##VIDEO ID:3kX5X5nYaOw## [Music] thanks for joining us for city council comments I'm Steve Ericson along with council member Jenny gesler today we're talking about both the September 3rd and our SE September 17th Council meetings thanks for coming in today yeah it's great to be here yeah still feels a lot like summer as we're sort of transitioning into fall here right I know it's crazy it's really warm but then there's the leaves on the ground right now starting to blow in the streets yeah so for folks that like summer I guess they better be enjoying this because this is probably one of the end one of the last uh warm weeks we'll have here well something pretty cool happened recently we're going to start off talking about that first um people may have noticed now when they drive by the bowl has been lifted on the new water tower right yeah so we were hearing all about this about how it was going to be happening and that it could take you know all day well I think it just took part of a morning it went very smoothly so now as you're driving through the city you can start to see the full silhouette of the water tower and you know once it gets painted and you'll see the Rapids logo on it it'll be a a great um visual across our city yeah that's sort of the next process they they got the bowl they're finishing getting that secured in place and then the painting will begin on the the bowl that is something that's a little bit different too this is our first composite water tower corre which means they they won't be painting the whole thing right right and you know the other thing once this water tower comes online next year that will enable us to dismantle the water tower that's on fley Boulevard um and Northdale and more than anything it's helping us you know build for the future making sure that we have enough water pressure enough water to serve the city um and effectively use um the space in the water towers that we have all right well if you missed it we did a pretty cool timelapse video online uh so check that out in a story um yeah it's cool to see It sped up because you see it wobbling its way up the tower as they get it in place so so yes very cool to see and uh if if you don't know that's over basically by uh Foley Boulevard and Rapids Boulevard pretty clear there but you can see it in a lot of directions obviously from 610 if you're driving by if you're coming down Kun rapid bull East there's a lot of great places you can just see it down the road it's great all right well let's move into business now uh we're going to start off talking about our September 17th meeting here uh Council adopted an ordinance amending uh city code this relates to waste collection and recycling this has I feel like been an ongoing topic here for the last couple years it has been and and we did an awful lot of surveys and talked to Residents um over the last year and you know this is kind of an intermediate step to thinking about organized hauling so what we've done with this ordinance and then there's a second ordinance that we adopted that adjusts our um soliciting practices in yes in the C in the city is that you know we have five haulers so are licensed today we are going to limit to three but grandfather the two in the um up to the five but then we're going to be setting standards for performance you know you need to be making sure that you're servicing your clients you know we're we don't want to continue to have reports of residents where nobody picked up my trash nobody picked up my recycling they've missed this and so we've set up a process and we did that in conjunction with the haulers and most of these um standards were help were set by them you know and or suggested by them you know to be able to say this is what it means to be a good hauler in our city and you know and that's really one of our big goals is to make sure that we've got quality services and so any hauler that's going to be here will meet these criteria if they don't there's going to be penalties and a process for them um to be removed as a licensed hauler um because again it's about making sure that we've got the good service um down the road and if we end up with a couple of haulers that do leave at that three we probably would need at least three if we ever went to organ organized hauling anyway because our city is so big and you know being able to to handle things so we're we're we're kind of straddling the line a little bit but it's getting to make sure that people have choice but we're ensuring that they're good choices okay and the organized hauling that is not happening at this point but there is another way of they're trying to for folks that actually are interested in that there's this organize your neighborhood correct exactly so if you're on a culdesac or maybe a loop Street um if if you're concerned about how many trucks are there and that is a concern um organize your neighbors to be able to say let's all go with the same waist hauler and You by doing that you'll eliminate those other trucks on your street so there's there's ways that you can do that in Pockets um and so there is material that you can contact the city with and they'll help you organize that and organize your neighbors to be able to do that all right I believe there's a kit or something online if you just go to the city's website you can learn more about that process and and Implement that in your neighborhood if if folks are interested exactly all right moving forward Council uh considered a change order for purchas of Community Development and business licensing software yeah so um logis which is the Statewide it system they've notified us that the software that we're using for this today is going end of life and won't be supported okay so we needed to make a different decision of where we were going to go and last year we chose bsna um for financial software and they have a module that we can add on to that software which will do the community um development work as well as the licensing okay um and it it's going to be more I think Community friendly because there's things you're going to be able to do now online versus having to come into City Hall to be able to you know with a license and a permit and those different kinds of things so um we see that it is moving forward um and making it more customer friendly and you know with the implementation costs and the ongoing it's actually going to save us money and it's going to save our our staff time because the systems are on the same platform which means that they're integrated and talk together so we don't have to do something in one system and move over to another system it will just be integrated and so that will save you know staff time and so it's a win-win all the way around yes kind of catching up with the times and uh yeah getting more online like you said it helps the user it's nice to be able to sit at home and and do these tasks right from your computer exactly and and more and more of us you know there's so many more things that we do online and it just adds one more thing to make it easier for people in the busy lives that we all have well yes paying bills that you can just do that all online I got my mom into that she was so like always be like where are you the post office and it would be like why you the like then you save stamps and all that you know get so exactly it's nice doing the online stuff so all right uh moving forward here Council considered a resolution uh amending the 202 2024 budget and authorized an in fund loan for Boulevard tree removal this has kind of been a big Topic in the last couple years and a big expense right and and so every year you know through part of our tax levy there's a levy and we fund our our tree programs and what we're finding is with the emerald ashore that it was we got lucky a few years when it was cold and more dormant and the warmer wi Winters and if you drive around the city you will see an awful lot of trees that are impacted by this and so as a council we decided we need to you know move forward right and you know how do we find the funds to be able to do that and we've got some funds that we you know kind of have within different buckets in our budget and one of that is the facility construction fund so we're going to loan money to ourselves out of that fund and put it into um the emerald as Bard the the tree fund and so we're going to accelerate um the removal of damaged trees and disease trees that you know things that have been marked um it's going to be prioritized by neighborhood so if there's a really bad neighborhood we're going to work to get those out of those neighborhoods you know first so um you'll see an accelerated removal of trees you know now that we've approved the funding you know a couple of days ago so you know that will start coming up and they'll be able to to do that through um some of the winter season they can still take out the trees um it won't be replanting at this point um but we we did this this inter fund for this year we've got a plan for it for what we're going to do in the 2025 budget and then forward you know to be able to ensure that we're funding it adequately to try and get ahead and get these disease trees down and then we'll start working on the replanting yeah cuz I understand there's still thousands of Boulevard trees left I can't remember the exact figure that he said but several thousand several thousand and it's going to take till about 2027 I think they hope to have them all taken down and then there would need to be the replanting in the future yes because that costs money as well exactly you know and um you know so it's it's a process and yes you know it's taking down trees and we'd love to to get those replanted right away but it's funding and how fast can we do it and getting the diseased trees out is got to be the priority all right if anyone's watching that actually has one of these that's a Boulevard tree in their uh yard uh you can go online fill out a uh reported I believe there's a specific category now uh because they're inundated with calls and a lot of stuff so report it there they'll put you on the list and and as soon as they're able to look at it they will yeah so there's two ways to do the there's report it which is the online form that you can fill out and they did update which I thought was the call tree oh yeah even though that's a technical term um the you can call in and you can push the buttons to say yes I want to report a disease tree and that you can just leave the information on a voicemail yeah which will then create that ticket for you and make sure that your tree is on the list that's great they're getting a lot of those I know and and and our city Forester Tommy shabil is great uh but he's a kind of a oneman band so there there's a lot to do and and we're lucky to have him you know a lot of cities don't have Foresters and have the that ability to ensure that we've got healthy trees within our city and that we're maintaining them in the right way and you know one of the other things that um council member groak mentioned he's got you know an ash tree in his yard and he has there are treatments that you can do and he and I was paid to keep his tree alive and so if you're interested there are things that you can do to protect your tree if you still have an ash tree that is living um you want to maintain so you know certainly you know Google all of those things or potentially reach out to the city to ask you know how can you do that for your own tree yeah um because with with with this removal process we're talking specifically about ones are boulevards that are the city responsibility but I'm imagining folks have these trees in their yards too that are going to have to be taken care of at some point yes so yeah all right and we talked about the the introduction of the ordinance uh prohibiting practices for solicitors so that will come to you guys at your October 1st meeting for formal approval correct all right let's move back to our first meeting of the month which took place uh right after Labor Day Tuesday September 3rd uh we had a few items there that we wanted to talk about uh the first there uh being Council considered a site plan this is for Family Promise of an NOA County uh off of Rapids bullevard right this this is a property um they've already moved in their offices if you're familiar it's Kun is a boulevard about 610 the old rock solid y um property and what they're going to be putting in here is housing for people who are transitioning from homelessness um and so we made one minor tweak to the site plan um when we were looking at it they had a burm with some plantings and we we weren't quite sure if that was going to screen the neighborhood to the headlights being in that parking space so we asked for a fence instead of the bur and and hedge but um so minor revision but that site plan was approved and they should be able to start to pull permits okay and it was eight units if I recall correctly uh as far as the number of of units um and from what I understand with the folks and we we've done stories and talked to them about this it's a it's the the transition period so usually they transition within about 90 days yeah is about the average stay where they're kind of getting their job getting all that figured out and then moving into their permanent housing correct correct so this is kind of the the path that they uh they help them figure some of that out and it's it's a great service that they provide to the community so yeah all right moving forward Council adopted a resolution on ordering preparation of a feasibility report and plans for we're already talking about Street reconstruction for 2025 correct yeah and and this is the normal thing that we do every year this year it's 3.9 miles of streets within the city um I have my notes cuz if I can remember that um Oaks of shannond area north of 131st between K Creek and shannona the Thousand Oaks neighborhood between west of Olive and south of Maine and then various thresh Park neighborhoods um anybody who is in those areas that is affected you will have already received letters to notify you that this work was going to happen yeah um and as you know obviously it's not 2025 yet it will happen next year usually they start in the May time frame you'll start to get a lot more Communications anything if there's ever you know we need to you know take out part of your you know the curb or the Y apron of your driveway you know they'll let you know if there's any water shut offs they will let you know all of that will be part of the communications and so stay tuned but notice if if you've got a letter now that it's you're going to be part of that area um you want to stay aware you know there are ways to follow that information you know you can subscribe to our construction newsletter um and always make sure that you have the right updates for your area all right and they also have informational meetings I know coming up just for people to ask questions so lots going on there but again that won't happen till uh next May and there's a couple other approvals along the way correct uh including for the assessments because anyone that benefits from the property or benefits from the street reconstruction is assessed correct correct so and and when we do those assessments it's a small portion the total yeah um project cost and compared to our neighboring cities our assessments are significantly less right and how we do those um and and all of that detail will be coming out as those assessments are are put together all right moving forward Council adopted a resolution approving plans and specifications and ordering the advertisement for bids this is for our 20124 lift station Rehabilitation project yep um lift stations those are part of our public works you know you know Water and Sewer infrastructure and again we I love our Public Works team you know they are so good at making sure that are we making our infrastructure safe are we making sure that it is good you know and making sure that the maintenance is there because we don't want to have a failure right and and so this is an annual kind of thing that we do and it's a good checkup and uh making sure that we've got all of those things that we need to provide those water and ser sewer Services um are ready to go yeah you want to make sure it's all going good because you know you don't really think about it when you have all the stuff flowing but when something breaks right right that's when you notice it might be missing or exactly exactly you just want it to be there yep all right Council adopted uh two resolutions one uh proves or I'm actually I'm looking at the previous item let's go to the other one adopted one resolution uh this was establishing 2024 for 2025 C Rapids Ice Center rental rates and approved the fee structure as well as approved ice center user contracts for 2024 2025 this is something we do every year it it is and we've got great Partners you know whether it's the Blue Ox using the facility our you know youth programs the high school um a number of different groups and so we have annual contracts with them about what's the ice time what are the rates and you know we always do that rate study where we look at what are we charging for hours skate rentals all those good things um and we align it to the market you know what are our neighbors charging what is there what are things costing us because we all know that there's been so inflation and things cost more and so we we annually look at that to ensure that what we're doing can be more self-funding and actually um get the revenue for what is the value all right one other thing we do annually as well Council adopted a resolution on establishing the preliminary tax levy for 2025 y this is a big one right and you know our staff you know is probably starting to work on 2026 budgets already because it takes so long um but our our staff does a great job and then about the May time frame we start to hear about requests from the council and we have some workshops of what are the things that we want to see in the budget what are the things that we're going to have to put in the budget you know and in the majority of our general fund is people you know we need to fund our firefighters we need to fund our police we need to fund our Public Works we need to fund our city staff um and and so we're always looking at ways how can we do things better how can we do things more efficiently where can we save dollars you know the financial software is an example how can we you know do things better yeah um and with that because I'll when we negotiate the contracts with our our labor unions and and whatnot there are cost of living adjustments um there's rate just position just to align with what the market is and so right now we're at a 7.85% um increase for that tax levy so that's what we've said we cannot go above that right um but between now now in December when it's formally adopted if there's things that we can find and do we could potentially go lower yeah um but that is what it would be and we have to um to set that and do our preliminary so that means the county can collect all of the information from the county from all the different cities you know the school district all the different tax taxing authorities and to be able to send out those truth and Taxation notices that um not I think they come out in November yeah it's usually before Thanksgiving kind of November to and then and then come December we will have that final meeting and you know take a look at what are we going to set you know in stone for what would be the the property tax levy yeah and that's where the public hearing will be if anybody's interested to comment on the budget that's their chance to do so of course they can always call you know Council staff any time before to to voice those yeah and what what what what's hard is a lot of people will be like well you know you raised the value of my home and it's like it's hard the value of your home is something that you need to talk about back in April when those values get set and if you don't think that value was right in April was the time yes or next April would be the time um and then there are certain things that are out of our control there is a state formula for how um the the taxes get levied based on Commercial properties versus res Residential Properties and all of all of that so that formula is what gets applied to determine you know so well it's a 7.85% increase some people may see more some people may see less based on the type of property they have and how their property value changed relationship related to all the other properties in the city so it gets kind of complicated yeah um but in general you know it'll be about 7.85% all right again notices will come out in November from the county that'll give you kind of more information of where things sit in the meantime if you're really interested in the budget uh there is a budget and brief you can read online uh that's just like four uh Pages otherwise you can delve into the whole thing and yeah several hundred Pages you know get into the nitty-gritty we talk about all of the different things what we accomplished last year what we're planning to accomplish with each different fund for the year yeah good times all right that is all we had on that meeting we wanted to talk about hey did you know it's an election year it is an election year and early voting starts tomorrow yeah um Friday the what is the Friday 20th I believe we're on September 20th September 20th so um that is absentee voting so you fill it out you can come to City Hall and fill it out it'll be like an absentee ballot um a few years ago Minnesota said you didn't have to have a reason to be an absentee ballot ballad so you can come into City Hall if you haven't registered or need to check your registration you can do that at City Hall now um the hours that you can do that are on the website I think right now it's Monday through Friday 8 to 5 um or 8 to 4:30 yeah business hours y um and then you know as we get closer to the election yeah um they will have expanded hours there'll be some Saturday or you know weekend hours to be able to do that but we've got four City races on the ballot so three coun Ward one yep ward two Ward four and our at large y will be on the ballot along with all of the county state and federal races all right so you got time it seem seems It's about 45 days until election because that's when absentee usually starts and uh and then of course if you don't want to vote absentee you can do so on Election Day November 5th at the polls from 7:00 a.m. to 8: p.m. you can cast your ballot right there exactly all right well we had another exciting thing uh we talked about the water tower earlier but we had uh finally had the ribbon cutting for our new Fire Station 3 yes that was on the 10th um last week Tuesday y um and it was a great it wasn't really a ribbon we uncoupled the hose so between the couple of fir tracks and it was it was a great event attended by a a lot of folks and then there was you know water and cookies and people could take some tours but if if you missed that there is a fire station open house on October oober 12th okay at Fire Station 3 which is the new fire station on Mississippi Boulevard across from the community college um go and check it out it's a beautiful building um it has a lot of amenities to help our firefighters to be um healthy yeah you know making sure that they can get rid of carcinogens after a fire before they go back into their living quarters making sure that they have quiet time for the because firefighters are on call for 24 hours yeah and you know and so they need to be able to get sleep when they can get sleep and and so there's a lot of things focused there and a lot of training opportunities and a training information that that's there because fires are few and far between you know but you've got to practice you've got to learn how to do those things and so that's um in that facility as well all right so check it out that's the annual Fire Department open house uh which used to be at all three stations for a while it's been at Sand Creek Park but now uh it's going to be at the the brand new station this year yeah on that date um that's just one of the things coming up there's other things uh I don't know if people can see this the newsletter right the newsletter yeah this just came out uh about a week ago I believe it arrived in mailboxes so hopefully you've seen this and it is our our staff does a phenomenal job it is the best thing you should read it cover to cover um it tells you everything that you need to know um about what's going on in the city and where you know like our just in two days the pet fair on September 21st and Rocky's pumpkin patch is going to be on October Saturday October 19th so that's growing into a huge event thousands of people at Sand Creek Park at Sand Creek and so you know even though that's a couple of weeks away from our taping here yeah um get prepared get ready plan on it get those costumes for the kids and bring them out there and it's been a wonderful time you could pick their own pumpkin it's all and it's a free event so yes lots more stuff obviously more coming up in November December uh the annual different skating events at the Ice Center there'll be a season of giving kickoff as well so make sure you read that uh you can also there's a digital version on the city's website if you want to see it there as well absolutely all right well you were talking about elections and your seat is actually up for election my seat is but I am I am not running um I am finishing year 10 as a council member I spent 16 years on Planning Commission prior to that and I think four years on economic development before that um and it's time it's time to give other people another chance you know bring in more youth I I suppose yeah um and I have thoroughly enjoyed you know my service to the community and helping our residents and I look forward to potentially joining a commission or doing some other things in the community um with the time and uh I still will be be around and active but uh I you won't see me on the council and this will be my last Council comment opportunity we had to bring you in 10 years yes yeah so it been great having you here and uh we appreciate you always joining us and telling us what's going on is there anything you're particularly most proud of about your time here on Council and anything you guys you wished you could have accomplished um I think that whenever I talk about the council the one of the things that I worked on with staff from day one was really working to shift how we saw our residents and shifting from to more of a customer service perspective from a lot of the things that we did and and that was things that were there buds starting otherwhere but when you start to look at you know how we're doing our citations it's it's not just bad it's how can we help you right um it's not you know here's the rule it's like can we help you make sure that you know and it's about making sure that we have good dialogue with our residents making sure that we're a partner because we can't just be punitive and we can't you know and so it's looking at shifting that mentality um through everything that we do in the city has been a focus of mine for the for the 10 years and I think I think you can see in how just even the language that you see in some of the newsletters and the different kinds of things um we've reinforced and encouraged our staff who was probably going to do a lot of that anyway yeah um but it's just a a culture in the city that is about service and I love that all right well we appreciate you again being here today you still got you can't go anywhere yet you still got about six meetings left plus plus a work session or two we count to the other day I've got N9 nine okay with work sessions all right well again thank you for coming in today and talking to us and thank you for your service uh thank you at home for watching and we'll see you back here again after our two meetings in October right correct all right [Music]