##VIDEO ID:eyCwK1_G5zs## e e 24 is a draft accept and final project number 221-a reconstructing 6th Street Southwest from Wilmer Avenue to 19th Avenue accept and final project of number 2201 C reconstruction and of Industrial Park Drive Service Road United Community Action Partnership ukat preliminary final plats Oslo medals first edition preliminary and final classs the accounts payable reports from 8124 to 81424 also for your information we have director's reports the finance report through 73124 and the Wilmer Municipal Utilities Financial reports for June of 2024 motion to approve the consent agenda second we have a motion and a second discussion audre um yes I would like to pull items b d and H for just a couple questions right anything else roll call council member Nelson hi Davis Hi sches hi dager Le hi osmus hi Butterfield hi Brian hi and Os hi eight eyes zero nose and that passes Audrey the police Civil Service Commission minutes June 7th um yes just a question um I knew we were looking for someone new because Mike kubish had moved out of lmer but he's still listed as the chair on the minutes and so I don't know when he moved but I'm just curious if if he's still functioning on that or if he's moved out of town no he should not be chief chief chief felt was delayed on a call he should be here this evening yet but we can make sure to follow up with him let's when he comes we'll address it okay is that right yeah do you so then the next is the Planning Commission minutes of August 7 um yes I was um question the waltz conditional use permit I know that it was passed but it didn't have any details if the setback to the street was maintained as requested Mr Mayor and members of the council um to answer your question the setbacks um for the waltz parcel is aligned with the residential property so they're keeping the same setbacks thank you that take care of that one you got H United Community Action Partnership New cap preliminary and final plants yes I just wanted a question on the parking because I thought that they were getting their um that they could have parking on the street but I know that we're further along we're talking about uh across the street and limiting parking on SE Seventh Street so I was curious if that had any effect on us approving this as it's in the packet it doesn't affect your approval of the United Community Action Partnership final plats um the parking will be on site okay so they weren't planning to park on the street or have parking on the street no okay thank you you're welcome all right that takes care of that so we need those F those I guess just two of them Chief El is here oh chief you snuck in um question about um the police commission and Mike kubish yes still listed and he's living outside the city yes he's been replaced by Chris Rosenthal um now Chris was uh approved by the council I don't remember dates it was probably two months ago or a month ago and then at our last police commission meeting we had the formal switch over of Mike kubish and Chris so once Mike had moved out in the the county the request was made um Chris had turned in an application there was a delay in getting that um approved through the council here but once that happened then we made the official switch have we acted on that yes yes yep so that the switch has uh as as a council you approved Chris uh about a month ago and then uh so now Mike is officially retired from the police commission and Chris is on there so all right the minutes I think were from maybe February or something or June okay so then the switch had not officially taken place yet so very good thank you all right now we need to um motion to approve B DNH second a motion a second to approve BD and any discussion not roll call council member Davis hi sches hi baggerly hi osmus I Butterfield I O'Brien I OS I and Nelson I eight eyes zero nose that passes I have been informed by our city clerk there is no no one signed up for the open form so we'll go to the public hearing the 2024 assessment hearing and I'll call on Jared B our city engineer well good evening mayor and Council uh as mayor indicated this is the final assessment hearing for the 2024 improvements uh Improvement projects they those projects are listed before you there uh three distinct areas uh 10th Street the 13th Grayson rice area and then Wilmer Avenue identified there on the map the purple color is reconstruction projects and the green is Mill and overlay so um two different types of projects in those three project areas summary of the costs associated with the 2024 program approximately 6.45 s million in Street 1.4 million in sanitary sewer water main was approximately 1.7 million and storm sewer of approximately uh two million associated with those the assessment rates uh which is the topic here this evening and the assessments levied to the benefiting properties the assessment rate for Street has been identified at $64 a foot the sanitary sewer main reconstruction at $116.25 sanitary sewer services are $820 each the water man $20.75 the water services depending on their size classification one in and smaller at $1,035 the larger services are at 2,960 and then the storm sewer reconstruction at $14 per foot those rates are applicable to the Reconstruction projects the overlay project or the Wilmer Avenue project similar to the 23rd Street area last year these lots have been classified into three different categories being small medium and large small Lots range in width from 0 to 60.9 Ft medium from 61 to 9 9.9 and then the large lots are greater than 100 ft uh the corner lot why that is noted there is because of the city's corner lot policy and that is the cost assess to the um benefiting Longs side of the of the corner lot by way of reference these rates are within 3 to 8% of the rates levied last year as part of the 2023 improvements breakdown as it relates to the assessments as shown there um private properties with approximately 2.25 million in private assessments and then these City properties of approximately 117,000 for a total uh estimate of the assessments associated with the overall total project of 2,370 $367,900 the assessment term is 15 years the rate is 5.86 eight% and so just by way of a easy calculation for every ,000 in assessment that's approximately $12 um in annual payment how does that ass compared I do not recall the assessment percentage last year I got to believe it was uh sco lower so the assessment payments payment policy this is a question that we get frequently um as it relates to how do Property Owners pay a portion or all of the assessment so partial prepayments are allowed to the city clerk prior to October 31st 2024 or the full amount of the assessment can be paid prior to October 31st 2024 there will be no interest added um in that period so between November 1st and November 15th um payments can also be made to the city clerk but interest will be added from the date of the bond sale which is June 3D after November 15 2024 the um 2025 payment would include interest from the bond sale through the end of the year following that um payments including the interest would be collected annually on property taxes so there's the first half of the property tax and the second half it'll be split among them um and then on the last item here that we run into a little bit sometimes so each year throughout the course of the assessment term uh payments can be made however those need to go to the county auditor not the city clerk and the interest for the entire year will be added to the to the amount so um few different dates to remember but prior to August 31st no interest partial prepayments or full payments November 1st to uh the 15th will include the interest and then after November 15th there's interest so um and with that miror I will that concludes my presentation uh it is a public hearing and following the close of the public hearing uh there is a resolution in closed in your packets this evening so at this time you can open the public hearing right I'll do that I got a question for you there are allow allowance an allowance for deferment there is a provision in the um assessment po policy for deferments and um those individuals that are seeking a deferment can certainly contact City Hall and and uh staff there will be able to look into that there's some requirements associated with that but those can be evaluated um when they come in the city hall so the deferment goes until they sell their property and the interest continues throughout the term yes their interest continues even though the assessments deferred yep okay all right thank you at this time after that explanation by our city engineer um I'll open the public hearing um request that when you come up that you give your name and address um we have some letters um that we will be reading after I close the public hearing um first off I have Justin matter evening mayor and members of the council I appreciate the opportunity to speak my name is Justin matern at 13th Street Southwest uh my letter is probably one of the ones that you were going to read so I'll spare you and and take care of that for you uh I'll go through that real quickly with some of the highlights and then if there's any questions perhaps we can walk through that as well so hopefully you all have a copy of that as I provided a a series of information along with this so mayor Reese and members of council I'm writing today in response to the proposed assessment on 13th Street Southwest for the 2024 Street reconstruction project I want to First recognize the need for our street improvements and applaud the city in their recent efforts to replace Andor repair the road infrastructure within Wilmer this includes the replacement and upgrades on the 13th Street Grace Avenue and rice Avenue project as some of you know for years I've been a proponent of changing how the city handles Street assessments both personally and in my role as a former Wilmer Municipal utility commissioner I had met with various members of the council and City staff advocating for improved Street planning and changes to the city assessment policy my concerns include the following number one city project cost offsets this includes the share of project costs incurred by the Municipal Utilities per a previous mou at the city and the utilities also the share of the project costs covered by the local option sales tax for storm water upgrades and finally the share of project costs that are supposed to be covered by the monthly utility Improvement charges that are appended with each monthly Wastewater Bill these combined funding sources are intended to reduce the total cost burden for Street projects and thus have a direct impact on subsequent assessment amounts see attached breakdown number two assessment amounts larger than realized gains in property values per state statute this has been a concern for a number of years now and has been publicly addressed in the West Central Tribune article published October 7th 2022 see attached the concern has been exacerbated by the recent housing bubble which has already inflated home values further and further muted the effectual property value increase on homes as a result of Street improvements number three assessed estimates versus assessed project costs our assessment public hearing notice states that the total estimated cost of assessible improvements is $ 11.66 million of which nearly 3.1 million is to be assessed however the total bids as provided in previous Council packets for all 2024 Street projects listed in the notice came in significantly lower at 9.26 million see attached for breakdown my understanding from preliminary communication with the contracted city engineer is that the actual project costs have been pretty well aligned with the bid amounts see attached further I understand that the targeted that the targeted assessed value for Street projects is just over 20% of actual project costs due to the type of bonding that the city you izes in this case the $3.1 million proposed assessment is roughly onethird of actual project costs following the currently intended City pattern a more appropriate 22% assessment of the 9.26 M million bid would be roughly $2 million number four homeowners caught off guard as I have spoken casually with some of my neighbors I realize the shock that many citizens experience when they find out about their assessment amounts while those of you on the council and in City work are exposed to these amounts year after year most people in the community are not due to these concerns I'm requesting the following changes to be considered firstly as a direct consequence of concerns one two and three I'm asking for a 33% reduction of my assessment amount and the assessment of those who have signed on to this notice see attached to Dums secondly in light of these concerns I would ask the city to further pursue options to reduce although not eliminate these Assessments in the future and to help spread the burden in a more palatable fashion for example further utilizing something like the utility Improvement charge to raise a larger pot of funds from everyone each year could go towards Street projects with the sole purpose of reducing the Sudden Impact of such a large cost to Property Owners each time a street is repaired I recognize additional options can and should be considered and while some discussion had taken place this spring during a council work session no serious conversation or brainstorming of such options has ensued as always I welcome further conversation with any of you should you wish to reach out finally although I have not gone door-to-door canvasing in my neighborhood I have had typical end of driveway and across the fence conversation with some of my neighbors these neighbors share my concerns and thusly have chosen to sign on an agreement to the terms of this letter and as an official notice of objection to their own assessments see addendums 1 two and three so with that if there are any questions I would entertain those I know there is a lot of information I had provided in the packets too so I'm hoping I didn't overwhelm you all too much if not thank you right thank you for your input Justin Dennis scha Bower um good evening mayor re and Wilmer City Council Members my name is Dennis scha Bower and I reside at 1436 Grace Avenue Southwest thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this evening I am here to object to the dollar amount assessed to my property for the 2024 Street Improvement project I believe that the assessment is excessive and does not accurately reflect the value added to my property thank you John pierce my name is my name is Don Pierce 913 ryce Avenue I'm here to object to the amount of the assessments too we were not given these numbers in advance and these estimates just seem way higher than what we were anticipated when I had talked to people on Sixth Street last year so I'm not sure how these numbers got so inflated from last year right thank you Donna Eisley greetings council members uh my name is Donna isby and I reside at 1,4 Street Southwest which is a corner lot so Grace Avenue runs along the north side of my house um I I guess I question also the assessment policy with regard to the streets and the street repair I certainly am not don't object to any of this being done but uh in my particular case uh I have already been assessed almost 8,000 for the uh front side of my house which is 14th Street and now I'm being assessed 9700 for the Grace Avenue side um and I'm not sure and and my main gain on the North side on Grace Avenue is curban gutter which is is fine but I don't know how much that will actually uh increase the value of my property so that's one if you could reconsider that amount right thank you Donna Wayne hitzman I got comment at this time I think my questions okay uh Kathy Banner hello I'm Kathy Bannon I live at 128 race Avenue Southwest um I'm not happy with the amount that was assessed to my home either I think on your at least on the letter that I had received it says Kathy moldel that was my former name um at the time that I bought the house and I bought my house in 1998 when my sons were one and two and a half years old at that time Grace Avenue was a beautiful treelined familyfriendly home uh neighborhood I was able to pay off my house in 2019 after my husband died and I put on a new roof and that's about where my improvements to my home have stopped I live modestly I drive my parents 2000 Avalon um don't make any big purchases but my sons remind me that I do not have enough money to retire something that I had looked forward to doing the 67 in October and I work full-time for the school district at Kennedy School um I don't have money unless I dip into my retirement monies I do not want to do that to replace my windows in my bedrooms so when I need to close or open my windows I go outside to do um I guess you know I'm not talking so much about these parcels and the monies but these are are HS this is something I have lived in coming back to Wilmer from to have raised my children here have lived in this home since 1998 and I just don't see how stripping away the beauty of this street um how that increases the value of my property now I understand that that had to happen for those for the work that was done but that certainly didn't raise its value in any way those trees were a big part of what Drew people to Grace saath um and and also when I bought my house my house had been built in either 1950 or 1952 it is that many years old now and I've grown to live with it but um it it seems just so um it's distressing to think that I'll have to keep working to pay off a value that may or may not be seen and um may or may not be able to get those windows replaced and by the way since they shut the water off Monday in July my bathroom sink water has worked so that's my last but um I just hope that you would take into consideration the values that ass that are being assessed on these properties our homes thank you thank you Kathy Mike Daka uh thank you Mr Mayor and council members uh I'm on 1104 Grace Avenue um just down from Cathy um we purchased our home five six years ago when Grace Avenue was pretty much still in disrepair the gravel that's on there right now might be the best that road has been in the entire time we live there the roads conditions wasn't one of the reasons we bought our house part of the thing that made us fall in love and buy the house was the way Grace Avenue looked the tree covered area the the shade for um our young family and that is gone and just like Kathy pointed out we had to have that but I would argue that that has made more of a detriment to the value of my home than a brand new Grace Avenue Road is and like most of the people I think I don't have the $1,000 to pay this outright to spare myself the um interest rates so if this is financed over the 15 years that is being allowed at the inter rate I'm going end up paying the city $117,000 a $5,800 extra cost on top of the 11,000 that is being assessed so that is just part of I think the concern I wanted to bring to the council at this time thank you thank you Mike that's everybody that signed up to speak um I will call on Larson our city clerk anybody else want to speak is there anybody else yes okay okay we'll take her first can you sign sign in there please with your address good evening council members and mayor rice I also live at on Grace Avenue at 121 Grace Avenue right across from Kathy right down the street from Mike I would like to dispute the amount that has been assessed on the property as well due to is this really going to increase the value of my home what's your name oh Jalen goer I'm sorry jaline yes yeah uh but in addition to that what I'd like to talk to the council about um not only the the value and the assessment Kathy and I are both single women our street has been shut down for several months um trying to get softener salt groceries things like that have been really difficult for us um they I got stuck on our street I had to call a tow truck had to wash my van twice had to bring it to the repair shop because there was so much mud in there uh the construction company says yes you can drive on it no you can't uh we just are back and forth trying to find wagons to H our things you know I'm cutting through two backyards uh which is not ideal because it's not a smooth surface and so it has been very difficult for us this project has gone on for a long time uh they started in April with the uh Center Point and energy um we received a notification what probably a month ago saying that they're going to start in the carbon gber nothing has been done uh they didn't fill in when they did the temporary they didn't fill in um the entire piece of my driveway and I was not home at the time someone got hung up on it had some damage to their vehicle because there was just cement and then a drop off getting out of my driveway right now has been very difficult and I don't know if I take up these concerns with you or not but I know the City reviews the proposals and the construction company but we have not seen any action on our street for a long time thank you thank you's your name and address please hi um I'm Emily strike um I live at 1106 Wilmer Avenue Southwest um and I am also here to um express my objection to the proposed assessment um the proposed cost uh for our parcel is $4,875 um and I feel this does not correlate to any type of special benefit we would have uh received uh as a property owner to our property um we had a replacement of our driveway apron and the sidewalk in front of it uh prior to this replacement the both were functional we had not had any issues with it did not you know request this repair um and I do not feel that this increases the value of our property uh by the nearly $5,000 um and again I don't feel that there is a any special benefit that we have received from this um and I also have um attached to my letter some tax um information uh my property has been steadily increasing in value over the past five years um without any of these you know improvements occurring um and as such my property tax has also steadily increased um so this you know additional cost on top is a financial strain um I oppose the cost of this additional assessment as it does not provide me with special benefits or an increase in Market property value I do not consider this assessment to be one that would increase the value of my home to a buyer thank you Emily what was your address 1106 Wilmer Avenue Southwest [Music] thank you you you want to speak thank you Mary ree city council I appreciate what you've done for this city it's a I know it's a tough job but it's we appreciate all the work that you're doing my name is John Magnuson I live at 712 12 13th Street South West I'm when I opened the letter and showed that uh our property was assessed at [Music] 16,300 whatever it was almost fell off the chair and I'm thinking to myself I just got the sheet of our proposed taxes for 2024 and it has increase our proposed uh Revenue of our house of 325,000 and I don't think that uh it's possible to put the $116,000 on or above that that amount uh I I don't I don't see where my house is going to be worth 341 Thou $341,000 after the assessment so I'm I'm I'm not agreeing with the total amount of of uh assessment I'm sure that there's got to be some other way the the thing that bothers me is that from CYO High Avenue to monalia Avenue it's one full block we live on the west side of that street the east side is all school they pay no taxes so my the thing that bothers me is are we kind of absorbing the taxes that the school would for the work that was done on the school if that's the case then I think we better sit down and take a better look at the situation I understand that the school is is uh forfeited from any taxes but that doesn't mean that the homeowners should absorb that and uh I I I I looked at if I took it this amount out on payments for the amount of whatever we could go 15 years or whatever I'm 88 years old I'd be 104 years old by the time the thing would be done I don't think unless we got a real miracle that I will make it to that age so uh I'm sure that the house will be sold prior to that and then of course everything can be taken care of but I don't think that's right and I really object to the 16,000 I think that should probably take a look at it and kind of re-evaluate this this whole situation uh it just doesn't make sense and I appreciate you giving me the time to speak about this thank you thank you John um my name is Blake fold I live at 730 13 Street Southwest um I may be less prepared than some other people I wasn't originally going to speak but I also share a property uh with the school on the other side of the street um the side of my house that is on 13th Street I don't know exactly how many feet it is but it can't be more than probably 25 or 30 feet uh and I was assessed almost $8,000 um I'm a single parent to two kids and uh live paycheck to paycheck as it is and uh at a time when we're all facing inflation I can't uh you know make that $88,000 payment and uh some ising options really to put on property taxes and I can't I can't afford much more on that thank you thank you Blake did you sign in no please do sign in and put your address down thank you anyone else wishing to speak I am John Saunders I'm at 1220 Grace I also have a property at 820 13th Street um and uh I think Justin matter raised some great issues um I I hope it would be and I understand what the loss is the loss is if you don't object you don't get the benefit of it but I think some of the issues he raised could affect everyone on our project um I just want to verify that those people who sign who signed the form that Justin provided us have made a formal objection i' want to hear from the city council that uh we haven't so because I know we can orally do that at this meeting but I would want the people that signed on to be uh recognized as making a formal objection uh I feel bad for those who aren't I think justtin made some good points um it doesn't appear that those are discussed at this point I wouldn't want somebody to lose their rights uh to get the benefit of that just because they weren't able to come tonight or didn't sign on for Justin Justin was not carrying a torch uh he was uh honestly just talking to people in the neighborhood um and wasn't able to reach everyone so um obviously I understand that uh projects need to be um completed but they need to be based on the actual cost that the city has um and they also uh obviously have to provide a benefit to those properties so I want to make sure um and I I feel selfish in being the one that says I'm objecting uh I hope everyone that signed on with Justin uh is certified as an objector and then if there is issues with the difference between the assessment and what was actually incurred by the city um if the law would allow I'd certainly want that to be given to my neighbors who weren't able to talk to Justin or weren't able to submit an objection tonight um and the law is going to provide what we can do with that but uh I feel bad about that I'm here to support somebody that took the effort and the time that I wasn't able to do to kind of analyze this so I appreciate his work uh and it was done with the best intent of the city in mind so I wanted to uh mention that to the council and I'll sign in here so uh I'd want to know before we left and before we adjourned tonight that uh the objections stated on Justin's letter are sufficient under the law to be a for objection so I'd ask that that happen before we uh adjourn tonight thank you thank you John um anybody else Robert do you want to comment on that uh yeah mayor members of council uh anyone who signed the letter communicating the objections uh to the assessments on uh the Grace Avenue and related streets projects as articulated by Mr M earlier is considered to have objected for purposes of the statute hello everybody my name is Aaron ker I live at 1214 wav Southeast um I'm a simple guy I work a lot I don't I don't dabble in politics I don't really watch the news or read the paper so I didn't even get it I don't even I didn't even get a a letter in the mail for this stuff I know it was sent out I didn't see it um obviously saw the the payment I think there's a lot of people here that are pretty upset by this and I get you guys work hard and you're doing the best for Community I understand that but I think this might be a situation where we reevaluate and make sure that every single person has a voice in this decision and hopefully we can come to a resolution we not put anybody out it's a lot of money so but yeah that's all I got okay thank you um my name is John Kennedy uh I live at 1210 Wilmer Avenue Southeast and I also object to the special assessment um I agree with I'm really appreciative of Justin's assessment um I did talk to an employee at Bolton M earlier today about the assessment and the value and the stuff presented here was different than what I was given so I find it odd that we're difference in the letter that everybody's talking about and what was presented I would agree I hope everybody uh is able to get the additional reduction and funds that we're shown here and not just U move forward um let's see um also um I don't fully understand why RoR Avenue street I live on was chosen uh from an improvement standpoint the road was perfectly fine there were no potholes uh it seems like a big waste of City resources and our own resources uh to fix a road that didn't need to be repaired um so yeah I just want to voice my objection as well thank you thank you joh anybody else anybody else all right um let's go to the letters before I close the hearing all right first letter is from Chan I'm I'm gonna not pronounce his names correctly and I apologize um from Chan Wang and Rachel mic to whom it may concern we appeal the assessments for project numbers 2 401-a 2 41-b 2 43- A 2 44- a and 2 404-b of 20 248 and 20 2024 Street and other improvements on parcel number 95- 600-55 the only work that was done was on the handicap ramp on the sidewalk and digging around the ramp has caused additional work for the homeowners for grass repair and cleanup the next letter dear mayor Doug Reese and city clerk bernee Larsson I hereby submit my written objection to the special assessments that are being proposed against my priv private property parcel number 95- 08- 80 I for whatever reason never received my mail notice of hearing on assessments for the assessments on my property it was not until I heard a few other residents of the project had received notices that I took it upon myself to reach out to the city about my notice I reached out this morning to go to the city and found that indeed the notices had been mailed and that I that the public hearing was set for tonight I requested the to see the proposed assessment role for the project through email but was instead sent to a cost breakdown for my assessment the public notice indicates the proposed assessment role is on file with the clerk and open to the public inspection however upon stopping into the city office I was denied access to the assessment role and I was told I needed to file a request for information and it would be needed to be approved this assessment rule should be open I object to the assessment for a number of reasons I do not feel that the proposed assessment passes the special benefit test the land receiv received a special benefit from the Improvement or that the land assessment does not exceed the special benefit measur by the increase in market value due to the Improvement current tax data indicated that the land value for my property is estimated at $30,800 I would not agree with that current assessments increase my value my value by over 50% I would fight that the property currently received water and sewer service is not receiving any additional special benefit because it contines to receive Water and Sewer Service I do not feel that my property lot length footage is calculated appropriately to reflect actual quantities used on the project there is currently a meter fee and more commonly referred to as a base fee associated with both the water and sewer bill in the city these fees typically are collected for operation maintenance and replacement why is it not the case for the city of Wilmer water and sewer service charges would be appropriate to do as special assessments Water and Sewer Mains should not I would also argue against this assessment policy as being unfairly levied against the unfortunate property owner that is living there during the construction project I would assume the city roads are constructed around every 60 years average homeowner in the US is around 11 years my firsttime home buyers relocating with first-time home buyers relocating in four to five years I do not want this letter to be taken as I am not in support of the street project or the council continues continued push to utility replacement or Street Maintenance or Construction in the future I do however strongly object to the council assessment policy and using special assessments as a tool solely to satisfy the 20% assessment requirements for the bonds best regard Josh Johnson PE living at 1459 Grace Avenue Southwest the next letter uh is directed to me tension ver Lon City Clark and then to whom it may concern please accept this letter as my official objection to the notice sent out July 30th 20124 I will not be paying the assessment of $975 I was not made aware of this policy change and don't feel this is right that I must pay for it I never had to pay for the road when it was initially put in and I will not be paying for this as well if I end up incurring this cost I will send be sending bills to the city of Wilmer for the extra 3 or 4 feet I have to snow blow because the plow doesn't seem to want to do it signed Josh Kowalski kowal kowal I I'm sorry if I make a bet lives at 1201 9th Street Southeast the next letter is from Cindy Johnson and she's objecting to property 9527 z-10 assessment Pro proposal I aware that you don't really care about me or what I have to say but I feel the need to voice my objection to this proposal you seem to think I need a new approach to my driveway I had a tar approach you tore it out and are putting in concrete one the amount that you are charging me for this repair which I didn't need or want is excessive I called some cement contractors they all gave me estimates less than this for the 6x4 foot approach I could have hired this done myself for half of what you are charging me for this repair see ATT which is estimates from a handwritten estimates of what it would cost her the Minnesota statute says a special assessment amount cannot exceed the amount by which the property benefits from the Improvement I have yet to see how replacing a tar approach with a cement one benefits my property at all tar RS the ice and snow better than the cement does you could have done a tar overlay instead of tearing it all out and putting in cement it would this would have been much cheaper your letter says that I have until October 31st 2024 to pay this assessment amount or I will be charged 5868 per interest for a 12-month period so I have to pay 12 months of interest when I when you haven't even given me a year to pay it then you say I H I can put it on my property tax for over 15E period with interest I did some figuring and after 20 years I would still owe money on this and I would have paid you $1,933 57 in interest now I ask myself where does that interest go does it go to the city the county a bank a credit union where is it necessary for you to charge this 5.86 eight interest you state in the your letter the project costs 11,665 th000 which you are paying 8,582 300 I assume you are paying your portion with the bond I would like to ask if you were over budget on this project why did you go ahead with all of these repairs could you have maybe just done why sidewalk and curb and not done approaches would that have saved some money I am guessing I guess I'm old and you don't spend money you don't have I just dropped you just dropped a 3,882 $700 three I'm sorry let me start over we've just dropped a 3,8 $82,700 debt into our labs and demand that we will pay for your overspending I'd like to take to talk about property taxes my property taxes went up 25% from 23 to 24 with no improvement to my property at all they have almost doubled in the last four years my house is very small 30 by 40 including the garage if I put this on my taxes it will add $230 the first year to my taxes a 15% increase and C can you tell me will this be considered as maintenance or will it be this is all I have to say thank you for your time Cindy Johnson and she lives at 12129 Wilmer Avenue Southwest the next letter is from Darren kacher he lives at 82613 Street Southwest parcel number 995-5710 I am writing to request your consideration in adjustment to my current assessment to a lesser amount due to my financial hardship since 2003 I have been receiving Social Security benefits as a result of a traumatic brain injury that has led to my diminished capacity despite my efforts to contribute through part-time work as a delivery driver I my income remains substantially below the poverty line I am fortunate to receive family help for the maintenance and fiscal management of having home that allows me to live independently I appreciate your consideration of my request to adjust the assessment amount to better reflect my financial situation thank you for your consideration Dian Darren katsam moer also signed by his mother Pam kmaker who is his authorized representative PE the last letter I have is written by John or how I'm sorry Ronald Johnson and Michelle Johnson living at 1401 Wilmer Avenue Southwest parcel number 95- 06-10 this is a written objection to the amount of $6,500 which we see as being too high in view of the fact that our property is not getting a new driveway apron our lot size is 100 feet wide we called and had the apron examined by Jeremy feifer assistant engineer in 2020 we called the city's Department of Public Works and we're told that it would be our responsibility to pay for a new apron we paid a private contractor to do a new apron because the old as old original asphalt between sidewalk and curb was breaking down this was not done correctly and so in two parts the replacement concrete portion was done at only 4 in thick as opposed to what is being done now at 6 in thick so the part replaced was in no respect comparable ins size or quality to the pre to these presently being done therefore it seems that our higher assessment cost is not comparable with some other properties on Wimer Avenue I ask that the assessment amount be reduced thank you sincerely Ron and Michelle Johnson that's all I have that's the end of the letters um Jared I want I want to ask you a question just on that last one on Wilmer Avenue we aren't putting in six inches of concrete are we the uh driveway replacement the aprons that have been referred to this evening are six inches thick yes that's standard for our both the city and the county um processes you did mine last year I didn't think it was 6 in it was y wow okay that's substantial I uh I listen [Music] to the public in this public hearing and uh before I close the hearing I just want to say something and I I have sat at this table for 26 years and over those 26 years there have been years where there's been no projects and there's been years that there's been limited projects and we fell the city severely behind on reconstruction and maintaining our public streets we we we didn't do it we were really poor at that um we fell behind and we need to address these deteriorating streets and we must be diligent in reconstruction of infrastructure I would charge our city council I'm just going to speak to you for a minute and our staff Tom I want you to I talked to you about this and I think we need it's time that we the council the mayor and staff look at a program that will eliminate assessments how do you do that everybody in the city pays every year an amount determined in a fashion that is fair and Equitable for everyone how I how that is formed I don't know I think we need to do some real figures and calculations and considerations and take Tim um Justin M's um letter in consider duration of some of the things that he brought up so I I I would charge the council with the work to be done of looking at an overall financing of Street projects infrastructure across all properties that are taxable in our city so I will leave it at that okay AUD well let me close it here that's what I wan to before you close it okay right okay um I wanted to ask a procedural question because I know we ran into this a couple years ago and in Justin's letter and as it was spoke tonight if we close the public hearing there are questions about our figures that were in there and if if those if any of those questions um I know he's done his homework with that I think that we before we close the public hearing need to make sure that what we have or answer the questions that were in there because if we close it it will if I understand correctly only apply to the people who objected to the public hearing tonight where if we've got some errors in calculations it should apply to all and so I'm asking a procedural question with how do we do this if we have questions um that were brought forward to us regarding the the figures City attorney Robert Smith thank you mayor members of the council uh under the statute the council has an obligation to uh pass upon each objection that has been made to you whether orally at the hearing tonight or in our letter that was uh read into the record um you can do that tonight at this hearing and go property by property but that's the requirement under statute you also have the ability to continue the hearing with respect to those properties if you want more information before you make your determination however you as I think we did a cou years ago have the ability as a council to make across theboard changes to the uh assessment roles up until the point you prove the assessment role so that has not happened yet that's one of the action items recommended tonight is that you approve the assessment role so your options as a council tonight would be to approve the role um after resolving each of the objections to approve the role uh subject to a continued hearing just on those who have validly appr or to uh I guess not take action on that until until you have decided whether you wanted to make any uniform adjustments to any of the assessments whether they objected or not you do have that Authority right Justin I think I'd like to hear from City staff of whether or not our figures are correct that seems to be the big question tonight and before I think we could really move on to much else I think we have to to hear more about that don't know if that's Jared or that's uh related to the figures I guess specifically I know there are a lot of um questions that were asked as it relates to the the assessment amounts uh per the policy I'm not concerned about those but if it's the other figures that we're referring to um the Wilmer Municipal Utilities participation and some of the other items that were mentioned in that by uh Mr M I I don't have that information in front of me but um as it relates to the assessments uh we have taken notes we'll go through all of these whether it's tonight if Council chooses or um like occurred last year where each specific property is researched and validated um but I'm not concerned with incorrect figures in the assessment roles the the overall total seems to be what's in question right the yes thank you for that that's so the overall total for 2024 is 100% correct is $ 11,665 th000 the private property assessment amount is 2, 367,000 now that might be off by a couple thousand dollars but that's just related to a um a sewer service that we found was not installed as of like 4:00 today so we're going to recommend that that amount be changed in the assessment role um because that's where the contractor was digging and that's how we were able to to verify that certainly moving forward if um we become aware of that after the role is adopted whenever that might be um those adjustments would then also be made um to those Property Owners but in terms of the the private assessments is approximately 2.36 million the notice that went out did say 3 million um and that was in error as it related to um some assessments along the uh Wilmer Avenue originally that number originated from a cost per linear foot rather than the three um property classifications which significantly reduced um the overall assessment so 2.36 million is the private versus the 3 million that was in the in the notice and and any other comments in response to to item three in Mr M's letter the assessed estimates versus the assessed project costs um I did review Mr M's letter uh he was definitely very thorough the items that were identified in terms of costs not all of those included the total project cost some of those were only construction costs um which is a different thing because to that is added the admin the bonding cost testing engineering um and those other costs so we can certainly certainly clear that up uh with the as bid budget prices um but there were a couple in there that I did note that uh did not include all of the costs associated with project rather only the construction bid prices so right Tom well just following up on Nelson's procedural two years ago same thing happened here we had a lot of people here a lot of people didn't speak up we were going to continue the meeting at the next one so everybody could get their figures together and come back and redo it meeting came up and it was closed nothing was going on we met downstairs we had a full house it was packed in there and I made the motion to get it open back up and councelor Aus second that mayor at that time objected didn't want to do it we promised we were going to keep it open open for everybody because there's a lot of people here that didn't speak tonight that should have come up and spoke concerning their taxes there's people here sitting here assessment or their assessment so I I think we have to do what's what's fair that we did two years ago keep this meeting open till we can really look at at the numbers I think a little high just like with Don Pierce brought up two years ago with six Street they were high we as a council sat down readjusted figures did what we could to benefit everybody uh right now inflation's killing everybody we just passed uh I wasn't here the other week we just passed you know the gas franchise that's going to be added on everybody we have to do something about taxes but we also have to do something about the road I hope you guys understand everybody's going through this no matter what when we do a a road construction prices are going up and up and up City needs help from you know the special assessments to get it done and we'll try and get done as Fair as we can for everybody that's my goal here is to want to keep it open and let everybody you know till we figure out what we can do because I look at some of the corner Lots ,000 and got a gal here on Grace that her last side was n $9,700 now we're charging 100% on on both sides of the corner Lots the way I took it from that one I don't know where a corner lot policy is but that's you know $117,000 she's paying for two roads I think that's unfair so I think we need to keep this uh open and not not Clos yes Julie I received um a letter from another person on Wilmer Avenue and it was brought up with some of the concerns tonight on the on the timing could you explain again um why there's a short window of when they get the letter and then when it has to be paid um and is there any way that that can go out earlier and or why is it that they get in in August at the end of August and um and then when it's due so in terms of the timing the um City needs to certify the assessments to the county auditor in November uh to make sure that they're in in time enough to be on the 2025 um tax roles for anybody that did not uh pay the assessments the the notice letters um last year I believe it was the end of September that they went out Council asked for it to be earlier we had we were here in July um and scheduled a public hearing for tonight so um certainly staff is more than willing to send them out at whatever um timeline the council would like okay so we're already a month earlier than last year correct okay and is there is is there a percentage of the project that has to get done before we know which figure is going to get assessed or what what determines when we're going to see those totals and when the assessment figures come in so the um assessment work starts as soon as we get the bids associated with the improvements um the discussion that we've had previously as it relates to when's the right time to send the notices um as we've heard 13th Grayson rice is in the midst of a long construction um I would say approximately one third of that project remains to be completed it's in various stages throughout the entire area um as early as uh this afternoon we were installing some uh sanitary sewer and found out that one of the residents didn't have a sewer service there now we have ways of fixing that because we track all this and we go back and verify that um after the construction is over but ultimately uh there's no perfect time the the farther into construction you get the more accurate uh we can project where the Project's going to come in they're all coming in on budget I believe as Mr M stated in our conversation previously um so I don't have any concerns with that but there are little nuances that come up during construction that might not get a get accounted for but in terms of timeline um we can we can accelerate that if that's the desire of the council I'm just saying so say like with this you find a new pipe or a new something that has to get fixed that adjusts the amount uh yes because individual properties are assessed for sewer and water services as as well as who are in water M if their service comes off of one street and not another that can impact the assessment um because then they would either need to be assessed that's the hard part right so if it's not in the role and they're not assessed we can't send them an additional bill um but in cases where if it's assessed and it and it isn't installed um we can we can work with the county on that adjustment but th those are the risks I mean aside from that um we can accelerate the timeline okay and did we give people um the information if they have a hardship and what they can do I believe that was in the notice I'd have to double check that okay Ricky I have a couple questions so with um notifying them of their amount since we usually know a year or two ahead can we send out a notice like with an estimate of what they might know a year ahead so they can save up for it uh so we actually don't know the assessment amounts till we get the bids um which is typically well we've been been running in about February March time frame um when we've been taking bids in but certainly um as Council evaluates future projects we could send a we could send an estimate based on um previous year's numbers to the people or to the residents Property Owners if if we think that would be helpful sure and then for Wilmer Avenue um you know they were saying the street is already in pretty good shape but that one's a Mill and overlay correct yeah the Wilmer Avenue Improvement is a Mill and overlay project very similar to the 23rd Street that we did last year uh it is not a reconstruct and that is that is why not all the curbing Gutter and not all of the driveway aprons are being replaced uh there are spot repair of sidewalk spot repair of curb spot repair of driveway aprons um and that is due to the nature of the Improvement that it is not a reconstruct so that's why you see areas throughout the project that are have new concrete and some areas still don't but this should save money in the long run correct the mill and overlay will extend the life of that road absolutely thank you and there were some catch Bas that were yep and there are storm sewer structures that were adjusted city right yeah there's a lot of failing infrastru yeah okay Mike you and I have talked about this before and I think we should share the debt somehow whether it's a wheel tax or whatever it is I've been part of discussions with communities other government agencies uh they do it a little bit differently than we do and I think uh you had all these people that are here that are driving these roads why should these people be taxed for a road by themselves and everybody's going to be probably driving on that road we have to share the debt somehow and and I think one of the ways is what we saw and we met with the county and that was Wheel tack um I don't know how all that works but I'm just saying if it's if it's possible let's look at it I I just don't see why because you live on a block you get you get hammered for $116,000 or $8,000 or whatever it is I think everybody drives on these roads everybody should pay okay Julie I thought when we had this discussion with three years ago and we were looking at just exactly what you had said we should address here that it was and I don't remember the amount but it was a significant increase um am I like 12% 12 12 to 14% it was it was significant that each homeowner would uh have an increase and and when we looked it and then those that maybe had had an assessment within the last 15 years it would have to get pro-rated you know if they they'd already paid for their assessment on their Road and then at 15 years everybody would be caught up because those that had just paid then you know would would depend on the year how it would get prated but it would be significant to every taxpayer and we just I I think we knew that would not be palatable and I I just I just want you to know we looked at it we considered it um we looked at the figures and um and I'm I'm I just I wish there was an easy answer I do and I and as outraged as you probably felt when you got the letter about your assessments um if you got the letter that said that everybody now we were going to start to do it the way where everybody gets charged um I I think the outrage would be unbelievable um if we were to do that to this there's not an easy answer how to repair the roads and the cost there's got to be a way to to do this that's makes more sense and eliminates the stomach acid that I'm feeling here tonight um yeah could we just had the city staff uh put people in exactly what's needed for deferral you know with the letters that got brought up that uh say I can't pay another young gentleman uh I think it was uh fost old single parent you know can we address that part so people can understand what they would have to do to defer it I know if you're elderly so age or military deployment um there is a special assess or a special hardship request um and that is by at the city at City council's discretion at the council's discretion um there's basically only like four different types of deferments you can get if you are approved your property is still gaining interest every every month of every year until the property is either assessed or either sold or no longer available or no longer considered classified as deferred when would they have to come down City Hall to apply for that to see if they would qualify andless cut off date you have to have your deferment into my office by I believe the end of September because it has to be presented to the council by the middle of October okay so then they would just go down talk somebody there and ask for the referral paperwork and get fill out and have it brought back to you so according to our ordinances you a person 65 years of age or older a person who is retired by virtue of permanent or total disability a person who is a member of the Minnesota National Guard or other military Reserve who has been ordered into active military service or there is a hardship on the basis of an exceptional and unusual circumstances not covered by the other standards and guidelines where the determination is made in a non-discriminatory manner does not give the applicant an unreasonable preference or advantage over other applicants yes Mike don't know if you just covered that or not but the military is is over 60% disability I think they're exempt from their taxes that's not correct I believe that's correct anybody it's over [Music] 60% assessments are different than taxes I'm talking taxes right now yep Mr Scott what what can I do here as far as closing the hearing and adjusting and staff having time to re-evaluate what can I do yeah mayor members of the council the options for the council tonight are you have satisfied the legal obligation for the city to publish notice send notice of this public hearing conduct the public hearing give anyone who received the notice of assessment the opportunity to come and address the council and make any objections make a record of their objections I think you have you have completed that responsibility your options now would be to uh close the hearing uh continue the hearing with respect to those who have articulated objections again tonight or in writing um so that those could be dealt with in an organized manner in a future meeting um you do have the responsibility whether you do it tonight or at a future meeting to make a ruling on each of those objections that have been submitted to you um so I it is the council's choice how to proceed but your obligation is to whether you do it tonight or at a future continued hearing with respect to those who have objected uh resolve each of those objections you do have the legal authority to uh pass the assessment role tonight subject to modification once you do uh resolve the objections uh if you choose to continue to another meeting you can still adopt the role tonight with respect to those who did not object you're not required to and you do have the ability up until that role is approved to make adjustments to all of the properties on the role um or uh none of them once you resolve the objections thank you AR thank you um I'm still thinking we should continue the hearing um ask staff to verify the the figures some of the complaint concerns that were listed in some of the documentation but also to go back I believe you indicated that the percentages were higher this year than last year um to um look at um can we what would it be if we kept what we did last year yeah that's certainly an option that we can evaluate I think I was on this slide when I mentioned that the costs on this slide are within 3 to 8% of what they were last year so these um prices are very similar um in line with the costs that were assessed last year um two years ago um I know that has been referenced two years ago when the hearing was continued um Council reviewed the the uh assessment amounts and significantly decrease them um and that put uh the assessments near 20% and as a result those rates in 2003 have been um looked at and reviewed as part of this assessment preparation process and um I think since just for example on the street reconstruction since 2002 um when Council reduce those rates I believe the rate for Street reconstruction was approximately 60% so um the percentages that I was referring to were related to these individual rates being 3 to 8% within the rates on the same slide last year so would it be fair for me as mayor to close the hearing and staff to review the assessments of those that spoke or wrote right weally that would be perfectly appropriate mayor okay I would uh close the hearing on that um with that consideration of those that appeared before the council and wrote letters in regards to their assessments Sor Audrey are we still going to ask staff to verify um answer the questions that we're in that yes as it relates to that and also look at the what we are assessing then if you if we've closed it then we can't do that Robert you can uh mayor members of the council you can give staff that direction to bring that information forward to you and you can make adjustments to the role up until the point you approve the assessment role but isn't that what we were being asked to do tonight are know yes Justin there there was a recommended action item in the uh packet for the council to approve the assessments but until you actually take a motion to approve the assessments you have the ability to direct changes to be made to that document yeah I simply closed the hearing and charged our staff to review the challenges and come back with recommendations and there will be a legal responsibility for the council to uh work their way through each of the objections that you've received and make a ruling on each one of them then we're not going to approve the assessment role tonight um that was my understanding of the mayor's uh recommendation okay are we good on that now that I've I've closed it and there will be consideration on the challenges right the one additional uh item I think for the council would be if possible to announce when the continued hearing would take place whether that's going to be at the next regular meeting or uh a special meeting or uh whatever the council's preference how much time do you need City administrator WEP yes that would be adequate the first meeting in September we do have budget so we have preliminary budget review so linky to 16th of September that work y okay all right yes I just like to just make one adjustment to that to keep it open so we're involving everybody that's affected by this there's people that didn't speak tonight that this could affect there's people that probably couldn't make it tonight that didn't write a letter I want to keep is open so it's fair across the board we're just not singling out a half a dozen we need to do this for everybody I like we did uh two years ago when we had the house backed downstairs this needs to be open for everybody so we can take a little harder look at this Rick thanks Mr Mayor got a question for Jared engineering wanted to do Grace Avenue was it two years ago or three years ago M 13 uh I think it was identified in the CIP two years ago then we delayed it because the neighborhood didn't want to go ahead that's correct if we would have done it how much savings would it have been have any idea I don't know in terms of dollar amounts but I I I think it's been discussed here this evening regarding inflation um we saw prices increase 3 to 8% over last year so um it would have been cheaper there's no question if that's the um question but oh I'm sorry were you done I'm done okay Justin yeah thank you Mr Mayor just in response to some comments made by both council member Nelson and council member Butterfield I feel like you know it's still an open process it's still a fair process right we've we've taken the objections from the people who have responded to the letter that went out and the notice that was given we can still when we meet again in September make adjust based on the findings that staff brings to us and we can adjust the entire role so it's fair even if for those people that aren't here they could still see a reduction in their assessment if that's warranted um so I wouldn't I don't want to make it seem like it's unfair by you closing the hearing you know and and just a reminder that we can still make adjustments uh as we see fit Ry No I um what council member ask was talking about I think I just wanted to clarify with what our City attorney had said we're not going to approve the assessment role until then so we can make changes if we want to or if we can Mike we've talked about inflation we talked about how the we've kicked the can down the road we had a lot of roads that should have been done a long time ago now they're all being done or a lot of them are being done we have got to do something we've got to do something to make this Fair because all you're going to do is see more inflation more inflation higher costs and all the people just like you are going to be in this room saying the same thing we're praying too much only it's going to be a lot more we need to do something as a council as a group we need to do something that's going to share the wealth so to speak we need to get rid of the debt we need to try to help people get rid of the debt it's because you live on a road you shouldn't be getting hit like this no way and then years down the road it's going to be even higher and higher and higher so we need to do something yeah just one more quick note um earlier council member O'Brien referenced a Weedle tax am I correct that cities have no authority to leverage a wheel tax I think it's just the county no uh mayor council I thought we had looked at this at one point um I think I would rather than try and give you an answer on the spot have an answer to you at the continued hearing okay thank you anything else we're going to what huh yeah yeah we're going to take a five minute break I close the hearing we're g to take a five minute break you the hearing uh to resolve the objections for those who presented objections this evening uh and consider consideration of the assessment role um continue that on September 16th at the regularly scheduled council meeting second okay we got a motion a second discussion Tom is this going to include everybody the whole assessment role are just the ones that Rose the objections Robert mayor council member this motion would continue the hearing with respect to those who have objected for the council to make specific rulings on each of those objections however the city council would still have authority to make revisions to anybody's assessment that appears on the assessment role up until the time it approves that role after the hearing any questions discussion roll call council member sches hi agly hi Osmos hi Butterfield hi O'Brien all right o hi Nelson hi and Davis Hi eight eyes zero nose that passes next I'm going to call on Michelle Mor from the Ked on the budget for 2025 Michelle thank you good evening mayor and members of the council I will uh try to be quick we're looking at numbers so that's always an exciting thing uh I am Michelle morsky I am the business development manager for candy oh high County Economic Development in your Council packets you will see that KC's proposed 2025 budget is balanced with total revenues of about $848,000 and total expenses of about $847,000 the Surplus is only about 0.2% or under $2,000 so we operate with a very tight budget the proposed Revenue showing on page one is 36.6% less than the current budget of $1.34 million if we remove the $500,000 Child Care grant that KC was awarded from feed in June 2024 and included on the May 9th 2024 amended budget there is a proposed 1.2% increase over the amended budget this grant is a pass through Grant as KC is the fiscal host and will facilitate reimbursement and Reporting between the sub grantees anded looking at the Elevate Revenue also on page one year one expenses were submitted to deed for reimbursement and there was nearly $50,000 that was unspent these dollars will roll into the second budget year for the state which their budget year is July 1 to June 30th we are in the process of developing the business assistance Services Program which may not use the full $50,000 in ked's 2024 budget year what is not used will be available for the first half of KC's 2025 budget year so we aren't losing any money with that Grant we have requested a 4.9% increase in the TA County tax levy this is driven by the pending move that was approved by the joint Powers board at a special meeting on April 10th 2024 and previously approved by the joint operations board on March 14th of 2024 the move will provide dedicated space for the Elevate Community Business Academy in addition to space for committee and board meetings with more more than 12 people if you've ever been in our um conference room it gets a little cozy in there all right on the expense side um looking at is still on page one the proposed budget is reduced by about $56,000 or 37% again primarily due to the one-time deed grant for child care if we we remove that $500,000 from the 2024 budget we have a proposed expense decrease of less than % turning to page two on the budget this starts with the CEO or creating entrepreneurial opportunities program this is actually a pass through program and but we did adjust it downward based on the current year actuals overall the Elevate program is self- sustaining with the $23,500 deed Grant and the generous contributions from Southwest initiative f and other donors turning to page three now we are looking at the total committee expenses that will decrease from about $617,000 to $116,000 which is an 81% in uh decrease adjusting the 2024 amount to remove again that $500,000 Child Care Grant from deed the expenses still will decrease by 1.5% so I want to highlight a few items in the business retention and expansion category toward the bottom of page three and at the top of page four this is where Child Care the highway 23 Coalition and Workforce um are are listed the budget remained relatively stable SS again that deed Child Care Grant with a small decrease of 1.5% so first in that section is our shared services agreement with ukap that has been approved for a 2-year term through December 31st of 2026 this partnership has been invaluable with helping provide stability to our to the child care providers in candy oh high County T stuki is our child care Community coordinator and she has brought a lot of expertise new ideas and relationships to the role we are excited to continue the partner ship the increase in the contract is 4.8% and includes a stipulation that Ked will not be responsible for more than $29,900 each year of the contract we added a small amount just $500 for supplies and travel to assist with the cost to attend conferences or other needs related to the rural Child Care Innovation program or strategic Supply program second in that V section the highway 23 Coalition budget was reduced by $500 this is because Ked is no longer managing the meeting minutes or fiscal hosting of this organization finally looking at the top of page four in the Workforce Development section that includes the Workforce Solutions Summit this is a successful event that was held two years ago with 78 attendees we have started discussions with local Partners to host a similar event in 2025 suggested topics include housing Child Care broadband and other quality of life concerns that affect attracting and retaining employees turning to page five there are only six pages looking at the employee compensation section this shows a decrease due to the placeold older numbers with the hiring of a new executive director as the budget process had already started when the offer was made and accepted we have chosen to keep the amounts as projected the actual total compensation for the executive director is expected to be close to the proposed amount administrative expenses are proposed to be 49% less than in 2024 the executive search uh was 31% of the 2024 administr budget or $24,000 and is not anticipated to be in the 2025 budget finally on page six looking at proposed office expenses they will increase by 22% the bulk of this is associated with our new rent costs at the Apple Tree Square location I'm happy to answer any questions you might have any questions otherwise I'm looking for a motion to adopt the 2025 budget for KC MO approve second all right we got a motion and a second discussion Audrey I would request that it show as the recommended action that it's candy County and city of Walmer Economic Development commission budget not just KC that is our legal name it is still candy ohigh County and city of wmer Economic Development commission okay all right Justin yeah thank you Mr Mayor I know back when that name change was made there were concerns voiced by some of us at this table that that would at some point in the history down the road many many years to come people would forget that this actually was a joint uh Powers organization right that it would be forgotten that the city of WI was a part of it was somewhat surprised that they seemed to forget so quickly that the city of Wilmer was a part of it this Council requested formally uh reconsideration of that name change and sent a request for uh I believe for the joint Powers board to get back to us we're still waiting on that request but didn't have a problem coming to us for a budget I noticed I apologize for that uh all of that happened prior to my joining the organization which was well thank you thank you however I am um I I think that it is a very worthwhile conversation I would also just mention um recently I saw um our our deed commissioner and I was out at farmfest and he stopped by our booth and I I said something about candy ohigh County and he said oh yeah that's where Wilmer is so uh Wilmer is most certainly not forgotten I will also say um that a lot of our work happens in Wilmer just by Nature of our offices here we have um the largest population I think 21,000 some when I um read the Census Data today so from a staff standpoint there isn't any way that I'm going to forget that Wilmer is part of that however I do recognize the concerns and I remember hearing about them and reading about them if it's something that the council would wish us to revisit and bring to the Joint Powers board as an discussion item um I think our executive director would be amendable to that I'm assuming that letter was sent correct looking at administrator valant and you've never received a response from it correct okay well council member Davis council member osus and myself serve on the joint Powers so you can get us a response we can get you a response thank you yes all right any other discussion Rick thanks Mr Mayor so what's the square footage of your office now about half of what we have will'll have and um I am sorry because those numbers are just not in my head right now um I I want to say about 1,500 we will double our square footage okay yeah you're p a good price for it too is your electric and heat included then so um we do have some utility costs that will be included as well and I again I apologize I don't have the contract in front of me but it it is increased however we have also been working with our deed Grant to help offset some of those costs in different ways what's the storage unit where is that so that storage unit is uh behind the um Elks building there's a bank of garages and so we just have one of those that will go away because we will have Ample Storage in the new location Y and then do you have to pay for snow removal or anything that my understanding that's all included yep not like the mall then no comment I just want to point out that um before the new space they had to rent spaces for for a lot of meetings and now they can have all of the meetings in the new location yep our Elevate program did not have its own we were we were fortunate to have some generous um organizations that we could use their space but uh we did have to pay for certain things we were also hauling materials back and forth and um it'll be great just to have our fall Elevate class in one location thanks would had a desk open for students yes so that is another um another exciting part of it is that we will actually have two incubator spaces for Elevate graduates that perhaps they are starting their business they need just just a quiet space that they can come they'll have a locking file cabinet a desk area and access to that space without having access to the main office so we're excited to do that we would we don't have anything flushed out yet but that would come at a a small cost get them get new business owners used to paying that rent cost as um part of their business expenses any more questions roll call council member osus I Butterfield hi O'Brien Hi O hi Nelson hi Davis Hi sches hi and fager Le hi set eight eyes zero nose thank you Michelle all right connect Wilmer marketing proposals Kyle you Mr Mayor members of the city council at your last regular meeting the city council did act on the fiber use agreement for The Connect Wilmer uh project so with continuing that conversation uh to build off of that um we're looking at two proposals tonight both would supplement the fiber use agreement and supplement each other um so the broadband committee has received and reviewed two proposals from Hometown fiber and replaced for supplemental services to assist the committee and City staff and efforts to market the connect Wilmer project incorporating these firms into a locally driven project can offer substantial benefits even when the project is LED and managed within the community some of the areas that we'll be relying on and looking at that were that are included in these proposals are the expertise and experience uh outside firms Springs specialized knowledge and experience that may not be readily available available locally their experience can enhance the quality of the product ensure the best practices are followed and address complex challenging efficient address complex challenges efficiently they offer objective uh perspectives these external perspectives can provide a fresh View and insights helping to identify potential issues or opportunities that might be overlooked this can lead to more inovative Solutions and prevent potential pitfalls we can also look at resource augmentation or allowing staff in the committee understanding that our staff and the committee have limited resources Andor capacity to spend as much time as they wish they could on this project uh so by partnering with others they can supplement these shortcomings with additional skills technology personnel and ensuring that the project is complete on time and to a high standard then also we can look at risk management um we've talked over and over again that we want to make sure we've got a a solid project that we're bringing to the city council and we can do this by engaging with outside experts that can uh the project can benefit from their experience in managing risks navigating challenges providing quality resources uh this can help help an can help in anticipating problems and developing effective mitigation strategies and then lastly the efficiency and speed um goes without saying by adding more people more manpower uh or Workforce uh we can utilize others and we can use processes and tools that can streamline the project its execution potentially Al accelerating timelines and reducing or limiting costs um I'll go into the second proposal as well or they they go in hand inand but the second proposal really talks about Imaging branding marketing and that was The Proposal from replace um as you know having a product brand or for a fiber project like this is going to be very important uh it's going to be important that we can create a message create an image create a logo create a story around what this identity what this project is so branding again helps establish a c clear identity for the project a strong brand will help make the project recognizable memorable and distinguishing it from the other initiatives and helping it stand out in the Public's mind we can build credibility and trust a well-defined brand can enhance the Project's credibility it conveys professionalism and reliability which can build trust with stakeholders partners and the target audience consistency and Clarity branding provides a consistent message and visual identity which ensures that all Communications and materials are unified and clear this consistency helps with the effect helps effectively conveying the Project's goals and values um engagement and support this was was also discussed at the last meeting where we would like this to really be a community-led project at this point and and what I mean by that is showing the city council and staff our showing ourselves that there is community support for a project like this so by having a compelling brand to engage that target audience more effectively uh generating interest and enthusiasm it could Foster a sense of community and support among stakeholders and beneficiaries and we can look at in a crowded market and comp competitive environment a strong brand helps differentiate the project from others this could be crucial for attracting attentions during funding um donations or garnering media coverage motivation and alignment for internal teams and partners a strong B brand can help enhance Motivation by clearly communicating the Project's mission and vision again can lead to Greater commitment and cohesiveness amongst the team and those individuals involved and the long-term impact want to make sure that this is a successful project for the city of Wilmer and having a well-developed brand can have lasting benefits contributing to the Project's Legacy and long-term impact it helps create it helps in creating a lasting impression that can facilitate future initiatives or expansions so in your packet there are two proposals one from Hometown fiber and the other from replace um Hometown fiber piece actually I'll pause there Mr Mayor I'm going to invite up Dave sisser who is a member of the Broadband committee and I'd like Dave to share a few thoughts um uh from the Broadband committee our review and um just the overall recommendation his overall recommendation from the committee standpoint on this agenda item Mr mayor council members I appreciate the time here I uh am Dave suer uh I'm a member of the connect Walmart fiber committee from the start and um it's been an experience and a joy to uh look at the concept explore the options from from day one to a HomeTown fiber model and what that might mean for the city of walart um you have shown support for this project have not committed to it yet rightfully so I believe that these next are our next two steps for the committee to move forward we need Hometown fiber to start a community engagement we need to get the community involved if we don't this project will not work we need Community engagement we need uh help with Hometown fiber marketing experts branding experts and our committee to move this forward and to get community support for this project it's essential that we do that these are the next two steps I feel the ask that we're asking for us as a committee to move forward to get you the information for a final de decision questions from the council Tom Kyle did you check on with the City of Buffalo with their fiber you know I talked to you I talked the guy up there this Summer that they had it they were only at 250 people this year signed up for it that is a very low number of people for the price of us to keep moving forward yes thank you for that reminder council member Butterfield I did reach out to the managing director of that Network and never did receive a response so I unfortunately cannot elaborate any more than that well on my research of it I don't have it with tonight but they were charging for their fiber from 65 to $100 I don't see city of Wilmer going to be above $250 if we're in that price range you know when this was first brought up it was under $50 service I believe what was first pitched to the conso and if Buffalo only has 250 people on the fiber Network that's a lot of money the the city's paying just to have 250 people on on their internet so I think we really need to see how it's going to be paid out how much it's going to cost the city before we put in more money into it we put in $225,000 already before we into it for 50,000 and I don't remember what we paid for the engineering part of it but before we get too deep we really need to see the numbers how it's going to be paid what we think we're going to have for users on there because we're only going to have a th000 people you know with our bond interest payment we're going to have to raise property taxes I'd rather raise property taxes on the streets than for internet you know look at all the people in here tonight complaining about property taxes so I think uh we really need to get the hard numbers first before we spend any more numbers or any more dollars they discussing property taxes they're addressing assessments well yeah well their assessment is part property tax they're still paying tax on that's what they're getting that but uh if we only have a thousand people signed up for for this everybody's property taxes well you know on City Buffalo pretty similar to Wilman they only got 250 people signed up just want if I may I can address a couple of those questions or comments um the council has reviewed uh a preliminary performa business plan for this at a a previous work session and previous meeting um that will consistently and more accurately be updated with Our intention and our hope is that U by moving forward with a strategic marketing and community outreach campaign if you will it's going to make that business plan that performa even stronger uh we have identified um kind of our our break even point or our desired take rate if you will the amount of customers that we need to be on the network um structured over uh I believe it's roughly 18 years to hit our goal uh we're being very uh conservative with our performa uh we want to make sure that we aren't try um overstepping or reaching too far out too fast and making sure that we can build a customer base before one we start making Bond payments uh do we have enough customer base to enter into phase two can we move to phase three are there enough isps on the network offering service and some of that conversation was on the fiber use agreement last at the last council meeting um so we do have the council has seen some preliminary data on the performa and again by engaging with the community from our stance is going to be able to give you the council the best information on moving forward with the project if we go through an entire fall winter and we can't get a 100 people to sign up I will be the first one to tell you do not go forward with this project but you don't know we what we don't know is what we don't know if we if we can't engage with the public public and have a meaningful conversation about what the project is um that defeats the purpose of I mean this defeats that's what we're trying to accomplish right yeah and the on the pay packages as well there are multiple levels of packages that people can subscribe for so anywhere from uh loow income if you uh meet low income criteria there's going to be a a uh severely reduced or reduced package that people can sign up for that might be $30 a month I don't know what that is at this point but again part of the engagement that we need to have with people is having here's what a price package looks like from $50 a month to $100 a month for a resident or from a business standpoint $200 a month to $2,000 a month whatever your needs are going to be again without having those conversations is going to make it a little more difficult for us to give you that accurate information when we're going to be coming back in the spring um to recommend a project or not so I just want to make sure you're I want to get that out there yeah but again though we have to start seeing the hard numbers first before we're really spending more money uh it would be great for you to come up and say okay this is uh where we're looking at $75 for this service $100 for the service if you're low $49 for the for this service here's what it costs for a bond here's our interest okay we have to make a payment of $45,000 every month you know to construct phase one you know so I'm just shooting from the hipper I don't I don't know the numbers at all I think we need to wait and see what interest there is before we make a decision and make but we we really should see what the dollar amount could be the price point before we spend any more money going forward on this question um thank you Mr Mayor I'm just curious council member Butterfield what it is that you're wanting to see that we haven't been shown already I don't know if you were at those meetings but but we've seen that the staff has brought us those things things have changed this has been going on for over a year have have uh we really gotten a breakdown on the price point we've just been told $45 it's like I said I talked to Buffalo guy there and I I passed over the information to to Kyle but they only have two my where I'm coming from is they only have 250 people signed up okay and if we're going to be spending $25 million plus interest 20 250 people we don't know that's yeah but that's but again perform that they've shown us the performa that they've shown us will break it down has broken it down we've seen that I think everything that you're asking for has been given to you it should have been updated re reevaluate the further they get along the last time you brought it to us was June I would say spring yes okay I'd have to go back and check but I mean I can understand that you know from a philosophical reason that you're opposed to the plan but to say that they haven't given I'm not opposed to the plan I personally want it I really do uh my internet's not the best I I've streamed I've gotten away from one company because it's just and buffers the whole time I actually don't even have cable right now I only get it during football season so I'm looking at one that's not going to sit there and just buffer the whole time that's me too by the way we should figure out how to stream Vikings games together but personally I I want this but sitting here in the SE after finding out talking with Buffalo only finding out 250 people in the City of Buffalo signed up on it kind of for sure and I think that's why appreciate money until we see how it's going to go yeah but I don't think you can until they can get out and have those conversations with the community members we don't know if it's going to be 250 people or if it's going to be you know 20,000 people right Carl I I would agree with uh Council OS on that that that we need to we need to know and and like you said we we don't know what we don't know and if it if we move forward with this yeah $40,000 but then we know and we don't go any further you know that then we say okay we tried and it's not going to work and that's a lot of manh hours down the drain and I'd be really sorry if that happens I'm very hopeful that we're going to get enough you know hope how far does that go but I think we need to spend this $40,000 so that we do know it's an informed decision well I I'm just going to make my point we spent $25,000 already okay how many people think we got off of that that are going to sign up sure so from that we do have 26 letters of support from local businesses and Industry uh that 20,000 we decided to focus on um a lot of Engagement and well engagement and Outreach with local businesses um that and then work towards um materials that were created for that so this is um what I can say on that from that from this agreement to the pre from the previous agreement to what it is now is going to be a lot more Hands-On by City staff uh we would like to end the Broadband committee um we want to make sure we are driving the message that we want to drive with the support of Hometown fiber and being able to focus on areas of strategy the appropriate messaging any campaign Tim lines that we should be looking at um and then getting using our really taking a Grassroots approach on how we want to attract and build up support fors um Michelle if it's okay if I bring up conversation that we've had Michelle from the uh from the KC has been offered in some capacity to help out assist so there's there's partnership to there's there's willingness there's partnership um through local entities here that want to make sure that there's a pro this is a successful project at the Broadband committee level we've even had um people come forward and want to invest or donate into the project um so there and that's without really doing a whole lot of Engagement and Outreach now like I had mentioned at the last meeting as well the the amount of Engagement that we've done has been three Rock and Robins W Fest we've had nothing but great interactions a majority with great interactions with all those individuals uh that see support and see the understand the idea of what this project is and appreciate what the city of Wilmer is trying to do and and bringing this bringing our city a future proofing our city I'll say it that way council member Butterfield I wholeheartedly appreciate with what you're asking requesting and and that will that information will be that is part of the why we want to do this is to make sure I can if I'm going to ask somebody to sign up for a package say sign up here but there's no price on it are you going to sign it I don't think so as a we want to make sure that we've got a complete package put together so people can look at and and truly evaluate and make that inform decision if the city was to bring this project forward at a price of this at this symmetrical speed for for this service would you sign up for it and those are the types of conversations that we want to have in addition to having iic um strategic meetings with stakeholders local businesses Industries making sure that those customers are being also heard and that those needs that they are bringing forward are going to be incorporated into this project as well so um I appreciate the comments and I assure you that that will be part of what this proposal is just one last comment okay so 26 letters off of 25,000 so we're looking another 40,000 what number of commitments you need then off of this money to keep this moving forward and what happens if you only get half of the commitments are you still going to be coming back so the fiber use agreement requires 100 subscribers um however there are different there are other options not just that there's other goals and other Milestones that the project needs to hit before we continue to move forward um off the top of my head I believe in the performa for year one we need a take rate of approximately 8% which is out of uh phase one is right around 250 users let's say um that's what we would consider to be a successful phase one again we are aiming very we are being very conservative with those numbers um and then that that take rate from 8% which we're aiming for is somewhere in the ballpark of 40% we have strategic Ally place that over an 8-year period of time to continue to Market brand and make those connections but we're looking at again zero impact the goal of zero impact to the levy and again with those conservative numbers with the price points that we are anticipating we think it is achievable um but again we we I can't give those assurances or assure the council any more than that at this point without being able to um ask people to sign up engage with them so two you you 250 people going be enough to keep this for phase one year one that's what we have identified in the performa yes to continue to go again like I had mentioned by year eight we would like to be at 40% take rate for the entire city so going from 40% of end users um of a population of or households of I don't know 7500 households in the city uh we want we want to make sure that we're hitting those those benchmarks I mean that's the that is the goal but that will be more strategically defined and refined over time and again give you the council the informed decision information to make that give you the information to make that informed decision CC I'm looking for a motion to approve the resolution so moved second we got a motion a second any further discussion Rick thanks Mr Mayor so I'm confused are you looking at isps to sign on or are you looking at households to sign on because we don't have the internet we have to have a isps correct we're looking at they're the ones charging the fee yeah the customers sure go ahead take a um to answer that question with this next two phases then the discussions can start to look at multiple isps which is what we really want um right now you're asking us to move forward um but our hands are going to be tight because we don't have the resources to be able to take the next step to get the numbers you're looking for Reliable so you can make a decision down the road I feel it's critical that these next two steps yes it's money but I can't give you the answer or we can't give you the answer without taking this next step to get you the information you need Hometown they have one ISB signed up all right there's been one that has acknowledged that they are will be committed they AR they aren't mentioning isps but this next step Hometown is going to be reaching out and searching for more isps to be able to commit to this network along with the marketing um interesting thing we're at um Rock and robins and another portion of what this is going to do is how many people know what fiber broadband's about Community engagement this is going to be the community engagement to answer those questions and give the information not from Facebook not from phone from heay there's so many people I've talked to that just tell me I tell them I'm on the fiber brao well tell me about it I never knew that we got to educate the people to be able to make a decision that's why we're going to move forward question usually though there's an outcry from citizens they want something then government does it I don't see an outcry from the citizens for this there's enough uh private sector companies out there are the citizens informed I don't know be able to make make a decision it all boils down to cost it's going to boil down to cost survey and they wanted to pay $50 a month I don't think that's G to happen with this I see that with multiple isps I could see different tiers different isps attacking different tiers of customers a low tier customer businesses are going to ask for high tier more security more benefits from an ISP they're going to pay a higher rate more isps are going to give us more competition so I think we can accommodate the different price structures that are going to be needed in a network like this okay right so arvig is in town most people don't know that but they just specialize in business or industrial or commercial they don't do Residential they're already out in industrial park right right they have fiber right next to my building yes there's customers out there they would go to them very easily with a three-year contract in in a in a nice price take they approach me as for my building what Center Communications for fiber and I saw the prices on that as well so but they're getting that I didn't sign up for it well that's you I know you don't have to you don't have to sign up for this either I want fast reliable internet not everyone needs that not today but I we will in the near future it's worth spending $25 million for a city to do this how's the city going to grow I think we're growing now okay all right we've got a motion to approve the resolution with Hometown f there's another motion that will come after this on replace but this is on Hometown fiber roll call council member Butterfield I O'Brien Hi O hi Nelson I Davis I shes I and fagly no and osus I eyes one no motion passes now we need a motion to approve the resolution as replace so move second we got a motion and a second discussion roll call council member o hi Nelson Hi D Davis Hi shes hi baggerly no osmus hi Butterfield no and O'Brien hi six eyes two nose motion carries all right off to Professional Services agreement between the city of Wilmer Bolton and mink Kyle Mr Mayor I believe we first need a motion to remove the item from the table what's that we would need a motion from to remove this item from the table this this was tabled this was Ted correct okay we have a motion to do so so move second a motion second would that be a roll call council member Nelson hi Davis Hi shes hi Bly hi osus hi Butterfield hi O'Brien hi and o i eight eyes zero nose thank you Mr Mayor members of the city council at the last regular meeting the city council asked staff to uh go back and look at this Professional Services agreement between Bolton and M and just really provide a more uh comprehensive overview of what the request actually is and I do have want to apologize to the council I think I spoke for a little while that evening and maybe just uh lost a little train of thought or focus on that so I do apologize but I want to be able to bring that back and I bring this item back and explain what we're looking at here so this professional service agreement between the city of Wilmer and Bolton mink is for the Wilmer F fiber project for phase one the total request the total ask for uh this agreement is 400 not to received $43,000 now on the memo and your packet provided um August 15th um I met with Josh alerson with Bolton The Mink to look at the four areas four tasks that we're looking that this agreement would consist of so the network design construction documents permits bidding and that table breaks out um the contracted amount um the percent of work complete yet to be complete um and then anticipated completion uh for those projects or that areas area of the project as well um I also did include a breakout and the agenda memo of the invoices we do have some incur we do have incurred cost with Bolton The Mink at this point as well that is a total at this point of yet to be incurred cost of $146,700 excuse me 146 $773 uh also in the packet or again just the contract or the invoice amounts that match the memo um Mr Mayor members of the city council at this point I will pause if there are any specific questions questions so how much more is this going to take to keep keep this going then because this is for the fiber Network project right yep so this is the civil engineering portion of it uh so the remaining contract um the remaining out of that 43,000 is $2 47,9 32 again that would be not to exceed amount for phase one the network architecture on the hometown side is completed already so why are we moving forward with another you know $400,000 again when we don't know how many people are going to be signed up that's what I'm getting that we're spending $30,000 here $25,000 here $180,000 there now $400,000 here we got 26 letterers of interest on about a half million dollars sure so that's where I'm getting at what I was getting at before 26 letters half million dollars we're spending on this right now we we fulfill this we move forward oh we're into it for a million dollars we only got $24 million left to go now we're not even looking at interest and this is going to pass and we're going to be stuck with 250 people in Wilmer with the service at a problem a rate of uh $500,000 a piece getting the benefit from the rest of the taxpayers all this information like this all should have been really brought to us beforehand before we how many people we're going to need and just like you said we don't know I can't bring somebody a blank sheet of paper and say sign signed to it that's what you're asking every taxpayer when we're do right now here I don't know what our price point for internet's going to be but here here's a bill for $500,000 Council Butterfield I can appreciate the comments again this is the approach that we have taken uh the council has previously approved Network architecture for this project with Hometown fiber and now it's time with with that the civil engineering portion of that again uh it comes to Prov being able to provide you the counil with a complete project um for a substantial project that you can act on be informed again and act on and if the council is ready to be prepared to approve this project in the spring of 2025 if we do not have the engineering portion of the done then we do not proceed on time or in the spring of 2025 and I and if we don't proceed we're out a half million dollar what are we going to do to make up that half million dollars two years they need subanal that will cover all those Vehicles so the funds that we're using for this are not Levy dollars these are funds coming from the industrial park so the industrial park fund has been funding this project since it's conception all right Justin thank you Mr Mayor um work has been done correct but we've not yet agreed to this again I um best thing I can come up with is there's not an excuse that the project isn't hasn't been completed there was some I would say some back and forth on on City staff side and um on my side on the order of events and processes that happened um taking over um really taking this project on um I would was under the impression that this contract was already approved and and again well at the same time or during the same time period of what the network architecture was done that's what these projects they complement each other uh since the network architecture piece was done um I wrongly assume that the civil engineering portion was also completed prior um so at this point we are just trying to make sure that we can um make sure those incurred costs are paid um right now Bolton the m has was stated to me his pencil's down there's no additional invoices coming this way until we can till we move forward so staff thought that this contract had been approved by Council and was moving forward with it is that what I'm hearing that was my impression yes okay thanks for explaining how that happened Audrey thank you maror um I'm I'm following up on maybe where council member Ros was with that um it appears that it was executed by Bolton and mink but not by the city or did we sign somewhere and just didn't get to the council to my understanding um I did not sign I don't believe the administrator signed um our previous employees cannot speak for prev previous employees employees that they have signed but we don't have a signed document is what you're saying my knowledge we do not have a signed document okay um just so the other question is I understand that we owe the so we already did pay 8,000 but we owe 146,000 for 773 for the work that's done now if we simply pay that and we wait for couple months to see where we go with the marketing and the other or you're asking us to approve the contract and I guess the second question is it I know it's already a signed contract from their standpoint so where do how how are we at with that legally I will defer legal questions to the City attorney mayor city council members in order to have a binding contract you need both parties to sign and for a city to enter into a contract you need the city council to approve it at these dollar amounts so there's no binding agreement there I will qualify my answer though there if this were to become a dispute for uh claim for compensation for services already provided there could be other avenues for them to recover somewhere all those fees if this reach that level which hopefully it won't okay so what if we paid the amount up to date now that would change this agreement also because this is a total agreement so I'm just trying to figure out what's the best for the city right now to be doing at a minimum I would really like to get up caught up to speed with Bolton and mink um they're great partner for the city and we really do enjoy working with Bolt And The Mink so I want to make sure we do what is right by them and make sure that that they are paid uh we can also uh you had made a comment or stated a question earlier about asking to wait a couple of months um as my understanding is Bolton M his pencils down on this project and not um again it would delay the anticipated completion dates but if we give the instruction not to proceed with any more work until noticed otherwise I'm sure that would be agreeable again just delays the completion dates identified in the memo yeah so just thinking this through I mean they put a bid out there of 403,000 to do this so if we agree to the contract and ask them to stop at the point I mean pay them for what they've done but ask them to stop is that something that can be done too mayor I will just one of the provisions in this agreement that is in your packet would give the city the right to suspend the contract uh until further notice uh so hypothetically if the council approve the contract City staff would still have the authority to communicate a suspension of future work Tom you know we got Jared here tonight I would like to put this on hold for two weeks that way bolt and mink can reply back why they went forward who they got the authorization for before we move on this we'll just let you know jar go back and explain documentation is not there this is a huge bill pretty big Bill that needs to be paid I would like to uh pay Bolton makeup too but we need to find out why they started without a contract you know I would be comfortable waiting here and back in two weeks on how this got proceeded into us for you know 0 something thousand now really I think you explained that didn't you and Bolton and mink move forward with what they were under the oppression it was it was it was done yeah I would say I think there's was some confusion again from the transfer of just from previous staff um not fully understanding what or not realizing what was completed what wasn't completed um again it's not a this is not a a slight or a I don't want to leave a distaste in anyone's mouth on work that Bolt the m has done for the city it was nothing that is not what this is about no that's this is just us trying to make sure we can square and make right as what is done and continue to move forward again if the council wishes to suspend further action um we can most certainly have that conversation with both than mink I don't believe I've got a motion yet to approve the resolution for professional servic Julie the ramifications of not going forward with the amount to do the project we're delaying it and then we're going to delay being able to to put implement it and to move forward with it correct Justin oh I'm sorry JRE first thank you um I'd be good with approving the contract paying what they have spent to date but putting it on hold for a month or two while you are you've got some other things there and come back to us when you think it's makes sense to do the next steps J can you I'm just looking at your table and trying to understand the amount of if council member nowon proposal what's the amount of in dollars that that we would be paying for the work that's already completed and then what's remaining in that contract because so the amount looking at it but the number don't seem to add up to me yeah so the amount I apologize apologize if I have a typo but the invoice amount date um has $155,600 so there's a remaining balance of at this point approximately $146,700 we will verify that that is the correct dollar amount but it be the invoices attached to packet okay and then in addition to that we're still missing you know up to 403 would be the if we would that's 247 correct what's the 244 that's what we're into it for the contract work value complete Y no I see that yeah so again the invoices that we have are from I believe begin in February go all the way through the end of July um we will verify the correct dollar amount with Bolton and Ming um but I believe those numbers are accurate and I'm still confused as to what does contract work value complete on the table mean the column total is 244,000 I will have to get back to you okay I mean I think it makes a difference I feel like in in the next step and the the appropriate one in my mind I can agree with council member osmus that you know if if if we're at 61% of of work complete we already have to pay them for 61% I don't know that it's worth slowing the process down for the remaining of the 39% um if that you know the Gap makes a difference to me to my understanding um with my conversation with Mr alerson was the invoices that we have in your packet or what is was owed so I I will go back and double check on what that 244 number is but I the am you could come back to the next meeting with us for the remainder if need be sure okay I would offer a motion then to pay the invoice to mount uh to Bolton and mink do I have a second second okay we got a motion and a second do you have something Audrey no so we aren't approving the contract we're simply paying the invoices it's the intention of my motion I'm hoping that the contract will come back at the next meeting I'm fine with that anybody else roll call one council member Nelson I Davis I hi Bly hi osus I just need a clarification so we're paying the 177 or whatever I don't want to have it 146 well we've already paid we've paid 8,000 so we owe 146 146 that's what we're voting on i i butfield o Brian an o i eight eyes zero nose Christopher major subdivision for Central Care East Edition we got one guy that's been very patient here he was here early he has sat through the whole meeting you learn anything right Mr mayor members of the council we'll talk about the major subdivision for Central Care East Edition the young man that you referenced is John bill um from centri here um they're proposing to do a or construct a ambulance garage at 7th Street Southwest in Wilmer Avenue what we're taking a look at now on the stre on the screen is parcel number um parcel number 95231 0120 um the subdivision is to take the southern part of that parcel and make that into the garage um the entire parcel is about 3.3 acres and centri Care came to Planning Commission to brief Commissioners on July 17th and then we voted on or Commissioners voted on August 7th um to recommend that it is approved um you might look at this and think why is this a major sub subdivision um it's only one parcel because it is located on a County Road um it is then qualified as a major subdivision not a minor subdivision so this is the proposed site plan um to construct the garage believe it has about 26 parking spaces um for staff as well some of the things that came up um at Planning Commission we can talk about those is also reflected in the minutes um from planning Comm mission on um in August on August 7th um the 7th Street um Street Southeast it is probably a great Contender to be um to restrict parking on Seventh Street so I know council person Nelson brought um that up as well when we spoke about ukap today um and this is something doable that can be done at a later date and requested by a city engineer to city council and this is the final um plat and this is the preliminary and final plat for 95231 0120 I'm looking for two motions one to approve the subdivision of the parcel as well as approving the preliminary and final plat and I'll stand for any questions so it just takes in lot two correct lot one remains as a vacant and it's privately owned yes I can make a motion to approve the subdivision of parcel 95231 0120 into two Ls okay we have a motion do we have a second second we got a second discussion yes so what's going to happen with the old Ulin garage by the hospital then or is this going to be an additional it is I can answer that for you if you want uh the amulance garage that's located on Becker and second is going to remain an exis same building um but used for centri here for other purposes this will be the primary location is there any concern from Neighbors with the noise sirens and stuff at all times of the day no you're correct uh council person figerly the um during our Planning Commission meeting on August 7th uh there were some concerns about um the ambulance and being close to um a site where that could be a trigger for those um residents or tenants and it's my understanding that there are some um Provisions that we can put in place or that Centric Care is agreeable to one for being not to turn on the siren um as a exit sth going on to Wilmer uh and then the other one were there any other things that you all could do because you're building a shelter for homeless people on the corner cross the Street Well the lady shelter down a couple blocks M just to loss over the um ukap is proposing to build um transitional housing for an array of different reasons but yes you're correct so that was same consideration there shouldn't be an issue with traffic then just be a stop sign and yes yes um you are correct that there's just stop sign going down onto Wilmer Avenue there um but we feel that the traffic on Wilmer Avenue while there's a lot of traffic during certain times of the day um it is manageable to get out onto that um and not all of our responses from that area require license Sirens either um so obviously we'd only use them when it's required um for that emergency response for 91 calls w so you still have to stop at the stop sign yeah you still have to obey traffic laws thank you any other questions otherwise we have a motion to approve the subdivision roll call council member Davis hi sches hi begly hi osmus I Butterfield I O'Brien hi hos hi and Nelson I eight eyes zero nose that passes then we need a motion to approve the plat make that motion second Motion in a second discussion hearing none roll call council member sches hi Bly hi osmus hi Butterfield hi O'Brien Hi O hi Nelson hi and Davis Hi eight eyes zero nose that passes thank you thank you Christopher next is a discussion uh response to letter from the county and our city administrator will speak to us about that welcome Lesley um yes so we had the letter that you have in front of you from the county that was discussed at the county level I would say about a month ago and we have received that and so they are looking for a response for that uh letter to see if the city is interested in working on some maybe opportunities within their facilities they will be tomorrow they will be approving um hiring a facility architect or going through the facility design and um so they're just looking for us to say that uh as you can see in the draft letter that I've provided that we would be accepting that we would certainly look at any opportunities that we could work with the county for whatever that facility needs study does come out with in probably March so this could be anything from of sharing a space to purchasing I don't I could until the facility needs is is done I don't know if we can really say what that would look like probably all the above right Audrey um just two comments there was no date on the letter from the county I thought that was kind of interesting um I did appreciate the second sentence in the letter um um that if we are approving it um that discussing collaborative opportunities once the assessment is complete so we're not participating in the assessment we are simply waiting for the assessment to be complete but I think there should be a date on the letter to us yes it was just in case you didn't said that one I agree so this is for information only no I would like you to approve that this letter and then we will date it and we will send it off to the county ASAP okay I'll make a motion to approve the letter second to the board any discussion roll call council member Davis I hi tly hi osus hi Butterfield hi O'Brien Hi O hi and Nelson hi eight eyes zero nose that passes thank you Lesley thank you Department director updates PA are you going first Community growth director paun [Applause] Mr Mayor members of the council good evening um I have been learning a lot tonight too and one of the uh highlights I want to um share with you is what you are receiving today we are um setting up our fifth welcoming week event here in Wilmer uh downtown Wilmar coordinator uh Raleigh Kennedy and myself are leading a community group that is planning the event and we are very excited to finally be able to invite you um for this event and continue to build trust uh with our new members of our community with you city leaders of um our city with the staff and um hopefully we can continue to build uh this community as we continue to grow part of the growth that our city is experiencing is not only something that we as the staff of the city is um organizing and leading but also Community efforts are starting to be developed following uh the lead that you all have taken by um Crea this space of community growth in the city a couple of examples are uh the event that happened yesterday at Robins Island that Taste of Ukraine uh a group of residents from Ukraine who arrived uh three four years ago um seeing the results of the continuing um political uh turmoil in their country um decided to uh find a way to support their family members and uh people in their country and our local uh city um residents um is stepped up and have helped uh the three families that have put together this event and it was such a good turnout to know that um uh the community is responding to these type of efforts um a sign that we are creating a stronger Community a sign that in the spite of the growth of our community we can continue to support and learn from each other a couple of weeks ago uh also in Wilmore um and I've been waiting for this moment to practice minor region um there was an event also called flare L Steven uh which was um a Norwegian celebration especially of the ancestry um and stories were told um genealogy stories and connections have continued to reappear and the stories of immigration um were shared stories that are very similar to the new immigrants of today the reasons why people move from Far places um back 100 years ago plus uh to uh the stories that I am more familiar with the more recent ones including my own in that connection uh on Wednesday at the candy OHA Historical Society we will also have the opportunity to listen to story that are being told by two leaders of the upper Su Community uh they will be telling the stories of all those transitions that have happened in their history uh and this is a reminder for all of us who at one point have been immigrants in our country and especially in this part of um the state to take a look at the history recognize that the land in which we stand and have made our homes here uh also belong to um the indigenous communities and we should be thankful and that is part of the question of who we are today and the welcoming week then becomes another space for us to bring people who have lived here for many many generations new immigrants who are recently coming to this area and also those that have moved here before many of us to celebrate in downtown Wilmer is one of those special occasions I hope you all can participate uh this effort is also sponsored um by an organization called welcom in America um they have several initiatives uh one of them is welcoming week the one event that we are being part of the other um initiative they have is called uh welcoming rural which is helping rural communities to uh imagine how can we become a better and stronger Community uh I am being part of that cohort this year I have been learning quite a bit but also many seeds have been planted um so that I can uh share with the city leadership and with the council uh on opportunities for future uh growth of our community and the last event that we're hoping one day we will uh Join one of their initiatives is to apply for um welcoming City uh there is no rural community that have received that status by welcoming am America and I will be more than uh and that is one of my hopes and dreams to um be able to apply it so that we can receive that status not because we want to get an status on a piece of paper but because of the rest of the nation can see all the work that you are all doing uh the city staff is doing the members of our community are doing and we can celebrate together that fact I think that's all I have for you and if you have any question I'll be happy to respond thank you Pablo I I I especially enjoyed the Norwegian can you say UAA to thank you Rob you're next par and director Rob bomgar thank you mayor member of the council talk a little bit about summer programming this past year for us um overall I'm pretty pleased about what happened this past summer with our programs um just want to give a shout out to the rec staff um the umpires adult and youth um the lifeguards everyone that helps puts it together makes us have great pro programs um another shout out would be to the public works crew and the Civic Center crew to making sure our fields are are ready especially with all the rain that we've had we didn't really have to cancel all that many games so it's kudo to those guys um as you'll see with some of the numbers that we've had we've had some increases in several the programs um one of the things that we revamped was the first and second grade baseball um so if you ever saw those kids out there on uh Monday and Wednesday nights they got to play a special game out on the turf they get walk up music they get announced and the kids are pretty excited they have their eye black on and everything so it's a pretty good de deal for those kids um you know we're g gearing up for fall right now U we just had the fall football camp with the high school team um and we're getting ready for our flight football season that will be probably roughly about 20 teams that will have teams from U McCrae New London um I think we're working with bold as well so we'll have 20 teams plus over at Rosa plan on Thursday nights and our fifth and sixth gr football will be a plan on Thursday nights as well other fall program will be uh volleyball and um sorry to say hockey's right around the board so we'll be getting the ice ready um that came out in August 13th where we had to do some maintenance to it um but we'll be ready to have it ready for the warhawks by September 1 so hockey right around the corner as well um one thing that we are going to start um are Sunday nights um we had a basketball program that we did for inter murals for the high school team um we're actually going to extend that out to have Sunday night inter murals throughout the year so we're going to do everything from uh frisbee golf or ultimate frisbee out on the turf uh co-ed volleyball we just felt like we need to do something for the high school students that are not participating in Varsity Sports um just to get them out on a Sunday night mental healthwise too just to get them active and everything so um actually the Cardinal pride is wanting to help us out with that they want to see where our financials are at then maybe they'll help subsidize some of the cost for those students um when we look at the pool we had a little bit of a rocky start with with the water and everything but it it turned around um the rain didn't help us that in June that much so the average for us was about 192 per day um but when it gets hot like July was we go up to 285 so um in the pool be closing down this Thursday we've been kind of judging it with with August but when we should close um just because once really the high school sports it gets to be more difficult for Staffing so we do adjust the hours that way but the numbers um aren't there as much in August so what what's going to end up happening with the second slide that will all get redone this fall uh We've contracted with a company that will come in and get both sides ready to go um is with the community center Brit is still offered many Community Based programs one thing that she's done new this year is trips so she's had a uh a game or Twins game go down and she's got a state fair one going um unfortunately she does have a Vikings game going on um so they're all getting filled up and she's asking to see if she can actually get a second one for the State Fair so um the facilities is going good um if you can see on the chart that we gave you with the rock with uh Robins Island the shelters are busy constantly um so it's a great asset that we have these facil for people to use for rentals um as far as with the trail head project we did meet with the bike Community um we're just finalizing the quote for that so hopefully that can come um in September so you guys can look at what the price of that will be and the ultimate plan for that area um working with the DNR on fishing platforms those will go out by what they call is the jetty where they shoot the fireworks off basically there'll be concrete pads that people will be able um to utilize those if they're even on a wheelchair so we're going to utilize that back area by shelter number two for more of a handicap spot so people can get out there and get fishing that way so we met with the DNR and public works out there and they have money for it so I think it should be a pretty much a turnkey operation so um spary pickle ball courts are finished um the Civic Center roof is now finished and the playground at Valley Park will start in late September and just want to say that the destination playground will be closed for maintenance from September 9th through the 13th any questions for Rob thank you rob next we'll hear from Christopher Corbett planning and development mayor members of the council if you guess that I was going to talk to you about the comprehensive plan you're correct and so I want to speak to you about with Wilmer it is our comprehensive plan effort that we have uh started we're is well on its way uh I just want to remind you all that on June 17th you all approved um srf for us to hire srf Consulting to assist us and since then the department has been very busy um completed hosted and participated or attended over nine events already already and we have um done an open house at the library for the day and the evening session we attended um popup events at Rock and Robins both on the 30th and August 6 and then the county fair as well we were there um getting input and what people will want to see in the city within 20 years years and that was on August 99th we hosted two in-person public meetings back at the library on August 8th where we focused on mobility and that was day session started at 11:30 in the evening session started at 5:30 and then on August 12th we had an open space and recreational um topic as well that we hosted at the library um attendance has been attended um have shown up but what I would really need and appreciate from you all is this is a document that is being created for you all to make decisions in the future so if you all can attend the next two uh or one of the two and spread that to all of your constituents as well um to attend August 26 uh 2024 at the library we're going to talk about economic opportunities and the day session starts at 11:30 a.m. and the evening session s at 5:30 and on August 29th we'll end our public meetings back at the library we'll be focusing on land use and housing um for both the day the day session at 11:30 and evening session at 5:30 we have another event Pablo um alluded to this but on September 14th we'll be um at welcoming week so downtown making sure they we're engaging with the public and hearing from um people on what they want from the city uh and what they imagine how they can um how the city can support them as well so if you have not done so here's a QR code to take your surveys there's five total surveys online you can go to Wilmer mn.gov to our website and a popup comes up on the homepage just click that and it'll take you straight to our surveys uh if not you can always scan this paper copies are available at City Hall so if you know anyone who needs um a paper copy and not feel that comfortable doing it online I'll be happy to provide them there as well as the library just giving you a list of all of the events that has taken place and the upcoming ones as well um I also want to stress that it takes a lot to put on a workshop and to do two or two of them in one day that's a lot and the department is really working hard on getting the word out and so you'll see on social media we're posing questions about where is it difficult to get around um throughout the city and where you engaging that way we have um really done everything that we could to get engagement and to have people come out so it's really important again that this document is done with Wilmer it is done um to make sure that we have a guiding document that leads us um for the next 20 years or so um policy decisions are being made Capital Improvements are being made as well and making sure that we have one document um that is the moving Force so one document multiple plans are inside of this document too at the same time we're doing Safe Streets for all and we're doing a pedestrian um and Trail plan too those two will be appendixes of the comprehensive plan and adopted at a later date too I just wanted to show you a few pictures I am very appreciative of Mr O'Brien for coming and working the booth at uh unannounced him but working the booth at Rock and Robbins the mayor was in attendance for our open house event you can tell that we have a um city of Wilmer tent so if you see the blue the gold W on a blue tent please stop by um we have a really neat way of doing it and there's a picture at the top left of the screen but you know we have canvas board where people are just signing their name you know we're talking to everyone who stops by the tent we are going throughout events to talk to people but one of my favorite stories is that um for whatever reason this board this canvas really attracted a lot of Youth and there was a an eight-year-old um CH kid that came up to the booth and said what am I signing for and so I told him I gave him my spill of what a comprehensive plan is and I say so how old would he be in 20 years he said 28 and I said well this plan is with you in mind that within 20 years you can have a say in the future and I said see no Isn't that cool and he replied to me not only is it cool it's smart and I would agree with him so um your your um attendance at the next two meetings is really important and again this is a document that we need to uh get completed and make sure that we are doing a lot of Engagement um so it's August 26 and 29th land use that's the entire thing of a comprehensive plan to make sure that we yield a future land used map and economic opportunities so figuring out what programs and resources City can provide neighbors and throughout the city to make sure that they're they're part of Economic Development too so with that I'll stand for any questions that you may have the survey Clos on September 30th um and the PowerPoint presentation for all four the SS will be uploaded to our web page any questions for Christopher thank you christop thank you so much and I look forward to seeing you all on August 26 and August 29th no pressure do we have any Community Pride move to a jur to adjourn move to adjourn we're adjourned