WELCOME — The Welcome City Council held a meeting on Tuesday night. Bolton and Menk Engineer Travis Winter reported that in construction areas, blemish spots had been taken care of. Some seeding was needed, but the grass is mostly growing well. He said the NuWay septic system may have had grinder problems and a camera was used to examine the reason for back-ups. He gave a pay request for $130,000-plus to be given to Holtmeier Construction. The council approved it.

A lengthy discussion was held regarding the water on Dugan Street at the buildings owned by Bill Peterson, Richard Koons and Dawn Jagodzinske. Several things have been done to try to find the source of the water and the reasons for the backup in their buildings. Checking out the 1969 project resources and the 2019 project resources gave no answers. There were no maps or information about the 1900 installations. A camera was used for 24 feet, but no answers were revealed there either. After a rain, the water came to the storm sewer and then syphoned back out. Manholes and catch basins were examined with no answers there either.

The city, the engineer and the owners want to know where the water is coming from and where it goes and what can be done about it. The public works employees will check on several things the engineer and owners asked about, like curb boxes, pipes dug up inside the buildings and jetter cleaning to get gravel out that has been a problem at the Peterson building. Safety has been the main concern of all parties. Sidewalks have been affected and a suggestion that there was a cavern under the buildings was mentioned. The engineer and public works employees will do their best to check on resources and fix anything they can without digging up the whole street. All the owners said there was no previous water problem.

The meeting continued with a discussion about the building permit for 103 3rd Street East. The council discussed the setback requirements for the city and the county. The clerk will contact the county about questions that came up during the discussion. The council approved the building permit with stipulations that the containers are in accordance with the city and county setbacks, and that the containers are painted and maintained.

In other news:

— A variance for a Homewood Drive residence for an addition to the garage was referred to the Zoning and Planning Committee at the beginning of the next meeting of the council, and a public hearing then also.

— The mayor said that the broadband project from FREA would be discussed at a picnic at 6 p.m. on June 23, at the FREA Building.

— The parks committee reported that the pickleball court will be worked on soon and that the animal playground equipment will be removed soon.

The next meeting of the Welcome City Council will be at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 16, at City Hall, with a Planning and Zoning Committee meeting and a public hearing beforehand.