uh welcome to the Mount City Council meeting for Tuesday March 25th uh we are in council chambers and uh please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God
indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right um let's see we have our agenda do we have any amendments we have an amendment the two commissioners ended up with a scheduling conflict and we're
going to reschedule for probably the second meeting in April so the presentation that was going to kick off the regular agenda can be removed perfect okay for April 22 for that okay um I would take a motion to approve the agenda
second actually we're we're looking for a motion here yep we need a motion to approve the agenda i make a motion to approve the uh consent agenda um not the consent agenda just the whole meeting oh sorry i'm here to do the consent agenda and then consent uh
approve the agenda with any amendments i make a motion second all right um any [Music] discussion hearing none that will carry um next what we got a vote on a vote oh
all those in favor i I all those opposed all right now I can say it carries on to the next um we have our consent agenda does anybody want to discuss or pull any of these items before we
uh read them all off all right hearing none of those um would someone please read the consent agenda i'd be happy to do that thank you i make a motion to pass weren't you uh I think we're going to read it first first we're going to read all the items but nobody
wanted to discuss or pull any Oh okay so A approve payment of claims b approve minutes March 11th 2025 c approval of THC offsale retail license d pay request number four in the amount of [Music]
10,749 to concrete construction for the downtown PA sidewalk replacement project group two e approve resolution approving permits for 2025 music in the park the summer concert series at Surfside Park Beach and waving fees due to public
purpose of gathering f approved resolution approving permits for the 72nd annual Mount Fish Fry and Dance on Saturday June 7th 2025 and we will be also waving fees due to public per purpose of
gathering all right um I don't think we need a separate motion to approve the consent agenda we just need a roll call no we need a motion you make need to make a motion with a second and then it's a roll call okay all right um can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda
items A through F i make a motion to approve the consent agenda items A through F can I get a second second all right um any discussion further there uh hearing none that will carry and can we do a roll call vote for the
consent agenda please yes council member Heric I council member Mcanini I council member Pew I acting Mayor Castellano I all right good yeah no opposed all right um then we will go right to number
five questions and comments um from anyone present for items that are not on the agenda we can probably hear a police report at this point too okay um so I'll move past number five then it looks like we've got no one here so um yeah let's move to the
police report uh not a whole lot to report um from the last two weeks um everything is still as as it goes around mount everybody's kind of doing their thing uh just hasn't woken up from the winter time yet uh to this week with uh spring
break in the area we did have a few things uh nothing serious we had some trespassing in some uh vacant building that we're working on identifying the individuals now we believe they're juveniles because no schools out schools out right now and they're moving around
but our investigators are working on that to identify and correct the problem um partially it's because the building wasn't as secure as it should have been so that's the issue and hopefully we got things in place to correct it so is that
a private residence or a commercial building a commercial building a vacant commercial building that hasn't been in for a while so it's been noticed here just recently uh other things uh the weight
restrictions seem to be pretty lowkey uh we had one in or we just got one in ornal so far is all we've got recorded as a overweight uh but the guys are out everybody that day shifts especially they're all certified scales so they're
out checking and watching as much as they can for them uh other than that brings us to just uh last week or PD we did our first uh trimester inservice
training uh two days long Tuesday and Thursday uh they were long days for instructors and for officers uh we got through it no injuries everybody seemed to have uh enjoyed it and got refreshed on their skills and now we're moving on into April we'll be moving into our
firearms training sessions throughout the summer and uh fall months so training season's kicking off and we're going to be busy with a lot of that so and then uh just uh Deputy Chief Whiti want to remind everybody on 4:16 at 7:30 cop
coffee with cops caribou so we will be there with that so on that that's all I have for this session on the 16th 7:30 to what time uh I'm not he didn't he just said 7:30 it was starting so I'm sure it goes until whenever but he kind of fizzles out so cool
when do the weight restrictions come off um I believe that's determined by the engineer city engineer state state engineer okay so we don't get to say it just when they say they're done they're done we pull them thank you how's Onyx doing i think he's
doing okay uh I haven't heard from him since last week so I'm assuming no news is good news so but sounds like they're real busy um just learning the dog so it's uh hopefully uh the week after Memorial Day weekend
he should be in in service running around so I'll try to make a point to get him down here at one point here so you guys can see them so sweet but anything else perfect not from Not from me anybody else thank you thank you thanks oh did you have any questions on the speed trailer
i forgot about that sorry speed we did put up a speed trailer we did get some data nothing overly it's I can give you this leave this with you to look at um we re we repositioned them one came down closer to like the
Pine Pine Street there or uh Pine Lane um a little bit further back these things have incredible range so they're picking up a lot a lot of data so we weren't we weren't aware of that until we drove them ourselves and saw how far out they were picking us up so but if
there's any I should have some more data in about a week or so he'll pull it again and then I'll make sure he's sends it to you and it's in your guys's uh hands to look at and any questions I can answer them cool thank you thanks one
thing about that report that was pretty interesting was the load of traffic that's running down West Edge i mean it's we thought it had increased but it's definitely pretty high number not the speed like the counts uh the the actual number of vehicles that came down the road and that's just it's only read
well it is reading both directions actually but I think the report that he's got only reads it when you're coming towards Bartlett so that would be south um cut cut through it is and it's very very heavily traveled and
so wide street yeah we've got a beautiful street we for a very lovely piece of pavement right there um all All right I guess I'll move on to number seven award lift station bid mr acting mayor members of the council
Brian Simmons uh senior city engineer i don't want to get between you and your seme agenda this evening so we we will go quickly excellent work what you what you have in front of you is is the result of our continuing lift station uh rehabilitation and replacement program
um obviously the one that we have for this year uh we got 1 two three four five six seven eight bids I believe yeah and that is a pretty good spread we don't usually get that many did I miscount mhm it's nine numbers are
numbers are hard seven yeah that's right i'm going to do some engineering after this actually we'll have Matt do it uh we got seven bits anyway the thing I want you to focus on is not my miscount but uh the fact that we have Woodmer Construction in here who has done a number of lift
stations for us before they're also the low bidder on the uh chopping at the bit to get started water main project uh and so they're already going to be in town that enables them to sharpen their pencil a little bit and you can see they came in a little bit at 504
thous,000 uh and that is quite a bit below the engineers estimate one thing I want to remind you all is that in these lift stations that number there is not the total construction because we procure some other city equipment outside of that so we spend about another $130,000 and when I say we I
mean me and Jesse and Ryan uh Ryan orders the pumps and some of the other things ahead of time so the city procures some of those things outside of the construction contract uh but that's still a pretty good number yeah and that was noted in there too it was like an extra 130,000 yep yep that's that's the
the average cost i don't know that we have the final on that because um Ryan may still be getting the final procurement on that but it should be close uh and so this is the breakdown of the bids uh we find Whitmer to be a responsible and responsive bidder and so
we recommend award of this project to them i believe that's on page 812 there is an accompanying resolution uh but before I jump you straight ahead to that I will stand for any questions any discussion on number
seven all right i didn't have any any questions or anything um I guess I would be looking for a motion for a resolution on page 812 i make a resolution except make a motion i make a motion for a for a resolution
accepting bid for the 2025 list station improvements project PW2503 okay we have our motion just looking for a second second um okay all those in favor I I I those
opposed motion carries um we can move on to agenda item number eight accept plans and authorized bid for CSAH sidewalks mr acting mayor members of the council Brian Simmons consulting city engineer again uh this
action is the continuation of the sidewalk projects uh and we have had a lot of discussion at this podium about um you know continuing and doing some cost share with Henipin County because of the location of these sidewalks along uh County Road 15 um I want to draw your
attention to Jesse would you go to the second page there's a breakdown um now that we've finished with the design and refreshed all of the estimates uh we are asking for permission to uh finish plans and specs advertise for bid uh I
shouldn't say we finished with the design we're working on the design and they've updated the cost estimates to show the portions that Henipin County has committed to uh and I believe the initial cost splits for them were uh 500 and 220 for their various portions and
as you can see we're anticipating to come in below that so we won't have any issues with Henipin County cost participation or the at least we're projecting right now that the project won't exceed their committed participation and then you can see we've also got the city total there of
784,256 and just for what it's worth we do always end up using the fixed soft costs the actuals when it's all said and done right now that's just plugged in as a percentage are the these are concrete correct yes okay thank you and a lot of it is some of it is I shouldn't say a
lot some of it is stamped and stained as well fancy well we're replacing a lot of those those dilapidated pavers uh and and uh I don't know if you recall I know you sat through some of those meetings but we you know we had the palette up here of all the colors and we selected what we wanted it to look like and we
chose what we were going to replace all of that and we've been slowly picking away at it and while we're doing that you know we look a little bit like a patchwork quilt because we have some of those pavers that still need to go but we're getting closer with each and every project consistent with the stamping it'll all be okay yes thank you yep no
we did we We've not We've not come back and asked for other opinions because they're not welcome but we're sticking with those colors i mean I say that jokingly if you told me to do something else we'd for sure do it but as for right now we have a palette that will look very nice when we done make them consistent yeah I like consistency too
can you kind of like reiterate the timeline for both ha I call it halves again the halves of the project for lack of a better word i don't know that Matt put that in this schedule and that's a little been a little bit of a Mr bowman i mean the numbers like I I
remember seeing that early like earlier earlier but like just a timeline a refresher for us and then anyone listening too but in terms of when we're planning to bid it sorry in terms of when we're planning to bid or when we're planning to construct it construct construct um I know we've had a lot of
conversation about how this interfaces with uh things that are happening downtown during the summer and lake traffic and all of that i don't know that I have the information you're looking for right off the top of my head but I can make sure we get it to you and we can make sure that it stands as part of the record
cool i apologize for that and there is if you if you're curious there is a link in that if you scroll back up just a little bit Jesse there is a link right there to the plans okay and then the cost breakdown and accompanying that we have another
resolution if there are no other questions any other discussion on agenda item number eight so this resolution is specifically receiving plans and specs ordering advertisement for bids okay so no
further discussion on number eight um I would entertain a motion for the res resolution on page 816 um I can do that uh I make a motion to approve the resolution receiving plans and specs and ordering
advertisement for bids for the county road 15 sidewalk projects Belmont to Fairview and Fairview to Seatin project number 258 and project 259 okay we have a motion can we get a
second second all those in favor i I all those opposed all right motion carries mr acting mayor while I have the the mic if I may you asked a question a little bit ago about road restrictions oh yeah with the
generally they're only on for 4 weeks okay but with the way the temperatures have been it's possible that the state will end up opting to extend them there is a statutory limit i can't remember if it's 6 weeks or 8 weeks that they will automatically expire at the end of that and with the how early they went on and
the weirdness and the weather it's possible that they will statutoily expire cool but as for right now they're still on thanks uh and and if we get any calls you know about things this time of year like oh you know there's a pothole Ryan's guys will go and fill it uh but stuff like gaps and pavement pulling
away from curb or concrete we don't look at that until road restrictions are off and I don't hang my hat on the road restrictions but the reason for the road restrictions is as the frost and the heave from the freeze thaw leaves the pavement don't forget that asphalt is flexible so it's moving and so then in a
couple of weeks while you know maybe the end of your driveway or something might look ugly now it will change a little bit before we're done and then that's when we will assess those types of complaints if we have cracks and things that need to be filled so this time of year we usually do get a couple that are "Oh my gosh this looks terrible." And then a couple weeks later we'll go out
and look at be like "Oh it's fine i know what you're talking about you know but we we do track those cool thank you thank you all right so we approve number eight's done it's approved um agenda item number nine council reports um
we'll just go down the list here council member Pew um G I'm trying to think what did I do this week um oh okay we did have parks meeting last month and we had a pretty lengthy
one went through a lot of of um issues had a discussion about what the council had discussed about um the play area for um Surfside versus uh the advanced park but seemed everyone
seemed to agree that they felt it was working well where it was we um we looked at and um actually Tyler tested it out in Victoria they have what they call a parks passport and families use it it gives it
people incentive to go and try out the different parks and to rank them cool so Tyler because he's a new member and hasn't done inspections he took his son and toured all the parks and they ranked what they wanted and we think it might
be a tool that we could publicize in the future maybe you know and at farmers market you know the park commission for the last two years has been going one Saturday being there with the map showing where all the parks are
and soliciting people to adopt the park and it might be an opportunity for us to try handing out this passport as a way to promote people looking beyond their own neighborhood park to go and visit
um and the um along with that I had something else around the parks um gosh going blank um oh we're looking forward to meeting with the council in
April um to talk about the parks and what we've done um and they had a lengthy discussion around um determining the impacts of parks
especially um what can we do with those parks where they're pretty much vacant lots you know could we do um natural play things on those sites one of our sites um on the island it looks like the
neighborhood has turned it into a bike trail you know it's on Tuxedo it's at Long Park there um and in the wooded area there's a nice wood area they've kind of got a dirt back trail and Swinson not Swinson it's before if if
you're coming off of Enchanted onto and turning on to tuxedo um it would be on the right hand side almost across from where that um condominium project is that Oh yeah what is it something lakes or villages of
island park no pelican oh yeah uh well it's it's Yeah it's probably just past villages on the lake too okay um so sometimes um our residents have taken creative license they're using the
park right yeah and you know in the Sorbo Park there's a there's a structure up in the woods there that the kids have built you probably are familiar with it um I It's kind of like Huggleberry Finn a little shack up in the woods there
that the kids have done over the years so we're um looking at um ways to improve our parks prioritize um we're going to be meeting with the um public works um folks to talk about sort
of the scheduling out and the wayfinding signs because we still are charged with doing wayfinding signs um for the city and so we're looking at that
um and I think that's I oh SR we did get um for new members we belong to the SR which is a utilities ratings commission and it's 30 cities and we each put in money and we
hire an attorney and an engineer who help us battle cases against utility companies and right now we have a case against utilities for the fees that they want to charge for our outdoor lighting um which is sort of ironic if I
get the story straight couple of years ago they encouraged everyone to go to LED lighting and we did and it saved us money but it didn't make them enough money and so they want to you know up the rates and so we've been battling
over that for the last couple years but anyway they sent their renewal of our membership and that and I don't I don't think we have to vote on it do we Jesse it's just automatic yeah I think that we pay it it's two payments a year it's $900 $
and each city pays based on its population um I think that's it i There's something I know I'm supposed to tell you but I can't remember what it is it'll come to me today oh the capital oh yeah today at
the Capitol um I was at a senior um caucus day and Senator Mitchell in the Senate did raise the issue that she has a bill that would allow municipalities to not have to pay sales
tax on items they purchased for construction so like for our construction of our water facility we would be waved of all sales tax on all it's it's it's a big savings but it's not it's it's not going to make it go
right now but it is something that will have significant impact for us every little bit helps but they've got to pass the bill of course and it's it's on the Senate side right now um and so we'll kind of follow that
i think that's it okay um Council Member Mcame well I've got some events to talk about um the West Tank Tankabot Robotics team are advancing to the World Championships
in Houston um April 16th they spoke you know they spoke last year with us and we're bringing them back when they get back from Houston but they are just such a delightful group they're just so awesome they spoke at the WCC meeting
last week um and I just wanted to mention that they are solely funded from donations and fundraising efforts the school gives them nothing so there it they do have quite a few costs so if anybody is interested in donating
especially before they go to Houston they can go to tonkabots.com and you there's a little spot for donations and we wish them luck in uh April at the World Championships
and then another reminder that um Paul Falls um is retiring and his party is Wednesday March 26th he's been with Minatrista for 31 years um 2:30 to 4:30 on Wednesday March
26th the West Hanka baseball night kickoff at Back Channel Brewing is Tuesday April 1st 5:30 to 8:30 there'll be a silent auction raffle food trucks it'll be fun kickoff spring and then the
Gillespie Center is hosting a paint and sip party and that is um April 9th Wednesday at 6 PM it includes supplies and a glass of wine for $40 so that'll be kind of a fun event and that's all I've got you think that'll be like a
recurring thing or is it just like the first one well I think they're it sounds like they're trying throwing a lot of mud at the wall to see what'll stick and hopefully this will end up being something that people enjoy gillespie for the first time in years is actually
operating in the black yeah good and Rhonda she has really a lot um little fundraisers and here and there they're serving breakfast on Thursday mornings now and as well as the lunch on Wednesday so every Thursday good to see
it is good to see Rhonda you know is really taking such an initiative and it really needed a new spark so she is kind of a godsend over there and they did a leader they did you're right she's done
a good job okay anything else that's it all right council member Heric um nothing really new to report i did meet with Jesse last week about the economic development committee and it was really just our initial meeting to discuss some thoughts and what we could and couldn't do and we kind of went over that um one
thing I did center in on is our image for bound i think that's a really important thing for the council to be aware of and make sure that we're addressing any issues that could help improve that um laughingly I was saying about the consistency on the sidewalks i mean that makes us look nicer when you
drive into the community and it's safety and everything else so those are all things um I did a little research um looking into like Henipin County and the state and that stuff there's all kinds of economic development committees out there um and some of that we can
actually leverage and reiterate um I'm hoping that we can actually do a separate page on our new website to kind of promote that we're open for business and things that we have available to our constituents and or um people that want to come into the area um to make that a
little bit easy and you know how are we going to introduce them to our city how it works what we need you know what we're looking for that sort of thing so it's kind of you know we're still in the just kind of coming up with a game plan at this point so cool
thank you awesome um anything else yeah I remember my other thing oh yes trees um this is more for staff metro Council I think is having a grant program and we applied for this a couple years ago and we actually got a grant to help us
remove ash trees that had the ash board and I think you can actually buy new trees too which we need for our event park so um there's a webinar I think next week on you know
what they're looking for in the grants and everything but I'd like to see that staff would follow through and look at that as a grant opportunity to fill in some of our needs i know the money that in the past was used I think we took some trees off of one of the common
sites where there were some dead trees or dying trees and so it gives us a chance to manage our forest i'm sorry excuse me all right well I saw Jesse writing that down but the trees for the vent part are
going to be needed for sure i don't know what kind is the best kind but um anything else so who does I mean the boulevard trees like you just mentioned when they die who's responsible for fixing is that a public parks is that the parks who owns
those oh like if it's on a county road or something well like let's just say right here in downtown yeah like county road one because that is part of our image right yeah i don't know i always see public works seems to be doing it all okay yeah i don't know it depends on whose rideway it is generally okay did
we plant all those trees or like the trees that are in the middle and then there's the ones like I'm looking like in my brain i'm just looking at the post office there's like the bullet like the boulevard on both sides and then there's also the middle i guess the ones in the middle like I don't know you know that we put Christmas lights on or that are
dead and somebody ran over them engineer do you know yeah I'll come up with Henipin County has gone back and forth on this a little bit they would prefer to see us maintain those trees even though the ones the ones in the median I believe most of those were if
they've survived were planted when that road was reconstructed so for the most part um it does fall to us okay so that that also means we get a little bit of leeway on what we want to put there i was going to say yeah it's not bad we can choose what kind of trees we don't want
yeah and and when it comes to things in the in the boulevard or in medians uh we will have to have a discussion about sight lines and safety right however we want the community to be beautiful so that's we support it that's why I'm just bringing it up because that is part of our image you drive into town and what do you see a bunch of dead trees that's
probably not a good image true it's well worth a couple hundred dollar to plant for sure all right anything else um I don't have anything myself so I guess I'd move on to um number
10 anything from uh you guys no uh I just probably seen the signs that flushing of the hydrants will start in about a week so was the first of the
25th I think yep there was some work today being done on the water tower that preempts the the flushing so if you noticed anything today that was because uh um that's just mandatory annual
maintenance um which also was noticed and everything so and I know that's been a a big priority of Ryan's to overcommunicate but we'll still feel the calls like normal and encourage you to
send anybody that contacts the council to staff and we can you know work through it but trying to get it out there cool so on that topic I contacted Dustin this morning because on Granger Lane they were up there doing something and it
looked like in the sewer line but it turned out it's Frontier adding new fiber optics do you know how long that's going to take he said they were in the I just texted so he was saying they're going to be in the area doing that is that like a three-month thing a six-month thing or I mean I'm just thinking maybe we want to
communicate that in the newsletter we're going to have them in because they've been out there twice in the same spot and that's why I contacted him right what's going on i do not know how long they're going to be here but we can we can at least try to get an estimate i mean they might not know either but just trying to help you feel those questions
get ahead of it well they Yeah I know and it's always a It's hard i get it right and uh you know they have subcontractors that have different schedules and things too but hopefully they're in a hurry because I know upgrading internet is usually um well
received uh so yeah we'll see what we can figure out it's a lot of Yeah it's a lot of noise at at you know eight o'clock in the morning so and now that you work at home it's I hear this and I'm like what is going on
so anyway first time was one thing the second time what are you doing well speaking of trees one of the concerns I've had and I've raised this before um is last spring we had a storm and there were
fires on our wires from trees that were rubbing against the electrical wires and I don't know how do we um how do we make sure that Excel is addressing that you know to get those tree limbs cleared away from the wires the reason I
think I I think we're going to be in a drought this spring and if we have a storm and it lights up we're a forested city we could be in LA very easily and not that I'd want that on us but you know but if
Excel could um if we could put some pressure on them to make sure that they're cleaning up the trees that are um entangled with our wires it would be Yeah I think for the most part they have prescribed maintenance that they do
every year but we pass along concerns and complaints that I seem to recall them eventually showing up last year and doing some work but they did a lot on Wage I think and up in Bartlett but
I'm guessing it just takes an ask you know like maybe twice yeah I'm happy to do it all right um anything else at all okay i've been given minimal chances to mess this up so with that I'll take a motion to adjurnn
i make a motion to adjurnn and a second second all right all those in favor i I I Those opposed all right we're adjourned this is not a plate