Well, welcome, everybody. 06:00. Welcome to the city council meeting. It's a Tuesday, April 8. So we will stand and recite the pledge of allegiance before we get started. I pledge allegiance to the flag, States Of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. We will get started with, Rob. As you noted, Dan's not here. So Yeah. One of my k. Everybody else is here. So any changes to the agenda? No changes. No changes. Okay. I move approval of the agenda as written.
Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Vote. Agenda approved. Consent agenda, we'll I'll read them all off and stop me if you have a discussion. Otherwise, we'll we'll approve them all at the end. Four a, council meeting from March 11. Four b is plan and zoning from February 4. Warrant list, 300,000 and change. Four d is approval after payment. One seventy six and change. Big change. Four d is approval after payment of four E. There's a Minnesota lawful gambling exempt exempt permit application for the Ronald McDonald House.
Another one for a gambling permit for Ability Building Center and one more for gambling permit for New Ability Athletics. And then four h is LMCIT, liability covered coverage waiver. And last on the consent agenda is professional service agreement, Fourth Street and Tenth Avenue, Northeast. Any discussions? I move approval of the consent agenda. Second. K. We got a first and second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Consent agenda. Moving on to communications and reports. So You're gonna introduce the new you're gonna introduce the new guy?
Jumping a little bit. Oh, I thought maybe gonna have him do it is, you know, first time. What do we call you? Watch and learn first. Good. So as most of you have probably heard, I was lucky enough to be selected as the next corporal within our office. So this past Friday was my last day in Byron, and yesterday, I joined c Platoon under, Heather Johns, sergeant Johns, and I'm helping supervise c Platoon. So pretty excited for that opportunity. Congrats. Congratulations. Thank you. Bummed I'm, leaving town. I really enjoyed my time here, but it'll be a good opportunity for me. So with that is obviously with my vacancy,
deputy, Jeremy Butcher. I'll let him introduce himself when I'm wrapping up here at the end. He'll kinda give you a little bit of his bio, but he's a good selection. I think he'll do he'll do really well here. With that being said, I still got one more report to give from, last month. So the month of March, '2 hundred '90 '3 total calls back up from, February. 154 proactive, 53%, which is pretty good. Wasn't in March, but, yesterday we were awfully busy in town with all sorts of different incidents. One up at the high school which drew a little bit of attention. We did push out a media release on that. I can't talk too much because it's still an active investigation and,
quite a few people are still working on that, but, luckily, no, nobody's injured or anything like that, and the community as a part was, safe. So, it's just an interesting situation that more details will, come available in the future, hopefully. But there's a few other incidents that kinda took place in the same time yesterday, and just trying to piece all those together, and it's still, very active. We'll say that. So but like I said, no, threat to the community, which is the best part. So, other than that, there wasn't a ton last month that I can remember off the top of my head. But you're all dying and knows more about Jeremy.
So unless you have further questions for me, I'll let him come on up and stay a little bit. Yeah. Thank you for your time, sir. You, Byron. Appreciate it. It's been a pleasure. I'll be back for, Good Neighbor Days a little bit for, first responder night up here. I'll help out with Jeremy and Mhmm. Other than that, I'll be, in town when I'm working, the Byron as a Byron car. So Thanks. Alright. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Jeremy Butcher. I've been with the sheriff's office for about nine and a half years. I've been a member of our SWAT team for about five and a half years. Kind of been all over in the department, did some patrol.
Most recently, I was a utility deputy. So I kinda bounced around the government center, court security, help with warrants and civil papers. I've kinda dabbled in just about everything the department has to offer so far, except for a position like this, and I'm very excited for the opportunity to work with the city and work with all of you guys and see what this is all about. Is there anything that you guys would like to know about me or anything that you guys would like from me? Nothing particularly. You live in the area, or where do you live? I live in Pine Island. Pine Island. Okay. Got it. So what intrigued you about being a Byron City Cop Byron Cop?
I like the idea of working with a specific community rather than, you know, bouncing around the whole county. I like being able to, I guess, set roots, so to speak, get one area, get to know the people, get to know the places and the businesses, and kinda the ins and outs, and get familiar rather than seeing new new people, new places every day. Cool. Very cool. Awesome. Thank you. No. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Alright. The next is the Byron Community News, letter. Spoons has opened up.
It's been open there, I think, a few weeks now. I was there actually last week, a couple days ago. Really nice. Nice to have a breakfast place in town again. Yeah. And they're open till two, so it's breakfast and lunch ish. So glad to see that. Lifeguards needed? I mean, we're getting close. Anything? Because they're too fresh on the lifeguards. Lifeguard count, you mean? Yeah. We we got quite a few of the returners responding out. Should I ask first, is it gonna be open? Is is that why you're giving me that look? Right. The first question. Don't jump that one yet. Yeah. Don't let's we'll tackle that hurdle.
Okay. That one jumps up. Okay. Alright. Fair enough. Fair enough. There is one other thing in the community newsletter I think you should point out that there is a survey at the back end of it. Yeah. Did any anyone compile anything yet or not? I wasn't here for that. So Get out survey. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Could you have anything else with that? Okay. Alright. No public hearing. Resolutions. The first one is, resolution 202517 accepting a donation first responders. There's a thousand dollar donation. Can I say the family names or not? They're in the they're on the Sure.
I think it's t u s two Seth and Wilms. Both of them contributed to that thousand dollars, so thank you. So approval for that one? Move approval of resolution twenty twenty five dash seventeen, accepting a donation for first responders. Second. Yeah. The first and second, any public comments on that? Any council comments? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Resolution 202517 approved. 202518, another donation to the pickleball courts. I think I totaled up as a $3,300 so they're slowly moving towards they're getting some donations,
which is a good start. So, we're asking them to come up with some funding to help us so we can get a nice court there. So it's good to see they've started that. So I need a motion to approve the donation. Motion to approve resolution twenty twenty five eighteen, donation to the pickleball courts. Second. Yeah. We got a first and second. Any public comments on that? Any council comments? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Twenty twenty five eighteen approved. The next one is twenty twenty five nineteen interim use permit. Yep. So this was, this is an interim use permit,
at 1883 Second Avenue Northwest, which is the high school. It's for a, single pole cell tower that, this did go to the planning and zoning meeting, in a public hearing, and that was all sent out. Steven, if you have anything to add from the planning and zoning meeting of discussions you guys had? It was discussed. It was discussed in detail. This is the, I mean, this tower has been before PNZ, at the school site multiple times. They've just not built it up until now. So it's not the first time it's,
been proposed. And they've, in the previous times, it did go past PNZ and it did pass the council. And the concern from the public on the electromagnetic fields is not something that we can regulate. And they meet all of our they meet all of our zoning requirements. And they did submit all of the required information as far as the health and safety standards, and all of that information was received in time for, including the, executed lease agreement. That was all included in the planning and zoning packet.
K. Well, that explains it. So, I'll move approve of resolution twenty twenty five dash nineteen, interim use permit eighteen eighty three second Avenue Northwest for this South Tower. Second. Okay. We got a first and second to meet public comments on this resolution? Okay. All in council comments, other comments, nothing? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, resolution twenty twenty five nineteen, interim use permit approved. Now Bill's gonna take no. Tom's gonna take this one on the accepting bids twenty twenty five twenty.
So Yep. So we did solicit bids for the 2025 Street and utility improvement project. We had eight bidders submit bids on Thursday of last week, April 3. All bids were reviewed and, everybody had everything in place. The apparent the low bidder was, Snow Contracting. You'll see in your resolution that we have a list of all the other bidders as well. So what we're looking for here is the, the bids I will say the bids did come in a little bit higher than what we anticipated, but our estimate was,
you know, probably prior to the first of the year when we did our feasibility report in November. So, we're still within about 40,000 of our, feasibility estimate including the contingencies on that. So, so what we're looking for is a, you know, for the resolution is to accept all the bids and award the contract to Snow Contracting. K. I will move approval to accept the bids and award the contract to Snow Construction. Second. K. We got a first and second. Any public comments on this resolution? K. Any other council comments?
I just have one. We've had snow work for us before, but they've ever done anything this large for us, though? They not for us, but they have had those they did a a big street project in Stewerville. Okay. And, staff did reach out to the Stourville staff and they were very pleased with with the work that they did. Yeah. I know the stuff they've done from us before. It says they've done a good job. I just didn't know if they this looked like a larger project than what we've Yep. Historically had them do. So Yep. Yep. And there's some there's some bigger companies in there as well. It was very competitive. It was a very tight bid.
So I mean Very, very competitive. Yeah. Your high to your low is pretty pretty close. Yeah. I mean, within 350,000 on a 2 and a half million is a really 12%. Yeah. 12% is not bad. So Okay. So no other council comments? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? K. Resolution 202520 accepting the bid award contract is approved. No unfinished business. New. We got three on the delinquent utilities. Motion to approve that one. I move approval of the delinquent utilities.
Second. Okay. Got a first and second. Any public comments? Any other council comments? If not, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Delinquent utilities are moved. Public comments? This is section okay. Sounds good. Hey. Good evening, everybody. I'm Steve Boyd. I live at 513 Fifth Avenue North North East. Forgot my address for a second. I live directly across from the new basketball courts, and, we were we were surprised that they did go in. We're finding that they meet the,
definition of a nuisance for, the city of Byron, and also, violate some of the codes as well as far as, like, noise and that. My main purpose tonight is just to mention the accumulation of garbage out there, and we're starting to see vandalism. You guys set some bike racks out there and those have been flipped over and they're actually bent kind of diagonally now. Every day I'm watching kids go out there and they're crushing, you know, water bottles and cans, throwing them at each other and stuff. Yesterday some kids broke some glass in the shelter.
And it's typically one or two certain groups that are doing it all the time. And, it's getting to be a real eyesore. And then when the wind blows out of the north, of course, a lot of the garbage flows into our into our yards. And I would suggest that a solution for that might be to contact the Byron Basketball Association and have them talk to the kids and maybe address it with the parents as well to get them on board and, to help reduce the vandalism and keep the garbage to a minimum.
Yesterday, the kids were kicking over garbage cans too and then throwing the garbage on the ground as well. So and then there have been some parents coming over and picking up garbage cage occasionally, but the kids just have no respect. And then there's the loud yelling and swearing as well, and that's had to be addressed by us as well. Kind of a pain. And makes it hard to use our yards and all that too. So appreciate it. No. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Unfortunately, that's disappointing. Yeah. Well, I guess we can reach out to the buyer in Pasco, but I don't think it's them doing it.
Well, and I can touch base with Jeremy too. Okay. Please, isn't it any better than that? I mean, monitoring it? We've talked about before with with parts and stuff. Do we have any way we can put cameras out there? Do we have a city network? No. No? Yeah. We would have to run out. We'd have to we'd have to do a VPN and lease, capacity from somebody, and and, you know, there's a lot of other costs that would be associated with that. And, I mean, that's part of the reason you have lighting and you I mean, it's I mean, we have vandalism in a lot of parts. I think that one just seems to have more of it than others that's had
vandalism, though, before we put the baseball in. I mean, we had the slides get vandalized, what, five years ago, and they were down for, you know, over a year. So, I mean, it's gone up and down. So That's something I can look into. You recently. A lot more activity later in the night by, like, while they were driving. So high school kids, I think my kids based on, you know, looking at but since the park hours have changed, we've already seen a lot more activity there at night, and it's not the good nature Yeah. Would you mind then if I ask the deputies?
Did you just first hear any of this or not? I haven't been passed along anything. I know, we did, share, you know, when the park hours passed last, month, they sent out an email. Well, just so everyone's aware. See why that all the parts still be Yeah. If you see, I'm gonna figure out their past, test ten ten. Yeah. Learning is, If you can let your team know that because now that it's nicer, the activity is gonna pick up. So if you guys would just patrol that more often and maybe walk out there, you know, talk to the kids and stuff and say, you know, we're we're gonna be patrolling this. So, yeah,
just more presence right now because, obviously, the nicer, the more kids are gonna get out and more possibilities. So we'd appreciate that. Okay? And who's it? K. Well, I'm guessing it's because of the basketball. But because before, we didn't really have we had one small court there. So we'll try to get, catch that ahead of time if we can, best we can. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Any other public comments? Any other public comments? One more time. Nope. Any other public comments? Okay. No public comments. Mittie, anything, Dave, besides We, we talked about the exciting stuff in P and Z,
and, that was it because we didn't even have a public works meeting, but we probably need to have one of those again sometime soon. Firehawk, nothing else. Yeah. K. Slow for me. We didn't have EDA. That was canceled. So, yeah, I have nothing to report. I didn't have any. I was out of town. So I nothing to report from first responders. Let's see what else. Park Board also was canceled. We are still moving and grooving with our Byron Barbecue. So we had recently just had another diversity and inclusion council meeting. Once again, that's on August 23, tentatively scheduled from eleven to four.
More in-depth conversation about how it's all gonna work. You know, none of us have ever put anything on like this. And so just getting the word out there. I need to make some phone calls to some vendors. We need to get, like, five vendors that will take part in the competition. We did have, one of our committee members reached out to, the owners of Jack's Bottle Shop to get some vent you know, adult beverage vendors out there. When I put out the word that, like, maybe home brew people as well to get out there. Still touching base with some of our music entertainment out there.
So it's a lot of it's a work in progress, but we did have those from Jack's Bottle Shop reach out to us. So we're gonna meet with them hopefully within the week. We have a Facebook post out there too. Right? Yeah. I've put a put a post. I think we've, on spotted on Byron some of the pages there. I know Greta's helping us get the word out on that as well. So it's a work in progress. Yeah. It's gonna be fun. You know, you've all the way down to, like, who's gonna judge the smoked ribs. You know, we're thinking about doing kind of a a people's choice award where people pay a certain amount to get tickets and they can vote on their their favorite and then
also have, like, a celebrity judge competition. So maybe, like, some of the, business owners in town, like from Bears Den, Nichols from Wildwood, maybe even get the the new owner from the Spoons restaurant, from all different restaurants to kinda, you know, kinda good promotion for their businesses as well. But, yeah, it's a work in progress. It's we got a few months, five, five months. So it's good that it's in August because it's gonna be I think we're finally realizing how much work it's gonna be. We did get, Brian McGregor,
Nick Boninger, I believe that's the last name, from first responders. They got word of it. And so when I went to the first responders meeting, his Brian's big good thing was, I wanna help. I wanna help. So he's gonna he's helping us out. He's on the committee and then also Nick, one of our other first responders. So apparently, they have a wide knowledge of how these rib contests and these kind of fests work. So it's good to have some knowledge in there. Along with Al, who who helped put one on put one on in his old, hometown as well. So Nice. Where he was in Iowa.
So Yeah. That, we've picked a charitable focus. We had, Todd Kiefer come from the Pickleball Association, ask, first of all, how they can help with any kind of town events. And then we kinda talked and thought, you know, what would be a good cause to because it's gonna we're gonna have a charitable cause for this brew barbecue. And, the committee thought, let's pick a ball. Let's do it. And they they're gonna put forth, you know, they're gonna help us out to put on the event. They're gonna do a lot of promotion for the event as well. And we thought, what would be a good,
you know, first go around here, first charitable cause for this event, so the pickleball courts. They I think they've said they've raised about $25,000 for their pickleball courts. So, they're they're continuing to work on that. And that's kinda where we're at with the, yeah, the barbecue. And I'm thinking if there's anything else. That's all I got. We haven't had a do we have a finance and facilities meeting at all No. No. No. Quarterly. Those are quarterly now. That's pretty much it. Thank you. Yeah. Nothing. We had the park board canceled, but just more internal staff meetings. Okay. I'm just I'm still stuck back in the pickleball thing.
Where can we get something out to the community? I mean, basically, keep your parks clean, respect the parks, respect the I can work with I can work with Greta. We can get a splash. We can. Wherever it goes, all the Facebook page stuff says, you know, we're doing something nice and let's, you know, some The basketball courts? I mean, and the the parks? Are making And I know people on the BBYA too Okay. We can talk to. Mhmm. They have their their first meeting, I think, on tomorrow. Yeah. The problem is it's probably you know, might be some kids associated with it, but it's probably most likely not. It's not anything they're doing formally out there.
I mean, they supported building the the the Just to pick and, like, spread the word. But they yeah. There's gonna have to be some parents and stuff that stood up and stand up and probably do a little bit more a personal patrolling or something like that. And Are we are we opposed to community members actually speaking out and say, clean up your mess too? I mean, that's kinda I mean, I they're they're just supposed to sit and watch the part be vandalized. I mean, that's kind of another thing too. I mean But we don't want confrontation necessarily, but I don't think Is it wrong for them to say, hey, you know, you're That's my park.
My tax money is helping to pay for that park, and you're vandalizing it. Cut it out. I don't know. I just that's how I'm at now with, like signage. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that But if we don't have cameras, we can put up signs that say we have cameras. Mhmm. Well, I'll look into, you know, what what that would cost to get that. I mean, we're gonna need to have a we could have a wireless network for it. But then you have there's a lot of things that go on with that, but it's not impossible. But I think we could We'd have to go to cellular, but yeah. I think back to BBA is they wanted this, and we helped them.
They're all hundred percent behind it. So I'm hoping talking to them to let their kids know that. You know? Don't squeal. But if you see someone, this is what you guys fought for. Help us out. Give us some names. I mean, go to someone and give us a name of some kids that are doing that. I think they would have the biggest say in it because we did it for them. That's what we do in the schools all the time, being being upstanding, not a bystander. And if you just sit and watch your park be destroyed, I mean, you're being a bystander. So Yep. If you can get a BBA group, that'd be awesome. Again, it's great facility.
We'll hopefully get it turned in the right direction. Well, thanks. Robbie, anything? Those are just the donations, but is is was that their what they've got so far? I think they got about 25,000. I think we're only getting We're only getting the donations there on. Okay. So I don't know. I guess I don't know how much Yeah. These are just what's coming into the city. Making progress, though. Oh, yeah. Oh, perfect. Thanks. Okay. Anything else? Greta. Greta. I'm here. And then Okay. Carrie's here too. Carrie? School board. Oh, okay. Anything from school board?
Okay. Alright. Sure. Do does Lisa normally have a report? If there's anything exciting There there is some big news. Well, we do have news There you go. Okay. After that. Yeah. Sure. Yep. Okay. And don't be don't be shy because listening, yes. But if you have something, please. Just give us to get the information for us. That'd be great. Would I'd like to come to Mars so I can learn a little bit more. Sounds great. Perfect. They did I think they did agree to, bought another operating referendum in November. So that that has been Alright. Right? Made official. We should yeah. That should be coming out,
at yeah. That's what it's called. We know we're going out for one. There's just we just the numbers and the specifics yet haven't been be ready by June, and our numbers should be ready. I think Dan reported that the, the budget for rest of I don't know. Have those numbers and then You got that information. Thank you. There you go. You just gotta take it out. We're headed there. We got it, though. Alright. Nothing else? No. Motion to adjourn. Seconded. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Adjourned. 06/28. Thank you. So, yeah, let me know Yeah. Who the students are and Yep.
Yep. You can contact me. Join us for a meeting. I'm trying to remember what my daughter put. It's in here. She went to she went to she