[Music] good evening and welcome to the Rapid City council meeting for Tuesday March 4th 2025 if you could please rise and join us for the pledge I pledge aliance 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 please call the role council member groak here council member Butler here
council member Novak council member Geisler here council member Armstrong here council member Carlson here mayor cook here one absent Novak all right why don't we adopt this evening's agenda motion to adopt the agenda Mr Mayor second motion by Carlson second by Geer
to adopt the agenda the agenda any discussion or Corrections hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and the agenda is adopted uh next is to approve the minutes from the February
18th city council meeting move approval of the minutes second motion by Geisler second by Butler any uh Corrections or discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and the
minutes are approved we have four items on our consent agenda this evening and the first is to receive the 2024 year-end gambling expenditure report staff has received and reviewed the semiannual reports for July 1st through December
31st uh 2024 showing gambling expenditures within the city of Rapids and trade area for the six organizations at 15 locations and the combined net profit this period was reported at
1,226 7643 um all organizations achieved the 60% expenditure requirement within the trade area for the year and we're looking to receive the gambling expenditure report for 2024 uh next item on our consent agenda
is to adopt resolution 25-38 accepting the community strength Foundation donation in the amount of $476 and uh the Comm Community strength Foundation has graciously donated $476 to offset costs for the
2025 Winter concert series we're looking to adopt resolution formally accepting this donation which is required for State Statute and of course we are grateful to the community strength foundation for their generosity uh so we're looking to adopt
resolution 25-38 accepting the donation of $400 76 from the community strength foundation for use in the 2025 Winter concert series next item on the consent
agenda is to adopt resolution 25-39 accepting a donation of training for the new Police Department K9 we're going to slow this one down and kind of read through this because this is a really big deal um Mr Mark mcdna a retired
long-term K9 Handler for the city of K rapis Police Department owns and operates a police canine training business named MCD canine Mr mcdna is donating the training program associated with our new Police Department K9 to the
city of Kon Rapids in support of the police department's canine program recently we accepted a grant from AKC reunite for the purchase of a new police canine and Mr mcdna has indicated he wants to donate the training for the new
dog and Handler to the police department the training program for the dog and Handler is approximately 16 weeks of classroom learning practical exercises and testing once completed with training the dog will be certified as Dual
Purpose meaning it can be used for criminal apprehension and narcotics searches the new dog will be named King and will be partnered with officer mangang the team will start training in mid-march March and the value of this donation for training is
$144,000 so we're looking to adopt resolution 21-39 accepting the donation of the training for the new Police Department K9 king um from MCD K9 and with that offer him a great deal of
appreciation um the next and the final item on our consent agenda is to receive the schedule of electronic payments uh Minnesota statute requires a list of transactions made by electronic funds a transfer be provided to the city council
at the next regular council meeting so we're looking to receive the schedule of electronic payments from February 13 2025 to February 26 2025 and that completes our consent
agenda motion to accept the consent agenda second motion by Carlson and a second by arm strong to um accept to approve the consent agenda is there any discussion or questions Mr mayor council member Carlson I know we'll be saying a
letter of thanks to uh Mark mcdna but uh um Mark MCD was an incredible K9 Handler incredible K9 trainer very successful he and his dog Mack won the state championships for K9 just before he retired and so his services are just uh
they said we're we're real blessed to have him help us out out that way with our new dogs yeah and we're very appreciative any other discussion or questions on the consent agenda hearing none all in favor signify
by saying I I I opposed and the consent agenda is adopted under bid openings and contract Awards item six is to consider resolution 25-2 sub 9 accepting the bid and awarding contract for the 2025 full
depth Reclamation project 25-2 we had a full presentation on this for Mr Hansen at our last meeting I believe it was and this is to do the uh um wow Reclamation and uh I'm missing a
word here full depth Reclamation okay um this is a an exion Boulevard uh from Northdale to exion Street evet Circle from exion Boulevard to ceset Zilla street from exan Boulevard to the culdesac Yellow Pine Street from exan
Boulevard to the culdesac Flintwood street from Main Street to 126th Lane 126th Avenue from Flintwood Street to the culdesac 126th Lane from the culdesac to 12 126th Avenue 126th Avenue from Alder Street to culdesac 125th lane
from University Avenue to culdesac Alder Street from 125th Lane to 126th Lane and 126th Lane from Alder stre Street to University Avenue um the engineers estimate for the base bid was $ 49,27763
4596 Mr Hammer anything you want to hit on this Mr man you're doing a fabulous job there this is uh not our reconstruction this is that early season millo overlay or FDR but because the pavement section on these roads is too narrow a millon overlay will not work so
if you recall when we bid this we separated it into two because we weren't sure where we were on our estimates as you can see we had a lot of activity a lot of interest and some really good competitive bids so um I am pleased to recommend that we award both the base bid and the alternate and that will
leave us ample dollars to do reclamite and crack seiling and everything else that we had planned in the budget uh Northwest asphalt has done for several years along with some Recon uh projects so they are a good contractor and I'm again happy to make that recommendation to award it to Northwest asphalt and the
total project amount of $574,500 sub 9 awarding a contract to Northwest asphalt Incorporated for the base bid and Alternate in the amount of $574,500 full depth Reclamation project second motion by Carlson second by
Butler Is there further discussion on this hearing none all in favor signifi by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries item seven is to consider resolution number 25-8 sub n awarding a
contract for the 2025 well rehabilitation program Mr himmer are you happy with where these came in yes Mr Mayor I wish we would had a few more biders but uh we did get two they the range fell on either side of the engineers estimate eh rener has done
this project for us in the past um this is well within our project budget and I would be happy to recommend eh rener U for both the base bid and the alternates that total is is $353,500 excellent any questions of Mr
himmer Mr Mayor counc Carlson make a motion to adopt resolution number 25-8 sub n awarding a contract to eh renter and sends in the amount of $353,500 hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion
carries item eight is to consider and receive lawful gambling report and authorize payment to community strength Foundation um somebody want to Mr Mayor sure I'll
miss L May as outlined in the memo since 2012 the council has indicated its intent to contribute part of the treible gambling revenues to the community strength Foundation this is an overview of the lawful gambling for the year and a a request for Council approval to
authorize an expenditure of 99,1 4164 to the community strength Foundation all right any questions of Mrs lensme Mr Mayor thank you council member Carlson make a motion to accept the 2024
lawful gambling payments report and authorize the expend of 99,1 14164 to the community strength Foundation second motion by Carlson a second by Butler is there discussion on
this hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries item nine is to consider resolution number 25-40 amending the 2025 fee schedule to add fire inspection fee for food
trucks uh this looks like a another Mrs lens one it is Mr mayor council members this item is a request to approve an amendment to the fee scheduled to allow for a fire inspection fee for food trucks as part of the licensing we have
discovered that a fire inspection is not being done and so that is a state fire code requirement and the um fire departments and City Clerks from Kun Rapids BL and fridle and ala Champlin have been meeting to discuss trying to make this uniform throughout the county
so that we can make it easier on our trucks the recommendation is that we U recommend this $100 fee that would cover a fire inspection anyone getting a fire inspection in any of the participating cities can use that in any of the others without having to do it
again that is really nice collaboration good work any questions on this Mr Mayor colovia this one we talked about this in fire protection a little bit I to see the fire chief's not here tonight but uh is it just between the fire departments of Rapids Blaine and Fridley and
anok Champlain or is it every city in Anoka County thought it was countywide Mr mayor council member groak we're beginning with the cities that are listed and as we get things established up and running and the fire team is comfortable they
will add other cities within the county okay yep that sounds like kind of the direction they wanted to take made sense for everybody so good to see this all right we have a yes than you and there's also a hope to expand maybe across the river too to
some of our neigh I mean you got Anoka champ on here but also other areas it's not just restricted to in NOA County since this is a city burden to carry this inspection Mr mayor counc council member Geisler yeah that is absolutely something we can discuss as we grow this
if they've got the same type of fire departments and they've got uh qualified inspectors I'm sure we would be open to that awesome thank you all right um any other questions on this Mr Mayor C Carlson make a motion to
adopt resolution 25-40 amending the adopted 2025 fee schedule to add fire inspection fee to for food trucks second motion by Carlson and a second by Armstrong is there any further
discussion on this hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries uh let the minutes report or show that Council robbert Novak is here thank you Mr Mar all right item 10 is to
consider resolution 25-42 amending the budget for Golf Course restaurant um we're burning through that equipment out there Mr Anderson May mayor council before you yes mayor council that that's that means
means we have a very busy kitchen which is actually awesome that part's good so you before you as a recommendation to replace a refrigerated work table essentially what that unit is is the rotisserie which is a main part of our our restaurant kitchen um all the meat
the steaks the chops the chicken Etc is stored in that for a while before it goes onto that rotisserie so it's a very important piece of equipment to be working properly and it's just not holding the correct temperatures which obviously is a very important thing for it to do it has some other functionality
as well um so we there several fixes were attempted on this youit but it just uh didn't take we thought we'd be just fine to get through this year but it's not going to make it there were a couple other items noted in your uh memo that were in the budget The Griddle and um
the cooler The Griddle has been fixed we believe that will last a few years uh which is great and the cooler we're not sure that we'll ever need that additional cooler in mes but you may see that come back in a couple years we'll see okay any questions of Mr
Anderson if this is your first look at restaurant equipment it's always very expensive compared to everything else Mr mayor council member gisler uh I'll make a motion to uh uh the staff uh sorry I'll make a motion to approve
resolution 25-42 amending the 2025 golf budget for the purchase of a replacement refrigerated worktable second motion by Geisler and a second by Butler is there any further discussion on this Mr Mayor just C grisak just a comment I just I appreciate the creativity here
this wasn't in our 2025 budget and the fact that we can get a few more years out of that griddle with some repairs is great and the fact that that cooler other one may not ever be used I I I like the fact that we're taking that money putting it in here and actually having some left over into the golf budget so good job on that thank
you all right any other discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries and item 11 is to consider the lease agreement for the golf cart Fleet
and GPS units um now see I've got Miss Hansen's name on this one but is that who I want to talk to Mr Anderson mayor council I'm super excited about these new golf carts and the GPS units however this this gets
a little in the weeds Beyond where I'm I'll miss Hansen way out in the rough huh Perfect all right Miss Hansen thank you Mr Mayor city council um before you are two lease agreements um to be considered for purchase of our uh golf
carts and Rental of GPS units so the first is a 5-year standard lease agreement for rental of the golf cart GPS units um that totals 231,000 over 5 years and is only available through a lease agreement
um and Tim can speak to any you benefits to those if you have questions on those um the second one is a lease purchase agreement um so our finance purchase for the golf carts um before you is a five-year agreement uh with a dollar
purchase option at the end um so this allows us to use the golf carts and then at the end of the fifth year if we choose we want to they can last longer and we want to buy them um then we can have them beyond the five years um and still have value to be able to trade in
for a fleet later on um or we can at the end of the the fifth year just um reup for a new agreement um we have in the past funded golf carts through um either an inter fund loan or um we have other options to do equipment certificates but
we found that the lease purchase agreement is the best option at this time questions Mr mayor council member Geer Miss is will this be then paid for through the Enterprise fund from the golf course then correct yep um both of these agreements would be paid for with
cart um rental fees okay thank you Mr Mayor c m Armstrong have we have we done the dollar buyout on these things before uh council member AR typically or the last few that we've purchased we
have purchased and then funded with an inter fund loan with the revolving construction fund so we purchased them outright and then we you know the golf F fund pays back another fund um we have found that for in this particular case that we the revolving construction fund
we want to preserve that fund balance just because we have some larger projects that we're anticipating we don't want to drain that too much um and then typically golf carts have lasted 3 to four years and the ones that they're wanting to purchase have longer batteries so allows us to have a a
longer life um and so a lease purchase option is a great way to purchase these yep i' i' I'd agree I mean I've done things like this on a smaller scale for our business but uh I'm curious to see how this one works out because that's a
this is a great idea all right any other questions Mr Mayor CC rovak so these carts we've got a five-year term on those fiveyear lease are the batteries warrantied for five years and are is the mechanical nature
of those all covered for 5 years do we have like a service agreement for 5 years on these things mayor council yes we do and the batteries the most important part of these carts are fully warrantied for 5 years regardless of of usage levels which is a big part of that yeah I have a feeling we're going to be
looking good in five years when we get these back for a dollar and can upgrade that and the fact that they have these extra these these GPS units with that geoc catching and all that fencing on there I think is going to be a great addition to the just the experience out
there at the golf course so here we go more golf [Laughter] carts all right um if there's no further questions do somebody want to actually put a motion forward Mr mayor council member Carlson make a motion to adopt
resolution 25-41 authorizing the city to enter into the lease agreement with Huntington Bank for golf carts GPS units adopt resolution 2543 authorizing the city to enter into the master lease agreement with Huntington Bank for golf
carts authorize the mayor and city manager to execute the agreements further authorize the city manager to execute any additional documents necessary to carry out the agreements second motion by AR uh motion by Carlson second by Geisler Is there further
discussion on this hearing not all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries and then item 12 is to consider a letter regarding the potential closure of the Northstar Commuter Rail
service um nicely done y nice letter does anybody have any questions or concerns with the with the draft letter Mr mayor council member Butler I I just wanted to thank City Manager for it it was a really helpful letter just to walk through what's happening and you know
I'm excited to vote for it Mr Mayor counc gisler and for what it's worth I will encourage our neighbors to also draft their own versions I know that there's some discussion but if everybody is speaking about this I think it is better for everybody up and down the line as it exists so I encourage them to
speak up as well yes and and the the gist of this letter is um and it's kind of in that second paragraph Rapids has invested heavily in the areas adjacent to the Riverdale station including tax increment financing to subsidize several multi family apartment
buildings next to the station that were designed to work in conjunction with the commuter rail furthermore the station has provided access to and from the Riverdale Shopping Center area which is a major economic driver it's basically to make sure that there's a PL that we
get some concession if they're going to take out the northart train that we get bus service we get some concessions for the infrastructure that we have put into place and the Investments that we've put in place so Mr well done uh council
member Carlson our available Services decline quite a bit and I I know that probably had to do with the use but hopefully that's going back up again it'd be nice to have be kind of back to where we were preo on service and uh have those buses run hourly instead of
every other hour it' be also nice to have some investment some shelters if we get some help with that y Mr Mayor and I'll just add that we covered it pretty well but we have had several conversations with other jurisdictions that are Sim would be similarly affected should the service go away and
coordinating with an NOA County and then finally I'll just mention that we've had some preliminary conversations with some of our state uh represented folks including Mr a senator abler today called me and just uh encouraged us to really push on what we might need at
that station site in the future given the services being taken away so that's something we can continue to talk about and work with our partners on to figure out what that might be yeah very good Mr mayor council member gar and I you know chatting with Metro Transit a little bit too just about and from my time on Tab
and what's there I think there's an opportunity to maybe Revitalize the usage at fley parking ride as well as kind of a nor a mid and a South connection and if we're switching over to buses or something else of maintaining some service let's get the value out of all the properties that are
in the city here um so I I would encourage some level of Replacement Service because transit's one of those things that uh if you build it they will come but if you don't have it they can't write it um so there there's there's really no other way to get more Riders without having more buses um or more use
or more available service so I think that is what's plagued this and getting more frequency up and down I think would serve the community very well and our neighbors as well all right is there any other discussion on this uh Mr Mayor just to
add to what was said here but you know there's not only is the city of Rapids invested in this but we were at the Rapids business council meeting this week and a lot of our businesses have invested around this kind of infrastructure to and uh you know need this type of stuff to get their employees to and back from work so I
appreciate the letter and I will contact legislators legislators as well all right so what we a motion on this or Mr Mayor oh yeah are C Carlson make a motion to approve the attached letter or
modify it as necessary you allow staff to provide a consistent message regarding the city's position on the potential termination of the norstar Community rail service so hang on so to clarify the motion we're approving the attached letter yes what yes yeah that's
the yeah that would be my goal thank you okay should I scratch the modify part mayor and Council you know I think it's fine just as it's necessary to tweak a couple things in there Council M Geer and I talked about some verbage that it would be very minor just spelling out Metropolitan Council instead of Med Council things like that so I think okay
so you would like that part in there that's I I was I thought originally it was intended to um if Council wanted to modify it tonight they could move that but you know I guess if you want to leave some discretion for the city manager to make Minor Adjustments that would be helpful
okay I'm going to I'll be quiet I'll retract mine I'm go with your original motion yeah I was a question myself for a second I am so sorry okay I will second the original motion we have a motion and we have a second do we have um further discussion
on this Mr mayor council member grisak staff members will need to sign this I take it so will that come in front of us electronically yeah M Council I think we can probably the likely route would be a docu sign that will hit your email this week very good okay very good any other discussion
hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries and we are to the open mic portion of the meeting is anybody here to address Council for Open Mic this evening
okay I got one guy looking at you all right we'll move fast Open Mic I don't have any reports on previous open mics and we are to other business um we have kind of a big day coming up Saturday Saturday is the Northwestern uh remodeling show at the
Andover YMCA from 8 to 2 um it's a really really a great event they still do uh Food Shelf things where you bring canned items I think for the food shelf pretty sure um otherwise it's free admission and
it's just lots of contractors lots of you know the this the the staff is there from the city of Kun Rapids and Andover and Anoka there's just um if you're thinking about doing anything to your home there's somebody there to talk to
and get information about it and Mary you are correct non- perishable food items and donations for acbc food shelf will be collected by the Boy Scouts of America on site so yeah that's it's a great it's a great event Mr Mayor coun Butler I I was just going to say too
even if you're not thinking about doing a renovation in the near future it's great for new homeowners just to understand what's out there you can understand what things cost contractors can help explain that question you're too afraid to ask your dad like there's tons of things you can do if you're a new homeowner even if you're not ready for that project to learn there and it's
just a great event I met my electrician there last year all right yes may C rer Carlson just want to point out that there's only two winter concerts left for the Winter concert series the next one is March 13th at 700
p.m. it's Kenny and Friends country music kapen Civic Center 700 p.m. it's $8 for adults and $5 for kids 12 and under all right any other business to come before councel move to adjourn second motion by
Geisler second by Butler to adjourn I'll in favor signify by saying I I I we're adjourned