City Council compromises on pickleball, gives police raises

Conservative and Libertarian residents of Lonsdale might be happy about at least one key point in the 2023-year-end audit for the city.

While presenting the city’s annual audit Thursday evening, Abdo Certified Public Accountants Governmental Service Partner Tom Olinger shared notes with the mayor and council that Lonsdale has the lowest tax rate and lowest taxes per capita in Rice County. But those are lower for a reason, argued Councilor Brian Wermerskirchen.

Wermerskirchen got into a brief discussion regarding pickleball courts that he said are becoming more and more expensive as time goes on. Councilor Cindy Furrer agreed, while Mayor Tim Rud and Councilor Kevin Kodada pushed to get a real quote from contractors.

But first, the council approved a raise for the police department. As City Administrator Joel Erickson explained, the city is of the belief that public sentiment toward police since the 2020 riots has caused police forces around the state to hollow out.

“Basically, the reason for doing this is officer retention and recruitment,” he said. “We’ve had an open full-time position since I believe August of last year, and have not had one application. Obviously, that’s a direct impact of the unnecessary and ridiculous ‘Defund the Police’ movement and extreme lack of respect for law enforcement.”

While the department normally gets a raise at the start of the year along with additional contract negotiations, Erickson pointed out that Lonsdale police are currently compensated well below the market rate.

While the average pay scale for similarly sized communities comes out to $38-$48 per hour for police officers, Lonsdale was averaging $30-$41 an hour. So, in an attempt to fill the open position and keep their current officers, a “goodwill” pay increase of 7-13% was granted at the middle of the year.

Pickleball

The police raises sparked far less debate among councilors than six pickleball courts, which are quoted to cost the city $280,000. However, the quote isn’t official, as the city hasn’t advertised for bidding on the contract.

Earlier this year, the Lonsdale Parks Board suggested six permanent pickleball courts be constructed in Jaycee Park. The idea comes after a popular trial period in the hockey rink, where temporary pickleball courts were set up last summer.

However, the project proposal also comes amid a $1.2-million purchase of the former Lonsdale Clinic and seeks to divert $100,000 from the trail-maintenance fund. With engineering costs, lights and an additional 10% contingency, that number jumps to $400,000. This was cause for concern to Wermerskirchen.

“Just personally, I have a tough time with this project overall,” he said. “Just every time I see the numbers, they just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger.”

Rud and Kodada argued that getting the actual bids from contractors is their current intention.

“I would say, I mean, you almost have to know what the number is before you decide,” Rud said. “Even if you don’t move forward with the project, you’ve got to have a number. In fairness to the park board, if they did all this due diligence and work on putting this forward, the least we can do as city council is put a price that we can send back to the park board. … If they bring forth an idea and all of a sudden, we say ‘Well, no, we don’t care what you think. We’re just gonna kill it.’”

Wermerskirchen said the money is better spent ensuring accessible trails leading to the new city hall and library, which the clinic is being turned into.

“I’m not saying I don’t care what they think,” he said. “That’s not the impression. And I don’t want that to be the impression that anybody’s putting out there because that’s not the impression I’m giving. That’s absolutely not what I’m saying. I do appreciate the work that the park board is doing. But I’m also hearing what a lot of people are saying, and I’ve heard a lot of people say that they’re concerned about this money being spent on this project. That’s what I’m saying.”

The group ultimately reached a consensus to get a second quote from Stantec, the engineering firm that drew up the design and quote. The second quote will look at a final price for six courts and four courts, and is expected to be brought forward again at a meeting sometime in the next month.