##VIDEO ID:9C_b9qSplQM## e e e e e e e e e call meeting [Applause] GE mayor ree here council member OS here Nelson here Davis here sches here beggerly here osas here Butterfield here and O'Brien here nine present zero absent please stand for the pledge I of the United States of America and to the stand Nation indivisible withy and justice for all any additions or deletions to the agenda May re I'd offer a motion to approve the agenda as presented second we got a motion and a second discussion [Music] questions seeing none roll call council member askos hi Nelson hi Davis hi sches hi baggerly hi osmus hi Butterfield hi O'Brian eight eyes zero nose passes next is the consent items and I'll call on our city clerk ber Larson to review them mayor ree council members for your consideration this evening I have the city council minutes of December 2nd 2024 the municipal Utility Commission meeting minutes of December 9th 24 Planning Commission minutes of December 4th 24 meeting the Wilmer police commission meeting minutes of November 4th 24 reappointments to the boards and commissions the state of Minnesota lease Amendment consideration of designating polling places for elections in 2025 a resolution adopting the 2025 fee schedule approve criminal prosecution services for 25 through 27 safe assure consultant safety program agreement candy Ohi County Firefighter Honor Guard law enforce law lawful gambling application resolution designating the arpa funds to cand County Housing and Redevelopment Authority Housing Trust Fund Police Department Squad car purchase order the accounts payable report from 11 2724 through 12124 and for your information I have the wi Municipal Utilities financial report for October 24 the financial report through 11:30 of 24 and the director's reports motion to approve the consent agenda second got a motion a second to approve the consent agenda Audrey um just a request to pull H and to review the um Planning and Development section I think is where most of the questions are most of the changes okay any else Rick Mr Mayor I like to pull item I prosecution anything else um we we've got a motion to approve everything else um uh roll call council member Nelson hi Davis hi sches hi ferly hi osmus hi Butterfield I O'Brien hi an o i eight eyes zero nose that passes call on uh Audrey resolution adopting the 2025 fee schedule just asking if staff could walk through and do clarification there's lots of new line items on there and I'm just curious about um some of the changes um development escrow and just lots of lots of new categories and I think they're making some changes in how they're doing it and just wondered if staff would like to walk through so we have a better understanding of it council person members of council Mr Mayor uh just to address the planning and development fee schedule the proposed fee schedule for 2025 um what is being presented in red is not necessarily new fees these are fees that lived in the ordinance and you're pulling those out just to give more fee transparency um the scope dependent is the development fee that we collect up front when we do a tip or any larger projects they may have to have a multiple um public process and so that's a fee that we collect from developers and that way aren't paying for mailing and other incidentals from from that and the other ones that you do see um a strike through um for conditional use permit it was two piece for 350 and then one for $46 so we just round that up and gave it a clear 400 for recording as well anything else Audrey um maybe just to go on on the residential there seems to be a lot of new or commercial plan review too again those are fees that um are mandated from the state our building official um already charged those and one way that we can just be up upfront and transparent is by listing listing those on the be schedule so we took time to do so once the zoning code is updated uh the fees will come out of the ordinance and it will live on the Fe schedule and our zoning code will ref scheduled for future development okay thank you for that explanation and I can make a motion to approve the is it h the schedule second we got a motion in a second to approve the resolution adopting the 2025 fee schedule roll call council member uh Davis hi sches hi ferly hi osmus hi Butterfield hi O'Brien Hi O hi and Nelson hi eight eyes zero nose that passes on council member Rick fager for item eight I item I the criminal prosecution services for 2027 all right thank you Mr Mayor I was just wondering did the city get any proposals from anybody else no no no the The Firm that had asked about it had decided that they at this time things had changed in their office so they were not going to submit a proposal okay did we check with candyi County because I I know one year they did a bid they would do it no we did not check with I come because I mean the fees are getting pretty high here 270,000 they did drop it over they did drop at 2500 a month too from their from the original original yeah and then 300,000 for 2026 330,000 for 2027 so would it behoove us to maybe look to have our own attorney higher we also up to the council if you would like to do that yeah because we also have to pay the other attorney sitting next to you so y we're talking $500,000 a year or more so just a question you certainly can look into it okay I'll make a motion to approve item I second we got a motion a second any questions roll call council member faggle hi osmus hi Butterfield hi O'Brien Hi O hi Nelson hi Davis I Andes I eight eyes zero nose that passes next is uh the open form we don't have anybody we' go on to regular business and call on the Nordic Ski Club Force Peterson you're G to present thank you Mr mayor council Forest Peterson I'm repres representing the Wilmer Nordic ski club we have several of our members here tonight we also have a group from Wilmer bikes who also supporting this uh recreational use of this land that we're going to talk about basically I have a few slides with some background on what's been going on there for the past couple of decades and I I guess basically too as a group we'd be in support of a there's been discussed the possible joint Powers agreement between the city and the state about possible City involvement in recreational use of that definitely strong support of that but I have a few slides with some background about the property and take any questions um provide any information care to find out let's see Kyle just have to hit the the PowerPoint icon there okay you have have uh council members you got this these slides in your packet add one slide some pictures primarily so for members of the public get a chance to see some of this as well uh basically for the past over two decades we've been using this land uh for CrossCountry skiing and I guess people walk there in the summertime as well we did have authorization through the uh when the Wilmer Regional Treatment Center was here we approached them asking that if we could use this land for our ski trails and they they were figured out a way to do that they made several of us uh State Hospital volunteers so so we signed forms and we even kept track of our time but we went out and cleared the trails and started using that for skiing so that's basically how that all started and and then later on I think it in 2002 we actually formed the Wilmer Nordic Ski Club and U Been active in that way ever since so it's for yes get a little closer to sorry um so yeah that's just a picture that's actually uh that picture there is along 71 there a couple people skiing there on the left if you see those trees planted there that's a Windbreak that we uh planted actually with the a grant from the nuc uh through the city to to do that so that's how that worked that's an aerial view of the area if you're familiar with that you probably I'm sure talked about this over the years but uh that's uh that's it's kind of gets unnoticed by people because you're driving by on 71 but it's uh about 60 acres of land and a little zoom in a little bit uh there's the state Cemetery there and they've done quite a bit of improvements in that in in the past last year if you've been out there they put a a new fence a new gate and then they put up a very nice sign identifying all of the graves that are that are there so there's a very nice uh Improvement there's some areas of native Oak there and uh there's one that I think is probably about 200 years old if you and so it's a a couple of areas one in the North and then and then in the south of of some just beautiful native Oak trees that would be very nice to preserve and that's just north of the golf course there couple of pictures upper left there that's what looks a lot nicer now the gate to the the old the cemetery and then there's an old Monument that uh that they had some interpretive signed John years ago uh in the lower left that's a picture of some there just tons of concrete that have been dumped over the bank on the North End uh the uh place for the highway department put a lot of old concrete and then on the lower right there's the ruins of a what was a 60 foot diameter trickling filter that basically was the water treatment for the state hospital many years ago so much improved now uh that's just a little map of a rough sketch of what our Trails look like and uh as you can see on the south there there's the that's the golf course we've had a great relationship with the golf course over the years uh they allow space in their sheds for us to store our equipment and uh even years ago in the city own grooming equipment we would groom Trails out there they would allow us to have Trails on the on the golf course as long as we stayed off the greens but uh and then to the north there we had our our other Trail so we have probably about 5 kilometers of ski trails out there which is really great and it's a very suitable for for uh beginner type skiers too it's it's not real challenging like sibi and it's close to town obviously so it's been a a great resource just list a couple of things that have been going on um over over the years and uh I used to formerly I I worked with the Minnesota P control agency so I did have a a staffer from our Solid Waste Division come out and we we just kind of walked the area to make sure it didn't look like there was any like toxic waste there but there's a fair amount of solid waste that's been dumped over the bank over the years U but uh and then we founded our Ski Club our early years focused on some fundraising and uh we bought some equipment a grooming equipment a big a big snowmobile and uh we found went up in Canada and with some grooming equipment and uh we we did that so we were pretty active in those early years uh the DNR we contacted the DNR we needed some improvements in some areas of the trail because and so they came in with the blade and kind of leveled some areas out and then I mentioned previously the uh the wind break that was installed so that's a little bit of background and as I I mentioned we'd be strongly in support of any kind of a joint Powers agreement if that were to happen have some real nice Visions about what could be used in that land without going forward and then there's a real strong economic and and social value of open space as well as we all know that so couple more pictures we had a number of events there over the years it's been a lot of fun um we had a couple coup years we had some we promoted these Community ski events we' have invite people to come out and be introduced to cross country skiing it's a great sport in the wintertime the only um challenge sometimes can be the weather as we know last year we didn't have any snow U I did get out there once on about a little bit of snow just to do it but uh in the bottom pictures are are our ging equipment that the club owns um actually the one on the left that roller was actually built by the people at the golf course for us they found a big piece of halber and actually built that for us so that was a great addition so couple more pictures the uh the groom Trails you see are actually on the golf course but in the lower left there that was this fall that's our our High School cross country ski coach Brad hen out there with his tractor mowing we have uh uh volunteers who did all of the work on the trail uh Mowing and Improvement the Fred hun was on our our group he got out there with his Mower and uh we've all kind of helped out with that so it's been all volunteer work over all these years with developing and maintaining and grooming the trails this is the slide that's not in the one in your packet I just added that um what we had when when the land the crop land was was farmed for a number of years and then that that was no longer being farmed and what what happened is invasive box Elders started just springing up all over the place and that could have been be a problem that they were allowed to keep growing so actually I believe it was the county went in and actually mowed all the Box Elders so we got rid of those so that was a big help but there's about roughly 20 acres of former crop land now that now we've been able to use some of that for added some trail segments to that so that's been very nice on the left is just one a picture that I took at Sibly that's what it could look like uh with as a restored Prairie some of the Open Spaces and that just tells a little bit about some potential resources if there are any uh uh restoration pray restoration uh there's some really nice native areas in there the as I mentioned earlier the oak it's kind of an oak Savannah in uh area Oak Savannah Prairie U area and it could be uh restored very nicely but yet still allowing space for recreation for bike trails um and as I'm sure you're all aware there's grant money available and and so on there's a couple of examples of from uh Dakota County and then uh David mody who is our club secretary is would be volunteering he could happy be happy to help work on any any information or whatever on any any grants or anything like that the uh Banner on the right you see is City involvement with Prairie Restoration in our parks that you're aware of I I wasn't aware of that until I was out at Prairie pothole days and I saw that Banner thought that's great so took a picture of it and so there you've got about 20 acres total from all the various parks that that restoration is being done so uh it's there's a lot of resources there and S swcd as you know and also I'm familiar with the Haw Creek Watershed project this is actually within Haw Creek they have funding available as well as long as it's close to water there's Swan Lake there's gullies and things like that into flowing into Swan Lake so there's potential for uh some some work there as well so okay and that's just a listing of our our our members uh and we really appreciate the opportunity to prevent present this information with our ski club and then also as I mentioned the or did I mention the Wilmer bikes group is here so we believe there's a lot of public support for something like this it's a great potential with pretty minimal cost and and we ALS and we have evidence of strong volunteer support and effort on this that's been going on so again we appreciate the opportunity to prevent present the information and would strongly support any kind of a joint Powers agreement with with the state to further uh develop this as a public recreational resource so you have any questions or anything I'd be happy to so that would be the next step that you would like for joint Powers agreement well if the city is interested in becoming involved you know in in furthering any kind of a you know restoration like in the you've done in the Parks uh with the trail development uh I mean we would continue whether whatever happens with our our club and our efforts to providing CrossCountry ski trails uh in the uh winter time and then as as well there's people hike and and bike you know through their year round so uh if there's any interest in the city to become you know more involved but yet at we would continue to do what we're doing is what I'm saying but there's potential for more development I think the big thing is the in in from my experience and background is the the Prairie restoration there's a great potential for that and there's some upfront cost but once you once you uh do that it is pretty minimal maintenance and so over the years um I recall a number of times that we've considered different options right of what to do with that property and I remember when a Min West Campus came to be um that property was identified and we could have bought it for a buck at that time but I don't think we did anything um you got any questions for Forest Carl I don't necessarily have a question for you I just I think this is a great thing um and I appreciate what all of you do there I don't know I guess exactly what it is you're asking of us what well as I mentioned that the I my in my vision sees a very nice further public public recreational development so that requested the joint Powers agreement okay the city and the state and there that there has document I believe has been drafted we have had some input on that but uh so that uh yeah there's been a lot of discussion and ideas over the years about that property I know the state's tried to sell it several times uh this got back on the radar just a couple years ago when I when the men was had it surveyed and they were ready to sell it but we found out mot really didn't own the land it was Department of Human Services own the land so uh uh it's been looked at as far as the you know residential or commercial development I guess in my opinion how that land has been used in the past and what and with what is there in terms of various areas of solid waste and and things like that it's best just to leave that lie cover it up and use the rest for recreation because we're not going to get any more open space for recreation and it's you know as the city grows around it and it's you know it's ideally suited for that and uh it could be come there there could be the you know the county has their trail that they improved along that gulf course Road it'd be very there's actually Old Highway used to go through there so there's kind of a road bed to put a trail bike trail link from that up to the uh is it 15th Avenue I'm not sure I remember the name of that but so there's a lot of potential there for that so what what would you have to do MoneyWise to get this done what or is it just well there's a previous slide there that U those are just some examples uh and those uh numbers of acreage and the and the cost and I I this is some information that Dave Moody had researched but uh and then I actually once had Ryan Peters from Peterson from the swcd out and he looked at it and as far as you know once once The Upfront cost of getting it ready uh it's pretty pretty minimal so ongoing I know we've had some discussions about whose responsibility would it be to continue the trail clear Ing and Mowing and grooming and all that that we would continue to do that as we have so that would continue but that's what I was looking yeah that we're gonna we limited amount of investment yeah though really is pretty minimal if if even if there were something done but further but from what's going now we would we're going to continue to do that we raise funds we work pretty closely with the High School uh CrossCountry ski team that's really our main mission now is uh support suppor in the high school team and providing these Trails for them and the public but we're going to just continue to do that so okay I want to call on our City attorney Robert Scott yeah thank you mayor members of the council I think it' be helpful just uh as I understand it to give you a quick overview of how this would be structured as it's been presented I think so this is a state-owned property that we're talking about apparently managed by uh DHS and my understanding is the state is receptive to continuing this Arrangement continuing to facilitate this recreational use of its property um but it is uh seeking to kind of formalize that Arrangement and I can't speak for the state at all but my suspicion is that it's much easier bureaucrat bureaucratically for the state to approve something like this with another government unit so it's been proposed is that the state would enter into a joint Powers agreement with the city in that agreement the city would be responsible to the state for the maintenance of the trails on this property um for maintaining them in a safe condition for maintaining them in a state and having them be open to the public for public Recreation that's a public benefit the state recognizes um as between the city and the state the city would be responsible for all of that under this agreement then I think what's contemplated is there would be a second agreement um between the city and the Nordic ski club for the Nordic Ski Club to essentially perform those services that the city just agreed to be responsible to the state to perform so there's really I think if the city were interested in participating in this and facilitating this it would be the city signing an agreement with the state to be responsible for essentially managing this Recreational facility on the property and then it would be entering in do a an agreement directly with the Nordic ski club for the Nordic Ski Club to be performing the actual Trail maintenance and essentially was passing through the city's obligations to the state to the ski club so what do we have to do as the council to move this forward if we so desire well the request of the city is to approve a joint Powers agreement I don't believe that's on the agenda for approval tonight so I think it would just be direction to staff at this point to proceed with the joint Powers agreement and at the same time we would then prepare the agreement directly with the ski club and I would expect we would want to bring both of those forward for approval for consideration and possible approval at the same meeting okay right Carl I I think it's a great thing I think we should go ahead and do this you're making a motion well I can't make a motion I don't think but it's just a direct staff to proceed okay Audrey um I I I don't completely understand you know are they a legal entity um would they have employees that would be responsible or are these volunteers that are doing these things um we would not own the land The Joint Powers agreement just is designating that we're going to take care of the land I'm I'm confused with the legalities of it and also what um Public Works would be responsible for what's the city's what would be the cost of the city to do this I mean um with that versus I mean it's they've got a great organization they've been working with volunteers I just don't know when you change the legal structure like that if you can now be dependent on volunteers yeah council member NOS I think those are all great questions I can't speak for the ski club on your organization perhaps for oh we are a legal nonprofit organization been good standing with the state we've been that waste for over 20 years so but you don't have employees no no no I mean we have board members and and so forth uh but no we're not we don't have employees but we are a a not a not for-profit Corporation the state so we do have some legal standing there but we'd be certainly willing to enter into any kind of a agreement with the city to to ensure that we you know uph hold our end of the fal as far as the maintenance and that type of thing so I I guess I just have a lot of questions about the legal structure and who would be responsible for insurance and kind of um the safekeeping of both for it to be a safe place to walk and ride and if it's the city land or city responsibility um so I have lots of questions before I'd say that we could that we should be I think there's questions that we need answered before we can make a decision all right Tom I'm in agreement with the Carl I think we should have the city look into the joint power agreement that thing moving forward so we can move forward with it I think it's a win-win for everybody you know not only the ones using it now but later on in the future more kids may be getting into it uh I think it's a thing for the city look into and get get working on that I like that we've got u a group that is passionate about this and is willing to get their hands dirty and uh we don't have to spend any money Mike Forest I thought you retired I third here this doesn't surprise me that you're involved in this this is a great project and I totally agree with the rest that talked and uh it's a great project it's a great place for the adults and the kids to share and I know we've looked at this before so I again I just thank you you and your Club thanks so we can just you want to speak yeah thank you M mayor just a quick question as to um I know Mr Scott said that he wouldn't speak for the state I don't know if anyone else on our staff would like to speak for the state but um the state's interest in a joint power over selling the land to the city why do we want a joint Powers agreement rather than just owning the land if if the state would be interested in selling it or they're not interested in selling it it's my understanding they won't sell it well they they they approached the council years ago I was Department of Transportation and it's the health and human resource Health and Human Services that owns the property and this was I remember maybe two years ago that we approached them and asked that question we checked into it again okay at least three years ago they're interested in the joint Powers agreement but they don't want to sell it correct okay all right so we turn it over to staff and um to research the joint Powers agreement that right okay no motion we're just directing staff okay all right thank you thank thank you ski club right we'll move on um testimony for liquor license violation ber city clerk mayor council tonight pursuant to Municipal codes three section 3-10 minimal penalties for violations of state or city ordinances resulting from the sale of alcoholic beverages the last alcohol compliance check resulted in three violations of on sale liquor license establishments I have three establishments here tonight who did not pass their their um checks um so they are being called upon as firsttime violators to speak to the council uh regarding what measures they'll be taking to eliminate future violations the first group organization I would like to call on is tonight LLC doing business as giovan's pizza please come to the podium and state who you are good evening everybody my name is Andrew Knight I with giovan's pizza and uh I am one of the co-owners and my name is listed on the um the application form for uh the alcohol or the sale of alcohol my business partner here Jen Swenson is with me um what we have done since our violation is we have made it a point uh to kind of re-educate our employees on what they should be doing uh when sta or not when staff but when people come in uh requesting alcohol uh to you know be smart about who they're talking to and everything like that and be sure to card uh no matter if you have any question whatsoever you should be carding them and then um we have went through a which was a very daunting process oddly enough to find calendars uh those uh you know you see at liquor stores you must be this age to purchase alcohol or cigarettes uh that was not an easy feed for some reason but we managed to not only get one but two but three of them and uh uh two were donated to us uh just by random chance just asking the right questions so now we have three uh calendars right at our front counter stating that you have to be this age uh to purchase alcohol with the current dates on it and two of them are digital and one of them is an analog that we switch daily and for the uh five years that we have had a liquor license at giovan's pizza every year we kind of sit back and go okay is this something that we would like to continue to do moving forward because of I think it's April 25th is when those are renewed or when they're renewed and uh we're kind of getting to that point where we got to start thinking about renewing again and uh we have come to the decision because we kind of been is it really worth continuing well today we decided that today would be a good day to decide that we will not be redoing our liquor license anyhow uh so until um our liquor license run out we will continue to um emphasize carding all customers uh with the purchase of alcohol and uh utilizing the uh 21y old calenders that we have been provided in the meantime until our Uh current application runs out on the 25th in uh a August 25th of 2025 Julie did any of your employees ever go through the alcohol education just some of the owners have uh we do have a list of classes available and a lot of our employees this is their second job so they're going from their 9i job and then working 5 to nine with us so there's not a whole lot of time for them to take out of their busy days to go to that and some of them are high school students which they're not allowed to do it anyway so if they if someone does request alol and they're not of age to be serving it anyhow they have to go get a staff member that is of age to be able to verify that and again most of our of AG staff um this is their second job and the ones that do this as a full-time which is basically my business partner and I uh were the ones that have gone through the classes our spouses have also gone with us on this because on the very rare occasion that they're in so they've had it as well can you tell us about the actual violation itself and what happened that day well we had two staff members on at that moment in time and uh one was out cleaning the dining room and he had noticed two young girls walking into uh or walking up to the door of the establishment and he had said to the other one he goes hey if they ask for alcohol make sure you card them they don't look like they're of age and the other employee either didn't hear them or simply ignored it uh that part was not made clear to us but one said to the other they do not look like they are of age be sure to card them if they ask and they asked and he did not card and he he admitted it to us almost immediately and offered up his resignation which we did not take okay anybody else all right well ber Where Do We Go From Here currently this is it their only requirement is to explain to the council what their measures are to prevent this from happening again being it's the first defense opportunity sh sh shame on you we we kind of took it as one of those you know we've been clean for five years I mean and that was our first one and we didn't to be honest with you we didn't want to be here right now so so we were really hoping that our staff would have followed Direction and have carded because the last thing we want to do on a Monday evening is stand here going with our tail between our legs going y sorry our staff didn't what they were told so thank you for coming yep thanks for thank you for hearing me all right the second establishment who is now going to present to the council for our first time violation is tapao LLC doing business as L tapao Mexican restaurant so I'm translating get up to the microphone I'm translating for him I'm not too sure what we're here for I know it's like a liquor violation but besides that I'm not too sure I just don't know what to say like like we know why we're here but like further than that like I'm not too informed on like what we're supposed to say like you guys want me to explain what happened the day of so he's saying that the day of the violation that one of our waitresses like forgot to C uh a girl that she thought was of age and on the time or the day of he was uh he wasn't working so he wasn't in form till a later dat he's saying that there's been this is our first time in seven years that this has happened what are you gonna do to avoid this that we've been doing training and that they're in the process of entering alcohol like those classes for that the police department does training yeah that's like he says that I'm not sure what classes exactly he's saying that he's getting them into the program in the steps to get to that as owners have they ever explained to the staff what the driver's license looks like yes when somebody is not of age and how simple it is to see yes okay they just didn't card at all yeah no it was like uh from what I've heard it's just she asked for it and she was like oh okay you look of age like how I would assume that you're of age is what I'm getting from the story okay and did we check to see if this is the first violation in the last seven years I believe so Mike did you follow up on that on the say that part again is this the first violation in the last seven years the last violation they had was in 2019 April 20 okay okay I just I knew they had had one before I just didn't know when okay anything else so does this still qualify as a first violation if they had one in 2019 yes because they reset after three years three years thank you right well take the training and be diligent in checking the driver's license right thank you thank you you have a good night now thank you guys the third establishment to speak on behalf of their first violation is Golden Palace restaurant in Incorporated doing business as Golden Palace restaurant good evening my name is May I working for Golden Palace pull microphone down to your mouth thank you too s last time our employee TR the ID after the customer as for alcohol but did the long math calculation to prevent this from happening in the future we start handing out a day of the minimum day the consumer should be in order to the shve the alcohol this will make it easy for employee to double check the day and and eliminate the pass of calculation calculation the age R so we're going to uh hand the the day so for probably easy for calculation for the age so what pay more attention to prevent this will not happen again are you going to do the training Oh yeah talk to our police chief make arrangement yes Julie um did the staff person card the person asking for alcohol did they ask for an ID oh yeah we did trade the ID but just uh uh did a long math for culation the age did the wrong math yeah yeah that's right okay any other questions okay I think council member ask Mrs questioning that because the driver's license itself is going to look different you shouldn't even have to do the math uh if you've gone through the training it'll be very clear to recognize the proper license for someone that's of age to purchase alcohol and someone that's not so again I think the importance of the training for your staff and for you to be able to explain to staff that haven't been through the training the the the very clear difference so you don't have to do the math did I get that right yes audre I'm just curious with violations can we re just require them that they have to go through the class we can't I don't know I don't believe so because I let the attorney answer because some places do their own training at this stage when a establishment has a violation the first violation the ordinance uh requires them to come explain the circumstances and measures to avoid future violations to the city council the city council does have the authority to uh at any stage here uh impose a a fine or initiate license suspension or revocation proceedings um the ordinance only contains a schedule of the minimum punishments for each offense so but those are really this the council's tools are to uh receive the explanations from the business owners on a first offense and consider a fine or some sort of suspension or revocation proceeding I need a refresher because um it's been a while since we adopted this process what's if they have another violation within the three years then what the ordinance would provide a minimum punishment of a $1,000 fine for a second violation within three years okay at any at any and that there same thing third violation would be a $2,000 fine minimum punishment prescribed by the ordinance so on up to the fifth and subsequent violations uh would be uh I think at that point uh subject to city council initiation of a license suspension or revocation okay thank you all right understand yeah okay any other questions well thank you for coming thank you thank you all right next is uh approving the final plans and specifications for the outdoor rink Pavilion and authorized advertising forbids Rob thank you mayor member of the council um tonight um looking to adopt a resolution approving the final plans and specifications for the outdoor rink Pavilion and authorize advertisement for bids um I have a short PowerPoint presentation just to kind of give us an idea of the project and kind of where we started to where we are right now um so back in um April 15th of this year the council introduced an ordinance to reallocate leftover contingency These funds from the lon sales tax project for the outdoor range Pavilion um the ordinance was passed on May 6 um giv The Event slre Center a new budget of 1.59 um on June 3rd the city has then passed a resolution um to work with Bolton and meink to develop the plans and specifications for the outdoor ring um for one for 100 th000 $164,450 so the overall budget for the project is right around $1.42 million um so staff worked with Bolton and mink on the project and we came up with a base bit of having the concrete ribbon which is a basically a cement border that will be able to hold the boards and the glass um it' be a gravel rank surface and gravel outside perimeter a fabric R system with the seal framing lighting all the electrical that needs to be done for it um grass restoration storm water management Improvement um and then when we talk about the dash boards you can buy that through the safe Cooperative purchase agreement so that would be separate from the project that would be us as a city would buy that and work with the installer with that as well um and then we'll talk about some of the alternates that had for the project um so again it'll be the base bid that we'll have and that total came to being with the Dasher boards would be at that 1 Point .4 million if we look at the base bid plus alternate number one which would be basically putting concrete inside of the rink we're looking at $1.58 million now if we want to put concrete inside and on the outside of the rink we're estimating at to being about 1.7 million and we also looked at if we did an asphalt inside the rink that' be $11.48 million and then if we did asphalt inside and outside it' be $1.53 million there also additional City cost um with the soil borings that is there would be no cost to that because it was already done with the event Rec Center project um we did look at the construction contingency of $6,400 typically the city holds a 10% but we felt like with this project here with the background that we have on that area of land that 5% contingency fund would be appropriate uh surveying cost $6,000 and then construction testing which basically testing the concrete for it would be $122,000 so an additional City cost of $81,400 so when we look at an overview of what the project would look like um as you'll see in the p on the screen here you'll see the Blue Line Arena where the Event Center is at and where the outdoor rink would be located be right off to the West of the Blue Line Arena and the relocation of storm water Pond would just be south of that it size for the outdoor rink right now but it can be upsized at that current location if the curling facility ever comes in which is west of the parking lot um here's a picture of what one of the Legacy building what the fabric roof looks like here when they're doing the construction of it and then um when it's at night as well so staff tour the Legacy building um over in South Haven um by Kimble we're really impressed with with how this aick system would work it's got a 25 year life warranty on it um and for this application it's probably our best route to go besides having a sealed rout um free to ask any questions Tom some of the bids are over than what you know was a lot Lou there Matt Dawson say how they were G to make a difference or anything like that yeah they know that they're going to have to if if depending on what alternate if we can get the base bid which which is pretty close to what the budget is then they know that they're going to have to look at if they want to get the concrete in on the inside and outside or the they going to have to look at fundraising opportunities um the other part about it then if it's gravel um you can look to the Future Is Right could they get it refrigerated that's something else that they can think about too because once you put the concrete in you're not going to get get it refrigerated thank you Mary um you made a comment about the Dasher boards needing to be purchased by the city is that just through our I mean it would be purchased as part of this yes it would be like um similar to what we do with other sales tax projects like say the sound system we bought it so there wouldn't be the upcharge from the contractor doing it we could do it ourselves we can work cly work with Becka Arena products and they would furnish the boards and the labor depoint so we won't have to work with the general contractor to do that but the money would come out of the local option sales to okay um there is cost of 81,500 right now that you're saying the city Widow yep that's our cons is that the money you're talking about that they have to raise in order to do this no that would still have to come out of the 1.4 million that we have but there isn't room for it to come out of there it all depends on how the bids will be coming in I knew this project was going to be tight so I have my serious doubt that you're going to be able to keep it within the 1.4 but we'll find out um but if it goes over the 1.4 then we're going to have to make decisions as this white qu not to approve the project or to look at what we want to do with additional dollars okay and then bid if if approved um it'll go out for bid here real quick and it' be January 23rd that we would have the bid opening that VI um in your opinion do you think it would be better to go with gravel so that in the future we could make upgrades I would say if if if we do a gravel base right now it gives us best option to put um for fundraising dollars to put concrete back in um it's probably our best alternative for that because then what comes first does the roof come first or does that concrete is the easiest thing to add back in okay and then with gravel is it going to be usable in the summertime do you think not as much okay so our goal would be to try to get at least the gravel ins or the concrete inside the r or yeah all right so it's small be able to function on gravel pardon me most of the alternate uses correct wouldn't be able to function on grab correct what do you sorry yes what do you see as alternate uses um well there can be just any type of dry land type of stuff uh farmers markets um you know you can name it what can never go underneath a roof we actually like about playing pickleball courts in there if we have space okay so the surface um other than some other sport gravel would work to have a farmer's market or to have it could yeah yeah I mean it would be really packed down so I mean there would be somewhat a hard surface there yes just one more question who put together these base bids um put the ask who put this together uh the team members a bolt and a m okay Julie wasn't the Blue Line Center gravel for another number of years yes before I came on yes it was gra okay and they I believe the fairgrounds was also the grav great Rick so which bid does the hockey people want they would do the base bit right now um I would probably imagine that they would like to have the ins either rank so our new compressor would that work no no no it's only for two ranks because we had looked at three but y we looked at three side not to if you put concrete in you're not going to put you're not going to be able to put the PIP no Audrey um just a question have we looked at what op operational costs we would be looking at for your department to do this a little bit it's more going to be the man hours of just making the ice um and everything depends on if we want to keep the boards up and everything throughout the summer um we probably keep them up because we don't have a place to store them right now um but we looked at it too as far as zambon we zambon it one time a day um because it's going to take a little bit of Staff time to drive the zambon out clean the wheels get on the nice bring it back com the wheels off um everything like that so we can get it done within our our work day um it's just going to be a little bit more time to get the ice made on what the's like how would you do that you got to flood it and let it freeze and then bring the Zamboni in over the top of it once we get to about we probably want about an inch and a half of ice to put the Zamboni on there get it metered with the fire hydrant and for it as fast as we can inch and a half of ice gravel that's gonna that s only is heavy we keep our ice at the Civic Center about at an inch that's concrete Julie did you explain the fabric roof what would you like to know um what is that um it's a PVC type of material it's translu so we be able to have the Sun come through that will help with the lighting during the day but it deflects the heat so the The Ice would not feel the heat on it um I would say it's similar to like what a salt shed is like that's at public works or at mot right now okay that type of buiness so it's not fabric fabric it's like a fabric plastic yes it's very strong on it I'm like why do we have a fabric a lot of people are going that route just because so it doesn't get rusted sure okay all right well um we don't have a motion yet to approve the final plans and specs another question yes right so do you have to use the Zamboni to do the Ice no we do not have to use samboni to make ice we just do it to help resurface that one so when the guys when the kids are out there skating it and chew it up we'd either have to go back out there with our hose to do it or we take the Zamboni to resurface it we don't use a Zamboni at Garfield correct we have the public work trucks that come in water yeah we wouldn't want to use those trucks out there just because with the glass in there if it hits a board we're replace it in piece of glass or denting the boards so it have to be done but you got boards up at Garfield you got two sets that's wood these ones are going to move with the plastic and these are fiberglass then or they're plastic they're steel frame with a plastic um panel on them but very similar that's in the blue line in the cardal arena right now um I've been really concerned about all the other things that we need to do and the things that we haven't been able to do in the CIP um I worry about us adding on not being able to finish some things that have been listed as safety items on some of the other local option sales tax projects and um I'm just not sure we agreed to set this money for there do we have to go forward with this to advertise the bids or or not say that's your um I like to make a motion approving the final plans and specifications for outdoor Rank and out uh advertisement for bids second we got motion and second discussion Audrey I'd still like an answer to my question that I asked do we have a responsibility since we set those funds aside we almost have to go through with getting the bids to see whether we can do this or not you asking me that personally I think so okay Julie I just feel like the hockey asso iation did a lot to promote and get the local option sales tax passed they did door Todo with the expectation that they thought there was going to be a third sheet of ice um in there or locker rooms I mean there was going to be some enhancement um to the hockey program and I feel like everybody else got their little piece of the pie um I just feel like the Hockey Association the hockey people um this is this is a good way that we were able to allocate the leftover money to go for this project I think it needs to be done I I know there are other people lining up that think that they didn't get the piece of the pie either that they were promised and so you know um we made this commitment I think we have to get the bids and see whether we can actually do this or not and if we can't then we go back to the drawing board in my mind so and we pivot else Carl so if if the bids come in over um is Hockey Association willing to do more to try to cover to get this done or how does that work then well they would be have a conversation that would with the Hockey Association boost right I'll just ask one more question after going through the CIP I I don't know how we can sit up here and say that we could come up with more money than what what this is so I think we have other responsibilities to other things so I think see where we come from but I think if they can come up with a difference um and what's the time frame that they they could do that in conversation with I share your concern I don't I I we've got so many things that we're dealing with and um I'm I'm like I said earlier I'm afraid to find out what it's going to cost to build this I I don't think it's be 1.4 million Tom Matt aw and uh everybody working on this loss put a lot of time and effort into this this is one of the things that when Matt Dawson was here he showed a picture that's what they're out marketing for when Matt Dawson was here last time in front of the council you know requesting for us to kind of move forward with this he also said that they would go out there and fundrais for whatever it went over with we all we have to do is put this out for bid that's what we're looking for now let's put it out for bid see what it comes in for if it comes in at $1.8 million I'm sure Rob's gonna have Matt Dawson and other people here saying no we can't afford this or yes we're going to be able to come up with the other money to get this done so I just think we just need to move on on with the boat to put this out for bid and we'll wait and see what the bids comeing in anybody else roll call council member osus hi Butterfield hi O'Brien Hi O hi Nelson hi Davis Hi sches Hi and faggle hi eight eyes zero nose passes thank you rob um we go on to the Cannabis ordinance overview and call on operations director Kyle box thank you Mr Mayor May one moment sof back on the screen Mr Mayor members of the city council tonight in your Council packets um included a an overview of what to expect here for a couple of ordinances that will be coming for you in January previously we had spoken about having an introduction of both a regulation uh a registration regulating ordinance as well as a zoning and land use ordinance um time uh came against staff and we just didn't have enough time um to make all the necessary changes and especially with uh updates coming from Office of Canabis management last week with their process being being delayed we also thought it was appropriate to make sure that ordinance that is introduced to the city council is uh is as correct and up to date as possible as well so in your packet I did include a a PowerPoint uh which I'll pull up on the screen just to kind of give a counsil overview of what to expect here in the coming months uh so what we'll be looking at um in the future with our our ordinance is that Minnesota law allows for 13 different types of business licenses each fulfilling unique role in the Cannabis and hemp industry supply chain in addition to license types uh in your on your screen the office of cannabis management or ocm will also issue endorsements to license holders to engage in specific activities including producing manufacturing and the sale of medical cannabis for patients of those licenses that uh of those 13 types I really want to focus on five licensed types um tonight once the licensing process begins and of these These are the retail licenses so these would be the potential licenses that the city council will have the city of Wilmer we'll be looking at for retail zoning and land use when it comes to specifically the retail side of it so once the licensing proc process begins the city will uh City's registration uh process will apply to the licensed cannabis retailers uh seeking to conduct the retail sales here in the city of Wilmer several license several licensed types are authorized to conduct retail sales and those are listed on your screen but prior to conducting sales their business license uh will require or the state law requires that the business to receive local registration or consent um from the city before they can move forward so there are five license types that are eligible to conduct cannabis retail activity which will receive authorization from the city approval from the city so what is the local approval process um it's limited so state law all allows us to have two main portions of where we can local governments can impose local registration so the first is local certification and the zoning compliance uh so it's following the ocm vetting process the local government must CER CER certify that the applicant has Prim preliminary approval um and has achieved compliance with local zoning ordinances and that's what we'll be bringing back to the council here at the first meeting of January the second part of that is the local retail registration process so again once that licensing process begins with the state the local government registration process applies to those retailers uh seeking to conduct sales U within the city so a section of the draft ordinance here uh that will be recommending to the city council so again state law allows for a few different areas for the city to be flexible on but one of the areas is that uh there need needs to be a minimum number of retail businesses allowed within the city or within by it's based off of population so as you can see that's one retail location based off of every 12,500 population so city of wilmore's minimum number for retail cannabis businesses is two and that will be the recommendation that will be brought from staff to the city council uh is that the city shall limit the number of cannabis retail businesses to two and we'll put a caveat in there for any future discussion or direction from the city council that would exclude any potential Municipal cannabis retail business it's not necessarily saying that the city is going to have one but allow the languages in there um the city council wishes to pursue that option leaving that in there I will note that that if a mun any Municipal business does not count towards that minimum number so let's say Wilmer uh if the number is two as a minimum and the city explores to have Municipal business three businesses would be located in the city of lber continuing on to the zoning and land land use some of the other areas uh that are allowed in statute are the minimum buffer requirements uh these buffer requirements are the maximums that are allowed in statute and what we'll be exploring um and and likely recommending here in ordinance as well so as you can see the city would prohibit any operation of retail businesses within a thousand feet of a school 500 feet of a daycare 500 feet of a residential treatment facility 500 feet from any public attraction parks or playgrounds athletic fields any outdoor areas that are frequently used by miners continuing on specifically on the Cannabis business uh retail portion of it we will be restricting those areas uh with as a conditional use permit only within the general business districts one two and three as well as the central business district uh just as a kind of an overview what that looks like so the general business district is the purple orange and blue on your screen and the central business district is the Green Downtown what's not noted on here is delocation of residential treatment facilities schools daycares that's part of the local approval process they're the preliminary inspections that staff will be doing as we receive applications c as well the upcoming or the proposed timeline again this came from ocm last Wednesday last week the 11th uh so uh originally the LI Lottery process the local or the state process was going to um had started uh was challenged or at the court of appeals and has stayed District Court I believe has stayed and now that process is changing for ocm so realistically uh the lottery process for any any local or any applicants will be May of June May to June 2025 as indicated by the office C management uh the January and February and March dates those will apply Strictly To those as you can see if the any social Equity applicants had applied um or u a review so that's just explaining that process to them but the date that we're focused on on this on this slide is the May June which was when we can expect any licensing to begin from the state as they're most up to dat tenative time the stady timeline a little bit more focused here so December we're will'll be working on a finalized local registration zoning ordinance as well as completing the local government cannabis licensing contact and delegation forms that we need to complete with this uh office of cannabis management that will be completed uh before the end of this year the January 13th council meeting will be introducing two ordinances um we'll set those two Council will set those two public hearings and on February 3rd Council will hold those public hearings and we'll be asked to adopt those ordinances any questions so regarding the lottery do municipalities have to be part of the lottery too um my understanding is they are not part of the social Equity applicant Lottery they would be a part of the general lottery or the general applicant uh field um in to my knowledge that is a very limited amount of retail licenses that would be issued throughout the state um I mean I think in the 30s was the number that I most recently saw that outside of social Equity applicants they'd be approving up to 37 38 other retail applicants so uh it's still a I don't necessarily know if it's a guarantee if the city would like to move in that direction if the state would authorize that but if you know any different please correct me but I I believe that's that's our understanding as of right now is that even if we were to move forward with the municipal uh Municipal dispensary we still have to go through the exact same process as all the other General applicants okay thank you Rick Mr Mayor so if you have three parties that want to have a store in wmer how do you choose that's a great question council member fagly the decision is not up to the city of Wilmer for 2025 so all the licensing will be done conducted by the state of Minnesota the office of cannabis management we will be notified who those businesses will be and we will work directly with those businesses to make sure that they meet local requirements so she can't get into a bidding more of them it's not up to that's that's part of the the lack of local control of the ordinance I we can set our our limited regulations and Licensing renew or review process it's not even a licensed review process it's a registration review local zoning is what we can what the city with cities counties will be able to do picking applicants we will not that will not be up to cities what if there's a house a gathering or a church does that matter for distance yeah so what um what we'll be doing is we'll be working staff will be compiling and getting a map of all all of those buffer zones or those things that would trigger those buffer zones and that would be part of our initial process make sure that they're within x amount of feet of any of those any of those facilities whether it's schols when they begin operation then if someone moves in after and it they are they yes that also a great question yes if a something was to be constructed after the fact they are not would not be allowed to move or close their business to they could stay in place Audrey thank Comm mayor Ree would you review the number again I think you said we're re you're recommending two but if we decided there were three that we wanted could we change it to three the council can set this number any anything higher than two there's a maximum there is a minimum okay and the minimum is two minimum for the city of Walmer is two that that is dictated by Statute based off population not suggesting that we do do that but if we had three that was beneficial to the city I'm just curious so the council at any time through ordinance amendment can make that change thank you so it would be like Wilmer back in the 70s when you had 10 or 12 liquor stores off sale and then you just wait till they alter now we're down to what four or five could be the same thing yeah I I will say this too um this is obviously new for the state it's very new for cities um I'm comfortable saying that we'll we will likely be revisiting this ordinance um a time or two as things progress unless the council has any recommendations for what was discussed tonight this is more or less the draft format that we will be presenting in January for information only tonight information only tonight yes anything else thank you car Mr Mayor thank you Council right from Cannabis to liquor we got the Sunday liquor license renewals for 2025 call on city clerk Berne Larson so tonight we're looking for approval by the council um to approve the Sunday liquor licenses for all applicants listed with the exception of finet week post 1639 that is the BFW they did decide at the last minute to not renew their Sunday liquor license so they will not be looking to have that be open on Sundays for liquor sales wow that's interesting otherwise all the all the list people on the list or the businesses on the list are just looking for renewals they all currently hold a Sunday liquor license and are just looking for Renewal make a motion to approve second got a motion and we got a second discussion hearing none roll call council member Butterfield I O'Brien hi OS hi Nelson hi Davis hi sches hi beggerly hi and osmus I eight eyes zero nose that passes next is the sale of THC products 2025 license renewals again city clerk Bernie LaRon again these establishments currently hold a THC license given the uh renewal process is coming due now and the uncertainty of how that's going to look into 2025 we are having THC license holders renew their license so that they can continue to sell THC products in the city of Wilmer into 20125 until the statute or the Law changes their regulation so these following stores are looking for renewal of their license there are no new applicants on this list motion to approve second motion of a second discussion hearing none roll call council member O'Brien hi OS hi Nelson hi Davis hi sches hi baggerly hi osmus hi and Butterfield hi eight eyes zero NOS that passes next is a community center Task Force update um we met with the YMCA board on Wednesday the 11th and uh the Y board has looked at the possible project and they are not in a position to look at funding the project uh financing the project and they have withdrawn their support for the community center to be located so um we need to make a decision on this is just me we need to make a decision what we're going to do um that's evident but um I I I I think what we need to do is contact Marcus construction say evaluate the current building tell us what you could do if anything and uh tell us what it would cost go from there I don't know if you agree with me or not I was on the task force that worked on this I'm trying to remember wasn't there a an alternative recommendation was there only one recommendation from the task force I don't remember talk to you yeah that's what I I think we had Lincoln and Gish G over Lincoln according to the task force yeah I feel like we're back at square one and we just need to review review our options um and you know the what what can we do with Community Center what can't we do what financially we can do with City Hall and um I think we're back to uh sitting down and deciding what's important to this community anybody else I agree with with the mayor I think the community center is a good place to look at find out exactly what the costs are and like you say Marcus come in there take a look at it and see what the construction cost would be uh we've done this enough it's time don't we have to put that out for bids we can just it's Professional Services okay just clarification are you talking about going back to our original plan to build City Hall in the community center at the community center location not that's not what you're talking about no I'm just talking about the community center itself see and I I think this Council needs to decide what's more important to this community we I mean Council the community center is taking first place right now and we're sitting with not knowing with what we're going to do with City Hall and I think the council has to make a decision can we do both or do we I'm not I'm not saying we're gonna do community center I think we need to find out what can be done at what cost and then we can look at at the current location just updating Community Center okay all right we don't know just seeking clarification because um I'm I mean we've put City Hall on hold and we've put the community center on hold to wait for this now we know so what are we going to do I think it deserves a conversation with both I I agree anybody else right um any Community Pride announcements no merry Christmas happy New Year merry Christmas happy new year and we've got two council members that this is their last official [Laughter] meeting mayor I'd also like to remind the council that our first council meeting will be be January 13th due to the Charter we have to have our first organizational meeting at first Tu first Monday after the first Tuesday and then following week is a holiday on Monday so we will be meeting on Tuesday the 21st that's our January schedule right well thank you Julie and Mike for your service to our Community yes yes you done good job [Applause] it's it's really been a pleasure uh it's it's been a good eight years um we we've accomplished a lot in this in this city we have a lot to be proud of we have a lot to be thankful for um I go back I mean it started with Robin's Island and uh we used to always say that that was a diamond in the rough and seven years ago we put in a playground and since then with the local option sales tax thanks to some very dedicated citizens that um had a vision had a dream and did some really great things made great things happen for the city but with the Pavilion that went up there and um and the shelters and rock and robins and the hopefully for an Amphitheater coming up in the future Robins island is just incredible and we just we're so blessed to have that in our community and you know just other building projects in the last four years I think we've had $240 million in building projects any Community would be Beyond thrilled to have that kind of growth and so between like West Central Steel and Ziegler cat and FedEx um these are huge businesses that build and uh and then you look at our apartment complexes I wouldn't have thought eight years ago that we would have the apartment complexes we have and that there would be waiting lists and that they would be build um yeah I remember when Herzog first came with his four building proposal out on County Road 5 and I'm like how was he going to build all those apartment buildings and no there was there was a need and they did get filled and it's and it's been great um I the Y project I wasn't involved you know I think that started what 13 or 15 years ago um and I wasn't really closely involved with that whole project but that has had such a significant impact on our city and the rail Park is going to be amazing it's going to be amazing and so when you talk about build it and they will come um that's that's the rail Park and we're lucky again we're blessed we're fortunate um to be in such a great City and uh and I'm looking forward to sitting on the sidelines and uh and watching what's to come but thank you thank we have great staff we have great staff we have great departments um that is part of what makes this such a great City and just I'm glad for the opportunity to observed thank you Julie you will be missed um we have made great strides you're right and uh I have other people that come to Wilmer and they say boy you got a Vibrant Community wonderful so Mike we're GNA miss you did for what she said I'm not going through all that there's a Vikings game going on make one comment the difference in Robins Island I used to work deer shiners on that Park do you believe it or not it's come a long ways yeah I do I do really appreciate working with the city staff and with the conso and all the people involved uh and just because we retired doesn't mean we quit so we're good thank you you talk about Robin's Island when I first came to town and working for the engineering department and we were dredging or foot foot Robins Island just had a small little road you couldn't even meet another car on it that drove out to the island and we pumped all that in up on our wellfield where our wellfield is now we pumped in where Haden Park is we pumped in next to uh that road the beach pump that all full and look at what that's done it's amazing it's amazing yeah all right well which one of you two are going to move to a Jour I'll make that motion I'll second Jour thank you for