Council discusses utility supervisor retirement

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The City of Henning will be seeking bids on an estimated $10.8 million utility and construction project that could begin as soon as this summer.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last Monday night, the Henning City Council moved forward with seeking bids on an expansive road and underground utility project. The project will cover portions of School Avenue, Marshall Avenue, Hipple Avenue, Front Street, Jensen Street, Milne Avenue, Minnesota Street and portions of several other streets in town. As part of the project the city will replace the existing sanitary sewer, watermain, storm sewer and make street surface improvements.

The cost project will be broken into two parts, a portion of which will be eligible for grant and low-interest loan funding. The estimated cost for the first portion of the project will be $9,050,000 of which 73 percent could be forgiven as part of a grant, 17 percent is a low-interest loan and 10 percent is the city’s expense. Another $1.3 million of the project is being bid as an alternate and would cover improvements to Balmoral Ave. This portion of the project would be 100 percent the responsibility of the City of Henning, 

Prior to the meeting, Sam Rupert of Apex Engineering said he was approved by a local contractor who has already been receiving phone calls from individuals wondering when the Henning utility project would be sent out for bids. 

“It sounds like there is a lot of interest right now,” said Rupert.

Henning Utility Superintendent Ted Strand said there is some work out there for contractors now, but there isn’t a lot available so contractors seem to be actively seeking work on larger construction projects like the one in Henning. 

The council could award the winning bid for construction as soon as May 4 with construction beginning sometime this summer should the city proceed with the project. The project would continue next year and wrap up sometime in the middle of next summer.  

Utility department planning

The Henning City Council moved forward with advertising for a new utility superintendent after Ted Strand announced his impending retirement earlier this year. Strand will officially retire from the City of Henning this summer and the council had expressed an interest in having a new utility superintendent in place prior to his final day with the City of Henning.

Prior to moving forward with advertising for the utility superintendent position, Henning Mayor Jesse Hermanson said the personnel committee met with utility workers Travis Arndt and Tom Lee to gauge their interest in taking over the superintendent role. Hermanson said both individuals expressed an interest in the position and discussed the potential of splitting some of the superintendent’s duties between two people, instead of just one as it had been in the past. Hermanson said if the right person is hired the city may eventually be able to get down to three utility staff members instead of four as soon as this fall when another individual has expressed an interest in retiring from the department. 

Strand said there is a growing amount of paperwork and regulations the utility department needs to follow on a daily basis and splitting up some of the responsibilities between two people may be beneficial to ease some of that burden.

In addition to meeting with current staff about the utility superintendent position, the council expressed a desire to find an individual to join to the utility department that has some of the current licenses needed for water/sewer, natural gas or electric to take some of the call burden off the current staff members. 

Henning City Councilman Scott Hart said a small town is a lot like a small school where multiple people should have the same license to help one another out in a time of need. 

The council moved forward with advertising for a new utility superintendent and said the in-house candidates can apply for the position as well. 

In other news

• Discussed the airport lease agreement between the city and pilots renting hangers at the city-owned airport. The current agreement states that pilots own and construct their own hangars at the airport, but rent the land under the hangar from the city. Several city council members have stated that rent is too low for the land at the airport citing upcoming projects that will be needed at the facility. After discussing the concerns with pilots, Hermanson suggested the city put together a financial statement for the airport with revenue and expenditures and meet with the pilots later this year to discuss the lease agreement.

• Heard that the utility department employees have been keeping a log of daily activities and how long each project takes to complete. Strand said the project has not been directed by the city council, but is something the utility workers are doing on their own as a way to provide more transparency of day-to-day activities in his department.

• Discussed ways to improve communication with utility customers if there is a concern over their bill and investigative steps to take to alleviate the concern. The city is also getting a clean version of the billing software that it will implement in the near future to try to clear up any mistakes caused by faulty software. 

• Approved having the city council and staff members tour the city to identify nuisance properties as part of an April 24 work session. The council expressed an interest in redoing the city letter sent to property owners in violation of the city ordinances to more clearly express the city’s desire to improve communication with property owners. 

• Heard the filters are now operating at the water treatment facility and the water softeners are now being repaired. Strand also said that some of the water and sewer lines have been televised and are beginning to collapse under the city streets. Many of these utility lines are scheduled to be replaced as part of future utility projects. 

• Approved the hiring of Zach Olson to the Henning Fire Department.

• Discussed with Henning Ambulance Chelsey Waskosky the need for addition volunteers for the ambulance service and potential to go to a more paid-staff ambulance service as attracting volunteers for the busy ambulance service is becoming harder to find.

• Heard that Henning Township received a bid for $132,000 to repair Airport Road. The council had previously expressed an interest in splitting the cost of the road repairs with the township as the road is shared by both entities. The initial thought was the repairs to Airport Road would cost closer to $200,000.

• Approved putting the recordings of the city council meeting on the city’s website as an audio file so residents can listen to the meetings after the fact. 

• Heard of a concern from both the League of Minnesota Cities and the city’s attorney of having an acting mayor view the utility bills prior to being sent to the public. In recent months Hermanson said he would be willing to go through the bills with the city staff to check for errors, but the council did not proceed with the offer at this time due to the privacy concerns raised.