sewer it will be treated like the other businesses in town.
Timmerman also mentioned in the past local food truck vendors from Osmond would be exempt from paying the peddlers fee and asked council to clarify what fee Osmond food truck vendors would have to pay. They all agreed they will pay the new food truck peddlers’ fee of $25.
Pool Repairs Made
Councilman Neil Wattier provided an update on the current pool situation. He stated the leak investigator was up and found a broken “T” pipe off of the south side of the pool which required the main deck and part of the pool floor to be removed for repairs.
The repairs were made and concrete poured back last Saturday.
After some discussion Wattier mentioned the investigator will come back onAug. 13th to check some of the other water lines. According to Councilman Wattier they hope to have the pool up and running in the coming weeks.
Employee Issues Discussed
An update on the part-time maintenance positions was provided by Mayor Dennis Kuhl. He informed council members that Bill Hansen had decided to not accept the part-time position and just remain as the on-call backup water operator.
Kuhl also stated that Boyd Doyle had put in his two weeks after working for the city part-time for a few weeks but, with an employee gone on vacation he agreed to help out past the end of last month, and the council accepted his resignation. They had some discussion about the third maintenance position and decided to move from a part-time position to a full-time position.
With recent discussion about giv- ing the part-time office and mainte nance staff a $400 monthly stipend, Clerk/Treasurer Timmerman asked for clarification on how many hours
must be worked in order to qualify.
She explained that with the benefit not being in the personnel handbook she needs all the information to get it added if that’s what council plans to give moving forward.
Council asked how many applications have been received so far for the clerk position. Clerk Timmerman planned to bring that up later on the agenda but stated that there has only been one application received so far.
Council, after some discussion, decided not to offer the $400 monthly stipend to part-time office and main tenance employees anymore. Clerk Timmerman asked council if the ad currently running once a month needed to be changed, and they approved to take out the $400 stipend and add that a wage increase would be adjusted accordingly after the probationary period.
While it was being discussed, Timmerman asked council if they thought the ad should run more than once a month in the paper. They agreed to posting it more on social media, in the municipal review magazine and leaving it running once a month in the paper.
The CDL requirements and reimbursements also needed to be discussed since it also was not in the personnel handbook and the city has an employee going to take the course next month.
Treasurer Timmerman mentioned the employee has the required drug test coming up later this week and is needing clarification on who will be covering the cost of both the drug test and when the employee would be reimbursed for the course.
After some concerns were discussed about the CDL, a motion was made that the employee would cover all costs. In a roll call vote, Doug Schmit voted yea, Dennis Haselhorst, yea, and Dan Timmerman, yea, with Neil Wattier voting nay. The motion carried. Mayor Kuhl voiced his disagreement with councils’ decision.
Clerk Timmerman and maintenance supervisor Caleb Eckstrom also asked council to clarify for advertising purposes if they are going to require a standard Class B CDL with no restrictions since the city owns both manual and automatic trucks. Council agreed that they must have or obtain a Class B CDL with no restrictions.
FFA Provides Community Service After it rained the two days that were chosen to do community cleanup, maintenance supervisor Eckstrom stated he had been in contact with FFA advisor Jessica Evans to plan a different day for the FFA students to earn community service hours. He stated that last Monday a handful of the FFA members gathered on State Street to paint the helipad and the parking lines.
Clerk Timmerman asked if council would like to run the thank you ad in the paper since she previously told the newspaper it would not be running, and they agreed to running the ad.
Vacant Properties
Up next to be discussed were the vacant properties. Mayor Kuhl was pleased to announce that the Maple Street property had been demolished.
He also provided updates on the following properties: Highway 20 property owner is aware now that the fire department would no longer be doing a controlled burn and hasn’t heard back on what they plan to do now; vacant camper is still in its location and the owner states he is still working on having it removed, and last, the property along State Street has no update but he hopes to have an answer at next council meeting.
Councilman Timmerman mentioned it’s nice to get these properties cleaned up and hopes to keep moving forward on the rest; other council members agreed.
Cemetery Guidelines Made With no current guidelines on what can be done at the city cemetery Councilman Haselhorst brought some suggestions before council that maintenance supervisor Eckstrom, Clerk Timmerman and he had put together.
The following were suggested: all headstones must be on a concrete slab; no permanent decorations off the headstone concrete pad (any off the pad will be thrown away); no fences (concrete and other) around plots/lots; no family markers taking up plots; no buying three plots and burying two people on three plots (burying over plot lines); no more than two cremations in one plot (with council to determine number); cremations must have at minimum two feet of dirt on top; city doesn’t dig cremation holes (mortuaries dig the casket holes).
After reviewing the suggestions the council approved the suggestions and set cremation burials to no more than two in a plot.
Parade to be Held
Police Chief Tyler Wells informed council members that he was contacted by the Chrome & Smoke committee about closing down State Street for a few hours on Sunday, June 29, for a parade.
