Council pressing nuisance properties to clean up

By Robert Williams

Editor

Balancing the village budget was discussed at the final Vergas City Council meeting of the year held on Tuesday, Dec. 12.

Mayor Julie Bruhn requested to pull the General Fund off the consent agenda to discuss further.

At the end of November, the city was over budget, according to Bruhn.

“I just want us to be cognizant of where we stand until the end of the year,” she said.

According to Clerk/Treasurer Julie Lammers, the city is still to receive local government aid (LGA) funds, a reimbursement for insurance from the fire department and the city liquor store has transferred $15,000 to the general fund.

Most of the overage/underage was a $7,000 expense for a survey of the gravel pit, which became a $9,000 expense.

“Next year we will get the $9,000, so we have corrected that,” said Lammers.

Another area where expenses were higher was the streets/highway department, which included engineering fees, a new plow truck and a new city pickup.

“We had some issues there that we hadn’t expected when we did the budget,” Lammers said.

A transfer from last year and this year’s money market account was used for the Event Center budget.

The Parks Department was over by $10,000 for improvements, largely due to engineering fees.

“Engineering was a big hit this year,” said Bruhn. “That’s something we’re going to really have to be cognizant of for next year and pull back on projects. It looks kind of bad right now. Some of that money is not in there; it’s like $100,000.”

Vergas will see a proposed budget increase of 3.3 percent for 2024.

Nuisance properties

The Planning Commission has sent numerous letters regarding garbage not properly disposed of, garbage burning and piles of garbage around the property at 339 East Frazee Avenue. The commission has sent the issue to the council for further action.

“We send a letter; they may or may not clean it up and it just goes on and on,” said Bruce Albright. “We don’t like dealing with it; I imagine they don’t like getting the letters. It habitually goes on year after year. This has been one of the more problematic properties regarding cleaning up debris.”

The board approved a resolution for Albright, who is the chair of Planning and Zoning, and  Mike DuFrane, Utilities Superintendent, to attempt to address the issue with a face-to-face meeting in hopes of finding a permanent solution before involving the city attorney.

Three other residences are listed as non-compliant with multiple city ordinances regarding unlicensed vehicles: 600 East Frazee Avenue; 224 West Main Street and 415 South Unit.

Fire board

The CDH-Vergas Fire Board met on November 28 to discuss and finalize the budget for 2024.

The city council approved a 10 percent increase ($1,316) in funding. A fire truck replacement is scheduled for 2025. The department’s goal is to get $60,000 in the truck fund. The department will also be moving funds not used in 2023 into the Truck Fund and seeking City Public Safety Funds for gear replacement, totaling approximately 7,000. Fire Department funds that would have typically been used to purchase the gear will be moved into the Truck Fund.

Estimates on the cost of a new truck could be as high as $600,000. Costs of fire trucks vary greatly from $15,000 to well over $2 million depending on age, condition and the equipment on it.

Baseball Committee

Albright brought up the idea of creating a volunteer baseball committee to guide or make recommendations to the park board on maintenance and upkeep, along with fundraising. The Community Club has donated $1,500 to the City for maintenance of the ball field. The pitching mound needs to be rebuilt and edging needs to be done to the infield and outfield, along with a repair needed on a 2×2-foot square of damaged grass near third base.

“We don’t really know what’s going on up there and it needs work,” said Albright.

Donations

The council approved the acceptance of a picnic table valued at $200 from Joshuah David Moltzan for Vergas Park.