pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all okay uh tonight's consent
agenda the items listed below are considered routine non-controversial by the city there will be no separate discussion to these items unless requested by a council member staff or citizen if removed the item will be discussed at the end of the regular agenda item A approval of the minutes
for the following city Council work session February 4th 2025 city Council work session February 18th 2025 in city council regular meeting February 18th 2025 item B authorize the deputy mayor
to execute an annual letter of adjustment with increase of 4% to the operation and maintenance agreement with People's Service Incorporated effective March 1st 2025 for operations and maintenance at the wastewater treatment facility item C authorize the city
administrator to execute a quote from Farm Wright equipment for the purchase of a 2023 toll master E12DT 18 ft galvanized trailer for the public works department for an amount not to exceed $13,950
item D declare a 2007 Bobcat S185 skid steer as surplus equipment and eligible for sailor donation as recommended by the public works maintenance supervisor and authorize the city administrator to determine the process and best method
for sale donation of the equipment item E authorize the Winstead Arts Council to conduct four music events and have food trucks available at Mill Reserve Park on July 10th 17th 24th and 31st of 2025 to
wave any applicable permits or fees for the use of the park on those dates item F authorize the deputy mayor and city clerk treasurer to execute an agreement with the Church of Holy Trinity provide city services and other
considerations for the 2025 Windstock Country Music Festival item G approve the Mloud County large assembly permit for Holy Trinity's Windstock Country Music Festival June 20th and 21st 2025
item H approve a dance permit for the Blue Now Ballroom 320 3rd Street South for the pre-windtock rumble event on Saturday March 29th 2025 item I adopt resolution
R-24-11 authorizing a transfer of funds from the general fund to the capital improvement fund item J appoint Mr kent Landin to the position of seasonal part-time brush site monitor beginning
April 1st 2025 for a period not to exceed 6 months item K accept the voluntary retirement of Mr ryan Chatterton from the Winstead Volunteer Fire Department effective March 3rd 2025
item L approve the pledge securities that security bank and trust company has purchased from the city of Windset for the month of February 2025 item M approve the building permit report for the month of February
2025 item N approve the financial report for the month of January 2025 and item O approve the claims list for March 18 2025 this is a consent agenda looking for a motion for approval mr deputy Mayor I'll
motion to approve the consent agenda as presented and I abstain from voting on item L okay do I have a second i'll second all in favor i I any opposed i smash the gavvel yep
unreal that felt that felt wonderful okay um next we have the I'm missing a page aren't I i don't know but you can skip to new business okay oh here we go uh public hearings
nothing old business uh now we're on to new business um so it item A is a plan service agreement and HVAC tracker or Schwickards Hecta America LLC
uh looking for a motion to authorize the city administrator to execute a plan service agreement and HVAC tracker with Schwickerts Tekka America LLC to provide support maintenance and tracking of the heating ventilation and air conditioning
systems at city facilities for an amount not to exceed 9236 um you want to elaborate a little bit on that what that all covers sure so uh we had previously had or we
have previously had contracts with NAC uh they sent out a new contract for amounts that would be in of $6,000 more than the Schwick's bid and for year one
and for year two it would be roughly about $8,000 more so I decided to um while I was looking to see who else could service us uh Schwickers came in and took the exact same specs that we
were looking for and um even added in a few things and still came in well under NAC okay uh looking for a motion for approval on this i'll make a motion to authorize the city administrator to
execute a plan service agreement and HVAC tracker with Schwicker Techa America LLC to provide support maintenance and tracking of the heating ventilation air conditioning systems at city facilities for an amount not to exceed $9,236 can I get a second i'll second all
right all in favor i I oppose motion granted uh item B resolution R-25-12 outdoor recreation grant application for Han Park this uh we're
looking for a motion to adopt resolution R-25-12 approving the submission of an application to Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for the outdoor recreation grant and authorizing the city administrator to execute agreements
necessary to implement the grant project yes so um we're in the process of you know looking into getting this grant application it's a matching grant hopefully this will allow us to move quicker on um rebuilding or re spacing
of uh Hanland Park and allow us to put in some actually very exciting playground equipment and um that playground equipment adds up in a hurry so if this grant can help support that it will go a lot faster for us
okay fantastic opportunity uh looking for a motion for approval on this item i'll make a motion to adopt resolution R-25-12 approving the submission of an application to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for the Outdoor
Recreational Grant and authorizing the city administrator to execute agreements necessary to implement the grant project right can I get a second second right all in favor i
opposed motion carried item C is a motion to adopt resolution R-25-13 renaming the Winstead Pride Award the Steve Stoco Community
Enhancement Award um I don't think we need to turn this one over to Neil necessarily um just uh take a motion mr mayor a motion to adopt resolution R-25-13 renaming the Winstead Pride
Award the Steve Stuto Community Enhancement Award looking for a second i'll second all in favor i I opposed motion carries uh now we're on to the organizational
report for Lake Instead Waverly Schools very good i have a little packet thank you i just can't smaller than last packet yes I trying to get quick and to the point
yeah professional golf okay i knew Justin would have be on top of it okay hey thanks for um having me out today let me get adjusted here um I got a
couple of uh updates that I wanted to bring to you and then of course if you have any questions during uh some of my updates or at the end I'm happy to to stand for them i'd also um I'm also always open to suggestions or or comments for improvement especially as
it relates to the school district or myself if you want to go that route too um so um I really wanted to highlight four things for you um tonight the first is the progress on our budget um uh the way that school districts measure the
health of their budget is by um the amount that's in your fund balance and this is the rainy day fund um that's anticipated to cover surprise expenses um and districts have um policies in place as to what the level should be at
um in the case of HLWW schools our policy fund balance amount is 8% of our um annual expenditures um when I started in July of 2024 our fund balance was at $120,36
and I'm happy to report that our projected fund balance by the end of June is expected to be a little little over $1 million um that's a significant improvement and it's doing no small part to um the efforts of our board um our
staff but especially the support of our community members um as you all know um last fall we went out for an operating levy that was able to pass um we also saw significant increases increases in special education funding from the
state um as you also probably well know um we also experienced a couple of years where we um strategically reduced staff numbers um across the district um human resources are the the basic most
important largest expense of any school district and so if we're going to tackle any budget question at a district you have to at some point in time get to the place where you have to reduce staff or or change the way that they're compensated um right now we're right in
the middle of working on next year's budgets um and judging by Tom's comment before we started um I imagine as you all are waiting with um with great interest as to what the legislaturator's next moves are going to be um in the
2023 legislative session uh the legislature did build in to um general fund for general funding for school districts that there is an inflator um an inflationary index that's tied to the CPI for the state of Minnesota um and so
we are anticipating at least a um 2 and 3/4% increase um that basically amounts to another $200 per pupil um that's going to be uh obviously super helpful um and I'm directing my business manager not to anticipate any other um revenue
increases just so we can be ultraconervative on our budgets um the second uh one was um we are anticipating a move to grade level buildings and you recall about uh 5 6 months ago I came here to to talk to you
all a little bit about this um in the event you uh you were paying attention we had a very public process and a decision from our school board um throughout the fall of 2024 culminating in our December board meeting where the
board made the decision to to redistribute our grades um across um both Winstead and Humphrey Elementary um right now I have a a team of about 12 staff members who are um
taking a lot of time and a shocking amount of data and just combing through it one step at a time to make the best decision for our students in fact we had a meeting today after school for about two hours um it's our goal to make a decision about which grade levels go to
which building by the end of this school year so we're hoping u by the end of June um we do have a web page on the district website that's dedicated to the grade level transition um and it has frequently asked questions and then we
are um we're updating it as the transition team makes recommendations um it's important to note that we will not be implementing the grade level change until the 2627 school year so we're still a year and a half away from from any kind of
change um on the capital improvement front we've done a lot of things that in the onset will um will cost the district some money but in the long run end up amounting to shocking amounts of change um and savings um we over the summer we
completed a lighting upgrade throughout the entire district um every light now at Howard Lake Waverly Winstead is an LED whereas previously just sections of the middle school were um this ends up amounting to an energy savings of nearly $40,000 every single year um just by
switching over to LED so that lighting project is going to pay for itself in about a year and a half and then um every moment the lights are on after that is just money in the pocket of the district which is great to see um in the
next month at the um at the high school gym we're going to be installing a video board and if you've uh visited any number of um school districts these are becoming very popular in high school gyms all of the sudden um and this video board is paid entirely through
advertisements and partnerships with um with local businesses um and people who donated money um and uh that is going to generate another revenue stream for the district as we sell um advertising not
only on the video board but also through our online ticketing system that's all tied together and so um we anticipate this um this uh bringing in between 20 to $35,000 a year to the schools
nate on that yes please one of the cool things on that for me I think is seeing that kids will have the opportunity now to take a class that will be related to this video board whether it's production I believe sales other aspects of what I
get excited about about running a business i guess through that video board so that's pretty cool do do the kids go out and do the solicitations for the advertising well they might in the future they didn't know this uh this time um this was a project that our
athletic our activities director Mr puncher has been working on um and like I said the whether it's a good or bad thing schools very much are um kind of keep up with the Joneses sort of organizations and as you see more and
more of these schools having video boards up um when you talk to them it obviously has a nice aesthetic look but um the the strategic school districts have these partnerships set up where um the partnerships pay off the board its
installation and then is our revenue stream for the district um some districts um and I think this is more just a taste or or a vision that leadership has for the future of the district um some districts are very leerary about selling any kind of
advertising space on their walls um I I'm not one of those i'm I'm okay generating some revenue if it means that we open up some opportunities for kids um it's also a unique a unique chance to get um different organizations involved in the school that might not otherwise
um be there to Neil's point the the class is going to run it's going to be taught by Mr punchuker i I pray for those children um but uh he um in addition to talking about the video board and how those things relate um it's also intended to be a sports
management class so he's he's going to talk about you know how how do you organize you know 25 activities for 1300 kids and get them their fees paid and their insurance covered and their transports taken care of and the schedule of events and the practices and
the coaches and and kind of help them see how you how you run an organization so we are excited for it um and it is going to run there were um over 45 kids that signed up for it so we we're going to have to turn a few away so anyway
thank you and uh I'm proud to say that our relief association for the fire department has sponsored some of that advertising so giving back to the community in that way yes um I think uh Security Bank and Trust um was a high
level partner um I know the Legion Howard Lake A&W um anyway there was I think the last time I looked there were seven or eight different partners that that gave very generously so um capital improvements let's see oh uh
this summer we're going to be doing a major phone system upgrade um I have been learning a lot more about phones i guess they've really changed in the past 25 years or so um most of them just run off of the internet now and so um we do
have a voice over IP system however that system is no longer is at end of life and will no longer be supported and in this day and age of ransomware and and cyber attacks um we have to have that all buttoned up um what's really great about this phone system is it enhances a
lot of security measures um it's going to tie into our alarm system um our PA system and um like the LED upgrade um because we're able to go over data lines instead of phone lines um we end up more
than having our monthly phone and data costs so um that'll end up being a savings to the district um if you flip over to the second page that I handed to you um we are looking at a parking lot reconfiguration over
the summer um and you'll have to you should look at the paper like this um we have heard loud and clear from our community that driving at the 512 campus especially in the morning and in the afternoon is the worst thing on
planet Earth um and so we want to try that we we want to try and make it better um I know you'll find this shocking but I don't know everything in the world and so um I'm an old social studies teacher at heart and so I connected with um
traffic and uh transportation representatives from MDOT and Wright County um just to get a sense of what they would suggest we do to improve things there and they said "You need a second driveway." Um and so if you look
in the upper leftand corner of the of the diagram here we're going to be building an exit only driveway um that is directly east of where the buses tend to park um and then what'll happen is the current driveway that's at the campus that becomes an enter only um and
this creates a flow of traffic that allows people to come in and out and not have to step all over each other um really what ends up happening is when you're exiting now um instead of having I mean it's really getting reduced to basically two lanes of traffic those who
are going northbound to Howard Lake um and those who are coming in and then you have to wait for that entire turn lane on six to empty before you uh can home hope to come home to Winstead um in this new
structure the driveway exit um empties on to County Road 6 north just north of that turn lane and so commuters are going to be able to exit both north and southbound um with greater confidence um and safety
uh the thing that is I know on this diagram it also depicts changing the parking there to angled parking um we're actually going to step back from that and just retain the 90° parking that's there right now and just change one variable at a time and see if that's if
that works out for us um it also coincides with a repaving of County Road 6 this summer and so the county has graciously offered to to uh sell us the asphalt at their huge stock price so that we're we're able to ch we're able to save um more than half the price on a
on a square foot of asphalt um to complete the driveway project so we look for this to be in place um by the start of next school year um on the capital improvement thing the the number one and I I know I talked about this during the levy but the the
number one thing that continues to give me heartache and heartburn are the um HVAC units and the roofing on our schools um they they start they're starting to misbehave a little bit more than we'd like um they're all basically were either installed in 2009 or 2014
and across the district we have more than 60 of these units um and so uh we're we're trying desperately to come up with a solution that makes some sense um in the case of our smallest rooftop units those run about
$45,000 installed um and that's uh in our current situation um that's that's a hefty sum of money so um my goal is to build up the fund balance i'd love to see it a little over $2 million and then potentially swap out three or four
rooftop units at once and then hold on to those in one of our sheds for some parts to be able to to extend the life of the remaining units so um we are hope this is one of the things that we're really hoping that the legislature can make a move on because um there are streams of funding that are super
restricted in our world that if um if the legislature would allow us to dip into those funds we would be able to better take care of our um better take care of our buildings um for enrollment and staffing I'm pleased to report that enrollment remains steady um you know we're we're
we continue to stay just around 1300 students we aren't anticipating a great drop or a great increase um I'm also happy to report that this past summer um we had the fewest teacher um resignations and moves uh than the
past four years we we hired about 10 new teachers um the past four years we averaged a little over 20 um we are anticipating a major market change in the labor for educators this summer as um most districts in the state of
Minnesota are going to be cutting um positions um and so we anticipate that um unlike in years past where it's been difficult to find teachers for any kind of position we do anticipate any open positions that we might have end up having um that they would be very
there'd be there'd be a few more candidates and we have already seen that um we've recently extended an offer to um an egg instructor and usually you can't find any of those and we actually had three or four apply um we're conducting interviews for a science instructor at the high school and those
are also nearly impossible to find and we have a a candidate pool of over 10 so um we're seeing we're seeing some change in the labor market there which is great uh next year we are going to start implementing a district communication plan during the strategic plan um it
came loud and clear that the district doesn't communicate really good and um I think that's a pretty common concern out of most constituencies of school districts um but we want to do better so we have been working really hard on a communication plan to to speak with one
unified voice and and set expectations so that the community knows this is this is how the district communicates um and this is how you can get a hold of us um and that it it uh it protects our brand so to speak anyway those are my reports if you
have any I'm open for any questions or comments or suggestions well I was going to mention on the grade level buildings are you getting any push back from the public around transportation like you know if you move to a grade level building everybody's in
another part of the town and people are complaining hey Giz instead of a five minute drive now I got 15 are you getting push back on that at all yeah that's a good question Tim that was that was kind of that's the number one piece of feedback um and I think in some cases
it it's true that uh that some children will experience a a slightly longer drive um if they're on the bus um you know especially like in this case if you live a block away from Winstead and you're going to be taking a bus um and you're headed to Waverly obviously
obviously that changes how much you're going to be on the bus um the best the the best solution as other districts are maneuvering through a grade level change like this as well is to create a hub system where all the buses end up at one spot you transfer you shuttle and then
you you move off and that that seems to be the most common and efficient way to handle that um in some respects you know for instance if grades three and four end up here in Winstead and grades K and two go to Waverly there would of course be a couple years where the the students
would be in in Winstead um and the nice thing about having the 512 building is all students end up there eventually um and so there's there's always going to be a bus ride for any kid at some point in time so there's there's not unfortunately really a a way around it
and like I kind of opened up by saying um at the school district the the way that we manage money the most is by attacking the place where we spend the most money which is in staffing and what's happening right now is we we're
spending more on staffing than the revenue that we're taking in um from the state and so that is not sustainable and it's not appropriate to continue on that path we have to we have to look for something different where's the biggest draw on the staff is it teachers parents
but it's teachers and it's not even close yeah yeah well we have um we have about 175 employees across the district and 100 of them are teachers um and so they the teacher contract um is about 60
65% of the district's budget from the day you walked in till today what's has surprised you the most what is surp That's a good question Tom um can I do a personal answer the thing that I have appreciated the most is um
this is my first superintendent job and um I this has been and it's not even close my favorite job I've ever had in education and I think a big part of it is just um being able to solve big problems and think about things um in in
a galactic kind of long range way um is I I think kind of what my soul speaks to um I do I do miss the kids you know being and interacting with them on on a daily basis um but I'm I'm surprised as to how um fulfilling this job has been
and I think a big part of it um this is absolutely me you know buttering everybody up but it's it's just been how welcoming everybody has been um that doesn't mean all the emails are super nice that get sent my way and that's okay um but I think um just speaking
generally just everybody um being ridiculously supportive and being able to rally around kids you know and that these are kids and um and that everybody wants what's best for them any other questions
thank you thank you appreciate the work that you're doing well thank you guys i appreciate you all also I I need to put a plug in for Neil oh cheese i know the um so I had a a tree branch fall down during the storm and I texted him and he
was like "We're on it." It was great it was like 5 minutes after I texted so thanks Neil for Yeah it hasn't I mean the the tree limb hasn't been taken care of yet but it will be but I have talked to them yes it's going to be taken care of but on a more serious front like um
in case you weren't aware Neil is um volunteering quite a bit of time leading a new DECA group at the school and um and just that that just again goes to show you how many community members in some ways that are unspoken and unadvertised are giving a shocking
amount of time to the school our community and its kids um and this DECA thing is is a beast and there's a lot of work to it that Neil's putting on it so thank you Neil thanks will you extend me the tree branch service as well if I call yeah you you
can call Chris directly okay uh we're on to the open forum next um if anybody has anything to come to the desk with please list your name address topic you wish to discuss
takers all right uh city administrator update and announcements i don't have a lot uh we may be rescheduling the April 1st meeting um likely keeping our morning work session like we have but turning that into a council meeting depending on um a
possible planning and zoning talk and uh I know I'm going to get questions on when the brush site's going to open and we need things to dry out there a little bit so uh that'll be uh to be determined this time
that's all I have nope no sir i don't have anything extra either um we'll uh ask a motion to either dojurn it or make a motion i'll make a
motion to adjurnn uh second i will second all right all in favor i I meeting a journ