evening and welcome to the regular regular city council meeting for the city of St Peter Minnesota it is Monday July 22nd 2024 at 7 p.m. we are called to order would all please rise for the pledge I pled to the flag of the United
States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all uh next up is the approval of the agenda we should all have received a copy of the agenda are there any revisions or
Corrections hearing none is there a motion to approve the agenda as distributed so moved second all those in favor of approval say I I I any opposed the agenda is approved moving on to approval of the minutes the
minutes appear on pages four through five of the packet are there any revisions or corrections to the minutes hearing none is there a motion to approve the minutes as distributed so move second all those in favor of approval say I I I any opposed the
minutes are approved as distributed uh we now have time on our agenda for visitors are there any visitors who' like to address the Council on any agenda items hearing none we have time for General visitor comments is there anyone who'd like to address the Council on any matter
whatsoever hearing none we will move on to the approval of the consent agenda the consent agenda begins with the memo on page six and concludes on page 25 of the packet the consent agenda in uh includes the following employee
appointments Joey Rous as accountant at a wage of $33.80 tan Watkins as a assistant Library supervisor at a wage of $21 51 installation of a vehicle Fe speed feedback sign on eastbound gry Street
near St Peter middle school and the following temporary license a temporary on sale liquor to the St Peter chamber for on 8 20224 and and the schedule of dispersements for June 28th 2024 through
July 17th 2024 is there any discussion on any consent agenda item hearing none is there a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second uh we have a motion and a second
call the rooll please council member rant I council member weisenfeld I council member shrom I council member DeVos I mayor Noel I council member Johnson I council member ptis I the consent agenda is approved approved we have no items of Unfinished Business
tonight we will move on to our first item of new business which is the authorization of St Peter public school and St Peter Department of recre memorandum of understanding that memo starts on page 26 of the packet May member your director of recreation leer Services John stutzman is here to
provide a oral report on this uh I will mention before he gets going this is something that you've had in place for more than a decade um but John can illustrate how it impacts you and provide any additional information qu answer question question that you might have thanks John thank you very much um
as Todd mentioned this is something that has been occurring for the last several years um from the records I've seen it goes back until uh from the beginning of 2004 it's an opportunity for us to collaborate just kind of outlines the um opportunities between us and community
and family education giving us a little bit of guidance in that partnership uh as we proceed it also includes some Financial um considerations for as we work through um things they have looked at some of our programs that fit some of
their state funding and allow us to provide the services to the community without exceeding the costs and increasing their revenues so as such they send Financial considerations to the city for providing these Services um with that the memo of understanding has
been agreed to by um the community ed director as well as the superintendent um uh there are minimal changes uh which I'd be happy to go through if anybody would like but I would open it up for any questions that the May or Council has at this time questions or
discussion DUS based on the um projected budget um situation for the school district did that have any impact on the financial contributions of the district uh not for the programming because that is through State funding so okay no that that number has not changed
okay additional questions hearing nothing further the resolution um is let's see the resolution authorizing execution of Youth Development memorandum of understanding is on page 31 of the packet is there a motion to approve so moved second we
have a motion and a second to call the rooll please council member weisenfeld I council member shrom hi council member DeVos I council member Noel I council member Johnson I council member Pettis I council member Ram I the resolution is approved thank you
very much thank you our next item of new business is authorization of Green Valley buyout and Ben is here to talk to us about that thank you mayor and members of the council um just for reference uh the Green Valley or North Mobile Home Park is located on North
Minnesota Avenue or 169 um there's about 27 mobile homes in that Park and many of those homes were built about 50 years ago or more and are considered structurally substandard or deemed um unsuitable for
rehabilitation it's also zoned C4 which is a Highway service commercial district and on top of that there's a overlay District which is called the gateway overlay District the goal of that district is to provide high quality development and create memorable and
positive First Impressions upon those entering the city um back in the early to mid 20110 the city did run um a buyout program it was a voluntary program and um they also
um offered rehabilitation services for some of the homes as well so was kind of a two-pronged approach um and that was to improve the housing stock and remove blighted housing to better the community as a whole and that neighborhood as well so essentially um the city is looking to
rerun this program again in 2024 2025 the goals of the program would be again to eliminate unsafe housing and provide um various housing options and um again this is a voluntary bio program we're
actually looking at um having a meeting on this a community meeting here at the community center on August 21st um it would be in the senior center to um give people information about what's going on with this program and it would be offered in both English and Spanish um
if the home owners did choose to sell their home they they would be offered a flat rate um they'd also be off given the opportunity to work with the southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership so Ali from Southwest would be at that meeting as well and available after that meeting to help anybody that was
interested um the budget as shown on the bottom of page 33 we'd be able to buy out um potentially five to seven homes depending on what it costs to um demo and clean up the homes um the partners we've been working with are nicholet
County Health and Human Services uh nicholet Brown environmental health and then Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership on this project there's a timeline shown on page 34 of how this project would roll out um again it is important to note that this program is
completely voluntary um and if if successful staff would look to seek additional funding and do this in future years um if approved the city would be committing to $105,000 of its housing funds um to go towards providing safer housing so with
that that would conclude staff's report be happy to answer any questions thanks Ben um this could be a question for either you or Todd I think we've talked about this before in previous meetings but maybe helpful for uh viewers at home to know where our housing funds come
from so the housing funds that we would plan to use here are made up the5 years is made up of a total pot of around $900,000 those funds came to this City through a couple of different methods most of which occurred through as you've
done other housing projects or received grants from the state of Minnesota for housing projects and people have repaid a loan or provided revenues back that's how depos money was deposited into this um account and so these are dollars that
are really federally designated because of their Source or state designated to be used for low to moderate income housing opportunities and they have to meet the federal the five Federal requirements elimination of blight assisting load to moderate income populations and others and so a program
Like This falls directly into that opportunity um as Ben mentioned you've done a program very very similar to this in the past um that I think the council at that time thought was very successful and um the meeting that he described would be a neighborhood meeting and that's where we would invite folks to
attend from that neighborhood and solicit their input inform them what we're trying to do and if there's interest then there would be a process um driven by the program into the future um we could expect utilization of the program maybe this fall but it could go into the spring or next summer um the
timeline for this is slightly over years has been articulated and I think there's opportunity here um to remove blighted housing and help improve overall housing stock and the ability of folks to be into higher quality housing and that's our
goal uh Brad and Dustin um so I have a question you and um your are if we remove five to seven uh homes what happens if you get interest from say 12 to 15 you get more say you get more interest than you're anticipating we
would come back to the council let them know and maybe ask for additional money we do have additional housing money for future years of this program okay thank you Dustin now you had indicated that it is a voluntary program correct but the other piece is the person has to be own
and occupy the residenc correct that's correct so no one would be forcefully removed from a property that's correct y okay um let's go with let's go with Josh and then Carrie uh on the flip side to Brad if there's no interest in this
program is this money going to be available in the future for this program or will this just be returned into the pot yeah we have the like at the workshop from a couple weeks ago we have that pot of $900,000 to go towards housing um so it would go back back in
there and it could be used for a different project or continue this in future years Carri um also to Brad's point if we have um interest in excess of what is budgeted it sounds like we can um
continue the program in previous years uh I wonder if it would make sense to figure out in that event at the meeting we find that there's a lot of interest to find a way to prioritize either it being first come first serve or um I guess determining the level of
deterioration with the housing um I don't know how likely that is but um it might be something to think about if we have more uh interested residents than we do a budget to serve all of those homes in this first year have you
discussed that Todd or um we haven't discussed specifically that but I might suggest that if we do have a demand that is higher than the resources as you may recall um out of that $900,000 over the next two or 3 years we anticipated in
excess of $300,000 towards this program um we would have to come back to you that's why we're setting an authorization level of about 115 so if we have great use or interest we would come back to you I might suggest that this be driven by the timeline for when people are looking to
be out of their homes as we've talked about previously when and how people have opportunity to move to better housing varies dramatically and so so one of the strengths that I think we see in this program is that there isn't exactly a deadline that that must move
out of your home by September 1st we have time to work with families as they express interest and then provide them opportunity and assistance if they desire to find other housing and work within that timeline so while not exactly a first come first serve it
might be first ability to execute a sale um might be how we prioritize these and then again if there's sub substantial interest um then we would come back to you and say well we have another three or four beyond our funding um that are interested um are you willing to extend additional funds I think this is a
measured approach um and um I think you will have similar success to what the council saw previously further questions or discussion hearing nothing further the initiation the resolution um for
initiation and designation of funds for the Green Valley manufactured mobile home buyout program is on page 37 through 38 of the packet is there a motion to approve so mve second we have a motion and a second call the RO please council member shom I council member
DeVos I council member Noel I council member Johnson I council member Pettis I council member rant I council member wisen I the resolution is approved um we thanks thank you very much uh we will move on to a the review
and action on a b ordinance mayor members this is an item that you and previous councils had talked about quite a little bit and so You' ask that this be brought back to a workshop and then ultimately to a council meeting um for you to vote on a couple of things that I want to mention
are included within your packet on page 39 the full ordinance is listed um starting on page 41 through Page 44 but I think providing just a little bit more emphasis on the permit requirements those are really the requirements for
someone that might be interested in beekeeping within your community so let me just go through those really quickly um not just for you but for folks that might be watching on TV first of all um there needs to be a defined structure made of a durable material so somebody has to be able to provide that for the
bee home second there would be a maximum of only two hives and that applicant must demonstrate that the hives are at a minimum 25 ft from any neighboring residential structure again 25 ft from
any neighboring residential structure the hives have to be set back at least 7 feet from the property lines and folks will have to demonstrate that they also have to provide a Flyway barrier depending on their location and this is Illustrated on page 40 and we'll have a little bit of a diagram in the future
potentially for people that apply um should this be approved by the city council um the owner or The Beekeeper must be certified and there's a program through the University of Minnesota and a couple of other very similar um universities and schools that provide for beeping
certificate and so your ordinance provides for that as well they must have water within 10 ft they have to have some signage to alert neighbors and others that come by their residents that we keeping bees here um we do know that there are folks within our community um
that may be allergic and so an opportunity for them to have notice that there are bees in place has been discussed by this Council and previous councils um again the draft ordinance has been published on your website in accordance with your rules and the state law and um again I can go through the
entire thing if you want um I would mention and I think it's very important that as I put this together for you I anticipated that if you approve this ordinance it would become effective January 1st that's based on two or three primary issues one of which is it's very unlikely that somebody who's keeping
bees today would move their hives during this time of year um in addition there's not really this isn't a great time to start a new Hive and so January 1 seems appropriate it also gives us time to develop some of the materials for application that are necessary and like the diagram that I mentioned at the
beginning um the second kind of part to this is a fee for the permit um I'm anticipating or recommending a $50 fee you'll notice that that is not part of the ordinance the fee usually comes to city council along with a bunch of other fees that you typically review at the
end of the year October and November is for approval on January 1st so I would plan if you do approve this to provide this um within the body of that work since again I'm recommending that if you do approve it's January 1st that sets
the fee available January 1st um and so $50 should cover the work somebody having to go out and do the quick inspection of the property and a little bit of paperwork that I anticipate that would be necessary we haven't I haven't put together application documents or anything like that really wai on your
action before we move forward with that Madam mayor and members I'm happy to try and answer questions if I if I can questions for Todd Ben um not really a question more of a statement um going back and forth on this kind of on the
fence doing some research um trying to to take a look at it um looking at what the what the impact of a nonnative species such as honeybees honey bees are are native to Europe Africa and Asia um
would do to the 400 species of bees and Native pollinators in Minnesota there's a ton of research that says that it could be negative uh to our native pollinators
could be could be um so I don't know if we're going to have enough people jumping on this but something for us to think about I love pollinators I love having pollinator Gardens I love that we think about that um but if you've got more pollinators
and you don't have enough food for the pollinators then you start to have an issue um we don't have an issue with the pollinators that we have but a single Hive starts off at 10,000 bees 10,000
that's 10,000 mouths to feed um so that's a lot if we've got two hives in the city that's 20,000 more mouths to feed it's just something for us to think about other comments
Carrie yeah so one of one of the things and because I've discussed this in the past in my first term the only thing that I would want us to think about in terms of a potential addendum is the
sign um I think past discussions that we've had as a council had been more rather than the discussion um around how does this impact the native pollinators it was more about safety we're hearing from residents about safety we're
hearing from other fellow council members at that time about safety and I think the sign requirements if you look on page 52 and it's number eight um just just the sign requirements
I think are quite strict I think there should be a sign but to have it to be this level of detail where we're seeing it needs to be 12 inches wide 18 in tall with a white background red lettering the nearest property line with that specific Clause um with the image of a
honey be 6x6 is just it's I think too much to ask for the sign but I also don't feel that strongly about it I just wanted to bring it up for consideration if anyone else agrees with an addendum the other thing
I wanted to just state is um in 2021 I voted against the ordinance modifications due to the uncertainties um and its impact on the native B population I've G given this more consideration I've thought about it I've
talked to other residents I've talked to specifically a resident who's really interested in um caring for a hive on their property so I would um I'm willing to support the ordinance modification this time around for two
main reasons number one I believe that there are going to be very few residents interested in obtaining a permit since beekeeping requires very significant effort number two an increasing number of Lawns are being converted into pollinator friendly yards which boost
the availability of food for both honeybees and Native bees therefore I do plan to support the ordinance modification however I think um I think it would be helpful from City staff to share with the council if we were to
receive like huge influx of and I don't know what that arbitrary number is um but like Ben said one Hive is introducing thousands of bees if we let's say we had 50 applicants in one year that's something that we'd want to think about that harmonious balance that
needs to be kept between um the species that live in our community so um I think that would be something we'd want want to think about modifying in the future I'm not saying that we should modify or limit the number of permits right now
thank you Brad um so yeah I uh I I supported this I I was one of the people who supported this back in 2021 um and the reason why was at the time it was brought up that they could have an that honey bees could have an impact and that really was where it is now is it could
have an impact what I'm actually reading as I when when I read through the materials more this time around is it really is a volume issue is um a lot of cities that have done this had few restrictions few requirements in place which led to an overabundance of
beehives um I think we've done I I think we've put more requirements in place even limiting a two beehives to a yard but requiring people to pass a course requiring inspection I do agree with Carrie that you know if if we see like I
don't even think we'll see 10 applicants in the first year but if we do if we do start seeing in the double digits might be something that we would want to look at um Heidi Phillips uh is one who uh pushed me on this early this year she wasn't able to attend for for uh health
reasons uh previous in the previous discussion I didn't she hadn't reached out back then but this time around she is so we do have residents who are interested um I'm comfortable with it uh I I think I I do agree with Carrie that um particular on the signage as well
that that um rather restrictive signage I mean I I I can see height and width and maybe even having beehives present caution on there but you know with colors and you know designating how how large the how the size and the height
and width of the honeybee um and what happens if the it's not a honeybee on the sign um but uh I think that I think we could maybe look at providing a little more discretion on the signage but I'm comfortable that this isn't going to that this isn't going to lead to over
I do think also it was pointed out that we've actually approved uh with our lawn ordinance last year the PO you know adding more pollinators adding more pollinator native planting so we've kind of put the food out there first and now we're looking at adding honey bees on
top of it so in that way it's it's introducing the food source first so Dustin I like council member ramp was someone who was very much so on the fence and my concerns were very similar in regards to the impact on Native pollinators um I just completed a grant
in my own yard that I would encourage anyone to look into through Lawns to lagoons with the Minnesota Department with the DNR I do not think that having a handful of domestic domestic hives is going to
have that large of a negative impact when you look at requiring a certification the cost alone of setting these up is cost prohibitive for a lot of people then when you look at other places in the 200ish cities in Minnesota that allow bees the fact that the University of Minnesota has the bee lab
in St Paul you look at Washington DC the Smithsonian museums have pollinator Gardens and they have domesticated bees right on site like at our national mall they found a way to to have this fit in and be part of urban Landscapes if
cities like Minneapolis and Madison can manage this I feel like maybe we put a little too much thought into this and we should just allow residents to do it any other comments or discussion um as others have mentioned
we dis have discussed this in recent years um and I remain highly concerned about the impact of urban beekeeping on Native bee populations because not everybody at home might be aware um honeybees are not native to North America and there is no risk of them
going extinct beekeeping is not needed to help sustain honeybee populations in contrast our native pollinators I believe are under critical threat according to research conducted by the Minnesota be lab honeybees are threat to
Native pollinator diversity as they compete for shrinking habitat and food resources and can ser and may serve as vectors of disease and impact Native bees given the ecological importance of our native pollinators I cannot support ordinance that may further jeopardize
their survival and so I will be voting no on the proposed ordinance change is there any other discussion at this time Ren um well not discussion um I would just like to move the ordinance with an amendment to Section 8 um the
signage to remove the coloring to remove the coloring requirements from the signage um leaving the words beehives present caution um still still in that signage size and everything but just removing the uh just removing the
coloring requirements is so that's a new motion on the floor that would need a second a second all right we're going to be voting on the amendment to the ordinance Madame mayor if you give the City attorney and I just a second let me
read through if I can just quickly so the new um section 8-5 I'm sorry- 252 subdivision 8 the applicant must Place signage that is a minimum 12 Ines wide and 18 inches tall at the nearest
property line AB budding the right of way the signage must State beehives present caution and provide an image of a honeybee that is a minimum of 6 in in height and 6 Ines in width okay I can wrap my head around that and
we could make that happen call the rooll please excuse me mayor is this a vote on the amendment to yes Amendment only yes Amendment only all right council member Devas hi mayor Noel no
council member Johnson I council member Pettis I council member ran no council member weisenfeld I council member shrom I the amendment is approved we are returning to the amended ordinance is
there any follow-up discussion hearing nothing the ordinance amending St Peter city code chapter 8 animals article F four Farm wild and exotic animals and adopting by reference St Peter city code chapter 1 sections 1-6 which among other things contain
penalty Provisions uh appears on page 41 through 44 of the packet is there a motion to approve so moved second Madame May if I could clarification from the staff perspective the ordinance includes that it would be effective January 1st of 2025 just so I
can feel good about expressing that clearly yes okay thank you uh we have a motion and a second to call the RO please mayor no no no council member Johnson I council member Pettis I council member Ram no council
member weisenfeld I council member shrom hi council member Devas hi the resolution is approved moving on to the authorization of Public Work Public Works roof review hi madam mayor city council um before you you have a report
or a contract from inspect they are our Roofing engineer uh they've worked with our maintenance lead Eric Borth to um look at the Public Works roof uh that's been on our long range plan as well as we have funding set aside uh to make
Corrections there and one of the things that they identified was some structural review of that roof uh the last time there was any review of that roof was back in 1987 when the water plant was put on there uh since then there's been a few changes to that roof uh and what
their question is and what we need to solve is that is it able to support the snow loading that we're going to possibly need uh with future modifications when we get to design and Corrections there uh you have a report or a contract on pages 56 through
61 uh they will be working with staff uh to identify that hopefully we can get that accomplished this fall and we're asking that you approve the resolution on page 62 anything to add Tod the only thing that I'd add is that as you know we have a
few leaks in this roof and this is just leading you to have the appropriate specification for the best opportunity to maintain your buildings well so this is part of the a very an initial piece of that puzzle all right Josh how old is the
current um I do not know that I believe it was in early 70s when comat construction owned that facility and built that so a while a while it was not reroofed as a part of the tornado like many buildings
in town were um so it is 50 yes we've gotten a good life out of the room yeah it it's it certainly served its purpose well so far yeah other questions all right hearing nothing
further authorization of Publix uh Works Public Works roof review uh the resolution is on page 50 3 is there a motion to approve so moved second we have a motion and a second call the RO please council member Johnson I council
member Pettis I council member ramp I council member weisenfeld I council member shrom I council member DeVos I mayor Noel I the resolution is approved thanks very much Pete uh we will move on to reports I don't have a report tonight are there any council members who wish
to make reports hearing nothing from Council Members City admin administrator M members I have about four or five things that I just want to mention or turn over to someone else to mention pretty quickly Pete could I ask you to talk about the Broadway temporary closure
just for a moment or two and there's great information on our Facebook page and will be on our website if it's not already there it will be about a temporary closure really to the west of the roundabout on Broadway in Sunrise right the uh the uh work needs to take place between the water plant insurance
and the uh roundabout um in the uh the concrete that was poured during the roundabout project so we we've uh evaluated that with our engineering team and Replacements required and so we're going to the roundabout will still be open so you can go north or uh uh north
and south and you can go east uh you will not be able to go west and there'll be a detour set up on Traverse Road and County Road 20 so people coming from the west or needing to go to the West can get around uh that way but that should take place uh getting on Wednesday for
about a week so it's cement so it takes a while for it to cure and Pete this is warranty work right this is warranty work and so want to get this corrected here going into the school year and get everything open yes we want
that wait till September if you guys want but all right thank you very much Pete uh just want to alert folks that again on our website or on Facebook page we have some additional information on that just a couple other things related to ruse and recycling we want to make sure that people are closing Lids on
their um Kirby's on their refu kby their garbage Kirby's we have a lot of folks that are over stacking including at times the pfy house and we have to do a better job of making sure that if they're over stacking if they have too much and it won't fit in your Kirby we have great opportunities for you to buy an additional bag an orange bag down at
City Hall I think at Ace Hardware they still also sell them so you can at Ace Harbor you got to buy a pack 10 at a time but at City Hall if you just need one you can come down Sally and buy one um orange bag and you can set it beside to pick it up so we want to make sure pink pink I'm sorry pink thank you um in
addition to that we wanted to alert folks um that we've received an alert that many of us as we are recycling we have a great opportunity and we have maybe a a location for recycling in our home and inside that receptacle is a
plastic bag and so we put our cans in there and other recyclables and we carry the bag out we put it in our recycling Curby we cannot have the bags whether it's a crumpled up Family Fresh bag or whether it's a garbage bag that we're using as a liner bags cannot go into the
recycling they go other places but they can't go into the recycling the reason that they're not good in the recycling is because they have a tendency to gum up the Sorting machines as recycling is being sorted and that causes lots of angst and breakdowns and doesn't allow
for the efficient processing of recycled materials um so please refrain for from putting those bags in there again even if they're a crumpled up um bag from Family Fresh or some other type of bag um paper bags are certainly allowed but plastic bags are not allowed and then
the last one that I want to mention Madame mayor is that some of you received this information but Thursday August first is going to be the celebration of 20 years of the of River Edge Hospital your community-owned hospital at its new location and so it'll be a great event at G park at the
picnic shelter there from 4:30 to 6:30 and so um love to see people there there'll be Hospital tours starting at 3:30 the celebration begins at the at the park there at Gul park at 4:30 um Paula meskin your CEO will talk a little bit about the past and the future of the
hospital and there there's a really cool Time Capsule that was done and so be interesting to see what's in that I don't I've been around that but I don't remember what was put into that time capsule and then Hospital tours after the event as well um as long in addition they'll be C pork sandwiches and
macaroni and cheese and chips and a cookie and lemonade and those types of things as well so it's a great opportunity to learn a little bit more about the hospital and celebrate really an important thread in the fabric of our community which is River Edge Hospital your community owned hospital um Madame
May that's all I have for you all right um if there's nothing further we will take a motion to adjourn so moved second all those in favor of adjournment say I I any opposed we are adjourned thanks everybody all right