December 4th, 2025, 7:30 a.m. in council chambers. Uh Tony, please call the role or James >> Beaser. >> Grasula >> here. >> Johnson >> here. >> Kersh >> here. >> OD >> here.
>> Jagger. >> All right. Uh next we have to elect a chair for today. Um I'm just starting the meeting. So if somebody else wants to chair the meeting, >> I'd move to elect OD as chair for the day. Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a
second. Any discussion? Seeing none, let's go to a vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Against. Same sign. I am today's chair. All right. Uh, next we're looking to approve the agenda. Uh, but we
brought up to me here that we want to move the sign grant. If if you want to make a motion. >> Yes. Um, I'll motion to move the proposed signage and facade grant to between items 5D and E.
>> Okay. Motion by Gula. >> Second. >> Second by Johnson. Any discussion? We will have that motion along with approving the agenda with that motion. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> All those in favor say I. >> I.
>> I. Again, same sign. >> All right. We have an agenda. Next, we're looking for approval of the consent calendar. This is notice to public that all matters listed are considered routine by the board and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless good cause is shown prior to the
time the board votes on the motion to be adopted by roll call. >> Move approval Johnson. >> Second. Motion by Johnson. Second by Garcula. Any discussion? See none. Let's go to a vote. Um,
James >> Johnson, >> yes. >> OD, >> yes. >> Grasula, >> yes. >> Kersh, >> yes. >> All right. Next, we have number five. This is unfinished business. 5A, we have the Washington Street Mitigation Plan
Update. I believe this is Mr. Kian. You want to step up to the mic and >> want to set it up? >> Yeah. So, I'll just kind of give a a a brief uh update on this. Uh we discussed this at the uh workshop that we held in April. Uh the EDA was um interested in
potentially um having $20,000 go towards the Washington Street mitigation plan in 2026 and then 10,000 in 2027. Um the chamber presented kind of a preliminary proposal. Uh and since uh we've had meetings, a couple meetings at the chamber um figuring out what we do in
the future. We have potentially an upcoming business meeting to discuss um a mitigation plan and informing the businesses of what we might be able to do and offer for that. Um so I'll let Matt kind of explain that and I know he's been working on other funding sources as well. So let Matt take it from there.
>> All right. Thanks. Um, so this it's been a while, I think, since you've seen this document. So, what I'd like to do today is just um not read every word to you, but um maybe give you a few highlights. I've had some meetings. It's been a little while here uh with Marie, and
we've uh sort of massaged this a little bit more, too. Um feeling a little bit under the weather today, so I'm going to keep it maybe shorter than usual. the the the first thing I'd like to say is that I I think um most people in the
room are aware of the situation that is going on in in Baxter and I just want to acknowledge that's happening and also say that um we are not looking at Mandot as a long-term adversary. I we're
certainly standing up for our businesses. We're never going to apologize for that, but they're going to be a key partner in this effort and whatever happens in Baxter in a few years, we'll be partnering with them again. So, to the extent that um that is a concern, I don't see it as one and
there's two different project teams. Uh Luke Wesler has been great um to work with over the years and and that's going to continue. So, um just want to acknowledge that. Um the other thing I want to say is that um this project is
for all businesses um that are going to be impacted by the construction. So sometimes um people wonder are we going to treat our chamber members differently um than the other businesses in this case in Brainard. We have about 5 to 600
businesses that are members um that are in Brainard. But all businesses are going to get be treated equally. we're looking to lift up and to preserve all those all those especially small businesses. So the member non-member issue is a non-issue um here. So under
mitigation strategies, the first thing that I think is important and MindD does a good job with putting information out on their project sites, but the first thing that we have to um to do is to is to sort of change the narrative that
this is going to be doom and gloom and this is something that's going to be terrible for the community and do long-term damage. We know that's going to be the opposite. And so we have to establish uh another narrative saying that this is an investment, long-term investment, a generational investment in
Brainard and that um we need to get through a two-year construction process, but then there's blue sky after that. It's going to do wonders for the character of the community, um the way that visitors perceive the community as first impressions, and I think all that's going to benefit us economically.
Um second thing here is that uh web and social media hub mind does a great job in pushing out information. Their job is not to um come up with a brand. Their job is not to um necessarily work with
businesses really closely to mitigate um effects of construction. They don't do events. They don't do a lot of trainings. They don't do a lot of things that are in this proposal. So this is complimentary to what MDOT is going to do. I don't want to rebuild Mindot's
website on some new platform. That's that's not necessary. But I think we can supplement complement what they're doing um and have a little bit more of a communityfacing presence and that's what um this mitigation plan is designed to
do. So it would be both web and social media and we have a lot of followers and engagement and channels that we can do that. The other thing that's really interesting is um on page two as far to the business liaison and this was an idea um that came up early in the pro
process someone that the businesses can call on if there is an issue or a question um where they can get a liaison back to the contractor. Um, one of the things I didn't know is that Mandot can
actually write um a stipulation into their construction contract that has a liaison built in with that contractor. Now, that would be different um than what we're talking about, somebody external, that's a significant expense.
So, we have to figure out whether or not that's a priority and whether or not we can raise the money to pay somebody for two years um at least during that construction season. Um I'm hopeful that one of the two local companies uh get the contract, either Anderson Brothers or Knife River. That makes things a lot
easier for us for communication because we have relationships with both. My understanding is that Anderson is uh nearing a resolution to its uh uh its issue. So, um I'm hopeful. I'm not sure, James, when the letting pro uh
>> they're clear. >> Oh, they are. Okay, good. I didn't see it come in, Tyler. >> Um so, uh yeah. So, I I'm hopeful if if that's the case, I'm I feel much more confident in the leaison that they provide. And then the way that that's written in the contract, they need to
provide regular updates to both the city obviously and the chamber. Business workshops, I think, are self-explanatory. I'm hoping that Mindot can take the lead on some of that. They see what's happening in lots of other communities and they have a best
practices guide so they can help. Their communications part uh department can help. But also training uh and I listed some of the things here. How do you adjust operations? How do you expand your online sales? How how do you do events? How do you get customers into
your business when it's not convenient to get there? I think we can do some of those things. Um, we need a steering committee. Obviously, we're going to put that together here after the first of the year. I'd prefer these people be diverse, but also have some sort of
marketing sensibilities. Um, I think um um visit Brainer, Mary should be a part of that. And, uh, there's some other people, Marie would be one. There's some other people. I think business owners that have some marketing sensibility should be on there. I'm thinking that
could be anywhere from 5 to 10 people. you see the tenative budget. I am uh pleased that you're um at least considering doing $30,000 contribution from the EDA. I think that's a wise investment. Um we need to get through this 2-year period. I don't think
there's anything personally that you can do as far as marketing and PR that would be more important than what we'd be doing here in the next two years. Um I believe we'll be able to match that uh at least with private contributions. The uh chamber is going to put in $10,000
from our foundation. Um I have uh been engaged in talks with a couple other foundations. Um I think that we can cash checks pretty easily from to 10 to 15 there and at least 10 to 15 for other businesses. I was hoping to report some
hard numbers. I don't have them today, but I feel confident that we'll be able to match the 30. So, next steps. Um, the two meetings that we have scheduled at the chamber and we've done these business uh engagement meetings before. It's always
good to have two meetings um of dup duplicate content. So, we'll have one on January 27th at uh 7:30 and then one on January 28th at 3:00. This would be a project update sort of refresher for the businesses um by MDOT. But I also want
to do some brainstorming. Uh present uh an overview of this plan. I don't want to create a bunch of things that businesses uh don't really want. So uh we'd like to ask them what would be most helpful to you and then take our cues from those people as far as which of
these things in this document would be the highest priorities. Especially when you you're talking about trainings and things. I I don't want to start start brainstorming a training and we get three people to come. Um, we want to hear what they want and what they need and then react to that.
>> Um, I think that's pretty much it. Um, I certainly can uh answer any questions. Obviously, Bladic's going to be a key partner in this. Tyler, I don't know if you want to weigh in on any of it, but that would be the update in the report today. >> Thank you, Mr. Killian. Does anybody
have questions, any input for this mitigation process? Um I do have a question with the uh events that you're speaking of. Do you have specific events in mind already or is that still just something in the process of brainstorming? Yeah, you know, I regarding events and and I think
you you guys know that we uh operate the Peak Wet Lakes and Cross Lake Chambers and one of the things there, you know, when you you talk about events, people people tend to um sort of envision like the big festival events, right?
>> And what sometimes what happens with the big festivals when you do that, they're a ton of work. People will come to the f festival, they come to the farmers market, they come to the craft fair, they come to um the food trucks, but they don't always get to the businesses that you're intending to help. And so
when I think about events, I think about what what I would say decentralized events where people are incentivized to visit specific businesses. And there's lots of creative things that you can do. I mean, the one the the frozen four would be a good example that get people out to all those businesses. and there's
a common theme. Um, in Cross Lake, they do soup and chili. There's a variety of different things that you can do. Those are the types of events I'm thinking about. Um, not that we're averse to some sort of big uh festival or centralized event, but I'm not sure that that sort of strategically gets us to where we
want to be, >> right? Yeah. There's a lot of different places we could hold events along this highway, this corridor. You know, you have anything from Lum Park to the giant parking lot at the old mall there. Um the distillery could have smaller events as well.
>> Um so I mean we don't have to come up with all those ideas today, but it sounds like you're already thinking about a lot of different things. So, um, one idea I I know our budget is tight and and we're talking about some other things like the facade improvements
coming up later in the meeting, but in looking at how much money needs to be raised for this, maybe we open up to some matching funds for local businesses. Just an idea to throw out there. Maybe we can talk about coming up between now and March. Um, but it sounds
like we have some good partners that want to contribute to this, too. So hopefully we can get the the funds together to have a good plan here in place by the time we start construction. I haven't seen a schedule specifically when this start date is supposed to be.
Maybe weather pending. Um >> I would imagine as soon as road restrictions are lifted. >> Okay. >> Um so you're looking at late April, May, but yeah, weather dependent. I don't I have not heard about the when the letting process is going to be letting
or when are they going to select the contractor. Typically that happens between November and January. >> I've heard that it was going to happen the first part of January. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> So, we we should have that piece of the puzzle known here. >> Thank you. >> Soon. >> And I like that you brought up that this
doesn't have to be such a negative thing. when when South Sixth Street was rebuilt and it was it was all summer long going right past my office. The the mindset we tried to have is they're doing this for us, >> right? >> And in the end, it's it's always an improvement. So, it's it's an exciting
thing that's going to happen. It's road construction season is always a pain, but we'll get through it. So, anybody else have comments? Uh, Mr. Cranic? >> Yeah. So, just wanted to uh to have this agenda item as an update. Um, so there's no formal approval um of the funds. I
know we'll continue to work on on finalizing that proposal. Um, but certainly want to make you aware and staff is is proposing to to uh put the $20,000 in the budget for this year and obviously we'll come back with a formalized proposal. >> Okay. I think our next meeting with this
group is not until March. Correct. >> Correct. >> But that's still plenty of time to Heather. >> I think so. Y >> very good. >> Anything Anything else, Mr. Kellian, that you need from us? I don't think so. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thanks, Matt.
>> All right. Moving on. Next, we have 5B. This is a consideration of a CMHP right street development proposal. And Mr. Kramer, are you kicking this one off or is this Eric? >> I will do that for you, Mr. Chair, if you don't mind. And thank you. Good
morning, Mr. Chair and members of the uh commission. As you may recall, in September, we had introduced uh the HA's interest in looking at building some sort of housing uh or looking at housing projects over in the right street property that is owned by the uh city of Brainard that is kind of
controlled by the EDA. Uh since then we have really looked more closely at that northern 26 acre parcel out on Wright Street and and uh have had some meetings with Central Minnesota Housing Partnership uh which is a private nonprofit housing developer based out of
St. August right right outside of St. Cloud. Uh since then, in the last couple of months, those conversations have progressed. Uh they've shown further interest in developing multif family housing uh in Southeast Brainard. Deanna Hemssh, the executive director for CHP is here to give the EDA a little bit
more information about their organization and their concept for development. Uh and if you wouldn't mind letting Deanna kind of introduce the concept and uh you know, really just looking for some feedback from EDA, maybe some good conversation between CHP and the the commission. uh so you kind
of know what we're looking to do. >> Thanks, Eric. Diana, go ahead and introduce yourself. >> Thank you. Uh I'm Danna Hamish, the executive director of Central Minnesota Housing Partnership. And like Eric said, um we are a private nonprofit organization and we were developed by a bunch of community action agencies uh
who were finding it difficult to find housing for their clients. And so they created Central Minnesota Housing Partnership as a developer for affordable housing um or workforce housing in the area. So we cover 16 counties in central Minnesota and we
have developed over 38 we have either developed or preserved over 38 uh rental properties in our 16 county area. Locally uh we own Timberland Town Homes. We own and managed those apartments uh town homes in Brainard. Um uh other than
that we have uh preserved a bunch of properties. We own several in Baxter as well. But our mission really is to assist communities to um preserve improve and increase affordable housing within their communities for lowincome
low to moderate income families and individuals. The concept that we have um presented and have been working with Eric on is a low-inccome housing tax credit project. We're looking at approximately 50 units. Uh the concept design which was put together by our
architect um includes uh 50 units of 1 2 3 and four bedrooms. Uh it would be a family complex where the incomes that we are targeting are people who are at that 20 to 20 to30 uh dollar an hour income
could all qualify to live at the at the property. As you can see the uh there is detached garages and the garages are on the side of the um the mining the data mining area that is as a way to buffer
some of that noise that that happens at that site. And then um we have surface parking and then the it would be a um a three-story family complex. Um,
our interest in that site is it seems like it's very flat, very level. Um, seems like a very good buildable site. The application that we are looking at submitting would be in July of 2026 and we would find out if it gets awarded in
December of 2026. Uh, we would be working with Eric and the Brainer HR on providing any sort of additional financing. These are very competitive funds as you can imagine. in the whole state of Minnesota, everyone applies for these funds. Um, and so they're very
competitive. We've been fairly successful in our past of getting at least one project every year funded. Um, and so we're very hopeful so we know how to do these projects and how to make them competitive within the community.
Um, I don't know any other questions. I'm sure there are several. >> Thank you. Does anybody up here have questions, >> Mr. Johnson. >> So, this is a 26 acre parcel. >> Yes. >> You're looking at Are you looking at
>> controlling all 26 acres >> up until the point that the government decides to build it for you? >> So, we would build it. We'd just be asking that for the tax tax credits, low-inccome housing tax credits. Yes. Um, so the whole 26 acres, the idea
behind it, and I should have I should back up a little bit. We are also a single family housing developer too. So we have what's called a community land trust as part of our organization um as kind of a sister company and part of the concept that we were discussing was
breaking off a portion for multifamily and then possibly doing single family on another portion of it. Um so yeah the multif family would not be the full 26 acres. It would be about four or five acres somewhere around that. Um >> I can see that It's proposed
approximately 4 acres, but I'm just wondering would the whole 26 acres be held in limbo until you get your financing and construction and all that or what are you asking for? >> Um, yeah, I guess I don't know. I'm going to ask
Eric how. >> Yeah, good question, Commissioner Johnson. So what the HA would be looking for eventually would be a conveyance of that 26 acre parcel with the intent that we would start to parcel that out for this this particular project. So
relatively four fourish acres. We don't think that the whole 26 acres is buildable to the north side. It is wet. There is wetland delineation in there. And so a portion I don't exactly know how many acres is likely not going to be developed ever on that. But then there's a parcel just to the east of that
roadway that is also very uh I guess good real estate for development. And so we would be looking at you know whether it's single family developing that in kind of a phase two. So the H would likely hold that if the EDA and the city council would be willing to allow us to
develop that out in concept. Um but certainly willing to work with the EDA and the city on what that looks like long term. uh if if you're willing to work with us. >> Okay. So, they ask is for conveying the full 26 acres, >> correct,
>> of industrial land over to H and then go through the reszoning process and all that. We have a project downtown that's been applying for like tax credit housing and and you know, didn't they didn't get it. They applied for they
applied for something else and it just it's just an they tore down a building. It's just an empty lot sitting there. Like how how is this going to be different? Like if we convey this 26 acres, >> how are we not going to be sitting there
staring at land we can't sell for development because it's held by the HR >> and oh the government didn't build it for us so we got to wait till next time to see if the government pays for it. like how is this going to be different than the one we have downtown?
>> So, two I guess I would say two differences in those projects. Number one, that developer did purchase that property on the market. So, they are the owner of that property and >> with government money. Yes. Was part of the process. Yes. >> And so they are continuing with that
process to try to build that project. Uh, as Deanna mentioned with her tax credit history with CHP, they have been very successful in getting funding for this. If the EDA and the city wanted to put some time frames up there as far as
allowances for how long the HA would be looking at before there was groundbreaking, I think we would be interested in doing that if that's what it would take to get moving on it. Um, you know what I can tell you and and you are certainly aware of this is development does take a a good amount of
time. We're looking at a an application period going in in July. So that's another six, seven months from now. And we're not going to find out until next year at this time. if that gets funded in the first round. And sometimes tax credit projects don't get funded first year, but Deanna has uh intimated to
city staff and to us that they are not, you know, averse to continuing to reapply until they get funded for those projects. They're obviously investing time, energy, money into design concepts, engineering work. So, they don't want to walk away from that
either, just as the other developer uh in downtown Brainer doesn't want to do that either and are committed to those projects. It just timing is sometimes not the best. It's the best I can answer for you. >> Okay. And I'm not trying to throw DW Jones under the bus at all. Right. like
I'm fully supportive of their project, >> but they also have had >> have a track record record of success of being granted money and >> haven't yet on on on this project. >> I'm just I'm hesitant because we already
have a project that we want the government to fund that it hasn't yet. So why why are we going to tie up more land on projects that aren't going to be funded? I guess my last question to you, Deanna, is you're hoping to get app project funded this year. Is this the project you're hoping or is there a
different pro like what's your priority project? >> Well, we'll submit two or three. That's typically what we do. >> Yeah, >> two or three. Um, but based on the conversations I've already had with the Brainer H, this application would be
very competitive. So, we don't know what what your organization would prioritize. We just know that this one would be very competitive. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Anybody else have questions?
>> I think Mr. Johnson shares some of the concerns I have. I I I don't want to slam the door shut on an idea like this because I think there's definitely a need for it. I I question the location because it's right next to
a very noisy uh data center. I I know that it says in here you guys would do a noise study or sound study. Um and then the timing where we just we shut this down for maybe two or three years and close it down for development for
anything industrial. I know we have other industrial lots that are available, but uh maybe I I have a question for Jennifer Hascamp. what what the interest has been on Wright Street or Kittyhawk or that that entire section
back there in the last year or two. So, over the last year where it's been publicly listed, I would say I've had two maybe three calls. I wouldn't call any of them specifically serious. You know, like there's been interest. It's
out there. Uh there's been more interest of course in our platted lots over in TC Industrial Park because those are shovel ready. A little bit easier to sort of wrap your brain around in terms of how you would go about developing it. But there have been some calls. So um you
know and if you recall I think last year at the end of last year we did a concept that showed um how this could be either all industrial or there could be a mix of uses that would go along with it. that was a little bit before uh we knew
sort of the volume if you will uh associated with the the data center whatever you want to call it. Um, so you know, to your point, whether or not from a residential perspective, this particular area is good or not, uh,
remains to be seen because you probably are going to have to do some kind of noise assessment to determine, especially, um, I I would say the the garages on that that edge would likely help with with sound enormously from a mitigation perspective. Uh, but there
will still be sound escape. So you'll need to figure out um you know does it do enough if you will to mitigate those those uh adverse impacts potentially. So more than answering your question sorry um but there's been a couple it would be
would be my answer. >> I guess I'm wondering if there's a way to maybe explore the idea but keep it open for inquiries as well. I know we talked a little bit about a partnership between camp and the HA, but I don't
know if that's possible to keep that possibility open. It just makes me a little nervous when we have to hold 26 acres hostage for a 4 acre development that may or may not happen two to three years down the road. >> But like I said, I don't want to shut
the door on it completely. Mr. Dula, >> um, I guess I'm not entirely sure of the history. How long has that parcel been sitting there? >> Quite a while. Um, >> so another 2, three years potentially. It's going to sit there anyway. Um, >> potentially.
>> So I don't I don't think that's so much of an issue. I am very supportive of adding an additional three and fourbedroom apartments. We don't have very many of those in town. Um, >> there is other residential kind of close
by. There's the manufactured housing parks to the west and then one to the northeast. Um, so housing is in that area, just not directly next to it. Um, and then sound, there's there's room to
mitigate sound more in the plan than what's proposed. I mean, if you move that parking lot over, added another couple rows of trees, um, that could mitigate more sound. Um, so, you know, there's definitely things that we could
do. I'm very supportive of this. Um, we do need additional housing. It's maybe not the best location, but it's a location. >> Thank you, Mr. Dusoula. Uh, maybe a question for staff. Do we have any other property? I'm trying to brainstorm in my own head. If there's another location
that would be more residential or maybe close to a town center, that would be another possibility. >> Nothing other than potentially our mixeduse uh parking lots. So for this size, the city doesn't really have any property that would be able to support something like this. Certainly there's
private property out there. >> Okay. >> And maybe for you, Diana, do you guys work with private property owners and purchase properties or do you usually just work with uh land owned by local governments or how does it >> Yeah. Um typically we've we work with
the city or local government to find and identify a site. Um we have purchased from private owners. It gets more expensive that way. And this is one way for the city or to participate and um show their involvement and support of a
project and that goes a long way in an application to the state of Minnesota. >> Okay. >> In addition to the noise, I just want to bring up um we've built next to railroad tracks and um we typically use triple pane windows. We insulate we do more
insulation things like that. So, um, the noise when I visited the site is not as noisy as a train track. So, I'm I wasn't I wasn't um discouraged by the noise that at least that I heard that day when we were on site. So, >> thank you. Our our residents love the
sound of trains. >> The people who live outside of the city hate the sound of data centers. >> True. We know that. >> Yes, >> James. And and and one other option the EDA could potentially consider um would be to have um CHP kind of refine what
they're looking at. I know this was pretty quick after we did a site visit. They were trying to figure out whether um they were more interested on the east side or the west side. Um so they could always come back and and uh the request could just be to to hold a a certain portion of it rather than the entire
thing and we continue to list a portion of it as well. So that could be an option. >> Okay. Yeah, that was going to be my next question. What are you looking for from us today? Uh, as far as an answer, >> you know, again, it could be something like that if you're interested in maybe
only holding a portion of the property. Um, direction for a staff to to come back with NCHP to come back with a more refined proposal in March if you're interested in us continuing to work on this. >> Okay. there. >> And if I may just chime in on that too,
the the idea here today is to introduce the concept, let the ED know, EDA know that that the H and CHP are interested and have taken that next step of looking at design concepts, kind of coming to the city staff, having discussions about
what that looks like on the zoning side, on the build site, have done site visits. So really just to to let this body know and the city council know that that we're not just kind of talking in in really general concepts that we're
trying to dig down uh into those um more refined details to move this thing forward knowing that the clock is ticking even though it seems that July is a ways out there. The EDA only has two more meetings before that. Um obviously city council does meet more
frequently but this body would need to make a recommendation to the council. Um so knowing that in 3 months there could be another progress point. Uh that's really what we would be looking for. We're not looking for a conveyance today. That was not the intention. It was really to introduce the concept let
you guys uh hear a little bit from Deanna and what their company does uh for development. >> Okay. And with only four of us here today, we might we might hear more comments than what we're hearing today uh in March. So James, do you have something? >> Yeah, I guess last item then this is
obviously tied to the potential brokerage agreement. Um so at this time they're asking or the HR is asking to leave this off of the brokerage agreement. Um obviously I I gave that proposal where you could list a portion of the property. So, if we do come back with something in March, um, with a more
formalized proposal where they're only developing a portion, we could obviously then amend the the brokerage agreement to add that piece of property back in. >> Could we do it the other way around just in case maybe something came up between now and March? And we can talk about that when we get up to that contract, I guess. I don't want to get ahead of
ourselves, but that's a possible. >> Would that be an option, Jennifer, to then delist it? holes. >> We can Can we talk about it under the brokerage agreement? >> We can >> on the next agenda item. >> We can bring that up later. >> All right.
Um, do you guys have enough from us right now? I guess if it were up to me, I would like to see maybe other options. I'd be more comfortable holding a portion of this than the entire 26 acres. And if you're going to have other options, maybe something further away
from the data center uh just based on the noise. That's just my opinion. I don't know if you guys have anything to add. >> Agree. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Yep. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Deanna. Appreciate it. >> All right. Moving on to 5C. This is
consideration of a brokerage agreement extension with Camp Realy. And Mr. Kravik, did you want to start this or? Yeah, I guess I can just give a a brief introduction here. Um, we did a a short extension of the brokerage agreement to bring us to the end of the year here. So, again, this would be um extending uh
the brokerage agreement an entire year, which would then align with uh our typical scope of services with our consultants. Um, I did ask Jennifer to potentially add one other property. Um, there's it's along County Road 45. Um, we had been asked uh from a city
perspective and city council to um there's I think an adjacent property owner that asked to purchase it. Um we got an appraisal on the property so we do know what is what it's worth. Um they once they learned of the appraisal they kind of backed out of of wanting to purchase it. Um but it kind of did lead to that discovery that we have another
piece of property in and around that industrial park that we could certainly list as well. So with that, I'll turn it over to Jennifer. >> Thank you. So this is pretty straightforward. Uh, as James indicated, uh, the intent here is to actually establish a basically a new contract,
but it's identical to the previous contract that you were in. Um, but to align it better with our meeting schedule so that we don't run into the same issue where uh, there was a short gap at the end of the year because I think the last time we entered into it, it was um, July or August or something
like that and then nobody realized that it had expired. So, we had that extension issue for three months. Uh so the goal here is actually to align it with the regular contracts essentially. So uh the contract that is in your packet this e not this evening this
morning um is essentially a a carbon copy but it removes the addendums that were associated with the previous contract. Uh the reason being we've now incorporated all of the changes that were in those previous addendums uh that are now associated with the the master
contract if you will. um it isn't an exclusive right to sell the property uh which is why I thought it was important for us to talk separately um about the issue related to the right street uh parcels that we were just discussing. Um, you know, we talked as uh as a team
sort of after the last meeting to try to determine whether there was an easy way or a straightforward way in which uh camp would would continue to list the property. Uh, but that there would be an exception essentially carved out for the H. Uh, and to be quite frank, I I think
it just gets quite messy. Uh and in terms of how everything transpired, uh I don't think I'm comfortable with that as a broker. Um I have certain things I have to uphold from a licensing perspective and sort of how the the broker world works. Uh so that if we
have interested parties in how those parties get paid, etc. Um and just there there wasn't a lot of transparency over the last 90 days. Uh, and so I'm just not overly comfortable with that in terms of trying to co-list it, for lack of a better way of saying it, or
figuring out, um, how the HA does or doesn't receive sort of the the title to the property or if it it sort of stays in a holding capacity, uh, as you mentioned. Uh so from that perspective I would be more comfortable if we did say like there's a specific
legal description that is ex excluded from that parcel for example um and then we cert we would just not list that part of the property uh whereas the other portion of the property would then be listed if we can actually get that description uh and incorporate
incorporate that into the contract. I'm perfectly comfortable with that. Um but the idea of sort of doing the whole thing meanwhile uh the H is is pursuing a different path uh is quite difficult uh especially from the standpoint of from our marketing perspective we've
been already marketing it as a mix of available uses which would include residential so we've created sort of that competition already. Uh so it it just becomes very very complicated. So that would be my preference. Uh the way the contract is written right now is it
excludes the entire property, the entire parcel as James indicated. Um but if there was a way that we would legally describe the portion that is outside of what CHP is looking at, that that would work as well. So that I'm happy to
answer any questions. Um but that's sort of a high level u overview of of the contract. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Currently, it's one parcel, right? >> Correct. >> So, we would have to go through the process of
splitting the parcel up and paying somebody to do this and that hoping that someday the government builds us a beautiful new apartment building. >> Uh, so, uh, we wouldn't have to go so far as actually doing the subdivision. Uh, I would prefer if we ended up
getting a legal description from either the city attorney or a surveyor just to get the description of exactly what we're talking about, but we wouldn't necessarily have to go through the through the actual subdivision itself um to exclude it. I just wouldn't want
there to be any confusion in in the brokerage world of what is actually available to be transferred and sold. uh and if the HA has certain, you know, rights or agreements, we would want to make sure that that's legally described just for for clarification to the sort
of the public since since now it actually is publicly listed. >> Yeah. Thank you. I'm not in favor of delisting the whole 25 acres on the hopes that the government
builds us an apartment building. I just don't have much faith that it will happen. So, I would rather this be listed for sale with camp than hold it aside. I mean, maybe if if that corner
on right and Kittyhawk court was identified as the location of the apartment building, maybe we could pull that out. But now I'm hearing that we're going to get options in March of other locations. I just I don't see how it
works. I would rather have the property listed than not listed. That's my opinion. >> Yeah, I I would definitely have to agree. Is there a way to amend the contract or or keep it the same as it was and still come back at a further a
meeting down the road and amend that contract? if something were to come up through the HA. >> Uh, so obviously the the the piece that's at issue here is that the HA would like not to have to pay
commissions on that portion of the property. Um, obviously just I think everybody's aware that that's the that the issue, if you will. Um, in terms of taking that out, I I'm not here to stand in the way of of you getting housing. If
that's something that we've all identified as a priority and a goal, certainly uh I can appreciate that. My goal is absolutely not to stand in the way of that. Uh, and if my commission is what what trips the project from not working, I certainly would wave my
commission. So I I think there's ways uh that that can be done whether it's through actually amending the contract and excluding it uh or whether or not there's through the purchase agreement process and exclusion of of the commission. Uh I guess I feel like I've
always been quite reasonable and I I know that's our objective. So, um, to your to your question, I I think there's multiple ways it could be handled if they cert you know, if they absolutely identify where that particular project would go. >> Okay.
>> Mr. Garcula, >> are you more comfortable with it included or excluded >> from your perspective? Which which would you prefer? Would you prefer that we exclude it and continue it allow continue to allow the HRE to engage with
the developer without your involvement or would you prefer to stay on as listing with the potential issues that could arise at a later date? That's a loaded question. Um because at
the moment I haven't been involved with this with essentially what's actually been uh developed from a from the apartment multifamily. So I really haven't been because it's sort of been >> operating as if I'm not listing it even though it is actually listed right now.
>> Okay. >> Um so it's somewhat of a loaded question. >> Okay. >> Um I could be comfortable with keeping it in. Um, you know, what I would like is for for there to be some type of resolution probably in the first quarter of next year that we can figure out whether or not it makes sense to just
legally describe that particular area and exclude it from the contract, do an addendum and sort of go at it that way. Um, so I don't love the ambiguity as you might imagine because as it turns out I do have it listed right now and so under
you know my insurance, my licensing etc. and it is going along parallel but but I'm not really involved. So I I would like some resolution in the first quarter. >> And then a follow up to that, is it easier to
once it's legally described add the portion that is not going to potentially be developed by the Hen. >> No, that way is quite easy. Once we have that sort of leg legal description, it doesn't matter if it's to add a, you know, an addendum to exclude it or
whether it's an addendum to include the the area. So, it that that part is very easy. >> I think that answers the question right there for me is is that we just continue on with keeping it listed through camp and then if something changes in the future, we go ahead and make that
addendum. >> Is everybody in agreement with that? Are we looking for a motion, James? >> We are looking for a motion. So, it would be looking to um approve the brokerage agreement with the also listing the the north parcel that was delisted. Um and again, because this is owned by the city of Brainer, this will
go to the next city council meeting as well. >> Okay. >> I would move that we uh sign the agreement with camp including the north parcel that was previously delisted. I so move. >> Motion by Johnson.
>> A second. >> I'll second that. >> Second by Grula. Any discussion? Seeing none, let's go to a vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Again, same sign. Motion carries. All right, moving on. This is uh 5D,
reviewing the property listing portal. Uh again, this is Jennifer Hascamp. Go ahead. >> So, we've been working on this for uh basically our kind of our big uh task or objective for the year. Uh I think I
presented uh an overview of this portal uh in June uh so at our sort of halfway point and it's exciting because I think we're ready to launch uh and can actually get this portal online. Uh as
you recall, I'm sure uh we identified as part of the contract this year the priority to be getting uh basically getting a mapping application on our website uh that allows for both public and private property owners uh to list
their property essentially for free. Um and so what it looks like is essentially a mapping application uh that would live at the moment it's actually going to be hosted by us uh still. However, we are going to have basically uh a link on the
EDA's website uh where you can click on it to see active property listings. Uh it would bring you to that that website. We've designed it in such a way so that it does look like uh the EDA website. So anybody going to it is not going to have
any idea that it's just technically on my hosting service. Uh part of that is because we need to work out the kinks. And so uh we've developed it on our side. It involves some uh it involves our ArcGIS license. It involves some
coding etc. So, uh, this allows us to over the next year, uh, work out some of the kinks if we if they do arise before we transfer it over to the city, uh, or the EDA in terms of how it's going to be managed long term. So, basically, we're proposing it would be a one-year term,
uh, that we would hold on to it just to work out the kinks. Uh, and this is essentially ready to go. So, if we want to try to go to the link to show it, it's currently not live. Although, uh, as soon as there is a link or a button
on the EDA website, uh Oh, it is. Well, never mind. I I >> Oh, fantastic. That's even better. So you can see here that we uh designed it in such a way that it really does look just like the Brainard's uh EDA website.
So when you click on it, I don't think any uh user of it is going to be the wiser in terms of the fact that we're hosting it. Uh you'll see here we've populated with our current TC drive listings. Uh you can see that we'll be able to actually put on uh for example
once we secure lot one, two, and three. Um for example, as being, you know, under purchase agreement, we can change it so that it also shows the fact that we have some things under uh under contract or that are active contingent, so to speak. Um we've we're going to
color code the pins uh based on what type of property it is. So if it's industrial, it'll be purple. uh if it's residential it'll be yellow or orange etc. So the the zoning or land use will be associated with the pin color. Uh so this is what folks will see when they go
to the page itself uh for the active property listings. Uh and then if you want to click on submit a new pro property listing. This will bring them to a form. Uh once again we have removed all branding. So technically this is living on our
website but again hopefully nobody will be the wiser. Uh but the goal here is to allow uh anybody to be able to submit their uh their property for listing on this portal. So essentially what it says
they'll be have they'll have to submit who the owner is, the property address. Uh they can upload a flyer if they want to. We can link to an external website as well if needed. Uh so if it's a broker listing it for example, it can go
to that brokerage's website uh uh by by them essentially adding those links here. So the goal is this will get populated uh by someone on our team. uh we will get it. We will verify the
information to the best of our ability, including going to who the list or the owner is, excuse me, because uh that's a critical part in all of this is making sure whoever the owner of the property actually agrees for it to be listed on the portal. Uh so we will do our best for QAQC to ensure that the owner has
actually agreed to this. Uh if there's any question, we will reach out to whoever submitted the form uh and try to secure that verification. Uh but the goal here is essentially to allow folks the ability to put things on our our listing portal uh at no charge. So an
owner also does not have to be rent uh represented by a broker. So it could just be a private property owner who'd like to submit the information, make it available, uh don't if they don't want to pay brokerage fees, etc., this is an avenue that that that they could go
down. It's also available for lease, so it doesn't necessarily just have to be for sale. Uh and with that, I think that's a pretty pretty broad overview. Uh but I think we're in a really good place and hopefully uh we can reach out
to individuals uh over the next, you know, 3 to six months as this gets launched. Uh and and we'll see I'm anticipating maybe half a dozen to a dozen folks will will participate at least initially. um because I do know based on what James has said, there's
some people that are interested or have expressed interest that maybe don't have a broker, etc. Uh so this is could be a great tool for that. Uh, and then obviously this will get married up with our social media efforts um and some of the things we've talked about over the
last um three months or so to try to figure out how do we get this pushed out to the public um and get more interest in our in our website and then also in uh the the properties that are available for development or or redevelopment. So
that I'm happy to answer any questions but uh we're ready to go I think. >> Yeah. So I'm hearing It's not currently live or >> No, it is. >> It is currently live. >> It is. It's live. So, if you'd like to list your property, you're set. >> I think this is great. I think it's what we've been looking for for quite a
while. So, and it seems simple. It seems easy to use um get the word out there. I I don't know. James, go ahead. >> Yeah. So, staff has put together a list of properties. We've been reviewing that for the last couple of months here um within our department. So, we will push out letters to those property owners and
then I do have a few um large ones in mind that I'll reach out to personally to let them know about it. Um I know we just uh have a developers roundt that we've set as well for December here. So, we're hoping to get developers in. Um so, they're aware that they can get onto this website and and find available properties that might not be listed on
the open market. Um so, those are some of the the other things we've been working on. Um, one of the reasons that, um, we do want, uh, Jennifer Hazcamp to to kind of run this, um, certainly if we want, you know, myself to be able to run this through the city network, it's going to take a lot of work with it to make sure that, uh, it has all the
security protocols on it. So, for the time being, it's definitely recommended to to have Jennifer Jennifer's team run this uh, uh, listing portal. >> All right. And what is the cost involved with having Jennifer run it instead of city staff? So, as it stands, I'm absorbing it as
part of my contract. So, like there's a hosting fee obviously because uh we're using a program called EZRIG GIS. So, we pay for the data for lack of a better way of saying it. So, I've just been observing it as part of the contract um as this was a priority for the year. Um
likewise, next year would be the same. Um and it's hard to know what the act you pay for credits it's called. Um, and so until I know where we're at in terms of how many properties we have listed, etc., I can't get a sense of because of
how EZRI works of what that fee is. But that's why the next year will also be helpful because we'll I'll be able to actually calculate what that is and then I can actually give you next year um a cost of what that piece of it is. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um and otherwise it will be just
part of our our service contract. Um, and I'm just hoping we don't get a thousand listings because then it >> I hope we do. >> It might take my whole budget, but hopefully hopefully >> we can talk about it if it gets out of control like that. But I like that answer. >> I'll keep I'll keep you posted. So, >> all right.
>> We're going to we're going to drop it on our site as well. So, there'll be another listing or another place that if people are searching, they'll find it on ours. We'll drop the EDAs on there as well. So, we'll have just another source. >> Excellent. >> Yep. Very good. All right. I think we're
looking for a motion to >> You do. >> Are we are we looking for a motion? This is not a contract. This is just >> not a contract. We could do a motion to approve to move forward with it. It it is already on the website, but a formal motion would probably be good. >> Okay. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Anyone want to try at that motion? >> I'd move we move forward. >> Okay. I'll second that. >> Motion by Johnson, second by Gasula. Any discussion? None. Let's go to a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Against. Same sign.
Motion carries. All right. Next, we have our moved item. This is a re review of the proposed signage and facade grant. >> Uh James, take it away. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, so as a reminder for the 2023 facade program, the EDA provided 50% matching grant for
actual construction costs up to $5,000 per per property and continue to fund as many projects as possible until the $20,000 that were allocated were fully used. Uh, five projects were completed throughout the city. I know Bladec included that in their um annual report.
Um, so as a reminder, at the April 3rd EDA workshop meeting, the board reviewed uh potential grant funding in excess funds for this year 2025, which was 19,362. Uh, the EDA did elect to retain excess funds to provide additional funding for facade and signage improvements after
the city uh considered enhancements uh to their sign ordinance. Um, certainly there's concerns um about current signage in the city of Brainard. Uh the city did pass an ordinance that prohibits banner signs and requires wall signs to have some type of three-dimensional element. Uh for this
year, staff is proposing to allocate uh $25,000 for facade improvements and $15,000 for signage improvements in 2026. Uh at the EDA workshop, the EDA did seem to want to direct the funds towards business businesses along uh Washington Street or Highway 210 u
because of the Washington Street reconstruction project. Um, so staff is recommending that the facades would be directed towards that. Did add a provision in there that, you know, would potentially allow some rear improvements as well if you're along an alley, um, because you might lose some some, uh, on street parking for that. Uh, but again,
this would be a similar, uh, $5,000, uh, matching grant. And then, uh, staff did recommend for the signage portion of it, um, we've kind of recognized that signs are are kind of a problem throughout the city. Um, so staff is recommending that these signage grants could potentially be used throughout the entire city for
businesses. Um, which would be a $1,000 match. So potentially you could fund um 15 signs throughout the city. Um, you know, certainly like a pole sign or something like that, that's not going to make a huge dent in that, but certainly it would with wall signs. Wall signs typically um in our building department
we see cost between $500 to $2,000. So could certainly make a big dent in in uh getting some of the banner signs down. And uh with that, I guess uh uh staff is looking um for a recommendation to approve the grant program and direct staff to work with Bladec on a contract
to administer the program uh similar to what we did in 2023. And with that, I can answer any questions. >> Thank you, James. Does anybody have questions? Johnson, >> will you scroll up a little bit, Max? So, you're asking for 25,000 for facade
and and 15 for signage. Are you asking for 40,000 or are you asking for 25? >> Uh 40,000 total. Okay. >> And so that would be dipping significantly into the fund balance. Um we've we've certainly held some funds off last year and had some excess other years. Um the EDA can certainly choose
to lower those numbers if they wish. Um but uh I thought this would be a good starting point. Yeah, I question if that's a sound use of our fund balance
being that we don't have the money in our budget, right? We would need to just dip into reserves to pay it. So, I'm I'm not sure I'm comfortable dipping into reserves for a for a grant program for for science, but
that's where I sit right now. Last time we did this, did we use reserves or did we budget it? >> We they were budgeted um previously. Um I know one of the conver conversations from this last year was to hold that money and put it you know essentially into reserves in order to have a bigger
funding program for this year. Um so that's why staff did make this recommendation, but certainly if the EDA wants to um you know provide less funding um staff can work with that as well. I just feel like this is corresponding with the Washington Street
reconstruction. This is kind of a, you know, big opportunity to do improvements along there that correspond with the reconstruction. So, I feel like this is a a good use. It's a good time to be dipping into that fund balance to support programs that are going to make
the biggest impact. Yeah, I think you could either take this money and and use it towards the mitigation that we were talking about or you could use it for something like this that you can continue to see into the future and actually makes a lasting change. I'm comfortable with it because
I think we did kind of hold off spending this money for a reason like this. like you said, um it does seem like a lot of money, but it's there. Unless we have another idea of something to spend that money on, there's no sense
in us just sitting on it. So, >> and even with spending this, aren't we still kind of staying in a comfortable level of reserves with >> We are staying in in a comfortable level. It's it's maybe a little bit on the lower end with um the current proposed budget of the $220,000, but if
that budget um the next year becomes more in line with with what we've done in the past about that 186, then that fund balance is, you know, probably on the higher end, >> recoverable. Okay. Any more discussion,
questions for staff? Not then we're looking for a motion. I would move to approve the signage program. >> Motion by Kersh. >> I'll second. >> Second by Grasula. Any discussion on
that motion? >> All right. If not, let's go to a vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Against. Same sign. >> I. >> That motion carries. Three to one. >> Next up, we have 5E. This is a consultant year-end report uh
presentations. First up, we have Tyler from PlayDay. >> All right. I like going first. Morning everybody. Um, as you can see, the the report that we provided to James and was in your packet last week. I'll go
through this uh with some with a little bit of speed just to keep you guys uh keep us moving here. But um again, another um I feel another successful year from Blade standpoint of supporting the city and the work that we do. I'll
highlight a a a couple of items here. Um, first and foremost, our workforce program, as you guys know, Mike Berknes runs that program for our office. Continues to do a tremendous job with this. Uh, now in just his and now just celebrated his ninth year of running
this program. Well over a 100 hires have been uh completed. 2025 so far. Um, we've had seven new hires and I'll update that number. We've now had nine new hires since since I put this together, which was in the last couple of weeks. Uh, one of the one of the
newest hires is a new engineer that'll be working uh starting on the 15th that's working at Tech. So, A Techch is engaged with us over the the last few years. Mike's hired, I think, three different uh folks for that organization. So, they continue to do
some great work over there and uh continue to grow. I will look to James, but I'll also look to you guys if if any of you've not been in that building. Have Have you guys toured any of you been inside the ET Tech building right over by Shannon's Auto Body? It's kind of on the back side of that back there.
But we'll set that up. That's a good that's a good uh good tour to say. One of the products they make is actually all the handles for Yeti coolers. So, any Yeti cooler that you see out there, the handles are made by ATH right here in town. So just as a FYI for folks that
it's kind of a cool thing to see. But um we continue to move forward obviously with the financing in our Bladec Unified Fund. Um it's this has been kind of an interesting year and I know that Mr. Johnson is is our current representative. We haven't had any meetings. We got >> We haven't I was wondering agenda like
wait a second I'm on that, aren't you? >> You're going to get one here in the next week. So you're going to get one before the end of the year. We haven't had any projects. Uh we've had we've had actually we've had two projects request funding that didn't get through the the uh completion at their lending level. So
they had to get through that before they get to us. But I do have a couple requests that uh that are that are coming forward. So we do have a need for a meeting. So we'll get some we'll get some lunch out to Mr. Johnson here in the next couple of weeks. Um our business consulting, as you guys know,
we are a satellite location for the SBDC. We continue to do quite a bit of work with them. uh two two items that I'll mention inside of this. As you can see, we've uh completed in in 2025 over 340
uh we have 347 consulting hours, 111 unique clients. So, we we see a lot of new business ideas, new business concepts that are coming through our office and we work with them uh hopefully getting some of them to the finish line and I know that we have. So, the other thing that I'll highlight are Entrepreneurs on Tap which is part of
our uh SBDC contract. We do that along with marketing mornings. We hold the marketing mornings every Friday morning in our office that t different topics um each each week and we'll run those through the end of the year and then we have a program set for 2026. But two of
the two of the locations that we provided honor entrepreneurs on tap in Brainer this year we had uh five rocks distilling. We held an event there in dece in February and then they opened up the last turn brew pub for us in October and then we have another one scheduled
there for um January of 2026. A really cool space and like as as it's mentioned in here we average about 20 participants. We vary the topics from you know quick how to use QuickBooks to marketing uh your business, marketing
your new business, financing options, different things like that. So, it's a it's a really popular program and uh we're very proud of that. Allison Medic runs that along with Katie Heapner um the director at the SBDC. Um our first
full year with our Placer.ai as an actual Blade program. We've had some we've had some really good access and some success with that with that program. We've got our our hospitals using it. We've got our airport using it. Um, CTC is using it to verify some
data that they're working through. Um, and as you can see, one of the quotes uh from from Trevor down at the Northland Arboritum. We've worked with him over the last year and a half uh utilizing this to for him to really pull some strong solid data as he applies for
grants as he looks for um visitor visitor traffic and things like that. And is those of you that have been involved with some of the um well I'll call it the highway 371 project. We've we work with MDOT and providing a lot of data for MDOT on side streets and and
those frontage roads that they can't get uh traffic data on. We provide that traffic data for them as well. So >> ah it's your fault. >> It is my fault. I will take no blame for that. Um jumping down just uh highlight a couple of the a few of our business
visits. Um as as you know and and want to thank um Commissioner Grasula and Commissioner Kersh for joining us over at CTC and at MC Fiber um you know and as they continue CTC continues to grow over their more than 100 employees. MC
Fiber now has employees now over 25 people. So they got to see kind of the inner workings of CTC. So, I'm glad they were able to come along and join us. And then we also made a visit with Commissioner Broyals, Commissioner Broyals, Administrator Broyals, and
James over to First Impressions. And that was kind of a cool building. They do some good really good work over there. So, um, lastly, I'll just jump down to, you know, as we talk about as as Matt Killian was here this morning, obviously talking about this mitigation planning, um, part of our services
provided to Brainard into 2026 will be that, you know, we'll be involved in this mitigation planning and that'll just be part of our contract. We'll take we will not take any funding any uh any financial gain if you want to call it that from the contracts that or
for the funding that'll be received through that. that'll be part of our contract. We'll support the mitigation process out of our work that we do supporting the city itself. So, um and uh lastly, I want to jump to um as we
somebody want to scroll down through the to the grant administration portion. Uh James talked about this briefly, but here's we just wanted to highlight these couple of these projects did finish in 2025. I just want to we highlighted some photos there. Um, you know, there was I
think those dollars were used really well that there were some really good projects and we talk about um project number one, the before and after pictures of that which are great. Um, I meet with Isaac Breen on a pretty regular basis and he was pretty pleased with the funding that was allowed uh for
him to get that sign up and completed. So, some some good projects there. Um, you know, I know it that we had more requests than dollars, which is always a good thing for grant programs and, you know, running through that and doing the first come first serve. You know, that's
it keeps a lot of the guesswork out of it. But all of these projects were deserving of these funds and, uh, again, like I said, some of them did finish in 2025, so that's why we listed it out there. Um, I've got a one of the things as we list on below there, the Main
Street Economic Improvement Grant. Um, we wanted to highlight this when we met with James a couple weeks ago, we did talk about kind of the the lasting do the last dollars that came through to this. Um, you guys all remember when we worked through this and this was a Minnesota deed program and you know just
just to highlight the grant funding there and as we looked at this there was additional dollars that came back to DED from other communities which is really strange that they weren't able to use these dollars. Some of these dollars came back to deed and to the initiative
foundation. They sought us out um from what the initiative foundation tells us because of the work that was done and efficiency that was completed with the dollars that were used here. Um we had some we had an additional $28,500 come back that uh those final dollars
were allocated to the Briner YMCA. So good use. We were able to take those dollars that came back from other communities and and put it to use for us here. So ultimately the total awarded to Brainard ended up being $786,3324. So those projects needed to be completed and al funds allocated by the end of
2025. And so we've got all of that done. So that was a that was a carryover from uh you know from late 2023 into 2024 and then some of those dollars moved back out into 2025. So, um, yeah. So, really
happy with the way that laid out and we were happy to be able to to finish that and get those dollars allocated, routed through us and then back to obviously to the initiate foundation. Lastly, I want to just highlight our, you know, our team. Uh, as you know, we have added a
new staff member with Crystal Hidinger. She was formerly Crystal Bender. Um, Haley Majeras uh left our organization to take uh work in real estate in early in March of 2025. So, we added Crystal
as an administrative assistant uh in June of this year. And then lastly, I'll just highlight our board of directors. And one of the things I want to note for our board um our incoming president will be Sandy Zutichek. And Sandy is the vice president of clinic operations here at
the hospital in Brainard. Um, so we have more than, well, let's see, I'll do the math. One, two, three, four, five, six of our nine board members are from Brainard based businesses. So, we really try to, you know, we we look at industry sectors when we're when we're placing board members, but we also look at how
we're um really covering the entire county that we support. Um, so we've, you know, we continue to do that, adding Rob Berkeland, a new board member in 2025. Um, Rob is the owner of Larsson Real Estate Group, which is up in in Cross
Lake, and we didn't have anybody on our board that represented the housing side of things. So, we thought it was important to add Rob, and Rob's a great addition to our board. Um, Andy Isacson will be moving into our vice president role for 2026. And so, as you can see, we have with
Mike Dylan, Andy Isacson, Harry Charlier, Terry McFarland, Julie Anderhome, John Oolen, Jim Hokinson, and Rob Berkeland. So, we got a great board. I um very supportive of how they support us and the work that we do. So if you've got any questions for me, I'm happy to
answer. >> Thank you, Tyler. >> Otherwise, thank you for allowing us to continue to work with you. >> Thank you for doing the work. Anybody have questions for Tyler? >> I I had sent an email out yesterday to the consultants. Um I I don't think there's a a major change from what uh Bladeex uh had done this year to what
they're proposing for next year. Um but if the consultants could also kind of talk about if there are any changes and and kind of what the request is for this way uh for next year that way we can kind of do it in one presentation. >> Sure. Yeah. We we submitted a submitted our shared services agreement to to James last week with our with our
activity report for for the agenda here. We we have a you know about a 3% increase in our request for this year. Part of that is um part of that is going to be due to you know I know the work that's going to involve be involved in in this mitigation process and what
we'll we'll be tasked with which you know we're we're very very happy to do and continue to do. Um, you know, we've got some we've got a couple new programs that we're starting up with the high school and I know that obviously impacts our the district itself, but it's
extremely important for us to uh keep that involved and make sure that we're continuing to work with our young students and our entrepreneur program that we've got running over there. Um, so yeah, the request it's a again it's a a 3% increase in our uh request for
funding for 2026. And you know, outside of that, we'll continue to do the the regular work that we do. We'll add we're trying to add a couple more site visits to to the bucket there and hopefully you guys can continue to make those happen as we as we roll those out. I know our businesses really appreciate the
attendance and you guys uh coming in there and showing the support for that. So, it's a very important project or very important that we continue to do that. >> Thank you. Questions? Doesn't look like it. Okay, we're looking for a motion, James.
>> So, we'll actually motion on the scope of services on the next agenda item. They could just talk about their their presentation and what they're I guess looking at looking forward to the next year in this item. >> Just a fair warning, I I'll probably have to head out of here quarter after maybe 20 after at the latest and then we won't have a quorum. So, um just so
everybody out here knows we can >> Yep. Yep. move fast. So >> if there's nothing uh left from Blade, thank you Tyler. Moving on to Swanson Hascamp. >> So me again uh I've already talked quite a bit. So I in the interest of time will
not spend a great deal of time covering things we've already covered. Uh I will highlight the fact that uh as part of last year's scope, we put together uh an analysis, a GIS review of underutilized and underdeveloped properties. Uh we've
continued to keep that updated and uh it actually I think would be a really great tool for us in terms of uh targeting some folks who might be interested in listing their properties on our uh new portal that we just created. So I can
see how those uh those tasks, if you will, are related uh and hopefully can help feed uh the online presence. Uh in terms of the priorities, once again, it was really building that uh portal uh that we just presented. So, I'm not
going to spend a great deal of time with that. Uh you know, we've been working with a couple interested parties on the TC Industrial Park. Uh we are moving forward uh I've been working with the bank uh the lender on on the side of that development down in the TC
Industrial Park uh for lots one two and three which we've looked at multiple times over the last year. Uh so I'm hopeful that we're going to have something actually at our next meeting from them uh and hopefully that's going to be in in the form of a formal uh agreement. So I'm hopeful that we will
get there. I've been uh speaking with their bank uh over the last month or so. Uh in terms of uh the roundt that was scoped in our our year uh we've got that scheduled for December 18th. We're holding that uh at Bladec. And the goal
is actually twofold. Uh to sort of share opportunities for development uh and and sites within the city, but then also to launch and show them our new property portal. Uh so if folks are uh on the development side, they know that they can look here for potential properties.
uh but also if they know of anyone can also use that portal as well. So uh we've got it scheduled for about an hour and a half and hopefully we're going to have some good interest there. Uh so that will occur by the end of the year. Um I think that's a pretty brief overview
of what we've been up to. Uh I have been in front of you with multiple things over the last year so I don't think we need to belabor it. Um the the last thing I will say uh is that the SEO analysis that we were talking about over the last year uh hopefully we can build
on that in the coming year especially now that we've got that property portal listing active. Uh and so I'll continue to work with the rest of the consultant team to figure out how we do that. So in terms of what we're proposing for services next year, uh I've spoken with staff. Uh the priority I think for next
year in terms of what staff has identified is actually a downtown master plan uh to kind of get a sense of what we have down there uh what kinds of improvements slash uh planning pieces can we put together in terms of properties. I think that'll also marry
up really well with our property listings and how some of those for lease properties might find their way into our portal etc. Uh for those of you who uh worked with me when we were going through the zoning code update, I asked Mike Lamb to help me out as well with that because he has a lot of familiarity
with the city. Uh so that we can get some conceptual drawings and some like marketing and promotional pieces as well. Uh so that is the the major change I would say in our scope as opposed to designing or doing concept master planning of a specific site is to actually look at downtown. Uh in terms
of the other pieces of our scope, obviously it's maintaining that property uh listing portal uh as part of our scope and our contract. Uh I believe we proposed a 5% increase over last year. Last year we held flat and did not
increase uh our our contract at all. So uh to be honest, it's somewhat accounting for the fact that costs went up over the last two years. uh but also that the scope is slightly bigger in terms of managing that online portal in conjunction with creating a master plan.
So uh that's as fast as I can go, but if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. >> Thank you, Jennifer. Anybody have questions like it? Thank you. Moving on to DDBC.
>> Yeah. Um I will keep it brief. Um DDBC had another successful year. We continue to engage with downtown businesses. Um, we were able to leverage the $10,000 received from the EDA to uh get over
$10,000 in in donations as well as uh engaging volunteers uh which we estimate comes out to around $14,000 in donated time. So, we feel like the EDA's money was well spent. Um, I think the
highlights from last year, we were able to carry out all of the events that we've um come to just do on an annual basis, but we're also able to add the Main Street Market um, which is just a really uh, great way to engage with the community and we were able to work with
city staff to to host that in the parking lot here this summer and then we're able to carry it over into a a monthly indoor market during the winter months. So, that was really a great addition. Uh, we hosted 10 um networking
events uh throughout the year and it's just a great opportunity to check in with downtown business owners and get a read on uh what's going on with them and to share information out um both in terms of what the organization is doing, but also updates from the city and and
other relevant information. Um so, yeah, another successful year. We didn't really have any major changes to our scope of services for next year. It was just kind of a nominal change with the Main Street program changing its um level of membership status. So, we'll
just be changing from an associate level to aspiring, but it's really kind of just a a nominal change. Um but yeah, we kept our ask flat at 10 just another $10,000 for next year to continue to do the work we've been doing in downtown.
Um, I'm happy to answer any questions if anybody has any. >> Thank you, Marie. Anybody have questions for Marie? Doesn't look like it. Thank you, Marie. Next up, we have Visit Brainer. Come on up, Mary.
>> Good morning. Um so the main um focuses of our scope of services are the website um updating the content and making sure that the SEO advertising strategy and everything is is working. We um had some hiccups early up and early on in the year, but the website's up. It's live.
We've got the the property listing portal going and we are nearly done with the blogs that we outlined that we were going to write for you this year and that will go live here in in the next month or so. Um the marketing strategy, we completed a marketing strategy which
we submitted to you for review this spring, maybe early summer. Um some of those things have been implemented through the consultant meeting and some of the things have been tabled and so um if anybody has questions about that, you can certainly let me know. It was just sort of a comprehensive strategy of
taking a look at the priorities from what the EDA was looking at marketing and advertising in terms of property development and continuing with brand awareness and trying to reach out to businesses and developers. Um, we did do an advertising campaign focusing on recruiting entrepreneurs and investors.
That's largely a multimedia campaign of some print ads, some radio ads, and some billboards. Um, just a reminder, that's a top-of- mind awareness campaign. It's really hard to measure that kind of advertising, but I do feel confident that we see an increase in the amount of
contact requests that are coming through the website and coming to city hall. Um, and so when people hear the ads or see the ads, they are reaching out and at least asking the questions. Um, so I think that that's valuable. I think it's also something longterm that could be
reduced or cut, but I would recommend that we keep it going for another couple of years as we continue to try and um raise the awareness of the Brainer Economic Development Authority specifically. Um the summer and winter advertising campaigns for shopping local, those have both been done or
implemented. They work too. Um I think that they work again from the perspective of the anecdotal feedback that we hear from people who are coming into downtown. I've got the benefit of having the information center and gift store downtown as well. And so we hear from people as they're coming in that they've seen the ads, but again, very
hard to measure. Um, one of the things that I think that's extrinsically valuable is that the businesses know that there's some advertising happening and they feel supported, right? A lot of small businesses are running very very lean operations. So an ad campaign for
their purposes, I think, is very, very meaningful. um we don't have any major changes to our scope. We actually reduced our contract by 18%. So um we took a look and refined some of the ad
campaigns. We did add more money into the SEO knowing that Jennifer has a keyword list that we should add to the mix for the overall online advertising strategy. Um the feedback from James was focused very much on the website content
and SEO going into this next year. And so we did cut the overall budget by 18%. Um and then just a reminder for us the fees that go to visit Brainer are about 9% of the total of the spend. Everything
else is a fixed cast that goes out to a consultant or an advertising vendor or something like that. So, um, if we ever needed to make more adjustments, just let us know. But we did come down again this year, um, for 2026. So, does
anybody have questions for me? >> Questions? >> Many. I always love it when the ask goes down. >> Other consultants can, >> but we appreciate it. We enjoy working with the group as a whole, and thank you for the opportunity to to help support
the initiative. So, if there's anything else, let me know. >> I think you're doing a great job. We got that website up and live. As much as we can push that, I think it's going to benefit the the whole city. So, >> I was You have something? >> Yeah, I was downtown. I was in town on Friday and Saturday of after
Thanksgiving. It was wild. There were people everywhere. I can tell you that we were we were out at the the mall for about 15 minutes. I've never seen that parking lot that full. So, whatever is going on, I mean, I think I think the shop local and the effort that you guys
are it's it's working cuz people are I don't know, Marie can attest to this or not, but it was there's a lot of people running around those two days especially. I don't know what I was doing in town, but >> it was busy. >> Want to shop downtown. It's an experience. A lot of good businesses down there. Tomorrow night, actually, we
have the tree lighting at 5:00 and every year we do that. It's it's packed and it's going to be great weather tomorrow. So, I'd expect it to be busy >> and it's I think it's important as we continue to build this brand and awareness and people need to know that there's there's something here, right? It's very, as weird as this sounds, it's
easier to attract tourists, you know, because they'll listen to the radio and see the ads and stuff. It's that re-educating locals and getting them to change patterns and traffic patterns and all of that. So, every year, this time of year, I get feedback that people are like, "Oh, I hear your voice on radio all the and you know so there you you
hear it even though it's not a perfect science for return on investment but >> anyway thank you >> thank you Mary all right that does it for reports and presentations next up we have uh 5F consideration for 2025 shared
services agreements and the EDA budget uh hand this off to James u >> yes thank you Mr. here. Um, so staff are presenting uh the proposed EDA budget. The final tax levy request has not been sent by set set by the city council. Uh, however, the city council did vote to
keep the EDA funds at the 2025 funding amount of 186,812. Uh, the major expenses in the proposed budget uh are the consultant contracts, facade and signage grant, the Washington street mita mitigation plan. Uh the budget uh without knowing the current contract with Bladec for the grant
administration which which staff will work with them on is $220,118 again the projected fund balance is 90,496 which is within the recommended fund balance of 35 to 50%. Uh this budget plan would draw into the fund balance that has been growing as a result of
holding on to those excess funds as we had discussed before. Uh so with that staff does uh recommend to individually approve each of the shared services agreements as as some people have to abstain from voting and then uh approve the initiative foundation request and approve the 2026 budget and I can answer
any questions. >> Thank you James questions Johnson. >> Yeah so the the shared service contracts plus initiative foundation is 15970 we're levying 186812 so that's 26,000
The chamber is asking for 20 to 30,000. We we just approved 40,000 on >> Max, can you pull up that spreadsheet that I emailed to you? That might just be helpful conversation. >> It'll be helpful to me. Connie, thank you. >> There you go.
>> That looks good. >> So, I broke out the What's What's different than what was in your packet is the highlighted green. >> Connie, is your microphone on? >> Sorry. What's different than what was in the packet is the highlighted green which Gabe was just talking about. So if you scroll up to the top you see the um
the revenue coming in. >> Yeah. >> And then you see the expenditures going out. It lists all the contractors or the consulting agreements as they listed and then um then the a little bit for insurance and then the economic initiatives that we've talked about today
>> and the me the um initiative foundation membership. So, we would be using $31,800 of fund balance. And then if we scroll down a little bit more, Max and the highlight in blue is kind of where I put the recommended fund balance based on I
don't know uh 35 to 50% of expenditures. You see the projected the actual projected fund balance. You see that we had budgeted that our fund balance at the end of 2025 would be 111,000 and based on actual estimates is going to be about 122,000. >> Okay. So, we're rating the coffers this
year, one time only. Everything is going to be fixed and we'll be at minimum fund balance. >> Correct. >> Per fund balance policy of the city. Yeah, >> it would be right almost would be at 90,000. So, if the max is 110, we'd be close to right in the a good range. Um,
and just also to note that this is the third year that the city council has let has held the EDA's levy the same or held it flat. So, just an FYI on that as well. Oh, I love a good Excel spreadsheet. Thank you for that information.
>> Anything else? Questions? >> Satisfied, Mr. Johnson? >> Satisfied. >> All right. Then we are looking to individually accept or approve these service agreements. First up, we have the Bladeex shared services agreement. I don't think anybody's abstaining on this
one. Correct. So, we're looking for a motion. >> Move to approve. >> Motion by Johnson. >> Second. >> Second by Gula. Any discussion? Seeing none, let's go to a vote. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Against. Same sign. That motion carries. Next up, we have Swanson Has
Camp Shared Services Agreement. >> And again, no abstensions. Looking for a motion. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> Motion by Grassula, second by Johnson. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Again, same sign. That is approved. Next
up we have DDBC shared services agreement. >> I'll be abstaining from that. >> Maria is abstaining being a part of that organization. >> Looking for a motion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by Grassula. Second by Johnson. All those in favor?
>> I. >> Again, same sign. That motion carries. Next up we have visit Brainard Shared Services. >> Abstension here. >> Johnson abstaining. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> Kersh. and second by Cursula. Any
discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Again, same sign. Next up, we have the city of Brainard shared services agreement. Looking for a motion to approve. >> Move to approve. >> Motion by Kersh. >> Second.
>> Second by Gula. Any discussion? >> None. Let's go to a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Against. Same sign. >> Motion carries. Next is the initiative foundation request. Looking for a motion on that? >> Move to approve. >> Second
>> by Grasula. Second by Kersh. Discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I. Against. Same sign. >> And then we have a budget memo. Is there something you want to mention on that, Mr. Kravik? >> Nope. That's just kind of what I went through before. So looking for a motion to approve the budget as presented.
>> Okay. Motion to approve the budget. And I >> move to approve the budget as presented. Are you guys abstainating on this one or not? Is this Yeah, I guess. >> Is there a reason for that? Just want to be sure. >> I would think since the contracts are already approved. Um, it's just
essentially approving the budget. >> Okay. Uh, motion by Grula, second by Kersh. >> Y, do I have that correct? Any discussion on that? See none. Let's go to a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Against. Same sign. >> That one passes as well. Next up, we
have new business. We just have two items here. First is a review of the EDA bylaws. James, take it away. >> Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. So, this is a chance for the board to review the bylaws. Uh, but changes cannot be made today as five members must approve the change. Uh, staff could bring the EDA
bylaws back to March uh if needed uh if if there is some type of uh discussion here today. Uh but as as is, staff has recommended no changes to the bylaws. >> Thank you. Does anybody have a reason to bring those back in March? Very good. Moving on to approval of the
2025 meeting schedule. Go ahead, James. >> Yep. So, thank you, Mr. Chair. This is the schedule based on the bylaws and staff is recommending approval. >> Does anybody have an issue with any of those dates? >> It's a lot of meetings. >> So, is this approving the 20 the 26 meeting schedule?
>> 2026. Yes. Did it say 20? Yes, this says 2025 on the agenda. >> This would be the 2026, correct? and and this one um in even numbered years has the extra meeting for goal setting um in November. That's only in even numbered years. >> Okay,
>> I'd move to approve the schedule. >> Motion by Kersh. >> Second. >> Second by Garrisa. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Against. Same sign. >> I show up when you feel like it. I guess
that carries. All right. Moving on to staff reports. Um, let's start with Tony Gage as usual. >> Anything from CLC Max? >> Nothing. >> All right. Administrator Broyals. >> No, sir. Thank you.
>> Connie Hillman, >> nothing to add. >> James Granic. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few items. Uh, BPU Commission, this is in relation to block metrics. Uh, did not accept the changes that Blockmetrics was asking for their power agreement. Uh, the commission has not taken any other formal action. Uh, Blockmetrics has
asked staff for a meeting. Uh, public utilities director sent an email regarding the contract. As of this time, no meeting has been set up. Uh, more information may come at the March meeting. Um, uh, and action may be need need to be taken at that time. Uh, also staff continues to work on other
development projects, including the keeper 76 unit development on Greenwood Street uh, and potentially 10 duplexes in the Brainer Oaks development, working with the HA and level contracting on that. Uh the planning commission is working on an RFP up uh to update the comp uh comprehensive plan for the city
of Brainard. Um so stay tuned for that. And then I did want to make uh >> Didn't we just do that >> about 5 years ago? >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um also staff did send out flyers to make uh commercial child care centers as well as home daycarees aware of the
incentives. So we were able to get a full listing of that. So they are aware of the um childcare incentive policy that was passed. And that's everything. >> Thank you, James. Eric Sharper, >> nothing further. >> All right, Jennifer Hascamp. >> Nothing further. >> Tyler Glenn. All right. Anybody up here? Marie,
>> anything? >> Nothing. >> Sula Johnson. >> I want to apologize to Tyler Blade CTC for not making that uh business visit. I really wish I would have. I didn't have it on my calendar, but I intend to make the next business visit. >> They will uh they will gladly host you
guys anytime. So we could go over there if you guys say, "Hey, let's pick a day. Pick a day. We'll we'll set it up." They would gladly host you guys. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I'd like to echo that sentiment. I had a scheduling error that day. I really wanted to be at that one. So, um maybe sometime in the future.
>> Um again, tomorrow night downtown, one of our great nights in the winter. Uh hopefully everybody can make it down for the lighting. I did hear a rumor that a firetruck may be involved >> and maybe a very jolly Santa.
>> A very jolly Santa Claus. So, exciting stuff. Um, with that, we're looking for a motion to adjurnn. >> So, moved. >> Second. >> Motion by Johnson, second by Graasoula. All those in favor say I. I. Again, same sign. We are adjourned.