Shafer Council sees 2022 audit

Shafer City Council met April 18 for a regular meeting. Council member Brad Swenson was absent as well as city engineer Lucas Jones.

The council heard from Dennis Oberloh of Oberloh & Oberloh public accounting. He was there to present the 2022 audit to the council.

Oberloh noted the general fund had a decrease in receipts from 2021 to 2022 of only $159. Receipts totaled $751,143 dollars. Tax revenue increased 11.5 percent up $32,974, and Government receipts decreased by 13.9 percent, (those include LGA and federal funds to the city).

The general fund balance saw a decrease of $231,487 in 2022 which included expenses for the water tower project. Oberloh noted the city holds a balance of $778,035 or 103 percent of 2022 receipts. It is recommended cities and municipalities hold at least a balance of 35-50 percent, which Oberloh pointed out.

Water utility fund receipts saw a decrease of $13,313, and operating expenses rose by $154, 444. City sewer receipts also saw a decrease of $20,568.

In all, including charitable gambling, the general fund, and non governmental fund the city has a cash fund balance of $1,528.667 dollars with an added $501,644 in enterprise funds giving a total cash and investments of $2,030,311 dollars.

The council accepted the audit and thanked Oberloh for his work.

The council then agreed to keep its ordinance allowing three outdoor events for both of the restaurants in town. They did note, the city is open to more events, but the business owners need to come before the council before approving additional events. City clerk Joan Ciesler told the council they received no complaints last year about outdoor events.

The council then read a letter from the EDA about a potential change of website for the city. The EDA has a quote from the company Revise for creating a new website that is more user friendly, ADA compatible and will make bill pay available for water bills. Ciesler told the council the EDA has offered to pay the first year of a four year contract with its funding. Cost for the new website is $1,977 per year including new city emails.

Council member Nick Brehm made a motion to move forward with the website and accept the EDA’s offering of the first year funds and also asked Ciesler to see if any remaining ARPA funds could be used for the website.

The council then passed a resolution accepting gambling funds totaling $454.85 from Shafer Fire and Rescue.

In the maintenance report, maintenance supervisor Dan Cooper gave an update on two homes with complaints of low water pressure. Cooper was able to get in the homes and took the meters off. He said there were not flow restrictions in the meters but noted the pipe did have a decent amount of built-up manganese. It has been discussed jetting the water lines which would jet from inside the homes out to the curb stop. An alternate option would be to dig up the curb stop and look for an obstruction or damaged pipe. The cost of that would run around $4,000 dollars. Council member Brehm made a motion to hire Olson Sewer to jet the two homes.