Ortonville City Council Mtg 8-3-09 Highlights

The Ortonville City Council met on Monday night at 7:00 p.m. for their regular meeting.

Absent were Mayor Blair Johnson and Mayor pro tem Nick Anderson. In their absence the senior councilmember is to conduct the meeting. Councilman Mike Dorry deferred to Councilman Steve Berkner.

The City Attorney Craig Ash was also not in attendance as he was on vacation as well.

OAHS Administrator Rick Ash made his report for the city. Representatives from Hasslen Construction gave their report on the progress of the new Hospital construction. They will be finished with Phase 2 soon and the owners can move in on a scheduled date of Sept. 21. This only means they can move in. There will be time needed to move in the furniture and files and train everyone on where and how things will be done. A date of October 9th is being set when the new section of the hospital will be accepting patients.

Interim Police Chief Gary Dinnel requested to increase his secretary hours to two days a week instead of one for the next three months. Chief Dinnel stated that the secretary is spending her one day at work doing all the paperwork from the previous week and cannot get caught up on filing which is several months behind. Councilman Steve Berkner asked Chief Dinnel if it would help to have two extra days a month for the next two months. All of the council agreed to allow the secretary to work three days a month for the next few months to get caught up.

Police chief Dinnel also reported that they have interviewed four applicants for the Police Chief position and the commission will meet this Friday in an open meeting to discuss the applicants.

The Council voted to Schedule a special Meeting on August 10, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. to consider the McCloud Street Project.

The Council voted to aprove the purchase of the new equipment for the Golf Course Clubhouse Kitchen.

There was some discussion on the temporary easement contract between the EDA and Mark and Dawn Hughes. The new beautification project that the EDA conducted at the To Mad Cafe Corner is over the water line. The water line now has a leak. City Administrator David Lang showed the council the contract drafted by EDA Attorney Mr. Watson. Mr. Lang informed the Council that they needed to change the wording on item 2 of the contract. The City Council voted to approve the contract with the change. They are scheduled to begin work this week on Thursday 8-6-09 at the Too Mad Corner.

Administrator David Lang reported to the council that the new postage machine and insert machine have not yet arrived at the city office. Mr. Lang also reported that the Auto Meter Reading (AMR) is progressing and should be up soon.