Spirit Lake council awards sanitary sewer contract, sets public hearings and adopts hazard mitigation plan

Mayor Kevin Bice presided over the Spirit Lake City Council meeting on April 8, when the council unanimously accepted a bid for the 2025 Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation project and approved a slate of resolutions setting hearings and authorizing next steps.

The council opened a public hearing on the sanitary sewer rehabilitation project; Mayor Kevin Bice said, “This is the time and place to consider the 2025 City of Spirit Lake Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation project,” and no oral or written comments were offered. Councilmember Chappas introduced Resolution No. 2025-17 to accept the bid and award the project; Councilmember Johnson seconded, and the resolution was adopted with an aye vote from Johnson, Kofoot, Brockmeyer, Chappas and Mensing.

The council also adopted Resolution No. 2025-18, which fixes a date for a future meeting to consider authorizing a loan agreement and issuing not-to-exceed $2,400,000 in general obligation capital loan notes for essential corporate purposes; the resolution passed unanimously. The body approved a bond counsel engagement agreement by motion.

In other business, the council adopted Resolution No. 2025-19 to adopt the 2024 Dickinson County Hazard Mitigation Plan, and adopted resolutions setting public hearings and approving notice publication for the proposed FY2026 city budget (Resolution No. 2025-20) and for Amendment #1 to the FY2025 budget (Resolution No. 2025-21). All resolutions recorded unanimous approval.

The meeting opened with routine procedural votes: Councilmember Kofoot moved and Councilmember Mensing seconded approval of the March 25 regular and April 2 special meeting minutes; the motion carried unanimously. Councilmember Kofoot moved and Councilmember Mensing also moved approval of the April 2025 bill list, which totaled $242,176.39 and included utilities, engineering invoices, payroll and landfill fees; that motion carried unanimously. The Treasurer’s Report for March 2025 was approved; revenue items noted included $221,268.09 to the General Fund and $120,676.38 in Local Option Sales Tax receipts, and expenditures called out included $293,506.80 from the General Fund and a $500,500.00 Economic Development outlay. The council approved first-quarter manual journal entries and transfers, including a $210,000 transfer from LOST to the General Fund and $34,194.99 transferred from the Water fund to the Water Revenue Sinking Fund to satisfy bond requirements.

During the public-comment portion, Vickie Larsen asked questions about the city’s engineering services; the transcript does not record a response. Councilmember Chappas moved to adjourn and Councilmember Kofoot seconded; the motion carried unanimously and the meeting was adjourned.

The council’s actions set the procedural steps for the sewer rehabilitation contract and for seeking voter/financial authorization on the proposed loan; publication notices and the dates for the upcoming budget hearings were approved for public notice as required by the adopted resolutions.