hello everyone and welcome i'll call to order the city council meeting Thursday April 10th 2025 if you could all please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God
indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right roll call brian Wormer here kyrie Miller here tom Berg here james Vipka here and Scott Pava here all right so we're going to go to
approval of the agenda tonight's agenda goes all the way down to 10J are there any additions deletions or corrections to the agenda move to approve the agenda as presented motion by Palava second second by Miller any further
discussion all in favor i all opposed all right approval of the minutes consider approval of the minutes from the March 13 2025 regular meeting and the March 27th 2025 regular meeting are there any additions deletions or
corrections motion to approve the minutes motion by Wormcersian second second by Palawa any further discussion all in favor all opposed all right there are no public hearings presentation of citizens
petitions and comments comments limited to two minutes so if you're not on the agenda now is your time to speak all right seeing none approval of the consent agenda we have items A B and C a is consider approval to authorize staff to
advertise for up to six firefighters uh B is consider approval of an application and permit for a 1 to 4 day temporary on sale liquor license requested by the Church of Immaculate Conception and C consider acknowledgement with no waiting period
of a Minnesota law of gambling uh LG220 application for exempt permit requested by the Church of Immaculate Conception does anybody want any of these items pulled for discussion for new business does anybody in the audience want
anything removed for discussion all right seeing none motion to approve the consent agenda all right motion by Wormcersian second second by Miller any further discussion all right all in favor all oppose okay there is no old business new
business review of the engineering service proposal submitted in response to the city's request for proposals and discuss the selection process joy thank you mayor and members of the council um earlier this year the council uh approved the uh attached request for
proposals for comprehensive engineering services uh we advertised it and um sent it to a number of firms uh of the firms that it was sent to uh ISG Bolton Mink Moore Woods WSB Stantech uh Stonebrook
and submitted proposals um I also did uh well it was in a separate email the the proposals and um I believe I did uh send out the um uh staff's review or or my review of the
the engineering proposals based off of the uh requirements in the the RFP um I think it's safe to say that all the firms uh or their and their partnering consultants can provide the services
that that we need um and meet our needs um you city council have to decide how to proceed with the selection of a firm uh items that should be considered would be a fit with city staff and the council obviously the demonstrated experience and qualifications of the assigned
engineer uh with uh city similar size and lawns and its infrastructure capacity performance on similar projects as noted in the proposals uh staff's capability uh to timely and on budget execute projects uh and then uh the ability of
the firm to provide staff or the city with consistent staff uh options would be to retain WSB uh or interview firms that uh best meet the needs of the city as far as the fiscal impact I guess that'll be determined on based on who
the the city selects as the engineering firm uh for the last uh number of years eight or nine years um WSB's had a billing rate of 147 well since 20 2016 uh I believe that's when John Powell
became our our city engineer with WSB uh based on their last proposal approved by the city over the last two years the city has averaged uh just under $21,000 in free annual services provided uh
alternatives are none and the council requested uh solicitation of proposals so the next step would be again like I said either uh appointing WSB or selecting firms for interviews and then attachments that are provided or included is the RFP uh the review and
then uh the email or the engineering proposals themselves i guess at this time I turn it over to council for discussion all right thank you Joel um Brian what are your thoughts um well I I don't think it would hurt to
interview um so narrow it down to maybe three yep um you know proposals tell us only so much you know I think we we found that out when we
talked to architects before so I guess that's kind of my Okay do you have three that you'd like to interview [Music] um I am going to defer for a moment i'm
still working i I was reading through the proposal i haven't had a chance to fully read through the summary i want Okay all right i'll come back curry i feel the same way it wouldn't hurt to just interview but I know WSB has a good
reputation with So um for sure they would be number one on my list but um I'm not sure i'm kind of torn between the other two because I agree keep it to like three to interview um keep it simple but I don't I don't
know i would probably want to look at uh Joel for some feedback too um on what you would recommend for the top three to interview as well uh well uh I guess the council wanted to go for RFPs i'm not sure if there were
any issues that you guys have had identified to you know request that process and you know where the proposals that submitted to address those concerns um I mean WSB is a city engineer for for 20 years um I think they should at least
be given the opportunity to to interview um again there's a wide any of these firms can do this there's I'm not I'm not concerned about that um you know is cost a concern to the city i mean the range is is is is quite dramatic from
you know just over $100 an hour for x number of hours per month um you know up to you know one proposal was $260 an hour i think several of the firms uh Stantech did the plan design worked with staff and
bid out the pickle ball courts uh last year isg was the engineer on the business park uh Bolton Mink was the engineer on well 4 and the the wellhouse back in 0405 stone Brook Timbitson the owner of
that was uh the engineer for uh I believe all of uh the Willow Creek Heist development whether um working for a different firm or or on his own so guess I don't I don't
know it's a very wide range that's why and it's a lot of information i've been reviewing it since you sent it out and it's I I appreciate the summary it's tough call especially since we have such a great relationship with WSB
i guess that's all I have for right now okay Jamie joe public works is going to be working with the most do you have a preference um I guess my comments will be the relationship that we have with WSB is
fantastic um as Joel stated I feel the same you know it's kind of Ford Chevy Dodge which one do you want they're all going to get you where you got to go um my personal belief is I've been part of the city since
2006 and Lonzdale has pretty much had a reconstruct project um ever since I started here um it's kind of easy to look from the outside and say "Hey I drove through Prior Lake they did a project why is the
one that we're doing you know when you're living it versus just passing by?" um our projects since I've started here the the things that I mean our specbook our expectations our relationships phone
calls everything is it's so smooth it it's just it's really it's really good so um I guess that kind of encompass your question yep
um interview WSB Bolton and Mink and ISG is my recommendation okay Scott um well I would I would agree uh you know having worked with uh WSB for you know several years I mean has it everything gone perfect not necessarily
but nothing ever does um you know there's something to be said too if the if somebody has a higher rate it doesn't mean that there's not same here's a there's a possibly a better value because there's less learning curve uh you know maybe their capabilities are better or they have
more background so we actually could be money ahead by paying a a higher rate um we've worked with worked with uh WSB uh ISG and uh BM if I remember correctly
uh on some of the stuff u in addition to others that we we haven't even we're not even seeing Um I would agree that those three would be good possibilities but uh yeah I think that the relationship is a good portion but yeah when we said we're going to go out for bids what were we
after or was it just about uh go out for propos uh proposals what are we after is it just cost or what is what what other things were we looking at i don't I don't think we really identified what we were uh what our
target was you know if it's if it's price that's one thing if it's quality or level of service that's another thing so kind of a uh a moving target so what's going to be the best fit for us
so year three would be uh Pton and Mink ISG and WSB right i think so yes okay yeah because I'm about at that same spot yeah i mean I I I think I would agree with that too i mean definitely agree 100% that WSB has to on the list for
sure um you know and I I kind of to speak Scott to your point about um you know what what are we after this is a conversation that started with the previous council and I think some very good points were made then before the election um it's been a long time so
it's it's kind of a we don't really know what we don't know because we haven't looked so I think that was the argument not even argument that was that was kind of point being made then and I I and I agree with that point i think
you know it it doesn't hurt to to to just talk to some others um but I don't think that necessarily means that we're just looking for one thing you know because I'm definitely not looking for just one thing it's not
just price it's you know I want to hear more and hearing more maybe is okay how are you going to educate me and I think that's one And I appreciate this is one thing that WSB has done for us is they've provided um materials at least I
know I have gotten materials from them as hey here's here's kind of like the the the guide for how do you as a municipality not from an engineering standpoint but how does engineering play into your job um but yeah so I think
yeah I'm I'm good with Bulp and Bank was on my list and the third was kind of where I was like I don't know you know and it's it's one of those okay you just go by by price or whatever so I'm fine with B ISG and WSB okay Gary
yeah I agree that I don't think we're looking for one specific thing i think it's just good to review things once in a while uh especially with a change in council and things like that so um I was kind of going between ISG and Boltman
Bank as well so since that seems to be the consensus with WSB ISG and Bland Bank um see staff are you okay with with that interviewing them is there anybody else you'd like to interview on this sheet or
no i guess after my reviews I I would concur with the council okay all right well I'll entertain a motion so move all right motion by Palava second second by Vika any further discussion
all right all in favor all opposed all right consider approval of a quote submitted by clerk in the amount of do we want to schedule the interviews or come up with some dates or well I mean you got to call them and see what when they're free to do it I mean
I'd like for it to be kind of ASAP okay is there dates that don't work for the city council if I'm pretty sure that they're going to make their schedules work when the interviews are That would be the next step is to
actually select a date and call them and get these scheduled and and if there's questions that the council has um you can get them to me and can come up with a list of questions that will be asked i I think we should pick a couple of dates just in case you know I I think as
a courtesy to the the firms giving them a couple of dates to say which works better for you and everybody says one one date that works um I know we've struggled with Thursdays tuesday the 29th of April
monday would work better monday the 20th is fine for me personally any day but Wednesday because the 21st is planning and zoning correct
how about you Scott this Monday the 20th look okay i don't see any issue on mine all right so that' be a special correct okay 7 p.m i mean I I can do earlier wanted to do
earlier okay do we want to pick a second date then would you want to go to Tuesday the following Tuesday the 29th yeah as a as an alternate or I'm okay with that
i'm not sure about Tuesday i might have a meeting Tuesday night that Tuesday i I can't I'm not sure if it's the week before or if it's on the 29th and I won't be able to confirm until this weekend for me
but Monday be the best 29th I guess if if that's what it is I can figure it out okay so Monday the 28th or Tuesday the 29th both at 7 p.m okay
i'll make a motion for those days preferably Monday t Tuesday motion by Worcers second by Miller any further discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries
and then I guess just to wrap up if you guys have any specific questions that you guys want to ask um if you want to get them to me I can create a questionnaire so we're asking all the same questions consistently amongst the the firms sure and when do you want that submitted by
probably a week ahead of time yeah at the latest okay you think of something tomorrow give me a call or shoot me an email or whatever and just start compiling it all right thanks consider approval of a quote
submitted by Clark in the amount of $41,950 for the 2025 mosquito control management services joel technology huh okay um so the council approved the uh the request for proposals for
mosquito control services uh back at the end of February um the RFP requested quotes on uh 21 adults siding treatments in the residential areas and parks uh synthetic prethyroid and then larvide treatment of surface water and that's a
um an organic natural concoction uh I reached out to eight companies and sent the RFP to five of them uh that do or have provided the service in the in the past uh in recent years only one
company has provided the city a quote um for this service uh and again this year Clark was the only one that submitted a proposal uh their proposal consisted of the uh adult deciding the 21 treatments at $38,850
uh or $1850 a treatment uh adulticiding with a natural or or organic uh process uh was about double that 79,800 and then the larbide treatments for the the surface water uh which would
be uh retention ponds um some of the creeks or ditches in town uh $3,100 uh as I said Clark's provided this service to the city in the past most recently the last six years uh the cost for 25 is uh little less than 6%
increase or I'm sorry the cost for 20 25 is just under 6% increase from uh 24 uh the vast and overwhelming majority of residents uh are happy that the city does treat for mosquitoes uh there was $40,000 budgeted uh this year in the the budget for this
service uh alternatives would be not to provide the weekly mosquito control uh reduce the number of weekly treatments um you know some examples would be like to July 3rd we're treating on July 1st uh that Tuesday and then that Thursday for uh the 4th of July uh and then the
last two treatments September 9th and and 16th uh don't do the larvicide treatment for the surface water at 3100 uh or use the al all natural or organic treatment at the 79,800 guess unless there's any any questions
uh staff would recommend approval of Clark's quote for the um adulticiding synthetic prethyroid and the larvide treatments of the surface water thank you Carrie um just if we have a drought again kind of like we did last
year um is there any like discount or something that we can get back um if we don't have to use them every week or is it just no matter what they Uh correct in the RFP it said that the city reserves the right to cancel the
treatment for various reasons okay i just want to make sure that's in there i had All right Jamie we take out the July 1st since two days later they're going to spray again and knock off 1,800 bucks
right on budget that's the only thing I have all right thank you scott I guess you know along that one maybe look at as an either or uh based on what the weather's going to be because sometimes this spring you know you'll we did it on the
third and it rained you know you you've lost your benefit to that i don't want to you know wave eliminate one and it sets us back well on third probably people are going to be out and about yeah but shooting off fireworks late at night and Yeah but if say for example if
it if it ended up being a rainy rainy night you know on on on whichever day we were going to going to spray we you know we could effectively lose the we would lose the effectiveness that's that's my only thing was can we pivot as we get closer i don't know what
they're they're time there's not really a all the cart based on conditions we have to just do it well no like I mean even that day I'm uh coordinating with them like hey they're think it's going to rain or it might
pass let's kind of you know play by ear but you know if we are looking at one of those dates yeah pretty sure the whole town's going to be all shooting fireworks off on July 3rd that might not be the night to spray Yeah yeah and there's enough smoke in the air usually that happens too that nothing
can nothing can survive anyway so yeah so everybody go get your fire jason plug your ears legal firework i believe what you meant let me correct you the month of July everybody yes exactly
the season of July it starts usually about Easter and goes till New Year's yeah so that that's my other question all right thank you Brian yeah I think we we need to do it i mean when we don't spray
it's it's like the Amazon basin i mean it's bad whole area all right well I got nothing so I'll entertain a motion so moved i have a motion by Palama
second second by Warian any further discussion all in favor all oppose that motion carries next on the new business is consider approval of resolution
2025-9 a resolution appointing Michael Harding to the planning commission to fill a vacancy joel Ericson um my computer is not working PDF uh well with the resignation of uh Jim Freed from the the
planning commission uh last month um there was a vacancy that needed to be filled um we did advertise the vacancy um on our website and I believe was posted on social media uh applications were due uh by the end of the day on
April 4th uh we received one application from uh Mike Harding to serve on the planning and zoning commission to to fill the vacancy uh the fiscal impact is uh there isn't any to the city for for filling a vacancy we didn't have any costs of publication um alternatives would be to
not approve the the proposed resolution and readvertise the uh vacancy and then uh included with staff's report is uh Mr hardin's citizen advisory board application and proposed resolution uh 2025-9
um real quick just want to thank Jim Freed for his years of service on the planning commission uh he was appointed back uh at the May 31st of 2007 city council meeting and that following month June was was his first meeting um seen a
lot of things over the years during his tenure uh worked with various commissioners on uh land use applications variances conditional use permits developments uh also involved in ordinance updates and must uh participate in the city's 2040
comprehensive land use plan and unless there's any questions uh staff would recommend approval of 2025-9 thanks Jamie i too would like to thank Jim for his service we didn't always get
along at the meetings but he had a good point and I'd like to welcome Mike to planning and zoning scott um just question what is the remainder of the term for this i I didn't see that
uh I think it's 2026 it's 26 correct okay all right very good uh and to uh uh Jamie's point yeah thanks Jim to the many years of dedication and uh uh call it u a passion for this community so
that's all I have thanks Ryan i'll echo that um yeah I didn't really get to work with Jim very much but thanks for your time and volunteering for the city
yeah congratulations Mike Harding usa Mike I'll I'll make a motion to actually approve the appointment of Mike Harding that's okay we knew what was going to happen i think I think we actually All right motion by Wormker second second by
Viz Safe uh yeah congrats now mike i anybody oppose all right motion carries well it's Robert's rules okay update on the Highway 19 County Road 2 roundabout construction project
jo uh so at the end of this month uh we received the uh letter that's included with the staff report and the 180 page plan set for for the p project kind of cherry picked a couple of some of the maps or information I thought was maybe
the the most relevant to to the city to provide an update um you know basically um the detours they're proposing well I guess what I should say is is finally was able to uh connect with Mindot we had a a quick uh teams meeting uh this morning with one
of the project managers and um based on some of the uh dewatering and um construction techniques that they're going to be using uh the project is getting pushed to 26 um found that out today um they want
to give the contractor um a full construction season to um to perform the work just given the uh um like I said the construction techniques and the uh the amount of dewatering that that is needed um there the groundwater um the
the the water tables about 2 feet below ground um below the surface so uh they want to make sure that um they they provide enough time so that the material is dry and put back properly and don't have any issues in in the future so uh
they are still going to bid it um I believe this year um later this year for uh uh May construction um they did say um there may be some work that is done um yet this year out there with maybe
some ponding or installing the snow fence that's proposed in the the north west corner of of the project uh as far as detours uh they're looking at for vehicles traveling west on Highway 19 uh using Main Street North
and then taking a right on 70th and then a left on 96 up to the four-way stop and then a left there um to get back on the Highway 19 way to vest the Vest
Road and then for um County Road Two uh vehicles traveling Uh well I guess both directions on on County Road 2 uh they'd use if you're traveling east to Lndale you take a right on County Road 52 to go south a
left on 59 or Union Lake Trail uh and then get on to County Road 4 south of town to to access Highway 19 uh as far as the design uh to keep it in line and being con concerned about costs
and uh soils um the the roundabout is being proposed that in talking with Mandot they have to sign it they just can't say cars and trucks can take a right if you're traveling out of town west on 19 you
want to take a right on 70th um the way that it's going to be signed is to go through the entire roundabout um there is not enough room or you'd have to be a very good driver of a bus or a semi to to stay in the
lane um but you can uh see on on the design how that is if um you know it's a pretty sharp right turn so it will be signed that if you are again traveling westbound on 19 and want
to take a right on the 70th back into town it'll be signed to go through the entire roundabout to get on the 70th uh I know previously we adopted a resolution that we were not in support
of of that design um but costs and soil conditions outweighed our uh resolution did include an aerial photo of existing conditions out there and
then also um the the detour routes for Highway 19 and County Road Two and then kind of a a bigger picture of the layout and then kind of a a blown up one more focused on the roundabout and their the
pavement marking plan and their their lighting plan as well so just an update I wanted to to provide the council since we got this here at the end of last month that they were looking at lighting in May and starting construction on July 7th
thank you scott do you want to ask any questions uh no other than I just I saw the other day somebody was dealing with uh they were looking for representation because the state still hasn't procured the property i saw that too
so we are anticipating that things will move forward but I think from from the looks of it from what I read it seemed like they had been given an offer and they were questioning whether it was a fair offer yeah which that actually kind of you know raised an eyebrow to me when
I was like we don't have that in place yet we're supposed to have a shovel in the ground here soon so okay i'm disappointed with Let's be clear it's MDOT not us well no no I understand that i'm just No absolutely i just you know when I saw that and then
when I saw the you know the design I was going to ask about that why that why that change it's kind of disappointing um I I understand there's costs and engineering behind it but it's uh um as it is people have a hard time navigating
roundabouts in some areas and now you're going to you're going to throw a new curveball in you know three lefts make a right um but I guess uh it's better than uh the alternative uh that intersection
has been uh it's been very bad for uh many many people here so glad that we finally getting some traction on it it's been five years since we had the fatality out there and it's you know it's taken taken this long so
hopefully we're good for another year and it we'll move forward and never have an issue again so agreed Frank so it's pushed you said pushed to 26 correct um
the funding is all procured for this right this is not we're not going to run the risk of something changing with the state budget this is a project that gets cut that is not my understanding no that's why they want to bid it this year yeah i mean I and get it under contract and I and I can totally understand if
these are questions that you can't answer um you know I I kind of share the the disappointment in the fact that this is our town we've had meetings with Minda we've told them what we want and I feel like they disregard it um you know
but that's kind of how I feel every meeting I go into where Mandot's there every time I walk out I feel like I was listened to but not heard um but that's mind and I mean if if they
want to address that I I welcome the opportunity to speak with them face to face any time um my biggest concern is do they have everything in place like you said with that that post I saw as well it's like are we still fighting
with land property owners on this because MDOT's lowballing um you know I mean I just want to make sure people in the area are are taken care of we're not going to lose this project and get it kicked down the road because they've been kicking this camp for quite
a while and to that Brian I don't want to don't mean to interrupt but you know the January 27th of 2000 was when Tony Mancino was killed there that night people were screaming that the city needs to do something yeah and we can't
and we can't and we I I I said that over and over we can't do anything it's not our property and we've been working and here it is now this is this isn't a city thing this is we've been pushing for this for five years and now it's another
another year goes by so just I agree reiterating what you're saying mindot is frustrating mindot is frustrating my other concern with this project is okay so this can's kicked down the road for another year what does that mean for AAB does that
mean that's going to get kicked down you know because I know they've got this whole timeline of we're redoing 19 all the way down um you know it makes me wonder what their timeline is on all these other projects you know because they want to do the painting or the
striping on on 19 by 8th Avenue there um and then they start talking about another roundabout there and that's in my mind that's another intersection that's probably more more important well I I don't want to say it's more important but I mean we
got a lot more traffic at that more congested yeah i mean and that's a heart of commerce for our city so watching the way that this is being handled doesn't give me warm fuzzies for them wanting to put a roundabout which is just going to reinforce the the the argument I made to
them on that project is I don't want a roundabout just put in some stop lights and stop messing with our town i know it's your county or your trunk highway whatever but you got to respect that we're the ones that live here we're the ones that
use this this is our community and I I just I think Mindad needs to listen a lot more and I hope they're watching the stream on this how many years did it take us to get the the crossing near the the stop light well not the stoplight but the one next to the lumber yard for
years they said we could not have a crossing there at one point we had to cut the pavement back u because we weren't allowed to have a trail that ended up in the highway rightway we we couldn't do that and Joel and uh planner Baker at the time they went out and they
drove around southern Minnesota and found multiple cases of communities that had that exact thing and said all these communities are you know have this why you know why can't we and they said okay fine you can do it now but it took how many years of you know fighting for that it was you know we we are the state we
know better well I mean if we want to throw examples around I mean moving the speed limit sign where this this intersection is i I was I remember sitting in the gallery at that council meeting where uh Todd Liippard came in
here and told us "Oh we can't do it it's Mindot it's Mindot it's Mindot." Well you know we got it done but it did take an act of the legislature just to move a sign move the speed limit side i mean at some point you know we and and and you
know I mean I guess that's us to go up there and lobby up the legislature but I mean mind needs to understand that they're not not they bully cities way too much and I'll stop as far as the the Highway 19 million
overlay um you know the latest um you know when we had our project meetings was 2030 and the roundabout is not a preferred option for Mindot they want to um just stripe it correct well that roundabout actually came out of a city
project I believe in our transportation plan and I think it's because of the higher speeds they typically don't have them in the higher speed areas but it could be something in the future yeah anything more you want to get off
your chest or I like it okay k um what once they start what is their timeline to complete the project uh it would be a construction season so I don't I haven't seen the bid docks
if there's a so like four years as long as as long as the wait well I guess I would be you know think it would be safe to say you're you know you know as soon as you can start in the spring weather weather permitting and they're not going to be want to be paving past
what Thanksgiving look at the the 3519 interchange they I mean they pulled that monstrosity off in one season for the most part so there was a lot under traffic there was a lot that went into that too so I I I would anticipate
they'd be able to pull this off i just think it's an important intersection we have a lot of kids driving to school TCU and stuff like that so it is important that we have a safer option for them is that section a Union Lake trail that's on the That's
It's paved it is paved i I was trying to draw like I couldn't picture if it was but Okay thank you yeah it's just what northeast of the lakes there that's right that's right it's paved to that uh county road and then a little past 58 I
think it is okay if you're going to go to the lake you're going to drive on gravel that's all I have all right jamie are they going to entertain dropping the speed limit on this side of the roundabout instead of accelerating everybody up to 45 for a/4 mile and then
having them go down to 15 for that roundabout uh I I don't have an answer to that question not likely they don't do it i mean they don't do it on on the next one up you know
i mean would seem to make sense to do a speed study after they changed the I don't know made a drastic change to that section of 19 well because they even said that uh when they were doing when they were going to do 19 uh by the
Dollar General I remember Cindy if you're asking well can you can we lower the speed limit and then they said well we need to do a speed study well why would you do the road and then put all these signs up and then just wait a year to put a new sign up so also I mean it
was Senator Lisky that got the sign moved for us i remember I distinctly remember being up there the first day of session with him speaking with transportation staff and saying we want this bill in and he got it done in that first session so and he it took quite a bit for him to do that i think
if we want I mean he now knows if if there's signs we want moved he knows who to talk to amend now I mean I think I think it's a fair request to say senator can you help us move this sign you know I mean there's an argument to be made on
the other end of town to move the speed limit sign there as well now that city hall is going to be up on the hill you know I think but unfortunately it's it's kind of rushing roulette because we've had it happen where we've done a speed study wanting a reduction and they gave us an increase if I remember correctly
well that's why I say don't do a study just ask the senator to put in a bill because guess who well that's what I'm saying a speed study could could blow up in our face you think they'd notice if we just put a new sign up well now they won't thanks it might take
a while well there you go yeah all right so we got to move on here but uh thank you all for your input and thanks for the update joel consider approval of a quote submitted by Synergy Outdoor Solutions in the
amount of $13,685 for installation of playground mulch joe Dornfell thank you Mayor members of the council during the 2025 budget process staff identified the need to top dress the playground mulch at all
of our parks molina playground area provides necessary cushion for the fall protection as well as ADA accessibility uh staff recommends hiring Synergy Outdoor Solutions to provide and install mulch at the JC Park Rayan Park Bastier
Park Stika Park and Kina Park synergy Outdoor Solutions uses equipment to blow it the mulch um which allows for a lot cleaner installation little to no impact to the um grounds around the playground areas and it's a much faster install
with minimal downtime to the park in the past staff has top dressed each of the parks um doing one to two a year depending on the size of the park this approach is very time consuming taking weeks to install the mulch at one park
staff believes it is important to have the parts as safe as possible as soon as possible um Synergy Outdoor Services anticipates one week to complete the mul mulch installation at all of the parks the fiscal impact during the 2025 budget
process 15,000 was budgeted for playground mulch and the installation of the mulch the alternatives would be to just purchase the mulch only and have public works install the mulch the mulch would be purchased from Rockhard Landscape Supply which is the same
supplier Synergy Outdoor Services uses attached i have the three quotes that I have um quote number three from Rockard Landscapes is the quote for the mulch only um if you guys have any questions I would be happy to answer
thank you Joe ryan um so when was the last time we did this the last time we did this um it's probably three years ago was Bastier Park and then in succession okay years
before that and the last time that we did this we completely dug the mulch out to the bottom of the dirt um over time it does decompose and loses its cushion um
so I guess the hard work is is done that so we're we're at a point now where we've installed the new mulch and it's just settled down and we need to top dress so just the amount of staff time i mean it's probably more expensive in our our
staff time to do this on our own it is I don't have numbers for you it I mean there there's just it's not possible um to complete it cheaper than what they can do the other thing to take note is this is not a job
that can be done with equipment when you drive equipment in the park I mean obviously you're going to risk damaging the equipment but you're compacting the mulch and that's not what you want um and the real challenge for staff is it's it's not that we're not capable of doing
it it's the fact that when you're talking about it an hour a day two hours a day half a day it it just draws it out so I think from the efficiency standpoint once I learned the cost um during the
budget process last year um to me to me it's really a no-brainer yeah and you're under budget as always i appreciate that as always y Thank you how often do you think we're going to have to top dress is it like about three
years i'd say about a threeear cycle okay and then we would just budget that in every time so then we have to do this correct okay yeah and the toxicity of this mulch we discussed that at the parks meeting right and it's it's zero
it is zero so there's there's two different types of mulch that we can put in the park um there's safety chip and safety chip select the select gives us the ADA accessibility um the suppliers of this toxic free mulch are are pretty limited it's all from up north the tamarax and
everything and it's maximum of 15% fines i mean it's all it's it's legit for for safety so I think we need to do it especially the 88 that's important it is very
important jamie I'm good scott uh how often do you have to do a full cleanout i said you did the couple years ago you did one but I mean is it a It it made it about 15 years i mean give or It depends
on which park you're talking but versus construction use is a factor as well um but I would say around the 10 to 15 year range so it's it's relatively long term okay all right that's good thank
you uh Joe just for transparency reasons why do we use this mulch as far as this type of engineered wood fiber yep for we use it um it is it's certified
from the IPMA which is the International Plate Equipment Manufacturers Association we're not allowed to just put in whatever kind of mulch that we want
there's a maximum percentage of fines that it can have for fall protection there's a maximum size um which factors into fall protection and the ADA accessibility you have to be able to roll a wheelchair over the top
of it um and then as far as P rock goes um that is no longer allowed that does not meet any fall protection standards we have one park that still has Perrock it's quote unquote grandfathered in um if we were to do any changes to that
part then we would have to switch that part to mulch as well thank you for answering that that's a question that was asked of me quite a bit today and and thank you for explaining that and I hope it answers a lot of people's questions so with that I'll entertain a
motion so motion by second by Vaia any further discussion all in favor i all opposed motion carries consider approval of a quote submitted by team lab in the amount of
$24,600 for a bio augmentation program at the wastewater treatment plant joe Dorfield thank you mayor members of the council uh staff recommends continuing our bio augmentation program which was implemented last year the program
consists of adding bugs to our airrated ponds as well as the digesttor to remove the foam in the airated pond eliminate filamentous bacteria increase settling and improve the overall biology of the treatment plant by adding bugs we can reduce the fats oils and grease we can
improve cold weather operation maintain a healthy environment and biology in our treatment plant the biggest one is increased settling which in turn reduces our hauling costs and it allows for hauling of fall or hauling bio solids in the fall
only staff contacted the following companies for quotes that specialize in bio augmentation curita team lab and aquaix kita came in at 22,685 plus freight team Lab was 24,600
but the freight is included and Aquaix $27,90 plus freight um the freight is a really hard one to calculate based on the amount of shipments that it would take to make it last for one whole year
um although team lab is not the low bid um our experience and success is why they are the recommendation um we've contacted multiple cities to hear testimony when we started this up city of Anendale Dodge Center Graham Array all have very
positive with team lab as did we um we have experienced settling that I have never seen in my 19 years of working for the city of Lawndale which is allowing us for the bio solids hauling in fall
only um so um those other cities expected hauling cost um to reduce by 33% lawnale this year um we can expect our hauling cost to be reduced by 50% obviously we're removing one of them there is a chance that it could increase
a little bit if we don't quite make it to fall um I've contacted the city of New Craig and they are willing to take a few trucks um staff recommends how approving the quote from team lab in the amount of
$24,600 um we have a great success with team lab um it just gives me anxiety to try something new when we really have a good grip a good relationship team lab has been to our plant I would say no
less than eight times um putting our samples under a microscope doing the biology just just really doing a thorough job doing their homework and there was some supplements that we needed and they gave them to us for free because
they stood by their quote and they got our plant um operating the way it should the fiscal impact is the funds have been budgeted for this project the alternatives would be to select one of the others and the attachments are
quotes received from team lab you guys have any questions I'd be happy to answer thank you Joel i don't have any questions i think it's pretty self-explanatory and I trust your judgment Joel and I'm on board with that
thank you Jamie i'm good uh I just wanted to I guess you know refresh my memory so this is something that we put in at uh does it all go in at once or is it or is it done in stages it's a dose per day so it's it's five
pounds a day portion goes in the dig portion so it's it's just in little baggies um you just throw them in and they dissolve um some goes in the digtor some goes in the ponds and as it just works its way
through the system um they eat that's what they do okay and this is a year supply it's a one year supply it's uh it's a the cold weather bugs and the warm weather bugs is what we call them when we started this last year or
whatever was that was that for a full year i don't remember it was for a full year was it okay all right all right so that's all ryan what was the amount that we had budgeted for this just as a reminder do you remember i believe it was 20,000 i cannot verify
that based on our software that we have so this one I don't think is under budget but I cannot verify it 100% i guess that's okay since you've been under budget and everything else it kind of offsets right
no I just I I I remember how impressed you and and your guys have been with doing this um over the last year i mean it's come up several times and it and every time it's been this has been such a great program um exceeding
expectations I think is the way to put it right yeah just so just so you guys have a reference so right now is typically the time where our dig is so full and when we say full it holds 400,000 gallons the amount of solids you can put
in there that settles out that's what we haul away so normally we're ready to haul right now and we're begging for room in the digtor there are six valves that all represent a different level we can still get down to the
second valve that's up from the floor which is I it's amazing yeah that is great yeah I mean I as far as I echo what Ki said um I mean I trust your judgment on
who you work with yeah i really think it's important to to stick with tried and true tried and true even if it is a shade over budget if you're if you're reducing a hall which is $20,000 yeah then it's it's it's a win
yeah i feel a lot better seeing that number so um yeah you and you and Jordan are doing a great job over there so With that I'll entertain a motion so moved motion by second second
by uh any further discussion all in favor i opposed motion carries discuss soliciting proposals for building inspector officials
uh so since the this staff report went out um our current inspector Gary Stabber uh submitted his letter of uh resignation uh the contract provides uh he's required to provide us a 90day notice so uh at this point we have no
choice but to um fill that position um the options available to the the city would be to contract with a company to provide those those services or uh hire a a city employee to to fill that position and
then perform other uh ancillary services such as code enforcement things like that a little history with the retirement of Jim Philip back in 18 uh he was our longtime building inspector of 30 plus years a long time uh we
decided to hire uh a city employee to be our uh building official and inspector uh in addition to doing plan reviews inspections uh he's also responsible for erosion control and some other uh miscellaneous code enforcement uh he resigned uh later that year in October
of 19 we advertised the position uh in the interim we uh contracted with with Gary Stabber or it's uh what is it inspect MN um for their services uh we did offer the position to uh one of the
applicants uh who declined the offer and stayed at his employer at the time uh because of that we entered into a an agreement with Gary Stabber and we've been in uh under contract with him since early 2000 uh the city council should decide
or discuss how you guys want to proceed if you want to contract for services or uh bring a a staff inhouse uh firm typically would have multiple inspectors they could fill in during vacation sick time things like that uh not a city employee uh and then
only pay for the services when it's used the downside of contracting typically uh more expensive but that again that's based on the number of permits uh volume and then communication tends to be less with city employees benefits of hiring a city employee would be they can provide
uh and perform other ancillary duties code enforcement blight and communication tends to be better uh the downside of hiring an employee would be you have that expense regardless of the the number of permits uh the fiscal impact essentially
will be the difference between what we pay now and and the cost of the the decision made i did look on the league's website uh earlier this week and there's a number of building inspector or official positions that that are open um
basically range from for an inspector 25 to what 38 $39 an hour and then for a building official you're in those upper 40s to lower $50 an hour then uh provided what we had paid um Gary in the
past um at this point there are no alternatives we have to decide how we're going to proceed and uh regardless of of the direction have that position filled within uh 90
days so I guess at this point the council would recommend the council discuss how you guys want to proceed if it's contract or uh advertise the position to be a city employee thanks Jamie can we do both at this point in time so
we have a backup plan in case we can't find somebody as a city employee get some bins out there kind of on a sixmonth basis or or you can't give them six months because then do
a year contract but with the option to terminate it when we fill the position i'm not sure how we do that i mean if 90 90 days is enough time to hire an employee it's just what's the applicant pool going to be like and
is someone going to accept the position yep the good news is there's more people applying for jobs than there has been in the past so we might get people but we are risking that we don't put it out to nobody applies
i'm good thanks Scott um well I was actually gonna make the suggestion uh I would I would propose a one-year uh contract with a with a contractor 90 days i remember when we were trying to uh place a building official originally
the pool was kind of small now we have another thing to look at um we don't know if we're going to have a new housing development moving forward or not we're still kind of you know that's kind of in limbo um we would have this if we hired somebody we would have this fixed
cost with I don't want to say we'd be trying to do fill-in work but you know extra stuff and we don't want to be uh you know rushing we have 90 days to get somebody uh to advertise hired trained you know in in our operation everything
and have them going that's a hope that we can find somebody in 90 days if we don't then we are our hands are tied then we're going to be forced to go with a contractor i think it would be better to go with a guaranteed uh a contractor
we might not have to pay him much this year because we might not have any development given construction costs or developments uh that are delayed it give us some a little more time to see what the the pool is um I just it's a very it's a very niche uh
market just like um when we were looking for a community development planner for example uh there was a very there was not a lot of people that had that uh qualification the other thing that happens with commercial stuff too is not
all local building inspectors have the background to do the larger scale u projects so then we is they have to contract with somebody or whatever so there's other stuff with that so we have to um I don't know if there's an
additional cost like uh uh Yep absolutely when Yeah when Gary couldn't do something they still we there was additional u inspection and engineering he he he had the full license did he jim Philip hadn't okay so he contracted with
I can't think of what the guy's name is um down in Fairbo okay all right but yeah if we hired an employee my recommendation definitely would be full license everything in house so so that that point that drives the cost up even higher so I just feel like we're kind of behind the eightball on this one and I
don't want to I don't want to be caught late so sure thank you Ryan i guess my my only question would be do we have enough to fill the time for a full-time employee
we justify the cost of an FTE at this point um I mean I like the idea of get a contractor in here so we don't have to rush a hire because when you rush a hire you don't necessarily always make the
best decisions you just in a crunch you have to fill a position i would rather potentially have a contract for a year and then that gives us time to interview well make the right decisions you know I mean yes eventually
I would like to see this as a in-house employee um but I also want to make sure we're not hiring somebody in there out of desperation well not just out of desperation but we don't have enough to fill their time and here
we are committed to 40 hours that's what I was saying that we're trying to find fill in work which I'm sure there's stuff to do sure but yeah but enforcement I mean I'm sure Jason speak to it enforcement isn't always easy either so
all right Carrie with the contractor is there a minimum like retainer fee or something like that that we'd have to or is it just going to be based on as a needed basis uh I guess what I've seen in the past is
just based off of permits so um you know like 100% of the plan review fee you know and then typically the permit fee is split proportionately somehow percentage- wise um between the city and
the the building inspector so I guess that's how I would see it playing out you know now maybe if it's a year maybe it's different and there is a minimum I have another question $6,000 a month or something like that off of that
um we have our fee schedule that we set would a contractor would we have to look at what that fee schedule is would we possibly have to change it to match uh no no they would just take what we
already Yep okay well like the review fee and all that stuff they would That's all that's all based off of the building code oh that's right that's evaluation i apologize our flat fees are you know a shed is what I don't even know 120 180 something like that okay
all right all right disregard i think going with the contractor shortterm for a year so that we have time and then I'm pretty sure we're probably going to have a lot more code enforcement things coming up so so it would be nice to have somebody in house
to help with all of that as well so well sounds pretty unanimous i'll entertain a motion make a motion to solicit four proposals for building inspection official by second by Miller any further discussion
so um just to clarify we're going to solicit proposals from a contractor correct correct i just when I'm looking at it here because we've got building official as an employee with an hourly rate in the report so
that's why I just want to make sure we're clear on what we're and I'll amend that for a potential one-year contract excellent yes all right all in favor i all opposed motion carries consider approval of an application for
payment number four in the amount of $193,368.35 construction for the city hall remodel project uh application for payment number four is the amount of uh like was just stated 193 uh 36835 uh consists of
uh general and temp conditions finished carpentry case work doors ceilings uh flooring paint bathrooms uh some sprinkler work and plumbing HVAC electrical and low voltage and then uh change orders two and four uh work is
progressing well um I don't want to say it's essentially wrapped up but it's probably 98% complete uh in the short term uh well since then they've they finish up the they finished the flooring the RTU or the the rooftop unit the furnace um we have that start up I think
next Mon Monday uh and then they'll have to go through and and do a thorough deep clean project is on schedule on budget uh and again work's anticipated to be completed by the end of this month uh furniture will be delivered installed end of May
uh working on signage and uh flag poles as well and then actually today I just got the um I guess the final draft uh of the proposed lease with uh Evergreen Therapy Solutions so I'll be getting that to them and and working through that uh the fiscal impact to the city
again is the 193 36835 uh alternatives would be to not pay uh the proposed uh application for payment and then included with the staff report is is the application for payment unless there's any questions staff would recommend approval of
application for payment number four thanks Scott um well I mean obviously project is moving along and u I actually stopped up there the other day and did a walk through and as Joel said it's looking like uh we're in the home home stretch of it so I see no reason to uh
deny a payment right i don't have anything how many more payments do we have left on this uh it'll be based on uh what what the contractor submits well actually
uh let's see current see balance to finish well you'll definitely have a a final payment for the the the retainage um what do we add here total earned less retainage
999,000 so probably two more payments i'm good all right motion so move second second by the safe any further discussion all in favor i all
opposed motion carries consider approval of resolution 2025-20 a resolution sponsoring of the Lndale Snow Wizards uh this is annual resolution that's adopted by the council uh the purpose is so that the Lndale snow
wizards which is our local snowmobile club uh can be reimbursed for uh snowmobile trail maintenance uh property acquisition development uh for the funding to be obtained uh the city needs to be the local unit of government sponsor uh which means that we actually
enter into the uh the grant agreement with the DNR and submit payment requests the DNR pays us we and then cut a check and then in turn cut a check to the snow wizards to um for the amount of the the pay application uh this year's grant
application or award I believe was about 48 $4,900 um which is uh I don't know $3 $400 less than it has been in in previous years uh the fiscal impact of the city's minimal it's about five hours of staff time uh but the fiscal impact
of the snow wizards is you know almost 40 $4,900 in uh cost reimbursement for the 2425 season alternatives would be not to approve the the resolution and they'd have to find a different uh sponsor uh attached is the proposed
resolution unless there's any questions staff would recommend approval of resolution 2025-20 right uh it's a pass through i mean it's a good good thing that we do um I think it's really important that we we maintain this relationship with the Snow
Wizards because you know we've got good partners here in town and they do bring in economic um benefit to the city and I think that's that's seen an increase uh with the activity with Rail 19 because I
know Jason and Lori um are very active with the snow wizards and it the the the uh the amount of people coming to the city spending money has has increased from that group so you know it's
important that we maintain this relationship and also they're very generous uh to local nonprofits with their uh charitable gambling that's a very good point thank you for bringing up yeah they do i mean they throw successful
fundraisers and they're not afraid to share that wealth for sure i was just gonna go on about the um great relationship that the snow wizers has with the local nonprofits um working with the ambassadors we really appreciate their support for our annual
egg hunt um so and I know that they do a lot of great things in the community so I'm all on board with whatever we can do to help the snow wizards maintain their organization i'm good scott I'll reiterate what you guys said great
partnership so continue moving forward yeah I agree joel did they ever reach out about a trail for big uh yes and we're working with the developer to uh get that incorporated into the into their plan
okay awesome well that I'll entertain a motion i'll make a motion motion by Miller second second by Palava any further discussion all in favor i all opposed
all right last item of new business is update on the city's 2024 audit process anderson uh so the auditors they're uh wrapping up their work they have a few things to to complete um anticipating uh drafting starting to draft uh the report uh here
shortly uh overall audit went well um shout out to city treasurer T Tammy Brol uh she does a a great job uh working with uh our auditors over the years and providing information and helping out
um you know similar findings of facts from from previous years you guys will see uh segregation of duties things like that we just don't have the staff um but that'll be presented at the when uh I'm assuming Tom Olinger will uh give the presentation to the council here
probably uh next month um no issues have been brought to my attention that that need to be addressed so um again another year of uh smooth sailing through the audit process and we'll we'll go from there
thank you no no I'm glad that it worked well i know that the software changes have always been a challenge you know that as much as they say that these things are integrated or they talk to each other they don't always seem to work quite the way they're supposed to software it's a
necessary evil right no questions yeah and I I thanked Tammy earlier today too she does a really bang on work for the city so thank you again
Tammy um so with that we'll go into Other business is department and council reports and Joe Dorfeld is back to you thank you Mr mayor and members of the council um good news JC Park scoreboard
got powered up today um Monday we have training um company's coming to show us how to run it um the bathrooms and concession stand electrical work is complete tomorrow the epoxy flooring is going in
so our goal for Monday's first game I fingers crossed it's going to happen everything will be up and running um the guys have been doing great getting the fields already i mean everything about that park it's kind of been the focus of this week uh the booster station air
compressor got installed and that's up and running power panel is installed and operational there's a few little bugs they had to work out trying to get the hockey lights to come back on and just kind of figuring out some logistics but things are going well um so I guess
things that are left would be automatic systems going to have to come back in and finalize their programming and then the floor coatings and tank coatings um I have an article ran in the paper for next week
for um hydro flushing will be April 21st through the 25th road restrictions come off April 16th at 12:01 a.m that's always kind of a big one for contractors so
um attended a public works meeting Tuesday and then earlier today a wellhead protection meeting um I guess pretty pretty low-key just kind of reporting that you know Lawndale's water
is so deep it's very old and very safe so nonvulnerable we're in good shape um that's all I got for you thank you Joe how about you Shioani thank you Mr mayor members of the council um just
working with staff on reviewing those MDOT plans um so good to know we got some feedback from menot for now um on 19 and two um and then our mill and overlay project um Nate from our office
contacted McNamera and we're looking to schedule a precon at the end of April for a May start so we'll update the council as we get closer and we also send a letter out to residents um you know prior to construction telling them not to park on the street and give them
some more information on what to expect and then we'll also be looking at um any punch list items and restoration work for the trail project from last year on Ash Street Northeast and then 8th Avenue Southwest
um and just um supporting staff with any questions or needs that they have as well thank you uh you know assisting staff as needed um follow up with the uh uh engineering firms to get those interviews scheduled
i've got legal RFPs to to review and get those to you guys obviously the building inspector official we had our liquor store meeting on what the second I think first uh sat in on PD interviews uh city
hall meetings uh met with uh our the police and fire chiefs on federal grant funding met weekly meet with Lynette on Tuesday afternoon uh attended the Rice County Economic Development meeting yesterday uh working on the compensation
study i've got to review seasonal public works employees uh applications and get those interviews scheduled and conducted uh part-time liquor store clerk position closes tomorrow that's about it thank you Cy uh thank you Mr mayor and
council members i'm putting together the um the April 21st uh park board agenda uh thank you council member Miller for getting me uh information ahead of time uh the planning and zoning uh commission meeting uh thank you Mr mayor uh for
sending me the digital uh sign information which will be on that agenda and just another reminder out there uh for transparency uh we have the public hearing for chickens on the 21st um at at 6:45 p.m
right um as Joel said we had the liquor store committee meeting on April 1st um one of the big things to highlight there is uh May 3rd we've got the
tasting coming up May 3rd um as of the meeting we have 11 vendors signed up and I believe was 13 when that said you were targeting 13 potentially so um yeah and then uh Joe I apologize for not making your had a protection meeting earlier i
was at the library they uh had a birthday they share a birthday with you Joe sweet you should have come up for some cake there was a cake up there for you no so I was at the the library um for the the 15th birthday so that was fun
um yeah it's just fun it's fun talking with people when they come to the library everybody's so happy at the library i just love it um so again thank you happy birthday to the library um 7 o'clock tonight they had a volunteer recognition too which u I'm sad to have
have missed that but uh thank you to all of our library volunteers i believe um as I was leaving to come to this meeting Margarite was telling me we had 40 that had RSVP 40 volunteers that had
RSVP she sent out invitations think about that for a second 40 people over the last year and That's not all of them that's just the ones that RSB needs so we have some great volunteers in this community and you
know when Ldale shows up Lzale shows up big so thank you Lale thank you to the library for 15 years thank you K um so I was at the liquor meeting with Joel and Brian so there's not much just the tasting on the third
put that on your calendar it's always a fun time um we have the parks meeting as Corey mentioned on the 21st we have a lot of fun things to talk about there um I also went up to the library today to celebrate their birthday i couldn't have cake because I have to be gluten free so
we made a joke about that but um it was fun uh just hanging out there like Brian said they're always um happy and positive good experience and then um we're just excited with the parks board to be teaming up with the library for um
events in the parks for the library so continuing partnerships are important and happy birthday thank you thank you Jamie uh public works will be on the 21st it's going to be the public hearing for chickens i've been hearing
about that for the last two weeks at work just alone um it's also going to be Mike Harding's first meeting as planning and zoning commissioner and we'll be talking about digital billboards and I encourage people if you can't meet make
the public hearing for the chickens to reach out to me or Corey with your comments and concerns and they'll be addressed at the meeting that's all I've got all right thank you
Jamie scott um I need to apologize i didn't make the wellheld meeting today once again sometimes my life is a is an emergency call and I ended up that ended up being my afternoon unfortunately um
la uh the 30th of March uh I attended the ribbon cutting at Lzel Tear Taria i I butcher it every time um but uh uh Joel was there joel and I were there along with the chamber representation uh
great to have that new business here and uh uh get to meet the ownership and support them um then past Tuesday uh the chamber held a coffee and networking event at uh First National Bank in the
morning and then we uh had a another one it was called more mingling after hours uh the chambers garnered a new membership a new member with u more golf and utility so we actually met with them up in uh New New Market for their grand
opening so our chamber is growing far beyond just the uh our our city so um and then uh EDA is scheduled to meet next week all right thank you Scott well it was great being here for the wellhead
meeting um that's why there was still cake left at the library yeah yeah and that was one of the other things I wanted to say was uh happy birthday to the library and happy birthday to Joel um it was great being at the library event today um and
everything you had said Brian is absolutely true um met with Brand Rivers from uh Minnesota Milworks today and it was great to walk through his facility and uh see his growth plans and everything um it's always nice to be able to walk into some of these
businesses these manufacturing businesses and see what they do so I want to thank you for the time um I received an email from a young man named Jameson and uh he reached out about a basketball hoop and I sent that over to
Corey and and um it was just great to see you know 13y old kid emailing seeing what I can do for him so park where we'll be talking about that uh took a tour with uh Jordan Plots on the wastewater treatment facility and yet if
you haven't gone uh he's the best guy to go on a tour with and I'll be looking forward to uh working on this with engineering services with whoever we choose and um working on that we also had a interview with a great candidate for our
open police officer position and um thank you and and Joel and Brian for being there but also thank you to Officer Thailand for being there it was phenomenal seeing him it's always nice to see him uh we have some of the best
officers in town and and uh I love supporting them and then um also I had a meeting with Skyworn and I I would like for a lease agreement to be there for Skyworn as we are seeing kind of May 1st being closing
time and uh yeah I I think we need it so um other than that I got nothing else uh oh well wait the the federal grant program is now opened up uh for C2 so
the radios of body cams uh I'll get with Joel Pumper and Schmidz and Joel and we'll see if we can get funding for that so just to clarify CD2 Congressional District 2 for for the folks at home
sorry I just I I I have that problem i do it all the time and people what are you talking about i didn't congressional district um one question I do have is is Lisa plan on being there for EDA as far as I know yes I haven't heard
otherwise cool so other than that I got nothing else so I'll seek a motion to Okay two more things real quick i forgot I provided um I'm not sure if you guys get emails from the league on attending the league conference i'm not sure if you guys are interested in attending
that or not um but it was budgeted for for staff to attend um I know it's it's up in Duth so hotels go quick um So if you guys want to um go we you should let me know we can get something scheduled
um it is also over uh our last meeting in June council meeting so if if people are attending that we'd have to look at rescheduling that meeting and then also um um apparently on social media there's a
a movement for wild flowers and grass and all kinds of things um it must be um gaining steam because public works uh got to locate for someone to fill up their entire yard for a garden um that's
our city code is tall weeds and grass is 8 in so um I guess we're going to have to think about what we're going to do about that wasn't there a uh a date enforcement uh first first enforcement starts uh before
Labor Day i'm sorry Memorial Day so this is going to come to a head real quick yeah i So I I was going to look into that too i know exactly what you're where you're going someone posted that there's a state statute i remember we talked about that here last year i I
thought that was the It had to be native grass it can't just be whatever you want it had to It was very grass but it's wild flowers yes it was very specific well and there's
there are designators that you can apply for through I believe DNR that you can designate your property but I I was going to do some more research myself on that after seeing some of the threat so
are we enforcing no more name oh absolutely yeah the ordinance is 8 in it's all weeds and grass that's why I'm saying it's going to come to in a month because that was that was part of it too is that the the
the state statute or whatever that was being passed was it had to be specific things you couldn't just let your general ry grass and fescue just grow lawn it was it had to be native grasses and flowers
i think it's probably in our best interest to always do our homework to whatever level we want to do and have it as an agenda item for next meeting some of the pollinator mixes don't get above 8 in too there are short versions
of the pollinators in the clover field and if it was just nice pretty flowers I don't think anybody would object but if there's going to be weeds growing in along with those wild flowers then that's where we need to draw the
line because we don't need ragweed growing around town or stingy nettles or thistles we there's no doubt we get tons of calls for enforcing tall weeds and grass it's a hot topic
actually I think I just I just found it and it was a it was a bill that was introduced but I don't think it was passed HF734 on native landscapes so from 2023 Northfield does allow
pollinator gardens but it's not their entire lot either it's a portion of their lot yeah I know there's some by like St olaf and it's their whole front yard they got a little sidewalk about this wide then it doesn't have anything
but just bringing it up it's going to become it's going to be an issue so is it okay if we all just do our research and then put it on the agenda for the next council meeting well staff will do the research i'm not worried about about that i mean you guys certainly can too as well but yeah let's
follow it up for discussion but I mean our our ordinance is tall weeds and grass is 8 in all right further discussion all in favor all opposed all right