##VIDEO ID:QMvJ5AlPbqg## good evening I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Environmental Management commission for Monday October 21st 2024 I think we'll begin with our call to order by Hannah chair gerding presid commissioner lash president commissioner Yang commissioner dittle pres commissioner Brendan presid great thank you um next up we will move to the Pledge of Allegiance if we can all rise Al to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands naice for all great next on our agenda is the approval of the agenda for tonight's October 21st meeting trust everybody had a chance to review it in advance so if I can ask for a motion to approve tonight's agenda for the October 21st EMC meeting who moved can I get a second second great all in favor of approving the agenda for tonight say I I I opposed great thank you moving on to excuse me approval of the minutes these are from our August 19th EMC meeting and council chambers again everybody were sent these in advance if we want a few seconds to review feel free otherwise I'll move to look for a motion to approve the August 19th meeting minutes of the EMC removed thank you and get a second second awesome all in favor of approving August 19th meeting minutes of the EMC say I I I opposed outst standing great I'll now move to open Forum part of our meeting and invite any comments or from the audience or members and attendance seeing none we will close the uh public open public forum at the moment thank you all right next up on our agenda management commission review starting with I think the memo Hannah prepared for us about the ecoair yes thank you yeah um I last gave an update about the ecoair back in June um or July uh since then a few more details have been worked out the event is confirmed for Saturday April 26 2025 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. it will take place at Castle Elementary um there are two spaces that we can use at Castle the gym which is you know first option biggest um biggest space and then if we have a lot of interest from vendors then the cafeteria is also available for us to use uh the memo also um the attachment in the memo lists a variety of vendors that can be considered to be invited this is just kind of a wish list people we can reach out to um at this at this time no one has been contacted um I'd like to open up for discussion Commissioners can discuss the list of potential vendors and make suggestions for additional ones to be considered um Commissioners can also discuss other details laid out in the memo and um if you have any ideas feel free to share them I I I think it's a it's a great list I was wondering do we have any expectations for how many of these folks will want to present or no we've never done this before I know other cities also hold environmental affirs around that time um there's there's some overlap I looked at cities like Fridley Richfield Still Water whove who hold events like this um so there's some overlap with vendors we'll just have to kind of kind of wait and see once I we start reaching out to vendors to see what the interest level is because if it gets to be a lot then we'll you know have to probably uh be selective or or cut it off at a certain point point is there any sort of fee that will be attached for the tables nope vendors will not be charged I guess my only comment is the tables are great but have you also considered doing like it talks at various times that's not something we' considered in a different room if there's some of this stuff you really want to focus on where you can say like at 9 then at 9:30 and 10 and 10:30 maybe different people get a chance to present yeah that's an idea we had not considered so I think that's that's great I will comment that the the the categories are diverse in terms of the the types of vendors we want to share the space with us are we at all thinking about um not necessarily child care but in terms of activities for Littles potentially with um as we thinking about like schools or partner nonprofits or organizations that are going to come yeah yep uh with I've thought there's some ideas based on what other cities have done um I mean we could have Recreation Department program some activities such as a coloring contest we could see about partnering with a gardening club or the Master Gardeners for a planting gardening activity um can reach out to the library about potential Partnerships um yeah there's a lot of lot of opportunities for potential Partnerships so if you think of anything um please feel free to share can get a good list going and then start connecting with them yeah and just seeing um University of Minnesota on the under the government or the schools May reminded me of a thing I took our oldest to in May it was all about bugs but they have Boo for um apiary and all sorts of different things so in terms of drilling down natural resources to this piece is I like seeing U ofm on there because you could go tons of different ways with the you yes I wonder thinking about that I wonder should we consider the science it's a great suggestion kind of do that kind of I'm sure they have Outreach ready to go too which would easier yeah good idea I don't know if they do it but one that's top of mine under the Garden or natural resources Minnesota native landscapes thoughts okay great well thank you Hannah um we will um continue to Pro provide input and share with you offline of any additional ones that we might might think of yes please okay thank you moving ahe head uh another Memo from Hannah about our food scraps pickup and how that roll out has been going yes I've got a just a brief update for new Commissioners that may be unfamiliar with the program this is a curbside food scraps recycling program it's a joint program between Ramsey and Washington counties this allows residents to recycle food scraps right from their home so all that residents have to do is create an account with food scraps pickup program either online or by phone order a free annual supply of bags you have to use their compost bags and then you start collecting food scraps uh every week or when your bag is full uh all you have to do is uh put the food scraps bag in your uh trash hauler bin your curbside trash hauler bin and then the hauler takes them away all trash in um Ramsey count or in Washington County has to go to the r& center and the count the communities that are currently participating in the program the uh quite a few number of cities they all direct Hall to the recycling and energy center in Newport and then at the r& center robots have been trained to pick out the food scraps bags from the the trash stream and then all those food scraps are sent to an industrial Compost Facility the program became available to Oakdale residents in April of this year since then just over 9% of Oakdale households are participating the program has a goal of 10% of households in a given Community are participating by year one so oakdale's very close to reaching that goal just within 6 months do any Commissioners have questions or comments about food scraps pickup program I'll continue to get probably updates at six-month increments to see how we're doing I had a question about the participation rate how how is that determined it's based on who has created an account and ordered a supply of bags and then I believe after one year they um they will track who's reordering a bag so you know based on it only being available for 6 months and the data that they collect some people might have created an account order to free annual Supply bags and then decided it wasn't for them and are no longer participating but 9% of households in Oakdale have created an account and made an initial order okay so hopefully they're they're sticking with it oh that's some commitment to order something so and and do we know what data is available from the robots I mean can they can they tell how many bags are picked up from Oakdale for example or I think once it goes to r& Center all the haulers just dump their trash on one tipping floor and then you won't really be able to tell from there um but but they do collect data about you know how much is being picked out by the robots the volum yeah who's responsible for the tracking that is the food scraps pickup program so they've got staff from each County Ramsey Washington County and then there's staff who work for the r& center that also are um they work on this program so those those folks uh handle all the tracking do you know if they're going to consider um using their database of people that signed up to contact those folks and do any kind of polling or question question them I believe that they would I believe they're sending out surveys after you've been participating for a year that would be interesting information yeah and then it looks like phase three just began this month yes do we know roughly which other cities are on board like or it's quite a few yeah quite a few more in Washington County no more Ramsay County um communities were added in this last roll out and I think there's only five communities left in Washington County that are not participating um I believe the rest of the counties if you look at the attachment the ones in blue and orange they do not direct Hall to the r Center so they the county and the program has to figure out how to handle those transfer stations um and I don't know that they have a a strict timeline for when the rest of those communities would roll out but most of Washington count is now able to participate that's great thanks there questions or comments for food scraps it's exciting yeah within 1% we're almost there we're almost there and then Communications will continue to um promote it on social media in our newsletter when space is available at inperson events great thank you yeah moving uh right along I think to new business looks like first up and only up I should say is a preliminary discussion on our draft 2025 commission work plan Hannah had sent us a memo and an overview but would you like to set the stage yes I can set the stage um so the main purpose of this time uh during this meeting is to open up discussion about the draft 2025 work plan every year the EMC puts together a work plan that helps guide the commission's work and guides meetings um the work plan details specific actions and how they relate to the broader city of Oakdale 2040 comprehensive plan um so hopefully you've had time to review um the memo and the attachments and think about ideas for the 2025 work plan um nothing has been drafted at this point I just wanted to have a conversation a discussion about um items that maybe would be carried over from 24 new items uh new items and priorities for 2025 so um I'll open it up and have a discussion about 2025 yeah thanks I think just for context helpful for me to even say context in the past some commission or comp plan specific themes I would say have kind of helped Drive kind of our action areas and so from an alignment perspective um you know we've centered looking back on three years I think energy weatherization was a few years ago and then we had water Watershed and recycling I think I might be mixing a couple of themes but and then I think this past year has been a continuation and building on those things that are working the best with another um increase in say education and Community awareness for what we're doing so just helping us guide the work those are some things we've thought about in the past what are others thinking about about priorities for this commission well just one thing I noticed in the description of of the activities is they're very active verbs so it it doesn't really it's something that appears to maybe have started but it also potentially is something that we need to continue doing so I mean if you look at this there's there's already a lot here so if this is something we need to just kind of keep doing Gathering data and doing doing other things such as that um a lot of this I would think we would carry over unless there truly is anything that we can say is done which possibly not um I guess that would be my only common is it looks like a good plan and probably something we just need to continue to to you know pick pick at and yeah work on these specific things yeah even some of the ones that are in green are just a year-to-year yeah you know for example the the the first one you know continuing to analyze the opportunity to transition one or more city fleet vehicles to um electric Alternatives those are just a continued effort I I'm not sure how I I don't have a well formed sort of idea of what the initiative would be but with the um uh the new bus system coming is is there any um any item in our work plan that we want to sort of dedicate to that because there not really a specific you know mass transit or or Transit at all um kind of a kind of an item um I'm not exactly sure how to formulate it in terms of the work plan but if others have some ideas of how to What's the timing on the start I'm not up to speed on that when are they going to be I 202 yes 2025 March 2025 is when they'll be in service so I think they're nearing completion of construction yes I don't know exactly when they'll wrap that up and then the winter will be spent testing and training drivers that sounds like something we should be on top of then yeah how how to how to structure it I I don't know but um well is there already part of this City you know government that's that's involved there that we could just see what they're doing or or I know Community Development and Engineering meets with uh met Council and Metro Transit fairly regularly to get updates um I don't I mean is somebody going to do what he's suggesting or is that something that should be us helping with that I guess it it kind of depends how it's framed and I I know for there's a a trail plan for our parks and things like that that obviously have some reference to this um that's probably an important component of it I'm not sure if there's anything we can suggest for a you know Environmental Management perspective to sort of encourage that or better somehow I almost think from an alignment perspective and maybe I'm not fully understanding the concept but would there be a way to maybe given these prior our standing and potentially future priorities to align them internally with the work of a Community Development commission so we know where the intersectionality is across various things and so we're more privy to oh maybe that is something we should pay attention about in you know context with other commissions leading it or if we're ever a sounding board I don't know but that could be one way to visually think about that without adding too much staff time yeah and another um framing of it is Communications about the benefits of public transit and you know reducing greenhouse gas emissions and well at the end of the day this is an environmental project basically yeah I guess it's more that I just don't know who kind of who in that scheme of that is it is it something we can or should be helping with I guess is my question well even something as simple as maybe um having um like like I know in in talking about with my wife she said hey great we're gonna take this bus down to downtown and you know have dinner some night and and maybe there's a way through the town website or the city website or something to suggest you know um EXC you know kind of to build awareness and build um kind of get people to try to use it even if they may not forc to use yeah yeah so some some kind of thing that would I I guess be oriented towards improving the U awareness and usage of of this resch source and to your point Mr gery may may be good to coordinate with others to make sure we're not overlapping or get other ideas and how it might be appropriate for our commission yeah other thoughts I think another good point might be to focus on Energy Efficiency and Renewables um you know just thinking about my neighborhood a lot of our houses are older might not be up to that level I mean leaky Windows poor insulation stuff like that we're lowering those energy bills or getting the newer up-to-date Technologies in their houses to help lower their efficient or lower uh energy costs and in turn you know promoting uh you know conservation and that effect as well I think that's something to keep a good foot on the ground with just focusing on that as well I think would be a good point yeah that's a whole section of the the ecoair and that would be a great you could just have them in one room for like three hours talk I mean there's enough people there to talk about what's necessary in the programs and um you know if you can get a free energy audit for your home things like that it's a those are great but I'm not sure people are aware really if they are told they like right to their face this is easy sign up maybe then they'll they'll actually do it great IDE question about the green step green step stuff in green again uh how do we have a sense on how many talking about items and actions that are goals that carry over from year to year specifically for green step do we have a sense on how many how many of these carry over without much reporting or programmatic changes I'm trying to get to my head around like where can we most help how do we prioritize certain things and there may not be anything because a lot of it's just kind of in play and everything but I'm just curious how would we think about prioritizing something you're talking about the for for green step areas that might need oh maybe if we had a little bit more time or thought into this one little area from a commissioner or commission perspective if we knew about it would we you know for this is a maybe not the right choice of worri would would would or could each of us collectively or individually Champion something yep put some focus on something right right coming behind each of these items there's a commissioner a name of somebody who's actually in charge of each of these things no no there's not no because that's always the problem is who's leading the show and again going to them and saying this is maybe what we could do to help you do you want help if not go to the next person on the list yep but without knowing kind of who's who kind of stock so yes I agree and that's something chair ging and I chatted a little bit about um regarding the work plan is do we want to think about assigning a champion other cities commissions environmental commissions specifically do this uh just to keep things moving and it helps um create accountability throughout the year so we're not just putting it on the shelf and then revisiting it in October and November and the beginning of 2025 and then it just kind of right for example a few years ago I I'll just continue the word idea of championed um single use plastic Plastics you know with our retailers and whatnot and it led me on a a beautiful conversation with St Louis Park the City of Evanston Illinois and Wier Lake but I I couldn't sustain the work so because I didn't know where to kind of go with it so and things like that doesn't have to be formal by any means yeah I like the the idea of having sort of a champion on on these things I I don't know if there's a lot of a lot of U items right and I'm not sure if um how many things an individual could Champion there there's there's actually quite a few maybe we find a way to match the interest of Commissioners with particular items so you don't have to have 18 things you're championing no then we're not Champion you pass two yeah you're in a different world um the other thing and I agree with you but the other thing I would I would be interested in is what is the city of Oakdale most interested in again and and what would they be having some of their staff actually working on again that we could help or reinforce to actually push something over the line versus they're doing some stuff we're doing some stuff and you can do stuff but if you don't have enough power it it's never going to actually happen um so that would be my other question is what of these items is actually again are there people inside the city who are actually that's my job or I'm on that committee or whatever that again we could go and say which of these many things if we if we had to pick five or six or something which of those would would Oakdale want us to look at and help them with yep once we have a draft 2025 work plan there will be an opportunity to um have a a conversation with city council um in in the beginning of 2025 so that would be a good time to have that collaborative conversation between city council and you and identify some priorities so everything can be on on the work plan it's been the other thing that comes to mind too in terms of this the collaborative of bringing people along in each other's work um knowing roles right knowing accountabilities is that this work doesn't we know this work doesn't exist in silos and um you know as Oakdale thinks about all this 2050 and Beyond you know my head goes to met Council and their 2050 plan and what are other cities in Washington County doing what's Washington County doing and how are we plugging into all that so such a large part of what we do rests on education and I'm wondering what what it could look like or what Commissioners would think about having a again if it's a printed piece or something to go along with this work plan some sort of maybe it isn't green or black but a different color or something to lens the work um so that we know City to city city to County County to Regional we're part of a larger system and this is our piece of that we have to nurture and take care of there's a way to lens all that again without having too much staff time but I don't know what do we all think what do we all think about that are are you um just trying to understand how how how you would imagine it going is it kind of like in the current Table where there's comp plan relevance to have other colums with Washington County relevance and right that kind of thing right yeah so visually it would look the same it would just be kind of another if if this is the format or not it'd be just another layer of understanding to all of this so people could kind of oh I am connected to my county and met Council because of this and okay that's that's important can I ask a question about adopt a drain yes how's that been going we haven't had any water in a month you know that's a fair answer are we talking Commissioners going out and cleaning those drains or just Citywide do we think that people are adopting drains and clearing them probably a little bit of both I guess more of just the past work of this commission kind of supporting this informal formal dire you know commitment of the city I know we've promoted on social media to encourage people to sign up when I've looked at the you can see all the adoptable drains on a map on um the adopted drain website it it looks like there are a lot of unadopted drains um I know other cities have had Citywide adopted drain maybe one day events not saying that's what we need to do but I know others cities have um done specific things to try and ramp up people's um commitment to it and attention to it so that you know have a big event once then people maybe will continue to think about it or adopt a drain themselves that they will on a monthly basis clean um but I think there are a lot of unadopted drains so if if that's something we want to think about how to encourage participation um you know a lot of the and I don't know if they're within the city because some of the uh streets are I know County or who who runs them but um where you can adopt a street to clean it if we could Factor the drains in so just let the people know whove said we'll clean this you know the sides of the street um if they would also do just include the drain and then we could automatically get because I think they clean maybe twice a year usually you know it's like a community a development goes and does their Main Street the sweeping and yeah and they well they pick up trash you see the orange bags or the pink bags and that way if there's drains that you know are part of those streets that are already sort of spoken for they could just kind of slide that in and yeah they're probably doing it anyway potentially as they're walking by with their or they're so focused on the just the trash they don't if we could just again I don't know if there's many in that that situation but that's a POS build right I do think that would be a good potential idea for the ecoair maybe have some sort of sign up spot for adopting a drain I mean just you know getting people there having a map showing say just a big map yeah show them all the available drains to clean if there's one or two in your neighborhood like I have plenty in my neighborhood so I know that there's probably a bunch more just you know getting the word out there would be you know great and probably easy at that event so just one potential way to look at it yeah I know um at the State Fair the Eco experience with the state fair they've had them and you could sign up right there and I've actually done it through the state through the the Eco experience at the state fair so um it's definitely someone to add to the list because I don't believe I had them but that's a great idea that's a great idea awesome for can you comment maybe a question about back to uh your your point about action words in terms of how we describe the work um what section what section am I in other applicable 2040 talking about water conservation chapter 8 goal 2 last bullet point I acknowledge it is in Black the color so we're only supposed to focus on green but what do we mean with when we say revive conversations with Washington South Washington County District um that would it's a great question I believe uh previous chair Miller um had said that there had been conversations prior to covid about some project surrounding Armstrong um but I think Co might have stalled that out so I think um my memory it was reach out to them to see if that's something that they were interested in Reviving and going forward with again and I think from my memory that was something that the Waterside District had initiated or was kind of leading or taking charge I don't think that was a project we were going to do it's just we were involved in conversations about a Outland restoration project thanks that might be good to it sounds like an awareness says understand yeah and then the other word I guess I'm stuck on is engaging businesses or um multif family I know we've we've that's been green we've had that for I want to say years I guess my question is how how has that looked how could it look different are things not happening what would we like like to see more of from the city's lens I think um it's been a a staff capacity thing in terms of why that hasn't really moved forward so um either it should rise to the top of the priority list or um maybe it's even beneficial to have some more specific action items that you know break break it down a little bit and kind of figure out what we actually want that to look like yeah and maybe not have it so vague cuz then otherwise it'll just kind of keep maybe sitting there unaccomplished well that's actually the why I made my comment about what does oakal want because whatever they're currently staffed to try to do is what's that's the minimum that's going to happen or the maximum so it's kind of like you know we can we can provide maybe extra help with that to get those things potentially even just done and off the list and then go to something else but if no one is working on it because they don't have staff that's that's like a miracle if you know we were going to step in so i' I'd look for the things that are written just need a little push see if we could we could be the push other comments on work plan great well uh next steps Hannah what would those be all take we talked about um put together a draft 2025 plan um carry over a lot of the same items U maybe think about how to kind of work that the Gold Line Transit into something that um makes sense for EMC um and then at the November meeting we will discuss that once that's in writing and then um in 2025 we will bring that draft plan to a dinner with city council and then once um that conversation's happened and if there's additional changes to make um that will occur and then it'll be formally approved at a following meeting in 2025 by you great thank you um let's see moving on to excuse me other business we've got our next up review of our editorial calendar yes you Hannah I'll start with the editorial calendar and once we finish up conversation about Communications content I'll provide just a few Community Development updates um so the theme for October is Energy Efficiency there was already a post about this theme at the beginning of October um it promoted available resources for making your home home more energy efficient um there probably won't be another Energy Efficiency post before the end of the month um any available social media space for envir mental content um will likely be focused on the pumpkin recycling that will be available at City Hall and then the theme for November is reuse and recycling um we can push the food scraps pickup program again um and then find more room for Content um to do with reuse and recycling whether that's the Environmental Center and just reminding people of all the things that you can bring there or how to properly recycle batteries um so those are some options and then theme for December's low waste holidays um again food scraps pickup program could be promoted um there's a lot of food waste around the holidays um I think last year we had some posts about uh wrapping paper and um there's usually some content that we can put out to do with holidays do Commissioners have any comments or [Music] ideas the pump will the pumpkin can drop off just be like a big card or something you come by and do the scraps folks have some type of display that they could leave there because if somebody's going to come with a pumpkin that's just a really big food scrap right I app I don't know if it's going to the pig farm or whatever but it I mean in a way there's somebody who might be interested specifically in the food scraps if they're bringing a pumpkin maybe to have that there so they could it's like a cross promotional thing just to be like hey heads up food scraps something where they don't have to uh devote a person who could just randomly be there but to leave something that will be okay to be by itself and then have people be able to pick a bag up or yeah I can I can talk to them about ways to kind of promote that with pumpkin recycling but yes um I can skip ahead I was going to give an update about the pumpkin recycling um this is once again going to be an option um for Oakdale and Washington County residents the dumpster will be in the same spot it was last year which is on the North End of the Walton City Hall Parking Lot up by the the pin wheel baseball pin wheel um this will be available 247 from October 28th to November 12th so Washington County handles dropping off the big dumpster they've got signage and they handle taking it away I can't remember what they said last year about how many tons or you know the weight of the pumpkins but it was pretty pretty good I know they've been expanding the number of drop offs so I think it had actually decreased from the year before but but that was just because there was more options for residents throughout the county so they had other other options that were closer to them but just give that little update about pumpkin recycling any other comments about editorial calendar Communications content it's fairly robust as presented um it's probably too soon to talk about the ecoair so I'll hold that real estate till calendar 2025 but not lose sight of that yes any other comments on editorial calendar that's good great and then I just have a couple more updates just general Community Development updates um um first the fall cleanup event was about a month almost exactly a month ago it was very successful we had over 300 cars that drove through um I haven't received all the details from vendors regarding how much waste we collected but once I have that information I'll be able to to provide an update to the MC and then lastly there are still home energy Squad rebates available for residents um so we just have to get the word spread that that there's um those rebates available um you know it's a super easy process in terms of using the rebate and um it's very streamlined through their the home energy squads website so just making a a plug for that because it's been about six months since we rolled out those rebates so there some are being used but there's still Lots left and that's all I have great thank you now I think we move to our cul on update at the moment ready all right mayor zvo the floor is yours well thank you Mr chair nice to be with you all again um Hannah took most of my talking points so uh community cleanup day as she said tremendous success I want to say a very big thank you to Hannah and everybody at Public Works um it rained that day it was a little cold it was still a huge success um we got so much positive feedback from our residents about bringing back this opportunity for the first time in almost 15 years um we know the ton stats are going to be off the charts people were bringing entire trailer full um I think some guy even brought a semi of stuff you know um it was pretty incredible um also just from the environmental aspect getting all that stuff to where it needs to go to be properly disposed of is huge surprisingly a lot of tube TVs were still in Oakdale that was a little surprising to see um so it's nice to get that stuff um a big thank you to all of our partners as well um I think the the people that did the mattresses the electronics um there were a lot of people playing a role in that in that event and we are I'm going to go on a limb and say we're going to keep this going so there's a lot more um out there to be cleaned up uh a quick plug for elections so early voting uh is taking place here at City Hall during regular business hours um City Hall will also be open for extended hours Saturday and Sunday before election day so if you want to go ahead and and get your vote cast you can come down here to City Hall regardless of what Precinct you live in you can do it right here at City Hall um City Hall will also be open for early voting Monday November 4th during business hours now if you are voting on Tuesday November 5th you do need to go to your signed Precinct polling location you can find that specific location I don't think any of them changed this year from two years ago but just to be sure check out mnvotes.org um I forgot my prop the city recently launched our community survey this week um this is something we do every few years just to get feedback from our residents how are we doing on you know in relation to city services what areas can we grow into and expand um lots of great feedback the city council takes it very seriously as we're looking at budgets and strategic planning for our city um it is a randomized survey meaning your household may or may not get a yellow postcard like this inviting you to participate if you do get one of these yellow postcards do not share it with anybody uh the link on there is um specific to your household um but please take 5 10 minutes and provide that feedback it is very helpful for us um it is it's a snapshot into our our community and what our residents think but we use it for years on end so it's very important feedback um a couple development updates it's been very busy in that area we broke ground officially on our Public Works facility uh 32nd in Granada about a week ago this is this is a big milestone for that project um we've been talking about it and working on it for about six years now um there have been a lot of uh benchmarks along the way you know local sales tax design uh environmental cleanup at the site as you may know it was a former 3M dumping site so to go through the full Remediation in Brownfield program through npca took a long time but we're very excited that it's all cleaned up and construction will be starting there uh now I I saw equipment out there today um we also cut the ribbon on the new willbrook Commons park in the willbrook neighborhood 38th in Henna Avenue um hu huge moment of Pride for our community our first fully accessible Park awesome to have another performance space in our community um a lot of brand new park amenities it's our first park for families in about 20 years justy 20 years um we had the Bark Park uh put in seven or so years ago so our furry friends you know they're important too but um this is the first of three parks in the willbrook neighborhood um also you know it coincides with all of the the park studying um that we're doing around the entire city we're taking a look at all 28 parks in Oakdale um so all of this work is kind of coming you know together at the same time which is pretty cool so um in addition to that it's you know we're still in budget time um we've set our preliminary preliminary Levy here in the city so we cannot go higher than that I believe we set it at 6.1% um always you know anytime it's a positive number it's higher than we would like but you know our city is growing we have to do what we can to keep our staff here um we're continuing to work through our budget to trim off as much as we can before we adopt it on December 10th I believe um but you know we are we are very proud of our budget as as we've worked for many years to cut our debt service in the city so you know using more cash to pay for things like equipment and vehicles um that has alleviated a lot of financial pressures in our city so um we're feeling pretty good about those strategic um budgeting tactics that we've taken over the last few years we're seeing the dividends paid now so um all in all things are rolling right along so we have three City Council meetings Four City Council meetings left this year so the year is wrapping up and we'll have some new faces in January and a lot of exciting things happening but I am happy to answer any questions you may have none all righty thank you thank you well we have come to the time where this concludes the October 21st uh 2024 meeting of oakdale's Environmental Management commission uh as we move to adjournment I will look for a motion to adjourn this meeting moved that what I'm supposed to say yeah although let me back up I didn't ask for any commissioner updates naughty we are on the discussion of the vote so we could go back fine okay thanks Robert's Rules we'll go back before we close do any uh Commissioners have updates for great we're now at the point of the meeting thank you to move to adjournment can I get a motion to adjourn tonight's October 21st 2024 meeting of the EMC please mov second second thank you all in favor of AD journeying tonight's meeting say I I I opposed great thank you