e e e e e e e e e e oh where going to open the meeting with
the Pledge of Allegiance 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 all right welcome to the city of St
Paul Park postponed council meeting Tuesday February 18 2025 first item on the agenda is approval of the minutes of the January 21st 20 25 regular council meeting and wave the reading of the same so moved second I have a motion a second any further
discussion all in favor say I I I motion carries 4 Z all right item number two items from the public anybody have anything pertaining to anything that is not on the agenda this evening council member swensson will check the list seeing
nobody on the list we will move on to item number three let's see evening item number three we'll have a presentation from basic needs Inc executive director Opie penala is that correct yes all right come on up to the de Opie over
here first microphone give us your Spiel well thank you mayor Frankie and Council men and women uh for letting me speak tonight I just wanted to come down and introduce myself I've met some of you but not all of you on the new
executive director for basic needs uh I transitioned into this role in uh May of last year and so apologies it's taken me a year to get down here but I've spent the better part of that year kind of chasing my tail and figuring out how everything works so I just wanted to
come down and give you all um an idea of how we landed um what we did in the community this past year um and just kind of share some numbers with you and then maybe make some invitations uh to be involved uh in different ways with the organization this year and so um I
wanted to share our food market we celebrated our oneyear anniversary in September um and that's the the free food market that we have in Cottage Grove uh where we do food rescue and disperse it to people who need it and want it Monday through Friday uh you
know throughout the week folks can come every day and we sent out to the community uh over 680,000 lbs of food from that uh food market and so we were very excited um being able to work with our partners and
the the grocery stores in the area to um rescue that food and get it out to people who need it so it doesn't go to waste um part of that is we served our clients we served just over 160,000 people that uh came through
households and children's and families and um just specifically calling out we helped in this community over 50,000 children and over over 25,000 seniors um that have come in um a lot of folks even daily to get the food
that they need to to get through the day and so we're very proud of those numbers it was a pretty big year for our first year um uh serving the people of South Washington County um and our thrift store we also have a voucher program the thrift store is just up the road here if
you haven't been uh we have a voucher program that we give out to folks um who are in an emergency situation uh like last year we had a couple folks their home burnt down and um we worked with a couple of veterans we worked with families from across the South wasan community and we served um we gave out
just over $10,000 in vouchers to the community and um I think our biggest thing that we did this last year we added an event called the pit the pit stop and that was up here at the Armory and that event we worked with over 40 agencies and organizations and the
county that came together and um we had a community resource fair and we invited folks just from South Washington County um the predominantly folks from Cottage Grove in St Paul Park uh came who needed access to resources folks that were homeless we referred over 10 about 14
families um to homeless Services we gave over uh $22,000 in gas and food cars that we distributed and like I said we worked with those 40 agencies who were tabling and also giving away resources like diaper and clothes and food to families who need it and we worked with
other organizations in the community like friends in need um and we put that event on and it was a real big success we didn't know how many people to expect uh we thought maybe around 150 uh King of Kings Lutheran did a community meal there and uh so we're we're thinking
about 150 we had just over 400 people from most of them from St Paul Park and Cottage Grove um who attended that event so that was a pretty big event and and I wanted to invite you all to be a part of that event this year uh it was so successful um and we're just kind of
amazed by the success of it um and I'd love to have you all come down and be a part of that in any way and um I'll give you some dates but I'll also follow up with an email and let you know um that we'll be doing the pit stop again this October 9th um at The Cottage Grove
Armory again we also have our fashion for a CA Gala and that's a fundraiser that we're hosting on April 10th and that's a big one it helps us pay for all of the uh programs and the the food market uh and all of the community service that we're doing um across
Washington County South Washington County so um we'll send out some invitations actually Antonio um our development manager already sent out invitation to all of you just before uh tonight's meeting and I we have a really special event it's a first year event and I wanted to invite the city um to
come to this event and um the the police uh department and uh fire as well and on May 17th we're doing an event called Badges and hoses badges versus hoses and
we're asking local fire departments and um police departments to join us with the high school um Park High School JV Basketball girls and boys basketball team and we're going to have kind of a little playoff to see you know uh the fire officers or the fire department
playing off against against the police departments and so I'm inviting the um folks from Newport St Paul Park and Cottage Grove to be a part of that and I'm asking the Mayors uh if they'd like to come and officiate that game I think that that would be a lot of fun and um
we'll we'll send out the invitation to the to the fire department here and the the police department so all right I got to step in quick there Opie do I get a whistle you get a whistle and I'll even get you a a ref shirt why not all right
we'll have to talk then okay for sure so and we'd like to you know find ways that uh this the different cities can be involved with that game so I think that's going to be a lot of fun and just another something a little bit different and another way that we can raise funds for um our programming so with that I
just want to say thank you um with have some volunteers and Antonio uh um our development manager uh so I just want to say thank you we came out to really just invite the city to um to be involved in the different things that we're doing
this year and um and for us to say thank you for all of the support that we've received in the past and the the support that I've received over this past year from from you all so thank you thank you Opie we really do appreciate your organization and all the
hard work and you hitting the ground Runing in all of our communities around here so for myself and this Council and the citizens we do appreciate what basic needs does so thank you all right on to item number four the consent agenda this evening on the
consent agenda we will be approving some open book meetings for the county for property taxes we will be paying the bills adopting resolution 1736 endorsing Federal funding for body armor for the
Emergency responders um something that uh the county has done and the other cities around us that we are working with them on uh adopting resolution 1737 declaring a council vacancy approving lawful
gambling permit houseold of faith is having a raffle on September 13th and um approving a special event permit for the American Legion looks like they are bringing back the burger bash on April 12th and that appears to be it approving
other City licenses for the consent agenda this evening and we're approving City licenses correct yes you stated that okay yes I said that out loud out loud okay I move that we approve tonight's consent agenda
if you don't mind Mr Mayor could I just ask a question about D D yep so um well why don't we make a motion then we'll bring it up during discussion okay
do a motion second discussion y how's that sound I'll second then I have a motion in a second any further discussion yes I'd like to ask question about the how how does that work just being our first sure so we'll be declaring a council vacancy um council
member zener has resigned due to personal issues and we will be opening that up uh for people to come and uh fill out some applications and then um we will appoint somebody to fill the term until the next um election which
will be this year so anybody can fill out an application then anybody can pull out an application okay and are those folks interviewed what's is there a formal part of the process or before it gets when you say we right once we see what comes in then we'll make that decision on how we're going to proceed
okay you know um I think we just need to take this first step announce it start to get applications and then go for that process okay Mr Mayor yes councilman may I ask City administrator Kevin msh what is the timeline on this or the expected
timeline I should say sure uh Mr mayor council member Swenson so in the council vacancy that will be posted after tonight so it'll be posted tomorrow it'll be posted at City Hall and it'll go up on the city website and you know we can throw it out anywhere Facebook any social media um the draft that I
have right now is for the uh applicants to submit our city application by March 5th uh 300 p.m. so after March 5th and then you know so the next council meeting beyond that would be March 17th
so I imagine that we'll have some discussion at that March 17th meeting about um or prior I mean we could prior to but uh in the past you know this has come up over the last few years um 10 15 years
due to people leaving um and it really depends on uh how many applicants we get really if if we get one applicant the council can make a decision just to approve that applicant um you know or this the council has conducted some
brief interviews prior to so I mean that's a possibility too that prior to the March 17th meeting the council could um have some interviews for that position but yeah so right now the deadline again it'll be posted tomorrow and people have until March 5th to fill out that application
it's a pretty simple application that we'll have here and again we'll we'll advertise that and put that out there any further discussion um is there any I know at one time historically back in the past we
had one Council seat open for about 9 10 months is that something this council could decide to is to leave a vacancy until the next election uh council member snon that is correct yep there's no I think there's a statute that talks about if there's over
two years left in a term that there's a required special election but um yeah because it's a short period of time the council could choose to um leave the seat vacant until the November election of this year okay thank you all right any further questions
discussion no all right all in favor signify by saying i i i motion carries 40 all right reports from the council council member spencon public works thank you Mr Mayor uh maybe City administrator Walsh could help me out
with the date on the calendar for the public works commission meeting it moves around a little bit what month yeah it normally changes so I'm not sure we're not sure the uh next city or the next public works
commission meeting will be held March something probably the first week probably the Tuesday March 4th March 4th it happens here at City Hall at 5:00 uh we have a full crew of my understanding is that
correct sir we have a full crew plan thank you thank you um he's not used to being called Sir what he didn't know who I was talking to all right well that's that's all I have today nothing new Mr Mayor thank you council member Swenson council
member Conrad planning the last meeting had been uh cancell due to lack of agenda and the next meeting is scheduled for Monday March 10th at 7 p.m. thank you council member Conrad council member Whit hemingson Parks and Rec um our last
meeting was cancelled and um our next meeting is March 3rd we are we have planned and confirmed our garden event which is May 3rd and this will be in memory of Andy cison um Home Depot will be coming out U we have teachers coming
from Pullman Masons will be doing some food we're going to have some vendors if anyone wants a volunteer we could always you use volunteers um we'll be planting the beds kids games prizes candy cookies so May 3rd check out our um
Facebook page that's it any chance council member that we're going to see a flooding event if we get a little bit more snow maybe all right I don't know if we can do a glow-in-the-dark one though that's little less cold a little more snow yes
yes all right we can be hopeful thank you council member with BR hemingson all right um administratively um we've just been doing some things meeting with Angie Craig and
uh the Mayors and uh commissioner bham I'm having some discuss discussions about long-term planning about redoing our uh overpass um with all the development that's going on around all of our cities
I I feel that that's undersized and will become undersized the more and more everybody grows Newport Cottage Grove St Paul Park hopefully um the refinery so kind of leading that charge to go into that discussion maybe hoping to get the
county to look at some um ways to help us with possibly studying that area a little bit uh without impacting our residents so much um been working in the last few weeks with representative Branson on a few things um some
notifications some new bills at the capital to um help our First Responders be notified um and open up that communication with the refinery be a little more forthcoming um and they have been so that's been great um and some
other things to once again work on our roadways um was approached by the DNR about some potential funding through the past funding to maybe do some work and um put them in touch with Kevin who put them in touch with public works and we're going to try and put in for some
grant money to um potentially dredge out Lions Levy Park so we get some better water flow through there once we get our new bridge and some other things and possibly some funding to continue to work on that wonderful little beautiful
park down there and make it better so we're looking at some options there so those are some things we've been doing administratively um that's it item number six any more Council comments or requests this evening M all right nothing further
before this Council this meeting is adjourned