City of Dennison
Meeting Minutes
September 4th, 2025
The September Dennison City Council meeting was called to order by Mayor Jeff Flaten on Thursday, September 4th, 2025 at 7:00 pm. Present were Councilors Caleb Voight, Heidi Cooke, and Nichole Schloesser, and clerk Jessica Page. Diane Ruddle arrived shortly after the meeting was called to order.
The Meeting Minutes from the August City Council meeting were not ready at this time.
Councilor Schloesser moved to approve the Treasurer’s report. Councilor Voight second. Motion passed 4:0.
Goodhue County Sheriff: mentioned the complaints about speeders on 1st Ave. Ct need to call them in when they are happening.
Todd Greseth, Goodhue County Commissioner: Preliminary budget too high. No forced reduction in employees is planned, but may consider consolidating. Kieth Allen at commissioners meeting that they put in money for computers to save time for redundancy. 10 positions open. Road construction costs have gone up the most.
Old Business/Committee Reports/Building Permits: None
Administrative Issues:
1. Bollig Engineering was present for the meeting to discuss the Gross Alpha Violation from the Minnesota Department of Health and talk about future planning when it comes to our drinking water system. The public notices required by the Department of Health were mailed out last week. The notice was also posted on the city website. Bollig notified the mayor a copy of the Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) was submitted to Rural Development on Friday 8/29/25. Mark Klema brought a hard copy of the PER to the council meeting.
Compliance evaluation agreement: from Travis Reichl. On step 4. Bollig has put in the PER book that a basic filtration system is the preferred treatment system. Any treatment system will include drilling another well.
Can the City raise the well to 390 to 400 feet and test it out to see if Gross Alph results are reduced? McCarthy Well can lift it up. Doing the inspection soon, City can call and ask what they can do.
Bollig can draft a letter for the City to use as a compliance agreement. (City can send it in using some points brought forward by Bollig)
Funding drinking water revolving fund PFA: Already on the project priority list. Bollig can contact them and request that scoring be looked at with gross alpha letter being issued. Local reps, Laura is up for meeting with local reps. Laura sent info. Mayor Flaten is interested in meeting with them with Laura. Is radium letter helpful to get late entries for funding? Mayor Flaten suggested meeting with the Representative from the Northfield also.
How long does it take for USDA to react? 1-3 years. At least 1 year though.
Lead and copper pipes: Be in Dennison next week to look at 9 places.
2. Dennison Lead Service Line Inventory Round 2 – Asset Management. In order to help facilitate the lead service line inventory for the City, the mayor and clerk applied for technical assistance from the Minnesota Department of Health. Bollig Engineering would assist the City in collecting information, and Sliversmith Data would be the asset management software. The first-year subscription of $1,172 would be paid by Bollig Engineering, reimbursed through the Lead Service Line Inventory Technical Grant Round. After one year, the City can continue to be part of the asset management system, but we would have to pay $571 for an annual fee. Councilor Ruddle move that we do the first year free for the Silversmith Data Collection System. Councilor Schloesser second. Motion passed at 5:0.
3. Updates and discussion of the complaints submitted to the city. Progress made by the property owners?
Nate has plates for the two vehicles (Collector plates). Other vehicle will go in the shop before winter.
No update from Paul N.
Jeff took care of Vititoes property. November will review.
Kevin Pohl has addressed the issues that the letter was sent for. Nichole will talk to him about unregistered vehicles in front and the parking too close to the street.
There was discussion amongst the Council that the Mayor can’t submit a complaint. If there is a concern about mayor submitting a complaint, he doesn’t feel that he should be excluded to filing or taking a complaint. Nichole read off the complaint process. Mayor can appoint a couple people to review the complaint to see if it is valid. Caleb and Nichole will go look at the complaints.
4. Complaint regarding 1st Avenue Court when it comes to speeding and unsafe for pedestrians. Mayor is suggesting putting up a speed sign or a “Children at Play” sign, for example. We could also dedicate a small portion of the street for pedestrians, maybe 5 feet in width, paint a line to mark the boundary/area. Mayor did inform the Goodhue County Patrol Major about speeding on 1st Avenue Court. Discussed with Sheriff. Council will see if it gets better by next month.
5. The city council met on August 27th for a work session regarding the 2026 budget and setting a preliminary levy amount. No levy increase was recommended. RESOLUTION NO. 9-2025-1: BE IT RESOLVED, by the Council of the City of Dennison, Counties of Goodhue and Rice, State of Minnesota, that the following sums of money be levied for the current year, collectible in 2026, upon taxable real property in the City of Dennison: $200,000. Councilor Ruddle move to approve the resolution. Councilor Schloesser second. Motion passed 5:0.
6. CDs at the Heritage Bank are at the end of their terms by September 10th. What does the city council want to do? Renew/reinvest a certain amount? We currently have around $308,000 in the savings and checking (nonpark fund). Property taxes will come around the first part of December. (Pearson $60,000, Nerstrand $12,000, LMCIT $12-14,000 for property/liability, Deutsch in Dec –any other big bills coming up?) Councilor Ruddle move to keep them in the CD’s. Councilor Schloesser second. Motion passed 5:0.
7. Update on the new Cannabis Ordinance and Zoning Ordinance. Did the city attorney review the latest version of the Cannabis Ordinance? Not yet. Councilor Ruddle and clerk will work to get the Ordinance to the lawyer.
8. Snowplowing and ice removal for the winter of 2025/2026. Advertise for bids during the month of September. Receive the bids on Thursday, October 2nd, by 5 pm. The city has already received one bid, prior to the September meeting. Dates from last year changed, other items will stay the same.
9. Update on the Xcel Energy project from Nerstrand to Stanton. The mayor was informed of the progress of re-conducting and replacing most of the power poles between the two communities. Xcel relayed the following information: “Local started on the project in January and worked thru until July getting a few miles north of Nerstrand on Goodhue Ave. Unfortunately, because of a larger than expected customer workload on our schedule, we have had to send the remaining project to our contracting department.” No further updates from Xcel about the schedule of work as it pertains to the City.
10. New street lights in the City of Dennison. Mayor received news the new lights will be installed on 373rd street around September 18th. The locations have been staked. The cost of project will be $3,342.
11. Mayor received proposals from Seykora Asphalt to stripe parking spots on main street. One proposal was from 375th to 376th Street for $700. The other proposal was 375th to 377th Street for $1,000. Council felt that the project could wait until next year.
12. Civil Defense siren was fixed by Ancom Communications on 8-14-25. The technician on-site recommended the City secure the breaker box with a padlock and also the boxes on the siren pole. Councilor Schloesser move to buy padlocks for the boxes. Councilor Cooke second. Motion passed 5:0.
13. Damage to the control box for the mixer at the ponds. Electrical damage occurred at the ponds either August 8th or 9th. Mayor asked Cedar Lake Electric to do an assessment of the facilities and determine what was damaged, which was done on August 22nd. It was found the breakers for the control box and heat tracer were tripped. Cedar Lake believed the motor for the mixer was unaffected and didn't need to be replaced. There appeared to be arching in the control box. Mayor initiated a claim with the insurance company. The City is in the process of getting a new control box and fixing that first.
14. Playground equipment issue. It was reported to the City on 8-25 that a particular piece of equipment was unsafe/loose and needed attention. Councilor Voight checked the equipment that evening and reported his findings to the council. There is a bracket that moves, attempts were made to tighten it without any success. Dan Storlie checked the equipment and recommended getting the information on the manufacturer with a phone number and a description. In the meantime, the affected playground parts have been closed by using yellow police tape. Fixed over the weekend and is ready to go.
15. Nate would like to replace the burned out LED light bulbs on the control panel for the lift station. Cedar Lake Electric proposal to do that work was $240. Councilor Ruddle move to approve the replacement of the bulbs for $240 by Cedar Lake Electric. Councilor Voight second. Motion passed 5:0.
16. September 8th Pearson planning to sweep the streets.
17. Bill for the portable toilets during Dennison Days is $1200. In the past the City has covered $400. Is the City willing to do so again? Agreed to before to do the $400. City will cover the $400, Lions will cover the remainder.
18. Liability Coverage Waiver Form for LMCIT: “The City of Dennison does not want to waive the monetary limits on municipal tort liability established by Minn Stat. 466.04.” Must be approved annually. Councilor Schloesser move that “The City of Dennison does not want to waive the monetary limits on municipal tort liability established by Minn Stat. 466.04.” Councilor Cooke second. Motion passed 5:0.
19. Has Nate removed his snow thrower and trailer from the west side of the city shop? He said he will do this week. Councilor Schloesser will assist Nate to ensure this gets done.
Citizens Issues:
Mayors Issues: Mayor issues/report: As part of his Active Transportation Advisory Committee responsibilities for MNDOT, he will be visiting Downtown Pelican Rapids on 9-18-25 to participate in the Complete Streets Pro-ject Walking Tour, which involved Hwy 59 and Hwy 108 and projected to cost 22.8 million dollars. Key project elements included: Resurface Hwys 59 and 108 in Pelican Rapids, Utility replacement, Sidewalk improve-ments, Bicycle & ADA accessibility upgrades, Construct roundabouts at the two intersections of Hwy 59 and Hwy 108.
Utilities:
1. Update from Nate: No report was submitted by Nate, but he had talked about some of the things that would come under an update with others.
2. J Hasse water quality issues. Any progress? None. Will talk to Jeff again.
3. Update on DO meter. Received the different probe? Is it working? No update
4. Thompson water meter and reader. Delivered meter to plumber. Had times lined up and twice it didn’t work. Schedule another time. Jeff will check if it is done already.
5. The fire hydrant flushing for the spring/summer wasn't conducted by Nate. When is the City going to flush hydrants this fall? Nate said he was planning on the next two weeks.
6. Nate had to do one emergency discharge already in August as the ponds where very full. He was hoping to avoid another one before the September 15th date, but the ponds are near capacity already.
Councilor Schloesser move to pay the bills. Councilor Cooke second. Motion passed :0.
Mayor Flaten moved to adjourn the meeting. Councilor Schloesser second. Motion was adjourned at 8:24pm.
Next meeting: Regular meeting on Thursday, October 2nd at 7:00.
