I didn't know he had the money in there --------- was taking it over this year. Kind of just figuring that out. I don't know what his plan was, but I see we got 15 grand in there. And it sounded like if we used one kind of paint, you could do 15 hydrants. If you use a different kind
of paint, you could do 100 hydrants roughly for that. Do you remember what paint specifics there were? Was one a urethane, one's an epoxy? Okay. When are we going to get longevity out of? It'll be a I mean, you're going to get
longevity more out of the expensive one, I'm sure. I think the plan is to repaint them every 10 years. Um, one was a a waterous paint. He called it waterous. So, it's water-based. That's a company,
the manufacturer of the hydrant. Water is I think like I think I agree with you. Okay. Sure. Gotcha. And then deain da paint.
Okay. So those are the brands. More expensive one. Okay. Uh so we we're due for that on on all the hydrants. Uh I think I believe the plan was to do half this year because we have some money allocated this year and then half
in 2026. Would it make just economies of scale? Would it make more sense to just do it all at once potentially next year? Well, we can get cost on it. Okay. Yeah, we have I guess from what I seen is the 15,000 wouldn't do half.
It would not. No, we have 300. What is it? I'd have to do the numbers, but I think it's more than 300 hydrants. Yeah. And they keep we keep adding them as the the roads go in, but 100 at the
waterest one was uh all we were going to get with that thing. We'll look into it. If we don't have enough to do enough that we might just push it all to another to next year. And I just talked to this guy today, so I didn't have a lot of time to get into
it. Sure. Was there longevity differences? Are they supposed to be the same lifespan of the paint? He said in the text that they're both a good paint. Um he says 90% of cities use
the water because it's cheaper. Cambridge uses the others is the other one with that. Do they actually sand blast for the other one? He would this Yeah, he would sand blast it off the old Let's come back with some numbers then.
Yeah. All right. And then we have some hydrant uh or fire extinguishers. Just some cost in there. Chemicals. So 62,000 is budgeted for the water treatment plant. That's for all the chemicals that we use
there. Water meters. 35,000. So we budget money for meters within the water fund. Um, but new homes are included with their building permit, but if they need to get another one, like something happened to their meter or something
like that, you don't see the revenues coming on this page. So, just know that some of that gets recouped back, but what we pay out is 35,000 to buy the meters. And I assume they're charged more than what we pay for the meter when they need one.
No, we just pay they pay cost. Okay. It is cost. Okay. Yep. They pay all the cost. Yep. We changed the fees scheduled to be actual cost. So because change fees were changing instead of we used to have a dollar amount in there and it stayed the same year after year, but because we had
this huge influx few years ago, u we changed to be actual cost. So um when it's needed every so often, um Josh will get quotes on it. So we make sure we're not losing any money. Okay. Overpaying. Sure. Sounds good. As long as we're not eating money on it. No. Perfect.
Um let's see. small tools of my equipments. We've already talked about a tire balancer and the scanners. This next one is a hydrant uh gate valve wrench, and that's something that's really critically needed uh for public works to be able to
um operate things. I'll let Josh explain what it is. So, it'll help exercise our hydrants and our uh gate valves. Basically, if if you don't turn the valves, they don't work. So, you can
take this tool and go around and exercise them. We want the fire district when they go to the hydrant that it works every 100% of the time. Yeah. Like we had to replace the one on Third Avenue because we couldn't even turn it anymore. Now, there's some that are hard like that that hopefully the
exerciser can work in and bring them back. So, is that an automated machine for 6,000 bucks or what is it? Is it just a big wrench or how does it work for six grand? It's It's basically Yeah, it's a batterypowered Okay. Milwaukee hydrant gave out valuable.
So, is it like I mean could you use like an impact to do the same type of thing? I don't think it would have the strength. Wouldn't have it. Okay. I'd be curious. I mean, it takes some work to turn those valves sometime. Yeah. Some of those Milwaukee impacts can do like 1,000 footbs. it can break
the lug off a semi-trail. So, I mean, I don't know how much it takes to turn, but it's interesting. Maybe I'll look into that. For professional services, we have um allocation of safety training. SKA upgrades are needed. So, we had some
money uh this year allocated uh within the 2025 budget. It's not enough to do the computer and upgrades that we need. So, Josh talked to Total Control who's who we use for our integrator and um wait, not do any of that this year and we're going to do it all together
because it' be cost savings and better and we're already halfway through the year and his schedule is really full. So, just know that we won't be expending the 2025 money that is there. Win 911 has to do with uh SCADA and
the call outs a little bit for city attorney if there's questions in regards to could be an ordinance, could be anything water related. Um, a portion of drug testing for the public works maintenance guys. um and continuing disclosure reported.
Any questions on that? Will the good upgrades include some kind of a backup because I know that I think it was last meeting that you weren't able to reach the there's some connectivity issue with that would be internet. So the skate upgrades would that include any kind of redundancy?
Okay. But what it does is that the system isn't the old system isn't supported anymore. But we do have um costs that come forward with um having mid code to the water treatment plant. Right now it's using a Verizon hotspot
and it's just not reliable enough. I had a couple questions here. Uh what happened in 2022 and 2023 with the wages and salaries. It went from 133 in 2021 and 136 in 2022 to 186 in 23. So it went
up 50 grand that one year. I'm going to guess 2023 is when we hired the utility manager. Okay. So, just extra st one extra staff person there. Okay. And then the uh maybe you touched
on it, the generator service agreement. Is that like a uh a maintenance agreement or what is that? So, they is it they they take care of it and check it all the time or they bank them and test them, make sure they're ready to go if we need them.
Okay. And that's not something that we could do or is it just more efficient? They have a machine that they hook up to test it. Okay, sounds good. All right. A portion of auditing services. Uh we do have some for
engineering. Th this engineering cost of 10,000 um wouldn't just be like Jason's fee, but we work with um other engineers for the water side of it. Uh in technology, we have some a lot of those allocations you've already seen before. Actually, I think uh all of them have
been in um other departments. Communications, same thing. Uh we do actually have some landline over there um for SCA calling out. It's not the voice over IP
at the water treatment plant. Insurance utilities for the facility. Ground maintenance. We don't have anything in there. We typically don't have too much. Just maintenance repairs for the buildings. Don't have anything anticipated this year or coming up here. So 3,000 in
there just for general things that could come up. Auto expenses um and repairs or that's related to water. So it could be the vacuum truck. It's a portion of any water repair uh part of the utility truck. So this is where 50% of if we end
up putting a new motor in the the truck that we have that's has the issues, uh 50% of that repair would be quoted here. And then depreciation of assets, uniform rentals um for the public works employees. And then we're
down to dues and subscriptions. Go for state one locates. Uh we pay a portion of that when people call and they're locate that. We do American Waterworks Association that allows us to get a discount when we're doing trainings. Um hazardous chemical
um that's I think a report that we do. Um annual water use report that is a fee that we're charged from the DNR. Minnesota rule water they do a lot of training. They are also who we do um our testing with at a lot of those trainings
for them to get their licenses and then a portion of the APWA. So the $6,000 annual water use report um there's no other options for that is there just no we get a bill we get invoice from the DNR. Okay. And does that does that number go
up a lot when you hit 10,000 residents? Is there do you know if there's a lot of cost associated with the growth of hitting 10,000 in this sector or is it just water usage based? I believe it's just on gallons. Do you
remember when you see that invoice come through? I'm not sure. I'm assuming it's probably on gallons. Okay. All right. And then last page for water. Uh other miscellaneous s that's that um paid
medical leave. We have a railroad pipeline permit fee. There's uh testing for water waste water. Well, it's obviously just water in this category. 2500 that's required testing that we have to do and send to the Minnesota Department of Health.
Um there is 26,000 in the capital expenditures which we'll go over those later. And then debt service bond payments you can see below there. Uh those are also what Nick had already touched on uh interest or bond interest payments as well as something
that touched on and that is it for water. Could you explain what the railroad pipeline permit is? So we pay an annual fee for allow for the railroad allowing us to have our water main go under their railroad.
Which number was that? 950. You have two intersections. Oh, there it is. Okay. So, with the the paid medical leave, uh would it be possible to see how much total the city pays? Just so I guess we
know that number. Yeah, he had it actually at the last meeting um total at the C meeting when we were talking about do we want to split it 5050. Okay. So that's in the other packet, the exact number. Yeah. Okay. All right.
And then going on to the next department. Just to get to that right now, it's about $16,000. 16. Yep. Between general fund, all the enterprise funds, EDA, all of that. So 16,000 total. And then the employer, the employees pay half of that.
Yep. So they'll pay 16,000 also. Oh, so it's 32,000. So that's $32,000 this the state stole from us essentially. But okay, just trying to keep track here because all these unfunded mandates are just adding up for everybody. So
including you guys. Before we get started on sewer, I'll just give an update to let everyone know where we're at for this evening's meeting. We're going to talk about the sewer budget here. Then we're going to go through the list of what we have for CIP and that total expenditure between budget and CIP for the departments.
we've discussed if they have um CIP items and that's what we have for this evening. So, all right. Uh sewer revenue. Let you take a look at that. Let me know if you have any questions. What page? Um
this is just the next page after water. Page 32 of the attachment 51 of the packet. All right. Any any questions about those? Nope. Super access charge is just something
that the builder pays when they build, I would assume. Yep. When they connect. uh you could have a resident who was on a septic system that wanted to connect and then they pay that fee also. All right, for our expenses, we have wages, part-time salaries, very similar
to water as we go through this. Um let's get down to uh contracted services. Again, very similar except for we do have a wa wastewater treatment plant meter calibration that's required that we do for the MPCA. Um all these other items going through
uh down to the bottom. Let's get down to training instructions. Uh again, very similar to water. We train all of our uh public works employees in wastewater as well as water. Uh so you see that there's portion there that does eb and flow because some years they get
licensed and some years they don't. So there's a couple different stages for licensing and they have to be here so much time in between. So that's why you see there's es and flows to that training. Uh then we go to um
sewer water billing supplies, motor fuels, general supplies, chemicals. These chemicals are for wastewater treatment. This could be um anything from pre-treatment chemicals to pond treatment um and also treatment
$80,000. That number, you never know. Again, it all depends. We do try to use as much as we can for doing biological treatments such as adding um bugs to our pond system because then we are going to reduce the need to needing to have our
sledge removed from our ponds, which is very very expensive. So, I encourage never to decrease that number. the the motor fuels uh category based on what we spent in the future. I think we need to increase that unless it's
allocated for separately in a separate area. You can see the 2020 proposed a,000 bucks. Um but in the past it's been 3,60 4500 2900. Yeah, we could definitely look at that.
That does maybe like a 2,000 instead. Yeah. Yeah. So, we had a change there in 2024. Not quite sure why, but we came in at 944 and we're only at 413 through June. So, that's why I went with that thousand, but bump that slightly just in
case we have a change in how that motor fuels is getting allocated out. So, we can bump that up. I mean, it's it's fine if you think it's okay. I just was wondering if it was allocated. I think it's thousands maybe a little maybe a little low. Okay. A little more wiggle room there. So,
all right. And then again for small tools my equipment percentage of the one six of those items we've already talked about. Next page professional services look very identical to water uh auditing as well
engineering putting money in there just in case we need to utilize Bolt Inc. Um for anything. We potentially do have a large study that's going to be needed. Um that has not been factored into um this quite yet. What's the study for?
That's that $140,000 line on professional services. That is to cover a portion of that study that would need to be done and that also groups in the SCADA the other half of the SCADA upgrade for the water and sewer.
So what does that study exactly do? So, one of the things that I asked Bolt Laming to look into for us as well as Josh and actually the whole crew down at public works is to ensure that our target of when we have a possible need to upgrade to a mechanical plant is on
par with what we're seeing for all the growth that we've had. So when that number of a year was originally put out there, um it was based upon uh when is the MPCA going to make us upgrade to make sure that we're meeting our efficiency and our rates of uh
treatment. Well, now we're looking at let's not just worry about the MPCA. Actually, things are going really good. MPCA worked with Rural Water to do some studies on pond systems and said, "Wow, they're really effective." We're like, "Yes, we know." Um but now it comes um once you get to a certain percentage of
capacity of your plant, you need to do a study to ensure how are you not going to overm max your plant given you the growth of your city. So that's what we're digging into right now and um when we come back we'll probably have more information. We're just they're just concluding that study or that um review
of our numbers. Uh Josh has worked with them to um put together some stuff, Stephanie, as well as population estimates a lot just to see are we going to be hitting that threshold that we need to do a full study that's going to be required by the MPCA. So it's a very
general overview of it. We'll be bringing that back soon. So if we if the numbers don't meet the minimum or whatever, we won't have to do the expensive study or Right. Well, it'll just get pushed out to future years. So, right now we're
thinking that the study maybe be 2027. Um, but we're just looking at that now. I worry about that the mechanical plant costs and long-term. Um, is it possible to add to our our pond system to increase capacity? Is that that's not an
option at all? and they make you do the study after we hit 85% or whatever and we're getting close. Can you refresh my memory what year that was built? I'd have to look on the plaque on the
wall down there, but it's 87. Wasn't that the original building there? Wasn't it 1996 for the water treat or the wastewater plant? The plant and We had a pre-treat like um down by Centennial earlier, but
can always bring it back next meeting. We can always find out and bring it back next meeting. It's just it's just so efficient and costs so little money compared to a mechanical plant. Well, that's why it's efficient to go. However, yeah, we just have to make sure we can handle the flow of of the building. Okay.
I I just want to make a note if if we have to do a study in the future, we have to upgrade that that that we really have our ducks in a row next time because I remember clearly when they put it in that that that plant would be good for 50 years minimum. We're not even
we're we're running half that right now. What's wrong with that? Bring it back. We'll have that information when we bring it back whether we need to do a study in 2027 or whatever. Um okay. technology. Again, you're going to see the same
items here as in water. It's very, very similar. So, we'll move down to um utilities, the cost, running the plants and the facilities, uh down to maintenance, down to repairs. So, we have a Hawk HQ 2200 analyzer. This is
for um doing wastewater treatment testing. And then we have general miscellaneous for repairs needed for any kind of equipment. That could be on the factory truck. It could be on a um sledge pump. It could be on anything. And then we have our depreciation for
our assets and that uniform rental. Any questions on that? Is uniform rental significantly cheaper than just purchasing? I assume we've talked about that before. I don't I'm just curious. Not necessarily cheaper always. Um but that would need to be negotiated with
the union. Oh, it's a union. Okay. It's possible to not provide uniforms, but we will until that is okay. Do some subscriptions. We have a wastewater treatment um hazardous
chemical that's um for report um permit fee for wastewater plant and then we have a rural water association 50% um as well as APA percentage and then a wastewater operator. Again, these are small fees. Uh, so when they go to
trainings, they're paying a lesser amount. Any questions on those? All right. And then the rest of the department is identical to water, just a little different. So testing, um, capital improvements,
bonds, fees, and that's it for all right. So next we have our capital improvement list. Zoom out here for a second.
Uh we are only going to discuss the items that I have highlighted. So you have the full capital improvement plan document within your packet. I'm sure you've had fun in your leisure time going through that. Um but we're just going to focus on what is listed for 2026. So, if you have any um information
you're looking for on it or changes and then I'll be sharing this document um which is also in your packet that shows that budget that we just went through what we're going to be talking about for CIP and then that total dollar amount and this is heman which you were asking for. So, for streets we have listed for
2026 CIP two skidsters. Uh any questions about those? Uh Josh has information about those if you do. How many hours are on each of those? They're at 1,800. Okay. That are you you must be having
issues with them. The drive motors are loud and I can't remember which one of them under warranty have new drive motors and they're 3,800 bucks. So, they howl really bad. Right.
Is there uh anything for adjustment on those? Like the old ones, are there chains that or anything that go to those or is it just all hydraulic? It's hydraulic. It's all hydraulic. Man, that's not very many hours for that's like half of what you'd usually expect.
They do. Yeah, they do a lot of miles when they're running sidewalks and roads all the time, but I don't know why. So, is it just the just the drive motors pretty much? That would be my concern with them. And then when we're out in the the middle of
the night and one goes out. I guess I would like to see us extend the life of those, but maybe we talk about getting one new one this year. Um, 1,800 hours, man, you should get you should get four or 5,000 hours out of each one of those. Um,
I have one at home right now with 6,400 on it. Uh, what year are they? the 18s. That's why you don't buy new stuff. Just deteriorates so dang fast. That's if we
knew there we'd be getting good units. That'd be another thing. But I think these new ones are even going to be even worse. I did get a price on a new one and it's 5158118. So the budget is a little high or the
number in there. So, I got that yesterday. Is that a state bid? Yeah. I I would like to get one and then stagger them. So, you know, if you get the same exact one and then it's a bad year and you you're stuck with two
that are having issues at the same time or not putting all your eggs in one basket. Yeah. I I just like staggering in case something does happen. At least you have a backup. you'll see what it looks like to push one to 2027 or or further than that if you got two
that I mean if it's just the drive motors they're diesel I mean there's really not a whole I mean there's parts to go wrong but not catastrophic usually as far as you know you're going to have that would be what I would be worried about is the drive motors right and that's you said 3,800 bucks a piece that's what I have written down
okay so four of them you're talking 15 grand yeah but that way you're still updating but you're going to keep the other two, right? And they're both the same year. Yes. Okay. Because we were on a lease pro. That's how they got together. We're on a lease program. Otherwise, we would have staggered.
So, it's like a lease to buy. Yeah. I think we paid, don't quote me, it was 1,800 1,800 to start and they kept bumping the lease program up. We get them two years, it would cost 1,800 bucks. You know what I mean? So, can re we readjust the cost for for
the cost that you just got. Can we update this and then stagger? Are we trading in the unit so we always have two? Is was that price with a trade in? No, that's just that's just the price of the machine. I we if we buy another one we keep the two because
I mean unless you get an absorbent amount. You could see what they'd offer, but if it's not 30 grand or something, it's not even I mean maybe on the free market you could get that for them too. I don't know. I don't know how long redundancy would be nice because we don't have backup. Same I mean you go to all our stuff. We really don't have an
extra piece. This is like the mowers are out sidewalks, whatever. We don't have an extra and then you can have enough space in public works. Talk to the old salt There you go. The police station.
You'll make it work with an extra skid. We're looking at 51,000, not 68. Yeah, that's why I said I got a quote on one just to see where we're at. And that actually is one number that we're good on. I don't know don't lie.
Is that just with the with the basic options unlocked, I assume? And you can upgrade to different options unlockable. I did the options we want. Okay. That's Yeah, not bad then. Okay. Uh so we'll look at staggering
those and not trading in the one that we will purchase one for next year. See what they give us just as a curiosity maybe. But I can do that. Yeah. And then uh No, go ahead. Uh streets uh is a GPS unit. I think that this was originally budgeted in
2017 and we kept pushing it out because Bolton Mink has allowed us to use it. Now, um I do think it's of benefit for the city to have their own now that we have Jared in house that can do our GPS stuff because otherwise if we give the
unit get the unit from Bolton Mink, they take it back to upload it to their shape files. Well, they're not managing our shape files. So, we it would be advantageous for us and everything that we have is GPS. Whether it's a gate valve, a manhole, a storm sewer apron,
um a curb stop, all of those items anytime we have a new development come in, every sign is GPSed and put into a shape file. So, it's within our system. Do they uh outdate those or make those
obsolete? Do you know? Um, I would say if you want the biggest and baddest and like yes, you can keep on getting them, but no, their software. Um, you should be able to use those and upload them.
Is there any more information on that uh to to verify? But is there any lease option on those? I mean, what if, you know, Jared's here and he's great, but what if in a year from now we buy this and he's not here, then what do we do? I'll look into that. Okay.
And then we can see if it's, you know, if he likes doing it, if it works out well, if it's worth it. Well, public works shoots them and then Yeah, he would just upload them the Got it. Okay. We can definitely look to see if there's a lease option somewhere. Okay. This is for like location and
surveying or what's the GPS? Yep. Location points. So, have you seen our GIS maps mapping? No, I have not. It's awesome. I think we should talk about getting access to that. any gate valve, any manhole, it's all we've gone
out and I mean not all 90% of it that's repairs that it's not done by the contractor by the engineering when stuff is put in they do the new projects but we had to do the whole town and then
update it. So maybe I mean if we were to lease a unit for two years, you think we get everything done and then then we don't have to own it forever and then if you're saying the new projects are required by the engineering to do it then we as long as we're caught up. Correct me if I'm wrong. Do they do them
when they do the new projects or not? I think we've requested them u we should just require it then. Some of the problem is it's not accurate. So they're switching and fixing. Yep. But maybe a couple years you might be able to iron out. Oh. Oh. Oh. You saying after they do it, it's still not accurate.
We've been corrected about that. Yeah. Okay. And we've I don't know how we've got Well, and once in a while you'll find the missing gay valve that you haven't been able to locate because it poured over and so we shoot all those things, too. What would be nice? Right now, they make a list and then when we get the
boat in the mink one, then we go and do them. But it would be nice to have our own. About locating gate valves. You're talking like the water shut offs at residences. Yeah. Yeah. In the streets. The gate valves are on the streets. curb stops for residents, but we'll look and bring back more information. We'll leave it in for now.
That's okay. Uh, street lighting, a street light pole replacement is in there for 9800. Um, street lighting infill. Is that a Is that a typo that those two items are the exact same value? I don't know why those are exactly the same.
That's a weird coincidence. Yeah. They both were at $8,000 for original cost and are out the same number of years. So they've had the same percentage applied to this point. So yeah. Yes. Weird coincidence, but yeah.
Okay. Street light infill at 15,000. Um I community center has a compressor for 1845. Didn't we talk about street light infill being 10,000? Yeah, that's what I thought too in the last meeting.
This has been the inflation adjusted number from when that 10,000 was originally planned. So, we can go back to that 10,000, but this is just where we have it out now to this point. You want it to remain at 10? Yeah, I think so. What do you guys think?
Do we need it at 15 or do you think 10's good enough? I mean, we're getting street light infill for free. I get that on the one on the one road. I wouldn't be able to say year to year we cost it out and ask nexus if we were
to put a poll here and here quote me how much it would cost and then so I'm not sure is there like a pool of money where there's when it's just sitting this is the pool of money that we take from yeah so either it'll just do however many lights it'll do so if we say we want these lights quoted and if
it comes out at 12,000 we'll say okay just do the two do that every year do that every year do the 10 Uh the compressor at the community center. So the compressor is needed to keep the fire suppression system
operable. It is a dry system. Never good if that compressor dies. It is um to my knowledge pretty old. We do have a pan underneath it. Any What's that? It's ever tested or service at all or is it just sit there and wait? Public works looks at it all the time. Okay.
If you go out in the hallway over here, sometimes you can hear this one running in for the building in here, too. They do run quite a bit. Um, okay. Then moving on to parks. Uh, we have Rum River Meadows Equipment 30,455. I'll let Stephanie share what
that is. That is um for refurbishment of the equipment we did notice. So that includes like painting, repainting of all the equipment. Um, we did notice through this as we've been
looking at the CIP for parks and updating just numbers to make sure they're correct for the coming years with inflation um for what is there that this park specifically, which is probably our I will give it our second most utilized park at the moment. Like
neighborhood kids utilizing it on a daily basis. Um, high usage. It is pushed out until 2040, I believe, or 2039 currently in the project for a replacement. So, that is something we need to consider because it's really far out. It's already 20 years old. So, I'm
not sure if it'll last another 15 years. It's the same age as the Bluebird park equipment that just aged out. So, we're not we'll be able to have some replacement pieces from that park equipment, but just to keep that in our minds as we're looking forward at the CIP. Um, so also considering then
whether or not it's worth it for us to refurbish this if we want to pull that ahead. And so a lot of things to consider with it, but just um yeah, really for you guys to decide on what you want to do with it. Is that the park by Steve's house? Yes,
that one's in pretty good shape. It seems like it is in good. It's We haven't had any major issues. We did have some cracks. We had to replace a tube last year. Um the tot
lot equipment is in very used condition. Like I would say that could be replaced. Um the plastic looks like it's getting pretty brittle, faded. Um I don't know. But for the high use of that park that gets used, I would say
it's not one that we want to see something out in it for, you know, months like we did last year also with Bluebird Park. So just keeping all that in mind whether or not it is worth it for us to refurbish this park or if we're going to decide to pull it forward. So
since we have a few months want to put that on park and wreck take a quick look at it and and we'll reook at this before we finalize. Yep. And I would say, you know, if the total kids uh playet is due to be replaced,
can we use park dedication funds if we rip it out and do something completely different? Yes, I think something you can consider if you upgrade it to a different I mean that's for you guys really to decide. So what kind of improvements you want to do. I don't think you can just
buy similar equipment and replace it with it. But I think if you want to upgrade in some way that's what you guys have done in the past. You can if you're tearing it out and starting over. Oh, we just did it. All right. Then we have Unity Ballfield
fencing and pavilion. I thought we talked about taking a pavilion, taking it out of there because it doesn't really get used or just leave what's there. I don't want to replace it. Right. Same with the fencing. I don't think the fencing is that bad. I mean,
I've never noticed any issues with it myself. But has the park board gone out to that unity ballfield and checked that out at all? They do it in the park chooks every year. I know um Mr. Becker probably can talk a little more about the fencing.
It's the ball field fence. Yeah, the there's a couple spots where it's bent in pretty bad and once it gets all bent up, it just Yeah. Is it to the point where you through it. I don't know. I don't play there, but
Yeah. Well, it's not professional, but Right. Um, is it worth like completely ripping it out and replacing it or replacing just the fencing fence on it? And Nick, when we met today, you said something about sometimes there's grants
available for this type of thing, for like the fencing around the the baseball field. Yes, there is grant funds that are available for that. For that though, we're likely going to need to keep this in our near CIP plans for when we're
doing that. That's oftent times a requirement for it is that it's planned for in our CIP. So, so is there be able to look into generally those are 5050 match grants from what I've seen in the past too. So potentially something
to help reduce the cost if we were to get awarded one. Would it if we were to say push it out five years um and say if next year Stephanie find or somebody finds a grant that's available would the fact that it's out five years would that be okay for most types of grant
opportunities or I think the just if it's there the only consideration is that what would the cost be of the fencing then um just is it going to I don't know what the increase is going to be so just making aware like that it could increase
you know enough to not make the grant worth it. So, um I would say we can always we're always looking for grants that we think are valuable um and opportunities for sponsorships, etc. But yeah, it could potentially um
I don't know. Okay. I don't think it needs the fencing or the pavilion. So, I'd maybe but keep it in there in case maybe push it out five years. I I would like to see if the cost of the replacement is accurate. Okay. Okay, we can look into those and
have that brought back. You saved what? $8,000, $10,000 and on this skid steer thing, right? Okay. And then getting down to water. So, we have wellhouse number one air conditioning unit for 1900
water tower land acquisition for almost 197,000. Rebuild filter one under drain. Any questions on those? for water the water tower land acquisition that's we're thinking we're going to need that next year already even with the
willer to purchase the land so we have a place for it to go but not build the water tower yet right this is a second one or this is a replacement one addition I say keep it in there
I I worry that we have that 196 number in there and now it's public record and if we find property we like that's suitable, they're just going to ne negotiate all the way up to 196 right off the bat. Well, theoretically we can't pay more than what the appraisal value is like
for like that's in our requirements and so we wouldn't be able to but we also can't play pay less than that. So we would be they'd have to prove the value of their land. Okay. For us to be able to purchase it. Is is that for redundancy or is that is the
primary tower at nearing that's just to keep up with population growth growth. We talked about it last year and with the water study and the the amount of overuse in the city has caused a need for additional resources substantial. So what percent of the capacity is that
tower at? The tower I'm not sure. Sure. I know it was just in the long-term plan because the infrastructure cost with development over there with its own water tower would save you money than versus having to run as much stuff. That was what we talked about last year. But I was trying to remember that
conversation. I thought that water tower was out quite a few years because we were going to put in another pump and he was running a line, right? Tower is but not the land. Yeah. Yeah. You have to have we need to have the land so that there's not, you know, construction around it. Then it just causes the land
price to increase, you know, so the earlier we purchase it, the better deal we're getting on the land and the more prepared we are and the higher chance that we find land that's suitable that's not already developed on. And you recall a land conversation last year? I don't know if we specifically talked
about that, but I I mean it's part of the process. It also needs to be a certain elevation like preferred elevation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they were. So Jason has a few things picked out that would work potentially.
Nope. All right. For sewer, we have airated pond air piping. This is um we have to have the aration pond in the ponds otherwise it doesn't work. Treatment building backwash waste pump number one.
That's for replacement and number two replacement. Treatment building garage air compressor disinfectant. Disinfection building. Trojan UV system. So we disinfect our waste water water before it's final discharge with a UV lights. Um affluent flow meter chemical
room feric chloride tank and a chemical room alum tank. Main lift station generator. I had a question on the main lift station generator. Uh how old is that unit and how many hours are on it
roughly if you had any guess? The main lift generator. Yeah. Is that the one by where brand new that's why I was asking you pull that up and see what it says for that's that's what I thought
I can't read. And I'm wondering about the UV disinfection too. Didn't we just put new UV bulbs? Yeah it's a lot of money. That's the whole system I believe. Maybe we got to look at all this water stuff. We I I don't know anything about any of this stuff. I didn't see any.
I'd like to see if that cost that 153,000 is accurate. We have the generator still for 2022, but that doesn't guarantee that it didn't happen in 2425. I don't know. We can look at all that and bring it back next meeting just to ensure we have
it correct. Yep. All right. So then uh this document um we don't have EDA and liquor listed but they um don't have CIP items for this coming up year. So it's just as the budget was provided earlier this evening. The highlighted items um
actually planning and zoning is the same. The other two highlighted items for streets you can see there the operating budget number and you can see the CIP budget for then a total overall budget of uh just over 627,000. And for parks, uh, you see the budget of
486 roughly. The CIP items, that's as if we were to do what was presented in that earlier picture for a total of 400 548. Water and sewer, I don't have those highlighted. And storm, let me highlight those just so we sure know what we're
talking about. Um, those are the overall costs there. and we'll ensure that those wastewater uh the sewer numbers were correct. Actually, that sewer number is not correct in there. Take a look at all that.
This document will bring back next meeting because you can see all those non- highlighted highlighted departments are what we'll talk about at the next meeting. Um, so then lastly, I want to revi go back to and revisit the pages that were at the beginning of the
meeting that Nick presented just so we have direction of how to keep going with the draft budget. He proposed two different budget options. One of them is the top um what it would look like for the tax levy and I can show you
the tax rate one if you prefer. Um, and the other one is using without using fund balance and the bottom one is using it with fund balance. It could be keep going with this one, keep going with that one or somewhere in between. Do you have any direction for
staff as we continue on? Is that clear what I'm asking? I I guess my goal from the start is always to offset the housing value increase uh with a reduction in our taxes the same amount. That's been our kind of our our attempt the last couple
years. Um just so people are paying the same amount roughly every year in taxes and it's predictable and the county and school um are going to have large increases this year um because of state mandates on things. Uh so I think we should try and be as frugal as we can be
for our taxpayers. So I would like to start with the uh tax levy using the fund balance option and then work down from there. number two. Yeah. The the bottom of the two as a starting point. Any other council members? Should we use
fund balance to offset? I would with our draft. I wouldn't. Yeah. I mean, I think we got a lot of work to do still from there, but I of the two of the two, it's definitely going to be the bottom one in my opinion. More difficult if we are making two complete budgets as we move forward, but we wanted to show you what it would look
like and how much it would be just after this first rough draft using that and if that was the direction we wanted to go. Yeah, people are going to get smacked this year with local taxes from the county and school. And we we have this we have the fund balance there for situations like that. So, we don't have a multiplicative effect and tax people
out of their homes here. So, it's going to be that. I think it should be that, but we'll have to cut more out of that than what's shown there. What is the fund balance at? That's what I want. What is the fund balance at and how much is going to in both scenarios? The fund balance that we have
at the end of 2024, we had 62% of our fund balance reserves for expenditures. With the budget that was presented for 2025, assuming everything kind of falls where we're expecting for general fund, we'll be down to 55%
by the end of 2025. And then with 2026 taking off that $176,000 from fund balance reserves, we would be around like 52% at the end of 2026.
And also keep in mind that that is with the assumptions if our contracts have not been settled. Yeah. Um those numbers, if those have increases from what was um put into this as an anticipated number, that's where those funds would come from
would be fund balance. So, I just would like to make sure you're aware of that. Yep. And our fund balance policy is to stay above that 35% and below that 70%, too. So, just so we kind of know what our target numbers are for that fund balance, too. Oh, we could also add
to our fund balance after 2025 is complete, too. Right. So, it's the liquor store is at roughly 30% fund balance. Um, North Branch's policy was 20% recommended. So, I I guess I don't
know what other cities are at, but 30% and fund balance in the liquor store is a pretty good amount, too. So you can basically look at that fund balance as the fund balance of the city too, right? Overall, I mean, so I mean, we're way overstacked
for fund balance. I mean, it's good to have for situations like this and that's why we tried to be frugal so we can build the fund balance for the years that taxpayers need it. You als you also have taken consideration at thinking if there's a worst case scenario out
there where we needed cash. I mean, we have funds way above and beyond that that we can shuffle. I can tell you we're a lot better off than most of the cities in Minnesota, especially the metro cities. I mean, you look at some of the metro cities down there, they're at like 14% 18% fund balance. Like, how do you what what's
their rainy day fund? You know, where's the 70% come from as far as the threshold policy? That was the fund balance policy that's kind of been set by the city. So, just kind of gives it a range. that number is going to vary. So, you don't want to have a really tight range and
then really have to be kind of locked in where you could have a shift in expenditures that you just didn't see coming or have a decrease in building permits, something like that that's kind of potentially out of our control to swing us out of our anticipated range.
So, I know the state has minimum fund balance requirements. I'm not quite remembering what that needs to be for general fund, but I believe that's lower than that 35% but that's kind of where we've shot to be.
Mike had already always mentioned between 20 20% and 70%. So which is a huge range. So all right well this is that is what we will work off of. So next meeting next Wednesday we'll be going through uh
general fund departments of council elections admin finance police department as well as the technology fund 614 debt service fund pavement management and street re reconstruction numbers. Um and then we will have a
budget meeting following our city council meeting getting back on track with having them follow in that first meeting in August. um where Nick will present the full draft again with the changes that you've recommended for the departments we discussed this evening as well as what'll be discussed next week.
Sounds good. Thank you very much. Thank you to staff for all the time that you guys have put into this. Um it's a lot of hours going through all this information. So, thank you to everyone. Yeah. Thank you everybody. So, with that being said, uh all our
business is done tonight. I'd entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion to adjurnn by council member Peterson. Second by council member Holgren. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries 40. We are adjourned at 9:32 p.m.
Told you to go the whole time. Part: 2
a discussion for committee of council wants to because I think that that's a broader topic of do you want to provide the service to your residents or do you want to just provide amenities that should be paid for by usage. >> So I think that that's kind of a bigger question. >> Yeah, sounds good. Yeah, add that to a
future meeting. We can talk about maybe like the like the BMX uh or not the BMX, the skate park, you know, like I feel like people would be willing to donate for that if they're going to use it. like, hey, you know, I just me and say me and my kids were just there and we felt like donating 10 bucks for having a great time or something like that. I
think that's some something we could >> potentially use. >> You also got people that live here and be like, "Whatever my tax is." >> Well, you don't have to. It's a right. >> Yeah, I get that. >> Again, a bigger conversation, but I think of like when we changed illuminate to be free by donation, we really didn't receive that much.
>> Yeah, but the signage wasn't quite Yeah, >> but we definitely can talk make it be its own discussion item. Okay. >> Maintenance repairs for buildings. We have garbage recycling services. This is at all of our parks. Cleaning services. This is um for not the community center
but other rug service and fire suppression inspection services. We do pay for um all the inspections of the community center in this budget for the fire suppression system as well as all of our um
fire extinguishers. And then for maintenance repairs for building. So, this would be community center or any of our park shelters. So, if someone damaged um something at like Matson Park shelter, uh it would come out of this item. If we are buying recoding paint
for our picnic tables, that comes out of here. >> So, the fire suppression, >> sorry, that's 404, not building, but >> the fire suppression inspection services for $1,200 a year. Does that include if things need fixes or is that just a simple site visit? Is that not something that the fire department can do or a
city public works could do or >> so a portion of that is the Anel fire hood that requires a state or not a state but like a certified inspector. I'm not aware that the fire district has that. So >> what is that anel hood? What's that?
>> So because we have a large it goes over the large range uh in the kitchen and to have that range in there you're required to have an anel fire suppression system. >> Okay. there's a fire, it dumps its own chemical, >> dry chemical. >> So that has to be inspected and the tag
put on there, you can get fined. >> So that's every year. >> Every year. >> Yeah, that's a commercial kitchen. >> It's not a commercial kitchen, but it's a commercial range. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> So there's no way to get around or cheaper than the 1,200 bucks a year.
>> You could get rid of the range. >> Is it? I assume it's probably used. >> Yes. So, if you were to go with the smaller range, that wouldn't require that. Is that a possibility? Or >> I'd have to look into um if it's a
residential like stove, if you put that in there, we'd have to look into that. Um the legal part of being in a public rented facility, we have to double check on that. >> Okay. How often would you say that it's necessary for that bigger one to be
there for an event? >> I would say it's used for almost event, >> but is it is that necessary versus a more smaller one? >> I'd say people really appreciate it and ask for more racks >> more frequently than they ask for a
smaller like that they don't utilize at all. They wish it was bigger. >> Yeah, there's a lot of big meals, whether it's a spaghetti feed, the pancake feed, they have a big griddle that they put over it, like a massive griddle, >> so they can feed large amounts of people. >> Okay.
as long as it's getting used. >> And we do know, I mean, we don't track how often it's used, but because we turn the gas on for it, so we don't have the pilot lights being lit if it's not being used. So, we usually light it for people. So, it's it's used regularly. >> Okay.
>> All right. Um, then repairs, maintenance, equipment for anything parks related. This could be for mowers, um, anything within the parks for equipment. And we want to bring up the topic of mowers. So, we did um have the
mowers on a budget cycle for capital improvement replacement every five years because that was a spot of where um it still had trade in value and not hardly any money put into repairs. That got stretched out and it's
currently in the CIP plan to for 2029. Although what we're seeing this year for this first half of the year and last year, and Josh is going to speak more on this, we've had quite a few repairs. This last year, it's been over a thousand dollars. So, we just want to ensure that council wants to make sure that we are putting repair money into
these mowers and not swapping them out until every 15 years or so. >> So, like we just had a radiator just >> go on the one is at 875 bucks. The spindles are starting to h howl on some of them. We grease them regularly, but
they're a thousand bucks to put a set of spindles on. Just how much do you want to keep putting into them as they get older? >> So, how much is a new unit? >> Uh, that should be in the C. I got quotes for it. I don't want to say it
because I don't remember, but we have uh $24,000 in there, but that number is also with an anticipated trade in amount, too. >> 24,000 each. >> Yeah. >> So, that's just >> I don't think that had a trade in on it. Did it?
I think we removed, if I remember, I think we removed the trade in because we figured that it wouldn't have any trade in at that point. >> We also had are going to need tires and they were 300 bucks a piece for that more for some reason. We can't find that
size at like Steve's tire. >> So that um was that the K Cabotas? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So the expected lifespan on those, what would you say that is? 10 years. Okay. So, you're talking a depreciation
of $2,400 a year. Um, if we're having average maintenance costs of less than $2,400 a year, it's cost advantageous for us to keep it. I know you're going to have some years where it's higher. I mean, if you have to do $1,000 of spindles and how much you say the tires are, 300 each.
>> Yeah. I'd be worried like if a drive motor goes out, then it's $5,000. >> Sure. >> Yeah. They're at around 1,600 now. >> And I don't think they were very high when they first came. >> That's still pretty low >> for a commercial. >> If you want the diesel motors, fine.
It's going to be the drive motors and stuff like that. >> That's That's really low for a commercial machine. But >> they're getting some use this year, I'll bet. >> Yeah, this year. >> I I would rather just keep them and keep putting money into it unless there's a
big repair like that. And what's the trade in on a 10-y old machine? Less than five grand. So really at the end of the day, even if you're if a drive unit goes out, that's the worst thing that's going to happen on that machine probably. Um that say it's five grand. Well, the trade in's only five grand if it's running good. So there's really
it's pretty equal. Doesn't matter if you junk it or sell it at that point. So I guess I'd rather see them continue to be repaired. I think the older stuff is made better than the newer stuff, too, personally. Okay. >> Yes.
>> Josh, do you have anything to add to that or does that sound like a horrible idea? I mean, I I assume you want the newer ones, but >> I don't I just don't want to spend a lot I don't want to I think we get you get to the point where if you wait too long, there is no value. I agree with you on
that. I think if you get them in a faster rotation, you're better off because then you always are getting something for the machine and then you're not putting anything into them. >> I also think that we have two mowers if
it would be a little bit easier for staff to feel comfortable if we had someday when we get to three because we use two mowers every day all through the season. We don't have a backup. >> So maybe maybe one new mower and keep the two older ones.
Yeah, I I would say that like I'm not a po I'm not saying you got to give them away, but I'm saying you if one goes down then you're down a more, >> right? >> And the CIP I don't see it in my attachment here. Was there is there one proposed or two?
>> There's neither proposed for coming up. >> Nothing. >> Oh, so it's 2029. >> Just want to make sure they're not proposed to be coming up till 2029. So, we want to just make sure your council's on board with us still repairing them. >> Yeah. I think we talked about this last year. It was last year, the year before. And >> up for replacement last year.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And we had looked and you know, a commercial mower like that, you should expect five or 6,000 hours out of it. You know, 1,600 is they're pretty low. So, I think that was the determining deal last time. I I'm still in favor of just putting the money into them if they need it personally. But
>> I am too for now. Can you get a replacement cost on that >> on the more? >> Yes, >> I did. That's where I think it this >> does that include the trading. >> I I can do it again, but I don't think that was with trade in. That was just a more
>> That was not with trade in. >> Yeah, I I could find out what they'd give us for trade in too if that's what you're asking. >> Yeah, it might not be a bad idea if you have time. Perhaps
we'll bring it up later. Um what he finds out as well as if we look at adding a third so then we do have some redundancy that we can take the time to make the repairs. >> So what would the other items in that repairs maintenance and machinery equipment category be? I see the the
average there over the last four actual uh budget cycles is around 11,000 and we're budgeted 20. That's for equipment as at the parks and playgrounds as well. So if we have a slide break, that
>> cost comes out of that number, too. >> I believe that number was also increased to cover more repairs for those mowers since they had been pushed out. >> Yes, that was why it was increased to 20,000. And we went over budget last year without huge Well, we had some
expenditures right away on the lawnmowers and then also the slides. We had a few slides crack as well as other repairs um that were made through the parks and so we had to come back and ask for an increase if you recall. >> I would I would rather see that down to
like 16 even. That's still way higher than what we've ever hit. I'll make a notation to come back look at that >> the more stuff >> a couple more months um when we get this firmed in because they have a good point. I think they're
going to need it. >> Okay. Rentals just in case we need some something within the parks uniform rentals for public works maintenance crew dues and subscriptions. So Minnesota Recreation Park Association 300 the National Recreation Park
Association 200 Amazon Prime Day smart that is the software for doing online rentals that includes center and the reservations for the community garden and any of the shelters ballpark
all those things. Um, GMP that we'll come back to that one. Music license. So, for us to do um music um playing or movies playing, we do share
this, I believe, with the liquor store. Um, so they can have music playing for the public. So, you're required to have a license for that. And then Adobe suite that is for doing um illustrator in design and different um market
creating software and then a portion of the APWA for public works >> with the Amazon Prime. Is that does that include some sort of other services? Because I have a business prime and it's only like $8 a month. Does that incorporate better with our our city software? Or is there some benefit there
that cost us an extra $42 a month? >> I know that that gives us the ability to have three users, three different people, and you pay per person. I think I'd have to look into what other costs go into that. Anyone know? >> My business account you can have
unlimited users. >> I know the the business account we have does not have that. So, >> it might be based on the number of employees as well, >> right? Yeah. >> So, I think >> Okay. Yeah, they charge based on that. Okay. >> H
>> is that shared with other departments or it's only >> So we have um our human resources has an account, parks has an account um and I think that the finance director otherwise everyone goes to those people. >> So is that $600 per department? It
doesn't say percentage here. Is that just 600 just total for all of them? Because this is in the the parks. I believe that's all of it for all of the departments, but it's just put into the parks budget. >> Okay. Maybe just look into that and and
see if there's a a cheaper option there. I I do see the checks all the time when I'm signing them Amazon services. So, it does seem like it's used a lot. >> We do use that a lot. >> Yep. With the Adobe, have we looked at actually buying software rather than a
subscription at all? >> You can't buy software, >> not from Adobe, but from competitors. >> Um, all staff utilize Adobe Pro within City Hall. And so it's
I think a highly valuable platform that I will fight hard for. >> But there's competitors who don't do a a subscription though. you actually buy the software and then you own it. >> I think the way that we utilize our computers um here it just makes more
sense for it to be a web based. >> We actually did used to buy it. >> Yeah. >> It was cheaper because we get a rate to that goes to the League of Minnesota Cities for it's like a cons like a co-op of a bunch of people getting these. So when we had looked at it and we made the
switch away from having the actual software installed um I can't remember what year that was. It was a savings, but I'd have to double check. >> And I will say Parks has the higher the higher, it's not just the Adobe Pro, she
has the one with the photo editor as well as the other um suite services within it. So, which is utilized for advertising and other things throughout the city. So, we do share that account for other across the board for >> So, that's 600 divided by K shared
across multiples multiple departments. You know, we've coded it all here, but like for example, when I if you see the picture of the water tower of the new water tower that's out and about on our website in different places, there is a building in front of that and trees. I
remove them with that software so other people use it too. >> I'm not against the use of it. I'm just I don't like the subscription model stuff is all I'm wondering about. And there's no option to to buy the Adobe suite instead of an annual.
>> We can look into it. >> Okay. >> I'm not aware. I don't know what it is, but I we can look into it. >> Okay. >> Their software is great, but I think the rest of it is going to be obsolete here in the next year anyway. And >> for Adobe, >> yeah,
u AI is taking over on most of that type of stuff. So >> I I actually think it's going to be even more important for us to be able to lock contracts and do other things like that from my perspective on the things that we utilize through development
agreements and um purchase agreements. Um so I think >> value actually will increase for it because of because of the ne necessity to do that because of AI. So, I think we're going to see it. Maybe some of the sweet items like the like the photo
editor and stuff, I think that probably will go away eventually, but I do think like the locking mechanism and the security behind it will increase. >> Sure. >> I mean, they have been around for a while. They're always changing their stuff, so they're going to have to adapt with the times. I think they realize
that. >> Yeah. Just see, I suppose if we can buy it instead of paying yearly. I maybe, maybe not. All right. And then other miscellaneous we have their agreement with the for the Cambridge I bikewalk trail and that 3340
goes to um city of Cambridge. They're the fiscal host for that trail. And then that other little bit is the paid family medical. >> I thought I thought the CI bikewalk trail agreement was 7500. >> Uh that's what we have for I believe
it's the maintenance portion of it. But this is our annual agreement for other other general maintenance of something, right? >> I think that's for our side. I think the 7500 goes towards, you know, their side, but it I would think the
3,400 would be our portion outside the scope of that agreement. >> I have a lot of questions on the CI bikewalk trail budget wise. I mean, we put this money in every year, but I don't know. Josh, have you seen much done out there? I
know I got we got their budget stuff, but I it's kind of hard to understand the way they laid all their budget stuff out. >> I don't know um how much we're supposed to be putting to it, but I do know they're working on that bridge all the time. And I don't know if we're supposed to be paying for that or not. I don't
>> That comes out of the 7,500 a year. >> It does. I saw some hourly costs there >> and the cost of that I don't think is going to go down, >> right? >> So, You put that much wood over water, it needs to be maintained. >> For sure. >> Maybe I'll have to have a sit down with
with Nick and look at the their budget because their their budget stuff doesn't make as much sense as ours. When you actually look at how they have stuff allocated, it doesn't seem to make sense. But I don't know. Did you guys get the email for that? The CI bike trail budgets probably about a month ago.
Okay. Maybe you could forward that to everybody. I think you was maybe you just sent it to me like a month ago if you remember that just so you guys can see where our money's going. Okay. See if you guys can make some sense of it. I had a hard time
with it. >> All right. And then we have summer events or sorry uh recreation programs for a total amount of 11,875. That's all the summer programming um put into there besides what you see uh down below that we'll get to. We have the
fireworks at 7500 and street dance at 20,000. >> Is there any way that we could spend less money on the street dances with less mainstream bands? >> Yes. >> Get try and get some more local bands. I don't think I know obviously the bigger
bands supposedly bring a bigger draw and I think that's great and all but I think people just like the camaraderie and and even any decent music and I know there's a lot of more smaller bands that would just like to perform even if it's you know for 500 bucks or thousand bucks versus the 5,000 that some of them want.
>> So council sets the budget for street dances and that's what staff works with. If you set that at 10,000 we will find bands that will go up to that amount is that is purely set by council. >> Okay. This also is where we pay for um toilets as well as garbage service for
these events. >> But um >> it is and we do often try our best to get grants especially for the recreation programs portion of it um and other things through it. But I will say if you do get we've had complaints on other
bands we've gotten that were smaller, more local and maybe listening to a band within a bar setting is different than listening to a band outside and we can tell the difference just from the reactions of the crowd pretty pretty significantly when that
happens. >> I guess I've never noticed a difference. Maybe park board should bring this discussion up because maybe instead of doing three with bigger bands, do two with bigger bands or three with smaller. >> And this would also include the budget
for the fourth event that >> we're now revamping. So that's included in this as well. So just and that's why it was increased a few years ago because we added an extra event recreation. >> So with the with the fourth event revamping, what what are the details on that or what was the thought on that?
that will be coming to um council here in the next few weeks. >> Was that a park board discussion? >> Fall. Okay. >> Yep. But it'll be a fall harvest type of event. Okay. But it's still budgeted under this section for recreation programs because >> was initially unknown of what it was
going to do and that's where the street dances would come out of. So >> that's where it's coming from. Um but the special event permit will be coming forward shortly and the park board to discuss it. It will also be a movie night. So >> Okay. So, we're adding a fourth event and keeping the budget the same.
>> Yes. >> Okay, that's fair enough. >> Any other questions for the park department? >> Right. We could take a break. Would you like to take a five or 10 minute break? >> Five. >> Okay. We'll post on Facebook. We're going to keep the Facebook live y um
stream going and we'll post in the comments that we're taking a five minute break. So, if we could come back at 7:32 actually, just so it rounds up. 7:32. >> Okay, sounds good. Thank you. All right, 7:32. We'll get back to it.
What page are we on now, Josie? >> All right, so now we are moving on to the EDA and we'll look at the revenues page. >> Do you know the page number on that? >> 24 on the electronic one. Nick, you got that page? Somebody got
that page? EDA revenue. >> 24 for me. >> 24 electronically. What's the packet number? >> Uh, packet number is 43. >> 43. Okay. Thank you. All right.
>> All right. So, do we have any questions about the revenue? Otherwise, we'll get to our EDA expenses. >> So, the revenue, uh, property taxes, cable, franchise fee, land rent, and interest earnings. That's it.
Okay. with the cable franchise fee. Uh, does Midco currently have that? >> Yep. So, we have Midco, East Central Energy, Kexus, and Center Point. >> Okay. I know there's been some talk of
um hopefully in next year's legislation doing a uh allowing just internet providers to also do cable franchise fees versus right now you have to offer uh phone service with that. Uh, so we might expect to see a potential increase on that.
Do all of the cable franchise fees go into the EDA revenues or just parts of them? >> Um, so parts of the franchise do or because that's also how we fund our street projects through most of the franchise fees. >> Okay.
Any other questions on the revenues, guys? All right. So, next page getting to our expenses for EDA wages and salaries part-time um is we have allocated 3200
for interns. Sometimes we use that, sometimes we don't. We actually um only budget 3,200 because we hope to get a grant that makes up the difference. This year we did not um hire the intern. We combined our admin intern budget with
our parks and that's how we funded that position even though it did the EDA duties as well. So we asked that we keep that in there just um unless we were going to have um a new position for that communication marketing type thing then that would be removed but otherwise it's
the 3200 and um Stephanie will work to get a grant for the remainder. >> They changed a grant timeline so now I know it's November and not February anymore. That was last year was the first time. So, >> so it's a November um of this year. You could apply for a grant for next year.
>> Yes. >> So maybe could we I don't know if we could propose that we just remove that item and if we get a grant we we do it and if we don't we don't. Is that >> Well, I would recommend that this is the person who plans the mayor's lunch and
the events for anything nonp parks. So we would you we could use that and combine it with another position. We wouldn't go over budget. We'd keep to the 32. >> And the grant only covers like 1,000 to,500
a year of it. >> Okay. >> Is it a 5050 grant, too? You have to have some money budgeted for >> to have a match. >> Okay. >> All right. >> We have our um insurance contributions for comp. Then getting down to office supplies. Again, we're going to look at
that amongst all the departments. Um, right now it's set at $2,000. Copying at $8.40. Then getting to training instruction. We have professional development for 2450. And this would be for Stephanie to attend the EDIM conference as well as um
any other trainings that are EDA related. And once in a while, sometimes I overflow into that. Not too often, but that can happen as well. >> And some years when I'm too busy, I haven't used it. >> So, what what sort of benefit do we do
we see from that? I mean, if there's some years you haven't used it, then is it something that we should be doing? >> Um, yes. I mean, I think it's very important to just my overall
personal development as well as professional development and helps me do my job better. as well as this year I went to the Mid America Economic Development Conference because it happened to be in Stillwater which it can be all over the middle states of the
United States and it gave me a great opportunity to discuss you know topics with people from Texas to Oklahoma which I don't really get that opportunity a lot of the times more just regional events that we're a part of and so I do think it's highly beneficial as well as
I'm now one class away from being an accredited e accredited economic developer. Um, which I'm a handful of people within the state of Minnesota that have would have that designation. And so I think that's very valuable. >> So does that mean there's going to be a
pay raise? >> No. >> Okay. >> And from my point of view, so when the staff >> It's the budget. You got to talk about it. >> Sure. Um, from my point of view, when especially department heads, I I don't necessarily do it. um sometimes the
public works actually employees asking what they learned but specifically I do ask the department heads what did you learn what was your takeaway and when we have department head meetings I have them share because a lot of what they go there helps with them being a leader
being a manager managing people and we've talked a lot of times about how expensive it is for staff turnover a lot of that has to do with you working with people and those skills are hard to get if you're not going to trainings and myself's included in that always trying
to be better and stuff but I do make them share and I do make them um share why it's beneficial to the department and with other staff so >> okay thank you >> for professional services we have attorney at 5000 uh this can be anything
from EDA land that we have um assisting with drafting documents now if it comes to development projects again escros come into play um But that is um sometimes an unknown. And then tiff and tax abatement
consultant. That's if we do have something we have um services that we have to pay uh to make sure we're filling out and completing reports. A lot of times staff does that. Um but if we have any kind of um we still have some tip districts out there if there's
any work to be done for that. I would say, yeah, if we had anybody who came in and wanted to do a TIFF district and or tax statement and a review of it, they would likely pay for it. But there might be a scenario where we would have to review documents ahead
of time or um want some input on whether or not we it's good for us to even consider for a project and that's where we would utilize that money. >> Do you use Northland Securities as our TIF consultant? Do you guys up here have any interest in TIFFs or tax abatement
as a whole? I I probably don't. >> And this is for tiff districts already existing too, not just new ones. So whether or not we're going to have to descertify them, whether or not we can utilize dollars received, maybe if the
TIF district did well for us from a city perspective and um earned us more money in taxes, so we got to keep some of that, then how we can utilize it, they do let us that's when we pay for them as well.
>> When's the last time we we used that? >> I don't remember. recently reached out to them because we had to complete um a questionnaire for our annual tip reporting and that's normally not my forte. So I did reach out to them for assistance on how to complete that. >> But otherwise we did utilize them two
years ago when we were descertifying all of our tiff districts that were running out and actually finding out where that money could be utilized for whether or not we wanted to utilize it or if we wanted to roll it back into the general fund. And so that was last year, I
believe, maybe two years ago. >> 2022 it looks like potentially in the budget. Otherwise, it doesn't look like we really use it. I don't I don't know that we should have it in there. I will say there are instances that maybe we don't think of now or realize
are even opportunities for the community that we would could be handcuffing ourselves with by not having the money readily available for this. So I would just say >> I think we could reduce it but give an opportunity for Nick to look into what >> Sure.
>> I don't know all about our tiff um what we have out there what's going to need to be descertified. I I wouldn't be able to say what's coming or not coming and probably he hasn't had the time to look into that quite yet either. So I say we could reduce it but we shouldn't eliminate it at this time until we know more of what we have outstanding.
>> Okay. Does that sound like a plan, Nick? >> All right. Okay. And then engineering fees, we don't have anything um within the budget for that. Technology, same items that you're going to see. Um the one difference would be laser fish. So we do
have an allocation of laser fish. That's our uh digital document center. So when we scan and uh any of our information for anything, it can be for property files. It can be just putting everything digitally. As you've heard many times,
we are required to keep records for everything and anything for sometimes up to 20 years. And so that is where we hold them. That software is called laser beach. Um some website support and then the other items you've already seen. Any
questions on that? >> So the website support is that for like a tech guy or is that for our actual website or or what is that exactly? That's got to be a portion of our website. >> Yeah. >> Yep. That's website hosting fees. >> So that's allocated.
>> Our website tech person is called Jaden. >> Okay. That Okay. That's what I thought. But >> yeah, it's around 56 $5700 total somewhere. >> So that's extrapolated from the number the kind of the number we talked about earlier. Okay. >> Yep. >> Maybe we'll look at I'm gonna make a notation because we should call that
revise if that's the website fee. So we'll look at that title. >> Okay. I have some questions in communications portion. So the internet is that just a portion cost shared or is that some kind of dedicated? >> It's a cost share of my internet usage.
>> Okay. And then the landline is that the same thing too? >> So Midco is our internet here that at city hall we pay for Midco. Um, and that landline that would be probably I'm going to assume because of our fax the
landline for the fax machine maybe. >> Would it be possible to to clean up some of these because at some point because I think it's ambiguous if it's shared or if it's not. Like some of them have 1% and like you see that one Verizon 1% it makes total sense but the internet it
just doesn't Yeah. >> It's just small clerical. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. >> This is just the baton that he was passed. So Yep. Definitely. Um >> Did you guys develop this this year? Is this something from all old information or
>> Well, some I added I added some lines before Nick got here. Um and I did not remove any. um maybe some dollar amounts, but I left everything. For the most part, the detail of what those are um hasn't changed unless I added a line.
Um he hasn't changed any and just made sure all the numbers were correct. >> Okay. >> So, he went through year to date where we are right now, which only goes up to May. >> Um and other information, but not necessarily all the all the other stuff.
>> It looks like it's paying for the bulk of my internet and landline service for my office. So, planning and zoning looks like it doesn't have that specific line item in there. >> What is the uh the city hall phone system that's costing?
>> 3,200 bucks a year. >> Yeah, >> it's a voice over IP service. So, it used to be called Next Terra. It now has a different name. Got renamed what a year ago. Um but it goes to the internet. >> If we're using VoIP, why do we have a
landline service as well? >> That's just the old name for it. It's not a landline. It's just that voiceover IP line. >> That's what the city hall phone system thing is. >> That must be the fax line, the landline service. So, we pay
annually for let's call it next year because I can't remember the new name um for it, but I believe that it just Mike never had changed it from landline service. That probably is her allocation for the phone system at city hall.
But we >> But there the line below that is city hall phone system. >> Um maintenance is I don't know if that's going to be we can look into that. I'll get clarification. >> Do you know I don't maybe this is a silly question. Do you know if any of
the the mobile phone providers are have provided more landline type service? I know the I don't know how that would work if they'd have a router how that would work, but I know for um a lot of elevator services, they've switched from the the actual landline to a technically
land line, but there's a router there that creates the landline signal. It's like a third of the cost per month. Is that something that we've ever looked into with with Verizon or T-Mobile? I know we had a service or a savings when we went from Centry Link to going
through the internet um when we switched and that was cost out. I'm not sure if we looked at like Verizon to supply that service. I don't >> how long ago was that? >> 2018. >> Okay. Yeah, technology has changed a bit in that in that field. So maybe we'd see
about getting a different quote at >> 2019. 2019 >> see about getting a different quote for some of the stuff. Maybe there's a way to cost savings if all of it's together through Verizon. Maybe they offer it, maybe they don't. Or T-Mobile. >> We definitely look into that, but for sure we'll clean up what these numbers
exactly are and if it's an allocation, we'll make sure that that's corrected. >> Okay. >> I will say the one concern I would have with moving to the mobile services is for instance, the other day we had horrible mobile service here, but our landlines were the only way we could reach each other. So that was just
consider that >> and that has happened three times in the last probably five years. So I'm not sure because it was with AT&T and Verizon but here. So I'm not sure if they because they share and have cooperations to use each other's towers. So it knocks out both. But that other
night when we had the issue which is probably why we're having an issue with this system um knocked out both those two providers. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah, it just looks like if you look at all these line items just ballparking in my head, we're spending 50 grand a year on phones and I don't know if there's a way to to
save on that if we bundle it all together. I don't know. I know that's what a household would do though. So, if we can look into that, that would be awesome. >> Okay, next page. So, EVA has a portion um of
Nothing in auto legal. That would be if there's anything to publish for public hearing. Um that relates to probably anything with our landm uh is just a portion of the cleaning services and that would be clean services for city hall.
Reduces and subscriptions. We have the Edom membership, North 65 Chamber, ECDP, and the International Council of Shopping Centers. And if you have questions on those, Steph can explain what those are. >> I would like an explanation on all of
them, but the chamber. We I think most of us know what the chamber is, but the rest of them, it's I would like an explanation on those if possible. >> The EDM is the Economic Development Association of Minnesota, which is pretty active within our state. We're pretty fortunate to have such an active
organization who's working together and provides a lot of opportunities for learning about what deed programs are available. Yesterday I went to an event and learned more about um just what it connects me with Blaine and so I got to
hear what they're doing which impacts us because those businesses and people are moving here. Um and so I think it's a valuable opportunity as well as reduced training opportunities. Um
that's the largest economic development association in the area. >> Are those are those trainings included in the yearly subscription or is that additional? >> Some are included and then others are additional. It just kind of depends on what the training is.
Um it's a variety. Uh ECDP is the east central development partnership which is the fivecount region of kbec max pine and Chicago and basically work together to bring in um
businesses and other organizations to learn more about the region and so really to make a name for ourselves um specifically with our familiarity tours. We meet every other month and bring in speakers um host a tour of manufacturing
for our manufacturers and work together to pull our resources basically to promote economic development here. INi hosts um the region and people from outside the state at least twice a year through this organization. So, it's a good
opportunity for us to share what we have going on here with others, um, including those real estate people, other manufacturers who are looking to expand and stuff like that. >> And that's two two meetings every year. How long that's been how long is that one? >> We host two meetings a year, but it's
every other month. So, >> yeah. I mean, how long have we been hosting the two meetings every year? or is that like a >> um we do it every so every year I'd say was that's been happening for at least the last four years. >> Okay. >> So we'll host two more again this year.
We've hosted the annual meeting the familiarity event. Um >> I think we did host before it was called PCDP before your time back when we had Sean Sullivan who is the economic development director. We did but it wasn't that name. >> Yeah. Used to be called GPS 4593. We've
rebranded to east the east central development partnership so people know where we're located. Um the international council of shopping centers is a larger organization that's national. Um I know Sheila went to a
training for them for economic development. Um and they did a lot a study on the city to find our do provide the market study for the area um through retail strategies. Um >> was that free that study?
>> That study was not free. It was about $10,000 for the training and the study from my understanding. >> Was that 2018 or so? >> You went to as well? >> Yeah, 2018 I think. >> Yep. And so after that it was decided that the city should partner in this. And so it is the opportunity like a lot
of chain restaurants and that sort of thing are participants in this. We can learn about regional events that they have as well. But I do market all of our commercial properties through this council. So it's a fairly affordable way to market those
properties. We just have a lot of dues and subscriptions and trainings and it's I don't know. How do you guys feel about all these? As >> long as you're get a return on your money and it seems like the staff appreciates it. So
>> So I just leave it. >> Okay. >> Other miscellaneous. This is the paid family medical mandate cost and then marketing. We have full-time staff shirts. So, this is for um all city hall
staff as well as public works. Um get a blue shirt once per year um or funding for that. And then if you're a new employee comes in and then initiative foundation, this was up for discussion that I believe that we're going to remove um but we'll get that taken care
taken out. The mayor's employer lunchon, we did go over budget because we had record numbers, but we put in a folder. So, we know um approximately about how much that's going to cost. Marketing materials is for um EDA. It's anything really citywide though um that we use
that for. And then networking events um cost for that as well. >> That's like the chamber lunchons. >> Did you did you guys want to remove the initiative foundation or did we want to keep that? We added it back in because we thought you guys said we wanted
>> Yeah, that that's what I thought. I think we said this year because they awarded us the the money and we think it's okay. >> Yeah, we think it's fair this year. I Okay. >> All right. And then there is a transfer um budget of $15,000.
Any questions about EDA? So that's a transfer of 15,000 of the >> Okay, I see it. Sounds good. >> Okay, then we're going to go to storm water. It's page 55 of the packet and of the document. >> You want to go ahead just look at your
screen for now on the revenues if there's any questions there. interest earnings and storm water sales. So these are storm water fees >> 36 >> and every property even if they don't have storm water has to pay into storm water in the city limits. Correct. >> That's correct.
>> Okay. >> Okay. Then moving on to expenses for storm water. >> So we have a portion of some of our staff that goes to the wages and salary. Um sometimes there could be some overtime depending if there's a problem
that we have to get called for. So if there was a plug storm drain, sometimes we have um in the spring when it's thawing out uh we might have to come in and back it out public works. So that small amount there just in case. Uh contracted services would be city code
update. Um we do pay to codify our city code that goes through general code. this was getting allocated 10% of that for $600. That cost um we have a is it $900 per year for an annual cost if we do nothing but every
time you codify your every time you change your city code that costs money to have that updated. So that's why that number can vary depends on how many ordinances you pass in that year. Clothing reimbursement for public works allocation your insurance um expenses uh
going down to to training instruction. So, civic system symposium, this is utility clerk. This is uh training that she needs to be able to do utility payments. And then MS4 training. MS4 is a requirement that we have through the
MPCA because of um the size of our city. So, we do have to have training and uh do a lot of reporting and stuff that's required for that. So, 1,500 allocated for that sewer and water billing supplies. some gets allocated because of those storm
water fees. You see 300 for that. Some fuels um for within this department, this budget. General supplies, $1,000. Small tools and equipment, the two things that you saw um in the other departments plus $1,000 for a total of
28.50. Any questions on those so far? And then professional services, city attorney, 500. Um storm water permit application. Sometimes we have fees associated with that. Um we don't have a permit that's going to be due in 2026.
That's why you don't see a dollar a month there. Um other MS4 assistance needed through Bolton Mink. Um again, it depends on what is needed. We don't if we don't use it, we don't use it. Drug testing allocation for public works and then safety training.
And so you'll see a big uptick in this year because this is the year that the permit is due. So that's why it's 17,000 for 2025. >> So I had a question on the wages and salaries. If you look at the the jump from 2023 actual to 2024 actual, it's
almost it's $16,248. What was the cause of of of that? And even the year before was 12,000 jump and the year before that was a 2,000 jump. So we have gone from 2021 actual of 30,000 to 2025 budget of 65,000.
So you were talking it's 220% rate rise in the last five years. Why is that? I >> think we have started allocating more as we've seen more growth and more staff time put. I know we did allocate in one of these years more of the PL associate
planners hours to it because he was spending more hours. So some of that money came over here >> and he does a lot of the MS4 >> Jared. >> Okay. >> Okay. Next page. All right. U percentage of the audit
that we do goes to uh storm and AUP agreed upon procedures is something with um the auditing firm. So this year it's been abdoed. So that's where that cost comes from. Engineering 5,000. That's just a placeholder. We don't have
anything say, but if we have like a storm water pipe collapse, we usually use Bolton to come evaluate to see um what needs to be done or if public works um sometimes we'll just go directly with contractors do a repair, but we want to make sure they're doing the repair that's actually required. So, some
review there. Technology, um Verizon, that's express bill pay, monthly e bills. So, we allow for people to make their um payments for utility bills Express Bill Pay, there's a fee with that. Uh, Civic Systems, that's a
Cassel, and then some allocated for the anti-PAM software. >> I assume the XP is the the most cost effective that we've found for that at 1,600 a year. >> So, we just went to Express Bill Pay two years ago, I think. Now, we're on
our second year. the processor that we had before um was a nightmare for Mike because their summary sheets didn't line up with anything. Thought maybe Chief could even speak on this. There was just tons of issues um that were costing him
hours and hours of time that added into the cost for that. So, yes, we're seeing definitely a savings. >> Okay. And then the the Verizon percentage must be off there too as well at that 1% for $500. >> Yeah. >> Okay, sounds good.
Uh postage 1,00 that's for um portion of sending out bills and legal notices just if anything's needed within storm water for ordinance publications. MS4 publications some are required
utilities 3,000 ground maintenance 500 that could be something um repairs maintenance equipment 20,000 we do have portions of our vector truck and um our Elgen sweeper that is pretty
much 100% for the sweeper sent to this department we have depreciation factored into here. Uh nothing for rentals coming up. Uniform rental allocation for public works dues and subscriptions. MS force
storm water permit and MCSE membership that is um the Minnesota city storm water coalition. >> Is that a requirement? >> Um it's very helpful for the NPDS permit. they're able to help us answer
any questions. And >> we did get rid of it for a little bit and then we brought it back because there was some service that they provided. >> Yeah. For training and something else, I believe. Um, >> it depends on the year. Right now, the NPDS permit, it has been behind a few
years at the state level and so we've been waiting to do our final report after our last audit. And so with all of these changes, they keep us up to date on what the next steps are and we'll just kind of see if they even accept it.
Usually it's due by July of each year and we haven't had to submit it since 2022. So we expect a huge report due in the next year. And so >> kind of like the DNR with their water seven years turnaround on their water
study. >> Okay. So we expect a huge report due now any day about for the last three years. >> So I mean do we do we take a just take it out of there and see if they push it out another year? I mean if the DNR is behind seven years I would I would expect this one might be behind five,
six, seven years too. Why keep paying for it if we're not using it every year? And then if I guess I don't know just a thought. So, if we take it out, but you decide you need it in August next year, you can
just That's not in the budget, but >> then I'd have to come back and ask if we can utilize it to join again. >> But right now, if we take it out, we say we save the 700 bucks and just don't do it unless we need to sign up for it again. >> Well, we have to pay for the permit regardless. So, the $400 we'd have to
do. We're still paying for that annually. But, >> I mean, the membership. >> Sorry, I flipped over. just pay for it if you need it. If you end up needing it, say if they come through and say, "Hey, you need all this." And then we can sign up for the membership because what if it's pushed back a few years and we're just paying
700 bucks for nothing. Again, >> I just want to make sure that it's not a public works use that they're using it for because that might be for an in-house use, but it might be for training that they do. Might reduce their salt training. I'm not sure. >> Maybe come back next week with that.
>> That's what I would say. >> Yeah. All right. Um, under other miscellaneous, the 304 is for that paid family medical leave. Public outreach education that is specifically related to requirements for MS4.
Rain garden allocated is 5,000. We typically don't have people utilizing that, but we do put that number in there in case they do. >> I would like I think we should remove that. It has never been utilized once. >> I would like to remove too >> or limit it to a thou. just put it to
a,000 so it's still in there or something. I think we should double check to make sure that we are not getting a reduction in a fee for something for having I know there was a reason we implemented the rain garden program through this
>> uh no that number though was just picked okay >> back when it started >> yeah but I do think we have to have the program for >> oh right the program >> I think we could go down to a thousand amount but >> sounds good thousand bucks sounds good I mean I've never that's not even on here
forever being used but which I'm kind of surprised about. But the I guess the amount of work to get the couple hundred bucks >> we do get requests for it but it's usually because it's so specific in the areas that it can be utilized in >> um according to what the you know soil
water conservation district provided us with that information. I believe that it does limit who can utilize it. >> Okay. >> And there's some uh expenses for the CIP items as well as Actually, that's it.
That's it for the storm water. Any questions on that? >> So, the depreciation general category, uh, what does the general mean? Is that just generally like the whole storm sewer project or does that mean general fund or what is the general designation there? >> That is going to be for the storm water
specific assets that we have. So any sort of storm water pond maintenance that we've done or anything that's been donated to us by developers or any storm water drain construction, that's going to be the depreciation on those items. >> Okay.
>> All right. Then we'll be getting to liquor. I'll have you take a look at the liquor revenues. Any questions on that? Good job, Keith. >> I had a question. Are we going to do anything different to try to uh increase
sales since how we can't get a sign out there this year? Is there anything new, a new program that you're going to try or >> um I don't I don't have anything specific in mind. Um, I'm looking at my advertising budget and what I try to do
is I don't want to spend money if I don't need to for advertising. So, you know, like year to date sales are about where they're at. Last year, we're just a hair over. July is running good. So, I haven't done a lot of advertising because we're we're kind of where we want to be. Um, but if sales were to
slow down, um, then I would pump up more advertising and and do more stuff like that. I am looking at um uh the advertising budget is a little higher because I do want to do more community um oriented events, you know, maybe be part of the parade next year. Um stuff
like that >> and you know to to build that. >> Yeah. The more people we can get into that liquor store or even just residents to to purchase more from our liquor store instead of buying it from somewhere else. Um I will I will add too
um we you know being the only liquor store in the area that offers Door Dash um and and has a really good um website.com um we draw we've we've done a little over 50,000 in sales um through Door
Dash specifically this year um the majority of our sales are not in Cambridge or not in Iani. Um actually this month for example 53% of our orders are going to Cambridge zip code. We've got orders going to a St. Francis zip code, Bethl, East Bethl. So, we really
are expanding our footprint. Um, and and I'll continue to do everything that I can to to increase the draw without having to spend a lot of money to do it. >> Okay. That's payback for all that headache with the Door Dash stuff for like a year, huh? >> There's still headaches, but is there? >> Yeah, there there are. But, you know, we
work through it. >> Okay. Have we ever thought about getting like a portable sign like a little trailer sign or something that says like liquor store next next turn? I know we have the billboard, but I know I ready mixes they let people put out signs sometimes. I don't know if we could rent
rent some space from them and put out a see the next billboard sign because then it'll draw attention to the billboard or you know something like just a creative idea like that. And since we can't get a permanent sign anywhere, it seems like >> um we we haven't really done that. The
way I'm looking at that is, you know, we could have my my experience in the store um in other places you can put up a million signs, but to get someone to read it is really hard. That's why like that dynamic sign with the you know changing and that gets people's attention a little more than just a you
know a big sign. So we could we could definitely try it. Um, but I I don't know how cost-effective it would be. >> Okay. Do we still have a liquor store billboard on 65? >> Absolutely. It's one of the best looking billboards up there, if you ask me.
>> All right, we'll go to expenses for liquor. All right. So, we do have quite a bit in the part-time salary uh for liquor compared to full-time or compared to other departments that you see because we do have quite a few part-time amazing staff
over there. Uh then getting down to wages and salary of admin, some portions um of my wage are allocated over in liquor. Then we have our insurance and contributions for unemployment.
So, going down to office supplies, we have 2,000 budgeted. Uh, that will be anything from their paper bags that they use, um, other office supplies as needed. >> What was the jump in 21 and 22 on the
office supplies? Was that like new printers or new new items for the new liquor store? >> Bigger store, more bags. >> Okay. >> Higher volume, right, Keith? >> Yeah, it was it was, you know, like uh office equipment, too. We went from um a room about the size of one of these
tables um for an office to you know an office we had you know two two PCs instead of one um you know just adjusting to the new store >> so those those are just anomaly years the the 1500 roughly or 2,000 roughly seems to be >> yes >> okay
>> training instruction we have the MMBA conference that'll be for uh the manager and assistant manager typically >> that's expensive >> uh And if we do have a member on the board, they do get it paid for. So, yay.
>> Yep. So, the last couple years, the MMBA has actually paid to send me. So, that um you know, I'll continue to be on that board. Um I've got another three years that I can serve if if they elect me again. And then I have to take a little bit of a break. But
>> So, could we just could we take that off the budget for this year? If you're going to be the board member, then we don't have to pay for the conference. Wait, he has to get elected. >> Um, well, that that allows me to bring an assistant, too. So, and then >> the value
>> Yep. And the value of that is they they, you know, perspective is everything. They might see stuff that I don't see. They might be be able to go to a class that I'm, you know, not able to um attend. Um, so it really is valuable um invaluable actually to to have, you
know, that extra little bit. It's a It's a little bit of an investment and it the the turnaround on that is huge. >> Okay. >> And I would say and I was going to attend this year although with um being short staff I was not able to go but I had everything paid to go because they
have a whole was a day and a half for city administrators to learn more about liquor and keep is hopefully never going to leave us but there has been a time when I was the liquor store manager. So, it's important for people to know what's all going on, not just even liquor
staff. So, >> and I and I just want to point out, too, like the the MMBA board, um, you know, it's not just liquor store managers. Um, there's a city administrator from Sock Rapids that's actually on the board of directors. So, you get that whole mix,
the the big picture of everything. >> A lot of when cities really count on that money, you want it to run the best it can. >> Sure. Uh then we have regional meetings on miss trainings. I did attend one and fabulous what they teach. Um so there's
that cost and then um oh I skipped the alcohol food wine server training. That's the training that Keith has with his staff. It's important for them to be trained. >> That's that's actually required annually. So >> and then Keith
>> the uh the Bark is um beverage alcohol retailer conference. Um, that's something that I haven't been to in the past. That's a national conference. Um, this past year it was held in Annapolis. Um, a lot of my, not a lot of my peers, but several of my peers have attended it. Um, and have come back with a lot of
information. Um, this year, this coming year, it's going to be in Minneapolis. So, I think if if I were ever to check it out, that would be the least um expensive avenue to do it while it's, you know, just down the road. Um the 1500 is is high-end
estimate. I don't think it's going to cost that much to go. >> So is that with travel and hotel and and the light registration everything? Okay. >> So um and I I will be applying or you know for some awards on that too because I think we do have one of the best liquor stores in the area. So
>> like to shoot for that as well. >> Could we could we authorize that for this year but not actually have it on the budget? That way next year we don't forget or we don't just leave it on there and it becomes a revolving every year pay this 1500 or budget this 1500. Does that make
sense? Just see how it like >> not have it on the budget but you you have the authorization to do it and then >> Yep. And if I can I'll do whatever you guys tell me to do, you know, if I go to this and you guys you know want a report of what I what I took away from it to to
determine if it's worth going to maybe you know in other years I'd be more than happy to do that as well. >> That sounds good. >> So, is it in Minneapolis 26? >> Yes. >> So, you wouldn't go this year, but next June is when they have it um
typically. So, it' be June of 2026. >> Are you guys okay with authorizing that, but taking it out of the budget? >> Is that even possible? >> I mean, it makes sense. >> Well, I otherwise, we'll have to go line item by line item again next year on this so we make sure it gets
>> Well, I think that we would just I mean, The fire instructor myself would just take it out. >> Okay. >> Make a notation. >> I added a note already to >> revisit with Keith for 2027 budget. >> Sounds good. >> I haven't been able to get much past these guys at all. So, I'm
>> Josy's ain't >> And if you compare our liquor store with a lot of the other municipal liquor stores, we're doing very, very well. And so if he wants to go to some of these conferences, >> we'll let him for sure. He's doing something right over there. For sure.
>> All right. For operating supplies, 10,000. Uh then we have the liquor, beer, wine, cannabis, um ice for resale, and other and that includes Keith can list those other things up. >> Um other category includes like tobacco,
um mixers, that kind of stuff. NA beer in there too. >> Na beer is in the uh um beer category. Actually, >> what are you spending 22,600 on hauling? What are you hauling?
>> Uh you have to pay to have the freight delivered. >> Freight charges. >> Okay. Freight. >> So, we have that split up separate from, you know, the case price. >> Just trucking charges to get the >> Y >> stuff delivered. >> It's all local, isn't it?
>> Um no. So, we actually save money. We we pay less for freight than a lot of guys or a lot of other stores because we use a private hauler for a lot of our liquor orders um instead of using a company because they'll charge around like a $185 a case and we're getting it for about half price through a through a guy
that's been doing it for years. He actually he's a farmer trucker. Um and he he he will do it less for less than everybody else. So, um >> Keith and Mike cost that out um for to
ensure that that was about half of what it would cost. So Keith had gone through the work and going with all the distributors of what they would charge to ensure that that was by far the best price. >> Yes. >> Yeah. The distributors would much rather us go through them because they're making more money.
>> To be honest, it probably be easier for staff >> and for billing. I mean, but it really does save a lot of money. >> Yeah. I thought we were regulated on who and where we could buy our liquor, but that's not the case. >> No, it it is regulated, but he goes down
to like Johnson Distributing down to Phillips, down to Bellboy, down to Breakthrough, load, you know, loads up on their dock and then brings it back up here. So, it's not like we're just he's he's a trucker. I'm sorry. I probably explained that not very well. Um he's a farmer as well, but Okay.
>> He uh he's been, you know, hauling stuff for for a long time, too. So, kind of does a lot of stuff. He's going to retire someday and then then our hauling will go up in cost. >> Just just a quick question. How many options do you have to buy your liquor
like your hard liquor? >> Um, it's limited in a to a degree because you have different brands align with different suppliers. >> Sure. >> So, like Brown Foreman just changed their distributors from Breakthrough to
Johnson. Um, so Brown Foreman is like um think Tito's um you know different brands go with different suppliers. It's like the house. >> Okay. >> Um and then they contract better deals with them. Um so we're we're constantly,
you know, looking for, you know, this supplier has this. Sometimes you can find stuff at a better deal, but it's it's really rare. >> Yeah. Your options are really limited. Like less than 10. >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. >> That's what I thought. It's like half a dozen or less generally. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. >> Which is the complete opposite of you know like THC that stuff. Um you don't have to go through a distributor for that. So we have people knocking on the doors for that all the time. Um but we kind of stick with the bigger distributors because we have that
relationship with them already. We we have that distribution network. Um you know unless it makes good business sense to bring in somebody new, stick with what works. So, so that hauling for 226, that's for the whole year for everything.
>> Yes. Correct. >> That's crazy. That's a great deal. A lot of guys won't even get in their truck for less than a thousand bucks. >> And how many deliveries would you say they have? Two, three a week. >> Oh, it's sometimes it's two to three a
day. >> Really? >> Yeah. Um, you know, we got we we sell a lot of stuff and the more stuff you sell, the more more stuff you have coming in. >> Okay. >> So, does does he do like hot shot style trucking where he does a lot of stuff
that same day or is he making separate trips? He's got to fill his trailer. >> Yeah. So, he's he's, you know, smart. He when he's delivering to us, he'll stop and deliver out to us and then the he's also got a load for the Bram Municipal Store. Um, and he'll drop off the rest
of it there. He lives just south of Mora in Brunswick. Um, so he, you know, he's he's not, he he will make a special trip if we need him to, if we ask him to as well, but that's really rare. >> Okay, sounds good. >> All right, the last items on this page
is for safety training, the paid family medical leave, and then auditing services. Um, so then probably no questions on that. Those are the same other departments. We'll go to the next page. Continuing on with liquor,
we have a lot of the same allocations under technology um as well as a couple new ones. So, I'll skip to those. We have CityHive subscription at 1,200 and then right point of sale subscription at 4320 and that is what is used for their
the cashiers the registers. Sorry. Any questions on those? >> What's the WB IT solutions again? >> Whitebear IT Solutions. is our IT contract IT that we use for everything.
>> How much do we use them? Uh would you say I mean that extrapolates to $45,800 a year that we spend. >> We use them all the time. He charges us a flat rate. We went out for an RFP. Believe it was last year or the year before that would have been for last
year. So 2024 did RFP. Um, and the cheapest one, the next one up was, I believe, 10,000 per month. >> Okay, sounds good. >> Including certain services. So, it was a huge difference. >> Okay. >> For communication,
uh, internet, phone, Verizon, we'll make sure that those allocations are correct. Um, and then >> I assume the liquor store phone system. Is that a >> is that like between the the back desk
and the front desk or what is what is that? >> That's just your phones. >> So you >> So landlines, >> it's a voiceover IP. It's the same system we have here that was implemented in the new store. >> Just the cost for that. >> Okay. >> Again, cheaper than central link.
And then we have advertising costs of 15,000 legal notices if needed for a thousand general liability insurance almost 10 drram shop insurance 5600 which required to have uh utility costs
ground maintenance so this is for landscaping outside public works does it but that's just for cost materials maintenance and repairs to the building there's cleaning services rug service garbage recycling and uh just miscellaneous repairs to the building.
>> What's the rug service on that? >> So, we use Vestus that we go out for contract um RFP and Vestus just got the contract not that long ago. Pete, do you know off top of your head how many rugs you have over there? >> Uh we've got about five rugs and I think
we're paying about like 40 bucks a month or it's pretty cheap. I know the I don't know the exact number, but I know it went down the price went down quite a bit after we switched to the new guys. >> So, do they just come and replace the rugs or clean the rugs or
>> They replace the rugs. >> Take the dirty and leave it clean. >> Yep. We've got some rags, uh, the mops, all that stuff. They replace all that stuff. Um, I It's a service that I appreciate. >> Okay. >> I think it for the cost, it's pretty beneficial.
>> All right. staff still will do the vacuuming throughout the week and that that kind of cleaning, but especially in the winter time. >> Yeah. Right. >> Dirty salt track. >> All right. And then repairs, maintenance, equipment allocation um for auto expenses uh and miscellaneous of
3,000. >> Next page. >> We uh ever replace the door on the beer cave. >> It's in It's in process right now. They're making the door still. So, >> it seems like a long process. >> I think I agree with you, but >> they'd be jumping to get it expensive
door, too. >> Yeah. You'd think they'd be jumping to get it done to get their paycheck. >> Yeah, I think I think they would. Looking forward to being done. We've had some hot and humid days. >> Mhm. >> Appreciation. We have 75,000 for assets,
memberships, and dues. MMBA is 5,700. Cannabis registration 650. Uh the buyer card $20, the chamber of commerce that's so we can accept chamber bucks 435 that license streaming that is shared with parks tobacco license.
>> Has that chamber bucks do you think that's been used a lot? I know we brought I brought that forward last year. Has that been used at all if any? >> No. >> You want to pull it? >> It it it wouldn't hurt it. It's not bad to be a part of a group because, you know,
like the this industry is a lot of relationships building, you know. Um, if we weren't spending it on the chamber, we'd be spending it in advertising. You know, we're getting that connection by being part of it. So, I'm fine with keeping it. If you guys
think that we should pull it, I wouldn't fight you to pull it either. Nick, have you seen the advertising or any sort of Ian liquor stuff at at the Chamber of Commerce stuff? >> I can't say I've recall seeing it, but I
very well could have. >> Okay. I think I brought it forward last year because I I thought it was Cambridge had the Chamber Bucks program and I remember I got Chamber Bucks and it was like, man, I don't want to don't want to go there to shop, but I had to use them somewhere. So, I thought maybe it'd be good for us to try and we were
seeing if it had any impact, but I I think we should pull it if you don't really have a high value in it. I haven't seen >> the other thing it has um because we take the chamber bucks, Keith, correct me if I'm wrong, it does have listed as a business. I don't know how many people go to the chamber website for liquor
stores, but that might be the one other thing benefit. >> What do you guys think? We're active in other departments with the chamber. So, I'm okay pulling it on on the liquor store part of it.
>> Isn't it that North 65 Chamber of Commerce that line? >> What's that? >> Yeah, it's the 400. >> Yep. Yeah, 435. Yeah. >> I didn't I didn't realize there was that much expense associated with uh just being in the program. I mean, it's not a horrible amount, but if we're not seeing
the chamber bucks come in, then what? >> Yeah, I would rather if we had to keep it in there, shift it to hard advertising other than the chamber. I think we'd have more value for our money doing that. Otherwise, just pull it. >> Nick,
>> you're the chamber rep, so I >> mean, I I like what I get out of it. Um, and I I don't see the value. I just as far as the liquor store interaction, I haven't seen what's going on with that. >> Okay. So, >> I think we should remove that one this year.
>> Seems kind of redundant. >> I'll I'll take it out. >> Sounds good. We gave her a whirl. I was hoping to be really successful. >> All right. Um, any other questions on
the remaining remainder thing? So bank charges uh that's taking credit cards, alarm system, capital expenditures, our bond payment, um fiscal agent fees and operating transfers that's going to
the general fund is proposed at 462,000 this year or for 2026. >> The music license that is a percentage of the the total overall >> it's shared with park just >> Okay. And that will is that a 50/50 split or >> Yep.
>> Okay. Can that be mentioned in in future? >> Sure. >> Okay. >> We have looked at cheaper options. They're not really available in order for us to have public music at public events and public streaming. We have to have a license. So otherwise, we can get
in trouble. >> And believe it or not, those people do go around. I know that there's some local bars that have been hit um by not paying that fee. So people people about it, I guess. >> All right. >> I have to ask about the bank charges on
this. Um, we went from 68,000 gradually all the way up to 116. I'm I'm guessing a lot of that is credit card fees. >> Exactly. Yep. So, roughly 80% of our sales are credit card transactions. So,
as our sales increase, the credit card transaction fee, you know, credit card transactions increase, and then it's we're paying around 2% um of every credit card transaction is um a fee. >> Have they increased over the last three
years at all? Those transaction fees? >> Uh no, not not that I'm aware of. I know u Mike had done a lot of work to find the best rate that he could find. >> Is there any other bank charges that could be included in that 116
>> credit card >> fees? Ask Nick about >> I would say the probably the biggest reason we're seeing an increase. It's just kind of change in consumer habits. It's a lot more credit card sales than it has been cash sales. At least that's how it was over at the city of North Branch. kind of saw that same trend
where it didn't seem to be as much kind of during COVID right after COVID and has increased a lot just with how consumers are paying. So more credit card sales we have higher those fees are go. >> Could have have we ever considered putting the credit card fee on our
sales? Is that something a a hated idea with you guys or >> Yeah. Okay. There there's talk about it. There are other um cities that have done they call it dual pricing where you you pay this much for cash and you pay this much for you know credit cards. >> Yep.
>> Um so that that's always an option. Um I'm hesitant to go down that road >> because I don't want people to associate I liquor with um being inconvenient. Um if we did that we'd have to get an ATM um which would there'd be fees with that
too. If if push comes to shove, I'd say that's a good option, but I'd like to be that to be a last resort. Um, in a perfect world, I' I'd love to see like legislation or something come down and say, why why are these guys allowed to charge so much for putting a card in a machine, >> right?
>> But it's not a perfect world. >> Maybe I mean a cash discount. We up the price on everything 2% and offer a 2% cash discount. Is that like a promotional thing? I don't know. That sounds like a nightmare. >> Too much headache. Okay.
>> To implement. >> Okay. >> But >> so just on credit card charges. So if this is 2 and a4% 116,000, if we take 97 and 3/4 of a percent and add that
onto that 116, shouldn't that be our total sales? >> It'd be close. >> That seems like a lot of sales off the But >> it'll be close. >> The math that quick, but what is our total sales? >> 6 million something.
>> We did uh 6.3 last year. Um and I can actually I can tell you year to date this year what we've done in sales. Um make sure I'm >> We're also probably going to be closer to that 3% on those credit card fee numbers. >> Okay. So I
>> I twos are around three. Beware. That's >> horrible. we are. >> I mean, think about it. You're taking $116,000 out of taxpayers pockets or not not us, but the bank is. >> So, for example, this year we've done um
3,417,893 in sales. Um two 2,744,893 of that's been credit cards. >> I just want to make sure the numbers were jing. That's why I was questioning a little deeper. All right. Uh, we don't have anything
proposed for 2026 for capital improvement um items for liquor. >> It's a new store. >> So, I would suggest that we can excuse Keith from our meeting. >> I'd second that. But I also want to point out that I removed two items from
the capital improvement plan this year. So, you know, we uh were up to get new shopping carts, but >> because we that we take care of them, customers take care of them. Um, I think it's because we give good service, but people always bring the carts back in,
too. You know, it's that people don't just push them out to their car and shove them in the curb. They're, you know, we'll bring it right back. And I think that's part of, you know, them feeling appreciated. They they appreciate it. They want to make sure they're part of it. The other thing that
we took off of there was TVs. Um, we're good on that. So, I'm not not going to spend any money on it unnecessarily. >> Good job. I appreciate that. And thank you. >> Shout out to our community, too. >> With the the liquor store and capital improvement, I saw that the beer cave
door. That all just get pushed back with the new one. >> That got pulled forward is what we did with that one. >> Okay. >> It's still not in yet, though. >> I've heard. But, but I will let you know as soon as it is. I promise.
>> Thank you, Keith. All right, moving on to water fund. These are the revenues. I'll let you review that. Let us know if you have any questions. >> Which page is that, Josie? >> Uh, this is page 47. Sorry, we got to go backwards. Um, page 47 in the packet and of the document. It's page
>> you guys. You guys doing all right or >> do you want to stop? Are you doing okay? >> I need a charger at some point. >> Need a charger? Yeah. I'm at 10. >> I mean, I got a charger if you need one. >> Steve's got one right here.
>> Did she Did she say page 47? >> In the physical packet. >> Um, she's pulling up the other one. >> Okay. >> This doesn't go up to 47. Like, what the heck? >> Okay. 29.
601 >> 28. >> Thank you. >> What? You have a Oh, you have a type C, don't you? Oh, that's a change. I got you. There you go. There's all three of them.
>> That one's a little slow, but it'll keep you going. So, >> all right. Any questions on revenues? >> Uh, the majority of what we get our revenues for for the water fund are through our rates, our utility rates here.
>> And you see also um some for charges. So, water access charge. Nick, Nick, have you had a chance to look at the uh the interest earning stuff and how our investments are all laid out and are you satisfied with what you're
starting with? >> Yeah. So, I met with our uh current investment brokers and kind of just talked about what our strategies are and kind of where we've been at, kind of what our thoughts were going forward. So started to work with them on some of
that and it's going to be kind of seeing what our cash flows kind of have looked like so we can see if there's potential to invest some of our more some more of our money get it out whatever it is six months a year two years whatever it is to try to get those better returns. So
had those discussions and going to start working on executing a plan there with that. So >> but you're happy with the start overall from what you've seen so far? Yeah, we've done a good job of kind of having
with our current strategy of having uh about roughly 1 million in maturities a year for basically a five-year plan is kind of how we've been and we've been pretty steady with kind of grouping that stuff up in the same way year to year.
Kind of looking to change that. Some of it's kind of going after what's going to offer us better yields versus kind of what fits better timelinewise. It's nice to kind of have those set maturities at their certain times, but also at the same time, we should just be looking to get the best interest rate on
our money that we can. So, >> agreed. >> Work through that. So, yeah, I'll come back with some updates on that once I've had a little more time to work on it. >> Okay. Thanks. >> All right. Looking at the next page for water fund expenses.
Uh we have our wages. We have part-time wages um at zero. We have in the past had tried doing the intern. Uh we don't have any intern proposed. So that's why we still leave that line in there, but it's at zero. Um that overtime rate um potential
some of my salary and some of other admin staff uh utility billing all those things are wages are um in there as well. Contracted services. So, we allocate um or place money in the budget for potential leaks, breaks, and repairs
just so we aren't caught up completely off guard, but it's really unknown when those things happen. Generator service agreement, that's an annual fee. Backflow testing. We are required to do that annually. That's for all our RPZs um and backflow preventers. And then a
portion of our city code update gets allocated here. building replacement for public works at 720. Employee contributions, um, insurance, unemployment numbers are in there. We're
comp getting down to trainings. So, for trainings and instruction, we have 3,750. That's an amount that covers all of public works um, and anyone licensed in water civic systems. That is for utility
billing clerk who does utility water sewer billing. Billing supplies 1,400 uh fuel. We have a number there that we'll fix between that. Billing supplies for that one line to second line. Make a notation that
um fuel getting down to general supplies hydrant paint uh 15,000. So Josh, did we paint any? We're painting half this year, half next year was the thought. Or did we just push it all the next year? Do you recall? >> Uh, I actually just talked to a guy that
paints hydrants today to get pricing on it. Um,