Falls City council members took care of a few items of business before ending their regular meeting early November 8.

Mayor Pro Tem Brent Houdmann made the decision to cut the meeting short five minutes after Mayor Vi Malone left for a school meeting. Houdmann took over her position, but questioned whether the city had a quorum a few moments later.

Rather than continue without knowing for sure, he and council members Steve Swierc and Gery Jendrusch adjourned. Council members Ralph Bollman and Jeff Jonhson were absent from the meeting.

Malone called The Countywide a few days after the meeting and said the council did have a quorum — the minimum number of council members required to hold a public session — both before and after she left.

Earlier in the evening, the three council members and the mayor discussed preliminary designs for their Community Development Block Grant utility upgrade.

Project manager Julian Bielawski told council he had found several solutions to problems in town concerning the flow of utility lines and meeting state regulations with future installations.

Council heard his presentation, but decided to put off going out for bids or otherwise acting on the project.

"The first thing that I would like to do is get all five of my council members here before we decide," Malone told Bielawski.

Malone requested he come back for the town’s December meeting.

Council also heard from their city auditor, who gave the town’s books a general thumbs up.

"Nothing (out of the ordinary) came to our attention" during the audit, CPA Wayne Beyer told council members.

Sealed bids on the hay lease agreement were opened just before council adjourned, and the city awarded the lease to Tommy Moczygemba of San Antonio. He bid $21 per 1,200- to 1,400-pound bale of hay and requested a three-year lease agreement.

Council received two other bids, one higher than Moczygemba’s and one that turned out to not be a bid at all. Local resident Richard Danysh submitted a letter of protest in place of the bid, saying that he would not be bidding due to the council’s new contract being too lengthy and overcomplicated.

Moczygemba agreed in his bid letter to provide his own insurance and council members awarded him his requested three-year contract.