e e e e all the regular city of council meeting for order for Monday March 1025 GRS here D here Scott here e here
maon here all right stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation indivisible andice all right moving along to the consent
agenda has everybody had a chance to read through that questions or things to talk through hearing none I'll take a motion to accept the consent agenda as is so we have a motion from councelor J anybody
like a second or support that second we have a second from councelor GRS all those in favor I any oppos hearing none motion period uh moving on to the guests and citizens forum is there anybody that would like
to stand up and chat a little bit Yeah I M2 Hampshire Drive and just some questions even though I've been here for a little while getting to know how things work in who
everybody is uh one of the questions I had is there anybody affiliated with City that's uh in charge of marketing quite Lakes is there like a development team that actively tries to get LS out
there so people can we should check that place out we might want to come over I'm not sure how the industrial park uh businesses came in but they they've been good from my understanding it means
string strength board as a Paramount of they have marketing yeah they work with the it RB and the Iron Range tourism Bureau so they do connect with them to do different ads or promote we have a marketing committee on the Easter insurent poers board and they work with
each of the four communities of a Lakes Bic and LS not included but just just us is there anybody that we deal with the um Iron ra tourism board on our own too but
yeah we we partner with the other communities and they do promote Point LS individually as well when we have activities they do promote those on their own okay what what I'm doing is trying to assemble a list of people that I'd like
to to meet and talk to and see what what ideas they have um one of the things I was wondering um quite Lakes being the allseason city you know that's nice it's kind of warm and
fuzzy uh have we thought about making something that catches people's attention maybe eight way to the Superior National Force or something along those lines is that something that the council might discuss and talk about is that's something that have to go
through like a vat for um the people out like servicing out yes I'm not very sure it's nothing has been brought up before I would I would venture to Guess that that would be something that we I gu talk as a
community Okay the reason I asked is when when I saw that we were 3A which is like the tourism uh district for uh the state legislature where our heritage is
binding uh maybe we need something that focuses more on tourist and there something that most most any of the commun is on the Range but so that that will just pass up hopefully you'll say hey I'll talk with you
sometime have a cop see some the different ideas you say did change the model from an all season City to Gateway that's an idea you know gateway to you know the gateway to
Adventure uh which is kind of the uh next next part um with the website it's it's pretty you know much like you'd expect some of the smaller Community websites but if if we had some video you know showing people
enjoying what we have here then that gateway to the superior gway to you know outdoor Wilderness excitement activity you know and like when Pontiac came out and said we build excitement and it TI on people started
buying finding that cars not that they're in business anymore but we want to St in business here so that's where some of these ideas coming um going along with that working with the website Mary barell I'm sure
some people here would remember the fals uh does documentary videos uh she's done a lot of them in the Winona area and she would really like to do one a point l the founding the building with white LS
but when I was talking with her about you know can you do video clips you know 15 20 seconds of something that makes white LS really special she goes yeah that wouldn't be hard at all and probably be kind of a nice thing to get in on the website it shouldn't be too
hard to do so those were a couple of things I I did find when I went on Airbnb white Lakes has zero hips do we have an ordinance that prevents people from
doing airnb we have an ordinance that allows them people don't register them so there are I've heard of a couple people have told me I'm say I'm staying at a VV up on hand over you
are um so apparently we have or had at one time a couple um but we do have an ordinance for um shortterm and long-term rental units and we just haven't had anyone actually register them if they're still out there so okay yeah we we allow
them um part part of that goes back to if if we spot something that doesn't really set us off you know you do a search for white lakes and you do a search for you know rooms near White lakes and nothing comes up um how do we
get that information out we got really ni nice uh motel but that that didn't come up it wasn't an easy place to to find uh so one of those uh probably the
most interesting thing I saw is our most popular airport is Grand robets so that that doesn't seem quite SP on should be look that so uh thank you very much for listening and uh I
will say thank you for giving me a couple extra minutes thanks thank you all right anybody else like to stand up and say anything gu cist for section of the meeting hearing nothing we'll move on to
reports from City staff yes um I wanted to make a comment that I stayed on after uh my last dat to help the city during the transition and it's apparent to me that the mayor
does not value my time and the city is suffering under the lack of leadership as such I'm no longer interested in explaining myself to someone who doesn't listen so this will be my last day of the city public director uh a few things uh since the
last meeting we had water need break number four uh a little over a week ago uh second one on Guilford for the year um down Public Works were uh dug the street sweeper out today we're working on getting that you know all the
maintenance done on that you'll probably see it out in about before we know it uh speaking for Wade with the arena um the came off at the arena today um the last games were played yesterday afternoon he
stripped the ice both last night and this morning Public Works went over there and shaved all the remaining off um right now it's currently be dry concrete uh they are supposed to take the boards out I believe on Wednesday the remaining Lees will be pulled and uh
the saw cutting the floor and everything all commence um as far as new construction at the arena um they are going to try and get the concrete floor port in a new building that's been constructed out back they want to get it done on
Thursday because they believe Ro restrictions are going to go on Friday thank you utilities director bar uh regarding the plants the water plant as you guys know we removed the old chemical tanks
the new ones have arrived they are installed while I was gone the guys plumed in the intake for that tomorrow I'll look it over and make sure we got the feed line in the day tank but we should be receiving tanker trucks as the
Clos to to now starts some cheaper chemical costs to carry us till hopefully we move on to the Aurora Water Plant as far as why I'm dressed up today I was able to join the East Range water board down to the state capital today we met with
representative waras name senators farnor and Senator H down there talk about funding one of the key things we're looking for is the whiff Grant is currently Capp at $5 million there's talks about being that
to10 million that gets past that not only benefits Aurora EAS water board that would also benefit us as well yeah interesting experience first time pretty positive that from what you
GA from people yeah they sounded very positive they're very happy to see that we're combining we're not individual facilities going for project we're actually regionalizing and trying to make the most of the funding we're getting so that goes a long ways
especially these days increase prices all right Le thank you for going down there to advate for the City Board project finally City attorney Rie uh I don't have much of an update
mayor I have a a question I guess follow up to the interim interim administrator announcement are you operating under a contract like independent contract or just okay that's it all right thank you
moving on to reports from elected offici um I'm on the youth and action committee now for this year that meeting was cancelled last week they'll have a meeting scheduled in May so that'll be the first meeting I attend for that so I'll see what what that's all about and what they do for our
community uh the Chamber of Commerce finished our year end with u we report to the city every year how much we gave in donations and this for 2024 we gave almost $125,000 out to the the city col ship School different youth groups um things
like the Garden Club and youth hockey so that report will be coming out in the shoer probably this weekend I'll get it in tomorrow and then usually put a couple notices at City Hall or at the sit where we at the Haven where we have the tabs so that's a yeah nice nice
chunk of money that back the community so thank you to all the gamblers no the um veterans clubs Legions they do their own their in-house so we used to have the bowling alley and that flows down and we' never there's not another site really to operate under
town so Prett good one location yeah one location is that the same every year are you up no this is it's up I think last year I don't even remember I can do a little report over the last five years next time um I think it was around maybe
110 it was over 100,000 last year as well a lot of that comes from the electronic B tabs that started a couple years ago three four years ago a lot of money comes from the electronic is that G I thought I saw T they've taken it away and now no they just had to change
it they looked a lot like slot machines and the tribal Community um the Minnesota statute was actually being violated so the tribal Community noticed that and brought that up until that legislation was changed so for 2025 so the games just don't look like a slot
machine anymore they open more like a pull tab they have three lines you have to hit the button three times to open each one of the tabs and there's no bonuses really anymore but people still play them and we're still doing really good so we'll see what 2025
brings thank you coun J I have nothing ton nothing tonight um or C Jal and I just went to the public safety meeting and they were just updating some of their policies I met the other range mayor
last week so got know mayor mayor mayor a little bit some mayor getting to know some other folks around the area that's from me moving on to Old business
10.1 me no oh um the council last consider the draft plan ordinance at the last council meeting uh they were directed to submit any changes thoughts corrections to me councelor Jaris submitted questions I provided the
responses in the meeting packet today You' be looking to finalize what language you would like in the ordinance so it can be posted for no less than 10 days prior to meeting and then approved as an ordinance and publish make it E um yeah just because we have to um I
guess approve something um we can go through it um make any sort of changes that we did um so the first section I I can add one thing yeah to what Becky said I contacted the
DNR also if we don't have this done people in City would be ineligible for flood insurance right so it's it's a requirement yeah so yeah we need yeah make sure we have it done um or adopted
before the um is there anything before we go through it is there any changes that people would making um so blue sections um those are pieces that you can decide to um keep or take out um there's
sections in here that are highlighted in red um where you can make changes um I wasn't able to see any other cities that have um adopted something like this to kind of read through the
counties um you can just start at the beginning and go through it um so that first section um obviously changing it to the white L flood plan ordinance is opposed to the Minnesota model FL plan ordinance um taking out those bottom
three paragraphs are kind of explains things and then just keeping that first one where it starts at um um I was thinking Changers um and then changing that to our been developed
consistently these rules um second page just keeping everything there nothing um is ask need to be changed um third page so this is where it kind of starts
to explain um that all our the blue sections um can be accepted if we see f um so making it not volage changing to the the black lettering um so you would like to accept all the
sections I guess I was just going to go through it and see if we certain section and then sections just take um so this critical facilities piece um do folks think we should take
that keep it um I was thinking keeping that section yeah first when I was reading it I thought we don't like I was thinking of hospitals or clinics but it does also talk about the emergency response buildings so I would just leave that in
yeah uh the second part U 2124 blood Fring section possible this district will be extended laterally to the 0.2% annual chance Bud claim where mapped um
thinking you should keep that or keep that own I guess I don't don't know if that would apply to us or not I mean it's an optional statement but yeah I don't know if the one % is adequate or we shoulding that some
of this is kind of you know unknown if we should strike it or not sure so I look at the counties they took out the blue section of that pie so keeping everything the same they taking out it says this District shall be extended
Lally 2% taking that um then the general flood plane part the 2.130 general flood plan these blood planes designated on blood insurance bra maps referen in section 3.2 um but that
do not have a delineated blood wave um I thinking keeping that section um and then taking out the section after that the like duty truck section that the next page
um asks us how to define for two separate definitions or folks think we should do the top one so regory protection elevation goes on same elevation one fo above then continues
or the same thing but an elevation that is 2T I see the DNR is recommending the use a two foot a twoot measurement so I would say yeah so do the bottom
one um repetitive loss um blood related them just sustain by structure or two separate occasions during 10e period for which could costs at the time of each blood event um the average goals are
exites 25% of the market value of the structure the damage occurred should that or take that out keep section moving on to the next section to section three
um the only part it asks us to change is um saying whether Planning Commission or Court of adjustment should um should be a part of that um I was thinking just doing the finance owning commission since
that's relevant 3.2 um so where the master these f um I was just thaning City Hall for that under Section 2.3 um says this District shall be
extended laterally to the 0.2% anual chance were ma we did approve that on the 2 point 124 so I think we would need to leave that on that one to then [Music]
then moving on with section four 4.1 two um which just says F fences as defined in section 2.0 this ordinance are not considered to be an obstruction as such do not acquire permit permit for Farm fences in the city but I
just keeping just this um 4.23 critical facilities should be located so that the lowest Flor is not less than 2 ft above the base flood elevation or the 0.2% chood
elevation is that like we already have our building does that meet that requirement already or would we be in violation if we approve that statement um I guess yeah if we don't know for sure I would say just take it
out since it is optionally so we don't write ourselves corner there section five bikes intended to protect agricultural CRS proved the the D does not exceed 10% chance blood event I just
thinking about taking those of 515 516 all that don't agricultural cops any 5 any facility used by employees or
general public must be designated with a PL warning system I would say take that out 5.26 erosion take that two3 54
[Music] instruction take that out next section so the four part such areas shall be subject to D restricted restricted non conversion agreement periodic
inspections I take take that part hour [Music] small that Sol section seven um choosing to adopt the higher standard and bl so then those red
highlighted sections take those out since we more restrictive time has not been determined in Bas the following methodology may be used
alna above these areas not protected and tood about the regat guess I all that out nothing on next page2 there a spot on the bottom
sounds like they would want to leave that in it just says You must consider all relevant factors danger to life and property safety to SE for to keep all that other considerations or conditions
as beinged by the zoning administrator and the Planning Commission or Planning and Zoning commission for that also or Council or I would say planning and zoning
[Music] section 12 any structures located outside the 1% annual chance buing are exemp from this provision keep that and then any nonform structure has utility electrical and mechanical
equipment damage fling must be re rebuilt conformance let's take that [Music] out and final section so 12.23
um for the purpose of determining whether work constitute Improvement Elation shall also include any verifications additions or other improvements included since [Music]
struct expen L considered damaged must constructed except theion of [Music] that folks think we should be
[Music] making make those changes um and then it sounds like for the DNR we need to have a public hearing um before adopting this so I was thinking
of scheduling a public hearing for March 24th um which would be the day before this is due um then we have that public hearing so that needs to be in the paper for 10 days correct um legal contct
um so that gives us enough time to have it in the paper for 10 days um and then do it on so office staff could um tomorrow reach out to the newspaper um
to like what time is the public he um soe be 5:30 public forum um is there any sort of time limit Council on how long it has to be for the
hearing no because it don't yeah right you can do it at 5:15 between options we can include it in our meeting so schedule the the public hearing for during
our counc meeting do it that waye so 5:30 then [Music] um and then at the public hearing we can adopt that ordinance after that so that could
be put on the agenda for um after the hearing section part of that ad [Music] as long as office staff can put that in the we for the Noti of the public hearing I think we
should anything else I think that was that we just need to adopt it before to 20 and accepting the the draft the changes we made or yeah do a do a motion accepting the
Chang discussed figure out who's going to make those changes right um so is anybody like to make a motion to um make those changes as we discussed tonight that
ordinance I'll make we have a motion from councelor emman is there anybody that like do second and support that I'll second that yeah had a second from ground all those in favor I any opposed
hearing none motion [Music] carried moving [Music] on new business 11.1 P request um number six from ma gr construction the amount
$1,286 for recreation is there anything that [Music] for information or
Penny special thing to discussing this motion to um pay that pay request for construction make that motion have a motion from anybody that like second support
that second second all those in favor um 11.2 water committee re loal fire dep department is there anything that you
want to add back Sher um no I did talk with um EMS director Olstead about the possible change where it says um the fire truck at fing Beach parking lot Saturday night for the fireworks um because of all the road construction and the arena parking
lot possible construction still we were talking about moving the camping over to the field by the EMS building where the fireworks normally are moving the fireworks down Beach parking lot a lot of those possible moves are are pending and we're going to include fire chief Kenny
melany and um assistant chief clad in all these further meetings and conversations about the best way to the best Parade route and place for camping and fireworks and everything so we'll keep everyone in the loop so we're all on the same page and think any possible
conflicts that might come up um our President Dan Garo will be coming to a council meeting probably in April to go over all this and update everyone on what's Happening and it is our 70th Anniversary so it's going to be a bigger celebration so a bad timing for the 70th
and the construction but we'll make it all work might be a heading for a lot of Public Works people but we make it work then at a future council meeting we can do all the in kind services and um so this is more just informational
sharing yeah this was just to to make sure to get um you know the permissions needed by the the council for them to use you know the equipment for this kind of stuff and for them to have it on their radar for their scheduling purposes I'd make a motion to give that
permission for them yeah have a motion TR to um the in fire department to provide these in services to committee um is there anybody like to a second or support that I'll second yeah have a second from coun
mat all those in favor I any oppos n motion carried moving on to 113 public forum um there a request me to reduce the public forum from 30 minutes to 15 minutes um due to a lack of public
participation um is there anybody that would like to um Mi changes to um the public forums either by decreasing it 15 minutes um I know certain on certain
subjects are brought on we talk the garbage that was a fairly lengthy meeting um so maybe rather than doing it every month I was thinking either do it quarterly or every other month um so that gives us enough time to put together things that we're going
to talk about um as opposed to doing it um every month and then um only for 15 minutes if there is a topic that really like to talk about might be nice to have a 30 minute meeting let just
doing meetings last question would be really heard anything if for some reason something came up and we had a 15 minute meeting went next 15 minutes we violate our meeting postings if you post meeting that's what I'm
asking I I don't know that's that's that's my question you know I don't mind having a monthly um I would be in favor of starting that at 5:15 unless we do have um a heavy agenda let's say people do call in and request certain topics or
we have a topic we really want to discuss in length with people I mean if if there's agenda items we can post it you know starting at 5 but if there's no agenda items that people want to discuss we can still have it open at 5:5 team
just in case someone does come it just doesn't make sense said you're full half right that's why I don't mind the 15 minutes early just in case someone comes in and wants to talk about something but birds will be coming back soon they'll be the ones coming down and this is kind
of a new thing I only have to yeah so I didn't realize you were doing it monthly I mean how how do you find that out I mean po when you post the meeting just post that goes back to the
marketing there is no marketing of what's going on this but there is the Bulet right onway here that does on the website has it I'm the one that originally requested the Forum yes and then with the couple where
we had we had one meeting where we had a lot of people there and then the other ones were like okay nobody's here why I spend a half an hour sitting here when we can cut it 15 and I do I do think once the snbs come back you have more people you might want
to look at changing it after back again because a lot of your elderly people aren't here right now but they'll be coming back next month and those are the ones that have a lot of questions if they know what's going
on is that create a problem Sher said with schedu meeting time if we start the Forum at 5:15 city council is going to start at 5:30 The Forum goes extra 15 minutes or 10 minutes
that's start time is that cre Department potentially so um are you seeing the concern is that the public forum might go too long and delay the
time yeah if we start the public forum at 5:15 and we get a night where we get 25 people coming in there and it goes from 5:15 to 5:45 whereas Council munal start at 5:30 my advice stop the for and
delay it and have that some other time and start po time both for the public and for the staff and everyone that is here for the Post meeting after the
meeting yeah is is the Forum called to order where where you'd be hitting the G and a roll call that's how we started them you know like when when they were at five started
by so if nobody was here like 15 minutes is a reason time for somebody that may be running late but nobody's here 515 G andour we just leave it open till 5:30 then we call that one meeting closed and
start the next one I mean we're we're here we're sitting here in case someone comes up but we don't close the meeting at 5:15 and is there a reason we don't put those up like you do the meeting they are they are they are yep they just Forum starts at 5 reg meeting
5:30 those are always posted okay I had someone as asked me why they couldn't watch that verion and I said I don't know oh you're saying put it out on the video on the video posted that we were why isn't it on the video like the meetings because
that would build interest in getting people here if they saw that they could come down and talk and that the council was here to listen to um yeah I guess special special meting public
record it but I mean to consider just for I guess transparency and I'm getting people more [Music] interested I just would think it would gather more you get more people interested they saw that they can do that
sure I just don't think it's well known that you're having so yeah better better advertisement that we're doing things like that every month so and I know you say that it's on bulon bord here there's two things got your bulletin board out
here and you've got the internet and you've got old people what are the two things they can't do they can't drive and they can't operate a computer so the people that want to make this m don't know what's going
on do we put anything in the Shopper or it's been fairly expensive I know we hav't putting it in there because of the cost I mean I know that's how I got everyone to the
I ran an Shopper and and most of the elderly people responded to the ad person don't repeat this I don't read the Sher a lot of people don't attorney L might be able to answer
this but I think in the state of Minnesota as far as Government governmental entities as well as nonprofits Minnesota is more concerned about closing meetings than opening meetings and so you have an open meeting
already there's no concern there it's just participation by public and that you're having that right now that's what that's what's happening currently so there there is no real
breach of decorum or breach of Roberts Rules of Order or anything like that I wouldn't think if like you're were saying that open Forum leads into the actual council meeting you just have
to get the council meeting to order at 5:30 for State satisfaction but we also don't have public back and forth comment generally in a meeting that's we started the public forum because at this meeting when the guest presentation come up it's
not a back and forth question and answer it's just here's my feelings and thank you for sharing we'll look into it so that's what the public forum is for so that these meetings don't have 10 people with back and forth like this so in order to keep our regular meeting you
know streamlined I don't I don't want to cross over that line of public forum and regular meeting just for the sake of all our other attendees and our employees that come we need to do our business during this meeting and I keep the public forum separate where we can
converse with the public I guess my personal opinion is based off of this question and what 11.3 is about today is that we want in the public forums so that people could talk we've given it only a couple public forums and now we're like all right
sitting here for a half hour one day mon getting to us I don't really think that that I mean we wanted to give citizen the ability to come in and talk I don't think two or three public forums of not having 10 people in here is enough for me to say that's it we're cutting on a
15 minut I understand that we all have other things to do but we're giving people 30 minutes to come in and talk one day a month excuse me I don't I don't see the purpose in cutting back at this point to me but mayor yeah if the concern is the the
time if no one shows up you can make it a part of your agenda for the regular meeting you can put that on your agenda as one of the early things and have it per part of the Mee and if no one's here is part of that then then you don't have to worry about
the the schedu of it running long and not being you have to start meeting so you're actually meting by 30 that's have to start so you have to cut that off start early you may it part of your regular agenda once a month then and the
public knows about it then they can come and participate and you you as the mayor running that portion can give them reasonable time some set time for each person to share conduct it that way um so I can provide additional advice or
Direction C can like on how you can do that but that would be my recommendation hearing is because you're with I think one of the key reasons it was made beforehand is because we're paying people overtime for these meetings and so if they don't have to be part of the
public forum then we're not paying overtime and if citizens are are wanting that public forum then that's the cost of doing business so half hour a month yeah um so maybe just
keeping things as is but then um just allowing you to us some sort of [Music] gu so for March 24th we're just leaving it that five for now yeah yeah we might
as well forward after that yeah we his Ting Reg be good for the scheding event and then wait on we have to have a motion for
[Music] that um moving on to 11.4 Federal appropriation discussion uh Federal legislators have sent information regarding Federal Appropriations um the city has no projects and the
shovel ready positions for federal appropriation um if strange water board May apply Pro um so this is just a way of nothing we can do is that something the city can contact st's office and
find out if we can get additional funding for the Water Project The Joint Waters board does the um legislating went down but would this be additional funding above and beyond that no so the joint board would do all that
work participation on whoever on moving on to 11 strange TR water foration regarding members we
already members last I believe don't yeah this is different the resolution was made and
request I'll just now question for on on this with you leaving the meetings that are being done for white Lakes joining were discussion for the number of members and everything those have been separate from
the water board can we find out when those are scheduled I'd like to either Jake or Jake goes to them okay you let me know then yeah we got our next one on Wednesday I believe that starts the
event I think they're at 3 on the same okay so it's held before the actual water board meeting then yeah 3:00 it starts and usually and SPS up right with the start of the official meeting okay everything for
11.5 um so I will take a motion for make that motion motion from coun second coun favor none