12 - Clerk's July Monthly Report

Home Browse Search

■ ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE One of the goals for the Clerk's office for 2006 was to research accounting software. The City currently uses software called CTAS which is for small cities and townships. We are outgrowing the software and feel it is time to upgrade. Nancy Malecha has contacted four different vendors. Nancy and I have either met with the vendors or viewed web demonstrations of the software. We plan to narrow our choice down to two and will then request another demonstration from these two vendors. We have budgeted$20,000. The price range is from$15,000 to $35,000. ■ CAPITAL EUPROVEMENT PLANNING We have begun meeting to discuss capital improvement planning for the City. Those attending the meetings include Dawn, Brett, Mike, myself, Cathy Malecha and Dave Sjoblad. We will be putting together a list of capital improvements and then attempt to prioritize and put cost estimates on each improvement. We also plan on putting together mapping of the infrastructure improvements. When staff is done with the draft we will get together with the Council for Council review. We anticipate this to take a few months to complete. ■ ELECTION PROCESS The Election process has begun. I have contacted the election judges and am in the process of scheduling training for the judges. The election will be at the Cole Memorial Building. The Primary election will be on September 12 and the General Election will be on November 7h. ■ KIDS VOTING I am co-chairing the Kids Voting project with Chair Julie Ohr from Jenkins. We have had a couple of meetings and are working with the schools and organizations in the community to help promote this program. Kids Voting is an educational program that teaches kids in all grades about the voting process and then allows them to actually vote at the poles along with their parents. The kids vote is in a separate location from the actual voting. Although their votes won't count with the actual election votes,they will have volunteers count their votes separately so they can see the results. ■ POST OFFICE Following Mary's suggestion about citizen input and the Mayor's article in the paper, I have met twice with the Post master in Pequot Lakes. We are working on a suggestion to have a drive through mailbox behind the post office to relieve congestion. We have met with Wells Fargo,the Post Master and Mike Loven. The bank and post office are very open to putting a mailbox behind the building. We are hoping to have this accomplished in a couple of months.