##VIDEO ID:Ylfx9qGo4-k## [Music] thanks for joining us for city council comments I'm Steve Ericson along with mayor Jerry Cook today we're talking about both our Monday August 5th and Tuesday August 20th city council meeting thanks for coming in today absolutely thanks for having me summer is quickly winding to a close here it's kind of catching me off guard a little bit today's actually the when we're recording this the first day of the Minnesota State Fair it is isn't it yeah and it's oh what a glorious morning it would be to be there it's in the 60s and just a perfect day I was thinking that uh when I was getting out here at work and uh perfect day for the fair this weekend's supposed to be a little bit hotter so yeah well they have like not crazy hot but like 90 or something which is a little hot which when you're packed in there with a couple uh you know 100,000 people of your closest friends yes yeah yes some people love it some people go a million times I imagine some people don't go at all yeah we're we're kind of eyeing the end of next week when it cools again a little bit and yeah always a fun time to venture around there yeah the great state fair yeah all right well we had two meetings in August one was one was very short and one was I would say very long but pretty long long longer than normal by today's standards anyway yeah yes yes so we'll we'll delve into things here we're actually going to start with our short meeting which happened to be our last one which happened Tuesday August 20th a couple items there we want to talk about one of the first being uh Council approved the final P payments for the new Fire Station 3 pretty much all the payments have been paid now yeah so we we worked with a with a with a Management Consultant on the on the construction of that and so we had lots of different things to pay we just made the final payments on I don't even remember what the items were now but we still have the last thing I think we've got to resolve is the concrete okay you we had some issues with the we had issues with the carpenter um contractor and with the concrete carpent with the concrete okay and uh so we've still got a few things to resolve there but it's mostly paid for now and it looks beautiful which is good that's why it's felt like a slow processes here a little bit the firefighters actually did move in there the very beginning of January uh but there's been some finishing touches and things that have been needed throughout so folks are actually going to be able to check it out coming up here in October um yeah during uh fire uh prevention week is that what it is but yep um they'll have an open house Saturday morning October 12th from 10: to noon yep and give everybody an opportunity to get in and take a look at it and get a tour of the building and it is an absolute state-of-the-art it's just beautiful and like you said they moved in um like at the first of the year and for the first several months couldn't they couldn't bring the trucks in the the back doors because there was no concrete back there yeah um but now that's all in and uh the place looks amazing yeah the sign's up everything's good so if you want to check it out and go on a tour uh come out to the open house again Saturday October 12th 10: to noon it's normally at all three fire stations but this year it's just going to be at new Fire Station 3 which is uh directly across from Anoka Ramsey Community College on the old cook Arena site the old cook Arena site right and so there's lots of parking there and NOA Ramsey is always very gracious and allows us to park there so we've got a big parking lot right across 11 11th and of course all the parking on across Mississippi Boulevard so yeah and people love that I think sometimes folks actually I didn't know this went from open house to open house I thought I'm the only one that had to do that to get different demonstrations but people would actually jump from the different stations to take in the the different safety demonstration so this will be nice to kind of have everything under one one roof so to speak and people can just stay there and and check out everything I did it I felt obligated you probably to hit all three besides you know you get a cookie at each one you know see that's smart too smart too all right cool we'll move forward now uh Council considered a budg budget amendment and a resolution awarding a contract this is for the eastwater treatment plant generator improvements I feel like we had another item related to the eastwater treatment plant this year but no don't don't ask me what that was I'm putting you on the spot there was that a roof I don't know but this is for uh what is this for so so this was replacement of the generator that's currently there all it does is just keeps the minimum things running like Keeps the Lights On basically okay and if we have an extended power outage we can't we can't pump any water basically what we're doing is we're emptying the water towers until we get that running again so now we have we've increased the capacity of the one generator and added an additional generator so that now we can actually not only get water out of the ground we can treat it and and we can send it on into the water towers so if we have an extended water or power outage we're we're not going to be we're not concerned about running out of water if we have fires you know to compound it or something right okay so normally they'd come out of the towers first and then they would be refilled again yeah yeah and and we we haven't had an issue in the past and because our East plant and our West plant are on two different uh with two different power companies it seemed like we had you know some good backup there anyway um but because things can go horribly wrong you want to plan for it and you want to be ready so that's what that's what this is all right I don't know if this is wood but yeah we'll hopefully we don't have that in the future well I mean I and and as I mentioned at the meeting um September of' 05 when we had those that really bad storm come through um the area around our West water heat plant that power was out for over a week oh wow you know I mean so it it yeah like mother nature you know you don't know when it's going to happen right yeah our kids were little and I remember we lanterns around the house and and it was actually it became very pleasant you know there was no TV there was you know no there was no electronics in the house and uh the the Saturday when the power came back on I was almost sad I was like huh ah back okay okay all right moving forward Council considered contracts for the soccer compa complex field lighting installation and electrical control cabinet replacement uh they're in the process I believe this fall they're going to do the first phase of replacements for the lights uh at the soccer complex yeah the soccer complex has still has the the old the old lights what whatever those are uh so everything's been up updated to LED um we're able to use the same light standards that were there but it just requires all kinds of the the new the new cabinets and I think this was for the new cabinet wasn't it yeah that's one of them is electrical control cabinet replacement it says yeah yeah um so it's it's all just part and parcel of getting the new lights into the soccer field yeah so I believe they're going to start sometime in October if I recall correctly after the the fall soccer season concludes uh and then part of the funding is also coming out of next year's budget as well right for the like half of it coming out of this year's half of it is coming out of 25 um probably because probably the most of the work we we have to order everything takes a while to get it and then and we still haven't done the contract for actually getting them installed yet I don't believe I think that'll probably be the 25 budget all right that is all we have to talk about on our August 20th meeting again as we said pretty quick pretty quick meeting uh moving back now to Monday August 5th we have this meeting a day early due to night to unite uh one of the first items there we wanted to talk about was the approval of an on sale strong Beer and Wine Liquor License this is for a softball tournament that's coming up in September at San Creek Park this is a really popular softball tournament and what was it number three it number three yeah thank you I just wanted to make sure I get the all we have is the acronym mmsa that's why did you notice I didn't say it I I left it for you to yeah thank you um and that's that's the military softball um so it must be the Minnesota military softball tournament so mmsa is just as completely confusing I don't know what it stands for yeah or something yeah but it's a military softball tournament at any rate and it's a really it's a it's a it's three days it's Friday night Saturday Sunday um it's a lot of teams it's a lot of veterans and it's there's some great there's a great opening program a great closing program the Northstar Lions is there selling food selling beer um and now this year um in conjunction with all of that the Kun rabis police Federation or um the Community Association G's Police Association Police Association okay they're raising money um they're raising money they're having a bags tournament there and it's they're raising money for the shop with a cop and things like that um so it's going to be a really fun weekend and that will be is it right after 9 9 uh September 13th 14th 15th 13th 14th and 15th St Creek Park and just it's it's open to the public stop out check out the opening program yeah the first night they do the where they do the national anthem and all that is well and then they do that again on Sunday um before the final games I believe it is okay um yeah it's just it's a tremendous thing and they get all the vendors with all of the uh uh things that help the veterans out there set up and it's just it's a it's a very nice very nice event yeah it's been back for a number of years now so they must must feel it's pretty successful at this location yeah all right moving forward Council conducted a public hearing and considered adoption of an ordinance uh for a new Comcast cable television franchise this is something we have to do every so many years yeah probably not as often as we should be doing it since I think we were operating off the agreement from 2000 and then that was like then then it worked without an extension and then it was extended in 2014 and for 5 years and then we've kind of been going without since about yeah 2019 yeah so Comcast just continues to honor the agreement as if the agreement is in place and now it is in place again um and we had we've we've had I think we've had the same attorney the whole time on that Mike Bradley who was I don't know if there's a bigger expert on dealing with with with Comcast y um and uh didn't we I think I think part of the new contract didn't we did we pick up a couple more channels there's uh one one is going we're getting an additional HD channel for our Channel 14 okay so and I believe we talked about it the other 798 will be our other HD channel so 798 799 is government and then 859 is community okay so it's we call it our plus channel so it's other programming from some of the other access centers that have games or other stuff of interest to folks here maybe because we also have some folks that live here who actually go to other schools yeah if you live close to Blaine or say the northern part with Andover yeah those types of things so so yes an additional HD channel the the franchise fee Remains the Same that's 5% of Comcast gross revenues uh that subscribers pay on their bills and then also the peg fee is changing from a flat fee uh to a 2.3% which will increase that a bit and of course this is all the funding if people aren't aware that this this is what allows CTN to operate right uh and we wouldn't have the channels without the franchise agreement with Comcast right um yeah so anyway so we approved the contract and Mike Bradley was there and of course Eric Strauss your department head was there and yeah so no we're we're thankful that's behind us now for what 10 years I mean really if if we go by the last 15 or 20 will this this one will be in effect yeah we'll see so and and one of the things that that's worth mentioning because people go why do we only have Comcast in tone it's like we're not limiting it it's not it's it's not an exclusive agreement um but it's kind of like you know another cable company goes I'm sure they look at the city and Go Xfinity pretty pretty well got it locked up it would take us a lot to break into that market let's go pick an easier place to break into yeah and when we did have Sentry Link we had a franchise with them for a while and then they they pulled out so it's not like we haven't but that that was a short duration but again non non- exclusive so anybody that wants to um same same sort of conditions there yep yep all right moving forward Council adopted a resolution awarding a contract for the Creek Regional Trail pedestrian bridge over Rapids Boulevard you guys have probably talked about this a lot looked at the design but uh we're going to finally get into construction here soon yeah yeah this is that connecting the Regional Trail from um kind of by the Kun just east of egrid Boulevard along Co rapbits Boulevard crossing over and then heading continuing East it all happens right there by Lily butt yep and uh you I'm sure if you've gone by you've seen all the markers are out there yeah and uh yeah we're going to we're excited to get it going and it should be a really nice gateway to Rapids Y and we've we've had a lot of input on the design and it should be very nice all right so that'll get away under construction I believe they said it'll take about a year to complete the bridge yeah something like that cuz they have to order the span it takes a long time to build the span and yeah sure all right moving forward Council uh considered adoption of an ordinance rezoning property at 1071 Butternut Street this is September Sun of architecture this would be for a proposed townhouse project but again we don't look at the project we're looking at the the land here and there was a lot of discussion here that's been to council before planning has looked at this a lot and in the end this resoning was denied yeah this this was really a tough one and and everybody on the council looked at it we've had a lot of conversations about it we've heard from a lot of folks the challenge is this was always a part of Peace Lutheran Church it was always just part of the church property but it was right alongside of University Avenue they've used it for Community Gardens they've used it for things like that um and now a developer apparently has purchased it and wanted to build Town Homes well unfortunately because it was just a chunk of vacant land there was never any curb Cuts put in from University Avenue I don't think that was ever the intention I think the reason it was zoned office which is what its current zoning is is because they anticipated You' come in and get off of University Avenue right um without those curb cuts the only access Ingress  for this development is Butternut Street and what we heard from all of the residents on Butternut Street and the other various sub subsidiary streets we already have too much traffic here people too many people use this for a short cut between um 109 or I'm sorry Northdale and University and they any project that went in would exacerbate that traffic on Butternut Street so we worked with them trying to get them to get Ingress egress off of University so that it wouldn't be on butternut and it just they couldn't lock it down so whether it's going to stay office which is currently it's currently staying office yeah if somebody decides to build an office complex there I don't think a site plan is going to be improved until they have Ingress eess off University if these folks go back to the county and get approval for their Ingress egress off University and come back to us and ask for resoning I think there's a good chance the council would would accept that but we just had so so many conversations with the neighbors yeah and really didn't just didn't want to do any more traffic on butter in the street well that's the thing too you bring that you you don't you want to make sure you're going to be able to go forward with the project without the plans but then you sort of need the plans isn't the county going to want to see plans in order to before they approve a right in and write out and you got to spend money on that yeah yeah it's it's this is a really it's a challenging thing but it's something that developers going to have to actually invest in to move forward to bring back that plan to us yeah because we can't we can't go and do that without a plan yeah you know so well the other thing was brought up I mean the way this is zoned office you could have a use that generates more traffic than this housing project would and that that could happen right now because it's already's owned office it sure it could it could but I I don't I my guess is any site plan approval would be contingent on getting that curb cut on University yeah I I think yeah all right so possibly more to come on this but it's really in the the developers or the people that own the property right now it's in the court of the people that own the property correct yeah and like as we discussed I think that they should probably start with the county yeah all right moving forward Council approved a site plan with conditions and approved dimensional flexibility uh this is for a project uh jhm Medical Park in the Holly Street Industrial Area 9255 Holly Street this is for an addition or uh a building they want to put up that's about 30,000 sare ft a new a new Warehouse yeah I think it's like 39,000 ft and it's and it's right across Spring Brook Drive from the clinic right now across from Spring Brook Drive from the clinic is the frus I think it is Clinic um or building and this this is being built in the indust industrial park but because it's within a block of Kun Rapids boulevards it's in the River Rapids overlay and so you and you can see the back of the building from Co Rapids Boulevard so so extra thought extra consideration had to go into it there was several design flexibilities that were granted um they're they're trying to build a building similar to the fesus which is a very attractive building um they had to get creative with the docks they have to put the docks on Holly Street that whether or not line of site of kuns Boulevard and it's a more practical use because they can bring the trucks in back them right up to the docks over there yeah it's I think it's a very nice looking building it's a nice looking project and they're moving forward with it yeah great to see business still still moving in and looking at our industrial parks as well yeah yep absolutely all right moving forward uh Council considered a commercial Tower application for a new temporary and permanent wireless tower uh at 11316 fley Boulevard this will be on the site of what is the current Foley water tower but that will be taken down eventually here because we have the new water tower that'll eventually come online this year right we've got the new water tower going in down on Foley and um10 yeah um so this is that 500,000 gon water tower up there that that apparently is higher than our other water towers so you can only use about half of it so we're not we're going to stop using that one we have um U cell companies that are renting Tower Space there so we need to set up a temporary tower for that and then we'll eventually tear down the water tower put up a monop pole um get that company back on the monop pole and that'll be open to I think two additional companies then on that monop pool um because we rent that we rent those right to these these company so we get income off that right yeah and the income the income will cover the cost of this and I gosh I don't remember the payback now but it's it's a fairly short-term payback and it's so it's it's a nice Revenue stream for the city yeah all right and well and and if you live in that area or drive through that area if you want your phone to work you know you've got to have those antennas so yeah sometimes you don't even notice it I don't know where I was I was just thinking this the other day and I'm like all of a sudden I'm like oh there's a bunch of like wires on top of whatever the I think it was a water tower but I'm like sometimes you don't total totally notice it but yeah you don't also want it to be an eyesore no no no eventually they just kind of disappear you know there's one up off Main Street by the church up there there's one off of roll Lake Boulevard K Rapids Boulevard there's I mean they're around eventually you just don't see them anymore yeah they need those reports like on Apple maps that you can report when you see a squad or an accident or something that's like where your call dropped or something and like put another one of those in an antenna in this area yeah yeah all right moving forward uh to our next item here we want to talk about uh Council considered final Design Services agreement this is for the Highway 610 East River Road full interchange project The Design Services agreement was approved and uh we're still kind of moving forward with this project we are we are moving forward with it we're getting you know a million here a million there pre you're talking real money you know yes um I think I gosh I don't I don't remember the last number I saw on this the last number I thought was we're about 21 I believe is the last is where we funded 21 million out of about 41 yeah okay oh okay because we got 10 million for one and then we're supposedly get some something for 10 million this fall okay but then I also heard I thought himmer our Public Works directors mentioned that we possibly might be getting funding from somewhere else too probably with with uh Matt Council unless that was the 10 million tab or something yes yes that would might might uh fill the remaining Gap unless I misunderstood that so what we have is we've received enough funding to be really encouraged that we're going to get this done yeah we have final approval so now we've hired an engineer firm to do the final design get everything ready to go so as soon as we get the last checks we can go out for bids and we can just get started on the project okay so basically they want to have a shovel ready project I believe in about a year uh is where we would be at so again about hoping at least half of it is the half of the $40 million price T secured and hopefully we can get the other 20 and then uh once once we are able to secure that then construction could begin right so what this is this is a $2 million $2 million 9,000 2 million 9,123 for the final design of the trunk Highway 610 is Road interchange and authorize appropriate staff to execute such agreement so and again this will provide both directions right now it's basically a half interchange this will make it a full interchange where you'll be able to go all directions right yeah when 610 again as a reminder when 610 was opened it only went West so all of the getting on getting off is from the West go west come off of West if you are coming east I'm sorry if you're going West on 610 and you miss the University Avenue exit or the exit for Highway 10 you got to go across the river to Brooklyn Park go to 85th turn around come back again in order to get off on East River Road yep so we're we're going to fix that yes hopefully uh hopefully that all goes through and and they'll be under construction as well yeah I think the earliest I believe on that project they said construction the earliest would be 2027 at this point as what what I'm hearing from our engineering department that sounds right big Highway departments big Highway projects they take a long time yeah all right uh Council uh considered agreements and a resolution for a budget amendment for project 24-21 this is miscellaneous compost this was a little bit of a discussion at this council meeting as well we apparently have two of these compost piles that we need to deal with this was item number 16 yeah yeah I didn't Circle that um so we have a lot down in that industrial park we were talking about earlier and every time there's been a storm any you know anytime we've had to haul off they just haul them there and and dump them well now it's it's becoming an issue we have a lot of stuff there um Tim himmer our Public Works director has worked and found somebody to haul it somebody that will take it use it and so it just seems like the opportunity time to get all of that off of there you know it was supposed to be just temporary storage until we until we had time to process it right now we're taking time to process it we've got somebody that like I said is willing to they're using it to spread it on their property for something I don't know what it is yeah um but we have we have pay them to take it yeah pay we paay a haul it but it it became very it made Financial sense now for us to get rid of it right and this was not a budgeted item at the time which was was some of the discussion but uh it sounds like the solution just came up they found the right person yeah the price seemed decent I think it was like over 400,000 or so yeah approximately $425,000 um we'll be paying uh $200 a load for hauling the materials $225 um an hour for site excavation and loading materials and then uh Revard companies will be receiving the materials and we'll be paying them $3 a cub cubic yard to take it okay so yes Mr himmer seemed happy he had somebody that would actually take it the costs seem you know it's not a small change but you let this go another couple years that price tag could double or well and and you know anytime you have something that needs to be done it kind of hangs over you and right now he found this is like the the perfect perfect opportunity for getting rid of it let's just make it go away yes you know and then it sounds like for the future we're going to start budgeting for the removal of this so we do have a solution going forward right right now we actually have money built into the budget annually for disposing of this correct all right those were all the items we had to talk about I know you guys also had your first work session uh this month on the proposed 2025 budget correct yeah I mean that's that's a big thing you know and and staff starts on it back about April you know what are your needs you know and and and they they talk about wants and needs but our budget really goes for what do you need and uh we're looking currently at a 7.85 uh budget Levy amount um and there's there's a few fiscal Hawks on there I'd like to think we're all fiscal Hawks and ready to push back but you could tell they work so hard on it and they already cut out the the extras the wants some of the wants got got eliminated pretty quick it seems like we're down to the needs and uh um so the 7.85 seems to be acceptable at this point in September we have to approve the budget not to exceed and then if we can trim it back we can do that by December before the final budget is set for next year all right so that's that's where we're at all right and then uh yeah folks will get their truth and Taxation or the proposed in November and then there will be a public Hearing in December before the uh levian budget are adopted right right all right we also want to talk about you said there was a rhythm of the Rapids is that what it's called coming up here in September yeah Rhythm of the Rapids so the Anoka Ramsey Community College Foundation um always tries to find creative ways to raise money to for um scholarships for the students there and this year they came up with something that I just think is awesome it's called the rhythm of the Rapids they're uh bringing in GB Leighton to play with his band on the riverbank in the Mississippi River if you've not been to the O Ramsey Community College campus it's one of the most beautiful college campus campus is in the state it's right on the Mississippi River um so GB leighton's going to be playing on actually they're using the city's show stage there okay there's going to be food trucks um it's going to be a great night and tickets are only $10 wow and you can go online just if you if you just do an internet search for rhythm of the Rapids or an oak Ramsey Community College you're going to get there and you can and uh you need you do need to buy the tickets in advance uh they're just $10 okay and it should be a great a great night it's going to be Thursday night September 12th and I think it's 5:30 to 8:30 or something like that okay right at the campus right at the campus should be a really fun evening yeah all right uh Farmers Market still going on on Wednesdays I believe through October 9th so get out there 3 to six um at the kunon Rapids Ice Center yeah absolutely all right that is all I got unless there's anything else you want to add no I think we got we have time for the other things all right and watch your uh the fall newsletter will be coming out here which will have some of the stuff the budget other stuff we've talked about today uh it'll Landon houses I believe on September 10th 11th 12th so watch for that Jennifer Jennifer put you up to this right because because you know team so I have to te because I haven't written My article yet this this slides in uh the same day uh we go to print usually all right so yes watch for that watch for Jerry's article and the newsletter all right well thank you for watching at home and we'll see you back here again after our two meetings in September