During their recent meeting, the Clear Lake City Council heard from a representative from the Clearwater Sewer Authority came with some bad news for the council. 

In 2022 a new piece of equipment was installed to help with calculating flow rate and billing for the city’s water to the sewer authority. Unfortunately, the correct flow rate was never input into the device, and the city has been underpaying for their sewer services, and will now have to work with the sewer authority to pay back the difference, which was estimated to be around $150,000. 

The good news is that residences were billed the correct amount, so the city has the money. The city council will work with the sewer board to figure out the amount owed and a payment plan. To prevent this issue from ever happening again, Rural Water was asked to come and calibrate the machinery for both Clear Lake and Clearwater twice per year. 

Open Forum

Lindsay Brown, a resident of Church St., said she had concerns with a developer, LGI, regarding her property line. She noted they haven’t said anything to her directly, but have told some of her neighbors that most of the neighborhood has incorrect property lines. She has also seen them poking around behind her property line. City Engineer Keith Yapp said he would ask around about the issue and possibly have the surveyor double check their information.

Fire Department

Chief Ron Koren asked about the fire contracts with the townships. The contracts will be officially presented to the townships in early October.

Regarding the fire department open house, the council said they had a public expenditure policy for discussion that night that would determine how the open house could operate. Unfortunately, the council was not able to come to an agreement on the policy, and so it was not adopted. 

The department responded to 29 calls for service.

Public Works

Public Works Director Evan Johnson reported that the playground equipment for the Hunter Lake Park has been delivered.

Johnson reported his department worked hard to clean up a trail that runs over to the elementary school in time for school to begin.

Johnson and City Engineer Keith Yapp recommended that the council consider a water study to identify the city’s future water needs.

Lift Station

Yapp reported that the easements needed to complete the lift station work are still not signed and ready. Mayor Tim Goenner is the last landowner the city needs an agreement with. Goenner previously approved a temporary easement in exchange for $10,000 from the city. However, after looking at the area again, Goenner said he would be willing to renegotiate the deal to allow for a smaller easement, possibly for less money in exchange. Yapp said the smaller easement could work for the city’s needs. The council agreed to consider it at a closed meeting in the near future.

At the request of the mayor, Yapp reiterated that the mayor had asked for another offer regarding the easement to be withdrawn. This offer would be for the mayor to approve the easement for a smaller amount of money if the council agreed not to publicly censure him at a recent meeting. Yapp said he did remove the offer from consideration at the mayor’s request, but it was outside of his ability to remove it from the agenda packet which was already sent out to the council members, which is why it was brought up at that previous meeting, despite the mayor’s wishes.

In Other Business, the Council:

• Briefly discussed the city’s insurance coverage, and health insurance options for city employees, but decided to hold the decisions on these for the next regular meeting;

• Approved having the city clerk and city treasurer as official signers for financial accounts;

• Increased the price of water meters, as their supplier increased their price (the city will sell these at cost).