##VIDEO ID:CMH3EilbSpU## e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening and welcome to the Newport city council meeting today is Thursday January 2nd 2025 we'll begin the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance I pled alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all as this is our first meeting following an elction we will now do the Oaths of office um starting with uh the mayor all right mayor uh please repeat after me I Lori Elliot do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that will I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of mayor for the City of Newport to the best of my judgment and ability I Lori Elliott do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of mayor for the City of Newport to the best of my judgment and ability congratulations mayor thank you Taylor council member Taylor please repeat after me I Marvin Taylor do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of city council member for the City of Newport to the best of my ability and judge uh judgment and ability I Marvin Taylor do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of city council member for the City of Newport to the best of my judgment and ability congratulations please repeat after me I Josh SCH Schmid do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of city council member for the City of Newport to the best of my judgment and ability I Josh Schmidt do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of City Council member for the City of Newport to the best of my judgment and ability congratulations thank you thank you Mr hatch um with that I will have we're going to change our order just a little bit here but I will have staff called the role council member Schmidt council member subar is absent council member Inman here council member Taylor here mayor Elliott here next on our agenda is to adopt this evening's agenda and I am moving the special items after we adopt the agenda so um do we have any changes to the tonight's agenda I'll move the agenda second I have a motion from council member ingan and a second from council member Taylor to adopt the agenda as presented any discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed the agenda is adopted next on our agenda is um special items and earlier this evening we recognized um council member chap delain for his 30 plus years of service to the community he chose not to be here this evening uh to stay for the meeting and so I do want to just read into the record the resolution uh for Kevin so it's resolution 2025-the began his service to the City of Newport and the Planning Commission in 1993 and whereas Kevin served on the Planning Commission the city council and as mayor and whereas Kevin also served and continues to serve in the South Washington C uh Watershed district and With Friends of pool too and whereas Kevin helped to guide the City of Newport with the 3MP fast water settlement to secure clean and safe drinking water for the community and whereas Kevin helped lead the city building a new city hall and whereas Kevin's leadership during the 2001 Newport flood the third highest on record the post 2001 Cedar Lane home removal and park plan and the reclaimed and improved access to the Mississippi River at four locations along the river and whereas Kevin always focused on the common good and the interests of the community with a team first approach towards leadership and the City of Newport is better for it now therefore be it resolved that the city um that the Newport City Council hereby recognizes the over 30-year leadership and service of mayor council member and commissioner Kevin chap delain so with that um and we have our Motion in seconds uh was that that was not part of we haven't adopted that yet correct correct okay so I need a motion so move thank you second so I have a motion from council member ingan and a second from council member Taylor all those in favor of the resolution please say I I those opposed the resolution is adopted and thank you Kevin for your service um next we have another recognition this evening of uh Sergeant Bill harell who has been with the community for many years and so um I think what I'll do is I will kind of just run this from up front do you have the microphon thank you have Sergeant Harold come up it is it is on where everybody likes to stand right in front just one so um I just want to thank you for all of your years of service and thank you for advocating to stay a little longer as we built this new city hall building and we transitioned to a new administrator and some other staff positions turned over so that we could have some continuity of service and just you know keep things running smoothly on on as many fronts as possible as we saw um some changes going on so what I have here is resolution 25-2 where Sergeant Herold has served as sergeant for the City of Newport for seven years and whereas Sergeant harell helped lead the transition from the Newport Police Department to the Washington County sheriff and whereas Sergeant harell provided leadership compassion thoughtfulness thoroughness and care for the Newport community and expected the same from all Washington County deputies during his time as the Newport sergeant and whereas Sergeant Harold is a critical leader for the City of Newport and helped Forge the strong partnership the City of Newport and Washington County Sheriff's Office have now therefore be it resolved that the city that the Newport City Council hereby recognize the service of Washington County Sheriff Sergeant Bill herrell adopted the second day of June and with that I will take a motion in a second second so I have a motion to approve by council member Ingman a second by council member Taylor all those in favor say I I those opposed just the crowd in the back okay so I'm G to give this to you we're g to shoot a little picture here and then I'll inite some people to come up want to say thank you it isn't often we see you here in our Council chamber so thank you for joining us this evening and the cameras can't turn around but we've got uh several deputies and um your replacement is here as well I'll let you do some introductions if you'd like thank you mayor and uh council members take this is on um bill um as as everyone knows him as sergeant bill uh down here I think uh one of the things uh when he became sergeant in 2017 and then when we added him down to Newport one of the quick things for him uh and you had mentioned it is his compassion his compassion and his passion to serve and with that we've known that for a long time whether it was a deputy out on the street um whether it was up in investigations or as a sergeant uh in Newport we knew knew what he was going to bring and we knew what he was going to bring to the City of Newport and also the citizens um he has brought that and he's instilled that in the deputies that are down down here as well uh as everything within the Sheriff's Office the sheriff's office has been around since 1849 um and even before that actually in 1840 we are going to continue to grow and that is exactly what uh this is Bill is uh going back to our general uh Patrol area and then um Sergeant Joel leot uh who has been a sergeant since 2015 and he's the commander of our SWAT team is actually um coming in uh to fulfill uh the sergeant role for the City of Newport and our our point for this is to grow on what Bill already has had and uh keep serving with that passion and that can compassion as well and so and I know Joel will do an excellent job uh as that so with that bill from me to you uh thank you thank you for everything that you have done down here but what you're going to continue to do as well pleasure thank you thank you so much and thank you as well absolutely it's been my pleasure okay thank you all for coming so with that uh we will move on to public comments is there anyone in the audience that would like to um address the city council about any local government topic that is not included on the regular agenda this is limited to concerns that are relevant to City of Newport Affairs policies or practices we ask that you come to the podium and clearly state your name and address for the record and to limit your comments to about three minutes generally the council will not take official action on items discussed at this time but will refer matters to staff if appropriate is there anyone who would like to um speak during public comments seeing no one moving and I will tell you 80% of the audience is uh from Washington County and by the way they did get a quick shot of you guys on camera so you can you can go home and wait for that Quick Clip um with that we'll move on to our consent agenda all items listed on the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the city council and will be approved in one motion there will be no separate discussion unless the council member or citizens so request in which case the item will be removed and considered at the end of the consent agenda is there anything anything to be removed from the consent agenda I'll move the consent agenda as printed I'll second that thank you so we have a a motion from council member inam and a second from council member Schmidt um any discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed the consent agenda is adopted next on our agenda we have the Washington County Sheriff office report we will have our new sheriff giving the report it's nice Bill's going to stay and watch super great love the otheres no whatsoever yes um well hello Madame mayor and Council it's good to see you guys uh some again and some for the first time um first of all it is going to be big shoes to fail I understand Bill's years here he's done a lot with the city a lot of Partnerships and friendship sh that he's created here up on the panel and those who have left on top of uh our partners that are sitting in the back here so thank you to bill for everything he's done I truly wish you could have seen his drumming days he was really good at it um he doesn't do it he doesn't do it so much anymore but maybe someday you could ask him about that um if it's all right with you before I just go over anything big that's happened I'd like to introduce to you our our deputies your deputies that work in your area here I think it's important we have a shift other than just me we have another new Deputy that's here and I think it's good to just see their faces so that you know who they are um so first I will point out and they'll kind of wave who they are it's Deputy Chris bergot right there he's the newer Deputy added to the contract effective just yesterday uh so it'll be a new area for him to work however he has worked here in the past uh to help cover or help his partners and back them up next one back here is a deputy Frank hints he's a tall fella back there um he uh works here nights I should say deputy bergus Works kind of a part day and and afternoon shift um Deputy hint Works evenings typically and uh he's he's very proactive uh getting some drugs as well as uh drunk drivers off the road which I think probably happened not long ago would be my guest because he's very active in that stuff so he's very proactive for us as well as they all are we have Deputy dur who's the next one there uh she's your day uh patrol officer so she'll be out there you'll you'll probably see her mostly during the day um out and about in the city or here at the uh City Hall we also have Deputy Chris mesara I'm right there uh he's your afternoon shift so when you go home he's the one that you'll see driving around as well and then we also have Deputy Dylan Jang and he works your nights as well and also very active I will say this crew um having gotten to know them some of them I've worked with before some of them I haven't as much truly some of the most dedicated people we have here I I mean this in all sincerity you're very lucky to have them uh because they they strive to do really good out here in this city and they will continue to do that there's no doubt in my mind whatsoever um so with that I appreciate them standing there because I'm sure they didn't like that part of it uh to add what uh what has been going on thankfully it's been pretty uh Comal Collective I have no significant events that have been taking place I know uh our deputies back there been active doing traffic enforcement like mentioned with the ddubs at all or uh any type of traffic enforcement speed you name it at all hours of the day there was an interrupted burglary at a business complex I don't remember exactly where uh off top of my head but uh that's due to their proactive just driving around and looking at something that didn't look right they stopped and pretty much stopped and interrupted a burglar that was going to take uh take place so uh that's just one very small tidbit um of all the good work that they do um as of right now there's nothing much else that has been taking place which is good other than your day-to-day calls and uh some proactive activity that they've had out there so with that if I'll stand here for any questions that any of you might have well thank you so much for that report and for introducing um the deputies that are working in Newport some of you have been here a while some of you are new welcome uh you mentioned the the new Deputy position that is a result of $125,000 in funding that was secured by a cops Grant uh through Washington County did the submitt on all of that and um through uh representative Angie Craig's office so um thank you for your work on that I think that's you know it it speaks well for our community and we appreciate you guys working to help us get there because I know you were looking to try to figure out a way to get an additional Deputy um onto the shift schedule so so thank you for doing that um any uh questions for sergeant leot okay well thank you you you made it through your first one I did well it's good yeah all right thank you thank you next on our agenda is the fire chief's report and we have Chief Wy with us this evening good evening mayor councel uh first of all welcome council member Schmidt I look forward to working with you and congratulations um secondly I'd like to just kind of carry on all the comments about Sergeant harell you I kid him a lot but um I tell you he's been absolutely great to work with um very professional um and you can see it all the way through his deputies that we work with so really appreciate the relationship that the fire department has with the Washington County Sheriff's Office and I look forward to building that relationship with Sergeant Leed as well um a brief recap of calls last last year just for your information so we ended the year with 198 calls um so that was the second most calls we've had on on record um just shy of the 212 we had in 2021 so the top three um call types were um car accidents so well over half of those um ended up being accidents with injuries um second most common call type was assist em s or medical calls and um that was 31 calls of those 13 were full AR R so um and then the third most common call type was structure fires and we had 22 call outs for that 14 of those um were actual structure fires you know some of them we got canceled in route because you know it was a dryer on fire an oven fire and um the mutual Aid partner didn't need us so that's kind of the top three um call types um weeded Mutual Aid seven times into our city um in 2024 and then um we provided um Mutual Aid outbound 28 times so four different cities there Cottage Grove uh we provided 15 times Mutual Aid some of that was driven by the storm in August where we had a crew um assisting them with trees on houses and power lines and that um St Paul Park seven times Woodberry five times and Maplewood once so that that's kind of a high level recap of you know our life in 2024 other than that I will stand for questions okay any questions well thank you so much all right thank you next on our agenda is the engineers report good evening mayor members of the council uh nothing formal to report tonight other than to say congratulations to you and council member Taylor and welcome to council member Schmidt and and Sergeant uh leot and then uh Express a ton of appreciation for uh Sergeant Harold and and former council member Chapan otherwise I'm happy to stand for questions okay any questions any engineering question kind of a quiet time of year it is a quiet time of year a little cold yeah okay thank you thank you uh we'll move on to the superintendent of Public Works report good evening mayor Elliot and council members I have nothing formal this evening uh just an update that with the lack of snow our crew has been out trimming trees so if you see see them out and about um give them plenty of room uh you know limbs dropping and whatnot and just safety on the road and uh I would also like to thank bill for uh always being available you know 24 hours a day if if you needed something he was there to answer his phone and uh council member uh chaplain as well you so uh with that I'd be happy to stand for any questions do you want to talk a little bit about the Christmas tree drop off oh sure um Christmas tree drop off will be open through January 8th to Newport residence only uh there will not be a compost gate attendant or a compost attendant uh but you can drop your trees at the gate uh for the for the compost or in front of the compost entrance um just please make sure there's no lights or decorations or tinsel anything on them that uh won't go through a chipper well so chipper yeah so okay great thank you and there's no charge to drop those correct correct great rink reopen today is that correct the warming house y the the warming house is back open now um sledding hills open but not in very good shape so no so thank you um any questions for Matt on anything okay um next we have the administrator's report Mr hatch uh mayor members of the council just again uh a big thank you to Sergeant Herold for his service here in the community um during my transition I relied on him um and I I truly considered him part of our our leadership team um you know he had a high standard for service and and you know very much aligned with with what we're trying to do here so um and then also welcome new council member Schmidt and uh goodbye to council member Chapan um it's been uh it's been great uh that's all I have but I'd stand for questions okay moving on we have mayor and Council reports um yeah we had a nicely attended reception uh for council member chapalain as well as to welcome Josh Schmidt to the Das and um congratulations on your election and um welcome uh to the group um I also just want to mention we're still taking donations of ice skates for the warming house that we allow uh people to borrow at no charge um if they're up there skating with their family those can be dropped off at City Hall um so uh feel free to do that if if we don't care what shape they're in what gender they are we've got someone who will um take care of that for us so with that um council member ingan nothing council member Taylor nothing to report council member Schmidt nothing to report okay with that I'll take a motion to adjourn so move [Laughter] second learn it's going to be a fight to the bottom have a motion from council member ingan and a second from council member Taylor uh to adjourn the meeting any discussion all those in favor say I I those we're adjourned everyone have a great New Year and thanks for watching e