February 16, 2011

The regular meeting of the Randall City Council was called to order at 7:00 p.m. with all members present except Andres and Turner.

The minutes of the last meeting were approved as presented.

Motion by Carter 2^nd by Adamski to pay the bills as presented.  Carried

Denny Mueller, President of the Randall Area Business Group and Dan Frank of the Initiative Foundation, were present to discuss a new project the Business Group is interested in getting involved in, focusing on economic development and how can we build up Randall and the surrounding area, making it more inviting to people? The only way to move forward is to ask the City to apply for a grant through the Initiative Foundation for $2500, the city becoming the Fiscal host,  to begin the process of forming a Thriving Communities Partnership because the Initiative Foundation can only give to a 501c non-profit or government entity and the Business Group is neither.  Initially the Business Group needs to gather a “Core” group of individuals from the surrounding community.  This core group will complete the application and attend training sessions.  There will be a “community meeting”, inviting a large number of community members to attend a meal and share their ideas of what the community wants and what is best for this community. 

Motion by Adamski 2^nd by Carter to pass a resolution approving the Randall Area Business Group to move forward with the application process of applying for the grant from the Initiative Foundation.  Carried

Mary Backlund of Gary Paulson, CPA, presented the 2010 City Financial Audit to the council.

Motion by Carter 2^nd by Adamski to accept the audit as presented by Mary Backlund.  Carried

The Randall Fire Relief will no longer be receiving funds from Camp Ripley for fire protection as there has been a department formed out on the base.  The Randall Fire Dept. will now be used as Mutual Aid to the base.  The fire relief has been discussing ways to raise money to replace some of these funds and have decided to have a street dance and open house this summer.  They would like to use the Erwin E. Wise building for the dance, requiring the alley to be closed off during that time.  The event would be held on July 30^th.

Motion by Riitters 2^nd by Carter to approve the fire department to hold a street dance/open house and close off the alley during the street dance.  Carried

Region 5 Development will be holding a Collaborative Options for Cities meeting at the Initiative Foundation in Little Falls on March 30^th.  They are asking for 2 or more representatives from the city to attend.

There will be the annual information meeting on equalization meetings held at the courthouse on March 22^nd at 7:00 p.m.  One or two people from the council are asked to attend.

The city’s representative from US Energy has recommended that the city enter into a 10 year contract with its current natural gas provider, Viking Gas Pipeline. 

Motion by Adamski 2^nd by Carter to approve a contract for 10 years with Viking Gas on the recommendation of US Energy.  Carried

Jerry Peterschick is still collecting final prices for remodeling the off-sale and will have them ready for the March meeting.