Call City Council meeting for Tuesday, 04/15/2025. To order, could I have roll call, please? Council Member Burbank. Here. Mvoke. Here. McCann. Here. Svendy. Here. Voss. Here. Dotson. Here. Rainey. Here. And Mayor Jessup. We have all seven of the council here tonight. Thank you. Would everyone please rise as Dave Burbank leads us in the Pledge of Allegiance. All right. Good evening, everyone. I'm not as windy as it was last night evening, thankfully. First thing we're looking for tonight is approval of the count.
The council agenda. So moved. There are no additions or corrections. So I'd look for a motion. Okay. Sorry. Speak into it. Motion by the time. To approve, do I have a second? Second. Second by Brent. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Council's agenda is approved. First tonight we have a public hearing to modify the development District Number 3 establish a TIF district and use of TIF and so we'll go to Troy with that. Good evening sir. Good evening. Sputtering Components is proposing a 12,460
square foot addition onto their current facility on Alexander Drive in the Industrial Park. The addition would consist of 7,000 square feet of office space and 5,460 square feet of manufacturing space. The addition would allow the company to add five engineers and 10 additional production workers. The company is requesting tax increment financing to assist with the cost of the addition. The total TIF amount generated for this project is estimated $260,000 over a nine year period. The city does incur some consulting costs for establishing the TIF District and this would
be reimbursed in the city over the life of the TIF and staff would recommend approval of both the resolution approving the TIF, the modification of the TIF District as well as the approval for the development agreement that's also attached here. Thank you. With that we will open up the public hearing at 07:02. Anyone that wishes to discuss the the TIF agreement please step forward and state your name. Seeing no one coming forward. I would look for a motion to close the public hearing.
Motion by don to okay dan to close. Who is the second? Second by Nate. Any further discussion? Being none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And the public hearing is now closed. With that we have the 1.2.1 resolution. Troy do you have anything to add to that? No. The resolution to prove TIF and then the development agreement to follow. Okay. Thank you. Any questions on this? If not, I'd look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Dan to approve. Do I have a second?
Second. Second by Nate. Nope. Any further discussion? Second by Brent. This is Brent. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And the resolution is passed. Last thing on this is 1.2.2, the development agreement with sputtering components. And is there any questions on that? If not, I'd look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Dan to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Don. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Mayor Jessup isn't here tonight.
So, Administrator Bussey, do you have anything on his behalf? Thank you. We're now up to the consent agenda. Consent agenda consists of city council meeting minutes, other board commission minutes, licenses, permits and miscellaneous items all grouped together for the council to review prior to the meeting and vote on collectively. With that I will entertain a motion on these consent agenda items. So move. Motion by Dan to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Don. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.
Opposed? The consent agenda is approved. We're now up to the action items first tonight is three point one the finance report and I turn it over to Vice President Doug Boss for that. Thank you, sir. Checks for your consideration tonight over $20,000 are as follows. Dollars 23,383 central farm service for fleet fuel, $36,726 to Dakota supply group for sanitary sewer lids. $115,212 for the League of Minnesota's city's insurance trust that is the quarterly workers comp premium
April through June of twenty twenty five. '1 hundred '3 thousand '7 hundred '70 dollars to McQueen Equipment Company. That is for refurbishing ladder truck numbers 9704 at the fire department and miscellaneous supplies. $22,175 to Pape Companies Inc, the West Hills continuum conversion. Other expenditure is $174,979 for a grand total of $476,245.98
Thank you. Counsel, you've heard your report. With that, I would look for a motion to approve. No move. Motion by Dan to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Brent. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We have three ordinances tonight. The first is 3.2.1. The second final reading of proposed ordinance 20 five-five chapter one twenty charitable gambling. And with that I will go to sit Mr Busse. Good evening and thank you. There have been no changes since the first reading of the proposed ordinance that increases
the amount of, premise permits from five to eight and staff would recommend approval. Thank you. Any questions for Chris on this? Motion to approve. Motion by Nate to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Doug. Any further discussion? Seeing this as an ordinance, I'd ask for a roll call vote, please. Council member Burbank. Aye. Vokey. Aye. McCann. Aye. Senby. Aye. Voss. Aye. Dotson. Aye. And Rainey. Aye. All seven ayes. Thank you. Next ordinance tonight is 3.2.2 second final reading of proposed ordinance 25 dash zero six.
This is adopt, supplement to the 2015 ordinance code and once again, said Mr. Busey. Mr. Walbrand, please. Oh, I'm sorry. Mr. Walbrand. Good evening, sir. Just like, Administrator Bucy's last ordinance, this ordinance has not changed since the last and you're called upon tonight to give it a second reading. Thank you. Any questions on this? Motion to approve. Motion by Doug to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Dave. Any further discussion? Once again, could I have a roll call vote, please? Councilmember Burbank. Aye. Oke. Aye.
McKean. Aye. Cindy. Aye. Datsun. Aye. And Rainey. Aye. All seven ayes. Thank you. Our final ordinance tonight is 3.2.3. It's the first reading of proposed ordinance 20 five-seven rezone 10 to a PUD for June and we go to Troy Klecker with that. All right we have a request from CRK properties to rezone property from I-one light industrial to PUD planning and development. Choice Technical Academy is wishing to relocate, to this property and move into some existing office space that was,
will be vacated from by, Steele County Community Corrections. The school has about 51 students and about 15 staff. There are 42 parking private parking stalls on the property which does meet the ordinance requirements. They did propose a drop off location on Cedar Avenue and that would work for buses but if it's parents dropping off kids we are recommending that that be done on the private parking lot area. It did go to planning commission. We had a public hearing and had no comments from the public on that.
The planning commission did recommend approval with the conditions listed there in the staff report. So staff would recommend approval of this zone change request. Thank you. Any questions for Troy on this? Hearing none, I look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Don to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Doug. Any further discussion? Once again, it's an ordinance or roll call vote, please. Councilmember Burbank. Aye. Bokey. Aye. McKean. Aye. Spendi. Aye. Voss. Aye. Dotson.
Aye. And Rainey. Aye. All seven ayes. Thank you. We have nine resolutions tonight. First one is 3.3.1, changes to parking on Main Street by Court Avenue and we go back to Troy on this. Alright so we did have another recommendation from the Planning Commission on these parking changes. This was a county engineer working with Federated Insurance on improving the situation where they have the crosswalk on Main Street. The recommendation is to remove two parking spaces on the westbound parking lane East Of
Court Avenue as well as the eastern most parking space on the westbound parking lane West Of Court Avenue. Also recommending that the loading zone spaces, on the westbound parking and the westbound parking space, if I have this right, loading zone space, and allocating eliminating the loading zone and allocating the westbound parking space, to a handicap accessible space and this would be West Of Court Avenue on the north side of the street. So that did go before planning commission and they did recommend approval of those changes.
Thank you. Any questions for Troy? Hearing none, I'll look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Dan to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Doug. Any further discussion? Hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And that resolution has passed. Next resolution is 3.3.2, nineteen-twenty five to accept bids and award contract for the street and utility projects and we would go to Sean Murphy for that. Good evening sir. Good evening council. Yes we're requesting City Council's approval of resolution nineteen-twenty
five for our 22025 street and utility project bid acceptance and contract awarding. Bids were received on April 9 for our street utility project. We received bids from seven companies all meeting the minimum qualifications. The lowest apparent bidder was Wenzel Construction Incorporated, just a hair over $1,800,000 Again, they were the lowest responsible bidder. The bid was roughly $360,000 or 16.7%
underneath the engineers estimate. The budget impact, contracted project costs will be that $1,809,858.4 that will be financed through a combination of city funds, OPU reimbursements and special assessments while affecting 39 property owners. With that, staff recommends approval and accepting the bids and awarding the contract to Wenzel Construction. Thank you. Any questions for Sean? Hearing none, I look for a motion to approve. So moved.
Motion by Dan to approve. Do I have a second? Second. By Dave. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And my math is off a little bit tonight. I said we had nine resolutions which was two. We had entire math. I think it was like too many. Nine full with action. We have we have, miscellaneous items that we have seven. So if you had the seven and the two you come up with nine. So we have seven miscellaneous items tonight. The first is 3.4.1 the 2025 through 2027 strategic plan and we go back to the city administrator Busc
for that. Thank you. As you know, city council and staff department heads have and and our communications manager have been working on putting this strategic plan together. We've had several discussions, with our facilitator and with each other, and we've come up with our, plan as you see it here in the packet. This plan is an important tool for us. It lays the groundwork for us moving forward. It's a decision making tool. It helps us analyze and adopt policy.
It's our foundation for accountability. And it provides a way for us to inform our stakeholders of what the city's priorities are. So this year, new, we had previously we've had four focus areas. Now we have five. And I'll just briefly go through them. And they've been refreshed and redone. Our five strategic priorities include our public amenities. What we're looking for there is to be the best quality of life anywhere in Southern Minnesota. The next area is economic prosperity,
collaborative, innovative, sustainable and diverse economic engine. Financial security, what we're looking for there is strategic investments in our city and community that serve taxpayers. Our other, area of focus would be a premier employer being a great place to work. And then finally, our neighbors being connected, informed, and engaged, and actively serving our community. So as we have reviewed this in a study session previously on April 1, staff would recommend approval.
Thank you. Any questions on this? Doug? Not a question, just a comment. Our staff did a really good job putting all that together, a lot of deep thoughts and some time spent on it, but turned out to be a very nice piece. Any other questions? I look for a motion to approve. Motion to approve. By Doug to approve, do I have a second? Second. Second by Don. Any further discussion? I just want to thank like Doug Boss said thank our staff. It was they have very busy schedules. It's very rare that they find any free time at all and to be able
to take two days out of their their day to day activities to to work on this and and the strategic plan I mean it's it's what we what we strive for in the next three years and so staff and all the employees thank you for for your support in that. So we have a motion and second correct Doug? With any other comments? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
We are now up to 3.4.2 the City Administrator search process And we go to Emily, our human resources director. Good evening. Good evening. With city administrator Chris Busse's, retirement effective August 7, The we are looking to replace that position. Per city charter, the city council appoints a city administrator. So the HR team has developed the proposed search process for council to identify the next city administrator. There is no budget impact other than staff time to develop this and staff recommendation
is to approve the process. Thank you. Any questions for Emily? Motion to approve. Motion by Nate to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Don. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is 3.4.3 to accept the bid for the overhead garage door replacements and we go to Jeffrey Laux, our facilities manager. Good evening, sir. This is getting becoming old habit for you now, isn't it? Well, the more I do it, the better I get. Right? Okay. So I'm here tonight to ask the council to accept a bid from Overhead Door
Company of Olmsted County, for the replacement of 10 overhead garage doors. The 10 doors we are going to replace were evaluated in 2023. We actually did a survey here. The city did a survey of all of the garage doors. These 10 were rated at that time as being poor condition and failing. Two bids were received. Overhead door company of Olmstead County was 48,675. It is a CIP project that was approved and staff recommends approval. Thank you. Any questions for Jeff on this?
Hearing none, I'd look for a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Dave to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Second by Brent. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next up tonight is 3.4.4 wastewater treatment expansion change order number 20 with the Rice Lake Construction Group and we go back to Sean Murphy for that. Thanks again. Yes, we're requesting Council's approval of change order 20 on the wastewater treatment facility expansion project. Our two work change directives that are part of change order 20 are replacing our
replacing our 24 inch air piping between our process building and aeration basins and biogas area changes. So just a small bit of background on each of those. So, over the years, past five to eight years, we've gone through and, dug up portions of our, buried, 24 inch, steel air piping. Tightening bolts for potential leaks that kind of thing. During those random excavations the pipe seemed to be in good condition. During some of the construction activity with a little less cover on those pipes.
We started to notice, especially during rain events, water shooting out of the ground, when our aeration basins were running. On further investigation, we found a majority of our piping was extremely pitted, holes the size of pencils, and it was just not efficient. So unfortunately, we missed that with, previous activities when uncovering that pipe. And it's highly recommended to, replace it in its entirety as part of this project. Our aeration basins are backbone, main part of our treatment process and vitally important.
With work change directive 139, the biogas injection design was not fully designed as part of the original bid documents. There are some control items from OPU being the gas authority as well as some impacts as to what would be qualifying for federal tax credits as well. So a lot of that change order or that work change directive was finalizing those design components. So with that, the change order is an increase to the contract of roughly $586,000
to a total of $58,171,000 and that's an increase of 4.4% over the original contract value. Cost will be paid for using sanitary sewer funds and with that staff does recommend approval. Thank you. Any questions for Sean? Doug? Oh, Bauchs, go ahead. Dan, how close are we to Don? So if you're going by contract value, I think we're in the neighborhood of paying out 91%, ninety two % somewhere in there. Still, it's in Rice Lake's best interest to finish up as quickly as possible.
I think we we're confident in what we extended the completion date or substantial completion date in October with final closeout in January '26. Thank you. Doug? Sean, you said we're 4.4%. I know you had a comfort zone there. We're getting close to it I think and if you wanna let me sleep better tonight can you tell me there's no more of these because this was a big one. It was. I mean you know I think the price of stainless steel coming in at a 24 inches it's a substantial cost.
There's no doubt about that. You know, I don't want to make any guarantees that there would be no more substantial ones. Just I do want to remind counsel that, when we did start this project, there was no identified contingency other than, there's a possibility of coming up with maybe $6,000,000 just in price escalation. Rice Lake as well as neuroengineering has done a great job at keeping those price escalations down in terms of ordering products well in advance, storing on-site, storing at city facilities.
So we are well under that $6,000,000 threshold at roughly $2,400,000 You know, and we don't take these change orders lightly. We don't view this as free money. We're looking at this as the best long term investment for our facility. We won't be doing these things if we didn't feel that, that was the case. Thank you. Any other questions? I've got one Sean, I don't know if you can answer it or not. Dan kind of asked it, but I'm curious percentage of work completed.
Are we at the 85% completion, 72% work? Do you know? Yes, I think based on contract value that we paid out is in the neighborhood of 91%, ninety two %. Okay. So we're getting there. Right. And cost of construction don't necessarily tie to a construction schedule. So, just because we're really close, it feels like we're really close. There could be phasing construction activity that's required that takes more time more so than the actual cost. So you kind of build up in a lot of those big ticket items like
each of our, membrane bioreactor cassettes are, you know, like $1,200,000 Right? So you're able to pay out a lot of the construction cost, but that's just material, not necessarily the time that, it takes to install. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none, I look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Dan to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Nate. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We're now up to 3.4.5,
the SIPs project change order number one and once again Sean Murphy. Thanks again. Asking City Council's approval of change order one for our SIPs project in 2025. We awarded the CIPPS or CIPS project to HydroKleen of Des Moines, Iowa in March. The original bid was roughly $177,000 under our engineers estimate. This is based off of the previous year in which we did not award a project due to low number of bidders and
substantial overages in what we were expecting costs to be. So with that we worked with HydroKleen after awarding the contract to see if we could add on for on a unit cost basis with slight cost increase in mobilization, to get more additional, aligning and pre cleaning and televising completed. We were able to work in roughly 5,300 extra feet, so over a mile of zip lining in with this project and not really spend
more than we are anticipating to for this year and last year combined because we just moved those funds from the previous year that were dedicated to the project to this year's. So with that, the change order will total $177,879.48 bringing the total project cost to $490,670.82 which was in line with what we budgeted for our 2025 SIPs project. So that will be paid for out of the sanitary sewer operating budget and with
that staff recommends approval. Thank you. Any questions for Sean? I had a question but a comment. Nice job by you and your staff. We put off from last year because you thought things were out of line. This year for the same amount we had budgeted, we're getting a big bonus for it. So nice job to you and your department. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? I would echo Dan's comment. I think it really showed that unfortunately we didn't get any done last year, but having a larger project is really showing that it's paying off. With no other questions, I'd look for a motion to approve.
Motion to approve. Motion by Doug to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Dave. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Sean. And we are now up to three point four point six. The agreement, for a French Road and Heritage Place lift stations and this is the Sean show tonight. Yes. Yes. Fortunately or unfortunately, it is. We are requesting council's approval, for an agreement with, Integrated Process Solutions, IPS, to provide professional services for the Frontage Road And Heritage Place lift station electrical panels.
We've issued these agreements or council has executed these agreements in the past for our 20 Sixth Street lift stations, Cedardale and then Autumn Hills as well. We initially went through an evaluation process that consisted of evaluating from professional standpoint, professional qualifications and also evaluating cost proposals from a number of vendors. IPS was initially ordered that and every panel that we have received from a quoting standpoint
has aligned with the original evaluation and quote that was submitted, during evaluation point. The cost for the Frontage Road lift station is $69,944 and Heritage Place is $73,944 for a total cost of $143,888 Costs will be paid for by the wastewater enterprise fund or sanitary sewer fund as a capital improvement. And with that staff recommends approval. Thank you. Any questions for Sean? Motion to approve. Motion by Nate to approve.
Do I have a second? Second. Second by Brent. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Finally tonight we have 3.4.7 proposal for geotechnical engineering services for the Eighteenth Street reconstruction and we go back to Sean. Thanks again. Yes, we're requesting Council's approval for our geotechnical engineering services agreement with Terracon Consultants Incorporated. This is for our Eighteenth Street reconstruction project that will be going forward in 2026. Terracon will be providing geotechnical services outlined in the agreement,
providing soil preparation or making soil preparation and pavement design recommendations for Eighteenth Street Southeast Reconstruction project. Recommendations provide city staff and design team with necessary information to engineer the longest possible life expectancy of our infrastructure and roadways included within the project. It's also a state aid requirement for a federal project to have geotechnical borings and paving recommendation to align with state aid standards as well. The budget impact for this, the total contract is $26,500
will be paid for using our state aid funds. We did get three quotes that were all very close in fee as well as preparation in that scope of work and Terracon was the lowest. So with that staff recommends approval. Thank you. Any questions for Sean? Seeing none, I look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Nate to approve, do I have a second? Second. Second by Dan. Any further discussion? None all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We're now up to staff reports and typically
Troy has about 10 things to talk about during the regular council meeting. You're kind of shorted tonight so we will go to you for at least a staff update. Yeah. Well and this is information that I provided for the Realtors Group and they had a gathering here just last week here but so you have the map there in front of you of our residential lot inventory and they're all color coordinated to symbolize different things there. The red is really the marketable lots that are available to build on right now.
So we've got about 80 of those available. The pink there represents lots that have been platted but do not have utilities in place to do home construction quite yet. The blue we have 108 is it might be a little difficult to see on your, to do a city wide map there for you to see everything too particular there but, the blue, the 108 has really vacant lots that have been purchased by a neighboring property
or not actively being marketed. So those are probably a lower potential to be built on just because they're basically larger lots for the neighboring property and maybe at some point when the property sold, you know, those might be sold separately in which a house can be built on. And so, you know historically I would say where those are pretty low from what we've had in the past. Of course when we had the recession we were we had a lot of lots and there was a lot of lots
available. We've kind of worked our way down through that inventory, to kind of get to this point so, we're really at a point where we like to see, more lots available or some of the some of the, platted lots, made buildable, and so that just gives you kind of a picture of where we're at, as far as lot inventory that's available. To address some of those existing lots, we did create that single family lot incentive program. So we did as we've had some discussions with the
some of our work sessions, Existing lots, many of them were done before there was ever a grading plan or any of those requirements in place, and so it has been problematic for those existing lots to be, to get their permits with with the the grading plans that need to be put together. So we put together this $2,500 incentive program to kind of help offset some of those costs that are required for the existing
lots to to get the grading permit needed. And so we're kind of pushing that out to try to get that utilized as much as we can. We do have some builders utilizing that right now. And then we've also again through work sessions last year we talked about how to get a new development to happen. It's very expensive to put in all the infrastructure on the new development and the council was agreeable to finance the hard surfacing and curb and gutter
for any development that that wants to build out that infrastructure, finance it for a five year period, with the hope that the lots could be built upon within that five year period. And so we were looking to work with the developer that would be interested in doing that we could fine tune some of those details in a development agreement to kind of put that together so we're sort of pushing that out as well more so now to to try to attract, some more residential development. We are working with a residential developer on development
here and so there is there is some interest, and so we're trying to provide some of those tools to help them kind of get over that, that hurdle, and get some some lots developed. We are also looking at the city potentially doing a very small development with some of the land we off of part own off of Partridge Avenue that was originally purchased for a storm water pond and then there's some excess land around it that could be utilized for some residential development and so we are looking at how that
might be developed looking at working with some partners to kind of reduce the cost of those and try to make them more affordable and see if we can get that completed here in the next year or two and trying to get the price point kind of around that $250,000 for a new home. So there'll be a lot more to come on that but it's kind of a step the city has not taken before is sort of do a development. We own the land and trying to get a product out there that's really difficult for the private market to do hitting that
price point and we'll need to utilize a different a number of different funding sources to get to that point. And so we've got some partners that we're working with to try to accomplish that. Thank you. Any questions for Troy? Dan? Do you have any sense Troy on the cost of lot in O'Connor for a same type of lot in neighboring cities same same? Well the difference I mean if you look up towards the cities I mean the infrastructure costs are probably similar it's going to be the land costs that are probably
going to be different. It would probably be a little cheaper for land costs here than you might see north up towards the cities here but you know land costs are rising here quite a bit as well. You know another factor in all this too is availability of land to do residential development. So we do have property owners around the city that might have developable land but maybe aren't interested in selling right now or would if they had a price that would incent them to do it.
So that's another piece to this, All of this is the availability of land, and so when you don't have a lot of availability the price goes higher for those pieces that that are available. So we're hoping that there will be some pieces in there that can be developed and have developers utilize those spots when they're available. Thank you. Any other questions for Troy? Thank you, Troy. We are now up to public comments. In the public comment segment, please limit your comments to minutes.
Please approach the microphone, sign in and state your name and address for the record after being acknowledged by the Council President. Speakers will be limited to two minutes to deliver their comments. Council Vice President Voss will be timing and hold up a hand after one minute forty five seconds to notify the speaker they have fifteen seconds to complete their comment. Those speaking are asked to conduct themselves in a respectful manner as they deliver their comments. Audience members are asked to refrain from reacting to comments. The City Council will not respond directly to comments in this venue or take immediate
action in response to them. With that, I will open up the public comment segment. Melissa Zimmerman. Twenty five twenty five Stoney Creek Drive. Back in high school, I was a nerd. I did math problems for fun. The jocks and the popular kids copied my homework, and I let them. We've been doing the homework here too. For three years, we have been trying to give you the answers too. But instead of working with us on this group project, you voted to take away our choice, stripping the federal safeguards that gave residents a voice. You gave more power to a township, a non voting party, than the very residents you elected to protect.
Some of our homes just 17 feet from the right of way, that's not close. It's unprecedented in Steele County. It's this isn't like other roads where homes were built after the fact. This should never happen. Federal and state laws require that we avoid, minimize, mitigate in that order. Avoid means choosing 30 Fourth Avenue or the hybrid or alternative three b. Minimize isn't possible. Mitigate means a $2,300,000 noise wall. We were prepared to vote yes on that wall to protect our families, but you voted to take that choice away.
You removed the federal funds and shifted the entire $30,000,000 burden onto your own residence. In May, the county engineer said he had no intention of building a noise wall, but would put it to a vote at the request of elected officials. WSB warned him we would vote yes. Instead of following expert recommendations, he made it clear. If we vote yes, we'll if they vote yes, we'll move it out. If they vote no, we'll build it 17 feet from their homes. You've already paid for avoidance studies on a secret alternative known as three b. Your experts agree with us, but their answers were kept quiet. We have the answers.
We always have. If you want to copy them now before the cost continues to rise, they're available. Avoidance or abandon. Meanwhile, our neighborhood will keep moving forward, protecting our community every way we can. Safety isn't optional. You're just choosing how long you take to fight it. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Matt Sennett, two thousand five hundred and nineteen Stoney Creek Drive. Good evening, council members. I'm here tonight asking you to stand up for the very people who elected you to serve. Steele County has persuaded the city to remove federal funds from a major highway project, the Eastside Corridor,
just as Lissa said. Specifically, and for one major reason, is to get around the safety and noise mitigation requirements that would have been in place for an entire neighborhood of 150 homes. Some of these homes sit just 17 foot from the project's right away. That's not just close, it's dangerously close to where families sleep, children play, and where people are expected to feel safe. Let's be honest, aside from the county's mismanagement of the project from the start, one of the main reasons is to remove that federal funding to avoid federal safety standards, and we already know the county has no plans to uphold those voluntarily on their
own. The county engineer said on, by himself has said that if it were up to him, no noise mitigations would be offered to citizens at all. That's deeply troubling and speaks volumes to where the county's priorities lie. But if the city allows this to happen, if you don't demand the county maintain the same level of safety and noise protections that the federal oversight had, then you would be complicit. Just weeks ago, we were so close to resolving this the right way. We were almost there at option three b, and then the county decided to get creative and remove the federal funding to a
different project. I ask you, please use your authority as council members to protect our neighborhoods, protect the families, the homes, and the children who will live right next to this highway. Hold your partner Steele County accountable to do what's right, and let's finally put this issue to bed the right way. Thank you. Thank you. Gary Jones, nine nine five Ridge Road. Good evening. Good evening. I participated in two study sessions with TW, Councilman Rainey, Councilman Bokey, DNR rep, and a bunch of other staff. The city has taken a tremendous investment in listening to what I had to say
about many things. And there's been we've had some very good things happen, the ladders, the signs, going from 100 to 150 feet. We've had all kinds of things, including skipping season one at Mineral Springs. A lot of good things to help reduce risk. So I came tonight to give a big thank you and to say, thanks again, and I'm done. Right? No. No. Of course not. I want one more thing. And you know it's Mineral Springs. But even more so than that, if we're gonna have second seeded Mineral Springs, we're hunting in the dark. When you look at thirty minutes after sunset,
you cannot see a thing. And I know the DNR says, well, their eyes will adjust. And, yeah, maybe they can, but it's hard to adjust between a Newfoundland, a person crawling around looking for a Frisbee, and some of the guy walking out in their backyard on Oakview. Now if you are in if you are in, Leo Rudolph and half hour after sunset, it's dark enough, and you got the horizon and no trees. Mineral Springs is kind of down in a hole. You cannot see a thing. And my wife and I will walk dogs and stuff out there right when the activity bus comes over by Oakview,
and people get home from work and people are walking dogs. It it's too dark. Please, please vote just to move the time. One more thing for me, please. Move it up a half hour so it goes sunrise to sunset, not a half hour before to half hour after. That half hour at the December is critical. Thank you so much for everything. Thank you. Anyone else this evening? Kurt Welker, two thousand and forty five Deertrail Lane, Northeast. First of all, I guess I'd just like to say thank you for the lot incentive program. We've got one house closing this week and three others under construction that will qualify
for that program and it's a big help to cover a lot of costs that we weren't expecting. So I just want to say thanks for that. It's working. I want to encourage you to extend that into future years because it's only was for this year. We've got five lots that we've basically used what the incentive would be on preliminary engineering for those that probably won't get built this year. Maybe some will, maybe some won't. But we're having to spend the money now to be able to build on them
in the future. So I'd like to encourage you to continue that program going forward. Secondly, you approved a strategic plan tonight under economic prosperity. The first item was seeking housing solutions. Well, let's everybody knows that a strategic plan is only as good as the paper it's printed on unless it's implemented properly. That starts with you gentlemen implementing it, passing it on to administration and administration
putting it down to staff to make sure that they understand that seeking housing solutions is a primary tenant of the City Of Otona right now. And we need to push that because at an anemic ten homes that were built here last year, Otona isn't very investable. So let's make sure that, that strategic plan gets spread through the whole city and everybody works towards achieving it. Thank you. Yep. Anyone else this evening? Seeing no one else coming up to the podium,
I will now go to comments from council members. First up tonight is council member Burbank. Nothing more to add. Verboke. Nothing to add. Council member McCann. Nothing to add. Council member Spenby. Nothing. Council member Voss. Nothing to add. Council member Dodson. Nothing to add. To administer Bucy who now has seven meetings left. I'm not gonna break the streak, so I have nothing to add. And I have nothing this evening as well. With no other business before us tonight, I would look for a motion to adjourn. So moved.
Motion by Nate to adjourn. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Brent. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? We're adjourned. Thank you.