Wells mayor David Braun administers the oath of office to new Wells police officer Justice McElmury during last Monday’s Wells City Council meeting.

Once again, a great deal of time at the Wells City Council meeting was consumed with a discussion on what to do regarding the city’s snowblower, which is in need of repair.

Street foreman Mike Pyzick was unable to attend the Monday, July 11 meeting, but had written a summary of the history of their current machine while reviewing various options for repairing the machine along with a couple of options for obtaining a different machine.

At the end of his letter, Pyzick recommended the current snow blower be replaced with a new model

“When I went over the information Mike provided to us, it appears to me the snowblower averages roughly 40 hours of use per season,” council member Brenda Weber stated. “I do not think the council can justify spending $164,000 for a new machine which only gets used for 40 hours per year.”

Following a great deal of discussion it appeared the matter would be tabled until Pyzick was able to be present to answer questions.

“I do not think we can afford to wait,” city administrator Connor LaPointe interjected. “Our chance to get the old one fixed and have it back before winter or to buy a different blower and have it available is running out.”

Weber explained why she was in favor of repairing the old unit.

“As I read the repair quotes, it appears the only necessary repairs needed to be made are to the flywheel and the starter assembly and that can be done for just over $3,000,” Weber said. “The rest of the repair bid were for things which were not broken but were just going to be replaced as long as they had the machine apart, and that would increase the repair bill to over $25,000. I think we should just fix the flywheel and starter.”

A motion to do so was made by John Herman, seconded by Weber and was passed.

The city of Wells officially has a new police officer following the swearing in of Justice McElmury at Monday night’s meeting.

Wells mayor David Braun administered the oath to McElmury, who was previously employed by the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office as a park ranger before accepting the position in Wells.

During his report to the council, LaPointe told the members the State Airport Fund Grant Agreement has been signed and fully executed by the state.

“At this point, we can begin the upgrades to our terminal building,” LaPointe commented. “This will include HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) work, roofing, window installation, fencing and security cameras. In total, the grant amount received was $64,780.”

LaPointe also told council members the city had received the second half of their ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) distribution last week in the amount of $118,516.

“We now have a total of $171,088 of funds we need to spend by 2026,” LaPointe shared.

An application for SMIF’s (Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation) Small Town Grant was sent in a few weeks ago, according to LaPointe.

“I gave the park board a couple of different projects they could apply for and they chose to apply to install the new concession stand at Thompson Park,” LaPointe explained. “The structure has already been built. However, it still needs to be transported and installed at the field. This is a great project for this type of grant because it involves collaboration between the city, school district and baseball league.”

The council took action to pass a revised Joint Powers Agreement with the Wells Community Ambulance Service.

After the agreement was passed, the council amended the agreement to increase the limit of money the Joint Powers Board could spend before coming to the council.

“The JPB is meant to run by itself,” city attorney David Frundt pointed out.

The prior spending limit had been $2,000. Once the amendment was passed, the amount was raised to $25,000 before the JPB would need to seek the council’s permission.

In other business:

• Christopher Whiteside was approved as the new Flame Theatre manager. Amata Whiteside and Natalie Rodriguez were approved as part-time assistants at the Flame.

• The council amended the city’s special assessment policy so that future overlay projects will no longer be assessed.

• Approval was given to the Wells Ministerial Group to sponsor a day long pool event on Wednesday, Aug. 17, during Kernal Days week.

• A motion was passed to make a donation in the amount of $250 to the Kernal Days Committee.