Greg Pruszinske presented a proposed restructuring of the organization to work in concert with enhancing customer service, while meeting the needs and demands of the community to position the city for future growth. For many years, the city has operated under a flat structure with many people reporting directly to the city administrator.

 

Pruszinske said over the years, the city has become slow to respond — and in some cases — been unresponsive, failing to meet existing and emerging demands of changes in the utility industry, the decommissioning of two coal fired power generators, etc. Pruszinske said the city needs to be engaged and proactive as they transition from an economy shifting from coal based to a more diverse and robust industrial economy.

 

The key changes in the structure would include having a public services director and roll utilities, streets, golf and parks under one umbrella. Another change would see the city clerk be reclassified to meet HR, safety and risk management needs.

Also, have public works and parks assistant operate major divisions via assistants as well as recreation and leisure.

 

The golf services manager would operate minor divisions via managers and the recreation services manager would do the same.

 

 

Pruszinske said the community development department is seeing an influx in projects ranging from housing development plats to code updates, to industrial park expansion, to business attraction and more.

 

Due to this influx, staff is proposing to contract with WSB & Associates for professional services for a variety of projects.

 

The budgetary impact would be $1,632 per week from administrative, planning and EDA budget lines.

 

 

Roger Bigalke gave an update to council on the progress of the Veteran’s Memorial slated to be constructed on city hall property within the next month.

 

 

In February and March, the city invoiced numerous properties for sidewalk snow removal that was completed during the late season of winter and early season of spring.

 

Clerk Julie Blesi said as of Tuesday, 25 property owners had not paid for the services and following the public hearing, those property owners will see the fee assessed to their property taxes at the county level. The snow removal fee was charged at $75 and with the county certification fee of $50, the total cost to the property owners will be $125 per homestead.

 

 

Connie Robinson presented council with the 2018 first quarter financials. She said the budget and finance committee reviewed the March financials at their April 18 meeting and approved it. Robinson noted the financials are at or below the budget.

 

 

Chris Lisson of the WWTF said his department had SEH prepare a bid package for new water meters to replace existing commercial and residential meters with Neptune meters, which are compatible with existing software and meter reading devices.

 

Two bids were received with only one meeting the requirements laid out in the package.

 

Lisson said his department recommends accepting Ferguson Water Works in the amount of $485,743.21.

 

The water meter replacement project was budgeted as a capital expenditure for 2018.

 

In a separate but related matter, council approved a change order to adjust the amount from $485,743.21 to $448,248.95 due to the city already having a significant amount of Neptune meters already installed in the system. The reduction in price also reflects the fact the state sales tax was also removed from the original bid total.

 

 

BCC Manager Jamie Cassidy said sealed bids for the Co. Rd. 24 trail improvement project was opened Tuesday morning. The city received 10 bids with the low bid coming in from Kuechle Underground, Inc. of Kimball in the amount of $371,563.53.

 

The engineer’s estimate came in at $414,493.75 and the other top bids were from Bromax Contracting (372,482.70) and Hardrives, Inc. ($410,184.78). 

 

The project came in well under the 2018 budgeted amount of $1.1 million.

 

 

The 2018 City of Becker Freedom Days celebration is to take place from June 11-17. To ensure the success of Freedom Days, staff is asking council to call for a suspension of certain prohibitions and city code requirements during this week.

 

The areas of requested suspension include promotional signage, a parade, golf cart usage, private vendor sales on city streets and alcohol consumption within the festival area.

 

 

The next Becker City Council meeting is June 5 at 6 p.m.