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e e there we go all right good evening everyone it is March 10th 2025 it's 5:30 pm um I am mayor Shelley Carlson the morid 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 3 minutes each if you would like to address a 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 coun item on the agenda you'll need to 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 Morehead website at Morhead mn.gov we the Morhead city council collectively with gratitude acknowledge the sacred land the city of
Mor is built upon we acknowledge the people who resided here for generations and recognize that the spirit of the Dakota OJ miti and all indigenous communities perate this land with that could I get a roll call please Ryan Nelson here Nicole Matson here Heather Nemer here Emily Moore here Deb White
Lisa borgan Sebastian McDougall here Chuck Hendrickson present mayor Shelley Carlson here and for those who are able please stand for the pledge of allegian right and with that uh assistant city manager REITs do we have any agenda amendments uh we Have No Agenda
amendments tonight mayor okay thank you um and moving on to consent agenda do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so move check second n mayor have a motion and a second any discussion see none all those in favor signified by saying I I any opposed that motion
carries moving on to recognitions and present ations we have a number of them tonight um a lot of exciting ones the first one is our moreart recognition um and I will turn this over to Lisa bod but I do want to just briefly mention
that um the the more heart awards that we give are um made by local Morehead artist Dennis kruel and he is going to be having a um uh Premiere I guess or at the at the r
art mum Museum um painting with fire the first 10 years so if you like his stuff I would encourage you to go to the RO and and see his great other art artistic things endeav yeah not thinking of the right
words right now so I'll turn over to you Miss B thank you mayor Carlson um the mayor and Council are asked tonight to recognize and honor Roger Erikson with the morard award um Roger is a lifetime Morehead resident he graduated from
Morehead high school in Minnesota State University Morehead and he has over 40 years of business experience building Custom Homes in Morehead creating several private businesses and most recently Farmstead Senior Living in South Morehead providing healthc care
services and retirement living in all of his business ventures he's shown dedication to the Morhead community and his Morhead recognition is based on something a little different and it's very special so at this point I think I'll ask um Chief Shannon Monroe to read
from the nomination that um he provided to um let us lift Roger good works up thank you mayor and Council Roger ericsen has been a gracious and unsolicited supporter of
local law enforcement can9 programs his love for dogs and his community has driven him to support local law enforcement by providing funding for purchases ing four dogs for local law enforcement departments including two at the Morhead Police Department without
his support local government funds would be required to purchase the animals at a cost of 10 to $15,000 each with his generosity and commitment to our community Roger Ericson is the perfect nominee for the city of Morehead moreart
award Roger first supported the Morehead Police Department K9 program by providing funds to purchase K9 Z unfortunately while off duty at home Zeke suffered a medical emergency was and was transported to the emergency
veterinarian hospital where even after excellent care Zeke died saddened by the news Roger contacted the Morad Police Department to give his condolences and continue his commitment to the K9 program he also again offered to uh
support the K9 program with the purchase of a replacement dog for uh officer Brett Mich so as you can see next to me here is Officer mich's new dog K9 Dex and both of them have been away for
training and graduated and have been actively uh providing services to the Morehead community so the dogs bring amazing skills to law enforcement and are critical to our work they are also very costly to obtain train and equip so the generous support provided Ed by
Roger Ericson has assisted the city of Morehead in keeping our K9 program up and running and if you know Roger you know he loves dogs and he usually has his kind of nearby him at all times kind of surprising he actually doesn't have them with him tonight um but if you are ever down at Farmstead uh Estates or
Farmstead living um he usually has his dogs there with him so uh we want to thank uh Roger from the bottom of our heart for his ongoing support for our K9 program
[Applause] one thank you I really do appreciate this award um um my part in this is actually pretty easy I just have to write the check okay
it's it's through the work of Brett and the other K9 officers that they have to do the heavy lifting as you can see 24/7 and and I thank them for their service because the a k9 in a community is kind
of a game Cher and um um so I really do thank him he he like like Shannon said he kind of had a tough goal uh the first one passed away pretty young and uh so he's had two opport opportunities here
to serve bhead so I really do thank him and so thank you I really appreciate it and hopefully if the need arises again we'll have the funds to be able to help support it um as I said my wife Lisa is
here too and so she's kind of supported my Endeavors um if we ever get divorced I guess we'll I'll be able to fund half a dog I don't know so so anyway thank you I really do appreciate I got a lot of our staff who another one
just a a group picture with the folks he brought he brought his his work family quick picture I guess Lisa get in the picture I'm sorry I'm switching with her Lisa you should be in here though yeah Lisa
respect you I'll go on this side can you see you okay [Applause] thank you again uh Roger for your um very quiet contributions because he
never wants to be acknowledged necessarily for this and and uh for all the other kind things that he does he was and now he's leaving but he was the a builder at one point in time of his life and helped out a very young couple who couldn't purchase the lot to build
their house and so he purchased it and when we closed on the house we were able to roll it into into um our mortgage and that was just one of the ways that he quietly helps people in this community um does not really care for this kind of
attention or uh these types of pictures or anything like that um but those are the the mostly the people that we end up honoring with the Morhead award or people who just do it because they feel that this is how they want to to help our community and it's really what makes Morehead just incredible and amazing so
thank you and thank you for all the fored folks for coming and supporting him and and our law enforcement as well um the next presentation is from Gate City Bank uh the city of Morehead Neighborhood Impact Home Improvement program and I will call up Angie Fogle
and Amber s from Gate City Bank good evening thank you for having us my name is Angie Fogle I serve as a personal loan officer with Gate City Bank here in Morehead at Gate City Bank our core purpose is to create a better way of life for our customers communities and team members we're
incredibly thankful for the communities we call home and we're proud to invest in them the neighbor Neighborhood Impact program does just that this program is one of the multiple similar programs we offer across our footprint and is designed to revitalize mature neighborhoods by helping homeowners make
repairs and upgrades at a below Market interest rate qualifying projects will range from patio additions and new garages to safety repairs like furnace Replacements and accessibility adjustments funds may also be used to address code and structural Corrections
energy improvements and general property upgrades just to name a few in 2025 we're happy to allocate $2 million toward this initiative which will encourage the preservation of homes and add to the long-term value and life of properties and neighborhoods Gate
City Bank has been supporting and investing in these programs for many of our local communities since 2003 contributing $127 million to date allocating $23 million of that in 2025 to participate in communities across
North Dakota and Central Minnesota we are incredibly thankful for the opportunity to help create a better way of life for our friends and Neighbors in Morhead thank you again for having us and at this time I'll answer any questions you may have about the program
come on in [Applause] thank you so much to to Gate City Bank I know that this is a um very well utilized program and particularly with interest rates a little bit higher nowadays to be able to have the
opportunity to get lower interest rates to make some uh needed Home Improvements is really helpful um particularly in our neighborhoods where older houses need some of those upgrades um next is uh proclamation of kurage heritage month
and council member Sebastian McDougall will be reading that as um a representative from the Morehead human rights committee okay uh official Proclamation city of Morad uh whereas the Kurdish community has been an integral part of Morehead contributing significantly to
the city's social cultural and economic growth and whereas the kurtish people have enriched Morehead through their dedication to business labor education and advocacy playing a vital role in the city's Workforce entrepreneurship and Community engagement whereas Morehead is home to
one of the largest Kurdish populations in the region and their contributions continue to strengthen the city's diversity economic e economy and inclusivity and whereas the Kurdish Americans in Morhead actively promote social justice human rights and cultural awareness
enhancing the fabric of the community Through Civic engagement and Leadership whereas Nas the Kurdish New Year is celebrated on March 21th and symbolizes renewal unity and hope for the future and is widely observed by the Kurdish community in in Morhead whereas the city
of Morhead recognizes and honors the contributions of the Kurdish residents through their cultural heritage and their ongoing efforts to foster a more inclusive inclusive and prosperous Community for all now therefore be it resolved that uh shelle Carlson mayor City Morhead does hereby proclaim the
month of March 2025 as Curtis heritage month and encourages all residents to celebrate the rich history and culture and condition and contributions of the Kurdish people thank you council member McDougall and I believe that Siam amadi
uh who had made the request for this Proclamation did wanted to say a few words as well thank you mayor and council members um March is significant for Kurdish people as you heard it's a time of renewal and uh Kurdish people have lived
here for over 40 years as I have my great friend uh Mr Hamid alamad here so one of of the first ones to settle in this region and my father here and Zach Amin a great educator within our um school system we kurish people are known
for our residency and generosity and we love Community for decades we Face depression and continue to do so and we say we have an important saying saying we have no friends but mountains but in Morehead there are no mountains but we found friends so um
although you know we are the largest ethnic group in Morehead we are happy to contribute to Morehead um in any way we are proud to be now second and third generation Kurdish Americans living in Morehead contributing to all
areas um and this is really um going to be exciting for us as we continue our celebrations in neus going into the spring and continue to live and give back to the community so again thank you so much as a proud Kurdish American
I thank you all and today is also Kurdish clothes day and I'm wearing Kurdish clothes so and again Kurds really stand for freedom and democracy and we're all about survival and helping our communities out thank you again
[Applause] thank you CM um and um all of your Kurdish friends that you founded and Warhead to um to come to the council meeting and um letting us be aware of of all of
the vast number of of Kurdish people that live in the community I know it's the second largest I think the other one is Nashville um and it's just really nice to be able to acknowledge all the people living in the city so thank you for
that right moving on to the approval of the February 2020 24th 2025 meeting minutes do I have a motion to approve the meeting minutes so moved second have a motion and second any discussion see none all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed that motion
carries are there any citizens in the audience who wish to address a council at this time seeing none we will move on to our public hearing and I will call Clay lexon up from um our city Engineers
Department I will need a motion to open the public hearing for 14th Avenue South 13th Street South and 18th Street South Underground utility and Street improvements so move n Meer second Nelson a motion in a second any discussion see none all those in
favor signify by say I i i i any opposed that motion carries and the public hearing is now open I'll turn it over to you clay thank you mayor and members of council this is the public hearing for Street and underground utility Improvement project number
25822 this is for 14th Avenue South 13th Street South and 18th Street South the project will consist of Street improvements spot curb and gutter and sidewalk repairs and some water main replacement and then clay can you just
like always remember to speak into the microphone I know you're a little taller so just want to capture every word thank you per City Records most of the streets were constructed in the late 1950s and early 1960s and have not had any major
improvements since then except for 13 with the exception of 13th Street South the streets are in poor condition and require rehab the pavement condition index or PCI has a wide range from 13 to
75 there is sidewalk throughout the project area except for two gaps which are adjacent to Lamb Park additionally most 88 pedestrian ramps are non-compliant regarding utilities the storm sewer is in acceptable condition
the majority of the sanitary sewer is older vitrified clay pipe but most of it's been lined and is an acceptable working condition all the water main in the project area is PVC except for 18th Street South which is cast iron and will
be replaced as a part of the project the proposed Street improvements include the rehab of 14th Avenue South and 18th Street South and a mill in overlay of 13th Street South our rehab includes removing and replacing the entire pavement section but the curban
gutter largely stays in place a Mill and overlay removes the the top couple inches of pavement and then we put back a new layer of pavement the curb and gutter again will largely stay in place we will be completing spot repairs on the sidewalk and we'll be installing
new sidewalk adjacent to Lamb Park that's the yellow line on the map public works department requested that engineering add this as a part of the Improvement project in order to provide better access to the park there was only one resident impacted directly by the proposed
sidewalk in installation and this Resident was supportive of the new sidewalk many of The Pedestrian ramps in this area are all are non-compliance so we will replace those as well as I mentioned previously the old cast iron waterm will be replaced with
new PVC water M on 18th Street South the city is partnering with Morhead public service to do work under this contract there is approximately 2,000 ft of water M that will be replaced additionally Exel energy will be replaced in the gas main on all
project streets please note that their project is not part of the city project but will be concurrent with the city project this is a map of the assessment area there are no collector streets in this area so there is no areawide assessment the assessment would be
$42.50 per front foot for the mill and overlay areas and $90 per front foot for the rehab there are a total of 101 properties within this assessment area the total amount being assessed is approximately
$514,000 the average assessment is about $5,000 and the maximum assessment is approximately $47,500 and that is on the city lot that is Lamb Park this project we received bids in February the total project cost is
expected to be about 2.77 million for funding the city share of that cost will be approximately 1.57 million Morehead public Silver Service will contribute approximately $683,000 and assessments will contribute
$514,000 regarding public input an informational video was presented to the city website on February 14th as of last Friday that had 46 views and there's been a couple questions from the public or from residents but they're just general questions about the
project the public hearing notice was mailed on February 27th as of last Friday there were no questions regarding assessments for this project tonight after the closure of the public hearing we're asking you to consider a resolution to order the improvements and award the bid because
this is a CIP project and not a petitioned project it takes seven out of eight council members to to approve and that's the end of my presentation do you have any questions thank you clay um since this is a public hearing portion are there any members of the public who wish to
comment on this agenda item again any members of the public who wish to contribute if you do um you can come to the podium um you will wait till you get there you'll need to state your
name if you're resident of Morehead and then after you're done speaking you'll need to fill out a form from our city clerk you'll have 3 minutes the little button will be green during your 3 minute period of time and then when it turns red you'll have to wrap it up um and then I'll I'll have you finish I
won't take three minutes I'll take 30 seconds my name is Loretta cantier I'm a resident of Morehead I I couldn't see the costs I wanted to understand the costs and I don't know if they were in the video that was online so I just wanted if wondering if he could run that
again and are you able to go back to the cost clay Christina do you mind helping me out maybe if you could just reiterate that that would be great could I ask a clarifying question yeah
um was your question to assessments or was it to the total project cost oh to the assessments yeah okay someone said they are on apologies no that's okay um we have just to to reiterate there's 101 properties within the project
area average assessment for Residential Properties is about 5,000 we're assessing a little over a half a million dollars and the the entire project the maximum assessment which is also the city-owned property is 47,500
thank you clay and um if you can just maybe speak briefly to the fact that um home owners don't have to pay that amount in one L sum that they can pay it over a period of time yeah t typically assessments are spread out over a period
of 20 years thank you yep right are there any other members of the public who wish to make a comment during this public hearing time yes my question is when is uh the timing of this when will this be done and I
have a personal question I got a bad sidewalk how can I get mine added in there to get it replaced and then sir you'll have to um fill out your name and information um which will be given to you by uh one of
our staff so we we do have the project engineer for that project here Mike Amit is here is available to answer questions afterwards but uh as to the timing of the project I don't think we've determined a construction schedule yet generally those projects can start as early as May and then they'll take place
throughout the summer but Mike may have some more information for you on that and then for sidewalk if um a resident wants to request additional work be done they can we're happy to do that and happy happy to add that in thank you and I'm assuming mikee you'll
be available after uh the public hearings and you can meet with people out in the the lobby area are there any other members of the public who wish to speak to this agenda item and if so just please come up to the podium um please you'll need to state your name and if you're a resident
of Morehead and then you'll have three minutes to speak my name is uh Jim Ellingson live at 13034 Avenue South and my question relate and
I've been in Morehead since 1958 so that uh was a long and wonderful uh experience but I'm wanted to ask if for an explanation of
of if you an 84 year old like I am and you um you see this 20year span are there options other than than paying by
the you know paying for the whole thing if I did that um someone else would get the advantages that it doesn't seem that uh I should be paying for the whole 20 years and I would guess there are there
are options but let me throw one out to you and just see if it it's okay or if it if it isn't if we took half of the
$5,400 and paid that upfront then what happens to the interest I mean would we be paying paying Upfront for with interest
or without interest if it's provided right at the starting point wherever that is and any other sorts of options like that I would be interested in hearing um because um my choice would be
to pay Upfront for five years all right thank you sir and I will turn it back over to Clay to uh address those questions there are a variety of ways that assessments can be paid um there's
a variety of timelines over which they can be paid the city has a special assessment coordinator um Amy who would be happy to coordinate with and be happy to follow up and find out a way that works um for this
resident thank you and anyone else who would like to speak during the public hearing portion all right seeing none I'd be looking for a motion to close a public hearing portion of this agenda item so move n Meer second Morgan Motion in a
second any discussion see none all those in favor say if I by saying I I I any opposed that motion carries um all right the public hearing portion of the agenda item is closed and for those uh residents who had specific questions um
Mike from our engineering department will be able to meet with you out in the lobby to address those specific questions um council members do you have any questions council member ner thank you madam mayor a couple of questions came up um clay as you were presenting um I will list them all for you now now
um feel free to order or answer them one at a time could you please define CIP for all of the residents at home who may not have materials or who have gapped out um on what CIP means and how that
pertains to them you did address um why we need or how we need uh a higher percentage of City uh council members to vote in favor of this project but a little more context would be very much appreciated so that's question
one the communication about this project and the timeline will residents get any more communication on that sent to their home or will that only be allowed via e notification or um be put out publicly
on our City website so council member n Meer how about we just do one question at a time and let her respond let him respond and then um we can do it that way sure to your first question the the CIP is a capital Improvement plan so the city will put together and spe specifically with the engineering
department we plan out typically 5 years in advance for projects so we we'll take a look at the streets that need to be done um what needs to be done on them and then we kind of arrange them and schedule out projects typically it's
five to six projects a year that we're doing um this nature of work so for this year it's pretty typical from from last year but it's yeah four to five to six of these Street Improvement projects um
it's part of that Capital appr Improvement plan part of the budget that that the city approves marus thank you uh regarding resident communication um there's a number of ways that residents can stay up to date on our
projects um they will they'll receive notification prior to construction about when we're expecting that to start so there'll be a notification that way there's also an option for them to sign up for E notifications on the city's website and they'll receive periodic email updates
kind of that at key points in the project as it progresses and before it starts giving them notification of closures and things of that nature and then there's also we we have a a mapping page um on the city's website as well where we will provide there'll be
updates up there for road closures and things like that go ahead council member n with the next question thank you um I appreciate the details if people had additional questions um you know we've had residents ask about um funding costs
options for um paying their assessments I understand and I know that they won't get that assessment um applied until after the project is done but if they have questions where should they go to find that information I know Mike's here
tonight but for those who are you know making dinner and watching us tonight how can they reach out to get that information let's say if they don't have that letter that they received sure so there's there's a couple ways to do it one is if you get on the city's website we do have a page that's dedicated to
this project there'll be contact information there listed for Mike and then the other one if they want to call into the engineering department and ask for the special assessment coordinator she would be able to answer questions specifically about special assessments marvelous thank you clay I sincerely
appreciate that you're welcome thank you any other council members have questions council member Hendrickson question for you I noticed you had one sidewalk that's going to be repaired what are what's the how do you know which sidewalks to repair I mean is there like a grade level or I've always wondered
that so are you referring to the sidewalk by Land Park yeah well so there there's currently no sidewalk there okay so there's a gap there um so we we're proposing to fill that in it's a park public area we want to provide better access there so we're proposing to fill that in there in general though if
there's sidewalk that needs to be replaced or repaired we're evaluating that the a year ahead so we'll actually walk through the project area determine if it needs to be replaced because it's old or if it's out of compliant so if there's there's a number of things we
can do we can replace concrete we can replace the sidewalk or there's things that we do to grind down edges to take out Trippers and and other hazards like that okay and if the sidewalks aren't accessible those are automatically fixed generally if we are
doing it if if we deem it acceptable and a resident wants to have their sidewalk replaced they can petition us to do that work okay thank you any other questions from Council
Members CA and I'd be looking for a motion and we can take uh 9B and C together move to approve 9 B and C second more a 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 clay and now we are moving on to our SE second public hearing of the night um I need a motion to open the public hearing for the Country Heritage area Street improvements so
moved second Motion in a second any discussion see none all those in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed that motion carries and this second public hearing is open and I'll turn it over to you clay thank you thank you
mayor this is the public hearing for Street Improvement project number 24 a203 this is the country heritage project area this includes work on 65th Avenue North 67th Avenue North 3rd Street North and 4th Street North this project will
consist of Street improvements and some very minor drainage improvements per City Records most of the streets in this area were constructed in the late' 70s this neighborhood was originally part of the county and then was later annexed into the city we're not aware of any major
Street projects in this area so we do think that this is the original Pavement in the neighborhood the pavement condition index or PCI varies from 26 to 78 we are are aware of a number of areas in the pavement especially near the edges of the pavement where it is
settling and sloughing and it beginning to separate from itself and to slide down in towards the ditch notably there's no sidewalk throughout this project area this is a rural Section Road so no sidewalk no curbing Gutter and also notably no
significant storm sewer infrastructure the drainage is handled through ditches on either side of the road and I'll cover that more later in this presentation but over the years we've received several complaints about poor drainage in those ditches regarding utilities the sanitary
sewer and the water are both PVC and are in good working condition no repairs are needed at this time I mentioned previously that staff have received comments and complaints regarding poor drainage and standing water in the dishes we've also received a number of complaints over the years
about the condition of the pavement with that in mind we did want to get residents input on those items to try to gauge how much an issue they thought it was and then try to gauge how much interest there was in trying to correct it this is really good information for us to have because if we were to try to
improve drainage and install brand new storm sewer that could have a pretty significant uh cost to the project and a residents as well brand new areawide infrastructure is not typically included or accounted for in front footage assessment rates so if we did do brand
new infrastructure such as new storm sewer residents would have a would likely have a share in that additional work we were proposing a 50-50 C share where the city would include 50% of the additional or the city would cover 50% of the project and then we would assess
an amount that we thought would cover the other 50% to Residents so we sent out a survey which had a couple payment options the first was to replace the road with almost what was there exactly today and that was the asphalt or pinus option the second
option was concrete pavement and the reason we included that was to try to address settling along the edges of the pavment the concrete option would have had an increased cost and as a result the homeowner would have had an increased assessment as well we also included a couple options that would
attempt to improve drainage as well as an option for no improvements out of 43 properties in the project area we got 20 responses which is actually really good and the results to us were very clear the nearly unanimous pavement Choice was
binus or asphalt pavement for the optional storm or for the storm sewer options 75% of respondents preferred that we make no improvements 25% of residents prefer that we make or respondents prefer that we make minor
improvements so with the results of that survey in mind we decided to proceed with design by doing binus pavement and without adding any new storm sewer we were are proposing to replace the entire pavement section and the base material beneath this is also a good time for us
to try to regrade some of the side slopes down to the ditch bottom to make sure that those are a little flatter than they are now they're a little steeper than we prefer them to be there will also be some places where we fill in low spots in the dishes and
take out high spots so they don't hold as much water but that would be the extent of our work in the ditch bottoms as I mentioned before the water and the sanitary sewer are in good shape so we're not proposing any work to either of those and there's also no
private utility work in this area so no work with Excel this is a map of the assessment area there are no collector streets in this area so there's no areawide assessment the assessment rate would be $65 a front foot this is the rate this
is a new rate for Rural reconstruction and this was adopted in December of 2024 by Council there are 43 properties in this project area total assessments are approximately
$493,000 the average assessment is about 11,500 and the maximum assessment is about 21,000 this project was also bid in February the total estimated project cost is approximately 1.13 million on the
funding side assessments again they'll cover approximately 493 th000 or 43% and this the city share of the project will come back at 638,000 or about 56% of the project to Circle back on the public
input aspect we had the survey that was sent out in Fall 20 or fall of 2024 we had 20 responses out of 43 properties we also posted an informational video to the city's website on January 21st as of last Friday that had 66 views we've had
a lot of correspondence with residents throughout this process there's been questions regarding drainage access during construction what we're now proposing to do with improvements theyve also been aware of several graduation parties so we will be delaying start on
the project until after June 3rd which should hopefully help with that and then we've had a number of questions on assessments we had a mailed public hearing notice on February 27th since last Friday we've received one question regarding assessments and
that was how they were calculated again tonight after the closure of the meeting we're asking you to consider a resolution to order the improvements and award the bid and that's the end of my presentation thank you thank you and this is public hearing portion of the agenda item are there any members of the
public who wish to speak to this agenda item again any members of the public who wish to speak to this agenda item seeing none I would be looking for council member to make a motion to close this uh public hearing so
moved second have a motion in a second uh any discussion see none all those in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed that motion carries and any council members have questions not I'd be looking for a
motion to approve 9e and f move to approve more second borgan a motion in a second any discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed
that motion carries thank you clay appreciate uh your time tonight and all the good information you provided next on the agenda is under Administration and I will turn this uh portion over to our assistant city
manager Mike Reitz thank you mayor um tonight uh this next agenda item uh is related to the appointment of the police chief uh pursuant to the city ch the city manager is to select department
heads on the basis of Merit and fitness subject to approval of the city council uh the city manager is recommending approval of the appointment of Christopher helmet to the police chief position uh and that would be effective
uh April 14th 2025 uh city manager Molly makes this recommendation without hesitation and with considerable enthusiasm uh Christopher helck has served in law enforcement with the city of Fargo since
2001 uh he presently holds the rank of Captain and has been assigned to the criminal investigation division Neighborhood Services Division as well as the Professional Standards division Captain helck holds a
Bachelor's of Criminal Justice from Morehead State and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy so with that I uh hardly uh recommend that the city council um
endorses the city manager's selection of Christ Christopher helmi as police chief thank you and uh assistant city manager Reitz could you just provide a little bit of information about the involvement from um with members of the department
um with council members and other department heads and the feedback that the city manager um made sure was included while he made this selection process um certainly um we uh we had uh
a number of uh parts of the uh there were several parts of the process that occurred here um we had um a uh an opportunity for the members of the police department to uh to meet Mr helmi
um and and provide feedback we also had an opportunity for staff and city council members to meet and provide uh feedback on uh Mr helck and all of the candidates uh in both of those cases um
and uh that was all taken into consideration um as well as uh a round of of interviews with each of the four candidates I believe that there was a process that was utilized also with community members selected um from
various nonprofit organizations and other agencies that work very closely with the police department and input with G gathered from those entities as well uh yes that is the case as well okay thank you all right I just wanted everyone to know that uh Mr helck was
thoroughly vetted so um with that I would be looking for a motion to approve agenda item 138 so move Nelson second got a motion and a second any discussion council member Nelson thank
you mayor uh so I'd like to start off by congratulating uh Chris helmi on the selection the recommendation by uh D Molly I have heard nothing but absolutely great things about uh Chris helmi uh working in law enforcement in my uh previous career um everybody knows
that he is just an outstanding uh standup individual uh the most humble person that you can meet uh we are uh very lucky as a city of Morehead to have him as an applicant and as our candidate uh tonight I'd like to thank our uh search committee or search
firm uh to get to this point also thank the other candidates who uh uh made application and also uh Lieutenant l b the internal candidate who uh um unfortunately uh wasn't selected but um has also uh he is uh supporting uh uh
the move forward in uh in the police department with uh with uh uh Captain helmi um so it's really exciting time for uh for Mor police department and this is just a wonderful opportunity I couldn't be more excited to uh pass this uh as soon as possible and get the get
your role in Chris so uh really thank um thank the council thank everybody that participated in this process and uh um uh Chief Shannon Monroe has set you uh set you up with a a great Department a great team and uh um and we'll be able to turn over and set you up for Success
going forward so thanks Chief Monro and I look forward to moving forward you Council Nelson other comments or questions from other council members seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed
motion unanimously carries future Chief helmet would you like to say a few words well good evening mayor council members um first of all thank you very much for the uh privilege to be your Chief what I can say is that uh during
the interview process uh Chris when our chief future Chief helmet um when he would talk about the service and the the work that is done by the people that work he works with um he often time got a little choked up because I think that
just shows How Deeply he cares for the people um that he works with so uh I think that this is a a great quality of a chief I know it's a quality that uh Chief Monroe has as well so um just wanted to give you a moment there to
thank you may and not to mention the nice things that council member Nelson said about me too so I appreciate that um well first of all like I said thank you I'm really excited to have this privilege to be your Chief and uh everyone has been extremely welcoming so far up to this point and I'm excited to
join this team as a resident of mored even though I work in Fargo I am a resident of mored for the last 20 years and uh it just feels like like a really good fit for for me and my family to uh take on this challenge um on top of that I am really excited to work with just a
fantastic team of men and women over at the police department I've had a chance to meet quite a few of them already and uh could not be more impressed uh so to get to work for them and uh uh be their leader I am really uh ecstatic about
that um but with that too I just want to take a moment to congratulate uh Chief Monroe uh his 30 years of service with the city um that that is phenomenal and I really think we should spend the next couple weeks just celebrating his accomplishments and all that he's done
for our community so I uh thank him for all for everything that he's done and for his support to going through this process so um with that I really am looking forward to to work with all of you and again I uh extremely grateful and thank you for for your support so
thank you thank you sir and I believe that uh future Chief Helm's first day will be April 12th is that 20 14th 14th okay that was a lot of numbers that you
were giving me Amy so April 14th um and I'm really thrilled and and really appreciate the cooperation from Chief zabowski and Fargo um for allowing you to take some time away from your last few weeks in Fargo to be able to come over here and spend a few weeks
with uh Chief Monroe um so that he can kind of show you the ropes over here on the the Minnesota side and I I greatly appreciate the fact that um you've been a resident of Morehead for 20 years so even though you have um information and knowledge of how things are done on the
Fargo side I think being a Morehead resident you know that there's just unique differences we have a different culture different uniqueness about um about our community one that you fully uh talked about and discussed in the interview process so we're just
absolutely thrilled to have you on board and and look forward to you starting in April but appreciate that you want these next few weeks um for us to be celebrating Chief Rose achievements the last 30 some years here in Morehead so thank you so much um moving moving on to the next
item is Mayor and Council reports um any council member have reports um I have council member Chuck Hendrickson yes no I can go to the bathroom real quick okay never mind then please don't report from
there council member Nissa Meer thank you Madame mayor um first I have a report from the airport committee we were able to meet a couple of weeks ago this uh committee meets quarterly and we are currently exploring having a fly in this fall as part of Greater Morehead
days um so those committee uh members are helping uh plan and look for volunteers and if you are a business or an individual in our community that you are interested in participating or even if you have ideas make sure to drop um
me a note I would love to share that with those of us who are participating in the planning and exploration of this event um the solid waste advisory committee um met just last week on March 6th and we will meet again in April um
and we have the opportunity to have new garage doors they were recently installed at the resource recovery center um and it has been a quest to get doors that work in wide open cold windy spaces and so it is a very uh great
thing to celebrate um there will be um a an opportunity for uh uh community members um within Clay County and the City of Morehead to look to legislation that our own Senator Rob kpek um has authored its sf690 and it is uh an
opportunity to develop a stewardship program um for circuit boards I'm going to make sure I don't miss anything circuit boards batteries and electrical products currently the costs to transport these um uh elements are we pay for the transportation and so this
bill actually looks at getting some funding from the state to support communities outside of the metro area to um responsibly and respectfully uh recycle and reuse these items or dispose of them appropriately and so look to
that um bill as you may be watching things happening in our community um it's something that's quite exciting um third I would like to um thank uh International women's day for being hosted here um on Saturday March 8th I
had the opportunity to go and experience this wonderful event at the Armory um I want to thank all of the attendees the participants uh the sponsors and the planners it was an outstanding event and I'm very glad to have it hosted for the
first time in this great City and so uh for those of you who are there great if not look for it next year it is March 8th every year and so that's pretty great to put in your calendar for next year um I also want to thank the word to um members for coming to speak tonight
about our utilities and road updates uh project that we had the open hearing for I know it takes a lot of courage to step forward and speak your name and your residency status as well as share your concerns and thoughts and so I want to reiterate that my uh door not my home
door but my proverbial door is always open and please to reach out to me via text email or phone call um and if you would um not like to visit with me coun member Moore is also uh exquisitely uh communicative for w 2 residents as well
as the rest of the residents of uh Morehead so please continue to show up um share your concerns and thoughts and reach out to us if you are unable to be here at the meetings thank you uh council member Matson well I just want to say you're
welcome because I also attended International women's day so um she thanked everyone who attended and you're welcome um okay sorry uh I have was um able to attend foundational training at the league of Minnesota
cities for New City Council Members because there's a lot to learn about how to be a city council member and so um they taught us a bunch of things I was it was lovely to spend time with council members Moore and borgan and um it was a it was um it was a very good Training and I appreciate the fact that the
city's uh sent us there um I also went to a Clay County collaborative meeting um just as a refresher the purpose of the Clay County collaborative is to bring service systems together to coordinate and integrate resources and services for children youth and families
in Clay County essentially to um help support families to keep kids out of um County custody via either uh Children and Family Services or rejuvenile detention so programs that support kids and families in that way um get funded by the collaborative we get about
$200,000 a year from the state count for the county um to distribute to various programs the application for this year's funding cycle is going to be out soon if you you can either reach out to me or visit claycounty collaborative.org if you're interested in learning more about
how to apply um I had mentioned a couple meetings ago that we thought that we had a surplus that we were going to have to spend down and in the last meeting we did get more information on that we are going to have to spend an extra $200,000 every year for the next four years um we
have come up with a plan to do that and it involves funding previous applicants in several fiscal years who have already applied a little complicated happy to explain it later if you're interested um but again if your organization provides services to Children families and youth
to help support them to keep kids out of the system claycounty collaborative.org and you can find the application for next year's funding round or this year's funding round thanks thank you uh other council members who have reports come council member Nelson and I think council member
borgan I think you're going to do it together we can go up to the podium May yes go ahead they're doing it together so that the camera folks don't have to constantly go back and forth thank you mayor uh good evening Council and mayor and Citizens We're
Here uh we're part of uh council member Borg and I are part of the legislative uh work group we've been busy the last uh several weeks so kind of giv a a summary and that's why we're up here together uh just kind of sharing our report uh to the uh to the council here
um so like I said uh council member Lisa borgan and I and uh mayor Shelley Carlson are on our legislative work group um we've attended uh last week was the uh Morehead area day at the capital
um with the uh chamber of Morehead Fargo West Fargo along with Lisa bod our government affairs director and also um Derek Le Point from our uh Economic Development and so we had that for uh two days uh March 4th and 5th down at St
Paul Capital as you can see there's a picture of us uh up there and the mayor's wearing her Morehead spuds orange uh way to go Morhead spuds so great day at the uh at the arena as well as the capital so um so quick
overview um we've had uh we attended like I said the Morhead area day so we or it was organized by the chamber um a number of participants uh from the chamber a large representative to include um representatives from the city of Morehead City of dillworth Clay
County Minnesota State Community and Technical College Morehead Area Public Schools Minnesota State University Morehead Concordia College Marvin downtown Morehead Incorporated American Crystal sugar Cardinal IG even tide
senior Olivia communities Excel Energy Morehead Public Service Cashway Distributing Sanford immigrant Development Center Detroit Lakes Chamber of Commerce more engineering and also midco there may be others and hopefully I didn't forget any
but do you could tell a large group from the chamber uh attended there um I think it's also worth noting that you didn't have to be a member of the Chamber of Commerce to attend this event because Morehead day at the C Capital was really to celebrate Morehead
and to bring people from Morehead to the capital to meet with our representatives and other Representatives around the state to really talk about what's important and what's going on in Morehead so because we had such a large number of people I believe it was about
38 um the chamber actually secured a large meeting room for us and we met with elected representatives senators and they really engaged our group in discussing current legislative actions and they participated in an open
discussion with us which was really nice I we just want to highlight um who actually met with us so Senator an rest um who is very important on the tax committee I think she's the chair of the tax committee so and she's super excited
about Morehead representative Dave Pinto Senator Bobby Joe Champion Senator Jordan rasmason who is from the Fergus area commissioner Tom Peterson who is the commissioner of the Department of Agriculture assistant commissioner Jess
Richards from the DNR commissioner Paul marot who is the commissioner of Revenue um representative Jeff backer Dariel Dany who is with the cgmc senator Rob kupek Representative Steve Gander
representative Dave Baker representative Jim Joy Senator majority Aaron Murphy and the governor also met with us we had a dinner um we invited many of the same folks and many of them came there might have been others that came and we didn't
get them on our list but it was really a nice um visit and really made Morehead feel important to the people who are making the decisions in St Paul so we really want to extend our gratitude to the chamber for organizing the event and
coordinating it with these officials we appreciate the legislators who attended and listened and are working on our local and Statewide issues unfortunately our representative from Morehead Heather Keeler declined to meet with the group during the event so our legislative or the
legislative priorities that we heard from all of these representatives and Senators was really they need to pass a budget before May 19th and they also need to pass a bonding bill so they of course talk to us about that and the
timeline and how close the um division is and you know I have to say most of the people that we talked to were very positive about getting this done on time you know time will tell it's very complicated and you know we might have a
special section but we'll see what happens um other key discussion topics with the group and with all of these folks was the paid family medical leave and there's some concerns about that issue um they were voiced by many of us
in the group they have only hired less than 30 people that are are needed there's there's 400 people that are needed for this new group this new administrative agency to handle this new uh bill um the cost implications for
employers and employees really uh I believe they need to think a little bit more through there's lots of bills floating out there about how this can be TW tweaked and made better um there's other potential amendments there's some bills to perhaps delay its
implementation to make sure that it's ready before it's rolled out and people aren't ready to do it um you know superintendent lunic was there and he's concerned as well
$750,000 is what it's going to cost the Morehead School District to implement this program and that's only the employer part that's not the amount that the the employees are going to have to pay I think the estimate for the city of
Morehead is about $225,000 so there's there's some issues with how it's going to be done especially when we're looking at you know we had a a huge Surplus two years ago and the forecast is a a budget
deficit in the next couple years I I have to say that you know no one is against Paid Family Leave it's just how do we do it that will actually work for employers and employees and the state so
I'm hoping we were all hoping that this continued dialogue about how to tweak this program you know gets us somewhere closer to actually being able to implement with the rules you know given to HR managers and business managers ahead of time so that they can actually
implement it correctly um we also uh talked a lot about k12 and higher ed funding we talked about the business environment to attract and retain businesses in Minnesota which is really the economic driver for all of
our cities and then we there was also a meeting set up with the Immigrant Development Center with the governor's office to discuss the Morehead cultural mall so as you can hear there was a lot of good stuff that happened and you know we're really appreciative that we were
able to be a part of that so our Morehead legislative uh priorities we were able to talk with our uh legislators and Governor about a number of our um priorities such as the flood mitigation our sales tax exemption for the city hall construction materials
the 5-year extension on the Tiff District border cities legislation and then obviously our letter support our support for the uh cultural Mall um you know uh Senator cek is the chief author on uh most of uh most of those uh uh bills right now there's nothing
currently on the border Ci's legislation but I understand that we expect that'll probably be coming in the in the near future I think there's even a hearing tomorrow on the sales tax am I right on that one Wednesday Wednesday not tomorrow on Wednesday on the sales tax uh for the uh City Hall um on City Hall
piece so there's some uh upcoming uh pieces so we got our our message relay um to our uh colleagues down at St Paul about the importance of uh following through with those projects so uh in talking with the the legislators down there we received a lot of feedback about our community especially about our
Downtown Development and how impressed uh they were with uh the progress and the direction we were going with the city uh in with in regards to that so uh that that was two days March 4th and 5th and then on Thursday March 6 we had the uh City day on the Hills sponsored by
the league of little league of Minnesota cities uh again that was more of our our local group with the with the city of Morehead um we had a panel discussion with House and Senate leaders an overview of the new state budget forecast which I'm sure you all have
paid attention to that it um it it's declined since uh since um the last forecast uh we were able to have a brief meeting with uh representative uh Keeler um she's already aware of our legislative priorities at that point but
uh um she did get uh receive some of the tax bills right then and there at the capital that day uh so Kudos uh great great job for our city staff uh Lisa bod Dan Molly Mike Reitz um uh Derek Le Point in uh communicating our priorities
prior to our legislative team even in getting there and and promoting that um even before we get to the capital so some of that uh work is is kind of already done so thank you and then kind of fresh in um we just heard about um some
information here about uh um some hearings going on this week just to make you uh everybody aware that there's some Senate and House housing committees um that'll be hearing multiple bills that would substitute uh the Judgment of the legislators and unaccountable developers
um for that of City officials and local residents regarding future development of our cities and it's called the yes to homes legislative package uh which attempts to address the desperate need for more housing everywhere in the state by slapping handcuffs on local government and imposing unfunded
mandates um along with unrealistic unrealistic goals so like I said there's bunch of hearings going on this week uh ask that you reach out um to your senators and representatives and uh express your concern um you know letting
them know that the yes to homes uh package does nothing to address our housing crisis in Greater Minnesota a one-sized fits all does not work for Greater Minnesota if it works in in Minneapolis St Paul we know that it doesn't necessarily mean that it'll work out uh out here in Greater Minnesota um so this legislation
ignores some of the uh City efforts uh that we have made and assists uh that the one size fits all works and and we know that that's just not true um we do know that uh City officials in Greater Minnesota including Morhead want to work with legislators to increase housing
availability but we need to work together on solutions that Target actually barriers that we face um so if you could reach out to the governor's office senator's Representatives let them know that you have concerns about those bills uh we would appreciate that so just in uh in conclusion I do
appreciate the work of the the city staff uh on the legislative work it's quite apparent um even when uh we attended the uh cgmc conference uh several weeks ago um our team really makes a great impression down there in St Paul um uh very influential we're
doing great work up here um the number of Representative Senators that council member borgan talked about uh they all talked about you know the the DG Fields project and the downtown Redevelopment project and everything that's going on we're getting noticed by all these
people uh the governor um it's it's really impressive so uh they're doing great work down there so we just hope we can get a a bill and a bonding bill passed here this uh in May and move forward so thank you for your time
thank you very much for the recap uh council member Nelson council member borgan um any other council members have U reports from committee hearings at council member Mo I'll make it real quick um I just wanted to tack on to council member matson's comment and say
thank you to the city for supporting us at the elected leaders Institute with LMC that was a great event and really appreciate the support and going also uh met with the Eda this last month and uh council member Nelson he spoke to a lot of that already so we're things are
moving and grooving here also um I have to unfortunately report that um I represented you mayor at the women in construction event and um lost to Mayor Mahoney at the hammer slam competition so they took home the trophy but I promised to do a better job
next year representing and it was a great event and you know an honor to be there and celebrate women in construction in Morehead at the Armory well that's okay I lost him too so it's fine I think it was uh council member white went last year and she she
won so that's where we got the trophy back so yep um any other council members who have reports right see none um I'm not going to recap um any of the LMC or League of Minnesota cities or Coalition of Greater
Minnesota City cities lobbying day or the chamber lobbying day I think uh council member Borg and council member Nelson did a great job um but I will give a an an update quickly on um uh event that I went to to do lobbying work
uh in Washington DC this was sponsored by the Missouri River Energy Services which morid public service is a part of it was also in conjunction with the mmua which is the Minnesota um M mua Minnesota Municipal Utilities
Association and also AA which is the association for Public Power ass Public Power Association so a lot of acronyms when year in the utility World um this one was um uh several hundred people um
coming from the states of Minnesota South Dakota uh North Dakota and I think there were some folks from Iowa there as well um talking to our respective Congressional delegations in regards to protecting tax exempt financing at the federal level um and really urging the
continued Congressional support of tax exempt munib bonds um it really saves tax payers a a ton of money um and also hoping to reinstate tax exempt advance refunding of bonds so we were having a lot of conversations urging our uh
Congressional support to reinstate the ability to issue tax exempt Advanced refunding bonds so for instance in 2019 uh Missouri River Energy Services would have saved $50 million if we would have been able to do the tax exempt refunding um so that is one of the
things that we talked to our delegation about uh other uh tax issues were protecting the build America Bond payments from sequ sequestration protecting direct pay for municipal Electric utilities again this
for Missouri River Energy Services the ability to use a direct pay for investment tax credit equat to about $9 million um protecting Federal power programs and um a really big one really specifically for Morehead is um urgent
our delegation to continue to support permit reform um the bill did not make it across a Finish Line the last time but we really need to have some of those processes streamlined um and Travis Schmidt who is the general manager for
Mor Public Service talked to Senator kobar's office Senator Smith's office um and also um representive fishbox office all were very aware of permit reform all were very um receptive to it
um if DG fuels wants to be operational um by 2030 we would need to be able to see some of the streamlining of these permits um the permit reform at the federal level um in order for that to
occur um right now the process for getting permits is about seven years uh so the math doesn't really work out if they want to be operational by 2030 and right now it would take until 2032 so
those were some of the the items that we did lobbying for um down in Washington DC um in regards to some of the other more uh local as far as uh in the state of Minnesota on February 18th I also
testified on behalf of the culture M since that is a priority of the city of Morehead um as listed in in our um city priorities it was at the Senate hearing um led by Senator Rob C there was excellent feedback from the
senate committee uh the Senate chair actually spoke highly and he hoped that every Community would maybe look at Morehead as an example of how to bring in um an an entity that would be contributing to various cultures and
showcasing the cultures in the community so hoping to um get a house uh house bill on the the house side and anxiously wait a hearing to be held on that uh on the 21st of February I also had the the
opportunity um and very gracious to Shan niggard from cormo Funeral Home who uh signed off on contributing $225,000 to the loop as a community sponsor for our community center Library um and we'll be looking for others so if others uh if
you know of other entities like cormo Funeral Home who wants to contribute um let him get in touch with us and we will move forward with that and lastly on the 22nd of February uh Dan Molly our city manager and I spoke at the Brookdale Baptist Church community Forum that they
have um there were probably about 30 people there on a Saturday morning which quite frankly was surprising to me that there were that many people there um but they just want to become more active in their community in South Morehead they already have a community garden but they
were wondering what in what other ways that they can help and contribute to um to the city of Morehead so so we talked about all of the things happening and gave a a list of a lot of different nonprofit organizations and agencies that I'm sure would love their assistance and last but not least I just
want to send a congratulations out to um class AAA 250 pound uh wrestling title that was won by Morehead Spud Billy Ward and then also to our Morehead boys uh daa hockey team who won uh the the first
ever Morehead hockey championship in St Paul this past weekend and Brooks Cullen who won the Brooks award and Mason craft who was selected as the 2025 Mr Hockey of Minnesota and John coach John anman ammerman who was selected the 2025 coach
of the year and I know we had a number of people that went down for the weightlifting state championships as well I do not uh I was not able to see that if any of them won a championship but I know that we had a number of people going down so congratulations to all those um incredible athletes in the
city of Morehead and that is all I have so I will turn it over to you assistant manager Mike Reitz um to for any updates from you uh no updates this evening mayor all right and I've lost my agenda here it is all right and we do not have
an executive session tonight and no new business so with that we are adjourned good night Morehead G buds