The bills are in for January 2020 at City Hall, and the bank statement is a gold mine of information. First things first though.

Starting things off is what’s NOT in the expense report. Missing from the statement and confirmed as such by City Hall staff are any payments being made to a former fire chief Ron Zais in exchange for dropping of grievances, meaning that nothing was paid out in settlement for the matter.

Reached last week, Zais’attorney, Shawn Paul, of Medord, said the former fire chief simply dropped his action against the city.

“Ronald has withdrawn his grievances against the City of Stanley. There was no settlement. Therefore this matter is closed,” she said.

City clerk-treasurer Cynthianna Bergman reiterated that: “The City did not forge a settlement with Ronald Zais,” she said.

Zais had been on paid leave from his position as fire chief since late March, when it was anounced that the state Department of Health Services Office of Emregency Management had launched an investigation into the departmetn’s First Responders.

First Responders were taken offline, and Ron Patten of the Boyd-Edson-Delmar Fire Department was named interim chief. Patten was charged with bringing firefighters current on training and getting the city current on fire inspections.

Last week, with the announcement that Zais withdrew his grievance, Korey Hangenson was appointed the new fire chief.

Moving on down the list, however, the biggest expense to the City of Stanley for January was in fourth quarter water and sewer utilities expense, with a “grand”—that’s French for “tremendous”—total of $22,169.24 in water and sewer expenditures, being tagged as a ‘previous year expense.’ Then again, the Spring meltdown season is near. Could be worse.

Coming in second for major City expenses is a payment of 16,742.57 to Xcel Energy, also tagged as a ‘previous year expense.’ Following in third place with just under half the payment made to Xcel Energy is an operating and maintenance charge to the IFLIS Library System which allows patrons to reserve books system wide, while water and wastewater (ww) chemicals rang in at $7,790.52. Along with safe and clean water, mandatory withholding for payments to Federal & Social Security/Medicare came in at $7,920.18. From then on, the City expense report is mostly small potatoes, with $4,071.25 being payed to Westaby Trucking for snow hauling, along with salt and sand, followed up with a WE Energies bill of $3,802.85. A check for $3,616.62 was written out to North Star Emergency Service Vehicle Inc. for “Engine 1 & 2 and Tender 1,” while Pomp’s Tire – GB Wholesale Distribution was paid $2,900.40 for Michelin SnoPlus Tires of size 17.5 R25. The Chippewa County Sheriff’s Office was paid $2,982.00 for “2020 Spillman Maintenance,” while money reserved to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue came in at one penny over $1600, but not a cent more. A water pump and Truck Air Adapter from 5 Alarm cost the City $1,190.87, while the CenturyLink phone bill came to $1,169.42. River Country Co-op was paid $1,787.75 for #2 Diesel fuel.

Moving into employee expenses, a total of $3,060.19 was paid out during January for co-insurance and deductible coverage, while employee dental coverage cost the City of Stanley a total of $1,868.69.

Police and Fire Department training at CVTC cost the City $1,210.00, and from there the numbers continue falling, with nothing that ranks above $936 as an individual item. Last but not least, a check written out in the amount of $18,641.24 for City utilities was voided, putting said money back in the bank to be spent another day—or maybe just an extended winter season away?

Then again, Punxsutawney Phil the Groundhog didn’t see his shadow this year, which means there may be an early Spring on the way—let us hope so anyway.