Uh, good evening. I'd like to call the regular city council meeting to order for August 25th, uh, 2025. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh, the city council members are here to serve the city of Pierce. We expect a respectful conduct at all times. Slander or inappropriate language will not be
tolerated. Please speak only when addressed one person at a time. Each speaker has a 5m minute time limit. Uh thank you for your cooperation. Uh first thing I'd like to do uh tonight is to get approval for the city council uh
minutes for the meeting of August 11th, 2025. I'll make that motion. Uh Lynn makes the motion. I'll second it. Donnie seconds the motion. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. Um then we have the city council workshop for
August 18th, 2025. Approval of that. The minutes. I'll make that motion. Sarah makes the motion. I'll second it. Lynn seconds the motion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. A motion carried for the uh workshop. Then we also have the
minutes for the city council special meeting of August 18th, 2025. approval of those minutes. I'll make that motion. Lynn makes the motion. I'll second. Sarah seconds the motion. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Uh motion carried. Okay. So
then we move to uh the addition or removal of uh of the agenda. Um I'll just start with Gary first. You got anything, Gary? Nope. Donnie? Yeah. I got one thing. Um, I'd like to add under um right right after uh uh uh
Chief Henkin talks um I'd like to add the Halloween party at the Piers Campground. Uh just a discussion of that um after the police department update. And then do we have anything else? Uh Lynn? Um I've got two things. Um one is just
an update on the apartments. Okay. The city owned apartments. Yep. And then the second would be um source well the match funding and impact funding. Great. Okay. So I'll move those if that's okay. I'll put those after 15. That's fine. So then we can move through some of this
other stuff and they can go if they want to. Okay. So make the motion to accept the new additions uh to the agenda. Okay. Donnie makes the motion to accept it. I'll second. Sarah second motion. All in favor say I.
I. Opposed. Uh motion carried. Okay. First we have planning and zoning and Lynn if you want to handle that. Uh we had two tonight. Uh the first one is for F&M Bank. They are doing an addition and a remodel and um they met
um all the requirements for planning and zoning. Um it'll be turned over now to um the building official to review everything. So we would um want you guys to go ahead and approve that one. And then the second one is Betty Fightton. She is doing it's a concrete permit for
driveway and sidewalk. We're also recommending approval for that one. Okay. So, if I could get a motion for the F&M bank uh permit and also for Betty Fighton. I'll make the motion. Donnie makes the motion. I'll second it. Lyn second the motion. All in favor say
I. I opposed. A motion carried for that. Uh then I'd like to have a motion for an open public hearing uh chapter 4 uh dangerous uh weapons amendment.
I'll make the motion. Donnie makes the motion. I'll second it. Uh Lynn second the motion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. So we'd like to open that up. And I think Mr. Henkin, do you we want to are we or
did you want to talk about it or Yes. Yeah. Really quick kind of what we're doing. It's going to be our more or less covers our firearms and our archery since we had the complaints last year down behind Roach's apartment complex. Um our attorney advised us to change our
ordinance to uh cover more of the archery archery section. So, we thought it was ready for approval, but we sent the email back to her looking for some different worded words to be implemented in it to make it more not more strict, but to cover more areas where they can't
be discharging a bow after say white tail or other animals. So, we're just waiting for her literature to come back, then we can move forward, edit it, and then bring it into final AC final final ordinance. And I know there's some concern about people like target practicing and there's some word
verbiage in there for that too. I believe practicing can in their yards as long as they have a safe background. Yep. So that's good. That'd be that's great that So the thing we're waiting on is for Sue to send us something back with the words that we should use and then we can implement it and put in place. Okay. So uh then I am going to Does
anybody have any comments out there about it? Um does the council have any questions? Nope. Nope. Uh, does the public have any questions or comments? Does the city administrator have any have any written comments to present?
I do not. Okay. So, I'd like to uh make a first call for comments or questions. Second call for comments and questions and then the final call for the comments and questions and then uh nothing. So, I'd look for a motion to close the
public hearing at this time. I'll make that motion. Lynn makes the motion. I'll second it. Donnie seconds the motion. Um all uh all in favor of the excuse me. So then we'll go to the next item which is approval of
ordinance 2025-0825-1 chapter 4 section 11. I'd like to have a motion to accept that along with uh Oh, go ahead. With the discussed edit. Yeah, with the discussed edit. I'll make that motion. Lynn makes the motion. I'll second. Sarah seconds a motion. All in favor say
I. I. I. Opposed. A motion carried. And then uh Eric, you're up again. Lucky you. Yeah. Can you play that song when I walk up? All right. Good evening everybody. Um
the first conversation point I have it's going to be most I think most you'll know it as Grand Electronics. They're the ones that take care of our um siren emergency towers and they are getting depleted where they're constantly coming up fixing stuff that it's broke. And something that most other communities
do, they put they go into a service contract with granite. Now it's called DSC communications. And that way they'll come in, inspect the towers, and make sure that they're operating the way they should be. Then they'll let us know what we need to do to fix it, you know, and make sure we get approval if it's a it's
a big financial hit to the community. But right now it seems like every other month one of them's not working. So then they have to come in and do it. That this way if they see something that needs to be upgraded, they'll advise us and upgrade it so emergency communications is working in the city. So that that contract is for 36 months.
It is uh $61 a month. It would be $2,196 over the contract of 36 months would be my recommendation. I just think with the liability in today's world, we want them working and that way they're being somebody's got eyes on them besides me. Mhm. So, I just ask for a motion to to uh
move into with that contract for um DSC Communications out of St. Cloud. Okay. So, if I could get a motion to move into the contract with DSD Communications for a 36-month program for $2,96. I'll make that motion. Uh
Donnie makes the motion. I'll second it. Lynn seconds the motion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Uh motion carried. Thank you. Then the next other one is it's a it's a pretty good good surprise for the police department is I submitted
a grant application about two months ago and I it was for a Lucas device. A Lucas device is a selfmated CPR machine. Um the fire department already has in one of their signed rigs. it. Uh, so when we have um any medicals that's going to acquire CPR, somebody picks that one up
and we actually the police department was awarded this device. So there'll always be one in one of our patrol units. And I mean it's value of anywhere between, if you look it up on the computer, anywhere between 25 and $30,000. So Preston and myself, we head up to Brainard PD tomorrow to do three hours of training. So it'll be put into
Preston squad car when he comes back to shift on Wednesday. I just think it's going to be a great thing for the first response team and for the police department along with our anybody out east here with our first response team. It's going to be a it's a tool that we use quite often. So, it's it's a pretty cool thing. So, I just I thought I'd
share that with you guys. Any questions or concerns on that? No. And then Lynn brought up before you guys talking about the impact funds and match funds. I submitted the one for the police department to help with the funds for if we're awarded a new squad card to rotate one of ours out. So, I went after
the full 50,000. Hopefully, if we get a a good answer, that'll save a lot of money out of our budget for the squad car fleet. Also, um, walking wings. Um, I want to give credit to Barb Treader and her staff. There was not one complaint, not one law
enforcement call, not one medical. It was a great event. It was ran very well. So, I give her a lot of credit for how it was conducted. October fest October Fest itself lots of people great weather and again it was a very good you know very good event which was again held
very very very good very lucky so it was a great weekend it was a great weekend weather was good we had really good support and uh it was and then the other thing I'll bring up is with um the detour that was implemented through us that we can't control when I submitted the October
Fest parade permit for what because we have to reroute traffic so when that came up with Mindot. They asked me to do some extra signage and it's a bill that I gave Lord today. It's going to be Was it 1,300 bucks or 1,100 bucks? It was like $1,100 that we had to bring
in signs to mark our detour around their detour and it actually worked out really well, but it's just something that we were that we had to do to make sure it was done right. So, it's just uh I gave Laura that bill. I'm not sure what funds she'll pull that out of, but it's uh we just it's it's a move that we had to make to make sure it
was all was safe. Mhm. Any other questions for me? That's all I have. No, that's good. Okay. Um, the next thing I'd like to talk about a little bit about is that everybody's we kind of got the email for the Halloween uh party or the proposal
for a Halloween party down at the down at the campground. And um I just wanted to uh have a discussion on what the council kind of uh thinks about it uh in general, if they think it's good or bad. I kind of got my own my own opinion on
it and then I asked Eric to maybe comment on it himself since he's going to have to deal with it. But um I'm not really necessarily in in favor of it myself. I think it's uh there's some liability issues. Um if the city's
involved with it, um I think they myself personally, I think they could have a closed have a closed party down there if they want. I have no problems with with that at all. But once we interject the the people of peers, the general community where uh we're injecting
oursel into some liability issues and that's not a very safe corner either. Uh and we got people that are hunting to the north of that uh deer hunting. And anyway, that's my thoughts, but I just wanted to go down. Gary, what what are your thoughts on it? Different.
Different. Donnie. So, we've I've got a seasonal site that's over by uh Oglevie and at that site they close it. We we have one every year and at that our campground they close it and it can only be people that are inside the campground. They don't
allow anybody other than campers to do it. And all the campers are supposed to dress up and all the campers are supposed to do everything but it's only for the campers. They do not allow anybody from the outside to come in. Excellent.
Yep. And that's the way I guess I would like to see it also. I agree. The liability of people coming in from, you know, everybody within the community. That can be a lot. And Laur uh Sarah, I mean, I guess I'm kind of indifferent. It It all depends on like what kind of
beverages are allowed. I never thought about that. That's another problem, Eric. Uh well, mine is number one, will the construction be done for our detour? Because right now, Park Avenue is heavily utilized. Correct, Todd? Lots of
traffic. I'm not hearing. No, it's just there's lots of traffic and that corner is always busy. And I think I agree that if there's going to be to the campers themselves because I imagine like the one you're talking about, Donnie, that's an adult Halloween. It's really not for the kids. It's probably emphasized about the adults, right?
Um the adults give away adult beverages. Yeah. But what there's a lot of kids that come by that are within our campground. And the one thing that Piers has always done is when we have our Halloween, we have it up here full and all of our commercial businesses are the doors are
open for them all. So, I would uh just keep it to what we have here and if they want to do it internal down there by themselves, great. But that's the way I that's just my opinion. Yep. That's kind of how I feel about to If they want to do it though and keep it to themselves down there, are we okay with that? I have no problem with that.
I have no problem with that either. as long as I can close the gate or keep it to just to them specifically because they can have a Fourth of July party. People get together for Fourth of July, you know, all the holidays. So, and it's not around Halloween. It's it's early in the month. October, right? First week October. Something like that
was supposed to be. Yeah, that makes more sense anyway. Yep. Yep. Okay. Any questions for me? No, that's good. Thank you. That's that's really all that um that I had uh for that. So, let's see. Next we have uh
approval of the tobacco license for uh for Casey's if I get approval for that. Was there any issues in the past over there? Just ask. Very very good. John gave it to me. I signed off. It's we've never had a problem there ever. So it's just it's changing ownership from
uh current to Casey's and they're actually going to be doing a pretty extensive remodel also. So it's going to be quite interesting for Main Street. Mhm. They're actually going to use that shed thing in the back that they haven't used in years. I'll make the motion to approve the
Casey's liquor license. Not liquor, tobacco license. Yeah, don't do that. Okay. T makes a motion to approve the tobacco license for Casey's. Second. Sarah Seconds it. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. A motion carried. Uh the
next thing we have is a city council workshop review. I can touch on it if somebody else wants to throw us add something they're welcome to. Uh the workshop we pretty much went over what our budget uh our budget was um and what are we're projecting our expenses for
2026 and also what we're projecting our revenues out. Um, we kind of went over all that stuff and we've we're looks like uh we're going to probably we're looking at maybe coming up with a tenative levy about right around 7 and a half% and then we're going to take a
look our budget committee we're going to take a look at it one more time and see see where exactly where we we have to do. But I think we're going to come up with a tenative 7 and a half. So we can't go up that's the highest they it would be um and it can come down uh come down from there. Um, anybody else? Any
good? Uh, the next thing we have is we have the city council special meeting clubhouse management. We have Andy here with several several other guests. Um, we we wanted to table this. So, we had a full council. Uh, if there's any discussion on it and just to kind of
have time to think about a little bit. Um, I'm I'm I have a personal conflict of interest, so I'm going to pretty much stay out of it. I'm not gonna I'm not going to vote, but um I'm just going to open it up to uh I don't know, Lynn, if you want to do it. Yeah, why don't you go ahead? You lead
it off. Yep, I can. Um so, we all know that Andy has been working down there for the summer. Um he's kind of taken over that clubhouse portion down there since Parker has left and he's been doing a phenomenal job.
uh we'd like to retain him and we would like to hire him for the full-time position. We're looking at a wage of $23 an hour and then after a six-month performance review, there'd be consideration for an
increase to $24 an hour. He would um also be eligible for the city benefits as well. Um, we need some consistency down there. We feel that he's he's a good fit. He gets along with the staff that we have down
there. He gets along with the people that patronize our business. Um, and we think he's the right fit for for this position. So, my recommendation would be to hire him for the position.
Uh, anybody else discussions? So, I 100% agree. I have two questions. I I read through the information that was sent to me. So, the one is if we do this tonight, which I'm
expecting we're going to, okay, if we do a review after six months, most of that is going to be all winter work. some of them he's already so he's already done the the summer work for us. So I want to just point out that most
that we're going to be reviewing is going to be winter work, not summer work. So I'll answer to that. In terms of the winter work, there's a lot of policies that need to be updated. Um there's a lot of leg work on things that should be gone through that have not been gone
through. I agree. Um, so I think that that's key in running your business for the summer also. So, do we want to say instead of there's a possibility he's going to get that dollar an hour raise or are we just going to say he's going to get it?
I think everybody has a six-month performance review. I would leave it at that personally. No. Then come back because we'd be doing that six month now because he's been with us for 6 months, but he's taking a new position. Okay. The other thing that I that I read
in there that I wasn't sure of, it says must work one holiday day a year. And our busiest time of the year is our summer and we have more than one holiday day. I think that's got to be removed because
we need our main staff there to work every holiday. Well, so our biggest holiday ever is typically Memorial Day and Fourth of July. Correct? I'll look at Mark. He's looking
at me like I'm not saying he has to work Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday of that weekend of Memorial Day, but he's got to be there a chunk of it because if something is wrong, it's going to fall on Andy's shoulders. So Andy, would you like to address that?
I mean, I'd like What do you What do you feel about it? Um, I mean, I think you kind of have to be around, right? I just want the wording to be more correct just so we know what's going on. It's just like Fourth of July is one day
and if it falls on a Wednesday, we're probably busier and heck that Wednesday compared to any other day. But yeah, I'm okay with changing that word. I don't have a problem with that. Other than that, I everything that was written there, I'm I'm fine with. I think he's a
good addition. Yeah, I'm excited about it. The consistency, I think, is going to be great. Hopefully, it's this is a long-term deal for the city, which is greatly needed down there, and u I know he's super passionate about the the golf course and all the tournaments, and I'm
excited about it. So, good. Okay, Sarah, I I have no Okay. Nothing. So, um if somebody wants to make a motion um to uh to hire Andy at his new
uh new position at the pay scale we discussed. Make a motion. I'll make that motion. Okay. Lynn makes the motion. I'll second it. Gary Seconds the motion. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. A motion carried. Congratulations, Andy.
Official. Thank you. You're an official official. Yeah, you're officially official. That's right. Drinks are on him. Okay. The next thing uh to discuss uh is the establish establishment of an
employment process. Um we all we have a page here that says hiring process for city staff. actually Laura came up with it and it looks I was just looking at it's generally what we have had followed uh in prior years and it I think it's
really a nice uh nice thing that's written up. I'm just asking to have everybody maybe take a look at this and we can discuss it further in two weeks. Uh the other thing I was going to bring up was uh I did talk to Laura about it and she's going to take on a little more
responsibility on uh getting communicating with the whole with the whole council. So if something does happen um then that's how we follow the the our guidelines through the government stuff. Um Laura is going to be sending out updated emails so if there's any discussions between a couple
of people whatever she can notify the whole council that way um it's a little more transparent. But if you guys want to take a look at this thing too, that'd be great. I don't know if anybody's got any questions. No, it looks good. Okay,
looks good. Okay, so then we go to uh let's do the source well funding. Laura, do you want to talk about that? And if you got a list or however um I September 24th the impact and match
funding come out um come up. So, we should really start working on what we are going to do with our impact and match. I believe I sent out the emails. You did? Yep. Do does anybody I know Eric's got I mean that's a great Eric did the one for for police for
squad. Is that different? I'm separate. You're separate. Perfect. I'm separate. Fire separate and then public works and everything from the city's under you guys over there. Okay. So, I think what you had under match, if you can't find it, I wrote it down. Thank you. was um and that we would be
in second round for that. Correct. That would be a second round. Right. And we are responsible for 25%. Correct. You had park playground. You had um blower for um city truck and new city truck.
Yes. And banners. Banners was in impact. It was in both just in case. Okay. I didn't know what you guys wanted. So So I don't know if anybody has any ideas on where I don't have anything else. I don't guarantee
from my standpoint. I would like to see the park the playground equipment down at the the park taken care of. That does need to be updated and I know that would be a second round. We might not even get it. Correct. Yeah. So, and we've got money in in
terms of our 25% we have money set aside in our dedicated funds to cover that. Yep. And on the impact side, I guess it would be a matter of, you know, if you guys want me to leave it up to
decide which one. It might be the city truck just pointing that out, but it's 50,000. I remember right. Yep. Yeah. Impact is is 40,000. Excuse me. Impact match
50 matches. I mean, he's not going to get a new truck for 50. [Laughter] So, he might get the old firehaul truck. I don't want to get rid of one. I'm okay with leaving it up to Gaffy.
Yeah. Okay. Then for impact, we do need a resolution. So I will figure out what we need and we'll bring a resolution at the next meeting. Okay. Keep you updated when you choose. Fantastic.
Are you doing the boost one for GKI? Yep. That one I did submit the boost and the third party. The what was that again? I submitted the boost fund was for the cones and the Oh, got it. And then the third party was
for the trees and the walking trail. Ceiling. Ceiling. The walking trail. Great. Yes. But okay. Is that it for that? Um okay. Then also uh Lynn and D. We had
a discussion the last meeting about we have a an apartment room in our unit that is hasn't been rented for a long time and we're discussing why is why we why isn't the city renting that to somebody. Um and so Lynn and Donnie went over there and took a look at it today
and uh uh Lynn I don't know if you want to give a quick update on that. Was it Donnie? Either one of us can. Yeah. You want to talk about Donnie? It it basically was a lot cleaner than what I was going to give it credit for. Um, it does need to be the rugs need to
be shampooed to be cleaned up. There's a the toilet would need to be replaced and then there's a little bit of drywall that uh uh needs to be done right right by the shower head. Other than that, it would be pretty much ready to rent. We
just have to at that point figure out what we would want if we're going to make it comparable to what the other two renters are getting, what they're paying. So, for tonight, we would just like us to be able to go ahead with looking into getting those things repaired and then we can come back
and have a discussion um maybe in a workshop on what we want to charge. Yeah. Because it's a it's a shame leaving that thing. I don't I can't believe it's been sitting it empty for so long. When when we first inherited the building, um the thought was is that
we would be tearing the building down and expanding our fire department and that was going to become somehow possibly part of the department. Got it. What ended up happening is now is we moved the food shelf in there and where else would we put the food
shelf but there? So more than likely that building is going to stay as the food shelf and then those apartments. So, at this point, we might as well rent it out and start getting some income from that. Because we have the food shelf underneath it, right? Yep. Well, if I could get a
motion to uh look at the cost they would take, I guess, to look at it to update it. We'd be looking at at at hiring somebody to come in and do the cleaning of it. Standard cleaner or whoever whoever's in Little Falls, right, to come in. There's basically two rooms
that need to be um cleaned, the carpets, and then it's replacing the toilet and doing a little bit of the sheetrock work. And whoever would do that, I don't know if we can get a quote or we just Yeah. Should we just do it? I unless we figure a dollar amount. I mean, I don't know. We should probably try to figure a dollar amount in or something. I don't
know how I don't know how we would go about it. We would know. I don't either. I think we sneak quotes first. Yeah, I think so. That's the best way to do it at least for the drywall piece of it. Yeah. Yep. I agree. That's about the only way. We we looked at possibly having Eric
Gaffy do the do the cleaning and that and by the time we pay him to do it and rent the machine and everything else, we're way better off to Yep. call a professional in from Little Falls and it's going to take them part of a day and we're done. I can't believe it'd be more than two or
three hundred bucks and the cleaning would all be done. Yep. The other thing we may have to do, that shower head may be the reason that that drywall looks the way it is. We may have to replace that shower. Well, I think I mean I from from a little bit of plumbing I know there's a that there's a shower arm and typically
that screws into like a a a brass pipe and it's threaded. It looks to me like it was leaking right where that pipe goes to pipe gets screwed in. So might be simple but just backing it out and putting some tape on it and screwing it back in too. I It looks It's an easy fix.
Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty easy fix. So okay then. Um, do we you want somebody want to make a motion to get bids to or just do it? I don't think at this point I don't think we need a motion. We'll just go out and we'll call
a couple people and get some bids on on how to fix it. That works for me. They would charge. That works. Uh, that works for me. So, um, then I think that's is that it you guys? Any other questions? Good, good, good, good. Uh, Laura, you're up for an
update. The only thing I have is a budget meeting's going to get together and review before we do our prelimin which we decided our preliminary is probably going to be September 22nd meeting. So there's a plan on that. And then I was going to let you know that
there are source has two opportunities for open meeting law and data practices which I highly recommend. They're very good meetings. Um the first one is October 2nd at Sourceville and Staples and the other one is April 9th and that
is 9 to noon at Cross Lake Fire Hall. So I sent you guys the link feel like it's it's really good meeting. So that is all I have. Okay. Um as far as for council updates, I kind of missed something that I just and I just want to mention it for um for
the employee stuff hiring process. The one thing also too is that um as far as if we if we're going to I feel if we create any policies um or procedures for the employees or anything um before anything is really written up we should probably present that to the employee
board and then have a discussion at the employee board before we uh go through the process of writing everything up and going through the do it. So which policies? Uh anything like changes of titles um any any really anything that deals with
employee employee pol employee policies like title changes or things like that of that nature. Any hiring you're talking you're talking everything should go through the employee board. Uh well we looked I I like this thing that we have here. Ultimately, I would
like to personally I'd like to have any leads or managers because now I think our managers are called leads or whatever. So, have them go through uh any leads or city administrator that should probably all go through as far as like look I think it's like Tai Ho Hazel
something like that wouldn't have to because uh you know that the heads can handle considered just a worker. Yeah, the heads can handle that. But ultim ultimately, um I would like to have it go have any type of managers or um city administrators have that go through the
employee board for recommendation to the council, but that's only me. I I do kind of like it's kind of this system here kind of outlines that somewhat a little bit. You know, it's a little bit confusing, but it it kind of covers some of that stuff. It'd be under if you look
at the bottom where it says is an executive role city administrator. That would be where it go. I think it should go through the through through the employee board. We just need to make sure that we we've never set in place what that board is for. I think that's part of the problem. What's that?
That employee management committee. We have never set what that's really for. So, it was new. We Yeah, we had it set kind of before, but it just things got a little changed. But we used to actually go through this process. Len, that's a proc this
process. This is the employee management board. This one that's new. Uh it is uh let's see what do we uh it is. Um Oh, shoot. I had it written down here. It is. I mean
that's only been in place a couple years. Yeah. Oh, is that is it really? Yeah. Yeah. The Yeah. Okay. it because it was as long as I was here, but I guess that's three years, right? It hasn't been there at all. Okay. Yeah. Employee employee committee board, I guess, would be your employee
advis employee advisory committee. And I'm okay with that. Like I said, we just need to outline what that committee does. Okay. And then that makes it simple. Everybody knows it does. Yeah. Okay. Well, we we can talk about that in two weeks, too. My recommendation would be that we have any any leads or any managers or city
administrators would be put through that through that uh that process. Other than that, it's like the the employee heads can handle it with the with whatever committees they're in. So, everybody else good with you got
anything, Gary? All you'd like to say, Donnie? I'm good. Okay. I hit you have anything to say? No. Hey, Lynn. N Sarah, no. You're good. Okay. I'll make the motion to adjurnn at 7:33 p.m. D makes a motion to adjurnn.
I'll second. Sarah seconds a motion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Uh motion carried.