The council approved several contracts and gave the police chief permission to obtain bids for a new squad car. The fire department was given permission to purchase a floating pump.The council approved a contract with Municipal Management Corp, Madrid, Iowa, to do water leak detection within the city.
Ron Mergen, public works director, said they use a sonar device to pinpoint underground water leaks along city water mains. While in Paynesville for a demonstration, Municipal Management had detected two leaks for the city.
The council approved a contract with Short Elliott Hendrickson, Inc., (city engineers) to evaluate the condition of the interior and exterior of the 500,000 gallon water tower. The tower was last painted in 1990.
Mergen informed the council the lifetime expectancy of a paint job is usually 10 to 15 years.
Jim Peterson, Willmar, made a presentation on SafeAssure proposal for the council.
SafeAssure would provide safety training in the classroom and on the job for city employees on fire protection, hazard communications, occupational noise exposure, general safety provisions, tools: hand and power; cranes, hoists, excavations, machinery and machine guarding, to name a few.
"The city has a good safety record and we want to keep it that way," Mergen told the council. "By having the training here, it will save us a lot of travel time to and from training sites."
SafeAssure would also update the training manuals they provide the city as OSHA laws change. The council approved a one-year contract with SafeAssure.
The council approved advertising for a new building inspector. The present inspector, Don Hanson, has resigned. Ann Jacklitch has been doing the work on a temporary basis.
City administrator Dennis Wilde will investigate sharing the position with New London, Spicer, and Atwater as they are also looking for a new building inspector.
The council gave Police Chief Tony Schmitt permission to advertise for bids for a new squad car. The present squad car has about 98,000 miles.
Jim Freilinger, Paynesville Fire Chief, explained why the department would like to purchase a floating pump. "With use of a floating pump, it would keep the tankers off the roadways. The department would be able to pump water from any body of water deeper than six inches," Freilinger said.
At present, the department has at least a half hour turnaround time if there were a fire in the Birch Beach Store area. It would take that long or longer for a tanker to drive to Paynesville, refill, and return to the fire.The floating pump can pump 25 gallons per minute and could fill the fire truck tanker in 10 minutes, Freilinger explained to the council.
The council approved a resolution approving the sale of Triax Cablevision franchise to Mediacom Minnesota LLC.
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