Call the meeting to order. Roll call. >> Mayor Reese >> here. >> Council member Osk >> here. >> Nelson >> here. >> Gilbertson >> here. >> Gardner >> here. >> Faggerly >> here. >> Davis >> here. >> And Sheldus >> here. >> Council member Butterfield is excused.
So eight present, one excused. >> Please stand for the pledge. Pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for
all. [clears throat] >> Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion for an amended agenda and remove item 9E. >> Second. >> We got a motion and a second to remove 9E.
discussion. Roll call. Can >> I just briefly clarify my my intention of my motion was to move the the full agenda minus 9E. Is that >> Yes. >> Okay.
>> So to clarify, you're approving the agenda with the exception of 9E. >> That's correct. >> Thank you, Council Member Osk. I >> Gilbertson. >> Hi >> Davis. >> Hi >> Baggerly. >> I
>> should >> I [clears throat] >> Nelson >> I >> and Gardner >> I. >> Seven eyes, zero nos. I'm sorry. >> Motion carries. Next is the consent items. Very.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council members, tonight for your approval, I have the city council minutes of July 6th, 2026, the Wilmer Municipal Utilities Commission minutes of July 13, 2026 as a draft, the planning commission minutes of June 17,
2026, and the accounts payable report of July 2nd, 2026 to July 15, 2026. And for your information, I have the director's report, the finance report through June 30th of 2026, and the Wilmer municipal financial
report of May 2026. >> I'd offer a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> We got a motion and a second. [clears throat] >> Any discussion? >> Oh, we didn't get the accounts payable
report in our packet. Send that to you. Mr. Mayor, if I may. >> Yes. >> Um, Director Odin, would that be something that we can table until the next meeting and consider it after we
can review it? >> Uh, thank you for the question. I would prefer not to just so we can keep the timeliness of the payments to our vendors. Um, if possible, I can get these to you emailed right now. Um, you'd like to table them for a moment
and come back to them or do you need some time to review them? >> I'd suggest we table them and come back to it maybe later on the agenda. You [snorts] want to do that? Yes. Okay, we'll do that. We'll come
back to it before we close. [snorts] [clears throat] And I had a motion. So, do we need to pull that then from the >> Yeah, >> I make a motion to approve the consent [clears throat] agenda with the agenda
with the exception of uh section F. >> No, exception D. >> The exception of D. >> Just if council member Gardner is already pulling that for then I think >> Oh, is that what you did? >> Yeah, because there's a motion and a second on the table. Question. So,
council member OS, would you like to amend your motion? >> Um, yes, with the exception of D. We're approved the consent agenda with the exception of D. >> And Council Member Scholdes, do you >> Yes.
>> concur. Okay. So, the amended motion is to accept the consent agenda or approve the consent agenda with the exception of line item D, which will be tabled for later discussion. [clears throat] We and we have a motion on that. >> All right. Roll call.
>> Council member Os. >> Hi. >> Nelson. >> I. >> Davis. >> I. >> Gilbertson. >> Hi. >> Baggerly. >> Hi. >> Gardner. >> Hi. >> And Sheldis. >> Hi. >> Seven eyes's zero nos.
>> Motion carries. >> Next is approve the consent agenda items. We just did that. >> We just did that. Items removed from consent agenda. None. Open forum. Did we have anybody? >> No one.
>> Okay. Regular business. Kandu High County Economic Development. KC Director Sher Wagner. >> Hi, Sherry. >> Hello. [clears throat] Thank you so much for giving me the time. Uh, Mr. Mayor
and council members. I just wanted to give an update on what KCED has been doing regarding the Uptown Mall investigation uh process. So, a couple of weeks ago, we asked our joint powers board to give us permission to investigate options for
the Uptown Mall to give us permission to apply for a grant and to give us permission to speak with and potentially negotiate a possible price of the mall with the owner of the mall. And our joint powers board did that. So in these last couple of weeks we have been doing
due diligence speaking with soil and water from Candyohigh County Minnesota deed uh brownfield grant as well as a additional grant for re urbanization of property. We met with the fire department. We met with the city planning. We met with city
administration. We've met with the county members. Um we opened up four days for uh community comment on it. We've talked to investors. We've talked to other people that were interested in coming into the mall. We've talked to
agencies that were interested in what possibilities could come from the mall. And we talked to somebody who's interested in just buying the mall outright on their own. So, lots of conversation has happened over the last oh 45 days. Um, so I did this very old
school for you because we were hoping to have hard numbers tonight. However, um what we're doing at the mall is just a very big process. And so we ask for bids for the replacement of the parking lot, for the roof, for HVAC, and for
mechanical. And as you can imagine, that is a very extensive bid process. So they were not able to get it completed in time for these numbers tonight. So in lie of having that, I provided you with uh a document. [clears throat] And to
give you some orientation, if you put the pink towards the top and Aldi's towards the bottom, you'll be looking at it with First Street to your left and Fifth to your right. And I'm just going to walk you through this map a little bit. The black line
around the perimeter is the actual property of the mall. There seems to be some dis um people who don't understand what part is actually owned. And so that very top section is privately owned. that is attached to the mall and it has
been sectioned off. They [snorts] do have a small section of the parking lot to the right of their building and then the parking lot all the way to the left of the property line and then coming down through the mall it stagnates and it does the entries from
uh first street and then coming down going around individual properties. So everything that's in the pink is privately owned. The different properties that you see are the squares that are in purple are suggested possibles for sectioning off
parceling these differently and being able to sell those properties. [snorts] Right away, early in the conversation, we met with um planning here in the city because we understood that initially they didn't want to break off parcels and it was because they didn't want to just break it off without a comprehensive plan. So, we talked to
them about uh all the different pieces that we were looking at here and they said that with a comprehensive plan, they would definitely entertain the conversations about parceling part of this property down. [clears throat] And so, that's what's represented here. None of this is confirmed. If you look at the
JC Penney block, you'll see that that's highlighted in purple as well. That would be a potential request for sectioning that off and allowing that to be privately owned. As well as the bottom referred to as the Kmart box is another section that could be the way
that it's constructed, parcled off and individually owned. [snorts] As you're looking at this uh coming off of First Street, you'll see some little green dots. Here's the vision that we have with Soil and Water. Currently, you can drive across that parking lot in any direction that you
want. And part of the reason that is so peppered with potholes is because parking lots are made with a smaller thinner base than where trans um actual travel is supposed to happen. And because they drive across the parking lot, it continues to vibrate. There's no
foundation under there. It's a swamp underneath and there's no solid foundation. So that constant moving is what's creating the uh potholes. So, one of the main priorities was to control the tram, the way that people travel across that parking lot. [snorts] So, if
you look at coming in off of First Street, we have three different areas that have green lines. So, if you come across and you're turning in, can you imagine pulling into a boulevard of trees versus just a big wide spans of asphalt. This will allow the control of the
traffic flow. It'll be a beautifification coming into the mall and using the rain water that's collected off of the roofs before it hits the asphalt which picks up the oils and salts. Those would be
utilized through the design of soil and water to keep all of those growing. Then you'll notice some little orange dots all along the blue line. Those would be natural grass barriers rather than concrete barriers to also help control
where parking is and keeping a flow of traffic. And then let's talk about the blue line that borders the whole building. That is the required fire lane from the fire department. And so we worked with them
to determine exactly which entrances would require to be maintained and how close to the building they needed to be for the fire lane. The biggest change in this is again if you look to the left side of the building uh you'll by the white roof you'll see a little square
and on this rendering it's hard to tell but it's a cyrine and that's where all the roof water would be collected and from that cyrine then it would be uh sent out underground to the trees and to the water and if there was additional waters available then they would be
timereleased all the way up to the top right corner where the water goes out now and goes into the river or the creek. One of the problems that we have right now is when there's rain water coming off of the mall, there's also rain water coming all over Wilmer and
that's where we start getting that backup of the flooding. And by being able to control the water here that has no place to go, we'd put it in the system and then we would timely let it out so it would keep the water flowing down and not backing back up and creating more flooding issues in Wilmer.
My favorite part of this is if we switch over to the right side, which is the Fifth Avenue side, you'll see green squares. The idea here is to remove a considerable amount of the asphalt and put that into green space. And that green space could be
pet gu, a [cough] pet park, an adult park, a kids park, a community garden, a community orchard. And all of this would also help retain the water and not having it just do a runoff. that part of the parking lot is about a 4% drop from the building and so the
water naturally goes that direction. Uh currently we would want to make sure that we're being very mindful of the vendors that are in the mall. Construction is difficult uh when you're trying to run a business and currently that mall is about 55% unoccupied.
So if KCED were to move forward on this, we would want to make sure that we were being very mindful of the businesses that are in place and doing everything that we could do to make sure that they maintain and stay in business during this time. And the time frame that we're
looking at is about two years. We think that uh the two-year soil and water and the two-year brownfield grants, we would be able to work with the agencies. So, we would need to purchase the property, work with the agencies, make the adjustments needed to beautify the
entire building, but do the structural changes such as the HVAC, the parking lot, the roof, and the mechanicals. And then our intent would be to sell that back to local investors. And so, it would keep it in the city. The other thing that we want to do is
not do this on the taxpayers's back. So, we are not asking for tax abatement. We are not asking for um any additional taxation to make this happen. We've met with a bonding council to look what our options are there. [snorts] If any part of this building was sold off to a
nonprofit or to a government agency, we would be able to use uh tax exempt bonding for that portion and then regular taxed bonding for the balance of that. >> [snorts] >> We would also try to do a twotrack bond which means half of it would be interest
only with a balloon payment at the end and the other half would be interest and principal during the life of the bond. What that does is allows us to mitigate any additional expenses that we weren't incurring or if somebody of one of the tenants wanted to leave the building because their lease ended. Uh we
wouldn't be cash flowing uh in a loss because we would only be doing part of it in interest and the balloon at the end when the building is sold. So again being mindful of how we would financially control this uh unknown scenario.
We have met with uh many of the tenants that came to our open house. We have not reached out to them uh per being respectful of the owners of the mall and addressed their concerns. Uh they wanted to make sure that their leases weren't going to go up, that we weren't going to close down the mall, uh what we would do
to support them. And so we had those conversations. I feel like everybody left uh much more comfortable and knew that there were additional options and supports that would be provided to them. The million-dollar question on this is, does it cash flow? And we were able to
get the confidential information from the broker. And so, we've been going through that information. And then in addition to that, he did finally give us permission to get four local vendors to go up and give us the bids that we're waiting for. So, as [clears throat] soon as we have that information, we'll be
able to see if this idea is actually a cash flow situation, that makes sense. The concern we have is if this doesn't fit for KCE to do this. There's a couple of scenarios. The owner maintains the property and continues to not invest in
it and the property will continue to deteriorate in which case the city will have to make a decision on if there's an enforcement that you want to make on it. Uh one of the comments was, well, if they did an enforcement, would he just quit paying his property taxes? And that's a possibility. Nobody knows if he
would do that or not, but it is $27,000 that's in the annual budget for his property taxes. He could walk away from it and then it would default to the bank, in which case it would probably come back and be an issue with the city and again we would lose the $270,000 in
the property taxes. We don't [clears throat] have a hard bid on it, but we've had conversation. If that mall needed to be taken down and all the asphalt removed, we're talking about very high double-digit million dollars to make that happen. And so there's not
a really good answer here. KCED has not owned property in the past. It it was never our intention. We don't want to be landlords. We don't want to own a mall. But what we do want to do is we want to take an asset in our community and we want to bring it back to a place that we can start doing some economic
development again. because right now we don't feel like we could attract any businesses into that property. And if the renters continue to decline, that property is not going to stay something that that owner is going to want to keep because it's not going to
cash flow for them either. So, we're just doing a lot of investigation. uh no commitments have been made anywhere and all we're trying to do is look at all the possible options and meet with all the different players uh to get the best possible scenario and outcome for Wilmer.
What questions can I answer? >> Uh thank you for the explanation. That was very very important. Um my concern is it's not just our uptown mall. That's malls everywhere that are struggling and failing. What
[snorts] what asurances probably can't give asurances, but how how will you make this work out? What how are you going to attract business into the mall when malls everywhere are struggling? >> So, we wouldn't necessarily be looking at this as coming back as a retail mall. We'd be looking at this as commercial
space. And we have been doing research of the revamping of other malls and what they've done with them. Some of them have successfully brought them back to retail. Others have completely changed the purpose of the space. Anywhere from um memory loss centers, uh housing
facilities, uh just industrial space. So it there's no right answer for this. There is no asurances, but our intent would not be to try to preserve this as a retail mall because you're right, that is something that's a dying phase. Justin,
>> thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, two questions. First of all, I had seen an allegation on uh social media, and everything we see on social media is always true. Um, but the allegation was that the currently the current owners owe about $100,000 in back taxes. Do you know if that's accurate or not?
>> To the best of my knowledge, they are current. >> That's what I thought as well. Okay. Um, next question then. Like my understanding is like this is this is something that KCED does not look to own and operate in the future as landlords. So 5 years from now your vision for this
would be that this has been sold off to local investors. You've already talked about that it shouldn't cost taxpayers uh any money. >> Y >> yes. Thank you. >> We would need to hire a manager to make sure that the vendors that are in there
are taken care of. We would also want to encourage the community into the space as much as possible by providing meeting space, possibly incubator space for smaller businesses to support those that are already in there. >> Steve, Mr. Mayor, uh, thanks for coming, Sheree.
>> I had the pleasure to sit on one of your information sessions over at KCD, and you made two points during that session that I was hoping you could uh, say again tonight. One was, how does the, um, the matching funds for any potential grants work? I thought that point was
very interesting. And then um my second point was and I've lost it because I had to ask the first one. Answer that. I'll answer this one first. I'll come back with the second one. >> So these grants that we're looking at do have matching funds to them. Uh soil and water is 10%, the brownfield is 50%. And
the way that we would handle that is we've been talking to local investors and as we're moving forward on this, we would want to know that we have investors in place to purchase this mall when we have it revitalized. And so we would be asking them and they have had part of this discussion to invest now
into the matching funds part so that they already have cash and skin in the game before we even get to the point of them buying them all. And so that gives us some assurances if there are any uh that they are committed to the project. My second point, I remembered it senior
moment. Um, somebody kept saying that if this was such a good deal, why isn't private equity doing it? >> Because it's not a good deal. >> Thank you. >> This [clears throat] is not a good deal for anybody. Uh, this is a bad situation that we are trying to find a solution
for. It's a decaying property. It was built on a marsh. Um, it's got millions of dollars of repairs that need to be done. uh we're in malls that are failing. This is not a good deal. What we are trying to do is look at the best of the worst. So, if you try to tear it
down and rehab the space, it's multi multi multi-millions of dollars. Uh if the owner maintained it and let it decrade, at some point in time, the city will have to take over. If KCDE is able to successfully come in with this plan, we'll be able to make the investment at
a lower rate and move it on. And one of the beauties on this system is if in fact we are able to sell off these purple properties, it makes the maintenance of these properties more tangible in the future because one person isn't trying to cover that entire
parking lot or that entire roof anymore. So by breaking it up, it makes it so that it can be maintained much easier. >> Thank you. >> Uh thank you, mayor. Thank you for presenting this. Um, this is one of the major [clears throat]
uh most commented items that comes before us which we typically say we have no power to uh change. Um, I'm curious what the average length of term for the current 45% of uh the tenants that are occupying that building. Sure.
>> Um, are they 10year leases, 20-year leases? What are they? >> They are not. Over 50% of them expire this year. And that's where we would have to be able to speak with the tenants and get commitments and get new leases. Um, but
over 50% of them are expiring in 2026. >> Okay. And are those [clears throat] I guess are those the main major anchor tank uh are they have they been year-to-year leases I guess is my question. >> No, they've been multi-year leases.
Okay. >> They're just in a rotation of their expiration. Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, no questions, but I did just want to say thank you for for coming to us with the proactive solution to what I think, as Council
Member Gilbertson just said, like we all recognize and throughout the community recognize as a problem. It's right in the heart of downtown. I appreciate you admitting that there there's no good situation. It's just the the best of the worst. but rather than waiting for the worst to happen. Um, early on in your
your time as director, you've you've uh tackled a pretty big challenge and you've been proactive about thinking about how we can make the the best opportunity out of this and I just want to say that I deeply appreciate your leadership at KCED and thank you for bringing this to us. >> I appreciate it and I appreciate you
taking the time to hear what we're up to. Again, there no commitments at this point at all. We're just doing our um exploration. I cannot use the word due diligence because in the real estate world that means something else. >> Okay. Well, thank you Sheree.
>> Thank you for your time. >> Next is a consideration awarding sale of general obligation tax abatement utility bonds. call on Chris Hogan from Baker Tilly and Tom. >> Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of
the council. uh this evening before for your consideration would be uh an award of bids for our 2026b bonds and that would be to finance our 2026 street projects um our Lakeland bike path as well as our municipal or
our uh wastewater treatment plant CIP and their portion of the street projects this morning we did receive bids uh had a good showing at 10:30 um uh very favorable for the city and with me tonight is Chris Hogan, director from Baker Tilly to go through in more detail
the bond sale. And just a point of uh clarification, included in your packet is a resolution. There will be or there is a clean version of the resolution uh following the bond sale that took place this morning. So um when it comes time to
sign it, there's a clean copy for you to sign later. >> Thanks, Tom. >> Thank you, Mayor and members of the council. I'm Chris Hogan. I'm a director of Baker Chilly. I serve the city as their municipal advisor. Like Tom said,
uh the city sold bonds this morning at 10:30. Uh they sold their general obligation improvement abatement and utility bonds series 2026B. >> Chris, would you use the microphone, please? >> Oh, sure. >> Do you want me to start over? Nope.
[laughter] >> Um, so the purpose of those bonds are uh the proceeds of the bonds like Tom said is to finance improvement of various street improvement projects uh the Lakeland bike path project and various wastewater utility [clears throat] improvements and to the
cost of issuance. The [snorts] repayment of the terms were um set up by uh by the payment uh by the projects. They had the improvement bonds. are paid over 15 years. Those are paid with assessments and tax levy dollars. The utility revenue bonds that are financing the
wastewater utility improvements are paid over 15 years. And the abatement bonds are structured and paid over 10 years. And again, the bonds are going to be repaid. They're a general obligation uh the full faith and credit of the city.
and they're paid to special assessments filed against benefited properties, tax abatement revenue and waste treatment plant fund revenues and tax levies. And then they are set up to have optional call in 10 years. So meaning in 10 years if the interest rate environment is
favorable, you can refinance those bonds and get them at a lower rate [snorts] or um perhaps you could call them at that time if you had available funds. So it's a good option to have uh for as far as the market. Um when we kind of started this process structuring
the bonds [snorts] in early June we had estimated that the true interest cost was going to be at 4.0736. Uh last week we we always update our pricing estimate close to the bond sale. So Thursday and Friday of last week we looked at the current market rate in
environment and our estimate was 3.6596 6596 [snorts] which was pretty close to the actual um true interest cost today. The winning bid had a 3.6818 and again the bonds are awarded based on
the true interest cost. So this is the results of the bond sale. There is there are six biders and these are from uh the lowest true interest cost to the highest uh for a competitive market sale like this. You can see the
benefit and how close these the benefit of a mark competitive sale is is um you can see that when you look at all these bids, they're very competitive. You can see how close they are. Um they're very close. Even from the lowest to the
highest um is only nine basis points. Uh this is just a snapshot of the bond pricing. Um coupons the the way bonds have been pricing for a number of years is the coupons are higher than the yield. So that generates the premium.
Premium is bond proceeds. So you can use that to finance the projects which thereby reduces the bond issue size. And we did reduce the bond issue by uh 250,000ish with the 503819 was the premium. This is just a snapshot of a bond buyer index.
This is the indices that um we frequently look at when we're looking at bond pricing. [snorts] This is a five-year um the the one to pay attention to is the the black, although they kind of go hand in hand. That is um representative of a double A general
obligation um uh rates. So you can see, it's kind of hard to see, but on the far right, um, since we started this process, really interest rates have not moved much at all in the last two months. So kind of
where we started with this process is kind of where we ended. Uh, with any competitive market bond sale, you get the bonds rated. And the reason is, you know, that um, you do that, it it measures the city's financial strength and the ability to repay the bonds. It serves as an
independent third-party assessment. Um, it supplements investors due diligence and of course the stronger the rating, the lower the interest cost. The bonds did receive a rating of double A3. [snorts] Um, because the city was in the market not that long ago, we didn't
actually have to go through a full rating process this time. So, we didn't have to do that. We just uh had some updated questions that Tom and the finance group um answered and then we had the rating and affirmed the double A3 rating on the city's existing general
obligation debt. So given the bids today, I would um recommend that the city award approve the a resolution awarding the 7,525,000 general obligation improvement abatement and utility bonds series 2026b
to TD financial products with a true interest cost of 3.6818. And with that I'll happy to take any questions >> questions from the council. Motion. >> So moved.
>> Second. >> Got a motion and a second. >> Any further discussion? >> Not. Roll call. >> Council member Davis. >> I >> Baggerly. >> Hi. >> Gardner. >> Hi. >> Gilbertson. >> Hi.
>> Schultz. >> Hi. >> Nelson. >> I. >> And Osc. >> I. >> Seven eyes. Zero nos. >> Thank you, Chris. >> Thank you so much. >> That motion passes. Next call for the 2026 assessment
hearing and a call on Jared Vuli, our city engineer. >> Evening, mayor and councel. Uh this item is related to the 20 uh 20 I got to make sure I got the right 2026 assessment hearing. Uh this would
be the final assessment hearing for the improvements that are being constructed this summer. Uh we've identified a date of August 17th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. for that final assessment hearing. Uh there is a
resolution in your packet this evening uh calling for that hearing and then the appropriate notices uh per Minnesota state statute chapter 429 will be distributed to all the affected properties. So with that mayor and council I'll answer any questions that you might have.
>> Questions or motion? >> Make that motion Mr. Mayor. >> Second. A motion and a second. Discussion. Justin. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor, uh, Mr. Bogey, every year when we come up with this, I think we're always finding ways that we
can better communicate with residents and and make sure that they're getting the necessary information. Can you walk us through maybe what's already been done for residents that will be applicable um, for this hearing and what will be done before August? >> Yeah. So, [clears throat]
what's been done is last year we had the improvement hearing. At that time, council asked us to send uh preliminary estimated assessments out to all the property owners. So, they've had that information for
um 12 plus months. Uh because that was one of the comments that council heard was that the residents and property owners didn't have adequate time to prepare for that. So, they have their estimated assessments. What will be done moving forward is they there's a specific very specific
language with a form uh that needs to be uh sent out indicating that there will be a public hearing where they would have an opportunity to come and uh voice their concerns related specifically to the assessments. So that is what would occur on the 17th.
>> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Hearing none. Roll call. Council member Schultz. >> Hi, >> Baggerly. >> Hi, >> Gardner. >> Hi, >> Osc. >> Hi, >> Gilbertson. >> Hi, >> Davis.
>> Hi, >> and Nelson. >> I >> Seven eyes's, zero nos. >> That motion carries. Next is the uh preliminary engineering report 2027. I'll call on Jared. >> Yeah. Good evening, Mayor Council. Um,
as authorized, the preliminary engineering report for the 2027 improvements projects has been completed. Uh, the next step in that process, uh, is to hold the improvement hearing associated with those improvements. Um, there is a resolution
in your packet this evening, a draft notice of public hearing. Um, I do have a presentation that I will go through to give council an idea of what all the projects are uh, in that are being discussed for the 2027 improvements. I'll do that now and then
I'd be happy to answer any questions prior to adoption of that resolution. Uh really we have three project types uh next year. It is uh reconstruction which is planned for 16th Street.
Uh we have some millaning overlay improvements which uh we'll get into the the map that'll better illustrate these but ultimately is Trot Avenue from Julie to Lakeland Drive, 22nd Street from 19th Avenue Southwest to Wilmer Avenue and
then 15th Avenue Southwest from 22nd to 15th. Uh and then finally the last type of project that we'll have are 2027 stormwater capital improvement um projects. There's two project areas that have been identified for that. That is uh Voss Park and some hydrodnamic
separators at the intersection of Ella and business 71. And I'll get into a few more details of those um as we go through the presentation. This map ultimately illustrates the areas of town. the blue being the mill and overlay areas, the green being storm
water ponds, and then the purple uh being the street reconstruction that is contemplated for 2027. Uh so [clears throat] some of the project considerations uh as we evaluate whether or not a street is a reconstruct, a miller, an
overlay, um things of that nature, the sanitary sewer, definitely pipe materials, um the existence of root intrusions, um infiltration through manhole structures, which is relatively common
uh with these older [snorts] sections of our sanitary sewer. water main cast iron. I will note that 16th Street um has been identified as a priority by Wilmer Municipal Utilities for a number of years um and if you recall it was on um it was in a previous
report a few years ago but has been delayed as a result of um needing to do so as it relates to financing. So uh storm sewer similar to the sanitary sewer but also again uh clay pipe materials block and mortar manholes and
then the streets uh once the streets have passed a certain um level of service mill and overlay is no longer feasible because simply the potholes will continue to come back. Uh cracks will reflect through and um it won't provide a a very
long useful life. So difference between reconstruction and overlay areas. Just wanted to call attention to that. Total reconstruction or reconstructions would be a total reconstruction on the pavement and the utilities beneath them along with uh
concrete curb and gutter as part of this project. Sidewalk um is is currently proposed to be replaced where it exists right now. So no new sidewalks, no new trails are being um discussed at this time along that corridor.
overlay areas. Uh basically it's just a removal of the top two to three inches of pavement that gets ground out. Um the there are some concrete repairs that that would be um completed if there are areas where structurally deficient
concrete exists and then um repairs to that'd be curbing gutter or sidewalk and then the material is replaced um from where it was mil. 16th Street. I just wanted to call council's attention. I know over the the
last couple years there's been discussions related to street widths and um sometimes that that yields a lot of discussion. Uh but what I wanted to point out here is the picture on the left uh identifies the existing street
widths of 16th Street. So the north end [snorts] uh is currently 32 feet wide. The south end is 40 ft wide. What's being proposed is 36 ft in width, which means that the south end would become a little bit more narrow. The north end
would be a little wider. That would be a consistent roadway section through the entire corridor um which will allow parking on both sides of the street. So, [clears throat] north side of the improvement uh as it exists currently only accommodates one
side parking, south side accommodates two. um that becomes confusing for drivers as they travel through the corridor and this will provide consistency. >> Can I ask a quick question? >> Yeah. >> Um do you take it from both sides or do
you take it from Minasco Park? >> Um both sides. Ideally, what we try to do is center the streets in the rightway. And you you may recall from a previous council meeting, the reason we do that is we try to preserve as many trees as possible um as part of this.
And typically, uh a little bit on both ends will help us accommodate that. uh drainage and utility improvements, new sanitary sewer pipes, sewer services, and water services will be extended from the street out to the
property lines. Um [snorts] water man within this project area ranges in size from 8 to 12 in. [clears throat] There'll be new hydrants, valves. I mentioned the water services. And then storm sewer would be new pipes, pre-cast concrete manholes,
and then new curbon gutter for the storm sewer. Pond improvements. Um, we've discussed these in the past. However, uh, the Voss Park pond improvements, that's an improvement that's been identified on the city's storm water capital improvement plan for a number of
years. as part you'll see the the orange lines that extend from that orange dot if you will over to Gorton Avenue as part of the Gorton Avenue improvement project. This project since it was on the CIP was
anticipated and the pipes within Gorton Avenue have been set up to accommodate that uh that improvement. So those are in place and no additional um disturbance to Gorton Avenue will be needed as a result of that. The other
pond uh part of the 16th Street project. It'll be completed as part of the same construction documents is the Minagasco Park Pond. Staff has had conversations with Centerpoint Energy uh regarding that property and they are currently in
process of developing an agreement for us to review as it relates to that improvement. they have um verbally given the city of Wilmer the go-ahhead to move forward with that improvement uh indicating that they're confident that
an agreement can be reached for that. And then the final storm water improvement uh this evening that I'll touch on are the hydrodnamic separators uh also known as grit chambers that are proposed uh at the intersection of Ella
and First Street. ultimately and you can probably see it in that in that aerial photo there where the uh pipe discharges both on the north side of Ella and the east side of business 71. Uh what happens is all the sediment that's
collected from that intersection enters the catch basins flows out the flared end section and is deposited into the grass. Uh that makes maintenance or the removal of that sediment extremely difficult for staff. Uh so these will
significantly improve the efficiency and the water quality along the lake because staff will be able to remove that sediment with um by vacuuming [clears throat] rather than trying to get equipment on those steep slopes along that area. So
they'll be able to access it from the traveled roadway, which will um definitely be efficient and uh improve the water quality in that area. Overlay improvements. We've seen uh the overall map, but this is basically just
focused in on the on the overlay overlays improved for this year. Again, industrial drive, 22nd, 15th, and then trot. Typical section for a mill and overlay. And this again alludes to the fact that two to three inches of pavement will be
removed. How do we decide which um which streets get two inches, which streets get three inches? Um the higher volume routes are the ones that will have 3 in removed. The other uh the only street that will have 2 in milled is 15th Avenue
Southwest. All the remaining will have 3 in based on our observations out in the field as part of this report. Project costs. These are simply broken down by the project. Uh you'll note that 16th Street projects approximately 3.2
million. uh the 20 27 million overlay improvements approximately 2.35 and then the storm water improvements just shy of a million dollars. This table further breaks down based on CA category of the cost whether it be
street reconstruction, storm sewer, sanitary sewer, water main the overlay and then again the storm water improvements. Uh this chart basically uh breaks them down by each project
and first project there being 16th Street. The second one being the Millan overlay improvements and then the um final column there project C the storm water improvements. So the funding sources very similar to um other projects that have been created
over or have been completed over the years. Uh we're anticipating assessments, state aid participation, Wilmer municipal municipal utilities participation, wastewater funds, local options sales tax, and then uh city
funding. This is ultimately a breakdown of those anticipated funding sources. You'll see the city costs, the assessment, state aid participation, uh utilities commission, and then uh water or
wastewater as well as lost assessments. This is just a range and this range will be provided to the um the property owners when they attend the open open house and both the public hearing. Uh street reconstruction
typically ranges uh we're estimating it will range from 70 to $74 a foot. Sanitary sewer 18 to 21. Sanitary sewer services $950 to, uh $100 per each. Water man between 22
and $25 a foot. The water services 1,200 to,300. Storm sewer uh $15 to $18. And then finally the overlays are assessed on a per lot basis based on the qu classification of
small, medium, and large. Small lots approximately 3,700, large lots 7,500. Total anticipated assessments associated with the 2027 improvements is 1.6. 656 million
preliminary project schedule. Um you can see we're here this evening presenting the report. We're uh planning to hold an open house on o or September 3rd, 2026. Uh what the resolution in your packet
this evening asks you to do is call for a public hearing for the improvement hearing on September 8th. And that would allow plans and specifications to be uh approved and advertisement to occur in February which
would allow us to uh open bids in March, award a contract in April and begin construction in May. Very similar to the the project schedule that we have this year. However, this is accelerated because that project schedule for 2026
was delayed. And with that, mayor and council, I'd be happy to entertain any questions that you might have. Um, and as I mentioned, there is a resolution in your packet this evening for consideration ultimately calling the uh improvement
hearing for the September 8th, 2026 council meeting. >> Any questions, Tom? Um, a couple of questions. Um, for the Vos Park, the map here, it shows fairly significant area for this holding
area. Um, the is the park no longer in use where that orange area is or where the where they'll still be baseball fields there? >> Uh, it is anticipated that a majority of that area will be used for storm water
retention. hasn't been uh obviously the final design hasn't been done which would uh identify that area specifically but based on uh the the preliminary storm water cip and the modeling that had done pre been done previously majority of
that area will be encompassed by a pond >> it won't be uh storm water retention it's a storm warm water >> detention pond. >> I can confidently say that 16th Street will definitely be a detention pond. The
Voss Park pond um may have water in it occasionally, similar to the way it does right now when it rains. the elevations um elevations are difficult to get that to drain all the way from Boss Park into
the um outlet. So, there may be water in that area. >> Why is it hard to get it out of there? >> Uh everything's so flat from that the elevation of Vos Park right now all the way to the outlet. Um
just south of the lake there. Okay. >> South and west I guess. Carl, it just to kind of follow up on that, it's very rare that they can even get in there to mow it, let alone make it usable. So, >> 25 years ago, it was a baseball field
and used all the time and they didn't have any troubles with training. So, I'm just curious why that's changed over the years. Um, and they can't mow it any longer. And so some something's has changed and I it's probably with all the houses that I've built and it's all
funneling to that one spot is is my guess, but it it does seem odd to me that it's changed over the last 30 year 30 years and starting to date myself and I used to play baseball out there. So, um, but yeah, uh, if there was another,
just looking at the the the amount of dollars that are going to be going into this, if there was another street to be added to this, uh, that fit within our budgets, is there another one on the slate that we would be adding to it or no? >> We wanted to get a little bit more aggressive on fixing our roads here in
town. uh at this point um I'm not anticipating any additional capacity for that but yes the short answer to your question there are significant number of streets that would definitely um could be added to the improvement
>> any one in particular I guess >> we've looked at all kinds of them ultimately depends on the on the cost right >> okay >> I'm fitting within a targeted budget >> any other questions Steve >> thank Mr. Mayor, uh, Mr. Vogi, does the retention pond at the park at the 16th
Street park, does that do anything to help the property on the north side of Trot? >> Yes. Uh, it will reduce reduce the two, 10, and 50-year flood elevations. Uh, because as you're well
aware, that intersection floods consistently even during small events. Uh this will actually provide an opportunity for some of that water to be uh detained until it can drain throughout the system. >> Thank you. >> It won't eliminate it, but it'll improve it.
>> Justin, then Vicki. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um Mr. Vog and maybe Director Odin's as well. Um I've yet to run into people who get excited about uh street assessments. Um, but there's clearly a need to take care of our streets and so when it comes to
paying for them, I know the council over the years has looked at many things and we've yet to come up with anything better. Um, but there was conversation at the council table not long ago about a wheelage tax. My understanding is that the state law is very clear that counties can do that and the the state
law might allow it for cities, but it's an outdated part of state law. Is that accurate? and do you guys remember those conversations in the past and where things might stand currently if that would be something we'd want to look into?
>> So, I'll take the first swing at that. Um, I do recall those conversations and I would definitely have to dust off those notes. I believe that we did hit a um dead end with that wheelage tax as part of a municip municipality's ability
to um levy. But we can dust that off for council and uh staff is consistently looking at ways to reduce those assessments and um potentially other other means of financing them. um
because as costs continue to go higher, assessments continue to go higher and uh yeah, it's very difficult thing for all the property owners, >> right? And I think that's the real concern that we that we have um as the council as well. But yeah, if there
could be just maybe a report that could come to us from staff reminding us cuz I I vaguely have, you know, memories of this conversation and I remember there being investigation and I just can't recall tonight where that where [clears throat] that ended. >> The staff did check with the department
of public safety and the department of revenue. Um it was a deadend conversation I guess at the end of the day. Uh there is no good way to implement it. both more or less were telling us to ask the other agency for implementation. So, as of now, we can we can follow up with council with a more
detailed uh report, but um as of now, it would be there is no implementation of that wheelage tax. >> Vicki, >> um I [clears throat] just noticed, sorry, in your presentation, you were
saying September 8th, but our information in the packet says the 7th. September 7th. >> Yeah, that was an error on my part. Uh September 7th is Labor Day, and I'm confident we won't be here. September 8th is the next regularly scheduled meeting. And
>> yes, thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Um, mayor, I uh following up on that wheelage tax conversation. I did investigate that fairly heavily with our uh city administrator Leslie Valent and she was we can charge a wheelage tax, we
just can't collect it. So, [laughter] didn't make a lot of sense. So, that was the issue that we were running into is how you'd transfer it from the department of uh safety to back to the the city. >> Anything else?
Otherwise, I'm looking for a motion. >> It's all moved. >> Second. We got a motion and a second. >> Discussion. >> Roll call. >> Council member Gilbertson. >> Hi. >> Davis.
>> I. >> Gardner. >> I. >> Nelson. >> I. >> Baggerly. >> Hi. >> Os. >> I. >> And Sheldis. >> I. >> Seven eyes's zero nos. >> Motion carries.
Thanks council. >> Next the uh is F E was pulled F is accepting uh in kind donation of exterior painting on a city-owned building.
Shane want to tell us about this? I thought it was pretty interesting. >> It was um good evening mayor and members of the council. So, on uh Monday, July 6th, city staff became aware that a private contractor had accidentally
painted the backside of rack 8, which is our uh radio station um building and we immediately got in contact, staff immediately got in contact with the um private contractor and uh they realized
that they had made an error. They were in instructed to paint the entirety of the alley. Um there was a miscommunication between the prime and the subcontractor on which buildings were included in that entirety of the alley. So uh the back of our building
got a nice prime coat and uh after it was primed, it was determined by staff that it would do more harm than good to remove that prime coat. So, it was uh recommended that we move forward with finishing the paint job. Um,
and so the the contractor graciously um performed the rest of the work at no cost to the city. And so I just was hoping to uh get a resolution that we accept that as a donation for inind work
uh of the exterior painting of the back of the racket building. I have a motion. >> So move. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Discussion. >> Roll call. >> Council member Nelson.
>> I >> Gardner. >> I >> Gilbertson. >> Hi. >> Shoulders. >> I >> Davis. >> Hi. >> Inferly. >> Hi. >> Seven eyes, zero nos. >> Motion carries. Thank you, Shane. Thank
you. >> Next is our city administrator hiring process. I'll call on human resources director Melissa Gamro. Good evening, mayor and council. Uh the first item I have before you tonight is a resolution to accept an amended
version of the city administrator hiring process. You guys had approved this back on May 18th um in collaboration with the ad hoc team. We just needed to make some minor amendments to this. So on page two under the recruitment timeline, there
had been a fairly ambitious um weekly timeline laid out there that just doesn't work with the city council schedule. Um so that's just been adjusted to steps as determined um by you guys in terms of timing. And then under roles and
responsibilities for the council, um we just clarified the language a little bit on the decision-making process that you guys have related to deciding on interviews and then making a final hiring determination. So I'm just looking for a resolution to approve this
amended hiring process. >> So moved. Second. >> A motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? Roll call.
>> Council member Faggerly. >> Hi. >> Davis. >> Hi. >> Gilbertson. >> Hi. >> Shoulders. >> Hi. >> Nelson. >> I >> Osk. >> I. >> And Gardner. >> I.
>> Seven eyes's zero nos. >> Motion carried. Next is a review of applicants for city administrator position and once again I'll call on human resources director Alysa Gamble. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um so the city
council received the 12 applicants um that applied for the city administrator position um for review. And what I am looking for tonight is some discussion regarding uh which candidates you would like to move forward for interview. And
I will just remind the council, you received this um already, but uh because of Minnesota data privacy laws, the candidate information is not public. So during this discussion, you guys will just refer to them by numbers and
refrain from any identifying information such as their current place of employment, things like that until finalists have been determined. Okay. So, do we have a motion? >> The motion would need to be which candidates you want to propose. So,
>> yes, Tom. >> Mayor, after uh reviewing the U applicant scoring, uh there was uh candidate that u uh looked like they scored quite well. Um but uh looking
when you consider those folks who uh sometimes pull out of the race there at the end uh and I would suggest that I'd like to make a motion to select uh at least two candidates uh number 10 and
number one to be interviewed by the city council for the city administrator position with the human resources director to make any appropriate arrangements. We got a motion. Do we have a second? >> We have a second. >> Second.
>> Okay, we have a second discussion. Carl, >> given the way the scoring breakdown, um, do we do we need to interview somebody besides
applicant 10? >> So, I mean, >> is that a question for me? >> Yeah. Well, yes. >> Um, this is my professional recommendation. If there are other candidates that you're genuinely interested in,
then I think you guys have an obligation to fully explore those and interview those. However, if you feel like you're just checking boxes and you're not genuinely interested in them, then it's not fair to put the candidates through that
public process. So, I would say the answer to that is whether or not you truly want to consider them and hear from them in an interview as part of your decision-m or whether you've already made up your mind.
>> Steve, thanks, Mr. Mayor. Um, I would amend Tom uh M. Councilman Gilbertson's amendment to to get to three applicants. I'd go applicants 1, six, and 10. I am genuinely interested Um
I I I want to know what applicants 1, 6, and 10 have to say. I would like us to do our due diligence uh in this process. And to me, that involves interviewing at least three of the 12 applicants.
>> Accept that as a friendly motion. I'm okay with it. Second. So we have the motion for 1,6 and 10. Any further discussion? Roll call. >> Council member Davis.
>> I. >> Nelson. >> I. >> Gilbertson. >> Hi. >> Childz. >> Hi. [snorts] >> Os. I >> Gardner >> I >> and Beegerly >> I >> seven eyes's zero nos.
>> That motion carries. Thank you, Alyssa. Next is the uh accounts payable report. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Um, I believe that all of you should have received the accounts
payable listing during the meeting. Uh, I'd be happy to stand for any questions regarding that should there be any. Otherwise, I would seek approval for the accounts payable listing from July 2 through July 15, 2026. >> Any questions? Steve?
>> Uh, maybe this isn't the right place to ask this question, but I don't know another place to ask it. Uh, at one point we approved a change order for Hometown Fiber to be the advisor for Wilmer Connect phase one and their payments not to exceed $50,000 per month
and then not to exceed $400,000. That corre. That's correct. Right. Who's monitoring that $50,000? Because by my math, if we approve this accounts payable, we're going to pay them more than $50,000 in the month of May. They've build us for in excess of
$50,000. Uh thank you Mr. Gardner for the question. I do believe that has changed uh once the start of the construction. Um Mr. Box and our IT director Mr. Johnson have been following those
invoices from Hometown Fiber uh throughout the construction process. Uh we can get back to you on those specific. If you'd like me to pull those in the meantime, we sure can. >> Oh, I would. Thank you very much. Okay. Um, I don't know if the public's aware, uh, but since it's in here, we're paying
Hometown Fiber anywhere from 10 to $13,000 a week to be consultants for this connect fiber project. So, just want the public to be aware of that. And if we are going to pay them more than $50,000 a month, I
[clears throat] want to know why. because the project was approved or the change order was approved in March and they're started billing us in May. They build us over 50 grand. >> Thomas is let me ask a question. Is that
a moving target? >> Mr. Mr. Mayor, I'd like to get I'd like to uh provide a better response um tomorrow on this particular question so we don't mislead anybody or put any wrong information out there. I would
like to follow [clears throat] up in writing from staff. >> Sure. >> All right. >> Go on to announcements. We had a motion to approve the finance report. >> Oh, that's right. >> The accounts payable report. >> Oh, Audrey, I'm sorry.
>> That's all right. Um, I couldn't open the Excel that you sent and so I'm okay for tonight, but is it possible that you can get that sent out to us earlier so that we can review it before we come to the meeting? >> Yes, that is our that is my goal. I
apologize that it did not appear in your board packet tonight and that will be uh we will avoid that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Do we have a motion? >> No, we need a motion for the accounts
payable report. I will move to approve the accounts payable report. >> Second. Okay, we got a motion and a second discussion. >> Can I offer an amendment to to pull from
the accounts payable report that we are approving the payments to hometown fiber? >> We are or are not? >> I am proposing in my amendment that we would not approve the expenses to hometown fiber until we get answers to
to your questions. Council member Gardner, I have a second. >> Well, I'll second that if that's what you're asking. >> What's that? >> Yeah, I'll second it. He's offering to amend Tom's >> Yes. >> or Carl, excuse me, Carl's uh
resolution. Is it my place to say I second that? If it's if it is, I do second that. >> Okay. Discussion. Audrey. Um I'd just like to ask Mr. Odin's what that does to
um the normal arrangements with them. >> U Thank you. That will that will just delay the payment and they will be presented after the followup from staff. They'll be presented at the next council meeting for payment uh to [snorts] Hometown Fiber. don't perceive that a
problem with them. >> I can't say >> you don't care. >> I can't say I Yeah, but I >> Can I say something, Mr. Mayor? Uh they clearly don't care. The f these bills go all the way back to May. So, I don't have a problem waiting for two more
weeks. If they can't bill on time, I'm more than okay with it. >> Roll call. >> Council member O. Hi >> Gardner. >> Hi >> Nelson. >> Hi >> Gilbertson. >> Hi >> Shelz.
>> I >> Davis >> I >> and Fagerly >> I. >> Seven eyes's zero nos. >> That motion carries. Next is announcements. Anybody? >> I think we have to vote on the motion to approve the accounts payable report. Now
that was just an amendment that we passed. >> I thought that was the what we just did. Just my amendment removing homeland uh okay >> hometown. Thank you. >> All right.
>> So roll call on the motion itself. >> Council member Faggerly. >> I >> should >> I >> Gilbertson. >> Hi >> Gardner. >> I >> Davis >> I >> O >> I. >> And Nelson
>> I. Seven eyes, zero nos. >> Motion carries. Now I can say announcements, right? >> Okay. I've been trying to get there. All right, Justin. >> I even have a little one for you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I just want to say council member Butterfield and I have um
been talking with staff and have expressed our concerns over flock cameras being used within the community. Um, and uh, Chief Holm, if you could maybe just uh, address that a little bit and kind of give an update to the council of of when that might come before us for a conversation at the
council table. >> I reached out to Flock. I'd want to see if I can get a representative to come out. Um, and I haven't heard back. I just put that out the end of last week. So, looking maybe I could get them on the 3rd or the 17th. Um, so a little time just to get them to answer some of
the questions that you might have. Okay, thank you and thank you for being responsive to the the questions and the concerns as well. >> Are we done? Motion to adjurnn. Second. We >> got a motion and a second. We're
adjourned. [clears throat]