good evening and welcome to the regular city council meeting for the city of st peter minnesota it is monday february 24th 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 everybody should have received a copy of uh the meeting packet which includes the
agenda are there any revisions or corrections to the agenda hearing none is there a motion to approve as distributed so move second all all those in favor of approval say i i any opposed the agenda is approved
next up approval of the minutes the minutes are printed on pages 4 through six of the packet are there any revisions or corrections to the minutes hearing none is there a motion to approve the minutes as distributed second all those in favor of approval
say i i any opposed the minutes are approved we have time on our agenda for visitors is there a visitor who'd like to address the council on any agenda item we also have time for general visitor comments if there's a visitor
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 resol uh with the memo on page seven and concludes with a resolution on page 21
of the packet the consent agenda in includes the following board and commission appointments veronica lund to the hr for a term ending december 31st 2029 and julie gasman to the public library board for a term ending december
31st 2024 as well as the schedule of dispersements uh sorry 2027 yep thank you uh the schedule of dispersements for february 6th 2025 through february 19th 2025 are also approved are there any
questions or discussion of any consent agenda item hearing none is there a motion to approve the resolution so moved second we have a motion and a second call the role please council member weisenfeld i council member dvos i mayor noel i
council member johnson i council member pettis i the resolution is approved we have no items of unfinished business tonight our first item of new business is the 2025 municipal state aid advance request oh and jeff is here to talk to
us about that good evening mayor council members um i'm here to talk about the advanced resolution or advance 2025 advance msa advance request um as a reminder in january of each year um cities of
population 5,000 or more uh receive msa funding or municipal state aid funding i always msa is short i guess um that's for the reconstruction construction maintenance of roadways um on the city system msa roads include those that are
considered collectors or carry more traffic so we have a number of those around the community and i i think council's um knows most of those where those are lo most are located so when um each year in january when msa funds are distributed the state um provides a
notice to the city that they've received x amount of dollars of msa funding um those those funds are banked um held by state aid finance until we have a a need for those and they request reimbursement of those funds um as part of that
initial um aotment that they provide in january of that year they also set aside the bond payment for any bond payments that we have for the following year so 2026
as an example so um i guess one good thing i'd like to share is that our we we do have an msa bond that was um taken oh gosh it's been almost 10 plus years ago and i we've got the current payment
set aside um for our 2026 uh or 2026 bond payment but after that there's only two more bond payments so that's quite exciting and we never thought that day would get here but it's it's close so that's wonderful news um
so um we've got all but the our our 2026 bond payment is $360,000 um we have all but the $47,85 of that uh set aside already so if we expect to have more msa
expenditures um this year than what we have in our account then we can request an advance of msa funds to cover those expenses what the msa advance does is it just provides you up to um up to five additional years of a of your aotment
ahead of time so you're basically getting your msa funds ahead of time um and then reimburseed the state's reimbured by the city's annual aotment every january so it's kind of a um it's a nice thing for cities especially those
that are um short on msa or even the counties casas um county state aid highways they could use it for the same purpose it's on a first come first- serve basis um we did the council did take action in uh i think it was march or april of last year to request an
advance for 2024 expenses um those expenses in i think we requested about 1.4 million for the old minnesota st julian roundabout the safe routes school project our three first 361st avenue which is magnar parkway and
then also the 2023 tro highway 169 um 22 and 99 project on the very south end of town town the turn lane improvements that were completed there the 361st project was the only one um that we finaled or had were able to use the msa
advance on um the roundabout and the 169 project we didn't receive final numbers um until it ended up being about a month later than we had hoped and so we weren't able to um request or use advanced 2024 advanced dollars for those
projects but now they are ready and we can use um we can use those additional funds to make reimburse ourselves for those msa expenses so right now um the resolution i think it's on page 20 yeah 23 um we list our current msa account
balance uh it's zero as of february 17th and we're requesting um to be reimbursed uh the dollars that you're seeing there $340 9114 um old minnesota avenue leg of the st
julian old minnesota avenue roundabout and they required that we separate the legs into two different project numbers so um even though it's one of the same project there's two different funding um project numbers so 340,000 for the um the old minnesota avenue leg and then
about 217,000 for the st julian leg safe routes to school project that never started last year but we the contractor had the opportunity to begin but they chose not to so they'll do that work this year and then that's why we expect that those expenses um will be will be
real here in in 2025 and then we did get the final numbers for the 99 16922 project on the south end of town um that's at 292 381 that we'll we'll request reimbursement four and then the
that bond principle the short pay of 47 805 that's something that when they took the money for our 2020 um 2026 advance or our 2026 payment they were short that amount so we're requesting an advance to
cover that the bond principle in 2026 i'm i'm asking that we strike that from the resolution because um that was something that back and forth with mindot um we we got mixed up on on that and that's not necessary because um if
we have the opportunity the opportunity we we don't need to request that because we already are requesting that so the following year in 2026 we'll have to do another msa request for bond expenses that sort of thing if
we don't have enough in our msa accounts which i'm not expecting we will so i'd recommend you strike that from the resolution so the net the total estimated dispersements would be1,21,352 and that's the total advance um amount requested and the last
paragraph of that resolution on the bottom of page 23 does have the correct number in there for that so with that i would recommend the city council um consider and approve the resolution with the $360,000 bond
principle for 2026 removed and request an advance of 1,21,352 um for calendar year 2025 any questions todd anything to add no ma'am all right then um we we're recommended
to approve the the resolution with the bond principle for 2026 um being stricken from the resolution is there a motion to approve the resolution with that revision second we have a motion and a second
call the role please council member devos i mayor noel i council member johnson i council member pettis hi council member weisenfeld i the resolution is approved thank you very much thank you our next and last item of
new business tonight is the adoption of a resolution establishing the guest services position for the uh recreation and leisure services department and john is here to talk to us about that thank you madame mayor and council um as we have discussed at previous uh council
workshops we do have a new position that um is in the 2025 budget um that our department is seeking um have included some statistics here of kind of where our department is and what the need is for that currently we're operating the
community center as well as the recreation office um with 4.25 25 ftees and um 3.5 of those help take care of the recreation department alone um which has over 1,400 programs and events
annually with over 30,000 people participating in these programs and events each year um we would like to get that number a little better we're working on that but given the events and the nature of our free um participation that uh that is the estimate that staff uh have worked up um we also have our
campsite reservations our pool rentals our pool programs the park shelters um and as well as working with many different partners for the athletic field reservations um the uh job description before you is updated from the council workshop on the uh 18th um
based on the feedback that council did give and with uh basically the changes there um were the addition of a couple um bullet points to the minimum qualifications per um the feedback from council to really uh emphasize the
strong communication the ability to work with the public um as well as a couple different um a couple amendments to some of the or one of the minimum qualification bullet points as well as one for the desired qualifications but that was reflected to make a better
emphasis on the customer service side of this and with that i staff would like to um is seeking approval for the job description and the resolution to approve this job description so we may move forward with the hiring process thank you and everybody did receive a
copy of the revised um position description so we all have uh that are there any questions for john or carrie yeah i just wanted to clarify for the public too that um this is a budgeted position we discussed this last year at
budget time um and so it's just getting to that point where we're determining the qualifications for this job and and what we need it to look like um there was a lot of conversation last year during budget time anytime we add a new position that's a really big deal um and
so we did end up um working with staff to pair that down from full-time to part-time and um it'll be uh i think i'm really curious to see how this helps support um the operations and i think there's we've all seen a need for
additional oversight and support um we offer a lot of different programs and there's a lot of people that use this building um and so having that additional support um seems like it's very much needed and i think uh having some followup from staff too would be helpful just to see how it's going with
the new addition so and then i appreciate the um staff taking feedback on some of our suggestions and then i i really appreciate the uh additions to the required interpersonal skills too because i think
we're needing a lot in that area for this person to have like really strong interpersonal communication skills so thank you thanks any other comments or questions anything to add todd no ma'am all right hearing nothing further the
resolution establishing the position of guest services specialist for the wreck and leisure services department is on page 29 of the packet is there a motion to approve second we have a motion and a second call the role please mayor noel i
council member johnson i council member pettis i council member weisenfeld i council member devos i resolution is approved thanks john uh moving on to reports uh i have no report tonight council members i think we have a couple
reports uh the first one on legislative activities and was it you carrie that wanted to speak to that yes so i just wanted to report that uh council member charstrom and i attended the coalition of greater minnesota cities um
legislative action day um and and so just what we ended up doing there um is we attended a presentation by the coalition um on what's been going on at the legislature and of course it's been a very interesting session and year um
but just some of the bills to kind of watch out for um they did ask uh cities for any housing stories that they can um share what what cities are doing with housing in their communities um just because there's some bills advancing um
that would potentially um attempt to remove local control and and public input and and things like that so i followed up and i sent um uh a few bullet points of things that we've done in the last few year few years and when you kind of put it all together it's
just really exciting um we are being very creative in st peter and so um it's exciting to share that and then then have it potentially shared um with those lawmakers too so um we also that day in
the afternoon we met with representative erica schwarz and staff from senator nick france's office um those meetings of course are very short so we focused on bonding and requesting a bonding bill uh specifically for gorman park
improvements and our wastewater treatment plant improvements um and then of we left our handout of our other legislative priorities um with them and i know council member charstrom had followed up in an email to both of their offices just to say thank you for the
time for meeting with us here's what we're looking again here's what we're looking to do and then in a few weeks uh i know a few of you are going back um to the capitol to for uh league of minnesota cities legislative action day
um and that's a really good opportunity to then follow up on those initial conversations so um it's always like really good time well spent to be up there um and to just get front and center the issues that are important to
everyone here in st peter so thank you uh any other council member reports at this time all right seeing nothing further we'll move on to reports from the city administrator madame mayor and certainly council members can chime in on this one but i just wanted to mention again the
transformer ribbon cutting and thank you for those who could attend for your time and your um warm wishes on a very cold day to be out there um and just to mention again that this is um infrastructure matters this is important
stuff and it's expensive stuff and the improvements that you make here impact our reliability um on our electric system and in other utilities so i i mean i defer to any of the council members who might want to share and we had a a nice time and a few great
pictures and squirrels are happy and the world's a better place yeah brad um i just like i was gonna say yeah it it was kind of light-hearted because we had some cardboard cutouts of squirrels we made multiple jokes about squirrels at some one point i thought i was thinking that carson hughes from the
herald might be wondering it was all about the squirrels um but it really is as t this is a big deal it was i mean it's a big investment uh thing to note is it came in sever it hundreds of thousands under budget i think we had budget about 2 million and i believe it
came in about 1.6 million uh so it was a sign it was significant uh savings coming in under budget and uh just uh from a reliability perspective yes squirrels aren't going to die but the more important part is is we're not going to lose power in power in our
community i think the statistic uh jason lee our superintendent said was 82% of our power outages over the last several years have been attributed to squirrels getting into the old the old substation the old transformer so this is as much as we made jokes about it it is a really
big deal from a reliability perspective these are important projects that as many council members know we've been working on this particular project for over five years and bringing it to fruition and so good stuff for sure darl i'd like to thank everybody for doing this um i think it's really important
that we highlight things that most of the public never get to see this is part of what we do as a city um the transform itself i believe was 65 years old something like that it's been around a while it's served its purpose um some of these things do need replaced um it's
expensive and hopefully this one will serve us just as long as the one we just replaced but u it's hard to highlight these things that are kind of out of sight out of mind and sometimes you have to make uh some light-hearted things to do it and i'd like to thank everybody for doing that i was unable to attend it was a it was a fun event so i think it
was your idea it was so you warm at the time only slightly warmer only slightly warm all right anything else that's all i have for you all right well if there's nothing further i will take a motion to
adjurnn second all those in favor say i i nobody is opposed we are adjourned thanks everybody sorry