we'll call the city council meeting to order roll call Mayor Reese here council member askos here council member Gilbertson Here Gardner here baggerly here D
here Butterfield here Andes here council member Nelson is excused this evening eight present one absent please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible liy and justice for all any proposed additions or deletions to the agenda motion to approve the agenda as presented second a motion and a
second discussion roll call council member o i Gilbertson I Gardner i baggerly i Davis I Butterfield hi and sches I seven eyes
zero nose passes we call on ver Larson city clerk to uh approve uh for consent items Mr mayor council members for your consideration and approval tonight I have the city council minutes of
February 18th 2025 the advertisements for bids for project number 23- c Technology Drive Northeast improvements the 26 Improvement projects intent to reimburse the Wilmer High School trap team's lawful gambling application and
the accounts payable report from 21325 to 22625 motion to approve the consent agenda second motion a second discussion hearing none roll call council member Gilbertson i hardner i
baggerly i Davis I Butterfield hi shes hi an O hi seven eyes zero nose that motion passes next is our open form and uh I have a number of people that want to
speak and I'll call on you and you can give your name and address when you come up to the microphone I'd appreciate it I'll call on Jim Miller first good evening Jim good evening um mayor and city councilman my name is Jim
Miller I live at 615th Avenue Southwest in Wimer um thank you for this opportunity to hear my support for The Connect wber project uh my background I'm a retired IT professional I've been in the IT industry for 35 years um 20 of those
years have been here in Wilmer three years with beded office Technologies and 17 years with menot serving their it and and networking needs um I first heard the connect wmer project last fall on social media and uh
I was quite excited about that fber of the home is the future um and I compare this infrastructure project as men Do's four lane project to I94 it's an infrastructure it provides
much better transportation services to the city of Wilmer and to the residents and this Vier project is offering that same tech technology for internet service to us residents um looking at the handout that
was handed out to me certainly the connect wber project team has done their due diligence in defining what is to be done and how it's going to be done and what their expectations are and how it's going to serve our
Community um not a public speaker I'm very nervous up here bear with me um I currently am a spectrum customer um my previous address I had Spectrum the full TV package I cut
the cord in 2020 and went uh to a DSL service um providing complete streaming services moved to a new address in the fall of 23 and the only option I had for the services that I need was Spectrum um even in the past few months I've had
quite a few outages and the performance is half of what spectrum is promising my concern with what Charter is offering is not to provide better service to the residents but to eliminate healthy
competition to the customers of Wilmer the residents of Wilmer I'm I'm excited about what is offered with fiber project but I'm concerned that the tactics that are being used by Charter is not in the best interest of the city
of Wilmer but to themselves um thank you for hearing me and good night thank you Jim next is Albert Reyes good evening Albert give us your name and address yes sir
good good evening mayor Doug and Council and the City of W uh my name is Albert Reyes and I live at 525 16th Street Southwest here woman obviously um my um I guess if you want to call it address
um it's not really that it's been pressing on my heart and my spirit since New Year's and I and I apologize to the council and to the city of Wilmer because I've been missing these meetings for whatever reason I just don't seem to understand where we're meeting at times so uh with that said I just uh what was
pressing on my heart is prayer if you guys would allow me to pray for our city uh I'll just go ahead and bow now heavenly father I come before your presence father father um father you have me before a councel father you have me before Mighty Men father father
people that you have placed in that position father for we know that you place all rulers father and uh father I just come humbly before you father father and in the love for this town this community father that I was born and raised in father in um miraculously
for some for some for some forever for whatever Divine reason you have me here father from all the cities that I've been to Father you brought me back to the town that I was born in father and that I that I went to high school in father and I just father the love and passion that I have here for this town father is is so so evident in my heart
the passion father the desire father for this town to to flourish father to to come to come back to life father God not that it's not living right now father but but we're losing a lot of things father God I came back 20 years later father from from my my wandering father
in the wilderness father sort of say father and I come back to this town father and and and no disrespect to anybody father but but we're losing a lot father we just lost WS a th degrees father God father we're losing a lot father and I just I pray father your mercy I pray your hand father over the
city father father I come before it father I intervene father like your word says in Ezekiel 22:30 father is there a man down there father that would inter intercede father intervene for this city father and I believe there's plenty of us here father but I'm that man right now father intervening for this town
father father I call on your mercies father I I call Father on your blessings father I pr father on your abundance father I pray upon your wisdom father on the counsel father as I need to make these decisions going forward father this year father as you have elected your this year father I pray that you
bestow wisdom I bestow knowledge bestow prudency father best besto patience father above all patience james4 father God Is So Monumental father for anybody walking with you father to be patient father God in all our decision making father there is no reason to to get
ahead father in the name of Jesus I just pray father your abundance your blessings over this town father and may it flourish father God may it bring light father God to the surrounding communities blumas father God Sunbury Regal father God panach father can you hide father God in at Water father God
in the name of Jesus blumas father God oh suril Father God Lake Lilian father God I just pray for our surrounding communities father God as a whole father God we're all a community father and we may we come back into love and unity in Jesus Christ father God I pray father God thank you you Lord for the
opportunity to pray this blessing over this town father thank you father in Jesus name I pray amen all right with that said guys um if anything if ever we need have any problems is prayer you getting problems prayer financial problems prayer
whatever it is prayer prayer Pray prayer is your answer so with that said guys um I'm hosting prayer for the whole city not just for any particular church or denomination from 5: in the morning till 6:00 in the morning at R City Auditorium our our council is trying to make use of
it I believe the Lord wants to make great use of it so please join me in prayer from 5:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. Tuesdays Wednesdays Thursdays and Friday at the City Auditorium I'll be there uh I can provide spiritual counsel I can provide prayer whatever I can do for the
community I will try my best thank you very much thank you over yes all right next is uh Aaron lson good evening mayor members of council uh I'm Aaron Larson I live at 219 Anthony Street Southeast Wilmer um
I'm here just to express my support for The Connect Wilmer project um one of the things when I first heard about the project that I was most excited about was the possibility of multiple internet internet providers coming to town um
right now basically if you want broadband internet Charter is the only company in town um and the possibility of multiple internet providers providing competitive price competitive
service is a huge huge opportunity um which brings me to Charter's proposal um I don't think that's a good deal for the town I don't think it's a good deal for customers um uh it would basically
cement them as the only provider in town now and the future um and it's just as a customer it's not a good deal um The Connect Wilmer project it brings
the opportunity for um like I said multiple Proprietors uh Fiber Optic internet possibility for the fastest among the fastest internet in the state of Minnesota which is a huge deal um and
that's a huge feather so in Wilmer cap for potential businesses for economic development Fiber Optic internet is the fastest around and it's
just um I encourage the council to move forward at connect Wimer project thank you thank you eron David Feist good evening city council Mr Mayor I'm Dave feice my address is 124 848
212th Avenue Northeast in New London um but I'm here representing the company I work for which is TPI Hospitality we have uh the Best Western Plus the Wilmer Conference Center the holiday and express the country in and Suites roughs
uh sports bar and the Green Mill all here in Wilmer City proper um I'm here tonight to urge you um to stay the course with connect Wilmer as you know a couple weeks ago when Charter came in what I consider the 11th hour and uh
approached the city with this proposal to uh now take over and and uh do the right thing and run fiber for the city on their nickel um that prompted the email that I sent to each of you a couple weeks ago um I wasn't really
surprised that Charter stepped up I was just disappointed that they didn't get involved at the very start um they still have the option to be a provider but instead they've been an opponent to this project from the very start and to me uh
it seems very transparent what their motivation is um as Mr Miller said earlier we're in the generation right now I've cut the cable and dumped the dish and everything's going streaming which requires high-speed fiber or highspeed internet in the best way to
get that right now is through fiber so I applaud your leadership and your vision with connect Wilmer initiative um it's really the right way to go and as others have said um if Charters involved even though it's free upfront um they are a
big business no different than businesses I'm in and some of those here um they will recoup their costs and they will recoup it in the form of fees and increased charges um it's not very often at least to my knowledge that a
government entity has the ability to create a revenue sour source that is not tax-based and also has the ability to help the residents and the business Community um in opening access up to competition so on from my perspective
it's a win-win the city gets Revenue stream yes you have to borrow money but that Revenue stream will hopefully pay that back and then also the the residents and the businesses um see the benefit of competition which should mean lower
rates um uh so that's kind of my short version of where I'm at with this thank you so much for your time next Randy Frederickson um mayor M i' like to withdraw my name from public comment at this time thank
you next is Steve deleski Mr Mayor and Council my name is Stephan deleski and I reside at 103 fth Street Norwest in Wilmer I'm here to encourage you to make sure that the connect Wilmer initiative continues to move forward with the city admin the city of Wilmer name fully behind this
project the city of Wilmer claims to be reinvesting in Wilmer by improving streets the industrial park Robins Island speville parks along with many other neighborhood parks recent additions to the Civic Center are completed and they're in use much of the
time it's reported another building will be added to the complex already growing out there many of those improvements are great and appreciated by the users the connect Wilmer fiber project will be able to touch every home and Business in Wilmer giving them the ability to
connect to the impressive worldwide web along with its accurate data that we are able to look up through Google and other search engines a few facts tonight quickly from Google AI Charter Communications is the largest capable provider in the United States by subscribers per Wikipedia the largest
pay TV operator in the United States fifth largest telephone provider in the United States the country's largest and fastest growing rural internet provider they are one of the nation's leading Broadband connectivity companies offering high-speed internet mobile and voice Services TV services to more than
57 million 57 million homes and businesses when windream came to town many years ago they promised to serve the downtown district but that never materialized as many back then we wanted to know what the price would be they failed to ever come up with that and we didn't sign on with a blank check
Hometown fiber and connect Wilmer has been able to give us some ideas and pricing those prices will be determined by the providers in the end that join the project and there will be more than one using the service offering their service to everyone in Wilmer Spectrum has been posting on
social media with negative or misleading information on this project it's true that the city of Wilmer will post bonds to pay for it but it will be paid back the last time the city of Wilmer spent a large sum of money is when they built the Sue treatment plant that connected every home and Business in Wilmer also
now they're talking of expanding it again and at what cost and to whom we already pay a large utility utility Improvement fee on each power bill along with an outrageous billing charge for water sewer and electricity now they may have purchased
land on the on the edge of Wilmer for their new complex reinvesting in Wilmer everyone is investing in Wilmer except Spectrum the new door on their front of their store is not considered an investment either the only way the connect Wilmer project starts to look
bad on paper is if all those Place companies that have fiber in the ground or that have the ability to put fiber in the ground quickly suddenly start and offer cheap prices to lure everyone away from the connect wilart project but how long would that last they're always
advertising about their great service and rates for a trial period Then the prices climb in closing we never trust a large compor or Corporation or any governmental U entity entity thank you for your time thank
you next we'll go into uh our regular business and I'll call on General Manager jiren we we got here we got here late we're unable to sign up can we speak the three minutes Robert uh mayor your policy has been to
uh recognize speakers on a first come first first serve basis for 15 minutes as the chair of the meeting you obviously have discretion to recognize speakers and to extend the period if you wish but uh certainly sticking with your
policy is also defensible I think we're going to stick with policy really really yes all right I'm going to call on General Manager jiren Smith from the Wilmer Municipal Utilities in regards to their meeting
minutes Mr Mayor the members of the council thank you for inviting me here tonight I'm uh happy to have an opportunity to discuss more uh detail on one of the projects that we have going um I'm going to talk probably at too
much length on some procedural stuff and then I'll hand it to Mr Marty our facilities supervisor to discuss more of the actual project that we have going on my ask to you is to approve our minutes as presented as you normally would
however if you're not comfortable after hearing more information and and answering questions Miss Valiant has provided a very valid alternative to you tonight so I'll Dive Right In land acquisition has for our new building has been the topic of our commission
meetings several times throughout this year we've actually had seven meetings where land acquisition was on our agenda and discussed uh attorney Mr Scott uh with us today has developed three purchase agreements for us uh in pursuit
of land specifically on October 14th our commission of 2024 our commission authorized staff to develop a p purchase agreement for this property in question tonight it was on our agenda documented in our minutes and accepted by you the
city council fast forward to December of 2024 we reached out to to City staff and notified them that we were pursuing uh this property which is outside the city limits and we just wanted to give them a heads up so that it wouldn't be a
surprise and you know at this time we had just saw two purchase agreements fall through so we can understand we were discouraged the city was likely not eager to expend resources and evaluating things like water and wastewater service to this if we don't even if we can't
even answer the question can we can we by the land so as I said we had uh this purchase agreement on the commission's draft agenda for two months so January February we had you know recommendation
to authorize this purchase agreement on our commission agenda and we pulled it off the agenda cuz because the seller wanted to find a suitable replacement property before they would commit and so they hadn't signed the agreement yet
well we finally got a signed agreement from the seller everyone got really excited we've had so much time and energy into this that we threw it back onto the agenda I don't want to say last minute it was you know through proper
procedures but that would explain why it wasn't delivered to you guys as you would normally see it but just a reminder it's been a topic of discussion and it was front in front of our commission and everybody was expecting it so I learned a lesson on that this is
a high-profile project and that was the wrong thing to do and I apologize that that we brought that in late to the game I learned a lesson that we won't do that sort of thing again uh but the question remains question in front of you is can we buy this property and uh attorney Mr
Scott who represents both the city of Wilmer and the Municipal Utilities um has drafted this purchase agreement to protect both the city and the utility so there's con contingencies in here that if we can't come to a reasonable
Solution on Wastewater and water services that it will void the purchase agreement we'll walk away and we'll go back to our site selection criteria and vet the remaining properties on our list so again that's all procedural stuff I'm
going to pass it over to uh Mr Marty and he's going to talk through just some more details on the new building project itself good evening mayor and uh Council people um as Mr Smith mentioned uh I can I'm Kevin Marty I'm the facilities and
maintenance supervisor at the utility been working on this project for uh going on 10 years n and a half years um the new building project so I believe that administrator Valiant uh supplied you earlier today with an outline uh
tonight so if you'd like I could br briefly go through that and touch on each of those items or um whatever your wish may be I could answer any questions you have go ahead Kevin okay so uh the
project review the project history I won't get into the weeds here but uh just real briefly I should mention also that commissioner D is here with us tonight too he's been um past president of the commission and has been instrumental in a lot of these decisions
as well um anyhow uh project history so this project has been going on since 2010 is when the commission originally set a date uh to be in a new Facility by 2020 we have delayed the project
numerous times to accommodate other projects of of greater value um and then push this project to the Wayside uh we had a facility study that was uh originally created in 2010 and then updated in 2016 that really focused
on efficiencies of the utility how we operate where we operate and it modeled our efficiency studies depending on location within the city at that time we had the power plant and uh multiple locations we still operate out of two
two buildings for staff and multiple storage locations and what that City stud study did excuse me is just really highlight the fact that um efficiencies are are greater when all staff and Equipment storage those kind of things
are in one facility and that really pushed uh kind of across the Finish Line to um focus on a Green Space 10 to 15 acres of land and and have everything in one place the site criteria uh we put
together a list of site criteria basically on the onset to uh to bounce off of pretty much every property that we looked at within the city uh and surrounding areas um there's probably 15
different items on that criteria um the properties is explored uh we use that site criteria like I mentioned to vet approximately 20 properties within and adjacent to the city sites that would limit efficiencies in the future such things as Traffic
Service territory or limit expansion those kind of things were removed from um our list fairly early on and then focused on other things we also narrowed the properties down and properties that had existing first rer refusal or that
were highly retail in nature things properties that we just weren't a good fit for so um as we work through that list the properties adjacent to Civic Center Drive and the bypass
uh fairly early on kind of rose to the top of those scores on on against our list uh they had good access to the bypass like I mentioned um utilities and future growth we feel that this city at
least residentially will will grow to the north and east rather than South and West and 50 to 75 years from now in the future we felt that we'd positioned along that corridor in a good space we explored uh five properties
along that Center Center Drive or Civic Center Drive Corridor on the north side of the city uh two of them took uh almost two years of time to vet through Wait For answers did a lot of work spent a lot of money on those properties like
Mr Smith mentioned and both of those fell through we went to property three and four which we found were not for sale property 5 again took a little bit of time to work through with the state and the railroad and we were unable to
access that property so this is property six the current property that we're on um and that is basically how we got to where we are the industrial park I want to address uh because we have in the
past looked at property in the industrial park specifically the property that is next to the hot Creek Animal Shelter that that property was always on our list um but with some changes to Cony Road 5 the addition of the roundabout and some other things and
how the community is growing along with uh I believe it was last July we had caught notice that uh there was potentially a sale of that property in the works it was within its uh I think it was a month into its six month
Discovery period at that time and that coincided with when we lost the men dot property or not the men dot the men West so at that time it was decided to set that one aside and focus on the other
Civic Center properties um the current property um is the one that best next meets our site criteria it has good access to the bypass is on a main artery and allows good response times to the cities as we
are shifting our business model focusing on customer service is primarily shifting to web base but this property still allows easy access to customers um and being that the property is adjacent to City Limits we also have
been Consulting with city and county staff along with City engineering department uh for a few months now to you know have some initial discussions about this property and see what works for us out there the contingencies like we had mentioned earlier the two big
contingencies in the purchase agreement and there are numerous numerous but the first one being Water and Wastewater service so an agreement with the city and county because it involves a county road to extend services to the property
um through some sort of a cost sharing agreement or a past practice that has been done on these type of developments or um a permit from the city per ordinance that would allow for private Water and Wastewater services to
this property until such time that the city would expand and then we would connect at that time so those are kind of the options as far as that goes um annexation we have been in contact with uh the city attorney's office and the
annexation of this parcel was possible under the annexation by ordinance procedure it sounds fairly uh straightforward we'll work through that with the the city and the township make sure those Agreements are in place another contingency of course is soil
borings and Environmental Studies we want to make sure that the property can support the buildings that we want to put on it and then of course uh Planning Commission approval that would go through that process we did um put a
fairly lengthy due diligence period into the agreement uh typically I think it's a 60-day standard or 45 day standard we asked up front for a 90 so we could work through issues like this um and we felt that that allowed
enough time to work through the the U agreement with the city the county townships how we're going to how everything's going to go in place and then get the project rolling and in closing I guess uh the utilities feels that this site best
meets the site criteria for today and 75 years to 100 years into the future future which we designed the building for it allows for additional space for growth with Wilmer growing to the eastn North like I mentioned this site will Center us in
the future of that footprint we hope um impact to rates the project is included in our current rate study and there are no planned or expected impacts to rates for the project we have been uh saving and setting aside a portion of our return earnings for the last 10 years to
fund a very large portion of this project with little to any bonding if required and then we also feel that this will spur further development um we feel like uh I think if you're involved with
the city jumping over the bypass has always been somewhat of a a deterrence to expand the city out that direction and we feel that this would be a good opportunity to do so uh we can be uh City service that's on the Gateway of
the community it's well located um and has good access to our response area and uh on top of that uh we understand that the adjacent Housing Development is experiencing some um Wastewater issues
and may want to connect to the system if we SP expand it across the highway so that's what I have I'd certainly entertain questions or we both well you have something more jiren no nothing additional just here
for questions all right Council has questions go ahead um thank you Mr Mayor um you mentioned that there would be a cost to extending the utilities uh through the on the other side of the bypass um and
that the agreement looks for the cost uh that cost to be paid by the city and the county um why is the utility not part of that cost sharing agreement we actually would be I believe how it's been handled in the past or at least how I understand
it is if a um the city wants to build infrastructure let's say they want to put in a lift pump and the infrastructure to service 100 acres for example just using generalities now and we wanted to develop 25 acres of that
100 acres the city would extend those services and take that cost and then have that developer who's taking 25 acres pay 25% they would sit and hold to 75% until it's developed out further
somebody else comes in takes an under 25% they pay 25% until it's all paid back that way um we're more than willing to do that uh we we under quite understand that we have a budget set
aside for water Wastewater fees we're not saying that we um don't want to partake in that but we don't feel it's our responsibility to pay the entire thing okay and someone from City staff want to confirm that that's been a past
practice certainly will you certainly will be confirming that we haven't yet so you don't know if that's been the past practice no okay all right um any estimates on how much that costs what would the cost of the city be for something like that you guys
the experts so I do have one uh we worked with the city uh Bolton to make the city's engineering firm and they laid out one proposal to us there's a couple different ways you could run up there uh the way that they modeled it is
approximately $2.6 million okay and I do not know I was unable to connect with Mr RI how that's what that's modeled for as far as like how many acres it'll serve so I understand the idea of being
focused on efficiency and moving from multiple buildings to one that makes sense to me I think it's great that you guys have been setting funds aside so you're not bonding large portions of that um the question that I have is when you look at that site like in the industrial park which would have come to
you at no cost which would not have any amount of of you know $2.6 million in fees to extend utilities and what what kind of efficiencies are not present in the industrial park to overcome $3.2
million of cost that's going to be paid by taxpayers and and your customers and from Utility payments because whether or not it's built in now that's still $3.2 million of costs that will be passed on um you know maybe rates get lowered if
you move to the industrial park as opposed to outside of the city limits I mean this is so much better than the industrial Parkland that's a fantastic question I think we're both going to probably chip on this one I I know that um it's a it's
a incredibly valid question we feel that like I say the information that we had last summer that drove us to kind of look away from that site and Industrial part uh fed into that uh we've had multiple discussions over the years
about that property with at least two or three different city regimes and when I say that I mean no no offense to anybody in the room but they there some of these positions of change hands that deal with this we've been told that we would do a
land swap by one and then the next one came in and said no we've been it's been floated that we could have the the land for a simple dollar exchange which we were aware of um that obviously weighed into those factors we felt that um like
I say the operational efficiencies of being kind of constrained in that location and the the challenges of sometimes getting to it with large trucks equipment deliveries you know made that score a little bit lower and then when we found
out uh whether that fell through or not I'm not sure last summer that somebody else was interested in it we thought why are we taking up valuable space that somebody else can develop land in and this although we didn't look at this
option this piece of property that we're looking at right now has actually been on our radar since the beginning it was just set to the side because it sat to the side it was outside of the city limits and now we kind of see it as instead of taking up 18 to 20 acres or
whatever the footprint is industrial Park and limiting somebody from developing that we're actually adding 27 acres to the city of wmer so we're I guess there are some pros and cons but I completely valid point yeah if
Steve uh I'll just segue to what you said you're adding 27 Acres have you talked to anybody on the city staff about what the annexation plan is for the city and what the City Planning Commission might want to put there maybe it is
a municipal utility building on that 27 Acres or 6 whatever the acreage is should someday we Annex that land because right now you mentioned we want to be there for the next 75 to 100 years but we had that's not even part of
the city yet your entire customer base is to the west of that currently so did you do you have any my question is do you have any do you have any conversations with people at the city on the city staff about annexation before you sign this purchase agreement
we have had conversation uh with Mr Box and then also with the city attorney's office as part of that process uh both Mr Scott and uh correct me if I'm wrong on pronunciation but Mr asof who works in
his office as well about the orderly annexation process and um kind of have come to an agreement in which there's a few different options to Annex annexation and there's one one that's fairly seamless because it is an enjoining property to the city so if I
could jump in it's kind of a chicken and egg scenario you know the first two times we went through a purchase agreement we said okay let's cross all our eyes cross all our te's and Dot all our eyes before we sign a purchase
agreement and then it turned out well the landowner doesn't want to sell or we can't get it for a reasonable price and so this time we wanted to make sure that we had a willing seller and that we could actually buy the land before we invested all the resources and we wrote
the purchase agreement in such a way that if we can't come to an agreement on water Wastewater Services can't come to an agreement on annexation can't come to an agreement with City Planning Department the purchase agreement is void and we walk away and we look at the
next option so I mean all great questions that we have here uh and it's it's a matter of what we do first and where we put our resources first now with this new site compared to anywhere else in wmer say people have to get down there and pay their bills they
have problems they want to go down there and talk how's that going to be more beneficial for them being out of town than being right right in town for your customer City wmer to get in there to discuss whatever they need to discuss how that could to be easier for them to
get to we feel that the location of this you know this site is actually kind of feels like it is somewhat connected to town you kind of go halfway up that hill to the bridge to go to Pheasant rod for example and when you get across that bridge that's really your only
impediment at least it's a mental impediment and you are basically at uh Wilmer Avenue and and U I can't think of the name of the other Street there l Lakeland Drive yes um it feels like it's
connected to town Wilmer Avenue is nice and wide and gets you right to the heart of town within a minute or two in reality going to this site at least I feel I've lived here my whole life is just as easier or easier than it is to get into this into the industrial park
with Industrial Park traffic to the site where the other site that we've looked at um it's a it's a viewpoint yeah so the reason I asked that was with the community center you know with all the talk we got about that you know people
wanted a different location for Access and E get out there I'm just kind of looking at the same thing well now this one's out of town you know we right we should be a little bit closer in town or or stuff like that when we looked at the Civic Center Drive Corridor we literally timed
it to different locations in the city and we were just as fast from that area as we were from Industrial Park so it depends on where you're going and where you're coming from but we feel that this is easily accessible and a lot of our uh as technology is changed of course a lot
of our uh walk-in traffic is really reduced um we'll get to the point someday where you don't have to walk in to make your deposits and start service and those kind of things a lot of that is already migrating away from iners
um we don't see that changing in the future there I know that there's a lot of utility and communities I've signed my daughter up for stuff that I do it right from home or right from my phone uh and I've never stepped foot in those places to to do this stuff so Tom Mr
Mayor uh thank you for presenting uh um this information for the for the group here um with the contingencies is the earnest money at risk then if uh contingencies are not no it is not it's written that that will be return to us
and I I will say also that this sellers of this property been amaz amazingly helpful and uh have been a fantastic relationship so far um he's a resident of the city of wmer he runs a business that of course is just outside but he is
beyond excited to see uh his property potentially developed in such a manner that would add to the city of wmer and um just he's really excited about it or they are Rick thank you Mr Mayor thanks for being
here tonight uh are you planning if you buy all 27 Acres using all 27 or you didn't split it subdivide it uh we will keep it um the commission has always directed us if we've said we need 12 to
15 they they've liked the idea of having a little bit more for future expansion uh there's opportunities to uh do a community solar garden for example and different things like that to uh the site as well
so um basically right now like council member Gardner said your customers are to the West your substation are by Jenny O and by pram then right there's actually
seven seven substations two water treatment plants pumping stations our our infrastructure is spread out throughout the community everywhere so be a wash then y depends where they're located and where you have
to fix correct and that's why there was such an emphasis put on the access to the bypass we timed I remember John Heron and I uh going for rides and timing ourselves from responding from our current location and then responding
from originally the menot location it's the first one we looked out there adjacent to menot and and it was at least a two to three minute savings from out there to get to a half a dozen different places than it was from our current location so from a response time
standpoint it's actually a benefit but I totally understand what you're saying it's it's on the edge um nobody can see into the future but we feel at least that if we can somehow uh assist the city in jumping
over that imaginary boundary of of expanding across that bypass and as the community goes that way and up towards Eagle Lake and north um we won't really be in the on the side anymore so I I look at it if if you're buying it and
you want to be annexed in it be your responsibility to get water and sewer over there because that's what a developer would if he was going to have residential lots there now if you do do that are you going to buy some more
territory from the Rea then so you can have customers in gim's development or wherever no that's uh there's agreement set up for that so um when property is annexed in let's use the case or not the
Zigler cat as an example on the south edge of town that property was purchased by Ziggler 10 and some acres and then subsequently annexed into the city because they wanted city services there's an agreement in place with the
co-op that the co-op will serve that property for 10 years or until it is uh subdivided redeveloped again so that 10year window starts if Ziggler never sells a a drop of that land off and
subdivides it that it'll at the end of 10 years we buy uh have an agreement with sit down with the co-op and buy those assets the the wire underground those kind of things and and then take over that service um if they do develop
that that tenure window starts over this particular property there's I believe statute that allows the city to serve itself so if we Annex this in uh this 27 Acres that we sit on WE automatically
can service that property with water and electricity I think the utilities had to buy the rights on 15th Street to to south of 19th Avenue years ago back in the '90s that was probably why we developed that
agreement I think it was quite the battle the right timeline and we should reiterate that that 2.6 million estimate from boltman Bank anticipated more than just serving our property so if it
was desirable of the city of the council to only serve our property that cost would come down but we we got to work out the details to to know what those costs are determine if they're reasonable if they are we we move forward if they're not we pull
backwards Justin yeah thank you Mr Mayor and gentlemen thank you for being here tonight and I mean uh as you talked about how long of a process this is this has been I can understand um you know that there there's been some frustrations along the way and you put a lot of time into it so thank you for
listening to us ask you about something that you probably figured out 5 years ago um you've been generous with us um where I'm at right now is I don't think I can uh approve a purchase agreement with some of the unknowns I think the the 3.2 million you know up in the air
we're not sure what the city or the county is going to say I mean taking that 30 days uh to figure that out and coming back to us with some of those answered questions I'd love for you to talk to Mr corbette and and figure out what's going on and industrial park and if we can save the community $3.2
million that sounds good to me um so no disrespect to the work that you or the commission have done um I think we have an opportunity to work together on this and I'm hoping that we can come out um of tonight and and be on the same team but I'd make a motion uh to defer the
approval of the action taken by the commission uh for 30 days second we got motion the second discussion ER thanks Mr Mayor so do you have to deal with the county or is it the
township that you have to talk it is a um depends on the topic that you're talking about annexation yeah so it is defined as an AB budding property by
Statute um we would seek a the Township's agreement to the annexation under the the orderly annexation statute and I believe I am not an attorney we have one in the room so I would maybe defer that to
Robert Scott too thank you Mr Marty mayor members of the council uh it is correct that if the utilities uh succeeds in closing on the purchase of the property such that utilities owns it I think that's
considered broadly City ownership under the annexation statutes it would then meet the criteria to be annexed essentially unilaterally by the city council under the annexation by ordinance procedure um however I always recommend that uh the city try and just approach
the township and do it more cooperatively through an orderly annexation agreement and we've had a few of these uh projects where the annexation by ordinance criteria have been met by each time I think the township has been a willing partner with the city to facilitate an easier process
so that would be my recommendation here too that was my point I didn't think we have to deal with the county it's more of the township correct on annexation correct yeah and then since you guys are here what about the wind turbines do you have money to move them then why I know
somebody was going to ask about those you happen to be in charge of yeah sorry that's my wheelhouse too uh we'll segue for real briefly about the wind turbin um yes um we have the commission made that decision last fall to decommission the
wind turbines as as well as everybody's aware and then they've kind of been just standing there since then we leased that ground that they stand on from the school district and we reached out to the school district and asked them because of the way that lease is written
about returning that property to pre wind turban condition there was a question about the roadways that ran through there whether they wanted to leave them in place cuz we built them and utilized them or if they want them taken out and that took some time for
them to get back to us they do want them taken out and that will be turned back to a wildlife area we'll remove all of our stuff and uh in the meantime we have a draft uh request for proposal or RFP that will be sent out we hope in the
next month or so to companies that take those turbin down we anticipate uh the value of the wind turbines and the way that they're able to virtually recycle everything out there including the blades that will
drive costs down uh but we do have money in our Capital Improvement budget and it's been there for quite some time because we knew that the life cycle was going to end fairly soon so thank you so back to the annexation um have
you spoken to the township that the land is in are they favorable to that the township did Reach Out uh we did not reach out to them formally but they had caught wind and reached out to us and uh just as a heads up uh
something that they wanted to confirm at the time the purchase agreement was not sold yet so I couldn't confirm who the seller was but I did confirm that we were talking about it and he stated to me that he just one of the members of the board just kind of wanted to know so
it's on their discussion radar for the year okay thank you y you're welcome um Mr Mayor thank you um I feel like the biggest concerns here before us in the council has already been vetted with the contingencies that you've already worked
out with our attorney and so um by delaying this an extra 30 days would this prohibit you from uh continuing to move forward on this or would we just be kicking a can down the road it would kick it down the road slightly and um
that's why we added that extra time into the contingency SE the due diligence period in the onset because we knew that there was going to be a city discussion that would take some some heads in around the table uh we felt that the 90day would certainly accommodate that
so adding another 30 days up to 30 days to that would kick that down the road uh the seller plans on farming the land again this year it's written in and adjacent Farm Le um so the longer we
mess around and have to be on the site to do soil borings those kind of things may affect planting but otherwise we'll we'll accommodate thank you Steve thanks Mr Mayor um help me understand a little bit you guys have mentioned a couple times
about traffic in the industrial park make that a non viable option or non desirable option for you guys but I work in the industrial part and I see 100 trucks a day go up and down my road on TR not going to kih delivering material
there's a truck driving school literally across the road from where I work and Jenny O is over there what equipment are they using that you guys would not be able to somehow get and use in the industrial part uh it wasn't I don't think it was so much more our equipment
getting in and out it was the safety of the folks that do need to visit us um maybe isn't the ideal driving conditions during the day for for those folks and then uh the changes when the Y came in that kind of affected how Conor Road
5 is dealt with especially when there's a train at that Crossing and what happens at that um roundabout there that pretty much shuts that intersection down completely so um that just added a little bit more to you know kind of tip
the scales to being closer to the bypass what happens to your pole yard in the industrial park that's already there uh that's actually uh city property that we're using so if we built outside the city that PO yard would come with us so
currently for example if the guys are going to go out and build a pole uh replace a pole they go out and get the they take the truck go out and get the pole haul the pole back have to build it out they build it on the ground and then when they haul it to the site they tip
it up so there's that inefficiency of having to go get it every time you need a pole a different type oh our street light arms and such are out there as well so there's some efficiencies of just going back and forth and that's what that efficiency studed really took
into consideration you know your employees time your mileage all of those things and it adds up y so thank you anything else otherwise we've got a motion on the floor if not roll
call council member Gilbertson no Gardner i baggerly i Davis I Butterfield I shoulders hi o
i six eyes one no that motion passes thank you thank you Jaren thank you Marty all right uh next is uh call on our city engineer Jared for B
Awards good evening mayor council closed in your packet this evening is the or are the bid results for project 21-a the 20th Street Southeast Improvement
project on February 19th we open bids for the project and received nine bids uh so a good bit bitter turnout on the project uh the low bid ranged uh the low bid was in the amount of $411,500
40 the high bid was in the amount of $669,000 $273 35 low bid was submitted by Cilla Contracting of Buffalo Minnesota uh there are a couple and a bid tab was also included in your packet
this evening there are a couple action items um before you this evening the first um is to adopt a resolution accepting the bid and awarding the contract to Cilla in the amount of $411,500
I with that I'd be happy to answer any questions we worked with Pilla before uh not in the city of Wilmer that I'm aware of however uh our firm has worked with them in the past and we have checked references
Council make a motion to accept the bid a motion second got a second discussion roll call council member Garder I ferly hi Davis Hi Butterfield
hi ches Hi O hi Gilbertson I seven eyes zero nose that passes next is uh 251
a yep the second item is uh adopting the as bid budget second motion and second discussion roll call council member fager Le hi Davis Hi Butterfield hi
sches Hi O I Gilbertson I and Garder I seven eyes zero nose that motion passes next Jared it's the seal code yeah thank you mayor uh the second item
this evening is the 2508 seal code improvements project also on February 19th we open bids for that Improvement uh we did receive four bids uh the low bid was in the amount of 2113 ,
51530 the high bid was in the amount of $269,100 75 the low bid was submitted by Pearson Brothers of Handover and there is a resolution your
packet this evening uh to accept the bid in the amount of $ 23,5 15530 and awarded to Pearson brothers from Handover Minnesota that res motion have a motion second and a
second discussion just um Mr VY Could you um just give me a sense of in these um our Council action reports there's always in here that the engineers's estimate you're including that frequently how many engineer estimates
would you say that you see in the course of a year I'm assuming that it's more than just for the city of Wilmer hundreds okay and ballpark a percentage for me of how often did the bids come in under the engineers's
estimate it's usually about 5050 okay all right thank you anybody else Vicki same question mayor had last time have you worked with Pearson Brothers before yes right yeah any other discussion
roll call council member Davis I Butterfield I shes hi o i Gilbertson hi Gardner I faggle I seven eyes zero nose that motion
passes then it's the motion to approve the as bid yep that's correct an as bid budget has been enclosed for council's consideration this evening so move second we got a motion and second to do so
discussion roll call council member Butterfield I shes hi OS hi Gilbertson hi Gardner hi baggerly hi and Davis
I seven eyes zero nose pass thank you thanks Council well it's been more than two years since the council decided to pursue a Citywide fiber optic Network that would
provide high-speed internet access to homes and businesses in Wilmer and local interest and local internet providers were not interested in proving Wilmer infrastructure and with an Open
Access Network residents can then select from multiple isps promoting pricing and service options and with more providers on the same
network isps have incentive to innovate and improve Services service quality and to attract retained customers an Open Access Network that is owned by a community or municipality ensures that the network
serves quality to attract and retain customers Fiber Optic Cables typically have a lifespan of 30 to 50 years Co a lasts around 10 to 20 years this makes fiber a more durable
long-term solution and the fiber network will attract businesses support local economic growth and enable businesses to operate more efficiently in an increasingly Digital World I'll call on operations director Kyle
box and I want Kyle to go over the uh performa a little bit before we we consider options and make motions thank you Mr Mayor Mr Mayor members of the city
council thank you um tonight before you um just get organized excuse me tonight before you your in your Council packets uh specifically speaking to the performa update uh staff had an opportunity U to
present the updated performa to the city council at your work session on February 10th realizing that the amount of information uh however detailed um it
was is a lot of information to digest um we wanted to make sure that the information being presented is transparent uh that you can see real information as best we can assume um and ultimately have
conservative goals in numbers put in place in the performa to ensure that the connect Wilmer project isn't going to overpromise and underd deliver uh specifically looking at the take rates in the performa when we look
at years one years two years three with a goal of ultimately getting to a 40% take rate uh the performer suggest that would take up to eight years to achieve that and again that's done conservatively um to anticipate a not
only the the buildout of the full network over the years 2025 through 2027 but to again conservatively assume that it's going to take time for residents and customers and businesses to sign up for the service
in the council packet uh we tried to summarize the performa the best we could on a one pager um in the packet and these handouts here uh that are available to the to anyone that would like one um towards the back of that we look at the
performa and five-year increments again looking at still accomplishing the amount of data that's put in there the entire performa but summarizing it into fiveyear increments and looking at expenditures and revenues and all uh
debt payments expenses and overall fund balance so in the performa you can see uh again including all three construction cycles and approximately 25 just over just currently over $24 million in construction costs I know
we've been saying between 24 and 25 million in construction cost uh we look at a take rate for those four first five years varying from 7 all the way to 26% with a total number of subscribers uh achieved annually at that time by end
of year five just over, 1300 subscribers again it shows uh the city's gross income the debt payments operational expenses and at the bottom of that first five years the the net income and fund balance to the city of
Wilmer a goal throughout this one of the goals throughout the connect to Wilmer initiative and the perform a specific um was to uh do our best to eliminate any uh potential tax impact to the general
Levy uh this project um if approved by the city council would be um dollars would be uh General obligation bonds would be called for um and be levied against the city and ultimately paid back uh through the city uh through the
city's Levy however we have an opportunity with this type of infrastructure that generates Revenue to uh with the goal of offsetting um those obligations that would become due one of the a caveat to that or not a
caveat but a strategy that we're trying that we would explore or um one strategy that we would put in place with borrowing uh for this project if approved by the city council is to push off um obligation or principal payments
for the first three years of the project project why do we do this uh throughout those first few years it allows the city not to be obligated to make those principal payments or even interest payments if we so choose um allows the
city to build revenue uh to attract subscribers um and to build up that base for the network how the the payments for um the net Network payment structure in simple terms is again the city would borrow
funds of municipal bonds to pay for the construction and the operation of the network the network would be constructed with the borrowed funds subscribers or users would pay their internet bills to Providers and exchange for Internet service and Ur those providers would pay
a lease fee or a fee back to the city to provide those services on the network and the city would pay back the bonds with the fees received from the providers and and ultimately the profits are reinvested back into the network and into the into the
city Mr Mayor members of the city council um I know we had briefly overviewed uh some of the the information on the performa um but I just wanted to come Circle back to um the action that the city council took at its last regular
meeting uh City staff the City attorney as well as members of Charter Communication Spectrum uh sat down to review the initial proposal that was sent out on February 7th and uh I believe again um after the meeting last
week to review the proposal that was sent by Charter Communications Spectrum um for a fiber buildout of the industrial park which would include portions of the Third Edition the fourth edition and the fifth edition of the industrial park again primarily located
west of County Road 5 um that would be a fiber buildout Charter would would would complete UH 60 days after within 60 days of the last permit being approved in addition to the
um in addition to the industrial park Charter Communication Spectrum has indicated that they would complete a network Evolution project or complete an upgrade to make the existing infrastructure and add two with um with
other equipment to a highs split Network that has the potential or capabilities to offer gigabit symmetrical speeds uh throughout the existing infrastructure uh in the city of Wilmer in addition to that um
specifically this project the high split project would begin in early uh 2026 January 2026 and be completed by the end of summer or fall of 2026 and lastly uh on specifically to that proposal Charter Communication
Spectrum has Comm committed um through their proposal through the conversations that they would offer a fiber connection referred to as fiber on demand uh to Residents and businesses throughout wmer um if those residents or customers so chose to take that um to take that
service offered by Charter Spectrum um in addition to the proposal so with all of that U Mr Mayor members of the city council there is a resolution drafted in the council packet um that in would indefinitely suspend
the connect Wilmer project uh for a period of time to allow um allow the opportunity for Charter to move forward with that commitment they had sh um have indicated here within the council packet as well
uh we wanted to make sure I wanted to make sure that staff wanted to make sure and the Broadband committee wanted to make sure that you saw a letter from the Broadband committee which is included in your packet and what that is is a lot of the same conversations that um or input that
you heard at open Forum again that is in the in your in your packet but really looking at the benefits of the connect Wilmer project uh it's we heard this earlier tonight it's there's a benefit for an opportunity for Consumer choice
Choice an opportunity for economic development it's promoting competition and expands the internet access options uh in the packet as well and for handouts tonight there is a informative
questions and answer handout as well as um an FAQ on technological specs some of the information that was requested at the last council meeting that we were able to put together with um which we are very grateful for uh the isps interested in the network um they
allowed us to share this information in draft form um tonight publicly and that was the potential pricing that would be uh dra pricing that would be offered on the Ser on the network and again that's included in your in your Council packet
and these handouts here in addition to that I know the the um a question that was brought up about the the last council meeting was specifically on the Buffalo fiber project uh council member Butterfield
had had meant had brought that up and so I wanted to take an opportunity to follow up with the city council on that uh late last fall um Hometown fiber in the city had an opportunity to get some more information on the City of Buffalo
and their Network and really kind of tells a similar story to um to what the connect Wilmer initiative is at least at its at its onset so the City of Buffalo decided to build its fiber Network due to a lack of interest from local isps
and expanding service within the community initially this was constructed uh began Construction in 2010 with the Network's primary goal uh to serve City buildings and support Municipal operations and over time the network has grown to meet additional Community needs
in 2018 the city strategically expanded the City of Buffalo strategically expanded their fiber Network to local hospitals schools and selected residential areas while the Network's footprint has increased it does not cover the entire city the city proposed
incrementally building out the fiber network over years rather than investing all the capital at once there's a similarity to what the connect Wilmer initiative is so out of those approximately 6,300 total properties within city limits of Buffalo the network currently provides fiber to
about 20% or about just over 1200 uh 1,200 properties um if you do look go on this on their website you can see that they are um project information about phase two of their project and all indications show that they are moving in that
direction to continue to expand and build on that um so I wanted to provide that brief update to the city council uh Mr Mayor members of the city council uh we've talked at quite great length
um about the details of this project um we're at a point now where staff are looking for direction from the city council on how you would like us to proceed uh whether that is to uh there's two options really spelled out in your packet this evening is to uh accept and
approve the resolution to sus suspend the connect Wilmer initiative or to uh ultimately continue on with the connect Wilmer initiative Mr Mayor I will uh pause there if there are any further any questions
I uh I think it's time for the council to make a decision and so I'm going to just say it um I'm going to make a motion that we go with option b that we continue to put forward the connect
Wilmer initiative I think uh the people of Wilmer have spoken very loudly very clearly they want this to happen and uh I'm in agreement with that so I make a motion that we uh option b reject the resolution from
spectrum and continue with the connect wmer initiative second second discussion Steve what other monopol should we break up if part of the argument is Charter
has a certain percentage of network or of a market share what other company should we go after to break up their hold on market share and Wilmer cuz right now I checked yesterday there's at least a dozen different ways
to get internet in the city of Wilmer not counting mobile cell phone providers a dozen I don't feel it's City government's responsibility to get into
private business stuff I'm going to vote no but I just wonder what other monopolies are we going to go after next Carl I I'm going to disagree with you a little bit there Mr Gartner I I don't think we're
in we're deliberately trying to break up we're not targeting Spectrum on this I think we're I look at it as we're building a network or a roadway uh there's no different than the city building roads to try to encourage business to come
into town into the industrial park wherever we're providing an opportunity for the citizens of Wilmer to get things that they don't currently have access to namely fiber optic networks I think spectrum is they they say you can get it
if you request it but it's still coming off of coax if I'm correct the the fiber optic option that they offer still is connected to a coax so I'll elaborate on that council member sches so in the industrial park
specifically that would be a complete fiber buildout uh fiber connections through and through um the high split network is a uh coax cable um network
but it offers additional Technologies to make those symmetrical speeds and then the fiber to the home on demand um would continue to be a my understanding is a direct fiber connection okay but again I don't feel
like we're doing this to break up a monopoly as much as we're just creating infrastructure to allow more opportunity for the people in Wilmer that hasn't been there J um a couple questions for uh
City attorney Scott I'm wondering in your understanding of The Proposal that we've received from Charter is there anything binding in that agreement mayor members of the council the answer to the question is no I mean Charter is representing that they're going to make
investments in the city to provide service to certain areas and to improve service to other areas um it's for their own benefit obviously to create their own customers obviously nothing wrong with that but I think the point to make to the council is this
isn't quite an Apples to Apples alternative for you the council I my understanding initially proceeded in pursuit of this project because it perceived that there is a need in the community that the private sector was not
meeting um I think the best way to answer this is to kind of explain the effect of the resolution in your packet for option a um option A is uh a resolution to
essentially discontinue work on the project not to abandon it permanently necessarily but to pause and uh give itself the opportunity to re-evaluate the finding it made originally that there was a need in the community that
the city needed to step in and and meet um the operative part of the resolution is simple we're just going to suspend we're going to amend the contracts you've entered into suspend them give notice where needed um there's not a lot of negative consequences to the city in
doing that in terms of contractual liability uh the city's continued to work with its partners that it's contracted with but the as important in the resolution as the actual reasoning and I'm not recommending Pro or against that draft resolution but the
um concept of that resolution to suspend the project would be that if Charter follows through and what it said it is going to invest in the community the city would give itself the opportunity to reexamine the finding It's Made that the city needs to step in and provide this service or install the
infrastructure to allow uh others to provide the service to customers on the network okay and then there's nothing that prevents Charter from continuing to develop service that they're providing in the industrial park correct correct
they don't need an agreement with us to provide that service they already do that for sections of the industrial par correct and in fact one of the legal requirements of the city if it is to pursue this project is to uh not give itself any favorable treatment as a
network operator as as uh compared to any private uh Market provider every private Mark provider would have to have equal access to the city rights of way to install their own facilities okay thank
you than you Mr Mayor I thought I asked you last meeting to check on the gr fiber windr Bron Green Isle yes thank you and communities they bellied up they're in court right now
yes thank you council member ferle uh truthfully I was not able to find a lot of information Uh current information 2025 on that um specific project I was able to find uh meeting minutes or articles from October of
2024 uh that had indicated exactly what you're uh what you're describing and that those communities would be um obligated to make those Bond payments or those debt payments for an extended period of time to pay that off um from
what I'm able to gather was able to gather is um that particular operator sold the network to another operator um to offer that service to those customers um one of the look things that
we looked at or tried to look at was on how their specific model was set up um and I can't speak to a certain can't speak to a certain level of of certain degree of certainty
um but there are some there were some differences on the model that they pursued versus what the model that we're pursuing here and there are some vast differences on how they wanted to achieve their goal um so I I do apologize council member
fagly I I'm not able to find a lot of was not able to find a lot of detailed information on that specific project um they did have their hurdles in their in their um trouble with that specific Network fill I will obviously acknowledge that that is true call any
City administrators or managers I out I did not no I know one of the isps is that what you call them Broadband they were in that group he had mention
mentioned it at our meeting that Workshop he didn't elaborate what went wrong sure okay I don't did you read the article on the Tribune last week on Monday the editorial was it the editorial I believe
it was yes kind of makes it sound like W's going to be the laughing stock again so yeah uh that's the second time that particular author has um shared their opinions on the network um on Wilmer project
specifically um again I I I believe in the data and information that we're putting together I I don't want to paint a picture to the city council or anyone that this is a done deal or it's going to be risk-free or that it's not going
to have its fair share of issues I think that's unfair and that's misleading um I do believe in the core values of what this project is trying to accomplish and it's offering that reliable affordable and um
accessible network and infrastructure uh to Residents and businesses of Wilmer and Mr Mayor I hate to put um Kyle Morehead on the spot but I don't know if there's any additional information about RS fiber that you're able to share or no
or okay I don't I don't want to put you on the spot thank you yeah um I'll I'll pause there so and then another thing you're talking about Buffalo you got 1,200 connections or they could have but
they have 20% they have built out U to my understanding in 2018 they built out to 20% of their total population so they've approximately they have 6,300 total properties within City Limits uh their Network at the time
provided fiber passes to about 20% of those properties so just over 12 1260 properties and at that time they have about 400 P subscribers on the network with it a 32%
approximate take rate and they're showing a profit just 20% 32% take rate yeah they're they're already have plans on their website to launch phase two for greater expansion within their Community because I look at it and we were looking at a new
wastewater treatment facility was like $40 million we're still paying for it and we have 100% connection if you live in the city Wilmer you have to have the city water and sewer MH I don't know how
we're going to spend 30 million maybe get 33% of the people and I'm not a charter of spectrum user and with Intel because they came into town to challenge Charter back in the late
90s and the Municipal Utilities in partner with them okay they only lasted a few years and they dropped out so must be a reason why we don't do it
um just a little bit off of the different subject here uh you know the financials I was sent the bond payment a few years a few months ago that our bond and principal payments are going to be
$55,000 a month you know throughout this you know if we started day one you know after borrowing the money back and let's just say off to the price and just say City Wilmer is going to get $30 a month 1,00 people
uh sign up the first year that's $36,000 a month we still have to pay hometown fiber their portion whatever it is we're already $20,000 below what it will cost to make that Bond payment how much of this are
you looking at putting on people's property taxes that's a great question council member Butterfield um like I had mentioned at the beginning of my presentation the goal is not to increase taxes at all um the performa that was
shared um at the February 10th council meeting um has been updated uh there was one uh eror that we were able to catch which was in favor of how we're proposing it is actually um what we wanted to do was push out those
obligation payments again like I had mentioned for those first three years and stagger those every year so um I don't have the B Monon uh payment um but it's what we're using for that first year or for first um uh Bond issuance is
around $74,000 a year once that first debt obligation payment would be made principal and interest um in addition to the uh re specifically looking at the revenues that would be brought in uh
there is large part of it relies on subscribers and users to sign up for the service those revenues would come back uh there are uh annual lease payments that isps would make to the city to access the network operation Center they
may be nominal but their additional fees um but really the the model strives on and shows that there is positive cash flow on the network um with the First full year of construction under the city of Wilmer and again that's assuming a a
low take rate at seven between 7 and 11% once you get to that first full we'll say year year and a half um there are expenses uh an annual expenses to operate the network uh that is shown on
the performer as well um but again I I I feel confident in the numbers that and the data that we've put together and once um to answer your question Mr
Butterfield I I believe the information speaks for itself on the performa uh it does not indicate a tax increase uh with that again we're trying to not overpromise and underd deliver but aiming low to hopefully have a better
picture Steve thanks mayor Kyle I got a couple questions um are the fees flat fees are they proportional to the rate that the user is for the subscriber is paying they would per user or is a flat free per I know if you know what I'm
asking or not but is if I'm a do we get paid a fee per user or a proportional rate to their bill per user like if I sign for the internet through a portion of your bill would come back to the city is that a fixed
rate or is that a proportion to the what they're charging me it's VAR it's variable okay all right it's a percentage yes next question um looking at the fiveyear performa that's in our
packet it seems to indicate 40 says 40% take rate is equal to 4,081 subscribers correct correct that using very using math least a 10,22 unique subscribers
available in the pool do we have 10,202 unique subscribers in the city of Wilmer that's one subscriber for every two people council member Gardner I apologize I'm not following are we on the on the number on the performa that
is color code yep it says the sub number of subscribers is at 4,081 is that the total pool or is that the 40% that is the 40% okay so if I take that if that's 40% of the whole that means I have to have
10,22 total subscribers MH are there 10,22 total subscribers available in the city of Wilmer that's one for every two people yes that so that says years 11 through 15 businesses there's thousands
of businesses yeah so that would be households that would be as well as businesses that are subscribing I understand that but how many people in your house five four how many people in your house five that's nine people between
the two of you two accounts you get where I'm going to that we're looking at a available Market or available connections that we could make not people I understand that yep and I'm asking you are there 10,202 available Connections in the city of
Wimer yes that's what we're indicating that does assume again that's years 11 through 15 uh we do assume growth uh through our performa at just over a little half percent a year um but if we look at even a phase three approach
would be the first full year of available Market the numbers that we're showing is 9,767 available connections do we know how many current connections there are in town right now with a population of
21,000 n right around the 9,000 you think it's 9,000 right now approximately okay you know we've been looking at this for a couple years uh way I'm looking at is like uh we've been work looking at this for a couple years the way I'm looking at it
right now is we can sit back one year do this thing right let's get marketing going let's see how many people are willing to make the switch so we don't do an Intel thing where we build it now
we leave City wmer on unhooked for all this we got you know we got one year we can push this back one year put a couple mailers got the price now this is what we're doing we can get the feedback from citizens of Wilmer the ones that send it
in we know they want the ones that don't send in they don't care then we got some data to go by you if we if we just push this through right now who knows where we're going to be let's do the right thing get the data
back from the residents of wmer it's going to cost us maybe another $10,000 to mailing and whatever else but I'd rather spend $10,000 get the data then just go off with
assumptions thank you council member Butterfield um so just just to kind of Bring It full circle with the city council tonight there are still numerous Council meetings where final action would be requested uh there's still a council meeting uh to authorize the bids to go out there would be a council
meeting to accept or reject those bids uh there would be a council meeting to authorize bonding to go out um so we are not in a position at tonight's meeting to uh press full send on the project if you will uh when we talk about building
customer support or uh getting an indication of what the market is going to look like um if the council would like to proceed with the connect Wilmer project I believe um our isps are ready um to start um their local advertising
uh there is a public portal that would be be available to launch this as I believe as early as this week from one of our isps and mailers would soon follow from from others um which would allow the council which would allow some time between now and when um bids would
be asked to be authorized to get sent out um you could see some early indications on the number of interested parties yeah and then that information comes in and we got 2,000 clients from wmer that's willing to do it yes that
and all the way through Wilmer got 2,000 where does that leave us that leaves us behind Napal where we're going to put this on property taxes all I'm stating is let's not rush this do I want to see this happen yes I really do I I've had a
few problems with my current subscriber in the past I think this would be beneficial but in the long run we have to look out for the property owners mhm and every year keeps going up and up and up and up we
just need to sit back and look and and do the right and do what's right Tom G thank you Kyle thank you mayor um in the uh information that you've provided us there's lowincome um designation for uh folks um
I'd like to thank the uh organization that sent out all those flyers with my name on it uh because I got a lot of phone calls from a lot of people um and I asked the city to provide my cell phone number to those folks that were interested in sharing that with me so I
got to actually speak with each and every one of them and I determined um there's a lot of people in our community that Charter is not reaching especially our 80 plus year olds that are not connected to the internet at all and so
what I'm curious is what does low income mean um and how can we if we go ahead with this project be able to reach those folks and actually get service to their homes or apartments or other places um because right now the need is not being
met yeah thank you council member Gilberts and I think there is plenty of opportunity for uh the city to work with the isps on making sure that those connections are being made uh the type of uh specifically in your packet the the lowincome package that you see from
broadband Corp is families that would uh potentially beond the snap program or uh single family homes or other uh reportable uh methods of sh showing low income um we do have in built into this
performa there is marketing dollars if you will uh from the city specifically to promote the governmental program which is the infrastructure of the network uh so I think we can be creative and how we want to approach that and and specifically um make sure that those
connections are being made I don't have a a necessarily a plan in place on how that would be accomplished tonight I think that would be a joint effort between the city and any part willing participating internet service provider um again with the city's F the city's
focus is overall uh market and support of the governmental program and we would I would want to be cautious on uh providing any um monetary support directly to an P but um still have the availability and flexibility to promote
the city's program itself so again I I believe there's opportunity to do that um and to be able to work with those isps on the network to coordinate those efforts Carl then
Justin so the motion that I made earlier was to continue with the connect Walmer initiative which Mr Butterfield I think that's that kind of goes along with what you're saying I don't I I I just don't think we want to table it stop it move ahead so that we can get the information
that you're talking about um and we have numerous opportunities in the future to say you know what this isn't looking as good as we had hoped um but we won't know that if we stop moving forward with it I I I believe in the future of this
uh very strongly from what I have heard from people overwhelmingly what I have heard from people is let's please please move forward with this um and if even half of those people that I've heard from are seen uh talking on on social
media if even half of them make the switch we're we're good but you know we won't know that if we say let's stop and not move forward I think we need to keep moving forward so we can get to that point where we can say yikes it's not
looking good or yeah you know what people are making the switch people are interested in this so that's my motion is don't table this don't stop this let's keep it moving forward J um thank you Mr Mayor um I
think we've all heard a lot about the $34 million that we're Lighting on fire if we move forward with this um that's been a well documented number and I've I've been intrigued by that number because it it seems ridiculous to me in the sense that like that would be just
like a complete and utter failure that like no one signs up for this and we continue to build stage after stage after stage with no one signing up and so so $34 million loss on one side of things the other side from the numbers
that I'm looking at would be if every single person signed up for this which seems in my mind just as realistic as saying that no one does that's a 40 million Revenue generating source for the city every year like you want to talk about what's going to cut
everybody's taxes I mean every citizen in Wilmer every taxpayer in Wilmer should be signing up for this the first chance they get and if everyone does that I mean get ready to to make a lot less you know uh when you have to write that check on April 15th uh is for
property taxes I guess it's not April 15th is it yeah May yeah thank you you would know uh now neither of these are realistic but what is realistic the numbers that you've given us with that 40% like there Comes a Day in this City's future where
the city is making 10 15 20 million dollar a year off of this right I would um is that too much I would yes I believe that would be a little too much uh but I appreciate the the optimism but
like some of the gross income numbers that you're showing here like show this as a Reven Revenue generating Source like this is this is there's going to be a time in our future if this goes well and I think we've taken two years to to minimize the risk
as much as we can uh that this produces revenue for us and lowers our taxes and maybe at that point we all get mailers declaring us to be tax Champions I look forward to that any other discussion otherwise I'm going to call forther
question we call council member Butterfield no ches hi o i Gilbertson I Garder no baggerly no Davis
I Four Eyes three nose motion passes thank you Kyle thank you mayor thank you counselor um any announcements otherwise we've got a closed session that we have to go
into huh you live e for