Winners in the city’s holiday lighting contest were the Rick Meyers   first place, the Clayton Persons in second, and third place was the John Olsons. There were many beautiful lighting arrangements in the city making it difficult for the judges to make a determination.

Jeremy Anderson of  Design Tree was present at the meeting to update the council on what has transpired since the last meeting. At this point they have the entire pond and forcemain location surveyed. He admitted it had gone slower than anticipated due to the weather. They have about 2/3 of the surveying working completed in the city.

Anderson asked if he could have Lundblads move some snow to the pond site so they could begin doing soil borings. He was hoping to have another sub-contractor do this work towards the end of January. The council gave their nod of approval, and Anderson responded he would give Lundblads notice of approximate time they would be coming to the site to do the borings.

Another thing he wished the city to consider was finding an interim financing source once the city had the nod from Rural Development to proceed with the project. He said there were a number of agencies that would do the financing, it was up to the city to find the agency that best fit their needs as Rural Development does not provide funding immediately   when the project is under construction.

He said he council should also consider if they want to re-build Isabella Street  or if they should run the main on the south side of the street. Mayor Bruce Larson said if they did rebuild the street they would also include curb and gutter which means residents on that street would be assessed for the additional work since this is not work and cannot be included in the Rural Development Loan.

In other business:

• Learned that MNDot has plans to move the speed limit sign further west and the installation which will likely be done  in the spring will increase the distance to the west from Poplar Street.

• Learned that Holmes City is the only township which has paid it’s fire contract for the year and indicated there were still two townships to make payments. It was also discussed that the Fire department determine rates for the townships.

• Accepted a donation of $18,000 from the Fireman’s relief association and made a motion to use the money for the Fire department’s   equipment fund.

• Reviewed the water ordinance and accepted the ordinance as presented.

• Set fees for various services the city provides. Only one change was made in the fee schedule. That change was for an individual who may request a special council meeting. Currently the fee is $150, but was increased to $175 a meeting.

• Discussed that homeowners should be responsible for keeping snow away from fire hydrants. However, Lund-blads will be contracted to remove snow from several hydrants.