New agreement was needed to comply with assisted living licensure

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

A new resident agreement for housing and services was officially approved by the Henning City Council last week. 

During a special city council meeting on Thursday afternoon, the council adopted the new resident agreement for residents at Willow Creek. The agreement was needed in order to comply with the new assisted living licensure that will take effect on Aug. 1. Willow Creek Director Lisa Augustus went over the plan with the council, while also stating the attorney has also reviewed the new plan.

Augustus will now go over the new resident agreement with all of the residents at Willow Creek prior to the end of July.

In addition to approving the new lease agreement, the council also briefly discussed considering a new local sales tax. The item was reportedly requested to be put on the agenda by councilman Scott Hart, but he was not in attendance on Thursday afternoon. 

As a result, Henning Mayor Darren Wiese asked why the item was left on the agenda. He said some residents were planning to come to the meeting to hear about the sales tax. He also expressed his dislike for considering implementing a new local sales tax.

“If we are not willing to make any cuts I want it very well known…I do not want any form of taxation,” said Wiese. “There are people that came here and there are people who want to know how today’s thing went.”

The council also moved forward with attempting to fill the soon-to-be-vacant position of a full-time police officer. Tyler Schwartz has recently resigned from the police department, effective the first part of August. 

As a result, the council said it would like to move forward with replacing Henning’s second full-time police officer position as soon as possible as only police chief Mike Helle remains on staff as a full-time officer.