Council talks pool upgrades

Committee of the whole

OKs $101,000 boiler replacement project

Summer was on the mind of city council members at Monday’s committee of the whole meeting as they took up pool issues.

The city of Medford is raising its base pay for summer workers in order to remain competitive with the local employment market.

At Monday’s city council committee of the whole meeting, council members reviewed the summer wage schedule which increases the base wage for lifeguard, pool attendants and public works summer help by 50 cents per hour.

In addition, city coordinator Joe Harris said returning summer employees would get the same percentage raise increase as other city employees.

Under the proposed increase, the See CITY on page 4 head lifeguard will be paid $15 per hour, the assistant head lifeguard will be paid $14.50 per hour, lifeguards will make $14 per hour, attendants will make $10 per hour. Lifeguards must go through training and certifications in order to hold the position. Public works summer help will earn $11.75 per hour.

In the past, the city has had trouble attracting and retaining summer positions due to the scheduling requirements and the wages, which trailed those offered at other summer employment options.

City coordinator Joe Harris said at the end of summer they all say they are not coming back, but that most call and ask about returning.

“Are there any complaints that the wage is too low?” asked council member Laura Holmes.

Harris said wage has not been the main issue for people, a bigger plus for the city in attracting and retaining help at the pool was through changes in hours to make it a single shift rather than morning and afternoon shifts and making sure there was an adult manager on staff there. Council member Christine Weix said the feedback she has gotten was that this made things a lot smoother for workers and families.

The city pool is open from 1 to 7:30 p.m., with adult swim time from 7 to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays. On Sundays the pool is open until 5 p.m., weather permitting.

In other pool-related action, council members gave preliminary approval to purchase two new boilers to replace the single boiler that had been in operation to keep the pool water heated.

The cost of the boilers is $101,770 and will be from Staley Plumbing and HVAC of Hatfield.

According to Harris, the current boiler was installed in 2004 or 2005 and was not upgraded when the pool was done in 2013. With it not being replaced during the upgrade, it is undersized. With the boiler being undersized it had to work harder to keep the pool temp up, which shortened its lifespan. It now needs to be replaced since it is not working. The proposal is to replace the single boiler with two 850,000 BTU boilers. The proposed boilers are the same model that are used in the wastewater treatment plant and at the library.

“I know it is a lot of money, but last year we had it held together with chicken wire to get it to work,” Harris said, noting that they had to manually turn it off and on.

“We were lucky to make it through the summer,” said mayor Mike Wellner.

According to Harris, some mornings it wouldn’t be running, and it would take a couple of hours to get it going and other times it just kept going and the water would be very warm.

The boiler replacement need was expected, last summer the city hired Huotari construction to build an addition to the pool building to house the new boilers.

Two boilers will give redundancy to the system so if there is a problem with one, the city will be able to maintain water temperatures with the other while it is repaired. When at temperature, the two boilers will alternate which is in use to increase life expectancy of the equipment and reduce wear.

Harris proposed having the money for the project come from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that had been designated to be used for camera and WiFi at the pool area, but that this is a more pressing need. The federal ARPA funds must be spent by December 2026. Harris noted that since projects have been coming in under budget, there will still be money remaining for a diving board and another water feature at the pool.

After setting wages and giving their preliminary OK to pool improvements, council members looked at fees. The suggestion from city staff was to keep the fees unchanged from last year. However, Holmes questioned, with the cost of the new boilers, if the city should consider raising the fees.

“Do you get complaints that they are too high?” she asked of city clerk Ashley Lemke.

Lemke said there are always those who say it is too expensive. She noted the punch cards help, they allow a discount from the single day use but are less than the full season pass for people who might go infrequently. She said the biggest issue they have heard is from people who live outside the city and whose town boards aren’t among those that agree to contribute money to the pool to allow their residents to get the city resident rate. The city gives a discounted rate to city residents because the pool operations are subsidized by city tax dollars.

Committee member Mike Bub opposed raising the fees this year even with the increased cost for the pool, noting the pool was never intended to make money.

“It is a community service thing, we don’t make money on snowplowing either,” he said.

Council member Ken Coyer agreed saying it was nice with rising costs elsewhere in people’s budgets to keep something the same price.

Lemke said she has been instructing the city staff to direct town residents to talk to their town boards about participating with the city to get the lower rates. She noted that even if town boards approved joining later in the summer, the city would be willing to give the lower rates. “We are not going to turn them away,” Lemke said.

Bub noted that the contributions from the towns are only around $100 for most towns. “We are not asking them to contribute a lot,” he said, describing it as a token fee. He said it is the towns’ choice if they want to participate or not.

In other business, council members:

 Received word that city coordinator will be serving as the “operator in charge” for filing purposes for the water systems in the village of Rib Lake and in Glen Flora. The two water utilities are having a tough time finding certified water operators which is required by the DNR to stay compliant. The DNR requires a certified operator to sign off on monthly reporting. Harris said that both locations have employees hired who are doing the work and who are in the process of getting the needed certifications. The communities will each pay the city $50 per month for Harris to do the necessary reporting. He said if city workers needed to go to those communities to do work, they would be charged the $66 per hour fee that the city charges for work done outside the city. He anticipated that both locations would have someone in place within the next six months.

 Received the end of year totals for building permits in the city for 2023. There were 132 permits issued with a construction value of $30,390,994. This includes three new homes, four new mobile homes, six duplexes, three projects at Holy Rosary, the office addition at Medford Area Senior High School, the Cedar Ridge Apartments and two large projects at the Nestle Pizza plant in the city.

The employees of Taylor County Human Services were honored to be included, again, in providing Christmas gifts to our consumers and their families! With so many unknowns that are thrown at all of us, at any given time, it is nice to know that one thing remains – the gift of giving. Our community is more than amazing at making sure everyone feels the love as well as the spirit of the holidays. This program is truly incredible, and we are lucky to be a part of it. Thank you to all the people that donated gifts, the people that donated their time to wrap all these gifts, and a big thank you to Holy Rosary and Knights of Columbus for taking this project on once again. You all bring happiness, joy and gratefulness to our community. SUBMITTED