[Music] Good evening and welcome to the Rapids City Council meeting for Tuesday, May 6th, 2025. If you could please rise and join us for the pledge. 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. God bless. Please call the role. Council member Griscoak here. Council member Butler here. Council member Novak here.
Council member Gisler here. Council member Armstrong here. Council member Carlson here. Mayor Cook here. All right. Why don't we adopt this evening's agenda? Moved. We got a motion and Novak. Was that a second? Yes, it is. All right. Motion and a second by
Novak. Motion by Gesler. That is uh to adopt the agenda. Any corrections or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. That motion is a motion carries. Um, item one
is our National Public Works Week proclamation and we are looking to recognize our outstanding public works staff as we approach National Public Works Week, which is May 18th through May 24th,
2025. And before I read the discussion points, I'm going to read the proclamation because it covers a lot of those discussion points. um proclamation public work public works week whereas public works professionals
focus on infrastructure facilities emergency management and services that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to the public health high quality of life and well-being of the people of Rapids and whereas these infrastructures
facilities and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are federally mandated first responders responsible for rebuilding, improving and maintaining our transportation, water supply, water treatment and solid
waste systems, public buildings and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. And whereas it is in the public interest for the citizens and civic leaders in the city of Rapids to gain knowledge and understanding of the importance of
public works and public works programs in their community. And whereas the year 2025 marks the 65th annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association.
Now therefore, I, Jerry Cook, mayor of the city of Rapids, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim the week of May 18th through 24th, 2025 as National Public Works Week in the city of
Rapids and urge our citizens to join with representatives in of the American Public Works Association and government agencies in activities and events designed to pay tribute to our public works professionals and employees and to recognize the
substantial contributions they make to protecting our health, safety, and quality of life proclaimed this sixth day of May, 2025. And I like that line and urge our citizens to join with representatives of the American Public Works Association
and government agencies in activities and events designed to pay tribute because we've got one of those coming up, haven't we, Mr. Hammer? Yes, we do, Mr. Mayor. May 17th from 10 to noon, we're at public works facility. Come on down, tour the site, have some snacks, play in the equipment, ask some
questions, and learn a few things along the way. If you just listen to the proclamation, if you understand everything that you guys do, um they've got some really cool equipment that they do it with. And so if you're wondering where your tax dollars are, stop by
public works May 17th between 10:00 a.m. and noon and check it out. You'll it's it's amazing. You there's you I guarantee you will find at least one piece of equipment where you won't even know what it does to ask. Um is there anything else
on that, Mr. Hammer? No, Mr. Mayor. Um I tried to bring every every time some staff I got one two in the house tonight which is nor better than our normal one. So uh you don't have to just present it to me but I guess I would ask if you have some time um next week if you could
come down and maybe present the proclamation at lunch or something for our staff. Oh um maybe take some photos. We can get some social media out there to gain more interest and maybe get more people to show up uh on the 17th. Absolutely. It'd be my honor. All right, we'll work something out. Okay,
perfect. All right. Yeah, and we do greatly appreciate our public works department. Um, all right. Uh, item agenda two is to approve the minutes of the April 15, 2025 meeting, your honor.
Council member Novak, I move to approve the minutes of the April 15th M meeting. Second. Motion by Novak and a second by Armstrong. Is there any discussion or corrections? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. And those minutes
are adopted. We have three things on our consent agenda this evening. Uh the first one is to accept the right of entry agreement with family promise of ana county and this is for the project um um at 340 95th Avenue. It's an 8-unit
apartment building and plus an existing home. The right of entry agreement will allow the city to enter onto the property for the purpose of maintaining the water main system, including hydrant flushing and exercising of the gate valves. Such an agreement is standard for a new multif family residential
development. So, we're looking to accept the attached right of entry agreement with family promise in ana county for the family promise development. Next item on the consent agenda is to approve a service agreement with Alexandra House. Um, Alexander House is a
nonprofit corporation that is an NOA Countyy's only women's shelter. Um, actually women's and and families now shelter. It provides a 24-hour shelter, support services, advocacy, educational opportunities to residents in the city and ina county. Alexander House also
works with the police department and the city attorney's office with domestic violence cases. Alexander House has made a request for financial assistance for the services it provides to the city and this and the council did appropriate $15,000 um in the 2025 budget for these
services. The service agreement reduces the party's wishes to writing and this agreement is for one year and can be terminated by either party with 30 days notice. If it is terminated, the funds paid shall be returned in proportion to the number of months the contract was not fulfilled. So, we're looking to
approve the city to enter into a service agreement with Alexandra House to provide shelter, support services, and advocacy to affected city residents. And the last item on our consent agenda is to receive the schedule of electronic payments. This is
from our finance director. It's required by state statute that a list of transactions made by electronic funds be it provided to the city council at the next regular meeting after the transaction. and we're looking to receive the schedule of electronic
payments from April 10th, 2025 to April 30th, 2025. That's the consent agenda this evening, Mr. Mayor. Uh, Council Member Novak. I'm sorry, Butler. I move to approve the consent agenda as listed. I'll second it, though. Motion by Butler
and a second by Novak. It seemed like you were posturing to to to make the motion, so I was already anticipating it there. I was playing on my phone here going through the Angry Birds or um so we have a motion and a second and I have a quick question on item four the
um service agreement with Alexander House. I recall we did we did kind of an estimate several years ago that $15,000 seemed to be about the right amount for the services they provided for the police and the attorney's office. And I'm wondering when if if we've looked at
that again since um because it seems like it's been 15,000 for a number of years. Um I can speak a little bit to that. We haven't really done an any estimate recently. The 15,000 is actually fairly new. It's only been the last couple years. So 24 and 25 that we
did 15. Before that it was 12,05. Five or six years ago it was 10,000. So we've the council has incrementally moved that up and so we've been at 15,000. Now this will be for the second year at that amount. So we I guess are accounting for inflation or
increased cost. Sure. Sure. Well, just cost of staffing. Yeah. All right. Well, so I can is it safe to assume we'll take another look at it before we enter before we do the next budget cycle because it seems like we'll be starting that shortly again.
All right. Um we have a motion and a second. Is there any other discussion or is there questions on consent agenda? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. And that motion carries. Item
six is to hold a public hearing and consider adoption of resolution 25-67 establishing a housing improvement fee for Village Manor Condominium Association. Um we're asked to consider a resolution for the imposition and
collection of fees in the Village Manor Condominium Association housing improvement area. Mr. Brody, do you want to hit the highlights of this or again? We're kind of at the last piece of the puzzle of this particular housing improvement area. This is the night where we would consider adoption of the
of that resolution that would impose the assessments on these particular properties. the um resolution being imposed would not uh go into effect until 45 days after adoption um unless uh certain amount of the residents approve it prior to that because there's
a right for them to object to it as well. So, it gets a little complicated, but it's spelled out there and we do provide notice. So tonight we're asking that you hold a public hearing um to take any comments on it and then that you would uh adopt the recommend resolution that would then allow for
this project to move forward for them to get the improvements that they're asking to be done which mainly consists of their replacement of their roofs and then the any cost associated with that um would be um assessed against each of the individual properties.
Okay. Yeah. Because at this point now the contractors have been selected. So the final cost is available and we can proceed to the next step. Um the cost of the improvements amounts to $93,660 and this includes replacement of
the roof, sophet, fascia and gutters of one building. With the city's standard assessment fees, the total cost is $110,2320. Um and yeah, there and there is only the one building. The costs are proposed to be spread equally among the eight residential units in the village
manner condominium association housing improvement area and the fees are to be spread over a period of 15 years. The pro proposed interest rate of 5 and a quarter% is consistent with the current rate for special assessments and the amount of the fee to be levied against
each of the units um is proposed to be $13,752.90 and the fees will be collected annually along with the taxes although they may be paid in full at any time. Any fees paid in full within 30 days of the adoption of the resolution will not be subject to interest. Um and
then state statute requires that before resolution imposing the improvement fees can be adopted. Um the association must submit a financial plan demonstrating that future maintenance and capital improvements in the area can be accomplished. And such a plan has been presented and re reviewed by city staff.
And the plan indicates that through increases in monthly assessments and proper scheduling, the association should be able to maintain the existing improvements as well as make future capital improvements that may be needed. So, state law provides that a resolution
imposing the fee may be vetoed within 45 days, which is why we're waiting 45 days after its adoption by the owners of 45% or more of the housing units. For this reason, the resolution provides it will not be effective until those 45 days
have elapsed or until the owners of at least 55% of the units have committed in writing not to object to the fee. Okay. Does anybody have any questions of this before I open up the public hearing? Mr.
Mayor, Council Member Gesler, question for finance. just uh curious does this just flow through our regular assessments accounts of in and out for covering this and and and what that from a special assessments perspective council council member Gryer yes this
would flow through our special for revolving construction or special assessment fund um there's adequate balance there to cover that amount and then it'll be collected over the 15 years thank you all right is there any other questions before I open the public
hearing hearing none uh will open the public hearing in the case of resolution 25-67 establishing a housing improvement fee for Village Manor Condominium Association. Is anybody here to address council um for the public hearing for
this matter? Is anybody here to address the council for the public hearing for the village manner condominium association? And I'll just ask one more time. Anybody here for the public hearing for the Village Manor Condominium Association Housing
District? All right. Housing approvement fee, I guess. All right. Well, we'll then we'll close the public hearing and council, what are your wishes, Mr. Mayor? Council member Gesler, I move that we adopt resolution 25-67 imposing the imposing improvement fees in the
Village Manor Condominium Association housing improvement area and providing for the collection of those fees. Second motion by Gesler and help me out. Who? Butler. Butler. All right. Second by Butler. Is there any discussion on this?
Mr. Mayor, Councilman Novak, I just want to say that this is a fantastic program offered by the city. I've taken advantage of it myself. Uh me and my association. Uh it's a great program. It goes right under your property taxes. If a unit gets sold, it comes off the sale price. uh this is a fantastic way for owners to
be able to improve areas if they meet the requirements. So if there's others out there, please consider looking into this kind of thing. Okay. Is there any other discussion? Mr. Mayor Counced I mean no objections from any of
the homeowners on this. We're ready to move forward and they're ready to move forward. So we get her done right. Still our first choice though is that they keep a balanced reserve account and take care of these repairs themselves. That's right. That's our first choice. That is our first choice. Okay.
Hearing no other discussion. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. And that motion carries. So now the residents here have 45 days in which to file a a a veto or or a no vote or whatever it is. Sure. Or
they can also file that they don't or they can also say yes. go ahead and if we get 55% of them that say that they can get started earlier. Correct. Thank you, your honor. All right. Item seven is to consider resolution 25-12 sub9 awarding a contract for the
2025 reclamite maintenance project 25-12. Mr. Hansen, is this you? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and councel. Uh so this is our 2025 reclamite maintenance project and the resolution uh before you
is to accept the bid uh for for that project. Um we received one bid from corrective asphalt materials very close to our engineers estimate. We have worked with corrective asphalt materials several times in the past and have had
very good success with them. Uh and just for a little background, reclamite or rejuvenator is a process of applying uh the rejuvenator product to the surface of the asphalt. It not only seals the surface but also penetrates into the
asphalt and rejuvenates it. So it is what we have found to be the best product on the market to be able to maintain our newly reconstructed asphalt streets. Um so uh the uh the pending
contract award uh the work would take place mid July to mid August and then this project would uh rejuvenate about 15 miles of city streets. All right. And apparently they must be
the only ones doing this or the only ones to feel that they can put a competitive bid in. Huh. That's correct. Yep. Councel. Mr. Mayor, Council Member Butler, I move that council adopt resolution number 25-12 sub9 awarding a
contract to Corrective Asphalt Materials LLC for $32,400 for project 25-12 Reclamite Maintenance Project. Second motion by Butler and a second by Geisler. Is there further discussion on this
hearing? None. All in favor signify by saying I opposed. And that motion carries. And item eight is to consider resolution 25-5 sub9 A, B, C, D, and E, awarding contracts for the 2025 street
maintenance program 25-5. Mr. Hansen again. Actually, I'm going to turn this one over to Mr. Himmer. I think he is going to walk us through this particular item. I did not mean to skip over you, Mr. Himmer. Mr. remember, but Mr. Hansen's name was on
the sheet to be fair. Mr. Mayor, council, uh, this is our annual street maintenance program. This is the consortium where we administer the project for all the member cities. It's been going on for several years. Uh, we had the usual cast of contractors
to bid on this. It came in within the estimates that we had prepared. uh all the member cities have concurred that yes, we would move forward with these contracts and these unit prices. Um so they've gone through their opt out period and so um it's it's usually a
straightforward process. However, uh much like a few years back, we had a few biders that while they may have been the lowest biders, um their quality, their performance, um some of the work that had been done and the fact that they
didn't reply to a request for um updated references um as de has us deeming them as a non-responsive bidder in this case. So for the crack ceiling program as well as the pavement markings, uh we have disqualified the the lowest bidder and
uh we would be making recommendations consistent with what's on here for crack sealing, black top, uh pavement markings, uh fog ceiling of streets, fog ceiling of trails. So uh as mentioned, there's A, B, C, D, and E. Our recommendations are the contractors at
the bids shown in the um memo. I'm certainly I can go through them for you down to the penny if you'd like. Uh other than that, I'm happy to answer any questions any of you have about this. Mr. Hammer, it seems like it's a really um tight timeline there. The the letters
went out for explanation on April 11th, and then on April 23rd, they said, "Sorry, you didn't respond. We're not going to accept your bid." Is that because we only have a 30-day review period, so everything has to be really tight like that? It just seems like 12 days might not be enough for them to
construct a really worthwhile response. But yes, Mr. Mayor, having a week to provide a list of references, I I think is that what it is? Is is more than I wasn't asking for a novel or anything. Just please tell me
who you've worked for in the past year in a same or similar environment. And I received zero reply to that request. And that was kind of some of the issues we were having early on is aside from the the the workmanship uh issues, it's just the lack of communication and
scheduling. And in some instances, cities weren't getting their their maintenance projects done. And when you miss out on an opportunity to do street maintenance, you don't get your crack ceiling done, you don't get your pavement markings done for a year, now you're set back for much longer. So this is something that uh we don't want to
risk again, right? And we've got 12 cities in the consortium. So that's 12 customers they have to be satisfied with or just about anybody I suppose can Mr. Brody you have your hand up. I'll bet we've got a legal answer here. I just wanted to add a little bit to to Mr. Hemer's response is it wasn't their lack
of response that that was kind of the final piece of it. We had issues with performance in past years, them getting the job done in past years, them communicating in past years and we wanted to give an opportunity to for them to say, "Hey, we've changed or here's how." And they didn't respond to that. And so frankly they're you know we
have an opportunity to give it to the lowest responsible bidder and that's what we're asking to do here. Yeah. Nope. I just looking for clarification. No issues. Yeah. All right. Any questions? Mr. Hmer. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Council Member Gesler. Uh Mr. Hammer. Uh any concerns about three of these are
going to Allied Blacktop. Any concerns about aggregation to the vendors or do we feel that they have adequate capacity to handle all three project types? Yeah, Council Member Gistler. It's kind of different work crews and quite frankly you need that systematic scheduling. So
having one contractor kind of getting right out of the shoot first with the crack sealing piece that is first and foremost because you don't do anything else until that portion is complete. So ha having one contractor understanding that whole process it makes the schedule
smoother across all of the cities. Thank you. All right. Any other questions for Mr. Hammer? Mr. Mayor. Council member Carlson make a motion to adopt resolution number 25-5 sub9a awarding a contract to Allied
Blacktop Company for tuminous seal coating in the base bid amount of $224,293 in the alternate amount of $224,293. Adopt 25-5 sub9B awarding a contract to Sir
Linesot Incorporated for pavement markings in the amount of 387,5953. Resolution 25-59C awarding a contract to Allied Blacktop Company for crack sealing in the amount of $447,945.32. Adopt 25-5 sub9D awarding a contract to Pearson Brothers Company for
S fog ceiling streets in the amount of 154,435.80 and adopt resolution 25-9 sub9e awarding a contract of Allied Blacktop Company for fog ceiling trails and parking lots in the amount of $93,899.50. And that last one was
25-5 you said. Correct. I was just going to say that. Yep. 25-590. Second. Motion by Carlson. I was going to say I'd like to second that, but thank my esteemed colleague, Council Member Carlson, for making that motion in its entirety. That
was not an easy thing to do. Well, you had to say two minutes right off the bat. I did. I messed that up and then the last one. Motion by Carlson, second by Novak. Is there further discussion on this, Mr. Mayor? Council member Grisco. Just a
quick comment. I think it made a lot of sense what he said about the biders and why we had to select a couple of the uh low bidders to not take the the program. So that was all well written in here. And uh also just to a comment to council member Gesler, I had that exact same question a few years ago where we were
boarding too many and they uh they did a good job for us and can handle all the jobs. So looking forward to getting this work done for the consortium. All right, any other discussion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed and that
motion carries. Under new business, planning case 25-6, consider a final plat for University Avenue Town Homes, 10701 Butternut Street Northwest, September Sun Architecture, excuse me,
LLC. Um, all right. We Mr. Brown, anything you want to tell us about this tonight? I don't have a whole lot to add. Uh this applicant has submitted the application for final plat. You might remember back
in February the council approved a plan unit development and preliminary plat. This final plat is consistent with that preliminary plat. So staff is recommending approval with the 14 conditions listed in the memo. Some of
which came out of that night. That's right. I see we've added a PVC 6oot privacy fence on the two sides. Excuse me. Okay. Anybody have any questions of Mr. Brown on this?
Okay. And then just so you know, you can just say in the state of 14 conditions. You don't have to read all of them. Mr. Mayor, Council Member Carlson. I was excited to read all 14, but I'll make a motion to adopt resolution 25-63 approving the final plat for
University Avenue town homes with all 14 listed conditions. Second. Motion by Carlson and a second by Gesler. Mr. Brody, I assume that was okay. That's all right. Is there discussion on this?
I'm confident that there's going to be a lot of people that are not happy about this. It was a really tough thing. Yeah. But it's somebody owns the property and they have a right to develop it and it and it fit and right we have our in and out on university now and I don't know
what else we can do. Your honor. So Mr. Mayor, I can attest you are correct. Says the guy most reticent to this project. Yeah. Councilman Novak, I was just going to say and to echo what you were saying, the amount of of
conversation that has gone on regarding this project is immense and I really hope that everybody can come to grips with the fact that this is happening and that they can come to terms with it and be at peace. I'm I just hope that it
turns out to be a very nice project and that it's a good fit for the neighborhood. Mor. Yeah. Council member Carlson, there was a lot of discussion on this and and and we did we did listen to what the residents had to say and I and I I hope they felt that way as well.
Um but there was a lot of discussion and compromise um uh to end up where we ended up and uh it was a long process and and I I'm I'm confident that everything will will turn out just fine. Yeah. Um and if to
the residents if you do note, you know, because you know this is going to add some cars to Butternut Street. Um if if it gets excessive, if if it gets to be a problem, please call our police. Please let them know so we can Chief Siner. Is
that kind of the the direction there? Absolutely. Yeah. A few words. Okay. Absolutely. Yeah. Man a few words. All right. Any other discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed.
And that motion carries. Item 10 is to consider resolution 25-1 sub12 adopting assessments for street reconstructionction reconstruction project 25-1. Get that up here. All right. So, Mr. Hansen, yes, I will take this one.
Mayor and councel, thank you. Uh so this is for the adoption of the assessments for our street reconstruction project 25-1. Uh council will recall that the public hearing and the assessment hearing was held on February 18th of
this year. At that public hearing, we did have 17 different property owners that had filed written objections. Following that meeting, we did provide a letter explaining the process and what property owners would would need to do
to continue with their objection. I haven't heard anything uh in writing or any formal uh uh followup from any of the residents that received those letters. Um council did award a contract for the project to Northwest Asphalt on
April 15th. Minor work began last week, but construction started in earnest this week on that particular project. We're scheduled to be complete in uh October, early October. Uh so with that, uh staff
would recommend adopting the assessments at this time. And those those 17 were all from one neighborhood. And this does put together a few neighborhoods into this project,
but it's a total of 456 homes and 77 um I'm sorry, 77 town homes. It's 77. Y it's in here twice. It's also $77 per foot for industrial. So I thought, what did I read? 77. Where is it?
Yeah. 456 single family residential properties and 77 town homes or condos. So, this impacts a lot of homes. A lot of updating. Um, all right. So, let's see. Council,
you got any questions of Mr. Hansen on this? Your honor? Council member Novak. I move to adopt resolution 25-1 sub12 adopting the assessments for street reconstruction project 25-1. Second. Motion by Novak and a second by Butler.
Is there further discussion on this? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. Opposed. And that motion carries. Item 11 is to consider resolution 25-66 providing for the sale of
$6,850,000 in general obligation bonds series 2025A. Ms. Hansen. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. City Council, uh the council has asked to authorize uh issuance of general obligation bonds um and set a sale date
for June 3rd, 2025. Uh the amount the proposed issuance is 6,850,000 and is to fund capital projects um that are included in our 25 2025 budget and have that we have awarded contracts for um inclusive of
issuance costs. The issuance com um is made up of 3,760,000 in improvement bonds. Those are to fund our 2025 street reconstruction project and we be paid for over 10 years with a combination of
special assessments and then a dedicated tax levy. The other portion is 3 million uh 90,000 water revenue bonds. Um, these would fund the water portion of that street reconstruction project as well as some other projects including the
Highway 10 utility relocation, uh, well rehab, and then a portion of the public works roof, which is, um, out for bid, I believe. And then this would also be paid for over a 10-year period and would be 100% paid for by the water utility
revenue. Um, so pending any um questions, uh, council's asked to adopt that resolution and then set the sale date. And you did not slip a firetruck in here, right? Did not. That's right. Any questions of Miss Hansen,
your honor. All right. Council member Novak, I'd recommend authorization of resolution 25-66 providing for the sale of 6,850,000 in general obligation bonds series 2025A. Second motion by Novak and a second by
Gesler. Is there a discussion on this now? Your honor, Novak, I would like to point out to anybody who might be watching that these bonds uh were actually prepared with the credit rating at Moody's here for the city of Rapids at AA1. That's pretty good.
um the city of Rapids can afford this and uh these are going towards projects that will benefit the entire city for now and going far into the future. So if this is concerning to
anybody out there that we are selling bonds shouldn't be. We've done this in the past and Moody's is assured that the credit rating of our city, the full faith and credit of our city is very good. I would even argue that AA1 is a little
bit better than pretty good. Yeah. Because it's I think the only one level better than that is unattainable by a city of our population. Exactly. Is that kind of it? Or a city of excuse me, mayor and council. Yes. I mean um AAA is the highest rating. We're double A1 in
order to achieve a AAA rating. It it typically is community with very high average, you know, land values and growing cities and things of that nature. So being as we're mostly a developed community and pretty stable that way, a double A1 is probably the
highest we're ever going to achieve and it's I think in the top 10% 5 10% of all communities um in the nation um have a double A1 or better. So excellent. All right, any other discussion on this?
All in favor signify by saying I opposed. And that motion carries. Item 12 is to consider resolution 25-65 adopting um project 18-27 assessment
levy. Um Miss Hansen, we're back to you again. Mr. Mayor, I'll take this one. Oh, Mr. Why do we even put names on these things? Mr. Hammer me together. Um, this one, uh, while the the
improvements on the Foley overpass project have long been complete, I think this finalizes kind of the funding component of that. Uh, you previously approved a waiver of assessment agreement with the former Berry Plastic site, uh, whereby they were paying 100%
of the cost to extend sewer and water down the new Norway Street. Um, so the condition of that was we had to have the project finalized and it took several years to get through MINDOT and cross all the tees and dot the eyes to get the federal funding and everything released.
And so that just happened earlier this year. Uh, we worked with the applicant and um we're moving forward under the terms of that agreement. The cost came in slightly less than what was estimated. So, um, we will be assessing $460,7923 over 20 years on those two
separate parcels. Again, this covers 100% of the cost plus some admin costs on top of that. And, um, it probably puts that project to rest once and for all. So, uh, Ashley and I tag teamed on this one and, uh, we're happy to answer
any questions you might have. All right. Any questions on this council? Mr. Council member Novak. I'm C Butler. That's the second time. I'm not going to do that again. You know, we're both, you know, similar haircuts. I get it. I don't know. You know, I I move that council adopt
resolution 25-65 adopting the assessments for the Foley Boulevard overpass project 18-27. Second. Motion by no by Wow. Butler and a second by Armstrong. Is there further discussion on this, Mr. Mayor? Council member
Gesler. Miss Anson, you got any more of those 1.3% uh interest rate bonds hiding in the back there? Unfortunately, this was uh issued long ago when the water revenue bond was issued for this project back in 2020 when rates were low. So, um this the
assessments will go back into the water fund to kind of help replenish and pay for that issue. Thank you. All right. Any other discussion, Mr. Mayor? Council member Grisco. Good point. You look at city project 1827 from 2018. So, seven years to finally close this one out, but
there was several years, right, getting up to that point. Otherwise, I mean, this is a decade long project that we're closing off today. So, kudos to the city, the In Noa County, the councils, the administration over the years to get this done for us. All right, further discussion. We have a
motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. And that motion carries. Item 13 is to consider adoption of resolution 25-64 accepting grant funds and consider approval of
watershedbased implementation grant cost share agreement. And now I don't see Josh here. He is here. Where did she just pop in from? I've been here. Oh, really? Yep. All right. Um, so well, Mr. Hammer, are you doing this
or Mr. Mayor, I will I will take it. Josh just came for the proclamation. Oh, and he had a lot of answers to questions if I didn't have the answers on. Was there somebody sitting in front of you? Because I did not see you. You're hard guy to miss. Yeah,
Mr. Mayor. This was work uh Josh put in. Um it it's a um Bowser State grant. Uh this will actually supplement a previous grant we received from the Creek Wershed District. So, we're able to use the grant to fund the match for the state, the state to match the fund for
the grant. So combining these two together, what we're able to accomplish is paying for a trauml piece of equipment that allows us to process all of the street sweepings, uh allow us to reuse some of that and decrease our disposal costs. And it will also then uh
fund two additional sweepings per year for the next three years in environmentally sensitive areas around the city to uh reduce more waste going down uh the storm drains and into our so it improves our water quality. It reduces our costs and we're doing it uh
with OPM other people's money and um a lot of hard work by this group and and a great partnership with the watershed district to help us through this as well. Um, so I'm I'm happy to make the recommendation to move this forward and Josh is here to answer any questions. All
right. Um, anybody have any questions on this? Mr. Mayor, council member Novak, I recommend to adopt resolution 25-64 accepting grant funds from the state of Minnesota's board of water and soil resources and authorize execution of the watershed based implementation funding
grant cost share agreement. Second. Motion by Novak, second by Butler. Is there further discussion? Mr. Mayor, Council Novak, staff, thank you. Thank you. Using other people's money on something is always a good thing when
something is this important. Yeah, they just took it out of your other pocket, you know. That's okay. All right. Any other discussion? Mr. Mayor, Council Dusco, just make a comment on this. I remember when this came up a couple years ago, I I I stood up and I said, "Well, doesn't Noka County have one of these right up here
at the compost area, and they do." I said, "Do we really need one of these things? They're kind of expensive." But now, fast forward a couple years with the help of Josh and the team on public works. We're getting most of it funded for the city. And not only that, but, you know, street sweepers have been out over the last, you know, couple of
months or so. I saw another one come down my street today that really helps keep all that sediment from going down our our storm sewers. So, this is just a great uh resource for the city of Rapids and I appreciate the work that's been done to get us here. So, thank you.
Excellent. All right. Any other discussion? Council member Amstra. I just wanted to basically echo that as well. the the staff this year with with everything that's been going on, you guys have been creative over and above.
Uh whether it comes to figuring out a way to put a budget together or figuring out a way to get these grants and whatever else, you guys have been doing a fantastic job in 2025 here. Thank you. Suppose they haven't had to spend much time plowing, so they're able to
Mr. Council Geyser, uh, you know, and just in line with the proclamation at the top of the meeting here, you know, public works is is the bottom of the iceberg. You you might see him a little bit, but they're doing so much stuff that you have no idea of what's happening. And if it wasn't there, everything tip over and be crazy. So,
this is this is really the good stuff to keeping our city running clean. You know, you wouldn't think about it, but sweeping the streets helps preserve the storm sewer system, which reduces cost to replace it, which reduc like it's a little bit of prevention to save a lot in the long run. And so, this is this is
a great work that they do for us. We have an idea for next year's public works proclamation, haven't we? Because we used to have the foundation of all civilization or something like that. Cornerstone. Cornerstone of civilization and now the bottom of the iceberg.
Not quite as romantic, but you know, sounds like a good excuse for a fish fry. All right. Any other discussion here, Mr. Mayor? Cas Carlson. Council member Carlson. I wanted to jump in on this earlier, but I just want to point out
too, not not just the great work that our public works department does, but um you know, sometimes things, you know, might go a little sideways and and uh residents have concerns or issues or what have you. And I just want to tell you how much I appreciate and tell our staff how much I appreciate the great
work that public works does when they're um talking to our uh residents about issues that may come up. I have absolutely 100% confidence in Mr. Peterson, Mr. Him or Mr. Hansen. And uh believe me, I pitch their phone number out there quite a bit. Phone numbers, I
throw them out quite a bit. And I I do that with full confidence knowing that they're going to treat the they're going to give the resident the answers they deserve. you know, a full complete answer and and treat them with a with respect. And I just really appreciate the work that they do um in dealing with
our residents as well. And we appreciate you. We give everybody your number. So, keep it moving. And I will certainly say thank you. And while we are under the surface, um we are at the bottom of under that surface, there are a whole lot of people even above us.
So, it's it's a group of 60 plus and that expands in the summertime. So, it it's a team effort and uh we just get to come here and look pretty and say nice things and get the kudos, but all the all the hard work is happening behind us as well.
Absolutely. Okay. Any other discussion? We have a motion and a second on this hearing. None. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. And that motion carries. And we are up to the open mic public comment portion of the meeting. If you are here for open mic, please
approach the ambo there. Uh open mic provides an opportunity for the public to address the city council on subjects that are not part of the regular meeting agenda. You are invited to express any concerns you may have which are relevant to the affairs, policies, or practices of the city of Rapids. Uh remarks
will be limited to three minutes. Um, state your name and address before addressing the council. All remarks will be made from the podium and addressed to the council. Yes, sir. Sure. Sure. Should be one for every All right. Thank you, mayor. My name is
Derek Lind. I'm with ASIT, uh, the Ina County Election Integrity Team. We're a citizen group. Been in, uh, been in operations for three years now. I think I've been here several times. Hopefully, you recognize me. Tonight the hot topic is cancelling your pole pad
agreement. Want we we're asking you to invite us back to have a more thorough discussion on cancelling your pole pad agreement. These are the poll pads that you check in on on election day. Once you guys all have that, could you turn to the first page, please? Says pole pad
agreements were never properly approved. The county never voted on this agreement that you have and it looks like according to our records, Rapids never voted on them, too. This was a major change to our election system. County should vote on it. You should vote on it. That's how it's done. That's not what we think happened back
in 2018. We think it was handled by staff. And so, that's why we're asking you to hand or to cancel that agreement. Uh, two cities have already cancelled this agreement. City of Oakrove and City of Ramsay. The Ramsey attorney said this is a lousy agreement for the city. It's kind of a one-sided deal and we think
that if you guys take a closer look at it, you may agree and and decide to terminate. If you could turn to the next page, please. There are some risks associated with these pole pad agreements. That's that's another reason why we're asking you to take a look at this or maybe invite us back and have a
more thorough conversation. By the way, our team tonight was in Columbus. They did invite us back and I I I believe they scheduled an hour. I don't know if they used a full hour, but they they were a little more in depth. Uh if you could go to the next page please. There's a lot of Minnesota statutes
regarding these pole pads and you just want to make sure that you're doing everything right and that's that's why we're asking you to look at this and again invite us back. I know I only got three minutes here. Our contact information is on this packet. I want to make a couple of
comments. Uh the politics on these poll pads is changing. We just had the big fight at the county level. Uh that vote at one time was 7 to zero. It ended up being 4 to2. Two commissioners, Hinrich and uh Reinard, voted against new e-
pole pads. Another commissioner, Broststead, abstained. I I should I'm sorry, she wasn't there. She she said she couldn't get internet service. So, and then the final four commissioners voted for it. And I've just been told tonight that in Sani County, which borders us to the north, they rejected
e- pole pads. They had them in two precincts. I'm being told they're taking them out. So, the politics is shifting. This is a good thing for you to take a look at. This is what you start with with looking at this agreement. Thanks for your time. Do you guys have any questions for me? I know you probably
weren't expecting me to come in. Probably cut you off my off my guard, but thank you for your time. Thank you. Have a good evening. Thank you. Anybody else here to address council for open mic? No. All right, we'll close the open
mic portion. Uh, we have two open mic responses from the last meeting and one was dealing with the cats and the Chief Steiner addressed her afterwards and the other one received a letter of explanation regarding the flag. Uh, we
have a new city flag up outside that looks very nice. So, we are up to other business. What do we have for other business? Did Josh leave? Okay. All right.
Mr. Stemwell, I have a couple of timely topics if council uh would allow. So, one thing I wanted to mention is there's been a lot of conversation regarding spongy moth recently. To back up a little bit, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture was planning to treat an
area of Rapids through an aerial application for spongy moth due to some changes in funding and timing that was cancelled. And what they've they're compelled to do instead apparently is to quarantine, quote unquote, quarantine that area of Rapids. It's generally
east of Olive, south of 121st, west of University, and then sort of north of a Northdale to Dogwood jog. Um we the city has made some announcements about what homeowners should do. Um but that's been more generally applied throughout the
city. I wanted to let folks know that we do plan to send out a postcard probably next week to the specifically affected area to let them know the city is building out a FAQ website that should be helpful to answer some questions. Um simple things like can I still put my
grass clippings in the vin? The answer is yes you can. Anything under one inch can still go into your bin. Anything larger than that will depend on your hauler and so you should be in communication with your hauler about what could be done beyond that. Um, anything related to emerald ashbor can
still be removed from the site. Things like that. So, there's a whole host of things. I'll share that mailing with the council as well when it is sent out, but just want to let you know there will be a follow-up to specifically that neighborhood very soon. And then irrespective of size. Yeah. If you live
in Rapids, you can bring it out to the the tree the tree site at Anoka County. Correct. 131st in Hansen. Yeah. The Well, technically, if you were removing um woody material from this quarantine area, you shouldn't be bringing it to the Comost compost. If
it's of that larger material, it's got to go through someone who has got an agreement with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to dispose of that at a proper site. Really good. Yes. So what there's not to my knowledge there's really no great way to police that but what they're being asked to do
what the residents are being asked to do is to either delay tree trimming or tree cutting to store it on site for a while or to work with a hauler that is has an agree specific agreement in place because there are sites that they can bring it to to dispose of it effectively sealed trucks and stuff. I
think it's just once it gets there, they dispose of it in a proper way versus, you know, throwing it in a pile with everything else. Guys, and just to highlight, the spongy moth is an invasive species that we do want to prevent the spread. That's why we want to control it. It's not just
because it's keeping it in where it is so that we can either hopefully treat it next year or it doesn't spread further and make a bigger problem for us. That's that's the reason for the quarantine. It's that's the goal. And so proper disposal if it happens to be sitting on those branches is what we're concerned
about. Right. Mr. Mayor, Council Novak, uh just to draw a comparison, if you've uh ever owned a boat and had a problem with zebra muscles anywhere in the entire state, uh it's the same type of thing. Way back when this wasn't as much of a problem, we everybody was asked to
clean off their boats before they went anywhere to make sure this didn't become a bigger problem. People didn't do that. Now it's a big problem all over everywhere. We're trying to avoid that. Okay. And then uh one more plug if I may, mayor and council. Um recently the
city's had a number of announcements and emails and um posts on our website about the likely closure of the Northstar commuter rail. And the thing I want to push tonight is that folks who utilize that service or bus service in the city, go out and
um go to our website. You can find it or Google Metro Northstar Commuter Rail. It'll take you to a survey site. Metroransit's looking for feedback on what type of bus service they would replace the Northstar Commuter Rail with. What I'm hearing right now is that it would likely be some sort of express
bus service that would run very frequently during rush hours and less frequently outside of that, but still at a fairly high level. Um, and I think that the the public interest in that service and the feedback in general about um transit options in Rapids
is pretty important to provide to Metro Transit in the Metropolitan Council right now. So, I do encourage folks to go out there, fill that survey out. There are a couple of um in-person opportunities as well. One, they're going to be on board the Northstar
tomorrow uh in a trip leaving Target Field Station at 4:30. And then on Thursday, May 8th from 5 to 6:30 at Mississippi Library at 410 Mississippi Street in Fidley, they're going to be having an open house to talk about as well. We've had a couple other things um that have already lapsed, but there are
still two public input opportunities. And um they are meeting with us monthly right now and um all indications are they're um putting a lot of importance on the feedback they get from both cities and the users of their service. So that's it. All right. Very good.
Other business for council. Mr. Mayor Gesler, uh one other thing I just wanted to bring up had a couple questions about uh flags and markings in right of way. there's a lot of telecommunications stuff that's now moving towards the south side of the city um that where there that's been happening elsewhere.
So for fiber and other installations. So if you see that that's what's going on. It could also be part of the street reconstruction if you're in one of those impact impacted areas. But the telecom areas are much larger and there's much more going on but that's only in the right of way. Council member Armstrong. Couple of
items real quickly. Um we had uh family promise on the on the agenda here tonight. There was a few of us that went out to their groundbreaking week week and a half ago. Um this is going to be a this is going to be a great program. Those th those individuals have put a
lot of work into getting this to where it this this program is today. And uh just just a great it was a great turnout, great bunch of of people that are working on this. And I think I think it's going to be a you know another star
for the city just showing what uh what they're doing to to help out the the general public and and help people that are in need. Um the other the other item I I I wanted just to give a quick shout out. I've got a I've got a young man in
our neighborhood that uh I've been watching for years and years. I I can't say for sure. I've been I've seen him from the day he was born, but since he was probably one or two years old. And this is a hard hard working kid. Um he
just won the Minnesota USA Wrestling Freestyle State Championships this weekend in in Rochester. Um so Hunter, kudos to you. Um he is a he he's just a great overall kid. He's He's uh I can't
say enough about him. And just to see how hard this kid trains and how hard he works, it was really cool to see him pull this off this this last weekend. Excellent. Nice. Kudos. Congratulations. All right. Any other business to come
before council? Motion to adjurnn. Well, okay. We have a motion and a second to adjurnn, but just one second. We don't have a council meeting before that public works open house. So, just a reminder again that the public works open house will be Saturday, May 17th from 10 to noon.
There it is on the screen. Thank you, Mr. Ericson or Mr. Antis, whoever did that. Um, make sure you get out to that. Oh, look at that. We have a home remodeling tour Sunday, May 18th, noon to 4. That's a big deal. We didn't We should have mentioned that, I guess. Uh,
this would be the Home for Generations homes. Um, noon to 4, May 18th. Those are these are some folks that are have done the remodeling project and they're opening their homes up and letting us go through it. That's a very big deal because a lot of people go through. Um,
okay. We have a motion and a second. That that was our last slide. Okay, good. All right. Motion and a second to adjurnn. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. We're adjourned. [Music]