##VIDEO ID:GpE_cr5COEQ## e e going to call to order the North St Paul arts and culture commission for November 6 2024 and calling the meeting to order and I will take Ro because we do not have our staff leaz on anymore as she has moved down to uh what do they call it better greener pastures yeah I'm like something about pastures um anyway so Tom Sonic that's me I'm here Carrie Netto here Amanda black here Sharon Clark Williams here Raquel stto here Laura Strang here C Yang here and council member Lisa Wong here thank you everybody's here so we're just missing ma a note to I just want to say we just found out over the last month that Ma would be leaving us and Ma you were fabulous we loved having you here sorry to sorry to see you go wherever you are I hope you I hope you watch this on YouTube sometime but uh my was excellent and loved her energy and enthusiasm for this work um so she'll be missed so we don't have a new uh staff ladies un assigned to us just yet so we'll just uh so hopefully by our next meeting on December 5th we'll have a new staff L on so I'm going to move to um I'll just for items uh three and can I do both at once adopt the agenda and approve the minutes or do I have to do those separately do you know Lisa um I I don't yeah we used because we used to just like adopt the whole agenda all at once and like that but well I did find a typ in the minutes though so I do okay let's just adopt the agenda anybody have any questions about the agenda um there are just to clarify I mean I think I think this is kind of our routine agenda but I wanted to just say that well 20 that's there 2025 events and projects I think that's what we'll kind of focus on tonight so uh look for a motion to adopt the agenda as written so moved so moved by Carrie Yang seconds seconded by C all those in favor say I opposed okay agenda is adopted so approval of minutes everybody get a chance to uh look at the minutes and Carrie you said you might have a note for those yep it's not a big deal but um reports from Council liaison it looks like booya is missing an O Boya event okay otherwise great job is always go to I didn't I went to the booya event I'm snobby like that um okay anything else on the minutes questions changes all right we'll look for a motion to approve the minutes with the typo correction on booya make a motion to approve see moves to approve or second second second by Amanda all those in favor say I I minutes approved okay meeting open to the public ran you got anything for us all right Rowan defers okay so public hearings we don't have any public hearings so commission business action items and recommendations so um you know one thing I think we should probably can we just start with the subcommittee updates first I want to switch the order of these just do subcommittee updates and then we'll talk about 2025 I think we have a couple of updates um so snowy is done murals um Carrie do you want to offer any update on that or Sharon oh I can say that the mural is started and um I forget what the building's called the dumpster garage oh the dumpster garage it does not look like a dumpster garage anymore and if you've had a chance to look down the alley at it it really beautiful reflection of the seasons and it it compliments the snow snowy so perfectly I I just feel very happy about it when I was walking down the road and I looked down the it's like oh yeah so I'm hoping that the rest of the community will feel that way when they see the dumpster garage and won't think of it as a dumpster garage but a piece of art that we can all go to and enjoy and share it's beautiful it's awesome every time I drive my son to school I'm like look look check it out I make him look at it it's definitely a splash of color and I uh drove by earlier today and saw Tiffany and spoke with her for a little bit and I think she's planning to wrap up here pretty soon did you get some pictures I did not take pictures she said that well I heard Ava took pictures did you also take pictures K I took some but she wasn't there at the time oh okay I think Ava took some and then uh Tiffany mentioned that someone else I think just a resident came by and loved it took pictures and said they were going to put it on Facebook or something oh fantastic yeah so if you get a chance uh it's good stuff yeah it does really it's you know similar in style of course to the snowy that Tiffany created and um but I also want to just thank uh the city manager um and my and Tiffany um and our mural subcommittee uh to come come together quickly on that to be able to get something to happen there because we you know luckily we've had a abnormally warm uh October and November so far so she's been able to get that done um but uh we had to kind of move quickly on that to make sure that she had enough time and and the right kind of weather to to paint on that thing so um glad to see that was able to come together in time city manager especially was very helpful on that and it's a rather large mural I just want to add that too it's not like an image on the side of the building it is the building and when you add think about the square footage that was covered I am impressed MH and she's not doing it with a an airs sprayer you know so and this is a rough surface you know so she's with the little roller and do work in a way you know so that's taking a lot more time but impressive it's coming along um are there any updates on the utility boxes so U just get this closer sorry um I shared the images from the he hands project with ma before she left um and she had forwarded that on to Ava for her expertise she a um a better artist than I um to see if she could improve upon that um AA hasn't had a time had time to dive into that but from what I understood from myi is that um the vinyl um for the utility wraps was not adhering well to the boxes yeah um so everything's kind of on hold anyway so we have more time to edit them well is there are there other boxes where the vinyl's not adhering or was it just the one we don't know because of that one they're thinking that it's just going to be a systematic problem and so they want to have a plan in place before doing more okay so yeah that was my understanding before my headlight so um I'll find out if there are any updates are there um are there weather concerns about being able to do that before the end of the year or um yes it will be hard to have the adhesive hold through cold conditions so hopefully we'll hear some things soon before snow before it gets too cold so it we're still targeting though to have it done I would love that okay before the end of the year okay um so thanks for that update anything else utility box wise I don't really have anything on the veterans box um my contacts haven't really worked out well but I do know that there are several nonprofit organizations that specialize in veterans who create artart so I am going to if everyone does not mind uh look through some of the artists that are available because a lot of their work is already or their names are available I can go to their websites and then move forward from there get some ideas of some people who do more what I would say is graphic work as opposed to detailed art and see if we can find somebody who might be interested so we can get that done by August for this celebration of the park oh great great yeah that sounds good so you just could take that on yourself then Sharon yep great yep um we didn't have any art cart art carts done for the season right yeah and paint night I think we had a paint night can I say one thing about the art cart for maybe whenever we have staff but um Sue springborn has some extra arts and crafts materials that she wants to donate to the art cart a ton of them it doesn't seem like there needs to be too too much um ordering um but yeah she has stuff for for the art cart okay that's wonderful um we're going to need I think we're going to need to build some shelves or something in that thing there's a lot of stuff in there now day M yeah there's a lot of boxes yeah well maybe that's something to think about either before the end of the year or next year to budget for is to uh some kind of racking like a secure racking system so that you know when the thing is being moved around town and everything doesn't fall all over the place considered the shelves that are currently up there getting just like a bungee cord across the so don't fall off sure sure exactly um anything else on the art cart so sue springborn okay um and uh uh so paint night we had a paint night right we did we had uh watercolor greeting cards and I completely forgot to bring any but check out the face Facebook pages for images it's it was amazing she gave just like the tiniest little drop of paint but that was all you needed to make four greeting cards wow and it was so cute I was at a table with a whole family so it was like the grandma and and like three sisters and their kids and me I was the odd person out but they were so lovely and it was just a really fun experience so it was a great intergenerational um assignment so we did like fall trees we did holiday images um it was really lovely well that's a good idea to make greeting cards you know yeah everyone can use yeah uh how was the turnout great at capacity really yeah oh fantastic and I think all but one person showed up okay excellent what was the what's the max the capacity I can't remember it's 15 or 16 okay so um and then there's another one coming up next Friday right and you're going to be at that one Laura okay do we have any idea how many people are planning to attend that one I wanted to attend that I looked online and it's not on the calendar like in the little portal to go and purchase do you get the city emails no no should be on I just saw that today public yeah it was then yeah you can click on it and it'll take you to the little payment portal yeah I just know that there it was mentioned in the city email at Le yeah okay I I clicked through and I got it Che like probably last month or something we can look at it after the meeting yeah I was like was I because I wrote it down in in my phone and I was like oh I have to sign up and I went and looked and I was like oh SP delusional if I I know that North St Paul news just came out today yeah it was the text they sent today it was in there next one what's that what's the next um paint paintal I think it's mandala mandala okay I do that holiday lights winter parking become an arts and culture commissioner oh here we go guys paint night so it has a link in here registration there are still spots open security spot [Laughter] today okay so must have just got posted then okay paint party oh I got a text paint is that what we're calling it now paint party yeah I think and there's a picture of the artist yep with palm trees in the background someone sign me up that's weird cool I just got a text about it like just now yeah weird Tom did it for have my it was Tom uh yeah I did it or maybe you signed yourself up and you don't remember like right when we heard is it new did you really you just got a text about it yeah me too is it clickbait may are you watching live from home I texted you but I don't know which is your number versus your number so I just have you both there is each other so I sent I sent you the newsletter I didn't sent you a paint night thing okay I don't have that's what it is I'm like I didn't send a paint night thing what okay what's happening I don't have your number saved yet I didn't know who it was that's crazy all right well later I'll get I'll figure out who's who like Oh weird but I'm happy that I'm signed up no you still need to sign up get in there okay okay okay all right okay so paint night next Friday Laura I have all the information from my and the access codes and everything ex good good good all right so um anything else as far as subcommittee stuff I think that kind of covers Us I just want to say that uh point out the canvases that we've finished oh yeah um from the Arts Festival and I don't know where to put those now to have city the city put them up do you know Lisa where we was there a place that was identified to hang those I think we had um set a few different ideas but I don't think we firmly set a place I feel like may had sent out a picture of a spot there was like a circle and an arrow oh yeah they wanted um but where should they go in the meantime um so we can put them in in the office before we take off and okay sounds good um yeah thanks for putting that together Amanda it looks really great it's cool and thanks to all of the community who painted those things you want to walk in that's really neat I don't really I was thinking that same thing showcase all right um okay so I want to talk then about 2025 events and projects and um it seems wild that we are actually taking project snowy off of our plan because it's done this has been there since the beginning um uh but what a fine success that project was so thanks again to that group um what do we want to do next year I don't know we had made a big list and I wasn't sure may had kept a list did she email send it on to anybody I think but Rowan has itug one did our budget get approved do we know um I'll say that uh there was a brief presentation from AA with some of the funds there but I would say what was presented um especially since it wasn't anything very different than the year before then probably okay well let's let's just go back I from from what we have had I mean so murals is going to continue right we have a budget request for that utility boxes will continue right yep as long as we have utility boxes find something to put as long as there's a utility box that's uncovered um art cart will continue paint Knight and I'm sorry did we are we calling it paint party now I think we have to come up with something besides paint if we're going to explore all these other oh right sure activities art party okay I like art party you write that down it's right here I'm going to put that in here art party what don't you know my memory is terrible I'm going to put art party with an exclamation point O good yes registered trademark um and Autumn Arts Festival will go on boy I sure was thinking this time this year Amanda that we could have gone later in the year if we had done it this uh you know given the weather this year CU I think we were like the first weekend in October that first time and it snowed the day before I think we're fine I think we're fine although we'll have to check with uh the church to see when they're right I think it just seems like there's kind of a crush of things that seem to happen right around that same time it's a busy season yep um but we'll have to get a new new date all that stuff so I kind of feel like the Arts Festival the parade and like that last car show can all be lumped together as some like big weeklong city celebration that's a good idea yeah that's that's certainly something to consider it might be a lot easier for coordination right the city Side can be suggested you know add some more things while we're at it we get the art cart and the art party I like it um so so we're carrying on all those things so the only thing that we're dropping off of the list is snowy um so is there did we have any other like major event that whether it was an event or a project that we want to focus on or do we feel okay with these and we can kind of add as we as we go or were we going to look at something for the budget Winter a winter event yeah we talked about you know having an event that maybe we' do in the winter or or something but uh let me uh how quickly can we plan that though well it could be next winter we could plan it this year to sure do it in November December maybe I don't know I think we had talked about having um yeah like a celebration I don't know if it was at the by the lake or whatever like a winter um Market or something like that yeah something that would yeah and then see I thought we talked about like if we want to do that planning that for 26 yeah cuz we had like the Asian night was what we started with just talking about that but and and then I think we but didn't we also talk about maybe trying something small like next year we talked about doing the Asian Night Market on a smaller scale maybe in late spring um just for a different time of year when it's not busy for the city employees okay so um I mean we could dip our feet in the water and see how it goes yeah so I mean our budget request we had $5,000 for Asian night and that could be you know it could be anything and we've got $5,000 for art classes and events and then 8,000 for the Autumn Arts Festival as far as is the um so that's all event is that event budget though that doesn't even go on our budget does it which one the event stuff so autom Arts best that's our budget or events events it's events yeah um so in our budget what we had so we we have utility box WS phase three art cart mural project and then here's so just to think about this we have this kind of placeholder for public art $55,000 um so that would be art projects that would be visible and or accessible to all residents including art installations in public spaces Etc you know um and I'm you know this I don't expect would happen in 2025 Lisa you might know more but did anybody else go to that um uh the Parks Commission thing down at Casey where they were showing the potential designs and you could vote on them with stickers you know what did you like at least I went to it yeah they did kind of like a community engagement what kind of features would you like to see yeah CU there and then there were a few different locations where there was some potential of doing something there's even one little spot the little parcel land that's downtown m y um community center right by the community how about that um and then there is also the big you know the mcnight fields thing which would be fantastic but I think there's opportunity there for us to join forces with the parks because if they if they manage to get something done in either of those places why not also have some public art on display at those spaces would you be thinking of like a public art sculpture or I that's I sure see those a lot and so it would be I don't know it'd be kind of cool I don't I have no idea I mean I guess we would just have to waade into that approach of you know how do you get a sculpture done um I know I think there have been other uh cities you got like 10 of them done or something right I think there have been other cities where they had done where they they'd have you know sculptures around a theme or something and then they'd be displayed downtown and then I think they'd be sold off or something so it wasn't like the city even keeping them like like so project snowy well yeah sort of yeah I guess it's very similar to that I guess I was just thinking like one sculpture and if you put out a call for art then the experts the artists tell you how it's going to get made yeah so we could do that too kind of I mean just very similar to like a mural project yeah um so if we wanted to find out you know if we want to look for something like a location to have um like a public art sculpture so I mean maybe for 2025 I don't know if any of these new uh Parks remodels would be done in 2025 but something to think about we should um join forces with that group but what do you think if we just have a placeholder on our plan for just public art project sure I mean because we've got it funded it's fabulous um and then what ever it is I guess we can kind of just determine from there I have an idea yes I've brought it up in the past but it's a parklet um are any of you familiar with parklets I heard them also CET this is a very small Park it's like a little I mean it could be like a patio essentially that's like outside of a restaurant or business or it's just extra seating but um people can make them look all sorts of different ways it can be very creative but it's an it I mean it'd be an option like is there a location that you know of or um typically they take um place in like uh like parking lots or in parking spots um that are in denser areas just to add a little bit more of the seating components it's like making it a little bit more yeah yeah okay it's like a popup Park I've also heard the term pocket park used before she said parklet and are these no not typically I it depends on where you live but they have them in St Paul and they take them down every winter the these parklets oh they coming okay we also talked about doing like an interactive art sculpture um where they could be involved in it every time they visit so whether they're making music by banging on things or oh yeah eting so yeah yeah that's very that was very common in Norway that they would have I'd say oh look at that sculpture isn't that next thing you see there's kids hanging off of it you know but it but it looked like art instead of just the typical jungle gy or whatever I like the but they're big so swing like a giant swing thing yeah I think uh people were talking about sidewalk poetry or something oh yeah right yeah mhm [Music] yeah yep I like the impermanence part of it where it goes away and then we got to do something else we can't forget about our Turtles oh and the turtles can about this yep that was the other big one was the turtle I don't know they turned down my tunnel idea did they really I think it was not yet I think that was the no they said utilities Last Words utilities are under the street and so they can't they cannot create a tunnel what about a turtle Bridge yeah it's be aough one isn't there a story about deer crossing sign and somebody said why would they make all the deer cross at that one spot in the highway or something that's just the turtle crossing sign it's like well let's stop asking the turtles to cross right there um okay so I'm gonna so I've been jotting down some notes here so public art project I've got parklet an interactive like a musical sculpture sidewalk poetry Turtles all these are good ideas I think this so it just gives us something that we can that we can think about for next year um and we got the murals the utility boxes the art cart the art party the Autumn Arts Festival and then I'm going to just add a placeholder here for I'll just call it Asian night and whatever that we end up making that be or whatever that becomes um will get get some people on that and start coming up with some ideas and see what we can get done how does that sound sounds perfect so generally speaking we're not um there's kind of like two new things on our plan we have our we have our ongoing efforts that that we've already covered and then we'll have um you know the public art project and then Asian night so we got our we got our plan see that wasn't so hard and then I'll see when we get a new um admin person I can send this around everybody um anything else anybody want to cover or add I wanted to do the free little Art Gallery but if you ask me right now I don't want to do it but that might just be my mood tonight I hear you I think rest is okay we got a lot especially this group okay so um it's been a it's been a 24 hours so um we can leave it at that that if everybody's okay I mean we've got a we've got a really good shape we've done a lot of work over the years to get us to this point where we can have a recurring structure like this so I think we're we're doing good um anything else anybody would want to add okay well then um well it's reports from staff so I think the calendar here is is in this so let's just uh I'll playay the role of of staff and just just look at the event calendar so I think we are we are down to one thing left on the calendar for 2024 and that's the paint along with swia next Friday yeah last one yeah 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 14 events this year everybody good job did a lot that's a lot and I don't even know that oh snowy reveal was on there okay you know the art card on there I don't know if all the art carts aren oh the art carts aren't even oh yeah music in the park oh music in the park yeah okay but we also had on City night at the car show that was on there too yeah it's it's a lot two events per person yeah and uh hope hope y we're not driving the city staff I hopefully that's not why my left I don't think it is um and then budget updates I mean I can try and do my best here but if you look at our budget I mean obviously we came came in overall way under our our budget so I think our our plan next year is to be just make let's spend it I think there are some items maybe you had mentioned in the past I don't know if there's still of importance maybe like a speaker system you had mentioned um I don't know how that worked out this year I ended up just using my own and that's fine with but and then when so well I had it just for the snowy reveal but then what it was just you know we ended up paying the performers at the Art Festival you know significantly more than we had paid in the past and they were were just depended on to bring their own system did that work out okay I don't know I I think so I didn't hear anything but it was good the performances were good this sound was good and you could tell that they had done it before so it was like it wasn't like they were like a it was like nothing to them they were like I think yeah people people are typically used to that if they perform they to have bring bring their own sound system okay got it just want follow yeah if we have leftover funds for the year could we purchase popup tents for the art cart that we had discussed there's been one purchased oh great oh we we did we get that last time yeah it's on the top here popup tent under oh look at art cart and I did see it in the art cart when I went to get the canvases amaz oh good should we try to see if we can get those bungee cords like you were talking about yes like shelving stuff and things for yeah can I add then I feel like the little storage containers that the stuff is in the lids don't stay on very well so I think it would be valuable also to get like better Lids like lids with latches or something because even then like bungee quarts can hold them back but Lids are probably flying off too yeah and I I feel like we just need like well like really durable stuff and and a real system some we still have a lot of stuff that's in cardboard boxes don't we yeah yes and actually I think there might be some bunge cords in there there's I remember seeing something and I was like oh that must have been for this whether Spong cords or something just need them to put the little hook things up or something yeah well we it sounds like we need somebody to take on organization of the art cart yeah yeah could be a spring project yeah I can start exploring like you know trailer organization or something yeah yeah go so I'm good at that I don't even know who we should reach out to to purchase things but maybe by December our December meeting we could still get it done I'm trying to think where do we have so art cart we have $942 remaining in there which should be enough to do any of that organizational stuff um project snowy had $524 utility box wrap so we still have one hopefully to get yeah so right we're at 5200 left there and then murals I see that the uh 6,000 was taken out for uh the dumpster garage so that left us with 4,000 there branding and communication we have 1,200 uh and $34 remaining there and paint Knight still has a th000 unless do we well there's a payment in here for 270 in November is that for stha M that's for her night but you know what those tables in Casey Lake suck yeah oh really and I messaged Ma and Ava if there was like um what do you call it like a life cycle policy for replacing those just because they're really they're looking gross because there have been so many parties in there which great that people are using the building but like they look gross they're really heavy so when swea and I are there trying to set up it's like you know kind of huffing and puffing around and she's like you know they make foldable tables I'm like yeah that's a good idea very accessible well yeah and it's like it's really the two of us that are trying to you know I don't know so I don't know how much a nice foldable table is but if we have funds that might be something worth looking into I think that would probably come out of the case you like but okay yeah it's worth a like if that's a need I think like it's worth like I mean you what you all are allowed to do here is make that recommendation is like we we need better tables we need better tables so Su you know five six times a year at least and even the benches in the art cart like they're really cute but like they really are wobbly I kind of get worried when kids are on them they're dangerous and then also the organization of just putting stuff back into the cart everyone does it differently it's not consistent yeah or the benches for the the metal benches that don't fold yeah foldable ones too plastic yeah most of you are the on that are doing the set yeah so I don't know if we can message can we message anyone maybe AA right now and just see if we can make that recommendation and then probably this is about the tables for the tables for Casey and benches for the art card I think should be our I mean if we have funds okay to improve things those are some things I would like to see sorry Shar no that that would be good so looking forward to next year possibly even having more events or more art cards because we'll have the you know everything will be organized and fancy and we'll have the tables and the proper tools to make it comfortable for people to come yeah you don't have to [Music] it yeah the the art cart can be a little bit of a ocean nightmare there's like putting up the thing too yeah hoping you don't like lose an arm in that process um okay yeah I can reach out to Brian about that stuff uh um anything else budget wise has anybody seen the trading cards the what yes oh the trading card I asked for mine to get mailed I haven't seen them and I I didn't even bring mine I'm sorry I left them at home they're gorgeous how did you get come in and get I did I had to do something and I can't remember and I was and my was like oh get your trading cards ready I'm like okay well so somebody had brought up was that you Carrie about about bringing these to yes to the places the businesses that you know bought the snowy so that people could come around like kids could come to the businesses and collect them all yes when I was yeah when I was in picking them up AA was like I had an idea what if we give each sponsor their cards and then it's kind of a go around North St Paul and pick them up which I think is great until I was driving past Shi skies and I'm like I'm not sure how that's going to work so also um a roofing company that doesn't make s and then one is outside that medical equipment company and I don't think they want kids yeah yeah yeah can I get a trading card is there anything wrong with saving the trading cards until the parade next year I mean it's happened like every every year we can also do them at the you know so in the spring when we do the car show that's our city night at the car show you know we could do them at that point too at the art like when people attend certain arts and culture activities they can collect them and then yeah go to each one to get the variety yeah so it kind of keeps them interested for the cards but also attending yeah I like that yeah so I think we have lots of we'll have lots of opportunities to give them away but that is a good point about the businesses that have they probably aren't looking to have kids coming around for that stuff but um was there something else I got um they they turned out good though Carrie they look great yeah I'm really cool I'm really sorry I had too many things I was bringing I forgot yeah it's okay not Queen of the cards you're just not Queen of the baggage just not the right bagage responsibility to bring cards oh okay so good stuff I'm not out of I'm in control always 100% the queen yeah so we go on to our reports from Commissioners then Raquel do you have anything no it has been a day it's been a day Sharon I do not have anything else to add okay Carrie yeah oh boy do I have a lot of stuff I need to say um first of all we've got Anastasia opening at the high school got to go see it they built a train I can't wait to check it out it's going to be incredible yeah right and they're running two weekends yeah right so this weekend and next weekend opens tomorrow night 7 o'clock um Thursday Friday Saturday 7 o'clock Saturday mat at 2 this weekend and next weekend so plenty of opportunities to check it out I have no idea how much tickets are but I can find out a link and text it to you just let me know um then I need to say a huge thank you to the city and I don't know if Mr cameraman can zoom in but I've got a little um we've got our click for a cause I also work on our 62 Education Foundation and we've got um silent auction coming up and Ava has been incredible the city the whole city has been incredible in um giving donating three items for our auction so we've got the behind thes scenes tour of snowy we've got a behind the scenes tour of Public Works and closeup I can't oh and uh behind the scenes tour of the fire department so three amazing items donated by this very City I'm so grateful to them for for those donations but we've got 370 items on here so make sure you register check it out it's our biggest fundraiser our only fundraiser of the year so please um sign up and send me lots of money well not me but for the students in our district so otherwise that's it okay thanks Carrie see uh nothing for me thanks Amanda nothing Laura um it's been a day and uh 24 hours but I just wanted to say that I was really impressed with the voting system in the city um this was my first time voting as a true Minnesotan um and so I got to go to Richardson and just I mean they were so organized and professional and kind um and it went quickly and it was just a nice experience so um everyone should always vote and have their voice heard so great great call out yeah I we always vote at North Presbyterian church and that's always so smooth I hear you know I I I understand why people would want to vote early for a variety of reasons but I think when you're voting early the problem is is that there are fewer locations because all the polls aren't open so I know a lot of people voted early and waited a long time in line every time I've gone to North Pres Ian to vote like it's five minutes at most you know we're very spoiled in Minnesota I just want to say and how we vote and it is fantastic in North St Paul I was at Rivera God church it was a I was I was there early so they weren't open yet I bet there was a 100 of us in line and it just clicked right through I was 41 and I was I didn't have to walk very far so I was pretty far up in line and I was 41 what's what's your voting site uh the river of God Church the old silver skate rly rink yes yeah yeah you are so right Sharon you know when when you see these news stories of people waiting hours and hours and hours in other states I think that is a huge Injustice you've always been able to pair up voting with our kids conferences oh that's so the last election voting we go to conferences and then we just take the kids over and we go vote is that right same building yeah oh that's neat fantastic that's cool yeah so well good I'm glad yeah yeah we are fortunate here in Minnesota we know how to do things and you know it is one of the things you know people would talk about you know we have a a high tax burden in Minnesota um but if you've ever lived anywhere else you know that you see it you see the taxes at work in this state um whether it's the roads the schools the the voting systems and in even same day registration all that but um but so many of uh our public systems are just uh run very well you know we not just from taking care of the roads but also you know think about the winter a lot of states don't have to deal with plowing snow the way that we do um but uh I think catastrophe in Texas what I said or it's a catastrophe for them yeah California gets a little inch and they're oh yeah going crazy yeah I lived in Southern Indiana for four years and when if there was report of snow coming the Kroger grocery store would be empty all the shelves because people if would buy all this canned food everything they could they think they're never going to be able to leave their house again or something but you know they don't invest in plows they don't really need to but um okay so that's that uh for myself I just wanted to say um so late January early February I'd like to invite you all to come to uh Lakeshore players to see one of your fellow Commissioners in a production of misery I'll be I'll be acting in that show at that time so are you the one in the bed that gets your legs yeah oh man I can't okay group outing we'll plan it oh that is going to be great okay yeah come come on see misery it opens late January and goes into mid February I think I I don't know the dates right off top of my head though um that would be second play what yeah you second play right yeah I know it's been a while but uh it's good to Tom was amazing in the last play we went to he did like a whole sumersault on stage so we have to go yeah I don't think I could barely do it at that time given my age but I don't think I'd even try it again now um but this one I'll just be laying in a bed most of the place so that'll be nice yeah if you somersault in that play yeah I think you misinterpreted he won't be able to because he'll be on lockdown so to speak it's going to be great we don't want to give away too much just in case somebody has not read the book or it's been decades Sharon that does not mean and you know what there's been a whole generation born since that movie please do not tell me that I have no idea see she doesn't know what we're talking about oh my God oh my God all right all right for the youngster in the room a very small cast three people um very short play it goes I think the whole thing runs probably less than an hour and a half no intermission just um but it's a really tight uh the the the play was written after the movie it didn't Premiere until I think 2012 maybe something like that it's relatively new I had no idea that it even existed until now but um very it it's uh written very well so excited for it you'll enjoy it um we look forward to watching good thank you um just another shout out to ma Jang uh thank you for your your time energy with us here and I trust that the city will will provide us with another great uh staff liaison we have been so fortunate with the people that we have had since the beginning um and so um I've I've really appreciated uh the city staff that we've had everybody has just really been great um and I also want to just give a shout out to our Council liaison Lisa Lisa this is your last meeting right so promise myself I would cry uh but Lisa you've been fantastic not as a just as our liaison but as a council member I mean the the dedication and care that you have brought to your job has been unparalleled in anybody that I've known in a council role or Council liaison role so uh really sincerely really thank you for how much you've cared for the city in nor St Paul and how you've uh how you stand up for for what you believe is right and and when you're standing up for what you believe is right it just always happens to be the same things I think are right too so um so thank you for everything you've done and it's really been a honor and a privilege to to have you here with us in the Arts commission thank you now it's your turn report from C Lisa I appreciate all of you so much and um it's been a ride for sure but um I do see some really wonderful changes happening here and this arts and culture commission um has been a bright light for that in the city um and it's been a really bright light for me um and keeping me going keeping me rooted in the community so it's really helped um guide me and keep me um keep me focused on that and um it's been an honor to serve alongside you all and um yeah I just hope to continue to see you around and certainly uh that artwork will will be there for for a very long time so it's been quite the pleasure well and given that you're going to be a civilian in another month and a half or two um we do have an opening on this um true but we'll get to see next month um but but thank you Lisa and any any updates you yeah so um as you probably know last night was the election um and the city of North St Paul has voted in two new council members for um 2025 and that's Troy woods and David McKenzie um they'll start here in January um officially they'll swear in um and they'll be um yeah they'll be your next council members and I think they'll bring a lot of different perspectives um and some some perspectives that um probably haven't been brought up before um so I certainly am encouraged to keep following and keep engaging with the city to see um what new is going to come up and um how they're going to keep pushing forward because um at the end of the day I think you know people do really care about this city um we just have different ideas of how to get there but um certainly I think um people do care a whole lot so we're lucky to have um people step up and and um you know take on that role uh for district 7 um which is mostly North St Paul um commissioner Kelly Miller is the winner um and uh I think she won just like 28 Vats wow so very very close um with uh Sarah Yang so votes matter very much this is for what was that county commissioner County Commissioner so Victor Victoria reinhardt's uh rooll ah ah yes yeah so big rooll yeah big shoes to fill um we had a Taco Bell Grand Opening and it was a hit they had like desserts at like 9 in the morning that were in Taco shape and yeah it was a pretty big turnout and they had you know photos and all that all that good stuff so uh your fourth dinner is waiting for you um let's see so the a group of Staff got together and reviewed the rfps to go uh or for the feasibility study on the community center um staff recommended that we we as Council go with eapc Architects um and that a contract is currently being drafted um um to be approved at a future meeting so can you say a little bit more about that Lisa so so there were there was the RFP and you had proposals from several architect firms yeah some of them were architect firms some of them were like um more of like the consultant firms that might work with you know might have Architects and then like what did they present to you to select from So You selected eapc but like did everyone have you know like here's our vision of what could be done with the building no so I think um what they were looking for like what was being assessed um in terms of a partner to work on this was um let see where did it go um some of the proposals were you know what what is their experience with um this type of Community Center or this type of building um what um is their experience in community engagement and some of the different things we had on the original RFP they were using a rubric to score that now um but that was mostly uh I think uh City staff like maybe five or six City staff that reviewed um and provided that recommendation okay and so and so now is the next step it would be for this one that was selected to actually draw an an actual plan using feedback from from all stakeholders residents and potential partners that kind of thing that that's how the RFP was written and and um I would I haven't seen the scoring component and you know where they were their strengths were or whatnot but um that that should be the anticipation is that they can bring in those things that we asked like Community engagement to inform um what this could look like I would imagine it would be a very similar process to what hga is doing with the part with mcfield and all those providing sure I mean that that to me is what is pretty typical in a community engagement setting with building public buildings so that would be my hope is that they would be able to have that inform how they see this space and so do you like what is the expected timeline then for this eapc to have a a proposal like an actual site proposal yeah so um when we we had some debate about what that timeline would be some council members wanted it you know like the end of this year and was like that's not really practical but I think we'll probably what the idea is that we want to give them sufficient time that they feel good that they have enough information and have connected enough in the communities to make you know like the decisions um or propose certain options and so um I can't really speak to what their process will be because every firm kind of does it a little bit differently um and again I didn't see their proposal myself but um I suspect that um what was in the RFP was probably honored if especially if um they rated so high mhm it seems I I would expect it to be like a six-month process or something if they're engaging with the community and yeah yeah it I mean that's that's I would say at least six months is is pretty good for planning and making sure you have the right people at the table and what not well some of those Park proposals that we saw out there were awesome you know I mean there was a lot of variety um and you never know what you know and then of course everything costs money you know what what would be able to fit in the the budget or be doable but boy it would be really great if they could redo that whole mcnight field area especially the tennis courts and but you know some really really cool ideas that they had there so that'd be awesome yeah it's certainly really exciting it's been you know it's it needs love so a good time to kind of it's a lot of land and there's just a ton of opportunity yeah and I think some of that land too is um like has to remain Green Space too so it could never be developed because of a a previous agreement or contract with HUD um and HUD homes nearby and so um they had to maintain some green space so there will be a park um at least there but if we can make it even bigger yeah um okay uh let's see we've been having Union agreements and they've actually been going pretty smoothly um so that's a really good news um not too much back and forth and in pretty reasonable um agreements I would say um December 4th is going to be the grand opening and ribbon cutting at article 7 that's the Lily news um the new uh apartments on 7th Street December 4th I think yeah they said December 4th at 4:30 um yep 4:30 is when they're going to do a ribon cutting so it's a beautiful building um I think the setback is really cool on the second floor I think it helps with like the feel of the space too not feeling like too overwhelming or yeah so um I think folks are already looking to move in or have been for a while so um I'm not sure what uh the occupancy is at this time or you know what if it's just residential or otherwise but um yeah it looks like um it's moving along I saw some utilities or like washers and stuff like that going in too so wow that's great and I believe they'll be removing that fencing too here soon so it'll be cleaned up a little bit downtown putting out Landscaping today wow that's great wonderful um let's see um I also wanted to say thank you to Mai um it was short but you jumped right in and you certainly um just work really well with everyone and brought in good energy and just really could tell that um you were inspired and wanted to connect around this work and it was really fun um so uh best of luck to you um though uh she cannot be replaced um we will will still need to find city staff um to take on this arts and culture commission um they are already um looking for candidates they've had over 40 candidates so it's a big pool of folks um and some with Municipal backgrounds so um I think we should be having uh a new city staff member here um hopefully within you know the next month or two good um let's see uh We've we've gone over some internal service funds so that's like our Enterprise funds that's our utilities our sewer water Our Community Fund uh or sorry Community Center fund which we do have one um and um they kind of vary some of them have increased like our internet is quite expensive it's gone up cuz we're in a kind of like a Consortium um with a few other quite a few other municipalities but because it costs money and operations and things like that I think um compared to like say a Google or something um the the price difference is is quite high but again um you know cyber security is really important as well so I think hopefully we'll be able to we've asked to kind of look at you know what that long-term trajectory could look like and what what we need to weigh out there because it is it has a increased substantially even in the time I've been there so but we'll see um but I would say most of the funds otherwise are you know have good fund balances um except for the community center fund um after our um tenant uh kakuro volleyball um left we didn't have anyone go back in and so we have no Revenue coming in um so uh unfortunately that means we've had to pull $220,000 out of the general fund to transfer into the community center fund um there seems to be a couple maintenance things coming up um so we've had some discussion about um just needing to maintain our assets like anything else um and so hopefully we'll be able to identify you know maybe the elevator whether that's something we do need to get fixed and then also um whether a court or some sort of Sport Court whatever um needs to be done in the meantime so I think maybe even some Mechanicals are not doing so great so um yeah so hopefully we'll be able to get um a feasibility study back and um whatever that says but the funds are there ready to go for any renovation if that's the direction that that Council decides to go but um hopefully we can get some Revenue in there because again it it just it comes out of our taxes for for no no one's benefit um and then next meeting will be the capital Improvement plan I unfortunately won't be here uh for the next two meetings um but the capital Improvement plan is basically the 10-year big projects that are um on the horizon um we've got a water tower coming in a couple years that'll be a large expense um so it's just to help us kind of project what big expenses we might be having or what to how to navigate that so um that'll be in the next one and um uh I think we'll be certify our last meeting and when we'll be certifying the levy will be on December 17th and yeah that will be the last meeting of the Year wow yeah I think that's all I have and thank you all for being wonderful wonderful um human beings really and um just caring about uh the community and um art just yeah thank you any questions for Lisa okay then um just wanted to say so our next meeting is December 5th and I think our next regularly scheduled meeting after that would be it falls on January 1st so I'm sure we would probably move that to January 8th um sorry December 4th is our next one it's 4th oh okay sorry uh whatever the first Wednesday of the month yeah December 4th thank you so December 4th and then the next one after that it land the first Wednesday lands on January 1st so we won't have it that day I assume we will move it uh to the eth so I just wanted to get that out there in advance um and that's that I'll entertain a motion to adjourn who Moved Laura I second please second all those in favor say I I meeting is adjourned at 7:37 p.m.