With it being 06:00, we are 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 the redeemed justice for all. With that, Roll call around the horn please. Peterson. Borah. Steichen. Nash. Olson. And with that, we have our agenda before us. I did not see anything additional. I will entertain a motion. Steichen, so move. Second. I have a motion by Steichen and a second by Nash.
All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We have our consent. Questions or comments on our consent agenda? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion. Motion to approve. Second. Motion by Nash, second by Borra. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, it does move us to number five. Peyton, has there been any request to speak before council this evening? Number c. Once again, include or encourage our public to participate in the process as that helps us make progress. It does make us move on to number six,
the recognition we have six alpha, resolution twenty five sixty nine, accepting a donation from Kwik Trip for community outreach. Yes. Mister mayor, council members, Kwik Trip was nice enough to offer thousand dollar gift donation to the Dorothe Police Department. Hopefully, they'll accept it on the seventeenth of this month during their grand opening. And that money will be used for community outreach such as Shop at the Cop programs, some other ideas that we have. Any questions for the Chief? Thank you for spearheading that, Chief, and for the outreach that you and the fire department do for our community.
I appreciate that. Thank you very much, Chief. With that, are there any other questions or discussion? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion for resolution 2,569. So moved. Steichen second. Motion by Nash and a second by Steichen. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. That moves us on to number seven, planning and engineering. And starting us off, seven alpha, we have our Metro rail study needs. And Dan Bergerson with HDR and Ben Griffin with MetroCog are here to present this evening and enlighten us with the rail study.
That's a great picture, by the way. The connection is jamming up the intersection. Well, I mean, it does highlight the fact that, that overpass should be moved to the number one on that that study list. But we'll let you present. Gentlemen, thank you for being here this evening. Alright. Thank you. Thanks for letting us be here this evening. Just to give you a quick background before Dan jumps into the presentation, the study, I I guess the discussion about having this study began a little over three years ago. BNSF reached out to several of the jurisdictions in the region, including Dilworth.
I believe Dilworth was the first region to be contacted and eventually to Metro COG and and, the discussion about about looking at rail crossings and improvements. And there were several meetings that were held, with the jurisdictions and with with BNSF and looking at doing a comprehensive study for a long term, infrastructure improvement program for the railroad crossings in the area. And, BNSF also agreed to provide the local match for the study, you know, to to the federal dollars that were allocated and programmed for this study.
So that's that relieved the jurisdictions of having to provide that provide that 20% local match. HDR was selected to do the study, and the local office here undrew on railroad expertise from their company throughout The US and Canada. And that study was started in June, and, we're here this evening. We're wrapping up on everything. Dan's gonna provide a presentation and look at, some of the crossings here in Dilworth, and they ranked pretty highly too, and he'll talk about that in in a little more detail.
And we'll be glad to answer any questions y'all may have as well. With that, I'll turn it over to Dan. Thanks, Ben. So, yeah, some quick background. There were 15 locations included in this study within the entire Fargo Moorhead Metro Area, and two of those locations fell within Dilworth city limits. The key objectives of the study, we're evaluating existing conditions, assessing potential improvements, and recommending infrastructure enhancements You can kind of see on that overview map the general spread of where things are,
and then you see the two locations, that would be in Dilworth, or 34th Street and the Main Street and 14th Street, a potential future project. So on the next slide, we had quite a bit of engagement, for this study just being throughout the entire metro. We had a study review committee and a stakeholder committee with representation from the city of Dilworth. Both Peyton and Don participated in that process, as well as, Moorhead Engineering, Moorhead Fire, Moorhead Area Public Schools, and Clay County Engineering, MnDOT and BNSF, as well as,
other members on the North Dakota side. The, pop up events that we had in addition to our public meetings, one of which was the winter warm up at the Rourke Museum in Moorhead here on the Minnesota side of the river, Had a pretty good turnout and some good, engagement and discussions there. Our public meeting in Dilworth was at the, Depot Building in July, and we also had a public meeting in Moorhead in, at the Yamcon Center. And that would, again, be in addition to the activities that we had on the North Dakota side with another pop up event at the Fargo Dome during the Kiwanis pancake carnival and,
public meetings in West Fargo and Fargo. So we'll get into the preferred alternatives for 34th Street. We we were approached by the City of Morehead about this one. With the median on 34th Street and the Highway 10 Frontage road being added where it didn't used to be, where we had some of the, through movements resulting in some crashes there, and then they they closed off the ability to go through on the frontage road. The, what they're seeing is a little bit higher traffic on Highway 10 for some local trips between the,
shopping areas of Morehead and Dilworth with Target, and then on the Dilworth side, all the the strip mall there in CVS. So the alternative here would be looking at a baggage road that, actually would go underneath the existing 34th Street structure, the bridge that just where 34th Street was closed this summer. And it would be a connection, you know, under the bridge. There would be some challenges with, being adjacent to railroad property as well as, some important drainage areas there,
some challenging areas. Ultimately, we would tie in on the Dilworth side over, where that, where those span wire signals were recently put up at the intersection there, and it would also result in some adjusted stormwater retention ponds just to to kinda make sure we're keeping things the way they were. And, again, I'll I'll remind you, once we get into these alternatives, I always remind everyone it's a planning study. So, this is, like, step number one in any sort of, project that would or could transpire is a kind of a high level look at
what it would take. And that was the only alternative for the 34th Street location just being kind of a unique, request that we received. Then we'll get to Main Street and 14th Street. Definitely one of the more major locations within the study of the 15 that we looked at. This would involve closing the Main Street rail crossing and, adding an overpass at 14th, which would then require some additional infrastructure, you know, to connect 14th on the South Side a little bit better. So the Main Street location there is where we're zoomed in.
We'd, you know, remove the crossing and basically have it be accessible by BNSF personnel. There'd be no point for local traffic to be, using that road anymore. There's a look at kind of the cross section of the, of the potential structure. I'd be looking at a four lane. The Heartland Trail, study did note this as a good potential crossing location, over the railroad tracks as part of, any structure that would be built there. So it's kind of a good connector for bike ped mobility and regional, regionally with the Heartland Trail.
And then I think we have another slide here as well. Just kinda zoomed in a little bit, looking at, MnDOT has identified 14th Street as a potential location for a future roundabout. Those plans, I think, just got pushed out a little bit further towards 2030, or something like that. So we have informed MnDOT, you know, of of our findings in this study and just noted that, infrastructure at that intersection should be, trying to consider this potential future structure as,
you know, as much as makes sense feasibly. And one of the things there would just be, trying to make sure that the elevation of the intersection is such that tying in would be easier. Obviously, you got a short area there to get up to elevation and get over the railroad tracks, between Highway 10 and where the tracks are. That's, that's about it for preferred alternatives. We as part of our evaluation of the alternatives throughout the entire metro area, we developed kind of a scoring system that would weight our, our preferences and our values.
So we sent a survey to the study review committee as well as the stakeholder committee and, ask them to kind of put weights on the the different criteria that were developed as part of the study. If we zoom back out, you can see that the magnitude of project benefits, ranked the highest among the the study review committee and the stakeholder committee. And emergency service access also ranked very highly in addition to community impacts and the magnitude of project costs. And you can see that Main Street and 14th Street with that grade separation,
I believe it was in the top two, for how it scored in this weighted criteria that we, developed. So regionally, in the top two out of 15 out of the the what were deemed to be the most important places to study in the whole metro area is where it landed. And that concludes what we have repaired, and we can I don't know if it's good to be in the top two in that? Yes. First of all, thank you to Dan Bin for leading this project. And just a little context, it was in 2022 when I was first contacted by BNSF.
They have a lot of interest, obviously, in closing this intersection. 14th Street comes along with that. They had their wish list before them. You could snap their fingers today of what they would like to see happen in the metro area. This would probably be their number one project that they would like to see happen, meaning just closing this at grade crossing. 14th Street's more of an our problem, we'll say. But it it becomes a them problem too because we can't do one without the other. So, you know, just for Dan was talking about earlier,
this is just a planning study at this time. Step one of it all is having this document in place. And so the next natural question is, well, how do we take those next steps here locally? And that's something that we're still working through with Metro COG and also BNSF too because they've reached out to us since, this study has been completed to see what those next steps are to be taken. And there has to be from my vantage, there's gotta be a more comprehensive look at the transportation system and network extending 12th Avenue South over to 336 or at least over to
where this overpass is going to connect to because we can't just put in an overpass that dumps into Ear Of Corn on the South side of the tracks. So there has to be some level of a network that exists before any of this could take place. But as was conveyed, this is the initial step in this entire process, very vital that we have this document in hand that will set us up for future endeavors, whatever those may be. There's apparently a lot of money still at the federal level right now,
for more elaborate, in-depth analysis on these overpass crossings or anything trail and trail, excuse me, train related. So we're going to us with BNSF and whomever else, we're going to try to take advantage of those to the best of our abilities. Are there any questions for Dan or Ben regarding the information that was presented? Mr. Steichen. Mr. Mayor and Dan and Ben. I see the Dilworth Crossing rate ranked one of the top it was fortieth Avenue
at a five, and we had a five. I imagine the influencer would have what they choose to be a priority crossing carries a good amount of weight. Which which category? Well, you talked, in the railroad support category. Oh, yes. So that would be fortieth Avenue had three separate alternatives, and, one of them actually would have been closing that crossing, and then routing traffic up to 34th Avenue where there's a a crossing that's at a 90 degree angle instead of skewed like 40th is.
So that's the option that did have a five, and that would be, again, why the Main Street and 14th Street project would have a five is because anytime an at grade crossing could be eliminated, the railroad is in full support. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Julie? I was just trying to go back and look, but can you explain magnitude of project cost with that entail? Yeah. So we did develop high level cost estimates for all of the alternatives that we looked at, and that's, you know, mostly a measure of of that.
And, also, there's another category for project benefits. So they're they're kind of, weighted out. We'd in the study, we did a benefit cost analysis as well to the to the best extent that we could with those cost estimates, and that's kind of the balance point between those two, categories as they're shown on the multiple account evaluation. So, obviously, the 14th Street structure, is, high cost. You know, you got a large span with a lot of tracks to get over. Any others? Dylan, I wanna say thank you. I know it's you know, when you said it was it's been three years,
like, it went fast. Like, honestly, it's like I thought we just kinda start with this, but I guess, you know, it has been three years, and it'd be interesting to see. Again, the amount of time that's been committed to this already, I don't think is in vain. I want to see where this next step goes and the conversations as we move this forward as and we look at the transportation plan and then the growth of our region to the South, which is there's already plans out there as well. So thank you for your time on this. We appreciate it and look forward to continuing working with you as we move forward. Thank you. Thank you.
Have a good evening, Dylan. Stay safe and drive safely. Alright. So that doesn't was the seven bravo. We have a public improvement hearing. With it being 06:17, we'll open our public hearing, for the 34th Street North Water Main Extension Project. Now, before we begin, I'd just like to lay just a couple of ground rules, just for the record. Everyone will be afforded an opportunity to speak. When it is your turn, please come forward, speak into the microphone so your, comments can be recorded. We do have a portable microphone. If you're unable to move up, please state your name, clearly for the for the record.
Keep in mind that individuals will be watching and listening remotely, so it is important that we're able to be, heard throughout the discussion. I do ask that you limit, your comments to three minutes or less. Please try to avoid, repeating comments, repeated points. Again, everyone's gonna have an opportunity to speak. If you have unique comments or another comment you forgot, you will be able to come back up and speak. We also ask that you avoid, side conversations or calling out from your your seat. Those tertiary conversations are distracting and background noise can be con confusing.
The goal here this evening is to maintain that respectable environment, allow everyone to speak their peace, have their their say, and have that, quality discussion. And, again, I mentioned it previously, but if you haven't done so, please sign in the back. And to begin the hearing, I'm gonna turn it over. We have our staff, presentation. Peyton, turn it over to you. Yes. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. We have Andrew that's going to walk us through the majority of today's presentation, but I'll chime in as necessary. Obviously, today's public improvement hearing is dealing with the waterline extension,
traveling from approximately where Aldi is located all the way out to County Road 18. And in order for us to extend utilities out to there, that would necessitate an annexation with all the properties in between that land or from where the existing terminus of the water line is out to where it's going to. So that would include all those properties out to County Road 18, which we've discussed at a couple other meetings in the past. And so all landowners
impacted by this project that would be subject to a special assessment were was notified of today's hearing. So with that said, I'll turn it over to Andrew to talk about the waterline project. Good evening. Thank you. Thanks to Peyton for running the screen. Got the agenda up on the screen. I'll just touch on kind of what I will go through here in this brief presentation. We'll go over a brief description of the project, the, special assessment process, our initial preliminary cost estimate,
and we'll go through, what the assessments would look like. And then, touch on the potential potential formal action by the city at the end. On the next slide, this outlines the process that is, put in place from Minnesota State statute, Chapter four twenty nine. We are at the public improvement hearing there in the box. We have previously gone through the feasibility report. And as Peyton mentioned, the letters were sent, prior to this hearing. Should the the project proceed, those, additional items listed below
would continue the 04/29 process, which would include the ordering of the improvement, design and bidding, construction, and then the final assessment proceedings at the end of the project. The next slide, is going to show it's going to be a little difficult to see. But the water line is in blue. And it's proposed on the east side of 34th Street. And so this project would pick up and continue on the existing water main just north of the Aldi site, follow 34th Street North,
up to the last parcel on the south side of County Highway 18. It's about 6,100 feet plus or minus of, water main. The proposed improvements, are really limited to water main for this particular project. Again, it's a 12 inches water main that's being proposed. No sanitary sewer or storm sewer improvements are proposed as part of this project. And the initial project cost estimate is $1,370,000
The next slide, indicates the special assessment policy for a project of this nature. So 34th Street is part of an area wide assessment. And as part of an area wide assessment, infrastructure improvements are 100 percent, the share of the local assessment. In other words, the city does not have a share in the assessment. The next slide shows, that breakdown of area wide assessments. So we are in the upper left hand corner here, which includes 8th Avenue North or 8th Avenue NW And 34th Street Northwest.
And then that line would obviously, with our policy, would extend all the way up to County Road 18. On the, the next slide here, what we have shown in green, we've highlighted the parcels that would be part of this area wide assessment. And, even though you can't really read it, the the acreages would be shown underneath there as well. Again, this would go, all the way up to County Road 18 on the the far right hand side of the screen. This slide shows, the breakdown of assessment projections. It's a little it's quite a bit simpler than maybe some of the previous assessment
breakdowns we've looked at. But total project costs, again, are $1,370,000 two categories here. One would be levied assessments of about just under $72,000 and deferred assessments of just under $1,300,000 So the levied assessments would be for the two properties that intend to come into the city right away and and develop. The deferred assessments would be for those properties between the South from the South end
up to those two properties at the very north end. We've got a chart there, showing the estimated totals and an acreage ranging from five acres up to just under 80 acres. And and this this would be, based on acreage. So just to touch on the financing and the assessment process, much like other projects that are assessed, The financing would be done via a bond. And the term and the interest rate would be determined by the council at the
time of the incorporating the bond. Initial discussions would be, are leaning toward a twenty year term. We don't know that for sure. But we don't know. I'm sorry to interrupt. Yep. I updated this slide, Andrew. I didn't tell you that. I'm sorry. Okay. That'll just be something that will I think we can just handle it what will determine the assessment term interest rate because we probably won't we talked about it as going to banks, and so it would be a smaller loan amount and probably not for sure if it would be a twenty year or not. That's just something we've been evaluating internally there. But I did want to make mention here on the third bullet point because there's
some question about the upsizing of the water line, and RESCO has agreed in principle to contribute an additional $25,000 more towards the project. Sorry, Andrew. That was a problem for alerting you that. Alright. I'll be on bullet point four here. So the should the project proceed, we would anticipate a final assessment hearing after construction next fall and probably the October time frame with certification of those assessments, at the end of the year, which would mean that the first payment would be due with property taxes the following
year in 2027 of May 2027. And I want to point out that that would be the earliest that this would go into effect. It is possible that it could be later than that, again, should the project proceed. I feel like that was really quick, but we're at the end of the, presentation. So any questions for me at this point? And only other part I was going to add because we know there's two conversations going on. There's the actual waterline project, which is really why we're here to see discuss the merits of it moving forward. And there was also the orderly annexation that would occur as part of this,
and that was agreed to already by the townships in between the two between the waterline and where this waterline is going up to. And to initiate that process, it's real relatively simple to do an annexation. It's, we would first take it to planning commission to get their concurrence then come back to Council. It's really just adopting a resolution and then submitting an OHTO down to St. Paul and then the land becomes annexed in effectively. That's all that has to be done.
This has already been agreed upon in years prior on the annexation front. Thank you, Peyton. Is that the end of the staff presentation? Thank you, John. Appreciate that. Now as we go through, I will move on to, the third step in the public hearing. We'll ask if there's anyone in the audience who would like to speak this evening. Again, if you wanna speak, we encourage you to come up, have the conversation. You will be giving your time to speak of three minutes. If there are questions of the staff presentation or questions of counsel. I will ask one more time if there's any comment from the public,
regarding the improvement hearing. Again, I encourage the audience to participate. To that end, hearing no one, with public comment at this time, we'll close the public hearing at 06:30. And then with that, we can have council discussion. Any questions from council? You guys are good at me. I have them both ways. I don't have any questions, but I I'll just make a a comment that, and I know you wanted to remove these two pieces before with the the access and all that. And we've had quite a bit of discussion, or I'll say, Peyton and I have,
going back to our previous, agreement with Moorhead. And so I feel like we're at a better place with that than where we were a while ago. Still much to be decided, but separate from that. And that's where a lot of my concern over extending it was. Well, thank you for that because that was one of my one one of the the points that we discussed too is we our last last meeting or two, we we were discussing ultimately two elements. Mhmm. And now as I understand it,
we take a look at this. The 34th Street conversation is a a separate one, and we can focus on this and this project and moving this forward right now or having a conversation without it being attached to 34th Street. Thank you, Mayor. And yes, just to kind of buffer Council Member Nash's point there, had a lot of conversations with the City of Moorhead and our city attorney about what could be done regarding the accesses and agreements that we have with Moorhead. And the short of it all is not much.
We're somewhat limited with what we can do. Morehead is super gracious to it all. We're trying to come up with a way that we could potentially have a development agreement or an agreement process with them as development comes about, then it gets paid back just like any other normal special assessment does. That would be circumventing the 04/29 process effectively so that removes that possibility. We could retroactively go in and do that. Katie had a lot of concerns with going that route.
And so we just think the best course of action is to take no action on it and just kind of address it as, new businesses come online. Okay. Any questions regarding that element from counsel? All right. So at hand is the, improvement for water to the two properties that border 34th Street and 15th Avenue for a generalized geographic term or location. Any other questions from counsel? Mr. Steichen? Mr. Mayor and,
Peyton, so I just so understand that everything is just going to continue and we're going to cover the interest cost? Is that no? Not even that? When it comes to the road, we're not going to do anything. It's going to think of it just like a normal special assessment. You know? This one gets confusing because we have two different jurisdictions involved. So until an area is developed, there's really we wouldn't go in and start making payments on any other improvement interest wise or whatever it is.
It would be a deferred special, which is really all this is at this time. And so we're going to continue to treat it as such. It may be limiting long term or understanding of that, but I don't know if there's I don't think there's really any other solution to it. And I'm not sure from the city's perspective why we would expose ourselves like that when it's something that we wouldn't normally do for any other improvement. I know it makes it more complicated with two jurisdictions at hand. And I think we just got to work with the City of Moorhead as each
one comes about and see how we can negotiate these things as they come along. I appreciate that. It does clean up the discussion quite a bit from the previous ones. Yes. So with that, any questions regarding the improvement with water and sewer to that location? No sewer. Just water. Or pardon me. Yeah. With water. No sewer. No sanitation. No storm. Just straight up high quality h two o. Alright. If there's no questions from council, then we can, actually move on to item number seven Charlie because that's the resolution twenty five seventy,
which would order the improvement preparation plan and specs the 34th Street North Water Main extension project. Is that correct, Peyton? That's correct. So as we begin seven Charlie, are there any discussions from anything that we've discussed previously or we've heard from tonight regarding this project? Hearing no discussion, I will entertain a motion for resolution 25 or twenty five seventy ordering the improvement in preparation plant and specs. Steichen's removed. The motion by Steichen? Second. Second by Peterson. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
Again, thank you, counsel. I know we had great and extensive conversations about that previously. I know it was, it was a good conversation, and I think, Julie, the the cleaning up, Peyton, the the the 34th Street, like, the next steps for that, really allows us to to move that that piece forward. And a big hands up hats off to staff for really answering, a lot of I'm guessing more probably the same question more than once or twice. So, again, thanks for all of that extra effort to make this work. We do appreciate that effort.
So, to that, we'll move on to seven delta. We have resolution twenty five seventy one, supporting pursuant of supporting pursuit of twenty twenty six local road improvement program funding from the Department of Transportation for the 4th Avenue Northeast and 60th Street improvement project. Peyton Hushfield in this one. This is me. Thank you, mister mayor. And we talked about this back in October, submitting an LRIP grant application for the extension of 4th Avenue Northeast over to 60th
and then paving 60th on down to Highway 10. So what you see up here is nothing nothing has changed with the project cost or anything of that nature. I'm about 95%, 98% done with the grant application itself. Only two items I have to put in as part of it is our resolution authorizing this and also a resolution from Glendon Township, which is over here to the east. This roadway, 60th Street,
is in their jurisdiction or partly in their jurisdiction, also in our jurisdiction. So they have to provide a resolution of support as well, which they'll be considering at tomorrow night's meeting. Assuming we get both of those documents, everything else has been packaged and ready to go. We've reviewed the application multiple times, and we'll cross our fingers that we are awarded. Questions from counsel? City Shelby owned the cheapest projects we've seen. And just just a quick reminder, when we look at the 60th Street, that's gonna be the rural roadway.
Correct? It's not gonna be urban. It's not gonna be street and gutter or anything like that. Correct. Just paved, basically. Pays paved to Highway 10. Perfect. Any other questions from council? Can you just remind me as to what the necessity of that connection is right now? It's just completing the roadway network effectively because, obviously, there's going to be where our community center is going to be located, providing that additional relief access, that may that's going to continue to evolve as 14th Street comes busy. I'm a nervous wreck right now with the new Rail 10 phase coming online here
in the next few weeks. And so anything that we can do to provide a relief for it. And we're somewhat limited with what we can apply for LRIP funding for, and we just felt like this was a good worthwhile endeavor to try and get this network in complete and hopefully spur some other economic growth in the vicinity. Alright. Hearing no further conversations, I will entertain a motion for resolution twenty five seventy one, pursuit of the 2026 LRIP grant funding. So moved. Motion by Borra.
Second. Second by Nash. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Moves us to seven echo ordinance twenty five zero three, amending title 15, chapter one fifty three zoning ordinance, general yard, lot area, and building requirements for outdoor storage. Don, you wanna tell the the tale of this conversation? I can. Just have to find my paperwork here. Thank you. This is a a staff initiated amendment to the zoning code. The reason Being is that,
we needed to clarify the language in the outdoor storage section, which will help us improve administration of it and have it fall in line more with the parking requirements already in place within our zoning code. There were some dissonance between them. They were not line lining up. Not only that, but some of the requirements seemed, to be in conflict with each other. So the zoning code I mean, the the the planning commission at, the December 3 meeting, held a public hearing and, has approved changes to the zoning code,
that come before you tonight for your consideration. It seems like there's more to it, but, Did you wanna cover anything specific, Don, as far as the changes that were made? Again, this isn't a new section that's being created or anything like that. It's already an existing section of our zoning ordinance. There's just more so than as an an amendment clarifying some language and some taking out some confusing sections, we'll say. Yeah. So it was redundant. We wanted to try and make sure that the cars,
that we had non licensed cars, some of the language before, was was confusing. Recreational vehicles, utility trailers, there's confusing language, such as our, recreational equipment on a trailer considered one item or two items, that kind of thing. We had taken a look also, too, we had taken a look at more heads and other, other ordinances, and we felt that we had the bones of really a good ordinance. We just had to add in a few things, such as where storage of household items would be within lawns,
adding boats into the equation, making sure that that, boats, travel trailers, recreational vehicles, utility trailers, and such are licensed vehicles, and then, two, the non residential zoning to make sure that we allow, for people to have storage areas for items, that they would sell, but that you'd regulate on the side or the rear of of their properties where they actually could store items and what the requirements would be for that. Those are basically the changes within them and to make sure they're applicable to the r 1, R 2, and R 3 areas.
As as far as setbacks too, just one more thing, to make sure the side yard setbacks and the alley alley setbacks were the same, because a lot of people store stuff right off the alleys. Don, do you remember how many times this went back and forth between planning and then staff and then planning staff? Three meetings. Three meetings. I think there was first three meetings. I mean, and again, I appreciate your patience and then the discussion that planning had. Like for me, the two big takeaways are a snowmobile on a trailer is one trailer.
It's one thing, not two. And, honestly, it used to be two, and that didn't make any sense to anyone. So they cleaned that up. That was one thing that's and it's enforceable, by city staff. And it there's common sense that's enforceable to make sure that there's safe and orderly storage of the the toys that we accumulate, so we can enjoy living in Minnesota. Probably one major thing is with this, if you look at other zoning codes in other cities, oftentimes, there's three or four pages on this, and we're able to do it with one page.
I think it really cuts to the heart of what's important as far as enforcement of, these items, you know, outdoor storage. So I I think we have a really good, amendment coming forth and, yeah, good work by the planning commission and Mhmm. As always. Are there any questions from counsel? Mr. Steichen? Mr. Mayor and John. The, where it's right below where it says all nonresidential, it talks about the storage areas fenced and fully screened. That'd be like business? Business, Yes. That'd be commercial. Storage. So you crossed out totally and and or fully screened.
Is that a big change? Like, can you see as how as how you see it? What is totally it says totally crossed out, then it says fenced. Oh. Well Not that it matters quite. Totally fenced is just the storage area would be fenced and fully screened if required. That goes back to the zoning you know, what's required for the zoning district that it's in, because we obviously have more than one commercial district and also two industrial districts. So, that's where we wanted to make sure that we had outdoor storage does not include the display of goods which are being sold at retail to the general public.
That'd be like Tractor Supply having stuff out in front, that they can continue to do that. The stuff around the sides and backs probably need to be fenced and, you know, with a screening fence. Okay. And I'll make totally because it totally doesn't make any sense to have it in there. Yeah. It doesn't add anything. I know it takes a lot of work to totally dense. It's still dense. It takes a lot of work to get these things Much better than partially. Partially, totally. I'm white. Julie? Just wondering if this came up in conversation. Right? Because now difference between front lot versus side lot,
side lots, they don't have to be on pavement or anything. I can think of a lot of corner well, and this is from someone who lives on a corner lot where around town where there's a lot of vehicles that are on the side lot, let's say, like, parking multiple cars or something on the grass, that would be okay under this then. Cars would fall under the, actually, a different section of the ordinance. I mean, regular vehicles like that. And a corner lot has actually,
like, almost two front yards, you know, because of I know that's what it I mean, that's where again, it's mostly because that's where I get, like, most of the Most complaints. From people, like, noticing things. It's like if you notice, those are the ones that are, like, corner a lot. I can pop three of them into my head right off the top of my head, you know, and but if it if it's an allowable thing, it's an allowable thing. I just didn't know if it was part of the conversation is what I was wondering. Isn't there a part of it that says that you you have a limit of two? Like, you get, like, two trailers or two cars or The previous page payment?
Well, I may I Yeah. I think what Don is saying is that, like, cars fall under like, that's a whole different policy that's, like, depending on how many homeowners are in the house, you can have this many licensed vehicles in your driveway. Right? So it's separate from what what's in stored on your side lot. And and your driveway is different than your side lot. Like and again, I see a lot of boats and things on corner lot, campers in the side lot. You know? There's there's not a great answer to it, to be honest with you. The how we're really supposed to treat it is that it's considered a front yard,
a secondary front yard. Right? And so it should be paved, on a paved surface and things of that nature. We try and I don't want to say not look the other way. That's not really the right word. But we try and take them on a case by case basis, give considerations to how long things have been in existence and not ever it's just not clear. I understand what you're asking, and they're yeah. They're prob by the true definition, we should probably be out enforcing every single one of these that has a corner lot side yard that might be breaking the rule.
Are they keeping it in order? Does it look professionally done? You know, are things draped over the corner or over the curb? And, you know, it's there's not a good answer. Luckily, we have a good, we try and have a good sense about these things, and I come down heavy handed if possible. And don't have an inoperable vehicle in this situation. Right? You know, just kinda be smart about it. So I'm probably not fully answering your question. But Well, I think maybe my question is, do you feel it's adequate to deal with those with situations where they come and
what you're saying is you deal with them one on one and determine it's it's hard because it is a side lot. It is. And there's a benefit to having a corner lot because you have access to your property two ways. So I don't wanna take that away from anyone. I just And there's a lot a lot of confusing elements because some side lots have You pay for that matter. Exactly. Too. So Some of them have alleys going back to them. That complicates matters too at times, and, no two homes are the same.
You know? Yeah. So we try and just use our best judgment with these and, try not to come down too heavy handed if at all possible. Let's usually decide we on with this. Okay. If you feel comfortable with it, that's At the end of the day, like, the well, the last question to ask is, is it enforceable? And Mhmm. Does it does it allow the homeowner to use their property? And are we able to maintain an orderly and aesthetically pleasing city, which is our response everyone's responsibility, really. And my takeaway was that,
yes. This is. This is better. This is progress. And then, again, after after three attempts and three conversations, and I and I say that because it was I don't maybe we did get something in the in too far in the weeds sometimes, but it was great conversations at the planning commission level. It really and truly was. So to that end, here it is. If there aren't any other questions, I will entertain a motion. I'll make a motion to approve it. I have a motion by Nash. Second. Steichen. And a second by Steichen. All those in favor, say aye.
Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, it does move us on to number eight and eight alpha. We have resolution 2,573 declaring the 2,005 Sterling Pumper, Central States Rosenbauer PumpHouse and Sterling is that etcetera as surplus and acceptance of bid on perch purchase. What is that? Did I say that alright? Mister mayor, members of the council, we have sold our 20 year old pumper in lieu of our new engine we're getting in, hopefully,
February. The way this went down was we posted it on a Minnesota firefighters only website or Facebook page. Within two days, we had about six off or six, inquiries. One really, fast tracked inquiry that came down the day after Thanksgiving. They drove six hours to get here to look at it to do to make the deal work. Talked with Perry, and he got the job done on the next Monday. So we received the check today. We'll be, having a couple of our firefighters drive that truck down partway. We kinda made that agreement that we'd take it to Saint Cloud
and drop it off, and they were happy with that on the December 17. And, they're gonna put in a service dash slash engine slash, water tender. So they're really happy Questions for the chief? Hearing no questions, I will entertain a motion for resolution twenty five seventy three with the Act Terra surplus and acceptance of the bid for purchase. Steichen, sum of? Motion by Steichen. Second. Second by Borra. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, chief. Yep. Thank you. One down, one to go. Okay. Keep it out of service now. Yeah. Yeah. That would be alright.
Like, anyone else? Do we do we need that? Like, where was that still paying the insurance on it? Yes. Alright. So moving on to number nine. We have thank you again for answering all my questions, Perry. Thanks for putting things together for me. Again, as we went through this, do you want to present first and then last question? So go ahead, Payton, if you would, please. Yes. And Perry, if you want to come on up to in case they count as any other questions that I'm missing here. But I just put together just two or three, four slides just kind of recapping everything.
So the levy from the first go around from our preliminary levy that we set at $9.71, $9.77 or whatever that number was a few months ago, We got it we did get it down to just a little under 9% there, accounting for a little more interest revenue and just some tweaking of some numbers here and there. We weren't able to get it below that 9% number. And if you see our at and I did an average of everything that you see up on the screen. So our average is just about 7% plus or minus in there.
And this is the proposed levy increases for the other jurisdictions that I just referenced in here the cities, as well as our two school districts that we're most familiar with. They have a whole school districts have a whole different circumstance going on, but I did think it was good just to list those numbers. Babe, can you go back one one slide, please? Because I'm just looking at what I have on the back of my I wanna make sure I have the right that's 2025. We're looking at 2026. Right? Yeah. You yes. I'm sorry. That was just the slide I had from the previous,
yeah, '26 should be the number. I'm sorry. Because we're also looking at 09/1971 of that. So did that change and reduce? What's What's that? Yes. Until eight point nine eight. Yes. I'm sorry. Are off by one. Okay. Right? No. I think what it is, I didn't put '25 up there, and I meant to put '26 here. But this was an update of a slide from last year that I did. And so '25 should be a different number than '26 should be this. We lowered it to just under 9%. The average historical average over the course of the decade is a little over 7%.
Thank you, Fayndna. I appreciate it. Yep. So here are what the cities I mean, there's other cities listed on the property tax statement, but I just referenced the ones that we're most familiar with and, you know, have the police departments, here in Clay County and, and also the school district. So if you average those out, that's about hold on just one second here. Three for all the cities that we see listed in Clay County, like you said. Unfortunately, I'm not gonna attend all those meetings to find out either.
I struggle with our own here just doing trying to get those numbers correct. So but, anyways, that's what, the preliminary levies was reflected of. They're doing an amazing job of putting together their budgets, and the whole council does as we work through the entire process. I did wanna point out sort of, like, what our larger increases are. I was just doing things over $25,000 across the entirety of the budget. The levy change that we had year over end, I think it was, like, dollars 259,000. If you add up all those numbers,
I think that's about $255,000 Now keep in mind, you have other expenses that are going up that's gonna be above $259,000 but you also have different sources of revenue. We're talking about interest revenue and other things. So unless you're starting from a true zero based budget, you know, it's not it's it's not saying, Oh, we just this is our only increases of the budget. We have other increases that probably take us well over $300,000 $320,000 whatever that number may be. But we also have different revenue streams as well.
But I did want to point out what that sort of what our big purchases are, we'll call them, or investments are, for this coming year. Like with anything with our budget, keep in mind, we just keep talking about our general fund levy right now, which is about 3,100,000 plus or minus somewhere in there. Our biggest expense, it's not items. It's it's not wages or anything like it. It's your debt. It's your debt service. It's things that we're paying for a road from five years ago or whatever that may be.
That accounts for about a third of our entire budget. I think that's an important thing to point out. We have a third of our budget already dedicated on an annual basis, to debt services of projects that have already been done. We add on to those as things evolve, things fall off, whatever that number is. We never had a set policy of where we want our debt service as it relates to the overall budget, but it ends up being about a third of what our entire budget annual basis. So we're always working within the confines of, that looming in the background.
And here's an updated estimated impact for what it looks like, and these numbers pretty well bear out. Now keep in mind, if you got your property tax statement, a lot of it's dependent upon your market value and how that fluctuated, in there. For I'm just gonna give you some examples in my office or in here at City Hall. You know, one tax statement came back the market value, you know, went down just a Tish. They actually had a negative, levy from us for this past year and that's not the only one who've heard of others experiencing the same thing and then we had some that hit just like
right on the number about where you would expect it to. So, it's a little bit all over the map. This is a great snapshot though, it really gives an idea and indication of what that impact is on an average basis for everyone. And so when you see that number, again, it there's other variables that go into that. We just do our best we put forward our best effort as far as, like, trying to provide what an estimate is for everyone, not taking consideration your market value and other things. And that's all I really have. I don't know if there's anything else,
Perry, you wanted to add. Or Yeah. I would just add to some for example, a few costs do go down, which was I always like, wow. That is awesome. Workers' comp was a significant decrease for the upcoming year. Even fuel. I mean, fuel is gonna be a favorable one because we I I generally tend to budget based on what we've spent in the prior year. So, I mean, there are things that that and, yeah, are we controlling that to what degree might, you know, can, I suppose? But that's there's some good good news that does happen there that that,
you know, didn't make the highlight list here. And and, again, I keep bringing up to the interest revenue. You know, that's been a windfall the last, you know, third year, year in a row with those with cash. And does that continue indefinitely? You know, that's not going to. But so there's those kinds of things do help us to keep a lid on, you know, a smoother smoother budget. Okay. Brent, just real quick before counsel quest counsel has questions. So we'll just, I mean, we'll just ask if there are any comments from anyone in the audience or online
regarding the 2026 final property tax levy. I know it's not a public hearing, but we we used to have the the truth in taxation. And if there's someone that wants to speak, we'll we'll afford that opportunity now. Alright. To that, counsel, do you have any questions regarding the information that Peyton has presented and Perry has has refined for us? Mister Steichen. Mister Mayor and Perry, this is kind of not exactly on this topic, but where does that, sale of that fire truck where did what line item line item does that go into? Right. So I'm gonna code that to, it's a sale capital asset.
I think Jessica and I looked at that today. So it go comes in as a revenue account in the general fund. And the last time we had that type of activity there was two years ago. We had the auction, Jess, where we had, like, $3,540,000 dollars, you know, so we physically sold. So we don't often is we don't often sell assets. They're traded in, you know, whatnot. So it's revenue. And then that of course, those dollars it's it's in sorry. I said general fund. It's in the $2.30. It's in the fire fund,
sale of assets. So that cash goes right into the fire department's fund balance, which I'm gonna now spend and draw down a bit here in about a month on the new truck. Yeah. Thank you. Yep. Any other questions? Hearing no questions, I will entertain a motion for resolution twenty five seventy two, the twenty twenty six final property tax levy. Motion to approve. Motion by Nash. Steichen second. Second by Steichen. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries, which brings us right to nine bravo is the approval of the 2026 budget.
They go hand in hand, many meetings, many conversations, many shakings of Peyton's head as I ask repetitive questions in his office. Any questions about, the 2026 budget? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion for the approval of the 2026 budget. Motion to approve. Motion by Nash. Second. Second by Peterson. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you again, Peyton. Thank you, Perry. It does move us to number 10, 10. We have our public hearing on resolution twenty five seventy four.
We have a miscellaneous assessment for unpaid curb style repair invoice at 509 Center Avenue East. With it being 707, we'll open our public hearing and start with staff presentation. Peyton? I just encourage everyone to pay unpaid invoices. Perfect. Peyton, is that the end of staff presentation? That is. Thank you. If there's anyone in the audience who would like to speak to this issue. Second call to speak to this issue. Hearing no one to speak, we'll close the public hearing at 07:07,
and move to council conversation. Council, any questions, comments, concerns, or considerations regarding this resolution? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion. So moved. A motion by Peterson. Second. Second by Borah. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, it does bring us to number 11, council members' concerns and committee updates around the board. Show up a quick trip for a thousand dollar donation. That's kind of it's on the higher side of what we see for those kind of things, so appreciate that.
I didn't wanna muddy it with seven bravo, but, obviously, there's been some conversations about the 34th Street agreement with Morehead and I I mean, is what is going on with the $25,000 annually? Is that a deferred special? Or is that something that as businesses move in along 34th Street, is something they'll incur? Or are we paying that annually to Morehead? I've just I need a little Yeah.
So effectively, yes. So how I look at it so let's take 7th Street, for example, you know, and then it has deferred special assessments on it that's also inclusive of interest, you know, we'll call it $25,000 on an annual basis that's going on to that. If we were to be picking that up, we would effectively just we would just be taking on that additional debt right now, more so in the name of just trying to keep the principal balance a little lower when someone does come or decide to,
come in to develop in those parcels. Sure. Where my concern, I think where everyone's concern was, we just don't know when that's going to be. So on so we I'm just treating it. My perception on I think how Katie and others were looking at it was just, why are we trying to treat this any differently than we would any other improvement, you know, where we would charge that interest cost back to the landowner at that time like we would any other deferred special assessment. Now with that said,
that doesn't prohibit us at that time from looking at it. Maybe that's an incentive tool, whatever we want to use that will, hey, we'll knock off something from the interest when that comes on the books. But just having that uncertainty of when that's going to be, I know it's a it's a terrible way of looking at it, but I think you have to look at it as we're the city's gonna be making this investment of this waterline annexing in all of these properties without knowing or I I don't think there's a guarantee that anything's going to develop there in the
next x amount of years. I think that's probably in the back of everyone's mind, you know, with all this. We're assuming we're gonna be doing this. We don't know this is just gonna spur development left and right. We can cross our fingers that's gonna happen, but we just don't know when that's going to happen. But yeah. So the short end of it though, KP, to what you're asking, yes, we're just treating it like a normal deferred special assessment of those interests and everything else going on there, which is just how we would treat any other property owner. Okay. That and that makes that makes Yep. Sense to me. I guess the the other
comment I have is I think, Julie, did you bring yours too? Yeah. So I have my tax statement here. And mine went up a little bit more than the numbers on the screen did. But it's okay. I get it. Right? The the point that I would make is you don't have to. But if you did, if you went back to the slide that you showed what our our big purchases were, the lion's share of that was wages and contracts and investments in the people who work for the city of Dilworth,
and I can hang my hat on that. I don't I don't think I think it's easy to get worked up on a number on a piece of paper, but to justify what we're spending the money on, I think it I think it's it's easy to explain, and, I I stand by, you know, our collective decisions. So, with that, I'm I'm good. I usually wait till the end, but it's kinda something that I've always said and I couldn't agree more. Because at the end of the day, the percentage is easier to handle if I agree with what we're spending it on.
And a lot of what we're spending it on is who we're spending it on, and I think that is very, very important because it's the who that matters. And they make a difference in debt worth every single day. So I couldn't agree more, Kevin. Sorry. Amber, your turn. I just have a bunch of, I guess, props to hand out. The tree laying event went really well. Park board did an amazing job, and I know city staff put a lot of effort into it too. So I thank all of them and the police department and the fire department. Thank you guys for coming out there. I was at the planning committee on December 3,
commission, and they had a well run meeting. I just wanna give them props. They had a lot of good discussion. Yeah. It was it was fun to watch, as much fun as watching public meetings. Yeah. Yeah. It was it was good to watch them. And they had some really good back and forth, and they took people's comments into consideration, and it was just a really well run meeting. So I wanna just give them a shout out and tell them, you know, they did a good job. And, you know, Perry, thanks for your work on the budget. Staff, I'm glad we're wrapping that up. And like you two said, I'm happy with what we spent our money on.
I don't feel bad about it. I was gonna bring mine too. It went up quite a bit, but still, when you see the breakdown and where it's going, I think we we made some good decisions here. That's all I got. Thank you. Mr. Steggen? I'm gonna echo a couple of things. It's exciting when Kwik Trip comes in and makes that big donation. So and what the police department does with that is pretty impressive. The tree lighting was neat. That was fun. That was fun. It was actually it wasn't that bad a weather. Kind of a little cooler to the end there, but it's just fun seeing everybody.
This has got to be a tradition now, right? Hopefully, it continues. So but it's an incredible amount of work that needs to take place. And, you know, the police department, Stacy, does a fantastic job. And, the, pretty neat that you got, chief got that fire truck sold as quick as he did. I mean, you guys Should've held on pretty good. Yeah. That was pretty neat. In the hand. I had to look to see where that was in the state, and it's way down South of Mankato. So it's they they were pretty in need of it, I guess. So so I do appreciate the leadership that you have for the fire department and,
successful sale there and and all the staff. I mean, the staff does a great job of taking care of numbers and budgets and Perry and Mike and and the chief there. So, it's when you see levy increases or whatever, you know, sometimes it's kinda tough for some people, but it's nice to see a city that's being progressive, moving ahead. It'd be worse if you're just a stale city, nothing happening, nothing moving forward. So, it comes with some a little bit of pain for some, but I do agree with what the mayor said and what Kevin was saying about
what it's spent on. And when you know what it's spent on, it's quite important that what it's being used for. Julie? Yeah. I mean, just echoing what everyone said about all the staff involvement and all the activity lately with the tree lighting, the budget, and everything like that. I'll add again that with the donation for the Kwik Trip, they are doing the public ceremony. Did we talk about that tonight? The public ceremony? Seventeenth. Right? Seventeenth. And so the police department will get, you know, like, publicly The big check? The big check. When yes.
At at that event. And then they have cop with or shop with a cop, get that backwards, coming up as well. So that's about and we have interviews coming up too for our open position with the police department. I almost forgot that one. Mhmm. Back to full strength. Slightly longer than a penalty kill. Yeah. Is that all, Julie? Yep. Thank you. What Councilmember Moore was talking about with the Planning Commission, Lisa Kildee, who chairs the Planning Commission, she does an amazing job, and it is amazing how well that group does.
Chad always talks about that after the meeting, how continually amazed he is at the quality of planning commissioners that we have and the robust discussion. So thank you to everyone who does that. And, we are fast approaching on the community center design. That's getting near a point to where they're really starting to hone in on the bid package, what it's all going to look like. So I know it'll either be the next meeting or the one after that. Dan's gonna be coming and presenting on it and seeking authorization here pretty soon to
get that bid out. So that's coming up quickly. It's kinda scary. This is not coming about, but it's exciting. And, you know, thanks to, yeah. And on the tree lighting event, Angela is our main lead on that from a staff perspective, so she does a tremendous job. But also all the other departments, I think I mentioned, that in our in the staff reports. Everyone kinda works hand in hand. You know, Jessica and Perry, thank you so much on the budget and all of the staff members and managers for being cognizant and mindful of trying to be responsible, trying to balance things out.
There's a lot of things we'd still love to do that we're unable to do and still pull back on it in the the name of being responsible to the taxpayers. So thank you to everyone for delivering another successful budget. I don't feel like we're out of line or anything, kind of in line with and to make that level of investment as Councilmember Petersen was talking about for staff and, you know, all our employees there. That's something to be proud of. So pretty cool. That's it, mayor. Thank you.
Thank you, Peyton. Merry Christmas, everyone, if I don't see you before. Christmas. Fair enough. It's crazy that the the budget conversation is the topic of of boiling. Everyone got their statement. I'll I and and it is true because I think that the the one thing I remind people to do first and foremost is ask them if the value of their home increased, because that's a factor. And I I I purchased my home in Door for $85,000 I'm paying a little bit more in property taxes now, and there's a home value is is one of the reasons why.
And then it's the decisions that we make. And and I have and I applaud those of us sitting around here that, have the conversations, that ask the difficult questions, that really ultimately, you know, come into the policy and the budget because we have to stand behind it. And, you know, as we went through it tonight, we looked at it and paid and presented for for three minutes. I mean, that's not reflective of the meetings we had leading up here, the the special budget hearings we had up here, the phone calls, the emails, the the conversations that that take place to get us to this point.
And I will also admit in my younger years, I was I was more concerned with the percentage increase than I was the the product that we were putting out. Our budget is a tool to provide a quality city for the for our citizens. Mister Steichen, you said it great. If we're stagnant, we're going backwards, whether it's the outfitting of control cars or providing them the current necessary, training, mental health care, the things that we don't don't think about, you know, when it comes to making sure that,
you know, we we have a budget for turnout gear so we don't have to worry about it every single year. Like, this is just how we do business because this is the standard. I think we've come a long way in that time, and I I'm excited to see where we're going, because I know as soon as January rolls around, we'll be thinking about the 2027 budget. And, are are we gonna build a road? Because that's interesting. And I also thought the road behind, like, the Red Hen, right behind, TAC. Like, that's a great idea. How do we do that? But maybe we better see the price tag on that one first.
I think it's great, and I love the conversations, and I and I love the discussion. And I think what we have here and what we have in planning and on the park board, we're fortunate. A lot of couldoes, a lot of things going in the right direction. So to that, I'm going to echo Peyton's final comment as well. I wish Merry Christmas to everybody who's celebrating that. Enjoy the time of year. Be grateful and be good. With that, we do have to pay bills, I suppose. Number 12A, we have our bills to be paid, and I will enter is there any questions about the bills?
Without hearing any questions or having conversation or since there is no questions or conversation better, be careful how that comes out. I will entertain a motion for the bills to be paid. So moved. A motion by Peterson. Second. Second by Abra. Second by Boro. Boro. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With there being no further business before council this evening, we'll call this meeting adjourned.