[Music] call the meeting to order all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all R call all members are present approval of the agenda we have one addition under unfinished business
8D um parking on First Street we need to discuss that so when we get to that point is there um any other changes Council have anything okay do I
have a motion to approve the agenda with that addition motion to approve motion by Heidi do I have a second second Joel Second by Joel call the question all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppos
motion carries five in favor none against approval of the minutes of the February 5th 2025 regular meeting I'll receive them in your packet is there any changes or clarification needed within
those minutes uh one change uh the account consent agenda portion item d uh they have the abstain for mayor stone that was actually I abstained on that one yep when Vicky and I noted that one before the meeting so that will be changed okay all right that's fine
though thank you means you're reading your units any other changes do I have a motion to approve the February 5th 2025 regular meeting with that change so move motion by Scott do I have a second I'll
second second by Heidi call the question all those in favor signify by say I I I oppose motion carries five in favor none against this now brings us to our public open forum is there anyone that would like to speak
to the council is there anyone that would like to speak to the councel call a third time is there anyone that would like to speak to the councel our public open forum is
closed we have no public hearings we'll move on to reports and presentations Police Department monthly report Joel good evening everyone uh we got the monthly report for January uh
2025 uh the total was 770 icrs now some of the highlights of them uh we had six total crashes property damage crashes uh which is f normal for January with icy roads and
people banging into it so those six are ones that happened on the roadway there were a handful of private like Walmart curns parking lot ones we respond to we don't report those as state accent reports those are more of like matter information collecting property damage
information for them uh three people are asked for disorderly conduct throughout the month uh when you see the mark reports those are those are reports that come from the state regarding uh vulnerable adult reports um we work in conjunction
with stent SC Human Services and conduct those investigations with them so you'll see we had five of those um responded uh medical emergency uh and lift assist we try to combine those 26 of those um ordinance violation those are
going to be the parking tickets that we wrote uh one sexual assault one school bus stop arm violation those are up for the previous month uh five thefts uh all those thefts were retail store ones I
looked before um eight welfare checks um a couple stalled Vehicles some of those due to the cold that we assisted with standing by till the tot truck came and got them uh so if you look at the numbers I mean 700 70 kind of on power
we've been the last couple years that in that time in that average range there um of the uh ticket or the the traffic stops say 327 60 of those were about it's not in the your list but I we figured a way out how to break that down 60 of those were citations so not a lot
of Citation for M of contact a lot of warnings out there giving people more education and else uh parking has been pretty good as far as the winter parking rules go um maybe one or two a night maybe um the snow we got a couple weeks
ago the guys were out when Ben had the plows coming out the guys end up knocking on I think three doors that one night and got them moved so we didn't have to to or knocking on the doors at 2: in the morning to prevent people having to pay a big tow bill um so that's been pretty good um other than
that in January uh we spent a lot of time in January February doing a lot of our online mandatory trainings to try to get those the way when it's like the last week here it's been cold we try to crack out our online trainings and get some of that stuff uh the in-host stuff
done uh also in January we did have we got a with our new RMS program system we eventually we're going to go to a digital evidence uh log where our evidence right now we write everything on evidence tags anding our evidence
room uh we got with this new program at no cost to us basically a digital scanner style so when we get a piece of evidence it'll be digital it'll get a barcode digitally scanned and they'll be put away from paper and we're get it'll be in the computer we're a couple months out from it actually working because
they gave us the software but there's no one to train us on it yet so we're waiting for that to happen any questions on any any of that any questions okay thank you Public Works monthly report
Ben good evening May and Council uh this past month month outdoor rink the building and Ice have been maintained and available for use each day with the warm weather coming up next week that's likely going to melt through the ice pretty quickly so we're probably looking at uh the end of the season towards the
end of next week next weekend we did have to put a new water pump on the Zam at the outdoor ring so that's done and working again the arena we have the last scheduled event coming up on March 1st uh this weekend we have one more tournament and then after that we'll start to remove the ice that following
week and get the compressor shut down and get it turned over for dry floor events we had several snow events to clean up from this past month we also had the trucks out just routinely uh putting sand down on the icy spots throughout town and then plowing back drifts as they came across in our normal
problem spots the tool cap we had a CV shaft that needed to be removed and repaired so we got that done no other major equipment issues to work uh to work on everything else is working as expected we did have one warm week that caused some melting water back up in a
few of our storm sewer pipes so those pipes were thawed got the water flowing again then we also serviced our jedar so that it's ready to uh to go likely next week we'll be using that heavy again as the snow starts to melt Senior Center we did have a sewer back up in the building
over a weekend there was something plugged in the line not sure what that was but we did get the blockage cleared and the sewer has been working just fine ever since then fish cleaning station has seen frequent use throughout the winter here we maintain that on a weekly basis we did some prep work for the
snowmobile races to help out with that and then lastly just one of the other things we kind of work on is looking at preventing unnecessary injuries we uh fabbed up a manhole removal tool bought a big magnet it's about 100 bucks Fab
the tool up ourselves to utilize it they're about 1,500 bucks if you'd buy them so that's that's been good so far we'll be using that when the storm sewer stuff starts coming up here but any questions I can answer
questions okay I guess thank you ambulance department fourth quarter and annual report Kathy good evening mayor and Council I'm here for the fourth quarter report and then the year end report for
2024 so fourth quarter report for October we had 20 no loads eight ALS transfers 30 BLS transfers plus an additional excuse me 28 scheduled dialysis
transfers 46 medical calls of which seven were ALS Medicals for a total of 132 runs and activities for the month that compares to 83 from last year and 48 10 years ago for that same month of those 132 for this
year total that were build out 110 for $148,100 for November we had 21 no loads five ALS transfers 16 BLS transfers plus an
additional 16 schedule dialysis transfers and 45 medical calls two of those were ALS Medicals for a total of 87 runs and activities that compares to 75 last year and 66 10 years ago and the
87 for November of 2024 total build out was 66 for a total of 8,839 for December we had 19 no loads five ALS transfers and 18 BLS transfers um 39 medical calls seven of
those were ALS so we had 81 runs and activities that compares to 79 in 20123 and 56 10 years ago but of the 83 for December of 2024 we build out 57 for a total of
822373 179 um on your spreadsheet there is a mathematical error I didn't have the correct numbers for the columns for the BLS transfers and the build calls because I had those ALS numbers added in
there so I I took the sum didn't you know the some thing out so it didn't add them up so should be 238 for the bottom of BLS transfers for the year total of 238 and 795 build calls for
2024 33 of those 190 or 795 or ALS calls so we're utilizing our ALS license or Medics they're able to um do most of our ALS transfers and then if there not on call but available and something serious
comes in they respond to um make see if it can be ALS if they can utilize their services and help somebody out with some pain meds or something if it's something requiring that um your cancel no loads you can see the totals I have numbered totaled up
there and as usual crash vehicle crashes um is one of the highest snow loads that we have followed by the falls and lift assists we go and help somebody up and they're not injured um special details public relations for the fourth quarter we did
School CPR in the high school for the fall semester we did a career day at the sock Center High School we did an overview of the EMT jobs how to get licensed to become an EMT and did equipment demonstrations Holy Family School we did
the wellness enrichment class for the fifth and sixth graders where we show them basic CPR first aid choking Naran and defibrillator some more equipment demonstrations trying to get in the schools a little bit more to let the kids know what the empt life's all about
and try to get them interested in EMS uh Mutual aid for the fourth quarter for Melrose we did four ALS transfers to St Cloud one ALS transfer to Abbott Northwest one Medical Mutual Aid that we took to mol's hospital did
one fire standby for them we assisted on one crash where we took a patient to melrose's hospital and one medical where we were cancelled we did Mutual aid for North Memorial two Medicals taken to Alec hospital and one medical cancell for Central cars we did uh Mutual Aid
transfers from St Cloud to Prairie St John's Long Prairie to Wilmer and then two cancelled transfers One Long Prairie to Wilmer one Wilmer to prair St John's and then for Long Prairie ambulance we had one medical where we were cancelled before we got
there ALS transfers that we had to give up due to unavailability we had 11 of them for the fourth quarter like I said we uh we always check with Melrose to see if Melrose has a medic available if we're not and they do the same so we kind of try to work back and forth with
Melrose both of us being part-time ALS to help each other out with that so that's the end of the fourth quarter for the overview for the year 2024 I've got the graph for the age bracket you can see um the biggest
percentage of our patients were between the ages of 60 to 69 was almost 20% of our patients and then 70 to 79 and 80 to 89 we're both 14.87% so that's the next highest groups that we are out there
helping out day of the week the busiest day of the week was Thursday had over 177% of our calls on Thursdays followed by Tuesdays and goes down from there Sunday
is generally the quietest day of the week time of day 7 in the morning to 8 in the morning is the highest peak there you can see that was quite a few percentage there pretty high on the graph and then
um 12: noon till 1:00 in the afternoon is the second highest so anywhere between 11: in the morning and 7:00 at night is where the majority of our calls come in in that that time frame and then I have the townships that we
serve and even some of these are the mutual Aid calls we went on so um sock Center township is the biggest Township that we uh respond to and birchdale Koda and West Union townships are pretty high on the ground
ra as well as Getty Township Ashley Township I've got them color coded so you can see what uh County that they're in the the maroon ones are Todd County blue ones are pop County we just serve a small portion of Pop County so we don't go there very often then I've
got all the other towns listed too little sock city of El R Roa how often we go there West Union OAS Westport and Greenwald so that's where we're going what we're doing lot of transfers so we're still
putting on a lot of miles on our rigs trying to stay warm in these cold snaps any questions for me on the quarterly or the year end just one question yeah I'm sorry just one quick question that's not a misprint though
really for the patient age range and years it's exactly the same in all runs if you're 70 to 79 9 or 80 to 89 okay what was that again the age yeah ageet yeah they're they're they both say you've had 156 runs for both age
brackets yeah it came out to the same percent so yeah I think it was what 14.8 s wow that just catches me quite unique all right yeah just pretty coincidental I guess yeah it is over the course of a
year yeah all right thank you okay thank you Kathy right thank you ambulance department annual billing collections good evening mayor and Council um for the 2024 billing and
collection uh report uh we had our most challenging year ever uh since we had to switch billing companies uh this report's going to show that I had to estimate a lot because our old billing company um I just received the October report so I'm still waiting for November
and December so I apologize for that um we uh we build out 740 uh medical calls uh totaling uh 1, 22377 180 uh worth of uh ambulance billing we
collected approximately $ 54,2 2580 and I did break down where those monies uh came from which billing company and then also the other Revenue sources uh we still approximately have
uh 70525 3 uh .22 worth of outstanding billing um and I show uh the breakdown where those are located on on the two billing
companies um do have to know that a lot of times it takes up to a year to uh finalize the payments on these so that's why that number is quite a bit High uh I am going
to be asking the council to adjust $320,900 91 uh these are uh Med or uh Insurance adjustments usually from Medicare Medicaid they're federally and state
mandated adjustments um and that's my report any questions I can help you with yeah being new on who is so who's the new building and who was the old building okay uh expert billing was our old billing okay uh and we hired in June
uh emmc they're out of Winston Salem North Carolina okay thank you how quick is the turnaround from from a call to the patient receiving a bill uh usually uh
about two weeks oh it usually goes through the insurance companies sure so the patient might not know that for actually a couple months is EMS the same building that our neighboring uh ambulance Department's
use yeah um Melrose uses them and they they recommended uh them to us looking for billing companies and there's a bunch of uh uh Minnesota companies or ambulance services that left expert building to go to uh emmc gotcha thank
you any other questions concerns okay thank you okay thank you fire department annual annual report jeffing mayor and Council uh this is for the 20124 annual report um so response
calls uh we had six structure fires compared to six in 2023 uh we had nine grass fires same as in 2023 uh we had 41 rescue and medical calls and we had 42 in 2023 V vehicle accidents and fires uh we
had 23 and 2023 was also 23 uh gas smoke and alarm calls was 21 and 2023 was 16 uh the false canceled calls was 47 and 2023 was 40 service calls was 15 and
2023 was uh 12 um and the response calls build was $2,585 uh from 2023 we uh received some $1,437 and then for 2024 we received
$6,150 unpaid so far is $2,460 and then uh some write offs collections was $3,840 we have grants reimburses donations uh from tax interent Fire Relief $40,000 donation uh Terry Brooks
of 200 missile National Bank of 440 missile National agency of 100 the lies of $100 up aside landscape uh there was a donation but they actually requesting a payment now so we will be paying them so
um Senator Oto Incorporated uh they did work on the Reel um they donate $300 some of that labor for towards that uh Joseph and Elizabeth KN house was $75 West Union C uh cabinet uh Charities or
combined Charities was $50 and Community connections $500 so a total total uh donations was $ 42,1 33 we had uh 2024 we had three firefighters retired um and we also hired three firefighters in
2024 and for 2025 we have four retirees uh uh one is salary retire in February and then we have three more uh march here and then we have three already to that is going through uh fight fighter one and two in Hazmat right now and so
they will be coming out in March here any questions you going to have one you're going to have to advertise for n we wait probably next January we do have another retire that's probably going to go in January 2025 so we like to hire two at a time so probably wait for that
open 2026 right or 26 yeah sorry okay thank you the last time we went out for advertising we ended up with like what 10 or 11 applications that's very good there a lot of towns are struggling so right y so nice Okay any questions or
concerns okay thank you thank you CVB annual report good evening um I gave you um my report so I'm just
going to highlight some uh things on the report and then um if you have questions I will certainly answer them um in 2024 uh some of the big things that happened was the snowfest was cancelled
due to unfavorable ice conditions um uh we had two large golf tournaments where we supplied welcome bags for the participants and the welcome bags usually have some kind of Swag uh for
sock Center it has a visitors guide it has uh possibly a keychain or a pencil and notepad something like that to with advertising on a for sock Center so people um take that home and hopefully
remember us um we had Sterns uh Corn Growers uh for golf tournament well it was 350 packets and then uh the Minnesota milk producers that was 60 um we put together 350 welcome packets for
uh the Eagles healing Nest um we reconstructed our website and social media we um received $5,000 from explor Minnesota for a
Grant um I updated the meeting brochure which I I gave as many copies as I had out and um we had two small meetings that uh I scheduled for magnify
Financial um unfortunately I had to turn one down for 350 people because I didn't have any facilities for that um we had uh two bus tours that came in and uh
visited the boyhood home and the history museum supplied 90 welcome packets to those uh we are members of the Chamber of Commerce CCL Foundation History Museum and Conservation Club and
um let's [Music] see I attended the uh Minnesota tourism conference from Explore Minnesota tourism and I attached the notes from that to to your
packet um as you can see I put in numbers for um how many visitor guides we sent out which was uh I think 67 or 6600 visitor guides that went out to
visitor centers uh from leads from uh Explore Minnesota tourism Canada uh meetings and tour groups um our attendance on Facebook was
up to 101% from the year before uh next year um I'd like to work on uh working with the Eda to research and and contact some hotel chains for possible new hotel here we're really
short on hotel rooms and um um are talking to our hotel owners and operators right now um they've had to turn people away especially during tournament time and anywhere from uh
Alexandria to uh monello uh hotels are filled and people certainly don't want to travel that far to come to a tournament so we're really short on on facility um we were down to six board
members and uh we just um um got uh news today that that uh Allison from babits would like to join the board and she's putting in a um application and several other people
we've contacted so we'll know more about that later and hopefully we'll just continue to advertise in Market sock Center for a destination and a welcoming place to move to any
questions questions I don't have no questions but I have comments um first of all thank you Pam I think it's a great report and I guess as the uh Council lay us on with the CVB um we had a meeting today correct
um I have been unfortunate to just not be able to be there because of my schedule so um but I want to ask the council is this what you're looking for or is there more information you'd like to see to me there's a lot of data here
there's 2025 goals there's examples of what type of advertising that's been done and um feedback is really important if there's something additional or more that you want I guess my question to you guys how
do you feel about this I think it looks good I I I think we were Miss Missing the goals from previous years to to know were was the CBB successful or was visit stock Center successful in their accomplishments throughout the year have did you meet your goals I mean
it looks like you have a great you put yourself in a great position for 25 yeah I mean I like the like the report here um certainly for me I like to read the stuff in advance so you know instead of getting it at the meeting it'd be nice to have this maybe a couple days like when when you sent the
financials it'd be nice to have the full report so I could read that in advance but um you know the report here is good and I know I had an opportunity to talk to Pam today I reached out to her on some questions I had from the cial side of things to get a more explanation so um I mean my questions were answered so
thank you anybody else I'm I'm happy with how this turned out because basically it shows transparency you know before there was a lot of questions about a lot of stuff that was going on that we
didn't know about and this way it brings us up to speed um I know originally there was a lot of when the CBB was first put together it was we're going to coordinate bus tours and we're
going to have conventions and everything I take it you're still doing that trying to get them here well we we we advertise in those venues but we don't have space for conventions we don't have hotel rooms we don't have
meeting spaces right uh we talked about that today at the at the board meeting and um one of the board members is going to talk to uh the eagle nest to see whether or not they are willing to use their Auditorium because they have side
rooms that you could break off into short groups that type of thing but we really don't have anything for for uh a 350 person convention but we don't also have hotel rooms for that right um one
thing I'd like to know is uh and this this has been talked about in our meetings too is um I would like to know when I get the report from the city um to break down the hotel um lodging tax so that I know what hotels
are involved in paying the lodging tax um I've I've had some conversations with several of the lodging facilities um and I know that uh advertising has not been on their venue
very much then my question is is how much work do I put in advertising for them uh I had a facility that wouldn't advertise in the herald um and when asked why said they didn't care and I'm
thinking I'm putting their logo and their information and QR codes for people to come there how much work am I putting into that when in fact I'm not they they won't join the
board um um and I've called them several times and asked for information and they just not forthcoming and and any of that so my question is is I would like to know for the next year where where is most of the lodging tax coming from what
facilities pay the lodging most of the lodging tax would jacn be able to do that would she be able to separate out and and kind of line by line a matter of public information we give them tax as the chunk of money that we
collect and according to what we be able to find out is it doesn't matter who pays it you're supposed to the community as a whole not based on who's paying you so if I can find a loophole that says it's public inform as to who
individually pays how much then I gladly give it out but we haven't been able to find where that is public okay and that's not necessarily going to change what I do but you know when I ask these
people for information and um guidance and advertising for them it's nice to know whether or not they are supporting what we're doing you know I think that's really
important it it seems and I think we at from your board level it's probably conversations there I mean Vicki's got a good point in reference to you know what's public and what's not that is a very critical part of the you know of
the of our process internally um but I do also think that the lodging tact is is part of any of our hotels and mul s have to pay a lodging tax so um I guess
I look at it this say is if you're staying in a hotel and sock Center you're paying lodging tax and you're getting your portion of it I think maybe what you're trying to ask Pam is a great question is is am I getting 80% from this place and 10% from here and you
know I mean where is it coming from you almost could see that just based on where the majority of the people are staying probably I don't I mean that's still not exact numbers for for you but um I do think there will be some confidentiality issues that we have to
probably work through to get you that information but one thing is I understand where she's coming from but like Vicki said it's it all gets thrown in one pot and it shouldn't make any difference if you are the
American and full every week or if you're a VRBO that's paying in and you only do it seven times a year I don't want us I want it as a whole
group on the advertising as a whole not well you only paid this much so I'm only going to do one at a year for you because you don't pay the percentage the American indas and to me I think that's the reason
why it's the way it is statutes making sure that it is one lump sum going in for you to work with and not this based on who you are and what you are so could be I don't have the answer to that but I
think it you know it's a it's a fair question all we can do is try to get a answer for Pam if we can or cannot do that yeah and I think Vicky V kind of stated as of right now we can't so yeah I think the goal is you mark Market the community and you know you do your best effort if they don't want to give you their information for their hotel just
say well it's available and I can you know if they're not willing to come to the table for you here's your name here's their website well they consumer you decide if you want to go to there they don't have anything to argue about if they don't give you the information right you know that's the way it's been
in sales forever yeah so it's a great it's I guess fantastic report thank you um I'm looking forward to finally get into a meeting here soon but um I think the council just as long as we give you
kind of what we're asking for and you bring the things like you're bringing tonight I I just think that goes a long ways so thank you okay anything else counil okay thank you bam that's it we'll move on to Planning Commission
report Sarah good evening um in your packets you have a copy of our um last meeting agenda from February 11th and I also want to follow up with the nuisance complaints um in November of 2024 I had a total of 42 on nuisance
complaints and 28 had been resolved um in December was the same number 42 we down to 31 have been resolved um I have four or five that have gone on to the City attorney we still have another Lakes Shore lot or two that we're working with and there'll be like a half
a dozen or so that'll carry over into the new year what and then you also have in the packet um a quarterly building permit value um the year end total we had $8.2
Million worth of construction and then I have underneath there the year end for 2023 we had 6.2 million and then I also have the comparison from 20 2020 to 2024 um you know the range is from 6.2 million to 8
18.9 you know the permits range from 132 to 258 per year so we just you know it's a moving Target every year um we also have the December building permits there's only a three of those issued there's like $34,000 in value of
that and then you also had the copy of the January 2025th 2025 um building permit value and the largest one is the in that one is the 1 .75 million for Tractor Supply so the month of January
we're at 1.8 million uh the other breakdown um we had the December and then January building permit reports uh during the month of December three permits are issued again the 34,000 a year ago in December um the
total construction value is 470,000 so it just varies what projects are coming in uh January 2025 10 permits were issued again that at 1.8 million and a year ago it was uh 1.5 million and then you did get a list of all of the zoning
permits for the entire year that was a kind of the lengthy spreadsheet in here and then we have the land use and Zoning requests that happened in 2024 um we have 19 of them and I kind of did a little breakdown of like zoning M
zoning map amendments there's two city code amends or two um East or vacations were four minor subdivisions or lot splits were four U variances were seven and the other little graph shows that from 2020 to 2024 they vary from 14 a
year to 27 a year to 9 a year 23 year 19 a year so it's like I said it's constantly moving Target with the presss that come in and we also have the de de demographics of population um the 2024 population number doesn't come out from
the state demographer office until July 25th but we have housing units as of the end of 2024 of of 1,972 so like 10 more than last year so just kind of a history from 2015
to current so is there any questions about that questions concerns can I keep speaking can I keep asking questions are you okay with it's the only way you're going to learn so
nice um I want to go back to your four nuisance pardon me your you said you have four nuisance violations that you're dealing with that have a carry over in 2025 from 2024 like maybe half a dozen four four are going to an attorney okay so um at what level uh to the
attorney and then what is the Invision of next steps you mean like when it goes to the attorney or the ones that are still the carry over well I'm concerned about the four that are going to the attorney and when are we going to find out from the
attorney or from what is going to be the timing on our next steps because it's a legal matter I I'm not comfortable addressing that at a public meeting okay then let me ask you it this way are there going to be next
steps I believe there will be okay I as a as a council member would just like to see us continue to move forward and not get bogged down into attorney letters and well we're waiting for a response and we're waiting for
response I'm not saying you are I'm just saying as a new board member to the city council um we can kick a can down the road for five years but we have to really in my opinion set set some timelines in some next steps if we have
to go to district court or we have to go somewhere then let's go I mean this this I'm I'm just giving you my opinion yep and that's kind of what the council's been working with because that's the reason why we increased the attorney
budget for the last two years to by $5,000 because we want this no more kicking the can down the road um the numbers she gave us yeah they're impressive but you I talking to the
cessor that's going around and the number of people that all of a sudden have an extra base bedroom in their basement and egress windows and there's not a permit pulled for any of it people are doing stuff left and right out there
and we're not a complaint driven City anymore anybody that is an employee of the city if you see a violation you have to report it do you think that's based on the education of people and what they're aware of what they can do and
what what they need from the city based on X Y and Z like does does someone know if if creating a you know an extra room in their basement putting up walls does that require a permit and if they're not asking the questions because they just assume yeah well obviously if you're
putting a bedroom in a basement and you put an egress window you know what the guidelines are a little bit so whyde isn't the permit following it it it might be the more and I'm totally in agreement with what Heidi's saying it might be more of if I I'll use as an
example if I do this myself if I cut a wall or hole in my wall and I put a door in are you telling me I got to come and get a permit because Brad knows how to run a skill saw and I just put a wall in or I put in a door or I put in whatever
so I don't know that you might know that Warren but I don't think the general public probably knows that well I'm I would I grew up on the farm on the country and came to town like I need a permit to change my water heater out like I already have one I'm just putting a new
one in you know it's like I concrete right I just think it's an education thing maybe more so than we're not doing our we're not doing due diligence by you know forcing something I think we go back and say we need to
figure out the best way to educate people and I think you'll see these numbers be more more consistent and probably more re you know more accurate I'm just I don't know maybe Ben could do a story in the paper
yeah you know let people know what they got to have permits because that's where our nuisance is coming from too cuz people like Joe said he moved in from the country he didn't know he needed a permit but he didn't know he could pile couldn't pile all his
junk up in the back along with the demo car behind the the garage you know that that's a nuisance I don't have demo car so I mean that's not me Third Street nor you know we we've got these properties out there that yeah
you're right got absolutely well so I don't have to look at it I put it behind my shed well the other three neighbors all of a sudden have to look at it but we don't have a problem with that so that's where those that's what we got to fix
so otherwise is is there any other questions on her report no no okay thank you Sarah thank you we'll move on to action items 7A approve ambulance department adjustments so this is what Tim was
speaking of in the ambulance building report that each year the city council is mandated to adjust Medicare and Medicaid accounts and there are some insurance accounts in there as well this is the difference between the billing and what Medicare or Medicaid as will pay so and you always see whenever you get an insurance you always get an
adjusted amount uh Medicare and Medicaid is no different and so the amount to be adjusted for 2024 is $32,988 questions concerns otherwise I'll look for a motion to approve the ambulance adjustments so moved motion by Brad do I
have a second second second by Joel call the question all those in favor signify by say and I opposed motion carries five in favor none against 7B approve resolution 202 5-14 authorizing purchase of rescue boat
the fire department included in its 2025 budget the purchase of a rescue boat that would replace the current jet ski the city council authorized moving forward with obtaining quotes at its regular meeting on December 18th after multiple request for the purchase we did get one formal uh formal quote uh we did
have some also that decided to pass gas on it uh the one that did submit the quote was one vote for an R1 series 1660 for 448452 D14 authorizing the purchase of the rescue hold questions concerns
otherwise do I have a motion to approve resolution 2025-the extensions I motion carries three in favor none against two extensions 7c authorize the next steps for the Park Trail rehab
2025 so in 2023 the city went out for bids for a trail rehab project the project included the W beone Trail swer along Park Road the gravel Trail between East River Boulevard at East River Circle and the new access Trail accessibility trail from 6th Street into
Browns Park restroom and shelter the bids came in and they ranged from 122,000 to 386,000 at that time ultimately the project did not move forward due to the funding being diverted to the Reclamation project for Lake View Drive the parkw budgeted for
and is Rec the city proceed with the trail project in 25 with one addition which is the connection from the south end of Birch Street to the WAN Trail the budget for the project was set at $170,000 the board is requesting authorization to update the plans and specs to be brought before the council
for authorization to go out for bids so what we're looking is to approve those next steps to the Park Trail rehab project for 2025 and then I did include in their the map so everybody can see where those trails are that we're looking at questions
concerns this is one of the things like she stated that we put off a year rather than do the maintenance and get these things back up to working how long has it been on the I guess on the uh
timeline how long has it been out for been discussed a couple years or has this been out there for quite a while yeah it's it's been out there on the long range plan and then it came through for the council approval two years ago and that's when it got diver skip 2024 now the the board wants to
move together in 25 and now there's actually dollars in the budget to do this budget y budget for this year perfect thank you any questions otherwise do I have a motion to approve the next steps for the Park
and trail rehab motion to approve motion by Joel do I have a second second second by Scott only question I got is Ben did we we were going to put posts in on the ends of some of that especially this one
trail out on EAS East River Trail that's what we discussed yes I think it makes sense the reason why I mentioned that is because we've had people that are actually driving their vehicle down the trail instead of to take a
shortcut and then we also have the ATVs that they these trails are for them instead of walking trails so when we re up upgrade these here we're going to have to do something to keep Motor Vehicles off of them so I just wanted to
bring that up Bard uhuh those Ballard posts that's what you're thinking yeah something that they can't drive around or whatever but we actually have Vehicles driving down the one on East River Trail take the shortcut rather than jump
on the highway go around the corner so I have a motion in a second call the question all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose motion carries five in favor not against unfinished business 8A building
Improvement project update this kind of an update of where we are this is a project with a lot of moving Parts um the contract has been signed for the membrane roofing project for the arena and City Hall as well as the contra for the rooftop air handling unit at City Hall we did receive a proposed change
order of where they see that we could make some improvements we'll bring that up to the next council meeting for discussion we have received one quote to date for the senior center roof and also one for the door lock well actually we have two for the door lock security system but now one of them backed away uh the library window project is out for
bids and the bid opening is February 25th at 11:30 uh you realize the AV enhancements for the council chambers are are complete uh the website upgrade is under I will put a button on that that says do I need a permit and then we can educate people that way um the
single the city hall shingle drift portion is under contract we did receive the quote for the arena makeup heat and air uh the quotes have been requested for the arena Windows Doors and locker rooms and the square footage of City Hall flooring for the PD and the City Hall was sent to the state bidder who
has a state bid and they'll come up and make some recommendations on what that could look like uh the bonding process is moving forward uh we're going to coordinate that with the funding for the 2025 Birch and pine to minimize Bond issuance costs if we don't receive money till August which is kind of our goal
here uh that eliminates us having to do ARB Arbitrage it's called like if you borrow the money and then make too much interest on it then there's extra reporting you have to do so we would rather get the money when we actually need it so that's kind of our plan so this is how we're laying out right now
um as we keep getting these under contract uh we will be they'll be coming back to you for final approval on on some of those as well okay any questions about any of those items okay then we'll move on to public
Improvement project update Keith good evening mayor councel I don't have much more to offer you than what's already written on your report here um the project is out for bid as of this morning late morning it was actually uh the documents were physically available for contractors to down load um many
have already started doing that I would say by like 3:00 we already had what I would say would be probably five likely Prime biders already just in a few hours so doesn't necessarily mean it's going to get substantially more than that but uh for Prime biders but you know I still
expect we'll see six eight range total I would guess B bidding ultimately B the project so we'll see where things go but um start just answering questions questions those kinds of things that will come up in the next few weeks and and uh see where the numbers come in on
March 6 any questions for me any questions concerns okay thank you thank you 8C residential rental units licensing just a little update uh you know we started the residential rental
Licensing in May of 23 so we're coming up on two years pretty soon here in 2023 we had 440 initial license issued followed up with 92 and 94 so that was the 500 and some licenses that we have
uh in 2024 so far we've renewed 431 so kind of it's a good rotation now we do have one or two that uh one person just never did come through with their license and they are going to put their property up for sale we had three rental units that are unoccupied because they
were posted as unfit until the landlord makes Corrections and so those are being worked on as well a license fees we collected in 2023 3,70 and in 2024 25,100 so it's kind of where we're at right now just information for you on on
how that process is going I think once we got through that first hurdle of everybody getting things up to date and now the renewals are going much smoother so can you can you update me uh just to get me up the speed uh you started this in
2023m and is this for people that own apartment buildings residents that they rent out residential rental whether you have a house that you rent out a twin home or an apartment building if you rent it out for somebody for a residence then you need a license yeah for in a certain period of time the license
renews on an annual basis but you need an uh an an inspection every other year unless there's an issue and then we go in ear can you tell me what's what's supposed to what is defined as a rental then if you rent your house out for a
period of time like 30 days or more like a a month-to-month rental or a lease whether it's a house a twin home or an apartment building we have several that are just single family homes that people rent out and they get a rental license as well that do that something new to me
not heard of it before oh so that's why I'm asking yeah no that's one of the things that we started um passing the inspection is fairly easy it's minimal standards you know small
smoke alarm carbon monoxide detectors handrails erress windows that kind of stuff um talking to Kelly there is a few things he'd like to put in and upgrade those standards a little bit plus he
also wants us to start to look at he does a reach reinspection fee so if they don't show up or they don't whatever and he's got to come back he charges him extra for it cuz he's sunk
pretty much a subcontractor to the city but we also have the ones that stretch it out forever and ever and he'd be inspecting it six times and not getting anything and we've got it on the books that we would be finding them $100 for
every time they don't and we haven't done that yet and Kelly wants us to start enforcing that so was this done bya ordinance yeah yes well we have the city ordinance establishes the fine and I think that and we had like the first
violation second violation third violation so we have that in there but the part that he's talking about is like this reinspection like he had one today he went over there and it was a nosho you know he he made the appointment he took the time out of his day he went to the house he waited for half an hour and
nobody came but we have a residential rental licing or or statue or something it's on the front page of our website okay thanks and he worked with Alexandria and Wilmer a lot must have been a problem that we decided that we
needed to have ordinance well there's a lot of r on you there's a major problem so uh that was strictly information um 8D parking on First Street so the reason
this came up is As you know we don't have on street parking until March 31st and so we have been able to have the people on First Street which would be the Old Mill and then that fourplex park on the old Depot feed slot which is the Pu property also where all the poles are
stored that are going on along the Park Road or Long Park Trail for the uh transmission line so they are going to be here Monday morning starting on that project and so we need to get those cars moved up Depot feeds lot and we will work with the Pu and the police
department will work with to get the notifications out to everybody but my question to you is we don't know where we're going to have them Park is are they on their own or because there's only a month left do we just want to lift the restriction on First Street South so they can park back at the Mill
and then the landlord would be responsible for the snowy Ru and I said before we go out and kick everybody out of the lot we may want to see if we have that option for them comments concerns is there is there a way that if we
lifted the Restriction that they that they get specific guidelines for if there is snow to move their vehicles and where they can move them to you know we can try but yeah there really isn't any place for to park down there yeah um we used to for the last
couple years they parked down by the Pu Warehouse down there along that open field well now that's full of wire and Transformers and stuff like that and equipment for that transmission line so we they couldn't park there so we put
them up where the depot feeds is well now synergy's coming in on Monday and they need that spot open and those cars are in the way so it seems to me like there's a there's certainly a limited options uh in
regards to parking um I don't know I I like to believe they're also good neighbors and that it's a month left that we could could lift it for for street if you want to lift it for you know 71 to whatever you want to call it Pine or however you want to define the
area but I would be open to lifting that area a law parking personally I think for this for this time frame or because of the conditions I think we could lift it for First Street only MH
because everybody no one else around the town's got an issue right I agree that's the only place that it's there but we didn't want to get into that well you let them do it and then we couldn't do it that type of issue now we actually
have something that's going to cause a problem and have we looked at any longterm rectifying that situation for parking since pu does own that lot and pu's got their name on it but the
city actually owns it cuz they cannot own property okay so that got into a discussion at the Pu too because they said we're done letting people Park on our property and and I
mentioned well you don't own it so we can tell you who's going to park on your property so it is for the purpose of this meeting tonight we just want to take care of the month of March I think there is a longer term issue with uh First Street South residents not having
par right I think it becomes really that's the landlord's issue but it really becomes our issue yeah that's right right so I'm I don't if you want a motion we can get a motion but otherwise I think if everyone's okay we just
general cons exempting first only then General consens General consens would work that's okay that works for me okay new business crosswalks signals sin
Clair Louis Avenue and um and some of you know that the representatives of Holy Family School they've approached the city with a request to install of flashing crosswalk signals at Birch and Sinclair leis Avenue uh the cost of app pair lights similar to those we have on 71 by Jitters is
$10,000 uh other options we're looking at including some grant funding and timed lights that flash During certain times of the day these are just different options we can throw around unfortunately the safe routs to school has been exhausted if the state legisl legislature funds the program in 2025 funds will be available till
2027 so we're trying to look at some other options uh to see about putting crosswalks signals up there what those might look like I don't know uh Chief Jensen's been uh in conversation with them so and Ben as well so we'll we'll uh work with them and try to come up
with a solution that you know if we are involved with some grant funding or if holy family comes up with some funding or something to that effect and then of course we would uh likely be the one responsible for purchasing and installing them it sure would be nice if they could come up with some fundraising
in my mind it seems like um there's certainly some Avenues to to make it happen there's yeah yeah I don't know why we I've been working with them too a little bit on different things and bringing information back and forth and
I'm down there just about every morning because I'm driving bus in that area and the number of people that could care less about the crosswalk the the crosswalk Patrol the safety patrol they just blow through the signs they don't care it's dangerous I know and so I
hopefully we can somehow work with them or do whatever we can to get that taken care of so um loss control workshops I just I put in the packet just the last controller workshop with the agendas of all the
different uh types of classes that they put on it kind of is more geared towards staff but a lot of times council members will go because they have an interest in certain areas to get a better understanding so if anybody wants to attend any of those classes it's 20 bucks includes lunch um and then all the
dates and locations they are on the front page to see what when it's offered uh March 26th in Alexandria and April 3rd in St Cloud so whichever um if you have an interest in that you're certainly welcome and I can just you can register online or usually I have I have an account that I just lost in and
register people so not a problem just reach out to Vicki if you're interested in going to any of that we will move on to our consent agenda we have schedule of claims unpaid claims of $447,900 14,35
22 is do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar as presented motion to approve motion by Scott do I have a second I'll second second by Heidi any discussion call the question all those in favor signify by say and I I oppos
motion carries five in favor none against informational items uh the board of appeal and Equalization meeting is April 7th at 1 um Ka and Warren I believe you still are are in your training window so you you're good to go for that so at least one of the two of
you needs to be there otherwise I need a major I I need a quorum of at least three to attend that usually it lasts about half an hour not a lot of people come but it's opportunity for people to come and address the council regarding their property tax value um uh we are in a closed meeting here on February 27th
that's actually a Thursday night at 5:00 pm. uh we are meeting with uh the attorney under attorney client privilege on the fire department annual golf fundraiser at the Civic Arena on March 22nd uh the youth hockey annual beer and wine fundraiser at the Civic Arena on
March 29th the gun show at the Civic Arena on April 5th and 6th water Fest is May 8th it's planned for the city of Melrose but if the weather's bad it's at the Civic Arena and then circus pages is at the Civic Arena on June 3rd and 4th so as Ben said earlier we're gearing up
for some Drive floor events this is what they are so no action requested any questions on any of those items this is just for my own um curious mind but regarding the open meeting rule because we've posted this and made it public if
there's more than a few of us at any of these events we're okay we're not in violation if you do what if we attend them more because we've got too far like the L or any of these events yeah yeah usually what I will do on these types of events like the the golf fundraiser and the beer and wine you know they're
pretty popular and then I just post that uh Forum of the council may be present okay and you all know better than to talk City business so right no matter how many got any other questions otherwise that brings us to the end of our agenda do I have a motion
to adjourn so Move Motion by Brad do I have a second second second by Scott Joel Joel okay sorry call the question all those in favor signify was saying I I I oppose motion carries five in favor none
against meeting adjourned [Music]