HURON — Huron mayor Gary Harrington called Huron Radio News’ Jeff Duffy to the front of the room during the public forum time of the Huron City Commission meeting Monday night. He then read off Duffy’s accomplishments while working for 40 years at the radio station in various broadcasting roles and other roles at the station over the years.

In recognition of Duffy’s time at the station, including 22 years broadcasting Huron Tigers sports, Mayor Harrington declared Tuesday, Nov. 28, as “Jeff Duffy Day” in Huron.

Also during public comment, commissioner Rich Bragg noted that Wednesday, Nov. 29, the Solid Waste Department would have one final pickup of yard waste containers for the year.

“We said that if the weather held up, we’d try to get one more in,” Bragg explained, also noting that the recent colder weather and snow has significantly slowed traffic to the yard waste drop site.

Regular commission business then began with the commission acting as the city board of adjustment to hear a variance request from Iverson Auto, 2500 Dakota Ave. S., to convert a wooden billboard structure to steel and add digital advertising, visible to North-bound and South-bound traffic. The hearing examiner did state that due to the high traffic in the area, the variance should be denied.

Austen Iverson was present on behalf of the petitioners and stated that they would be following all setbacks and other requirements per state law. The business currently has a similar billboard in Mitchell, and that the billboard does have a dimmer setting at night so drivers are not distracted.

The variance was unanimously approved by the commission.

Assistant city engineer Dennis Bennett presented two large payment requests to the commission. The first was a payment of $776,255.11 requested by North Star Logistics, LLC for work on the solid waste transfer station project. Bennett stated that this payment included the down payment on the new baler for the facility. This was approved.

The second payment request offered by Bennett was from Gridor Construction, Inc. for the wastewater treatment facility improvements project. The payment is for $300,708.85, which competes all payments on the project except for the retainer that is held until the full job is completed and has been approved. The commission approved the payment.

Commissioners also:

• Approved the full-time status of Curtis Ryman, Parks and Recreation Maintenance I.
• Approved a new CoronaVirus action plan following current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
• Approved Resolution No. 2023-16 to authorize the mayor to sign for grant application with the Hazard Mitigation Grant for the Huron Safe Room project.

Water supervisor Rob Rieger gave an update on the water meter project to the commission. He stated that the readers have been installed on the towers and will be operational soon. He also noted that the installers have 40 appointments per day for the next week or so, but then numbers drop off again, so he encouraged all Huron residents that have received their letter on meter installation to set up an appointment.