all right let's call to order Brainard City Council it's Monday April 21st 2025 7:30 p.m in council chambers tony please call the role evans yes chzah yes johnson here stunic here jagger yep ericson y O
here adele here please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and
we're off all right next we have approval of the agenda do we have to approve second motion by Chzok second by Bevans any more discussion seeing none go to a vote all in favor i against same sign that motion
passes next we have the consent calendar this is a notice to the public that all matters listed are considered routine by the council and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless good cause is shown prior to the time the council votes on the motion to be adopted by roll
call looking for a motion so move second motion by Stunic second by Bevans any discussion Mr president we would ask uh that you add an additional item to the consent calendar um it would be an approval of a temporary on sale liquor license
submitted by the Briner Eagles for an event at Memorial Park on the 26th of April okay move to add that to the consent and for approval second motion by Chzach second by Jagger is that a motion on top of a
motion but okay the motion uh do we have that in a document somewhere we do but we just received it today is this the same Eagles that submits for the 4th of July on the 3rd of July yes is that same Eagles club
it's for the early bird tournament for parks and wreck okay I'll take care of that we have the application somewhere though okay could add that to the packet later all right please call the RO
bevven yes chzac yes johnson yes stunn yes jagger yes ericson yes od yes all right and we're off next we have the public forum this is time allocated for citizens to bring matters not on the agenda to the council uh time limits may
be imposed looks like we have quite a few people here tonight um so I'm going to ask that you stay under three minutes um but if there's anybody here that wants to address the council at this time for anything that's not on the agenda please come forward now hello Mike Higgins 1801 Mil Avenue um is
it okay if I hand out some pictures sure make sure that green light's on too Mike thank you all right so these are some pictures of some retention ponds um I got a
retention pond inspection a few weeks ago um I pulled on my property at the old pot latch and a woman was walking around without my knowledge or without talking to me i asked her and she said that our city engineer Jesse Dean had
got a complaint about my retention ponds about somebody dumping toxic waste or something in it and very nice lady um we talked for 15 minutes um she asked me what I did for my retention ponds i walked her and talked her through the
maintenance that I did and it just really irked me that Jesse would not have called me and when he got a complaint like that and come out and seen me or come out and talk to me so I I also bought a house recently on um Lake View Lane around the road and this
first picture is a a picture of one of your guys' retention ponds and it's full of pine trees and cattails and popples and trash and crap and the next page is my retention ponds on my Bick property that I maintain i
mow them i pick up the trash once a year and I'm just really frustrated that I always get held accountable to a standard that the city our engineer and our planning planners and our staff can't can't maintain our city property up but they hold me accountable to
holding something up and it's really getting frustrating i get these calls two three times a year i'm not mowing my lawn i'm not doing something somebody comes out I get a fine in the mail and the the people doing this don't even know what our codes are they don't even know what our ordinances are and it's
frustrating i'm trying to develop i'm trying to bring tenants to to Brainer and I'm trying to to invest money in this town i've been here 11 years now and some of the stuff's just exhausting page three is a picture of my pine trees that Mr joerger called me out
for in the last meeting that I was at uh when I was trying to get my cup to be able to sell trailers and stuff there as you can see these pine trees are trimmed up they're maintained i've been doing that for 11 years if you if you don't maintain them they grow into the fence
they you can't mow around them and then I get a ticket for not mowing so yeah I prune my trees i maintain my trees Kevin i take care of them i've done it for 11 years when I got here those trees were on the ground none of it was mowed none of it was taken care of i spent 2 months out there going around that property
cleaning it up because Pot Latch and Wasaw had not maintained it for years and it's really frustrating that you couldn't call me on the phone and ask me about the trees before you we got and that thing went through planning and zoning perfect and then you got to call
me out and tell me I can't prune my trees page number four is on the side road and it's a bunch of trees that aren't trimmed and aren't maintained and look at them they're dying because that's what pine trees in Minnesota do if you don't take care of them on a road
front they die so I don't appreciate you calling me out in the meeting like that and changing my cup cuz now technically I can't prune my trees and that ain't that ain't right so so now I can't prune my trees i can't mow around them and I'm
going to get a ticket for not mowing technically I'm going to keep mowing them and I'm going to prune my trees and I'm going to take care of my property if you want to take me to jail or write me a ticket or do whatever you want to do go ahead i don't care i'm going to do it and the last page is a picture of the
house across the road from the firehouse you guys are are worried about me maintaining my properties and I drive by this every day look at the picture and you want to call me out and gripe about me maintaining my properties
i've been in this community for 11 years when I first got here Mary Cop sat right up here the day I said I bought the paper mill and she stood back and she said "What are you going to want from me what are you going to want from us as a city?" And I said "I really don't know what I want i don't I just bought this
i've been in Brainer for 28 days i'm not sure what I'm going to want to do with it but I'm gonna want support i'm gonna want help along the way and I haven't got that all I get is this nitpicking crap i mean Nick I when we went to the to that meeting
the other day the fact that you haven't even looked at the comprehensive plan that I spent two years on i went to meetings every month for two years listening to this community learning what they want so that I can invest and our city you're my seventh city
administrator in 11 years and that's not your fault but I mean we got to look at what the community wants and I'm I just I I mean I got to I'm up here today for another cup and maybe you guys all vote against the church coming to the Norm Civic Center i
don't care but I'm sick of carrying this around thank you for your time i'm glad that I got to vent thank you Mr higgins anyone else name and address please uh yes sarah Nelson Katzenberger uh 978 Holton Avenue
um I'm just coming to address you guys just following the discussion about uh the bridge on 7th Bridges of Hopes uh warming shelter um come with a little bit of history uh I served on the board for Bridges of Hope uh from 2018 to
2024 and tonight um I'm here not just as a former board member but as a neighbor uh as a mom and as someone who really loves this community deeply um just to go back to where things started in the spring of 2021 I sat in a room filled with community leaders uh from
nonprofits faith organizations law enforcement city and county officials all asking the same heavy question what can we do about homelessness in the Brainer Lakes area it's a question that's been asked for decades without a lot of progress in the doing and we all know the issue is complex we knew it
wasn't unique to Brainer but that day the conversation shifted from what if to what now there were some ideas discussed like hotel vouchers long-term housing uh a permanent shelter but the one thing that stuck was a simple overnight low barrier seasonal shelter a pilot program
to see if it could even work because we weren't sure at that time um when the question was asked who will lead this effort there was a lot of silence in the room uh the question hung in the air for an uncomfortable amount of time as various agency representatives looked at each other wondering who would step up
it was a big undertaking and it came with a ton of risk uh someone suggested a brief recess and a palpable sil sigh of relief was felt in the room uh and then someone at our bridges of hope table quietly said why can't we do it those five words changed everything
that's how bridge of bridge on seventh began born from hope from courage from a refusal to look away over the past three years it's provided warmth on the coldest nights a place to rest for exhausted bodies and dignity for people who've often felt forgotten it has saved
lives and it's restored hope these are not faceless strangers from other communities these are our neighbors our veterans sons and daughters our community they deserve better than dismissal they deserve compassion tonight I'm just asking you to please reconsider your stance partner with us
come back to the table let bridges of Hope continue doing what it does best stand in the gap for people in crisis and remind them that they're not alone i think how we treat the most vulnerable in our community speaks louder than our policies uh it defines who we are thanks
for listening thank you very much uh my name is Eric Hol 21471 Paradise Drive i too served as Sarah for the time of 2018 to 2024 i too was on that in that meeting i too slept outside to try and raise money and
support for this place i didn't want the shelter to be open year round i was very adamant i told Janna as the board chair we should not have this place open multiple years however the city forced our hand last year we've seen people die because
they have no place to live and they're intense and they need care does the police have to respond to the shelter yes if you've been to the shelter with the guests no one really wants to be there if you have a hard time sleeping
at night and going to work the next day you don't want to be in this place these people have no other choice these people are looking for a safe place to sleep so that they are not accosted in the middle of the night they're not arrested for sleeping in a place that they're not
supposed to be we are not asking for help we're asking for permission this thing has been funded by private individuals community members huge support by the county i heard last time we don't want to be this place that
attracts in essence the riff raff so who do we want to be as a community do we want to be a place that only is welcoming to people that have a certain income threshold do we want to check IDs and say "Are you worthy of being in the Brainer Lakes area?" Or do
we want to be people that are known for our hearts our love and our care again this is not some fancy place to live this is simply a place where people can come be seen as the human beings they
are be treated with dignity love and respect that's what we're asking for we're asking for the simple permission to operate a place that these people can sleep and be safe at night because the last thing a person wants is to be
sleeping in a tent where they're not sure where they're going to go to the bathroom and they're not sure if the footsteps outside their tent door are there to hurt them steal from them or send them to jail because they don't have a place to sleep
thank you amanda Quizberg 11680 Shadow Trail Drive as local business owners active members of our church church and parents raising our family in this community we want to express our deep appreciation for the thoughtful and compassionate way the bridge on 7th has been operated we
volunteered at the shelter and seen firsthand the care and dignity extended to each guest our children understand the mission too when the shelter was first fundraising our son Levi age 8 learned about the project and set on on a personal mission he also slept outside
with me raising over $2,000 for the bridge even at a young age he understood that everyone deserves a safe place to stay what we've seen at the shelter is inspiring the staff are dedicated and clearly care about every guest who walks through the door volunteer volunteers
are made to feel part of the team local churches continue to step up with snacks supplies encouragement and financial support we recently learned that 70% of all shelter guests have stayed 14 nights or fewer since the shelter opened that tells us this isn't a place where people
linger it's a short-term response that helps people stabilize and take their next steps that's why it was so disappointing to learn that the council voted to deny summer operations and reduce the permit to one year closing the shelter during the warmer months won't make the need go away it just
pushes people into more difficult and dangerous situations bridges of Hope has shown they're listening and willing to adapt they're tracking data better and adjusting policies and strengthening community partnerships we hope the council will return to this table and work with Bridges of Hope to find a
lasting year-round solution our community and our kids are watching and believe and we believe we can do better thank you thank you hello Brandon Win uh 303 North 9th Street Brain Minnesota um first I want
to thank you guys very much for having something like this open and I would also like to talk about the brides on 7th as well um I do think it should be open um I know a lot of you guys for instance Kelly he worked on my car says I've been to Mickey several times you
guys have a strong sense of community and I know when budget cuts come somebody's always going to be angry and understand but I really think cutting the funding for Brisbane 7th is um is a bad idea these are our communities these aren't people across the pond these
aren't people in different city these are people right here and we need to take care of them at their weakest i know I went before the meeting and I talked to a couple homeless people at the Brison 7th and a staff member they
said that the people in Baxter the um open arms they come they help them get insurance they have a spot where they can be i think it is necessary for it to be year round for it to stay open you know indefinitely and I really wish you guys would reconsider this um it's close
to the soup kitchen it's close to the YMCA they provide clothes they provide food they can get they can get clean clothes they can take a shower at the YMCA so they can get a job interview and as far as the money aspect is concerned I really do think if we can really focus
on helping getting these people back on our feet on their feet we can get them working jobs we can get them paying taxes and then they'll be paying money back into the system and I really think it's a good thing thank you very much appreciate your time thank you
anybody else here okay sarah Marshall 133 Caroline i'm here to raise my voice of support for the bridge and to address some of the concerns and questions regarding questions raised in the operation as both a citizen here a board member of Bridges of Hope and as a
pastor of two churches here in our local community i'd like to some clearance on why exactly this decision was made the bridges exists because our community needs a safe and supportive place for people who are experiencing homelessness it's not just the building it's a
commitment to compassion to dignity and even to public responsibility without it many of the most vulnerable in our area would be without shelter during those evening hours that said I understand and share the community's interest in both transparency and accountability a fair question was raised what standard will
the bridge be held to when its permitting decision it seems clearly reasonable that as citizens and partners we know the criteria that was used to evaluate this permit both now and in the future clear expectations allow for trust and collaboration between the city and between bridges and our greater
community i urge you to make those standards both public and measurable another point I'd like to address is the misconception that's been circulating some idea that we've been bringing folks in from St cloud it's not facts the fact is that only four individuals from St cloud have ever stayed at the bridge the
bridge serves as a local solution to a local need wouldn't it be amazing if every town and city in Minnesota had its own shelter absolutely unfortunately we can't control what other towns do that's not how it works what we can do now is work towards having a year-round shelter
here in our place there's the second question of the police calls one of the biggest concerns I've heard time and time again is the number of police calls that have happened to the bridge according to the most recent Star Tribune article Brainer police respond to 18,000 calls in a year in the context
of 119 calls over the shelter seems like a small fraction at only four or five a month at most when we dig into those 119 calls 36 were for EMS emergencies that would have happened no matter where these people were located six were
related to suicide attempts or ideiation serious situations that require support not stigmatation and these people hopefully would have gotten help wherever they were at 15 were for referrals to the shelter after 11 p.m in other words people were being helped
even without adjusting to the nature of those calls the number significantly lower than the average number of calls made to three other public areas in Braden where unhoused individuals gathered during the summer from the numbers that we pulled those average about 13 calls per month over the last
two summers more than triple the numbers of calls that are connected to the bridge we're truly talking about public safety and the impact on service the data shows the bridge on 7th is doing exactly what it should be doing reducing strains on our systems not increasing it
and providing people with a safe place to rest at night a place to connect to resources and a place to sleep without fear in closing I urge you council to continue to support the bridge to come back to the table engage in the conversation and let us know what changes can be made to our proposal and
how we can actually work together and make this happen the shelter is a vital resource and it's working thank you for your time thank you good evening everyone i'm Shannon Mills 8449 Travis Trail in Brainer um tonight
I come before you not re representing any specific organization but the titles I will use today are I'm a Christ follower i'm a concerned citizen someone that has felt called to be a voice for the homeless population and someone
that's 100% pro-life as someone that's pro-life I'm concerned about the lack of shelter and what happened a couple weeks ago and um the last five plus years of votes that have been made here to put um
barriers in the ways that of people that need shelter so a few reasons I come before you today are I would encourage each of you to go back and listen to the last council meeting and council men councilman Jagger's um talk about the
shelter last time um I wanted to clap because I felt like he did a very good job of capturing the complexity of this issue but also why the yearround shelter is important um I quote him by saying
this stuck out to me um I quote him by saying,"I refuse to exclusively measure the virtues of the shortcomings of a human being simply by their station in life even if it's their own doing." The second reason I come before
you is last meeting it was brought up a couple times um about the concern for the yearround shelter and the strain it might put on our current resources in our area and exhausting the resources that we have and someone um in my job I
work with a home homeless population every day and I can tell you at my job having the shelter closed puts a strain on my organization and so I'm very thankful when the shelter is open um because it it helps alleviate some of
that strain on our organization um I can tell you the last 3 years i could tell you um by behaviors of when the shelter closes because tensions rise and um rightfully so people are concerned about where they're sleeping they're not
sleeping well and I know last year when the shelter closed I asked a police officer and I regretfully did not get his name but I asked him "Now is this just at my organization or is this everywhere around town that you're seeing these calls?" um with the shelter
closed and he had said it's it's everywhere around town and not just our organization because tensions are high and um I'm very thankful for the shelter being open because we have resources to to send people to and um so it would be
very helpful if it was open year round um another reason I'm here is I heard last meeting it brought up that it was called a warming shelter and that's how it was presented and I was part of the the group five four or five years ago with all the organizations that came
together the county churches the previous police chief um lots of different organizations coming together to get this warming shelter open and so what changed um it changed that the ordinance happened in August and now there could be a fine or jail time for
those um that are caught sleeping outside and so it's very essential that it's open year round now um I'll quote mayor the mayor from last meeting he said "As council members we are representatives of citizens of Brainard
here to make decisions the best um representatives of the citizens of Brainard's here to make decisions best for the city of Brainard and we live in a very unique community that has people that have two houses there's people that have one houses and there's unfortunately people that have zero
houses and so as council members I ask you to take into consideration those that have zero houses." Um and also Kevin Joerger also said "We want to support people that support people." And I get a front row seat every day of
seeing the amazing people in this community that support people and love people well and I ask you as compliment council members to allow the bridge on 7th to support people um and o other
organizations in our community that are helping this population because they are doing an amazing job so thank you for your time thank you my name is Christy Ramler 27094 Middle Cullen Road good evening council
members i am a local business owner a wife and a mother of two that attend Brainer Public Schools we bleed warrior blue in our house i also serve on the board of directors of Bridges of Hope i'm here to ask you to come back to the
table reopen the discussion about the bridge on 7th we have data that we want to share with you because we believe there has been misinformation communicated we want an opportunity to display the fallout from your decisions made on April 7th and what that means
for our future as an organization and the future of those we serve i also believe that our community has communicated a very strong message of support since your decision and this represents an opportunity for you to listen and to and for Brainer to be a
leader in our county in our region and in our state as I mentioned we have facts to share and you've heard some of them tonight and you're going to hear more i'm not going to go into length but I do have one stat that I'd like to share out of the 170 individuals who have stayed at the shelter this year 50
have already transitioned into stable housing that's nearly one in three proof that the shelter is a launchpad for change and that's not even the number one goal of our shelter we simply want to start providing a safe start by providing a safe night's sleep but this
stat shows that when we all work together the organizations like Shannon's you guys Bridges of Hope that we can offer when it starts with one barrier-free entry point that can connect people to support we can change the community for the better i
understand the challenges and all the things you have to consider i truly do but turning away from the issue will not solve this please let's work together to provide compassion and a long-term impact brainer is better than this let's
show that thank you thank you is there anyone else that wants to address the council good evening council members a lot of good uh data has been raised tonight so I will try not to um repeat i got to stop you oh I'm so sorry janna Shogran
i'm representing Bridges of Hope at 2011 South 6th Street so you have heard a few things tonight um that I think are do bear repeating that when we hear about people coming from outside the city the data just does not point to that might there be people who have come to Brainer
from outside the city absolutely but I can tell you they're not coming for the shelter as you heard tonight four people from St cloud have ever stayed at our shelter so this notion that multiple people lots of people from St cloud are coming they're not coming to stay at the bridge i'm not sure what else is going
on but that's just not what's happening um in terms of bringing people in from outside of the community um Brainard's public safety goal specifically states "Brainer will protect and provide for the safety of all residents and visitors making efficient use of existing
facilities like ours to ensure access to emergency services for all residents and visitors it's right in your guys's public safety goal sometimes visitors to our area are tourists and sometimes they're unhoused and that's just the
reality when I look around at what happens in this community there are a number of large-scale events hosted in the area every year that attract visitors right and those events can in result in interactions with the police department and visits to the emergency rooms are we holding those events to the
same standards that we're holding our shelter to you've heard tonight that um people don't stay with us for long this notion that we're maybe making it easy to be homeless or um that people just come and stay at the bridge and they're never
leaving it's just not the case 70% of people have stayed with us for 2 weeks or less 3.25 years we've been open you guys 70% of people stay with us for 2 weeks or less they are transitioning as Christie said 50 people this season alone that have been helped to find
housing if they didn't have the bridge as a landing point as a point of entry how would those folks have found housing i I I'm not sure they would have i would just ask you to also consider that this was not some sneaky plan on behalf of Bridges of Hope you
know the the notion again that we opened as a warming shelter and now we're coming around and trying to stay open all year that's just not what's going on here this is specifically in response to ordinance 1571 u making it legal illegal to camp on public land so when our guests leave the shelter on May 1st next
week where are they supposed to go there's nowhere legal for them to be so when we talk about the shelter staying open all year round we want to bring it back to the facts most of the people we serve are from here most of them stay just a short time and many of them leave
in a better place than they found us and that's a good thing i also want to address the fact of taking our permit from three years to one year when we had our three-year permit the police chief at any time had the ability to bring our permit back
before you if there is any trouble we are a business just like anybody else so we're a nonprofit sure but we have operations that we still have to account for we have to negotiate a lease we have staff to pay we have staff to train um and we have funds to raise i don't know
any business that would choose to operate yeartoyear or that would be able to operate that way it really just cuts off our ability to plan for the long term and that's not the best way to run our shelter so I just ask you to please there is a path forward you do have the ability to bring this issue back before
you as a body and make a different decision work with us let us know what you need from us but really we need the bridge open year round and we need a three-year permit at a time thank you thank you hello uh Matt Carlard uh representing
Bridges of Hope 2011 South 6th Street thank you for having me um I'll be quick uh last fall we've been talking about this you passed uh city city ordinance 1571 effectively criminalizing camping on city property this ordinance states
that the city cannot prosecute for violations unless resources including shelter have been offered in your April 7th council meeting you rejected the request for a conditional use permit to trial operation during summer months of
2025 since the bridge on 7th is the only overnight shelter in town these two actions are conflicting the camping ban will be uninforcable because there's no services to refer people to this unresolved conflict and a lack of safe shelter uh creates unnecessary
suffering for people who find themselves without a home and it will create unnecessary burden as you've heard on law enforcement and other city agencies this has a cost to the city providing shelter and services as called for by the camping ban also has a cost but
Bridges of Hope as you know is not funded by the city we are not asking for money we are only asking for permission to operate as we have been helping people and in do doing so providing a valuable service to the city so I'm just going to reiterate we're asking you to
come back to the table talk to us work together we'd love nothing more than to just continue providing these essential services as we have been um so I hope you'll consider that thank you very much thank you Mr chz
oh he's asking for your home address sure 16236 Birwood Lane thank you i'm Marie Francis i live at 1603 South 6th Street and I just want to tell you a story back in the 1980s my brother
suffered from mental health issues he was a veteran and the cause of his mental health issues was related to his service for this country in the 80s there was no place no place for a person who lost
homes or who lost their ability to function as a human person except the state hospital now the state hospital has gone numerous occasions the police picked up my brother after he had been beaten and
stripped and robbed by kids or whomever in the Brainard area and he was then taken to the state hospital they would call me and I would look and try to find him another place to live while he had his
demons to fight we struggled eventually my brother disappeared and we searched and we had the Bayer police look for him
eventually he was found in Ohio now a man who has not the ability to any longer function on that
plane to get from Brainard to Ohio is suspicious to me however that's not why I'm here i'm here to support these bridges of hope they live down they are just down the street from me i live not
two blocks away and there has never been any issue that has disturbed me in any way whatsoever but that place provides an emergency stop place for the
police if they have to find somebody if they have to pick somebody up and get them to someplace where they can get help they have it thank you thank you is there anyone else here that would
like to come up and speak is there anyone else online that would like to speak if so please press star three anything Sean eric okay if there's no one else here that's
wanting to come up and speak and there's no one online I'll ask one more time we will close the public hearing it is 8:07 thank you all for coming and supporting and speaking i know it's not easy for everybody to do that um and we
do we do take it to heart and we do think about these things we talk with our staff um it's not on the agenda tonight obviously we know that um that's why we can speak about it at public forum but going forward we're keeping an eye on things and we'll stay in contact
with all of you um we're here all the time and we don't have to always agree on everything there's a lot of things we agree on probably way more things we agree on than what what we don't um but we do things as we go based on the information that we have and we're
moving forward right now as is those things can change from time to time so again thank you guys for for coming in and speaking next we have number seven this is council committee reports first oh yeah I'll give you if you guys most of
you are planning on leaving go ahead i'll give you a couple minutes all right 7a we have safety and public works committee chairman Tad Ericson all right thank you Mr president we have nine items on our agenda the first of which is direction on active code
enforcement uh within that there's three properties and motion coming out of committee is to recommend pursuing legal action with the city attorney and issuing a $300 citation every month uh that the property of 70507 1st Avenue
Northeast remains occupied and unlicensed furthermore 11:06 Quinn Street uh obtaining an administrative search warrant and towing the vehicles and uh lastly 11113 Street
Southeast uh recommending a $300 citation every month until the accessory structure is removed and I so move second motion by Ericson second by Chzok any more discussion seeing none go to a vote all in favor i
motion passes chairman Ericson all right thank you our second item is to adopt a resolution approving the Lakes Area Drug Investigative Division Division Joint Powers Agreement and I so move second motion by Ericson second by Chzach any
more discussion i'll just add that um so the city of Brainard Baxter Crowing County are all current members of the Lakes Area Drug Investigative Division known as LED uh they have a joint powers agreement and related board has approved adding Malax's tribal police uh
department uh investigation task force and if uh Mr president um well I'll just I'll just leave it at that uh since we have a motion on the table okay any more discussion mr johnson yeah just one question is this the same as in
years past where there is an administrative component to this grant that we're reimbursed for administrative time spent on it at the city is the brunt of the administrative load would fall upon the the sheriff's office as the fiscal agent and
uh and they do not receive any compensation for that additional load that they take on um in comparison to the other agencies all right thanks Chief i will say it's been an active division in the last year or two so pretty
successful any more discussion see none let's call the role peven yes chzach yes johnson yes stunick yes jagger yep erikson yes od yes that resolution passes chairman Ericson all right thank you our third item is um
adoption resolution of grant agreement and award bids for implement um project 2407 l safe routes to school uh two portions to this motion the first of which is to recommend award of the improvement 2407 contract to Dshantel
excavating in the amount of $432,624.79 and I so move second motion by Ericson second by Chzach more discussion so we had uh up upwards of $650,000 for this grant award um we are taking the low bid all of the bids came
in under that $650,000 mark um and this is for um again safe road to school at uh Lel that we've discussed before a variety of um pedestrian enhancements including uh crossing enhanced crossings bumpouts refuge medians and then the
rapid flashing beacons thank you more discussion seeing none Tony can you please call the role u so there's two parts of this that's the first part the second part is the uh the resolution so the next part
will be adopting the resolution of the grant well we could have still called the roll we could have still can catch up from when you missed all right yeah this is just the the um the improvement 2407 awarding the contract to Dantel all right
no more discussion seeing none let's go to a vote all in favor against same sign that motion passes and then Mr chair the second part adoption of the motion was to adopt the attached resolution approving the terms of the safe rust to school grant agreement second motion by
Ericson second by Chzach and this would be the resolution any more discussion tony beans yes chzach yes johnson yes stunnk yes jagger yes ericson yes od that resolution
passes chairman Ericson all right our item number four motion coming out of committee is to recommend adopting the attached resolution in which enters into the cooperative construction agreement with mindot for the trunk highway 371B Willow Street roundabout project and I
so move second motion by Ericson second by Chazach more discussion on that um yeah yeah so this is the project we've been talking about for quite a while again roundabout at 371B in Willow and um this is the uh cooperative construction
agreement with uh with Mindot thank you any more discussion seeing none go ahead tony Bevvens yes chzac yes johnson yes stunick yes jagger yes ericson yes od yes that resolution passes chairman Ericson all right thank
you uh our fifth item approve event parking lot closure farmers market application with the downtown business um motion coming out of committee is to approve the farmers market request to conduct a farmers market on
Friday from 9:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m may 16th to October 10th 2025 and I so move second motion by Ericson second by Chzach more discussion on that um yeah application for a farmers market they initially wanted to be on Front Street
there was some concerns from some of the local business owners about just access and closures and staff worked with them to uh provide this option um neighboring law firm does use that parking lot uh staff worked out an agreement with them they they agreed to allow the uh kind of
give up their spaces for this time so um be a good be a good option to have a farmers market during those months so Okay thank you um Johnson the clarification on the motion the staff recommendation was contingent upon the law firm agreeing
has the law firm agreed thank you they did and we asked about that and that's why we left the contingency off because they did agree in writing and um Excellent thank you perfect all right any more discussion seeing none let's go to a vote all in
favor i against same side motion passes chairman Ericson right thank you item number six um motion coming out of committee is to award improvement 251 2025 chip seal project to Asphalt Surface Technologies Corporation in the
total bid amount of 162,337.90 and I so move second motion by Ericson second by Chzach any more discussion on that chairman Ericson uh just that we received three bids this is the low bid and uh we previously approved the
streets um that this was bid for um I should say too we had to ensure that u we came in under budget uh we directed staff to have uh Greenwood Street listed as an as an ad alternate um given where the bid came in they were able to
include that um so that all of the roads including Greenwood are included in this and it is under bid or under estimate thank you more discussion seeing none let's go to a vote all in favor i against same sign
motion passes chairman Ericson uh thank you Mr president seventh item this is consider transit consultant services the motion coming out of committee is to direct staff to continue uh um seeking consultant services
through Mandot and recommend make a recommendation in June to city council uh with further options regarding transit operations in 2026 and I so move second motion by Ericson second by Chzach uh but some discussion uh just uh the
city of Brainard provides administrative support for the transit services program through Mindot we hire a third party um service to provide the operations staff has documented several um areas where the third party vendor has fallen
short um to the point where they've been um levying fines um uh which is in accordance with the mindot contract um ranging from $4,000 to $12,000 per month um they documented several maintenance issues um several uh customer service
issues and as part of that because of that MDOT offers um a consultant u review essentially and that's what this this motion is is it's rec directing staff to move forward with the option that MDOT provides for this consultant
review thank you Chairman Eritton president O mr chza yeah I want to I did in committee i want to thank uh Jesse Dean for putting together a uh uh performance uh uh qual um he he has
performance measures in this contract so we are able to do what we're doing with uh not not getting charged for services that aren't rendered and uh that's very important especially when you expect something and you're not getting it you don't want to have to pay for it so uh
compared to the former three-year contract this one had let's say more teeth in it so I appreciate what he did thank you Mr chzac more discussion seeing none let's go to a vote all in favor against same sign motion passes
chairman Ericson all right item number eight this is uh approval of placement of large planters near Holiday Station by near the high school motion coming out of committee is to approve staff placing one planter uh near the holiday station uh to prevent cars from parking
on the sidewalk i'll just add that that's Norwood Street between Fifth Street South and Sixth Street South and I so move second motion by Erikson second by Chzach more discussion on that yes i think a lot of people are familiar with this area uh it's a sidewalk right
next to Holiday a lot of people have just been pulling uh up onto that sidewalk to park quickly run in very convenient however it is a a safety risk because that is a public sidewalk and u as the motion motion suggests we're going to try to block that off with very
aesthetic uh planters thank you um could I add one more thing i'll just say um ask staff to reach out to Holiday and just give them a heads up that this would be on the agenda uh just given that it's such a kind of a
well-known convenient spot so thank you Johnson okay I like this i I brought this issue up a while back thank you staff for for bringing back a solution i am con a little worried about just one planter because there's curb cuts on
either side of that area so they people could still maybe come in and then try backing out which is causing more conflicts and whatever so if the one isn't the perfect solution could we find a second planter and potentially hit it on both sides in the future ted Mr
president yeah go ahead yeah I think that's an excellent point we did talk about that a bit in committee um not only that but um staff let us know that these planters come down in the winter and so therefore it would be unblocked during the winter well we felt
comfortable moving forward with this um with the uh you know kind of idea that we would kind of kind of soften the community up to the idea and then come back with a more permanent solution a more year- round solution perfect thank you thank you any more discussion
none let's go to a vote all in favor i against same sign motion passes chairman Ericson all right thank you this is our last item discussion and review of new city ordinance of street performers buskers um recommendation coming out of
committee motion coming out of committee is to modify the draft ordinance that staff has prepared with council comments and submit at the next council meeting and I so move second motion by Ericson second by Chzach so with this um we did
have um an application for street performers and realized that we were a little bit deficient in the area of an ordinance that addressed that to either approve and or deny that and so we directed staff um to begin drafting uh
an ordinance that would direct that and um you know again the motion coming out of committee is to provide them uh comments on their draft and bring that back u for approval at the next meeting thank you Mr mayor yeah can we strike
the word buskers find another term for that buskers i learned something it's a new word all right what do we even know well it's a it's a street performer for money oh okay all right look it up all right well professional very tasteful busker yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah we only
want top hat buskers busking all right any more any more discussion on that seeing none let's go to a vote all in favor against same sign motion passes chairman Ericson end of report thank you thank you Chairman
Ericson next moving on to 7B this is Personnel and Finance Committee Chairman Gabe Johnson thank you Mr president for those of you following along at home our committee report starts at page 230 of 358 for our consideration in this two-eek
period we have six items the first of which is to approve the library repairs project and the motion out of committee was to move forward awarding the bid including the option of an additional $6,735 to balance the air systems in the
project totaling a $344,94024 in project cost and I so move second motion by Johnson second by Stunic johnson so this one we've had in front of us a couple times we did have 426,000 in the budget we thought it was going to be 338 now it might be 344 they're
having some humidity issues with a HVAC unit that was installed just last year so in this project we can balance it with the $6,000 but perhaps it's warranty work and we won't have to spend the $6,000 and Kelly will be on the
library board making sure they pursue all avenues of getting the warranty work completed before we spend the money excellent thank you more discussion seeing none go to a vote all in favor i against same sign motion passes chairman
Johnson thank you Mr president next up is ending future rural service district properties and the motion is to direct staff to bring the attached ordinance back to the next city council meeting as a first reading and I so move
second motion by Johnson second by Bevans johnson so we we've talked about this at a number of council meetings they have a draft ordinance ready they have reviewed some properties who probably don't belong in the rural service district that we may be removing before adopting this ordinance but this
would this would codify everybody who is legitimately in the rural service district as of today would be able to continue to stay there we will not be adding anybody to that going forward but this ordinance will be coming back in two weeks james thank you that's correct thank you
president OD Mr chz um Gabe can you tell me again when a person then would um what changes for them where they're no longer eligible to be in the rural service if they're there now once water and sewer is to the curb thank you appreciate
it more discussion let's go to a vote all in favor against same sign motion passes chairman Johnson thank you next up is a meter service worker position and the motion is to approve the updated meter service worker job description and
authorize staff to complete an internal job posting process to fill the position and ISO move second motion by Johnson second by Stunnick Johnson yeah you may remember uh this fall this last fall our meter service worker retired we were the public utility commission at the time
said asked us to hold off on backfilling maybe there'd need to be some changes to the position have reached the point where we're entering construction season so they'd really really need to meet a service worker so they want to hire the position now thank you anyone else see no more discussion all in favor
i again same sign motion passes chairman Johnson thank you Mr president next up is a resignation and the motion is to accept the resignation of police officer Golton Guten effective April 10th 2025 and further to authorize staff to begin the
hiring process to backfill the position and I so move second motion by Johnson second by Bevans Johnson so our fully staffed police department is no more but just temporarily we're down from 27 to 26 but the chief's on it so we'll have a 27th in there sooner than later thank
you more discussion seeing none let's go to a vote all in favor against same sign motion passes chairman Johnson thank you next up is a hiring of a CSO and the motion is to ratify the hiring of Jackson Flet as a community service
officer effective April 22nd 2025 at $21.31 per hour and I so move second motion by Johnson second by Stunic chairman Johnson this is in the budget as a reminder to everybody that for the cso positions we don't budget a number
of cso officers we budget a dollar amount that we spend on these part-time employees throughout the year so the chief shuffles them around to stay within budget regardless of how many we have or don't have thank you seeing no more discussion all those
in favor against same sign motion passes chairman Johnson thank you next up is a reclassification and the motion is to reclassify intern Brandon Burgau to a community service officer effective April 23rd 2025 and I so move second motion by
Johnson second by Bevans no discussion any more discussion questions seeing none let's go to a vote all in favor i against same sign that motion passes chairman Johnson end of report thank you moving on to number
eight this is unfinished business 8a we have a call for applicants first we will have the honorable mayor Bedau the honorable for sure i apologize i told you all at home last time that we would have some nominations this time around uh still waiting on a couple applications to get their way into us so
we should have those at our next meeting the following boards and commissions have spots available for you to come join us charter Commission two terms expiring 2025 two terms expiring 2026 housing Redevelopment Authority one term expiring 2027 library Board one term
expiring 2027 we also have the Public Utilities Commission one term expiring 2028 transportation Advisory Committee two terms expiring 2025 and one term expiring 2026 all right thank you and as council president I just have two terms to fill
for the water tower committee no expirations on those terms so if you want to be a part of the water power committee anybody in here fill out an application next we have 8B this is adopt this is adopting a resolution denying the cup for my neighbor to love
uh this is community development director James Kravik thank you Mr president so at the April 7th 2025 city council meeting a motion was approved denying the conditional use permit request staff have attached a resolution summarizing the city council's findings
this was reviewed by the city attorney so staff is recommending adopting the attached resolution denying the conditional use permit request thank you Mr kravik so we're looking for a motion to adopt the the attached resolution denying the conditional use permit
request so move Johnson motion by Johnson second by Stunic uh discussion by Ericson yeah I voted against this denial u then and I'm going to do so again as well thank
you any more discussion tony please call the role beans no chzach yes johnson yes stunn yes jagger yes ericson no od yes that resolution
passes moving on to 8C we have a first reading of proposed ordinance 1582 estab establishing the process for cannabis retail registration um this one looks like for this this one's for Connie it is thank you Connie
go ahead so as discussed at the last council meeting the Office of Cannabis Management OCM is leaving it up to municipalities to create a process for selecting applicants if there's more than the retail businesses that have been established by the municipalities
omc um strongly suggested that municipalities work with their city attorney to come up with a process there are 13 different types of cannabis licenses that have been established under state statute only six of the 13 license types may require municipal
registration and of those six only three of those license could count towards the city's limit of two for low for example for low potency hemp edible retailers like what we see in the liquor stores or in gas stations have to be registered with the city but they do
not count towards the maximum of two that's been set by the city the process for issuing registrations are a lottery first come first- serve basis rolling merit-based or anything other that we can come up with staff has been working with our city attorney the process that
is selected should be codified before approvals are issued which puts the city in a time crunch because OCM issued the rules on April 14th and said that they will be starting to notify applicants on the 15th to start working with local governments and for the zoning process
it is anticipated that some retail locations could be open in May also the OCM is notifying only certain types of licenses at a time for example micro businesses will be the first type of license to be issued by the state if the applicants are micro businesses with a
retail endorsement all of the city's registrations could be used before any of the mezzo businesses or retail endorsements or or a cannabis retailer can even apply to remedy this council could consider eliminating the cap due to the time constraint and potential
litigation uh legal challenges in getting the information for the merit-based approach staff is recommending the first come first- serve base system included in the packet was a proposed ordinance if the council were to keep the two retailer cap if passed the city would use a first come first-
serve basis so the recommended action the council has two options for the city option one is looking at the time constraint which this option would be to conduct the first reading of proposed ordinance 1582 an ordinance amending section 1110 of the Brandon city code
pertaining to cannabis hemp and retail retreat related businesses and to dispense with the actual reading with this option the proposed reading does not require a public hearing so the city could motion to set a public hearing at the May 19th meeting or to conduct the second reading if there's no public
hearing the second reading of potential adoption could be done at the May 5th meeting another option to consider is removing the two retailer cap and provide direction to staff to amend ordinance 1568 and another option is to discuss a different methodology for determine the process for cannabis
registration thank you Connie so the office of cannabis cannabis management changes the rules again and here we are scrambling to keep up with all their changing rules um basically we have to figure out if we
want to keep it at a keep it at two or just get rid of the cap um I don't think getting rid of the cap is a good idea i'd love to see a merit-based approach but I know it's it's extra work and it's going to be a new ordinance
um but I'd love to see or hear what the the council thinks regarding this if we do take first come first serve my general feeling is whoever is more organized is probably going to come through first and the first two that we
see are probably going to be legitimate businesses but we don't know for sure so if we want to have any any say over um you know merit-based issues related to this then we would have to go with the new ordinance so Mr johnson did you have
some comments yeah I just looking at this said it we could do a lottery we could do first come first serve and those are two we talked about at the last meeting last time this came up and I think you had some questions from Mike and from myself for sure asking can we
do a merit-based system can we do something where the council reviews applications and make sure these are viable businesses we want in our community before we issue the registration it looks like that is an
option what does that look like we're going to be sued we're great in in the court of law sometimes that's the third sometimes but uh what would a merit-based system
look like a legal merit-based system the only city that we knew that had a merit-based city was the city of Anoka and we included their requirements in the packet um I think it would be very timeconuming and I don't know if staff has the ability to gather all that
information in a timely fashion to determine if it is or not i think what really why staff is recommending the first come first serve is because we need to have something in our ordinances before we have to start issu issuing these registrations and that could be in the next couple weeks so I think that's
really why we looked at it and the merit-based pay system I think does open the city up to potential issues so the state trips over its own feet for two years and we have five minutes to make a decision yep it's absolutely ridiculous i am with the council
president i think it would be premature to lift the cap from two because we don't know how these type of businesses are going to impact communities our community or any community across the state so I'd like to see that before talking about expanding it but I would like to also give opportunity for local
business people to operate businesses as opposed to just outsiders coming in and swooping swooping in taking the permits so that's that's where I'm at i don't know if that helps at all but thank you thank you Mr johnson mr chzi thank you uh a question about the registration if
I missed it I apologize um I it's a permit you based on what you're going to be uh uh uh selling it's a different price i read all that and it's good for one year correct whatever you decide to operate i think the initial one is for
the initial registration plus it's it's good for 18 months the very first one is and then it's a year after that is my understanding so if if somebody came in got the permit registration um it appears they have to have a location already established in the way I read
that application is that correct is that a requirement that they have an actual location i do not know that for sure okay it it it says it gives it asks you to give the address you'll be operating on in the registration so I'm assuming that would be a requirement but I don't
know that that's why I'm asking and then also if um if somebody isn't able to uh make a go at this you would assume they wouldn't then pay for another permit but if they do and they're not doing the business I mean you could just sit there
and fail and keep going if they just paid that permit and I don't know anybody that would do that but once somebody says "Okay I'm done trying this it doesn't work for me." That registration then becomes open for somebody else is that how we would do that 10 grand yes but there's only two
allowed that seemed like the way we'd do it yes we would okay internally we'd keep a rolling or a list of who all applied only the top two would or only the first two would get the registration probably for the first go around would be for 18 months
okay all right that's my some of my questions i um I I kind of agree with u I I I think a merit base based on what I read from is an NOA that's a lot a lot of u a lot of work and um I I don't know how any of us are really qualified to
um I don't know to determine if they're going to be qualified or you know merit what what determines their merit worth you know so and then we're doing this to say uh we don't think you can or we think you'd be great at this and then what they they either succeed or they fail and it just seems like a lot of
time to do merit-based uh for what's in it for the city of Brainard thank you Mr chzac mr beavenons Mr chair I just want to clarify i do not believe we have set the fee for this permit have we connie we did initially but now the state is going back that it's 50% of
their license fee so that's why you see on the registration form up to up to up to so we don't have set prices for these registrations because we don't know yet what the state's fees are going to be so we couldn't we couldn't set a fee
outside of the state of Minnesota's parameters correct like to go through merit-based no I was just thinking 10 grand or 150 grand i like that and nobody will come well it would be another way to call the herd so to speak
and since Mr johnson had brought up that we could if we were going to be a l eee partner make up to a million dollars i think $150 grand is a bargain true i I'm just saying there's you know at this point since the state hasn't given us
any direction yet they are going to mandate that we accept applications i might consider taking advantage of opportunity so to speak thank you thank you Mr
beavens um Attorney Langel what do you think about that how much freedom do we have in a registration fee that you can tell so far in this week's rules my understanding I don't have all that in front of me but my understanding is that
it's going to be half what the state requires they're going to be coming out with that pretty soon that's what that's going to be i think any attempt to put $150,000 number on that Santa's going to deliver it yeah right i don't think that's going to fly to be honest okay so we we'd have to wait until we see what
that number is and then correct up to half or less so you can go up to half can we just say to as an as a council I think we would probably agree that the maximum that the state allows is is what we want to do yes
that's an easy way of doing it yes okay next we just have to decide between the merit-based or first come mr chair I when you're ready I'll I'll take a stab at a motion just to get off dead center and my motion would be to accept staff's
recommendation and conduct the first reading of proposed ordinance 1582 this evening an ordinance amending section 1110 of the Briner City Code pertaining to cannabis hemp and related businesses dispensed with the actual reading and
this would be a first come first served a and with setting the fee at the state maximum second motion by Bev and second by Chzach any more discussion seeing none I'm good with
it all right uh let's just go to a vote all in favor i against same sign oh got to read it that we got to read it we got to read it careful now he's new do we know well it just read okay I'll change
my motion a motion you're going to You're going to vote on it you're going to vote yes this time you won't have to read it all right that motion passes unanimously kind of god you're going to put me into cardiac arrest all right is Connie said Connie
so then the next option would be do you want to hold a public hearing if so you would set the public hearing for the May 19th meeting otherwise we could have the second reading of potential adoption at the May 5th meeting if you you don't hear we don't have to hold a public
hearing you do not have to hold a public hearing on this ordinance mr chair I move that we forgo the public hearing and hold the second reading at the first meeting in May second again motion by Beavenon second by Chzach i agree um we're just trying to figure it out
with as little power as we have over the cannabis industry uh Mr johnson you have I'm going to vote no i love public hearings i love hearing from the public it's the timing that that the timing would give us an issue but I do think the public ought to be heard on
marijuana sales in the community so I I'll vote no i agree with you but the timing does put us into a a bit of an issue where we don't know what the penalty is on us when the state decides they were going to start punishing us i don't think they'll Mr chair this is not about We've
already had that public hearing on whether we're going to sell marijuana or not we're going to sell we're going to allow two people to sell this is just the application process that is true so I I think we should just rip the bandage off make Stunic the weeds are and move
forward he He's already taken care of snow yeah that's right he could have a little gnome that when it turns green it's high oh boy moving on any more discussion snow gnome no seeing none let's go to a vote all in
favor against same sign all right that motion passes six to one you're the one we got to read it next we're going on to number nine that's new business 9A we have a public hearing and a resolution ordering the improvement and order
preparation of plans for improvement 2314 Hawkins Ronald Joseph resurfacing project uh Mike Abigor is this you i guess Mr president sorry I had to regroup after that last uh comment
there and I am on the wrong agenda helped his mom business sorry yes thank you Mr president more engineering has sent notice to the published to for the published public hearing for improvements 2314 Hopkins uh
Ronald Joseph resurfacing project pursuant the notice of hearing and to continue with the assessment proceedings the council must hold a public hearing to consider the improvements for and hear testimony for or against the set improvements following the public
hearing if council adopts the attach attached resolution and the that orders the improvements and prepares plans staff would present final plans at the upcoming council meetings requesting final approval and authorization to
advertise for bids the streets for resurfacing are Hawkins Drive Joseph Street uh Ronald Street and the alley between Sixth and Seventh Streets between Paul and Joseph Street more engineering is here to answer any
questions very specifically regarding uh this um assessment and staff is recommending that we hold a public uh for this hearing public improvements and hear testimony for or against the set improvements and also for adopting the
attached resolution in order to for orders of the improvement and preparation of the plans with that we can take any questions thank you Mr habagorst uh Mr beaven you have a question i do thank you for Mr habigorst thank you i I just want to know have we decided a methodology on the alley sewer
that's 100 ft deep are we going to tunnel or are we going to dig to China regarding the sewer yeah whatever the whatever held this up last year because it was so deep we're going to line that oh we're Okay so we're not digging it up this time
we're just going to line it yes okay and that can be done without a huge trench correct okay perfect but that when's that happening that is Thank you go ahead when is that liner plan to happen yes i'm going to refer to
Jesse he's working on the 10-year construction plan that is something we're going to discuss with the council of how we want to start prioritizing uh lining and how that fits into the budget with the sanitary sewer fund so it's a ways down the road though uh
depending on how the council wants us to but there is a water line for the two blocks correct okay thank you and Mr president I'd like to also add regarding the sewer line that that is something that will be on our on on our construction project and we're working
with BPU to get all of those construction projects on the same page and um regarding the sewer line that is something that we need to address the sewer fund is not very healthy and that's something that we'll need to address at a later date
thank you any more questions for staff Mr johnson thank you Mr president that begets a question it's like yes it takes time it'll be a later date but I'm hearing a lot of oh I don't know if we can it's just so much work are we're actually going to get to that later date
and we're going to address our rates we're going to address these are all steps that we are taking and they will be before the council in the foreseeable future right correct and we have brought the study of the sewer study before council and it is we need to really
address that aggressively yeah well we increase everybody's rates and then we start fixing stuff it's pretty simple we just got to get it before the council yep i like it we do have a meeting in in seven days regarding work priorities uh
we can discuss this item there too so um if there's no more questions we do have the engineers up here too if you guys have any further questions for them looks like not if not um can I ask a question from I'm I'm about to open the public hearing so um yeah if there's
anybody here we will open the public hearing it's 8:48 and if there's anybody here regarding this project that wants to come forward and address the council do so now just ask that you state your name and address before you speak
uh good evening i'm Jerry Steini uh I live at 315 Hawkins Drive in Brainard and we received the notice about uh impro improvement to Hawkins Drive east of Fourth Street Southwest uh my question to the council is what specific improvements are being proposed for our
street is it simply replacing the p repaving and replacing the curbs or are you planning to widen the street or install sidewalks i'd like to have an answer about specifically what improvements are being planned for Hawkins Drive thank you
so our our city engineer is right here um he can give you all the details you want on this specific project at any given time um outside of the meeting I suppose but yeah he he'll he'll fill you in with any question that you have that's our that's that's your guy okay
thank you you bet anyone else here for this project that wants to come up come on up hi Steve Quinn at 1704 South uh 7th Street so we live the all on the alley
as well as Ronald Street and uh South Seventh so um while we have uh actually saw and signed a petition to work on the alley and I believe that was the sewer project referred to and I see that then
this was bring the resurfacing of all of Ronald Street which you know it's 100 uh 100 yard street between sixth and 7th and really is in quite a good shape with the curbs in good condition so I just
question the need to do uh that resurfacing project with with the other past where the alley would obviously work be would go through so that would be my question to the engineers about the need for that okay yeah Jesse's
there to answer those questions we did we did uh have some debate on that one if I can shed a little bit of light on it he'll he can give you more detail but uh replacement of everything that's underground is going to require part of that street to be torn up so I think the
idea was rather than having a patch there just to redo the street uh and so it's it's aging at the the same rate so but he can fill you in on any any more details okay thank you thank you anyone else
here for this project hello uh Anthony Whipple 606 Ronald Street thank you so we actually live on the uh next door to Steve uh but on the other corner so we live on South Six and Ronald so if they're resurfacing Ronald
and the alley at the same time how are we supposed to get access to our home because the driveway is on Ronald and the alley is through uh the backside there on additional that uh what they'll be doing with the mail delivery and garbage pickup all at the same time as
that's happening as well so I'd like to discuss that with you thank you thank you it it'll be it'll be a bit of a mess but hopefully it goes quick and he'll he'll answer your he'll answer your questions on those details
come on up uh Gary Lane 1654 South 7th Street i live uh across from Steve um on Ronald Street and uh I kind of question whether Ronald Street really needs to be replaced i understand patchwork they did
a patchwork when they did a side street on 7th Street um you know it's just something you got to deal with um the project has really kind of bloomed it was going to be just a resurfacing of the alleys to begin with and then we kind of
requested that well maybe we should look at the water lines being replaced because they did it on 7th Street uh further down from us going north um they added it on to the project which was a good thing I think um but now we're
looking at a a rather large uh assessment now versus what really started out as more reasonable um I think we're looking at probably three times or four times the assessment of what uh it was originally and I kind
of just kind of question you know doing all that understood thank you i'm Marie Francis i live at 1603 South 6th Street there are only three houses on on Joseph Street three
houses and it's a double whammy for those of us who live there it's not only the street but then it's the alley i don't even have access to the alley but here my bill that my neighbor
graciously told me the cost is estimated at $14,000 i'm going to have to sell my house thank you anyone else that wants to address the council on this project
come on up 290 takes me a while joan Vner 207 Hawkins Drive come October 4th we will be on Hawkins Drive 36 years and I have pictures here of Hawkins Drive when it was a dirt
road i don't think you have come to the decision of things that would bother me will our mail be delivered every day hawkins Drive is a dead end will the garbage people be able to come and pick up our garbage can we get in and out
it's a hill and so there are many little questions they indicated the percentage of what we would be charged but the actual amount has not been told to us i appreciate you're saying how we can pay it and that's great but will we find out
before you do this project what all of these little things will be answered or am I being silly i don't think you're being silly okay um it the official numbers don't always add up until after everything's been bid out um boards have been or the the project
has been awarded and I these are just a lady's thinking yep okay okay yep your guy is right there again okay he's everybody's Thanks for your time i appreciate it all right how do I get in touch with you jesse did you leave a a card or nine
okay there's a card for everybody that wants to talk to Jesse tomorrow right in the back 27 cards you got to talk to Teresa uh Dan Christensen 1606 South 7th Street uh I guess I was just confused with the letter when it came uh proposed an estimate of $63.29 per linear foot of the alley uh
considering there's two people on for each linear foot of the alley uh I guess that's $126.58 per foot of the alley it's 15 ft wide it seems very excessive for resurfacing of the alley and I I guess I will talk to Jesse to figure out how he
comes up with those numbers and and how that makes sense but it's a very large expense for people who live in homes that range from 150,000 to to 275,000 so I just it it's a big hit i just bought the house two years ago and it this is a
going to be a massive increase so thank you thank you is there anyone else here for this project anyone online if you are press star three please i ask again one more
time there's anybody here for this project please come up looks like not it's 8:56 p.m we will close the public hearing thank you for speaking for those of you that did come up we are looking
for a motion to adopt the attached resolution in which orders the improvement and preparation of the plans i'd move adoption of the resolution motion by Johnson second second second
by Ericson okay chzach second by one of those guys any more discussion on this one seeing none Tony please call the RO bevans yes chzach yes johnson yes stunn
yes jagger yes ericson yes od yes that resolution passes all right moving on to 9B we have a consideration for a conditional use permit for the construction of a church 1511 Northern Pacific Road and I believe
this one is for James Cranic thank you Mr president so Mike Higgins on behalf of the Northern Pacific Center has applied for a conditional use permit for the construction of a church in an existing building at 1481 Northern Pacific Center Road the proposed use meets all requirements established in
this ordinance and there are no use specific regulations for churches planning Commission considered this request and held a public hearing at their meeting on April 16th and unanimously recommended approval as presented thank you Mr president yeah Mr chz move
to approve motion by Chzach i'll second second by Johnson discussion Johnson yeah I I had a couple can I ask staff questions yeah go ahead so do all churches in Brainer need a conditional use permit to operate
i believe as of now in the allowed use table um that is something that we are working on with within the allowed use table um it's a ordinance that the planning commission is currently working on we'll be reviewing an amended potential ordinance for the allowed use table but I believe as currently
constructed they are all CUPs is that legal under the First Amendment Joe yeah okay cuz I thought I thought the Northern Pacific Center had was in kind of a Goldilock zoning district where they can kind of develop pretty much anything but they still need the CUP for
the church yeah so so that's correct so um there are things that can be added um to that plan unit development specific uses can be changed around the underlying zoning district is town center which requires a conditional use permit thank you
all right anyone else more discussion looks like none uh let's see this is not a resolution all those in favor against
same sign motion passes moving on to 9C we have a conditional use permit for consideration for expansion of adult daycare services at 1919 South 6th Street uh Mr krabbit thank you Mr president uh so Productive Alternatives has submitted an application for an
interior remodel and conditional use permit to allow for the expansion of adult daycare services adult daycare falls under commercial daycare facilities under the definitions in the zoning code which is a conditional use in the general commercial district that is a zoning district where this property
lies uh the proposed project meets all requirements of the zoning code and staff had no concerns regarding drop off and parking which is typically what's reviewed uh for these types of uses uh the planning commission considered this request and held a public hearing at their meeting on April 16th and unanimously recommended approval as
presented and I can answer any questions thank you Mr kravick does anybody have questions for Mr kravik motion to approve Jerger second motion by Joerger second by Johnson any discussion on the motion seeing none let's go to a vote
all in favor i against same sign that motion passes moving on to 9D we have a consideration for an interim use permit renewal for a short-term rental at 7147th Street South and Mr cranic go ahead thank you Mr president uh so
Mighty Homes LLC has applied for the renewal of a short-term rental at 714th Street South the rental has been operating for one year and there have been no issues or concerns from the property that the planning uh that the community development department has received uh planning commission considered this request and held a
public hearing at their meeting on April 16th and unanimously recommended approval with the following conditions continue submitting lodging tax to the finance department on a monthly basis uh the interimm use permit shall expire on April 21st 2027 so a 2-year renewal and then staff did uh recommend the city
council add an additional condition that states the interimm use permit shall terminate upon sale or transfer of the property title and I can answer any questions any questions for Mr cranvic mr jagger yeah Mr cranic at the planning commission there was some dialogue that
stated that the applicant was uh misread the due date of the uh AP of the April due date I believe it was would you consider the writing to be ambiguous or um is there anything that you could see in the writing that would uh lead us to believe that uh we didn't write the
conditions of when it was due clearly not with the conditional use part of it um I do know he owns multiple um short-term rentals in different jurisdictions so I think from what he told me he was confused on that versus
the actual rental license of the city um but uh from the conditional use permit and what he receives um from the county certification there would be no confusion okay awesome i just wanted to make sure that our it wasn't something that we were doing that led to the problem that's all that's all thank you
Mr joerger any other questions i'd move to approve with the conditions second motion by Ericson second by Joerger discussion on the motion seeing none let's go to a vote all in
favor i I against same sign motion passes moving on to 9E this is the first reading of proposed ordinance 1581 to consider data center data centers uh again I think this is Mr cranic go ahead thank you Mr
president uh so the planning commission reviewed the proposed data center ordinance at their March 19th meeting and included recommendations from the public utilities director uh the planning commission held a public hearing at the April 16 16th meeting uh one individual spoke it was a member from the TC family that said they were
in favor of the ordinance uh the ordinance does have kind of checks and balances before and after um the data center opens applies and looking at sound requirements uh within the the MPCA regulations so with that the planning commission unanimously recommended approval of the ordinance uh
staff recommends a motion to conduct the first reading of proposed ordinance 1581 and to dispense with the actual reading note to dispense with the actual reading of the ordinance must be unanimous and I can answer any questions thank you Mr kravik any anybody on council have
questions for staff on the ordinance mr chzac yeah um I'm reading through here um it says prior to approval the developer shall apply for a sewer extension permit with the
MPCA and submit a water and wastewater uh water and wastewater plan for review by the public works department and public utilities department wouldn't you want that to be um approved
before they get the they get it all approved it says so you got to submit your plan they should apply for it before prior to approval just apply it doesn't say that shall receive a um accepted uh what do you call it so
they're they're they're applying for approval but shouldn't they shouldn't we shouldn't we approve this once they gain the approval of that uh so that wording was um directed by um former public utilities director Chris Evans uh it I
think it's a way for them to review the plans and generally be okay with the plans without having to go through the entire approval process which I'm not sure what that length looks like jesse does have maybe some clarification as well i can quick clarify so Minnesota rules requires a 180day uh prior to
construction uh time frame for the MBCA review so this that's a pretty long uh time frame ahead of the project so it does give us some time to look at those plans too i didn't know that so Okay thank you Jesse with that MPCA 180day
plan if that were to if it if it were to fail through the MPCA that would essentially kill the project anyway correct most likely okay unless they were to change those plans correct Mr kravik so certainly contingencies could be put on the uh conditional use permit is a
conditional use permit in the industrial district um but the building permit also would not be issued without an approved um connection okay plan all right any more questions Mr johnson yeah it's a prior to approval another subdivision F in section 4 prior
to approval loads over 1 megawatt in capacity will be responsible for having a system impact study completed by the appropriate power transmission owner operator in the area can you give me an example like three give me three examples of a data center utilizing less
than one megawatt of capacity so data centers are really any type of um potential storage so you are looking at like a CTC um county buildings that have data storage uh they might not have to go through the conditional use permit process but would need to go through
this process so there are anytime anytime you're doing cloud storage or anything like that and you have servers there's potential if you go over one megawatt which is still quite a bit um that you would need that provision it's a lot but not for not for a data center
not for Yeah not for a crypto center uh but uh what's a system impact study and completed by the appropriate power transmission owner is that a study that would be done effectively by BPU in the area in most of Brainard
so um we could get clarification from Brainer Public Utilities before the second reading on that part of it um they I'm not sure they may have to hire a third person to do a system study and then be something that Brainer Public Utilities would review that's a potential assumption but
again we could get clarification yeah I was just wondering if that I don't know is adding a little bit too much regulation but that's just my question thank you thank you Mr johnson any more questions for
staff i have one based off of his one megawatt question do we have any businesses that are not official data center crypto mine in the city that use more than one megawatt that would be subject to this after we approve it so
again we'd probably have to get some information from Brainer Public Utilities on that um but yeah certainly gave some examples of cloud storage with the the county um CTC that you know certainly could fall under that as well i just wouldn't want this ordinance to hinder any businesses coming in that
might be using a lot of power but they're not a data center so I guess that would be my only concern there i'm not going to I'm not going to vote no on this just based on that but with that in mind I don't want to scare anyone away either so this would pertain specifically to
data centers only so if it's if it's So if it's an industrial use Yeah if it's industrial use of some other nature it would only pertain to to data centers okay outside of what other BPU requirements there may be got it so if CTC expands a data center type of
operation inside their office building and gets to 1.5 megawws somehow that won't necessarily apply to them this won't apply to them if it is related to their cloud storage side of things okay okay any more dis discussion any
questions seeing none let's go to a vote um this is uh the first reading is this This has to be unanimous for the chief i'm just want I want the chief to know for sure i know okay i've already got looks all right
all those in favor i against same sign motion passes president OD who who made the motion and second on that i move to adopt or hold the first reading and dispense with the reading second we'll just do that again motion
by Johnson second by Chzach all those in favor i I against same sign now it passes well thank you Jeff all right moving on number 10 we have staff reports tony Gage Chief Davis nothing to thank you sean
Strong nothing tonight tonnie Hillman yes uh just a reminder again that the special general election for Senate District 6 race will be held on Tuesday April 29th all of the polling locations will be open again from 7:00 a.m to 6 or 7:00 a.m to 8:00 p.m with Ward 4
precincts 1 and 2 will be held here at the chambers rather than at St andrews i have a question what What does public utility commission meeting do that day they will be held at the public utilities it should be noted that they will be held at their location since we
will be using the chambers okay thank you Mike Aagorst thank you Mr president we had uh we conducted a Easter egg hunt at Gregory Park we had a great turnout thanks for everyone that attended and uh thank you chief for sending some officers over there too it
was well received thank you that's it thank you Mr habigor mr krabik thank you Mr president just wanted to give city council an update on some of the ordinances that planning commission is currently working on uh so one of them is the industrial off streetet parking requirements uh this is potentially allowing class 5 parking in the rear
yard for industrial properties they did direct staff to bring this back as a public hearing at the next meeting outdoor sales screening requirements potentially loosening screening requirements while continuing to regulate screening requirements for abuing residential uses uh the allowed use table which I had mentioned earlier
the commission will review a draft of the amended table at the next meeting and then finally the Shorland district staff have begun reviewing other jurisdiction regulations um and have been having discussions with the DNR dnr will review an or the ordinance prior to the planning commission to ensure the city is following following all
statutory requirements and a report thank you Mr cranic joseph Wangle nothing here thank you chris Schubert Jesse Dean Eric Sharpened here nothing this evening you we're rolling now mr broyals
uh I just want to say thank you i had a I had a great week off last week in Santa Fe with family and one of the reasons I was able to have a great week and not think about work very often is uh we've got a great staff so I just want to thank Connie she was the acting city minister last week and the entire
staff they do a great job and they really allow me to just focus on my grandson and not think about work so I appreciate that the other thing was uh it was mentioned already that we have the meeting a week from tonight for council to set some priorities for staff as far as the suspense tracker that
we've talked about the last couple meetings the last comments I recall were we want that in an Excel spreadsheet we want to see some colors and we want to see a percent complete something along those lines so we staff are going to present to the council a week from
tonight that meeting kind of our template for a finished product and I think they'll be perfect timing when we get priorities from council we can start rolling those in and we'll create a baseline and we'll go from there so that's all I have thank you thank you next moving on to council member reports
start with the uh Chief Stunn i have nothing all right Councilman Chzach yeah um happy Easter a day late to everybody but um we had a fantastic Sunday at church um the Teen Challenge choir was there and they blew the roof off the
place and uh you know when you go to a service like that on Easter Sunday and uh it it's it's it's remarkable when you see that hear the testimony from a handful of the individuals going through that and how
how that that program really really is a benefit to so many people over the years and a lot of them don't make it the first time or the second time but they keep going back and they get it and it's just a joy to hear and uh praise the Lord the king is risen thank you Mr
chzac mr beavens thank you saturday I attended the Easter egg hunt at Gregory Park absolutely fantastic job by our public works department our parks and recck department and the Rotary Club it was an
absolute circus we were one monkey away from having to get a permit for a circus in the city of Briner next up the north side residents meet tomorrow Tuesday 6 o'clock mr haborst is going to be the special guest that's at the senior well
I can't call it senior anymore it's the center the place where you guys get your donuts on Thursday and the last thing is I passed out everyone got one of these it's news from the ARB um the bike park which is a kind of a two-piece skill
building area as well as an adaptive cycling area hopefully will be open as early as the first week in May so that's a pretty exciting thing uh for the local community partially in the city of Brainard and very lastly the Friends of
the Library had their annual book sale in the Brainer Mall i worked three four days last week dropping off books and selling books if you've never been to that it is crazy the people that line up if you
get there at 9:30 the there's more people in that mall on that morning than there has been in 364 days since the last book sale thank you Kelly can you send this to me in an email yeah that bike park thing yep absolutely thank you
very much yep you'll have it tomorrow thank you Mr bevvens i just want to ask how many eggs you found uh the the three-year-olds were mean i didn't get any he's got a couple in his pocket but I know a couple Rotarians so I got a bag
of candy okay cool and a picture with the bunny mr jagger yes sorry but uh this is our uh our airport uh report coming up here so I'm just going to go through a couple quick things uh number one we moved ahead with the purchase of a new cupping plow big piece of equipment that's going to be at the
airport is going to make us much more efficient much faster it was $620,000 is what we paid for a cupping plow out there but through uh grants from the feds and uh some other entities we as a local match only had to come up with about 15,000 bucks so there was a
uh nice move of fiscal responsibility out there as we're moving forward and the good news is uh despite an a unknown source of sabotage or at the very least covert resistance we will be selling our old piece of equipment to our good friends Bill and Cassandra at our at St cloud uh airport good friends of ours so
we're looking forward that uh helping them out with a piece of equipment they're looking for um also uh we had a meeting last Friday with the stakeholders as we as you know there's been a request by the county for a May budget uh presentation by our airport
director that is supposed to encompass 5 years it looks like it will be in fairly good detail for one year with some kind of uh tag marks for the remaining four years after that and I would also like to uh mention uh Daryl Palmer who put vastly more time into this than he
really should have uh a very valued commission member uh he was really doing work that really wasn't his so I'd like to thank Darl for that uh also uh there was a motion made to move our airport meetings to these very chambers and it didn't get seconded didn't get seconded
so uh the airport meetings will remain at the airport for the indefinite future the homeless people we have a lease coming up for CAP that is the Civil Air Patrol uh we've been leasing them a hanger a uh a building that they a
classroom building uh for $1 a year for the last 10 years that's coming up uh so the the airport commission will be looking at that as the the buildings need a lot of work and there's some something definitely to be talked about there and uh the probably the bigger news is we decided as a commission to not move ahead at this time with a
replacement deputy director so we are going to get a better grasp of our finances out there and uh maybe make that decision in the future uh but for now we did not replace our deputy director uh two more things real quickly one is uh I want to call out a citizen
uh Sarah Tissi who took time out of her day to come to the planning commission meeting sit all the way through the meeting all the way up until the point of the open mic when she came up and she uh gave her name and she thanked the commission uh for the creation of the ordinance and thanked the staff for the
time that they put into it and said that she was happy and I just wanted to say thank you for her for stepping forward and and uh showing some appreciation to the work that uh volunteers do on our commissions and finally in closing I would like to publicly apologize to Mr mike Higgins it absolutely was not my
intent to uh to to for my appetite to retain uh to retain the uh the buffer there to be received as any step of malice or malice or forward advance you're a valued member of this community uh you've done a ton for Brainard i I I want you as a partner with us moving
forward i apologize and that is uh that's the end of my report thank you what the CAP is at the airport cap is the Civil Air Patrol it's an auxiliary of the Air Force air Force gives them exactly zero dollars as I understand zero none zero hence the
reason why they get a building for $1 for us we are talking about doubling the uh the lease two bucks two bucks per year steep 100% increase $20 over 10 years if we go thank you Mr jagger uh Chairman Johnson thank you i
have a couple things i I like M or Councilman Joerger's comments that there was positive feedback at the planning commission for the hard work our staff does in this community and I think it's it's important for all members of the community citizens of Briner or not to to respect our employees here at the
city of Briner i heard from the same constituent who brought to me the holiday parking problem and asked for the ballard i think he'll appreciate the planter but he also said he was driving down Sixth Street recently and it looks like a dump
there are cars there are boats there are all kinds of things parked on front lawns on sidewalks where we do not allow them to be parked so I don't know if that's police i don't know if that's community development but I would like to lodge a formal complaint to all of the illegally parked cars on Sixth
Street and have you guys go drive up and down there tomorrow and see what can't be done about it thank you thank you Mr johnson complaint driven and I complained about the entirety of South Sixth Street yeah complaint received chairman Ericson uh thanks Mr president we've heard about and took action on all
the planning commission items so I don't we won't give an update there but uh next up for me uh this Thursday liazison to the region 5 development commission and look forward to participating and attending that meeting that's it for me thank you chairman Ericson and I skipped
over the honorable mayor Bedau for his report but please do so now i'll try to hurry but I got a couple things and a couple announcements as well first of all uh happy Easter to everybody and I hope everybody enjoyed time with their family i know I did it's a great day to be out uh Gregory Park fantastic job i
know it was your guys' first year we got to get that sound system figured out but we will we'll figure that out uh there is a parkboard meeting tomorrow i will not be in attendance because I will be watching baseball in Cold Springs great historic park over there uh but I heard you're going to a meeting afterwards bring the master plan with you when
these vultures vultures from North Brainard come after you oo Ted those are your neighbors i know crack that whip crack that whip let them see the master plan before they start the same 450 a month coming after you uh I was able to
attend the Bladec board meeting last week uh with James and with um um I want to call you Nick but I'm trying to be more official by that but with with Nick uh it great meeting to sit through um and uh I want to I want
to thank them for having us uh one thing that did come out in that meeting making it official announcing the mayor's initiative on economic development uh myself and the president of the EDA Mr jagger will be teaming up with James
Cranvic to come up with a couple of uh concept some pie in the sky kind of concepts to bring back to the council just show a few things about what we think there's some potential in the city in terms of some movement we could make um looking at what we could do with some
inefficient properties that sort of thing um both on the commercial industrial side but also on the residential side as well so I look forward to bringing some of that stuff back to you guys as well mr mayor yes Mr chair may I uh I totally forgot that
myself and Mr joerger attended the project management team for the Highway 210 reconstruction and the uh Bedau Memorial Highway it's a no-go oh we've been trying i tried to get my name on the disc golf course you have to be dead i tried to get my name on the disc golf
course i tried getting my name on the the Itchy Zebra over here and none of it's happening i don't know what's going on uh but I do want to say as well with Blade they're having their annual meeting they have asked mayors uh from uh the local area uh myself Daryl Olsen
from Baxter um Tyler from Pequat as well as uh Jackson from Cross Lake we will be speaking at their annual meeting and specifically it is on and I want to quote we are highlighting current priorities challenges and opportunities
across our communities what a great opportunity for us next week to have some priorities that you guys can give to me that I can uh take with to that and let our business owners know what we are looking for so looking for some
guidance from you on that and last but not least the most important announcement of the night chief we have a date ladies and gentlemen police versus firefighter softball showdown july 24th it's a Thursday she going to
be hot i don't know what you're thinking Chief but Chief wanted it in July it's going to be hot it's going to be steamy but at the same time we're going to smack some softballs around if you were able to attend that last year ton of fun same kind of concept it is a softball
game slashperformance so just so our And who won who won last year chief who won last year what was the date and time Mr mayor thank you Mr jagger yeah police department by uh resounding and and he's picking a new a new probably hot date so
he's really laying it down the 22 arrested fire department yeah yeah yeah yeah everyone has to be in we got some youth just so everybody knows uh parks department this is my announcement to you as well that we we'll be joining forces again on this event um but that's
the date that has been selected by both our uh firefighters and our police thursday July 24th and I'll have to double check the time but I think we started at 6 last time i think we did we're ready i'll figure it out i'll figure it out tell me when those
firefighters get out of place do the teams perform or other people there perform yourself so the great thing about this is there are five six innings of softball in between each inning there are minute to win it type type games
that happen shenan well shenanigans is a great way of putting it we had a mascot relay race that happened ton of fun we had a donut eating competition lot of fun we're going to throw in some uh some more antics as well and get the crowd
involved and again it is uh to raise funds for Memorial or excuse me for Mill Stadium at Memorial Park so that is a a fantastic event that will this will be the second annual and we'll see if the police can't hold it off you know uh Tim
belief or excuse me fire chief the challenge is out there it it it was spicy last year mr mayor who won the donut eating contest oddly enough the police they had an advantage they had an advantage it was a clean sweep on the
season it was a clean sweep uh anyways again Thursday July 24th please join us it'll be a lot of fun end of report oh finally as fun as this is right now i uh I think everything I wanted to speak about was pretty much spoken for uh
except for I want to remind the council that in one week we do have that priority setting meeting so please put some time and effort in this week maybe maybe even write some things down on a piece of paper show up to next meeting so we're we're prepared for that um but
uh other than that we have a couple closed sessions we need to adjourn to one is a per Minnesota state statute 13D.03 subdivision 3C3 to consider offers for the annex and another closed session that I don't want to read the
entire thing for some unit negotiations i think we have to read it read the read the state code i think you have to read it oh okay statute so the statute 13D.05 subdivision 3B subject to be discussed pursuant to Minnesota statutes
13D.01 subdivision 3 and legal positions and strategy and the interest arbitration the city and team's local union number 346 BMS case number 25pn0773 second could you repeat the part about
uh motion by Chzach second by Johnson all those in favor i I again same sign can we take seven yeah uh yeah seven minutes