##VIDEO ID:XMVVWwFKRoU## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right like to call to order the September 9th 2024 Bayport city council meeting let's all rise for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right let's call the role Matt council member Carlson here council member do here council member Gilmer here council member Hill here mayor Hansen here and just uh note mayor Hansen that um the City attorney Eric Larson is um avail able via remote tonight screen died what happened oh your screen died have that one okay there's Eric hi Eric Eric is uh feeling from surgery we both had foot surgery on the same day goodness and I was able to hobble in here because I live much closer than Eric does so and his was probably worse than mine but anyways glad you could make it Eric that's great um let's see do we have approval of of tonight's agenda anyone want to make a motion I move to approve the agenda as presented thanks Katie second I'll second it thanks Connie all those in favor I I want oppose all right proclamations accommodations petitions and announcements the August recycling award recipient is Bob greed Hurst on Second Avenue South he'll be awarded for his recycling efforts with a grant from Washington County and then now we have have the open Forum there's lots of people here the open forum is a portion of the meeting to address the city council on subjects that are not a part of the agenda the city council may take action or reply at the time of the statement or may give direction to staff regarding uh investigation of comments expressed a total of 15 minutes is allotted for public comment during the open Forum if anybody would like to come up and tell us your name and address this is your chance you just came to watch okay the consent agenda consider resolution adopting items 1 through 8 the August 5th 2024 city council Workshop minutes August 5th 2024 city council regular meeting minutes August payables and receipts August building Plumbing mechanical and Zoning permits report award the quote to Willow River Company for ashtree replacement donation request from the Bayport Community Action League to support Derby Days authorization to proceed with Peril Creek stabilization project and award the contract for Barker's elps Park Woodland restoration project phase two do we have a motion to I'll make a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda 1 through eight as red thanks Connie I'll second and thank you Ethan roll call vote Matt sorry mad mayor it's all right searching through the agenda uh council member Carson hi council member do hi council member Gilmer hi council member Hill hi mayor Hansen hi all right and next we have Molly Thompson from schlenner wner and Company to present our City's audit welcome Molly thank you welcome back I should say exactly thank you thank you for having me um I'm here to present the 2023 year end audit um um this document that I handed all of you and that we'll go through on the screen basically takes the audited financial statements along with the report to the members of governance and puts it into instead of 10 and some pages about 12 or so as I go through it's going to be very high level but if you do have any questions just somehow indicate and I can address them as we go or we can until the end so the first slide here this is just kind of a picture of the audit process we actually have three phases of the audit we have a planning phase a fieldwork phase and then what we call our wrap up and write up phase um and this is really a picture of the big chunk of the work that where we're testing your numbers so um your staff gives us a trial balance of all the balances we read all of your minutes contracts agreements we look at source documents make inquiries um confirmations apply analytical procedures and the whole purpose of all of that work is so that we can issue an opinion on the financial statements and we've issued what we call an unqualified or a unmodified or a clean opinion that the financial statements are fairly stated along with the audit we actually also produce a report that basically summarizes the results of the audits it's really our opportunity to let you know if we have any concerns that we noted during the audit um so the audit went smoothly we feel they have a very positive working relationship with your management there are no unusual um thank you policies uh procedures or how things are being recorded and then we do have one odd thing that we always have to tell you is that for us the Auditors your par calculations are deemed significant to us the auditor so we just have to let you know that so there's not really anything for you to do with that information other than to know that we've let you know that and just to explain what that par calculation is is if you recall oh probably six or so years ago cities have to now well governments in general you have to pick up the city's proportionate share of PA of liabilities for the whole state just your proportionate shair um we also have communicated to you that we did have Mater iial audit adjustments this year um and these findings that I'm going to talk about right now these are all the same findings we've had in the past and they're also the same findings we have with probably 95% of our client base to be honest under auditing so we do help convert your trial balance from Cash basis to acral balance at the end of the year you do have what we call a lack of proper segregation of Duties just due to how many folks you have working in your accounting department and then we have to let you know that we actually prepare the financial statements another part of the audit is that we're required to look at the city's compliance with minota statutes and we go through all of the categories listed up there I think there's seven of them so there's a lot bunch of checklists that we go through in various procedures and we just had one finding there's a withholding affidavit that's required at the end of projects and that was not um obtained on the library renovation project this year otherwise there we had no other findings so now I'm going to go through the general fund several slides here um what we have on the slide right here is a fiveyear trend uh blue represents your revenues red your expenditures and then Green is your fund balance or the leftover health of the city for the year and then on the far right we have your 2023 budget and you'll see that 2022 and 2023 were fairly consistent overall uh revenues exceeded the budget by about 110,000 and expenditures exceeded the budget by about 900,000 um for the year you had a on on the general fund a loss of about 7 7,000 this year compared to a loss of about 633 th000 the year prior um and then your fund balance which again is the health of the city so if the clo doors had closed on 1231 you would have had assets and excess of your liabilities of roughly 3.7 million so a healthy fund balance this slide basically shows kind of a similar Trend only we have two years of information and then your budget so we have 2022 in your blue bars 2023 in your red bars and then your budget in your green bars and these represent the revenues for your general fund and you'll see the ones that changed quite significantly your intergovernmental increased quite a bit that was due to7 67,000 that came from the state of Minnesota for a one-time public saf sa Aid and then your investment gains and losses Market was up at the end of this year compared to being down last year and then similarly on the next slide this is a similar presentation at uh that shows your expenses in the general fund and again fairly similar um Public Safety was up a little bit but again you got that safety Aid in the current year so you spent some of those dollars and then and your Capital up up Capital outlay was up a little bit this year due to some squad cars that were purchased the park pavilion a lot more irrigation system and the park uh shelter roof replacement and we're still on the general fund here this shows um uh you have a policy in place that basically says that your general fund balance is to exceed 40% of your annual budgeted operating expenditures and if you look in the bottom left corner you can see you've been anywhere from 90% up to 200% for the past five years so you are definitely in the healthy category for that calculation and that doesn't mean I want to point that out too your 40% policy is right in line with what the Osa recommends so it's not that your policy is too low you just have a healthy situation for the city this just shows a cash Trend you've kind of been trending down in your general fund over the past five years so you had a decrease in your cash balance uh year-over-year of about 125,000 then we're going to talk a little bit about just your other governmental funds so these are some special Revenue funds um Debt Service funds and the like um you'll see that all three of these fund well the two funds and then you've got a whole category in your non- major fund types they all had a positive change in fund balance so revenues exceeded your expenses and they have healthy fund balances from about 70,000 up to 2.3 million and then just a quick uh cash Trend analysis on these the top bar the red bar that's your other non-governmental funds again they had a little bit of an increase in 2122 um and they decrease this year about 274,000 versus your water sewer and Improvement fund continues to just creep up a little bit each year and then your library Improvement money had the big spike with big donations back in 2021 and then you've spent that basically down over the past two [Applause] years um couple quick things here on your water and sewer funds um your green bar up here is your operating revenues versus your operating expenditures and you'll see for the past three years well actually four of the five years you're pretty much operating at a break even or even a negative or a loss um so I always say there you know make sure you're really paying attention to your expenses in those funds and your rates and if they're um Equitable for the fund but do keep in mind the expense here on your water fund does include non-cash depreciation of 168,000 so you're cash flowing fine but on paper when you depreciate those assets over time you're at an operating loss and then you've got some other uh nonoperating revenues and expenses and you actually ended this year the water fund with a healthy uh 142,000 and you've got a net position of about 7.1 million on that fund so again it's a healthy fund overall but just kind of be mindful of those operating revenues and expenses and then same thing on the next slide for your sewer fund um again just be mindful of that operating Revenue versus expenses um the expenses of 96,000 do it does include depreciation of about 76,000 on this fund and again this fund had a positive net increase this year of about 20,000 and an ending net position of about 3.3 million and then very quickly cash Trends on these two funds your water fund has been pretty stable cash flow wise along with the green bar which is your sewer fund so your water fund was down about 127,000 a year in compared to sewer being up about 137,000 this is a very quick picture of if we combine all of your funds together this is the city as a whole um the blue bars are your current assets which come to about 13.4 million that's principally cash and cash equivalents there are some other dollars in that number but that's the big bulk of that number and then the red buyers represent all of your infrastructure equipment that sort of thing so again both of those numbers fairly consistent year-over-year but you can kind of see when we flip to the next slide again this shows the health of the city here because if you look at your total blue bars here of 13 million on this page and then when we flip to this slide your current liabilities are roughly they're under 500,000 so you you easily could liquidate all of those liabilities in this and then you have debt out there of about 2.1 million speaking of the debt this issue is on your governmental funds um this just shows the principal payments over the next however many years in blue and then the interest in red and this issue becomes due in 2031 and then on your Enterprise funds water sewer you've got this debt sitting out here similarly that comes to in 2030 so that's it for the numbers and a big picture um probably more importantly um I just want to let you know the audit went very well um we have everything filed with the Osa for you with your Publications so you're all set for the year we're looking at moving you back up in our schedule next year um um to have everything done by June 30th I really want to thank Matt and Lucas and Mary I think Lucas is going to do a great job for you and obviously Matt's been doing that already um I gave Lucas a whole list of things to do so you'll be busy but I I think you're in really good hands so I was it was a very nice pleasure to work on the audit this year so big thank you to your staff wonderful thank you that's great to hear it doesn't surprise me at all because yeah know they're great so does anyone have any questions or comments or no no I don't no sounds good I means you did a great job right thank you yeah thank you thank you thanks [Music] Molly okay so now we need to um make a motion right accepting it yeah I'll move to accept the 2023 audit as presented thanks gu second and John all right all those in favor I anyone oppose all right great and we have no public hearings we do have some unfinished business that we've this is our third month now we talking about it so we're going to consider an amendment to chapter 25 for hited prohibited acts and penalties article three administrative citations and civil penalties the Bayport city code of ordinances related to abatement and recovery of costs and summary ordinance for publication so Matt and Eric are going to I suppose Matt will start presenting uh where we're at with this now this is like I said the third month we've talked about it yeah Madam May I'll just uh give a short briefing of it and then I'll pass it along to Eric for some of the technical stuff okay so we were able to um work with the residential um group that um was providing some I don't want to say push back but um uh P back concerns about the um the ordinance Amendment and so we've worked at them to excuse me to work through some of their concerns uh specifically um language regarding extraneous uh circumstances um involving an appeal process removing language about administrative fees and then providing some clarification on language contained in the amendment excuse me um the final version of the amendment is attached it has been seen by um the group that was providing input um and hopefully it uh works at this point so with that um I'll let provide some of the background on what was changed and his perspective right thanks Matt you still there Eric yes uh mayor council members um just to confirm that you can hear me we can hear you okay great and first uh my thanks to the city administrator and to Mayor and the council members for letting me appear remotely uh yes I did have Achilles tendon surgery this last Tuesday and the surgeon was adamant do not leave your bed so so that's where I'm reporting from um so I I do appreciate the uh resident engagement and I also appreciate the fact that uh the council and everybody uh worked I think we have ourselves probably one of the best um as result civil abatement ordinances there that works well for the city as well as very respectful for the residents with that as a preamble let me walk through um some of the uh highlights here um what you have in your agenda packet is actually a markup from the initial proposed um chapter 25 section 25-5 prohibited acts and penalties administrative citations and civil penalties the first aspect was to make sure and just underscore and of course it is underlined so it is underscored that section 2515 is restricted in discussing District Court civil abatement actions by the city of Bayport um so it really is a standalone by itself and I I think that title really then transitions nicely into subdivision or subpart a which underscores again that the triggering of this SE section is really limited to those rare and extreme circumstances where uh the city in its judgment has exhausted all other reasonable means to achieve compliance with city code and only in those instances will this section be triggered for the authorization by the city council to commence a district court civil action let me embed that into the realities and experience of the city of Bayport according to Chief um chief of police Jackson in his 25 years of experience the city has never had to take this rare and extreme circumstance of actually authorizing a district court civil action but in those rare and extreme circumstances in order for the city to recover those extraordinary costs as it seeks civil enforcement it is this type of provision that the city re really needs to be able to show to a district court um so with that that leads me now to subpart B subpart P makes it really clear that despite the fact or maybe I should say in addition to the fact that there have been a preceding you know approximately nine steps before we've even gotten to this port part point and again within the last 24 years the city of Bayport has never gotten to this point but when and if it does the city will provide that Resident an opportunity to be heard at a duly noticed meeting of the city council so it's only after that opportunity to be heard where the residents saying yes I understand I have not complied with city code and that non-compliance probably has occurred anywhere if things have been very expedited 6 months but more than likely a year and a half to two years it provides that Resident another opportunity to explain why there's something wrong with the city code Andor why there should not be any action based upon the facts to proceed forward let me give that some more cont text in almost all cases before we even reach this that Resident has had the opportunity to go before district court judge on a criminal misdemeanor citation and also explain to a neutral District Court Judge why it is that the city code either is unlawful or doesn't have sufficient legal specificity or assuming and I believe that assumption is well well grounded that the city code has sufficient specificity is lawful why the facts are such that they have not engaged in a violation so I think that needs to be underscored that we really need to remember the context from which this particular section 2515 is acting yet with all these particular procedures and due processes to ensure that the city is acting responsibly and also fairly to the resident here again the city under subpart B is providing that Resident an opportunity to explain his or her their actions with respect to their city code here in subpart B then and only then uh can the city decide whether to proceed and authorize a district court action if the city does then and only then do we then proceed to subpart c subpart c as you can tell is an entirely new section and here uh the residence or at least as my understanding of it is and why it's here is to just make it very very clear that if the district court findes in favor of the city and orders a remediation it provides a 30-day time period there after for the resident to seek a stay of that remediation in order to essentially provide the groundwork to proceed with an appeal so that provides them 30 days before the city would be uh would act under the remediation order and actually bring the property with into Code Compliance which then brings me to subpart d subpart d is just clarifying those circumstances when a prevailing party and by the way the prevailing party could be the resident also the or the city but that that prevailing party would be entitled to reasonable attorneys fees and costs or at least entitled to seek those from the from the district court the rest of the uh provision as you can tell has not been uh changed or altered or revised so I believe I have hit all of the underlying revised sections and at least in summary explain the reasons for them and the part of the language of those revisions um I open up to any questions thank you Eric that was very thorough and I um appreciate all your time putting this together I know you and I and Matt and and Mr s or have uh spent a lot of time communicating and getting this to where we all can agree so I I don't know that we have a lot of discussion unless you guys have question about I know I was kneee in helping write all of this so I uh I don't have questions or concerns I know um we have the Sor are here there's some other people here I'm not sure why um and then I know there's people that were waiting very patiently for chapter 25 to be finished that are also here so um if anybody feels like they need to say something I am open to having that happen if anyone wants to come up to the podium to just remark on it otherwise I think we can probably move forward with finalizing this so all right come on or say make sure to state your name just so uh Phil St or 345 Lake Street Matt and I had worked on it and gone back and forth many times and then we route it to the residents that had were here last time as you see they're yeah look at that not here cuz they are comfortable with what they're seeing some of them are less comfortable but they're all comfortable so I just want to say thank you for the process and uh I thought that was a good way of doing business I think we worked on something good so thank you thanks for for mediating that Phil I think it it helped us to finally get to a place where like you said everyone can be comfortable all right are we ready to make a motion oh nobody wants to I don't know where it is it's right here I'll move to approve an amendment to chapter 25 of the Bayport city code of ordinances related to District Court civil abatement actions and recovery of costs as presented and summary ordinance for publication thanks John a second all right thanks Katie roll call vote council member Carlson I council member do I council member Gilmer I council member Hill I mayor Hansen hi sorry that was a long time coming so that was worth some Applause all right thank you guys and thank you for again for working through that with us all right so now we'll move on to new business consider a proposal from SE for engineering service to develop a storm water utility Matt thank you madam mayor members of the council um as you aware from the financial management plan that was completed earlier this year um one of the proposals within that plan was to create a storm water utility um that would be used specifically for storm water related costs um and wages so the primary reasons for having this dedicated storm waterer Utility Fund um versus utilizing say the general fund for these items um there's a couple that I've listed um property taxes are not paid by all Property Owners within the city specifically churches schools and state prison the stor water utility would allow the city to charge these types of facilities appropriately for any storm water that is entering the city system um storm water utility allows the city also to pursue a more Equitable approach to funding storm water activities um a storm water utility can identify City Parcels that essentially have a greater impact on storm water infrastructure um however you have to be able to justify that you're charging these Parcels a greater amount that is outlined in State Statute um then finally a storm water utility is an Enterprise fund and is separate from the general fund that the city procures from property taxes um a Utility Fund is exempt from Levy limits that could be placed on cities by the state um as I had indicated prior um in order to justify the prated approach where different properties are charged a different amount um for their storm water fee um essentially you have to do a study or an analysis and this is usually completed by a engineering firm hunts the proposal for SE uh to complete that work so the proposal um determines the following items one it determines a residential equivalency factor for Residential Properties um That's the basis for all fees for our all properties one residential unit would be for a residential property and then the equivalent of say a commercial property would be X number of Residential Properties so then they identify the non-residential properties of which there's probably about 70 or 80 in the city of Bayport um they do take some of those properties and actually actually extrapolate the impervious surface measures for the areas of those properties to better help determine that residential equivalence the unit um then they also review the city financial plan um and they'll look at the the financial management plan to determine how much we want to make to pay for wages future improvements different things like that in order to figure out how much cost for the individual unit um then finally they'll create a database that can be updated to change and or add Parcels based on changes within the city so if say we get a development or uh say the state prison uh develops a Housing Development there we can easily add to that database to start billing that person all of these um this fee would be build with your water utility bill if you're not on the water utility bill such as properties on Point Road or aspre um you would be getting essentially a bill that only has uh storm water be on it plus a new proposed Street lighting fee so uh after completion of the work SE will be presenting the materials at the public meeting um to discuss the analysis and any recommendations um staff will work directly with SE to create an ordinance which also has to be created for State Statute um to legalize the utility so at this point staff is recommending that City Council accept the proposal from SE um in the amount of $26,250 I will say that amount will be paid for um well not paid for by the storm wi utility but eventually paid back by the storm water utility once we get that moving forward that I stand for questions thanks so just in the interest of people in our live audience and our you know watching electronically or television I mean it sort of looks like some sort of a new fee or tax that the city is is uh hitting people with and it it's it's money that we're already spending as a city it's just a way to more fairly and appropriately um break it out for an individual property is that a fair way to put it Matt yeah council member dah that that's accurate I I will say that the approach would be to um to get properties to W equitably pay their portion right and to also have these properties that aren't currently paying any property taxes to also contribute to uh an infrastructure system that they currently use yes we currently kind of use the same system when we assess for Street improvements and water and utility improvements um um in order to collect money from properties that currently are not paying property taxes so yeah someday there'll be some uh somebody on social media somewhere outraged that there's a new tax on their um um City Bill and and this isn't new this is um money that we're already spending as a city it's just a different way of sort of accounting for it in a fair and Equitable way and like it mentions here churches and these other entities that don't pay anything are going to be on the hook for part of it so yeah that's that's what I like most about this whole thing is that we are able to extend it to entities that don't already get taxed but are using the system so it's a fair way to do it does it is there going to run into any complications with like businesses out of homes that kind of thing like are they just counted as the home rate or Madame mayor if it's if it's a residential property um such as let's say the hair salon that's up on Fifth Avenue it will equal one residential property unit okay that's what I was curious about I'm ready to make a motion unless somebody else has something go ahead John um I move to accept the proposal from SE for Engineering Services to develop a storm water utility as presented to us tonight thanks John I'll second thanks Connie right roll call vote council member Carlson hi council member do hi council member Gilmer hi council member Hill hi mayor Hansen hi thank you now more excitement the budget presentation from Matt I have a feeling it's going to sound familiar to us yeah was just a workshop to go over all of this and Matt and I have talked about it many many times I'm joking yeah but not everyone else is hting so that's why we're doing it's good stuff it is Patrick even hung around for it and Carl and Jessica and don't know computer at the podium man Sarah John is very warm is there anything we can do about oh I'm kind of like good I'm always freezing so don't worry about me like d up here so don't worry ready all right we're ready yeah thanks all right thank you mayor and Council um I am pleased to present the preliminary budget for 2025 so the budget preparation process actually starts in June and ends in December um and there are several noteworthy dates within that process um June is the time that we start um getting budget information together distributed to department heads um just get the process moving um July the department heads submit essentially what they think um their budget needs including any Capital Improvements um and any budget increases that might occur throughout the year um this year August 5th the city conducted the first Workshop to discuss the preliminary um 2025 budget and subsequent tax levy um and Capital Improvements um then today earlier today um the city conducted a second Workshop um to discuss alternative tax levy options and then at this meeting we will consider adoption of the preliminary tax levy budget and CIP I will note that um the final certified Levy does occur in December um and the setting of this preliminary property tax levy um tonight um allows the city to only lower the tax levy in December or remain the same it cannot raise the tax levy any further um so we do still have some time technically for the preliminary tax levy and budget that is required to be recorded at Washington County that is due September 30th um at our December 2nd meeting the city will conduct a truth and Taxation public meeting um in the city council will consider adoption of final tax levy budget and capital Improvement plan um as all of you know the city of Bayport is a full service City with significant amount entities um full service means we provide police fire Public Works and even have an independent Library so the city also has five city parks most with rental opportunities along with the city cemetery that has to be run uh maintaining Personnel equipment and infrastructure to offer this wide range of services however does definitely come at a cost so there are several significant factors that went into the 2025 um City budget um and you're going to have to bear with me on these um the recently completed financial management plan identified shortcomings and how previous budgets were essentially created those budgets included transfer in money that essentially was coming from the general fund savings rather than us um using up or prioritizing money that we were not setting aside to do improvements so this budget method is being discontinued for the 2025 budget year and for the foreseeable future hopefully uh the 2025 budget specifically now allocates future savings Capital Improvement funds in their own set fund so for example the street Improvement fund will be an actual fund within our Billing System or our audit our financial system so that we can set aside money specific Al for say Street improvements the same can be said for equipment replacement for the different departments um next item for significant factors is the city is currently in negotiations with both all three Union groups um for salary increases and any other benefits that may go along with uh contract negotiations so these negotiations lightly won't be completed until the end of the year um there is a contingency for salaries placed within the budget that does result in higher than expected wages that are accounted for already in the budget so if you look at any line item for salaries in the current budget there's a 3% increase that we've normally seen from a year to year basis based on past budgets however there's also a contingency in place to cover any costs um that could result from contract negotiations so um also want to note that there is an earmark I didn't include it on here but there's an earmark for a full-time fire chief that is also included in the budget um for half a year the current on call fire chief will be stepping down July 20 of 25 um and we currently are working through um the best procedures for his replacement so we wanted to make sure that there was money set aside rather than have no money earmarked at all um just a a note here there uh the market the housing values currently did decrease slightly at 1.5% this year so that played somewhat a small role um in determining some of the uh property tax levy amount um couple of the other major items in the budget 5% projected increases in property and liability insurance along with workers comp insurance continuing on with significant factors um there's a significant increase in health insurance costs both from a premiums standpoint and from people electing to utilize the family coverage that we offer um with more dependence being added this year so we saw a significant increase in that cost and then a couple of positive notes um the city did receive an increase of 7.6% in fiscal disparities distribution uh I'm not going to go into detail about that it has to do with commercial property and how it's shared throughout the whole twin Ci's Metro so we gained about $117,000 in that distribution I think the Total distribution is like 244,000 for us and then there was a slight increase in government Aid and then not listed on here is we did receive about $664,000 extra from the state legislature in small cities assistance um to put specifically towards future Street reconstruction improvements so as I indicated in the budget Factor slides um and this uh slide indicates where we are putting future savings for um future improvements in long-term and short-term expenditures uh the city is specifically creating and designating funds to specific Capital outlay needs for future improvements these amounts are needed to start building reserved funds for each designated Department future purchases will occur through these funds rather than potentially reducing the general fund on a yearly basis so any future Capital outlay the hope is that we have built off enough money in any of these funds in order to pay for it now sometimes these funds will be um essentially not earmarked but funded by say a bond that needs to get purchased for say the street reconstruction project so money from that Bond will actually go into that Improvement fund and get paid back over time with the money that's being set aside in the general fund on a yearly basis so that differed from years past uh on how we did that all right so now the 2025 budget Revenue summary Matt do you want to point out specifically how we're setting aside more money than necessary for the fire department I mean not necessary but that we're covering because our partners aren't all covering just so people understand what's going on there yes so we'll go back one so um as the mayor indicated we are currently subsidizing the fire Department um in a couple of aspects um our contract only allows a 3% increase every year um that is shared by the other cities um that we contract with that being Oak Park Heights West Lakeland and Baytown um that contract was agreed upon based on the budget from 2015 I believe and that budget did not include a lot of items such as as um equipment replacement um and different things like that some some high price items it did not it includes some but didn't adequately account for future purchases so um of the fire department equipment shown on this um on this slide that 31,500 um 140,000 of that is above the contract limit and the City of Bayport is actually paying that out of pocket to cover some of them costs there are other costs related um if we are hiring a new fire chief that cost because it's not in the original budget would be covered directly by um the city of Bayport um we also purchased a new firetruck this year and so there will be eight years worth of a loan repayment on that that was unable to be covered by the um current contract either so and we are trying to work with the Partners to redo the contract which we were supposed to do at year seven and we're at what year nine what year are we in now yeah it it's complicated and I don't I prefer not to discuss it but I just want people to know that we're not just letting that go ABS trying to work with them on yep our plan is to meet again this November just to discuss where we're at and what funding looks like and and start that process again thank so all right moving on on to budget Revenue um some good news there would be a slight decrease in overall revenue generated but this also means that it will coincide with a sight slight decrease in expenditures um the most impactful line item is the transfer in segment that um has been used in the past to fund large Capital expenditures um a significant portion of that line item was being actually transferred in from the general fund and not being charged to um as a revenue Source from actually the property tax levy or any other outside sources so essentially what we were doing is we were if if you remember the audit you could see the general fund being slowly down from 200% in 2019 this has been happening for a long time so it's not a recent thing but 2019 it was at 200% all the way down to about 90% now so what we don't want to have happen is we use up all our general fund for these Capital Improvements and purchases to that we get down to that 40% level right that policy says we're okay there but preference would be that we don't reach that level now what our plan is that we start setting aide money specifically so that we're not using the general fund for these hence the reduction in transfer in and the increase in property tax levy that will occur subsequently so um I will say that there still is a line item for transfer in of 379,000 a majority of that about 377,000 is actually coming from what is called the tax stabilization fund and so what we're doing there is that is not part of the uh general fund currently it's a separate fund that conceivably should should be used for circumstances like this um what it is is we're going to use that money to stabilize um the the increase in the levy essentially because if we would have not included that cost in here the levy would have risen even more drastically than what it what it is proposed not that's drastic that we're proposing but it is significant compared to years past all right with that said we will move on to expenses um as I indicated revenues decreased slightly so it makes sense that because we're um a break even and F or city um that expenses would also decrease slightly which is the um occurrence um we're down about or the proposed uh budget will decrease about 33% next year um other than the fire department funding which you can see in line item Capital outlay um the capital Improvement savings for the other departments which is what we've been talking about um with that transfer in related thing are now coming directly from each department budget and being included in the levy so each department budget has its own line item for uh funding of the capital Improvement funds related to that department so the other significant expense increases within the miscellaneous item that's labeled on the slide um there's a fairly big increase there um that expense includes the fire building Debt Service and Fire Relief Fund payments which are carryovers from previous years new expenses within that line item which are result in in the significant increase there are the partial full-time fire chief salary a debt payment service for the new Fire Tru uh that is currently being delivered here shortly uh the salary contingencies related to the union negotiations and health insurance costs that are related to uh required benefit requirements um for medically retired police officers okay so this is just a comparison of previous years and the current year budget comparison as you can see it has somewhat leveled off um over the past couple of years um but it's still significant so now just an overview or breakdown of the proposed property tax levy uh that will impact all Property Owners um the first line item the general fund portion of the levy sees a significant increase due to loss transfer in portion that was just coming from the general fund um The Debt Service line item remains relatively flat um that is currently um being used to pay off what is the current fire hall or the new fire hall it's not new anymore um and then finally the uh Library fund um which it sees its usual somewhere between four and 5% increase um every year um I will say that whenever we increase our portion of the library tax levy we also receive uh Grant uh money not in the same exact exact dollar amount but from a percentage standpoint very similar increase in a percentage Point standpoint so and very significant contribution I may add so the 2025 property tax levy there's been a steady increase in property tax levy over the past year um I will say that this year's proposed increase is the largest within that time frame so Bayport has been roughly in the middle of the road in terms of practice pry tax levy increases over the last five years um this graph shows increases total combined increases from 2020 to 2024 um Bayport being right in the middle in line with most of the surrounding other communities um and I do have some other information about 2025 proposed levies from a couple of other cities that's not included in this uh map um that I was able to get my hands on um from a couple of the other surrounding cities these are all proposed numbers Hasting has a Hastings has a 7.5% proposed increase Hugo does have a a 2% decrease like Elmo has a 12% proposed increase Newport 9% um and then finally Washington County has a 5.9% proposed increase um so we're still somewhat in line with some of the surrounding communities um next slide is about our property tax rate so this is just the percentage that property owners overall tax payment is how it's allocated directly to the city so 32.5 27% of your property tax is proposed to be the city portion um there's also included on there is the Washington County portion School portion Watershed district and a couple of other smaller line items all right obviously the biggest question after all that data um is what impact will the proposed property a tax levy Hive on um the city portion of everyone's property taxes so currently the median uh home value in Bayport is valued at about $375,500 um so a house of this value would have an estimated increase of $131 31 um I will say that um approximately 453 homes um in Bay port's housing stock is at that median value or less um then the next step that I want to cover is the $600,000 house and obviously you can see the rest of them I'm not going to go through every one but a $600,000 house would see an estimated increase of2 $69.35 um from there approximately 382 homes of bay port's housing stock exists between that price point and the median home value price point of $375 $375,500 all right with that said um I'd like to thank the city council and staff I think bort is actually weekly position to continue providing a high level of services which we already do provide um with a relatively significant but modest tax impact especially if we're looking at saving for the future um this budget ures maintaining high quality of life for residents or Property Owners um while also demonstrating uh responsibility with public resources and making important Investments for the future with that I will stand for questions thank you Matt I know you worked very hard on this budget and and I know it is also appears to be you know a large increase which we had talked about that it's highly possible that we would be able to reduce that eventually but we can't increase it so we need to be on the safe side since we don't know how those contracts are going to come out and we just need to make sure we're covering that um but hopefully we can negotiate and and this can be adjusted later I think the other big takeaway is that um the budget itself hasn't increased it's not like we're adding in a whole bunch of new things we're just trying to maintain and then also save for the future without depleting our savings like we have been doing the past many years without quite understanding that we were doing that um so and I think we had a good cushion so it wasn't like panic mode cuz we were at you know 200% back in 2019 or whatever but um I feel very comfortable with this because I know like the bottom line dollar value does not like scare me in terms of how much a median valued home is going to increase in their taxes about $130 I know that's just our portion and there will be more taxes that will be also probably it's not like what the Count's increasing only like 5% they're proposing that's the city staff taking that to the Commissioners that's not a guarantee right and I I'm unaware of what the school district is proposing at this point my hope would be that it's not significant due to the referendum that occurred last year so yeah and again I think we provide a lot of services here in Bayport for the amount of taxes that people pay um and we all pay taxes all of us sitting up here and we all um have a say in how much we want to increase or not um for everybody else so and then how much we want to save for the future and all that so what what are what is everyone's thoughts on what me together for us I mean for me you know we're we're all a part of this process right so we we have an advantage over um a just a typical resident out there and it it makes a lot ofense sense for us and we're we understand why things are are changing and why this year there's a there's a little bit of pain um I'm just trying to think of way you know a way that we could have sort of a synopsis that goes out in some form of a newsletter or something saying here here's kind of why it is what it is um with some high points and explanations and I'm sure Matt would love to present this information again sometime but seriously in all seriousness um if people have questions by all means reach out and and get an explanation it there's nothing there's nothing hidden in this stuff it's it's all out for everybody to see and and react to We again I don't want it to be any higher than it needs to be either but I'm also a realist and and I want to be um saving for the future and be prepared for things for the next Council when I'm not on Council and you're not mayor and Matt might not be here and whomever so I'm I'm pretty comfortable with what we have going on here thanks the other thing I forgot to mention is that we are Guided by a financial management plan um and that plan when we first looked at it was going to have a levy increase in the 20 some percents if we all recall and we said that is not work so they went back to the drwing board and this is to pay for all of the future things that we see the city's going to need the infrastructure all of the things that we have to pay for eventually they came up with a plan of this is how you're going to have to you know have Levy and have budgets over the course of the next how far out did it go years five years only five yep oh my God so um yeah it we dialed that back even and I think we're being you know as reasonable as at this moment with the information that we have too it's hard when we don't have the negotiations done for the the wages you know excuse me the union any other comments yeah just to add to that the you know $131 for the median home or whatever when you break it down it's 36 Cents a day yep so I mean yes the 10 or 11 and that's if it stays at that level3 which I know they're going to work hard at getting it lower we have a say in it yet before we finalize this so to me you know whatever it was $2.50 a week that doesn't seem like a a lot to me but I get it you know because then the the County's going to have their portion the school district is going to have their portion so it'll be a little bit more than that but at the end of the day you know I don't I don't like paying taxes like anybody else but kind of a necessary evil I guess and I think it's also confusing to people when they see the levy increase they assume that means that's how much their taxes are going to increase but that's not necess that's not how it works it's still what we need to take in isn't necessarily then what your yeah because we have other ways of subsidizing our budget so yeah so Madame mayor related to that we always relate this back to what Residential Properties are paying right there because it becomes more complicated when you're trying to assess commercial properties and run them through a comparison the county doesn't put out a tax impact for commercial properties essentially so um there is a a portion of this Levy that isn't shown based on the commercial side now not too yes anyone have any Jordan you can take off the Ethan bothi well just say you agree with everything yeah well I just said yeah John cleared it up with yeah getting it down from the initial first time that we saw The Bu The Proposal we're like that's not going to work for any of us and you're getting it down and we're still willing to go down more to we just have to figure out everybody's contracts and stuff and then we'll also need to make a decision because right now nothing is being put set aside for Parks right and we don't really have any park dedication fees coming in anymore that could change I guess if something happens at the Anderson o property the top the 11.3 though that is money for the parks right there is there is no that does not include any dedicated money set aside for future Park stuff now as the mayor had indicated we've have had um money coming in the past we do have money coming in from um uh gambling tax but that's only about $5,000 a year that is significantly decreased so unless we happen to get a development in um or we in the budget start setting money aside okay then Park improvements will be difficult so yeah yeah I I challenge anybody that has a huge problem with this to to look for frivolous spending on here I mean there there really isn't there's some contingencies built in and the the contract contracts coming up and stuff like that but there's not a lot of fluff in there it would would be nice if some of that fire protection could be not all on our back but we'll figure that out okay okay P that's it now we got to do all these resolutions yes yeah so just work through the resolutions um one at a time that would be appreciated all right these are short I move to adopt a resolution of the preliminary Levy for 2025 I second wait to get back so [Music] we yeah all right so that was Ethan and Katie thank you roll call vote council member Carlson hi council member dah hi council member Gilmore hi council member Hill hi mayor Hansen I next motion I move to adopt the resolution of the preliminary budget for 2025 I'll second that thanks Ethan and Connie roll call council member Carlson I council member do I council member Gilmer I council member Hill I mayor Hansen I okay we're passing all these one more to adopt the resolution of the proposed Capital Improvement plan for 2025 thanks Ethan second thanks Katie council member Carlson hi council member dah hi council member Gilmore hi council member Hill I mayor Hansen I all right so we're El set with our budget and capital Improvement plan for now um let's see M May Matt's GNA announce that public input will happen there you go um so public input on the 2025 budget Levy will be heard um at it's technically not truth and Taxation anymore but um at that's not what it's specifically called but um it will be heard at the December 2nd 2024 city council meeting so if you're interested Ed in um providing comment on what the final property tax levy is um please set your calendar for that date all right thanks C Council the aison reports Connie you want to start yeah sure well the library board met and actually um library is looking for new board members so if anybody is interested in being on the I feel like they just did that they did but okay we have one that's moving out of town and oh yeah and then one that um Family issue okay so if anybody's interested in being on the Bayport Library board put your name in the Hat if I weren't so busy with this yeah um there will be a book sale a kids book sale at the Derby days over in Peril Park along with um a program called the Wiggle Wiggly Jiggles think she said yeah something like that so that's going to be at pero park I think the book sale is at the library though oh I think it's always been in the past oh well I know it has but I so it might be but I know the program is at wiggly jiggly over at over by before the Duck Derby yes yes um and then over M uh there'll be a movie offered for the kids on that Thursday um so mark that calendar and then um Jill is going to be presenting um at the library Conference in Rochester I think Sarah Wagner's going down there with her about the library project and pluses and things she learned from it and the input for it and so she's excited about that I said good for you yeah and um oh and then our next meeting on the 19th or the 17th excuse me will be uh Jill's up for her annual review and so we'll be doing that so yeah our next Library board meeting will be Tuesday the 17th that's 6 thanks Connie yeah Ethan did the cable commission have a meeting they sure did but unfortunately we also had a meeting the same night but I do have the minutes um they're looking at doing a new treasure but they could not find one to commit to the role at the time um maybe be you no updating some bylaws uh on checks I don't think we need too crazy um they did approve some moving expenses because they do have a new location which I still have not been to um and that's about it some approval some dispersements that's all I have okay like it was about a 10minute meeting yeah well thanks for at least checking out the minutes and summarizing that for us John watershed management I went to didn't I mayor stepped in for me graciously thank you yeah and it there was nothing really very exciting at there there will be more stuff this week is yeah you're going to be there on Thursday I will be there this Thursday great and then baper related stuff B big stuff going on with be yeah be we have um Derby days coming up so Friday September 20th we'll have the Party in the Park that's audio circus so dress and Circus theme um there's going to be a costume yeah so the kids there's a costume contest for kids and adults so it's pretty cool um food truck there again the beer truck will be there again fire department's going to be there selling food again and I think that's it for Friday Saturday we'll be Legion at the uh we'll have breakfast in bloody marys um Medallion hunt that everyone does around town the Pet Parade will be at cywood cyale croyale yep thank you unless you want to play pball that's that's one of the coolest things to take part in I it's pretty cool yeah there lots of different animals that it's like amaz kind like a goose or something uh the duck races will be here at pero park across the street from here they'll have the library will have music like Connie mentioned um I think the Boy Scouts are maybe doing something too but they didn't quite know what yet fireworks are down at Lakeside with a DJ and Ducks are being sold all around town so stop if at any of the local businesses and they'll have them the bank has them too I heard so that's really good and and you can buy them online too on the B website and then you can see all the actual full schedule and all the times and stuff and you can sign up your pet for the Pet Parade online right now too I have a question as an interested resident the theme of Derby days is Circus in general or just Friday night Friday night okay I think maybe is the pade are they supposed to dress in Circus to for dress they dress in costumes yeah costumes I don't think it was put on the they do that they didn't do that yeah just an idea I think that had to be like updated then I think they get extra points from me if I wereing I'm really not sure about the Circus theme you're going to terrify people I I know I was how many scown clowns run around these kids are going to be traumatized don't do that don't try is a clown all right so I had kind of a busy September or um August I mean so let's see um City staff and I met with a couple of different residents about the annexation and um potential new development up from the Brad and Jan Anderson property just to kind of so they could understand how that would impact them they had a bunch of questions um I was at night to unite I saw Matt there Katie was there it was I forgot that too yeah but it was a great night thank you to the PD and specifically Britney I'm glad we still have Britney after that day little stressed out with safety camp and night to night but she she she did it and she did a great job um I went to a couple few chamber events a coffee talk at Valley Outreach ribbon cutting at the new Cornerstone Chevrolet up in um technically old Park Heights I guess um uh 18 monthly meeting I'm also on the Rivertown F Art Festival planning committee um I was encouraging them to try to have a shuttle come from Bayport to the art festival and it didn't happen and I'm a little disappointed that I it didn't but um maybe the next event and then um I've also uh the lions are having a mixer through the chamber um on this Thursday so come and find out more about the chamber and the lions and everyone else who shows up everyone gets to have a little two-minute spiel about their business so it's kind of a kind of a fun thing to go to a mixer and that's Thursday at 5 o' at the white pine building where the Bayport Senior Center is I also met with uh Cody croning from Royal Credit Union he was interested in knowing what he could do to help Bayport businesses and possibly volunteer in Bayport I love it when people reach out for things like that um so maybe bcal should reach out to Royal Credit Union yeah um I went to the Middle St cry Watership management meeting again like I said I don't remember anything standing out and I forgot my minutes went to the Bayport fire department relief meeting pretty routine nothing exciting there I also attended um it was called clean energy clean energy for cities and schools it was put on by the blue green Alliance on August 15th and it it was a bit over my head but very interesting nonetheless the city of Egan was there and they talked about some clean vehicle credits and and some franchise fees that they've been using to put aside money for clean energy initiatives um and then mountains viiew schools was there and they talked a lot about um how geothermal is the way that they're trying to do their Heating and stff so but and people used to think it was too expensive but now they have ways to do smaller units and so I passed that information on to our school district since they're building two new schools and hopefully they reach out to momsview and learn more about that so that's they can get funds through that inflation reduction act if they monitor things appropriately I'm also still pursuing um creating a foundation for the city of Bayport I talked to um an attorney Tom triplet who does pro bono work and and he's helping me connect with some other people I think it's going to take me a little while to figure this out but I'm still working on it and then I also went to the Lake Elmo airport advisory committee meeting and the story has not changed we still have thousands of complaints coming in from the residents around there there's really unfortunately I don't none of us can really see what the solution is other than not having the homes there and those I mean there they're right by I know they're right by an airport and um I think a lot of them think it's because the um Runway was extended but I think most of the extra traffic is actually coming from the flight school doing such a great job and getting a lot of people in there wanting training and we need pilots and so it's kind of a tough tough rub you know if I live there I think it would be really hard to live with that coner because it's a lot of touch and go you're practicing taking off and you're practicing Ling again right so um hopefully they can work something out at least they're um they've got a the um noise abatement plan and we renamed it to something else because it wasn't really very much a plan it was more of like guidance but um that has been out there for the pilots to better understand and they they've been communicating it you know like don't you know make sure you're flying at certain levels and use this Runway when you can and not that Runway and things like that so hopefully the word will get out there and there will be less but I still think it's going to continue to be an issue because it is an airport and people live right by it so so not a lot we can do so that was it for Miley aison how about City the staff and uh City administration's updates thank you Madame mayor um Chief Jackson hello uh here in Council uh got kind of a lot of stuff to uh fill you guys in on the safe roads Grant continues that's just our overtime grant that we got from the state and the FEDS um allows us to work extra shifts for Highway 95 enforcement of different traffic laws um officer Cornell attended the big trucks event in Stillwater on September 7th uh with Maze Happy to announce that we did receive our uh Grant from Fredy and Katherine B Anderson foundation for our new Squad uh cameras and body cameras it's going to be a very significant and much needed upgrade for us um the grant was for $118,000 so cuz we were one of the first to have them and so they're getting kind of old and so that's awesome that you yes from 2015 and um I have seven uh full-time officers two part-time officers we are down to three body body Cam that are working so oh yeah it's a dire need and we really appreciate them helping us with that it's a significant expense uh a couple things coming up in the future here the Bayport bash uh at the First State Bank on September 12th officer Cornell is going to attend that and I will probably uh join him with that the St Charles fall festival September 15th officer lowski is going to uh make an appearance there obviously will be uh stopping by at Derby days and helping with the fireworks uh on that Saturday as well uh we are still working in developing it but we are going forward with the scammer Trends and awareness class that um I will be teaching at the Bayport library on November 7th at 6: p.m. um it's going to basically be all the common that we currently see we're also going to do um several case studies of actual cases we've had here in Bayport um obviously not using some names but giving some general things that have happened we've had some pretty significant losses especially to seniors but not just seniors so um it happens a lot we probably take calls on it weekly hopefully it continues to be the trend that not many people fall form but it is something that we have seen losses here in Bayport sometimes up to hundreds of thousands of dollars so question if you if people do get one do you want them to cuz I had one a couple weeks ago do you want them to let you know that they've gotten a call yes if it's not you know a standard like computerized call where you know it's something I mean telling me they were going to come and shut off um you know the power at the um daycare unless I paid the bill over the phone and I said well I'm sorry but I don't even have even pay the bill and she called me back about an hour later thinking I think she was going to get somebody else and I said I need do I need to report you I do not have an account with you so please stop calling but so I'm wondering do you want some of those yes especially like when you talk to a real person um yeah she was same exact lady that we've been looking for you for your you know car warranty kind of things and it's pretty obvious that it's nothing well she said that people were coming out to disconnect me and I said I never know you send it I thought you disconnect from yeah actually when I taught the scammer class I actually got a phone call on my cell phone during the class that I put up the microphone so people could hear so it happens all the time I've been threatened being arrested SE several times so that's never anything that happens it's a small town you know if you're going to be arrested you you'll hear from us not any we'll get a call on the phone that they're coming to get you is it usually a phone call situation or is it internet stuff more often or almost always phone calls okay my uncle got scammed from an internet thing so like it was like a pop up saying you need to call us cuz your computer's going to be yeah you know one of those where old people get scared and they that or they call you and say that so your relative yeah stuck in Mexico and she needs you to so Jay's going to have all of these great stories to tell so we can learn from them and I really appreciate you're doing this he's done it at um cyale before and I asked him to do it for the general public so people better show up because he's going to be really mad at me if he did l in the no one comes so promise to get people there November and then you scheduled on a night I have a meeting so I'm like but anyways November 7th at the library at 6 o' so I think it's going to be super interesting because it's like real life stories of people that we know that are getting scammed you know so and I stood in the uh your department for a while listening to stories from you and Britney for the other day I was like wow there's and there's all different kinds I mean you would be surprised at what's happened actually here with your neighbors over the years I mean it's a lot and and yeah you'd be surprised by it and I think we should all learn about it so we can teach our friends and neighbors and parents and children and all of that to not do that and when and all call will help you know it's probably most likely going to be yep you did the right thing yeah you know don't do that yeah kind of a thing um and a lot of people just want that you know positive affirmation that yeah we're not coming to pick you up and arrest you because you didn't pay your $150 warrant it's not how it works so yeah um all right yeah so hopefully that uh will uh be well attended mayor I know I can come for a little um happy to announce that uh officer lowski Britney is going to be attending the jail and bail event um at croyale September 18th oh at 1 p.m. she will be quote locked up and uh will be trying to raise money for Alzheimer's uh the mayor did this last year um and raised a pretty significant amount I don't think we're going to try and beat her well but uh we're you know contribute what we can so if you're interested in uh donating to that seek out myself or Britney otherwise we'll have some links and stuff on our Facebook page in the coming days and then finally um officer lowski is being honored by the Minnesota Wild for her uh community service efforts along with her uh three life-saving Awards and just everything she kind of does for the city from our uh uh public policing stand point and just how much the uh Community loves her and how much work she has done for us so she was nominated for that award and uh the Minnesota Wild accepted it and December 3rd she will be on the uh big Jumbotron at the Minnesota Wild game so hopefully everyone can check that out it uh also uh is law enforcement Appreciation Night at the Wild game too so um did she get free tickets like yep she get free tickets um I don't if she gets pulled out on the ice or if she's just uh on the camera but it's kind of a nice way that they h officers so I will stand for questions welld deserved for Britney I love that okay I think we already bombarded you with questions earlier so for good thanks appreciate you Chief uh Madame mayor we have our finance director Lucas Schilling here tonight if he's willing to go for it I apologize I don't have anything prepared um did he just put you on the spot yeah he did that's fine um you can talk about the audit yeah as is sounds like you did a great job by the presentation we had earlier tonight uh the audit went very smoothly especially since I've only been here for four months yeah um just getting myself familiarized with the city's finances as they stand um and I thought everything went really well great was I was lucky to work with Matt and Mary um and schen wner they made things easy on they took things easy on me good and I'm sure there was learning from you and them and like it all yep my first time doing an audit yeah pretty close to by myself um I'm used to being part of a larger team so but uh a great learning opportunity for myself um and oops I'm so sorry that's Michelle take your medicine because you have foot surgery um but next year we're planning to start in March instead of June so should be oh wow yep yeah good we were a little late last time yeah well we'll get it done earlier next year awesome thank you because that helps with the budget then we planning when we have the information sooner absolutely great well thank you and thanks for coming to the meeting oh yeah appreciate that absolutely thank you we're glad we have you or I'm glad we have you I shouldn't speak for everybody I think we all are yeah just kidding okay thank you Lucas um Public Works director uh wor uh excuse me Madam mayor members of the council uh August uh we did wrap up the lead service line inventory um you know we've been talking about that for years uh we didn't quite get to complete but almost kind of good enough and we'll be able to continue on as people did not answer um the calls that we were placing on them for the L service line inventory nevertheless we'll continue to follow that up for years I'm sure uh ashre removal was completed and uh in the consent agenda as you were you saw uh we do have Willow River Company coming out to replace those ases we have 30 going in around town and public right aways and Parks this this Vault so look for that um Barker's elps Park restoration has begun um on the on the top side of the park near inspiration ation I think at this point the the crews are just trying they're anticipating a pretty wet heavy snow fall uh winter so um they're trying to get ahead of that um since most of the things that they will do as far as clearing out of the woods they will use equipment and they want the ground to be frozen for that so that it doesn't create any ruts or disturbances in the hillside um solar on public buildings there is a as some of you or hopefully all of you are aware we are going for through the process through the state of Minnesota with um getting us trying to get a grant for uh solar power on one of our public buildings we've chosen the fire hall um to have essentially as Matt stated earlier about 60% replacement of the power that's used at that uh it has been a long process we first had to show the state that we were ready to apply for the grant um there was a lot of behind the scenes work that went uh into that to prepare for um being able to get accepted into creating a full Grant application at which point we had to go through the process of creating an RFP a request for proposals from many many different uh solar contractors so uh staff was able to collect a total of 10 out of about 72 contractors that were sought um they did put together very comparable proposals um the state of Minnesota well of the CT team the uh clean energy resource team was invaluable in helping us create an RFP kind of standardized across and uh along those lines this is a newer program too so I think everybody's kind of um learning as they go here um but we have chosen a contract to um go ahead and complete that final Grant application um things I I'm keeping my fingers cross but things do look good uh I think that it would be a pretty neat opportunity to uh kind of uh introduce that to this town um so more to come on that October late October is uh the whether or not we get the the grant approval um date so okay oh stay tuned and with that I stand for questions thank you I really appreciate all the time you've put into that and sure it'll pay off right yeah I feel confident yeah that's great I'm excited about it so thank you very much for that and I've also if anyone's been walking up the path to Upper barkers you can see some of the progress they've been making with the phase one of the clean up there yeah it's a fantastic project super that's really near and dear to my heart that we get that Park looking how it's supposed to look and not full of Buckthorn and all that other crap that grows in there um for lack of a better word so thank thank you for uh getting that going and leading yeah again you got a grant for that absolutely yeah thank you Simon uh assistant administrator Taylor Madam mayor and members of the council the next edition of the city newsletter was mailed last week article highlights include an update on the Barker elps project that Simon just mentioned uh Library events all the things involved with Derby Days the new histo historical markers in town at the Centennial Pavilion and the history spots and the County's food scraps pickup program the next edition of the newsletter is scheduled for December or January um the mayor and two city council seats will stand for election on November 5th aric Hansen is seeking reelection un opposed council member Gilmore is seeking reelection for his second term other city council candidates are Carl Bliss and uh Dave far just to reminder that polls will be open for inperson voting on November 5th from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 P.M at the Bayport fire department a public hearing has been scheduled for the September 30th Planning Commission meeting to review an annexation petition and land you applications um for the site of the new Elementary School the city council is anticipated to consider these same applications at either the October or November meeting a draft of the proposed amendments to the zoning ordinance are in process related to the regulation of cannabis and hemp businesses in the city uh staff hopes to have a draft ordinance for consideration by the Planning Commission in the coming weeks followed by city council approval just a couple of upcoming important dates September 20th is the start of absentee voting for The November 5th general election uh we don't do absent voting here at City Hall but um Bayport residents can go to the Washington County Government Center and they can assist you with that and then as I mentioned September 30th Planning Commission meeting at 6m I stand for questions thank you thank for thank you for the smooth primary election to thank you everything went really nicely what do we have like a 100 people it was like 153 but okay and thanks to my election judges too they did a great job everying Dale is actually here in the audience so thanks D oh thanks all right Matt all right mtam may I just have one thing that wasn't already covered in my report um a concept plan for the Anderson Farm Pratt development will be presented at the October 7th city council meeting um this is a proposed development for the proper proper that's just south of the new Firehall um they are the developer is looking at approximately 40 detached vas um and also including either an apartment or Senior Living complex um on the property um the developer has submitted all his concept plan materials um to staff prior to the meeting and we uh look forward to that presentation on that day that else stand for questions I have a question but if it doesn't pertain to anything we talk can I ask well I didn't no I I had a a resident ask if they could put if they needed a variance to put up a flag pole and a flag and I said I don't actually know the answer to that so can they have a flag pole in Fr council member Carlson flag Poes are allowed on residential and Commercial properties the only limitation off the top of my head that I can think of is height okay um so that you can send in my direction andd be happy to provide information okay okay all right so I just thought I'd ask CU great I said maybe other people were wondering the same thing that's I don't know I mean my son put up a flag poat but that wasn't him didn't ask you it wasn't him is already up his is up already I didn't know if he went for a variant all right okay all right him under the bus does anyone have any other items or announcements or shall we adjourn that's a journ all right move to a Jour I'll second it all right thanks John and Connie all in favor you want to post we H you with this for