According to Wahlquist there is no language in the contract which requires the city to pay termination fees should they decide to engage the services of another engineer for the project. Clerk Lucy Olson  told the council that she believes they are currently paid to date for any services the firm had provided.

She also told the council she had requested their records from Widseth, Smith and Nolting and had been told records go back to 30 years ago. Briefly she outlined the projects the firm has done for the city during those 30 years. Currently the city is in possession of records for the current waste water treatment project.

Merle Ferber, council member, stated he felt that to move to another engineering firm just because of Widseth, Smith and Nolting employees had moved to another engineering firm was a poor reason to make the change and felt it would be sending an unclear signal to other engineering firms from whom they might choose to solicit bids.

Mayor Bruce Larson felt it was necessary to check out the rate of other engineering firms. "Can we get it cheaper? That I don’t know," he admitted.

"Any engineering firm can take the plan and go from there. There will still be a learning curve even with Widseth, Smith and Nolting where they will have to put a new person on the project, but there would be a larger learning curve for a new engineer. It would be the cost that might be different", stated Olson.

Virgil Coziahr’s greatest concern would be there would not be sufficient time to advertise and meet with prospective engineering   firms and make a decision before the engineer would be need on the project. Can we advertise in November and have someone on board in January if needed?

It was felt they would need to consult with Pat Conroy of C&C Consultants in order to have the answer for that question. Olson said she had attempted to contact Conroy prior to their meeting Tuesday night, but she had been unable to do so. She said she would attempt to contact him again within the next day or so.
"I think we need to look at the options," she said. "We need to look at what’s best for the city."

It was felt they needed to get a time frame from Conroy before they could make any decision, and tabled any action until possibly the November city council meeting which will be Thursday evening, due to the general election on Tuesday.

Mayor Larson also presented  a bill for tree removal on city property which had been done without the city’s knowledge. Ferber and Coziahr reiterated  again, they wished they had been notified of the situation   before action was taken. "What’s to stop someone else from doing the same thing?"  Coziahr asked.

However looking at the situation from another angle the question could be asked, if it was the city’s property, why hadn’t the city addressed the issue earlier?

"It’s not a tremendous expense, but we didn’t budget for it," Clerk Olson said. "If it is city property, it probably would have cost more to have someone else come and do it."

After a pause, she asked, "Are there other trees back there that we could get into the same thing again from another property owner?"

"That’s what I am trying to say," Coziahr said.

"Then we need to set a policy. Is that unreasonable?" she asked. "There is also a liability issue there. Had someone been hurt there we would have been liable."

A motion was made to pay 50 percent of the bill ($275 city’s share) and anyone else wishing to remove trees on their property would have to contact the city before doing the work. The motion passed. Also the council will expect to see an estimate for the work to be done before giving their approval.

In other business:

• Invited owner of an unmetered water hydrant to attend the November council meeting to determine a fair and equitable billing for the hydrant noting there is not an easy solution to the situation.
• Discussed a collapsed storm drain apparently on private  property. No action was taken until further research can be done regarding the storm drain and where it drains too.
• Authorized truck maintenance on city truck.
• And decided to continue utilizing the county for holding the board of equalization for the city of Lowry, rather than sending someone in the city for training.