##VIDEO ID:sHe8ro08SgQ## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e uh mayor Norton I think our we got to turn the microphones on Carrie I think could you double check otherwise thank you Carrie okay mayor Norton um Got a Hold Me Later late this afternoon and said she was not feeling well um and so she felt really bad for not making it but I told her we would just give her an update or she could watch the live stream we're not going to take any action tonight just the budget works session so all right and we will start with a pledge of allegiance I pledge Al to flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation godible with liberty and justice for all Carri will you please read the roll call Mr Steinberg here Mrs rch here Mr White here Mr Whittington here mayor Norton and our approval of the agenda for tonight would anybody be moved to make a motion to approve the agenda uh we have a motion and a second all in favor say I I the motion carries uh our new business for tonight is the budget work session and that is the only business for tonight and I will turn that over to our city administrator Jennifer bromand thank you mayor protm uh Steinberg and city council um thanks for your time this evening um the purpose of the meeting is to go through through uh the preliminary draft budget and you have a copy before you a hard copy and then um we'll just kind of go through and I'll discuss um why we are where we're at for proposed um total general fund expenditures general fund revenues and we'll go from there so just to give an overview kind of of the process I know I reviewed this at the last uh work session but just for anybody who might be at home watching um to just give a little more information about our budget process so just bear with me here um as you guys all know we have to prepare and adopt a proposed budget and propose property tax levy each year uh by law in Minnesota the fiscal year of a city and all of its funds must be calendar year so January 1st to December 31st and a budget is one year of estimated money coming in or also known as revenue and expenditures or money going out um any City with population over 500 that proposes a property tax increase has to provide notice of the proposed budget adoption and then also allow for public input on the proposed budget and property tax levy and you guys have all heard of the truth and Taxation process um and so we've have um so part of that process is we're required to certify the proposed property tax levy to the county auditor on or before September 30th um and then the thing to really note with the preliminary Levy is that once it's set you can reduce it but you can't increase it so typically City will set it a little bit higher um and then if possible work to reduce it before the final Lev is adopted um but you cannot increase it once the preliminary Levy has been certified and just as a refresher the levy is comprised of the general fund Eda and Debt Service and we'll have a truth and Taxation public comment hearing um sometime after November 24th and before December 27th and then we're required to certify to the county auditor uh buyer before December 27th the final tax and the final budget um next if you look at that uh the first page of the memo in the packet um I included last year's final Levy information uh we ended up setting it at approximately 16% or an increase of $155,700 um for last year's property taxes most of them should have remained relatively flat unless a property's valuation increased um then also in the packet you'll see there's a tax levy history going back I think to 2026 so when we look at that um table I have on here you'll see general fund Eda Debt Service and then total tax levy so um we're looking at this year which I'll explain a little bit more later an increase of um $163,200 winds has now dropped off so that frees up some um you know money that we don't have to Levy for but we still have to Levy 20,000 to cover our expenses with uh like contract with uh Rita or GMG um and then just other Eda related expenses so that helped a little bit and then Debt Service this kind of changes from year to year depending on debt service schedules but um it only went up um 3,400 $57 so in total with what I put into the draft budget right now uh we're looking at an overall increase of $135,400 over what was set for last year's Levy um and then so just kind of to equate to or to show you what this equates to for the general fund our general fund expenditures would be um 2,473 one92 proposed general fund revenues would be 2,372 456 and um you'll notice the difference is a little over 100,000 and we talk about this every year and it kind of um this question comes up for every year too it's called plan deficit spending so we each year in the budget we have set aside for Capital outlay so we've got that money sitting there and somehow we have to be able to spend it so this is what our Auditors recommend as the best practices called plan deficit spending so the budget would be balanced except for the money that we have like in fire streets um you know for uh set aside that we're actually going to spend for um Capital outlay so um and then the other thing I want to bring your attention to this year is so if you look over on page let's see sorry I don't have page numbers I should have done that but the page right after my memo um it'll say like working draft and it has like some colors looks like this oh shoot maybe you guys isn't isn't in color okay perfect so that is the net tax capacity NTC um and that I get each year I get this from the uh blw Worth County Assessor and one thing that is different this year um without any increases to our Levy at all the tax rate if you'll not the paid 2024 tax rate was 35.2 3% um but this year we've got um uh it's it's it has gone up and I talked to Bluth County and they said there's some reasons the tax capacity can change um the reasons they gave was for example for Eagle Lake um our primary reasons are a decrease in residential Market valuations of approximately 4% so that's out of the city's hands that's what the um assessor's office goes out and they do valuations so that has decreased um 4% and then an increase in residential Homestead market valuation exclusion um which reduced our taxable Market valuations of residential Homestead Property and I do have a handout from the Minnesota um Department of Revenue that explains that a little in better detail about um Homestead market value exclusion um basically the market home market value exclusion reduces the taxable market value for property classified as Homestead by decreasing the taxable market value net property taxes are also decreased so that's why we're seeing um you know that we're going to see our tax rate go up because we have less taxes tax capacity to collect um with that increase in Homestead market value exclusion so it's kind of confusing but I think what I'll do is maybe just email you out a copy of this it's from the Minnesota Department of Revenue and they do a good job of explaining it they give some examples um just to kind of explain how it all works but just wanted to highlight that that's a change this year and then um let's see I kind of skip through some of the other stuff on the last couple pages of my memo I think um other than we' I mean we'd basically be maintaining an unassigned general fund balance of 50% of the annual budget we've had a positive fund balance our audit was good this last year again um you were doing a good job maintaining good good fund balances is um and that's important for offering a cushion if we have unexpected expenditures um or Revenue shortfalls which we hope doesn't happen but if that would happen you know on the shortterm basis we are in a good position uh fire and Public Works budget requests I did put everything they asked for into the budget so that's reflected in what you have with you this evening um as we talked about the last meeting the certified 2025 LGA um local government Aid barely in increase less than $1,000 um but between local government Aid and property taxes that makes up 80% of our general fund Revenue so huge Revenue source for for Eagle a and we rely heavily on that uh wages um we talked about this at the last work session um added a 3% cost of living adjustment and then also a 3% uh step increase and after talking to other cities that sounds pretty um pretty in line with other cities are doing and so we should still be um at Market or above depending on the position and competitive health insurance rates we won't know until October so we factored in um an 8% increase and then for the vacant positions you're probably wondering how do we calculate that we just kind of do it at a um like a four-person family kind of the highest premium that we you know just so we're on the we're more liberal than you know um so that we're um um prepared and then let's see nothing changed for perah Social Security or Medicare withholding rates um paid family medical leave we hear a lot about that but that'll be starting in January 2026 so no changes in this year's budget and then Enterprise and Debt Service funds uh each year I usually take a little more time um and I'll work through those following tonight's meeting um just to make sure that we're um um everything is is up to date and um and correct so still working on those but let's see so we can maybe just start on page one of the the budget part so what I have before you tonight is different than what I sent out this uh weekend I contacted banon who does our fund accounting just to get the layout different so it's a little bit easier to read now the one I sent out this weekend was a little wonky um but this will hopefully um be a little bit easier to follow so that first page one just shows um starts with the general fund has their expenditures um and it goes uh starts off with General government in there we've got health insurance health savings Dental um property and liability insurance um one thing to note I will note here summer sounds we had budgeted $10,000 last year due to the um response we've gotten from the community about how much they enjoy it and appreciate it we did put in 15,000 to try to hopefully grow that um and then some of that is offset by donations but um wanting to work towards making that a bigger event for the community city council I did add a little bit more to uh meeting education one thing that mayor Norton and I learned at um the different um conferences we attended this past year was how important it is for the city of Eagle Lake to be represented especially if for looking for state and federal funding and which just something that we really should be factoring each year so that the council has opportunities to get out and you know talk to elected officials talk to other just City officials and um you know just learn more about issues impacting cities so went from 2,000 to 5,000 I know it's not a huge increase but I think we just need to each year start start building that up and then the mayor's budget I also increase that from 200 to 5,000 as well um and then elections is pretty it's not giving an election you're unless there would be a special election so I did put some money in there um just to cover that uh Administration really um you know it's just our wage increases um not much else changed on that front I did B beef up a meeting education uh a bit um same thing I think that you know for all of our staff we need to just make sure we're investing in them and that they're attending um you know education opportunities to stay up to date on different um processes and and um just be able to network with other City officials and I think that's just really important uh Professional Services I did um leave that pretty close what we had last year uh included the lobbying expenses still waiting to hear on on some of these things from like auditing firm I did be that up a little bit um haven't heard back on what our fee is going to be um engineering fees is left at about 7500 legal fees I dropped a little bit because we've we're trending downward on that our computer um technical support fees have gone up we do have a number of computers that need to be replaced um it's escaping me right now but I think it's at Microsoft 11 Windows 11 yep so we have some computers are just going to have to be um replaced um let's see go to the next page um see Jennifer can I ask what uh what what would City history be used for just I noticed that zero is there something that we could zero in on there or what what would that be for so I wonder if at one point there was something there for like City history to do like something in the hallway we talked about doing like um putting some money into kind of having historical um like photog or photographs we talked about maybe doing like a um can't think of what you call it bath probably no um uh a miral yes stuff like that in City Hall so also was there I'm just wondering about the computer support was there a change in that when we turn our computers in if we turn computers in what what what is that yes yep so if you turn your computer and we could repurpose it so we've repurposed um two of them right now and then um like with my computer um so when I was hired I had a desktop and then a notebook computer and then C Woodington said you don't need both so we were able to um and my um desktop because it's going to be outdated and anyways and just use a notebook computer so we'll you know that'll help eliminate devices too less devices to maintain um have licenses for and so forth so yeah if anybody's not using their notebook computer wants to repurpose it that'll help save us some money but um let's see sorry let's do what page oh here we go page three yeah please jump in any questions you guys I'm kind of going through this fast but um I I guess I I just have a question on the computer stuff did was there a time recently that we looked at a different computer provider yes we went yep we did an RFP process last year and we found because we I think was still the by far yes by quite a bit um it was council member Winnington myself and Deputy city clerk Ral we went through and and it was kind of it was shocking how much and it's just not cheap but then after checking around with other cities as well I've you know learned that it's pretty common the the like for instance today at City Hall we had so many spam emails and so there's so many that we don't even know about that are you know blocked from our system these ones got through but so yeah it's I think there was like five that I got it was a lot it was intense yeah yeah sendemail yeah there was a lot of yeah that's what you're supposed to do oh yeah I'm glad you guys are like Savvy to that because some of them can be kind of um kind of uh looking legit but um I know there was a big city up think of it now just recently it was in the news was it bla yeah o so it happens it really does um okay should we move on to page three yeah okay so page three then we have our Planning and Zoning Community Development coordinator um let's see nothing really changed much with that City Hall um I have been setting aside money in capital outlay because we really haven't been doing a good job in years past or have a fund so like if we need to do something with the roof or we have a mechanical failure in here um so we just recently in the last couple years starting started to set aside money so we're just having something there to be able to fall back on and it's not a lot but it's it's it's a start and then streets um you know other than wages and the benefits aspect of it um that was information from public works and what they've requested we did bump up Professional Services from 5,000 to 10,000 to try to start addressing like the tree trimming concerns and trying to get you know just do little chunks at a time um for emergency services vehicles and Jennifer what's our allocation method for the wages for because we we allocate Public Works across multiple accounts so they're like 1819 05 I can email you that yes and then same for city hall employees too so there is a break allocate those two so it be um the 101 fund 601 602 and then storm okay but I'll email you that cuz yep there's a breakdown on that because otherwise yeah you're right it gets kind of confusing when you look at the wages think well geez we surely had more wages than that but it's by percentage so good question I have a question with City Hall I I'm not asking this on behalf of the fact that I own a cleaning business but I'm asking it on behalf of the fact that I notice that this building gets used more yes um I'm wondering if we should maybe with there going to be a church in here this fall every Sunday and there's more frequency of meetings I'm wondering if we should look at uh you know kind of tce a month cleaning well I don't know maybe just review the contract you know there's just things that I've noticed and you know oops that there's just items around the building that we could certainly take a look at that would just be part of General upkeep we could talk to the current vendor uh or whatever we need to do but I think that with the building being used more I think this is going to be this place is definitely more than a once month type operation I agree with you completely when I first started um we were doing no no professional cleaning and so I imp implemented that CU I was horrified that we weren't clean you know having somebody else come in staff shouldn't have to try to keep up with that and then yeah people do clean up when they leave but it's not the same as if you have a cleaning company come in and try to get all the you know spider webs and and stuff so is 2500 how do we know how much is set aside for that because I mean even looking at the chairs I don't think that they need to be replaced this year or next year but there's going to be a time that those are and that chairs are not cheap and then the other thing we discussed was even like the podium getting it to where it's a table instead of a Podium so we can actually see people better too like some of those none of that stuff's been priced out yet so we'd have to price some of that stuff out and get start playing we really haven't don't have um and this is something we need to work on is um like facility Capital Improvement like same concept as getting trucks and other vehicles is doing it for facilities yeah because a lot of those things like the Deferred maintenance like not having a cleaning company for example like the counters and stuff in the bathrooms you know I mean some of those are basically permanently ruined you know you can't really so that I mean eventually that stuff's going to all have to be replaced if you want the building to look nice um that being said I think that we may want to look at just a general upkeep of all these buildings you know especially as we go forward with more buildings yep okay good or I should say if we go forward with buildings not that anything was decided um good points got those noted um going on to the police department that just reflects I think it was a three and a half% increase we that was part of the contract so um that's reflected in there just in kind of emailing with some other cities and what they're paying for law enforcement Services compared to what we're getting I I feel like this is very reasonable talk to some cities that um are close to our size what they would have for staff and are pushing a million dollars for Police Department budgets and we have you know almost 247 coverage we have squads here we've got really pretty much everything we would have if we had our own Police Department so I I think that this is you know it's it's not out of line it's certainly not a small amount of money but it's definitely not what I've seen some cities are trending towards some pretty high numbers um let's see we'll go on here I'm just kind of you guys can come back to stuff I'm just kind of going through things here um then the fire department budget um that reflects what um did we hang on one second did we did we go did we finish I'm confused okay so you already said did you already talk about streets or not oh no um just that it just reflects um what the what they had um Andrew had talked about the last city council meeting or the work session so um one thing could we put on the radar of Public Works is street is street signs a lot of them are starting to fade okay to just to look at those okay and then with the street department as far as like their um the actual expense for Capital that's what they're planning to spend in 2025 and then the set aside um is what they're saying they need for um uh to keep up with their capital outlay and then sidewalks I put in um 30,000 just keep up with that I think we got a good we're doing good on that side but we're going to need some of that money for the trails project um coming up here that connectivity project so I just want to make sure we didn't drop off too much on that um let's see here sorry k okay just wanted to verify something all right and then uh fire department okay so then on page five then with the fire department um got fire chief Simpson here he can answer um questions if you guys have some I guess things to note we did add a new line item for the fire department's request for clothing allowance um and that was in the amount of 5,000 uh fire chief Simpson is that for that's not for like firefighting stuff that's just like what could you give an example what that entails yeah that would be more along the lines of the duty shirts like what I'm wearing here those type of things not the actual response gear gotcha okay and these prices all include the or factor in the the increase in wages too that we talked about right I believe that's what y yep okay was yes and the increase of the Fire Relief um pension that's reflected in there as well um if I may the only thing I'm not um sure for sure is if we have an aot an allotment in here for continuing with the um pursuance of a fire station is there anything in there directly on for that so I um I there was nothing on the budget request from so I just left 10,000 in there okay um to look at kind of more um 10,000 Professional Services not knowing how fast things are going to move and you know most of that stuff too if you really if you're going to pursue I mean depending how far the council wants to go with this we would Loop those expenses into you know financing but um yeah I think we're going to have to get real serious here at the end of the year and figure out the direction you know after meeting a couple weeks ago and how we're going to fund this because it's it's going to be yes coming from a lot of different sources I would think we'll have to so because we can roll that all up into one project number I'm assuming and you know we could beef that up the um you know tentatively we could do that then we'll just in I'll have to increase our the levy percentage um we can you know play the numbers on that if you guys want me to put some different scenarios in there for the next meeting um we could talk to Brunton and find out what the next step is and um within next year and try to get a number from them and put in if that's what you guys would like to do before the next meeting and I think that makes sense you know are we at the deliverable now of the the last contract is that considered closed yes I do believe so isn't that last deliverable that we did at the I have to look at the exact language in there about all their different the scope but I mean for the most part the bulk of it's been done yes y okay all right let's five and then let's see animal patrol I did leave the money in there because um you know the new contract for um impounding if for some reason the city would have to absorb costs we couldn't and then try to collect later you know some we still have to pay a bill so until we can get reimbursed so I put some money in there um the Civil Patrol I should probably retitle that but that's more for our warning sirens for you know tornadoes um and that's something we're going to have to start beefing up is the capital outlay the expenditure because those are not cheap we lucked out getting that one paid for um through the funding that the county was able to access through all the covid stuff um but we have two other Sirens we need to start preparing for and like I said there has never been money set aside um for those to be replaced so last couple years we've been setting just a little bit aside um to try to start start saving some money but um that's what that category stands for and then um Park and wreck I did talk to Public Works director Hartman about how do we want to handle the repair and maintenance and the capital outlay didn't really come up with a good idea yet but we did bump up the repair and maintenance line to uh 15,000 it's hard for me to Guess that number without direction from public works because I don't know the ins and outs that they do on different pieces of equipment or things that their forecasting might need to possibly be replaced um so I'm really relying heavily on them um and then let's see Professional Services that's um you know we have to do tree terming at the parks um if we have to hire an engineer we going to do something different with the parks that's just kind of what that money is there for going down to um Capital outlay so we set aside um 10 excuse me 14,44 and that's coming from I'll show you guys this sheet maybe K can pass this around for me this is Public Works uh Capital outlay sheet and so for like the mowers and such they had recommended that we set aside 14,000 for 2025 um we're trying to get a grow a balance in there so we've got money to make make changes to that equipment and then above that on the big section that's the streets capital outlay so that's what that reflects and then for the park board we left it at 50,000 you know in talking with Andrew you know we just talked about the park board's desire for that to not be used for repair and maintenance and that we just really have to um you know they have to do a good job of planning ahead and if this is something needs to be repaired um or they think there might be maintenance something that needs to be taken out of the other part of the parks and rec budget so one thing that we did talk about at the last work session was Park lighting and um Andrew has said that he has called three different vendors and waiting on pricing from them so we don't have anything in the budget reflecting that I have no idea I asked what do you think I should put in there and he has no idea so I don't know what what we want to do with that we could you know if I get numbers before the next meeting add that in there but again it's going to result in Levy increase so we're sitting right now but I can put together different scenarios so let's see here then next then I think we'll probably we don't really need to delve into these because I'm still working on like storm water um the utility Enterprise funds um and we get into water sewer the Tiff tax increment ones so I'm still working through all that but if you guys have any questions on those you know feel free to let me know but for tonight's purposes I think you know focusing on the general funds probably going to take enough time but will we have any data back from the the stuff that we're doing um with the the camera and things to inform this budget or will that be camera things um well we just approved um Public Works and Bolton mink didn't we approve that oh for the street for the feasibility stuff yeah so that we would be getting financing for so that probably would you know we'd have a separate project fund is what I'm assuming for that well I thought we didn't we approve some of that this year or no um the feasibility study yes yep will any of that data in form can that will it be will we have it in time to inform what we want to do with streets and storm sewer and things like that I don't think that that will really change anything because I think streets it's just no matter what we do with those projects um if we go forward with that we're still going to have maintenance repair on the other streets in town so I don't think anything will change with that and storm water um I don't think anything would change necessarily unless um you know Andrew has something with um Capital outlay anything big we're probably going to have to get financing for because in one year one budget year you can't there's not enough money to generate in a revenue to offset your expenditures unless we've got money sitting in capital out later the fund we you know dip into um fund reserves so um but like I said right now based on what I've got plugged in the budget we're looking at um you know I try to be as conservative as possible uh 12% increase um but like I said with our tax rate going up you know before last year I could say oh yeah we're going to we're looking at a a tax levy increase but most people's properties property taxes probably won't increase because the tax rate is less than it was set the year prior but that's different um this time because our tax rate is going to be higher so I think that's something we have to be mindful of and um you know take into consideration based on the couple things I mentioned about Market valuations seen a decrease of 4% and then also the Homestead market valuation exclusion and how that decreases the amount of property taxes paid and you guys don't have to take any action tonight we'll do that at a subsequent meeting um tonight's just kind of a good good chance to ask questions talk through different things that you know maybe we don't have the budget that you want in the budget and then I can put together different scenarios to show you well if we included this this is what you know the levy would look like I can definitely tell you with certainty this there is no fluff in this budget this is very Bare Bones um you know I really struggle to get the numbers together to be able to keep it at a 12% and I was not able to go any lower based on the requests from departments that's a as low as I could get it not that I want to go higher by any means but 2024 kind of proved some of the unexpected expenses that came in Fairly high with well issues because of the flood or um that one was it the lift station or the pump that went out so because we don't have fluff do we have funds or do we need to increase a little bit to put a little fluff in there for any of those instances again yep and and in those situations those will not come out of the general fund they'll come out of like water sewer fund and so we factor in and so that's where I work with Shannon Sweeney on our rates and if we need to increase rates and then I always send him the draft um budgets showing what we think our operational expenses are going to be for a year and then looking at our revenue and then he uses that to look at then when we come to the council and say we need to increase utility rates by this much and that's just to be able to keep up with Debt Service and operating expenses because wages and all that insurance increases that impacts um what our utility rates are so and then anytime we have unexpected expenditures like that during the year um then we're dipping into um you know the the funds reserves but thankfully right now and you guys know we just went through our audit we've got healthy uh fund balances um but we want to keep keep trending in that direction so I think something that we do have to also take into consideration too is that you know we I think each year we try to accommodate Department requests for things but maybe maybe that's something we need to take a really close look at too is are some of these things you know as we look to try to be as fiscally responsible as possible you know really scrutinize each of the requests and you know get more justification um I think right now like I said I think it's pretty Bare Bones but um you know that's the only way I can think of cut anything is to go back to the Departments and really get a justification for the different things that are being asked for I guess that's where I'd push back to say we need to know more what goes into the Professional Services and the capital outlay actual so to you know I'm assuming that Public Works has a list of projects they want to accomplish this year and that's what's coming into the capital outlay or things that they need to acquire Y and that's this thing right here yep so that'll show you the different pieces of equipment that they want to replace and then so is that every so that would be the capital outlay would be the 2025 y so that's what they're looking at so um so if you look at the set aside amount it says so this year all they want to do is purchase the payloader and the SK trailer yeah the tool cap is all all that's on the 2025 the highlighted one right uh okay so for 2025 they want to replace the T cat yeah and that's yep that's right and nothing for Parks showing to replace something yeah i' just like to have an idea know and I totally understand you know I start out in the beginning of the year I'm going to do these 10 IT projects and when I get to the end of the year I've done two of those but I've done 20 other projects so it's going to shift but it' be nice to understand you know like if you say well that's parking Recreation so so if they come and say we want to do something else besides the tool cat then yeah so well just nice to kind of understand what we're trying to buy right and I had that conversation and Public Works director Hartman I met this morning again and we talked about that too like if something changes um with equipment at this point um you know I already put together the draft budget I said I you need to stick with and he understands that too he totally gets it but we just you know I think all departments have the understanding to you have to stick with the set of side amount that's what you have to work with once the budget's set and if you want to if something else comes up and you need to change it then we're going to have to shift money set aside or when you're planning to purchase equipment that is all going to have to be you know shifted so do you have a sheet like this for Parks and Recreation uh no we do not there's nothing put together for that one I'm just wondering what that 93 oh never mind wrong column never mind moving on I think that would be nice to have something like that for Parks so we could say Okay Pond or we could say you know street lights and then start setting aside money because right now we're like oh we need to get these things done but we haven't been planning for it so right no no got the wood chipper for 2026 but a lot of these conversations keep increasing I know Professional Services but the trees are too low they're hitting cars they're hitting the fire you know so I I question are we hiring all of the tree trimming out to where we don't need a wood chipper and it's more important to get a tool cat vers you know so I'd question some of that and I mean I totally respect whatever he he puts forth I just would wonder yeah I'll ask next summer we're going to be doing a lot of tree trimming or fall even this fall yet or next fall or whatever does that need to get pushed up a year or is the plan to Outsource a lot of that and then if we're Outsourcing how much are we Outsourcing versus what we have the capacity to do internally right and I think a lot of it depends and I don't want to speak for the public works department but in talking with um them I think a lot of it depends on the height of the tree branches like some of the brush and stuff at the parks they could spend just and weeks down there just cleaning stuff up that they can manage with their equipment and I think that's where they want that brush um wood brush chipper I think that's where they thought that would be really handy but as far as like some of the streets that fire chief Simpson had talked about with like the low hanging um Limbs and those I think we'd have to contract that out we just don't have a bucket Professional Tree termer in to to do it with their heavier and then some of the trees in the Parks too um like the ash trees that we've been you know trying to do about s to 10 a year that's where we get in the Professional Services to we contract that out and then they grind the stump pull it away so that's that's kind of what do we have a a plan too with planting new trees I know Eagle Heights has them Stak we're just waiting for it to dry up but y making sure that I think that's what was great with music or the summer sounds it was shaded down there you know but there is a concern especially with one of the big branches coming off this last summer right of yeah not having to clean them all out now we don't have any shade down there or something right well we've been planning for replacing it um each tree that we take down we replace but then you're talking like mature trees right right yeah so we don't have pricing for that but um but I I am pleased that a lot of the trees we got that grant for I run through the park and I kind of check on them they they're looking good I wasn't sure you know how they were going to make it but we had a really dry summer the summer they were planted and Public Works did a great job watering them taking care of them and they're doing good so hopefully we'll get another Grant here soon for that but I just don't don't think there's any grants and they're not actually allowed to apply for grants for us but they could help if they see something tell us about but yeah uh it's very competitive with all the ash stuff right now but one thing I did talked to Public Works about was whether we could utilize that Community forestry person they can do tree triming they just can't use anything that's like um uh chainsaw they can use like the whatever that saw is yeah so they they're might be some stuff on Parkway Avenue here that they can work on and kind of get some of the trees along Parkway to look better so that'll be a good project and actually that person starts tomorrow so I get to meet him and um and uh sit down and kind of come up with a list of projects so yeah we really want to try to utilize that person and get Public Works to give some ideas on things that they can help with too so so for the next meeting um maybe I should just put together some different scenarios to show you what it looks like with you know 12% um you know 15% see what you think and then tell you know that I'll show you then how much we have to work with if there's different areas where um like for instance the fire department if we have to add 20,000 more dollars for the consultant what that will do to the the levy I think all in all the you know a takeaway is that other than you know the capital outlay um some some of those items the increases that you're you're seeing are just kind of the costs of doing business like the inflationary increases you know we have to have employees we have to pay a competitive wage we have to have offer competitive benefits so things like that yes they do you know make up a portion of the budget a significant portion but um you know it's kind of the cost of doing business I there aren't a like I said there just isn't a lot of fluff here um and we're a growing community and just need to keep up with all of our maintenance and so unless we can find a new Revenue Source that'd be great anybody got any ideas let me know and I think a lot of uh what Anthony said is about catching up really is true I feel like we are in a lot of ways trying to catch up on a lot of things like the parks and um just trying to kind of get get with current practices and um and we we're a growing Community we want to continue growing and to do that we have to make make sure that we're investing in our community and and continuing to help make it grow yeah right right right absolutely you're so correct on that that just think about the parks uh we have a part-timer at Jim Anderson I mean he he really his job is to be at the parks I mean it's a huge job if you kind of go around the trails in there and you think about trying to navigate a mow in there it's it's really incredible with all the trees we have and the different slopes and slant and [Music] yeah yes right um I guess from my perspective I probably don't have too much more to add um you know other than just to note again we have to certify by September 30th so um I will put together some you know different scenarios um talk to Brunton Architects try to get some ideas on what they think for a number uh for next step with the fire hall um and I can get some more clarification with uh Public Works and I could send you guys a detail too of like Professional Services from some of the different um funds that might be helpful so you can see um you know what we code out of each of the different line items so do you guys have any so I know Professional Services is one you guys would like to see is there any other ones right now oh for like car accidents or things like that y we can sure do a survey of that absolutely yep so that would be is it December or January January yep and Carrie's done a really good job working with the fire department just getting the um the invoices out to people because the sooner you get those out the better for insurance purposes and just getting on top of it so that's I appreciate staff doing that it really helps um yeah we we'll look at that do a survey of other cities and what's being charged y absolutely okay okay so I'm just going to kind of recap what I have for notes we'll do a survey of fire department uh fees uh detail for Professional Services um uh facilities planning kind of find out um and maybe I'll have a conversation with you council member seinberg later about some of the things you've noticed with our contract with cleaning and try to see what we can do to improve those and then talk about frequency of cleaning um and then tree trimming I'll verify whatever everything I told you about Public Works in my thought process on you know what they can handle what they can't I'll verify that with Andrew follow up um what else street signs replacement fading kind of what what our plan is for that I know my street signs really faded you can barely tell what it is they're all pretty bad bad but I think they're all 20 years I was just going to say probably when the developments went in yeah oh and then facility planning to Beth you had mentioned chairs and we'll have to kind of get a better idea on some of the those things for replacement Podium there was one ask that um looking back at this we forgot to do it's not it wouldn't add any more dollar amount to the budget but to be able to split the repair and maintenance and supplies for the fire department I don't know if I requested to those before so you want one item for repair and then one for maintenance or for supplies correct maybe what all do we um oh yeah we've got operating supplies operating supplies does that so is all of our medic supplies under operating supplies so what is maintenance supplies then probably for like the shop or trucks or um I could look up in our detail what we've coded but T typically that would be like repair maintenance of building or trucks okay so but we could do a print out yeah you could take Supply off of that then if you wanted to yeah it's probably just a standard um thing but yeah we could probably just just call out repair yes okay just for okay clarification to yeah for my numbers files I should say nope that sounds good this is kind of off-the-wall question I John and I were talking about it earlier is there anything in the budget that we could use for fostering some commercial growth in any way shape or form I think we'd want to look at our um Eda fund and the money that we have in there so we've got a couple hundred thousand in there right now so that's would be a good place to look at I mean that's not a lot of money but um that would be a good start like a business incubator or something of that sort yeah yeah that would be a good start or even um property that we could turn quickly if we have inquiry I think that's what we were talking about right so yeah cuz I think I remember with the Motorsports Park that with that being a commercial zoned area that was that would naturally bring in more tax revenue to the city so I mean you know looking at some future commercial options or trying to start to Foster that a little bit more or somehow we can get that ember burning to for people to look I mean into having Eagle aake be an option for a business uh or a commercial type thing you know um that could could help us definitely too instead of always being so worried about the budget being increased if we had some diversification of of income from different revenue streams that would be something that would make us not be so worried about always increasing the budget for certain things right well I I don't I think to some degree that's a true statement but then you have to look at too if you have more development you're going to have more maintenance we'll have Street repair costs we'll have utility um I mean I think you're always going to be in a situation like this yes the more commercial development is a they pay a higher tax rate than residential but um you know they're still costs that go into that that the city you know because Growing Pains but so I mean yes yes and no but you don't think it hurts no we need commercial growth we need absolutely need that but I don't think that's going to take away all I just wanted to clarify a thought that I little conversation that John and I had here prior to the meeting yep they'll take the burden off the residential more so but y we'll still have it's just more streets to plow and more stuff fire department has more stuff but that's why I always call it Growing Pains you know it's just well is there anything else that we need to discuss for the budget work session on time thanks Anthony well we don't have to worry about the police department stuff anymore too which used to always take a long time too um so having Blue Earth County take care of really that is a huge savings for us time wise and mentality wise in in in more ways than one um do you remember last not to interrupt it but I was looking back at last year's budget work papers do you remember how many different scenarios we ran through for Staffing I mean it it was a lot and it was all you know right up until the end and um just so many different unknowns different scenarios with health insurance wages it was oh this is so much much easier you guys just to have that known okay we know through 2027 what our costs are going to be sorry to interrupt ahead interject after you made that comment if anyone is uh interested to make a motion to adjourn the meeting I will entertain that we have a motion in a second all in favor I I that is our budget work session meeting look at that