sound enough. I'm not finding it. No, I'm like I'm definitely not finding it. It's always going to be Google. Sorry, work. We use the other one all the days. I've got plenty of paper copies, too, if
you want one. He knows we'll zip through this, so it's okay if we're a minute or two late. It's weird how quiet it gets at night when you walk around town like from all the hoop all day long and then it just Yeah.
really taps down. Especially when the lake isn't when the lake isn't talking. Oh, even more. Yeah. Hey, Greg. Start the live stream. Let me know
running. All right. Very good. Thanks, Patrick. The time is 6:32. With us tonight is Craig Schulty, Ben Peters, Bill Loves, Michael Gary, Mike Roth, Kim Van Beck, Patrick Knight, F attorney, Chris Hood.
Oh, and Shane Steel as well. Look at him there. And with call to order, we're for open forum. We've now verified that the one person in the audience is not here for open forum. Is anyone else here
underneath the chair? All right. And with that, we will close open forum. Next, moving on to the consent agenda. Um, any questions about the meeting minutes, payments of bills.
I'm glad we got the money for the trailer. I am extremely thrilled about that. I hope everyone. I thought that was great. Um, I sent Dave a note. Thank you and appreciation. Yeah, it was pretty for all of that and um thought we did
did well. I don't know how everyone else feels, but well, yeah. Um would anyone like to make a motion then for the consent agenda? I would make that motion. I'll second.
Okay. Um any other comments or Okay. Uh all and approval for the consent agenda. I I All right. That's unanimous. Moving on to our first item of business, Peter's
third street development agreement, which of course we continued to this week till we could get some more information. Um, is that best for me, Mike? Go status on that? Yeah, I'd be happy to provide a quick update. Yeah, there's not a lot of neighbors to have
to talk to over there, so it's not much to report other than no one is interested in paying an assessment for an improvement project in the area. And uh, Mr. Dan may look at funding his own service lines if uh the
utilities are extended in Third Street as Peters has proposed. So if that happens and we decide to move forward with our project, there could be some coordinating that we'll have to just make sure gets done. Okay. So I mean the real question was
not like an assessment. It was are you interested in utilities? Yeah. Because we don't know how we would bill it, but exact. I mean, we had to do a final on that, but no one else is interested in utilities.
No one needs utilities for their own purposes. I think there might be interest at some point on some of those properties when it's time comes to develop. I also had a conversation with the Carlson's up above. They're not on Third Street. they're not adjacent to the property, but they are thinking
about what's the best way to get utilities to their the east part of their property. Um, it's not clear that coming from Third Street is the best way. I think there's some money that needs to be spent on engineering first
to really figure that out. And also um there isn't necessarily the right package of property owners along that route to that everyone would want to be a part of it. So they're thinking about maybe Fourth Street as well.
They've also talked about what about using an easement through their existing property. So that's just they're they're in the planning stages. I'd call that the early planning stages of what they'd like to see happen there. Okay. And then in the packet you see the
proposal from MSA to do design work if we want to move forward on a widening of Third Street. So what we're looking at is a final of design work at 28
that would create clear on buildable plans biddable buildable plans. Okay. Do you need a motion on that to approve or I have a motion to approve the um yeah the project for MSA.
I'll second that. This is just the design work, right? That's right. In conjunction of what they've already done. Yes. And what they've already done because they did the design work for
Peter's proposal as well. So there's a head start on the design work of this project. The only thing I would want to consider with this is going back to the earlier project concepts in in the fact of
trying to use existing streets and access for utilities. You know, part of our comment was not in the middle like make I would it make sense to at least consider that those utility lines go all the way to seventh? They're almost there
with with what's the plan has right now. They're just shy of that. And would that make sense to do? It might I think I was reading in here that this is not dealing with any utility work at all the scope of this project, but
Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean it would I spe I specified that with them. I think that it would be another 5,000 approximately to add utility design and I think that includes any utility design beyond what's already there. So,
I mean not if we wanted to do significant more, but that's not what you're asking for. I don't think it's significant. No, I just thought we're almost there, right? With his project as it is, how much more? And you just sort of answered it, I guess, to extend it out to be I'm
still trying to think like future, where are we at? Where will this be? I think the future is development on both sides of that street. Now, we're looking at potentially three more driveways, for instance. That's why I think the street even widening it. If it
wasn't substandard, I may be like whatever, but we're already looking at enough. And now we'll have random three. I'm not seeing that's a lot of people, but it's still more points of entrance than than that other design had. So, and I'm just still trying to think, you
know, everything costs more money later and more disruption. What can we do? Future thinking um and just know it's there. That seems reasonable. me to bring it down to seven and my saying that would be 5,000 to add
to this just for the design work. Yeah. Yeah. We can always decide we don't want to do that but I mean it' be nice to know and then we would give us some time to figure out well who exactly would that impact
and then how would we pay for it. Yeah, we did get cost estimates from LHB for installing water and sewer in Third Street at the same time we got pavement, remember? So, it was just over a h 100red grand a block is what they thought the utilities
would cost. Um twothirds of one block's already being done. So, we're talking about about a third of that. Okay, the 3540 grand. Okay, which makes sense if you think about uh Peter's estimate was about just under
100. So then those costs are all kind of lining up. So if you're looking at that additional cost, it'll be five for the design to 35 or 40 for the work. Okay. Okay. Well, that's that's yeah, that's much different.
35 or 40,000 to bring it from half from where? Half a block. That's hard to even more than that. Two/ird of a block. So, we're talking about just a third of a block. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz he's got most of it already, but I don't think that's even close. I don't I don't believe that.
You think it'd be more? Oh, hell yeah. Solid rock. Anybody know that besides me? It says right in here they haven't done any bedrock, ge nothing assumptions. All these assumptions are not part of this deal. So, whatever they run into is extra.
They do have rock excavations a significant amount in their cost estimate. I have no idea whether it's the right price. Whatever. I guess you would find out when you get there to that point. This is just
either way studying it. These properties not doing any work clearly become more valuable when utilities are there. for any that don't have this and you know I think it's a reasonable thing to say that they
can be partners and part of it but I can't say that because we as have as a group have to decide that but I I feel you know sometimes you've had reserve about how much should we put in infrastructure knowing if there's a
potential to it but I feel I just personally feel that's where this is going in general and it's going to be a huge value ad. So anyway, I mean that's a future conversation obviously, but I I still just think
efficiency and whatever and doing that work won't get any cheaper. We do it later, but Bill, well, I feel like the more we know, the less we know about what's going on here. I mean, if
Rod Dawkins going to jump on board, that's um Steve. It's Steve. I mean, it's you know, where do you run this stuff? How do you size it? How do you I mean, the volume of traffic again, the runoff,
it just seems like it's more and more vague about what you're really talking about and what it's going to look like. And the Dawkins don't have any proposed plans, right? It's this speculative, right? Just taking advantage of an opportunity to put those in
with really no clear idea of what they want to do with them or whether that's the right direction for them either rather than going down Second Street. I think that's true of everyone, but I think there's a future there that we're
more sure of than not. Okay, we seconded this, right? Any other comments or Yeah, I I would amend it to to include that that additional fee for um Okay. to to provide the utility estimate there. Is John on the call with
us? Yeah. Yeah, I'm here. Okay. So, you understand what they're talking about, John? Yep. Okay. With what would that I got a question. Sure. If you did run that extra utilities to
eighth, what is that? No, no, no. We're not saying eth. We're just saying to seventh since he's already brought it that far. It's almost to seventh. So, Almost a seventh already. Yeah, just seventh. Okay. Cuz I was going to say if you run
it to eighth, I don't there's no need to do that because those nobody's going to be using it, right? No. Yeah. The only reason you'd run it to eighth would be the water to create a loop.
Yeah. So you'd have you'd have a loop with the water main eighth. But it's not necessary, but sometimes it's nice to have a loop. Okay. We may find that it becomes necessary at some point. We've had dead
end lines. Usually, it's the ones that are going up steeper hills than that where there can be some water pressure issues at the top or the collection of air that needs to be maintained every once in a while. So, has anyone looked into water pressure
issues already on Third Street? An existing winners have that map. I mean, there isn't anybody except for one house that's in that area that's connected. The folks that are not on
this block, nobody has any issues. the folks that are already here, they've got a pretty long service line. So, I'm not sure it's a fair judge of what it'll be like. We do have Yeah, we
do have a system map also that shows what pressure would look like in this zone if it was connected to check it. I've heard comment, so I just wanted to know. Yeah. Uh okay.
So if we add to go to seventh, this is the planning process. Um and who's putting it in and who's paying for it if we decide that
that's what we're talking about that then we would make that decision. It's part of our future once we know the costs. And that's why I was saying I see this as a benefit a finan increases property values for existing
property owners. So we have to have a conversation about that. Okay. Well, we've had a conversation already mostly about the street widening, but we included the utilities as well in the
original. If you have an intent to assess any of these costs, we have steps we need to take that we haven't finished yet. So, we started with a feasibility study that you've looked at. That's the stage we're at on the assessment process.
That seemed resolved to me. I thought I got a clear message from you that said we're not going to do assessments. So, we'll set that aside. If you're going to revisit that question, we can jump back into that process, but that's where we're at. Feasibility study. You'd have to order some public hearings and invite
people. And we already talked to everybody. We know what's going to what the conversation is going to be like, but we still have to go through those steps. It'll add some time to this process. And this is a little bit different than what we first talked about. It's a smaller It's much smaller.
It's much smaller piece to this. Potentially. What's that? Potentially. Yeah, I suppose. Yeah. But I think we should just get more information on it. Yeah. Yeah. Doing this piece makes sense.
Okay. I think it aligns with our concerns before of use, you know, making sure we were on using regular right streets and what which is why Yeah, I think it's smart to in case people decide to build up that
way. Well, Craig, there's work to be done yet to answer your questions about who's going to do this and who's going to pay for it. I would think we're going to try to coordinate one contractor to do all the work, but whether they're going to be working under one contract
and we'll figure out how to divvy up the bill or whether they're going to be working for under two contracts because one project is for peters under the development agreement and another is for the city. I think we have to think that through, talk it out and figure it out still. So, I don't know.
Yeah, there's details. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's why we wanted to know who wanted to be at the table on this now. Yeah, that would be nice to know. I'm like you
said, coordinating also if Steve does want to pay again now, it's still going to take some coordination even of timing if not agreements of how how all how that works. He wants to use his own people, right? or his own contract.
Yeah, he already talked to a contractor, but I don't know how much of conversation he had with Peters. Yeah, I know that he would like to coordinate not actually digging it across the road or maybe he would. I don't know. Since
the road's going to get tore up, I would suggest that that happens. That's what we talked about rather than tearing the road up afterwards. But he's been thinking about it. I mean, that's what I know about it. So, he's not here now. while he went back home. But
okay, this has been on his radar for years. It's not any topic for him. Great. Okay. May I Are we I think we're there. Oh, wait. Do I have
to second your your second? Yes, I have a motion with the amendment or addendum. So, I'll second that. All right. Okay. So, let me rephrase. Let me go back then to the right.
Um, so we're at this point, we're just talking about that contract, right, with MSA, right? That's right. Yep. Okay. Just so I phrase this correctly. So with a as amended um approval for the
contract with MSA for the work on Third Street. Good. Great. All right. All in favor? I I I. Anyone not in favor? Black to say that.
Is that unanimous? Did I missed that? I think so. Oh, okay. Sorry. All right. Then moving on then, uh, the developers agreement would be the next piece of that. Um,
so where does that sit in terms of needing any changes to or does that need to set for any fine-tuning? I don't believe so. I think that the language in the development agreement
can accommodate however we want to move forward on a partnership. This is specifying for sure the bottom line what the developer's responsibility is on this project and that's not going to change regardless of what we decide to do. Okay. Um does does this how does this
coordinate with timing? Does that I mean is this still make them recognize that now there's more more parties involved as far as timing to when this will go without without goofing up their or expectations of when they can become
their work. It doesn't, but it does have a number of steps where the city has to approve moving forward. And it also we're now using the same engineer that he's using. So I think there's enough back-end coordination built into this that we can make it
work. So their expectations are set accordingly for everyone involved. Well, I won't speak for them, but is authorized to speak for them. So, I've talked to John Peters and he's
he understands that this is going to be a process um obviously to get the road redone and he's happy as long as it keeps moving forward in some some way. Um
he's happy with that. Okay. All right. The one comment I would have related to this would be you don't ultimately know what the costs of the overall project are going to be.
And the only concern I would have with adopting the document with the numbers in it that exist right now in terms of project cost and security is that you ultimately may still need to make some changes to those. So if you if you adopt
it, I think you would want to do a motion adopting it contingent upon coordination as well as working out final project cost numbers. That's brilliant. Okay. Final cost numbers and contingent
on Oh, coordination, right? Coordination of project work. Yes. Is that what you're saying, Chris? Yes. I think that's nice clarity to add to it. I think the contract as is allows us to do that anyway, but it's nice to be clear about what we expect to happen.
This is not a time to be unclear. Yeah, we can just use a few more words. The the total project that we were talking about today is different than the total project that's included in this development agreement. the the
total project that we're entering into a deal with Peters for if you want to do this development agreement. It's just the installation of utilities for a couple hundred feet and the widening of the pavement by three feet. That's what he's agreeing to do. And so we are now
talking about extending the scope of this project where the the total project will be bigger than that, but the part that he's going to participate in will not get bigger than this. Yeah. Okay. I'll still place that in there,
though. Does anyone else have any questions, comments, thoughts? That's great. All right. I'd make a resolution for the development agreement with just Oh, is
it just Bjorkberg? Oh, Granary LLC. um contingent upon final cost considerations and coordination of project. I'll second that.
All right. Uh any further comments. All right. All in favor of the development agreement with contingencies as stated um for the Bjorkberg Granary LLC
development agreement. I very good. Thank you all so much for that. Thanks Chris. Yeah, thanks Chris. Um, Shane,
did you want to address the pun improvement? Well, I'm just here to answer any questions you have about the project. We've got the one bid. I I noticed in your comments and and why other contractors didn't respond. Is
this a contractor you are interested in working with and and feel confident in or are we I reached out to Sol and Water and asked them for their recommendations for this kind of project and this guy was at the top of their list and I also reached out
to three others that were the next few on their list and disconnected phone number didn't get through to left a message and then multiple contacts with the third but didn't ever get a bid from them and they decided that they could
just give me a super high bid because they didn't want the project. Um, and I said, "Well, I don't need you to waste all of our time with a a fake bid or a nonfincere bid." But Geomorphic Restoration said they
have uh they're willing to make space in their schedule this fall to do it. So, thought while he still has that space, see what you think. Okay. And like you said, they were top of li list with soil and water. Yeah. Yeah.
Soil and water spoke highly of his work. All right. Anyone else having any questions or concerns? Didn't we do some work over there already? Just dredge it out. Is that what we did?
I think it's just been dredging. That's interesting. Yeah. And then dredged it out from time to time. I'm not sure how recently we have. The the most recent we've had is first of all you getting the grant and this has been in front of us often but you had gotten
the grant to do the work and get the design you know. Yeah. We got a grant to do a study to see what we could do over there. And they looked at the whole the whole that whole area essentially, including the the the parcel here on city hall, just
what can we do to reduce flooding? And the thing that rose to the top of the list was to improve the pond. Okay. Makes it a little bigger, makes it easier for uh for us to dredge. Uh because yeah, they do dredge it from time to time, but there are challenges
to dredging it. Like the banks are really steep. Yep. And there's boats and a bridge in the way of one of the outflows. The the outflow that goes to the south of the
Northern Goods building um is inaccessible when we dredge. So, um, moving a bridge and being able to dredge that would make the pond better as well. Any other?
So, the idea is to move that bridge and then move it back again when you're when the dredging. I think if Northern Goods wants the bridge, they express some interest in the bridge, we'll just warn them when we're going to dredge and they'll move their boats and the bridge. We're not going to
We're not going to move the bridge for them, right? They'll they'll preserve the bridge if they want it. Okay. Which I think they do want it. Yeah. Yeah. Bridge is a generous description. Some boards raised walkway. Okay.
Yeah. It serves this purpose. Yeah. So, one thing to note, this project, part of the construction limits are actually on a piece of private property. Is one of those lakeside lots is a privately owned piece of property. We've
spoken to the owner. He's in favor of the project. Uh, and we're working with Chris to draft a temporary construction easement that the we'll have the owner grant us before the project begins. I've got that template from Chris, so that's ready to go, too. And then that's just a
document that the the owner will have to provide us. So you won't have to take any action on it. Anyone else have any questions or
Okay, let's go back to Note that the bid does come in uh a little over the budget for the project, but we're well ahead of the budget for
the design work. So, it kind of comes out uh pretty even in the end. Comes out in the wash. Yeah, that's what I thought. I saw it in the Yeah. E um estimated like $34,000 for design
work and they've only spent about half that right now. We haven't gotten the final invoice, but it's only about half. All right. Uh, anyone would like a motion to approve the storm water pond
bid from Geomorphic Restorations. I'll make that motion. Second. Second. Any further questions, comments?
All right. Um, I'm going to make a Uh, all in favor of the contract with Geomorphic Restorations. I I I All right. Very good. Thank you. All right. That's Thank you, Shane.
Thanks, Shane. Um, budget update. It's a fun budget this year, let me tell you. Um because there's still a lot of things that we don't really know about that we used to have kind of nailed down
like how much profit do we make at the store and what does it cost to operate city hall and and and so mix that in with some of the other issues. Kim, I don't know if you had any issues you'd like to add to the list. Um,
well, we don't know what wages they're going to be because we haven't uh had a union contract updated. So, we're putting in a guess of 3%. We won't know health insurance until
October. So, we're putting in a guess of 10%. Uh, we do need to do a preliminary levy in September without knowing these things. So, we set our preliminary levy and we can work to
reduce that toward the toward December, but we don't know what cost to operate this building, what we should charge the utilities for office rent. And so, there's a lot of unknowns,
but that's what we've been talking about for the past year, that this was your year to kind of get a gauge on this. Well, we need this. Well, it'll take I suspect it'll take about three budgets to really understand what's going on. You know, we haven't had a single heating season in this building.
We've had one summer where the heat pumps have been cooling the building. We haven't ever cooled the building before. So, we don't know energy-wise what is this? Are we on track or is this low or what does it look like? We know everything in here is super efficient. Uh
what have you seen so far this like May and June July utility bills? Hard to tell. It it's uh how much of it is the liquor store cooler versus the well just in general overall. I I think that uh the electric bills are
a little higher than they were in the past and that's to be expected because we electrified everything in the building. you know, we don't have a a propane bill anymore, which was pretty big chunk of the budget last year around. So, uh that it's bit
of a challenge still this year, but it is a lot of the big pieces are locked down as well. This building what it costs to build is is done. We know that um you know, we've borrowed the money and it's we have a debt payment schedule that's fixed. We
don't have to estimate it. we know uh and it's right about exactly what we were estimating it was going to be in in previous years. So, this is good. The next thing we want to do with the budget is have department heads come and spend some time with you
in work session to go through their draft budgets. and we'd like to get all of the general fund departments through to speak with you prior to you having to take action in your first September meeting on the preliminary levy.
The your two weeks from now meeting regularly scheduled work session. We just intend to bring some of those folks in and do budget from 5:30 to 6:30. Uh Dave's not here that week, so he won't
be able to attend. We'll have to pick a different schedule to have him come in. Uh I don't think next Wednesday is available for all of you. And so we'd be looking at either that first week in September or we could do
before or during the se this first September meeting. And I guess that's what we want to get nailed down with you tonight is what schedule works to have Dave come talk to you. So we could consider the the the first
meeting in September. We could have him come before the meeting and present. Um or you could put them on the regular agenda if you wanted. I think it'd be preferable to have him come before Okay, so that's September 10th.
We could do that. Just seems like Yeah, it's nice to have him be the closer anyway. He's got a lot of moving parts in his budget, right? Bill, would that work for you? I think so. It's Wednesday, September. Should be.
Okay. We'll we'll just say 5:30 for now and schedule those two 1-hour work sessions and then I think we'll that'll give us plenty of time to get through the work we need to get done. Okay. Okay.
So, we'll just get meeting notices. Yeah. Forget off our radar. Okay. Other budget stuff? No other updates yet. Okay. Okay, as we get closer to that work session,
we'll have those regular spreadsheets that summarize kind of the big picture of where we're at for you and then you'll also get the line item budgets from the departments to really dig down and see what's going on. Do we have any status on that um tax
credit or we don't expect anything from that firm that is providing support and administrative on that? Yeah, we've met with them. They did a first uh data request of things they needed from us. We gave them some paperwork and some billing. Of course, they're working
closely with MGOFT to get costs uh documented as well. The timing of it is we can't make an application until the tax year that the project finished, which is this year,
which means the payment wouldn't come until you get your tax uh return, you know, from 2025 taxes sometime early next year. Yeah. So definitely um a slight amount of
nervousness about that at first because the federal budget is in flux pretty hard and this is not one of the popular areas of the budget, but this looks like it's not being affected for projects that happened when when we
did ours. And so we're optimistic that this will still work out. Great. Oh, I always forget when do we start the union contracts approximately. I forget what you mean. There isn't an approximately. I suspect
this year it'll be September, October because we do have some things we need to go over. Okay, initiated by them. Usually they I mean they have an obligation to or we to say we intend to
negot renegotiate otherwise you know the contract can continue on forever if they really wanted to. Um we prefer to renegotiate I think because we would like to give everyone raises and I suspect they want to get them. So I'm sure that they will be on top of
their 90day notice to us. Anyone else have any questions? No. All right. So, that takes care of that. On to council and staff reports. None.
All right, then. I have nothing. I can speak. No way. Craig. Yep. There you go. Sure. Um, we're at a PC meeting.
We discussed a grant agreement that's offered to us by um MPCA. Yeah. To uh do some testing of our wastewater to test for POS. So it's a
grant application where we can do 12 to what 15 tests something like that of certain blowages that go into our system. Um so that's that was a good thing to get.
It was like $6,000 I believe. Yeah, $6,000. Um, so that will begin as soon as we get that in our hands to do. That will take is that like taken over like a year to
do? It's periodic for a period. Yeah. For some periodic testing for a year, I think. So, so like quarterly of quarterly. Yeah. Four spots. Yeah. So, the tests are relatively expensive. But at least we got some
money from NPCA. felt it necessary to you know do that for us. That was kind of nice. Um the other item on the agenda was the solar interconnection process and policy. Basically we reviewed the policy that we have in place for um
those people who are connecting solar systems to their residential andor commercial. Is this both commercial? Any customer? Any customer. Okay. So, could we cover the policies that that we have in place
and possibly any changes that we might be aware of as time goes on as more and more become on the grid. Um, we discussed rates. Um, yeah, if you want to read up on that, I don't have it all memorized, but there's
a lot of information. It's online, videos online. Yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of information about it and you know there's company there's a company that helps get people orientated to the process that they get in contact with.
Um the other thing we talked about was our fast charger that is that we're having problems with and we're not the only ones having problems with it. So, um, we're working with a different company
to replace the charger we have and, uh, get that installed. Um, and there is MPCA grant funding for that also. Um,
yeah. I guess the problem with the system that we have is service and parts. The company that originally did it hasn't been very good to work with. So, we're looking at a different charger which has the
capability of actually expanding and I think might hopefully be better uh serviced for us. And this is all through Simpa, right? Or not anymore. The original project was through Simpa hired a company called Ze
that brought in the charger and they they operate the chargers and collect the revenues and pay them to us. Um, the charger is made by a company called Tridium that went out of business and so that's why parts are difficult to come
by. Uh, we're not super happy with the service we've received from Zeph either. And it's still Ze that we'd be working with to provide a new charger free of purchase price, which is good deal, right? But you don't have to buy it,
which is still have to figure out, can we make this relationship work with this company? I was misunderstood. I thought this was all in conjunction with working with all of the SPA cities. The original installation was a project that SPA
originally it was yes did organize. uh the Simpa members talked about whether they wanted to do a project like this and they said no that most cities aren't interested in continuing this. A lot of them aren't
sure that it's really the role of the utility to provide the service in their community. I think grammar is an outlier significantly in terms of the number of charging sessions we get per population. You know, we get similar numbers to Rochester, for instance, or
Austin or Watana, and you know, they're much bigger communities than us. I'm sure they have a lot of other chargers available in their communities beyond the ones the utilities are providing, but it actually doesn't look bad in terms of a financial decision for us to
have it if it works. Yeah. if you find if it doesn't work then it's really um kind of just a black eye in our parking lot. Yeah. See, right now it's not working. And at least through this program
um it's a 50KW instead of a 75, but um it's still a DC fast charger, but it's $18,000 item that they're picking up the cost on instead of us having to invest in it. So, we'll stay with them and a fiveyear service
agreement, whatever that means. I don't know if it's does you were looking into that. So, I don't know. The the terms that they offered us are just not acceptable. Yeah. Beyond the recharger part. So, there's a lot more to work out yet if
this is going to happen. Anyway, the goal is to get it get something there functioning that ultimately isn't really costing us anything to do right at this point in time. So, it's kind of nice to have that
fast charger there because it does get used quite a bit and by a lot of local people too, not just there's a picture of it. Um anyway, let's see what else did we have on the agenda. That was it, I
think. Yeah, fast charger. Um and then at the rec park, um uh I guess let's recap July. I guess that year, let's just go year to date. Year to date, overall year-to-
date revenues, um are up about 3%. July was kind of flat, I guess. uh even given we had a 5% rate increase LA that last year, but the weather was part of it and I in August has been really strong because of the weather that we've had.
Everybody knows that what's been going on. Um, we also talked about um, LHB was successful in submitting the application to the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission on
starting the process of phase one of the rec park. Uh, a new bath house uh, proposal located down on the southern part of the point right before the DNR public water access. and then
demoing out the current bath house number two that we have and um adding a sign for the wreck park up somewhere off to the leftand side of our driveway up by Highway 61. We have to deal with
the state on some issues on setbacks and stuff like that. and also wayfinding signs around the park and the walking areas so that circulation of the campground in the various recreation areas people know where to go, where to
walk and that was submitted and they've already gotten back to us and I believe they want to plan a visual inspection of the area sometime in September from what I gave. Sounds right. Yeah, they're coming to tour the project, which
which is kind of exciting to know at least they're going to come and look because it is a uh let's see what was it 1 [Music] numbers possibly improvements around 1.75
million of which we've committed 25% of the local match of 4375. So, we're seeking $1.3 million in dollars from the state. So, it's kind of nice that they have reached out to come and take a look. That's kind of a positive thing for us to look at. It
might be the beginning of starting off our first part of things we want to improve in the park. And a new bath house would be nice. That bath house that we're looking at demoing is over 50 years old. And so a new bath house would be kind of nice, more
efficient and um located in a better location to meet the the standardized rules of where you camp and how far you got to walk to get to a bathroom. Right now, we've kind of got a void in a spot of
our campground where it's too far to go. This will help that. Um that's great. They responded so fast. What's that? That's great. They responded so fast. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was kind of nice.
So Oh, yeah. Then the other course that we talked about in that in the, you know, selling of the portable uh latrine was kind of nice too. So
um what else did we talk about here? I don't think I think that's it. Bos Park um events in the events in the park August for finishing up August. uh
Northshore Music Association August 16th at Sweethearts Bluff in the Recre Park. That is the pickup truck opera. There will be a concert that Saturday in August. Guess that's it.
Got for that. Just a quick tag on with that. I think I sent this to you and Shane already. I've gotten a couple different emails. The state has had a grant program for solar on public buildings and apparently originally I think it was more geared
toward the metro but now it's state oh it had to be within Excel Energy territory is no longer and that would include us course we have some solar already on key buildings I don't know if that's a possibility for park buildings
then but this grant and hope I sent it to you and Shane maybe it's a Shane gotten two different emails. One through the ARDC passed it on and then one just directly from uh Carla Vita who runs a lot of those energy related pieces. But
maybe there's some some needs or possibilities for our public buildings here, but it's to cover those costs of of solar. Um, I just read about some other solar
pieces that are much better at moving and aligning throughout the day and those kind along with some really cool wind designs I saw that are completely different design look that over in Europe I'd read about but
I don't know which application even if that exists in the US but anyways this grant program has apparently been extended it's expanded statewide So maybe there's options or maybe it fits with some of the park work. I don't know. I don't know what other buildings we have that would apply.
There's a number of buildings that we could put solar on, including this one. When we do, because we're the electric utility, and because we have a contract with Simpa where we're required to buy all of our wholesale power from them, we can't produce our own. There's not a cutout
for a certain amount. And so we have to sell the power that we produce and our panels to Simpa and then buy it back from them. So the economics of it is a little different for us than for a typical
person who's you know comparing what they pay versus retail rates. And for us it's wholesale rates and so the payback isn't quite as well. And this is totally just for public buildings. Yeah. It's not for private. But anyways, does
that get back into the tribal issue up in the other part of the state? They're having a can't remember which casino. They're kind of the same thing. They're issues about buyback. Anyways,
um okay, let's see. I was just invited this afternoon to join in with the world press um institute, the journalists that come here every year in the fall. Yeah. Yes, I'm excited about that. I'll participate in one of their deals uh
through Kakani Higher Ed. Um just got a note today from David Ma Matther with the U Minnesota the Shipo, the historical preservation office. The um two people who will be working on the
harbor research are from Minnesota State University, Mano. They've kind of renamed your titlings and you just you used to say Mano State whatever. So that's Ron Shurmer and Andy
Brown will have a kickoff meeting with them. We just need to coordinate when and where. Um and they expect to do all of their fieldwork this fall. And then Mike and Patrick and I had a little meet and greet with the new county administrator last week. That was nice.
And then um Shane's not here to talk about it. Did everyone know that our green roof is here? Is it fully done? I think they're completely done now. Yeah. So, it's Anyone wants to go experience it firsthand? Let me know. We'll send pictures in the weekly update if we didn't already.
So, I don't notice it. Does it like that doesn't end up being a nesting place like for the seagulls don't get excited about a green roof, do they? That's not an appeal to them. Seagulls are happy with our roof regardless of what we do to it. They like our roof,
but they don't like it as much as they like our neighbors roof. There we go. Which one? Oh, that one. Yeah. Kind of familiar with that one, I think. Yeah, I am. I just All of a suen looking across the street, I thought, well,
there's a green roof. Do they like a nest in the green? Apparently, it hasn't coated extra. Not for them. Uh, that's a different style than ours. Ours is low growing stuff and it's containerized. I'm not sure we'll actually see it unless you
get a angle from like a holiday parking lot or something where you're up above. Or a drone, I guess. Huh. Yeah. Oh, cool. And is the landscaping around the building finally complete? The stuff around the building is done. I think there's a few details on the edge
of the parking lot that still need to get finished, but And our parking lot is redone again. Yep. It's all done, painted up, being used. Okay. All right.
I think that's it. We are done. We can call it a night. Thanks, Chris. Thank you. Have a good night. Good night, Chris.