I'd like to call the regular city council meeting to order for July 8th uh 2024 uh please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance 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 uh first thing um I'd like to do is uh get approval uh for the minutes from June 24th uh
2024 I'll make that motion okay Gary makes the motion I'll second it Donnie seconds the motion all in favor say I I a motion carried uh the second item is uh a workshop for uh June 24th we had a
workshop 2024 if I get approval for that make no motion G makes a motion I'll second it Jackie second a motion all in favor say I I I oppos uh motion carried so the next item we have is uh approval
of the agenda but first I'd like to see if we have any additions to the agenda no Gary I have none good Sarah Jackie no can I add state representative Isaac Schultz to the meeting absolutely you
can so we'll add Isaac actually um we'll put Isaac on first if is that okay Jim with [Laughter] you I take that as a yes
okay okay so um if I could get approval of the I'll make the emotional approve the agenda with the addition of State Rep Isaac Schultz okay if I get a second second Jackie second motion all in favor say I I
oppos carried so first I'd like to do is uh introduce Isaac Schultz and just say we're really really happy to see you here this evening and uh thank you for coming and you get to sit in our hot seat right there every Community is different oh
yeah well good evening uh great to be with you all this evening um is it on it's the green light I can see it perfect excellent so uh in in part uh I try and make my way around house district 10B um I I serve a two-year cycle and I try and make it to every
municipality and I have about 50 of them um from townships to cities um and it's great to be in Pierce tonight so my main uh mission tonight is to be listening um and to be hearing what your main priorities um are if there's if there are certain State projects that you're working on or issues that you're uh
looking to see um in the in the coming uh couple years um or if there's specific concerns with the things that have come down from St Paul that you're having to deal with um and so those are the main two reasons that I'm here tonight um a lot happened during the uh
legislative session during the last two years um and uh this I know I've given a few updates here in this this room before but um but just to the general citizenry this legislative session as in 2024 was supposed to be focused upon
policy issues changing the policy um laws uh and then uh Conversation Over capital investment or bonding and infrastructure across the state um at the end of the day uh the Democrats uh who were in control of both the house the Senate and the governor's office and
were able to do things uh in large part without the the voices of of Republicans um at the capital so that meant that my voice wasn't quite as loud as it probably uh I wish it could be um and at the same time there were some positive things that were done um and I I
apologize for not knowing this offand but one of the things that came out of the 2023 session that had caused concern across the state was an issue related to school resource officers and creating a liability for uh local law enforcement
offices and school districts um as law enforcement officers have previously in in especially larger communities um played a role in Walking the hallways um with the school resource officer and so um that was the one major thing as we headed into the session to get fixed and
fortunately we were able to get that done in March or so of this year u meaning that uh school districts and local municipalities were able to build that relationship do you if I could just ask a question do you guys maintain a relationship with a school resource officer in the pier school we do it uh
actually Eric Henkin Chief our chief our chief of police works with the with the school and I know that they went through that the the resource officer thing where he he canceled his contract with them but for that moment in time oh yeah okay so what we did is we had a contractor Eric had a contract with our
school district he still actually does all the same things that he was doing before he just doesn't get reimbursed for it oh wow um and so we decided as a city that it would um help our community to continue those services but have him
be in control of what um he's allowed to do and not allowed to do and not be um regulated by IND indviduals that do not um are not here on a daily basis and do not see the relationships that are built with the students in the school
and him and officer rushell go into the schools then um we have two schools a private school and a public school and they go into the schools on every different grade level up to the high school um he spends a significant amount of time there um but we felt as a community that that was not going to end
so cool well I'm glad to hear that that remains um and that you were able to sort through that and find uh the resolution that worked best for you um and ultimately I'm really glad to see that that uh those school resource officers across the state have been returned to to classrooms um and um and
that's that's just a scary tale of when you don't do your homework um at the legislature when you don't see the full impacts of what's happening and some of you may have seen how the uh legislative session ended this year it frankly it ended in a bit of chaos as uh their
major policy initiatives that had been being worked on all session were uh in large part uh pushed into one giant Bill uh, 1400 pages that at the very end of the day it was 11:10 p.m. when it came to the floor of the house and when the
speaker brought it up for a vote but when it was brought up for a vote it wasn't even available to be read publicly um and it covered at least six different issue areas in it and uh and that wasn't just uh like I didn't have a
copy there was no hard copy there was no online copy to be read and that's um that's the degradation of of like a key um pillar of society when the legislative branch isn't operating from a perspective of people being able to see what they're voting on um so we need
to restore the public trust which which is something that I'm focused on um there wasn't there never ended up being uh an infrastructure bill or or a a bonding Bill done this year um which leaves uh plenty of things in State
resources and and asset preservation that needs to be done in future years um and there's a big need for that um and those costs they accumulate over time um and when I when I look towards the future here in Minnesota we have a bit of a challenge because we had a big
Surplus um nearly $20 billion do at the beginning of this bium um but all all of that money was spent and uh those who are in charge uh raise taxes by 10 billion dollar um and the projections for next year is that the state is going
to be in a deficit and so it's going to be the responsibility of of the legislature the House of Representatives uh to to reign in that spending to bring it back in line because our constitution in Minnesota says that we must have a balanced budget um which is a good thing it's something that the federal
government doesn't have that we have in Minnesota and and so I'll be focused upon making those tough decisions around the budget um should I have the opportunity to rep presentent Us in the next bayum um with that I want to turn my focus a little bit more to issues uh
for peers and I'd love to get your feedback on it mayor thank you for reaching out to me um in part for uh the conversation over um the the west side of town and the trail and the the road that you're doing there Centennial Drive um I also want to just bring up um I I'd
love to learn what other major projects are are going on here in town and then um one other thing and I I'm curious how you all have dealt with it that was brought to my attention during the course of the last year was that Emerald ashor had had arrived uh at the
campground was it um and so I just kind of want to hear how how are those things going and and to what extent are there other things that I should be aware of as your representative uh I guess I we actually have Bradley here um he's from our from our golf course he's one of our uh main
people out there and he was really helpful with all the stuff we worked uh exra Park Board and Council worked with Bradley and um we worked along with our commercial commercial club and they uh
uh did a donation and we went and purchased trees um we had a choice of either spraying them um for 10 years to try to keep the emerald ashor off but there was no guarantee they still were going to live or we could start planting trees around the trees that we know
we're going to lose uh we had we got problems with Oak some Oak W to out there so we started being a little proactive um and worked with our local uh our local um um businesses and we raised they helped us through the
commercial club raise funds and actually Bradley and um Zach our superintendent and uh and zanen I think it was started uh they went right away as soon as got them and start planting how many trees did we end up getting Brad do you remember I believe it was close to 50
seedlings and some larger trees just a little better biodiversity different species yep so that actually um we're trying to get ahead of it so as the uh trees die then they get there there's going to be new ones growing up there so
that's kind we handled that um and then we also talked a little bit about the Gravel Pit um and uh we just we got uh a letter from FEMA uh we've been working with FEMA they actually put the Gravel
Pit in the flood zone and so we kind of backed off pursuing that uh that and I think uh Laura were working with uh actually Jared I think a little bit wasn't it with there somebody we're just working on our park to make sure that's
all kind of covered with the FEMA thing the Park yeah the park remember um weren't you weren't you working with our lawyer and some doing some documentation oh for like the flood plane ordinance yeah it's FEA yeah flood plan sorry sorry I just yeah no we yep we got that
we're actually proposing it next next meeting public hearing on it so MH yep went through the lawyer and all that yep so we're working kind of doing the stuff to work with our park side of it with the flood plane yeah with f on
everything and then um we got a I guess you know what actually Don why don't you talk about the the road construction project we got going that'd be a better job for J well there you go jar why don't you I don't if you can hear I don't if you can at want my mic based on a little later talk a Lou
hear me but I'll touch B on a little later but essentially um few mooving for the 2 million Street and util construction project this year two $2 million for construction um that we are probably about I would say about 30 to 40% way through so far um it's going
pretty well and I think it's really going to like it once it's all done here a couple months yep and then um our Wonder other big projects is the golf course we're uh in the process of working on adding another nine holes to it and um uh it it we got we've had some
issues with all the rain we've been having we got everything pretty much planted last year but it's starting to grow and then with all the rain we've been getting burst of rain and but I talked to Bradley was saying that this it's growing pretty good now that it took that inch we got the other day
relatively well MH so our goal is to uh open up the additional nine next spring and then um have 18 18 holes well this is where I learned how to golf so oh really you might you might get an invite for the grand opening
Isaac you never know that sounds [Laughter] fun awesome um in the last year uh you also had made a request uh to the lccmr the legislative commission for that's part of the the lottery dollars um is
there any update along those lines is there anything have you made any other Grant requests um to the state that I should be aware of I don't think we have that was it and then we didn't get we didn't you didn't get that funding that was for the Gravel Pit area that was for the gravel area we did not receive it so
we did not follow up on it to try to get anything for this year no okay we are looking at um Gary and I in the next year looking more towards you know end of this year beginning of next year to into our the small cities development
grants um you know as our town ages so do the windows so do things around here and what I found frustrating when I was looking at the grant is while I believe wholeheartedly in getting us like a public hearing and bringing you know that to our town I think it should be
less concerned with it turning into a you know calling it a blight because our our people are very proud of their homes um but when you use language like that it makes us look destitute and in the reality it's more or less the age of the windows the cost of them we have a high
aging population in peers and we want to continue to have people reinvest into our communities but you get on a fixed income and it makes it difficult to afford those windows and windows are expensive right sighting is expensive a roof is expensive um keeping the sightings of our businesses you know I
mean those kind of things um and we have a great school district and a great community that supports each other um you know probably one of the best in the state um but the reality is is that when you have language like that it makes it really difficult for us to go door Todo and be like hey your property is a
blight is is blight do you agree or not agree or how because you have to like get people to sign that sure and so like for me you have to get them to sign that in order to appropriately qualify for that Grant you yeah so like part of it is like you have to get a certain you
know Petition of individuals to sign up for the grant that would like to you know that would like to see Grant come to the town and then we submit the grant into the into the the state of Minnesota and then they say oh yep you may qualify you may not qualify and then there's funds that we have to manage here at the
city and so with that like it would just be really nice if our area you know when you're doing these kind of Grants when the language is written that it's more based on the age of your stuff and not necessarily on like its age and
condition but like also the adjective used it you know I feel like we are a town that has great pride in in it but not everybody can afford 20 to $40,000 on new windows I know I can't you know so we have a lot of beautiful old homes
like the home over here is over 100 years old that one behind us is over 100 years old and it's hard to keep up those homes and our yeah and our elderly have you know they keep those homes yeah yeah and they want to stay in their homes and we want them to stay in their homes right and so but they're struggling with
inflation and all of these other things well that's they're going to put plastic over the windows as opposed to getting new windows you know so those kind of things would be really nice I think for our communities to it's very cumbersome especially in small communities to even get those grants written because it
takes a lot of Manpower and we're not big cities like Minneapolis and Roseville and Rapids where we can devote a whole gr a whole position to a gr writer right and so making it more accessible to small you know small communities to get that written and it's
not such a burden not saying hand out free money we believe here in checks and balances and making sure that we're fiscally responsible um but it's really difficult for us who work full-time and do this outside of it and are on different committees and I'm sure as you
know too because you have a full-time job aside from what you do as well um you know to to invest all this and then watch our families grow so well it's it's also kind of a deterrent for the younger families to buy the oldo homes like so I live in the home right over here and the on the other side um
they're a younger couple but they also try and use the plastic on the porch windows and stuff because they can't replace the windows and just because it's it's hard to afford those so they would probably appreciate that kind of a thing it's so it's harder to get the younger families to buy these older homes because just because of the square
footage and stuff is expensive enough but then to update the houses and things like that that Redevelopment into our small cities like we want our youth to come back and invest in our local towns and cities and I think that Piers is really lucky to get that and the
majority of people come back um but in order to continue that we really need to partner with the people in the legislative process because I think that they don't realize that well those big towns are very liberal esque these small towns are
very prideful and abolutely you know we want to respect that that balance well Jackie and sahu did a great job um also you know kind of putting on a nice synopsis on at least my experience with the people who live here I mean and you're right just an incredible amount
of pride and you do you have a fantastic run Community overall and the way you pour back into it and I like can't be more complimentary right I represent so many different communities and peers is just a gem in in amidst the 50 different
municipalities that I represent um so I think that the the thing that I'll say because I I took notes on this is when I get back to the legislature by the way we're not back in session until January of next year um but we can take a look at this and I might have to ask for your
input uh whether you want to send in written testimony or there might be an opportunity for you to come and and provide oral testimony in a committee um so that we can you know help lessen those barriers uh to small cities like yours yeah that's great that'd be great
is yeah okay awesome I can follow up on that anything else again I came here for you so so um you know I want to make sure that I have everything that you that you want me to have on the agenda for you that I have that all written down and on the record
so I'm super appreciative to the time thank you for continuing to engage with me and um absolutely we'll continue to work together yep awesome thank you thank you thanks I'm gonna go hit a few more tonight so are you yeah I'm gonna hit Buckman Township next and Alberta
Township after that good luck with bu do you have will you leave your right when you sign in like number or email that we can that was a joke yeah that' be great I think I just want to clarify that that's okay so uh next um why don't we
follow up with Jim if that's okay with the permits good evening Jim good evening we have uh four permit applications tonight first one is a concrete perit
application by Clint poster 1073d Avenue Northeast to remove his existing tar parking area it's 31x 50 ft and replace that with concrete that's the building that's behind theelen Meats it's used to
be a a hairdresser in there and somebody else it's on the east side of the building it's tar now and it's just falling apart and so would be a good addition there then we have a residential fence permit application by Guy Anderson 220 3rd Avenue Northeast to
enclose a portion of his backyard with a six- foot private privacy fence uh he actually had applied last year and didn't do it and he had put up a shed also and and he left it out and so now he's putting up his fence and it's not
even close to the line it's just a space in his yard to keep his dog in and a little bit of privacy then we have a building permit application by Mildred Joyce to move into the mobile home park
Lot 24 a 1996 Wick 16t by 76 ft trailer house and build a deck and wheelchair ramp and we didn't have any issues with that either and we're assuming that that would go to the building inspector also
that one then lastly we have a building permit application by CL homes to make a new 1500 squ ft house and attached garage on 310 car
street we approv that on the condition it is staked and verified by Planning and Zoning before dirt work starts and we put that condition in there because we've had twice issues over the last four or five years in that area with
Builders not going too close to the line or not where they say they're going to go and and uh we do ask that they be stake before we approve a building permit and he did not stake it at this point so we
would like to have it stake so we know where it's going to be on the lot before before he starts dirt work so does it make sense to not approve it bring it to the next meeting on to show that it's been staked or you're that
that could be what what we're thinking it depends on how much of a hurry he is in he doesn't say that we did not call him uh this way we could say if he gets called tomorrow and says you got to have it staked he's going to have to stake it anyhow before he can start any work uh
and then if he wants to get started before the next meeting he could because we could run over there and look at it and as long as it's signed off as long as it's it's signed off by us and and he doesn't really get his building permit until we get to look at where the stakes
are I would be fine with that and then then otherwise we just have to come back again next week and go through it again or two weeks from now and this way it would speed it up for him and we don't have to come back again no that'd be fine I just want to make sure that we're conditioning that that he understands
that you don't have this in hand and it's not signed off by us you are not doing it well my assumption is whoever calls them and I think that's the case that if there's any conditions on there they are specifically told that's a condition and
then in this case you would not hand out a building permit to him until he till we one of us uh don or I probably can look at it and say this is the appropriate location for that house U
and so it should work okay then that way I guess make it simple I guess I don't see any reason to deny it and then start over again I guess that was our thought and we've done this in the past some of those conditions like that and it seems to work okay okay just want to make sure
that it's one of those ones that works okay sometimes they don't well well yeah we did get hooked a couple of times in that area and that's why we put this condition on there that's a great condition yeah and it is he is a builder in town he's built a lot of houses he
knows really what the rules are as long as we just want to make sure that they're followed I guess that's all good so is that uh I'd make a motion to accept the um planning and zoning and approve those permits based on the
conditions stated okay Jackie makes a motion approve the planning zoning list all second Sarah seconds it all in favor say I I opposed motion carried Jim thank you thanks Jim so then we have Jared is
up all right good evening Mr Mayor members of council uh tonight's in your packet is pay application number two for our 2024 Street and utility improvements project um kind of want to give a quick update on where we're at the project first before we can move forward the
path but um so essentially uh as of today um we have completed the water main on summer so all the water main on the project is completed all the sanitary sewer is completed uh we have I
believe four or five water services left on summer and then we'll be moving over to storm sewer on summer and 1 Avenue Southwest and that will be wrapping up all of our storm SE is going to be
about mid to end next week we'll be wrapping up with storm sewer so then our our PR Crews will be leaving the project uh I'll just coming back and doing all our street buildup fild up that road section uh and get everything all built up with curb pinus and knock our
sidewalks so get everything back to where people like to see it so um so with that then I guess going to pay app number two uh this pay app is certifying essentially uh 600
94,000 of work done to date um this pay app is requesting $486,500 of the project um this work and this pay app is essentially
the street improvements over on First and and Peter and then also including all that water maintenance and storm sewer um very little sanitary workers on this pay app um and then most of all the water main that we've accomplished in
the last couple weeks is on summer will be in the following pay um I think we talked last time you want to see the breakdown between ripsaw and the City of peers uh this pay for city of peers is $288,800
and Ripa is 19984 12872 it's a split on this one so with that um let's you have any questions for me I recommend I don't have questions on pay on the payout how are you doing on the other two Peter because you didn't
mention either of those streets uh those are going to be blue topped which is finished grading of the class five on the surface uh blue topped end end of this week and then curb and gutter should be starting next week that's the
15th right next week's 15th yeah should be starting that kind that time frame and that's for both first and first and Peter correct and then uh but two minutes will follow roughly a week behind that a we let that uh curb settle
or and in cure before we put that tus in in place oh wow so we're about a week behind then sounds like because on the on the letter that we got July the week of July 1st was the road building activities on Peter week of July 8th was concrete concrete
activi and then the week of 15th was bat whatever batumin yeah um yeah been roughly a week I wouldn't say we're behind um I think schedule fight we're still meeting project deadlines um but to that those
uh 4 we kind of schedule provided in that that newsletter yeah we're about a week behind as far as surface goes yes but said nobody had heard on how that was doing on that part of it so yes yep sounds good so could I get a motion
I'll make that motion sir makes a motion for pay application number two second it very second the motion all in favor say I I iOS a motion carried for application number two all righty thank you very
much for your time yes so we got another special guest we got Bradley Bradley here tonight if you want he wants to give us an update on the golf course you can sit up here feel important I have a microphone now be careful um just a quick update on
the new nine and progress of the golf course um last week was a fantastic week we were very busy all the holiday week um I would say that the wash outs are about 60% complete um with last night's rain we got about 9/10 uh everything
held up we're about couple hours behind for uh just a patch up here and there other than that good um today we uh it was a little wet out there still so we mainly focused on uh sprinkler adjustments um and then I
would say about half of the wash shels that we have completed they're uh kind of entering that first stage of mowing we're knocking them down so uh again it's a process but we're starting on it so um one thing that did come up we have
two carts with hydraulic dumps one of those broke down temporarily um it's a clutch issue um it's running we're limping it along but U me and Zach are looking into some options if that doesn't hold out um that would slow us down considerably if we didn't have a
hydraulic cart to D so have you gotten quotes to get those fixed or me and Zach are working on that okay just making sure you got at least two um other than that that's about all I have for you unless you guys got
questions that's great no you're doing a great job too Bradley we really appreciate it is there anything you need from us not at the moment no all right thank you um then we get to go to the financial
end of it I think he you're off [Music] huh of June's balance was 4,239 27021 got no claims too do you need to get that approved do you need to get that approved first claims I'll make the
motion to accept it as we Donnie makes motion accepted Sarah seconds the motion all in favor say I I opposed a motion carried perfect total claims for June is $597 3902 I'll make a motion to accept the
claims SAR makes a motion to accept the claims I'll second uh Jackie seconds a motion all in favor say I I I'm motion Carri okay good job
thanks spend little they grow up so fast clean what's that said they grow up so fast yeah I know okay so we got claims on next we did we did sorry okay we're all done with that good well okay so then uh we I just wrote on here for
Council update or Department update that um so uh do you want to go ahead Laura I can yes I was just going to give an update that the Public Works committee met last week um right before the holiday we're working really hard um
to review the peers s contract that's coming due uh we are planning to bring it to the next meeting it's really just there'll be small changes on it but we'll bring it next meeting um the public hearing is set for for the flood
plane approval is set for July 22nd uh we will be I am preparing for the budget review and performance reviews we trying to get those done and Eric gaffy and I are working on updating the solar policy that we do
have have to meet we have to get that we have a few individuals in town who are interested so we've been trying to get that updated we had a park board meeting on Monday um it went well there's a few things we're trying to figure out a best
spot for a cart path for the new nine um or potentially renumbering some holes so there's that update and the election update um which can all be found on our website the
filing period runs from July 30th to August 13th so I wanted to make sure we had that it will be for the mayor one Council for a 2-year term uh clerk for a four-year term one council member for a
four-year term and the treasurer for a two-year term and then I was just going to give you the update that Sarah and I have been doing the invoice approvals approval we've been scanning them INE it's really been working well she super quick came back to me
so yeah that's fantastic yeah um so I just wanted to clarify uh for anybody um outside that's interested in the elections so we're going to have we actually have two different Council
positions termwise one Council position is open for four years the second Council position is open for two and they have to clarify when they come in which one they want to uh run for so whether they want to run for the four-year term or for the two-year term
and actually the clerk is going to be a two-year term as well I think you said right no it'll be treas Treasures okay Treasures to okay but that'll be written out very clearly that's what I was told so
good great um anybody updates okay G nothing from me I don't um you're good you're good Jack is good I was just GNA say that you did a great job covering the park stuff actually too that's really nice that saves us a little bit
of time having to talk about it you did a great job with that okay I think um I'll make the motion to adjourn makes the motion second all favor say I motion car