Good evening and welcome to the regular city council meeting for the city of St. Peter, Minnesota. It is Monday, April 28th, 2025. At 7 p.m. we are called to order. Would all please rise for the pledge.
I pledge algiance 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 members have received a copy of the
agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda or any revisions or corrections? Make a motion to approve the agenda. Second. All those in favor of approval say I. I. Any opposed? The agenda's approved. Next up, approval of the
minutes. The minutes appear on pages 5 through seven of the packet. Are there any revisions or corrections to the minutes? Hearing none. Is there a motion to approve as distributed? So move. Second. All those in favor of approval say I. I.
Any opposed? The minutes are approved. We have time for visitors on our schedule. Uh, is there any visitor who'd like to address the council on an agenda item? Hearing none, any visitors who'd like to provide general comments to the council? Hearing none, we will move on
to approval of the consent agenda. The consent agenda begins with a memo on page 8 and concludes with the resolution that appears on pages 25 through 26 of the packet. It's a pretty substantial consent agenda tonight. Uh, it includes the following licenses. two temporary on
sale liquor licenses for the St. Peter Chamber uh for Minnesota Square Park on July 4th, 2025 and 101 South Front Street for 8 to19, 2025. A show license for the chamber for Minnesota Soda
Square Park on July 4th. Two tree worker licenses for Morings Tree Service and Pumpkin Hill Tree Service. Those are for the dates May 1st, 2025 through April 30th, 2026. There are numerous employee appointments that are printed in the
packet. I will not read them all. Most of them are for the city pool, uh, lifeguards and such, and a couple seasonal workers as well. The consent agenda also includes the schedule of dispersements for April 10th, 2025
through April 23rd, 2025. Is there any discussion on any item on the consent agenda? Hearing no discussion, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second to call the role, please. Council
member Pettis. I. Council member I. Council member Wisenfeld. Hi. Council member Shster. Hi. Council member Devos. I. Mayor Noel. I. Council member Johnson. I. The consent agenda is approved. We have no items of unfinished business tonight. We will move on to our first item of new business, which is an
administrative specialist job description. Mayor members, I'm here and the chief is here if you have any more specific questions, but this is a job description that you discussed previously at a workshop. I do want to mention that this is not planned to be an additional FTE. Um, this is an
approach that we're using should there be an organizational change in the short to midterm relative to the amount of service personnel that are necessary to support the police department. And so, um, that's the basis for this new job
description. Again, if you have specific questions about what this will do and how this might all work, um, the chief or I are happy to stand for questions you might have. The resolution though approving this is a few pages back on page 30. questions for Todd or for the chief? Carrie. Yeah, Chief, could you just talk
about for people at home um how they might interact with this person? Um currently in the new building. Sure. As it stands right now, there'll be uh fixed hours for the position um potentially a half day on Friday uh just
to sort of mirror the other uh city work uh city working staff uh within city hall. But um it it it it's in the plan to have an entryway uh on the north end of the Scholarship America building. Uh
and within that entryway there will be that administrative specialists uh that will be behind uh a piece of glass and really it's it's going to be similar to what uh people find right now uh with a
little bit less uh coverage of ours as we know. Uh but again, they'll be able to enter into the police department uh do their business as needed and really have that person there along with our office manager uh Melinda Meyer uh if
Amber might be on a break if she decides to move forward with the position. And can you describe um what are their roles? This person helps support the work of the police department. There are going to be a lot of different roles for this person. And as we move into uh what
we recently had with the release of our Axon mobile cameras and body cameras, it's going to be up to that individual to prepare those files, that investigative work, uh along with potential of redaction for our body cameras andor mobile cameras to prepare
that for our city attorney or our county attorney. So, it'll take a lot of adjusting. It's going to be a lot of new things that will be occurring within that position to understand uh exactly what they'll be doing, but they'll be uh processing gun permits. Uh
they'll be doing data practice requests as well, too. So, really very similar as to uh the person we have now as you enter into our police department down on Front Street. Thank you. Thank you. additional questions or anything to add
either of you? All right, hearing nothing further. Uh the resolution appears the resolution approving this position description appears on page 30 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve? So move second. We have a
motion and a second. Call the role, please. Council member R. I. Council member Wisenth. I council member Sharst. Hi. Council member Deos. Hi. Mayor Noah. Hi. Council member Johnson. I. Council member PZ. I. The resolution is approved. Thank you very much. Thank
you. Our next item of new business is a resolution authorizing the purchase of an aerial bucket truck. And Pete is here to talk to us about that. City Council. Um before you, you have on page 31 a memo that uh lays out what we
are looking for. It is a 2025 Track High Ranger aerial bucket. is very similar to what we have right now. We have a 2007 uh aerial bucket from TX. Uh we did have um uh using the uh CPV the cooperative
purchasing venture. Uh that is very similar to the state bid process. Uh we became members of that so that we could participate in that uh cooperative purchasing. Um the unit itself is about
188,905. Uh we anticipate that we will receive about $36,000 uh in value from our existing 2007 once we declare it surplus. We'll put it out there once we receive our uh new vehicle. Uh we have budgeted about
164,000 uh for this purchase in the electric budget. uh the existing unit. Um we have tried to keep that about as long as we can. Uh back in 2020 when uh Jason Lee took over as superintendent, this was one of the vehicles that our
mechanic had identified as on the short stick for longevity and Jason was able to get five more years out of it and uh we're really happy that we got that many more years out of it. Um, we do maintain about,246 street lights plus all the
street lights on Highway 169. This unit will have a 40 foot capacity as far as the lift. Um, right now we're running about $7,500 a year in maintenance. Of course, you're starting to see quite a few failures in the hydraulic hoses and portions of the lift that are important
to us. Um, as I mentioned, uh, we have a resolution on page 33 and we're asking for approval. Thanks, Pete. Questions for Pete or any discussion? Ben? Um, Pete, just a just a goofy question. So, the last one was a
36-footer, right? Uh, 35. Yeah, 35. 35 and some change. This one's a 40footer. How often do we have to go up to like what do we have that's that tall? Street lights aren't that. Uh, just the stuff on 169. So, we have an agreement with Mandot that we will maintain those. And
as you know, we redid Highway 22 intersection. And that is the main area that requires the extra lift lights up on top of the signal lights. Yep. Gotcha. Um and so this is the current TX smallest unit that they have. So they
used to make a 35, but they found it really difficult uh to maintain the maintenance on that. So they went to a little beefier unit. Okay. Any additional questions? Hearing nothing further, the resolution authorizing the purchase of a
2025 TX high ranger LT40 aerial device mounted on a Ford F1 or Ford F600 is on page 33 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Call the role, please. Council member Risenfeld, I.
Council member Sharstro, I. Council member Glass, I. Mayor Noel, I. Council member Johnson, I. Council member Penn. Hi. Council member I. The resolution's approved. Thanks, Pete. We're going to move on to a resolution for approving new licenses, Todd. So, Madame Mayor and
members, we have two new licenses in front of you. One is for on sale liquor and then one is for Sunday liquor for El Masalon Mexican Restaurant at 1611 Old Minnesota Avenue. So, for those folks that have been the community for a long time, it is the old new KFC building
that will be occupied. I'm sure people have seen work going on down there. Um, you'll note that the dates for this are from May 1st through the end of June. That coincides with the regular licensing period for liquor licensing. So, they'll uh license for a couple of months here and then they'll have to
reapply just as everyone does who receives a liquor license. So, their liquor license cost is prrated for a couple of months. Um, and that's how it works. The resolutions include in your packet. Um certainly the background checks were done and we found nothing that would prohibit them from receiving these two licenses. And when this comes
back to us, it will be on the consent agenda because they won't be new licenses at that point. That's correct. Okay. Yep. Uh any questions for Todd? Brad. So Todd, um why do we have a separate Sunday liquor license? Is that just a legacy thing from that's just
we've had from for a long time? So um I would tell you that it's based on how the state statutes are put together. So Sunday liquor licensing is a separate licensing. The procedures and all those kind of things are similar, but it provides for different hours and other things that go on. So um cities across
Minnesota who allow for Sunday liquor licensing usually handle that in two separate categories. Regular license and then Sunday licensing. Additional questions? Hearing nothing further. The resolution approving new licenses is on page 35 of
the packet. Is there a motion to approve? So move second. We have a motion and a second. Call the roll, please. Council member Sh. Hi. Council member Debas. I. Mayor Noel. I. Council member Johnson. Hi. Council member Pettis. Hi. Council member Ram. Hi. Council member Weisenfeld. I. The
resolution is approved. Next up, a request for city assistance for Memorial Day Walk of Honor Parade. Mayor members. This is from Alleg American Legion Post 37. And they, as you know, usually conduct a Memorial Day event in Minnesota Square Park. for the last few
years they have had um for our purposes what gets classified as a parade um but they might call it a memorial march um down Third Street. It starts at the American Legion generally and walks south on Third Street towards Minnesota
Square Park and they arrive typically just in time for the ceremony to start. And so they're looking for approval um to provide for that parade again this year. Um the resolution is included in your packet on page 38. They're required to carry the appropriate amount of licensing just like anyone that conducts
a parade within the city of St. Peter and um they are able to provide that um and they'll provide that as we get closer to the event. If they are unable to provide it then the license would not be approved or the permit would not be approved. Uh but again this would be for the Walk of Honor parade and the
resolution's on page 38. Questions for Todd? Hearing no questions. The resolution approving city assistance for the American Legion Post number 37 Walk of Honor Parade is on page 38. Is there a motion to approve? And if I could, Madame Mayor, maybe one thing that I
should mention is that this is different than some of the other parades that we have in town in that there are really only two units. It's the American Legion and that the governors provide um a marching beat for the activity that goes on. So, it's not like they're open for other parade floats or anything. It's
just these two units. Yep. Yeah. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second to call the role, please. Council member Deos, I. Mayor Noah, I. Council member Johnson, I. Council member Pettis. Hi. Council member Rand I. Council member
Wisenfeld. Hi. Council member Sharstrom. Hi. The resolution is approved. And I'll just say the the Legion does a great job with the Memorial Day uh program out at Minnesota Square Park. So, if you're in St. Peter on that day, it's a really meaningful event. And so, I'm happy that
the city can can assist in this way. Uh we will move on to our last item of new business, Gorman Park reimbursement resolution. So mayor members, this is what we might call a belt and suspenders approach to financing of the Gorman Park
improvements. The city council has taken a number of actions. You've been through a planning process, an extensive planning process. you've awarded so far in phase one for bids for various aspects of the project that are going to continue to move forward. Um my hope here is that you'll approve the attached
resolution that provides for designating reimbursement and this is really for two primary purposes. One of which in phase one, as you know, um we we are very close but do not have all the funding necessary to complete phase one where you're at. And with phase two, although you have not initiated that, we do not
have funding identified. We have a number of funding sources identified, but we have not received those dollars or in the process for grants and some other things that may go on. The reason that I'm asking you to pass this is because it provides an opportunity should we not be able to raise all the fun funding that you might
see if you choose again only if you would choose to issue debt to cover remaining costs. This allows future debt to pay for bills that we're incurring essentially now. Otherwise, that would not be allowed under the law. And so,
this resolution is necessary to ensure that you have that belt and suspenders approach should you choose, if you choose in the future to issue debt for any portion of the work that's going to go on at Gorman Park. And this is similar to what we've done on other projects. You have done this on other
projects. Um, you have done this on many other projects, but it allows for the identification of those um parts of the project that may be paid for by debt. Any questions for Todd? The resolution is included in the packet and it has
been developed by your bond council. Um, so Taft, Mary Eple from your team provides some of the information for this as we move this forward. All right. Seeing no further discussion or questions, the resolution establishing procedures relating to compliance with
reimbursement bond regulations under the Internal Revenue Code begins on page 41 and concludes with the exhibit on page 43 of the packet. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. We might have a
third. Um all those call the role, please. Mayor Noel. I. Council member Johnson. I. Council member Pettis. Hi. Council member Rand I. Council member Weisenfeld. Hi. Council member Sharstrom. Hi. Council member Deos. Hi. The resolution is approved. We will move
on to reports. I don't have any reports tonight. How about reports from council members? I do have a report. I may um I just wanted to report on some of the activity I've been doing outside of
the council. Um it's kind of a combination of my work on the CGMC. um economic development committee and then also um with Rita too. So these two worlds have collided. Um so one of the things that um as you know you can
participate on a committee for CGMC that is coalition of greater Minnesota I'm sorry coalition of greater Minnesota cities. Um thank you and um I participate on the economic development committee back in the fall when we were discussing priorities. Um I
talked a lot about resident recruitment and retention. Um primarily because we spend a lot of our shared dollars in with the region um regional economic development alliance on marketing our region for economic development and
trying to bring business and industry to the area. Um and so with the CGMC and we do a lot of lobbying on the state level. I was curious about, you know, what is our state doing for those dollars um to
attract and retain new residents. Um and so while we didn't put it in our policies, we did decide to come up with a subcommittee. And so the subcommittee has been doing this work and now um as of Friday engaged with explore Minnesota
executive director who has basically shared ways that um different economic development agencies like Rita can engage on um how we can collaborate so we can make the dollars that we put into
Rita that go toward marketing stretch even further and even collaborate with Explore Minnesota and what they're doing. Um, a few years ago they received $10 million from um, DED. This was all done through the legislature to advance
the work of Explore Minnesota to kind of get in that economic development realm. And so we're just trying to make sure that they're using those dollars equitably. So it's not just generated towards like certain areas of the state, but it's really across the state because, you know, outside of the metro,
we're able to provide a lot of really great opportunities for ability and um you know we have a lot to offer especially in our region too. So um like I said those two worlds kind of collided and we were able to invite um Ryan from
GMG Ryan DC and he got to ask some really great questions and I think this started this relationship with Explore Minnesota is going to go even further. Um, so I just wanted to report on that work um, so that you all know what what I've been up to and um, that it advances
the work of what what we want to accomplish with Rita. That's really exciting, Carrie. Thanks for your work on that. Thank you. Any other reports from council members? How about our city administrator? Members, I have three things that I wanted to mention just
quickly. And the first of which is um all of you I know are aware but want to make the public aware of a joint meeting that occurred between the city council and the school board on the 14th. We talked about a number of uh issues and we typically try to meet once or twice a year and I thought um and certainly time
for all you to comment but I think we had a really good meeting. A lot of great information was shared, some thoughts about activities that are occurring and certainly things that might occur in the future. And so I left thinking, what a great meeting, great communication, a lot of discussion, and
it felt good to get together. I don't know if anyone else has any comments about that, but those are important things that help move lots of projects forward within your community. I think I I'll add how much I I appreciate the um collaborative
relationship between the city and the school district. today. Uh not every city has that and it really is to the benefit of our residents and so thanks to you know school board and school district leadership and city leadership
for making that happen. It doesn't happen by accident. I think it really takes um effort and you know fostering those relationships. So I find it to be a very useful meeting.
Thanks everyone. We'll have another one and that committee that we've had in the past is starting for starting to have a reformation and we'll try and have names where we call it the same thing that they call it for that liaison committee. So that'll be nice to get that going. Next I have on my list is just want to
mention that um at the end of this last week uh Pete and his team got all the restrooms operational in all the parks. So as spring continues to bud, it's important to know that those are available for the community. And if there are any questions or concerns, please give us a call. We're happy to
help solve those as quickly as we can. And in conjunction with that, in keeping with my spring theme, um if you have not checked out the recreation um programming that's available in the summer, it is budded out and will bloom in about three or four weeks with every
activity that you can imagine going on in the near future. Um, so if you want to sign up for something or certainly sign up your kids or maybe you're a senior and want to get signed up for some of the wellness programs that we have going on, now is a great time. It's on our website. Easy to see there. The
brochures came out about a month and a half ago, give or take a little bit. You can certainly come down to the community center or city hall. We have additional brochures if you'd like to work with paper. And um, we'd love to get you signed up. There are many, many, many, many programs. As you all know, um, the
rec department on the average week has over 50 scheduled programs a week with the rec department and the library combined. So, there's a lot of cool stuff that goes on within your community. This is one of those areas where um your bloom is larger than the plant where you punch above your weight
and have a lot of great programming. So, we want to encourage people to participate in that. Um, Madame Mayor, the last thing that I have for you is a request for approval of a resolution calling for a closed or executive session on potentially two real estate transactions. So, these would be two
separate closed sessions. One is located at 2110 Klein Street and then the second is at 1225 South Washington. Um, the resolution allowing for the close session is on page 44. I would anticipate coming back into open session only to adjourn. I have no other action
scheduled. This is an update for the council on these potential transactions and again coming back into open session only to adjourn. So we'll um recess to the Traverse to Sue room downstairs for these sessions. All right. Uh any questions or discussion? Darl. Um Todd,
could you add the other address to the resolution? Only have the Klein Street one. Oh, thank you. We'll make sure to get that covered. Thank you. With that, I will make that motion. I'll second. All right. We have a motion and a second to approve the modified resolution. Um, call the role, please.
Council member Johnson, I. Council member Pettis. Hi. Council member R. I. Council member Wes. Hi. Council member Sharstrom. Hi. Council member Deos. Hi. Mayor. I. The resolution is approved. So, we will uh recess to close session. It is
7:24 p.m.