Call city council meeting for Tuesday, 02/04/2025. To order, could I have roll call, please? Council Member Boss. Here. Dodson. Here. Burbank. Here. Bokey. Here. McCann. Here. Spende. Here. Rainey. Here. And Mayor Jessup. Here. We have all seven of the council and the mayor present. Thank you. Would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one of my nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Alright, first thing up tonight is the council agenda. With no additions or corrections I would look for a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Motion by. Council member Vauci. Second. Second by. Council member Svendby. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And that is approved. Mayor Jessup, have you got anything for us this evening? Nothing tonight, Kevin. Thank you. Okay, thank you. So the first thing tonight we have the consent agenda which includes items which council members have reviewed prior to the meeting for approval in one motion.
At this point I'll entertain a motion for approval of the consent agenda items. So moved. We have a motion by Don. And do we have a second? Second. Second by Doug. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And that has been passed. I am missing my items. First thing on the action item is our finance report and we'll go to Councilmember Voss for that. Alright. Thank you, Mr. President. Checks over 20,000 for this meeting are as follows. Dollars 52,039
to Kristile truck equipment for a dump truck box for a sludge truck. $50,616 to Carl Chevrolet for twenty twenty four Tahoe for the fire department. Dollars sixty four thousand and seventy six to MTI Distributing, that is a real grinder for the golf course and miscellaneous parts. $863,885 to Rice Lake construction group for the wastewater treatment plant expansion pay number 31, Dollars 1 40 8 8 9 to Southeast Service Cooperative for the January 2025 health
insurance premiums, dollars 362,800 on other expenditures for a subtotal of $1,542,227 Add in HRA housing assistant payments of $110,000 for a grand total of $1,635,254 Thank you. Council have heard the report. With that I would look for a motion to approve. So moved. Motion by Nate to approve. Is there 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 have some ordinances tonight. First is 3.2.1, second final reading of proposed ordinance 2,503, adjust sanitary sewer rates and we will go to Shawn Murphy for that. Thank you. Good evening Mayor and Council. We're here for the second and final reading of proposed ordinance 20 five-zero three, adjusting our sanitary sewer rates. There's been no changes or modifications from the first reading. Quick background, we occasionally raise rates,
or adjust our sanitary sewer rates to, help sure that we have a solvent fund balance within our sanitary sewer fund. It has been, largely contributed due to our wastewater treatment facility expansion project, as well as some other identified, CIP projects as well. The rate increase will result in increased revenue for the sanitary sewer fund and staff still recommends approval of this ordinance adjustment. Thank you. Any questions for Shawn on this? Seeing none, I'd 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? This is an ordinance, so I'd ask for a roll call vote, please. Council Member Voss. Aye. Dodson. Aye. Burbank. Aye. Okie. Aye. McCann. Aye. Senby. Aye. And Rainey. Aye. All seven ayes. Thank you. That has been approved. Except tonight we have, the noise ordinance update. 3.2.2 and 3.2.3. And we will be going to Mark Walbrand with that. Good evening, sir. Our ordinance code has a number of ordinances addressing noise going back to at least
1976. When an ordinance prohibiting store owners and building owners from using loud speakers to broadcast out on the streets, and automobiles also broadcasting from the automobile. There was another ordinance that pretty much did the same thing, but it did provide for permits with certain conditions. Back in '92, we adopted an ordinance to regulate noise in public parks. And that's the first ordinance that we're dealing with tonight, an amendment to ordinance
number 93, entitled Noise in Public Parks. This brings, that ordinance up to date in a couple of ways. First of all, it includes the many parks that we've adopted or that we've established since 1992. It also, includes a prohibition of making such nuisance noises, not just within the park, but within the 150 feet of the boundaries of the park. So a person, could, it would be prohibited from making a noise that's prohibited in the park within a
50 feet of the park as well, or half a football field, I guess you'd say. And, the ordinance amendment also, uses more modern language than is in the existing ordinance. The existing ordinance talks about, radios and phonographs. Not so many people play loud photographs in the parks any longer. And so the description of the audio amplification systems has been updated. One of the important things that the ordinance also does is that in the next
ordinance I'm going to talk to you about, it expands the definition of nuisance to mean a noise that exceeds the decimal level of the Minnesota Pollution Control levels. And so the park ordinance includes any nuisance that is subject to the, our other larger noise ordinance. So that if there's a noise ordinance that's violating in the next ordinance I'm going
to tell you about, it would be a violation here as well. Just think of it as if there's an ordinance that prohibits an activity outside of the park, it also would be a violation inside the park, if that's clear. Then finally, the noise in the parks ordinance does permit permits. The permit would be allowed for a person or an organization that wanted to have the use of a sound amplification system to use if they were having some type of activity there.
And the city itself would not require a permit for itself, you know, for ball games or the like. We'll likely develop a list of exclusions for requirements for the park. And no, I think there is somewhere, I think it's a $15 filing fee that's already on the books for that. So that's the first amendment to ordinance number 2,501. Okay, thank you. Any questions on that? And we will take these individually.
So first, I would look for motion to approve 20. So moved. Motion by Dan to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second. By Dave. Any further discussion? This is being an ordinance. We'll ask for a roll call vote again, please. Council Member Voss. Aye. Dotson. Aye. Burbank. Aye. Bocky. Aye. McCann. Aye. Snedy. Aye. And Rainey. Aye. All seven ayes. Thank you. The second part of this is 3.2.320Five-two. You've heard Mr. Walbrand's statements on that. Any questions on that?
Doug? Mark, I think we've gone over this a lot. I think I understand it, but just to be clear, this really makes it black and white for our enforcement people to have some ways to apply these rules, is that fairly accurate? Correct. Which is helpful because they get put in a pretty tough spot sometimes. I've been working with the Chief on this and we will come back with some minor changes for the final reading next time. Okay, thank you. Any other questions? I look for a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Motion by Brent to approve.
Do we have a second? Second. Second by Don. Any further discussion? It's another ordinance, so another roll call vote, please. Will Councilmember Voss? Aye. Dodson. Aye. Burbank. Aye. Bokey. Aye. McCann. Aye. Spenby. Aye. And Rainey. Aye. All seven ayes. Thank you. We have run one resolution tonight, 3.3.1. It's premises permit to conduct lawful gambling at Mineral Springs Brewery and we'll turn to Chris for that. Good evening. Thank you and good evening. We have received an application from the Owatonna Youth Hockey to add an additional site.
Current ordinance allows five, this would be their fifth at Mineral Springs. They have paid their renewal fee for $250 and staff would recommend approval. Thank you. Any questions on this? 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 passes. We're now up to miscellaneous items tonight. We have three items. First is 3.4.1, amendment number four,
professional services agreement for staff augmentation and we will go to Shawn Murphy for that. Thank you. We're requesting approval of amendment four to WHKS' proposal for staff augmentation services. WHKS has provided staff augmentation services to assist with engineering projects, training, technical advisement, and training, which I did mention, since 11/15/2022. Our services do include design oversight, design direction, establishing design schedules, assessing staff's design skills and needs,
and state aid and federal project compliance assistance. Previous tasks that we've utilized this staff augmentation for was some of the construction administration on our Vine Street parking lot project. And we've earmarked a specific time for this amendment to look into, study, analyze, and research stormwater BMPs for our Lynn Drive reconstruction project that will help us comply with our MS4 permit amongst other services that we may need throughout. One of the key needs for this is that we are understaffed with the departure
of Andrew Sorensen, one of our civil engineers on staff, and also provides specialized technical experience that we may not have in our team's arsenal. So with that, staff would recommend approval and the budget impact here would be a totality of $130,000 for the four agreements with this one being an additional 20 to get up to that 130,000. So happy to answer any questions on that if Council has any. Thank you. Any questions for Shawn on this?
Seeing none, I'd look for a motion to approve. So move. 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 has passed. We're now up to 3.4.2, consulting services for development consultation for renewable natural gas and we go back to Sean Murphy. Thanks again. Yes, we're requesting the city council's approval for our asset development consulting proposal from Ecoengineers for their consulting services to assess Oatonna's revenue producing options for biocast conversion to renewable natural
gas. And providing recommendations thereof for, you know, the path that sits best for the City. With our wastewater treatment plant expansion, we have always been producing biogas. We decommissioned our converted diesel generator that processed our biogas. It provided energy to offset the plant operation costs. It also reused the heat to help with our digesters. Our digesters need to function at a certain temperature and rather than utilizing sol,
you know, whether it's electrical or electric or other fossil fuels to heat those digesters. We utilize the exhaust off of that generator to help facilitate heating those digester complexes. With our new process going to a membrane bioreactor, we are no longer, we did look into facilitating the same function, providing a new generator that could be even more efficient than the one we previously had, but, proved to be cost prohibitive. And, went the route of collecting,
cleaning, scrubbing, and then, injecting the biogas and converting it into renewable natural gas and putting it into OPU's distribution system. So with that, there are some revenue producing options that comes with you know, biogas conversion into renewable natural gas. We can get paid for that, that commodity through OPU as well as entering into an agreement with a third party that would buy, our renewable natural gas credits.
So, this is very new to the city. We've never explored anything like this before. So we're in definite need to have a consultant help guide us through that process, whether it be from, assessing, what might be best for the city's revenue producing options, whether they're, some options are more risky than others, some are more stable, And then, helping us understand the compliance standpoint that goes along with that. So, all the checklists, all the things we have to do with our capital equipment to ensure that we're
following all of the standards. So that in a nutshell is what this, consultation agreement is for, to help guide us down that path and make recommendations for, the city to find the best revenue producing option, for us at this time. So, the cost of the compliance consultation is, dollars 25,000 and will be paid for using our sanitary sewer funds. Along with the proposal, there's a master services agreement and NDA that City Attorney Walbrand has reviewed and approved.
So with that, staff recommends approval. Thank you. Any questions for Shawn resulting this, on this consulting? Doug? Sean, I read through a bunch of that last night and it's a little over my head. I have to be really smart to understand what they sent but my question is, has this been done in other locations? And does it produce enough revenue that it's worthwhile? I like the idea. I think it's really promising, but we don't want to do it at a loser either. No. And that is why,
we're entering or requesting to enter into this agreement. So we have a full understanding of, you know, the volume that we produce and what markets that it can sit at. So feedstock is the component that helps us create our biogas, and the federal government has created different tiers or levels. So, some are more valuable than others. And with the more valuable feedstock or what's comprising our biogas, it has higher compliance costs. So
there are, you know, what, how do I wanna say it, break points, right? So if we're not producing enough, even if we have a higher feedstock or a higher grade feedstock, it just may not keep up with the compliance costs that come along with it. Yes, there are other communities. They're not that many. We've been working with neuroengineering. They've been helping facilitate some conversations with other communities. So we've had some conversations with West Des Moines that has a significantly larger facility, and walked us through some of their process,
how they got to where they got to. And, you know, the two different types of markets. One's a transportation market, one's essentially an open market. They went the open market route even though they have a much larger, production volume of biogas. It was a safer option for them at the time. They don't have a partner in a municipal utility like we do. So every case is different and, you know, we wanted to get a professional, someone with the right expertise in the field, to help us evaluate our situation and work with our partner in OPU to find
the best solution for our users. Thank you. Any other questions for Sean? Dan. Are we flaring off now some of that gas? Thank you. And Don? John, what we are going to get out of that though is going to OP potentially. So it is offsetting something that they would currently be expending, so reducing potentially some of their costs. When you say they're who? OPU. So if they have natural gas that they're using, we're generating that. That would offset some of their costs. As far as
That's a good question that I don't have an answer for. Yes, we would be injecting volume, you know, marketable commodity into their system. That gets into a bigger question of utilization and how much, we haven't come to an agreement. That would obviously have to come to Council on what OPU purchases our biogas or renewable natural gas from or the cost. So there's, I'd like to say yes to that answer, but I can't say that without actually going through that. But theoretically it could offset some of the costs for the citizens of Owatonna?
I would assume so because without knowing, but yes, that would be the ideal goal. Okay, 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 Don. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? And that has been passed. Our final miscellaneous item tonight is Festl Farms land donation, the Trust for Public Land and we are going to TW with that. Good evening, sir. Good evening.
Good evening, Mayor, Council. This property, which you mentioned is referred to as Festal Farms, is located North Of 20 Sixth Street across from Cashman Park. It's approximately 46.67 total acres and consists of three drainage ponds that are separated by berms. The area around those berms is densely wooded with steep slopes down into the basins with pockets of trees in the basins, which are primarily covered in grass. Both Phase one and Phase two environmental site assessments have been performed,
those were both done last year, and the reports have been attached in this packet. The site owner is working with the Trust for Public Land to find a new owner. The site would add approximately 50 acres of natural land to our park system here in Owatonna. Current plans are to leave the site in its natural state with the possible addition of trails in the future that would connect to our existing trail system. And it could also potentially offer a future trail connection north for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Prairie Wildflower Trail Project.
The site would also support intentions out at the airport to extend the runway by adding city owned, quote unquote, clear zone acreage, as well as useful parkland. Potential acquisition of this site was discussed by council in the 2024 study session. Now, the Trust Republic Land is now asking the City to move forward with the attached donation agreement. As far as a budget impact, this is a very good situation. There's no budget impact to the City. The trust for public land is set up. They have funding to acquire this property and I verified that with them today and
that would also include survey work as well. Staff's recommendation is for approval. Thank you. Any questions for TW on this? Seeing none, 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 further discussion? Just a comment, thanks to Chad and Karen Lang and Festo Farms for donation to the City of Owatonna. They certainly have been good citizens. I want to thank them for this also. Any other comments? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?
And motion carries. That is our completion of the meeting portion tonight. We now go to staff reports and we have one staff report tonight, TW. Back at you right away. Back at me. Just a real quick, just, hey, let you know what's going on in both the parks and recreation divisions. Just a couple of items. We have a lot of stuff going on. Despite being winter, the park staff are keeping busy. This is the time of year we do a lot of equipment maintenance and things that we are too busy to do at other times of the year. But they are busy with cutting trees. I know early in the agenda mentioned the reel grinder for Brooktree Golf Course.
They have scheduled a training out there and this is done to sharpen the mower reels out there and the new machine, I I just went out there to take a look at it today. Staff did a demonstration. It's all enclosed. It reduces the noise, which in the old system, it was so loud you could barely talk within the shop, indoors itself. Also it generated a lot of dust, which then if you inhale that it's not healthy. So, it really takes a lot of that out of the equation as well as being safer. It's programmable and it just runs itself.
So they're doing a lot of that, as well as working on safety training courses, daily inspections, work on the ice rinks, and then as far as the recreation side, just to give you an idea of what's going on with youth basketball is going on at many, multiple sites. Swim lessons continue as well as adaptive recreation programs, such as bowling on Monday and then there's Thursday night programs as well. That's it for the report. Any questions for TW? Alright, that was our only staff report. We are now up to public comments. Reminder, please limit comments to two minutes.
Please approach the microphone, sign in and state your name and address for the record. After being acknowledged by council president, Speakers will be limited two minutes to deliver their comments. Council member Velas will be timing it. He will raise his hand at the fifteen second remaining mark and so we ask that you please finish your comments at that time. 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 any
immediate action in response to those. With those, we'll open up to public comment. Good evening. Melissa Zimmerman. Twenty five twenty five Stoney Creek Drive. Here about the East Side Corridor. I never thought I'd know so much about noise, but here we are. Thank you for working so hard to amend our noise ordinance to protect all of our communities. Noise disrupts lives, whether it's in parks, around our homes, or from infrastructure projects like the East Side Corridor. As you consider these ordinance changes, please consider how noise will impact the North Country subdivision if the East Side Corridor
is built at twenty ninth Avenue. This neighborhood is a community, not just a stretch of road. Some homes sit just 17 feet from the right of way, exposing families to constant disruptive road noise. No one truly wants a noise wall, but our community is prepared to vote for that noise wall as it's our only protection. It takes as few as four homes and at most 12 homes to vote yes to trigger the construction of a $2,300,000 noise wall. Even WSB, the consultants on this project, have said they would vote for a noise ball if the road was built that
close to their homes. This speaks volumes. There is a better way. The best choice remains 30 Fourth Avenue, a future forward location preserved for this road. Per emails now made public from the county engineer, the difference between 20 Ninth Avenue and 30 Fourth Avenue is minimal. Hundreds of residents have advocated for 30 Fourth Avenue both today and for past decades. The two road option narrative was fabricated to counter the growth the growing support of 30 Fourth Avenue. If we really want to do this twice, the hybrid option offers another way to protect our community from excessive noise.
As you work to reduce noise disruptions, please consider the very real impacts the East Side Corridor will have on our homes and families. Thank you for protecting all communities from disruptive noise, whether in parks, in neighborhoods, or from infrastructure. Who knew noise could be such a problem? If you want a crash course on noise, I'm happy to share what I've learned. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Gary Jones, nine nine five Ridge Road. Good evening, Gary. Good evening. How many times have you heard me start a meeting saying, I did a little research? Well, I did a little research. I wanted to look at surrounding cities to see if any of them had disc
golf courses built on top of archery stands. The city of Rochester has nine disc golf courses. Two of them, named Driftless, are by the Game Haven, Refuge. However, they are separated from the disc golf courses there by a 42 acre pond, 42 acre lake. So not much danger from there. So here we have seven other courses. MLK, Slattery, Armbruster, Rochester Technical College, Mayo High School, Mercy Hills Church, and Marion KOA. No hunting anywhere near the disc golf courses. In Faribault, they just hunted Riverbend Nature Center. Only eight days they didn't even hunt in 2024.
Nothing by disc golf courses. Northfield has two disc golf courses. Nothing by any hunting. Winona does not hunt on public lands. Otan is the only city in the area that I have run across that allows hunting right in the area where they also have disc golf. You would not even have to publicize on the website that there's an archery hunt within dangerous distance of a disc golf course. Social media has already taken care of that for us. A beautiful October and November saw a drastic decline in disc golfers. I saw very few disc golfers at the Mineral Springs this fall. We need to stop hunting at Mineral Springs and make sure that it's clear on
the website. I've heard Park and Rec state, don't worry, they shoot down. Well, shooting down at Mineral Springs is shooting in the vicinity of Disc Golf Basket eight. Shooting down at Kaplan's is shooting right at the bike path or right where my two daughters were standing in the last picture that I sent to you guys. This is why the fat tire bikers were so upset that my family was there without blaze orange on. They're riding right under the deer stands with hunters in them. We need to get proper distances between the archery hunt and parkour activities. Mineral Springs is too small and needs to be removed from the hunt. You set the stands farther back from the pass in disc golf and you run
into homeowner backyards. Captains is 224 acres and you need to find other areas to hunt there where you do not have fat tire bikes riding right under deer stands. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak tonight? Good evening. Judson Bartels, thirteen hundred North Elm. Good evening. Good evening. Pastor and his young family got home from getting a new kitten. And as they got home, the kitten jumped from the arms of their little girl. Runs up a tree, not trying to get the kitty down. What they ended up doing, because the dad was very smart, he put a rope around the bumper of the car,
and then the other end of the rope up onto the tree, and starts to pull the tree little by little with the car. And as they do, the tree starts to bend down. And just as they're trying to reach for the kitten that's stuck in the tree, the rope snaps, sending the kitten flying through the sky, never to be seen again. Couple of weeks later, the pastor is visiting one of the people that attends his church. And as he goes to the door, they say, pastor, come on in. As they do, he looks, and lo and behold, on the on the rug in the living room is a little kitten that looks mighty familiar. The pastor says to the family,
that kitten looks really familiar. Have you had her long? They said, well, pastor, you're never gonna believe this. We've had her about two weeks now. He said, really, I'm interested how this came about. Well, pastor, we were in the backyard, and little Johnny says, mommy, can we have a kitten? And I said, Johnny, you're not getting a kitten. I said, please, mommy, can't we have a kitten? Johnny, you're not getting a kitten. But please, mommy, he says, I'll tell you what, Johnny, we'll kneel right here in the garden, and we'll pray. And if the Lord wants you to have a kitten, then he'll give you a kitten. Pastor, you'll never believe what happened next.
The idea here is that the more that we pray, the more that what we call coincidences seem to happen. And so it's, you know, my my ask here that the council would consider and the mayor would consider restoring pre council meeting prayer to the city because it benefits everybody and it hurts no one. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak tonight? Hi. I'm Gail Jorgensen, two forty nine East Main Street, just down the street. And I'm gonna go on the opposite of what he said. I am a Christian. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior when I was three and a half.
I believe very, very strongly in the separation between religion, church, and state. That's what this country was founded on, the separation. I believe we can be Christians without having to pray publicly like Pharisees. I believe it's by your works, how you conduct yourself, that people will know. I also believe by opening this up to public prayer, you're opening up for many faiths, not just Christian. And I have seen
in the city of Minneapolis a different faith, a different religion become very vocal, very strong politically. And I have seen them be very anti Christian, very anti gay. And I believe that if you open it up again for prayer before city council, you're bringing that religion and state together and you're opening it up for other faiths that other people will not agree with. And then it's just a bigger problem. Thank you. Thank you.
Anyone else this evening? Seeing none, we will move on to council comment and tonight we will start with Council Member Voss. Nothing to add tonight. Nothing to add. Mr. Burbank. Nothing more. Mr. Boulke. Nothing to add. Mr. McCann. Nothing. I do have a question for you Kevin. How did the tour of the facilities here in the West Hills go as far as the community center? We the task force toured them last week, wasn't as well attended as I would have liked,
but I think we got a great insight as far as the challenges that we have, both from the city side and on the school district side in regards to the swimming pool up at the middle school. Thank you. I appreciate you sharing that. Mr. Spenby. Nothing to add. And I have nothing tonight. Mr. Mayor. Thank you Kevin. Just wanted to talk about a couple opportunities that I had since our last meeting. On January I had the opportunity to accompany Roger Wareheim to the MMUA legislative rally
to help emphasize the needs and the wants of municipal power. We had a great meeting with Representative Sexton. He was very easy to talk to, very approachable, open to what we were talking about, so we had left with a very good feeling about that. And then last night I had the opportunity to go with Chris to the Firefighters Relief Association with Fire Chief Hoffman as well. It was encouraging, it was really great to see all the firefighters that were there and them being active and engaged in preparing and planning for their financial futures once they retire as
firefighters. Thank you. And Chairman Straboosey. Nothing from me. With that, no other business before us, I would look for a motion to adjourn. So move. To adjourn, we have a second. Second. Second by Nate. Any further discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed?