Council considers raise for mayor position

Medford’s mayor will get a $2,500 pay increase under a proposal that drew council support at Monday night’s committee of the whole meeting.

The proposal, calls for an increase now and sets up a schedule for regular review of mayor and city council pay every other year, will go to the city council for final action on March 19.

Council member Dave Brandner raised the issue prior to the meeting noting that the last time the city looked at the mayor’s salary was in 2019 when it was set at $10,000 a year. Unlike other members of the council, the mayor does not get a per diem for attending meetings.

Brandner proposed raising the pay to $15,000 a year.

“I was looking at the mayor’s position as a whole,” Brandner said, noting he looked at all the duties and time a mayor puts into the position. He said his recommendation was based on the mayor putting in 20 hours of work each week at a rate of about $15 per hour which he compared to wages at local fast food restaurants.

Brandner said they need to look to the future and if a younger go-getter would be interested in taking on the position when it only pays $10,000 a year. In addition, Brandner called for regular review of the wages so that increases wouldn’t be as large in future years.

“Why would I do that job when I can work at McDonalds and make way more than that?” Brandner asked.

For his part, Mayor Mike Wellner said he would prefer a smaller increase of $2,500.

“I thought a $5,000 increase was too See CITY on page 5 much,” Wellner said. He also opposed a suggestion that the mayor receive per diem pay for meetings. “I feel uncomfortable about that,” he said, noting he already attends a number of meetings, such as planning commission, where no one gets paid to be there.

“I feel uncomfortable getting paid for that when no one else does,” he said. Wellner said he would prefer seeing the base salary go up.

“I think it keeps it less complicated to do it that way,” he said.

Council member Peggy Kraschnewski supported the idea of a regular review of the wages. “I think reviewing it every three years would be awesome,” she said.

“The years go by fast,” Wellner said, agreeing with the need to get a review on a schedule. Wages for elected officials can only be changed prior to an election. With half the council up for election each year, any adjustment to wages would take two years to fully implement.

While Brandner initially proposed a three-year review, council members instead favored doing it every other year so that it would always include the mayor’s term too.

“This is my 20th year of being mayor,” Wellner said, noting that when he started the pay for the mayor was about $6,000. He noted that they would often go long periods without any raises for council members.

Council members voted unanimously with Randy Meyer and Laura Holmes absent, to recommend the $2,500 wage increase for the mayor and to go to an every other year, review of the wages for the mayor and council.

Shelter and bandshell

With the new city park band shell and downtown pavilion set to open to the public this spring, council members recommended setting rental rates for the structures in line with other shelter rentals around the city with exceptions for designated community-wide events such as the downtown farmers market, Chamber of Commerce events, and the Kiwanis Summer Concert Series which will beginning this summer.

City coordinator Joe Harris noted they have already gotten requests for people to hold weddings and for church groups to use the new bandshell in the city park for events.

Council members were in support of the facilities being used. “We want people to use it,” said council member Clem Johnson.

Harris explained the rental of the Tombstone Pizza Band Shell would include the stage and 150 foot radius of the bandshell excluding the camping stalls and allow access to the sound and lighting equipment.

Harris said to prevent double booking events, that the Chamber of Commerce and the summer concert series would submit dates to the council to be on the calendar. The Kiwanis Summer Concert Series will run on Thursday nights beginning May 23 and run through the summer with the final concert on September 5. The concerts will be held beginning at 7 p.m.

The Royal Credit Union Pavilion in downtown Medford will also be available for rent throughout the year with the weekly farmers market designated to use it weekly from May through October on Tuesdays. In addition, the Chamber of Commerce events for Harvest Days, Christmas and Grass on the Black bluegrass festival and other times will be included.

Harris had suggested the council could consider a higher price for renting the pavilion due to having access to the kitchen area which includes a refrigerator and serving windows. While there is no stove, there is additional power to the kitchen to allow multiple roaster ovens to be plugged in.

Johnson made a motion to keep it in line with the $55 charged for other shelters this year with the note to have it reviewed next year to see if they should increase it.

People interested in renting the stage and pavilion buildings, or any other city-owned shelters, should contact city hall.

Odor control

The city of Medford will be using wood chips to cut down the smells coming from the city’s wastewater treatment facility.

Plant superintendent Alex Zenner explained that in order to reduce the corrosion to equipment in the headworks area of the plant, where untreated waste enters the plant, they would like to keep it vented.

“We all know that wastewater does not smell the best,” Zenner said. To address this he proposed using a filter to reduce the smells. He noted that a common filter is to use activated charcoal, however, he noted that this can get expensive and would require ongoing maintenance to change out the charcoal.

Instead he proposed having the exhaust air blown through a tank filled with wood chips. Bacteria that naturally grows on the wood chips would capture and consume the particles that cause the smell.

“It’s a very simple but effective process,” he said. He said Marshfield has used the same sort of system at their plant to reduce odors with success.

The odor control was just one change to the ongoing project at the treatment plant. The other dealt with making changes to allow the plant staff to bypass individual treatment cells in order to do maintenance. He said currently they can bypass two cells and leave three running or bypass three and work on the other two. The change would allow them to take one cell at a time out of service allowing the plant to continue to function efficiently.

Another change proposed was to improve safety and reduce long term costs by installing direct line feeds from the bulk chemical tanks at the plant to a smaller tank in the headworks area. Zenner explained that this would eliminate having staff to fill the tanks manually. It would also save on costs over time for chemical purchases. Filling the smaller tank would cost more with additional deliveries needed than the large tanks which the city gets filled by the semi-load.

Other changes in the plant include switching out aging PVC pipes with new stainless steel ones. The older pipes are getting fragile and breaking.

“It is like working with glass,” Zenner said. While in the past, the city needed to use PVC pipes due to the chemicals being used there, a switch in the chemicals allows the city to use more durable stainless steel.

The combined cost for the changes total $83,400. The money for the work will come from the wastewater treatment department budget.

In other business, council members:

 Accepted the materials and labor bids for the public works department. Materials bids were in line with prior years as far as cost without significant increase. In keeping with past practice, the city accepted all bids for backhoe and dump trucks and operators allowing the flexibility of hiring local firms as needed for tasks such as snow removal.

 Recommended hiring Jensen and Sons Chip and Seal Coating for street striping at a cost of $11,900. They were the low bidder for the work with the other bid of $24,925 from Fahrner Asphalt. Council member Mike Bub questioned if anyone reviews what was painted in the past versus what gets painted now. He noted that there have been changes in the traffic and walking flow due to work at Holy Rosary Catholic Church and that a previous no-parking area where there had been steps is no longer needed and should be relocated to where new steps were installed. City coordinator Joe Harris said he would have them make the changes.