August 2025 Minutes
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025August 5, 2025
Those Present: Greg Kunz, Trenton Morrell, Marty Nate, Tee Steadman, Mayor Steve Waechtler, Maintenance Shane Clark & Hadley Wright, Sheriff Bart Heslington, Addison Ochsenbein from Sunrise Engineering, Gary & Mauria Teuscher CPA’s, Cynthia Johnson, Duke Smith
Meeting called to order: 7:00 pm Invocation: Mayor Steve Waechtler
The council entertained a motion from Councilor Trenton Morrell to approve the added agenda item of Cynthia Johnson with a dog issue and was seconded by Councilor Marty Nate. All were in favor and the motion carried. Councilor Trenton Morrell made the motion to approve the published agenda and was seconded by Councilor Marty Nate. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
The minutes from July 1, 2025, were read aloud by Clerk Smith. Councilor Tee Steadman made the motion to accept the minutes as read and Councilor Marty Nate seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
Cynthia Johnson came before the council to discuss an issue with dogs that have gotten into her lambs and wounded multiple. She said other neighbors have had complaints about the same dogs. She has involved the Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Bart responded and they discussed the issues. Cynthia would like the dogs to be rehomed and the owner of the dogs has offered to compensate for the loss of the lambs. The Sheriff said he will follow up with Cynthia and issue citations if needed.
Police Report: Sheriff Bart Heslington came to the council to give a report for the month of July. They made a lot of contacts at Twin Creeks Celebration. Sheriff also said he would send some public info over for Lynette to share to the Facebook group and website. Most that have been contacted throughout the summer about wearing helmets while operating 4-wheelers have been wearing them now. They had some contacts for dog issues and health/child welfare matters also. They worked 57 hours, made 150 contacts resulting in 34 traffic stops, 16 citations, 10 written warnings and 8 verbal warnings.
Sunrise Engineering had nothing new to report on for this month.
Duke Smith came back to report on his trip to the National High School Finals Rodeo in Rock Springs, Wyoming and brought cookies with no milk. He said he met a lot of friends and had a lot of fun in the jackpots but the rodeo didn’t go how he had practiced for but he had a good time anyway and appreciated the support.
The council then engaged in the budget workshop with Gary and Mauria Teuscher at 7:50 pm. Councilor Tee Steadman made the motion to give the employee’s a 5% increase and was seconded by Trenton Morrell. All were in favor and the motion carried the council. Gary will finish working the numbers and get things back to Lynette so she can publish in the paper on the 20th and 27th.
The Twin Creeks donations were great and are still coming in for the Fireworks and the new playground. So far we’ve brought in $1900 for the playground and $1050 for the fireworks and $2280 from dinner and breakfast. Everyone reported that the fireworks show was great again also.
The candidate filings for elections are earlier this year. We have two open seats for councilmembers; Greg Kunz and Trenton Morrell’s terms are up plus the mayor is up for reelection this year as well. Packets are available at the City Hall and filings can be turned in from August 18th until August 29th.
Councilor Marty Nate reported that she received a bid to redo the cemetery road for $4350.00 and the county could add the dust retardant. She also asked what else to do about fixing the approaches at the post office and was mentioned to contact the Montpelier Post Master, Joel Crouch, about getting the approaches fixed.
Maintenance Report: Shane Clark gave their report for the month of July stating that he and Hadley got the water tanks cleaned and all went well there. Our tanks are in good shape but they recommend adding a better roof to the tanks. They mowed the parks and cemetery, and the water levels have been coming back up, they’ve done the monthly samples and generators were serviced this month for the year. They did some utility locates, put some sod on the graves at the cemetery, delivered delinquent notices, helped at the playground and worked with the service missionaries also. They said thank goodness we have a spring and more people should appreciate it because we don’t have to ration our water, even on drought years, because of it.
Office Report: There are 20 delinquent water and sewer accounts for the month of July. The guys delivered some door notices and was able to get a lot of accounts caught up. There is a meeting in Paris tomorrow night for Law Enforcement. The Paris Mayor contacted Mayor Waechtler about using our police car and would like to employ 1 officer to patrol the 4 cities of Paris, St. Charles, Bloomington and Georgetown. The council had concerns about us being the outlier and that we wouldn’t get much out of it. The Mayor responded that they may use our vehicle, as it’s going to waste, as our payment/contribution and we would carry the liability on that car too. The Mayor and Marty will attend the meeting and report back at our next meeting.
The chair entertained a motion from Councilor Marty Nate for the council to approve checks and vouchers for the month of July 2025 in the amount of $40,469.57 in the general fund, $30,691.08 in the water fund, and $70,490.40 in the sewer fund, with all funds totaling $141,651.05. Councilor Trenton Morrell seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
The chair entertained a motion from Councilor Marty Nate that council adjourns from the August 2025 council meeting at 9:15 pm. Councilor Trenton Morrell seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
Respectfully submitted,
Lynette Smith,
City Clerk-Treasurer