Rushford Police Department has an additional two part-time officers following approval from the city council on November 22. Upon the recommendation of Chief Adam Eide and Sergeant Nate Klinski, the council reviewed a request to hire officers Tanner Weinfurtner and Brady Meyer to round out policing needs.
“As we have mentioned previously, it is important for the Rushford Police Department to have available as many part-time officers as possible,” said Eide in a letter to the council. “As with all part-timers, they have other jobs which make their availability to work limited. We need to have a dependable source of personnel that we can call upon to work.”
The department currently has three full-time officers: Eide, Klinski, and officer Darin Daveau; and three part-time officers: Cale Stensgard, Weinfurtner, and Meyer.
The council also opted to extend a listing contract with Darr Realty for the remaining lots in the Himlie Business Park. Agent Rod Darr was present to discuss the matter. The new, one-year contract will expire on December 31, 2022.
Developed in 2009, business park lots had no viable interest until the contract with Darr Realty began in 2016. The partnership has proved effective for the city as several lots sold in the last five years, including a retail business, two lots for multi-family residential buildings, and one warehouse/office for a local business. Three lots remain in the business park: 1300 Himlie Drive, 1106 Miller Circle, and 1100 Miller Circle. The council pondered potentials for those three lots, noting the city might need to get creative, modifying some commercial properties into residential.
Approved unanimously, the council declared Juneteenth a holiday for full-time employees. The decision follows a federal declaration of Juneteenth National Independence Day and Governor Walz’s declaration of Juneteenth Freedom Day this past June. The holiday is to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States on June 19, 1895, two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
The holiday observance is in effect for 2022 and 2023 and will be included in bargaining unit agreements, as negotiated, in future years. It was not observed by city employees this year.
Lastly, Mayor Terri Benson reminded the council that job evaluations for City Administrator Tony Chladek are due by December 3. Chladek was hired for the position in June 2016. Benson will review the evaluations, prepare a summary, and bring the details to the council for review on December 13.
The next regularly scheduled council meeting is Monday, December 13, at 6:30 p.m., at city hall. The meeting will include a Truth In Taxation hearing. Both are open to the public. Please note there will also be a special meeting, December 20, for the purpose of a work session with the city’s financial consultant Mike Bubany, of David Drown Associates. The city’s budget and property tax levy are expected to be set at the December 27 regular meeting but could be set by December 13.
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