Quiet council meeting, many updates

It was a quiet meeting for the Waldorf City Council on Monday, July 14. With two council members not in attendance, only Mayor Rob Wilkening and members Carrie Ferch, Jamie Beckstrand and Cody Schnepf were in attendance. 

 

In old business, the council adopted a resolution for the Minnesota Historical Society approving the retention schedule request made by the council. This is a plan for managing government records and establishes a records disposition panel; an expectation is that many records will need to be converted to a digital format. 

 

In new business, city resident DuWayne Enter asked council members to consider rezoning the property of Lorainee Muller from residential to commercial. Enter said he is interested in starting a storage rental facility on one lot and putting storage containers on the second lot. He added that he would like to try it out on the first lot and if it works well, would mirror it on the second lot and have the second lot be an option for the public to use. Wilkening explained the process of what would need to happen in order for that to happen and told Enter they would set up a time to meet the following week for further discussion. 

 

The council also approved the water/sewer report at the meeting, as well as the off-site gambling license for the fire department’s raffle during its burger feed.  Both Ferch and Schnepf abstained from the gambling vote due to their involvement with the fire department.

 

In Wilkening’s report, he shared that flexible connectors known as “boots” had failed in manhole covers located along the sanitary sewer on Third Street. He went on to say that likely means more of the boots are failing, but suggested that, to start with, the city begin by replacing the three known couplings. He stated the price of replacement is “reasonable.” 

 

Wilkening also told council members he is impressed with the results of recent seal coating work done on city streets. He also said everything with the community center is going well and that the new custodian hired is doing well.