SPRING VALLEY, Minnesota (STPNS) -- The Wykoff City Council denied payment of a $2,500 bill from Jech Excavating at its November meeting held Monday, Nov. 5, at city hall. The invoice submitted to the city by the contractor reads, "Fill hauled to city from water main reconstruct project. Original invoice was to Thompson Motors of Wykoff for $6,000. Thompson Motors has paid $3,500 of it, leaving a balance of $2,500." According to the invoice, Thompson Motors owner Rod Thompson made a verbal contract with Jech Excavating to have fill from the water main replacement project being done on four Wykoff streets hauled to land he owns, but felt that he couldn't enforce the contract because "a city employee told us to place the fill in areas other than Mr. Thompson's land."



Thompson further believed that the employee and the city council were all aware of this agreement prior to the dirt being placed where he told us to. When asked by Thompson why the dirt was not being put on his land, we told him that the city was our boss and we had no choice but to work with the city. So we are invoicing the City of Wykoff to recover the $2,500 shorted for hauling the fill out."

WHKS representative Darren Sikkink advised the council not to pay Jech's invoice because, as he noted, "They've already been paid for taking that fill out. What you'd be doing is paying them twice." Approval of bills followed on the agenda, and payment of the Jech bill was removed from the approval.

Next, Wykoff resident Bill Bicknese's donation to the city of a small park he owns next to the Gateway Inn drew discussion. "You'd need a quit claim deed on the property," Sikkink explained as he addressed how the city can legally acquire the land. "Bill Bicknese and his wife will donate and take care of the park as long as they are able to," said Mayor Mike Holzer.

Harvey Schmidt asked about placement of a VFW veteran's memorial on the plot once the quit claim is established.

"The other good place might be by the cannon in the park by the community hall," commented Holzer. "We did receive some information on the cannon. We have no actual history on where the cannon came from, but we have information on when it was put there and who was governor at the time. We've received some money from the Arlin Falck Foundation for a memorial there, so maybe that might be a good place to put the veteran's memorial."

A bill from Alliant Energy for $932, dated March 2007, came up for consideration as the electricity provider "estimated" that amount of usage for the city's third water well after the company noticed in August that its meter at the well slowed, after which the company replaced the meter in February. Holzer informed the council that he had spoken with the city attorney and two League of Minnesota Cities attorneys, as well as a state senator, and all recommended nonpayment until Alliant gives justification for its estimate.

The council then adopted its annual snow removal resolution for snow removed by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDoT) on Highway 80. The resolution allows for hauling of snow and provision of a dumping site for snow removed from the highway between Pearl and Silver streets. Snow removal and city-owned dirt and fill usage policies were established after the Highway 80 resolution was adopted.

The snow removal policy states, "The City of Wykoff is not in the business of snow removal from private property or business property. Following is a list of the City of Wykoff's requirements for performing snow removal on property other than that owned by the city: A pre-approved, signed contract such as the one between the city and Kingsland for the middle school property, hourly rates billed at the same rate as current snow removal contracts - truck, $50 per hour, tractor, $35 per hour, and snowblower, $25 per hour - and the city will not be liable for any property damage that may occur in the process of removing snow on another's property."

The dirt and fill policy's purpose is "to ensure equitable use of the remaining dirt and fill accumulated by the city during water main and street projects. Use of this dirt or fill is restricted to citizens or property within the City of Wykoff. It is the intention of the city council that this dirt or fill remains within the city limits, as it was excavated from city property. Therefore, requests from private citizens for use on private property are to be addressed to the city council at a regular monthly meeting."

Lastly, the city's tractor will not be outfitted with a new blade because the city was unsuccessful in selling a mower it had listed online. City maintenance foreman Al Williams accepted the news in spite of the fact that he'd anticipated selling the little-used mower and being able to replace the tractor blade.