Waldorf Council keeps Pioneer as city newspaper

The Waldorf city council meeting was called to order by councilwoman Carrie Ferch on Monday, Jan. 12, since Mayor Rob Wilkening was not present. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not require Waldorf to complete an audit this year, but council members needed to decide if they wanted an audit for their records. Since the cost would be $10,000, council members decided to not to have one done. 

 

The official publication for 2026 will be the Waseca County Pioneer. The city attorney will be Kennedy and Kennedy. The official bank will be Minnwest.  

 

Members of the park committee scheduled their first meeting for the year at the community hall on Thursday, Jan. 15 to discuss the new playground equipment, to replace, not add to. There are also grant funds that will be discussed.

 

The Waldorf Fire Department needs new radios because of a new encryption system that’s starting to be used statewide, but this is still under discussion. The FD received more medical calls for 2025 than they did fire.

 

The council decided to keep the community center rental rates the same, $200 for the whole building, $100 for just the kitchen, $75 for fundraisers and benefits.

 

The Trex plastic recycling program, that Waldorf has been taking part in, has changed. They used to give a park bench for every 1,000 lbs. of plastic that was collected. Now for every 250 lbs. collected, Trex will do a drawing for a list of prizes like outdoor Jenga or Connect Four games. Only 25 prizes will be awarded out of 4,000 competitors. The council decided to end the Trex program after this next 250 lbs. is collected and distributed, Waldorf currently has 114 lbs. collected.

 

Lorraine Mueller requested her property be listed as commercial instead of residential so she could sell it as such. The council decided to keep her property listed as residential.

As of Dec. 31, there were 11 no pays for water.