Point. With it being 06:00, we'll call our meeting to order and start with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. With that, roll call, around the horn, please. Peterson present. Borah. Steichen. Nash. And Olson. With that, we have our agenda. I didn't see any additions. So with that, I will entertain a motion. Motion to approve the agenda. Motion by Nash. Steichen, second.
Second by Steichen. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Now we have our consent. Are there any questions or comments regarding our consent agenda this evening? Hearing no questions or comment, I will entertain a motion for our consent. So moved. Motion by Nash. Second. Second by Borah. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, it does move us to number five, our public comment period. Peyton, has there been any formal request to speak before counsel this evening? None received. Alright. Again, please encourage the public to participate,
in our process. It's a great way to ensure that we do make progress. And with that, we'll move on progress. So progress to number six, planning and engineering. Six alpha is resolution twenty five fifty four. We're receiving preliminary engineering report for a water main infrastructure improvement, located on 34th Street North from, those 10 digit grids provided. Peyton, you wanna fill this one? Thank you, mayor, members of the council, and I would like for you to try and bear with me as I work my way through this, description.
I know couple meetings ago, we talked about this project and we talked about what all it entails. So this is really a combined annexation and a water main extension project, effectively extending the waterline from approximately where Aldi is located on 34th Street all the way north on 34th up to the recently developed or not developed, recently subdivided Resco and Red River Valley Cooperative Power Platts up there on the very
far north side. They both requested utility services with us. The determination was made that this would be something that we would go through the four twenty nine procedure process with and attempt annexation. So that's sort of the central focus of tonight's discussion. And then for this evening, what the council will ultimately be considering is a resolution taken in the PER that Andrew here has prepared and then calling for an improvement hearing,
at which time we would notify, obviously, Resco and Red River Valley but also the property owners in between them as well because they would be part of the improvements being done for this waterline extension. Now there are a few updates that have taken place. That's just the project matters. You can extend the waterline to the north. There have been a few adjustments, and I'll reflect these up on the screen right now on the total cost of the project. So the total estimated cost has gone from $1,325,000
up to $1,370,000 And really what that is, is just an adjustment on the waterline size from a 10 inches to a 12 inches main. You can also see on the cost sharing example showing like what the special assessments are, how that, tweaked those numbers a little bit so it increased the cost per acre. And then the slight adjustments to both the the responsibilities of both Resco, Red River Valley, and then the remaining dollars that would be deferred to the other landowners in between
there. This here is a we showed this up on the screen last time. And just to clarify something so, again, this is a $1,370,000 project now. This has gone from, I think, dollars 750,000 up to $798,000 It doesn't really change the math with the how it would break out over time. The numbers, the $35,000 $45,000 increase to the project size doesn't really materially change how the loan process would work
when we would go to a local institution. That would also increase the upfront payment by a a minuscule amount, so just a few thousand dollars by both Resco and Red River Valley Co op, which they both, you know, agreed in principle to do on the front end of this project. And I'm going to dive a little more deep now into the road maintenance agreement with the City of Moorhead that we have and how some things have changed since
our first, go around with all of this. So at the first meeting, when we met, I was just describing how the whole road maintenance agreement goes that was put into place, with us in the City of Moorhead back several five, six years ago now. And we paid our balance off up to 15th Avenue to still let this remaining balance from 15th Avenue up to County Road 19. And that left there's about $850,000 in today's today as far as,
like, what remains that has to be paid back to the City of Moorhead. Now it's not a special assessment. With that with those properties being outside the city limits, Moorhead never had the statutory right to assess for those properties. However, what how they recoup the cost, in a fact of special assessment is charging an access agreement to all the to the landowners once that property ever gets utilized or accessed to. And there's also a $25,000 interest payment that accrues on the entirety of that land on an annual basis.
So again, that number today is about $850,000 At the last council meeting when we were discussing this, RESCO had you know, indicate at the time, you know, that they would be willing to pay both agencies, both Red River Valley and RESCO, were gonna come together, team up, pay would be about $212,000 to the City of Moorhead to access their land off of 34th Street. And so that's when we were building our math out,
when we were having the discussion last time, we were framing this as a $2,000,000 project. Well, late last week, there was a little shift in focus in how they would like to proceed with this. And Resco has some concerns long term about the potential liability that may exist on that access point on 34th Street. And and just some concerns from them and their board that, having this a liability out there that could result in a costly improvement in the
future. So let's say that a turning lane was required ten, fifteen years down the road. They're concerned with that being outside of our jurisdiction within the City Of Moorhead technically and not, controlled by us that they would be assuming that financial burden into the future. So what they have opted to do instead I'll show you here on this image. So, again, the access point, as we discussed last meeting, was coming in,
you know, somewhere along in here. They have determined that they would like to access the property off of County Road 18. So that's outside of our jurisdiction, obviously. That is a county roadway. And, so they and they would still be able to access it. So what that would mean is that this original charge that the city of Moorhead would be making would go away altogether. And so, presumably so that cost is still gonna be that $212,000
number is still gonna be lingering out there in perpetuity, so to speak. But if it were to be annexed in or whenever it does become annexed in or accessed, that money at some point is going to be repaid back to the city of Moorhead. So how I would anticipate something like this going would be this land would be annexed into the city of Dilworth, and we would initiate a revised contract with the city of Moorhead to repay that
cost. I've put together that example here where we were talking last time where we would put, say, in an account, for that we'll call it the remaining three quarters piece of land that of $636,000 that we would be responsible for. We would pay that cost back to them over the course of eight years, putting 18.9 into an account, increasing by 18.9 in subsequent years until we hit that number. If we went with that same math to hit the $848,000
number or whatever, it would probably require us to go another year to hit that number. So that's one thing to keep in mind with that. Not another $18,900 It's another $18,900 plus. So it's like well, it's another 200 and something thousand dollars that we would have to pay, that would be coming due there eventually. So that that that's one thing to consider as part of this whole process. So, in short, there's been a change in focus from the Resco team and how they would like
to access their property so that they are not having this exposure out there. And, by doing so, that would most likely shift the cost back over to us. Now Red River Valley is and and representatives from both groups are here this evening, so, you know, lots of people that can speak to this if need be. They have no issues still entering in off of 34th Street. There's still not clarity as far as what that access point would cause. If we're talking proportionally,
so, you know, Red River Valley's land is five acres. Resco's 15 acres. So if you're doing it proportionally, they would be assessed, like, 50,000 However, an access is an access, and, there's a good chance that access is still gonna cost $212,000 So we don't really have clarity on that yet. But Red River Valley is committed to paying what their share was intended to be from the get go with all of this. Is there before I move on, I've got a little more to talk about with you,
but I just wanna make sure all this is we're tracking all of this thus far from what's changed specifically what's changed from the first meeting to now. And, Pete, maybe now is a good time just to take some questions from counsel if we have them regarding this element of the change. Yes. And then obviously, Andrew and Don are up here right now to answer questions about the project itself, we'll say, and Katie can answer some other questions on the legal side, specifically as it talks to talking about the reduction of potentially property taxes for the
landowners in between here. Okay. I guess, out of naivete, what happens if the county deems that there needs to be a turn lane on County Road 18? I don't know. Well, isn't that Yep. Kind of the same Well, there's different I I can't speak to how their processes work. They I know they have a different set funding mechanism streams than what us or the City Of Moorhead would have, whether it be bridge funds or whatever that may look like. But I can't really speak to like would they be on the hook for a
future turning lane at that location or if that's something that the county would be putting in on their own. From and maybe, Resco could speak to that or have some clarity on, but from my understanding is that at this point, there would not be any anticipated additional expenses that would go along with them accessing that roadway. Julie? Can I just follow-up to that did the county approve the access off the highway? They have spoken to them according to Resco, that they have spoken to them and have the thumbs up to do this.
I've and I've you know, full disclosure, I've shared this with them too. I was a little surprised at that, because normally for a in between, say, in two major roadways, like a 34th and County Road 9, you only normally see maybe one access point in between there. So I thought that was again, what do I know? I don't don't deal with access agreements or anything like that. I just presumed it would not, be permitted at that location. But, according to them, they do have the go ahead from them to do that. Alright. Well, with that, Ben, if you wanna proceed, we'll Yeah.
Thank you. This question came up at the last meeting when we were again, I can go back into the annexation progress or process if we need to. Just briefly, we would initiate the 04/29 or we're part of the 04/29 process. Next meeting would be the improvement hearing. At that time, we'd be notifying everybody, assuming we green light an improvement with Andrew to begin design, at that point, we'd be begin the initiation of or begin the initiation process of annexation,
which really just requires the adoption of a resolution, pretty simple process. However, one of the questions that did come up at the last meeting was, are we able to tax, in essence, a different rate for the landowners in between that are not, one, requesting annexation at this time. And we'll not be seeing any improvements on the property other than us running a water line through there for the time being. It's not like the rest of the Energy Park would be developed as part of this process right here.
And so there is a mechanism to do that. And I think I put some of the verbiage in there what Katie had shared with me on how that can be done. It's something the city of Morehead does do on some of their land outside. And I don't know if, Katie, if you would like if you wouldn't mind switching sweets from one of you, maybe explaining how that process looks and what it all takes to accomplish that. Sure. Good evening. Thanks, Peyton. Yeah. It's a it's a pretty relatively straightforward process.
You can delineate between rural service districts in your city. And as Peyton has on the screen, the property that's within the district is undeveloped rule, unplatted properties, and then you can set whatever, tax rate property tax rate that you want for the city, at a at a lesser amount. So like Peyton said, Morehead does it with some of their property and their ratio is 55.3 to a 100%. They wanna make it closer to that that township rate just because there aren't services that are available to those properties. So this is certainly an option for the city if you wanna do it.
You have to adopt an ordinance. There's just a public hearing process. It's pretty straightforward. It can work in conjunction with your annexation, the date, for the cutoff for annexation as well as this is August 1. So if you annex in after August 1, the township next year would have the taxing authority and then the city would be the following year. You would do this you could do it in conjunction with that. And so then your timing would be the same the following year in 2027. So a few things to consider as part of this. Obviously, it's within your right to do this.
I I put a few notes there right at the very end that you can maybe set it up to where it goes on indefinitely or until the property is developed. Yes, or maybe it's maybe you do it for three years or whatever. You could have some sort of a sunset clause in there. We do have other land though currently within the city of Dilworth that is, we'll say, undeveloped land, some that is unplatted land as well that this is not currently done for. So just keep that in mind too as part of this. Yeah. You can certainly,
in your ordinance, designate other properties in the city. If if there was a desire to do that, you could do the annex properties as well as any others that you thought were worthy of that designation. Katie, a question for you. With this rural service district, I mean, as far as figuring out the math and this, you could, in theory, use the debt service of the city as a part of it. Plus, you could, if we could serve them with public safety, you could use that as a part of this levy too. Yep. You absolutely could. Yep. You can use your percentage, and then most of the time, it is is this debt service or any sort of, like, specials that are outstanding that you can add on. Okay. Thank you.
I think we pretty much covered all this last time. We can go over any additional information as necessary there. Again, we're estimating that this would bring in about $90,000 a year in property tax revenue, assuming you don't do the reduction there. But that's and that's what we were Talking about last time as being part of the funding stream for this, whether you apply that just towards the water project, whether you apply that towards the road. That's why we're just looking as one collective $2,000,000
now $2,200,000 project. And so from here, where do we go? As mentioned, there's a resolution that the City Council has this evening that it can consider That would call for the improvement hearing, which is just a public hearing that we would do where we notify all affected property owners. And, from there, you would call for the improvement, which means call for Andrew to do the design on it. We'd get it bid out during the wintertime. And then concurrently, as part of all this, there's some easements where we'd be doing the annexation process.
But easements that have to be collected as well, I've already been in contact with SRF as far as collecting those and how that process would unfold too. So that can oftentimes be a multi month process. You never know what can get held up in that regard, especially if you have individuals that are not in favor of the annexation and or granting a utility easement through there. So with that said, I know it's a lot of information. We're happy. Any of us are happy to go over anything or try and answer any questions.
Again, sort of a wrench that was thrown into it here last minute. I don't know if even if you move forward with, tonight or you may feel there's too much uncertainty to move forward with it altogether, that even if you move forward with it tonight and there's some other things that you want us to go back and have discussions about with Resco or the Red River Valley Co op team in between now and the improvement hearing, I think I don't think that's certain I don't think that really impacts anything. You could again, you could still squash the project here a month from now.
So it's just really your comfort level, where you feel today with this project. If you feel like we're in an okay place to take that next step or feel like there's, you know, too much uncertainty, we can go back to the drawing board or mix it all together. And again, we also have representatives here from Red River Valley, who have been the RESCO team, to answer any questions that you may have of them or any other clarity they can provide about these projects. All right. Julie, go ahead, please. Just a quick question. Are the costs we're working with SRF already in here too?
No. Oh, yes. Actually, they are. That was incorporated within Andrew's numbers. Okay. Yep. Under the contingencies or yes. It's in there. So so, Peyton, ultimately, two elements that we're working with. One is the road maintenance agreement. Can I have that number back up on the screen again, please? And again, not related to but somewhat related to. So right now, with our maintenance agreement with the City of Moorhead, our current balance is $848,000 Rough numbers. And then starting next year, that agreement,
if we do nothing, it's $875,000 So in approximately, what, six years, we owe $1,000,000 for that road. And we I mean, ultimately, if we want to start managing our debt and start growing an industrial park, right, we have to address that in order to I mean, if we want to make it attractive, I mean, this is like I would consider this we can't avoid this step. This is part of the process. Don, am I am I measuring this correctly? Mayor and council, yeah, I I think you are because, you know, obviously, this is still there.
This is an obligation, financial obligation to see that's there. And if this whole thing comes apart and the development takes place up there, the valuation goes up there, we don't capture any of that tax valuation. We don't have really any kind of a road map moving forward with the development of that property. This debt still sits there. It has to be addressed at some point. And Morehead has has, been very willing to work with us on terms for this debt and getting it paid off. So even though it's not what I talked to you about at the last council
meeting, it's still an opportunity to move forward with the development of this property and addressing that line. And maybe a question too for Katie. Katie, as we look at development of this, say we develop an industrial park out there, we put road systems in, we put lots, whether we do it through purchasing the property or work with the developer to do it, we can take this money, I mean the cost, I don't know if we do it per per square foot basis or whatever, come up with the unit charge. We can charge this cost back on those lots in there that are going to access 34th. Is that correct?
Yeah. You can include those in your specials. Thank you. So with that, I mean, we can have the access to 34th Street conversation separate from the improvement hearing and look at, okay, how do we what's the next step that we have to take in terms of providing the service? Yes, very quick. Yes. So I guess just to make sure that maybe we have to take one issue at a time and try to get to some resolution because we can look at the 34th agreement and that part we can look at that as we progress down the road and still address that.
But the most pressing issue is the infrastructure piece. Am I correct in that? You are correct in that. That's very time sensitive. The other thing too that this would allow us to do, I mean, if if you say if and and, you know, obviously as your prerogative. If you say no tonight to everything, then we end that conversation. The debt continues to mount at least on the 34th Street access. That's there. That's real. That's what that is. If we call for the hearing, we have time too to also work on the 34th matter and also have continue maybe some more dialogue with Morehead and trying to extend the data out or something
like that or to see work to see how it would fit in and maybe hopefully, have more answers for you when we come to actually having the hearing. Peyton? Yeah. Yes. And along those lines, even if we decide not to do the improvement, I e, the waterline extend waterline extension up to their land, this debt, as we've been talking about, is going to continue to be out there. It may still be worth visiting with Morehead on what can we do to start
getting a handle on it and start working in over the course of time. Maybe we're not doing the full $18.09 or whatever it may be. That's just something we'd have to talk with them, in discussions about. So maybe it's $10,000 a year, then it becomes 20 and so forth and just in a different format there. So we're not that would accrue over time, obviously, but I do think that's something we need to address to to start putting a pause on that $25,000 Okay. But so can we just put a pause on that for now and then focus on the resolution for and address the engineering report as to whether or not we
want to go and or how we want to proceed with the infrastructure? I mean, is that a logical, progression, Julie? Well, again, I I don't know that I wanna separate them. And I know you know I have some anxiety about this from the last meeting. But, I mean, this is, like, an additional $245,000 coming back or 260,000 coming back on us to do this. And we're talking about a huge annexation to even make it, I I'm wondering if we're at a point where it's a bridge too far.
I mean, it's a lot to put on the rest of the city to do for something that can be done from a different way with I mean, we don't have to run the waterline. We could eventually get it out there. But, when we I mean, tying it back to the discussion we had with Moorhead on this and the reason we paid up through fifteenth is because that was within what we envision the city growing. I mean, this is way beyond our city. This is way out beyond what we've annexed before. I just feel like, you know,
until we figure out a way that we can actually recoup that money because that was not improvements that we had asked for, but the city of Moorhead did, I'd almost like to see more conversation with the city of Moorhead, especially now this number of years down the road, what the likelihood of all paying that back is and, you know, when if the road is already gonna be under construction again, whether we're gonna owe for that backwards at that time. I don't know what the legal ramifications are for that if nothing else builds in
between. So that's all that 34th Street conversation, though. Right? It's part of it, but I don't wanna necessarily take it apart from running a water line. I don't wanna annex this if it's gonna be that much of an additional burden on the city. So last time we were here, we talked about the buy in from them. We agreed to do that, and then now we already see back out on this. There's no guarantee. I don't know. I just with the additional cost for the the pipe and going up, I just don't see it being a viable project for us.
Okay. Well, and the pipe was our recommendation, right? I mean, because we asked about the oversizing of the pipe to make sure we had greater infrastructure, right, so we could have that. Am I remembering that correctly? That was one of my questions. Why why did the main size increase? The, I had a discussion with the one of the design team for the Resco site about the fire flows. They've got a fire suppression system, built out for their building. And as we talked about, what the pressures and the flows would be, the 10 inches line was very borderline at that point.
And so we made the decision to bump yeah, to bump to a 12 inches because the pressure loss for that long distance is much less, and it provides the flow that that they're requesting. And so that was that was the determining factor there. So then again, so I still remember the stale water conversation, which never occurred to me as I was sitting in the pipes before, but you learn a little something from your engineers. So when when I look at this, and I'm trying to figure out there's a lot of questions that I still have
to with regarding the agreement, but there's also like, if the thought process is that, there's no additional cost to access off of the county road, if they don't have to pay for the culvert, if they don't have to pay for the road, if I'm I'm assuming the county is gonna like, but that's how that's outside of my lane. Like, I that that's a conversation that I'm gonna assume that they have, that, Resco has had, and and they've done the math. When I when I look at it too, I was like, it is further than we initially anticipated,
but I also didn't anticipate a business of this magnitude willing to come to Dilworth, and I don't know if anybody did. And I am for the project if we can figure out a sensible way to make the project work, find a way to make the dollars make sense because of the investment in the long term. And I'm not ready to say I don't want to do this because what does it mean? Is it 10% increase in the project cost from what we said here last? Rough numbers. I'm a social studies teacher, so rough numbers. And I get it. Like, I really get it and I understand it.
And I also have the number of our I have the numbers in my head and, like, what we're looking at investing and the cost to all of Dilworth, but how if there's ways that we can do this in terms of investment in the infrastructure. I don't know what the rest of the council thinks. Kevin? Andrew, didn't you tell us that it's 10 inches run out to Aldi? I'm gonna make you go back and forth a couple of times. You can grab a chair and take the slide on. I'm gonna draw a Yeah. We just move. I'm gonna draw a very good little sketch here. It is 10 inch. And someone is gonna increase it at 15.
Let me get my all of them. Can I see? Do we need to get the overhead projector? Just above. I love it. I see what you did there. While we're getting the artist rendering like, the other element that's coming to my mind, too, is I don't think the city of Mora is going to sit on $850,000 and say, oh, you don't have to pay that back. I mean, we have an agreement, and we signed it. So I don't know that revisiting is gonna get us anywhere. I'm all in favor of having the conversation, in the event that they do. I just don't anticipate that that's gonna I mean, that's I mean, we signed an agreement that we would pay x amount of dollars and set that
forth. And I don't know I don't know how or why would Moorhead renegotiate. I mean, I think we'd ask the question. It doesn't hurt to ask the question. I'm sorry. Barely passed art in elementary school, so bear with me here. But okay. North North is up here. At the intersection, this would be, 8th Avenue North and 34th Street. There there are 10 inches lines in that in that intersection. There is a chunk that goes past the ALDI lot itself that's 10, and then we would hook on to that. So the the concern that I have isn't
this 10 inch line. Yes. There is, there is some pressure loss through that. But compared to the 61, 6,200 feet, this little chunk is not going to drastically impact the rest of that line. In the future, and this is what we were talking a little bit about, whether it's at, 15th Avenue or something, there will be future loops that will help support areas between this Aldi area all the way to the north. But in the interim, it's just gonna be this one long leg to the north, and and so that's where What's south of that?
South south of this would be Walmart. Of the pipe size? I it's it's 10 inch along 34th Street. All the way to to Down to, I believe, down to the, the pump house there at the at the corner of well, on the north side of the, the fuel station, North of Highway 10. Okay. The the point is that it's looped at 8th Avenue to the south, but it would not be looped to the north of there. Going north. Yep. Yep. Okay. Alright. I'm done with the pipe question. Do you have others? Alright. I do.
The rural service district or are we Yeah. We can't we are moving Well, we gotta start having our conversations. Yeah. Rural service district. Christy said we can set that at whatever amount, which it's nice to have that flexibility. Right? That's a nice a good tool to have in the toolbox. However, I think you mentioned, Peyton, that we there there are currently areas inside city limits that may classify as a rural service district. Is that accurate? Well, I'm saying the undeveloped
Underdeveloped. Or unplatted land. Right? So, yeah, everything, obviously, in the North Park, Future Park, all that area that's farm, the Northeast Corner, you know, that we recently annexed Rick and Steve's land. Mhmm. There's also another parcel on the East Side of 7th Street, that big, homestead right there. It's undeveloped right now or unplatted. Sorry. And it do we have any, is that is all of that land taxed as if it were proper? Correct. Without, yeah, any of this on there. Okay. Is that a normal rate? And so, really, to hold steady to that,
that other chunk should be well, I I don't wanna say should be, but if we were going to be consistent, that would also be taxed at that rate. Or if we give them a break, is everyone else gonna come and say, what about me? I will guarantee you a few of them will. I I I think you're right. I would. I would. I would. Yeah. Mayor mayor council, maybe maybe what are the what are the number implications? Well, I may address your question a little bit just from the standpoint of application of policy. Now if we're looking at more near term development being South Of 15th,
what you would do is you wouldn't apply this policy South Of 15th. You'd apply it north of there because this is beyond what you had thought would be near term development and all the planning that we've done. So in order to extend out to an area that's urbanizing, the reason it's urbanizing is because of economics, which typically drive everything. Right. And and we're trying to address that and probably further urbanization up in that area because that land will be actively marketed. Right. Melissa wants to speak to that or not.
But you could, I think, justify application of policy North Of 15th just for that area. That makes sense to me. I have one more when you're ready. Absolutely. Go ahead. Thank you. Road agreements with interest, is this the only one that we have, or do we does the city have other instances like this with interest? And does this $25,000 annually, does it ever sunset, or does it go into perpetuity? Julie? It does sunset. In essence, there's a contract that sunsets. Right?
So then it just depends on what happens at the end of that. So the contract can be extended, but Do you know when that is? Twenty five years is our initial contract. Okay. Pull it up. It was in our Like, how how far out are we or how much more of this? Nineteen. Okay. It's a relatively recent Yeah. I and so I mean, different parts of it again. And the way we wrote it was because, again, we didn't anticipate leaping over 15th Avenue. Right? But, it's written, again,
with discussion of how we would repay it back because of that uncertainty of the road, the payments, the development. And so that's why we talk about having an open conversation with Moorhead about it because Yeah. And it's a great I mean, it is. It's a a really good agreement. Like, I Yeah. Like, when you look at it, I mean, where else I mean, it's, what, 3% interest or whatever the case may be. That's that's a great deal. I mean and, again, it provides a lot of cooperation and intergovernmental interaction between departments and policymakers.
So again, I applaud the agreement. But and you can't we can't foresee everything. And so when it was put together, it's given us an opportunity. Here we are, and now it's just a matter of, okay, do we address that now when we have an opportunity to maximize some of the potential with businesses willing to come into Dilworth? Or do we wait? Because again, we have an agreement where we have agreed to pay a number, and we still have that obligation even in twenty five years after the contract would end.
And so the agreement was 2019. How old is the is that part of the road? Was that redone in 2019? That that was just when we we came up with the payment plan. So that road The road is 2012? I think it's 2005. '5? Because they're sort of coming up on thirty years on the road. Correct? Twenty years. Twenty years on your twenty years on the road. Yeah. And when we were doing this, yeah, our main focus was up to 15th Avenue for obvious reasons. We were working with ALDI at the time or post to ALDI and trying to get it all addressed,
more so just punting on everything else, not knowing when it would come back. Well, at that time, the uncertainties are great. But now the reality is it's sitting in front of us. And how do we want to proceed is the question. And again, so we have two topics of conversation. And, yes, they are intertwined. There's no there's no doubt about that one. But I I I don't know. Listen, I'm interested in the project and then how do we revisit 34th Street, and then we look at at the contract and figure out how to do that because if we're serious about an opportunity of growth and the development of an industrial
park or an industrial area, we have to also balance that out with making sure it's attractive so we can bring in the next step, grow the next step and help facilitate the growth of those revenues to minimize some of those financial impacts that the city is going to take on. Julie? So in my concern with not dividing the two topics is because if we don't have a mechanism in place to kind of recoup that road cost in advance of how we do this. Like,
I feel like we're putting one step in front of the other too quick is what I'm saying. Like, if we don't have a way to recoup that cost and we haven't established that But the 34th Street agreement is between us and Moorhead. Correct? And it doesn't say anything about how we it doesn't what I'm saying. But so that's uneven that's another conversation altogether. Because we can't address the 34th Street agreement, or we can't amend that to allow us to work with, you know, with with business coming into Dilworth. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that we should have a plan for how we would work with that
cost with the land before we do any annexing and everything. So how do we tax the businesses to pay for 34th Street? Anyone that would wanna develop the land North Of 15th. Right. Well, the how do we how do we assess the developers, potential developers, the ones that are sitting here tonight and any future for that. Right. Yeah. And that's kind of the conversation we had in in in terms of how do we look at this, and that's where the access agreements come from. But if they're not having access,
I don't know like, we have to determine how we're able to do that. I think that's that's a question I think for like, we have to have that conversation moving forward in at the same like, how do we because it's we we can't assess for the road that's hard to be built because it's been built. Right? So what's the mechanism that we could use? Is it a developer's agreement with potential developers? And we have time to figure that out as well, don't we? Because we're looking at the numbers and looking at the having the engineering done. Because just because we have the engineering report done doesn't mean we have to do
the project, right? Well, I think what's be I'm sorry. Go ahead. So I think what's before us tonight is that we are asking for the improvements to be done. So unless we know what our agreement or what we would need or or asking of developers because we can't charge an access fee. That's Moorhead that's come up with this access fee because it's not our road. But the burden is on our residents to pick up that piece. And so whether it's part of it or what, you know,
what piece we decide, because we hadn't thought about what we were gonna do beyond fifteenth because we weren't there. But now I feel like we need to do that before we get into any agreements about providing water to some place before we know that they would agree to those terms. K. So and again, just and I and I well, I well, I'm making sure I wanna make sure that I'm following this, but because the access fee is that we agreed to that when he did Aldi. Right? Because that's where that all stems from. Aldi agreed to an access fee.
Access fee. But that's that's how we recouped that portion of the road. We didn't recoup it. Well, we didn't recoup anything. That's how we paid the access fee tomorrow. No. They paid them. They paid them directly? Mhmm. Because I was also wondering when I asked this question earlier too, is about our other what do we have for financial opportunities or resources that we can use like we did in Aldi? Yes. We gave them Board of State Tech. It was an indirect. Right. And so, I mean, so looking at that, and again, I want to look at it in terms of how what are our options of
making it work and how does this look. So I I don't think that we're disagreeing. I think it's just a matter of, like, am I realistic in the timeline or when we can do this? Because we're asking for a public hearing on on the engineering to do the utility. Right? And we can so we can have the public hearing. We have to have, what, three weeks to, publicize that and get all the information out. So we have an additional three weeks to a month before we'd have that hearing in which we could start answering some of these additional questions. Mayor and council, they have a specific timeline for construction and as we do as well for getting
the water into the ground next spring. Now we start missing weeks or time. You know, obviously, that impacts that. I think too, calling for hearing at least allows us more time to maybe address your questions, as far as the other aspect of it. Otherwise, if we stop now, we just start to push weeks into the future, and and, we maybe lose an opportunity. Julie? I'm gonna say, though, for the $848,000 plus the part of the project that's on the citizen,
I think it's worth doing it right versus doing it because someone needs something done in a certain timeline. Yeah. We don't That's a big ask on our citizens to not do it right. Wholeheartedly agree. We don't need to rush into a bad decision. Like, 100% agree. Then again, within a month, like, we should be able to get a lot of certainty and a lot of questions resolved. Don DeJotte? Dave, sorry. Mr. Saiken, do you have a question before I go back to Payne? No, I wasn't obviously part of the discussions with thirty fourth Street access and all that.
What was the so I'm just trying to play catch up a little bit. Is the, the payment to Moorhead, the access fee on whoever does something on 34th, was that supposed to be taken that cost that Moorhead is owed? Are are we or are we is that supposed to happen as access comes along? Or are we have we should have been all the time, have we not been paying because there's no access, or should we have been paying something the whole time along?
Because in a few weeks, it's gonna be a million dollars. I mean, was intent only to pay Morehead when they got access? Yes and no. And let me explain. So with that land the reason why we were doing the 15th up to 15th Avenue as council member Nash was alluding to, we felt that was more imminent development. So even in the contract, if I remember correctly, there it lays out a repayment schedule just for that segment up to 15th Avenue, which we just cut one lump sum check, got it over with. That was the end of it.
With this other land being outside the city limits, we didn't feel like that and no imminent development. We did not feel there was any need to begin paying said cost. We could have, at the time, said, hey. Let's, at a minimum, just pay the interest cost on it on an annual basis just so it doesn't keep, you know, getting higher and higher. You know, you're gonna be paying that cost regardless, one way or the other. So how it's intended right now is just as development comes about and whoever pays or accesses the road,
they would be responsible for that cost at that time. And I do wanna clarify, that because I don't wanna get the terms confused when we're saying assessment versus paying an access fee. I don't think we can't go back and assess for that. That's an improvement done twenty years ago. You can't go retroactively doing assessment hearing and, go through all that. The only thing that we would be able to maybe recoup if the council wanted to is an access fee at that time,
saying it was all, say, we annexed that entire land there. And, sort of and and kinda transitioning the point I was going to make into kind of Julie's point there. In going through discussions with the City of Moorhead and the developers of this land, I think there's an understanding on Moorhead's side that, yeah, we're all shocked that we're even having this conversation in 2025 as opposed to 2050. And if there is a need to and they even know. There it's not real there's nothing really painted in our contract right now about how
this is repaid or structured or anything. But given that there's not an anticipation that this will be developed anytime soon, aside from their land up there, that's why they feel, we can be flexible in how we pay that back. So would that month between now and then give us an opportunity for me to work with them and say, hey. Would you be cool with this type of a repayment structure if we went that way? It's still at length and date. It's your prerogative,
though, if you want to recoup those calls. Once that goes away, though, we would control the access if you did wanna re get those capture those calls at a later time. You're not under no obligation to do that at that point once Moorhead is made whole. Yes. And a follow-up on that. Let's say if the Moorhead was paid off in full or partial tomorrow, if when access does be requested along there, are we I mean, are we being smart by letting us build and build and build the cost? Or should we be working at whittling it down?
Just that's one little thing. But if say it was paid off, when there is when access does be requested beyond there, would that money come to us instead of, like, Aldi paying it directly to Moorhead? If it's annexed in, that's my viewpoint on it. That's probably more of a it's a wacky situation. We understand that, right? This road is not in the city limits of Dilworth, and that's what complicates the matters. I do feel that if it were annexed into the city limits, that would give us more control,
make it more subject to how, like, our Road Maintenance Agreement works with us controlling the Northbound Lane. So let's say there was some kind of an improvement that took place on down the road. I think the City of Moorhead would be directly dealing with us at that time and not necessarily every individual property owner because they can't assess to those, properties. It would just be a road sharing agreement that we have. How we recapture those costs at that time would be, you know, within our prerogative. It's not within the city limits.
And in a few years, we do a mill and overlay project, which we're slated to do. I still I think that's just gonna be tacked on at that point to the existing agreement then. So in an ideal world, right, we would just snap our fingers. We have all this money. We could annex in all the land, bring in certain water right away, and move forward. But then unfortunately, that's not how it works. And then we have these other lingering obligations coming up, whether it be the community center project or whatever it may be. There's other things to consider as part of this.
And there's not a great I don't know if there's a right or wrong answer to it. Yeah. Okay. Andrew, how how intimate is your knowledge of that stretch of road? Not very intimate. I mean, if if if we're if we're going to pay for a twenty year old road upfront, I guess, I would you know, you'd like to know if it's a lemon or not. Right? So I I think that's a fair question. We need to find out, like, are there major repairs that need to be done? Is it just maintenance? Is it mill and overlay?
And you said there's a mill and overlay slated to happen out there. Yeah. We do have one slated with them. I can't remember what I put in the report. Next three years of let's say two or three years. And I think we're naive to think that they're just going to do that out of the kindness of their own. The only good thing about and what's really cool about our agreement that we have and they're very generous about is that all MSA, Municipal State Aid Funds, you know, we applied for other grants with the City of Morehead. That's all being applied towards it.
So for us to do this mill and overlay from really starts at Ditch 50 and goes all the way to the north, it's not that huge of a price tag, all things considered, because we're applying so many federal dollars and state aid dollars towards the roadway. That's part of the agreement. So we got off really well there. And so, I mean, I guess, where my head's at is, like, if if we owe roughly $8.50 and there's still $475,000 in interest hanging out there, I mean, it's 1.325
to buy the road, right, at the end of the day if we let it sunset? Oh, over the course of time. That's what you mean. Yeah. Is that crazy? Right? Is that math track? Mhmm. I guess so. I'm inclined to find out. We can get a mile of road for 850 k, and that's I haven't seen anything at that price point in the five years I've been on. My my last question, I guess, is which business needs the the 12 inch pipe? Is it the southern business or the northern?
The northern. The northern one does. So is it is it unreasonable to ask them to pick up the $45,000 in in excess cost from what the preliminary pipe cost was? That's something we can ask them. It's a valid question at least to ask. I agree. I'm good. I'm just gonna add one more thing if I could. So I honestly have a hard time, like, assessing all that cost that Morid's putting on us back to area that would be developed in the future, especially if another mill Millon overlay is coming. And I think this is where I get hung up with the cost to the
citizens because I think we're gonna eat it. So to get that water line up there, we're eating the entire cost of that road that could have been you know, that we were anticipating doing step by step by step all the way up. So that's where I feel like this is that entire cost is on us as a city just to get the water line up there. And that's where my anxiety over the project is. Because it's on the north corner. Yeah. And but that the the the waterline kicks in the thirty fourth agreement.
Right? And and that's, again, where even, like, where the other 800,000 comes in. Right? I mean, so I guess wouldn't have paid otherwise. That may have I mean, I'm gonna be completely transparent. Like, the fact that we're having this conversation really highlights the fact that we need to address that 34th Street agreement. Because without this conversation, someone comes in in five years, and it's 1,200,000 for access. And and that's that's significant. And so when I'm looking at how how do we do this infrastructure project,
I I like the idea of, like I said, of of the project. I want to call for that public hearing so we can take that next step, and we can answer those questions along the way. I mean, I I think there's I think there's conversations to be had with with Moorhead. I also think there's some questions and conversations we should have with the business owners, in terms of just all of the nuances to make sure that we're moving together in a way that's going to be productive. I asked like I said, I made reference to ALDI and some border city tax credits.
I don't know if that qualifies in this instance. We've talked about some of the limitations at our last planning commission meeting because we just did that certification, and there are some limitations for, specific types of I don't think this works. But I do think that we should look at some other opportunities in terms of because we're talking about not just the $200,000 increase, but we're talking about a significant increase for the utilities and for 34th Street. And I'll look at I mean, just another simple step. It's like what do we have coming off of our books in terms of payments
for infrastructure, what street projects are coming off and rather than are we not in that area and can we allocate those and just explore those options just to look and see what we have. And maybe in the short term, maybe three years out or four years out, that might help along the way. So when we're talking about those finances over and having the conversations over the next month, I think every stone should be unturned to see how we look at funding this. That's my perspective. And then we can make some adjustments from there. Back to the 34th Street conversation, 18 by 18 by 18 for we do that every single year.
I mean, what's that number up to in the eighth year? Is that 96,000 at the end of it? No. What is it? Like so as we go through and so at the last year of the payment, where are we at and what's that number? Give me give me one second here. Thank you. 18541899. 162. I think I was trying to spreadsheet that out. So this is just an example. And I'd set this one I'd set this one up as $20,000 a year. I did say $1.62
just so we get that right in the in the minutes, Jess. Like, I was just social studies teacher math. Year eight. I mean, so that that takes care of it. Right? And, you know, within a decade, then we've satisfied our our initial financial agreement with Morad. I think that's important, and that doesn't No. That that's not collecting the original dollar amount. The dollar amount now is closer to you have to add $212,000 to it now. Right. That's why that's why I broke this out to go to year nine now to
be to that point. And then we have the other piece as well. The other piece. The the other 200 or the other yes. I'm with you. K. Yeah. That's where we are today. Right. And by the end of this week, that number is gonna be $875,000 and this gives us $900,000 total in that account by year nine. It's a half percent of you. Every single year. Yeah. I mean, that's, today's rate, but or today's Right. Those are the dollars I know. Alright,
Crystal. It's why we knocked on doors. Peyton, Don, what are we missing? I'd like to ask Andrew a question, Mayor. What does it cost to build a mile of a road now, commercial section? It's it's a lot more than the numbers that mister Peterson was mulling over. We just did is only one lane. But Yeah. I I think that's pertinent in the conversation. Yeah. I think 1,500,000 is not out of the question. And Payton, so you helped craft that agreement. Again. So as they as I mean, and but at the same time because I
mean, because I look at that number and I think, okay, so what's next? And again, good stewards and good neighbors, I mean, we have an agreement. I fully expect that we stand behind what we sign and what we put our name to. And I don't see that going away when they do the mill and overlay. And I think this does give us a little bit more of control, if you will, or more actionable steps, I think. If we do own if it is in the City Of Dilworth, we do have a little bit more play. I mean, that's the whole annexation process and everything like that. Yes. I want to see where it takes us.
Julie? And to be clear, I'm not saying not to be good neighbors to Moorhead. I'm saying we needed to take a step back to figure out because this is a huge ask we're asking of our residents to run a water line because we're not gonna recoup it. We may never recoup it. So that's what I was asking. I'm not saying don't be, not to No. Absolutely. Deal with the terms of the contract we did because we worked really hard on that contract. I remember. I remember. Yeah. And I I think it's a it is a great agreement. It really and truly is.
We didn't anticipate being that this far out this that far out this quickly. But that's that's the reality. And and now it's like I said, for me, it's an opportunity. We just need to make sure that we're responsible on how we approach that responsibility. And and looking at options and looking at funding mechanisms, I think, is gonna be key. But I do think the next step in receiving the preliminary engineering report and moving that forward is the next logical step. It doesn't mean that we have to green light the project, but it does mean that we're gonna start to look at answering some of those
questions and entering into some agreements along the way that could help make sure we don't rush into a bad decision. And that funding mechanism has got to be key. Peyton? Again, just to reiterate, Brett, even if this project fails tonight or in December, we'll still have the conversation with the City of Moorhead about the current setup that we have. And again, up to $20,000 a year, that was just a number. You know, it can be much less than that potentially. You know,
I don't think they're in a knowing that we're making an effort towards it, I think that's the most important thing on their end. If we were to renegotiate, I guess you could say. There's nothing really negotiated right now at 15th Avenue North. It's just we punted on it for the time being. No understanding of that. Any other questions or comments from counsel? What what is the cost to do the preliminary engineering report? Because I'm curious how much that cost. That's a good question. I don't know if Andrew you can so let's say this project dies or doesn't
die. You go through with it all that you get wrapped into the special assessments that we would be doing on this, that we'd be doing to all the landowners. But if we pull the plug on it, kinda like how we did on 8th Avenue recently, we still had to pay more engineering for the work they did. Do you have any idea what that looks like right now? The preliminary engineering reports, depending on the complexity, will range from less than 10,000 to a little more than 15,000. This one's on the simpler side of things. So we're gonna be on the lower end of that spectrum.
But it depends on the complexity and and the number of variables and the complexity of the project. And and sometimes it depends on the the how elaborate the special assessments get to be because that can be a pretty big component of that that work. So it's sorry. It's not a black and white answer, but that's kind of what goes into it. No. Rough estimate is what I was wondering. So So so you had that investment into this regardless right now. Right. Mhmm. And it is ours. I mean, we'll have that information on file forever. I mean, so as if if it doesn't proceed any further or whatever,
we still have that information in the future. The the city will, in order to have, you know, a frame of reference in the future. Any other questions? I mean, receiving and filing is one thing, but then we also have to call for the next step. It's all handled within the resolution that you'd be adopting there. And that calls for the public hearing December 8 or whatever that Monday is. So that does give us a month to to finalize and answer some questions. Notices out and everything. Yep. Won't be all that many, though. Right? It's not many notices. No. And how the statute reads,
we have to give them at least their ten day notice, but we have to do two hearings or two notices in the newspaper at least a week apart. A minimum of ten days has to be before the last one goes out, I think. Any other questions from counsel? All right. Let's, you know what? I will entertain a motion for Resolution 2,554, receiving a filing, calling for the public hearing and moving this to our next step. I'll make the motion. A motion by Peterson. Steichen second. Second by Steichen. All those in favor, say aye.
Aye. Opposed? Aye. Motion carries. With that, again, thank you, counsel, for the great conversation. I anticipate that we will have much more. And please, if you have questions about this, make sure Don and Peyton get them quickly, so we can start making sure we're making asking all the questions to make a wise move as we're going forward. So, please continue the conversation. I think it was a good one to keep us moving. Again, thank you for coming this evening. Appreciate it. Gentlemen, thank you. So with that, it does move us to seven alpha.
We have resolution 2,565, the conversation of the joint Red River Regional Dispatch Center, the resolution of the cities of Glendon, Holly, Barnesville, and Dilworth. Peyton, are you taking this one? I am. Now you're members of the council about, well, the aforementioned previously mentioned meeting, that same meeting that night. We talked about a the discussion that's been ongoing amongst all the rural cities in Clay County and as it pertains to the current dispatch agreement that we have on
file with them. And the resolution that's before you tonight, makes note of what we feel are inequities within the contract itself, specifically that we're paying operational costs that these that the four cities also are paying for with their property taxes or to their county taxes, which is the same fee that's assessed to those people to the individuals outside of the city limits. So we're still paying the same fee, getting the same service.
However, we're being charged in addition to that to cover additional operational expenses. And in addition to that, there so it's broken down into operational expenses and then the CAD RMS, services, which is basically just the the computer system and network for our officers to utilize there. So this agreement or this resolution that you have before you will we we would still fulfill the obligations of our current contract, which will last for one more year through 2026,
at which we are gonna be charged a little over a $100,000 for next year. About $81,000 of that is for these operational expenses that I was talking about. And it's more it's just a statement more than anything else by all the jurisdictions that, hey, we would like to get this dwindled down for our next contract, reducing the number by $75.5 and to 25% in year three. And then by year four, which would be hopefully a new which would be a new contract at that time,
starting in 2030, that there would be no operational expenses that we are paying beyond our property taxes to the county. There would still be the CAT RMS charge on there to us, which we're completely cool with paying. So with that said, we've been in we've been in we've had a dialogue with the county over this, and so that all they're aware this is coming. And, so there will be an accompanying letter that will go along with this joint resolution that all the other jurisdictions are reviewing. I think one's reviewing it tonight.
They're all reviewing it within the next week or two as well. But we'll have an accompanying letter to go along that we would address to the county administrator, and then we present formally present that to them at that time. But there again, we've we've kept an open dialogue and they're understanding that this is coming. Questions from counsel? I wanna thank, Peyton for for putting this together as a conversation that has been ongoing, with the chiefs and the mayors for well over a contract and a half, if not longer. And and ultimately just, just putting a pen to paper. I mean, it it has been great conversations,
from the local municipalities even with even with the county. It it's obviously, there's it's there's some contention there. I mean, you know, looking at how it's it's all done, but it's always been professional. It's always been productive. And now, like, finalizing, the position of the cities and and working with the county, I I we're making progress. I think it's gonna get us where we need to go. Yeah. In the last statement and we talked about this a little bit last time as well. We'll we're continuing to be in support of the county and trying to to find other mechanisms to help fund nine one one services at the state level.
And we have our local team, you know, representative Joy, and I'm some very he's very passionate about as well in trying to see how we bay the counties, not just our county, but all counties across the state, can recoup some of those funds. We've been very appreciative of the county's efforts in advocating for that. Any other questions? Any questions? Alright. So with that, if we're not Hey, no questions, comments, concerns, or considerations, I will entertain a motion for Resolution 20 five-fifty six. So moved. A motion by Nash.
Second. Second by Peterson. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, it does move us to seven bravo, resolution twenty five fifty nine, accepting a donation from the Minnesota Chiefs Association for a community outreach. Chief? Alright, mister mayor, council members. Minnesota Chiefs Association was nice enough to present the Dilworth Police Department a $2,000 donation for our community outreach program. So yeah. So thank you to the Chiefs. And thank you, chief. Any questions for the Chief? That is amazing. That was very nice, yes. Hearing no questions or comments,
I will entertain a motion for our resolution 20 five-fifty nine. Motion to approve. Motion by Nash. Steichen. Second. Second by Steichen. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, chief. Thank you. With that, it does move us to number eight on our agenda. And eight alpha is the consideration of the 2026 utility rates. Peyton, you're starting this one off? Where are we at? I'm actually going to invite Becky and Perry up to lead the discussion on this. Counsel, good evening. We, two major drivers this this year for the 26 rates are,
we had Morehead. I always get confused. MPS, the the water and the sewer. We have an eight and a half percent sewer charge increase from Moorhead, and I think it's a seven and a half I think seven and a half increase on the water itself from Moorhead. And those two rates, the Sewer one, they said they will finalize Moorhead will finalize December 8. So I I'll be sending notes back to the the two individuals asking them, is this your final number? But given that, given that those those are the major drivers.
Just high level, the overall the cost to deliver the service, so the city, the team here, Mike's efforts is is also half or so of the total cost overall of the water. So even though there's an eight and a half percent increase, I'm we're not flow you're not seeing an eight and a half percent increase in the rates because we're holding things fairly constant over on our side. But we're definitely passing on those water and sewer rate increases. And then one other,
mister mayor, we when we met, we forgot a small charge, a clean water fee increase of 46¢ a month, $5.52 a year. We did get an increase in that. That's the state State state element. The tax, whatever. Yes. So so that is also reflected. I baked that in. It's just, again, $5.50 for every everyone. So that said, and and I may not get into the whole multiplier and some of the math on that.
I'm okay with that. If that's that's fine. But it it the the formulas in the spreadsheets, again, that I've inherited work fairly well. I kept the volume fairly consistent with so this is a rate question and a volume question. The two come up with a with a total dollar change for next year. I I kept the volume fairly flat. It's interesting. We seem to be billing more with the BNSF, some of the high the meters that have been put in place, which has been great for folks that recognize where to put those.
And then, at the same time, you know, Becky and her folks are really good at folks. Hey. Your your your toilet seems to be running. Something's going on, and they're notifying them, and that's with this the meter things going on. Mhmm. So As Soon as my meter stopped, Becky called. Right? I'm telling you. It's my job. The meter police are really on this thing. They they watch it. So, so that said, as far as let me just touch base real quickly on infrastructure for we have we've got nothing large coming in.
As far as two years ago, we had the radios, those transmitters. We purchased a $150,000 worth of those. This year for 2025, the big increase was $70,000 of actual the meter itself, the iPIRL. And we're we're we are gonna take delivery of 400 of those before year end for the the year isn't over yet, but those are in the '25 numbers. So for '26, we don't have any and this is so the third year I've done this, we don't have any large any big items like that to pass on,
which is, you know, kudos to the team. It seems like this this the, the purchases are catching you know, we're catching up to date with with what we need. Mhmm. Mike's got a thousand dollar tool I threw in there. That's about it as far as as far as tooling and and and things. So that said, we did these four Peyton's got four, we've got four scenarios of a thousand gallon. Which one is this, Peyton? This is 2,000 gallon. And and this time around, we've as the, as we get get usage a little more, so when we go from 2,000
to 4,000, 6,000, it's actually a little bit of a progressive increase. And that's because I held this multiplier thing constant. So the math works out. This for '26 that the rate the percentage increases go from two to 4.8% for those those, four examples of views. And, again, we're passing on the full the full fare of those two Moorhead rate increases. Alright. Thank you, Greg. Any questions? So just to clarify what you said at the beginning, you said eight and a half percent increase in sewer,
seven and a half Seven and a half water. Water. And they've already given you that? They've given me these. With with the May the sewer one won't be finalized until December 9, I believe, from when Oh, the sewer won't, but the water so that I Water, I believe, is finalized. Okay. And I'm just to clarify, my concern was I had heard that there was a big water increase coming with the one plant coming off line. So okay. And I believe that So that's why I'm here. Is the driver. Again, Becky and I had that conversation. Don't know why. Don't know how. I haven't waded into Yeah. How that does. It's fixed cost,
but it's baked into our number. Yep. Anything else for that? Nope. Just wanna make sure there's no more. Right. Me. Trust me. Me either. Yeah. Any other questions, Peyton? I didn't wanna make, one second. Becky, could you talk about the meters that we have that does give the notifications, like, when when KP was talking about how he got notified if you have running toilet now or anything like that? Like, how amazing of a tool that is that we have? It's wonderful. I thank you so much for approving that a couple of years ago because it's been so instrumental. Like I discussed,
couple years ago, I wouldn't know this was happening until we read a meter or read the meters monthly. So we could go twenty, thirty days without knowing somebody's water, you know, was really run or water was running or something like that. Now in the mornings when we come in, we, open it that program up and it gives us our alerts. And it gives us an actual amount of water that is being used because, of course, we do have some, older residents that don't use a lot of water,
and that'll trip that, you know, hey. A 100 gallons was used. But at least, if nothing else, we get this instant reading and we can look at it and we can see by the hour. If somebody is using water, we can call them and just give them a heads up. Not sure if something's going on, you know, because obviously during the summertime, we have sprinkler systems and so forth. But just yes or just this morning when I came in and looked, I noticed that somebody had been using between one to 200 gallons of water all weekend. Called them up right away,
and within a half hour, forty five minutes, they called back and said they had checked it out and it was a stool that was running. So this is an amazing tool for us, and especially our residents are so thankful that we can monitor this. It's really not that much extra work for us. Angela helps me a lot. Jess helps me a lot, and we just all three kinda work on it and kind of, you know, keep track of where things are at for people. Yeah. And and I might just add that Burlington Northern, I've heard was there's been some big loop or,
you know, go arounds that have been, I think, closed, which is great on on for the cost of those. You know? Yeah. Just nice to see it'll be very interesting to watch how much the auditors look at what is your you purchased x and you build out x. Like, that I think that number has been closing each year, which is a testament to, you know, getting getting those meters where they need to be put. Yes. So we just did a mass for those that don't know, because predated some council members, we just did a master meter for their property as opposed to having individual meters
at however many facilities they have, and we weren't accounting for a lot of lost water, which we knew was the case. We didn't realize how much it was until now we did this master meter. And you close all those loopholes, it it gives you a tighter budget. It gives us more precision when Harry is coming up with the utility rates. Yeah. But, last comment on everything. You know, good job by the, Mike and his team, not or everyone that touches any of this. Again, there's no increases aside from what's being passed on from MPS and from the City
of Morehead. Missus Steichen? Do all the water users have the new meters? No. We are working on that. So as we get, we'll get alerts that say end of life for the register, and so that identifies and we do know that we do have quite a few older meters in the city. Just by the serial number on them, we've been able to identify them. So we're probably I believe when we bought the system and so forth, we were estimating that we are around 500. And I would say we've probably replaced a good 150 to 200.
But as they start to wear down and stop and so forth, that's when we can identify them and switch them out. So this big, amount of meters that we are now we have the budget for and we are purchasing, that'll give us some more, extra meters on hand. And then, I've talked to Mike and so forth, and he's gonna have another maintenance, employee trained on how to switch the meters out because right now, Charlie is the only person that can do that. Lonnie can do it, but, it's programming the radio read and stuff like that that's a little bit trickier.
So but so that's our our goal is to hopefully have two people that we can send out and, you know, start getting more and more taken care of as time goes on. Thank you, Becky. Thank you, Carrie. Any other questions? There are no questions. I will entertain a motion for the proposed 2026 utility rates. So moved. A motion by Nash. Second. Second by Borah. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, moves us to a b. We have a public hearing on resolution twenty five fifty seven,
miscellaneous assessment hearing for unpaid yard mowing invoice at 503 4th Street Northeast With it being 07:27, we'll open our public hearing and start with the staff presentation. Peyton. And just pay your invoices. Anything else from the staff presentation, Peyton? That's all, mister mayor. Alright. Thank you, Peyton. With that, is there anyone here to speak in favor of this resolution? Second call. Anyone here speaking opposition? Anyone online? Second call? Hearing no questions, comments, concerns, or considerations regarding,
this miscellaneous assessment, we'll call this public hearing closed at 07:28 and begin council discussion. Council? Alright. Hearing no council discussion, I will entertain a motion for resolution twenty five fifty seven. Steichen so moved. Motion by Steichen. Second. Second by Peterson. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, it does move us to eight Charlie, public hearing on resolution twenty five fifty eight, miscellaneous assessment hearing on unpaid mowing, invoice at 111 Main Street North.
With it being 07:20 9, we'll call our public hearing to order and begin with staff presentation. Peyton? This is just for an unpaid invoice. Thank you, Peyton. Is that the end of your staff presentation? That is, mister mayor. Alright. Thank you, Peyton. With that, is there anyone here to speak in favor of this miscellaneous assessment? Second call in favor? Anyone here to speak in opposition? Second call, here or online to speak in opposition? Hearing no public comment, we will close the public hearing at 07:29 and begin council discussion.
Any questions or comments from council? Alright. Hearing none, I will entertain a motion for resolution twenty five fifty eight. So moved. A motion by Nash. Second. Second by Borra. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, it does bring us to number nine. Council members' concerns and committee updates around the horn, please. I love going first. Congrats to the Rebels football team making it back to the Twin Cities for the state semifinals this year. That's awesome that they did that. Quick clarification,
just a a high level recap, I guess, on the the failed, referendum. I think it's important to note that the city council can't advocate nor, have the have have a dissenting opinion about which way the school board, should spend their money. So, that being said, yield my time. Thanks, Kevin. Laura? I just wanted to do the same thing. Wish, the rebels the best of luck on Saturday. It's good to see them going back to the bank, so hopefully they pull it off. That's it. Mister Steichen, the same.
I'm done. Julie? Okay. Well, our trunk and treat, they had five to 600 people that came. So it was an awesome event, and had some warm areas instead of being all outdoors to, like, do it on such a cold, rainy day. So that was wonderful. Yeah. And we have a position open in the department, like, just reminding you that we are taking apps, and we do have applicants. Three. Great news. So that's good news. We have applicants. We have applicants. K. K. Can we get our can we get the can we get a time on total total amount of time where all of our positions are full?
I I wanna celebrate. It was it was a great time. Remember those good days. Anything else, Julie? And thank you for that. Good luck, chief. Keep doing us proud. Peyton? I wanted to remind everyone about our public input meeting that we will be having here at City Council Chambers on Thursday for our community center project. And I know the council, they're probably aware of most things right now with it, but we will, they'll be here to provide an update and answer any questions for the public that
may have any Peyton, can I ask a question about that? I see it's 05:30 to seven. But to clarify, are they doing a presentation? Is it open house? Like like, just so people know since there was a time. Would it be bars? So let's see. If you bring them not been provided an exact agenda. Oh, okay. Sure we could cater that accordingly, but I assume they will I I don't know to answer your question. They've not provided me with the schedule. That's my fault for not following up and getting clarity on that because I know we that was a question last time. Right.
Right. Like, whether you needed to be there at 05:30 Yep. Because it was, like, given it had a time frame of 05:30 to seven, people thought it was a come and go type thing, and then they were already done. So okay. I think it's wanting to know if I need to be there at 05:30 is what I'm asking. Sure. No. That's a that's a good question. Okay. It's a great question, Dylan. Anything else? No. Thank you. Peyton? Oh, yes. So, the only other thing I wanted to make note of, I sent a message a few weeks ago about the possibility of adjusting our second
council meeting in December if schedules allow, again, not under any type of requirement or anything to do that. So that would be moving from the twenty second to the twenty ninth. That does allow for a little more flexibility on the financial side of things to allow us to close out a little better towards the end of the year. And it still provides two weeks in between meetings. It's not like we would have to come back that following week because we already had a three week gap in there, and it helps from a bill approval process if that could be moved back a
week. But, again, no requirement to do that either. We can figure it out either way. I'm fine either way. Hopefully, it should be a short meeting regardless. Yeah. Are you looking for an answer tonight? Just like Are you open for an answer? Well, really, we only need three. Yeah. Not a boat. Just a head nod or something. I think I responded. It was just fine with me. You did. Yes. I like the suspense. Yeah. I'll get back to you. Like, I gotta double check. Yeah. I don't know. Is this one when do you never mind. I'll let you know in the morning. It it doesn't matter one way or the other.
We can keep it. K. Yeah. If it's easier on the twenty ninth, I can make sure that I'm in town. Just need three. That's all we just that's all we need. Right? You don't need a formal motion or anything like that. You don't need a formal motion or anything to change the Not yet. Yeah. I was but we're kinda dwindling down on opportunities to do that though. So with the next couple meetings. So there's time. You you can leave that one. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think you have three, so go ahead and, like do you want the motion now? It's not on our agenda. So you gotta put it on the next agenda anyway. Yeah. It'll take an extended agenda at the point where Yeah. Yep.
If something comes up that we need to keep it, just y'all just let me know. That should be fine. Anything else, Peyton? No, mister mayor. Alright. I appreciate that, Peyton. Thank you very much. So just just quickly, Moorhead PD and then the Moorhead family, lost a member in Brad Skank, over the weekend, and I would like, to honor him with a moment of silence now if we could. Thank you. Brad was obviously, he was a veteran of the Marine Corps, veteran of the Morehead Police Department, friend to many. Everybody he ran into was just a tremendous individual. A lot of memories. I remember the the outpouring of support,
that, Brad had, when he first began battling cancer, and the Moorhead Police Department did a fundraiser in our community center. It was packed for hours. And, again, it's a testament to Brad, and it also identifies the importance of our communities, as we work together, as we live together. And then our community center, and like Peyton talked about, we have our upcoming meeting on Thursday. It's more than a dance hall. It represents who we are and what we do and who we care about. And we cared about Brad. We still do. We have to ask the quest the question. Julie,
thank you for your leadership. Excuse me. Thank you for your leadership on the 34th Street. That agreement, it it is it's masterful. What what is put together has really gotten us in a in a very good position. We don't have 34th Street. We don't have Aldi. We don't have Walmart. We don't have those things without that piece of infrastructure. And as we're navigating the road, literally navigating the road, it's not per it it's it's bumpy. It's in we but we have to deal with it, and and I appreciate, your approach and your your outlook for our entire community,
oftentimes the the guiding question as we're looking at moving this forward. So even though we didn't agree tonight or whatever the case may be, I I think that's great. I don't think we always need to because as we navigate this, we're gonna make the right the right decision. And and we'll and we'll we'll do it in time, and we're not gonna rush into that. So thank you. And and counsel, we have to ask all the questions, good, bad, otherwise, repetitive. We we have to. It gets us to where we wanna be, at some point in time. And and from there, we like, I get told I ask dumb questions all the time. Right, Peyton?
But it doesn't stop me from asking them because I wanna know. And I think the the the more that I know and the better I understand, the better decisions we can make. So please keep asking those questions. Our residents deserve it. So again, thank you, Julie. Thank you, counsel. Thanks, Don and Peyton. I know this is it's gonna be an interesting month as we look at some things, but we have to look at things. And, again, maybe this is another dumb question. But, Don, am I remembering this correctly that there's a breakeven point, with what we and you don't have to know. Just just a yes or no will will be fine because I know a lot
of things have changed. But was there a breakeven point between the revenue that we would receive from the properties based in addition to the the amount of is there one? There was prior to this Right. Prior to this? Prior to About year three. About year three of break. So now it's a little bit but It would be pushed out for Okay. So have to talk about. So So I think knowing that might also be helpful and beneficial, as we look at this. That's a again, it just came to me when I was writing down ask the question.
I'd like to know the answer to that one, please. As we work this out, I think that's relevant. So, and then that's all I have. Gentlemen, ladies, thank you very much. Thanks for all you do. Thanks for making Doris a great place. With that, it does move us to number 10. We have bills to pay, and I will entertain a motion to pay the bills. So moved. A motion by Nash. Second. Second by Borah. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. With that, we do move on to number 11. So gentlemen, ladies in the audience, I I wish you a good night. Please drive safely. Wear your seat belts, turn on the heaters,
do the things. Stop at all three all three lights on Highway 10. All three lights. Yeah. I don't know if I've made it through the quick trip. Pursuant to Minnesota statutes 13 delta zero five subdivision three Charlie one, to discuss the potential of acquisition of real property. Parcel number or pardon me, parcel ID number 52.90.0001. We will go into closed session.