I think we're set to go. It is 7 o'clock and I'm going to start with introduc. First of all, welcome everybody. Thank you for coming. Um, this is a special event. So, um, glad to see all of you here. I'm Lisa Whan. I'm the mayor. And to my left, our council members, Kathleen Refkin, Peter Vicky, Claudia
Lacy, and Brian Govern. And then on the end, we have uh staff Gary Peters, our uh public works superintendent, Alli Palouse, our assistant administrator. Now to my right we have Jasper Krugal who is our uh city administrator, Brian Grim our finance director, David Ael our
community development director and then on the end we have um our chief of police by for so many years I said Paul and so I have to switch now Craig Squires. I'm sorry Craig I'll get used
to it. I'll get used to it. Um so welcome everyone and then we have a couple people um joining us remotely. We have Annne Meerhoff who is our city clerk and Sarah Sansala who is our uh attorney with Kennedy and Graven. First I'd like to ask that you all join me in
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.
So, next, um, I'm looking for approval of the agenda. We have one minor change. Uh, Henipin County Sheriff Dana Wit will not be able to be here this evening, so we're going to remove that from the agenda. Otherwise, are there any other changes or additions or subtractions?
Hearing none, then is there a motion to approve the agenda with that one change? So, moved. Thank you, Miss Refkin. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Govern. All those in favor signify with I. I. I. All those opposed? Motion passes. So, next, uh, so we'll start out with, uh, a very special presentation
tonight, and that is swearing in of our public safety supervisors. I'm going to hand it over to Chief Squares. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh, Madame Mayor, council members, city administrator Krugal, city staff, law enforcement brothers and sisters, family, and friends. is with great honor
that we take part today in the swearing in of the Minatrista Police Command staff. This moment marks not just a transition of roles but a reaffirmation of our commitment to service and community. As we gather here, I want to assure you that while we may now occupy
new positions, the department is in excellent hands. Together as supervisors, we have nearly 70 years of law enforcement experience, as a department, we have around 200 years of work experience. Our department backgrounds are rich and diverse and companies have seen titles that span the
spectrum of law enforcement specialties. Some of these include detective, school resource officer, SWAT operator, SWAT commander, drug enforcement agent, field training officer, and various other police instructors. Yet, beyond our titles and experience, we share a similar vision. Our mission is clear. We
are dedicated to making militus and St. Bonafacious exceptional places to live, work, and play. We understand that our duty extends far beyond enforcement. It is about building trust, fostering relationships, and serving our community with dedication and pride. As we embark
on this journey together, we hold dear the principle that wisdom is knowing the right path to take and integrity is taking it. It is a privilege for the four of us to stand before you tonight and again take a vow to protect. So, thank you, mayor and councel. Thanks to our family who supported us on our
mission. I ask that Deputy Chief Cummings, Sergeant Brown, and Sergeant Griggs join me up here. And Madame Mayor, would you please do the honors of swearing us in? I would love to. Thank you. Sideways.
No, facing. Yeah. me on my honor. On my honor as a leader of the Ministry of Public Safety Department. As a leader of the public safety department, I will uphold my badge. Will uphold my badge, my
integrity, my integrity, my character, my character, and the public trust. and the public trust. I will hold myself hold myself and others accountable and and others accountable. I will uphold the Constitution of the United States of
America. I will uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. The laws of the state of Minnesota. State of Minnesota, the values of this community. Values of this community and the policies of our department. The
policies of our department. So help us. [Applause] One more. [Laughter] Perfect. All right, Lisa, you should wear heels. got her box.
I'll bring you a step stool. A step stool. Hey, where are the old boys here for the meeting? Have fun. Oh, wait. I need all the fun grab's glasses. Oh, sure.
Thank you. All right. So, um, next, um, on the agenda is the, uh, audit presentation from our financial auditors, uh, Clifton Alen Lson. So, we have with us this evening Grace Trazinski and Chris
Canopic. I got it right. Um, so, welcome and thank you for being here this evening and presenting the uh, final audit for 2024. Thank you. Sounds good. Thank you very much, uh, Madame Mayor and the council for allowing us some time to present the
audit results for 20 for the year ended December 31st, 2024. I am kind of sad that everybody left there because it's so exciting. I see how we fit into this. So, um, thank you very much for the for the introduction. Just real briefly, um, Chris Kenopic. I'm a
principal with Clifton Larson Allen. I've been with CLA now for um almost 21 years, a little over that, working with local governments across the state of Minnesota and across the country my entire career. So I have uh Grace Trzinski with me who's the senior in charge for this for the city's audit
this year and we're going to go through and kind of divide and conquer the PowerPoint presentation here tonight. So go so we'll go real briefly through some required communications. We'll go through some audit results. uh what we call emerging issues are really just some of the new upcoming accounting
standards that the city's going to be required to follow over the next couple of years and then some financial results after that as well. So looking at our first part of our required communications really what we're looking at here is just a reminder that an audit provides reasonable
notabsolute assurance as to the results within your financial statements. Absolute assurance means that we would have to audit 100% of the transactions for an entity and that's just not feasible whether it's time commitment monetarily it's just not feasible. So it's reasonable assurance. To get that
reasonable assurance, what we are doing is we use a risk-based audit approach, which means through discussions internally amongst our team, talking to a member or two of the city council as well as our knowledge of local governments and talking to city staff, we develop a uh riskbased audit approach
where we get to spend the majority of our time and emphasis on those areas that we deem risky. Uh we would like to let you know also that within your financial statements, estimates are just a natural part of your financial statements. Estimates for the city include uh like collectibility of
receivables, the useful lives of your capital assets, the pension liability, postemployment benefit liability, compensated absences. And our responsibility with those is really to make sure they're reasonable, they're supported, there's no management bias, and we would have to let you know if there was anything that we deemed
particularly sensitive with those or or a high degree of uncertainty, which there is none for the city. We also want to provide that um an update to let you know there was two new governmental accounting standards that were adopted this year. We use the acronym GASBY that's the board. So governmental accounting standard board. So this year
statement number 100 was adopted in 101. 100 really is just a financial statement presentation standard. Um you'll see if you go through your financial statements this year what we've kind of started terming a ghost column. So a when a fund moves from major to non- major now
you'll see a essentially a column of all zeros where it used to be reported a beginning fund balance essentially a line that says restatement to move that to its new designation whether it was major or non- major. So just a very slight change in that supposed to help make the readability of the financial
statements easier for for readers. Statement 100 101 was related to compensated absences. So compensated absences was is acred vacation sick comp time earn safe and sick time fall into all of that. And uh the standard that
that governments used prior to 101 was Gazby statement number 16. So that was 30 some years ago. So 30 years ago Gazsby didn't understand the idea of PTO and all these different type of lead banks that were out there at the time. So now under 101 we had to look at that.
Um it what it ended up doing with the adoption of that standard is it increased your acred vacation and sick leave liability by about $132,000. So not a huge increase to the city, but there is a slight increase to the city on that. So wanted to let you know that those were out there. And then
also we'd let you know that if we had any disagreements, difficulties, anything like that with management. And I always say no news is good news on that. if we ever did have something with Brian or or Jasper or anybody at the city, we'd let you know if we had any issues with conducting the audit, which we didn't have any.
So, as far as the actual audit results, the city's receiving received an unmodified or clean audit opinion. That's the highest level of assurance that you can receive and that's really the uh the opinion that you want to see is unmodified. As part of the audit, we also look at your internal controls. We
do not provide an opinion on your internal controls. Our responsibility is to let you know if we identify any deficiencies, which we did not have any. Those would come in the form of a material weakness or a significant deficiency, and we did not identify anything of those when we did our testing this year. We also do look at
our at Minnesota legal compliance. That is something the office of the state auditor requires us to do for local governments. This year we did have one item that fell into that as a compliance exception related to um when when cities uh have contracts when there's payment
of wages involved. So typically it's uh repair and maintenance type contracts, road projects, resurfacing projects, the city is supposed to obtain what is called a contractor's withholding affidavit prior to final settlement. That's an affidavit that the contractor submits to the city to say we've
properly collected and remitted all of our payroll taxes that we have to for the city or for this project. There was a a small resurfacing project that the city just didn't get that prior to the final final payment was that it was subsequently obtained after the fact, but it just wasn't obtained prior to
final settlement. So, um, no issues with with any of the testing. you know, we still found that the city obtained it, just the timing of it didn't match when it was supposed to be obtained. So, overall very positive on the results for the city. Now, when we look at what we call
emerging issues or so, these are some of those new governmental accounting standards that are coming out really over the next uh two years. So, the nice part is is the statement number 102 for the December 31st, 2025 audit. It's actually going to be a should be a fairly easy standard to adopt. just note
disclosure related and that's it. What that standard wants us to do is it wants us to start including in the footnotes to your financial statements more about the actual operating environment in which the city operates. So are you subject to levy limits, debt limits, um
bargaining agreements where there might be uh unsettled contracts? Those are the types of disclosures they want us to start including. So now the readers can get a better understanding what is the what is the operating environment in which we're in now. So, um, that's all information that the city typically has
readily available. So, it's just a matter of putting it into a format that's going to fit nicely in the financial statement. So, pretty easy one on that one. In uh 2026, there's going to be two standards that are applicable. The first one, 103, is going to have a little bit of additional work to it.
This is one where it's the the first of two standards that are going to be impacting the financial statements now over the next several years. Uh the one that's going to go along with this isn't even out of preliminary draft stage at the Gazsby board yet. So it's still several years off, but this is really
the first of two. Um this one is going to be looking at and actually um reworking what we call the management discussion and analysis. That's the one of the very first sections of your financial statements and really gives a narrative form of what's happened to the city over the last year. Why did
revenues increase or decrease and and vice versa. So this is going to just change what's included in that management discussion and analysis. The other part is it's going to change some of the layout of your enterprise fund financial statements or your proprietary funds and it's going to introduce a new
category called subsidies. So um the easiest example to of a subsidy to a enterprise fund is if the city had to levy for water or sewer or something like that. That's that's the types of subsidies that they're talking about. So, um, wouldn't expect a ton of impact
for that one on the city outside of the reworking of the management discussion and analysis. And then finally, statement 104, that's going to be applicable for, uh, December 31st, 2026. That's another one where the, um, over the last couple of years, some of these new standards that we've had come out,
the lease standard, the the subscriptionbased IT arrangement standard, they started to introduce new perms and types of assets, right to use assets, things like that. that statement's going to be really um kind of bringing together all these old statements and saying here's how you should actually present them in the
financial statements now. So, it's not going to change the calculations of any of those. It's just how should we put this all together so it's in a consistent and concise spot for all local governments across the country. So, just cleaning up that part of it. So, and with that, I will turn it over
to Grace to go through some of the financial results. Thank you. All right, moving to the fund financial results. Uh, starting on this slide, this graph shows the total unassigned fund balance in the general fund for the
past five years in the light blue, as well as the unassigned fund balance as a percentage of expenditures in the general fund for the past five years in the the dark blue. The city had budgeted spendowns of fund balance in 21 and 22
as well as for 2024. But as you can see, the percentage still remained relatively consistent with the past two years. In 2024, the general fund unassigned fund balance as a percentage of expenditures was 39.9% as compared to
42.6% in 2023. The total fund balance in the general fund as of December 31st, 24 was $3,9,494 as compared to 3,16,724 as of December 31st, 2023. So, a slight decrease there, but that was budgeted for as a spend down during
2024. All right, this graph shows the total general fund revenue by the different sources as well as the percentages of those sources as compared to total revenues. The categories we have here are property taxes, license and permits,
intergovernmental, user fees, and all other revenues which would include your investment income. I want to highlight again that we're showing the ratios of the total revenue and the changes in those ratios do not necessarily reflect a significant or large, you know, increase or decrease in your actual
total revenues from the prior years. As you can see, property taxes are the primary revenue source for the city and the next largest category is license and permits. The city saw an increase in the total number of building permits issued for new single family homes, which went
from 107 building permits to 128 in 2024. And the city is expecting continued controlled growth for 2025 and beyond. Here we have a summary of the general fund expenditures by the different
categories or departments and shows again the percentages of those compared to your total expenditures in terms of things to highlight here. As you can really see the percentages coming from each of those departments is pretty spot-on each year. This is great to see as it makes it kind of pretty
predictable for what your expenditures will be which is a result of a very well-managed and operated budget by the city. This slide is a combination of the pre three previous slides for unassigned fund balance, total revenue, and total
expenditures in the general fund. Total revenue for the general fund for 2024 was $6,73,811 as compared to $6,713,37 in 2023. So overall, not a very large change there. Only about a $10,000 decrease in your total revenue for the general fund. Total expenditures
for the general fund for 2024 were $6,817,176 as compared to $6,142,813 in 2023. So there was roughly a $675,000 increase in your total expenditures in the general fund, which was mainly related to higher salary and benefit labor costs from negotiated
labor contracts that went into effect during 2024. Moving on now, we're going to take a look at the city's enterprise funds, which includes the water, sewer, and storm water fund. On this slide, we are comparing the unrestricted net position in each of these funds, which is
basically the net position not including the net investment in capital assets. So, the net position that the city could actually use or spend. Both the sewer fund and storm water fund have remained relatively consistent the past couple years. Whereas you can see the water fund the unrestricted net position
actually decreased. This was due to increases in expenses and engineering services along with additional maintenance and utility costs. Operating revenues in the water fund also decreased from the prior year due to there being greater rainfall which caused lower usage of water during the
year. This graph summarizes the activity in the water fund. The red line is what the water fund's operating income would be if you added back in depreciation, which would get you closer to a cash basis since the city has already expended those funds. The greenish yellow line is
the water funds actual operating income that you will see in your financial statements. The other two bar columns are operating revenues and operating expenses. As you can see, expenses increase from the prior year due to those additional engineering services, maintenance, and utility costs. And
again, the operating revenues decrease due to lower water usage caused by greater rainfall in 2024, as well as there being more connection fees in 2023. So overall, all of these factors are what led to the decrease in the operating income for the water fund.
Next we have the same graph but summarizing for the activity in the sewer fund. Looking at the greenish yellow line again, the city has had slight operating losses the past 5 years. The main driver in the operating loss for the current year were expenses. Expenses increased in the sewer fund due
to an increase in operating and maintenance supplies costs whereas your revenues remained in line with the previous year. Here we have the activity for the storm water fund. This year the storm water fund did not operate at a loss and had
operating income of $15,452. This can be attributed to the increase in revenues from the number of storm water accounts the city had compared to the prior year. This slide summarizes the city's total debt related payments in 24 as well as the projected debt related payments for
the next five years. The total debt in 2024 was 24,919,000 as compared to 22,547,364 in 2023. Total principal payments on the city's long-term debt was
$1,230,000. And the city also issued 590,000 of general obligation equipment certificates and 3,510,000 of general obligation water revenue bonds which were issued in October of 24. This is data from the office of the
state auditor. The 2024 data is not available yet due to ongoing audits, reporting forms, etc. So we're using 2023 data here. This graph compares your total taxes per capita to the neighboring cities of Minitrista. As you can see, in 2023, you are below your
neighboring cities, which has been a similar trend in other years as well. Here we have another per capita slide for the city's current expenditures. So, this backs out any capital expenditures or debt related payments. Each city has its own needs and expenditures can obviously vary
yeartoear. So take this slide for what it's worth, but as you can see, you're pretty comparable to your cities on the right side of the graph and that there are a few outliers as you see in Orino and Long Lake. And that concludes our presentation. Thanks again for having us
here tonight and we welcome any questions or comments that you may have. Thank you. Um questions, comments, would it be possible to get the PowerPoint? I was just going to ask that. Yes. Thank you. or and yeah and send that to the council
too. That would be great. Yeah. All right. Thank you very much and we'll look forward to next year. All good news. All right. Nice job, Ryan. You Yeah. No, I want to thank uh obviously the finance staff, Angie and
Renee do a lot of hard work for the audit, too, as well as obviously Clifton and Lars and Allen puts in a lot of time, their effort. Yeah, it's a group project, I guess, or a group team. So yeah, thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. So next we'll move on to
persons to be heard. Um Mr. Thunderberg, are you okay not commenting right now? I mean Okay. Thank you. Um then we'll move on to consent agenda items. Are there any you wish to remove? Otherwise they consist of a approve our work session
meeting minutes from May 5th, 2025. I had just a couple minor little um adjustments. Nothing major, just minor little things. So that's why I didn't pull it. Approve our city council regular meeting minutes from May 5th, 2025. C is approve the ministries to
city council and commission code of conduct. We got not contact. Um and then the next one is approve a purchase of our of one SL 1000 PPA portable parallel analyzer and
testing K keys from Corin Main. It was interesting to read that and I think that's a great purchase. It'll save time and energy and be more accurate. So, that's wonderful. Um, another another one is approve the claims. F is approving an agreement with Waste
Management of Minnesota Incorporated for the recycling services with those changes that we talked about at our work session. And G is award a park trail overlay paving to Dunmore asphalt. And H is approve a manhold adjustment and
easement at 5345 Cedar Point Road. And I have to see if there's any more. Hold on. I should go to page one. And then I is accept the bid and quotes and award the contracts for the pavement maintenance project. It's city project number
03-25. Any questions? Hearing none. Is there a motion to approve consent agenda items A through I? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Govern. Is there a second? Thank you, Miss Lacy. All those in favor signify with I. I. I.
All those opposed. Motion. Madam Mayor, passes. And then we have to accept. Thank you. And next um wasn't Next, we would also I'd like to also ask the council to accept and it's just um receive and
accept the 2024 financial audit that was given to you in your packet as well as a presentation. Is there a motion to that effect? So moved. Thank you, Miss Lacy. And Mr. Vickery seconded that. All those in favor signify with I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. Thank you,
Brian. Um, and thank you for your work too on that and staff's work, too. I'm assuming you applied for the Gatsby award again. Yes, we'll be the award. That'll be I think our gosh 17th, 18th year getting quite a few years. So, good. Um,
so next we don't have any public hearings. We'll move on to our business items and that's approve ordinance number 499 amending chapter 11 of city code related to farm animals. I'll hand that over to David. Yeah, thank you madame mayor and members of council. Um,
as you're probably well aware, we've had several uh discussions about residential backyard chickens at uh up to this point they've been at uh city council work sessions. Um, at your most recent work session, the council did ask staff to bring back a draft ordinance um,
allowing three hens on residential lots that are at least 1/2 acre in size. We did attach ordinance number 499 as part of your uh, staff report this evening um, that captures, I believe, the specific language that the the general u
majority of the council seemed to uh, agree upon and have considered uh, put that for your consideration this evening. Again, it's the three hens. No roosters on residential lots at least 1/2 acre provided that hens are kept in a fully enclosed, fully contained
rodent-free environment is the proposed language for the exemption to uh chapter 11 uh dealing with farm animals of city code. Thank you, Mr. Ael. Question. Uh, did we want to include something about
uh HOAs being able to uh prohibit chickens or subject to it in that ordinance or is that implied? It's implied. I mean, they they can do um they they can be more restrictive as they please and there's really no no correlation between city code and what
they would like to do. So, as long as it's more restrictive, correct? Yeah. Okay. Right. Great. Any other questions? And Well, I I'm concerned about this because I I think chickens really are farm
animals and um you I looked up the CDC and the University of Minnesota a department and they're very concerned of course about aven flu and you know if you have somebody in the backyard with their chickens and you have wild birds
you know mixing with the chickens. Um, you know, I just think that I think that the average uh pet owner, you know, is just not going to take care of them properly. And uh so I have have that concern that I think once we open the
door on this, it's uh really could could really cause some serious problems. you're actually supposed to report to the CDC if if you have illness in your flock and uh it could then mean destroying the flock and any
anybody's chickens around it. So it it you know they're really serious about this stuff. So I I just have raised concerns about it. You know I I know it's a popular thing but um No, I understand. Um so we put a couple things
in place. um fully enclosed number one, so they can't get out or go elsewhere. Um and um again, it'll be an ordinance that's enforced um via a neighbor calling in maybe making a um a
complaint. And if that's the case, then we can go in and we can take a look and maybe um modify their actions, if you will. And that's only if they allow us on the property. Correct. Correct. Yeah,
I think that's a good point that Peter made. We did I did a lot of research calling our neighboring cities and said, "How many complaints have you had?" You know, I I really looked into this and it was virtually none. In fact, I spoke to
St. Bonnie and they said, "There's essentially no complaints." So, I have to believe we would fall in the same category. And I and I think we can revisit this in 12 months, but I think we've had some really passionate people in the community say, "I've moved from
Minneapolis to St. Bonnie or to Minatrista and I I can't have a couple chickens." So, I I really feel that this is important to try to let our residents have what they really want. And I think we have enough restrictions in place
that um again I understand the concern with the the the illness of the chickens. But um I think people that do this are pretty serious. It's a big job. It's not like um it's not an easy I I thought about it. I
thought maybe I'll do this. But it's a big commitment. It's financial. It takes Yeah. So um Yeah. I I don't think people enter into it lightly. Well, these are uh I mean, they're saying guidelines of, you know, wearing different clothes when you go out to to
check on the chickens and, you know, first not letting your kids play with the chickens and, you know, use gloves. I mean, you know, there's some really serious um health issues here that I think a lot of people are viewing them as pets and uh that, you know, could be
dangerous to the Sure. household. Okay. Any other comments, questions? So, I think I I understand we have a differing opinions and that's good and it's good to hear what you have to say, too. I know you weren't here last time and I think um one of the
things we can also do if this passes is maybe have something in our newsletter. Um maybe even occasional um little articles about how to properly take care of chickens. um we could have something on our website. There's all kinds of,
you know, um factual things that we can uh tell our residents. So, but again, we tried to make it so that it's a half acre, which is a fairly large lot, so that they wouldn't be right up against their neighbor's house and um restricting it to no more than three
chickens. So, it's not like a huge flock. So hopefully um and again I think as council member Lacy said we can revisit this in in 12 months. And so if this becomes an issue uh then we can say okay nobody nobody else can have chickens and we're going to stop it. And
those that currently have maybe they're grandfathered in but no more you know. So you can always do something like that. So I don't think we want to expand it. So I thought we discussed how close they could be to the lot the property line. We did, but then I think we
thought to be able to enforce that would be real difficult because we discussed um lot line um how close they can be to the lot line and then we discuss screening and I think ultimately we decided um it would be real hard to enforce that was there. Correct. That's
my recollection as well. Madame Mayor, we screening um and setbacks were discussed, but we um talked about the difficulties of if we can't don't have permission to come on property, different angles, third level windows looking down, how you know is that you can view that from up there, staff can't
go up there and look down. Um but that that was my recollection as well, Madame Mayor, was there was uh some difficulties with actually enforcing some of those types of things. Yeah, I think the enforcable U part will be if they're fully enclosed, if they have three chickens, those that you can
pretty well see from most, you know, like if a neighbor calls, they can well the neighbor has to be able to count them and if the neighbor can count them, we the neighbor can say, "Well, come and count them for yourself on my property." So you can see that um the distance might be a little
more difficult but well I think in general this is going to be hard to enforce because right they the they have to be allowed on the property if you walk to someone's door though and hold on let let her fish if you have them fully enclosed when the police go to
your neighbor's property and then the police go well can we come out to your property and count them and they say no then but the neighbor's going to have to be able to count them in to file a complaint like the day before or something. So, and then if the person who has them never lets the police onto
the property, this is going to be hard to enforce. It may be, but it may not be an issue, too. We don't know. I don't think there's going to be a giant rush on buying chickens. Not. So, all right. Um, any other
questions, comments? Hearing none. Is there a motion to approve um ordinance amending chapter 11 of the city code related to farm animals? So moved. All right. Is there a second? Second. Second. Any other questions,
comments, arguments? Um hearing none. All those in favor signify with I. I. That would be Brian, Claudia, myself. All those in not in favor? Nay. Nay. That would be um Kathleen. Uh, Miss
Refkin and Mr. Vickery. Motion passes 32. So, thank you for that. And, um, will this then do we have to pass this by title and summary? It's short enough, Madame Mayor, that we can just publish. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. With that, we're going to then move on
to administrative items, staff reports. I can just give a brief update about uh Trista Day. That was on Saturday. It was a a cloudy, cold day. Um the turnout wasn't as good as I think previous years, but I think we'll have our uh
post trrist today meeting and and figure out maybe some other ideas that we can try for next year to see if we can get more people. That's all I have. That's all you have. Any other I believe Gary has something. All right. Kind of a water update. Yeah, Madame Mayor Council, I'll give you an
update on the wells 89. Um drilling's been going well. I mean they are a little bit behind from couple weeks of really cold weather this winter. Um and right now we've drilled down to the Mount Simon. It's uh the formation is
there. We needed an extra round of blasting. Normally we can they can develop the aquafer area with two rounds but um they wanted to do a third. Uh the cam went down. They requested a third. uh talking with AE2s, we agreed, let's
do that. Um the sand removal is taking place right now. So that's you're seeing the mountain of sand that's in there. So what happens is um the aquifers blasted, then they have to airlift all the sand out of there because we need a big open area for that pump to sit in. So hoping to finish the sand removal this week um
and then we can begin test pumping. So what the test pumping will do is um give us you know a good accurate accurate flow rate plus then we can sample and that um testing that they'll do on that water will be what the filters at the treatment plant for the media that we'll
need um what's in that water what's got to come out um so that'll entail um what the media content of the filters of the plant will be. Um, like I say, I mean, we had a couple weeks of cold weather there. Um, heavy clay soil they ran into
when they were doing some drilling. Um, so it took a little bit longer. So, they are about a month behind schedule. They were supposed to be done in May. Um, so looking now here hopefully the end of June. They are moving the rig over to get going on the other one. Um, once that's uh complete, that's half the
depth of this one because they're going in the Jordan. How deep how deep did they go in the Mount Simon? 500. Oh wow. 60 I think it was he ended up I think it was um don't quote me on that as a positive but I know it was deep. This one's only going to be half probably go
around you know 300 if at max. So um and that one will be a little easier to develop it. It's not um that aquafer from what we're told is not as um sandy and um soft as that other one. So and this and that one will be a screened
well anyways. So that'll be a lot nicer um to work with. So that should go a lot faster. So imagine they ran into um clay soils in Minatrista. Yeah. Well, was actually was it was a little heavier than what they normally run into. I mean, they kind of expected up here, but
what happens is um it's the the heavier clay soil. It won't allow the water from the that they're using as a lubricant to loosen up a little bit. So it take it it slows them down in the process. It's similar to when they pull a pipe through um you know doing a boring they use that
as kind of that that sliding material and it they could not you know it just slowed them down. So but they are moving forward to it with it and uh you know let's hopefully they get going on that one. Gary when they when they um pull the water when they do the testing how much water are they pumping out and
where does that water go? That water's all going right now to the holding pond for the HOA there that they they're they're going to pump for that. So, they'll pump quite a bit of water out of there um just to get the sand, you know,
out of there that's in there, kind of clear it up and, you know, and then start pumping. Okay. Um once it gets clear, then they can stop. Then they'll do their water testing and stuff and then we can, you know, then they'll kind of let everything right go down. They'll video it one more time. Um, and then we,
you know, hopefully by that time they'll have the other one, you know, well established and in. So there's a mountain of sand as you can see there. We are, that's, uh, our property. So we're going to take as much as we can. It's great for us for bedding culverts. Um, okay. Water man breaks like we had
today um to bed that stuff. So I'll give you an update just funnel from the guys. They are tell you don't break. We had a water man break on Holstead. Um, one of the new houses that were going in. Uh, the moratorium's up. they can connect to the city water. Um, unfortunately when
they were connecting to the main they spider they when they were drilling they cracked the pipe which spidered it out. Oh no. Causing a major leak. So we ended up having to shut off um everything from basically by the boat launch everything to the central system. So that left uh
Pinnacle um Serve and all the Saunders without water. Um, that's why we need to look at looping. So, we don't have this situation. We ended up opening the water connections with mound, which as we all know, mound water is not the best, but it's better than nothing. We were losing
pressure in the system. We didn't want to do a bohill order, so we opened the interconnect. So, they just got done doing all their flushing, getting rid of all the wonderful mound water, so everything should be good to go. How many complaints did you get? Um, we got a lot of calls on that right away, that waterhouse, but I don't think they took
too many. I think, uh, when I talked to Darcy up front, they only received a couple for bad water complaints. Okay. Once they explain what's going on, okay, so we'll be going back out doing a little bit more flushing tomorrow. Um, we took seven bacteria samples today, have them dropped off at Engle Water
Testing. We'll take seven more tomorrow just to make sure everything's good with the system, but everything's back up and running. Um, we had another crew come in. Um um Valley Rich out of uh Chasket came in to take care of the project, that'll all be charged to the contractor that was
doing this. So they're going to have a big bill to pay. Ouch. So the the extra blasting that they did out for the well, is that like another an additional charge then? Yeah, it'll be additional charge. There there's a line item in there for you know that.
So, um, they normally pad it a little heavy. So, I don't know how much addition will be, but normally we get by with two rounds in the airlifting. So, it's the airlifting that's more expensive than the actual blasting itself. So, it's just an extra airlifting that'll be a little bit, but
it'll be spelled out in there. Um, when you see the paint um, voucher come through, it'll it'll show on there exactly what the extra was. So, Okay. Oh, good. Thanks. Um, and then I think are we going to see
an update or even plans and specs for the treatment plant? Yes, that's funny you bring that up. So on on June 2nd there will be a a part of the meeting will be A2S will provide um some renderings of the plant, some other internal drawings and things like that.
Um if you'll have the option at that time to authorize the ad for bid. the actual plans, final plans won't be done until the end of June, but that allows us to post it and then uh have those potential uh contractors start engaging
with A2S. I was wondering if um if it might be helpful or beneficial for the council to visit the site at all. I mean, drive by it every day. I know much to see there. Pile of sand. Okay. It is
if you'd like to I mean I think um we'd be happy to take any or all of you um if you're interested up to two at a time out there bus tour. A bus tour. Yeah. So talk to Jasper if you're interested. I just thought I'd throw Yeah. Yeah. If you're interested. I mean like Gary said
it's a pile of sand and some you know a a well drilling rig right now. But um we have a meeting with uh what is it? Three Rivers talking about access here I think this week Thursday. Okay. So we're plugging along. So on the June 2nd will
be a big meeting to look at the plant. It's it's nothing fancy. I'll tell you that right now. That's okay. We have to keep the cost down. So it's uh and then um we'll we'll consider uh authorizing ad forbid if if they feel comfortable enough. If you want a little bit more
information or if some things change, things like that, we always have the June 16th meeting to to fall back on. But we're kind of getting to the point where we need to probably get it out for a bit. Mhm. And they've been moving along real well with today. We had our meeting on all the mechanical today. Um going over all the duct work and all
that stuff. Tomorrow we're doing electrical. So they are really moving forward. There'll be 90% plans here very quickly. So once this phases through. So Okay. And then just one other question. I talked to Jasper about this earlier.
Are we going to look at possibly um water tower renovations next year? We can talk offline about that, but we're hoping to I mean think about that. We've talked about it. So, I think we'll make some arrangements here. I think it
might be a possibility that we can do it. Yeah, there's if if I may, there's a couple steps. you'll you'll see a task order from A2S coming here probably in June to kind of model the system and and see what we actually need. Um if you remember we have three more interconnects with St. Bonnie that
aren't metered. Hopefully we only need about one or two more to to put a meter in to be able to serve both communities. Well, uh once we figure that out, then we can authorize go out for bid, that type of thing. And if we can get that done this fall and um the interconnect
agreement really it's there between St. Bonnie and us. It's just we have to discuss a price per thousand gallons. So, I think it's all lined up so that we can get this done by this fall and potentially um bid something out the in the winter to get it done next year.
Okay. If everything lines up, which I think it is good. All right. Um any other questions or any other So, Brian, are you going to be at the uh planning commission meeting? Yes. It probably will be a short meeting. Real short
meeting. So, That's good. Um just should we mention your idea about the parks commission meeting on the I mean you certainly can madame mayor. Um it's fine. Um so um I was talking with David
and Mr. able and he had said that last time I think um Miss Lacy you were at the parks and planning commission meetings and the the reason is the park commission met at 6:00 and then the planning commission met at 7 and that worked out quite well and um David was
just saying maybe we should just um kind of revert to that and do that and I said I think that's an excellent idea. It saves staff a night. It saves council a nightly. Um, and so if you're all amendable to that, do we need to make an ordinance change? Would be to our
calendar, correct? Okay. Oh, just to our calendar. We'd have to check our ordinance. I think in the park commission it says that as well. Yep. So, we could make an ordinance change, which would just be a day and then we can make the calendar change and maybe if can you bring that back in June? I
mean, because then the sooner the sooner we started, I think the easier it is for everybody. So, I thought it was an excellent idea. Good idea. Thank you. Um All right. And then any other council reports? I have an update. Um no. Um I
attended the St. Bonnie Fire Commission meeting uh last Thursday, the 15th. They have added two new firemen for 20 25. Um although they lost two, so they stay at 25. They got 12 applicants because of the sign on their board. um two passed
the initial stage of just the interview like not the pre-in paperwork um and then those two did not show up for their interviews. So they are staying at 25. Um they applied for and got a matching grant from the DNR for a ventilation fan. Um the total of that is $5,000. So
they got half half of that from the DNR. They got it 3 weeks ago. It's battery operated exhaust fan that they bring to the sites to move the air. Um and it can also be plugged in. So they're really excited about it. Apparently those things are like this big. So we're very excited. Um they now have three
firefighters who can use the thermal imaging drone. Um it works really really well. Chief told us he flew it above the building and he could like zoom in and see the writing on the pipes outside. So he was very excited about that and he's looking forward to their next training where they'll get to practice with it.
Um they haven't actually got to use it on anything yet which is good in theory. um they are in need of a new Chief's vehicle. Um so we agreed that he should get on the list for it since it can take about a year. There's only two dealers in the state that are on the state
approved list that give him the deal on it. Uh the one they'll use is up in Grand Rapids. Um so we approved it at the commission and then he brings it back to St. Bonnie because they have to fill out a form at their next council meeting. So that'll be in their June one. The total cost all in is $85,000,
which they have the money for it in the CIP, so there won't be a bill or um bond or anything for that. They have the money. Um they are also in need of a new pump for the pumpkid gas rig. The vehicle itself is a 2006, but um it has 14,000 mi on it, but in good shape, so
they're not going to replace the vehicle, just the pump. And there that's $20,000, and they have that money in the CIP. Um the contract reserve is currently at $34,000 and the chief would like to keep the money in the reserve to use it to pay for some new extrication gear. Minitrista's portion of that is
$23,000. Um so using it to pay for the gear versus giving it back to the city makes sense since they need the gear. Um I don't know if you got an email from their city administrator about that. Not yet. Okay. It'll it'll have to come back to the council in form of a
resolution or whatever. Yeah, I think. Yes, I think I sent it up to you, too. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Yeah, it was about a to keep it in the reserve to use it. So, that's what he's gonna use it for. Um, so far, St. Bonnie Fire has responded to 102 calls this year, which is up from 86
last year at this time. 57 of those were Minatrista. Um, we discussed the 2026 budget for just St. Bonnie fire in case the JPA does not move forward. Um, the St. Bonnie city council member and myself agreed that St. Bonnie should start to budget for a full-time chief
starting July 1st. Uh versus Jan 1. Um this has a budget impact of about $73,000 versus the full year which is $156,000. That includes salary and benefits. So that's the full cost. Um I did find out from Chief Eric he will not be the full-time chief, but he does have
a guy um currently that would be a good one. So he's wants to stay with his business longer and doesn't want to be the full-time chief. Uh, the firefighters are getting a dollar per hour raise for 2026. The new wage will be$,535. Wow.
I'm not running into a fire. Yeah, really. Applaud them for doing it. Yes, exactly. For $15 an hour. Wow. They're um chief's also budgeting wages for the events they go to. Um, which makes sense. They go to a they spend a lot of hours doing the
community events and everything around there. So, for the first time, they're going to budget some wages in for those so they don't have to always volunteer. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Um, the total budget for 2026 for St. Bonnie will be $611,323, which I'm guessing you've got
or will be getting or do you need the paperwork on it? I don't think I've seen it. I will. Okay. It'll come. Um, I think they have to have it in by July 1st. Yeah. And then we discussed the JPA briefly just to give Watertown Township an update. Um Lake Township was not at
the meeting. Watertown and Lake Town are going to contract in if we do a JPA. So it's just a high level overview. Um just let them know that the May meeting was canceled and chief feels that if the financial formula isn't agreed on by June, JPA will be on hold because everybody has to set their budgets for
the next year and can't get it done. Um, apparently there's some issues with the pension funds that mound and how theirs is set up and it will take additional time as well and it could possibly require legislative approval which would delay it till mid year next year then if that requires it. It basically comes
down to whether or not they combine them versus one just taking over the other one because if they combine them it needs legislative approval. If they just put put one into the other one then they can do it and it would just require a name change and so there's that. But Mound's pension is set up differently than St. Bonnie. St. Bonnies just has a
full payout. Mound still has some old ones that have annuities. So, there's that. And yeah, and the chiefs are working on it. They're they're working on it on it. They're figuring it out. And then the um fire partnership meeting
which was supposed to happen tomorrow um has been cancelled and will meet in June because because the fire chiefs and the administrators are working on all of the um yeah nuts and bolts basic basically of
um how it would operate and how it would all work together. So, we'll update you on those. And then we'll be meeting, the three of us will be meeting and talking about formulas and trying to figure out what would be acceptable for the majority of the group. So,
next week, I'm glad I let you go first. Um, for me, I just wanted to ask that we bring back the discussion on the Gillespie Center and our June 2nd meeting. Got some I think we have Hold on just a second. I think we have a
pretty full work session on the second because don't we have the interviews for the um for the cameras and stuff? We we do have that. We're start planning on starting at five um camera system presentations and then there's one other item on there for a drainage discussion
for Gary. So So what I would suggest then is bringing it back to the next meeting. But here's the thing. I asked um what we have on the meeting for the 16th. If we don't have any items on the 16th other than that, could we bring it
back to the first meeting, which would actually be the second meeting in July? I we'd have to come here just for that. Yeah. I Which I don't think it's I mean I think we've kind of I've got five
points to make. It'll go quickly. and we out are the only city out of five that has not stepped up to the plate and they're doing it this year. They're not waiting till next year. So I feel like I can make the points quickly. That's why I don't want to do it as the only item
on the on the second. You don't you think it'll take that much time on the second to just Yes. Because they need to get a whole bunch of information to us which I don't think that they'll be able to get. We need to know what the revenue streams are, how much they are. We need to know what their financials are. We
need to know also what what their uh financial situation is in terms of what their annual revenues, what their annual expenses are. We've asked for it in the past and they haven't gotten it to us. So, I think by putting it off until the July meeting, we'll give them a little more time to put all those numbers
together. Um because if we don't have those numbers, I'm I'm not prepared to make any kind of I'm not prepared to make a donation because this is a 501c3. And if they show a need, an actual need,
that's one thing. But if and if they're going to go belly up and disperse without our help, that's one thing. But if they're in good a good financial position regardless of whether the other comm community uh communities are contributing, we really need to think hard on how we're spending our tax
dollars. So I would highly recommend that we send them an email telling them exactly what we need and having them get that to us. And I don't think and if they get it to us by the 16th, I think staff will have to decide whether it's
going to be a very short conversation or a long conversation. I guess what I'm what I would I'm hearing from you is um you don't feel the city has any kind of responsibility to help support our
local senior center. I think the city has to take a really serious look and have a policy about contributing to 501c3s and and are we going to contribute to to to private organizations and are we going to have a
a process by which to do that? I support our seniors, don't get me wrong, but there's other ways of supporting them versus giving tax dollars to to an organization. That that's all I'm saying. And that can be part of the discussion. Sure, that can be part of the discussion. But with all due
respect, there's a difference between a senior community center and a 501c3, right? But that's what they are. Just saying. Okay. Okay. But so um our staff will let them know all of the information that we need and then once
we receive that information, we can determine which meeting it can be on. So we're not saying it's not going to be on. We're not saying it won't be discussed. We're just saying this is the information we need. Once we have that, how long will it take for a discussion and which meeting would it be would
should we put it on? If if that's the direction, um I can a work session. Yeah, it'll it'll be a work session. I think I'll send an email out to the group and if there's any specific questions that you'd like answered, you can send them my way and
then I'll I'll work with Rhonda at the Gillespie Center to to kind of gather that information. And if we can get it on the 16th, we'll get it on the 16th. Thank you. Okay. All right. Brian, anything? Uh, no. I went to the uh state
of the county. Uh, there was really no substantial information uh provided during that meeting relevant to uh Midatrista. Thanks for going. They are doing a lot of road projects out here though. So, just you know,
which ironically they they really just I kind of glossed over that. think. Yeah. Yeah. That's weird. Yeah. Sorry. Priority. Madame Mayor, could um I've had several people in the community ask me about the camera structures on County Road 44
and I believe there's one on Highway 7 as well. And I'm wondering cameras the well, you know, squires. Yes. I'll add to that. And could we do maybe some kind of could we address that in on our website? You know, you've seen these
things. This is what they are. So, you're talking about the cameras that are looking uh for distracted drivers. Yes. Yep. Yeah. We can certainly add some to the website just to articulate the ones on 44 are the metered thing for um instead of having a flagger. That's
what those are. Yes, that's correct. Okay. That's not the looking at you. No, the those are instead of having people standing there. Correct. Yeah, the the distractive driving is more in the uh South Lake Minnetonka area. So, road 41 in Highway 7. So, we we do have flop
cameras which record license plates coming and going, but uh we don't have the distractive driving one in our city at this point. And then I also got asked the question, why are why is Minister spying on me? And I said, "It's kind of to protect us if there was a crime
situation that we could see who was coming and going." And so, I mean, can you address that? Could we have something for our constituents to read about why we have cameras on them? Yeah. Yes. Uh, we certainly can. Um, the
cameras that we currently have, the flaw cameras, just for the record, they just record license plates. So, they're not looking inside the vehicle itself. It's not even looking at the driver. It's um basically looking for stolen vehicles, uh missing persons, and then if we did
have a major crime, we could see what vehicles were coming and going from the area at the time. Um but there's nothing that's actually looking inside the vehicle at all. It's just recording the license plates coming and going. And then once they're once the picture is taken, they're they're not even really
uh saved unless there's an incident, right? I mean, how does Can you explain that a little bit? Yeah, that's what they're like. Absolutely, Madame Mayor. Uh councel, it's it's retained for 30 days. Um it is audited every two years.
And so if we did have a crime in the area, then we could go back and see who was coming and going at that time. Um but if there was no crime, then it just gets deleted after 30 days. Um if it did have a hit, for instance, if a stolen vehicle came by or a missing person,
we'd get an immediate hit on that. So, um that's really more the purpose for it is is looking for vehicles that are stolen or um people with warrants, missing persons and whatnot. Um and then the secondary usage would be uh if
there's a crime in the area, we can go back and just see who was coming and going. But again, it it does our camera system with Flock is not looking inside the vehicles at all for for anything. It's just recording the plates as they go by. and and you can see the exterior of the vehicle obviously but not the
interior. So, thank you. Can those uh records be subpoenaed in civil cases in Minnesota? That's a good question. Um because I know there are people private places like apartment buildings and whatnot that have flock cameras. Uh so I would
imagine that they likely could be subpoenaed, but I I I'm not 100% sure. We we haven't encountered that as as of yet. Great question. All right. Um, so, um, anything? All right. Um, I attended Northwest League and, um, it was
interesting. We had a, um, TIFF 101, but it was like a lot of information in a very short time. And, um, TIFF is confusing. So, at some point, if we're interested um, and it was a gentleman from Ellers, so not Todd, but Todd could
give a presentation like that. But at some point if and it's basically for um commercial development and or like blighted properties that you might want to redevelop. Um that's generally what it's used for. But it was very interesting. Um and at some point who
knows down the road we might want to have a special presentation during workshop but not not this year but down the road. Um but it's it's very confusing and a lot of information. So um it's just a tool in the toolbox. Uh again it's more for development and
redevelopment. So um other than that uh the fire partnership meeting has been postponed and um that's about it. So there is nothing else then uh we can be adjourned if there is a uh motion
to adjurnn. So move. Thank you Miss Refkin. Is there a second? Thank you Mr. Vicky. All those in favor signify with I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. 5 Ally there. See Bernie's fundraising for if you could you want to put that on
the website or something? Yes. Thank you. Thank you my 10 bucks for