Excavators and Trails
By PJ Martin
Editor, The Herald-News
The Edmonton City Council met in a special called session on Thursday, October 1st, with the following in attendance: Mayor Doug Smith, Council members Teresa Hamlett, Curt Estes, Cathy Nunn, and Tommy England, Police Chief David Robertson, City Clerk/Administrator Dawn Devore, Parks & Recreation Director Brian Garrett, ABC Administrator Fred Ray, City Attorney Brian Pack, and PJ Martin from The Herald-News.
Mayor Doug Smith opened the public hearing on Municipal Road Aid Funds and Local Government Economic Assistance (LGEA) Funds and their use.
Mayor Smith asked, “Dawn, was there any written comments?” Devore replied, “No, there isn’t.”
“If there are no public or written comments, I will close the public hearing,” said Mayor Smith.
Next, the mayor opened the city council meeting and declared a quorum present.
The minutes from the three previous meetings, September 3rd, 17th, and 24th, were all approved as written.
The first item was to set the city’s trick-or-treat hours. Mayor Smith stated, “The Chamber of Commerce trick-or-treat around the square has been set for 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 31st. In the years past, the city has been from 4 to 7 p.m.”
Hamlett made the motion to accept those hours, and Estes seconded it. The motion was approved.
Public Works Moe Hensley presented the water, gas, and sewer department report. “For September we had four water taps, one sewer tap, one gas tap, fixed 14 water leaks, replaced two meter savers…We’ve started fixing our yards last week, done some leak detection, coated the little blue building up next to the RBS… and we put some of the ice guards back on the city hall.”
Mayor Smith said, “Next, we need open bids for the purchase of a mini excavator.” He then asked Devore, “Were there any bids received?”
Devore replied, “We have two bids, one from Wright Implement (John Deere), and one from KATO Compact Excavator.”
Devore read the bids: Wright Implement’s bid was $74,500 and KATO Compact Excavator’s bid was $52,500. Neither bid mentioned the warranty. Hensley stated that their old excavator was KATO, same thing, just a mid-version and old.
The KATO Compact Excavator Sales bid was approved.
Next, application to bid for blacktopping city streets using Local Access Roads Program (LARP) funds.
“The way that you all have done it in the past is if you have a street, you let us know. Otherwise, you let Moe and the Mayor kind of decide which streets need it. I put in yesterday for about $90,000 worth of, they call it LARP now, money,” explained Devore, adding, “We get $30,000 a year in regular municipal road aid.”
The motion was made and approved to advertise for the paving of various streets to be decided. However, the work may not occur until the spring due to waiting times in the process.
Chief David Robertson was unable to attend, but his report was included in the meeting packet. In September, there were 3 arrests, 6 non-injury accidents, 1 injury accident, 5 alarms, 3 animal complaints, 6 domestic disputes, 1 DUI, 1 fight, 1 investigation opened, 12 motorist assists, 20 medical assists, 29 traffic stops, 1 warrant served, 1 escort, 50 complaints, and 3 citations written. They patrolled 3,665 miles.
911 Director Jordan Crump was training and unable to attend.
ABC Administrator Fred Ray stated that all of the businesses were in compliance.
Next was Parks and Recreation Director Brian Garrett, who reported, “The Edmonton Memorial Park Fall League started this month. We have 89 total playing this fall. That’s ages four through 11 roughly. We have eight teams that play every Monday night for six weeks. We hosted five football games for the month, three middle school and two little leagues… We also aerated and sowed our ryegrass two days ago.”
Mayor Smith stated, “It was included in the budget for this year to resurface the tennis courts.”
The approval to advertise for bids to resurface the courts was approved.
Resolution #2026-2027-03 to allow Mayor Smith to apply and sign documents for the Recreational Trails Program for the 2026 grant. The grant funding maximum is 80% of the estimated project cost of $339,000. If awarded, this grant is to be used to assist the development of the trail through the back section of the park. The Resolution was approved with no discussion.
There was no fire department report.
City Attorney Brian Pack had no items to discuss.
The meeting was adjourned.
