##VIDEO ID:sZI7nyUyySk## [Music] this regular meeting the Detroit Lake City council's called to order at this time I'd like to invite all of you to please stand and join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag I Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and jusice for all thank you the first item on the agenda is the regular agenda which is before the council and I would entertain a motion to approve the regular agenda as printed Mr Mayor I'd like to uh make an amendment to the regular agenda to moove uh remove item 9A from the consent agenda and move it up into the regular agenda okay let's we'll do the regular one make a motion for the regular and then we'll do the consent so is there a second to the motion second motion has been made and seconded to adopt the regular agenda discussion all in favor of the motion say I I I oppose the motion carries now 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 citizens so request in which event the item will be removed from the general order of business and consider considered separately in its normal sequence on the agenda and Mike what item was that uh item 9A 9A is going to be moov from the consent agenda and Ron you had it h h 9 h 9 H correction sorry got it and I also have one in regards to fireworks 6 I okay so we're I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda with the removal of 9 H and 6 I so moved second motion's been made and seconded to adop the consent agenda discussion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries the minutes of the regular city council meeting which was held on November 12th 2024 before the council is there anyone in the audience or any member of the council who wishes to make any adjustments or changes to the minutes hearing that I would entertain a motion for approval of the minutes from the November 12th council meeting so move second motion's been made seconded to approve the minutes of the council meeting held November 12th 2024 discussion all in favor of the motion say I I I oppose the motion carries Jason bristen and Dave nyson are here representing the disabled American veterans and they'd like to make a presentation to the city council and I think Dave you're going to present are both of you Jason yeah Absolut absolutely thank you good evening mayor and council members uh as the mayor mentioned we're with the disabled American veterans we're on a mission to put a what I call Handy capable dock system into Detroit Lakes I believe this has been in front of the council before and approved just a hopefully a brief update Bob liseo always said Readers Digest version because I have a tendency of rambling so I'll try and keep it to that point uh Jason bristlin is our current Commander he'll have a few words about the dock I wanted to go over a little bit of where we're at we have currently um left 40 46,000 of the 125,000 with the city that we're projecting it's um going to cost in addition to that the Barry Foundation has obligated $25,000 towards it part of that initial 46,000 was 5,000 from the lake detroiters who have also granted another $5,000 when we get moving forward on it the Realtors Association of which we're both uh real estate agents I'm a broker Jason's part of our crew uh is looking at $15,000 and metal Lake Campground is part of that original $46,000 at $7,000 the VFW has also donated along the way with we raise our money primarily by collecting the clothes out of the green bins that you see at Noah's and down at the American Legion we also have bins and Mills perm and freay Z we pick up about 150,000 pounds of close a year we sell it to the saers store in Minneapolis for 23 cents a pound which brings us about $40,000 a year to use to help veterans in the area and projects like this I want to emphasize this dock is not just for veterans it's for a maybe a three-year-old in a wheelchair that wants the opportunity to swim in our Lake somebody in a wheelchair that wants to have the opportunity to actually get in a kayak and go for a cruise around the lake it's for all citizens guests anybody in the area not just for vet so where we're at right now today with my calculations and with the check I have in my hand and the obligations we have we at $116,000 but we are right on the tip of the iceberg I'm going to present this check of $25,000 to the mayor and I'll let Jason do his uh dock because he's Jason's the one that started this I came on board afterwards and uh he's he's got the knowledge been working with Sean King to put this whole thing together and Kelsey and several other people but thanks Dave thanks Dave yeah I just want to say city's been great I mean obviously Kelsey and I it's everyone you talk to about this doc system automatically says we're remiss for not having this already it should be here right Sean's been just absolutely huge you know advocate of it and helping us every step of the way so I really can't thank him enough and I just want to say you know it's kind of like Christmas I was at a midnight mass one time and the uh preacher was telling us that St Nicholas was the patron saint of children and sailors as a sailor I could resonate because I like children better than most humans um but you think about this Dock and you think about a lot of us that are aging our Mobility is getting you know a little challenged getting on and off a boat definitely getting on and off a a kayak you know it becomes more difficult but then you take someone who's maybe lost a leg or you know is born with dis abilties in in wheelchair and you say we can open our Lake up to everyone and get these people in there get you know mom and dad while they're Aging in the community back on the pontoon and back out on the lake enjoying it with the grandchildren so I mean that's really our mission with this um once we put this 125,000 towards the uh dock we're still raising money for the swim area and we want to just make sure that we're dialed in that that it's every intention to have a safe uh handicapped swim area included with that so thank you thank you guys we really appreciate it and we're looking forward to it and thank you again Tom and Pam Morton are here this evening and want to address the council regarding wreaths Across America partner in crime yeah she's coming good evening mayor City Council Members City staff and ladies and gentlemen well this is our ninth year and I want to just tell you a little bit about the progress that I'm hearing number one Detroit Lakes Remains the only city in West Central Minnesota that does the wreaths Across America nine years ago when Pam and I started working with the Community with organizations like the DAV and others we were able to be one of 3600 now that's grown to almost 4700 locations around the United States yet Detroit lak Still Remains unique in the whole Western Central Minnesota area to give you some scope of how big this project is it takes 19 18 wheel ERS to bring the wreaths to Arlington 3,000 volunteers help put out those wreaths just at Arlington our ceremonies that we do here in Detroit Lakes are parallel at the same time that they're laying those wreaths we know that there's service members both living and the those that the past that are missed at the holiday season so this is just one way that we honor them them for their service we just want to inform the council that we're doing this again thanks to City staff we've been able to do it every year and we will continue to do it so thank you for the opportunity and you're probably wondering what is Tom dressed up in today well ladies and gentlemen this is a Rough Rider uniform the ru Riders were a volunteer organization that fought in the Spanish American War what made us unique is this guy Teddy Rosevelt and Teddy campaigned right here at our railroad station for president people know that new the neighboring state North Dakota is also known as the Ruff Rider State the youngest Ruff Rider was born in Fargo he was 16 when he went up San Juan Hill so we have some continuity with the parallel counties and the state across from us so thank you for letting us bring Detroit Lakes as one of the hopefully 4700 this year that will be participating in this event thank you that's all we have to say thank you and thank [Applause] you so I got a backtrack here Dan we should do a resolution accepting the donation from the DAV I'm sorry yep that's okay um so this is consideration to resolution accepting a donation from the DAV for the had capable uh doc system in the amount of $25,000 finance committee finance committee reviewed this this afternoon recommends approval and I so move second motion has been made and seconded to adopt a resolution accepting the donation from the disabled American veterans discussion all in favor of the motion say I I I oppose the motion carries at this time I'll adjourn the regular meeting and call to order a public hearing to receive public comments on the issuance of a wine license 3.2 on sale license and a Sunday license to wood fire Foods llc at 811 8th Street Southeast uh is there anyone in the audience that would like to ask any questions or has any public comment regarding those licenses hearing none that public hearing is closed and would that be end the that' be end of the Liquors Mike Sure uh Mr Mayor the uh liquor and gambling committee control uh committee met earlier this afternoon and discussed that item and so we have for consideration to item uh let's see what is that item 41 41 I'm messing up up messing them all up today 41 consideration to approving the issuance of a wine license 3.2% on sale license and a Sunday license to Woodfire Foods LLC for 2025 at 811 8th Street Southeast and I so move second motion's been made and seconded to approve the various licenses for the wood fire Foods LLC discussion all in favor of the motion say I I oppose that motion carries without objection I would like to skip ahead to Community Development items five C and five pardon do you need to close no I'm going to jump to 5C and 5D please uh thank you your honor uh item 5c is consideration of resolution approving the preliminary P plat for Southwood Shores estate at 57 557 and 2112 270th Avenue um this was discussed at Planning Commission this was discussed last night at CDC you do have a new resolution in front of you uh the only thing I'd like to call out is item number seven as it is going to be R2 for the entire plat except lot 15 uh that is going to remain ra the reason behind that is lot 15 is in the western southwest corner of this it is a oversized lot that is primarily wooded with very little high ground that's the reason it's being kept out as 5A uh we disc discussed this last night at CDC uh and it had unanimous approval so I move this forward is there a second second it motion's been made and seconded to approve the preliminary plat of Southwood Shores Estates at 557 and 2112 270th Avenue is there a discussion on the motion all in favor of the motion say i i o the motion carries thank you honor I moving moving down to 5D consideration of the first reading of ordinance 532 amending section 20 of the zoning ordinance resoning an area called Southwood Shore Estates from ra agricultural residents to r21 and2 Family Residence District at 557 cshore drive and 2112 270th Avenue uh this is just moving the parcel from ra2 R2 this was discussed with the Positive recommendation Planning Commission this received unanimous approval last night at C CDC uh and I so move second motion's been made and seconded to give first reading to ordinance 532 amending section 20 of the zoning ordinance regarding the Southwood Shores EST state area discussion on the motion your honor I would like to point out that the portion of this plant that's currently zoned RM would remain RM and the part that's lot 15 will remain res presidential agriculture but all the rest of it will be zoned R to okay any further discussion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries thank you Matt without objection I want to jump ahead to the liquor and gambling committee items 9A and 9 A1 Mike yes Mr Mayor uh one additional item that the liquor and gambling control committee discussed today was item 9A and that's a consideration of the second reading and Adoption of ordinance 529 and an ordinance of the city of Detroit Lakes to regulate cannabis business uh one thing there was a significant amount of discussion on was the minimum buffer requirement uh which was in the previous reading was 00 linear feet um the you know the the goal of the liquor and gambling control committee is not to prohibit uh retail businesses but we did want to uh increase that buffer uh distance and and so uh the agreed upon uh distance was 5,000 linear feet from each other uh so we do want to uh make that correction at or that change at this time and and so U I'd like to recommend item 9A consideration of the second reading and Adoption of ordinance 529 an ordinance of the city of Detroit Lakes to regulate cannabis businesses with that change is there a second I'll second it motion has been made and seconded to give second reading and adopt ordinance 529 uh with the change that Mike outlined there discussion by the council question I have is how did we land on the arbitrary number of 5,000 versus 2500 that we talked about that blength and just wondering well I mean I you know I guess it's fair question but I mean there was a lot of discussion and we felt that there would still be enough opportunity for retail businesses to exist in the city of Detroit Lakes um with a 5,000 fo linear buffer um 2500 is a an arbitrary distance as well um so that was kind of the amended discussion the discussion and Wendy did you have a question my question was kind of the same was there some rationale or science behind finding that number that I mean does it create does it purposely minimize opportunity or well it'll definitely reduce the number I mean I think you know I think there is just a general General expectation that there probably would still be opportunity for at least three retail businesses in The City Is there further discussion or questions I think one of the rationals behind uh the 5,000 linear feet was the limitation of exposure of uh especially young people in the community um the more my opinion is the more exposure in our community the more the younger the younger people will see this and I think that the more exposure then promotes a a sense of condoning uh marijuana use um it normalizes its use and I feel that less visualization by younger people is a positive thing okay further discussion well I wanted to say too that there there is a concern the residents uh a lot of them feel that we better off with fewer and then more because we we were talking at our last meeting we could be up to nine or 10 retail whether or not we could have that many people who could afford to build these buildings I don't know but the the concern is by the Jal residents to having fewer might be better for the community overall because like what just was saying about you know Youth and our people and so forth okay further discussion or comments so are we going to remove vaping then from gas stations that's normalizing it or I guess to me 5,000 seems like overregulation I I thought we all agreed on 2500 at the first reading now we're at the second reading changing it I've not a heal I'm going to die in but I think 2500 seemed fine to me further discussion I think the maor majority of people in this town at least my um unofficial survey is that they would prefer less opportunity for retail establishments rather than more further discussion so or are we are we thinking that we're gonna how many license are they is the state giving out 20 30 Statewide do you remember what the first round of the applications were like 250 200 I thought it was like 200 250 in the first round sure and we're thinking we're gonna get three five seven 12 applications and now we're I know we were talking at the the one special uh meeting that we had not meeting but a special work session that we were talking about we don't want to have any of them and that's kind of where we're kind of leading to is is we started at this point of of zero in our city because that's where some of our our members thought we should be and then we're like well what can we do to uh make it very restrictive and I guess if people want to come to our community and spend money and and do things that that are legal in the state of Minnesota I guess you know it's fair business and we're limiting that and I guess if that's the way we want to go then let's go on that path well I think we need to consider the the ills to society you know that this type of business May create um I don't think we should be worried about the tax revenue and the and the business that it might bring to our community I think we need to look at the overall costs and benefits and I think right now I think we don't know where it's going to fall out I think it's a better thing to be conservative and we can always liberalize the the ordinance if we so desire in the future but this is unchartered Waters and therefore I think we should be conservative from the start yeah I mean the difference between legal and moral is a fine line right um but in general when it comes to Zone zoning when it comes to um ordinances I'm kind of with uh Mr drainy in this case Dr dry my apologies um that starting with starting more conservative and working our way back from there as we learn along with the state is a smarter path forward for us as a city because there are a ton of unknowns around all of this and that frankly worries me okay we one more Wendy okay um 2500 versus 5,000 this is what we're talking we're talking about doubling the buffer zone correct in an effort to I'm just GNA for my for my understanding to minimize the number of retail businesses in our community based on and I think Sean said it well a legal versus a moral argument um I've I'm not going to preach but there's more damage done in this community with the use of alcohol than anything else I've worked in Corrections for 30 years and and that you know the comment about vaping the comment about I get a little leery of applying morality to our rules and how we' come to decision I think we all have certain standards that we want to live by and everyone's are a little different and so that I guess that's why I'm just trying to make sure that we are using some um rationale that makes sense to the community um do I want a bunch of business I don't want 10 liquor stores in our town either I don't want 10 of anything in our town um but I just want to go on the record with saying that of making that statement I've I've sat pretty quietly and listened um and it's I don't know that it's a hill I'm going to die on either but I think we need to recognize that fact that um to demonize the business um that's where I've been probably for many many years you know really afraid of it well I'm not afraid to option um by our by our I'm not a state that says it's legal and it's a business that can operate and we want to put um into place the rules around that that make the most sense Fair Community if 5,000 fet it makes the most sense Fair Community in order to um to best serve the community so be it okay we've we've had we've had a lot of these comments at I don't know how many meetings and it's basically going to come down to a vote so I don't know if we really need to belabor the discussion much further than than we have so far so can I make one I would really like to call the question can I make one comment the intent is not to demonize the intent is to use scientific data from medical literature about the negative effects and I don't care what people say who want to sell it and want to use it that's your choice I'm not I'm not sitting here making a a moral statement on it but I'm I'm using scientific medical evidence from people who have in-depth knowledge about marijuana use and especially the effects on adolescence and the more we make it available we know that with alcohol why did they change it from 18-year-old drinking age to 21 because more younger people were having access to alcohol the same thing with this and and the the psychological effects we talked about this at the committee level the psychological effects on especially on adolescents is more pronounced than on adults and when it comes to increas in schizophrenia increase in depression increase in other mental health disorders and so what I don't understand I don't get it um why we're so uh interested in having so much access okay I I I want to say one thing too Mr Boi made a statement about vaping and um Mayo Clinic ran a report that uh we've had a number of high school students in State Minnesota we had two out of the faram bhead area that had to have lung transplants because of vaping and may Clinic said that a young student uh vaping for two years is more dangerous than an adult smoking a package of cigarettes for the next 40 years every day for 40 years so that's how we're talking about vaping I wish we wouldn't have vaping either but it's all about helping our young people so we'll get them hooked on a bad habit okay well I'm going to call the question thank you Charlie what is the vote here with and is it a simple majority all right all in favor of the motion say I I opposed the motion carries thank you so Mr Mayor we also have uh item 9 A1 which is part of that um consideration to approving the summary of ordinance 529 uh so I have a I move for approval consideration to approving the summary of ordinance 529 an ordinance of the city of Detroit Lakes to regulate cannabis business and I so move is there motion has been made seconded to approve a publication of a summary of ordinance 529 regulating cannabis businesses and this would require all of us tonight right all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries is there anyone else in the audience that wants to adjust an item on the agenda I don't see anybody and we'll have our truth and Taxation hearing at 601 so we've got a little ways before we get into into that so let's go back to the Community Development Committee agenda chairman bokei uh thank you honor item 5A we just had discussion regarding the established joint planning board last night at CDC uh it sounds like this would possibly be brought before the entire Council uh for consideration next week at the special meeting so more to come on that one good uh item five b consideration to a first reading of ordinance 531 amending the zoning ordinance of city of Detroit Lakes relative relative to annexation areas being zoned other than ra uh agricultural residence districts uh Larry essentially this ordinance would require that if we are going to Annex property and Zone it anything other than ra we would have to follow the notification requirements that we use for any zoning change which means people within 700 ft would have to be notified if we are annexing property without that change with typical ra zoning then we would just follow the notification requirement for annexations which is to notify the abing property owners it also amends the ordinance to require that you can't change the the zoning between first and second reading so this was discussed a planning meeting with a positive recommendation there this was discussed at CDC last night uh with his unanimous recommendation uh I saw I I so move second motion's been made and seconded to give first reading to ordinance 531 amending our zoning ordinance relative to annexation areas being zoned other than R discussion on the motion uh just one thing to point out we discussed at CDC the state requirements is we have to notify 350 ft with from the property that we're annexing in this case we're going above and beyond that doubling it to 700 Square F feet okay just for everybody's knowledge further discussion if I may make one quick note as well um just so we're all clear on what this change does you know this last motion we just did around the Cannabis ordinance we changed it from the first reading to the second reading and passed it as a second reading when we if we pass this for zoning changes that happen part of as part of annexation if we were to make the same change in a second reading that would now become a first reading and Trigger all those processes again okay further discussion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries in first reading of ordinance 532 is given thank you your honor jumping down to 5e consideration of the first reading of ordinance Number 533 to amending the zoning ordinance of the city of diall relative the amount of signage on a commercial property uh Mr reman I'm going to turn this over to you please uh this amendment would allow businesses that have Frontage on more than one street to have 50% of the allowable signage on their property so for example if you're on a corner lot you would be able to have 100% of your signage in the front of your building plus you would be allowed another 50% of signage that you could put on the side of your building so that you would have exposure to to your property on both of the streets that you front on if you front on three streets you still only get the additional 50% and you have to decide how you want to allocate that you can't have more than 100% of your signage on one side so basically you can't frontload everything and put 150% of the signage allowed on the front of your building you have to spread it out okay uh this was discussed at Planning Commission that passed there uh this was discussed last night at CDC to a 2 to1 vote uh so I move this forward second motion's been made and seconded to give first reading ordinance 530 three amending the zoning ordinance relative to the amount of signage on commercial property discussion on the motion I just have a question for Larry sorry can so can you just explain how this is different from the current it's addressing that third side it's addressing any business that has more than one front or more than one facing on a street okay so the difference is that for a typical business that's not on a corner lot they don't have any they don't see any change but for the businesses that are on a corner lot they would be able to have 50% additional signage so let's just say for example someone is allowed 200 feet of signage on their building they would now be allowed up to 300 square feet of signage but only one side could have 100% of not more than 200 square feet of signage on any one side correct Wendy did you have a question that was that was it question okay I've I've got a comment on that my my concern is that it's on the backside and this is this is concerning the absorbers area but behind absorbers there if they're going to have I don't mind having printed material on the building but I'm concerned about at night because if they have the same type of light like they have in front you can see that light coming out west like drive for two blocks away and if you put up the similar light in on the back absorbers people that live a block away looking across a pickleball court it'll pretty well uh give a nuisance light in their yard and I'm I'm concerned about having lights in that with the neighborhood District further discussion I would have that same concern um that such signs may be illuminated maybe who determines whether they can well they they may be illuminated that means the applicant for the sign would have that opportunity that choice is theirs but but how about the neighborhood for what what what say do they have in it well we prohibit signs that we prohibit illuminated signs that cause glare onto the public right of way or adjacent property okay further discussion all in favor the motion say I I opposed I that's everything for CDC motion passes thank you we move to Public Works chairman Zeman okay the first item item 6A and this is a uh consideration to approving an ease but encroachment agreement with Holy Rosary Church primarily the cemetery and I'm going to call on Kelsey Clem to give us an update on that mayor and Council uh earlier this summer it became apparent that the the holy Roary uh Cemetery was basically getting encroaching into the RightWay um as getting close to the curb line uh we had a meeting out there discussed this topic uh they subsequently had a survey done to outline the different encroachments and since then Charlie our City attorney has drafted an easement encroachment agreement to basically allow the existing encroachments to remain uh I believe there's also two cremation plots that have been purchased uh that be next to existing family members that they have asked that they could allow the use of those otherwise it basically would stop any further encroachments into the RightWay uh so again basically the easement encroachment agreement that is in the packet would allow uh what's there to remain uh it does require them to indemnify the city and ensure the city and heaven forbid if we ever needed anything for utilities to have to relocate if necessary okay the committee reviewed this last night and I make a motion to go ahead and approve the easement agreement with church second motion has been made in seconded to adopt an easement encroachment agreement with Holy Rosary Church discussion all in favor of the motion say I iOS motion carries okay next item is Item B uh consideration to approving an agreement to drainage obstructions with Thomas and barbar Thompson I'm going to call on John Pratt to give us an update on that project [Laughter] whoa uh there's a I don't want to give too much history this is on the sharp corner on Shorewood Drive uh the Thompson purchased their property several years ago and made uh a variety of improvements to them uh one of the improvements was to raise the level of the driveway um it looks very nice but the consequence of what they did is that it backs up water uh that is in the RightWay up the hill so it affects the neighbors access to their properties uh so over the course of the last six to eight months uh we have had the Thompsons do an engineering study uh prepare a fix to that problem uh this is an agreement which incorporates their own Engineers recommendations I would also give some credit to our city engineer because he piped in on some of those recommendations and it's going to require the Thompsons to make drainage improvements to eliminate that problem uh and they have to do so by May 1st of 202 2 because of course it took some time to negotiate this agreement the Thompsons have already approved this agreement and signed it and I'm asking the city council to approve it from the the perspective of the city okay thank you Mr ramstead um also to make clear this all these expenses will be paid by the Thompson family so our committee reviewed this and we'll go ahead approving the agreement to remedy the drainage problem at Thompson property nice and second motion's been made and seconded to approve an agreement with Thomas and Barbara Thompson to remedy a drainage situation on their property discussion on the motion all in favor of the motion say I I oppos motion carries okay the next item is item C it's a consideration of accepting bids for the Heartland Trail uh trail head project and awarding the contract to hog Incorporated I'm going to call on John Pratt to give us a quick review of that yeah mayor and councel um there's a bid recommendation in your packet concerning the Heartland State trail trail head project um this is located all by country in in Suites been working on it for some time we took two bids uh a couple of weeks ago uh the apparent low bid was from Urban companies of St Paul uh we had a couple of unique circumstances with this bid that weren't a little further explanation here um this was a federally funded project which incorporates what's called a dbe goal or disadvantaged business goal in other words contractors obligated to attempt to incorporate disadvantaged businesses subcontractors or suppliers into the project as part of the Federal Regulations um their bid did not meet that goal and therefore they're required to to submit what's called a good faith effort demonstrate why they couldn't meet the goal um they failed to follow up on that um that was the first sort of issue the second issue was uh during our bid review and subsequent investigation um it became clear that their bid did not incorporate um some cost for materials that they were to have provided um as part of the project they were going to purchase them under a purchasing agreement um through the city so we can avoid some sales tax uh but nevertheless they did not incorporate that cost into their bid um so effectively they would not have been the low bid had they included those materials so we kind of had two two things going on there the reality is uh the first um more or less nullifies the bid it becomes a non-responsible bid um and mind would not allow us to to award it because they did not follow up on the various dbe requirements um that were required so uh that leaves us with our second low bid which was submitted from hog of Detroit Lakes hul's bid was only $10,000 more than what Urban company's apparent bid was so we're recommending award awarding the bid to hog in the amount of $457,000 well thank you John U as U John said we reviewed this yesterday in the committee review this also and we go I'm going to go ahead and recommend that we accept the bid from hugs for this project and ISO Move Motion has been made seconded to accept the bid from hog Incorporated for the Heartland trail trail head project discussion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries next item is item uh this is consideration resolution authorizing the execution of agency agreement with the commissioner of transportation for the Heartland trail head project I'm going to have Kelsey clam give us a view on this and tell us about how this is going to be paid for mayor and Council this is related to the Heartland trail trail head project we were just discussing uh since the city is going to be buying some equipment directly uh we have to enter into this agency agreement uh it's called a force account agreement uh for us to basically acquire the different electrical components the EV charging stations and the lighting that's going on the project um again the federal funding on this is 80% uh 8020 split uh locally is our 20 20% match okay and with that the committee reviewed this and Isa move that we go ahead and execute with this Agency for this project and ISO move second motions been made and seconded to adopt a resolution authorizing entering into an agency agreement with commissioner transportation for the Heartland trail trail head project discussion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries okay the um next one item is consideration to a resolution authorizing preliminary engineer report for West Lake Drive phase three and as you know we've had two other phases now we're going to go from the legion Club up to the villan I'm going to call on John Pratt to give us a review on mayor and Council I mean fairly routine action here just authorizing the preparation of the report of course we have to have a preliminary engineering report anytime uh we're planning to use special assessments as part of the financing mechanisms for a project and we do plan to utilize special assessments uh for the Westlake Drive phase three project so we wanted to get authorization to begin that I would note that it may be some time before we actually finalize that report and have the hearing um but wanted to take the step this evening okay the uh committee did review this project and um I so move that we go ahead and authorize the preliminary engineer report for this project for West Lake Drive phase three nio move second motion's been made and second to adopt a resolution authorizing a preliminary engineering report for Westlake Drive phase three discussion all in favor the motion say I I I opposed the motion carries okay next item item F that's consideration to a resolution authorized plinary engine report for shwood drive as well John you want to give us an update on that yeah mayor and councel again sort of the same song second verse here we' got another report that we need to do for shwood Drive we've talked about shood drive on and off I would say over the last two to three years looked at possibly incorporating into some of the rehab project so we just cleaned up or just finished up um but ultimately had uh deferred any action on shwood Drive um it's getting to the point that we probably need to look at that the the roadway is deteriorating um rather quickly at this point so we wanted to study it and bring forth some recommendations and then ultimately get to a hearing on that okay John now you you figured though this wouldn't be a full Reclamation it would be a partial well it will be right now I think our position and we'll we'll examine some of these options I guess is I think what we're going to bring forward is probably a full depth Reclamation similar to what we did on some of the other streets around town this summer where we're grinding up that pavement uh in its entirety reg gradient putting a new Surface on it um in contrast to say an overlay which we're not going to recommend I can tell you that that it's a little too far gone for that but we'll touch on that there has been some interest uh from Property Owners about something more than a full depth Reclamation something more along the line of a full reconstruction with kbon gutter and things like that um for various reasons I think that's going to be challenging to do um at this point in time so we'll we'll touch on that the report okay thank you John the public work committee reviewed this project and I so move that we go go ahead with the authorizing the preliminary engineering report then second motions been made in second and adopt to adopt the resolution authorizing a preliminary engineering report for shwood Drive discussion on the motion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries okay the next item we're going to have uh John give us a city engineering report for how we're ended up the the season and moving forward into uh January and February and so forth so John I'll I'll bring back to you certainly Council um yeah things are starting to wind on obviously from a construction standpoint but we have plenty going on in the way of design and getting things moving for future projects um you know starting off with project number three there Southwest Shore Estates uh I along with some other City staff are going to be meeting with the developer here in the next uh week or so um to discuss the first phase of the shwood or the South woodshore Estates uh project that's the plat you just approved this evening and how that project is going to um unfold I think the indications are right now that that would be a project uh for next year um moving along number five the water tower uh we have official action on the water tower at this point um maybe you've heard it maybe you haven't um but they have commenced the the pile driving activities so they're working on driving the test piles right now uh once we get through that testing phase and establish the driving plan um they'll continue with it's roughly piles at about 80 feet into the ground so there'll be a couple weeks worth of uh of pounding up there but underway um outside of that we discussed the Heartland Trail project and wed that bid tonight Forest Street we continue to work on that design again project for next year Westlake Drive um there is a fair amount activity going on uh with that project uh between myself and City staff County staff um trying to sort of solidify the project scope and some of the options and things like that so that we can hustle the design along we have to complete uh the plans and specs for that uh in in their entirety by the early part of May so we have very little time to sort of push this together but we've made some really good progress here as of lately but um more to come on that in the coming month or two um nothing to update you on for the dmra Legacy Grant so any questions okay thank you John I'd like to make a motion that we go ahead and approve a um our Engineers report for the month so move second motion's been made and seconded to approve the city Engineers monthly project status report discussion all in favor of the motion say I I oppose motion carries okay and I have one more I've got item I from the consent agenda I'm I'm going to have Kyle you want to come to the front to meet you and tell us what you want to do here but basically uh we originally had a firework uh display set up for do just on February 8th and we're going to do it also on February 22nd we're going to have two separate fireworks and they're both are going to start uh from 7 pm at DES to 8:00 pm and U you have anything else you want to say on that as far as uh going along with the fireworks and so forth well today I went into uh the sheriff's department and uh got our sorry I'm very nervous um um I got the uh was it the boat and Mar permit I I uh I didn't know that they could only take checks and not debit Millennial problem here um um but uh um I've I I didn't mean to only put the 22nd on the the original I I had thought that I was only going to do one show but then everybody else told me I should probably do two shows like we normally did and uh well in the previous years I wasn't against it's just more fundraising and looking what we had and how um I I want to do what the sponsors want and not what it's just um it just be came be yeah sorry be simp what we've had in the past years so yep yep yep I'm going to have uh I'm going to um I'm raising the funds to make sure I can get the police department and the sheriff's department out there to help um with with uh barricades and make sure people don't go towards the fireworks and don't drive Lake if it's to if I'm told that we have to close that off too so you know okay thank you Kyle I'll go ahead and make a motion that we go ahead and approve the new special event application I so move second motion's been made and seconded to approve a special event application for Propel DL for Frozen fireworks on February 8th and 22nd right yes that's it is discussion on the motion all in favor of the motion say I I oppos motion carries thank you Kyle thank you that'll be all you all right move to the finance committee and at some point here Dan we might have to interrupt and jump back to the to the truth and Taxation hearing so go ahead with go ahead and get started I'll start and get through these see how far we can get okay um item a is consideration of approved approving Personnel policy updates um I'll take a stab of this and if anybody has any objections to I said in the uh document that's up here in Redline um basically um our HR department gone through the policies and procedures manual and want some updates done basically it's some things about notifying your supervisor of absences it aligns Our Sick Le and time off pay aligns that with the ESS rules and regulations that were updated um also talks about time to and so forth and then also the employer of injuries or illnesses that would cause workers comp claim to do that in a timely fashion I do a okay all right so finance committee uh reviewed the consideration of approving the Personnel policy updates recommends approval and I so move second motions been made and seconded to approve the Personnel policy updates discussion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries Item B is consideration to a resolution approving the 2024 end of year fund transfers I'll hand that one over to Heidi because I could take a stab at it but she'll probably do a better job oh I'm sure you would have been fine uh good evening mayor and Council um in the packet is a resolution to approve some yearend fund transfers what those transfers do is um transfers funds from the storm water utility fund to um the various Debt Service funds to um have the storm water fund pay for their share of project expenses on previously completed uh capital projects um that we are currently paying off um certain debt issuances so this is an annual resolution that we do each year these are budgeted transfers that we do um and so if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer all right any questions from the council since there's no questions Item B is consideration to a resolution approving the 2024 end of year fund transfers finance committee reviewed this recommends approval and I so move second motion's been made and seconded to adopt a resolution approving the 2024 end the year fund transfers discussion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries item C we've got uh like three minutes or so Kelsey you can be okay with explaining the fee schedule sure all right um I'll hand over the fee schedule conversation Kelsey mayor and Council every year we pass a resolution adopting our fee schedule um in the packet all the proposed changes to the previous year are highlighted in yellow and red lined um I can certainly just hit the high points we're removing the plumbing permit um we're also um increasing slightly our short form building permit application from $50 plus the state search charge to $75 which includes the state search charge our mitigation permit to $500 for the application and our zoning permit from $40 to $50 we also have several of our rental facilities um we're updating the insurance requirements to a million doll policy uh being required for all of our different venues uh we're also increasing our deposit that's due for the sport Sports Arena that's the high points questions on that hearing nothing um item C is consideration to a resolution approving the 2025 fee schedule finance committee reviewed this a little bit longer than this uh Past synopsis recommends approval and I so move second motion has been made and seconded to adopt the resolution approving the 2025 fee schedule in the city discussion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries item D is a resolution establishing 2025 pay rates for the Detroit Lakes fire department Heidi you want to take a quick uh run through this certainly um mayor and Council the um resolution you have in your packet is updating the uh fire department pay rates for 2025 the only real change um in the resolution is we add added some fire standby pay for the officers who will be on weekend standby uh the rate is $318 per hour for each weekend hour on standby and those weekend hours include the hours uh from Friday at 5:00 p.m. to Monday at 8:00 a.m. um that additional funding was included in the budget for 2025 um and again that is really the only change other than updating um our our um sort of our justification of us um remaining a volunteer fire department um further up in the resolution so if there are any questions I would be happy to answer those any questions for Heidi um item D is consideration to a resolution establishing 2025 pay rates for the Detroit likes fire department finance committee reviewed this recommends approval and I so move second motion's been made and seconded to adopt a resolution establishing the 2025 pay rates for the Trad Lakes fire department discussion all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries so Dan I think I'll have to stop you there because in just a few seconds here we're going to open up a public discussion about the 2025 budget and tax levy and it's now 601 so Dan go ahead uh let's see here I guess I would just over to Heidi for our trth taxation meeting yes good evening mayor and Council and citizens um this evening is um the opportunity for uh the city for me to do a presentation on our 2025 budget and tax levy um and then also for citizens to make comment on uh the proposed budget and Levy so we'll kind of get right into it um I've added a couple of slides this year just to give you a little bit more information about um how everything works so uh just kind of first off a few property tax terms that you might hear might not be familiar with and might want to know um estimate a market value so that is the total valuation of your property um it's also EMV referred to taxable market value that's the valuation of your property that is actually subject to property tax so that would be your estimated market value minus any any exclusions that you might have if you have a homestead valuation exclusion if you um qualify for disabled veteran exclusions or blind and disabled Homestead exclusions uh those types of things are taken off of your estimated market value to arrive at the actual taxable market value um that is used to calculate your actual taxes um net tax capacity that is your taxable market value times your property class rate so that is what is used to figure out your actual tax bill we'll kind of talk about that a little bit later on in the presentation um Levy so that is the amount that the city determines that we need to operate um in the next year we set that dollar amount and so regardless of what property valuations do if they go up if they go down it doesn't really matter because we will collect the same amount uh regardless of what those valuations do because we set the amount we want to collect not a rate at which we're going to collect and then tax rate is something that ends up getting calculated by taking um the total net tax capacity in the entire city um and our Levy is divided by that so it's the big pi and then um divided by our entire Levy that is the city's tax rate and you'll hear me U refer to that throughout my presentation as well so just an overview of Minnesota's property tax system um on January 1st of Any Given year the the assessor determines what your property value is for the foll year's taxes so for instance your 2025 taxes will be um determined based on a valuation of your property as of January 1st of 2024 so you're always lagging behind one year um and properties again are not tax directly on value but rather on tax capacity that's that um other term that we're kind talking about in the last slide and then each different property type has a different class rate so depending on what your property type is if you have a residential property and your homestead that's a certain property Class Type um if it's commercial industrial that's a separate property tax um property Class Type and then apartments and so on and so farth have certain various different types so residential Homestead um to to to those class rates are at 1% of the first 500,000 in valuation and then after that we take 1 and a half or I'm sorry one and a quarter percent of the valuation over 500,000 so if your property is valued under 500,000 it's always 1% of that valuation if it's over then your tax capacity number um accumulates at a higher rate so the overall timeline of the the whole property tax prop uh process is kind of year round process so again I mentioned January 1st is when the assessor determines those valuations March or April those valuation notices are sent by the county to every property owner um and then in April or May somewhere around there is when the local Board of appeal uh holds their meeting and that is the time when Property Owners can um say hey I don't agree I don't agree with that valuation that doesn't make sense for my property for ABC reasons um that's not what we're doing here this evening that again that that process takes place in the spring um but that is the point um at where uh folks can appeal what their valuation is if you don't agree with what the assessor has determined your valuation should be or um if the assessor has miscategorized or misclassified your property type as well um and then obviously um as the year progresses we'll start working on our budgets here at the city so locally we'll start working on those in June or July just in enter with staff and then in August the council um Can attest to you that we hold lots of early morning meetings to discuss the budget um come September we have to adopt our preliminary Levy um and have to have that U sent off to the county by the end of September so that has to be adopted and that's the highest that we can go with our Levy we can always come down but we can't go over that amount once we set that preliminary Levy then in November if you recall probably just a few weeks ago you received a notice from the county that says what your property taxes might look like for next year all of those notices were based on the valuations that were uh determined as of the beginning of the year and then those preliminary budget and Levy amounts that we all set back in September so all this kind of flows together and then now tonight um we're as one of your taxing jurisdictions we're holding our meeting for public discussion on our final budget and Levy and then if the council um is still agreeing um that this is the budget and Levy you'd like to proceed with um you have the opportunity to pass a resolution and finalize and adopt that final budget and Levy and then we start all over again next year so what do your property tax dollars pay for um there are obviously more categories than just us on your property tax um statements you'll see there's a county portion a city portion the school district and then also special taxing districts in the breakdown I've got kind of an approximate breakdown of of the percentages of who all receives your property tax dollars all of those funds don't come to the city um they are split between all of these taxing jurisdictions this slide is a um snippet of an actual tax statement for 2024 so you'll notice in the upper um right hand part of the screen there is a comparison of valuations from 2023 to 2024 um and then there's also some information about that Homestead exclusion so if you um have your property homesteaded and it is under a c certain dollar amount in value um you get a portion of that value excluded from being taxed um that changed a bit this year and I'll talk about that in my next slide but then after you remove that exclusion you arrive at that taxable market value right below that um on this tax statement it shows what your property is classified as this property is a residential Homestead and then down further you'll see the various different taxing jurisdictions and then how much each is going to collect from um their property taxes and then down in the lower leftand side there is more information on special assessments and things like that so the homestead exclusion is something um that was enacted several years ago it replaced um a different program but it is now um been revised a bit um with recent legislative changes so previously um the homestead exclusion phased out if your property was at $413,500 or higher in valuation you received no exclusion you were you were taxed on that entire valuation however recently um the um I believe it was 202 three legislature um passed a law that they wanted that increased so now that exclusion um goes up to the valuation of 57,200 and um so right now the the biggest exclusion you can get is at $95,000 in value and that's an exclusion of $38,000 everything after that higher than 95,000 goes down a little bit until you finally phase out at that 5177 two number um anything less than 95,000 is a little bit smaller because 40% of say 75,000 is less than 40% of 95,000 so that's how that's calculated so this is just an example again of of a property um hypothetical property but a real calculation so the estimated market value of this property would be 280,000 and then this is how the exclusion is calculated so you take you start with the maximum amount that they could possibly get in the exclusion so that 95,000 times the 40% so that's 38,000 then you take the value over that 95,000 um and reduce the benefit by 9% of the value over the 95,000 so in this case the reduction is 16,650 so the final exclusion amount is the 38,000 minus the 16650 so this property that was originally valued at um or that is valued at 280,000 receives an exclusion of 2,350 so they're actually being taxed on a valuation of $ 28,650 so that's kind of an illustration it's maybe a little complex for for this discussion but if anyone has questions or wants more information on this I'd certainly be happy to nerd out and talk with you after this meeting um or anytime but um we also talked about that class rate so um net tax capacity is what we're actually taxed on so we'll take that taxable market value and since that is below that $500,000 amount I'm looking at a residential Homestead Property I'm just assuming that that's what this is in this calculation and 1% of that is uh we arrive at the net tax capacity of 2587 so that's kind of what um how that calculation Works to arrive at your net tax capacity for your property so this is the city's overall net tax capacity over the past several years you can see we've grown pretty substantially um certainly over the last couple of years we had some very um significant increases in valuation um this past year was about 6% the two prior years to that were about 15% overall so very significant um the red line underneath the blue line um is just showing the difference between our total net tax capacity and and the amount that's taken out from um Tiff districts which the city receives but for different purposes so we'll kind of move on a little bit from that side of it and look at our actual budget so what is in our 2025 budget so we went through many meetings um discussed a lot of different things and then came out with this budget for 2025 so the major factors in our 2025 budget um the library received a grant from the Minnesota Department of Education for $749,999 so just under $750,000 um but that's a matching Grant right so we have to fund the other half of that Grant and what that Grant will do it'll fund replacement and repair of the library roof well not replacement but repair of the library roof um some exterior rehab and then a lot of interior updates to the library that would then um allow the library to be more Ada accessible um would update the elevator that right now you can't fit like a wheelchair type of thing in there to access the other levels um it would it would just give a lot of updates to that so we're planning to fund um the local share of that Grant via several years but this is kind of our first um bite at that so we've added 40,000 into um the budget for 2025 to help start paying for that um we also included 10,000 for the marshmallow um foundation's building fund um they are looking to do some improvements to their building they're trying to purchase or they are purchasing their building um the city uses the marshmallow foundation for um animal control in the city and so um as a partner with them uh we felt or the council felt it necessary to help with some of their funding um for that project um the food pantry also came to the council and requested that the city um fund some of their operation operating costs so between the city and the county we are funding their operating costs um the city's portion of that is $576 it's a slight increase from last year's funding couple other major things we do have a new police officer position in this budget um that adds about $115,000 to the budget we've got a new deputy chief position um in the police department that would be um really repurposing um not repurposing but um um converting I guess I would say uh one of our Sergeant positions into a deputy chief position and so the difference between that Sergeant um position and the deputy chief position is what we're funding um in this 2025 budget additionally um and so that additional uh amount is almost $24,000 between salary and benefits and things like that all of those um um police changes are being funded with one-time Public Safety Aid so we received um an allocation from the state of Minnesota in December of 2023 um again uh from 2023 legislation um for some one-time Public Safety Aid that can be used toward uh police and fire um items and so we are sort of trickling some of those funds down for some of these purposes um we did have a decrease in some of our revenues so uh franchise fees and licens and permit fees um just trying to be nice and um um conservative on that side of things and not try to overestimate what we might be receiving in because if that Revenue doesn't come in and we fall short it does have to come from somewhere so the levy does have to increase on the other side to make up for those um items if they don't come in um we also increased our debt Levy for the new Public Works facility um that's kind of our last large jump that we needed to do to get to where um we need to do to service that debt for the new facility up there on North Tower Road and then we also did our second um sort of bite at the street rehab project debt for um the various I always kind of call it chickenpox project that we did this last summer where we did several different um overlays and um full depth Reclamation type projects around the city this summer so those things um added a lot to our debt but we also had a lot of debt that we paid off and that fell off of our Levy so really the net impact to our debt Levy was only an increase of $6,000 so that was managed quite well um the timing worked out very well there uh we did have some Capital Equipment uh Levy increases so just the costs of you know equipment and things don't tend to go down um and the need is still there for you know streets Parks police relase um it and admin type of expenses so we did bump that up a little bit and then we also have settled contracts through next year with all of the city's unions um that include a 3% wage increase and some health insurance increases as well so all of those factors are kind of the major items included in the 2025 budget this is really probably difficult to see if not impossible but again I'll have this entire presentation um online if you'd like to look at a little bit more in depth um this is really showing a summary of all of the revenues and then all of the expenditures in the general fund for the city and then um we actually don't show a balanced budget this year um because we are using some of those onetime Public Safety AIDS which are in our fund balance already so we're going to use some fund balance to pay for some of those things so the revenue side is a little less than the expenditure side but that's done purposefully so that we can use down some of those funds that we received back in 2023 I just put this in here because again we're using some of that fund balance um we have a policy that we would like our general fund fund balance somewhere between 35 and 50% of the next year's um expenditures uh at the end of last year we were at 49.2 one% so right within that level um we do still have a few of those funds that we would like to expend um kind of sitting there in our checkbook so um once we you know use those that that percentage may come down a little bit but is still going to be well within um that range that our policy calls for um which is really important for us to stick there because um that is something that uh when we go to issue debt um the rating agencies look at that um very heavily and um look very favorably upon us when we have you know real healthy uh fund balance um amounts so another item that we don't probably talk about enough is the electric utility and the liquor funds and their contributions toward uh lowering property taxes in Detroit Lakes so the electric utility makes a payment in lie of taxes um if our electric utility were um you know a private electric company they would pay property taxes ours is you know owned by the city so they don't so this is their payment in Li of taxes that helps offset uh property taxes um in the general fund and so that transfer is $661,000 for 2025 um the liquor fund also makes a transfer to the general fund some for operating and then a bit for um a dlccc capital found fund contribution uh that was an agreement entered upon last year so in total uh $ 1351 million in Enterprise fund transfers um and without those the tax levy would have to increase about 16.77% so we're very fortunate that we have those businesslike um entities in the city that um we can tap into and make sure that you know we're trying to keep taxes as low as we possibly can so this is a breakdown of where our total proposed tax levy is going so the general fund again consists of a lot of different things um streets police um some City admin um buildings U building um code enforcement um Building Inspections all of those things are sort of wrapped up under the general fund we've got Debt Service funds so that is us paying back the the um debt that we've issued um projects um we've got the arena Development Authority airport Library fire those types of things as well have um a slight Levy component this is basically saying the same thing it's showing the 24 Levy compared to the 25 Levy um kind of explaining what the changes were again um a lot of the things that I just mentioned um and then our overall property tax levy increase increase um that we are proposing for 2025 is 7.97% which is again the same as the preliminary increase so we talk about all these things tax capacity Levy tax rate um and this is this is just a graph that uh shows how these have gone over time as you can see our property tax levy has increased over the years um however it's sort of a a slow um I would say um reasonable increase over the years we try to do that um intentionally to not have you know large spikes and and and downfalls some years try to keep it somewhat consistent um our net tax capacity again because of those valuation changes will obviously change and then that will make our tax rate change as well over the years but our tax rate has been fairly cons consistent right around that 40% so how do we compare to other cities I think that's kind of an important thing to to look at um local government Aid is something that um the state uh dos out to cities um and counties and um it's a funding mechanism that a lot of cities utilize um to help balance their budgets here in Detroit Lakes we don't receive a whole lot of LGA we we used to um back back in the early 2000s however that has really U dwindled so right now I think our LGA is um with with the exception of Baxter on this list anyway um we're the lowest um so then that has to get made up by our tax levy or our taxpayers um and then comparing tax rates from cities to city um I do have our Detroit Lakes 23 tax rate on there that 4.34 level that's the yellow bar the green bar is our 24 tax rate so that's for this year's taxes and then the pink is our estimated 25 so our tax rate is increasing slightly and that's because our Levy is increasing at a slightly higher rate than our overall property values increased so that makes our rate go up slightly but um not the full 7% that we're increasing our Levy so the big question what does that mean for your property taxes will they increase right um the answer is maybe it's hard to say um it really is dependent on several different things so obviously there's that Homestead market value exclusion wrinkle this year that's different from all the other years that we've really um talked about and looked at this but the biggest Factor really is is is your property valuation in this example I'm taking that $280,000 home that um I used in previous examples so have the Homestead market value exclusion calculated the tax capacity and then applied the city's tax rate that we're projecting for 2025 to arrive at the city's property tax amount of $126.3 again that is the city Only portion of your property taxes for next year so if your property value was consistent from 2024 to 2025 your city property taxes would actually decrease about $18.88 or 1.81% again that's the city Only portion and that's at this property value um I did look at several other um scenarios and options and real life examples of properties in Detroit and I saw a range from anywhere anywhere from a decrease of about 5 or 6% in their city property taxes to an increase of about 22% in their city property taxes it really depends on what your valuation did and whether or not you get that Homestead exclusion so it can vary greatly um another thing we always kind of look at is how do your property taxes compared to other some of your other monthly bills so for instance if we take that $126 annually you pay in property taxes for that type of property it's about $853 a month so not that far off from what I pay anyways for internet um $64.95 a month it's about 28 gallons of gas at today's gas price I think it was still 304 out there um if you're doing a live streaming TV or cable TV service it's at least I think $79 or at least $75 somewhere around there um so right in that same ballpark and then you know a phone that can vary wildly but I just threw in a number of about 60 bucks so um if you think about all of the services you get from the city that $855 doesn't seem to me anyway like it's it's too bad of a deal on the commercial industrial property tax side I just grabbed a valuation of 500,000 there's really no Rhyme or Reason to that um just to illustrate kind of the different calculation of of that type of properties so on the city side again tax capacity for this type of property it's only the first 150,000 in value is at one and a half% not that 1% so commercial industrial properties are taxed at a higher rate than um than residential Homestead Properties um and then 2% for anything over 150,000 in value so that tax capacity for that $500,000 um commercial industrial property is $3,670 um400 for that City portion of your 2025 property taxes after applying that city tax rate so if that value was consistent from 24 to 25 the taxes would increase about $62.90 or about 1.74% %c again hard to know um what people's property values are doing but um that's kind of the best um the best tests that we can do or examples that we can show lastly I wanted to talk about property tax relief programs so obviously if you're not sure if your property is Homestead you probably want to make sure that it is especially if you have a valuation under that 51700 that's a very important thing um obviously at tax time you want to talk to your accountant or whomever prepares your taxes about whether you're not you qualify for property tax refund there's also a special property tax refund for anyone whose property tax increases over 12% in $100 um and that increase was not because of improvements made to your property you may also receive a portion of that back uh via a special property tax refund and then there are also programs for disabled veterans um blind and Homestead or blind and disabled Homestead and then uh for senior citizens there's also a property tax deferral program and all of those are administered through uh the county auditor's office so you would have to contact them to learn more about those opportunities um I don't have it out there yet but tomorrow morning I will ask very nicely to have Carrie put it out there and we'll have the full 2025 budget if it's so approved uh by the council tonight on the city's website I will certainly print you a hard copy if you'd like to pour over it on your own um here at City Hall um and again I am available for any questions or comments if anyone has any is there anyone in the audience that has any questions or wishes to make a comment regarding the uh 2025 budget and final 2024 tax levy hearing none I would entertain a motion from the finance oh I'm sorry I'm sorry come on up if you would just state your name and and address for our minutes please I'm sorry could I get your name and address for our minutes yes Larry leazer 1210 Richwood Road thanks Larry good evening everybody well that all owned good my property taxes are going to go up 8% um I'm just going to narrate off my notes if that's all right with everyone I live a mile North in richfood Road and I'm inside the city limits obviously I was annexed in in 2007 and I'm not on city water and Sewer as I was granted an exclusion because I'm 3,000 ft away from the roadway however I did have to pay the special assessments for the next 15 years my Pro my proposed property taxes are set to go up another 8% next year as of right now I'm paying nearly $5,000 a year that's equivalent to a million doll house unemployed Lake I built my house in 1982 it's the same structure same Windows same sighting my question is why why so high here's what I do know duth has a population of 87,000 people Fargo has a population nearly 226,000 people you guys are trying to replicate the facade of Fargo duth here in little Detroit Lakes with population at 10,000 you don't have the tax base to draw those those cities that that they have I mean come on stop trying to be like the big dogs we're not Deluth we're not Fargo but that's the image you're going for I get it I'm not opposed to making our community beautiful and attractive I love Detroit like I've born and raised here in addition you're raising all the public utility next year what do you think that's like for a young firsttime home buyer in this town it's tough I know I actually know people who are have no option but to get out of their houses and back into an apartment and that's sad that's unfortunate and that shouldn't be happening you can't keep inflating people's property values to keep up with the spending the alternative is to curb your spending this building is a perfect example it wasn't brought to a vote you guys just did it and at a most inopportune time I might add shortly after a pandemic scare when many retail businesses were struggling for their lives because the state of Minnesota shut them down I'm not against impr improving infrastructure okay I love my town I think a lot of you may know my history we put a lot into this town my dad did and I was the Next Generation in that but do you do do you need to do everything in a short window of time I mean some things are necessary and some things are not I've lived here my entire life as I said but the last few years I've seen some Pretty Reckless spending this is the Detroit Lakes Paper from last March this is Columns of delinquent property taxes why is that why is that happening I know there's there's a lot of reasons and some of them aren't that I get it but one of the primary reasons is Reckless spending at all levels not just here from the top down on a related note when I built my house in 1982 the land was zoned agricultural and it remained that for many years around five years ago I discovered that my zoning had been changed to light Industrial now it's my understanding that there's a Minnesota statute stating that when such land is reassigned the effective parties must be notified by mail and two thirds of those parties need to agree to that change none of us were ever made aware of this change are the intention of it I'd like to know why look I'm not just standing here saying these things to vent I want someone to get back to me without fail with some answers on some of these topics that I've brought up and I appreciate your time okay thank you Larry is there anyone else in the audience that wishes to make any comments if not may I like I'd like to say something you mentioned how come everything has gone up so much when I moved here in Detroit lak in 1970 I bought my house for $119,000 today my house is worth $25,000 but at that time when I moved in in 1970 about 48,000 would have bought you the best house in Detro Lakes it's all about inflation and it's that's exactly what's happened in all this and you could have bought a lake home on big Detroit for $40,000 and now you're looking at them lot them are close to a million dollars more so the inflation has been the big biggest factor for drying that up inflation but but at the same time but prices sometimes prices are inflated too you're not necessarily going to get the market value for your home ta okay well we need to wrap this up so thank you again Larry for your comments and I'm going to call on Dan for a for a resolution so the resolution here is consideration to a resolution adopting the final 2025 budget and final 2024 tax levy collectible in 2025 um I believe the final rate is 7.97% um we spent quite a bit of time this summer going through the budget line by line uh trying to figure out a way to um come up with a agreeable number to pay for City Services and our debt services and finance committee reviewed this multiple times and I reviewed it again this afternoon recommends approval and I so move second motion's been made and seconded to adopt a resolution adopting the final 2025 budget and the final 2024 tax levy collectible in 2025 further discussion by the council all in favor of the motion say I I opposed motion carries we also have uh item C2 Dan C2 is consideration to a resolution granting the city council consent for final taxes payable 2025 for the HRA Levy and I believe that's a half or it's up to 220,000 correct for the h and that uh was reviewed this summer reviewed in September reviewed um again last last uh I guess this afternoon at the uh finance committee meeting uh finance committee recommends approval and I so move second motion's been made and seconded to adopt a resolution granting city city council consent for final taxes payable for the 2025 H Levy discussion all in favor of the motion say I I oppos the motion carries and with that Dan if we could resume the finance committee agenda yes we left off at item e which is consideration to the first reading of ordinance 534 repealing city code for the old local sales tax for the police department um you want me to take a swing at it go ahead I can give it to you too go ahead Kelsey well mayor and Council um so last year uh the council passed a resolution to suspend uh the sales tax that was put in place for the police department because basically the collections had been achieved for what was needed to U pay off that facility however uh we never did repeal the actual ordinance that is still on the books so um while collection stopped the ordinance still needs to be repealed so that is action 7e is to uh repeal the existing uh City code thank you Kelsey so item is consideration to the first reading ordinance 534 repealing city code for the old local sales tax for the police department finance committee reviewed this recommends approval and I so move motion has been made and seconded to give first reading to ordinance 534 repealing the old sales tax for the police department discussion all in favor of the motion say I I oppos uh the motion carries first reading of ordinance 534 for is given item f is consideration to the first reading of ordinance 535 for the new local sales tax for the Pavilion and park improvements um basically this is a ordinance that we need to pass because of the process for the sales tax that was voted upon and agreed to or passed the general referendum U we need to take action now to be able to give the state of Minnesota Department of Revenue notice that we are going to start collecting this tax and that would happen starting April 1st 2025 to uh and that tax will stay in place until the Pavilion project is completed and or the debt is it's a Max of 12 Years or 17.3 million is the max of what can be collected and the only thing else I'd add is we have a special council meeting scheduled for next Tuesday at 4:00 to do second reading on this a first reading passes so that long and rambling piece that I provided wrapped up by Kelsey um finance committee reviewed this uh recommendation and recommends approval and I so move second motion's been made and seconded to give first reading to ordinance 535 for the new local option sales tax for the Pavilion and park improvements discussion on the motion all in favor of the motion say I I I oppose the m motion carries item G is consideration to a first reading of five ordinance 5:30 I'll hand that over to Kelsey because much better job than me mayor and councel we talked about this a little bit during um during the budget sessions uh basically the recommendation from staff is to repeal our plumber license requirements um basically the feeling is as redundant to what the state already requires um State the state requires plumbers to be licensed they also require and be bonded and basically the city is just doing the same process so uh the ordinance does a few things amends uh chapter 402 which is our sewer code uh basically how it relates to U having licensed plumbers connect to um the city sanitary sewer uh they still have to be licensed they just don't have to be a city issue license uh we also amending uh section 403 dealing with our water utility again dealing with service connections um it's actually not related to the plumbing thing but we're also updating our um section about water meter nodes uh we've changed uh the different water meter nodes we have now to radio read meters so that clarifies that language and then basically that whole chapter 605 requiring uh that additional lure in the city is repealed for plumbing so with that being said consideration to the first reading of ordinance 530 amending city code chapters 5 402 sewer use code 403 water utility regulations and 605 plumbers um I guess finance committee reviewed this recommends approval and I so move motion has been made and seconded to give first reading of ordinance 5:30 which amends uh section 402 403 and 605 discussion on the motion all in favor the motion say I I oppose that motion carries first reading of ordinance 5:30 is given item H is regarding a PL playground donation from the boys girls club I'll give that to Kelsey to handle mayor and Council as you're aware the Boys and Girls Club did a fundraiser a couple years ago to construct uh the new park next to their facility uh just a reminder that is U that is a city park uh croire Park uh they are requesting to that they would donate uh the park back to the city uh the park improvements back to the city for basically insurance purposes so then the city's liability and property coverage would then cover those Park improvements so item H is consideration to accepting the playground donation from the Boys and Girls Club finance committee reviewed this this afternoon recommends approval and is so move second motion's been made and seconded to accept the playground donation from the Boys and Girls Club discussion on the motion all in favor of the motion say I I oppose that motion carries anything else Dan I hope not and since Dan this is your last regular meeting I have a plaque I'd like to present to you an appreciation for your years of service and I want to read it and it says dan Josephson 8 years Alderman ward 3 January 1st 2017 through December 31st 20 24 whereas the municipal representative government of the city of Detroit Lakes ever conscious of its obligation to efficiently and justly conduct the Affairs of the city of Detroit Lakes and whereas the Fulfillment of this obligation and the performance of this service requires the dedication of concerned citizens now therefore be it resolved that the city council and citizens of the city of Detroit Lakes Express in this way gratitude and appreciation for the many hours of faithful service you have contributed to our community and to the city of Detroit Lakes together with the hope that your service of eight years as Alderman ward 3 may be reflected and persuade others to follow your example so Dan I'd like to present this to Youk [Applause] you and I think that that brings us to the Public Safety Committee agenda chairwoman spray thank you uh we have one item on the Public Safety Committee um 8A consideration to a resolution supporting clay County's effort to establish a psychiatric residential treatment facility and I am going to hand this to Kelsey to review for the council yep mayor and Council uh Clay County uh reached out to the city of Detroit Lakes along with several other Regional cities in counties in the area asking if we would be willing to adopt a resolution in support of their efforts to seek State funding to remodel part of their uh uh Juvenile Detention Center into an 18-bed uh psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility I believe that's targeted for juveniles which if you read through the resolution it has some um numbers in there as far as how many of um of these slots are ailable Statewide and the shortage that there is and basically the resolution is not any type of commitment to funding just an acceptance that there is a shortage in our support in their efforts to provide more beds and slots in our area thank you so do we we would need a motion Wendy okay um I let's see I lost May thank you um consideration let's see nope um the Public Safety Committee considered this uh resolution supporting clay County's effort to establish a psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility and unanimous decision to support that and ISO move second motion has been made seconded to adopt a resolution supporting clay County's efforts to establish a psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility discussion all in favor of the motion say I I I oppos motion carries I'll never give up my paper copy Wendy any anything else on Public Safety nothing thank you okay I think we still have one more item Mike on the gambling yeah Mr Mayor uh item 9h was uh put back onto the regular agenda because uh there was one uh one vendor that chose to not renew their license in January of 2025 so uh that would be Godfather's Pizza uh they are not renewing their license so I have a consideration to approving the following liquor licenses for January 1 2025 through December 31 2025 contingent upon application and fees uh so this uh laundry list uh to exclude Godfather's Pizza uh liquor and gambling discussed the list reviewed the list and I recommend approval and I so move second motion's been made and seconded to approve uh the list of liquor licenses that are printed in the agenda with the exception of Godfather's Pizza for the liquor licenses from January 1st 2025 through December 31st 2025 contingent upon application and fees discussion on the motion all in favor of the motion say I I oppos motion carries was there anything from the public utilities Mike there was not your honor um anything from City Administration or staff that needs to be brought forth um the only thing I'd mention mayor and councel is don't forget uh your mailboxes um in that room there just check them before you go okay um I would like to make the recommendation to appoint Matt Thompson to the sports arena commission to replace the seat which was occupied by Mr Almer and I would entertain a motion for approval so moved second second motion has been made and seconded to appoint Matt toson to the sports arena commission discussion all in favor of the motion say I I I opposed motion carries and I had somebody considering the library board but I'm still working on that so I hope to have that next month uh a couple of announcements the elected leaders Institute with the league of Minnesota cities is coming up throughout February and if you can let Carrie know if you're interested in attending the Coalition of Greater Minnesota City's legislative action day at the capitals February 12th if you're interested again let Carrie know the league of Minnesota's City day on the hill is March 6 2025 again let Carrie know if you're interested in attending the Canadian Pacific Holiday train will be in Detroit Lakes on Sunday December 15 at 2:45 and the joint governance meeting dates the city council meeting dates are all listed and again a reminder we have a special city council meeting next Tuesday right next Tuesday what time is that four o'clock four o'clock okay and I think that concludes the agenda Dan anything further add nope just uh thank you w three for eight years of uh ability to serve you guys um thanks for the staff for making things easy to be up here and make decisions thanks to the rest of the council try not keep the uh National politic or try to keep the national politics and the uh the anger and rage and and some of those things that we've seen at at times in other people's uh municipalities andies keep that b but thanks for the opportunity I'll miss it all thanks Dan Wendy uh nothing Ron I just want to give a thank you to Sean King we just had an open house at the public work building of Tower Road and we had a great turnout but U Sean and his staff has been so busy through this whole project we've got a B for building and but he's the one to let the charge on that thank you very much Jackie further just really quick I wanted to publicly thank Public Works and public utilities for helping with the Parade of Lights lighting the the town Christmas tree it does really add a a holiday chair to all of for all of us so thank you oh and the PD too PD helping on the parade leading it Matt uh thank you Dan for your leadership Mike nothing John okay you gonna make it to the hockey game no no going to start here in five minutes is it in town though no crookton oh it is in crookton well yeah yeah you're not you're not going to make it the business of this Council has come to a conclusion the meeting's adjourned [Music]