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City of Gem Lake City Council Meeting Minutes March 19, 2024 4 | Page <br />Councilmember Lindner introduced a motion to accept the quote from Forest Lake Contracting in the <br />amount of $6,500.00, seconded by Councilmember Amlee. Voice vote taken, all voted yes, motion carried. <br /> <br />Sewer Billing Rate Letter <br />Acting City Clerk Melissa Lawrence created a Utility Rate Change letter to send out to all flat rate sewer <br />customers for the changes taking effect in the first quarter of 2024. During the review of all utility billing <br />customers to put together a mailing list for the letter Mrs. Lawrence discovered that there were three (3) <br />properties in Gem Lake that had never been set up to receive utility bills in the Hillary Farm development. <br />This was quite concerning to discover as one of the properties was built as far back as 2005, with the latest <br />of the three (3) being built in 2016. Mrs. Lawrence put together a letter to send to those three (3) properties <br />informing them that they would begin receiving utility bills beginning with the first quarter of 2024. <br /> <br />Another concerning issue that was discovered is that there are still three (3) properties on Scheuneman <br />Road that are still not connected to the city sewer. Mrs. Lawrence will work with City Code Enforcement <br />Officer Mike Johnson and City Attorney Kevin Beck on the best way to approach this problem. <br /> <br />Gem Lake Website <br />Gem Lake’s website is in need of a refresh. Acting City Clerk Melissa Lawrence had a zoom meeting with <br />Mindy, a web developer from Red Lily Digital that helps manage the website. During this meeting it was <br />brought to Mrs. Lawrence’s attention that one of the versions of WordPress being used to manage the site <br />was no longer supported and outdated. Plugins were also in need of updating to bring current. Mindy <br />suggested that the city move to a more secure hosting platform. Two (2) quotes were received, one (1) for a <br />Gem Lake Hosting Proposal and the other for a Gem Lake Website Build Proposal. <br /> <br /> Hosting Proposal to Enhance Security <br />Red Lily Digital will set up a new Flywheel ‘Tiny’ account, move Gem Lake’s current database <br />and file system from GoDaddy hosting to Flywheel hosting. (https://getflywheel.com) After the <br />move, Red Lily Digital will test the site to ensure everything was moved successfully. Once final <br />approval is given, the DNS will be updated to point ‘https://www.gemlakemn.com’ to new the <br />Flywheel server. The Flywheel Tiny Plan will cost $150.00 a year and includes one (1) site, five <br />thousand (5,000) monthly visitors, 5GB storage, 20GB of bandwidth, simple SSL certificates, <br />staging site, and nightly backups. <br /> <br />Some benefits of hosting with Flywheel include servers and services that are tailored specifically <br />for WordPress. This means the site will experience the highest quality of performance and security <br />because every server is optimized for a single CMS. Automatic nightly backups which store <br />backups of the city’s site on a separate server for 30 days. Free malware cleanup, maximum <br />security against hackers and malware, flycache, auto-healing technology, and lightning-fast, <br />reliable performance are included. <br /> <br />The quote for the project includes activating the new Flywheel Tiny Plan for $150.00 a year and <br />an estimated 4 hours of time and materials at $80/hour to equal an estimated $320.00. The total <br />estimated cost of the project is $470.00. <br /> <br />Mayor Artig-Swomley shared a request from Councilmemebr Cacioppo who was unable to make <br />the meeting that Acting City Clerk Melissa Lawrence send him a list of all the plugins currently <br />being used for the city’s website. <br /> <br />Councilmember Lindner introduced a motion to accept the estimated quote of $470.00 to update <br />the city’s hosting, seconded by Mayor Artig-Swomley. Voice vote taken, all voted yes, motion <br />carried. <br /> <br />Future Website Redesign Proposal for 2025 <br />After approval on the site architecture, Red Lily Digital will begin creating a unique, custom <br />concept for creative direction for the site, incorporating the Gem Lake color scheme, logo, and <br />brand elements. Red Lily Digital will design key page types showing variations in the design