e e a race to be the last one call to order for the city of Canon Falls city council meeting on Tuesday March 18th 2025 if I could get a roll call please Diane Johnson here Zimmerman here Chad Johnson here Jepson here noach
here Cronin bger here and Montgomery 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 justice for all if I can get a motion to approve tonight's agenda motion to approve motion from Lisa second second from Diane all those in favor I opposed carries uh nobody signed up for public input so we will
skip number five tonight go straight to the consent agenda consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as Council business uh item a just and correct claims for the accounting period ending march 12 2025 Item B meeting minutes for
March 3rd 2025 uh city council work session item c meeting minutes for March 4th 2025 city council work session item D meeting minutes for the March 4th 2025 city council meeting item e approve the gambling permit for Canon Falls fire
department relief Association item F resolution 2806 accepting a monetary donation of $780 from Steve nordine item G approved approve the sign replacement at Hannah Bend Park item H resolution 2807 approving a conditional use permit
for Magnolia Animal Hospital item I resolution 2808 vacating a portion of the platted stoton Street item J approve final pay request for Third Street water main connections item K approve Amendment to the escrow agreement with tract and item L approve Professional
Services agreement with whks are there any items that the council would like to pull down hearing none I would uh accept a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda all moved motion from Diane second from Chris all those in favor say I I opposed
no that carries gets us to council business tonight item a 2025 Street overlay project John if you'd like to take this one thank you council president um we engaged with whks to together quotes for Street overlay
project for this year we had um funds budgeted for this project and uh we anticipated that the engineering estimate was about 170,000 so it didn't meet the competitive bidding requirements at the state level and um actually had I think four Quotes come in
and I'll let Bill kind of speak to the quotes and how they sit uh thanks John uh so as John mentioned we received four quotes the low quote was from ASX and services uh their quote was in the of 138,139
so just to make sure everybody we have a map in there but it's Canon Industrial Boulevard and the alley at John Burch Park so that's what we're recommending to do axon has worked in town before uh they did the pool project uh would be two years ago we had one problem if you
guys remember they they had a well I'm sorry the council members that were here uh they had a dump truck that they left in the air and they drove down the road and took out a power line uh but they did repair it so other than that uh um you know we are required to award to the low quarter unless there's a specific
reason not so uh with that we are recommending the council award the contract uh to ASX and services and the amount I mentioned previously questions or comments from the council hearing none I would accept a motion to approve the 2025 Street
overlay project moved uh did you have a question or motion okay so motion from Ryan second from Lisa all those in favor say I oppos nay at carries gets us to Item B the ordinance Amendment for the fairgrounds John if you want to take
this one thank you uh Mr Mayor and so the the memo that before you and the action that we're requesting tonight uh comes after uh the mayor and council member jeffson and I met with uh ferin Miller president of the fairboard and and two other uh fairboard members uh
earlier this month um as you know uh going back to 2024 uh the fair had a racetrack constructed uh operated the city had not permitted and informed them that those actions weren't allowed um
the come December time frame there was a Planning Commission meeting that an ordinance amendment was brought forward to the Planning Commission but it was denied um and then the council at the subsequent next meeting actually confirmed that through resolution to
deny the the ordinance um following that action staff uh was kind of left without further Direction so The Stance at the time is that the portions of the fairg grounder Zone R2 uh there were activities within that zoning District
that aren't allowed uh which included racing as well as uh storage of campers and um C or storage of RVs and then camping on site so those are things that we we brought up in the discussion we did get more clarification on the camping side of it that those are for
permitted events only um which is in certain ways are allowable by by State Statute but still remains with the R2 zoning um racing wouldn't be permitted and RV storage wouldn't be permitted um so under that conversation we met um and
it was decided that moving forward we would look to um discuss an ordinance Amendment if it did not include if it also allowed for Banning or preventing racing through motorized racing on the racetrack from um taking place at the
fairgrounds um demolition derbies uh you know other things that have happened that are motorized activities but not specifically those race events um we would look at continuing those because they have been traditionally or for a longstanding Time activities that have happened at the
fairgrounds so with that um it was agreed upon by the the folks in that room that if we could move forward with a request to the council for the zoning amendment that we may be able to come to you know agreement and have the race trck no longer operating to a certain
extent so the action that we're looking for tonight is authorizing staff and the City attorney to um discuss those nego um ordinance amendments as well as you know in part of that conversation we'd like like to uh make sure that we're in
conversations with the fair fair board and their attorney to to meet that you know the key stipulation here is that no um race activities motorized race activities would be included author you know allowable uses within the district
would they be able to apply for like a permit for a special weekend or something in the future or like you know a one- day event type of thing for something maybe go-kart racing or dirt bikes that smaller events we did not get
into that U level of this detail on the discussion but the regular racing activities you know all all would be back to the fair the way it was 2020 before 2024 yeah for 100 years all the events they normally did yes essentially
and preserving their ability to do things in the future that they may need to do to evolve um and earn Revenue to you know support their operations that you know would fit within the characteristics of the fairgrounds if they want to do an activity that's not specifically written down say they want
to run a craft sale do they have to run it by the city first or do they can they just do that that that could be a part of the the conversation we you know it was believed that anything that isn't nuisance or you know creating you know adverse effects to the city that you
know events like that all to have at host at the fairgrounds would be good for the city in ways to you know drop people in and and utilize their their space we did talk about you know wanting to be able to preserve that within the ordinance specifics regarding the the
exact details of the oraments we I don't have at this time that would be you know what we asking for the authorization to start to draft things right those those are very good questions but what we have before us tonight is just to give the green light to our city staff and our legal team to work with the fairboard
and their legal team so that all these questions that you have will be included in that order so it's starting the process of the fair zoning correct and those details will be picked out in between and this and this would you know I know it was concerns uh potentially about just zoning the fair kind of on an
island and having its own dedicated Zone I I do feel looking at their activities that they have and our existing ordinances that that probably is the best Direction um you know based on our authority to to Zone something I mean and the use of of things that go on at
the fair that are vastly different that was that was kind of the goal we want to preserve what they've been able to do make sure that they can do things that you know fit within the character of the fairgrounds moving forward in the future you know so long that it didn't include the race track and the racing Y and this
would be fairly consistent with say other communities that have fairg grounds that the they're probably not in R2 zones because like you said the events that are held are not consistent with an R2 yes so we're trying to make things right so that moving forward the fair can continue to hold events uh
generate revenue and continue to do the events that sustain the fair and that the community supports correct that is not in violation of uh state laws or noise ordinances or things like that Y and we did talk about you know if if there are you know things that aren't
listed larger Events maybe potentially there are some other communities that do have like a large scale event ordinances that are separate that that you know potentially could be something we' look look at uh in the future as well so yeah okay any other questions or comments
discussion from the council I guess I just one qu if we voted this down what's what's what happens I mean I see it as an all Branch I see it as a good thing I'm I'm bored with it I just want that out there if we said no to it I mean if just to kill it
it doesn't seem like a good option I guess in my opinion I think if it if it said no then our you know our letter that we issued in January um discussing the conflicts with the ordinance would stand in enforcement would we would have to sustain that enforcement okay and
what would we be enforcing uh that they cannot do racing activities the camping we you know there's still some qu legal questions on that we do believe that they have some authorizations to do camping based on the permits that they isied from the state for different
events they host um but then the RB storage would would not be a part of it as well um which is a revenue source for for them what about Fair activities the Fair activities would likely stay based on you know probably they could probably
Define it as legal non-conforming we've been doing it forever um you know so those activities within the specific time in the fair probably authorized but um it would be it would definitely call into a lot of question I mean because I know there's a lot of activities in the
fair that probably don't align with R2 but right we know that these specifically were not fair activities so that's why we wanted to make sure we address them and would you say being in that room it was your understanding that the fairs on board with no we were all
in a in a solid agreement that this was a direction that us all were able to work together they they very much wanted to work in a collaborative fashion and not in not not In Contention like we wanted to work together we wanted to
keep a good good relationship and positive relationship working between us the city and the and the fair sounds good thank you any other questions from the council uh would it be included I know we gave a original notice was 30-day
then we gave an extension now that we're going to if it's approved tonight uh give our legal teams the green light to to work on an ordinance will will there be an extension built in I I guess I um I intended that to be a part of this as well the action that that that letter
would just be de that's what's standing that teaming on deemed um deemed not necessary uh one they've I mean there has been noticed that racing activities have ceased I mean that that's that is in the public record so that was one thing we asked for that
that's there but then they would be able to sustain the RB storage perfect so so we don't need to put an EXT it's just understood because action is being taken yeah I believe I believe in the enforcement that if we're authorized to move forward with a zoning Amendment and that's where we
ultimately end up with I don't think we need to you know kick out all the RVs off the fairgrounds until we you know before that's concluded perfect so I got I got one more question just so I can understand this zoning Amendment will still follow same procedures including a public hearing
and Planning Commission approval prior to coming to city council so is the public hearing separate or part of the Planning Commission I believe that we've historically had them with the Planning Commission public hearings for Zing amendments and if it's if it's requ or requested or wanted we could certainly
do both okay it's not you're you have your standard practice but you can have host another public hearing if you if you the council deems it necessary all right hearing no other questions or discussion I would seek approval for ordinance amending the fairgrounds
motion to approve motion from Chad second second from Laura all those in favor say I I opposed okay all right that passes gets us to our reports is Maggie here tonight
Maggie Chamber of Commerce good evening mayor and Council um just a couple updates here from the chamber we just rolled out our new canif Falls visitor brochures um so we have our Discover guides that we've had for a long time now we wanted something a
little smaller quicker easier for our storefronts um and other attractions to be able to give to our visitors when they come to town so these have been handed out to select businesses um like I said it's just kind of shows a map of downtown canif Falls and then um outer can Falls too so like fernal is included
in this as well so look for those that select businesses discover guides will come out within the they should be in my office within the next week or so and then we'll get those rolled out we order um over 5,000 of those and those get shipped to different chambers and visitor bureaus all across Minnesota and
then um obviously within our own businesses here in Canon Falls um something that I've been working on the Smith has a paint the town Grant so there's a possibility that we could have another mural come up in town I'm working on details with that to see what
we can put together um so hopeful that that all comes um or goes the way we hope it will so more updates on that as we kind of fig fig that all out and then just some upcoming events I wanted to put out there April 19th um St aners is
going to host an Easter egg hunt um they've done they did it last year maybe the year before um they've done a great job of taking that event and kind of making it their own so it'll be a Easter hunt for the kids I think it's April 19th at 10: a 10: a.m. um and then the Easter Bunny will be there as well so
that's a community event everyone is welcome to attend that um moving ahead to a couple months after that into the summer we have June 5th is our summer kickoff so basically we're taking FunFest just renaming it um we're going to try to make it a bigger event this
year we're going to do vendors on Four Street and then music and food trucks and activities on Mill Street um and then June 23rd is a chamber golf tournament so I just wanted to put that out there everyone is welcome to golf in this it's a um our largest fundraiser of
the year for the Chamber of Commerce so that's all I had just a quick update any questions all right thank you thanks Maggie uh the Eda met on March 6th
um I'm trying to recall if that was mostly uh an update on the hardwood Estates how how things are are progressing there um we had discussions of moving into phase two and the timeline that that will be and uh I wish
Laura was here to to share the good news but it everybody at the the Ed seems to hardwood Estates is moving far above anybody's expectations so the fact that phase one has been this successful that we're opening up phase two and looking at the possibility of phase three and four maybe happening at the same time
with the construction of the park uh get all the grading so that all the land that needs to be moved instead of doing phase three and four separate maybe that'll get done together um the the road that'll shoot out to uh County Road 24 all those things so um you know I think that this kind of it doesn't
necessarily it just proves how how much this housing was needed uh that it's being this successful Beyond anybody's expectation so uh it's it's a sign of good things to come I think for our community if there's anything you'd like to add John yeah no I was great we had
uh Jesse Preston from whs they're presenting the the kind of concept of the plat to you know start that phase to to move forward and and get that next next phase all platted um this one is uh all platted with just single family home
since that has been the the driving U market right now um the the current project all of the single family homes are are under contract um so w yeah that's great what's that estimated they'll be starting at uh that would the
housing that the for the lots for the second phase yeah that will very much be determined based on the cost of the project and you know it'll be the you know however much that comes in with the bids hopefully it's competitive really competitive like the last series um I
think as I've learned there were 18 bids on that project so they got some really competitive rates so the the cost of that came down uh significantly um from potentially what it could have been the lot estimates uh the sizes plan to be smaller than phase one or very similar
to very similar to probably the average normalized Lots in phase one no more tow houses no Town House slots developed um 75 foot is pretty common I think for the width L with yeah generally upper you know 68 to
75 you know in that range those those have been really what's been asked for from the Builder so and I remember I don't want to take the words out of Laura's mouth without her being here but um we thought that in Phase One the town homes might be one of the drivers because we'd see who was going uh and
the fact that they were so cold it's a good indicator that um we've made the right choice moving forward um if that were to change we still have the ability for phase three or four but um right now the driver has been single family homes and that's really been been moving faster than anybody expected so are
there any plans to do um like multi like apartment complexes where it's like six person ones or anything so nothing out there and nothing on Timber Ridge nothing nothing in this plan for for hardwood for multi multif family
units um I know just was overhearing something today that there has been other conversations about finding other multif family um sites for other multi family projects um I know that that demand is you know probably still pretty high considering
how quickly The Cannonball apartment is filled yeah it's also more friendly to seniors as they're moving out of their houses at you know Apartments so I all right Public Works and Park Board also met on March
6th did a park bench donation from Steve nordine an has Ben Park sign replacement and the warming house project yeah yeah if you want to just give a yeah so the cfy fifth grade boys
uh basketball team uh used the the ice rink quite a bit over the winter and so to help out theyve volunteered to paint the inside of the warming house under staff Direction I'm sure giving 11-year-old's much paint yeah oh they'll
do a great job yes there well so we're excited for that um I'm working with with um uh them to to figure that out yet here in the near future yeah so that's great that's great I know that that fifth grade I've got a fifth grader and that group used the The Ice rank a lot this year because conditions they and a
compliment to you they said the ice was perfect this winter was just just right for it Chuck spent a lot of time out there like yeah so all right uh Planning Commission on March 10th and we basically both items before us my goal
Hospital uh C and ston Street vacation all right awesome we'll go around the horn Jed um we are supposed to get 0 to 12 Ines of snow tomorrow who knows um earlier we had
blizzard warnings they've since rescinded that that zone it seems like it's kind of trending Southward but there's a good chance we're going to get snow throughout the day tomorrow um depending on you know how fast it falls we'll we'll take care of it most likely we will be in
tomorrow night or you know early in the morning cleaning everything up all right Bill uh one item mayor um so at your next council meeting you will be receiving an engineering agreement uh to engage uh uh whc to assist with your P
management so for our new council members for the last two years the city has been working on a p or they've prepared a past management plan and we've been doing sampling within your sanitary sewer system so I always have to look this up so what is pasas it's per and poly floral alkal substances
okay so what is that those are chemicals that are think of Teflon uh heat resistant stain resistant type items in the metro area this was 3M was having problems with Scotch Guard uh they were having problems with their drinking water we do not have problems with our drinking water we get asked that periodically we have Pas in our waste
water okay and it's coming from those sorts of things from carpet carpet stainer most likely from Industries and we had high levels so last fall we applied for a p uh Grant to help do additional testing also by a sampler and
also to U work with the industries to to find the chemicals and remove them uh so that is what uh will be in front of you at the next meeting so just a little heads up on that and then anytime we get a chance to just spread some news we have had some information we've put out in the past here at the council some
handouts Etc so uh we're going to continue to talk about that for the next foreseeable future all right so thank you mayor thank you Bill I got a question how do you test for that do you just drop it in a sewer in a area in a certain area and see okay like this area
is high and that area is not and narrow down yeah so what J and I can both CH so this last round I we went uh we kind of identified industries that had P or potential for for p so we sampled certain um affluent of the the different
Industries um some of were more just C certain manholes but we were actually able to sample um specifically the affluent of like Gemini and Canon equipment and whatnot so U to make sure that they weren't discharging any past that they and a lot of that you know the
the people that work there they really have no idea what's in some of the chemicals they use and so this is a that Grant is a source uh reduction so that we can find out where it's coming from approach these businesses and ask them to remove it um because it's really hard to remove from waste
yeah great exactly thank you thanks all right Nicole anything with the library um everything's going smoothly at the library good um so I want to give everybody an update about the ILS migration so that moving to our new library catalog that all of the celco
libraries are going through um it's fast approaching in a month and a half so our official go live date is May 1st and the last day that we'll be able to check anything in on our current system of
horizon is going to be Saturday April 26th and then although the library is going to be open Monday through Wednesday May um April 28th through 30th um we're not going to have our catalog at all so we can't check
anything in we're not going to have any delivery for inter Library loan from any other libraries um but we can check things out on an off Cent circulation module so um I would am asking that everybody who comes into the library
between now and May 1st just kind of get into the habit of having your library card with you because I know everybody who comes to me when I'm at working at the circulation desk it's erased to see if I can pull you up faster than you can pull out your library card um I won't be
able to do that that week none of us will be able to so if you can have your library card either in hand or on your phone because we do have the CCO libraries app um which now has the barcodes in it please do that and then we'll be able to check things out to you
that week and then on May 1st that's our official go live date and we're going to open at noon that day so that morning we're going to be uploading everything that we've checked out we're going to anything that's been checked in
we're going to start trying to get in before people come in and start using the new system so we expect there are going to be hiccups but we're already in the testing database and checking all of that out reporting hiccups that we're
discovering and we're still also doing training there's going to be a new they call it a discovery layer and really what that means is it's when all of you go to check something out that's the website that you're going to whenever you want to
make any requests or look and see what is in in the celco libraries catalog that's the discovery layer they have all of these weird terms so we're getting that too and then we've got our side which is called the client side and
that's what we're so we're getting trained on how to do both of them so it's been kind hectic for us but just know that April 28th through 30th we are going to be open and you can come in for our library
programs and everything you can check things out it's just going to be a little bit different you just have to have your card with you um so yeah there's that and then I don't know if anybody has heard about the executive order about
disbanding imls the Institute of Museum and Library services so that we don't know exactly how it's going to impact our library but it
will and as an example Minx it's out of um University of Minnesota they get $1.5 million in lsta money and that money and per year and that money go pays for Min
link which is inter Library loan between all of the library systems in the state of Minnesota and it pays for El Library Minnesota which is the online databases that all of the students and adults can use for free throughout the state of
Minnesota those have the potential of going away and that could really hurt us because I don't know if we would be able to find the money for us to pay for any
of that and then um I am Le also pays for eate funding which covers internet access to 99% of libraries in the country and ours
is one of them so just letting you know we don't know exactly how it's going to affect us but these are some ways it most likely will so thanks
Nicole chief so Jed talked about uh the weather uh I just want to reinforce to people that uh with the daytime uh snow plowing while your street may look like it's been cleaned they are going to come
back to clean everything up uh curb to curb and so if we do see snowfall I would strongly encourage people to not park on the streets the last thing we want to do is end up towing a whole bunch of cars and having people come out in the morning and be surprised when
they can't get to work because the car is not there um so please just get them off the uh the streets if you don't have a driveway to put them into there is parking downtown in the city Lots um and I would much rather people use those than end up having to call one of the
Toe Companies to get their car back so as Public Works uh and I communicate through the day tomorrow we have a much better idea of what their plan is going to be but since it could be anywhere between 0 and 12 my recommendation is if there's white stuff on the roadway uh
that looks like snow it's probably going to get plowed like snow get your car off the road that's all I have all right thank you Chief Sarah John thank you mayor um last week I was able to attend the EIC um board meeting and kind of
gave him a little history of myself and kind of update on things going on in the city um great to participate with group like that and then right after actually came from one to the other we had the chamber luncheon um that was uh great Laura and I kind of presented on things
happening in the city um and then there's the one thing that was announced and I spoke a little bit more about it because I have some experience with this in my previous Community uh there's a deed a grant called Main Street revitalization Grant and their phase three the last phase of funding is is
has been announced so applications are available for it um I reached out to the southern Minnesota initiative foundation on that they did receive gr funding in phase two typically the funding has gone to those organizations to to get distributed um that's how we worked it
when I was in Little Falls with the initiative Foundation um so I I informed them that you know we'd potentially be interested so part of that meeting with the chamber was to see if there's any businesses that potentially could would want to do that so let them know like if they're interested in pursuing this that
they should contact contact lur I and we can kind of start putting something together but Smith did say they they may have opportunities from their phase two funding some leftover dollars to potentially redistribute within their region so um you know we'll see if
anything comes of that that might give us some quicker access to to some resources but it's a really cool program where um it allows for uh building business owners um to improve their their buildings for a lot of things that may not typically be easily funded by
private funders um like a bank um so their example is is anything if you could pick the building up as if it were a tall small toy display shake the building anything that doesn't fall out potentially could be funded you know stuff that's integral to the building so Plumbing sewer electrical you know are
are stuff that typically don't get funded or you know are not easy to be private fund because they don't add a lot of value um but that could be something that's funded in this program so if there's that interest out there again please contact us and um we might be able to to put together a proposal um
it is a part Grant fund so um 30% of the cost the overall project could be reimbursable as a in in a grant then um one other thing positive uh news we're working on the insurance renewal right now for property and and
uh U mobile property liability as well as the work comp which we just renewed um the rates on that actually came down a little bit from from what we anticipated in the budget so um kind of a Good Year from the league of Minnesota City's Insurance trust so we're seeing
the the positive impacts of that in our in our um rate to Renewal great awesome thanks John Laura I'm good Chris I'm good Ryan
Diane noan Lisa good Chad uh nothing all right uh I'll be quick I want to thank um Steve nordine is in our uh agenda tonight for donating $780 for the monetary donation for that Memorial bench uh I also want to recognize him he's been on the Park Board board for
longer than I can remember it's been at least a decade plus um and so he's still serving on the the park board Public Works joint board um and so we appreciate that donation from from Steve and all of his uh time that he donates to the city uh and then also I want to thank uh Bruce bra and then Bucky Lindo
uh this morning they invited me to speak at the Canon Falls Breakfast Club um it it's a lot of the churches in town plus the uh Fellowship of Christian athletes just a group of uh you know high school kids middle school kids get together it's a great organization they get together and they give the Lions help
this morning the pancakes the the bacon which I found out is uh donated from uh Ryan Pierce at Mill Street um it's just a great Community event um and they invite different people to uh to talk and um it was just great to to see kids outside of the school uh getting
together at an event like that and that they have such Community Support so I want to thank Bruce and and Bucky for that uh that's pretty much all I got so I would seek a motion to adjourn so D motion from Jep second second from Chad all those in favor opposed we're
adjourned thank you everybody