The Elma City Council meeting was opened by Mayor Steven at 7:00 PM in the School building cafeteria.
Meeting was called to order with roll call: Tom Platte, present, Randy Thoren, present, Jerry Haar, present, Laura Zenner, present, Emily Ptacek, present.
Jerry moved the agenda be approved, second Randy, carried.
Jerry moved the minutes of the October 8th meeting be approved, second Laura, carried.
Randy moved the liquor license for the American Legion be approved, second Jerry, carried. Randy moved the claims be approved, second Laura, carried.
Discussion was on whether prairie grasses could be used around the solar fields. Emily moved to table the discussion to study options more, second Laura, carried.
It was discussed that in the near future, the City will have to increase water and sewer rates. The committee wanted to let the Council know that options for rates will be brought up at December’s meeting.
Discussion was on the school building. It was the recommendation of the school building committee that Option C, renovating the gym for the library, community room, and City Clerk’s office, adding on to Elma Early Childhood Center, and building a free standing building for Regional Health Services for a medical clinic, be the option to move forward with. This would mean that the former Elma Elementary school building would be removed. The reasons for this recommendation were that there are just too many unknowns with the school building. Some of those reasons are: we don’t know how good the building is, structurally, we don’t know how well the building is insulated, and we don’t know how energy efficient we can make the building. The committee feels that Option C is the best use of funding. The committee advised the Council that one major source of funding, the CDBG Grant, has an application due in April and for that application we will need to have matching funds already raised or have a commitment from the City to back this project, with the understanding that the committee will continue to raise funds. After much discussion, the Council approved for the committee to start raising funds toward moving forward with the project. The Council will vote on the project at a later date. This will be to make sure that the committee is raising the sufficient funding needed.
Mayor Steven had no further comment.
Laura moved the meeting be adjourned, second Emily, meeting adjourned.