The Becker City Council discussed the fee schedule, a squad car request, engineering services for T-Town, polling designations and an update to the timeframe for utility bills.

 

There was also a special recognition announced to honor a long-serving public official.

 

Police Chief Brent Baloun presented the Chief’s Award to June Hubbard — a 30-year employee for the city in the police department.

 

Hubbard began her career Nov. 9, 1987 and over the course of her career has worked with numerous chiefs and dozens of police officers. Her position as secretary has allowed her to train all the police officers in the proper way of generating police reports and documenting their activities.

 

Hubbard has also taken the responsibility to oversee budgeting, scheduling, acquisition of equipment, reporting (state and federal) and worked with programs such as Safety Camp and National Night Out/Night to Unite. Baloun said her knowledge and experience has been instrumental in helping to develop a police station that is both professional and successful.

 

Baloun finished by saying June’s service has been exemplary — and as such — she has helped maintain and displayed the highest standards expected of all members of the Becker Police Dept.

 

Clerk Julie Blesi asked council to approve the revised fee schedule for 2018. After she read aloud the proposed changes to the schedule, she asked Mayor Tracy Bertram to open a public hearing to hear from the public.

 

Bertram opened the public hearing at 6:12 p.m. and closed it a minute later after no one from the public stepped forward to discuss.

 

Some of the changes to the fee schedule include the addition of body camera link request to cover the costs of providing the information to defense attorneys, the addition of a scanning fee to cover time and costs of scanning larger documents, property related fees, utility related fees, charges for service fees, BCC fees and park rental fees and Pebble Creek Golf Club fees.

 

Baloun approached council with a request to purchase a new squad car for the department.

 

Baloun said each year the department replaces a squad car as authorized by city council under their CIP. Baloun said squad car #913 is due to replacement having over 105,500 miles on it as of Tuesday. He also said car #913 has incurred a considerable amount of maintenance over the last two years.

 

Baloun said the BPD has set aside $34,500 for the new squad car purchase. The current price with options in it to include; spotlight, same key entry, inaccessible rear doors, and wiring and lights brings the cost with Ford of Hibbing to $28,666.45. The additional monies go to the rigging of the new squad car, pulling out of old equipment from squad #913 and the addition or replacement of lights, graphics, etc.

 

Baloun said the vehicle is being purchased under the Minnesota State Contract price with Ford of Hibbing. They currently hold the State of MN Contract for Police Vehicles. 

 

CDD Marie Pflipsen said city council has been discussing marketing the city-owned lots in the T-Town district. The next step, she says, is to complete a plat of the properties, which requires a legal and surveying team to review and fix any title issues through the courts. 

 

Pflipsen attached a proposal from Bogart Pederson to city council to show the surveying, judicial landmarks and plat portions of the project. She said the plat process is necessary in order to move forward with any future property sales. 

 

Pflipsen said the $13,450 cost for the services will come from the planning department's professional service budget.

 

Blesi told council new legislation amending the state statute was passed in 2017 requiring cities to designate by Dec. 31 of each year, the polling place for elections to be held in the following year. 

 

Blesi said in emergency situations, with proper notification as laid out in the statute, the polling place can be changed. She presented Resolution 17-59  to council which identifies Becker City Hall as the polling place for the 2018 Elections. 

 

Utility Bills Timeframe

Treasurer Connie Robinson said in 2018, the city will be moving to monthly utility billing. In order to accommodate the billing cycle, she said city code must be changed in regards to the timeframe in which customers have to pay their bill. 

 

Robinson said staff is proposing to change the current time frame from 30 days to 20 days. She said this change will allow staff time to apply late fees, print and review the next month's bill for accuracy prior to sending them out. 

 

Mayor Bertram read aloud a document declaring the winner of the November Safety Award, which was given to Chris Lisson of the Water/Wastewater Dept.

 

“Chris has been nominated by his coworkers for maintaining and promoting a clean and safe work environment,” said Bertram. “For the last two years, Chris has been the certified laboratory director and process control operator for the Becker wastewater facility.” 

 

“He has made sure that all safety data sheets are available for reference and has developed standard operating procedures for proper calibrations and wastewater analysis.” 

 

“These procedures are important for personnel who are less familiar with working in the lab on a daily basis to perform sampling and analyses safely. Chris has also operated the WWTF processes in a manner where there have been no NPDES permit violations — thereby keeping the waters of the State of Minnesota safe for the public to enjoy.” 

 

“Thank you Chris for being a safety conscious employee and for your hard work and diligence in keeping safety a priority!”

 

The next Becker City Council meeting is Jan. 2 at 6 p.m.