One of the bigger agenda items that was discussed by the City Council at the regular monthly meeting was presented by Wagner Area Development Director, Margaret Doom. Margaret had been contacted to see if Wagner would be interested in the opportunity to submit a proposal to not only be the host site Charles-Mix County fairgrounds, but also to build a new facility. The facility would include a commercial kitchen, dining hall for 300 people, board room, indoor rodeo sized arena and an indoor shooting sports arena. These facilities would be rentable to the public. The proposal has a deadline of October 21st for bids to be submitted and is open to all of Charles-Mix County towns. The initial estimate of the project is $2 million dollars to be raised over the next couple of years with construction then beginning in Spring of 2027. Requirements of minimum bids to be accepted include at least 10 acres of land and a plan on how to raise $1 million by December of 2025 and then to raise another $1 million by December 2026. Even though the community that ends up getting the bid to build would foot the costs for the project, any money raised through rentals would go back into the Charles Mix County 4-H Foundation and not the city. Margaret presented the general information to the city council to see if there was interest to proceed or not in the bidding process. It was also brought up by residents that attended the meeting the impact that this type of rental establishment would have on businesses/organizations such as the Wagner Theater and American Legion as well as the county 4-H grounds and buildings not being located in a central part of the county, making it more difficult for some 4-H families to be able to attend meetings, practices and events. Discussion by the council included the probability of a higher cost than estimated for the project, not having the 4-H location be central in the county and the possible affect it could have on Wagner’s already established businesses losing rentals. It was decided by the council that Wagner would encourage the county to continue to have the county 4-H fairgrounds in Lake Andes. Thus, Wagner will not be pursuing or submitting a bid or proposal for the project.

As it was approved by the city council, Wagner will contract their city police dispatch services through the Charles-Mix County Sheriff’s Department. The Wagner Police Department had been using the services of FirstNet to receiver their dispatching information, but the service had become unreliable. Officers were unable to receive incoming service calls when they were on duty outside of the police department building and even to their own personal cell phones in order to assist Wagner residents. In obtaining the dispatch contract with the county’s sheriff department. All calls will now be able to be recorded and able to be used as evidentiary support in court cases. As the sheriff’s department had been doing many of the dispatching duties for the city police department already, this transition should be very smooth for both departments. The board approved the contract beginning October 1, 2024. The cost for the remainder of the year will be $1,000. Starting in 2025, the city will pay a $1,000 per full time law enforcement officer for the year. Wagner will then be paying $4,000 for next year’s contract unless another full-time officer is added, then it would be $5,000 in total for the entire year. This is a very valuable service that the city is being charged a very reasonable rate for. This is a service that will be provided for the city police personnel 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Another agenda item was Mayor Tammy Thornton’s veto of the City Council’s approved ETJ Boundary Change that applied to the 80 acres that contain Fischer Dairy Barn and house/ aka future feedlot south east of Wagner. Mayor Thornton’s formal written veto came as a result of the City Council’s regular monthly meeting that was held on September 10th during which the mayor stated that she had reached out to Richardson Law Office and obtained a recommendation about the ETJ boundary change. Mayor Thornton ended the September meeting with wanting it on record that she was not in support of this action (the approval of the ETJ boundary change) by the city council. After the mayor presented her veto to the council at this month’s meeting, the council proceeded to vote. In order to override the mayor’s veto, a two-thirds vote was needed. The City Council voted 3 to 1 in favor of the ETJ boundary change and overturned Mayor Thornton’s veto. A final topic of discussion that was on the meeting agenda Monday evening, October 7, was the grain piling and dumping within the Wagner city limits. What had not been an issue for the city since the early to mid 1990s has become a problem this year as this season is proving to be a record year in crop yields and well as higher grain prices than last year’s market that farmers are now selling. What is great for our farmers and local economy is starting to garner some complaints from residents. The more crops that are being brought into the community to Fousek Grain and CHS, the less grain bin space that is available which means that grain piling has begun. Residents have raised concerns with the grain piling as they feel that with the grain piled next to their residences, they are getting an increase of rodents on their property.

Both Angie Fousek of Fousek Grain and Troy Soukup of CHS were present at the meeting to discuss the situation. Fouseks had been sent a letter by the City of Wagner that they needed to stop grain piling on Lot 7 of the Wagner Railroad Subdivision as they could not continue without a conditional use permit. Since this had not been an issue for the city in the last 28 years, Fouseks did what they needed to do in order to not send farmers elsewhere as they were out of options and their bins were full as well as they had been told in previous years that they were not allowed to pile grain in the pits of the racetrack as previously allowed. As Wagner and other local area farmers are in the midst of harvest, the council decided that there was not much that could be done at the present time and granted the conditional use permit. They plan to revisit the issue as the lease for the Speedway by Tomahawk from the city will be up before next race season and in the renewal agreement, they would like a section that would allow both Fouseks and CHS to pile at the racetrack with the necessary cleanup needed to follow if needed.