City council discusses utility, festival grounds upgrades

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The Henning City Council held its first of what could be more frequent work sessions with city staff members last week.

During a special work session on Wednesday evening, the Henning City Council and staff members discussed a number of future projects in the city as the two sides attempt to come together to plan for future years.

As part of a work session that lasted just under two hours, the city staff spent much of its time discussing issues with the utility meters that the utility department utilizes and how it should move forward. 

Henning Clerk/Treasurer Jenna Kovarik said the city has already received 76 work orders this year for everything from misreads to questions from customers to a concern that a meter is not working properly. Each time a work order comes in the city staff needs to investigate that issue further, oftentimes resulting in checking out the meter in person. 

Henning Utility Supervisor Ted Strand updated the city council on the way the city reads meters and said the city currently has a piecemeal system that isn’t fully digital, which will likely need to be updated in the future. A new AMI system, which would send continual information to the city’s software program that could help to catch things like an improperly working meter to a water main break, could cost in excess of $250,000. The new system would also require a specially designed meter that costs around $1,500 per unit to install.

Strand also updated the city council on the work his staff has been doing within the community, a large portion of which has been dealing with faulty meters and billing software, as well as utility locates. Last year the city staff completed over 500 meter locates with each meter locate taking approximately one hour. As the city continues to grow and develop the amount of meter locates his staff needs to complete also grows.

“When people ask us what are you doing, it is the locate, it is the meter reading, it all takes time,” he said.

When asked by Henning Mayor Jesse Hermanson what would help to make his job easier, Strand said there are times when another staff member would be helpful to alleviate some of the additional work to complete meter reading questions and locates.

New Henning councilwoman Jessica Strege said she was concerned about the piecemealing of meter reading systems, but also cautioned the city council that discretionary income continues to decrease for many residents in the community. She said Henning’s median household income is around $40,000, and prior to moving forward with upgrades to the utility system, the council needs to have a solid plan in place.

She also asked the city staff members to come up with a list of what they spend their time working on during the day so the council can see what tasks the staff members are completing to help the city council move forward with a set of goals in the future. 

In addition to the utility billing and meters, the city council also briefly discussed grants and upgrades at the festival grounds. Strand said the city has received a number of questions regarding a potential pickle ball court in the community, as well as a walking path and updated playground equipment. His goal of the work session was to get some guidance from the city council about what project it would like him to prioritize first, before moving on to other projects. 

In order to help pay for the projects, Henning Police Chief Mike Helle said he has received several people in the community who have reached out to him about a desire to seek grants for things like a pickle ball court.

Henning City Councilman Scott Hart said if people are willing to help the city secure grants for special projects that the council should embrace their willingness to help the community grow. He also said that seeking grants and donations is a good way to get people involved in the community.

Hermanson said grants for special projects will likely be necessary as discretionary projects will likely need to take a back seat for a while as the city attempts to get its spending under control, especially after two years of raising the city’s tax levy by 20 percent each year.

At the end of the work session the city council said it will likely host another work session in the near future to tackle some of the looming projects on the horizon.