City to purchase new sewer pickup

The Hartley City Council on Monday approved a bid for $51,812 for a new sewer department truck.

Ron Drenkow Motors, of Sheldon, was the winning bidder, with the only other submission coming from Asher Motor Company, of Spencer, for $52,995. The 2023 Dodge Ram 2500 regular cab 4x4 will be delivered when it's available.

According to Superintendent of Public Works Jaron Benz, neither Ford nor Chevy is taking truck orders at the moment, which left Dodge as the city's only option. He didn't want to delay the purchase with the hope that Chevy or Ford would open up orders next year, because if they don't, the city would be that much further behind.

"You have to keep the equipment up," said Council Member Jerry Olson.

Benz said the Ram would be a "barebones work truck."

"It's not dressed up near as well as the other trucks we've gotten, which were under $30,000," he said.

In other business, the council approved a revised 28E agreement with the City of Sanborn for police services. Hartley officers have been serving Sanborn for the past few months as the city is currently without full police services. Sanborn has hired one officer, who has been training under Hartley's squad for several weeks.

According to City Administrator Erica Haack, the revised agreement updates compensation rates for services to $20/hour for on-duty time and $10/hour for on-call time, plus $100 per day for administrative fees. For reserve officer backup, on-call time was changed to $5/hour.

Other rates are allowed as agreed upon for additional services, Haack explained. The previous 28E agreement was a flat $300/day.

• Start-of-the-year appointments

New Year appointments were also approved at the meeting.

Erica Haack was appointed city clerk/administrator, Sheri Tewes was appointed deputy city clerk and city treasurer, Benz was appointed superintendent of public works, Joe Hengeveld was appointed police chief, and Phil Sweeney was appointed zoning officer.

The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News was named official city newspaper, and Savings Bank and United Community Bank were named the official city depositories. Brandon Krikke was appointed city attorney with Harold Dawson as assistant city attorney.