MINUTES TOWN COUNCIL MEETING TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 2, 2025

HOT SPRINGS CITY HALL109 MAIN ST, HOT SPRINGS MT 59845

MEETING ALSO HELD VIA ZOOM

CALL TO ORDER By Mayor Woods at 7:00 p.m.

ROLL CALL Weatherly, Smith, Carr, Welker, Woods, Gray

Also Present: Scott Vollmer, Cody Scott, Tony Tinacci, Shanna Camenzind, Mary Whitsett, Mike Geddes, Steven Sheffield, Eric Larson, Justin Ludeman, Jerry Kontos, Peg Winebrenner

MINUTES Motion to approve minutes from 8/5/25 regular town council meeting and 8/12/25 special town council meeting Smith/Carr 4-0 pass

CLAIMS Weatherly/Smith 4-0 pass

FINANCIALS Not available at time of meeting

REPORTS

MAYOR Woods reported he had been working with the engineer and funding agency to figure out ways to use the remainder of the ARPA grant money from the blower project. There will be new heaters at the lift station and possibly new maintenance equipment for sewer department. A lot of time has been spent working on the budget, Amy found a few issues with the taxes and has been working with the county to fix these.

PUBLIC WORKS has been filling potholes, cleaning out ditches on North Rd. Woods is in talks with some people in the Tribal Loop off North Rd and they are helping to acquire bigger culverts in that area for run off. Alan Lamb has been working on his lot and the PW crew has been clearing the ditch and culverts there to aid runoff issues. They have also been busy with weed eating, mowing, trash clean up and picking up brush and yard waste around town.

FIRE DEPT has been extremely busy with multiple car crashes and grass fire over the past month

POLICE Chief Larson presented report. He reported there has been a felony arrest in connection with the spray paint incident around town last year. Woods added that Larson had been investigation the incident here and also has good relations with Lake County so when they had the same issue there, he was able to assist and share information. There was also discussion on the school resource officer position that Officer Ludeman will be filling to help with issues at the school. Woods also advised that the advanced DUI training some of our officers had just completed was paid for by DUI task force.

Winebrenner asked if it would be possible to post weekly police department updates on a social media site or webpage. Gray explained there used to be a Police facebook page, however many people would try to report crimes and communicate through that page. If the department chooses to start posting again people would need to know it would be an informational page only, not a communication page.

There was discussion on bears in town and Welker suggested requiring businesses to have bear proof cans or enclosures for their trash cans.

CLERK – Gray explained that taxable valuation calculations this year in relation to the voted mills vs regular mills and some of the challenges she has run into with the changes. Gray has been working with the new county clerk and treasurer to help assist her with some of the paperwork. Amy and Mike created a spreadsheet for determining tax increase

and decrease and has shared it with the county and Local Government services for use by other entities.

LIBRARY report presented by Peg Winebrenner

ZONING COMPLIANCE Woods stated no building requests, just working with a couple of people on some water issues

PARKS AND REC Weatherly had nothing new to report for parks and rec at this time

PUBLIC COMMENT FOR EACH AGENDA ITEM WILL BE ALLOWED

OLD BUSINESS -none

NEW BUSINESS

RESOLUTION # 2026-01Lib A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE METHOD OF LEVYING VOTED LIBRARY MILLS AS REQUIRED BY LAWS 2025, CHAPTERS 674 AND 767 PASSED IN THE 69TH MONTANA LEGISLATIVE SESSION –

Smith/Carr 4-0 pass

RESOLUTION # 2026-01R A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE METHOD OF LEVYING VOTED MILLS AS REQUIRED BY LAWS 2025, CHAPTERS 674 AND 767 PASSED IN THE 69TH MONTANA LEGISLATIVE SESSION

Welker/Weatherly 4-0 pass

RESOLUTION # 2026-02R RESOLUTION FOR ADOPTING A BUDGET FOR THE TOWN OF HOT SPRINGS Smith/Carr 4-0 pass

RESOLUTION # 2026-03R RESOLUTION FOR SETTING THE PAY RATES EMPLOYEES/CONTRACT WORKERS FOR THE 2025-2026 BUDGET YEAR Weatherly/Welker 4-0 pass

NEW SIDING LIBRARY BUILDING Winebrenner explained the library foundation had asked for bids and received two bids. They chose the higher bid because the company had experience, employees and could complete the job quicker. Library building is owned by the town requiring the towns approval for the siding job. The foundation will donate the money to the town and the town will pay for the siding job with the donated funds. A motion was made to approve the siding on the library. The color will be light stone with tan trim, total price is $32,220 and will include the following terms of financing $10,000 down, $7500 the day the contractor starts the job and the remainder paid at final completion. Smith/Carr 4-0 pass

PAY APP STILLWATER ELECTRIC – Gray reported she had not received the pay app yet

SKATE PARK – ABANDONMENT OF PROPERTY The property that is to be abandoned is the street that runs from A Street behind the library down to the school track. The property will be donated to the Tribe for the purpose of using the land for a skate park that is being funded by a private donor and the tribe. The tribe will be responsible for all maintenance, insurance and the vault restroom on the property. We will need a resolution to formalize the abandonment. The

tribe was going to try to have this ready prior to this meeting but it didn’t get done. Council voted to indicated they are willing to abandon property after proper procedures have been completed Welker/ Weatherly 4-0 pass

PUBLIC COMMENT NON-AGENDA ITEMS

Geddes asked about the Generator on the food truck run by Alan and Darla. Gray explained that she had talked to them and they are waiting on an electrician to put in electricity they can connect to so they wont have to run off a generator.

ADJOURN

Smith/Carr 4-0 pass 7:52 p.m.