Henning to host fall clean up November 4-5

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The City of Henning has started to take on properties perceived to be dilapidated and nuisance within the community. However, the issue hasn’t come without a bit of contention between some property owners and the city council as a whole.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last Monday night, the Henning City Council heard from Scott Naddy regarding his property located near at 603 2nd St. 

In what was a somewhat contentious discussion between Naddy and the city council, the Henning resident questioned why he was being targeted to clean up his property and said there are a number of properties within the community that should also be cleaned up as well. He said he had no knowledge the city felt he needed to repair his building in the first place until he received a letter from a representative of the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office stating he had 21 days to come up with a plan to clean up the downtown Henning building.

“My question to you, first of all, when did you decide you had an issue with my building and why wasn’t I brought to be made aware there was even an issue with it,” he said. “I received no letters, nothing. I was pressure washing my deck at my home and a sheriff showed up at my home and handed me legal papers.”

City clerk/treasurer Jenna Kovarik said the city council discussed the need to clean up nuisance and dilapidated properties at its July city council meeting. 

Henning City Councilman Scott Hart said no property names or numbers were discussed specifically at the July meeting, but the goal was to give property owners a chance to work out a plan with the city to clean up affected properties.

“It was my knowledge we were going to contact people to let them know and (give them) a chance to come up with a plan. That was my knowledge,” said Hart, who went on to say he was in favor of stopping the legal process if a plan could be worked out between the property owners and the city. 

Kovarik said letters were sent to property owners from the city’s attorney in July as a courtesy to let them know an issue with their property exists and that it would need to be cleaned up. She said most of the property owners contacted the city to come up with a clean up plan, but Naddy was not one of them.

Naddy said he never received that letter in July and was not aware the city had an issue with his property until he received a notice from the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office. He contended the property, despite a hole in the roof, was secure and safe.

“That building is safe. It’s secure, it doesn’t have a broken window. Yeah it has a bad roof. It’s had a bad roof for probably 15 years,” he said. “That building is for me to worry about not you.”

He went on to say that even though the city may not like how to roof looks the building is his property. He contended the city does not have a right to tell him to fix the building as it is not hazardous or unsecured. 

If the city followed through with the hazardous abatement process it could do everything from demolishing the building and putting the cost of doing so on the property’s tax roll or simply coming up with a joint plant to fix up the building so it was no longer considered a nuisance. 

Henning City Councilman Jesse Hermanson said moving forward he wanted to see the courtesy letters be sent as certified mail to ensure they are delivered as intended. He also asked if the city could stop the legal process and restart the process to ensure Naddy is given ample time to come up with a plan to clean up the property in question. 

Hart and Henning Mayor Robert Johnson also requested to stop the legal action against Naddy and restart the window of time given to property owners to come up with a plan to clean up their property.

Hart said that coming up with a reasonable plan and following through with the process to clean up the properties in question was his goal back in July as well. 

Henning staff had a meeting already set up with the city’s attorney last week and will restart the hazardous abatement process with Naddy’s property located on 2nd St. with the goal of either cleaning up the property altogether or coming up with a plan to do so.

The motion to restart the process was approved by a 4-1 margin with councilman Travis Nelson voting in dissent. 

Cleaning up properties

In addition to Naddy’s property the city council also discussed three other properties that received a notice to clean up their property. 

Johnson said he spoke with the owner of a property located at 700 2nd St. who said they would be putting a new front door on the residence and should have the remaining work completed within the next week or two.

Johnson also thanked Dondi Kimber for cleaning up his downtown body shop as much as he had this fall and suggested that Kimber discuss the potential of installing a fence to hide the barrels he needs to store outdoors to keep them out of the sight of passersby. Johnson said he will bring up the issue with the Henning EDA to see if there was potential funding available to help fund a new fence around his property.

The owner of the property located at 207 Holden Ave said she was in the process of cleaning up the property, but due to family medical issues she needed some more time to finish up the process.

The city council gave all three property owners until the November city council meeting to complete the work, which was in excess of the time being requested by the property owners in order to give them a bit more time to complete the work. They also thanked the three property owners for reaching out to the city council and working with the city to clean up their properties. 

In other news

• Heard a presentation from Rebecca Lynn Petersen on behalf of West Central Initiative. Petersen highlighted some of the contributions that WCI has made in the region, including Henning, as well as some of the programs that are available for non-profit organizations and businesses in the region.

• Approved closing the Willow Creek checking account, 

• Accepted a pair of donations from the Henning Lions Club. The Lions Club donated $750, which included some monetary contributions from the annual St. Edward’s Catholic Church fish fry to help pay for the cost to repair the roof at the Lion’s Shelter at Amundson Park. The Henning Lions Club also donated $1,500 to the installation of a new fountain at the park. The estimated cost of the new water fountain was $3,000.

• Heard a presentation from Al Roth regarding the city’s health insurance plan. Currently the city is with the Public Employee Insurance Plan, but increases over the past few years has made the insurance plan more expensive than other options at the city’s disposal. The city is able to switch insurance plans effective the start of 2025. Henning Police Chief Mike Helle said the city council changed its plan a number of years ago to a high deductible plan with an HSA account the city funded. However, due to budget cuts the city’s HSA contribution ended for the city’s employees a few years ago. The hope was by switching to a different insurance plan the city could ultimately save money for its health insurance plan. 

• Approved holding a fall clean up from November 4-5 for yard waste and brush. The city staff will go around town and pick up the brush and yard waste that is put on the curb.

• Approved moving Jenna Lee from part-time administrative assistant to a full-time administrative assistant. As part of the new position she will receive a $1 an hour raise from the date of a recent personnel committee meeting. 

• Heard the Henning Fire Department received a FEMA grant for just over $156,000 to purchase new air packs for the fire department. There is a five percent match (7,438) the total cost for the city will be $7,800 due to a shortfall from the grant to purchase the fire packs

• Discussed utilizing the City of Wadena for Electric On Call outage responses in the event of an emergency. Utility Supervisor Ted Strand said the agreement would save the city about $500 a month for On Call electrical work that is needed in the event of an emergency. The city council requested a similar quote from Otter Tail Power Company and Lake Region Electric to get a comparison for emergency electric work.

• Approved appointing Brittany Greenwood as Henning Ambulance Service co-director to assist with scheduling and other duties as necessary.

• Heard the Henning Ambulance Service, Henning Fire Department and Henning Police Department received a $40,000 ARMER grant to assist with the purchase of new radios. There were only 100 of the grants awarded as part of the grant process.

• Approved entering into the new Sprint Car program that is being developed in Otter Tail County. The program is being funded by the State of Minnesota on a two-year trial as part of a $2.7 million local funding package. The program will provide 3-5 vehicles in Otter Tail County that will be staffed with medics and emergency personnel that will be driving throughout the county several hours a day to assist in the event of an emergency. The program is aimed at assisting emergency personnel with first responder and ALS services who are already stretched thin in rural Minnesota. However, Henning Ambulance Service Director Chelsey Waskosky did raise a number of questions about the program and whether it would be a good fit for Henning moving forward. She said the city can join the program and could drop out at any time, but if it did not join the program initially it may not be able to join in the future. The city council approved entering into a Memorandum of Understanding for the program with the intent of backing out of the agreement if it does not fit the needs of the community.