##VIDEO ID:lzVlqAJ-hck## e e e e call to order the January 6 2025 city council meeting for the city of Bayport let's all stand and oh wait yeah first it's like first we have to swear everybody in is that how it works or do we do the pledge I even got this ahead of time and I still messed it up yeah oh it is first it is first okay swearing in first before I can even be the mayor and call the meeting to order truth okay guys out remember the G up here a long time try to be organized guys don't remember the gals it's those workshops we have all right I state your name I'm Michelle Hansen do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Minnesota and of the state of Minnesota and Faithfully discharge the duties and Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Mayor the office of mayor for the city of Bayport in the city of Bayport in the county of Washington in the county of Washington and state of Minnesota state of Minnesota to the best of my judgment and ability to the best of my judgment and ability so help me God so help me God good job all right thanks man right thank you um so now that I'm the mayor I'm going to uh do the oath for our new uh council member Carl Bliss and uh returning member Ethan Gilmore so um similar do you guys want to stand at your seats even though the we both want at the same time yeah we're gonna do both at the same time so you're gonna say I and then state your name at the same time I I car Bliss is weird Ethan almost forgot his name do solemnly swear do swear that I will support the con Constitution of the United States I will support the Constitution of the United States and the state of Minnesota and the state of Minnesota and Faithfully discharge the duties Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of city council the office of the city council for the city of Bayport for the city of and the county of Washington and the county of Washington in the state of Minnesota in the state of Minnesota to the best of my judgment and ab ility to the best of my judgment and ability so help me God so help me God all right you're in okay here we go welcome Carl stay standing stay standing CU we're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right now Matt's going to call the RO council member dah here council member gilmar here council member Bliss here council member Hill here mayor Hansen here all right great um do we have a motion to approve theend agenda for tonight I move to approve the agenda tonight as presented thanks Katie you have a second I'll second all right thanks Ethan all in favor say I I I okay proclamations accomodations petitions and announcements the December December recycling award recipient is Jeffrey Lee at 1123 inspiration Parkway North who will be awarded for recycling efforts with a grant from Washington County and I'm going to switch the order of these a little bit but um there's a farewell Gathering that's planned to recognize outgoing council member Connie Carlson it's going to be held on January 16th from 4:00 to 5:30 at the Bayport Library everybody's welcome and encouraged to attend and say thanks to Connie for her time um we all had a chance at the end of the last meeting to kind of wish her well it's kind of weird I've never been uh sitting up here without Connie other than times when she's been sick or whatever but all the 14 years I've been up here she's been with me so and then I have a proclamation that I'm going to read and then we have a guest that will um speak a little bit about it at the open Forum all right so this is um a proclamation of the world snow sculpting Championship Malta day as January 15th 2025 whereas the city of Bayport Minnesota is proud to celebrate cultural diversity and Foster International relationships through events that bring together individuals and communities from across the globe and whereas the world snow sculpting Championship a prestigious event that showcases the Artistry creativity and skill of snow sculptures from around the world sculptors from around the world will be held on January 15th through the 18th in 2025 the team MAA Mila Malia Malia there's no I in there representing their nation of Malta in contributing to the global exchange of artistic expression and whereas that team is a dedicated and talented group of snow sculptors they will be participating in this esteemed competition and their involve involvement highlights the spirit of unity and international friendship and whereas it's fitting and proper for the city of Bayport to honor and recognize the remarkable efforts of team that team as they represent their country of Malta on the global stage and participate in this exciting celebration of Art and winter culture and whereas the city of Bayport recognizes the positive impact that such an such international events have on fostering Goodwill promoting cultural exchange and inspiring creativity among those who participate and witness these remarkable works of art now therefore I Michelle Hansen mayor of the city of Bayport do hereby Proclaim January 15th 2025 as Malta day in Bayport on this day we extend a warm welcome to team mea Malia representing the country of Malta and all participants of the snow World snow sculpting Championship celebrating their contributions to the cultural and artistic landscape of our community and the world and witness whereof I have here onto set my hand and caused the Seal of the city of bort to be a fixed the sixth day of January 2025 I don't think I've ever read anything so official sounding thank you Jason all right so um so that's kind of a fun exciting thing and and um I'm going to open the or we're going to now have the open forum and we're going to Quick have Jason come up I think before we have Tori um this is a portion of the meeting to address the city council and subjects that are not part of the meeting agenda city council may take action or reply at the time of the statement or maybe may give direction to staff regarding investigation of the comments expressed a total of 15 minutes is allotted for public comment during the open Forum so welcome introduce yourself please well thank you uh as Michelle said I'm Jason Howard I'm president CEO at First State Bank and Trust just down the way thank you mayor for the uh Proclamation just give a little bit of backstory so uh World snow sculpting Championship is their fourth year downtown Still Water this year uh the greater stillw chamber Commerce hosts this event every year and as part of that event um they asked for team hosts and so the bank uh for the second year row will be hosting a team and uh this year we're hosting uh the the team Malia I believe it's that's how I heard it so okay I'm not sure but we we'll confirm that next week uh the team from Malta um just to help them feel welcome and comfortable here um in in the St Cay Valley and so they will be coming in late Monday night and and the bank will be helping them just get settled in and getting around and getting them many tools they need for the snow sculpting championship and uh so we got some fun activities planned at the bank and talk to the mayor here and see if the city of Bayport wanted to have a little fun with it and so the proclamation is just a a way to show them that we we want to welcome them to this community and so I'm going to present this to the team uh next week when they arrive and I believe we're working with Matt and Simon on possibly displaying some uh malti uh Flags around town so thank you for that and going to highlight on social media and have a little fun with it so I'll add Woodies is a uh a restaurant sponsor for another team so it's great that this community is uh is uh supporting the event in downtown still water and um the event draws a significant crowd for the weekend so if you haven't been down there I encourage you to go down there and check out the sculptures they're they're they're they're quite amazing so thank you Jason thank you appreciate it yeah and just one other note um Mabel is going to be possibly doing a special malt for M yeah thank you so I've been in touch with a few businesses schools the library to see if they want to partake in the fun and the library is going to be participating and oio is going to be doing a menu item and uh Wally's going to be doing something at mabes and trying to get a few more so U there'll be a lot of multis uh themes going on over here thank you and thank you guys for supporting this I think it's great that it's highlighting our city as well and I appreciate your efforts in doing that um and Woodies thanks to them too for um being one of the taste of the nation's restaurants so they they chose the United States team from Wisconsin so we will be alternating I believe the flags once you get them the malta Flags we're going to have us and Malta Flags hung um through the cities till we can also highlight Woodies Madam may I suggested Wisconsin Flags but I no they're actually yeah don't do that no actually trying to start another flag burning are you just trying to be funny because Woodies wanted to Wisconsin food and they were told that they need to do American or something yeah maybe it was the other way around I don't know but anyways I we should ask Mary I think it was actually the other way around because she said yeah this will be easier I can just we were like you could just do cheese curds and stuff right but anyways American flags it is because we have those all right like well thank you I appreciate it well thank you yeah that's going to be fun yeah I will follow up then and I don't know if there's an official seal or signature that I can get for me to make this look all fancy yes says Sarah yeah we will we'll work with her all right great thanks Jason okay um we have listed that Tori Christensen from lambridge ecological is here as well you want to come on up he is uh G to talk about the Barker's elps Park Woodland restoration yeah um thanks for having me I uh seen some of you out walking the trails as we been working um my name is tor Christensen I own landbridge ecological and I happen to be a Bayport resident so um the project that we've been working on is walking distance for my house so I've been out there quite a bit with my Crews um and I have a pretty intimate knowledge about what's going on out there um dayto day so um I thought I'd give a little update on where things are at and kind of what the future looks like um for the next couple years um it is an ongoing project that'll be going into 2027 so um but yeah the majority of the work that we've been carrying out the big heavy machinery is leaving the site now we've had um we had a couple good days to burn some of the material that we were taking out um we did that right before Christmas we burned the majority of the invasive species that we removed um that those piles are burned down down and now the what's left out there if you walk through the park um are sporadic smaller piles um of material that we can't really do anything with until we get snow so we're kind of in a holding pattern um to finish the project until we get a little bit more snow um but yeah it's gone very well we've um I'd say the days that I've been out there I've gotten a lot of um I've met a lot of people and most almost everybody that I've talked to has been very positive about the project um if anything I've been getting a little bit of you know just Mis misconceptions about cutting trees um because that I knew I told Simon when we started the project that the Pines on the corner of the trail as you come down I knew that that would be kind of a touchy subject for some people um but those Pines were planted Pines they are native um the majority of our work has been removing invasive species those Pines were really the only native uh Pines that were there but they're not really a part of the plant community that we're trying to restore um and the goal for us um is to get a more herbaceous understory that's more diverse that has a little bit more Prairie Grass component to it so we can manage the site with fire over time that's my personal goal so it' be you know just as inspiration does their controlled Burns um there'll be areas of that Park that will be more conducive to having controlled Burns um mainly the upper knobs I don't know if you've seen it but like there's it's much more open than it was you can see the river it's very open um and there's there was a lot of surprises when we started to open it up I didn't realize how much topography there was in the park but it's really a very interesting site the the upper knobs that we've restored there's a couple of them with oak trees um those are more representative of a oak Savannah plant community and that's kind of the goal of the project was to restore Oak Savannah um so those will be much more easier to manage with controlled Burns over time um the lower ends of the park is more wetter and not really conducive for controlled burning but um yeah the project is ho has gone very well um I know that when we started burning the material we were worried about smoke and that was a factor for those couple days but we were able to get the majority of that done in about a three-day time period so that I'm happy to say is mostly over with so there shouldn't be any complaints or um any um hazards of smoking um residences out um going forward so but yeah that's uh kind of where it's at now and if anyone has any questions I can answer questions I oh we have lots of questions I have question I just wanted to follow up on the why you need snow thing well if if we start if we start burn piles and we don't have snow we can't put them out oh easily okay it's more or less I do have a permit to burn piles but it happened this weekend we burned up on top of the hill on Saturday and the smoke was going right in an inspiration so we shut it down okay and it was hard to put the fires out at that point so okay makes sense now usually we like to have snow just for safety precautions and then I just thought of another thing I didn't notice when I walked through is the little frog pond thing at the entrance is that like kind of down near the entrance is that all the Rocks still there y okay yep that's still there okay yeah good all right Carl did you want to yeah it's it's thank you for your work there it's uh I'll admit it's it's St now this is where I have to trust the process and trust you and um thanks for kind of educating us through this you mentioned the oak oak Savannah so would a good comparison be kind of the oak Savannah area near the sna as as what this what you hope to this look like yep yep very much so um it's helpful to see the future that way yeah yeah I know it was uh and that's mainly the comments I've got you know when people walk by they're like oh are you going to going to plant you know and I I explained that this is part of a three-year project um this is the initial you you know shocker part of the the project where everything is gone and there's not and it it doesn't help that there's not snow on the ground usually we have a snow cover it helps a little bit but now you can see the bare dirt and it does look Stark um but we have um the what the future looks like is two years of of further management so we'll be managing mostly Buckthorn that there'll be a bunch of resprouts that come up um I'm anticipating there' to be a lot of garlic mustard that comes up now that it's open to sunlight um so we'll be out there you know um intermittently over the next couple years managing what comes up um and then we have a seeding phase that will happen after we're done with our initial probably this year we'll go through the invasive species removal which will be spot spraying herbicides on you know what comes up that we don't want there so um from there then we'll be adding species and planting and seeding but we'll probably wait till 2026 before we start that process are those new plantings going to be shorter kind of the Prairie level sort of plantings where the Pines we're at we'll see how um you know there's a lot of stumps there now so like we have to kind of work with that um because we can't really bring tractors in to till the ground because of all the stumps from from the removals so we'll look at that and see what we can do but um you know where those Pines were you know I'm kind of anticipating that there'll be enough sunlight there to have more of a you know more flower pollinator Garden on the corner there yeah um so we'll try to get something like that going and then we'll plant you know kind of you know boring grasses and understory herbaceous cover in the forest there and then those knobs up on top have the most potential and those will be um those will benefit a lot from controlled Burns but we'll also be seeding okay did you still have a question um well um Carl touched on one of mine yeah the oak Savannah and that we're going to kind of be bookended now that kind of whole ridge is going to be bookended with Oak Savannah so I appreciate that and um just to the starkness of it um if you're somebody I'm sort of into this stuff it it's a rude awakening having walked in there the last 10 years and seeing all the Buckthorn I mean that's what somebody that recognizes I can see that stuff from 30 yards away I'm like oh there it's full of buthorn in there it's really great to see that stuff eradicated and um there's where I date myself as a kid growing up on Fourth Street and 3rd Avenue South um we used to go up into the hills we called it near near where Michelle is and we used to be able to see down from Top I could see down to my house on Four Street and literally I could my mom would say time to come home for lunch and say hey Mom how's the laundry going it was really cool and it's cool to see that stuff open and be able to see the river now and and so I I applaud the work and I'm super excited and and would encourage people that are worried about what it might look like to walk that Oak Savannah on the on the south end of town and and just look at how different and how um visually appealing that type of a natural area is because it's pretty great up there yeah so yeah yeah it's a special it's a special place as far as the connectivity to the all those Acres you know so we had these disjunct separate pieces and now we're starting to connect that so I I live on the end of um Fifth Street and you know I would like to see the Buckthorn you know the removal Go All Along The Bluff right it's pretty thick all along the hillside there from barkers to back towards the sna there so if you can get us another Grant I know we'll put you on that well that have you walked our land and water Legacy property oh we brought that up at we yeah we were going to put Simon on that to talk to about that yeah I'd be more than happy to look okay great so thanks for the time and presentation and yeah yeah I have before and after pictures so at some point when it's done and there's more progress um I can maybe give a PowerPoint or something to show that would be great the process so yeah appreciate you it's a really cool project and I'm you know I'm I'm new to Bayport I've been here two years now so um the day that it snowed there was actually kids up there my kids and some neighbor kids came up and they were sledding down the slopes back there so that was kind of cool to see cuz it was not open I mean when I first walked it I couldn't even we couldn't even see what was going on back there it was too thick to even walk through so now at least it's open where you can see The Ravines and mhm you can see theph safer too and when when the new school comes in and there might be kids walking through there I feel like they would feel sa I feel safer walking when it's cleared like that cuz I was thought someone could be hiding in those woods you know so y yeah it's good for people and it's good for plants and animals too so it's all it's great well thank you thanks for taking the time to come and explain a little bit more about what's going on and and for all your efforts so and welcome to Bayport yes thank thank you thanks and you don't have to stick around for the meeting if you don't want to um though it's really exciting real so much okay anyone else that wants to speak no okay all right we'll move on to the consent agenda we're going to consider a resolution adopting items 1 through nine the December 2nd 2024 city council Workshop minutes the December 2nd 2024 city council regular meeting minutes December payables and receipts December building Plumbing mechanical and Zoning permits report renew rual of commercial Refuge holler licenses for 2025 special event application from the Bayport Community Action League for their 2025 community events appointment of Connie Carlson to the library board and hiring of Luke swellen to serve on the fire department supplemental agreement with SE for Environmental Services related to the 4th Avenue North Street Improvement project does any anyone want to so move that I move to adopt a resolution approving the consent agenda as presented right thanks second all right thanks Carl and John a roll call vote council member do hi council member Gilmer I council member Bliss I council member Hill I mayor Hansen I all right um no public hearing so on to unfinished business we're going to consider a labor agreement with the Minnesota Teamsters public and law enforcement employees union local 320 for uh this January 2025 until December of 2027 this one's for the police officers and Matt's going to present it thank you madam mayor members of the council um as the mayor mentioned uh this particular uh contract agreement or Union agreement is with the police officers um we've probably been working about six eight months on this um it always seems to be a tedious project process even though there's not a lot to it um a lot of back and forth um obviously the big one this year was officer wages um we've seen a huge increase um to police officers uh wages throughout the Metro um and we primarily well we exclusively used East Metro comparables or comparables um for um this contract um some of the bigger things that um are also in this besides um wage increases um we increase the tuition reimbursement program essentially if you want to go back to school to get your bachelor's or master's degree um we increased it from 3,000 per year to 52 5,250 per year um but also put a cap on it um having obviously educated very well educated um police officers is definitely a priority for us and that doesn't hold um necessarily just for going back to get your Masters or something like that it could be any education related to um being a police officer essentially so um let's see couple of the other highlighted ones we updated the fitness incentive program um the current one only has like a top level that they could reach um we reduce the levels um to other levels so that um there are other possibilities that that each officer could reach um one of the big ones was um compensation for the canine Officer um this is part of the Fair Labor uh standards act um there's a requirement out there that requires care of the dog essentially and that being a part of your time uh that you need to put in and so now there's a whole section on how that gets paid out and what the responsibility is of the department and the responsibility of the K9 Officer when it comes to care of the dog um and then finally um there was no cost of this uh from the city but um the officers wanted a health care Savings Plan installed essentially they're required to um they're left over sick time upon retirement or termination gets put into a health care savings plan which they can use for future health care costs once they retire so um those were the big highlighted ones I did um uh all the numbered ones in my memo are all the specific changes um throughout the uh the contract so if somebody has a specific question on any of those without having to read through the whole contract those are all the changes um so I I will say the the wages that are currently in there are budgeted for in 2025 so um at this point we recommend that adopt a motion approving the labor agreement with the teachers uh for the public works off or police officers EXC me okay police officers all right great thank you Matt and thanks for all the time that you spent working with them and for documenting for us line by line kind of what changed I appreciate that um and of course you know we do have to be competitive with our wages so there was a a pretty major increase for the current year and then gets a a little more reasonable after that but it was good to get us up to so one addition there mayor s to um reflect back on that again but um this gets us to the wages that we proposed uh in the contract um for the comparables we're at about the 50% level of everybody else in the area so so like we were the median kind of is what you're saying yes correct the okay the average and the median happen to be roughly the same um for when we were doing comparables and so yeah it was definitely an increase we're we're not even at the top end which I don't think we have to be um to be competitive because there's definitely advantages uh of being in a uh smaller City smaller Department right so okay does anyone have any questions or comments okay does anyone one want to make a motion approving the I'll move to approve labor agreement the Minnesota teamers public and law enforcement employees union local 320 for January 1st 2025 through December 31st 2027 for police officers we have a second a second thanks Ethan and Katie um feels like we should have a roll call but doesn't tell me that I need one no okay all those in favor I I all right anyone opposed okay so that passes and then um want to tell us a little bit about the Public Works contract with the Union yeah Madame mayor members of the council um so this is the second contract um of the night it's with the public works maintenance workers um kind of the same thing we've spent uh probably six to eight months uh working through um stipulations and um different items within the agreement um again Public Works in uh wages have increased as have um the police officers not quite by as much uh so it didn't take quite as much to get them back again we used uh East Metro comparables um and again we made it to about the 50% um average of those East Metro wages um couple of the other items or the major items within this uh agreement uh we did do a revised job skills incentive program um I didn't detail out the um how that works but it's on a tiered system now rather than just getting say $50 because you have a water license um we did different water licenses because there's a DC b and a you can acquire your B here um but to get to the highest level there's a fair amount of Education um that you need to acquire um but you're also getting incentive size incentive sized right um to to acquire that um and you can use some the money um as far as the educ education money and the City of Bayport will help um you work through some of that other stuff so um pretty happy that that made it in there um public works also asked for revised vacation acral um so that changed there is an increase in specific days for holiday pay uh it's actually not holiday pay it' be the overtime acquired during a holiday uh that's specific to four days of the year which is Thanksgiving Christmas Eve Christmas Day and New Year's Day um and then uh finally would be the the wage thing um where there was a pretty significant increase from past years um just to get the market adjustment up there to what the 50% level is for the East Metro um so City staff is recommending uh a motion adopting or approving in the labor agreement with the public works maintenance workers right thanks Matt any questions no anyone want to make a motion go ahead I'll move I'll move to approve a labor agreement with the Minnesota Teamsters public and law enforcement employees union local 320 for January 1st 2025 through December 31st 2027 for Public Works thanks John second anybody I'll second thanks Katie all those in favor say I I I anyone opposed okay again thanks for your work on that Matt and um let's move on to new business I can't seem to get my stupid agenda I know what I did okay sorry um so we're going to consider a resolution supporting an application for mot safe routes to school infrastructure grant program for pedestrian improvements leading to the new Elementary School Matt you're on again thank you Madame Mira I like being able to talk to the whole meeting um this was slightly discussed at the workshop today about um a sidewalk Improvement project along Fifth Avenue um essentially it will connect where Sidewalk Ends at 8th Street um To Where the Sidewalk for some reason is put out into the road um by the softball field at barers some reason um there is significant cost to that project and City staff is pursuing a safe roads to school Grant uh to cover some of that cost um the safe roads to school Grant is specific to construction costs only um and so that means no engineering costs are covered um no if you happen to overrun on your construction cost that you ask specifically for that is not covered there's a limit on uh there's not a limit on what you ask for well there probably is like I don't know the limit it's probably like a million dollars but um you can't go back and ask for more if you underestimate so um we're working hard on uh refining the actual construction costs um there's significant items with this project that has to get covered um new curb Cuts new sidewalk there's some very slanted areas or very sloped areas um where the sidewalk is going to go so there's some small retaining walls that have to go there there's a couple at least one fire hydrant that has to be moved there's some storm water infrastructure that also has to be moved so um there will be some significant costs with what is essentially a two block sidewalk installation um the the part of the grant requirement or applic excuse me application requirement is a formal resolution showing that the council supports the project and pledges to maintain it for a minimum of 10 years so uh hence the reason for the resolution and not just a like a letter of support um so staff is recommending city council adopt the resolution supporting the project pledging future maintenance requirements and pledging to cover the engineering and any construction costs that exceed the grant amount if we were awarded the grant that it and for questions can you talk a little bit about the city maintaining it for 10 years piece yeah um my guess would be that say one of the panels cracked or something like that so that's going to be like minor maintenance right um as far I assume you're thinking like plowing and different stuff like that um I can see that going both ways I don't think that's the requirement or that's what they are speaking to when they are talking maintenance maintenance would be to make sure that it's maintained from a um Ada standpoint from um maintaining it if it cracks or something it needs replacement not shoveling and plowing not shoveling so that that'll probably be a another question that comes up at some point I did happen to meet with uh five of The Neighbors there who border that and that was actually one of their main questions of who will be plowing it and will it be their responsibility and you told them it would be their responsibility I told them it would be their responsibility yes that's another just for anybody watching you're responsible for the sidewalks in front of your house yeah okay other questions okay um I I had a question for Matt that we resolved through email just the saying that we will cover all the costs that are associated with the project beyond what we're getting for the the Grant I was just wondering if there was any chance that the county would be paying for any of that since it's along their Road and are we kind of putting ourselves or even are we considering doing assessments for that from those Property Owners not that I'm advocating for that but I just didn't want to put us in a in a bind by saying that we are going to cover those costs as a city when maybe there's other options that were out there so sounds like there really aren't so yeah Madame mayor um you mentioned the county because there's not a county project going on at the same time they won't participate in um it doesn't eliminate us from potentially um I suppose getting if there's another Grant out there or something like that or we find somebody else to help participate in or use funding um potentially from one of our other Park funds or something like that okay and I I did bring up in the workshop and I I just want to make sure that we are committed as a city no matter what happens Grant or no Grant to pushing this through and completing it so we don't have a brand new shiny school that kids kids are having to walk through people's yards to get to or on the road or worse yet on the road yeah okay any other discussion Carl's playing it cool for his first meeting trying to be quiet over there I made a motion already he did he's good all right um okay should we make a motion I'll move to adopt a resolution supporting an application for M do routes to school infrastructure grant program program as presented second all right thanks John and Ethan we need a roll call vote council member do hi council member Gilmore hi council member Bliss I council member Hill I mayor Hansen I all right thank you hope that works out and now we are going to consider appointments designations and City councila on assignments for 202 2 so Matt what what do we have here mostly Connie's empty spots right yeah thank you madam mayor which will make more empty spots when we switch people around yeah so this is pretty much so just a discussion uh between council members um we would be happy to facilitate any questions if somebody has something on a specific uh Duty um but really like I said a discussion between you if somebody just wants to fill Connie's vacant spots or if um anybody on the council wants to currently switch what they're doing um I don't know if anybody has thought about it um yeah I've had conversations a little bit with Carl too um we first I think we need to get uh the acting Deputy Mayor slotted um because Connie used to do that yep so that person would be uh leading meetings if I can't make it um that's pretty much their role right is there any other thing okay nope um so does anybody really really want that job otherwise I would give it to the person with the most seniority which would be John right that's what I was going to say give it to the most seniority person that's okay okay all right you okay with that John all right okay with that I have not missed a meeting in 14 years so so far so good that's why so far so good okay that's incredible that is that's after to you that is incredible I don't know how I do it just lucky no set set that day aside all the time okay so um I Carl had mentioned to me that he's potentially interested in the Lake Elmo airport advisory leison that is one of my roles right now and I have been interested in the library board liaison for years but Connie's always had it so that mixes things up a little bit um I don't know what else anybody else is um I mean I don't mind a middle St Croy wmo the the problem I have with it is it's no longer in Bayport it used to be a lot easier when it was in Bayport I know at the library I tried when I went to see it to get them to come back I've been I pounded away a little bit to know but other than that I I guess I'm fine I'd rather have one that was in town but that's fine okay I'm I'm good at I mean I'm fine where I'm at with mine a lot of the other ones are difficult for me for work what else do we have to in terms of Connie just the library yeah I know I was just writing them all down to see what we might change here I can I'll keep the Fire Relief unless anyone really wants that I could be the alternate for the Planning Commission Le aison because that's on Monday as well okay unless I mean typically New Guy usually gets that but if he would rather do fun because he's been on the Planning Commission might want to do more different things so if you're okay with him taking that okay are meeting on a they are meeting on a Tuesday this month but otherwise it's toally one usually okay so cable um Ethan and then John are you still good with being yeah I'll stay on I'm going to try and get I'm going to start trying to do it remotely okay let me I'm just jotting these down so then I can write notes if we need to change things because it's hard when it's on there instead of John and then okay so Katie the other thing I think I'd have to give up because of Library board I think they might that's third Tuesday and that's I feel like they've changed the I think they're the same time now I think it's yeah I think it's the well I hasn't been the same the last three times like but I I would be good if someone else wants to do the balison other as the alternate other than Katie other than me so Katie's the primary um well I'll I mean what I'll take alternate if somebody wants to take one of my alternates alternates yeah I can oh John I can take your cable commission wonderful Okay so we've got Carl's gonna do leak and then he's also gonna do John's alternate for cable um so right now your Watershed I'm alternate Katie Planning Commission with Ethan alternate I'll take library board you're the alternate for that okay we don't miss meeting so I know you never have to show up same with the fire fire relief on Alternate to that I'll be all Michelle's otherwise I can take your library alternate I think Katie wants to do that one so let's give k well no let's do that more than the fire just because of the day okay all right so then let's see so fire you can still be my alternate y okay we got cable did you go one oh yeah yeah you didn't miss one of those yeah cuz that's the same night as my Lion's meeting sometimes so yeah you go and sometimes our this meeting interrupts the fire meetings but whatever okay okay so um John you are the alternate for the Lake Elmo airport advisory commission and now Carl is the primary you are good with that right I didn't speak out a turn you said you wanted that she asked when they meet oh it's on here oh it says quarterly let me tell you when the next one is you you'll get a lot of emails I'm taking the XL one let's see um let's see L where is it I'll look on my calendar that would be easier than looking in the emails why don't I know somebody having a lightsaber bath going on there I don't know what that is is it outside okay so the next Lake Elmo airport advisory is febru they have them all planned February 21 4th okay and then May 19th August 25th and November 24th is what they have and they made at 4:00 in Baytown at their okay does that work for you yeah okay great all right so Carl John and then the Excel thing I'll stay on that and then we've got Katie and John for vcal okay did you get all those I can hand you my little sheet if not would you just be willink to go through and read them one more time so everyone's on the same page okay Watershed John primary Michelle um alternate Planning Commission Katie Ethan alternate Library um Michelle with Katie as the alternate fire Michelle with Ethan cable Ethan with John with Carl sorry leak the Lake Elmo is um Carl with John and then Excel didn't change and um Vel is changing from uh Katie to then John is the altern it got it make sense everyone on board y good do we have to actually make a motion yes I moveed to approve the 2025 appointments of the city council liais on ass assignments as discussed second all right thanks Katie and Carl all in favor I I anyone oppose no all right and now the regular meeting dates for 2025 does any does anyone have any objections I know you can't make it to the February meeting Carl otherwise February and April y i' would say we moved the July the 14th instead of the 7th because it's 4th of July that's how bad my calendar okay should we do we want to worry about February and April and moving them at all for or do we just hopefully not other people are out at the same time and we just I wouldn't with the February it's uh most of that month yeah that's true yeah I forgot okay do you Ethan do you know the spring break for stilly schools it's late March I think is it last week of March last week of March yeah so that shouldn't have it has in the past but yeah the July one I I mean that's a Fourth of July weekend people would be out I don't know oh that's a good point and reading the packet over the Fourth of July weekend does not sound like fun yeah yeah that's you guys okay with that that's not a big deal well do you is it harder for staff anyways because people will be out how about later in the week maybe or otherwise I think that messes with the valley access stuff but we could well like doing it on an actual different day yeah because I think they have other things they have to do but sometimes they have it scheduled because I think that first week there's a lot of um Council meetings we were oh we just CU our Monday isn't the very first week 14th really goof you guys say the 14th works yeah that's better probably I think it's better just well it's not better for me but why well one the Lions meeting night I just missed Lions but that's okay John the secretary I gotta got to keep your Al yeah I'm not gonna give not gonna not be here for the lion meeting sh don't tell the LI okay um other than that I think the rest of them y seem normal okay so we're on board with changing just July 7 to July 14 that Mak sense for people y sorry that's good no one else is going to be gone I might be gone on the May meeting but I mean I could probably make July 7th but frankly I think having it a meeting ever adjacent to a holiday weekend is a mistake I think it makes it harder on you guys too I feel like you wouldn't all be around but maybe it's just the fourth you're going to be off and it's not that big of a deal because you're already off on Fridays well then they have the whole week Madame mayor mostly what happens is if it if when it falls up close to a holiday um we're just trying to prep the P prep the packet earlier so right I guess I would rather just stay with the seventh but that's me so we can all vote on what we what you think is better well I mean the trick is if a for or what what are we are we typically get just getting going on like budget stuff in July is that yeah that M members of the council um probably at the July Workshop probably be would be our very first preliminary budget Workshop very preliminary I I'll I mean we could hold out to August but it's nice to have one in July a very preliminary one well um with numbers that we're we're just thinking about at that point okay very preliminary is I mean that that's not unreasonable if somebody did have a vacation plan and just can't make it for the workshop well yeah and right I would think most people would be doing their vacation week before that but it's just the reading the packet over the holiday weekend it's not fourth is on Friday they're going to be on Friday Saturday Sunday potentially Monday whatever that's true never know be my guess you guys who have Mondays off we going to do that right I have every Monday up oh you don't okay I'm here all right so you're leaning towards 14th uh yeah my daughter's birthday is the fifth so we areally camping I'm probably fine with the seventh but I just as a rule I don't IND different different you're 14 I'm 14 since we have a couple strong 14s let's go with that great thank you uhhuh okay yeah what is why is it is it that thing that speaker just go underneath and unug be be unplugged from the back okay all right so it on the calendar and now we need a motion to approve the dates as they were in the packet other than July moving to the 14th you can say so moved if that's what we decided second all right thanks Ethan and John um all those in favor Ione oppose all right Council liaison reports Katie do you want to start yes so I have beel um their meeting was like a holiday meeting for December but I do have all the dates for all the activities going on so I'd like to run through those first one will be the Easter egg hunt at Barker's Alps that will be April 19th um the bar crawl is tenative May 10th and that just is through all the um bars around here ice cream social will be June 4th that's a Wednesday uh garage sales is Friday through Saturday June 6th through 7th um Farmers Market will start June 16th go through October 13th and that's again at the Village Green um so Derby days will start with Friday the September 19th that will be the Party in the Park at pero again uh the duck races will be Saturday September 20th and then the fireworks down at Lakeside that same night on September 20th um the Halloween at the fire hall will be on Halloween October 31st and then lighting of the V of the green will be Wednesday December 3rd and hopefully it will be warm enough and not as windy at least we had this year it was cold we had to go to the library so but it still worked out great it did it was kind of actually interesting to learn that maybe there's a role for being inside for some of it at least yeah for the crafts or whatever maybe or even having the vagabon sing inside you can hear them much better kind but all right thank you Katie um can you come back to me I can come back to you John did the cable commission meet Ethan no it's going to be quick back to you that's why Ethan wanted that job did you pick up on that yeah yeah okay how many meetings have you had to go to Just a couple right no we usually have one L every 3 months it's quarterly quarterly I know but you don't usually have them well we had a stretch there I miss never mind yeah I'm just teasing Carl no leaz point for me what Planning Commission I'm just kidding okay and then we don't have Connie to do the library but we get a pretty good update from Jil pack it so and then uh are you ready John or do you want me to um go ahead okay um so I was able to attend a couple of the we're calling it the bur crawl uh in February we're going to have a a second Bar Crawl we do the summer one and now the local businesses outside of bcal is not planning it um they're planning to do one related to the Ice Bar series that Minnesota ice is doing um they're the people that do the um maze over at the Vikings Stadium area and um they put together an Ice Bar Series so we're slotted for the weekend of like February 20th and they're going to do a bar crawl during that time we're having some other ice sculptures brought into town as well that a legion is sponsoring beel May sponsor a a sculpture too they talked about um talking about doing like a ice L kind of a drink shot thing at Woodies and some ice um bean bag games and anyways we we're still waiting on them to put together their plans and provide it to the city for the US to approve he'll probably have February meeting but there's for sure going to be an Ice Bar between oio and manger because they paid for that so cool yeah so that'll be a really fun thing for the for the winter um I so I have attended those meetings just to kind of help with them understanding what they might need to do with the city and that kind of thing and Mary also Mary glette came and helped at the very first meeting um lighting of an Ethan came I one too um lighting of the green was really fun we talked about that so I attended that um Matt and I on the 5th of December met with Sher mogren and Diane plastic and we talked about the Valley Community Center that they're trying to get to come to the area similar to like a YMCA I think I've talked about this before but they wanted specific input from us as a city of Bayport and whether we're supporting something like that and we of course we think it's a great idea and we need it but you know we don't have money to give you to to build this so um but we'd like to support it in some other way um there was a king plant stakeholder meeting online that I attended um there really isn't much for updates on that right now they're kind of in a slow time because they're kind of waiting for I don't know it's not exciting for us to hear what's going on at this point I guess I did have a chance to meet with Carl and just kind of chat a little bit about welcoming him and yeah and see if he had any questions um I also went that same day to um a cannabis Community Education meeting down at Green canopy in Lakeland Shores and I don't know if you know that it's there but it exists you can buy uh all kinds of things down there and they were very in it was a super interesting presentation they had the owner of the place talked about sort of where things stand Minnesota versus Wisconsin and a little bit of what we've already heard from um Christina and you know that kind of thing legally what's going on and then he also had someone who grows talk a little bit about different strains and all of that and and how growing doesn't necessarily mean your city's going to smell bad and there's all these things you know it was just it was really interesting um and then there was someone who does like the pharmaceutical side of it and talked a little bit about how it's helping medically for people and so I was first the only like City representative there and then I think it was the mayor of Lakeland I think it was that came but anyways it was it was a great thing I'm glad I was there for like two hours it was so interesting I also attended Regional Council of Mayor meeting um it was interesting because there was it was about the outgoing May mayors that didn't get reelected or maybe chose not to be re-elected right um and one of them was Marv Johnson from the city of Independence he had been mayor for 45 years goodness goodness yes super nice man and so they each including him gave us you know talked a little bit about Lessons Learned and what they did on the councils and all of that and then we said goodbye to them so that was it was a really cool meeting um went to the Fire Relief association meeting pretty typical nothing exciting there leadership in the valley was government day this uh in December so we always start off with some leadership skills which is always help helpful and then um we had a loc local elected official panel So like um Ted kazlowski outgoing County Commissioner Cel um Carly from oark Heights one of their council members so it was really interesting we got to ask questions they gave stories about you know what they what they're doing why I was on that panel last year we went to the state capital and had a tour and I actually got to wave at Governor walls cuz he walked in in the middle of our tour it's very exciting um and then we did a tour of the Stillwater Public Works which was also super informative um and then that prompted me to plan some kind of a tour for our Council to go check out like make sure everyone sees all the buildings we own and then also do a a public works tour and then I attended the emergency and disaster training session uh up at the uh County Courthouse area in that building and um it was focused on the the roles of elected City officials if there's a disaster in our community so basically I learned we call the guy at the county so that was the biggest takeaway but um and then I've been working a little with Jason as you could tell Jason Howard from the bank um on that snow sculpting team and how we can support Malta with him Simon and I talked this morning about another tiny little Grant opportunity that we're working on that hope we'll tell you more about later and then I also this morning met with the owner of um the new business that's next to heartfelt silks uh her name is Sher ukul I think I'm not sure how to say the last name and her business is called creator of dots and she's very interesting and very excited to be part of our community so um I don't know if you guys noticed on Bayport neighborhood back around Thanksgiving she put a bunch of her product out in front of the shop and told everyone to come and get it so she's very giving and excited to be here and it's beautiful stuff that she does so look her up creator of dots she sells things online not it's not a retail shop it's a um a place for her to create her art then there was a couple chamber ribbon cuttings animal voice advocacy and D DJ's clamshack that I went to and try to make sure people remember Bayport exists as well and went to a couple Christmas events through the chambers to and then I just wanted to give a little shout out to Ethan for planning that border battle he didn't get a chance last month to to talk uh about that but it sounds like it went yeah went really well so congrats on on that so what happened with the Minnesota strategy we need to I think we were under under represented right no we had three times the people that Wisconsin did Oh I thought it was the other way around no no no the Wisconsin people all had to pull like there was and then there was one woman she pulled all five times and three of like two of the dudes after like pulling so like we can't do it like we're exhaust like it's a lot harder like I didn't actually pull because we had enough Minnesota people but it it's actually it's harder than you think cuz exting a couple of the guys were like I mean they were big like in shaped guys and they looked at me and they're like we can't we can't do it anymore now you're going to make people you're going to make people afraid to go next that's not going to matter they're going to be go get exhausted it's going to fill up next year for sure so we we got a little over half of what we were hoping but the community came down it was there had to be four 500 people hanging out you still water and you got really good PR after the fact I felt like like they're like oh they did this border battle which so I think that's going to help for next year definitely good thank you yeah good job all right John what um it took me a little while to get back to um well just a couple bayfor related things and some are old because of how our meetings and how often we meet you meet like right after our meetings right um the Middle s Croy watershed management organization it talks about it has to do with the school and um I'm going to try and summarize after performing a higher level of engineering review to and determining infiltration is appropriate for the site revised submittal materials were received and it happened in October the MSC wmo recommends the project be approved with the following conditions and the permission to connect to um County storm sewer um provide adequate construction guidance guidance to prevent infiltration base Bas and clogging or compaction and Demon demonstrate performance and Prov a minimum 8T access to reach Inlet Outlets of in infiltration Basin 3 um so what does all that mean they approved it is the takeaway so yeah with the conditions Matt might Matt that that letter is literally made out to Matt and it's old sort of old news now but it's okay new news as it pertains to um wmo vport stuff so it was just a I don't know a a final hurdle for them or a hurdle for the project moving forward from the wmo standpoint and there was one other Bayport one let's see if I can quickly find it want to make sure you're being heard on your sorry I'm trying to uh what was the other paper oh the um just starting the process with the development what is it Pine Haven what are we calling the new B Bay Haven project on the top of of the hill so that's just coming across okay um the wmo right now and we don't have a meeting scheduled this week I have read and so okay it'll be a while before I have anything else all right thank you John should we move along to the staff and City administrator report thank you Madame mayor uh fire chief eising good evening Madame mayor council members uh for the month of December our call volume was 107 compared to 103 in 2023 uh the final uh 2024 call volume is 1,270 compared to 1,219 in 2023 monthly drills were ice rescue and our tender one operation our fire inspections are ongoing and plan reviews we did the village uh green lighting we had the car seat Clinic up at our state and this next this month we have the Washington County fire chiefs with that I stand for any questions this is where you say the fire department's your favorite department just kid understood whoops all right thank you Al thank you Chief Jackson Madam mayor council hi J I know PD is your favorite car I only have a couple things um I know it was uh we've been hyp in this for a couple months now but officer lowski had her um dat to shine at the Minnesota Wild game uh was a great event they recognized her for her community service um I want to say five of her Partners I think joined her out there with their loved ones uh the minnes wild surprises at the last minute and offered up a Zamboni ride so it was a lot of fun for them good team building um so I was glad that a lot of her Partners were able to attend Toys for Tots this year was another great event um we were surprised by getting a large donation from uh Bernie low who uh lives up in Inspiration who just absolutely filled our lobby with toys this year um and we were able to get him um to go with officer Cornell to deliver the toys cool and then car 11 actually did a small spot with him on the donation that he did with officer cordette so also always thankful to croyale uh the Minnesota Department of Corrections First State Bank um and everyone else that participated in the event this year for us so thank you very much for that um we attended the lighting of the Village Green uh by officer lowski and officer Cornell and then just a reminder was also in the newsletter the odd even odd even parking is uh in place right now so just making sure that we get the vehicles moved so Public Works can follow so uh we did just get it's not on your uh memo but uh just today we are working with a Cub Scout that is interested in getting a tour of the police department specifically to learn about being a detective so we're trying to set that up right now so that's all I have for you I'll stand for questions just cuz it's a chance to do it can you remind the uh the parameters of the odd even parking well you put me on the spot here maybe that's Matt's job or than Simon who knows this nobody knows the well it's new so it is new even address is even on even days you park on the even side of the road based on the house but you have to plan for what the next day is because it's after midnight it's it's a time of day window though right yeah yeah the time of day is 1:00 a.m. to 7 a.m. so keep in after midnight so well and and frankly if the residents use common sense and are courteous it's easy to comply and and just try and get your when it needs to be plowed try and get your stuff off the streets or the other thing that is important for me that I this is a pet peeve of mine is when they are parked on both sides of the roads and it's snowy yes a firetruck isn't going to even be able to get through on the road so I think it's smart for us to have the odd even well and our officers do keep an eye on I know that stand let us know if he's having any issues and we'll go knock on doors too so yeah and I know we haven't had a lot of snow again this year but it's I'm sure it's coming yeah last year too we got pretty lucky so yeah that's I mean again yeah this year yeah all right thanks any questions thank you thank you okay Public Works director worth we even covered one of your things already uh Madame mayor members of the council uh Mr Bliss welcome I don't even have to say it favorite Department thanks um one thing that uh I got some comments on with the orange pile that you see popped up along 95 um small little thing took a lot to get that figured out uh worked with M do a little bit those are actually marking pylons uh you've noticed they're kind of uh a little bit of a mess out there but um they are necessary for the state and we did negotiate with them to have half of them removed so we've walked around town and um in the spring we'll have several of the about half of them removed so just FY I don't know if anybody's even noticed them but those permanent they're supposed to stay there forever these correct typically they're more of a rural application um I was confused by that too but they are there for marking the fiber optic cable that they recently ran through town um so just a heads up on that those are are permanent if any questions feel free to let me know um hockey rinks are open hockey rink and pleasure rink are open um feel free to get into the warming house that is open cleaned open and the lights are on and open for business down there um there was a patch repair on the road between uh on Point Road um for those residents that may be wondering that uh it was too late in the year to to permanently repair the the black Tob um it was patched uh well actually we left it gravel um it's packed down good enough so it should be passable um but that will be completed in the spring um and then you heard from Tory Christensen um this this earlier this meeting um great guy I've gotten to know him um working with him's been just a pleasure and they're doing fantastic work out there I try to get it out there daily because it's just uh you you're right it is Stark definitely um but if you are um a hiker or you'd like to get to areas around uh town that are similar uh there are tons of examples all over uh up and down the Riverway um you really don't need to look far so um I encourage anybody even now get out there and take a look it's it's pretty impressive so um with that I stand for questions questions for some oh thank you all right assistant administrator Taylor Madam mayor members of the council uh the most recent edition of the city's newsletter Bayport news went to print this week highlights include a reminder about the OD even winter parking that we just talked about uh volunteer openings for the Planning Commission the foundation for the Bayport library and the police Reserve program uh update on the solar grant grant at the fire station and then again the farewell gathering for uh County Carlson at the library from 400 to 5:30 on January 16th uh staff continues to be extremely busy with various zoning projects and land use applications uh the Planning Commission is scheduled to meet on Tuesday January 14th that's when we can get a quorum uh to consider the following items uh an annexation petition and preliminary plat for Bay Haven which is the Anderson Farm parcel across from the fire station uh the development consists of a mix of residential single family and multif family dwelling units and then secondly a conditional use permit for Lenny's Garage on 5th Avenue North and the permit is to continue allowing online auto sales with outdoor storage and display on the site other projects um this was discussed at the workshop tonight a potential annexation and lot split for Rick federowski um and he owns the parcel adjacent to the Anderson farm and next to the site for the new elementary school and then also a final plat and land use applications for the new school which is anticipated to be heard by the Planning Commission and in February um just noting again the Planning Commission is on a Tuesday instead of a Monday this month on January 14th um January 20th City Hall is closed for the holiday and then lastly if any council members um that haven't already attended the elected uh leaders Institute that the league of Minnesota cities uh hosts Carl is already registered and is going to the newly elected um but there also is an experienced city council member track so if anyone wants to register for that let me know and I'll get you all set up so Marv the 45 year veteran of being a mayor from Independence he was at the last elected yeah so even he goes to the experienced ones so so I think the deadline for that is uh right around February 1st so just let me know yeah I'm glad you signed up that's good yeah I stand for questions thanks Sarah Madame mayor members of council U most of my things were covered tonight the only other outstanding one is the storm wi utility um SE and City staff are moving forward with ordinance language pertaining to the setup of that utility um and how it will be a build to Residents um we're planning on having uh that on the um March agenda um kind of for like a public hearing essentially even though it's not a public hearing um more just like an informational session um so if the public has any questions about it they are welcome to attend um other than that all of my other items were covered time for questions all right thanks Matt okay does anyone want to go home yes I going to go to work instead oh okay sorry going to make a motion I move to adjourn the meeting second thank you Katie and John all those in favor I anyone oppos all right thank you we are done for