Winnebago fire chief Bret Osborn talks to the Winnebago Council about the need for new firemen protective gear during the meeting on Tuesday.

New gear for the fire department and a new ambulance service contract were at the top of the priority list at the Winnebago City Council meeting on April 8.

Tom Olinger from Abdo presented the council with a draft of the 2024 financial statement audit. While much of the audit showed positive developments in several areas over the previous years, Olinger specified a few areas where the city could continue to improve.

“The biggest hurdle to drafting this audit was the missing payments from your ambulance service, which will likely impact the final numbers,” Olinger explained. “I was told that you will be taking steps to rectify that issue tonight, so the sooner you can get those problems resolved, the better.”

The other primary area of improvement suggested by Olinger concerned the storm water fund, which currently is receiving a majority of its income flow from property taxes.

“I would suggest focusing on trying to make your storm water fund more self-sufficient,” Olinger said. “The more you can shift away from property tax and towards user fees for cash flow, the more self-sufficient that fund is going to become, which is ideally what we want all of your funds to be.”

Fire chief Bret Osborn brought forward a series of price estimates for new gear for the fire department, citing that the department’s current gear had reached its end of life and needed to be replaced.

“We are required by law to replace our gear every 10 years, and the cutoff date for us to order new gear is in November, as our current gear will expire at the end of this year,” Osborn explained. “Current estimates say that it will take 90-120 days for our new gear to arrive, so the sooner we get that ordered, the better.”

Osborn recommended that the council approve the purchase of 22 sets of Globe brand gear from MacQueen at a price of up to $105,360.

“We likely won’t have to order a full 24 sets of gear, seeing as we’ve had a few guys on the force resign recently,” Osborn commented. “We’re currently planning to order 21-22 sets of gear, but if we get more guys on, this will give us some room to budget for extra gear sets.”

A motion was made and seconded to approve the purchase of Globe brand gear from MacQueen. The motion was passed unanimously.

Ambulance captain Cari Jenkins presented the council with a billing service agreement between Midwest EMS Billing, LLC and the city of Winnebago for approval.

“This version of the agreement has been looked over by David Frundt, and should have all of the proposed changes that he wanted to implement,” Jenkins shared. “We need to do something about this as soon as possible – even our auditor said it was a problem, and the sooner we get this fixed, the better.”

Jenkins also explained that several former employees of Expert Billing, whom Winnebago formerly used as its ambulance billing service, are breaking away and moving to different companies.

“Expert Billing is currently facing some lawsuits, and everyone’s jumping ship,” Jenkins said. “Both of our contacts with them are moving to Midwest EMS Billing, and they’ve been very good about keeping us updated on proceedings.”

Mayor Jean Anderson raised a question about the status of the city’s contacts from Expert Billing, specifically as to who they currently worked for.

“Are these contacts still working for Expert Billing, or are they with Midwest EMS Billing now?” Anderson asked.

“Our contacts are still employed by Expert Billing, and they’re trying to obtain what records they can for us so we can have up-to-date billing records on that end,” Jenkins replied. “However, they will be switching over to work for Midwest EMS Billing soon, and from what I have heard, all of our current billing through them is up to date, which is good.”

A motion was made and seconded to approve the billing service agreement with Midwest EMS Billing. The motion was passed unanimously.

City administrator Judi Hynes presented the council with a series of quotes for the bituminous overlay of three blocks of Fourth Street Southwest.

“We received three quotes on this project; one from Ulland Brothers for $45,067.49, one from Nielson Blacktopping for $49,956.25, and one from WW Blacktopping for $47,765.40,” Hynes explained. “The utility committee discussed these quotes at their last meeting, and recommends that we accept the quote from Ulland Brothers, as they are the low bid.”

A motion was made and seconded to accept the quote from Ulland Brothers at the amount of $45,067.49 for the bituminous overlay of three blocks of Fourth Street Southwest. The motion was passed unanimously by the council.

Other items discussed at the City Council meeting included:

• A series of wage increases for pool staff was approved unanimously by the council.

• Step pay increases following the performance reviews of Nathan Goette, Rick Mauris, and Alandra Eisenmenger were all approved unanimously. Council member Paul Eisenmenger abstained from the vote to approve Alandra’s wage increase.

• Resolution 869-2025 accepting donations to the city of Winnebago from various parties was unanimously approved by the council.

• The resignation letter of firefighter Michael Putnam was approved by the council. He has served the force for 25 years, and his last day will be April 11.

• A motion to accept a quote from Ron’s Plumbing and Electric for $2,284.04 for the updating of a power supply in the alley behind Main Street with modern equipment was passed unanimously.

• A motion to accept a quote from Quality Flow Systems for $3,980 for a submersible transducer and replacement elements for the Winnebago water treatment plant was passed unanimously.

• Council member Paul Eisenmenger presented a series of quotes for the construction of a bathhouse at the campgrounds. Citing the absence of council members Calvin Howard and Tony O’Donnell at the meeting, as well as a desire for feedback from the Winnebago community on the project, a motion was made and seconded to table discussion of the project until the next City Council meeting on May 13. The motion was passed unanimously.

• Requests from Alandra Eisenmenger to attend the MCFOA Institute and Nathan Goette to attend the Minnesota Police Chief’s Conference were both approved unanimously.

• A motion to renew the CDs for the General Fund ($216,620.08) and 899 – Fire Department ($404,822.26) with First Financial Bank in Winnebago for a period of six months at a rate of 4.10 percent was unanimously approved.