The recent Becker City Council meeting started off with a recognition of the Becker High School Robotics and boys track teams. 

The Becker High School Robotics team and the boys track team both went to state this year, and both were recognized by the city council for their excellent representation of the city. 

Zach of the robotics team revealed that the team lost a lot of seniors in 2024, but the team still was determined to work hard and were victorious at the state competition. Zack shared the highlights of the season leading up to state. 

Coach Wiggy spoke for the boys track team. This is the first time since 1997 that the boys and girls track teams qualified for state. Wiggy said he was very proud of the efforts from the student athletes, who broke several school records this year. 

June 17 was proclaimed “Championship Tuesday” by the city in honor of these two teams. 

Committee Reports

The personnel committee discussed paid leave and the budget impact, and reported they would be busy over the next few weeks. 

Public Works reported needing to fix a hydrant. They also found out they will need to fix some faded railroad crossing markings and make a few other changes, which will appear before council at a later time. Council Member Becky Olmscheid noted that dumping has been a significant issue this year, to the point where the city has used up most of their SCORE Grant from the county, meant to be spent on removal of garbage and recycling items, just to keep the city clean. The committee is looking into solutions. 

The fire board heard the annual audit, which came back clean. They discussed raising the fire relief fund. They will have the fire budget ready to be presented at the next regular meeting. 

The city hall was being painted the day of the meeting, and parking lot work was expected to begin soon after. 

Unified Development Ordinance

City staff presented council with a new development ordinance. This new ordinance has been created over the past two years to replace the city ordinance which staff said was confusing, redundant, and difficult to enforce. The council heard a brief presentation on the changes that were made. 

Roads Report

City staff presented four change orders for the 2025 street improvement project. The first two were originally proposed for the project, but were accidentally left out during the bidding process. These will be for improvements on golf course roads. One road, running from the clubhouse to the maintenance shop, will be covered by golf course capital improvement funds and will cost $36,284.55. The other road runs from the maintenance shop to the municipal wellhouse, and the funding for this project will come from the water capital improvement fund since it will be used solely for accessing the wellhouse. 

The other change orders were for striping, as needed for the railway, and hydrant work.