Greetings!
Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn’t, but I took a hiatus last
week. I don’t want to bore you with the
mundane, so I’m going to try to keep your attention. As always, if you have any questions
or comments about this blog, my email is jkruggel@cityoflesueur.com, and my
phone number is 507-593-8312.
Upcoming City Council Meeting (8/282017) – The
City Council meeting on August 28th will look at and take action on
a variety of items. But first, the
Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities representative will give a presentation
from their annual meeting. The CGMC
provides guidance and legislative support to Le Sueur and many other small
cities.
The consent agenda consists of the minutes from August 14th,
approval of disbursements, an airport operations, and maintenance grant
agreement, and personnel actions consisting of the hiring of two volunteer on
call firefighters that replaced two retirees, and some part-time help at the
Community Center to help in the office during later and weekend hours.
The
regular agenda consists of the second reading of a City Code change related to
a modification made to the City Charter.
The City Council will also be setting a date for the public hearing
required before we certify delinquent utility bills. This public hearing is the time where residents
can come and dispute their utility bills to City Council. Letters for delinquent utility bills were sent out this week. Next is the option to waive the City’s tort liability
limits. This
is an annual obligation to determine if we will waive the statutory tort limits
for municipalities or if we will not waive.
If the City waives the tort liability limits, it opens itself up to potential
costs associated with insurance
claims. Staff is recommending not to
waive the tort liability limits. Lastly,
City Council will have another opportunity to discuss the preliminary 2018
budget. At the September 11th
meeting, City Council will take action on a preliminary budget document that is
required to be sent to the County for
projected property tax reasons. One item
of note is that City Council will be adopting a preliminary levy; this number
is a conservative estimate of the levy impact and cannot exceed this amount
when the final levy is adopted in
December. City Council also is review
draft versions of the Capital Improvement Plan and the Capital Equipment
Plan. These items are used as planning
and budgeting tools for the City to be better
prepared for future projects and equipment needs into the future.
Take
a look at the agenda packet and let
me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Community Development – We have another downtown survey out for the public to let us know about some
very specific items related to the Downtown Master Plan Project. Please take some time and let us know your
thoughts about Le Sueur’s downtown.
Parks and Recreation – The Parks and Recreation
Department hosted the Silver Sneakers Potluck Cook-Out. Approximately 40 people were in
attendance. The outdoor pool also shut
down for the summer on August 20th.
Thanks for the great year of outdoor swimming!
Communications – We hit 900 likes on Facebook this week! That’s pretty exciting as we use this social
media platform as one of our more effective ways to communicate with the
public. Please like and share our page so we can get information out to more people more effectively.
Also, preparing for
the upcoming ice season, the Parks and Recreation Department will be filling a seasonal, part-time maintenance position. If you’re interested in joining the team,
please apply!
Second Street Reconstruction Project – Work continues on the north
two blocks of the Second Street Reconstruction Project. Removals may start soon on Phase 2 (south
three blocks). Staff is working with
residents to identify any lead services that need replacement. If you have any questions, please feel free
to reach out to the project manager Owen Todd or the project
inspector Steve DenHerder.
Closing Thoughts - As the summer
starts winding down and the leaves start falling from the trees, please remember
that we have a compost site that is open to the public to take care of these
items. Also, there will be another residential city-wide clean-up day on Saturday, September 16th from 7:00 AM to
Noon. Please check out the flyer for
more information. There will also be an
open house held at the MRVPUC Wastewater Treatment Plant on September 21st
from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM. Please keep an
eye out for the information flyer on our website. There will be food, beverages, and tours for
the public. Another event happening on
September 21st is the final open house associated with the Downtown
Master Plan Project. More information on
this meeting will be posted on the website as we develop an agenda.
I live on a street named Idaho Place, and some of my
neighbors organized this event called “Potato Fest” which occurs tomorrow. Everyone that lives on Idaho Place will bring
a potato themed food dish to share.
Pretty interesting as I’ll likely have my fill of potatoes for about a
month. Other than that I will be mowing
my lawn and hanging out with the family.
I hope the rain holds off long enough for everyone to have a
great weekend!