Call the council meeting for Tuesday, 09/02/2025 to order. Could I have roll call, please? Councilmember Dodson. Here. Burbank. Here. Voci. McCann. Here. Cindy. Here. Voss. Here. Rainey. Here. And Mayor Jessup. Here. We have six of the council and the mayor present. Thank you. Would everyone please rise for the pledge of allegiance led by Councilmember Burbank. 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.
Alright. Good evening everyone. Welcome to a beautiful, beautiful fall evening. Let's, let's get right into this. First thing I'm looking forward is to approve the agenda. There are no changes or corrections so with that I would look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Nate to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Brent. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We have a couple of public hearings tonight. The first is 1.2, public hearing to establish Development District Number 2, and we go to community development director Troy Klecker for that.
Good evening. Good evening. The City Council in previous discussions had approved moving forward in concept of a financing program to incent developers to develop single family housing. For such a program the city would finance an amount equivalent to the cost of hard surfacing, curb and gutter and sidewalks for development up to five years. We are currently working with a developer on such a program. In working with our legal counsel the best way to provide that financing is through a loan agreement. In order to provide the loan agreement for a housing development we must establish a
development district for the city which requires a public hearing. After holding a public hearing City Council must approve the attached resolution establishing a development district in this case '22 and adopting a development program which we have in the packet and then a loan agreement can be approved for such development participating in that program. So the incentive program provides for a loan in the amount, that would be equivalent for the cost of hard surfacing of streets,
curb and gutter and sidewalks for up to five years. This would be paid back through a loan over a five year period plus interest and the loan agreement must be approved for each development that plans participate in this program. So we have two resolutions, one is for establishing the district and one for the program itself and we had some discussions at the study session here. So in your packet then we do have a resolution approving the housing Owatonna Residential Housing Development Incentive Program
and again the high points is we're financing it over a five year period to be paid back with a two percent interest rate over the city's bond rate. Maximum loan amount would be $20,000 per lot to be paid back as lots are developed and sold. The loan would be issued when the developer provides receipts of all the improvements being done and then we would be paid back as the lots are developed with the balloon payment at that five year period. So we also mentioned whether or not this should continue into 2026 and the wording
I have in there is that the program would run through 12/31/2026. I think we should add provided that the city has funds to do so and that would allow us that flexibility should we be in a position where financing financing such a program doesn't make sense that we have that ability to say no. Okay thank you. With that, we will open up the public hearing at 07:04. Anyone that would like to speak on this, please come forward to the microphone. Seeing no one coming forward,
I would look for a motion to close the public hearing. Close the hearing. Motion by Doug to close the public hearing. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Dave. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And the public hearing is closed. We now go to council questions on this. Are there any questions from council? Hearing none, the first resolution is 1.2.1 to establish the development district and I would look for a motion to approve that. Motion to approve. Motion by Doug to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Brent. Any discussion?
Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And that has passed. Next up is 1.2.2, Otona residential housing development incentive. And Troy, do you have anything to add to these? I would just add that wording, that we would leave it open for 2026, provided that the city has the funds to do so. With that, are there any questions on 1.2.2? Hearing none, I look for a motion to approve. I'll make the motion to approve Old Town Residential Housing Development Institute program with the addition that Troy just mentioned.
Thank you. We have a motion from Brent. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Dave. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We are now up to our second public hearing. It's one point three five year street construction and we go to finance director Emily Burns for that. Good evening. Good evening council, mayor. Tonight we have, Todd with Ehlers here to break down the annual, five year capital improvement plan for this year with, planned,
repair street repairs for 1,800,000.0. Thank you, Emily. Council members, Todd Hagen from Ehlers and Associates. I was here on August 6, when we called for the public hearing, to set the public hearing for tonight. We also, talked about the issuance of street reconstruction plan bonds. So the the bond sale would be October 7, but in between, your August meeting and October 7, we needed to hold a public hearing, to authorize, the adoption of the plan and the, and just the preliminary issuance of the street reconstruction plan bonds. So we needed a public hearing basically to move this,
this financing forward. So in your packets is this a five year street reconstruction plan. It only has the $20.25 expenditure in it, which is not uncommon to do. So I think I had mentioned that maybe we'll just do one of these as we move forward each time instead of putting, five years, of projections into one plan. So that's what you have in front of you, tonight. And then there's a resolution, for you to consider the adoption of the street reconstruction plan and then just the preliminary issuance of the of the bonds. I won't be back again till October 7 to actually go through the the bonding
part of this. So for any questions you folks have, we talked about it a little bit in August already. So we're at the public hearing right now. So With that, we will open the public hearing at 07:08PM. Anyone wishing to come forward and speak on this, please do so now. Seeing no one coming forward I look for a motion to close the public hearing. Motion to close public hearing. Motion by Doug to close the hearing. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Nate.
Any further discussion? Hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Public hearing is closed. Any council members comment on this? Seeing none, we'll now move on to the resolution 1.3.1. Ms. Burns, do you have any other comments on the resolution? The only other comment would be that the budget impact of this will be a debt service levy related to the bonds and the levy will be in place, over the ten year life of the bond. And, staff recommends approval of resolution 51 dash 25.
Thank you. Any questions for Emily 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? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? The motion carries. Thank you. We're now up to mayor Jessup. Mayor, have you got anything for us this evening? Nothing tonight. Thank you, council president. That brings us 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. Motion to approve. Motion by Brent to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Dave. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We are now up to the action items. First thing tonight is three point one. Is our financial report and Doug take a breath. You got a ways to go. We turn the finance report over to Vice President Doug Voss. Thank you President Rainey. Following will be checks over $20,000
to be paid for your consideration. There's a lot of them, and I'll read them as fast as I possibly can so we're not here all night. So we have $202,675 to Bosch Automotive, TIF, year four of '9. $23,670 to Semstone, TIF, payment five of 9. $331,170 to Costco, that's TIF, year four out of nine. 22,000 Cresteel truck equipment, dollars 82,371 to Daikin Applied Americas.
That's a TIF year four of nine, dollars 48,291 equity growth for 111 Apartment Building, TIF year six of '26, $21,822 Fairway stores, TIF year 10 of '26, $124,638 Integrated Process Solutions, Autumn Hills and Cedardale Lift Station, 42463Dollars KAB properties, TIF year two of nine. Dollars 229,408 to Legion subsidiary holdings for Public Safety Center,
City Hall, Generator, River Springs Waterpark and the Community Center. Dollars 27,793 to Mound Owatonna, that's TIF year four of nine. Dollars 94,534 neuroengineering for the wastewater treatment upgrade and expansion for June 2025. $33,405 to the Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce lodging tax for June, dollars 81,355, dollars Owatonna Hospitality Marriott TIF three point zero to 26, dollars 48,894
to Owatonna Motor Company for a Ford Explorer for the stormwater department, dollars 27,584 to the Owatonna Pearl TIF year March '23, 28,000 for pro pet economic TIF year August '9, 440,273 to Rice Lake Construction Group, wastewater treatment plant expansion pay number 3828802Dollars Short Elliot Hendrickson, Eighteenth Street Reconstruction Services, dollars 22,609 Southpointe to Eighteenth Street apartment year four of ten TIF,
$32,045 Southpointe Owatonna, that is year eight of 14 TIF, dollars 153,070 Southeast Service Cooperative, August 25. Health insurance premiums, dollars $80,314 Steve James excavating for Tenth Avenue and Ridge Road, repair, an overlay prep project in Fifteenth Street, two structures and a storm pipe. $27,494 US bank for the entire monthly credit card purchases, June and July. Other expenditures of $254,059
for a subtotal of $2,254,721 Added to that is HRA housing assistance payments for a grand total of $2,622,477.33. You heard the report. Do you guys want Doug to read it again? Please. With that report, I'd look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Don to approve. Do I have a second? I wanna read it again. Second. Second by Brent. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.
Opposed? The finance report has been approved. We have two ordinances tonight. The first one is 3.2.1, 20 five-one. It is a, salary adjustment for elected officials. And with that, we go to senior minister Tuma. Good evening. Thank you. Good evening. This is an, on a request to, have approval for the reading of, the first reading of the proposed ordinance of twenty five ten to amend the section of 32.001. This will authorize an increase in salaries to be paid to our elected officials beginning
January 2027. A little background on this. The ordinance in July I'm sorry. January 2023 I'm sorry. In twenty six eighteen, an ordinance of 1577 was, created to have the, the salaries of our elected officials reviewed every four years. And with that, the first salary that was, updated was in 2021, which went into effect in 2023. And so this is just in order of another, the next four years to review the salaries. And so with this, it would be adding a $100,
to each elected official, per month and it wouldn't go into effect until January 2027. So with that, I would look for, staff who looks to approve, for approval. Thank you. Any questions for Jenna? Hearing none, I look for a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Dave to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Doug. Any further discussion? This being a ordinance, I would look for roll call vote, please. Council member Dodson. Aye. Burbank. Aye. McCann. Aye. Spende. Aye. Voss. Aye. Rainey. Aye. All six ayes.
Thank you. Our next ordinance tonight is three point two point two twenty five dash eleven. It is, the first reading for update code section one thirteen, alcoholic beverages and hours for Sunday sales. And once again, we go sue to city administrator Tuma. Yeah. This one, this ordinance is to update a code, a twenty fifteen code, and the state legislative, amended this back in 2015, and it was to change the hours that alcohol could be served on Sundays. It changed it from 10AM to 8AM until it ended at one and moved it
to 2AM. And so this is really just some housecleaning to, get our local, ordinance to be in line with the state. And so with that, staff recommends approval. Thank you. Any questions on this? Hearing none, I look for a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Nate to approve. Do I have a second? Second. I'm sorry. This is an ordinance. Still need a second, though. Pardon me? No. We did roll call. I'm sorry. Roll call vote. It's done. Council member Dodson. Aye. Burbank. Aye. McCann. Aye. Sandy. Aye. Voss. Aye. Rainey. Aye. All six ayes. Thank you.
And that is passed. We have six resolutions tonight. The first one is 3.3.1 residential, resolution 40 five-twenty five final plat for Mineral Springs Estates edition and with that we go back to Troy Klocker. Alright thank you. So this is the final plat of Mineral Springs Estates. Preliminary plat approval was previously given by the council. This is Prairie LaSalle Partners development. This is North Of Lee Street and East of Saint Paul Road up by our
River Springs Waterpark. The property did go through a PUD planning development zoning for the entire development so this is a plat of that whole development A2 plus acres. This this plat really lays out the first phase of the development and then lays out a lot of outlots for future phases. So 36 new lots are being created, with 13 outlots. Services would be extended from Seventh Avenue to service this first phase and then there would actually be a construction access off of Saint Paul Road and that was really
at the neighbor's request there that all that construction activity would not go through the development. A number of wetlands on the property that's laid out in the development and all the easements are placed where Hoagata Public Utilities and City Engineering need them to be and, Planning Commission did give final plat approval Stephen Wheeler came from Chicago he's the developer here and I know there's been some questions about the timing of this so I would maybe invite Stephen just to say a few things about the
development and in the timing of it all. Good evening, everyone. It's good to see you again. We've been at this for a while, but we're at a really, really great place and sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. First of all, the city staff has done a tremendous job in helping us to address all of the things, not only for the Mineral Springs development, but for the future development that will, that will come from this. One of the things that I think is very important about this project is that it actually puts in place the infrastructure for a much larger amount of development beyond
Mineral Springs. It opens up a lot of land to the city, not land that we own, but that are owned by others within the city and to create other opportunities for housing and other things. So we're excited to be a part of that process and very thankful that the city has been patient with us and supportive of the project over time. This initial phase that's being approved allows us to put to create a range of different housing units and housing types so that we can,
more more actively gauge what that demand is going to be. It's designed in a way that's going to be complementary to the housing that's there, complementary to the new housing that's being created, but with the flexibility so that as we go to the later stages of development that we're developing a product that's consistent with the consumer demand. When we started this project, we had a lot of discussions around the city and a number of very interesting conversations with Federated because as one of the larger employers in the area and one that's driving a lot of the population that comes into the city along with a
number of the other companies. We recognize that the needs of the for the housing is diverse and it has looked at there are specific people that live today that work today in Owatonna that want to live in Owatonna and can't yet live here. So we're very excited to be to have gotten to this point for this final approval. We look forward to the contributions that we are committed to making public green space, open space, connectivities, walking trails, etcetera. That will be not just for the development itself but for the neighborhoods that are
in place today and these neighborhoods will be in place, over time. Our plan is to start with breaking ground on this as soon as possible. We're gonna have an early winter it seems. I think it's gonna be 44 and raining in two days. So the groundbreaking will probably be sometime in the spring. But, you know, we've worked consistently with city staff, with its engineering. All of you know Craig Britton. He's a fixture around the area. Troy's worked with him a lot and so we're really looking forward to being able to break down in the spring. Our plan will be to to work with local local developers and builders as well
as to work with local brokers. So our goal here is for this to also be an economic activity, an economic development activity that supports the existing businesses within the City Of Owatonna. Thank you. Any questions on this? Hearing that, I look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Nate to approve. Do I have a second? Second by Don. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We're now up to 40 five-twenty 5 the final plat for Mineral Springs Estate once again Troy Kleecker. So we just gave approval for that so the the land development agreement
would be for this Mineral Springs Estates really lays out the what's required for the city and the developer. In short, the developer is required to install the public infrastructure for the development including sewer water, storm water facilities, streets and sidewalks. We didn't deviate too much from this development agreement from others. The next agenda item was the loan agreement which is a little bit different and I'll explain a little bit that at that time. So staff recommends approval of the development agreement. Thank you. Any questions for Troy? Hearing none,
I look for a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Doug to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Brent. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next one is 3.3.2, Resolution 40 six-twenty five that is a land development agreement in once again Troy. Alright, so this is the new piece, this is part of the incentive program that was earlier in the agenda here that you approved. We set the development district. We approve the program.
We really needed to go through and work with the developer to develop the parameters of that program which is kinda why you're seeing it at the same time here but, the incentive again is to finance an amount equivalent to the curb and gutter, the hard servicing of the streets, the sidewalks, driveway aprons and final landscaping for a residential development to help get housing going in Owatonna. So this is the first project under that.
The loan agreement was put together by TAF law, our development consultant. Ehlers had some involvement in this as well and the total amount in this case would be $704,724.3 that does include a 5% contingency. The payment would go to the developer once all of the improvements are made and receipts are shown and then that repayment again is over a five year period as lots are sold.
We will get payments of each of those lots when they are sold. We would have liens on the lots that we would sign off on and then at the end of the five year period any outstanding balance on that loan would be paid back by the developer. So staff would recommend approval of this resolution. Thank you. Any questions for Troy? Hearing none, I look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Nate to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Dave. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.
Next up is 3.3.3, Resolution 4725, correct? Where's the next one? I think you're to 3.34. Oh, there we go. 3.3.4. I'm sorry. This is a resolution 48Dash25 for an accessory warehouse and Troy again. Alright, this is a request by Larry Schultz in LSO Farms. They currently have a facility out in the industrial park off of Park Drive. Organic Eggs. They are looking to, construct an 11,520 square foot accessory building just to the west of their current facility.
This does require a conditional use permit because it does exceed the size or ordinance requirements for size for an accessory structure. They are They would meet all the setback requirements, they would look at additional access off of Park Drive, add the additional parking needed to meet their ordinance requirements and they are proposing storm water filtration basin. So this did go to public hearing at Planning Commission and the Planning Commission did recommend approval with the listed conditions there and staff would recommend approval as well.
Thank you. Any questions for Troy? Hearing none, I look for a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Dave 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? Motion carries. We're now up to 3.3.5 resolution 40 nine-twenty five preliminary plat I'm sorry preliminary and final plat for Culligan and once again Troy Klecker. Alright Culligan is proposing to replat the property and the Culligan property was actually a number of separate parcels
that they are looking to combine into one platted lot. The intent, is to get it under one lot and they do plan on putting up a storage facility on the property. Really nothing changes as far as, in the utilities or anything with this plat, they're just merely putting it into one property description rather than the numerous ones that are in now. We did have a public hearing at Planning Commission. There was a couple of neighbors there that, objected to the warehouse or wanted more information on the warehouse.
The warehouse itself is not part of what is being requested for approval with the council it's merely the addition, the plaiting of the property into one parcel. So the storage building would need to go through all the requirements of any other building, meet building code, meet stormwater requirements, meet our setback requirements and everything else that will be handled separately, but we did have a couple of neighbors that were,
had some questions and in some cases opposed to some portions of that develop that project. So I wanted to mention that and a letter was submitted by one of the neighbors which is in your packet, but the planning commission did recommend approval of the preliminary and final plat again to combine the multiple lots into one single lot and staff has no objection to it and is recommending approval as well. Thank you. Any questions for Troy? This one, Kevin. Don. Troy,
the letter from Randy and Tammy, that would be addressed later in the process. Is that correct? Well there is a process that goes through. It would not involve the neighbors, though. They would need to, unless a variance project itself. It would it's it would meet zoning, it would meet setbacks. I mean we would make sure it meets all the requirements if they wanted to deviate from anything that's permitted at that location you know then we would need to go through some sort of variance request but from what we can see there would not be any variance that they're requesting for
this. Okay so there's nothing that we have to worry about from the standpoint? Yes. It will follow the same process as any other construction project. And in this case, they would be following everything that's permitted. Perfect. Thank you. Any other questions for Troy? Hearing none, I look for a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Brent to approve? Yep. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Dave. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Final resolution tonight is 3.3.6 transfer duties of local board of appeal and equalization to Steel County.
With that, we go back to city administrator Touma. Thank you. Yeah. This one, request, council approval of a resolution adopting an open book meeting format for property assessment appeals and for, for formally setting aside the local board of appeal and equalization by permanently transferring those duties to Steele County. The Minnesota state, statute provides for a local level review of annual property assessments made by the county assessor. And adopting the open meeting, the open book meeting format,
to consider an assessment appeal is assessable and sensible approach to a lot and kind of a direct approach for the resident or property owner to, make that directly to the county. This was a discussion of topic, last meeting during our study session on August 19. The transfer of the duties eliminates the step of the city holding that annual local board of people and equalization meeting and all other duties for the property valuation remains the same at the county level. So with that, staff would recommend, making this change.
Thank you. Any questions for Jenna on this? Hearing none, I look for a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Dave to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Don. Any further discussion? I do have one comment. With this transfer, we were the last city within Steele County to have it go to the city council and so this kind of moves us in line with with our neighboring communities and having the county address it. With that, any other comments? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?
Motion carries. Now after staff reports tonight we had Ed Hoffman, our fire chief and you brought someone with you tonight. I got someone in the audience. Good evening. Good evening, council, mayor. Thank you. I have just a quick update. Some of the stuff that's going on with the fire department lately. So I've got a couple slides. I always like some pictures. So things I wanna cover tonight, again, a little bit of recap on the July 28 storm that we've been working on, some staffing changes we've had recently, some other events we participated in, then talk a little bit about some of our trainings, inspections, and then some cool stuff we have coming up in the future.
So I'll zip through that. Again, the storm, some of this is recap. But as you know, we had a windstorm come through July 28. The primary damage was just a number of trees down throughout the city. A couple of pictures I just took, this is downtown there where there was some damage to sidewalks. Here's our debris pile. The police helped me with taking some pictures, aerial pictures that we could submit to the state with our request for emergency funding. So you can see how much, debris we had there. A little bit of recap. Again, right after the storm, we did an initial damage assessment, just to see are we over the county threshold and our initial assessment was around
$200,000 Based on that, we requested the state to come in and do a preliminary damage assessment. They came in on the nineteenth. We worked with Homeland Security Emergency Management, folks from the state. And we came up with, so Steel County, we had a little bit over $919,000 worth of damage. And that's, direct damage, that's debris removal, and disposing of the debris. Then on the twentieth, the county emergency manager submitted a request to the governor, to request, state disaster assistance under Minnesota statute 12 b dot 30. And basically what that is is seventy five twenty five where they'll reimburse us 75%.
We pay 25%. That request has been to the state. And as of Friday, I haven't heard anything back yet, but that is in the governor's office now. So questions on the storm? And not a lot's changed since the last time I was here on that. Okay. Yeah. Just a couple of pictures or aerial pictures. Just an estimate there. Again, the square yards, again, it's twenty, thirty feet high, but it was over 1,700 square yards, our estimate of our debris pile there. You see they've been making a lot of progress. I was down by there today, so they got maybe a third of that chipped up now. Where is that going? That I forgot where they're hauling away.
Sean's not here. So he's been helping coordinate it. We have a company from the cities coming in that's chipping it up, and then they're gonna dispose of it. And and off top of my head, I don't recall where that's going. They're the ones they'd helped us many years ago too when we had a lot of storm debris. So same, organization that's helped us before. So a couple of changes now in staffing. So the first one, some paid on call firefighters that we have. So these three started with the fire department back in January as new paid on call firefighters. Part of the process they go through, their first about six months, they're going through a,
we call it 1,001, it's the basic firefighter training. We partnered with Riverland College. They just completed that, and now they've started their probationary period, where they're responding to calls as probationary members, and then they're going through sort of on the job training where they have skills they test out on each month. We plan on them being fully done with those by the end of the year. These three, again, we have Isaac, and they're all they have other jobs within the community. So like Isaac, he works full time with Mayo Ambulance. Justin in the middle, he's a resident. He's living at the station, works for Ohana Heating and Cooling.
And then Kate on the right there, she's a teacher at the school district here. So we're excited to have them. Their training's going real good. Then here just a couple weeks ago, we had three new firefighters start. So here we have, I'm gonna mess up names, so Taylor, he works for Blue Earth County Environmental Services, their waste management there, a lot of good experience with that. Luke, in the middle, works for OPU, another person for OPU. And then Dalton on the right is also with OPU. So we really appreciate the employers supporting them. Some of these employers let them come to a lot of trainings and stuff.
One note with Dalton, he actually started with the previous group, but due to some scheduling issues, he couldn't start the training. So he's going through the initial training with them. Again, they just started here a week ago. They'll be in their initial training till the end of the year, and then they'll start their probationary period. Then another one, we had a full time opening this summer. So on July 28, we promoted from within. Mitch Terpstra, who's one of our paid on call firefighters, became a full time fire equipment operator. He went through his about a month of training where he was working, day shifts for a while, getting to know inspections, how to run the trucks. Then he did a few weeks where he was working as an extra firefighter on
the truck. And as of yesterday was his first shift by himself working with commander. So he's fully trained and working shifts now. So we're excited to have Mitch in the full time role. The next one you're referring to, we have Jacob DeShield with us. Just started here, a week and a day ago as our assistant fire chief fire marshal. Excited to have him on board. Comes with a lot of great experience. Most recently, he was working as deputy fire marshal at Golden Valley Fire. And then prior to that, he was at Brooklyn Park. So we're excited to have Jake here. I'm sure you'll see him around a whole lot. He's been coming to a lot of these evening meetings,
the budget meetings and stuff with me. So learning a lot of what's going on here. Next, just a couple of highlights, some recent events, some great events we did. Both of these ones I'm talking about tonight, we actually partnered with OPD. One was Night to Unite. A number of you guys were out with us that night, getting out to the block parties, meeting the members of our community. As we're out on there, the fire staff, we attended over 20 parties and contact with over 500 residents. So as we're going, you can see a lot of truck tours. I was out separate meeting with people. So it was a great night. Again, thank you guys for partnering with us and being out with us that night.
Another recent one, we did a, first responder night with the Adaptive baseball team where, police fire. We played baseball with them. We've done it for a few years now. It's a great night. The kids love it. The staff, you know, police and fire that are out there have an awesome time. So we're real excited about that. Had a great time out there with them. As we've been going, training continues to be a big priority for us. A couple of things here, you know, what our regular training is. I think last time I talked a little bit about this. Some of the training we do regularly each week, we have a training assignment that the full time staff do just on their schedule.
So today the two firefighters on duty, they did their training. So they have an assignment each week. They do when they're on shift. Twice a month, we have the whole department in, the second and fourth Monday in the evening. So all the paid on call, full time staff, we're in doing training on that. We do a monthly full time staff training. So next Monday, all the full time staff work all day, and we'll do our training. We'll have our staff meeting and stuff on that day. So a chance for the full time staff to train on some of their technical items. And one thing we started a few years ago here is doing our squad training. We found having the small groups,
you know, when I got all 35 firefighters there, it's easy for someone to maybe stand in back. You don't get as much hands on. So we do monthly squad trainings. Each full time firefighter has a squad of three to four paid on call, and they meet together and do some hands on drill. Again, it's four or five of them. A lot of hands on stuff that made our drills go a lot more effective, give more hands on time. Tonight, Commander Brace is working with his squad over there. We're practicing actually trench rescue training that we'll be doing next month. And the picture I have up there is from our trench training last year, but we'll be doing something similar here this coming month on that.
As of the July, we had over two thousand four hundred hours of training logged so far. So about half the year, we got two thousand four hundred hours. So that is a key thing keeping us safe, and, we focus on that a lot. Code enforcement. So fire safety is another big thing. Couple of our stats, again, continuing to do inspections, working on processes, trying to make sure things aren't slipping through the group cracks and stuff. Over three twenty two rental inspections, and that's over 1,200 units that we've inspected. So getting through on that, fire alarm sprinkler permits. Again, doing inspections on that when someone applies for a permit.
Normally, there's multiple inspections for it, but so far, we've done forty eight year to date. And then our favorite, Wheaton Newtons, five eighty two inspections on that. So looking forward some of the upcoming things we have you know normally we've done a chili feed our relief association has chose not to do that the tenants have been going down and things like that so we're actually transitioning to more of a traditional open house this year so working on some details, but scheduled for October 5, we'll have an open house. The theme this year is lithium ion batteries. That's a key thing. So and that's a nationwide topic for open houses,
so we'll be talking about that. But we're working on, you know, having some partners come in, different displays and stuff showing off our fire station, talking about the future, where we're going, things like that. Another exciting one is Women Explore Fire Day in Minnesota. So this is a program that started, I think two years ago up in Garrison area, Milaca, up that area. Where they did it, it's this program to get women in and just show them what is the fire service. It doesn't need to be guys in the fire service. Open it up. They had a vision now to take this statewide. So on May year, if this is gonna happen statewide,
we have one of our firefighters in Owatonna here. She's helping. She's part of the committee. We're gonna be one of the host sites here in Owatonna. Each region in the state is gonna be doing that. So we're excited to have that and a lot of excitement building with that. So there'll be more details as we're coming on that, but some cool things we have coming up in the future here. So with that, let's see if anybody has any questions, other stuff we're doing or Any questions for the chief? Great. Fire department appreciates your guys' support and everything. So thank you. Thank you. We're now up to the public comment portion of the meeting. Please limit your comments to two minutes.
Approach the microphone, sign in, 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, the public comment period is open. Good evening. My name is Richard Amott. I reside at 104 East University Street. Good evening. Recently, those of us along my street received a notice from the post office requiring us to install mailboxes at street side. I initially didn't have any objection to this until my neighbor pointed out to me that it's gonna be across the street. So I can no longer feel safe sending my children to go fetch mail since
they would have to cross the street and not at the crosswalk. So I don't know what the city can do, if there is anything that can do, but that is my concern this evening. Thank you. Thank you. Gary Jones. 995 Ridge Road. Good evening. Good evening. I'm here tonight with something Nate's already smiling at me. He thinks I'm gonna take his picture. This is a light meter. This measures light in what is called luxes. It's a measure of light. And so naturally, like any good dad, I marched my kids into Mineral Springs to see how quick we got to zero luxes,
meaning where the eye cannot naked eye cannot see is zero luxes. So, Jeanette passed out some of these, and you can see we took, different pictures of the light meter, and it, went, it would at seven fifty three, which would have been the last half hour of a of the hunt, it was at, 13.2, went down to 5.2 at eight zero one. Look between 806 and 811. What happened? How quickly that light went down? It went to point nine at 08:11 and down to zero luxes,
meaning you can't see anything at 08:16. So, also, I, had one of my kids, sit 20 feet away, standing 20 feet away, not 20 yards like the hunter shoot at, but 20 feet. All photos are taken in the path, by the north stand. They're all untouched and taken with just a cell phone. I'm not smart enough to do anything else with it. 08:08PM, fifteen minutes after sunset, the light meter readings were two. Can you see the little girl in the picture? She's up in the far left. One minute later, look how much darker that got. My daughter is right where the pink circle is. So if you go to page three,
the light meter reading is almost zero at 08:14, twenty one minutes after sunset. So you're still hunting for another nine minutes. But see the little boy? He's way over to the right. You can't see him. I can't either. I circled him in blue. So there's him. So next page, page four. There's two little girls standing there. 08:17PM is already down to zero. Circle them in purple. So and because we couldn't see anything at all. So, the next page, page six, we're leaving, and you can't even see anything then. But when you look up Thank you.
Seeing no one coming forward. We are up to, council comment. And first up tonight is council member Dodson. School started today for a lot of kids. So kids are gonna be out walking around on the street, running out in front of cars. Keep an eye out for them kids. Great message. Council member Rearbank. Nothing more to add. Council member McCann. Nothing to add. Councilmember Sandy. Nothing to add, I'm sorry. Councilmember Voss. Lots of airtime for me now. Okay. Now I did wanna just take a second and thank Troy, Clacker and Greg, in the development office for all the housing stuff.
We work on housing nonstop, as do they, and, getting a program that hopefully is gonna help here was was great. So diligence, perseverance, all those good words. It's been three years probably we've been working on this. So thank you for all the effort on that. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. Just want a second what Nate said school started. Please please please watch your kids. Please be safe. So minister Kilmer. I have a couple items. Just wanted to, note that I received a thank you letter today in the mail and it was
about our fire, officers and, fire department responding to a fire at Bridgewater, facility. They had a mechanical fire, and they just wanted to note timing of, chief's, feedback or his updates that the Owatonna fire department deserves to be recognized for their quick action and their, they showed up within five minutes and she was quite impressed and sent a thank you note. So just want to acknowledge, that great work and also want to let you know, it's Thursday and, we have downtown Thursday or that other, item. And so I'll be there along with the chief Mandela and chief Hoffman down at
the city booth. So come visit us. And, just a reminder that we do have our tree pickup this Friday at Central Park. We had 32 people, reserve, trees, about a week ago. So we, the goal is 50, but, so there's 32 trees to be picked up. Up. Okay. That would be referred to as thirsty thirst. Thank you. For me. Yeah. Once again, Troy for the, the housing, you told us years and years ago that we needed apartments. We kind of looked at, you know, okay. Every apartment that's been built has been filled. And, and now with single family housing, there is a need in our community.
So I agree with my fellow council members were excited to take this journey and, hopefully this is the first step in in seeing a lot of single family houses being built within the city. With no other business before sunlight tonight, I would look for a motion to adjourn. Motion by Nate to adjourn. Do I have a second? Second by Brent. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? We're adjourned. Thank you.