##VIDEO ID:F-GUvOvq-oY## R really F yeah it was great it was awesome yeah really cool all righty the time is 6:31 and with us this evening is Craig schy Mike Roth Michael Gary myself Bill loves Ben Peters Patrick Knight Kim vanbeck and Chris Hood our attorney all right oh we are missing John John is Hollinger is my middle name so it's John Hollinger pet a different John John Sorry probably happens all the time it's all right thank you yeah we have another John yeah all right I just realized that looking down we're missing one okay so with that we will move on to open forum is there anyone here for open Forum this evening hello yes pets I would like to uh um say something sure yeah and first of all thanks for letting me uh do this with uh the Google meet I um I've been under the weather like a lot of people lately and and the it saved me like a 10 hours of driving so I I really appreciate it um so the the reason why I'm here is when we uh presented York birg um August and early September and I think it was um there were a number of questions that I know that you had and we've been looking at a lot of those um and we would I I'm I'm just here to request that we could maybe have set up a way that we could have a work session uh or something to talk about kind of what what we found out from um the big issues that I understand were Third Street and then also Sixth and 7th Avenue and you know would people be interested in our want water and sewer up there um as opposed to us you know going up the middle and so we've um we we've talked to most of the people we've reached out to everybody a couple times and gotten some uh feedback back and interest and we kind of like to tell you you know about that I mean and our goal is we would like to get water and sewer um put on our property so that we can build some houses and and sell them um so I and I guess what we're we're we're not looking at doing a a PUD like we did before we're not looking at any variances we're looking at we'll be looking at just um so I mean that would I'd like to be able to spend some time looking at it and because it's a it's a big issue uh um for you know your plans for water and sewer going forward and how to make that all work all right well um thank you and it's uh reinforcing that certainly remote works well for us so and it's certainly more convenient for you and all the way around so that was no problem at all and um um lots of great progress happening in the building other floorings going in carpet and vinyl tile it look like the windows doors and windows are mostly in we're still waiting for the front doors for the liquor store but that could be any day now that those arrive um we're getting close yeah and it's good and if anybody wants to go take a look just let me know yeah cool or just stop by and say hi to John yeah very good all right uh and so with that then we'll move to the consent agenda um any questions about that in particular the meeting minutes bills and the um annual um wage increase for our department heads or non-union personel I I didn't I would motion or make a motion to approve the consent agenda all right is there a second with that I'll second okay any other questions or discussion all right Craig I Michael hi I i i bill and and Ben Peters I I thank you all right moving right along next up is Planning Commission report resolution 20251 about that first the year first of the year noris Goen final plat final plat yeah back to you again um yeah came back to us in planning Zony land you guys have seen this as well um they basically did all the things we asked them to do and get all the approvals they've um signed an agreement as well so it seems like all the Ducks are in a row okay seem like there's not much I mean we did talk about it but there wasn't a lot to discuss okay so there weren't any questions or I mean I mean we had our own discussion about like well you were briefly there were you just no Oh you mean way I thought this came through this has not been through the planning this piece yeah this has been through the planning it has but I don't mean like just at your last meeting just at their last meeting oh okay which I wasn't there so yeah was there anything from that no we were just started we were just having more discussions about like roads and how that's going to look and that kind of goes into Mr pets and all that so yeah all right good discussion there but no okay but not in on this I mean if there was something else you might want to to know about whatever things you thought I don't know there there wasn't not not not related to this it was it was more along the the it was it was a conversation prior to the meeting that we were I think mostly we were talking just about um uh about private roads the use you know potential pitfalls Etc right bigger concept but this particular this in this case everything that they presented was what you've already looked at and approved exactly all right would anyone like to make a motion for resolution I better go back I have it right here resolution 20251 Norris scogan final plat I will make that motion to approve all right second I'll second any further questions or discussion all right uh Ben I bill I I I Michael sorry Craig I I and with that uh that resolution 20251 noris scogan final plat uh passes with unanimously all right moving on to designating our offal thank you thank you very much the whole city council I appreciate your help thank you we're looking forward to the project certainly y me too thank you certainly thank you um all right uh the Cook County News Herald um making a bid once again to be our uh official newspaper for all of our official postings calendaring and whatnot um and of course I'm assuming they were our only one right they were our only one I'm not sure anyone else is even qualified to do it do they have to be yeah I was wondering about that with like noral they have to be a weekly and they to have a certain publication coverage so I don't think there's other options but no one else has ever been interested in this well not since we've had two newspapers anyway okay all right all right um would anyone like to make a motion then to approve yeah I'll make a I'll make a motion to designate the official newspaper a second for that please Ben second all right any other further discussion or questions all right uh Craig I'm sorry take a vote Michael i i bill I and Ben I I and with that uh Kook County News Herald is once again our official newspaper next we move on to our city depositories for which we have the grand maray state Bank Northshore Federal Credit Union Security State Bank uh Le of Minnesota cities their uh 4M fund and then RBC as well anyone like to make a motion for that I would make that motion second I'll second I'll second it go ahead Craig all right go ahead a say thank you read that from Craig uh any further questions discussion all right I'll take a vote Ben hi Phil hi I Michael hi Craig Hi with that we have those we have grandm State Bank nor Federal Credit Union Security State Bank League of Minnesota cities for M fund and RBC as our official city depositories thank you and next up are 2025 board appointments and commissions um just uh yeah well I'll read them but just we're going to start with the Eda and just a heads up I did get an email today from our new Eda director that there is an applicant and so we'll probably have something tomorrow the next Eda first board meeting of the year however is the day before our next city council meeting so we won't have that if you know if that goes fine with all of us it will be the next meeting before they are official but we'll look at that then for our next meeting provided all that comes through as we believe it will so there we go so it's not like we have no applicants oh good and moving forward then to the library board we have an incumbent um can you say your last name for me Jager I think it is okay I didn't want to say I had a friend it had the same last name but it was gerer okay yeah that's why I didn't want to I think she say J excuse me okay parkboard Matthew Brown and Bob nesheim these are all incumbents Planning Commission Brandon Bachelor and pu we have Bill Hansen so all the rest are incumbents and and there were no other applicants then no other just to clarify that what am I hearing oh in the hallway yes okay not technology no um can we do this all should we do the ACT mayor too can we Al together we that before right um up to you oh well let do act oh wait a minute Council appointments never mind okay let's do these first for our our citizen board appointments okay oh wait a sec no I'm in on this let's do this at the end we'll have all this discussion and then we'll does that sound okay I just we don't have to do this three times it might be better to just do this one because you can describe it as as presented whereas the next one you might have to got it describe differently oh okay no problem very good that sounds fine so would anyone like to make a motion for the um appointment of the incumbents for the library board Park Board Planning Commission and Public Utilities Commission citizen appointments for those boards so moved and a second on that a second all right any further questions discussions all right Craig hi Michael hi Bill hi Ben I I and with that we unly have filled all of our boards except for the Eda board position but there is possibilities there next up I see I didn't catch that earlier that you had that down there uh our city appointments um oh for all of us yes for all of you um for our various responsibilities um first of all where where is that I don't think we have I'm afraid it's a it's a link in the oh agenda to a spreadsheet do you I have it in front of me do you have it Patrick I can I have it on the screen at least I have one that I created earlier this year that had like who their contacts were and how often they met to help people decide I believe we're looking at the same spreadsheet except for the one that we've got linked to the agenda does not have the council members who are assigned oh we want to make sure that you tell us who you want them to be but if we need to be reminded of who they are we can look back at that too I got that too the one thing so Pat just going to pull it up right yeah give me a minute here no problem just want to make sure like you do whatever you need to do the other thing I wanted to also have us take a look at quickly are there any of these boards for which we don't feel we need to be at the table regularly or are there any others that you think we need to be at the table on that we are not and I'll wait of course and and do we want to do any swapping at all as well on any of these I know that there were some once it's up there that yeah they've just that I have on my list that have just you know nothing has happened in two years or maybe not that long but in quite a while and so I'm not sure they should still be on there I mean I could reach out to them just see like are you still wanting to do this because you guys have not contacted us yeah um but myself personally I would love to keep going with um library and planning zoning for sure and other things I'm more flexible but I'd like to do those too person okay okay yay go oh my gosh that's small I didn't bring my glasses yeah that I got nothing I don't know if you can see it on your screens there I'm trying to zoom in a little bit yeah see there we go how come whenever I do this like I never get this to light up you have to use a light touch um on that button on this one yeah that's what I thought maybe I accidentally turn maybe it's not pluged in it was a second ago so it's a yeah it's okay now fired up thank you okay so every and I can so but it doesn't have oh it doesn't have us you said it doesn't have us it does not yeah mine does cuz it that's really a test is what it is this is what I created last year but that makes sense to just block it out yeah can can you okay you got it yep so I can zoom in again if need so are there any you might as well start Michael are there any you wonder if we should be going to any um like I'm trying to think which ones I was on that just never called me or I emailed and then they were like yeah we'll let you know and never heard from them but I'm not saying it can we scroll down is there more that think that's pretty much it oh okay so they're not even really on there perhaps we already cleaned them off yeah maybe so okay never mind then yeah so the only ones we're not seeing right now is the Personnel Committee in the tree board okay okay um oh yeah mine must not be alph I for they already see yeah I'd like to keep going with my guys for sure I mean I would if somebody wanted less or whatever that's I can pick something but and why is the white board meeting now finally yeah good we're meeting for sure wonderful and now we're more what we should be because they kind of had us it was weird but now we're we're a proper board okay well then um anyone else see any of their um current assignments of something that maybe we don't need to be at the table for um we have not met really very often but would you have any interest in the local emergency preparedness group or not really they they haven't that much okay yeah I could okay I mean they're supposed to meet like by monthly but I they haven't really I don't know is that anything that you have any personal like experience you know what I mean like I hear talk about it you know being in maintenance at the hospital I mean that's something that that we discuss it's it's part of our plan yeah I bet yeah you might have more background but I don't I haven't seen a lot of action up there either I think they're trying to to make it more than it has been mhm I mean because it's quite important well it is and so this is with Michael kort and believe Grace groger been involved with it certainly been a lot more active when forest fires were in and then when we had a pandemic there was a lot of energy in this group and it comes and goes there's always a background of planning and working you know keeping a plan up to date and do talking about trainings and such I mean I took the the CL you know the training online classes or whatever but I just wondered if maybe you had more a better background in something like this to contribute I don't know you want to think about it no I I I would jump in if you want to do that okay I'm going to type your name in right now okay thank you um all right uh Ben yeah no I like where I'm at um again I could pick up something if if somebody felt overwhelmed or didn't um a change of passion or something I could I could pick up a I don't have to but I could okay [Music] um would anyone I mean I know you were doing this before but it didn't fit with your schedule but um the downtown business Coalition that's a scheduling thing for me it really was and it shouldn't be but it it always turned out to be yes okay all right um I can do that I was just trying to find something else and really want a council person there just because that's a really important group an important group has to be hearing from and the council hearing from MH so um if anyone else if it fits or has interest but you know it is during the work day yeah and that's where we run into problems I know with a lot of things where the county it's more of a job and they go to you know they have these meetings in there so all right well I'll stay with it unless you know someone raises their head um but everything else then somebody wants to rested from your hands so um I'm just kind of looking through making sure then so otherwise are we okay then I think so I think the only thing left is the mayor the backup mayor the acting mayor okay um uh right now that is Craig are you still interested in that Craig oh yeah I'm fine with it but um you guys think because of uh uh meetings that I'm not in person in if it's if it becomes an issue then um that's fine if somebody else wants to do it otherwise I'm fine with it zooming seems to work okay I I was going to try to be home this week but I had trouble getting uh scheduling with Lynn getting moved so it didn't work out so um I'm planning another uh hopefully for the next meeting to be in grray that week um but yeah um I just know that sometimes you have to come into the office and like if I got to sign checks or do something like that then that would be an issue where somebody else would have to do that if you're not available I don't that doesn't happen a lot I know but yeah it's not a it's whatever however you feel or however Mike feels uh it's fine with me I don't think there's been any issues at all Craig with your travel schedule I think you've done a great job of of meeting all of our needs so and it is I appreciate that the only issue is the signature part but it hasn't come up in a few years so I guess I'm really not worried about it we've got enough people can sign things so yeah okay and we can do electronic signatures on things and I don't think that I mean obviously not the checks but everything else so that pretty much means if it's electronic I can still get to it too but yeah and like you said checks is pretty uncommon and there's flexibility as you know within a day or you know whatever it's not like being at a meeting so um or do anyone have a interest in being acting mayor or all right um would let's see I think then we'll go with that but we'll put that part of our final piece right what am I missing here acting oh acting mayor was the last piece that's final piece so I mean you didn't change anything with the council appointments I don't think there's any action required be nice to do the acting mayor with a motion okay yeah yeah I put a motion to uh to support Craig schy as acting mayor second for that I'd second that all right any further questions discussion all right uh Ben hi Bill hi Michael hi Craig I I and with that Craig is once again acting mayor and uh we have our each of our assignments and thank you Bill for taking on the other piece I appreciate it and so we're all set for the coming year on all of that um next up is the gig gamy Trail plowing agreement with the DNR yeah what do you think of that Mike well we've been doing it for a long time yeah and the DNR asked us to have this agreement okay so I think absolutely let's have this agreement okay and this doing it before it doesn't require us to do this work it just allows us to do this work and it's just because this piece of the trail was actually constructed by the DNR in mind's right of way and so the DNR has some responsibilities over it whereas when you go east of 8th Avenue that trail was constructed by the city in mots right away and so we already have an agreement with menot that to deal with the Trail East of 8th Avenue West of 8th Avenue this is what we're doing um we started plowing it uh it was part of that kind of conversation back and forth about where do snowmobiles belong versus people and what do we want to plow try to get clean versus use for other things and and this piece was um we didn't plow it for a long time and then a lot of folks said well we want to try to use this we're trying to use this and there wasn't any conflicts with that use so we started plowing it and and uh it's been I think it's just fine for us to do that it the it is a little piece of this is not in the city limits so as we cross the Putt and pets for instance that's not the city limits and then you back to the forest service and it is and our original stopping point was the end of that trail section where there's a crossing over to uh County Road 13 and because the rest of that trail didn't exist before that right and now that new Trail is out there we don't plow any of that the but the ending point of where we do plow is kind of arbitrary now I think we could probably just stop at the forest service parking lot and it would be fine uh so I will just bring up for when I was originally working with the active living Steering group until I wasn't there have been requests that we continue to plow now because that trail goes farther so that there's more walking pieces and this is also an opportunity to clarify unless the council would like to consider plowing farther that this will be officially where we end our plowing I see so think it would be appropriate to have some confirmation or conversation on that as part of this about where we're going to end our plowing yeah no okay so this is the D just oh sorry go ahead Craig it's okay where's the official end of the city limits is it at exactly I I can't remember Mike is it is it the forest service is in the city limits but pets is not in the city limits so it kind of the forest service property kind of curls around it and then comes back and touches the highway yeah so on the north side of the highway it doesn't go that far west on the south side of the highway goes all the way to the end of the service property okay okay but then we are done with City Limits right at that point the way that this agreement is drawn up and that this is just a draft we could change it if we wanted to but the image that they included in it actually has Us ending at the first driveway to the Forest Service property okay okay yep yep and and you're saying that folks in active living wanted it to go to the uh 13 well into well because now they you know it's the bike trails basically become a walking path in the winter time right yeah I think they probably would have been happy to go all the way to cut face on this which I don't think we want then they need to make a they need to make a plea to the DNR or whoever is yeah main maintains the trail because you know in a winter where there's not a lot of snow it's great everybody's enjoying it but if we had 5 ft of snow on the ground in town um that's a lot of extra work for us to plow another three or four blocks and then um where do you draw the line where do you stop yeah yeah cuz going to have to stop somewhere you know do you stop at uh do you stop at the storage units there or do you go a little bit further and stop I mean the other piece when I spoke with the DNR the other year about this they don't want it plowed because of the nature of the trail and the materials it's not meant for that kind of piece there wasn't a lot interest in that either right but because it has they can ski on it if they want you know well I wouldn't with the driveways I think it's just not very useful with but also with the driveways if we want to talk about doing anything to it it seems like someone ought to have a conversation with a lot more Property Owners before we start making decisions about that and I don't think that's our role to do for folks outside the city limits right right across driveways yeah it's way beyond our our piece but I wanted to have a conversation make sure we all understood that and that we are in agreement or not or whatever you know about this with it so um okay and so with that um we just need a a roll call right yeah and make a motion to approve the agreement okay second I'll second I'll second go ahead go ahead Ben any further questions or comments discussion all right um Craig Hi nichs hi Bill hi Ben hi I and with that unanimously we have approved the snow paa agreement with the DNR so continue to the first driveway of the forestry building right okay now we're on to council and staff reports Craig I do not have one we didn't have a park board meeting uh Monday so let put off till uh next month okay thank you yes so we did have I think that was after our meeting was our library meeting I think or maybe I reported on it last time I can't recall now it's been a long time but uh we we did have a library meeting uh we had further discussions about um reviewing um the library director and how that will how're how we're going to approach it what's our responsibility what's you know the city of Mike's responsibility that kind of thing so trying to make sure she gets good good and proper guidance from us in our area and making yeah just helping her with the process yeah so we're not overlapping we're not you know getting into things that are in our business it's useful you brought that up too it really spurred a bigger conversation about a missing piece in our relatively new uh review process for department heads because there are some that have relationships with boards and we want that board to have a role in it so it's good we added that in our little piece so yeah thank you all right the bulk of it so yeah okay no I have nothing okay we do have an upcoming tree board meeting first oh that's right first one of the Year 23rd mhm what's the time on that do you remember off the top of your head I did see the invite I it's like 2 o00 or something okay all right on a Thursday mhm good NOP nothing uh planning zoning but we've already talked about that um meaning North house is having the board retreat Friday afternoon so that'll be fun we'll go to do that yeah and uh so I can report back on that next meeting and uh I missed the personal meeting today so let's s you know I was about to say we had nothing but we did have a personel thank you there was that yeah we had uh we did have a Personnel committee meeting this morning we're just still working primarily on things related to the end review process and in February we're just going to review our process and make tweaks based on people's comments and feedbacks and just keep working on doing this better we I I think I'm okay to say that this went better than last year yeah quite a bit smoother so I think it's working along and we're learning as we go but we want to you know get feedback and you gave some and whatever so we' got things to do that way and um I think that's kind of it from that um I was going to ask you Mike I missed the Cannabis meeting so for that yeah so we had two meetings there on Monday a small group of us met to start talking about how to do the um startup inspections and annual inspections age verification all those sorts of things so uh lots of folks from the county uh Sheriff's Office myself when it was it was a good meeting so there everybody walked away with a to-do list um they're starting to prepare some educational materials you know with the idea that the first time through we're not looking to write tickets we're making trying to make sure that people are aware of their responsibilities and get educated we also just talked about the fact that if we do find violations we're required to report to the state so everything has to be done in a manner that is still defensible legally and and that we want the law enforcement to be involved in it uh Pat talked about previous efforts that the county has done doing age verification here for tobacco in particular but I know we've also done them for alcohol in the past and so we're looking at also incorporating tobacco and alcohol into this conversation for that process um and then the next day we had our regular cannabis committee meeting and set some priorities for 2025 the first priority is to make sure we have cannabis events incorporated into the City and the County's ordinance which was not done the first time through so we have a small group that's going to be working on that that I'm going to be spearheading and uh we're going to look around we've already seen some other places that have done this and the issues that they brought up so our goal is that before the next cannabis meeting which is in early March we will have uh a description a draft a list of bullet points of things that we think need to be covered and maybe some suggestions on how we would do that let the Cannabis committee review that make any changes to it and then bring it to the boards for official ordinance review process okay you know I did see those uh notes and I was wondering or minutes and I was just wondering um in there I thought we I thought our ordinance was passed it is okay yeah I don't think it's been published yet so okay yeah but every you all the work is done on it will be in effect soon um and Publishing is what why is that it shows up in the newspaper as all so it's just a scheduling issue with holidays and illnesses and things so but it is it but it's in force right now no it's not until that happens once once it's in the newspaper it is okay uh we don't have a lot of hope that was also in the minutes I think about the state coming through on their end of the bargain here anytime soon as a matter of fact one of the things that I noticed uh maybe it was Monday in the news was that the director is leaving the office of cannabis management so uh if anybody wants a job you know I think it'd be kind of fun but but uh clearly it's a mess and and uh you know they're they're putting in their legal current legal council as their interim yeah that makes sense yeah yeah for sure so but the one other additional item we've just had a chance to talk about briefly and it came actually from chamber and it's up to us and it's in that um guidance for local government is it there are no rules around so if we get multiple applicants for our one opening we have to create our own process about how we decide who that person or business I should say is yeah so and it if you read that it's like well it can be a lottery too if you want and you no right so they list some other things but like other including which you know we've been asking now for some time and that it's been on our list you know get this event thing set up but you know they'll tell you work with your attorney to do this but that is another piece of it or we've let ourselves wide open so we have to work on that and that's a city thing for me oh for sure you know that's for us to decide how we want that process to go right and that was where I was hoping we could have exert a little more control and say like okay well we have three different applicants and maybe maybe that's where we can say like Hey we're going to prefer somebody who's local yeah I mean there's some assumptions built into that that the applicants are going to come in in a period of time that we control and in a package where we get to review them together that I don't know how realistic that is I know but I'd still like it doesn't mean we can't set up a process and be ready for it yeah yeah yeah but because it's not and it I didn't see it indicated that that's something we could expect that rules committee to eventually give guidance on I don't I we want it I think we well I just means so that we that means we do need to work with the city attorney and get this done so it will work for us and we don't find out the hard way that how we said obviously you know we're going to get challenged or whatever has anybody else done this yet Chris that you're working with what about Winona folks that we work with so um you know some of them have you know first come first serve basis is primarily it and it's for the reasons you just stated Mike um they're not all going to come in at one time you're not even going to touch this until they've got all their ducks in a row with the office of candidates management so so they either have to be pre-licensed or have a license before they ever show up at your door before you're going to do anything with it and that means they have to have a location it's got to meet your zoning yeah you know all of those things have to have occurred first so so that's so that's one piece of it you know in terms of the event stuff you know we've drafted that too so um you know we can give you some examples and you can decide what you want to do sure okay for me a lot of it is just making sure we have a clear application and process sitting out there for anyone to apply for that they don't get there and we they can't go on our website and look and see and fill out their application and know exactly what you know what they have to do and who they have to report what to yeah and where they can do it and what our rules about it are whatever they might be so yeah thank you Chris thanks RIS yeah so we welcome get that rolling um okay I don't know I didn't uh have anything else either great yeah I was like great we could go home all right not a bad thing yes so thanks everyone I think with that we're done for the evening yay we do any like serious time 7:15 it's not bad covered a lot that electronic Char all it's on the consent agenda all good okay yeah happy New Year good night everybody CHR bye thank you thanks yep okay