At Monday’s meeting of the Ellsworth City Council, the council adopted the 2025 budget at 90 mills.

City Administrator Dustin Stambaugh said he shaved off 4 mills as instructed by the council at the last meeting.

However, Stambaugh reiterated his recommendation that employee wages not be touched nor funds be transferred out of the water/sewer department. Stambaugh commended the city staff for working with what they have.

“They stay because they want to be here,” he said.

Council Member Don Panzer commended Stambaugh for his efforts.

“I think you have done everything we asked you to do,” Panzer told Stambaugh. “I think you have done a very good job with what you had to work with.”

In other business:

• After a public hearing was conducted prior to the regular meeting on the request to condemn the building at 304 N. Douglas Ave., the council voted to table consideration of that condemnation. Immediately before it was tabled, Council President Jessica Kootz asked if the resolution could be amended to include just the garage.

City Building Inspector Delvin Bettenbrock said the property is owned by Richard and Tina Davis. The Ellsworth County Independent-Reporter currently occupies the front of the property that faces North Douglas Avenue.

He said the connected garage, with access from the alley, is in danger of collapsing. The south wall of the garage is falling apart and is a blight on downtown.

While the garage is in danger of collapsing, Bettenbrock noted the front of the property where the I-R is located is not at risk. He admitted, however, he has not been inside the I-R office.

Davis said they have owned the property for 15 years.

“When we moved in, there was already an issue in the garage where the floor was sagging a little bit,” he said.

Davis said the building is settling. He also said he was told to consider demolishing the back of the building because it can’t be salvaged.

“The Independent-Reporter is a renter of ours, and part of the delay in us moving forward is because of some of the issues they are having with the back of the building,” he said.

Specifically, the settling is causing some issues with the back of the I-R’s office space. “We’re evaluating exactly what we want to do, what they (the I-R) want to do and how we’ll plan on going forward,” Davis said.

City Attorney Patrick Hoffman said this is an “unusual” situation. “It’s up to you guys,” he told the council. “We have heard from city staff that part of it might be OK.”

“I’m with the guy we pay to look at it,” Council Member Tyler Renard said. “He said one building is good and the other one ain’t.”

In other business:

• Richard Jones said he purchased the parking lot at 120 W. First St. from Golden Plains Credit Union. He has been negotiating a contract with Stambaugh regarding the parking lot.

“I would like to propose the city use the parking lot for zero expense,” Jones said. “With that being said, I don’t want it used for public parking, so it will be used for the City of Ellsworth. They will maintain it just like they have. And I just want to make sure everybody knows the USD (327) was never going to be affected by this.”

Jones said he called USD 327 Superintendent Deena Hilbig personally. Jones also said he is going to put signage up indicating no public parking, and if the public doesn’t obey, they will get towed at their expense.

“It’s pretty simple,” he said. “That lot should be empty if it’s not a city function, a Farm Bureau business function or a USD function.”

• Ellsworth Police Chief Joe Penny said he received some information last week that there may be a route he can take to curve truck traffic downtown.

“We’re going to do a little more research on it and if I find out that what I was told is true, then we’re going to start doing some enforcement trying to get that truck traffic off the city streets,” he said.

• City Code Enforcement Officer Steve Bishop said he will investigate starting a campaign to pursue the removal of junk vehicles in residential yards.

• Approval was given to have Carl Brown of GettingGreatRates.com to conduct a rate analysis for the City of Ellsworth to investigate the options for increasing water/sewer rates.

Brown did so in 2014, and an update was done in 2017. At the time of the studies, Council took no action in adjusting utility rates based on the studies.

With the upcoming sewer lagoon project, Stambaugh said the city is needing to investigate the options. The rate analysis study will examine residents’ incomes, city costs, capital improvement needs and other necessary projects, then determine rates and fees based on the data gathered.

• Earl Helms of 315 West 11th St., Ellsworth, requested the city place two stop signs on 11th Street and move the school zone signs down past 11th Street and put school zone signs by Ellsworth Elementary School.

“These kids are getting out of control out here speeding up and down the streets,” he said. “They’re racing all over the place. The police department doesn’t seem to want to do anything about it. It’s not going to take much longer — we’ve already had two crashes — to see somebody maybe killed. I’d like to see something done about it.”

Mayor Dan Finnegan suggested Penny have a conversation with Helms. “We’ve had plenty,” Penny said, adding he will look into it.

• No action was taken after a total of 35 minutes in executive session to discuss matters deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship.

• No action was taken after an 8-minute executive session to discuss non-elected personnel (an individual employee’s performance).

The next meeting of the Ellsworth City Council will be at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, at city hall.