meeting to order. Before we do our pledge of allegiance tonight, I'm just going to call for a moment of silence to uh reflect on the events this last weekend um involving Representative Melissa Portman and her husband Mark who were um violently killed um in the line
of duty. They are representing Minnesota along with Senator John Hoffman and his wife who are injured and we send our prayers and thoughts to them. We take a moment of silence. Thank you. Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you everybody for coming to our Tuesday, June 17th council meeting.
Going to be a regular meeting. Uh we're going to jump right in with the consent agenda which has a few items. We have our May 20th, 2025 regular council meeting minutes. June 3rd, 2025 special council meeting minutes. June 3rd, 2025
council workshop minutes. The Pine Football Booster Club fee waiver request that was sent in a request to approve the small city's development program grant extension. A request to approve the wage increase for our cemetery manager and resolution 2524 accepting
monthly donations. With a consent agenda, second a motion and a second to accept our consent agenda. We thank those who sent in donations. I believe they were for the cemetery again. So, we always appreciate that. Any discussion?
Otherwise, Delena, Iton, I. Randy, I and David I. We'll jump into our public input. Um, before we go into those, we will call on Mr. Rustman if you'd like to
come to Lectturn and he is going to uh present. [Music] one too. Sorry, sir. All right. and you all um for the last few years a group of us Vietnam vets have been getting
together informal basis and we learned of a gentleman in Iowa was going around painting rocks and he painted a monument for every county in his in the state of Iowa and we thought
we'd create a a monument and so we've been looking for a rock and we found a rock. Boy, did we find a rock. This rock from 5 and 12t tall and about 8 to 9
foot long. What we would like to do is to move that rock from its current location and paint it a camouflage color such as this and put a saying on it.
And the same one thinking of as all gave some some gave all. Excuse me, my voice is giving out. Some gave all 53,479 KIA.
And what we're asking is your assistance for two things. one, the assistance of the city crew to help move it from its current location, which is Adon Whis's about half miles south of the traffic
circle, south of town on County 3, and move it to the parkboard pavilion that's on the north side of the only way out of town to the north. um and place it there. And
so, number one, can we get the assistance of the city crew? Number two, is an okay place to put it. Support this. I would I would ask you to talk with I've already talked to Todd. I
would support something like well we can take a look at it and and it's the smaller of the half I'm serious. I've se I've seen the other half and we might just want to run it by the park board as well um just since they
oversee that space. But I think we can definitely have a conversation about it. What's the uh what's the preferred time frame as soon as possible? When we can get to it, I mean, would you give us get it moved
and we'll start painting. Perfect. Would you give us time? We'll we'll take it to the parkour and let them know what's going on and works for me. Perfect. This is a good thing. Thank you so much. I didn't know.
Right. Um, as most of you have seen and heard, the Pine Island baseball team took state for the first time in program history. So, I was very excited to welcome them
back into Pine Island this last weekend and a huge congratulations to their coaching staff and the players on that. That was something pretty special to watch them advance through uh the tournaments and get to target field and represent our city well and the school
district. So, congratulations on to them on that. Uh before we jump into administration, I'm going to uh just do a presentation here quick. uh something it's fun being able to recognize individuals and groups in this
community and generally we do this during our uh pillars of the community but I took a exception to um what's going on right now and wanted to do this recognition this month uh we celebrate and honor our stars and stripes with the
recognition of plague day uh plague day was observed on Saturday June 14th the day commemorates the date the Continental Congress approved the design for its national flag, an enduring image of freedom and liberty. As you know, Betsy Ross was involved with that. Although our
nation's flag was born in 1777, it wasn't until 1916 when President Wro Wilson declared June 14th as the date we would forever know as flag. Communities across our nation celebrate Flag Day by posting the colors on their homes, their
businesses, their barns. Here in Pine Island, we see our nation's colors fly daily, but done so much as when the fly your flag program kicks in. A true showing of patriotism and community pride takes hold when lawns and yards across the Pine Island area are covered
in flags for claiming this community as a municipality proud of its American heritage. And hopefully we will soon become a flag city USA. The only reason this program has taken such a strong hold and accelerated as it has is because the hard work and the dedication
of one group and that is the fly your flag committee from the Pine Island Lions Club. As longtime members of the Pine Lions Club, this group brought the idea of fly your flag to the Lions Club almost six years ago, just about six years ago. Starting the program during
the summer of 2020, the program became began with just over 100 flags posted around the community, promoting pride, patriotism, and sense of unity. From there, the number of flags has grown to around 600, lining streets inside and
outside of Pine Island with those funds from the program going right back into our community. The dedicated work of the volunteers who post the colors throughout the spring, summer, and fall show the spirit of volunteers in Empire Island, led and directed by this group, the Fly Your
Flag Committee. In a time when we cry for unity and a presence of civility, the US flag brings together those on both sides of the political spectrum, and it is much needed. This committee ter tire tirelessly worked and they
might slide under the radar but it does not go unnoticed. Some of them were recognized of Pine's pillars of the community. One of them last year, Mr. Ruis. But that work has gone above and beyond that award. They have done something that truly brings together the community
and has garnered the recognition of not only this town but has now been noticed by leaders in St. Paul. Because of this program, we have seen additional flags pop up around here and one you might notice high above Main Street at egg partners. That's pretty big. To our fly
your flag committee and chairperson Luis on behalf of the city of Pine Island, we thank you for doing something special and very much needed. We look forward to seeing where this program goes. You all deserve this special award and sometimes it's appropriate to say thank you publicly. Ladies and gentlemen, please
join me in giving this group a round of applause of thanks. All right, everyone. So, we're going to jump right in here. First item on our agenda. There's going to be resolution 2525, which is a request to approve mobile
unit license. You look in your packet. Who's going to take this? I think everything's correct. Correct. We received all the information. So, this is for two new mobile food um unit permits.
So it would be for 75th and third kitchen and catering and then for El Sweno. I'll move resolution 2525 mobile unit. A second. I have a motion and a second to approve the uh food mobile food unit license requests. Any
other discussion from the council? Nice to have options. Delena. Hi Colton. Hi Vernon. Hi Brandy. say and David will be I we'll jump to item B which is a request
to approve the Hayawa transit agreement with the Free Rivers community action our little bus service here in town. Yes. So um I will say I'm I misspoke in my memo. So I did say in the past that the city pays 50% of any new buses. It's
actually 40% um that the city would would pay towards that. Uh it used to be pretty nominal. Uh so for example when Haywatha ordered a new bus in 2020 the local cost would have been $9,000 just in one year to 2021 the local cost
jumped up to $22,000 and now they're having difficulty getting buses. So they've actually put in a large order of buses. They aren't sure when they're going to get them. Buses are two to three years out um just to get them. So, uh, I was approached by Three Rivers Community Action to, um,
just discuss this problem in general. A lot of the cities came forward and they voiced concern that it was difficult that we, since we weren't sure when the buses would come in, it was difficult to uh, budget for that, especially when we didn't know how much the buses were going to be before. When the local share
is $9,000, that was easy to absorb. Um, as the shares are $30,000 plus, that's a little bit harder, especially if we're budgeting dollars for a certain year, but then the bus is delayed by a year, it's hard to carry those budgeted dollars over. So, Three Rivers Community Action came up with a plan. Um, instead
of having cities, um, this is all the service cities, not just Pine Island, but instead of having the cities do a local match, instead we'd switch to a yearly model where each city would pay in $6,000 towards new buses. And then three rivers community action would take care of the ordering and payment of the
bus no matter the cost. Uh I believe they said every two to three years they would look at the amount to make sure that they weren't um either overcharging or undercharging the cities and that we would look at that dollar amount that cities were contributing. uh from a financial standpoint, it's much easier
for the city to uh budget for a certain dollar amount than to uh come up with 20 to $40,000 um uh with within the year. So, um that uh agreement is before you today to
switch to that yearly model of one $6,000 payment rather than when a bus is ordered just to show what uh asset to our community. So, for example, in 2024
just in town, our Hayawa bus put on 16,415 miles. Um, it ran for 2,494 hours throughout the year. Um, so just to put in perspective, that's two full-time jobs. Um, so that's about 80 hours a
week that it's in service. And then the operating cost for Haywatha Transit to be in town is about $162,000 a year. Um, that we don't pay. Uh, they do charge a fair. I know there's information about that in the packet,
but the majority of it does come from state and federal funding. So, I think that $6,000 um in retrospect is a good contribution for what Haywa provides for our community. Your deities.
Yep. Thanks for getting that information. I'll move request to approve Haywatha trans agreement. I'll second a motion and a second to approve this agreement. Thank appreciate staff working on this. We had this service here in town. Any
other discussion? councelor questions and it only helps to approve our age friendly community. Absolutely. Delena I Bolton hi Vernon I Brandy hi and David will be
jump to item C which is going to be a request to approve escrow agreement with Ryan companies. Yes Mr. Done Mr. Mr. Mayor and Council, uh before you was an escrow agreement. This would be an agreement that would enter into with Ryan Companies, who is
the developer who's working on Project Skyway. So, typically this is encompassed um in like our development agreements that we have. However, we're not quite to that point yet with Project Skyway. And so, what this agreement does is uh Ryan Companies would have to put
money in escrow with the city. So, it's a non-interest bearing account. the city would keep those funds and then essentially reimburse themselves for services like um attorney vos and Craig um and like when the city is doing postings things of that nature for
things related to project skyway and so it's the developer's way of paying for the city services because of the additional resources that it takes uh for a development like this. So, uh, the dollar amount in this agreement
is $50,000. And then, as it states in the agreement, when those dollars have, um, been used up, then we'll discuss a second um, dollar amount to be put in escrow with the city.
Any questions on that? Very well written in the back there. Thank you. That was attorney boss. So, and detail the shortfalls when we run out of funds and everything. I'll move the request to your desk
agreement with R companies. I'll second motion a second on this arena. Any other discussion? Council questions. We'll take a vote. Elena Iton. Vernon. Hi. Brandy. Hi. David is uh
appreciate you partnership. Uh we have something exciting here. We have a request to approve a PDA loan which came before he that last week ago. Yeah. Sometimes.
Yeah, it was two weeks ago. Yeah. So, tonight in your packet you have the application and business plan for or from Nora and Nick Kramer. This is to purchase on trend uh right here downtown from Nicole McDaniels. Uh the amount that they're requesting is
$29,500. Uh the EDA board had the opportunity to review the financials of the business and is recommending approval of this loan. Uh at a 5% rate for 5 years with the special condition that Norah works
with the SBDC out of Rochester just for technical assistance as she's move as she moves forward. Is this the first business that she's owned outright on her own? So, just looking for a little more assistance with her in those plannings. And I'll say they did a excellent job in
communicating with EDA and Mitch here in getting this together. Yep. Presented as well. Mitch, can you just explain what the SBD Yeah, the SPDC, it's the Small Business Development Center out of Rochester. They help small businesses from uh
startups to uh ones that are already in process to help them grow or to help them uh build out their financials, build websites like understanding the more of the process of running the business. Approval for the request the
I'll second motion a second to approve this. Thank you very much for your work on this. We're excited to see where you go with it. that one. So, any other discussion or comments or questions? Council, it's
nice to see stay in local. Absolutely. Delena, hi. Hi, Vernon. Hi, Randy. Hi, and David will be. Thank you. All right, we're going to jump into the
planning commission. There's not nothing for the planning commission, Mr. Mayor. So, who is going to be taking the public works of resolution 25-26 approving plans and specifications and ordering a title of bid?
I'll let Craig have some of the glory tonight. All right. Uh, good evening, mayor and council. So, in front of you is a resolution that would approve the aquatic center uh slide plans and then authorize the advertisement for bids. Um, if you do approve that this evening,
we'll open bids on July 10th and then uh we will bring it back to you uh with the results here on July 15th. So again, this is the slide fiberglass slide that's planned in the southwest corner of the aquatic center and um so um if uh
everything is approved here tonight and the bids look good, then um contractors could get going here this fall. So excellent. So, you do have the plans before you as a handout um that you can review council. And then just to expand, the reason we're
advertising for bids is because the estimated cost is over $175,000, which means the city needs to put it out for a competitor. If I was fiberglass, correct? Yep. Slide. Hey, you're the first one through the
area. Action item. I'll move resolution 2526 approving a plan and specifications and ordering advertising. We'll second a motion and a second. Yes. Resolution. Any com questions for
Craig? Yeah, we're we're getting there. Yep. We're getting there. They voted for hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Bob, do you have anything for legal? Well, uh, mayor and council, sorry I'm not there. I tried. Uh, Elizabeth can explain that. Uh, I want to, uh, congratulate, uh, because I've got two kids around the age. I want to congratulate your baseball team. Uh,
that's really cool. Uh, and I don't think I have anything to report other than there is an important legislative change, a lot of important legislative changes, but one that's very important in relation to the data practices act. You'd have to be a a dorky lawyer like
me to care about it. So, I'm not going to detail it, but uh want want you to know that the data practices act has been made a little bit better in terms of our ability to respond and respond in an efficient way. Uh and so be happy
about that. And then lastly, um mindful of uh our our great uh law enforcement folks around the state. Been a tough uh tough weekend, obviously. And so just give a nod to those folks. So thanks, mayor. Thank you.
Questions. Otherwise, we'll jump to claims. Claims second. We have a motion and second for claims. Elena I Randy Hi
is I which is agree with us to the department update. Uh two updates uh so one is with the conclusion of the legislative session a bonding bill was passed. Unfortunately no local water
wastewater projects were funded through the bonding bill. We did not receive any dollars for the sanitary district. Um we are still forging on. We still have all of the funding for the design work. We aren't even completed with the design. So we're forging ahead with that. Um
we'll figure out the funding as we go. Uh on the flip side of that, uh as I reported last month, we had submitted requests with our um congressional delegates in DC and all three um representative Finstead and then both
senators have included us in their request. So huge thank you to Prairie Island Indian Community because they assisted us in that application and they've been keeping tabs on this in DC and it continues to move forward. So um
it it made this short list for all three um of our delegations. So hopefully we will see some federal funding for the project which then will alleviate how much we will be looking for at the state level um on future bonding bills. Good.
And then the second announcement I have is just a reminder that we are in the comment period currently for the draft a draft order for the AU for project skyway. So, that was published today. We have a 30-day comment period. So, that
will come to a close on July 17th. We do have an open house on July 8th from 4:30 to 6 p.m. and that will be here at city hall. Just to run through the timeline. So, once that 30-day comment period closes, then um we will actually be
finalizing the order. And then you'll see that before you where we finalize the order and then once that gets submitted, I believe there's another comment period or is that? Yeah. Then so right now we're looking at the draft and then once we get the draft then we
actually will have the order and we essentially repeat this process. So it seems very repetitive but we do do the same process three times in a row. Um so yes so if anyone has any questions uh just let me know. I'll be receiving all the
comments for that environmental study. So to me. Looks great. Isn't that wonderful? Um, Thursday we actually have another couple of plants going in. She's going to be installing some living mulch with some
crawling or some creeping sedum. So, it'll be kind of neat to kind of see how that all spreads through the garden. Um, so that is our pollinator garden that we're talking about. Um, it is pretty much planted. Uh, Thursday I will be going up north to center city to pick up our peace bowl. It's been a custom made
for us there. And we also are ordering a couple of um a sign that kind talks about pollinator gardens. And then little stakes for each of our plants to identify what the plants are so people who come and visit can know what they're looking at. I got a chance to stop and talk to
our master gardener. Yeah, Kim. Yeah, Kim Olsen is from Canon Falls. She's one of the goodoo county master gardeners. Um, and I wanted to again thank Selco with the legacy funding uh from the state for uh funding this whole project. So, it's been really great
working with them. Yeah. And Kim has been amazing. So, thank you, Kim. Um, otherwise, our brand new uh stuff for checkout is board games. So, if you all need any board games to take up to the cabin, we're currently checking them out for one week. Um, but that'll probably
be changing as we get them into the catalog and get them circulating. So, kind of exciting to see. We've had these some of these board games for a couple of years and kids are going, "Can I can I?" And we say no. And now we can say yes. So, they're down the youth library if anyone is interested.
Uh, talking about kids, summer reading is going on right now. We've got a couple of weekly programs including Minute to Win It Challenges, which is basically a challenge that's just out for people to do as they come in. Uh last week it was shooting rubber bands at uh solo cups. This week they're
building towers using washers, I think, or maybe nuts and toothpicks. So, I haven't looked at that one too closely yet, but that's every week is a new uh theme. Story time is on Wednesday mornings at 10:00. And then we also have a games and gaming session at
on Tuesday at two. This afternoon was very very exciting because we had probably 20 kids running around the library um talking about games and what different kind of games are and this and that. We also were able to have a program here in the city hall yesterday.
We had about 30 people come to see a touch of magic. So thank you all for coming in for that. Um, a couple of other programs include a board game cafe, intro to tabletop role playing games, coding your own video games that is going to be a registration required.
Uh, so let us know if you're interested in that. And then we also have an Aloha story time coming up on the 30th of July. So just a couple of fun things happening at the library. Um, and then I want to apologize again for the very very sparse reports on my report, uh,
for all of our statistics. The new catalog is kicking my butt with those. So hopefully next month you'll have lots of numbers from me. So any questions for me? Yeah, it's been a really exciting summer. So thank you.
We like to see it, Todd. Mayor and council, I just give you a heads up. Uh, Santa Gravel called me tonight and they're going to start milling um Friday and hopefully black top next week. So,
be a good project done. So, just want to let you know. Soaps. You got any questions? Give me a holler. Does that mean Main Street will get laid? We haven't decided yet. I hope I hope it is. Everybody asks me
that all the time. I just wanted it to settle. It's already settled. Yeah, it's already settled like about six inches and so we want to make sure that it continues to settle. Otherwise, the payment crack reason. But yeah, it's right now it looks like it's kind of holding its own. So, right. The
intent was that when we build or did the overlays on others that we would probably get to that, you said. So, yeah. So, we'll have to close the road. So, we'll have a detour again. People like that. So, not during the parade on Cheesefest, you know. Yeah. Thank you
guys for their assistance during the cheese fest. Yeah, the guys did a great job. Everybody did a great job. So, a good year. Yep. Things are looking nice. All right. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Yes. I have one I just have one thing I
wanted to update you all on and that's the Pine Island Classic Motor Show. Uh, so I was able to touch base with the chamber recently and we discussed kind of where they're at. Uh, so they got a flyer done. They're going to be ready to get some advertising in. And they have gotten a few signups for uh people who
want to bring their cars as well as advertisers. And it sounds like Trail Head, South by Southeast, and Yoyo Yummies will be there to uh provide food and beverages for the people there. And again, this is on July 27th um from 11
to 2:00 p.m. 11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Yeah. So things are moving along there and hopefully everything goes smoothly. Yeah, I think I will. Thanks. That's all I got. Thanks. Not here. They had a good weekend with cheese busting. Went very, very, very
well. That was nice. Anything else? Commissioner, did you have anything to share? Everything going well? Everything's going well. I just got, you know, started on the budget already and have a few union negotiations go through
with health insurance. So, we can I have no idea. Anything else? Council got a motion for second. Second. All in favor? All right. Thank you everybody.