##VIDEO ID:6gqAvOpq5vI## uh we'll start with your Pledge of Allegiance please IED to of the United States America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all right we will continue with the over office for marus go ahead and stand up and raise your right hand and repeat after me I Martha sandlan I Martha sandlan do solemnly swear and affirm do solemnly swear and affirm to support the Constitution of the United States to support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the state of Minnesota the constitution of the state of Minnesota and to discharge Faithfully the duties of the office and to discharge Faithfully the duties duties of the office of counselor for the city of winth counselor for the city of winr to the best of my judgment and ability to the best of my judgment and ability so help me God so help me God [Applause] welcome all right um we will move on to the next item on the agenda the open public forum anybody like to address the council anyone all right then we shall move on to approval of the agenda does anybody have anything to add to the agenda do not oh Jenny Michael got anything to add we do want to just add an informational item about uh the library phone price for RS fiber and then um an additional one that we found out yesterday about our billing for the ambulance service so those be items 6.9 and 610 they'll just be informational at the end okay um there's nothing else to add somebody like to move to approve the agenda I'll make a motion motion by Jenny is there a second I'll second second by Dawn any discussion any discussion any discussion all in favor please say I I oppose same sign motion carried all right we have our agenda consent agenda does anybody have any questions about anything on the consent agenda approval of the minutes financials and minor sewer adjustments I you know want to just reiterate the sewer adjustments um so we're finding these really early on before they become large problems uh we have another three of them for next month already uh and they're being found because of our new system so they're finding the the water leaks when they're happening um So within sometimes hours within a a day we're finding the leaks letting the people know um one was a water heater you know one was a toilet flap sometimes they're really minor but they do detect um the leaks and the system is working so good that's great move to approve the consent agenda motion by Ed S a second second second by Jenny any discussion any discussion any discussion all those in favor please say I I oose same sign motion carried public hearing we have a public hearing on changes to the city code chapter 2 on operations and administration or administrative yeah and uh this is a second reading of the ordinance um again the changes were um the change to the Committees which um we paired from six down to three they were essentially the same committees with the same people anyway um so we did um we did change that U we also changed the meeting B meeting days back to the first Monday of every month when we Chang it to the fourth um quite a while ago um the rest of it was kept the same except the order of established agenda um we did um take off again the public open Forum you can still get on the agenda we just request that you um communicate that to the city clerk or myself beforehand um and then the rest Remains the Same after that so just small updates okay um and I just wanted to clarify for everybody again I think all of you probably know that because of the first reading but dropping the public forum doesn't take away the opportunity for the public to address the council it it actually lets us be more proactive and um on top of things previously we'd have to listen to it listen to someone's question or concern or proposal and then it would have have to wait until at least the next meeting before we could discuss it so this way if we have um have it on the agenda ahead of time we can act more quickly and efficiently all right so um second reading do we need a motion or we just um you'd open the public hearing and then close it okay so I have a question about that um and I apologize if I'm not following robt Rules of Order yet or anything but um so with the doing away with the open Forum or the yeah the public forum in the beginning um when when I was um outdoor knocking a lot people if somebody had um an issue and they just kind of wanted to address it right away and they didn't have the three days in order you know to get on the agenda um I guess I'm asking if it's a done deal if the um public forum is already like gone by the wayside like if if tonight was the last opportunity for the public forum as we know it before y okay okay and you know on balance you're right there might be somebody who says on on a Monday morning oh wow I really want to bring it to council but we couldn't we would we would sit here and listen and not be able to do anything until if it was tonight until February's meeting right so in this so they'd be in the same boat as if they waited until 3 days before or whatever amount of time before February meeting came to us on the agenda and presented their question or concern then and chapter 2 also gives us the ability to add agenda items that night as well um as long as it's unanimously consented that the agenda changes they can add items so um if if something's really that urgent to city council could also call an emergency city council meeting so there's other ways to deal with it okay yeah okay and do that they could come up here get on the agenda absolutely or they contact one of us and say can you get me on the agenda it's up to council to to approve the agenda all right and I would say residents could bring something to it most easily should go to the clerk or the administrator yeah a request to be on the on the agenda they they could bring it to one of us and we would could forward them to you the reason that we caution that is because although sometimes we want action you know I can remember once in the last three years where we put something on the agenda that night of um and this was uh we vacated some parking on a street right instead of following the process for planning and zoning and going through that the Motions no one on that block was actually notified of that action and then Council took the action to stop parking and all the residents didn't get to speak about it so that's why we always caution putting those agenda items on and going forward with them the same night is because sometimes there's not enough thought put through on on the repercussions of what's going on okay so we need to open the public hearing about this y someone like to move so move so second second all all right um any discussion on opening the public hearing there all those in favor of opening the public hearing please say I I post second um so our public hearing is open if anybody has comment about the proposed changes to the city code chapter two and that will have to do with the public for yes yeah we just discussed it's not vertigo it's Mal deartment syndrome I just learned a couple weeks ago Mark sandlan 703 North hopan Street one of the city council Representatives up here ran with the phrase I'll listen on her campaign there was a deliberate reason why she chose that term the perception amongst a great deal maybe not even a majority but a a high number of people in this community is that this Council doesn't listen and now you're taking away an opportunity for people to speak up do you know how toned deaf you are you take away public form and then you say it's so we can listen better that makes absolutely no sense we can hear you louder and clearer when you don't speak up is that what you're trying to say no I think respectfully I I understand what you're coming from but the the previous format we had to sit here and listen and on advice of our City attorney we have a City attorney yes we do have a City attorney I haven't seen him in months well in In fairness that's that's aside from this but we do have a very good City attorney he's also very busy and so we consult him when we need him we're lucky to have a good City attorney right now a lot of cities are struggling and don't have extremely expensive they have them here also I just want to ask what how many cities or schools or whatnot do they do there is there still a lot that have public forms the league of Minnesota cities recommends that cities do not have public open forms it's not what I read why is that that's not what I read I was in the league of Minnesota cities today you're not required to have a open Forum I saw nothing that said you shouldn't do it so but back to what you were saying if let's say John Smith approached us today tonight and he had issues with parking on on a street we'd sit here and listen and we could do absolutely nothing about it we couldn't even have a conversation back and forth it would if there was something legitimate it would get put on February's agenda so we couldn't that that pushes it off for a month this is in essence doing the same thing except that if John Smith had approached us three days before at least three days before this meeting he could have been on tonight's agenda so we're hoping to be more active and able to engage with residents make decisions quickly yes yeah John Smith comes to the meeting and his topic is on the agenda as an action item it's been researched the data has been given to us as council members then we can make that decision that night otherwise if it's not if it's the public for him he sits there and he talks we look at him like we're not listening because that's what you say people say we don't do or we're not listening so then we sit back and we can't do anything about that topic until next month next month when it comes back up on the Forum that makes us look complacent for a month really but we can't look at it we can't discuss it we can't have any discussion on it because our City attorney and the league of Minnesota City cities as I have been told says that it should not be discussed during that time because we don't have data on on the information how many meetings do people actually come up and sit here I don't think it's every meeting I would say in the last year it's been probably 10 out of 12 11 I mean there's somebody almost every absolutely 10 out of 12 yeah okay that's a good thing I would think I absolutely agree sometimes it's more informational there great some people just come to listen because they want to know what's going on but the fact is we'll be able to act on the agenda item where we couldn't do anything with it prior to that there are people with some frustrations that want to speak to the council yes who who's absolutely should they can contact any one of us anytime by email phone stop in to visit how do they get that information I don't even on the city website yeah it's on the city webs we all have our own Council emails you can you know you've never emailed anybody here n no you've never emailed Michael no you never ever look to see where any the city stuff was no I follow the meetings okay speak up that's good um but people can reach out to us um the information is all there on on the city website so what is worthy of getting on the on the agenda I think that's kind of Weighing on people too I can go to them but they they're not going to let me on well okay and here's another thing you know when we have a meeting um sometimes we have Engineers here we have other people that were paying for their time and we always start with the the public forum so if someone comes with a simple question let's say about their water bill being a little high and they they take up time during the the public forum that would be a really easy question if they called the city office somebody could say oh let me check that maybe it's a maybe it's a leak or something easy to fix that doesn't need to come to the full Council it's not that that we're not engaged and don't want to hear from people but it might be something really simple that could be handled with a 15-minute phone call could be handled at the end of the meeting and now all your people that you're paying are able to get their meeting their part done and go on their way those people have to sit and wait so the engineer if we're paying them by the hour has to sit here for the hour end of meeting put the open form at the end of the meeting but that still doesn't help us we still can't act on anything that pushes any action off at least a month what we saying I I get the part that you can't act on it I get that I just think you're you're sending the wrong message by taking away the open for and and I would respectfully disagree that our message is we want to be more active and proactive that if someone has an issue plan to be on request to be on the agenda and we can have this discussion at the next meeting I I'll Circle back to the question I asked about being on the agenda who decides who can and cannot be on the agenda is there according to the city Charter the city clerk sets the agenda as mayor I usually have input on what goes on the agenda and any counselor can request something put on the agenda okay so there is it's not a it's not set in stone when we start anyone can request something to be added to the agenda and they can be denied being on the agenda they can if it's not on the published agenda but that's that's a that's not unique to a city council that's um often if you have a a planned agenda at a public meeting um it's generally not accepted that any one person can just say oh I want to add that to the agenda it has to be um accepted by the body well I hope you'll vote against it each of you you know you were talking about the message that we're sending out the message that goes out right now during these public for terms to me makes us look very bad we sit up here knowing what's what's being said knowing what's being done or what we can do but unable to talk about it and to me that makes us look an opening statement at the beginning of the open Forum whether it's at the beginning of the meeting or the end of meeting saying reminding everyone we cannot address anything we have we have we do everyone in par is it's really difficult to sit here if a resident comes with something there very passionate about and we go and and we can't we can't say anything in in response and that's difficult and it what we're all listening we've all heard it we've all wanted to respond but we have to wait until the following month this just takes that waiting period away okay thanks for your comment anything else anybody else have comment for the public forum anyone else hearing none if somebody would like to move to close public hearing so motion by Ed second second by Jenny any discussion any discussion any discussion all those in favor please say I I propose same sign I'm going to have to say no on that one is that how I say it well we're just closing so hi all right um then we move on to new business item 6.1 is the ordinance 20251 oh we have a whole new set of ordinances don't we it's a new year it's a new year City wi rate schedule this is an action item Michael you want to fill us in yeah uh absolutely so we've had a lot of questions about utility rate increases I hope that everyone has been listening to the news um Excel Energy is going up 10% center point energy is going up 6% our electric rate in Winthrop went up 2.4% when it'll start in February um because we have to give public notice of 30 days we started in December we gave all of January on the old rate and then February it'll go up our base fee did not go up I will tell you that uh in I so I have Brown County Rea my base feed just to get electric at my house every month is $52 ours is $5 just saying that's a huge difference Excel Energy is going up 133% on base feed water is going to be our most expensive one um water consistently has not produced when it comes to its Bond obligations the water rate will go up 15% however um that um that amount um is probably not going to be seen that much it's going from 2.5 cents to 3.5 cents um on the water rate sewer um rate Remains the Same the one thing that will change about about sewer is the base fee so our sewer funds um have actually remained consistent meaning they've held their debt Bond obligation they'll be going up $189 per month um storm sewer again storm sewer is the um the one that is going to increase the most that's the one that um we split off of the tax base and put on an Enterprise fund this last year on the the um the basis of DDA or financial consultants um making sure that we are paying for our storm sewer correctly so for instance in 2025 when they did a street um that debt Bond obligation has actually been paid under our go obligation for taxes and not under the storm sewer um current rate for storm sewer is $810 and that one will go up $10 to1 1853 and again that is minimum that is exactly when we figured our debt obligation um between all of our projects and our debt payment for the year um that would be the amount that it would cost to pay that debt down so um in 202 or 2017 when we did the rate study storm sewer was the one that was criticized the most um stor storm sewer in general just as a reminder um costs probably the most out of all the utilities and has really no Revenue recapture um meaning we don't we don't meter storm sewer right we don't charge on a gallon basis that's why we do um a base fee our base fee is still lower um than like Arlington it's going to be lower than given who's going up so I I I just wanted to go over those some other things that are going to change a little little bit um are as in Fire and ambulance we are increasing our fire calls and our ambulance just because again there was a shortfall on both services for fire and ambulance this past year yet again so um we are also um charging for Lift assists when the ambulance is busy and there's a lift assist for the fire we are we are going to start charging $200 for that um it's actually happened already within the last couple months a couple times where the ambulance is actually busy they're on call with another person and um our fire department comes with you know 10 guys and uh unfortunately that costs the city money right fuel Personnel whatever um so we're going to start charging those residents just $200 not the full fire call Fee I kind of wanted to clarify because I I still remember when I first got on the council and they would talk about Enterprise fees versus GE bonds and I would go what yeah but in essence the Enterprise funds things like water or electric should be a self-supporting entity we shouldn't be taking the general obligation tax dollars to pay for those projects really because I mean you can but in some ways then if you have someone who uses massive amounts of sewer the whole city sort of subsidizing that right and you know I always think about the Enterprise funds the service funds are it's like a service you know everyone has a cell phone that cell phone company their job is to make money well Enterprise funds are to make a little bit of money to pay for future developments and this is just a for instance you know our water fees is going up um our Water fee is going up from that point 2.5 per gallon to 3.5 and and you know it sounds like a lot but when you think about um what it all goes into water treatment uh there's a lot there there's a water treatment plant that needs a new filter that's $400,000 it'll be half a million by the time we probably get to it our Towers constantly need repair every year they have to get cleaned someone has to do testing every single day even on the weekends so all of that stuff just costs a lot of money it's just paying for a service um but it' be no different if you were on your own if you had your own well and your well goes bad and you have to get a new well um it's expensive um sewer fees are kind of the same way right so sewer um has a lot to it but you know we have a we have a pump station that puts it out to our ponds those ponds have to be heavily monitored they're measured recorded lab tested there's a lot to go into Wastewater and when you look at our Wastewater permit we have one of the oldest outstanding permits in the state of Minnesota since 1994 um so we our permit hasn't been updated since then as soon as they update our permit and we get a variance you're going to see a significant amount of money need poured into sewer um that's why we're working on the was plant so these things do cost money um Second Street alone that was a million dollars worth of Enterprise funds that we use to buy down the bond debt so water sewer storm electric all have their separate funds rather than taxes so um you know think of services as a as you use it and consume it we charge you and taxes are like us that rate and the other thing I think to keep in mind um I got a elected to the council in 2015 was the first year and we were discussing in 2015 and 2016 if we should incrementally raise our rates and at that time um we did not so we stayed here and the cost of that went up and we sort of stayed here and we haven't so we haven't even kept up with inflation so it does feel like we're making a bigger jump now but we probably should have been doing little increases along the way so we're sort of hoping to catch up there and sort of balance out now for a while all right um so we do need action on that I got one question for Michael just to clarify lift assist for ambulances still no charge correct correct okay lift assist and no transports yes okay just wanted to clarify do you guys charge if if you go to us house and there's no transport nope we do not do other ambulance services do that I don't do you know the only one that I know that does is commercial Alina okay that's the only one that I know that does for sure we got to keep commercial you ambulance okay someone like to make a motion regarding ordinance 20251 I'll make a motion Jenny made a motion and I assume that's accepting it is there a second I'll second second by Don is there any discussion any discussion any discussion all those in favor of adopting the ordinance please say I I oppose same sign motion carried all right um moving on to 6.2 the resolution adopting updates to Charter 2 so this is the subject of from the public open yes you accepted motion by Ed is there a second I'll second second by Don is there discussion any discussion about that you yeah something you want to is there any way that we could keep both the um open forum and maybe switch it to the end of the meeting but also have the opportunity for people to call ahead and get on the agenda you know while while I definitely understand you know what you're saying because it it is frustrating sitting in the sitting in the audience too or in the public and you know seeing you not being able to respond you know I do get that but I think it's um I think it's a really important it's really important for the citizens to know that you know if they have something that they can come and air it here that's just an idea maybe both any other discussion any other discussion all right I will call the question all those in favor please say I I oppose I all right motion carried with Martha desen uh moving on to 6.3 mmpa Amendment to the agency agreement uh so mmpa is updating some of their bylaws I'm G to give you the nuts and bolts of it but to tell you that the board of mmpa has already approved it and um they're looking for the council's approval tonight um so voting is going to change a little bit and it's going to go by Mega watt usage and so for every megawatt that people use in their City they will get one additional vote so we are one of the smallest Municipal uh us and Brownton um so we'll have our representative vote and then um it's basically a weighted system so when South St Paul says I need more power and we're we're building this substation and MMP is going to help us pay for it um they would get a few more votes than wi through um the only the the only um real advantage of this is those that have put more money into it felt like their voices were shouldn't be um uniform across the board um they've been working on this for a couple years now I know that um mahay was working on it with them and it really came um around because they there was larger projects solar Fields wind that got voted down because the some of the smaller players actually didn't even attend the meetings that's kind of how this all started um so the the Olivia brownon of the world just were not attending the meetings and so they couldn't get things passed so this would um give them a vote plus one additional vote for every 500 megawatt hours of energy used by the agencies so um that's what they're just kind of notifying you on they do ask that you approve it um but their board has already approved it at I pa so we we were one of the fing members yep correct we were and the larger members how how large are they I mean how many more votes will they get now um for instance Shaka is one of the larger ones they have a plant there um they'll get two additional votes just because they're so large um but like lur oddly lur and us um because of our because of DFA and they use a lot of energy we're almost the same so even though L sewer is much larger than we are population wise we use almost the same amount of megawatts megawatt hours so it's really the Shaka South St Paul South St Paul they'll get a few extra votes so kind of like our casat be it's the same thing yes yes all right like to make a motion regarding mmpa Amendment some motion by Don is there a second second second by Jenny any discussion any discussion this is something that we have have to approve right because it it's already it's already in place but at least we can get them our opinion yeah any further discussion um I'll call a motion all those in favor please say I I oppose same sign I all right motion carried with Kelly opposing um 6.4 resolution um number two the mayoral appointments for 2025 um everybody have a chance to look at the I talk to some of you I think well I was putting together this list um and the admin committee bargaining Personnel stays the same um would be Kelly and Don utilities infrastructure in Parks is Ed and Dawn ambulance is Jenny and Kelly um I would be the gfw Leon Martha would be on the library board and mmpa which is um um oh just vot for yeah I was always near and dear to Pete's heart that's we always kind of had Pete mahay in my mind Michael would be the alternate for that okay um Kelly's council president news is our official newspaper um Michael's Eda director so do I'm not going to read down all of that um anybody have any questions this cable Commission on oh yes that is that is on here also um yeah that's a little bit further down on the on the next page ggw cable commission yeah and we're hoping that some of those committees um you know for example Administration and personnel and we were the same people were meeting so it just made sense to put those together um and we're hoping that things like utilities sort of slows down after no more Second Street this year uh would someone like to that's an action item would someone like to make a motion regarding the appointment motion M Kelly is there a second second second by Jenny any discussion any discussion any discussion all those in favor please say I I oppose same sign all right moving on to 6.5 resolution number three approval of City administrator to apply for the DNR Grant um I just wanted to make a note that we did just receive the world development grant for our uh radio so we did get reimbursed finally um they went through through three different agents during our time for the radios for the police department and ambulance so we finally got reimbursed today how much was it uh we were reimbursed of 43,000 45,1 so um that was good yay help so that finally happened that's a big money the resolution a big number um for for this one is specifically for the DNR they have you pass it every single year we're actually going for two different grants one's due in March excuse me and the other one's due in April um one's for the trails Grant to finish the trail all the way around the park and the other one is just for restoration of the bathrooms once we get the splash bad done so that's what um the DNR requires motion to allow all right motion by Ed is there a second second second by Kelly any discussion any discussion any discussion I would just like to say thank you for preparing the grants and I hope we get yes me too all right um no no further discussion all those in favor please say I I oose same sign motion carried 616 um we're going to go out for a bid on seal coding the streets um we have not gone out for bid for more than five years um we're just looking to see um if our price current price negotiation with Pearson Brothers is negotiable um in competitive in today's market so uh we will go up for bid um after this is approved and then we'll bring it back to city council to y or nay the bid process okay and I wanted to say legally we don't have to go to bid because it's below the amount we never spend more than 50,000 but it's still a good idea to find out if we're still have a competitive bid so we know how many streets we do every year they have that on schedule yeah yards but we do it by yard it's usually about 9,000 we would like to do a little bit more this year um so last year on Grant Street we fixed the large holes that we trench through to get utilities we would like the whole thing seal coated and surfaced this year so it's going to be a little bit more but that is important upkeep on our streets yeah investment in yeah longterm viability all right anybody like to make motion approving the RFP I'll second Kelly by Kelly second by Don any discussion how do you decide who gets the bids does it is there a general that'll be up to council because it's not state required that we even bid it they don't have to pick the lowest bid but generally you pick the this bid and we put it out publicly so whatever business wants that's kind of what we publish it in the paper and then we'll have it on our website as well and then we always poke a few just so that we can get five or six bids okay yeah yep that's my question some of them will not B because it's not enough work all right any other discussion okay all those in favor of award approval of the RFP please say I I oppose same sign motion Carri 6.7 a work session um so the dates already changed yes so the 20th is a holiday um so we are thinking the 27th that's seven if that's works for everyone what is it the 27th last Monday in January what El works question kind of entail we would have City staff go over some of our goals and kind of plans for the year and and it's a good time for Council to be able to kind of yeah set some priorities and give some input and it's just a little more relaxed you can ask more questions and yeah we can't make any decisions at that meeting more it's a good idea you think it's seven I am the only reason I say that is because rev meets the same night in Fairfax at 5: so I won't be back here until 6:30 P it to 7:30 so that I have get my meeting done prior we can yes 730 fine can so 7:30 7:30 you said on the 27th yeah 27th 27th 27 13th no just the 27th I think right just the 27 yeah we won't need you um perfect I will tell you that the department heads have worked really hard we've done multiple morning meetings and gone over priorities for 2025 and they just want to share some of them with you okay I think that would be great and is it up here it'll be here it'll be coun and I just like to say I adding on some of those morning meetings and I I think our staff put in a lot of thought and preparation to you know ideas and proposals for 2025 so I'm looking forward to see what they have to say all right so that was informational only um we're going to go with the 27th at 7:30 yes moving on to 6.8 we have a letter of resignation from Ryan freck on the ambulance so pretty much we're just acknowledging what if we say no still not going to do it retired signing um moving on to 6.9 the library do we have to uh I I would approve it you want to approve that okay it's already approved all right we'll just give it a rubber stand would somebody like to make a motion accepting Ryan's letter resignation with regret I would agree so motion by Ed with regret is there a second second second by Kelly any discussion any discussion I would just like to thank Ryan for years of service obviously all those in favor please say I iose same sign motion carried okay 6.9 Library oh you want me okay yeah so I got the RS fiber bill and we are paying $78 to $80 month for the library phone that gets maybe two to three calls a week whereas on Verizon it would cost us $25 a month if we put it in with all of our other phones we're also getting charged long distance so anytime they call to say that there's a book still out if it's a person that's long distance we're getting charged for that so why would we not yeah if we Port them over I have to make sure that they can Port the number to our existing bill that we have going on I don't see that being an issue but spending $70 a month on a phone that's hardly used seems kind of excessive I would say if they can Port it over that we need to do that will that go to someone's cell phone or what no it would be an actual desk phone um I don't know if you've seen in my office the desk phone that sits on my desk same phone so the library though doesn't pay for their internet service do they that's provided through the regional liary system I think I believe that on through TDS they I thought maybe the phone was wrapped in that but it's not it's not okay do you want action from the Council on that no we'll bring it back to you yeah okay thank you for being on top of that um moving on to 6.10 so ambulance uh currently bills with expert building they've gone through some staff changes and just some difficulties um they are now um in some legal disputes with a few cities that they served um we have had multiple problems with Expert T Billing in the three years that I've been here um it is our recommendation and we'll bring this back to Council next month we just wanted to put you on notice we're really trying to figure out if we can bring billing in-house or if we find an additional company um we have a one from North Dakota that it seems like a few cities jump to um and they're liking the experience um expert again we we've we've just had a lot of problems with communication and them updating them even billing us as a city has been difficult so it's you know one month it'll be like $900 and the next month it'll be $100 because they didn't Bill anyone um they're also not very good at doing claims and it's it's something that we've definitely worked on I will tell you that there are there are very few billing companies left that want to do this um and that's why they I mean they still have a number of cities in Minnesota so so we'll bring back to council kind of a a brief overview of what it cost us every year um what it would cost to bring inh house um how much it would save us if we brought it inous but there there is going to be a change there um whether we like it or not there's going to be a change so I just wanted to make you aware do you think it's possible you might have some of that information by the work session I might I if you got a couple quotes back already I started working on it today okay we also found out that they were supposed to be doing our Collections and for the last year they have not so I have kind of a mess to deal with there I think that's been kind of an ongoing thing I expert I think it's been sort of a just helping residents get their bill fixed you know saying they paid the check is cashed we have the copy of it please stop billing them has been difficult we've had numerous and we've had conference call and emails and they came here they came here and they still have zero things from that meeting and it was a month ago yeah thank you for so what do they get paid for doing this $29 a call 29 I think so yeah from us from us plus a $2 stien for their Fe so technically 31 a call it's kind of expensive you look at 278 calls mhm yeah true it's expensive and now we're equipped I mean we didn't have billing before and we do have that in our software now so we we're going to look at it always good I'll be looking forward to hearing what you find out okay um then we can move on to committees Michael we have from us for Eda yeah so on Friday we'll be um speaking in front of 400 different leg legislators and um Congressional delegates and the governor at the DNR Round Table um we were one of three communities to participate we went over our PowerPoint presentations for an hour today in practice so that was fun um is there any chance it's live streamed or anything I don't know about that but I'll find out okay let us know if it is so um obviously we're sharing our streams project that's our Wastewater project we've been teaming up with four other cities given Lafayette ourselves with New Auburn and our two industry Partners here DFA and Heartland corn products um the six of us are really trying to solve waste water but also get water reuse at the end of it meaning there's not an abundance of water in our area to begin with and we know we have heavy users um our facility would recycle about 500,000 gallons of water every single day that could be then turned into ethanol or pumped back into the aquifer um there's a lot we can do with it one uh one plant is actually shipping it to California for irrigation so they're making money off water and a train to irrigate California so um we get to present on that streams uh it's going well you know there's just going to be there's a there's another um Council that is doing this very same project well very similar project in Iowa and it took them 20 years to get there so don't feel feel like we're behind right now we're really trying to figure out rates you know one of the big big hurdles on this is how much grant money are we going to get and how much debt load do we already have in each City and how much is that going to impact our rates and so when you look at the four towns all four of us have different rate structures we all have different debt obligations so we're really trying to figure all of that out um we break into small groups but then we are having monthly meetings with the streams group as well um as far as Eda we reported last um month we um funded over $100,000 in different business projects upgrades facade grants um and Technology grants and that was in the paper uh on the back page it was a really good representation of what the Eda has been really working on the southern Minnesota initiative foundation in April will be holding a sprout event in Henderson I will make sure that you guys get invites um we're pres presenting our rev group at that um event um that will take place in April and that's how's the R Group doing they got it good we took we took December off and now we're hitting January hard because we are we have to finish out of our grant obligation um we really have to finish uh finalizing the job code for the person the part-timer that we're going to hire between the three cities uh we have to get that done by the end of February so that's what we're going to hit pretty hard good all right any questions for Michael about that all right thir Department Adam what you got for us well I just wanted to give a recap of 24 for everybody uh we ended up with 36 calls last year 19 fires one dust explosion uh eight between rescue medical incidents two gas leaks and two cancel in or out and four sprinkler seal detector detections or false alarms malfunctions whatever so I think we figured it out we are up 10 calls from last year the previous year so we're not going down we're going up and last year we didn't have a whole lot of snow so yeah so it's not a good way we're going but that's the way we see it going uh other things that are happening I just got an email today that our training board has an adjustment on our per firefighter rate they knocked us down to 258 from 265 and the way I read it it's just a matter of they have to delegate some of the money from to cover last year's training expenses so that means a lot of more departments are using it in the state which is good otherwise they're going to take it away and I think everything we've build is always getting paid for even above and beyond our money so they say just keep sending it and if they run out of money they'll they'll tell us so it's good uh starting Thursday here we got three of us going through the EMR that the ambulance is putting on so it's going to be up here yep thank you and then as everybody probably seen in the paper we had two more retire so we're we are down four which sad to see all four of them go but you know as the paper had very good art for all of them and nice job on that it was service 102 years of service between all four of them so yeah I mean it uh was a big hit for us but we have pretty confident we have a lot of young kids guys coming in that are going to be ready to take their spot so um we still have one going through fire school now I haven't talked to him as of late but I'll probably talk to him tonight at practice or tomorrow night at practice and see how things are going last time I talked to him things were going good it's just an adjustment a lot to take in CU he's he's new he hasn't been in the fire service before so how long does it take him to go through that it's 140 hours and where when do they do that they're doing everything by on Zoom so since Co they switched to zoom they go two nights a week I believe he's going Mondays and Wednesdays and then one week in a month he goes to I think the last time you went to gleno they have a iners so they grab gear air pack and go up there and get everybody together but otherwise everything's done Zoom um up at Chiefs last year I talked to quite a few departments there's probably 8 10 departments that are going away from that they want to go back to iners just because I guess firefighters are more Hands-On so everybody likes to get foot gear on and that so yeah those are South I guess for the Nicola County start of it and then down in Blue Earth County is the other ones that are doing it but so if someone wants to become a fireman how long does it take before they would actually so this gentleman started in November and he won't be done until May can he come with at any runs or he he come he comes with right now um but he just he doesn't go interior he just rides a truck he's uh we tell him to go on traffic for an accident um any fires we tell him to ride the tanker uh learn those positions he doesn't drive he doesn't uh go interior like I said um we do get him I know last year last fall when you had some training companies come in they allowed them to put a pack on and go in the trailer with live fire obviously just some straw bells or pallets on fire but with an instructor so it got him a little taste of it is this required training through the state yes yeah yep it's firefighter one firefighter two and Hazmat okay so if you had four rtire Adam how many what's your count or what's it what do you like it to be I'd like it to be 30 what we could hold Max but now we're down to 20 three 23 yeah so yeah otherwise that's all I have nothing expenditure lie that's coming up that I could think of so we're good on that it's nice to hear that there are new younger people coming in too because I happen to know that even the old guys who retired were new and young and in experienced at one point in time too yeah yep than thank you thanks Adam thank you all right um Library sorry I just updated those right what's going on good I've heard they're excited to have me on the board so that's that's a good thing nice to have somebody who is passionate about the library and I know that you are Library yes so that's good um Public Works Troy is not here do you have anything for us only that they have been um really cleaning up some of the maintenance and theop shs areas um they've been doing a really good job making sure that you know we're not ordering double tools if we have it now we know we have it they reorganized from Second Street we kind of had some leftover like conduit electric wires that kind of stuff it all got reorganized so we know exactly the inventory that we have um and I'll just take some from utilities now but uh we also are in the process of ordering the new Transformers you'll hear more about that during the work session but there's there's some Transformers in the city that need to get switched out um the Catholic church is one of them hell bees is another um UFC needs a new basement so you'll hear about that on the 27th but they they are going to start ordering them because it does take quite a while do we keep some on hand we do yep we do keep an emergency amount just in case something does happen the the lowdown about um the Transformers are some some of the parts are coming from China and if they do yeah so there might be another shortage coming so we really wanted to get our order in as soon as we could um before price hike start and that kind of stuff so we we did order some last year and it took 36 weeks just to get them so um they're talking like it was two years ago another year before you'll see the Transformers so we just have to keep on top of it any sensor on it anything else on utilities um no I don't believe so check that one up Planning Commission that's also you Planning Commission met are we meeting we meet um next week next week okay next Thursday nothing to report at this point Iris fiber um also nothing to report we have not met since our last meeting um ambulance anything for us um so we finished our calendar year at uh 278 calls um which is up about I'd say an average of 40 calls roughly so we usually run about 230 220 230 so it was up quite a bit um we did uh purchase a new stair chair for the backup ambulance uh it's a part stair chair again none of us are getting younger so we're trying to move more things to um powered equipment um to get to get it easier both trucks will now be um identically uh stocked uh both trucks have 12 leads uh which I just learned is is unusual for the backup ambulances to have a 12 lead um both trucks have uh powered stair chairs both trucks will have um what was the other big thing that I was thinking of oh yeah the power CS um although I'd like to upgrade the one in the backup ambulance but that's very costly um we do have this is the good news part of it we have 10 uh candidates from wi through that will be taken the EM class 10 from win 10 from winr uh three two of them or three of them are bridge how many um two for win for doing Bridge there's a third from Gaylord who is also a part-time police officer here that will be doing the brid CN class so that can be useful I think there's a total of between 20 and 25 people for the entire class fantastic so that's that's huge for our community can you explain what bridge is so know can you explain what bridge is Bridge Okay so a bridge we've got emrs out there uh emergency medical responders and then you've got EMTs and uh and the difference the difference between the two is the EMT can give the little bit of meds that we can give they can do we can do the 12 leads we can do certain things 12 leads 12 lead is an EKG I'm sorry thank you Kelly 12's an EKG and and our EKG uh machine interprets it for us so um they'll all say unconfirmed because the doctor has to confirm what it reads but um like we'll get one that says UNC confirmed St elevation which is a heart attack and you know it it just gives us a bit of uh advantage to know that hey we could use ALS for this call um if they're not available we can drive reasonably and get us there safely but quickly um so you had emrs EMR so EMR a bridge class goes from EMR to EMT so basically what they do is is when they do the EMR stuff they've got basic first aid and when they go to EMT they get an advanced first aid plus all of the operations plus all of the um the testing and then the the ceric the glasses all together yep y um we have uh yeah I got I'm trying to think of the number of hours no it's 20 20 something now isn't it for hours for the class is it's about 18 or 19 weeks long um DMR so it's actually a hybrid which is actually kind of cool for everybody so the first nine weeks it's all in person up here so we'll set this up every Wednesday night that'd be really great um every Wednesday night and then um they'll do their psycho motor skills which is the physical exam and practice and kind of the Hands-On learning because the first thing you'll get your CPR AA certified and then they can start doing ride alongs with the service once they have their CPR card um but then they'll go through all Airways and Trauma situations medical situations and then they'll once that's all done the emrs are complete they can get their EMR licenses which is what Adam and the fire gentleman will all have and then the EMTs will Zoom we Zoom the second half of the class and then you go through it's called fiz dab I don't know what it all stands for but it's basically the practice test for the National Registry and then it'll go through your strengths and your weaknesses you have your instructor there to go through with you um and just kind of practice situations too which is a big advantage and Ridgewater does an awesome awesome job so we're excited to partner with them and Sam took the class just last year yeah yeah just last year so started about a year and a half ago yeah yeah so she is she's the and then she is the one that actually worked with Ridgewater to get the class set up in town Forest so yes um volunteered and one of the other things that I wanted to bring out is there's seven eight of our candidates that are youth members so they're going to be they're under 18 years old so that is huge very you know we've been working we've been working AR Youth and now with the state of Minnesota changing the rules and regulations they can be fully MTS and they can run on a at what age 16 is there a requirement on who is in the ambulance as far as an EMT or EMR I mean do you have to have one EMT yes so right now we're running on a variance uh where we can run one EMR and one EMT new the new law allows us to let's say that I find somebody on the street that I think is wise enough to drive my ambulance if it's an emergency situation I can pick them off the street and give them instructions on how to drive it yeah now that would never happen I I would call my I'd call the fire department like I need a driver so I I have a question with the classes is there a um you said there's um uh physical things that they have to be able to do are there like mental tests that you can handle like the trauma of an accident cuz I'm just thinking of like a 16-year-old being you know going to a horrific car accident correct yep you know like do they have to make is there a way to make sure that they'll be able to handle that or so before they take the class every every one of them are interviewed by our uh executive committee which is myself Kristen McHugh Carrie Pinsky and and sometimes Sam sits in on those um gets them you know we get a good feeling on who on who they are and if they can handle it or not and honestly somebody is not going to come to me and say they want to take an EMT class if they can't handle it post class if there's a situation that comes up that they they need let's say they have you know some some post-traumatic stress or something like that uh we have in place uh through uh through South Central EMS we have um cism which is a critical incident stress management team that they will come out and bring out to us plus the city pays for a uh Mental Health Service uh for us so there are lots and lots of resources plus everybody that's on the crew you know if there's a critical incident if there's something that's going that's out there that happens say we've got a a car accident and a 10-year-old kid dies in it you know I'm going to call me personally I'm going to call every person on that crew and and evaluate how they're doing and what they're feeling and if I feel like that we need to have a a critical incident stress debriefing then I will call that U you don't have to attend it but I'll call it so it's available and then I'll repass out all of the docu all the information for the uh online um mental health stuff that the city takes care of for that was a good question and whether you're 16 or 60 if you ever had someone that has gone through the classes and the first time they they came across something like that that quit yeah they said no that's not for me or you know I thought I could handle it and I can't I have not I fire department never I mean I think this is like it was when Scott was early on and a guy went through the whole training and the first time in a live fire he was like uhuh can't do it he was done that was the end of it but you know I think it is pretty rare if you feel the that you might be willing to do that I think remember anybody ever yeah I mean Jenny was on for a number of years 20 years too so um she was the captain for but people want to I mean they want to serve and they've thought about it before they yeah and that as far as critical incident if something happens we we've trained dispatchers for six months and they go by themselves and say no I can't do this it's up to yeah each individual yeah yeah it's a tough job and it's not for everyone oh I yeah I definitely believe that you've got to be a little mental why do you look at me for confirmation I think w at a great great uh great with our fire department ambulance yes I'm so proud of our community we have to bek there's young kids doing it I think that just really says a lot about the and one of our Bridge candidates one of the ones that's going from EMR to EMT has recently moved to the area within the last year and that person has uh I mean we kind of druger choking and screaming no not really um we U but she has you know she came to us and said hey I want to do this I want to be with you guys so it's you know we are blessed in the city and as long as I can keep it up I'm going to keep it up who's Brandon Brooks Brandon Brooks's fire he's fire he has an EMR going to Y he's on your fire department yes came from Henderson okay very big thank you to thank you ambulance crew and everybody who organized the class okay um police Logan is not here is he still on fraternity no he actually is back from that they were at a training uh conference for South Central I just want to say congratulations to Logan Anderson he and his wife have a little baby girl have little bo two boys two boys and girl yep he said his job was wrangling the two boys after Nyla came home so he was really exhausted and happy to come back to work I will say one thing for Logan um they do pick up the canine the new canine unit tomorrow so um he won't be public view for a little while they have to get acquainted but he Nick goes and picks him up tomorrow and and then they go train in April March April and Nick is the one that's going to be the Handler for him yes he's already Dr trained drug recognition enforcement expert expert expert trained so he's Dr trained so how is the dog right now his age is um but I mean he he asked me train whatever um so the dogs are imprinted they're marked and then it's really when they go to training they're actually training the officer they're not really training the dog they're training the officer on how to recognize the signals that the dog is giving them almost 90% of that course is actually for the trainer the dog's ready to go he already knows what the drugs that they're looking for smell like they already have marked him so you said in may they would start ye yes I think end of May beginning of June it would be on the road again and he'll come back that training is like four weeks there one week back trying to implement the skill sets and then they go back again okay good we have our K9 car all ready to go it's ready to go radio and everything excellent do do we know what the dog's name is no okay just curious g g okay commission also has did were you at cable commission we haven't had one for a while last one we had was I think September so I'm not the only one on the committee no I was on it but we just had we just had one it's been a while so usually there's one counil person and then resident so Scott's been on it and so you're the only consel person okay and how do I find out about like when they meet email you I would assume or I think they have the information I sent it to yeah to It's usually the third Wednesday at 5 yes yes I just gave him a call we'll make sure he's got your information perfect thank you all right and blast is Park committee the last meeting that they had they picked out colors for the splash pad we did um they looked at some of the drawings for the Trails um and I think the next meeting for Parks will probably look more extensively at what that next step is you know we've kind of done the planning for splash pad and the construction and stuff so established what we're doing this year what we going to do start five years from now yes y planning for the future all right um anything else any questions about committee updates anything okay otherwise if someone would like to move to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn motion by Jenny is or second second second by Dawn all those in favor please say I I close same sign Mo carried we are jour