Are you aware of anybody else that, I mean, that puts out their own I mean, it's really unusual to see I think this yes. I mean, this is a high dollar. Yeah. It's very nice. And, I mean, I can you know, it only comes out a couple times a year, but it's like, that is some some serious money. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. I will call the March council meeting to order at 6PM. If we all would stand, please, to cite the pledge and 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. Alright. Let the roll call show that all members are present except for the mayor this evening. Correct. Alright. And, are there any changes to the agenda? No changes to the agenda. I move approval of the agenda as written. Second. Motion is made and seconded to approve the agenda. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries. Consent agenda, I'll read each of the items off. If you want to open them to review them further,
let me know. We'll be approving the city council minutes from February 11, the park board minutes from November 25, the BDEA minutes from January 21, the warrant list approval after payment, and then the professional service agreement for Seventh Avenue Northeast. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? I move approval of the consent agenda. Is there a second? Second. Motion and second to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries.
Moving down the list, Deputy Street. Good evening. As far as February, it was a pretty, pretty slow month for the sheriff's office. We had about a hundred calls fewer than we did in January. That being said, our proactive numbers were actually up. So even though overall calls were down, deputies are still busy and, doing good patrol work in town. Other than that, we had our first snowfall or, snow emergency last week. Yep. We had about 21 parking, violations, but, we only had about two citations issued. And that's mostly because we focused on education. If we're out there in the ticket press ticket writing process and somebody comes out,
moves their car, we can take that opportunity to educate them. Hey. This is how I can sign up for alerts so you know next time not to get a ticket, stuff like that. So worked out pretty well. I guess we'll see if we get any more snowfalls this year for snow emergencies. Let's see what Tom thinks and go from there. Other than that, it's been, nothing too new. Questions? Not for me. Alright. I did hear a comment from one of those residents that did not get a ticket, and they were thankful that you educated them. Perfect. Possible. So wasn't you, It wasn't me. But Thanks.
Alright. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. And then the other communication is our newsletter that went out. So, lots of good information in there. Any questions on that? Okay. We'll move forward then. We have two public hearings tonight, so I'll need a motion to open the first public hearing on the massage therapy therapist license. I'll move opening public hearing on the massage therapist license. Second. Motion is made and second to open the public hearing at 06:04PM. This is just clarification language dealing specifically with with the massage therapy.
It clarifies some of our language and gives us more definition, where necessary. It also identifies some of the restrictions, etcetera. But, again, it's mostly a cleanup ordinance, for us at this time as far as the ordinance goes. Okay. At this time, I'll entertain any public comments. Any public comments? Any public comments? No public comments. Any council comments? So I'm trying to find it again, but there's a reference to the Department of Education in there. You might wanna be careful about those references because if it doesn't exist anymore
We can verify that. I believe it said it in there. I think it was from a certification from a school. Was it the actual Department of Education or was it the an educational institution? I think it was the Department of Education, I actually said. But I can't find it real quick again. I I apologize. I don't recall that reference, but I will If it is, I I'm not I don't have a problem with it being there. I just think if we have to be careful when we reference things like that in our that we don't set ourselves up for if something disappears, we should have a fallback of what's the next level.
Yes. Okay. Any other council comments? Any other counsel comments? Okay. No further comments? It's actually, just so you know, section one, definitions. Accredited institution means an educational institute holding accredited status from a regional accreditation agency approved by the United States Department of Education. First page. Yep. I'm just Is that language of is somewhere else in state or county legislature? Yeah. I don't have any problem with it. I'm just saying that, you know With the council's approval. I think if you just remove that language simply take out the,
Department of Education reference And just make accredited. Right. Yeah. I think that would be fine. Good catch. Okay. Any other discussion? No. Alright. If not, I'll take a motion to close the public hearing. I'll move, closing the public hearing on ordinance twenty twenty five dash o five, massage therapist. And a second? Second. Motion made and seconded. Public hearing is closed at 06:07PM. Now we have another public hearing on park hours. I need a motion to open that public hearing. A motion to open the twenty twenty five zero six park hours public hearing.
Second? Second. Motion made and seconded. That public hearing opens at 06:07PM. At this time, we'll take public comments on, this public hearing for park hours. Does anybody have public comments? Public comments? Yes. Yep. You have to come up come up to the podium and state your name and also your address, and then, you're free to speak for up to three minutes. Hi. I'm Katie Savage. I live at 401 Sixth Street Northeast in Byron next to Valley View Park. I'm concerned about the, nobody's really clear on the park hours.
It's not posted anywhere. Then I'm also told that with the new renovations that happened at the park that the park is open until 10:00, which I think is extremely excessive. A half hour after dark is something that is comfortable for the residents that live in that surrounding area. It's very intrusive and there's a lot of things that happen after hours that are not either patrolled unless it's patrolled by the people that live there. That's all I have to say on that matter. Okay. Thank you. Any other public comments?
I'm Steve Boyd. I live at 513 Fifth Avenue Northeast. And, of course, I live by a park. And in my experience, nothing good happens after dark. That's when most of the issues happen with kids. Vandalism, drugs, people parking at the park. We have to deal with that on quite often during the summer. And for some reason, people like to park over there, and they think nobody's gonna notice them smoking weed or or, drinking or vandalizing the park and causing a disturbance. So we end up having to call the police on people quite often.
So thanks. Thank you. Thank you. So what are we proposing for time? Oh, sorry. We'll come to that as soon as we get to Yeah. Comments. What what are you guys proposing actually for the change? I think it's right now, it's listed as one half hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise each day, and it's proposed to go to 10PM and 6AM the following day for it being closed. So it'd be closed between 10PM and 6AM. Okay. So I'm Jan Zamzo. I live at 618 Third Avenue Northeast back up to the park. Been there since 1990.
So been a part of all the unfortunate shenanigans that happened in the park, the police situations that have happened, hence the lighting being put up in the park, which has been very helpful. There was a issue there when they first put the lighting up, but it lit up all our backyards, but they got that fixed up, which is awesome. That's been very helpful. The concern, obviously, for many things is last summer when this happened, when the when the basketball court went in, which none of us were informed of, which is interesting. There's no community outreach on any of this.
But even with the beginning of that, I mean, you got 75, a hundred kids down there. They're all in the pavilion now. They've taken over the pavilion as well. So it's a lot of noise. The basketball, obviously, is a lot of noise, and I know there was a lot of work put into trying to soundproof that. You got a hundred kids down there. It's not. You're in those homes and it's boom boom boom boom boom boom boom. So you've got kids hanging out, and now if it's 10:00, that means they're not gonna be out of there until afterwards. And for all of us that actually live on the park,
we have jobs in the morning, we need to sleep, we need to get to bed. It just the half hour after dusk makes sense. The actual additional till ten really doesn't put a burden on the rest of us because of those kids. Now if you don't have I don't know if the bushes are going back up in the park because if the bushes aren't, you got kids running up through the yards to get to the other houses. And, you know, we've all got lights and security things on our homes, but it's a lot of noise and that's I mean, it just doesn't make sense for that extra half hour so that you've got at
least people are cleared up and out of the park. So they're away and we can proceed for our evening. The lights are off. I mean it is I've got to ask. It's always been zoned a city park. Has that changed? I mean a neighborhood park. Has that changed? It's not a zoning thing that it's a neighborhood park it's its classification I think is more of a neighborhood park but parks just because it's a neighborhood park doesn't mean it's used just by your neighborhood. Yeah. It's a city park. Well, yeah. And the reason why I say that is because when we had,
sidewalks go and we'd asked instead of sidewalks on our, Third Ave, said how about putting a path in the back behind the home so that people could have access handicapped people to have access to the ballpark and that? And he said no. None of that could happen or stepping down on Seventh Street so he could get to the park for people that are handicapped. And he said, sorry. All that's a no go because this is a neighborhood park, and you cannot and that was that was by the mayor, Glassmaker. So I just was curious.
We were hearing a lot happening with the park, which we'll be excited to hear about more what the plans really look like. But there are concerns for the number of people that will be in the park then. If there's I mean, we're we haven't been, as a community, any outreach to us. We're digging and look looking and we're seeing that there's a upgrade on the the the field, two softball courts, and the additional new equipment for the kids. So two two,
not softball courts, two, volleyball courts. So if there's coordination of different events that are going on, like if this basketball court is gonna be used for weekend city competitions and you're gonna have volleyball competitions going on at the same time, little league or whatever is gonna be down there, that's a significant number of people coming in. I don't know where the cars are gonna be parked, but all of that activity is fine and good. A park should be used, but we need to have some compromise with the community because that is so tucked
in the community, and it's a a little green space that doesn't even have trees anymore. You there aren't even trees in our park. So people are driving in with their with their, golf carts to get shade to watch the games because there's not even a tree to sit under. So a lot of things intertwining there, and it's the number, the volumes that could be pulled into that park that are a huge concern. Parking with cars, leaving at ten, ten thirty at night if they're parking on our streets, on Seventh Street, and all around it.
And Seventh Street, as you guys already know, is a nightmare when you've got the, little kitties tee ball because there's so many cars. When you come up over that hill after work, if you're unaware of what's going on there, those little kids running across the street, I'm just waiting for something nasty to happen there. So parking is a big time issue. It's just the volume of people that is a real concern. We are all about sharing that space, but just trying to make it community centered, making sure that the people that are invested and take care of that space around
it too have a have a say. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Shane Miller. Two eighteen Seventh Street Northwest. Very insightful. I do take a different, stance on the park hours, however, but I will agree about the trees. That's something that I've noticed heavily. There's zero trees in any of our parks. Just curious if we're ever gonna throw some more in there. Alright? And as far as I live on a different area than you do, miss, but, as far as being unaware, that's something that I'm gonna bring up later about a different topic. But as far as the part goes,
when we grew up, if we were causing ruckus, we'd have the sheriff come and they'd take care of us and kick us out. They'd stop by sometimes and see a group of people no matter how late. We weren't causing issues, raising hell if you will. See what's up and they leave us leave us be. So I that's kind of the stance I take. I get it. I really understand about noise. We do have trains that go through. I think that wakes everybody up in town. I'm a pretty hardy sleeper though myself. So anyways,
I thought I'd share a different standpoint on the park hours and rules. I think, it's getting a little excessive a half hour past dusk. Times are different. I don't know what it's like for kids growing up. Right now, mine are five and six, so I'll find out soon enough. But it just seems that's kind of restrictive for people. And then what about adults that are out for a late night walk? I mean, people do work strange hours. If they stop and sit on a swing after hours, what's their repercussions gonna be? Are they gonna get sighted? Are they gonna get hassled?
That's another area that kinda would like to think about and have you guys take into consideration, I guess. So thank you. Thank you. Hours for our 18 and older workers. Park hours. This is park hours for everybody. This is only park hours. This is not curfew. And that's part of where the confusion has come in and that's what we're trying to, clarify. Hi. Laura Boyd. I live at 5 5 13 Fifth Ave. Northeast. I would also implore you not to change the park hours. I agree with our first three speakers. Living next to the park has
one of the reasons we bought the house. We liked living next to the park. We liked a lot of the activities that happened there. With the additional noise additional hours would make it much more difficult for everybody who lives near the park between the lights not being able to use our yards because of the extra noise and the extra lights and I know that'll come up later in some other comments as well. And most of the kids who are using the park are those younger kids. I'm an educator, kids need sleep. They need to be home after a certain hour. They don't need to be out until 10:00 at night.
Bad things happen in the schools when kids have been out that late, and are on their regular schedules. So, I would I think, you know, a half an hour after sunset is reasonable. We live in Minnesota. It stays late or light until what time during the summer? Nine, 09:30. So I feel like that is a reasonable, time for a park to be closed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's fine. Hi. Katie Savage. Four zero one six Street Northeast. My other concern with it being open so late is the excessive light. While I understand lighting is required for safety,
My house I am within spitting distance and there is 18 LED lights pointing directly at my house. Blackout curtains do not work. It is very intrusive. I am under a spotlight and I can not fathom having to do that every single night. Whether kids are there or not and I know that there's a button that they can push but these kids will run by and just push a button just to be kids and then run away. So that is a major concern of ours with the excessive lighting with the park hours and then the noise.
I'm a fan of the park being updated and renovated I think it's needed. I have kids that are going to be there using it, so I don't want to come across as hypocritical with it. But there is a time and a place and it's not 10:00 at night and not next door to everybody's houses. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any further public comments? To the Northeast. The lights, the plans we'd seen before or as we were digging around trying to find plans, they had lights that came over and shot down. That's what they ended up doing with the light that was the original park light
besides the pavilion, that it out so that it hit all our backyards, and then they came back and said, oh, nope. Nope. Sorry. And they put it down. It does a great job. So those lights, those LED lights light up everything. I mean, you're in your house, and it's lighting up our backyards into our house. Same thing. We back up to that. It's like on fire. And you're if the if it's if the dusk is nine, nine thirty, most of the time you're not even gonna need the lights, but that's something that definitely can be changed and compromised on. If there's something that come down and over because it lights up everything.
We're in any problem with you guys lighting up the park, we do have an issue with you lighting up our personal property for something like that. It's not a streetlight. It's something for safety and activity in the park, and it lights us all up. I mean, it's it's obnoxious, those are. And I you probably are aware of that already that that's a big issue. But Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Tim Zamzo. Six eighteen third Avenue Northeast, and I would echo what my wife just said. I I wanna put it out there too with the lighting. I've I've got photos with me. If anybody would like to see what the lights did to the back of our
yards, I'd be happy to share that after. And I would like to echo also that if we keep the hours where they're at, we don't need the lights down there. And and that's a that's a big concern. You know, the lights were gonna be like they were last fall when they were turned on, that's that's a huge issue. So, again, I would I would ask that you consider not changing the hours. Therefore, we would not even have to entertain having those lights down there. I think that would help us out a lot. Thank you. Thank you. Any further, comments? What are the current hours again?
It's a half hour after dark and a half hour before light. Proposed is 10PM. Oh. And then on, closed from 10PM to 6AM. No. Any any further, comments from the public? No further public comments? No further public comments. Okay. Does do you wanna give us just background? Did this come from the park board? This did go through the park board. Staff brought it forward because I mean, two reasons. One is there's a a fair amount of confusion as to what the park hours currently are and for who,
and we're trying to streamline that just to make it easier, not only for those, residents that use it to understand, but also for law enforcement to understand when people should or shouldn't be there. And this makes it a lot more streamlined. It also seems on, days like we're experiencing now or last week or earlier, last month, a half hour after dusk, you had to be out of the park at six and it was still 50 degrees. And that if we're going to enforce that, nobody can be in, city parks, city green space at that point in time.
And that seems very, very restrictive for space that we say is open for our public to enjoy. So we're we're looking for that balance. We're looking for something that is, more easily enforceable to to, accommodate, the concern for noise and the concern for the activity, but also for the people that are using the park. And and that's where the, 10PM to 6AM closure came in, and that was the the recommendation. There's extremes on that both ways. But again, the the goal is to make it easier to enforce and more clear cut for all of us to understand.
Okay. Can you have a question? Actually, can I recommend we close the public hearing? Because we're now having council discussion. Thank you. Yes. We can do that. Yes. I I would If that's your comment, it is to streamline. And should we clarify that that it it would be then we would close to 09:30 at the latest, so we have a half hour to clear everybody out by ten. We we would just like some comp. Nine, you could have it 09:00. Right there. We just we want everybody out of there by ten and to close at ten
and have people straggling out, and it's 10:30 or whatever. If we could have a Yep. Some compromise there would be awesome. Could could you just state your name and Yeah. Dan Zamzo. For the record. Yep. 618 Third Avenue Northeast. K. Appreciate that. Thank you. I just wanna make another comment. Shane Miller, two eighteen seventh Street Northwest. Can we make it park by park? Does it have to be one size fits all? I is that is that I'm just asking a question. Is that a possibility? Because I have a park by my home. It's a little quieter, I guess. But, you know, I'm just curious if it can be park by park basis because,
never seem to have too many issues down by where I live. So so thank you. Thank you. So I move, closure of the public comments section for ordinance twenty twenty five, all sick, park hours. Is there a second? Second. Motion made in second to close the public meeting at effective Hearing. At 06:27PM. Public hearing. Or public hearing. I'm sorry. Okay? All in favor. Alright. Now, council comments. Okay. All in favor? Dan. You have to vote. Oh. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay? Motion carries.
Okay. Now, Dan. Well, do you wanna go through it on the agenda? Because we have resolutions there. I, I would recommend that you wait until you get to the resolution. Then you have to start there. Portion is for the public input. K. Then we move into our resolution session. Yes. Okay. We can do that. Alright. So, next on the agenda, we have a bunch of resolutions here, starting with the first one, accepting a donation for the Byron Basketball Association. We'll need a motion to accept that donation.
Motion to accept resolution 2025Dash10, Byron Basketball Association. Seconded. A motion made and second to, accept a donation from the Byron Basketball Association, resolution 20 five 10. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries. Next one, there's a couple donations from the fire department, and I don't have these right in front of me exact. Let me just get there quick so I can tell you what it is for. The first resolution is, Taylor Farms, donation of $20,000 to the Byron Fire Department.
K. Extraction tool. I move approval of resolution 2025Dash11, accepting the donation, from Taylor Farms for the fire department. Second. Motion is made and second to accept resolution twenty twenty five dash eleven. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries. The next donation to the first responders From American Legion. That's from the Legion. I move approval of resolution 2025Dash12, donation to the first responders slash city Byron from the American Legion.
Is there a second? Second. Motion made and second to accept Resolution 2020Five-twelve, accepting of donation to the first responders. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries. Next resolution is 13, which is a donation to, from the Legion. This is to the Byron Fire Department in the amount of $1,800 Motion to approve. I move approval of resolution 2025Dash13 to, the first responders from the American Legion. Second. Motion made in second to accept resolution 20 20 five 13,
accept any donation to the fire department. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries. The next one is another donation to the fire department, this time $3,000 from Sandra Moore. Motion to approve that resolution. I move approval of resolution twenty twenty five dash 14. Second. Motion made and seconded to accept resolution twenty twenty five dash 14. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries. And before we go on, I would like to thank all of the parties that have donated.
So to the city, the first responders, the Byron Fire Department, because it's much appreciated. Alright. And thank you from all of us at the council. Alright. So the next one has to do with the massage therapy, and therapist license, resolution twenty twenty five dash 15. So we will need a motion to approve this, resolution. And I think we can do a friendly amendment in there to change the terminology, or do we just wanna approve it as changed? I would ask that you approve it as modified.
And can you state that modification for us, please? We simply eliminated Department of, Education. Accreditation. It stops at accreditation. So they have to be, accredited. And then we just drop it there. We don't say Okay. Go. I move approval of resolution 25Dash15, Massage Therapist license as modified. Second? Second. Is there any discussion? No. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries. Next resolution 25 twenty twenty five dash 16 is,
I'll let you go ahead and explain that. Al? This is a, the ordinance modifying the park hours, and it is a very simple ordinance to begin with, so, there's not a lot of language in there one way or the other. The question that you have in front of you, at this point is, current language states that it is a half hour after dusk to a half hour before sunrise. The proposed language states, the parks city parks are closed from 10PM to 6AM.
The language that we have heard, deals with a potential modification to that. So at this point, before we adopt the resolution, we would ask for, any input that you have modifying that language. And and I don't want to oversimplify, but that's truly what the ordinance is. It's that basic. So Okay. So, one thing I wanted to clarify, regardless of what the hours are, park board can amend those temporarily for events. Is that correct? At this point, if it's in the city, ordinance, the ordinance states that the park board or park board representatives have that authority.
That is the one question that I put in the staff write up is questioning whether it's a park board representative or park board, if that should be the city council or, city administration that would make those modifications. But we're not looking at that tonight. That is not tonight. That's just for your information. Currently, it is a park board or park board representative that have, the ability to approve activities Okay. Outside of those hours. So to begin discussion on this resolution, we'll first need a motion on the floor. Somebody would like to make a motion.
So I'll approve I'll move approval of resolution twenty twenty five dash 16 so we can start discussion. Second. Motion's made and seconded to approve resolution 25 dash 16, which has to do with the hours of the park. At this point, we'll have discussion. Steve, would you like to speak to the motion? Sure. I would. So I do not think we can have a different ordinance or different park hours for every park because we have a lot of parks that back up to residences and or in residential neighborhoods. So while some of them get more activity than others,
and I acknowledge that, you know, they're I don't think you can have e and easily police different hours for different parks. I don't and never have liked the sun up to sundown kind of thing because that's seasonal. It varies from time. So again, who's gonna really police that? There is an actual sun up and sun down, but, you know, it's putting a lot of burden on that. And in this wintertime in Minnesota, that's a pretty short period of time to be able to utilize a public space.
I do, however, understand from the citizens there that 10PM does seem kinda late. We do have a noise ordinance, And the noise ordinance, I believe, you know, the question becomes how much of this tailor into that noise ordinance? Because that's one of the objections. The other one being lighting, that I think is the park board and city council issue that we're going to have to examine how we resolve, but that has nothing to do with the park hours, in my opinion. It has to do with light trespass.
So I would go with nine, nine thirty. I think it's kind of a compromise, and we see how it works. I mean, sundown, which is what it is right now in the summer, is just after nine at the latest time. You know? So it's you know, you're pretty close to that nine to 09:30, and you just go from there. So I'm fine with 6AM because I don't think the problems are in the morning, and I don't think that many people are gonna be there at six. And to the question, somebody stops and swings on the swings,
as far as I know, if you're walking through the park, nobody as long as you're not doing anything, nobody's ever stopped you and told you that you're I realize what the ordinance said. There's also practicalities portion of it. So k. Any other discussion? Just I just wanna clarify the the light situation. The timing of that construction, those lights are adjustable And we have not really had a time frame to, you know, to actually go up and be there in the dark to actually turn them on and adjust them. So I just wanted to clarify that those lights do pivot and everything,
so they they are adjustable that and and, to be honest, we have not been able to we have not adjusted them yet. K. Okay. Other discussion? Okay. Just on the 10PM, and you were at Park Board, I assume. Yes. Were we considering, like, the the BCRC? Was that why we chose 10:00 in case we have, like, Ben's leagues or something out there someday? That was that was the start of it, but what was brought forth to the park board was the park hours from multiple surrounding cities that vary anywhere from 9PM to 11PM.
K. And even even some a little later. The hard part was is watching where park hours and curfew met each other. And what do we have for the curfew policy? The curfew is 10PM. Yeah. Okay. Well, first off, thank you for all of your comments. I'm taking them into account here. I agree with 09:00. I think gives Gives ample time for them to get home before curfew. The only consideration I had is is BCRC and if they were gonna have softball tournaments out there late at night. So we do have youth baseball that runs till 10:00.
I mean, those lights are programmed pretty much four nights a week to to be shut off at 10:00. And that's where I'm that's where I'm kinda like, is there an exception for BCRs? And so the court can make that exception, can they not? Or is that on a case by case basis? It is case by case as it's set up. I mean, let me rephrase that. It's on approved activities, so could you approve youth baseball as an activity in a blanket? I think you can do some of that. You you you get into a gray area a little bit there,
and I think you wanna be careful with that. But, as the language reads right now, approved activities. So Okay. I I think you have a way to I'd I'm just saying that. If the time would change, maybe the park board can make that determination for BCRC only for that group only. It would be for that activity, not for that part. Okay. For that activity. Yes. So if you had it Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays That would would could be an exception. Youth baseball. Yeah. Youth softball. You I mean, it has to be specific youth softball.
Activity. Okay. And just so the council is aware of it, there are lights at the ice rink too. Now I don't I don't know the numbers of people at all of these, but, you know, most of the time through the winter, if we can get ice made, those lights are programmed on till 10PM. And we have gotten requests starting last year for the lights to be on during the summer months, certain nights for pickleball as well. K? Okay. And that's That would be to the That goes till ten because now we've got an issue there because now the pickleballers will be in asking for those lights to
be on till 10:00. But if our ordinance says the park is closed at nine Yep. Then they have to not play pickleball after 09:00. Yep. And then I've just looked it up. I mean, it was just shown to me Rochester's open till eleven. So at the evening. So I mean, ten is actually not even all that late comparatively in the area and, you know, you have neighborhood parks everywhere. And I think that's also part of the thing too. You know, one of the people pointed out that there's people with all kinds of different schedules and, you know, how do you make these parks usable for more of the community?
And and I think there's some balancing out of what hours you're going to have it and, you know, and you can't make it too difficult or too you know, too difficult for staff and the sheriff's department, the police too. So, I mean, it's I'm okay with a nine to ten. I was okay with the ten, but I understand the concern that, hey. You know, it's people going to bed, but we also have a noise ordinance too. So Justin, did you have any comments? You No. So this would affect also the soccer fields as well.
What do we know about leagues and stuff out there? Lights on the track. Lights up there. As of yet. I mean, we As of yet. I mean, there's been requests brought forward Well more lights out there. We have the possibility of pickleball courts out there on the far side, which Mhmm. May then turn into lights as well and then wanting to be out there late. The but the difference is I mean, have you guys seen where the basketball courts are located at the park? Yeah. They're they're, like, right up against their property lines.
Yeah. And basketball is loud. Yes. It is. So I'm trying to come to, like, a happy medium here, understanding that some of these areas will have activity still ten. All right. So the motion and second currently to approve resolution twenty twenty five-sixteen states that the park hours will be ten to 10PM to 6AM. They will be closed. If you choose to have something different than that, I'll need amendment on the floor to change the time. Otherwise,
we'll be voting on that motion. I think, you know, after consideration and all the discussions, I think it's gonna be really hard to go with the ten because we're gonna have other groups in here, you know, asking for ten. Are we gonna have to make so many exceptions? It's gonna be a problem for staff because we are already have identified exceptions we'll have to make. Are we will be strongly encouraged to make? There there would be nothing to do where we could treat that park differently from a noise perspective. Well, I think that all of our parks are classified as neighborhood parks,
with the exception of, you know, I guess you could make an exception for BCRC, but that's also in the it's in a different neighborhood. Right? It's still surrounded by, East Village. So we we still have, the neighborhood park challenge. I'm not saying that there's any magic to the 10PM. When we looked at it from a staff perspective, we tried to find that that balance. I don't know that I can find a perfect balance because I don't think it exists. And and so I I don't have a a great solution. This is not an arbitrary number. It is something that we tried to find,
again, that compromise, that happy medium. Anything that we change from there, I think that we do, we're going to create additional challenges. Nothing is insurmountable, but I I think that the challenges are going to continue to, evolve as we change the times. In part, because I think the 10PM has become a standard or an expectation, and we can show that with, you know, youth baseball and and some of the other things that are going on. They've they've kind of adjusted to that time frame. I'm not going to tell you it's the right time. I don't think that I can give you an answer as to what the right
answer is. It is something that we've tried to balance. Okay. Any further council discussion? Further discussion? Hearing now, we'll proceed to vote on the resolution twenty twenty five sixteen, changing the park hours. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay? Nay. Motion carries. Alright. Next, new business, fire department. Chief, you wanna come up and introduce our new hires? Hi. Good evening. Matt Grant, Bayard, fire chief. Just wanted to come up here tonight with, retirements we had back in December. Our hiring committee, did some interviews, and, we're looking for approval to bring on two members of the fire department.
Their names are Jeremy Armstrong and Catherine Kurtz. Okay. Any questions for the chief? Alright. We need a motion to approve those two new hires. I'll move to approve the two new hires for the fire department. Any second? Second. Any discussion? Hearing now, we'll proceed to vote. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next item, a new business, the JPA massage and massage therapist license regulations. This in short is, entering into an agreement with Olmsted County to manage massage,
therapy businesses. I think the thing that I would make you, aware of is there is an $85 an hour fee that goes with that. Not a huge number and and not a whole lot of oversight there. So I don't think it's gonna be a large expense over time, but it is letting, the public health, Department of Environmental Health Division, oversee this. And again, when it comes to that licensing, I think they're better suited for that than what we are. Okay. Is there a motion to approve, this joint agreement? Move approval of the joint powers agreement with Olmstead County for managing the massage and
massage therapist licenses. And a second? I'll second. Okay. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay? Motion carries. Nine d. Approve oh, oh, sorry. 9C. Miss 9C. Alcohol compliance checks. So we had one, that did not pass the compliance check. This is their first time? This is their first offense in the last three years, I believe, is the the way the language is stated. You are obligated, by code to impose a, penalty of $500 and suspension of license for
one day to sixty days. A minimum of one day, a maximum of sixty days at the Council's discretion. From a staff recommendation, we have had a, precedent in a situation like this for one day, which would be our recommendation in this case. There are no extenuating circumstances or, grievous circumstances that would suggest that it should be more than that. I see. I think last time we did it, we decided on one day within sixty days or thirty days? Sixty. Sixty?
And of their choosing. Correct? It it is of their choosing, but they have to notify us in advance, and it cannot be on a day when they're normally closed. K. So they can pick a slow date. Yeah. So we had one just Recent last week. Recently, that we did that and allowed them to choose, and they notified us a week ahead or something. And Correct. They give us an a notice a week ahead of time so we know what day it is. But, again, it has to be a day that they are normally open. It's a day that they are open. It it can't be falling on a day that they're closed.
For whatever reason, they're closed. I mean, they have to be open for that day. Yep. K. Okay. So I'm just do you want a motion on this one? I need a motion. Yes. I move I move that we, we fine till, Tilt the Tavern for the $500 and a suspension of one day of your liquor license. Second. Motion's made and second to impose a fine of $500 and a suspension of license for one day. Is there any discussion? No discussion. All those in favor, say aye. Aye.
Opposed, nay. Motion carries. All right. Now we go to Bill. Or Tom. Well Or Tom. Both of us will. So public works wants to cover. Yeah. So public works committee tonight, we reviewed the 2025 Street project. So just to recap, the 2025 Street project is, Seventh Street Northwest, Third Avenue NW, and, a little bit of a couple of sub streets that connect to that. That project, we will be complete reconstruct. We'll be putting new sanitary sewer, water mains, storm sewer, and sub drain. We did hold a public informational meeting here two weeks ago.
Relatively well attended. I think we had 15 ish people here. Good questions, good comments. We had a good discussion. So, we reviewed the plans earlier tonight at Public Works. Public Works Committee's recommendation is to approve what we're approving tonight is we're approving the plans, we're approving the advertisement for bids. So in that advertisement, which is in your packet, you are approving that we will open bids on April 3, we'll bring them to that next council meeting to act on them, and then you're also saying the other parameters, so that would be the completion date,
how much it costs to get plans, where you get plans, etc. We are setting the completion date of October 31, and then with intermediate completion date with the final layer of blacktop then the following June thirtieth of twenty twenty six. So that's a quick summary and overview. Tom, anything we wanna add? Or, actually, Dan and Steven, you guys heard the longer version? No. I mean, it's a street that definitely needs to have some work done on it and, and, clean up some sewer issues at the same time. So yeah. I'm good. K. So I'll make a motion to approve the plan and specs and authorize add or
bids for the 2025 Street and Utility Improvement Project. Second. Motion made in second to approve plan and specs and authorize bid add for bids. Any discussion on this motion? Is that allowed on this? That would have been the last settlement. He can come up during this meeting. I don't think there's public discussion on this. There's an opportunity after this under public comments. Yeah. You can come in. What's that? Yeah. Yeah. We aren't allowed to have public comments on this at this time. So Okay. Okay. Again, any further discussion from the council?
All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay? Nay. Motion carries. Okay. Last thing, delinquent utilities. We have just two. So can I have a motion to proceed with the shutoff on those? I move approval of the delinquent utility list. Second. Motion made and second to approve the delinquent utilities, list. All those, any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries. Alright. Now we will go to public comments. Jane Miller, two eighteen Seventh Street Northwest,
Byron, Minnesota. Twenty six year resident of this fine city. I pay taxes. We help build schools. Some people don't even have children. They help build schools. So went on a lovely walk on Sunday with my children around the neighborhood. Since, last Friday. I went to help a neighbor shovel some snow. First I've ever heard about any of this going on. Listen. Love the new sewer. We need some new sewers. Go ahead. Do it. New road. Love it. Go ahead. Do it. And then I hear talk about a sidewalk that's just gonna be slapped in there
willy nilly. And the frustrating part about it is it feels like kind of a backdoor deal. Now I know you guys had a meeting about it last week. Some people, 15 people attended. Families live in each one of those homes that are going to be affected. Okay? I have multiple vehicles in my yard, plus I don't need a sidewalk. We don't I everybody I talked to on Sunday, which was four or five, and I talked to my neighbor before I came up here, he hadn't heard a lick about any not even the road project being done.
So I'm gonna get cited for parking blocking the sidewalk because that's, you know, a sight sightable offense if I'm not mistaken. I'm gonna be responsible for clearing the snow off of the new walkway. And now I'm gonna have people running through my yard, scratching. Yep. My vehicle. All my neighbors' vehicles. It sounds like a lovely idea, I'm sure. I'm not saying it's a terrible idea. I just feel more betrayed than anything that it just feels that nobody was notified. Nobody knows about it, and I get it.
The city owns that portion of the walkway. But why wasn't there more of a straightforward discussion? It almost goes back to like throwing in that, basketball hoop. I mean, I'm sure if you talk to people, you could have probably positioned it in a better spot too instead of right up next to whatever. I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to talk about the sidewalk. Nobody knows about it, and now it's just gonna be slapped in there. And then now now what are you gonna do? Now it's there. Now we can't do anything about it. It just feels like there should have been a lot more discussion about this issue.
There's a lot of elderly people that are gonna be affected in this neighborhood too. Now they're gonna be expected to clear the snow. And I get it. The city owns that much portion. I've never seen the city, mow that portion of my lawn or every single resident in town or foot the bill for the snow plow or even plow the snow on that portion. So it's one thing to own it. It's another thing to own it. Right? The residents who live there. I just feel that we could have had more of a discussion about it.
I'm not. I am against it a % but I'm not saying that that's why I'm up here. I'm up here because I feel betrayed. It feels like it was rushed. Nobody knows about it. Not one person I talked to knows about it except for the lady I want to help shovel snow. And that's because she must have went to that meeting the other week where they were just told this is what's gonna happen. I was sent a feasibility, report. Thank you, Tom. Anyways, if it's about spending money, we can figure out where to spend a hundred and $86,000
somewhere else in the city. I'm I'm I can assure you. So if that's what if it's a budget issue, we can figure out where to spend that money. But regardless of that, I just, really wish that, I would have known about that last meeting so you could have took these words into consideration before voting. You know, again, it sounds good. But I think, you failed to consider the families that actually live there and that are severely going to be affected by this walkway project. So Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. I think at this,
it would be appropriate for either Tom or maybe even Bill, to speak to our sidewalk policy that was implemented many years ago in our expansion for safe streets and stuff like that. If I may, I think that's appropriate. Before we get there, we have a and I appreciate the comments, but I think we're challenged because, this is not a project that was a surprise. It didn't happen suddenly. This has been talked about in multiple council meetings, leading up to where this decision was made.
Beyond that and those council meetings, by the way, they're advertised on our our Facebook page. They're advertised on our website. We post them every month, and it happens the same, night of the of the month. But beyond this particular project, if I'm not mistaken, we sent letters out to every resident in the neighborhood saying, hey, we're having a meeting so we can talk about that, which creates a concern for me because the concept of transparency and talking to you about it is important. I'm running out of options for how do we reach the public,
and I think that there's an opportunity to figure out how do we do that better because we're striving to do that all the time. And I'm not sure how much more direct that we get, in particular, with a project like this. So I appreciate the comments, I hear the comments, and I hear the concern, but having the public input is where do we go with that? So with that in mind, Bill, I interrupted you on the No. No. Topic of the sidewalks. I just I wanted to make that comment, because we do value public input.
We don't always, see eye to eye, but that doesn't mean that we don't value the input. All right. Merritt, is it is your discretion to address public comments or not. So is there anything in particular you would like, me to address or just a general overview? Or Well, I think one of the things is I believe we have a plan in the city that has been in place for at least five years on any new or existing streets that are built or redone that sidewalks will be added. And that's been some just for general information, that has been something that we have been doing for many years now.
Correct. Yes. And like on this project, all the neighbors in this neighborhood were sent a letter. 15 of your neighbors did show up, so I can't speak to whether, the the gentleman there at 218 received a letter, but as the neighbors did, I really hope he did. As as Al mentioned, this has been on the agenda two or three times. I'd have to go back and look. Again, transparency is always something Byron's always strived for and we've tried very hard to do. As far as why we put sidewalks in, as part of our ordinance requirement and something that all cities are required to do
is we are required to do something called the complete streets policy. That means anytime we rebuild, we construct a street, we are required by our ordinance to look at how do we improve walkability, accessibility, both for, residents and residents, with disabilities, so meeting sidewalks as well. That's something, the city council has passed and approved. In addition to that, all new projects since 02/2001 on the subdivisions have required sidewalks on both sides of the street, because we have found that, and studies have shown that having safety or having sidewalks
in neighborhoods makes them safer. It also improves connectivity, also improves the things that you as the council and your visioning sessions have embodied that's important for the for the community. In addition to that, more recently, I don't know the exact date, let's say in the last five years ish or so, when we've reconstructed streets, we've we have been doing them on a case by case basis where we put sidewalk in. Now more recently, again I don't know the exact dates, you've required that on all projects. So all projects when we reconstruct the street we put sidewalk in.
I do object to the word willy nilly with putting sidewalks in because there is a lot of thought to that. We do have rules for that, a new subdivisions, the sidewalk goes in six inches off the property line, in all reconstructed neighborhoods. It is discretion of Tom and myself where we put those, and historically what we've done as we are doing this project, we put that five feet behind the back of curb. Okay? Now we get complaints about five feet behind the curb. Actually, at that public meeting, we had a resident say, we want the sidewalk farther into the yard because we want more room for snow
storage. So we also understand in older neighborhoods, we might have setback issues, but I don't believe it I was just looking at this property here at 218, I don't believe we had any setback, you know, where homes are closer to the property line, where we have driveway issues. So this neighborhood, the sidewalk is five feet behind the curb. That has been our standard. Again, we have discretion to move that. Where would we move that if we have like steep slope or retaining walls or something unusual? We have found that with five feet behind the curve, that generally leaves most homes with a 40 foot driveway.
Okay. That generally can park all vehicles. So we've looked at this. We spent a lot of time on this making sure we don't have issues. We have heard issues with people, with boats, etcetera, or, you know, longer trailers, but that's that's not been a lot of complaints. So in summary, and I'm kind of rambling a little bit more, but in summary, we've given us a lot of consideration, and we have overwhelmingly received positive feedback when we've put sidewalks in neighborhoods. We have had some negatives, similar to the gentleman that was up here. Most of the complaints though, have been around snow removal.
And I say most, meaning that's not a lot. It's very few. We've had very few complaints. Overwhelming, I would say the reception's been positive. I'm sorry. The other complaint we've had is tree removal. We do have to remove trees, so we we do have that, but we do recognize that and that's just unfortunately that's a a byproduct. So that's a quick rambling explanation. No. But thank you. Because I think that needed to be brought to the public so they can understand. So, public comments are still open. I just wanna remind you that public comments are for new business that hasn't been
covered in this meeting thus far or voted on. Okay? So if any of you have comments that you wanna make on the lighting or the parks, you can talk to us after the meeting. The public comments right now would be for any new items that we have not spoke about so far. Thank you. I just wanna rebuttal real quick since is that allowed? May I? It would be better to do it after the meeting. Okay. Well, 15 people is about 32% of that neighborhood that showed up. When did you send out the first letter for that meeting? Sir, sir, I think we'll talk about it right after the meeting.
Okay? I don't have those dates, but we will get that to you right after the meeting. Will you? Yes. Okay. Yep. I'll talk to you. Yep. Okay. Last call for public comments for any new business that has not been discussed. Yeah. James Samso at 618 Third Avenue Northeast. Yes. So just wondering when we can see the plans or how how those plans for the park are gonna be distributed. We I can say that we haven't, had anything, letters or anything come to us as neighbors preparing us for the changes happening in
the unless I've missed that. I don't know if any I would recommend that you talk to Tom Yep. After the meeting and and he can put you in touch with, where those would be. Okay. And and the discussion on new business, new thing is we saw that all the bushes were taken down throughout the parks and everything. Yeah. They'll grow back. Yeah. Are those is the buffer still gonna be there for all the parks? Like in Valley View Park, is those bushes still remaining? They'll grow back. Are they remaining for the Yep. We cleaned them out and trimmed them down,
but they'll grow back up. They'll remain. Yeah. We didn't remove the roots or nothing like that. Nope. We just trimmed them down. Okay. No regrow. And we could talk more about that because it's the trees coming down to the big tree for the So those that was the ash tree removal a couple years ago, wasn't it? Those trees were that were taken down. No. Where the swings are, that big tree? I I'd have to look for sure. Yeah. You'll have to maybe we can find it on a map or something. Yeah. If you can have us Yep. So on the park, and I know a lot of you came for that this evening, our park board is the correct sounding board for any improvements or things that you
wanna see in the park. They then make the recommendation to the council, to take action on that. So it it has to start with them. The council does not sidestep the park board and make those decisions. We were okay. Alright. Sorry. We tried multiple times to go to park board meetings. Everyone we came up for was canceled. Yep. So there was no park board meetings when a lot of these first these concerns were first meeting. You know, brought up brought up. Okay. Yep. I I will acknowledge that, last year, the park board had a challenge with a quorum,
and, unfortunately, we didn't know that ahead of the evening when the when the meeting was. Okay. And I apologize for that. I appreciate that concern and we're frustrated with that as well. And we continue to work with them to make sure that we don't run into that and mislead anybody into thinking that's all. Park board is not an elected position, it's an appointed position. So anybody who has an interest in serving on any of our boards and commissions, we encourage you to fill out a volunteer application and we keep that on file.
We're always looking for people to participate in our process. So that would be a great place to do that. I want to echo that, what Al just said here too because I sit on the park board as kind of an overseer just listening. And, there were a number of couple times where I'd be rolling into the parking lot, and Tom would be walking out and say we didn't have a quorum. So that that kind of stuff is beyond our control. But as Al said, we're definitely looking for volunteers on many of our different committees. A volunteer form for the parking board,
with Al last year when this whole park issue came up. He told me there wasn't a position available yet. So I did fill out this form. He put me on your diversity inclusion, team, which I didn't have an interest in at the time because the parking board is something that I am is very near and dear to my heart. So I feel very strongly about somebody that actually lives near a park or at a park being on the park and board to help with decisions and moving things forward. So Katie Savage, I would like to put my name back in the hat. I I have your application actually sitting on my desk,
and I think you put down both for the park board and for the economic development authority. Yes. Either one of those I was interested, but you know, I came in specifically for the park board to talk to you about that. No. I and I I appreciate it. I I don't have an opening there, and I haven't had one, since I received your application. But I do have it just absolutely, and I've left it on my desk so that we don't, misplace it or lose it. I I've got it sitting there. So I appreciate it. Appointed, how are they, like, removed? If they're not able to gather, come up with a meeting, go to so that you can have people there that are willing to be active
participants and show up? There is a mechanism if they miss three consecutive meetings. I think the challenge that we've seen is out of five members, it's different people that are not able to make it. What we saw last year was not the same people every meeting. Mhmm. I mean, it's not set. It's been set That's it's set in our It's been set up as five, I mean, for a since I've been here I mean, for a long, long time. I don't know if you have seven. You still need four. You need a majority for a quorum. So I don't I mean,
it might improve your odds, but not a whole heck of a lot, potentially. Okay. So at this time, we're gonna close, public comments. For those of you that have further discussion needed on this, feel free to talk to any of us council members. That's why we're here. And we can also, work with our park or other boards and staff if we need to. Okay? So we do wanna hear you out and listen to your concerns and and try to work, for a solution in the future. At this time, we're gonna do our committee reports. So I'll start with Deputy Street. Do you have anything further that you need to add tonight?
Okay. We'll come around, Bill. Nothing additional, mayor. Thank you. Okay. So I had P and Z, and I had no. I didn't have P and Z because it was, there wasn't anything on the agenda. And, we had park board. So we already discussed about what we had on not park board. I had planning I sorry. I had public works, which we already discussed about. So Say it with me. Yeah. Public works. Okay. It's been quiet for me. I was not able to to attend the first responders meeting. We did have a park board meeting, along with park hours. One of the big things was the improvement to what will fully be known as
the Red Park. Mhmm. But we're putting a new playground equipment there, which is super exciting. What's the timeline on the, the sand volleyball courts? Do we know? Not really. We're gonna make sure we get the playground laid in there first, you know, so we can see what we have left over. And the playground will start when? We put a request in to have that start that on May, you know, the first full week in May. Okay. Alright. And then anything else from park board? No. That was the big item. Okay. Let's see. Our diversity and inclusion council, we had another open mic night at the compadres. Just a few acts this time around.
Still a lot of fun. Probably, we'll be promoting more of that. Maybe at the, like, Pure Rock Studios to try to get some more more people to show up and sign up. And, the more people that sign up, the more people that come, and and it helps compadres the, the compadres with that. Our last meeting for diversity inclusion council, we discussed in, more details on our barbecue on August 23. So that's going. That verb, we're still moving on that. So, we're gonna have our next goal is to get some vendors to come and smoke meat contest,
home brews, other things going on. Music, we're gonna line up some music. Tentatively scheduled for it is scheduled for August 23. Hours, eleven to four. That's still to be ironed out, but we still gotta get all those details of vendors, home brew people, and, of course, musicians to play. It'll be here, at City Hall on August 23. So a lot more details to be ironed out with that, but should be a pretty, exciting time. Excellent. Thanks. Yeah. So, how was the attendance? I didn't make it to Yeah. I didn't see you, Steve. I tried, but I was at robotics No. I was, unfortunately unfortunately,
saw that the compadres had put on a few more staff because because he was expecting the numbers like we had last time. So, we'll try to do better. But this will be our last one, next month as we'll begin all the the the summer fun seasonings. Yeah. Summer stuff. So No. I mean, I I was to the last one. The one before this, and it was a really well attended, and I just couldn't make it to this one. I was Yep. Good. Doing some other stuff. Alright. Thank you. Tom? Yep. Park board and public works committee. Okay. Al, anything new? Couple things to update you on. We did submit a,
grant to the, University of Minnesota research, team for $200,000 to study the environmental impact of data centers on rural communities, specifically water and electricity. The challenge there, the concern is even if we don't have a data center, they use a significant amount of water generally for cooling, and all of our neighbors pull out of the same aquifer as we do. And, we might not enjoy the tax base or the benefits of the jobs and still have the consequences of, somebody else pulling a lot of water out of the aquifer.
So we're taking a look at that and trying to understand not only what those impacts are but are there alternatives to that. We are submitting a grant for the congressionally directed spending for the Highway 14 interchange projects in partnership with Olmsted County for both County Road 3 and County Road 5 interchanges. We have submitted and I know that there was a testimony two weeks ago, for the state bonding bill again on the same project. So we're pursuing that. We were informed this week that the city of Byron was selected as one of the twenty
twenty five best places to work, in Southeast Minnesota. Not sure where that came from. We are pleased with it. So we'll we'll find out more but that was a little bit of a surprise for us. And I think the last thing is we are this week, Thursday is the deadline for Friday is the deadline for the application process for municipal cannabis, licensure. We have the majority of our work completed. Kelly and I will finish that up here in the next forty eight hours and have that submitted. What I've tried to remind people is this is an application process,
we'll go through the application. It means that we hold a license if we are granted one, then the work begins And we have eighteen months to determine if, if it's appropriate, if it's a good thing or a bad thing and where to put it basically eighteen months to get something open there and operational. But at this point, we are going through, systematically the steps that the state has put into place, and every time we take a step to change the rules. So, we're learning. To go off on that, I did also attend the elected leaders institute,
in Plymouth, Minnesota. And, a lot of the talk from the league during their panel was on the retail side of municipal marijuana and cannabis and dispensaries and stuff like that. And I actually asked a question, and the league gave a lot of, like, pros and cons. So I was able to kinda come back to Al with a lot of their worry not not worries, but things to look out for and including banking, insurance, and all of that. And through conversation with Al, it sounded like we've got we've got things okay on that side.
So that was good to hear. Did anybody get else get calls from news media asking them to I did. Everybody got calls from I didn't get it until I got home late, and I figured somebody else already called them back. So Unfortunately, they asked a lot of interesting questions. There's not a whole lot for us to say at this point. I think they were trying to create a story where we really don't have a story yet. Based on the message you left, I thought I think they thought it was a done deal that we were ready to open one or something. And I'm like I didn't get a couple calls from citizens about worries about it.
But people who are also not aware that there are already three established three businesses in town that already sell THC products, so they were pretty surprised by that. So Yep. I think the the challenge with this is, you know, as as we go through the process, there is a private license lottery. They have the same deadline and the same process that we've been through to, to qualify. And so we're not in the lottery with the private business, but, there's not very many statewide that are gonna be in this first tranche of of
lottery licenses. And, there's a lot of speculation about the majority of those happening in larger metropolitan areas or border communities, to better serve neighboring states. I don't know if that's fact. Nobody has put that into print yet, but at this point, we continue to walk through the process and as the council has prudently adopted the stance of we're better off controlling it than we are waiting and letting it happen to us. And that's what we're doing for the public.
Our real goal is if we were to move into this arena, we're looking for ways to diversify our dependence on property taxes and look for other forms of revenue aside from property tax because in Byron, we do not have a large commercial or industrial base. And, so we have to look at other avenues to try and diversify that need. Okay. That's all I got. Thank you. Robbie? Nothing. Greta? Good. We're good. That brings us to the end. I'll I'll move adjournment. I have a motion to adjourn. Second? Second.
Meeting is adjourned. You've got to do all of favor. Favor. Oh. Come on. You're I mean, favor say hi. Hi. Pose nary. No. It's adjourned. I don't know if there's ever been a motion to adjourn that's failed. But So adjourn is one when you do that. Let's get a discussion and just fill it up. Yes. You yes. It's done. Yeah. Alright. So yes. The letter. Yeah. The letter. Settlement the first call. February 7.