##VIDEO ID:d2gW3r6csfY## e e e e e e all the uh regular County regular city council meeting for Tuesday December 17th 2024 to order if everyone would please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge Al to the flag United States of America to the rep for stands one nation under God indivisible with Li and Justice thank you um there is going to be an amendment to the count to the agenda as we have it um under new business we are going to take items 14 through 17 and move them up to number 4567 respectively so and then it will follow the progression from there so just so everyone knows um if I could get a uh motion to approve the amended agenda I make a motion to approve the amended agenda second second all those in favor I oppos carried okay next item is the consent calendar all these matters are considered routine by the council so if there unless there's any questions I welcome a motion to approve the consent calendar Mr Mayor I so move I'll second all those in favor I okay poos carried open form this was an opportunity for the public to comment on anything they wish to bring up for the council that is not on the agenda if there if there's an item on the agenda you wish to comment about we'll make time for you at that time try and keep your comments to five minutes uh Andy schaer from schaer Foods yes Andy uh last month you guys approved their I don't know if approved or set the laws for the can cannaboid I just wanted some clarification on uh what your verbage is here it says the cabano cannaboid products cannot be sold by means of self-service merchandising what is meant by that vending machines vending Mach so on the Shelf is fine yes behind the counter and also it says storage all licensed products shall be either stored behind the counter or other areas not freely accessible to customers is that just storage or is that also I guess my question is can I merchandise it on my shelf I think what he wants can you have it can set it on the counter so you can basically there's laws against the uh the Edibles right drinkables can be out for someone to grab and obviously the same laws abide by you know bringing it through the tail right but neither us nor Spirits nor the pickle have room to put 40 products behind a service Conner sure under yeah understood and and certainly I think one of the specific reasons was the edible piece to have that behind the counter yes or in a lock case right but I don't think the intent was to have the beverages cuz like you mentioned if you're in an off sale you're going to grabb something just like you would another product so um if we need to clarify that we can certainly do that but I think the intent was specifically for the edible piece to make sure that that was behind the counter so that's yeah no absolutely too far with this is that every is that the council's understanding too every yes yeah I think so okay we have to we know we're going to probably have to make some amendments here or there to the ordinance as this whole thing unfolds we realize that but clarification wise but that's how we'd appro approach the permitting process so help yeah which is later on the meeting right the fees and well approving the fees will happen um tonight just to have that as part of our fee schedule and then we are finalizing the forms to have them ready for January so that whomever would like to have that THC license could do that and that can be just like anything else in the city where it has to be like if you have the form in January 6th it's too late for the February meeting for me to get approved by the council so the deadline for Council packets I believe is a week prior okay to the meeting so that would be January 14th for the 21st yes I'm just is there going to be pushed back months and months or is there going to be the hope is to approach it like a liquor license so we fill out the forms and then we would present any request for for licensing to the Council on the next upcoming agenda to approve I mean that should be it's pretty simple hopefully so that's the goal and if you have your ocm license y then that expedites the process too and also I mean the state has been looking at some of the ordinances put out by municipalities and say you can do this but you can't do that so there are there might be some shuffling like mayor said you should be able to be ready to go in January okay I would anticipate so thank you yes thanks there anyone else for open form seeing none we'll close open form next item is reports City administrator monthly report thank you uh mayor Ryan good evening again members of the council uh my monthly report is in your packet handful of these items will be addressed under new business tonight um the one item I do have that was an addition uh this came to me late last week is a request from the brainer JC's regarding use of uh our new some of our new city property for for the Ice Fishing Extravaganza I have included the email from Sean Kelly making the request and I did speak to him this afternoon so for a little context I know the council's familiar with this event um they've had they've used this property the parking lot area for many many years um they will plow it themselves if they need to if there's snow that needs to be removed uh they only need it for February 1st for that day uh they will follow up the following day and make sure it's free of garbage or anything like that that needs to be addressed and uh we did discuss that my recommendation would include uh a Certificate of Insurance y to have that um otherwise I said I'm pretty sure the council's familiar with this event and the JC JC's run a great event so we bring this forward to you tonight for consideration and if you have any concerns otherwise I would include the COI as part of that approval I'll make a motion that we um allow the JC brainer JC's to use the property assuming they make sure that they we have their Certificate of Insurance second any further discussion questions is there any other liabilities for something like that property typically the insurance covers really any scenario that might occur but I I don't anticipate since it's bare land I mean there's really no infrastructure things we would be concerned about all those in favor I oppos thank you okay uh City attorney is not here yet he was going to be running a little late city engineer good evening everyone um I guess what I've been working on has been the uh 2025 Street Improvement project and on uh I think it was November 27th we had like a public meeting with the residents that on all the roadways there was probably 20 25 people that showed up here we explain the project to them we're at probably a 30% level and seemed like I know seem like people are fairly happy about it and uh yeah so we're continuing to move forward with that project the also working on the G Lake Trail phase 4B which is the connection from where it left off that um lower Royal Lake Road and 77 and going to the west and also working on the nwap Park which is the uh outdoor recreation Grant providing that information submit for the grant what's happening on the lak shore piece are they having to build a boardwalk around the burial mountains I found I'm not sure exactly what the yeah that was the idea is to build some type of Boardwalk around there I know that the Lakeshore Grant was approved um they're starting the process of getting that grant money EST established and moving forward it's got to be a pretty penny two and a half I believe right 2.5 million for for that Boardwalk yep well for that final leg oh okay for the final but a majority of that's going to the boardwalk yeah wa sure wow thank you okay um Tom we skipped you do you have anything you can skip me I don't have anything to sorry I'm late okay um under new business um first item is going to be the resolution approving the final uh 2024 tax levy collectible 25 in the amount of 3,732 4 $732,500 that is reflected as item f2a just for Council reference that's two what f2a F2 no in in your packet the numbering is different than on the agenda though just if you wanted the detail but yes you have the final Levy proposed correct mayor R Okay so so I would entertain a motion unless there's the council wants to discuss it a little more up to you any well you know me I'm always the want the low number but uh Mr Mayor I'll make a motion to approve the final 2024 tax levy collectiable on 25 in the amount of 3,732 420 I have a motion can we get a second I'll second it then so C discussion any discussion Joe I'm just looking here um are these the exact numbers that we had talked about last time with all the cuts they are yes have anything Ro Mark well I'd ask you to break everything down but I I already kind of know where everything goes um what's the largest increase to the with the 99.5% is there one specific area where the a good portion of this goes with respect to the 99.75% levy increase um over seven of that is attributed to the new debt that has been issued for the land purchase 2% in some change goes to the general fund budget right well hearing no further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed nay motion carries okay uh item two resolution adopting the city of niswa budget for calendar year 2025 I'll make a motion that you accept that we accept the budget as presented second further discussion Joe no Bruce nothing Mark no all those in favor I I opposed n motion carries resolution adopting increase in sewer rates for 2025 mayor Ryan based on the cash flow document provided by pfm uh as worked on uh with staff uh the sewer rates proposed uh would reflect a 6% increase from 2024 thank you I'm on the sewer and I don't like it but I'll make the motion to adopt the increase in sewer rates as presented I'll second any further discussion those in favor I opposed carried okay um we now we're going to Sean um item 14 approve fire department medical Rescue Unit go ahead Chief good evening so what we have here is the Medical Response Unit we we decided quite a few years ago I want to say about 15 to do first responder calls in this area and the paperwork would had never been filed well the msrb has cracked down on us and asked us to sign the paperwork and so in front of you is the application and the paperwork that needs to be signed by the council for us to comply with the emsrb pretty cut and dry Mr I'll make a motion to approve the fire department Medical Response designation further discussion all those in favor opposed Carri next item uh uh number five request firefighter hire firefighter so we have a new new fireman will Hermanson he's been on our department now for a few months it was an oversight on my part of not bringing them to the council so I'm bringing them to to you now because at the end of the year we have to pay him it was say hey you didn't get an approval we did for Nick but we didn't do it for will that night so I'm just asking for approval for William I actually know will he his wife used to work at they're good people so I'd be happy to make a motion Mr Mayor to uh accept or to make a motion to approve the fire department request to hire fire to williamon Second all those in favor I post uh item six fire department cun arrange Mutual Aid agreement so once again this is paperwork from the ca range Society or k range Firemen's Association that we all belong to here in this area um there was a mutual Aid agreement signed probably 100 years ago we went to get that file at a meeting and nobody could produce the file so they're like let's update our paperwork um we've agreed to the mutual a agreement we just need to have your signature on the back so we can go forward for the next 150 years I make a motion to accept it I'll second all those in favor I oppos carried uh last item Chief Fire Department request for a du command vehicle two vehic so what we have here is we have our old Tahoe it's I think it's a 2009 um our assistant chief drives that this time and it's spread out through our Command Staff when he's not in town it needs an extensive amount of work to get it back in working order um we just don't feel like it's worth putting the money into it anymore so we're looking at a new 2024 Chevrolet civil orado 1500 um our our fundraising account is going to buy it so we're not asking for any spunds from the city at all um we're going to sell the Tahoe on gub deals and then the out the purchase of the truck is 52 8488 and then the auto Smith for outfitting is 101 12862 like once again you guys aren't paying a penny we're taking care of it out of our fundraising account so we're just looking for an approval to buy a new vehicle now is that going to have the slide out yes absolutely we'll never buy another one without that that's that's a backsaver backsaver yes okay okay I'll entertain a motion I'll move second all those in favor I post very good thank you can I ask one other question you brought up a thing about the land tonight with the JC's so for the last 10 years we've asked St Mills to use his property to land the helicopter on the tar and the City of nisah has plowed that for us is that something we can continue to do I don't know why we couldn't okay I just know new ownerships I figured better Tom's giv the nod so I think that's Tom's plowing it okay all right just so that's still good thank you have a merry Christmas thank you okay so now we are back to F number four F4 um Mr timbler the crap uh recommendation from Planning Commission reference topographic divide for deathro Carpenter all right so the action requested and thank you um tonight is to consider the planning commission's recommendation to deny rer redetermination of the topic divide um a little bit of background on this there was an ask to the city to review a topographic divide determination made by the city and approved by the DNR in 2019 um meet and Bounds subdivision application had been um previously been on the planning commission's agenda for August 6 however the applicant had requested it be pulled at that time to provide additional information um the muts and bound subdivision proposal could not proceed under the previously made topograph divide determination without redetermination occurring uh the proposal was reviewed by the Planning Commission at the regular meeting held on November 6th and we have a motion to provide a recommendation to the city council to deny redetermination of the topographic divide after the Planning Commission meeting the applicant requested to be heard at a city council's uh December 17th meeting and the matter was added to the agenda for that purpose and consideration for the planning commission's recommendation since that time the applicant has indicated an inability to attend tonight's meeting and is now requesting to be heard at January or February during the City Council meetings I have attached uh the relevant pages from the Planning Commission packet and the minutes from that meeting or review we also have received one letter from the public which has been provided to the council yep one comment attach as well I don't think well Stephen wasn't here when we went through all that but I think that was designated in the approval of the plat and the development in the first place so one question I have is is If This Were to be subdivided that one of the parcels wouldn't have access to public road correct so there is a Meandering property line that comes through the plat that is um designated for dedicated part public right away um so it would just need to have that access tie into a public road somehow through the subdivision whether it be through the um the one parcel or not so it's a big impact I can't see I can't see approving this I mean I can I I would follow the uh recommendations from the Planning Commission that's where I'm looking at I don't know that that's the question tonight though is it is it that we're going to postpone this is that is that the question we're here to figure out that would be potential if you see the the you would like to you know you can accept it deny ity or table it all right well I guess you know kind of knowing some of the history on this then being at the meeting you know maybe this question more for Tom uh just remove the person in the situation completely out of the picture just does the parcel meet the requirements by our rules where it could be subdivided with the previously acknowledged topographic divide determination um that was dated back in 2019 the lands below the 1236 Contour are holding to natural environment standards which would be a 200 foot lot withth which it's currently ploted for on the southern Shore or the southern um property of the plat be the North Shore of l a general Development Bank so know it couldn't be subdivided with that topographic divide determination being what it is which is why he's asking for it to be different um you know In fairness to Jethro who may or may not like the application don't know what you're going to decide with that but he did ask um for this thing to be continued because he couldn't be here and he's been pretty easy to deal with in many things and so it makes sense to me that you would do that table it yeah yeah correct and so that you can hear their presentation I know you were here Joe right Jesse was here but others weren't and that seems only fair so so then also with that so the current I'll say jurisdiction of the uh topographical work that was done by the state not by the city correct that was done so the determination was um made and proposed by the city and approved by the DNR in 2019 um so then legal question again at the time that it was made did we as staff have the correct training and the ability to do that did wsn help with it because that's not um that's not a standard determination made without a lot of credentials in that area so were we were we qualified to make that determination if it was made by the city at that time Joe I would just say yes not having been a party to that and not have any expertise in that but as I recall Brittney Cotner did make the determination with whatever information she had did run it by DNR DNR did did affirm her opinion on that but what went into that cookbook of how she determined that I don't know that anybody here knows that because that is what they are challenging correct from my understanding is what went into that yeah well I mean you were here at the meeting the gist of the argument was the science that was applied what ever it was was incorrect and they think they have different science to apply yeah and so I just so those are my questions and maybe kind of fill everyone else in so we know what we're looking at it's just you know um only because I know not going to speak for him but I don't think it'll be done here you know and so I didn't know you know does a city um does the city have any responsibility in defending that um ruling that was made by Britney well I don't know that I don't know that it's the city's in the position of Defending it it wasn't it wasn't contested at the time yeah and so you could say you could say that it was waved at that time because it was an issue at that time right it a big issue yeah it was an issue waved and the flat decision got accepted the subdivision process went through and so I don't know if the city's in the position of Defending anything now he's just asking for another bite at the Apple on that based on what they think is different information or better information that's kind of what I got from what they were saying at the meeting at the Planning Commission meeting yeah I guess that I was just looking for some clarification on what they were asking of all on this Steve if they or Tom back whichever back then yeah back then it was a yeah it was an interesting whole thing that we went through um if if you're going to discuss changing okay The Divide does that not bring the all the whole plan that was approved back then back up then because there's a whole bunch of issues AR with that that affected both the environmental Lake Ray Lake and then it affected Roy Lake it affect the number of docking positions per lot allowed now you're adding more does it does that basically then start from scratch and go all the way through and bring it all back again no that's not what the applicant wants I well I understand that's not what the applicant wants but would that be a would that be something the city would be would have to look at or should look at or what well as long as Shoreland District classifications go natural environment is the most restrictive of lot size minimums and so I would say there's potential to um well you wouldn't be going more restrictive I would say in this case with the current proposals they offered two different um topographic divides one pre-grading one post grading um attached in the packet right right beyond my um those are the two proposals and so the potential would be to then re relook at the Lots touching Roy lake to go under General development which would be less restrictive as far as lot size minimums so and and I guess I have a question with that maybe somebody can answer this that I was confused about at the meeting the pre-grading and the post grading that happened on you know I'll say the whole whole site but not specifically to this parcel and I think that's what they were asking is that correct I mean have you for the proposed me to to see was it I have not no yeah so I guess you know I went out there myself to try and look and understand this and from what I can see is there's a whole lot of area that is actually still virgin and untouched and that's what I was trying to understand the other night this question there's grading that had been done and I don't know I don't you know I was just curious and I drove by there and I look and I'm like well there's you know I'm not defending it or anything one way or the other but that's what I'm trying to understand it no work has actually been done on this yet and so from my understanding and so is that what is does it constitute the whole thing or does it just take in the termination this because then you know it goes to it's a survey issue right in toppo and from my understanding is they have different toppo based upon the surveyor that provided it is that the is that the real issue does anybody know the ask at this point would be to reevaluate the topographic divide not the subdivision itself of that lot so but getting that hurdle out of way is what you're you're asking a question and John asked a question that I think you need to hear from the applicant about I got an opinion about at least what John asked but like sure just Reserve that but those are questions you should be asking yeah because that's that's when I left that meeting I was wondering but then it didn't sound like many people have been on site so I drove out there to look and then I was even more confused because the dirt hasn't been moved so right they were off offering two different topographic divides one on the benefit if the um if the Planning Commission or deciding body wanted to go with the post grading then at least they had that delineated and and as an option for consideration rather than having to table it and Kick the Can to another meeting in that case they were coming forward with two different Pathways say they wanted the post grading one as their preferred option um but then the deciding body decided that they didn't want to entertain that because that could be a slippery slope when me accept things after manipulation of the land um then at least we had the natural one that was promoted so yeah no I understand that maybe I would say you know if this is going to get postponed you know to a meeting then what I would say if they're asking us to make decisions is that at least a couple of us actually do an on-site meeting so I can understand what they're talking about because I'd be up for that yeah does that make sense because I went out there afterwards and I'm just like well this this dirt hasn't been touched you can if there's a toppo issue it's still virgin we can figure out what the toal issue is between one surveyer so I guess that's what I would recommend you know it's a Hot Topic and I would say for us doing our due diligence a site a site visit would be appropriate in my opin opinion I'll make a motion that we based on the advice Council that we table the matter um and we can table it till what did he February he said January or February January Fe we can how long can we table it till doesn't it has to come up like February is probably best February you don't have a clock on this and I think the messaging I saw they were fine with that till February at the latest then if they want to come up in January they can up to you guys well I would suggest it'd be cleaner to identify the February council meeting um well I agenda bring it back to Council in February right that would be my motion okay we can facilitate an opportunity for Council to go on site with the applicant was a comment about that but I don't have a second yet so second okay um I would I I would suggest it probably would make sense since it's already a published meeting that they could have a site visit with the c the whole Council if they wanted to or those council members that want to or can um then the new mayor will be here she can go as well um if she wishes to um can go to that at the public or the planning zoning meeting it probably wouldn't hurt for the pnz members if they to go out there and do a site visit I feel like a couple of them have I I don't know who actually had gone out but but that would be an opportunity it's already a published meeting you know have to worry about Quorum issues and things of that nature well it's still a quorum of the council we just we have we would post it that yeah but it's already posted and we if the whole Council wanted to go to a Planning and Zoning meeting they could they could be there it's not going to constitute I'm just saying at the P andz meeting if you did a site visit and council members wanted to go at that time then you can not only talk with them but you got everybody involved there yes but we would be discussing City business so not the decisions would be made but I would still right not a decision but I would still just separately identify it but yes if that works for Council we'll coordinate and see that works even individually council members get with him go out there okay so Motion in a second all those in favor post Carri okay approve fee schedule for cannabis THC license the fee schedule proposed um is consistent with the language in State Statute about how the city can impose fees um licenses for cannabis and THC um so we would just apply the appropriate um license and state fee amount and and utilize that um formula for how we would administer the fees accordingly anyone have any questions entertain a motion Mr will make a motion to approve the fee schedule for cannabis THC license as presented thank I'll second second any further discussion all those in favor I opposed Carri City Hall Improvement project authorization to bid this is a request from width with respect to our city hall Improvement project uh we have been the building committee has been working with witth and Hightech things have been moving forward according to schedule and in December it was planned to bring forward a request to bid the project what that means through the gordian process is essentially Hightech will be finalizing the cost uh the final costs through gordian so we're not actually going out for a public bid but it's just one step to ensure we've checked that box in the process and we would uh bring back that final information to the council before we would proceed with construction instead of improvements can we call it taking care of the things that are broken yes there you go yes okay can I get a motion I'll make a motion to accept the wood's recommendation I'll second any further discussion all those in favor I I oppos car approve resolution authorizing the rebuilding America infrastructure was sustainability and Equity raise Grant application for the Minnesota Department of Transportation this is likely a primer topic for the council uh because as you probably noticed there's a resolution and there isn't anything uh to support or provide some more context so this has to do with a grant opportunity that mot identified that um applies to the corridor study that they are working on so they are working on a possible Grant uh for rard Baxter nisah and Crowing County uh to include some of the high priority intersection improvements from a safety perspective uh to potentially acquire federal dollars uh federal dollars are easier for menot to administer at the local level than State dollars are uh what I don't have and they are working on is specific intersection information and cost information that would go along with that uh they shared with me that there would be no local cost component requirement for this grant however there's usually always some kind of local cost share just incidental if nothing else um so they are working on this I appreciate that they are finding opportunities to um obtain some Federal grant dollars which is great uh we can table this until January their deadline to submit is January 23rd and our next meeting is the 21st so there would be time to provide more information but wanted to at least make you aware that they are working on this and potentially bring some uh specific intersections that are in need of improvement um opportunities dollars to to niswa so which do we know which intersections in niswa specifically I think we know a couple of them um Hazelwood is one Hazelwood is one and I think the uh nashway the access there by nashway was another but our if maybe I'm jumping wait way too far but are they going to have information available as to you know what they're going to do yes there is a little bit of unknown have any input into I mean it's their Road well the city has had a lot of input thus far they've been good yes so we are still evaluating some options for which type of improvement will actually be the one to land into the Grant application and I think that's important for the council to see specifically what types of improvements would be proposed for different intersections so they are putting that together volon and M is working on that and um I had requested whatever they could provide late last week but they're still working on those details so um if you're comfortable with um tabling this until January I think that would be just fine and we can bring back more information at that time otherwise you're more than welcome to accept this I just don't have details I go with it at this point table January is my thought make that motion Mr I'm making motion to table this uh resolution until January until we have further information I'll second okay all those in favor I oppos Carri uh next item accept the resignation of police chief Craig Taylor no no he's not here so table that one too no can't retire already congratulated him so I'll make a motion to accept police chief Taylor's notice of retirement effective June 26 2025 second any further discussion yes I have a question do we know how many years of service Chief Taylor has had for the city in this W 28 I was G that's the number I had in my head I was gonna look at Maggie in case she correct yes yes more to come absolutely about retirement and we will take an opportunity to celebrate that um before his last day um and as I noted in my memo I think more conversation can be had in January with the council about the next steps in the process and how we want to move forward with that succession you mean okay so uh any further discussion all those in favor approved opposed recommendation from commission reference playground RFQ Amber good evening um in your packet tonight you have three proposals that receive we received um from playground companies regarding the city park playground replacement project um that would be in conjunction with the greater planning that we're doing for City Park Phase 1 phase two um and applying for potentially the DNR outdoor W Grant um that would need specifications for the playground component um so before you have those three proposals they are all sourcewell um contract so it would satisfy the bid requirement was which is why we kind of went this route um The Parks Commission did review all of them and they do have a recommendation before you tonight to go forward with Flagship Recreation um there would be no cost for the design work the cost would come into play for procurement and installation and just just so everybody knows I mean we have what maybe two years left on the playground maybe approximately it's 28 years old we have zero we have zero years left on the ice rink that's might as well say gone we might as well just get in bulldozers and rip it up because we have no chillers no nothing there we don't know if there's freon in there or um G call in the playground so we got to move on some of this quickly but that's just me do I have a recommendation question sure I have a question for you Amber on the budget impact it says current estimated cost comma used for fundraising purposes comma or 690,000 for an inclusive destination playground what does the used for fundraising purposes mean that having the cost to advertise yeah that's the estimated cost that we're anticipating until we get kind of further down the line obviously the playground compan is going to work within the budget we give them and the size container size we give them um so that's the goal we've set as of right now um but we the scope of work is still a little bit loose does that kind of include a 10% contingency um it includes some Professional Services um so like the installation cost would have these um where the planning and that kind of WTH is figuring out the container size in the design um and then there'd be some grading work and we can determine if that's in-house or outsourced and there's a little bit of wiggle room on some of that stuff okay so I wouldn't say contingency but there's Professional Services within that amount um do you know any updates or anything I know I don't see anybody from the Lions here but there is that other Lions Grant and funding and that had specific requirements as far as like Ada and you know different handicap accessible yeah I haven't talked to the Lions recently about it uh last I talked to him was September my understanding is that um to apply through Lions International the plans for the playground have to be pretty close to ready and so by going through this design process we'd have the information we need to apply for both a DNR outdoor R Grant and then see if the Lions would like to pursue in a partnership as well but mostly we have to have the design plans of what how many swings and the fall depths and things like that planned out in order to get money because a lot of those projects have to be shoveled ready before you can put in for Grants correct um did you guys go down to a flagship then and look at I drive by it all the time I should have toured it when I had the opportunity but I didn't where's it at Delano oh um landscape structures is the playground company Flagship is the company that does the design so landscape structures as a manufacturer and they're based out of Delano got it um the underlayment what are they looking or proposing for that haven't gotten that far yet you haven't got that far yet no they do a good job I know that we want to make a motion anyone entertain U yeah I'll make a motion to award the city and this playground project of Flagship Recreation as presented second any further discussion all those in favor I oppos Carri oh number 10 recommendation uh to appoint uh to the Parks Commission U you all got the application I'll make a motion Bruce IM I'll make a motion to appoint Bruce imholt to the city of nwell Parks and Recreation advisory commission all second any discussion all those in favor approved thank you recommendation from Planning Commission reference 2025 meeting dates hey am is ice how's the ice over there right now I won't tell [Laughter] anybody good evening again uh so proposed is the 2025 Planning Commission meeting dates and timelines um key Concepts that I want to outline on this calendar are as follows um I'd like to introduce development review team meetings which are placeholder dates for me to designate at the city hall here to meet with land owners and their authorized agents to meet and discuss proposals that require Planning Commission and board of adjustment review these types of meetings already occur informally throughout the week and the end goal of their introduction is to provide information about the pr requisite steps to apply for a variance conditional use permit interim use permits subdivisions and others that can be deemed complete um by setting these dates aside now I'll promote time management throughout the calendar year while providing clear Direction regarding process and ordinance requirements and then another key element is standardizing lead time for deadlines to attend meetings um I proposed five Fridays before the meeting's occurrence to allow time to deem complete perform review as well as to publish notice in the paper and neighboring property owners and stakeholders um and then two Fridays before the develop development review team meeting to allow me to create an agenda for my day or morning that day so we have a motion I got a question sure uh uh the purple represents the deadline for um applicants to submit their stuff just to put an H request to attend on the blue Mondays so the Purple Friday would allow me the next week to come up with a timeline um potentially based on region stakeholders that would be involved if you know M do is applicable and chose to want to come in to one I can put notice out to them and see if they want to attend um in my experience at the county level during these development review team meetings you get hit and miss with these other stakeholders whether they choose to attend or not but sure so this calendar doesn't have any uh timelines for applicants deadlines on it the yellow would be the submission deadline for the Planning Commission meeting and the purple would be um uh the deadline the purple and blue are pretty much informal but like the purple would be um for example let's look at January January 10th would be when I would like to see information about attending a development review team meeting occurring on the 21st of January um and again these happen informally and I can accommodate these development review team meetings off hand unless this was something to become more prerequisite and and standardized but this is again just me budgeting my time and making myself available at the city hall so I can then otherwise look at Tuesdays Wednesdays Thursdays for site visits permit follow-ups and manage my time sure the only thing with that I mean topic for the council I'm not sure if pertains to this but it it does um right now you know um for instance somebody misses the third deadline that pushes them out into March correct if I'm reading this correct to get on the calendar third dead you're talking purple so somebody wants to come in here and uh go for a variance if they don't get your the stuff to you by January 3rd for the February meeting they're pushed out till March correct and unless they sought a special meeting which has its own process I'm just saying for um it's just continuously becoming a bigger issue in the uh construction industry and world to be pushed out two months time frame to get on agenda and hold a project I'd like to see that timeline get shortened up I second that Stephen just not it has been shorter in the past and I'd like to see us shorten that up it's just it's too long of a time period so the five-week lead time allows for accommodation of certain things in our ordinance like getting notices out to neighbors um getting Publications out in the paper for example um if I wanted a notice out in the paper for let's say February 4th on this agenda I need to have 10 days notice for it to be in a paper and column which manages the legals for the echo uh requires it to be in there the Wednesday before the Wednesday publication date so there's lead time involved to at least get that publication out which is a statutory requirement and then also for neighboring mailings um so my proposal five is pretty much to structure a complete application getting dropped off that could be talked about at these development review team meeting so that I can educate people on requirements and get them equipped for a complete application bring us that's you know the public notification and the neighbors is just a small I'll say Lane of this you know to come in and just do site reviews stuff like that that does not need publication still I'm going to push back hard on this it does not need pushed out two months so there's there are certain things yeah the variance you know with that but everything else which is 90% of what people want does not need a two-month requirement and it has it has not been this way um this was only changed to this format only about two three years ago that this extended deadline came into place and it's just it's just too way too long of a deadline you know um I'm in the landscape industry obviously client comes in and said you know may we only have the summer to work May and go gez we can't even get an answer for you until in July because it's May 4th and the deadline was on the 3 we're not even going to know what to do until in July sometime that timeline just doesn't work and and we need to change it so I I understand you know in the timelines for the papers and stuff that's fine but that is a very small issue and we need to go back to a tighter schedule like we had before we have if I could we we have shortened that extended timeline a little bit it used to be more like six weeks um pushed out and even if it's five I mean we try to keep it as tight as possible but it is a department of one the P the newspaper publication component has been extended greater so we have to have things done reviewed and completed earlier in the process to allow for that publication to go out so in essence for January I think um our city planner has seven days to review plans and to determine if they're complete and and ready for publication it's not a lot of time if you have multiple applications so we definitely want to be as accommodating as we can without also creating constraints for our department of one to be able to do their job well so correct but leave the Publications out of it because the Publications there's only a small sector that requires publication for instance sign ordinance there's no Publications needed for that we don't need to push that out two months we don't need to I I mean I don't want to sit here and go through the whole list tonight but 90% of the stuff does not need the timeline for the publications of what people want to come before the uh board to have their questions answered and waiting two months in this environment in the construction field I mean Jesse's in the construction World waiting two months on an answer is not acceptable I mean it's just it's a construction window of right it just doesn't work we we need to come up with a with a different way to do it um I think that'd be a good opportunity perhaps us three can get together we can talk and discuss maybe what our thoughts are on trying to streamline it sure make so notifications in the paper as I understand it would be anything that's subject to a public hearing is that right so yeah variances conditional use permits interterm use permits ordinance amendments you could synonymize this to be a public hearing calendar any of the other items like a meets and bound subdivision that would be reviewed upon by the Planning Commission would be a business item right but right now you know somebody prime example somebody wants a sketch plan review the whole purpose of them getting on the agenda is the sketch plan review so they can get the feedback so these deadlines would not be uh for sketch Plan reviews that is a 10day prior to the meeting deadline for meetings and so that would be one of them but we could add you know the other requirements that would just be a 10day you know and I think we need to split the list between them and come up with a comp of list I I would say that what to Jesse's point and to your point um what you know meeting with the city planner and bringing the concerns up and stuff and just you know work with them you know maybe but you know putting your heads together things can be streamlined certain things can be set off to this okay well I see that okay um and I'm happy to engage people at the pie in the sky phase if they're thinking about something in the future um that might even be too out and planning on their side engage me sooner and I'd be happy to discuss it at any of these development rview team meetings to you know say okay if you are looking to break ground me let's start talking now my clients just don't work like that sorry that's not that's not normal so yeah I I wish if you tell me how to do that it's just not the not the not realistic in the construction World in this in this area in this culture so that's why we got to do something to streamline it Mr Mayor I'm going make a motion if we can table this calendar discussion until uh the city planner council member Hall and myself can be able to get a meeting on the calendar before the January meeting and then to be able to table this till then table till January what you're saying table this until January but to still publish that we have the uh Planning Commission meeting for Tuesday January 7th and how would you like me to handle the um timeline for the February meeting I would just leave it open right now I mean do you have people that want to get on February I do I would I don't think the idea regardless is to change the meeting date so change the date change the timeline so like right now prime example you know we're here in what's the date today 17th the 17th and people want to get on the Fe feary meeting and they can't get in the February meeting they certainly can get on the February meeting at this time okay yeah um yeah I'd say we want to try and meet as soon as possible you know discuss it to you know to look at this have a motion to table till January I'll second second any further discussion all those in favor proposed period okay just as a reminder to everybody and I know this you know I sound like a broken record but this is why when you when we get our packets and stuff please get with that staff take take that second and get at it um you know I don't see a problem with the schedule but I don't do what you guys do you see things that I don't deal with so that it's important that we get with staff and let them know because they may not see it the way we do so or yeah and we just need time to discuss it ourselves right um item 12 request uh from Public Works to fill maintenance tech position good evening everybody um with this is um we want to backfill uh the maintenance tech position um as most of you are probably aware um we've promoted from within and that's created a vacancy in the maintenance department um and so uh what we're looking to do is uh get permission to advertise to refill that position that was vacated make a motion that we move ahead with this all second any further discussion all those in favor I I oppos carried thank you approve updated road maintenance agreement uh renewal Wilderness Road this is pretty every year or every so many years just we share it with Pat I believe correct yes yeah okay and are we still doing down middle Colin drive we still do Inland Drive and that this is for Wilderness this is for Wilderness but that yeah we still do the other one right they don't come in here and do down middle Cullen drive yeah they do they at the very end yeah yeah oh okay excuse me Mr may make a motion to approve the updated road maintenance agreement for Wilderness Road 2025 to 2020 present okay any further discussion all those in favor iOS uh Memo from niswa Chamber of Commerce reference what what did I miss nothing I just said thank you Tom oh oh okay I'm sorry member from nisat Chamber of Commerce reference downtown master plan Council information everyone had a chance to go through that okay any questions for cie or anyone anyone so far so good okay awesome see you in January uh Park and Rex request final front transfer for GIC Trail so I'm taking it the punch list is completed everything is done okay questions for Amber the city engineer otherwise I'll entertain a motion uh well for the transfer of the funds to reimburse what we had to match on the city level correct that's what this is approving yes in part it's um the remaining matching dollars so Lake Shore covered 60% um nisah covers 40% so you have um the identified Park funds that were initially um approved as part of the project and then there's costs that are not reimbursable such as the land appraisals um their archaeological study and then some of the other incidentals along the way motions Mr May I'll make a motion uh to approve the request for action for the final funds transfer for the go Trail as presented second further discussion all those in favor all oppos Carri than sir uh set city council organizational meeting date for January 6 5:00 pm so moved I'll second discussion I think we discussed last meeting that we're all available for that right right I got this yes all those in favor I oppos uh approve um supervis mnpa supervisor contract for January 1 through December 31st of 2005 20125 excuse me I'll make a motion to approve the Minnesota paa supervisor contract for January 1st through December 31st 2025 as presented second second any further discussion all those in favor I oppos carried uh we'll go down to Old business uh Verizon cell tower site plan update discussion did everyone get that no I have information for you today uh Verizon was here this afternoon uh met with myself city planner and the Public Works director um to look at their preferred location which will be at the fire hall uh they felt that um the cemetery property and the the property where the city's newly acquired land would not be as advantageous as um the fire hall location um so they are looking to move forward with that process and would bring the required applications there will be some variances required to Planning Commission to proceed with the next steps uh one question that came up that would like some Council input on KiKi is there still a photo I think I have up if you could put that on the screen thank you uh as part of the tower we were looking to consolidate uh some of the exist existing uh the the tower that we have there uh with the antenna for the fire department would be proposed to be taken down and we'd move the antenna to the new tower uh the other item is the um siren that is potentially able to be added to the tower as well um adding multiple things potentially increases cost and would lessen the lease payment that Verizon would pay to the city and the question is does the council have a preference on if the siren is taken down and relocated or if that's more we just work through the logistics at a staff level and bring forward a recommendation when they when they make their application to the Planning Commission so any feedback on or preference you would have would be helpful uh is the new site going to have that generator backup system on it is that what they're proposing because that is there because it's hooked to the generator yes so the gener the they are planning to replace the generator to um allow for the need that Verizon would have and then also the ability to run the fire hall so they put a new generator um in the place of the existing generator um that would feed to the tower um not a problem and if you kept that hole there for the siren then we could tie that back in um or it can be utilized at the new tower as well you need siren right why was why was that why is the new land not of interest for them even if it was 100 to 200 foot Tower it doesn't help the service issues downtown and on 18 so they are proposing to bring to the Planning Commission um a tower um 190 ft here yeah at this point the the maximum our ordinance allows is 150 ft so they would be requesting a variance so they recognize that there's a request for that um I do have we talked about this last month I do have if the council would like to see some of the mapping um growth with the tower different Tower Heights so you can look at that to see but it wouldn't so it wouldn't achieve their goals for the congestion downtown with all of the people in the events and then some of the challenges we've discussed with the neighborhood um back behind City Hall and then acrossing yeah the higher you go doesn't mean the further out you'll go yes yes because yeah a lot of people if they want 150 it just to maximize the Improvement based on feedback and what they're looking for that's what they would propose is that your antenna all the way on the top Joe yeah the reper that connects with Lake Ro so it's basically it's omnidirectional right now right okay so then if you're going to go 10 and some feet up you're not going to be able to put that on top of that so you're going to end up with a directional intent is probably more than one or two of some kind comply maybe 80 but um depending on how high up they go are they going to they would flip the cost for putting that up there or fire department intend because then you're running it's repeated and then you're running the shielded cable down and everything else they they would but it would come as rent abatement ultimately right we would see less rent at the end of the day if we wanted to one or both I can tell you that 180 some feet from some of the neighbors I spoke with around my place is like uh and then that kind of like deer hunting you can't cover the whole Woods there's and I know that's what they want to do I mean I get their point okay but good luck and chain so the council doesn't have a strong preference we would potentially opt to leave it just to minimize their cost yeah and the resulting yeah decrease in rent but certainly yeah I guess that would require more discussion you know we've actually had to climb that and the one over there who's responsible for climbing it and working on it stuff you know all those with the lease agreements all that stuff you know I I don't you know yep yeah Sean has actually climed himself the higher you go on a tower with your antenna the different cable type you need and the shielded type cables you need and it's not necessary it's like everything else it's a simple thing we're going to put an antenna up here it's not as simple as you think it is you guys you know um do you have communication issues of any kind anywhere that you've been with your Portables or anything has it been not not since they switched to the 900 okay good you know really I mean that really took care of a lot of stuff but it's still useful to have oh heck yeah yeah okay okay okay well that's the update I they will move forward through the Planning Commission process and certainly keep you informed as it comes okay Tom you can come up if you have a comment please um as far as helicopter is is there an issue with either one of of those for the helicopter that you're aware of there's well they do they will land back there um you know no I mean it that really comes down to each pilot some Pilots W won't land there and they want to land in the ball field the next one he'll drop it right in there wherever we ask him so that's really pilot by Pilot and we we never know and so when we request an LZ sometimes you know the pilot ultimately has this say and they'll they'll wave off and they'll they'll give us another location where they want to land so you got to ask them if they're a veteran or not a veteran veterans will drop anywhere non veterans won't the the guys that were back in Vietnam they would land in between those two towers so it just it that that's really what it boils down to is whoever the pilot is that we're talking to okay thank you okay um then we'll if we're good with that then we can go to council reports before we'll uh City Council Members Joe I had a chance to go to Washington last week for a event ended up having an opportunity to sit down with Congressman Pete stalber for about 25 30 minutes gracious to give that much time um we had a lot of discussion in regards to uh my businesses and what we're doing but also City thisall came up quite a bit uh invited him to come here to City Hall if he ever had the opportunity to he said he's going to be coming around sometime in the first quarter see if something can come to fruition where we can get some interface with him in regards to some of the projects and the challenges that we're facing see what federal support uh he'd be able to help get behind to be able to provide us any additional Insight on grants uh subsidies or any additional type of funding that we can try to get in for what we have ahead and uh I had a chance to meet speaker Mike Johnson it's pretty neat and he's very short mhm he turned the recording off for that right nice guy though like very very nice guy so pray for our new elected leaders when they open up their 119th Congress they have a lot of work ahead of them and hope they do a good job good Bruce nothing Mark I have nothing nothing okay well I see our new mayor elect is here I just your gavl is awaiting it is right here so may you wield it judiciously and he never uses it I used it once scared the be Jesus out of people anyway um so uh January will take over so there we are and other than that I have nothing else so um we are going to be moving into closed session next so I will I just wanted to thank you for your years of service to this oh yeah City and residence and congratulation on the incoming mayor I Echo that you've done a great job for us and thank you for everything that you've contributed over I think you've had two terms in Council or one term in Council and two as many years of service and I know we spend hours sometimes in this chamber our families uh I know I have to explain to my wife why I'm not there eating cold dinner at 9 or 9:30 or 10 o'clock at night sometimes but I think at the end of the day as councilman former council member Don Jacobson said to thankless you sure you want to do it I I still look back on all this and I'm sure he did too and I hope you do as well it is worth it uh not only do we do it for our families and our residents but we do it for one another and thank you for your service yep you're welcome and then one one other note we have to add an honored council member Jacob's uh Jacobson's tradition yep we want to wish everyone here a very Merry Christmas it's not happy holidays it's Merry Christmas do not forget the reason that we celebrate this season that's right so Merry Christmas to everybody may your families be safe and sound and may you all have a blessed New Year merry Christmas everybody mer Christmas um I will make a motion uh that we recommend recommend a motion to move into Clos session pursue it to Minnesota statute 13 d05 subdivision 3C reference consideration of offer for property purchase um P numbers 2815 637 28150 547 28150 604 second discussion yes could you please come to the PO thank you um I've been at a few meetings now where there's been closed sessions um they have the appearance of secrecy from the taxpayers um and um I'm just a little concerned a little puzzled if we're the ones paying the taxes um and you folks represent us why can't I why can't we be present at these meetings what why the appearance of secrecy we'll defer to the lawy City attorney because I would like to learn as much as possible about the going in our city in some instances such as the one tonight the reason for that is because there is a negotiation about uh money and and just like you wouldn't want to have the other side know what you're talking about when you're negotiating something with money that's why these sorts of meetings aren't aren't public there are other reasons under under the statute to close a meeting but this one tonight is about purchase price for land and as I said if you were if you were going to sell a piece of land or buy a piece of land you wouldn't want the other party to know what you were thinking with respect to the negotiation that's the easiest way to explain why these meetings are closed sometimes and I appreciate the the question also wanted to just um offer that final Decisions by the city council are made in open public session so anything finalized comes before the council to approve so you would see that so this is just a negotiation component yeah the issue that I see too is that we have to dig as taxpayers we have to dig pretty darn deep to try to learn about what's going on like myself I've been to what four or five meetings now and I'm learning I'm just barely scratching the surface of what's to learn and unless we start from the bottom being educated how can you possibly learn what's going on in just that one spec of time that you're mentioning that we can attend and I'm always happy to share what I can so feel free to call I certainly could have provided um the properties that we're discussing and say well these are the parcels that nothing else at least it might give a little context but certainly reach out anytime happy to share with what we can the other thing I can add to that is reach out to the elected officials okay um ask them talk to them if you have a question about planning and zoning um get a hold of our city planner ask um absolutely I mean we're they're here to serve you they're they're public employees they're they work for you um and just ask questions and sometimes they can give you answers sometimes they can't depends on what the question is or what type of information it is personal data things like that but reach out and ask um it you know you have every right to do that and you should I encourage people to Do It um all the city council members for example have email addresses that are online you can reach out for myself my cell phone and everything was online I mean I'm just I I'm an open book so um reach out and talk to them if you have a question about even sometimes people get upset with like say what the police do I was a police officer for 30 years ask call me up talk to me talk to my chief whatever you know I mean just ask um um and I think a lot of people have for some reason hesitate to do that and I don't know why um I've never figured that out but you know some of it's you're busy or I get it but there is a lot to know and um when you know it all and you don't there's you have nothing else to learn that's the time to get out and I'm G to throw Bruce and myself under the bus but we're both seniors he's a couple years older than I am um we're both retired so I've got a lot of time people know that so they either come over or they call and I discuss with them if I don't have an answer I direct them where to go or help them come in but yes it's an eye opener isn't it sit on this side I thought I knew stuff but no Mr dude I think your point beckons even a deeper conversation that I any of us here are more than happy more than willing to have there's never been and I say this as a fellow taxpayer I say this as a fellow citizen of this town that's lived here since I was born I went to that Elementary School across the street I hope that the voters that voted for me to get into this position have a little bit of sense of trust that I'm trying to look out we're trying to look out for the best due diligence and process of your monies and the investment of that or a tax base especially when there's things I I I see and know I think we all see enough that there are some opinions on the matter that we're trying to move things without any opinion taken or given or asked for or not asked for we are as transparent on these matters as we always have been since I've been on this Council and I think that the steps of getting additional information to the public there can definitely be areas of improvement there we've made that very clear since we had just most recently the downtown um I'm going to put which are the name of it again downtown master plan um but there's a lot of lessons learned from that for example we paused we're not in a Sprint in the city of ours we're maintaining tradition here because we value it so and I hope that there's at least a little bit of sense of trust and if there's an improvements that we can all make we need to hear that if I don't get the constructive criticism from my wife on how I can make the bed better every single morning it's not going to be done I at least now put the toilet lid down every morning but it's small steps at a time this is great though and I encourage everybody especially those listening online on various applications or platforms that have opinions on the matter that believe that what I'm discussing right now is to the total contrary to please participate please sit in these seats as you all have done thank you for staying the entire night it's 8:30 you guys are going to have a plate of cold food at home but we want to we want to incite that we want conversation otherwise it does seem one-sided and it we don't want it to be that way so thank you for attending the past few meetings it's it's been noticed I did the same thing before I sent an email of Jenny Max asking about that vacancy on the Planning Commission and then the gentleman that sitting right here in this seat Ross Croc ker resigned and I was four or five months in planning and zoning and he kept looking I mean what about you would you ever be interested in that said yeah I think I would I applied got appointed and then ran for election and you know the rest so we want to get as much involvement and if there's feedback of how we can interpret any ideas or plans or or take your all of your Collective input and ideas so what makes us better in the long run so thank you yeah and I would just encourage um any time that there's something that affects us um the people paying the bills the taxpayers keep it open if at all possible you know it's hard for us to learn because there's so much to learn um we need to be present as much as possible and I hope the new mayor will will also help with this um I don't like the closed sessions guys you know I don't like them at all because I want to learn um if it affects me and my neighbors who are paying the taxes I really believe we have a right to be here and to listen because it affects us so just just my thoughts thank you all for listening thank you we have a motion in a second any further discussion I did all those in favor I I I okay we are now opposed we are now in closed session five minute recess please yep recess for KI will let us know when it's ready well Jenny will --------- ##VIDEO ID:SosLUs56X5g## e e e e okay we'll the here I don't know what mine is uh we'll call the uh public information truth and Taxation meeting for Tuesday December 17 2024 to order and we will turn it over to the city administrator thank you mayor ran good evening members of the council uh welcome everyone to our public hearing tonight we are here to discuss the upcoming uh city of nisad 2025 budget and the 2024 pay 2025 property tax levy uh so tonight is your opportunity as taxpayers in our community to provide input to the city council regarding the city's upcoming budget and Levy so I will provide a brief budget and presentation about the levy um the city council will then hear public comment uh if anyone wishes to speak um at the at that time you can state your name and address you come to the podium and please limit your comments to 3 minutes or less final approval of the budget and Levy will be at the regular meeting starting at 7 pm so just following this meeting tonight I first off will'll introduce myself my name is Jenny Max I'm the city administrator here in nah and I want to start off by saying thank you to City staff who helped develop the budget and provided a lot of input and guidance to the council throughout this process tonight fulfills a state requirement that the city's required to hold a public hearing regarding the upcoming um property tax levy for the city uh so the parameters for the meeting when we can hold it are listed there and um again we will include time for public comments so you can share your thoughts with the council this meeting is not intended to discuss property valuations or classifications so Crowing County the assessor's office um handles assessments and the assessed valuations and classifications for properties so in the spring spring time when you receive your notice of the upcoming assessment value that is the time when um you would meet with the county you can come to the city our meetings are held in April to discuss that upcoming valuation so tonight we're talking about the tax portion of this but anytime you have questions about valuations or classifications the county is more than willing to talk with you and to um hear your questions and share some information about how they arrived at your valuation and classification we will talk a little bit about just the city's um valuations Citywide just for some context um but that's um certainly something if you want to speak to specifically about your property um start off with the county and then can certainly work with us as needed there are two documents available in the entryway here at City Hall there's a budget summary document and a tax impact model I will talk through both of those in my presentation tonight but if you'd like a hard copy they are available for you to pick up and the broad topics that I will go over tonight include our general budget process and the general fund budget specifics the 2024 pay 2025 final Levy numbers and then we'll just speak to the valuations Citywide so you can see kind of the breakdown of um types of classifications and the valuation levels as they've um fluctuated from year to year with respect to the budget schedule so we spend um about half the year um working through the budget process and this year we started in May and every three years the city goes through a compensation study process and so 2024 was the year where the city hired a consultant they completed a compensation study and then presented the study results to the city council the council approved the results of that study and authorized that staff incorporate those results into the 2025 budget uh from there the months of June July and August we have various Council workshops and um staff internally are preparing their dep departmental budgets um over the course of those months to work to present to the council and provide um the upcoming needs wants you know challenges and things that we're we're facing for the upcoming year so we work through that throughout the summer months and in September the council holds a workshop and then they set their preliminary Levy so in September when that pre minary Levy is set that is the maximum Levy that can be set for the city for the upcoming year the council can lower it from there but it cannot be raised our Council has typically set a preliminary Levy higher as we work towards finalizing things like Union contracts or maybe determining how much equipment costs for various things that we might need to put in our budget that gives us room to work through those details and then we bring back final numbers for incorporation into the final budget now in November the county mails out that proposed property tax statement which you all received a few weeks ago and then tonight is the opportunity to have that public hearing and then the council will approve the final Levy and the city um budget so in September when the council set the preliminary Levy um it was set at 16.15% above the 2024 Levy um so that is the number that was used by the county to um create your tax statements and that's what the proposed tax statements reflect that you received in the mail tonight as we will go through the information we have a final Levy proposed for Council consideration at 99.75% above the 2024 Levy so a decrease from 16.15% to 99.75% that reflects a 3.53% increase in the general frund budget and we'll talk a little bit about why there's a difference because a levy percentage increase doesn't always correlate to a budget percent increase so in the city of nisah we have three guiding documents that we use um on an annual basis um to help guide our decision- making and our future planning our comprehensive plan which provides that 30,000 foot view um long-term plan uh for the city and kind of that Vision document we use our strategic plan on an annual basis to help break down that really broad Vision into actionable items by Department to help sort of achieve specific goals and we use the budget in order to allocate resources um or generate revenues to achieve that strategic plan ultimately resulting in achieving the comprehensive plan goals I've shared these goals a handful of times um really it's to give us um a guiding um road map for how we make decisions and how we utilize our resources and within our strategic plan we have five categories noted on the screen two of them the long range infrastructure plan and the employee retention satisfaction plan were the two drivers of what you will see that's incorporated into the final budget for 2025 we'll talk about that in a more in a minute with respect to the budget so City budgets if you're not familiar we we categorize them and group them into separate funds as required by law and for General um accounting practices so the first set of funds that we budget for called governmental funds and within governmental funds we have our general fund and our debt service fund so our general fund is those standard um City local government operations services that are provided police Public Works Planning and Zoning city clerk Finance all of those types of functions and then our debt service fund houses all of the bonds and the other debt potentially that you have issued at a city and manages the inflow and outflow of um those debt payments and revenues the second category is our proprietary funds these are our business or Enterprise type funds um that we account for separately um and our traditional I would say money makers where they support themselves and they pay for themselves via the revenues that they generate so we have two proprietary funds we have the liquor fund and the sewer fund within the liquor fund might be familiar we have the Pickle Factory and spirits of niswa so we have two departments that roll into the liquor fund that we account for as one unit um at the end of the day for our audit and things like that and our sewer fund which is the city's utility that we provide and the last category is our non- major funds they're non- major just by nature of the size of the fund it's just a percentage of the general fund and that's how that's categorized and that consists of the community center Parks and Recreation fire any capital projects we might have so um Road bonds things like that we account for separately um before we would like roll it into a Debt Service fund after uh we were compl we completed the project and any special Revenue funds that might happen um from time to time those are more statute driven specific um reasons for accounting for that separately so at a high level re overview uh here's a summary of our city-wide budget with each of those three categories that I mentioned the top half of the screen reflects the 2024 current budget and the general fund again is is um folded under that governmental fund category you can see the revenues there of the 4,228 42 on the bottom half of the screen is the 2025 proposed budget again that top line for governmental funds includes the general fund which you can see for revenues uh is projected 4,582 590 you will note that for this governmental funds proposed budget there is an excess of revenues over expenditures of $175,000 since my time in iswa um and for many years that that I can think of um even before that the city council's goals or one of them has been to have a balanced general fund budget and we do the difference with this i' like to drill down on that specific line item is that split between the general fund and The Debt Service fund and that's where that 175,000 comes into play which is a part of that Debt Service fund component uh because we issued a new Bond this year we have to Levy for payments ahead of when we actually make the payments so we have to have cash on hand in order to make the payment at a future point in time so that's why there's more revenues in The Debt Service fund than expenditures for the upcoming year it's a timing thing but you can see with the general fund that we have a balanced budget of the 3,775 671 and then you can see that activity in The Debt Service fund as well a high level overview of general fund revenues by category 82% of our general fund revenues comes from property taxes uh it's very consistent year-over-year we do have a few other smaller categories that we account for um other revenues uh we do receive a small amount of state aid that fluctuates from year to year uh we have some charges for services and permits and fees and things so those uh group together account for about 6% we call intergovernmental and then we do have a transfer from our liquor fund um of 6% of our total revenues so for 2025 we will be transferring $290,000 from Spirits and the pickle into the general fund to help offset the levy here's a snapshot of general fund expenditures by Department you can see um police and Public Works are the the city's two largest departments um that is by nature because of one the size of the department and the staff that we require and the amount of equipment required uh as part of those operations you think of plow trucks squad cars and things it's it's heavy equipment intensive um to operate those departments and so that also accounts for uh the percentage breakdown of our budget there's in fund transfer out at 11% so not only do we receive money in from the liquor fund but we also budget for money to go out to help offset our community center and our parks and recck departments so that is that in fund transfer out and then Debt Service and administration account for 10% each um with respect to the budget smaller other line items and categories with that make up the rest of the expenditure budget here's a snapshot of the Citywide budget summary um as noted there's a balanced budget there um $128,700 increase in the budget over last year which equates to about three and a half per. the council does monitor and track um the CPI index throughout the year and throughout the budget process was pretty consistent across across the board for the for the 12 11 12 months here um sometimes that's not the case and so you have to monitor that and look at that as part of your budgeting process as well and some of the components uh with respect to the budget itself um it's difficult to track every in and out with respect to the budget so I tried to give a snapshot of some of the major components so that first item you see the debt payments um that is specifically discussing part of The Debt Service fund that 7.38% uh that reflects the bond that was issued um that is part of the new now the city's um Debt Service fund that will be paying off going forward so that accounts for that percentage um increase and then the next handful of items are really just the ins and outs within the general fund budget itself so staff wages and benefits about 7.3% um and utilities insurance and other you can see some of the increases the items that are stricken out were proposed increases to the budget that were part of the preliminary Levy that we have pulled out for the final Levy so those were taken out and then there are a couple of subtractions at the bottom to to also show what was needed in order to um balance the budget and get to the council goal of not to exceed 10% so a couple of just the bigger components to highlight here so really in summary the 2025 budget reflects continued investment in competitive wages uh that includes an additional half year for a public works employee that we brought on board last July for half a year new debt service for the land acquisition uh reduction and sanitation workers comp insurance elections and some Road Investments line items so with that a little recap again so in September um the council approved that preliminary Levy at the $3,950 369 which is at 16.15% tax statements were mailed out in November and tonight we are presenting a final budget reflecting 3.7 3, 73242091956 I can share that um what that's showing is just below where those blue boxes kind of came on is you can see the breakdown between general fund Levy and that Debt Service Levy component which is how we roll both of those things together but really at the end of the day what does all of that mean we can talk about a 1% Levy or a 10% Levy but really it matter what matters is the dollars that impact all of our tax statements one of the best tools that we have at the city is called the tax impact model and we can enter in our upcoming tax valuations for the city and the proposed Levy and see what that means and translates to in dollars for your type of property so on the right hand side of that screen I've entered in that 99.75% Levy and just above that uh reflects 2.95% increase in Citywide Property valuations so our valuations as a city has gone up will go up slightly from last year um the last few years before that they had it had gone up significantly but this year we'll see a modest increase at the 2.95% and as an example we'll illustrate in 20124 if you had a homestead property that was valued at $200,000 you would have paid approximately $458 in tax for 2025 that $200,000 value home you would owe $489 in tax so the increase and the tax impact to you would be $31 one more example the same uh approach looking at a $400,000 value home the increase from 2024 to 25 is $67 now I'm not here to you know ask the question about is that a lot of money or not that's up to each one of us to determine the impact in in our own lives but at least it gives you more specific um information to use when determining whether or not it's maybe a reasonable increase um as opposed to how do we really think about percentages and what that translates to um mayor Ryan have a question is it okay if I see the question yes uh they they are listed on this on that sheet you can you can see those um I don't have a I don't have one highlighted here specifically but it is on it is on the sheet in the entry w that that orange section of the bottom half does include commercial properties I don't know that's that's a county question um I know that they increased a little bit based on what I have in the next couple slides um but I I don't know Citywide the impact will we communicate the the the number the dollar we need the levy itself and it is spread across properties depending on your classification it may get spread differently because of the the state formulas and how that works so not the valuation part if that's your question just the the tax doe that the equivalent that lands for your tax due that's this correct conversation the yeah County does the evaluation not the city so the city doesn't evaluate anything that is set by the county and the difference between the property tax that the County's assessing based on that assessment versus what our Levy is is what Jenny's been kind of demonstrating here so the impact back to what your overall valuation statement says that you guys have in your hand there there's a portion that shows what the portion that is responsible for the city of nwah versus what is actual uh crowan County that makes sense if you're looking to fight the evaluation that's at the county not at the city yes I I did tell Mike to call the assessor's office to speak with them about the valuation [Music] okay understand what you want to do Mike is in the spring you want to come to the meeting we have here at City Hall give me the name again please the the council will be present okay and that's where the city the is putting up their evaluations they pending that's the appeal meting correct the the appeal the appeal meeting Equalization yes you can appeal your evaluation and then what will happen is it'll end up with the count eventually you end up with the county with your final appeal but that starts your process and then you can go to their appeal then you're on their radar right away and then they can walk you through the whole process on their appealing and everything that's where you want to start with that process what we're explaining here tonight is our budget our Levy and then where we're going with that but we have like Joe said the county sets the evaluation on all properties and let's talk offline a little bit I want to make sure you know who you were talking with because maybe we can help we have some former County folks here that could maybe help as well so we will gladly do that okay de y yeah right and understood and that's at the county in the spring when they come they usually come with three or four people and you can ask those exact questions then and then they walk through their formula that they have on how they do that um but yeah that has nothing to do with us with the evaluation and if I may add it's also worth noting there is a Minnesota property tax refund too if the increases are that if they're that drastic versus your neighbor yeah I would think you guys have a case based off it it's based on household income I understand but it's something that is still I understand but it's still offered to I did argue mine last year and I did get I started at that meeting and I did get a uh rebate like or whatever property tax refund yeah I I did get a refund this year takes a year to wait for it but I did I was successful myself last year so but that's the process I don't really understanding how they that that's why that meeting in the spring is is is nice because their people are here and they break down exactly what their processes for how they do evaluation they pull comps they the ex assessors are here then that that come out to the properties we we don't have a date set yet it's usually mid April um yes but certainly you could Circle back with us early April would let you know uh with respect to niswa and just other sorry go ahead proper only problem with that is over the last five six years is that a property that property five years ago sure yes so you say that don't have to doerty vales but you are benefiting from the extra tax dollars B based on those value that should be part of your consideration C County this year gave me a reduction in taxes in my in my op your your Levy against me is now ,000 a year higher than their and the my I have my tax bill here from uh 2015 my taxes 2015 was $454 hard dollars same property everything's the same 10 years later I am now going to pay 9,248 I don't know any here income increased 100% inreased by 100% okay we and de have a chance to address it we wanted to get through the her presentation first y I know just because then they can have your name and everything and and know so y absolutely so I'm almost done uh so just we always provide a comparison um we are consistently um the sixth lowest tax rate in croman County second lowest when comparing Lake Cities like meaning comparable Services departments things like that here's a snapshot of the change in our market value since 2019 has been significant from 2021 to 2022 alone was a 30% increase in our valuation um and so that continues to grow significantly um not quite as much for 2025 as we've seen in the last handful of years but is something um to be mindful of as well um I have a breakdown of our property valuation classifications um G to say I had the percentages there so you can see commercial properties on the right hand side of the screen has increased slightly over 2023 um but very consistent year-over-year between reasonal residential and seasonal and Commercial properties also want to just take a moment and remind the public that um the city website allows for you to sign up and subscribe to Pages it's called enotify and it's on the top Banner of the homepage you can click up sign up for enotify you can receive an email or a text message if you would like to be notified when information is added to the website um you can pick and choose the pages You' like to to have updates for um Here's the final recap I've shared a few times um essentially The Proposal in front of the council for tonight at your regular meeting will be to approve a final uh budget and Levy uh the levy recommendation is the 3,732 420 or 99.75% uh which reflects a general fund budget increase of 3.53% uh at this time I will um I'll leave the screen here um but this time I will um defer back to Mayor Ryan and you can open to the public and we will I'm happy to answer questions if they come up thank you but at this point um if anyone wishes to address the council um again um come up state your name and address and try and limit your please limit your comments to three minutes and we'll try and get through everyone that wishes to address it would you like to go first sir okay as I said uh my increase in taxes is twice oh sure Steve Larsson 5843 nashway Road I'm sorry uh you know the hard dollar is has my property gone up in value absolutely horrendously uh I'm on Round Lake you know Prime Lakeshore but those are locked up dollars they don't mean deal squat to me unless I sell and yet I'm being taxed dramatically on that amount and as you mentioned that even you know um the commercial property was up 9% well that means on that property you already received a 9% increase so if you're looking at you know say saying well your Levy increase is only 9% no it's actually 18% because you're taxing on property that's n that's 9% higher than it was just a few years ago so in all reality in my mind we should be seeing a reduction we should not be seeing an increase in a levy we should be saying hey you know what we're giving you back 6% we're giving you back 10% this year we're going we're cutting our spending so that we end up reflecting uh the increase in Revenue that we're getting in just because of the increase in property value um I you know I even I go back to my uh when I take a look at the increases 2015 my my taxes on my property was $454 when I go to uh 2020 my increase was uh up to $ 6,970 and now by this year I'm going to be paying 9 9,248 out of which uh pring County went from $2,716 to a proposed 25 budget of 2648 an actual drop of $100 whereas niswa went from 2964 to 32117 an increase of over almost uh a little over 300 bucks um I love NES I love the city I love the area but I'm a I'm I'm a senior I'm on a fixed income I can't afford this and you've driven a lot of people this off of my Lake that you know they just said hey you know what I'm going to take the million sell my property and and go someplace where it's not quite so High um thank you to that the statement that he has that's for this year that reflects our 16 is there anyone else that wish to address sorry I'm Julie crowy I'm on Brierwood Lane first of all explain you're proposing a 99.75% increase and of that the general fund is three and a half so explain where the other 6% goes please certainly um the difference is because um we have to account for the revenues that are going to be available for the upcoming year in 2024 we received some one-time funding from the state so in part that's where we had Revenue come in which is great but when it's not consistent year-over-year that means the next year it's going to put us behind when we have to generate dollars to make the budget balanced so it's essentially just analyzing the available Revenue that's coming in from all other sources and you you know fill the difference with the levy based on your needs for your operations I do state that the Strategic plan that the count and the council priorities need to be re-evaluated and I question and take issue of a balanced approach as you put in this document this will be the third consecutive year of actual and proposed major increases that we've received on the levy and I too want to State I want some recognition that the taxes that you receive for the city of niswa to operate reflects the increased value of property I would I don't know if you broke that out tonight or not but I would like to start seeing you get X from year to year based on increased property values and what do you need in between I never see that as a taxpayer you know I've been listening to the news we all do Minneapolis and St Paul councils have taken the leadership to reduce their 2025 budgets even though they have very complex needs compared to other this area they've reduced their budgets in the in the five to six% that's not what I'm hearing hear in reflected this evening I do challenge administrator Max and the council because you know where you can decrease costs I think our I think we should be looking at a singled digigit increase of 6% or less for 2025 thank you thank you is there anyone else all right up use the podium here okay I'm Ron Dy and I live at 26735 middle Colin Road um I hear this from Seniors an awful lot um back in 2021 if a retired senior was receiving a ,000 for their retirement benefits from Social Security in 2025 they will be receiving approximately $1,216 that's an increase of $216 if we compare the city of nissa's tax increases being compounded the same way I did from Social Security benefits those people will be paying in uh 2025 approximately $460 increase over their $1 thousand payment back in 2021 so in 2021 they would be paying $1,000 to niswa 2025 they're going to be paying 1,460 back in 2021 those Social Security recipients received $1,000 in 2025 they're going to be receiving 1,216 so just a of nah alone is going up almost $300 faster than their social security benefits hopefully I'm hoping with a new mayor we can get these increases under control these seniors are being financially crushed I hear it over and over they only have so many dollars guys in their checkbooks it in their rece uh receipts of income they can't be forced to keep selling their properties because taxes are going up so fast they can't afford to live there we can do better we have to do better thank you is there anyone else question sure go ahead I notic there was a large chunk of the proposed budget that was cut for a capital Improvement was that the the property across the street from schafers that was taken off the table that you're not going to look at building a new police department new fire department stuff there is that was that the capital expenditure the guy cut that that was actually never on well oh go ahead Jen uh no it wasn't that was the increase so our Capital Improvement plan just accounts for our equipment and our building facilities things like that and so that was the in increase that we were looking because not all of our Capital Improvement funds are fully funded and so we are looking to we keep trying to put money away so that we have cash to pay for new trucks and things like that when we need it thank that was what's was cut basically a putting in the savings okay anyone else okay we'll close public comment and Council discussion okay Joe you want to start anyone yeah I guess at the end of the day there's it's probably not a discussion for here but as we move forward this next year I would hope um you know one of my goals for the council listening to issues like this and other issues that have arose this year in the town to come up with a a platform or something to more openly discuss with the people what are the needs of the town the community what we're seeing so you all have a better idea of you know the decision making that we're doing behind the scenes you know as we all know since 2020 um prices of everything have gone crazy and it does need to balance out um with that with our town specifically some things that um needs of or citizens might not realize though is how how it's had a long-term impact on our town I'll just pick one because I know about it is the fire department for instance back in 2019 you know preco um off the cuff I'm going to say we were running between two to 300 calls since Co we jumped up in our call volume and running this year I don't have the accurate number I'm going to shoot from the hip and say it's between six to 700 that we've been consistently running since Co it's never died off it's never cut back we've gone up three to four times the emergency response volume that the average public don't know about and so when it comes to you know um general fund budgeting now our expenses hasn't increased three to four times that even though we're doing three to four times and I'm just picking the fire department as one example but information like that to the public so you know what the cities occurred in some of some of this stuff since kind of I'll say that covid time frame would be a goal of mine and I think the council to share more openly on kind of what we're looking at what we're seeing the future of the Town um and that that's just one example we could we could kind of pick every department and talk about things like that from public works that's gone on you know the the price of asphalt for a roadway you know has gone up three to four times so a mile and you take that three to four time multiplier for one mile of Highway and now we're talking seven figured numbers that it's increased by that at the end of the day too we don't we don't have any more control over it than than the public but I agree we gotta say Hey you know we've gone up with this and we've gota gota snuff it out or figure out more creative things to do but that's just a couple examples of what we're up against that this presentation doesn't um show people I guess accurately if that makes sense or clearly well we could be here for a month and a half yeah we could be for a month half going through things like that but th those are just a couple quick examples I guess would be my intake but I hate paying taxes as much as any of you out there so my sir my property's gone up similar amounts as yours has when I bought my home property tax I think was right around 4,800 bucks now it's almost at 14,000 just because I got some water in front of my house but it's because somebody with a 612 area code is willing to pay triple than what I paid for it 5 six s years ago or my family that's been here since 1980 or 1970s it's it's it's hard and it sucks and doing our best to try to manage the macroeconomic circumstances that are pressed Upon Us in a small Municipal like this we are distinctly in a unique position that we don't have control of as as council member H Hall was saying we have this unique attraction to this area that's driving an influx of people up here Co reaction in people wanting to be able to work from home perhaps trying to mitigate what additional cost without jeopardizing the services that are being offered to not just you all but to us as well we're taxpayers we're paying that same increase and it it's tough new none it's offer though and everything can count anything else I have nothing else BR nothing Mark okay then question yes just a a comment as I stated as I stated earlier I understand increased cost I manage budgets both in the private and the public sector for over 25 years I get it but you also have to reflect what kind of increases in income you rece based on this property value this was a very good document that you put out and I believe I accessed it in October took it to our neighbors it was a very good but take it a step further and talk about here's the revenue we get and here's the expenses to illustrate the Gap a slideshow this got cut it a one time thing um we need more information is you know I think another question when you talk about increased fire department and police health is it because more people have are living up here that you've seen the the increase you know what is the complexity I don't I don't want to know gritty individual details but what trends are you seeing correct um the uh the lake home places you know what we're seeing you know once again with fire department the lake home places that were just uh a summer residence um at covid um they turned into a full-time year round residence people work from home everyone's like why do I want the metro stuff I can be up here on the lake all the time and they haven't left it didn't leave so the sign you know the population number on our sign South the town coming in isn't accurate at all to the real represent ation now of the number of people full-time year round in the area and and that's what we've we've seen they they just they came in during covid and they just haven't left and they're here to stay and that has yeah a significant impact the the numbers reflect it when you look at all the Emergency Services stuff that was a couple hundred it went up and I mean with my wife and our our business we see the same thing where seasonals ever since covid or up here almost year round yeah and it affects the road conditions it affects a lot of things this state's population of 5.7 million and some change this is nisah up to Cross Lake is the tourist destination of the state not even just for minnesotans I think any every of us here know of Californian or a Texan or somebody from another state moving here and establishing this as perhaps their Homestead or their primary resid or a second home a third home it's the influx of folks that are coming up here that we're not seeing leaving or traveling this main Corridor of Highway 371 which is the main artery through Central Minnesota going to you know Walker but it goes beyond a walker too it's not slowed down that's why the that's why the big box stores and Baxter and brainer that are popping up that I've never seen here before it was always a treat to have a Walmart Super Center back in the day now with the the demographics that they're seeing from the real estate agents that I've spoken to they only move to areas where they're seeing double jigit growth percentages not just year over year but decade over decade and that's the forecasting metrics that they're using to justify that spend to actually have that presence here because they're seeing that growth oh absolutely but look look at how it's increased in say the past five six years too stand emergency standpoint fire police you have mutual Aid agreements I mean it's not exclusive to the N police officers to the the I'm guessing the fire department is primarily volunteer it's all volunte it's all volunteer only volunteer but you have mutual Aid with other other department other cities yeah yep and and that's critical know glad I just wanted there's Mutual Aid with all the police department Sheriff's Office as well they're all yeah same they all get the same call correct you have to with fire with the police department um there's one officer operating at a time with the exception of day shifts day shifts usually have two um in a community our size um typically but you have one officer operating at a time and um there's a lot of interaction with the local departments peat Cross Lake Breezy Point niswa Pine River um Lakes Shore okay uh but typically for example a domestic um you want at least two officers there okay as a as a rural police officer for 30 years I can tell you actually in niswa as a serving in niswa um I went to we go to most those alone okay oh yeah it's not as bad anymore but your backup's 10 minutes away 15 minutes away um you can't wait you know so some of these calls that come in the accidents that come in um you got to shut the highway down and the highway department will help out but you know I mean working with the fire department and whatnot I mean it's it's it's a labor intensive it's a labor intensive thing and um you need numbers sometimes and in the summertime up here um bi alone National drag race 70,000 people easy um that's yeah that's dang near that's even bigger than the population of Crowing County it is um the one thing that the the one thing that I wanted to ask real quick to Jenny can you explain real quick okay so my my evaluation goes up on my home from $200,000 to $280,000 how does that affect our Levy um just by nature of that alone it doesn't so the city doesn't receive any automatic funds just based on valuation increases or even number of new homes built so we have to determine the dollars we need to manage and sustain our operations at a city level and then that is just spread on whatever that valuation number ends up being Citywide that's what the county would use that again so yes we don't just automatically received something um because evaluation went up okay um what another thing is that the um two things that I've said for eight years um people need to let us know what they don't want that's how we bring the budget down that's how we cut your Levy is what don't you want um and you know I've asked that question repeatedly I think uh I I know that some people probably get tired of hearing it but never heard a question never heard an answer what do we want to cut what do we cut Services yeah well services period what do we get rid of um and it's it's hard and unfortunately we're kind of on that cusp I have a feeling that the area from all intents and purposes talking to legislators in the state um over the last number of years we're going to blow up up here it's just gonna it's going to be like an aspen or something it's like that scares the heck out of me but um but um we're just kind of on that cusp right now where uh the number of people coming in during this the other thing too is with covid I was going to mention this earlier um I work at Grand View Lodge never made that a secret um but the number of people that are coming up here here as opposed to going further north because of costs it's it's it's it's easier to get here okay we'll just come up to brainer in this area and stay unfortunately the year- round residents that were part-time residents um I don't know if anyone here especially you business folks have had internet issues because our infrastructure up here that from Verizon and everybody can't handle the influx um I've had a number of issues that I never had before um and it's all because of usage numbers number of people online working from home eating up more bandwidth etc etc this is what I'm being told but when I go to Verizon and ask them why am I having these problems I right wrong or indiffer I'm just saying you know this is all happening and it's unfortunately these people aren't going home they're staying here um I do know we're coming up close on our other meeting too so we need to make a decision on what we want to do or we can do it at the next meeting yes the decision will come at the regular meeting yeah yes okay so you can adjourn until 7 yeah we're going to need I I think if if unless there's other questions if anyone has any other questions or things um um I could we can adjourn if you all want and then that'll give us a chance to get the get ready for the next meeting unless any council members have anything else they wish to say nothing make a motion to adjourn I'll second again second okay Jesse okay all those in favor I stand adjourned and we'll be back at 7 a.m. first 7 P.M I've been up since 5 we do