At the Nov. 20 city council meeting, a Fire Truck Replacement Fund was established by the city council to collect funds from fire inspections and from the new fire department fee schedule for nonresidents, residents, and funds from the townships of Colburn and Wilson. It would take a 2/3 vote of the Stanley Common Council to remove funds from this account.

“We always struggle with putting money away for a truck,” Alderperson Mike Henke said. “It doesn’t affect the budget but it’s money that is coming in that we can put into a fund. So, when it comes time to replace it, we have something in there.”

Alderperson Mark Fitzsimmons asked what kind of fire equipment would be purchased from this fund.

“The council would have to approve whatever it is,” Henke explained.

The council went on to recommend approving a part time internal job posting.

The part time internal posting requires an employee to work “in streets, water, and sewer” for four days per week at 7.5 hours per day between the hours of 7:00 am and 3:30 pm. The pay rate would be $26.78 per hour with no overtime allowed other than schedule weekends and for snowplowing. The city would cover 75% of the health insurance premium with seventy-two hours of paid time off per year and thirty-six hours of personal time. The position would be available Jan. 1, 2024.

Alderperson Jason Meyer asked if they are expecting a particular employee to take advantage of this posting.

“When it says internal posting that means it’s only available to the current employees, correct?” Meyer asked.

“That’s where we’ll start,” Henke replied. “If you get no applicants, then you need to go outside.”

Meyer asked if they had this position that they want to fill or if this is made to have a non-full-time option. “I thought there was an employee that wanted to be reduced in hours yet maintain all his benefits.”

“There is a person that put a request in for that,” Henke answered. “I’m trying to get some criteria for that.”

Alderperson Laurie Foster mentioned that if no one internally wanted the position and it was publicly posted then the city would have to pay $26.78 per hour.

Alderperson Jacob Huff said, “We don’t have to post it outside if we don’t want to. This is just internally right now.”

“If we do decide that we have to do an external posting, we can revise this document,” Meyer said.

Henke agreed, “This is just internal.”

“I’m fine with it,” Huff said.

Alderperson Holly Kitchell asked if a current employee took this position would that leave another position open that needed to be filled.

“This is more putting the framework to accommodate a request,” Huff said. He stated if the person that requested it doesn’t want it then it doesn’t have to go anywhere else.

The council held an open public hearing for the proposed General Fund Operating Budget with expenditures of $3,790,049, revenues other than property taxes of $3,101,318 and a property tax levy of $688,731.

An open public hearing was also held on the proposed floodplain zoning ordinance for the city of Stanley. With no public comment, the council adopted and approved the ordinance.

In other news

The Stanley Common Council voted to allow the City Clerk to issue Operator’s Licenses so that the licenses can be issued quicker.

The council unanimously adopted the 2024 General Fund Budget and established the 2024 Property Tax Levy.

Delinquent utility bills and special charges were approved to be assessed to the tax roll.