TRUMAN– On Monday the Truman City Council discussed how it will fund a rescue truck for the fire department.

During an annual meeting at the beginning of the year, Truman Fire Chief, Dave Bentz, had shared that they needed to start thinking about replacing Rescue #2, which the department has had since 1991 and was slated for upcoming replacement.

Since then several discussions about it have taken place and recently an available truck was found in Shakopee. In a special meeting last month a motion was made to move forward with pursuing the 2007 truck for $180,000.

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

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

He talked about the number of sections in each Waverly, Westford and Nashville Townships and what the cost breakdown between those townships would be.

As for the city of Truman’s contribution, Ebert said the council had set aside $60,000 in the 2023 budget for a squad car which it is no longer getting so the city would use some of that money to pay its portion.

Bentz said that as he understands it, the truck could be available as soon as a check can be given for it.

Council Member Chris Mosloski asked if they’re going to advertise the sale of the current truck and where they’re going to store it.

“We’ll have to go through both trucks and figure out what we want to keep on each one and we might have to jockey some stuff and figure out if we can keep them both in here for now,” said Brandon Mososki, a member of the Truman Fire Department.

He said that the money from the sale of the current truck will go back into the truck fund.

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

Ebert said that there has been some concerns with the contract, specifically with the lack of hours that Northrop is paying for.

A contract, which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2024, says that Northrop will pay Truman $50 per hour, payable on a monthly basis, for an average of seven hours per week in the city of Northrop.

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

Blaufuss said they’re also open to discussing rates. He said the issue with when rates were brought up last year was that the city had already set its budget before Truman approached it about increasing them.

“We understand that budgets are tight. We want it to work for everyone,” Ebert said.

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

For 2023, the rate has been $45 per hour but will be jumping to $50 next year.

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

“It’s leaking pretty good now, to the point where we have plywood and tarps covering some of the caps for batteries and stuff like that,” Brown said.

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

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

He also spoke about a Heartland Economic Development grant that he applied for for infrastructure for the cement plant.

In other action on Monday, the council:

— Approved a resolution to write off an uncollectible Economic Development Authority (EDA) loan of $14,497.

— Approved a lawful gambling permit for Southern MN Ducks Unlimited.

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