City Council discusses property cleanup, Hav-A-Rest, appoints two CMH board members
By Shiloh Appel
During the Monday, June 15th Zoom meeting of the Redfield City Council, under visitor time, Bernie Jungwirth expressed his negative opinion towards the city’s clean up of his property.
City Attorney Kristen Kochekian responded to Jungwirth, stating that she had met with him on his property twice in person and explained the City’s conditions.
After describing various alleged damages, Jungwirth said he did not owe the city the $1,000 he was charged for the clean-up. City Council President Randy Maddox stated that he would take a few days to look into the complaints brought up by Jungwirth before making a decision.
Under new business, a motion was carried on a roll call vote to appoint Joseph Lutter to a three-year position on the Community Memorial Hospital Board and Lynn Brace to a two-year position on the CMH Board effective this month.
The council also discussed creating a public beach area at Hav-A-Rest, but decided to put it on hold due to COVID-19 liability concerns. The council will further research requirements before making any plans.
In other news, during council member reports, the council discussed the start date of Park and Rec activities (such as summer sports practices).The final consensus was to stick with the original opening date of July 6th due to the dropping cases of COVID statewide.
Due to inquiries by parents, the council also discussed whether they could hire any more high school students to work for the city during the summer.
“Our employment would stay the same,” said Finance Officer, Adam Hansen.
The installation of speed bumps at Hav-A-Rest was also discussed.
“Heidi got me some numbers on what speed bumps would be,” said Mike Siebrecht. “They would be the removable ones. Not the permanent ones. She is guessing it would be around $6,000 to put them in about five different places…I’ve seen some pretty excessive driving. We had a dog that got hit by a car here — which should have been on a leash, obviously — but that could have been a kid.”
Siebrecht also brought up Heidi Appel’s request to offer free pool passes for the summer of 2021.
Jesse Lewis inquired about installing mirrors in the bathrooms at Hav-A-Rest and installing ventilation to get rid of mold and draw humidity out. Lewis also mentioned the large amount of pop bottles, beer bottles, and other litter at Hav-A-Rest. Lewis contacted the game warden, who will be posting signs and driving through the area.
The council discussed meeting in person soon. According to Hansen, City Hall will not be the ideal meeting place due to the current installation of clear face shields and the moving of a counter.
“We’ve got a couple ideas of other places we can meet,” said Hansen.
Randy Maddox also mentioned that the majority of schools in the Northeastern part of the state plan to start school after Labor Day and go on “as normal” with the purchase of “a ton” of personal protective equipment, sanitizing wipes and other precautions.
When discussing what to do about the emergency COVID-19 ordinance, the consensus was to “leave it the way it is right now.”
The June 15th council meeting came to a close at 8:09p.m.
