Yeah. Oops. Please rise if as you're able for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Welcome, everybody, to our 07/21/2025 City Council meeting. And it should be a short one tonight, and I'm hoping it's still light out when we leave. So we begin, every City Council meeting with our open comment period.
This is an opportunity for members of the public to speak on items that will be that we will not be taking public testimony during a public hearing later this evening. Each person has up to two minutes to speak for a total of twenty minutes. I will be keeping track of time through a couple methods, both the clock on the wall, the the the red timer there as well as the stoplight here. So please know that, I may need to cut you off because of limited time.
And we request each speaker to be concise to allow more people to speak. Participants are also encouraged to limit comments generally to topics that are within the scope and jurisdiction of the council's ability to affect policy. Council members and staff do not respond to your comments during the comment period but will instead follow-up on any specific requests separately. If you have any materials to share with the council, please give them to the city clerk over here on my right.
You will be invited to speak in the order that you signed up. And we will start with Laurie Campbell. Welcome. You may need to turn on the mic. Good. The green is good? Yep. Okay. Tell me when I start. You go for it. Hi, I'm Laurie Campbell, treasurer of the International Relations Committee, which runs the Sister City program. Sister Cities International was created in 1956 by President Eisenhower. Its focus is we can build peace through people. We have 40 people on our international relations committee and additional people on our sister
city subcommittees. Rochester is a global community serving an international client base. We have sister cities in China, Germany, South Korea, and Cambodia. Mayor Norton was recently in South Korea. We also have two project cities in Japan and Germany. We have a group traveling to Japan next month. Month. Our committee is just getting started post COVID. Right now, we have no money. I've done research on other Minnesota cities and how they fund their sister cities programs. Duluth's population is 88,000 and they have five sister cities. They have a part time city employee who makes 40,000
per year, plus a line item in the city budget for 25,000. They do fundraising and apply for grants, which we also will do. Duluth has a Japanese garden, a peace walk, sculpture garden, and a sister city park, all great ideas for us. Seven areas of need are, one, fundraising start up cost. Two, an annual Rochester Sister Cities Day, an international dance and music event along with a free ice cream social beginning next summer, perhaps at Cascade Lakes Amphitheater. Money for meals and hotel rooms for international dignitary visits.
They will visit as early as next year. Four, our sister city's international membership was $1,030 last year. Five, large sister city flags to hang at our international airport. Six, Rochester welcome gifts for dignitaries visiting from other countries that showcase our global community. Seven, poster and banner printing fees for displays and community events. I'm requesting $20,000 for start up funds. If you would like to discuss this further, would like further information, we can arrange for some time at a future study session meeting.
Thank you very much for your consideration. Thank you, Ms. Campbell. Next up, we have Roland Chapman. I'm Roland Chapman. I got concerns of a house in our neighborhood that needs to be taken care of. Who wants the photos of what they're like? Why don't you hang on to them? And what and then when you're finished there, you can hand them to Anne Casel over there, our our, city clerk. Okay. This house has been emptied. Nobody has lived in it for thirty five, forty years. The property my value of my property has gone down. I have a realtor friend,
and he says you're probably losing $10,000, and anybody else that has a house buy this place. We've watched raccoons go into the rafters in and out in the morning, wild cats. Well, you get the house is probably full of feces. So I am asking here, and I've talked to somebody else before this from the city, and nothing ever gets done. I've called about the the weeds in the front. They're like this, which creates a problem when the cars are coming up. You can't see that direction. So what I'm asking for the city to do is look into this and please
get it destroyed. It's just rotting there, rotting away. Mister Chapman, could you tell us what street that's, house is on so that we, as a council, know what it is? And then 1104 Sixth Avenue Northwest. You. And to do a good thing, as I expect all of you just to drive by it and tell me, would you live next to that? Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Craig Van Oort. Good evening. I'm Craig Van Oort, and I'm here with Roland about the same house. Like he said, there I've lived there for thirty five years.
I've never seen anybody in that house. I did call a few about two years ago and got connected with a gentleman named Josh who handles abandoned buildings. And he told me the procedures, you gotta send out three notices, you know. The the owner lives in California, I guess. So they sent out the three notices, and we talked after that was done. And then he told me that it had been turned over to the city attorney's office, and I have not heard anything back from them. Like Roland says,
says, it's just an eyesore in our neighborhood, and we'd like to get something done with it. That's about all I have to say. Thank you. Yep. Next, we have Ethan Shones. Hello. My name is Ethan Shones. I am a student at Rochester Community and Technical College, a worker at QuipTrip, and a member of Workers Strike Back. This is my student pack my student ID. In my six years at RCTC, I have used it to get to home, to downtown, town, to RCTC and back. I've used it to go to appointments, to go to after school,
events, etcetera. But as of August 1, that will no longer be the case for me or hundreds of other students. Because of the recent decision by the Rochester City Council and Rochester Public Transit to remove the park and ride from campus, RCTC students will no longer be able to make public transit for free. This decision hurts students and only serves to maximize the prospects of transitive by accelerating this race to the bottom for working class and poor students. And transitive now stands to rank in thousands of dollars in profits that students should
be using for rent, tuition, food, and other necessities, but now have to use on bus fare. The Rochester city council members and RBT RPT will eagerly take money away from students while also aiding and abetting transitive's attacks against the local transit union, who are still trying to get a new contract a year later. I urge city council to not only give students their bus passes back, but to stand up for working class people and poor people to fund free public transit for all by taxing the rich, demand that Transdev signs a fair contract with the union,
and stop these cruel acts of union busting. To any working class students or people outraged by this, I urge you to join Workers Strike Back at solidarity at workers strike back dot org. Solidarity. Thank you. Next up we have David Montequin. Good evening, counsel. I'm David Montequin. You've probably seen me before. I'm a public sector worker, a member of AskMe Local three nineteen, and I'm also a member of Workers' Strike Back. I'm here tonight in solidarity with the hundreds of students at RCTC who will soon have their access to transit snatched from them. I'm also here in solidarity with Adam Busby and all members of ATU one thousand
and five who are still fighting the ruthless anti worker attacks by Transdev. And these attacks fall on the shoulders of every Democrat and Republican on this city council. Countless studies show that a lack of access to public transit is one of the leading causes of students having to drop out of college. Vicious anti union and anti worker attacks by Transdev and attacks on students are not separate issues. But none of this should be a surprise to working class people and to students. Whether in the city council or on the state legislator,
both Democrats and Republicans are both parties that represent the rich, not working people. And this is most evident through council members making cuts on everything that working class and poor people need, rather than fighting to tax the rich to fully fund public transit for all. All public sector, public and private sector unions need to get organized to fight these attacks. That's why I'm a member of Workers Strike Back, and I urge every working and young person here to also get engaged with Workers Strike Back. Solidarity. Thank you. Next up is Adam Busby.
Good evening, city council, mayor. I'm Adam Busby, rep of the ATU ten o five. I'm here to speak about Transdev management staff and their inappropriate and harassing behavior that is being protected. We had a supervisor approach a driver. While that driver knelt down on a knee riding, the supervisor approached, pulled out the front of his pants, and said to the driver kneeling, well, since you're down there. Then another supervisor told a female dispatcher, I'm making sure you're doing things right since you are a woman. Then another dispatcher told,
two of our Latino coworkers that they cannot speak English Spanish to each other, that they must speak English. This has all been reported to the higher ups, and they all remind supervisors. And as far as we know, no punishment has been handed down. This is due to the fact the higher ups have been sitting on this information for weeks. This sexual harassment, sexism, and racism has been enabled by the fact that the city is not allowing the union rep on property. This also has enabled the management to continue this behavior.
How far are you willing to go to keep protecting a company that sanctions this? In closing, most cities cater to their colleges and their students. I don't know why the that this city doesn't and is ending a hugely popular program as students riding the bus with their students' IDs. And I thank the student and the workers straight back for speaking up. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Molly Dennis. Alright. Thank you. I would like us to also to echo my support through the students and union
unions who are fighting for, transportation. I want to, say another thank you sincerely to my daughter, who missed her dinner tonight, to drive me to City Hall. Luckily, it's after five, so she's only 17 and doesn't have a credit card. We're five, so she's only 17 and doesn't have a credit card, which makes it difficult for many youth to park in city ramps that are cashless, that I believe are discriminating against many who are vulnerable populations in the city. I also needed a ride this evening because I had surgery recently, and I can't drive.
Unlike the city council members who have missed meetings and city staff and experts who are absent, they can just call in their questions, comments, and feedback. However, residents who are the foundation of representational democracy cannot. They need to be here in person to speak at city council. Residents, who lack transportation, who work nontraditional hours, who have illness, injury, have surgery are silenced by city council. Thousands of residents are unable to have a voice in their local government due to the policies that this city council implements by eliminating virtual and phone comments and city
council meetings. I like to take my two very short minutes in solidarity to the many residents who have been silenced by city council, all the residents who want to speak and get involved but are unable to make it to city council at City Hall at 06:00, all residents who are in nursing homes, who don't have the finances or family to drive them. My heart goes out to all those residents who have been silenced by city council from participating in their local government. Rochester cannot claim to be a compassionate, inclusive, and an equitable city that values public engagement and that residents have input.
When the city actively blocks city comments like this on social media Thank you, miss Dennis. Your time is up. Thank you. Thank you again to my daughter Next. Who gave me a voice that many are just not able to hear. Next up, we have, Erin Mead. Good evening, Mayor Norton and council members. My name is Aaron Mead, and I'm speaking on behalf of WeBike Rochester, a local nonprofit committed to advancing active transportation, including walking and rolling, biking and transit. While the bike is in our name, our work is broader. We envision a Rochester where everyone can move safely
and comfortably without relying on a car. We're here tonight in strong support of engaging TOOL Design Group for the Downtown North South Active Transportation Corridor planning. TOOL is an internationally recognized for designing safe, connected streets that prioritize people at street level. We're glad to care, our public infrastructure should reflect the same excellence. Since local medical professionals promote daily movement, let's design our city to include activity in everyday life. We'd like to highlight that Mayo Clinic consultants previously identified Second Avenue as the most viable, route if Third And Fourth Avenues are not available. And we're encouraged that this option remains on the table.
Improving active transportation benefits health, eases parking demand for Mayo Clinic employees, and supports the city's stated goal, to reduce the share of people driving alone. Imagine a future, Rochester, with fewer parking ramps and barren surface lots and more room for for housing innovation, public green space, and small businesses. That's the future this project can help unlock. This initiative isn't only about restoring a bike lane. It's about reconnecting neighborhoods, making downtown safer and more accessible, and investing in a vibrant, resilient, people centered Rochester.
Thank you for your leadership in moving this vision forward. Thank you, Mr. Mead. That's all I have on the sign up sheet. Is there anyone else who wish to, speak during public comment? Seeing none, we will close public comment and I'll ask Clerk Casel to call the roll. Good evening. Council Member Keane? Here. Councilmember Miller? Here. Councilmember Wall? Here. Councilmember Fredericks? Here. Councilmember Palmer? Here. Councilmember Dohring? Here. Council president Schoebring? Here. Mayor Norton present.
Next up, we have the city administrator's report. Administrator Zelens, take it away. Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, council president, mayor, members of the council, both of us, joining us in the audience here and in, the ether. The ether. I always start off the reports by, thanking our colleagues across the city for acting with respect, integrity, safety, and excellence in mind in everything that they do, providing service to our community members. So thank you to our team for the work that they do to provide a great city for, our community. Also, did just wanna note, we are actually two Riverside Concert Series down already. The next one is on July 27 with the Wayland Jennies,
and that will be opened by Molly Mayhert and her disbelievers. So we would invite anyone that's interested to join us, at the Riverside, at Mayo, Park across the street here and, enjoy music. The music starts at seven p. M. Each Sunday. At the Rochester Public Library on July 30 in the auditorium from 04:30 to 05:30, there is a hands on experience coming with Tom, the creature teacher. So you will have the opportunity, a family friendly event. If you are a fan of frogs, lizards, and turtles from around the world, you can check that out there,
with your kiddos. Also, we are celebrating Disability Pride Month, and, the pride celebration is going to be a free in person, celebration with music, food, art, and family friendly activities. That will be at the Boundless Play Space, And Activity Center. Can you please move the words? At 3825 Superior Drive Northwest, four to eight p. M. Again, that's Saturday, July 26. Also, did wanna take the time to note that the RCTC park and ride is closing. That was a financial arrangement that we had with the school, in return for those,
passes that were provided, and go with the student ID, which never expires by the way. Those, rides work for free. The, RCTC will be purchasing some bus passes and they'll distribute those to, students that they feel, still need to have the free rides, and, routes two zero three and two zero four will continue to serve the RCTC campus. If students wanna purchase a bus pass, there is a student rate that's available and so they can purchase that at student rate or they should, talk to their, their faculty or others at RCTC if they, have a financial need for, a bus pass. Again, if you used to park there,
for park and ride, we recommend that you go to the Graham Park, also known as the Fairgrounds, near the Ear Of Korn. We also have additional music that continues at Thursdays downtown. Passport sessions are coming back on July 31. Oh, I'm not gonna even attempt the name. There will be a wonderful, musical edition, coming, and that will be in the evening on Third Street Southwest and Second Avenue Southwest, the stage there, with live performances starting at 7PM. And that's all I have. Thank you. Next up, we have the mayor's report. Mayor Norton. Wonderful. Thank you. I've got a couple things to share.
It's been a very busy last few weeks. First was this is the first time since I've been mayor, that we participated in the U. S. Conference of Mayors and Baseball League Major League Baseball Play Ball. And so, the mayor's office supported, the honkers in providing a free day camp for kids. It ran from nine to noon to one ish. And we had over 300 registrations, and then it rained. And we had about 140 to 150 kids actually show up despite the rain and they were quite wet,
as we all were that morning. But it did lighten up by mid morning and folks got out there and had a great time. So it really was, a fun event and you can see the little girl on the left. Many of them came back for the Honkers game, that evening. And so it was really fun to see them, and they got to go out and do special things between innings, on the field. So that was a great fun day. Also, one of the things I've been doing as part of the year about youth is supporting, summer school. So we have children in our community who, for a variety of reasons, has been have been identified as needing summer support.
So they go to three week sessions in the school, and we provided we worked with local artists, and when we in one instance, lacked local artists, we had a wonderful intern named Maddie Banks, who filled that gap and provided art for three days for the students. And I'll be really excited to show you, probably at one the next meetings, the final project from, the second week, which is a 36 by 24 inches piece of art that the kids each did three inch squares, and it all comes together to create a, a picture.
So, I'll really like to share that with you. And we also had the artists that come help that came help the children for those, two, three day periods and, USA Dance, Eric Hoyer brought his group and my goodness, the fun that was had in that room. I had to keep going and peeking in because they were having a great time, learning to dance. So, really, really fun time. Glad we were able to support that. As always, I'm sharing one of the Rochester vision, pieces with you. Economic Vitality, was the one I chose this month. So a couple points that came through with economic vitality were diversification beyond Mayo Clinic.
That was the number one recognized item. And I will say the I think, the fifth one, also was employment opportunities beyond the medical sector. So the number one and the number five, were both very similar in that the people in the community are really looking for other opportunities besides just working at Mayo Clinic or being in the medical field. And I think we know that's been an issue for some time in the community, but when you have an employer as large as Mayo Clinic, you know, it makes it a little more challenging. So, we end up, also support for small and local businesses was a strong call for fostering entrepreneurship and
strengthening local commerce. People want a city that helps small businesses grow and succeed, especially those that are community rooted and culturally relevant. The third topic that showed up was lower taxes and government spending. That will probably not come as a surprise to anyone here. Many community members feel the tax burden is too high, government spending is ineffective or wasteful. These concerns came from both homeowners and business and as you would expect from a lot of the business folks, it was property taxes was the main concern and we all know that, you know, over the last decade,
those definitely have gone up here and across the country, but here as well. The fourth highest was poverty reduction in livable wages. This is a clear concern about rising poverty, growing homelessness and the lack of economic opportunity for lower income residents. Residents want more pathways to financial stability. We talked about living wages, job access, second chance employment and affordable living. And I would say we actually have a fairly robust non profit sector that tries to deal with these issues, but maybe is not reaching everyone given that it was number four on our list.
And then as I mentioned, the last one was, employment opportunities beyond the medical sector that people want to see more variety, that was italicized, in the options and job types that we have including trades, retail, education, tech and other fields beyond healthcare. And I will say that our second, you know, most, I think, popular issue we have beyond healthcare, in this community was education. So, it is one of our larger sectors, but I think people want other options. And then there was a final one of business friendly environment and incentives. Many emphasized the importance of reducing bureaucratic hurdles,
increasing city level support to attract and retain businesses, especially those outside the downtown core, or in emerging sectors. And I do think there's a little bit of resistance that we're I'm not sure resistance, but a little bit of concern that we're spending too much focus on downtown, forgetting that there are businesses across our whole community and they want to be recognized. So that's what came through on that report. And, a couple highlights here of things that are happening in our community. First, we have the canine, I guess, was it training or competition that went on,
so all five of the Rochester Police Department's dual purpose K-nine teams passed their certification trials in Saint Paul. Out of the 59 teams, Officer Matt Vohron and K-nine Gamble so the dog, earned first place in apprehension, and Officer Sarah Kronk and K9 Finn took third in evidence search. So congratulations, to those folks for their work. And I did wanna point out, quarterly or try try I'm not sure even how you say that. Whatever three is, not quarterly any longer.
There is a, RPD newsletter called the Chief's Corner where you can get an update about what's happening in that last non quarter. And if you want to contact me or the chief and just ask to be emailed that, it's informational and kind of will keep you up to to date about what's happening. And lastly, on the RPD front, Safe City Nights is tomorrow night at Bishop Elementary, the new Bishop I go there and I don't even recognize it, from six to 8PM. So they've been saying it's a little difficult to track attendance,
but they're if they count the plates of people that eat and we know not everyone eats, but a lot of people do, they've estimated more than 2,600 people attending the first two events. So, it does get a great turnout and, lots of good relationships are built. So that's the the schedule for the rest of the summer. And, we are going to have a Community Conversations, coming up soon, so I just wanna give you a heads up. It will be facilitated by Chow Mattela, our diversity, equity and inclusion director. The series is aiming to bring together community members and organizations from across the Rochester
area to share their lived experience and personal stories and what it means to call Rochester home. In light of the recent racial incident and the others that we've had over the last year or so, and the one most recently in the park, we acknowledge the deep pain and harm that these acts have caused, not only in the moment, but through their impact throughout the whole community. And we recognize that, you know, for many, it's not an isolated incident, and we're gonna give these groups an opportunity to share their experiences and help us find solutions moving ahead. So I think there'll be five different groups that'll be meeting,
on Friday and we'll share that information and next steps after that. So really looking forward to this this opportunity. Did just wanna tell you, that I came back, here I am, from the National League of Cities, summer board and leadership training. And just to let you know that, the focus was on federal advocacy, so we talked about advocacy throughout all the committees that National League of Cities had. We had a lot of great updates about the BBB and, we also, in my committee, Human Development, we talked a lot about many issues because Human Development covers the whole realm of
things everywhere from childcare to immigration. So, we had a really great meeting, and we're going through actually the policy book and deciding what we're gonna lobby on this year. So, that's the work we're doing now in the next three months before we come to convention with resolutions and ideas. And the final day was a tri committee meeting, so Hilo, which is Hispanic and Latino group, the human development and the public safety folks, all gathered in one room and talked about immigration. And there were a lot of stories told from across the country, what's happening in their communities, how it's happening, what concerns they they have,
and we had, well known immigration attorney who was there to kind of offer advice and, provide some guidance and hopefully, the National League of Cities will provide cities from across the country some information that will help them, because National League of Cities, as you know, has large and small cities and many of the small cities don't have the capacity to do some of the work that some of the larger cities do, so when we share our ideas and share them with other cities, we're helping folks across the country. Again, boards and commissions, we still have a few openings. I'm doing interviews this week on sustainability and resiliency.
If you know anyone, who is interested in any of those boards or commissions, please send them my way. The application is online, takes just a few minutes to fill out, attach a resume, and I'll be happy to interview you. And last but not least is I'm doing a newsletter. You guys probably don't wanna read it because you see enough of me, but if your constituents might be interested and you have an opportunity, you could share this, QR code with your constituents, have them sign up. And it's short and sweet, and it has lots of pictures. So it should be good for everyone. That's all I've got. Great. Thanks, mayor.
Do you plan to do that newsletter triannually or quarterly? For some period. Thank you. Moving on to our order of the agenda, I have, two additions to the agenda under h1. There is a third, third, resolution which is both resolutions are contingent upon approval by the DMCC that this has been added to the public agenda, at 04:00 today. So wanted council members to flag that for them. And then also under other business,
council member Keene will give an update on, RPU. And with that, are there any other changes to the agenda? Seeing none, is there a motion for approval? I'll move, Doug, with the stated changes. Second. Moved by Council Member Keane, seconded by Councilmember Wall. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Motion passes. Moving on to our consent agenda. Councilmember Wall and Palmer are pulling item F7. Are there any other pulled items? Seeing none, I'd invite a motion to approve and block items F1 through F6 and F8 through
F14. So moved. Second. Moved by Council Member Miller and seconded by Council Member Dohring. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Motion passes. And moving on to the first of our two reports. H one is a contract with Alcor Construction, Link Bus Rapid Transit, BRT Architecture Stations and Transit Center. And, it's amending the 2025 Destination Medical Center budget. And this will be presented by mister Sampson Brown.
Thank you, council president. Good evening, mayor, council members. We're here to request your support, for the award of bid package volume c for Link BRT project, which consists primarily of the pedestrian tunnel at the Saint Mary's neighborhood area and constructing the station platforms along with other project amenities. On June 17, bids were publicly opened for this project. The city received one bid from Elcor Construction of $73,174,436.62
The low bid received was approximately $60,000,000 over the engineer's estimate. This would bring the total project cost for Link BRT to approximately 173,900,000.0, which would utilize nearly all of the $175,493,515 in resources currently allocated to the project and leave an insufficient amount in the project contingency per FTA requirements. The city is requesting an additional allocation of DMC city and state transit aid funding
in the amount of $21,240,393 This would bring the total link rapid transit budget to $196,733,000 and would restore contingency levels to $22,752,072 attached to this council and $52,072 Attached to this council item is a requested budget exhibit, which may make those numbers make more sense for your reference. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions on the project. Questions from council members? I'll start.
Mr. Sampson Brown, can you talk a little bit about, what when it comes to the contingency of, $22,700,000 and where the project is now, what what do you see may, make us burn through some of that contingency, if if not and at what level? Sure. And there's kind of a two part answer to that. So we're currently operating under a May 16 DMC Board of Directors resolution regarding Link Rapid Transit project contingency funding expenditures.
And they've basically bucketed the anticipated expenditures into several categories regarding necessary expenses for change orders. So that would be things like perhaps unforeseen location of a water main utility or something is in the way of a foundation, we need to move that. So that's general definition of necessary. Optimization is things like as we're working through the project, we realize perhaps there was a tree or two that we could add to the landscaping plan that was maybe oversided in the original bid documents.
So we're just optimizing design as we go, generally in small dollar buckets. And then business forward expenses related to supporting downtown local businesses along the Link Corridor impacted by construction. So starting tomorrow, if the DMC board chooses to vote in support of, those contingency spending authorization will change. And on their agenda is Exhibit B and it's called Unallocated Contingency Funds May Be Used for Changes That Are Strictly Necessary to Complete project as approved by the TMC board directors.
And those are defined as unforeseen site conditions, again perhaps there's an abandoned foundation in the way of the planned work, required modifications to adjacent infrastructure property. So our scenario here is we're working imminently close to a private retaining wall and the footing below ground is projecting into the public right where we need to do our work. And then systems testing and integration, and that's related to all the technology involved to make the Link buses run on schedule. So that's the interim condition that we'll be under with the DMC board.
More broadly, to answer your question, what can we expect? So I think with any project there's a list of unknowns. So we're digging in areas of Downtown Rochester that have had buildings and different infrastructure from over one hundred years ago. During the design process, we do our due diligence to try and identify those features. Sometimes we come across things that are undocumented through history and we would need to either remove them, modify them in order to construct the design as intended. So that's probably the biggest use of funding. I do think there's value to,
continuing our business forward relationships. We've been focusing over the last several months with the St. Mary's businesses, and I believe those relationships are paying off. We've added things like, pedestrian wayfinding signs at the curbside along sidewalks to give potential customers the confidence that they can navigate their way through the construction zone to reach their favorite restaurant or maybe hotel. So there I see there's value to there. And then also I do think there'll be, as with any project, no design is perfect as much as we'd like them to be. So, there may be some,
oversight, items such as landscaping or or maybe we need to recommend, relocating a fire hydrant a few feet left or right, because what we, you know, was improperly placed in the design plan, then we need to maintain, standards related to build or building or firefighting codes that that have minimum requirements. So generally, those are the broad buckets of contingency spending. Thank you for your thorough answer. Ms. Steinhauser? Yes. Thank you, Council President Schuenger. The only thing I would add is that we intend to monitor contingency every single
month and provide a quarterly report on how contingency dollars are or are not extended. Any other questions, Council members? Council Member Palmer. The Contingency Fund, let's say it doesn't get used and everything is perfect. Where does that money go? Thank you for the question, Council Member Palmer. The the funding is, restricted funding. It is, county transit aid and state transit aid, so it would stay in that bucket. The idea is that, any remaining balance in the transit aid buckets would be used for future support of
BRT capital, and maintenance dollars associated with the infrastructure project. And I don't mean this in a negative way, but I mean this is not a slush fund that, Oh, geez, we're at the end of the project. Let's put gold plated something up. Our contingency would be used and really want to be left for after the project started and see if we need to fix something. Would that be correct? That is correct. It is a restricted funding source. We can use it for bus replacement and transit related, activity. And so that is the the anticipated use is for capital replacement related to linked
BRT. It could also be used for future transit study, but, it is not a fund that can be allocated to other kinds of expenses. It is restricted. And is this the last of our large bid, packages? That is correct. There is only one other small bid package, it's West Transit Village bathrooms, which is estimated, just a couple million dollars, not just. But yes, it's Smaller packages. It's the smallest package. That's what you're saying. And are we on time, for starting? Are we still starting spring of 'twenty seven?
Is that the idea? We are starting in spring of 'twenty seven, we'll begin commissioning, which is testing of the, of the project to make sure we're hitting times and so then it would officially open in summer of twenty twenty seven. And was that the original plan approximately? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Keane. Yes. Thank you. Looking at the, package, I mean, this is very detailed as it should be when you're talking about this kind of dollar amount. But it appeared to me, looking at the updated project and budget resource, we have the project cost and the revised project cost.
It's that volume C, the architectural package. Could you talk a little bit about, just that we now understand why that was higher or that it's of surprise? Or can you give me a little background? Sure. So essentially we had it's the same work that was bid, approximately 5 and a half months previous combined with bid package, volume B, which is the more roadway piece of link BRT. So myself, project manager Josh Dufresne, Kimley Horn, our construction manager, SRF, our design consultant, have all tried to scrutinize why the bids came in measurably higher than we expected and and since the last time we bid the work.
Primarily, the the bigger buckets are, it seems clear that tariffs coming into play during the five month period between bidding has generally driven material prices higher across the industry. We're thinking the microclimate here in Rochester for construction, there's not a lot of contractors looking for work. We created a custom brochure about this bid package and tried to reach regional construction companies within like a three hour drive time. So we're talking Milwaukee, Des Moines, that area. Tried to bring a new player to town to promote competition.
There's a general lack of competition. Anybody out of the Twin Cities, we learned from, Associated General Contractors of Minnesota, you know, their wages are about 20% higher than Rochester's prevailing wage rates. And they don't take a discount for their employees when they come to town to do work. So it's really just a unique circumstance and those are the big things that we find are driving the project costs up. And I will say, having Elcor previously bid the work and they had started Volume B, and I think they probably had a better assessment of risk this time around,
which is reflected in their numbers. I will say there is an opportunity during the project, if it is awarded by the council tonight, that the city team and our consultants will continue to look at value engineering opportunities. We already started a list of potential features that will not change the look and feel of the project, but can we come up with more affordable materials or faster ways to do things that would leverage cost savings for both the city and our contractor. Okay. That that's helpful. I mean, I again, I I do I do see that there's robust work behind this. It's not just coming to us at the eleventh hour,
so I I appreciate that. The thing we added with the idea of like and, you know, it seemed obvious that it's dependent on DMC, but we added that thing to our resolution. I'm assuming there's, that's, like, a formal decision that has to be made. But is there any Roqueen. We have had a lot of conversation with DMC. Our partners at DMC are providing the same kind of information to their board that we've been providing to you about what's the reality of this bid. So we feel really confident that we will be going into, a meeting tomorrow with their support for this project.
It's never final until it's final. But again, the source of funding is restricted. It's not that it could it's competing with other kinds of things that Destination Medical Center would like to fund. So I think they understand the reality of the microclimate bidding environment that we're in and why that's a reflection and not compromising on the on the, design of the project, in in so supporting it in that regard. Very good. Very good. Again, I'm pleased to see that I I get a little cringe when I hear we're talking about while we're doing the bidding, talk about value engineering. I mean, I don't wanna start out with the idea of what can we do here,
but let's try to stay with what we're doing. I I guess the last thing I wanna maybe just stay and make sure it's still true, we're we're dealing with this big, BRT project with this idea of the federal grant being the base of it and then the local match is DMC. Has that changed at all? Is there any other local funding now going into this because some of these cost changes? Thank you for the question. No. The the funding sources are state and federal funding and, Destination Medical Center County and state state transit aid. Those are the funding sources. Very good. Thank you. Is there a motion on this item? I'll make a motion to a three part motion here to number one,
adopt a resolution awarding the contract to Elcor. Number two, adopt a resolution to amend and approve the 2025 DMC Corporation operating budget. And number three, move to both resolutions are acknowledge that both resolutions are contingent approval with the DMC Corporation Board in the near future. Second. Moved by Councilmember Keane, seconded by Councilmember Miller. Councilmember Keane, any more further Yeah. Again, I've been at this longer than some of my peers, but the size of these numbers is staggering. This these are bigger numbers than what we're used to working with.
But, again, if you watch the this work is culminating in a project that's been going on for about six years. So it's understandable. It it is with any project this big, there's risks in it. But I'm hoping this idea of, like, a bus rapid transit will really improve public transportation in in our community and and make it so that you can really depend on public transportation in fifteen minute intervals whether you're going to work or going for any other reason to be going along that, Second Street and Third Avenue corridor.
So I'm hoping for the best and continue to work through it. I'll just add, I appreciate how far along we are in this process and it's not acknowledged, but the alternative is to go back and totally redesign the project, which at this rate pushes costs well beyond anything that we can even imagine. So just acknowledging for the public to the work that's gone into this and where we are. I appreciate also the context of the items that are beyond our control, particularly the tariff risks that's, driving up costs. It it is the reality of the world we are in now in twenty twenty
five, five, and so I appreciate that context. And I I look forward to this project being open. I think it is transformative for our community. I think it is transformative for the downtown economy, and I am glad that we are now nearing the final bid award, pending the bathrooms. So seeing no further discussion, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Passes unanimously. Moving on to item h two, which is the contract with Tuho Design Group for professional transportation planning and engineering design services.
Mr. Sampson Brown, you are the star of tonight's city council meeting. Go ahead for it. Thank you, council president. This evening we're requesting authorization of a contract with Tool Design Group in the amount not to exceed $224,889 the scope of work covered by this proposed contract with Tool Design Group covers two primary aspects. It recognizes Sixth Avenue NWSW as a crucial multimodal quarter that connects the MayoBold Ford Unbound initiative on the East Side of downtown with key residential neighborhoods to the West
and to the North of downtown. This proposal supports a complete street corridor development strategy, including placemaking and public realm improvements in one of Rochester's densest urban areas. As part of this project, the consultant will reimagine Sixth Avenue through conceptual renderings that integrate multimodal and active transportation principles, thus accommodating pedestrians, cyclists, businesses and freight needs. They will also evaluate options for new North South bike lane alignment, each requiring a unique approach to differences in corridor context.
Unbound infrastructure. These preliminary designs will serve as a foundation for final design and construction, ensuring cohesive and forward compatible implementation. In addition to the corridor concept development work, just noted, Chetuul's scope of work also includes essential engineering analysis of of previously collected study data, community input, and resolving any data gaps if needed. Your team will apply MnDOT state aid route design standards, Federal Highway Administration standards, AASHTO design standards, and local design standards to ensure that the proposed solutions are safe,
functional, and constructible. Their work will include elevating critical intersection connections such as Second St SW at Sixth Ave and also West Center St at Sixth Ave to recommend design treatments that maintain efficient vehicle flow while improving safety and accessibility for pedestrians, cyclists and other active transportation users. This project will also address broader system connectivity, supporting long term benefits by ensuring access to BRT, transit and neighborhoods, while coordinating closely with storefront businesses and private development to ensure implementation success.
The quarter concepts developed by TOOL for both Sixth Avenue and restoring the North South bike route connection will improve people's safety and comfort while improving function and aesthetics for all transportation user types. I'd also like to acknowledge tonight that Mitzi Alex from the TOOL Design Group is here in attendance with us this evening. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Council Member, Wahl, you are one of the two Council Members pulling this item. Yes, sir. Thank you. And, I'll just start with, the reasons why I'm pulling and then in discussion,
I am willing to go further. I'm, pulling it for, reason one, nearly a quarter of a million dollars, for simply the cost of consultation. The project after design has been submitted to the city, although Ms. Steinhauser, gave us some more information later in the day that indicated that could be around $13,500,000 And finally, a discussion of the elimination of community engagement entirely in favor of stakeholder engagement, who are those stakeholders? Staff, do you Ms. Steinhauser, do you want to address Councilmember Wahls' questions?
Absolutely. I can start and then, we'll lean into Steve to, also Mr. Sansen Brown to also respond. So, cost of the consultation is, I think as Steve had indicated, there is, a lot associated with this contract. He can provide detail on it. This does does get us to roughly about a 10% design for, design and engineering for this street. It is you see it as a very, very critical, connecting street, in a variety of ways. It is Rochester's oldest historic and actively engaged neighborhoods.
And so how do you have a project land in your downtown that doesn't, just land and not be connected to community? We all as we've been talking about this work with Unbound is what is Work that we can do to make sure that this project is done with the community, not to the community. And so really seeing Sixth Avenue as an important corridor that helps bridge what's happening, to the East with, better connections to the neighborhood as well as connections North South. There's gonna be a lot happening, on this corridor. And so,
while we have people working in different components, no one is laser focused on thinking about this important network, street network, and what it means from a pedestrian perspective, from a neighborhood perspective, and other connectivity perspective. When we think about our guiding principles, which brought here this evening, and how we're approaching our work to managing construction downtown, there's a lot that, we need on sixth in terms of connectivity, maximizing opportunity, making sure that we're not, neglecting and doing with not to,
neighborhoods. So to the last question, the last comment on that is around engagement. I would, be remiss in saying that we are ignoring community engagement and just focusing on stakeholders. I would say that is not, a correct, approach to this work. We want to engage the public. There's already been a lot of public engagement, work that's going on right now in Kutzke neighborhood, a lot of engagement that we've already done, but we wanna particularly pay attention to the downtown business community and the bike community, which was the directive we understood from the city council. So we specifically called out those two stakeholder groups,
but it is not in the absence of doing some additional community engagement. And I will then now turn it over to Steve to answer the rest of the questions. Mister President. Yeah. Council Member Wall. I would like to challenge the last statement, by, a sentence, within, one of the exhibits. We eliminated eliminated general public engagement, pop ups, open houses, surveys, etcetera, and the engagement intensive design charrette. And there are a couple of other places in there where it says we're going to be working with stakeholder groups.
I could, find those two places, but, I think that you get, understand what I'm trying to say. Yep. I understand. I'll I'll let Steve respond. Mister Sampson Brown. Thank you, council president. Council member, well, I apologize for the, lack of articulation in the, wording. So to me, residents are a stakeholder, downtown workers are a stakeholder, bikers are a stakeholder. So yes, we would certainly engage with all. The reflection in that wording, again, talked about the initial proposal had a much larger time and effort behind that.
And to get to your point to try and reduce the total fee, some of that work will happen in terms of but it will happen in different ways. So perhaps a project manager some of that works may be executed by staff. That doesn't mean it won't happen. It just means it may not happen with the whole consulting team there leading it, to extend the budget. City staff may take a more active role. But we some, DMC, through the work, through the work of, their consultant Gail has done an extensive amount of engagement recently with the Kutzke neighborhood. We're also trying to measure, over engagement and engagement fatigue.
So we will definitely engage all groups, but we don't feel we need to just come in a month later and do exactly what Gail did. We can leverage the information collected by Gail and then also provide, opportunities for people to be involved different ways. You know, perhaps it's a community bike ride, open houses, presentations, so, talking to the neighborhood association group. And I'd say ultimately, as we've been doing for this our team for the Sixth Street Bridge project and Link BRT, the communications plan is delivered, developed through our comms team and they have not had a chance to be engaged with the consultant.
We're waiting for contract approval to really define that scope. So that step will happen. It's just not well defined yet. So in, cutting to the chase, mister Samson Brown, there will be an opportunity for members of the public to attend publicly advertised meetings to share their opinions. Thank you. Councilmember, Palmer. Well, I agree with Mr. Wallen and I'm really disappointed to read on page 87, Task two, eliminate a generalized public engagement. So what is written here is not what you're saying and what you're trying to
tell me is that, we're just going to kind of willy nilly, talk to other groups and put other stuff together. It goes against everything the city council wants to have done by eliminating generalized public engagement. And so I'm really I'm more than disappointed in reading that part of this. This this entire effort that I've read and I've read it a couple different times and listening to what you just said today, are we just dealing with spoken about is Sixth Avenue. No. The two parts. So Sixth Avenue, based on its connection to Unbound, will have an elevated experience.
But the second half of that will be reconnecting active transportation network, which involves both people walking, biking, and and there's scooters now. So one of the things we're seeing is, a growing factor of scooters, which again scooters belong in bike lanes, not in sidewalks. So, yeah, we will be But we're talking Sixth Avenue is what we're talking about. We're talking for the reconnection of the North South bike lanes to allow the consultant to engage with all members of the public to hear what they would like for routes. In practicality, for several months I've been working with our engineering and public works team.
We think the three most viable options will be Broadway, First Avenue, and Sixth Avenue. Okay. And six months ago, about we had a, group of people have open house, and I was told First Avenue was not on on the on the on ticket. And so what's frustrating to me is I listen to the gentleman from WeBike today, BikeMN, and he's talking about Second Avenue. And this is the first time I've heard about Second Avenue. First Avenue is already completed. It's already built. We have the Jacobsen Center and that is already the road is already rebuilt.
And if that's already rebuilt, adding or putting more bike lanes in and not have parking doesn't make much sense to me. Broadway's Can I finish? Well, I guess a member of staff wanted to address that last point. Well, can I finish? And then because they like to talk a long time. I like to keep your mind, and then they can answer the questions at the end. That's why I was asking you if you wanted to be interrupted or not. No, I don't. Thank you. Thank you. And so I asked a bunch of questions. And I got some answers late in the afternoon today. I did send them at eight this morning just to be clear with everybody.
Sixth Avenue is going to be finished on 05/01/2026. There's no reason to delay this. So, we have a hole in the ground. We're going to have a road bike done by 05/01/2026. I mean, do we not have a plan on this road that what we're going to do? And then, I already talked about First Avenue. It's already completed. We already have it rebuilt all the way from Civic Center Drive. And then I asked a question about how many trucks are going to be on Sixth Avenue, approximately 100 trucks. And Sixth Avenue is a small, very low road, but we're I don't see any plans to rebuild it from Civic Center Drive heading
to, the Logistics Center. And then, in the email that we got this afternoon, and this blew me away, Civic Center Drive, because of Second Street being reduced in traffic, we won't get to that till 02/1930. That's the first time I've ever heard that we would not be getting to Civic Center Drive soon. And that just blows me away. And so I'd love to hear your answers and I'm sure I'll have more questions after your answers are done. Councilmember, do you know how many questions you asked? Six. Mr. Dombrowski, you have six questions. Good evening, Mayor, President, members of the council.
Just wanna clarify. First Avenue, we've always talked about as an option. The original traffic study identified Second Avenue, Mayo's consultant. However, things changed. Mayo has a private plaza that that went a different direction. So we have always known that First Avenue, Southwest, and Northwest is one potential alternative when we think about North South biking, walking through the downtown core when you have a large building that's going to sever the current interim city loop that was previously constructed. So we need to keep all options open.
Obviously, we we adopted an active transportation plan a few years ago. Things have changed. We need to revisit that. It's almost like a micro study to identify how are people gonna walk and bike, around the downtown core with this new $6,000,000,000 project. So the reason we wanna hire a consultant is to evaluate these alternatives and think how everything connects, think about the other planning that's happened in the downtown core over the last decade plus, how does that all work together. In all honesty, our team doesn't have the capacity to do all this work, and we also wanna find the experts.
I like to think we have a lot of people who are pretty smart about this stuff, but then we can hire experts like Tool who this is what they focus on. So, Sixth Avenue, yes, some of the work will be complete with the Mayo project, mainly related to utilities and tunnels, getting over the logistics site. However, we've had them reserve space on the east side of the roadway, so we can identify what does that streetscape look like, what is the walking space, what is the biking space. So, we can reenvision that corridor all the way from Second Street to Civic Center Drive. Long term, it would all get reconstructed,
and we're working on budgeting the cost per block to do that in the future. And Civic Center Drive has not been in the six year CIP. We realized it needs to be in there now, and we need to start planning for it. So coming on the heels of the project being complete, we can really focus on upgrading that Civic Center Drive corridor. I don't think I answered all six, but those are the, sort of, the high points I wanted to get out of. Did you cover first? Yes. So and I guess the other thing I know with first, it has been reconstructed over the years in different pieces.
There are segments, though, that have not. Like, along the Proton Beam project, we've known that we wanna wait till their trucks beat up the roadway. This even prior to Unbound, we were always planning to reconstruct First Avenue after that mail project was done with with the proton beam. So there are segments where we really need to look out. How how does everything connect? How is it consistent so people aren't confused, you know, as users out on the roadway? Mister Niemeyer? Yep. More information? Thank you, council president. I just wanted to add on Civic Centre Drive. Frankly,
with the amount of construction we have planned in downtown in the next, you know, two to five years. Frankly, we don't think it's possible to tackle Civic Center Drive construction until some of these other projects proceed ahead of it. And we're also at a point now where we're just starting to imagine what Civic Center Drive might look like. We haven't pulled together funding packages or anything of that nature, including potentially pursuing grants that might help with that work. So, realistically, project timeline, by the time we get in the ground on that one, 2029 might be the very fastest we could pull it off,
just given where we're at. Not having it in the CIP and planned out at this point. So we have council member Miller, Keane, and Wall. Council member Miller? Yeah. Thank you. Could you talk a little bit more about the engagement that's happening right now that is open to the general public that can inform this? I mean, I know you've mentioned Gail, but can you talk a little bit more about how concepts related to this plan are are coming up in those sessions? Yeah. Thank you for the question, council member Miller. I will attempt that work is being managed by Destination Medical Center.
And so, just for some context, as as, once Mayo announced the unbound project, we have been meeting for a year and a half as a team to understand, potential work that will need to happen in a 25 to 30 square block area? What's the minimum work that needs to happen in terms of streets that are being touched by Mayo that we should go in and, again, thinking about a dig once mentality, go in and definitely also touch those blocks. But then thinking about if we go beyond that and beyond the core work, the direct impact and then the broader impact.
And not doing this in a vacuum, but thinking about we can decide, hey, it makes sense. We should do something here on Sixth Avenue. We should do something here on First Street NW. But really, again, with that idea of being done with, not to, DMC has been engaging not only the Kutzke neighborhood, but the businesses around the hot the, the institutions of faith to understand when we come out of this as a stronger, more viable community, what does that mean and how does that translate into physical, streetscapes and connections
from WSB, understanding what are triggers around, connections and natural nodes. It's my understanding. I've not participated in them because we want it to really, you know, be a frank conversation between, DMC and the consultants and the neighbors. So, that has been the it's been a very robust, intense we have been going to the Kutzke neighborhood primarily around Link BRT, but through those conversations have also gleaned some really great data around projects that we're doing, prototyping things on eleventh,
and so, again, all of that to inform. So, you know, so as we have been talking as a team internally for the last year and a half, what what does that bigger investment look like, and ultimately, what will it be required of city council? So one of the questions that was earlier in, about what's the total cost for Sixth Avenue, you know, we have a per block cost. How much of that actually lands what our cost that Mayo has to do because of their project and then ultimately drives our ask to DMC for funding to do this work. And so, that is kind of the sausage making that's been going on and will continue to go on and that is kind of the sausage making that's been going on and
will continue to go on in terms of how we direct resources to, these areas. So again, that we come out with a much more vibrant not, more vibrant community project, not just a 5.6 a 5,000,000,000 project, 2,400,000 square feet just landed without any consideration of what the edges look like and the penetrations into the neighborhoods and into downtown. I appreciate all that context. And, really, just sticking with the public engagement though, is there not also a separate historic district planning process with public engagement that contemplates
mobility also happening right now? Yes. And miss Woodward can speak to that. Sure. If you have Go ahead, miss Woodward. I was just gonna confirm that we are also, doing that as part of our public ground plan for the historic district and looking at some of those options, and we'll integrate with this other work as well. And so this is gonna be rhetorical, but would it not be confusing to start a new generalized public engagement related to a separate project that contemplates these same concepts? I would agree with that And so I guess I mentioned that not in to make light of any other comments that have been made,
but I've been able to participate in several of these engagements and talk with community members and see broadly that it's reaching quite a few people. And I have heard some of the same concerns that my colleagues have, and I've engagement that we've already done. Because, similarly, I was able to join the historic district planning, and one of the comments that came through is we've been engaged over and over and over, and what do we expect is action and results. And so I look forward to us learning from these other engagements and not throwing it out and starting over. But at the same time, I know we've adopted inclusive decision making and inclusive growth management,
both as a priority and strategic priority and foundational principle. And so I hope that that's clear in all of these processes with the community and I appreciate your comments, Ms. Steinhauser, about change happening with the community and not to the community. My second question though is about the active transportation network. Can you talk about the difference between those two pieces and maybe even answer the question, are we putting our thumb on the scale by prioritizing Sixth Avenue study into generating a a preferred,
connection for the bike active transportation network? How might those be thought of separately? So I'll let mister Sampson Brown respond, but I do wanna just caveat it with, again, we need to address what Sixth Avenue looks like in light of the future that's coming. It is not to say that we have made a decision that Sixth Avenue is where the bike lane solution goes. And just to add to that, to me, thinking like a civil engineer, in terms of a design development process, generally the consultant is going to lay out three independent corridors. Perhaps there's another option that none of us here on the city staff have thought
about, but likely those three corridors. And as they're generating Sixth Avenue, that option, there'll be a scenario where there is a, separated, cycle track, protected cycle track on one side. If the community comes back and says, We don't want that to be the primary North South route, we want it to be on another street, to me that space, the project, the quarter design for Sixth Avenue doesn't get thrown out and restart, we just have 10 extra feet of pavement that we can put with sidewalk, grass, landscaping, park benches. So to me there's a little bit of design iteration,
but not a lot of work between Sixth Avenue, nice corridor design, nice walkway, and also a walkway with bicycles that provide a protected facility. Mister Dombrowski? And I would just add, all of all of the corridors we're looking at, you know, especially First And Sixth, they're on the active transportation plan. So this is just gonna help you us prioritize how that network continues to be built out over time. So we're going to need to look at all these corridors long term.
They're in our plan. So this is going to help inform that. Okay. And so to the point of Second Avenue, can you talk about any easements that exist? And can you also talk about the the plan where that temporarily becomes a through street during this interim condition? Sure. So so Second Avenue, the former Vandenberg Plaza that will when the project's complete, we'll go back as a plaza. As part of the staging with the project and the moving their patient loading drop off to the east side of the Ganda, we are going to add a fourth leg to that intersection that you can today
is a T intersection at Second Avenue and Second Street. It'll be utilized by shuttles, to go in and out, also serve as access to the Kaler at times as they phase that work. Long term, in the development agreement that you've approved, there's pedestrian easement through the entire plaza. So we can think about Discovery Walk all the way from Soldier's Field, all the way up that Second Avenue corridor, all the way connecting to the Peace Plaza. You'll have a safe space for people walking, and and it will have a pedestrian easement so people can get through that that
block north of, Second Street up to the Peace Plaza. And and can you explain the difference between a pedestrian easement and other active transportation modes? I I mean, scooters, bikes. Like, how how is that easement different than what would allow for different forms of travel? It would provide space for people walking and rolling. It's not technically identified as a a bike facility or scooter. So it's really for walking and rolling and other mobility assisted devices. And can I just clarify? Rolling meaning mobility assisted devices,
not bikes and scooters. Okay. Are we expecting a number of concepts to come back to us for consideration of prioritization of that North South reconnection? How might we expect this to come back to us other than a Sixth Avenue design? Correct. Council member Miller, the plan is for the consultant to work with city staff after, engaging with the public and the and the stakeholders within in the community and leveraging other information to do, like, a first draft. At that time, it'll go before, multiple departments at the city for, seeing how,
it's conforming to city requirements and visions and goals. And then, I would envision if time permits, perhaps a work session in mid fall, and then we're ultimately leaning towards a a final recommendation, before the new year. Okay. And so if if a recommendation comes back, that says, hey. Discovery Walk is a connection all the way to the park, but for the Annenberg Plaza section, is there an opportunity to engage Mayo and say the recommendation from the consultants from the experts in this field
is is to make direct connections that are part of this already envisioned network? I will, thank you for the if I understand if I'm reading into your question, council member Miller, it is to revisit that easement that goes through Annenberg Plaza. I would say the answer is no, only because as we think about the in the increase in the medical tourists that's coming here and the the, likelihood that there is more how can I say this? Associated, medical conditions, keeping that protecting that space for pedestrians first is of highest priority.
And so, that that has been the conversation around them providing that easement to us for for Berg Plaza is that we prioritize pedestrians and not others. Okay. Couple of other questions just about the areas, particularly South Of Second Street Southwest. So with Third And Fourth Avenue being vacated at key intersections, between First Street Southwest and Center Street, do the one way pairs make sense anymore? And it might that be a question to contemplate? I I mean, I think about a couple of situations recently.
First, there was a pedestrian associated with Mayo Clinic who was, seriously injured in a collision there because he was his view was blocked by bus, and there was active travel next to it. So thinking about safety, is that within the scope to consider the layout now that these streets have fundamentally changed in their function? I can take that one. Council member Miller. Yeah. I think as we get into the like I mentioned, looking at the broader overall network and how things are connected, those are the types of conversations that we can throw out there. And whether it becomes part of this work or future work for for our team
to consider, I have discussed it with our traffic engineer. And, you know, we couldn't give an answer today, but it's definitely something worth evaluating with the way that those one way pairs are now cut off, you know, in the center of downtown. And I'd just also highlight the Discovery Ramp has multiple exits, that are supposed to be northbound only, but there are frequent illegal movements heading south. So if we go by what people want to do, they also want to turn against one way traffic there. And I I do worry as that area becomes more pedestrian higher volume of walking
employees and and visitors and other community members that that continually escalates as an unsafe condition. So I would love to see that studied in some way, and I would be remiss to mention also that the fourth Street Southwest bike lanes, also have a a recent, constituent, injury there, not a serious one, but it could have been. So I just think that the active transportation network at at the moment is disjointed as this item notes, but I think it's broader than just the North South connection. And I hope we could come up with a more cohesive design through this process.
Yeah. I would just add on to that. As part of the development agreement, we identified sort of the intersection on the South side of downtown and the North Side that you need to reconnect. And Fourth Street really is that sort of first piece East West that we need to make sure that fits whatever we choose to do North South with that Fourth Street corridor. So it'll all be analyzed. And just a final comment on Sixth Street Southwest, particularly South Of Second Street, is I wouldn't classify that as an all ages and ability possibility given the the change in grade, the hill that people would have to climb.
And I know that I would do it. I don't think that my 10 year old daughter would regularly use that and find that a comfortable place. And I imagine that many both children and seniors in our community would community would experience similar challenges. Thank you, council member Miller. Council member Keane. Yeah. I I wanna just focus very much into this contract in this this, area from Civic Center to Second Street on Sixth Avenue SWNW. And I'd heard this and I can't find it right now. But if we redid this, we sort of sized this rebuild at something like a $13,000,000
project. Did I hear something like that or am I making that up? Thank you for the question, Hulteimer. Rokine, when we looked at looking at my map here when we look at the per block cost depending on the road profile about $1,500,000 which means that full run about 13,550,000.00. I think your point is it's a rough estimate, but that's what it is. Because what I was trying to do is then take that back to, this idea of a 20 a $220,000 and the percents here. Is that a, I mean, a reasonable ratio when you talk about if we go this way? And I think that's kind of the problem here.
We we don't know we're gonna go this way. But if we were going this way, is that idea of getting the 10% design with, like, what what would that be? Like, 8% of the cost, is that a reasonable expect expectation? Or is that, usually the rates are much lower or much higher? Just round numbers as we're estimating projects. We would look at the overall planning, design, construction documents for a quarter of this type in the 8% to 10% range. So we're talking about percent and a half right now, which to do some of the upfront planning,
it it's not throwing things out of whack. Okay. And then I I wanna, this, I wanna make sure I understand this. I've heard study, but I've also heard it gets us to 10%. And and I don't think a study gets you to 10%. I think this is a this is a planning and engineering thing that we're bidding on and not a study. What is the correct language here? What's the correct concept? I can start with that answer. Yes, it's 10% design. The difference on this corridor compared to other, I'll say less complex corridors is understanding that there are things in the street that
have not yet been built yet or are being built. So we wanna propose renderings that are realistic and can be built. And that means the consultant from Tool Design and their sub consultants will need to have measured drawings to compare blueprints that are in development with the features. So we don't want to propose, for instance, a street lamp or street light where there's an underground utility vault that due to its depth, we can't put the street light there. Yep. Trying trying to get better design there. I think I understand. So this is a little bit more than perhaps an average project would need,
but it's definitely needed. And each of the three corridors are very different as to what's on private property adjacent. So we can't even take the same solution and apply it to And and just to clarify, I I don't I mean, the the business in front of us is doing the study on one of these corridors. It's not doing all three. I I mean, again, it's probably good for us to understand that. But the decision in front of us is if we do this and I go back to what city engineer Dombrowski said that this really is like getting as much data so that we don't make a decision that turns out to be that we can't implement. And I think that's what we're the what the staff is trying to
put in front of us. I wanna go back. I have one other question here on the funding. When I look at the funding source, to me it feels vague, but it says there's a $1,000,000 fund that that is a that's from DMC and Mayo, and it's for this type of work. And that's how we're funding this quarter of a million dollar study. First first, just quickly, is that accurate? There is a $1,000,000 DMCCIP, which the which is intended for this design and engineering kind of work. And then, Mayo, through the development agreement, is required to pay up to 60,000 a block Okay. For eight blocks for the bike lanes solution.
I understand there's complexities, but I'm also asking to try to simplify some of this stuff too. I'm trying to get away from the thing. It it and I again, I I'm still I want I wanna step back and say what the staff is trying to do here is get a lot of information and a start on do assuming it's Sixth Avenue. Even though we we readily say it may not be depending on what we find or what happens somewhere else. And I I'm trying to lay it out in my mind that way, and I'm asking questions to see if that's accurate. And I again, the size of the overall project, does it really get us 10% design?
Is it like gathering information so that we know if we can do this and if we find out something else, it may end up I'll be blunt. It may end up being wasted because we end up finding out Second Avenue or something else will work better. I don't expect that because I I mean, from the beginning, I thought Sixth Avenue is got is gonna become a traffic place because of what we're doing on the closing the other two roads. But so so and I I wanted to make sure that this kind of work that if we approve it, it gets us to design work and planning work and community engagement. It isn't just a study that will come with us and say,
here are seven things you might consider. I mean, it's not that type that's not what we're buying. That is correct. The tasks are project management, stakeholder engagement, quarter and traffic analysis, coordination with city departments, preliminary layouts and conceptual designs, final report and recommendations. K. We're still asking questions, but I'm I'm prepared to put a motion on the table. I think we have Council Member Wall on the so why don't we go there first? My comments would be better after a motion. Council Member Palmer. Yes. I'm just going to ask a few more questions. I'm still confused on engagement on Page 87.
I'm still not I don't like that language in there. I think it's not what the City Council wanted. I go back to your Dig one statements. We keep saying Dig one. Dig once? Dig once? Okay, thank you. We already have fatigue going downtown. And Sixth Avenue is going to be finished 05/01/2026. So I don't know how a consultant is going to come back and say, now I hear Cyclotrac that we're going to put a Cyclotrac in. I don't get how this is going to be working because as we know on North Broadway, the Cyclotrac really isn't working the way that it should and we didn't continue it
when we went north. So I'm just confused on why would with all the fatigue going on, the dig once, why are we I mean, the timing on this is going to be horrible. Council Member Palmer, thanks for the question and comments. So when we think about this corridor and dig once, it's really, let's figure this out now. Mayo does have their work, but we've, again, we've made them reserve the space behind the curb where we're not asking them to do the final solution. We wanna take the time to study to understand what's going to go behind the
curb, something more protected for people walking and biking, and understand how they're really only working for two blocks from Second Street to Center Street, so we need to still understand all the way to Civic Center Drive what this corridor looks like. And as we think about Dig Once, it might not all be the same contract or same contract, but it's let's figure it out now. May we'll do their utilities. We'll follow-up right behind them with streetscaping, pedestrian facilities, etcetera, to finish it off right away, not five years from now and then come back and and disturb the neighborhood then.
It's really let's get it done now when we say dig once. And it it's not always one contractor, but it's together. I'm gonna actually, I am gonna get a motion on the table. I think we're kinda moving into, comments. Is there a motion? Council member Keane. I'll make a motion to adopt a resolution authorizing a contract with Tool Design Group in the amount not to exceed $224,889.66 for the transportation, planning, and engineering design services associated with reconnecting Rochester's downtown active transportation corridor due to the
vacation of Third Avenue Southwest and Fourth Avenue Southwest. Second. Motion made by council member Keane and seconded by council member Miller, council member Keane. Yeah. I I have heard a lot of, like, valid concern here about the amount of dug up downtown we have, like, the fatigue that people feel from that. Is this, like, a good expense to take on at this point, versus wait for later or just do it through our I mean, I saw suggestions information gathering to make sure that we don't fall into a decision that does not
work for our community. And I think that's what the staff is trying to lead us towards. It's expensive, but but so are so is building roads, and you don't wanna do them at the wrong place. Council member Wahl. Thank you. Boy, I've, looked at this, over and over, and, it wouldn't be the first time on this dais that I have expressed my amazement at what, little money, or no, what little we can get for great amounts of money. And that would include, the $224,000 for this contract. And we're trying to replace connectivity on two streets, as I understand it,
Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. We're trying to replace connectivity on two streets, Third Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue, willing to spend about a quarter of a million dollars on a study without getting a ribbon of concrete or a shovel full of asphalt, perhaps spending another $13,500,000 to go that particular route. Boy. Then that's to replace connectivity on two streets, Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. Now we have great engineers,
who do great work all over the city, and I am not one who, is wanting to burden, our current staff. And I admire the work that our staff does. We have three or four models of bike connectivity, and other models of pedestrian connectivity already exemplified in this city. I just don't think that we're, needing to reinvent the wheel and that both the quarter million and the 13,500,000.0, would represent, sums of money that would be shocking to,
most in the city of Rochester. Beyond that, and this won't make me popular with a great many people in town, according to information in the Star Tribune about ten days ago, the US Census Bureau reports that 1.8% of Minneapolis residents now commute by bike, down from 5% a decade ago, whatever that means. I would like data for Rochester, and maybe we already have that data. I know we talked about some of that, data on, some bike lanes that went east west maybe a couple of summers ago.
I think that we need to to build, not just for, what a hoped for future, but we need to build so that our, investments are commensurate with usage. So I will not be voting for this, item. Council member Fredericks. It's comment. And I guess I had questions still, so I'm just gonna can ask questions. I'm sorry. Can I alright? Compared to the cost of this entire project in the downtown, $200 for a preliminary, I I guess, I would call idea or plan because we don't it does this doesn't come plan ready for $200, obviously.
It's basically to get a overall mile high view of what we're looking at doing in the whole downtown. Is that correct? I heard you say 30 I mean, I heard a lot of things thrown out here in the last forty five minutes, whatever it's been. But I heard 30 block area. Is that right? Yes. We are only talking about a two block area right now or two streets, but you're actually talking about the whole area and having something we can all tie together because there's a million moving parts here. Is that what I'm hearing? Correct. Correct. Okay. And I think the main thing there's different
six, seven different points of view brought up here, but what I'm hearing is we wanna make sure we have proper public input. That's what that's what I'm hearing, is we wanna make sure we have proper public input from the business owners, the citizens, you know, everybody's staff, city council. I'm sure there's lots of other things I'm forgetting to mention, but just proper public input. And I'm hearing, like, to mention, but just proper public input. And I'm hearing, like, a, separation. It's probably not opinion, you know, depending on who you're talking to. The the one person's hearing this, another person's hearing that. Where does that truth land? So I guess what I'm in support of having I it's a small amount of
money. Small amount of money to throw out a plan of something of this size. I know what it cost to put together a a plan for just a a $2,000,000 project, let alone, I don't know how many million you threw out there per block, 1,800,000.0 per block times 30 blocks. Is that right? So let's just call it $60,200,000 to come up with a preliminary idea for that whole space, especially when we're dealing with the kind of money we're dealing with here, it's probably not a lot of money. I hate to say that, but you gotta have a good idea. You can't just put something together.
I'd like to speak in layman terms, but I can't. You can't put together a half baked idea and then, oh, gosh. We forgot this. We forgot that. We forgot this. We forgot that. Then we look like idiots again. Let's just think about, couple blocks Excuse me. At the end of the table, please, a council member is speaking. Thank you, president. So that's a lot of thinking out loud. I'm just a common sense guy. There's obviously a lot of stuff I don't understand when it goes into this stuff. But I understand proper input and I understand a proper plan. I just wanna make sure we have that. I actually am gonna vote for this because I do wanna have a proper ID
and plan. But I wanna make sure we're giving the citizens and the people that wanna speak proper floor time to do that. Thank you, council member. Mayor Norton. Yes. And thank you. My hearing aids were not allowing me to pick up on everything, so I asked for clarification. I apologize for that. A couple of things here. One, there's a lot of community engagement. We've had a lot of talk about that this evening, stakeholder versus community and on and on. And the one thing I just want to say right now is that we also have boards and commissions who specialize in different parts
of this, whether it be bike ped or planning and zoning or whatever. Please utilize the groups that we've already got organized as part of that. You don't always need to start from scratch. When we have folks, we've asked to make decisions and they want to make important decisions, and these are going to be really important decisions. So please use those. Also, to Council Member Wall's point, I often sit here and have sticker shock. I I often sit here and have sticker shock. And yet today, and and it's a lot of money. I'm not gonna argue with that at all.
But today, we're talking about spending this amount of money on the whole future of our downtown and the future of this community, which is frankly what DMC money is for, that's what we approved it for, infrastructure. And so I don't feel bad about using that money to make sure we develop properly, as others have just said. I appreciated the comments from my colleague down at the end of the aisle that I accidentally interrupted. I apologize. I think this is what the money is for. And I've watched us, frankly,
spend the same or more amount to give to one individual or one business. And I don't want to rehash old problems, but we've done it for one person. We're talking about planning for an entire community, and we have to do it right. And so I just I just want to put it in perspective for decisions we made last meeting compared to decisions we're making this meeting or two meetings ago in this meeting. This is for all of us, and we have to do it right. So I'd urge your approval. Council member Wahl. Maybe trying to be a little bit more popular. I I I forgot one sentence,
in my prepared remarks. I don't begrudge any kind of restoration of a bicycle North South route. We need that. I just am objecting to the price. Council member Miller. I'll just echo what the mayor said too is not forgetting our our boards and commissions. I mean, I think of at least four sustainability, citizens advisory on transit, the youth council, and Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Committee as well as, at a minimum, stakeholders from the community who are engaged in this kind of consideration in this quarter
connects bus rapid transit, connects employment, connects so many features. And so I appreciate Mr. Frederick's comments as well, the scope of what this informs, and I will look forward to supporting it. Council Member Palmer. It's kind of funny you mentioned boards and commissions. I went to look at the last meeting that the, venture for me. So what's baffling to me is Third And Fourth Avenue is not new, that we are closing that. We already voted on that months ago. We knew we're going to vote on it. I don't know why we have to wait now, to do this. I think we're behind.
I don't again, I don't want Sixth Avenue May 1 opening and then have everybody stand around and say, Wow, but now we're in closed lanes so we can put in a cycle track or we're going to do this. I don't disagree with Mr. Wall saying that we need to have some kind of transportation into this area. But we did a cycle track in North Broadway. It doesn't work. It didn't get repeated anywhere else. We just hear about a complaint about Fourth Street. I've heard complaints about Fourth Street and being unusable for most everybody. Even when they first did, they couldn't remove the snow. So, the dig once to me is important because the fatigue for people,
it's real. If you can't get out of downtown in less than half an hour, and I'm a patient person, I can't imagine what unpatient people do when they're stuck downtown. So, I think we're going to have a side vote whether or not I'm patient or not. But going back to we have a form we have on our agenda, Page 87, Task two, eliminate generalized public engagement. I don't know who wrote that sentence. I don't know why they put that sentence in there. All they would have to say is, oh, we're going to grab everything we've heard from the last six months, and we're going to put it together and give it to this consultant. But to say publicly,
and as a city council to vote for, not allowing generalized public engagement is just plain wrong. And I can't believe anybody here can say I'm going to vote for this because, gosh, darn it, I don't care what the generalized public says. And that's what you're doing when you vote this way. So you do what you want to do, but obviously, I'm not going to be voting for this. And it's not about the money. It's about fatigue. It's about engagement. And we got to start thinking about what average people in Rochester want. Thank you, Councilmember. So I
oh, council member Doreen, go ahead. Yeah. I know I'm quiet. You forget about me every once in a while. It's okay. Know whether you were raising your hand or saying you were okay. I wanna read, from the request for action. A tool design group along with city staff will conduct a robust stakeholder outreach and engagement process focusing on people who bike and walk in the downtown along with directly engaging local business owners to understand their needs. So I stand in, direct disagreement with my colleague to my right here, that there is not there is a plan for,
direct public engagement. I've availed myself to participate in direct public engagement. I participated in Kutzke Park Neighborhood Association meetings as a volunteer, for a nonprofit organization directly involved in Kutzke Park. I was invited to a public engagement meeting by members of the DMC population to talk about my experience in Kutzke Parks. So, public engagement is happening. I encourage that to continue to to happen. I encourage tool design group along with DMC and our city staff to work collaboratively
collaboratively to share that information. I, view this as a investment, to increase connectivity and to create a more robust downtown, situation for active transportation. So I am excited to support, this particular item. Thank you, council member Dohring. I will also be supporting this, measure, and, I really appreciate staffs digging in deep on this and, and really looking to the vision. And I think, miss Steinhauser, you said it very well that Mayo Clinic is is investing $5,000,000,000.
And we want to make sure that we take the opportunity when they dig into the ground that we are looking at collaboration with Mayo Clinic and DMC, from in the ground and up to when that, pavement is put in. And it really is a publicly connected, knitted together for the variety of, multimodal transportation that, a future demographic for the next twenty years is going to be using.
So I really appreciate that. I also do share some of my colleagues' frustration with the fatigue. I think there's I I wouldn't say community engagement fatigue. I don't ever get engaged, fatigued by that. I think there's a maybe consultant fatigue. And the the fact that we know that Mayo Clinic is contributing to this, and DMC is contributing, and the city is contributing,
and there are several consultant groups that are working on public engagement and and a variety of design levels, for that. I think we need clarity on that because even though in the scheme of things, dollars 200,000 is is just a piece of a $5,000,000,000 investment by our major, employer in this city. But for us, we are watching the public's dollar.
So keep that in mind as we move forward that we from my standpoint, I really wanna see, where those dollar streams are coming from and where those, where that collaboration is happening between the different entities that are, building this vision for the future. So with that, all in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Nay. Nay. We have, five in favor and two, opposed, council member Wahl and council member Palmer.
Moving on to ordinance second readings, mister Spindler Craig. Go ahead. Thank you, mister president. One item k one, an ordinance annexing to the city of Rochester approximately 158.2 acres of land located North Of 40 Eighth Street Southeast, South Of Fortieth Street Southeast, located east of the east terminus of Orchid Road Southeast identified by pin numbers zero eight nine zero eight nine, zero eight nine zero nine one, zero eight nine zero eight seven.
I'll move approval. Motion made by Councilmember Keane. Second. By Councilmember Doring. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Passes unanimously. We have no tabled items. And under other business, Councilmember Keane, report on RPU. Yeah. Thanks. I probably shouldn't call it a report, but I just wanna do an update for both the public but also my peers about some critical investment decisions that are on the horizon. Rochester Public Utility, which is a department in the city of Rochester, is at a pivotal point in the up with upcoming decisions on how we supply
our power resources for 2030 and beyond when our contract we have the responsibility of generating this ourselves. Our municipal electric utility faces some long lead time investment decisions in the coming months. These decisions will come to the RPU Board but then they will come back to this council. So it's not something you won't see again but I'm trying to put a little more early eyes on this. These decisions are complicated enough with just market forces and understanding, you know, capacity costs versus energy costs. But we're also dealing with three major dynamics and they're government related.
But number one is there's changes in how federal rules and guidance coming from DC and it's changed over the last couple months and it's got to all be worked into this plan to see how we can go forward. That's number one. But number two, in 2023, laws and guidance coming out of Saint Paul in the state of Minnesota also put constraints and restrictions and goals, and I guess even responsibilities under our utility that we need to work with. And number three, our municipal, our city, made commitments to being carbon neutral with certain restrictions around that by 02/1930.
So there is an RPU board meeting on Tuesday, July 22 at four There will be some in-depth presentations there on the goals with the goal of surfacing market forces and energy generation options. This will all lead towards recommendations of somewhere, that again, I'll say it again. That'll all come back to us. But I I want to emphasize this because there's times we talk about, like, RPUs over here. But I emphasize RPUs a a department in the city of Rochester. And these the when we talk about the finances of RPU, it's our finances too.
And we we need we have a an important role in that. As a council representative at the utility board, I'm working to balance across three main utility goals. Number one is there's we want to have energy reliability or electric reliability. Our economy and our residents are dependent on on demand, electricity, and we can't make decisions that put that at risk. Number two: we have serious environmental responsibility that reflects our citizenship, and also The commitments we've made to our future. Decisions in 2025 impact us and our our residents in 2050 and 02/1960.
These are really long term decisions that we're we're going to live with. And the third, like, kind of driving utility goal is rates. We can't do this without concern for what our expenses are, and what it costs to live in in our city. So that RPU board meeting, there's an in person thing you can come to at, the RPU site at 4000, East River Road. It's also a meeting that if you go online and look for, there's connections to be able to watch it different ways either through teams and things like that. And again, I just bring this up because I don't want anyone to be surprised when you
start looking at what some of these numbers are and the impact it has and and making sure that we have the options in front of us and we're thinking it through clearly. One other RPU update, and this is from the water side of the business. Sometime over the past year, Rochester or RPU worked with the state of Minnesota. We had a permit to drill a new well and we were getting it open. And it has been open and it's working fine. But during that process, we were educated enough that says, you know, we're in the limit we're moving towards the limits of what our water permits are for.
And what we heard through the state was don't come back with another requesting another permit to put in a well. And it's kind of shocking because we've been sitting here on this wonderful water supply, and it's not really going away. But they're starting to get worried about it because of other things that are happening. And and I trust the DNR to know this stuff. And it's driving our PU towards saying, well, wait a minute. Why are you coming to us? We're not the only ones in this water thing. And this is not, the water, aquifers we use are used by Stewartville and Byron and all these other places too.
So these groups have started to come together and say, what is our future here? What happens ten years from now if we grow from a county of a 170 to 220? Do we have the water resources? If you look at other bigger cities, it's we have a wonderful benefit of having all aquifer water here and having, you know, and not having any sort of constraints. But if you look at other places, they start having to say, like, do we have groundwater? Is that part of our water system? Do we need to go to other aquifers that we're not as comfortable with and we need new treatment methods? So there's some of those things that are on the horizon.
They're not the kind of things that are gonna come here as a problem or something we're gonna need to vote on. But I want I mean, I want city leaders and even the public to be aware that these things are out there and there are things being worked by our staff, but there are also things that we should be aware of going forward. The water one is really interesting to me because I I, you know, I have friends that are in New Mexico and California, and the politics of water is really and I just thought, like, what a great benefit to be sitting on these aquifers. I still think, you know, the amount of water we get and the quality of water is really good.
I'm not suggesting that we're in like, this is a real big problem. But these are the kind of things both, the day to day billing at RPU, but also what's gonna happen ten, twenty, and thirty years down the road. Road. And since this stuff will come back to this group, I want to talk about this group, but I also want to just talk about it in the public and make people aware that those sort of things what is our energy sustainability going forward? Are we safe with our water, or do we have major investments in the in the coming years for that too? So, thanks for giving me the the the microphone, and I'm glad to share that with the community.
Thank you for the update, council member. Any other biz other other business? Seeing none, is there a motion to to adjourn? So moved. Moved by council member Miller, seconded by council member Fredericks. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. We are adjourned.