Remainder of old Henning Advocate building to be taken down

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The Henning City Council will once again be at full strength with five members after Travis Nelson was appointed to fill an open city council position.

During its meeting on Tuesday night, which was held one day later than normal last week, the city council discussed five candidates who filled out a letter of interest to serve on the council. The five candidates included: Caleb Horn, Richard O. Johnson, Sara Booker, Jessica Strege and Travis Nelson. 

“I think we have five very good candidates there,” said Mayor Robert Johnson.

In order to narrow down the candidates, city council member Scott Hart suggested the council rank each of the five people who turned in a letter of interest from 1-5. After each person blindly voted for their top picks, Nelson was determined to have the best score. 

Nelson, who sought election for a spot on the city council in November but finished in fifth place with 70 votes, was then approved to fill the remaining term of Wes Johnson’s city council seat. The seat will be up for election in November of 2024. 

In other news

• Heard from Henning School Superintendent Melissa Sparks about the upcoming school building referendum. She updated the city council about changes from the November election, which was narrowly defeated by a majority of voters in the school district. The first of the two questions as part of the levy referendum would total $22.7 and the second question would total $4.35 million.

• Heard an update on the Inman St. utility and surface improvements/main wastewater lift station improvement project. The total cost of the project was approximately $3.3 million with the city’s portion of the project being approximately $1.7 million. The city received a grant to fund approximately $1.3 million for sanitary sewer and drinking water, while also receiving a loan for approximately $336,000. Bob Schlieman of Apex Engineering said the numbers for the grant are still being finalized, but should be similar to the preliminary numbers he has already received. 

• Approved purchasing new lights for the Highway 108 project. Utility Supervisor Ted Strand said the cost of utilizing the existing poles and retrofitting them would be $300,000, while the cost for new poles and lighting would be $350,000. 

• Approved increasing a credit card limit for Strand from $1,000 to $5,000. 

• Approved a $5,000 expenditure for maintenance/building updates for Country View Apartments. In the past maintenance/building updates were not a part of the annual budget.

• Discussed having a prayer or a moment of silence at the start of each city council meeting. The city council said if someone were to want to have a prayer or moment of silence during the open forum they could do so, but a formal prayer as part of the agenda would not be added at this time.

• Heard from city councilwoman Mallory Loock about liability insurance for Willow Creek Assisted Living. The cost for liability insurance is just over $25,000.

• Approved a low bid of approximately $8,900 from Shaw Excavating for the excavation of 400 Douglas Ave. (the former Henning Advocate building). The building was burned down by the Henning Fire Department during a recent training exercise. 

• Discussed work that will need to be completed at the water plant, sub station and lift station. 

• Approved adding Willow Creek Executive Director Lisa Augustus to the finance committee.