City council approves 15 percent preliminary tax levy increase

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The City of Ottertail has received a positive outlook on its finances over the past year. 

During its regularly scheduled meeting last Wednesday night, the Ottertail City Council heard from auditor Brian Kane regarding its 2024 year-end audit. Kane highlighted a number of positive financial marks for the city over the past year, including the cash and investments balance in the general fund growing by over $320,000, while the fire department cash and investments balance grew by over $50,000 and is now more similar to where it was in 2022. 

The city’s overall governmental revenue exceeded expenses by nearly $260,000 last year, despite disbursements being up over $160,000 from the previous year. The increase in disbursements was largely due to the timing of expenses from Tyler Wohlers Trail south of Ottertail. Kane said much of the costs from the trail were paid from grants with a bulk of the work being completed last year.

  The city’s water fund revenue was down about $10,000 last year, but the loss of revenue was offset a bit by a decrease in expenses. 

Kane said the city received three findings as part of its audit, which he said were quite common for a city the size of Ottertail. The audit found a lack of segregated duties, material journal entries and financial statement preparation, which Kane said are common among smaller cities due to its size of office staff. 

Overall, Kane said offered high praise to the city staff in getting him the necessary information needed to complete the audit and for the work they do for the City of Ottertail.

In addition to the audit, the Ottertail City Council approved a 15 percent increase in its preliminary tax levy. The tax levy can be lowered, but not increased when it is finalized later this year. 

In other news

• Approved the purchase of extraction equipment for the Ottertail Fire Department from Great Plains Fire, Inc. at a cost of $31,462.76. The Ottertail Lions had previously made a donation to the City of Ottertail to assist in purchasing the equipment. 

• Heard that the City of Ottertail, as well as New York Mills will receive free curbside recycling beginning January of 2027. The curbside recycling is part of an expansive project by Otter Tail County to make single-sort curbside recycling more accessible for residents. The county was broken down into quadrants with Ottertail being in the northeast portion of the county. Henning and Battle Lake were included in the southeast portion of the county that will receive single-sort canisters in 2026. The new program will be free to residents for at least the first 18-24 months of the program.

• Approved the appointment of Chris Sim as a new member of the Ottertail Fire Department.

• Approved setting a work session to work following the city’s regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, Oct. 16 to work on the city’s budget. 

• Approved a donation of $640 to West Central Initiative.