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Shafer City council met November 4. Council member Nick Brehm was absent. With no one speaking in public comment, the council quickly moved to new business.  

Council, on a motion by Patty Mattson, approved an ordinance adopting the new quarterly fee schedule.  Water rates will now have a base fee of $67.05 for up to 10,000 gallons.  Rates will increase by $4.42 for an additional 5,000 and $4.63 for up to 20,000.

Sewer rates will now have a base fee of up to 10,000 gallons of $108.94 with increases of $5.54 for up to 15,000 gallons and $5.69 for up to 20,000.  Council passed the fee schedule 4-0.

Council then passed new vacation leave with pay.  The city has always had this, the verbage just had some minor changes on time frames an employee may use the vacation hours.

Council then passed an ordinance approving an employee recognition program.  The program which was created by the HR department, recognizes the dedicated work performed by City of Shafer employees.  The program would recognize an employee with a quarterly token of appreciation of $100 to be used towards pizza and cake.

Council then accepted gambling donations from CHOPS Inc. (Shafer Saloon) for the third quarter of 2025 in the amount of $1102.98.

Council then approved accepting a donation from CHOPS Inc. in the amount of $1,224.31.

Council then approved the transfer of $375,000 from the general fund to the road/repair maintenance fund.  They also agreed to transfer $15,000 to the gambling fund for future funding to cover Fire Department gear, such as turnout gear and radios, that will need to be replaced down the road in a few years.

Maintenance supervisor Brad Swenson told the council they will be seeing Mastec and ROC Contracting around town in the near future.  The two companies have been contracted by Frontier for the undergrounding of a high speed fiber network.  Swenson told council Frontier has paid Shafer $17,000 for being allowed to work in the city’s right of way.

City Clerk Valerie Fox then told council the land swap has been approved by both the city and the Mithun property (burned out apartment building).  Fox told the council the Mithun’s property actually had a sliver of land on the south side of the fire hall making the sale of the property to the fire department a bit tricky. With the agreement for the lot line adjustment, the closing and ultimately the clean-up of the property will begin in the near future.

Council adjourned at 6:15pm.

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