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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=aGNo2ub-byU

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Carrie, could you do the roll call, please? >> Mr. Steinberg, >> here. >> Mrs. Ro >> here. >> Mr. White >> here. >> Mr. Lewis >> here. >> Mayor Whittington >> here. We're open it up for public comments if anybody's here that's not on the current

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agenda. Everybody on the agenda? All right, we'll move on. Um, looking for approval of the agenda. >> Have a first. Do we have a second? >> I'll second. >> Have first and second. All in favor? >> All opposed?

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All right. About uh the last month's meeting agenda. Any changes or corrections? If none, I'd look for approval for the approval of the agenda or the minute. >> Motion second.

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>> Got a person second. All in favor? >> All opposed. All right. Consent agenda. Anybody [clears throat] want would like to pull out anything in the consent? Seeing none, we look for a motion to approve the consent agenda.

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>> Motion first. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> First and second. All in favor? >> I. >> All opposed. All right. We'll open up for the public hearing. Right. Is that the next >> important gas franchise public hearing?

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All right, Jennifer. >> All right. Mayor and city council, the purpose of tonight's public hearing is to receive public comment regarding a proposed franchise ordinance authorizing Centerpoint Energy to continue constructing, operating, repairing, and maintaining its natural gas facilities

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within the city's public rights away. The city's current franchise agreement with Centerpoint Energy is set to expire in October 2nd, 2026. Because the city has implemented a franchise fee, uh we are required to maintain an active franchise agreement to continue

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collecting those fees. I published notice of the public hearing in our city's official newspaper in accordance with statutory requirements. Uh following the public hearing this evening, the city council may close the hearing and then consider adoption of the proposed franchise ordinance under

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new business. I should also note that legal council has uh reviewed the um the uh proposed ordinance provide feedback back to Centerpoint Energy and they are aware of the um changes that the city proposed and so um at this point we're

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all in agreement with what's being put forth. Do >> you have a motion to open the public hearing or no? >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, I'd look for a motion to open the public hearing. >> Motion >> second. >> Look for a second. All right.

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>> Anyone here to speak on at the public hearing? Have to do it three times. Anyone here to speak on the public hearing? And the last time, anyone here to speak at the public hearing?

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Right. I'd look for a motion to close the public hearing. >> I'll make a motion to close. >> Second. >> All right. So, there's nothing we need to do on that other than Right. Perfect.

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All right. We'll go right to our presentations. Shane, you're >> all right. Shane, I'll pull up your presentation here momentarily. We'll get going. >> Got it. Now it's green. Okay. While the

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slides come up here, I'll just start to introduce myself. So, I'm Shane Zart. I'm with a firm called Flity and Hood, but here tonight because we have the pleasure of representing the uh Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities at the capital. Uh, and uh, uh, well, this one's got my name on it, but we may as

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well go to the next one. Uh, because this helps uh, might be refresher for some, but uh, uh, new to others. What is the CGMC? It's a membership organization of more than 100 cities all outside of the 7ount metro area. So, uh, we represent, uh, cities in greater

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Minnesota on, uh, a range of issues. Uh, most of which are covered, uh, in the the bullet points up there, but, uh, local government aid and property taxes, uh, are typically a number one for us. Uh, and, uh, uh, the rest of them, environment, energy, housing, EMS,

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economic development, transportation, annexation, land use. Uh, within those, uh, there's a number of other uh, issues that pop up along the way. Water and wastewater, for example. uh major issues for uh a number of our cities. Uh other

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things that uh help keep our communities strong, including some work uh we've done over the years with uh your city administrator on things like child care, uh accessibility, affordability. Um so that's the big picture. Um, and we can go next slide here, too, because what

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I'm here today to do is try to sum up uh about four or five months of the 2026 legislative session, all without taking up too much of your night or putting anyone to sleep, I suppose. Uh, but uh um so we're going to cover a few kind of

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important issues to the coalition. Uh what uh some of the things we worked on on behalf of our member cities. If you've got other questions though about the session, the legislature, throw them all at me at the end. If I can't answer them, I'll email you after the fact. But uh so put me on the spot. Uh but uh here

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first we'll start by going next slide and and uh this is where we kind of rewind uh because if we're going to recap the legislative session that was kind of recap or rewind to the beginning. So put ourselves back in January, February, uh it was uh much colder, but also expectations were

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pretty low coming into this session. Uh we'd hear a lot of uh talk around the capital. Ah, they're not going to do much anyway. They're not going to get anything done this year. Uh there's a couple reasons for that. One of which is, you know, the uh 2025 session was

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the budget year. So, the state budgets on a two-year basis. They'd already passed a budget, so they didn't necessarily need to do uh too much at the capital, too much housekeeping. But it was more so the political reality. The uh Senate was a narrow uh one seat

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DFL majority. The House still tied 6767. So it's uh hard to get along on just about anything when uh you have to get along on everything. Uh and it makes everything a four-way negotiation. So, uh, Governor Walls, the two DFL caucuses

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in the House and and, uh, the Senate, uh, there's nothing that, uh, of course, all of them under the DFL banner. There's nothing they could do on their own without agreement from, uh, the House GOP. Uh, so everything became a bipartisan negotiation. That was true in 2025, but they had to get a budget done

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that year. That was still true this year, and but they had less on the mustdo list. Uh, but there were a number of issues that were kind of focal points for session. So fraud in state programs was one that was heavily in the headlines. Um the uh issue of uh of guns

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or gun control uh was a major focus for especially DFL members. HCMC is listed up there. Henipin County Medical Center uh on the the brink of a financial crisis was something that was becoming a statewide issue as as HCMC is kind of

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the backbone of uh uh the state's health care system and uh emergency situations. uh school safety major discussion also pairing with the uh issue of firearms uh in particular after the uh annunciation school shooting in Minneapolis happened

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between the 2025 and 26 session uh we're primed to have a a big discussion about that and then bonding uh I know we're standing here tonight uh happy to say or this one I'll give away the what happened uh bonding bill did pass and we're happy to say that water and

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wastewater funding was included in it uh this year we'll talk a little more about that going forward, but we can go to the the next slide. Um because this uh was a little bit of the CGMC's to-do for the session. Also doubles uh as a little bit of an agenda for uh the rest of my

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slides here and and some of the issues we'll we'll tackle. Of course, it's hard to recap any legislative session without not talking about a bunch of stuff or just running out of time. So, uh a number one, protect LGA. I'll talk more about that one in a second. Bonding bill I already mentioned. Uh thankfully one

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got done. Leadline uh identification replacement funding a big issue for a number of cities throughout the state and uh resistance to zoning and development preeemption which uh we'll talk a little more about as it relates to housing. Uh first and this where next slide is one that usually risks boring

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people. Uh I've uh gone back and forth on this slide. This is a chart that's put out every year by the state. If you look at it at a glance, I think it's kind of confusing what it's trying to say. the more I've gotten into the nuance, the more I like it. So, it's still in the presentation that uh we give to our member cities. But, uh

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really what it's conveying is on the left there is uh what the state has in its savings account. And so, uh at the end of the day after paying all of our bills, and what you can see there is on a two-year basis, the two years that we're in 2026 27, we've got a balance

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that we're carrying forward of about $3.7 billion. Uh but what it shows in the the uh uh future years so that the two years to come uh that are kind of in the uh outer window of our state's budgeting window uh between uh what uh

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the state is taking in less money than it's spending and the impact of inflation that $3.7 billion surplus doesn't amount to much uh as we look forward. So I the reason I like this slide is because I can tell folks you'll hear politicians say no the state is in

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a financial crisis. We need we need to cut we need to uh you know there's the state's budget has been mismanaged. And you'll hear politicians say h no the state's budget is balanced. It's just fine. This slide helps me say you know what both of them can be right. It really just depends on what their

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purposes are [laughter] what uh what they want to tell you in the moment. Uh if you like household analogies for uh state budgeting, I think the best way to frame this is the uh uh the state as our our household, we have enough money to pay our bills this month, but our salary we're spending

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more than our salary justifies. And so in the long term, uh we've got an issue that we're going to have to address either by cutting spending, uh getting a raise, uh however that is. So, uh, we'll go to the next slide, uh, because this just, uh, is, uh, kind

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of, uh, sums things up and and when we talk about LGA and and why it's so important, uh, the state's budget position has improved over the 2025 session, but still very challenging in the the long run. Uh, and that's another reason very little spending, new

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spending was contemplated coming into this session. But I think the CGMC was squarely focused on defending LGA because we were also surprised quite frankly in the 2025 session when uh the state was going through the process of balancing its budget but we had a

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similar scenario a okay outlook in the short term but some you know storm clouds on the horizon. The Senate DFL tax committee did propose cutting $20 million from LGA and LGA is the backbone of a lot of our city budgets throughout uh the the state. Uh the uh I double

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checked uh coming down here. I forget if this was last year or the coming one, but I think Eagle Lakes number is 751,000ish a year. Uh sorry, Jennifer, I put her on the spot. And so that's money that uh comes, you know, straight to the city without strings attached. Uh and that's

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money that you don't have to levy to your property taxpayers. So anytime the state makes a cut to that program, it uh leaves you in a position to either cut services or, you know, take more money from your property taxpayers. We don't want to do either of those things. Uh so

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something we're very mindful of because of the advocacy that we did both in response to the 2025 cuts in the interim and then and then coming into this year. Uh happy to say uh the discussion really never uh gained traction this year even as they were trying to contend with a

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pretty difficult long-term uh fiscal outlook for the the state. Uh, so we'll keep going and if it feels like I'm blazing through a lot of things, I am because, uh, want to leave time for questions and get you on your way. U, so bonding bill, then we can move on from

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the title slide here, uh, too. So, um, the, uh, uh, primary message on the the bonding bill is that we needed one. Uh, even though we had one last year, last year's bill was both a makeup bill because they hadn't done one in in either 2023 or 2024. The bonding bill is

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the mechanism that we have to fund, you know, public infrastructure projects throughout the state. So, when we talk about basic government services, water, wastewater, roads, a lot of the state's uh uh public infrastructure and the money that comes to cities to help you pay for stuff like that, again, without

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burdening your property taxpayers relies on the legislature passing a bonding bill at regular intervals. U so we had had one in 2025, but it was a makeup bill. Uh the bonding bill is something that requires bipartisanship every year. It wasn't just because of the tie. A bonding bill needs a a supermajority of

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both the House and the Senate to pass. So they all have to get along unless you have a real supermajority control. Um and you know, we had a a kind of backdrop of the governor's proposal this year. uh you know the governor puts out a bonding proposal every year but you know it's really the state uh senate and

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state house that uh that uh control the process or finish the process even if he starts it uh that you know frankly had uh some numbers in it that were too low for our liking uh so it was heavy on stateowned assets pretty light on things like the PFA that stands for public

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facilities authority that's where a lot of water and wastewater uh projects are are funded through and uh if If you think about if Eagle Lake had a project and you were asking for an allocation for for dollars, uh, normally the governor's budget doesn't pick exactly

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which projects they're going to do. They set aside a number that they want to allocate toward local projects. His set aside was about $35 million, but that's for statewide, you know, all 87 counties, all 850 some cities get a share of that 35 million. It just wasn't

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going to do the trick because, uh, communities like Eagle Lake do have needs. uh and we're looking to uh cover those in the bonding bill. So, I think we'll go next slide. I think that's just some friendly faces [laughter] just to to emphasize and thank some of

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our CGMC members uh who uh advocated uh for a bonding bill over time. Uh so each of these I think the closest uh to us geographically at the top left there's Carrie Johnson as a council member in St. Peter. Uh so a lot of advocacy goes into a bonding bill. It's a team sport.

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Uh but that's just to thank some of our members by highlighting their participation. We can move ahead. Yep. Thank you. Uh so the end of the day and and uh of course it's never easy to get to this point. Uh a bonding bill did pass with pretty overwhelming legislative support uh from the bonding

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bill is something that on the final two days of session you can feel like it's uh dead on Friday and then on Sunday they pass a $ 1.24 billion bill. And I think that's roughly what happened this year. [laughter] So, and we're happy for it. So, uh in the final legislative, uh

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product that they put out, more than $400 million went to various water and wastewater programs. U that includes $6 million for uh Eagle Lake and the uh water plant project that I know you've all been working very hard on uh over the over time. Uh local bridges, local

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roads, all included. Uh BDPI is the Greater Minnesota Business Development Public Infrastructure Program. That's the only bad news on this slide. $2 million statewide is not a great number there, but we'll be back. Uh, and to I think I kind of neglected to phrase this

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in a way that uh it really conveyed it. In 2025, they did pass a bonding bill, but in that one uh included no local projects. So that the 2025 bill was a makeup bill for those prior two years. I did say that. I think what I neglected to convey was that they also said, you

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know what, we're going to pass a bill this year, no local projects, only funding through state programs for state assets. So that was really if you were uh asking for a $6 million for a water plant, for example, 2025, they would have said, "Yep, you've got a great project. Not this year." [laughter] And

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so that's why this year's bill was very important. It did get to communities like Eagle Lake. Um so let's keep moving. I'll talk very fast uh on the uh lead service lines. Uh but uh so um

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the uh in general here the the background on lead service lines is the federal government has mandated by that by 2037 all of uh the uh lead service lines because of their threat to they pose to public health be inventoried uh

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replaced uh and uh uh has made the federal government has made some funding available to uh to do that over time. In 2023, uh the CGMC was very proud to be part of an effort to put some state dollars toward that effort that was kicked off uh with $240 million

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allocated that year. Uh that initial inventory uh I've got the numbers right on the slide, 87,000 uh lead lines were inventoried statewide. 200,000 lines yet to be uh uh identified. Um, I know I had a discussion with some folks before this

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meeting and I was looking at the numbers for Eagle Lake and you know because of your age of your housing stock I wouldn't anticipate it's a huge problem here in Eagle Lake but there are a lot of unknowns uh in in Eagle Lake. So certainly the identification uh process will will be uh uh important and then uh

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uh replacement of any that do exist. Um the uh uh ask for this year to keep that program going was $250 million. And keep that number in mind because we're going to go to the next slide uh which is uh disappointment. So if the ask if the uh

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what uh the advocates that include cities, labor groups, uh uh folks from the public facilities authority thought we need to keep this program funded at to in order to keep things moving forward was about 250 million. 15 is what the legislature uh put toward this.

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U so we are concerned that uh momentum on you know the statewide effort could be threatened with that. But again like I said on the BDPI we'll be back. We'll keep pushing on this issue uh going forward. So um I think we're switching

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subjects next. So housing and zoning. So uh this one also requires a little bit of background uh before we dive into it. Uh but uh and that's why the the uh kind of headline of this slide says you know 2024 was uh the missing middle headline

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2025 yes to homes 2026 the starter homes act kind of three separate uh legislative packages put forward each year all around a similar theme though many of these were brought forward by um housing developers or housing advocates

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under the idea that uh uh we need more homes in uh for motans and more affordable homes. That is true. Uh the uh mechanism though that each of these bills uh would use to uh to get at that goal is to restrict local authority. So

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uh part of uh what uh we're looking at here in 2026 with what was called the Starter Home Act. Uh was kind of a three- tiered approach to this. And I'm going to call that as I walk through this, keep in mind there's a partial victory baked into this uh because uh I'm going to start talking about while

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cities over 5,000 population, cities over 10,000 population would have had to comply with these in the 2024 2025 uh versions of this legislation, cities of all sizes would have had to comply with nearly every single one of these requirements. So, uh Eagle Lake, I know

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your population. It's less than 5,000. So, you know, so keep in mind there's a kind of a partial victory here of uh um uh coming into 2026 that had been kind of hard fought over those those previous two years. But, you know, each of these proposals is basically a

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one-sizefits-all. The state telling cities, here's how you have to zone, here's how you have to plan your community. Uh the things that would have still applied to a a community of Eagle Lake size, uh no ability to uh uh impose aesthetic or material standards. I know

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that uh uh some communities uh will require um HOAs to be uh in included in in new developments. Uh that would be preempted under this bill. And then uh every city statewide would be required to allow for ADUs or alternative

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dwelling units on all properties. So that's where we get uh to the over 5,000 uh category in in this year's uh u uh legislation, which again wouldn't apply here. Uh but you know, we'd expect uh some of this legislation to come back

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maybe for for communities of all sizes. Uh but uh you know, must allow up to four units on 33% of areas zoned as single family. No minimum lot sizes greater than 1/8 of an acre in green field areas. Must allow multif family and 33% of areas zoned commercial. Uh so

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I I see, you know, at least one head shaking. uh just a very top- down approach [laughter] to uh community planning does not give folks like the ones sitting at this table much ability to control what do you think that the future of uh uh Eagle Lake should look like uh when it comes to this and take

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input from folks uh in these chairs uh to give input on that. Um we go to the next slide. Yes. And there was a separate category cities over 10,000 again in previous versions of the bill. This would some of these requirements would have applied to everybody. Then this year's bill uh you know call it a

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partial compromise or at least an olive branch. Uh the advocates advocating for this bill said you know what cities over 10,000 choose your own adventure. You have to do at least a few of these and check certain boxes. Uh but we're going to let you pick which ones. Uh ultimately the cities that we worked

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with large and small said you know what there's been progress made. still not to a place where we think this is workable, where we think it respects the decision-making authority of folks elected to uh uh city councils throughout the state. And we can go one more slide here.

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And this just kind of sums up uh where things are. And where I say, you know, we expect some of this to return, it's because the bill for the third year in a row did not advance this year. Um the CGMC and uh we have a counterpart organization called the Metro Cities Organization. uh you can uh I guess

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assume that they're kind of our mirror image, but in within the sevenount metro area uh both maintained active opposition uh to it. Um the League of Minnesota Cities kind of withdrew at least its active opposition to the bill. Uh but still at the middle of session, a

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House committee actually voted the bill down. Uh the Senate uh scheduled and then unscheduled various committee hearings on the bill. Uh, and I think that just kind of conveys how uh complex and controversial some of the these changes were, but again, expect uh this

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conversation to be ongoing. Um, and uh uh we'll be at the the center of it and I think also advancing and trying to play offense on housing solutions we think will be more productive in our our communities too. So, okay, now we come to the looking ahead piece. That's just

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a nice shot of the capital. All eyes on the election. Uh as uh uh all of you know uh we've got an open governor's race with a primary uh uh in uh um uh to set the final field of candidates coming up in just a couple weeks. We'll have to

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make sure I change this slide at the after that. Uh and then all 201 legislative seats on the ballot. Uh not quite record number but near record number of legislative retirements this year. A lot of institutional memory leaving the legislature. Uh if to give

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you one example, I was uh doing some research the other day and realized every Republican member and about half of the DFL members of the Senate Tax Committee are retiring this year. So uh if you just look at one committee, that kind of conveys how much turnover the legislature is going to have next year. Uh but we've already started to use the

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the interim here to engage with candidates. at our summer conference uh uh just a couple weeks ago had guminatorial candidates uh coming through uh in session is scheduled to convene January 14th, 2027. Uh and I think all I've got left is to highlight

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some of our events. And so this one I know that I I saved this presentation and sent it before summer conference because you'll notice the dates on the summer conference there are in the past now. Uh but lets me uh though announce the location of next year's conference. I know I talked to

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Jennifer and she wasn't able to make this conference. We were in New M and I know she's made it to once the further away than that [laughter] but uh uh but unfortunately was not available. It was closer. My good news is what's uh now going to be in the slide going forward. Next year's summer conference is in

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Oatana. Uh so very rare. it often rotates, you know, south, south, north, south, north to so this is a great opportunity if you weren't able to make the trip west on Highway 14 next summer, make the trip east on Highway 14 and join us. Uh, and

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then, uh, we also have our, uh, fall conference coming up in Weight Park. Uh, and then legislative action day is when city leaders come with us to lobby and, uh, either praise them or yell at them about some of the things I talked about. Uh, is February 10th this year, if you want to mark your calendars. So, I think

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that's it. I think all I've got left is a question slide. Oh, now I'm rotated. There you go. If you can read my number sideways, you can call me. There we go. Perfect. So, yeah. Any questions or else I'll let you get

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back uh to your meeting. >> Thank you, Shane. We appreciate all your work on behalf of cities like Eagle Lake. Thank you. Thanks for being here. >> Well, thank you. Any questions for Shane? No, I think the housing one really aware

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of it this year. You know, that's just an oh my god one. You know, you guys obviously will keep a keep an eye on next year and obviously LGA every year is, you know, projecting that is paramount, you know, for us. So, >> Yep. >> Perfect. [snorts]

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>> Well, yeah, we'll uh stay on top of it. Next year is a budget year. So I think that uh we should all be prepared to uh go ahead and ask the legislature to be very generous when it comes to LGA and uh um you know and I talked about uh uh

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you know the kind of rocky situation at least in the long term that the the state's budget may be in uh but you know anytime there's uh you know the the state budget is in any kind of jeopardy uh or they have problems to solve I mean

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our message every day every year is don't solve your problems on the backs of local governments because that trickles down directly to property taxpayers. So, we'll keep that. It's always uh best too if you show up to events like the February 10th and tell them yourself. Uh but uh and but and we've enjoyed though and had good

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partnerships with your local legislators uh uh as well on a number of these issues and we hope to continue that. But uh it's always good when we're all saying the same thing. >> Perfect. Thanks, Shane. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Second presentation, Lamb

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Township. >> Would you like us to >> Yes, please. >> Yeah. >> That way our folks at home can hear you. >> Do you want me to give a brief introduction here before we get started? Okay. So, uh, Mayor and City Council, we've got representatives from Lime Township tonight. We have um

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uh um Jimmy Blount and um Rich >> Rash >> Rash are here tonight. there with Lime Township and they reached out to talk about the possibility of expanding uh Eagle Lakes Fire Protection Service area to portions of Lime Township um that currently another fire department

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serves. Um uh reached out to Eagle Lake Fire Chief Spencer Collies in the audience tonight and we talked about just kind of getting this brought to the council to see if there's um an appetite for the city staff including the fire chief to explore this further. So, we'll let you

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guys kind of talk a little bit about what you want the city council to consider and we'll go from there. Thank you. >> So, tonight just real kind of informal, you know, we just wanted to touch base with you guys and stuff, but ultimately Lime Township has uh several sections

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that's protected firewise from different different areas. Um, Madison Lake does give us some coverage currently on six sections uh that we're kind of looking at as far as what of our options. Uh, in

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the 2025 fiscal year, we had four calls on them and of those calls, they were all there's kind of some things changing with the city of Madison Lake. Jimmy and I were on this committee that goes there

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and kind of talks about contract our next thing going on and pricing points and things like that [snorts] with the information that we brought back to the rest of our township supervisors. The the question is what

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type of options do we have as a township? You know, what type of options do uh other fire departments um do they do they want to do? Are they looking for things? Could something really promote one fire department? This is nothing

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against uh the city of Madison Lakes current fire department. Uh this is just us trying to be an active voice and actively seeing what are our options. So I should say one more thing of these

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sections that we're doing uh and like I said tonight's very informal. The six sections would also include the airport which is a massive chunk that they would not have to take care of. and lakes which is another massive

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chunk. So as far as actual property count in those six sections I don't really have that right now but it's a lot of farmland it's very minimal and kind of wanted to hear from you guys and actually start dialogue.

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So maybe just right off the bat what are some impulse thoughts to us that we can that or maybe just like hey I'm just sitting here listening to you and I don't have

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anybody >> I have a question if it's okay does the city of Madison Lake who currently provides a fire protection services do they know that you're talking to other jurisdictions to try to possibly look at Okay. Okay, >> so

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>> that answers that question. Well, thank you. And the reason I wanted to ask is because we definitely don't want to get sideways with other jurisdictions and we want to be good community partners. So, we just wanted to make sure that, you know, we kind of figure out where >> I want to be clear. It has nothing to do with the fire department or the chief over there. >> Yep.

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>> He does the best he can with what he's given. >> It's more on the back side of it. >> Sure. No, thank you. >> I think from my standpoint, it's just capacity, right? So, you know, we are growing here and the capacity of our

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fire department, our fire hall. We obviously know that there's something on the horizon there. So, it's just kind of working with with our chief, you know, once we get maybe a little further down the road about, you know, is it feasible? You know, are we taking on too much those kind of things as as we go

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along. But I think, you know, it's always prudent to kind of have those discussions, right? and be able to have some some fallbacks, if you will, or or or options >> moving forward. But I think >> yeah, the corner we're talking about is

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the closest one to New York City. >> So, it's not like you're driving across the township. >> It more or less encompasses the north side of Eagle Lake and up along the side of the airport. [clears throat]

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So it's a total of six sections. Um, you know, we're curious as far as, you know, there is dollars and there's funding, right? Does that dollars that we can bring? Maybe that can help another fire department with a specific goal they're trying to do or,

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you know, well, we we want to do this, but we can't justify that yet because of the um the dollars base that we have or the covers that we have and maybe there's a good blend that works well for everyone, you know. So, I mean that's a

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question too to think about. >> No, I I totally agree. So I think you know once we get step down you know further into this process you know those those discussions will definitely have to be had. Um one is you know capacity one is access you know as as the

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corridor changes is there going to be an access issue getting across and maintaining you know um response times and things like that. Um, so you know, I think that's all going to be on the table, but I think I'll look to you, chief, that we wouldn't enter, we would

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not stop in, you know, the discussion, right? We'd continue into some kind of discussion with more specificity. Um, but I don't see from my standpoint where we would say, "No, let's not talk at all about it." >> Okay. So, >> unless someone else on the council would

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have that reaction that we don't want to >> My my first one was uh timelines. When do you like when would we need to start in your eyes? >> We're gonna they want a contract signed by September

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>> this September >> legally they don't we don't have to. It's for the 27 forward. >> Okay. >> And if we have to sign the contract with them, it'll be two years. >> So we're we were trying to explore options in Minnesota in the summertime.

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It's been a little rough as as you all know [clears throat] enjoy it while we got it, >> right? >> And so I think a lot of that so there's a contract that's coming too, right? Um so the dialogue is the biggest importance here. Yep. >> So even if we can't do anything before

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this contract, what's the type of dialogue that we can start? What's the type of relations like, hey, you know, hey, yeah, that's those guys over there from Line Township. You know, they're kind of looking get a better working partnership and you

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know we really want to build something and um so just of where can that start and that's what brings us to so we [clears throat] realize time frames are difficult we realize everything uh all that we ask is just um

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point >> well I I think we could start a three-way discussion you know anytime right council fire departments and you guys start that discussion you know whenever ever we could get on everybody's schedule, you know. So, >> yeah. And I think if I recall, didn't

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Eagle Lake used to service that area at one point? I think like 15 or 20 years ago. Do you guys remember or No, >> before my time, [clears throat] so I I couldn't super comment to that. I do want to say that there has been adjustments to fire coverage in the

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past. What exactly, you know, did they cover to this line or did they cover that? I I >> I'm pretty sure we used to cover country club if I recall and this would have been a long time ago

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>> and that would be in Lime Township. So >> Oh, you do? >> So this would be an addition to that. Yeah, >> there are >> Yeah, >> that was my question was do we have an

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image that kind of shows exactly what you're referring? If we um we need to zoom out a little bit more because otherwise I can email it to you. >> Um one that shows in encompassing around the airport because it's going to end up

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being sections 35 36 26 25 23 24 >> here. Um and so part of that was how was I coming in today? I didn't want to come in today and I've got this spreadsheet and I've got this and oh, by the way, uh, September 1st, September 1st,

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September [clears throat] 1st, you know, that just seems really intimidating if I was on that side, and I'd be like, whoa, you know, we don't really know who the heck you are, you know? So, I thought just, hey, um, can you get on the schedule, which is this, and then that

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way we actually are in front of you guys, you know, it's kind of in notes and stuff and the minutes of the meeting, and we can go from there. So what Spencer is saying, we must cover parts of Mano Township then, right? Yeah. Okay. So this will be similar to that.

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>> Yes. >> Yep. We currently have uh fire contracts with a Laray Township and Mano Township. >> I would have no issue with the conversation continuing with the [clears throat] fire department. I'd be interested in what you guys have before

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saying yes or no. >> I think some of that direction needs to come from. >> No, I agree. I I would I'd prefer just to direct staff to set up some a three-way meeting, you know, you know, between the departments, the council, and you guys just start talking

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particulars. And if you guys have a starting point of contract, you know, we could even take a look at that and see, you know, >> see what you're thinking >> in such a meeting like that. Then my next question would be is what types of information that I would want to come with. So I definitely have these are our

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sections, [clears throat] right? Um, we would have numbers of how many households there is. I would have history of how many calls there's been. Um, I would have just some basic information like that. I don't want to um, you know, write the dictionary

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before we even walk in the library. >> Well, I tell you what, um, fire chief uh, Collus and I can get together and kind of put a list of information that we like and then email that to you guys if that's okay and then >> um, let you know. Perfect. >> Sounds good. So, we're talking pretty

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much everything east of County Road 12. I'm kind of get a visual idea here. >> Yes. >> Just past airport and then all the way to our border. It's just those bottom four sections. >> I know this doesn't I have it on my

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phone. >> Do you want to send it to >> Well, if you pull up Google Maps. >> Oh, yeah. Google Maps. Type in Valley. So basically the south southeast corner >> we talked on our phone I kind of just I was like how should we go with this like just keep it simple.

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>> Nope. This is good. >> It's probably even on our township. >> Line Valley Township should pull it up. >> It's just So, yes, the light blue there, right? >> Here's the airport road, >> right?

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>> And it's um Sorry, Jim. It might kind of take your spot. >> It's this corner down here. >> Okay. >> I think you lost line, but right here. through Eagle Lake.

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>> It's probably 230th Street is what my guess is. [laughter] >> You're making me dizzy. >> But anyways, section line east to west is about right here. >> So, we have some holes right up here

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goes this section here around the airport, which is basically airport covers. So, we got a up here and a little bit right through here on the left. >> And other than right in here, it gets real spread out. It's far away.

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>> Looking at the map, it's it's like somewhere right here is the section. Now, >> city has obviously there's a good chunk of water in this section, too. right to the county line. So, we would

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be up on that 243rd Street. I believe that's uh Cairo 2 >> top of Eagle Lake right around any other hints or thoughts out >> I guess one thing if we go up that far

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north is that's going to add about what a good 10 15 minute response time right is that something that people >> because you had Madison Lake there initially right >> so >> since we're farther south it would increase the response time >> response time >> fairly significantly wouldn't it

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>> and we could we could if the response time gets to that ownership. Anyway, you can talk to them too. >> So, part of that conversation was in this initial what what if Cassoda's kind of governing

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over here, right? Eagle Lake is over here. You know, what is it to do something something, you know, is there some sort of hybrid model here that really makes [clears throat] sense? Talking to some of the other townships,

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they are are in the same boat that we are and they're considering. Um, and I'm not speaking for any township [clears throat] that's needs to come from their mouth, not mine. Um, but even there was one that they said, "We're pretty sure we already have the deal struck. The lawyers write it up. It's

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going to change a half a section on there where it just, you know, made se uh sense on that. there's another section that they're still talking about, but they just said, "Oh, well, very clearly this should have never been over there. This should have been here.

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This makes sense for everybody, you know, and so they're kind of redrawing their diagrams as a population and buildings, you know, have come and change and things and just um getting a high of something.

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>> Okay. I think we can kind of put our heads together and get you a laundry list of what we'd like to see from you guys and then have a >> a meeting and have that discussion. You're right though. It's it's it's definitely going to be you know >> response time and that's a lot of come

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from the fire department too in real world uh feel what is that and what does this many minutes or seconds or whatever mean and so uh quality of service to our community is obviously number one right

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safety u working well for all of the departments and people involved. So it's not just a simple yes no and it might even be we really like but that's not the best service we can offer or

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>> perfect. >> Thank you. >> Thanks guys. >> Thank you. We'll be in touch soon. >> Perfect. >> Have a good night. >> All right. Presentation three. Rick Benzel. [snorts]

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All right. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. My name is I've been a resident of seven years afial rental for my home. Before anything else, I'd like to say

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that I understand why this character appicumstances. When I purchased my home, I was not looking for an investment. buying my first house. But over the past year, my life has changed in ways that I would not have

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expected. Those experiences have given me a different perspective and led me to a point where I'd like the opportunity to explore a new chapter of my life. I'm now hoping for the flexibility to do that without being forced to permanently give up the home.

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If an exception would responsibly protect should not be taken lightly and I appreciate the responsibility preserve Does the council have very well?

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>> So this it's this map right here, right? in our >> How many within how many feets? >> Yeah, this one right here. So, I'm assuming the one in with the red marker basically is where you're at, Riley. >> Yep.

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>> And that's the current residential or rental license. And what's our statute is it how many feets? >> 24. >> Yep. >> You're 244. Is that what? No, I'm just kidding. >> Okay.

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>> That would be exempted by the one >> unception. seek like these people. I've lived in my home for five years and it's been the same. I don't know how long that

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would be my goal to get somebody who wants to rent my house. You know what I mean? >> Well, that was my question, Jennifer. Do we have single family, two unrelated,

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five unrelated? Is there any stipulation with all that or? >> Um, yep. Carrie is telling me we have um so I have a copy of the rental um license in our book and if or in a packet here. Um let me find the right

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page here. Okay. So, um so if you go to page, it's 80 in your packet, but if you go to section uh 15.120 subdivision 2, um it does

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address um residential occupancies um in the R1 and R2 district. So family functional family traditional may have one additional person residing with them for non-renal purposes for the purpose of providing a housekeeping or personal service for the resident there in that's

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how ours reads. And then if you go on to subdivision 4 that's where it talks about what Mr. Benzel was talking about with the no two R1 rental properties may be located within 250 ft of each other

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in an R1 district. So it is restricted to single family basically and one non >> Y >> relative. So you couldn't have 14 frat guys in this kind of initial thoughts like

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about it because I said in my life I'd like to exper. Yeah, but it's something that I don't want to have to

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get on someone about a complaint or something. If this were to happen, it would be I would bet everything in my present neighbors app.

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>> Anyone have questions? How often do they have to apply for the rental license and reup? Because I know there's there's different specifications that they have to do where if we were to grant this special permit, >> oh um >> allow it to go through, but he he

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doesn't vet them or they gave a front that he didn't see and all of a sudden they become problematic and he's not taking care of the issue. Can we revoke his license and or you know, how does all that work? >> So, um it's typically a three-year license. Um I just um so yeah, we don't

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we wouldn't have we wouldn't allow this under our current ordinance. So you'd have to come up with a a you know unique situation. And just to let you know, we do get calls pretty much weekly on properties and asking if there's rental licenses available within you know so we

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run through this exercise very and Carrie deal manages our rental licensing. We can tell you this happens a lot and we have to tell people sorry but your property's within 250 ft of another rental license. So it's not an unusual question that we get.

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>> I'm I'm glad you brought it up earlier about you know the the trickiness of exceptions, right? Because I mean honestly that's kind of my fear is that if we grant an exception here, especially after a hearing with the front desk staff that they get this all the time. I feel like we're going to

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open a real can of worms by granting one exception because then we're going to be getting more requests for exceptions and before you know it, it's going to be just a huge mess. >> That's my fear of it. >> I understand. I mean,

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yeah. I mean, I just I consider this as a unique situation. I guess I don't know how often people come in front of you and ask for the front desk but you know

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stipulations you know I know I'm sure there's I know there's a strike rule or what have you per less than three strikes. I mean, I'm certainly willing to put more skin into it.

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>> We don't have a three strike rule, do we? I know what Mano does, but we >> we do have a rule, but it um it's kind of hard to it wouldn't just be like somebody I think we'd have to read into the ordinance more, but I think it more so

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involves specific things that like that's documented that you know were a violation of our code. So, it's maybe not the easiest thing to always enforce without having a police report or something to that effect. And >> yeah, I'm pretty sure Mano's it's police reports. It's not just complaining.

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>> Yeah. >> Um I don't know. I'm torn on this cuz I manage 15 rentals of my own and it's either good or bad and there's really no in between. So I I get the whole rental thing. It just, you know, I have the

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same thoughts you do, Nick. We accept one, then are we going to have to accept others? Um good renters are awesome. >> They really are. But Yeah, but bad renters are not. So, >> yeah. Well, I understand.

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>> Yeah. That's that's a headache that I'm not either. So, it's like >> I would do my absolute best and again, >> right? I guess I would ask the uh other

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question too is do we have a demand for more rentals? Do we have people wanting to rent a lot of property in Eagle Lake? I mean we are building a lot of rentals in town. We have a lot we I feel that we have a you know I don't think we have a shortage of rental properties and I

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think there's more that are going to be built. So I guess that would be another question like what how much how much rental property do we do do we want does the council want in the city? you know that I know that's not really answering your question, but it comes at it to see

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like maybe we need more rental property spaces. Maybe maybe we don't need more rental property spaces. Do we need to reook at our code? >> Pretty much. Oh god. >> Yeah, I would just say that that the difference I think the ones being built aren't single family. You know, there's

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a huge difference in 12plexes and single family. You know, the the biggest issue I have have is the exception, right? Because I know that we get a lot of calls and and one of the things that I hear a lot

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of out in the community is rentals and not wanting, you know, I I understand not wanting them in my backyard mentality, too, and we get that as well. But I I'm just fearful if we make the exception is that it opens up,

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[clears throat] you know, some issues, a lot of issues for us as we move forward. Um >> Yeah. And I think what did we have like four years ago? We had someone talking about a house up on Lay that we did not accept either just because of the same

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situation. >> Um she was wanting to sell it. I can't. There was some details like that, right? >> There is an exception. Thank you, uh, Council Member Sim for bringing that up. There is an exception in there if you're trying to actively sell like you have to

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actively list it. Well, you guys, I don't know what you call that. The is it MSL or um >> MLS? >> MLS, sorry. But yeah, you'd have to show proof that you're actively trying to sell it. And that's only for a certain uh period of time. But we've had those situations where somebody has to move for whatever reason, can't sell their

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house, and they just need to continue using it. But that's it's like a three-month period, I think. I'd have to look ex at the code, but I think it's three months. >> That's essentially what I'm trying to avoid, >> right? I go and expl

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putting me in a position where I'm not sure that's going to be possible. So, we'll see. But like I said, I'm just kind of looking to have the conversation. I have no intent to list it as a rental tomorrow.

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You know, we have this goes well today. I don't have that intent. I just wanted to it was an option to see how I should proceed. >> I'm just trying how should we going to close this out for Riley? Um we need to

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>> I think the council just you know as part of our um process in the code if the city staff based on you know our code we don't have any discretion and based on way our code reads we'd have to deny the application because there's another one within 250 ft. So um Mr.

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Venzel had the uh right to come to the council and ask you if the council wants to you know set a new policy and allow exceptions then then you would grant the request. If you don't, then you deny the request. >> We look to the council to to have a

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motion either way, you know, as as they see fit, and then we can have a vote on >> Well, I I appreciate you coming in. I really do. >> But a lot of the concerns expressed just with the exception rule. My my personal

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stance is to not allow the exception. >> Would you like to formulate that in a motion? my I move to motion to uh deny the exception. [snorts] >> We have a first. Do we have a second? >> I'll second that request for that

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motion. >> First and second. Any other discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> All opposed. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks.

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Right. New business. >> Jennifer. >> Get my agenda back up here. One moment. [snorts] Okay. Bigger. See it. All right. Uh, mayor and city council,

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as I briefly, uh, gave you a little background before, um, been working with Centerpoint Energy on, um, renewing and negotiating a new franchise agreement. Um, and we, uh, were required to hold a public hearing this evening uh, for the

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proposed uh, franchise ordinance. Um, I did not receive any comments written beforehand. Um, and I re worked with the city's legal council who reviewed the initial draft put forth by Centerpoint Energy.

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We went back and forth and um, came to an agreement on the one that's included the packet this evening. Um, so if there's no questions or concerns, uh, we would just need a motion to go ahead and adopt ordinance 2026-01. I'll make a motion to adopt the

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ordinance. >> I'll second for a second. Any other discussion? There wasn't any real material change from the from the contract before, right? >> No. >> Okay.

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>> All in favor? >> I >> I >> All opposed. All right. Favorite request. >> All right. Mayor and city council. Uh the city has received contractor's application for payment number four for the 2026 street utility project and that

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is in the amount of $329,34061. Uh the pay request has been reviewed by our engineer Brian Sarf with Balden Mink. Uh he has confirmed the paperwork was complete and recommends approval of the payment as submitted. We just need a motion to approve the pay application.

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>> Look for a motion to approve the pay. >> I'll have a motion. Second. >> First and second. All in favor? >> I. >> All opposed. Annexation of the parcel. >> Uh mayor and city council. The city has received a petition titled in the matter

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of petition of certain persons for the annexation of certain land to the city of Eagle Lake, Minnesota pursuant to Minnesota statute 414.033 subdivision 23. And I've included a copy of that with the packet this evening

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requesting annexation of parcel R439123000 into the city of Eagle Lake. Uh the current the property is currently located within Mano Township and it's just outside our city limits. Um if you guys know where the mini storage units are, um it's right out there and um

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there was a fire there a couple years ago. So I'm sure you guys are all well aware of where where that's located. So the property has been in purchase by Blake and Rachel Keein. Um and they have submitted the petition for annexation. U their plans are to remove the existing

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fire damage residential structure that's located on the property and then plans would be to construct a commercial building to to support their business uh Minnesota Woodworks. Um, as I mentioned, the parcel is directly adjacent to property already located within the city

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of Eagle Lake, um, that of the storage units, and that is zoned B1, community business district. Um, so due to the distance and associated costs, obviously the city would not extend municipal utilities at this time, but if at some point in the future the city would be

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able to extend utilities, they would be required to connect. I did uh reach out to uh fire chief uh Spencer uh to notify him of the annexation request and upon initial review does not appear that there would be any um issues related to

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providing fire protection services to this property following annexation as they're currently uh within the fire protection area. Um thus the petition was submitted as I mentioned pursuant to Minnesota statute 414.033 033 subdivision 23 and this

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basically allows a city to enex a property by ordinance when all owners of the property petition for the annexation and the statutory requirements are met. So part of the process then the next step would be the city would uh city council would hold a public hearing before taking final action on the

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annexation requests. Um I would work on sending out notice to the um affected properties within 350 ft Manito Township Worth County than anybody else that's required by statute. Uh following the public hearing the city council could

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consider adoption of the annexation and the annexation uh is then filed with uh the state and any other agencies um that are required. Um once the city comes into the city, if uh

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once the property if uh approved for annexation comes into the city, then it would be uh zoned uh agriculture and then at that point it would need to be reszoned. So the applicant has submitted an application for reszoning um for commercial and then they would also have

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to apply for a conditional use permit. So, uh, basically what we would do, we try to run these as concurrently as possible to keep the process moving. Um, but the first order of business is obviously the annexation and then the resoning request goes to the planning commission and their meeting is coming

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up on the 17th. So, once we get that going, then they would schedule a public hearing for the resoning part. So, um, with that, uh, the only action needed this evening would be to schedule a public hearing for the annexation at the next city council meeting, and that

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would be September 14th. So, with that, if there's no questions, um, we just need a motion to schedule a public hearing. >> Look for a motion to schedule the hearing. >> I'll make that motion. >> I'll second and second. Any other discussions?

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All in favor? I >> I >> All oppose. >> All right. Number four. >> All right. Um, mayor and city council. Next item is request for waiver of sewer charges. Uh,

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we have a resident in u attendance this evening uh at 232 Lane uh seeking a waiver of sewer charges uh that were associated with an unusually high water usage that occurred while the resident was out of town. Very unfortunate situation. Um, so, um, we've got Mark in

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the audience here, uh, resident at 232, uh, Connie Lane. And unfortunately, when he was out of town, he had a neighbor help water flowers and the water spigot got left on. And um we don't know how long it was running, but um my son happened to be uh mowing uh Mark's lawn

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and uh we came up and it was quite a a gush. And um I saw myself that and I took a picture and showed it to Mark that it was obviously just going outside. It didn't go into the sewer. It was outside. But um so Mark is just requesting the council's consideration

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of waving the sewer charges since it was visible that it did not go into the sewer system. I'll make the motion to wave the sewer charge. >> I'll second for a second. Any other discussion? >> All in favor? >> I.

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>> All opposed. >> Thanks for bearing with us this whole time, Mark. [laughter] It >> was a long meeting. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> That's one of my biggest fears though is leaving that outside. That is. We always turn the water off because it's

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terrifying. >> The water turn it off. [laughter] >> I came up and we heard a gush and I was like, "That doesn't sound good. Where's that coming from?" And the water was just [laughter] [gasps] >> But it was consideration.

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>> Yeah. >> Thanks, Mark. [clears throat and snorts] >> Concrete repairs. Um, so in front of you guys in the packet is three bids for

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um some concrete repair sidewalk and uh curb. Um we got three bids this year and um Dustin's custom concrete came in at the lowest um at 19,000. Um,

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so I have actually worked with him and know the kind of work he does. So I would recommend going with him for concrete repairs. >> Sorry. Where was this at? The concrete repairs

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>> just Starting in the bids on the next >> one one bid was pretty informal, but I decided that that was close enough to a bid as we were going to get from him. So,

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>> I can't remember. Are they the ones that did it last year too on Lassour? >> Um, >> no. Clint did it. >> Clint Adams did it last year. Um, and as you can see, he's, you know, $4,000 higher. Um, so

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I know, um, they all do good work and I've seen all of their work. So, I, you know, there's no really picking favorites. It's all about who's the cheapest at that point,

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I think. I'll make a motion to approve custom concrete. >> I'll second. >> First and second. Any other questions? >> The only thing I will note um which we're accepting their bid, but theirs had does come with a two-year warranty

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verse the one on Clint. So, that also carries some weight even with it not being the lowest bid. >> We have the first and second. All in favor? >> I. All opposed. All right. Tree trimming.

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Um, so I got a bid from Meltures to do basically the same thing we did last year. Um, take down approximately 10 ash trees. I think there's maybe a couple that aren't ash trees that are needing to go. Um, and

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then trimming 10 trees around the parks. um his bid stayed the same as it was last year and the only question I have is you know we've got the inventory and we know that I'm assuming these 10 would be on that

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inventory for removal >> that we put together. >> Yeah. and and a lot of it I give I give him some choice like you know he's the expert what trees do you think need to come down before other ones also

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>> um and he usually gives some pretty good input and like oh look it up there's a crack >> I didn't see that >> didn't see the >> I think I think last year the only concern I had was there were some some hangers down above the park and the playground you know as long as we keep

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eyes on that >> Yep. Because those trees obviously will need to come down at some point. >> Yep. >> Did you plant some new ones? >> Yep. We planted planted some maple trees around that area. >> So once those come down, the maples will be there.

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>> Yep. And we treated some of the ash trees around the playground area >> to kind of prolong the life of those to help, you know, get the maple trees to mature. you know, shade conservation kind of.

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[snorts] >> Any other questions for Director Hartman? >> I'll make a motion to accept melts. >> We have a first. Do we have a second? >> I'll second. >> First second. Any other questions? >> Was part of the trimming the request from the park board to look at the tree

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limb at phrase. Is that included in this then? >> Yeah, I think that tree is just going to come down. >> So, Yep. Yep. >> Yeah. Yeah. And this is for well Eagle Heights Park. It there's nothing really to do, but we'll split it up between,

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you know, what needs to be done at both Freys Park and Lake Eagle Park. So, >> so any other questions? All in favor? >> I. >> All opposed. >> All right. Water meters.

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>> Yes. Um, so I have a request and I quote for 48 water meters and the heads for them. Um, I did have to order heads like a

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month ago just cuz we ran out before we uh had time to get this to the council. um they are what we use. So it's kind of a you know we can't switch to go look at any other

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brands unless we switch all the software and everything else. So we're kind of at their mercy. Um looking at other meters, they are comparable in price for what what they are anyway. So

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>> did we was it How long ago? I remember that we just did >> Didn't we just order these? >> Probably six months ago. >> Six months. Okay. >> Well, beginning of last summer. Um but we had

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>> we had all the town homes and um we've actually been replacing a lot of existing. Um >> they have a 15-year life. Um, and majority of the town was done like 18, 19 years ago now. So,

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we're starting to run into the batteries are dying. We can't read them, you know. So, we're getting in and replacing those as they come up every month when we do meter reads. And so, >> remind me if we need to replace them, that's on the city. It's a new build. It's on

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>> they get built for it. Yep. So, as we come nearing budget time, can we have somewhat of a understanding or a budget of we're going to spend this much because we're going to have to replace this many? >> I I think this year we will have a better understanding of how many we're

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replacing a month. Um, last year we didn't really have this issue. It kind of started, I guess, the end of last year and into this year of, you know, okay, now they're starting to fail. Now, we got to get in and replace them. So, I think um with some help from the office

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staff, we can probably get a count of like what's our average a month that we're replacing. And >> it' be nice to just kind of start slowly instead of the big bang where you buy 10,000 of them, >> right? >> Um you can do a few at a time and then

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they don't age out the same, which is nice. >> Right. >> All right. I'd look for a motion for the expenditure. I'll make that motion. >> I'll second. >> First and second. Any other discussion? >> All in favor?

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>> I. >> All opposed. >> All right. Number eight. Inquiries about the flag. >> All right. Uh, mayor and city council. Um, as you guys know, the new Minnesota state flag became official in 2024. Um,

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at that time we had had some discussion um at the council meeting because it was all new and I had researched with the League of Minnesota cities to find out if there was a certain date that we had to start flying the new flag and um findings at that time was there was no

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um there was no mandatory date by which cities had to do that. Um, so we talked about it and following that discussion, the city council made a motion to continue displaying the former uh Minnesota state flag, which is what we're flying right now um at the

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locations that we fly the state flag. And uh the motion was basically um I included a copy with the packet, but the city council made a motion to continue displaying the former state flag until such time as it became mandatory for cities to transition to the new state

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flag. So, the council set policy, but I just wanted to bring this issue back up because we have gotten a number of inquiries just asking, well, how come Eagle Lake's not flying the state flag? And so, I the new state flag. So, then I'll just if possible, if I can email somebody, I'll just give them a copy of

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the minutes that shows the decision that was made. Um, and I just wanted to bring it up again to the council just because we've had some changes with the makeup of the council. um you know and just let you know um that we've had some questions and you know how I'm responding to residents and you know

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there's no um there's no action that needs to be taken because you've already set your policy but I'm just bringing it to your to you forformational purposes that some question residents have inquired about the new flag. So um if you guys would like to change at any point you would need to give city staff

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direction because we're following the the decision that was made in 2024. So, if there's a um you know, if council wants to maintain the current policy, that's what we'll do if you want to change it, you know, direct staff accordingly. But I just thought this is an issue I wanted you guys to be aware

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of in case for some reason it would um be brought up on social media or what have you that we're all on the same page. So, that's all I have. Thank you. Would anybody like to have a discussion or have any thoughts about

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moving from our previous stance >> on the flag itself? >> Just a heads up on this too. Um, at the time uh when this was set, we bought as many of the old flags as we could. Um so we

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we are starting to run low on those and you know if we want to continue with this or switch to the other flag um that just kind of we have to start looking for >> start sourcing those. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So

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>> how much longer do you think we have of flags? Couple years. probably a six months to a year. They get so beat up out here with the wind, it's [laughter]

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they last about two months probably. So, >> can can we still get or the old plagues? Do you have anybody that you >> I don't know if we can, but I'm sure we can. >> I'm sure they're online somewhere. I'm not saying I do it now, but this is an

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issue that's going to keep on coming up every periodically over the over the years. I think we probably should set something at some point. >> I think we buy a hundred of the old ones. >> I'd make a motion to stay with what we did in 2024 until we are told to do

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something else. >> I second. >> Have a first and second. Any other discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> All oppose. All right. City administrator reports.

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>> All right. Uh mayor and city council attached with the uh um packet, you'll find the year-to- date revenue and expenditure reports. Um just reminder to everybody that tomorrow is National Night Out. Uh food will be served starting at 5:00 PM. There's a lot of fun stuff. Hopefully the weather

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cooperates. Um if everything goes as planned, we've got um uh hot dogs, uh watermelon chips, um that meal will be served. It's a free donation. Uh we've got uh Goofy Goat Farm. We have uh ice

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cream truck coming or not truck, but ice cream um soda scoops will be on hand to sell ice cream. We've got about a hundred prizes for uh youth for um that Lions has secured donations for with our Lions Club. So that'll be really fun. Uh the sheriff's office is going to host uh

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kickball with the expose for youth. >> Hello. [snorts] >> No, no, no pressure. [laughter] >> You care to elaborate, mayor, on that? No. Um so hopefully no injuries with [laughter] youth kickball.

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>> It's nice that you're doing with the youth, not the elderly. >> Yeah. >> And then we have summer sounds, so that'll be fun. Um so it should be a really good night. I'm really proud of the different groups that have come together and and stepped up to work together and make this a fun night. So,

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um like I said, weather cooperates. We will um hopefully have a good evening tomorrow night. Uh next item, budget work session. Um at the last meeting, I was looking ahead and I had mentioned doing a work session on August 10th, but the following day is the primary. So, it was a very bad day

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for me to have picked the 10th. So, I would request that we move it to um uh Tuesday, August 18th. Um and I'll be working with uh the fire chief and public works director on their budget requests. I'm currently working with um our fund accounting software to get some

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of the changes made on how the the way the budget looks. So, working on that right now. Uh but we will but if if the 18th works for everybody. If it does not, let me know and we'll find a different date. But that's um looks like the most

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>> Oh, yes, we do. Too many meetings. No, we've got a meeting with another township. Okay, thank you for bringing that up. But that's at 7 o'clock. So, let's see. Um unless we could meet at five o'clock possibly. I don't know if that would be a possibility if that's pushing it for

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you guys. Could do that beforehand. >> Works for me. >> Thank you, Spencer. >> Making that work. >> All right. So, if it works everybody, we would aim for five o'clock on the 18th and I'll send out a calendar invite >> that works. >> Or we could pick a different date, too,

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if that's not a good day. Um, but let's see. Wednesday would work to the 19th if the 19th works better. >> It doesn't matter. >> You're going right. You're

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19th. Okay. >> Where's our meeting with the township? Is it here at your place or or >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yep. And I should just so everybody knows what we're talking about here. Uh Laray Township had reached out and they wanted to look at possibly increasing the coverage that we provide them. We

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currently have a contract with them. So, they wanted to talk about adding, I think, three sections. So, um the mayor and fire chief and I were going to go go over there and kind of learn a little bit more about what they want to talk about with that. So, uh, how about this? How about if I, um,

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I'll just send out a calendar invite and everybody let me know if it doesn't work and we'll go from there. Thank you for your flexibility. I appreciate it. And just so you guys know, we got plenty of time. The preliminary um, tax levy is due to the county by September 30th, but we we've got time here. We're doing

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we're doing fine. So, I won't find out our health insurance rates until is it next week? I've got a meeting coming up. Um, so I we there's things that we're waiting for. So we're right on can't put all the stuff together anyways until I get an ID on some of these things. So,

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uh, next item, just want to give you guys an update. Um, small cities development program. There's been some kind of talk about what do we do with some money that we have, um, with that just under $20,000. Uh, I won't go through all of it in detail in here, but I wanted to just add

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a little background to, um, to my report tonight. We're gonna have Judge Schultz with MBAC uh come and talk to you guys as Minnesota Valley Action Council. He'll be here at the September meeting to talk to you about uh looking for um possibly submitting a grant to get some

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small cities development program residential dollars uh to apply for some for our community, possibly commercial, but most likely just residential. And it's been a few years we've been talking about over the last few years about when is a good time to apply. And um in the

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past, Eagle Lake has u gotten some money and it's helped people that plan to stay in their home for um the required number of years can do improvements to their home and get up to $25,000 for their project. So, we will talk more at the September meeting. Uh it was also in the

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EDA minutes from last month. So, I just wanted to make sure I gave you an update because uh Jud had initially planned to come to tonight's meeting, then he had to be out of town for traveling and so he said he'll come to the September meeting. And with that, I think that's all I've got. So, actually, there's one

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other thing. Sorry. Sorry. Um, I just wanted to mention um that I uh would like our the city council and city staff to uh sign a card and if anybody would like to give any money to send to um one of our firefighters family um that

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passed away unexpectedly. And so we just just wanted to take a moment to recognize the service that um Adam Johnson had provided to Eagle Lake and um you know just let his family know that we're thinking of him and we'll get a card and have if you guys want to come in and sign it and um you know give any

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contributions we'll send that to them. So with that that's all I've got. >> Perfect. Let us know when you have that here so we can do that. >> Right. Council member reports Garrett we'll start with you this time. Um, I don't have anything tonight.

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>> All right, Nick. >> No, I did, but I'll bring it up in the next meeting. So, we'll table that for later. >> Nope. Just saw tomorrow night. >> Mine's more of a question. Um, with the I noticed with the string connectivity

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project, the trees have been trimmed. Are the stumps getting ground down too or >> Excuse me. contract. >> Okay. So, they will once the whole thing is done, just not until it's done. >> Okay.

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>> Okay. So, that's to come. Okay. >> All right. It looks like we need to adjourn into a close session. Anything else before we do that? Um, mayor and city council, I we should probably adjourn on uh state on the record what

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we're adjourning and to if mayor if you don't mind um reading what's on the agenda just we um have to cite that. >> All right. The city council will convene a closed session pursuant to Minnesota statutes 13D.05 subdivision 3C to consider offers to

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negotiate the purchase of real property instead of fake property. Um, the property under consideration is a portion of the parcel R43134005 for the construction of the new water treatment facility. So, look for a motion to enter into the

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close session. >> Motion. >> Second. >> First and second. All right, we're in close session. I'm going to record again. All right. >> Okay. So, would look for a motion to direct staff

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to work with council. >> I'll make a motion. >> First, do I have a second? First and second. Any other discussion? >> All in favor? I. All opposed.

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And then I'd look for a motion to >> I'll second his motion. >> And we are done. Thanks everybody.