City of Dennison
Meeting Minutes
May 7th, 2026
The May Dennison City Council meeting was called to order by Mayor Jeff Flaten on Thursday, May 7th, 2026 at 7:00 pm. Present were Councilors Caleb Voight, and Diane Ruddle, and clerk Jessica Page. Councilor Heidi Cooke, Nichole Schloesser was unable to attend.
Councilor Voight moved to approve the April meeting minutes. Mayor Flaten second. Motion passed 3:0.
Councilor Ruddle moved to approve the Treasurer’s report. Councilor Voight second. Motion passed 3:0.
Sheriff: No issues.
Mark Legvold guest running for State senator for District 19
Old Business/Committee Reports/Building Permits:
Administrative Issues:
1. Review of Public hearing. Nels Estrem and Martin Gieger were in attendance and asked a lot of good questions. City will request a copy of the power point to put on the website if we can.
2. Zach Bubany was in attendance to discuss the MRWA loan application and the next steps moving forward in the process. The city council had previously approved Task orders #4 and #5 with Bollig Engineering to prepare design and bidding documents for Phase 1, which would include all of our water infrastructure projects; and funding application and administrative services. As emailed prior to the meeting to the council by the mayor, CVT invoiced the City for geotechnical evaluation work (soil boring) during the month of April. The cost of that invoice was $4,520.00. The City can roll the cost into the MRWA loan or pay for it now and be reimbursed at a later date when the funds become available. Declaration of Intent for the project form was approved. Councilor Ruddle move to allow us to reimburse the costs for the Water/Wastewater project once funds are available for these ongoing costs. Mayor Flaten second. Motion passed 3:0.
Application for loan from MRWA is for $700,000, when it comes to the City for review, the date will look wrong. Zach will update the dates once it’s approved. Mayor Flaten move to accept the application contingent upon the updating of the dates on the form by Zach. Councilor Voight second. Motion passed 3:0.
3. Complete forms from Rural development application. Financial, Exhibit A, etc, for the City. Forms were sent to the auditor and the lawyer. Auditor had several questions as the way we usually do our audits in on a cash basis, which is different than how many places do them. I directed Jennifer to Kyle at RD Office in Faribault. Reached out to Bethany as we haven’t heard back from her as of Tuesday.
Fryberger is MRWA default place. Councilor Ruddle move to use Fryberger. Mayor Flaten second. Motion passed 3:0.
4. Resolution from Bollig about MMB. Councilor Ruddle move to approve. Councilor Voight 2nd Motion passed 3:0.
5. Opus and billing issues update. At the last council meeting, concerns were heard about the billing system and the mayor offered ways to move forward. It was decided to first email Opus and bring forward the concerns, then have a meeting with Opus (Jessica and Heidi), which will occur after our May 7th council meeting. Mike Shuba from Opus responded back to Heidi's email and wanted to have an internal meeting with his staff to improve the current status/situation. Further follow-up from Mr. Shuba and Opus is expected next week.
6. Heidi, the mayor and Jessica had a conversation after the last regular council meeting regarding hiring a person to help assist the clerk in updating the Zoning Ordinance, for example, or other typing tasks. It should be someone knowledgeable in word processing and proficient in using Microsoft. Talk with Joe as he may have a solution.
7. The last meeting, the city council decided to not allow the new Nerstrand Rescue Vehicle to be parked inside the City Shop/Dennison Fire Station. The fire chief asked if the council could donate $955 to the department for the printing/decals and installation of the new SUV. Does the city council want to make a donation? Is the Dennison Lions Club donating to the fire department? 50/50 donation, perhaps?
Joe Amy asked about why it wasn’t allowed that the extra vehicle could be put in there.
The City could get rid of the old fire hoses to make some more room. Councilor Voight said it was all the stuff in the way that made him think there wasn’t enough room. Mayor Flaten, Fire Chief Joe Johnson, maybe Dan, get together to see what can be thrown to make more room.
8. Data Center discussion. Should the City pass moratorium ordinance? Consider adding new language to our Zoning Ordinance? The Carver City Council voted to impose a one-year moratorium on data center development recently.
9. Continued discussion regarding Ordinance 32. The work session meeting from March 24th, the city council agreed to add new firearms language from Texas and the City Resolution pertaining to official military honors, passed in January of 2026. Ordinance 32 (Disorderly Conduct/Discharging Weapons/Vagrants/Fast driving and Resisting Officers/Assault and Battery) would be repealed and replaced with Ordinance 90, Discharging of Firearms in the City Limits. Is the final version ready to review? Any changes or additions before we set a public hearing time?
10. City-Wide Clean up day occurred on May 2nd. A good turnout and the garbage truck was almost completely filled.
11. Trees bought by the City. The mayor replanted 3 burr oaks on 4-21 and 3 red maples on 4-22. The remainder of the trees were dispersed to individuals within the city limits, and just a few folks received trees outside the city limits. The mayor will continue to water the new trees and the ones planted last year.
12. Proposal from Empire Pipe Services to clean the sewer mains for half of the town. Nate had asked the mayor to explore the idea of either renting a jetter or hiring a company to clean our sewer mains. Cost for Empire to clean our sewer mains was $3,967.00. This is for the south half of the town. Councilor Ruddle move to do so. Mayor Flaten second. Motion passed 3:0.
13. The mayor submitted an insurance claim after the hail event on April 13th. An insurance adjuster came to town on May 5th. There appeared to be damage to the roof of city hall and the garage door on the phosphorous building at the ponds was dented by the hail. The adjuster will submit his report to the City in the next few weeks. Garage door on the phosphorus shed is really beat up. Roof is cosmetic damage. See what the cost would actually be. City Hall roof needs to be replaced.
14. The mayor is requesting the city council to use Paul's Plumbing to install the outside water meter reader to the Sapphire Event Center. The City asked this be done last fall. Joe needs a new roll of wire 65 feet.
15. The City website. Discussion about changing the website provider took place a few years ago. Does the council want to pursue that course again and terminate our three year contract from Catalis? Mayor recommended using Municipal Impact. The City of Nerstrand uses them. More storage space for emails. Will find out more details about the possible change over.
16. Starting to find election judges for the upcoming elections. Need to find an additional Head Election judge as a backup for the Clerk. Possibly need 3-4 more people. Are new expectations for picking up from and returning supplies to Red Wing. Might be a good time to talk about election judge wages. Even if they aren’t increased this go around, it would give an idea what to budget for this fall.
17. Listening session held by two local candidates at City Hall on Thursday night.
18. Mayor testified at the State Capitol regarding our bonding bill request on April 9th.
19. Mayor attended the Round Table in Pine Island with Congressman Finstad on April 10th.
20. In-person weed inspector (mayor) training in Faribault on April 22nd. Mandatory meeting in Rice County
Citizens Issues:
Mayors Issues:
Utilities: Update from Nate:
Need to submit list for copper testing to Dept. of Health. New protocol to follow when making up the list of places to test the water at.
Just received a letter that there needs to be a sanitary survey of the water system completed soon. That will need to be set up at a time that works for those involved with it. Onsite inspection as well as paperwork review.
Nate's review: Nate was unable to attend the meeting. Move to June.
Councilor Ruddle moved to pay the bills. Mayor Flaten second. Motion passed 3:0.
Mayor Flaten moved to adjourn the meeting. Councilor Voight second. Meeting adjourned at approx. 9pm.
Next meeting: Regular meeting is Thursday, June 4th at 7:00 pm.
