Martin County Star Newsmakers
Everything you want and need to know about what is going on in Martin County Minnesota.
We look at the paper and talk to the Newsmakers.
Mayor's, City Council members, Coachs, Police, Concerned Citizens, and everyday folk with a story to tell.
Tune in each Friday for a new episode.
Check it out at martincostar.com
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Martin County Star Newsmakers
Martin County's Journey of Growth and Development
Discover the transformative power of your vote on a snowy Halloween morning in Martin County, Minnesota, as we unravel the complexities of voting in person to safeguard ballot security. Get ready to rethink your political stance with the latest candidate profiles and a spotlight on the evolving landscape of political parties. Join us for exclusive conversations with our special guests, Kelli Harder, the city clerk of Trimont, and the mayor of Trimont, as they share valuable in sights on pressing local matters.
From the intriguing mayoral vacancy in Truman to Fairmont's ambitious sales tax proposal to raise $20 million, this episode covers a range of captivating community topics. Celebrate local triumphs like Evelyn Christensen's outstanding state race performance and relive the nail-biting finale of the United and Sleepy Eye game against the Mavericks. Dive into the arts with Sherburne Movie Theater's new documentary "Unthinkable," and don't miss Kelli Harder's entertaining quiz on all things pig-related.
Explore Martin County's ambitious plans for city infrastructure improvements with USDA support, and navigate the intricacies of tax levies with us. Learn about the efforts to manage tax rates effectively to support essential projects with minimal taxpayer impact. Finally, immerse yourself in the vibrant community life at our town center, enriched by activities like Sundays in the park and local church contributions, as we envision future growth and development. Stay tuned for more engaging content, including an upcoming conversation with Mayor JoAnn, bringing even more community insights right to your ears.
And here we go. Episode number six Martin County Stars Newsmakers Podcast. Hi, I'm Mike Ennis and I'm your host and this is Martin County Stars. Well, the podcast. We are happy to have you.
Speaker 1:It is Halloween morning here. You may be listening at a different time. That's fine, it snowed. It's actually snowing out there pretty hard. We're in Martin County, minnesota. If you're listening from someplace else and you're saying where is it snowing? Yeah, here it's snowing. It's going to get to 40-something today, so it'll all melt off, but nevertheless it's snowing, right, and I'm not happy.
Speaker 1:Hey, the podcast today is brought to you by the Martin County Star, the newspaper. That's right, we're going to promote ourselves. How about that? You know we want to invite you to subscribe. Give us a call at 764-6681. That's area code 507-764-6681.
Speaker 1:I got a tickle. I do this every week, not my water. Okay, we're in good shape now and I end up coughing. So subscription's, just 50 bucks. Give us a call. We can take a credit card. We can put you.
Speaker 1:We have a paper next week. It's that simple. Next week, if you want, you can go online to martincostarcom. That's our website. You can go there and you can sign up to be a. Well, you can get a free online subscription as a trial for a month. Check it out, see if you like it, and then, if you do online, it's $37, $38. I always forget how much, but it's just $37, $38. And then you can receive your paper online every Wednesday. And, by the way, every online all pages are in color. We just discovered that last night when we loaded the paper. I'm going wait a minute, here I can do this thing in color. So anyway, where you know, on the printed paper, color's only on certain pages, where this way it's every single page and the pictures really really pop. Looking through the newspaper today we're going to start that way.
Speaker 1:We have a guest. We have Kelly Harder coming in. Kelly is the city clerk for the city of Trimont and she's going to come in and talk to us about all things of Trimont. She'll give us insights, stuff that we don't normally know, you know. So it'll be a lot of fun. And then also, we'll have a second guest later today and that is the mayor of Trimont. She'll be here too. Anyway, but first of all, let's talk about what's going on. The headline story says the talk is over. Now it's time to get out and vote. That's true, it is. It's almost here. This is Halloween, so this is Thursday morning, where I'm at. When you listen, maybe later in the week or something, but Tuesday, of course, is election day.
Speaker 1:I like voting on election day. I'm not one of those who wants to go and mail my ballot in, for several reasons. Number one is I never feel secure, knowing did they actually pick it up? I read an article yesterday that said some ballots were found in the back of somebody's pickup, or I mean trunk of their car. And I'm going. Really, how do you forget to take your ballots in? So I don't like to vote early for that very reason. Also, there's been a rash of these people who have been throwing pipe bombs or something into these drop boxes and they're on fire.
Speaker 1:No, no, no. I like going in. This is just me. I like going in and I like to vote in person on election day. I get my little I voted stamp, you know, and I like that. So do it however you want. Of course, that's up to you. That's just the way I like to do it. So, anyway, I hope you'll get out and vote. Though I hope you get out and vote, and I made a comment in the article I wrote. It says you know, don't vote just because this is the way you've always done it. The parties have changed, candidates have changed and what used to be one thing is not the same anymore. Don't just rely on well, this is the way I've always done it. No, think for yourself. For heaven's sakes, get out and vote and vote your conscience. Vote what you know inside is the right thing to do. I did reach out this last week to all the candidates that I could get a hold of, and you know it's kind of hard because a lot of them don't respond to you and a lot of them did not but I asked them for a 50 to 100 word candidate profile and we have a lot of them in the newspaper this week on pages 14 and 15. So if you get the paper, go ahead and go through those and take a look at them. You know, I became familiar with some of these people that I do not know, and actually one of them I won't say who, but he changed my mind I'm going to vote for him and I'm looking forward to it. Actually and this is somebody that I didn't know, but man, actually there's two people like that, but man. They said so many good things in their comments that I'm going yeah, yeah, this is who I want. You know, more than just nothing wrong with a yard sign. It helps me remember names, but they don't say anything. You know, vote for me. Okay, why? Well, because I put a yard sign out. No, I don't think so Tell me why and don't tell me that you're going to. You know, do all these things that, and you've been on a city council or you've been a mayor, or you've been on the school board or whatever for all these years, and nothing ever changes. So I'm kind of having trouble believing that. So, anyway, that's how I feel about it. So get out there, do your investigation and vote for the ones that reflect your values the best.
Speaker 1:Looking here at page four in the paper, I don't know if you guys read Liz's column. Liz writes for us also. Liz is our reporter. She goes out and covers all the city council meetings and school board meetings and stuff, and Liz does such a great job. And Liz also writes a column, though, all about Tremont, just what's going on, and she wrote a really cute one this week. It was interesting and so, anyway, get a chance. You might want to give Liz a read.
Speaker 1:And I looked at page number five and I have a little thing on there from WC Fields. It's a quote. It says I never vote for anyone, I always vote against. I thought about that for a little while and I said you know, I think the guy's right. I don't vote for people either. I vote against. Well, I do. There are some people I do vote for, I suppose. But there's a lot of truth to what he's saying about voting against.
Speaker 1:Page 8 is the comic strip page and I added a new thing this week. It's called the Kids Maze and it's for kids. Actually, I did it and it was more difficult than I thought, but it's pretty cool. It's a little maze and the kids can sit there with their cereal on a morning and draw through it, through the maze, you know. So we're trying to add a few more things for kids to look at and kids to read and get involved. We want kids to. You know they're our next generation. We want them to start looking at the newspaper, not just Facebook or not just Instagram or Twitter or whatever they go on. We want them to look at the paper also.
Speaker 1:There's something about a newspaper in your hand. I told somebody that they can go online and read the paper. They said you mean, I don't get a newspaper in the mail. I said no, no, you get your paper still. They go. Good, because I like my paper, I want it in my hand. And I said I get you, I'm with you, I'm the exact same way, so your paper is not going away. We've just added another feature.
Speaker 1:Hey, think about this for a second. If you're on vacation or if you go south for the winter, let's say you know, by the time you get your paper if you go south, it might be two weeks old you can pop online. You already are a subscriber. If you're a subscriber, you're also a online subscriber, automatically, no extra charge. You get that one for free, okay. If you're a subscriber, you're also an online subscriber, automatically, no extra charge. You get that one for free, okay, if you're a subscriber, so you can log in and take a look at it. If you're listening to the podcast right now, obviously you got here somehow, but a really easy way is go to martinco martinco starcom and just click on podcast. It comes right up and you can just choose which episode that you maybe you've missed and that you want to catch up on. Anyway, it's really simple.
Speaker 1:All right now, pages 14 and 15. Today I skipped a lot of stuff but pages 14 and 15. This is all voting and it's all about the election. I have a big sample ballot in there. I also have the sample ballot from the different cities, but I only have the portion that's like for mayor or council or whatever. Okay, the one ballot's the same for the whole state. There was no reason to put in eight ballots, but just a little section is different. And so keep that in mind and you can go through and look at your ballot and maybe mark up, you know, cut out your town, mark up who you want to vote for and then take it with you to the ballot, to the voting block. That way you don't forget, you know who you're going to vote for.
Speaker 1:City of Fairmont. They have a question to vote for. Let me see. Shall the city impose a sales use tax. Well, I don't live in Fairmont anymore, but I say no personally, but anyway, they're trying to raise $20 million. Wow, oh man, that's a lot of money. Anyway, now Truman's got an interesting one. Truman, no one's running for mayor in Truman and their mayor. His time's up and he's not going to run, so they don't have a mayor on the ballot. So if you live in Truman, like I mentioned last week, if you want to be mayor guess what? Here's your opportunity. Go, get six or eight friends and buy them some pizza and y'all go down together and vote. That'd be kind of fun, wouldn't it? We're going to follow that one because that's going to be kind of interesting. Mayor Truman.
Speaker 1:In here I have candidate profiles throughout those two pages and you can read the different candidates. These are people who turned them in. You know, not everybody turned one in, so I only have what I can have. And if you're a candidate going, well, I didn't turn one in. Well, it's not my fault, you know, you should have turned it in. I would have been happy to have put them in. I put them in all the way up until, let me see, thursday, tuesday I had somebody drop one off Tuesday about 4 o'clock and the paper was full. But I found a place, I squinched some stuff together and I got it in there. So keep that in mind. Anyway, there's two pages there that you can look at Sports page.
Speaker 1:I want to say congratulations to Evelyn Christensen. She has kept alive a long-standing tradition of Martin County West sending at least one runner to the state tournament. She placed seventh in the girls' 5,000-meter race with a time of 20-14 for a personal best and a berth along the starting area at the class A meet. How about that? So congratulations goes out to Evelyn and man. I hope she does great. I hope you improve on your best time. You know you get around even faster, girls, and it pushes you harder, man. I hope she does really, really well. Well, united and Sleepy Eye.
Speaker 1:They handed the Mavericks their season-ending loss. This was a heartbreaker 9-8. 9-8. Wow. United had possession of the ball, trailing 8-6, with 9.39 left in the fourth quarter when Talon Helgert was called up to kick his first field goal of the season with United on Martin County West's 15-yard line. Well, can you imagine that? Here you are, it's the game winner to move on in postseason play and it's your first field goal. Try the whole season, real gold. Try the whole season. Well, he nailed it. He nailed it and they beat the Mavericks 9-8. 9-8. Wow. Page 11. I have a little something here for you.
Speaker 1:Sherbourne Movie Theater. They are showing tomorrow, friday, saturday and Sunday. So it's November 1st, november 2nd, november 3rd, they're showing Unthinkable. This is a documentary by Abby Johnson. I went online yesterday because I wasn't familiar with the show. I went online and I looked it up and they had a five-minute trailer that I watched and it's very good. It's talking about abortion and the caption here is let's make abortion unthinkable, and the five minutes I saw were really intriguing. They were really good.
Speaker 1:So if you get a chance, here's the deal. It's buy one, get one free $5 admission for two people. So you know, take the husband, take the wife, take the kids, take the whole family. It's way inexpensive. Some people in the community have gotten together and they have foot the bill for the other half of your ticket. Isn't that nice? And so go there, $5, two of you get in. We're going to go. I think we're going to go Friday evening, maybe Saturday evening. Anyway, friday and Saturday 7 o'clock, sunday at 4 o'clock, and I think you'll really enjoy it. So get out and support the movie theater, support this movie. This is a good one, this is one that you're going to want to see. All right, we're going to be back with Kelly here in just a few minutes. Well, actually it's going to be a few minutes for me, but it's going to be immediate for you. So Kelly is up next. There we go. Okay, now we're back. We have Kelly Harder with us. She is City Clerk of Tremont, right? Is that your title?
Speaker 2:City Clerk Treasurer yes, oh, Treasurer also.
Speaker 1:All right and she's here with us today. We're just going to talk and have some fun. Yeah, we're going to talk about a little bit of everything what's going on in Tremont, but first we have to do our test. Uh-oh, we have to do our test. Uh-oh, yep, we put everybody through a test, and so try your bell. Let me make sure it goes. All right, you heard that. Okay, now I have. If you're right, you'll hear. If you're wrong, wait, I got the wrong bells. These are my bells, so if you're right, you'll hear that one, if you're wrong, there we go.
Speaker 2:Got it.
Speaker 1:All right. So I went through last week's pork producers and I pulled out a few questions and I thought these were kind of fun. They have some great facts. They have like 65 facts in there, and so I pulled out a few of them that I thought we would go with. I pulled out some that I hope I can stump you with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I'm not real up on pigs and I wasn't either.
Speaker 1:Until I read this, I was like, wow, this is cool stuff, all right, for example, a pig has and I'm going to give you three options on teeth Okay, has 24, 44, or 54 teeth. You have to ring your bell first. Okay, you may check in 44. Oh, man, wait, which one was right? I can't remember that one. You're right, you got it. I should have gone with the other reason.
Speaker 2:I guess that is because I always think 44 is a really fun number to say Go 44, 44, 44, 44.
Speaker 1:That's a lucky guess. Okay, so adult pigs can run at speeds of up to 4, 44, because that's fun or 11 miles per hour.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say 4. 11.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say four Eleven. Oh, you've lost that one.
Speaker 2:So you're one and one.
Speaker 1:Yep, okay, see, I would have got that one right.
Speaker 2:Ah Because I was looking at it Because you were looking at the answers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cheating, otherwise I would have had no clue. A pig's favorite way to sleep is Laying down.
Speaker 2:Nose to nose, cheek to cheek or rumpus to rumpus yes, kelly, rumpus to rumpus, no.
Speaker 1:Nose to nose. Ah that's my least favorite way to sleep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you're breathing each other. They're just breathing on me. I don't like that at all.
Speaker 1:No, no, no. Okay, so we're not pigs? Nope, definitely not. My wife thinks I am sometimes.
Speaker 2:Well, just sometimes is probably okay. Here's a true or false Pigs like humans, can dream when they sleep. Yes, I'm going to say true, you got it.
Speaker 1:Yes, I didn't know that. That's kind of wild. Everybody should dream. I wonder what they dream about, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I wonder if they dream they're eating the human. Like we think of bacon.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking, yeah, I'm thinking it's probably like hmm, what's in that feed? Probably.
Speaker 1:I wonder if he's looking at me Right, that kind of stuff. Let me see if I can't find one more question, because you're two and two. Okay, we've got to stump you. Okay, pigs are very smart. According to scientists, a pig's IQ is comparable to a four-year-old child, a ten-year-old child or a journalist, slash politician. Yes, I'm going to go with a journalist Because it sounds good. It does sound good. It's not. It's a three-year-old child there, there, okay.
Speaker 2:You've got to be stumped, yeah.
Speaker 1:I've got you stumped. Good deal. You can put your bell away all right all right. So, anyway, all right. So we're going to talk a little bit. First of all, I think the big news is is revealed the last chamber meeting. We have the ceo from medelia health here yes and they are, I guess pretty serious about looking into that building on on main street that used to be a clinic.
Speaker 2:Correct yes, david Walls.
Speaker 1:David Walls. Thank you, I don't have my paper in front of me, so where are we at with that?
Speaker 2:Several months ago they had gone in to look at the building. Josh from the Martin County EDA had reached out to them because they were interested in adding on another clinic. They had just done the one in St James. So they decided that they would wait a little bit longer to make any kind of a decision to see how it went in St James, because they didn't want to have two brand new facilities back to back, two brand new facilities back to back, Right. So they did go and look at the clinic and they were very impressed that it is already set up as a clinic and they wouldn't really have to do any work to it. So that was great. It's kind of like a turnkey.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And where we're at now is they are going to the board and going to ask them to put an offer in on our building and go from there.
Speaker 1:Wow, so we could have a clinic in town in the next four to six months, maybe.
Speaker 2:I have no idea about time limits, but it is a great possibility and what a great growth and development for our city.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know. He said at the meeting that they want to staff at five days a week.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Which is another I was. I was shocked. I thought maybe you know Tuesdays and Thursdays or something. Right when he said five days a week, I was like, wow, this is great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they they were even looking at trying to have somebody that's local that would be able to be the doctor, nurse or whatever they would put in there. So that would be great.
Speaker 1:That would be able to be the doctor nurse or whatever they would put in there.
Speaker 2:So that would be great, that would be great.
Speaker 1:That's really exciting. It is very exciting for us, you know, because that opens up a lot of possibilities for others who say, wait a minute, here, they've got a clinic. We have a great grocery store in town, you know, we've got all the elements in place. We need a restaurant. Yes, we do, but I think you should just take that up. I mean, you're great at starting all kinds of little businesses.
Speaker 2:Mike, I think you should just go for it, no, so anyway.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you know we can. We have some buildings downtown. I wonder. I don't know if you know or not, but I wonder what are those? Wouldn't be maybe great to use as a restaurant? If somebody's thinking about that, who's listening going? Huh, I wouldn't mind. Moving to Triumph, start opening a little restaurant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the bar that we have down there next to our Triumph Hall would be a great place to just start with something like that. It would be.
Speaker 1:You know, anyway, we need a restaurant. We do we need a restaurant. I'd that it would be. You know, anyway, we need a restaurant. We do we need a restaurant. I like to go to eat, right, you know, we don't have a motel, but candy and I, in our apartment building, we have one room set aside that we're going to have as a guest house, which would be a motel room that's a really great and we're remodeling it now as we speak.
Speaker 1:You know it's we're in the process, so we're hoping. We were hoping by august of this year we are going to be ready. But that's come and gone. It's kind of like Highway 4 Project. It's kind of come and gone, I mean weather.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the weather.
Speaker 1:It snowed, I know. I woke up and looked out the window and I said, candy, it snowed. She threw a fit and went back to sleep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was not prepared for that this morning. No, she threw a fit and went back to sleep. Yeah, I was not prepared for that this morning?
Speaker 1:No, I really wasn't either, but anyway it'll melt off, so it'll be gone Anyway. So we will have a little motel room in town, you know, until who knows. But anyway.
Speaker 2:yeah, we should put that in the paper.
Speaker 1:We will, but I've got to get it open first. I've got the king-size bed. Nice, we have some of the elements. When we get down here, I'll walk you down. Sounds great, anyway. Okay, so what else is going on? How about the playground? That was a big success.
Speaker 2:It has been the best blessing that we have done. We have had so many compliments from the citizens. I love to go there and see the kids just smiling, laughing, giggling, having a great time.
Speaker 1:What's your favorite piece of equipment there? I have mine. What's yours?
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know. I really like the little six-month to 24-month play structure. Okay, that has been something that we've had the most compliments on. Oh really that people never expected that, and so that has been a really great thing. I personally love the music. That's my favorite.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know why? For me, we were standing out there at the grand opening I'll call it that and we were over there talking and I was talking to your husband and stuff and all of a sudden I hear ding, ding, ding. I turn around and I go that's cool, that's something that you could enjoy without even looking at it. Yes, you know, I just thought that's nice. I like that a lot.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's my favorite part. But during the project that was one of the requests that I had from daycare centers. Is that? Oh really. They said we would love to have musical instruments, our children love to play with them, so that um inspiration came from them that worked out.
Speaker 1:That worked out really well. My son has not given up on calling me. I've got telling thursday mornings he can't call me. I'm on the podcast, right, he listens. So he'll know this later when he'll say that was me, that was me. Yeah, all right. So let's talk for a minute, because I'm way confused on this pond and all that's going on there.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:What can you tell me?
Speaker 2:So right now we have our PER report put into the USDA. That's basically our wish list. The wish list has got everything that we would need to completely redo the city's infrastructure, building the ponds to Where's the pond going to be. Well, that's to be determined right now.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, all right. I mean, we are working at trying to get it to the east of where our water and wastewater plants are right now. Okay, in that field, there, it'd be really convenient for us. Okay, but the city owns land west of town. Plants are right now, okay, in that field. There would be really convenient for us, okay, um, but the city owns land west of town, so it's um, it's really going to depend on where the state and will even, let us put it, there's a lot of restrictions that people don't maybe realize about everything from wetlands to um sizing and locations, from other people's homes to wells, and there's a lot that goes into it.
Speaker 1:So is this going to be like a play area? Yeah, a fishing pond, oh no, no, okay, no it's.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's a lagoon, Okay. Usually there's three lagoons that are there and it could be more. The last update that we had, they weren't going to be able to put three in on the land that we're talking about east of the waste plant, just because of the wetlands that are there. Okay, so all of that stuff is not determined at this point. It's kind of just waiting to get financial approval from the USDA how much money they would help us out with.
Speaker 1:That was my next question.
Speaker 2:Yep, we've asked for the moon and we'll see if we can get something from.
Speaker 1:It's a negotiation, isn't it?
Speaker 2:it is it is, and you know the the unfortunate part is there's so many other cities that need the same structure, infrastructure rebuild that we have to do here too, so so there's been like five I don't know some billion dollars that have been asked, $500 billion asked for from the USDA, and we are a small portion of that Holy smokes. And so it would help if they got a farm bill passed. That is really holding up the financial ends of a lot of things this happens in an election year?
Speaker 1:It does, and so after the first year, things should hopefully calm down and things will start to happen, maybe. Yeah, yeah, okay, so you wanted to talk about. You said the tax levy. Sure, you want to explain that to us?
Speaker 2:Sure, it's kind of a complicated deal, so I thought, maybe it would be a little bit to just give the basics of how it works. So our tax you'll hear us talking about tax capacity, right, and what that is in easy terms is basically the value of the city that we get taxed or we can collect taxes on. Okay, okay.
Speaker 1:Can you give us a number Like, just not a specific, but like a, you know? Let's say it's a million dollars or whatever you know.
Speaker 2:Yes, our tax capacity for payable in 2025 is $648,111. Okay, All right From last year, we had an increase in our tax capacity of $77,869.
Speaker 1:Okay, so how does that affect me then?
Speaker 2:How it affects you is, um, as a taxpayer here, um, basically the if your value of your home went up between last 2024 and 2025, it would affect you that way. If your value did not go up, it's not going to affect you so much. Um, because it's very hard to explain, I'm sorry. If your value goes up on your home, then your taxes are going to go up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get that are going to go on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get that. So our tax capacity went up because of town gained value. So they redid a whole. It is a good thing for the city as a whole. They actually went door to door in the entire city and changed everybody's tax values. So that's where we're gaining the extra tax capacity from 2024 to 2025. So everybody saw it on their taxes in 2024, but it takes a year for it to affect the city Right. So the city didn't see that until 2025 payables.
Speaker 1:How is that going to affect the city budget and what's going on there? Is this going to?
Speaker 2:so we can increase our city budget which, on our proposed tax levy, we have done to meet the 100 tax rate on the levy. So by doing that it changed the people's taxes. Like if you have a $100,000 home your taxes would go up about $31.
Speaker 1:For the year.
Speaker 2:For the year. Okay, so the council has asked to try to get that to a 95% tax rate.
Speaker 1:a 95% tax rate which according to where?
Speaker 2:we're at right now would actually make your taxes go down a dollar Okay.
Speaker 1:That's what we want. That's what we want. Yeah, so you got more money, but for the taxpayer itself.
Speaker 2:The city would get more money, but the taxpayer itself wouldn't see a change. Who do I thank for that? The council.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Thank you guys. Yes, so when I first started here, our tax rate was 125%, and the first year I did a tax levy we lowered it to 88%. So we had gained a lot of tax capacity and we were able to not have to increase our budget too much at that point. So our tax rate went down to 88 percent.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this money then goes for the infrastructure and for everything else around the city.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is good.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is yeah, okay. So then we gained some more tax capacity in 2024. So we did increase our levy and we taxed at 2024 at 95.7%. So we went from 88 to 95, but our citizens didn't see a lot of change as far as the city's taxes went. Citizens didn't see a lot of change as far as the city's taxes went just simply because the tax capacity had gone up, so it didn't affect them so much.
Speaker 1:Okay, let me ask you a question. I was doing a scene on the ballot. This time Fairmont has a question. They want to raise their sales tax. Yes, is this something that TriMont might do in the future, or do we need to?
Speaker 2:I have. They've never talked about it. Might do in the future, or do we need to? They've never talked about it I don't feel that it's something necessary for the city, unless we had some really big project. I'm not saying that they wouldn't approve it for our infrastructure. I can't say that because it's not my vote, but we don't have the sales option tax here in Tremont right now. Okay, so that's something that Fairmont is doing to fund some of their other projects.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what they're doing. Yeah, exactly, it just seems like I've watched and whenever one city does something, the others go. Huh, that worked out pretty well. And next thing you know, they're jumping on that same bandwagon and I thought I wonder if there's something in the works.
Speaker 2:There's not anything in the works for that at this point, but anything.
Speaker 1:You know I talked to John, our police chief, about this. Truman, you know they've gone now to sheriff's patrol. I'll call it. Yeah, and you know that's one of those things. Jackson has that same thing. Jackson is a little different there because they're at the county seat. That's where the sheriffs are. You know where Truman is, not the county seat, and him and I talked about that for a minute one day, about. You know, is this something that Trimon might go to? And I know there's been some discussion. This is not, and the council made that. They said that at the last meeting. No, that's not what we're looking at at all. They want to leave it alone. And that's what we want. That's not what we're looking at at all. They want to leave it alone and that's what we want is to keep our police chief and our police force intact. It just seems sometimes, like I said, cities jump on and they go.
Speaker 2:Huh, we can save a dollar, let's go with that, you know, I mean it's always good to save a dollar. It is Sometimes you. At what cost, though? Right, I mean just in between having one police officer to our current police officer, and we didn't have quite the coverage at that time. You could see the difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's nice to have John here and you know you need something. Well, you know, I introduced myself to him by pulling the cord over in one of the apartments that was still set up. I didn't realize it. He came in I said oh shoot, I'm arrested. He told me about that. Yeah, I said I am in trouble. Yeah, and we didn't know each other at the time, so he looked a little scarier than he does now Anyway. So all right.
Speaker 2:What else you got?
Speaker 1:I don't know. You haven't drank all your coffee yet, I know.
Speaker 2:I don't know too much more I mean. I could talk a lot about the levee, but oh, it gets confusing. It is confusing and it's hard to explain it to people when they don't have that background either.
Speaker 1:Without the background and without like charts to show and say looky here.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:I'm a visual learner.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I have to see it and go oh.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I have to see it and go. Oh yeah, and on the well, I was going to say radio, but it's basically the same concept On the podcast. On the radio it's harder for people to hear numbers and understand them, and so, yeah, the levy is interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the council. You know, at this next meeting they're going to have to make a few decisions to help me be able to set the budget again. This is we go through this every month and every month. Yeah, work sessions a lot just trying to get things narrowed down. You know it, it's not something that happens overnight and things change. So this next one probably the biggest thing is they'll have to make a decision on wage increases or staying the same with wages for next year, because that affects every department in our budget.
Speaker 1:Right, it does. Yeah, you brought that up, and so let me ask you the union.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, so I'm still a little bit. What union did you guys?
Speaker 2:join. We joined the IBEW, local 160.
Speaker 1:All right, and so what benefit is that to you and to the city?
Speaker 2:It's actually a benefit for all. Okay, so for us, as employees, we will have our terms and conditions in writing. Terms and conditions in writing Um, you know it, it is something that a lot of people might not think about is that council members come and go every two years we have a change in council, so at that point it's learning different personalities and learning how to work together as a team, and sometimes that can be difficult.
Speaker 2:And this way, when we have it in writing, this is what we are, that's what we get is they can't change that Right? So that is for us and, as the city, it's also a protection for the city. You know they also know what is expected.
Speaker 1:They know what they're going to get for their buck.
Speaker 2:They know, yeah, they know all of that stuff and everything is written out and I believe it also helps, and you guys is uh with healthcare Um it. Can you know cause you're?
Speaker 1:you're joining a huge union right.
Speaker 2:We have the option of having the medical insurance through them or the way we currently have it. Now All of that stuff is on negotiations. The union has been certified by the state, so everything is good. That way Sounds like a win-win. It's looking out for everybody on both sides of the fence. You know, we as employees have to be responsible, make sure that we're doing our job, and they as council and mayor. They have a responsibility making sure that they're treating us fairly.
Speaker 1:It sounds like a win-win to me Also, too. If you went with a different health care provider, maybe your rates would go down.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because it's a huge. You, the unions right, yeah, yeah they get better rates than you do on your own yeah and so that could be that could be helpful to you also it could be helpful for both sides it really can be you know it's um, I was speaking for myself.
Speaker 2:I I don't want this to gouge the city. That's not what we are wanting and that's not what we're after with this union?
Speaker 1:No, I don't think so. Yeah, I didn't read it that way, but I'm sure others may think that Some people think that a lot with union in general they do.
Speaker 1:You know, I wasn't a fan of unions as a kid growing up until I got to study them a little bit more and I joined a couple of unions. I said, oh, I kind of like this. Yeah, you know, there's benefits for both. There are and there can be. It can also be kind of a pain, but you know, but no, no, it's good. Yeah Well, what else you got Anything?
Speaker 2:I'm just super glad that you invited me here and that you wanted to talk about the city. It's so much fun, it's a great place and it is I. I love this city and we just want to see growth and development. And I know, right, yes, yeah, we um. Our slogan is a neat place to live and that's what we want. It's a neat place to live yeah, it's even on our going hog wild pig.
Speaker 1:This is the first time I've heard that.
Speaker 2:Oh, really, yeah, oh it's on our website too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, where have you?
Speaker 2:been. Don't you look at our website?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes yes, anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah no, it's great Our city has some potential for getting some new things like the clinic. Yeah, having our town center here, that's a huge plus.
Speaker 1:It is a huge plus.
Speaker 2:All of the activities that the town center does.
Speaker 1:Sundays in the park.
Speaker 2:Sundays in the park. Those are great Our churches and all the stuff that they do for our children in town, our playground, I mean it is a new place- Now if we can add a couple little things.
Speaker 1:A couple people put in some little stores downtown with who knows what Like a restaurant.
Speaker 2:We'd be uptown. Possibilities are endless. We'd be uptown, yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, you're invited back anytime you want, but first know, every month, every six weeks ish, sure. Whenever you have something going on, just call me. Okay, you know, and we'll get together and then folks will be able to listen to you. Yeah, thank you so much, kelly. You're welcome, mike thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:You're welcome. All right, folks, that's it for this uh episode. We have another one coming on a little later on today, so we'll also talk then to Joanne coming in, the mayor. I'm going to move on my best behavior. She's fantastic. Thanks, bye, bye-bye.
