i want to say this right reforestation yes perfect all right i got you i got you it's all good all right gabling in call to order for the city council meeting for Tuesday April 1st 2025 if I could get a roll call
please here here uh please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all if I could get a motion to approve tonight's agenda so moved second motion from Ryan second from Diane all those in favor say I i opposed nay carries gets
us to our public input public input is intended to afford the public an opportunity to address concerns to the city council the public input will be no longer than 30 minutes in total length and each speaker will have no more than three minutes to speak speakers may address topics relevant to the governance of the city speakers must sign up in advance and must provide
their name address and the topic they intend to address comments must be on topic respectful pertinent to city business and adhere to the applicable data privacy rules any speaker that violates these rules will be asked to sit down and if the speaker refuses to comply they may be removed from the meeting speakers shall not address
topics that are the subject of a public hearing all such comments shall be made at the public hearing the city council will not generally act on issues raised by the public input but may choose to schedule consideration of the item on a future agenda tonight we've got Avery
Evans reforestation of Canon Falls thank you for having me here tonight you're welcome um I prepared a little something that I wrote about my concern so I'm going to read it
i grew up in Minneapolis Minnesota for most of my life i have fond memories from my childhood there growing up there were elm trees lining the tight city roads they were big and beautiful one day I remember being in the car and
seeing X's marked on all on all of the elm trees my mother told me they were to be cut down now I am 19 living in Canon Falls Minnesota and yet again I see the same X's marked on the trees but this time
they're ash trees the emerald ashbor an invasive beetle from Asia traveled outward from the big city infecting the beloved ash in its path although the spread was inevitable it makes me indescribably
upset to see the ash trees become sick and needing to be cut down over a 100 ash trees were removed along Highway 19 already what is your point you may be asking the majority of the tree canopy
in Canon Falls consists of ash trees we will unfortunately be losing nearly all of our ash trees in the city although this is devastating the cycle of life is unending and I believe we can start a new if the city contributes in reforestation
efforts looking at the situation from the bright side I believe this is an opportunity to rebuild our forest for future generations to come and ensure the stability of our ecosystem reforestation matters in Canon Falls
most definitely because we live in a rural community where agriculture is one of the main driving economic factors trees play a crucial role in a sustainable agricultural system by supporting soil health increasing water
infiltration recycling nutrients and preventing soil erosion soil erosion alone is a big threat to this riversided community where flooding becomes a risk every single wet season in my opinion reforestation is
undeniably important for the vitality of our community so I guess on that note I kind of wanted to see if you guys like had any sort of plan to reforest this
community i don't know if you guys do or if you don't i just wanted to see all right so normally public input is not question and answer you just bring up the issue but be happy to talk to you after the meeting's over okay sounds good maybe even in the later time when we go around the horn we'll we'll answer
this question sure okay thank you thanks Avery all right that brings us to consent agenda tonight the 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 adjust and correct claims for the accounting period ending
on March 27th 2025 item B meeting minutes for March 18th 2025 council meeting and item C approve professional services agreement with WHKS for PFAS source identification and reduction grant is there anything the council
would like removed for discussion hearing none I would seek a motion to approve motion to approve motion from Lisa second second from Chris all those in favor i opposed that carries gets us to reports uh library
board met on March 24th no update no updates all right uh Joint Powers Trail Board lisa uh there's a lot of progress going on for the new bridges being built on the trail and bridges being um restructured
awesome thank you uh and then the upcoming meeting schedule uh finance committee is going to meet on April 7th instead of the 14th correct perfect all right with that we will go around the horn lieutenant Berg so as we know it is
spring we just ended our winter parking restrictions however we would ask people that if we continue to get snow please keep your vehicles off the streets so that we can keep them clear because they clear out pretty easily this time of year and let's hope we don't have to
talk about this again so could be the last measurable snowfall i'm hoping Sarah John um and one thing that I definitely wanted to kind of engage with the council on their input so I've been in
conversation with historical was out there a couple months a excuse me sorry couple months ago to to see the facility definitely has some needs related to the windows and the roof and I think I I mentioned this in in past updates with the council um the museum
board actually has the opportunity to fund raise or has the fun dollars available to do the window project and I just want to get kind of a nod or one way or the other if if that's okay if they if they move forward if they pay for 100% of the windows the conversation
we will bring up in the finance committee will be regarding the project related to the roof because they don't have the funds to do that but that is a city-owned facility um I have in my past communities worked with nonprofits that operate out of city-owned facilities we do have a draft of a me management
agreement that we'd like to bring forward and for discussion and work on a project plan for how to do the roof replacement and and come up with the funds to to cover that cost so and then additionally met today with the um with
the senior center um they have their they have now been um directed or told from the school that they they will need to pay rent for the use of the facility that they have uh in the community center um so they wanted to have a conversation so that will be
coming up as well as part of the finance committee and then um at a the upcoming council meeting so I just wanted to give the guys an update on that and then uh staff met today at another meeting with tracted to kind of get the update on on where that
is in the process so um the scoping side uh comment period for the scoping document ends this Thursday um then we'll get the that reviewed and that will be coming forward to the next council meeting to order in the actual AUR so then that process will start
all right thank you John uh would you like to take any time is Avery's concern is it state law that if you take a tree down you have to plant a tree it doesn't have to be the same spot it just has to be somewhere am I correct with that i'm not familiar with that if Jed were here
he would certainly be able to speak more to to the process i know with the grants that we a lot of the trees are being cut down and that was a grant-f funded um piece that we have and there is you know definitely efforts to replant um trees that hopefully aren't going to suffer
the same fate um you know I've been in every community I've been in we've had programs about as we've cut down trees especially those um related to disease um there's been funding to to replace them some way um others have been uh
damages from storms we've created programs to help property owners even replant and in their own property creating programs like that so so there are systems out there i don't know exactly if this specific grant what we have i'm just not familiar enough with
it um but I can certainly provide more input i thought that's what the plan was right yeah I thought that was too that would be the one to answer yeah too bad he's But he Yeah I wanted to respect the weather and allow him to to go home since he didn't really have much on the agenda tonight right just got back from
a No that makes sense and were those Was that in mind right away did Mindot have anything to do with 19 or was that all city related everything cut along um I'm not sure 19 I thought was Mindot um I know Hannah's been they did a lot of work in right here on the city hall
property too lot of trees around here we did um Yeah all the city property trees that was us yep i know that for sure okay all right we'll uh go around the horn laura anything i'm good chris I'm good ryan oh Diane I'm good lisa good all
right I'm good too very good questions i wish that Jed was here because he would be able to to answer those within the last few years uh I've lost four trees myself uh three because when we put the sidewalks in they were too close to the sidewalk so they got cut down and then one now the ash do the emerald ashbor but uh I know that we had talked about
that i I can't remember if it's state law or if MDOT if one gets taken one is supposed to be replanted in some way shape or form uh we'll look further into that it's a valid concern so uh hearing nothing else I would accept a motion to adjurnn motion motion from Lisa second
from Diane all those in favor opposed we're adjourned thank you everybody