Truman talks about pushing the truck News, sports, jobs

TRUMAN — The Truman City Council on Monday discussed how to fund a fire department rescue truck.

During an annual meeting at the beginning of the year, Truman Fire Department Chief Dave Bentz said they needed to start thinking about replacing Rescue No. 2, which the department had had since 1991 and was scheduled to be replaced soon.

Since then, there have been several discussions about this and a truck was recently found available in Shakopee. At a special meeting last month a motion was made to move forward with a follow-up to the 2007 truck for $180,000.

Mayor Jake Ebert said Monday they discussed using $100,000 from the truck fund, which would leave about $25,000 in that fund.

“That leaves $80,000 split between the city and towns.” Ebert said.

Talk about the number of departments in each of the towns of Waverly, Westford and Nashville and what the cost distribution is between those towns.

As for the city of Truman’s contribution, Ebert said the council allocated $60,000 in the 2023 budget for a police car it no longer gets, so the city will use some of that money to pay its share.

Bentz said that from his understanding, the truck could be available as soon as a check was issued for it.

Councilman Chris Mosloski asked if they would advertise the sale of the current truck and where they would store it.

“We’re going to have to go through both trucks and figure out what we want to keep in each and we might have to play around with a few things and see if we can keep them here for the time being.” said Brandon Mosowski, a member of the Truman Fire Department.

Money generated from the sale of the current truck will go back into the truck fund, he said.

Moving on to other matters, the council also discussed the police agreement with the city of Northrop.

Ebert said there are some concerns about the contract, especially with the limited hours Northrop pays for.

The contract, which will take effect on January 1, 2024, stipulates that Northrop will pay Truman $50 per hour, billed on a monthly basis, for an average of seven hours per week in Northrop.

Ebert said Truman’s main problem now is its lack of officers, and Northrop representative Steve Blafus agreed that they don’t expect him to work 30 days a month.

Blufus said they are also open to discussing pricing. He said the problem with when to raise rates last year was that the city had already set its budget before Truman approached it about increasing it.

“We realize that budgets are limited. We want it to work for everyone.” Ebert said.

“We want to pay our fair share, too.” Blafos said.

For 2023, the rate was $45 an hour but will jump to $50 next year.

Utility Foreman Brent Brown also spoke about utility work Monday, which included needed work on the power plant’s roof, which he said was patched several years ago.

“It leaks so well now that we have plywood and tarps covering some of the battery covers and things like that.” Brown said.

He said he has received one offer so far, and should have more by next week

“We’re going to need to do something about it, so part of it is how we fund it.” Brown said.

He also spoke about the Heartland Economic Development Grant he applied for to create the cement plant infrastructure.

In another move on Monday, the council said:

— Approved a decision to write off an uncollectible Economic Development Authority loan in the amount of $14,497.

– Legal gambling permit has been approved for Southern MN Ducks Unlimited.

— Accepted a $5,000 grant from Compeer Financial to be used for a residential development housing study.