May 20, 2025

City of Townsend

Council Meeting Minutes May 20, 2025

Call to Order: Mayor Rauser called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm. In attendance were council members Nate Brown, Angie Wintrow, JB Howick, Vivian Boaz, and Doug Sitton. Also in attendance were Ruby Taylor, Shawn & Nichole Smith, Nancy Marks, Mike Evans, Eric Crusch and Kari Williams.

Minutes from May 6, 2025: Vivian moved to approve the minutes from May 6th. Angie seconded the motion. All in favor motion carried.

Eric (Public Works): stated he has received a request for a large amount of Bulk Water. He stated that with this amount of water, he is asking council if the Bulk Water Rate should be increased. (Eric spoke at this time as he had to leave meeting early.)

Bike Rodeo on Saturday, May 31st: Ruby Taylor spoke about this event that will be held from 8:00am to 1:00pm at Heritage Park. She requested a Street Closure on South Pine and C Street along Heritage Park. JB moved to approve the request. Doug seconded the motion. All in favor, motion carried.

Fireworks Ordinance Drafts: Two drafts were presented. One draft was written by JB Howick, and the other draft was written by Vivian Boaz. Both council members are on the Fireworks Ordinance Committee. Mayor Rauser stated that these drafts came to be after suggested revisions were made. There is a lengthy draft and one that has been condensed. Angie stated she’d like the general penalty section to follow the rest of the ordinances in order to keep them consistent, and right now they do not. Nate questioned having the times for New Year’s Eve fireworks beginning at 10pm and stated it seems late if families want to celebrate New Year’s Eve with fireworks prior to that time. Angie also stated she’s not on board with allowing someone with a Firework permit to set fireworks off at any tie of the day/night just because they have a permit. Vivian stated that her thoughts are to have City Hall staff issue firework permits, just as they do Street Closure requests. The Noise Ordinance was also brought up in relation to the Firework’s ordinance. The City cannot dictate what the Broadwater County Sheriff’s office will do in response to the firework’s rules and regulations. JB stated that one of the drafts reflect the results of the survey they sent out, however, the rest of the council did not see those results. JB asked if the city council would prefer to do away with the committee process and start evaluating ordinances on schedule as they turned in by individuals in the city council. If the council wishes to proceed with the committee process, then maybe the council’s response should have been that we are presented with two and we should only have one to review and then send the committee back to resolve its differences. JB stated that he will abstain from voting on one or the other. Mayor Rauser stated that any legislator who submits a bill and then abstains should probably have never submitted a bill. She stated she would entertain a motion to proceed with the document proposed fireworks ordinance draft revision 3.0 dated 4/1/2025. No motion was made. Mayor Rauser asked if there was a motion to proceed with the document titled Chapter 9-Fireworks. Vivian made a motion to proceed with Chapter 9 Fireworks. Nate seconded the motion. Nate and Vivian voted in favor. Angie, JB, and Doug voted not in favor. Motion failed. Mayor Rauser stated that both documents will go back to the fireworks committee.

Budget Amendments: Mayor Rauser asked Kari to speak on the additioanl budget amendments needed for fiscal year 2025. Kari stated that budget amendments are requested for the following funds:

  1. Fire Relief – exceeded budget appropriation
  2. Capital Fire – exceeded budget appropriation due to a transfer needed to Fire Relief
  3. Sewer – Kari only budgeted for one bond payment, instead of two
  4. ARPA – received additional revenue and paid additional invoices, exceeding appropriations.
  5. Capital Water – Invoices for construction on the Townsend Water System came in quicker than anticipated, exceeding appropriations

Kari stated that these are needed to increase the original budget appropriations. JB made a motion to approve the budget amendments as presented. Angie seconded the motion. All in favor, motion carried. There will ba a Public Hearing on June 17th at 6:30pm prior to the regular council meeting.