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. Tonight's agenda, you have it
in front of you. Um would like to pull under the consent agenda letter J the ebike update memo. I think Chief Limb Bloom's going to talk just briefly about that. Um and we do have an Edgewood Street update as well that we would put
after the consent agenda. Anybody else have any changes? If not, I'd entertain a motion to adopt the agenda as amended. I'll make a motion we adopt the agenda as amended. Second. We have a motion by Mike, second by Rick. Is there any discussion?
Hearing none. All in favor, please state I. Anyone opposed, state no. The agenda is approved. Uh guess an open forum. We have the Great River Regional Library annual presentation. We'll turn it over to Hillary Dawson.
Welcome. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to bring you the annual report for 2024. Do you want to maybe pull the mic uh closer to hear?
Thanks. Um, so I know many of you are familiar with the library, but for those of you who may not be, I would like to introduce Great River Regional Library as a whole and then talk about Becker specifically. So, Great uh Great River is one library system serving six counties through through 32 individual
branches. Um, our mission is to explore um, learn and connect. Our core values are exceptional service, forward thinking and community focus. So we do this through the traditional means of putting a physical book or other resource into a person's hands as well as offering digital resources um at
every age level. Um educational opportunities through ask or book a librarian, homework help and tech help are also offered. We are connecting with our community through ways uh the ways mentioned as well as offering programming, educator request forms, volunteer opportunities um as well as
others. Great river regional um by the numbers. So if we want to take a look there um Great River now has over 96,000 borrowers as a whole. Um 17,000 of those are in Sherburn County. Um Becker is one
of three branches housed in Sher County. Um and Becker um has 2528 um of the Sherburn County uh patrons calling Becker their home library. Last year, Great River circulated about
2 million items with 324,000 of those in Sher County and 56,000 of those circulated through our branch here in Becker. Um that is reflecting an increase of about 2,000 um items circulated over the 2023 numbers. We had
a digital circulation of about 484,000 last year. So that's all of our ebooks and um uh there are other e um like movies, that kind of thing that are offered through Hoopla um as well. And then um Becker's library impact. So
as you can see our borrower number is listed there. Again, we house about 16,000 items. Um, and that number is fluid because of our um the floating nature of our collection. So all of our items, not all, most of our items float
between those 32 different branches. So they may be called in by a patron um and then sent off for another patron at a different branch. So they're just constantly moving around. Um we had over 10,000 checkout sessions. Um
the circuit number is there again for you to see. Uh we had about 30,000 visits to our library last year and thousands of information requests. Um our reading challenge registration numbers are there for you to see. And then on the bottom are our hours. Um we are open 33 hours per week according to
that schedule. So I just want to um draw your attention to the furniture and the pictures. Um our friends of the library organization was able to secure a grant for $12,000 from Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange last year. With that grant, they purchased both lounge seating and study table chairs. Um,
that's creating a fresh, welcoming space in our library. They also purchased shelving units for our picture books and our large print collections. That's allowing us to house more materials um so we can put uh more titles in front of our patrons.
I would like to thank the friends for all the work that they did to um get that grant and all the things that they do to continue to support the library community. Um, is everybody familiar with the the Friends of the Library group and what they do? We are, but why don't you take a minute
to explain it? Just I will. So, um, the Friends of the Library organization, um, has a mission of increasing library services to enrich cultural advantages for our community through fundraising, advocating, and volunteering. Um, I do have a brochure
I'll leave with you guys. So what they do is primarily they do book sales um a couple of the times a year and then they also have a book sale cart in our library and um they volunteer in our library and for us um they'll advocate. So sometimes it'll be writing something
for the paper or um it may just be you know chatting with friends or or community members and letting them know about the services that we provide. So they are a great asset to us for sure. Um I would like to speak briefly about how the library impacts our community
through our many resources. So most people think of course of books when they think of the library and we have a ton of those for sure um in many formats and for all age um levels, all audiences. Um but we also offer digital
books um and audio books through Libby. So if you're familiar with that, we have um a platform called Libby. And then we also have another digital resource, a platform called Hoopla. And through that we offer books, audiobooks, movies, music, uh magazines, and great courses.
Um it's like having a free streaming service really. Um and it allows us to offer the library to people. So say you're a snowbird or um are on vacation, the library lit literally will come to you. So you don't have to worry about losing a book or having something be
overdue. you can continue your library service um regardless of where you are. So, I really think that that is a neat feature that we have. Um we also have a ton of database offerings. Um a couple of which
um I'll just mention. So, we have access to like driving tests, genealogy research tools, Britannica online, LinkedIn Learning, and much more. Um, LinkedIn Learning offers thousands of courses in business, um, technical and
creative skills that you can access for free from the comfort of your own home. Um, courses are available from communication and management to entrepreneurship, sales and video production along with everything in between. Um, it is really a wealth of information at your fingertips.
We also have a service called Minlink. Is everybody familiar with that? So, Minlink allows us um to borrow from other library services. So, Great River as a whole can borrow from say Viking um land or any of the Viking. Got a little
Harley in my head right now. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah. Um anyway, so from the Viking or from Henipin County or any of those other library systems. So, that opens up um a whole another collection to our
patrons. So maybe it's a homeschooling mom who's really looking for a specific book. They can pull that in. We have a gentleman who comes in with his list of movies every week and a lot of times we have to source um from outside of our collection to get those for him. Um it's
a fantastic resource that allows us to just provide a greater selection to our patrons. Um we also offer printing services and Wi-Fi to go. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that, but you can actually take a hot spot home. Um, we have both what we call a lucky day.
So that borrows for one week and then we also have a three-week borrow. So that allows people if they're say going to the cabin or if for some other reason they don't have Wi-Fi accessible to them at home, it is free Wi-Fi. Um, and then just moving on, Becker
programming. So we do offer a lot of um different programs to our community. All of the programming through the library is free. So you may see some things here that might be offered um elsewhere, but anything that you come to at the library is free. So um we offered a total of 141
programs with an attendance of 2,86 people and 2024. So we have a monthly um basically a core um programming that we offer monthly both to children and for adults. So that would include things like story time, tiny tots, our school
in art program. We also offer a book club and um tech time for adults. We bring um presentation or uh presenters in, performers in, artisans in. Um so if you look at the bottom there in the center, that group of people, that is
author um Gabriel Meyer. She is pictured with our book club members. Um Magic Bob, he helped us kick off the summer reading program last year. And we also have a picture there of artist Laura Rupert with some of our patrons um in the center with our mosaic, our
community mosaic. So they created that project together under her guidance. We also connect with our community through our outreach. Um, so we've attended some things such as Sherburn County public health family celebration,
touch a truck, uh, breakfast with Santa, and we also the val value the partnerships that we have with our Becker schools. So Becker School's art show, grade one at the library. Those are a couple of things that we do. Um, thanks to our generous donate uh, donations during the locally grown
campaign in 2024, we were able to add Wonder Books to our collection. And locally grown, in case you are unfamiliar, is our annual fundraiser in which all donations stay at the branch. So everything purchased with locally grown funds stays in Becker um for our
patrons and it will stay in our branch for 6 months to 3 years before it is allowed to circulate um outside of our branch. So become one of those floating items that can be requested. And here's a couple of examples of
wonder books. So, what Wonder Books are is they're a print book with an audio book component. Probably remember those uh books with CD back in the day. Well, this is the same thing only it is all one unit. Um we offer them in picture books and also in early chapter books.
Um the early chapter books are nice for those reluctant um to go from a picture book to a chapter book or for those who are struggling to read. So, we like to have those and they are very popular with our patrons. I just want to thank you for your time and answer any
questions that you may have. All right. Any questions? Apply. I did have, but I forgot what it was. You mentioned the uh LinkedIn Learning um which I'm familiar with. Um so is that the same uh that's the same LinkedIn Learning that if I went and
signed up for that service with my LinkedIn account, that's it' be the same. Um do do I have to uh would I if I were to come in and use that, would I have to use it at the facility or how does that work? No, there are a few of our databases that are um required to be
used in-house um but that is not one of them. So if you have your library card, you log in with your library card and pin number and you have access to LinkedIn learning and all of log into the great river platform or logged into LinkedIn login through link learning LinkedIn learning.
Okay. Yep. So if you go to great river and then go to databases you'll see an entire list. Um, some are inside the library, some are with a barcode, and some are to um, everyone. You don't even have to have a library card to access them.
It's like you need a library card, Rick. Yeah. Another one. Yeah. And again, that's free. So, it's probably the greatest resource that's, you know, kind of secret. It feels like everybody seems to say, "Oh, we have a library." Yes, we do. Absolutely. Any other questions for
Hillary? May I leave these with you? Yeah, please do. And Hillary, thank thanks to you and your staff and your volunteers. I know a lot of people count on your library and you do a great job. So, thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. Have a good evening. Absolutely. You too.
Thank you. All right. We have anybody else for open forum? All right. Seeing none, then we will move on to committee reports. uh joint fireboard. Joint fire board. Uh we met the same
night as our uh um same night as our uh we'll call it joint meeting. Um main item of discussion as you can guess was the uh budget that we were going to be presenting later that night along with the uh ratification. Um those were the which were both presented that night. So
those were the main items for discussion at uh fireboard. All right. Any questions for Rick about fireboard? All right. Parks and Wreck. Park and Wreck met on July 21st. Um the
majority of our meeting was uh taking a look at the CIP for 2026. We talked a little bit about the new park on the east side of the river. Um they're looking for ideas for names and they're going to start some site preparations over there and just get the
ground leveled out and a few things like that. Pleasant Valley Park equipment replacement. They're looking at an early August install. And then we did take a look at the port and place surfacing on the community at
the community park behind the community center. Um they've had a few issues with it. We've got a 5-year warranty on it and I think the decision was made that night just to let it go through the winter and take a look at it in the spring and see if there's any deterioration.
Which service was that? It's all around the park playground surface. It's a poured in place surface spongy and it got tore up from use and it was not even a year old. So, there was something wrong
and they they fixed it and we're not saying it's good at this point, but we're going to sit. But we've got we've got some time let it see how it how it looks come spring. All right,
sounds great. Golf committee, we didn't meet Hey, that's an easy one. We It was budget and and uh Josh went over everything at at our meeting. Yep. Okay. Awesome. Uh budget and finance.
Uh budget and finance. Uh our main topic of uh discussion was uh we we had some postf follow-up discussions on the uh proposed 2026 budget. That was our main items of discussion. Okay. And planning commission.
Planning commission. Um we had a couple items. Uh we had some chapter not 11, chapter 4 edits. Um uh some some uh edits that we discussed there. We also um talked about uh the Sherburn County uh zoning uh and subdivision ordinance. Uh they were just
looking for a little bit of feedback and so staff had proposed some feedback and we just um we agreed with the feedback that staff had proposed. So um that was uh that about it. It's pretty quick meeting. Okay. All right. Thank you for those reports. Move on to number seven,
board committee and consultant reports. We have the Becker Fire Relief Association and statewide volunteer firefighter plan. Mr. Larut, traditionally fire departments have had their own relief association that they have operated themselves to create a
pension fund uh for their members. And about 15 years ago, the state created the some statewide volunteer firefighter uh relief association that allowed um local associations to move their assets to uh this fund which is managed by PRA
but it is separate from any other uh pension funds and they would professionally manage uh the um retirement dollars the pension dollars and uh started slow um but now there's about 200 members uh relief association
members that contribute or that go to the statewide. And last year, the city, township, and relief association initiated the process, which starts by asking uh the state to do an analysis of what the current um funds look like, what uh potential uh funding sources
you're going to have, and then what level of pension you might be able to offer. Uh last year uh the the process was not completed in time. So it was restarted again this year and the analysis was included in the uh agenda packet and uh the relief association had
a special meeting. They recommended moving to the statewide plan. Um it is required also that the city and the township separately do this. That's why it was not at the joint meeting uh in July. And um there are some advantages to doing it. There are a lot of costs
that the relief association no longer has to pay. they they do not have to do an annual audit of their funds. Uh they don't have to do an actuarial study. There are lower investment fees. And so over time uh and it's a higher excuse me assumed investment return as well. So over time there should be additional
funds for their retirement allowing more a higher increase or more regular increase. And so, um, tonight before you is a resolution that would, um, approve the move, uh, to from for the Becker Relief Association to the statewide plan. Uh, it will be on the township
agenda at their meeting in August. Um, the relief association's already submitted their resolution to the state and um, this would uh, transfer what happened at the end of the year. It only happens on the last day of the year. So, um, we have plenty of time to meet that. In addition to the resolution here at
the joint meeting, the there was increase approved to $5,300 that matches this that would be their benefit level when we move to the statewide plan. And the and the annual increases or the increases are still determined locally and it still would
need to go through both uh the relief association and then the township and the city and those increases can be uh approved at the joint meeting. It's this particular move that has to be approved separately. So, um, resolution, uh, 2557
is before you and I'll be happy to answer any questions. Anybody have any questions for Greg? So, the fire board did recommend um this move um to the city and the township.
And we did approve the benefit increase. Yep. At the July joint meeting. At the July joint meeting. So even at that uh they're over 100% funded. So that's that was that was a good thing I think that we did.
That's that's a good thing. Yeah. Right. Any other questions? If not, we would look for a motion to approve resolution 2527, which would allow us 2557. Thank you. That would allow us to join the
statewide volunteer firefighter plan. I'll make that a motion. I'll second. Okay. We have a motion by Mike. We have a second by Robin. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, please state I. I. Anyone opposed, state no.
That motion carries. Thank you. And we'll move on to administrator and staff reports. Looks like we have some HVAC replacement. Mr. Willing. Yes. Welcome. He had one. Now he's back again right away. Absolutely.
Yeah. Good evening, mayor and councel. Good evening. Before you tonight, I have in resolution RCA and resolution 2558 for your consideration. The HVAC on the water administration building is original from 1996.
That being said, service life is generally 15 years and it is currently on its 29th year. The decision was made to replace to avoid costly repairs that is uh outlived its service life. The staff received two quotes for the
replacement and they were included in a packet. I am looking for a motion and a second approving resolution 2558 approving the HVAC replacement for the water administration building. All right. Anybody have any questions
for Troy? I just had one. The there was a fair bit of difference between the Dalon and the McDow quotes. Any I you know that's just I guess that's why we get several quotes sometimes. Um, some are higher, some are lower. I guess uh I still feel confident Dalan will get
the job done for the quoted price. So, these are these are residential furnace and AC units. So, that's probably why there's a difference from one to the other. Yep. So, lesson is if you're replacing your residential one, make sure you get two
quotes. Absolutely. Yeah. Good to know. the the warranties were similar between them. Yeah. Things like that, right? Okay. Yeah. Awesome.
Good. Any other questions from council? If not, we would be looking for a motion on resolution 2558 to replace the HVAC at the water main building.
Make a motion to adopt resolution 2558. I'll second. We have a motion by Rick, second by Mike. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, please state I. I. Anyone opposed, state no. Wonderful.
Um, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Uh, Mr. Larude again, Mayor Coberger, city council members. Items for adoption, approval, or review on tonight's cons revised consent agenda include payment of the bills, the minutes of the July 15th, 2025 city
council meeting, the minutes of the July 15th, 2025 city council exec session, and the minutes of the July 21st, 2025 budget workshop meeting. Committee meeting minutes. The state demographers 2024 population estimate. The purchase
of fitness equipment for the police department. Resolution 25-56 accepting a $7500 donation from the Becker Lions Club for lighting at Snuffy's Landing. Change order number 10 for the Police Department city hall project in the amount of $15,85320.
Resolution 25-59 approving a joint powers agreement with the Minnesota BCA and Court Services. Partial pay request number two in the amount of $412,4126 to OMG Midwest for the 2025 street improvement project. Partial pay request
number two in the amount of $69,350 to St. cloud refrigeration for the wastewater treatment facility storage building HVAC system project and partial pay request number three and final in the amount of $8,650 to St. Cloud Refrigeration for the
wastewater treatment facility storage building HVAC and I'll be happy to answer any questions. Anybody have any questions on the consent agenda? Hearing none. We'll look for a motion to approve that. Motion we approve the consent agenda as
presented. No second. We have a motion by Mike, second by Rick. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, please state I. Anyone opposed, state no? That carries. Again, a thank you to the Lions Club for
their continued generosity. And the state demographer says we have 5,221 people in town. So that's a 2024 estimate, correct? This is probably even higher now. Cool. All right, moving on. Chief Lindlum,
we're just going to talk briefly about the ebike uh update. As people know, we've been working on that for a while. He's done a lot of work along with with public works. So, thank you. And yeah, I just wanted to take the opportunity to give you a quick update as I said that I would um just want to
highlight what's been done and where we're going. So, um, we did put out a social media post that's, uh, was wellreceived by the the citizens. Got a lot of questions and comments on that. Just talking a little bit about ebikes, what they are, what the rules are, what the statutes and laws are. Uh, that was
followed with an article by the Patriot that in the Patriot that was a joint effort um by the school superintendent and myself uh to again highlight some of those uh the dangers with the riding conditions and things like that. And then um additionally, I advise my staff
to be proactive about uh enforcing state statute that's currently on the books for statutes related to ebikes. Um one of the important one ones is the age limit of 15. So uh anytime that they're dealing with a um juvenile that's under
15 on them, then we're making contact with the parents as well to fill them on uh in on the state statute uh rules there. So that's kind of what we've been done done. so far uh moving forward is going to be the process of establishing a city ordinance uh related to the
ebikes. Uh in the memo that I had attached for the council states that we are waiting for the county attorney to discuss some of the legal ramifications of some of those options. Uh we did receive that information back. So now I'm in the process of moving forward with uh establishing an ebike ordinance
that would um highlight the state statutes that are already on the books which is something that the police would issue a state titation for. And then additional other options that the city can have um that's not included in state statute. So a good example would be, you
know, not riding an ebike on um off of a city-owned trail. So to cover people riding through parks and on park equipment and that type of thing, um we can add those on to our ordinance. That then would be a separate um administrative issue for the police department. So, uh, I'm going to be
working on that ordinance in conjunction, um, with some of our staff and hope to bring a draft ordinance to the council, um, at, uh, our next meeting. Um, additionally, we've had some, uh, other discussions with streets and public works about other options
like adding stop signs to more of our intersections that would uh, limit the ability for our ebikes to get enough speed. A lot of the complaints that we get are that they drive very fast and once they start, they don't stop. So, um, we've discussed the options of
adding stop signs on the pedestrian trails. That would require them to to come to a stop to kind of slow some of the the speeds there. So, few different options that we're looking at at um adding into the ebike uh area here as it seems to be heating
up uh in pretty much every city in Minnesota right now. So, do you have any questions about that process or how things are looking? What kind of response are you getting from parents when you're speaking with them? Um, mostly that they had no idea. Um, I was a little worried that people would
be upset, you know. Um, they're not cheap bikes and thousands of dollars sometimes. Um, uh, so so far it's been wellreceived. Um, we'll just see how well that proactivity works for, you know, keeping kids off of them on the
sidewalks. So, so if you put stop signs on the trails, will they actually stop for them? Possibly not, but that's why we So, that the hope is that they will, right? As with any traffic control vi device that we use for cars or bicycles.
Um, one of the benefits there is that it it gives us another reason to to make that contact, right? It's an enforcement action. Um, that let's say it's uh somebody that's legally, you know, older than 15. they're on the right size bike,
they're not going ridiculously fast, but they they go through the stop sign because they're just carrying through. Um, that gives us an opportunity to have some enforcement action or a conversation. Uh, whereas right now, because a lot of the a lot of the the complaints we get are that there's just
kind of no no regard for stopping or slowing for crossings and people are concerned that they're going to get hit when they're crossing different driveways and entrances to businesses. So that would possibly help curb some of that. All right, any other questions? Well,
thanks Chief and thanks to public works. I know you've put a lot of time into this and so we appreciate everybody doing that. Thank you. Uh rolling into uh I wanted to also point out I received a letter from a mom
uh in regards to their son being pulled over by Becker PD. So that was a first. I thought where is this going? But uh she was very complimentary and um told me a little story about her son that he just panicked and decided to flee the
police. But uh her letter her well uh it was actually addressed to Mayor Bertram. Um but it said uh my name is I won't mention that. I wanted to send you a note of thanks for having the most amazing police force in the entire state of Minnesota. So, I had to point that
out cuz that's not a usually don't get a lot of fan mail uh for the PD. So, uh congratulations to I talked to Chief about that earlier and the officer. So, thank you. Um did want to close the meeting by just uh recognizing uh the
recent tragedy on Edgewood Street. Um, and I I think people are aware of that and I know it's created a lot of discussion in the community, a lot of concern, uh, a lot of people reaching out and looking for action. So, I thought it would be appropriate tonight
and uh chief did post this and the city posted it today, but uh we just want the citizens to know we hear your concerns and uh let you know that um we are taking steps and have been even before this unspeakable tragedy. So, from the
law enforcement side, we've seen increased patrols on Edgewood Street daily. Um we're looking at uh continuing the strict enforcement of all speed limits and crosswalk rules. Uh traffic monitoring uh still looking at the data showing that the the speeds
on Edgewood are are consistent with with our other main roads, but we remain vigilant. Uh public works and infrastructure improvements. Um this is included in the city's capital improvement plan for next year pending final approval uh for the next two
years. Um council action was taken on July 15th to approve moving forward with the engineering and design work. So we're already doing that. Um that comprehensive redesign work will include looking at and reviewing the road width,
speed limits, the trail location and and safety amenities with that trail. the crosswalk visibility and includes looking at the inter intersection of Edgewood and uh Cassad 23. Uh we've we've taken some action to look at
there. Uh we did have the mayor's uh round table last week. So uh multi- agency discussion about Edgewood uh and traffic concerns. Um and we all continue to work together to see where we can
enhance that pedestrian safety. Um and our next steps will be cost estimates will be developed based on the engineering designs and city council later this year will will be looking at recommendations and a timeline to accelerate these improvements. So
together we are committed to making Becker Street safe for everyone and and we will continue to do that. Anybody else have anything for tonight? If not, we would entertain a motion to adjurnn. I'll make a motion we adjourn.
Second. Have a motion by Mike, second by Robin. All in favor of adjourning, please state I. I. Anyone opposed, state no. Meeting is adjourned at 5:33. Thank you.