City to seek applicants for open council position

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Two hot spots at the city’s substation has raised a cause for concern for city staff and the city council. 

During a special city council meeting on Thursday night, the Henning City Council approved moving forward with a plan to investigate the cause for the hot spots. 

Henning Utility Supervisor Ted Strand said the hot spots could be caused by anything from low oil to the cooling fins being plugged. In order to investigate what exactly is causing the hot spots, the city will need to have a planned power outage in the near future. Should the city not investigate the cause for the hot spots it could result in a catastrophic failure of one of its sub stations. 

“If we don’t do it, and something were to happen to one of these, it would be $1 million for a brand new transformer,” said Strand. 

Strand said the plan would be to have the power outage at night to limit the interruptions to businesses and the school. The estimated cost to complete the work when Strand contacted companies to complete the work last year ranged from $10,000-15,000. 

“It doesn’t matter what the price is I think we just have to do it,” said Strand who cautioned the city about what could happen if it were to lose a transformer.

City council opening

Four people have expressed an interest in serving out the remainder of Wes Johnson’s term on the Henning City Council.  Those who have already expressed an interest in serving on the city council include Ben Lohse, Jim Haberer, Richard Johnson and Caleb Horn. Lohse, Haberer and Johnson have all served on the city council or as mayor in the past, while Horn placed third for a spot on the city council in the most recent election in November. 

Henning City Councilman Scott Hart said he feels strongly that the person who finished in third place in the November election should be appointed to the city council. He said the people voted in November and made their voices heard at that time about who they want to see placed on the city council.

“I told you kind of where my position is and that is the direction I am going to go, go by the votes and wherever that falls. The public did vote and that is what we should do,” said Hart. “That is probably the best practice. But again if that is not the direction of the council I will work with whatever. That is just me.” 

Over the past few weeks, mayor Robert Johnson, as well as city councilors Mallory Loock and Jesse Hermanson expressed a desire to appoint a person to the city council who has previous city council experience. 

“I get where you are coming from that way. It was the people’s choice and the next person should come in line, maybe. But I just think just up here, you have been here a while and us three are brand new. I am a little hesitant. I think some experience would be (nice as) we have some big things coming up,” said Loock to Hart as part of the discussion. 

Hermanson also reiterated that experience should be considered in who is appointed to the city council. 

“That is why the council is staggered every two years, four year terms staggered, so you have some experience going out. Wes’ decision is Wes’ decision and I respect that, but that is where I come down on the experience side because that is a big part of it,” said Hermanson. 

In order to learn more about each candidate, the city council has requested that anyone who would be interested in serving out the remainder of Wes Johnson’s term to submit a letter of interest detailing why they should be appointed to serve on the city council by March 31. 

The city council will review the candidates who submit a letter of interest as soon as its next regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, April 3.

In other news

• Approved moving forward with the purchase of a new fire pick up. The truck would replace the 1973 Chevy pick up and may not arrive until 2024. Henning Fire Chief Mike Helle said the townships and donations will cover the cost for the new truck.

• Approved a construction contract with Northdale Construction Co., Inc., of Albertville, Minn. for the Inman St. utility and surface improvements/main wastewater lift station improvements. There were two bidders on the project and Northdale Construction came in at a low bid of $2,585,159.63. The bid was lower than estimated in February and will now cost an estimated total of $3,331,535. The city is sharing in the cost of the project with Otter Tail County and could be eligible for grants that could cover up to 80 percent of the cost of the project.