Alright. Good evening, everyone. We're gonna call our meeting to order and start with 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. Quickly, roll call around the horn, please. Peterson here. Borah here. Steichen here. Nash. And Olson. With that, we have our agenda, and I will enter no additions, subtractions. It's all dialed in. Okay. Perfect. I will entertain a motion.
So moved. Motion by Nash. Steichen, second. And a second by Steichen. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, we have our consent. Any discussion on the consent questions? Hearing no questions, comments, or concerns, I will entertain a motion for our consent agenda. So moved. Motion by Peterson. Second. And second by Nash. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, moves us to number five. Peyton, has there been any request to speak before council this evening? None received. And once again, please encourage the public to participate in our process.
That is a sure way to help us make progress. Now progressing to number six, we have recognitions this evening. And first and foremost, we have six alpha. We have a five year service award for sergeant Ross Danoff with our Duluth Police Department. Chief? Mister mayor, council members, I didn't prepare anything, so we'll go back to my old, de facto. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to tonight's main event featuring sergeant Ross Danhof. Well, I'm up here. You're up here too. Just get ready for hockey season. Sergeant Danoff, it's been five years. Feels like ten,
so that is fantastic. Sergeant Danoff's commitment to the Dilworth Police Department and the citizens of this community have been remarkable. It is truly an honor to have someone beside me with five years. Wait to get to twenty, and then we can talk. But doing absolutely fantastic work when you're promoted as sergeant. Just tremendous individual, and I'm very proud to have you as my partner, sir. Oh, we're going up front. Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, just gonna get back to you. Sergeant Dan, other ones. Dad Get a little closer, please. There you go. Let's keep that in front now.
There you go. Hold on a second. Let's get centered here. There you go. Now you scoot in, Ross. There you go. Good house. Perfect. Now let's get the family up. You're good. Do you wanna hold it for she wants to hold it? That's what it'll work. Do you wanna hold it? Yeah. Okay. Who wants to hold it again? Yeah. Yeah. There you go. There you go. There you go. All good. 321. Perfect. Good job, guys. Alright. Good job. Great. Thank you, sir. We're definitely fortunate to have Sergeant Ross Danhof on our police department.
In his short tenure, he has definitely, met and exceeded the standards, moving into leadership roles and heightened expectations, not only from, the chief, but from counsel. And we appreciate that every every challenge we've given him, he's he's risen to and exceeded those standards. So thank you for keeping us safe and your commitment to the city of Dilworth. Be sure to keep yourself safe as well. Thank you, Sajjadenov, for serving the city of Dilworth. Nice card from it's outstanding. Thank you. It It does move us to 6P. We have Resolution 2,539
accepting a donation from Essential Health from Loco Days. Peyton? Yes, very cool. Essential Health, on an annual basis, makes a donation for Loco Days. This one we're running after the fact, but that's still perfect enough for us to do a recognition this evening. They did $1,500 that went towards these day activities, which is primarily what we utilized for all the stuff that we did at the swimming pool. And if anyone went by the pool on Friday, you saw it was absolutely packed. So thank you to Essentia. Any questions? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion for resolution twenty five thirty nine.
Steichen move resolution twenty five thirty nine to accept the donation. I have a motion by Steichen. Second. And a second by Borah. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, it does move us to six C. This evening, we have the League of Minnesota City's James F. Miller Leadership Award recognition. Tonight, city administrator Peyton Massera will receive the award from Luke Fisher and Jen Wolf, from the League of Minnesota Cities. Alright. Oh, boy. Thank you, Peyton, for that. Yeah. So that. I'm sorry.
I once had hair. I once wore necklaces like that. Yeah. No. That was a picture. Thank you so much for doing that. That is a picture of me as a senior in high school, leaving the Delano City Hall where I was interning. I'd get out of class for about three hours every day and go to City Hall and spend some time learning from the people there, and then I'd go back to school. The building that I was walking out of was a City Hall that was attached to our municipal on sale liquor store or bar, as some people called it. It was called the Zoo Bar. And so I'd go and work at City Hall right next to the Zoo Bar
for three hours in the morning. I'd go back to school in the afternoon smelling, like, burnt popcorn and cigarettes, and everyone wondered what I was up to during the day. So, So many things with that going on. There's a lot to unpack there. Will play. Yeah. That was not the submitted. Professional photos from Madison is what I got. That's that's wonderful. So anyway, we're not here to talk about me. We're here to talk about Peyton tonight, and to really spend some time recognizing him here in the community that he serves, for some recognition that he earned, from the League of Minnesota Cities. Now anytime somebody gets recognized by some group,
it's usually helpful to know who the group is, because I think it offers a little bit more significance to the award recognition that Peyton received. Now, you all know us well, but the people behind me probably don't and, you know, the thousands of viewers at home that are tuned into the meeting right now probably want to know who the heck I am and why I'm here. And so the League of Minnesota Cities is an association that represents about eight forty one of the state's eight fifty six cities. Our largest member is the city of Minneapolis, and our smallest member is the city of Barrie. Any guesses on Barrie's population?
Three. Three? 10. 10? Kevin? It's a city? It's a city. Yes. 7. 7. Okay. Dave? Hundred. 100? You're out if we're playing Price is Right rules because they've got a population of just 19 people. But as an association, we serve cities that run the gamut from Minneapolis to Dilworth to Barrie and all points in between. And in that, we get to have a lot of interaction with city officials from across the state. We answer about 7,000 research inquiries every year. We handle about 8,500 insurance claims on behalf of our members.
Our website had over a million views, and that's all to say that we have a lot of interaction with folks like you. And in that, we get to see the best of the best and the people that stand out amongst their peers. And that's the award that Peyton received and Jen is going to talk a little bit more about standing out amongst his peers, in just a minute. But I got to tell you guys, Peyton has been a friend of mine for, I think, as long as you've been in the state, just about. And it is really nice to have a colleague, a trusted advisor, somebody like Peyton that I can call when I've got a question and say, how would you handle this?
Or what would you think about this? Or what advice do you have for me? He's somebody that I reach out to, and he's somebody that I rely on, and he's somebody that's made a difference in my career and in my public service. And that's pretty special, for me to be here to recognize you for that, Peyton. So, Jen? Yeah. Thanks, Luke. So the leadership award is the league's highest honors for appointed city officials. And luckily in the state of Minnesota, we are fortunate to have very talented city officials. And every year, the number of applicants for this award grows. And as the last three years,
we had a record number of applicants submitted. And through all of this, Peyton stood above the rest among the field. This award is the James F. Miller Award, is named after the league president, who was president of the league for twenty two years, and it's recognition of his excellence in service and dedication to the public sister public sector. Peyton's story is well known to everyone here today. Peyton comes from Kentucky. All you have to do is say hello to know just to hear it shine through. We came to Dilworth in 2014,
and he and his family quickly made this home. Under Peyton's leadership, the city has seen transformative change from streamlining the city's budget process to implementing curbside recycling, launching the city's first area wide, body camera program. He consistently used innovation to elevate city services. Peyton has earned the respect of not only Luke, but his peers throughout the state and is known for his keen knowledge of municipal operations, his willingness to act and try new things, his thoughtful participation,
and his willingness to show up and give his best effort when providing advice and perspective to others. His influence extends well beyond the municipal borders. His ability to seek new opportunities and funding for the community has included safe routes for schools, federal funding for roads, and the city's fire station with and bonding and local sales tax requests for the city. Peyton's nominators noted, from meeting with residents on local or personal issues to working with county and state officials, Peyton is always calm, rational, and insightful.
His commitment to Dilworth in our region is always evident and has allowed him to gain the respect of all who have the opportunity to work for him. And now we're going to hear some more from Peyton's colleagues. We can watch this again. Yeah. Thank you. One second here. Revise here. Old man. I used to hear from him. Those words. Hey. I'm rethinking some things. You know, this award isn't final until we shake hands here. So just remember that. Rescinded. When we hired Peyton, the city of Dilworth was ready to transition, to modernize, to become more open, more accepting,
and he's led the way in terms of increased communication with council, increased communication with our citizens, greater connectedness between the policies and the people that really exemplify why Dilworth is a great place to live. When Peyton moved here, he was a member of the community right from the start. He lived in Dilworth. He purchased a house with his wife, and he's not only behind the scenes, but he's also out in front because he is a member of the community who is very vested in this community. You know, Peyton's management style is fantastic. He encourages personal and professional growth for all who he supervises.
Peyton is a wonderful boss because he interacts with all of the citizens of Dilworth and he also is so helpful to staff to understand their jobs and to also have conversations about how to take care of city issues better. One of the things that Dilworth and Morehead do very well is grow. We live in an area where we deal with extraterritorial areas, and we have growth areas and growth area plans.
And so we've been able to work together so well in terms of which side of the street we we go on. There is no absolutely no hesitation in sitting down at the table to work it out. The man just exudes the right thing, integrity, honesty, loyalty, dependability. If you have an opportunity to work with Peyton even once, you can see the best of all the qualities that you want to have in a person leading your city. Peyton shows up, and Peyton we'll notice this when he's in the room. He doesn't hesitate to make a new friend, and he has fun. And I think we can get anything done with that.
That's a model Peyton offers us. When we go to Saint Paul, our legislators know his name. They know who he is, and they understand his level of professionalism, and they appreciate that. And, again, it fosters a deeper relationship and commitment from the people in Saint Paul and in Washington DC to help the city of Dilworth. In my twenty five years of experience in the public sector, you know, I've worked we've worked with a lot of good, hardworking public servants. Peyton's one of the best that I've worked with. He's kind, he's bright, he's diligent, he's hardworking, and it's just a joy to call him a friend.
Congratulations, Peyton. I'm so happy you've been with us for fourteen years, and I hope you're here for another fourteen. Congratulations, Peyton. Thank you so much. And I want to go down the list here thanking several people. Jen, thank you so much for coming up, and it was a pleasure meeting you this evening for all the kind words that you said. And, Luke and I have this conversation quite often when we see one another at events. We're not necessarily golfers, but we are runners. So it's important for me to find a running partner anytime we're at an any
type of overnight event or whatever because we get up super early in the mornings. And we enjoy it so much because we get to a lot of one on one time. So when you're out together for, you know, forty five minutes plus, then we'll usually come back and eat breakfast together, whatever that may be. So it's been an honor getting to know you, Luke, from your prior to even working for the league and now what you've grown the league into. It's an impressive feat. So thank you so much for coming up this evening and for all that you do for the state of Minnesota and its municipalities.
I have my staff here this evening or a lot of the staff here, this evening. I'm glad we got to do a recognition of police officers and others and also to, the city hall staff that's here as well that I, share this building with on a daily basis. And it it's such an honor to work with each and every one of you. I hope you know that. And I think the world of you for you know, even though I've been here for fourteen years now, it's been such a yeah. Even though I've been here for fourteen years or eleven years, however you want to look at it, it's been a tremendous experience all around.
So proud of the individuals they continue to grow and become and to have a staff that you can work with on a daily basis means so much. And this award is really about them and what they deliver to the community. To all the city council members, you know, I've I've been so fortunate. I really haven't worked with a ton of council members since I've been here now for eleven years. It's we've had a little bit of turnover, but for the most part, I've been a very you know, had a constant steady flow, for the most part. And those who I've worked with,
everyone up here, how the day is here has been tremendous. Always supportive of what I've wanted to do. There's been a lot of extracurricular stuff that I've, you know, taken part in, serving on the MCMA board the past year and having to be out there, be visible in public a little more and traveling, and, no one's ever really questioned it. It's just, you know, we know this is for the betterment of the community and for my professional growth, and they've always been a support system. Chad and Julie were both here when I got started. And thank you both for your continued support, ever since I began.
My wife is here this evening. She doesn't normally come to city council in the evenings for one reason or another, but she wanted to show up again to, see this recognition. I promise I won't make you cry unless you want me to. I I can say something really quick. I'm I'm really good at this. But, my my wife, Sarah, is tremendous. Right? You know, she's the the better part of this relationship. I think we all know that. But she is always there in a supporting form and, you know, sounding board for me as well at times. But, you know, I don't I try not to bring a lot of work home, but there's a lot of times that I'm away from home too,
whether it be at a council meeting, local days meeting, planning commission board, park board meeting, whatever it is. I'm a pretty active person and like to be out there in the public. And Sarah has always been by my side the whole step of the way. So when we took on this journey now eleven years ago, who knew what it would bring? But it's brought a lot of, you know, love and laughter and by and large, just positive experiences. And, to the citizens, right, I mean, this this is home for me now. I was saying that right beforehand. Jim was asking me where home is, and I was saying, well, it's originally Kentucky,
but now I consider here home. And that's really cool to have a community means so much to you that it becomes your home. And it didn't take long for that to occur, and Dilworth is a special place to me. It will be for my entire life. Life. Again, thank you so much for coming up and doing this recognition this evening. It means the world to me, and I'm glad I got to share this with everyone else in the audience and online. So thank you so much. Thank you. And it's always a pleasure to have the league in doors. Yeah. Do you mind if we get a quick picture with you guys and However you however you wanna do that. Let's do that. Out of the world. Can I say one thing first,
though, too? Absolutely. So, again, being, just on the crew that hired Peyton, we were I think I was surprised that he was willing to take that risk on us. I'm so happy he did. But I also wanted to say, you know, when we submitted the application, I mean, we knew what we have in Peyton. This, this makes me cry every time I watch it too. So, but when I I know. Okay. Deep breath. But when I got the email saying he was selected and to know that you guys saw what we saw meant so much. And I don't know.
So thank you for also seeing what we see every day. Absolutely. Go ahead. Alright. Did did you bring the award, or were you just holding off on that until the the picture gate, he has it all right now. I know I was there. But I wanted to see if picture gate was over. Like, where did are we cementing this for real now? Or Yeah. No. It's it's a final award. Fine. There we go. That's me. Okay. There it is. That's me actually receiving the award. It really happened. Yeah. It did. That really didn't happen there. Alright. Look. Where do you wanna do the photo? Do you wanna Put it right here. Right in front. Do you wanna do you wanna have the Yeah.
I wanna all you guys in it. Well, do you want the awards? It's on my wall. I can get ready. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. I wanna go grab the rewards. It's great. It's not for me. Alright. We'll see how it goes. Keep Keep my finger over the Yeah. Yeah. Put your finger over the lens. That'd be great. Like my hand. Do the filter that Yeah. Yeah. Ages about. I'm gonna look like Luke did in this high school picture. Yeah. They could all do that? Right. K. So you skipped school Yep. To go to the zoo bar Yep. Which is also city hall. And you got stale beer and popcorn. No.
I smelled like Oh, stale. Smell like a Alright. Saint This way. Oh, you all look great. Perfect. Thank you so much. You bet. Thank you. Of course. I woke up last night. You guys wanna stop by? Yeah. Thank you. Yes. I see you. So with that, she hasn't been to she hasn't been to many, but she knows how they work. So with that, we're gonna hop down to seven into finance. And seven a is a, designation of dollars as the official depository for 2025 and discussion of investment strategy. Jim? That would be me. Yes.
I'm so glad I got to follow that. That'll be No. No. Straightforward. So, Perry and I have spent, quite a bit of time getting to know each other and and kind of discussing, city's finances and just really how do we how do we optimize, you know, the the funds that that the city has it at their disposal? There's really only a couple of ways to to earn money as a city, and and one is to collect taxes. The other is to earn ring every dollar that you possibly can out of out of the funds that you have for the benefit of all community members.
And so, really, Perry had me put together just a couple of slides just showing, kind of where the market is. And we're very restricted by statute, and that's good. Right? The investments are safe and straightforward and, I guess for a lack of a better word, boring. But that's that's that's the way it's supposed to be. It's public money. You want it to be safe. You want it to, be available when you need it, and you want it to earn as much money as possible. So safety, liquidity, and yield in that order are the,
you know, the GFOA, you know, best practices for that. So, really, this would just be kind of a little bit of a snapshot of, what we had been seeing in the market. So a little bit about Ehlers is that we're a fiduciary investment management firm. The only thing we sell is advice. We don't have any of our own products. We don't have, any relationships, in in the form of profit sharing or anything like that, with, broker dealers. And we are fiduciaries at all times, which means that we are required by law to act in the best interests of
our clients at all times. So, this is the only type of, investment management that that we do is is, serving municipalities. So I know you all had worked with, Nick Anhut, on the fire station. You have a very good, municipal advisor in Nick. He's he's incredibly capable. Ehlers has been in that line of business for about the last eighty years. The investment business is, a little bit newer, but we manage a little over $33,300,000,000.0 of of our clients' money, and it's all very at will.
So our agreement is incredibly one-sided in the city's favor. It is at will. It is severable at any time. There is no minimum amount of time, no minimum fee, no anything like that. And so we really have to earn your business at all times. So with that, really, what we are looking at is we look across the entire market. We don't we don't care if it's a CD or a a US government treasury or a a taxable municipal bond issued by one of your neighbors, if it meets what Dilworth is looking to accomplish with these funds,
we will go and and buy the one that pays the most. And so we hold all broker dealers in competition with each other, and and we act on your behalf, to execute those. So this is just kind of a little bit of an example of if we were to look at building, you know, like, a a small ladder where we have some short term, liquid funds in the US Treasury and then some, longer term 2026, 2027, and 2028 maturities. It's nice to have those because you can budget for that.
You know what amount of income is gonna be generated by that, and and you can know that those funds are safe, and and available for your use. And, you know, just I guess we hope, long interest rates stay nice and low for any any future borrowings that you're doing, while, while maybe the short end can stay a little bit elevated and and, have your cake and eat it too there. So, again, this is the only kind of work that we do, and these are just kind of some of the reports that that you can see, based on, you know,
when what's your average yield to maturity, which, you know, 4.3 to 4.6 is pretty respectable, in in this interest rate environment. And, yeah, that's that's really kind of our approach. And so just be an expansion of your already existing relationship with Ehlers. And and we'll partner with Perry. He's a real bright guy, knows the market well, and, we'll partner with him to, make sure that we're, you know, working on your behalf to to earn as much money as we possibly can and
and not lose any, most importantly. Right? So that would be fantastic. Yeah. Let's focus on that piece, please. Absolutely. Yeah. Save the save the bury the weed. Yeah. Yeah. So, Perry, would you like to just go over the council, what it is that you're proposing this evening, and what you would like to see action required? So first action, I think, we need is council approval to authorize sellers, obviously. And we've got the handful of other, investment partners that we have. But, so that would be the first action.
Second is and I thought I think I put in the, patent, up to $5,000,000 I I don't I just I went it probably wouldn't need to be quite that would be the maximum we'd go. Jim and I have talked and I've I've got a pool of maybe 2 to 3,000,000 I'd like to start with. Because my number one goal, on the investment side, other than preserving the capital, and we're really restricted with what we can invest in, is even increasing a yield of 30 I mean,
the fee that Ehlers has is 25 basis points. One fourth of one percent per year. Per year. So and we're already paying that at one of our other choices. But if we can increase even 30 basis if I can net 30 to 60 basis points on, say, $3,000,000 there's $20,000 that I can increase versus just rolling CDs at blah blah bank and just rolling a CD, rolling a CD, rolling a CD. The, so so that's my goal is just actually to maximize our yield with the risk,
and we are very restrained with what we can invest in. And, then on that just on that $3,000,000, say, $20,000 of additional income. You know, that the city needs that. And right now, after I met with Jim, it became crystal clear to me that municipal bonds and government, federal agency, that's where the higher yield is right now. That might change three months down the road, six months down the road. But right now, that is where the the yield is. So those two items,
authorizing Ehlers. And then I think I think we do state, though, up to $5,000,000 Peyton. I think I've split in the 2 and a half million dollars what the what you're going with for the time being. Okay. So the initial is 2 and a half million dollars Yeah. I don't think I would I don't have $5,000,000 right now anyway. But but and right now, we've got the highest, we've got $6,000,000 over at Foram. So that's our highest balance with one of our partners. And our goal, too, is to be as diversified as possible, even within all of our different depositories that we utilize,
not just lock it all in with one agency. So that's maintaining that same Yeah. No. Another done. It's a little more accounting. I've got one more agency to to work with. But, again, this would diversify a little more too. Any questions on from counsel? Mhmm. Kevin? Say we pull the trigger on the first, item. Is this is this immediate? Like, you're gonna start working on this? I would start working tomorrow with them. Yep. I actually have some cash sitting. Some CD a CD has expired, matured.
And is that I was gonna is that quick follow-up. Is that why you picked the accounts you did? The the accounts which accounts, Kevin? The there was from slide that I'm sorry. The one that I just had up there. Right? Yeah. Give me one second here. Yep. I think it was it's what you're oh, I'm sorry. I think that that's the money you plan to invest. Right? Right. Because yep. There's a CD that expired early July, and there's one that expires here in a few more days. So yeah. Gotcha. Yep. So I and I could technology. Sorry. It's not funny. And, John,
it's a good question. I could roll this money right back into a CD at the same institution, but it would be about 60 basis points less. Sure. No. So No. That makes no sense. And again, it's month and the other third thing, this month to month relationship, it's not a long term I mean, I can exit We hope that it will be a long term relationship, but it's, it's it's severable at any time by you. So, you're not locked in to anything at all. And and these positions themselves are portable. So it's not like at a c not like buying a CD where if you
wanna get out of it or transfer it somewhere else, you would have to pay a penalty or a cost or anything. It's none of that as well. Other questions? Mr. Steiner and Mr. Jim and Mr. Perry, help me understand this a little bit better. To have an official depository, which is what Ehlers would be, right? Is that required? And what would happen if it wasn't? Yeah. Good question. Can you do the same? Can you accomplish the same thing? I'm not saying we shouldn't, obviously. But Right. I I I think just our our city ordinance, Peyton,
to my opinion, was, like, that council should be aware of where am I placing that money versus me just deciding, well, you know, heck, I really like this bank or that bank or or whatever. So I just thought, you know, there's not an infinite number of places I'd put the money. I I wanted counsel to know, really, it's five or six places. I'm not my goal isn't to have a million dollars in. We would have 16,000,000 plus or minus in cash. I don't really wanna have 16 places to have it either.
That's just accounting administrative wise gets to be that'd be too much. So You need to have another set of eyes to look at, to compare. Right. And and the fiduciary relationship with with dollars would be unique, actually, for the first time. I don't know that we even have that with, the other institution we have these types of investments is Bremer. And I'm not even sure if they're a fiduciary, Payton. I don't know that. So, I mean, there is a high a little higher standard there to have that fiduciary representation. They don't have a horse in this race on which investments.
It's a different standard between suitability and a fiduciary. So, kind of an example would be if you had, you know, $2,000,000 in a checking account making 0.1%, that would meet the suitability standard. It would not meet the fiduciary standard because it's not the best and highest use of those funds for, for you all. And I think you explained this at the last meeting, Barry. You're constantly checking and watching, and a day or two can make a big difference Right.
In what things but money could be transferred in. You already kind of answered this one of my questions just prior to me speaking. So hopefully, it's a long term Yeah. Situation, but it can you can go either way. Mhmm. I mean, as often as you need to. So Right. I could become a pain to them, and they're like, oh, he's his the admin costs are too high to only pay his calls. Doubtful. Sounds sounds like you got it covered quite well. Okay. Other questions? So Peyton, obviously, we need to have the motion, for the designation as an official depository.
That's one. And then a second for the amount, and I'm just looking at the number that was on the board, and we're talking like 2.5%. Does that cover everything? I mean, are we going to lose That does. We don't normally get into designating, but I felt designating a dollar amount with our investments. But I felt it was appropriate that since we're starting with Ehlers now to get this kickstarted, that we have an initial start jumping off point that the council is aware of. Okay. And and just for complete transparency, I was saying, like, why aren't we just doing,
like, $3,000,000 so we had room room to add if there was that possibility? Because that was an it was an odd number, like, 2.516 or whatever the heck it was. That was Right. And those were the two CDs. They were they're just what? Plus their interest on them. It just happened to be exactly Total movement. To the penny. Total lateral. Yeah. K. Yep. Are we gonna move all of it? We'll move the first, maybe, well, within a week or two. I would I would within two weeks, I'd like to move the that amount. Yes. K. It's more than $2,500,000. Can we put more than that in there?
There? I mean, if we say $2,500,000 and he goes over, because is that is that a call? I just think it's something we'll continue to monitor. Again, we don't wanna get to removing funds. I thought that's what you said. It's, like, the second one was the amount. Suggested action on the line doesn't have an amount. Do we have to do an amount? Do an amount. That's what I'm saying. Like, do we have to do an amount? Why would it why would the amount not matter? 2.5, and then they're gonna make money. So then it won't matter. Well, I mean, I will make the suggested motion, which is to designate Ehlers as an official depository for 2025 and to authorize the
proposed investment strategy. I have a motion by now. Second. Yep. And a second by Peterson. Yes. It's perfect because now they can take care of the money. I have a motion by Nash and a second by Peterson. Any other questions, comments? Hearing none, I will, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. That part's done. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. It'd be fantastic. We look forward to the report now. Returns. Working yeah. We're looking to return. And your return as well, too. Absolutely. Thank you. So with that, let's move to number eight, and eight alpha is a design update on the new community center.
Gentlemen, welcome. Not one, but we're starting rather. I love it. We kind of do the opposite. We spend your money. That's okay too. We need that too. I'll get started here. So we have a, mister mayor, members of the council, we have a weekly meeting or every other week meeting with the design architect team and construction manager monitoring the progress of the community center project. We are now at a time that, it's getting close to actually they really need to start honing in on the design
component of this facility, which will involve the council making the determination on the budgetary side. All the amenities, which you'll see in just a moment, they have predominantly accounted for from information derived from stakeholders, staff, other meetings that we've held, public meetings and have a framework of what this facility may end up looking like. That said, they still need that final level of direction that says this is what the city
would like to see and go with. In order for us to meet the timeline of getting it bid out this winter with hopes of starting construction in the springtime, really before the August, that determination needs to be made. So today's meeting is really to kick start those conversations, get an idea of what has been put together thus far and to provide some direction, if you're comfortable and ready to do so this evening, for them to continue to design this facility.
So with that in mind, I will turn it over to our architectural team. Thank you, Peyton. Yeah. Like Peyton said, we, we've been working the last several months here pulling together. You've seen some of the updates, some of what we've been, the conversations we've had with, staff members and key stakeholders, community members. And, we'll we'll see that here again. But then there's some additional discussions on what the scale is, what the scope is. And we just really like you said, we're at a pivotal point where we need to hone in on that that budget and that scale of project that you're looking to do here and and move forward
here. So we skip that. First up is that building program. This is, pretty similar to the one that we saw at the last meeting when we updated everybody. We added that indoor playground in there, about a thousand square feet that gets you probably, like, a two platform structure with a couple of slides and just enough to get the kids inside in the wintertime and running around, really kind of activate the building. Again, thinking about how you can activate the building through more hours of the day other than just on the weekends and evenings. And that, you'll see in the some of the layouts here, is adjacent to, the event space.
So you could open that up and potentially, utilize a portion or all that event space during that time as well. And so here's the the big question mark, the the budget. That base project, about 20,000 square feet, some allowances for site work, plaza, landscaping, and then all of the the contingencies and fees that go on there. It's about a 10 project there. And we've listed out a few alternates because we've talked about these, optional additions or or, you know, ways to scale the project up a little bit. That library addition of about 3,500
square feet once you add in all the contingencies and fees on there, you're about 1,800,000.0. The upgraded plaza, there's, a whole list of items there that you could upgrade there that are landscape architect has offered as options. Kind of a la carte. We could dive into that here after we look at this. The gymnasium additions, about 8.9. It almost doubles the size of the building. So it's a significant dollar number there. You're thinking a two station gym. I think from a programming standpoint, from a if you're going to do an elevated track standpoint, a two station gym really is probably your minimum there because then you can program
on the weekends. You can have youth games there. You can have little, workshops and, that sort of those sort of things, programmed in there. So so that size gym is really what we're we're thinking that would be usable here. Here, there's an option under that a gymnasium magician that maybe got this large space now. Maybe you could reduce the size of that, event space to 200 people instead of 400 and that probably takes care of most of your STAG still and and a lot of those type of events. So you'd be about half the size. There's a $1,300,000 savings potential there if you do reduce the size of that space.
And then that elevated track adds about another 1.3. And the the big gymnasium addition, I meant, gymnasium addition and the track, they're different dollar per square foot than the $3.50 that we're showing up there because they're larger space or they're built within another space. So they're they don't directly equate out to that $3.50. And then here's under that alternate two some of the additional things that you could potentially do. There's talk of an amphitheater, pergola, splash pad. The splash pad, you know, that's probably a fully chlorinated splash pad type system.
You could dial that way back and just have nozzles that would spray. You know, you push the button, the nozzle spray, and kids run through city water basically that you're buying at that point. So that'd be a weigh scale back version that's still fun. We see that at the lights in West Fargo. They have a downtown at their, in Downtown Fargo at their plaza. So that would be an option there too that you could still have a splash pad, but not necessarily, quite the expense. Site irrigation, we might recommend that anyways if you're gonna have new sod placed out there and just to keep it kind of looking nice and green and lush. Plaza lighting, again, there's probably some element in there that you're gonna wanna include in the plaza,
and then some other site furnishings that they had recommended there. So that's just kind of the list of what was included in that total, like, 1,300,000.0 there of potential plaza upgrades. So the plan concept, we've really dwindled it down now to this linear plan that we've been working for towards. We had three. Last time we came here, I think there was two and now we're down to one here. At the public latest public input meeting, this was definitely the favored plan. I think people saw the potential for growth, addition, kind of that long linear spine connecting all these different public city spaces.
So this has stayed pretty much the same as the last time we set out the event space that opens onto the plaza. You've got, some meeting rooms that would have some borrowed light into that corridor. And, I think the only thing that we added maybe was that playground since the last time we saw. I just wanna point out for those watching or don't know, north is to the left. Yes. Thank you. It got bigger on the sheet this way. So that's kind of the base layout and all the plans that you'll see now will be a kind of variation of this. So if you go forward one, this is where that library would fit in. Again, we extend that corridor out a little bit.
We tie into that library. You know, it could even have its own entrance if you wanted it to, but just thinking of the public nature of the building, it'd be sure nice to use the building as a whole. And, you know, in this scenario, maybe that larger lobby space in front of the activity space could maybe that justifies over a little bit so it's a little more equal equidistant to the other spaces. Still very much a work in progress, but just thinking about how that space might function. And then as you go forward here, this is the gymnasium addition, two full court gym. You have space for that elevated track around so the gym it's outside of the,
basketball courts. You certainly could do that on grade and save the money, but you just run into the issue of basketballs flying and people trying to walk and there's just a lot of, challenges there. So that's a big gymnasium addition. We've got we've programmed in a couple of, you know, maybe four team rooms if you do have some kind of a tournament. Wouldn't necessarily have to have those but, certainly a nice, amenity to the building for, for the the teams. A couple of larger bathrooms because now we are adding another assembly space to the building and then some storage,
as well. That kind of rounds out that gymnasium addition there. And then this one, this plan is showing that smaller, activity space on the right side of the plan there. I'm going to go back real quick just to this one and maybe zoom in on the actual rooms themselves where everyone just we're just assuming everyone knows what's going on in the rooms, but that may not be the case. Fair enough. Yes. So yeah, there's large activity space. We have, you so right now, it's subdivided into three smaller spaces around that 160
roughly, person activity rooms. It can also hold, space for three pickleball courts if you want or one volleyball court in there. It's gonna have some volume to it, so you'd have the height to do that in there. Obviously, making all the surfaces very durable and, usable for multi purpose in that space. So to the left there, there's that playground that we talked about. Potentially, you could put some kind of a foldable wall in there that you could, activate even just a third. Maybe that that wall comes out and a third of it could be used for kind of some large motor skill for the kids to kind of run around in. And you can still maintain the other two thirds for leasing out just for some
other purpose. We have a small kitchen, very similar in size to your previous, community center. Table and chair storage, mechanical, kind of receiving up in the top left corner there. Then we have the two meeting rooms. You'll see it's connected by a back hallway to the kitchen. So food deliveries to the room can come from behind. Rather than through the main lobby space. Again, those two meeting rooms, combined are about a 100 occupants, separately, about 50 each. And then the the toilets are kind of right in the middle of the plan there. I think the the benefits that we saw with this plan were that back hallway
especially. I think people saw the value in that, not having to run everything through the main lobby space as or or any hallway spaces really. And that main hallway space that runs along the length of the building there, really connecting everything, allowing for some some of that, what we call, pre function space where people are coming and going. You can have some tables set up out there, registration if there's some kind of event happening. We get a little bit larger right in front of the activity room thinking, again, people come and go. They kind of congregate where they're leaving and going to. So give a little bit of extra space around there.
And we also have included a, a reception desk there. That's a little white box in the middle. Thinking as people come into this space, there's probably going to need to be somebody there kind of directing and helping to probably more importantly, keeping an eye on who's coming and going and activity in the building. And this would have a potential walking path that people could take. And I'm using the word path lightly here, but an opportunity for individuals to walk throughout the facility along the perimeter here and come around.
And I believe that was 11. 11 laps would make a mile. So it's kind of the mall walking approach rather than having a designated track. You just walk the perimeter when maybe there's certain hours of the day that that's open for that type of use and certain hours of the day it's open for pickleball use. I think you'd just have to think about programming that space. We have some a couple of renderings. Obviously, we're still very deep in the or very not very deep at the very beginning of the design phase here. So but again, that giving that kind of main front entrance getting,
kind of poking through there, something that's identifiable and, some space for signage where you could, put the name of the building on there and kind of creating that train depot again. We're and we're playing with a few things, taking a look at some options here, for that outside colonnade that's kind of under the roof still, but, would provide some shade. And also a little bit of elevation off the just adjacent grade, thinking maybe it's like 18 inches up, a good place to kind of sit and rest. And if you're you're waiting for your parents, you can go out there and sit down and you're just kind of at seated level. Go ahead one there.
This is kind of looking from around the other side from the Southeast. This is that's the, spaces for the activity rooms. I'm thinking we'd have a lot of glazing going in there, but still manageable sizes where you could pull some shades down, if we need if you wanna pull the the light level down there for presentation or something of that sort. Kinda looking up an aerial view here, looking North east or Northwest from the Southeast. Plaza would be off to the left here, not modeled in. And this is kinda looking at directly from the West, kinda as you come down that existing street that's there right now. And some some things we're starting to develop,
some character on the interior, thinking some maybe some of those arched windows might, start poking through. Again, kind of thinking pulling off of that, depot theme, not necessarily looking exactly like a depot, but just kind of giving some hints and and some paying some homage to that, you know, the the train, history, heritage that Dilworth has. Let's look in back at that desk. Maybe there's a little soffit that hangs overhead that gives it a little bit of scale down in front of that desk. So I'm not sitting in a large space, but kinda gives them a little bit more scale there.
And then we've got the activity space. On the left is, you know, banquet seating. Top right is what it would look like if you had some pickleball courts set up, and the bottom right is showing you could fit a a, a volleyball court in there with some movable standards. And we've been working with, our Kimberly Horn, who's our, landscape architect on this. This plan here is kind of that radial. They're thinking of the, the roundhouse kind of theme and you know, so they have this kind of radial theme there, kind of giving you some kind of featured entry. A lot of hardscape in this one,
some garden space and trees around the edges, having that amphitheater off to the side thinking, you know, some local musicians or you have your, Trollwood that has the summer programs where the the little kids kinda show their parents what they've been working on. It could be kind of an interesting set setting for that, that type of, scale of of of of activity there. And then this is the other option. It was there's a smaller plaza maybe, a larger kind of great lawn off to the side there leading up to that amphitheater. This one was a lot more linear than kinda that circular,
radial version. I think it seemed like the couple people that were at the last, city in, community input meeting really preferred that kind of radial. It seemed like they were really drawn to that. So that's something we can dial in a little bit more. But, either way, I think you get a a great nice plaza space there, a lot of public space where you can set up and and utilize that, especially for your local days and and other city events that might expand in the future. That's it. Any questions? Could you go back to the, the Base Bid Gymnasium? Tony, I'm just curious. What are, yeah,
what are the, like, the dimensions of that? I know you say you can fit three pickleball courts and one volleyball court. It must just be too small for a basketball court, I assume, and Yeah. It's tall enough, maybe. Right. Yeah. For one basketball court, you need about 9,000 square feet. Okay. The height's probably not as big of an issue. You know, we're planning on being about 20 feet tall, probably, to the bottom of choice. Sure. Okay. So you can play volleyball in there. But, yeah, I think the bigger thing is just the square footage. And so yeah. And also with the numbers. Right? Like, we and this is less to do with you guys and more just thinking out loud.
Right? The taxpayers green lighted the 7.2. Right? Is that our cap for the local option sales tax, or is it six No. How it works is it will bring in $5,400,000 However, it will end up being over $6,000,000 once you include all the bonding cost and things of that nature as well. And just as an FYI, we did have our month one come in and, reviewing those numbers, and they came in really well. That's all I'll say. Sure. So we'll have no problem Right. We're gonna hit that. Getting there. I'm just trying to,
like a lot of numbers to digest, you know? I think the easiest way of looking at it for us is that 5.4 from your bonus is half of it. Comes off the top. And we're bonding or finding a funding source for Yeah. Or other strings. Everything. Whatever that may end up in. You have some things that Don's talked about before. Yep. Before we get accused of double taxing, everybody. Yeah. That's the last thing we wanna do. Other questions? I'm impressed with what the what was presented. Like, having, having something on paper, right, a little bit more concrete.
I know we had the the boxes designed up in one of our initial meetings, but, like, seeing the street view and seeing the concept imagery can it allows, for me anyway, a better understanding of how it's gonna lay out, what's gonna be included, how do and how do we incorporate something that is going to have the potential to to draw more people in through, updated programming. So I I like I like how that is looking in in in really future leading. Mister Steichen,
did you have a question? Yeah. I mean, it's a lot of things. You know, it's getting kinda down to the crunch, but I always fear of building it too small. Because this is going to be there for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, you know, plus years. And then it's hard to envision what what things will be like, but, I like the ideas that you put forward and, not limit ourselves on just a little box of, of a community room. So Yeah. I appreciate that. Thank you. I think and and a lot of it's come from input from Peyton and his
staff and, again, those key stakeholders and city input, community input from the community members. So since our it's our attempt to capture that information and put it on paper and and provide you with the options to make an informed decision, like I said, so you can think forward to the future. I think his initial his base fit design is also planned for future additions. So infrastructure would be there. Things would be there in place in the base building so that you could add on to that other building and not have to put in another piece of equipment.
It's already gonna be sized to handle something. You know? Could you go back to the picture? And what what direction would the addition, if it was to be built To the north. To the north. To the north where that big gym Right. Double gym would've been Correct. Placed? That's what we're showing it right now. If you go to the plan, Payton, with the gym so if if you were to kind of bisect this or trisect this plan into three spots, This is kind of the base bid. We're showing a reduced banquet hall on the right,
but that's base bid. This is the library, and this is the gym. So as you're looking at that budget and those numbers, that's kind of how that's all being split up. Right? If that helps. Yeah. It's it's basically all gonna be set up for those additions to come online whenever you're ready, whether it's today or five, ten years from now. And another thing to point out, I think we mentioned this, but the area that the the size of the piece of land this would be on would be approximately four acres in size. Correct. Just to give you a frame of reference. So so here's my question.
If we look at this in thirds and we build let's say we just build it third by third by third. So the the base bid has a larger banquet all. Correct? Correct. Yep. So if we can go to that slide, please. Nope. One second. Or how are we gonna do it? Because it's it's larger. I think we'd start out with the larger banquet hall, and then you would add the library, and then you would add the gym. And how does that impact the lot? Right. That's my question. Thank you. Yeah. Appreciate you. Yeah. What the the master plan when we were looking at the lot was for that
base bid plan and then adding those on to it. So it still fit all the the larger version still fits on that plan. So what I'll do is you don't know how many years in the future that could be Yeah. If you didn't do it. But we could go with the larger space and still have those additions. Correct. And it would be built to accommodate all that. Correct. So the land is there to do it. Right? Correct. Perfect. Okay. Because that was one of my more pressing questions because as as we're looking to set this up, I don't wanna hamstring future decisions based on,
oh, we're out of room. The building is placed on the lot property to be able to expand north no matter what option you take. Yeah. Thank you. After the gym, you kinda run out of space. That's fair. Alright. That that that's That blasted third pickle. Yeah. That third. Yeah. Mister Steichen? The if the amphitheater and the pergola and all that's built, that's not physically connected to the building? Is that separate? Correct. Yeah. Most of that's So there's room to the south. Yeah. We've left left right around an acre on the south side.
And it kinda wraps around the end of the building there. But just thinking about that plaza being right around that acre, size, which is about, from my understanding, where you had some of your activities, for loco days out in the field, out in the rail District. It's about that size space. Yeah. That was one thing that we were so where the games to go and all that, the car set up, we just took, actually, that measurement and laid it over just to get an approximate size of how much room would be needed if that exact space was just to give you a visual.
I'm not saying we would do all that right there, but that gives you somewhat of a visual of what was being considered. Zero. Yeah. So over 40,000 square feet, basically. Was your question heading towards can you expand south? Well, I just want to make sure that's where it was the idea right now, that it could be placed if it happened. It would be and there's room for it. I know you guys have thought it out well enough, but Yeah. Just so we'd understand. The gyms would could limit you to any farther north expansion, And then the south could be taken up by whatever or the amphitheater.
There's room there's room for that is what it Yeah. Comes down to. Hey, Andrew. Do you have this right here or any of these just, like, on a to situated on the lot, like, a large plan view that we could maybe see? I think that would help too. You get a better visual for everybody. Should've left him in there. Mhmm. Just on the landscape. What's that? Can you go to the landscape? Oh, no. It's cut off. All of those. Yeah. That shows sort of like what the property boundaries are, things like that. I think that'll make me paint last presentation if you can I don't know?
Yeah. We're good. So Do you wanna talk So really, the question well, I think the council knows what it's looking at this evening. And it's there'll be some component of the base bid, right, that you're gonna be looking to green light. But it's those additional amenities that you have to consider, obviously, let's say for a basketball court, that's a pretty big price tag just to tack on there last minute. But that library edition so just to provide a little context how that came about,
we were approached by the Lake Agassiz discussing a few things, and it came up about the potential of us having a new library at this location. And Don and myself, we're always trying to we're when we're we've been working through this, just been trying to think of programming and ideas that will have individuals there on a daily basis beyond just renting it out, which we've provided a playground now indoors that we think would get utilization year round,
potentially pickleball courts or whatever that may be for or be used for. And in addition, just the actual rental of the facility and all the meeting room spaces that I believe are gonna have great utilization compared to our old facilities. But thinking about that on a daily basis, that was that seemed to be a natural fit. The executive director feels incredibly very strongly that our library would have great utilization. Much of that is based upon the sheer number of individuals that have library cards within the community.
I can't remember what that number was. Do you remember what it was? It was, like, 1,900 individuals. Over half the residents. Yeah. And the library is not interested in just doing a link site, you know, just a small library. They actually want a library here in And and to give you an idea about what the size, this building is about 3,000 square feet if you're just drawing a rectangle around. That's about how large of the space we're talking. So with that, Peyton, because I like the idea of a full time draw to the community center. I I think that's important.
I would like to have some type of commitment and understanding it. Like, I don't wanna build it and have them say, JK. Plans. I mean yeah. Because plans change, records change, like and how do how do we ensure that? Because I love the concept, and I didn't realize that 1900 people until we talked about it, actually had, library cards built. But I do like the idea of a constant draw to the community center. I don't I don't wanna build a $10,000,000 building that that gets used on Saturdays. To me, that's an underutilization of of resources. So I like that concept,
but I wanna make sure that we have something concrete before we'd start pouring anyone concrete. I would like that from my my perspective. Julie? I'm just gonna go off that. I mean so a couple of things with that, talking about how much space we have available and, you know, like, giving to the library or something. I wanna make sure we have enough space, like, for when we have our big events, for city council meetings too that could utilize, like, I think maybe those two medium rooms together. I mean,
you'd only get about a 100 people in there. I'm not sure. We'd probably be looking at using the larger space, but Why not? You can partition it. Right? So we could make it Yep. Work. And and these hold you said these would hold approximately a 100 people, the meeting rooms. Combined. Yeah. Combined there. Yep. Yeah. So but looking at the options for I mean, so we only have right now half the money for the base building we really want. Right? Correct. Mhmm. And so, basically, the additions we're looking at,
I mean, from my I understand the perspective of getting more people in the building and the library space. But I would rather see it used in the outdoor space first to kinda give it, you know, that amphitheater, a little more area to use. So because once the rail district starts building on those spaces we're using now, we're not gonna have that space. Maybe the water feature, but not a full on splash pad so we can get the cost down, you know, but more like that. And maybe the linear one makes it more affordable so that we can utilize the
space barn. But I guess my preference would be to put the money towards that first before the library, but I see the value in a library too. But I like that perspective. Yeah. Kevin, what's the capacity of this room? Do you know? Pop quiz. You have an idea? We don't know. 35. I'll figure that out real fast. Right? 40. Of this room? Seven fifty, I think. Seven forty? No. This little room that we're in right now. Yeah. Yeah. Plus or minus, probably. That's right there in 40 square feet. In a second. And so and the the smaller We're mix we're mixing up our our,
quantities here. We're talking about people or square feet because there's no way 700 people fit in the square feet. He's talking to square. Okay. That's that's better. And how many what's the square footage of the smaller the subdivided meeting rooms? I have a square meter. Something. Yeah. So it's roughly the size of this room. Right? That that was the point of driving at. Yeah. Good question. The size. And if you'd be able to Open up that to double that. So then that's kinda gives you a mental idea of how big that square is, rectangle.
But So Please. The mayor had mentioned in a past meeting that and intentionally or unintentionally, we kinda sold this as a community rec space. So, I mean, we definitely need to keep something in there. So the playground's good to see, the walking path, and the base building, all that, I think, is really good to have in there. I'm kinda with Julie too about the library is a great option, but I would rather maybe see the money somewhere else until we have, like, a solid contract with them or, you know, something permanent. I don't it's not that I don't believe them. It's just it would be it'd be better if we had something.
So if they did come and talk to us, I would feel better about making that commitment. Mister second. Mister mayor, maybe you can't even answer this roughly, but and I don't wanna lead too far into that. But if the library if Lake Agassiz did if they did partner with us, you know, we haven't had discussions with them. But what does that generate a decent amount of revenue to help cover I mean, maybe you guys would I mean, I don't know how you even approach that without knowing what what they would even be be offering to pay for that having that
And I think that's a conversation that we have to have. But just through through experience, I I would anticipate, like, no. They would they would offer library, like, their staff to run their their their piece, right, and do programming and things inside of their library, but I don't anticipate that they would pay rent. I I just I don't know that for sure, but I don't know too many ex too many examples of where they would where they have. So, again, it's a conversation that we can have, but I don't I don't anticipate, their satellites are, like, paying any type of of lease agreement.
This wouldn't be a satellite, though, but they're talking about having offices in there and different things. Wasn't that kind of initially Well, I think that you're talking about the actual Lake Agassiz, their headquarters. That was an initial conversation. It's been moved off from that now? We I mean, we don't know where that's gonna go, but we're gonna anticipate it's gonna go in the new Moorhead Right. Facility there. That would be our suspicion. And, yeah, that's nothing that we've been really entertaining as part of all this. And I think that's a good point, Peyton. We we have not been entertaining any conversations with the regional office staff,
and we have not been trying to recruit them to come to Dilworth in any capacity whatsoever. We wouldn't do that to the city of Mora, a a good partner and everything with us. So, but what we are looking at is just that, hey. Books on shelves and opportunities for, literacy advancement, outside. So they would staff it for forty, sixty hours a week. However, that works, provides some programming and other opportunities that would get individuals there on a semi regular basis. I can't speak to what the numbers look like or how that works.
And our responsibility is obviously furnishing the building and getting it to the point that they take care of the rest. Kevin? Beyond the library, has there been any appetite for any private dollars to do anything with the gymnasium? We stay in constant contact with those individuals, but to this point, no one's committed anything. To this point, for the last eighteen months, that appetite has seemed to, I don't know, be diminished. But there's still an opportunity as we're looking at a big part of the puzzle
is is what is the City of Dilworth committing? And and and that's a fair question. And with where we're at right now, we can see the level of commitment, from the City of Dilworth and our citizens. It's substantial to the tune of approximately $10,000,000 And from there, we're optimistic that we're able to benefit and maybe still attract those private dollars to where we can see, the maturity of the project. All three phases, potentially. But right now, I think we're focused on that very first step and committing, to building that base project where we have the large meeting space and the community
center, replacing what was removed with the building of our our fire department. Are we doing one more public meeting? I guess that's my question. One we have another one scheduled. One more as kind of a design update after we get through design development and into construction documents just to show the public where things are moving, some final renderings, and that that's one of, I mean, more informative than it is maybe pulling out information from the public. And if the, you know, if the, council's direction is to stay with base bid, try to figure out something about the amphitheater outside,
The library is a pretty easy thing to you know, let's say, a few months down the road, this whole thing works out with the library, and you say, hey. We wanna do a library. I don't think it's that's not too tall of a task to add onto the project. Yeah. Well, it's on the north end. Right? That's that's the next way we're going. Right? It's it's on we just slap that right on the north side there. Or the you know what? We could also do it as an alternate if if projects cost. We you know, Tony and I visited quite a bit about the cost on the projects,
and we actually lowered these per square foot numbers to be a little bit more in line with where the market is today. We're getting very good numbers in on the bid seen right now. We don't know what's gonna happen in six months, but, I think we're comfortable with these numbers, the way we what we put up there. And if we wanted to do that as an alternate portion of that, maybe the numbers would come in good and you could fit it within the $10,000,000. Is that the same for the upgraded plaza area or any plaza space that we do? That's just something we could do rather easily if you wanna have that.
With a base bid portion of the plaza. Okay. And then maybe there'll be certain points in the plaza like the, pergola. Gotcha. So and so when we're talking about this, like, are we I mean, I'm thinking, like, the the Fargo Square. Is that kinda what we're aiming for with that that concept? I think this one was about Yeah. Downtown. Yeah. This was probably I think it was twice as big as the plaza downtown Fargo. So it's a bigger space. But I think that was where it felt like the community input that we did receive was a little bit more pavement, a little bit more like that,
where you can utilize it for multiple purposes throughout the year. And the kind of the whole idea behind sticking it in that corner was to engage that whole intersection. There's gonna be a little bit of space on the south side of that street, on on both sides of Sixteenth Street. Right? Mhmm. And then on both sides of First Third? Third Avenue? Really the sight line of in the sight line into the rail district and walkability into that area, right? And that's kind of the vision of the whole thing.
So with that, our next step is that final public engagement piece? No. No. No. That's gonna come later. Later? Yeah. So really, they're break this down now? You have till the August, I would say, at the latest. Perfect. You know, if the council feels comfortable with rolling on with the base bid and looking at and and also evaluating as part of that too. So here's the base bed. But getting back to the actual size of the rooms, if you're comfortable with those sizes, if you're like, well, you know, we don't really need two pickleball spaces or,
you know, and then cut that down, you know, modify some sizes. You have an idea of what that cost. That's the $10,450,000, you know, whatever that number is through there. And a whole of nothing. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And then just He's in the promotion. He's got an award. But providing them a blessing, I guess, more than anything, to proceed forward with this. I think that's ultimately what they are searching for. And some of these other things that they're both talking about on alternate side, those don't have to be decided today.
Right. Oh, that could be it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But I think and and not even today, even on this. But if you feel you're at a point where, hey. Let's just go in and green light this part at least, They could do that. So this is the base. Correct. Correct. Okay. Julie? I was just gonna ask a question about I think it's the receiving space in the office. I mean so you guys have probably thought through this as staff, and that's where you think you we would probably have to have someone housed over there. And in the back of the building is gonna be? And sometimes the office is not necessarily for the person that's running the facility,
but maybe, like, for computers and, like, somebody might go in there a couple times a day and not necessarily sit there all day long. I think it's mostly a kinda house a kind of a touch point where they can put in, you know, brochures and pricing information, pamphlets. Things that they can go back there, pull out, and probably meet with the people as they're walking through the building. A little less about maybe a public facing office. And I'll look at it as an office and a half because that's what this space would be for as far as, like, greeting someone as they come in, whether that be a senior volunteer or whoever that may be,
or if it's something that we have to, pay for. But that does bring up a whole other component about staffing the facility. Mhmm. You know? And that's something that we are we, collectively, the council and staff and everyone else is gonna have to consider as part of that. The addition of the office there was, you know, currently you you know, if for right now or previously with the community center, we can unlock the doors from here. People go over and view it solo. This would also provide an opportunity maybe if we had to log on real quick
on a computer. We could just hook in right there and, yeah, house other things over there. And what would we what's the receiving like is that That's like drop off. The caterers will come through there by with their food. On the backside. Yep. Your your paper goods would come through there. That sort of. Okay. So despite there's a storage component in there as well. How do you wanna share this, like, blank? I guess Oh, did you did you email it to me? I'm sorry. Office to have a window? I mean, if someone just happens to be Just email it to me. We'll get you a window. I'm not gonna say that. I shouldn't say that. Maybe I'll be But I don't think you're You can I don't think you're wrong?
He's having emails. Yeah. I don't think you're wrong because it could be a place where you meet with a client, put your client for, you know, reviewing To me, that makes sense. Renting spaces and things like that. So I think you wanted a nice feeling office, but not necessarily it's, the front of the house office. Yeah. I think that's a little bit undersized right now. I think we had 180 programmed in, thinking you'd probably have a little table you'd sit around and and probably some windows out to the to the hallway, which would have some windows to the outside. So you have some borrowed light in there. But, yeah, certainly, I think it doesn't need to be off that front main access there.
Kevin? Also, just to clarify, you know, to to get the people to the office, the base bid also includes, like, all the parking lot and Correct. Yeah. That was a there a $1,500,000 site allowance in there. Okay. Actually, we got some good news this afternoon after I sent that off. That is coming in less than that, 1.5 site allowance. So there is some play there where we could, add some of those other features still underneath that basement mount. It's already getting cheaper. I like it. 1.48. Yeah. You can hear a lot. Yeah. Let's put that library out.
So Not that low. I like where your head's at. So I guess first first and foremost, like, the base plan, like, counsel, I mean, what what do we think? This is our starting point? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's what we can do with with who we got. Right. Nice to see we have something. Here it is. Oh, nice. Yep. There you go. I think that's good for everyone to see. And I did how it would be playing out. Yeah. That's outstanding. Yeah. And I think that library space there wasn't quite as big as what we were 33,000 square feet or three five hundred square feet.
So it it does push a little bit further to the north, but there's still room there to do that. And then that plaza space is that whole south side. Right. That whole green space is what's designated for a plaza? Correct. Yep. And we're proposing maybe, you know, if there is street parking in this area, maybe that, like, the plaza downtown Fargo, you'd lose the street parking there and you push it out towards the the curb. And that really, again, engages that corner a little bit more. And if you were to do something, like, during local days, you close down a street or two, it really engaged that corner there.
That's what we're showing it kind of bleeding out past the property line there into the boulevard. Or the east side. Does that help? If we cut off the city's responsibility at the south end of that parking lot, we could let the developer push their own plaza, and they can build it how they wanted to. Well, then you're on your three acres. See that. We don't need that extra place. They the developer can do that. Yeah. The other thing is if that North South Road goes in you know, this is this is showing, like, there's a private drive in there. Whether it comes to the South or the North is still to be determined.
But if there were a road that were to go in right to the east here, then we'd just pull off of that for your, your access to your your receiving area there. They're likely I would assume there may might be a connection right is what you tell me is talking more. If that connects up through and and gets to that neighborhood up up to the north. Well, those are things we can kinda hone in on towards as our project moves. Or I think it addressed everything but the indoor pool is still That's underneath the gym. Way underneath. Move the floor in. Yes. All right. So with that, I mean,
we're here looking at we're seeing that base design. We're seeing the footprint with the parking lot, the potential growth to the north. Really, I mean, that's the update. That's where we're at. And now it's just a matter of saying go ahead and move forward with that piece and look at other I mean and then, ultimately, what are the potential Would the alternate. Alternate bids be. Correct? Mhmm. Correct. So it's a little bit more than a design update. I I think I'd like to see, you know, continuation with the base bid and then packaging together that alternate for the plaza area
as one. And then also, like you guys mentioned, your library and gymnasium. Now is there a potential that we could do a gym without the library? Or, I mean, they're not contingent on each other by any means. Right. We could I mean, you could so I mean, not do any live we could do the library on the other side of the gym. It might look a little Yeah. Well, I guess what I'm driving at is just, like, the alternates kinda laid out that way. I think the gym is a big enough component that you'd wanna maybe be a little more for sure on that one before you design it all out. The the key is you also pay for 80% of the design fee,
which is our fee through construction documents. Alternate? So, yeah, if you if you put an alternate out there, you're still paying 80 percent of our fee because we do take time to design everything and make the material selections and whatnot. Okay. Then I changed my mind on the alteration. For sure, on the the plaza alternate. Right? Like, we wanna we wanna have some at least see what it costs. Right? I think we should talk to Kimley Horn and find out find what what what can be the base bid so it's usable space. Yeah. That was that. Functional, but then there's amenities, amphitheaters, and parking lots, and those things that could be down the road type product.
Yeah. That's we when I got the initial $1,800,000, I said, well, what's this what's the base version? Because that might not be achievable in the whole project. You know, that's temp to whatever the whole project. Seated. What does that cost? What's that? Graded and seeded? Yeah. Well Alternate is grass. Yeah. Yeah. Base bid is grass. I I think that that's a thing. And and I say, if we're sitting on three acres and if that pushes us over three acres, I'd really like to talk to the developer to see what they're gonna do because that's their land then.
Yeah. Because that could save us $1,200,000 on anything. Right. Including 80% of the design costs. That's right. Second motion. Well, I I think we've got a a a a and I don't know what 80% of designing a library is or designing that space. But I mean, is it within our scope of responsibility to look at those two? I'm gonna flat out and say, like, $8,000,000 for a gym is above and beyond unless I I don't see where we come up with that money. But the other two elements, I think, are are at least worth the exploration over the next month. And, again, I don't rough ballpark,
what is 80% of the library cost? Well, it's one point Design cost. Yes. Point five. So you're probably a 100,000 or so. Right? He's doing the math. Times 80%. He's Facebooking. I have not He's checking to see how many of you About a 100,000. About a 100,000. But it is a I mean, that's an investment. It's not going to go anywhere. Going any way down the road. Right. I mean, both of them. I mean, that's the argument for both ends, for the south side and for the north side, Yeah. Stopping at the Right.
At the basketball courts because $8,000,000 doubles our price tag. Right. But the other end gives us at least some opportunities for growing. And we've never always the community center had never always been an indoor facility. It had always kind of been the parking lot was used for a lot of things. Right? Parking. I mean, out outside outside of local days. But outside of local days. But yeah. And we can have that I mean, it's a $100,000 worth of investment that can we I mean, the plans won't go away no matter what we do on both ends. Right? The plans aren't gonna go away.
There'll be usable information as we as we're going through this. And it's expensive, but if we do it right, it might be worth it. Julie? Well, I just wanna add to that. Again, I feel like our focus is here, and that's where it should be, right on the pay center. But last meeting, we were also talking about developing to the north. And, I mean, I just wanna when we think about where we're gonna put all the money, where are we gonna get all the money to do both at the same time? That's my concern. And so that's why I wanna be really realistic about what we're asking them to
do so that we're being very honest with the public about what we're gonna what we really think we can do with the money. Because if we're talking about working on a park to the north, at the same time we're doing this, that's a lot of extra money. Are you talking about north of the baseball fields? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm trying to take care of the 25 meter target first. Right. That's what I'm saying. But, I mean, like, we can't you know, like, you know, last meeting, we were talking about, yep. Let's go ahead and think about developing this out and get some stuff in there.
And if we're talking about that at the same time, we're I mean, we can't pretend like that's not there while we're talking about this. Oh, I I completely understand what you're saying. And we're I mean, because you're talking about correct me if I'm wrong, please. But you're I mean, the residential area that was proposed off of Seventh is what's triggering everything else, Right? Including, like, what we'll potentially look at in that part going Right. North. That's I mean, we I I do think we have some time before we need to even start I mean, we all can start looking at it, but before we have to put any money into that,
we're I mean, we we haven't seen plans for that. We won't see plans for that for a year. All we decided was to take Avenue through Yeah. The land that we own. Right? If I remember correctly. Right. But I'm just saying I just wanna make sure that we're being realistic with our expectations of what we can handle as a city and what we're committing to. 100% agree. Like, let's not over, like, oh, that looks good. That looks good. If we still wanna do, you know, like, overcommitting to one project, it's gonna have to be a like, obviously, the basketball courts are not happening in a year. I just don't think that's a you know?
From my vantage at all right now. Like, that's to me, the the basketball courts, that's way too expensive. Like, that's not a thing. I I do wanna entertain the library conversation. I mean, if we want to have an updated community center, at least have the conversation to see what it's at, to see what what else we can do inside that building. Because if we're again, if we're looking at it, I don't want to invest $1,010,800,000.0 dollars on something that's used for 53 weddings and fundraisers. Yeah. It's it's an underutilization of a resource.
If we can do more things within that space, then we can justify the investment that we're making. And if the conversation doesn't work out, maybe we have that first. Maybe we have that conversation first with with the library to see what their level of interest is and see if it matches up with our vision. And then if not, we can can we prioritize the alternate list and start with the outside areas and opportunities first, and then, hopefully, we can meet with the Peyton, is that a possibility? Mhmm. Let's go that route. K. Yeah. And right now,
we have more work into the building than we do to try to pull the plaza Right. Plans together. And if you wanted to have a conversation with developer to see if there's some kind of partnership in that corner, that would be good to know if there's something coming from another entity. Well, the idea came from another entity. I think it's important that the the finances should also look to be coming from another entity as well. Mhmm. Partnerships work both ways. Right. That's fair. Council, just are we thumbs up with the base bid, and let's move that one forward Yep. In terms of the building?
Building and parking lot, and we go from there? We owe it to them to move forward on that. Very well said, mister Steichen. Very well said. So with that, Peyton? Yes. Thank you, mayor. I would, yeah, just recommend providing them a motion to that effect just that we have something on record that you're authorizing them to move forward with a $10,000,000 project, design of a $10,000,000 project. We're gonna say, I council does looking for a motion to provide the go ahead to continue the
design of our base bid plan for the community center and parking lot. Does that make sense? That cover everything? Okay. Is that what we so I have a motion by Nash. Second. And second by Peterson. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. We appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. It's mister Steigen, I think that was that was very much we we owe it to keep it moving forward. We owe it to ask the hard questions and then make sure that we're not overextending us and that we're not financial responsibility is still our responsibility.
We need to maintain our budget and maintain our focus on that as well. So thank you very much. Great. If you ever need any more conversation, just let us know, and we'll have to come back and visit with you guys. We will have you're going to we'll do a public meeting with, like, the final rendition. That's will be that's that's gonna be the thing as well. Right. That's fine. Yeah. We can come back as often as you want for design updates and kinda let you know where we're at. Could be a lot quicker than tonight, but yeah. The mayor's talking about our next public meeting, which now you can say for certain this is what the council has determined or
has, yes, directed us to do, and this is what it's going to look like. Yes. And it's easy enough to just dash in where this future what the future may hold. Sure. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. So with that, let's move us to number nine, Planning and Engineering. We have nine Alpha. We have our discussionreview of our area wide special assessment map. Peyton? Yeah. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. So we're back again from our last meeting to talk about area wide assessment, specifically as this relates to the aforementioned project off of Seventh Street Northeast,
a potential residential development extension of Eighth Avenue, and how those specials, assuming that we go with the same area wide assessment process that we've done previously, how that could look. Again, just to recap, this is what the existing map looks like. So if we're extending over a future Eighth Avenue through here, those special assessments are I guess we go over to here. But those special assessments would be,
those to the north up to this line, and then down to almost Fourth Avenue, or all the way down to Fourth Avenue once you get over by the school and by the Lutheran church. And in thank you. Did you get a copy of that, Ben? He'll email me a copy. I'll I'll email you an updated copy. Thank you. Thank you. So in, so yeah, it was just sort of a matter of fairness, I think, that the council should just consider as we proceed forward through this.
And Andrew, our city engineer, is needing a little bit of guidance on if you're comfortable with the current map or if you would like to see some kind of alternative, which I'm gonna show you here in just a moment. And, you know, with this map, again, to, you know, cover this again, he did put the updated aerial behind it, behind the layers here. But you can see how the city has continually evolved. You know, maybe some things weren't, you know, you just can't speak fully to how the community is going to continue to develop.
And now that we have more developmental patterns in place, now that we have a better concept of some of our transportation networks, especially going across the Eighth Avenue, put together this just for discussion purposes this evening. And so how this would be reflected, this would be, you know, taking Eighth Avenue, working its way across how we have shown right now. So those calls would be captured from anyone from Fifteenth Avenue going south up to the current line,
which I believe this would be we'll call it like a imaginary Seventh Street, that would be going across right here. From my Seventh Avenue. Thank you. From my vantage, this it it just seemed like a more fair line to draw in the sense that in the proposed proposed development that's being reflected, there is no thoroughfares. There's no roadways, north South roadways going across. And I think that was probably the intention or the thought process at the time when that map was originally put into place. And, again, the map that's drawn up currently is just a guy.
It's not anything the council's held to what it has to utilize. So, I I mean, personally, I feel like this is a really good East West corridor process to follow, potentially, for, you know, future special assessments. On the North South front, one thing that's does modify a little bit is I remove Seventh Street from a future area wide assessment. I'm not saying you couldn't put it back in there and maybe split the difference
or keep it along the same lines that you have right now, but I had our main thoroughfares that would be specially assessed on a North South basis, 30 Fourth Street, a future main street that would come up all the way to, Fifteenth Avenue, so it would be split either side, as well as Fourteenth Street. Those seem to make the most sense to me as I was working through this. I'm not saying this is right or wrong. But for but I was thinking something for the council to consider as we look into the future.
And, you know, one thing you will see omitted from this is anything South Of Highway 10. In the previous map, highway well, I'm sorry. I don't have it fully shown over here, but you can see where, South Of Highway 10 is reflected. What I think of a goal of having every resident paying a area wide special assessment on a North South roadway and an East West roadway. However, I think the council really needs to consider just the matter of you're trying to demonstrate assessing
on a benefiting basis. So you have to I'm not saying it's what how the process we've done is incorrect, but just, a matter of, you know, questioning if we ever were to be challenged. If you have a Fourth Avenue corridor going across and then you have, someone next door to City Hall that's getting assessed for that roadway that may drive up there once or twice a year. And, again, I'm not saying that's incorrect in the line of thinking. That's what the lines are, and that's the lines that we've adhered to thus far. But going forward from here,
is that the correct way that we need to be looking at this? And so in this scenario, they just do not have one. The county road right now is, you know, fully paid for by the county. And, so this area would just be removed from an area wide assessment. Or you could you could still pull this down, how the Fourth Avenue is right now and add on to that. These are all just, considerations for the council. And but, really, the thing that we're trying to identify this evening or as we,
you know, as Andrew develops the preliminary engineering report is how this Eighth Avenue would be funded if we go through an area wide process. And if this is a better, more fair and equitable way of paying for it as opposed to including residents in this area. Thoughts from counsel? Julie? I mean, I like this conceptually. Again, you know, like, talking about making sure it benefits the property. The one thing I'm that leaves me concerned are the properties that then aren't assessed
for anything. I mean, how is that a fair policy in town when there are properties that don't get? It doesn't mean that we couldn't create a box for future Fourteenth Avenue or Fourteenth Street when it would come across? Because I'm guessing whatever connecting wouldn't be, but, I mean, we still don't have it East West one in that area. My other concern and, I mean, I guess, Seventh Street is difficult now. We may not have to do anything for a long time because there's just not that many properties along it, which we know made it difficult to even do in the first place,
which is why it took so long. But I have a little bit of concern about some of those properties that were already having issue about paying for the Mill And Overlay in their neighborhood and then paying for the Seventh Street. And now they're gonna get lumped into Maine, which might be coming very soon. That's the other concern about it. I conceptually, I get how it works to adjust it, but I have some concern that those people will get hurt hit a third time. I don't know how to fix it. That I'm just saying that's my concern. And and that's that's all contingent on,
I mean, on May on Main Street coming. I guess I haven't did I miss something in planning? Yes. Probably. I mean, there's always been that that concept, but, again, would my guess I that's fair. I mean, that that and that's accurate. I just don't know when Main Street is actually gonna come into play. Mayor and council, one thing you may wanna do in areas where you have the possibility of over two assessments and an area wide basis is put in a circuit breaker that there shall be no more than two per property. So if there's three,
you'll have to come up with another way to fund it else, you know, maybe extending the district or putting more money in from the city into the project or whatever. But that is another way to deal with it. Yeah. I like that. It's not a I mean, yeah. Well and so when you're looking at Seventh my thought with Seventh too is is that a is that a street where we can begin, like, having it just be a the the city's responsibility? Right? Because it is one of the newest roads, and so as we'd have some time to prepare for that type of financial responsibility.
And then because it's Seventh Street's not on and is that or would that move us more towards our goal of fully funding our roadways and our and just identify this is one of the streets where it's gonna start. If anything comes up, something happens, it's the city's responsibility. Does it make sense to just pull that box down to the south? Like, the old Gilworth box. Yeah. This one? Just continue that to the south. Like here. Encompass all that. Yep. And that's kinda how it is right now. Yeah. Very somewhat similar right there. Was shown like that.
You know? What I mean? Would that kind of put your mind at ease, Julie? Well because that that would have the same thought you did. Right? But Yeah. I mean, and still that leaves little Italy outright because but Yeah. What's their benefiting streets? I don't know. I was just thinking equitable, but, again, it has to benefit the property, and that's where the struggle is. I'm sorry. I jumped in. You're good. Okay. Conversations. That's all. You know, because in in some ways, you know, I like the idea of mapping it out,
and we've held hard and fast to it in the past years. But kind of that idea, well, if you can't have more than two, because I like the idea that the Seventh Street could be a city street, but then why can't they all? Right? Because then why the property owners along it don't ever have to pay for mill and overlay and for another house? You know, like, how do you not special assess them for you know? But then we have the people on Highway 10 who don't. Right? Because that's the state highway. So, I mean yes. So we could do it. It makes sense. There aren't that many houses there,
so it's probably the best one if we were gonna pick one. And and it's the newest one, so it gives us some time barring any natural disaster. But, I mean, someone might use a the wrong vehicle to move in a house and tear up the road. So can I ask another question? Please. Just given what you've learned looking at this, you know, since we were talking about it, I I don't know if most communities stick with a hard and fast, like, line or if there's more of that this is in general where your North South
East are, and you're not gonna get more than two within a certain period. But that it would still allow us to be like, yep. But this one's not gonna get done for twenty years, so we're gonna include these houses. You know? Yeah. You can still be flexible with these. And, in fact, you know, at the time in the future, you know, there'll be more areas to develop. You can do a traffic study at the time to see who is utilizing this roadway or potentially utilizing it. If you're gonna look at some kind of an amendment to the district at that point. But seventh would, as discussed, could be a good opportunity to say, okay. We're gonna apply our new policy to this.
Everything up to a reconstruction, right, will swallow, but the reconstruction will have to be assessed in the event that that happens. So, yeah, you could I just wanted to hearken back to that a second. But, otherwise, too, yes, it's not hard and fast, but, you know, Peyton and I talked about it and I said I asked a question, well, how many years in between? It seemed like about eleven to fourteen years these are being looked at again, and that's probably about the appropriate time frame. I'd say a decade. Every decade, they should be looked at again or if you have a major project. And then at this time, like I said,
you could always have a traffic study done to help justify where you're you're placed in that assessment at the time. And then look. Can we look at designated or designating Seventh Street, what, like, a city arterial roadway that we would be like, and create that classification of roadway and then establish the funding mechanism for that particular type of street. Correct. Create the policy for it for the, function street function that you're going to assign to it. Mayor. Please. And not only and and again,
this also isn't taking into consideration future. I was also thinking about the future, thinking about our North South roadways. So at some point, Sixtieth Street as well could potentially be a city roadway. How I have it right now, it's removed similar to how Seventh Street is. And just it's a matter of how much you wanna squeeze it or widen it out. That's just how I was processing it in my head. I don't know if this is right or wrong. That's what I was struggling with at all. I kept messing around with the lines, and Mhmm. This feels good aesthetically. Julie?
So one other piece that I know our part of Third 30 Fourth Street only starts on the other side, so I can see that's why you're not further south. Mhmm. But, again, those properties, those businesses on that side aren't I mean, I feel like that is a tiny area. Does if we're talking about residential in that area to assess for that Third Avenue, Like, is that big enough? But because it helped you know, it's probably gonna get support from Morehead, I think it probably reduced the cost. But when Third Avenue goes in, that's all us.
That's correct. And so I guess I can see it balancing out that way because you're, like, figuring well but they don't end up paying anything for 30 Fourth even though it's it's not soft. Minimal cost that they hit get for rent. So then the next question is what about the front end road? On this side? On the South side. Yeah. Because that's ours. Mhmm. And and what whose responsibility does that become? I'll see the same thing and just pull that purple box down. But then do they have Third Avenue and the frontage road,
and is that two east West? Or it could just be the east. Yeah. Or does But at that point and not to answer your question, mayor. I almost added it, but I'm like, well, if it's just these properties right here, they get the frontage assessment already, so it already kinda covers it. That's how I was looking at that. That's why I didn't have it as an area wide assessment even though it's technically one and the same right there. Does that make sense? It does. So Yeah. The the area wide assessment is covered because of of the property. Because they that's the only roads that And and, again, logically, that makes sense because, again, if we could pull it down,
I keep keep it all the same. Yeah. So then from that equity piece, like, Jill, you mentioned that, Kevin, you mentioned. So do we pull off the center one, Fourth Avenue and Main Street? Do we just pull that down for that equity piece? And I'm hearkening back to old Dilworth. Right? Because that's that's Old Dilworth circa 1974. It's all part of that core. Right. I mean, so does that take the Fourth Avenue and then the Main Street and and part that's does that create the equity piece, or does that bring it too are we concerned about too far away from the
benefiting property owner? Julie? I mean, I could see that if we're doing a Main Street, then, like, when you're talking about adjusting these, like, this is our guidance. But I feel like those that are on the other side of the track utilize main, but they probably don't utilize Fourth. So I can see them being kind of a quasi part of that. About South Of Highway 10, not the tracks. Well, even that, though. I mean, right, because those South Of 10 aren't necessarily gonna go up the Fourth Avenue to go across. They're gonna go down Highway 10. So I could see everyone,
like, basically South Of 10, whether Little Italy or they're utilizing Maine to get to somewhere versus Fourth Avenue. So I could see pulling them in for a Main Street project, but maybe not the justification for a Fourth Avenue. Yeah. That's fair. I mean, that's that there's logic behind that. Yeah. Little Italy and that area down there, at some point, we may have a box for Fourteenth, extension of Fourteenth, and possibly Twelfth too because we're on the hook for with, you know, the agreement with Moorhead for construction of Twelfth at some point.
Yeah. So that piece is coming to the avenue. Eventually. Yes. Eventually. Eventually. Avenue. So the Twelfth Street. Wait. What? I mean, I but is there anything I'm sure you thought about this, but this can't you just add one more box with different color, South Highway 10 for And just to include them in the policy, like Main Street? No no Fourth Avenue? Main Street and I don't know. I'm yeah. Well, yeah. The thing is a lot of pardon me, the thing is they're still gonna use Fourth Avenue.
They're gonna go north across that light, and then they will go east or west. So there still will be some utilization by them. Granted, most will probably go off on ten. Right. Please. I think I'm comfortable with the way it is. I think we should shift from what our current is to this, and then we adjust it as we deal with the roads. I know it's hard to do that because we've been very much like this is how we do it, but, we're getting to that point where we have to be a little more flexible with identifying who is benefiting. And another thing too, this doesn't consider also mentioned Sixtieth Street.
We don't know what the future of Fifteenth Avenue is either. That's a whole other complication. And there's so many I mean, with both, with Sixtieth and Fifteenth, right, there's so many unknowns. We why engage in a conversation where we could what if ourselves into next week? I like the fact that where we exist right now and what is on our immediate horizon with Eighth Avenue, right, and all points in between, it's addressed and it makes sense. I I also think it's important that we we try to identify how we're gonna label roads like Seventh and how we deal with that going forward,
because I will also alleviate one of Julie's points. Like, hey. Those houses got special assessed for seventh and the mill and overlay and Fourth and all points in between. So And and I'm not sure how I'm sorry to interrupt. I'm not sure how our state formula will look different once we hit over 5,000. Now keep in mind, those monies can only be used for functionally class roadways, which we're in the process of updating that map. And just to give you an idea of what your functionally class roadways are or
going to be, We have Third Avenue. We only we have Seventh Street from Highway 10 up to here. We have Fourth Avenue running all the way across Fourteenth Street up to Fourth Avenue and also, C R 9 And 30 Fourth Street currently as well. So that's something else that we will continue continually monitor as we go along. So there it's gonna open us up to some more funding. However, that will also change our local street funding formula as well. So, you know, a lot to that could evolve from this.
I feel comfortable from the with this from the East West perspective, and I think the hesitation with it, on the North South is just that we recently did Seventh Street. Right? And, you know, so that kind of just is in the back of everyone's mind right now, in the back of my mind to by the time Maine gets constructed, maybe that window has expired. I think that was a twenty year bond, if I remember correctly, for the Seventh Street project. So maybe that one's already off the books by that time, and then it would make us feel a little better.
I don't know. Just one more question. Please. So just the Eighth Avenue, 30 Fourth Street Box, 30 Fourth Street isn't ours up there. Correct. Yeah. It's in the city of Morehead, the entire roadway. Right. So they don't have a so, technically, is it I don't know that we have a North South for them right now either then. Right? Do we have a financial responsibility? Well, there's a stranded cost sitting there. So, you know, Brett could in the maintenance agreement? What Julie's asking is, are we allowed to area wide specially assess property that's not in within our city
limits? That's really what you're asking. Right? In the future. I mean, right now, I'm in our agreement with Moorhead, but Yeah. We have it from a road maintenance perspective, but are you allowed to especially assess on area wide basis? Feel pretty confident that you can. Let's just say, like that. Right. I would say that Yeah. At that time and and maybe such that we will defer it until we have development in the area. But once we we can extend water and sewer up there in street systems, yes, we can probably apply those. You know, there's confidence in that. But then so much time as you only have so much time in a larger
sense or for specialists to be able to apply them. And throw one more caveat out there so staff doesn't get banged in the head at some point. There's has been some discussion about running forth over in a little piece of Sixtieth South Of 10, paving that with in conjunction sort of with the community center project. That has been sort of a just a loose discussion, But I just wanna lay that out there too so that everybody's aware of that. So as we look at that, you you mentioned, like, increase in state funding based on functionally class roadways. Mhmm. Right? And we have partially,
like, we'll just use Seventh Street for an example. You said Seventh Street up to Fourth Avenue is a functionally classed roadway. Correct? Is the whole road not built to the same standard? No. It it has to connect up with another functionally class, roadway. So and so where Seventh Street terminates up here, Fifteenth. It's just a gravel road right now, so it doesn't meet that. Once Fifteenth once that it gets extended over, then at that point, all the Seventh Street, we can get it included then. Mhmm. Okay. So that makes sense. Yeah. Riddle me this one. If we should happen to bring out Fourth Avenue to Sixtieth and Sixtieth runs south
to Highway 10, is that a functionally class roadway? We have to get it designated as such. But Right. It's if that was our understanding, we're working through it with them. That would be our intent. We're going over all these future scenarios with Metro COG. Head scratching on that one is, do you simply just put down an asphalt mat? You know what I'm saying? Not invest in a heavy 10 ton road at this point because of the cost, maybe at some point in the future. And then when would that be? And then you would look at it possibly adding that into the system at that time. We got a lot going on.
We're gonna build a community center, but we gotta make sure we have roads to get there. Yeah? And and as a and sorry to, you know, not complicate it, but complicate it a little more. And eighth Avenue too would be a functionally class roadway as it develops. So right now, it can it's this is obviously one of our more heavily trafficked roads in the city, but it can't reach it until it hits County Road 9 right there, matches up with another one. Sure. Then at that point, it would be subjected to more.
Tell me what kicks in when that happens that There are over 5,000 in population. You receive municipal state aid monies that can go into rehabbing roadways. That always forewarn everyone. It's not like a windfall of money. It's not like you're gonna start bringing in 30,000,000 a year for it. But it does help defray some of the cost on our roadways or right away improvements. And I'm anticipating that to kick in probably in a couple years. The thing about that too is you will possibly be able to do some advanced
construct. In other words, digging the future dollars for a larger project that you're doing today. Peyton, do you have enough information to move this forward, get this into policy language that makes sense? Yeah. And and again, this is like, it's more it's not really adjusting our policy as much as just a suggested, way that we would operate. So I just think me reporting back to Andrew, if the council is wanting to go this route here, that Eighth Avenue would be within that rectangle.
If that's what I'm understanding within this, and for us, our existing map with all the old lines on it, this will be the one that we at least reference for the time being. I think it's more of just a reference that we utilize instead of a set policy you have to do this and which our special assessment policy even says the council reserves the right to adjust and modify as it sees fit. So I think this would become our main document. Is there any other adjustments, like, with South Of Highway 10, anything like that that you wanna do,
or just keep it like this for the time being? And we can review those as they come about. I like those, and I I think yeah. I like those, I guess, for now, as long as we keep have that caveat in there that we can adjust it as we need. And I don't like the idea. Like Julie said, I mean, people hit more multiple times. So if we can put something like that in there, I think that's fair to everyone. Mhmm. Nobody needs to be assessed three times for something that is not equitable or fair to anybody. Are there any other questions?
So with that, do you want a formal mo I think so. Formal motion to adopt this for our for the reference? Mhmm. To serve as our reference guide material for our special assessment policy. And with that, I'll entertain a motion. I'll make the motion to use this as our guide. I'll second. I have a motion by Nash and a second by Borra. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Some excellent conversations. I mean, it really keeps us focused on the things that we want to do, But at the same time, we have an obligation to do things that we need to do as well.
Infrastructure is not pretty, but it does help the city function. So we, are moving to number 10. We have council members we have council members, concerns, and committee updates. Around the horn, please. Got a lot going on with it. Congratulations again to Sergeant Danoff on his five year commitment to the city of Delworth. We appreciate that. Quick recap from local days, and please feel free, to to add to this list, with your own comments. But, you know, specifically, I was involved with Firehouse Friday. We serve more people than we ever had in the past.
So it was somewhat of a record breaker. People really came out and helped us out. For the free will donation to, Fire Prevention Week, normally, we would expect to see about 350 to $400 get put in that boot. There was $1,024.80 in there this year. So that money will be donated to, to the relief to be put forward for, fire prevention week where, we'll utilize that in October. Kids' Day was a blast. I had my little one up there.
Well, both my little ones, but the little, little one had a lot more fun. And the music, I I feel like maybe, maybe I don't appreciate the conversation enough, specifically between Dave McLaughlin or Jim McLaughlin rather and Perry, but I really do enjoy the music up there. It's it's all it's very good. I'd I'd so hats off to the everyone who takes time out of their schedules to, come and entertain us. And, also, I I'll let Amber speak to it. I didn't go to the all school reunion, but, I saw that she did.
So, looked like a good time and I had prior obligations. Hats off to numerous, our summer baseball and softball programs in this community are second to none. I think the senior legion team is they've made it to the state tournament after a gauntlet of a weekend for them. And then also off the top of my head, I know that the nine u baseball team took second in their state tournament, and the thirteen u softball team, I think, also took second place in theirs.
So congratulations to them on their success. I'd be remiss if I didn't congratulate Peyton, I once again on his, is it Jim f Miller award? James f Miller award. Jimmy Miller, once again, congratulations, sir. Well deserved. And, thanks to everybody for all your hard work. That's all I got. Yeah. Like Kevin said, we had a lot going on here. Local day is amazing. Everybody did a good job. Committee, it was a good time. My kids enjoyed all of it. And it was really fun to see all the businesses in the Rail District kind of supporting each other. I've seen somebody, you know,
asking somebody else for ICE and they were helping them out and just everybody got seemed to work together to make it amazing and it was fun to see that part of it too. The back stuff that nobody really gets to see, so that that was cool. Let's see. What else did I have? Oh, Atlanta eighteen nineteen Nights. I can't wait for this. This looks like it's gonna be fun. The all school reunion was a good time. We were hoping for a little bit more more people to show up, but it was still still good. And then, Peyton, congrats. I've worked with you on Park Board, and I know that you're dedicated to making the city better.
So it's good to see other people acknowledge that. I knew when, Luke came up to me at one of the league events and told me how great you were that we had something special here, so congrats. Thank you. That's all I got. Mister Steichen. Yeah. Peyton's gonna get tired of hearing congratulations again, Peyton, but, congratulations, Peyton, on your award. It was fun for those of us that could attend in Duluth to see that. And Peyton was such gracious in accepting it. He thanked everybody everybody around him. So, I mean,
that's nice to see. And but it's none of my doing that got him as a ward. I mean, it's he's such a dedicated and but help from everybody does make a difference. So, pretty exciting. I've got to meet a lot of the league people over the years, and they've always are so nice. Mr. Fisher and and, Jim and everybody else. I mean, it's quite a staff down there, and, so it's fun to see them come up here for this. And I know they had other things in the area as well too. So thanks again for what you do for the community,
Peyton. Pass on the thanks to your sergeant at Danloff Agutta's award. It's good to see recognition. It's always nice to see. Local days, I went to a lot of the events. It was it was fun. Heard, Mayer and and Lisa and McLaughlin on the KFJO. They all do well when they promote Dilworth and talk on the radio speak on the radio. So, thanks for taking time out of your day, mister mayor, for for that. So, the, like council member Peterson said,
the, huge turnout at the fire hall, and mister Peterson did a great job running everything and, keeping everything moving, and and so everybody, whoever it always gets to be more work than a person ever imagines putting something on, so thanks for for everything you've done over there. So, it's great to see a great turn fantastic to see a great turnout. Earlier in the week, they had retirees show up. I didn't know a lot of the retirees, but a lot of old firefighters did show up for, tour and, some food, so that was good to see.
I did attend a Climate Coalition on, last week, and they have some ideas. I've always got these ideas, what we can hopefully apply for and get for, helping out, making the community center more efficient, and they're opening up some more grants. And and I'm guessing the architects already know this information, but, if they do or not, I'll still pass it on. Peyton and I, we were at a improving delivery service league, one of the policy committees. So that's just getting started.
Two more to come. And lots of interesting ideas that people are proposing. A lot of them will never get discussed. A lot of them are ongoing discussions that'll probably always be ongoing. So they figure out what's worthy of their time and what's gonna impact many communities. So it's fun to see, and they'll start bringing in speakers that'll address certain certain ideas, certain topics, certain subjects. So we'll see what happens in the August meeting. So, and I have one thing to pass on here.
This is a note sent to our fire chief, and, I'll just read what he writes. Good evening, chief. I know it's addressed to this whole department, so I just wanted to reach out and say thank you to all the guys who responded to my car fire on I 94 tonight. This was sent on, Thursday, July 24. If that's the day I'm not, I'm not exactly sure, but Mhmm. I personally thank everyone I not sure if I personally thanked everyone for responding and giving up their home and time with their family. I sincerely appreciate it,
and I apologize if it even happened. From a mayor's perspective this is a mayor from Freeport, Minnesota From a mayor's perspective, I sincerely appreciate everything you you and your team did and how professionally they worked. Please relay my gratitude. Thank you sincerely. Mike Ebslaug, mayor of Freeport, Minnesota. And I think Luke Fisher and I had spoken to him. Yeah. Pure irony. He was they went to Freeport, and he actually had coffee with the mayor today. So it's just appear ironic. Right. So And he had mentioned that to Louder,
you know, that that he's coming up to Dilworth, you know, look at someone then. He's like, oh, let him know to thank the fire department for me. So, just gonna pass that on to, the fire the fire, team out there and, that your your efforts were duly notified duly recognized by a mayor of, Freeport. That's it. Thank you, mister Steichen. Nash? So in addition, you know, again, to thanks to the League of Minnesota Cities for coming, and doing the presentation. Congratulations to Peyton. But I also wanna say thank you to all our staff that put in the,
like, effort behind to make that production happen and to, like, do interviews. And it it took a lot of work to get that figured out so that, we have this great product that was on the screen, and it it makes me cry every time. So they did a wonderful job. So thank you all for taking time out of your day to come and be a part of that. And, also, thanks to the staff and our volunteers for Local Days. I mean, from closing the highway to making sure traffic is in control. I know.
I and and everything before and to taking down afterwards, because everyone, like, leaves, and then it's all left for, you know, everyone back here again to kinda put back together again and remember where we left off. And so thank you for all those extra efforts you all make and making sure that community celebration is as amazing as it was. Beginning tomorrow, police department's fully staffed. Yay. So, and then let's see. I think, chief Ross is gonna grill some burgers that might be
somewhere around I don't know what you're gonna come up with this year because what was it? Four plus pounds last year during the burger cook up the burgers. So I can't wait to hear what he's got planned to come back and, meatloaf. There you go with the meatloaf. Right? And then he'll also be hosting, a small town chiefs meeting, this week too. I I like to see that connection with the other cities, so thank you for doing that. And the other piece I think, you know, as you're talking about climate and things like that, I noticed at the fire hall, there appears to be, like, an electric charger, is that right,
out in the parking lot? Two or three of them, I think. For sure. I'm like two. And so I don't know if that's open to the public or how we but, anyway, I thought that was interesting. I did not realize that was part of it and, you know, seeing if there was I don't know. Just Part of the little things that, we didn't even realize we were getting as part of the fire hall or something. So that's kinda cool. Thank you, Julie. Peyton? Thank you for all the congratulations. I was fortunate myself. Again, it's more about the staff and everything, and it's getting to feel a little uncomfortable, say my appreciation as much as I have,
but it comes from a genuine place. I'm blessed to live here, blessed to work with amazing individuals. I don't want to get to naming anyone because I'm afraid I'll miss someone. And there's so many, impactful people that have come across my life and since I've lived here. So thank you to everyone. There's a handful of impactful people as well that made our town festival Loco Days what it is. And this is all done primarily behind the scenes,
as Julie mentioned. It's tremendous having the business connection with those in the Rail District and across the entire city that make it possible. And, it's a fun event. Even when we had to remove the games and a few other audibles that had to be made due to the weather, we were able to persevere, and it's like a well oiled machine. So it again, it's just a core group of the handful of individuals that really are the primary decision makers, but they all do a tremendous job. So thank you to the committee and anyone else that played a part in that.
Lastly, I wanted to make note of Cottonwood Park, and, you know, we've discussed about renting out facility. We talked about that at the last part board meeting. And you can thank Angela for brokering a deal with community ed. So now anyone who wants to reserve the field, can do so through community ed. So we'll be getting out the word about that a little more, but that's, I think, officially official now that you can go on there and actually reserve it. So I think that hopefully accommodates everything that we are trying to accomplish.
We want to have a field that can be utilized because it's something we're proud of, and we're excited to see the possibilities of it. That's all I have. Perfect. Thank you, Peyton. Don? No. Thank you. I ask because Don and I, attended the Cass Clay Interagency Council on Homelessness, last week. Had an opportunity to meet with, fellow, public officials, leaders, in Cass and Clay County across the board to really, address the issue of homelessness. And one of the one of the one of the simplest takeaways for me when they asked us they because they asked,
like, what how do we solve homelessness? And there was a 100 people there, and there was 300 ideas about how to do it. And when, they just simply said we need to build more houses, I was like, yep. Yep. That is that is so very true. It was a it was honestly, it was a great great morning, great, conversation, and and I'm look I'm looking forward to to seeing how that how that progresses. I also had the opportunity to meet with, mayors dispatch, and Peyton has, graciously agreed to take the administrative lead along with, the cities of Holly,
Glendon, and Barnesville and really look at negotiating our next contract with, the county and really, working together to readjust the financial commitment of the small city. So looking forward to that, moving us all in lockstep. Those those are some fantastic things. And and looking at it, you know, we're talking about everything that we have going on with our, special assessment policy, with community center, with Eighth Avenue, with the park on Eighth Avenue, with the Heartland Trail. We have a lot of things going on, and,
you know, we've congratulated Peyton quite a bit. One of my favorite memories in the military is when someone received an award or got an accomplishment or did something really outstanding, much in the same way, Peyton has done, with his tenure in Dilworth. He has since, received his award. And then in that military fashion, really, we're just told to get back to work and usually given the worst job possible. So congratulations, Peyton. Now get back to work. We've got things to do. And and I say that knowing well knowing full well that you'll continue to guide the city in in in the manner of which we've become accustomed and and set the standard.
So city hall, follows your lead. Police, fire, maintenance, they follow your lead, and and our employees are given the opportunity, much like, Sergeant Danoff, to do great things. Really, that has become the standard under your tutelage, and and I am I am thankful for that. And I'm also gonna say lastly here thank you to everybody who made Loco Days work. Like you said, Peyton, I'll forget somebody, because there are a lot of bodies that makes it a fantastic run. We have something going on from Tuesday to Sunday. There's great attendance,
and there's a wide variety. And and thank you doesn't seem to be enough, But at the end of it all, it's the only thing I can say that really encompasses how I feel about all of the efforts. So if you're here or if there's four of you watching online, thank you all very much, for contributing to the success of our local festival. And with that, it does move us to eleven, and I will entertain a motion to pay the bills. So moved. A motion by Nash. Second. And a second by Peterson. All those in favor, say aye.
Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And let's take a five minute recess before we go into closed session. I need a drink of water. Will we do that? Let's go to recess.