##VIDEO ID:aEo5XnMTyEE## e e e e e e e North St Paul arts and culture Mission meeting to order September 4th 2024 uh ma if you could please take rooll for us here here here here here thank you m I just want to call to attention so we are now calling commissioner Rael sto commissioner Rael sto and not student commissioner right so we didn't have to do anything here at the Arts commission meeting ath okay let's take off student congratulations Raquel thank you what's next mayor city council baby steps all right oh and then we also have our Le uh Council liazon Lisa Wong and our city staff ma Jong all right like to adopt the agenda if everyone has had a chance to take a look at the agenda if there's anything you would like to change add remove please let me know if not I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda as listed so moved move by moveed by carrye second by Amanda all those in favor say I I motion approved we have adopted the agenda successfully congratulations everyone all right approval of minutes everyone get a chance to take a look at the meeting minutes from August 7th any comments any changes anyone would like to suggest if not I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes as provided so moved so moved by carrye seconded second okay and all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed motion carries the minutes are approved okay thank you Laura and Carrie meeting open to the public so we have someone from the public here today come on up please introduce yourself thank you commissioner my name is John Baker do you need my address too I think just the city council does that okay uh I'm I'm just here to commissioner Clark Williams ask me to come talk about the North St Paul Veteran Park yeah and so just I'll just go real briefly I'm I'm I'm a lawyer uh uh at the time uh um City councelor Terry Furlong came to my law office in about 2011 figured out how to build the park the the Land There was originally a park called Canon park right the uh um uh mot annexed the land to rebuild Highway 36 and then uh gave the land the portion of the land back to the city of St Paul for a veteran park at that time I created a nonprofit for the Veteran Park commission it's actually called North St Paul Veteran Park incorporated um and uh then I created an agreement and I'm sure the City attorney still has that the caveat I I don't know whether that agreement is still in effect you'd have to check with the the uh the City attorney but I created an agreement uh to a cooperation agreement between this nonprofit and the city of North St Paul in essence this the the the the nonprofit and it's a 501c3 by the way North St Paul Veteran Park is responsible for all the the memorials the flags the teaching stands um and the pavers the city owns the park and is responsible for everything else uh including the the grass the water uh and all of that and and the electrical boxes okay so um um the the um the the North St the the Veteran Park commission um uh continues to Main and as part of the agreement is they maintain the um uh the memorials uh themselves the city does not do that but the city has everything else that's just it in a nutshell take any questions so you know the big question for us is if we wanted to add something to that Park and so that's you know there's been an idea floated about uh a veterans rocked Freedom rock this is something that's been done at veterans Parks across country right um do we engage um with just the North St Paul parks and wreck commission first and then the city in order to do that or well in in in in my opinion commissioner um um the way this is laid out the city owns the the property so it's it would be the the parks and rec commission okay uh the the so um yes I would say you need would need to INR Engage The Parks and Rec commission although I don't think that they have any anything really to do with it because the nonprofit takes care of everything so you know I guess the question would be then can the the nonprofit say what is done with that property right technically no but if you want to play nice I would say right so is is there who is currently established as the head of the nonprofit uh that I don't know I think it's I think it continues to be Dan fiser oh okay I I haven't I haven't haven't looked at their I I know they're still a valid nonprofit I just checked that uh they filed their 990 with the IRS and okay everything is legit with so the main difference would probably be that so so even though it may fall under the opes of North St Paul parks and recck in the city of North St Paul there still is this 501c3 that exists and so if we wanted to engage with the Veterans Park in any way to try and add some kind of public art display there we would want to engage with both the 501c3 organization as well as the city that would be my recommendation commissioner and and I have heard the freedom Rock what they're concerned about is the irrigation that's on the the current irri ation system that's on the grass I think that's the the push back that they're giving on that right now okay anyone else have thoughts or questions I'm assuming we would do the same with utility boxes then right again commissioner the utility box is is owned by the city and again my recommendation is you know work with the nonprofit because they they have they put a lot of Blood Sweat and Tears into that and it's a it's a really nice my opinion is one of the nicer feta memorials in the area yeah so is there a utility box there on that side yes there is okay yeah oh really okay any other thoughts or questions all right well thanks so much I appreciate you giving us a little backstory and the history to that that's really helpful thank you commissioner than you take care okay uh we have no one else here from the public so we'll move on we have no public hearings commission business action items and recommendations so arts and culture commission appointment oh did I jump the gun that's okay um but now that um Council has appointed Raquel we do have an opening now for a student commissioner oh yeah everyone is welcome to apply if they meet the criteria of being a student and they live in North St Paul hopefully someone right someone will apply soon is there an age limitation on that I mean high school or college no yeah we've changed it to include college is that is there still a link for that may and could you I'm sorry could you forward that out again I'm sure I have it somewhere but and then we'll have Eva promote that as well oh thank you Eva yeah that'd be awesome I'll see what I can send sorry yeah it might be nice to also re-engage 620 to yeah as well yeah okay but nothing else we need to do my nope nothing else Rael is official yay vote now your's very proud wait do we need we don't need to vote no she can vote she can vote okay all right so now we're going to turn it over to Ava I think right so 2025 events budget discussion this is going to be great I know I can't edge of my seat hello commission um it's really good to be here with you all um so um I'm here because I am in charge of the events budget presenting it to council pushing it through for 2025 um and M and I were talking and um you guys have some really great ideas and so I wanted to collaborate with you on what we're putting forward to council um so I have a background in um with that I will just get into it um so I have a background in community building and a passion for fostering connections as well as the Arts um and I believe that Arts events are a great way to build connections and so I'm really excited about the things that you guys have been doing and I'm excited to collaborate um so this meeting I'm hopeful that um we can kind of it's not just to be me presenting it's going to be kind of a back and forth I have uh something to write with so that we can kind of um have some ideas going good good um so I wanted to kind of go through my vision for what City events are so um for me it's connection community and excitement um so events that everyone can enjoy and participate in um events that Foster a sense of community more connections between residents group activities that Foster Collective City Pride um and set the city apart and events that are really exciting and that people ask for again and again so with that in mind um let's talk about the events budget for next year I um have your ideas so I'm just gonna kind of work through them okay um so the first one is the artum Arts Festival um it's art it's local business it's fun and exciting it's a celebration of culture and it's great for everyone I'm super excited about this year's and I'm excited to keep making it better and better um this is obviously my first year working here and so I'm really excited to you know get these first couple events out of the way get my feet underneath me and just make it better from here um so I'm totally happy to keep that on the budget um the other one is the guided art nights um I love art and fostering uh art is super important for the community um I want these art nights to have a bigger draw for people um you know more signups and more excitement possibility of increasing the class size um with different art forms I think that capping it at 15 people for the amount of money it is is sad um I feel like we should have you know more people being able to join which um I know that art nights are or paint nights specifically have kind of a limit so you know broadening the scope and having different kinds of art nights that allow for more class size essentially I think would be a great way to do it um so you had uh six uh classes this year and you want to increase it to eight to nine um one of them unfortunately had to get canceled because we didn't have the participation um my proposal is that we stick with six kind of figure out what works what doesn't and then go from there um I'm willing to work with you guys on that if we have a lot of really good ideas or you have um you know uh friends who want to come in and teach um I'm happy to hear those ideas so with that um yeah um these are some of my ideas so uh we were talking about you know stha with her Mandela art is really popular so maybe having you know two Mandela art one um watercolor art and then having a yarn class having more people attend that and then a new idea and a new idea to make the six um and so some of the new ideas um that I heard were cookie decorating maybe attaching it to an upcoming holiday um my suggestions were pottery painting improv comedy Workshop uh dance Workshop you know we're having the people for the artm Arts Festival maybe asking them to come in creative writing class poetry class that sort of thing so um I want to hear your ideas obviously we can talk about this later the main thing for the guided art nights is the number um and then we can you guys can decide later what you want to put forward um I don't know how these meetings work I don't know if you guys want to just all talk a lot okay great um I just want okay we're all over the place um so I take I took the lead on the guided paint nights when Lisa Richie left um and she was the person she was actually our volunteer artist who was leading those and she set the class limit she felt that the 15 was the limit that she could handle okay so I am happy to have as many people sign up as want to sign up as long as our guest artist or whoever it is that's coming in to do the class is comfortable with them you know I don't want anyone to feel overwhelmed I think that would be a disservice and then your ideas are great I actually sent my a spreadsheet of um some addition like um succulent night or making bouquets and I had web links for everything for how who to contact so terrarian got a lot of ideas for next year so I'm sad to hear you want to bring it back down to six but I get it so we can we can start with that six okay my only suggestion with increasing the size of the class is we want the people who attend to get their money's worth out of it for sure and as an artist myself I can say that it would be difficult to have a class of too many yeah you know I could see uh depending upon the length of the class 20 maybe but um I think people want to feel like I learned something not just I copied step by step like a by number they want to feel their creativity going in and get feedback because that's going to be their only opportunity to get feedback from that artist yeah and you don't want to be constantly asking oh what are we supposed to do now you know ask your neighbor always so I do agree but I I just want to be careful with that yeah for sure could we possibly look at um longer evenings with a double class so have one class start at 5:00 p.m. and then another class started at 6 p.m. but this same artist the whole night then we can get more people in maybe one of them is geared towards more advanced just some thoughts painting you know like the beginn the first we've also had a couple of people um repeatedly come in late and I I don't want to I'm I'm with you I want to make it as open and available and welcoming as possible but we've got 18 people or whoever waiting on three people before we start the class I just don't think that's fair so I don't know if we should still start the class it's I agree kind of their loss if they're not if they're that late yeah and Ava did you have a goal number of attendees in mind um I was just really sad that we canceled I think that the minimum number was three question mark I'm not sure um so I just you know the more the marrier but obviously without canceling the class because we obviously had to pay still had to pay a deposit so and what was the max currently set at 15 do you have the numbers the participation numbers of the different events that occurred um we we could pull that information up but the last one that we had was 10 and then another person surprised us so 11 people I think it was 14 cuz those three did show up no 10 signed up oh God it got it 11 total got it sorry um but weather's class all of them have been that full capacity yep yeah we had to add a second one for the one that got sold two times yeah yeah so she was really popular yep and I I don't know if it's just the mandala or I don't know I don't know what the difference is maybe she's promoting herself more sold oh could be could be that could be it too on social media yeah yeah okay amazing um so I will leave it at 6 for now and then we can discuss longer you know different types of classes and that sort of thing you guys can obviously decide what happens there do you feel like that's something where next year if it's in the budget we can always add like if we get halfway through the year and there's room in the budget and room in the schedule we can find something um I'm not sure exactly when I came in the budget some of the items um that I was given I was like we didn't pay for anything in this but it's given money so I had some more things to work with whereas this year I'm hoping to be more on top of it and you know really use the budget to its full potential and I think this is a line item within our budget so does that mean you're taking this over right just going to check that the paint nights were cuz Lisa wanted to buy all those canvases and stuff for when she was leading it okay yeah so this is specific to um you know you guys have your arts and culture budget but your events like Arts Autumn Arts Festival fall under the events budget so that would be under that this isn't an event in 2024 the paint nights were under event the Arts Festival budget or sorry the uh arts and culture commission oh well there was a certain portion that got allocated from her budget oh for us to use okay yeah really mhm but technically everything is under her budget got it okay so yeah we did have that so for for 2024 our current year I had that listed as Paint and Sip $2,500 and that was under the events budget and in 2024 so 2025 we it's still under the events uh budget just art classes and events got it okay so um I'm GNA move on to the next idea um this idea was your proposed new idea um it's the Asian Night Market oh yeah do youor that's a question about the first to lived on so when you're suggesting that we stick with a six are you suggesting that we stick with $2500 that we had budgeted for 2024 to also have to use in 2025 or less money because we haven't used all that money I'm saying that we just roll over what we had for the previous budget okay thank you yeah good question thank you um yeah so the Asian Night Market idea um what I like about this idea is that it's really successful in St Paul summer nights are fun and people will drive from of the city to attend um however I am looking at this um meeting and also this budget as um what I as a reflection of what I can realistically do as long and as well as um May and Sarah um when I present it to council I want to be able to really put my foot behind it and be like I can do everything that's on this list um and really hit it out of the park and so I see some challenges with the Asian Night Market idea um that I want to bring to you so um the first challenge I see is that there is competition um so St Paul and Maplewood both have their own Asian Night Market Market oh they do yes and I was at the St Paul the St Paul Asian Night Market um which was huge and completely out of control we they had Park like people parking in three so that the middle person was totally blocked in oh wow um it was pretty chaotic it was obviously super well attended but it was just kind of blown out of proportion um so we would be competing um around the same time that they're doing their things um our similar event previously was canceled because of poor attendance the food truck night um also the car show is the very next night if this was on a Thursday uh the car shows on the next day so you know the option to get food truck food is happening every week in the summer a date a potential date for this no but it would H as a as a food truck night it would have to be during the summer months but did we was you mentioned a Thursday did we mention that this would be a Thursday or do was that something that c recommended we usually don't have events in the summer on Fridays because of the car show and then the previously you know events earlier in the week not as well attended I'm assuming Thursday oh okay um yeah but obviously that would be up to you guys um also uh you know I was the person trying to get food trucks for the artm Arts Festival this year it was a really really hard push really it was yeah I was working on on it for a really long time and we had uh two Dropout last minute and then it was a scramble to get the one again so I foresee um a potential you know hardship coming forward especially if we're trying to get specific you know Asian specific um food trucks hey do you have an idea why um so I I was continuously kind of asking I think partly because there's a lot going on a lot of them were already booked out um and just didn't have responses back so yeah also also um chime in on to a lot of the responses that I get is because you know if it's a smaller city or a smaller event then they'd rather choose to go to a bigger event right that makes sense can't blame him for that um okay the next challenge I see is that no City parking lot is large enough to host this um I know that it was presented that you know to borrow land from um somebody else to rent the space essentially um but uh I was talking and I know that polar Plaza wasn't mentioned but I know that when we've tried to rent or talked that the owner of poop plasa in the past we haven't had a good relationship with the people that own those sorts of spaces so it could be a potential challenge if we're trying to rent space um for this I'm sorry what's polar Plaza um the one the where the like strip mall isway yeah Mite mcnight yeah um I'm just saying that you know they they are challenging people to work with is now assuming that it would draw people into those establishments though and bring them more money I mean wouldn't they be open to something like that potentially I mean we haven't asked I think C has asked um the Mahar grocery store um owner and he seemed interested um so but he is I don't think he owns the whole strip mall he is a tenant so that would be a caveat there or something to work through mhm for sure um the next one is that even if it was successful um I saw it in the St Paul one there wasn't enough parking and it was a challenge so you know parking is also an issue um my own thought is that uh challenging with fostering connection um you know I think that this event is really fun you go with a small group you're there for a little bit and then you leave um but I think that we could plan an event where people maybe stay and interact longer I think that's the draw of the Autumn Arts Festival it's a longer day lots of different things multiple age groups can enjoy it um and it's a draw for everyone to kind of stay and maybe have those connections and chat and meet new people whereas the Asian Night Market I don't see people interacting as much but you could argue against that um the next one is the biggest one the staff bandwidth so um the Asian Night Market would have to be in the summer months um kind of a May to August kind of thing which is our busiest event season um after doing the summer I don't think I personally have the space and the schedule nor the capacity to really pull off another large event um especially I've been told that next summer we're doing a bunch of road work and I'm going to have that also constraining my time so um going forward I I'm going to present two ideas in lie of this event um and those ideas are not in the summer um the next one is um it was challenging to get uh you know all hands on deck for some of the other events whether you know uh Parks Commission and um like the Autumn Arts Festival I think that you know uh we can do a lot but we also need a lot of help to pull off these bigger events so it really Happ to be like a push from this this commission but also the Parks Commission other commissions as well um we currently only have like one or two volunteers signed up for the Autumn Arts Festival and it's going to be a busy day so um that's the kind of where I see it it sitting um and then yeah all this to say um I really want to do events with you this event however I immediately was like there's a lot against us and I want want to present uh ideas that I feel confident we can really pull off so i' would like to hear your feedback thoughts on these challenges yeah sorry go ahead yeah yeah I feel like I can come up against everything except for the staff bandwidth part okay and I totally understand that and I completely understand that our staff is stretched very thin yeah and I don't have a solution for that I feel like competition I want to say so what we have an Autumn Arts Festival there's Arts festivals everywhere yeah so I don't feel like that's really an issue it depends on time of year and as long as we don't schedule at the same time um I work with a group of sisters this is why I was asking um vong Vang and yaua they are uh among sisters who are also artists who I see at art festivals very frequently they have run an artist Asian Night Market um and I think my idea for the one that we were going to run wasn't just food trucks okay it was going to be kind of like an Arts Festival where there's also artists and performers or something yeah um so again kind of different and still has that Community collaboration part that you're looking for I can't help with the staff bandwidth and I completely understand I would propose I mean you said you're going to propose a couple options um maybe we could look at starting to plan it in 2025 but actually have an event in 2026 which would possibly help with the staff bandwidth oh look at that I did fix it what nothing um I don't ask that the three of you do everything for these events and would never ask that um we can do a lot up here yeah amazing thank you I certainly don't want to give up on it either um I think that um just like Amanda was mentioning that there's work arounds to all your challenges you put a lot of work into it and I really appreciate that um but maybe looking at a different time of year I know summer is gorgeous but it doesn't have to be summer can it be late spring um it doesn't have to be that strip mall can we choose Casey Lake Park and do a tent artist Asian market night um instead I mean if parking is really a problem it doesn't seem to be enough to keep people away from the Autumn Arts Festival and um it's a night for a community that bands together no matter what and shows up for each other so I think that if we planned it people would come okay so I just had one comment earlier on there was concern that it was the name was not inclusive but I think that Asian night markets have been around enough in Minnesota that it's kind of like the Irish Festival yeah that anybody who wants to who wants in on it will get in on it and I don't think people feel limited by the name yeah I I think that's a over concern I I agree with you I'm I'm excited to hear your Alternatives yeah any other thoughts on any of these points the only thing I could uh maybe suggest is that like if like you're suggesting Amanda if we you know do more planning next year for and think towards 2026 what if there were some part of the Autumn Arts Festival that included some kind of uh Asian you know area or segment or that you know so we could bring in Asian performance um and then you know like C had in her email uh vendor opportunities there that maybe maybe we start to get some of that buzz going through the Autumn Arts Festival so I think you know the Autumn Arts Festival is so young still really I mean this is we've really done it for what two years so are you saying possibly includes some of the aspects of an Asian Night Market into next year's Autumn Arts Festival but then possibly still plan an Asian night market for 26 for 2026 yeah so kind of like dip dip our toes well yeah and start to make some of those connections with people and you know you maybe start to build some awareness for 2026 or something like that I did mean to say with the sisters that I was speaking about one of them works for springboard for the Arts and she actually I was talking to her at an event and she knows I'm on this commission and she mentioned that they would love to work with us on anything so springboard for the Arts is also a resource for us okay that's great yeah in fact I could probably get her to come and speak to like how they can help us with anything okay like in not just the Asian Night Market but anything but like building awareness and things like that they run a lot of classes um they're working on a bunch of they're working on a new program that she was telling me about but they also do uh work of art I think is the name of the program um I took some of those classes it's about the business side of being an artist and mhm how to kind of run that side of the world sure yeah let's going on to a different topic so yeah and what because one thing I um I would just uh want to bring up with the Autumn Arts Festival and so the Asian Night Market I mean I don't I don't know enough about that other than what I've read that that c has sent out um and I was not aware that there were these others that were going on but um you know maybe if we were to to try and build build some of that into the Autumn Arts Festival I I I love the idea of continuing to grow the Autumn Arts Festival like okay we've been we've done this a couple years you know last year was really successful the year before that it snowed um but but it was it was still fine but you know I feel like it's got some momentum and and could grow um and that's where I say you know can maybe we if we can continue to try and establish that as uh one of the key North St Paul events um and then start to you know slowly kind of build some momentum for Asian Night Market um that way because I think that uh and that's why you know we had asked for an increased budget for the Autumn Arts Festival not because of the Asian Night Market but just because would allow us more resources to do you know I I think my had maybe reached out to you have about um tents or something like that and you know Amanda and I were looking through this budget early in the year and it's like the you know the person who was previously working on staff to work through this stuff the the budget was kind of gone by the time we had a a look at it and and so it was like well we would love to have like some kind of big tent staked out out there like uh you know the St Peters does that where they have huge tents out there and just you know in case of rain and things like that but we just couldn't even afford that at that point cuz the budget was was gone they are adding a tent this year for our attendees who will be watching performers oh great and what kind of tent is that it's like a canopy um I think it it's a 20 by 30 oh great excellent I um suggested that because at this meeting yeah talked about and so I'm like oh well if we have the extra budget let's put this in did we have enough budget for that size 10 got yeah how did we not have the budget we didn't have Eva yeah that's it yeah I guess put a lot of great work into this fal good very excited about it yeah great so and you know I would just love to see that particular event you know if we if we can kind of really lock that thing in and just continue to grow and just build the momentum and the awareness of that that it's over and over and you know we had really great feedback from all the artist vendors that were there last year um so I think a lot of them are coming back this year do you know yeah um so you know like you say we get competition I mean we're a small town so we get competition from bigger towns that are doing bigger events and you know maybe we get to the point where this is a bigger event you know this is one that people want to um that you know food trucks want to be at yeah I liked I lik the comment about having it maybe earlier like um yeah I would be hesitant to do it in April but may or early June um I think that that is a viable option so knowing this um if you have any other thoughts I'll present my two ideas and then we can kind of talk about which one we want to land on um knowing that the summer probably not a good time so um my first uh suggestion proposed idea is um kind of following your theme is a um Multicultural Festival of Nations kind of idea um thinking more indoor vendors um not food trucks maybe restaurants kind of coming in doing more catering style food um you know encouraging ethnic dress and performers and ethnic uh like flags and decorations um an art section with a craft um possibly having someone you know come in and teach something that has some sort of cultural background um we'd have to hold it in a gym I'd have to look into that I haven't tried renting you know the gym at high school or the other gyms around here um but what if we had Community Center where we um yes um so yeah um that's my one idea kind of kind of flowing with your um cultural night um and I'm thinking either October or November um because that feels appropriate or even in the spring um I put in you know February March April October November so that would be nice in the I just want to say in the spring because it would be a kind of a kickoff to the festival season in Minnesota and so it would be an early one before all of the really big ones but parents are ready to get out of the house with their kids on the weekend I'd love to be able to do something indoors in a different time of year yes we're not cramming everything into is even the Autumn Arts I mean the the first one we had it wasn't even called the Autumn Arts Festival was it was the something FR fall frolic I hated that name it was the fall frolic and it was like the first weekend in October wasn't it I wasn't here it was but it snowed the night before you weren't here no I came in after that okay snowed the night before so that's why we had to move it up a couple of weeks um but gez it'd be nice to not have to worry about you know snow or tornadoes and or rain even I just worry I with Festival of Nations I would prefer to keep it kind of focused on not all nations yeah um because as you say like we're a small City and Festival of Nations feels like a really big event to me okay and I don't know if we're there yet got it you know we used to do uh Taste of 622 for the 622 Education Foundation we had all restaurants within our 622 School District come and share their food so that's a bigger area of course but it'd be cool to just have like the new bakery and Max and just everybody come all in one spot spot and just share what they have to offer I think the Festival of North St Paul could be cool that's kind of cool I'm thinking of that Ethiopian mov yeah right yeah I do kind of like the Festival of Nations idea though myself I mean cuz like then you could for example have the Ethiopian restaurant or you know so something like that um I don't know yeah something to discuss again yeah it's and then it's like well what and where and when could we get your slide on this one so I can read what you wrote that's the man in the booth what is his name man in the boo thanks um yeah my only concern is getting enough diversity in nation because of course we've talked about having a large Asian presence and so I know and then it's the whole like picking and choosing since because where would we Host this and based off of the size of our area you know we're do we say you know are we going to get enough people and I don't know yeah well I think that I think the whole point is that it we're GNA it's a thought to move indoors it doesn't have to be Festival of Nations but it it's um it's kind of a Festival of whatever ethnic he wants to come and be a part of it and so I think just getting the concept and construct location and concept together then I think we can I don't think we're going to be beating down the doors people are going to be beating down the doors that we're going to have to say nope we already got three Ethiopian restaurants it's no I I I think that we I I I I think that there's space for anybody who wants to be a part of it I really really do I like that and um Heritage Fist and uh it it will grow and then we all worry about that and that'll be a beautiful problem to have yay yeah I agree the Festival of Nations does kind of sound like you're putting on the Olympics or something like and it also raises expectations probably I St Paul used to have yeah at the Civic Center and that was huge really out of control don't do it anymore correct they stopped that I think Co times yeah I think that's about when it stopped but I used to go when I was a kid and it was definitely a good mix of ethnicities and it was insane that it was that and that was called the Festival of Nations yes huh so yeah I mean like well like Heritage Fest is a term that is kind of like it's just whoever's Heritage you're talking about I think of that from uh what New Alm has Heritage no is that what is Heritage Fest yeah I think but it's but it's all German yeah I would think so but but you know Heritage Fest can be whatever you whatever anything I like the concept very much and I I can see to me the thought is okay great let's get it started and we'll worry about the problems later when we actually have a a lot of people who want to be a part of it yeah so this is kind of more of like a throwing this out there proposing you know um possible other ideas to you know push the events outside of the summer months um so my next idea is a European Holiday Market um which would be like early December at Casey lake so like small food vendors photo booth craft vendors small community craft Santa photos like possibly like a bonfire kind of like the fire in an ice event um and like tree lighting or something like that um you know it we're done with the parade and Autumn Arts Festival and everything to do with that so I feel like we'd have the bandwidth to do something early December um and it would be a smaller event but also you know spread out that as well so those were the the three proposed ideas so we have the Asian Night Market um the Festival of Nations and the European holiday Night Market obviously these are not an extensive list of what we could do um I think now that I'm hearing your ideas um possibly proposing to the council a you know another arts and culturel event that is within you know January to May or like um outside of su yeah October to December I wouldn't go October to December unless it's a holiday specific event yeah in which a lot of competition there competition is a concern for sure um totally I think St Paul does one at Union Depot they do yeah it's a big one you're a vendor okay it was very popular last year and they put a lot of work into it and they um have grown years and years um and very much focus on the European aspect of it with the food and a lot of The Craft venders as well and what's the name of that one European Christmas Market oh and it's at the Union Station the Union Depot cool on the roof there it's really nice oh cool huh so could put as a placeholder like you said just at a different time of year and then yeah I think I think that's a way for us to think um would that one kind of mimic then the one that happen happens in downtown St Paul like an outdoorsy feel you know have vendors set up tents outdoors and maybe we would rent like heater those heater Towers I don't know yeah I was thinking maybe less vendor specific just cuz I'd be worried about yeah the cold um so and I know that the one in Minneapolis has those like you know structures and so they can kind of keep those vendors warm but um I don't foree us being able to do that so I my thought was having the craft venders inside having kind of everything else outside um so it wouldn't be that large um yeah we tend to keep ourselves warm as a vendor yeah done Holidazzle and this European Christmas Market uh you bring heaters and lots of layers so they're not providing heat for a bunch of people okay but they are providing like the structure so yeah uh like Holidazzle just does tents like the same tents we get but with walls and everything yeah uh the European Christmas Market has those built huts and those are a lot better um because it's wood that keeps out the wind and everything too but yeah providing heaters for everybody would be a lot but providing heaters for attendees would be important just a scattered ones yeah yeah so if that is what we do yeah um so obviously you guys can talk about this um I'm excited to hear your ideas I will present to the council a placeholder um and we'll work with my on I don't have numbers off the top of my head on what I'm going to be proposing but we can talk about it um offline does that sound okay I love it okay great um so um what I'm hearing is that you know the January to May is the preferred time okay sounds good I have an itch for winter activi yeah I actually was excited about that I'm might be the only one who wants to do a winter we got a winter theme going in our city so was thought we going to roll with it well if you can get two extra out of them then snowman building competition yeah oh like the olden days you know it's it's I'm sure it's a lot of work and everything but man you think of Casey Park how it was when we were kids I mean all it had was that crummy warming house that place was packed all the time CU you had the pleasure rink the hockey rink and everybody's sledding on the Hills at Casey Park and not a phone or screen and I know right and but imagine you know now by having the building if you had something going on and like a daytime event and you had like I don't know sledding contests or you know some kind of do they still do they still do those Rinks at Casey so we are planning to do a Fire and Ice event in January um and so that's like you know bonfire and skating obviously weather dependent um I've proposed that we do you know hot chocolate and marshmallows and all that jazz um so it's something that you obviously can get in on and if you have ideas on how to add to that event yeah and maybe that's something to think about is instead of you know you know let's join forces and and make fewer bigger events yeah rather than a lot of scattered events um I would like to point out though that we started with an Asian nightmare get going into a Sol winter another thought this was an expansion of ideas I didn't I didn't think the night market was off the table I thought these were additional that and that's just what I wanted to point out like I don't I don't want the I don't want to expand on a winter event that doesn't focus on a particular Nation or anything in place of an Asian Night Market sure yes and then Tom um did you get a chance to read through C's email and um bring up some of the points that she made she'd like to have Eva know about oh yeah did does Eva not seen that oh cuz because I had mentioned that we could talk about it here and maybe you could read off had mentioned yeah do you want me to just read through her email yes okay so what uh C had sent was basically a proposal for the mcnight Asian market um celebrating Asian culture through food and festivities so the mcnight Asian market is an exciting event dedicated to celebrating the rich and diverse cultures of Asia through food performances and interactive activities this vibrant Market will bring together food trucks vendors and performers to create a unique experience for visitors allowing them to explore the flavors sounds and traditions of Asian cultures we invite businesses food vendors and performers to participate in this community wide event and contribute to an immersive cultural experience so again sounds not unlike what the others have been Asian night markets I I think and I think so what she's doing here I'm not going to read the whole thing but what she does is outline you know the event elements so food trucks and vendors um so you know the the food side of it the mcnight Asian market will feature a variety of food trucks and vendors offering authentic Asian Cuisine and then vendor opportunities so in in addition to food trucks we welcome businesses selling Asian related products such as crafts clothing and Specialty items um and then a performance stage uh so live entertainment um a small performance stage will be set up at the market featuring traditional contemporary performances that highlight the richness of Asian cultures and uh call for performers we would invite local artist musicians and performers to apply for a spot on our stage so then cultural activities and workshops so interactive experiences and workshop hosts um and then she talks about vendor and performer compensation uh supporting our participants we understand the importance of uh Fair compensation so this is interesting though food vendors and performers will receive compensation based on a percentage of their sales or through a predetermined fee or wouldn't they just get wouldn't they just make whatever they sell that we can that be talk about SE the city puts it on it would just be the fee schedule that Council approves the fee schedule for the food for the vendors they they pay like a permit or a vendor license right but it's but but they wouldn't but we don't we don't compensate the food vendors okay I see yeah yeah she had it listed as a compensation to them based on a percent of their sales or something so she maybe had something different in mind there and then she had a segment on media and marketing event legistics um so I think you know so C has very detailed a lot of information here um but I think what the the challenges that we just talked about you know like well when and where specifically still exist um she also said But she ends this by saying we can also do smaller scale as a test and only select some things to to do so that we're not overwhelming ourselves either which is fair common but and I just you know so she's got a lot here I think the the big thing is then so so where would we do this and um you know even if we did something smaller where would we do that and you know and and maybe Casey is the place I know she was had talked about doing it at um one of the places off of mcnight but um then you get into I and I don't know I know we talked with um our uh City attorney in the past about you know public private relationships and how some of that stuff will work and if we're doing a city hosted event that's on private property and what liabilities come into play with all that and everything but um uh so I would just throw out one other question here too is to and you know I don't know Mike could you just send that a c's email around to everyone on the commission as well as Ava so she can look through that and everyone can take a look at what she's got here um but so I think you know she did a lot to to break this down which I appreciate um we just still have those same big questions when and where um excuse me I had a conversation with ciphers side dance school and they're in the mcnight plaza um and they're interested in performing um or being a part of it they they mentioned um and I mean they perform all the time I think they were at the fair several times um just this past week and um they perform for the Timberwolves I mean they're they're really um and they're a break dancing school too so after the Olympics I think they've had a lot of interest um but they they said that they were interested um in a night market and um I believe uh maybe a relative uh owns that uh Plaza so there may be some connections so forgive my ignorance but Asian night market so presumably that means you do it at night it does it have to be at night I mean I mean like the Autumn Arts Festival is the middle of the day why not have it at night um and what what are you qualifying as night well you know the evening I would think like evening hours from anywhere from like 5: to 10: or something like that versus yeah I think the St Paul one started at five it was like a desk at least when I went I think it's like an after workor kind of thing to do H okay or the typical working day yeah so I just I just didn't know if if you know did a a daytime thing if that would make any Logistics easier you know like if you had if you're outside for example I think starting it earlier would definitely help mhm but I don't know if all things we can consider yeah being a night thing is critical but um yeah so let's just so let's let me try and summarize here so I think what we're what we're talking about is you know let's keep thinking about how we can do something in in the Asian Night Market vein in 2025 whether it's a part of the Autumn arts festival or we or we start to experiment with something small um and then really spend 2025 thinking uh doing more planning towards 2026 for an Asian Night Market one thing we can look at as far as layout with the Automart Fest is this year when you're there um there's a large space behind I want to say behind the vendors but uh if you're so if you're at the playground yeah then there's the vendors it's the other side my concern is how hilly it is but if we have space over there that can be used for other activities if you see potenti potential in setting something up there yeah there's definitely opportunity yeah absolutely and I'll be sending out um like a feedback survey after this autum Arts Festival and you guys can you know if you have thoughts while you're there love to hear them um what went well what didn't so um I'm sure that we'll have you know multiple followup and planning sessions after that um but for the the budget um I will just put in uh one larger um placeholder for the arts and culture event great amazing the Arts Festival you mean no for separate oh just for a separate thing okay yeah so the three line items will be the autum Arts Festival the guided art nights and the placeholder and the placeholder okay great amazing that's all I have um I have one last idea kind of different than these ones I kind of wanted to keep it in the vein of um mark kits but I personally love to dance um this is just you know making you guys aware of fire nice um but um a vintage swing dancing night there is um a huge swing dancing culture in Minneapolis that I would love to tap into um you know dressing up making it more of an like a cultural thing like a back to the 40s um you would come learn swing dancing for 30 minutes and then have kind of an open floor night um I have looked into booking the um high school gym it's pretty inexpensive um I obviously haven't contacted anyone yet um but that's something that I'm also kind of having the back of my head whether that's 2025 or 2026 is kind of still up in the air very cool I love that yeah something to kind of keep on your radar yeah great yeah well thanks for all your work aab I don't know he's a local band oh very cool yeah even better if it would be if it's uh you know live band yeah that'd be cool that' be great yeah that's all from me um if you guys have any more questions or um ideas I'm always willing to chat and um very excited about running events with you great thanks so much appreciate all your work for all your work and thanks for your hard work for this year too got thrown into yep very much um fall Roundup parade Mike you want to take us through that one I was going to ask Eva oh sorry before you leave before you leave um we're gonna have two spots one for Commissioners and one for Council um everyone's welcome to come encourag to come um yeah we're going to have uh the two decorated pickup trucks um with a sign on it that says you know North St Paul commissions on it and Candy to hand out so um you know wear your swag and then be there um I'll be sending out more information about where and when um soon I'm having a meeting with uh the planner tomorrow great awes thank you and we'll have these right September 19th hopefully I don't know about the process okay I'm excited so that's again September 19th and and the starts at at six where do do we have to be at lineup at what time I will let you know okay and we we've always had really great turnout from our commission so we hope everybody from the commission can be there I'll just double check and make sure I got that on my C I can make the Long Walk yeah oh my God you can sit in the truck as well if you'd like At first with me just you can oh my gosh she walked from she walked from her house her town home to City Hall when it was like Five Below Zero outside gosh for the interview for the commission I'm like you walked here um okay all right so snowy trading cards so these look awesome I do I am a little concerned about Kenny I just is that going to cause great controversy in the city like that' be fun I think so Kenny oh my God I just I've never heard that before unbeknown to the commission has a name and it's Kenny and I have been here since before the Snowman and I am shocked yeah completely shocked yeah I I just always known it as the giant snowman exactly the giant you know is it something that we should take off and just label it snow as Giant snowman or I wonder where she heard that it name was well that's what we were told of it was Word of Mouth maybe somebody's playing somebody's local I'm going to text Sue springborn there you go I feel like he even has a Wikipedia page if Sue springborn says the name is Kenny it's Kenny it agreed but if she has no idea who Kenny is yeah well has anybody read the actual plaque like does it say on there what I don't think it does I think he has a name okay no yes and I'm glad we added this in I don't recall it being Kenny you remember that but otherwise these are fantastic and so we will'll have these for the parade do you think M yes we should get them in time I've talked to the vendor about it if everyone's okay with it I'll go ahead and order the only thing that he was kind of concerned about was the holographic card um he said he can print it out on a metallic base but if not if that's that's not what we're looking for he can recommend a vendor but he'll look into finding one as soon as possible for us so wouldn't be necessarily like Shifty but it would be shiny cuz holographic they kind of change as they you shift it around right yes so he said it wouldn't quite be holographic but it'll be on a metallic yeah like base be the way I'm reading that would be um the green card here is the one we were doing holographic right no it's no the it's Kenny sorry Kenny yes he's the original yes so I'm not used to it it does we um the border is what I'm thinking would be the only part that would be metallic and then the image itself would be the last meeting that we had it was we kind of talked a little bit about it it was an idea that was put out there and then Raquel had pointed that out and I'm like oh yeah we did kind of talk about maybe the main snowman could be yeah Special you know the special one special one yeah he's the original he's the original yeah you couldn't this is something that you still want we can proceed with it if not we can go back to the one that I initially emailed about as well too no I like this um yeah go with the metallic yeah yeah I think it'll still be like a pop of something I love it it'll still be good I think the most important thing is to have all the cards available for the kids okay oh and we're still going to have candy too though right I'm sorry oh yes definitely candy too okay absolutely are you worried are we yeah I me request cuz Council didn't make it through with oh c year you can't be going down that and not have I know oh yeah so we asked for more this year thank you I think yeah we made sure to let Ava know too like um please order more here last year wasn't enough are we I have a question are we going to make any attempt to try to distribute those pencils I feel like that box in the art cart would just collect dust that they we can uh we handed some out I think at the parade last year too yeah we did Festival right yeah so yeah they're kind of available to hand out whenever yeah and I've been trying to encourage kids to take them when the AR car is out but I mean a lot of the kids are you know they've come by already and they're like oh I have one I'm like okay well I'll take another if you want but I think we could toss those out too yeah so if we could just pull it out of the cart okay anything else we need for that then that's it feeling good for the parade so I'm sure we'll probably have to show up by around 5:00 probably right okay subcommittee updates fall festival or Autumn Arts Festival so with the Autumn Arts Festival we met online um we're so the idea was that we meet like each week and then the week be just the day or two before we meet another time on teams so that we can talk about um all the little details that needs to be finalized in place um so every person has a role that they're playing um I'm the vendor coordinator uh for the food and also the volunteer coordinator and then Ava is um she'll be she's in charge of the event but uh we the last time that we spoke we had mentioned that Ava wanted to be the MC because you know we weren't sure if you would be available but Chris has stepped up so we included her Ava reached out to Chris yep and um Chris can take on the role as the you know performer presenter or the MC for the event so that's wonderful news um that way Eva can kind of you know take videos take pictures do whatever she needs to run around around uh for the event and then we have Carrie that would be um coordinating the craft vendors oh yeah uhhuh I have she's in charge of that and then Amanda worked on creating a map for all of us um she won't be there but her wonderful map should uh be very helpful and then we have Sharon and C that have volunteered to be at the event too um Rael will be there in the morning time oh and you're available too perfect yay yay I'm available now too oh Lisa is available too oh we got that's more more volunteers than we've ever had yeah yay we've got this lucky us so um let me know your availability so that I can put you into the schedule of who's going to be doing what the community craft you know at the last meeting it was suggested that um maybe someone from our commission leaded so if Sharon if you're available to leaded maybe if you like or could you remind me I know we had that teams meeting yes I totally forgot what I signed up for so could you remind me what you put me on there for yeah so um since you're only available during the morning time portion of it up until one or two um you can work on helping setup and then the art card okay okay and the community craft starts later into the afternoon around 1 until the supplies are depleted that's what we agreed on so I was thinking maybe Sharon could Le that or IFC would be available to Le that and by lead it she doesn't mean that you have to yeah no I will be sitting there while they are doing their things really yes you'd be there just guiding and you know helping out or station there okay yeah what is the craft this year the community craft uh is everyone will get a small canvas it's maybe 3 by 3 in and they can paint whatever they would like on there and then we have three large wooden canvases that I will then assemble all the small ones to and will be displayed in City Hall somewhere cool yeah that'd be great so they have to give up their artwork they do yeah but the art cart will also be available and they can take that at home Art card do we have an event for the art card one what's that is there an event an art event for the art cart or just the art cart does have a stamp activity I'm a little nervous about our supplies on that um and if we run out there are many many other craft lots of stuff you can do there's lots of stuff in there now okay so on the tiny canvas is that any anybody can do that yes okay so it's anyone oh this is going to be great we have about 300 no no I think we only have like a hundred really I thought it was more than that okay we can order more if you like well let's just get 100 tiny canvases created and un and assemble them into a big artwork who's who's assem expain these I will okay yeah okay after thank you yeah afterwards um do you want to order more let's order more let's do it if we end up with more than I can fit on the wooden canvases then after the event we could still purchase more wooden canvases or I can can choose which ones that aren't appropriate maybe to go on the canvas if that happens yeah what happened with the Snowman well they were like coloring sheets that we had at the Arts Festival last year of suon and then they were displayed downstairs for a little bit and there were a couple that were not appropriate for they had genitals and things like that no there I remember seeing some that were more um murderer like oh so this event starts at 11: starts at 11: so but the 11 to the community craft is from 1 to 5 okay so hopefully somebody will will show me or I think are your main okay touch points me and Amanda um actually went into the art cart and she showed me exactly what supplies are used for the um event so okay this is going to be fun and could you send that calendar or the schedule that you and Ava created for the event to everybody on the commission because Eva and and Ma and and Sarah have done an amazing job job organizing all of the ideas and past events and it's um I'm really excited about it so be good to share that and how early would you want us there for setup so if you're able to come to the morning portion of it 8:00 is what our staff members have decided but um you know 8:30 or so for you guys you've told like vendors they can start setting up at 8:00 right no we're telling vendors 9:00 um but for staff it's between 8 to 8:30 that way we would have a little bit of time to kind of debrief and then um you know start preparing for vendors to arrive but you know what we tell them isn't always something that they'll always do so they might show up early that's why staff member we were like let's just be there at 8:00 just in case which I did want to update you guys I actually can't be there till like 12:30 now oh okay I have another booking I have a scholarship obligation that I have to be at before that yeah and then how long can you st uh stay well I'll probably just be there I'll probably push it all back so okay if I said three four hours before then just whatever what whatever three four hours question for you my um last year um in the seating area to watch the performers mhm I brought about a couple dozen chairs myself just so that we could have a seating area set up and people knew that they could go and sit there because there's we always kind of had this expectation that people would bring their own chairs which they don't some people do but um and then we at some point took brought out more chairs from inside the park building um will we have any chairs that could be set up in that area out there I what is going to be happening in the park building during the event this year so we're planning to use the chairs that's located within the building um I believe we have seating for 95 people would that be enough oh more than too many yeah yeah so I don't think they're going to be under that tent that oh fantastic okay so because I is it are they still doing Bingo this year y okay they are so so maybe like a couple out there and then leave a couple inside the building yeah I think it would be nice to at least have you know a couple dozen Chairs set up out in front of the performance area so people know that they can go and sit there and Tom some things you'll be excited for as far as the performers this year we have they're going to have some new tents set up for a performer stage in the area yeah that's awesome so they changing space and then behind the performers that big glass wall Ava's getting some pipe and drape there so it can be covered and then on the inside is going to be kind of little photo station oh for selfies and oh cool excellent made a really cute prompt to go along with it with the nor St Paul's um aut Arts Festival yeah I think you'll love it I love walking down the street and seeing the signs it's it's getting me real excited yeah good and we did get new signs order too good excellent like us there 8:30 yes between 8 and 8:30 okay are you still needing volunteers too yes the more year um I've reached out to the person that's the park commission she deals with the um 62 students or she knows someone from there and I've provided her all the information and the link to apply to become a volunteer I haven't received anything uh back yet so I'm not sure if it's it's because school just started and maybe they just haven't had the time to disperse the information yet if someone doesn't fill out the form will you still allow them to volunteer well um because we're dealing with minors it's really important that they or their parents sign it as you know are you able to have forms available that day I'm sorry can we have forms available that day most definitely yes oh good that would be great because we know that someone will just show up and okay good that sounds great yeah and we want to be prepared as much as possible yeah don't seniors at North High have to do uh volunteer hours so this would be like this would be fun volunteer hours we had a lot last year lot last year and I think it's this year we're about a week earlier than we did last year and so that's maybe part of it is just coming up a lot sooner when school started and getting all that organized thank you okay well I expect everything will go very smoothly it's going to be great um and you know the the volunteer you know you know I think it was kind of pretty low pressure for volunteers last couple years you know a lot of hanging out so um yeah it'll be great but thanks for all that you're doing I appreciate it um project snowy so we have no update on that right we're done with that one um but I wanted to update the I don't know if you've noticed when you're looking at the nose yes I noticed the nose is back yes so it's not back back but we got a hold of Gino yeah and I was asking him about repairing it or what could be done to fix it and he was so very kind I I offered you know a payment but he said no he could just take care of it and it's so funny because he said I'll be there in the afternoon and then when I got back from launch it was repaired was painted he just painted painted yeah great all right everyone give him a follow on social media and write something nice about him yeah oh he's he's a super nice guy yeah real sweet guy um okay anything else on Snowy no that's it okay just we got to figure out if it's Kenny or not for the big I have an update um she didn't know but she has also heard that it was called Kenny oh yeah so maybe you H I don't know where have we been if you don't know there were we not paying attention maybe you guys weren't in on the in Crow I definitely was not on the in Crow okay I that's not a question the CNY crowd like if we had an authoritative Kenny from Sue springborn then I'd be like okay but she's kind of like she's like yeah I heard that too cuz then I think think it's too much of a risk that we are then officially naming it I know I don't want to be that isn't he called the giant snowman on Wikipedia can we just call him giant snowy I mean for sake of a fitting it on the card get rid of Kenny snowy the giant I don't know even always called the giant snowman that's it SN the giant the giant snowman I think it'll fit she'll put that if anybody complains they can make their own card yeah they yeah I like that that's a good but yeah I I just feel weird about calling him Kenny oh I do too because then I then it seems like what the city is officially saying that that's what the name is and then people say think by the miror name was Kenny you know just something fun for people to see a proclamation I then I think we'd have to have a City Event like name the giant snowman right what is the name of it and if everybody votes for Kenny then great oh yeah I don't remember seeing that in the the the review it was probably just at night down at one of the bars some deed yeah okay so utility box WS I think C had something she did and I followed up on that too it's already peeling oh the one at North yeah yeah that's not good yeah it hasn't been a full month and when see told us about that I went out right away to take a look um yeah it's not don't know great shape I've emailed a vendor okay so hopefully they will follow up on that maybe they must have some kind of guarantee don't they something in our contract vendors I was going say do they come from different vendors for the different boxes no um I I hear that it's the same vendor Okay so something must have something wonky must have happened been some the other ones oil on it or something I don't know what happened with this one hopefully they're able to fix it yeah yeah the other ones like you said they're all fine yeah mural project wait I have I'm sorry I have an update for the utility oh you do okay so I'm working with Scott at FTC Graphics um the utility box WAP people um for final heart hands um submission using their free file sharing transfer due to the large file size so I'm working on getting that to him and then yeah did you design the Mosaic then or are they going to do that so I've designed one two options actually but um I'm sending it the files to them um because I don't want to pay them for their art time if we don't have to pay them for their art time so I want to see if it's adequate and if not then I'll send individual heart okay this is the heart hands and where are we going to put that one so that's at Casey Lake across from Casey Lake Park the larger box Transformer oh okay I mean yeah that's that's my update on that one and I think you had one on the um the Veterans Park wrap yeah I did talk to the Veterans Park committee to see what they had to say about allowing a wrap in the park because it's considered a Sacred Space even though it's a North St Paul Park and they were very positive about it and very excited about having it and they would like to have it done by the 10year anniversary which is August 16 2025 oh that gives us time um they said they were open to the idea of stock images but then they were also open to a high school con competition type of concept uh they said they would like something patriotic they don't want the branches of the military on there and they don't want any images or artillery of War nothing violent or anything like that they like the idea of stars and stripes and Eagles and all they ask is could they please see the design before it goes on the box so that they could approve it meaning to make sure it's not something that's offensive to the military or veterans because you know I don't think any of us served I don't know I don't want to jump in and say so we wouldn't know what necessarily is going to be offensive that they would not like to see in the park sounds reasonable yeah totally yeah to clarify is it the utility box there or is there a rock that it's a utility box wraps there's okay there's like three there's multiple utility boxes and they would like something uh for when people come there to if for it to be I don't know what this kind of like relaxing or Serene for family members of particularly Fallen military members and Military members who go there and have lost their comrades something that would be relaxing so is there a symbolic flower to like bets or something that's a good idea poppies that's what I was thinking that's uh World War I um from I the UK is where that came from but um they they like I said they were they thought stars and stripes and it did not have to be what would you call that abstract it could be you know abstract didn't have to be literal this is the flag this is this but big thing is Serenity patriotic Serene is their emphasis but yeah they were very open to collaboration and great not heavy-handed about it so I thought that was fantastic yeah it's great thanks for doing that Sharon yeah mural project we got nothing I yeah we're struggling to find a spot try yeah you thought about there's a oh sorry that was a thought that I I had that I had not uh presented but go ahead that that was all I had have you thought about Street murals no um the city manager said the dumpster garage I think on sea would be available so is that the is that the The Little Garage that's in the parking lot I actually don't know cuz I was driving all around I'm like what is the dumpster garage so there is you know so there's the public parking lot there and there's a little garage that's pretty plain and I'm like is that it must be um so sounds like it needs paint it could do something yeah so on sea you said mhm I believe so isn't that where they used to accept the food shelf donations when they were right there you would drop off your food shelf stuff in that little garage area maybe I'm just making that up I don't know I I don't know that's fine so yeah if we could just clarify what that thing is I mean we could paint it it more along the lines of what we did with like the uh the bathroom building probably you know paint three sides of it or something yeah and and I'll say at least like from a long-term standpoint that the downtown design manual or like the Redevelopment master plan for the downtown includes like a pedestrian way on sepa whether that will happen or not you know will vary but that is the intention um for with built within that plan okay but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to have these little garages and bathrooms throughout the community uh with murals it introduces everybody to the concept of murals and then maybe after enough bathrooms and garages to get painted with murals somebody would want one on the side of a building it's a little pocket of color on yeah so yeah I mean if that's if can confirm with Brian if that's what the what the garage is um okay yeah okay uh paint night oh brought visual tell yeah look at that all right so Jeremy said my ladder or my dock looks like a ladder I disagree I think it's a beautiful dock but you know if you want to get bered for your art in a funny joking way and have a really good time you should come to our guided art night night nice very exciting so looking forward to 2025 so was that uh was everybody doing a similar scene for that one okay y oh my God and this oh my God the sweetest lady I don't did we grab her name Sharon helina wow we we got we got so different um no the lady that showed up that didn't register oh yes Sharon Sharon oh my God not a different Sharon sorry Sharon um oh she she was like well my husband was just going to stay inside and watch CNN all night so I thought I'd just come over here I didn't register and I'm like okay well as long as the artist is okay with you coming so she's like he was like yeah that's fine so she was hilarious she was just like oh my God I don't know what this is but it isn't a tree you know it's so I'm just like sh and she kept running out of white paint so I'm like Sharon stop eating the white paint you know we had such a great time everyone was giggling and laughing and we didn't have wine so I going to say you lot of no we did not have any sips it was just LC all around it's crazy didn't want to leave but I know fun head open house yeah my head it was so fun his Jeremy's class is so upbeat it's so fun and energetic I loved it we got lucky with these paint nights so great bring him back I was happy okay Raquel you want to talk about the art cart um last event was something we thankfully used up all of the plastic I forget what you call them the plaster Mosaic things um it was a good turnout a lot of kids that's great I will say I'm not for doing it again um only because it took so long and a lot of the kids were very impatient yeah we also had um some very confused parents who thought that we premixed it for them and they were just going to come and do it and put their little stuff on it so that was kind of a small um hurdle but it was really fun though it was just very timec consuming and I think the kids were yeah there having hard time with most of the kids were carrying out wet plaster things that were still kind of goopy and it was like well I'll finish it at home in an hour so but it's okay they did love it though and it it got a lot of a lot of attention so I think that's why we I know it count at one point but I I think it was about two dozen kids that there was at least 20 kids so so it's good awesome fantastic that's great okay uh sorry Tom I I have a question so while going through the art cart with Amanda we discovered some beautifully painted canvases in there that was from was it a year or two ago do you remember uh it was last year it was last year yeah there the canvases if any anybody has seen them in their art cart that are split into four sections and there's a little painting kind of in each section okay they were displayed in City Hall last year time my question is um instead of storing there I I feel like it we could place it somewhere to display or how would you like to have it displayed or what would you like to do with them that's the question so I don't want to feel like we have to be beholden to displaying these things even at all I I would recommend too that you could just paint over them with white paint and you have new canvases for somebody else to paint on okay um I don't think that's terrible okay um unless somebody wants them I mean look I got I got two artist kids at home and like my house is filling with I got canvases and pottery all over the place and it's only you're not doing a paint night every month God I there's going to be a million of these things but you know sometimes they just like my daughter just you know just paint over something do something else I feel like it's so it's wasteful if we just store it in there and we don't do anything with it right maybe we could do a online posting and say it's free for whatever res for which whatever resident that would like them they can come pick it up at City Hall or I was going to say if we somehow got like a a poll out there to have whoever the original artist was come take the take it back the one issue with that is because it was in four quadras I think different kids painted oh was it like and I I don't know what this activity was so was it a shared activity kind of okay um so like different kids would have four different kids could have painted on one canvas got it got it okay well never mind that I I like that idea of getting it out there I wonder if you know in her connections I'm sorry to put more work on Ava but if we could ask her opinion if there are any businesses that maybe would like to display it and we could like make a little sign like a little artist plaque about you know hey donated from the Arts and cult yes that's it donated from the arts and culture commission created 2023 or whatever I don't know just something you know kind of promote the the commission and okay get art out there ask AA to do a call for or I was just like the new donut place that open wouldn't it be nice just like gift them but then like sometimes you don't want to gift art cuz it's kind of subjective them okay all right well maybe we just paint over them then in the future we could renovate that Community Center and then have a space to our art projects I would like to before they are painted over or whatever we do with them possibly scan or photograph a couple of the images to use in promos for the future got them all in here yay great some of some of them are phenomenal and I love it well you should hang them up in your Cube um City Hall has a couple of places that you know could use some artwork yeah go for it it's kind of bland around here city manager to see if it's okay or if not I could just decorate my cubicle with it well that or even what about even inside some of the park buildings the housy building or the casy well they get rented for events and if I shut up for a baby shower and you to hang your sprinkles over yeah I hear you in here would be nice though and we could say like don't forget we have an arts and culture commission you'll never forget about us okay okay some options there for you just let me know just looking for directions let me know and then I will look into it and see what I can do for you if there's an option to display them somewhere great if there's no options I think we can just reuse them as resources perfect canvases canvases pile up very quickly yeah yeah okay reports from staff 2024 budget updates all right so we paid our box wrap vendor in August and that was the only spending that we had that leaves our budget to 5,500 for the utility box wrap um so I do have a quick question for you Laura do you have a projected date of when your hand heart shaped box would he didn't tell me a install date but I can ask Scott tomorrow um I had not done the Wei transfer thing before so that's new to me um but yeah I'll find out tomorrow and I can update you yeah let me know because I will have to let our electrical department know as well that way they don't get shocked or they could at least be there to witness oh sure shocked as in like surprise I really went the other way with that I don't I don't want them to be surprised sorry nice we were all thinking electrocute [Laughter] it off the power that's all that's it for Budget updates yeah that's it for Budget updates read up the cards pretty soon right oh and I lied um so s we added her in for November the 15th because she was you know so popular and um it and the amount that um the amount that I updated for November was um it's a little bit different for all of our other events because she did me mention about the price of canvas it went up and so um that's why there's a little bit of a price difference from her other events that she's charging I think that's a great IDE yeah I like having these ones that are like in the winter yeah you can come inside yeah cuz you know there's no otherwise a lot of times there's nothing else to do y in the summer there's too much to do yeah that's it for me nothing else great okay thanks my uh reports from Commissioners Sharon do you got anything no I do not Carrie nope Amanda uh just on a personal update life is hitting my family hard and if I am short or take a long time to respond in emails or things like that I'm working on it do we need to get a meal train going for you no okay well I hope everything is okay works out okay it it it's fine just a lot of balls in the court kind of thing gotcha um Raquel uh nothing here Laura my parents are going to be leaving Memphis Tennessee and moving to Minnesota oh really wow so I'm very excited they're they haven't sold their house yet but they found a house in Woodberry so they'll be close they looked for North St Paul first really um but at least they'll be close they just don't have a timeline but it's very exciting that wow family in the state Grandma and Grandpa yes great awesome nice that's fun and happy birthday last month um and I have no updates myself um reports from Council aison Lisa yes um so last time we talked a little bit about sidewalk poetry for 2025 and I did talk to Public Works um on what kind of showed them what the options that have been done um mostly the is it like lasered in or something like that but um as long as it doesn't really you know impact the maintenance of it they're they're fine with it so if we can find a way to ensure that or you know ask maybe St Paul if um you know how long there lasts or something like that oh so they do some where they kind of etch it in after the fact not sure how it works but they they think that's how it will work just with how concrete works so I just I thought that like you got to do it when the concrete's wet I thought so too like stamp stamp it in there yeah right yeah I think they said it was more like did you know no no I don't know I I guess I had a question and there wasn't an expectation that the Poetry would be maintained isn't it kind of a transient the the um the sidewalk panel itself right the infrastru seasonal okay okay I thought they were worried about we would want to have it continue to say the same thing forever and ever and ever well that's what I thought these were well we were talking I think about a couple different options and one of them okay was the stamped into the conrete or however you do it the other one is the rain activated yeah I was thinking and that one uh isn't permanent it lasts for a few months or something like that I guess my concern with the where it's like act actually stamped in there than what happens when the street or the sidewalk they have to dig it up and then it gets messed up and then is that going to be an issue um we we have our Capital Improvement plans and we have maps for for days on where our sidewalks are going to be in so we can choose a location that's a little bit more um you know like say the 11th street they're actually not going to be able to do it this year there was an issue with u in easement but they'll be doing it in 2025 so that might be an opportunity they're going to do a uh to add those sidewalks there so we'll know that that will be there for a long long time at least probably 50 years yeah cool cool um it's budget season um and so uh right now we had discussed um so we were looking at about 9.88% um we're about the middle of the road when it comes to other cities um in Ramsey County I think like white bear is the highest at like 17 18% um I think last year they were like 20 as well so they're much higher um I think St Paul Falls a little bit under us have more commercial that's part of the challenge with North St Paul is we don't have have as much um commercial um so we don't gain as much taxes in that regard and so a lot of it gets put on the residents but um so we're being very conscientious about it not probably won't be going Beyond 9.88% I think the council agreed that that's kind of where we'll sit at um and so we'll certify that at the next meeting which means that's what you'll see on your um your uh tax um Ramsey County tax sheet that they send you and um that doesn't necessarily mean that's what's going to happen though um it could be less than that but we can't go above that so just know that that number could fluctuate some so some of the things that are being looked at in terms of um how to manage that percentage um one is uh we won't be we uh we probably won't be um increasing uh or implementing a levy for H we're actually going to reduce it um and then they're considering maybe reducing a levy for the streets again we're all still in conversation um and then switching over um one of the studies to the Eda fund um if they accept that and then looking at um in in uh the capital Improvement plan and um 1% of the parks fund adding 1% of the parks and 1% for buildings so um we're not sure where we're going to land yet um but um I think we have a goal of 8% but there will be tradeoffs um with some of those items but I would say overall um part of the challenge I'd say is because we're in negotiations with our unions um and we have six unions yeah and so um we just heard the numbers after the meeting um in a closed session and so we can't really disclose that yet but that's something that we also have to pay a lot of attention to is um is the the changes and what that impact looks like not just over one year but over the the the three-year contract so we are kind of considering um making space for that but I will take any questions on the budget end otherwise um there's a lot of construction going on and we're looking at um doing some more in 2025 and I think yeah we'll finally get to Gerald Street which is probably the worst Street North St PA if you don't ride your bike on it but um see uh I think that's pretty much what I have for the budget um all the department heads have um presented their um asks if they had any um and I'd say most didn't or minimal it's just uh we really need to be mindful of our Personnel costs um which make up the largest part of of our city budget um and I think that's it do you know the names of the candidates running for Council yes so um there will be three candidates um that have um registered um Troy Woods is one of them um the other is I can't remember right now Caesar what's Caesar's last name it starts with an R I can look it up but um and then uh can't remember last name but Dave Dave or David or something like that um I don't know any of them personally um I am not on there um and I hope I think maybe Troy was at our meeting last night I'm not sure I don't know I don't know who he is but there were a couple people in the audience but um yeah I don't know good I hope that there may be a forum or something um typically the legion will take that on um but I'm not sure that's just something they do voluntarily yeah it'd be great if the legion did the went a little bit further with that forum and ask questions and things yeah that would be nice but it's at Le at least having the little bit that they have is helpful that's it cool yeah pretty much thanks Lisa appreciate it all right if there's nothing else that anyone would like to add we'll look for a motion to adjourn so moved moved by Carrie second second by Rael all those in favor say I I opposed and we are adjourned at 819 p.m.