TRUMAN– On Monday the Truman City Council heard from Pat Jones with Truman Active Living who provided a brief update on some projects. Jones had previously spoke about a desire to make sure house numbers are visible on each of the households and buildings in Truman.

Jones spoke with the police department and fire department, which she said are both behind getting it done. She said she’s also reached out to MNRAAA (Minnesota River Area Agency on Aging) which said it would be interested in possibly providing some grant money for it.

She said that in the city of Winnebago, residents are responsible for making sure a house number is visible, but locally Truman Active Living has discussed ways to get uniformity and size for all the house numbers.

Jones asked if there was a current ordinance in the city regarding numbers on the buildings and homes in town. She was told there is no ordinance. Jones then asked if an ordinance would be drawn up.

“We’ll have to work on it.. some people will want it sided into their house to make it look nice and they won’t want to do that in the middle of winter,” said Council Member Jake Ebert.

Police Chief Justin Jobe said once the city attorney gets it drawn up and and it’s brought to the council, it will need to run for a few weeks for public comment before it’s passed and goes into affect.

Jobe also said they’d probably want to allow for a grace period for residents to come into compliance with the ordinance before it’s enforced. He added that he wasn’t sure how much they wanted to go into enforcing it.

SHIP (Statewide Health Improvement Partnership) coordinator, Caroline McCourt, has been working with the active living group. She was also present to speak about the house number project.

She said while numbers on houses may not seem to fall under the same category as active living, there are three different grant sources they’re looking at.

“We were looking at the different areas and domains of funding to apply for and there’s a safety area which fit in line with some of items some members of Truman Active Living are talking about,” McCourt said.

Jones also spoke briefly about another project both the active living group and city would like to see done: a pickle ball court.

“Martin County does not yet have a pickleball court. Blue Earth does, Mankato does… keep it in mind because we’re going to keep working on it,” Jones said.

McCourt is also working with Truman Active Living on writing grants to help fund a pickleball court.

The council also reviewed the Northrop police contract. Right now Truman charges $40 an hour, at one hour per day, which was set in 2020.

Council Member Brandon Mosloski asked what the input of the city is and Ebert said he thought it was much closer to $60 when you consider fuel, etc.

“All of that stuff adds up so fast. To me it in’t worth it if we’re not making something off of

it,” Ebert said.

The council spoke about the higher rate that the county charges. It then discussed how to go about changing the contract. Council members expressed a desire to at least break even on the deal.

The council decided to correspond with Northrop’s City Council on the matter.

Moving to other business, Utility Foreman, Brent Brown, said they’re looking ahead at purchasing transformers for projects next year. He said like everything else they’ve seen, the prices have greatly increased.

“A transformer that was $1,600 two years ago is $4,500 now,” Brown said.

Mosloski asked how many they’re looking at getting and Brown listed several different sizes, and back-ups, that are needed.

Ebert asked if they’re all the same price and Brown said the larger ones cost around $9,000 or $10,000 each.

The council approved a request to order the transformers.

In other news:

— The council approved an ordinance to regulate the sale of THC products and discussed setting a fee.

— The council set a work session for 3 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 28 to further discuss the proposed 2023 budget.