At the June 2 metting, the Rushford Village Council heard various financial, planning and zoning, and public works updates, in addition to approving two items.
During financials, City Treasurer pointed out that when talking about financial balances, the money that’s in the bank is $114,000 currently, while Fund 100 currently appears as $81,859 in the red. As she described it, right now, the village is riding on water, sewer, and Minnesota Invesment Fund money that are in the checking account until it receives tax monies from Fillmore County.
“It’s like that every year,” she added.
“That’s the way is goes. The next time we get paid is in June. That’s why we have CDs and other monies there, which we have,” added Mayor Dennis Overland. “That’s what every city has to do because our statutory budget runs from January 1 to December 31 and we only get paid in June and December.”
Zoning Administrator Jon Pettit provided an update of ongoing permitting and noted he’s currently putting in some time with permitting for a Farmers Win Coop project, which has a property just just south of the city of Rushford. Pettit met with the engineer.
“There is a lot of stuff we weren’t aware of,” began Pettit. “They’re going to need to get a conditional use permit. We don’t like to do that anymore. We like to do an interim use permit, but this one, for that property, I think it’s appropriate that it is a conditional use permit.”
Unlike interim use permits, which are limited to time and property owner, conditional use permits stay with the property, regardless of any future changes in ownership and are more restricted. According to Pettit, Farmers Win Coop has paid for their application already, but the need for a conditional use permit will need to go through the public hearing process. No date for the hearing was set at this time.
“Things that I thought were already accomplished with that last application a few years ago either haven’t been found or they’re doing it all over, honestly. I don’t know which it is,” concluded Pettit. “It could be they’re stepping it down. They’re going to do it and make sure it’s right, too.”
Public Works Supervisor Darrin Dessner was unable to attend the meeting, so Councilor Mike Ebner updated the council on recent happenings.
Grading roads has been done as moisture is available and according to a note provided to Ebner, all village gravel roads have been graded at least once this season. The department has also received permission to do the first mowing pass on roadside ditches. Townships must wait until after June 1 to make this first pass. Three to four calls have been received in the last week regarding downed trees and Dessner and Public Works employee Adam Johnson are busy cleaning trees up.
Additional house water meters ordered have arrived and the flow meter discussed at a previous meeting was ordered for the village water system.
“They’re having some issues over there. Nothing is reading or working correctly, so they ordered new propellers and the meter that was recommended,” said Ebner.
The new Metron meter cost $2,800 and should arrive in three to four weeks. The village notified the state that the water meter is malfunctioning. The village is tracking water usage for properties in the interim. The council approved the purchase of the meter unanimously.
Lastly, election judges for the primary were approved. They’ll be attending two training days ahead of the election.
As a reminder, there is a public hearing scheduled for 6:45 on June 16 for the proposed Fee Schedule Ordinance adjustments.
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