MINUTES
OF THE ROLAND CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR
SESSION
APRIL
9, 2007
Note: The following minutes were approved by the Roland
City Council at its April 23, 2007, council meeting.
The Roland City
Council met in regular session on Monday, April 9, 2007, at 7:00 p.m., at City
Hall with Mayor Samuel Juhl presiding.
Council members present at roll call were Duane Canny, Roger Fritz, Bob
Hanson, John Lee, and Jeri Neely. Also
present were 9 visitors and members of the community.
It was
motioned by Fritz, seconded by Hanson to approve the consent agenda containing
the following items: agenda, minutes
from the March 26, 2007, as written, clerk/treasurer reports, and claims as
submitted. All were in favor.
There was
public input at this time from Jodi Fagerland and Lt. David Lekwa.
Jodi stated
she would like to take issue with the minutes.
She has a suggestion how to avoid this in the future. She sent an email out and said that when I
read the minutes that were incorrect on the web site and I was pretty
upset. So you all have that, I think
Roger forwarded it, but so I’ll just read this and give you a copy of it.
I
had been checking online nearly everyday to see if the council minutes had been
posted. Finally on
Friday,
April 1st, I read them. As
you can read by my e-mail, I was outraged.
What was written was not
what
was said. And furthermore, by using the
word “Yes,” it changed the entire point of my presentation. I
demanded
that it be changed immediately but as you can see by my conversation with
Daneen I was only
fed
a crock of lies. On Monday I obtained a
copy of the actual audio of the meeting, which only confirmed
my
demand. Sometime that day, the minutes
were actually changed to read as what actually went on. On
my
first trip to City Hall to get a copy of the CD, Daneen downloaded the minutes
from April 24, 2006
minutes. Listening to them I heard discussion from
council members about inaccurate minutes and someone
was
trying to get the minutes to read accurately because something was written that
was not said. So, this is
apparently
not the first time for this and I wonder how many other times it has
happened. For this reason, I
would
suggest you get someone else to write the minutes that can do it accurately and
without prejudice or
be
darn sure that in big red letters at the top of the minutes posted on the City
Web site that states “the
following
minutes have not been accepted or approved by the Council,” until which time
they are actually
approved,
and you could change that. I want the
public to be aware of this problem so judgments aren’t
formed
prematurely. Anyone who read those
minutes before Daneen corrected them would not have gone
back
later to reread them so there are an unknown number of people out there that
think there were multiple
complaints
about the same thing.
So my
suggestion is that, so the public knows that what they’re reading has not been
approved by this. I have a copy of what
I just read and think that it would be important that you have that.
Council member
Fritz replied that he got her e-mail and he actually has that on the docket for
during Mayor/Council comments. And
though I don’t necessarily agree with the tone of some of your comments, your
point is well taken. He believes that if
administratively there is an issue on that, then that may be a very good idea.
Lt. David
Lekwa with the Story County Sheriff’s Office reported they would have a deputy
graduation from the
Council member
Hanson asked that with the grant, will
Council member
Hanson also asked if this was a one-time grant, like for one year. Lt. Lekwa explained that currently it is a
start up grant, yes. Council member Hanson
replied, and then the County will pick it up from then on, right? Lt. Lekwa stated that they are hoping that
once they get the program started they will be able to garner continuance
grants to keep the program going.
Department
Head Reports were as follows:
Street Department - Street Superintendent Harold
Hovick reported that the he called the street sweeper, but the weather
conditions were so cold it was put off.
So he’s not sure when they’ve got us scheduled for now, but he’ll check. Council member Lee asked if Harold would know
far enough ahead so he could put out a sign so people will be off the
street. Harold stated that that we
haven’t considered that yet, no, but we probably can. Lee stated that in the past the sweeper has
had to pull out. It would be nice if
they could do the whole street. Harold
will try and get that done, no guarantees, but he’d try.
Water/Wastewater Department –
Water/Wastewater Superintendent Dean Uitermark reported he received a call from
Maguire Iron. They will be coming to
clean and inspect the water tower on Thursday, so he’ll have to get it
drained. He has notified the Fire Chief
that the tower will be drained and other arrangements have been made with
surrounding communities for fire protection if needed. Council member Fritz asked if the tower would
be completely empty. Dean stated it
would be completely empty. Council
member Fritz asked if we will be hooking up to rural water. Dean stated no. He has a relief bypass valve at the water
plant to keep the system pressurized.
There will be enough water for daily use, just not enough incase of a
fire. Council member Canny asked how
long it would take. Dean stated it
usually takes a couple of hours for them to inspect. Council member Canny replied then you’ll
start filling it back up again. Dean
stated it will take more than one day to fill it up again. Council member Canny asked if they were going
to repair the outside pipe. Dean stated
they are going to repair that and they are also going to put the owls up on the
railing. Council member Fritz asked, to
get the tower drained quickly do we just dump water? Dean stated that he’ll shut the pumps off
after the meeting. What little bit that
will be left in the tower on Thursday, he’ll just dump it on the ground.
City Clerk - City Clerk Deneen Frost had nothing
to report at this time.
Mike
& Jodi Fagerland were present to request reimbursement for property
damage. Jodi stated that before they go on
any further and before you guys can make a proper decision, she needs to clear
the air of some lies which have been going on at the meeting and since
then. You can decide who is lying and
not lying on your own, but I have a few things to show you.
Mike
and I differ on the way we deal with people that lie to us. He can listen to whatever he knows and he can
listen to what he knows to be a lie and walk away. I can’t.
I feel it is a direct insult to my intelligence. That the person telling the lie to me thinks
I’m stupid enough to believe them.
Having said that, before the council makes a decision on our claim there
are a few things that need to be cleared up to be sure the council has all the
correct information to make a responsible decision. I’m not going to make any friends tonight,
but I didn’t have any to begin with.
There
are a few lies made by a few people at the last meeting and two weeks since
that time. In order to continue with an
accurate dialog, we need to clear them up.
First Roger, someone once said lying is done with words and also
silence. At the last meeting, referring
to the pictures that were laid out on the table, that would be 20.56 on the
audio tape, “Can this be retained at City Hall because personally I’m not
prepared to agree with you or disagree with you tonight, because I wanted to
listen to you while you were talking tonight so I haven’t been looking at
this. But is this something I can keep
and review?” There was a clear
indication that you had not seen the damage I was referring to in my
presentation. However, on Sunday, March
25th, the day before, while Doug Hocking and his son
Now, before you get excited and
call this hearsay evidence, allow me to tie the following story together and you
will understand. Tanner Whipple told me
that Dean told him about what Harold did and also that Harold had told Dean
that he waited until we left in November and had done it on purpose. Tanner will verify what I am saying, but you
don’t need to a… but what you need to know is that Dean had already told me the
same story. But, if you remember what
was said at the last meeting, Harold told me he did it because of
complaints. And what is more, he made
this admission in front of Deneen. This
created a couple of contradictions.
According to what Harold said at the last meeting, that would be 25.37
on the tape, “There was no dirt removed at all.
What I did was haul in two or three loads of millings into the back
alley to build it up and then leveled it off”.
Jeri Neely then asked, “What’s millings?” Harold replied, “It is what they grind out
before they asphalt. They’ve got to
grind out the existing edge of the road.
It’s what I put behind Nerem’s last…” because Jeri said, “just to fill
in the alley.” Harold said, “to build it
up higher so it isn’t as low.” Jeri
said, “ok, ok”, and Harold finished it up then leveled it off even with the
telephone poles that are there.” So, is
Harold lying to Dean and myself knowing he said he did it, or is Harold lying
to the council when he said he didn’t do it, and why didn’t Deneen tell us at
the last meeting that she overheard him admit doing it. After all, she did hear him say it.
So,
before I go any further, if anyone would like to make any corrections to what
they said last week go ahead at this time.
Council member Fritz stated he would like to mention where she commented
on him lying. You are correct I was down
your street on probably the Sunday, I don’t know but I’ll take your word for
it, because it was on the docket for the following meeting, it was on the
agenda. What I’m actually rather
discouraged that you would say that because… and maybe you didn’t understand my
intent. It wasn’t that I hadn’t looked
at that, but when you were here I was trying to give you the courtesy of
actually making eye contact and listening to you, instead of looking at the
paper in front of me. And that is why I
wanted to look at it. While you were
here and talking and to give you the courtesy of listening to you and then I
took that home to look at. So if you
misunderstood that, my intentions certainly were not that I had not looked at
that, because I did go down your alley, but while you were here in our presence
I thought it would be good to actually listen to you and what you had to
say. Jodi replied that she did
misunderstand that, because I wasn’t too sure when you said that at the meeting
I was like going I wasn’t too sure if I should call you out at that time or
not, you know. Council member Fritz
continued by saying that in regards to what I hadn’t seen were the pictures
that she put in front of him and your supporting documentation. Jodi replied that was fine and she can
understand that I just…It just left everyone with the idea that maybe you
hadn’t look at anything.
So
anyway, Tanner went down the alley and told me that given the depth and the
width of the damage, Harold would have had to use some piece of equipment that
would have had a bucket on it, like a backhoe.
So I went looking for a pile of dirt with dogwoods and hollyhocks and
found much more. I found it in the first
place I looked, City property, east of the Co-op. I immediately went looking for a councilman
to verify my findings and actually didn’t drive far until I ran into Jeri
uptown. I asked her to verify my
findings and then I took pictures. I
wanted to make sure it was obvious that I didn’t just put it there or
something, that it was an old pile.
(Jodi presented pictures to the council members at this time of the
pile.) What I found were five
identifying factors that these came from my backyard. First of all, you can see where the pile is
because the Co-op is in there. The
first, and I had Mike point to them so I didn’t have to sit here and a…First,
you’ll see Mike is holding up hollyhocks from that pile. The next you see he is pointing at red twig
dogwoods in that pile, two things. And
then I use black plastic. On certain
areas I use black plastic but for landscape fabric particularly on the alley
where there’s rocks and stuff like that.
It’s cheap and I do it. That’s
three. Four, I use re-rod for fence and
when Harold took down the alley he pulled the re-rod and put them against my
garage. But, he missed one. It’s in the pile. And the most damning evidence of all is that
rug. What’s the odds of that rug that
was on the south edge of the hollyhocks…what’s the odds of two rugs being the
same, finding them in the same pile with the other four items?
The
final decision is yours to muddle through all the lies. But, as far as we are concerned the facts are
as follows: In November 2006, Harold
Hovick waited until we left and for whatever reason he had, took a piece of
equipment to our place and removed the plants and bushes from our property and
dumped everything east of the Co-op, and we need to be reimbursed. We maintain if there was a legitimate reason
to do this. Mike and I were not informed
in advance and were not given the opportunity to do it at no cost to the
City. Council member Lee asked if she
knew what date that happened. Jodi
replied all she knows it was November of 2006, because that’s what he (Harold)
told me. Harold stated that after
looking at his log it was on December 14, 2006.
Jodi replied, oh, so you did do it.
Harold replied, I went down the alley.
Council member Hanson was looking at the pictures and asked Jodi “Is
this a hollyhock?”. She said yeah. We left November 1st, 2006. You weren’t here last week John but you may
have heard, but I found it when the snow melted when we got back. Anyway, we weren’t given the opportunity to
take the plants out and move them or save them.
And
Deneen, I have one thing I want to say here.
It must be exhausting jump back and forth over that fence. It has become obvious to me that it depends
on who you’re talking to which way you tell the story. I would prefer you would stay on the fence
when you talk to me from now on.
Because, to quote
Council
member Fritz stated that he’ll just start out where he thinks he’s at. I’ve made a couple other walks down your
alley there too and from my perspective the damage appears to be in the City’s
right-of-way and I do believe that the City should retain its authority to maintain
its right-of-way as it sees fit. And
that’s where I’m at. To give you the
courtesy of …I know at the last meeting you asked that where our thoughts were
coming from and whether you agree with it or not, that is my take on the
situation.
Council
member Neely stated that she will project her opinion. She stated that she agrees with Roger, but
she also agrees that you (Mike & Jodi) should have been given the
opportunity to dig those up and transplant them and you weren’t. So she doesn’t agree with that part of
it.
Council
member Hanson asked Jodi if the rug in the picture was hers. Jodi stated that there is a story about that
rug. Mike asked her not to go into the
story. Jodi stated that she wasn’t going
to go into it, but it had been there for about a…about the time the fence went
up…two, three years ago. It sat on both
of our properties and neither of us would… its Dollie’s rug, but it was on our
property so I didn’t touch it. Council
member Neely asked Jodi if she had copies of the pictures she presented to the
council. Jodi replied, yeah you can have
them.
Council
member Neely stated that since they did not have the opportunity to transplant
them, she feels that they should be reimbursed for the plants. Can you plant them back in there? Jodi replied, no, she won’t. Council member Lee stated that that sounds
fair. Council member Canny asked Jodi
about the type of hollyhocks she had.
Jodi said that the ones she had were this kind (pointing to a picture in
the magazine she had brought) only they were all yellow and then there were
some mixed in there, but her main crop of hollyhocks were the ones she got from
Wayside Gardens a few years ago. Council
member Lee stated he couldn’t remember the colors, but knows she had a lot of
flowers in back. The main ones that she
wanted were yellow. She doesn’t buy a
lot of stuff in
Council member Neely motioned
that we pay her (Jodi) $480.00, less the labor and the dirt according to her
bill. Council member Lee asked if the
City was going to pay her or are we going to turn it into our insurance
man. It won’t make a difference to you,
but it will make a difference to the taxpayers how we do it. Council member Neely stated that she is sure
the City has a deductible. City Clerk
Frost replied $1000.00. Council member
Canny asked council member Neely if her motion was for a cash settlement or are
you going to buy her the plants. Council
member Neely stated that she is going to give her cash. Council member Canny asked council member
Neely to restate her motion. Council
member Neely motioned to give Jodi & Mike $480.00 cash for replacing the
plants that were dug up by the City.
Council member Lee asked how that sounded to Mike & Jodi. Jodi stated that’s fine. Because she had already mentioned to Deneen
that probably with all the to-do about this I won’t put them back into the
alley anyway. So, the dirt and the labor
aren’t an issue. I’m going to put them
somewhere else. The motion was seconded
by Canny.
Council member Fritz asked that
before they vote, he’d like to offer a comment before the final vote is
held. He thinks if we were to approve
this reimbursement that we are rewarding people that initially do not contact City
Hall when things happen within the City right-of-way, being it garages, trees
or plants. And we know that already with
the situation with where we are paying to cut down trees that are in the City’s
right-of-way. If whether the things went
in when they planted them or the previous property owner, which if I believe if
I understand you correctly some of those things that got damaged were from a
previous property owner. Jodi stated
that most of the stuff was planted by them prior to the survey. She thinks that is going to be a problem, if
you want to regain your right-of-way all you need to do is just call and
approach the property owner and ask them to please remove the stuff in the
right-of-way. Council member Fritz
stated, in that, he is concerned what might happen in the future if the same
thing, if a garage is partially in a right-of-way and it gets pasted by a
snowplow that is cleaning the alley. And
if the people who put up a garage initially had come down to City Hall to find
out where the right-of way was, that we wouldn’t be in that situation
potentially paying out for insurance.
Mayor Juhl stated that there was
a seconded motion on the floor. Council
member Hanson stated he would like to see the things replanted. He’d hate to pay for something that is going
somewhere else, because that would not be right.
Council member Hanson moved to
have the motion amended to read, to reimburse them the $480.00 for the plants
that were destroyed and taken out of there, but the plants need to be replanted
on your property and not somewhere else.
The motion was seconded by council member Neely. All were in favor of approving the amendment
to the motion.
Mayor
Juhl then called for the vote on the original motion. AYE:
Canny, Hanson, Lee, Neely, NAY: Fritz, for the previously stated reason
listed above.
Tom
Sailer, with Alliant Energy was present to discuss painting the light poles on
Council/Mayor
comments consisted of the following:
Council member Fritz asked that the minutes that are posted on the web
site and in the paper be tagged to show that they have not been approved by the
council yet. Mayor Juhl asked council
member Fritz if he has heard anything back from the engineering firm. Council member Fritz stated that he had
received an e-mail from the firm stating that their structural engineer is very
busy. They are going to contact a firm
in
There was no
public input at this time.
With no
further business at this time, Canny moved adjournment of the meeting at 7:55
p.m., seconded by Hanson. All were in
favor. The next regular council meeting
will be Monday, April 23, 2007, at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall.
|
|
MARCH RECEIPTS |
|
|
|
General Fund |
$
27,227.19 |
|
|
Road Use Tax |
$
11,698.64 |
|
|
TIF |
$ - |
|
|
Economic
Development |
$
5,927.74 |
|
|
Meter
Deposit |
$
609.24 |
|
|
Library
Trust |
$
110.90 |
|
|
Debt Service |
$
606.18 |
|
|
Capital
Projects-NLAC |
$ - |
|
|
Water |
$
13,630.90 |
|
|
Sewer |
$
8,721.50 |
|
|
TOTAL |
$
68,532.29 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
APRIL CLAIMS |
|
|
|
GENERAL FUND |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fire Dept. |
|
|
|
First
American Insurance |
property/auto/liab/wc |
$
3,726.54 |
|
Heart of |
fuel |
$
97.70 |
|
Wheeler Auto
Supply |
button/floor
dry |
$
19.26 |
|
|
Total Fire
Dept. |
$
3,843.50 |
|
|
|
|
|
Roland Response Team |
|
|
|
First American
Insurance |
property/auto/liab/wc |
$
663.50 |
|
|
Total Roland
Response Team |
$
663.50 |
|
|
|
|
|
Streets |
|
|
|
Fagerland,
Mike & Jodi |
reimb for
damage to hollyhocks/dogwoods |
$
480.00 |
|
First American
Insurance |
property/auto/liab/wc |
$
669.00 |
|
Heart of |
fuel |
$
59.43 |
|
Martin
Marietta Aggregate |
1"
clean rock |
$
657.01 |
|
|
Total
Streets |
$
1,865.44 |
|
|
|
|
|
Landfill/Garbage |
|
|
|
Stone
Sanitation |
garbage
hauling - March |
$
6,093.75 |
|
|
Total
Landfill/Garbage |
$
6,093.75 |
|
|
|
|
|
Contributions |
|
|
|
No. Story
County Little League |
contribution |
$
1,000.00 |
|
|
Total
Contributions |
$ 1,000.00 |
|
|
|
|
|
Library |
|
|