A new police officer was sworn in during the Winnebago City Council meeting on Tuesday night. Police chief Nathan Goette, right, administers the oath to officer Michael Sharp.

With the deadline approaching for cities to adopt their preliminary levy for 2025, the Winnebago City Council met on Sept. 10 to discuss their budget for the upcoming year before passing a resolution to set the preliminary tax levy at $1,087,806 which represents an increase of $165,780, or 17.98 percent, over the 2024 levy.

With the preliminary levy now set, the council will begin exploring ways to reduce the city’s budget and final tax levy, which will be approved at the Truth in Taxation meeting held in December.

The council has already looked at ways to reduce the proposed levy by another four percent.

“Now that the preliminary levy is set, we cannot go higher but we can work on lowering it before adopting the final levy in December,” city administrator Judi Hynes reminded the council.

In another financial matter, the council held a lengthy discussion on paying for a new fire truck.

The truck being replaced is a 1996 pumper truck. The contract for the new truck has a price tag of $683,281.

“We have tried to save the city and townships that we serve money over the years by purchasing used trucks,” Winnebago Fire chief Bret Osborn explained. “But a pumper truck is one place where I do not want to purchase someone else’s problems.”

According to Osborn, pumper trucks have a life expectancy of about 30 years.

In addition to the city of Winnebago, the Winnebago Fire Department also has contracts with Winnebago, Prescott, Delavan and Verona townships in Faribault County as well as Nashville and Center Creek townships in Martin County to provide fire protection services for certain sections in each township.

In an effort to help cover the cost of a new pumper truck, the city and fire department have been applying for grants, specifically a USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Rural Development Grant. However, it does not appear that the USDA currently has enough available funds in their grant program to meet the grant request.

Winnebago Fire Department officers held a meeting with the members of the affected townships to discuss funding the new fire truck.

Based on those discussions, new fire protection contracts were prepared for 2024 and 2025 which called for a fee rate of $200 per section covered. In other words, if a township had 10 sections which were covered by the Winnebago Fire Department, then that townships annual cost for the fire protection services would be $2,000.

In addition, the proposal called for each township to make a one-time payment of $1,350 per section covered to help finance the new fire truck.

While all of the townships agreed to the $200 per section cost for fire protection services, only three of the seven affected townships have agreed to the one-time cost share payment of $1,350 per section.

Without the complete help of the townships, certain funds dedicated to purchasing new fire equipment will be depleted and the department’s turn-out gear is due to be replaced next year.

A suggestion was made to meet with the townships again. After further discussion, the council passed a motion approving the $200 per Section fire protection contract but decided to reach out to the townships again regarding the one-time payment fee.

Moving on to other business items, on the recommendation of the Parks and Recreation Committee, the council passed a motion to hire Chuck’s Roofing of Fairmont to re-roof the bath house and concession shelter at the Winnebago Pool.

Chuck’s Roofing had the low bid at $12,000 to use Owens Corning Duration shingles on the two structures.

“Steel roofing had been tried on the two structures when they were originally built,” Hynes said. “But, we had so many complaints about noise that it was replaced soon after.”

The council also passed a motion to have Greener World Solutions use a Polyurea System on the baby pool at the Winnebago Pool instead of applying a new epoxy to the pool. The cost of the Polyurea System is $16,110.

“The life expectancy of the epoxy is 6-7 years and that is how long it has been since it was last done,” Hynes commented. “The Parks and Recreation Committee liked the idea of the Polyurea System. They felt if it worked in the baby pool, it could possibly be used in the future to redo the big pool. There is money in the Pool Capital Funds to pay for this.”

Winnebago Police chief Nathan Goette was at the meeting and conducted the swearing in ceremony for new officer Michael Sharp. Sharp’s first day on the job was Sept. 1.

The council also:

• Approved paying pay estimate No. 5 to Ulland Brothers, in the amount of $627,576. This is for work done on the Cleveland Street Project.

• Agreed to sell a small piece of property to Dayton Enger who lives at First Avenue NW. Enger agreed to pay $759 for the property which adjoins the property he already owns.

• Approved the training request of Gavin Barnett to attend the Wastewater and Collection Facilities Conference.