City Accepts Bids For Improvements—Sealing Streets, Installing Water Lines

The Kadoka City Council conducted its monthly meeting on April 12 at the Kadoka City Finance Office. Council members attending the meeting included Chris Grillo, Tim Huffman, Rusty Olney, Eileen Stolley, Tia Stout, Harry Weller and Ryan Willert.

Mayor Weller promptly called the meeting to order. The Council approved the agenda for the meeting and the minutes from the regular monthly meeting on March 8 and a special meeting for the Board of Equalization on March 15.

LaTasha Buchholz, finance officer, submitted invoices for review by the members of the City Council. She presented March financial reports, including departmental revenues, departmental expenses and bank account balances as of March 31. The Council approved the invoices and financial statements for March 2021.

At each meeting, the Council provides residents with the opportunity to present matters of concern to the Council. The Council takes no action on matters presented by residents. For individuals seeking action, one must request placement on the upcoming meeting agenda, which requires a minimum 24-hour notice prior to the publication of the agenda. At this meeting, no one appeared to present input and the meeting progressed to matters relating to updating and improving the infrastructure including sewer and water lines and repairing roadways.

The Council reviewed three bids received for the 2021 street project from Bituminous Paving, Inc., Odessa, Minnesota; The Road Guys Construction Co., Inc., Yankton, South Dakota; Simon Contractors of South Dakota, Inc., Rapid City, South Dakota. The City requested bids to “furnish materials, equipment and labor” to apply a chip seal surface onto Maple and Main Streets and some side avenues in a process referred to as asphaltic surface treatment. The Council reviewed the bids received for the project and voted to accept the bid from Simons in the amount of $133,726.30. The Council did not select the lowest offer, as they considered which contractor followed the specific requirements set forth in the advertisement for the project. Simon has previously completed paving and sealing projects for the City. The bid advertised that the project would consist of applying 56,030 square yards of product, a “1B modified chip or 2A cover aggregate.”     

In addition to the paving project, the City plans to install new water lines under Second Avenue between Maple and Poplar Streets. The project would consist of trenching, selective boring and installing a six-inch water main, curb stops and one fire hydrant. The City received and reviewed bids from H & W Contracting, LLC, Sioux Falls and West River Excavation, LLC, Kadoka. The Council voted to accept the lesser bid from West River—a local, family owned business.

In the first matter of new business on the agenda, Gerard Magelky, a member of the Board of the Jackson County Commissioners, and Denny Lottman, superintendent of the Jackson County Highway Department, met with the Council for the purpose of executing a real estate exchange. The documents included two agreements and two quick claim deeds. The newly hired city attorney, Stephanie Trask, reviewed the documents prepared by the Jackson County South Dakota state’s attorney, Daniel Van Gorp. Trask determined the language of the documents needed revision before the City executed the agreement and deeds. Trask revised and prepared new agreements to be presented to the County. The modified Real Estate Exchange Agreement A proposes sites one and two, property owned by Jackson County, to be evenly exchanged for site three, owned by the City of Kadoka. The second agreement, Agreement B, stipulates terms for the exchange of site two wherein the County shall “choose and complete one of the following three options,” which includes demolishing the current building, selling the site or retaining the parcel of property. Action in the first option includes razing the current building and “transfer the remaining bare land to the City.” The second option indicates the “City is entitled to 50% of the net sale proceeds from the “Site Two” property, or Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00), whichever is greater.” The third option proposes the County shall retain the property with the caveat that the “County will make upgrades, reasonably satisfactory to the City, to improve the appearance of the “Site Two” property and to pay $10,000 to the City for the property.

Sandy Eischenbacher, a representative of the Kadoka Community Betterment Association (KCBA), addressed the Council and presented “an idea for signage” by the Kadoka Area School Gym. She indicated the KCBA Facebook page along with other travel links have been installed on the city’s website at www.kadokasd.com.

The Council proceeded to departmental reports and received a request from Code Enforcement Specialists, LLC (CES), a contractual enforcement service, to mail approximately 20 letters to property owners in violation of city ordinances. The Council moved to approve the request from Joel Johnson, president of CES.

The Council received reports from the public works department employees Nathan Riggins and Patrick Solon. Riggins informed the city of plans to flush fire hydrants and to place septic lagoon treatment into the city sewage lagoon. Solon plans to install culverts in various locations throughout the city. During the month of May, the Kadoka Transfer Station will waive fees for items to dispose of at the rubble site. The fee waiver does not include household trash or tires.

The Kadoka City Bar reported that security cameras have been installed and the feed from the video is stored if the need arises to review the video later as needed. The bar expanded the system to include varying views throughout the bar after a recent incident where vandals broke into the bar and stole alcohol.

The Council moved to enter executive session to discuss personnel matters. The Council reconvened to the regular session and hired seasonal maintenance workers and lifeguard staff for the 2021 summer season for the Kadoka City Pool.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Kadoka City Council is at 7 p.m. at the Kadoka City Finance Office on May 10, 2021. The public is invited and encouraged to attend the meetings.