calendar. All right, that sounds great. Well, we will begin the uh public utilities commission meeting. Uh today is Tuesday, April 29th, 2025. And uh we will call the meeting to order.
Roll call, please. Here. Matt here. O here. Hang here. Everybody please stand for the pledge. Ice to the flag of the United States of America. Good morning stands one nation under God
indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Chair, before we go to the consent calendar, I'd like to see if I could uh request uh item C to be pulled for discussion. Okay. And move to just after public forum.
All right. We will pull uh item C under the consent calendar and we Place that just after public forum. Any other modifications to the agenda before we approve it? Hearing uh I'm sorry to the consent
calendar. Yeah. Uh any other changes to the agenda? Hearing none. We do a we do a roll call for this. Motion for a change. Do I hear a motion? So move. Second. Second. Any other
discussion? Uh, all those in favor say I. I. Those opposed? Same sign. Motion passes. Okay, we'll move on to the con. Uh, I approve the consent calendar. Correct. Sir, I'm sorry. Now we approve the consent calendar.
Do you have a motion to approve the consent calendar? Second. Okay. Motion in a second. Any further discussion? Call. All right. Hearing none, we'll go to a roll call vote, please. Higgins, hi. Matt, yes. Yes. Angler, yes.
Okay, we'll move into public forum. Time allow allocated for citizens to bring matters not on the agenda to the attention of the commission. Time limits may be imposed. Is there anybody here that would like to speak as part of public forum? Okay. Hearing none, we will then move on
to item C that was pulled from the consent calendar. Commissioner, yes. So, I actually just had a few questions. I wanted to find out first and foremost who drafted the agreement. Somebody could tell me that, that would be great. Wolf Creek drafted the agreement and and
my concern was if I can tell it shows. I want to know if we've had this staff um if we've had our city attorney and or any consultant review this contract. No legal review on this contract. And so that would be my recommendation before approving and signing this solar
project. I know we've we're we've agreed in the past to move forward with it, but I just I I I was concerned with several of the comments made in the contract and I'd like to make sure that BPU's um risk mit, you know, risks are mitigated through this through the the agreement.
So that would be my recommendation at least to have the city attorney review the contract and or one of our uh results before it comes back to us next month. If possible, could you send me over a highlighted version of what your questions are? Thank you. Absolutely.
Love to. Okay. Any other discussion on that item? I don't think we need to take any formal action on that, but thanks for Okay. All right. Okay. We will then move
on to uh number seven, block metrics presentation and request for extension. And I believe we'll begin with does any Well, yeah, Dan, you would like to speak? I can start. Thank you. So, Blockmetrics is here. Ro and then Clark is on the phone. They
uh provided the letter requesting the extension. And I will turn it over to either Row or Clark. Whoever would like to start. Sure. Uh clerk, would you like to give an intro? Uh no, just because I'm on the phone row, it's probably easier for you to
start. I can certainly add to um your uh helping. Sure. Uh thank you all for being here today. Um Blockmetrics has made substantial progress on the on the design development of of this particular project. Uh we've recently encountered a
number of supply chains challenges. I'm sure BPUs probably experienced the similar things. primarily some of the longer lead time items, switch gear, transformers have nearly doubled in uh in lead time. Um and uh so we wanted to request an
extension um uh that allows us the the flexibility uh so that we're not right up against a very compressed deadline. Um that and the main goal here is uh we do anticipate that we'll be able
to energize before this uh proposed extension deadline. Uh however uh we don't want to have to come back in front of you again and ask for another extension. So the the purpose of the sixmonth extension is to give us that that buffer so that we can uh meet our
obligations. uh from a from an approval perspective. We have a civil uh approved mechanical and electrical uh designs are are uh nearly complete and will be submitted here within the next couple weeks uh for approval. Uh and uh we
anticipate that we'll be able to uh have all the all the approvals in place here within uh the next 30 uh 30 four to six weeks for the project. Anything to add, Clark? Yeah, I hear a little faint throw. Okay.
As far as far as what I can tell. Okay. Right. I I got the I got the gist of it. Right. Excellent. Uh some of the supply chain issues that we're seeing are are analogous to what we experienced with CO. It's it certainly has that feel to
it uh early on. So um certainly available for any additional questions on where we're at with the project. status, but we're anxious to get going. Our investors are anxious to get this project energized and
uh we're doing everything we can to accelerate what we can. C can I just add something to that, Ro? Certainly. Yeah. Just in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, they announced the cancellation of 42,000
megawws in projects in the United States due to these tariffs. just because of the uncertainty around uh uh trade with China and and the tariffs that are really wreaking havoc on. So when when I
think your analogy to co is very appropriate. Um but I think in some respects this should be less um in terms of terration. Hopefully that this is resolved to the next in coming months but uh it has obviously caused a problem
which is systemic to the industry. Okay. Anything else that you'd like to add? Available for questions. Okay. All right. Yeah. Thank you for that. Uh just open that up to commissioners with any questions, comments. Yeah, I have a few.
Um you mentioned extension. Extension of what? Uh the proposed uh energization timeline of 15 megawws by September 30th. So a six-month extension from that date. Okay. because you don't have an executed
contract at all. Correct. And my next question is why was that never executed? Uh we went through a few design revisions uh in the in the project to refine the the mechanical and electrical and the air flow of the of the building.
Uh so we wanted to nail that down before we could commit to a timeline. But wouldn't that be with your agreement and and your construction and all that with the city? Why wasn't it the contract executed with us? We wanted to make sure
that we had line of sight to to make sure that we could fulfill our requirements from a from a timeline perspective before we made that commitment. Okay. Anyone else has anything? If if there's any procedural procedural
matters that need to be um addressed during this call, certainly we can address those. So if there is something that was missed in regard to um the contract or otherwise, we can we can
take a an opportunity to memorialize that and and and remedy if there's anything that's outstanding. Okay. Um I do have more than Trent, you you gave us yesterday um construction
that needed to be done. Can you explain some of that? Who's do who would be doing that work and where we're at? Sure. So, as of today, we're working with them to um finalize the final extension of the primary wiring of
the site. So, as the site, as Ro explained, has changed several different times as far as the configuration of the site. When BPU originally built that line for BCD, we built it to the lot corner where we terminated there and left it for the project to mature. To understand, originally, this was going to be two different lots on the original
project. It got shrunk down to one lot. So, we really got to that first property owner and the rest of the development was going to happen after final designs were made. Um, we have approximately $250,000 left of construction to put in the rest of the feeders and the underground wires to their transformers.
They're going to do a contract with Brainer Public Utilities for Time and Material for terminating and installing that wire. So, those are the parts that are left. The general service to the building has not been established yet either. It's approximately $25,000 of work also on that project to bring the
general service. The two different services would be you have your one interruptible service which would be your crypto load. So, when they get into the load programs, they can be curtailed through MYSO. Then the general service would be your normal HVAC stuff along those natures that you wouldn't want to shut off during a
curtailment. That's kind of if that's your question. Okay. So 275,000 left in construction approximately. Yes. Um to me this is kind of concerning and I've heard the excuse of tariffs. only
happened in the last month, you know, and you're saying supply chain issues. I mean, this has been going on now for over a year. And, you know, we've lost the opportunity to to make quite a bit of money and every day is costing
us. And I think there's frustration with from Grand Public Utilities and I think there's also frustration from the city side as far as how the sale of this lot construction
and buildings. All this has taken so long and we have another purchaser with just for crypto that has gone pretty smooth. We've been making quite a bit of money. So, our opportunity to make money
has been delayed here significantly. And to be honest, speaking for myself, I'm pretty tired of it. We've had a couple of other things that have happened in here where, you know, people didn't do what they said they were going to do. Um,
and one was a at the dam with a a generator that was going to be put in and we ended up canceling that. So, I'm not really sure I don't I'm not comfortable with, you know, approving a contract today. I think that we as a
commission need to meet with the city and decide really what we want to do. I I'm frustrated and if we are to go forward, I mean, I would want this 275,000 put in escrow plus an additional amount of money. And if you're not going
by the time this extension is, and I'm not even willing to do a six-month extension, maybe four from the next meeting, and then if you don't meet that, I think there should be a daily penalty as to what we should be making in revenue.
Um, that's kind of how I feel. Can I give given your comments, is it appropriate and acceptable to you for us to change the design to have the open uh to have the uh air cooled um towers uh
in the in the uh environment outside? That wouldn't be up to this commission. That would be up to the city and James. Yeah, that would be that would be up to So what So what's happened? So what's happened sir is the city has said we're
going to put certain constraints on this situation and the BPU says well we need to pull down this amount of power in the city says no no no no no you have to have these towers in a environment that is
enclosed that that is rarely done and so well it's been permitted for uh AI or pardon me for for crypto. There's constraints the city's put on this and we've made and
invested countless hours and time and energy and hired outside consultants and experts in airflow and thermodynamics to make this work so that the city and the community and everybody's happy and that there's virtually no sound coming from
this. And that has caused and Ro can speak to this. he's been the one on point with the uh with the engineers and the thermodynamic people, but this has not been the most conducive to um
implementing a smooth path to construction. So, I think you have to take both sides in terms of what the city council wants and what BPU wants in consideration. It's not been we're just sitting on our hands and, you know, waiting and we didn't do this or we
didn't do that. Uh I think we've done everything that we've said we've got we've we've we've committed to doing and there are some challenges with regard to the design due to sound ordinances that have been implemented and without those
we I mean let's say and Ro you you may comment on this but yeah I hired I hired a guy named Mike Dorne. Mike Dorne is one of the most uh wellrespected construction managers in the country. 25 years running Scansa. I
did that because we need to make sure this is right for the city. I also developed a whole mentorship program for city um children in the municipality as part of our uh as part of our learning
finance educating on crypto and creating a mentorship program for children. I just launched this as part of my Swansoncalderon Foundation. You can look it up swansoncalderonfoundation.org. So there's a whole lot of other stuff that's going to add value to the city,
to the municipality that we're making our best efforts to have everybody happy. So those are extranuating circumstances. Understandably, the tariffs certainly do not help and the price of transformers and everything
else has increased. It's caused supply chain to literally stop. And so we're dealing with all of these things. I wanted this thing to go 6 months ago, but it has been challenging. It has not been because we've just been sitting on
our hands and and uh uh not moving forward and investing where the resources need to be made. I mean, these guys are working very hard uh with with high-tech and with everybody else on on staff to make this happen. So, that that
I just thought that that needed to be spoken. So, I appreciate you listening. Thank you. Yeah, we we certainly understand the frustration on the timelines. Uh we were uh relatively new into the mix on this particular project uh starting in late August, early
September uh is when we really came into the into the mix for this project. So we're we're working as quickly as we can. Um but and while we are are empathetic about the what's happened in the past, we certainly don't want to be
penalized for actions or inactions that occurred before we even had visibility into this project. Tra, when did this start? Well, the original line was constructed um fall of 21 into the winter of 22
through the BCD contract. So, this has been going on for four years, correct? Um, I I agree with everything that that Mark said. We're losing a lot of money. I've only been here 3 months. I've been on a finance
committee and looking at data and numbers from a from a business standpoint, which I I don't have any other lens but a business standpoint. Um, we've got somebody in town that will take the power and use it. And like has been It's been pretty smooth and
seamless with them. Um, I understand Ro that that you guys took this over from a different company, but I have an experience um that I want to share with the commission. You know, I I stored electric motors and gear boxes from the
Msabi Metallics Iron Order Range Project that our state put 500 million dollars into. That's been going on for 12 years. And I'm hearing the same exact stuff I heard because cuz I had I had skin in the game. We stored electric motors and
gearboxes in our building for 9 years. Um and we here and and we struggled getting our money. Um we had to we had to spend money on lawyers. We had to almost evict them. We had to almost take the equipment and it just went on and on and at the last second they would get me
paid and they would get a year extension and they get me paid and they get a year extension. Those motors sat in that building for eight years. And last winter they came up against another deadline and they decided that to haul them up there and they literally put $10
million of electric motors and gearboxes out in the weather up at the Msabi Iron Range and nothing's happened. They have not produced one ounce of iron mower out of that project in the 15 years that it's been going on. So I I mean Ro it
you're telling me you don't even have transformers and equipment ordered right now. Is that what I'm hearing? It's not even ordered. Correct. Are so you think you can have it in 9 months? Yes. Cuz in my experience with everything switch gear and transformers and everything that I'm buying. I mean I'm hearing a
year to 18 months off. Our lead time was 12 weeks for switch gear and transformers and that extended to about 24 weeks. But I mean you I I don't feel like you can guarantee that with everything you're saying if you're going to if you're going to use COVID era
timelines and you're going to use an excuse of this trade war and tariffs and everything. You you don't know. I mean, I I if you had that equipment sitting on the ground right now in Brainer, I think you'd struggle to start using this power when you're saying you're going to use
it even with the six-month extension. You got a lot of work to do. And I don't Does the other Does the other customer not have enough transformers? That's not what I'm talking about. I don't I don't I I think they have capacity with what they have. I think
they have capacity. They can use another five before they would have to do some a lot of additional work. And is this the mining operation down the street? The 22 megawatts. Yes. So So these are the guys that
didn't deliver on their promises that didn't deliver the the the um uh uh the you know the uh foundation for the uh YMCA. These are the guys that the city council said, you know, broke their
promises. These are the guys, these are, excuse me, these are the guys that are spending money on their BPU bill every month. That's who these guys are. Well, I don't care what they said or what they say. But but if we didn't if we didn't abide by the city council's wishes, we
could have taken all the shortcuts and done all this in an in an extraordinarily fast manner because we wouldn't need to have recognized any of the uh sound ordinances they're doing and they're
doing air cooled units as I understand like that's much easier to do if we could if we could have changed that and said well you know we could do air cooled. was not possible on our property. Just not possible. They would not allow it. And that's the simple
thing. You can bring in containers, run a wire, and get going. We're talking about building a building and and enclosures that that protect for sound. And this is this isn't being because of the design and
the specifications of of the designated uh um covenants within that particular permit. It's not it's kind of comparing apples and oranges. There's no way I can vote yes on this. And I agree with Mark.
There needs to be a pretty serious conversation with the city on this on this extension. And then the other thing I was going to say and then I won't say anything else because I get interrupted in the middle of talking is there's no contract in place. You don't even have a
contract. There's nothing signed. In my world, in the business world, we're not even having this conversation until something's signed. So for me, it's an absolute waste of time for this commission to even be discussing an extension when there's no signed contract. What are we
extending? And that's all I got. Thanks. Yes sir. Um James, can you explain where the EDA is and the city where where exactly? So I handed out um a letter here as to high-tech construction um something they
had asked for. So construction plans have been submitted to the city for building permit um contingent upon a number of items here. Uh so they're looking at doing a phased uh building approach. Again, um as Rohan mentioned, uh mechanical, electrical are kind of
finalizing. Uh but the foundation portion is ready. Um so prior to the foundation, um phased building permit. Um so first, uh the permit fee need to be paid uh proof of title transfer um to block metrics or subsidiary um executed
EDA development agreement. So that was approved believe at the August of last year, right around that time. Um so essentially different agreement was a amendment assigned assumption assigned assumption agreement um that um extended
the commencement deadline. So that not been executed yet. The EDA did extend that to April 1st. So this past that date um no matter what I think at the next EDA meeting there will be an update to to the EDA and possible direction from them. Um certainly uh some type of joint meeting could be helpful. Um and
then another provision to execute a power agreement and then finally they completed and signed special inspection and test and schedule form. Um so a lot of the structural plans have been submitted foundation plans that's ready to go again. Um waiting kind of on the last few pieces mechanical electrical
chairman. Can I ask a question? Yes sir. Um James, when did the council uh I believe it was council said the restrictions or the building has to be enclosed? Uh do you remember the date of that? Was that back in that July, August? So, the the enclosure um was not
a specific requirement from the EDA. So, the city council really didn't have a whole lot into this. There was no conditional use permit required for this. Um so, it was really looked at through the EDA um approving the construction plans. Um obviously, a big concern from the surrounding neighbors
was sound. Um, so while the city wasn't uh requiring the enclosure, certainly I think it was advantageous to the neighbors and to the city to potentially have that closed, not only for the neighbors, but for the uh future industrial park users. Um, but uh that was put in u as part of that uh
agreement in August for the extension of the contract. Beginning of August, right? Yeah, I believe beginning of August. Okay. Mr. Chair, yes. I think I feel like this is premature to ask for the extension when it seems like we have a lot of dis
um negotiation yet to do um with block metrics with the EDA, with city council. because there's a lot of defining markers that still need to be identified, clarified, and um I think asking for extensions in small chunks sounds promising, but all you're doing
is kicking it down the can little chunks at a time or kicking it down, you know, it further and further because quite frankly, and Mr. Clark, I I was at that August meeting when you two had first presented and all of these things that you're stating, most of them besides some of the design changes um were
promised that you'd be up and running by February of 2025. That was the promise. And so it sounded promising. It sounded great. So everybody would move forward with it. Now we're only pushing it out six months. Um, and you're uh I I don't even see it's feasible because the very
question and I know the question was asked because I asked it is have you ordered the transformers? Have you ordered some of this stuff already? And the answer was that you guys that you would be ordering it because you knew that we were a year to two years out in getting some of this this the the the U
product in and now you're saying 9 weeks to 12 weeks to 24 weeks whatever it might be. But we know it's further than that. So, I don't know how you could guarantee six months from now that you'd be up and running and functioning. And I am going to echo exactly what Mr. Rode said um the loss of what we have not
seen because we have the ability maybe not to use it with for the existing um customer right now because I know that they didn't do everything by the book either. Um but we had the we have the ability to offer it to other people as well. we have the ability to offer to
anybody else coming in and we're losing that ability because we've made a a promise to u to BCB now to you, but at this point we don't even really have a promise to you because we don't have a contract. So I I just think that we maybe need to pull this at this point
and to not either one not agree to it at this point uh to go back to the negotiate. We need to negotiate something whether it's a seeing some sort of finan you have incurred some financial cost I get it but so have we substantially with staff time and some
of the things that you know if you want to put pen to paper it gets costly on both sides of it so if we want to try to get this thing to move a little further down the line I don't think we're going to get that resolved here I think it needs to be at you know negotiating some
additional terms um with some additional departments that need to becl included included in this conversation. That's my two cents about the whole deal. Yeah, I I would suggest that our operations committee meet with We also have our council leaison
and the council president who are on the our other committee that meets with Baxter and all that. I think um and our attorney think we need to have a meeting and I and I would disagree with the operations committee. I I think that's full commission. I think the
entire commission needs to be as part of that conversation. Okay, that's fine, too. But then let's have a special meeting. 100% agreed with EDA and city council. So, everybody's on and block metrics. I I mean, the more that is at the table to discuss and iron out these problems, the happier I'm going to be, I
think, in the in the end. That that's my opinion. Like, I don't I don't even know how we could make a motion to give a a six-month extension on something that doesn't exist. I mean, am I am I thinking correctly? Well, I have no idea. I agree. It's a
new contract. I mean, this this contract never got executed. It's gone. It's it's it's it's nothing. There's no contract. Nope. It it I mean, in the real world, if there's a contract, there's two people that signed it and then you start moving forward on on a project. There's
this is a a a boozy or whatever you call it. In my in my eyes, we had worked with Chris Evans on on the red lining of the agreement and that last remaining piece that we were negotiating on was that date that energization date. So we had gone through the red line process but
yes it was not executed yet but that negotiation was it's not executed now. Correct. Not yet. It's not executed now that correct period. It's a base to start with but I
think we need to meet with DA like like I I want to make a motion but I don't even know how to make a motion because well we we well that that's something we can decide at the end. I mean we can decide when we want to have that meeting and and adjourn to that meeting from
here but uh we'll keep in touch with you guys I guess and try and have that meeting as soon as possible would be my suggestion and then um get back to you and tell you what we
come up with and negotiate from there. That's what I would suggest. Yeah. And I think just how how that gets scheduled. We work through Nick and Danny. Okay. Yes, sir. Just just so I'm crystal clear, I think I am. Um, what
we're looking for, what you guys are looking for is a joint meeting with the full commission, full council, and the full EDA and block metrics. Is that a true statement? And us? Yeah. I thought I said full commission. I think I did. Okay. Y Yeah. Commission, EDA, council,
block metrics. I I almost want a meeting without block metrics first. Yeah, I agree because um I want our attorney Kayla involved. I would like to meet without block
metrics first and then from there um we would have whatever negotiation strategy we'd like to put in place and and go forward from there. So, I'll work, you know, James James is the executive director for the EDA. I'll work with staff at BPU and we'll get something on the schedules as soon as we can with
just the three government entities at this point and as soon as possible I say so we can certainly be fair we're losing money every day. We just lost money in the 20 about 55 grand a month. Yeah, we just lost money in the 20 minutes we
discussed this in my opinion. Are you guys good? Can we consider Can we consider going back to the city for re-evaluation on the sound ordinance is is the is the facility that's consuming the 22 the as I understand this air
cooled they must have they must have towers and and uh um different sound provision for for where they are which probably not as even industrial as where we are as I understand but is that a possibility
I I was at that meeting when you with the city council when you um were taking over from VCV and we had a number of residents that were at that meeting and had complained previously to that and you
guys were the ones that stepped up to the plate and said we'll do this, we'll do that. We are going to use the newest technology to make this as quiet as possible. So I mean it wasn't just the city. You volunteered that from the
beginning. I was No, I understand. Understand. But but um we we could we could do without for instance a a building structure if um we had the ability to change the things and and and
Ro is more of an expert in this than I am in terms of modification of the of the housing for these things. But uh my understanding is that if we could do something that was like a um a container type of structure, we
could still use u machines that would be um less um would create less noise, but but we we wouldn't have to worry about the cooling towers, which I I'm I'm sure that those guys have uh you know, sound
that it will far exceed ours. for what we planned. But if we could if we could look at what they're doing and see if if if we could have uh sort of a level playing field from from that regard, maybe that would be helpful. I I don't know. Yeah. Um I would say modular
data centers can be deployed a lot faster. Um however, there was an aversion to using modular data centers from city council and and um some additional steps that would need to be taken. Um, so we're certainly open to
doing that to speed up the project. That actually helps us as well. Um, if if city council's open for that discussion. This isn't the board to ask that question to. That's and I I think I can clarify that. So I I think that is pretty much completely off the table.
Um, city council passed an ordinance that would not allow um any more type of outdoor storage containers for that type of use, which would also apply for just for crypto if they wanted to expand their operations. Um, they're grandfathered in for what they have right now, but um certainly would not be
able to expand um any of their outdoor operations. So, um well, the I know there's a a roof over the cooling towers um that could potentially be on the table for the EDA to review, maybe a slight change to that. um to maybe not require the roof over anymore, but
certainly sound barrier walls or something to mitigate sound would still have to be approved by the EDA. Um but certainly the the containers are are not something that the city is looking at moving forward with. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments, discussion?
So, at this point, we're just we're just removing this agenda item. Correct. At this point, we'll set up a joint meeting. Yep. And then we'll proceed with a joint meeting after that can get scheduled. Nick, do you see this being an evening meeting then? Yeah, it'll be an evening.
We'll get we'll I'll work with staff as soon as we finish up here and we'll get something scheduled as quickly as we can, but I'm sure it'll be an evening meeting. And I'm thinking probably send out like a doodle poll or something to figure out past availability. Give us three dates or you have to or
whatever. Okay. Thank you everyone. Thank you for being here in person this Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Sorry for my earlier interruption. It did difficult over the phone, but I apologize for that. Thank you. Thanks, Clark. Thank you.
Byebye. Okay, we'll move on to commissioner or commission committee reports starting off with personnel. So, we didn't meet at all this month. Um, but I am concerned about our committees and the definition of why the
committees were formed and the the purpose of the committees. So, I'm just going to say my piece right now and then move on. So I the personnel committee I thought was uh organized it's and I don't think we have a clear definition of our responsibilities for these
committees was organized to uh oversee some of the requests from staff and the lack of staff and or the need for additional staff and where areas were needed to help with you know initiate job descriptions with HR um and and
proceed according accordingly. I that was the whole purpose of personnel. It wasn't to identify HR issues or whatever. The finance committee was because of course there's a lot to go over with four departments. um you know to to internalize and go over these things, make recommendations, but
ultimately I think I was uh part of the operations committee when it was when it was created and it was the it was because policies were coming to the commission at that time like late fee policies and uh shut off policies and it seemed like we were using commission
time to redline certain policies or it seemed like it would be more of a better use of like a work group or a committee. So, we formed the um operations committee. My concern based off of the meeting um agenda is that everything is going into the operations committee at
this point. And I kind of thought that the commission uh the commission's purpose was to help oversee the operation of the utility. So, I think a little bit I feel a little bit a lot of it is getting moved into some of the
committees and then there it's based off recommendations of two people. um and that we're not hearing all sides of of you know issues that we should be listening in on and or being a part of some of the discussion. So I'm going to question um I'm going to question our
committee roles and our committee assignment not assignments um responsibilities um moving forward. I I'd like a clearer definition of what our committee's functions are supposed to be. Um and if operations continues to
need to be uh a committee um since it is more of a commission responsibility um I just would simply ask that. So that's all I have to report on because at this point the only thing that I saw on personnel was that applications for the interim and I read that on the HR the
director's report was that they were first applications were supposed to be opened yesterday and I I don't know if that just goes through HR first to get you know who qualifies to move into that interim position or you know to be interviewed for the inter interim position or if it just gets selected by
the city administrator. I don't know that but that would be where I would have loved to have had some communication. So that's why I just wanted to ask the function of what the committees are supposed to be doing. Thank you. Yeah, it's a good question. I think uh just being part of the personnel committee
uh I was just looking back and and taking a look at our uh organizational chart. So the most recent that um I think we're all using but I'm not sure from a city council standpoint commission. So from a
personnel committee side of things I would like to meet Dolly and look into that and and take some time to talk with staff about that staff just to see if there are things that we want to implement with specific people and and staff and uh looking ahead at potential
transitions and training and all of that. So, but I think just for us to all be on the same page in terms of what that org chart is, who's doing what, how we're structured, I I just feel like we need to get back in front of that and then also have as part of that
communication with the city and just just create that line of communication that way, but then also just get your your input from the staffing standpoint, you know, looking at everybody here in the trial, the BPU staff. So, I feel like we need to look at that and just bring that back up. And then again, making sure that we're alling the
document. Uh so that would be a request that I have for the personnel committee here. Just to follow up on on that also, Mike, just a thought. I I I think Thursday, is that the when the deadline is for people
applying for the interim? We were going to post that for So the interim director, what it said was first review would be as of yesterday. So there was four applications yesterday. I shared them with Nick and then we were going to talk to
figure out what to do from here. An interim is not defined in our employee policy, just an acting. Yeah. So, it's we're trying to figure out that process just for this commission to discuss. Personally, I would like to hold off on
a director. I think we have and the organizational chart really shows that Trent and Treasury Electric, Danny and Treasure Finance and Charlie with waste water and you know that the commission
is is above that on the personnel side. Nick is above that. Um I personally would like to see us hold off on a interim and run with the three working together. They all three work together
very well and um I think we save ourselves quite a bit of money and just wait for a while and and see where we go from there. That would be my suggestion. If if I may, I think personnel committee is
Dolly and Mike. That's correct. Y I would be open. I think it would be beneficial if the three of us maybe just sat down and visited for a little bit. I was going to talk to you after the meeting anyways, but um I think it would be appropriate. Well, I just know that we have three
weeks without a public utilities director that we could gauge right now and have that discussion to see how things have been going. Um because we don't have a a department head attending any department head meetings. So, I do I look forward to the conversation because I do want to know how information from
city hall is getting disseminated to train public utilities staff. you know, we've got I know we've got great people in place, but how was where's that connection? Where's that missing piece? That was the point of having a public utilities director. So, it'll be a discussion a good discussion that I'd
like to have. And just for my part, and I think um with the interim thing, I think I dropped the ball on that one a little bit, but my intention, you know, but when Chris Evans was here, I if I needed to communicate something to the utility, I went through Chris Evans. My plan in the short term right now is to
send things to Danny, Trent, and Charlie. All three. Um, that's something I think we can discuss, too, and see if that's working for you guys. Do we do we need a motion to hold off on on I think we need to have the discussion
first because right now we're looking just even at an interim and what would be the harm in at least looking at an interim? We can decide. My only motion would be to hold off on appointing an interim director. That's that that's all I'm concerned about. I think it would probably be a recommendation. I think that would probably be a council
decision, but that could certainly be a recommendation from the commission. Well, I don't know if it's a council decision. We are the ones by charter who ask for employees to be then hired by the city council. So, I I think a lot of
that is is is our decision by charter. And I I'm not going to disagree with you. That's why I think that just This is a perfect example of why I think we need to visit more about this so we're understand whatever his roles and responsibility which is why I don't think a motion should be made at this
point to to whether to hold off and or to hire. So I I think we need to have the conversation for assist if it's even needed. I think the conversation has to be had before any motions need to be made as far as direction and what and where we're going to go. So I don't I
mean I guess that's my my question. I mean, how can we make a motion to hold off if we find out after our conversation definitely need it because right now they've asked for applications and pending approval of appointing
somebody but it doesn't mean we have to extend an offer to anybody but but what's what's out there to say that they shouldn't um just this discussion no I again this is where I say what is the responsibility of the committee The
personnel committee should have been part of that. I think when we are looking at a public utilities director, I believe when we were hiring the public utilities, it was two people from commission, two people from council, the city administrator and HR. So, how is that any different from hiring the
interim public utility director? Well, I agree. Still that so I I But the process is in place. What does the charter say? says that the that the BB BPU commission asks the city hall to hire employees
that we ask for. Is that Jeff? Is that how you see it and read it? That's pretty much how I understand the charter to read. The commission will uh uh tell the council what they need for staff. I'm not sure if it says shall or may then council
then provide that because in my 11 years of being here and being through several uh of this position I 90% of what I've dealt with boots on the ground is Danny
Trent and Sean. I I agree with Mark. I don't I think we should slow this down and put a pause on this cuz I really as a commission member wonder if we need this position or if those three guys could just handle it. Well, we have an agenda packet going out this week for
Monday's meeting and uh that might be something to just uh as a recommendation to perhaps put a pause on that. just throwing it out there for a big PNF committee to bring back the council because that's who made the recommendation coming out of committee
to the council to move forward with it being I agree with everything that's being said including you Dolly I I agree with every but I just know I just want to make sure that that pause happens um so if that can happen just by hearing our
discussion I'm fine with however it happens and then I think personnel community needs to get involved go from there. Um, just I'm just going to if I may, I'll read verbatim what the charter says. The city council shall employ all necessary help for the commission to
properly perform its duties and approve all items I'm sorry, all terms and conditions of employment. Personnel for vacant positions may be recommended by the commission to the city council. All commission personnel are subject to city personnel policies. You know, just to allow for that. And I think that was
that's the whole piece of it. It was the recommendation of again what why the personnel committee was formed to identify the needs andor deficiencies that uh we need to ask for the city council you know to help fill those positions. So I I just I would prefer to
have the conversation first to see if we move forward. So however we can do that that would be great. Could we do that between now and Jeff? When did you say the next meeting? Means Monday the 5th. So our packets coming out on Wednesday, third, Thursday, I guess.
So I just like to say that our construction coordination meetings, they've been they we meet every two weeks and those are going going well and we're getting more coordinated together and today we'll be having our 10-year construction plan
here presenting to you all and uh so those meetings are going well too. Just to throw that out there. Okay. Thank you. So, do we want to have that meeting before this Thursday after today if that works? But yeah, I'm I'm available
whenever it works for you guys. It's good discussion. Yeah, it's really Okay, thank you. Uh let's move into finance operations committee. I will. Okay. Um the first one is um
approve a 5-year rate plan and Chris Evans had put together that rate plan and he had did go out for 5 years. Um our committee agreed with that. However, I'm not comfortable with
agreeing to go five years. I'm okay with, you know, the next two adjustments. Beyond that, I don't want to personally approve five years and then all of a sudden these
rate hikes take place without anybody ever discussing it again. I'm only here till the end of the year. I don't want to hold, you know, future commissions from um changing rates, but um I mean, I like what he did and put
together. I think it shows a good um path to success. But um I'm I would move that we approve the the next two rate adjustments.
The next two years or the next two two adjustments and the adjustments are every six months. Yes. Because I'm not here after that. I I'm not I don't think I'm or whoever is here. I mean, every year someone comes
off of here or potentially comes off. I don't think it's fair to go more than past the end of the year because I think that's future commission's responsibility to do that.
I I agree with you that it's it's a stretch to go out the five years, but with you leaving and Dolly and Mike uh being the only two left and me only being here 3 months, I would sure like to have time to get my
feet underneath me. Um I sure would like to see 24 months, two years. and and you know when we had our meeting and I have a a sheet here um I had artificial intelligence do
a rate study on the state of Minnesota to compare BPU's rates to other small power providers just on the power side we're the cheapest in the state we're the our power is the cheapest rates in the whole state of
Minnesota we have not increased them the way we should have we've not increase them was cost of living. And as somebody that pays some pretty big power bills, it's pretty hard for me to even sit here and swallow that I'm saying that. But I I also if my community and my utility
isn't sound, then why am I here investing? Why am I here spending my money? So I I would sure like to see a motion for two years of this rate study instead of just two six-month terms. And I if we could get that motion
I would be I already made a motion. I mean yeah we're at what 7.96 or something like that is our residential rate you with a 10% we're we're still you know under nine 8.6
was that 8.6 presently for residential and the average on this study is 12. Yeah. I mean, there's as high as 16. There's one up on the range that's 16. I don't know if they have a huge demand charge. What that is, I'm guessing
that's what it is. Part of what you'll see in the rural development areas is that they have to build a lot of infrastructure to serve one meter. Most of those meters are only really occupied during deer season. So, they have that in infrastructure cost all year to really only have that meter using energy for a month or a couple weeks a year.
So, that's where a lot of those iron range and northern Minnesota rates you see very high for that reason. Yeah. But anyhow, even with our 10% increase, we would still be below 9 cents, which is, I think, still really fair to our rate
payers. Um, we do have a responsibility to the rate payers to try and keep rates um I think as low as as possible. It helps the economic development of the city and um you know, 10% you know, to me seems
like a lot. And then when you're looking at, you know, another one in in six months. Um I think that's far enough to go with the rates and then you see where you're at, you know, from there previous, you know, a year from now for
what you want to do in June and again in I motion I guess is still on the table. Mr. Chair, wasn't there document uh in the document that you come back and approve it every six months regardless?
Was that the water? Yeah. You started the water change here a couple of months ago. The way what I what I meant though, Mark, was I thought that even though it was scheduled out for 5 years, it was to come back and just get approval. Was I incorrect in
remembering what I read? Yes, Dan, you're just correct that we had a conversation in the documentation. Uh the request from committee was to review it at before each adjustment. So
why would you need to approve all of them now? I mean if you don't that makes sure that you're going to go back and look at this in a year from now. Well, as a large as a large power user, I want I
want to know what's going to happen. I don't want to have to wonder every six months what my rate increase is going to be or not be. I can't plan. I can't invest. I can't design when it's so wishy-washy. We we we need stability in
this town and with our utility. I mean, our our sewer runs backwards, half a million dollars a year. I mean, we've got to get some stability and and we've got to be able to plan. As a as an investor in this town and as a as a as
somebody that pays a lot of money, I want to know what they are. I don't I don't you saying that we're going to review my power bill every six months and we could change it or not change it. It just scares me. I'd rather know. You could do that anyhow. I I understand
and that's why I'm saying what I'm saying. It's it how do you invest? How do I make business decisions in the millions of private money, not government money, priv my money, bank money, money that I pay interest on? How do I do that when when we're so
wishy-washy with rate changes? I I I mean, I'm on both sides of this. And when I look at this study that I showed everybody and how cheap our power is, I I don't want to be the lowest. I don't want to be the highest. I want to be average. I want Brainer to be average in the middle. I mean, even if we go to 10
cents, we're still way below average in northern Minnesota. So, I I want stability. I don't want six month increments. I want to know what's going to happen in general with my power bill and my water bill and my sewer bill for the next couple years. So, I can, you know, if if
my electric or power or or electric or water rates go up at my restaurant, I have to make changes in my pricing. I have to make adjustments in real time. So the decisions that are made on up here affect all that. I want to know out
ways so I can make adjustments and not there's a riffle that happens every time we do this. There's a riffle in the community that nobody nobody thinks about or nobody talks about. It's like the white elephant in the middle of the room. And we have a lot of businesses in Brainer that go through that same
riffle. All that sounds really nice, but in the manufacturing world, we don't know from month to month what our cement charges are going to be. We don't know uh if hangle is they don't tell us that 6
months from now we're going to change the rate on your sand. I mean pallets go up. I mean everything. We don't, nobody tells you for the next two years out what their prices are going to be. It's
a, you know, it's a buy and buy and fly. I mean, that's the way the world works as far as I see it. So, I mean, yeah, it would sure be nice if you could. I mean, we go through a lot of power, too, but I mean,
Mr. Ch. Yeah. Sorry. Could I could I just suggest that you either uh get a second to the motion and or not and then move forward and based on that with another motion of this one and I'll second for further
discussion. Okay, we have a second further discussion. Uh so and I appreciate both sides. It is actually good discussion to hear u from both sides. Uh but my question would be, you know, and it's great that he figure out
a five-year wave plan um presentation and I think it's important that we do come back and look at it every six months, but I I I agree with Mr. Higgins. I agree that you know, how do you move forward if you don't have some stability in what you know what you you know your rates are going to be for the
year? So my question is could we do a two-year I'm trying to find the compromise here. Could we do a two-year um with commission every six months reviewing it to see that we are on track? You know that not necessarily that we would adjust every six months
but that going into year three the first six months are we on track with this these calculations that were made. Um I think that's a good suggestion. I don't know if it's a good compromise but I'm trying to find I would be fine with that. You are guys are going to be the ones who are still here. So, I mean, I
just bring up my my motion because I'm not going to be and I don't want to hold future commissions hostage. So, I mean, I would I would withdraw my motion. Do you have to withdraw it or could you just amend it to two years to continue
to be reviewed every six months? Okay, I I'll amend it. That's my I would I would second that. Okay. Any further discussion? Can you tell me what the motion is now to Mike Higgins rates will never increase?
Yes. That we have the based off the structure, right? That we have the rate increase every for the next two years. Um that the commission would come back every six months to continue to review by so by going into year three and
looking at the schedule that has been presented to us. Are we in are we in line going into uh year number three? And I think that would be great. I think our staff would appreciate that because they can follow this guideline and they can be building data and learn from it. And I think that would be a great
compromise and I appreciate you making your amendment and we've been meeting every week as the operations committee going through this and you know with the amount of infrastructure that has to be done um we
see that there's really good reason to do what we're doing here. Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Motion carries. Item
two of six. Okay. Approve Bolton and mint quote wastewater facility plan. Is there a motion to approve? Oh, I make a motion to approve. Okay, there's a motion. And I make a
motion to approve the 468,480. Second. Okay, there's a second. Open it up for discussion. I was a little concerned um that we had asked them to redline and take out of uh
take into consideration um growth and future needs of the facility. So I am glad to see that we are going with the original request. Um and thank you for that motion. I don't like the price
um but the sense of urgency on what's going to happen in the next 10 years with wastewater facility and with what's going on in the world with PAS and state and federal regulations kind of scares me. So I
um you know I don't like just having one bid and one price and one contractor, but I think they've done a good job from what I know in three months and I'm I think we need to get a grasp on what's going on with our
waste treatment facility. Mr. Tulis, I see you in the crowd. So, you've had a chance to review this as well or been discussed with Yeah, city supported with one with no proposal.
Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. Those same sign. Motion passes. Next is approve dying to film quote $3,200 to do a hydro tour video.
I make a motion to approve this. Second. Okay, we have a motion to second. Any discussion? I've been fascinated with the dam since the day I got here. I think it is a completely untapped uh resource that the city has. Um I
think that we need to advertise it more. We need to market it more. people need to know more about it. Um, I've been fascinated and was fascinated when I first bought the paper mill about how nobody even knew the dam was there or most people in our community have never
been in it, never been around it, never seen it. And as the person that owns most of the property around it, you can see it. It's absolutely amazing. The wildlife, just everything that goes on with the dam is is cool. So, I think um having these guys do a video and using
that as a marketing tool for our city is important. That's great. Who's who's dying to film? Who are they? Riley Nelson is Okay. He reached he's local guy. He lives two blocks from the dam. He reached out. Um
he's your next door neighbor. Oh, nice. He he reached out after seeing the promotional budget item for videos on the commission packet from last year and asked for a tour and put this together for us. He's done stuff with NPC. He's
really good. Okay. All right. Those in favor say I. I. Those oppos. Motion carries. Next item is approve credit card transaction fee. Annie credit card transaction fees. So um as
you saw in the check packet, our fees increased almost double again this last month. That was from global payment to our processor. The last commission action was to implement a fee of 4.75%. When we proposed that and started talking Visa Mastercard came back to us
and said you will not do that. Uh meaning they would not allow us to accept the Visa or Mastercard if it's over 3% or 4% respectively. So, we've looked at what um the surrounding the other departments are doing. The city of Baxter recently, can correct me if I'm
wrong, but they have also imposed a transaction fee and it's a dollar amount per transaction plus a percentage that is um we did talk about passing on all of the fees and DP not collecting any dollars from credit
card transactions. What our processor is telling us currently is that then our customers would see three transactions occur on their credit card. One would go to us, one would go to um Tyler Incode, and one would go to Global Payments. We thought that might get a little confusing. So, our recommendation is
putting together a 125 per transaction, which covers the Tyler Incode fee and 3% which is allowed by Visa and re-evaluating after that. Approve. Second motion to second. Any
discussion? I'm just still very concerned how Global and Tyler can put their hands in this and charge us an additional fee on top of the credit card fees. I don't understand that. It does. It makes zero sense to me how somebody can recoup that recoup a fee for service
when they're not doing the service. So, I I I know we briefly talked about that. I would love to look into that a little bit further to see if why that's even an option. So my understanding of the$125 is that's what allows our customers to see that they've paid their bill
immediately. Okay. And that's that's a service from Tyler and Global. Just Tyler. So what is how does global fit into this? Global is the processor that's allowed by Tyler. So Tyler has a negotiation with Global Payments.
It just doesn't make any sense to me why they're they get to tap tap on an extra fee. I I I I'm just really struggling with that to get to get a kick back on the kickback. It should be it's part of the software. I mean, that's the piece that I'm struggling with. I would like
to investigate into that little further. Are we are we in a contract with them, Danny? Yes. Long general package. But do we renew that yearly? We do a renewing. Is that something we've ever shopped to see if somebody can do it better,
cheaper? I mean, I do that and we we the opportunities are there to use other processors, but then you're not getting the live or payment has been made. So, you could go through a different processor case, the import export
process might take up to two days for those customers to see their payment. That becomes a challenge when we're doing our disconnects, unfortunately. and and that becomes a separate issue we can discuss further because it is a contract we're already obligated to. I appreciate the I appreciate at least
breaking it down. Uh 3% is the max we can go with Visa and Mastercard. Okay. I mean this is a big number. I was reading the packet and noticed the $112,000 basically payment that's coming out of our pocket and did the math in my head real quick and text Danny and I'm
like what's going on? So I I mean we have to do I mean I don't see how we can't not do this, but can we do something better in the future? Do some homework or research and see if there's a better option out there? Welcome to our research. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Any
other discussion? All those in favor? I those opposed? Sign. Motion passes. Five. Ratify project priority list submission for water. Go ahead. I can take that. So, as part of the funding requirements, when we're
doing any water wastewater projects, we need to submit a project priority list. This um project priority list that was submitted in the budget, it missed the cover page. Cover page just said that staff recommend ratifying approving the project priority list. It does not mean we get funding. It just tells the state
what we are what our project priorities are going forward. Um Morgan from Molton Bank is in the audience. If you would like to Any questions? They drafted this for us. We printed it on head and submitted it for your approval. Okay. Any questions? Move to
approve. Second. Okay. Motion is second. Any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. Those in favor say I. I. Those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Item number six, approved budget
amendment evergreen list station pumps. Sorry, I don't know where my bookmarks went. Um, so as part of our annual budget process, we had $100,000 budgeted what uh for each year 25, 26, and 27 for
evergreen lift station improvements and additional connections. easiest way to say that term. Gate valves, gate valves, checks, general maintenance. Uh, as we looked at pricing and what's happening, we are noticing
that if we were to contract this all out as a four bid in one year, we could save uh 65 roughly $1,000. And as we looked through that, we determined that we would want to um
present that for a budget amendment moving that 300,000 to 2025. Uh it' be an increase about 135,000 in total for 25. Staff feel like we can cash flow that 135,000 in this year and then we remove those items from
the budget for 206 and 27. Make a motion to approve this budget amendment. Second. Okay. I I uh I think that Charlie did a great job on this. We talked about it at
several meetings. Um like Mike said, we've been meeting weekly. Um I think that if I was doing this for myself, I would have been very proud of my guys that did their homework. Um, I like it also because it's it's proactive and
I've watched and I've had to been reactive to a lot of things I've done in Brainer and I just I like getting ahead of this. So, I appreciate the work that you put into this and over the three years saving up some money and then having a really good system in place for
this legislation. I only have a couple quick questions because um I always am concerned when I see a ificant difference in bids and so and I never will question Charlie um
only because I know that you know exactly your needs but there is seems to be a substantial difference and is it are they like kind pumps? Yes. Um bump curve wise, horsepower wise um and performance. Yes, it it just seemed like
quality flow had um just a better quote in general and a better warranty and a better everything and there was more to it. So then I often or did they leave something out? Right. So, you're pretty confident with the quotes? Yeah. So, I mean, this has been I've been working on
this for about two years. Um, and asking for quotes and getting rebuttal back and looking at savings. Um, so looking at some of the vendors, I'm just going to say sometimes they're not very conducive of getting back to you and to keep on
begging for a quote sometimes gets a little bit arduous and so that was that was where I had the two that put down for it the ability to do it and provide the pumps at a reasonable installed cost. We do
not have a crane truck that is capable of lifting these size pumps. So this is definitely a install uh situation when we when we talk about this station in of itself.
Okay. um like electric pump the company they had put in there that note the following and cranes was was noted where the other one just simply says installation that's the only piece where I just question is it going to be a request for additional
um because they had to now bring in a crane they know what this is they know installed price and that's what I was trying to get in writing thank you perfect that's all I plus the warranty years right Yes. Thanks, Charlie. Any other discussion?
Okay, those in favor say I. I. Those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Thanks a lot, guys. Great work. Okay, we'll move on to unfinished business. Item A, memo, direction requested on hydrogenation project.
So during the packet you had your the normal memo the item that we would pull out to discuss is the uh direction on where the hydro funding went. So staff went after the last commission meeting we went down and had a testimony with
the I'm going to screw up the name of the the finance committee for energy and the renewable sources. Um, we were received well uh, in our opinion. Marty Seaffort was the lobbyist that was hired to help with that. He also thought that
it was received well. The bill at that point was what they call laid over, meaning that they um, put it to the next step. During those next steps, they did not move forward with any of the funding requests. So, at this time, the funding
request for the hydro facility is been halted. We do have a request in with Amy Kolashar, Tina Smith, and Pete Stabber noting that this is one of the priorities that we had. Chris Evans submitted that before his
departure. The question we really have for the commission is how do we want to proceed? The last commission movement was to order two generators. uh we held off on ordering those because of the funding bar has
attached their additional draft of information for consideration and I will turn it over to Trent on anything. You know, I think that was very good. Um first of all, I'd like to thank the commission for the opportunity to speak for the utility. That was a very
humbling experience, something that I enjoyed very much and uh hope I can continue to do that for the commission in the future. Daddy said it was well received. Um it's a tough spot right now with some of the just the politics that are going on down there, but we were able to push through that in our project to fund some of that. So I was happy
that we're really doing now is we're taking a more of a phased approach with this project knowing that we're not going to be able to bite it off the one trunk financially. We'd like to use the opportunity to get a generator installed in pit six. Pit six is the pit that had the prototype generator with the Amjet
project in it. We have a headgate installed there. um there's minimal work that has to be done to that pit um compared to the other ones to get operational generator going. So really what they kind of have for the cost breakdown here all these are very high estimates. There's a lot of things um
lead times are going to take a while. We know our electrical equipment our turb is going to take us two years. Kind of what we're proposing or we're looking at for direction from the commission is how we want to fund that. If you want to move forward with this, our recommendation would be to move forward with option one to procure a generator
and switch gear. We have all the procurements pretty much dialed in. This is something we would do in house. EP would go out and procure this equipment. Previous to having a contractor or a general for the project knowing that we have a couple years out on this um equipment to get a general involved
right now, it's just us paying somebody to do nothing for two years in our perspective. So, we would like to get the equipment on the floor. um in town and then continue to modify these projects with the commission's um direction on how we want to continue moving forward. What's the appetite? Do
we want to bond? Do we want to try to cash flow? Do we want to halt the project and away from more funding opportunities? So, we're really trying to scale it back. We do have needs that we will have to encompass in the next year or two in projects, but we have other ways to be able to kind of encompass that into another project
also. So, it's really we know it's going to take us two years to get a generator. We pretty much procurement specs down. We just have to go for bidding for that. The problem we're running into is we don't necessarily have the money. So, that's the direction we're looking for. Do they ask for um a percentage down at
the time of order? That's a great question. I could follow up with that one. I do not know that one off the top of my head. And what's the total I can't read that from here. What's the total cost of the generator? So depending on what we looking at, this is broken down between the high and low estimates here. About four 4.3 million on the low end
and about 7.7 million on the high end. Um these are a lot of contingencies built into this. Um we know the generator cost and the electric cost are pretty solid as far as that goes. Tariffs and the rest of the things that we're challenged with all aspects of utility right now are still those
unknown numbers. When I asked FAR to put this together for us, I said I want to be very broad. Once we get direction permission, we'll be able to hone these down and sharpen these numbers up for you once we understand which way you would like us to pursue this. So, you're saying that they're
estimating the turbines 900 grand and the switch gear is another 975. Correct. So, technically that's all we would have to spend to get going or in two years when it got here depending on how the deal worked. It would be the first steps to get the equipment in. So, I did talk
to some political people after you guys went down and did your presentation. Um, and you know, they said you guys did a good job, too. It was very wellreceived. And I've talked to Marty once. One of the things that I heard from those
people that I talked to was if we have some of this in place, like the the the state's used to having somebody there with their hand out, we want $10 million and we're not going to do nothing. and and they kind of brush that off where if we say come back to them in two years or
next year whenever we can or we get in front of the federal government and we say look we've already put one of these in here's the data of what the return on investment is and and how it work and we paid for that out of cash flow or we borrowed some money however that works in in the government world. we're gonna
have a lot better opportunity to get money because we're showing that we're doing something proactively instead of just sitting there with their hand out. So I and I I was part of did some contracting work for the guy that worked on the other project and was down there
and you know somebody else spent a lot of money on that that we didn't have to. I think it it would behoove us to to take advantage of what's there and if we can you know get something in there for, you know, I know that you're going to work your magic with your guys trying to
I've seen it, witnessed it, been involved with it. You know, I I think we should move forward and get these turban this turban coming and get one of these in and then we know then we'll have some data. You know, a year later, we'll know what an upgraded turbine does. We'll be
able to look at a return on investment and know how to how to invest money into our dam from there. So, I would I would totally support us figuring out how to get this money, taking out of cash flow, whatever we got to do to get one of these in to see what it does. I would
like to say we could just take our crypto money if we could get the other one online, you know. Well, a million two a year goes a long ways. Or if the guy that's here now could take half of it right away in two years. Yeah. We're
not borrowing any money. We got the money. So Trent, do you need to go out for actual bids on this? Is that what you're saying? And find out the down payment. We go out for procurement on the generator spec. So basically what we have is we have the generator spec out the one that we want to install that fits the best for our facility. We have
that procurement. So we go out for bids for that. Um it's a little bit of a challenge because they don't make hydro generators all innovate all over the world. Not a lot made in the United States. So we're probably going across the big pond to receive this flight's going to be across the big pond. So this is where some of our concerns possibly,
you know, tariffs may be implemented on some of that. So, that's why you see some soft numbers here. If you can give us a funding avenue, we'll definitely pursue this down and get it down at the cheapest pen we possibly can for you. Do you need a funding option in order to go procure one? Then you asked if we want a
bond or how we would like to approve that. If we do go for a bond, that's something that the city would be involved with and all the bonds would go through the city. Can we come up with 2 million at a cash flow to get the equipment on the ground? I'm making work. He pays for it. What do you think, Danny? Electric
bridge. We have to look. Realistically, the question for the commission is, are you wanting to bond for a project that would require a recommendation to council? If you're not wanting to bond the project, we'll have to go back to the drawing board and evaluate that. And we have to
decide that before we go out for not necessarily. So, what we're trying to do since we know the lead times are long on this equipment, we'd like to get it in hand right now. And then after that equipment's in hand, we're talking probably anywhere from, you know, 18 to 24 months, then we would continue to go
into a general contractor. Then we'd search for a general contractor to help install the generator. Uh there'll be probably a floating barge involved. There's lots of moving pieces. When we originally scoped the project, we had different phases involved where we were actually going to have our gantry crane installed ahead of time. we were able to
install that with the gantry crane as we're running into these funding challenges. The lowest hanging fruit that we have to make an investment at the hydro facility right now for generation is what we're looking at pit six. So that big project that we had the pandem that that's still being reviewed that's being pushed out other phases
into the project. Um so this is where we've got some investment already in the pit and the best bang for our buck. So I think I I hope I captured your question. If if if we were talking 20% down on tour cost and electrical equipment costs, we wouldn't have to bond to them.
So that decision really could be made roughly even a year from now. I mean, who knows what rates you're going to do in a year from now? I mean, how much additional cash utility will have? I mean, you're
saying we don't need to bond down%. Let's go out and get the bid. We got to get going. If it's two years out, then we're wasting time. Can we get Can we at least find out what we got to put down to order it? Absolutely. I mean, let's let's find out what we got to put down
and then and then we can make a more intelligent decision. I I'm all for aggressively getting a generator in pit six just for the data. potentially if you could give staff guidance on a limit that we can go up to, we could probably
get this moving faster even. Um, if we look at the equipment right now, knowing that we got a couple million dollars in that, if you want to give us the guidance of not to exceed, we can move forward with this and actually get it on happening before the next commission meeting. If you have that appetite, I know we've done in the past where the
finance committee has been involved to expedite the cycle with you guys. So, that would be a good avenue. we'll continue to work on and give you an update and then commissions so we can talk about this in the next finance meeting. Yes, absolutely.
And basically we're going to trust Danny to tell us, you know, how much we can go up to without looking at bonding. Depending on when your special meeting is, you also take action there. That's true. Right. That's just what I was
thinking too. Yeah. at least get a feel for city council on on I think we should add that to the meeting and we could have an open discussion and get a feel for what the city council, you know, just to make sure they're okay. Sure. A year from now if we did want to bond it.
Um but I think I think it's a huge step in getting us the $10 million that we want from the state and federal government. Agreed. So clar I'm hearing the direction is move forward on one generator not on two. Yep. And yep. That helps. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. New business discuss draft 10ear CIP 2016 2035. That's Jesse. That is Jess. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah. So, in your packet, we've got a a draft of the tenure, something that staff has been kind of
developing and working on over the over the winter time. Just a quick reminder, it's kind of a Our goal is to balance a little bit of a reconstruction program where we're addressing both street needs as well as underground utility needs, a little bit
of a resurfacing program where it's just pavement needs where not necessarily touching any of the underground utilities as well as pavement preservation stuff and then some of the miscellaneous projects like mining and stuff like that. That's kind of the goal
of the program. Um, some things that we uh did do some revisions with this version of the plan is starting to really u hone in our our attack on some of the lead service stuff that we garnered with a lot of the inventory that we got this last year. Um so some
of the groups of areas that we found uh that we did have that service line uh issues, galvanized service line issues, we start to identify where can we group these into projects where we already kind of maybe doing projects that maybe we need to relook at the scope. Uh so
maybe a good example of that would have been the 2026. Originally it was planned as a resurfacing in the South Brainer Graden Lynon. Um that neighborhood that was all going to be a resurface. U knowing that a lot of that Graden
Lynon area was let service line issues. Uh we chose to kind of rescope that as more of a reconstruction area. uh since we're going to be essentially ripping up a lot a lot of the curb and needing curve that's a lot of the water service line as well. Um so changing that
portion out into more of a reconstruct and because of the size and scope we split that out to two different projects. So kind of a south half being a resurface and north half being a reconstruction. Uh, another example would be like in 2030,
um, the Woodland Park Shady Brook reconstruction project. Uh, it's actually kind of a new project that showed up on the CIP. Um, this is the, uh, Cedar Emma, that whole neighborhood right around the the water plant. Um,
that area wasn't on the CIP prior to, but the entire area was identified in that lead service line inventory. So, within that like seven, eight years that we have to replace all these lines. That pavement's getting rough and knowing that we're
going to have to replace an awful lot of those service lines. This is something that we identified and moved up in our priority list pretty high up obviously in there. So, kind of did a little bit of tweaking based on that, but we are going to have
to do some more work to this plan over the next year. uh working with Trentus, we're executing that next plan this year. We're going and identifying all the unknown areas. So, uh areas that aren't on this right now may be tiral.
As we go through there, if we find that there's essentially wet service lines in that entire neighborhood, that might be a project that we would have to identify instead of patching the entire neighborhood up. We might be better served to do a national capital project
in there. So, that is to be determined after we do a little bit more investigation this year in next year's version of the plan. U but we didn't want to go too far down that road until we knew what we were dealing with um after identifying some of those unknowns. Um
but we with what we did identify we adjusted the plan accordingly as best as we could. Um and then there's some areas like the Oak Street reconstruction project. So this is an area where u we know that the It's going to be well it's already in rough shape. Um it's going to
be in really rough shape after the 210 project and a lot of the detour track goes down there. Um but it has some utility needs. The water is in rough shape. It's old 14in uh water man that goes down that way. So we're going to replace that as well. We were lucky enough to get a a grant that's going to
cover off a lot of the more of the street infrastructure and stuff. But um those are just different opportunities that this version of the plan is a little bit different than maybe last year's version of the plan. But definitely trying to come up with a one that's trying to do its best
to balance u top and bottom needs as well as a good amount of pavement needs so that way the entire system is kind of being pulled up all at the same time. Uh we do have the East River Road the interceptor lining projects still identified in 2027. Uh Charlie and I
have talked about that. Uh we need to do some more investigation on that one. Uh see if that needs to be rep prioritized differently or if that can be in 2027. Uh we're going to work with SE on that one as they kind of helped us out with the first section of that interceptor
lining. Um so right now we have that identified in there. Um the other parts of the let's say the other parts of lining u we want to talk with the council about what their um level of I suppose would be uh for investing with
overall lining program uh throughout the city to help us out with you know poor sewer conditions um INI and things like that. Um and then how do we identify that in the plan is it an annual program every couple years and do a big project
things like that. So those are different things we want to have conversations with council on what level of investment they want to do into those things. Uh we have been investing with our storm sewer uh on a somewhat annual basis too uh to identify some of these outfalls that
have been falling apart over several years. We've been starting to pick those away now which is good. Um but we'll continue to do that until most of those have been done. But with that, what we're really looking for is uh commission input uh
recommendations uh and considerations that we can bring forward to the council as we go to more of like a budget workshop with the council and and have more discussions with them as well as we bring this towards kind of budget season. Okay. Thank you. Anybody have
any questions or comments? August How does and I'm dumb. So with the charter and with I'm still trying to get an understanding of how this money flows between the city and the
commission. As I understand right now, we are in charge of electric water and lift stations and the waste treatment plant. Correct. You guys are in charge of gravity. Is that is my understanding of that correct? Right.
So, can you So, our input to what you just discussed in your budgets and what you're going to do, like how does our input work with that? If I could just interject with our construction meetings that we're meeting
on bi-weekly basis, we're doing that and we're inputting all of your guys' stuff in there. And at some point in time there's going to and I've already had some small conversations with council. At some point in time we are going to have to have put off the street to do a
surface our our water service lines and that's going to be the you know the balance of that. How do we do that? Our storm waters um you know the 50,000 that you saw on there that will just put a bandit on it. We need to really look at our storm water. We got some infrastructure that needs to really dump
and our sewer lines. There's a lot of projects that need to be done out there. Our rate study that we need to be doing for the sewer and storm water needs to be looked at. So, there's a lot of balancing acts with this and our construction meetings are we have some good conversations, some you know heated
conversations and which is good um because we need to know those priorities to put them into balance and that's where we both come together and work. Now the finance part of it um that will be Danny and uh and Connie but but we have to approve the f like if you if you
come to us as the city and I and I hate this divide. I don't I don't I don't like this feeling or this divide in this charter and and and the way this the money flows. It's in in the real world this is ridiculous to be honing and ask some questions.
Um, can you guys say we got to replace all these lead lines and then we have to pay for it? I mean, where does the how does the cash forward? No. So, I I guess why Jesse's presenting is as part of the engineering side, they engineer the
water. So, we identify a road project, that road project's identified, that water man gets engineered during that road project. So, on his CIP here, he has the water fund column. So over the next this 10-year plan, there's $19
million just in water infrastructure that is on the plan as part of that that comes out of our budget. Correct. He's doing the engineering. Correct. We have to approve that. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Is that And I'm not argu I
mean I want you to put 40 million into our water just so you know where my mind is. I'm just trying to figure out the cash flow. Correct. So we have developed a lot of the priorities in this plan based on a lot of discussions over the last couple years. So you know one of the first things I did when the first
few months in here was where do we really need to be and a lot of the discussions not only from water but also in our sewer was northeast and southeast were big areas. We we've done a lot of work in north uh quite a bit north's pretty new south we obviously just got
through an awful lot and we're going to be getting to the grad area shortly. But northeast is an area of need. Southeast is an area of need. So if you look through this 10 year plan, you have reconstructions to those neighborhoods littered throughout the entire 10 plan.
So we are trying to address all of those areas as best as we can um wherever possible. And and I feel bad for you because I've been been here 11 years. I say that all the time, but I you know we this is the most reactive community I've
ever been involved with and been invested in in four states and traveling doing paper mill type projects that I did. So I you know I've said since the day I got here it's kind of it's kind of wild how far behind we are. So I you know I'm just trying to figure out how
it cash flows and you know we're we're sitting we're having meetings talking about rate increases and you know we need to know this data like what's what's coming up over 10 years. you know, if I'm going to be on the finance committee and you guys are going to allow me to be on this commission, I got
to ask those questions because I want to know, you know, I need to know how much money you need so that we're making proper rate increases or looking at alternate funding or whatever we got to do. So, that's the only reason I'm asking him this question and I I appreciate you being here and and doing
the work that you do. Um, I just am trying to get up to speed. And this one really focuses a lot on the street side. I'm glad Danny brought this up. It doesn't hammer out a lot of the other, you know, to your point like lift stations and stuff like that. There's
other pieces that go into the maybe more capital budgeting and stuff, but um it's one piece of the puzzle. Look, you know, we've talked about is it's there is a lot of balancing that goes into it because you have like a water line, a sewer line that have
certain expected life cycles versus a pavement that has a certain how do you balance those because this is going to expire at a certain time versus this is going to expire at a certain time. Trying to get them to time out at certain times. So, you may be doing a resurfacing but you're not planning to
be doing a utility because only, you know, 10 years old versus pavement at this 20 or 30. So, it's trying to get everything to balance out. Um, so you're not trying to replace anything too prematurely or too long. So, to your point, try we're trying not
to be too reactive and trying to be looking at the long range and doing a balance of not only like preservation, but rehab and maintenance from that side of it, but also addressing where the needs are and being aggressive that way. Where can we put lipstick on the pig and where
do we need a new pig? D for I guess for my expectation what I pulled up is this is the 25 through 28 budget capital budget. So this is 2026 here. This is under the water this is the water department. So we're talking for 2026 we
have this 2.5 million for the cell uh highway 210 project and then $700,000 in the southeast branded reconstruction project. how that relates. That's the budget piece here that we're talking about on Jesse's CIP plan that comes
under this 26 water fund. So these are the the highlighted here of 26. So looking at this is the 2.5 million for 210 and then we have 830,000 here. So on our budget for next year, I'll be adjusting to Jesse's most recent number
here where that 700,000 is. That's where this CIP plan that he puts together that flows through on just water fund on our approved budget in this city water main projects. That's how this is flowing and then we get essentially the
city coordinates that and then bonding happens at the end of the year. I guess this is more a question maybe for Danny for anybody for that matter. Is there a single document you know when I think of enterprise funds and I've managed several enterprise funds you know you can go out you you don't want to go out
in perpetuity because this just becomes kind of pie in the sky at some point but for all these enterprise funds I mean is there simply a one-stop shop where we can show here's a fund balance at the end of year X that gets put up in the revenue for the year of X plus one you
have all your projected revenues for that fund you have all your project costs your projected project cost that year all your capital costs And at the end of the year you have another fund balance. I mean then from a rate perspective when you see the fund balances trending up or down you can see when a fund is be going to become
unhealthy. You know we can look at an enterprise fund and they say this is going to be unhealthy in 5 years. We're going to be upside down. So then we start to your point I agree. I think this is a very reactive community very and um that's no way to conduct business. So that's when we get on front
of these things and we talk about rates five years in advance of the problem. Um is does that exist? I have not put that. I mean I have the Yeah, just food pide not something we can maybe continue to discuss. I think it's would be beneficial. I I think it's the start of
how we get to be more proactive versus reactive because when I looked at the the budgets um in a meeting a few weeks ago, I was shocked especially at our our sewer and wastewater on how far
negative. I mean, we're robbing Peter to pay Paul every month. And I mean, I do that in my businesses, but at some point I I have to put my foot down and stop and be like, these these separate entities have to work on their own, right? Like I can't the longevity of me
taking money out of one entity that's doing good and we call it throwing the bag. We've got to stop that as a commission somehow. And I'm not saying we got to do it overnight, but over the next couple years, we need to figure that out.
Yeah. I think the cohesion or acting as one group, things come up like sack and whack and should it be weight or not, I mean, that's when all of us are educated and we understand what costs are. That's that's ultimately what could come out of this. So, yeah. Thank you, Mr.
President. I'd like to see uh one document with everything and that's we've already added you know to this to Jesse's documents you know our our sewer our storm water and so whatever document we you know and I know we can talk about at our construction coordination
meetings too just to get one document so for the commission we're city of Brainer right we're servicing the same people and if we could just have one document that would be helpful to look at the rates that's something with our next uh budget cycle I'll representing you know
our storm water, our sewer and just our study rates. We need to get ahead of that to be proactive. We need our foundation and utilities that is our foundation for our c our city. So we need to get that stable before we can start in my opinion growing.
hand. Um I didn't if I can I I didn't uh I didn't pull it I had to look through it but um we don't see our force main and lift stations in this 10ear set do we okay that's that kind of goes to I think Nick's point Mike's point that kind of
nice to see everything am I not sure yeah we can show you that it's it's a different it's you know it's waste water right so we do have all of that and one thing I just want to kind I want to kind of go to, if I may, Mark, Dolly, Mike,
you may have heard me talk about asset management, life cycles, and so on. This is if if you're just looking at a five-year, we call capital improvement project, which isn't really a capital improvement. This is operations and it
could be saying, hey, this has a life cycle of 15 years. You're going to see it again 15 years. If you look at water, you'll look at the wells maintenance and all that pulling. you see that when we start working on our budgets and funds,
you'll be a part of that. Um, but again, that depreciation cycle, remember, we're supposed to be putting that depreciation back in the bank to then replace that when that asset is defunct again. And it seems like we haven't done that very
well. Um, so that's kind of where we're growing this. You'll see it get much larger when it comes to water. You'll see the waste water list stations, you'll see them, that list is starting to grow rather large. Um, but there's a
lot of assets. So, it it's kind of good view of what's needed when we look at the loss or uh trying to cover something. Remember, depreciation is a fictitious number of a
assets. So if you take that away, then you look at your rates. But if we're not putting that back in, we're going to be a shortcom. Okay. Any other comments, questions? Yes. I'm just looking for any further
input. I'm just glad to see you guys are all working closely together. That's been an improvement over the last few years. So, thanks for that. I think we're all on board on having a document that shows everything. So, that
could be some feedback for the council. I think it would be neat to have this this meeting with city council too to sit down in a group and we're able to to talk about moving from being reactive to proactive as a utility and city. Still
don't understand this whole charter thing, but we'll figure it out. We're one team. We make it work. Okay. Anybody? Anything else on that? Thanks for being here to present that. All right. We move on to staff reports.
City administrator. Um yeah, just I wanted to kind of highlight um a couple things. Last night, the city council, I think, had a really productive work session, work group, workshop rather, and um staff had been asking and and we we
made it all work. We got together last night and it was really a conversation from from the council to staff on what council's priorities are. I mean, staff, we are instruments of the council. We're here to execute council's vision. Um that's kind of where our job starts and
stops. We're here to execute the council's vision. So, it was very beneficial to hear from council last night. I just want to give you some of the highlights. They basically kind of went around all the council members and they just identified and Kevin Jagger was up at a piece of paper writing everything down. They were identifying
essentially priorities that they would like staff to work on and they divide divide them into kind of three categories. Some of them will require a significant amount of time perhaps money maybe a moderate amount and maybe some of the lower hanging fruit. So, just to give you some idea of some of the things that they talked about, and I'll just
give you the major bullets. There's some minor bullets under some of these, but I'm not going to get into that, but they talked about staffing. They talked about parks. Uh there's a lot of conversation about economic development and housing and infrastructure. I think infrastructure um is super super super important. It's
not the bright shiny stuff. Um I understand that, you know, it's hard for elected officials to go to the public and say, "Elect me. got to put in new water and sewer pipes rather than something bright and shiny. That's just that's just the way it is. But I think we got to take care of our infrastructure and I think that we've
made some strides in getting there today and I think it's going to continue to get better. We did talk about something that certainly germanine to today's conversation. We talked about the utility distribution and aligning. I was here not a day when or so when I found out that our gravity lines and our force
main and lift stations were separate and it made no sense to me at all. So, I think the council talked a little bit about that last night about maybe bringing those together. So, that's a good thing. Talked about public safety, sidewalks. We talked about some of the main corridors through town and uh how
how does that affect our code enforcement? Traditionally, most recently, we've been complaintbased code enforcement. I think council is interested in exploring options maybe on some of the corridors to maybe come up with a a hybrid type of code enforcement model. So we'll talk about that fire
department remodel. We talked a little about the annex infill and development. And then as some more of the kind of the the the lowhanging fruit, if you will. We talked about brush clearing and park maintenance procedures, document preparation. I say all that to say the next step right now for staff is to
we're going to take all those ideas and priorities for council. We're going to put those on what I would call a suspense tracker, a task tracker, an action item list, whatever you'd like to use. Um, we're going to put that in a traditional red, yellow, green, status updates, percent complete, etc. Status
updates. I'll be including that in this packet too for the commission. So, you can see all that. Um, so I think that was a huge step in the right direction. I'm very excited about that. Another thing I just want to mention, our audit on the city side kicked off today. I met with the auditors this morning. So,
they're going to be in uh doing our they're going to be in uh in the building for a couple days, then they'll be gone for about a week or so, then back for a couple more days. Um, and then after we're right on the heels of the audit, we're going to be getting into the budget season. Construction season's kicking off also. So, that's going on. And then the last
thing I just wanted to talk about is I've had a couple meetings. You know, when the council asks me questions, I try to be very respectful of and the charter is I think is ambiguous in places in my mind, too. Um, but I try to be very respectful of the administrative
operational. Um, but when the council asks me operational questions, I just I feel compelled to dig in a little bit. So, I reached out to I think it was Danny and Mike and we talked a little bit about the lead line service, that lead line uh replacement over the next seven years approximately. So, as I try to think about that from the
commissioner standpoint for a council member standpoint, I want to know that the staff has got a pretty robust plan in place that we're on top of this and we're going to take care of business. So, I just asked a few questions. I know that the utilities is got this and they're going to run with it and they're going to be successful. Um and the city
will be there to support in whatever capacity that we can. Um that was kind of some of just the highlights. Um any questions for me? Any questions? Okay. Thanks. Appreciate it. Council.
Yeah. Um support a lot of what Nick said. I'm glad he brought so many items up regarding last night's meeting and u they're uh again I thought it was very productive. uh you know, we all kind of threw out our our
ideas what we want to prioritize and then we rank them and put those rankings together and I guess listen from kind of top to bottom and and one thing I was really happy to see was the infrastructure did come up pretty high on the list for
uh uh you know where we show improvements to to the CIP we just went over with Jesse and Um uh that's kind of been my big thing since I got elected. And u um another thing that we did do early in the month
was um we put a halt on the finance integration. I don't know if you're all aware of that. And then uh we did say no utilities moving from this commission's responsibility to public works. So that
was uh a 6 to1 vote. and so was the finance. They they passed it. And then we also said uh for 18 months no to a deputy administrator. That was a six to one vote. Those three items passed back on April 7th which turned into a discussion
on the priorities that stem from our March 10th retreat and uh that's what we had the special meeting about last night. So, I I think as Nick said, it was very productive and I think it just helps everybody all around kind of know where we're at, where we are at. And uh
that's important so everybody's on the same page. And uh I u I I look forward to this uh meeting coming up too um regarding the DDA public commission here and the council regarding the block matrix.
That's that's going to be a interesting discussion. So, and If you can, I mean, I would encourage you to get that any with that generator if that's possible to get that on your agenda for that same meeting depending on when that's called. So, that's all I got. Thank you. If you
have any questions, I'm happy to ask you. Okay. Any questions for Councilman Chzac? All right. Thank you, sir. H director report. So, I provided a written report. Um, I don't have anything to add unless you have
questions. Okay. Any questions? Okay, hearing none. Thank you for that. Finance manager reporter. Nothing too much additional. Just wanted to give you an update on the audit. I know the representation letter is in
front of Mike for his signature. So, we've seen a draft. I agree with all the adjustments uh the auditors proposed. Uh they were minor adjustments some of them doing with the Gazsby 101, which is compensated absences. That's a new uh the government auditing standard
requirement. There's an adjustment there and then the pension adjustment that's usually at year end say also additional adjustments there minor adjustments that they consider immaterial but those adjustments we all agree. So the numbers that are presented in the draft of the
audit and what is presented are not the same on the monthly report um that was in your packet by about 20 grand. Okay, the questions for you. How much money did they audit? How much
money did they audit? $43 million 20 grand. I'm called for Can you tighten that up? Was that the negative or positive? Well, it was primarily due to what the
Gatsby 101 change is changing the compensated absences. So, previously we had full like our sick time that full liability was on the books. Now only like half of it is on the books. So, there it's
It's all in it's all make believe I call it because our internal recording is still at the full value. We have to make an adjustment for presentation to wait for the bean counters to make
more money. That was financial speed 101. I know. All right. Thanks, Danny. Operations Um, nothing to really add to my written report. Um, here for questions. I will
take an opportunity to highlight um, Tyler Malloy, Brent Yanik, and Nick Cbury for helping me with the um, safety presentation we did for Anderson Brothers. Once again, it was wellreceived. Um, as I said in my report, there was over 200 people that attended that one. Um, staff did a great
job and I'm looking for future projects, more of these to do down the road and kind of push this one off of off of my boat and their let these guys take this out of it. So, um, if anybody would like to ask more questions or see that demonstration trailer, we'd be happy to
schedule something with you. Awesome. Thanks. I I just have one question. On your the the back page of your report, uh, you talked about the service line replacements. Yes. You had indicated BPU plans to replace more than 200 service lines each year until, uh, the target
lines have been addressed. Are we talking private service lines? So, yes. So, it's probably a deeper conversation for the commission at some point to give you kind of cop back up where we were at with service lines, but yes, it will be the utility's responsibility to coordinate and replace those private
service lines. Funding will run through the utility um for those replacements. So, we will be essentially driving those projects. This year's projects were next year 26 projects we're targeting up in Northeast where the BP has already replaced their side and so it's private
side that will be replaced soon as funding. Um that's encapsulating the best bang for our buck to get one full service line completely um lead free in these requirements. We have not found any lead service lines anywhere in the city to date, but we did find galvanized. And so the word lead's
getting thrown around a lot. We don't necessarily have a lead line service line issue, but galvanized is under this mandate required to be in place. So Zach, yeah, I just want to I guess I was thrown that that we were doing the work
for it. No, we will not be doing the work. We will be contracting and yes, facilitating all the work that needs to be done, but that we're covering the cost for private service lines to be replaced. The grant money is yes, the grant money is. So there is currently
money for it because houses are being sold right now and there's the only why I bring this up and sellers are paying for the cost of it at this they're negotiating that in their contract. So it would be nice to know because I know that one of the agents came to me and asked me the questions that they got one response from city hall and another
response from BPU. So we need to coordinate our response to the owners of these properties as to when they're replacing and who's paying for it. So right now there's only public funding for two years for this. So years, you know, this is a 10-year project. We have a 10-year mandate. So we have 10 years
to replace these. We have funding for two. So if funding isn't extended through some of these agencies, federal or state, we're going to have some funding challenges on the DP commission side again to overcome these hurdles. But uh sorry for my intent, but what I was trying to say was we'll be managing
either an engineering firm or a contractors, but it will be all going through BPU. So they will see us or representative of BPU as these projects are happen. We are not doing the work. Good deal. Um I have a question. The last I heard which wasn't that long ago
is if there let's go with the alley my favorite project down there between Joseph. I was told there is no funding available to for the private line from the curb stop to the house. Is that what we're talking about the funding for that
for the property owners? Yes. So now that's become available not for 2025. We have to get on a project priority list and follow that same. Okay. So, it is available just not for this year. Correct. We hope we have not been approved for that. Okay. So, there's an
approval process we have to go through. We have to be approved and vetted prior to receiving anything. Is that federal or state federal go out to Washington? You see, get Yeah. You know, just go back to local politics. You know, the state of
Minnesota and the federal government aren't really getting along all that well. So, there's other challenges that we could see potentially coming through this. Go bridge that gap. Okay, I'm on it. I can work on a little. There you go.
I think if the commission would like more um we can definitely get you I don't know if they were in the packet or not but the maps and stuff that we have we're targeting for next year and some of those projects um we have it on our PO list it is going out for funding we have not received that yet but if there's any questions or anything the
commission would like just reach out I'd love to see that map sure I like pictures yes absolutely like the ones you have I got He handed out pictures at the last. I want to give Jeff one. He's like, "It
probably ain't going to do me any good." I see. All right. Anything else for Trent? Thank you, Trent. Thank you. All right, Charlie. I got maps. You got maps. You got pictures. I got pictures. So,
I'm going to hand them out real quick. I really don't have anything. Hey, it's been a really quiet month. I love it. Yay. I just want to remind you that we're going to be going uh and adding uh Baxer here potentially in May. Is this take one and pass them down?
Nope. There are them are the projects that we applied for the PPL that you're requesting right now for 210. You'll see it broken out into different projects. So, are you going to share these with everybody? Yeah, that was I'm What are you trying to do? What's that? What are you What are you trying to do? He had he
had the lead service things in his folder and just handed them. He's got I just you asked for it and so Trent and I I printed them off. So I had them. So I applied for That's great. That's
right. It's got color. It's got stars. It looks like someone used a that came from Minecraft. Huh? How many you got in your box? I don't. But the this is the same identifying markers I think. Is it
the Minnesota? This is the PO. So it is online. I would assume we have it on our website. I don't we could definitely put it on there. Would you? Because I know I send it out. We put it I I believe we put it on our website, but at least just so people could. So we're applying for funding right now. So if we don't get
that funding, we may have a different looking map. Right. Right. So this is why we haven't advertised it too much yet. So we actually we'll put an asterisk on. But if you want it on the website, we'll be happy to put it up there. I informing the consumers. It's just like that fire hydrant at the at the end of the road that I called about.
Two of my neighbors asked me about that and know knowing the data to say, hey, it's just yearly maintenance. It it quieted it right down. Sure. Yep. So this is the state of Minnesota site where it identifies all service lines um
that need to be replaced. None in Vactor. [Laughter] Just kidding. Charlie, what are we supposed to do with this? No, I just He was questioning it, so I thought I bring them maps.
All right, Charlie. Anything to add though? I I don't even remember that we're going to be providing water to back potentially as they do their work. Um everything is going well. Hopefully. Um we did start line applying. We actually went last week. We've got
little are gone already. Um so yeah, any questions? If there's any water um issues with any residents that you know, whether it be council members or whoever, please direct them to me so I can have them concerned so I can look at
the water quality and that's about it. If you don't have any questions, I got a question. Um with road restrictions, do we haul bioolids to the farm fields during that time? 100%. But we got to watch our loads and we got to stay off of the road restricted limits. So when you're
going on a county roads for farm, you dump it in a field. How how do you avoid that? It depends on the the classification of the road. A lot of our county roads are okay to drive on. Nine ton. Yeah. So a lot of them are nine ton roads. So you can it's you can actually drive on a lot of them. You just got to
watch the signs and the early spring we got to watch that. Exactly. So we look at the restrictions of the roads. Thank you. Okay. Anything else for Charlie? Charlie, thank you. All right. Commissioner member
reports. Um I I appreciate the meeting today. Um it it's I'm getting more comfortable. And one of the things that I thought about in some of the discussions today was um we spent a lot of money after we did
the private public partnership with the city on the bike trail um redoing the rest of our parking lots and sidewalks around Ner Civic Center. And it it didn't dawn on me, but it actually helped me raise my lease rates. When
people came in come into NPC and they see all the new parking lots and they see the flowers and the plantings and and the trail, it it gives them the sense of comfort. And I think that I I'm
hearing part of that with with the city, Nick, and and and other things like right now. And when we come into our city in a lot of the thoroughways, there's some rough roads. I've been driving my little scooter now that I live in town around and I joke with my
wife that I'm a I'm a commissioner, so I'm looking at my assets, right? So, we're cruising around looking at lift stations and and just I'm learning the streets because I haven't really paid a lot of attention. And you know it, the more we can get ahead of that, the look,
the black top, the sidewalks, the feel, the more it will it will raise everything, most importantly our per capita income. You know, I'm studying another city right now that's very similar to to Brainard Baxter combined and I'm dumbfounded at
the per per capita income there and and you know that needs to be addressed and maybe this isn't the right place to address that, but I think you know we're setting utility rates and we're doing things that affect all that. So, it's just something that I that's intrigued
me the last couple months in studying this other city and and I appreciate the the group effort between commission and city council cuz you know, we both serve each other. We we we serve the citizens, we serve their water, we we handle their
waste treatment, we handle their power, you guys handle parks and wrecks, roads. Um I I just I think we need to work better as a team. Um and I think it is getting better rapidly. So, I think that's all I got. Thanks, Mike. Well
said. Okay, Mark. All right. Uh, I just have Well, thanks everybody for their work. Uh, I agree it was a great meeting, Mike. And one thing I was just going to ask just for the joint wastewater management board. uh as we move along here and and
you guys are beginning to do some work for us, would you be able to provide just a summary email, you know, with the schedule that that we're working towards with our project and just that way the city backter and city brainer folks and the commission just have an update on
status. And then the other thing is just if we do need to have a meeting, don't be afraid to reach out to us just to say, you know what, this is an appropriate time for us to get together. here's what it is or at least just some of the emails. So, I would appreciate that and I think it's just such a big
price tag here and looking at both city administrators here and with us as a commissioner just be great to u and you probably provide that already to who you're working with internally here. But I think just getting that out to the joint wastewater management board would be great. Yeah. And and there's going to
be a lot of followup to come. Um yeah, a lot of times I structure with monthly emails and updates on action items summarize what was done um BPU's aware that I've done on other projects already. So um yeah and and we had proposed up to you like four presentations you know for the different
government entities to to make sure everybody's on board. This is a big a big you know feat we got to go back here and and you know to get up to 20 55 that's that's a lot of time that we have to plan for right. So yeah I appreciate that. Thanks in advance for doing that.
When we send out invitations or whatever for that joint meeting, EDA commission council, um, are you inviting Kayla, the attorney? I can. Well, she's the one that's going to be drafting that contract if there is one. So, yep.
I think Langel should be there. This will be at council chambers so that she can attend Zoom or however. Okay. Awesome. Okay. Motion to make a motion.
Second. Second in favor. I pass. Thanks everybody. Who came up with the level holding the camera up? I just noticed that that's some serious lipstick on the pig. What are they doing? There's a level on
one of the legs of the camera. tripod and the