##VIDEO ID:jhGxSDfIPFY## because y e you e went to you're was experience e e do e e B should these l for it we e e we bet I spe think I got it J if you want us to do it you just pass it down we can do it too no I went into the wrong setting oh press recorder record good evening everyone we're going to call the city council meeting to order and we will start with a pledge of allegiance IED Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all Carrie will you read the roll call Mrs roric here Mr White here Mr Winnington here mayor protm Steinberg here at this time we will open the floor to open public comments regarding stuff that's on the meeting tonight not the public hearing we don't have any public comments we will close that part of the meeting uh at this point we will make the approval of the agenda is anyone willing to make a motion for the approval of the agenda second we have a motion of a second second all in favor I I I the motion carries approval of the meeting minutes from October 7th 2024 do we have any questions about the minutes if not we'll be looking for a motion motion second motion a second all in favor I I I the motion car carries consent agenda uh thank you to the American Legion for the donation for the lighting uh at the park that's one note that I have anyone else looking for approval of the consent agenda so move second motion and a second all in favor I I the motion carries and we will now go to our public hearing for improvement of the 2025 and 26 Street in utility Improvement do we want to start with Brian and his presentation good evening city council and members of the public thank to you for having me uh so as you know we're here to talk about the potential project which we are calling the 2025 to 2026 Street and utility improvements so tonight uh this presentation will talk a little bit about the project location and background a little bit about the existing conditions of both the street surface uh uh that's out there as well as the underlying utilities we'll talk also about the proposed improvements uh to the city infrastructure we'll talk about estimated cost special assessment process and also an anticipated schedule for the project may may I interrupt mayor and city council um it might work better if Brian would be willing to sit at that spot since we have an open spot the microphone works better um if that's okay and just make sure it's on um just so everybody can hear you thank you very much if anybody in the audience has difficulty hearing just please raise your hand let us know um and we'll make sure that we talk right into our microphones okay so uh and you could Advance one Jennifer so the uh potential project limits um is about 15 City blocks of Street uh I won't list them all um but there is a map and you can probably go to slide four Jennifer when you have a chance and that'll show the map um this project area is included on the city's Capital Improvement plan uh and really that's on that plan due to the Aged infrastructure uh that's out there preliminary feasibility study was authorized by the city C Council on August 5th of this year uh and then of course the information about this meeting and notification was sent uh to the public uh affected by the project um so just to list it out I know it's maybe a little difficult to see up there we're looking at uh for potential project blocks lur Avenue between Linda Drive and agency Street Maywood Avenue between Diane and Agency Diane between Maywood and lur Plain View Street between lur and Parkway Third Street between Maywood and Parkway and Second Street between Maywood and Parkway so first let's look at the sanitary sewer collection system currently today we're uh looking at 8 to 10 in vitrified clay pipe in poor condition uh currently City staff has has done routine maintenance and televising of the sewer pipes this televising um usually it's on a roughly five six year rotation has has revealed that a lot of this pipe is cracked broken offset uh there are a number of locations where there's root intrusions where tree roots are actually getting into into the pipe and creating blockages and also inflow and infiltration which is essentially groundwater that gets into the pipe uh continuously and um as you may or may not know Eagle Lake sends all of its sewage to the city of Mano so every gallon that we send to mano is a charge to the city and I would say um recently uh I'm aware of repairs that have been made due to root intrusions um on the sewer system so with this proposed improvements um pretty standard we're looking at new 8 and 10 in PVC pipes these pipes are gasketed uh airtight uh new manholes are also gasketed those are pre-cast concrete um and those are designed to keep water out as much as possible sanitary sewer Services the lateral from the house to the street are reconstructed usually from the main up into the property line which is a few feet uh behind the curb or several feet behind the curb um and up up on the screen here is just kind of a schematic of uh what a typical collection system would look like uh with the manholes laterals going from the house and into the main next moving on to the water distribution system so out there uh we have mostly eight uh 4 to 8 in cast iron water M most of this infrastructure rure appears to predate the sanitary sewer sanitary sewer was built around 1964 for the most part in the project area uh we're thinking some of that water M was likely from the 1950s much of the water M has coring pipes we've uh seen water main breaks as recent as September of this year for proposed improvements uh we are looking at 8 to 12 in PVC water main um some of that larger water main is due to uh just overall system goals per the 2006 comprehensive plan for the city's infrastructure new fire hydrant and isolations valves would be installed uh along along the project and similar to the sewer system we would install water services um typically from the water main in the street up into the property line of the street we are aware of a few galvanized services in the uh project area and we would probably during final design looking at uh possibilities to improve those potentially all the way to the house and again just another image of a typical distribution system with the water m in the street uh and the services going all the way to the house with the shut offs and height hydrants as we move to the storm sewer system um this is a little bit newer than uh the sanitary sewer and water um follows the street age a little bit more uh currently about 12 to 21 in pipe is uh uh typical out in the project area much of that was constructed in the early to mid 90s kind of around when the school was constructed uh some intersections in the project area are are void altogether of storm sewer uh and when that spacing for inlets is too large uh you tend to have more problems with uh flash flooding in extremely uh extremely heavy rain so the proposed improvements um typically would be uh replacing uh 12 to 24-in concrete pipe uh that would probably be evaluated a little closer during final design we haven't you know certainly dug into all the details at this point giving its age where we could save it if it makes sense we would look to do that certainly but often times with the regrading of the road uh that's can be difficult and impractical to do but it's something we would be looking at with the storm sewer as I was saying with the areas that do not have storm sewer would be be looking to increase the inlet capacity um so the water that does fall uh during storm events actually fills up the pipe that we build that would be size the pipe sizes to meet the current city standards and also kind of included with the uh storm system is subsurface drainage uh which is really a road Improvement but that drains directly into the storm sewer and usually that's a combination um subsurface drain tile uh if you will and also that would take some pump water as well from the surface and Into the Storm sewer so finally here's our storm sewer uh image here with the mains and the catch basins on the curb and also coming on towards the left of the screen there would be the subsurface perforated drain tile so private utilities uh are not a city responsibility um but as you probably can guess there are other Utilities in the street such as power electricity uh telecommunications natural gas often times what happens if the city initiates a project is these private utility owners will uh if needed choose to improve their infrastructure at the same time so that's yet to be determined we have have not coordinated with them at this point but that usually happens early in the project um so we'll be coordinating with them depending on the scope of the project that uh is determined so let's move from Underground to surface at this point um typically out there we're looking at 35 36t Urban roadways uh plane view Street and Third Street are a little bit narrower than that um quite a bit narrow narrower than that actually um but all the streets do have curb and gutter um for surface drainage uh and uh for the most part there is parking except for where the narrow the streets get quite narrow pavement conditions are generally poor um there are several patches and resurfaced areas that the staff has completed in the last several years just uh to keep things from falling uh completely apart where it's gotten really bad sidewalk there is sidewalk on the north side of lur Avenue West Side of second the west side of Diane and pl View Street um on Diane and Plain View it's directly behind the curb at this point with no grass Boulevard the sidewalk is in mostly good condition uh much of that uh that I listed off was constructed approximately 10 years ago and similar to the storm sewer we'd be looking to save as much as that as we can if possible uh however that does become difficult sometimes especially when we're reconstructing utilities all the way to the property line and you're tearing into that sidewalk and it ends up being a very peace meal type uh approach so we'll look at that further in final design um try to save as much of that as practical for the street uh we're looking at a 36 foot uh typical City street uh that would be approximately 11t through lanes and 7ot parking slsh shoulders um with curb and gutter much like it is today uh plane view and Third Street those narrower segments of Street would be essentially reconstructed very similar to what they are today we do not have have right of way and the city does not at this time anticipate purchasing right of way for the for the sake of constructing uh an extra wide Street included with the project would be pedestrian accommodations we did talk about the sidewalks a little bit discussions with Council um to this point uh have indicated that we would replace the sidewalks as needed uh where they currently are typically that's a 5 foot wide where the sidewalks meet the street we would be constructing ADA Compliant pedestrian ramps so that's essentially a drop in the curb or a cut in the curb to allow uh people of all accessibility um abilities uh to navigate the sidewalk um and then we we had already talked about protecting certain areas if possible so also part of the project would be uh Boulevard restoration um that includes concrete driveway aprons as needed uh to construct sidewalk Andor the street and then also Turf reestablishment wherever we have Disturbed uh Disturbed the grass areas so up on the screen is a little bit more detailed view of uh the minary layout if you will of the project it's it's colorcoded as you can see uh the yellow areas kind of being the predominant predominant color which is essentially uh an asphalt paved Road similar to what it is today and I guess the other highlight of that would probably be the the more magenta pink areas which would be sidewalks and again the sidewalks depicted here are essentially as they exist today in terms of location and Jenner if you can advance one more uh maybe back a couple there we go and that's more the north part of the north part of the project here if you hadn't catch caught it before so that's the typical proposed improvements that we would usually do on a reconstruct as we looked at this during the preliminary uh feasibility stage we did do a cost estimate for this um it certainly is an estimate at this point um has a lot of factors that go into it um but the breakdown of cost would be Street and surface improvements you know being the curb the pavement the driveways Etc is about three and a half million sanitary sewer improvements uh roughly 827,000 water M at 1.1 million storm sewer at 600,000 roughly with a total project cost of $6.1 million that's including all 15 roughly 15 blocks if the city council chooses uh to do the entire project so I've kind of given you that caveat a few times during the presentation thus far so the next slide here will kind of just indicate uh from a staff perspective what the priorities on the entire project would be that has a lot of factors that go into it um one of them being just construction sequencing for example sanitary sewer we usually need to start at the very lowest part of the sanitary sewer system and work our way up so that's factored into the priority um so the highest priorities have the lowest sanitary sewer that where we'd have to start um so as you we've kind of broken it up into different segments as we've listed here um as you work up uh the very right column would be kind of accumulative cost um and again that total cost matched what we had seen in the previous slide other factors that went into uh this this particular prioritized list of costs would be uh General condition of the street and the utilities so typically with City reconstruction projects it is practice to assess some of this cost to the benefiting properties and the city does have a policy uh to do that and they've done it for many years um so here up here this is um from the uh ordinance of the city that uh uh by ordinance for example Street reconstruction 2third of the cost would typically be assessed to property owners and I won't go through each one of these individually you can see them there uh and it's also in the city code as well but that is the city policy and as we move forward what we were able to do is just per the ordinance calculate an estimated cost per foot uh which Jenifer will pull up here in a second um and again I won't name these off for you but they're they're up here um so per the ordinance this is the typical cost you'd expect for the assessments so all that said uh in the last several projects since 2010 the policy has not really been followed typically the city council has chosen to reduce that from the uh from the policy uh for example the ordinance uh policy ordinance I'm kind of using them interchangeably here for a 80 foot parcel would result in a 35 foot or $35,000 assessment again that's not typically what the city has done uh they've generally reduce that to be closer to the actual benefiting amount for those uh and in certain cases uh the last project for example the city has hired a special benefit consultation just to make sure that those numbers are in check so in terms of the special assessment process um we're in it right now this is part of that process having this hearing um the city will adhere to Minnesota staff statute 429 excuse me those actual assessments will be calculated a after we have construction bids and everything at that point we would give you another notice um to let you know of another hearing similar to this at which point you'd know exactly what the proposed assessments on your lot we don't know that I'll get to that soon so again the final assessment amounts uh would be certified uh calculated later on during the process um what would happen is at that point the city would certify those to the county auditor and those assessments could be added to your uh tax statement starting in 2025 now those assessments can be prepaid without any interest if you so choose if you uh pay in full um the prepa the prepayment date would be determined by the city council um and provided in the assessment hearing notice which will happen happen later in the spring or early summer so any remaining principle or an acred interest can be pre pre prepaid in future years without a penalty as well so say your five years into the assessment you can say okay I'm I'm going to pay the rest of it no penalty or anything like that so that's generally what the assessment process will look like so for the project schedule in general so again uh back in September the city received this report and called for the hearing that you're sitting at tonight tonight we are in a in the what's in called the Improvement hearing and depending on what the council decides to do this evening uh a four fifths vote would be required to order an improvement and order for plans and specs to be prepared at which point we'd get bids for construction and move to construction so preliminary schedule would put uh opening bids for this project um in April uh that would put the assessment hearing out into May so that kind of answers the question so before the May hearing is uh when you would have a an idea of when your actual assessment would be after that hearing is closed uh we'd be looking to accept the bids of the uh low bidder for construction I don't know the exact construction schedule at this point but uh preliminary discussions with the council if uh probably indicating that we're looking at allowing the year 2025 and 2026 for construction of course they would have to phase that um you know once they do open a block they can't have it open for two years uh once say in 2025 they open three blocks they would have to get those blocks paved before the end of the year and then finally um summer 2027 would be final Paving um could be earlier than that again depending on what the contractor chooses for a schedule but we do usually wait a year to put the final we put the the pavement on in two lifts uh gives us one at least one freeze thaw cycle uh for the pavement and uh it's better product in the end for everybody so that is all I have uh for a presentation at this point I think we can open the floor and uh i''d be happy happy to take any questions we will open the floor to public hearing if if anybody has any comments we just ask them to go up to the podium speak right into the microphone state name um and address for the record thank you R Anderson I live at valy talking about property in corner of agency and Second Street there's no storm sewer for the properties on Second Street the Salem church and then the property on 205 Parkway it was an oversight by the engineering firm won't name names that did the um transition from when Parkway was turned over from the state the county it was addressed at that time that the council could maybe go back and say can we add it in and it was like 60 or 70,000 to do that half a block stretch I'm wondering since that whole portion of that block is lower than the street all the floods with water it all the it goes down the sanitary sewer if the city's fun and incorporating that into this plan be the North End of Second Street at par that is in the project area certainly we haven't looked at all the details of the storm sewer but think it over last I thought i' bring it up and then that sidewalk there is only like two or three years old was just redone think that maybe an offset storm side right I guess that thank you for that uh we'll definitely be looking at the storm sewer on the whole project um not just replacing anything yeah this was it's not really technically part of that project is actually behind it to catch what's behind the church owny sure okay Jan Hughes 110 Street if I read the calendar correctly people will be getting their assessment before the final bids are approved that's correct so how do you um rectify the difference let's say the bid comes in low you'll be getting your assessment before the bids are approved you won't be getting your assessments before we have bids okay then the other thing is on VI Street we don't have a storm sore so there would be one installed correct potentially we we're PL again we've done we have not done final design on the project we we have planned for some I believe the plan does show a storm sewer going up because it is a fairly long stretch without any inlets at this point so where would storm seur empty into currently uh that storm sewer I believe goes into uh A detention Pond that is west of house right but now that retention Pond is not maintained by anybody at this point and it's it's all filled with well garbage and um C or just trees are start little trees are starting to grow in there Cattails are in there and it's I don't know how long it'll be functional and also the inlet and the outlet are not taken care of either so you know is that a good place to put you know storm water in that's just a question that's just out there so anyway that's what I have for now okay thank you now right this 409 wasur Avenue you say you've been saying Linda for uh lur Avenue but your maps all stop at the top of the hill is there a reason for [Music] that um they stop at the end of the school property that's correct I I think it's really vintage of road because I think that piece of the road was redone in 93 yep and what did they do then I know they put storm sewer in yeah uh off the top I I'm I'm fairly certain they did all the utilities at that point up until that up until that so is it going all the way down to it's not it's going to stop right there it's going to stop so like the houses that start at the top of the hill there they won't be assessed uh if there's if they're not being fronted by the property typically they're not being assessed okay just uh it' be about Midway in the hill this at this time the limits are really a function of the utilities is is what that's determined by again that and that's vintage of utilities and all that so we're going as far as we need to to reconstruct the utilities that are very old we have a pretty good idea of of where that's at and that's kind of where the limits are shown at this point Mike bman house at 105 South Second Street are you guys going to be doing any Corner credits on this I mean from your calculations of $35,000 for 80 foot section looking at $67,000 you know man they used to do corner credits like you would get a credit if you're having to pay for two streets and is this both streets going to be done the same going to be one year and one second year and then would that assessment be done at the end of that so the assessments will be certified uh at this point the schedule is to certify those at the end of uh 2025 how would you calculate that you do one street 25 and the other in 26 well we're going to have bids uh PR prior to that we're going to have bids in April of 2025 CL uh I would say that's it's an approximate of what the ordinance says but again as I I stated in the presentation the city council has a practice of not following the ordinance and reducing that by quite a bit like what's quite a bit typically uh in the last several projects we're looking for residential type property 8 to 122,000 assessment okay are you going to be doing the cross streets both of them the same year then like Corner House you're going to have uh there will be provisions on what they can and cannot do you know they for example they can't Circle a block completely and have it ripped up and you know land loock anyone a lot of that is going to depend on the contractor that has the low bid responsive bid and and and they might choose to start in August and not and not take a lot of the project in in 2025 and they might do most of it in 26 or maybe all of it in 2026 yes the assess juster trying to drive in man and we didn't get our assess we don't even have the final amount figured out but for a 66t piece of property there I mean I'm looking at $18,000 versus you know um 35 well you're saying that's going to be lower but our assessments AR going on until next year which the project just got finished so we're going to be paying our assessment starting in 25 I can't speak to how Riverfront Drive is handling their assessments yes when would you know that figure the reduced figure well at the end of the day the city council is going to have to determine how they want to implement the uh the policy or the ordinance when that I can't give you an examp it would be before the assessment hearing appr that's for the city council to determine based on you know what they hear from the public and uh what they choose to concern about being assessed twice and so you to make the decision yes um and I know improvements have to be made but that's huge for a lot of us on our in our neighborhood that's let me just say that's not how the Ordinance Works because you just because you live on a corner lot does not mean you get two assessments okay well that's y that's the way it's things from people that's what concern yep and every every city honestly has a different way of doing things and yeah there's there's different you know depending if we follow the ordinance you know there's a way to calculate Corner lots and all that um yes or or or maybe maybe the council chooses to have a a benefit analysis completed and at that case they essentially give you a recommended amount right another thing I'd like to bring up is that Dian is really a street that's used a lot by the school dist and a lot of people coming and going because of the school so a lot of the construction of the street I mean would have it been that way had the school not I mean the street is being used a lot so it's just that we all talking in the neighborhood I'd like to talk Ken 101 Maywood uh you kind of bowled your shoulders and said well on the the storm water yeah I live on 101 Maywood and I have absolutely no place other than to put it out of the curb or out of the street storm water so I I would be very fighting this a long ways if I can't get a storm sewer at least in front of my place where I can go with my basement water because I'm sick of pumping around circles and pumping to the neighbor's yard and then pumping to our yard and all this stuff I mean I've got the equipment I can come in and I can build my yard up three feet and that's fine but then I got a feeling you're going to have a lot more other people up your matter about the situation too yeah are you talking in particular like Su pump drainage well yeah because right now I send it under my garage over to the one side and send it over to the other side and then pump it from there out to the front with a su pump and a hose I have no place to go with my S PP if the city chooses to reconstruct Maywood there will be a pipe behind the curb for some pumps and then what will that do will they pipe that in far enough so we don't have to worry about all the utilities and stuff when we go to do this that in my curb right now I have probably 250 um you know fiber optic cord this and that you know that ends up to be a pretty big expense try and get somebody to come in'll even do it so this this pipe will essentially run along the whole length of the curb it'll tie into off they they give you an off uh they'll usually be a connection roughly 10 10et out 10t out from the curb roughly be that way yes and isn't there also that can only be assessed a certain amount of your taxable value if I'm not mistaken and prior things that you cannot bring the cost of somebody's homes up to more than the value of the home by assessing a certain amount so how the statute reads it's you're not to be assessed more than what you benefit from the project exactly thank you very much do we have any more uh comments questions yeah it it varies it I don't know the exact dates but I I know it varies especially related related to the school there was some improvements done at that time that hasn't been decided I I believe the last project was likely a 15-year term I'm I'm not 100% sure on that but I I believe it was a 15-year term which is pretty common this the width of the sidewalk is that fix at 5T that's a standard City sidewalk width okay um we have curve we don't have any Turf in between the sidewalk and the street because there isn't enough room because there's utility poles and they you know unless they go underground with the utilities which would be fine but I just wondering if it's fixed that it has to be 5T so typically in a special situation like that uh I would recommend something at least six feet wide when you're right next to a street the sidewalk six feet wide when there's not room for anything more than four feet right now well again that's that's a typical recommendation I I'm not I can't look at your street right now and know exactly what that width is PL view yes okay do we have any more comments on this project yeah we well we'll close the public forum uh do we need a motion motion to close the public forum so moved second we have a motion in a second all in favor to close the public hearing I I the motion carries the public hearing is now closed that brings us to Brian with a presentation on our water treatment facility I'm just going to grab okay Brian would you like me to pull up what you had emailed prior is it has anything changed or okay I will pull it up then all right so we were just hoping to give you an update uh we have been working through the water treatment plant design and at this point we're really trying to find an appropriate site uh for the plant uh we know generally the area that we're looking uh but there are some things that have uh just uh come to the surface and it would be good to us to talk through them I'm actually going to skip forward just a little bit uh in your handout that I gave you um we can look at the floor plan that would be several P that would be the last large sheet of your handout let see and if you want to go to page five I think it is Jennifer so working with City staff uh looking at other plants what you're looking at is the current floor plan for the plant just wanted to bring your attention to it um there's some office space uh lab area of course uh and then also room for future expansion uh don't really have too much discussion on that but I just want to point your attention to it as we move forward in the in your handout um uh we have a photo in here of a similar plant this is the plant and cologne this is what your plant is really based on city staff had a chance to tour this plant um and kind of gave it uh their approval to at for at least a starting point so that's a kind of a bird's eye view of the plant there very similar and then also on the last page here is kind of a comparable neighborhood view of the plant um think for example if you're standing on Falcon run this is uh the distance and the burm and all that seem to be fairly comparable um you can kind of barely see the high part of the plant sticking over the BM so just want to kind of give you a little bit perspective standing on the ground and from the bird's eye all right so that's really what I want to highlight now let's talk a little bit about the site I'm sorry to go kind of back and forth here in the in the handout so what I've called option one is kind of where we had started um as you may remember uh there is a very large gas transmission easement that crosses the Hiner parcel and that's kind of noted with some dashed lines kind of coming at a diagonal through the property uh at one point we were looking at putting this at the corner of 598 and 211th um because of that easement that's really not at all an option so we've been looking at other spots option one as you see in this uh this drawing butts directly up to the Breen Ridge Town Homes um so kind of just matching that width um that's kind of where we started we've also if you go to option two which would be the second page um kind of distances itself from Breen Ridge a little bit uh one thing that that does is maybe allows for more marketable maybe a little bit easier development to the north of that uh if you were to look at the option one it'd be very challenging for example to expand paragen Avenue up because of that easement you could certainly get a street through there but you're creating some odd shaped Lots uh maybe less desirable for a developer to come in so in this option two you're kind of uh butting up to that easement uh it's a very large swath of land it's 242 feet wide kind of creates an odd-shaped parcel not terrible option for a water plant where we can have spots for Wells and and towers and all that into the future and again just difficult to difficult to develop uh probably difficult to sell for development so talking with staff this seems to kind of be generally the preferred approach I would say we drew uh a boundary all the way to 21th there um we could you know try to shorten that up as well uh it's just again kind of conceptual at this point hoping for a little discussion on uh City council's feelings one thing I want to set some expectations through that easement there's really to be no excavation through there um I would usually anticipate they're not even going to let you put a St structure there you know put anything in the ground it's very pretty restrictive so for you know for example talking about like an athletic field or something you need a large flat area for something like that it's not going to be a good candidate for that I don't think you're going get permission from the gas company to allow something like that and again it's a very large chunk of area through there in this red square that's on it about 3.8 acres is incompass by by that easement so again we could we could narrow things up at this point staff is pretty content with how the plant lays in uh as it relates to paragr Avenue and the easement and all that um but kind of wanted again to open it up for discussion on you know maybe goals from the council's perspective uh any other any other Insight you might have the next two pages are just kind of a blown up view of those two options that we just discussed so that's really all I have uh next steps are going to be to sit down with Mr Hiner and talk about uh depending on what the council's wishes are talk about uh uh purchasing purchasing a piece of land and what that will look like any questions about uh layouts that we have here Brian I got a quick question yes sir so as we started talking about a year ago that we needed so much uh land for an operational plant but we needed a little bit more to for the construction phase is is that am I remembering right yep you are right you could certainly squeeze a plant into a very small area if you needed to um the five acre Target which is which is close to that option one okay is about what we're targeting okay and it also makes it easier for splitting the parcel and the regulations involved with that and that doesn't intrude into the pipeline area so we don't have to deal with that at all that's correct okay um mayor and city council I was going to ask is everybody can everybody see on your drawings where that pipeline is it's kind of hard to see up on the big screen but does everybody can you see where that's at just want to make sure there's if there's any questions we get that cleared up but okay so with option two it makes sense that we would have um space for future development that is consistent with where everything else I mean that makes complete sense to me and is appealing um if that property to or the the extra land to the south of the water treatment facility is unusable to because of the gas line what would be the reasoning to purchase do we have to purchase that whole chunk or what would be the reasoning to purchase essentially double the amount of acreage than what option one would be for land that would be unusable to the city not necessarily a requirement at all to change it it might have to do more with negotiation a little bit and what hker is willing to sell off and all that I don't think we have to come come to the table with this is the square of land we're going to buy we can we can shorten it up um again I think there's a spectrum here um but I'm not I'm not poose to Green Space I mean that's what's it's great to have green space but if it's green space at our Public Works is just spending two days Mowing and um no other public benefit to it besides that besides another lump sum of money um I I just questioned that part I like I like that there's room for development that part just is I'm a little puzzled by I guess I know you said uh you can't have like baseball fields soccer fields that type of thing is there an option can this be like a dump site for leaves and trees and stuff like that I'd have to maybe look into that um whatever we do we have to be prepared for the gas line to come in and Destroy whatever is on top of it at any minute right that's why I was thinking maybe that' be a good spot for it because yep you know who cares if they dig the lease out right so that might be very well be a possibility it's a good thought and I think to really answer that I'd probably have to go to Alliance and probably talk to them exactly on on what would be permitted again what I don't think would be permitted is a fence potentially though you know if we wanted to surround around a a dump site with a fence or something like that that that again become problematic potentially so nothing can really go on top of that pipeline obviously but or in that right of way right that 242 feet right do they own that right way or it's an exclusive easement is what it is so they have their legal easement essentially you know allows them to speak into anything that happens here right so the best thing that can happen on there is agriculture pretty much one could definitely argue that pretty easily 242 feet are all three easements they're right kind of adjacent to one another there's three easements for sure you look at that so when there's ever any even for houses in the future the roads and everything will have to be planned around that basically right that's correct I I think you'd probably be able to potentially cross it with like a public Crossing they might allow one or something like that well it goes under the highway yeah basic road again being that it's an exclusive easement we'd have to get permission from the them from the pipeline so there we have uh I think there's another situation in town um uh Eagle Heights Eagle Heights yeah I have one going through my backyard and you cannot do anything in my side's 20t the par so where the park is in Eagle Heights that's a 40 foot easement on that side and you can't put a tree or anything in that area and I've talked to them about even shrubs you know raised guard I mean you can't they don't want you to do anything now I mean you can just know that you're not legally doing it yeah this this one's a lot more substantial correct so that would that would to me make the value of the land very unappealing and what that looks like so I think even as a council I'd be curious to know where that easement goes even further through H's piece to to as we talk about the growth out that way what would a development look like in that area with that easement going through there well it goes diagonally through there all the way up to Old Highway 14 just before the um just before this B LP Place Dome pipeline okay which I mean that's a totally separate conversation but I think right here Beth is a pinch point in it because it generally it goes this way and it expands out quite a bit and I know there's been probably there's got to be a bunch of Concepts that have been done in that part of part of it so we this corner just happens to be tight you know where it's where it converges with both 598 and 21th just creates for an awkward awkward spot so then why would the city want to buy unusable land right I would think that would be kind of if we can't put a baseball field on it or a uh you know any activities or anything like that it would make more sense the other thing that I see with option two is is that a it does put a T intersection there at par green Avenue which I don't know if future-- wise I mean you it seems like a lot of streets in Eagle Lake end in t intersections and you have to go zigzag around to get to other spots right I kind of look at that in the same respect that it's a creates another T intersection at a road that could potentially be added into that next future subdivision on the inur land whereas if the water treatment plant was in the middle of 598 just south of uh um Breen Rich Town Homes you know that might not be as I guess it I mean they're all have different points to them right it's it's not a straightforward decision I would say um less land might be better though the option one I would say as it relates to paragan Avenue might not be highly attractive for a develop a developer to come try to snake it through it it does become kind of a pinch Point through there and it creates some again some odd odd weird Lots up next to the plant and all that as far as the facility itself is there one that's better than the other to get to the rest of the city or is are both of them pretty similar for function functionally I would say they're about the same there's probably some marginal benefits in terms of I guess navigating a truck being it you know putting it right next to paragan uh there's going to be less cost in bringing sewer and water up to the plant in that case again in the scheme of things it's it's a real cost for sure but you know that that's something overall I would say operationally it's it's marginal marginally better down here probably not enough to complete decide right now if you had to ask my opinion right now I would be in favor of option two just because option one does not allow for any in my opinion any residential in that corner otherwise you're not no one's going to put a subdivision um from parag Green straight in because of all the easements where there would be room for housing and it looks like a decent amount of housing um so I mean I would be in favor of option two with the conversation of can we do compost or something over that and if we can't I mean I know Public Works may not be in favorite but the city as a whole I think is in in need of some sort of composting for leaves for trees so we're not doing what we're doing now and throwing them in garbage cans or shoving them in with a leaf pickup um and if that can't happen then I would be in favor of not purchasing land that we can't do anything with right I I get the the development part but isn't there room further north where we can enter into that area and develop that way because we don't necessarily have to go all the way to paragan to develop this land correct yep that is true yep if you go up to Owl that's yeah probably the most natural entry point into the development to start with anyway yeah the other thing we could do is draw a line down it and say this is what we want to purchase and see see what the property owner says too and see how that negotiation goes let just it because essentially if we do op one he has basically zero chance of selling this land yeah in a future water tower would be an option up there as well right that's it what what is is that the blue thing is that the blue ccle circle you know that could move almost anywhere in the site but it's kind of just representative of really we're creating a water campus here with Wells and a water tower room for that in the future so you're not buying land again also with option one looking at it um the minimum desired footage to have the well spread apart is 500 ft and we would just make that within there um so that could cause an issue running two Wells at the same time if I'm correct um you know whereas as option two we could spread them out a little bit farther and have less chance of issues with draw down and things like that yeah with option two or roughly 700t spacing if we put a well kind of into that awkward Corner down there with option I guess I would think of option one just bringing it up to the easement so I mean I don't know how much that adds that would at least make an additional footage for that 500 feet but again it's up to Gary yeah so when it says 500 desired minimum that's not a mandated minimum that's just desired that's correct this might be a really stupid question um but the the water treatment plant in St Clair is that the same kind of a facility that we have that would be in this building here do you know cuz it's not a small propert proper and it's a smaller building but it's you know within a very confined spot right you know and I I know there's a well up there correct probably one or two maybe I'm not sure but I think there's a well over in the park you know that they pipe into it there's a well probably up at the I think there's one at the water tower yeah there's probably one near the plant I don't know all the details I know it's certainly a smaller service area and again you you know you can fit water plants into pretty tight quarters it's just uh again in this case are we you know purchasing temporary easement and paying for crop damage to build the thing and to maintain it into the future is kind of the consideration Council any more questions concerns thoughts ideas for Brian May City Council do we want to identify a subcommittee to uh work with Gary and Kim hener uh myself and and Brian on negotiating I believe that's how we came up with the um option to purchase so if you guys would like to you know um delegate that responsibly to some me in the council that would be great yeah I think that the last sub committee was uh councilman Anthony and myself great um would you guys be willing to do that again that that' be great we would be open to that okay perfect if I get voted in do we need a motion for that Jennifer yes please thank you does anyone want to make a motion for Anthony White and myself being on the subcommittee for the water treatment plant complex motion a second motion a second all in favor I I motion carries thanks Brian you bet that brings us down to page 131 actually Garrett I uh mayor Pro yeah that's right interrupt thank you another presentation yes I believe and we do have um Sav Fair he's in the audience and um he's going to be here to talk to us about solar on public buildings uh there's some grant funding available um and so hoping to work with region 9 and be able to tap into some of those resources so um Sabra you if you'd like to you um me use the podium or if you'd like to sit down at that chair um that would be fine too so okay sounds good just talk right into the the microphone it's uh a little sensitive yeah we we don't have any materials I don't think see if can see everybody got a few people here perfect while those are being passed around I can start with a quick introduction on myself so my name is sa far I'm an environment and sustainability planner with the region n development commission so we're a regional unit of government that does community and economic development um in South Central Minnesota we did the city's Economic Development planner my colle H did uh about two years ago now um and uh clean energy is something that we've been working on more with our communities um there are some grants available both at the federal and state level that help local cities sort of control their energy costs um through renewable energy uh like solar um so this specific opportunity this is the second round second time that has been available through the state through the Department of Commerce uh it's specifically for communities in Exel territory um because of funding that Exel had set aside for some of their operations in terms of energy generation in the past um and so now that is being aaable communities um in their territory um and then before I go too far I'm going to let Pete and Jennifer introduce themselves as well good evening counil canar okay that microphone has issues maybe you should come up to this spot here Jennifer yeah if that's okay you don't mind much more sensitive now you should be good Pete hello hello testing one two three much better we're good we're good all right well thank you so much for uh for having us this evening I'm Peter Lindstrom this is I will tell you I've been to a gazillion City Council meetings this is the first one that I've ever done it this way so you're you're uh you're you're hosting or you're uh you're setting a precedent here it's a good one um and uh so so I'm from the clean energy resource teams and I have my colleague Jennifer is with me me as well and um so uh Jennifer do you want to introduce yourself real quick yeah I can uh good evening everybody my name is as Peter said Jennifer lindall and uh with C so the clean energy resource team and I'm a regional coordinator in southeast Minnesota so uh you all are in my region and so I would be your main contact for this specific uh opportunity Peter is um uh he is the go-to person he knows way more than I do so um you if you have questions we both can feel them but I'll let Peter talk about uh the the grant opportunity absolutely uh so U so first of all CS or the clean energy resource teams were based at the University of Minnesota uh and we're all about helping communities do clean energy projects to be as energy efficient as possible number one but more and more communities are interested in renewable energy as well and as re mentioned there's this relatively new grant program from the state uh for public buildings within EXL energy territory and CS is the designated technical assistance provider uh uh for the state of Minnesota on this particular together grant program yeah so I guess with that we can sort of go through the handout here so I've just uh provided a little bit of information about how the grant program would work so sometimes when you talk to people about solar systems they're wondering if it's going to be a giant facility that's going to cover up a lot of fields with this particular grant program the system size is only up to 40 kilow so it's a smaller system I would equate that to about five to six average households worth of electricity so it's not going to be a massive project it's not going to be maybe a Money Maker for the city either this is just something to reduce your electricity cost sort of at a site at a building that you own whether that's City Hall your Public Works building um or any other facilities the city might own um another thing about this is that the solar needs to be installed um at or adjacent to sort of uh building that you own and so the energy is feeding directly into that facility um so that's also a good opportunity and just you're reducing the energy needs right away where they're being used um and the energy isn't flowing throughout the grid elsewhere um the one reason why I really reached out to Eagle Lake is because there are sort of different um opportunities or levels that a community is eligible for in terms of funding um and with this uh Eagle Lake is eligible for the highest level um so you're eligible for 70% of the system cost and then with that on top of that with the um Federal um direct pay incentives that are now available to local Municipal governments and nonprofit entities you get another 30% direct pay so that's a check directly from the IRS after you've sort of implemented the project um so that's also just sort of a gimme Grant right there that's a great opportunity um it's something it's a newer program that's becoming available to communities across the country um but at this point at sort of the the payback scale right now um it's one of those where sometimes you might not even be able to sort of say that you can't do it obviously there is still that upfront cost and this is all based on reimbursement um but it's a great opportunity for the city to reduce your energy costs uh to also be a leader in terms of Energy Efficiency renewable energy in the community um I could see it also as an opportunity for City staff to become more familiar with solar installation and that process as maybe community members are looking at that um so you get firsthand experience with what that looks like on a building or a ground mounted system um so yeah I guess with that I don't know if the council has any questions um I actually have a question if it's a right mayor and city council and in sa um so what would the next step be then so there's an application and you would be willing to to provide assistance um and we could get um that application submitted and would that be yet in 2024 that we' have to submit the application yeah so with this grant there's a two-step process so the first is this Readiness assessment so part of it to is obviously when you're putting new energy onto the grid Excel has to sort of look at where energy is flowing and see if there's space for a new system to be put in um and so there's this first this a Readiness assessment um and so you submit to that and yes myself and then also the clean energy resource teams folks they're happy to support that for free um and then after that you submit a full application if you're approved um and so that initial Readiness assessment is due December 2nd I believe um and so yeah we would be happy to sort of get that going that would just be looking at three years worth of uh energy usage because that's another thing is it can be up to 40 kilowatt or 120% of your average energy use uh so again you're not generating a massive amount of energy you're just generating what you need locally um at that building are at that site um I don't know PE if you have worked with other communities in the past that have applied for this maybe in the last round um and what that Readiness assessment process sort of looked like you bet yeah you've done an excellent job describing the grant think about 40 KW array then that's the maximum size it can be lower there is no minimum size but uh the maximum size it's about the size of a tennis court um so you're right not ginormous um let's see there there's so this is the second round of funding the first round there was uh about 25 or so local governments that have been approved uh and the Really the the first step is to request a project identification number s uh uh is familiar with that um it's just it's a simple sending a quick email to the state and uh they issue you a project identification number I think uh a second step is to engage in a conversation with Excel Energy to look into the uh whether or not they can host a 40K array or even you a smaller array at the uh at the locations that you're thinking about um we we want to avoid you going through you know the work to submit an application and then only to find out later that that the transmission lines can't host it so I think that's a uh uh something to do relatively early in the process here um and then uh uh the deadline as was mentioned is December 2nd for the Readiness application and it's fairly basic information it's not an overwhelming amount of information that the state will be looking for in the Readiness application it's where you're thinking about putting it a general size of the array uh electrical bills uh for the last three three years um and some other information that that uh uh that we can help you with it if if need be um so the process is you submit this Readiness application by December 2nd the state has about a month or so to get back to you and say yep Eagle Lake two thumbs up go for it uh and then you start your procurement process the city selects an installer that they wish to go with we have a a l we have a model RFP that many cities have used you don't have to you can you can um you can go any way you you wish to but we we have this model RFP we also have a list of installers in the state that we can send it out on your behalf you select the installer that you're comfortable going with and then uh in the spring that installer will submit the full Grant application on your behalf and then uh you have um 18 months to complete the project could I ask another question um I'm not sure if someone else already asked this question specifically but um I was was looking through my papers what would this so um if you're driving down Parkway Avenue we'd say we'd put some um put the solar on top of our building how visible would that be would it be um you know yeah it's I just want to give everybody kind of an idea of what it might look like and we don't want to necessarily change the look of you know City Hall yeah so you would see some of the Peaks I think some of the the older systems had more of sort of an angle um so it's not going to go up too high um and then also with uh buildings and I don't know we'd have to sort of think about the roof here but uh what's common on a lot of flat roof buildings is What's called the ballasted system so you're not actually drilling into the roof but instead it's a system with a bunch of bricks that are sort of holding it down and those are rated up to 120 mil hour winds um and so that's sort of the uh common uh system design yeah okay so what about the glass that we have will it block any of that shadow it or anything like that um I guess the so the glass is sort of on the sides here but the system would just be up on to of physical roof yeah does it have to be on the building or can you mount it it could be ground mounted as well yep Y and then for that it would just be sense if I'm have my bearings correct South is that way so the panels would be facing that way so you'd see the back of them like from the road here so yeah there goes my walking trail is back there you can zigzag it'll be a longer Trail now yeah I guess otherwise some food for thought that I had not put on the initial thing that I sent Jennifer but was just looking through your Electrical uh bills for some buildings um from the the packet today and was just seeing that City Hall you budgeted $112,500 for electricity so if you were to put a 40 kilowatt system here that would cut up about 60 to 80% of your electrical bill for City Hall um looking at some other spaces I see like Parks and Recreation I don't know how your meters are all set up there but like for Parks and Recreation or for your um your water or your sewer fund that were sort of a lotted there and I don't know how that infrastructure is set up that would also cut out a significant chunk of those costs um so there' definitely be some significant savings there as well so I have a weir kind of a weird question and an obscure question I I know there's a building that I worked at that had a a solar panel array that it was registered for a 40 Kow system and when the system was finally put online and plugged in it generated about 20% of what it was supposed to generate and then parts for the panels started to get broke it's a ballast system it's it's it's sitting on a roof they had to redo the roof to do it that was because of some physical plant things um and so this roof um the it it it did decrease the electricity bill but it didn't do what was said yeah you know and then okay so then the then the panels you know you know eventually will will'll become ownership of that building right and um by the time the ownership takes place the panels will basically be obsolete but it's a thing through Excel as well but this was installed in 2014 so they you know they're obviously saving money you know but it's just not it's not doing the um so like if we put a 40 kilowatt array on on on these buildings do we know if it will generate 40 Kow or will and will it indeed detract our uh our electricity bill by 60% or is it going to be you know 18,000 Kow production um and it would decrease the electricity bill in you know by 30% type situation I guess that's those are my questions it's kind of a weird question but and I know that that's also this this array that I'm talking about is I think it's yeah 10 years old it was installed 10 years ago y I have some insight on that that if now was a good time to yeah weigh in on that I I I uh so I served as a mayor for 12 years and on the city council for eight additional years in a city just a little bit larger than your city and we put in solar a 40kw array uh 12 years ago 13 14 years ago and I think it's a similar system than to what you're referring to it's a proprietary it was a pro proprietary system where the inverter that piece of technology that that uh turns the energy from DC to AC so you can use it in your system the inverter was like tied into the the panel needless to say it didn't work out real well and and that company went out of business I think that's the one yeah you see that same designs all over the place and it generates it still generates a minimal amount of power but okay yep so they don't do it that way anymore that's for sure uh and the good news is is that lots of cities um schools have put in solar RA in the last say five years or so and so um I'd en encourage you to check in with similar size cities that have put in similar size systems and and say how's it working is it is it producing what you expected it to produce actually I keep a list of of local governments that have installed solar I can share that with SA um and uh um and so the the panels themselves are under warranty for about typically 20 years is a common warranty for the panels and the inverter which again changes it from DC to AC it's kind of the brains of the operation uh that's um that's typically under warranty for we'll say 12 years as pretty typical there the inverter is the component that's on the roof under the panels isn't it yep yeah it's just like a little little box under the okay yeah and I would say too in terms of a system like if a panel isn't operating or if an inverter isn't operating literally they have apps now where you can see and your installer can see if a panel is sort of underperforming and then underneath that warranty they can just swap it out same day um so are any for malfunctioning in that way y that's that's pretty cool it it's it's exactly what mentioned it you can go online pull up your system you can see how much it is producing at that very moment how much It produced yesterday how much It produced last month last year Etc and if if it if uh it's if it's having any issues it sends you a notification uh that that something has gone ay CU just looking at the solar panels you don't know if they're working or not right um there's no moving parts so that's a a slick component to solar arrays these days Council any questions we're not out anything exploring the option right so I mean even if we submit the GR you know go through these steps it's not saying install them right EX at this moment anyways ex cuz one thing I don't want is I don't want it to seem too good to be true right where it's like okay this is great and then we talk to some of these guys and they're like nope it's underperforming or at its life end now you're you're you know yes I understand that a bunch of it's recyclable but we're spending way more in the in getting rid of them we had that same thing happen when we talked um the rubber wood chips for the parks they're like yeah they're great until you need to dispose of them and then it's going to cost you double of what it costs you to put it in so I think just doing our homework on that end of it um I don't think hurts to at least look into I would be in favor of putting it on the roof versus on the ground though so I guess that' be the only other comment I would have is not having it um at eye level or on the ground where it not only can look bad from the ground but also be tampered with or anything like that too so those would be my comments I guess you guys aren't here on a very good day for solar but um that being said I I agree with Beth you know I think if if it doesn't do anything you know tags us into anything you know we should move forward with the you know the the Readiness application and and see what it is and then we can do some more research I have heard that you know the biggest cost of solar though is at the end of the 20 years getting them off of building and recycling them is is pretty spendy so we would have to have something kind of in the budget if we're going to move forward with that to understand that that cost is going to be out there 20 years that could be like you said more than it what cost us to to one other yeah and John one other thing to add to that too is is that I know that at at the building that I was referring to that I'm not going to name um the custodians were also tasked to go on the roof to clean the panels off for optimal you know sunlight exposure so that would be on our staff to make sure that that would be a job of Andrew's team to go on the roofs to shovel off snow off of the panels to make them optimally work that and that that's the reality they had to send the custodian on the roof to do this I waigh on that what I if I could waigh on that just for a second every Solar Company that I talked to this is a frequently Asked question they say please do not send a custodian up to shovel off the arrays they're they're they are all at uh whether they're ground mounted or whether on the roof they're at an angle and so nature will take care of the snow on the roof even if you have snow on there for a day or two or three or four at the worst um it's going to slide off and and the installers the the solar companies they don't want people up there uh you know potentially damaging the arrays by you know putting their their shovel or roof rake um and accidentally nicking a wire or causing other damage so they just say just just leave it alone that's the best practice and you don't have time for that right that's true coun any more questions or thoughts what does it look like for like Building Maintenance so if we have you know a roof that needs to be repaired or something underneath that how does that work well to answer from what happened at this other building they had to re-roof the whole building before the so panels were put on the building so I think that brings me back to my is this to be true right do our homework instead of just jumping we can do some my opinion do some of the background information find out if we're even eligible to do it can get the grants but then is this too good to be true right what is the cost at the end what's the cost up front what does have to happen even if it's 10 years from now to rer what does that look like like know all those facts before we just jump into it but don't just let this opportunity go away if it is a good option to do I think when we first started talking about this twoyear point it was um on new construction so we were talking about the possibility of a fire hul and so I think that you know to tie into that so that is something we've kind of talked about before that maybe we it would be more ideal for a new building new construction versus um you know having to deal with a a roof that's got problems already yeah and these buildings are what 15 years old and they're probably what 30 or 40 or roofs something like that I mean they're 20 should be comprehensive plan too right so if it's not it should be something that we should be looking at as far as budgeting for saying that in the next five years we need to be doing this we should be setting money aside so I know we might not know that answer now but we should be figuring that answer out if not for this for our own knowledge as well it also affects your insurance rate if it's on the building your value of your insurance we would also I also know that we would probably have to see the engineering components on whether the building can support the array with ballast and all that kind of stuff too right I know that this building that had this said array put on it um had a ballast Rock rubber membrane roof uh and then they had to take that off they took all the rocks and the the rubber membrane off they put a a new roof on the roof had a warranty the company went bankrupt the roof leaks and it's an absolute Nightmare and I'm not saying that this is what's going to happen but this was a this is it's this nightmare is still happening I think if we can get the references though and have those conversations then we can get those that we would be using now not ones that went out of business how are things working how are communities doing it is it worth doing not doing what challenges are there I think it's worth exploring but I think it's also just worth knowing that there's always caution with the perceived situations and I think that if this grant is available I think we should be you know intrigued by that and and use it to be something that we can ponder on and if the roof is you know capable of lasting you know 30 more years and the solar panels will last 25 years and we'll say uh 60% on our electricity bill I think that's a good thing for the city I mean it basically it's a win-win situation as long as the buildings are the physical plant is able to you know essentially handle what what what we would need of those pieces of equipment on the road you know and I'm sure you guys hear these same questions all the time what do the is the custodian going to go out and slip and fall and fall off the roof shoveling solar panels and you know I mean all that kind of stuff you you I know that all the things I brought up here are things you probably heard a thousand times though those are great great questions totally legitimate questions I guess that would be sort of another thing to think about is like the comment about sort of the appeal of a ground mounted system too and whether that's sort of the cost benefit of that end it's not on the roof you're not having to deal with that um so there can also be serious benefits to having a ground mounted system as well um if the roof I in my opinion if the roofs can hold the solar panels and and uh you know we can accommodate the physical plant to deal with them and and this they do work I don't I I guess I think we should explore that opportunity I don't think it hurts to explore it to find out the pros and cons to to find out if it's even option for us and even bring it back next well can it be brought back next month if it's due December 2nd I mean you guys are just G to have to run with it at that point right it's okay sorry I think at that point we would also find out a lot of the great questions you guys have brought up tonight we have probably get responses or we'd be able to find out at that point if if this is even a doable project but you know to uh mayor proam Steinberg's comment you know we we feel like all these other cities are taking advantage of these grant opportunities so we want to do our due diligence if it doesn't work it's not in the best interest of the city absolutely not but let's at least explore it then we can um say that we at least looked into it so the council should make a motion for that right I think basically um just authorizing staff to be able to yeah go ahead and SM that we will authorize the council will authorize the staff to do research and and uh submit a readiness a Readiness assessment all second all in favor the staff is tasked thank you thank you so much that wasn't a thank you okay um um for the next thing we have new business number one resolution ordering Improvement and preparation plans for the 2025 2026 Street and utility improvements project so basically what we just talked about in the public forum Brian do you have anything to add I would just say that um going into this there was some question on the scope of the project so I think we should make that pretty clear I believe the resolution includes the entire 15 blocks at this point and I guess I would also make the comment that ordering the Improvement requires a fourths vote so we can't do a four fifths vote so what do we do about that I heard that earlier what Brian said all four of the council me what if it's tied then we can't do it I mean that's the why it has to be a fourth right yep um so basically um so we're looking at the scope of the whole project I mean I guess looking at some I guess we should discuss some of the comments to help make our determination right um so it seems a lot of the concerns were the price for the assessments and and um you know Corner Lots Corner credits and what the city would do to help lower that uh cost of the assessment for the homeowner also hearing the concerns of like the storm sewer situation uh in two locations uh and I also think that the situation with the lur avenue hill is something will Happ to get cleared up because the map shows it stops before the top of the hill uh and so we'll want to know exactly where that is you know for the residents and I know Brian you'll be able to like you said you'll be able to determine that at a future Point um but I don't think we want to have it be confusing for the residents saying it's halfway down the hill or at the end of the school property because it's actually pretty vague if you look at the map it's it's about 15 feet into the next person's property which is at the top of the hill you know so I guess it it's kind of one of those things you know I mean it's not we want to be clear on what we're saying to the people on that Hill you know and it wasn't wasn't anything we said but it's just the questions that people brought up I'm just trying to relay Council any comments on this I think for me too I I want to be clear on the Storm sewer pieces that were were noted um not only from from you but also from the plane view CU yes that street is very busy there is a lot of water on there where does that outlet go you know so that is valid concerns that are being brought up so just making sure it's very clear and understanding of what is being done in what locations um and I'm guessing that is what will be happening once we get the scope more in depth um I I know that the conversation was or the question was brought up about making the sidewalk smaller I know it's not liked by residents that have sidewalks to go bigger but I don't think we can go any smaller I mean walking specifically on plane view being a very busy road with getting to school and a very narrow they have to be on the sidewalk and the sidewalk is pretty small already I know when we go up for the fire um the open house I mean we're on the street cuz we're on the wrong side or you got strollers and and the sidewalks aren't big enough the way it is so I am not in favor of making any sidewalks smaller although it is a pain to to shovel and move snow um 5 Feet's the smallest I'd like to see that happen and to the point that Jan Hughes is making I know that she was talking about the utility poles that are on plane view which those trees have gotten just absolutely butchered over the years because they've grown you know we've planted these Boulevard trees and they grow into the power lines um and I I know that you said said that electronic and utilities and stuff like that won't be part of the thing um you know I always thought when they did the Parkway Avenue uh redo in 2014 that it would have been really nice if they would have buried the power lines um but I know that is nothing to do with the project but you know that's the thing that would have to do with the sidewalk size you know so um and we you we really don't have any control over that right Brian well typically those poles and the utilities are there by permit so we can tell them hey this is in the way you got to do something about it it's going to be harder to say you shall put it under ground they might move the pole I was going to say but if we tell them they have to move it they're just going to push it into the yard further which is not I mean if it was my yard I'd be like whoaa whoa no no you know um so kind of that let's meet in the middle of piece right but those were just some of the things that stood out to me is let's make sure that it's very clear let's work with the homeowners just like we did for agency um and I don't know if that's doing that same process where we hired that third party to to do that um assessment or whatever I can't remember what it was called that they did um the exact terminology on it but doing that where then we can show or is that just a waste of money and we know as Council that we're going to lower it down or you know how we get to that end number but work with residents as we do know that the whole community uses these streets and and it is a massive burden to one homeowner it's probably in your report Brian but is this whole section all the same age or is it different ages as you go it's variable it's a slightly variable especially around the school it's typically newer I would say all the most of the sanitary sewer is about that same vintage 1964 that's really kind of what's driving the project to begin with I would say is the sewer in the water though generally speaking in those areas that's what's old well that's what I was trying to get at is can we not do it all at once but well I think that's why we kind of talked about doing it over that two-year period to kind of spread that out a bit well it spread the work out but the assessment the ass I I would just say my thought would be to do it at once the whole thing I mean we didn't hear any public objections to that I mean if people were going to be objective of that they would have said that tonight the biggest concern was you know not having as huge of assessment and having you know storm sewer access and other things like that so the roads and the stores and the all that will have to be replaced I wanted to reiterate especially you know as recent as agency we we did that we brought the price down quite a bit my fear is it's a massive ticket item and that's where I think we have to make sure that we have that covered you know um but I worry that where do we stop if we just say hey we're going to do one to three um or priorities one one two and three and wait with four and five or whatever it may be what's the next up you know and I know we talked about that a month or two ago of what's next when is the next massive reconstruction going to need to be happening well it'll be further south it'll be BL Avenue Connie Jon but when is that is that 5 years is that these houses on like Maywood Avenue were built in the 60s so 64 everything south of there you know I mean bla was in the 60s too but like Joan and Connie and James Avenue all that kind of stuff you know was the 1970s and 80s so to my point if we wait two years as we heard from U Mr Sweeney and you've said before to is two years really going to make a difference and then in the next 5 years 10 years are we needing more and then are we any ahead versus just biting off the big chunk and being done and working with homeowners I think the biggest thing with the homeowners is just their assessment they're going to be happy to have a road that's functional that they can run some pump water to that they don't have leaks and breakages and all that and they just don't want a $40,000 bill right are you saying you want this to be bigger no I'm saying why I don't want it to be bigger is by waiting I don't want to say we're going to do let's only do one and two no no I and then we wait and we push the other ones down the line and now it becomes massive seven and eight right that's what I'm saying I want to avoid is I think we're in agreeance that this whole thing has to be done at once or at least in one bidding phase now where how that falls over two two years is determined on that one project one project yeah this is one so you know the price we get is is what we get I mean that project up there on the screen you know is probably the same amount of I'm not a dirt mover or construction worker but I mean look at Riverfront Drive downtown man I mean they did a huge amount of work down there in a pretty much small amount of time you know all the way from Madison Avenue down to uh Main Street and that's some serious infrastructure down there uh and lots of things in the way flooding too yeah well that's what they're going to have to do here though because they have I mean they're kids are in school nine months out of the year they're going to have massive disruptions from Plain View to lur and Diane that they're going to have to move very quickly in that area to have as minimal disruption to the school year and not that we have anything to do with Riverfront Drive in main but I do think that they did a good job on how the road was closed and stuff like that I spent a lot of time down there doing work at at various buildings um but you know I think that a project like this it's not going to they're not going to rip like Brian had said before they're not going to rip all of lur up all the way from the top of the by the school all the way to the post office at the same time or or if they do they're going to anything else yeah yeah usually what we do with these is we put interm completions so once you rip this block up and you restrict access okay the clock's on you got to get gra pav you know so you put that sort of contract in place to control so what does happen with the school because I mean I know I keep saying school year but some races happens too there is stuff in the building and the sun I mean it's year round so what how how does that do they make a secondary Road just like everything else there's other roads to get there I mean there not only one way to get to the school so to Diane or something you may have to go to Diane for one for two weeks up to plane view to lur for three weeks and up L avenue hill and drop off at the front door by the I mean it's not like you can say hey just go in the back entrance like there's one entrance in out of the school the parking lot may be closed for a week and people may have to drop kids off on L Avenue that's be the end of the world as we know agency wasn't just mean yeah well I'm talking that little Block in front of you know I mean they'll have gravel probably and access points you know at some point that you'll be able to drive cars across and I mean they're going to be driving heavy equipment through there so it's going to have to be accessible I mean Al's going to have to get to his house he lives right across the street from the school people will still have to have access to their houses which is obvious which is obvious to the engineering firm and and to the construction people right and I mean the agency they parked on side roads and walked but is that what's going to happen with the school are they going to park in a side road and they're going to haul their kids in and out of the school is that happen how how does that school piece hold on Garrett hold on how does that work though because agency we saw the road was shut down people weren't traveling it they'd Park on a side road and walk home because we heard the residents that were not happy about some of the issues so we have we have very much just like I was saying with the compation dates we have the ability in the plan and the contract to say number these roads have to be done between May and August okay so that's one tool we have and also if there's uh we can also specify hey we need to have access to this parking lot at all times and some it's going to be gravel access for a time for sure but they'll have to just sequence their work accordingly and work with the school on what some of those are optimal try to which you guys do all the time yes yeah so it's it's great you know all that insight though I mean we'll be working together on it but we have the ability to to put certain restrictions on the contractor we don't want to over constrict him but U we have the ability especially in a setting like a school or a church or something like that to make sure that they're on alert you they' got to provide access any more thoughts John nope I'll make a mo a motion to adopt the above described resolution ordering the Improvement and preparation of the plans for the 2025 2026 Street and utility Improvement project we have a motion and does that motion include all six of those things then right yes okay I'll second we got a motion in the second um any discussion I have a question will that include uh the assessment thing that we were discussed you know the how they lowered the price that will be coming up at another point right absolutely and there'll be a a special assessment hearing where the council will make a determination on the term of the assessment and um yeah the um the interest amount and what that is going to be and we'll get into doing the special benefit analysis um yep okay so we have a motion in a second uh all in favor of the motion I I any opposed no the motion carries I didn't say no I just said no one was opposed that's confusing I just was doing a clarification okay thanks again Brian we uh we used a lot of your time tonight so thanks for the great job and your great presentations and and all your answers to your questions thanks Brian new business uh actually I'm going to let's let's adjourn for two seconds to take we're we're going to take a quick break for two minutes uh I a motion to take a break uh yes second okay I break you hour am you it's t my wife and I she have a big Halloween night we weren going to do candy so we out din my wife want put up the Christmas lights you let's get this thing going we're going to resume the city council meeting uh do do we have a motion to resume motion we have a motion do we have a second second we got a motion and a second we're back into session all in favor say I I we are back into our regular council meeting um new OP new business uh item number two Tri count Municipal Aid agreement on page 133 Jennifer please tell us all right mayor proam seinberg and city council uh what we have in the packet is a proposed Blue Earth nicholet and lur County Mutual Aid agreement uh the agreement is made pursuant to Minnesota statutes 47159 uh which essentially authorizes a joint and Cooperative exercise of powers common to Contracting parties so the purpose of the agreement is to make equipment personnel and other resources available um to other political subdivisions and the types of assistance that might be um needed at some point would uh Public Works personnel and Equipment fire and or Emergency Medical Services Personnel equipment law enforcement personnel and Equipment utility personnel and equipment and public health so uh according to Eric Weller Bluth County the current uh memorandum of understanding expires December 31st 2024 and the new agreement um once approved will continue enforced until January 1st 2030 I did review this with um uh fire chief Ern Simpson and Public Works director Andrew Hartman um and they both recommend approval of the above described agreement so with that just need a motion to approve do we have a motion do we have a discussion any thoughts on this uh I think with ver and Andrew's recommendation I think we should be looking for a motion I'll second motion a second uh all in favor I I the motion carries new uh new sorry my words are getting mixed up new business item number three pricing for a panic button system at City Hall page 138 uh mayor protm Steinberg and City Council in the packet you'll find pricing for a panic button system uh at City Hall uh the purpose of installing a panic button system would be to um allow staff or um council members uh in the council chambers to discreetly contact authorities in an emergency um the need for a panic button system at City Hall has been prompted by a couple in incidents in recent months in which um City staff has felt it was necessary to contact law enfor ment for assistance a panic button system in City Hall would be justified because it would provide us A readly Accessible way for staff to immediately alert law enforcement or Emergency Services of an emergency um and would also serve as a critical safety measure for employees and visitors alike since we are a public building um and have uh the public coming in our building when we are open so uh there's two quotes uh one is from Freedom security a local business uh the scope of their um quote included three Panic buttons uh for a cost of $1,531 40 and then plus there' be an ongoing $32 per month for monitoring service um the next quote is from Heartland security uh that scope would include four Panic buttons and then also a three-year contract which um so their cost is $825 plus the ongoing $32.95 per month for monitoring service and I think when I look at that that's the reason for the cost difference because Freedom security is not requiring a minimum three-year contract but if you do the math it's pretty much you know kind of gets a little bit closer um so I think that's where we're um um maybe see the difference because it's basically the same system with the exception of Heartland security providing one more uh panic button um and then going on I guess I would just recommend that we would look at um installing at least one in the council chambers um and then the others in the front office or we could split it and then um we also have some available onetime Public Safety funds and so City staff's recommendation would be that we pay for The Upfront costs um with that money and then the ongoing monitoring um service cost would have to be just an ongoing expense quoted to our general fund budget so with that I would just um you know ask you you have any questions or any thoughts um we also have Lieutenant gayor here and he can probably provide some um thoughts from a public safety perspective on you know the importance of having a system like this so Mike's you don't lock into anything it just is it you can get out of it whenever you can stay in it whenever yep I sent him a follow-up email and I have not heard back but that's my understanding because I didn't see anything in the quote that said talk to him again after the initial just to yeah you know I just like using local stuff but yeah I also like minimizing the number of vendors you know we've already used Mike for the cameras we'll probably end up using him for a potential you know s more safety improvements so you know having a single vendor might be a little bit easier for staff to to manage as opposed to have adding us another vendor into the security Loop Jennifer can you say again because the one has three Panic buttons the other has four if we went with fourward or where where are the for know City or I know the office and here I assume it'd be put in a place that's easily accessible but not to community to just no it be um some place that would be under the desk yeah for a council meeting purposes or when there's public um yeah there'd be you know public uh meetings in here yep we'd probably defer to obviously law enforcement and then the company as to where they recommend but um I've worked other four or do we only do we need four or do we only need three um I think it I don't think it' hurt to have um in this room I could visualize having two I mean that's just my perspective I think it'd be helpful on one side of the table and one side over here but I would defer to law enforcement too and what your thoughts are on on that I have worked in cities before we've had those systems and we had multiple in in rooms my only thing in the front office is if I mean there's times that there's one staff member up there working and um I at the front dask right by the window uh Jennifer if you would to have to leave your office to go hit the panic button I think there would definitely be a need for two potentially three in there so just my recommendation I think yeah probably at each workstation would be wise so then is there we can add cost for more and how you know what I mean like I guess that was my question is where the Panic buttons are all going to is three enough is four enough or do we need more and then I assume the $32 or 33 is for the Ser the monthly service fee for all of the panic buttons not per button right yes yep it's for just everything yep then just a question like for the ones in here are you able to turn them off so like when you rent out City Hall and things like that you know a kid can't come up and oh what's this and we I I know on here it says I'm not I don't know um with 100% certainty but I'm guessing we can because it it has he said there's remote access I'm assuming you can I don't know that 100% we'd have to look into that but oops and the thing is you want it available if there is an emergency that whoever is renting it knows where it's at if they need something but the main purpose of having these is for during meetings right y you don't want 901 calls just because some kids can't sit here pushing it there's a button they'll push it I guess the way I'd word it is I'll make a motion to approve the installation of as many buttons as we need at City Hall okay with preferred vendor um with freedom secur i' second that okay we have a motion on a second all in favor I I I the motion passes thank you Andrew okay on to new business number four fire department requests to increase per call pay and increase officer salaries on page 143 uh mayor proam ber and city council um The Eagle Lake Fire Department met with the Personnel committee um a few months back and we talked about um the need to make sure that we retain who we have and then also um find ways to increase recruitment it's getting harder and harder for the fire department to be able to um retain and recruit because uh the world we live in everybody is so busy there's so many things competing for people's time um and we're not alone with this challenge but um something we talked about about was what can we do um with the wages and the officer salaries they put in a lot of time um right now the current pay per call is $10 um and so fire department is looking at a payer call to incentivize better response for members um in checking with um the Cog I reviewed this proposal with them they thought it was a great idea um it's very creative under the proposal the minimum response percentage to qualify for pay call per call is 10% and then it goes up if a firefighter responds to 10% to 19% of calls um sorry payment is $10 of a firefighter responds to 20% to 29% of calls uh the payment per call goes up $115 and then it just Subs you know goes up up until $25 uh per call um the department is also proposing that for a fire rescue call lasting longer than 60 Minutes um and we can all think about what happened just very recently and how many hours our fire Department was at a call um that a call lasting longer than 60 Minutes at all Personnel those calls would earn $25 per hour um and then at the same time the fire department is also recommending that the city consider increasing the fire rescue charge from $500 per call to $500 per hour to absorb the proposed pay structure difference um so that would be a separate action if the council wishes to implement the fire called charge increase um that would be reflected in our annual fee schedule um in which the fire call charges are included and then included um with the U memo in the packet there's uh pay per call scenarios based on actual calls for years 21 22 and 23 um the city pays the fire department once annually for fire calls with the payment made in December of each year um and the 2024 budget reflects the $5,000 increase in calls and training wages to account for a possible increase and then another item the fire department's requesting the salary the fire chief be increased to 6,000 annually um right now it's at 4,800 annually and then the assistant Chiefs uh would go to 2,000 annually and the fire department pres president to $1,000 annually um and then attached with the memo is a copy of their position descriptions uh they put in a lot of time uh above and beyond going to calls and training and so um you know we feel it's fair that they be compensated for that extra uh work that they're putting in so probably lots of questions but we've got fire department representatives in the audience and um between myself and the representatives hopefully we can answer those questions I like um what I see here here the only one I had question on was the the increase from um the fire and rescue charge from 500 per call to 500 per hour I mean that's seems to be I mean I guess it all depends on how many hours we're talking because it could be a $2,000 difference or it could be a you know $100 difference hello my name is Trent assistant fire chief been a firefighter since uh November 2005 okay so the thought process there is the city has an enormous amount of uh invested in fire apparatus so if we were to need a new ladder truck if something happened let's say there was an accident cost of a new ladder truck today is $1.8 million so it's more about hey what is a city have on the line as far as equipment um there's a few things that we're going to have to replace after a fire like that it's going to have to try to be out of our budget uh already tight budget so uh that's really the thought process behind it is to try and recuperate some of this wage but then also to help the city reimburse some of the costs that receiving at some of these calls than S typically uh we see that home insurance companies are paying that it's not necessarily a home may I ask a question would it be possible to set something in procedurally on the time frame where I should be able to get those because I'm not get so we send we log all of our information uh right after a call it gets logged in image Trend with the state of Minnesota so the state of Minnesota has it right after the call so we have all that same information shouldn't be any reason why could have it at the same time you need man hours right but I think everything you're you just said states to why the call charge needs to go from 500 per call to 500 per hour I mean all of that that goes into it and again it's very fresh and I raised mind if you drove byy it when it was going on and all of the people coming from so many different directions this is pretty pretty minimal um and I was when we met I was actually kind of shocked that it was only 500 per call on something to that degree um so just for an example Uh current pay per call at $10 uh per call was thata roughly 10 years ago K I don't know if you remember but it's been a long time since we've looked at some of these numbers and $500 per call was probably long before that so Trent um if there's a let's say you respond to like a two hour 3 hour I guess this just a question um car accident situation and it's not a house fire that would be built the same right $500 per hour but it be build to the auto owners insurances or something that's my understanding that's buil to the uh the driver of the car or the owner of the car perhaps and then it goes to their insurance so this is the $500 per hour is just for fires it's not we're not talking like a 2hour automobile accident situation on Highway 14 the M all the apparatus and stuff yeah okay so if it's just an EMT situation and the rescue that would be $300 just for the incident so is it noted on our fee schedule that the 500 would be per hour if using X equipment because I mean that's what you're talking about right because that is very vague K did correct me on here um right now it's currently $500 for the first hour and then $100 thereafter so let's see get the fee schedule here and that money just goes to the fire department fund basically that's my understanding goes to the general fund see if I can make this big enough for you guys to see it here um oh here we go make biger okay I you guys probably can't read that but um yeah it has a 500 or fire call um $500 first hour 500 per per hour up to 10 hours and then it goes on to another tier of 10 hours or more $500 per hour and then the motor vehicle accent 300 per vehicle but we could before the next when do we usually adopt this is it in January we could do a survey of other cities too just to verify that we're within reason we you know we haven't done that yet but we can do that before we um present a new res fee schedule for you yeah I would like because I mean even the I I like the 500 switch I mean the homeowners might not but that price is small when you're talking why what's all getting done but then is the 100 or does that need to get adjusted to 200 you know where does that fit in then when we're talking that 100 because it falls off quick the $100 per hour thereafter does that and so it's just 500 per hour period no so many hours after it's dropped down tell you what we'll do a survey um I'll work with the Cog too that probably can help me get this information from you know area cities and we can bring it back at the next meeting and go from there review with the fire department too but I definitely think that as Trent said and chief Simpson said we need to get it's been a long time since we've done anything with these fees need to look at that is per call is from the time you leave base to the time you get back to base right for hour right okay Backup backup sure s I'll make a motion for City staff to look into other departments and if we are um putting the right numbers in here and then Circle back do you is this is there two motions within this because I know there's two conversations we're talking the per call rate and we're also talking the per pay for the firefighters rate Y and I think that yes and I think for tonight's purposes I was in my mind thinking the fee probably just do it with everything else which will go in effect January um that we you know do deal with that at that point um as far as the officer pay and the salaries we do payroll um is in um the first payroll in December don't know what that date is right now um so we do one payroll a year so I think um you know look and we have to talk about that too would it be retroactive would it be moving a forward um there is money budgeted um in the 2024 budget to account for these requests that they're asking for and I think it is a there it's Justified I mean I think our department is um you know deserves this and we need to have need be able to retain what we have and and be able to recruit new members and say I was in the meeting with um Trent and Vern and and Personnel committee and Jennifer so I I heard the speech I like the tiered system I like I mean the pay has to increase in my opinion and I think we need to do this every couple years versus waiting 10 years um but I guess I'd be interested to hear what council member white and Steinberg think too because I was I mean could this could be low that's why you know that's why I kind of want to have a look at other stations yeah pay Riser perhaps okay so oh so you were mention what you were talking about wasn't just the pay her call for what the fee would be but also for the pay to the for all of this information 25 this is man so that's just an example of a neighboring city and what they're paying their firefighters for hour per call that's on a paid paid on call basis that's a little dated how are you guys sitting um Staffing wise there we're Staffing wise we're sitting uh really pretty good I think there was uh I know we approved a couple yeah would say 21 I think with the additions okay so if that all goes as plann we're at 22 that's as high as we've been in a very long time and I think that speaks to not only what you guys are doing as a department because it's not about pay but this will help hopefully entice them to stay and to keep going to the calls that's what I like about it being tiered is that it hopefully entices them to go on additional calls instead of saying n whatever if the council's not comfortable moving ahead tonight my recommendation would be that we schedule a special meting I can get you that information we could look at the week of the 18th because I really like to see if the council has any appetite to increase it that we do it before the payroll um in December if you guys would be agreeable and open to that I think to see some more comparable stuff not saying that I don't think that we should do it I think just some comparable numbers I guess but you know John and Beth you you guys were in the meeting with the fire department I'm not I think it's just be more we went more based off completely off the recommendation of them you know we didn't do any of the research we kind of let them do the research and do I mean frankly do the leg work and present it to us as we do with our other committees and say what are you seeing what are your fa fighers wanting to see and where do you guys feel you need to be in order to retain them um I think this is a bare minimum does it need to be more or not I don't know that's where I for me I was hoping that that's where these guys would come to that instead of spending staff time it would be their time but maybe that is inappropriate it needs to be staff time I don't I don't know I don't think from what I've seen it's out of line um from when I see other cities with different surveys that go around and what they're um paying their fire departments this is a huge issue especially in rural communities so I think what I'm hearing here is just we want more data and that's totally fine that's that's doing our due diligence and I can get you that um and if you guys would be agreeable I think if we could schedule a special meeting doesn't have to be a long meeting um we could do that on the 18th we do have a Planning Commission meeting that night I believe but we could maybe do it at 5: or um you know immediately following 5 in the morning oh yeah you guys are early but no I can get you that data and and I'm sorry I should have had that with the packet tonight um just been a little short on time lately with uh Staffing challenges but but that's a very fair request so 18 works for me are we doing like an 8 AM or 5:00 P PM you pick what what works best for you it's a Monday Monday yeah that day is wide open for me so I would PR prefer morning but okay I can make them both work could do 7:30 I'm out in the morning what I'm out unless it's at like 8 we could do an 8 o'clock or we can do at 6:45 do I could do a 6 a.m. oh I could do a 53 com 6:30 to 7:45 no that's fine let's do like 8 okay 8 it is all right thank you guys so that brings us to new business number four or wait five sorry nope you're doing great fire department requests to increase annual pension amount page 148 just Trent do you want to just take just go ahead you so on page 148 Jennifer has a description of what we're looking for on the following page perhaps there's on the following page is a little bit more information uh that has uh neighboring towns so if essentially if you draw a circle around Eagle Lake uh these are the fire departments uh closest to us so back in 2017 uh we had an increase uh from 1900 uh to 2000 you can see at that time uh we were right on average we were at 1900 average was 1921 uh if we fast forward the most recent data available is from the office of the state auditor as 2022 uh you can see we're still sitting at the 2,000 you can see our neighboring towns have bumped their pension to 2700 and so that's what we're asking you for tonight uh is just to bump our pay to the average pay of the surrounding departments uh from 200 to 2700 and we entertain any questions that you may yeah I think that the that you have there is really excellent I I mean I think that we should be you know comparable or above our neighboring cities personally uh you know so I think that a qu a request for $2,700 is nothing out of the ordinary I don't I think that that's a I think that's a a good thing um in my opinion you know I I'm curious that I seeing on there like nickolet being like 3200 and you know Cota being 3700 you know they' gone up quite a bit too I mean um what I'm not advocating to give you guys $3,000 but I mean I would be almost more inclined to look at is there something that would be an in you know a pensions an incentive for people for longevity on the fire department and that's where a lot of people have done long time on the fire department to have the pension and that that's kind of a uh when it was a volunteer fire department that was the huge perk of being on the fire department and I'm not trying to have us spend more money but you know even being ahead of the uh averages you know I mean it's just going to go up especially looking at like you know like I said those two towns Cota Cota especially sticks out to me and like Nicollet being over the $3,000 threshold I'm not I'm not telling you guys to change it but I'm just bringing that up as a discussion Point uh so to follow up on that there is a maximum benefit the city Eagle a can pay I believe right now it's at 2900 a lot of that's based off of the insurance value of the City of eal Lake so in Cota you may have a large business that can contributes a lot to that Insurance Fund because the state uh also helps fun this pension fund so the city probably funds half of it the state funds another half uh and so that's why those cities are able to pay a lot higher because they Industries 29 uh it's my understanding the maximum benefit is 2900 and this is a thing that a lot of fire department members like and this is more attractive than the hourly pay right is it or depends on the age of the firefighter so uh typically what we've seen is the older the firefighter they may like this pension more but the younger the firefighter they like the payer call so we're trying that's why we came with two uh this evening is more of a balanced approach that makes sense do we have any questions motions comments thoughts I'll make a motion to increase to 2700 per year we have a motion I'll second we have a motion in a second all in favor I I the motion carries all right thank you thanks Trent thank you ver thank you Spencer thanks you guys um page 151 all right now we get Jennifer's favorite meeting of the year the canvasing board meeting and I think I'm actually going to be gone that day but no it's um uh mayor proam seinberg and city council between the 3rd and 10th day after the city general election the council must meet as canvasing board and declare the results of the local election um I just made a note in here you guys all know this open meeting law applies to it so we have to notice it um and that's what we're talking about tonight so we can schedule it properly um once the council has announced the results of the election notified candidates of their election any challenge needs to go through the County's District Court under the contested elections procedure and then and um as everybody probably has figured out the candidate receiving the highest number of votes is elected uh So based on the dates uh available here um by the time I think the county can get the information back to Deputy city clerk Rous the canvasing board can meet either the 13th 14th or 15th of November and so I'll leave it up to you um to decide which uh date and time works best for you it could be a morning meeting I think in the past it's typically been like a 7:30 in the morning meeting could be Wednesday Thursday or Friday yes could we do the 14th at 7:45 and have it be right after our Park board meeting see unfortunately Monday and Thursdays are my days that I have a obligation till 7:45 or eight I I could do eight we can make that happen you know I was just thinking here you guys I'm supposed to be gone on the week of the 11th but I wonder so we don't have to bring you back for two meetings there wouldn't be any reason why we couldn't do both the canvasing and the special meeting about um the fire department stuff yeah but doesn't that have to fall into the 10 days no I mean maybe we just move up I would just I'm supposed to be gone but I could come back in for that if we did um is that when McCrae has a surgery it's fine I can get my parents to come in I'll they always help me out and I need help so I can ask them um but that way we'd eliminate that special meeting for you guys on Monday so you don't have to take up another meeting if that's of interest to you Monday the 11th the 18th so we could eliminate that meeting so you don't have two two meetings but if you guys I'm fine with doing I'm fine with doing two meetings you sure yeah okay I I in fact I'd rather just do it okay sounds good so do we have a motion for doing the canvasing meeting meeting on Thursday November 14th at 8:00 a.m. second we have a motion in the second all in favor I I the motion carries that brings us to our last new business item certification of special assessments all right mayor proam steber and city council uh at your table spot you'll see a print out that shows the special assessments that are unpaid um as of today's date um most of these will probably get paid before um before the county their their last day so we'll certify the list to the county and then we just notify them before the 30th uh which accounts have um been made whole but with that we have a majority of the pass you accounts or utility bills and there's two for lawn M charges uh so with that we just asked city council to authorize staff to certify these unpaid charges to the um uh Blue Earth County for collection with property taxes and also um the past practice has been to assess the unpaid charges with an interest rate of 4% okay does anyone have a motion for that I'll make the motion we have a motion I'll second and a second is all in favor I the motion carries City administrator Port report all right uh number one I just have the year-to date expenditures and revenues so you kind of know the process with that if any questions let me know um next item I was recently uh talked to Christian Tolson with the league Minnesota cities he came to talk to a Minnesota Valley Council government's Workshop um and he said he'd be willing to come to the city of Eagle Lake and do a training for no cost and I would um notify you when we get that date set and if um you know one or two council members would like to sit in that would be great um next item climate resiliency advisory committee and Survey I just would just make another request if you haven't done so please take a few Mo moments and complete the survey and then we also do need one city council representative to serve on the advisory committee uh I don't know if there's anybody tonight that would be willing to um volunteer to serve on that committee I think we'll probably meet a total of six times and probably an hour each time so okay I think we should have one of our newly elected City councilors do that we can wait we I don't know I don't many more committees I [Laughter] only okay we can do that um yeah but I'm mayor Pro we're probably going to have a meeting yet in November so it is good so maybe we'll have uh mayor protm Steinberg if he is willing to attend at least the first meeting or C um next item about that uh rural childcare Innovation program survey in town hall event um just want to thank council members uh Whittington and roor for all the work that they put into this it's been a lot of time and they've done a a fantastic job um and we can have the entire Council come to the town hall event the registration online has closed but I can still get you registered so if anybody still wants to go to that let me know there's a free dinner um it'll be at the American Legion and I think it'll be just a good good discussion um so just keep me posted on that if you could let me know by Thursday that'd be great great just a recap of the provider appreciation event again council members or and Whittington um did a lot of work with that um council member Winnington um opened up did the welcome Beth uh really came to bat she came up with a ton of door prizes for the providers which was so appreciated so thank you guys for that I overall I think it went well and then uh solar and public buildings we already talked about that um parkboard will be talking about holiday lights contest coming up uh if you have any ideas let me know I'll take it to the parkboard and um I just say let's make it bigger this year guys so if anybody's got any good ideas and then holiday open house I think last year was the best open house that we've had yet at City Hall um Council or mayor proam Steinberg really um he he delivered for us he got us coffee and some really good refreshments was awesome so what's the date for that Jennifer we haven't said it yet but I was I'm going to be talking to some of the businesses on Parkway Avenue um and try to coordinate the same week as they're doing their open houses but um anybody has any ideas I'll send out an email later once I kind of nail down the at least the time frame we're looking at and um make it bigger this year so yeah I'll do the same thing as I did last year awesome that was really well attended and I I'll also look look for a sponsor to do something else nice okay we'll be in touch and then um public nuisance property update I there was um sorry I find my notes a police call on a property in town that's vacant um some kids um vandalizing causing some trouble with it and I did talk to the City attorney and he said um I know sometimes you'll see questions come up what what is the city doing about a property um the particular property is not currently in the Foreclosure property but or process excuse me uh but he did say that in order to declare the property to be a public nuisance we'd have to show that the property is being maintained a condition that unreasonably annoys injures or endangers of safety Health moral or comfort of a considerable number of members of the public or that the property is in violation of certain provisions of our city code um so what we'll need to do is just work with law enforcement um to show that those standards are being met um and um send written notice of the violation I think where and why I want to bring this up to you is because it sometimes it's difficult to collect on these cases so um you know we'll do our best to try to secure the property and um minimize you know working with law enforcement minimized further uh vandalism but when people complain about the way a a property looks at you know if it's privately own they're paying their taxes we are limited to some extent in what we can do but as I kind of went through quickly like the City attorney is saying if we can justify that there's um you know a public nuisance there are certain measures that can be taken but we can't completely fix um a property we can address Tall Grass we can address snow not being removed D making sure it's secure but there's we can't make it perfect and we can talk more about the specific property um you know later I just wanted to give you an update on that in case you hear anything about that so um and I think with that um let's see oh one other thing I should mention we did get a complaint on um Regency and some you know junk items um put possible public nuisance items so I've worked with or talked to Lieutenant gayer and we are going to talk to the maybe try to get a meeting set up with the um owner of the park not the owner the manager and sit down and have a meeting and what can we do to make some improvements here um they've been really receptive in the past and I think they have made some some improvements over the last couple years uh but it's just going to be an ongoing uh work in work in progress with them keeping up with stuff so I think between the we've got help with law enforcement um and working with the Regency management I'm optimistic we're going to be hopefully able to see you know some incremental changes here so we'll keep you posted on that but um and then I guess just lastly if you notice any properties that look to be in disrepair public nuisances you know I'm not out driving the streets because my job largely requires me to be at my desk but I try to you know get out as much as possible but let me know or let the police department know and we'll do our best to try to address so and that's all I've got thank you thank you Jennifer um that brings us to my lost sheet oh here it is uh that brings us to our upcoming next meeting would be regular meeting would be December 2nd do we have any Council reports no okay uh for all the other meetings they're all listed and posted online Eda Park board Planning Commission uh and I'm looking for a motion for adjournment so moved second we got a motion in a second all in favor of closing the meeting I I motion carries the meeting's closed I couldn't button e e