The Janesville City Council hosted the Township Fire Board members for their bi-annual meeting on Monday, October 15. Their meeting took up nearly half of the city council’s time. Mayor Andy Arnoldt was the only member not present for the meeting, which meant Andy Ahlman was the Acting Mayor.
Fire board members discussed their budgets. Fire Chief Mike Santo said that outside of loan payments for the Janesville Fire Department’s new truck, there’s not much of an increase in the budget. He did warn members that the department was going to be buying more turnout gear since they had more members join than expected; they budgeted for three sets of gear but have five new members.
Santo claimed that a few grants will be available to help cover the costs of turnout gear once members take the classes necessary to qualify for them. “We have to complete a rookie class and then have all the stuff purchased first,” he explained. “Then, we can turn it in for reimbursement. We’ll try for all five, and hopefully, things will go our way. But I don’t think we’re that lucky.”
Kurt Anderson of Le Ray Township was slightly disgruntled that there were no audited year-to-date numbers to look at; only a line showed the budget as of July 1. Rogers informed him that audit reports were sent after the city printed off the fire budget and that he could send Anderson the updated version of where the budget was as of September 1.
“Some of last year’s discussion was on proposed budgets for the upcoming year versus the actual expenses for the previous year,” Anderson said. “We further discussed leftover funds that are budgeted, collected, and not spent, and where they go.”
City council member Jim Mulcahey agreed with Anderson’s concerns about not having more recent, audited budget numbers to look at. “We’ve had a few items that were off from what was budgeted but not significantly,” he said. “Still, I agree with you. It’d be nice to have closer numbers at our December meeting.”
Santo shared the department’s run report. Calls are down compared to this time last year. He added that the percentage of runs between the city and rural areas was close to what it had traditionally been. With the upcoming negotiations over the next three-year contract, Santo figured the agreement would be “close to what it was last time.”
As of September 1, the fire department has $67,303 in its capital reserves and about $18,579. City administrator Clinton Rogers added that those numbers have increased in October from interest. Anderson suggested using come of the capital reserve funds for the pumper. When he further questioned why there weren’t enough funds to begin with when the city purchased the pumper truck for JFD, council members explained that inflation played a factor. “This new truck cost nowhere near what we put into the reserve a few years ago,” city council member Ivan Maas said.
Gary Meyer of St. Mary’s Township agreed that inflation was an issue. “We looked into getting a truck,” he said. “In early March, it was about $800,000. By the end of the month, it was $900,000.”
Anderson understood. “We had to get a new plow truck at the township, and it hurt.”
The fire board meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.
Paul Voges, who helped run the city’s first “Songs in the Park Music Series,” gave the council sheets of paper with the final numbers that the events throughout the summer and September raised for the city. He claimed that the whole series went “incredibly smooth” and that everyone he worked with was easygoing. He thanked the city employees for doing a “phenomenal job” keeping the parks cleaned and maintained throughout the summer.
“We did have to postpone two events, but we easily moved them up a week,” he said. “We had one band that couldn’t make it due to sickness and found a replacement within minutes. By all accounts, it was a success.”
Voges had already started making budget estimates for next year’s series. He is considering two shows a month outside of June to avoid interfering with Hay Daze, which means lining up more food trucks. Mulcahey requested the council make a motion to approve Voges to put together another music series next summer instead of waiting until January to vote; the council unanimously approved. Mulcahey also hand-delivered a thank you from the Park Board to Voges.
Nursing home administrator Pete Madel visited with the council and informed them that Whispering Creek was rated a five-star nursing home by the state of Minnesota; the nursing is usually rated or five stars. The health inspector also visited the nursing home and found only one deficiency, which Madel claimed was actually an error. However, he let that slide.
“If we had zero deficiencies from the state, then they send the feds in,” he joked. “I thought that we’d take this one.”
Regarding quality measures, the nursing home is well in the top ten percent of the state, which Madel credits to the great staff and long-time employees. He did acknowledge the struggles of inflation, as compared to 2014, Whispering Creek has had to double the daily charge to live there.
“What most don’t realize is that we don’t set our own rates; the state does,” he elaborated. “It’s pretty much all inflation driven.”
This has also affected pay rates for employees. Nursing assistants who made $10-11 per hour ten years ago now make about $20, while nurses who were $30 per hour now make an hourly wage of $50. Madel said if he were any lower, he wouldn’t be competitive. “I wish I see the cost increases stopping, but I really don’t,” he admitted.
He claimed that Janesville had an incredible nursing home; any metric would support that.
Police Chief Steve Johnson briefed the council on the police department’s third-quarter report. Although reports and arrests are down from the previous quarter, they are still up from last year. “Things are cooling off,” he added. “We’ve had a few accidents, but no DWIs or calls handled from the county as of Sunday. It’s all par for the course.”
The only other items the council covered were approving to remove city clerk Sara Jo Vulcan from her training period and accepting $3,188.39 from the Janesville Area Golf Association to Prairie Ridge Golf Course for the costs of topdressing the sand around the course.
The council closed the meeting at 8:06 p.m. for Clinton Rogers’ yearly performance review. After reopening the meeting, they adjourned.
