##VIDEO ID:HRgZkb50rzE## that they were going to get $500 each you know maybe they hope for more maybe they Hope For Less that's the the gamble that they took and the gamble that we took as a city so I I I I'm against that I mean I would go with the uh donating all the on-site de on-site donations to them um that's as far as I'm going to go on it I don't know if anybody else has any input I agree with that but I don't think us as a council when we volunteered to go there I don't think we should take any of that money no no we didn't we're not getting any of that I I intended of actually donating my time and just you know because you know that's the community thing to do right but um you know and I'm not here to to say we don't appreciate and we absolutely do and I it was up to the community and people that went there to donate if they thought that it was worth it but uh the numbers are what they are and I'm in favor with what Luke's saying I have a quick question how many of the volunteer groups were all now nonprofits all of them were working for nonprofit organizations or a nonprofit youth group of some sort I I'm I'm okay with giving them all the donations collected at the event and the 40% we agreed to which is in watch $319 is that right um the $319 total was part of that donations at the event so it's 798 if you'd like to give that full amount and have it split evenly then that's it I mean we could have easily collected zero so I'm I'm okay with splitting up that $798 between the volunteers I I wish it was more so do I and it's not to say we don't appreciate the volunteers by any means it's just you can't you can't take out the taxpayer's pocket for a volunteer so we were talking about the 60% that the city was going to get and throw it in the pot is that what the discussion was I'd even be okay with that so that that's where my vote would be I I would agree I don't like that we're doing it it's unfortunate that there was an implied expectation that they were going to receive that but if they receive all what was received for donations and it it is what it is well just just so you know that is that isn't true we collected a lot of donations from businesses which equaled you know we over almost $10,000 in donations from businesses this is this is just onsite yeah just on-site donations right not to the event but to the other donation thing okay yeah that's all onsite donations is what I'd like to just see split up okay that's what Steve was in favor of last month too so I think that's a good compromise uh if we can get a motion on that motion to divate up yeah the the whole 700 yep I make it that motion okay second all right there's a motion on the table from uh council member Peterson and a second from council member hren all in favor say I I I any opposed motion carries 4 Z and then I just want to clarify for follow up on this you want us to bring other ideas that might be unique outside of just the illuminated an event um to utilize potentially the lights and see scale down versions even yep okay or if they can sell or and yeah ask if you happen to be talking to any of the retail places and and it's a prime location for one you think they have room mention it to them about leasing or buying or right leasing or buying yeah could they be great we could get some of our money back in 10 or 20 years or something but then we still have to store it that's the problem oh could they also make contact with like Sam's or Miracle on the hill or the place in duth and see if they're looking for more if they want to expand their show sure all right that sounds good all right so we are on K4 Municipal cannabis dispensary discussion so I know we had talked about this in the past and I wasn't sure since we'd have a new council member coming in um if we'd still had the same sort of stance on it and I had talked to uh the liquor store manager Keith about you know the potential for it I think there's a lot of benefits to it um for our city residents especially um you know of course I've been pretty adamant against the legislative work that the state had done on this um or lack thereof I should say and uh what they've gone through through the process has been extremely poor planning and I think that if we want to protect our city and our residents from potential ineptitude at the state that we could um you know look at something taking something over ourselves local government is always better than bigger government uh we're more in touch with our constituents there's no government preemption involved in local government um it's literally the people through us making decisions it's not people down in St Paul or Minneapolis making decisions for us um based on the laws so I wanted to consider maybe just looking into some of the potential Financial impacts of adding a municipal cannabis store um we already have the liquor store with the parking lot and the staff and the infrastructure um and I think it might be a good opportunity so I don't know how much Keith had to add but um well first of all thank you mayor and Council for having this discussion I I think there is a a potential for a lot of uh revenue for the city um um without it coming in the form of property taxes and it also does give us control um access to it um I did put together a little discussion handout that each of you have and I was going to just touch on a couple issues um highlight a couple issues on there and then answer any questions that you might have um you know first of all the the liquor store you guys took a chance on that um a few years ago moving it over the other side of the highway and I just want to point out that because you were willing to take that chance um since 2021 we've been able to send one .55 million back to the city's general fund that's helped to keep taxes flat um without cutting services I think that's important to recognize that you know that that is a that Municipal cannabis is kind of the same same animal um it would be taking a chance to to go in on something like that but the potential benefits right now is when you'd have to make that decision because once once the door is open everybody else and the brother is going to be claring ing for for their seat at the table um unlike Municipal cannabis or unlike Municipal liquor Municipal cannabis wouldn't be the only game in town um necessarily um but just like we run the liquor store you know we we we pride ourselves on great service great selection great prices um the same would be said for a municipal cannabis operation um you know the application window is February 18th is when it opens up um applications have to be in by the 15th there is a $2,500 um application fee when you submit the application and then if you're approved when you get the license um you there's a $2,500 fee and then every year there's a $5,000 renewal fee um so there are some costs um with that um you know with with starting this ideally having a location on the north side of liquor store would be great it would help the liquor store um we'd capture the traffic going north um just just like the liquor sales you know we're we want to increase Revenue but we don't want any of these social problems that come with that you know people are buying their booze over there and they're they're getting out of town um cannabis could be the same thing people are buying their stuff there and they're they're head north um you know of course we take pride in in serving our local residents too um but that's something I wanted to point out but it it may be smarter to lease a smaller um until we we have a more mature market and a better understanding of the process um and and how much revenue it's going to bring in uh one really big difference between running a liquor store and a dispensary is your overhead should be a lot smaller you don't need a big store you don't need a huge selection um I've got you know a real basic um overview of of what a dispensary would be you have a secure check-in area or room where somebody's checking an ID then they let them into the to the store part they can see their samples um you know of the flower and whatever else is in there and and make their purchase and and out the door they go so that is the way the state is going to require retail yep okay because I know I asked that question at another meeting and nobody had the answer but yeah yep um you know so you don't need a you don't need a big show or anything you know people generally when when their customers are coming in they know what they're looking for and and you're not you don't have to have a huge selection you know it all does the same thing just a different different smell different effect I guess all that stuff um you know so so there's that you wouldn't the the biggest most important part is just you know you have the control your controlling access you know like the the hours that are set by the state you can be open from 8 A.M 8 8: a.m. to 2: a.m. Monday through Saturday um you know that wouldn't make business sense I don't think up here to to be open that at all um but you know to capture that traffic heading north you would want to be open you know 9 10 o'clock in the morning and maybe till 9 10 o' at night but certainly you don't have to be open any later than that yeah it could be it could be lot like the liquor store hours and there's no room inside the current liquor store to make a small area to do a test trial there could be room but it it's it's not that we have to have a separate building it can't be part of the liquor store so then you're you're talking about an investment speculation and unless the he said maybe a rental type of thing but the other thing is is you how are you going to oversight that much cash it all has to be cash you can't keep track of that money other than on a cash basis and and that's where I'm really uncomfortable with that very uncomfortable with it did you know that roughly I would require a large amount of security um oversight as far as watching that money go from the customer to the city from the city to wherever it goes I I'd want to really have really good track of it and and so would we I think there's far more I know I've just I don't think the city should be and actually um I I agree with your point there is a lot of potential for you know something bad to go happen with a lot of cash but on the flip side Devil's Advocate um if if it's all cash purchases you're not paying the credit card fees on you're not losing the two and a half% in those transactions and you are going to have you know security cameras everywhere you're going to have records of everything you know to meet the state standards you have to have a record from seed to sale of of your stock you have to have tax records and you you have to be on top of all of that stuff and even running a liquor store 80% of our sales are credit card 20% is Cash we're still handling quite a bit of cash um but you know we're we've got yeah but it's cash you can put in the bank you we can't put that cash in the bank that's the problem some banks yeah there are banks that that because under federal law they could some banks allow for it m so you're going to you're going to skirt that I mean there's a lot more discussion on there is definitely that's why I brought it up it's like well maybe we have a discussion about it doesn't mean we're I don't think we should do anything now but I think last time the discussion just got shot down and I look at is right now the state is not doing a good job at all of any of the any of the rules and any of it and I would like to have some sort of local control on it but at the same time I'm I'm against government and business but it's you know you could say it's protecting the residents it's protecting the taxpayers so it's kind of it's a it's a split and hairs and hard to decide which way to go on it but I think we should definitely hear the information for it before we just say no I think the lady that was in charge of this quit so yeah there are a lot of problems especially when the the person quit so she she was actually the interim director um so they knew she wasn't going to be there for a while forever um but she you are correct she did quit and so add a question how do you know of how many other cities that are currently planning something like this so I I'm um in a a cannabis work group that we have zoom meetings maybe once a month maybe every couple months um I was looking at it there were about 50 other cities that were in it at this time throughout the state or is this like a regional um so I know like I've I've seen names on there people from local towns um I know that Anoka is is looking at it I know that St Anthony Village has like hired a Consulting Group to put together a plan for them and and look at potential revenue and shortcomings and address issues like cash you know what are you going to do with the cash but that's where you know you have to have a plan for all of that before committing to it and that's I mean that's why we're having this discussion now just to identify all the issues but you know being being part of like that work group like that you see what's working and what's not working for other cities and what issues they're they're coming across you know and how they're handling it too I mean if there is no law at all that states that you can't take the cash from the customer put it in a re put it in the till have accountability for it and then put it in the bank I'm I'm leaning more towards what you're saying might work but if it can't go on a bank and it has to go in a safe that's where I'm starting to have a big problem with it I know that right now the federal government isn't enforcing any of that I don't believe they ever would and I doubt they would ever go after a city SP but if we legally if there's a legal aspect where we cannot do it it's totally against the we're breaking federal or state statute by doing it then then we have to abide by that I guess that's that's a legitimate concern I do also want to point out that we're not the first state to open up a um legal recreational marijuana um and they're they're taking they've been taking cash um for quite a few years so I think I think there's an advantage to not being the first as a lot of those Kinks have been worked out um but that's where we need to have the answers to those questions and I did see that there's 24 states that have recreational marijuana and Oklahoma has the most dispensaries per per population really which surprised me and they're only medical I believe something yeah but I was just doing a brief you know uh investigation into it but uh or you know just looking into it but I was surprised on how many states read states that were doing it and there are um I I just as an example a few years ago I went out to Montana Fly fishing and that's a pretty conservative Red State you know everybody's wearing flannels and got long beards it was great they had dispensaries everywhere and it and it blew my mind you know and they were they were taking cash they were you know taking um because that's the only way you can pay you can't use cards at all but how profitable are they I you know I have no doubt we'd be profitable probably the first few years but after the competition and you know I having a hard time believing it could be profitable long term I I don't know the the reason I would have to look at business plans and and and see some business plans of other type of facilities just like that um in other states so the reason I brought it Forward was last time we voted not to even authorize City staff to even look at it at all and I think that was I think that was a a bad decision um you know obious viously there's a lot of variables but to not even give a staff an opportunity to look at you know what our businesses municipes in in in Colorado making or other states you know it's true you know and I really do think that we need to have some sort of say in the game because the state does not have our best interest in mind so whatever however we do that with this I don't know but I think to get more information I know Keith is in in favor of it and uh I think we should give him the opportunity for us to at least look into it you know because he's done a great job at the liquor store and if he thinks it's it can be great and it's just you know get information and then go from there still think of government should be involved in business you know and but they are in the regulation of the permits already I have a lot of trust in Mike there he seems to have a good business head on his shoulder so I'm curious to see over there we do a good job making sure it would work and and you seem like you have some enthusiasm about maybe maybe doing it but well I mean my job is to make the city money in a responsible way mine too this and you're and exactly but you guys have a lot more oversight and responsibility and I I I totally respect that um I want to be able to present this idea to you and give you all the facts that you need to make a sound decision um and one that you're comfortable with um so I mean if I had the opportunity to to bring you maybe some of the um plans that other cities are coming up with um you know I'd be all for that Todd if you have some something you'd like to say come on forward and state your name and address thank you man commissioner name Todd CHR commissioner District newly elected I just wanted to give you guys an update I'm sure some of you heard it there that the county has passed their cannabis ordinance um three out of the five Commissioners I was one of them that voted in favor of it now like Luke said I'm totally against State what they're doing they're foring basically down our throat not giving us any choice I was involved because I sat on the board of Athens Township and I was involved in meeting with the attorney there for Minnesota Association of townships and one thing I I got out of that meeting was is that we needed to be proactive on this um as far as uh having something in place so and our County one is probably going to be amended many times and one of the one of the things that uh they uh brought up is they didn't like the hours the 2:00 that's why I was I had made a suggestion along with one of the other Commissioners that we Street blind it along with what the liquor stores are doing so but anyways I just wanted to say that I think um in fact um we almost didn't vote in favor of it and then uh that was on the seventh when I got sworn in and then I believe it was the ninth somebody put in for a license so basically when when the state says it's okay to do it then that uh you know they're already in there and if we don't have an ordinance in place we can't discriminate or so having something in place where you're going to want it hours of operation ahead of time before somebody puts the you know request so I just think always being ahead of it is a good idea all got sure thank you so mayor you could share that just in case we have people who don't know we did pass the ordinance that does allow for open-ended unlimited license in the city of IAM currently so if it could be the direction of council to authorize staff and I would ask for a vote of that just in case there isn't it's not unanimous we can know because doing research does take an incredible amount of time so to ensure that staff because I would have um Keith as well as Mike work on that project together to get um a plan of what other people are doing and do that and research and bring it forward to council um but it is true so if we have um applications come in right now under the ordinance that we have we cannot change our mind later so if the direction just hypothetically was to limit the license because we want we we will have to have competition there has to be one other dispensary besides the municipal one but we didn't want to have more than that and we wanted to limit the number anyone who's put in their application prior to that change of that ordinance would still be able to be permitted so yeah that that is a concern um one thing that I had thought about you know I don't I don't necessarily know if our community is is for or against the legalization but I think if we were to have our own Municipal and you know what I worry about is out of state people coming in and putting down a business and then taking the money out of state you know Colorado California all these states already have entrepreneurs and they see money to be made here and that's not not going to help our local community one bit none of it so to me if we have a municipal store I think that shows that well I San he's not a soft target you know they're not going to want to necessarily come in and compete with the municipal when they could go to North Branch or somewhere else that doesn't have a municipal and that's how you sort of you know you have your own sort of regulations almost in the fact that you just created competition to keep the people that aren't going to benefit our community out you know and it's the free market works and it's great but at the same time we don't want our money going to another state because that's counterproductive for our residents so I mean there is you obviously there's risk and there's a lot of questions but financially it just seems to make a lot more sense yep just to add on to what you're saying there's there's actually um at least one private Equity Group that out of New York that's been approaching cities in Minnesota since it's been legal to to ask them hey if you get a if you get a cannabis license give that to us and we'll run the run the Cannabis operation for you take on all the all the costs but we're taking 75% of the profit you're getting 25% of the profit great short-term deal but horrible longterm but but that's that that's an option but that's you know there is potential for long-term income that's why there's um Equity firms coming you know hunting for people that will take that deal you know for a short-term gain at longterm pain but they're at out they're out of state I would assume so there you go there's another I'm I'm telling you guys I think they have a minimum Market you know that they would even offer something like that and I think s is big enough market for someone to offer a deal like that especially a expense you're going to have putting up a building and I don't know if you look at our Municipal liquor store if you look at coburns if you look at Quick Trip those three all sell out the roof it's a number one cck trip the number one coburns our liquor store kills it there there is the market there you know just because we don't have the population there's a lot of people from surrounding because we do we do liquor store stuff better you know the coburns and the quick trip it's just it's I think there's a huge opportunity here yeah I think investment groups will see it but if you have your own mun that really was going to keep I think keep the trash out Mike I ate to drag into this conversation but can I get your opinion on this look at that face um few things um one yes we can have internal controls in place to keep track of cash that's not an issue um two we do have to find a bank to put it we have what we have to find a bank to take the cash can't keep it in a safe and I can't legally launder it how about that right could I describe how we would do that yes can we do that no um I think outside of I think I think the reasons to do it financially are pretty well established right um having a liquor store reduces our tax rate 15% right just like that um I think after that it is I think if you're going to have a dispensary it is the same reason you want to have a municipal liquor store in large part is local control um if it is a private dispensary you cannot just have an officer go in there whenever if it is a municipal dispensary officer can enter that building anytime um I think that's kind of a big deal I think that if you if you if you accept the reality that there is likely to be a dispensary in town and it is not going to be Municipal owned you may or may not like how that dispensary is run and you may or may not like the people that come along with it and if you are not invited to that dispensary officers are not allowed to just go there I think that is a big deal if if we if we need to write up a business plan to make it profitable and I have a bank that will take the money I will let you know if it will make money or not it was the same deal as the liquor store I won't recommend it unless I'm highly highly confident I was quite certain about the liquor store and I won't recommend a dispensary unless I'm confident on that as well ni as far as I know unless something changed I missed the feds still are training it like schedule one and the form for buying a gun requires them to answer if they've are a user of marijuana and if every transaction is recorded and logged of where that bud came from and who consumed it and bought it or not consumed but who paid for it then do we have to provide records to them if they want to see every transaction it would be cash though so there's no no way to track that necessarily there's not the transactions recorded as far as who purchased it I I don't think so there's no way for them to digitally track it you know unless they require but unless the state requires that you scan an ID I haven't seen that in the legislation but that's the thing that stuff is H they got the gun half cocked and they somehow shot it you know so must m heard that I thought you were saying every transaction was recorded from beginning to end no for dollar monetary yeah I want to keep track of every doll yeah every dollar goes across the table especially if we can't put it in the bank if I wouldn't be so concerned about it if if uh we can put it in a register and then it goes to the bank I just yeah and Keith had reference seed to sale and what he's pointing out there is that you have to be able to definitively prove where this came from that it is it is what you have advertised it is that you didn't buy this from a Cel or some random dude down the street that this was you you know this plant was grown at a particular place it is a particular strain it has these properties and you've advertised it as such and it is when it is sold that's the I think it makes it safer for our residents too who want to partake in it I I don't know it's is does a liquor business have a does a ATF have way more control over the alcohol so what goes in you know what goes out must come in in there can't be something like you couldn't go to Costco and buy eight or nine cases at cheaper than what your distributor would give it to you to and somehow slide it through your system could you possibly do that no no there's there's actually liquor law in Minnesota where you have to have the same pricing available to every every retailer um so there you wouldn't be getting a better deal at Costco than the best deal you could get through the wholesaler but if you if you could that would be very illegal you would lose your liquor license uh you you'd face jail time as well and even if he tried to do that me and my Auditors would find that within 12 months anyway there's not a scenario where to get get past 12 months anyway so wouldn't matter and I and I believe like the Canabis it's part of the reason it's taking so long to to get rolled out is they're trying to make sure that there aren't dispensaries on every corner so there so the market will last because they don't want the black market to to take hold um and it's going to be more regulated I mean just as regulated if not more as alcohol well I ask that in case you have an employee who can get black market and sell it through the liquor store and and it's all cash business but I just there's so many controls that would have to be in there to make sure just everything's on the up and up yeah you would have you would have definitely you would have different internal controls for inventory at cannabis dispensary than you w at a liquor store right I mean part of it is simply that a million dollars of cannabis takes up considerably less space than a million dollars of beer right um but the fact that it is smaller and lighter does require some different internal controls but they're not it's not that they can't be designed and followed I like your idea if we did ever move forward with this is to do it in a smaller building somewhere else before we ever spent City money to build a building unless we decided to do that expansion on a liquor store early and use that and then if it doesn't work we can use that same part of the building for what we had planned in the future to expand the liquor store for I mean that that something so I've given this a fair amount of thought and and we can't have it inside the same building as liquor store and I doubt very much they would even allow simply a different door I think under the same roof I don't even know that they would go for that but regardless even if I even if if I came and made a recommendation that here I believe that this is a viable business plan I cannot imagine a scenario where I'm recommending anything other than a lease at least in the short term I would suspect I probably would want like a probably a fiveyear lease maybe maybe only two years with a three-year option on on our end um and it would be sort of we're going to find out by the end of the third full year whether this thing works or not and at that point then that would be the two-year Mark remaining on the lease and give me two years to build building this site immediately north of the liquor store would be fantastic it would not be adjoining but it would be adjacent and Jason is already predetermined that that lot size is big enough for a roughly 12200 foot building that would be roughly what you would want for this you don't want a giant building for for a dispensary I know would share a parking lot infrastructure draw you know you have people go get their groceries their gas their marijuana their their alcohol all of it at once we already greens I mean acquiring a new lot um and we haven't had any luck selling that lot anyway so right I don't want don't want to sell it I don't want to sell it either so all right I I guess we do we need a motion to maybe look into some financials and more information and come back to C next month or I would ask that the council make that Mo ask for a motion um to direct staff to look further into it we don't have to go through reaching out to companies but we can um reach out to other cities who've already started a lot of that leg work and bring that forward I think that'd be good if anybody wants to make a motion I'll make the motion anybody second I'll second it uh motion by myself second by council member Peterson all in favor say I I any opposed I motion carries 31 with council member heeman opposed you know we had already had the discussion and I just I got to stick to my core on this and that is uh you know City shouldn't be in the business of doing business but the city I love the liquor store and it does a lot for a community and and we we do make a good profit on it but I don't believe we should have a liquor store I and I can look at it as okay we do have one so why not do the marijuana thing and and possibly add uh more revenue or be able to knock taxes down more or offer more amenities or and protect the residents from other companies coming in there yeah I I don't know that's all right it's a it's a tough one so we'll get some more information and then we can come back to this obviously we're not doing any decision making it's just I I just want to get the information and I think we should have got the information a year and a half ago when we talked about it but I was outvoted 3 to two so might be able to sway me with more information but you know somebody comes in in the meantime because we're we still have uh our ordinance on the books that's unlimited and we could fill up two or three slots right away and if I if I understood correctly one license gives you five retail locations if something like that one license is good for five I don't know the exact specifics of that but I can tell you that it it does on the the state side it says one retailer May operate up to five locations however no person Cooperative or business May hold a license to own or operate more than one cannabis retail business in one city or three retail businesses in one County so it is it is limited so correct all right so that concludes uh K4 we can move on to K5 isan County Road Safety Action Plan so this was something that I had asked to bring forward um because there are intersections in our community that are very highly discussed uh specifically whisky and South passage um and I think the county needs to know that there is an issue there um I guess they can they feel like there isn't but I think our residents needed to let them know that there is um so there is a survey that people can go and fill out and I wanted City staff to kind of show an example of what that survey was it's super simple I filled it out today and uh maybe just provide any sort of input on you know Public Safety or Transportation or anything like that that you think is important thank you mayor so um just to take a step back so originally started reaching out to the um County Highway engineer bergerson about that intersection Whiskey Road next to the curve um intersection Whiskey Road Southwest and South passage um because of the area of concern Council kept on uh and our residents kept on bringing up um a high importance we've talked about um speeds speed study numerous times over the years talking about Crash data um you know fatalities all sorts of information um brought forward even culmin study initiatives talking through our city engineer um and in reaching out with the County engineer and talking with him through this um it kind of I wouldn't say it hit a roadblock but it kind of had been pushed down and to the point where in December though we had some movement and the County engineer did share that they have the study it's the county road safety Plan update that they're doing it's countywide um and he said that he has had already marked and pled this intersection area as an area of concern now I did speak with him um last week or on the 10th I should L on the 10th um about the the study and the survey I had sent this out in our to our Council um in December um I think December 17th about this um and that you know could be participated but on the 10th he said that the Consultants had moved on to their analysis phase and um weren't as much looking at the service i' asked him keep the survey open through tonight for sure um it still is live on their website um and there's also not only just the survey here that we have shown on the screen but also there is um a Wiki map that you can drop pins of areas of concern as well and that is still live I'm not sure when these links won't be live um but it definitely is uh seems to be working and as I mentioned he did say that through what he we seen thus far even without having um the speed data that we are collecting but looking at all the other information that's been collected so far that he said that definitely this will be an area that they will be looking at but again they're looking countywide at things okay good update thank you anybody else have any anything to add to this I guess I just wanted to push for people to get their opinions heard I think the county has done a good job in the last couple years trying to get information for their comprehensive plan and getting the community involved and I just wanted to spread that net so hopefully people here have the opportunity to provide that input to them I think all of us council members should go on there and do some stuff too you know make some recommendations on what we see in our town another concern for me is you know as you guys have heard is obviously Heritage Boulevard uh west of the tracks towards all the way out to the middle school is absolutely horrible condition um last year we had a complaint where you know they came and did some fill work and it just basically disintegrated and was rifling people's cars with you know rocks and that that street is is horrible condition uh it needs to be repaved like 3 years ago um so I think if we can uh get in their ear a little bit about it maybe they'll address the concerns of the highest traveled road that they have in their County anybody else have anything to add I was unaware of the survey but I'll definitely push that out but Whiskey Road is my backyard and 95% of the cars will be fine and then you have someone doing 5055 sure it's definitely a problem yep sounds good okay mayor if I could yeah uh we were maybe gonna bring this up at C but C ended right um before Council so you did have another item that you wanted to discuss and I was going to remind you and if you entertain it I'll remind you now which one was that I forgot I knew I was forgetting something it's the Facebook live advertising if we want to add that as um business item k6 yes so business item k6 if you guys don't mind um how do we approach that just ask to add it or do we just do it if we could have a motion to add that okay as as k6 that would be great so do I need to explain it at all just no we'll just entertain a motion to add k6 to the business agenda and that is to discuss Facebook live advertising how long is this going to take five minutes I hope 10 at the most I'll make a motion to add it second all right motion by council member uh homr second by council member Peterson all in favor I any opposed motion carries 4 z um so I had an idea I think we need to somehow continue to push that we are Facebook live because you know getting people inter to interact with us has been a huge push that I've had and we've had as a council the last couple years and we do the Facebook live but not everybody knows about it so my goal I want to personally or have with the help of the community post all the agendas um before every meeting in the Facebook Community pages and I would like to add to those agendas like hey watch this meeting live at you know on on our Facebook or whatever so that way people know that it's live and they don't have to come in they can just simply you know click on the Facebook page and find the video and watch it so that if there's something they're concerned about but they can't you know take time off work or or they don't want to come in because they're worried about whatever here I think it you know it just just advertises the fact we provide a a way for them to be involved and see what's going on so people know what's going on um so that was just my suggestion is to add like a blurb on there um maybe have it in like a blue writing or something so it's like you know like a hyperlink look so they you know understand that you can you know go see it online I don't and that was just kind of my basic idea um I think we should be continuing to push for more and more Community engagement however we can and Facebook has shown that it is way that people are comfortable you said sponsored so how much do you want to sponsored yeah I didn't say sponsored advertise advertise which yeah you can pay to oh no that's not where I was going with this conversation this conversation I just wanted to basically have some sort of I guess advertisement for our City Council meetings on our agenda so like when the city posts their the agenda have a a blurb in there it says you can watch this live on Facebook and then yeah and then people know it's there and they they don't have to guess well where can I go to watch this or you know what I mean so that's all that's what I was talking about for now um I know we have discussed potentially having the city share the agendas to the community groups and um Josie had had mentioned before and last week when I asked you about I forgot we talked about this but that they would have to keep track of it so I don't think that is necessarily a good thing but I would like all of us as council members to try and remember to post the agenda before in the community groups um and then I know there is a resident here that that said she would be willing to help as well um in posting some of these you know so I think the more we post and the more people understand what's going on they might get the correct information instead of spreading misinformation about what's happening so it's I think people like the gossip oh well that's true too but and yeah that's where those rabbit trails and you know they get the wrong details sure I think they prefer some of the wrong details sometimes and guess they just take away with it it's just like slow down you can always reach out to the city for all this information that I've seen on social media you can reach out to City Hall and get all this information it's public information or any of us or any of us we're all happy to talk to people and I think that's what the look that we should continue to push for so and mayor we can definitely look to see if we have another line on our agendas so when we post our agenda us we push post it as an image on Facebook but we also post it at our community B Billboards we leave it here at City Hall but we can see if we can add another line here that says watch on Facebook live so then it would be on all of our agendas front page and then we can add it to our Facebook posts sure and then I don't know if there's I don't know if there's a different language we want would do we want to say watch it on the city of isan Facebook live or I I didn't have any language ideas in mind but I figured we' be a sounding board amongst us to figure out the best wordage Facebook live and I don't think it needs any more explanation okay I just were we going to try to diversify our social media on different platforms like Instagram yeah like you know whatever the young younger crowds into Ticky talkie apparently Facebook is old news not that we don't want to talk about it here but that is one of my topics of discussion on our goal setting meeting um is to talk about the other social media platforms and our website and give me more information out so it'll be brought up soon yeah we already have a YouTube account can we stream on there as well no they're uploaded after the meetings could they be multicast though uh no our Hardware is not capable of multicasting yeah we looked into that we did right when I came on that was a big discussion I've been pushing for this Facebook stuff forever even before I was on Council it's like you got to get your community involved because people want to get involved but you have to make it easy for them so do we need a motion on that to add it to the agendas no okay no I don't think so that's we'll just do that okay sounds good um let's see here we have nothing left but the consent agenda are there any questions on the consent agenda motion to approve second motion by council member heeman second by councilman holgren all in favor I I I opposed motion carries 4 z uh other Communications is there anything super important in there Josie that we need to discuss I not that I have for you but I do have something to add just um to let everyone know we will have our annual goal sting meeting on February 4th at 6m so I know that was in the announcements but again yep just want to get that out there sounds great thank you there we have exhausted the agenda I'll take a motion to approve or a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second motion by council member uh Peterson second by council member hren all in favor say I I I opposed motion carries 4 Z therefore we are adjourned yeah [Music] thank you Todd for coming thank you either now or later yeah mine's all ready to go just got mixed in with my paperwork that I have right there [Music] sign that but there is a resolution sign partnership I e e for --------- ##VIDEO ID:Fj6Z2rZvL14## order if we could all stand for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance all right doing roll call uh commissioner or council member lundine is uh working late tonight he got called to an emergency boiler service so he unfortunately will not be here um until later uh roughly :30 and then we do have the open council member seat uh is there any public comment tonight if so feel free to come forward hearing none uh we will move on to adopting the agenda are there any changes or additions good evening mayor and Council no there are no changes motion to adopt second motion from commen uh council member heeman second from council member holgren all in favor I any opposed motion carries 30 uh there are no proclamations or accommodations or certificates tonight uh so we'll move on to approving the city council meeting minuts from January 6 2025 motion to approve the minutes I did have a question on that so um I noticed in the minutes the Chamber of Commerce Committee is not appointed to anyone did we decide to table that that or was that I thought I was going to take that unless somebody could take it it's not mentioned in there and that was I believe the only one missing so well I believe Stephanie says she goes to almost all of those in the minutes May yes mayor and coun I believe that that just got missed in the minutes and we'll make sure we add that and we do have it in the table in the resolution that was approved that it is the mayor okay so we'll make that change thank you sounds good thank you I will second commissioner holmgren's uh motion to that with that then all in favor I any opposed uh motion carries 30 to approve the minutes announcements Parks and Recreation board Tuesday January 28th 2025 at 6 p.m. uh city council goal setting Tuesday February 4th 2025 at 6 p.m city council meeting regularly scheduled Tuesday February 4th 2025 at 7.m and The Economic Development Authority Tuesday February 4th 2025 immediately following the city council meeting uh are there any Council committee reports I had one so my Community Education meeting meeting a lot of discussion I'm trying to reduce costs so they send out these books every year I believe but they're trying to reduce the amount that this costs per unit so they're looking at uh taking out the pictures and just listing the classes that they offer and then uh hopefully reducing that by 33% by having a QR code on the cover or or close to the front so you can go online and it'll have all the specifics on each of the class so you can sign up so that that is what they discussed at that meeting I'm glad to hear that I think a lot of our leadership in our community is trying to reduce costs for everything and everybody so I think that's great I would like to give a shout out to Matt Sylvester um again for being diligent with money uh he was allowed money to replace their 4500 series Chevy and he decided that they didn't need it this year and I think that is um awesome when City staff is willing to not buy something even though they have the money for it I think the residents of our city work the same way in their household if they have a vehicle that still works 100% they're not going to replace it and I think it's great that the city staff uh in all of our departments do that so I'd just like to give him a shout out and the rest of our city staff for that any other Council committee reports uh fireboard was pretty uneventful there was uh talk that this fall they should be able to go ahead and close on on this building um staff is aware they're working with Mike we'll probably hear more about it this spring sounds good uh so we will move on to business item K1 interview candidates for appointment to vacant council member seat on AET city council evening mayor and councel we do have um four applicants here this evening uh Kenneth Waldo is um not here this evening so he won't be able to participate in the application for the vacant Council seat so we will start in order with Jacob Miller Chris rosemark Nathan Chapman and Nicholas Peterson we do have a microphone so we'll start with Jacob Miller first if you want to go up the questions are up there and I'd like to remind the council that the questions are before the applicant you have your the questions as well if you have any questions to ask please ask all the candidates so we would start with this candidate and go through all of them to make sure that they've been asked the same question and at the end Council will have a vote sounds great thank you uh thank you Jake for coming in I appreciate you taking the time to do so uh so we just have a few questions here for you so first tell us about yourself and why you put your name in for consideration for the open Council seat so uh I ran in the last special election against Jester who beat me by a lot of votes so I have a lot of signs I still have to kind of work in here so my plan is to kind of continue on with my uh continue on with the city or try to get on with the city uh council at some point it's a little bit about myself um I served in the Navy for five years uh during that I worked at uh Walter Reed was my last Duty station got out of the Navy there my wife and I decided that we likeed Maryland stayed there for a little while and then uh bunch of protests happened she got a better job here in Minnesota which thankfully uh now she can cover the bills and I can uh spend a little bit more time in the community and doing the things I want and picking a job that I would like to do I continued on with uh my law enforcement Journey um and I actually picked a job here in our community where which is a little bit more unheard of in today's climate um due to the fact that I mean you can work any any job in law enforcement and make more money in a Metro but I chose to stay here where I think the people and the community support us which is I think a lot a lot more uh a lot more beneficial than an extra few dollars here or there right um besides that I've only lived here for just about three years I think that having different uh perspectives and uh knowledge of different communities and seeing communities that I think at least basing it on I San here where it's pretty reasonable and then seeing some really shattered communities out east in Maryland where it's just a complete lack of better work dumpster fire I don't want to live in that so that's part of the reason I came here uh besides that I think that uh having someone with that can kind of balance between you know their personal experience and then having someone who's kind of green as well I've never done anything with in the government as far as like uh counsel or uh anything like that so I think I'm a little bit more um a little bit more easy to kind of for like a better word kind of be mulle right uh besides that uh I got a little daughter uh she's about three years old it's kind of the reason why I was the last guy here uh had to put her down to bed and uh leave her with the sitter and as I was sitting here I think I just get a notification that she's uh up so besides that uh that's a little bit about me okay great uh two if you were going to describe I Sandy to a new Resident what would you say I think it kind of marries in with my kind of my introduction I think our City's kind of have a has a small town feel but at the same time we you know you can only be you can only maintain that small town if we grow a little bit right um where I live on belir when I was going to school here didn't exist it was a field right so seeing where we've grown and having you know people with different perspectives and different different viewpoints can kind of help us kind of have that balance right um I think the to kind of explain it to a new Resident would be like hey uh I think it's just that small town feel and I think there's a couple things that I see in some other questions here that I can kind of uh Circle back to on sure question three what is your approach to handling controversial and complic issues getting ahead of it um and being being uh having that ability to take the ownership and we're going to mess up you're going to mess up in any job you do anything you do in life being able to you know take the egg when it hits you and move on and carry on with it I think any issues where there's any sort of controversy to it is taking that leadership uh Team approach and then paneling it as it as it comes okay what previous Community involvement have you had in this in the city of isna or another city as far as cities um I've lived in a few cities on the East Coast uh it's not like Minnesota and let me tell you when I came back from Minnesota and people were like saying hi to you in the store it's kind of you don't do that over there so it kind of throws you off a little bit so it's kind of the reason I lived a little bit more in a County uh when I was out there uh but kind of circling back to it coming back to that City environment I think that um for me it's just living in those communities I've never had any like direct leadership um working within them but uh I do have the mindset and the the ability to problem solve working within them right when I was in the east coast I was a County Deputy so we had multiple TOA cities similar to Ian that uh had small PDS that we'd have to go in and help and problem solve and deal with the residents there um and still have that uh ability to you know get everything handled and still be respectful and whatnot okay uh what skills and experience do you have that you believe are beneficial to being a council member I think it kind of it's uh having the like I said before that that ownership I'm big on that you're going to hear me say it a lot a lot and I think that's what we're kind of missing in our a lot of our leaders today I think everyone wants to be right everyone wants to get get the AA moment that's not me um if I mess something up it is what it is right um I think that handling handling each of those options or each of those uh or having that experience that understand that and realize that you know we're all human beings here we make mistakes I think that's what you want a leader sure uh explain what you believe are the primary roles and responsibilities of a city council member so um when I was running for the special election I got to sit on a lot of meetings and having seeing things completely change like uh you and I had a conversation when uh a while back about Splash Pad right great thing however when the money went to I think it was Bluebird park right the money's gone now right so seeing things where it's it starts from a and ends at Z and being able to kind of be malleable with it I think that's big thing right um for Council Members being able to have that all right um there's not a whole lot you you have your things that you're going to stand your ground on but being able to work with the other members the mayor and then what the citizens want right I could I don't know I could want us to have uh just make an example here brand new building but the taxpayers and people of our city don't want that that's what we need to do as as leaders and as representes for our for our citizens sure what do you believe are the top priorities or greatest issues facing the city and how do you see yourself contributing to finding solutions to those issues so top priorities are greatest issues in the city I think um there's some conversation about like the waste treatment and water and things like that it's step by step right that's a huge big issue like I don't you know got other candidates here so I don't want to go on a long toate here but just being able to work within within your your leaders look for ways to fix an issue like you guys were talking about signage right how can we get sign a gel what about a billboard things like that being able to just come up with ideas and spitball and things may not be the right thing but having that ability to go back and forth with because I might say something that gets Us close and then Homer steps in or human steps in or you step in like actually we could take to that next step so I think having that ability to kind of work each each problem step by step pretty if you could change some aspect about I governance direction or Focus what would that be sry change goes I think we're for the most part on the right track right um we've seen I've seen cities south of us where uh you know they spend money just because they can and they get bailed out just because they can't they have they have the infrastructure to do that right um being able to work with usess is great um and looking at what at the end of the day I live in the city right whatever whatever we decide to pay for I pay for we all pay for right so being able to have that that responsibility is big and not not going down that that path where we get way too uh way too uh frisky with it for lack of a better word um but besides that that's pretty much it for that one okay city council requires a time commitment commitment which includes four to six meetings per month two Tuesdays per month beginning at 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. as well as reading prep prior to meetings will this fit in with your other commitments I luckily I get every Monday Tuesday off so works perfectly with my okay is there anything else that you would like to add to assist us in considering you as a candidate I think that having um a candidate that's put skin in the game right um I went like I said in special election and come out but at the same time still and I think jeffes was I think we ran a pretty respectful you know campaign against one another we weren't throwing hay makers or you know running smear campaigns um that's a joke by the way uh but besides that like I think that I I put a lot of my time a lot of uh money right because campaign signs are not cheap Jeff and I yeah I like that uh or especially the bigger ones uh and let me tell you when you have a huge sign uh trying to get rid of that down line kind pain um but besides that I think just having someone who's who's put put their time put their put their paycheck essentially behind behind themselves I think that's big sure so do any other council members have any other questions and they do have to be asked of everybody no I don't okay I have a few yep here we go would you would you be able to make your work scheduled at all flexible for committee meetings uh it depends on the day um I have a i my biggest thing I'm when I have my off days at the little one and for the most part I got a hter ironically this is probably the most hectic I've ever had to do that because my wife's in Florida right now enjoying the nice Florida weather for work Meanwhile we're here at5 so just want to put that out there that I I'm here and I could be in Florida right now where for but uh I think that's something that could be worth it just depends on depends on scheduling and whatnot I be pretty flexed on that okay are you willing to utilize Facebook and social media to try and help with resident interaction and informing the public on what's going on within the city yes how long have you lived in isan about three years and then prior to that I lived in so higer toown Maryland and before that bedda Maryland okay uh what will be the most challenging aspect of being on city council for you personally uh honestly learning n fure like all that stuff like the you know the eyes all just to to back kind of what you guys do in the back end I think that would be a little challenging but I think um I'm I'm pretty quick read on things and I'm the way I learn is I just have to do that's just how I learn so okay and then the the last one you kind of touched on this already already but how do you view spending on amenities and how do you justify it based on what we have right if like you said earlier in the meeting hey just because you can doesn't mean you should right I would love to have a brand new you know truck in a garage I don't all right I'm a single family we have a single family uh car that we drive around we make we make it with that uh just so that way we can be a little bit more responsible with my or with the wife's money got okay sounds good if nobody else has any questions all right thank you thank you and we will take the next applicant uh who is Chris rosemark if you could come up and we have some questions for you thank you Chris for putting your name in the Hat and coming out I appreciate it so first just tell us about yourself and why you put your name in for consideration for the open Council seat well obviously my name is Chris rosemart um me and my wife moved to isan eight and a half years ago uh we have a nine-year-old son and we've been married for 14 years um I honestly just put my name in um basically to give me something to do better myself and learn more about our community sure number two if you were going to describe to a new Resident what would you say um um basically how I think of it is that we're a small safe um closeit Community situated right here in the r River um uh let's see our school systems I love um my kids started going to IPS when doing like ECF now he's at the intermediate school and we've loved every single teacher that done with uh the principles at both are amazing um and I think the teachers really care about the students themselves um oh the parade brodeo you really can't you know talk about as with all those um the BMX uh track um I think that brings a lot of people offand as well that's about it okay what is your approach to handling controversial and complicated issues um basically I believe that you have to keep a calm clear mind um you can't take opposing views personally um let's see you have to try to find a common ground with those who oppose your ideas um listen ask questions you're not going to make everybody happy try to do your best but there's just some people that you know you're not going to make happy is what it but if you can find a common ground and work together thatal okay what previous Community involvement have you had in Nan or another city honestly not much um that's why I'm up here um I just helped basically coach my son's baseball team when they needed it um and that's okay uh what skills and experience do you have that you believe are beneficial to being a city council member um well I manage our family room small business just down the road here um and it's a asphalt seal coating repair company and my experience with parking lots Public Works um dealing with basically asphalt maintenance um the trails the parking lots on a year or summer B since it's a uh seasonal job I deal with thousands of customers each summer and listen to their needs wants um their questions concerns um you know and it's all about numbers with us it doesn't make dollars it really doesn't make sense very that bring that up here okay uh explain what you believe are the primary roles and responsibilities of a city council member so I believe like setting agendas managing land use for the city um for zoning development engaging with the local community um and listening to our residents their concerns and interests um then definitely overseeing the budgets for Public Works fire police and the spending spending in the budgets for them okay uh what do you believe are the top priorities or greatest issues facing the city and how do you see yourself contributing to finding solutions to these uh a couple things I was looking into um is our city growth in 2010 our sentus was 5,251 residents 10 years later in 2020 it was 684 um and that's 1553 more people in 10 years but now in 2024 we uh went up 9.43% and so right now the city sitting at 7,532 people and basically what I'm looking at is we have limited space um the west side of 65 is pretty much all already developed we have some on the east side to the north right now and Northeast um so I think they have to look deeply into like the city grow is the city going to expand the city limits um I don't think so in the next three to five years but after that you know I think we're going to have to kind of look into that okay uh if you could change some aspect about us any governance direction or Focus what would that be um honestly basically kind of what Jake said is it's going in the right direction is what I see what we would kind of like um what I've been looking into is Bluebird Park kind of with some more amenities the playground's pretty Smalling a splash that's obviously not going to happen um you know a couple more picnic shelters and gorillas over there because every summer people are asking where can we go where can we go you know have a kids birthday party they want to do it outside there's one shelter over at Park I think adding on a couple more um definitely help oh something else I wanted to talk about do uh you know where the sidewalk is behind C and the bank right there stops there and then it starts again at just right past to the Alo so kids from my neighborhood in the in know mediate School neighborhood they have to walk on five on the side I think that that sidewalk needs to meet um and also there's about four crosswalks there's three on Whiskey Road and then there's one five in the in Intermediate School neighborhood that I believe they need to uh re sorry read that uh redo those um it'd be nice if they could have the push button with like strob bites so people actually stop um how many times anybody here has seen nobody stop for those kids in the crossw and I think it's just a sa concern okay uh city council requires a time commitment which includes four to six meetings per month two Tuesdays per month beginning at 5:00 p.m. and 7: p.m. as well as reading prep prior to meetings with this fit in your in with your other commitments um this would be my Bas my main commitment so okay is there anything else you'd like to add to assist us in considering you as a candidate no I just want to say you know um I appreciate the opportunity and um basically just listen to what we all have to say okay great and I do have a whole heap of questions same same questions you just heard um if my iPad will load here okay would you be able to make your work schedule at all flexible for committee meetings um summertime it's going to be a little bit harder but if I make my schedule I and I know ahead of time I think i' be able to do that win time not a problem but I'll still make time okay are you willing to utilize Facebook and social media to try and help with resident interaction and informing the public on what's going on with the city oh definitely okay uh how long have you lived in the city of isan and where where have you lived um otherwise we moved so eight and a half years ago um years months whatever it is uh before that we had a house in Kuna Rapids for five years and then before that I grew up Forest so that way okay um what will be the most challenging aspect of being on city council for you personally um basically learning everything that goes behind those S um that's basically what I'm kind of and what you guys all are involved in and it's just something I think Lear okay uh how do you view spending on amenities and how do you justify it if it's needed I say you know it really has to be looked into um it's going to depend on the cost how often it's going to be used um basically like you said it doesn't make or I said it doesn't make dollars doesn't make sense um there's no reason like like you said they 45 or 450 whatever kind of truck so honestly just stay within your means stay within your budget okay great that is all of the questions thank you thank you for coming in and thank you for answering those thanks we will go on to the next name on the list uh Nathan Chapman if you could please come forward we'll ask you some questions yep yeah thank you for coming in Nathan um I just have a couple of questions for you whenever you're ready than for having no problem so uh tell us about yourself and why you put your name in for consideration for the open Council seat well uh I'm a conservative veteran um a strong first and second amendment Advocate oh thank you appreciate it um I honorably served the Navy for eight years I'm in information security specialist and an assistant vice president of security access operations for US Bank I have a strong problem solving skills I've lived here for about three is years now almost and uh I believe the city's on the right track for the most part and I just want to keep it going that way okay uh question two if you were going to partici CRI by S to a new Resident what would you say um it's a small semi- rural community or city with residents of a mostly conservative Viewpoint uh and a great place to raise a family with an emphasis on community and Veterans okay uh what is your approach to handling controversial and complicated issues uh with the facts um i' personally like to gather all the information first and uh but I'm not afraid to just confront things head on if need be I feel very strongly about eliminating some of the uh some of the issues that I've seen in society and other communities and so on and so forth that thankfully our community doesn't have too much of an issue with so okay uh what previous Community involvement have you had in aan or another city um see uh I'm a member of the uh local VFW I've uh volunteered my time here and then previous cities uh did free bikes for kids uh down in Minneapolis do uh handson gifts for seniors I write holiday cards and stuff and get them sent out seniors every year um in high school I did Habitat for Humanity gasis counsil on Aging also when I was younger it's like Wheels On Wheels sort of thing and uh my family and stuff keeps me kind of busy I got an eight-year-old at home and my wife's pregnant with another all right uh what skills and experience do you have that you believe are beneficial to being a council member I uh I've been kind of involved in politics a little bit uh back and forth kind of just mostly seeing everything that's been going on online and in various forms um and uh I left the Navy also seeing some of the issues with climate and culture within the Navy as well um seeing that it was even worse outside the Navy unfortunately when I got out and uh I think it's really important to kind of get society and stuff on the right tracks okay explain what you believe are the primary roles and responsibilities of a city council member um legislation policym budget representation advocacy uh Community involvement oversight ethics um listening to your constituents and hearing them out um I think it's crucial to shaping the uh immediate environment quality of life and future development of the city okay explain what you believe did I just ask that one explain what you believe are the primary roles or responsibilities of a city council member that's the one okay I thought so uh what do you believe are the top priorities or greatest issues facing the city and how do you see yourself contributing to finding solutions to those issues um like I said I think the city is on a really great track already um uh not a huge fan of some of the energy stuff that we decided like the solar panels and whatnot but um I understand that it's already what not uh I think that for the most part it's it's important to stick with liquid natural gas until we can start going to like a small module of reactors or micro reactors actually um it's more beneficial in the long run because a lot of solar panels and wind panels and such or solar wind ter windmills the the blades and such they end up stacking up in uh garbage basically they just usually get thrown away unfortunately because it costs a lot less money to just throw them away than it is to recycle a lot of those things one solar panel for instance cost like 20 to30 to recycle it and have a new one and or just buy a new one whereas it cost one to two just to throw it away which sure uh if you could change some aspect about I governance Direction Focus uh what would that be it's honestly a really good track this community is a great Community I've since I've been here it's it's been quite the pleasure to live here um everybody that I've ran into or met has been cordial it's been a good place okay city council requires a time commitment with which includes four to six meetings per month two Tuesdays per month beginning at 5:00 p.m. and 7: p.m. as well as reading prep prior to meetings will this fit in with your other commitments Y is there anything else you would like to add to assist us considering you as a candidate um no my political leanings are pretty unwavering um I generally want what's best for society and the community and uh for both of them to succeed okay all right so now we'll go on to the questions that I had uh will you able to make your work will you be able to make your work schedule at all flexible for committee meetings yeah absolutely yeah I I we salaries so I kind of move things around as I okay are you willing to utilize Facebook and social media to try and help with resident interaction and informing the public on what's going on within the city yeah do we have a uh our own public Facebook page that's like shared and whatnot okay yeah uh how long have you lived in isan okay uh what will be the most challenging aspect of being on city council um I don't know uh probably some some of the process and stuff I'm not like super super familiar I do watch uh Congressional stuff every now and then but I'm sure it's a little bit different okay and how do you view spending on amenities and how do you justify it so it would be just like just like myself I don't really spend anything that I don't need I drive at 2016 so um I don't money okay great thank you we appreciate you coming out and uh number four on the list list as uh was mentioned Kenneth Waldo was not able to make it tonight he did let me know that he wouldn't be able to make it um so next on the list is Nicholas Peterson if you could please come forward and we'll ask you some questions hi Nick thank you for coming in tonight uh tell us about yourself and why you put your name in for consideration for the open Council seat my name is uh Nicholas Peterson my wife and I have been married for 11 years and moved here in 2018 time we're living in St Paul crime got worse and worse it ended with the police chase crashing to our neighbor's house and my wife was pregnant so we looked around saw 120 different houses around the North Metro did a bunch of Investigation found I Sandy was where we wanted to go so now we've been here since 2018 our fifth child is now on the way I've been in manufacturing for the last8 years having previously been a train conductor and served in the Minnesota National Guard for over a decade as a military police officer initially I did not have a desire to be on the council however many people keep asking me to get involved in local governance so here I am uh in preparation for this interview I went back and listened to all the meetings for the last three months and heard many points of where I agree with the council members however I do feel that there's some input that I could offer that isn't there okay uh if you if you were going to describe isan to a new Resident what would you say if they were to have read the league of Minnesota City's handbook I would tell them it's a level four city outside of that I would say that it's a small small City close to Metro close enough to St Cloud far enough way to be insulated from their poort management and economic choices along with the changes in their culture versus the culture that we have here what is your approach to handling controversial and complicated issues uh when time is is not of the essence gathering information of the people you of the facts and the people you represent is important this is a representative governance so having the consent and informed consent of the people is important not ruling on edict but on doing what they would like before we tear tear down a fence it'd be good idea to find out why the fence was there in the first place but when time is critical leadership needs to prioritize and execute find out what will kill us and stop the bleeding okay uh what previous Community involvement have you had in isan or another city my experience in government is limited to having been a member of the National Guard for over 10 years however I'm very involved in the community having help campaign for a few candidates coaching my kids soccer team taking our children to many local events uh Community Education I also volunteer at my church about eight times a month doing security and running live stream services and I also work in the city across from the Royal grounds okay uh what skills and experience do you have that you believe are beneficial to being a council member I have a deep interest in theology politics and philosophy uh my wife has told me that I'm the least emotional person she knows and I make my decisions in a very logical uh analytical manner with great M attention to detail I'm a very quick study and have been thrown into many situations that I did not have formal experience or training but still persevered an example uh during my time in the National Guard I was was asked to backfill for some administrative troops have deployed to Afghanistan I was on administratively trained but I took over payroll for 60 soldiers and accounts payable with millions of dollars in account and didn't have any payroll issues explain what you believe are the primary roles and responsibilities of a city council member I believe it's to represent the people of the city and to act on their behalf and in their defense to research upcoming decisions be willing to discuss the findings and make a decision that would be in the best interest of the people of I what do you believe are the top priorities or greatest issues facing the city and how do you see yourself contributing to finding solutions to those issues everyone I've talked to their primary concern is either maintaining taxes or lowering taxes however with the city growing that's going to be difficult we also need to maintain and uh if possible improve the conditions of our roads with a concern toward safety and also planning for long longterm projects like the water with uh the well that needs to be done forecasting that it's not a big surprise or need to take out bonds to cover it if you could change some aspect about City I governance direction or Focus what would that be I would like it to see it easier for people that of the city to be notified about upcoming agenda points I know it's on the website but having an email get pushed out or other means to push it out like text message prompts to let people know that there is something outside of just the RSS be or what you put on social media okay city council requires a time commitment which includes four to six meetings per month two Tuesdays per month beginning at 5:00 p.m. and 7 p.m. as well as reading prep prior to meetings will this fit in with your other commitments yes it will uh is there anything else you'd like to add to assist us in considering you as a candidate I'd like to thank the council for their timing consideration I don't have a degree just an ordinary guy but I'm of the belief that this makes me a representative of our community my family loves this community and we want to maintain its charm and culture okay uh so I have my few questions here would you be able to make your work schedule at all flexible for committee meetings uh my boss is very approachable and willing to work up with me on stuff so depend on the time and day but he's definitely open to that talk okay are you willing to utilize Facebook and social media to try and help with resident interaction and informing the public on what's going on within the city yes I am okay how long have you you lived in Ian that be seven years in March uh what will be the most challenging aspect of being on city council for you personally the uh finer details of the budget planning and the long-term projection stuff I'm good with math but the minutia of I'm not read up on okay uh how do you view spending on amenities and how do you justify it planning for our fifth kid on a single income I don't have the ability to spend money that I don't have I don't think so they should either so C if the people want it and they want it bad enough then they need to be made aware of what it's going to cost them and be upfront and transparent with what the actual cost would be not an optimistic cost the worst case scenario if that's the will of the people that's the will of the people okay well thank you for answering the questions and I appreciate you putting your name in the Hat so we have all the candidates were interviewed um I suppose now we just have to make a vote for and before these are read I would like to say a thanks to everybody for coming in uh we do have other uh board opportunities I think all four of you are great uh I appreciate the experience uh that all of you bring to the table we do have an open seat on economic development uh an open seat on the Planning Commission open seat on the parkboard um so I would encourage anybody that does not received this seat tonight to apply for one of those uh the applications are on the back table so you could fill that out tonight and turn it in and uh get your foot in the door with the city so I appreciate you guys all coming out it is a good way to learn a lot more about government and and get to know your ccil members and um your community give you a little more influence and and access I think um which would go a long way if you applied for another seat um yeah we got a great group of candidates this time I would be happy with any of you guys so I I really appreciate the good turnout all right with that being said we have a vote for Nicholas Pon another vote for Nicholas Pon and another vote for Nicholas Pon that's unanimous well good job guys thank you thank you for coming in uh congratul ulations Nick and like I said all of you guys are all great candidates I I would be pleased with any of you so please if you want to get involved applications are back there and I would love to see some applications come in um so next so at this time we are going to um give the oath of office to Nichol Nicholas patteron are we saying that correctly Peterson okay sorry Nicholas Peterson if you want to step up um m strand will give you the oath of office and you'll be able to take your seat this evening please raise your right hand and repeat after me I state your name I Nicholas Peterson do solemnly swear do solemnly swear to support the Constitution to support the Constitution of the United States of the United States the constit ition the constitution of the state of Minnesota of the state of Minnesota and to discharge faithfully and to discharge Faithfully the duties of council member the duties of council member of the city of isan of the city of isan Minnesota Minnesota to the best of my judgment to the best of my judgment and ability and ability so help me God so help me God congratulations you may take your seat [Applause] council member Peterson you have a an agenda packet before you there so if you'd like to uh turn to page 17 of the packet and turn on your microphone please it's right there you just press the button about there you go uh so Council mayor and Council we do have resolution um with representing our city commission's designate committees and representing City commissions before you uh this was uh discussed at the January city council meeting um first of the year meeting however now with our new council member it's open for discussion if we'd like to uh make any changes to the um commissions boards and advisory committees list so Nick I'm not sure if you aware of uh any of the boards or many of them at all but I didn't know if you had any interest in any that was one thing that I was was concerned about uh that's why I asked about the the community meeting flexibility I was hoping that you might be able to take one or two um and I guess that could be up for discussion I was also going to ask Steve tonight if he had maybe considered any other um committees that he could do uh I have honestly I have too many I I I don't mind it but I feel like it's kind of a little bit unfair for me to have so many so I would like to spread out a one or to to you or Steve I'd I'd be willing to take them it would just depend on when they're scheduled for but I definitely like to take on some of them okay um so we have let's see I think probably the the simplest one I think for you for for us uh would be the Chamber of Commerce uh one now that one does meet it's a lunch in technically so you might have to take some time off from from lunch at work to go up to it uh it meets usually I believe it's the third Wednesday of every month at 11:45 to 1: p.m um so you you eat lunch and then they usually have some sort of programming I use it as an opportunity to network with the community um and I think I think it's good obviously they have a feel for being able to come to one of us and just ask a question I get asked questions there all the time Stephanie does as well um she's at almost all of those so I don't know that's absolutely necess NE you make it to all of them I don't go to all of them I go to probably 80% there's some that I don't think add value to the city so I don't go to those necessarily but um that would be one that I think might be a good fit and it's not a huge commitment um you would have to take an extended lunch break for it but luckily you live you work close so uh they do meet usually around the Cambridge area sometimes Ian sometimes Bram but usually Cambridge um otherwise there is the go on one um I've been approached by multiple people and they want me to stay on that one um so I wouldn't like to probably stay on that um unless you have a strong desire to do that one I do not we do homeschooling so I would be fish out of water on that okay well I don't have any kids so I'm going fish out of water on too but but okay um that's fine I otherwise I think the rest are all pretty good George are you pretty pretty happy with the fire district and the park and wre board I am so busy l that's the problem that that fireboard has a lot of moving parts to it and it's going to be a a learning curve for whoever is on that board um I'm on the park and rack I'd be I'd be fine if you'd be that's a schedule for the fireboard I think you are you know what days of the week these are one one day a week uh one day a month and that's Wednesdays when Wednesdays I couldn't do that's when I volunteer at church to in security so okay but does the uh the cable TV leaz on does that have to be the mayor none of the most of those other ones don't really ever meet so it's just defaulted to the mayor okay so the only ones actually meet are fire district the school on Chamber of Commerce uh CI bike walk walk trail that's only once a year and Jeff expressed interest for keeping that um then the league of Minnesota City uh I would like to stay on that I'm not sure how firm Jeff was on on that you I assume you're happy still staying on it yeah okay so really I guess the the Chamber of Commerce if you wanted to just start there if you could do if you think you could do the lunch one otherwise um the school I on one it's kind of that usually meets on Thursday nights um the school board I could technically do the Chamber of Commerce by would need to be tentative and I'll talk to my boss and if I can get that schedule make sure that he's going to be okay with the extended lunch and okay are those hard times for end or do they go much fast no they're always she they're always right on time like to the minute it's kind of crazy actually okay Michelle does a very good job running those efficiently so or Melissa sorry okay if we could maybe tentatively uh pencil you in for that and then these these do kind of change throughout the year so it's not a huge problem I don't think if we have to change maybe Steve will end up wanting to take one of these or or a couple or I guess we'll see go from there did you want to stay on community ed is that something you're passionate about or no if you if you want to do that our our kids are involved in it a lot so directly affects me so yeah you can do it would you have any interest in I don't know maybe George doesn't want the park board as much maybe you could take the parkboard he could focus on the fire of all the boards the park board is one I I actually wouldn't mind um but I think each board has a different set of responsibilities and and time that you need to spend doing that committee um so just I I think the responsibility should be divvied up more evenly that's all sure Jeff I know you uh you had some interest potentially in the school stuff I I think correct I mean we could we could still work on splitting that too we could just do I don't know what is that could do mayor and and you as the alternate or whatever and we can just communicate who can make each if you want to do it that way yeah that's fine okay well that all sounds good then I think we uh got one off of my plate here so that's a plus and I think that everybody seems to be pretty well aligned with what each of these are and you know if things happen you just send out a text and if one of us can make it that you know I think we can work through these issues and our schedules are not always going to work perfectly but if we rely on us as a group we can have representation at I think almost all these so sounds good do we need a motion on those we do need a motion for um for the resolution if you could just um reiterate who's taking which ones if which ones are changing that would be great okay so the Chamber of Commerce liazon that would be Nicholas Peterson depending on schedule um and then the only other one that I believe changed from that was the school Ison could be mayor or homr um then the public education oh yeah yep n was going to take community community y and you George you are still taking the fire district in the Park Board I guess for now okay I I would still like to see Steve back on the fireboard I I just think he's best suited for it he's been on it a long time I know I know we were talking term limits we should have a different set of eyes on it but he so familiar with it and I don't believe uh I mean there's there's a whole bunch of guys on that board he isn't going going to be able to sway it too much he's just think he's the best guy for that board and he likes it you know he's been doing it a long time he also has background at a firefighter too so that what he has background As A Firefighter as well so that helps him to be better suited for it does Steve was he I don't think I don't think so I think he's been on the fireboard so long though right but I guess I don't know I almost positive he was also a fire okay member it was like well over a decade fir fighter okay but it wasn't in my adult life I guess I don't remember that long ago Jeff do you know if he was a firefighter I can't see okay oh yeah well I I I know we had talked about it last year where we thought we should get a new face in there and I I'm still kind of on the same the same field I don't I don't know that I could sway my vote to change on that I it's a real bummer that he doesn't want to take any of these other committee meetings and I know that he's passionate about the fire stuff but I think some change up might be good for a year so what happens if we can't agree to it 100% do then we just go to a vote on it yeah so my recommendation would be that we take that item that committee um separately vote on the rest of the committee appointments as a whole and then vote on that one separately the person person who would like to be on the on that committee could they vote for themselves yes they could vote if they don't have a conflict they could vote okay just wondering if it'd be a full board Vote or not so we're GNA have to basically we're bringing that back next month is that what you're asking well if Steve would like to be honored I'd like to see him on it but so that's the council's decision uh choice if you'd like to postpone that um appointment to the next meeting and vote on it separately or you could vote on it separately this evening we could we could make a vote tonight and see and see what happens I would like to see Steve be on the board if we make that vote I mean I'll do it I we you know I'll just do it for another month and see how it goes see if I have the time to study their their budget and and all the moving parts I mean I'll do the best I can on it would you have more interest in the school board I would I I would like to do that but that's a daytime thing and right now I don't have time another year things are going to change I'm hoping and I'll have a whole day to be able to do whatever I want the school board meets at 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays if that changes your perspective on that how many times a month once no okay I'm only saying that because my schedule just feels so full right now I mean it since the election things have just went crazy with my work we're short on people um I was late for the meeting tonight which I it's only happened like once before um and I don't think I'm going to see things change for at least a couple two three months till we can get some more people hired and I just too much on my plate and I want to be able to do justice to each committee I'm on and and do a good job that's all and I the Committees I have are like the park and wrecking a fireboard those are almost as important as what we're doing right here what if what if you were to take the Schoolboard stuff and I were to take the fire do such a great job reporting the school board stuff so you could do it too once a month I don't know I'm just throwing an idea out there I don't know how the rest of council feels about it so well I always thought you did such a great job on that just we'll keep it the way it is and we can have another discussion when we have a full board okay that sounds fair to me so did you get those committees yes so mayor and Council I have that Peterson will be on the Community Education Hol grid will be on the school board and Peterson will be on the Chamber of Commerce yep with me is a school board as well correct just adding homr we can do that or there's on the caveat on all of them that anyone can appoint another member in their place okay but I would be on there still as well it' be mayor and counsel or we can have it that way yes okay sounds good and we'll see I guess what next month brings on that okay was there anything else for item K1 nope that is it um unless there was any other changes to any U to the mayor proem um that that is it for K1 okay any changes on protem still good Nick George is the protm mayor so if I'm not here he'll be running the meetings you okay with that yeah okay sounds good all right so we will move on to K2 resolution to consider approving a special event permit for Rum River BMX Governor's Cup event we do need a motion oh sorry uh I'll entertain a motion motion is there a second so just for the Committees motion to pass it next next month yeah well what she had said yes yes so what we had already decided and then we'll come back to fire discussion next month second okay all right motion from council member heeman second from council member Peterson all in favor I any opposed motion carries 4 Z okay so now K2 resolution to consider approving a special event permit for rum of BMX Governor's Cup event evening mayor and Council um rumor of BMX is requesting a special event permit for their governor's race cup the event will take place January 24th from 6:00 p.m. to 10: p.m. January 25th from 11:00 a.m. to 3: p.m. and January 26th from 11:00 a.m. to 3 p p.m. for a total of a 3-day event um it will be held at the ice anti indoor arena and is expected to host 800 to 1,000 people per day the event is open to the public and is included um is to include multiple BMX bike races throughout the weekend um Public Services director has given his approval Matt Sylvester has given his approval with the exception um that plowing during the event may be difficult and it may have to wait until after the event just depending on when we get snow and um what their time looks like as is usual for these events um the applicants are here um if you have any additional questions or if they'd like to speak you guys would like to come forward don't have okay uh I had a question how was the New Year's Event how did that go I don't know if he need maybe he needs to come up to answer that question he can talk about you advertise your next event I was just really curious because it sounded like a really great idea and I wanted to know what the turnout was like timiny 101 a Sandy Parkway um actually it turned out really well so um everything went off as a hitch we did the first gate drop at 1201 um all the kids had fun it was was pretty great night yeah that's good glad to hear is there anything extra you'd like to say about the Governor's Cup event or any sort of advertising you got um not really I well I guess this is our second year doing the Governor's Cup um a lot of people from a lot of different states travel in for this one it's a three-day overall event so um if you do end up being a champion of this event you take home a sizable cup you know um it kind of mirrors a older event that used to run back in the Ava days before us next um so we kind of wanted to bring that back and see how well it tracked and it tracked really well last year so we wanted to do it again this year everybody a lot ofun days great and uh I believe work started there on the the rof bolt uh yeah there yesterday and I believe today too yeah okay sounds good thank you for the update and uh good job being a member of her community that's you worked it out with the contractor and everything so going to be yeah um the preon meeting went well um everybody got questions answered any other questions thank you make a motion to approve second motion to approve by council member heeman second by council member Homen if all in favor I any opposed a motion Carri carries 4 Z item K3 2024 illuminate icean recap and discussion good evening again mayor and Council um before you you'll see a financial report for illuminate iany 2024 um I did have Finance director bucker um pull the numbers um you'll notice that there is a little caveat on the bottom that we still do get some random um miscellaneous invoices sometimes that trickle in but nothing should be greatly impacting this budget they'll just be small um if there are any um so you'll see that the operating budget originally was planned for $2,819 for this year with an additional $7,000 budgeted for staff time for overtime and specifically the three seasonals that we um were allotted to hire for this event um with a total operating budget of $27,800 $285 and with an additional $4,160 in staff time um so both of those sections did come under budget um and the total operating expenses including Staffing overtime is $18,800 under budget of what we originally um prepared for um I did want to put in here that the total public Works time during the event was stated on here and so we did factor that out and we haven't done this for previous years but we did monitor it this year and so we figured it out to be about a 720 hours um which comes to about $39,600 um that's taking an average of their benefits and pay of the middle like median of the Public Works um employees um the total event account balance since 2022 so this is our first initial of investment plus last year and this year's additional 8,867 dollar not including our regular work time hours into this um they haven't been factored in is $63,750 um this does not include any of the monetary sponsorships or donations taken out of it this year so that 18,000 is before we add in the sponsorships so that $9,000 that we received isn't included um so um but that's kind of where we are now is discussing the potential you guys wanted to see where we were to see what we are going to give back to the volunteers um due to the limited amount of donations which was $ 79873 and so that's my recap for you I did give you a little blurb on the bottom um about like estimated costs for next year what I think it would cost and so that's taking out some of the things um we had already purchased the Boom Lift so I took that off of there um for next year since that portion was already in there and we own it now um which is now an asset which do you want Mike to go in that further he can um and then also um rugs for the amphitheater were purchased we don't need to purchase them again but we would probably want to consider cleaning them um getting them cleaned as well as well as still needing replacement cords the canvas is good for the gingerbread house so we won't need to replace that next year um and then leaving the same amount for display Replacements no stanions um and then the restrooms if we just use standard rest restrooms it's about $79 because we didn't get the heated donated just because it's too difficult for the length of time and then also seeing no new displays um and Santa for three Saturdays and so that would be roughly 19,38 $84 and then the total estimated cost to not have any event and just have just the lights on would be approximately $15,000 just because we will still need replacement cords if we need them we want to make sure we have enough budget in case something goes wrong you guys were there and saw what can happen to the music and different things so there's just we want to be prepared instead of not having that money ready in case we need it doesn't mean we always use it but when we have to we want to be able to if we're going to do it we want to be able to do it well so questions so at the end of the day the brass tax actually talk about numbers we win in the whole roughly $50,000 this year you have the total operating expenses of um the event and then overtime Staffing at roughly 19,000 um public works at roughly 39,000 and then roughly $99,000 of donations total that comes out to about 50 Grand so that's that's what it costs correct us to put it on after all the expenses and the donations this year I want to state that that doesn't include my staff time or J's staff time Park I know you worked a lot on it and I really appreciate that so just just wanted to be clear about that we didn't factor in our own hours just because it'd be a lot to go back but yeah I I I don't think it's sustainable we I mean we tried this year and I really I really hope that we would have had you know a few dollars more donations I was was really hoping that you know everybody would come in and they'd see a QR code and think hey maybe I should donate a couple bucks so we can keep this going but it it just didn't happen unfortunately and I I don't see how we can continue to spend that much staff time and money on it although I know some of the staff loves doing it I think the staff does a great job with it but I just don't know how we can continue to sustain that type of spending it is a great amenity you know if it was $20,000 a year maybe be worth that sort of you know expenditure to provide a service for our people but in my opinion I just don't see $50,000 another thing that's not listed on here though would be the modification of the PD to handle storage or the creation of a storage place too so there would be additional cost in trying to alleviate having to have access control correct I'm in agreement with you I mean you can't argue with it I mean I knew this thing would become Money Pit I I was hoping we'd be able to find a way that it would not become one or at least get the cost down to what it cost to do our four uh Street dances a year um then maybe I could almost get on board with it because you know it's a winter event but I is is man is there any way that we could just say we're going to have illuminate Sandy get the one illuminate Sandy thing out there and then whenever only only when public work staff has little literally nothing to do they go out there and put out lights just to fill the time and if you get out six light shows six light fixtures great if you don't get out any so be it because that would be you know smaller cost just and we're already paying them and we don't want to just sit around that is one of the things we did propose last year was do we just put out the big tree and the big snowman the stuff that we have infrastructure in place for already in the park that we use the lull for but it you know it's it's a one day thing to put those large thing the present there's a few larger things that are easier to put out there so there's lots of ways to scale it in a way that's more manageable than than a long month event like the leaving the stuff out there for a long time just adds more to our hours because we're out there repairing and fixing stuff we saw the Windstorm that came through if that happened every week we would have spent day more days out there and so it's just really hard to sustain for a 30-day time frame I think that's part of it too um so it's just finding the right scale for us if we want to continue doing this is it just putting out the large stuff um I don't know it's up to you guys to decide how much you guys want to keep investing into this um we hear good positive things I think it was a really positive experience for people they had it there um I know Josie has some more information on numbers for it um for who attended but what so I'm sorry yeah what were the numbers yeah so mayor councel I did do a a a free demo to get some information from GPS data with a company I don't have the um they're putting together like a package of everything but the numbers that they shared with what they have for estimates without doing all the leg work is approximately 5,000 people over the entire month um it the they have lots of breakdowns and I'm excited to share that with you just so we can get more insight on the event just wasn't prepared they haven't sent it to me quite yet um but uh definitely did show the data that uh weekends were popular weekday not popular at all um I think Wednesday and Thursday were the lowest um attendance numbers uh definitely Saturday was the highest um it also showed that the area that people were coming from was not just city of iand actually the percentage was pretty low of city of ianti residents um the whole 5504 Z ianti zip code was less than 50% I believe with the rough estimate numbers that they sent to me um when they showed the pattern of the color blotches of wherever where everyone was coming from um it was scattered and which is very cool to see that we had some far-reaching um people coming um places to eat was kind of an interesting fact it wasn't here um before they came to the event so they can pull that data uh it'll be pretty exciting to show you once I receive it um kind of see where there are are some ways that areas that we can improve upon when we're doing events um yeah pretty good information that'll be coming our way very soon and I can give you the last two years numbers as well I pulled them up um Sophie had about 5,000 in 2022 we had 4,224 which were we have we had tickets so it was easier for us to see exactly how many people this year was more difficult and why it's um these numbers are nice for the cell phone data and then in 20 23 it was 3,820 people so we did get more people this year and the month long time frame so so roughly five 5,000 people at $50,000 expenditure that means each person would have to donate $10 for it to ever be sustainable half the people weren't even from the city of right so the price doubled it's $20 for people the ZIP code but not even from the city but then if I if anyone's familiar with the Sam's Christmas Village or the Miracle on the hill but those are so close and do it so much better I talked about trying to get someone to buy eliminated Sandy but maybe see if they just want more stuff to add to their displays yeah selling the displays or yeah I agree I mean this the only way this would have ever worked is go big or go home and then it may not have worked and even with the numbers we have right now uh at 5,000 this year you're right we would have still broke even at at best and that's if those 5,000 only half of those people would have paid so we would have only have half that attendance if if we were still charging a ticket price um there's really only two options just to do it up or yeah super minimal and I think what really draws people there is the experience and there was a little bit of an experience you know that we both volunteered a night there and uh it's it's it's too bad that that it's going to cost this much every year and possibly more if we keep going with this in the same direction as we are now um I don't think we have to make a decision on this tonight I think Steve should get a little bit of input on this too in my opinion even though it sounds like we're all pretty much in a same idea where what direction I should go but is there any inut from the crowd anybody attend illuminate any this year come on up if you'd like to just state your name and address for the record I love to hear input on this this has been a tough one we've tried so many different things in the last two years uh Nath Chapman 425 Eagle Street um I I went uh my son really enjoyed it he got to see Santa Claus that was nice um it was it was really pretty uh got to do some pictures and stuff uh even the cat was kind of Co exavator there was nice too um overall we spoke highly of it after the event um I don't think I donated I also didn't know the fiscal side right I I probably would have um it worth it's unfortunate that it's it's not really sustainable clear um if there was an ability to give more people and more money would next at this point it just doesn't seem suain great I know you and I talk about putting more clear donation type signs or boxes out but even I think even if we did I guess we'll never know but I don't think we're we're not going to break even nobody it's not even going to make a d it's not going to you're never going to make the money back it it would sure would be nice if we could just sustain it what we spent and that's it but you'd have to like I said $10 per person would be the donation amount and that's never going to happen you know if you bring you and your three kids and your wife or whatever 50 bucks nobody's going to donate 50 bucks to a city rant event it's I just don't don't know how you go from here if there's a way that somebody could take it over I I would love to still have the event in the city limits but not with the city taking it you just can't take the hit and I think maybe a private business could do a better job with it you know they can do more our our hands are kind of tied because we can't be seen as favorites so if we got you know one thing from somebody and something else from somebody else I think it handcuffs us and we just have more overhead uh our guys are you know our Public Works guys are paid well um and it's you know without a an actual business running it I think it's just too hard you could try scaling it back and doing volunteers if people are willing to volunteer their time then it might be worth it sure um like you said just do like the big big pieces out there something that lights up the neighborhood it gives everybody just a little bit of sense of hey that's really cool to drive by yeah know um and if if there was something just to go see to would be nice a picture photo opportunity or something like that and then hey if you can ship in a dollar it would really we'd really appreciate it sort of thing and if it was mostly volunteer based then you'd have a lot less overhead right or or if we use public work staff when there's literally nothing going on I don't know if that ever happens in public works you know this winter has been a little slow because not much snow so they're not plowing much I don't know what they do during other times I'm sure there's a list of things but if there's any laws where it's like yeah this guy has nothing to do today we could have him go put up lights on a tree you know yeah there can be some more lulls more times than others especially if they're not plowing but they are always busy and there's a lot of Maintenance projects that wait to the winter time okay so it's not being done during high high peak Capital Improvements get done um general maintenance like cleaning um you know repacking different things in the water and the Wastewater Plant they're always busy um I would say to speak on behalf of Matt uh definitely things have been pushed out farther than he'd like to see them Anda speaking for the guys too because they've been doing illuminate although they all are great in great moods and you know always happy to help and do events all the time you're not going to hear them complain but definitely it's there's not a lull of or like a lack of work I should say um they're all incredibly busy and all the time but they will make any event work that is deemed appropriate for the city in ad just as needed last year you gave us a deadline because you needed to know by a certain date which I don't remember what it was to be able to go out and get donations and what was that date or or month ideally the earlier the better right like so the sooner the better I mean right now would be great I'm not saying you need to make the but if we could do it in February that really gives us a lot more time all right could we maybe say hey we're going to do this really scaled back and only based on donations so say if a company comes forward and gives us $5,000 we spend $5,000 of Staff time or whatever to put up as much as we can in that five grand and that's done and if we don't get any more donations nothing else but if we get another thousand and then we send them out for another th000 worth so it's just a net zero type of thing is that something that would be I mean it's it's way too hard to plan for that then we just from my perspective what if we get all of a sudden 10 grand in October and we already have you know I don't know I'm just it's it makes it difficult to plan and then promote for also so if we can't promote then we get less people so I I can't wait to get these Facebook polls going and some and figure out a way to do better polling um listen to the gentleman we had up here tonight had a lot of great ideas and it'd be really nice to get more of our citizens to really give us more input of what what they see might need to be done or where they would like their City dollars spent for entertainment um if we even want to budget money for entertainment is and and decide if it's even our responsibility to do um that's why I was ask a question to see how how much longer we can put this off before we just kill it completely or just like you said be bare minimum um but if we have a a little bit more time to make that decision it' be nice sure I think it would be easier to set like a day like in public works could probably give us a good idea of what they could do in a day and maybe you said you know we'll give you two days to this event this year and so what can you do in two days and then you would know I think that would be an easier way for is there is there any room on Main Street to put any of that we had a couple empty lots I mean just asking roundabouts coming the electric power that we have in the park for it is is really important and a large of the ex a large amount of the expenses over time so like the tree has to be anchored down like it's anchored down with footings and same with the Snowman so um just keeping those things in mind it's not as easy to move to a new location as we would like it to be okay I like that idea though right just kind of maybe try to spread a little bit of it around town if we if we could and it wasn't that's still staff time too though right so I I get it is there liability or legality reasons why if a business wants to sponsor it they can't just get a portion of the area and then bring in their own stuff tear up and take down we did we did do that in a few spots that was permitted this year um however I mean we did have DW who who came and put their umor MCO was also here they had their house up and so we had two businesses who took on that we did get other people who donated who just didn't have time to put up their own so Nathan you had something to add um yeah I kind of lost my place there a little bit though um if if it was even possible to scale it back um by like half the time and half the amount maybe um uh but also times are really tough right now for people and that it's kind of understandable even if it was like an on hold thing maybe and then it could be brought up brought back at a later date maybe that's an option I don't know it it really depends on if you want to try and recoup some of that money now or you want to try to recoup some of that money later sure Chris you had you had some comments if you don't mind you can come forward thank you Nathan we appreciate that any input you got let's hear it um honestly I've only been there once in the three years that we've been here it didn't appeal to me um I saw more people using the nail than actually walking around the I standy um I know was cold out honestly I think it's a waste of money um but that's just me so I don't know I wasn't very attracted to it the family wasn't it's just he saw some friends and then they all went to the slug so okay but yeah say would you completely just not do it or would you try to scale down approach no you're going to scale down it's not that big right now anyways so what are you do put up three things I just don't think it's worth the money to do so okay thank you yep if I could yep perhaps maybe the um the direction if you'd like to give to staff is we go to a drawing board and think of different ideas instead of thinking of how to scale back illuminate ice sany maybe we go with something different I can't remember off top my head and I wish I could because I'm bringing this up um like when the city became a city became Incorporated if that happened to be in the winter month we could do like a lighting event with the tree you know because we already have the anchors over in Bluebird Park and do something completely different that is at a lower cost and can bring the community together okay staff can talk about ideas um maybe you know you could reach out to to the constitu as well but we can come up with something just for other options sure denell did you have something that you wanted to say come on forward state your name and address please Dell van uh 5508 why don't you just sell it all off that would be a like you could sell each individual piece and make money for the city yeah I don't know what the resale is on that sort of thing but that's definitely something to consider because I mean right yep we're in agreeance thank you anybody else no I say we bring it back next month with some creative ideas creative ideas and we can look this over a little bit better and maybe people in the community have better ideas and they can reach out to us or City you can't keep losing this type of money every year that's that's crazy I I'd like to see blueberg Park let up a little bit for the winter time as long as we got all this leftover stuff I mean maybe some of like tree lights uh I like the tree lights you know a few things like that would be nice um it's a have a sleding hill there and I I like the idea of the downtown I San stuff I've had two people ask me about why don't we wrap our light poles or do something in downtown isan and I did look at I did look into the cost of that we did make our own snowflakes for the park which go through the park um and I figured it'd be about $80 per snowflake per light pole we have 24 light poles you could do every other one or whatever so just giving you that in this as well um but then another probably 20 to $30 per light strands for each light pool so just roughly $100 is what I figured but I definitely think it is possible that we can make brackets to the displays we have and it doesn't have to all be the same right it could just be you know lighted structure that we put out there and they could be different one could be a deer and one or reindeer you know one could be a snowflake or something like that I think that that could be definitely one of the options we explore repurposing yeah another thought is our retail maybe reach out to some of our retail and see if they want to put out some of these bigger displays themselves for the holiday season like yeah one big one out on you know on C burs maybe a gas station what one who knows I mean they're they're cool and they draw people um just another thought if especially if the resale value isn't much and that way we can kind of like I said light up the town in in different areas um it's a good idea all right so you don't need a motion or anything on that we actually do because we were the original reason why we brought this up was for the donations um to the volunteers and so they were supposed to get 40% of the donations which ended up being roughly $53 per organization who volunteered in previous years they've received $500 um and donations from the city for Contracting to work these events and so um that was really how what led us to getting the final numbers as soon as we could is so that we could pay these um volunteers so I have a question on that so last year I had never heard anything about paying the volunteer groups I probably would have said something about it then but to me if you volunteer as an organization it's volunteering and I just hard press for me for me to say hey the taxpayer should pay you now to run this event because you volunteered time so I don't I don't know where that came from I've never I don't remember ever seeing that last year um you know the previous year I wasn't involved with it so I'm not really sure but uh I I'm just hardpressed to say we should give them $500 when they volunteered their time now I think Steve's idea of contributing the whole what was it $790 or whatever to them um as a kind gesture I don't think that's unreasonable um but at the same time it's still taxpayer money as soon as it gets to the city it's still taxpayer money so I don't know how we do that but I'm I would not be in favor of the 500 that's for sure we did start doing the 500 right from the gecko so that was always a think both PR previous years but we do find that people volunteer organizations only volunteer now to help them their not volunteering then yeah right it was actually as a contracted group because Council decided or it was decided upon well Council I guess but um that it would be instead of hiring staff because the options are you need people to run the event to have activities and such going on the event so that was a way instead of having to hire seasonal staff which is difficult to do as well plus you're having to go through all the payroll um rig REM whatever you know um for uh just a few you know weeks or whatever for the event so that was an alternative to that and the cost actually of the $500 for the group because that's a big group of people it's not per person just to make sure we're clear it was less money when the analysis was done of per person of a part-time employee so that's also doing liability work comp and all that so just for Contex $3,000 for six groups to volunteer is a steal of a deal we would pay our employees a lot more probably $3,000 per person being there during that time so it really is a win-win when you look at it overall um and the money then stays within the community as well but it's not a win-win for our taxpayers and were they promised $500 when they volunteered not this year was based upon donations and 40% but I am just saying we if we do decide to continue doing any of this moving forward we will likely get zero volunteers from now on maybe so um I'm after working multiple events volunteers are the hardest hardest thing to find right now people are tapped out they're involved in a lot of things you see a lot of the same people at the same things doing everything and um Civic engagement is at an all-time low so just keeping that in mind maybe that's because taxes continue to go up that's I mean you have people that are you know hurting and we talk about taxes and all this stuff and if we're just giving our taxpayer money away to people that volunteer in the first place with the understanding that they're going to get 40% obviously we expected or hoped for more donations so that that 40% would have meant more to them and the 60 would have meant more to us but that's just not what happened so it's not like they were told