Okay. I've got one more person. Yeah. I'll talk slowly. All right. Good evening. Welcome to the Northfield City Council meeting for Tuesday, 04/15/2025. I'm calling this meeting to order and requesting the roll call. Mayor Zweifel? Here. Councilor Dahlen? Here. Councilor Holmes? Here. Councilor Ness? Here. Councilor Peterson White? Here. Councilor Soka? Here. Councillor Beamer? Here. Alright. Thank you. Our first order of business is our open public comment. I did not receive any comments electronically.
I do have one, comment card up here at the dais, and to let you all know who are, that this is your opportunity to make an open public comment on an item not otherwise on the agenda. If you'd like to comment on a specific agenda item, we ask that you hold your comment until we reach that agenda item. And individuals may come up and speak for up to two minutes, to the council at the at the podium. So I will call up, mister Tomczyk to speak. Hi. I'm, Patrick Tomczyk, one two zero three Woodland Trail in Northfield.
And, first thing I'd like to say, mayor, is, thank you for stopping by the VFW last week for a meeting to give you an idea of all the many things that the VFW does for the school and for the town and for the general area. But anyway, I'm back here because I think probably all of you saw this. It was in the last week's, Northfield news, and all these things are really true. This is a this ICE arena deal should not have been brought up. It It was illegal for them for the past administration to do this. And all of you people are aware of that,
and I just cannot figure out. I've been asking you to to do something to stop it, whatever. But the most alarming thing to me is that now that you guys know that this was an illegal thing to do, why aren't you now telling us that we can have a vote on it? That's our part of our charters, part of our constitution that the citizens of Northville were supposed to be able to vote on this, And you guys know that. Why can't we have a vote? It's a simple pretty simple thing. It's gonna be a $44,000,000 project.
Every single person, even in the baby that was born yesterday at the Northfield Hospital, already owes a dollar and a half because every citizen in Northfield every single day is gonna have to put 75¢ away. Every single day, year after year, oh, it's gonna get more expensive as time goes by. And plus a $44,000,000 bond. I mean, just think of that. How much it's gonna be? And we're we're not even talking about the school, hundred how much ever that's gonna be for a new school. How much more can you put on to the people?
And this thing here, 2% of the people are gonna use that. 2% of the people in Northfield are gonna use that thing, and we're gonna have to pay for it. Why can't you let us vote? Pretty simple question. Sorry. I turned my mic off. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak to the council during the open public comment period? All right. Thank you. Seeing no one, we'll move to approval of the agenda. Are there any additional are there any changes? Or we have the supplemental memo,
a regular agenda and one supplemental memo? Mr. Martig? Yes? Okay, great. Is there an agenda or a motion to approve the agenda? Councillor Ness. I'll move to the agenda. Thank you. Is there a second? Councillor Beamer? He beat you, Peter. Sorry. Second. Alright. All those in favor signify by saying Aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. Alright. Now that the agenda is approved, we can move on to our presentations and tonight we have a presentation, on the percent for the arts annual report and we'll ask, Library Director Natalie Draper to come up and make a presentation.
Do I turn this in? Oh, there it is. Okay. Sorry. Well, good evening, mayor and members of council. I am here tonight with Paula Grandquist, the chair of the Arts and Culture Commission, and on behalf of the Arts and Culture Commission to present the percent for the arts annual report. We're also joined by a couple of commissioners, Martha Anderson and Leah Rich in the audience tonight. So the Art and Public Places policy designates the role of the Arts and Culture Commission to advocate for art that enhances the aesthetic environment of public spaces, such as buildings, roads, paths,
sidewalks, and landscapes through high quality public art, including both permanent and temporary installations. This is contributing to community identity and sense of place. One of the most important goals in the Northfield cultural plan that was adopted by city council in 2019 was the adoption of a percent for the arts ordinance in order to provide sustainable funding for public art in Northfield and to ensure that art will have a place in public spaces throughout the city. On 03/02/2021, city council approved this ordinance, that now requires all budgets for eligible city capital improvement projects include an amount equal
to 1% of the projected construction costs that is to be used for public art. This annual report compiles and presents projects that were initiated and are completed in 2024. This is a breakdown of what we worked on and the costs last year. We spent more time than money last year. Actually, a lot of the work we did was laying groundwork for future projects or finishing projects. Early in the year, we brought on Marlena Miles and John Sterner, which I'll go into a little bit more detail on that in my next slide,
to develop concepts for a public art that would be integrated into the Bridge Square redesign. We also issued a call to artists for artwork to be integrated into the proposed water treatment plant, and four artists were compensated for their concept proposals. Projects that were completed in 2024 were the illustrations for the comprehensive plan by Rocky Casillas Aguirre and the library oasis mural by Paolo Rojas. So after about a year of meetings with the Bridge Square project team and the Arts and Culture Commission, the ACC brought on Marlena Miles. Mentioned as she is a Minneapolis based Dakota artist to consult on the public art
integration and work with landscape architects, archaeological consultants, and project staff to integrate public artwork that would center native perspectives in the space. Their storytelling traditions as part of a larger community led effort to go beyond the land acknowledgment, to engage in acts of healing and honest storytelling about this place. Marlena's recommendation was for a project that will illuminate the interconnected worldview between humans, plants, animals, and the star world using Dakota teachings along Water Street in Bridge Square. She has proposed a series of seven illuminated sculptures accompanied by an online and augmented
reality learning experience to complement the sculptures. This is intended to be a learning resource connecting visitors to the rich Dakota history of the area, as well as revealing the many teachings of the natural world. As she put it, augmented reality is the perfect metaphor for native presence. Dakota people's histories and stories are here, invisible at the moment to many, yet folks only need to look with new eyes at the deeper powers held there. This technology will present that ancient knowledge into the present for many generations to access. And since now not all would necessarily have the technology they need to access this,
you can access it with, a smartphone or anything with a screen. There will also be a website that will have interactive features that and this will be accessible in all seasons. Marlena will also create an animation that will run on a loop and be projected onto the AIMS Snow Building during a, to be determined temporary time period, that we would hope would commemorate the reopening of the park after park renovations are completed when that happens. John Sterner was selected to create these sculptures in collaboration with Marlena's vision. Marlena expressed a strong desire to work with him,
and we've had a a good working relationship with John in the past as he did the eagle sculpture at Highway 3 And Third. So the artist will be working within constraints identified by the, landscape architects, Bridge Square project team, and the one zero six group after extensive engagement and study into the space. The initial concept has been approved by the Arts and Culture Commission upon the recommendation of the public art review committee. We did apply for a gap grant from the National Endowment for the Arts last year. Notifications were projected to come, in April.
We haven't received anything about that one way or the other. I I I assume that funding is either canceled or not available, but given some of the changes to how NEA funding is being distributed, I wouldn't expect to count on that. So we do have enough in the fund to actually complete the project with or without the the gap grant from the NEA. The water treatment plant concept, this was a first call to artists for the city for a project of this size and scope. We budgeted a hundred and 50,000
from the water treatment plant art funds, and issued a call to artists who are working anywhere. We got responses to that RFQ from about 50 artists from all over the world and all over The US, narrowed it down to a much more manageable 20 for the public art review committee to review. After the park reviewed all of these proposals or all of their responses to the art queue, they selected four and invited them to develop a concept for the project, which is what we paid for from the fund. The public art review committee selected, an artist from Florida,
Ivan de Pena. His concept is one version of it is seen here. He presented several concepts. And every oh, I said that every artist was compensated for their for their time. Ivan's vision was to interpret the natural flow of water and currents, connecting the town to its natural resources and our continuing commitment to environmental stewardship. Let's see. Even though the water treatment plant project is not moving forward, we were really pleased with the amount of interest we had from artists in this project, and it gave us a good sense of what scale we could expect for projects in this dollar range,
at least at the time. Dear Northfield is a public art campaign composed of 12 vibrant posters that raise awareness of Latine challenges and dreams in Northfield. Over 100, Latinas were asked to share what they would like city hall representatives to know about our community, and many of the voices are included in the posters as anonymous quotes. Each poster focuses on a major theme brought up by the community, be it lack of transportation or affordable housing, language barriers, food insecurity, community disconnection, or feelings of invisibility. In addition to communicating these challenges,
the campaign is also meant to celebrate the aspirations and contributions Latinas make to the greater Northfield every day. Rocky's posters originated through Artea Nacion, which was a twenty twenty two, twenty three project led by Cecilia Cornejo with a cohort of artists connected to Viking Terrace. Community development director Jake Riley suggest commissioning Rocky to expand on the first set of six illustrations for the comprehensive plan to ask residents to imagine a community in which the needs identified in the first set were achieved. Rocky spent many hours speaking with Viking tourist neighbors to develop these posters,
which you can see on display on the Second Floor still for now until I move them to the library. And finally, our last project for last year, the mural by Paula Rojas was finished. This was originally presented as a design for the Hispanic Heritage Month Street banners. The committee liked it better as a mural, so we worked with the artist to adapt it for the new oasis space that we were working on. The idea with this project was to unite the indoor and outdoor spaces. And if you've been in there, it it runs the span from the fire doors to the edge of the patio
on the outside of the windows. So welcoming visitors to the interior and to the patio in all seasons. The mural and the oasis was intentional and integral as the selection of books in the space was when we were planning it. It was an important part of the project from inception and very much a part of how we presented the project to donors and supporters of the project. Art is uplifting, and we see it as an essential aspect of library design. So artwork in public spaces can communicate not only our values as a community, but how much a city values every person, including people who don't have a lot of money and may not have access to
much art in their daily lives. Someone who has nothing but the clothes on their back can walk into any public library paid for by everyone and take an art in many forms at no cost to them. So visual arts like sculpture and paintings, literary and media arts, and they may be invited to engage in making their own art in a library program. And that person is greeted with our cultural wealth and is entitled to experience and enjoy it and discuss it with others or be inspired by it regardless of their personal means or circumstances. I think with art, we signal that their presence in the space is not only welcomed but valued. And that's part of what forms such positive associations with libraries and other public spaces
where we have public art. This mural was also funded in part by a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council and the Friends and Foundation of the Neurisdale Public Library. So most of the fund balance that I have here is earmarked for Bridge Square, as I mentioned, accounting for the the NEA grant that we're probably not going to see, and a portion for downtown placemaking that we had set aside this year. So we plan to match a state arts board grant that the friends of downtown were applying for. But since the grant did not come through, there's still interest in the ACC in doing some downtown placemaking,
still along the river walk with the history theme that we had discussed for that for that project. If you're familiar with artists on Main Street, we've done it a few times in the past. Some examples of that work, you can still see a few murals downtown. The, the parking barricades in Bridge Square, like Cathy Nuts and Kate Woodstrip, one of the UCC members said, and the the literary steps at light at the library. Those were, those were artists on Main Street projects as well. So we were hoping to continue that this year with a mural on what was the Northfield News Building and now it's Loons Building.
And under the Third Street Bridge behind the consented cow is a little bit of a graffiti magnet. So we're hoping that a mural down there will help activate the space in more positive ways. So the murals downtown have been very popular photo destinations for tourists and residents. I have personally witnessed countless families photographing kids on the literary sets at the library, and I've seen many wedding and engagement photos happening around the love mural and the Riverwalk poetry steps. And the two new artists on Main Street murals have been really nice backdrops for the fishing activity and seem to have weathered the flooding very well. So this slide summarizes the projects we'll be working on this year,
including the ice arena and downtown murals that is in place of a full artist on Main Street program. I've done so much talking. You can Well, I get to do the fun part because, I'm very excited. I wanna thank everybody for all of your support for the arts and culture in Northfield. It makes it a great place to live. I wanna invite everybody to our upcoming living treasure celebration. Our new Living Treasure is Bob Gregory Burakland, who has done a lot of work in the theater with directing and inspiring a lot of, young, folks in our community to be a part of the theater world.
That is on 04/28/2025 at 07:30 at the Grand Event Center. I bet it's gonna be a huge in, celebration with lots of entertainment and stories, and I hope that you'll be able to join us for that. I wanna quickly mention the Living Treasure program has been around since 02/2011. Bob Gorgay Bjorklund is our fourteenth Living Treasure, and we are just honored in our community to have all of these people, and they represent lifetimes of work. Raymond Jacobson is a sculptor. He was our first along with Myrna Johnson,
who was the founder, one of the founders of the Northfield Arts Guild. And, they just, you know, our town wouldn't be the same without these folks. Cora Schulz was the founder of the Northfield Youth Choirs. Paul Niemisto is the Vintage Band Festival, as well as the, Cannon Valley Regional Orchestra founder. Patsy Du was an arts programmer and a beautiful artist. Theo and Dwayne, we are musicians and teachers. Jen Shoger is an artist and teacher. Judith Swanson was an advocate and and designer as well. Judy Code does, contributed greatly to the many of the gardens in our community,
and she's a photographer. Donna Paulson is a talented musician and teacher. Matt Gimsey is a sculpture, poet, and teacher. Wayne Kivell is a vocal music teacher and and founder of many choirs in our community. Judy Sey Willis was our, last year's honoree. She's a fiber art and cofounder of the Studio Art Tour. So just wanted to honor their contributions and recognize what they are here because this is a great place for artists to be. So with that, we thank you for your time and welcome any questions about this report. Thank you very much. Are there questions from the council?
Councilor Peterson White? Thank you. This is all really great to hear about. We do have quite a few new faces here, and I I don't wanna put you on the spot for this today, but I'm wondering if, there is the possibility I when we when we approved the 1% for the arts policy, there was a lot of discussion about the various community benefits of the arts and why we do this and the economic benefits, to Northfield of these kinds of investments. And obviously, that's not part of the presentation today, but I'm wondering if that's something that, folks would be willing to come if there's a if there's a place for that
in a future discussion since, it's been a matter of discussion recently. Yes. To be clear, that's something you want me to come back with. Oh, or I mean, I don't wanna put you on the spot and I don't I'm not in charge of the agenda. I I guess, I mean, if if you have any brief talking points today about, about the the the economic and cultural benefits or the the reasoning behind the policy, I it seems like it would be an opportune time to share the reasons that the policy exists, and maybe a little bit of the history of it. But if I like I said,
I don't wanna put you on the spot. And so I would leave it to the chair to decide if this is an appropriate moment to share that information or if she would like to just put that in her pocket. I'm gonna go to administrator Martig who's waggling his fingers over there. Sorry, sorry, waggling up to Yeah, the upcoming meeting agenda that's in your packet failed to include the March 13 agenda item of the 1% for the arts discussion. That was an oversight in putting that agenda together. It's since been added to our internal electronic system. So I think we're ramping up for a more comprehensive background on that related to
the council's request for that broader policy discussion. And I think we'll have more of the background at that meeting. We can include the economic some of the economic background in the history of when that ordinance came forward of the why behind some of that. So I think generally, I'm not saying that if they want to off the cuff answer the question, but otherwise, I think the deeper dives plan for that work session. Absolutely. If you'd like to give a summary? We met last night to do some preparation for that, and we are planning to include some of those details as well and to go
back to show the history and the community driven advocacy to create, the arts and culture commission that began in almost I think it was 02/2004, '2 thousand '5 for a, arts plan in in Northfield. And so there's a a long history of supporting the arts in Northfield, and we'll be happy to, you know, add more details to that. It is an important economic driver in our community and a a value that many, appreciate and support. Yeah. Other questions? Thank you so much.
Really appreciate the, all the especially all the gorgeous pictures and the thoughtfulness put into this. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. So that brings us to our consent agenda. You should be able to see the consent agenda on the screen. I'm seeing it up here, so hopefully you all are seeing it out there. I would entertain a motion to, approve the consent agenda. Councilor Beamer. I move to approve the consent agenda. Councilor Dolan. Second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, same sign. Alright.
The consent agenda passes. The next item on our agenda is reports from the mayor and council members, and we will start with councilor Beamer. The only thing I have to report was, we met last week for Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, and we continue our planning for our event after, the Memorial Day ceremony down at Veterans Park. If inclement weather, the ceremony will move to Carleton College. No. Where? Well, the the ceremony would move to Carlton.
Right? Or no. Saint Olaf. Sorry. Saint Olaf. And then, thank you, Councilman Ness. And then, the after the after, party, so to speak, would be down at the VFW if the weather is inclement. Otherwise, it will be at the Lions Park immediately following the veterans, or the ceremony at Veterans Park. I'll defer the mayor on yesterday's meeting. If you want me to talk about that, I can. But tomorrow is a big day for NAFR because they approve the year end financial and the various issues that relate to that, not that they are controversial but that they are important to its history and going
forward. Counselor Holmes. Yeah. I don't have anything to report. Okay. Thank you. Counselor Slocca. There was an HRA meeting, on the third. It was pretty quick. We did a comp plan review, which we got at council. So there's nothing new to report about that here. There was an agenda item about selling, property that the HRA owned, that they purchased from a developer that foreclosed back in 02/2008. Then HRA and well, city staff has been working with the family for over three years,
for them to be able to eventually per purchase that rental property. And so we got to vote on approving that, which which was, really good news for them. They now own their, townhome. And then we also passed a resolution proclaiming April Fair Housing Month, which, is important also. And then, I guess the only other thing was that we spent eight hours on the fifth in a strategic planning retreat, and no one's talked about that yet. But we were all there, so I'm excited to see what comes forward from that retreat.
It was a good time. Yeah. That is true. Counselor Peterson White. Indeed. I I think we got a lot done. It was great. The day before that eight hour strategic planning session, I attended another eight hour long strategic planning session with the, Northfield Hospital board. Maybe it was seven hours. Who's counting? But that was the Friday before that Saturday, retreat that we held. And it was a really wide ranging discussion, a lot of conversation about external factors, internal factors, how the hospital is changing and adapting, all led by the new Northfield Hospital and Clinic CEO,
Xander Abbott, who started in January, I believe. He mentioned that he's gonna be kind of, you know, hoping to sit down and get to know each member of the council over the next few months. So, you should look forward to that because he is a delight and, just the leader the hospital needs at this time, I think. So, I think that's that's all I had to report. Thank you. Counselor Ness. Thank you. There was supposed to be an age friendly Northfield meeting last Wednesday. It was canceled. There was supposed to be a NAFRS finance committee last Thursday. It was canceled. Must be my fault.
I was gonna say there's something in common there. But actually, NAFRS changed accountants. Abdo is now doing the accounting function for NAFR's, and there's just some bugs need to be worked out to get financial information to them by the time the finance committee meets on the second Thursday, which which they're close to that. So it's just a matter of who's doing what and etcetera. So that should all be worked out, but that's all the meetings that I had scheduled. Right. Thank you. They were nice and short. Thank you.
Yeah. I have more than I feel like I have more than I usually report. This week, I attended, as councilor, Dolan referenced, an an HR meeting with myself and councilor Dolan and councilor Beamer, around the upcoming performance review for the city administrator, just getting the three of us, up to speed on the recent or how how that, works, how that process works since we're all new and wanna make sure we're up to speed on that process. Also attended the hospital governance committee meeting, which was my first opportunity to work with Xander Abbott and get up to speed
with what's going on at the hospital. And as mister Tomczyk mentioned at the open mic, I attended, VFW meeting. Really appreciate their stewardship and service to the community. And if you wanna hear more, about the VFW, they've agreed to go on the radio with me, Wednesday, May 30 at 08:40AM. So you can, oh, sorry. Thank you. Logan. April thirtieth. Some I'm So good Logan is here. I know. Thank you for that. Assist from from the audience. Wednesday, April 30 at 08:40 in the morning. I'll be on the radio with the VFW,
And I also attended a regional council of mayors meeting where one of the topics was transit, and I came away with, kind of two things I'd like to share. One was, you know, we talk about safe routes to school when we talk about pedestrian safety. And a new term, at least new to me, that came up was safe routes to transit. So thinking about, how people are getting to the bus stop as a pedestrian. And so I think we have a strategic plan outcome that relates to pedestrian safety. So that sat with me. And also they're up in the cities.
They're exploring micro transit, which is kind of an uber ish way to get people, to the bus stops or the transit, lines. So, those were two things of interest that I wanted to share and happy to chat more with folks if anyone wants to talk transit. So, yes. Councilor Soukup. Sorry. I totally forgot. I have I have an AQC meeting tomorrow, but we won't meet again before, Earth Day. So I wanted to remind everyone that Earth Day, is being recognized on, Saturday, April 26, and there'll be a bunch of events downtown,
and in Armory Square. So if you want more information, just visit the city's website. Great. Thank you. Good addition. Alright. So that brings us to our regular agenda. And again, if you're planning to comment on any of the agenda items, the comment cards are up there by Logan. They are I don't know what color you call this. Sunflower yellow up there. So you can, prepare if you wanna speak on an on an agenda item. So our first agenda item is considering a motion approving the permanent and temporary construction
easement for Spring Creek Road Milltowns Trail project. And there is no presentation on that today. We have had the presentation previously. So I'm looking for a motion. Or do we are there since we're not I think I should ask even if though we're not having a presentation, are there any council questions around this? No? Okay, great. Yes. Councilor Holmes. I'll just note, this was an item that was on the consent agenda, and I asked to have it moved to the regular agenda item as a regular agenda item because I disclose now that I've served on the golf board and one of the,
agreements with easements is for the Northfield Golf Club. So I wanted to be able to recuse myself from voting on that and not have to recuse myself from voting on the entire consent agenda. Thank you very much. Very appropriately handled. Thank you. All right. So we will now, I'm looking for a motion. Councilor Soka. I'll move the agenda item. Is it 25 dash two one three? Yes. Great. I'll move that. Thank you. Is there a second? Councilor Beamer. I'll second. Great. Thank you. Any discussion? All right. All those, in approval,
signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Those abstaining? Aye. Do we need a roll call? Yes. Roll call, please. Councilor Dallin? Yes. Councilor Holmes? Abstain. Councilor Ness? Yes. Councilor Peterson White? Yes. Councillor Silkeup? Yes. Councillor Beamer? Yes. Mayor Zweifel? Yes. Thank you. Resolution passes or motion passes. The next item is a resolution considering the rules of business of business amendment request recommended by the Mayor's Youth Council, and Elizabeth McCormick will be presenting this item.
Good evening, council members. My name is Elizabeth McCormick. I am a sophomore at Northfield High School and a member of the mayor's youth council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening. As members of the Mayor's Youth Council, part of our duties is to attend the meetings of the city council. In February, '1 of our members reported back to us that the council requires those who come to testify to state their full address as well as fill out a card with personal information. While we accept that it is necessary for speakers to fill out a card in order to ensure that they are residents and for bookkeeping purposes, we are issuing an official statement urging the council to abandon the practice of having
speakers speak their full address out loud at these public meetings. We feel that it discourages participation and is a barrier for many to give their valuable input. Additionally, we are concerned with the legality of this practice as individuals in the safe at home program have their addresses protected by Minnesota Statues chapter five b and Minnesota Rules chapter 8,290. Thank you again for the chance to speak and for your consideration in this matter. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Are there questions from the council? Councilor Holmes. Thank you. I actually have a question for staff.
Just curious. I know in the legislative memo, there was some information, and I know that, miss Peterson had reached out to other cities. I'm just curious, like, what what information do we is is critical for us to do our work or do or do we really need? Mayor, members of the council, in pulling other cities, all the other cities had stated that they request their address but do not require it. Technically, we probably do not require need it required. It's just for our purposes of making sure that they are residents. If they do have a comment on something that pertains to the city and to
city business. Thank you. Councilor Ness. So if they fill out a card that is adequate and they do not have to verbally mention it at the podium? Yes or no on that, I guess. Mayor, members of the council, I would say that's your decision, but I I would think that would be record for us because we do keep those cards. We wouldn't necessarily have to publish their address in the minutes. Probably just their name. Administrator Martig. Thank you. Mayor, members of city council, I would like to just clarify that the current rules do ask for that even though I'm not sure that it's in force heavily.
So I think if the council, wanted to have that alternative option considered where you would ask for it but not require it, we would still suggest that you have that in there. There is no legal requirement, though, under the law that that you have to have someone's address. We did draft the red line to meet the request of the youth council, though, so the current form that you have in there would meet their request. It's a fairly simple, edit. Great. Thank you. Counselor Holmes. Just another question for miss Peterson. So it we wouldn't have to publish their addresses in the minutes.
Would it be public record? Could anyone do an FOIA to try to get someone's address if they put it on a card? Mayor, members of the council, yes. That is correct because it is in the city's hands, so it would be public data. Okay. So I'm looking at oh, do you wanna go next? Yeah. Maybe, mayor, if I could make one clarification. I think one exception, which interesting research, I learned a lot in the the research that the students did. I hadn't been familiar with that program. So that that would probably be one exception that, if they wanted to go the route of having that exception, the safe at home program,
I'm guessing that would be one that would be able to be kept confidential. We probably need to have some kind of documentation with that, but then that card could then be kept private in that case if they qualified for that program. But otherwise, it would be public data, I believe, too, as the clerk said. Thank you. I I'm curious, when you discussed this as a mayor's youth council, was did you vote on this? Was it a, consensus or unanimous vote? So first, we just had a little discussion about it, to just see where everyone's thoughts on the issue were. And then we voted on drafting a statement on it,
and I don't think there was any votes against it. I believe it was a unanimous decision. I cannot remember exactly, but that's what I believe it was. And then I drafted of the statement, and we sent it off to all of you. Thank you, mayor. Yeah. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you. I think that's all the Thank you. All the questions. Alright. So do we want to make I think we have the option to make a motion tonight, to, amend the rules of business as suggested by staff. Mr. Martig? Sorry, mayor. Did you wanna take public comments,
see if there's any separate public comment first? Or did we or did I miss that? You did not miss it. I tried to skip it again. Oh, sorry. No. Not on purpose. Is there any public comment? I, I don't do it on purpose. Just sometimes I get it. I'm so excited about this, amendment to our rules of business. I just skipped right over that. Is there anyone here in the public who would like to comment on this agenda item? Okay. Great. Thank you. So now I'll look for a motion, to amend the rules of business as recommended by as recommended by the mayor's youth
council and specifically edited our rules of business by the staff. Councillor Peterson White? So moved. Thank you. Is there a second? Councillor Dolan? Happy to second. Great. Discussion? Councilor Ness. Thank you. I have never seen the mayor's youth council bring anything forward to the council, so I applaud you for that effort. Thank you, and look forward to supporting this. Thanks. Right. Councilor Soukup. Just wanna say thanks for engaging and finding something that, is a positive change. I I don't think it's
important that people announce exactly where they live and is a safety concern for some. So I appreciate this. And, while it's helpful to know that people who are speaking to us are residents, I think we can safely assume that 99% of them point 9% of them probably are. So, the benefits outweigh that that small question mark. So thank you for your work. Yeah. Counselor Peterson White. Thank you. I just wanna echo my fellow counselors in thanking the mayor's youth council for bringing this forward and, to say it's a it's it's a really well thought out and well written proposal,
really impressively done. And, I I used to grade when I was in graduate school, I used to grade, like, policy memos all the time. And, this would have gotten a good grade. So thank you. And, yeah. And I just really appreciate the thought that went into this. This is something I chatted with, some members of the youth council. I think you, in fact, when we had brunch together. And I think it's a great example of why those kinds of informal conversations can be so useful. And I think it's safe to say we all learned a lot from this. And please keep letting us know what we can do differently and better and bringing
your compassion and thoughtfulness to, the conversation about how we do business. Thank you. Councilor Holmes. Yeah, thanks. I will echo that. Really appreciate the thoughtfulness that's gone into this. And my line of questions, I think, is because we've as a council previous council, and I'd say as a current council, have really looked at how do we make things more inclusive and approachable and accessible when it comes to engaging and and allowing, you know, and and being able to hear from public comment. And I I support this, and I would just say,
you know, especially my questions about the cards too. I think that, just requiring getting the minimum amount of information that we need possible and having that on file and having that on record just because just, again, to protect everyone's safety and make it make it more welcoming. Yeah. Thank you. Councilor Beamer. Echo what everybody else has said. Thank you for getting up in front of us. I know that's probably a little bit intimidating. And, thank you for the excellent job that you guys did, putting this all together. Look forward to supporting it. Thank you. Yeah. Right. I will just add that I appreciate,
the barrier that it removes, to engagement. So whatever that however that barrier, is seen and felt by people, I appreciate the removal of that and, all the work you did to make that happen. So thank you. I think we are ready to vote. Alright. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. We have adopted a new rule of business. Well done. Alright. Next up is considering the approval of professional service agreement for the 2026 Spring Creek And Fremont Avenue railroad crossing improvements project.
And I believe we're going to mister Simonson for this one. Thank you, mayor and members of council. Again, as mayor's wife will said, we're approving a professional services agreement here for this, project. The presentation's twofold. Just gonna walk through what this proposed project is, and then I'm gonna give you twenty years of history and, 20 slides here on our railroad, quiet zone policy that we've been working on. So tonight, we'll talk about the project location, the project scope, what we intend to do for improvements and the timeline on the actual project. And then, again, I'll run through some quiet zone background information.
This project includes two different locations. We got Spring Street and Second Street intersection, which is the graphic on your left. And then, we're, proposing to work on the Fremont Avenue railroad crossing. The project scope on Spring Street, we're looking to propose to close off the access and the intersection between Second Street and Spring Street, at the railroad crossing. We'll be looking to put some sort of turnaround on a dead end, whether that be a hammerhead or a cul de sac. Again, both of those options we'll have to explore during feasibility. Again, both of them will probably require some sort of easement acquisition from either railroad or
private property owners along that, project area. The Fremont Avenue, project scope there is to add a nontransversable median and then extend a piece of trail, that dead ends as at the Dollar General. I believe it dead ends right now. We'll extend that over to Dresden Avenue, to complete that connection. This project timeline, again, tonight, we're just approving a professional services agreement with Bolden Mink for this project. The next action would be a neighborhood meeting in December, and, and then we would, again, begin project development design, and this is slated for a 2026 construction project.
So that is, the action that you'll be voting on tonight is approval of that contract. With that being said, I'm gonna jump into just a little bit of railroad quiet zone history, for Northfield, which started back in 02/2005, when the federal government, approved quiet zones, and approved their, acceptance. So when that was done in June 2005, the City of Northfield contracted with SRF, And we did complete a quiet zone assessment of our entire railroad corridor through the City Of Northfield. And then some of you may have been around in January 22. We January 22, we did an update just on that of where we were with the quiet zone.
So what is a quiet zone? Again, a quiet zone is a stretch of track where, if you install the appropriate, safety measures at these railroad crossings, they will not have to sound the horn when the train comes through the crossing. There is minimum requirements that need to be met according to the quiet zone regulations. So most of them, they have to be a half a mile long and and include all the crossings that are in there. Public crossings, that is. And then most of them would require flashing lights, gates, warning time, and then power out indicators at all these crossings. Northfield, we have the two main rail lines that come through town.
We have Union Pacific and then the Progressive Rail, which actually there's two of those. One goes to Cannon Falls and one to Lakeville. But the, primary focus for this quiet zone would be the Union Pacific main line that comes through town. The quiet zone intersections that are gonna be required to be improved before this quiet zone can be implemented is, Trunk Highway 19 And Fifth Street, Third Street, Second Street, Saint Olaf and Freemau Ave. And when we do those improvements at these, railroad crossings, they have supplemental safety measures as they're called in the railroad terms, which could include gates,
medians, could include a closure of the crossing so the horn won't have to sound. There's also options for one ways and wayside horns that could be installed. The style that is most popular and the ones that we've been using here in Northfield, of course, are the four four quadrant great gates. There's an example of what that would look like on your on your screen now. And then also the non traversable medians that's you've probably seen a few of them, and I'll walk through a few of these intersections. So some of these improvements are completed and, the majority of the rest of them are programmed into our, capital plan. We are utilizing some,
federal funding to help pay for some of these, quiet zone implementation measures. The Federal Highway Administration or f FHWA, they have a section one thirty program where, public crossings can be improved for safety. And that's a ninety ten split where the federal government pays 90%, and then the city would be responsible for 5% of that. So we would be working through this. We are we are working through this with MnDOT. The federal, highway gives the money to MnDOT, and then we contract with MnDOT to, work on these crossings. So just kinda walking through the ones that we have left,
or we'll walk through the ones that we have and kinda spell out what we've done and what is yet to come. Trunk Highway 19, there's medians that are needed there. That project is slated for a reconstruction in 2028. So that will be coming up coming fourth. Third Street, we did the medians already back in our, 2019 Northwest Area reclamation project. So that's completed. We do have gates and signals that need to be upgraded there. And, again, those are scheduled for 2026 with the section one thirty program that we will be utilizing. Second Street,
this portion, the median was bid with the transit hub project, so that is scheduled to begin, May 5. Look for a press release. We'll be closing that road down, to install this. So that's coming pretty soon. And again, we'll be using utilizing the section one thirty, money for the gates and safety arms for that, and signal improvements for that, intersection. St. Olaf Avenue, we did those medians. The nontraversal medians were, built with the Northwest 2022 Northwest Mill and overlay. And again, we'll be updating gates and signals with that with the 2026,
section one thirty program that we are, we are working with. And then with this project, of course, the Fremont Avenue, that will, again, be the non traversable medians that will be installed and then signal improvements again with that 2026 section one thirty program. So, this all this just leading up to, timeline, you're probably thinking when is this all gonna be done. Well, really, it hinges on, Highway 19 will be our last improvement. And, again, MnDOT controlled jurisdiction. So, once they do that project in 2028, we will be able to install the last pieces of the puzzle,
and then we can move forward with applying for the quiet zone, application and, hopefully get the quiet zone mandated and have it in operation. We do have some expansion south. We could work with Dundas. There's additional crossings along that Union Pacific line that we could improve to to expand this quiet zone. Same at the north area of town. There's a couple different ones up to 3 Twentieth or County Road 96, that would we could expand. Again, that would take a little bit more coordination with additional jurisdictions to get those projects, in fruition.
But, however, you know, the ones that are in town right now, we do have that plan for that five intersections so that, if everything goes right in 2028, we'll be able to proceed with that, quiet zone. And that's all I have for that. Again, if there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer. Thank you. That's fantastic. Councilor Ness? Thank you. Does the railroad absolutely have to the railroads have more power than God? Mayor, members of council. So there there's really specific I'm trying to think of the term in terms of there's a specific formula that
is used by the railroad administration, and then and then it looks at your improvements, the amount of trains, the amount of traffic, and then it really scores it out. And then you really qualify for the quiet zone, so you need to be below a certain threshold. So it's it it seems like if we meet that threshold, we would qualify for the quiet zone. Thank you. Other questions? Councilor Soukup. Thanks. I'm curious in terms of the section one thirty program. Is there any concern that that funding, is in question,
or has that already been secured? Or is along you know, in terms of a lot of federal funding being questionable right now, does that kind of fall into that category, or is it different because it's part of the highway administration? Mayor's council. I'm not aware of that funding being frozen yet. So it wasn't part of more of the new, like, build or the the raise type grants that already had a specific funding program. I guess we would just wait and see and hear from MnDOT if any of that changes. It really is a you know,
the funding goes to MnDOT. MnDOT coordinates and leads the projects, and, really, we just have a local agency match on the project. But we could find out more. But we haven't heard that that funding has, been delayed. A lot of times, it's really more of, like, on the signals. It's more of a material order and coordinating with the railroad to actually what probably more impacts the timeline versus the federal funding. Counselor Beamer. I have some questions regarding the part that of this, agenda item that was not touched on very deeply,
as far as the approval of the contract for Bolton Mink. I've read through the contract. To me, if you look at paragraph b on page one of the contract, it really to me, it seems like it leaves that thing pretty open ended. And I guess I'm I'm wondering are we are we setting ourselves up for Bolden and Mint coming in and saying, hey, I need another 300,000 like they did a couple weeks ago with one of the other projects. You know, do we not have all the information out there for them so that they can
properly take, you know, bid the project, you know, properly do everything that they need to do for the project without us, you know, having to do a change order and give them more funding. I have more follow-up questions beyond that too, but I'll let you answer that one first. Thank you. May mayor, members, council. I think so paragraph b is really it it talks about changes in scope and services. And, really, it it gets back to probably how you define your request for proposals and you and you seek those services. So Certainly, if there's things that come up that we mutually agree upon that have provided changes
beyond what we think, the scope of the work is, I think we, as staff, we try to, as best we can, lay out the the scope of work so that, one, we we try to get competitive, proposals from consultants based on the scope of work that you're asking for. And, certainly, things can come up on project. I think, you know, like, I'd say Wall Street's an outlier. I don't think we we see a lot of, amendments to the contracts related to our professional services, and it kinda just depends on. I think there's a lot built in because the I mean,
even just in general, both proposals, there's there's a lot of cost in working through with the railroad, many iterations, many meetings, and just going through that to get the railroad approval. So I don't I don't really see a lot of scope changes based on how we prepare the proposal. Thank you. I'll just I know you have another question, but I asked a question. I'll jump in with a question related to the consultants as well. I asked previously, how much experience Bolton and Mink had working with the railroads. So if you want to talk briefly about that.
Yeah. Mayor Windham's counsel, we we worked with Bolton and Mink on, on one of the crossing improvements. So they've had they've been through the process, with adding a supplemental safety measure and coordinated that through so they have experience. They understand the process and working, through with Union Pacific to get to ultimately, hopefully, the installation of the measure, but going through the the process and the agreements, the preliminary design, the diagnostic meetings. There's just a lot of stuff with the railroad, and they have experience in that.
Great. Counselor Beamer, you had a follow-up or another question? Oh, great. So I'm good. Thank you. Counselor Dolan. Could you explain to me why is exhibit one blank, which goes to the scope of services? Really, Exhibit one is really our proposal that lays out really what we requested of the consultants to respond to. So that's right it's actually right below it on the page. It's the next page is a request per per proposal. That's really the exhibit scope of services that we're requesting. So are they replicating your scope of the work?
They didn't retype it. They just adopted your scope of the work as what their scope of the work is. Yeah. So that that is our proposal scope of work that we requested of the consultant. And then if you go down further, within that contract, you know, their their responses and their proposal is attached. And it aligns with the scope of work that we requested of them. Do you have a follow-up question? I'm sorry. I don't follow that. So Bolton and Mink's agreement to the scope of the work is on what page? Two fifty five here.
No, I'm in agronikos. So I don't see an acknowledgment by Bolton and Mink that they're accepting your scope of the work as their scope of the work. That's what I'm looking for. So in that public document, it's page two fifty six, and then it goes right into a diagram. Yeah. Yeah. I'd say it their proposal is attached and it responds to our request. So it has their project understanding. It has their project approach and task, which tie back to the proposal that we requested. It had the railroad coordination in the in test three and test four.
It had field services, right of way services, and then it has a lot about their team and their so that's all in there and attached. Well, I guess, counselor Dolan. Thank you. I have a quick follow-up. So right above the signature of their of their PE, their engineer, it looks like they have added RFP Addendum No. One. And that's their RFP Addendum No. One. It's right above their signature line. But maybe this can be worked out later. Yeah. So that that would be the city addendum that we sent out for more clarifications
for their proposals so that they, you know, so they're they're acknowledging that they received the addendum in their proposal response. Alright. Thank you. Councilor Beamer? Basically, it's safe to say that they've gone through the motions. We've done similar projects already, so we're pretty sure we've got the scope of work down, and we'll be good to go. Correct. Great. Thank you. I have a question. Just generally, given that we're updating a number of these intersections, will there be any kind of lessening of the whistles prior to us getting it
all done, or you have to wait till everything's because some of it like, coming from the North, some of that's gonna be done sooner. Is there any there's no less is there's no lessening of the whistles until we're all done? Mayor of council, you have to have everything done before Okay. And make the application after that. K. Thank you. Councilor Soka? Related to that, is it true and I can't remember where this came up, but it was recent. Was that if you do complete this, the conductor still is able to sound the horn if they feel they need to.
So, one, is that true? And, two, can we let everyone know that so we don't hear every time the whistle blows from Mayor, members council. Yes. The train conductor can still do that. It's usually if they there's a safety or potential issue that they could continue to do that, but they they do have that ability to do that. Yeah. Thank you. Councilor Ness. Just as a bit of trivia, my cousin worked for the railroad, and the person driving the train does not control the whistle. It is automatic.
Interesting. Okay. Alright. Are there are there I know. Yes. Administrator Martig. Staff will fact check the Okay. I because it's it anecdotally, it does it does seem like there's a particular engineer who might have, it out for Northfield. I just it does seem like there's a particular engineer who might have, engineer who might have it out for Northfield. I just No. No. His ex wife lives half a block away. So alright. I think that's it for council questions. Is there anyone from the public who would like to comment on this agenda item? Alright. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the professional services for agreement for the,
quiet railroad crossing improvements project? Councilor Holmes? I move Item 20 five-two 19, approving the professional service agreement. Thank you. Is there a second? Councilor Soukup. Second. Alright. Thank you. Council discussion, who would like to start us off? I think we've yeah. We've well, we've asked a lot of really good questions. I appreciated that, thrown us. Alright. Sounds like we're ready to vote. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. Okay. Our next agenda item is the first reading of Ordinance Number ten seventy six,
amending Chapter 30, Health and Sanitation of the City Code regarding regulation of cannabis businesses, lower potency hemp edible retailers and events. And we will have a presentation by mister Asaph. Thank you, Mayor and Council. So this is the cannabis and hemp business, retail business registration and events ordinance. Trying to keep this fairly high level as we go through, I imagine we plenty of questions afterwards, and that tends to lead the discussion here. So as we've had the change in law, it requires some change to local ordinances.
There's relatively limited sort of city regulation and control here, But there are kind of two areas. There's a registration requirement for retail businesses in the city, and then there's, your sort of zoning land use controls. And so tonight, we have the retail registration portion of the ordinance, and then in the future, you'll have the land development code amendments coming to address some of these businesses. So the way this ordinance is structured, it repeals and replaces the edible cannabinoid product ordinance that is currently in code. And so those edible cannabinoid product, I guess,
sellers that are currently registered with the OCM, subject to your ordinance, in the future, they will be required to kind of roll over their registration to a state license for a lower potency hemp edible retailer, and then that edible cannabinoid product statute is probably going to go away at that point. So that's this ordinance will be coming in and replacing that. So a little more on the structure here. So you see the ordinances in sort of four divisions. There's the generally applicable portion at the top, which includes sort of violations and penalties. There's the cannabis retail businesses.
So these are the businesses that sell the kind of potentially full strength cannabis to directly to consumers. And under there, there's a category there's the micro businesses, meso businesses, medical cannabis combination businesses, and the cannabis retail businesses. And so there's four different license types under the sort of cannabis retail businesses. And those are the licenses that can be limited, in ordinance. Separate from that, you have the previously mentioned lower potency hemp edible retailers. So that is another license type where they would only be selling, the sort of products that are kind of out there now.
And so that is separated out in this ordinance as division three because while those, retailers, once they're licensed by the state, will have to register with the city. There are a lot fewer restrictions that apply in state law, As in, you know, in here, you'll see that there are no limitation on the number of registrations for those businesses the way that there is for the full strength cannabis businesses. So as we've sort of discussed and as you're aware, there's cannabis and hemp the cannabis and hemp retail businesses must register with the city before making sales to customers. Now this ordinance doesn't do this, but the city could choose to delegate that authority to county that would eliminate or
or limit sort of your control, obviously, over those businesses if the county is doing that. No indication that the city wanted to do that, but that is an option there. And so under the law, the city may, by ordinance, limit the number of these, specifically the meso businesses with retail operations, micro businesses with retail operations, and the, like, cannabis retailers. So no fewer than one for every 12,500. Now there's no upper limit. Citi can kinda do whatever it wants there above that, but you're limited to essentially two at a minimum. And so that's what's in the proposed ordinance. Also in there, so this ordinance sort of looks a lot like so the city licensing ordinances you
see for tobacco, the current edible cannabinoid products. You have administrative fines. Those are capped at $2,000 under state law. Those are under section thirty one zero five, sort of escalating. Another part of this because you have this sort of state licensing and oversight from OCM, if there are any sort of suspensions imposed by the city that would be subject to review by OCM, they can sort of order the city to reopen that business if they've determined that, you know, a violation has been cured or something along those lines. In addition, the city would report any of those violations to OCM.
They're supposed to have a sort of expedited review process for all of this. Obviously, we'll sort of see how that works out. And so there's a prohibited acts and sort of operational requirements in this this ordinance that's sort of reflect what's required under Minnesota Statutes chapter three forty two. And that includes a zoning compliance check, which is done prior to the registration sort of portion for the city. So during the state licensing process, the information, once they have a location selected, that'll be forwarded to the city for review. City sort of approves that within thirty days or responds within thirty days.
And then they can move forward with licensing and eventually then registration with the city before they can make sales. Now that zoning compliance check, applies to all cannabis businesses. So if you look at manufacturing, cannabis manufacturers, cultivators, in addition to any of the retail businesses. Another portion of this is the on-site consumption. So with the cannabis businesses, it's only the micro businesses that can allow on-site consumption if they have that endorsement from the state. And then if permitted by the city, there can be on-site consumption at temporary cannabis events. And then now as I've said,
that's separate from the low potency hemp edible retailers, which similarly could all have on-site consumption. You know, it's all that stuff potentially at bars, restaurants, requires a state endorsement. So the next few slides are a few of the areas where there tends to be some discussion in terms of the city sort of policy input, the sort of particular areas. One is the number of registrations. So the direction we've had before is to be more restrictive potentially now. So given your population, we're looking at, you know, no fewer than one every 12,500.
That would require two. Again, the city could choose to do more or leave it unlimited. Hours of operation. So without any limitation in the ordinance, they could Monday through Saturday, essentially open from 8AM to 2AM and then open at 10AM on Sunday. It's currently drafted in the Orin's for, the recommendation is 10AM to 10PM. And then temporary cannabis events, similarly looking at establishing hours for that, That's been drafted to match the retail hours of 10AM to 10PM. And then on-site consumption at temporary cannabis events.
So for someone who wants to operate a or hold a temporary cannabis event, they'd come to the city to receive sort of a a permit from the city to do so. And they would take that information along with the rest of their application to the state, get the sort of necessary state license to do that, and then they could operate. Within that sort of permitting under the the statute, the city can address on-site consumption at these events, can limit smoking. They could you could, prohibit on-site consumption potentially. So that's under section thirty one ninety three as part of the sort of application
that comes to the city would be, you know, what is the designated area for on-site consumption? Under the rules that were just, adopted, it's required to be in a sort of separated fenced off area if there is on-site consumption. And I should say both for the cannabis events and the micro businesses, the Clean and or Air Act applies, so there won't be sort of smoking inside of any sort of business for this. And then finally, just a couple of notes. Licensing will be starting relatively soon. I think the as it affects this ordinance, you'd be looking at micro businesses,
with retail operations would be the most soon to be up and running. They aren't required to go through the lottery, which is scheduled to happen, I think, May or June at this point. Those seem to announce that event licenses won't be addressed until the summer, so there's some time to to review that. And then the hemp licenses has been sort of pushed back until the fall. And, again, those are kind of reflect what's already happening in the state, so I think that's been pushed back to kind of prioritize other licensing. And there will be almost certainly amendments to the law that's probably gonna require these
ordinances to come back here and everywhere else in the state. So I think, whatever you have now, we'll sort of expect that there might be some changes over the next few months to couple of years. So with that, are there any questions or discussion of the options available? Great. Thank you. Questions from the council. Councilor Ness? Thank you. Can there be a clause in the ordinance that says automatically amends to state statute or something to that effect? Or do we have to come back and change it? It does so it does,
I think, adopt the state law. I can review that language specifically. I think that is in there. There are depending on what the changes are, there might be things you might want to address directly. So one of the things I saw in a recent draft is when registration from the city should be sort of what qualify what will qualify business for registration by the city. And so there's specific language in the ordinance and probably every ordinance in the state that sort of adopts those requirements. If they change that, that's something you'd probably want to address specifically in there.
But it would it would end up preempting essentially in the ordinance what you have anyway. I was curious about, will be should this, move forward, we would be adopting fees at a later date. Are the fees in general similar to a liquor license? Or Yep. I'm not familiar with the liquor license fees are. The fees are set for the cannabis businesses in in statute. So it's, I think, half of the initial application fee or $500 and then the renewal after,
I think, a year, it's a thousand dollars or half. So generally, they're about $500 initially or a thousand. The initial application or the initial registration fee for micro business will be $0 because that is what sort of the state fee that defines that is. So you're looking at about 500 and then a thousand for renewal. Okay. Thank you. Councilor Holmes. I just wanna make sure I'm understanding the language that we have that when in terms of the number of businesses that we're saying requiring no fewer than
two. And we're so we're not capping, like, the ordinance the way the ordinance is written now is that we're not capping that we can have more than two? That is yeah. I mean, I think you you could read it that way. It requires to you wouldn't be required to do any more than that Right. Necessarily. There's a couple of other limitations in there that might apply depending on what happens with the county or the tribal compacts. But as of right now, the way the ordinance is written, we're not we're not we don't have a cap. Right. We haven't or we haven't we aren't we haven't
established a maximum number. No fewer than two. You could define more clearly if you wanna say there will only do two. Okay. I I think there was some discussion at staff level keeping that sort of open with this. The is the reading of the statute that requires the sort of the language of the cap Right. Kind of adopting that essentially. If if the city would prefer that it just says to make that change, they wouldn't mind minimal. Administrator Martig. Thank you, mayor, member of the city council. I think the staff intent was that we would, based on feedback that we heard from council last year on the work session,
the intent was is that it would be written to be as restricted as the law law would require. So if currently two is the minimum you'd have to have unless the county had more, the intent of how it would be written would be the more restrictive of the two would be those options would be what would be required. So I think on this if that wasn't clear on this first reading, I think that would be the intent and the second reading would be to amend that unless we heard different discussion because my understanding was that that's how it was written. So if that's not the case, we propose to change that.
And we did not apply the City of Northfield did not apply for an initial round for municipal cannabis dispensary. How does this ordinance affect the future of the City Of Northfield if we wanted to apply for a municipal cannibal cannabis ordinance in the future? Cannibal. Maybe. But I say there there is a a section in this ordinance, that'll you know, can I give the city the authority to operate one if they were to choose to? It doesn't obligate the city, of course, to apply. So if the city were didn't have that section and wanted to apply in the
future, you'd have to sort of make that amendment. Okay. I just wanted to make it clear because people might say, oh, you said two. And then if the city in the future, if the city added a third, that would be allowable. Just want to make that clear. Yes. The municipal can any municipal cannabis store wouldn't, doesn't count against the registration limitations. Thank you. Counselor Holmes. I was just going to ask because that was my interpretation was of the reading was that it wouldn't count against the two. Thank you, Mayor. Just related to that topic, I think the intent there would be many approvals in order to get to that
point. And there's a lot of still outstanding questions. I think the mayor had shared that she was at a regional council of mayors meeting up in the cities and it sounds like like 13 or so maybe did apply in the first application. We weren't in a position to be able to you know, explore that. And so the idea would be is that could still be on our policy review for the future, but the priority was to first get these regulations in place for kind of the private to be ready to go. We're probably a little behind the game here wanting to get the ordinance move forward, but could be on the list to come back in the future to discuss that.
So by having it in there, it at least leaves the possibility in the future for that to be done. But just want to make that clear that, that wouldn't be a staff driven decision. There would be probably many, many actions the council would have to take in order for that to happen. Thank you. Councilor Soukup? Related to the question councilor Holmes was asking before, can you can you just say in different words, what we're doing with the number two? If there's if we have two businesses in Northfield at some point and a third is applying, what first,
for people who are trying to understand this, who don't read legal language, is that allowable, or are we stating an ordinance that two is the threshold? So I will say I think the the language in here reflects some of the initial, I think, ambiguity in the state statute. So the question that came up a lot when this was initially passed was, does this language require one if you're under 25,000, or does it require two? So the interpretation, I think, from the OCM that's been I don't know if it's officially,
but that's usually the the advice given out is that this is two. Once you've hit twelve thousand five zero one, you must have two. So this was written to be to allow to interpret whatever is the most restrict option. I think at this point, if two is the hard limit for now at least, I might recommend that we amend this with a sentence that just says, will this after that first sentence maybe, this will be limited to two, unless, you know, further amended by the city. The city could always come back. You know, if you limited it to two now,
you could come back, amend it, and allow for others. But that's, I think, maybe part of the discussion tonight then. Councilor Holmes. Yeah. I have a question about the events. And I know that there's probably more information. So, you know, talk about it. Then I'll be talking later through they'll figure things out through the summer at OCM and elsewise. But the the application, is it only businesses? A like a licensed micro business here in town could host an event? Or could anybody apply for the event? I don't believe there's a limitation to like,
it doesn't have to be a locally registered business that applies. Does it have to be a they don't even have to have any sort of licensure with the OCM? Yeah. Like, the the cannabis event organizer is a license with OCM. Okay. So the way it it's sort of structured, they'd come to the city with all that information. City says, okay. You can have a, you know, potentially you can have an event here. Then they take that permission to the state, and so there is a state review and state licensure process with that. Okay. But it would be someone who they've already they're already on OCM.
It would I couldn't I couldn't register to say I wanted to host an event, and not if I didn't have a license in OCM, like a license through OCM. I what you could I think you you could if you came to the city, got sort of that permit, and then you could go to OCM and try to get a license. Okay. Don't just need the order of it. And what you're saying is accurate. You can't just hold an event without a license. Right. But I would get an event license or a An event license. A micro business license. An event license. Okay. But you can hold both depending on the business.
Okay. I I don't know if this will be an independent thing that, you know, there's a a group that does cannabis events or if it's mostly going to be businesses that then seek these events. Not entirely sure yet, but it is a separate sort of license from those other ones. Okay. Mister Riley, did you want to weigh in? I I just think that if folks want to learn a little bit more, a bunch of documentation was literally put on their website yesterday, and so that may reflect some of the confusion. It's been very confusing all along as they've been trying to get their stuff going.
But to answer, I think, council member Holmes' question based on the documentation published yesterday, when they start to issue event licenses, those events will be able to be applied for any time during the year through OCM. Before that, then the local government has to approve the event. So it's a it's a yes. A bigger establishment can have an event endorsement and a stand alone like, let's take a tattoo convention,
for example. You could say, I'm going to have a bunch of tattoo artists come and I'm going to have a convention. That's a tattoo event. Similarly, if I read this licensing process correctly, that's the kind of thing that they're talking about with a cannabis event. Does that help answer your question? I guess I'm just trying to reconcile it with how we approach event registrations with alcohol, and just experiences that I've had with that in terms of our third Thursday events and what hoops there are and things that we have to do in terms of
and and the the vendors what they have to do. So I was just I guess I was just trying to get wrap my head around the differences and Yeah. So I will I will read more. I don't think it inhibits this discussion. I think there will probably be other things that as as these play out, we'll probably amend and learn and discuss further. More questions? Alright. We'll take, public comment on this agenda item. Is there anyone who would like to, address the council on this agenda item? Alright. I then I'm going to look for a motion
to approve the first reading of ordinance number ten seventy six amending chapter 30, our health and sanitation of the city code regarding regarding cannabis businesses. Councilor Ness. I will move the first reading of ordinance one zero seven six. Thank you. Is there a second? Councilor Dolan? Second. Thank you. Alright. Council discussion. No discussion? Councilor Holmes. I'll just, I mean, obviously, I think there's a lot to learn, and I believe that people were starting to hear today, the initial people who had,
I'm correct that we could be. I mean, obviously, businesses won't start opening up right away, but, but there could be licenses people who know that they got licensed today. I would just say that I, my questions about the two is just just because I wanna make sure that we have clarity and not because I think we should limit it to two. So I don't know what sort of if we'll have discussion around that tonight or if that's something that comes, but I but I feel like I'm in support of business and wanting to see what we what can be successful and I wouldn't want to limit it.
Thank you. I agree with that. I appreciate this as a starting point. I think it's an excellent, starting point for us. So, well done. Thank you for bringing this forward. Any other discussion? Alright. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Alright. That brings us to item number 17 on our regular agenda, a discussion of potential state of Minnesota local project capital bond requests for 2026. Thank you, mayor. It is $7.30. Are you okay for me to plow through,
or would you rather take a break? Would people want to take a break? How are we feeling? I'm seeing some no's. Like, we're we're on our we're on our last agenda item. Administrator margin. My intent was to not wait this long. Okay. Well, let's Our city clerk was earlier tonight, he was giving me a hard time about that to not drag my section out. So Okay. We will we will we will, move on without, without a break. Alright. I'm loading up a PowerPoint at my desk if we can try and see if that'll work from the back IT room.
If not, I could alright. Thank you, mayor, member of city council. I'm ripping off a presentation provided at the League of Minnesota Cities day at the capital, and I did delete some of their slides that I felt were pretty clearly in the weeds on some technical process explanations. There's probably still a few more slides than we need, so I'll probably move past some of those. I would say this is an introductory, just abbreviated discussion of that bill and a little bit of a process, particularly with some deadlines coming. So my intent is at the May 13 meeting, we'd have some discussions specifically about prioritization. I'll get more into that in the timeline coming up.
So a local project for a state of Minnesota capital bonding request refers refers to a public infrastructure project proposed by a local government entity like the city. Could also be the school district or, county government seeking, funding support through the state's capital bonding bill, also called the capital investment bill. Each year, especially in even numbered years when there are traditional bonding years, the Minnesota legislature considers capital investment proposals. They're typically funded through the sale of general obligation bonds, sometimes can include cash that they put in combination with that.
Local governments and organizations can request funding for infrastructure projects that serve a public purpose. The state, focuses on core state assets typically as a priority, often coming through agency requests. So include buildings the state owns, also includes things like the state college systems and some of that. But they will sometimes consider local projects of regional significance. As noted on this slide, there has been a substantial increase in recent years of local requests. And I I believe that, that's been driven by a much more transparent process that's been integrated in recent history
where, there's actual online requirements of filling out forms and submissions and deadlines that are requested that you have to meet. So I think that opened up some of the like inside baseball games that used to happen in the old days to kind of understand how these local projects, kind of kind of get funded. It's kind of been brought into light and I would say organizations like the League of Minnesota Cities and state agencies have been increasing their education about how communities can request that. So our competitions got greater over time on some potential projects.
I'm gonna cover some of these in the slides, coming up here. So let's talk a little bit about process. So there's a lot of different, details related to roles on collecting that information, that are submitted. So we have deadlines coming up, and then the governor does ultimately make recommendations as kind of the kickoff to that. Big picture, there's a lot of different pieces to be successful in, receiving local project funds. I'm gonna just call out a few things that I would say are some speaking points. First of all, you have to pretty clearly meet kind of the intent of the state law,
and I'll get into some of those later. But they have to be regional significance, public projects for the city if we're applying for them. So you can't just do a a local project that has no regional significance. You're probably not gonna be successful on that. I would say in an ideal situation too, you know, a two thirds majority in the in the overall in the, house and senate, and then the governor has to be supportive of it. So they often the strategy is is if you can an ideal situation is is the governor usually leads. If you can get the governor to be included on his list, that's really important. The house of representatives leads on the capital investment side, and then the Senate follows them.
So ideally, if you can have all three legs of the government supporting your project, you're probably in a really strong position and that's often very challenging. As part of the process, often includes hosting tours where the communities, they'll go on a bonding tours and take a look, that the legislators might look at. Another thing I would say to highlight the importance is an ideal situation too is is, you often the the legislature likes to see in a governor's office that your local representative hopefully supports it as well. So on our side,
our house of representatives, representative Purcell, and on the senate, side, mister Lieske. Again, the different parties, but an ideal situation is if you had both of your legislatures, that's really the sweet spot. If you can get both support to author the bills and then find maybe some key authors as well. Also, if you can have connections politically to some of the other people that maybe serve on the capital investment committee, that doesn't hurt either. So those are a few things I would maybe highlight. So when and how to submit requests, this is a key one, why is this an ideal situation on the timing because I especially with new council
members where we need, you know, to have the opportunity for broad discussion. It's a little bit accelerating our budget process even with an earlier start date. Ideally, I'd like to be a little further in capital planning so that we could talk about prioritization in that. Unfortunately, to meet the mid June deadline that we're gonna have for local government requests, the heavy capital bond work session that we're gonna have on the budget is gonna be in June. So I'll be trying to do some work to see to bring forward options for you in May that, hopefully, we can see if if you wanna try and get some funding, to potentially, be on top of that.
You can have more than one request as well. You have to prioritize those if you include those. But we'll be starting to register just in case, in in preparation of that in April. There's not a lot of heavy lifting to get kind of signed up in that. And signed up in that. And if we decide not to pursue any funding, if the council chooses not to, we can always back out of that as well. But, we're ramping, ramping up for that. There are some things that also just to be aware of. We have to own the facility. There's some details around public purpose. Typically, they don't allow you know, if you start a project, you you can't get funding after the fact. Sometimes you can write it in a way where you can get money as you
go, but more typically, it's an after the fact, reimbursement that you get. Matching funds is another one where pretty much the standard expectation is at least 50% would be covered through other non state funds. So you'd have a match, not a % required. Is an example on the transit hub there where we got some bonding funding. We had had some incurred costs because that was, like, you know, decade plus in the works. The city had spent some planning money and things. We use that as match as part of our request that we'd already incurred and that was accepted. So there are way ways that,
you can sometimes request some changes on that. But typically, to be competitive, they like to see some of that local, participation and skin in the game on that as well. Some of this is in the weeds a little bit, so I won't get into the details on some of those. If you have any questions, we can always go into those. So some examples of local projects, I would say, are things like public libraries are certainly often considered regional projects, community centers. So, you know, like our probably equivalent of a community center might be the NCRC building type of a thing where it's regional benefit. Could be civic buildings. They might look at a city hall and not as regional,
so that probably isn't gonna be as clearly as one. But fire stations, police stations have been funded, especially if your public safety goes beyond the boundaries. Regional parks and trails, wastewater treatment, water plants. Sometimes, although I would that's another area to focus on as they if there are already competitive programs that the state have that you can apply to, those are typically discouraged. I'm not saying they don't ever get funded, but the bar I think gets raised in that question often would be part of the legislative hearing process where they're like, why why aren't you applying through PFA funding or something through water project?
So you can request in phases to on a project. So if you're early design phases, but you're not quite ready to commit to the construction, you can also do it over multiple, years as well as a potential option as well. The, so here are some questions, I guess, just to be aware of as well. Earlier, I noted again the capital budget is primarily through the state obligation bonds. We have had cases like when they had excess cash reserves where there was some use of extra cash. It's not likely with what they're seeing on the budget projections beyond our current budget biennium. So probably
will be not as much on the table in the upcoming years related to some of that work unless the economy changes. Public purchase, in other words, again, some of those again just to reemphasize, public purpose has to be met publicly owned, really have to meet the intent of the law and must constitute capital expenditures. So you can't use it for operating. It's got to be towards a physical asset or infrastructure. And there's details around some of that. We've got actually I mean, I've got internally a lot of experience on this and our staff has as well on understanding what categories of pre design and design and what's eligible or not on
some of these. And so, we can help in greater detail on that. Often can include, certain furnishing fixtures and equipment. If it's a new building or a major renovation, you can sometimes get some of that included. I didn't really, for tonight, plan on getting into those projects. I did attach the capital improvement plan. I listed, like, one kind of planning project that we had done. I think it was either the 246 turn back or the Lincoln Parkway project. But there might be others we brainstorm in preparation of that May meeting that we think might qualify. If it's already on the list or if any of you have brainstormed some other potential option in preparation of that meeting,
I can certainly take feedback offline. If any of you wanted to bring any ideas you had up tonight, but I really wanna just kinda get a primer to you on kinda what these are, what to expect. The other projects that besides the transit hub in recent history we've been successful funding is we did get a state prop a state trail project, the Milltown State Trail funding. We got a very large, funding. That's an example where there are other funds we could apply for, like, through the legacy funding. But again, we were successful, in getting a major, I think it's probably one of the largest local fundings on a state trail project probably in Minnesota.
I didn't research, Minnesota history. I didn't research that, but I wouldn't be surprised if we were probably up there on the highest funding. And again, yeah, sometimes if you don't ask, you don't know if you're gonna get it as well. I wasn't optimistic we were gonna get that funding in the end, but politics do come into play and, you know, the influence of your legislator, can help as well and also, local support. Another one I didn't call out that I really think is important is and again, I think on this one, it helps to, you know, that this does take multiple years as well. So that's another thing to think about is sometimes this could be a process that
because the project delays and things like the transit hub, there was a lot of delays related to working with MnDOT and the agency requests, getting the paperwork all filled out. So it wasn't our staff that caused some of those delays. It's really unfortunate because every year we know the inflationary cost really driving up project costs. So it was very frustrating about the amount of time that project took to get it going. That's not how we'd like it to work. We'd like it to move quickly on getting in and getting that money spent and out the door because time is money on these capital projects. But I where I was going with some of that too is is like when
you put in a request and particularly a funded, the state really looks at that that you have to and when you adopt a resolution, it's really committing the current council to say we're serious about this. We're committed to doing the project. And so that's why too, I'm trying to find projects that are universally pretty well supported by the city, council and the community because sometimes it can even cover multiple political time periods where you get elected officials coming and going. And so that's another one that I like trying to keep in mind. That's another benefit of trying to have a compressed timeline. Technically, there's a follow-up approval after the legislative process that ultimately legally,
binds you, but it doesn't go over well if a community, after making a request, backs out of the funding because there are usually the bonding bill is negotiated where there's a maximum, and they're gonna spend that money across the state of Minnesota no matter what each city chooses to do or not. So if Northfield chooses to apply for funding, it's not like the legislature and the governor's office is gonna issue less bond debt. It just means our we won't have a project. The money's gonna go somewhere, and that maximum is really gonna be negotiated with those political leaders. But if you choose to apply,
imagine them approving after this large negotiation and then a community backing out after the fact that doesn't go over well too. So I think that's another thing to think about. There can also be, like I said, political strategies, maybe having a test of the political winds of the whatever's happening at the state level. So if there's really a focus more on certain legislatures might not like certain types of projects some years and might gravitate towards other ones, having a pulse on that and working with your legislators, I think, is another important piece to think about that because even though legislators often will support
bills that local councils might ask for, you're gonna be most successful if they also believe in those and feel that those are important. I think that it it it will naturally move. It might receive more attention and priority to keep things moving along as well. So I think in concurrence with us, coming back to you for feedback, I think some checking in with our legislators to see if they have thoughts related to projects can, be will be something that we do as part of our due diligence. That's my presentation. It might have been maybe not the plow through, presentation version, but it's as close as I got.
That's great. Could you just say a little bit about the timing? So best case scenario, we agree on a fantastic, amazing submission, talk to our local legislators there, agree that it's a great direction to go in, what and then it gets approved. What yes, when we look at this capital improvement plan, how far out should we be looking for a project and what is the timing? Good question. I didn't actually tonight program out the dates of the legislative session, but it would really be priming it for the next legislative session. It would probably it would carry through if they didn't do one next year.
It would also allow us to carry through the current budget biennium. So, mainly next session is probably the heavy one that this were to relate to. And when that session ends, that's when you get the authorization, and then that would be when the paperwork starts to happen. And then depending on where the project that the city might have is if if it's a project that's pretty much ready to go. So like as an example, we had a request in for Bridge Square. We're finalizing construction documents. If the council wanted to pursue that one again, we'd probably be pretty well ready to go on that one to go on construction. But if we're in the early phases on a project,
it may take us a year to design a project depending on it and then a follow through. So I guess short answer, Mayor, I'll prep on that on detail. But probably if you're looking at the end of next year, you're probably looking at, 2027 project probably. It would be, I guess, a rough guess maybe, at kind of the earliest schedule. Thank you. Any other questions to, counselors wanna ask to prepare you for the discussion that will follow? No? Thank you. We'll we'll go, we'll move on to your administrator's update. Yes?
Is that the last thing? Thank you, Mayor. Just a few updates here. Let me pull my document back up. Alright. Just a few things. I've got an email started to you that I'm gonna send out, but, I'm gonna pull that one up here. For your information, one project neighborhood meeting that we have tomorrow night, 05:30 in the second in the training room upstairs. We have the 2026 Millen overlay, Milltown Street Trail improvements, but there's a kind of mixture of a number of different projects, a little unusual year. So it includes the Milltowns Trail,
it includes Jefferson Parkway project. There's also a bike trail project that obviously there's been a lot of interest on related to protected bike lanes is the conversation. And so that meeting is tomorrow night. It's open to the public. You're welcome. That's the first kickoff meeting At the end of last year or in last year is when the feasibility initial feasibility report and background was done. So I'm gonna send you a hyperlink to that project page if you'd like to quick familiarize yourself with the with the report and the PowerPoint from that. Probably give you a taste going into the meeting tomorrow night kind of what that
scoping was if you weren't real familiar or to refresh yourself with that. And then there is a follow-up program for the May 20 meeting. And so there will be opportunity for feedback to maybe give direction at that time. I know there's been interest in the past to say when are there when are appropriate times to maybe clarify. And this project still is early enough that there can be scoping changes as part of that, related to that change. So we'll be helping to give a little guidance on that will be coming very quickly after that meeting. So I'll send you some information out on that.
The strategic plan, so I know we haven't you're probably eager to get the externally shared information that we've been working on with the council. We're fine tuning some of that. We'd have we've had two staff meetings with mister Rapp as a follow-up on that. It is coming to your May work session. And I think by, probably the end of week or early next week, we're we're working on kind of updating the kind of a one pager summary of, like, the priority areas and outcomes you identified in a working draft of some of the other for that work session. But we'll work on,
getting some communications out to you on some of that work. You'll have an opportunity at that work session to weigh in, to give some feedback to the initial working on what you did, maybe refining some of the language and verbiage, and then the staff's initial work at, initiatives and then draft action plans. Ideally, we'd be looking at then coming with kind of adoption of that report the next week on the twentieth. If we needed to move it in June, though, we'd have kind of a fallback alternative to that. So that's going to be coming soon. I mentioned earlier the 1% for the art preparation, so that isn't on your it wasn't listed on your packet materials,
but that's added to the work session agenda for that night as well. The other big piece so that's taking a lot of time and energy on working on the strategic plan. The other item that's really been ramping up at the same time, which isn't ideal, but that's kinda life is our budget process, especially with us trying to move up some of the processes to May is we've got some heavy lifting on staffs doing preparation for that. Obviously, the finance director and I are the ones on all of the meetings that are ramping up to prepare for that, but our other department directors have been meeting and getting that ready to go.
So the two of those happening together at the same time, while we also have kind of business as usual happening, is a pretty heavy lift right now, but we're, working through that. Ice Arena project, again, there was another public testimony today on that, related to mister Tomczak. I I didn't follow-up with him, but I will send a follow-up to him related to his thoughts related to the legality of the financing. We I do have some legal opinions I'll share with the council. I would say around that too. We've had some recent emails that you are copied on too around our web page. So I'm gonna be revisiting that page and,
like, updating some of the information on there, especially as the details have probably become more detailed on that. Also, I would say, we're really ramping up other communications around that project. KYMN radio helped with us on doing a recording feature. Counselors Ness and Peterson White participated in in a discussion that we had an hour long taping and, Mr. Bennett and I attended that as well. So we kinda had some elected officials perspective and staffing to give some background. They're also doing a feature of bringing in some of the school district, perspectives from the superintendent as well as,
the city of Dundas and, the users, the stakeholders, the hockey association as well as the ice ice skating program. So the kickoff to that radio programming, kinda similar to what they did with the school budget information that they did on that, is gonna be kicking off next Tuesday morning is when that'll start to air and then being shared out. So I'll be also again trying to just ramp up communications because the bids are Kind of scheduled for later this week to be coming in and council actions are being scheduled for the May basically related to that,
some of those actions coming to a head. So, more to come on that one. But I know that's a a big project and particularly for some people, interest related to that. I think that covers it. Thank you. Fantastic. Any follow-up questions? Councillor Beamer. Thanks, mister Mardick. I guess for just in per pertaining to tomorrow night's meeting, is that meeting officially noticed? So if more than if four or more of us happen to be there, we're we're good? Yep. It's on the notice board right out here in the hallway,
so it's, publicly noticed. You're all good. And even though it's geared low, it's probably a little more advertised directly through the direct mailing on the actual neighborhood people impacted. The whole community can turn out. Anybody can show up to it. Thank you. Councilor Ness? Alright. More of a request than a question. I know mister Bennett, at the end of a meeting several months ago, just gave an update on all the projects that we're you know, what phase they're in, if they're gonna start, if they're just finishing. That was extremely helpful for me because then I don't have to contact Citi,
you know, if somebody calls me and says, what's with this project? So just a request. Administrator Martech. Yeah. And sorry. Just to clarify, did you say at the council meetings that'd be good to have a report? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We could certainly do that. In a former city I worked in, the engineer often gave, like, same things the city administrator update gave an update at the same time so we could ask mister Bennett to hang around a little bit longer to do that. We talked about the chief doing that. Sometimes the police chief over there, and he he does the quarterly report. But if he's got anything on the in between time periods. Yeah. I was, councilor Beamer just suggested it could also be in the,
reports from council section if it's a staff person that didn't have anything else on the agenda and could then go, go home after that. I'd I'd entertain that. Yeah. That's a option. Alright. Looking for a motion to adjourn. Councillor Ness. Move to adjourn. Councillor Holmes. Move to adjourn. Second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. We are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.