By Annika Doberenz
At their most recent meeting on July 2, the Ostrander City Council discussed all of their usual topics, in addition to other relevant conversations, including the current and projected city council budgets, and the dates of the upcoming election. After the Pledge of Allegiance was proclaimed, the agenda was confirmed, and then Head of Maintenance Jeremy Runkel gave an update on the recently-established pump system, which has been working perfectly since it was installed last month.
Although it has had to pump
more water than would ordinarily be expected, as a result of the flooding that has occurred in the
area of late, there have been no issues with the pump’s functionality.
While there are a couple of farms in the Ostrander area that have been more heavily affected by the flooding, the city and its residents have, for the most part, withstood the downpours with minimal damage. In his monthly update, Fire Chief Jason Rice said that the department spent about three hours one day when the flooding was especially bad, helping to direct traffic out of Spring Valley. Other than that, however, the department received no additional calls during the month of June.
The city council also passed a motion to accept the resignation of volunteer fireman Jon Lechner, who will be moving in the near future and who, as a result, will have to retire from his position with the department. While sad to see him go, the city of Ostrander is grateful to Lechner for his service.
Moving on to new business, the council approved a request for a citywide garage sale to occur on August 3. It was decided that advertisements would be posted in the newspaper and around town, so that word would get out. City Clerk Wendy Brincks stated that she will need to receive word from everyone who will be participating in the sales by July 18, in order to have time to compile maps for visitors of where to go.
Next, Brincks brought up the new cannabis ordinances which were declared at the county meeting on the morning of July 2. Although the ordinances have already been passed, information at the Ostrander meeting was limited, since none of the council members had been able to attend the county meeting. However, Brincks assured the council that she had been in contact with the county clerk, and that the only thing the city needs to do concerning the ordinances is to make sure that the rules which the county has established are enforced at a citywide standard. The county simply wants the city’s cooperation and resolution to uphold the county’s decisions.
As those who live in Ostrander are fully aware, especially those on the southern side of town, there have been issues over the past month with Verizon. “I’ve had some complaints about Verizon Wireless dropping calls,” said Brincks. “After I spent a lot of time on the phone, the only way to fix that if you have a dropped call is that each person calls Verizon wireless and specifically has them tie that dropped call to your phone number in that pin location. It’ll be a very tedious thing, but for them to do something more, it’s going to take everybody complaining. So if everybody can take the time, make the call, complain to Verizon, that’s the only way this can get fixed.”
On a separate note, the council reviewed the sign-up dates for the upcoming election. This year, there are three seats open, two of which are council seats, which will require a four-year term, and the third of which will be the two-year mayor position. The sign up time slot for those seats will be between July 30 and August 13 at 5 p.m.
The rest of the meeting was spent discussing the city budget. The council was reviewing and confirming the budget for 2024, both what has already been spent and what the projected spendings will be for the second half of the year. Additionally, they were comparing those numbers to the spendings from 2023 and planning what the budget would look like in 2025.
No motions were made, but the review and planning was thorough and ensured that the council would be well-positioned monetarily for the rest of this year and the next.
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