We're all set. All right. The time is 6:30. And with us tonight is Chris Hood, uh, Craig Schulty, Ben Peters, Bill Loves, myself, Michael Garary, Patrick
Knight, Mike Roth, and Kim Van Beck. And with that, open forum. Is anyone here this evening for open forum? Is that where you talk? Yeah. Yeah, that's me. All right.
I sent a letter or whatever. So, I don't I assume you you got that. I don't know. I'm just beating a a horse here. But I'm Anna Hamilton. I am the project manager of Hamilton Habitat. We purchased some property on 11th Avenue West in 2023 and
later found out there was no water and sewer. That was my fault. Buyer beware. I had no idea there would be a lot around houses with no water and sewer, but that was my fault. Since then, we found out it was going to be really expensive to bring water and
sewer the approximately 200 feet up the street. Um to the point where it halted everything I was doing. We went ahead and graded the lots and got them ready for building prior to finding all that out. Um ran down the street, bought a lot, and
got the houses that were designated for there built and sold. And we've done that twice since 2023 since there's a hold up with these lots because of water and sewer. Since then, talking to Mike Roth, I needed to hire an engineer. So,
I did that. It's going to require a main because it's more than one service. We've had water and sewer installed before. It wasn't a big deal. This is a big deal because there's going to be two services off of this line which requires a main which my guy Darren Bloomquist um
has not done before. Didn't want to do um didn't want to do. So talked to Mike, found out kind of the procedure to get water and sewer going. Um I've talked to some people. This engineer company has designed the water and sewer which I
believe is satisfactory to Mike Roth. um so on and so forth. Things are rolling and he's in the process of finding contractors. I'm in the process of getting the money which we have for the job. 112,000 of it is coming from the
ITR. They will disperse it once we get the word that work's going to begin. Um everything was great. We just finished two houses a month ago. They moved in the contractors, our contractors were just going to move down to the homestead lots. That was the plan. to get those two homes built. We
have people waiting for those homes. Um, of course, and then I found out that you cannot pull a building permit without water and sewer. The math made sense to me. It's going to take all summer to get these homes
built. It's going to take all summer to get the water and sewer in. I'm here just hoping that there could be some consideration when I ask Mike Roth about it. The risk is he said that somebody could be living
potentially in a house without services which is not going to happen. Um number one and number two the risk really is ours financially. I we already I know you guys don't consider the financial
part of it somebody's responsibility but we have a lot of money in these. We're going to have a lot of money in them by the end of the summer. Um there's no way I'd walk away from it. there's going to be water and sewer no matter how it happens. That's not a risk is of somebody living in those homes without water and sewer.
Um so as it stands now, I can't start building until water and sewer is completed. That's going to start a winter build. That means these people that are waiting that have been on my list for two years have to wait now till spring for anything to really happen. And I'm just hoping that I could make it believe that maybe there
would be a consideration. It's it's a need. Um, it's not just a need. A couple of the people that are next on the list, it's a dire need. Um, so I feel a little pressure and I I feel some urgency and
would like some consideration. That's all. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. So, the water and sewer that would be not during open forum. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know. Nope. That's all. It's been a while since I've been here.
That's okay. But um it's I will say it's not like we aren't talking about it. I'm sure I just you know I wasn't even going to come but I had a customer at the hardware store um when they asked me about it and I told them and they just said well go to the board and at least
talk to them. So that's what I'm doing. Yep. You did. I did. I wrote all my notes. I did. Thanks Anna. Thanks Anna. Yep. Anyone else here for open forum this evening? Um, I'm Annie Posus. I live in Grammaray
and um am a supporter of Anna and Hamilton Habitat and just wanted to speak in support of her request that um I don't think that the banks involved would even give the people a mortgage to
to get the loan to move into a house that didn't have water and sewer. So, I don't think that's anything to be concerned about. And um you know they've done nine homes so far at the total grassroots level and it would be awesome if the city could just help with this
request and just be a little flexible because to have to wait till spring is a big a big delay for them. And uh there's I just don't see a great reason that the home building and the water and sewer could not happen concurrently in time.
And uh if if a bond is needed or something, if somebody needed to put up, you know, a pledge that said no one will move in, I'd be willing to do that. Um anyway, just wanted to say I hope it's such a big need and and everyone kicks
around, you know, talks about how much we need affordable housing and it would just be great to see the the city help with this particular issue. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks. Anyone else here for open forum this evening?
All right. And with that, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Uh any questions about the current agenda that's been a moving target this week. Hopefully, everyone has their current one now seems.
Yeah. Uh then meeting minutes, payment of bills. You'll notice there's a few things on the consent agenda. Um, so I'll first make a motion and then if there's any conversation or questions. But would anyone u make a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'll make a motion to approve.
A second. I'll second. All right. Any uh questions or comments about the varying items underneath the bills? Any explanations needed or Craig? Did you have anything questions?
No. Okay. Nope. All right. And with that, then I'll take a roll call vote. Michael, I Ben I, Craig, I
I. And with that, consent agenda is approved. Moving on to the planning commission uh report uh resolution 2025-06. Gary Varian. Mr. Peters, would you like to talk about
this this evening? Yeah. Before we start, just make it clear that Michael's going to be recusing himself from this conversation. I will not be a part of this. Yeah. Thank you for that. Um, short and sweet. Uh, we we looked at it.
Uh, planning and zoning didn't have any issue with it. Um, corner lot, multiple front yards. uh it made sense where the location was. Um there were no letters uh uh advocating against it. Nobody had any
issues, no neighbors. Um we didn't have any issues at the planning and zoning. Okay. Greenhouse, right? 6x6 greenhouse. Okay. Craig, did you have any questions?
Um, just to clarify, was a setback 25 ft? Yep. Okay. And so you're asking a five foot or a 20 foot um
exactly in I'm looking at it now. I don't I don't recall precisely what the what the variance was. You're just you're just encroaching and 15T. It says the structure will be 5 ft from
the front property line. The front is that the hillside though? Looking at the picture, it looks like it's the up and down street. Okay. Right. Mhm. So that's a All right. So that's a 20 foot variance then, right?
For six by for a for a 6 foot by six foot. Okay. Yep, that's exactly right. Okay. You see that little garage in the photo above there? That uh that kind of shows you kind of lines up, doesn't it?
Yeah. Okay. And that's actually All right. Any other questions? Would anyone like to make a motion for resolution 2025-06? I will make that motion.
Second. I'll second it. All right. Craig I Ben I Bill I I
And with that Mr. Gary can speak again. Yeah, thank you. All right, moving right along. We're not too bad. Uh, liquor store update.
Hello. Hi, Chris. Hi. Maris get two computers. Everybody else gets one. It's the only difference. Photos later. That's what it is. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to show photos later.
I like it. You can stick around for that if you want. Well, okay. I get it. Sorry. You don't have to. Maybe. What would you like to know? How's everything going? It's going pretty good. Yeah,
everything's seems to be except for the front doors. Yeah, it's the only issue. And what's going on there? Just I don't know. So, the one on the east side just does this all day long unless you leave it open.
And the one on the north side doesn't lock all the time. the outside one. Yeah. Is that like a warranty macob? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They've been up. We're waiting on some parts right now. It's on the punch list. Okay.
Yeah. There's a the track that the door sits in and goes back and forth on. The guy said it looked like it's been there for 10 years. It's got so much wear on it already. So, something is a little was off. Little little weird. Yeah. Other than that, the space is
great. People seem to love it. We're having a lot busier days. Great. Which is nice to see. Sales good. Sales are good. Yeah. I pulled a few numbers for you, Chris, from your reports.
So, and I'll be sending this out to everybody afterwards so you can look at the numbers, too. But our biggest uh we've looked at 2023 through 2025. That's three different locations,
believe it or not. So in 2023 was our last year in the old location. 2024 we relocated and 2025 now we've relocated again. So we looked at April, May, and June. All those months we were in our location rather than transitioning
although a little bit of transition in 24 of April. So just for interesting numbers, the April total was 140,000 two years ago, 137,000 last year, 154,000 this year.
Pretty much what we saw was a slight decrease last year, but not nearly as much as you'd imagine moving into a smaller location. And now the numbers have picked right back up. In May, it was 209, then 204, and 244 this year. June it was 270 then
245 then 292 this year. So the trend is clear. Uh we're going to do better in this space than certainly last year but also in the old space which is what we expected
just for you know July's sake we did 337 in 2023. So expect that number to go up a s you know similar percentage 8 to 10% for the trend we're looking at some other stats like where is that increase
coming from our biggest day um is in the 8,000 range daily amounts we got in April it it was uh between 14 and 15 a day in May and then between it was down to just
under 13 in the new location in June, but we did 16,600 a day in June this year, which is a big big day for us. An average Tuesday in June uh went from 7,000 to 8,200
and an average Friday went from 139 to 146. So, it's actually not the big days where all the increases are coming. So far, we haven't had a day that was 50% bigger than a day we've had in the past. But all of our days are better. All the
off days are quite a bit better. And so there's just more constant traffic going through the place, which is nice to see. And that's while Chris is still really dialing in what the product selection is and
learning about what's moving and not. And I mean, you can tell if you walk through the place how great it is set up right now. And and every time I'm over there these days, there's always a crowd of people in it. So, it's really nice to see. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure there's some sticker shock when you're paying those
bills and loading up a new liquor store. It costs an awful lot of money. Yeah. Our totals this year, revenue-wise are great. Uh expense-wise are quite a bit higher, too, which will start to level out. Well, then it also like I say
just the initial stocking, you know, the 50 cases of this one certain product and then, you know, starting from zero with a lot of things and building it does cost money. Well, it's that time of year like everyone here, you're getting ready for spring and that you got the big cost.
You're not seeing inventory all winter. You're stocking up. I mean, that's Yeah. And I think typical. You also need a few months to really know what's going to sell well and what's going to you know initially maybe some things start off great and then they die out and other things.
So just you know me just constantly looking at things and you know buying the best buying structure possible I think is really important. We're sharing screens now so you can take a look on the monitor. If you're joining the meeting you can see this. We do have a website in progress too.
Molly Larson's working on one and this is nothing final. So don't like don't be too critiquey yet because it's just a blank. It it's just kind of an idea. We don't want a bunch of you don't need to clip to a bunch of tabs. It
should be informative. It should be one page. It should say what we need to say. You know, these pictures aren't even it's it's all just stock ideas at this point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean you need to have key information. Are you going to have any
events? You going to post some sales? Yeah, that's about the only thing that will be changeable will be events and sales of different kind. But the rest of it will just be just that just a very easy to how do you connect with us, where are we
located, directions, hours. Yeah. And then that is uh what we've got building. Um, this will also allow us to do e- newsws blasts. Um, and we're also working on
social media marketing to go along with the website as well. Oh, that'll be good because you're going to have tastings and or whatever, right? And you got that one table. Yeah, I've already had some. You have or we have already hosted some.
Yeah, we've had Yeah, there's going to be there's going to be a lot more to come. I think they're really great events. I people get to try things, you know, it's tough to buy something if you never had it before. Mhm. And a lot of those reps are pretty cool to talk to. Also,
do the reps put those on or do you put those on? Um I mean that they come up and they're like, you know, I'm like, "Okay, Earth Rider, yeah, let's feature these four beers. This is what you're pouring." Or, you know, you come up and we're going to do these three wines. We're not going to do everything you have, but just focus
on certain products. And you know, most of the time there's a value related to those products, like they're on sale or they're stacked up or they're good. Yeah, we got another little thing going with um
Oh, god. Melissa Dresley's Oh, her Yeah, I know. She She has like that little coupon book now that she's doing. Not just the little publication, but another coupon thing. Yeah, it's another It's a little 10% off deal. And what else do we got? Working on some
merchandise. We've called a lady in Elely. Got her working on some stuff. Yeah, there's a lot contest is is pulled off and that's that was good. What's that? Your first contest as well. Yeah. Gave away a grill. Everybody was
happy. Who got the grill? Chad Smith. Oh, well there. Yeah, it was great. There'll be more of those coming, too. I think we got some like camp chairs from Summit and a fire pit from Shiner and some other things to
I mean it's fun. It's a fun display. It's something to look at. Eye-catching when you walk right in the door. Mhm. Yeah. The little kids like the big bears. Can council people enter these? Absolutely. We don't have a policy about that, but we might want to talk about whether
if every Oh, Tracy Benson again. Another girl. Oh, yeah. I mean, there's I see a lot of things that we need to fix a little bit, too. But you have to live somewhere for a while before you really change things at all.
How do you What have you noticed about just I'm just wondering how in general our whole town's doing, but what are you noticing about Canadian traffic? It's light. It's really light. Uh, this isn't our town related, but Grand Portage had a
big Rock the Fourth uh, bands and stuff. And my bud guy told me today they only went through like five kegs of beer in three days and they had like 60. So that's how few Canadians are around. I mean, I that's a very I don't think
you need to say much more than that about how are the can how's Canadian business, you know, if they're not at the casino. We get a lot of golfers that pass through. We still get a lot of like uh bridesmaids parties and grooms, you know, parties and stuff like that, but and then
there's some of the park people that are back every year, but it's definitely not like it was or has been. But I mean, we're doing okay without them right now. It'll be nice when they come back, but yeah. Yeah, I was up for something else
on Friday and went we purposely went in the parking lot and went to look at the setup like nobody up there. It's crazy. Yeah, in Portage. Yeah, it's alarming like it's how that place usually is. Yeah, especially for a big event like that.
And the weather is kind of weird, fickle, too. But anyways. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, the Canadian thing. It'll be interesting to when we get reports from the rest of the retailers around town or even um heads and beds
to kind of see I haven't seen as many uh loots and golfers as I usually do. That's kind of a tell also. You know, a lot of those guys always come down and play loots and then they're not coming through this year and they also weren't coming through skiing this winter. You know, you get used to seeing
the same faces. Okay. Wow. I know the hours are all set and reset and uh I noticed our in process new city website
which I wasn't super sure that all the hours like in all the spots we have hours like radio station that new wherever if they're consistent completely yet on everything. But um
I get the joy once in a while of reading our our public announcements there and then wait a minute like they were still at one point there. No, no, we're in a new spot. Okay. Um
well that's cool. Website will be super nice. Yeah, good. Yeah, we've got an enhanced presence with Fitza County. Just doing a few things differently. There's I mean there's no reason to do any kind of like newspaper or television or anything like
that. There's zero return on it. I feel like we're in a good place starting and you know if we need to do more stuff we need but we'll start with this for now. We're out there way more more than we were before now.
Yeah. That's all good cuz you know we made a big investment. We want to make make some money and Yeah. So I think that's all good. And so far signs are good that you know trends are not in our favor and we're still doing better. Yeah. Because this is a year like you're
saying are things you can't really influence, you know, and it's all in all like liquor and dining is way down. like statewide liquor reps are saying it's very very quiet still. Fourth of July was the best week that a
lot of people had had, but before that it was really So maybe it's the real start of summer. Yeah. Well, I just want to say thanks again, Chris, to you and your staff. A huge huge project. Yeah. To move out of the old building to set up a whole new shop and then a year
later abandon it and come and set up a whole new shop again. It's nice to not have to do it again. Well, all right, everybody. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Chris. Okay. Uh, next up, the 20, we're already a
year in ahead. 2026 library budget. Here it is. Share these over here. Okay. On the table. like so. So, thanks everybody for having us. My name is Amanda St. John and I'm the
library director and I'm joined tonight with I'm Kevin Lavore. I'm the uh vice president of the board of trustees. There you have it. So, I'll just say a few words about the library and then I'll have um Kevin introduce the budget that we're asking for and I'm sure
you'll have some questions for us as well. It's always exciting to talk about a library so loved and well used as ours. 50% of Cook County residents have our card in their wallet.
Last year we had we welcomed over 45,000 people to the library and that was up 3,000 visits from the year before. Our programs create strong engagement with the library and we have um packed author
talks and lively children's programs that help us to be a yearround community hub. The budget proposal that we have for you today reflects that momentum and it also
has uh an aim to responsibly support the services that the community so clearly values. Uh the proposed bud budget was sent over earlier and I believe it's in your packet. Um,
I think I can just say if if there are questions or what any observations. Um, my only question was um, and maybe you explained it and I just didn't get
it, but you'd made in your comments the the line item now for a programming budget and um, was it it was done differently before or what was the
Sure, I'd love to respond. The library budget has never had to my knowledge program a programming line item. What we have been doing is using donations and contributions.
But this service, our library programs have grown to be a core operational piece of what we're offering the community. And so what we are doing is moving the uh way that we're operating. We're
moving this from our donations into our operational budget for a sustainable um for sustainability. Okay. It's important I think to recognize how big programming has become as a library
service as well. I think it's really changed in the last 10 years in terms of focus, in terms of the amount of programs that are being put on. And this line item is a good start to recognizing that. It's also a big piece of what we
our staff spends their time on, particularly our professional staff. So, it's not we don't spend 12,000 on programs. We spend a lot of time and effort and it really pays off. Thank you. So, is this almost like
starting um a a fund a fund build or is it's a line item for It's just a line item so that we can code and track where their expenses that are just for programming, okay, go. But it's also make sure that there is an amount that they have that they
can spend on programming just in case they don't have, you know, regular donations. Okay. Anyone else have any questions or Chris? We we always have the insurance
adjustment later is and at this I always forget it it's a set dollar amount with the county or it's 5%. What what's the trigger? That 5% is the trigger. So, this request will go to the county and based on our
joint powers agreement, they will approve this request. We're below. All right. That's pretty amazing. 1%. Yeah, it is. Okay. um
tonight. Is it a request for anything formal other than review? That's what we're doing. We're looking for approval. Oh, okay. I wasn't sure if we're just waiting till we get back from them. Oh, so we can send it over their way, right? Yes. All right. Thank you. Uh would anyone like to make a motion for the approval
of the 2026 library budget at a 1.24 overall increase? I would make that uh motion. Second. I'll second. Okay. Any further questions? Craig, did
you have any questions or uh No. No, I don't. All right, I'll take a roll call. Michael, I Bill. Hi, Ben. Hi, Craig. Hi. I And with that, thank you very
much. Appreciate it. Thank you, too. Thank you. And now it's time for pets and animals. A AR service contract. I think there's a number of things on
this agenda that were on previous agendas, but we didn't quite pull off. And this is one of them. It was on a previous agenda, and before the meeting, we were advised by the AAR board that some of their members had not had a chance to review the latest draft
and make comments and asked if we'd be willing to pull it and wait, which we said absolutely. We'd want to make sure that you've had a chance to review it and make any comments. They provided some suggested edits. We accepted all of them and put them in the draft that's in
front of you. And now we're ready and asking for your approval. Any comments, Bill? What you thought? I think they're pretty pleased with the results that we've come up with. I think
they were they were really afraid that it would be difficult and I think it was very easy and natural. So, okay. All looks good then. So, we're all set. Uh would anyone like to make a motion for approval of the animal
arrowhead animal rescue service contract? I'll make that motion. Second. I'll second that. Any other questions or comments? Okay, I'm gonna go with Yeah, Craig. No. All right.
No, I don't have anything. Okay. And with that, I will take a vote. Craig, I Ben, I And with that, we have a contract. Arrowhead Animal Rescue. Yay.
That is good. That's a long time coming. Absolutely. All right. Good to have it. And for our final item on the agenda, um person from the personnel committee, um
administrator wage adjustment page now it's page 60. I had to remember everything on my sheet. Um Ben, did you want to say anything? Um
maybe just some background and um so when we started looking at uh the supervisory positions and um you know um kind of envisioning some more meritbased pay and we started looking at markets
similar sized uh townships uh to the city of Gramaray similar responsibilities for administrator etc. One of the things that that jumped out at us at the um personnel committee was um Mike was um the administrator was
underpaid based on market um quite dramatically actually. Um so not sure why other than just market just is what it is, right? uh people retire and and I think it's it's a testament to
Mike's commitment to the city to be here 27 20 however long million years million years right and so just keeping you know the smaller so this equity adjustment gets him into 95% market range um
which I think that's right is that is that what we and so not only does it does it give him an equitable jump of 6.7% to his to his salary, but it also um still um provides
a really great um base for the merit pay and the merit increases to to be capitalized on um should that be a goal of of Mike's. So, um we felt like this was a really good good place to start.
Um but yeah, do you guys have any questions on that or how we got there or Did I hit everything? I think so. I mean, this is as we said in the sheet, this is where this is the year we're be transitioning because
we'll the it'll be a new union contract year and so we'll be implementing this for department heads. Yeah. And so it's the first time we've we will
have done that and Mike has already um gone through right away the year you went through those conversations with all the department heads if you we did talk about I mean whatever little refresher so everyone knows what's coming um and it's changed but um yeah
and just from my understanding why why 95% oh it gets us in that range and still as Ben was saying gives a little room when we make adjustments. Okay. Yeah. If you find yourself at like 100%
or above 100% market the there's a scale, you know, that we have to use and implement for a matrix uh that um maybe doesn't quite celebrate the merit as much as it would if you were underneath that. Gotcha.
Makes sense. Yep. All right. Would anyone like to make a motion for the one-time salary adjustment for city administrator? I would like to make that motion to approve the onetime salary adjustment. Second.
I'll second that. All right. Any further questions or comments? Craig, did you have anything? No, I don't. Okay. Okay. With that, I'll take a roll call. Um,
Ben, I Bill, I Craig, I Michael I I And with that, uh, unanimous for one time salary adjustment.
Is much appreciated. Thank you. And with that, we are we're done with the official part of the agenda and we can move. And we're ahead of schedule. Yeah. I usually don't look, but never happen. Would you like to talk about Anna's request for a second?
Uh, yeah, we can start over by you. So, here's where we're at on it. Uh, I sent her a moderately stripped down I say moderately because it's still a really long version of our development agreement we've been using recently last
week and uh began a conversation with the city attorney about how do we incorporate her request into that document. It's actually in all of the versions of the approved development agreements we've recently done that no
land use permits will be granted until the project is complete. That's pretty common. In this case, it's not so much about risk that she identified. I certainly don't feel like there's any risk of her not completing a project or doing something inappropriate, but our
ordinance just says that those lots aren't big enough to build on until you have wastewater next to them. So, she's got options. She could ask for variance from the lot size, and I imagine that that would be favorably viewed, but it would
take time. Or she could ask the council to consider amending our ordinance in some way so that the zoning ordinance would allow this to occur, which it doesn't right now. Or this is a third option, which I think might work for everybody, which is can we just write in
the development agreement where we also include the financial security to make sure that the project does get completed. That will allow some of the construction to occur before the project is done. And we'll use something that's in our zoning
ordinance, but that we don't separate out very often, something called a certificate of occupancy, as a way to say, "Okay, now you can actually live in them." So, I I I do think we'll be able to uh provide her with some options, some ways
to do what she's asking to do. And my recommendation is we use a development agreement to do that. So, I'm hoping I'll get a chance to discuss that with her before your next meeting and we can put it on the agenda. Great. So, this is so Chris and our other
colleague, this is you you're done with those conversations. Mhm. Okay. All right. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think the changing of the ordinance itself would be appropriate, right? But um
Yeah. Um Okay. I'm going to ask the idiot question. I I realize most people it it should be objective. when you come in the room, you shouldn't have to be someone, anybody but another person who
comes in the door to ask for something. But that said, what what is the if the unexpected happened, what is sitting there? What's the insurance or bond then? Right, the development agreement
includes a significant financial security from the developer, okay, that the city has access to. This has been the sticking point in most of our previous negotiations is how much effort and resource that takes the developer to do it. This is exactly the situation
that it's designed for. So if for any reason something we didn't expect happens, the houses are half completed. The sewer is not installed yet. we would have that financial security from the development agreement that we could
access go in finish the project and make sure that there is utilities for the houses. We really don't want to do that and I don't expect that we'll have to but we do have the ability and that's what the development agreement is for. Yeah. As long as that part was still in
there because you always have to cover for the unexpected. Yeah. Yeah. Um, all right. Any other updates? Well, I hope you're going to give an
update about the league conference, so I'll just leave that to you. I am. Oh, yeah. Well, we all can. What you got over there? I got a greenhouse. I hear that AWK is coming tomorrow to bring some materials for the roof.
Uh, it's possible that we might have our green roof start. Oh, really? I don't like to make any claims anymore about schedule until I see people on site, but it's supposed no Friday. Yeah. It's also possible that we'll get paving on Monday
on the parking lot. That would be big. That'd be awesome. Yeah. It's been a little frustrating the time lapse between the milling and the completion, but once it gets done, we'll get over that.
So, who's doing the green roof? AW Kettle is the roofing company. Oh, that was subbed out to do the roof. Yeah. Okay. We've been battling a roof leak at the hospital and we had a fellow up there
and he told us today I'll be back later tomorrow because I need to be offloading some materials for the city hall liquor store tomorrow morning. They're going to have their hands full up there. There's a good uh population of seagulls
raising families in the downtown right now. up here. Not on our roof so much, but certainly within view of it, right? I mean, if it's our roof, forget it. Like, I'd tell them to just stay. Yeah, our roof is is still pretty open. Um Okay. Also not leaking, which is very nice.
Yes, we've had it under the test a few times. Yeah, been busy. Cool. What you got? I don't have anything official from
any of the animal rescue people or anything like that. It's been pretty quiet. Are they working on the building? Thought I read something unrelated to with some other group that they are or they are. Yeah, they they ran into a a
licensing issue with the water and sewer services. I think that other people in the business park have had some complications with the state inspectors as well and found a way through that and got it all taken care of. So that was
good news. Oh, interesting. Huh. Okay, Ben. Nope. Um, we already talked about planning and zoning and the personnel committee. So,
That was all I had the last couple weeks. Okay, Craig. Uh yeah, I had a rec park uh meeting. Um part of that meeting was the LHB
presentation that the city council got concerning the uh master plan concept of bath house 23 and the wreck uh wreck building. So I think what uh we decided is going to be happening there is bath
house 2 looking for a grant application to start that process to do some um renovating or brand new bath house too. Um
the rec park park uh year to date I think is uh 7% for the month but 4% over last year year to date. Um the new fuel pump is installed and then of course upcoming um this
weekend is the uh arts festival July 12th and uh 13th and then Stars of the North on July 26th. Um the golf course is doing quite well this year. It was a pretty dry kickoff. So um they're looking at 30% increase in
um revenue over last year. Um and also um starting the project to install the new 600 amp uh breaker in uh service in the uh in the downtown
uh area for the for the Lions Club and for the food trucks and those types of things to hook into for um August, the first weekend in August. So, we're trying to get that installed prior to that. Uh, Nordic Electric got the bid
on that and they'll be doing the work on that. Maybe they've already started item. I'm not sure, but uh they will be soon as they they ordered out they ordered out these supplies. I know that. Um, I think that's about all I have.
the um it was went down and looked at on the the campground um ideas. I like bits and bits and pieces from different of their Oh, the the three different ideas. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, bits and pieces of some good ideas. Yeah. Part of it. Yeah. you know, as we all saw that, of course, part of it is getting a bath house that is, you know, closer to the busy busy bath house that we have
to take the pressure off of that a little bit and also be more in line with the distance. I can't remember what the feet is. 300 feet, 400 feet or something like that. 300 400. Yeah. 400. Okay.
Yeah. So, I mean, they have they have some good ideas, and it's good to have different eyes on it, you know, because they they they consider other things, too, other than, well, maybe we don't need to build a new one. Maybe we can fix this one up, or maybe we should do this with the with the wreck building in
conjunction with the bath house, and maybe that would be better. And then you know of course looking at the office location and maybe you know the people coming in to uh register and access the park should they be coming in on the
other side of this road instead of parking walking across the road. So you know that's what the master plan uh covers all of that actually. So, I guess the big thing is just look at what is the biggest need right now. And I think
the biggest need is a updated bath house. Um, and I think that's where our focus is going to be right now moving forward right away anyway. Yeah, I like that concept of putting the wreck hall and in the office together on
the other side of the street. So, you're coming down the street, you're checking in on it and doing that. Yeah. thought that would I think our community would use a wreck hall too. I mean, it does get a lot of use already.
So, a new one and then having efficiencies of having the two buildings together would be good. But anyways, yeah. Yeah. And I staff was giving them lots of updates. I was there and some of the staff Yeah, they had a Yeah, you were at the meeting. I know they had a meeting uh
they had an open house meeting at the rec hall prior to the park board meeting and they had pretty good turnout. 30 30 some people were there to talk about it and do some ideas. So the guys from LHB thought that that was pretty nice.
Yeah. Uh they were all ears while you were there. Yeah. Yeah. People down there. So Okay. There'll be a resolution on your next agenda authorizing our grant application
which is due the day after your next meeting for this project. So that was kind of our goal from the start when we brought LHB on was let's meet this deadline and get a grant application put together this year for a project and uh we're going to make that happen which is
really good work. Great. Great. Anything else Craig? Nope, that's all I have. All right. Um, thank you. Yeah, there we go. I'm just going to do the
whole screen till I can get that out of the way. So, um, Ben and I and Mike all went to the League of Minnesota Cities conference the other last week already. Bill,
Bill, what did I just say? She said Ben. Oh my god. And of course, Ben, you're welcome. Next time. Yeah, it was great to have Bill there. Oh my. Um, they had over 700 people. They had multiple breakout sessions. We
kind of split up. So, we'd make sure we went to different breakout sessions, but then just about every meal is a sit down with a bunch of different people. Bill and I went to several together, breakfastes, and that's where you really get to chat with a lot of different communities
and um really learn what's going on in other areas. And every year I come back on, oh, I'm really happy that we're here. when I listen to some things that go on in other communities and and just the problems of even getting along or
um community of Apple, yeah, Benson and Apple are together had not raised their property taxes in like 30 years and they got through their adjustments by basically siphoning money off the police
department. So there was this the conversation I entered in where the two city administrators the other's name were talking about whether or not they do a joint agreement with the sheriff's office or not or should they build up their police forcing and whatever right
and I'm so that's really I was listening to and the one guy's like no because your sheriff can sue you because they're an elected official and ours did really it all gets back to buding issues and their county attorney sued him too
for the same purpose. So I come back and go well we get along with their sheriff okay so far. Well that was the other thing the sheriff had told them that wouldn't u didn't care what they wanted because the majority of his constituents were outside of city
limits so they got priority of services. I like okay I mean I realize it's just a conversation during lunch. I mean, there's, you know, truth to everything somewhere. Two sides to every story still, right? But it's still it's like pretty colorful. Or listening to the South
Metro, several cities sitting together. I want to say one was Prior Lake and I think Woodberry, can't remember exactly, but they're explaining their ambulance service issues and they've got them and they're serious, but totally different from what we have and you're like,
"Wow." Okay. So you can't even when you want to solve the problem, everyone has a different issue around the need. That's interesting. And then we had a couple good conversations about um cities and trying to develop housing.
Yeah. Um we were with St. Peter in Mano area, right? Yeah. That's interesting. Um, so they um
take photos and um then later on they share those. I don't know why I just grabbed her, but um here's one a sample of one of the breakout sessions which they have a zillion million of them, but that's kind of what they look like if
you've never been there. Lots of people, lots of opportunity usually to interact and ask questions. On their awards dinner night, they honor various cities. They create a video of what that city's project was that they won an award for. So, it's very timed. You aren't So, you
get to watch and you hear from usually staff talking about their project. And this I believe I met this guy before. He's the mayor of Adina. So, I'm pretty sure I'm looking at the city of Adina. I met him last last year. I think that's Minnitankka.
What? Minnitanka. Okay, that could be right. Minnitanka Dina at dinner. Yeah, there we go. Anyways, I had breakfast with them last year. Um, you can tell because there's anyways and these guys did a really
great presentation Friday morning talking, you know, it's still really really difficult in a lot of communities around the state to have any kind of decent conversations. So these guys talk about their uh project. They are opinion writers out of
Detroit um in different directions and they've been working in the same realm for I don't know 17 plus years and now they do a lot of projects together. They've been friends for that long. Yeah. with diametrically opposed
political views and they're trying to figure out how and why, you know, how do we make this work and how can we share that with other people. And of course, there's no secret about it. You have to get to know people. And the way to do that is you
have to ask questions and listen to them and not turn a conversation into a contest. And don't try to change people's minds. just try to understand where they're coming from and and try to value their opinions based on their approach rather than your
own lens. So there's nothing magic about it, but it's really really hard work. And yeah, these guys did a good job, I thought. Yeah, they did. And they had good stories and so it I guess it helps too if you both like bourbon
their initial, but yeah, did a good job. Certain kind of grease right there. Mhm. The federal lobbyist speaks and and that's the just to give you an idea that's the main conference room. So that's when supposedly everyone's in the room.
Remember where where was that? We're down at the deck. So when you have like an everyone meal or an everyone presentation then but that gives you a feel and um what they have and they have happy hour one or two
nights. I can't remember they have vendors one night too that I went to an early bird session on Wednesday for mayors and that was really interesting too and that was more interactive and we had certain questions to ask to answer
went into small groups and um got people talking about you know how they do certain things that happens to be the replacement for Anton's buddy out of um Rosemont the new Rosemont attorney I
city mayor. And so we just did a lot of things that way and it was really good to hear from other mayors what their issues are. The most interesting one was um what's your biggest concern? And one guy was like
how I'm how am I ever going to get out of this job because we can't get enough people to want to fill the role. So that was his, you know, transition was his his biggest concern. Then you always have motivational
speaker. She was pretty good too. Talking about uh whatever motivational speakers and she called you down at Adena. Yeah, that was good. It's very good. She was from far away. Um yeah,
it's funny. And she got called on it right away. So she knew people were listening. And I just caught this guy, but I sat down. You were with me at that one of the meals, right? With this guy and I think it's Oatana, right?
I think he Anyways, I just when his picture popped, he had never held any public office and he ran for mayor and he won. So, he was like totally still trying to I said, "Way to go, bud."
And there, I've never had my photo taken before. And you can't see it, but the day before I left, I went over to Emily's and I got a little sweatshirt that says Grand Marray. There you go. Which worked. Oh. Oh, now did I get a Where are we,
Bill? Oh, I right away. First one, I um I didn't pull up this one yet. There we There you are, Bill.
And oh, that was You're right. That was the first one I forgot. I was like, why' I pick that one? Because we're the blurries in the back. Mhm. Yeah, that's we're the blurries. Yeah. So, anyway, so that was the conference this year. Some really good materials.
And um did you guys like your breakout sessions? Did you Yeah, they were terrific. Uh, and some of them were also a little dry, but that's okay because some of this material is, as you know, there was a really powerful one that was
given by the city of Burnsville. It's been 16 months since they had a horrible tragedy where one firefighter and two police officers were killed. That's right. Responding to a domestic disturbance. And so their city manager, police chief,
fire chief, city attorney, and their communications consultant sat down and talked about how that went and how they responded and what they learned from and this is the first time they've done that since it occurred. So, two takeaways from that
that I thought were great. The city of Bransville has an emotional support dog which I'll bet got a lot of action for a long time and it's important to have some people to call when something happens.
They I mean the police chief and the fire chief are out of commission when the tragedy like that occurs. they can't continue to do their actual job because they've got a whole lot of other things that are suddenly top of the list that they have to take care of and so they
have to get on the phone and city of vegan now the city of Burns police department for a few days and your fire chief friend from the neighboring city is going to come over and drive you around and make sure you know answer your phone like literally just take care
of you while you're trying to deal with this And so those relationships have to be built now before you need to make that call. So you know somebody's going to answer your phone. And so that was really tough to sit and
listen to that and also rewarding to know that I think we do have good relationships here. I know there are people that would help us and I know that we would help other people if we got that call too. So, who who would we who would be our who would we be reaching out to?
Well, it's hard to imagine what the situation would be, right? But I mean, but just think about our local partners in any agency, our our government partners, our non-government agency partners, our nonprofit partners, our friends. Uh, of course we have lots of
mutual aid agreements that are official too for like if we need utilities assistance, but if we just need somebody to come help, I mean, that's a question I think you all need to ask yourselves, too. Who are my three people I'm going to call?
So, it's it was interesting. Powerful. Well, and it was Savage that redid their park, but they had the shootings, right? Yeah, that was a they got an award for a project they did and it felt like a real bait and switch because the video for the awards started
with the parks staff talking about people like the parks and they're going to do something with the slides and I thought well this is neat and then suddenly they talked about some murders that occurred and how to respond to that and it's back to the civility issue again which is really the main theme of
the conference and that's before what happened a couple weeks ago. ago in Minnesota. So very timely. Yeah. When they talked about how they redid their park, you know, was like having sight lines for the police when they are just patrolling and checking it
and those kinds of things. A totally different, you know, criteria what you'd be looking at to set up your park. Yeah. You know, it's just a different kind of thought process there. So, yeah. Yep. But I thought it was a pretty good
conference. Yeah, it was good. Next year it's in Rochester. I didn't go last year in Rochester. I like Rochester. Maybe I will though. Yeah, it's okay. Like walking around the streets at night down there.
Anyways, all right. Well, with that, we are done. Thanks everybody. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you guys. Night. Have a good night. Good night, Chris. Good night. Good night.