##VIDEO ID:Sc4Roesbxsw## [Music] in a second all moved second Mo has been made and seconded to approve the regular agenda as printed discussion all in favor of the motion say I I oppose motion carries the consent agenda is before the council and all items with an asterisk are considered to be routine by the city council and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member or citizen requests in which event the item will be removed from the general order of business and considered separately in its normal sequence on the agenda is there anyone in the audience or any member of the council that wishes to either add or remove an item from the consent agenda hearing none I would entertain a motion for approval so moved second motion's been made and seconded to approve the consent agenda as printed discussion all in favor of the motion say I I I oppose the motion carries the minutes of the regular city council meeting held August 12th 2024 before the city council again is there anyone in the audience or any member the of the city council that wishes to make any changes to the minutes as they're printed hearing none I would entertain a motion for approval of the minutes of the regular council meeting held August 12th so move second second motion's been made seconded to approve the regular minutes discussion all in favor of the motion say I I oppos the motion carries Bradley Peterson is here this evening from flarity and hood and Bradley is going to present uh the uh Coalition of Greater Minnesota City's annual update uh thank you mayor Brank and members of the council uh again my name is Bradley Peterson with fline hood here today on behalf of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota cities as you know we try to get out and visit as many of our cities as we can can uh after the legislative session and before the next one and uh give you a chance to hear a little bit about the work that we did during the last session uh a little bit about what we think uh might be upcoming and uh give you an opportunity to ask any questions or give us any thoughts that you might have so please as I'm going along here don't hesitate to uh interrupt interject ask questions uh whatever you need is uh just great so just a brief reminder here the Coalition of Greater Minnesota cities represents about 110 cities outside of the seven County Metro uh we focus primarily on the issues of local government Aid and property taxes Economic Development Transportation annexation and land use environmental regulatory issues and then some labor and employment issues uh under economic development that ends up being a catch-all for a whole bunch of things that includes very traditional Economic Development type activities but also that's the bucket under which we talk about housing and child care and things like that that so a big agenda uh for the Coalition in general so the last legislative session um you know 2023 was a big one right they had the state budget they had a 17 billion doll Surplus um the trifecta was go go go they passed a lot of policy and so I think that going into 2024 the expectation was we're just going to kind of hopefully pump the brakes a little bit just do what's necessary pass a bonding bill um and get out of Dodge um very short list of priorities so one thing to uh talk a little bit about is there was a little bit of a surplus going into the uh session um of about uh $3.7 billion doll again very different from the17 billion uh Surplus that the state had before and so not a lot of expectation around spending so in terms of the C in our legislative agenda uh we had three things basically $120 million to shore up the uh bonding or the EMS uh system in the State uh pass a bonding Bill and pump the brakes on any new big policy uh they threw a lot at cities during the 23 23 session and so we really thought the legislature should simply focus on making sure all of that was going to work the way that it was intended and otherwise let cities uh have an opportunity to uh really kind of adjust to those changes and prepare for them things like the Paid Family Medical Leave the earned safe and sick time uh Etc and so that was our agenda very limited going I think again with the sort of limited um agenda of what we assumed the legislature would be um so the first thing I'm going to talk a little bit about is EMS um and I know that for you guys you are covered by asentia um but a lot of local governments in Greater Minnesota do own and operate their own uh EMS uh system and so we were hearing from our members that they were in financial crisis and if you look at the discussion uh from the state over the last 30 years you will see probably four or five different reports starting in the year 2000 that say some version of there's a crisis in rural ambulance services um and so we were hearing a lot from our members that they were essentially at a Breaking Point and it basically is um because of the fact that F reimbursement for Medicare and Medicaid and public and private insurance just was not keeping up with the costs uh to run an operation um about 55% of the license holders uh for EMS licenses are local governments and that's another reason why we uh jump to get involved about uh 34 35 cgmc members uh directly own or operate their own uh system and so um I'll kind of skip ahead here uh don't need to spend a lot of time on the back and forth um but we did uh put a bill into the legislature uh for $120 million to distribute the aid uh to cities uh and any providers that had suffered a shortfall in the uh year of 2022 which was the most recent for which that there was um information available the final outcome on that after lots of back and forth uh at the legislature and and lots of of time working on distribution formulas and things like that um was $24 million that went out to Providers again primarily in rural Minnesota uh and then $6 million that went into some pilot programs uh especially in St Louis otter tale and Grant counties uh so for instance the uh uh asentia operation here in Detroit Lakes is El eligible for $214,000 for whatever they need related to EMS whether it's uh equipment just operations uh Staffing anything that falls under sort of the EMS bucket uh essentially can use that 200 apply for and use that $214,000 for uh here in Detroit Lakes um and so not exactly what we were looking for in terms of the very big ask uh but considering that we started at zero and there was not a lot of appetite for additional uh spending this year getting $24 million for rur Ms uh I think is a win so there will be ongoing discussions I think here over the next several months about what cgmc role in this discussion is is um and what we might be putting forward uh next so the next thing is bonding so a little bit of background uh just on the bonding bill it's a traditional year for a bonding bill um you know the uh they did a big one last year but they had been off by a couple of years and so as you know there are always needs uh for uh public investment cgmc really focuses on the programs that are funded by the uh public facilities Authority so Water and Wastewater and things like that uh the bdp program the business development public infrastructure grant program which helps with business attraction and retention uh and building out the public infrastr structure related to that lead service line replacement was another thing that we focused on this year and then a couple of other uh programs uh the governor came out with his uh bonding bill as he is supposed to just uh uh shy of $900 million in general obligation bonds and some other funding um so very much smaller than what they did last year so that was the governor's proposal now um as I noted there's a whole bunch of things that we were working on related to that um but none of that happened uh for any number of reasons and I think the fact that there was not a bonding bill was one of the great disappointments for our cities and there's a lot of uh reasons some of them uh more dramatic and weird than others uh why there wasn't a bonding bill I think one of the things that I would acknowledge is that the arrest of Senator Mitchell uh for the breaking and entering here in Detroit Lakes um really did kind of throw the legislature into a spin for a couple of weeks they kind of just didn't know what to do how to proceed forward because you've got a 3433 dfl majority if she's not voting with the Democrats you have 33 33 deadlock and nothing gets done so of course the Republicans wanted her asside the Democrats were arguing for the legal process to continue which it is continuing um and so that became just an unfortunate kind of interpersonal Dynamic amongst the parties and I I can't think you can't underestimate frankly the extent to which that I think did get in the way of progress towards getting things done in the end of session especially a bonding Bill where you need Republican votes because you need a super majority to pass that you need three- fifths uh so another uh thing is just quirks of the legislative calendar the month of April they took three breaks one for Passover one for Easter and one for uh the Muslim holiday of Eid and so the legislature did not work a full week in April um and that kind of slowed things down and then at the very end you had a number of things in the last couple of days um that really just sort of got in the way and took the oxygen out of the room for passage of any kind of bonding Bill uh that would be the um discussion of an equal rights amendment to Minnesota's Constitution trying to sort out the ongoing business from last year of the Uber andyt Bill and whether or not those Sur would leave Minnesota primarily the metro area um gun control all of those things took up a lot of time and energy in the last couple of uh days of the session and and really detracted from what we think should have been one of their main jobs this session and that's passing uh a bonding bill I want to talk a little bit about housing and zoning and this fits into the pumping the brakes on um other policy one of the things that um uh we saw this uh legislative session was um a lot of policy aimed at uh zoning development that sort of thing that would have uh basically taken a lot of uh City's authority over those issues away and would have uh required you to allow certain things whether you wanted to or not or whether they made sense in the context of your city or not and so the primary uh Crux of it was um allowing in some cases up to eight plexes on what had been formally single family lots um there were a number of different iterations and combinations of of those ideas uh but basically up zoning to require that um that the uh that cities in the state allow those um by right and so you would not have had any say where when under what circumstances I think it obscured a lot of the work that cities had already been doing um uh to get to density and that sort of sort of thing um all with laudible goals uh to increase uh housing and to increase housing affordability but in a very one-size and from our perspective fairly Metro oriented uh perspective and so we along with the league of cities and the other Municipal uh organizations argued strenuously at the legislature against these bills um ultimately they did not happen um they uh but they will be coming back there will be discussion continuing about these types of ideas here in the next legislative session and so we'll be working with the housing chairs in the house and the Senate and other legislators to see if we can shape something that makes sense and gives flexibility to communities um across the state in terms of you know what your circumstances will allow but also will hopefully uh result in more housing a couple of other things that I want to talk about um uh just briefly and and really I'll just focus maybe on the first one unless you have questions or want to discuss the others uh there is as you know a moratorium on uh going coming to the legislature for any kind of local option sales tax that was put into law in the 2023 tax bill it uh continues until uh the moratorium continues until after this legislative session uh coming up and so middle of 2025 in the meantime the Department of Revenue was tasked with convening a uh working group to uh talk about what we could how do we regularize and how do we make sense of the local option sales tax uh process legislators of both parties are unhappy with the process for different reasons uh they think it's in some cases too political that it uh treats communities unfairly uh that it creates inequities in our tax system uh sales taxes are aggressive there's a whole basket of reasons why um why legislators don't like local option sales taxes um of course cities look to them to fund things that they can't fund otherwise uh public infrastructure Community amenities things that add to uh the quality of life um and such so we participated in those discussions the way that the task force ended up moving was towards allowing cities to just of their own with before without needing to go to the legislature for a very prescribed list of uh uh projects pass an ordinance and put it on the ballot yourselves without having to go to the legislature and then things outside that list you could still go to the legislature and uh beg and plead and do all the stuff that cities do when you go to the legislature to get a local option sales tax um that was positive from our perspective uh there were still lots of problems uh and the house and the Senate versions of the legislation even though they had that kind of as their core were otherwise very different and so nothing got done and so the discussion continues and so we'll be continuing to engage with the tax chairs with the Department of Revenue with the governor's office with uh other stakeholders uh so that when we get to session we can have some sort of arrangement that allows cities to go forward with projects that they need to satisfy some of the legislator's concerns um and avoids uh the moratorium being reinstated because that's been the uh I think intent of the tax chairs that if they can't come to any kind of resolution on that issue they'll just continue the moratorium they're not going to let it expire um and so it's very much a a issue to continue to be engaged on uh looking ahead uh we've got an election coming up uh as uh I'm sure everyone is aware every member of the Minnesota house all 34 134 members are up for election uh to determine uh the control of the House of Representatives the Senate is not up although there is one seat that is up on a special election and that is a seat the West Metro uh that's being vacated by Senator Morrison who's running for US Congress in the third congressional district and so there is one seat that will determine control of the uh Senate uh uh up for for election uh during the election season we engage with candidates we actually just finalized and um are going to be sending out this week a packet of information for all uh candidates uh legislative candidates on the ballot that goes through our issues so it talks about local government Aid and why that's important and why are the PFA programs and a bonding Bill important and how is the child care uh problem different in Greater Minnesota than it is in the Metro and what are the programs that uh are most important for building housing in Greater Minnesota through uh the mhfa things of that nature uh we've done this every two years it's generally very well received um and so you'll be seeing that come out here uh very shortly as well and then we've got the election of course um and then the legislature starts uh January 14th uh which because of Law changes a little bit later uh this year than it would be uh otherwise uh otherwise coming up we've got our fall conference uh in Alexandria in the middle of November uh after the election so we'll go through the election results we'll talk about what they mean for uh greater Minnesota and our legislative agenda and kind of roll up our sleeves and put some final touches on what we're going to do next year um and then we've got our Summer Conference or our I'm sorry our legislative action day uh which is uh where we bring everybody down to St Paul have you Lobby the legislators get briefed on the issues have a nice dinner at manini's uh enjoy each other company um and then our our Summer Conference will be in bidi this year in July so lots going on Lots coming up lots of activity um but I'm going to stop talking and see if you have any questions or comments or or issues of of concern that uh I can address questions for Bradley from the council no but I would like to say that we're going to have this our meeting in November in Alexandria and uh Bradley puts on a great program updating us on everything and giving us help on things that we need have help on and he's a wealth of information we've been a member for many many many years and we're we're very pleased of the work that they do for us lobbying for us in St Paul and uh so if any of you haven't been to a to a November meeting see Carrie because she's she's taken names down for reservations and and U it's very worthwhile to go down there and really get caught up with fellow cities from other areas and just see what their problems are compared to ours and see what we can do as a group to turn some of that stuff around but under Brad's leadership we come out with a good program well thank you I I appreciate that I also want to note that we're very fortunate uh to have Kelsey on our board he's been on our board several several years and uh he's especially on some of these land use uh type questions kind become one of our our go-to guys and so we're uh very lucky to have the kind of partnership that we do with our cities where can we sign up to get uh updates and alerts from cgmc what's that where can we sign up to get updates and alerts from cgmc you should be getting those and so I will uh be uh checking in because you should be getting a uh weekly uh newsletter yeah um and then action alerts as we uh send them out so I'll excuse me I'll make sure that you're getting those it goes to the other category I'll check that yeah that often times happens too because it's a wealth of information I don't want you to miss it further questions or comments Bradley it's always a pleasure we appreciate you coming up and we will see you soon thank you thank you so much good luck with the rest of your meeting thank you so I think we'll skip over the public hearing for now there's some folks here for item 5B Matt so if we could jump to the Community Development Committee agenda 5B please yes your honor uh 5B consideration to resolution approving a non-conforming use expansion permit to allow a second story addition of a 14t by 9 in by 20 foot 8 in cabin at 2156 Long Lake Road uh this was discussed at Planning Commission with unanimous approval this was discussed last night at CDC and just to clarify this is a expansion permit but they are tearing down and starting over adding a second floor what they currently have uh they're staying in the same footprint that's why it's uh under the expansion permit uh we discussed this at CDC last night it was unanimous approval uh so I move this for forward second motion has been made and seconded to approve a resolution approving a non-conforming use expansion permit at 2156 Long Lake Road is there a discussion by the council all in favor of the motion say I I oppose the motion carries did do you folks have any questions okay okay is is there anyone else in the audience that has an item they'd like adjust it on the agenda I would certainly like to accommodate if if need be if not we'll go back and at this time I'll adjourn the regular meeting and call to order a public hearing to receive public comments on the proposed modification of the boundaries of Redevelopment project area number 43 and before we get into that I would maybe call on Larry ran to uh tee that up for us okay this is a public hearing to give consideration to expanding Redevelopment project number 43 this is a tit Tiff district and it would allow us to utilize some additional Tiff monies if they're available uh in this project area and the project area is being enlarged to include more of Highway 10 290th Street and East Shore Drive intersection so that we can if there is a project there in the future we can utilize any excess tip monies that we have available okay is there anyone in the audience that has any questions or wishes to make any comments regarding the uh Redevelopment project area 43 hearing none that public hearing is closed and I would entertain a motion Dan have you got that on your agenda I think I'll take that may go ahead go ahead uh item B1 is consideration of resolution approving the modification of Redevelopment project number 43 in the city of DL uh the approval of the modification of the Redevelopment plan for the rede Redevelopment project the modification of tax increment financing District 43-1 to be located within the Redevelopment project and the approval of mod modification of the tax increment Finance plan otherwise known as Tiff therefore all P pursuant to in in accordance with with Minesota city state statute sections 469-1244 69-13 3 and sections 4691 174 through 469 1794 inclusive has amended and I still move that second motion has been made in the seconded to approve the resolution that I won't read back said everybody yeah what he exactly is there a discussion by the council I'd just like to say that this is for the new cabota dealership area if you're wondering where this is at and it's also going to take care of by getting rid of the old swinging door building so it's going to clean up that whole area this tip is very much need further discussion all in favor of the motion say I I oppos motion carries and with that we'll jump back over to the community development committee chairman vuli thank you your honor uh item 5A is just a discussion uh so there will be no action tonight but we discussed uh in length we had a pretty good policy debate it was awfully spicy um some discussion regarding annexation and Zoning uh we are going to bring this back next month to CDC to bring uh more recommendations for next meeting so if you have any questions about that please talk to Kelsey or Larry on that subject uh 5B is taken care of moving down to 5c consideration of the first reading of ordinance number 527 amending the zoning ordinance changing the maximum height of an R4 limited multif family District um with this this was unanimously approved by the Planning Commission as well as CDC last night and what this does is just basically make everything equal from the Shoreland ordinance to the R4 to a building height of 39 feet uh we discussed at CDC and I so moved second motions been made the second it to give first reading to ordinance 527 amending the zoning ordinance changing the maximum height in the R4 residential district discussion I would go ahead I I would just note that uh several members of the Planning Commission thought this was already done we've issued several variances because of that mismatch and and so it brings it in alignment and we won't have to issue as many variances with this change okay was there another question okay further discussion all in favor of the motion say I I oppose the motion carries and first reading is given to ordinance number 527 that's all your honor we'll move to the public works committee chairman Zeman okay for Public Works item a this is for discussion only but we're having some U neighbors concerned about a no wake zone and we have a all winter to work on this but we we've had a lot of jet skis and so forth and it's become a little bit of a problem so we're going to work on that a little bit more and half staff look into a little bit deeper uh going on to Item B uh consideration uh for a request for a Lakes area s uh Sailing School uh Kelsey do you want to give us a little update on that yeah mayor and councel um there is a uh sailing school that's looking to start in the old lrat building on West Lake Drive uh they're looking to start next summer um really what they're asking for is really no changes to the parking no changes to the crosswalk no changes to uh the swimming area uh let's see here if you get to page 106 in your packet there's basically an area between the existing um floating dock the fishing pier and some private docks about a 60 foot Gap in between there and really what they're asking for is during the sailing school to put up some temporary signs to there to basically limit access with boat traffic coming into that immediate area um um probably isn't much of a conflict the ceiling school really goes from morning into kind of midafternoon so really the request uh for the city council to consider is just permission for them to use that part of the beach and be able put up some temporary signage okay and thanks Kel say this program is being run by the dlcc and U it's basically going to run for five to six weeks and for five days each week and it's a something new for kids we've got for on 12 leges for people to sail on so this gives a school on it it's so like I said it's going to be run by the dlcc and the committee re commands approval I so move motion's been made and seconded to approve the request of the Lakes area sailing school discussion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries okay the next item is item C uh consideration for approving a contract with cars tree service for 2024 and 25 for disease trees I'm going to call on Sean to give us a little update on that mayor and Council yes if you remember right in the spring we voted on or uh you approved uh clearcut to be our uh City Contractor for uh removal of diseased and dead trees uh we did get a letter from them uh dated September 4th that they could not fulfill the contract so I did talk to um cars Tree Service uh they were the second bidder second lowest bid and they said they could still do it for their contracted price so we sent them the contract to see if uh and they signed it and got it back to us and that's what's in your packet for approval this evening okay the committee reviewed this and I sub move that we go ahead and approve this contract for car Tre service second 2024 and 25 motion's been made and seconded to approve a contract with cars tree service for the 20242 disease tree removal discussion by the council all in favor of the motion say I I oppose the motion carries okay the next item is item D consideration to resolution sending an assessment hearing for the highway 10 East for water and sewer extension projects on for October 8 2024 meeting at 5 o' and I'm going to call on uh John to give us a little update on that mayor and Council we have with the the highway 10 s in water extension out to the Quality Equipment dealership there's really two parties that would sort of come into play in terms of special assessments one is quality Equipment itself um I suspect that will actually be taken care of through a development agreement that we already have in place um with the developer on that that's the the vast majority of it however there's one other property that is benefiting uh from the sewer and the water improvements out there and so really the point of the hearing is to uh notify them of the special assessment for sewer and water service okay the committee reviewed this and we move to approve the resolution for set the public hearing for our next month's meeting on October 8th and ISO move second motion's been made seconded to approve a resolution setting an assessment hearing for the highway 10 East Water and Sewer extension project for next month's regular our council meeting discussion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries here last item is item e consideration to the acceptance of our city engineer John prf for his month report and John I call on you again all right mayor and Council uh still quite a bit of work happening around town starting to wrap up some projects but uh I first of all I apologize the report that was in your packet was mistakenly the August report so um it was the incorrect report but first couple of projects the 2024 Street rehab and The Willow Springs project those were contracted together effectively that work is complete we have just a couple small uh completion correction items that need to be taken care of and then that project is done um West downtown Street and utility reconstruction Faron work completed on that over the last month uh frzy Street uh sewer and water all the underground infrastructure is done curban gutter sidewalks those are complete and hog is right now working on uh getting the class five down and things ready for Paving which is scheduled for Thursday of this week so um I'm hoping phase Street should be reopened sometime next week or thereabouts uh Front Street they've also completed the underground utilities on that portion of the project and they working on subgrade prep and getting ready for KB and gutter to come in on that um sometime next week and probably within the next week or two um we should see work start on on Lake Street one block of lake and then a small alley um and that'll be the last piece of that project so moving along nicely uh not a lot of movement on the uh Water Tower project unfortunately we're still in sort of a holding pattern waiting for that phase one archaeological study uh to get underway and get completed so that we can commence construction on that um so no nothing to report there uh trun Highway 10 East SE and water extension um that project they've they're probably about three qus of the way done I think by the end of the week here they're going to have uh the bulk of that underground infrastructure installed and just be working on some restoration items uh 290th Avenue should be reopened by Friday afternoon so by sometime early to mid next week I think uh all of that work will be complete as well um one project that hasn't been on here uh as of lately is the Heartland State trail trail head uh if you recall we got a $400,000 um carbon Reduction Program Grant through mindd uh for this project and this Trail heads located uh between Casey's and Country and in Suites on Highway ten East on that vacant parcel property that the city owns um the proposed project would include a small parking lot area and some parklike amenities like a shelter some benches a water fountain trash cans uh bike Fixit station and things of that nature um as well as some public uh EV charging stations in the parking lot and um the capability to charge ebikes as well at the shelter so that project is uh designed submitted to mindat for approval we got word that they have approve the plan so we're just waiting for some final paperwork from mot and then we will be able go out bids on that project probably in October uh I expect most of the work will be completed sometime next year uh Forest Street Street and utility reconstruction last month he authorized the preparation of that report we're partway through that I expect I'll bring the report report back uh to the council for approval in uh October again that'll be a 2025 construction um West Lake Drive phase three felt give was time to put that on the radar here um staff has been working um alongside Becker County this is a Cooperative project with the county on just really trying to get the scope of the project sort of pulled together get through some of the preliminary layout and concept development along with some the environmental work um it's another project we'll have to do an archaeological phase one assessment on um so getting some of that stuff uh moving and out of the blocks and then over the next year um be a fair amount of work in terms of refining what exactly is going to be included uh with that Improvement project um right now we've got that project scheduled for 2026 so more to come on that uh the last one to throw on here uh we've been working working on this for a bit here but we're sort of getting close to finishing up some of the design um the city received a grant um from the state uh Legacy grant for improvements up at dmra there's a variety of improvements including parking lot improvements to the mountain biking trail head area a treehouse um some downhill mountain biking trails an accessible uh Trail Nordic ski loop trail with lighting and snow making um so a number of those improvements we've got pretty close to final design on and again I would expect we'll probably go out for bids on that sometime next month with uh a bulk of the work occurring in 2025 so any questions okay thank you John and the committee moves that we go ahead and accept this project status report and I so move second motion has been made and seconded to approve the city Engineers monthly project status report discussion all in favor of the motion say I I oppos motion carries anything else Ron okay we'll move to the finance committee chairman Josephs item 7 a is consideration to approving the dlccc budget and rates for 2025 I'll take a swing at this and then if I mess it up I'll hand it over to Kelsey but um uh basically we had a report from uh Peter Jacobson at the finance committee meeting uh sounds like they had a decent last year with uh making money of $170 $180,000 and um they Pro provided a copy of their Capital needs list and capital budget that they're putting forwards in your packet um they also have a realistically conservative budget in there is what Peter referred to it as and also their rate sheet for next year which overall it looked like about a 5% increase they took some tiers away from their their pricing structure but also increased rates overall so um you'll see that in their rate sheet um finance committee reviewed this recommends approval and ISO move second motion has been made and seconded to approve the the the lccc budget and rates for 2025 discussion by the council all in favor of the motion say I I oppose motion carries Item B is consideration to approving the request for from the marshmallow Foundation um this I will hand off to Heidi Andor Kelsey whoever wants to jump in first sure mayor and Council in your packet is a letter from the marshmallow animal shelter requesting a capital contribution for the purchase and acquisition of their current facility that they're in that they they leasing before um so it's the acquisition of that property and then also um basically doing some repairs and upgrades to the building we talked about this quite a bit during our budget meetings um their request was for $75,000 uh during the budget meetings we had a recommendation of doing a total of $50,000 uh it'd be $10,000 per year spread out over five years um the council still needs to take a action on that request so I believe that's going to be the recommendation of the finance committee all right so um the uh item is consideration to approving the request of $10,000 a year for a total of $50,000 um for the marshmallow animal shelter um finance committee reviewed this and recommends approval and I so move seconded motion has been made and seconded to approve the request from the marshmallow Foundation discussion on the item I I just uh want to say that uh a a group of council people went out to the marshmallow here after one of our budget meetings to look the property over and they they've got a a very nice building it's well kept it's very clean you I expected to smell a lot of dog and cats but it didn't have any smells like that at all but what I did see is an abundance of uh I think they had 85 kitty cats that day and they had a number of dogs so anybody's uh looking for an animal U go out and talk to them because they certainly have some dandies there and uh I just about got one even Dan even volunteered to pay the fee but I pulling off on it but do they do have a a good assortment out there so if you're thinking about uh getting an animal give give them the first shot and uh they do a good service out there I'm glad that we're going to give them money further discussion all in favor the motion say I I oppose motion carries item C is um about the tax levy and designating October 10th or December 10th as the uh truth of Taxation hearing I'm going to hand this over before um get too deep into this I'll hand this over to Heidi to explain what our August budget meetings uh came to the conclusion of thank you uh mayor and councel so um this evening before you is the consideration to establish the preliminary budget and Levy for the 20 25 budget in Levy collectible in 2025 um this is something that the council has to do before the end of September I have to then turn over and give that information to the county and then the county um then notifies the state as well um the county will then prepare uh preliminary tax statements that are sent out mailed out to every property owner in the city um sometime around mid November um and then in December we will hold our fin fin um final meeting um regarding the budget and Levy which um then includes a public hearing um and retrieval of receiving public comment on the proposed budget and Levy so um before you this evening is sort of the the the summary or the culmination of all of those budget meetings that we held in the early morning hours in August thank you to everybody that participated there were a lot of people that showed up so I was super jazzed about that um kind of the main items I wanted to talk about were the items that were affecting the budget in Levy this time around so right now um our preliminary Levy increas is at 7.97% um this again can be lowered but it cannot be increased so where we set our preliminary Levy at it cannot go any higher than that um our property valuation increases are are estimating to be just above 6% % for 2025 so what that means is um because our Levy is increasing slightly more than our valuations for this preliminary budget and Levy uh that means our tax rate will will go slightly up so we're estimating our tax rate will go from our 24 rate of 39.4% to an estimated 25 rate of 39.68 per. no one spends percents we spend dollarss so what does that mean to the average homeowners so this equates to a about a 1.73% increase in the city portion only of the property owner tax bill for 25 so for example if you have a $300,000 residential Homestead Property um your city portion of your taxes next year would increase $19.59 for the year that is if your valuation stayed the same um from 24 to 25 so that's kind of a little over view of of kind of the the end now the sort of how the hot dog is made the major items that went into that um and what what included in what's included in that preliminary budget and Levy um we've got Capital funding again for that marshmallow animal shelter um at a rate of an additional $10,000 per year for the next five years so that they can purchase the building and then keep their operations in their current location we've got an additional $30,000 that was allocated toward the street Department's Capital Equipment um as anyone knows recent years um the cost of everything has gone up quite substantially and um even more so with some of the larger uh streets department equipment and so um we felt it necessary to add some additional funding in there so that we can continue to um fund our equipment rotation and replacement schedule so we don't end up paying more for for more repair costs um for older equipment in the end um we have included in the budget um uh some funding for the food pantry so the food pantry came forward and asked for um the city to fund half of their operating costs for the 2025 calendar year which came to $1 15,776 uh the budget committee felt that this was a worthwhile um endeavor to fund so that has been included um we added a new police officer position in the 2024 budget uh this position is included in the 25 budget um however we haven't increased the levy for this because we're utilizing some uh one-time State funding that we received back in December of 2023 um called Public Safety Aid so some of those funds have been spent but we have not spent uh the bulk majority of those fund so uh we will use those funds to fund that police officer position again next year along with um transitioning um one of our three Sergeant positions to a deputy chief position in 2025 as well so the difference between what that Sergeant position costs and what the dep deputy chief position costs um will be funded as well from that Public Safety Aid and um the creation of that position is really just for um trying to help with um sort of pacing things out and making sure that um the police chief is able to retire someday and able to pass down some knowledge to some of the other folks in the office there as well um our debt Levy so the city had a really large debt issue that we paid off in 2024 this year um which we obviously wouldn't need to Levy for next year so that freed up some space for us to be able to do our final our final bite or our final um increase in our Levy that was needed for the new Public Works facility and then also the second stab at our 2024 Street rehab project debt so if you recall last year the council increased the levy $200,000 in order to um start funding uh the large 2024 Street rehab projects you've seen kind of sprinkled around town um this is helping to fund the remainder of where that Levy needs to be in order to service that debt for the next seven years um the overall debt Levy um only had a modest increase of $6,000 because we did have some of that debt falling off not needing to be uh levied and then we're layering back in that new debt so kind of nice to be able to do that um in in one of these years were where we had some old debt dropping off um kind of the last major thing that I want to discuss is the library so the library was awarded um a Minnesota department of education grant recently for $749,999 um the grant is to make some major improvements to the library building including repairing and replacing the library's roof um doing some major exterior rehab of the historic features of the building and then interior work to make the building more accessible and compliant with Ada requirements um including replacement of the elevator that currently is not um ADA Compliant as it's not large enough it's more of a lift um so the city must fund a 50% match to those Grant funds so we need to come up with the other half um of those project costs um so about $750,000 so our plan to do that is to utilize some funds that the city does already have on hand in our permanent Improvement fund and then just pay ourselves back over a series of years um with a modest Levy increase so for the 25 budget and Levy we've got a $40,000 Capital Levy for the library and then for the following Year's budget in 26 we'll have another uh possible $35,000 um Levy increase so that'll be 75,000 total which will do for approximately 10 years until that um those funds are paid back to that permanent Improvement fund and can be utilized for for City projects so um those are kind of the main items again uh that final budget and Levy will be discussed at this regular city council meeting on December 10th um where that truth and Taxation hearing will be held and then we'll receive public comment on that final budget in Levy at 601 PM um pursuant to Minnesota state statutes and I guess with that I would be happy to answer any questions any questions from the council I don't hear any Dan all right um item C is consideration to a resolution establishing the preliminary budget and tax levy collected in 2025 and designated December 10th 2024 at 601 PM as the date for public comment on the budget and proposed Lev or Levy um we met uh quite a few times throughout August we met uh at the finance committee this afternoon again reviewed this um we've had a lot of discussion and our finance committee recommends approval and I so move second motion's been made in seconded to adopt a resolution establishing our preliminary budget and Levy and to also designate December 10th at 601 PM is the date for public comment on the budget and proposed Levy is there a discussion on the motion all in favor of the motion say I I oppose the motion carries and I would just like to thank all the members of the council that participated in that budget process it's kind of a long and arduous process so thank you so much go ahead Dan item D is consideration to a resolution granting the city council consent for taxes payable to or payable 2025 for the HRA Levy um Heidi you want to give us a run down to that I'll make this one a little more brief um so the uh HRA the Detroit Detroit Lakes HRA has a housing um owner occupied housing rehab program and down payment assistance program um they've had those for a few years now um in order for them to Levy taxes the city council has to sort of give their blessing in order for that to happen um and so since 2022 um the council has allowed the H to do so this isn't something that goes into the city's Levy this is a special taxing district under your tax statement so um it is not in with the city's um tax line item on your tax property tax bill but it is under special taxing districts um on your property tax statement so um for the HRA to be able to um Levy this uh these taxes and do this Levy uh the council does need to um grant their consent so item D is consideration to resolution granting city council consent for taxes payable for 2025 HRA Levy um the finance committee reviewed this this afternoon and it came out with a positive um recommendation on a 31 uh decision uh to move this forward and I so move second motion has been made in second and to adopt a resolution granting city council consent for taxes payable 20 in 20 25 for the Housing and Redevelopment Authority Levy discussion I I would like to uh just comment a little bit about the Housing Authority uh we have Nicole brisland she's our director I happen to be a president on the board but I I don't think people realize uh the number of people in town that need help um lowincome people that have uh trouble with uh finding affordable housing and U right off right off the bat I want to say their location is at Pleasant View Apartments is which is kind of across the street from Holy Rosary schools where their location for their office but um if if you're having trouble um making your rental payments uh uh in general you should go down and talk to the folks in the office down there because they have ways of loow your rent so that you can afford deliver at your house to have that extra rent money then to help with the cost of living like grocer and and that sort of thing and I'll give you an example we had one lady that came in and she was having problems she was approximately $900 a month rent and um very low income and by the time they got done helping her uh it ended up that she's her rent became $350 and that included all of her electricity and water and all the utilities heat and everything so if you're struggling out there with housing needs for rentals and stuff you should be going going down and talking to the folks down at H also want to mention that as Heidi said we do have this program for housing repairs of if you got a house that needs to be paired and you got leaking roofs and windows and so forth you should go down and talk to them about that because they have a program that'll help you uh get these repairs done and uh they got a program that'll work out so you say well I don't have the money well that's why you should be going down and talking to the folks down at HRA and we also now have um a small down payment assistance for people if you're having trouble see how can I afford a down payment um you should go down and talk to them that too they they have many tools down there to help you with and um you should it's worth their bids to go down and and talk to them and then lastly uh the uh Development Authority and the Housing Authority they both paid 50% to have a housing study done and we haven't had one for over five years but the report came back was 465 Pages report about the housing needs for Detroit Lakes and they're going to give a the results of that study in October 25th started at 8:00 at the H's uh Ballroom so if you're interested in what the housing study uh is is going to say about our needs you should come to that meeting but I just want to say that this money is very well used and it's and it's needed uh you know if we got a we' got a lot of people that uh are low income and I need help and uh this is what this program is about all right we do have a motion a second right correct further discussion all in favor the motion say I I oppos motion carries um all right we're back to item e is consideration to resolution amending the bylaws of the Detroit Lakes fire department relief Association provide for an additional $1,200 per year for a lumpsum pension of $12,500 for each year effective April 1st 2025 Heidi you want to give us a rundown on this sure so um the the Fire Relief Association had um one of their semiannual meetings in Late July and they um we discuss and look at um their pension fund and how it is funded um currently with their current benefit level of 11,300 per year of service um if if the city were or if they were to end the year 2024 at this benefit level their funding percentage in their pension fund would be at 124% funded which is uh well over what they need so in order to make it uh somewhat fair to anyone who's looking to retire somewhat soon um they're requesting that they increase um the amount to 12,500 per year of service um and then at that point with the the current folks that we have and the vesting um percentages that that are required for them to um you know be eligible for that 12,500 per year their um funding estimates would be at about 11% funded so still well over um 100% funded um they're trying to Target somewhere around that 110% funded Mark um which gives them some cushion so that um there's no liability on the city's side of having a potential required uh Municipal contribution um and so I think that certainly helps us and make sure that you know should there be a poor investment return year or something of that nature then the city is protected so I do believe that this is something that is doable and um is is something that that you can consider sure all right so uh finance committee for uh reviewed this recommends approval of the $1,200 per per year increase to $12,500 for each effective year which I think in terms of what we do give to our uh fire department on a yearly basis uh for all the calls and all the service they do for the community I think this is the uh the best thing that we should do for them it uh fits the needs of of the requirements of the state statutes and allows for um an incentive at the the end of their career finance committee reviewed this recommends approval and I so move second motion has been made and seconded to adopt your resolution amending the bylaws of the fire department to provide an additional 1,200 per year and the lumpsum pension discussion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries anything else Dan nothing further for now all right we'll go to the Public Safety Committee chairwoman spry thank you thank you mayor um item 88 consideration to the first reading of ordinance 526 creating a city code 80112 engine brakes and I will let uh K uh Kelsey kind of bring us up to speed I'm sure you'll do a better job that I I'll take a swing at mayor and councel uh this actually came up at a public works meeting the prior month we had a couple of residents kind of that East Shore neighborhood um also there's a neighborhood there that's right off of Highway 10 raised the concern of of basically engine braking Jake breaking whatever you want to call it um one of the things that they explained is it's it's gotten worse in recent years because of Highway 54 a stoplight was put in a few years ago and now you have trucks basically coming to a stop at that intersection which they didn't have to stop at before so there was a a kind of a request to mot about putting up signage and that kind of let us down this path of well in order to be able to put up any type of signage we need to have an ordinance in place that prohibits it so um City attorney drafted up this uh um ordinance that would go into our city code it's basically prohibiting engine braking uh within the city limits okay thank you um our committee um discussed this at length yesterday and we are of opinion we want to move forward and so put second read is there a second I'll second it motion's been made and second it to give first reading to ordinance 526 creating a city code regarding engine breaking discussion do we know what I think last we said yesterday in subcommittee that M that would put up the signs that we'd have to pay for them do we know the cost of those signs yes mayor and councel uh we would pay mot to install them signs we do not have a cost okay further further discussion I I want to say too that this this ordinance isn't just for Jake breaking it's for any kind of a noise ordinance that's what the sign's going to say so you could have loud mufflers or many loud motorcycles or whatever it may be it's a music it's a it's a noise ordinance so it's not just a jake break ordinance okay further discussion true um this particular ordinance is around engine Brakes in particular um I think what you might be referencing is the signs may say Sound Ordinance or noise ordinance but this particular yeah ordinance is specific to engine breaks further discussion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries first reading is given to ordinance 526 anything else Wendy liquor and gambling control committee chairman dolman all right we just had an update on cannabis regulations we're trying to nail this thing down as far as where we're going to put these retail stores and cultivating so we're getting closer um there's other variables that are still out there on this regulations so Kelsey anything you want to that's a good summary okay perfect all right and then we have uh 9i which is basic be a gambling permit for Detroit Lakes Roy which is September uh 21st 2024 at Lista the committee reviewed it and we unanimously approved so I still move motion has been made and seconded to approve a gambling permit for the noon noon rotary club for September 21st I don't know if it's or not okay Detroit Lakes rotary SE noon rotary okay is that for the October Fest yes so okay all in favor of the motion say I iOS motion carries anything else Aon I have nothing your honor you do there is one item on the Public Utilities Commission agenda and I would call on Alderman Sterns yes Mr Mayor uh the Public Utilities Commission met this morning and one of the items on the agenda was a a review of two bids that were submitted for the Furnishing of some 115k Breakers that are going to be installed in the industrial substation um in 2026 and so uh uh the bids were reviewed um and the lead time on those uh uh general manager Roberts is hoping that we would receive these by July of 2026 so there is a long lead time so yeah exactly um so uh the the one bid that was a uh recommended for approval was uh all both were submitted by border states uh the one that was uh recommended is for a bid price of $231,200 so I have item 10A consideration to accepting bids for the 115 KV Breakers and awarding the contract to Border States for $231,200 and ISO move second motion's been made seconded to accept a bid from Border States Electric for some new 115 KV Breakers discussion all in favor of the motion say I I I who motion carries we've got a couple other items regarding the Becker County Detroit Lakes airport Dan do you have those yep I'll take them okay um item 11a is consideration to a resolution authorizing the execution of a grant agreement with mot for the airport taxi Lane Rehabilitation or rehab rehabilitation project Kelsey you want to give us a little bit of background on this yeah mayor and Council basically the taxi Lane payment Rehabilitation project is basically some Mill and overlay and seal coating uh project at the airport um the grant agreement covers there's a there's a federal portion State portion and then the balance is paid by the airport uh percentages um they vary a little bit based upon what is eligible based upon where the work is being done so the federal share is about 33% State share is 46% and then the local share is about 21% uh this is going to be paid for out the airport fund so there's no additional request for funding from the city or the county so the finance committee reviewed this this afternoon recommends approval and IO move motion's been made and seconded to adopt a resolution authorizing the execution of a grant agreement with mot for the airport taxi Lane rehab project discussion all in favor of the motion say I I I oppose motion carries item 11b is uh the third month now that we're taking a look at this issue it's about the uh funding of the um t hangers at the airport uh first month was approving the loan agreement second month was resending that and this month is the finalization of how we are going to finance that without uh loaning or getting a loan from the bank mayor and Council that's correct so originally the the two new six unit T hangers were going to be financed through basically um private financing through a bank um the interest rates were higher than expected so we decided to go back and look at funding it internally both with the city and the county uh the total project cost is 1.3 million so the capital contribution that's in the resolution is for half that amount for $650,000 um that is intended to be split uh between uh Public Utilities using their Economic Development Grant and Loan Fund uh to fund $400,000 of that and then the Detroit Lakes Development Authority funding the balance of $250,000 at a term of 10 years at 5.5% interest uh this is similar to the LifeLink hanger that was constructed a couple of years ago uh those were internally financed between the city and county uh to a tune about I think it's about $326,000 each is what that one was so a little bit more uh a little bit of a higher interest rate uh but it just seems like a prudent thing to do uh to use those existing funds rather than borrowing money at over 7% so with this the money is going to be coming from the rental of the te- hangers so it's not coming out of the city budget um the still needs to go to the county for approval plus the airport Authority for approval and the Development Authority for approval so this is just one step in the continued hurdle process so item 11b is consideration to a resolution authorizing Capital contribution to the Detroit Lakes Becker County airport commission finance committee reviewed this this afternoon recommends approval and I so move second it motion's been made and seconded to adopt a resolution authorizing Capital contribution to the Detroit Lakes Becker County Airport commission discussion all in favor the motion say I I oppos motion carries I have some appointments I'd like to recommend to the council this evening I'd like to recommend the reappointment of Andy mcoles to the Becker County food pantry for another term so move to Second motion's been made and seconded to reappoint Andy mcoles to the Becker County food pantry discussion all in favor of the motion say I I I oppose motion carries I would like to recommend the reappointment of Chris jasin to the Housing and Redevelopment Authority board and I would entertain a motion some motion has been made and seconded to reappoint Chris jasin to the HRA board discussion all in favor of the motion say I hi oppose m Mo carries I would like to recommend the reappointment of Matt bokei to the development Authority and I would entertain second motion's been made in seconded to reappoint Matt bokei to the development Authority discussion all in favor of the motion say I oppose motion carries I would like to recommend the reappointment of Ron Zeman to the development Authority second motions been made and seconded to reappoint Ron Zeman to the development Authority discussion all in favor of the motion say I I oppose motion carries and I would like to make the recommendation to reappoint Matt Davis to the library Board second motion has been made and seconded to reappoint Matt Davis to the library board discussion all in favor of the motion say I I OPP motion carries I do have a couple more appointments that I I do not have a recommendation tonight uh specifically we have a couple openings on the Development Authority and I'm looking for some folks there I've asked a couple people and have struck out so far so if anybody in the council has a candidate you can certainly let me know Kelsey anything else further from City staff uh mayor and Council the only thing I was going to mention um as the uh Pavilion referendum comes close to a vote in November uh we are looking at having a open house on September 25th from 4: to 7 uh there's no set time for any type of presentation it'll just be kind of an open house style for residents of the community to come in maybe they haven't been in the building for a while to see what its current state is to ask questions to learn more about the referendum um so we're still working on getting a flyer and stuff put together and and getting that out but the plan is uh September 25th from 4 to 7 okay thank you couple announcements as Ron indicated earlier the Coalition of Greater Minnesota City's fall conference is coming up on November 21st and 22nd in Alexandria and if you're interested in attending please let Carrie know uh the balance of the joint government's meeting dates are listed the balance of the Detroit Lake City council meeting dates are listed and the 2025 city council meeting dat are also listed in in the packet so with that anything further Jay no Sean no Mike no Matt what date was the housing study again 25th of October 25th of October Friday morning else Jackie no R it's not Wendy Dan nope Aaron I have nothing okay I have something Mr Mayor oh I'm sorry um I would like to take this time to say happy birthday to council member Josephson it's his birthday today happy birthday he had to wish me a happy birthday last month so it's his turn this month bu but now I need to uh resend my no comment because I need to also happy uh say happy birthday to the um assistant City attorney Dylan ramstead scoy oh happy birthday happy Christmas all right well with that the business of this Council has come to a conclusion and the meetings adjourned [Music]