Call City Council meeting for Tuesday, 03/18/2025 to order. Can I have a roll call, please? Councilmember Dodson. Here. Burbank. Here. Bokey. Here. McCann. Here. Spende. Here. DeVos. Here. Rainey. Here. And Mayor Jessup. We have all seven of the council present. Thank you. Would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance being led by Councilmember Grubank. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all. Well good evening everyone. This is the calm before the storm, I guess tonight. They're talking anywhere between two and one hundred and four inches of snow tomorrow. So they probably won't be wrong. First up tonight is the council agenda. I would look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Dave to approve. Is there a second? Second. Second by Nate. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And the agenda has been approved. Mayor Jessup is not here tonight,
see Administrator Busse, do you have anything on the Mayor's behalf? No, I do not. Thank you. Now up to consent agenda items, the 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. Motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Brent 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? And that has been approved. We're now up to the action items. The first thing tonight is the finance report and we gave Mr. Voss a lot to read so So we'll turn over to Vice President Doug Voss. I'll try to get through this as quick as possible. Checks over 20,000 for the night, dollars 22,133 central farm services for fleet fuel, $57,910 to equity builders and construction pay estimate number two from the roof replacement at the
airport, $41,842 to Four Seasons Electric, which includes maintenance shop work for 29,000, lighting materials at the airport for 3,000, and generator amp at the City Hall, 20 9 Hundred, some work at Merrill Hall for 2,600. I believe this is going to be, Brooktree, the bar area. Is that what that is? $20.25 55, miscellaneous electrical labor and material, $15.81. 80 5 thousand 8 hundred and 30 dollars to Niro Engineering to the wastewater treatment
fund upgrade and expansion project, dollars 75,134 to Reinders for chemicals at Brooktree, Dollars Fifty Nine Thousand Seven Hundred And Six and at the parks, dollars 15,428, 5 hundred and 50 7 thousand 6 hundred and 70 7 dollars to Rice Lake Construction Group for the wastewater expansion estimate number 33, Dollars 70 4 1 17 to Turf Works for a Jacobson LLF grounds maintenance mower, dollars 22,316,952
to U. S. Bank. They are all general obligation bonds, and they are series twenty twenty four a. There's a tax abatement bond twenty twenty four b for 44,889, street reconstruction bonds for 170,000 with an interest payment of 61,000. Another for 2021 a, 300,000 with an interest payment of $37,630. Street reconstruction bond 2020 a, bond payment 144,000,
interest payment 19,000. Improvement bond series 2019 a, bond payment 185,000, interest payment 28,200. Street reconstruction bond series 2018 a bond payment 490,000 interest payment $49.09 50. Bond series twenty seventeen a bond payment 215,000 interest payment $10,096 bond series twenty sixteen a bond payment 280,000 interest payment 19,868
and series twenty fifteen a bond payment 140,000 interest payment, dollars 3,500. 2 hundred 70 5 thousand 3 hundred and 20 3 dollars to Wenzel Construction, that is Vine Street lot pay estimate number three. One hundred and 90 four thousand six hundred and 60 one dollars for other expenditures for a grand total of $3,701,585.24 Thank you. Got through it. Any questions on the finance report?
Seeing none, I 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? And we will pay the bills. We have four resolutions tonight. The first one is 3.2.1. The resolution to approve plans and specifications for twenty twenty five street utility project. With that we will go to Public Work Director Sean Murphy. Good evening sir. Good evening council. Yes, we're requesting council's approval of resolution 11 dash five to approve our plans and specifications
and authorization to advertise for our bids for our 2025 Street utility project. The existing street improvements on Lynn Drive and Oakdale Street Southwest have exceeded their useful life. Council authorized staff to prepare plans and specifications for this project with resolution eight-twenty five following a public hearing held on February 18 in 2025. The proposed bid opening date is April 9, with a hopeful approval of bid, by Council on April 15 at,
the regularly scheduled Council meeting. Budget impact for the 2025 Street Utility Project would be financed through a combination of city funds, OPU funds, and special assessments. The total project cost is in line with the budgeted, amount in the CIP. And total cost to be assessed is estimated at $234,916.24 that will affect 39 property owners. That staff recommends approval. Thank you. Any questions for Sean? 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? And that resolution is passed. We're now up to 3.2.2 and that is the personal property tax exemption request for Steel Energy Station and we'll go to City Administrator Busey for that. Good evening. Good evening and thank you. We have Joe Hoffman here from Simpa to kind of go through a little more detail on this request. And we'll point out to council we have done this in the past and I
think it was 2017 And so staff is recommending approval, and I'll let Joe take it from here. Mister president, members of the council, I'm Joe Hoffman, chief external affairs officer for Sempa. Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. As you're aware, Sempa is building a power plant on the West Side Of Owatonna. It is a natural gas combustion turbine peaking plant that will operate infrequently, but when it does operate, we really need it. And a plant like that probably won't operate much at all on days when it's windy. It's really there to supplement renewable energy. The agency is requesting a personal property tax exemption,
so that would be an exemption on personal property taxes for the generating equipment itself. The building, the property would still pay real estate taxes to the city, the county, and the school district. And for OES, the existing power plant, that's approximately $150,000 each year. And so in order for the state legislature to pass a resolution or legislation to approve the exemption, we need a resolution of support from both the city and the county. We did obtain a resolution of support from the county, and we respectfully request one from the city as well.
I'd be happy to go into more detail about the plant or answer any questions that you have, but regardless thank you for your support. Thank you. Any questions from the council on this? Seeing none, I'd look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Nate to approve. Do I have a second? Second by Brent. Second by Brent. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And that resolution is passed. We're now up to 3.2.3 resolution thirteen-twenty five Minnesota DNR local trail connections grant and we will go to TW
with that. Good evening, sir. Good evening, counsel. Can you hear me okay? Okay? Yes. All right. So, well, that was kind of startling. So this is a formality of the, this trails connection grant. It requires resolution of the application package, which is due, I believe, March 31. Staff recommends your approval. Thank you. Any questions for TW on this? Seeing none, I look for a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Doug to approve. Do I have a second? Second. And by Don, any further discussion? Seeing none,
all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And that motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. We are now up to 3.2.4 resolution fourteen-fifteen to set a public hearing date for TIF district three dash eighteen sputtering components and before we go to Troy, on March 8, Mr. Troy Klecker became a thirty year employee for the city of Botana. They won't know how long thirty years is. It's a long time. Troy, we appreciate all your dedicated years of service. This is not a retirement, so we expect another thirty years out of you.
But, on behalf of the council, congratulations. With that we will listen to your report. Alright, sputtering components is proposing a 12,460 square foot addition on the current facility on Alexander Drive in the Industrial Park. 7 Thousand Dollars of that would be office space, dollars 54,000 one hundred and sixty square feet would be manufacturing space. This would allow them to add employees. They're looking at five engineers and 10 additional production workers as part of this addition. We are requesting tax increment financing to assist with the cost of the addition.
The total, projected estimate of the TIF would be $260,000 over a nine year period and we are proposing the resolution to be, to hold a public hearing on April 15. We are, we do work with a consultant on these TIF, districts and so there is some costs incurred there that's wrapped into the cost of the TIF and so we get reimbursed for those costs over that nine year period. So staff would recommending would recommend approval of the resolution setting the public hearing for
April 15. Thank you. Any questions for Troy? Motion to approve. Motion by Nate to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Dan. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We have nine miscellaneous items tonight. The first one is 3.3.1, wastewater treatment expansion change order number 18 with Rice Lake Construction Group and we will go to Sean Murphy for that. Thanks again. We're requesting Council's approval of change order 18. There is no budget impact to this change order.
It is an extension of contract time, which has been caused by significant delays in electrical equipment that's needed for our wastewater treatment facility upgrade. These are primarily our MCCs and electrical gears for the project. The request is an extension of two ten days, which equates to a revised substantial completion date of 10/27/2025 and a final completion date of January 26,
twenty six of twenty twenty six. Justification has been provided by Jamie Berry of Rice Lake Construction Group as well as a letter of recommendation from our design engineers at Neuroengineering. Again, there is no budget increase for this change order. It's just extension of contract time. But to take care of overhead costs for the extension of Rice Lake construction being here, all future change orders will include an additional 6% overhead rate to cover some of that non work related cost.
So with that staff recommends approval. And there is one note if council does approve this change order We have been basically denying any and all tours of our facility while construction is underway. It's an active construction site and we're moving from building to building continuously. So we've had numerous requests that we've normally facilitated in the past. But as long as there's construction activity, it's just not conducive to provide a proper tour. And so just wanted counsel to be aware that extending the contract date and that
completion date would also extend that time period we're not going to be giving any tours certainly to the public. Okay, very well said. Thank you. Any questions for Sean on this change order? Yes, I've got one. This change order today does not have a carry a budgetary impact. However, change orders from now will carry a 6% budget impact. Now we're not asking them to do any more or additional work. It's just that the project is taking so long they feel they deserve another 6%.
Is that am I reading that right? So there were construction delays, one we can get into another detail as well. But there are construction delays in terms of the supply chain and getting our material here. So it's through no fault of their own and it's exempted within the contract that they're allowed to request extension of contract time. So when they put their numbers together put their bid together they're expecting to be completed by the completion date.
If they are not allowed to procure the materials when they're needed and when they were supposed to be here, they can't complete construction on time and with that there's incidentals that they have like their construction trailer, their labor force keeping them off of other jobs that they could be moving to and requiring them to stay here. No, they're only getting paid based on the work that they're performing not getting any additional and these only apply to change orders.
It's not just 6% on the pay applications like the one that was just read in the finance report. Is that Is this right to adjust in this industry in your opinion? Thank you. Correct. Any other questions for Sean? No, because we're at the questions yet. So I'm looking for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Dan to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Dave. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? That has been approved. Now up to 3.3.2, this is Waste Water Treatment Expansion Change Order Number 19 with the Rice Lake Construction
Group And once again Sean Murphy. Thanks. Thanks again. Requesting City Council's approval of Change Order 19 with the wastewater treatment facility expansion project. We have a slew of work change directives that comprises change order 19. There's 22 in total. We can provide, any backup information on the work change directives. If you have any questions, I don't want to labor everyone here by going through all of them individually. The total budget impact of change order 19 is an increase of $192,478.87
for a revised total contract cost of $57,584,727.91 And this equates to about a 3.35 percentage increase on top of the original contract value. Costs will be paid for out of our sanitary sewer fund and with that staff recommends approval. Thank you, Sean. Any questions for Sean on this? Seeing none, I look for a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Doug to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Dan.
Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And that has been approved. We're now up to 3.3.4 professional services agreement and for the wastewater treatment facility and once again we go back to Sean. I'm sorry I missed 3.3.3 the Eighteenth Street Trail construction. Sorry. Nope. And that's still Sean. I'm with you. So we're requesting Council's approval of WHKS's proposal for Eighteenth Street Trail Southeast project, for construction administration and engineering services.
We had a staff in our engineering department leave at the end of twenty twenty four, created a vacancy that we were fully staffed for about a week with our our new assistant city engineer, Shannon Heitman, starting. With this, this position held by Andy Sorensen, civil engineer position, That vacancy along with the intricacies of our state aid and federal aid project paperwork, construction requirements, and the busy construction season that we have ahead.
We sought construction administration services from WHKS to provide support for us on that trail project. The contract is or the agreement is written as estimated fee proposal for $50,000 and will be paid for out of our State Aid Fund account. With that, staff recommends approval and we'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Sean. Any questions for Sean on this? Motion to approve. Motion by need to approve. Do I have a second? I second. Second by Dave. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Now we're up to 3.3.4. New professional services agreement and once again Sean Murphy. So this is tied to our change order number 18, that Council just approved. So not having staff that is able to perform the construction administration, the representative project engineer services that neuroengineering is providing on our wastewater treatment facility expansion project along with, their subs under that contract. Due to the extension in contract time,
they've provided an updated, contract amendment that will not exceed, dollars $372,519 without prior authorization for the total agreement amount of $4,400,000 with $2,037 on that. Costs will be paid for out of our sanitary sewer funds. And just to give an idea, the construction schedule increase is roughly a 21% increase in length where their amendment for construction related services is only a 9.2%
increase. So it's not a linear relationship that just the longer that they're here, they're putting their pencils to paper and making sure that they're only providing the services that we need, not not just tying on to what they had originally and making that linear transition. So with that, staff recommends approval. Thank you. Any questions for Sean? With no questions, look for a motion to approve. Approve. Motion by Brent 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 are now up to 3.3.5 property purchase of 502 Maple Drive and with that we'll go to Troy Klecker again. Alright if you remember at the last council meeting we modified a resolution adjusting the grant money total for a DNR grant to remove homes out of the flood plain it added $72,452 to the grant amount and that actually represents the remaining amount the DNR has in that program right now unless the legislature adds more to that program.
So so we've applied for that. We anticipate the paperwork to be completed on that in the next few weeks. That was all done to purchase another home so we do have a signed purchase agreement to purchase a property of 502 Maple Drive. It's on the western corner of Maple Drive and Cherry Street. It's totally surrounded by city parkland because we did purchase that if you look on the map there that house to the north last year and that's been removed so that is a vacant city property right now.
That basement of this house has been flooded numerous times including this last spring. The purchase price is $195,000 is contingent upon receiving that DNR grant and City Council approval. Once complete, if this purchase is approved you know we would take, remove that that house sometime this fall and you know always allow police and fire to do training in it and then we'd have it removed this fall and then the property the ground would be restored and it would become part of Darts Park.
We're estimating the total cost of the home purchase and removal at $225,000 minus the grant and that leaves $152,000 to complete the projects and those funds would come from the matching grant fund and the dilapidated buildings fund. So we've had money set aside for situations like this. So staff would recommend approval to purchase the property at 502 Maple Drive. Thank you. Any questions for Troy on this? Seeing none, I'd look for a motion to approve. So moved.
Motion by Don to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Dan. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And that has been approved. We're now up to 3.3.6 that is the purchase of a lot on Ridge Road and once again Troy Klecker. So Darts Park is one of our main parks, and it has great access from the trail system on Cherry Street but, has no access point from the large neighborhood to the north of the park and
people in that neighborhood generally will go through private property through that the end of the cul de sac on Parkview Place to get to the park. So currently there is a lot for sale that's highlighted in blue there right at the corner of Ring Avenue and Ridge Road, and would be a good location for a pedestrian access for that neighborhood. It would, it's lined up right with the outfield of parking lot to the to the park. The owners like this idea of providing the city providing an pedestrian access for this
neighborhood and are discounting the price of a lot should the city purchase it. So at this point I think we'd be looking at council approval to secure and purchase the property. At some point we would want to get some sort of pedestrian access and that can be in the form of a wood chip trail or ultimately you know a paved trail for that connection to the parking lot. We could if purchase you know start planning for that in our capital improvement plan
for for that improvement. So the owners have discounted the price of the lot to 29,000 for the city. Funds would come from reserves or contingency funds in order to do that. So staff would recommend approval of this purchase of this lot on Ridge Road. Thank you. Any questions for Troy? Troy, just a question on the access. So if we bought that, people could come down from Ring into the park. It's kind of a hilly area. Yep. So there there is some elevation there that we will have to figure out how
to get that trail through there. It would require probably some grading work done to to do that and that's why you know we would we would look at how best to do that here in the future and how we would do that. But yes, there would have to be some sort of grading work done in order to accomplish it. Okay. So it's strictly pedestrian. It's no road traffic. Correct. Correct. This would be a pedestrian access only. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for Troy? Seeing none, I look for a motion to approve.
So moved. Motion by Don 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? Motion carries. The next two are for the library versus 3.3.7, library roof condition and management study by ADCET architecture and planning and we will go to Jeff Lauch, our buildings and grounds manager. Good evening sir. I know I botched your title. Good evening, counsel. First time in front of you, so I'm a little nervous. But, asking for the council to accept the proposal from Adsett Architecture and Planning to perform
a condition management study in the library roof and also the two chimney structures in the library. As you know, the the library is a historic structure. It also has a a newer addition that was added sometime in the eighties. Both of those buildings are roofed with a clay tile roof. They have clay tile on them. We have had some issues with, some leaks, water infiltration, most recently close to the elevator. What we're asking for is this study to assess the current condition of the roof, the expected useful life of the roof,
any recommendations they have for maintenance and also recommendations on replacement of the existing roof materials when that time comes. The budget impact is going to be $16,300 There was a 2025 CIP budget that was approved for $30,000 So we're asking for $16,300 of that. Staff recommends approval of this proposal. Thank you. Any questions for Jeff on this? Not a question, just a comment, if I may. Just one of the many buildings that Old Town is blessed with owning. Last weekend or so,
we celebrated one hundred and twenty five years of the library being here and now we're looking at a significant roof repair that no one plans for, but comes with the privilege of owning all these old buildings that we continually struggle to maintain. Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none, I'd look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Dan to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Dave. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We are now up to what Dan was referring to the proposal for library roof
repair with Garlock French Roofing and Facilities Manager, Jeff Lauchs. There you go. Alright. Now we're asking for, the council to accept a proposal from Garlock French Roofing to repair the library roof damage. During one of our recent high wind events, the wind caught the chimney cap and pulled that loose, and then it started pulling some brick loose. The brick fell into the alley and fell onto the clay tile roof damaging the
roof. It's about a 12 by 12 foot area, that that received damage. Right now we have it tarped, trying to keep it weather tight, decided to snow and and rain right after the damage and, doing our best to keep the the water out. The budget impact of that repair is $14,037, and we're looking to use the remaining money out of that CIP, project that we just talked about for the study. There'd be 13,700 remaining in that CIP. So staff recommends approval.
Thank you. Any questions for Jeff on this? Motion to approve. We have a motion by Doug to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Don. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Geoff. Good job. Thank you. We're up to our last miscellaneous item tonight, 3.3.9 engineering services agreement with the PFAS source identification and we go back to Sean Murphy. Thanks again. Hopefully for the last time tonight, right? Requesting Council's approval of neuroengineering's
PFAS source identification agreement. In June of twenty four, neuro completed a PFAS pollutant minimization plan as required by our memorandum of understanding that we entered into with the MPCA to get some initial testing done with our influent and effluent out of our wastewater treatment plant in regards to PFAS. The plan was submitted to MPCA and the city has been, well, we've been awarded $75,000
in grant opportunities through PFAS source identification and reduction grant funds. And based on our plan that we provided we qualified for that grant and we submitted an application, have been awarded, have not yet received those funds. Neuroengineering proposes to collect industry data by deploying some short surveys and following up with data collection at some of our significant industrial users or potential sources of PFAS that enter our wastewater treatment facility.
Survey results, they're going to be doing sampling and then develop and distribute strategies to reduce the use of PFAS and prepare and submit a technical memorandum to the MPCA, roughly 07/01/2026. The total cost is not to exceed $20,080 And again, once we receive the funds it will, these costs will be reimbursed by that PFAS source identification reduction grant as well as, the activities that have been outlined roughly in their agreement. With that staff recommends approval.
Thank you. Any questions for Sean? Doug? Sean, so just to make sure I understand this grant will allow us to track down where PFAS may be coming from. And then if we find some sources of it, how do we deal with that? Do we not us personally, but they work with those companies and help them figure out a way to not use PFAS? Correct, right. So we fell into the medium category. There are three different categories from the initial testing through
a wide gamut of wastewater treatment facilities in the state. And the whole goal is education, right. Trying to identify sources and then finding ways to reduce them. Whether they can find alternative production methods or use of chemicals, whatever that might be. And then but you know, I don't think this is meant as punitive, but if, you know, facilities are using already banned PFAS substances that are on the banned list, it's another way to find those as well. I don't think that's the intent of the program or the grant itself.
It's more so for education. Finding ways to identify where it's coming from and ways to reduce or minimize in some way. Thank you. Any other questions for Sean? Seeing none, 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? And that has been passed. I have staff reports tonight. Sean I'm showing you as a staff report. I'm not sure if you had one. I apologize I didn't follow-up with you.
No, but I think we, I think one of the items that we wanted to talk about was just that extension of contract time at the wastewater treatment facility that we would be continuing that delay of reincorporating public tours of our wastewater treatment facility until construction is completed. Any questions for Sean tonight? Yeah. And obviously we're looking at a major snow event tomorrow. Please be patient if we get that heavy wet snow like we did two weeks ago it takes the plows a long time to remove that snow. Other mitigating factors if you notice on streets some of the mains have popped up
so they have to be careful plowing on them in the spring rather than in the winter where they're all level with the with the pavement. So our crew is a great crew and they will get it all removed. Can agree more. Thank you, Sean. Other report tonight is TW with Parks and Recreation. As he's going up there, one other thing we might wanna comment is whether we have snow or not, that winter parking ordinance is in place for It's even add parking. It's not snow parking. It's not a snow ordinance.
It's winter parking until the end of the month. Yep. Alright. Good evening, counsel. Again, I was recently directed to research and address a citizen concern regarding our our deer culling program in in public parks. So we got a little task force together, which included city staff, park staff, police department staff, as well as, Department of Natural Resource, the DNR, staff as well as, this is and who I believe is here tonight, Mr. Jones. So just want to recognize, I thought it was a productive two meetings we had, and I'm here tonight just to give you a summarized report back on there.
I'll go line by line on this. So the key points and changes for this coming year for this 2025 says deer management program, that's a DNR term, but we call it a deer culling program because it's really about population control in an urban area. Man pardon me. Manatee Park will be removed from the program this year mostly due to size. We didn't feel like it necessarily was a great fit for the program, so we decided to take that out and we'll take a look at that in the future as well. New locations that we explored include Lake Chase.
We did identify that as a viable location, so we'll add one stand there. We took another look at Summer Park, but we chose not to add that mostly because it's still a very small hunting area and the size and the setbacks, it was going to be very tight. So we decided it wasn't probably one of our best locations to add a deer stand. Potential new parkland, we can't that's referring to the Festo Farms property that we are still the council had approved a potential acquisition pending enrollment in The States,
the MPCA's VIC program, it's a brownfield program and getting a letter from them. That is in process. We believe and hope that we'll have that here very soon. But until then, we can't look at that property because the city doesn't own it. Mineral Springs is our second largest community park and it will remain the program. The DNR identifies this park as a principal deer habitat in Owatonna based on the number of deer seen in the amount of forest acreage. Jackson, could you go to the next slide, please? That. There you go. So this is from the Department of Natural Resources as provided by Janine Voorland.
She's Area Wildlife Supervisor with the DNR located here in the Owatonna office. The yellow circles or ovals, those indicate, high deer population areas that they recommended as areas we would need to consider for the culling program. And Mineral Springs, as you see, is one of the one of those, one of those areas. Mineral Springs will be hunted during the second season only this year instead of two seasons. This is one of the compromises we came up with, feeling we still have two stands there. We're still seeing a lot of deer there. DNR staff said we are having successful hunts there.
So you might hear numbers like, oh, there's been only two deer taken there in the last couple years. DNR staff said that is still a successful hunt. And some of the side benefits aren't just bagging a deer, it's making sure the deer don't get too comfortable with human presence, things like that. But by hunting in the second season, one of the concerns was, that was expressed was, okay, there's a lot of activity that happens in Mineral Springs. And while we haven't had any reports of any issues, we still want to take that concern into consideration and decided that,
maybe the second season be a little bit colder And there'd probably be less potential for people to be out walking in the woods and and a little bit less activity. But it still gives us an opportunity to add this property to the program. The Hunter's weekly reports will include number of days out, number of deer seen, and, this is new, any obstacles they ran into. Whatever that could be anything from on the extreme more extreme end, deer harassment, people who are trying to impede the deer hunters themselves by doing whatever that is,
to any other things that we think are kind of a little bit out of. Can we go back to the list on the screen? There you go. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. No, it's all right. Hunting times, hunting start and end times will remain consistent with DNR regulations. Really, this is a reflection of there was an expressed concern of it gets dark and then hunters are still allowed to stay like at sunset. According to DNR regulations, they're still allowed to stick around for another half hour. Well, that's still twilight. There is still some light. And actually, that's one of the prime times for deer movement.
So we didn't want to take that out of the program or change the hours to anytime sooner and that is reflection and consistent with DNR regulations. The discharge language change to 150 feet from the property line instead of like the residence or the house. So it gives a little bit more of a setback. Stands will be set up in compliance with that discharge language. Ladders will be restricted. They have other means other than the ladder where the expressed concern was, well, a kid just out there could be curious and find a ladder and get up
in the tree and could potentially get hurt. We haven't had any reported incidents that in the ten years, but we listened to that concern and there are other methods for the deer or for the deer hunters to get up into their stands. And then finally, Caplands Woods, we had it could you go to the third map? Back one and then zoom out just a little bit. Perfect. Okay. So the green area, that's the entire Caplains Woods. And it used to have more zones, and we used to allow, hunting in all of those zones. The concern that was expressed to us was the potential of,
okay, there's deer hunters perhaps too close to what we call main trails, which we are defining as wood chip or asphalt, not the natural or bicycle trails. Or closer to the parking lot, Eighteenth Street, there just there's a lot of activity that tends to happen a little bit closer to those areas versus the more remote areas of the park. So staff, we took a look at it. One of the recommendations was, well, what if we moved the hunting just to the remote more remote areas of the park? So we rezoned, and we got this feedback from DNR staff as well as, city staff and park staff who are hunters and know this property very well.
And that's how we came up with this. So bottom line with this is we are taking out about 90 acres of the northern portion of Kaplan's Woods out of this program, but we're still leaving, a little roughly 60 acres in the more remote areas, which also are prime areas where we have a lot of reports of deer being seen. So we feel like this is a good compromise as well. And then finally, if you go to the last page. I won't go through this line by line, but I just want to see some statistics on the program. So it started in 2014.
Total deer we've seen since then, two seventeen total deer. There's a tally year by year. This past year, 2024, was we took record numbers. Total of 37 deer, and there's the numbers by park. And I will I'll wrap up this with saying the DNR staff said that our our hunting and culling program is a model program that they show other cities. They say it's working and they would like to see it continue working how it has been.
So with that, that's all I have. If you have any questions. Thank you. Any questions for TW? I'll just make a comment. I served on that those two listening sessions. The experts from the DNR were their comments are very appreciated, especially the gentleman that we had the first week. He's an active deer hunter himself and so he he felt that what the city is doing is very appropriate for the the size of the parks and and other activities going on in the park.
So thank you for arranging those meetings. I learned a lot. I'm not a deer hunter myself but I did learn a lot in that. Thank you very much. Thank you. We're now up to public comment. In the public comment time, please limit comments to two minutes, approach the microphone, sign in and state your name and address for the record. And after being acknowledged by the Council President, Speakers will be limited to two minutes to deliver their comments. Vice President Voss will raise his hand at the one minute forty five second mark, reminding that you have fifteen more seconds to finish up your comments.
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 comments portion of the meeting. Good evening, Council members. Matt Sine at 2519, Stoney Creek Drive. Yes, sir. I'm here representing the residents who will be directly affected by the proposed highway on the East Side of town known as the East Side Corridor. The proximity of this proposed highway project is a serious safety and noise concern for
existing residents and the families on the East Side of town with some homes just as close as 17 feet from the right of way. Unlike other roads in our city where homes were built knowing the road was there, this is an unprecedented situation trying to build a highway along existing neighborhoods. It's been said this road has been in the making for thirty years. Not exactly. This road was dreamed up over thirty years ago and studied. However, it was abandoned in the early 2000s. In the 90s, the city and county were advised not to develop and not build on or near
the right of way if they ever wanted to develop it. This advisement was not heeded and instead one third of the right of way was relinquished to the developer of a large neighborhood where mine and 150 other homes now sit. Our out lots our lots were developed and put on the right of way. So here we are today. Are we really going to say this project has been in the works for thirty years or are we being honest and say we're trying to prop up a dead project like weekend at Bernie's and pretend it's still alive and well.
Well, that's exactly what we're doing here. It's an incredible expense and using taxpayer funds to the tune of $30,000,000 to put it where it's being proposed. It's too close. As a matter of fact, so close Minnesota, the state says we need a noise wall there. It underscores just how disruptive and dangerous this roadway would be. There are alternative solutions just down the road approximately half a mile that would be perfect for a North South Route and the road already exists all but 1.5 miles. Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak this evening?
Seeing none, I will now go to, counsel comments, and we will start with Brent Spenby. Nothing to say. Nate. Nothing to add. Nothing to add. Nothing to add. Nothing to add. Nothing to add. Nothing. Administrator Busse. Nothing to add. I have nothing to add. Let's let's be careful tomorrow and drive safely and with no other business before us tonight, I would look for a motion to adjourn. So moved. Motion by Dan. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Nate. Any further discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you.