##VIDEO ID:XPkDFd-79Dc## [Music] [Music] good evening and welcome to the Rapid City council meeting for Tuesday December 17th 2024 if you would please join us and rise for the pledge I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all let's call the RO council member kovak here council member Ray row here council member Novak here council member Geisler here council member Armstrong here council member Carlson here mayor cook here all right well why don't we adopt this evening's agenda Mr mayor council member Geisler I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda with one um modification that we will move number two from the consent agenda into proclamations and presentations second uh motion and a second to approve the agenda with that one change is there any discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I opposed and that motion carries which means the very first thing on our agenda is to adopt a resolution 24-18 accepting a grant from the St Paul area Association of Realtors M ring do you want to start at the ambo or what do you want to do I thought call us up oh well you can I I didn't know if you wanted to introduce it first or you want to just come up first can come up absolutely be I'll meet you right up front Okay who wants this then I'm I'm going to start off Mr Brown all right I thought I would start off because the city's had a a long partnership with the St Paul area Association of Realtors uh going back o over a decade I would say they've been an important partner for us as we develop uh various housing policies obviously maintaining the city's housing stock ensuring afford affordability are important uh things to our city and having a partnership with local Realtors is is an important component of that uh so in addition to helping us on policy matters we've partnered with Spar on uh now an annual realtor Forum that brings in Realtors from around the region to the city so we can share uh our various housing resources that they can then share with their clients uh and just share in in more general terms all the good things we have going on in our community uh so in the recent years as Spar has developed its new key communities program uh we look for opportunities to to work together together even further uh one of the components of that program is uh a placemaking grant opportunity uh which we looked for some opportunities and and felt one uh of our priorities would be a good fit for that that is some uh banners and other placemaking uh components along the Rapids Boulevard Corridor which has been an important Corridor to us so we worked with them to apply for their Grant as well as a National Association of Realtors Grant to fund some new banners along Rapids Boulevard yes that's right thank you Matt um I don't know if Steve has the uh visual but if we can remind everyone that there's a pedestrian bridge that is actually starting construction down in the port Riverwalk area and within that Corridor we're actually going to use the funds um wonderful there there is the bridge so it's actually going to connect the Creek Regional Trail and if you can picture this down by the new Central homes development um Lily putut Rapids Boulevard and Zilla street so it will connect across people can bike and they can walk but we're actually going to use the grant funding for the the mechanical pieces that are attached to the lamp posts and we have some original designs that have come out of our marketing department and it's really going to beautify the area down there so what a statement between the bridge and these beautiful flags and we can't do it without the mechanical pieces so the funding from St Paul area Association of Realtors what a what a beautiful place making that that will have in the community so the city wants to thank you and I just want to take a minute to have you introduce yourselves and um we'll accept this grant money great thank you so much we appreciate the opportunity to work together and collaborate to make our our cities better we cover a 12count area um in the Twin Cities and so on behalf of our nearly 8,000 members um we appreciate and look forward to that continued class collaboration I'm Amy Peterson I'm the 2024 Spar President we have our CEO Gabe Walsh here with us and one of our government Affairs directors beggy weide who has also been working um very closely in terms of putting those details together so we thank them and again thank you for the opportunity to work together so with that mayor we turn it over to the council this has been a long time coming how many years ago did we start trying to find a key project like four years ago yeah I was like okay forget it well and then all of a sudden I went hey they've got one that's beautiful so we're very appreciative of this and uh um we're going to adopt the ordinance accepting this but we're not going to get any big cardboard checks tonight or anything right okay all right I I'm always wondering what we got for props you know your props all right very good um this is actually a really good time sidebar the pedestrian bridge is a Regional Trail connection right council member Carlson absolutely we get hammered on the social media why didn't they put it by the high school it's like no it's not just a walking it's not just a crosswalk it's actually part of our regional trail system and that we have spent so much time money energy redeveloping that whole area down there all the new features along Kunis Boulevard reconstructed new lights new these are going to be an awesome addition to that so it's really going to be nice okay what else any we done all right well thank you thank you very much and I'm going start with Amy then I guess Gabe it's nice meeting you tonight Becky good seeing you again nothing to say [Laughter] t Christmas wait we'll do that oh thank you very much for everything thank you thank you [Music] all right so let's see so we need to do actually accept that then do we want to do that now or is it or because we've already removed it from the consent agenda we should do it now then so Mr mayor council member gisler I will make a motion to adopt resolution 24-18 accepting a grant from the St Paul area Association of Realtors second motion by Geisler second by Novak is there a discussion Mr mayor council member Geiser I would just make a comment because we didn't talk about how much this is and so it is $7,000 from the National Association of Realtors and $2500 from Spar for a total of $9,500 to to purchase these banners which is fabulous aesome and we thank them absolutely all right any other discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I opposed and that motion carries like who would oppose that though not sure all right and now we're going to item one which is to approve this the minutes from the December 3rd meeting motion to approve the minutes Mr Mayor second motion by Carlson and a second by AR Armstrong I have to go up here and see now where are we at two oh one get really confused um okay any discussion or Corrections hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and the motion carries two extensions uh council members Ray rower and Novak that was what I was looking for all right item uh now we on our consent agenda we have three items left on our consent agenda the first one is item three on this evening's agenda and that's to receive the schedule of of electronic payments uh we're just receiving the schedule of electronic payments from November 27th 2024 to December 11th 2024 if you're ever wondering what the city spends money on go into the council agenda and uh it's all right there um the next item under our consent agenda is to adopt resolution 24-14 accepting donations and business sponsorships um we have multiple that between October 1st and December 31st the city received donations U from CR sports bar competition cheer Advanced first aid and uh Community strength Foundation uh the family of Wade I'm sorry the family of Ralph Wy Bob Frederickson Kathy stel and then we have several Anonymous donors and then we have a donation from the club car wash and North American Development Group Riverdale Village and we would like to thank all of the donors and businesses that supported events and programs so we're looking to adopt resolution 24-14 to accept contributions made to the city between October 1st and December 31st 2024 and the next item which is the final on our consent agenda is to adopt resolution 24-13 appointing George blindow to the Arts commission uh George has submitted an application for the Arts commission after discussion with the applicant at the December 10th meeting the Arts commission recommends uh he be appointed to the Arts commission with a term expiring December 31st 2027 so we're looking to adopt resolution 24-13 appointing George blindow or blind hour and I apologize was it the second one blind hour okay whatever whichever one it is where you are getting appointed to the Arts commission with a term expiring December 31st 2027 and that's our consent agenda Mr mayor council member rower uh so glad to welcome George to the Arts commission love all of our commissioners we couldn't do it without you do a lot of important work for the city and thank you um to all of those that donated did and did business sponsorships we greatly appreciate it and with that I make a motion to approve the consent agenda second motion by Ray rower and a second by Geisler Is there further discussion or questions on the consent agenda hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that is adopted item six is to hold a currency exchange license public hearing and consider license renewal for your your exchange um is lens Meers anything you want me to go over or you want me to just read the discussion here Mr Mayor it's just a standard protocol for this type of license renewal which requires us to hold a public hearing and then uh requests that the council concur with the renewal of that currency exchange license very good this is this was noticed in the paper and the Minnesota Department of Commerce conducted a state level background review on on the appropriate personnel no matters which would impact concurrence with the license were discovered and uh their fee schedule is attached to our agenda uh does anybody have any questions on this before I open the public hearing hearing none I will open the public hearing on the um as we consider the license renewal for your exchange is anybody here to address Council for the public hearing on the license renewal for your exchange all right seeing nobody here for that public hearing we will close the public hearing Mr mayor council member Geisler I will make a motion um to concur with the Minnesota Department of Commerce renewal of the 2025 currency exchange license for your exchange 3070  Rapids Boulevard second motion by Geisler and a second by Ray rower is there a discussion on this hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries we up to item seven consider adoption of ordinance 2320 authorizing the sale of Real Estate 83xxx and it's not big enough to be built on and so we are just selling it to a willing neighbor who would like to purchase it so Mr mayor council member gesler I'll make a motion to adopt um ordinance 2320 authorizing conveyance of the property at 83xxx a deed and motion authorizing staff to execute other closing documents as necessary to effectuate the closing second second wow um we had a motion by Geisler and I'm going to give it to Novak because it was just close motion by and uh so do we have any further discussion on this or any discussion on this Mr mayor council member Noak I just think that it makes sense to do this uh the lot is technically very large at. 35 Acres but it's only 50 ft wide uh not a whole lot you can do with this and so let the people who want it have it at a fair price all right any other discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I opposed and that motion carries item eight consider adoption of ordinance 2319 amending the municipal storm water rates charges and collections city code section 13- 1300 Mr Hammer anything else you want to add to this from last meeting no Mr Mayor it's just the adoption following the introduction from last meeting but I'm happy to answer any questions anybody have any questions of Mr himmer okay Mr mayor council member guys I it's my last meeting I'll just make them all you know so I'll make a motion to adopt ordinance 2319 amending chapter 13-1 1300 storm water draining Jun utility second motion by Geisler second by Carlson is there a discussion on this or questions of Mr Hammer Mr mayor council member kovak yes so I I do have a couple of questions on this uh some concerns and well let me start by saying while I agree with the rate structure that's going to be coming up later in the meeting I think that we're missing an opportunity with this in changing some of the language in this ordinance because we're not addressing the fact that uh Rapid still has agricultural land in the city specifically a couple of uh of sod farms so I would like to see a designation in here if we're going to go to the effort to change this ordinance why aren't we including a definition for a farm in here that has a much lower RF Factor than 0.2 and so the reason I brought that up and I brought this up in a couple of work sessions already is these sod farms are large acreages and even if they're RF is 0.2 multiply that by the acreage and I believe these residents are paying an unfair amount into the uh Municipal storm water drainage fund you know we're talking $3 $4,000 a year for those properties whereas a residential property is you know $50 or whatever it is so I really do think that we should look at if we're going to change this let's take a look at a different designation and when you think about it they're in the same designation as parks and parks are basically a public entity and the expenses associated with that are shared amongst the entire city of 60,000 people or so whereas these sod farms are small businesses and uh it's just it's a very in my opinion an unfair burden on those land owners and I'd like to have have a discussion as to why aren't we making that designation Mr con Novak um if we want to walk down that road I'd like to know uh certain things like for example in aad farm how much fertilizer fertilizer is used what other chemicals are used there what type of substances are going off in that runoff water that are going to require cleanup as opposed to a public park which basically is just sets there well a public park put put fertilizer on their lawn too just like just like aad Farm does and I don't have I'm not an expert on any of that but I do know this thead Farms like Wetlands they absorb a ton of our rainwater that is not all going into our storm drains like what's coming out the cities what's coming off parking lots what's coming off you know schools and Cemetery driveways and things like that it's we need to I really think that we need to take a look at it uh you know in addition these sod farms are I mean they've been good stewards of the land they've been you know good partners in our community we've got easements with them with the county with the city they help us with our Goose management plan uh I just think there should be a designation for Farm or agricultural Mr mayor council member gisler um I can appreciate what council member gusak is talking about but we did have a big discussion at a work session a couple of weeks ago and as we were having all of those different conversations when we were looking at would it make sense to have this designation where we would need to then kind of split up what was the housing side of land and what was there and if we looked at how would we create the the RF for that land comparative to our neighbors and how that it ended up looking that if we made those changes they were going to be paying more and so I thought it was our consensus generally that while having an arch agricultural designation may make sense it would result in these people paying more for how it would have to get architected into the system and thus it was better for them for us to not put that architectural architectural agricultural um designation into play so um to me if if people are really want to dig into it again um it would take a long time but I don't see rehashing that same conversation that we had a couple of weeks ago makes any sense well council member guys there if I might um we did talk about that but what we didn't talk about is adding a separate designation for Farms that has a residential equivalency Factor smaller than 02 we could make a a a separate designation for these Farms with a RF of 05 you multiply that times their acreage and they're still even at that rate paying their fair share into the Municipal Water fund I mean the a municipal drain system um storm drain system in the city is a shared resources it's just that these Farms are paying an in it's not a fair uh they're paying an inordinate amount in to the fund Mr Mayor counc no um council member kovak I am going to push back a little bit on that one public parks aren't designed to grow their grass so that it can be cut up off of the land and sold yes they might be putting out some kind of chemical might be putting out some kind of fertilizer to keep the grass healthy but again that land is being cultivated for the specific use of cutting off grass cutting off top soil and we don't know if the RF Factor there is greater or less than that point2 you can't say with any certainty that the effect of that farming is actually going to be greater or less than and I'd like those numbers I don't disagree that we might want to have a a farming category and I think I told you that that evening at the workshop but without having those numbers we just can't say in a blanket statement that they're paying too much well I I appreciate that and and since you're disagreeing with me I guess I have to push back a little bit on that too because we're not experts in this and we don't have the scientific data on it and I mean and therefore we're we're putting them into a category that it's never made sense and I still don't think it makes sense it's different than a park parks are manicuring that that land there's trails and there's other things happening in a park and uh you know again it's mostly if you look at those sod farms after it rains the water sits on the sod farm and soaks into the ground it does exactly what a you know storm what storm drains have to do they're doing that into the ground it's not running off into the uh the system okay so hey I'm I'm sorry just second um so just to explain this RF is a residential equivalent Factor it means the ratio of of the average volume of runoff generated by one acre of a given land use to the average amount of runoff generated by one acre of typical single family land use during a standard rainfall event um C scrovak I actually tend to agree with you because I think plus our Parks often have parking lots and they often have impervious playgrounds and basketball courts or whatever um would would you be open to another workshop on this on a this specific conversation um I don't think I don't think we're not going to come to terms on it tonight no but but would you would you support this if we agree to discuss it again after the first of the year I think we're missing an opportunity to add that designation and I know that we can you know change our ordinances and you know amend our ordinances all the time and it really won't make that big a difference to these sod farms with at this time uh but I I I can't support this change without addressing that glaring issue that we have okay but I just I'm I'm one of seven right so well I I'm I I tend to agree with you and I'm and and I I I I like that 05 that you know your honor C Novak um again I don't necessarily disagree with you I just want the data um I want to know if we're going to put this work in I want to know that what we're agreeing on is factual not just a number plugged out of thin air Mr Mayor callay rer I have a question for you and then also a comment on it in general when when you were saying that is it um are you saying that you would table this or are you saying we could pass this and still have suggesting that we we pass this but then we but then we we we look at making an amendment to it because I don't think we're going to have four people tonight that are going to want to go to the 0.05 okay no you know I think I think we're GNA I I don't know how many we have but we have a motion in a second on right now for this and then Mr Mayor the comment I would have is as of right now now I would agree with council member Geisler and Novak that um we should move forward with it as is because we haven't been presented evidence to support changing it um as of right now it would be considered agricultural which again would be worse for them um so I I think what the mayor has suggested makes sense to do I'm trying to remember if we saw the scientific data on any of these numbers keep in mind with the rate change that's going to happen on this it's going to be putting these numbers up into the you know five $6,000 range for we did see other city comparables so on none with Farms okay um we have a motion in a second Is there further discussion on this Mr mayor council member Carlson I also just wanted to point out to that yeah our this land doesn't have parking lots and all the runoff areas that we would have in our parks and such like so I think we do need to look at a little bit differently so where do you want to go with it you want to do something tonight or later I think it would be great to table it oh but if not we'll just go to a vote and where we go is where we go there council member Geisler um before any consideration of a tabling I would want to ask staff on is there because of having to set rates for next year do we have kind of a timing that we need to get something done or could we wait or the next Council wait to do action in January or February without impacting things to me when we're setting the the rates we kind of have to take action now and then amend or do something later if we want to versus not having something done but Mr stem sure mayor council the I mean keep in mind part of this is related to a long-term look at what the in infrastructure needs of the community art related to storm water and there's a lot of things going on there one in terms of Aging infrastructure but two in terms of federal and state requirements that are coming down and so over the past year or so staff has worked with uh Financial Consultant Ellers to look at her rate structure including the RF factors determine what's the best model for Rapids so the RF piece of it which you're discussing right now is going having some minor modifications frankly to it and it's set up in a way where it sort of provides some base level assumptions about what a property is across the city it's a real simple and effective way to apply that formula across properties in our city to generate a number I mean ultimately what we need as this is an Enterprise fund so it's supposed to be self-sufficient we if Revenue over the course of the next 10 to 20 years to pay for those cap projects so how that gets distributed across those types of property um you know is is where that RF factor and formula come in so you could you could look at splitting hairs I guess a little bit on some of those RF factors in the end you're looking at what's what's that number and it's all relative to that base assumption which is that residential you know single family home essentially and so point2 of that single family home it already does take into account the intensity of use on that property proper and yes there are unique parts of each property um it's not a perfect tool in that sense so we rate schools the same way or we're proposing to rate schools the same way well there might be a little more impervious on one school compared to a different school um but it's an effective way to apply it evenly across um all of the community our ordinance currently does and would continue to allow for if there's some really abnormal or unique property that's got extra storm water management storm water ponding something different about it the council can make exceptions to the the storm water rate so we should you know put that through the public process we should we should have Council consider the reasons why they're doing that but um Mr stemwell yeah I don't think you've answered her question I was getting there eventually I had a lot I had a lot of thoughts going through my mind would like to get done sometime tonight so in terms of the time okay yes there's the longterm view in terms of the timing I mean ultimately you could you could pass the rate changes without passing the RF and until at such a time that those RF factors are changed we would have to apply whatever the proposed rate structure is on the current RAF so if you table this and maybe don't get to it or decide not to do anything about it um now if you if you P you pass the rates and don't pass the RF factors and you want to talk about that we could come back in January February and if we were pretty quick about it we could Implement something prior to uh the next billing cycle which we had anticipated to do which one would that may 1 May 1st so the timing of that would be we'd have to go through you know depends on how much we change it might have to reintroduce it notice it that sort of thing so we'd have to be fairly quick about it but I think it's possible to do that if necessary so so just ask though because so right now we're not proposing to change the RF for the side Fields like we're we're we're modifying almost all of these but we're not actually proposing to change that one so if we pass this we're not changing anything on that correct yeah good point yeah that one isn't changing okay I can almost kind of go either way on this then because even because if we don't pass this tonight it's still going to remain the same for sarm I would say more globally about we are making some changes yeah no no right I and I appreciate that but Mr Mayor a point of clarification on this if if we leave this alone and pass this as is it does affect the storm water utility fees for all of other those other categories because we kind of looked at modeling the changes that we're making into that fee structure so some areas don't see spikes in their in the fee in the new fee is isn't that right didn't we kind of modify those in in some ways to address that I think that was part of your question Mr Mar I can maybe clarify or confuse even more um residential was shifted out there is no residential equivalency that is residential that's what it is every other rate is Accord consistent with what what council member groak said is changing with the exception of open space so while if you didn't do anything it doesn't change the open space designation or the fee for those people but it would hold all the other fees for everybody else if you do pass it it changes for everybody else but that open space so it for the for the example you're using of Agriculture or open space whether you pass this or not it doesn't change anything for them with to their fees that's fair the point that I would make you to that with that conversation one of the other reasons where at the work session that we said it didn't make sense was that we're talking one or two properties really within the city and there is that exception there is that appeal that is that way to say wait a minute this doesn't quite fit for me and that those residents have that opportunity to have that kind of a conversation you know and so for me it makes sense to move forward with the water plan the storm water plan that we've been working with our financial advisers on to to move this in place and look at that one off for those couple of properties and if in looking at them it makes sense down the road for you know a change in that RF or from open space and splitting out something to agriculture you know that could be done at a later date in time but I think it's um we need to be making the motion to and passing it to keep everything going for everything else in the city your honor C from Noak yeah I have to agree with that one completely we are on a bit of a time crunch and you know again looking for data looking to be able to find that information out that'd be the perfect time if a exception were to be filed uh and at that point then we could actually get that data and find out what the right way of doing this would be um if it's not going to change one way or the other let's get everything done and let's allow them to come in ask for the exception get that data and do what the right thing is at that point Mr Mayor I might and you can see I'm kind of passionate about this one and I agree with everyone on on the on the council here and council member guys are sure they do have that appeal process and they can hire attorneys and spend tens of thousands of dollars to find the scientific data if we're going to ask them to find the scientific data then we're going to have to have that scientific data on every one of these other categories to homes and cemeteries and schools and everything like that so here's what I might suggest if we could add a new category called Farms we know we have two of them in town if we added a new category called farms and instead of having an RF of 02 we have an RF of 05 amend this to add that and we have everything else is is fine in the ordinance they can appeal it we can adjust the ordinance as necessary you can amend it later if we need to um I think I think that would be fair so con it would be agricultural then right far Farm seems a little fuzzy but agriculture seems more specific Mr Mayor counc Ray rower I would suggest actually making it sod farms because anything a cultural other than this is going to be more intensive okay I'm good with that Mr mayor council member gazler I I we went through this at at nauseum in the work session and decided not um I think it's irresponsible to try and make that kind of a change on the Fly okay counc Mr Brody if this gets voted down tonight what happens are we better off tbling it or we or we have a motion in a second right now if we if we if we vote it down we'd have to start over which we may have to start over anyways depending on what the changes we make to the ordinance if we bring it back so if you vote to table it and it comes back and we think the changes significant enough and I'm not sure it probably is then we would have to reintroduce it um at the next one then um have an adoption at the next meeting after that point of order okay yes uh you said said we have a motion and a second we do so council member grc's uh point is that a amendment to what we have going on or he has no he hasn't made it as a kind of fled it out there one Mr Sam yeah I mean I guess my my suggestion might be if Council was willing to approve it and then direct staff to bring back um a separate modification to the ordinance to consider that or we could work session that in January and then introduce it after that frankly that would be cleaner from my perspective because then we sort of have certain the other components of the RAF changes we'd have the rate changes it would just be these really we're talking about two properties then so that's not going to affect much in terms of planning for billing and those other things down the road so you know if that might be a friendly amendment to uh the process where you would consider approval direct staff to further research the idea of a sad Farm designation bring it back to a work session and then we could take it from there cak you okay with that I would be okay with that well I'm not asking to about an amendment to the motion oh no I'm just we don't need to amend the motion need to we just need to you know if if you're okay with that we'll just I I I I would like to see that happen let me put it that way the way it's written right now I I think we're missing the mark there should be an agricultural in here with a low or RF I don't see agricultural in the land use category did I did I miss that no I think that's under designated open space or yeah and Mr Mayor I I just was going to clarify you know because I'm happy to amend the motion to add that statement to say that you know in in addition to that adoption of the ordinance to direct staff to look at an agricultur Al um designation and thef factor and to to work that with staff or with with counil in 2025 Mr Mayor i' concur with that and that just gets it into the motion that gets it into that this is something that we are going to do okay Miss lensme do you have that I do thank you okay we have uh the motion or has modified the motion and the seconder has second it um is there further discussion hearing none all in favor say signify by saying I I opposed no that motion we just can't make you happy I'm just I just I have to make sure it comes back to us I just on record here thank you all right thank you that item uh nine uh is to consider resolution 24-12 calling for a public hearing um are we ready to remove that from the table yet looks like we have seven so yes oh oh that's right we were missing we didn't have enough people that's right motion to remove um from the table second motion by Geisler second by Carlson to remove um resolution 24-12 from the table um and uh this was uh all it is is calling for a public hearing to vacate drainage and utility easements 360 Rapids Boulevard um so does anybody have any questions on this or do we want to move it forward Mr Mayor I'll make a motion to adopt resolution 24-12 which calls for a public hearing on January 21st 2025 for a vacation of drainage and utility easements second second motion by Geisler second by was that Armstrong over there all right uh is there a discussion on this Mr Mayor C did the parcels get combined is is that what I'm seeing in this memo it's my understanding they did okay I ask that same question okay very good all right all right any other discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries and we'll have the public hearing for that on January 21st 2025 we're up to item 10 uh consider adoption of ordinances 2321 2322 2323 2324 and 2325 cannabis business locations this was introduced I this was introduced at the last meeting right correct okay does anybody have any questions of this one Mr Mayor coun M rer oh miss lensme Mr Mayor if I may before you this item we' request that you authorize summary publication it's not in the request but we would ask for that because that's a lot of pages yeah okay thank you perfect so oh well let right in the motion though and authorize summary publication right what that one is my item oh sorry carry on it is thank you Rosanna Rosanna Dana never mind wow Mr Mayor rayer so miss lme I was going to ask you does this basically meet the minimum requirement by the state statute as we make this amendment or ordinance Mr mayor council member Ray rower we understand that it does we may have to Pivot as the rules come out and we will be paying attention to what comes out through the office of cannabis management great thank you uh so with that then I will um make a motion for planning case 24-30 that we adopt ordinances 2321 2322 2323 2324 and 2325 amending city code sections 11-21 11701 11-801 11- 93 and 11-13 respectively to regulate the locations of State licensed cannabis retail and production businesses within the city and authorize summary publication of the amended city code sections second after all that work come on somebody seconded we have a motion and a second do we have further discussion on this and we continue to build the airplanes while we're flying H Mr Brody all right that is a true statement all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and the motion carries one nay council member Novak item 11 is to consider adoption of ordinance 2326 adding chapter 5- 3100 regulating Camus businesses and is this the one that you want summary um publication okay all right and again this was an introduction at the last meeting so does anybody have any questions Mr Mayor honor I'm sorry if I could just point out one thing we did clarify this particular ordinance a little bit just to make it we believed it the local the location distance restrict RS and advertising limitations applied to all businesses but we wanted to make sure that that was clear then it didn't appli to all cannabis businesses not just those licensed retailed businesses so we made that slight clarification we don't think it changes the uh intent and it wasn't substantive so we're not asking to reintroduce it but I do want to at least point that out all right very good counc so make a motion to adopt ordinance 2326 adding chapter 5- 3100 regulating businesses and authorizing summary publication second motion by Geisler second by Carlson is there a discussion on this hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries item 12 is to consider resolutions 24-10 approving the year end budget Appropriations and amendments um Miss Hansen thank you Mr Mayor uh city council we're asking that you consider a resolution to amend the 2024 general fund budget to reallocate budget appropriation between the expenditure categories and various activities um our city code uh places that legal level of authority at at the category level of the expenditure within the activity um so as we near the end of the year we take a look at our year-to dat information um and update our year and estimates and then compare that to our budget and our recommending uh net adjustments equal to zero um in addition the resolution would authorize amending the 2024 and 2025 budget to carry forward um [Music] $16,900 worth of items in the general fund and $ 97,2 193 and other funds into from 2024 into 2025 these are items that we've identified that have not will not be purchased or received before the end of the year so we want to carry forward that budget and I'm happy to answer any questions thank you anybody have any questions from Miss Hansen Mr Mayor coviak just one question and that is the the the fund or the the we we upped the funding to the emerald ashor fund right for all those ash trees that's not in this because we are is that we already voted in did that and the budgets already been adjusted that way correct okay council member gak uh when we brought forth the interfund loan yeah um we also amended the 2024 budget and then the 2025 adopted budget includes the increased funding amount okay all right just couldn't find it in here so I figured thank you okay Mr Mayor rer I make a motion to approve resolution 24-10 reallocating funds within the 2024 general fund budget and amending the 2024 and 2025 budgets second motion by Ray R in a second by Geisler is there a further discussion on this item Mr mayor council member Geisler i' just like to thank our finance staff and Miss Hansen just there's an awful lot of work that comes together with all the different budgets and making sure especially at the year end you know what needs to be accounted for in 2025 what's it going to be in 2024 and making sure that we're dotting our eyes crossing our tees and it's an awful lot of work and I appreciate the their dedication because when you look at the things there's just minor dollars that move back and forth and that means that our city staff has done a really good job at planning and understanding what their budgets are and staying within the budgets and and being able to deliver the services so Kudos your honor Novak i' just like to second that I mean the public doesn't probably know but each of the council members gets a budget package that's probably this thick and it all makes sense because of the hard work of that group right over there and so again thank you so much you guys make us look pretty good at the end of the year and so that's probably not the easiest thing in the world to do so thank you all right other discussion we have a motion in a second all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries item 13 is to consider the 2025 workers compensation coverage and it looks like you are recommending option one miss Hansen correct Mr Mayor city council um for you is our workers compensation renewal for 2025 um the proposed net deposit premium um is a 12.9% increase over 2024 um mostly related to increase in our experience mod Factor um that kind of does go up and down um Through The Years so it's not something that we're obviously working to lower that but that factors into that net deposit premium um we are recommending using the Retro um rated option number one we've utilized that option since 1988 and have seen savings um so in the last seven years we've uh saved approximately 500,000 in uh premiums versus just paying the standard so we're recommending that we elect that option again very good any questions of Miss Hansen Mr Mayor rayer well it seems pretty clear that we're going to want option one so I will make a motion to approve accepting option one of the Retro rated plans with the league of Minnesota City's Insurance trust second motion by Ray and a second by grisak Is there further discussion on this hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries item 14 is to consider resolution 24-11 amending the 2025 fee schedule for storm water utility fee changes it's all you tonight just just now this is my last item um Mr Mayor city council so before you are the U requesting uh change the adopted fee schedule for 2025 for storm water utility fees um as mentioned earlier the storm water fund is a self-supporting Enterprise fund where the revenues are supposed to cover all related expenditures Capital investments. Service you name it so it doesn't receive any other tax support of that nature so we want to make sure that our rates are sufficient um over the last year we've worked with Ellers our Municipal adviser to do a long range study on our um improvements or our plan improvements our street program um over the next few years is pretty Capital intensive with storm water infrastructure as well as some other mandates um so before you are the recommended changes um the first item we've already covered in the change of the city code as far as the the RF um we are recommending an increase to the base storm water drainage rate so that's the main rate that the non-residential are calculated off of so that's the equivalent of one one acre so we're recommending that increases from 3690 per acre to 5544 per acre and then the residential rates would be a 40% increase um though that's a high percentage increase it equates to about $528 per quarter so our average residential uh user would see a $212 cent increase over the year um these rates if approved would go into effect with our May 1st 2025 billing all right anybody have any questions of Miss Hansen so Mr Mayor councilor M Geisler we've spent an awful lot of time with our friends from Ellers and looked at this and there's it is an Enterprise fund and we need to make sure that it can fund all of the work that needs to happen so with that make a motion to adopt resolution 24-11 amending the adopted 2025 fee schedule in storm water utility fees second motion by GE learn a second by grisak further discussion on this Mr Mayor grisak well well we use Ellers we don't just rubber stamp everything that comes from them we did really look at every all of this and the big reason for the change and the reason that we need to do this is it's a it's a fund that needs to remain solvent and right now it wouldn't remain solvent primarily because of a lot of mandates coming down from the state for clean water and storm during Creek Watershed district and others um with projects that we have in the city so this really is necessary to finance those projects and to keep our system in top shape thank you uh is there any other discussion hearing none we all um all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries item 15 is to consider a letter of Engagement for 2025 sanitary sewer lining project 25-4 Mr Hammer Mr Mayor I'm going to defer to city engineer Mark Hansen Mr Mr Hansen Mr hmer Mayor and Council as you said this is for a letter of Engagement for our 2025 sanitary large diameter sanitary sewer aligning project referred to as 25-1 so this project is going to continue where we left off on Hansen Boulevard South of Mississippi Boulevard we're going to line up to Mississippi Boulevard and then head West to approximately the Riverview ditch Crossing uh the letter of Engagement will Encompass The Design Services and the investigations of the sewer pipe necessary for the plan preparation and the specifications bidding Administration and construction assistance and administration uh the project itself would be proposed to move forward in 2025 summer of 2025 okay so very similar to what we have done in past several years Mr Mayor Ray rer I make a motion to approve a letter of Engagement with s under its Master Consulting agreement in the amount of $164,100 for the 2025 sanitary sewer lining project management and authorize staff to execute such agreement second motion by um row and a second by gosh I think it was Carlson wasn't it yeah discussion um Mr Hansen and the beauty of doing the lining like this is we don't have to mess with the reconstructed Mississippi Boulevard correct the intersection of Hansen Boulevard and Mississippi Boulevard will likely likely needed need to be excavated in order to pick up some of the sewage that the sewer lines that we have coming uh from Hansen Boulevard and connecting into that intersection okay but the side streets as we go west we would try to be uh we would pick up that flow north of Mississippi the manhole Upstream okay very good so every effort will be made to minimize excavation to Mississippi all right yeah because that gets a lot of use for cars and pedestrians bicyclists all right is there any other discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries and item 16 what brings our uh director of golf out in the middle of the winter consider approval of a purchase of new golf cart Fleet and golf cart GPS units for versatile Vehicles Mr Anderson mayor council thank you I'm delighted to be here winter just represents um the beginning of us looking forward to Spring and but I'm delighted to be here certainly asking for and recommending the purchase of a new golf cart Fleet in the form of a lease to own and the lease of golf cart GPS units from versal Vehicles so you know golf carts at a golf course certainly are need and the current golf cart Fleet at Bunker Hills the batteries will would not make it probably into a month of next season so we we definitely need a new cart Fleet this Fleet represents uh if approved a gigantic Leap Forward because they would have lithium ion batteries those batteries are 300 lb less per cart a lot less damage to the golf course and with how busy Bunker Hills is uh and we certainly intended to keep it that way there'll be a lot less Turf damage because of the this they charge faster and use up to 40% less energy which obviously is um fantastic for us in regards to the golf cart GPS units that's becoming more of an expectation in the golf space these GPS units are proprietary to um easy go they are fantastic um especially in regards to our opportunity to pre-order concessions to geofence the golf course which means to protect the Sens areas of the gulf course around the greens Etc and to have advertising imagine you have a corporate event or a charity event partnering with us that day your sponsor signs can be digital uh and there are all kinds of enhancements uh in addition to that so while GPS is becoming an expectation we certainly plan on exceeding expectations if approved by fully utilizing that technology at Bunker Hills um to go back to the least own option in discussing that uh among City staff we do believe that is um is is the way to go with lithium ion batteries where where the the waterfill batteries would last up to four years which is what we got out of the last Fleet we're guaranteed through warranty that the lithium ion batteries will last five years and may last longer and that's why at Leisa own we believe is the best option because we may come we may not come back in the space in 5 years and recommend we may get that 60 year which would be certainly a benefit if we don't and we we end up only getting 5 years we believe that those carts will still have a lot of value and can be sold back traded in ETC Mr Anderson Where Do We store those in the winter because I thought lithium batteries couldn't freeze well they won't and that's you know one of the Fantastic things uh of the Bunker Hills facility is we have underground storage that is semi heated um certainly to to the standard of of keeping these batteries nice and safe and sound nice interesting okay anybody have any questions of Mr Anderson Mr Mayor CC member gisler make a motion to authorize purchase of new golf carts and golf cart GPS units with versatile Vehicles Easy Go second a motion by Geisler and a second by Ray rower Is there further discussion Mr Mayor rovak uh it's a lot of money but I think it really makes sense because a I'm sure this is 100% funded by user fees people rent these carts you know they pay for it they're paying for it here it creates a better draw for the golf course that's already doing a great amount of business so it makes sense for the city to do this I like the fact that we have the option to buy at the end of the lease if these things really go well extend these for 10 [Laughter] years there's our fiscal conservative thinking your honor counc Novak this absolutely makes sense uh correct me if I'm wrong but this is one of the few city-owned golf courses that actually is profitable well it breaks even right yeah yeah it's an Enterprise fund so well yeah but Mr Anderson was it just a week and a half ago there were golfers out in the executive course yet I I thought when I left there a week ago Monday there were golfers out there mayor council it's been a bit of a stop start but we like to keep that executive course open we say all year every once in a while we'll pull the if we have a foot of snow but we'll put them back as soon as possible sometimes needing a torch to get them back in the ground frankly but we did have a couple we did have a couple brave souls out there and they wanted to check that last uh that 12th box because they played in January all the way through December and got their December round in so that was what was happening oh nice okay we were glad to take their greens speed yeah crazy all right um you know what I'm sorry I we got a motion who was the second on that was there a second Ray Ray row okay all right okay is there further discussion on this hearing none all in favor signifi by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries um Mr Anderson you going to be with us till the end of the meeting mayor counsel yes I will I'll come back to you another business then all right item 17 is to consider resolution 24-1 109 approving the 2025 Compensation Plan for unrepresented employees Ms Roth mayor and Council good evening nice to see you tonight uh this resolution is being presented in compliance with CD code section 3-31 which requires the annual presentation of a Compensation Plan to city council City staff requests that the city council adopt resolution um establishing the 2025 compensation plan for unrepresented employees the compensation and plan the Compensation Plan includes the following a Wade schedule for full-time and regular part-time employees with 24 pay grades and nine steps within each pay grade each salary range minimum is approximately 75% of the range maximum a wage schedule for variable hourly and part-time positions this scale will provide for consistency across Organization for hourly employees part-time employees and regular full-time employees the 2025 wage schedule for unrepresented position includes a 3.5% wage increase effective January 1 2025 this is consistent with what we bargained and got approved with our represented folks um the detail of the Min and Max of the pay ranges were included in a memo if you have any any questions at this time I'd be happy to answer them very good any questions Mr mayor council member rower uh I make a motion to adopt resolution 24-19 establishing the 2025 Compensation Plan for unrepresented employees second second motion by Ray rower second by Geisler is there discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed and that motion carries thank you very much um item 18 is to consider resolution 24-15 amending the 2025 fee schedule to add registration fees for cannabis businesses uh M lensme Mr Mayor and councel the request is for an amendment to the fee schedule to include registration fees for cannabis businesses we will expect that to come online here in 2020 and so the resolution outlines what the proposal is and those figures come right out of the statute so we're just asking you to approve what we're essentially required to approve all right so Mr Mayor gisler I'll make a motion to adopt resolution 24115 amending the adopted 2025 fee schedule to add reg registration fees for cannabis businesses second motion by geyser and a second by Armstrong is there a discussion Mr Mayor just as a reminder to folks earlier this year we Consolidated and created this one large fee structure so there's one place to go for the fees and now we have a new one we're just adding it to the list any other discussion Mr Mayor CC rovak are these uh are these are these the maximum fees that we could uh charge by State Statute Mr May Council May worker goia act that is correct okay because they seem low compared to liquor licenses so yes pointing that out to maybe our elected officials at the state [Laughter] legislature all right um any other discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I opposed n that that motion carries one uh no uh council member Novak item 19 is to adopt resolution 24-16 approving the solar on public buildings Grant contracts M hovland Mr mayor council members we first brought this opportunity to you last spring this is a state grant program designed to support the installation of solar on public buildings with your support we applied for the grant for two city-owned buildings and received an award for each of them as part of the grant app approval process we put the projects out for bid and selected a contractor after submitting final project specifications we were officially approved for the grant Awards the next step is to authorize the grant contracts with the state and then once that is complete we can bring the construction contracts forward to you in the new year anybody have any questions on this Mr May thank you um I unofficially just want to make this in honor of deian Christensen who passed away and was um very much in support of City solar and also former mayor Lonnie mcau um who has passed away and um was also very much in support of City solar and with that I would like to make a motion to adopt resolution 24-16 approving the solar on building Grant contracts and accepting the grant money second motion by Ray R and a second by Novak as there further discussion on this your honor council member Novak um Olivia you and I have discussed this several times and I noticed here that Fire Station 3 was actually approved um one of the things that I talked to you about was the possibility of getting this same type of project here at City Hall on top of the fire station so that in an emergency power gets cut off they would still have power to function um is there any possibility of that type of thing in the future Mr Mayor coun from council member Novak the solar for public buildings grant program uh by the state is limited to buildings in EXL energy territory ah so there are only a few City buildings that are geographically eligible the city hall is in Conexus energy territory and there is not currently a state grant program for that service territory so any solar project for City Hall would be an independent thing but correct me if I'm wrong the solar project at Fire Station 3 would keep it powered even if the rest of the grid were to go down well we have we have a generator for that it's our our EOC right well the generator is great but it requires gasoline and again I just want to see that this is actually doing what we want it to do not that not that I disagree with it I think it's fantastic mayor counil I was just going to make the point that we do we would rely on the generators for direct power to the buildings just given the nature of uh these buildings in particular these aren't going to generate enough to power the buildings themselves are going to sort of theoretically offset the amount of energy um that you know we sort of get credit for the the power we're generating um so it it wouldn't be enough to operate either facility in those cases we really do need those diesel generators um to make those work okay thank you Mr Mayor counc R yeah I'd just like to add you know we looked at different things including power purchase agreements in the past which was much was more money up front and I just want to say a huge thank you to miss darl huband for um doing the work and finding this grant and getting this um going forward because the amount of money this is going to cost the city is very low and we will um be making money which offsets then our taxpayer dollars over time so this really is a great benefit to the city and our taxpayers we have a motion in a second on this right okay I thought so Mr Mayor c m grovia it says that I to totally in favor of this especially since it's you know 80% or so um subsidized by these grants and we're getting solar clean energy out of it I think it's a great deal uh says staff will uh bring construction contracts to the city council so when we look at those are is the city then going to own these uh panels and the infrastructure at the end of the day or is this a a lease type situation or is that forthcoming Mr mayor council member gusak at the end of this process the city will own these systems got it okay okay all right we have a motion in a second do we have any other discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I hi opposed and that motion carries item 20 is to consider mot agreements for design and construction costs of the count Creek Regional Trail pedestrian bridge project 24-6 Mr Hansen yes mayor and Council before you tonight are two agreements with the Minnesota Department of Transportation that staff have worked out uh this is to use funds from the local Road Improvement program uh which will administer the grant funds that were appropriated by the the state legislature in 2023 so in 2023 the legislature appro appropriated 3 A5 million in general funds uh for the grant for construction of the Rapids or the Creek Regional Trail pedestrian bridge over  Rapids Boulevard as you know that project's been under construction uh the project will be wrapping up here for the season on December 20th so Friday this week and then we'll pause for a while and come back in March um so the the grant uh the lrip grant funds that we're talking about here tonight that the Agreements are uh before you for approval are going to pay for the design the construction Administration as well as a portion of the construction uh as well and then federal funds are also paying for the remaining portion of of construction so with that I'll answer any questions that the council may have any have questions from Mr Hansen your honor Council Novak I move to approve the mot local Road Improvement program Grant agreements the associated resolutions for the Creek Regional Trail pedestrian bridge second motion by Novak and a second by Ray rower is there discussion on this Mr Mayor just a note that you know we had a nice work session on this just last week so we went over all this and it's uh really really coming together nicely so great great collaboration with all the different groups and with the city here appreciate that all right um any other discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I opposed and that motion carries thank you Mr Hanson Open Mic we are at the open mic portion of the meeting is anybody here to address Council for Open Mic this evening yeah there we go coming up to the the ambo Open Mic provides an opportunity for the public to address the city council on subjects that are not part of the regular meeting agenda you are invited to express any concerns you may have which are relevant to the Affairs policies or practices of the city of K Rapids remarks will be limited to 3 minutes please approach the podium state your name and address hi there Derrick lefor head of government Affairs for Gateway fiber don't have an address in the city but uh we're actively building and uh you know as part of our efforts to be transparent with the city and uh make sure that we're we continuing to stay invested in the city we always take an opportunity to visit with elected officials uh work with the staff that's that's uh doing a great job with our folks uh I do have some meetings set up with some other individuals but uh we basically stopped construction for the year as you guys can imagine uh in our our Minnesota builds we've put in about 2 million feet of conduit uh in various different spots here in uh Rapids I believe we've got about 4,000 passings uh this year with uh an estimate that we'll probably do five to 6,000 passings uh next year so uh it's it's going very very well we've uh we've had a lot of great support from uh from the community we greatly greatly appreciate that uh I do know that there has been a few complaints and we we certainly expect that any kind any kind of uh utility build there's going to be some complaints uh I will tell you that if there's uh any any issues that remain unresolved I know that there's probably some that are they're still out there kind of lingering because of the weather uh but we promise that we'll we'll take care of those uh those are all potential customers for us and we certainly want to make sure that we get those results so um DK what was the word what was the word you use you said 4,000 something this year passings so passings is what we refer to like if we go past a house or a business uh that's that's what we use so passings uh yeah so that's uh you know 4,000 plus here in Rapids with an expectation of 5 to 6,000 next year okay yeah I think I think some of the bigger problems this year has been the cleanup afterwards yeah when you accidentally cut that Central Link wire and then it takes them oh a month and a half to reconnect somebody's phone yeah no I understand that and uh you know obviously our goal is not to do that I will say that uh in terms of Damages for for the utility damages they've been exceedingly low in terms of like the the ATA damages that we have uh we have Crews that go out in advance of of our crews actually doing the construction and they they try to make sure to identify issues uh so that they don't run into those um so I think all total here in Rapids I want to say we've we've only had probably three or four atall damages that I'm aware of uh which is uh very very low considering the amount of footage that were put in the ground so yeah no kidding just wanted to take an opportunity to say thanks to the council uh if you guys have any constituent questions concerns uh I know that uh some of them been reaching out to you guys and then maybe uh some of the staff as well but uh they're always you're always welcome to defer those to me and I'll be happy to get with our team and figure out what the issue is and and get it resolved as best as we can so nine so so basically we should be at 9 to 10,000 passings by the end of next year that's our plan and so that's like half of Rapids are close to half then yeah and then uh you know we we try to not scale quickly we try to do it in you know obviously there's limited resources with the city there's limited locating resources uh so that's why we do it that way but uh you know certainly the the more uptake that we get the more we can build and uh you certainly the more we're we're willing to build so uh that's kind of our plans at this point excellent anybody have any questions of dkes here all right thank you guys hang onong quick question as far as as as far as the the process or the plan goes are you basically working like west to east north to south uh as far as Rapids is concerned um I'm not really sure what the what the specific plan is I'd have to go back with and get with our construction folks on you know what the what the layout is we do try to do what we call bolt-ons so we'll build one and I think there's 22 neighborhoods that we have planned in uh 2025 so I can get those specific neighborhoods for you guys so that you have them uh but we generally try to do what we call Bolton so we'll get one and then the next one then we'll get the next one the next one so we can kind of build out so that's kind of how we do it okay makes sense right yeah but I can get specifics for you guys as far as which ones are coming up appreciate it thank you very much thanks guys thanks D anybody else here to address Council for Open Mic this evening all right oh yes sir you state your name and address and you've got three minutes to address the council here Todd lman 10559 Martin Street uh I weighed coming here quite a bit because I'm losing faith in uh police law enforcement uh they've treated me with disrespect unprofessionalism uh when I have a neighbor walk across the street and start digging in my yard walk across the city street to dig in my yard uh I called ab and trespassed the officer showed up disrespect put his hand up you're done I called in a complaint to Chief Steiner the result of that next day I had a City plow truck tearing up my front yard requested by him I had uh somebody try to ma my dog with a weed whip no we're not doing anything tree fell from somebody else's property and a neighbor threw everything in my backyard wasn't my tree to begin with threw it in my backyard I tried to file a complaint I was argued with and no complaint was filed uh I was told that I'm not an attorney I don't know the laws the tree company people I talk to I think they know the legal limits because they do this every day that's their business they should know the laws I just argued with and argued with until I just gave up and walked away I mean it's being disrespected allowing things to happen allowing you know it to go farther people getting Bolden and go farther and farther like the neighbor that tried taking a weed whip to my dog's face for barking that's animal cruelty and if you don't actually charge anybody for animal CR rty or at least give them a ticket I mean what are they there for I know they have a hard job trust me I have a lot of relatives that are Law Enforcement Officers my boy is a law enforcement officer I mean the way that I've been dealt with is very disrespectful and like I said it just emboldens people to go farther and farther so think there needs to be some retraining well St staff will look at this and they'll they'll they'll give you a letter back and they'll let us know what's going on all right thank you thank you sir thank you thank you anybody else here to address Council for Open Mic this evening all right we will close the open mic portion of the meeting I don't have any reports on any previous open mics and under other business we uh have a couple council members who this is their last night yeah it's amazing I thought Bo we have a lot of people for Open Mic no I don't think so and I would like to go on record of saying that the council member elect told me to be a 90-minute meeting and he but nailed it [Laughter] so um Mr Mayor counc Ray I was just wondering you know council member Geisler if you noticed I was trying to you on how many motions we made tonight for our last night you know it's it's kind of tradition the last meeting that you you get all the Motions so you know we had to had to had to share them you know however you know if if I mean I actually had one residents call call me once and they're like why do you make all the motions and it was like well sometimes it's just there's dead silence and it just move easier to move things forward so I will challenge my my peers you know to make sure that they're stepping up and filling that motion void for pay attention to that please the meeting gets really quiet and long when nobody makes motions so Mr Mayor um I would just like to to thank um Mr stemo for for his leadership of the city um and say that it's been I mean I've been here 10 years and it's just the I think the city is very well managed and then if I look at everybody out here in the audience from the staff fabulous staff and I've worked with most all of you for you know a good portion of that 10 years and some of you are newer but you've got a phenomenal team um and I appreciate everything that each one of you do for this city and I think it's um that this the city is a nice place to be and I think we've really worked hard on making you know it a a we're not doing to things too residents we're with residents and it's more of a customer service and a a community atmosphere within the city and I that's because of our staff and and what we do and the majority of of the time that we're doing everything so I've enjoyed my time here I will be passing off it'll be a familiar name to folks um I was saying Miss Len SM won't even have to get a new envelope um true but you know so I appreciate the time and it's my last meeting amazing so Mr mayor council member R yeah um to follow that up I would say ditto on everything that council member Geisler said outstanding staff just amazing um when I think back to before I ran for Council as a a busy mom uh teaching uh science all day at secondary level and you know then coming home and running my kids to soccer and hockey practices and but then you know what happens kids grow up and they got driver's licenses and all of a sudden I had a lot more free time than I did before that and uh wanted to get involved locally and give back to the community that I've lived in for 24 years now so ran for city council and I'm just so glad that I did I've learned so much in four years from all of the amazing staff who do a phenomenal job running the city you really really do you're the ones that do the work um we're here on the TV and we have the oversight and the final vote but the work is done by the staff and and you really should be very proud of all of yourselves um and manage well by our city manager um and and I've learned a ton from all of our my fellow council members and and my mayor and just following all of you know how you do things the professional way that you run these meetings and um you know are just looking forward um I just appreciate all of you and know that I'm not going far um I'll still be serving our community and uh all the people of Minnesota at the Minnesota House of Representatives and so I'll be reaching out to all of you and um as we work together on projects moving forward such as projects we want like the 610 interchange with East River Road and um so I just want to say a huge thank you thank you to all the residents of Rapids thank you to the staff thank you to my council members and mayor um and huge thank you to Ward to for electing me to this seat it was a huge honor very good so I made this awkward because I I jumped to item 21 because normally other businesses last but we still have other business to do yet so how do you want to do this say Mr R you know because I always have other other business and somebody else is gonna have to pick up that mantle because if you didn't know our lighting contest winners were announced and so if you go to the city website you can go check out the winners and there's a map with all the different houses with the lights that you can go drive around um on Thursday the 19th you can meet our licensed social worker at the Rapids branch of the Anoka County Library so lots of things that are always happening within the city and we'll go and do that and I think you probably want to talk about the tree lighting which was last Saturday which was wonderful yeah I'll let you I I was in Mexico so we weren't um yeah yeah so we had the tree lighting last Saturday and it was fabulous and I just want to take a moment to thank all of the folks that were involved in that uh Community strength Foundation magnify Financial Nest to threads Boutique Marketplace was in there with 300 Decor um 300 uh uh ornaments ornaments thank you I got decoration on my head and I couldn't go back to ornaments um and they ran out you know just before the end of it so next year they plan on bringing 600 um the holiday light company that put the 8 to 10,000 lights on the tree uh together Productions who Brave the 29 degree weather to play the guitar and the piano out there on the stage uh I think I already mentioned Community strength Foundation um kun's Rotary Club kun's fire department Community Fund kab's firecracker races kun's Lowe's these are all sponsors Jack couch and family JD Roofing is construction and uh helping us out that night was the co Rapids Nordic ski team the Rapids Royal ambassador program and a big thank you to the city of Rapids the staff Stephanie led the the the city side of that and we had folks from public works from fire from police the Ice Center bill gansler and the Ice Center is always so gracious and just takes care of so many things for us um particular shout out to the tree lighting committee led by Tiff Tiffany Fick who just does a Yan's job and it's just it's it and it was a fabulous night it was a courier and IES Hallmark moment of the six bonfires the uh um the the fireworks it was all spectacular and more people than we've ever had there it was it was wonderful um and then the uh the tree donors uh Kun rabbas residents the Howard NE neighbor family um it was a beautiful tree and they were up on stage with their kids and it was that was terrific okay are we good on that I think we're good on that all right any other business I just wanted to comment really quick like that was one of the few events that I've been to when the clock hit zero those lights went off nothing nothing stopped that tree from going up yeah thanks for reminding me of that so what I learned the very first year was as soon as you get on stage you turn the clock around so nobody can see it it was behind a tree and I got distracted thinking I had plenty of time the countdown all of a sudden I'm in the middle of my announcements and I hear people out in the ground going five four and I'm going oh no here we go so I just had to stop talking the tree lit up and then I finished the announcements after the five or eight minutes of fireworks but it was yes it was great the crowd the crowd loved it they they appreciated your improvisation yep next year that'll be actually a designated role turn the clock off yeah so all right any other business come before counil yes M yes well I figured I was actually going to wait until the end of other business and then have them come up front and yeah and then yes so yeah so one more piece of other business here I I didn't want to be outdone but the mayor's Festivus tie and shirt so I figured I would jump in here and since we got Christmas next year I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holidays and everyone has a great season here it's been a great year and really looking forward to 2025 with everybody all right excellent um do we want to have them go up front and yeah we should yeah council members RAR hour and guys you should go up front and receive your signs Mr stem you should actually present those shouldn't you well I I mean we can do it or take the [Laughter] picture do you want the microphone all right well it's my pleasure to present street signs this is our tradition for outgoing City Council Members to present them with street sign so this year we let them choose uh sort of how they wanted their street sign to look so we have Ray Road road so to R present that to you and then the other one is gisler way which it feels intentional gesler way was a family [Laughter] vote and I add another R it [Laughter] behalf of sa thank you so much for your dedication to the city and all the work that we've done together during your respective terms and I look forward to working with you both in other capacities in the near future so thank [Applause] you so then Mr Mayor oh hang on hang on hang on just before you do that I made Mr Mr Anderson stay here so he could give us an update on the golf course and the and the shows what what's going on you never come to see us anymore well no I I it's like I said it's a pleasure to come here and ask for money so I better I better tell you how we're going to how we're going to pay for those golf carts and you know just because it's winter doesn't mean it's not exciting at Bunker Hills and and Oak crud it's Christmas is is up and running with the dinner uh The Season's dinner theater we we've had many shows uh I peek my head in there every once in a while lots of laughs and people having fun near sellouts so far there are tickets available after Christmas so please go to um U season ine.com and look into that and we have a bustling uh Gulf simulator Center and restaurant as well so please come up and see us in the in the middle of winter here but I can promise you spring is right around the corner it's always around the corner there yes sir all right thank you okay now council member Geisler I would make a motion to adjourn second motion by council member Geisler second by council member Ray rower to adjourn all in favor signify by saying I I we are adjourned [Music]