up by a cat gardening. All right. All right. Good evening, everyone. I am Mayor Shelley Carlson and today is May 12th, 2025, and it is 5:30 p.m. The Morehead City Council welcomes
public input on issues listed on the agenda or of general community interest, time, and council permitting. Speakers will be limited to three minutes each. Excuse me. If you would like to address the council during the meeting, please fill out a form provided by the city clerk and we will call you up
during the citizens addressing the council item on the agenda. Please state your name and if you are a Morhead resident if comments were submitted to the clerk prior to the meeting via email or phone, those comments will be entered into record. For more information on participation, please visit the council
meetings page on the city of Morhead website at morheadmn.gov. We the Morhead City Council collectively and with gratitude acknowledge the sacred land the city of Morhead is built upon. We acknowledge the people who have resided here for generations and recognize that the spirit of the Dakota Ojiway Mati and all indigenous communities permeate this
land. With that, could I get a roll call, please? Ryan Nelson here. Nicole Matson here. Heather Nisser here. Emily Moore here. Deb White here. Lisa Borggan here. Sebastian McDougall here. Chuck Hendrickson here. Mayor Shelley Carlson here. And for those who are able, please
stand for the pledge of allegiance. Great. And city manager Molly, do we have any agenda amendments? We have no amendments to the agenda. Mayor. Okay. Thank you. Moving on to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Move. Borggan.
Second, Lisa. Mayor motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Moving on to recognitions and presentations. Uh, the first one is our Morhard award. And
I will turn this over to Miss Lisa Bod. Good evening, Mayor Carlson and members of the city council. We are once again here u making a a more heart recognition. Um, tonight's nominee is Magdalia
uh Cababayro and McDalia is an exceptional community advocate whose work at Community Action Partnership Lakes and Prairies CAP LP has made a meaningful difference in the lives of many. Through her role in the friends
and family program, she provides support and guidance to families in need, helping them through challenges with compassion and understanding. McDallia's advocacy for early childhood education and her dedication to educating others
about equity and representation demonstrate her commitment to creating opportunities for all. Her active engagement with CASA and her efforts to empower communities further highlights her selflessness and
leadership. Um, McDallo is nominated by Sihham Ahmedi from our human rights commission and she writes in the nomination, Magdalia is a standout member of our community deeply committed to promoting equity and fostering healthy families. her impactful work at
CAPL LP, including advocating for early childhood education and educating others about the equi uh importance of equity and representation. As a navigator for the friends and family program, she provides essential support and guidance to those in need. Beyond her
professional role, McDalia is actively engaged in her heritage and demonstrates her dedication to empowering communities as she volunteers with CASA, which is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to the community empowerment of Latinos
in Fargo Morehead. So, Magdalia is an involved and passionate Morehead resident and she makes Morehead a great place to live. Um, I'd like to extend our gratitude to Magdalia for her dedication to making our community a
more equitable place. Congratulations, Magdalia, and thanks for all you do. You would come forward. Wow. I don't have to say anything else. I think that see actually say some everything. Uh I
am just very honored to and grateful to receive this award especially from someone that nominated me which is a person she's a person that I really admire actually for her leadership too. Uh so she's an inspiration for me. Thank
you Sam for actually thinking of me about this award. And of course I want to appreciate all of you for uh this award for your support and my family my children one of them is here my supervisor my
co-workers all of them are actually part of this award but uh most especially the community of Morehead. Uh this award is going to remember me the work that I still need to be doing for them. So, this is for the community of Morehead.
And I was uh telling the mayor before that Morehead is my home. I've been living in other places in the past. And the only place that I felt that I was home was Morehead. And it is because
this community is very welcome. And I am from Puerto Rico. And I felt the same feeling that I feel in Puerto Rico because you are very welcome. and that is what makes me uh happy to really be working for the community here. So,
thank you so much. congratulations and um speaking with you before the meeting and having you express just the love that you have for the city of Morehead and and the fact that you've lived in so many other places and that it never really felt
like home until you got here just I think really means a whole lot and I'm sure that the people that you're working with you're creating that same feeling for them um with the work that you're doing through capital P. So, thank you on behalf of uh the city of Morehead. Um
and also uh for Puerto Rico, my my nephew is half Puerto Rican, so I I know that it's a a beautiful um island to come from as well, but um I'm glad that you chose Morehead to be your home. Moving on to the next item on the
agenda is a presentation from uh Sanford Ambulance. And I will call Tim Mayer up to uh give us the presentation. All right, Mayor Carlson and members of the council, my name is Tim Meyer. I'm the senior director of EMS operations at uh Sanford Ambulance and I'm here to give you an update of the ambulance
activity in the city of Morehead for 2024. So, a little bit of background um on the ambulance and I have a PowerPoint. So, if you want to have a peek there, uh we have about 140 people that work at the ambulance and and we cover the entire city. We operate um uh
of course in Fargo and West Fargo and Morehead. Um 130 of those folks are actual patient care providers. Uh and the rest of the staff are support or dispatchers. We have our own dispatch center for instance. Uh and we are accredited agency, one of four
accredited agencies in Minnesota and uh I believe there's about 180 uh accredited agencies across the US. So it's not mandatory or actually even common. Here's a heat map of the city and what this uh map shows us is where
the call volume is generally in uh the entire metro area. Uh so the heaviest area is downtownish Fargo, uh not too far out of Morehead. Um but and the stars on this map are posts that we have where we have ambulances. They're not
always uh a building for instance. They may be like in South Morhead for instance that I believe that's the parking lot of the Hornbuckers. So at times we'll have a truck down there waiting for a call. Just depends. We have we gather a lot of data and we
predict where we're going to have the volumes but for the most part the heat map tells us um where we commonly have calls. So the call volume and in uh Morehead for 2024 we did 52 uh 5,259
ambulance calls uh in the city. Um the on this graph it it's broken down by month and the darker blue part of the line is the patients that were transported. Uh the lighter blue area is patients not transported. Sometimes we
get there and people don't need to go to the hospital or they don't want to. And then sometimes there's no patient contact. So like in the winter time when there's a rollover, people call 911 and they land in soft snow in the ditch and nobody's injured. we go we'll go there and and uh or and maybe they're gone
already so we don't we don't find them. Uh this busy graph is a five-year um tally of the number of calls in Morehead. Um and over five years it has increased a little bit uh from about
12.3 calls per day in 2019 to 15.6. So about um three calls per day over the fiveyear period. Um we don't respond to every call with lights and sirens. So the data tells us that that uh is not necessary.
Nationally uh only about 7% of all ambulance calls are emergencies uh where somebody is having a life-threatening event. But all that is triaged at the uh triple RDC, Red River Regional Dispatch Center. They if you ever call 911 for a medical call, they
ask you a lot of questions. Um and it's all designed to get to uh a decision of what assets need to go and and and for on our side what how we respond. So we want to do this in a safe way. About half the calls we respond to not what we
would call non-emergence, so not using lights and sirens. And then about half the calls we do use lights and sirens. And then uh only about 2% of our calls we actually transport people with lights and sirens. So that kind of tells you um how frequently somebody is really in a
that type of situation. Uh here's our response time goal performance for 2024. Um our goal is to do 90% of the calls in less than nine minutes. Uh Minnesota state law says we uh uh that we need to be able to
reach any point within the city of Morehead in 10 minutes. So our standards a little higher than state law. Um but overall we were at 93%. We did have a dip in October uh due to volume I I assume. But um we
keep track of that. And then daily we have a we have someone that looks into what we call response time exceptions. So only emergency calls we're um that we're judging here and we try to figure out where the gaps are, why we would miss that. But it's it's impossible to be 100%
um compliant with that goal, but that that's kind of a national standard. I just went backwards on my my paper form. Okay, the top 10 primary impressions that we have um number one is behavioral or
psychiatric episode. Uh two is alcohol use, abdominal pain, generalized weakness, shortness of breath, anxiety, um injury of the head, chest pain, back pain, extremity pain. So about three of these categories are kind of behavioral
related. So um that would be behavioral or psychiatric episode. uh alcohol use um anxiety reactions. So that's a very common thing that we deal with in ambulance business and the and the police do as well. Uh eight of these
things were on the list last year. So it two of the uh categories changed. Seizures and suicidal ideiations came off the list. So for some reason they didn't make the top 10. It it doesn't mean like behavioral psychiatric is the most common thing because we have so
many things to categorize our patients. This is a u I think probably in the eight or 10% of our calls total and we we often get the question about where are we taking our patients
um you know we are part of Sanford Health but we take our patients to the hospital that they want to go to. Um and in this graph the uh the dark blue blip at the top of the at the monthly bars is
uh the the VA hospital. So they get a small percentage. Uh Sanford is the lighter blue below that and then Essentia and it kind of follows the market split for the healthcare agencies. People are very loyal to their health care and we want to take them where they want to go. Um in the next
slide you'll see who makes that decision. vast majority of those are the patient or the family. Uh there there are just very few instances where we would bypass that and take them to a different hospital. So we are a
uh Mission Lifeline Gold Standard accredited agency. Um and this uh is this is something we work with the hospitals on and we measure um both heart attack and stroke care in our community. And uh we've had this gold award every
year that it's been offered in the 15-year range, Kathy. And uh one of about 17 ambulances in the whole country that have done it every year. And there, just for reference, there are about 32,000 ambulance services in the United
States. So that's Kathy's good work. She works on that project pretty hard. So we're pretty proud of that. Um, in the city of Morehead for time-sensitive patients, those are things like heart attack, strokes, uh, trauma or other critical things like an airway issue.
Our average response time is about 6 and a half minutes. So, we work closely. The the Morehead Fire Department is a the first responding agency and that's the way a tiered response system works that the first responders are able to get there and do immediate life-saving things uh
if needed. Uh open an airway uh defibrillate somebody with a AED or stop bleeding, that type of thing. It's a good system and uh we work well with that agency. We submit cardiac arrest data to u an
organization called my cares. And um in this slide we're comparing the city of Morehead with national data. So um for cardiac arrest and in Morhead we the folks in suffering cardiac arrest
about 36% of them receive bystander CPR. Nationally that's about it's about 41%. Um, nobody had a bystander applied to AED in in Morehead. Um, and nationally it's about 12 and 12.6% get bystander
AD. Uh, however, we had better survival percentage that nationally 10.2% survived to hospital discharge. Uh, nationally it's 9.2 and the overall score it called score is 25%. Um and that factors in all
these things and kicks out a score. Uh nationally it's about just under 30%. So uh bystandard provided CPR and or AD we're at 50% morehead. So that that part is good and which is well
above the national average. So these are things that the community can work on. Um we train people to do CPR. The fire department does that as well. Um the the things that can really close the gap and improve survivability in a cardiac arrest situation is people knowing how
to do CPR, knowing where the AED is so they can defulate somebody if they're in sudden cardiac arrest uh before the first responders get there because it's a small window where you can make that difference for somebody. Uh last year we think we had a questions about a question about
overdoses. So in this slide um there are two um two types of overdoses represented. The smaller and lighter blue um bar is uh opiate related overdoses and then all
others is the darker bar. So overall uh overdoses in the city of Mor Morehead has remained the numbers have remained stable but we're seeing more of a mixture of drugs um either by the user or the seller that makes them not completely
responsive to Narcan and the things we can do in the field. So somebody who's not uh overdosing on a a narcotic Narcan will have zero effect on. So that's some of the the chemistry that's going on in the community. Um, and just on a happy note, we've
delivered four babies in the city of Morehead last year. So, that's always kind of fun. Everybody gets uh excited when that happens. But be happy to take any questions if you have any thing you'd like to ask me. And I have Kathy here
who is the expert on ambulance data. So, feel free to ask. Right. Well, she's shaking her head no. So, So, babies, girl, I mean, boys, girls, like what are we? Uh, I'm not sure. They were boys or girls. I don't
um so yeah. So, thank you um for the presentation. Any questions from uh council members? Council member Matson. Hi, thank you so much for the presentation. That was very interesting. Um I just wanted to go back to the um cardiac events that had 0% of them had
bystander AED. Um, and then the 10% survive to survived hospitalization. Does that mean 90% of the time someone calls in with a heart attack and they don't survive? Is that what that means? Uh, they may survive to get in the hospital, that 90%, but really the the
better measurement of this system is who gets to go home and have some normal life. But that's true. Yeah. 90%. Okay. So if if there were um some kind of effort to do we have any sense of of I know this is a this might be too
far a field but maybe this is a question to answer later. Any sense of any like how often someone could have had an AED applied in Morhead? They were they were in proximity and someone just didn't know or didn't think to do it.
I sense Kathy's coming. I sense my boss was going to call me. Um, unfortunately the majority of uh the cardiac arrests that happen in all of our communities about
23 about 60% happen at home um or in a private area where there would not be an AED. So um that obviously makes it difficult um but um for we really want to push the Our
um bystander CPR rates historically over the years have either been a little bit lower than national average or right about at national average. But we've noticed that our AED just is not trending up. It's continuing to either
stagnate or kind of drop. And so we want to encourage everyone in our community if um you are in a public area and see someone go down if somebody can ask for the AED or go get it. There is also a pulse point app that the um Morehead
Fire Department has helped implement in our area that will if you register for that or have that on your phone, it'll tell you if there's an AED nearby or if you're close to somebody and an AED that might need help. So, even if you didn't witness that person, it may alert you
that, hey, somebody in the next building um needs an AED. Thank you. That was very helpful. I just want to say I just read this really great book about um disasters and who survives and why. I don't remember what it's called or I would tell you, but but
two of the things that if if something is survivable, one of the things that helps people survive is prior training. But if you don't have that, the other thing you can have is mental rehearsal. And so one of the things I've been trying to do in my in my office building there is an AED
machine and I just noticed it. I worked there a year and I just noticed it. And so now I'm trying to when I go that way I try to think, okay, AED machine right there. So that's one thing we can all do if we if we work at a place or or spend time in a place with an AED, even if
we're not specifically trained, just to mentally make a note when you go by it that it's there will help you remember if you if you need it at some point, which hopefully you never will. Any other questions from council members? The only question that I would have uh Tim and Kathy would be um when
you talk about uh training people to do CPR um where does one find the classes to take? Is it online? Are they free? Um length of time, can you just maybe provide a little bit of more information on that? Uh we do provide uh CPR training um at the ambulance service uh
for people that uh work in an area that need that. So there's a fee for that, but we often do like CPR at the mall and anybody can walk by and learn how to do CPR. Um and it's not hard to do. It's a lot less imit intimidating as it uh than
it used to be. So uh Kathy, where else can we do training? Um, you can, uh, the American Red Cross also provides CPR courses throughout. Um, in Morehead, I would uh think about
potentially partnering with maybe some of the colleges or we could help partner with that if somebody's interested in providing a handsonly um CPR event uh because they have nursing programs um and other things like that that are
looking for um those types of programs. So, I know we've worked with NDSU in the past, Concordia, um, a few years ago, um, but it never help hurts to refresh on it. All right. Thank you so much and appreciate you coming in tonight to
share this information with us. All right. Thank you. Thank you for all you do. Right. Moving on to the approval of the April 28th, 2025 meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve the meeting minutes? Moved. McDougall. Second. Madson. Motion
and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Moving on to citizens addressing the council. There's two individuals who would like to speak to the council tonight. Um, for those of
you who are going to be speaking, um, just to give you explanation of how all of this works, um, you'll get three minutes to speak. this wonderfully technologically advanced contraption. Um, we'll countd down the time. It'll be
green when your 3 minutes is ongoing. When it turns red, you'll need to wrap it up. Um, and if you don't, I'll probably interrupt you and just explain that your time has been um is up. Um, this is an opportunity for you to give information to myself and the council.
Um, there won't be any back and forth questions or anything like that. And if it's something that um that perhaps either our city manager or assistant city manager can even address tonight, they'll meet with you out uh in the lobby area and provide you um with that information. So, and when you come up,
you'll um just make sure that you're close enough to the mic so it picks up your voice and then you'll need to state your name and if you are a resident of Morehead. So, the first person um or sheet I was given was uh Shane Busby. So, if you want to come up um and state your name and if you're Morhead
resident, then your time will start. Name is Shane Busby. I'm Morhead resident. Have been for a long time. Um I bought my house 21 years ago in this town. I love this town. I've never felt the need to address the council. So, the fact that I'm here
should show it's not just a small issue in my in my opinion at least. Um I had I guess it's sort of related to the meters which which I'm all for. Upgrading technology is a good thing and
but it shouldn't come at the cost of I guess residents beyond what it should cost like if there's issues with that with the like say they had to replace my um my curb shut off understanding
because I didn't didn't have one. I had an old house. I had issues with basically the treatment from the staff of MPS. I'm talking to you guys about it because I went through the channels and I wasn't getting anywhere and I only had one of my council members actually want
to talk to me about it which I appreciated. Um, in the same week we had and mine got dealt with. It took me a lot of work and proving on video that I wasn't making things up. Even though until I
showed them that I had video, I was basically been written off. They didn't care. MPS is here to service the residents, us, that's their sole purpose of existing is the city and the people in it. Um, the same week my neighbor had
an issue and hers is going to cost her money and they aren't budgeting. So, and I'll let her speak on that, but they just started this project. They're going to touch every meter in this town from what I understand. And for the city to go into such a big thing and go in
people's homes and from my understanding, do it with unlicensed plumbers doing plumbing. I've been in the building industry a long time. And if I were to do plumbing on someone's home, this the state would be after me. I could be fined. I could lose any
building license I have. But yet the city's allowed to use unlicensed plumbers to plum in people's homes. That I find questionable. The only time an unlicensed plumber is allowed to work for the state is if they're a registered
registered unlicensed plumber with the state. And that's not for just anyone. That's used for like if you're a um an apprentice. But in order to do the work as that unlike registered unlicensed plumber, you have to be directly supervised. Directly
supervised. Not just under someone. They need to be there to make sure you're doing it right. That's not what's happening. So, how is the city being allowed to send unlicensed plumbers to touch our plumbing and then when there's a problem, tell us it's not our problem,
it's yours. I guess how I feel. Right. Thank you, Mr. Busby. And the next individual is Rose Hansen. Rose, if you want to come up and state your name and uh um explain if you are a Morhead resident. Hi, I am Rose
Hansen. I have been a Morehead resident. I bought my home uh right next to Shane in 2022. Um, born in Minnesota, raised in Minnesota. I've been here for a long time. Um, on April 1st, NPS came out and
they replaced my water meter. Shortly after that, um, when we turned our sink back on, we had some abnormal water pressure. Uh, immediately turned off all of our water, checked our plumbing, noticed that our backflow valve on our tankless water system uh, had a leak. As
this can occasionally happen due to excess pressure and occasionally write itself, we let it sit overnight, make sure that there was nothing wrong. However, overnight it did significantly get worse uh to the point where one of my partners had to go and buy a mop uh
to make sure that we could make sure our basement stayed pretty dry. Um I contacted NPS on April 10th due to professional obligations. For context, I am a graduate student at MSUM. I work as a graduate assistant and I also work full-time as an HR resource generalist.
So, my life is a little bit hectic. Um, I was told that it was their standard to not pay for any water shut off damage uh because it could quote as happen at any time. I explained that I understood this. However, I just had somebody come
in to my home, turn my water off immediately after. I now have a very large repair. I contacted the original installers who originally quoted me over $1,000 to fix this. Um then called around to subsequent plumbers while also
still working with NPS and the third party contractor to try to come to a resolution. Um two other plumbers also stated with the first one that this was related to the water pressure um being shut off by
the water meter. Um the part that failed is my backflow valve. This backflow valve not only protects my water lines, but the city's water lines. Um, and this part is not designed to fail the way that it did. Um, both of the all three of the plumbers that I have contacted
have all stated that this they believe that this is directly related. Uh, NPS and the contractor both came back and said that it is incidental. I do not believe that it is incidental given the nature of the timeline of this. When I spoke to the third party contractor, he originally tried to tell me that too
much time had passed since when I had originally uh noticed the problem. I explained to him due to my obligations that this was the first opportunity that I could get in touch of in touch with them. Uh after that point, he stated that um they didn't need to be licensed
plumbers because it was just a couple couplings. I'm not exactly enthused to hear that the third party contractor who came into my home did not introduce himself, did not leave me any contact information to
reach out to people in case I had an issue to then be told that it didn't need to be licensed work. I understand that MPS on their publicly available guidelines states that they adhere to the Minnesota Plumbing Code when it
comes to water meter replacements which requires the use of licensed plumbers. There are certain exceptions for utility companies. However, I do not believe that MPS would fall under those exceptions right now because this was done on my private residence and this
was done by the work of a third party contractor. I guess that's about all that I have then. Thank you. Thank you. And we will uh get this information um also to Mora public service um to
their general manager and and just so you're aware that uh they also have public meetings just like this. I just looked it up while you were speaking. The next meeting for more public service is May 20th at 4:30m. It's in this same
room. um I would encourage you to um probably go to that meeting and and uh do they have a public comment period as well. So um so thank you for coming tonight and with that um we are going
down to our public hearing which is scheduled for 5:45 um or we just have to do it after 5:45. Um, and I will turn this over to Cole Swingen. Um, first I will need to have a motion to open the
public hearing to authorize elimination of the link FM service to select events. Move to open public hearing. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any
opposed? That motion carries and we are in public hearing. So, I'll turn it over to you, Cole. Thank you, mayor and council members. Um, I come before you tonight to ask for a public hearing to authorize elimination of link FM bus services to the events that are listed
in your packet. Uh, those include Frostville frozen Fortress, Celtic Festival, Scandinavian Festival, the Downtown Street Fair, Trollwood Mainstage Musical, and Pangia Cultivator Cultures. Uh, so I'd just like to give you all a bit of background as to what
link FM is and what it was and what it was initially designed to be. So, the service was created back around 2014 2015 as a way to bridge both Fargo and Morehead's downtown areas. Um, allowing residents to park in the then Morehead
Center Mall parking lot, be able to use the link FM bus service to take them into a couple of locations downtown to allow them to go to um any of the shops along Broadway um some of the shops around Robert's Alley. um going into
slide into downtown Fargo, going by our main transportation center, the ground transportation center, and then going back into Morehead. So, um it allowed residents to park over in Morehead, travel into downtown Fargo, and then go back. Um the purpose of that was mostly
at the time to eliminate congestion and um parking issues that were downtown. uh allowed both um residents who live downtown as well as people who work down there to not have to fight for parking every day uh due to the lack of available spaces back when it was
initially created. Um as time has gone on uh we saw that there was not a lot of utilization of the service. Um over the next couple of years we saw it dwindle um significantly and we made the decision in 2020 to make it an episodic
service. So just for specific special events that we did see a large amount of ridership like um a couple of them that are listed here such as the downtown street fair. Uh with that in 2020 we approved a list of events to service. Um those events would come and go. We'd
gather ridership data and essentially kind of see if the event was being utilized well and if people are utilizing the service. Um unfortunately after we decided to make that implementation, CO hit us. So, we saw a pretty drastic drop off in events for the next couple of years. Uh, since
then, we haven't really seen ridership return to majority of those events. Uh, we have seen still somewhat impressive numbers off of things such as the street fair and then also um I'll get into it a little bit further here, but at the uh pride in the park celebration and the um
blue stem theater. So, uh that's another portion that link FM has sort of morphed into over the years. Uh we provided a couple of events service at the Blueest Stem Amphitheater, those being Pride in the Park and the Trollwood Main Stage Musical. Um we've seen good attendance
from Pride in the Park like I said. Um and then fairly decent attendance from the Trollwood musical as well. Uh a couple of things that have kind of led us to this conclusion in addition to the wrership decline of some of our events is uh back last year we approved a
change in our service hours. We used to end at 11:15 p.m. and now we're currently ending at 10:15 p.m. Just the overall uh lack of ridership in that last hour. As such, uh we are unable to provide additional service past that point. And unfortunately, the Trollwood
Main State Musical ends after 10:15. So, we're able to get um passengers there, but we're not able to get them back, which, you know, kind of just defeats the point of the service. In addition, um, as many as you know, uh, there is quite a bit of construction going on around the old Morhead Center
Mall area. Um, putting up the community center and regional library. So, with that, we're going to be experiencing quite a bit of congestion and essentially just not being able to utilize the path that Link FM has been based on over the last however many years. And with that and the lack of
parking due to the construction, we aren't really able to operate um at least for 2025 to be able to service those events. Um so with that, uh we are still looking to maintain service potentially to Pride in the Park if it
does happen to go back into uh the Blueest Stem area. Uh we'd be happy to service that until 2027. Uh part of that is we have one vehicle that is funded by uh the state of Minnesota. so we don't fall under federal charter regulations. Uh with that, it kind of restricts what
we are and aren't able to service outside of our regular established routes. So, um that is an option for the next couple of years and after that point that bus will be retired and we will no longer have that option. So, um with that, I'm happy to answer any questions or um provide any additional
information. Thank you, Cole. Um, since this is the public hearing portion of the agenda item, are there any members of the public who wish to speak to this item? And if if there are members of the public who wish to speak, um, you'll need to come to the podium
and and uh state your name and be marred resident. And are there any members of the public who wish to speak to this item? Right. Seeing none, I'd be looking for a motion to close the public hearing portion of this agenda item. Second, niece mayor. Right. There's a motion and
a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. The public hearing is now closed. Um, do any council members have any questions for Cole? Council member Nisser. Thank you, Madam
Mayor. Cole, I have a couple of questions. Um, can you tell me what sort of communication and discussion was offered? Um, I saw the note in the packet about an information booth being available at the ground transportation center, but I was curious um, with the organizers and coordinators of these
particular events since they are um, a wide swath of folks. I'm curious if any, um, feedback or communication or integration into this planning was allowed and offered to these group coordinators. Yeah. So, we brought this to our map bus
coordination committee a couple months ago, which is encompassed by um a couple members of the Morehead Council, uh Fargo Commission, as well as u Morehead city leaders, Fargo city leaders, and then also some representatives from West Fargo and NDSU. Um essentially going
through all this information, providing them with kind of our idea of ending that link FM service. And that was one of the points that was brought up. uh making sure that we establish communications with those event partners to make sure that they're aware that we have this in mind, kind of explain the reasoning behind it and then also give
them a heads up as to if we will or will not be able to provide the service in the future. U majority of the event organizers were understanding with it. Um like I said, it's the main portion of it is just due to the construction that's going in around the area. So, uh
it unfortunately makes it so that we're not able to really provide the service. Um and then the other um contact that we had was with uh the Trollwood um Center for Performing Arts. Uh we let
them know pretty far ahead in time uh when we had that initial service cut back last year. We gave them the heads up that we wouldn't be able to provide the service. So um a lot of the event organizers reached out to us asking kind of what other options are available for
them. Um, like I said, we as the uh transportation provider that's funded federally, it makes it difficult to offer charter service because federal regulations say that we can't compete with charter. So, uh, one of the best options for anybody who did receive um,
service provided up by us in the past is just to reach out to the private charter companies. Um, I know that for Pride the Park and I believe also for the musical, they also uh supplemented our service with charter. So, um, that was something
that we made those event organizers aware of and for the most part they're just understanding. Didn't have many complaints about it. Can I follow up that um, statement um, Cole and say uh, for those that were offered alternatives
um, you had mentioned or discussed uh, picking the service back up perhaps after some construction um, directly relating to roads infrastructure in Morhead has passed. Was that explored or um is it a possibility that um has been
discussed? It is a possibility for the future. Um I think a lot of it also kind of shakes out to what this area is going to look like post construction. U before when we had the Morehead Center Mall as a pretty wide open parking lot that wasn't being utilized for portions of it. So it was
nice and easy to have a pickup point there. Um so depending on what that looks like post renovation, that could be a possibility. Um I think that a majority of the uh events that we service just didn't see the sort of wrership that they did in the past. So
that's a good portion of it. Um out of the events that are listed in the recommendation here, I think the biggest one that would potentially feel an effect is the downtown street fair. Uh we did have about 3,000 or so rides last year, but kind of the thought behind that is to um City of Fargo has provided
a couple of parking ramps that have been built within the last couple of years. So you have like the Roco ramp um the one that's by uh Fourth Street and North. Um and then there's also going to be another one built by was it the old Broadway? So, um, that's kind of our
idea is that for individuals who utilize it for parking, there will still be parking available, just not through us. My final question, Cole, is um, you had mentioned specifically a bus that could be used for for Pride in the Park, but
it would be ending in 2027. Is that the beginning like January of 2027 or December of 2027? I'm just thinking of strategically how our community offers Pride in the Park typically in August. Um, and so I think timing of when that's available. I know
this year's events are not going to be at Blue Stem. Um, but I'm curious if they would still have another two years or if it would just be one year. Sure. Um, so a good portion of that depends on bus availability. Uh, generally what we do is we secure the local match
generally through uh the Fargo Commission. Once we receive that local match and have that in the budget, uh we go out for federal grants to be able to match that and to be able to afford the vehicles. And then once we get that match, then we're able to reach out to
um the bus company that we use as new flyer. And that is generally anywhere from a year to year and a half lead time. So, a lot of it just kind of depends on their manufacturing and when they're able to get the vehicle to us. But, um that's something that we'd potentially be able to coordinate with
you guys with. Um, I know that the Pride in the Park event isn't being held in Blue STEM this year, but if it is potentially in 26 or 27, that's something we'd be happy to work with. Marvelous. I appreciate that um offer, Cole. I think that's excellent. And I know timing with equipment and machines
is up in the air a lot of the times, but I think um keeping access and inclusivity in Morehead is really at the top. I appreciated the link and seeing well myself taking a air conditioned trip back and forth has always been nice to some of those larger events um and
look forward to perhaps looking at bringing it back once downtown Morehead is big and fabulous and has lots of sites to connect Fargo and West Fargo over to Morehead some more. Sure. Sounds great. Any additional questions from council members? Council member White. Thank
you, Mayor. Just wanted to add a few comments from the discussions that we had in our in the map bus committee. Um, one was just the really the and and Cole alluded to this, there were real huge disparities in terms of
uh for the link FM usage in Morehead at the at events at the YMCOMs compared to Blue Stem. And so it really was um in some cases for the events here was just a handful of people. And we even talked about because it was maybe you know many hours there would be nobody but there
was a like a few hours that they were concentrated and so we tried to think about if we might be able to just have it for say two hours and then with the construction it just became really untenable to try to do also do it um along with that but I wanted to um go
back to the blue stem issue just because I think it's important to just have this on council's radar that you know the reason so the uh you know it The places where we saw the heavy usage was in Trollwood for the um theater programs and for Pride in the Park. And
the one year we had it for Pride in the Park, it immediately had the highest usage of all of our um link FM events per hour. Uh so that's because we have this great event center that doesn't have a lot of great ways to get in and
out of it. And I just think, you know, we even talked about this that, you know, um this was one way to try to deal with it was by providing this service that would help to limit some of the uh mitigate some of the congestion issues, but it's something that we, I think, as
a council really need to think about in the future is, you know, we want to have these continue to have these great events, but when the street becomes a parking lot and people can't get in and out of it, then um that really detracts people from wanting to continue to use it. So, I just really wanted to, you
know, again, put that on there in terms of long-term thinking ahead of where um things we might do in the future that that's an area that really needs to be explored for um uh addressing some of the congestion issues. Thank you. Any other questions from council
members? Seeing none, I'd be looking for um a motion to approve 9B. So move Borggan White seconds. Motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any
opposed? That motion carries. Thank you, Cole. Thank you. Appreciate you coming and giving us that background and information. All right. Moving on to mayor and council reports. Are there any council members who have reports from um
assigned boards and committees for the city? Council member White. Thank you, Mayor. Um I wanted to mention a few events that I attended and some things coming up. On May 1st, we had our Klay County Intergovernmental Committee
meeting um at DGF High School and uh discuss truency. Um it was interesting, nice to be out there. there are hosts for next year and mostly I just wanted to also put this on your radar is if you have ideas of what you'd like to see for
topics for next year's intergovernmental retreat we have lots of times but we'll we'll be um looking for suggestion for those topics for the next intergovernmental retreat in January and then in the evening we did our conversations with council members um
great event had about I counted 18 people really nice conversations um And I think we're talking about with the next one I know for W three I think would be in um sometime this summer. The one that we do in Gooseberry Park um
next Tuesday I wanted to remind people that we'll have the global market and this one looks like it'll be the biggest one yet. They where they're have 19 vendor spots. They're pairing up with Heart and Soul Community Cafe and they're also collecting non-p perishable
items for Dorothy Day Food Pantry. So, if you happen to stop by and you want to bring an item to donate, that would be great. And then I also wanted to mention I'm serving on the search committee for the next executive director for the Historical and Cultural Society of Klay County. You may have seen the story in
the paper about Morin Kelly Jonas. Um, that's starting to wind down and in fact next week we'll have the three finalists here visiting Morehead and then should have a decision soon after that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other council members? Uh, council member uh
Hendrickson and then council member Borggan. Unmute. Thanks. Um, I attended the May luncheon of the FM Mariam Music Club where I wrote a Excuse me. What do you call that again? Proclamation. Thank you. Proclamation.
And I saw a lot of friends there, a lot of people who played piano for me when I've sung throughout the community. So, that was a good time. Uh it was Mayor Mahoney uh Mayor Dardis and so we read the proclamation right away in the beginning and then today I attended uh fix it forward. They had a ribbon cutting for 10 years in business and
it's a great organization. I would like to thank Matthew and Travis for the invite. Um they have given away over 300 cars for the community for people in need and um they've actually also fixed 700 cars from what I it's probably more now but uh for for our community in
need. So, it's just a great organization and I was just happy to be there. Thanks, Council Member Borggan. Thank you, Mayor. As a member of the Morehead Public Service Commission, I attended the Missouri River Energy Services annual meeting in Sou Falls last week. I
went down early because they were offering a 101 course, four hours on energy, which I needed because I'm kind of new to this commission. And overall the conference was very informational. It was really a good foundation for me as a member of the
commission. So it was it was a good experience. Thank you. Any other council members have reports? All right. Seeing none. um a number of different meetings that I attended and
um um first was on April 29th um there was a Concordia College student that um President uh Irvine had steered my way and um met with that Concordia student
looking to do a social work internship and really is from the Duth area but really wants to intern in the Fargo Morehead area and particularly wants to make Morhead his home after he graduates. Um, so that was nice to hear that we're really drawing younger folks
not just to a community, but uh making it a place that they do want to call home, very much like Medelia and talked about earlier in the meeting. Um, also attended the the welcome for the Minnesota Young American Leaders Program alumni and incoming participants
meeting. Um, for those who are not aware of what this program is, it's an intensive three and a half-day program at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities that convenes rising leaders from across for-profit, government, and nonprofit sectors who are committed to working across sectors to help their
communities and region prosper inclusively. They're able to forge connections with other rising leaders across the state of Minnesota. Um, deepen their knowledge and share perspectives and learn from together from examples. um and and learn about
tools for innovative cross- sector collaborations. And um it was really exciting to go uh because this time the cohort that was selected through their application process, two of them actually work at the city of Morehead. So Britney Cameron and Kelly Counz uh
both are representing the city of Morehead in this very very specialized and very unique opportunity. So congratulations to both of them. Uh May 1st, I uh met with an individual who recently moved to Morhead from Fargo. Um wanted to miss connecting with me at the
Chamber of Collisions event because I needed to cancel at the last minute. Um wasn't able to attend that event. Um she was very excited to be in Morehead and was looking for ways to become involved in the community. Um and I thought that was pretty uh incredible that uh she was
seeking me out, wasn't there, and then reached out to schedule a meeting. Um there was a flood our weekly flood mitigation check um checkin with the county the FM area diversion authority in the chamber. Um we wrote letters to
the editor and both were published one in the Fargo forum and one in the star tribune. um again advocating for flood mitigation funding from the state of Minnesota which is the number one priority as determined by the council um last year. Uh there was also
a meet and greet with the new msum men's basketball coach. Um we're hoping that he chooses to make Morhead his house or his home I should say. And then uh also attended the chamber pulse event on May 6 to hear Chief Helmet present. He was
on the panel with the other metro area chiefs. Uh he Chief Helmick talked about the fact that um property crimes in the city of Morehead are down 41%. um and that he was surprised at the lack
of awareness um and the fact that the the police department um is is unnoticed um I guess in the community is a word he used and he really wants to increase uh the social media social media awareness
of the great and wonderful things that are being done by um our police department because it's just not um being disseminated ated out into our community. His area of focus um that he talked about is offer officer wellness
and then also the workforce shortage within the police department. Currently down 14 officers, but he stated six are in the FTO program. There's several conditional offers out out and they hope to be fully staffed in the near future. Um the last few meetings I did um two
were on May 8th and one of those meetings was meeting with a group from MSUM two individuals um about the beyond the yellow ribbon. So uh thank you to council member Nissaire for making that meeting happen. Um we'll be discussing
further about a potential um person to be part of that event at our group at MSUM. And then um I also did a welcome for the Fargo Morehead Area Foundation professional advisors event uh which was
great to hear about all of the people within the Fargo Morehead community who provide advice to um individuals who are seeking to fund different projects and uh agencies within our community. And then again, uh, the Friday morning flood
mitigation check-in, which we're doing on a weekly basis to monitor, uh, that very important priority for the city of Morehead. With that, um, I'm done. So, I'll turn it over to you, City Manager Molly. Thank you, Mayor. I have a few updates today. So, in the spirit of putting some light on the Morehead
Police Department, I didn't know it was going to work like this, but let's do it. I um so it recently passed um uh an audit um from the Minnesota Post Board um with flying colors, I'll add on April 28th. So the Minnesota Post Board oversees all the um standards for
training in Minnesota. Um in the audit um boy, it looks at policies, training, hiring requirements, all of that. but it said that it was impressed with the level of organization in Morhead's police department and how easily um information was provided when requested or needed. Um there was also a comment
about um using the Morehead the MPD as an example for other Minnesota cities in the spirit of just keeping the thing um moving in the and the um the professionalism in it. So, just wanted to say a thank you to Sergeant Joe Brandon, crime analyst Cameron uh Jensen, Chief Hel Helmick, and former
Chief Monroe um for putting that up. This is really excellent work, and it's an honor to work alongside his professional law enforcement um this team um that works every day, frankly, to keep residents safe, foster engagement, and build trust. So, um with
that, um the mayor had mentioned uh the Minnesota Young American Leaders Program. um assistant planner um Britney Cameron and communication coordinator Kelly Coons have been accept selected to represent our region um it's a competitive process so that was really
great and um last year Morhead al the Morhead alum of the program was U Jordan work um and so um these are all these really incredible people um wanted to say congratulations and thank you to Sergeant Michelle Vultz who um graduated
from the international association of chiefs police leadership um program um on April 28th. Uh the program is is uh I will say forward thinking in that it focuses on individual group and
organizational types of leadership. It uses interactive methods um such as case studies, role playinging and class exercises to help participants apply behavioral science theories in real world challenge challenges and situations. And the courses emphasize practical strategies for influencing
behavior boost motivation satis uh motivation satisfaction and performance um across the organization. So um way to stay ahead Morehead and Michelle or Sergeant Bolts I should say. Uh let's see here. Okay. Uh the
Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development D nominated Morehead for a CC award. It's a national recognition around kind of um economic development work for our work with DG Fuels to estab to establish an sustainable aviation fuel site in
Morehead and in the Mccaraa business part park park in particular. Um DG Fuels um and this project is well Morehead frankly is one of 10 projects recognized nationwide in this magazine. Um it's right here to prove it. Uh
that's uh well actually I'll even read the award. Um this CC award is presented to the city of Morehead for outstanding achievement economic development for DG Fuels and um hats off to team Morehead for that and especially our community
and economic development teams where you know we know who we're talking about Derek Leo and Amy Thorp and Christy Lashevski and Nate A. I mean, I could just we could go on and on and you and our e um economic development authority and all that. So, that's very that's great. And lastly, um I'm happy to
inform everyone that city of Morhead is being recognized as a step five green city again this year, the highest of the green step honors. Um this will be presented at the League of Minnesota Cities um annual conference in Duth next month. um efforts that helped us
maintain this step five status include LED street light conversions throughout u multiple sources of grant funding. It was noted that the various sources um to get this um LED conversion across the city done was lifted up. Um increases in the city's um tree inventory, the urban
canopy um reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as collected by benchmarking. So Morehead is the only community in the metro that is doing benchmarking for energy use. um efforts to recycle and compost more and more each year. Uh the level um when we're doing our street planning, complete streets in the way in
which um some of the work around the safe routes to schools um initiative, citywide comprehensive planning, storm engineering and much more. So this achieve a award is a great achievement in Morehead. Um I want to thank assistant planner Ethan Junk and community development Christy Leashesky
for helping communicate this great communicate and report all this great um work citywide. It's a lot of it is just it's happening. You know, people are leading from where they sit, but it's gathering it and putting it together in a manner that it looks cohesive. As my grandpa used to say, be cohesive. Um
um recognition in this program shows that uh Morehead is committed to making our community in Minnesota more resilient and uh placeworthy of the future. Thank you. Thank you. How many years in a row has Morhead received the GreenStep
5 designation? Boy, I think we're on what are we probably about four years. And then each one of those went step one, step two, step three, step four, and then into five. And um what's interesting about five is that you have to show progress. If you don't make
progress in at least three of the required metrics, um you don't you don't continue. So it's uh it's work, but yes, and I know it's a it's ongoing. Um, I just think that it's it's
incredible that this program was started probably about 10 years ago within the city of Morehead. Um, and we're already at we already it took us a while, but we got to step five. And the work that's being done within the city of Morehead
when new people are coming in, that's just the way it is. It means that the changes that we're making are institutionalized. and when you institutionalize change, you know that that change is going to be there because um that's how people get trained and they don't know that there's any other way that it's been done. So, I think
that um you know, there's a lot of kudos that needs to be given to the staff because I I've looked at the requirements to be able to get to a step five and maintain a step five and it is a ton of work. Um, and it's just
incredible and it just makes me so proud to be part of Morehead when we're continually looking for ways to be resilient um, in our city. Indeed. If I could add one thing, you know, I think that one area for improvement would be to make it more fun. And I know everyone tries, you know, it's fun to get stars,
but the race, you know, I mean, like this maybe even like a serious urban game. We might have to share this at the League of Cities if you know, you know how people check their fantasy football scores or whatever, but if we were a green step city competing,
um it could be that could be fun. So, um I think Den Public Works put out a a bingo a cleanup week bingo chart or something like that. Um, I need I still need to look at it, but I could probably win by just going to one of my neighbors. I still enjoy
doing it, you know, gaming for a cause. I think there's something to it. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, we do not have an executive session tonight and we do not have any new business. So, it's 6:35 and we are journed. So, good night, Morehead.