Council to donate $25k interest funds to Pickleball project

By Robert Williams

Editor

Over the summer, the Frazee Public Works Department has been hard at work maintaining daily operations and tackling one of the crew’s biggest challenges according to Public Works Supervisor Larry Stephenson’s report to the city council Wednesday, Oct. 22.

Those challenges are finding and repairing water leaks within the city’s distribution system. 

“With the help of borrowed listening equipment from Rural Water, we spent countless hours searching for leaks that weren’t showing up on the surface,” Stephenson said. “Despite some early frustrations and dead ends, our team stayed determined. We took an aggressive, city-wide approach to pressure testing—and our persistence paid off. To date, we’ve located and repaired four substantial leaks, reducing our daily water usage from as high  as 180,000–200,000 gallons per day down to about 90,000 gallons per day (and possibly even less).

“There was a lot of head-scratching and dead ends and it started getting frustrating,” Stephenson continued. “It’s been kind of a struggle but as far as the end result it will help us dramatically in searching for problems in the future and the chemicals will now be cut in half.” 

He also stated that one of the leaks has been in place for possibly more than 30 years. 

Part of the difficulty in locating potential wet spots is due to the soil.

“We’ve spent many, many months, even over the last couple of years, when you’re doing your meters and looking for wet spots and whatnot, but the ground in Frazee is not forgiving for that. It’ll take water and it’ll take a lot of water. It ain’t like normally you get a break, where if it’s a city main—that will come up; that’a a bad enough leak at one time where you’ll push 200,000-300,000 gallons out of that overnight,” Stephenson said. “That stuff will show up but when you’ve got ¾-inch line, obviously, that’s gushing water out of it eight feet in the ground it will very rarely come up.”

This achievement represents a significant savings in both chemical and electrical costs and sets a new baseline for our daily averages, which will greatly assist in detecting future leaks more efficiently.

Stephenson noted it will take two to three months to see where the new averages are standing.

City Administrator Stephanie Poegel researched Stephenson’s decades of reporting and noted the amount of water pumped has been historically the same since he started.

“When he came with the numbers of what he’s anticipating that it’s going to go down to from what it has been, over the last 20-some years, you’re looking at about 2 trillion gallons of water that have been siphoning out into the ground somewhere into this community.”

Donations

Wilma Hanson donated $2,000 to the Frazee Rescue Department.

The following donated to the Frazee Fire Department:

• Wilma Hanson $2,000

• Denise Geritz $350

• Little Toad Lake Campground $250

• Darrell and Lila Krabbenhoft $25

• Rebecca and Robert Muhs, Jr. $25

Eagle Lake

According to City Attorney Patrick A. Bakken, he has proceeded with publication of the sale and finalization of the sale is hopefully set for the week of Thanksgiving. 

“My process should be done and I’ll connect with the Eagle Lake Association folks and we’ll set up a closing sometime early in December,” Bakken said.

Fire department

The department has responded to 55 service calls to date, 10 in September, three of which were grass fires and three carbon monoxide alarms. Fire Chief Adam Walker warned the public to check batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide alarms with furnace season coming up.

The fire department was awarded a $40,000 grant for 10 radios and will be applying for the 2025 Department of Natural Resources 50/50 grant ($4,680) for 10 new pagers.

The total cost of the 10 radios is quoted at $67,000. The remaining $27,000 will be covered by capital improvement plan funds.

Walker is also pursuing a FEMA grant to complete the radio fleet of 20 more radios at a cost of approximately $130,000.

Pickleball

Mayor Sharp, Poegel and Council Member Mark Kemper gathered to discuss options on finding funds to donate to the Frazee Pickleball project.

“We came up with, as far as a recommendation to council, is making a donation of $25,000 on or before January 1, 2026,” Sharp said. “Those funds would actually come from interest on our existing accounts. It would not be anything coming from our general fund or tax levy. We would be using interest funds.”

“We were being very cautious when we budgeted our interest last year because there were some turbulent times going on with the financial world and so we budgeted very lightly,” said Poegel.

The council approved the donation unanimously.

Rescue

Rescue Chief Matthew Johnson reported September as the highest month for calls this year with 32. There were eight days with multiple calls. For 2025, total calls are 227 with a response to 222, a 97 percent response rate. There have been 57 days with multiple calls. 

New rescue bags and supplies were issued to each of the squad’s members.

“I’m very comfortable with saying our members are the most equipped rescue squad members in this area,” said Johnson.

He also noted donations to the squad this year and how rescue is being proactive in using those funds.

“I think it’s important that we take those donations and actually show that we’re doing something with them,” Johnson said.

The department also got to use its new Quick Response Vehicle (QRV), which along with the Rig is fully stocked with medications.

“Both vehicles are fully equipped to go on calls,” said Johnson.

Mayor Mike Sharp commented on the rescue squad after having witnessed the team in action a couple weeks ago.

“I was very impressed with the response and we’re very fortunate, as a community, to have a rescue squad,” Sharp said.

Utility billing

Mayor Sharp addressed the ongoing billing for water usage issue stating the planning and zoning committee is working on an amendment to the ordinance dealing with connections to the water system on Tuesday, Oct. 28, with a decision hopefully ready by the next council meeting, which is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 12, at the Event Center, beginning at 5 p.m.

Voting

In Poegel’s administration report, the city is looking to upgrade the event center for voters.

The Minnesota Secretary of State will award $500,000 in grants to counties and municipalities to improve polling place accessibility for voters with disabilities. Funds may be used for equipment or capital improvements to government-owned facilities. 

The application deadline is October 31. One of the first priority items is automatic/electronic door openers. Stephenson is working on getting quotes to have these installed on the main door to the Event Center. Other items include tools/signage for curbside voting. Items to include in this area are clipboards, movable parking signs with curbside voting language. 

The maximum award the city can receive is $20,000.