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Wykoff adds Sackett to city council

January 17, 2022 by Rich Wicks Leave a Comment

Fillmore County Journal - Wykoff, Minnesota

A regular meeting of the Wykoff City Council was held January 10.  Council members in attendance included Lyle Morey, Mayor Ryan Breckenridge, Barb Fate, and Kaleb Himli.  City Clerk Becky Schmidt and Deputy Clerk Luann Hare also attended.   

Because of the recent death of Mayor Al Williams, Ryan Breckenridge has taken over the role of mayor.  In order to fill the vacancy on the council, Wykoff asked any interested citizens to submit a letter of interest by January 5.  The council voted unanimously to appoint Mary Sackett onto the city council.  She was sworn in, and immediately began serving on the council.  Mayor Breckenridge stated, “Your experience and knowledge will be beneficial.”

Eva Barr addressed the council, with a request from Wykoff Commons. She stated, “We are interested in pursuing a zoning change for part of the school, for Residential.  And we would like to understand what our next steps need to be.”  She said the request involves the “elementary wing” of the former school.  Mayor Breckenridge asked how many apartments this would become, and Bar answered, “It could be nine.”  No formal council action was taken at this time, but Breckenridge said “We’ll look into it.”

Mike Born addressed the council, discussing a recent water leak on his property.  He said he was notified of a water leak on Christmas Day, and discovered it was an outside faucet.  Born said his usual monthly bill is around $75, but the newest bill was $298, which includes $108 for water, and $190 for sewer.  Born said that since the leaking water went onto the ground, he is asking if the billing could be adjusted, at least on the sewer portion.

Becky Schmidt informed the council that years ago, this type of request had become a fairly common issue for the council to deal with.  She said at that time, the council chose to stop making adjustments in cases such as this, because of the precedent it sets.  But she said this council is free to make whatever decision they feel is best.  No action was taken at this time, but the issue will be added to the agenda for the council’s February meeting.

The council made a variety of designations and appointed council members to various roles and committees.  Barb Fate was selected as mayor pro tem.  The council considered the option of no longer having a Zoning Committee, but instead simply having two council members who are the “contact persons” for citizens with zoning requests or questions.  These two contact persons would then bring any zoning requests or concerns to the full council.  The council chose to discontinue the Zoning Committee, and selected Mary Sackett and Kaleb Himli to be the council’s zoning “contact persons.”

As discussed during the council’s December meeting, there was a suggestion by Becky Schmidt to add a minimal fee of $2 or $3 per month onto water/sewer billings, to build up a Storm Sewer Fund.  Schmidt said the fund already exists, but has a zero balance.  She said if the city were to grow the fund, by adding a $2 or $3 fee monthly, “Would give the Storm Sewer Fund about $400 to $500 a month in revenue, and that would build pretty fast over a year so that we have moneys to draw off of when we do have something come up.” Schmidt went on to say, “Wykoff has always kind of been reactive instead of proactive, and I’m trying to get money set aside for things that are going to have to happen at some point.” After discussion, the council voted to add a $2 monthly fee to build this fund.   

The council approved the city’s Schedule of Fees, which included a residential water hookup fee of $1,000 (an increase of $500 to help cover actual costs).  Wykoff’s next city council meeting will be Monday, February 14 at 7 p.m. at city hall.

Filed Under: Government, News Tagged With: Wykoff

About Rich Wicks

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Fillmore County Journal - Your number one source for news and community information in Fillmore County Minnesota
Fillmore County Journal - Your number one source for news and community information in Fillmore County Minnesota
Fillmore County Journal - Your number one source for news and community information in Fillmore County Minnesota

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Government this week

Monday, September 25

• Caledonia City Council, City Hall, 6 p.m.

• Caledonia School Board, Elementary School Room 162, 6 p.m.

• Spring Valley City Council, City Hall, 6 p.m.

• Rushford City Council, City Hall, 6:30 p.m.

• Chatfield City Council, City Hall, 7 p.m.

Tuesday, September 26

• Fillmore County Commissioners, Courthouse, 9 a.m.

• Houston County Commissioners, Courthouse, 9 a.m.

• Fillmore Central School Board,  High School, 6:30 p.m.

Monday, October 2

• City of Houston Planning Commission/EDA, City Hall,

5:30 p.m.

• Kingsland School Board, Work Session, Elementary Conference

  Room, 6 p.m.

• Lanesboro City Council, City Hall, 6 p.m.

• Preston City Council, City Hall, 6 p.m.

• LeRoy City Council, Community Center, 6:30 p.m.

*Schedule subject to change.

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