The Becker City Council spent an hour or so going over street improvements, a new lift station, an annual report, laserfiche upgrades and a call for a public hearing in regards to the new state law of allowing liquor stores to be open on Sundays.

 

Public Works Director Joe Danielson outlined several projects in need of new bituminous in the city.

 

Danielson asked council to approve the call for plans, specs and bidding of projects consisting of Gardner, Donnelly, Ramsey and Second streets  and the parking lot area of the public works east site. The engineering firm would be SEH.

 

Danielson said there were two alternate project locations that included Second, Willow, Oak, Lee, pine, Rye, Field Streets and Pleasant Street south of Central Avenue. The other alternate would be the Becker Community Center parking lot.

 

The estimated engineer’s fee is not to exceed $190,000 including reimbursements and expenses.

 

Danielson pointed out the project has been budgeted in the 2017 budget and advertisement for bids will be published for three weeks. City council would then consider a bidder at their June 20 meeting.

 

Clerk Julie Blesi asked council to approve the purchase of laserfiche along with additional users to connect city hall to the system.

 

Blesi said council approved $17,000 in their budget for such upgrades and the city received two quotes from reputable vendors for the installation of the software and equipment.

 

OPG-3, Inc. and Metro Sales provided very similar quotes, but Blesi said OPG-3 offered a longer warranty on their scanners, so she recommended the city go with them.

 

Marco was contacted but declined to give a quote.

 

Blesi said additional fees will apply with the new users who she identified as: Brent Baloun and June Hubbard in the police department, Jamie Cassidy, Cindy Kazeck and Jessica Huettl at the community center, Troy Malo and Jason Scharfencamp at Pebble Creek, Joe Danielson at public works and Dave Pesola at the water/wastewater plant.

 

The additional maintenance fees will be prorated to the date the city purchased the original package in July of 2015 ($350). July 9, the city will be expected to pay an annual maintenance fee on the entire system in the amount of $4,460, expected to come out of the general fund, city hall, contracted services account.

 

Pesola said the city has 13 lift stations that collect wastewater and pump it to a point in the collection system where the wastewater can gravity either to another lift station or all the way to the WWTF.

 

Pesola said the lift station on Bradley Blvd. is the city’s oldest. He said the pumps and other associated equipment are located above ground in an enclosure and since it is the only lift station configured this way, it has been plagued with many problems throughout the years.

 

Pesola said he’d like to see the lift station converted to a submersible pump station similar to the rest of the lift stations throughout the city.

 

Pesola said the public works committee reviewed the project and recommended proceeding with the project to have the lift station receive two submersible pumps, piping and valves, a new top with access hatch and grating for full protection and all associated electrical equipment.

 

Pesola said the work create a bypass and traffic control along Bradley Blvd. for approximately one week. Affected residents will be notified, Pesola said.

 

In the 2017 domestic WWTF budget, Pesola’s staff budgeted $75,000 for this conversion. After receiving the contractor quotes for the work, the lowest quote was from Rice Lake Construction in the amount of $79,120.

 

Pesola said even though the quote was somewhat higher than budgeted, he and the PW committee recommend proceeding and awarding the work to Rice Lake Construction.

 

Council approved.

 

Police Chief Baloun gave his annual report for the police department, capturing the activities and goings on of the police department in the year of 2016.

 

Baloun highlighted the fact his department had a year-end budget savings of $50,000. He also noted year-end revenues were up by $25,000.

 

Baloun said the calls for service increased by 12% and the busiest day of the week was Friday and the busiest timeframe was between 2 p.m. and midnight.

 

He also mentioned the more serious crimes were down from the year before and the less serious crimes were fairly “flat” with a slight increase in family-related issues.

 

His department conducted 3,094 traffic stops for various reasons and 2,300 of those stops were given warnings (74% rate).

 

Baloun’s reserve program volunteered 602 hours, equating to nearly $24,000 in savings for wages.

 

New Police Officer David Rydberg received the Bronze Presidential Service Award for his volunteer hours with the reserve program.

 

Blesi asked council to appprove a change to the city’s ordinance to allow for off-sale liquor sales on Sundays effective July 1.

 

Blesi said the city must bring their ordinance into compliance by that date and thus a public hearing needs to be scheduled prior to implementation.

 

Council called for a public hearing to be held at the next council meeting.

 

• Mayor Tracy Bertram read aloud a document proclaiming April 28 as Arbor Day in Becker and the month of May as Arbor Month;

 

• Al Foss of public works was named the March safety award winner for his safety-conscious diligence as an employee for the city for the last 20+ years.

 

The next Becker City Council meeting is May 9 at 6 p.m.