Winnebago mayor Jean Anderson and city administrator Judi Hynes listen to the discussion at the meeting.

Planning for the future and the creation of a priority plan was top of the agenda at the Winnebago City Council meeting on March 12.

City administrator Judi Hynes shared with the council that there was an excess of general funds totaling $151,726 left over from the 2024 budget, and asked for a motion approving the transfer of these funds into the Street and Park funds for future use effective December 31, 2024.

“By transferring these funds from last year’s budget to this year’s, we’ll have money on hand to tackle some of our upcoming projects,” Hynes explained. “The money in the Street fund will go towards purchasing a new truck for the Streets department, while the Parks money can go towards some of the ballpark improvements suggested by Lee Hodges at last month’s meeting.”

A motion was made and seconded by the council to approve the transfer of funds from the 2024 budget, with $120,000 going to the 401 Street Capital Fund and $31,726 going to the Parks and Recreation Capital Fund. The motion was passed unanimously by the council.

Police chief Nathan Goette gave an update on the sale of the Tahoe, which had previously been auctioned off but failed to be picked up by the winning bidder.

“We put the Tahoe back up for auction on MnBID, and it sold again at a price of $17,950,” Goette recalled. “I tried to get in contact with the winning bidder for 10 days after the auction closed, as required, but the buyer once again failed to respond, and I never heard back from them. We can list it on MnBID again, but it’s safe to assume that it will continue to bring in less money each time we try to sell it. I’m not sure what we should do now.”

Goette presented the council with two different versions of an agreement to auction off the Tahoe a third time, one through MnBID and the other through a service called Bid-2-Buy.

“I’ve never utilized Bid-2-Buy for auctions before, but they don’t require any payments in order to sell through their services,” Goette said. “They also say that they will attempt to get in touch with the second and third-place bidders should the initial highest bidder fail to respond.”

“If Bid-2-Buy has no fee for auctioning something off through their services, I see no reason not to try it,” council member Paul Eisenmenger remarked. “We’re not paying an eight percent fee like we do with MnBid, so what do we have to lose?”

A motion was made and seconded to proceed with auctioning off the Tahoe through Bid-2-Buy. The motion was unanimously approved by the council.

City engineer Matt Cole brought forward a resolution for the city to add a water meter frost plate fee onto the 2025 fee schedule.

“I know the water meter you’re talking about, and I disagree that we need to add this to the fee schedule,” Eisenmenger remarked. “The same repeat offenders keep bringing the broken meter to their landlord, and instead of replacing the whole meter, they choose to keep replacing individual parts instead.”

Council member Calvin Howard inquired about the cost to replace the entire meter, and whether or not continuing to replace individual parts was cheaper.

“In the resolution, it says that the frost plate will cost us $25,” Howard said. “How expensive is the meter that they aren’t willing to replace it wholesale?”

“The complete meter would only cost us $85,” Eisenmenger responded. “The price ultimately doesn’t matter. They’re not willing to replace the meter, and the more we authorize them to keep replacing parts, they’re never going to replace the whole thing. It’s just slapping a band-aid on a larger problem.”

A motion to approve the resolution to add the water meter frost plate to the 2025 fee schedule was passed 3-1, with Eisenmenger in dissent.

Mayor Jean Anderson presented the council with the need for a priority plan as discussed in the EDA meeting immediately prior to the City Council meeting, and opened the floor for discussion on how to proceed with making such a plan.

The Winnebago EDA has been discussing the creation of a priority plan since their last meeting on Feb. 12. Now, the issue has been passed forward to the City Council, which is ready to take the next step forward and invite the community to discuss plans and ideas for the city of Winnebago’s future.

“The biggest question we have to answer, before we start taking any action, is where do we want to go as a city?” Anderson commented. “Other organizations in our city have plans for their own futures, but what are we going to do with that information if we don’t have a plan in place? That’s why it’s important that we start making a plan now, even if it is just for the next two or three years.”

At the Feb. 12 EDA meeting, several items were brought up as potential ideas for a priority plan. One suggestion involved the creation of more community events, similar to Bago Fun Fest and Frosty Fest. Another mentioned a desire for more food trucks in town during the week, specifically catering to customers at different times of the day, with a goal of having two to three trucks in town per week. Decorating Main Street with more flower pots and redoing some of the business facades was another option presented.

“The small-town Winnebago of the past is gone – we have to be able to reinvent ourselves and move forwards,” Anderson said. “We can’t go anywhere if we don’t know where we’re going in the first place. Our old strategy of tackling issues as they arise isn’t working anymore.”

City attorney David Frundt proposed the holding of a special council meeting to discuss ideas for a priority plan with the Winnebago community, which was met with approval from the council.

“I think that’s a great idea – we can make an event out of it, get the entire community involved,” council member Chris Anderson remarked. “We should also probably hold it at night rather than earlier in the day, so that people coming back home from work can participate.”

Following this proposal, the council agreed to host a special council meeting with the express purpose of gathering community feedback and ideas on what projects they would like to see Winnebago undertake in the future.

This special council session, also known as the Planning For Winnebago’s Future workshop, will be held on March 25 at 6 p.m. at the Winnebago Municipal Center. Light refreshments will be served at the event.

Other agenda items at the City Council meeting included:

• City engineer Matt Cole reported that construction work was set to resume in early April, and recommended that the city reapply for Minnesota Department of Health Lead Services funding in order to cover some of the cost of future construction. This recommendation was approved by the council.

• A request of a donation of $500 from the 10% Gambling Fund was unanimously approved for the Blue Earth Area Post-Prom Committee.

• A step pay increase to $33.93 per hour for Nicole Kreinke effective March 10, 2025 was unanimously approved by the council.

• A decision was reached by the council that food trucks coming to Winnebago will not need to pay a $10 fee to do business in the city this year.

• The resignation of MUIR library assistant Jennifer Quintero was approved by the council. Following this, a motion was made and passed approving the hire of Elizabeth Rassmussen for the library assistant position, at a starting wage of $12.75 per hour.

• An $8,500 bid from Bernie Schultz of South Central Custom to remove 13 ash trees and stumps was unanimously accepted by the council. The council engaged in further discussion regarding the removal of more ash trees for a similar price, deciding to inquire about further tree removal after the initial 13 have been removed.