EKALAKA TOWN COUNCIL MINUTES

April 3rd, 2024

1) Call Regular Meeting to Order

a) Roll Call Council- Mayor call meeting to order at 5pm, present Melissa Lovec, Andy Wright, Rich Brown, and Rex McCord

b) Employees Present- Calvin Jensen new public works director & Elston Loken

c) Appointed Officials Present- Kamely Harkins

2) Pledge of Allegiance

3) Public Present - Pam Castleberry, Chad Hansen

4) Public Comment/ Complaints No Public Comment

5) Approve Agenda - Melissa moved to approve agenda for April 3rd meeting Richard seconded, no discussion 4 ayes no nays motion carried.

6) Minutes from last meeting(s): read, correct (if needed) and approve March 6th minutes. Andy moved to approve minutes from last meeting, Rich seconded, 4 ayes no nays motion carried.

7) Claims Approval Andy moved to approve claims for $25,747.08 Rex seconded, Council asked a question on why Torey was being paid out of claims and not payroll, Clerk explained that Torey goes to country school for the library once a month and gets reimbursed for mileage on library's budget. No other discussion. 4 ayes no nays motion carried.

8) Reports of Officers:

a) Public Works Director Calvin explained how his first week went, and updated the council on what he has been working on like servicing equipment, worked on jet truck and explained that the jet truck probably needs a carburetor or a carburetor kit, been looking for some jet nozzles and have been working on locating manholes. He will start sweeping streets on 2nd Monday of each month from 5 to 7 a.m. He also said he has had a resident take him for a drive and show him his street and that it needs to get gravel. The discussion was that most streets need gravel, Mayor doesn't want to put the gravel we have on the hill on streets because it has too much sand, talk about maybe screening the gravel and/or purchasing some gravel from Wyrick.

Elston also brought to the council's attention that we have located a meter that would work on well 3, will need stainless steel for the new meter.

b) Mayor visited Shannon from Brosz Engineering, Inc. about the survey of town. We need to get maps from county, Southeast Electric and Mid-Rivers for their service lines. Kamely will work to get these maps as soon as possible.

c) Attorney sent the Resolution of Intent to council to review, and he is back on the same case representing town in court.

d) Council member Rich saw that some signs around town need to be fixed, one by the Lutheran Church and believes one coming in on Main street. Rex asked about property lines and if a container needs to have a permit to be placed on property. The ordinance says that any structure needs to be 3 feet from the property line, but a fence can be on the line. Also, a container is not a permanent structure, so it doesn't have to have a permit since it's movable.

9) Reports of Standing and Special Committees:

a) Administrative (Clerk/Treasurer) Kamely and Elston went to Great Falls where Kamely took water exam, no results yet.

b) Law Enforcement - no one present.

c) Streets - need gravel, as discussed, the gravel we have is too sandy.

d) Library - received previous month minutes and finance.

e) Fire Department/Committee- Mayor and Melissa had a meeting prior to the council meeting and went over the resolution of intent to transfer the property over to EVFD for a firehall. Members are happy with the way it's written, Melissa asked EVFD to share with their lawyer and make sure things are good to go. Once the green light from the lawyer is received, the Clerk will post in newspaper for public hearing on the resolution of intent.

f) Parks - Calvin did some maintenance on some of the toys and talked about putting lights under the building.

g) Pool Committee has regrouped and have been making some great plans. Phil Cook put together a soup benefit and we raised $3,315.00. The pool committee hopes to do the pool in stages. It's looking very promising and we're excited to get this done. h) Water/sewer - no reports.

i) Landfill - Michael called and said that with the weather getting better he will be done attending dump on Tuesday.

j) Safety - Mayor, Melissa, Kamely and Calvin met for safety meeting, no problem as of now to report.

10 )Presentation of Petitions and Communications: Willow Beach fence

11) Old Business * Action Items

a) * Community Plan - discussion on if this was done, no one was sure.

b) * Pool Liner - Buck talked to a company about a pool liner and the explanation was that it would not work for our pool.

c) * Alex Lovec Central Ave Culvert - Calvin and Buck will meet with Carl and see what needs to be done.

d) *EVFD Building/Property Lease - discussed Intent of transferring the property, no action waiting to hear back from EVFD lawyer.

e) Tennis Court - no action, Town will give it a face lift and add some lights.

12) New Business * Action items

a) Water Project Update (Chad Hansen) - Informed council the process of the bids and explained about RSF loans. Also explained that we probably won't have money for the whole project. Bids will be opened on April 17th at 3 p.m. No motion was needed.

b) *Regrouping of town committees - tabled

c) *Hire Lifeguard and Temp for parks & streets - set wages - Melissa moved to hire Danica, Nicole, Elizabeth and Kamryn as lifeguards, the main lifeguard that will have WSI for swimming lessons at $15 dollars per hr., Danica Shepherd and Nicole O'Connell at $14.50 since they are coming back from previous, year, and Elizabeth Barth & Kamryn Miller at $14.00 per hr. Rich seconded, discussion was that we should pay a bit extra to the ones coming back and hope that is an incentive for lifeguards to keep coming back. No other discussion, 4 ayes no nays motion carried.

Andy moved to hire Braden Montgomery for Parks/Street at $14 per hr., up to 30 hrs. per week, Rich seconded, no discussion 4 ayes no nays motion carried.

d) *Pave Short Street - Melissa moved to table paving Short Street, discussion was to fix Mormon first and that paving Short Street wouldn't fix the issue of the bumps where the pavement ends. Andy seconded no other discussion. 4 ayes no nays, motion carried.

e) *Bulbs for UV system - Andy moved to approve the purchase of UV bulbs for $1,796.80. Melissa seconded no discussion, 4 ayes no nays motion carried.

f) Announcements - Mayor announced he was going on family vacation for a week in April, Kamely will be attending Clerk Conference in Fairmont from May 4th through the 10th.

13) Next Meeting Date: May 1st, 2024.

14) Adjourn - Andy moved to adjourn the meeting Melissa seconded no discussion, 4 ayes no nays, motion passed, meeting adjourned at 6:17 p.m.

/s/ Buck Kratzer, Mayor

Attest:/s/ Kamely Harkins, Clerk/ Treasurer