Council approved 20 percent tax levy increase in 2023, 2024

The Henning City Council received a brief update on the water treatment facility project from utility supervisor Ted Strand last week. The plant is undergoing an expansive updating/addition to provide additional storage and updates to the approximately 25-year-old facility.

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

For the third consecutive year the Henning City Council has approved a double-digit preliminary tax levy increase. However, the city council is hoping to bring the 15 percent preliminary tax levy increase down a bit before it is finalized in December.

The city council approved a variance for a garage at 703 2nd St. in Henning. The new house and garage are located near the tennis courts and Star Apartments.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the Henning City Council approved a 15 percent increase in its preliminary tax levy. The potential increase comes on the heels of two consecutive years in which the city council has approved a 20 percent increase to its tax levy. 

Henning Mayor Jesse Hermanson said the plan is to set the preliminary tax levy high with the hopes of lowering its before it is finalized later this year.

“Set the preliminary increase of 15 percent, which is still high, but is lower than the 20 percent we have had the past two years,” he said. 

The plan is to have a work session as soon as September 22 at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the city budget and tax levy as a whole.

Hermanson said if the increase in the levy was evenly split amongst every property in the city limits the increase would be $93.46 per year per property. The actual increase for each property in the community varies based on the property valuation from the county. 

In other news

• Approved a variance for Ted and Beth Rose to construct a garage at a new home located at 703 2nd St. in Henning. The Rose’s originally constructed the house without a garage, but sought a variance to be closer to the street than currently allowed by city ordinances.

• Heard a request from Dan Broten to change the city ordinances to allow for chickens in the city limits. Broten said he made the request on behalf of a friend who had the chickens for emotional support, but also added that a number of other communities have also adopted an ordinance to allow for 4-6 chickens provided they are contained in a yard and in a chicken coop. The council said it will look into the request further. 

• Rejected all bids for the removal of a house and to level the lot at a city-owned property located at 405 Front Street. The bids ranged from $15,600-$85,000, but several council members raised a concern that not all of the bidders knew what the entire project entailed and whether there was asbestos on the property or not. The council said it will complete a test to see if there was asbestos on site and rebid the project with a more defined project description. 

• Approved a plan to create landscaping and a monument for the cape buffalo at Amundson Park. The project will be privately funded, but will be located on public land. Henning Police Chief Mike Helle said the landscaping should be done by the first of the year. In addition to the cape buffalo, Helle said the city could request more information from the historical society about creating a QR code for the cape buffalo and Amundson Park, as well as several other historical buildings in town to provide some history about the structures. A similar QR code project was completed a few years ago in New York Mills to provide history of the community. 

• Heard from Helle that the city has not received an application for its open police officer position in approximately three months. He said there are approximately 150 police officer openings across the state as many departments are facing a hardship in finding qualified officers. 

• Heard the ambulance service responded to 43 calls for service in the month of August and have responded to 271 calls for service so far this year. The council also approved advertising for a part-time PRN to fill open part-time hours as necessary. The position would not go over the allotted 75 hours of paid hours for the ambulance service per week. 

• Heard the purchase agreement for a sliver of city-owned property adjacent to the Farmstand has been signed but a closing date has yet to be set.

• Heard the utilities department recently spent $5,500 of its sidewalk budget to repair uneven sidewalks from the hardware store to B&D Foods. The council thanked utility supervisor Ted Strand for the work.