By Robert Williams

Editor

The Vergas City Council voted to continue usage of the Long Lake Park bathhouse by voting against a Park Advisory Board recommendation for demolition on Tuesday, July 21, during the latest council meeting at the Event Center.

The Park Advisory Board discussed a potential demolition of the bathhouse at Long Lake Park to be replaced by porta-potties. The discussion on Thursday, July 9, was held without specific costs of portable toilet rental prices while emphasis was on the deteriorating structure, potential environmental concerns and that the responsibility for providing park restrooms ultimately rests with the City Council.

Tuesday, Clerk-Treasurer Julie Lammers informed the council that a rental of four units would cost $16,320 for the summer. The bathhouse removal would cost approximately $7,000. While multiple council members noted the current state of the bathhouse as being less than desirable, the fiscal cost of removal and temporary replacement is also less than ideal. 

A new bathhouse is part of the Long Lake Park Master Plan, however no formal progress has been made on the plan which caused the Park Board to consider alternatives for the busy tourist season.

The council did not approve unanimously and elected to share those reported costs with the Park Board for further discussion.

The Park Board also discussed a fundraising event to coincide with the future demolition of the bathhouse.

The bathhouse came up again at the Park Board in Utilities Superintendent Mike DuFrane’s report acknowledging the difficulty of maintaining the existing bathhouse under high-volume use, noting that cleaning is performed once daily—the maximum feasible given staff capacity. The board expressed appreciation for the effort.

DuFrane reported that researchers from a Minnesota college visited the beach approximately two to three weeks prior to pick up snail samples between the swimming dock and the fishing pier. No swimmer’s itch has been reported and a follow-up email from the researcher is pending.

According to DuFrane, the current swimming dock is approximately 17–18 years old and beginning to show significant wear. He flagged this as a budget consideration for the coming year, noting the frame integrity is becoming a concern. The fishing dock has also required ongoing welding repairs.

The 2027 park budget will be reviewed and finalized at the next board meeting Thursday, Aug. 13.

Donations

The city council accepted a donation from the State of Minnesota of 50 traffic cones to the City of Vergas noting the traffic cones will be valuable for traffic control, public safety, community events, road maintenance activities and emergency response operations; and acceptance of this donation will benefit the city and its residents without cost.

Energy

Installation was completed ohe Event Center solar panels and battery system. The system has multiple potential uses, including as a city-wide backup power supply that could be used during an outage.

A West Central Initiative staff analysis of the project showed an expected cost of $104,280.23 nearly fully reimbursed from incentives that near zero cost obligation to the city and the project will also save Vergas $67,848 in energy costs over the project’s lifetime of 30 years.

An Event Center solar open house and informational energy and resiliency fair is currently being scheduled for an October weekend to:

• Showcase and tour the solar and battery system. 

• Energy efficiency, solar information and incentives- Lake Region, OTPC, CERTS, WCI, Holsen Solar, Solar United, Neighbors Co-op (Prairies and Lakes )

• Lakes and environment resiliency and sustainability practices-OTC Soil & Water, MN Extension Service

• Share Vergas Energy and Resilience Plan and Action Plan

The Energy and Resiliency Advisor Board is searching for a replacement member.

The city council passed three resolutions regarding energy: making Vergas the fiscal agent of the solar project; accepting a proposal packet from Holsen Energy and support to seek solar project financing through West Central Initiative (WCI).

Holsen completed the Event center solar install. WCI coordinated the solar cohort program for regional cities and presented the incentives for the program.

Vergas is working on a second 84-panel solar project at the Fire Hall at a cost of $110,356 and $88,125 in incentives bringing the cost down to $22,231. (The incentives are from an Otter Tail power POP Rebate at $55,078 and an IRS 30 percent renewable energy investment tax credit (ITC) at $33,047. A return on investment and positive cashflow is anticipated in five years with lifetime 30-year savings of $123,547. 

This project is scheduled for construction this year, weather permitting.

The Vergas Energy & Resiliency plan is available on the city’s website at the bottom of the City dropdown menu to at cityofvergas.com/city/vergas-energy–resiliency

Event Center

The Event Center is having a bountiful year in 2026 under Coordinator Rachel Nustad. 

The Event Center generated $8,915.05 during the first six months of 2026, compared to $6,830 during the same period in 2025. This represents an increase of $2,085.05, or approximately 30.5 percent growth year-over-year, according to Nustad’s report.

“Rachel’s been doing an excellent job advertising the Event Center on our Facebook page,” said Lammers.

As of July 15, the Event Center has $11,300 in projected rental income booked for the 2026 calendar year, not including future rentals that may still be scheduled. Nustad also reported having already received rentals scheduled for 2027.

The facility has also generated revenue of $965 through recurring fitness programming, including morning and evening Zumba classes.

There were a number of considerable equipment replacements also at the Event Center, in a pair of 30-year-old furnaces, an air conditioner unit and a commercial refrigerator. 

Estimated HVAC system furnace upgrades and replacement of the air conditioning unit that services the main event room will cost $31,328. The new refrigerator was purchased for $900.

Utilities

DuFrane reported to the council about Lift Station No. 4 going down and taking out both pumps, starters and capacitors, noting the incident was, “a freak thing.” 

“There isn’t a good explanation for why this happened but it happened,” he said.

The cost of the repair was $10,806.09 and will come out of the sewer budget. Council approved paying the bill immediately.

Annual lift station inspections are scheduled for the first week of August. These inspections will cover pumps, controls, alarms, and structural conditions to ensure compliance and reliability.

The council also approved an estimate from Eastman Fence & Sons LLC to install a security fence around the water plant at a cost of $15,990. A grant will cover $15,000 of the project.

Website

Lammers is coordinating future updates to the city’s website to improve accessibility, organization and ease of use for residents. The refresh includes moving domains from a .com to a .gov.

A .gov domain is reserved exclusively for verified U.S.-based government organizations at the federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal levels. Managed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), it is free for eligible entities and helps protect the public from fraudulent impersonation. Lammers will serve as the senior official for registration.

According to Lammers’ report, the refresh is also reviewing content, updating forms and documents, enhancing navigation, and ensuring compliance with current transparency and public information requirements.

Improved website navigation was also part of the Vergas Comprehensive Plan after feedback from the community.

The issue was tabled to get more quotes and explore options from more web design vendors. The council chose not to accept a paulnet estimate of $1,450 to cover the redesign, migration, .gov registration, and accessibility remediation as a single, one-time project fee.