By Robert Williams

Editor

The Frazee City Council completed a positive annual evaluation of City Administrator Stephanie Poegel at the final council meeting of the year on Monday, Dec. 22, at the Event Center.

Council members had an evaluation form to complete prior to the meeting, if desired, along with a near-hour of conversation with Poegel Monday night. Poegel had the option to close the meeting during her evaluation but elected to have the discussion open to the public.

Poegel highlighted the completion of the Banyan software system installation as a means of record keeping, along with speeding up the processing of grant funds and payments.

Poegel also spoke on what she called a “feel good goal” in having a happy office. 

“We were not in a good place; I think it has changed and that took up a lot of our time making sure everybody could be in a good place,” Poegel said. 

Another big project for Poegel and her staff has been reconciling the city books over the past few years. Staff are currently five months into 2025 into what has been a time-consuming process of playing catch up. 

“Last year at this time we were nowhere near even looking at January,” said Poegel. “So there is progress.”

Poegel discussed areas of improvement highlighting communication between the city office and council members, committee members and providing information in a timely manner to those concerned.

She also explained the proliferation of meetings, both locally and regionally, not limited to the continued evolution of Wannigan Regional Park. 

“As Wannigan Park gets ramping up there is a lot more to be discussed and a lot of decisions to be made and as owners of the park those are decisions that come down here,” said Poegel.

She also pointed out more meetings with Rescue as the department is now a city department and being run as such.

Mayor Mike Sharp prompted a brief assessment of the year from Poegel.

“I think it is going well and I have a bunch of goals that are still in progress,” she said. “We’re trying to improve the community as best we can and make it somewhere people are proud to live. Not every community has always been that way and that has always been my goal: people are happy to live where they’re at; they’re proud to be where they’re from and they feel like they are being served to the best ability of those who are in that position.”

During the review, Sharp noted that three department heads had submitted positive reviews about Poegel and her office prior to the council beginning their discussion points.

Council member Jim Rader expanded on his thoughts on improvements in communication, while clarifying that he believes it is not all on Poegel, but he wanted this point emphasized despite his review being she is meeting and exceeding expectations in her job.

“It’s frustrating as a council member to not have access to the information they need,” he said.

The mayor agreed and reminded the council that communication is a two-way street.

“It is an area we can improve,” said Sharp. “Not only yourself but as a council because it is a back-and-forth relationship. We have a lot going on but we have to make time for communication.”

Poegel met or exceeded expectations on the remainder of the examination from job expertise to preparedness, creativity, organization, decision making and job knowledge.

Rader noted that he has seen Poegel’s job knowledge improve, but emphasized the need for the Banyan system to aid in getting the city’s finances caught up to the present month. He also stressed more cross-training in the city office. He also complimented Poegel on her ability to accept constructive criticism.

Council member Drew Daggett was not attending the meeting in person, but was available via Microsoft Teams to state he was appreciative of Poegel’s knowledge in all the committees in which he is involved.

Council member Mark Kemper was mostly positive in his review, but concurred with Rader on Poegel delegating some authority and not to take on every problem herself and to use her staff.

Sharp reiterated that Frazee has had three different city administrators during his tenure on the council and said directly to Poegel, “Your job knowledge is the best of any administrators we’ve had. You excel in job knowledge.” 

A final computation of the councils’ review system was an above expectations score. Poegel was ranked highest by Mayor Sharp and Council member Andrea Froeber.

Donations

The Fill the Boot fundraiser provided $282.29 each for the Frazee Rescue and Fire Departments.

Elections

The council passed a resolution to establish precincts and polling places for the city. Polling stations for the general election, state and federal elections, and special elections will be held at the Frazee Event Center.

Fire

Chiefs were announced for 2026 under Fire Chief Adam Walker. Joe Nelson is the Assistant Chief and Ross Hetherington is the Deputy Chief. Chiefs are selected by an election of the department members with city council approval.

The resignation of Bryce Borough was accepted. The department currently has 22 firefighters and two probationary firefighters.

Police

November 19-30

Code violations of property by quantity and status: two new ordinance violations. 

All parking violations with one parked across the sidewalk and eight vehicles given warnings for 24-hour ordinance violation after snow plows have been through.

Public Works

The department has switched to a two day per week backwash on the treatment plant filters due to a drop in water usage in November and December, and for those two months will save an extra 56,000 gallons of water each month.

A return to three days a week schedule will return in January and February due to drops in temperature outside during those months. This will help with water turnover in the tower to help with freezing issues that could happen. 

“We have also dropped the amount of water that is in the tower to help with freezing problems also, the tower still should have between 125,000 to 145,000 gallons available in the storage capacity,” said Public Works Supervisor Larry Stephenson in his report. “We’ve headed down a new road with water usage so certain things need to be operated a little differently than in the past. It seems our daily usage has dropped to around 80,000 to 85,000 gallons per day now. That is a good thing happening, way less chemicals that result in a nice savings.”

Now with some colder weather and snow in town the sliding hill is usable, and the skating rink will be usable also. The streets within the city seem to be in pretty good winter driving condition, some ice build up that is expected with the salt sand mixture we use for the streets.

“We mix three parts sand to one part salt that works well when the temp is upwards of twenty degrees,” said Stephenson. “That mix is a more cost effective for the city rather than straight salt that the Minnesota DOT mostly uses and also the Becker County Highway Department. On the bright side of this consider the city being more environmentally friendly by putting less salts into our lakes and streams.”

Rescue

Three new members successfully completed Emergency Medical Responder training. Rescue members, along with Frazee Fire and Police delivered annual holiday treat bags to first graders at the elementary school.

Wannigan Park

The following is an annual summary report sent to the council: 2025 was a banner year for Wannigan Regional Park. Organizers successfully planned, engineered, and constructed a 2.15-mile paved, multi-use trail through the west side of the park. The construction costs for the trail were covered by an Active Transportation grant, which was successfully applied for and awarded in 2024. The additional planning and engineering costs were covered by private donations raised by Frazee Community Development Corporation (FCDC).

The former shelter from Town Lake Beach was relocated to Wannigan Regional Park and re-purposed as a picnic shelter near the famous Thomas Dambo troll, Jacob Everear.  

The pedestrian counter data showed over 35,000 visitors to the park from April-November 2025.  FCDC completed a successful “Alumni Challenge” fundraiser, which brought in over $145,000 in private donations and reached hundreds of Frazee-Vergas High School alumni. Phase 1 development plans are currently being designed and engineered by Widseth, following the execution of the design contract in November 2025.  

Phase 1 will be funded largely by a grant from Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission in the amount of $917,177, with additional funding coming from Becker County in the amount of $150,000.  

The balance of the project will be funded through private donations raised by FCDC. The FDCD Board has expanded to include nine board members in 2025, which will provide some additional capacity as we take on this important work of making Wannigan Regional Park a true destination for recreation, relaxation, and reconnecting with nature.