NEW ULM — The 2020 senior dining program lease for the Community Center’s kitchen and cafetorium will remain at $51 per day.

Lutheran Social Services (LSS) has leased the Community Center’s kitchen and cafetorium for years, to make, serve on-site and deliver off-site meals to seniors. Some of the meals prepared at the Community Center are sent to other communities, including Sleepy Eye, Springfield, Courtland and St. James.

Currently, the lease agreement is $51 per day. The general philosophy of the city is to adjust fees to account for inflation. The city staff’s recommendation for 2020 was to increase the lease fee to $53 per day.

As with past years, the council agreed the service provided by LSS was of value to area seniors. The council believes the senior dining program has helped keep seniors living in their homes instead of a nursing home, which save the city more than the fee increase.

“I think we need to do stuff for our seniors and I really don’t care if it goes outside the city,” Council President Charlie Schmitz said. “Everybody pays taxes in town, the seniors have paid their whole life. We do things for everyone else in the community and if this is the last thing we can do for them, so be it.”

LSS Regional Manager Sarah Anderson attended the meeting and explained that other communities do not charge for facility uses. St. James charges around 20 cents per meal served at their facility.

In the past, United Way has helped fund the program, but Anderson said the organization had not met its campaign goal resulting in a 16% cut to programs, which is $1,280 annual loss to LSS.

Anderson said the cost of the food served in each meal is $2 but the additional cost of labor, transportation and fees for facility use brings the average meal expense to over $7.40 per meal.

LSS asks senior diners to contribute if able but cannot charge or collect. The suggested contribution per meal is $4.50, but on average LSS receives $2.40 per meal at the community center. Meals on Wheels delivered to people’s homes bring in $3.18 per meal on average.

Councilor Les Schultz made the motion to keep the fee at $51. He said it would be a tragedy if LSS was forced to close down because they were priced out of the Community Center.

The motion was seconded by Councilor Larry Mack.

The lease fee charged to LSS for senior dining has been an annual point of discussion for New Ulm.

In 2015, the city agreed to reduce the LSS lease fee from $86 per day to $50 per day.

In 2016, a 2% increase was adopted, bringing the lease to $51 per day. This fee remained in place for 2017, 2018 and 2019 despite increases in city expenses.

In 2014, a comprehensive analysis determined the city expense is at least $101.30 per day.

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The New Ulm Baseball Association’s (NUBA’s) request to credit their 2020 state tournament field rent and concession stand user fees to the cost of the observation deck was denied by the city council.

NUBA owes a debt to the city for the inclusion of the observation deck in the Johnson Park upgrades. NUBA wanted the observation deck included in the projects for use in the 2020 state amateur baseball tournaments. It is believed the tournaments will bring in additional revenue to the community.

To pay off the debt, NUBA has requested Johnson and Mueller Park field rent rates and concession stands are credited to the debt. NUBA’s estimate of its 2020 state tournament fees is $13,000. The observation deck cost is approximately $147,500.

The request previously came before the Park and Recreation Commission, but the commissioners made no formal recommendation.

City Councilor David Christian said three of the parks’ commissioners; Bob Skillings, LeRoy Flor and Jim Bastian recused themselves as they were members of the NUBA board. Rather than force the commission to make a recommendation, Christian suggested it be sent to the council for the final decision with no recommendation.

Christian was concerned this would impact the Park and Recreation budget. This user fee would pay off some of the $147,500 debt to New Ulm’s general fund, but it would take away from the Park and Recreation budget. The $13,000 in anticipated fees is already part of the budget.

Another concern was this would lead to a precedent in which other users requested a discount for fees. Christian said the American Legion does a tournament every year and would likely request the fee reduction too.

Park and Recreation Director Tom Schmitz agreed this would likely happen if this fee was waived.

Christian reminded the council there was no written promise for NUBA to pay the city back for the observation deck and no time limit was established.

“There is no big hurry to pay back,” he said.

Schultz said it will take time for NUBA to pay off the observation fee, but the council knew that when approving the deck. He made the motion to deny the request with a second from Fischer.

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The proposed changes to the New Ulm Fire Department by-laws were tabled by the council.

In October, the Fire Department voted on the new by-laws. The new system changes the attendance requirements at fire calls. The previous by-laws required a 70% attendance rate with recorded excuses. The new policy would set attendance at 50 % but would have no excuses.

Christian was concerned this could hurt the ISO rating, which affected the city’s insurance. He did not want taxes to increase because firefighters were only responded 50% of the time.

Chief Paul Macho said the average number of firefighters per call does impact the ISO rating, but attendance will be calculated differently going forward.

Silent calls, in which just the chief or officers attend the call, or false alarms that are called will not be counted toward attendance.

Macho estimated 125 calls are made a year, but once silent and canceled calls are taken into account, it is close to 80 or 90 fire calls. Most of the canceled calls happen during the day when volunteer firefighters are working another job.

Schultz was concerned firefighters would resign because they could not meet the criteria.

City Manager Chris Dalton supported the change because the 50% requirement would level the field. Underperforming members would be forced to decide if this was a job they could do.

Schultz asked how many firefighters would be lost if this by-law was passed.

Macho was uncertain but thought it could affect three or four.

Christian was concerned the dedicated firefighter who makes 90% of calls might start to slip if everyone else only attends 50% of fires.

Dalton doubted high performing firefighters would back down if the requirement changed, but Christian said he disagreed after speaking with some New Ulm firefighters.

Christian suggested the jump from 70% to 50% was too large. He said he would not have hesitated with a 60% requirement.

Macho said these by-laws were approved by the fire department by a 29 to 11 vote. This meant a third of the firefighters did not support the change. Macho said a few of the firefighters who did not support the change believed the 50 % attendance was too low.

Schultz said he would not support a by-law change that caused the city to lose firefighters. He suggested tabling the by-law change to review additional data.

A motion was unanimously passed to table the by-law decision.

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The city authorized an agreement with Nierengarten & Hippert, Ltd. for city attorney services for the next two years.

Nierengarten & Hippert are the current firms representing New Ulm. The original agreement was for a single year renewal with a 3% increase in fees, but the council wants a longer contract term. The previous contract was for five years.

Attorney Roger Hippert had no objection to extending the contract term. He clarified in the event any changes would occur at his offices, such as a resignation or retirement, the city would receive notice.

The two-year contract includes a 90-day notice to the city if a partner in the firm plans to leave.