or all right called order at 6:30 uh Jim had called me earlier today he would like to add an item kind of like a budget item for us uh so do you want to do that as like number four Jim or what are you thinking number four is
good yeah okay it's going to be uh ESS from uh Northwoods Edition uh that discussion was was had at the uh Shu uh Planning Commission uh and I think the
Board needs to discuss it see if there's Alternatives see if we need someone in research so I'll bring that up and we can open the discussion at that time that's that's a rational what yep okay you mind if I just
go yeah okay or do I need to run this meeting go ahead okay uh Andrea is here tonight she wants to talk to us for a few minutes um some improvements that are going to be made with the electric utility and kind of
partnering with the city council so the floor is yours all right so kind of stated in the packet here um we're having some improvements done with the power plant and we need to finance for those improvements um over the last few months
I've been in discussion with the local bank as well as Northland Trust Services who typically the council Bond through friendly reconstruction projects um that you guys do and so um been having this
discussions with the Public Utility Commission as well um and they are on board with this option if the council um is willing to work with us um typically for an Enterprise fund
um for an electric Revenue Bond it's non rated unlike the city council or you guys have Bond ratings for your um Geo bonds that you take out and so typically um it's based on like the 3 years prior
of um audit history for that Enterprise fund and then depending on that and a few other items that's how they come up with the terms and interest rates with that being said we would not
be able to currently take out um a high enough electric Revenue Bond and so George from Northland offered this other option it is allowed through the Minnesota state statute um it would just need the city council
approval as a resolution but what I would do is you guys would sign off on a general obligation bond for the Public Utility Commission for the electric fund um it offers um insured bonds the A+
rating that you currently have and then it offers us um the lower interest rates currently it would be at 3.76% over 20 years um and so with this what it does in essence when you take out a goond it
raises your tax value however for that state statute if you're spending it on equipment which in this case it is equipment we can in essence reduce that tax levy and then we would pay the debt service payment from the six or four
funds so there would be no increase to taxpayers this is come from the 64 really rate based just a formality that you guys would have to sign off on the resolution I just wanted bring it to your guys' attention you guys um can
have discussion or ask any questions from me and then the fall when it comes time I would present that resolution to you guys to issue that de would that go your budget item this year would that be in in evolv
and Beyond part of budget how much one are we talking we're talking roughly 2.5 million how many years do you think it take 20 years and that's to pay for so we have
to um update our Transformer our new Transformer coming this fall okay and then next year then we're going to be going out for RSP this fall for year so that's going to be updated next year so those kind of two big pieces or
what that comes up to be so you're look can you had two Transformers one this year and one next year is that what you said no just one this year one this year okay what about the generators the generators that's not included in the that's not included
no possibly a few years now we might be looking at adding an additional generator but not right and you think that there would be enough money Genera electricity um we just completed a rate study this year um and with that the C
Improvement are included in there so we have our rat SCH all over the next 5 years to cover this all the repair work that was done last last summer uh has been paid for and it is covered are you talking the temporary
Transformer that we have in yeah if that's a temporary one it's kind of a bandaid to get us through until we can get into trans and that Transformer is ours yes okay so we will it will be an Ence of
backup yep to the one that we are getting we'll just still sit on site and power along this is the still on or is it and the current one is still in service okay and this is the replacement for that one then okay
gotcha when the issue ared back in 2022 we had to come up and try and find um a Transformer out there that we could get in service we didn't have to generate anymore and so this one we got
is a remanufactured unit and F know to get us through three five years okay any other questions you the new Transformer be bigger than what we're currently using it's the same same
size will do we have enough capacity to cover some of of this uh what what we're hoping is new construction in town with a
peon well Pearson's Northwoods uh should have another business come in and want to do something or this Transformer we we do have capacity for um the pieron Acres that was just approved and yeah
there is potential we have room for anything residential I mean if we talked a industrial load um that would require additional additional substation and Transformer at that time or the a community center one would get built
depending on what you're looking at for RO the community center wouldn't have that into would be like business manufacturers no it's not going to be that high but it's yeah we've got about 21 possible lots
coming in that figure the shock edition goes through that's 12 and the is nine the 21 right there plus or so a couple of lots out there so let's say 25 and you would have capacity for
that but you said in some years you're thinking of possibly getting another generator so that would in turn yeah but that's just to help with keeping with load you know loads keep increasing we add additional homes um we need to make
sure that we have additional Generations we're not paying for capacity Market sounds like you done your thanks all right thank you all right thanks see noral hm
she didn't even say anything back she's mad at you maybe maybe she's not going to see you tomorrow I'll text you I'll let you know the outcome how's that sound uh the second item is the calendar I just put that in there at our next
council meeting we're going to look at police and fire and then at the September meeting we'll look at uh Joe Zim's budgets I'm I'm kind of think thinking we could probably get all this done by September 9th but in the event we do have all of
September to get our tax levy adopted so we may have to meet it one more time in September but should be should be all right with that kind not not much to that one I did have9 something in the budget
we can if you want you want to start I well it was a simple question if I can find it sure you got the answer for uh
well there's actually two there was one in the parks department on this cancelling this those Figures were were higher than I like to see for Miss cellaneous that uh you know that those numbers like
like uh 2024 adopted at 82 that that was 3/4 that budget almost yeah so you know what that is that's perk equipment yeah
but and that Stu grender apparently so that's that's that and that's your yeah so it's it's not that I don't [Music] know a big thing to be in there uh in
Community Development there's no uh you have a salary wage in there but there's no health insurance or workers compensation so workers comp insurance comes out of my department budget and
Randy has opted not to have the city health insurance he has health insurance [Music] elsewhere your health insurance increased by 133% have you ever thought about um
looking at a different health insurance one thing I would like to talk to the council about in the upcoming months is maybe next year we do some research on CU we've done that in the past where we used to have a different company and then we switched so maybe it's just time
to do that again well speaking from experience with your health insurance it's not really the greatest mhm and I think that would probably be a good a good thing to do some research and what else might be out
there and see if you guys can get maybe a little bit better maybe something that's not so expensive for yourselves mhm yeah yeah so like Sarah said um health insurance went up 133% this
year the other insurance we don't really know yet we will find out here in the month or so so we can put more accurate numbers in there [Applause] um crazy cuz you guys have Health Partners right now
know yeah okay so um how do you want to do this we just start with the first page or um the the City Council budget really doesn't change much each year the administrator budget that is
basically for me and then also the workers comp for Randy and I if you look at other benefits that line item that is the life insurance for all full-time employees rather than coding it to each little Department we
just Cod it into mind um elections on the bottom of the first page there's probably going to be a little bit of expense next year just to kind of cover some overlap from the November election you know in case we get an invoice sometime in January that
type of thing [Music] on the second page is the kind of the accounting function I guess if you want to call it that it's a some of our employees are quoted out of there for their wages and then this is the the department budget that
pays for our Auditors City attorney city engineer any training that either Sarah or Sarah or Andrea may have would come from here the insurance is 5,000 less than4 yes
um Andrea moved with her health coverage is now more in utilities yeah makes sense and like the Professional Services on that line since we're not I'm assuming we're not doing another wage study so that'll is that why that's it went down
a little yep because of just obviously right yep um yeah so really that budget overall Department budget went up what 3,000 that's not
bad the next page is the general government building that's basically City Hall U we are Sarah Britt and I are talking a little about this we are going to put a little money in this year's City Hall budget for maybe a
little bit more Landscaping if we have any ideas around this tree or that type of thing you know make Spruce things up a little bit make things look better um the big thing though if you'll notice towards the very bottom of that budget uh we are budgeting for
computers and things like that in the office cuz we have not we haven't really replaced any of our laptops in a few years so it's about time to do it that's really the biggest thing with this budget went up about 20,000 for
computers and copy ear and Shredder machines you know things like that and that's kind of what you're that's what the increase was for that budget make sense did we with the city clean up did we
we did we decide to keep doing it here lot yeah they did schedule it for September again here okay yep the dumpster that we had after the rain and stuff did did it be used much yes we three dumpsters were filled
that's not um I'm trying to think how much it cost I think it was a little bit more like that just depending on what was in there of course you know extra charges for things I will say though the third dumpster we noticed um it started to it
was not wet storm damaged stuff it was people throwing their junk away so we is that enough good call surprise
no we were generous long enough right um you know what really the next couple pages I mean we got got Street and parks and all that that's going to that'll be Joel coming up the library budget a couple Pages later there I did put a little more in
the library just just in case we need you know maybe we should look at that furnace there we may have to uh maybe replace it I don't know wasn't there something with paint or something down
there the night that re was talking to us steps yeah steps we got to do that yet there have been comments made by DR hope about painting the windows multiple
times not having the paint STI it's an old building kind of the way it goes didn't rary just do that a couple years ago or not did something
yeah uh Ian you had a couple questions with the Community Development there I think we got them answered right right the Cemetery maintenance for the cemetery that contract is up this fall so I'm not really sure what the budget
for the the contractual Services because we don't know how much it's going to cost to Mo but that we'll probably have more accurate number later on yeah yeah any questions to anybody or Jim you had you wanted to
uh I have one question so we do we have a rough a rough number yet like based on the numbers we have here as far as uh overall um no I don't really yet we got to talk with Joel his but