At the April 8 city council meeting, one of the first topics to come before the council was the list of notices involving property maintenance concerns and actions. The city’s code enforcer, Joel Johnson, presented the board with an updated list of properties that were not in compliance. Of the original list of 67 notices, 21 are pending council approval, and 35 have yet to be adhered to. Johnson will attend the May monthly meeting where the council will make decisions on how to proceed with those properties that are not in compliance, whether it be issuing fines or a different type of action. During this part of the meeting, Ruth Bouza along with Wagner Area Growth Director, Margaret Doom, spoke about helping both local residents and the beautification of the city by giving some homes a new coat of paint. Bouza Construction would be willing to provide the paint and ideas were tossed around about potentially hiring high school students to do the actual painting. It was discussed and an application will be in the works in order to apply to be a receiver of this service.

Another topic of interest was a discussion of ETJ concerns. Items of concern that were brought up by residents within the one-mile ETJ boundary were that ETJ residents do not feel that they have proper representation when it comes to matters involving the ETJ, the building of shouses and barndominiums within the ETJ, lot sizing and property zoning as it affects what one can build within the boundaries of the ETJ, Ronnie Kokesh as an example of building a shouse within the ETJ and how he is in compliance to do so, etc. After everyone was done speaking their thoughts about the ETJ, the council came to a decision that a meeting with the ETJ board needed to be scheduled in order to discuss the matter further.

On the topic of the city beginning a recycling program, City Administrator Debbra Houseman gave a report that after reaching out to the Yankton Sioux Tribe’s Recycling Program a partnership will be formed. The recycling center is still collecting cardboard and is willing to place a recyclable cardboard bin by the Wagner maintenance shop. They will pick up the cardboard two times a week and will provide this service for free to the city and its residents. Watch for upcoming announcements of when this service will begin.

The city will also see a new set of stop signs placed at the intersection of 1st and Grant running North and South. As there is a lot of foot traffic from students after school walking this route either home or the Boys and Girls Club, council members of the Street Department decided that this is an area where there is currently no yield or stop signs and due to safety concerns proposed stop signs be placed. These signs will not be placed at the intersection until after the 20 days that have to be observed after the notice/minutes are ran in the Wagner Post, the city’s official newspaper.

Finally, construction on Highway 46 is expected to begin within the next couple of weeks. A pre-construction meeting was held on April 8th with City Administrator Houseman in attendance. Survey crews were seen at intersections along Hwy 46 in discussion with members of the city’s maintenance team on April 10.