Letter to the editor: Nelson

Letter to the editor:

In last week’s paper, Georgiann Musolf had a letter to the editor published. Unfortunately, Mrs. Musolf had several “facts” incorrect. I felt a need to write a follow-up letter to correct those inaccuracies.

First, Mrs. Musolf wrote about the issue with the bidding of the work for our new aquatic center and the water main on 7th Street NW. Mrs. Musolf mistakenly referred to this as a “Best Value Bid” process. Best Value Bidding and straight bidding are two different processes cities can use to bid projects. This project she refers to was not a Best Value Bid process. The city used straight bids for this project. Meaning the low bid got the job. There were two aspects to this. The base bid was a large water main to be installed to the aquatic center. Along with that, there was an alternate project which extended the water main down 7th Street NW to Mantorville Avenue. In the bid documents it was spelled out the bid would be awarded to whoever had the lowest “Base Bid.” Every contractor who bid on this project signed the documents stating they understood how the bidding would work. Therefore, after the bids were opened we could not combine the Base Bid and the Alternate bids and award on the combined bid amount. In this care a contractor had a lower bid when the Base and Alternate were combined, however, his base bid amount was higher than the contractor who was awarded the bid. It is unfortunate the contractor did not understand this, even though he signed off stating he did understand it. I’m not at liberty to say why the City decided to settle out of court with the contractor, but I will say for myself, I would have hated to see the Aquatic Center project delayed. There is a lot of excitement building around the Aquatic Center and we need to keep that project on track.

Second, Mrs. Musolf questions the reasoning behind the purchase of a new ladder truck for the Kasson Fire Department. We have been told the current ladder truck no longer meets NFPA standards. In addition it is in need of several repairs which would cost many times what the truck is worth. Not meeting NFPA standards can put the City’s insurance rating at risk. We simply cannot do that to our citizens. The current Fire Chief and the Deputy Chiefs put in many hours researching what would best serve the community. They were able to come up with specifications which give us a truck that will fit in the current fire hall with no modifications needed to the hall, and with many safety features which will help to keep our firefighters safe. In addition, the cost of this truck came in at a reasonable amount.

Along with this, Mrs. Musolf makes reference to a new fire hall and some other future planning. Yes, the city does have a conceptual drawings for a new Public Safety Building. These drawing were required for that grant. Unfortunately, we were not selected for that grant. In fact, I don’t believe any city in Minnesota was selected for that grant. One thing I have always felt was important as a City Council member is long range thinking. Yes, we need to take care of today’s problems and today’s issues, but we also need to think how these decisions affect us in five years, in 10 years, and in 20 years. I expect our City staff to be constantly thinking about where Kasson will be in the future. Will the future include a full-time fire chief? In 15 or 20 years, it might.

Mrs. Musolf’s third statement is a bit confusing. She criticizes the City for hiring three full-time employees after a long-time employee retired. Actually, the City of Kasson just celebrated two retirements of City employees two weeks ago and a retirement this past summer. In addition we had a full-time employee leave the City a couple of months ago. Yes, we need to replace these staff. The City provides many services residents have come to depend on. We need staff to keep those services going. I don’t understand how Mrs. Musolf, or anyone, can criticize us for this.
The Kasson City Council meets at 6:00 p.m. on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month. At the beginning of each meeting is a time when the public is invited to make statements or ask questions. It is rare to have anyone from the public to show at these meetings. In fact, I think it has been over a year since I have seen Mrs. Musolf at one of our meetings. By attending the meetings, one can then get the facts instead of just “hearing it around town.”  

Thank you for the opportunity to address this.
Matt Nelson