Alright. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Just a quick reminder, if you haven't done so, please sign in in the back as, you are attending a public meeting, and it is a matter of record. And with that being said, it is 06:00. We will call the 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. With that, we'll start with roll call around the horn, please. Peterson here. Steichen here.
Nash here. And Olson. With that, we have our agenda. I didn't see any additions or subtractions. All good. I will entertain a motion. Motion to approve. Motion by Nash, second by Steichen. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, we have our consent, and it does stretch all the way to O on the backside. It is lengthy. Any questions, comments, concerns? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion for the consent agenda. Motion to approve. Motion by Nash. Second, Steichen. And a second by Steichen.
All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. It does move us to number five. We have our public comment period. Peyton, is there any formal request to speak before counsel this evening? None received. Again, please remember to, persuade the public to participate in our process. That is how we will make progress. Speaking of progress, moving on to number six. We have recognition of twenty years of service for Lonnie Miller this evening. I would've I would've won that. Just saying I'd have taken the odds and and won. Although Lonnie is not here to to accept, we understand that his modesty probably took him elsewhere.
But I do think it is very important to highlight that that Lonnie's been with us for twenty years. He is, an asset and a resource that helps our city run, and it is employees like that, that allow us to take care of our citizens. So, I'll hold on to this for Lonnie until until Mike takes it, and we we go from there. But, please convey, my most sincere gratitude. Thank you. And with that, we'll move on to number seven seven, planning and engineering. We have seven alpha, resolution twenty five twenty eight, awarding a bid for the 30 Fourth Street reconstruction project.
Peyton, who's starting this one? I'm gonna let Andrew handle this. Alright. Welcome back, Andrew. Long time. Must be that season. Well, if you've seen the colons around town, there's construction going on. The project the 30 Fourth Street project was bid, and, our bids were opened about two weeks ago on May 15. And there were three bidders, that submitted bids. Border States Paving was the low bid in the amount of $6,488,204.26 so this was above the engineers' estimate
by about a little over $1,500,000 So in reviewing the bids and kind of looking at where things shook out, it was a little bit all over the board. But I think the, generally, the classification of the concrete work, tended to be what constituted the largest share of the, the increase over the estimate. And some of that was related to, the work North Of Highway 10 with the intricate phasing that we've got to maintain
traffic through, 30 Fourth Street and along the properties, as well as, there's some significant concrete work on the bridge panels on the South Side of Highway 10 as well that, showed a significant increase in cost. But all told, that's where the bids came in at. And I will I'm going to jump to this sheet right here. Thank you, Peyton. So what you have in front of you is a breakdown of the comparison between the preliminary assessment hearing that we had last August and then the after bid analysis to show,
how the project costs break down. And, so there you see the construction total. This would just be Dilworth's share that you're looking at now. This is taking Morehead's component out of out of the project. So the construction total is about 1.5. That's what Dilworth's share is. And then there's the non construction items, listed below. So the total project cost is about two thirds of the way down the screen, dollars 1,783,000.000. That's what Dilworth's project cost is. Now federal funding is covering the vast majority of this
primarily on the construction side. And so the amount of federal funding available is just over $1,220,000 So the local share after that math shakes out to be $561,056 So there you can see the increase of about $200,000 over from the preliminary estimate or the preliminary assessment hearing in August. As the project is about 50 it's 50% bill worth and 50% assessment,
you can see there that the amounts for each are about $280,000 after running the math on the project costs. What you don't have in front of you, but was included in the packet, is just an example assessment calculation. So for a half an acre lot, the amount of assessment would be about $2,300 and an annual amount of $250 For one acre, the assessment amount would be about $4,600 with the annual amount around $500 And then for a three acre parcel,
dollars 13,800 would be the assessment amount with just about $1,500 as the annual assessment amount. Okay. So that's the kind of the high level analysis of the bids. In talking with Tom Trowbridge over at the City of Moorhead, they are the City of Moorhead is planning or they're considering their bid award from their standpoint as well at their meeting tonight. And they would like to proceed with the project. And I think that's what we have in front of us tonight is a resolution
for award. So I will pause here and stop for questions or comments. Questions for Andrew? Joe? Could you go back to the breakdown? I guess the next slide. So just comparing the two, obviously, construction went up a lot, you know, 350 k. But the contingencies now on on the new analysis is up, you know, 33, 30 30 2, 30 3 thousand dollars, which may or may not be spent. Right? Like, we may Correct. We may not realize that or that might be closer to the original.
I'm just curious. Like, the engineering went down by a hundred thousand dollars. What happened there? I'll I'll try to touch base on both of those. So first of all, the contingencies is essentially a 10% placeholder for both preliminary and final. So yes, hopefully, we don't have to utilize those funds, but that's what they're for. On the engineering side, initially, we had a placeholder of 16%, sixteen % of the construction cost. Now as the project has gone through the process and the project's been bid,
the city of Moorhead has dedicated their own staff to perform the construction services for this project. And, they will not be passing that cost on to the city of Dilworth. So there's been a substantial, decrease in the cost of the engineering on this particular project. So the vast majority of all the increase we're seeing is straight construction cost. It really is, yes. The rest of it's pretty minimal, it seems. The rest of it kind of washes out. The bonding and the capitalized interest disappeared because Dilworth plans to self fund and finance
this. So or I should say self funded, so there really won't be financing. Mhmm. Okay. Any other questions? Julie? So Moorhead staff is pretty confident they're gonna go forward. I guess my question was, you know, what's the likelihood that Moorhead would not go forward with it given the bids were, but I I they're so far into the project. Are they just gonna go no matter what? Yes. They, there was very little discussion about rebidding, and that was primarily due to, a couple of things.
The bids that we received are from reputable contractors, and they were relatively competitive with each other. Further delays in the project is likely going to just increase the the the bid cost. One of the concerns is the ability to complete the project in one construction season. Now as I say that, as the project was going to bid, Moorhead did give the contractor an option to complete the work North Of Highway 10
in a a separate construction season, so 2026, with the understanding that if they open up and begin the work, they have to finish it in one construction season. Now I I don't I can't tell you whether or not the contractor would exercise that, option at this point. That will not change the project cost. What they bid would be good for either this year or next year. So does that answer your question? And I think from our perspective, should we pass this, it would be contingent on Moorhead doing it?
Or if we pass it and they don't, does that nullify our responsibility? That's a good question, Mary. It's it's sort of a complicated one. This is a Moorhead project. Right. Even us today are more so just rubber stamping, you know, a Moorhead project even though we do have a financial obligation. So my guess is if either side determined, and they would have the bigger stake in this, obviously, if either side exercised an option that they do not wanna move forward, you know, we look at this and say, hey. We can't afford this extra hundred or $200,000
depending upon how you look at it. We would have to have a serious conversation with them about how we would like to proceed forward because that's our segment, be a little wonky, right, if you only did one side of the roadway. So that wouldn't materially change the entire bid process there and how it's and how it unfolds. I'm not sure if they would do it. It may change all the bid pricing too if we just said, hey. We don't wanna do our northbound section And I think it would involve quite a few conversations. Andrew, maybe enlighten us about it. There's one other factor that I can't tell you how big of a factor this
is, but given the amount of federal funding that's included, there's likely a need to get the project started to main maintain that eligibility that that these funds can be used towards the project. And just from my vantage, when we're looking at this project as it's been on our plate for a while now, like, it's very beneficial for us to do this. And this is a substantial savings across the board for us to have this done in partnership with Moorhead. I just wanna make sure that if we say yes, go ahead,
it's just our share. But if more if because I'm not gonna speak for the Moorhead council or the Moorhead Mayor. Like, they have like, it's not that would not be an intelligent move on our part. But I just wanna make sure that we have an option to exercise if they change their mind. If they say no, are we also able to do that and say say no? Because how does that how does that all come together? How are those pieces fit? If if Morehead says we're gonna hold off, can we hold off too? Then then that's or would does that make sense? Like, that's fine. Mine's more of a procedural thing because I I think the project makes sense.
If I could just maybe add, if you say yes and Morehead says no and they haven't given any indication that they would, The project can't proceed as as planned. And and so this is really a strange setup with Moorhead really being the project owner. They're the ones that are they have the contract with, with the contractor and and all of that. So, yeah, I think it does make sense to do this contingent on Moorhead's, approval as well. But if Morehead decides no, there's just no way you can proceed as planned.
Okay. Mister Steffen, do you have a question? Yeah. A few other questions have been asked and answered. So I appreciate that, mister Ackerman. Far as the federal funding, you said you kinda need to take advantage of that. Is there any risk in starting the project or getting too far into it and the funding not being there? Because that's kinda what's on everybody's radar for the last few months. Is that any concern is that a concern of yours right now? It is. It is not. And and I I got to be a little careful because I don't have the
entire picture, but there's three funding pieces that I'm aware of. There's so there's some federal funds that are a bulk of the project. And and Morehead's actually been able to maneuver some of the federal funds that have been allocated to them to shift around to projects to make the timing work out. There's also, carbon reduction funds, a small amount in the big picture of how much of the grant dollars are available. And those funds, I believe, are also already authorized and allocated.
And then there's $1,500,000 of local road improvement funding from the state of north state of Minnesota, which is not tied to any of the federal Okay. Federal dollars. So I'm pretty comfortable with the the idea that these funds are not in jeopardy other than they need to be used within a certain window. And I just can't tell you what that window looks like right now. I think Dilworth is in a great position to have Morad as a neighbor helping us along the process. And I mean,
you can't beat that. So I would think we would move I would like to see us move forward on it. Are there any other questions? Andrew, do we is there more? Or you said you were gonna pause. Have we exhausted our question? And oh, yeah. Ask the question? If there's no more discussion, I will entertain the motion for resolution twenty five twenty eight. We're in the bid for 30 Fourth Street Reconstruction Project. So moved. And motion by Nash. Second. Second by Peterson. All those in favor, say aye.
Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you for the clarification. Andrew, there are some interesting steps. And it is a great partnership, and it's a very good contract that was developed, to work with the Moorhead, City of Moorhead on projects like this, vice member or vice mayor Nash, that you made. You're part of that whole process, and it and it it does us very well. So thank you very much, Andrew. We can move to 7 B. We have the final plat of Eastview Tenth Edition. It's a replat of Lot 3, Block 1 Of Eastview Ninth Edition,
9 Hundred Seventh Avenue East. Parcel, you can see it right there. Peyton? Thank you, mister mayor. Members of the council, I believe it was our last or the meeting before, about a month ago now, when you reviewed Eastview Tenth, the preliminary plat. Here's a view of the here's what the preliminary plat looked like. Eastview Tenth is where the Starlight pet motel. This is obviously a couple years old now, but the new pet motel is here at this location. The Starlight hotel or motel is at this location.
Looking to divide this into four separate tracks of land. In doing so, there's been established access agreements, other utility easements across the property that have been reviewed by all parties. The planning commission held a public hearing for the final plat just three weeks ago now, and it was unanimously approved. Again, you can see the difference between the two plats, which did alter the size of the lots and change the curvature of the entrance point and this shared access between all the properties.
We worked with the developer, the property owner, and the engineering firm on future utilities, how that might look. Also worked and coordinated with the state on the access point getting into the facility. They had to sign off on the plat, and it's all contingent upon it contingent upon, I think, adding a turn lane there as they enter into the property. So the planning commission, again, did hold its public hearing. There was no, you know, opposition to it, and it was unanimously approved.
So this evening, the property owner is here if you'd like to ask any questions, but I believe the intent now is for them to begin this next phase, which is up here on this lot, for the next phase, which would be, like, a dog grooming business. Anything else? That's all. Thank you, Pete. Are there any questions for Peyton, from counsel? I just I just got a question on the midway up the, got easement on both sides. One is definitely Let me get this thing down.
A lot wider than the and I can see I can read it better now. There you go. Mhmm. 40 foot shared access utility. So is it not needed as much access for the easement on the access and easement on the other side? Yeah. So and and Rick can chime in here if I miss anything. I believe this easement right here is more you know, there's a that low retention pond just to the northeast of there. I believe that's what the purpose of this easement is, best location. And this one over here,
obviously, has the shared access component about it, but also on the utility front as well in the event is it just for more u what utility would come across here, Rick? Is there any would that Actually, the wider easement is for if I ever decide to develop my property where I live, and I have a road coming in from Seventh Street, I could I have room to tie it into this road and go up to Highway 10 that way. There you go.
So that's that would actually be a shared road again if if I decide to do that in the future. I just wanted it there if I need it. Sure. And we we we went on and got this easement in place to across here even though we don't think the water and sewer will ever come all the way across. It's just there as a, you know, precautionary. Yeah. Measure in the event we ever needed. Right now, this easement only goes to this point. But if the thought is if there's ever certain water when it comes to the property,
it's gonna come across from this direction. Served off Seventh Street. K. Thanks, Peyton. Any questions? Alright. Hearing no further questions, I will entertain a motion on the final plat of Eastview Tenth Edition and the replat of Lot 3, Block 1 of Eastview Ninth Edition, 9 Hundred Seventh Avenue East. Steichen so moved. Motion by Steichen. Second. And a second by Nash. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. So with that, it does move us to number eight in finance. And eight alpha is our 2024 audit report.
We have John with us this evening from Eide Bailey, and he's gonna tell us all kinds of fantastic financial news. You know, auditing is pretty glamorous work, so, bear with me tonight as I I kinda run through this. But, thank you guys for having me tonight. My name is John Hagan. I've been doing the city audit for the last handful of years, and I've been with Hyde Bailey for about ten years now. I specialize completely in the government industry, so I work with cities, school districts, counties, special utility districts. If it's government, you name it, I've touched it in some form or fashion in the audit world.
Tonight, we'll be going over the executive summary, which is kind of a condensed version of the financial statements. The financial statements get longer and longer each year. There's more and more standards with that, so we like to compile things in a little bit more condensed version as well give some comparative information from previous years just so you guys can kind of see trend lines and whatnot. So similar format to what we've done previously. But with that, we'll hop right in, and get into the audit results. So the very end goal of every single audit is to issue an audit opinion. So what does that mean?
Management is responsible for three things, that the financial statements are prepared in the proper, accounting principles, which is US GAAP, that they are, presented fairly, and that they are free from material misstatements. So we as auditors, through a series of tests and procedures, ultimately issue an audit opinion which, obtains reasonable but not absolute assurance, that these facts and circumstances are indeed in place. And the city did receive an unmodified audit opinion, which, in layman terms is a clean auto opinion. So exactly what you're looking for and what the city has received in previous years.
So with an auto opinion, we do, report audit findings as required by, auditing standards. There are kind of two different buckets of potential findings, the first bucket being in relation to the financial statements. I'll kind of touch on each of these, the first one being segregation of duties. Simply put, meaning your finance office is just not big enough to have enough hands and eyeballs on everything finance related. Doesn't necessarily mean that you guys are doing anything wrong with the amount of staff you have. It's just you're a small staff. You're a smaller city.
To get over that hump of of having that finding would require additional cost benefit of of additional employees, which isn't necessarily feasible for a city your guys' size. So something that we anticipate on each audit and would be tough to overcome in future years. Very similar. I'll lump two and three together. I mentioned that the financial statements do get more and more complex each year. There's new accounting standards that, do not make things easier on accountants. And with that, we do help prepare those financial statements as auditors and whenever we do that, we do have a finding associated with that.
And, to go along with that, we do propose journal entries to help the financial statements conform with those proper accounting standards. So all in all those three findings we will kind of anticipate before we start the audit process and similar findings to what you guys have received in the past. The second bucket there is Minnesota legal compliance. So this is a secondary avenue of kind of audit procedures if you will that are required by the state of Minnesota. So every government entity within the state kind of have these additional procedures if you will. They are much more compliance driven, but the city did not have any findings associated with these procedures in in 2024.
So now we'll get into some numbers. First slide being your cash and investment balances. So this is broken down into two different kind of sectors within the financial statements. The green shades being your business type that's consisting of your water, sewer, garbage, and some other utility type funding or funds. And then everything else is your governmental. That's your general fund, your main operating fund, debt service, any special revenue funds. The only area or kind of category that we leave off of this is capital projects just because the nature of capital projects can have very big swings in cash
balances depending on, you know, funding sources coming in and the timing of payments going out. So we like to leave that off of this slide just for comparability. But as you can see over the last ten years, very consistent growth in cash and investment balances and overall healthy in 2024. Just kind of for perspective so you guys know, capital projects that is left off of here mostly consists of the Fire Hall Fund in 2024, which has about $950,000 in additional cash and investment balances that would not be reflected on this on this slide here. So next we'll focus the next handful of slides on the general fund,
which is the main operating fund for the city. First slide we have here is a budget to actual. Now there's a lot of numbers and stuff on here. I won't go into detail on anything too specifically, but your first two columns are your original and final budget and then third column is your actual numbers for 2024. I know it's kind of also hard to to see as well. And then the final column being your variance in comparison to budgets to actual. So I'll keep it high level. Total revenues coming in, a million dollars over budget. Budgeting is not an exact science. Things,
you know, change after the fact, obviously. But there was some additional funding sources, some state grants that you guys took advantage of and did receive some additional grant. Funding was the main driver for that increase in revenues. Similarly, for expenditures, you did come in over budget for expenditures, but again funded by some of those additional grant funds and stuff like that. So very common and typical kind of consideration there as compared to budget. And then it I'll go all the way down to the bottom now. So after some odds and ends, it does bring your ending general fund balance to about 5,700,000.0,
which is up from about 5,200,000.0. And there's some different components that make up that fund balance that we'll kinda go into detail here. So first, what does a positive fund balance do for you? So a number of different things. It can offer a favorable bond rating as you guys endeavor on future projects, capitalizing some some lower interest rates, produces investment income and a source of working capital. So having your money work for you in the bank, I've never heard anyone complain they have too much money in the bank. And especially at times now with, you know, increased interest rates, that can be very advantageous.
And thirdly, most importantly, offering a cushion for unexpected expenditures and revenue shortfalls. So kind of that that nest egg, if you will. So there are different kind of categories of that 5,700,000 different kind of breakouts. This is a pretty technical slide as far as kind of different breakouts for governmental reporting. First one being non spendable. This is effectively money that's already been spent through inventory or prepaids are the very common. So money that you guys have already spent but aren't able to take credit for it yet until until it's that kind of source is in use
through prepaids. The next one being restricted. These are usually restricted by outside parties, legally restricted. The city currently doesn't have any of that. So that one's kind of NA. Similarly, committed and assigned are both earmarked by the council or by a designated official of the City, for specific purposes, kind of designated if you will. Then the last column being unassigned is kind of everything else. So that's your unencumbered, what the city completely has at its disposal. Okay. So ending fund balances for the general fund,
as you can see, have increased pretty consistently over the last ten years, you know, general growth and everything, all things considered. Here it is, a breakout of those different categories that we just touched on. First one being that non spendable in the form of prepaid expenses is a small bucket. Your assigned categories is kind of money that you guys have earmarked for departmental use, kind of for specific purposes. That would consist of, like, parks, fire department, transit. And then everything else is kind of that that last column, the unassigned, is a large bulk of your funding. So that's how that 5,700,000.0
that we alluded to in the previous page is broken down. And now we'll kind of focus on a component of that, the 4.8 unassigned. That's really up to the city's discretion. So where should the city be? That's kind of the million dollar question. Unfortunately, there isn't a magic answer out there. There isn't, any, you know, right, wrong, or indifferent. It's kind of up to the city's perspective on on how you guys would like to operate as far as how much reserves you have. There are a couple benchmarks out there. First one being the state auditors state auditors office of Minnesota, the OSA. They suggest somewhere between 3550% as kind of a goal,
in comparison to your annual expenditures. The GFOA is another benchmark which is a National Finance Association. Their suggestion is somewhere in that five to 15%. Again, that's kind of all encompassing for all governmental entities, so school districts, cities, and as far as rural versus non rural locations as well. The city does currently have a policy to earmark about 50 have a minimum of about 50% of annual budget. It's sitting in that fund balance, that unassigned fund balance. That's currently where the City policy applies.
So in comparison, this is kind of the same information broken down as a percentage of annual operating or annual expenditures. So very healthy fund balance compared to annual expenditures coming in about a 32%. So another way to look at that is the city could operate as is with no additional revenue for about sixteen months. So, a year and some change, is kinda sitting in that fund balance. But again, allows you guys to capitalize on, you know, like you mentioned on the previous gentleman, you know, funding projects internally rather than taking on additional debt. So it gives some some flexibility in that in that respect.
So next, we'll tap into some other funds. But before I do, that kind of covered the general fund. Before I move into that, any questions that is quick stopping point on kind of general fund specific or fund balance, anything of that nature? I don't think so. Thank you. Okay. Well, I'll quickly carry on here into some other funds, of the city. First one being the debt service fund. So, this is meant to collect property tax and special assessments to meet debt service requirements, for those past debt issuances. Overall, there was an increase in 2024. There was some capital projects money left over that is required to be transferred into
debt service to be used to pay off those related debt service needs. That's kind of the increase in 2024, but also just general increase in property tax collections as those debt service requirements, you know, kind of the maturity schedules of of each of those. So Overall, again, very healthy debt service and no immediate concerns for debt service needs or anything of that nature. So the next couple slides do cover kind of those business type utility funds. First one being the water fund. Here we have a couple different lines, your top line,
green being your operating expenses, the next line being your operating revenues, and then the difference between the two is your operating income or loss for the year. For 2024 there was a small operating loss of about $90,000 This is offset a little bit by some additional non operating income. Grant revenue or investment income is very popular or very common. But overall, most cities operate their utility funds as close to break even as possible. You know, you don't want to be charging your citizens a lot of money for,
you know, the water and sewer purposes. You know, mostly try to kind of break even which is which is relevant and shown there over the last ten years. So similar, exact same slide here for the sewer fund specifically with the same same lines. I'll kind of touch base. Operating revenues consists of your charges for services, your collections from citizens. And operating expenses categories are personal services, supplies, fuel and utilities, repair and maintenance. Depreciation is kind of a paper expense that's very important in these funds.
But overall, again, very close to breakeven. There was an operating income of about $180,000 for FY '24 in the Sewer Fund. And then the last kind of bigger utility fund for the City is the garbage or refuse fund. Again, same exact information as the previous two slides and again operating at roughly slightly over breakeven. This one is slightly being different as you guys contract out a lot of the services associated or the expenses associated with garbage but overall very consistent over the last ten years.
Okay, and then my last slide for tonight is kind of more from a liquidity standpoint for those utility funds. These are this is reflective of your guys' cash and investment balances within the water, sewer, and refuse funds specifically. Overall, very healthy cash balances. Another way to look at that is similar to the fund balances of the of the governmental funds. As a percent of operating expenditures, water is about one point seven five years sitting in that cash and investment balances. So just off cash you could you could maintain for almost two years.
In the water fund, similarly for sewer fund, it's just over two years. And then garbage funds sitting at about six months. So that does kinda end my presentation tonight. Before I go, I'll open it back up for any additional questions or anything else. I know I kinda speed through that. There's a lot of information and then there's even more in the financial statements. One thing I do wanna point out is the financial statements are not officially finalized yet. We are very confident with the numbers right now. It's kinda just housekeeping for us to put the stamp on the finalizing. We expect the rest of the t's and i's to be dotted here over the
next day or two. So sometime this week, we'll have kind of final official financial statements. But at this point, we don't expect any of the numbers to be changing. So Thank you very much, John. Questions from counsel? Mr. Steichen? Yes. Thank you for your report and your work. Refresh my memory. Now when this report is done, does that get forwarded on for us to receive a rating? Or is that totally different? Or Like a bond rating? Right. Nope. So that isn't done by us. That would be done by your for your like, if you have a future you have a ratings call,
if you have a future issuance. They will take into consideration some of the numbers within the financial statements, And I'd be lying to you if I told you I knew exactly what they all looked at, but I know this is a pretty big component of that. But that wouldn't be done specifically until you guys have a a future, issuance. And Peyton can probably allude to to Yeah. So anytime we do a bond issuance, anything over, like, a year, year and a half, we'll do what's called a rating call. We are currently with S and P Standard Report for that sets our bond rating,
which we're currently double a plus, I believe, and which has gone up two notches since I've been here. And much of that's attributed to the financial stability that John was talking about, our healthy reserve balance. These are a lot of the questions they ask when we're doing our rating call to see what type of financial condition we are in. For a small community, we do really well. But though so the next one that we'll probably do most likely will be this time next year when we're bidding out the community center project.
Mister Hagood, when you the city got received a good rating or good report here. Is there anything in your report that that they that we should be looking at that we need to improve on? Or or don't you really focus on that? So we don't we don't give any, opinion as far as how, you know, from an operational standpoint. You know, as as we complete our audit procedures, if there are what I would call, you know, red flags or items, that pop up, we communicate that to management.
Then depending on the threshold or the complexity or the severity of it, I should say, that could find its way into a formal audit finding. Those kind of three, what I would call generic audit findings for smaller entities, we do report on. But anything outside of that, there wasn't anything that would be required to report to governance. Now there are certainly always areas to clean up just as in any you know, ways to improve as standards change and new, you know, financial, you know, items come up. But from a formal required reporting standpoint,
no. You know, I was joking back with Perry that from an audit perspective, it was a pretty quiet year. It was a pretty clean year, which is kinda boring, but in the audit world, you know, no news is good news. So from our perspective, it was a great year. I know we sped up the timeline from our previous reporting. Each year, we've kinda gotten a little bit quicker, which is a a testament to the finance office, and being prepared for us. So long winded answer to answer your question of of know nothing glaring. So, yeah. Thank you. Good to hear that. Any other questions? Again, I wanna thank you for coming out.
Thank I, Bailey, for the effort that goes into this, because it is it it's great news that we got I do been around a while. So that clean audit, when I read those first words off the top, makes me feel pretty good. So, with that being said, do we wanna receive and file the 02/2024 audit? I will entertain a motion for this, glamorous work of the 2024 audit report. So moved. I have a motion by Nash. Second. Second by Peterson. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Again, thank you very much for coming out.
Thank you guys for having me. And if you do have additional questions come up, feel free to read those relay those through Peyton or Perry, and we'll be happy to help you out. So thank you guys. Have a good night. Thank you. With that, keeping us in the financial sector, it does move us to 8B discussion on finances and investment portfolio strategy. Perry, I see you making a move. Exactly. Thank you for giving me a few minutes. I thought this might tie in nicely with, with John just giving his his words. And one of the Peyton, we've got a few slides.
But one of the items, as John alluded to was, you know, with cash, fund balance, earnings. And if I had just two takeaways for this ten minutes I'm gonna have with you, it's it's really the major takeaway is the last two years, we probably have about a $400,000 call a day. Good guy, windfall, whatever term we wanna put on that. And let's see, Peyton. If you go to the one of those graphs. Oh, Molly. You're just trying to Let's go right Start here. Let's start here. Yep.
So with that 16,000,000, 16 8, you know, you'll see I I listed the these so these are our investments, and I listed them from lowest earnings to highest earnings. And it you know, we do we are limited. We have a a narrow range we can work with with section one eighteen with the state. So there's no Bitcoin up here. This is this is basically money market, CDs, and municipal bonds.
It's kind of our that's our operating range. But even within that range, and this is just what I wanted to bring up, you know, it's it's easy to think a few, you know, ten, twenty, 30 basis points doesn't make a difference, but it does on that size of a balance. For example, and this is a real example, just about a month ago, I looked at a half a million dollars, where to put a half a million dollars, which and and again, I'm not I have no favorites up here. And I looked around and the range was almost 90 basis points difference on a
half a million dollars over and it was a two year CD. So 90 basis points on a half million over two years is about just under $10,000. So little changes do add up, and that's what I'm you know, I've been here now a year coming out well, starting my finishing my second year. Got my feet on the ground on this, and I really, really would like to to maximize the returns given, you know, our three our three, really, bumpers we've got, our yield, liquidity, and risk.
Those are the three we have to balance. And, again, those are the with CDs and municipal bonds, there's still room to maximize return and and and keep risk at its minimum. And, obviously, a CD is probably, honestly, the lowest risk. Under $250,000 everything is insured. You know? So when we go into the municipal bond food group, it's we're still we have to invest in certain, you know, double I think it's a minus. There's a there's even a range within that.
There's a risk a city a municipal bond does default too. But it's a tall it's a I guess it's an acceptable risk because it's a very low risk. So the bottom line here that I just wanted to bring up is it's important for me as the finance officer in in conjunction with Peyton to to get the maximum yield we can do given our parameters. And and that's all I wanted to really talk about tonight was that's where I'm
looking at now that other areas of the business the finance office are, I wanna say, under control. One thing I want sorry to interject here. I just wanna make sure the council are they under are you understanding of what all of these different pots of money, what those acronyms are? We look at it all the time. So Yeah. Obviously, Brimmer Bank, Choice Financial, Northwest, ICS is referring to, like, a a cash suite type deal with all these shorter term. Yeah. Yeah. ICS stands for I I know it sounds like a a,
intraphi something. Sounds like a, you know, top secret government bureau, but it's intra phi something. And, essentially, ICS is at each of these, institutions would have the same ICS, meaning they've got to collateralize the money at the end of the month. So they have some requirements when it's when it's municipal money. But yeah. And maybe explain what PMA is to Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, in PMA, they are so they are the entity we use out of they're out of Illinois. I think they manage about a hundred and $20,000,000,000. They primarily work with government entities,
I believe, Payton. And they're who we used for example, when we issued that bond a year ago, one year ago, those funds went to the PMA account. So Corey, he's we the city has worked with him for years. And they then receive those funds, and then they invest them right away as we ask them to. And then I've drawn that money, for example, for the fire hall. And the and as needed, I pull that money over here to Northwestern Bank into our checkbook. So it's a normal holding account that we use when we get,
say, a $10,000,000 bond. We throw it into PMA right away as we need funds, as we do our monthly draws from Gertz or whoever. That's when we'll draw out, you know, a million at a time or whatever that number is, but it has pretty good return. Right. And PMA has been actually one of the top returns, as you can see. And yeah. And they and, again, we've got a long history with them too. So, and PMA is the one who I happened to just saw a month ago. I I, under with Peyton's awareness, we got the CDs there.
And they there are two CDs that are from I think one of them is and they're under $250,000 because that's every CD you wanted under that number is federally insured. But they're, for example, they're with, Philadelphia Port Authority, I believe, and it's so they're, you know, they're not a CD in town, so to speak. But, again, they were the they were 90 basis points higher than what I could ninety and eighty. I I shopped it out with three three different banks. So so I just wanted to show that to you.
Okay. If we could look at this one now, the far right graph, if you can see that 2024, '7 hundred thousand, so that's our interest revenue in calendar twenty four. But it's a little deceptive. That includes $80,000 from that Fire Hall bond. So that's kind of a one time thing too, but that's in our interest income. So if you take 80,000 off that apples to apples, it'd be you know, we're 620,000 versus the prior year. So so a lot of interest revenue. Do we anticipate that going forward?
Like, how long is like, when we look at this, how far out are we planning to so we with a relative degree of certainty for the interest revenue? Right. So when I went down to the Ehlers, it's kinda their one zero one, for council for city, could it be council members or people like myself, in February, that was one of the number one topics that came up. And they just suggested, hey, cities. Ride this horse as long as you can because if given your cash flow needs in other words,
they're saying if you can ladder things out, ladder a CD out. For example, this CD, I just took out two year CD. So I'm trying to stretch it out a bit based on the cash flow needs of the CD. So so, mister mayor, I I guess to answer that question, I'd it's not gonna be that high next year because that $4,000,000 that we just spent that I invested in the firewall, you know, that generated 80,000 there. But I I anticipate it to be a it's kind of a gradual down if interest rates do come down,
but I wanna lengthen it. They they recommended just don't let a CD and just roll it every six months. K. That's the easy way to do stuff. They suggest that if you can manage your cash flow needs, pull a trigger on a two year CD Or or and maybe this will get we'll get into this another time, Peyton, maybe the next meeting too, is municipal bonds is really where the highest yields are right now. So that's with our right now with PMA and with,
Bremer Bank. So those municipal bonds because that's where and and they, hands down, said if if it was CDs was the easiest money to get, they would, Ehlers would be recommending to folks just get all CDs then and just ladder them out. Right now, the the winning game within the parameters we have to invest in is municipal bonds. So just like we issued you know, again, we just gave it we got an audit report on a strong city, our city, and somebody is capitalizing on that with that with those with that instrument.
So, but, yes, I hope that number that graph is gonna come down. It's going to come down, but if we could stretch it out, that's my goal. So that that's really all I had. I just wanna introduce you to everyone the interest that we've been receiving and the windfall that it has been for these two years. Peyton, can you go back to that graph, probably next one back right there. Now I know you I suppose you like to spread things around locally. So you but how many of those are, like,
two year commitments in Yeah. So good question. So then, obviously, Northwest checking. That's just I mean, there's no that's money market. Bill, bank, that's, the million 56 is CDs. There's a seven month CD. So that's the commitment. So none of this except none of this up here is I could I could access this cash relatively quickly right now. It's not in other than a CD that's in, with Bell Bank, I could access the we it it's it's more liquid.
So those higher rates, those are probably tied more into municipal bonds? Yes. So the Bremer the Bremer is one where I wouldn't be able to to just get that tomorrow. I would we would have to we could access it, but we would take losses on or we would we would be giving up some yield because a lot of the Brammer almost all that Brammer is in municipal bonds. So I'm looking at the very top one, the North checking. Yep. That's and that's just literally our check book. So that's the last place I wanna keep money in. In fact,
some months, I will run that down to $20,000. I keep the minimum amount I can keep in that in that makes total sense. Checkbook. Yeah. But you're constantly looking for to move and switch and rearrange and adjust. And Yeah. Yes. I am. The checking is, for example, the twice a year where we get the property tax revenue, that that big money comes in. And right away, I I put that over to the I to the northwest ICS, the third one there. Again, the best you know, I don't wanna keep that in checking even for over a weekend.
I mean, I think about these things. Over the weekend, I figured a million over again, accountant speak here. I'm like, it's that's $300 over the weekend if I left it in the wrong account. You know? So things like that. I can appreciate it. Yes. I really do. That's that's just what I I do. I know it it's it's a sport for me on on that part of it. So when the, city sales tax money starts showing up, does that just automatically go into the DMA or whatever you designate? Honestly, this and that's a good question. I'm I haven't decided yet. I've got a few weeks yet to where that's going to go because we won't
need that money for out for a year plus. So it'll probably go into a CD, or at a minimum, I might even put over to Choice. I'm not sure yet. And I I'll be honest here. I have no favorites up here. I am I have no I my favorites are the biggest number the the biggest return one. That's the way I look at it. Mine too. So I appreciate you being diligent and getting the best bang for the That's and that's a good way to say it. I wanna get the best return. I do. And and again, all all of these institutions have been fabulous to me.
No one's slighting me, slacking with me. They just have a different they offer a different return for their own internal reasons. And and that's and I'll even call them and ask them, okay. What's is this am I seeing the best that rate? Yep. Okay. Just so I didn't misread something. And, and we go from there. Any other questions for Barry? Thank you very much, Barry. Appreciate it. May I have one more comment? Yes. Please. So the motivation behind this, obviously, to make you aware of where we stand but also going forward,
how we look to invest our dollars and also taking advantage of our interest. Going back six, seven years ago, we never budgeted for any type of interest revenue because there wasn't any CDs or nothing. That's really all we were doing. About six or seven years ago, we started budgeting a very minimal amount. But now when we're bringing in well, whatever we're bringing in in interest revenue, that's a lot. You know? We can forecast. We can forecast it a little better. Not that we're gonna start saying we're gonna bring in $400,000
next year, but we're gonna try and be a little more strategic when we come to the budgeting process this year of accounting for maybe a little more than what we have in the past, which will obviously lower the levy. But the flexibility that we've been able to rise to based upon our fund balances continually increasing, which is a good thing, that's allowed us this flexibility and have gotten us to this point. And that's a testament to all the internal controls that finance has done through the years.
So we're really proud of that. So at some point soon, Perry will be back. And we have a few other slides up here. We're not gonna go through them right now on a potential option with Ehlers and their, I don't know, their investment arm or whatever you wanna call it there in trying to maximize what these returns are. Now granted, we don't wanna take away from local firms or anything, but at the same time, we wanna if if we're getting to 90 basis points or whatever it is between one product versus the other, some point just makes sense to shift around these funds and really try and maximize
what we can. Strike while the iron's hot, slow, you know, kind of a settling, landing, and you're talking about lathering it. Ladder it out if I can. And getting to a workable place for us. Alright. Thank you, Peyton. Thank you, Perry. That moves us, from our discussion of finances to number nine in our fire department where, man, we've, we've had a lot of finances in our fire department. Sound investment. I like the fact that it actually says fire station on the on the building now. Like, I didn't know what it was before. So, chief Payne, the floor is yours. Mister mayor,
members of the council, we're just here to amend, an ordinance for recreational fires in the city limits of Dilworth. Do I need to go over it? I mean, it's all listed in the in the report here. I think this is just looking back, when was the when was this adopted? That's I didn't ask that question. I probably should have before. I didn't look. It's on there. I just Okay. Pay attention. It may be just historical. You know, it was adopted, and then the state changed a little bit because there's been a more prevalence of portable fire pits, if you wanna call them that,
or portable. I wrote it down because I can never portable outdoor fireplaces. And, to accommodate that, the state fire code probably changed at some point, and we just didn't change with it. And it was brought to our attention by the citizen, that it was 25 feet. He called the state and it said, no. It's 15 feet. So we looked into it. Jessica and I looked into it. And, there's we didn't I didn't feel there's no any need to be more stringent than the state rules right now. We can always change our mind. But that that's that's my approach on that.
I'll be happy to answer any more questions if you have them. Julia? Well, I mean, we're more stringent on some things than other things. I'm just more concerned, like, when you see an issue with buyers, do you ever, like, look at how far away they were from the building? I mean, like, is there and, again, like, are we just talking portable versus permanent? That's the change right now. Permanent is 25 feet. And we're gonna keep that. We're gonna keep that. We're just adding the 15 for portable. So Okay. I read it wrong. Just picture going through the city on a Saturday night and seeing people out in
their driveway, and they're kinda huddled up closer to the garage on their driveway. Cement. You know, there's nothing around that are that's, you know, flammable except maybe the the garage which they're away from. Those are the types of things we're we're changing this for to be within 15 feet of the structure instead of the 25 feet because there are some places where you can't, you know, the houses are so close together. Even if you were in the backyard, you couldn't be within 25 feet of your house or the other house, you know. And and those are the types you know,
not that we want them there, and they could probably find a better place for them, but it's still the language that's within the the code. So there go ahead. No. Just any other questions? And and mine is is just the definition, chief. Like, the recreational fires as kinda we just kinda heard. That's if someone has, like, a permanent, like Right. Fire size. Falls within recreational fires. Right, Tom? But the Like, I get portable fire. Yeah. Like, that makes sense. But a recreational fire to me is that, like, is that I got 10 cinder block ring in my backyard.
That's permanent. So that needs to be 25. That's all I needed. Yep. And that's restricted by size. And so it's it's, three feet or less diameter. If it's greater than that, you have to have an open burning permit. Okay. And that's not allowed in the city of DeWorth anyway. Okay. So Perfect. The law was changed at the state level in 2017. So we probably have not updated yet and just brought to our attention now. Yeah. And and the short of it is we're not even defining any distances. We're just saying being compliant with Minnesota State Fire Code. Well, that makes sense.
Yeah. Start confusing it once we define distances. And so just making fire code, and we're good to go. Any other questions for the chief? Thank you very much, chief. With no other questions or comments, I will entertain a motion, for ordinance twenty five zero one, amending the city Of Delworth code of ordinances. Steichen, so moved. Motion by Steichen. Second. Second by Nash. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, it does bring us to number 10. Council members' concerns, committee updates are on the horn. I got a couple tonight. I'd like to see some resolution with what direction the city wants to take in
regards to Ash Tree Park. I know there the Lutheran church has thrown out some options. I just feel like I don't know if we're stuck in the mud, but I'd like to see something a little more formal, you know, at the at the next meeting or by the end of next month anyway. I think we also as Can you elaborate? I have no idea what you're talking about. Sure. So, and Peyton helped me, when I stumbled here. So Ash Tree Park is the only city park that isn't on city owned property. The Luther Church owns the actual property that the park is on.
The park board has done an amazing job over the past seven, eight years of upgrading and and redoing all of the parks around town with the exception of that one. And the nuance is we're for whatever reason, we're not comfortable investing in that park because the city doesn't own the property it's on. So there's there's been some back and forth. I know that, the Lutheran church has offered to lease the the property that the park is on
to the city for, like, the lifespan of what new park equipment would cost. The the issue is is that the church is having to pay the insurance to house the park, and the city is not maintaining it, I guess, in that. So, just kinda looking for a path forward, I guess, if that makes any sense. So I don't know if I have a great answer. How I've always understood it, which I probably don't fully understand it. You you're correct. It's on not on city property, private property. I always just thought it was a city park in name only
because the church wouldn't allow people to come there. I'm not aware of any other agreements that may have existed. I'm not saying they don't exist. I'm just not aware because, obviously, would have predated probably everyone up here. It's combined. Sure. So the the city actually did put that park equipment in Right. Originally. And then the agreement was that the church would pay the taxes to, you know, to house the park if the city would clear the snow from the parking lot. We've gone away from that. You know,
the church has their own snow removal now. And so now the church is bearing the cost of having to house the park, you know, for with no like, the the city gets to claim it as an amenity and and and, you know, in name only have another park on on record. However, you know, the church is bearing the brunt of the financial burden on that. So, basically, I think and I don't wanna misspeak on behalf of the church either, but, you know, I think the the idea is,
you know, if the church leases the property to the city for the cost of the insurance or the cost of what it takes to, you know, provide the park, they're fine with it. You know? We're just kinda looking for a path forward, I guess, more than anything. So I'd like to see some traction on that if we could. I've I've taken a few phone calls. I had the breathe. People are really concerned about the three lane model of Highway 10 going through,
and I know that that's more or less out of our, as a council level's, purview. But if there's any recommendations that we could make, it would be my personal opinion that we should keep two lanes both ways and, where possible, have a center turn lane on Highway 10 for as much of the town as we can. I realize that for this stretch, you know, just to the to the north of City Hall here, that's probably not in the cards, but, also just a concern of mine. So with that, I'll yield. Thank you, Kevin. Mister Steichen.
Yeah. The, picnic at the police department station was I thought that was a fun time. I got to see, you know, the clay the county officers, the neighboring towns, and meet the new police chief in Moorhead and Glendon's people and all that. So, you guys did a great job, putting it on and, you know, not every department does those things. So I think it's a great great thing that you guys if you can continue it, it's it's fun to see.
It's fun to see other agencies coming here and seeing Dilworth, seeing the people, and us seeing them as well. So, so that was great. MetroCog, they got a lot of projects in the works, and I'm still trying to understand some of the things that they're working on. So I just gotta get more clarity on what it is that some of these projects entail because to me they're sort of I'm not gonna say bizarre, but it's important. I mean, it's obviously important, but I just if I'm gonna vote on these things,
I just need to spend a little more time understanding them better. So, that's kinda just putting it out there that we do meet, and they do they do meet a lot, and they do have a lot of ideas. And and funding federal funding is always always a concern right now. But anyway, they're moving forward. The, the the day that, they had the barbecue in in the Rail District was kind of a not so great of a day, but, I wanna thank, Luke Nygard for opening up his greenhouse and and the police officers and Stacy and
the chief out there, working with the kids and planting those flowers and those cups and all that. It it was it was cool, wet, and all that during that time, but it still went on to some degree. So I do appreciate you doing that as well. It takes a lot of time and to organize all that. The highway ten public meeting at the school, I was there. Few others were there too. Like, council member Peterson is saying they they kinda are gonna do what they're gonna do
for the most part, I guess. And everybody's concern is valid. I mean, you can't take that away from, their concerns they have. And part of it is, you know, you wanna make a safer path through town, and you want to have it more efficient and everything that goes along. And that's not always easy to to promote sometimes because you're kinda used to having, my brother works on these projects, and they've been proven to work. I mean, it's hard to adjust. It's hard to get used to changes.
I understand that. So and some people are gonna be inconvenienced by it. No doubt about it. So, but they, I think they did a pretty good job of being the punching bag for a few people and and but they got they're able to handle that. The, we had a meeting with the LMC policy committees. I'm on the improving local economies. And if anybody has any ideas, they get about 200 ideas a year for possible things to work on, to, for their attorneys to think about.
Some things are gonna be every year. There's it's not gonna drop. It's not gonna change. It's always gonna be an issue. Some things, they're never gonna touch, and some things it might just affect a couple communities. But just like everything, if they don't hear about it, there's so much they can do, you know, until they start understanding what people are really needing. So, it starts in July, the committees that I'm and even though I'm on improving local economies, any idea can be brought to any committee. So the data is weeded out from that point.
So, some people are on more than one, but that's a lot of commitment as well. So, I just seeing you're starting a lunch with a cop, chief, June 4 at Wednesdays. So, I'm guessing that's a success from previous years. So do appreciate what you're doing for, I imagine, for the youth mostly. Is that kinda yeah. So appreciate that. And the Southside Social is on the eleventh at Cottonwood Park. Police and fire and meal and games and prizes, from 05:30 to 07:30.
So it's fun to see things happening, you know, in the parks and ideas that police and fire, and imagine both chiefs back there will be involved with with, bringing their equipment out and, you know, at the barbecue at the kids just love seeing a cop car. They just love to see those lights flash. They're just amazed by it's almost better than a sucker, I think, at times. So they they love the fire trucks as well, Jeep Hanes. So, they they love anything that's shiny and but they like the cop cars better.
Yes. I'm not saying yes, but yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. So I do appreciate you doing those things. So that's where I'm gonna leave leave off. Alright. Thank you, mister Steichen. Miss Nash? Okay. So yes. Again, you know, another event the police department started doing. It really was fun to see the different agencies come to your picnic and, like, interactions and seeing them in a different area. So thank you for another great idea and another great event. And, yes, even though it was rainy, you were still there planting those seeds.
And so I love that. Let's grow together. And with the nursery, I mean, it it's a great facility, and that community involvement with, Luke and his company is just great. Couple other things, for from the police department. They're, doing sidearms and red dot training. They'll be certified this coming week. Bringing back Dan Moonen. Dan Moonen. Yep. He's an instructor. Yeah. So from Winstead and, and a Glen co sergeant with us. So that's pretty awesome. It is pretty awesome.
Yeah. And then, chief Rosslyn will, be hosting a table for the community huddle event with legal services, in Northwest Minnesota at MSUM, next week as well. So he's gonna be, busy busy. I think that the only other thing I'm gonna say of, like, going back to this Highway 10, is that we have had multiple opportunities before the one last week where people coulda came and done their input where we worked with Apex Engineering. And we sat at the community center, and they asked for community input. And the biggest preferred option was the three lane.
And that was in the design when we went through this. And we've been working on this for, what's it, a year and a half, two years at this point. And we have had multiple public input opportunities. So I invite anybody who wants to have a voice to show up for our public input opportunities when we have them and share their, concerns. I left some with MnDOT when I was there. But I've been at the events where people are showing a lot of, approval of moving to an option where there's more opportunities for pedestrians to walk or
bicycle traffic or more parking, and just the opportunities it would have and that's what got us to this point to begin with. And so, to say we don't have a hand in it, we had a huge hand in it because we've been a part of the process the whole time as the city council. And, I've been at all the public input meetings, and I've been part of the Metro COG, discussions and everything and so and have invited people and asked them to take part in the online surveys we've done. So, I hope people continue to come out. I've seen people at multiple, of these opportunities continually giving their voice,
especially the people that live on Highway 10. I'm so glad they show up and, are providing, like, direct input to Apex Engineering and MnDOT. I appreciate their voice, so please keep coming. And I think that's all I have. Alright. Thank you, Julie. Peyton? Thank you, Cole. As far as the highway ten meetings, the amount of people that showed up for I'm not gonna really get into details about it all, but they had this long table set up with the entire corridor on there. And I think they had over I think, like, 60 to 70 people. They did an awesome job, and they did reach out to everybody and,
collecting feedback and stayed there as long as they needed to. So it was really cool. Our comp plan is coming along with MetroCar talking about those projects. The next big thing they're gonna be tackling with it is the land use component. So we've already been meeting with MetroCOG staff on it, and that'll be the subject of our next planning commission meeting. Also wanted to give a plug for the upcoming farmers market that is soon to be reignited here in town,
and let's get out and support it. Thus far, they have 18 confirmed vendors that will be at it. Now at the end of the day, it's only successful as the amount of traffic that frequents the market on a weekly basis once they get started. So be on the lookout for it and help support those local vendors. That's all I have. Thank you. Alright. Thank you, Peyton. I guess, yeah, the the Highway 10 corridor study is definitely, an intense conversation.
I've never seen any of their statistics saying that this is what the majority of people have voted for, I guess. I've been in all the events, and I was there. And I I haven't seen any statistical data that said every you know? So it'll be interesting to see that because I know there's a tremendous this is anecdotal. There's a tremendous amount of opposition to getting rid of the stoplight on May. Oh, I bet. Oh, definitely. I mean and, again, that's anecdotal. I don't like, I can just see you know, based on what I've seen, I didn't see the survey information. But at the end of the day, the best option that we have is to vocalize what we see as the future
of Highway 10. Mhmm. And we have that responsibility, in terms of what we want, like walkability. Does removing the stoplight, does that make downtown traditional downtown more or less walkable? Does it create a more danger? And I don't really answer that question, and I'm not going to pretend to. But we have an obligation to make sure that what we're looking at in our comp plan and how we want our town to look is complemented, by Trunk Highway 10. And it is. Like, I will say I was impressed with the amount of people that turned out, the conversations that were had. The layout was tremendous.
That was that was just fantastic because you can look on it in our little reports that we got here. But when you see it spread out, that was that was that was pretty cool. And then Peyton told me it was getting late, and I had to leave because that was the right thing to do. But I will say, like, MnDOT came out in full force. The postcards went out. Like, if you didn't know that there was a public input meeting, I mean, stay tuned. Because they also said they're gonna do it again. Mhmm. There will be more meetings as this builds up to construction as until, 02/1931 potentially. So so again, when there's those opportunities, Julie, I 100% agree,
voices need to be heard. I think that's important, as we go through this process. Closer to home, I'm just gonna hit this quick. Perry, great job with with the audit, all the staff that helped. And I know it's I know it's a team effort. But when we start looking at this and if we're able to look at some investment, revenues to invest in the state of Dilworth for the first time in, like, probably ever, that's substantial. And that goes right back to, staff and the management and to, yes, we give you a budget. And, yes, the fiscal responsibility is unquestioned. And that's one of the reasons why we are able to do the things that
we do, and then use our budget moving forward to, accomplish the next great thing in Dilworth. So again, it is a team effort. We have the opportunity to put forth the ideas. The men and women that implement our craziness on a daily basis, are really what makes this happen. So thanks for all of that, moving us forward. And with that, I am going to jump to number 11 and hit, pay the bills. There are bills to be paid. Any questions on the bills? It sounds like we have money. Let's pay the bills. I will entertain a motion to pay the bills. So moved. A motion by Nash. Second, Steichen.
Second by Steichen. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And with there being no further business before council this evening, call