first item on the agenda is the pledge please join us to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible
with liberty and justice for all it can be noted for the record that all members of the council are present this evening we do have one addition to tonight's agenda which is a conditional use permit with that are there any other
additions or deletions from council seeing none chair would entertain a motion to approve the agenda i'll move motion by councelor Kaylor is there a second i'll second second by councelor Buller any discussion all those in favor say I i i
i any opposed agenda is approved thank you next on the agenda minutes from the previous meeting Monday March 17 2025 the chair would entertain a motion to approve those minutes
so move motion by councelor Wgner do we have a second second second by councelor Buller any discussion i'm Holden excuse me councelor Holden for the record is there any discussion
somebody up here all those in favor say I i i i i any opposed motion carries minutes are approved next on the agenda payments of claims and approval for payments of account
payable transfers from the lodging tax fund to our general fund of $875.99 for total transfers accounts payable and claims
city of International Falls 526,369.35 airport commission claims $42,000 $7176 an airport major capital project claims $24,645 no
total accounts payable in claims $593,73211 sense unless there's discussion the mayor would entertain a motion to approve these claims i'll make the motion have a motion by councelor Holden is there a second second second by councelor Wagner is there any
discussion on these payments and claims seeing no discussion uh roll call vote starting with councelor Kaylor i I I I'll vote yes payment of claims passes 5 thank you next we'll move on uh to
audience open form and opportunity if anyone would like to come forward and address the council time limit is 5 minutes unless extra time is granted by the council superintendent Deg Gross thank you very much um my name is Bob
Deg Gross i'm superintendent of Voyagers National Park and we're headquartered at 360 Highway 11 East in International Falls and I know today on the agenda you have a proclamation that's going to be considered by the board or the council to recognize tomorrow um April 8th 2025
as the 50th anniversary of Voyagers National Park and uh recognizing it as Voyagers National Park Bay and I just appreciate your consideration for this and I hope of course that it passes um I just want to remind everyone that tomorrow if you haven't seen the news
about our 50th anniversary in recognition of the actual day that the park was dedicated 50 years ago on April 8th we will have an open house at the headquarters from 3:00 to 6:00 where we'll be giving tours of our collections
management area and everything like that so if you're able to come out we encourage people to to come out and and uh join us for that i believe we're going to have birthday cake there as well um also I just want to mention that in uh collaboration with the Voyagers
Conservancy we will be hosting a variety of different events throughout the entire year uh one of the major culminations is going to be the grand opening of the Crane Lake Visitor Center in the southeast end of the park um uh on June 6 and things and then there's a
variety of things that are going to be taking place um at all the gateway areas of the park through the year but just wanted to share my appreciation for you considering the proclamation and also take any questions that you might have for me well thank you um question you're
retiring soon i am what's the date it's the end of May end of May i will be retiring after eight years of being here in the community um and at uh as the superintendent of the park and I'm planning on staying in the community um uh and enjoying the water probably more
in the summers once I retire than what I was able to do as the superintendent and everything so wonderful i I just really want to take the opportunity to thank you um and uh Bob and I have known each other for quite a while and we've probably had a couple big goarounds at
one point but um you've been a good thing for our park um there's been a lot of superintendent that have taken on a lot of interesting things locally and we're thankful that you've been our superintendent along with all the other
things that it brings to the community well I appreciate that very much and thank you for your time today [Applause] okay good evening good evening
do I have to tell who I am or do you know who I am by now for the record please rhonda Benedict 9096 Street International Falls Minnesota so I'm going to start with the committee of the whole meeting that you had last ed Bates recorded
it i listened to it i wasn't here at your last city council meeting i was sick with influenza so I'm going to say that I think that that meeting kind of was about me um there was an emphasis on rules of
conduct for the citizens a huge push was that the meeting lasted the meeting before that the one that I wasn't at but the one before that where I confronted the city
council a huge push was on the five-minute rule at the meeting that I was at that I confronted the city council for the Rword and the C-word i was
being tried to be kicked off the mic for the five-minute rule when I was trying to defend myself which was astonishing in itself i think that I had the right to be up here to defend myself
and I was being extremely hard trying to be kicked off the mic which I think I had every right to defend myself okay i also on this committee of the
whole meeting was brought up that we can't have coming up to the mic and starting out with profanity we just can't have that is that what I did i just came to the mic and started throwing out profanity is that what I did because I
didn't i came up here and I started off with I've been in this town and I've lived in this town my whole life it was only the second time I've ever been to a city council meeting and I started out with what was said about me i repeated
what was said about me by a city council member i didn't just come up here and startywilly throwing out profanity i repeated what was said to me about me from a city council member so clearly that's not the big
issue a city council member calling me a cun clearly it's a huge issue that I came up and said the profanity word not that it was said about a about me from a city council member but I repeated it
that was the big issue so now at the committee of the whole meeting it was a huge issue that you're going to enforce the rule that people just can't come up to the mic and start throwing out profanity so you're gonna you're gonna enforce that rule of conduct that we just can't
start throwing out profanity right isn't that what was said and that apparently I didn't have the right to be upset and if people get out of control you're going to have the police kick you out
really so being called and the c T-word the citizens don't have a right to be upset about that we don't have a right to come up here and be upset
so you're going to kick us out with police if we get so out of control for being upset really that's the rules of conduct you're going to enforce and that we can't single out a member who called us those words how
dare we how dare we we have to talk to you as a whole huh so being nobody stood up and took ownership of that as a single person and we can't point fingers and we
can't zero in on Pete was the exact words you used in the committee of the whole meeting we have to talk to you as a council as a whole and not the whole entire city council did not reprimand that certain
city council member i mean you want me to talk to you as a whole so then basically I say the whole city council as a whole should take ownership of that city council member that did that then you're
all to blame you want to sit there and punish us and you want to basically push the rules of conduct you're going to you're going to push the rules of conduct on us and enforce
them nobody can talk more than five minutes can't have that can't have the meeting that everybody go came up and talked everybody had lots to say at that meeting can't single out a s city council member even though he called me a cun i can't
come up here and confront him miss Benedicts I'm I'm speaking it's my five minutes uh I'm sorry bear with me please it has been five minutes it's my wish that you can continue but I cannot
override the council i don't have that authority so it's up to the council if they would like you to continue or not and that's the proper decorum so I I have to ask the council what your wishes are
i have no issue please continue thank you these are not only insulting that you are going to have a committee of the whole meeting and you talk about enforcing these rules it's
concerning you have no respect for the people if that's what you're going to do if you're not going to follow your own code of conduct rules but because I got upset and came up here to defend myself and my
honor and you don't follow your own code of conduct rules you're elected officials but you don't think that you have consequences that shows you have no honor or integrity it's hypocritical is what it
is absolutely hypocritical the citizens have lost faith and trust in you and to be honest it's downright disgusting thank you for your time i'm done absolutely done
[Applause] good evening Nancy Yhof my business at is at 3393rd Street International Falls i just was wondering if um anybody has been in contact with Jim
Lucachic or if any further progress has been made on the Banshell project i know I think Betty said last time the insurance she they were meeting with the insurance that week or whatever i'm just kind of wondering what the status of that project is and if it's okay if I
talk Betty up there i did contact Jim i spent time with him on the phone okay and he uh he's excited he's not going to charge right International Falls a nickel right and he as soon as we get moving on this we're gonna be using Jim
so any idea when that might be not for sure it's coming and it could be within short time i hope so yeah we all do too Nancy we do construction season is just around the corner i had a really good visit with him so yeah well I think it
was just amazing that he offered that and I would as a council member would have jumped all over that so I'm glad to hear that you talked to him and hopefully we can see some progress on that not so great looking B shell in the near future
sure okay thank you one one second while you're up if you don't mind betty is there a band shell update on your end i know you are working on it not intentionally putting you on this no that's fine mayor thank you um I did speak with our adjuster last week and he indicated that he and his supervisor
have hired another firm to look at this project and they were starting on it today and their time frame was 2 to 3 weeks before we would hear back again so they're working on it but it unfortunately is going to be an additional two to three weeks before I know anymore
thank you yep okay thanks thank you good evening ed Bates 108 Riverview Boulevard whether you believe it or not um this recall process is not something
that I really wanted to do um I have I have here um complete amounts uh for each of the three wards um that I'm prepared to turn into
Betty it's not something that I want to do i I really It's important that you understand that um this process is not easy on a community it's designed that way
um it tests the people um against what they really want so on this list you're going to find people that signed that you might be friends with or have done business with or you
know have hung out with properties neighbors i'm I guess I'm asking that you don't make me turn them in my my preference would be that you resign because if I turn them in you're
going to read them and if you read them human nature is that you're you're going to lash out at those people that's just the way it goes i know it you know it and I if you make me do it I would I would caution you not to take it
personally it's not personal these these people took a look at this and said "We disagree with your politics we disagree with the direction that we're headed." not that doesn't speak to your you you
as a person and I would hope that that you understand that so I'm going to wait till the end of the meeting before I turn them into Betty um but I'd really
really prefer that you didn't make me thanks mr hardwick hi Mayor Dill counselors um I came here tonight uh can you state your na your name and address for the record
my name is Jeff Hardwick and address is 2593 County Road 103 thank you go ahead so I came here tonight to make sure that the uh the council was uh aware of the status of
our our our Voyers National Park it has a dark sky designation from Dark Sky International communities that have such a designation reap very big benefits from astroourism and that's not a potential future thing
that's happening right now um one of our local businesses uh Voyagers Outfitters had over 50 uh people from out of town many of them from out of state use his business and they went on a walking tour
of the of the night sky um out at the the boarded walkway so we take it for granted but you if you've ever seen a display of northern lights you get a sense of
awe you can see on a on a dark night you can see the Milky Way and we take it for granted but it's it's a marvelous thing and people travel to see this here uh four out of five people in our nation never see the Milky Way
um so it's a great thing it's a it's a boon to our our community and uh it's also something that can be taken away if light pollution drowns out the night sky and that the light the light in our country
is increasing at 10% a year so it's worth protecting so um April 21st through 28th is designated as um dark sky week and it would be a very cool thing
if this council were to make a proclamation uh just designating April 21 through 28 as Dark Sky Week mayor Wagner of Reineer has signed a proclamation mayor Andrew Hakus from Fort Francis has signed a
proclamation and it's also kind of cool that you you we could have a crossborder uh decision to do something positive and cooperative between our two countries so uh the
mayor has a copy uh a sample copy of this proclamation and I'm uh very much hoping that you could see a way to join the other mayors in town and have a uh uh a sense a regional proclamation of Dark Sky Week doesn't cost you anything
and um it could help the community there's any questions thank you thank you and I'm sure that we'll be in touch as we visit often
[Applause] we do not have a public hearing this evening or the letting of any bids mayor I guess Russ in International Falls 611 K 10th Street couple things i don't know if I'm in the right thing the you have
action items here can I address them before you have the action items yes you you can address okay so I'm looking at uh the grant for the airport i'm just in interest how much is it do
we know the resolution um well Kyra Hasparen who's the commission secretary okay is here so she would be the most logical person to speak to that what is your question so you have so you
have air airport improvement grant agreement for state project for the airport right i'm just wondering what that grant is what is the amount like what do we what do we like the grant is for terminal
improvements of the CDP section of the airport it's an annual or semianual every five years we have updates and equipment in the CDP area and so this grant uh typically we don't get a grant
for that type of um improvement however the state is giving us a grant to do that uh the total amount of the grant is state portion is roughly 70,000 and the local share would be roughly
30,000 the airport does budget for that amount on an annual basis okay thanks there's money in the budget to cover the local share all right now this next question is for I think Ted the um proof advertising for bids for the Ninth
Street project can you tell me what the Ninth Street project is it's complete reconstruction water and sewer street lighting complete reconstruct Ninth Street from all the way from where to where from Third Avenue to 11th Avenue
and is there a bike trail in that proposal there's there's a patunous trailer rather than a sidewalk on one side on one side no sidewalk right okay and the last one I guess is to add them the state grant
for agreement between the commissioner of natural resources International Falls Fire Department that's a grant what's that amount that we're asking for i have two items which number are you referencing number seven number seven that's a 50/50 grant we get that every
other year so it's for $5,000 we pay 2500 they pay 2500 on wildland fighting firefighting gear okay um that's that really that's about all I wanted to say the other the other thing is last week you voted down the
million dollar grant for improvement over at Kerry Park and that um just have to realize that once you if you would have voted that in them people would have had somebody would had to come and do work somebody would had to do something to improve that make that
process go that's economic development that's what we're here for is economic development that guy came in worked six months we they spent the million dollars we didn't do anything with it they were still here working remember that when we
do make these decisions that once that's gone it's not coming back it's not going to your public water system or anything it's not coming back mr nagel um I want to touch on Kerry
Park i'm not aware of a million dollars that we spent well the the wellness center I'm sorry Kerry Park Wellness Center the wellness center was was by itself I guess 17 will miss it is what we were awarded through state bonding
was a million dollars uh Betty I believe in the form of a reimbursement grant that the design and pre-engineering was reimburseable up to a million dollars is that correct yes yeah and so yes the council did
vote to not proceed with that it wasn't said reimburseable as far as I know on your it said you were getting the money it wasn't reimbursed okay that's unmute that's why I wanted to clarify it so all right thanks
okay we do not I don't see anyone else that would like to speak at this time we do not have a public hearing letting a bids old business or a consent agenda we will move on to new business number one which is a mayoral
proclamation proclaiming tomorrow as Voyagers National Park Day celebrating Voyagers National Park 50th anniversary the mayor would entertain a motion i'll make that motion a motion by councelor Holden is
there a second a second second by councelor Buller any discussion question i I I I I'll vote yes this proclamation carries 50 thank you uh number
two consider use of Kerry Park Arena for a community bike rodeo May 17th 2025 from 11:00 a.m to 100 p.m chief Kick is this something you'd like to speak to i can do you have any questions okay thank you
the mayor would entertain a motion to approve this usage of the community center i'll move motion by councelor Buller is there a second i'll second second by councelor Kaylor any discussion questions
call the question i I I i'll vote yes usage is approved 5-0 thank you next on the agenda number three adopt resolution airport improvement grant agreement for
state project number A3601-124 mayor would entertain a motion to approve the grant to approve motion second by councelor Buller second by councelor Holden any discussion
question i I I I I'll abstain motion carries 40 with an abstension thank you new business for public works committee recommendations a approve advertising
for bids for the Ninth Street project including the Fifth and Sixth Street lead service line project would the council like to approve these individually uh I would I'm going to make that decision
chair would entertain a motion to approve advertising for these bids that's one for item A oh item okay no I caught myself i'll move either way a motion by councelor Kaylor second second by
councelor Buller is there any discussion i have a question for Betty if the bids come back and we don't think they're favorable we have options correct yes okay that's what I thought
call the question i I I I'll vote yes motion carries 5 B approve advertising for bids for the capital improvement program for Milan Overlay in Stenburgg edition and the
city parking lots which I believe is behind city hall and the library i'll make the motion motion by councelor Buller to approve this do we have a second second second by councelor Wagner is there any discussion
no this money was budgeted last year for both purposes call the question i I I i'll vote yes this carries 5 thank you number five new
business approve hiring 10 summer employees for the public works department as presented i'll move motion by councelor Kaylor second second by councelor Buller any
discussion question i I I I I will vote yes motion is approved 5-0 thank you number six approve cooperative fire protection agreement for wildland fires between the
Minnesota DNR and the International Falls Fire Department and authorized signatures [Applause] i'll make that motion we have a motion to approve this agreement by councelor Holden second second by
councelor Wagner discussion or questions i believe that this was already touched on earlier call the question i I I I'll vote yes is approved 5 thank
[Applause] you number seven new business approved state of Minnesota grant agreement federal subawward agreement between commissioner of natural resources and the international falls fire department entertain a motion to approve this grant
i'll make that motion motion by councelor Holden is there a second i'll second second by councelor Bullard discussion on the grant call the question i I I I I'll vote
yes grant is approved 50 thank you 8a this was an addition from the planning commission to approve conditional use permit for home occupation for apparel printing and
embroidery for Hasbargain Customs LLC 80611 Street mayor would entertain a motion to approve this cup so move motion by councelor Buller is there a second second second by
councelor Holden discussion or questions call the question i I I I'll vote yes this conditional use permit is approved 50-0 vote thank you any other business that the council
has to come before we do have um I'll use this time for a legislative report from our current lobbyist Rob Ecklland of Capitol Hill Associates there are three things uh
one the North Cooch Sewer District has a bill that's passed both the House and Senate this has been worked on quite some time to change the makeup of the board due to the language when it was created on Wednesday March 26th
Councelor Wgner and myself uh were in St paul we met with nine members of capital investment committees uh to explain the city's ask through Minnesota management and budget which is bonding over the water plant where we have $4.8
8 million ask on April 3rd the bill in the House that we had made appointments to support got a hearing and Sean Kelly who's the headwater plant or lead water plant
operator and I both testified in front of the House Capital Investment Committee and we will keep the community a breast of any progress moving on to reports boards committees and department heads administrator
attorney and department heads see no reports at this time the fire EMS report which is monthly is in the packet reports from the council boards commissions committees seeing
none we move back to audience open form my question do I have to submit [Applause] there you go Bunny great thank you do I have to introduce myself again or we No no you do not okay um I have a
question regarding this 4A on the Ninth Street project can maybe I missed something i don't know much about this project can somebody explain exactly what that is and with this bike trail what's the reasoning behind a bike trail
down 9inth Street um just what all what's all involved in this project i'm going to I feel like that um councelor Kaylor and I could explain it to a tea but is what I'm going to do is I'm going to have Mr broa who's our
public works director come forward if you'd be comfortable with that i'm comfortable sure oh I was asking Ted ted if you could please do you want me to come up or yeah sure please a lot of the purpose of the Batuminous Trails cost it's cheaper to
put an 8ft trail than it is to put two sidewalks down um part of that was us being able to get a $ 1.5 million grant for local road improvement as part of it mindot with a complete
streets design is it met their criteria for us to get that fund so it's comes down to concrete on both sides ada it's for cost okay
so how is that going to look like so you're turning it's a one way right no right now yes it is a one way right now turning it into a two-way yep so how is that going to look compared so so is there a sidewalk on one side and a bike
trail on another or No there's a there's a multi-use batuminous trail on the north side there will be two-way traffic curb and gutter a boulevard and a batuminous trail just like a sidewalk but out of batuminous what is that black topman
okay mrs bergstrom if I can add to that's going to connect the current batuminous trail on 53 right now and the idea of that is connecting it to the other end of town going that way the other end of town so then that will hook up to sidewalks and other areas um on
the west end of town to circle and have accessibility throughout the community it's part of the that as well and I will add that part of you will see 1171 being reconstructed in
2029 from 332 most likely all the way through to Second Avenue which their plan is is to also have a puminous trail that connects from the high school to the downtown so the eventual goal is is to attach the
two okay and so then am I correct when you are you saying that it's less cost to do the bike trail on one side than two sidewalks yes okay gotcha
also included in that project is the deadline removals yep lead service lines water sewer street lighting yeah curb and gutter it's one of the oldest roads we have in town it's never been touched so and I I'll touch on this and Ted can
fill in the blanks um with the the $30 million 1% sales tax fund um what that can go towards of course was to fix some of the roads i think one of the biggest issues that we've run up
against is the condition of the infrastructure underneath some of the roads um is that accurate yes so in 2020 and 2021 basically we repaved every road that we know we're not going to touch not going to be able to afford to touch
the utilities for 15 years and the problem is is that one block of a mill and overlay where you take off an inch and a half of a tuminous and put it back can cost 25 to $30,000 in a block full reconstruct with all new utilities is
costing us about 875,000 so the projects get a lot smaller whereas our projects over the last two years we spent over $4 million to do let's say 10 or 11 blocks and we put $3
million into 120 blocks in 2021 and the the lead service line project by combining that with the ninth street project that lowers the cost
theoretically yes so and and part of that is we've get state funding to cover the service line right now like on fifth and sixth the reason why we pick fifth and sixth is we've already got brand new water line there we know it's copper
from the water line to the curb stand so we have grant money that goes from the curb stand all the way into the house 100% covered for the homeowner who owns that section of pipe on Ninth Street we've got 4in cast iron which is
undersized now it has to be a minimum of 6 in by doing that water project we get a 100% grant from all the way from the main all the way into the house so it does help offset the cost
grant wise is that 1% sales tax being used on this project yes or the overlay portion well it's part of the road construction is about $2 million in sales tax will be used towards this project this project is a $9 million project
okay answer my question okay thank you certainly want to make sure for everyone here that has those types of questions that they're they're understood and the information's available because we have um public works committee and they usually run long especially when there's
projects because we want to know about them before we move forward so thank you Ted thanks good choice having Ted explain thank you i see correspondence in the packet from
Convention and Visitors Bureau reminders we have anformational meeting on property values presented by county assessor's office here in the chambers
this Thursday April 10th at 100 p.m and 6:00 p.m a public hearing on capital improvement project bonds for renovation of the public works equipment garage and sewer vector garage
this is Monday April 21st of this year 5:30 p.m and our next regular city council meeting is Monday April 21st at 5:30 p.m that being said this meeting is
adjourned recording stopped