Photo by Rich Wicks
Mabel’s City Council met on May 11. Council members in attendance included Adam Wilder, Mayor James Westby, Kirsten Wyffels, and Cory Wilson. Also participating were City Clerk Karen Larson and Jeff Rein. The city’s new ambulance was on display outside the community center, and Larson pointed out that Janet Sanden (JWS Graphix) had designed the graphics shown on the ambulance.
The council voted to accept the resignation of Mike Kleiboer as a firefighter, and Jeff Rein updated the council on staffing issues with the fire department. He said there were four applicants to fill openings on the crew, and the recommendation was to hire Ryly Patterson and Alex Mengis. The council approved these recommendations. Rein also said Steve Geving has been named as Mabel’s new fire chief.
The city will soon be installing a charging station for electric cars, behind the community center. There was discussion on what rate to charge motorists for using that charging station. The council settled upon a fee of .16 per kilowatt hour. When asked about the actual out-of-pocket cost for a full charge, Mayor Westby said it’s generally about half the price of filling up with gasoline.
Rein updated the council on the city’s water towers. He said, “Last week, we took the west tower out of service, and did a good cleaning job… It’s an old tower, but it’s still in decent shape. It was clean, for the most part.” When asked about eventually replacing it, he responded, “I think it’s something that we should consider looking into, the cost to replace compared to the cost to fix.” He mentioned that the other (newer) tower should be cleaned in roughly two to three years.
Regarding the efforts to get a new store to open in Mabel, Mayor Westby stated, “I made two different phones calls back to Dollar General, still haven’t got a reply. And I tried Dollar Tree, no reply back… but I’ll keep trying.”
Larson noted a reminder to citizens that, because of Memorial Day, the city’s garbage/recycling pickup will be on June 2 instead of June 1. She mentioned that it’s been noted in the city’s newsletter, and she will post it on Facebook.
The council discussed a suggestion to take down the fence near Steam Engine grounds. Rein said “It’s not a nuisance, we just put it in about eight years ago… Here’s the thing, they put it up for security for Steam Engine Days. If we take it down, then a new temporary is going to have to go in.” Wyffels stated, “There’s no reason to take it down.” The council chose to leave the fence as is.
The council discussed properties that are repeat offenders of the city’s “junk ordinance.” The city will send letters to the applicable homeowners, in hopes that vehicles and other items can promptly be removed. Citizens are encouraged to make use of the citywide cleanup.
Zoning permits for various additions/remodeling/repairs were approved for Michelle Ostern, Cole Horgen, Kyle Folstad & Lyn Vickerman, Rodney Tollefsrud, and Timothy Mengis. Council members discussed feral cats that have been observed in the city recently, and Rein stated, “I’ll put the traps out.” The council also asked citizens to remember not to deposit grass clippings onto city streets.
The next meeting of the Mabel council will be June 8 at 6 p.m. The public is welcome.
Leave a Reply