uh good evening um I'd like to call the regular city council meeting to order for February 24th uh 2025 uh please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and to the
Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all uh the city council members are here to serve the city of peers we expect respect we expect 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 five minute limit uh we thank you for your cooperation uh we have we're quite the group tonight we have a lot of people here which is actually really nice uh nice to see and we got a we got a
special guest amongst us as well uh but first off I'd like to uh get approval um of uh of the minutes for the city council meeting of February 10th 2025 I'll make that motion Lynn makes the motion I'll second it Don Donnie
second a motion all in favor say I I I opposed a motion carried for the city uh council meeting uh minutes for February 10th 2025 uh next I would like to ask if there's any additions or removals to the current
agenda okay good Donnie no good good good Sarah I'm okay okay sweet uh then could I get a motion to approve uh the agenda as it stands I'll make the motion to approve the agenda as is uh Donnie makes the motion to approve I'll second
it I'll L second a motion all in favor say I I oppose a motion carried uh for the approval of the agenda uh then uh first off we have uh our annual uh mayor for a Day contest for I believe it's for
the fourth fourth graders for uh Holy Trinity and for uh Pioneer Elementary and uh we also we this year we have a winner uh day Easton Sil sard I believe it is is that right um and he's and uh I
was really fortunate enough I got to pick it it was really good but if you'd like to come up here uh you just have a chair there is that microphone on Lauren oh fabulous so you could just if you want to read it so everybody can hear hear what you wrote
starting now yep yep if I was Mir for a day I think it would be a good idea to add a hockey Stadium I feel like peers should have a hockey team so the kids who like hockey can play in peers not any other schools I would also like to have a festival at Reds to have a
Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner for everybody to meet and see more people I think we should also make make a sea seafood buffet for people who love Seafood I think it I think we should have a rock paper scissors contest at boot leers when
summer begins we should also make a mini football field at Pierce Park it doesn't have to be painted like the School's football field we should also add more activities at the public library we should also make a pet daycare so when people are at work they don't need to
Hair A dog sitter I I think we should also build an arcade by Pierce foods thank you for letting me do this contest I appreciate you let me take your time sincerely Eon sard well E I think you have a bright future ahead of you and I'd like to
present you I'll come around I'll present you this uh the token of uh of our appreciation you get a 10 you win a $10 Pier buck and then also you get a mayor for the day certificate that I signed and it's stamped with our with the city of peers as uh official stamp
so I'll just come on on done you can stand up if you want and we just go like I supp go like this huh maybe shake your hand here you go sir thank you so much the limit yeah I was going to say actually you're a really good reader too
that's fantastic that's kind of a b you know don't mind if we replace you I was going to say swear that young man in right now well I think you got to be six to run for oh or eight oh you you got a couple years yet okay good to go I just
you know just thinking you got to be in the sixth grade I met yeah thanks again appreciate it um so the next thing on our agenda is um the introduction of Parker clar as Clubhouse
director and also U Mark Ho's Clubhouse assistant and then Parker if you'd like to maybe come up here and then maybe give us a little thank you guys for stopping in you yeah thank you take the hot seat yeah yes here we
go we app we appreciate you coming and maybe just tell us uh uh tell us a little bit about yourself so the people that watch us the people in Pierce can kind of get to know I got I got a couple of questions for you yeah absolutely uh so I'll start off educational background
I got my undergrad from Arizona State in sports management uh masters from St Cloud State in uh educational management golf career kind of started uh in high school I worked at Grand National all the way through High School
Summers of college uh when I graduated from ASU I uh took over as a head golf pro there so got into it right away while I was in Arizona I worked at uh TPC Scottdale sorry a little
nervous city council meeting yeah worked at TPC Scott still starting outside Ops moved in indoors so I got a great experience working on tour there um now I've been out of golf for a couple years excited to get back
in So Lord do we have any bottled water at all for run yeah that'll help you hopefully a little I like there's no reason to be Nerf I know we bark we don't bite yeah so so then uh that's good so then where did you go to
I'm just curious where did you go to high school at uh inle Fon okay okay great okay yeah so population is about the same right uh now my girlfriend and I live down in monel so that's good that's good um I just got a couple of questions for you since I didn't get a
chance to meet you prior to this but um I'm just what do you know about uh yeah there you go thank you Laura I don't think Mark needs water he's not um but I was just wondering what you know about our community and the golf
course facility yeah um so just from research um know the population about the same size seing meets obviously uh the golf course I know we're moving to 18 holes hopefully end of June uh is a goal I would really like to urge that we
wait until that second nine is ready I don't think there's any reason to push it that's only going to turn out worse for for the course really glad to have Mark on board uh his food and beverage experience is going to help me out tremendously um so what is your vision
over the next five years for the park uh Park complex and I know this is all relatively new to you but is there anything that you I'm sure you've been down there and looked around a little bit if there's any is there anything that you think where we could go with it at all or yeah I haven't got to be
indoors yet but really interesting and ushering in this new era um one of the things might be a Hot Topic the logo I kind of like see it broken up and have a brand for the campground brand for the golf course you I think really distinguish them as two separate areas
but together they are one I can see that um clothing standpoint eventually I like to see clothing go in there especially as we go to 18 holes and have more members involved right um as far as the league side goes I tried to look online I didn't see too much for leagues I saw the back a Facebook post there might be
ladies League um ladies and men's there's men's league as well is there a Senior League no no no so that was very popular in Hinkley Had A Drop In Style Senior League uh we had I want to say 50 show up every Tuesday um by the time that I left so I could see that as being
very popular also like to host uh more community golf outings uh first one that comes in mind is a Halloween trick-or treat uh event that'll go on at the course I'm hoping as well as get the Campground involved in that as well yeah that's great actually that's a
really good idea about the uh the two separate logos or whatever splitting the camping up from the clubhouse actually actually makes a lot of sense so that's uh really nice um so how do you you know since you're relatively new to the to to
the community how what do you how do you feel that you'll reach out to like the community me the people in town or do you have any thoughts on that process of getting people to know you yeah I was really hoping that we'd be able to do kind of an introductory night um at the course for any members that come in and
community members as well introduce myself to them get to know each other a little bit you know what's gone on the course in the past what maybe members want to see in the future as well um and then also plan on being up here weekends staying at the campground as well I'm
getting to know that Community there and then again going out and golfing with the members I believe is really important as well um show them that you care you know the course um but also that's outside of work hour so I don't want you think that's what I'm going to be doing
when you stop out there but I do think there's a lot of value in doing that yeah no I'm I'm I'm really impressed I think you uh you got really good uh good Insight on everything so it's uh really nice um and then uh do you have any questions for
our Council council members at all I'm just curious I mean if I hate to be firing these questions at you and then i' giving you the chance to ask us anything but no I think I'm excited to be here um sounds like you have a great group from my experience so far I think everyone's taking the process very
seriously um and was really excited to usher in the new areas I like to call it adding on the second nine holes so just want to thank you for the opportunity and I'm excited to come back and get started great I you get any you guys got any questions at all I'm good yet good look forward to having you yeah thank
you thank you for coming in for coming in Ely and I will be sticking around so if you want chat afterwards um I'll be around I'm not rushing out great thanks Parker if you Mark I don't know if you want to come up here or not you're fine we also we also have Mark ho there too
everybody knows him already so it really doesn't thank you guys for uh for for uh stopping in I really appreciate it and I do like that idea of having a a night to get you introduced I think that's a great great idea really is okay so next
thing on our agenda is the peers library and the annual report and I believe it Grace couldn't make it this evening uh that's correct but if you did see in your packet she did provide us the 2024 annual report um and then she just gave me her what she wanted set on it so the
library circulation is still struggling postco a key factor contributing to this is the change in DVD checkout duration from 1 week to 3 weeks which led to a 27% decrease in DVD circulation in 2024 compared to
20123 however overall Library usage is on the rise the library serves as a hub for the community members to access public internet Printing and copying Services it also provides a safe space for families to spend time with kids playing or coloring additionally a group
of community members meets weekly for maang while families enjoy board games and puzzles the library also continues to support the community by providing space for licens professionals to conduct supervised visits meetings and
trainings so awesome hey I get a quick question so circulation is when somebody checked something out y yeah it is okay yeah it's a shame that it's been going down I know last year um we there was kind of a well there's kind of a trend of it going down but maybe it is because
they can keep things longer now gra said don't have to come in as frequently then right well for me I do my part and I have lots of books checked out all the time well you better I have a hard time keeping up you better return a few of them you're I try I only have three
weeks to read them all okay so the awesome thank you Laura that was really good I don't know if you guys got any questions no uh the agenda uh uh number 10 is our work uh Workshop agenda so right now we have it'd be
March 7 17th if that works for me that works does that work for you guys what time what time we having it at I left it open for discussion I don't know if you guys is 5:30 too soon so do a six o'clock I never know for any is that a meeting is that a normal meeting day or
is that a separate separate six is fine six is fine for me six o'cl okay so do we need the motion that too yeah and then let's let's cover the rest of the stuff too and then in case somebody wants to change something or what have you so we have on there is the
emergency emergency fund and that's where we kind of worked on budgeting in this year and part of it is and also there's also a road project fund so we want to start putting money back into that dedicated fund uh for the road project so that's the second the third
one would be uh meeting time update the annual designation and that is uh we're looking at maybe going back 7 o'clock because of Permitting and stuff like that uh and then uh committee members pay we want to have discussion on our
boards and committee members on how they're paid uh time cards we got we cover that and then also uh last but not least um the chicken ordinance is coming back again I remember I went through this about maybe it's two years ago or a year ago it was about two years and so
we're gonna R talk we're going to talk about that Al I think actually Jim you're here right did you so we know we discussed it the other night just a little bit but so it's actually you've gone over it with with yes we had one
prepared ready to present to the council and then she chose not to presented when she decided not to have chickens Jackie Jackie is that is that what is that the current one that Laura has do you know I don't know what Laura has I don't think
it is I do not so she lost interest so she didn't want to present is it is it possible Jim that you could get a copy of it or don't you have a copy I do not have a copy shoot she had it on her she had it on her computer we finalized finished it then she maybe it's on
yours and she indicated at that time she was going to send it around to all planning and zoning members yeah and it never happened so could you touch base with Jackie and see if she's got it it might be actually um I don't know
whoever you you actually might have it no they wiped it out they did huh yeah they wipe everything out okay that's a bummer yeah I'll take a look and see what I can find out for it uh I know that Jim stuck some time into that okay um I will say I did miss two things on
that um Freedom Fest tickets we were going to talk yeah that's right okay and then I did get a uh First Response okay yep First Response um there's a question they want us to bring to the council and it's Workshop appropriate okay can I
also add fire department um retirement contribution sure okay so uh yeah we got a jam we're gonna have a jam-packed uh evening which is good we got a lot of stuff that we need to get resolved so um and then you'll
check on the chicken thing will we got everything kind of set I think so uh and we're looking at having it at uh 6 p.m. 6 p.m. so if I could get a motion to approve the workshop agenda for March 17th at for 6:00 I'll make the motion to
um set the meeting for March 17th at 6 o'clock with the agenda um that was just read I'll second okay Lynn um makes a motion Sarah second a motion all in favor say I I opposed uh motion carried
so the next item is a donation request for Pierce Public School Community Education with Sarah fight believe Funk Funk FK I did not subm that request FK that's okay so uh yeah and that's something we did figure into our
directly into our budget so um uh the yellow those three are the what we figured into our budgets so that that's we have uh figured in so if it's for $3,000 if I could get a motion to approve that I'll make a motion to approve that donation to The Community
Education for $3,000 okay sir makes a motion oh I'll second it seconds a motion all in favor say I I opposed a motion carried uh the next item we have we have uh Jim guring here um with some thoughts about the golf course so good
evening Jim good evening well thanks for having me one last time we the pering back to 7:00 well you did huh well now yeah had but at her Workshop that's that's beside the point now as far as I'm concerned I
guess any know I come with some suggestions uh for you to look at and concerning the golf course and uh I'd like you to take a serious look at it and uh seeing you have a workshop coming up uh maybe you could address it at that
time I'd be willing to come back then if if if it's if it's warrants at all anyhow my suggestion and it comes after speaking with a number of people in town over the last 4 five years which has been kind of a ruckus on the golf course
obviously uh is that to look at selling the golf course just simply unloading it in a sense of the word to a private person uh and I
recognize that it won't be easy I did a quick search online there are 10 golf courses for sale now in Minnesota uh some nine holes some 10 or 18 I guess they are go on on golfing and
so uh it it may not be easy to do and it probably would involve a loss uh simply by looking at what these golf courses are going for or what they're asking for them
uh and then of course I come across this idea uh and I got two main issues one obviously is just simply the money uh we have when I say we the city has invested
close to 2 million in this second nine if it's not 2 million it will be 2 million I'm convinced by the time we get done with that um if we want to pay that back in 20 years you have to pay back 150 some
thousand a year and especially if we look at what we were told when this whole project started we were told that it would cost a million dollars which no one really felt that it could be done for a million but that's you're were told but said we
could increase the profits at the golf course by 50,000 a year Well 50,000 a year wouldn't come close to 150,000 and even at 150,000 you're just breaking even you're still not making any money
and I say that that's paying it off at 5% interest now some people told me well you don't really don't have to charge interest because it's already invested per se but on the other hand instead of being invested in the street project
this summer we borrowed that money for close to 5% which we might not have had to do if we would have had the money that we put into the golf course you know in that sense of the word but that's just one issue there's another and I think maybe
even a bigger issue it it this whole issue was kind of overc consuming and it caused a lot of Heartache in town and uh and and I think it it distracted the council dramatically in the last four or
five years from things like the parks even down in the park the playground in a park was a wreck for years and uh requested something be done I don't know how many times I spoke with people and
and there's just no money so to speak or no interest at that time and it's not just the parks there's also uh uh streets you know we had plans to do lots of streets in town here and we kept taking them out taking them out taking
them out until we got down to the amount of money we could borrow to do the streets we did last summer and and and then there's also a developing a development uh the people were looking for lots for houses for the last four or five years I don't know how many people
came to me say well where are they are and I could point out the few lots that are left in town uh maybe we could have helped some developer on land west of town sometime to to get that started and then we would had a tax base we would
had more tax based Alo we did get you know lots of duplexes in town that certainly was was was was good and then there's one other thing and that's updating the city code even um and I know Don is sitting there and I know that that the the the the zoning section
needed to be updated and I brought that up a number of times and we were kind of planning on doing that but it always got pushed under the back burner because there was no time City staff was always busy and so just got pushed into the back burner so for a whole host of
reasons I really think we could just sell it we may have to take a loss but on the other hand I don't know if we'll ever make any money on it anyhow we might be losing more more and more money over time uh it
would be a risk there's there's no question it would be a risk but I think it's worth at least taking a a look at and if if we don't sell it I got one other suggestion and that the people in town would like to see a plan for there
a serious plan on where the money is going to come from and where it's going to go over the next 10 or 15 or 20 years how we're going to pay this this money back I I know a business plan was not done when it was started and I asked
that question specifically myself of the committee that was putting that together at that that time and they said there's no need we'll make another 50,000 a year and that'll pay for it and that was that was the answer and and of course that's
not working out quite that way either so I think the people in town really could use a a serious plan this is down the road how we plan on paying this back with some some decent looking at other
golf courses to what kind of profits they can make to see if there's any chance that we can make a profit on this golf course down the road I mean uh U I don't know if that's a business plan or what kind of plan you call it but some independent person that would would look
into what golf courses can make and I mean obviously it would take someone that knows that kind of issues and it would cost some money there's no question but we've invested close to two million already and we're apparently willing to invest a little bit more and we have to to get it done there's no
question about that I don't argue that at all it has to be done now and and made made a good course uh because even if you wanted to sell it you'd have to do that there's no question but find someone that knows that or can look into
that and come up with a a plan that's available to the people in the city that's really why I came for the last time I sitting here so often watching people struggle over what to do over and over and over again and and the people
in town are just I guess ready to end it I guess I am in any in any event and several people that I spoke with thanks thank you Jim guys got any questions at all for I appreciate you coming in Jim and
and voicing your concerns okay so the next item on the agenda is the renewal of uh midco the midco contract um so what uh what do we as far as
something in the air uh midco we have to renew our contract by April 12th and they had just sent out the new one here I think I may have a copy of it I will say the only change is it does look like we're going to go down
$100 um like did you send me a copy of it what's yeah sure got it what's the amount on the we'll just we I'm sure we're going to vote for it or whatever we just have to get a motion for 580 about a month give or take other we can just get a vote I
think that because that's the internet and the phones and everything I think we're all in agreement to do it so we don't need a whole lot of information but okay I'll why don't we just D can I just get a motion I'll make the motion D makes the motion go ahead Sarah I'll second Sarah second's a motion all in
favor say I I I opposed a motion car carried Laura for renewal of the mid midco contract thank you uh so then next we have uh the claims report for January and um I always get Sarah and K mixed up I know who handles do you handle both of
those now yeah I do she does so why don't you go ahead with the okay claims for January it was 4629 7498 and then if you want Oh should we get a motion for that I'll make the Motion makes claims Lyn seconds the motion for the
claims all in favor say I I opposed motion carried for the claims and then if you'd like to cover the treasures report as well it be awesome spending balance for January was 3,254 2349 great so if I could get a motion
for the treasures report for January I'll make that motion Lynn makes the motion I'll second s second motion all in favor say I I I opposed a motion carried for the treasures report for January um and then so now we go to the
city administrator update yes I wanted to update you that the boards of appeal and Equalization meeting is scheduled for April 10th at 100 p.m. in the senior center here um I do need to ask which council members
plan to be present I can make it okay do we have a do we have a a group picked for that or is that I don't know do we have a board for that we don't have a board for it huh no whoever can get I have to check my schedule I otherwise we need probably two
people Don unless you want to do it I can do it to as far as I know I'm in okay you and ly can that'd be awesome if you guys could do that and then I did receive word from Republican Isaac Schultz that he would like to hold a town hall meeting here at the senior
center on Friday February 28th at 8:30 a.m. it will go until 10:00 a.m. and that is welcome to all he'd like to hear what everyone has to to say any concerns so that's coming up this Friday yes can you put something on our Facebook page
yes I have it all prepped and ready to go yeah I'd get it out there do that okay thank you um and then I wanted to let you know that the pier city audit is this week it is and I did complete the last of the submission today um it will
be starting tomorrow and goes through Thursday with an inperson session on Wednesday citywide garage sales are scheduled in the school calendar for May 14th through the 17th Sarah Funk is willing to be the contact person again
this year um it did go very well last year so the city will help by providing information to Citizens residents but Sarah is the one who is taking all the information and putting it together so yeah I was going to say did whoever came
up with that I saw on Facebook page it was really nice and I shared it and I noticed there was a lot of sharers so that's really good very much excitement for garage sale oh yeah um and then the Citywide cleanup date is scheduled to be Saturday May 17th there will be more
details to come the Public Works committee will be holding a meeting with peer sanitation just to confirm all the details in the fee schedule okay and then lastly uh Chief Henkin did want me to share some tidbits for the council
meeting so he just wanted to give you an update on the items completed within the last two weeks he wanted to let you know that healthy living and choices for fifth grader at fifth graders at Holy Trinity has been completed he's working on postboard audit so that is the policy
review and training records review that's scheduled for March 18th he has been working with the city attorney to finalize the Peddler ordinance um many hours into several large felony
investigations and 141 calls of service since January 1st and he plans to be present at the next council meeting to discuss any of these topics with us I I know we were going to do there was something Eric was working on for as far
as the trespassing on the city property or the hunting whatever happened to that uh he did reach out to the attorney I don't know if he had wanted to bring that up to a workshop for more detail I I think we got it ready to go I think we already talked about it at a workshop even or something we we just need he was
going to put an ordinance together I think we're going to well as far as I know he did work with Su it but I'll reach out to him um maybe he just plans on bringing that when he does The Peddler one mention it to him CU I I know he was with the Cannabis thing was the biggest thing we wanted to get that
over and he put that on the back burner Cu uh our lawyer was working on a lot of that cannabis stuff so you know I know that we did just approve the workshop but I just realized we really should get that fee schedule on there to talk about
it that was one cuz we haven't approved the fee schedule for 2025 yet because we've been waiting on The Peddler ordinance to get that I thought we approved the fee schedule but that was with the addition if we needed to on that oh because we did the we did the golf course stuff for the new fee
schedule we've done all that and that was all approved didn't make any changes on the fee schedule then okay I thought so we can just add that to it if we once he brings it we have to yeah we have to add it to three days before it's got to
be we do it does need to be posted with it if it needs to be on there so I can talk to Eric and go through that and that was all my updates apologize awesome thank you so much Laura um does anybody I don't have anything for Council updates at all I
don't I do not either no so I was going to tell you Dan we missed you at the last meeting you know hey watched you I thought I did a great job I did I did I thought I did a great job excuse you okay give us the I would make a
motion to adjourn at 6:34 p.m. I makes a motion to adjourn I'll second is there a seconds of motion I'll in favor say I I opposed a motion carried