NICOLLET – At Monday’s Nicollet City Council meeting it has decided to move forward with the closure of a portion of 9th Street next to the Hewitt Manufacturing property.

A public hearing to hear people’s concerns and questions is scheduled for Tuesday, April 15, at 6 p.m.

After Bolton and Menk’s Joe Duncan and Council Members Kevin Ostermann and Mary Wels met with Troy Hewitt, they recommend a portion of 9th Street be closed, next to the Hewitt property, because of safety concerns.

“People speed through the street with their vehicles and people also walk on the street which is dangerous with the work being done at Hewitt’s. We feel it would be best to close the street. Hewitt has agreed to manufacture gates to put up on the street to stop the flow of vehicles and people,” said Ostermann.

“We are just closing the street, not giving up the street. It will still belong to the city,” said Wels. “An agreement needs to be made between Hewitt Manufacturing and the city regarding liability on the closed portion of the street,” said Ostermann.

John Deere lawn tractor

The Council also moved forward with approving purchasing a new John Deere 758 lawn tractor with a 60 inch high capacity lawn mowing deck. The attachments from their current John Deere will fit on this new tractor. The cost is $9,850 plus trading in the city’s current John Deere tractor and mower deck valued at $5,420.

The council made a motion and approved not to hire a part-time person for lawn mowing at this time. It was recommended that the current maintenance staff mow during the city’s regular business hours.

Wels said, “It is important to know how many hours are spent mowing.”

City Clerk Vanessa Drill was asked to keep a record of the hours used for mowing.

“We do need to be flexible though if we decide that we do need to hire a part-time person for mowing,” said Mayor Fred Froehlich.

Fire Truck

Ostermann presented an estimate for a new pumper truck for the Fire Department that he received when he attended the Nicollet Joint Powers meeting. The Joint Powers consist of the City of Nicollet, Belgrade Township, Oshawa Township, Granby Township, Nicollet Township and New Sweden Township.

“There was a representative from Custom Fire that met with the Joint Powers to discuss the cost of a new pumper truck. Currently they have a truck that costs about $650,000, but with the changes to include everything that is required on the truck, the cost comes to about $800,000,” said Ostermann.

The estimate included five-year, seven-year, and ten-year financing options.

Ostermann said “If we wait two to three years to purchase a new truck, the cost will be over a million dollars.”

For the five-year option, the City of Nicollet would need to pay about $50,908 per year; for the seven-year option, it would be about $38.364 per year; and the ten-year option would be about $29,103 per year. Currently, the city’s budget allows for $25,000 per year for this type of purchase which means that the levy would need to be raised to cover the extra costs.

“We need to be sensitive to the others in the Joint Powers. Plus, if we do purchase a new truck, we will not be able to talk about another truck until this truck is paid off. Everyone needs to know that,” said Froehlich.

A motion was made and approved to be supportive of the purchase options of the new truck with the City of Nicollet preferring the seven-year plan, but will go with the majority rule of the other parties of the Joint Powers.

Emerald Ash Borer

There are six out of nine ash trees next to the ball field in the Green Space area of Nicollet that are infected with Emerald Ash Borer. Council Member Phil Radel recommended that three of the trees be removed and the other three treated.

“They will grow together if we cut down every other one,” said Radel. “Every two years it will cost about $200 a tree, but it is worth it because it will take about 20 years to grow a new tree.”

“After driving around Nicollet with Maintenance Supervisor Darin Drill, we found about 50 trees in the city that have Emerald Ash Borer,” said Radel. The council requested Clerk Drill to contact other cities to see how they are handling the ash tree problem before further discussions and decisions.

Other Business

A public hearing will be held on Monday, April 7, regarding rezoning some property on the northeast side of Nicollet. The property has a mixed use of industrial and commercial. Clerk Drill asked to have this rezoned and cleaned up. One of the property owners in the area may be splitting his three lots into two lots where the zoning is mixed.

The option of purchasing a Leaf Vac was again discussed, with no decision. Options are purchasing the used one that is for sale for $20,000, offering $15,000, waiting until the auction to see if it goes cheaper, or not purchasing it at all. The cost of a new one would be about $146,000.

A beaver has become a nuisance in the Mara Tonka area of Nicollet. Froehlich has made some contacts to have the beaver trapped and removed from the area.

“The beaver needs to be removed, or we will lose trees,” said Froehlich.

The next regular council meeting will be on Monday, April 7, at 6 p.m. with a Public Hearing regarding the rezoning of property in the northeast part of Nicollet to be held prior to the regular council meeting.