WELCOME — During the Welcome City Council meeting on Tuesday, Mayor Dan Schmidtke said the school building has been sold and he expected some demolition soon. The old football field was not sold because of a title information problem. It is being worked on.

Auditor Greg Burkhardt explained the responsibilities of the city and the auditors. He said the city had an unmodified audit and that the audit went well. There were three suggestions he had about paying bills on time and organizing invoices, using brokers with an investment certificate and remitting the state aid on time. He mentioned a management report that is more involved than his audit report.

The financial status was compared using the past, the present and the future. The present Cash Reserve is excellent and has good increases. The reserve is sometimes compared by saying how long reserves would take a city to run if no revenue and the Welcome reserve was for around three years, whereas other cities may have a year or months in reserve. The Water, Sewer and Storm Sewer funds are stable. The General Fund is excellent. That fund consists of tax levy, state ai and other funds. The net worth can be total or secondary, and some are unassigned. Some funds can be used by the city and some cannot (such as debt services). All departments were under budget for 2025 and control of expenditures was good. The Water fund should have a profit after paying bills and collecting revenue.

The $118,000 collected was less than the $125,000 needed. The Cash Flow must meet the bond amount. He suggested increases of rates or the use of debt service funds. The Sewer fund is also not generating what it costs and the debt service is used there. If no increases the fund may only last five years. The Storm Sewer fund did generate enough funds to cover expenditures so there is no need to increase rates at this time for that service. He mentioned helping with working with levies and the clerk asked for help with that.

Two residents discussed water in the basement of their building. There had never been water there for 30 years. After the street was worked on, the water and mud were two inches deep. They checked pipes and connections and felt that the tile under the sidewalk was filled with dirt. They asked if the camera could be put down and see what the problem is. A resident wondered if the street crew may not have connected the tile correctly. The council agreed that there had to be a problem and that the engineer would be contacted and possibly a plumbing company or the street crew.

In other news:

— The clerk expressed thanks for the audit company’s staff helping her, especially since she is fairly new to the job. The auditor and clerk expressed concern that the invoices need to be given to the clerk when the bills are current.

— The council approved a gambling permit for the event that the Southern Minnesota Ducks Unlimited will have, so they can have a raffle.

— The bill for $3,700 from SW Dust for treatment of roads in the city was explained by the public works employee and then approved by a three-to-one vote.

— The public works employee explained the quote for the insurance to cover the repair of a shop door for about $1,600, and the extra quote for a wider door by two feet. The council approved the repair of the door but denied the larger sum for a wider door.

— The council approved accepting the insurance payment for the 2024 Hail Claim of a resident, but not the whole bill, which was considerably more. With the payment being $12,000 and the bill being $100,000-plus.

— The estate of Larry Puhrman will gift the city $100,000. The council was grateful for the gift and plans to have a plaque made and put the money toward some city improvement project.

— The council discussed dead walnut trees near the park. The council approved a $3,000 quote from Rosburg Excavating to remove the trees and clean up the area with dirt and grass seed.

— The council went into closed session at the end of the meeting regarding some property.

The Welcome City Council will meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19, at City Hall.