The Lennox City Council met Monday, February 13 at Lennox City Hall. All members of the Council were present to discuss the agenda items brought before them.
City Administrator, Nate Vander Plaats had updated wording on the City Ordinance 637 to update a zoning ordinance with respect to locating butcher shops in Lennox. The changes to the ordinance include requiring an acceptable manure management plan and requiring a retail store front.
“With the manure management plan, we simply want something that says to us it will be removed or disposed of on a daily basis,” Vander Plaats said. There is currently a five head maximum per day for a future butcher shop to process. “The biggest concern is that we allow a butcher shop and it morphs into something else, the good news is that we have this condition, and that can be revoked if it is not matching what we set,” he said.
No livestock will be allowed to be stored outside prior to butchering for any period of time to avoid any animal noises impacting the businesses surrounding a potential location. Council members agree that more education needs to be provided to the public to give a better picture of what the facility will look like and what the ordinance will allow the business to do. Motion passed.
Chief of Police, Will Ericksen joined the meeting to request an emergency exception to SDCL 5-18A-9 to purchase one new Chevrolet Tahoe from Karl Emergency Vehicles in Des Moines, Iowa.
“This year, South Dakota decided to pull off the Chevy Tahoe from the bid list, so it’s not provided to any dealerships in South Dakota for the bid purpose. We were able to acquire one from Karl’s in Iowa, the same place we purchased our last one,” Ericksen said.
The quote project for the project began last July and the Police Department allocated $62,000 for the purchase of the vehicle.
“We’re anticipating with inflation and the cost of the new equipment to be rising, that it’s going to be over what we originally budgeted for,” he said.
Ericksen is going to check to see if leasing a vehicle for three years can be obtained through a dealership. The Board agreed to table the motion to review options including leasing a vehicle.
Utilities Superintendent, Kyle Ramynke sent a request to the City Council to amend Resolution 2023-03-13-01.
“Superintendent Ramynke couldn’t be here tonight, but sent in a request to amend the resolution as we continue to see cost increase for a number of materials and as we make repairs to meters or install new meters, we need to make sure the fees we charge for such parts cover the costs to purchase them and this resolution does exactly that,” Vander Plaats read.
Motion approved as amended.
With the help of Richard Schriever, the City of Lennox applied for a $10,000 grant from the Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission last year in order to fund necessary repairs to the Lennox Historical Museum.
“We received word that the grant was approved and must execute a grant agreement. The grant requires a 100 percent match and the city has budgeted $40,000 for museum repairs in 2023, which will more than cover our required match,” Vander Plaats said. Motion approved.