WELCOME — At the Welcome City Council’s meeting on Tuesday, Bolton and Menk Engineer Travis Winter reported on the progress of the street project and the council approved payment of $875,044-plus to the construction costs.

Winter explained that the progress was in good shape, especially when it has been such good weather lately. Kruse, Second, Quarterline and First streets are ready with curb and gutter, and driveways and gravel are down. They hope to do concrete next week and asphalt the last week of October. A sewer issue on Mill Street was resolved, and he explained a problem with a tree on Kruse Street. The council approved removing the tree since the grading situation would negate keeping the tree. The tree is on the right-of-way, so it is public land.

An authorization of transfer of funds from the capital fund to the general fund of $151,124-plus was approved. This was planned before the street project to ensure funds for payment for street project. There are two properties that need attention and demolition, or sale. The property on Kruse Street could be bought by the city for $39,000 and then demolished. It has no asbestos, so the demolition could be done.

The council discussed buying the property, but a motion was defeated three-to-two. The second property on Dugan Street was discussed, and the council decided to list it with a realtor with the stipulation that a house be built on it within five years or less. Non-removable living quarters must be built on it. This motion was approved four-to-one.

In other business, Clerk Jodi Hemann explained some of the changes to the personnel handbook, especially the paid family leave passed for Minnesota. This is 50 percent city and 50 percent employee. Several changes were explained. Hemann and council agreed that the changes should be run by the City Attorney just to make sure everything was legal.

The cemetery was updated, and the council thanked the public works employees and all those who did a good job of beautifying the cemetery. A question of changing ownership of a plot was discussed, and the council agreed that the person should sell the plot he does not want and buy the one he wants. Transferring ownership was not approved.

Kari Wedel has been mowing the property by her home, and will not be mowing anymore, so the city will have to mow it. The city thanked her for mowing all these years and put the property on the mowing list.

The council approved getting a water heater for the City Hall at a previous meeting, and Hemann reported that the water heater was red tagged as leaking gas, so a different water heater will be ordered. The council approved that action. Different water heaters were discussed, and a tankless or two-gallon tank type heater will be ordered by Hemann.

In other actions:

— Four lights were approved to be put up at the Trailer Court at a previous meeting, contingent on the approval of the neighbors. The neighbors did approve of the lights, and the Trailer Court will put in lights.

— A councilmember mentioned that there have been times when the public works department had many on-call days in a row. The council discussed some suggestions, like switching with the other employee when one is on vacation or changing hours. No action was taken that night. — Some trees need to be removed, and some bids were discussed. The bids were high, the council thought, and later decided to wait until spring to see if there was leftover money from the tree grant.

— A letter from MCW about the FLASC ball field maintenance was read to inform the city of the work they plan at the ball field. They plan to replace the batting cages, replace the backstop, winterize the sprinkler system, replace the outfield fence and do weeding and low spots upgrades.

— The council went into closed session concerning the legal situation with Westside Depot.

The next meeting of the Welcome City Council will be at 6 p.m. on Oct. 21 at City Hall.