##VIDEO ID:TWnmKb99EHE## oh we'll call the city council regular meeting to order for Monday January 6th 2025 uh we'll start with item 21 which is our swearing in ceremony okay and Joshua if you can join me up front for the O you're good I Joshua you SAR that I will support theti of the United States I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota and the constitution of the state OFA I will faithfully and partially discharge the duties of man that I will faithfully and partially discharge the duties of man in accordance with the law the best the best judgment in in accordance with the law and to the best of myud ability do swear I Steve Wilson do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota and the constitution of the state of Minnesota and I will Faithfully impartially discharge the duties of counc that I will faithfully and impartially disar the do as of council member in accordance with the law and to the best of my judgment in accordance with the law and to the best of my judgment abili so all got hi J ctis I support the Constitution states that I will support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the state of Minnesota and the constitution of the state of Minnesota that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of council member and then I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of council member in accordance with the law and the best of my judgment and ability in accordance with the law in the best of my judgment and ability so help me so help me that thank you thank you welcome than you all right we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance at this time Al 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 call the RO please mayor Hoy here council member Bernat here council member ctis here council member lean here council member Wilson here all right any changes to the agenda none none none all right unless there's any changes I would see the motion to approve the agenda so moved second motion by Jake second by Steve all in favor say I I all right we'll go to item 61 on our announcements and commendations which is Dakota County update from district one County Commissioner Mike Slavic welcome sir thank you good evening mayor council member City staff those in the audience and of course those watching on uh some sort watching at home uh Happy New Year to all of you and uh congratulations to those reelected and and newly elected it's uh uh having worked with all of you in some sort of elected office over the last number of years it's I certainly look forward to uh continuing that good work in in 2025 uh so congratulations on that I was last year in May giving kind of an update as I try to come about twice a year unfortunately with some schedule conflicts was not able to come at the end of uh 2024 so I'm here today to kind of just do a recap of of 2024 and just kind of a looking head for 2025 um just want to start with saying when I was here last I think I shared with all of you that uh our County Manager announced retirement and we uh so Matt Smith did retire in may he was our County Manager of an 8-year time uh almost a 40-year career in government and uh he did retire this past may we went through a very lengthy process uh to find the next County Manager for Dakota County and uh we hired at this pth last summer uh Dr Heidi Welsh she was the um County uh administrator for Olstead County down in Rochester um was recently and prior to that she had actually worked for Dakota County for 13 years in various roles so we have been very fortunate to have her uh we are seeing some uh pretty impressive things in that time our uh your city administrator has had opportunity to to have some of those meetings already as we're working on continuing to uh build our relationships with our our city counties U other County and State Partners uh with that so that's been really great and and successful with that uh and we're seeing some pretty dramatic changes in a very positive way just in the uh short three months that uh Dr Welsh has been uh at Dakota County couple things kind of going back into 2024 uh you know it was about a year ago this point we were having an open house related to some potential concepts for a trail um and some pedestrian safety on Pilot Knob uh we do know that that is still some of the uh safety issues as Pilot Knob is continuing to be a a faster thorough Fair within the city of Farmington um however I think there was waiting there's some potential development that might drive some of what that might look like so uh I think we have some some good uh feedback from the community as well as some good preliminary design but I think we're waiting to see what uh what may come across in in the coming years it still is in a 5-year Capital Improvement plan but it's not in an immediate um uh Improvement on there uh the second thing just uh wanted I think most of the council was that present uh we've had an amazing partnership with the Dakota County Community Development agency and we had our groundbreaking this past August with the Denmark Trail uh Workforce tow houses so this is actually going to be one of the um the first uh Concepts that is like this and uh we've had this will I think be our 202 housing townhouse development that we've had throughout Dakota County but this is the first one that is actually Incorporated one bedroom two-bedroom three bedroom and four bedroom units so we've uh seen a great demand for uh individuals who may not necessarily have the family but there is some uh Workforce just to give you reference you must have a job and meet a certain income threshold to be able to uh live in this community but um but it's a it is at a lower rent than what it would be for a normal market rate rent and we've seen a lot of those individuals without families as well as those with larger families that have kind of been a gap within Dakota County and uh rather than do a whole separate building of just uh efficiencies in one bedrooms or a lot of larger four bedroom and larger units we actually are blending that into one development it's the first time that we've done that and we hope it will be successful we've actually opened up a Farmington only for this development uh weight list so uh uh a lot of our developments that are more in the southern part of the County uh don't have as large of a weight list as as other parts in there and one thing that we've uh tried and it's been a very very successful pilot has been we opened it up last uh summer for a far Farmington for people who only want to go and uh live work in in the Farmington area so uh we will have a official ribbon cutting for that in 2025 and we will be this fall will be filling before the school year intend to fill all of those units and uh the weight list is is larger than the units that we have available so that is a a great success story on that um another good success story in a partnership that we've able to do with uh the city of Farmington is the uh North Creek Greenway uh the city has has been working in taking over a portion of the uh City Trail uh as part of a uh a 200 mile Vision that will actually go and take the maintenance and repairs and uh of the of a current city trail system throughout all of Dakota County on a 200 mile system that will actually be um in this part in the North Creek Greenway area connecting Apple Valley Lakeville and Farmington Al Ely getting down into uh Rambling River Park and then that will be allowed to go into um a an additional Vermillion River uh Greenway that will go all the way to white tail woods so uh so part of the system in here that we're working on uh we were able to go in and bring that portion of the trail up to County standards in 2024 and uh through working on our maintenance agreement uh that will be a cost savings to the residents of Farmington as that portion of the trail will not be the responsibility of the residents of businesses of Dakota of uh Farmington but instead of all of Dakota County as part of a regional system so we're excited for that and I know there's actually about miles of of of in that Vision that go through parts of of uh the city of Farmington that will be able to connect Farmington uh throughout the entire County so we're looking forward to that partnership continuing and uh as a County Board uh we're just about 40 miles of that 200m Greenway Vision so we have a long ways to go and I know the County Board has been looking at using some of uh of of the sales tax resources that we have to continue to uh make that a priority that ends up being a good partnership with our communities and cities to save save taxpayer dollars but it also makes a high quality of life that we know our residents all want want to be able to experience another partnership that we did in 2024 which has been wildly successful um has been uh having a centralized absentee uh system I know that uh prior to that with the absentee and and how elections go every city did their own way and uh one of the ways that we were able to have as one centralized County uh absentee ballot board and uh that that that was not something that I think everybody was on board with but it has ended up turning out better than um I I'm sure your staff will attest to that many of them have actually reached out to us that have said this turned out to be a pretty good thing I know we um we want to make sure that we still keep the elections local and uh and that's why you're I don't ever see that happening at a county level to do full countywide but I think this is truly more of a partnership that added cost savings with that um the last thing and that I will share was at the end of uh 2024 and we'll be uh the public comment is still open on looking at some of those Trail and pedestrian safety issues on uh Denmark and uh a part of a uh I think County Road 76 that is H uh so that has actually opened till the end of this week uh for a public comment and there I think there's only about two or three comments it hasn't had a significant engagement but we know that uh our County roads are getting busier with with with heavier traffic and we see that on Elm we see that on ash we see that on Pilot Knob and um finding ways and particularly ways to cross over or under as we um have The Pedestrian side there is one of the uh objectives that we want to be able to do an appropriate study and then when the dollars are available uh fulfill with that moving on to 20125 you know uh there is uh this is uh for us as a County Board today uh you all swore in your uh uh your newly electeds tomorrow the Dakota County Board will be swearing in our newly electeds who are all reelected so our Dakota County Board will look the same in 2025 as it did in 2024 chish hmon Roland uh uh Dy and Workman all were reelected in 2024 so the seven of us will stay on the board uh NE this coming year uh we go and uh our theme for 2025 is really uh We're In It Together We can't do this alone and we've we really believe as a County Board that uh one of our strategic priorities is to go in and expand on our Partnerships with our cities with our townships with our schools and with our state and federal partners and and and one of the parts that we have not been there is also with our business community so uh we we've got a number of strategic objectives that we are working on uh that we're looking forward to uh kind of talking about uh one of the first ones is coming up at the end of January where we um you'll be receiving a letter probably this week I imagine uh to City administrator asking for two of your uh council members or mayor to be able to attend a uh a countywide government Affairs uh uh conversation uh up in West St Paul to kind of talk about our legislative priorities but also how we can work together um as all levels of government uh with our state Partners so uh that is that is coming up we try to Pilot of that in 2024 and we're uh looking to expand upon that in 2025 so that's one of our objectives in addition to all the fun stuff that we do every here as you do in terms of budgets and and whatever Hot Topics might come up that you don't exactly know about and uh but we're really looking forward to uh working together in 2025 uh and I just want to once again thank you for the Partnerships that we've had with with um your city staff have been great to work with at at both my level and at the at the county staff level and all of you I I look forward to continuing the work we've done so far thank you sir thank you Nick uh no questions I just want to return to gratitude it it takes a lot of time obviously for you to make these out here all the time so I appreciate all the feedback and the transparency and the and the updates thank you no questions for me just uh happy to see you again and uh excited for what this coming year has and grateful you're back Steve yeah Mike you um you really do just an amazing job you know in being our partner but I think more than that you are frequently at different events that are going around the community um you know you're just there as if you're kind of one of us even though I believe you live in Hastings so um and then we you know I think as uh Nick alluded to you live in you know you have to cover all the different townships so just really appreciate all your support of our community so thank you Jake I just want to Echo what my uh peers said thank you for coming tonight Mike uh I look forward to working with you again over the next few years I I'll add on top of all of that um you at least in in my time so I'm going to speak on that is uh you have absolutely been an advocate for Farmington you show up to events you Patron businesses you work with us as an elected body um taking nothing away from your peers because we see a lot of them doing the same but uh you truly do Advocate on behalf of the residents and um it might it might not register with the average resident when they hear something like the county is going to take over a section of path right but to put that into context uh cost sharing over the years has been 5545 8515 that smaller percentage sits on the backs of the residents and the businesses of Farmington and when the county takes that off it alleviates that burden albeit to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually but it puts it on the rest of the county because we know that our residents are out amongst Dakota County spending their money doing the things and it's it's a way to help bring that money back to the community um and and I I don't want to lose the gravity of that that is a big deal when when the county talks about wanting to partner with us on on Rambling River Park and turning it into a trail head and the constant effort that you and your peers uh put forward to help benefit Farmington does not go unnoticed and it is extremely appreciated um I just I I couldn't ask for a for a better commissioner to represent our community and you show up only every day so thank you for everything that you do well I will add Mr Mayor and council members and staff thank you very much for the nice comments um and uh but we're certainly certainly in it together with that and then I will lastly say if there are you know these are are good happy times but you know not everything that we do is always in in those moments so if there are any anyone watching you all know how to get a hold of me if there are issues but for uh residents or business owners um the my contact information is on the County website but also feel free to email me Facebook me or or call my office if you do have any questions comments or compliments with that so thank you very much thank you sir we appreciate it yes thank you all right our next item on the agenda is citizen comments uh if there's anyone wanting to speak at this time please come up to the podium and as a reminder for those wishing to speak uh citizen comments is a time for anyone to address the city council on matters not on the agenda those speaking shall State their name and address and limit their comments to 5 minutes uh the city council will not engage in discussion on your topic but those issues requiring a response will be responded to by the next city council meeting go ahead David pitof 20255 aen Road welcome council member Cordis thank you mayor Hoy council member Wilson for being a council member and here again I ask all of you to govern to the best of your ability as was as was in your swearing in deal we got some pictures I wanted you to take a look at we've had he's going to focus that in or not we had one snow we've gone through this numerous times that's obviously my property on aen road One S a plow has to plow over 2 feet on the my property and take the side off that's ridiculous obviously some snow melt has has happened but you you'll be able to see in one of these pictures looking backwards that the wing plow is 2 feet on my property before my mailbox you'll see that it's not even on the edge of the road on 23d street I'll show you a picture you're not even going up to the curb but you sure like screwing up the h out of my property I'm going to ask the council and and staff to I don't know if you're doing this purposely because you're being called out sometimes by me on certain on certain issu issues but it certainly is very egregious as to how far they went on my property what we've been fighting with for over years on this that's looking that's looking back can you turn that 90 degrees Dave so it's up and down the the other way the other way there you go thank you that's looking back at it obviously it's some some snow M but you could see how far that plow has plowed under my grass you got a bill for it one be once before you're going to get another bill fort in the spring all I ask and I've said this before do you want people in this community to take care of their properties and make it look presentable for for people I try to do that there's chunks of s from my property into my neighbor's property that I'll have to clean up this spring like I say this is very sickening 23r Street just around the just down the corner obviously some melts going on but you can see there you had in within 2 feet of the curb one property you want to go you want to go two feet on the property the next one you want to go State 2 feet away from it and one of these pictures believe it's that one right there see if you look up before my ma box you're right on the edge of the road what is it you guys you have something with me or what this is obviously seems intentional and I think you need to direct staff to tell people that hey you might have got your butts handed to you when I did this project but leave me alone I won't have to come here and do this all I want is a decent lot decent property I've been commented on on when I put you know Halloween stuff up Christmas stuff up like I say I'll reiterate you want people to make it look decent on their properties I try you want it to look like I'll try to do that too if you want I'm on a main throw there just try to do what's best for myself and and people that go by my place I ask you one more time govern to the best your ability and tell staff to knock this off I'm sick of it you'll get a bill in the spring for me to fix this David are you going to stay until after the meeting sure I can okay thank you is there anyone else in attendance wishing to speak all right seeing none we'll move on to our next item item eight which is the consent agenda i' seek a motion to approve the consent agenda motion to approve motion by Holly second by Steve on favor say I I all right the next item on our agenda is item 91 uh this item is a public hearing for the petition to vacate a portion of a drainage and utility easement within Lot 4 block 2 Sapphire Lake Third Edition 2688 213th Street West I'd like to go ahead and open the public hearing at this time Jared thank you mayor city council members uh so the city has received a petition from Eternity Homes to vacate a portion of a drainage utility easement within Lot 4 block 2 South Fire Lake Third Edition um addressed as 2688 213 Street West uh so Eternity Homes has constructed a foundation for a single family house uh on this lot and has later realized that a small portion um of the garage encroaches into the easterly side 10t drainage utility easement by 2 ft um so instead of removing the foundation they're requesting that this twoot portion be vacated uh and so that it can uh the garage can remain out of easement um as you see up here on the screen um in the dotted red line is the 10-ft um easement line and this little um portion here um encroaches about 2 feet within that easement uh engineering and planning staff uh have no concerns with this minor encroachment and are okay with the proposed easement vacation and so per Minnesota statutes um the city council must conduct a public hearing U regarding the propos vacation um after uh published and posted notice of said vacation and so as on this survey here this is the twoot uh easement outline here in the hatched red area that would be vacated so it's that twoot strip all along that easement uh so the action requested for you guys tonight is after taking any public comment close the public hearing and adopt resolution 20256 uh vacating a portion of a drain utility easement within lot four block two sapphire Lake Third Edition thank you sir uh Steve any questions for Jared yeah Jared I actually do have one so the grading plan for this for this plat is going to be adjusted a little bit to acknowledge the fact that the easement because I mean obviously there's a lot next to it so I mean there has to be a grading adjustment right um not that I am aware of John if you want to comment on that wasn't there sometime I mean there's there's usually some kind of a grade from property to property along with the I mean is that's part of the easement itself isn't it yep Mar and Property Owners there is a drainage and utility easement along the common lot line but based on a twoot encroachment on the side Lot line it's not going to impact the grades except right at that location where that corner is intruding so it's not going to be pushing flow onto the neighboring property or anything like that yeah okay any other questions or comment no Nick questions hly Jake no questions um I guess my question is more for our attorney if if this variance or vacation is uh approved does this create a precedent or a situation where whether it's this this Builder or any other Builder unknowingly does the same thing that we are in essence required to approve based on prior decision in a similar instance or even a homeowner from saying I want to build an oversized shatter I want to put it there because it lines up you've done this so now you need to do this for me too um Mr Mayor no you aren't creating a a precedent um it's it's actually quite common these things happen um either in inadvertently or um sometimes intentionally unfortunately but um each each instance would be handled on a Case case-by Case basis um a variance is different than a vacation and this is a vacation so this is just clear basically on paper taking away part of the city's interest in that small sliver of of the easement the city will still be able to use the rest of the easement for its original purpose um and it doesn't create a precedent that you're obligated to follow in the future okay thank you ma'am I don't have any other questions or statements for you Jaren uh is the applicant present no I believe no rep was here tonight okay um since the applicant's not here are there any residents because it is a public hearing anyone that would like to speak on the matter here uh so that we can get it on the record I'd prefer you come to the podium please if you could just state your name please uh Bob Richardson I just had a question I mean this happens but how does it happen I mean I used to work for Dakota County parks in current technology online surveying and GPS surveying I mean the trails and roadways are within GPS is a foot I mean inches mostly I mean if it happens you have to kind of allow it but I mean I live in the older part of town back then our most of our garages and stuff are in are are in City alley easan if you technically but they're grandfathered in and then we had a neighbor that twin home on First and Elm you guys that uh that was old duplex and he had a variance that shift it over to our property to or closer to our property to make it legal and we we deal with that every time and we we got a 40ft building our driveway is in the ice and in that house I mean you got to put some thought into this when you do these houses I mean that house was put in there all his Mechanicals or or 4T from our kitchen W or 4T from our property line but I mean I mean this is a slight technical technical you know issue but I mean all these big developments and then uh because uh it could I mean a developer could sneak this in and get into a County right away or utility eement that has you know in the future this one probably wouldn't be affected but in the future if he's 3 off and you got to run a gas line or Fiber Optic in there you know they're there for a reason and like our County Boulevard on County 50 is uh our property goes to back to sidewalk we maintain it I mean our our uh Boulevard has you can't get another utility in there I mean but this was just a minor thing but with the technology I mean this was a minor problem but like you said I mean somebody might ask to add six feet on their garage and encroach into the like the set bags and stuff and then you might open the door to some trouble in the future but just a thought I appreciate that thank you sir thank you it it brings up a good question actually I'll add to that Jared how did this happen I mean I presumably it was surveyed right it was pread um they came out and they dug it and the Builder set the footings in the wrong spot and didn't catch it until after the foundation walls were poured or what what happened so the survey submitted showed a 5 foot drain utility easement and so turning they put in the foundation and realized it's a 10- foot easement and came back to the city with the vaca or with the vacation proposal okay can I actually ask a question related to that is it just for the purpose of consistency that you would do a twot vacation along the entire property line rather than angling it only to accommodate for that front corner correct um the rationale behind that is to avoid any future issues down the or down the line with um that specific two feet encroachment on the property in general okay okay all right uh again it is a public hearing any other residents in attendants wanting to speak all right seeing none then I will close the public hearing at this time uh any other questions deliberations Steve Jake Holly or Nick nope no okay uh let's be formal here get the verbage uh then I will seek a motion to adopt resolution 2025 tag 06 vacating a portion of a drainage and utility easement within Lot 4 block two sapphire Lake Third Edition motion to approve motion by Nick second second by Jake call the RO please council member bernatz yes council member ctis yes council member Leen yes council member Wilson yes mayor Hoy yes thank you Jaren thank you all right our next item on the agenda is item 13 13 Tac one uh designation of acting mayor for 2025 Shirley according to the council's B laws at the first meeting of the year you need to choose an acting mayor who perform as um perform the duties of the mayor during disability or absence of the mayor from the city um I'd like to make a correction to the report in the council packet uh council member Cordes is beginning his first year of term council member Bernat is beginning her third year council member lean is beginning his third year not his fourth council member Wilson is beginning his first year of this term not his fifth so I just want to make sure that was clear first um for the bylaws in an odd-numbered year the member serving the third year of term who received the most votes when elected would be the acting mayor council member berat serving her third year of term was elected in 2022 and received the most votes at the November 8th 2022 general election thank you ma'am uh any questions comments all right then I would seek a motion to approve the appointment of council member Holly bernatz as acting mayor for 2025 motion to approve second motion by Nick second by Steve call the rooll please council member Cordes yes council member lean yes council member Wilson yes mayor Hoy yes council member Berets yes slight hesitation there uh next item on the agenda is 13 Tac 2 which is the resolution approving 2025 coun uh city council committee appointments at work session tonight discussed this item and amended resolution 2025-the airport advisory commission Holly Bernat as primary Jake ctis as alternate Al ambulance Apple Valley Lakeville Farmington Steve Wilson as primary Nick lean as alternate Dakota 911 board of directors Nick lean as primary Steve Wilson as alternate Empire Farmington planning advisory commission or committee sorry Joshua Hoy as primary Jake ctis as alternate Eureka Farmington planning advisory committee Holly Bernat is primary Joshua hoit is alternate Farmington Castle Rock Discussion Group Joshua hoit is primary Steve Wilson is alternate Fire Relief board Steve Wilson as primary Jay ctis as alternate Li operations committee Jake ctis as primary Nick lean as alternate Metropolitan urban service area Review Committee Holly bernat's primary Nick lean as alternate thank you ma'am any comments questions concerns all right looks good seeing none I would seek a motion to adopt resolution 2025 tax 05 approving the appointments to council committees for 2025 so moved second motion by Jake second by Holly call the rooll please council member lean yes council member Wilson yes mayor Hoy yes council member berad yes council member CES yes all right round table you get to start I get to start I know there's a lot of pressure to give a report about bison but and I did a little searching and didn't find anything new to report on that so I decided to do um in lie of anything happening at the legislature or other leg significant uh news I decided to find a little Farmington fun fact that maybe all of you know because you live here and because I don't and I'm new here it was new to me and I thought it was very interesting that Farmington was one of the first communities in the United States to offer free rural mail delivery in 1897 wow I thought that was a fun fact I like that you know that now so that's my report for the day thank you ma'am Nick I hope everyone had a good good holiday and congratulations to Steve and Jake and Josh a little bit of change for me but I guess I've known all of you for a long time now so looking forward to next couple years thank you sir hly uh yeah happy New Year everybody congratulations gentlemen um glad to have you back and glad to have you here and uh actually the thing that I want to talk about is something that uh came up in our neighborhood and conversation uh over the holiday which is the uh abundance of uh dead um water fow on uh certain bodies of water in the Farmington and actually throughout the entire southern Minnesota area if you live by a body of water right now in Farmington and you are looking out and you see uh an above average amount of dead geese or swans unfortunately on your water please contact the Minnesota DNR they are aware of this as a situation um they believe it to be some sort of bird flu um they're encouraging that residents do not handle the water fowl on their own but rather to let DNR come out and remove them and the expectation is now that the ice is stable and we've had some cold weather uh that they'll be able to do that in the coming weeks so uh just be mindful of that if it's something that's affecting you um let the DNR know and they'll come out and take care of it for you keep your dogs away keep your dogs away yeah keep your dogs away keep your kids away if they like pond hockey don't go out there and think that you're going to you know start yanking on the geese on your own and pull them out uh it's just better to let people that know how to handle this handle this because there's a whole process on how they're disposing of them as well in order to prevent um and if you think it's not a big deal just remember that there are scavenger animals and scavenger Birds um particularly bald eagles that like to feed on this and we we they the DNR would like to see that you know no one else or nothing else gets sick so that's that thank man Jake um again Happy New Year to everybody I I really look forward to this opportunity just a few thank yous thank you to the community for giving me this this amazing opportunity to serve Farmington over the next four years thank you to my peers and and City staff for meeting with me over the last couple of months to get me up to speed and get me ready to do the job on day one and uh thank you to my family and friends who came out tonight uh to encourage me on night one but uh specifically thank you and my wife Bridget and my son Oliver for uh staying out past their bed times um till the end of the meeting and for your encouragement and your support uh during the campaign and then over the next four years thank you sir Steve thank you Jay I too would like to thank the community for their V of support uh it was really almost a blur in time back to November because my dad passed away just a couple days after the election um and actually kind of a neat moment for me because I was able able to he wasn't Lucid or aware of what was going on but I got to see the election results right as I was sitting bedside with him so kind of a neat memory so thank you Farmington Community for your support um I do want to congratulate obviously the mayor and and Jake too um you know the one I do want to make a comment about Jake Jake probably spent you go 12 to 14 months maybe longer attending every single um City meeting um Workshop um you know and he's super involved in the community as we all know so I just want to commend you Jake because um you know there is a lot to know I know that we have another former council member in the audience tonight too there's a lot to know when you serve in this role um and the good news is you get to learn you know throughout the entire time that you're on the on the council so it is very rewarding in that way um I also wanted to we always have a lot of good stuff on the consent agenda and I think every single week we see donations from individuals that go towards the Rambling River Center I did want to call out Finch and Daisy though they had a really generous donation um Their donation um you know is something that they wanted to give it doesn't take anything away from any other donation but I know that Finch and Daisy in particular does so many good things through the rotary and this donation as well and there's so many donors to the Rambling River Center that um all of you small or large is greatly appreciated so that's all I have thank you Lynn welcome back mayor in Wilson council member Wilson and uh welcome Jake Cordis we're excited to start working with you on the Das so just want to let everybody know that our regular scheduled meeting for Council is January 20th but we'll be changing it to the January 21st and observance of Martin Luther King day that's all I have thanks thank you Surly I don't have anything other than I'm really happy to be back thank you we're happy to have you back thank you di thank you mayor and Council I'm excited to talk about a collaboration that we're kicking off this year we are collaborating with DCTC to do a business survey and we'll be um all of our businesses in town should be getting an invitation to take this survey we really want to hear from our businesses we'll be having an event in February that they'll be invited to and we're calling it building a stronger future together the Farmington business Summit so if um you're a local business please look out for that survey link request coming from DCTC again this is a collaboration that we're excited about that um the college is excited about please participate in that and look for the invitation to attend this upcoming Summit what I have thank you John thank you mayor and council members the uh I want to highlight one of the items also on the consent agenda uh we continue to implement our EAB management plan so uh tonight you awarded a contract for removing 216 ash trees another 102 asht tree stumps where the trees were taken out as a public safety measure before the stumps could be taken out and we continue to get very competitive prices we had six responsive biders on this contract and we're very happy to see that we're getting strong interest even as we continue with these large contracts for removals thank you Kelly good evening mayor and Council uh today outdoor ranks and warming houses officially opened uh as you know we have warming houses at both dis dead rink and at raming River park behind Dodge middle school and then we flood a pleasure rink at Farmington Elementary School so warming houses are open for the season now uh Sunday the Suns of the American Legion omelette breakfast at the VFW is for the Rambling River Center uh that breakfast uh is from 8 a.m. till noon so if you're not busy on Sunday morning like I said the proceeds from that go to the raming River Center and then on Sunday January 19th is s'mores and mo at Rambling River Park uh from 2: to 4: at the warming house we'll have music ice skating hot chocolate and some more so come out and join us on that particular day thank you thank you Kim thank you mayor and Council um only the first full week in January and already we have our Auditors on site they um were here today we'll be here tomorrow to begin their review of 2024 data and then we'll be back in March 31st to finish up with their field work thank you Chief January 13th we begin in the process of hiring for our paidon call um look at the website be all over our social media for all of our informational open houses that we will have um and then in March we will close and then we'll begin the process of interviews and go down the that with the start date of July thank you Chief I have nothing tonight sir okay taking a page out of the city attorney's book uh I'll come up with a fun Farmington fact off the top of my head how about that uh everybody's favorite uh chip dip or potato topping top the Tater made right here in Farmington right here in Farmington there you go good Factory and I think I think the uh the top has been removed from the container about this Summer's event it has become public now right I've seen some publication about it going out so what we know as Mountain de days which has had multiple names over the years uh has the due days committee has partnered with Kemps and this year's event will be called top of the Tater days so it'll be supportive of a local business uh who has National recognition and I'm sure there will be crazy things like how much top of the Tater can you eat over a period of time and baked potato typee I'm sure there will be many themed things around the event but um you know we we used to drink a lot of Mountain Dew and there was that and then it things changed and now it's top of the Tater day so I think that's a big win they from what from what I hear their marketing team uh and their Communications team will be doing a lot of work helping promote the event so we have a mascot too I think there's a whole lot of things but yeah all good stuff you're going to add something Nick I was just going to correct you for public record that it's top the T not top of the Tater top the Tater I'm sorry we we're official around here so um no congratulations Jake congratulations Steve um both longterm Servants of the community um both long-standing residents um I have no doubt that you will both continue to serve uh the community its residents and its businesses um in the best way possible um I I look forward to everything that 25 has in store um 24 was I I former city administrator and I were having a light conversation outside and said wow time flies and it does um it was just six years ago that I raised my hand and um standing right over there and asked to be a part of this crazy ride that is representing your community and there's a lot of things when you initially raise your hand that you believe happen or you believe you have some level of involvement with and you quickly realize how much you actually don't have a say in a lot of things and your purview becomes very narrow um and you rely on your team and the staff that is the team of the city of Farmington to to go out and execute the work and earlier this year I was asked a lot earlier in 24 I was asked a lot of times like why would you continue to do it like in light of all of the people that show up and tell you what you're not doing all the bad decisions that you make and all the things there are those who don't show up to meetings who go out of their way because they they support you but they don't want to be pulled into the masses that are openly criticized and drugged through the social media vital that does exist and I think when it really hit me was when my 14-year-old son came home with some profanities that were laced at him by a schoolmate and I know that these 13 14 year old kids don't come up with this stuff on their own it comes from their parents and I think that's a that says more about the state of society than it does about the city of Farmington and if we as a society are going to be better we individually have to be better every one of us and that starts with me I need to be a better representative for the city of Farmington I need to be uh more positive in all areas showing up and doing the work isn't just part of the job it's the responsibility of the job but you do it knowing that you are constantly subject to criticism and you're constantly subject to the naysayers and the you're not doing this right or it could be done better this we have made it our goal and we have put it in as our pillar a little over 4 and a/2 years ago that we are transparent trust me there is nobody sitting on their doorstep waiting for FedEx or UPS to show up with envelopes with money in it I think you watch a little bit too much of the national news to believe that that stuff actually exists in the city of Farmington because they don't show up to my doorstep and I know they're not showing up to my peers doorsteps each one of us has raised our hand has stepped forward to serve this community and we do it knowing that anybody at any time can come up and criticize us and say whatever it is that they want because it's their home too and we're here to try and do the best that we can with the information that we have in front of us and for some people it's never going to be enough but for the rest of the community and the majority that we interact with on a daily basis we're here to serve and I don't think there's any question that either myself or my peers do that in every situation possible so for those that continue to support I say thank you for those that have not and believe otherwise we'll continue to show you that we have farmington's best interests at heart and we'll continue to make decisions on behalf of the betterment of the majority of the residents of this community and move us forward to a time where this city can continue to thrive and we can be proud of the things that we're doing even if we disagree with how it looks like with that I would seek a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:51 p.m. motion by Jake second second by Holly all in favor say I I we're adjourned at 7:51