YODER – The Yoder Town Council December meeting was scheduled for Monday, December 9 however due to scheduling conflicts, the council held the December meeting the following Tuesday, December 10. 

Mayor Norm Feagler called the meeting to order promptly at 7 p.m. which was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Present at the meeting were council members Jenna Krul and Bob Oaks. Also present were Rod Weyrich, town maintenance supervisor and town clerk/treasurer Lillian Green. Colby Sturgeon, town attorney, appeared via Zoom. Justin Burkart, emergency management/grant coordinator, and council members Amanda Fogle and Josh Haffner were absent.

A motion was made by Oaks to accept the December agenda as presented which was then seconded by Krul. The motion carried and the meeting agenda was approved. 

Oaks made a motion to approve the November 2024 meeting minutes which Krul seconded. The November meeting minutes were then approved by majority vote. The council moved on to approve the special meeting minutes as presented as well. 

Moving on to the November bills, Oaks motioned the town pay AFLAC and Brown Company in the monthly bills to which Krul provided a second to the motion. The motion carried and November bills, including AFLAC and Brown Company, were approved to be paid. 

Next, the council accepted public comment where there were no public comments to be had.

Under new business, the council discussed three building permits and Bomgaars going paperless. It was noted paper bills on charge accounts would cost the town an additional $3 to obtain.

Weyrich explained there were several new constructions in the town which required permits however the residents did not obtain permits from the town.

“They are all are complete already, unfortunately,” Weyrich said. “All three of them started their projects without notifying and all three of them I had to stop by and have a little chat with them and say we still have building permits.” 

Weyrich noted he also had Green send out letters to the residents in the bills. He noted one of the building permits was a shed that was moved it, one was a porch addition and the other permit was a place to store a camper for storage.

“Anyhow, three of them (permits) came in. They’re all inspected. They’re all completed. So, I think we should just move on from them,” Weyrich said.

Weyrich noted one of the residents was told by a local contractor he didn’t need a permit to build in town.

Krul motioned to accept the building permits which was then seconded by Oaks. 

Clerk Green spoke to the council on Bomgaars paperless billing, noting the company had recently made the decision to go paperless. Green explained, if the town should opt out of the paperless, statements would be emailed. 

After a brief discussion on the changing of times, the council agreed to avoid the $3 charge for a paper bill and submit the information required by Bomgaars.

Moving on to old business, the council discussed the town’s credit card capabilities.

“A couple of months ago, I was looking into some credit card options because there are several citizens who would prefer to pay by credit card,” Green said. “What I have given you is the two companies that I have looked into just for pros and cons and how much it’s going to be to set up, what they provide and what it looks.”

Green spoke to the council on her findings for a credit card company to use for town residents to pay town bills. Green discussed the various different charges from each of the companies she had evaluated. 

Green further explained there was no website for the town and there for no way for residents to pay their town bills online. 

Oaks stated there was no reason, at this time, to have a way for residents to pay online because Yoder was such a small town although the time may come at some point. 

Feagler and the council suggested Green collect more information on different companies to use. 

Weyrich provided a brief maintenance report to the council.

“I have a few things wrote down here. I have the generator ordered so it’s waiting for that to come in,” Weyrich said. “Also, that new computer for the water system, updated versions of it. We can get it up and going. Everything is working fine.”

Weyrich explained the town ended up with a grant last year which helped out with cyber security. He also noted he had contracted with a company to help with tree removal and trimming. 

“Today, we had a little problem with the – we decided to put batteries in some of our water system through the computer,” Weyrich explained. 

Weyrich mentioned he received notification the battery backup was down and he may need to purchase another. 

Weyrich also mentioned there were some issues with the building purchased next door to the community building, Jamie’s. 

“They had a little bit of an issue with this land next door,” Weyrich said. “I think we talked about it last meeting, about an easement or whatever but something happened where that land got sold without them knowing about the easement that the town had the not being able to build on it. We had somebody call and ask us some questions.” 

Weyrich explained Sturgeon took the first call, but they wanted to speak to Weyrich regarding the issue. 

“So, I went ahead and talked to the fellow and it was working with the title insurance. The title insurance actually missed it. I got to deal with that for Craig over here, I guess, was upset that he bought a piece of property without that being on the contract,” Weyrich said.

“That’s between him and the title [company],” Oaks said. 

Weyrich also mentioned he and Burkart had been working on another grant from economic development for cement. Weyrich noted portions of the town’s sidewalks were the original sidewalks formed in 1927. 

Sturgeon elaborated on Weyrich’s discussions regarding the local business during the legal report for the council. 

“So, I am going to just kind of piggyback off of Rod a little bit. That guy who called was an appraiser out of Cheyenne. The title company basically hired him to figure out how big of a screw up they made with, I believe it’s Craig Robbins who bought the store next door,” Sturgeon said. “Basically, I kind of explained to him, probably not as good as Rod, but that there’s a lot of utilities going through there. That’s why it’s there to simply just make sure something does not get built on top of our utilities, so we are not tearing down some of these houses to fix our water and he understood.”

Sturgeon encouraged Robbins to attend the council meeting and he explained Robbins was attempting to sort out the issues with the title company.

The council skipped over the report from Burkart in his absence. 

Green spoke to the council on the administrative items. She noted the town had received a few Christmas cards. She also reported the Yoder Town Hall would be closed on Wednesday, December 25 for Christmas and Wednesday, January 1, 2025, for New Year’s Day. 

The meeting entered into executive session and then adjourned. The next Yoder Town Council meeting will be Monday, January 13, 2025 at 7 p.m.