Are you ready, Lynette? Alright. Good evening. This is the city of Northfield City Council work session for Tuesday, 03/10/2026. I'll call this work session to order at 07:54PM and request a roll call, please. Mayor Zweifel? Here. Councilor Peterson White? Here. Councilor Soukup? Here. Councillor Beamer? Here. Councillor Dahlen? Here. Councillor Holmes and Councillor Ness. The first item on our agenda tonight is the discussion on tree related policies and information, and Mr. Bennett is going to kick that off for us.
Yeah. Mayor, members of council, so, we do have Shelly Evenson here with our with our with our staff, our horticulturist. That's, really been a tremendous addition to our streets and parks department. Really kinda helping and coordinating a lot of the work that was going on with the Northfield Garden Club with our downtown plantings. Really helps with our our forestry and meeting with residents and trees, disease trees, grants. So just been really wonderful to have her on board. So she's gonna run through really just a a summary overview of kinda what's going
on with our tree tree related, urban forest where we're some of the emerald ash borer and what we're seeing in the community, some grants that we received. We'll also share some of our policies that we have in place. And Sarah Povich is also here, our sustainability coordinator. Certainly, some of our urban forest ties to our climate action plan, so she's just listening and seeing if there's any input from council related to maybe future actions or things we need to think about. So with that, I'll turn it over to Shelley. Alright. I'm Shelly Evenson, if you haven't met me. And I'm going to talk about kind of the tree canopy and,
what it's looking like with the ash trees especially going down here soon. But in the next few years, we'll be losing a lot of them. So this first slide shows kind of our GIS, documented trees. There's currently 11,850 documented trees along the boulevards and in the parks, in the manicured areas of the parks. We don't have inventory of the woodland areas, but there are some ash trees in those areas that we will address and take down those if they're going to fall into the street or on somebody's house.
We've been taking some of those down as well. 25 I walk through each winter, measure about 25% of the trees, and documenting their health and height as well. And some of the wooded areas are in Hawbark Parks, Lashbrook Park, Seckler, Oddfellows, and George Risgard. We've been addressing some ash trees in George Risgard especially, but there are some in Lashbrook that we'll have to watch as well. Most of them are in the wooded area. But if they like I said, if they fall into the street or,
you know, near any buildings, we'll be removing those as well. And then this just shows kind of a, zoomed in version of our ArcGIS map to show how we kinda look for gaps within the blocks to see see where we need some trees. So, so like 801 8th Street. There's a few areas there, so I might look at, you know, some of those areas if I have extra trees through that are donated. I just like to go and do a ground truing to make sure there's no other obstacles. And that might be why there aren't any trees there currently.
I did find a good database to look at how the tree canopy has changed over the years. I don't know if any of you can access this. The National Land Cover Database has a great map that shows kind of how it's been changing in our area from 1984 through 2022. I wasn't able to show kind of a picture of it on here, unfortunately. But but I would take a look at that. It's very interesting how it is changing. So it's mostly better is what I found through in Northfield,
which is great. Ash trees. There's currently ten ten documented ash trees in the boulevards and in the parks. The map at the top on the right shows, where all of those are located. It was first discovered emerald ash borer was first discovered in March 2023, shortly after I started, about a year after I started. Amazingly, it hasn't hadn't been here yet. So, and once the tree has the bores, it can take two to five years, for it to fully die. So so, unfortunately, we'll be seeing a lot of them coming out of dormancy after this winter,
and they're not a lot of them aren't gonna look very well. And there's 160 ash trees that are being treated. 70 of those, the residents are treating, thankfully. And in the parks, there's 60 trees that we're currently treating with the budget. And those will have to continue to be treated every two years until they don't look healthy anymore. Then we won't treat them, and we'll have to take those down. We currently have some EAB grants through the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The first one well, the 2021 preparing for EAB grant was in place when I started working for the
city. And those are all have been removed and replaced. And there was 125 ash trees through that grant. And then we currently have the shade tree bonding grant. And that is removing and replacing 200 ash trees in the environmental justice area that was defined by the MPCA in 2023, which is, the map with the blue on the top right hand side there. So I've so I've been focusing on that area for that grant. So that shows on in the photo on the the graphic on the right,
that shows where I've removed and replaced the trees in the last three years. 2026, we're currently removing them right now. And those will be replaced this summer, with new trees. And then we have one more year with that grant next year, that we'll be removing 50 more trees, Possibly more as there might be some extra funding available because, the contractor that is planting the trees came in their bid came in a little lower. So I have a little extra funding, thankfully. And the community tree planting grant, we just received that one
for 2026 and 2027. And that gave us funding to remove about two sixty ash trees, possibly more again because we're doing some in house removals, which will save a little bit. And again, the contractor came in with a lower bid than anticipated with the tree planting, the new trees. So, so hopefully we'll be able to take a few more down than two sixty. And then the bottom graphic on the right shows kind of where those trees are located that will be removed are being removed right now and will be replaced this
summer. And the tree species, the DNR had a list that they wanted us to, choose from. So that included serviceberry, a smaller ornamental tree for areas if there's near power lines or as a better understory tree, as well as ironwood, and then linden, elm, bur oak, swamp white oak, hackberry, honey locust. And those are all, they have better climate resiliency with the changing climate. The future ash tree plan, continue to seek more funding for the trees that are left,
to help with the removals and replacements. We do have a a bloom truck that can help with the removals. So the staff in the streets and parks department has been able to remove more of the larger trees. In the past, we've had to rely on the, contractor to remove those because we didn't have that truck available. So currently, there's ten ten ash trees. 160 are being treated, so they won't be removed if they remain healthy. 100 are being removed with the shade tree grant in the next couple years. And two sixty will be removed with the community tree grant.
And then the engineering department, when they do construction projects on the street, They will be removing some between 2026 and 2030. Unfortunately, some of those will probably not be in good health until 2030. So we may have to remove some of those before then. So that leaves about four twenty one ash trees to be removed in the next two to five years. And the approximate cost is 277,000, which the budget will cover most of it. But I'm hoping to find more funding to cover those.
Canopy diversity and resilience. The new trees that we are planting are being chosen to help increase the canopy diversity, based on the recommendations by the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The graphic on the right shows what the trees trees that the Minnesota DNR, recommends. Most of those are listed on the University of Minnesota website, but there are some additional trees that we can plant to that have resiliency. And mostly native trees, it's best to plant mostly native trees,
to support the ecosystem. So ideally, 70% of those should be native and 30% could be non native to help, further diversify the canopy. So some of the non natives would include the ginkgo, catalpas in the park, ideally, Asian birch, crab apple, red bud. Magnolias do better in the parks as well. And future, they're recommending some future trees. I haven't tried any yet. I haven't been brave enough to try any sycamores or yellowwoods. But those are two that we might try and see how they do.
The tree canopy of Northfield, currently there are a lot of maple trees. So it would be nice if we could plant less maples, and try to diversify further with, you know, any of the other species, basically. We are getting a lot of oaks, which is great. Oaks are great trees to have. But we want to make sure, you know, we keep the diversity in balance. So, DNR has a twenty-ten-five guideline. This is what some cities are going to it used to be a thirty-twenty-ten 10 guideline. Some are finding that more diversification is better
to prevent those, disease and insect issues. The spring tree sale we offer, through the Streets and Parks Department in April of every year. Again, those species have been chosen based on the list that I found on the Minnesota from the Minnesota DNR and the University of Minnesota. And again, I try to focus on offering trees that we don't have a lot of. So this year, I won't be offering maple trees to help further diversify the canopy. So, this is kind of the list that we'll have this year.
We haven't put it on the website yet, but it'll be on there soon. So, sometimes the residents' requests in the past, we've planted all the trees. But unfortunately, we don't have that volunteer group anymore. So, so we have a small group available. So if they ask if someone can help them plant, we do have a small volunteer group. And I will go and help them plant as well. And about 50 to 75 trees are purchased through the tree sale. So that helps with our tree canopy as well. As far as our tree distribution, we want to make sure we have a lot of different aged trees,
like people, just to make sure we have, you know, succession in the years to come. So there is a model. His name is Norman Richards that has been followed for years to make sure we have a good or strong urban forestructure for years in the years to come and for it to be stable and and strengthen the ecosystem. And this model has been great, but, they are finding that it is better to have larger trees, if possible, you know, more than what was recommended to make sure we have good carbon sequestration and better
ecosystem services through those large trees. So hopefully, we can get some of those large trees to survive and not have more insect and disease issues come through and take them out like the elm and ash trees have been taken out. Tree care, that's one that's one thing that's hard to keep up with with all the drought we've had. So we we use a lot of the tree bags in the streets and parks department, which is in the photo on the top right or on the right hand side and the top left photo.
And it's important to water a lot of these trees for at least three years. We always hope that mother nature helps us because otherwise, we're watering most almost all day, some of the weeks when it's been so dry. So, and trees I looked over for any broken branches from snow or ice or sometimes, the critters will chew the bark, and then we lose them that way too, unfortunately. So the trunk guards do help, when they're younger. Mulching is important with them to help retain the moisture. You just got to make sure it's not right up against the trunk,
or that will rot the trunk. So we try to pull that away as best we can. Sometimes I see, residents helping out on the boulevards, and I have to pull them all away a little bit, unfortunately. But, just to make sure that they aren't rotting. And leaving the leaves in the fall is okay. I always tell people make it's okay to leave some of those leaves at the base of those trees just to help, you know, provide extra habitat for the beneficial insects, and to hold more moisture in there if we don't get enough snow cover. The policies with the trees right now,
we don't replace the boulevard trees if they are lost due to maintenance activities, severe weather, or disease. We have an the annual tree sale is to so residents can purchase trees. And they can either purchase them to plant on the boulevards, or they can also put them in their private property. And right now, the streets and parks staff is pruning along the boulevards, to maintain clearance about 10 feet above the sidewalks and 13 feet above the streets. And then with the
projects, the street repair projects, the ash trees are being replaced with the, with the projects. And then they're being replaced with two trees for every one tree taken out, if there's enough space. And if there's not space, we try to find room for them somewhere else. Community development, I'm not as familiar with this because this is not what we deal with in the in our department. But, they when they are removing trees, the table on the top right hand side, they replace it's usually a one to one.
Most of the trees are 12 to 17 inches But anything larger than that, then, they have to replace them with the respective numbers as shown in that table. And then for the new new developments, they require one street tree every 40 foot of right of way along the boulevards. And then the parking lots, is based on again, I'm not as familiar with this. It's based on, the perimeter size. And for healthy tree guidance, I know the LDC chapter recommends the species diversity be at 33% of a single species with each,
with for each project, I would recommend that number be at 10% rather than 33 to make sure we have enough diversity with the canopy. And then with the sidewalks, it's best if the elm, poplar, freeman maple, silver maple, or normal maple are at least four feet away from the sidewalks to prevent them from buckling, because they have roots that are more aggressive and like to stay at the surface looking for oxygen. And trees, ideally, most trees are great in North Field. They've been planted at the proper depth.
But occasionally we'll find some that are planted too deep. And then they will die more about ten to twenty years after being planted. So sometimes sooner. And then adequate spacing is very important. Make sure, they're given enough room to grow. Sometimes they'll start looking for light and growing more lopsided. So it's important to make sure they have enough spacing. And trunk guards are very important with crab apple, honey locust, linen, and maple for the first two to five years. Otherwise, their trunks can split open in the winter. Or sometimes the rabbits and mice will chew on those trunks.
And staking, ideally, they should be removed after one to two years if they're stable enough. And I already talked about the watering. And structural pruning. I wish we had time to do more structural pruning on the younger trees because it's very important with certain trees in the first ten to twenty years to prevent some of those issues later as they get larger. So, and that's all I have. Any questions? Councilor Soka. Thanks. I have a question around the back to the, ash trees. Yes. You said that the budget covers the removal that the grants don't so there was,
like, 400 no. Sorry. 220 277,000 plus dollars that we'll need to use outside of grants to cover the remaining ash trees that will need to come down in the next two to five years. Correct. Is that is that money, though, you being used to take down the ash trees in lieu of other things that you'd be doing? And if so, what are those things? I guess, is the removal of the ash trees what is it kind of preventing your department
from doing? And Right. So there's always other trees that, decline and need to be removed as well, due to decay or if there are storm damage or you know, it's hard to say. But, yes. So and so that so the budget we have right now is based on that and not these additional ash trees. So so it will probably fall short. I don't know how much, but it's hard to say. I was just trying to gauge in my head, you know, how much we have. But, yeah, I mean,
if if we were to take down those ash trees each year, that would take the whole budget, you know, in the next four years. So just with the ash trees. So but so Mhmm. Yes, please. How many other trees do you take down in a year that aren't ash trees? Kinda odd just ballpark. Yeah. It's it's typically 50 to 60 trees or so. Councilor Peterson White. Can you talk a little bit about whether you have any particular approach or philosophy to trees in the downtown, what you think can work well?
Are there trees that can thrive in the downtown? I know we lost a tremendous number of trees on Division Street, and I this it it a lot of those were not very big, but we still really miss the shade. And just maybe I I'd just like to be educated a little more on kind of what what our goals should be for the canopy in the downtown, what you think is feasible, what we're trying to accomplish there? Yeah. It's a challenging area down there. So the trees that I selected to put down there are trees that can that do better. Not I'm not gonna say they do great because,
it's just a tough situation for any tree to grow. Although some of them, there were they were ash trees that were taken down, unfortunately, that had ash borer. So and there were some that were pretty large and did very well. So, so I'm hoping, you know, the trees that were planted can handle those conditions. So hopefully they will do well. But, we'll see what happens. And some of them have a narrow canopy because they're very close to the building. There's not a lot of, space, you know, next to the building. Those sidewalks aren't very wide. So some of those canopies will be more narrow, which will help as well.
So, but I I think it can be done. It's just gotta be the right tree. And and they don't always live as long. Most of the time, they don't just because of the conditions there. But but they're still providing benefits while they're there. So Counselor Peterson White. Are there any I mean, I know no formal action is requested. Staff is interested in direction regarding potential policy amendments. I guess I'm curious if there are, if there are any things that we could be doing differently in the downtown to encourage those trees to thrive? Like, would and and with the possible discussion around,
like, a special services district that might affect how we handle snow and ice in the downtown, is there a relationship between those policies that we should be thinking about? I guess it it probably would come down to if it was ever restructured down there, providing more space for those trees would be ideal, but, you kinda have to deal with what you have. I don't know what's going on. Maybe Dave knows what's going on underground there. So That's mayor, members, council. I think excuse me. From back when, I think division and seventh project when we did that and then on our Bridge Square plans, I think in the urban environments, we're seeing,
the planting areas, like, they're putting in a lot bigger soil, amended soil for the downtown area. So, like, even though you may have sidewalks over areas further outside, but there's also some structural type soil that was put in to help with the growth of the trees. So I think you're seeing that a lot more as downtowns really across the state are being redeveloped. They're really, not focused just directly on this the planting soil right around the tree. They're really getting that planting bed quite a bit larger to support more growth,
to get more of a campia trees. Yep. Councilor Peterson White. So you're saying that we, I mean, there are places in the downtown where we've created larger planting beds, in the right of way. Are there places where we should consider doing more of that? I mean, as a as a downtown business person and worker, I think it's it's tough to have so little shade. And I think that having shade in the downtown is a it's a cultural amenity. It's supportive of a thriving business district. There's just a huge amount of value. It's not just like nice to try to keep the trees alive but it has
a lot of value in terms of people wanting to stay in the downtown and spend more time there and be able to be comfortable while they're doing that in our public spaces and, also keeping the buildings cool as the climate changes. And trees can really help with that. So are are you saying that there are things that we could do in terms of the, possibly sidewalk and street spaces in the downtown that could help us have bigger, healthier trees? There's probably there's probably a couple of paths forward. One would be the immorta more immediate than how it current currently is built and,
you know, with the watering or immediate areas around the trees, look at reviewing the soil to see if we could widen that to stay within our current footprint. And long term, the downtown roads will be redeveloped into the future, and you can think about areas where you maybe would wanna expand planting beds and those sort of things to provide a better environment for trees to grow. So there's probably a two part. One would be more immediate, would be to focus more around the trees in a broader area. And then as the long term, when those streets are redone, think about expanding planting areas to be be more supportive of the tree canopy.
Counselor, so kind of a follow-up to that, I'm curious. Is Division Street plan for redevelopment any that's not on any document I've seen. Right? No. That's not currently on the plan. Yeah. Long, long term. Okay. I have a question about, so I see your rotational frequency for pruning is ten years, so a tenth of the city is done. Is there a map that shows your where where you're gonna be when? I that's kinda the supervisor arranges that.
And I know that they do mark in our ArcGIS map which trees have been pruned. You know? And and I think they reset it every ten years, I think. So, or we can look at which year, you know, they did which area they were in which year. So Right. And I think some some years, they can do more. It depends on the snow, if they're not plowing snow. So Yeah. I think it would be helpful for people to know when when you're almost when you're coming. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Get me ready. Yeah. And I knew they do some Facebook posts,
but I don't know if they've been, you know, putting which areas they're in in those posts. But, but, yeah, we I can let the supervisor know that that would be helpful. Yeah. Thank you. I'm also curious about, there's been no mention of, the interaction between mowing and trees. And I've seen quite a bit of damage to that our mowing machines are doing to our new trees. And so I'm curious about policies that we can enact to protect the trees from from the mowing, and, also, I'm interested in reducing turf in general.
Yes. Yep. I agree. Yes. I would like to see more, you know, I think they call them soft landings under the trees just to prevent some of that happening. I don't know that there's anything in the policy that talks about, you know, mowing under the trees and weed weed whipping is what usually hits them. But, but, yes, that would be helpful for the trees if there was something in place. Other other questions? We're still at questions. Right? Administrator Martin, you have a question? Thanks, Mary. Are you okay if I press the public works director on that question? I think it'd be interesting to hear if we're at least even if there isn't
a policy, is do we try and guide staff on that to your awareness, Dave? Do you know that off the top of your head as far as, like, around the trees and things? I mean, emergency council, I would I would really have to check with our manager and our supervisor related to our operations when we're working with our staff. I'm I'm sure there's probably some training on that that we're we're sharing. Certainly, there's many, there's a lot of stuff that we don't mow, all the boulevard trees. That's up to the private property owners, but certainly something that we can take into account on the areas that we mow in, you know, along the highways or in the parks in our our mowing areas.
I can send you some photos. Great. One other thing, mayor, if you wouldn't mind. One other follow-up maybe maybe they could just address is on the boulevards where it's, private property, so, like, along housing areas where it's city boulevards and I assume those fall into our management area. How do we how do you look or guide to residents who maybe choose to trim those themselves, in those property areas? I'm sure that happens regularly. Is it something that we help give guidance to, or is it frowned upon or any feedback on on that to maybe help the capacity that we have if the citizens can do it effectively?
There I don't think there is some some residents are afraid to touch those trees, and then other residents, you know, will will do what they can to help them. And they think they're helping them anyway. But, there isn't anything in place, but we are planning actually at we've talked about it for the, market the home and what's it called now? The market fair? Home and mar home and garden show. We're planning to put a, informational guide about the boulevard trees, and hopefully, somebody will notice that, possibly a Facebook post,
in the future too to help with that. But, yeah, there hasn't been a lot of communication on that with the residents, and that's that would be helpful. Councilor Beamer. As far as the information goes, you know, have we thought about, like, an informational placard that goes on a little, like, for the lack of a better term, those little h stands that you see on campaign signs and stuff like that and stick it in the ground next to the tree when you plant the tree, letting the homeowners know or, you know, the the homeowners
property there, you know, walk up, knock on the door, and hand them some information about it and say, hey. We're happy to let you know, here's here's what to do. You know? We're gonna help you do this, but, you know, if you're into taking this over, here's here's what we recommend you do. Have we thought about doing anything like that? As I mean, I'll probably let Shelley respond. I know that when we're doing a lot of the ash tree replacement and planting these trees, I mean, she mentioned that there's a lot of communication with the resident there to see if they can help support with the watering to keep them alive.
So they're I just don't know about any sort of placard, but certainly something we could take into account. I don't know if there's any other handouts or anything that we could provide or if you have any insight you'd wanna share. Yeah. Yes. With the grant trees, I've I reached out to all the residents regarding those trees, but I'm not sure, like, as far as with the engineering projects, there's I know you tried to have meetings with some of the residents, but I don't know if that's discussed, you know, with them, regarding care of those trees. But I know most people in this community are passionate about trees.
So, and they will reach out to me and ask, you know, if if they can prune them or if if they want us to come and prune them, we certainly will help them with that as well. So Do you want the comments on this portion now be before we go on to the tree replacement, or do you want just should we hold on comments till the end? K. I mean, if you wanna provide comments, that's fine. Anyone have comments in addition to the questions? Okay. I'll try okay. I'll try to go through my list quickly. So, first off, thank you so much, for the great job you're doing removing the ash trees and knitting all those grants
together. That's amazing. It's fantastic. I was on the Environmental Quality Commission back in 2008, and we saw this coming and didn't know how we'd stay up to speed with this. And just thank you so much for that. That's a tremendous job that you're doing. I also wanted to share another good map is the Met Council includes Northfield in some of its maps. And so they didn't do the tree canopy for all of Northfield. They only did it for Dakota County, but it would be I'm curious if we reached out.
Maybe they would share the, whatever data they're using to create that. Because the surface temperature map, they did do all of Northfield. So I found that really helpful. They had the, the twenty sixteen sixteen one is not very helpful. Mhmm. So I like to think about the surface temperature as I'm also looking at the tree coverage Mhmm. To think about shade and climate and where we should be. Sounds like you're already doing a lot of things peacefully. So yes, so thank you. And to Councilor Peterson's White's point about downtown, I think we might also need to consider some artificial shade downtown in addition to
our natural shade. And so I am on the National Extreme Heat Task Force for the climate mayor, so that's something that I'm really passionate about and think that we're we're gonna need to get out in front of that because we're gonna have more and more 90 degree, heat days in the future. I support your interest in increasing the tree species diversity and bringing that percentage down to 10% per species. So, definitely, I support that. Let's see. Oh, I would, I'm curious about an equity lens for the tree sale. If there's I know you can buy a tree and donate it to the park.
I don't know if there's an option to buy a tree and donate it to a neighbor. And and I also have a I think that might also be something we can do with, like, the tree bank idea that is in the replacement tree thing. If you're someone's doing 10 trees, maybe some could be imbued with an equity lens about how we would get the trees out and about for everyone. And, I wanna encourage you to jump into assisted tree migration and consider some trees that we don't have here yet. And I think that's a pretty cool idea that,
we think about trees that to the south of us that are doing well and knowing that there is a rate that they know climate change, how many miles, you know, it's moving a year. And so I do think assisted tree migration is a great tool for us as we're working on our, climate ready woodland. So thank you. Those are my comments. Councilor Peterson White. Thank you. I didn't think I had any more comments, but you just inspired me to chime in and say, I like the really long term vision about creating more patches of green space that can support more and bigger trees in the downtown.
But I also am very aware that, there there may well be a need for artificial shade now. It's not even a future need. But I as a as a downtown retailer, I can attest that I would say each of the last three or four summers we have had significant stretches of time, usually in August, sometimes late July, where it is so hot downtown that it there is almost no foot traffic. And, it's just one more way, you know, climate change is, you know, causing damage in our community. But, I think that this is one thing that we have the potential to mitigate by
creating, artificial shade in certain spots that would make make our downtown a more appealing space to be on a hot day. Because right now, it's pretty unappealing space to be on a hot day. So just wanna chime in and get my 2¢ on that. Thank you. Oh, councilor Beamer. Thank you. Kind of a question slash comment. Just to touch base on one of the points that was made in one of the earlier slides about about making sure that we're planting the right trees in a boulevard and we're not getting them too close to a bituminous trail or,
you know and Dave, you can probably answer this. I'm sure a lot of the reconstruction projects that we're doing now are the cross sections on the streets probably show us drain tile behind the curb and stuff like that in some instances, if not all. And tree roots probably a problem with drain tile, you know, somewhere in that boulevard area. Mayor, miss council. A lot of the newer reconstructions we do, put drain tile in to mitigate some water to preserve the life of the roadway. So, definitely, that can be an issue.
A lot of times, it's constraints in the boulevard and try and do I mean, I think, meet our walking and biking network goals too if we're adding, if we're retrofitting the boulevards and trying to add sidewalk, trying to preserve trees, but also, building out our infrastructure. So that's, you know, still try to have the balance of trying to accommodate both, really, and trying to find trees, working with Shelley and landscape architects to pick trees that would fit in the more narrower confined space. I mean, I and we'd love to have a 10 to 15 foot boulevard everywhere,
nice planting, but it it can be challenging and difficult. But I hear what you're saying, counselor. Counselor Beamer. Thanks. And just kinda one more thought, and it's probably gonna pop up here anyways. But, you know, when we're talking about these projects and we we have our tree replacements and and so on and so forth, I think we're at a one or two for one deal right now. And we get into some of these projects and those those areas are just too constrained. I think back to the landscape plans from the water from the,
water treatment plant where we had a 100 and some trees going on that property, and it just seemed like a massive overkill. Maybe we're to touch on the mayor's, you know, inclusivity portion of it, maybe we're look at potentially taking some of these trees that where it doesn't make sense to put all those trees in that same project scope. You know, maybe we take a look at taking some of those trees and and giving a
a free option in the tree sale in that tree sale option there so that people that maybe can't afford to come in and buy a $60 tree or a $130 tree or a $150 tree still have an option to come in and potentially look at buying a tree that still meets us within our within our replacement guidelines, and it gets a tree somewhere in town. It does just because we have a tree replacement policy doesn't mean that we have to put it back in that same project area.
I work up in Eden Prairie, and a lot of the projects that we do up there, Eden Prairie is fine as long as it goes somewhere within the city limits. And and I think that's a better approach to take versus trying to confine everything into into the same project area. Mr. Bennett. Mayor Mascosa. I think in in practice, we have been in these past projects if it's constrained and to try to meet our two to one, we have been going outside of the project areas and planting. So we are currently doing that. I think one thing that we we haven't thought about doing,
councilor, something that possibly would be considered is that if you, if we were to take those amount of trees, if we knew constraint that we were constrained before we even bid the project would be to maybe set those trees aside to be part of a tree sale. So that'd be something that we'd have to explore further, but certainly something that could potentially be done. Administrator Martig. Means mayor, another another issue we have to keep in mind related to street financing projects is, bond compliance. So So if it's included in the debt, we typically need to keep it in the project area. You can't use debt dollars issued outside of the project area for tree funding.
We might be able to be creative to see if we can widen, you know, areas maybe around that, might be creative or we might be able to if we could find a cash source rather than to like where it would be designated cash source where maybe we levy a little bit more in addition to cover those outside of it. But that is a challenge that we have from a client compliance standpoint related to the debt as it usually needs to stay in the project area for any expenses that are paid for through that. Think oh, admit counselor Salka. Thank you. This is gonna sound cartoonish compared to the other comments that were made,
but, another, outreach option, is the welcome wagon in town. I don't know how long it's been since everyone here has moved into a new house here, but you get this great, brochure or basket, basically, of all these coupons from businesses in town, and there could be a great pamphlet or info sheet about where you can plant trees and what you should plant. I don't think most people know that they can utilize their boulevard or what they can or can't do on their boulevard, so that might be another great way to get the word out.
But thank you for all that you're doing, especially with all the ash trees. I can't imagine. Thank you. Administrator Marte Higgins. Just one little thing to keep in mind. I'd have to research to see if it's the same with the same welcome wagon as before. I've dealt with them in other communities too is one of our reservations where we have participated in some communication when we found how some of the welcome wagons take people's information from that and share it related to business data that's part of that process. And so just for private privacy purposes,
we have had some reservations to understand how the information because there's usually some questionnaires that go along with it. And I think they might give some of the businesses offering coupons. There might be data that is used as part of that process. So I just want to be careful a little bit in some of that collection, the information that we have. Mr. Bennett, is there more to that on the tree replacement policy? I mean so just okay. Couple things in general. So and I think Shelley did cover a lot of it. So the we have the two to one tree replacement policy. A lot of the replacement's been done with with grants and the tree sale.
And we we typically have not been, allocating any really budget dollars to purchase and supply trees. Really around the community, we do get donated trees too. So I think that's something that I think, you know, we've been successful on these grants that have had not only just removal, but then we're getting replanting as part of the the portion of the grants. We'll have to continue to monitor that to see if that continues or really what happens as more of the ash trees have to come out. And are we getting, dollars to replant those or what we would do if we just have to continue
to take diseased trees and then we don't have replanting dollars. So something to they'll have to work, think about and monitor from a budget perspective over the next few years. Thank you. Okay. So then that moves us to the budget calendar, yes? We're complete with that item. Thank you so much. All right. Our next item is a review of the twenty twenty seven-twenty twenty eight budget calendar and points of emphasis, Administrator Martin. Alright. Thank you, mayor. Remember, city council go through our,
proposed budget calendar and some points of emphasis as you indicated, mayor. So as our budget analyst and finance director has been working on our budget calendar, we have been doing work on our five year financial plan carrying over from last year, as well as we do our preparation. The calendar tonight is mainly to inform you. Certainly welcome feedback, but a couple of things. I'll try and focus on some of the changes in particular that we've got and some of the things we're thinking on. This isn't the details aren't all completely framed out, but we're continuing to do that. I would say, one of the goals just off the top would be as we've we've tried to
focus on specific dates, to try and stick to those. Sometimes our agenda items, particularly if they're driven by other issues, like agreements with other folks or other that it can shift back. But with the budget calendar, we're really trying to stick to it because, historically, we have sometimes shifted back some of these. So one thing I think would be is if you check your calendars and you have personal commitments to be elsewhere during those events, we still could massage the schedule potentially. But if you don't have plans, if you could try and pencil in some of these key dates of the budget
meetings, it could be really helpful because it's obviously one of the most important things that we do related to prioritization and spending work with it as well. So if you ever have questions, I can try and emphasize which ones of these are probably particularly more critical than others. Obviously, there are decision dates that are important, but there are also heavier work sessions related to some of that. I'm gonna just kinda go chronologically through here, call a few things out. I might repeat a few things on the areas of focus, for the next year that we've identified, but also open opportunities if there are things you'd like us to be starting to
research, or have whether it's process or detail related, I could take feedback tonight or another time, and we'll plan on amending this and adding it back at the April meeting. We didn't list every budget related issue in all of these meetings on this high level calendar because we do cover other issues. So in April, as an example, we'll be bringing forward the draft kind of five year financial management plan with some options on kind of where we're at, just making assumptions with our current capital plans and personnel to know kind of where we're starting point is and maybe some options.
And again, one of the changes on that from prior years is, we didn't really kick off, I would say, until probably the audit was in June and then we really start kicking off in July. I would say the how we're approaching the budget this year with, you know, last year, we had change in council leadership with the strategic plan. I would say there was definitely some shifts on some priorities from the council, whether that's spending, property tax impacts, and projects. So that last year was a little more challenging about how we shift that and I hopefully, we're hitting the groove a little bit more that we're gonna build off of what
we heard from you last year. So I'd say we're going to pick up on last year's budget work that we did in that second year budget to kind of not do a ground up restart from staff on request, but rather really use that as a starting point, which should expedite our discussions because we are we shouldn't have as many new things. Now there might be some exceptions, like we have a new community development director who's evaluating his department. And, I think he will still be evaluating things during our budget process, but might have thoughts on, like, organizational structures or duties or those kinds of things that we I think we'll wanna
honor, some key leadership changes like that to provide some feedback. But we are planning on that. Another example of maybe a detail that doesn't show up on that meeting for, like, other budget items that might get added in is we are planning on some, Northfield Community Resource Center lease discussions to continue at that April 14 meeting building off of our work last year because it is a big rock issue and one of our financial challenges challenges we've been, having impacts on. And so our plan would be to bring some information on that as well. Probably, the next few months,
I would say, on the schedule here are a little more, probably worn path from prior years. So planning on in June, having a follow-up on that capital improvement plan and capital equipment plan that was passed last year to do an update. We'll also have our audit presentation in June. One thing I've made note of that was requested that we weren't able to do last year that I've received some interest by a member of the council is, could we get it out onto the street and potentially on street projects and things in particular, have a little better context by actually maybe doing a bus tour or making a
stop. So I haven't talked to mister Bennett about that in detail. I think we'll probably have to find a way to do that outside of that meeting because you as you sit in on those meeting, that's a lot to digest. So I'm not sure the best way to do it. Should we do it before the meeting? Should we first have the meeting and then do the tour? So we'll be kind of exploring that issue, but that is one feedback that I've noted that we're gonna try and address. July, we'll be looking at kind of what I would call the higher level budget summary, but it will still be significant doubt, significant discussion of budget in July. It's gonna be a little heavier, but won't get Drilled down to every department detail,
but there will be bigger cost impacts building off of those April discussions in particular in June on capital planning that will should start to shift us into, kind of the two year budget plan and some of those impacts. September 15, we're really refining it down. If we're in an ideal world, a couple of things I would say, I don't we'll see what kind of progress we'll make as we go forward. But the ideal situation would be is that the preliminary levy at the September for 20 for next year, hopefully, we'd be far enough along where we've actually got a pretty good preliminary budget information
to present to the public. So that October, we can really maybe take a pause from the council's working meetings and turn that more into informational to the public about what the proposed budget is after you adopt the preliminary levy. Maybe try and wade into, is there feedback mechanisms we can do from people more on in addition to informing? Are there ways that we can consult the public on that? An example might be projects or ones you might be able to consult on or maybe it's just overall. But I think we're gonna be exploring what maybe are some strategies that we could
have. So maybe listening sessions and informational sessions, communication upgrades. And if we can stick to the calendar, it will also help our communications team plan and become more predictable. With that, I am starting to probe some potential presentations and schedules within this. And and we'll be having more internal meetings with that, but we'll be having more discussions on that as well. The utility rates, I would say since last year as a reminder, we did just do our updated multiyear utility rate study last year. So this will be the second year of that. I would say,
based on like the major operations and capital planning, we're probably going to be it's going to be very similar. So if we look back to that utility rate study, it was kind of a five year firm kind of plan. Internally, it goes out more ten years, but really what we kind of public facing was more focused on the five year plan. So the later you get in those years, the more maybe there are some adjustments to that. But I think you can pretty much expect we'll be recommending what was in that report, maybe with some minor tweaks with the council on the utility rates. And the plan would be to actually adopt the utility rates at that preliminary levy
night, so that we've had kind of information leading up to that related to the utility funds to have some discussions with that. That's helpful because it is a piece of our budget that does impact our business and residents so they can do budgeting for the upcoming year. So if we can give six months notice, I think that can be really helpful. We'll get into more detail too. Like, we've increased our communications with our major industrial users who are permitted for water and sewer. So we're also we've also added some extra steps in pre and post communications with them,
to offer a little more customized service to offer to meet and inform particularly our larger water and sewer users related to our potential utility impacts with that. So again, October information and engagement, we're hoping that would be more of a focus of that time period within in November coming back with the kind of starting to fine tune and really prepare for the levy and budget adoption in December and knowing those tax statements start to get hit really in late November kind of probably rolling into our wrapping up phase.
Our two year budget, we will probably be doing work during that time to have more refinement on our second year of our budget, which is one of the goals I'll talk about a little bit that was also part of our strategic plan period. Another item that we didn't quite hit last year, but has been a goal for the final adoption is a few things and I'll highlight it again later is, our strategic plan does have us focusing more on an adopted two year budget, even though we've done two year budgeting, even since I've been here, the second year really hasn't been as refined. But again,
I think we will be doing more of that this year just of that continuation process. Under state law, you can't appropriate money beyond the one year. So you can't legally designate what the second year after will be. But we can at least get more serious about it. So our budgets is actually printing and showing to the public a final adopted budget. This two years would be the goal to, again, start to have more enhanced financial management planning that isn't year to year, but is over a multiyear period. And that is one of your strategic goals, and we take those serious to try and hit that.
And this year was supposed to be the first year that we start to actually adopt that. So that will be a goal. In addition to that would be to have the five year financial management plan adopted. What that final plan will look like from a formatting and written standpoint, I don't know yet. We're kinda starting more with just the numbers page, but we'll probably be building that into a more descriptive document as well, with that. I would also say with our street financing projects, the goal would be is that we in addition to that budget hearing, we'd also be having a hearing or street reconstruction projects.
We didn't hit that date this this year, for for last year, but I think in the prior year, we had done it in December. So that would be also the goal so that we can set that sets our financing tool that we use, are currently using where we have to have a public hearing. But that should also allow us to be better positioned to be doing bidding of our street projects and things in the early winter where we should get better pricing, more competition on budget bidding. So if we can have the financing all secured and done in December for kind of hitting that Q1 of the following year, I think that will be a stronger practice for us to do that as well
and to be more poised for that work. Some of this I've already covered, but I just wanted to call out. So again, there are multiple areas of our strategic plan that are finance related, but this is really the heavy pieces that are very directly tied to our budgeting. So again, our our goals are, you know, financially responsible organization. We're tracking that by our taxation expectations. So the property tax levy and the tax rate are outcomes that we have. So we ultimately on that far right hand wanna have a five year financial plan aligned with the service level and then a two year budget cycle.
And our goal was to start adopting those on an annual basis. And another one that I didn't talk about in detail that we've started to work on to varying degrees is we'll be looking at expanding exploration around alternative revenue sources. Some of those will take more research than others. And so just beyond property taxes, are there any fees? So if we have a fee for service program, I didn't add the detailed slide as an example, but if we have a rental licensing program, some analysis around what is our expectations about how much should the actual cost of
providing a program be passed along to maybe those that are having the fees or should there be should the penalties pay a higher cost of the cost of running the program for those that aren't maybe as good of actors on taking care of properties? That's just one example. We've been looking at local option sales tax as an alternative financial tool. We've been there's been some discussions at the planning commission around park dedication fees that were kind of off really kind of what the industry standard is. So they've started to explore over a couple of months. It should be coming to you fairly soon on some ideas with that.
So, alternative revenues for how much there is available. There isn't a lot of alternative revenues out there at the state of Minnesota grants to cities, but we will be exploring some of those. One of the organizations that we look at related to best practices about financial management policies or procedures to use that we'll be leaning more into, particularly on these priority areas would be the GFOA. We have to meet GFOA certification related to our auditing purposes. Northfield has even prior to my time and we've been consistently meeting that. We have been certain standards that we have to do to meet that. So we just received notice of last year's award that we did meet it.
We are recognized as for excellence in its financial reporting. So you have to be on time, you have to have certain metrics met on the formatting. So we've been doing that, we're going to continue to do that. We have added this year where we did submit the distinguished budget presentation award. We did meet it by the deadline. Our new budget analyst should be, that really allowed us to actually ramp up many of our financial practices. We're getting much stronger because of that position. Oops, do I need to pause? I'll be quick here, but if you wanna You have one minute and forty five seconds.
Do you need more than that? I can do it unless you wanna Okay. We're gonna move it. Okay. We trust you, but we're still gonna move it. Let's make a question. We're gonna give you a little grace. Okay. Yes. Councilor Beamer. Point of order. Motion to extend the meeting. Thank you. Is there Business is finished. Thank you. Is there a second? Councilor Soka. Second. Alright. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. We did actually publish that. It's included in your packet as a hyperlink, so it is on our budget page currently.
The full budget, I think it's like two fifty pages plus or something. I would say we will get better at the analysis as part of that in the upfront executive summaries, but it's a first year and it's gonna, you know, get better every year as we get it refined. But it is all out there. The public can start digging into if they wanna start prepping for the budget for next year. That's a great document to take a look at to start getting educated or counselors could as well because it's in a format that's way more detailed and even packaged more than you've seen it holistically, to take a look at that. But our intention would be to continue to do that.
We're gonna build off of that in the future. Then other there are many different other examples they have on budgeting best practices. This might transition a little bit into a couple of areas that I talked about in October, probably being some focus areas. But we're also gonna think about how we do this throughout the budget process as well. Public communications, they have training modules. They have examples of things to think of. There are other organizations to do this, but we need to think more of, like, how do we have plain language that summarizes the proposed budget, key changes, impacts, and simple terms? So admittedly,
a lot of times when I'm focused with the council and budget meetings, I'm almost more of the policymaker focus, but I also thinking how we might be concurrently educating the public along the way. So maybe there are briefing documents that go with your detailed information or some of the things we're thinking of explaining the why, why our decisions, or their community priorities, service level considerations, strategic goals, even little things like, if you wanna do this, how much staff time might be involved in that. There was some of the HRA language that I thought was good that was added that had some of those things factored in related to how maybe different changes might
relate to more staffing needs. Building off of our our web page probably is our primary way to be our quote unquote hub of budget information, having the timeline presentations and materials. I think we're gonna be reevaluating what's on there and how much is too much and can we simplify it. And then key key updates consistently through the budget. So again, the more we can stick to our timeline too, it will probably also help with the importance of the cadence being similar on budget communications as important for the public so that they can understand key milestones under and
it be consistent along the way. So those are some things we're thinking about from a communication standpoint. I would say that foundationally in my mind, I think there are some very clear things and tangible items that we can do to implement. We have some ambitious goals with the five year financial plan, the two year budgeting, and then the informational. I love the idea of the enhanced public engagement, but I think we have to be realistic about this year. What might we wait into that we can actually deliver on potentially related to some enhanced engagement opportunities, because we do already have a lot of new ambitious goals with some of these
financial processes in our budget. But again, how might we seek input on priorities probably in that October date more on engaging and is there certain things we can seek feedback from the public so that their input can also be valued to to maybe make adjustments along the way if we need to. We know you're all doing that too informally through getting emails or trying to promote your own communications of what's going on, answering questions, gathering feedback when you're on the street. But are there more intentional ways of doing that? Might we talk about service priorities and trade offs.
So what do people value making sure they understand that there are value judgments that are tied to budget numbers, not just the numbers. Obviously, we got into some of those things last year, but trying to how can we articulate that because again, a budget can be really overwhelming. So how do you make feedback like easy to understand and be able to get feedback from the public? Multiple engagement opportunities. Maybe there's listening sessions where information's been shared and we just go and have more of a town hall setting where you more hear from the public and answer questions. Do we go around the wards,
have a couple of meetings out in the neighborhoods or something? I'm not sure. But those are probably tangible things we could realistically integrate into a process. I think we gotta be careful about how much of a participatory process might be realistic this year. I think we wanna make sure we are measured and realistic on those if we're gonna try and commit or deliver on those. Presentations, try and clarify in those cases if we are gonna take input, where might we actually take input and how would that be used versus clarifying when it's more of an informational point too for the public, I think, is another piece.
So with that, I this is, again, high level. Some of the areas of priority that staff has identified or you've identified through the strategic planning processes. Mainly was in planning on informing tonight, but if you have a reaction to our ideas on your mind on process wise, I would entertain that. Otherwise, we'll be continuing this calendar into that April meeting, and we will be starting to hit the ground running hard, I would say, in April, with our budget processes. It's the beginning of quarter two. So I'd hope to get a little more start in quarter one, but I still feel like we're in good shape and staff has been working.
Even that budget book took a lot more work than maybe I had anticipated. We got it out there. We'll even get it out there earlier next year too. So I'm hoping we could get it out in January. It slid into February this year. So next year, I'd also like to have that book ready to go in mid January at the latest to kind of wrap that book up or maybe even earlier. So I'll turn it back to you, Mayor. Great. Thank you. Are there questions or comments for the yes, Councillor Dolan, please. I'm very quick. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Amartig, I have your memo here. Thank you as well, that you sent me that if there's a way to move up the October,
I would. The reason I say they're twofold. One, it'll be the middle of a very interesting midterm election season. But in October 2, people will more likely say to me, Peter, you've already made up your mind. And then getting that feedback, it just October is a rush month. If we can move if we can get more input from the public, particularly as it relates to their household budgeting in the summer months, I think we'll be miles ahead. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Soukup? I just really wanna second that. I think July would be a great opportunity, especially if I really like what you mentioned about a more town hall setting.
I think it's important to talk about the why and and have more, like, accessible forms of explaining where the funding comes from and what it goes to. But getting that feedback, I think, in October, can I worry that it sets people up to think that they have, that the input has a lot more impact than it can have at that point? It's still important, but to I think it's more valuable in July. Thank you. Councilor Beamer. I would agree with both of you. I did October, you know,
we're already we've already set the cap. So at that point, does the public input really weigh on weigh on that much? In July, we're still deep into the discussions, and I I think from a transparency standpoint, it it's way better for the citizen input at that point than after we've already set the cap. Great comments. Thank you. I concur. Thanks, Barrett. We did anticipate maybe that is one of the feedbacks. So one of the things I think we internally talked about is,
as we get more advanced, I think, in the multiyear financial planning, it'll be easier to do this in the future too where you'll be able to get feedback more because if you're looking multiple years out, people might have more input. I think our initial I would say that probably how we would approach that then related to maybe adding in the yes and example. We'll keep the October one, but how we might be able to accomplish that by moving it more to July or maybe even June ish, maybe around that time period is we do have the five year financial plan,
the utility rates that are do make adjustments on the capital plan, and we might have to relate it to property tax levy priorities and things too. We could probably build off of, like, informing the public too that we are in the middle of doing our work. But if you build off of the prior multi year plans that we do have and you're going to have a first five year update to the five year financial plan, we could probably build it where we're informing them on certain things of the processes and some of the preliminary information, but they know that these steps also because we are gonna have a lot more
in July and August that we'll be building towards that. But we could probably build in some feedback mechanisms to know that is it is getting built. Here are the prior assumptions and the information we're getting as we go. But you can take the feedback as you go, but the council won't have all of the issues figured out heading into the preliminary levy. Whereas once we're in there, it's in pretty good shape. So, I will take that feedback because there's pretty clear unanimous consensus, I think, on that interest. So I'll work with our budget analyst, our department coordination team, which is kind of our senior management directors and the finance director to brainstorm that
along with our communications team to add add some additional pieces of that into the calendar. And we're I think we're gonna also try and have some more specifics of ideas to come back to you about what might be some specific things we might do for ideas or if you have ideas yourself and what you think would work well for your constituents to how might they like to get their information or do engagement. If you have any ideas around how that might be helpful, those could be things you're probing now even with them. Like, is it in person listening sessions?
Is it prerecorded information? Is it written things? How they get their information to help digest to have feedback might be things you could ask to to help us while we're starting to build this as well. And I certainly welcome more ideas or input if you got more of it too. Thank you. Councillor Beamer? No. I think you're doing the okay. Yeah. Motion to adjourn. Thank you. Is there a second, Councillor Sorge? Second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.