This transcript appears to be from the **April 5, 2022**, City Council meeting. Please note that while your provided list contains the *current* 2024 officials, the 2022 Council composition (based on the roll call in the text) included members like Bill Althoff, Derek Lindell, and others who have since been succeeded. I have identified the speakers based on the names used in the dialogue and the roles provided in your context list. *** **[2:33] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Nothing. Good evening everyone. I'd like to call the City Council meeting for April 5th of the City of Cannon Falls to order. Sara, roll call please? **[2:42] Sara Peer (City Clerk):** Bringgold? (Here). Duncan? (Here). Gieschen? (Here). Kronenberger? (Here). Lindell? (Here). Montgomery? (Here). Althoff? (Here). **[3:00] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** We rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. **[3:16] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, is there a Council—got any corrections or additions to the agenda? Hearing none, do I have a motion to approve the agenda? **[3:25] Council Member Duncan:** So moved. **[3:26] Council Member Lindell:** Second. **[3:27] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Duncan and a second by Lindell to approve the agenda. Any other discussion? All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carried. Okay, public input—nothing on the list. Okay, we'll move right to the public hearing. Today we'll have a public hearing; it's on the organized solid waste collection. And Neil, if you want to make an opening statement on that? **[4:03] Jon Radermacher (City Administrator):** Okay. Um, back on March 1st, City Council held a work session to discuss the process of organized solid waste collection in the city. It was discussed during that time to do a public hearing, which is tonight. The city can pursue solid waste collection under statute 115A.94. If the city wishes to move forward with the process, there will be additional steps that we'll have to do. But tonight, it's for—as you guys discussed at the work session—feedback from the citizens. And we did send out notices to the haulers, anybody that had picked up a license from the city. We sent out the public hearing notice that we sent in the paper. I don't know, Sara, you got anything to add? **[4:56] Sara Peer (City Clerk):** If I can get my microphone on... Good evening Mayor, members of the Council, members of the public. I do want to just briefly—so this is a pretty involved process if the city decides to go forward with it. There's a negotiation period, there's a committee, there's a public hearing, a notice to everyone. Even there's a potential of a referendum. From the charter, collection can't start until after six months after all this is done. So this is a very long process; it's a very involved process. This is a very early step; the city is in fact really "pre-processed." We haven't even really started the process yet. The Council discussed at a workshop, thought it was worth discussing, and wanted to get the public's input. So that's what tonight is for. I'm certainly here to answer any specific questions if anyone has any, but really my understanding is the Council's looking for the public's input on this topic. **[5:45] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Yeah, we're not trying to force anything on anybody. We just—the recycling contract comes up at the end of the year. Like I say, the Council decided that as long as we've got to do the recycling contract within here, we looked around and we saw other cities around the area had one collection or two trash haulers and got a very competitive rate. And so we decided let's have a public hearing, get the public here and see what they—see what they say about it. I mean, we're not forcing this, this is just a public hearing in a very early stages. We don't have to do anything. But, you know, one of the reasons that we were talking about last fall was I think right now in the city we've got like four or five haulers, and then if you include the roll-offs there's about eight or nine haulers in the town. And I kind of look at it in the summertime when it's 90 degrees, you got all these trucks coming through every day ripping up the roads in your alleys—I mean they're going through your alleys and on your streets—and they're ripping up the roads. I know if you had one or two haulers, you know, it's safe on the—safe on the streets and all that too. That's one way we're looking at it. And then again, if we had one or two haulers, I think we could get a real competitive rate. I saw what's happened in a few of the neighboring towns and it's very competitive. I thought I got a good deal when I switched to Highland here about a month ago, and then even better rates in Zumbrota and Pine Island just to say there's going to be competitive rates. And the third thing is you could put it on your city sewer and water bill; you don't have to deal with the trash hauler, you know? And it'd be on your city and sewer water bill which I thought was a convenience. It's one less thing you had to pay. You get, you know, a deal from the city. But that's just what we were talking about—nothing, you know, we're just not forcing anything. we're just looking for your opinion tonight. That's where we're at. So, anybody wants to come forward—John, come on, yeah, come right up here. **[8:00] John Lee (Resident):** Okay. John Lee, live on the north side. Two reasons I don't want to go with the city taking over my trash is I can get a better deal for myself by negotiating against the haulers than the city saying "here's our bid, that's what we're going with." And if every town goes to the same guy hauling trash, you don't get a competitive rate anymore; you've got a monopoly going on and then they start telling you how much they're going to charge you to pick up your trash. I pay $18 a month through Highland. Waste Management was charging me $54 bucks a month for a 35-gallon can. I'm lucky if I put it out once a month, so it was a no-brainer to me to go with Highland. Waste Management wanted to say "Hey, we'll negotiate." I said if you know you're charging me too much already, you should have called and reduced it, not wait for me to call you. So I'm totally upset against one person or one conglomerate picking up trash, whether it's Highland, Waste Management, or some other company. If we don't keep them competing against each other, we won't have negotiating power anymore. That's what I got to say. Thank you. **[9:19] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thanks, John. Anyone else? Come on, yep, come forward Floyd. **[9:27] Floyd Hauser (Resident):** My name is Floyd Hauser and live on the west side on Park Street. Um, I've got a little bit of experience in waste industry, former owner of Green Line Disposal and a couple years of experience as general manager of Materials Recovery in Rosemount. As Green Line Disposal, had provided service in Northfield, Pine Island, Rochester, were known in about a dozen smaller communities. And Green Line acquired—the point I'm going to make here is that competition is better than not having it. Green Line Disposal had some communities with limited licenses, contracts, some open competition. I mentioned a little bit about Rochester; there were four major haulers in there. We acquired the smallest hauler and there was competition, but we kicked it up a notch. We offered 65 and 96-gallon containers. Most of the collection was in 30-gallon cans with removable lids that seemed to migrate around the community when it was windy, so people liked that and pretty soon the other haulers had to do the same thing. But not only was it something people liked, it opened the way for automated collection which reduces cost. And on the other hand, we had some small communities that when we acquired Green Line already were there. I can't recall if it was an annual bid or every other year, but only one year did anybody show up to compete. So you might not get competitive bids all the time, and then the winning bidder is a sweet deal—he's one bill, one check, no collection problems. Lowers his cost, of course, yes. But on the other hand, it's government confiscating another man's business. Doesn't seem like the American way. And some of these haulers work for years to build it up and then government comes along and says "Hey, we're going to give this to somebody else." And as the newspaper stated, it's going to save money for everyone. Well, not everyone. In my case, I live in a condo. We share a 96-gallon container. We've done this for 11 years and the previous owners did it for about 18. And I question whether you could beat that price that we're getting now. You say, well, the recycling is working wonderful. Well, yeah it's working, but if I had a choice I'd have one—we'd be sharing a 96-gallon container for that too. We got three of them sitting down in front; we don't have any place to put them in the wintertime. Now we're going to have four, we're going to cover our garages. It's not a good deal for us. Okay, as far as street damage, I know you're—you're going to haul the same amount of garbage whether you've got four haulers or or two or one. So I question how much you're going to save. Before they resurfaced Park Street, we had—well, they resurfaced the three streets that lead up to 19. Now two of those streets, there was never a collection vehicle on them; they had potholes just like the rest. So I think the waste haulers are getting a lot of the blame that really goes to freezing and rethawing. So I want to summarize it by saying just by saying consumers like choices, so let's keep giving them a choice. And that's my thought and opinion. And I think we've had enough government interference with our lives the last two and a half years, we don't need another one. Thank you. **[14:23] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thanks, Floyd. (Applause). **[14:26] Belinda Kuhn (Resident):** Good evening, my name is Belinda Kuhn. Thank you for all you do. I know it's not an easy job and i appreciate all the work you put into it and I especially appreciate that you've invited our input. Thank you so much. Um, regarding the waste management going into one large company as is an idea already that you're proposing, I checked into that company. And when I checked the Better Business Bureau, Waste Management Incorporated had a very low rating. I printed it out because I couldn't believe it myself—like one star out of fives. It also had 1,745 complaints closed in the last three years and 698 complaints in the last 12 months. When I looked up Highland and Flom and a few others, they had A+ ratings, five stars, one complaint with Highland, one bad review. It just goes to say something. I've talked to quite a few people when we had to change our waste management and we wanted to hear from quite a number of our neighbors, "Who would you suggest? Who are you going with?" and by and large it was nice to have a choice, as was already said—a choice to go with a smaller company. If you're going to say something like we're worried about the streets, well then we'd have to get rid of quite a few pickup trucks that I know of. And yeah, it's just nice to have a choice and to have some competition. Um, I'm personally and my husband and I are personally not in favor of the government taking care of us by putting it into, you know, a one package deal with finances. We'd rather make our own choices as well. Thank you. **[16:16] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** I don't think we ever—I don't think we ever said we were going with Waste Management. When we signed a recycling agreement five years ago, it was with Gibson and we awarded a local contractor of that. And then of course Waste Management bought out Gibson and they honored the contract. And as Dale told me, it was a darn good contract. So you know we had no problem with it. But now that contract is up at the end of the year. You know, we really don't know what we're going to expect as far as... if this goes through—and you know there's no guarantees of anything right now—but we're not giving it to Waste Management. Waste Management isn't "in" on the deal; it's open to any bidder, you know, Highland or Big or anybody if they want to come in. **[17:19] Belinda Kuhn:** Yeah, but is it going to be low bid? **[17:21] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** No, we don't have to go low bid. We do not have to go low bid. When we chose Gibson back in the day for our recycling, they were not the low bid, but we elected to go with a more local company. So we do take that into consideration. So that's—I know that's really confusing. **[17:55] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, anyone else? Go ahead, come on up. **[18:00] Jean Stangler (Resident):** My name is Jean Stangler and we live on the west side on Minnesota Street. And my problem with a community hauling is people who go away for six weeks, two months, three months in the wintertime. That's all—it's all in there where it'd have to... I call the garbage company, I say "we're going to be gone," so I don't pay for the time that I'm gone. With the city taking it over, nine chances out of ten I'm going to pay. **[18:34] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** No, you call the city. We have that, you know, that's like the snowbirds. And you don't pay. **[18:41] Jean Stangler:** That's a great question because—and the 96 gallon or whatever it is, we have the smaller one. There's two of us, we're retired, we don't even fill that. And so now I'm going to have this big chunking thing sitting in my garage or outside. **[18:59] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** It should be two different sizes. There should be at least two different sizes. **[19:04] Jon Radermacher (City Administrator):** And thank you for bringing that up because we haven't even put out the request; that would be part of the negotiation. We'll make sure that's in there. **[19:12] Jean Stangler:** And then I don't know if it would be different prices, because the garbage companies also have different prices for the different sizes. I don't know if that would be part of your thought process? **[19:22] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Yep, there's a lot to it. But thank you for bringing those—were a couple of good thoughts that I had. **[19:29] Jean Stangler:** And I'm not in favor of Waste Management either. Thank you. **[19:39] Becky Youngmark (Public Works/Park Board Member):** Okay, nobody else? I came to talk trash to you! I like this at every meeting. Yeah, I know it's getting to be a habit, you guys are doing such a good job and thank you for listening to me every time I come. But in my opinion—I'm Becky Youngmark by the way, in case you don't know—um, in my opinion, organized trash means limited choices for us. And I like the fact—we've had issues with garbage companies in town in the past and it was nice to be able to call in and get other prices and switch when they don't show up for two weeks on a consistent basis or show up a day later, two days late. It was nice to have the leverage to be able to call and switch. And so um, I know there are people now—there are some seniors that their kids haul their trash home and so they don't need to pay for trash. I think it takes away the competitiveness too when you don't have a choice. So the other thing is if you decide to do this, I would hope that you would take it to the residents as a referendum and let them vote on it. So anyway, I keep you in my prayers, I'm glad I don't have your job right now. **[20:56] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** That's a good point because we've talked about that and I think a referendum vote would probably be where it would go. **[21:04] John Wilcox (Resident):** Yeah, good evening, thank you for opening this forum to us. My name is John Wilcox, I live just off the downtown area. Got some concerns and questions. Like many others, I have concerns about loss of individual free market system if you go to an organized trash collection. Also looking at loss of potential collectors who service the city and how that will affect the revenue of a city. I've lived in cities where a giant corporation—one that has been named here several times already—where I was going with the competitive company and they were bought out, and I was going with the competitive company and they were bought out. So that is a major concern of mine. Number three: will a performance bond be proposed and will that drive out smaller collection companies? In other words, if a seven-year bond were offered versus a three or five-year bond, is that going to drive away some of the smaller companies from the table? Will negotiations with haulers be confidential during the process or will there be transparency with the public? And at what point will the public be made aware of what's going on, what's being proposed, and will that be prior to a tentative agreement? Will the haulers selected allow use of existing cans or carts or will they insist on new carts at the expense of the city which will be passed on to the consumer? How will inflation of both fuel and non-fuel costs be addressed? For instance, how will labor costs—increased labor costs over the term of that contract—how are those going to be dealt with? Um, we've talked a little bit about cart sharing so I think I'll just move on beyond that. Last point is how might this negatively affect the existing businesses in the community? Will this be a deterrent for future businesses to come into the community? Thank you for your time. **[23:18] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you. (Applause). Okay, anybody else? **[23:28] Joe Guertin (Resident):** My name is Joe Guertin, I live over on the north side, 6th Street North. My biggest thing is when Gibson was bought out by Waste Management, I called on deaf ears when my recycling can didn't get picked up for multiple weeks in a row. Once you lose a direct line with your company, you lose representation. You know, who do you call? You call the city and then hope that they relay your bad service to the provider. And I believe that any business that wants to provide a service here should be able to provide a service. You know, you're taking food out of people who drive garbage trucks in this town's mouth of the competitors' companies. You know, at that point you might as well just manage everything for us. Thanks. (Applause). **[24:16] Bobby (Highland Sanitation):** Hello Council, Mayor. My name is Bobby, I work for Highland Sanitation. It's actually my parents' company; my mom and dad own it. I've been working for it since I graduated high school back in 2004, running all the operations now since 2016. **[24:41] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** You give us a bid right now? **[24:42] Bobby (Highland Sanitation):** I'm not quite that good. Um, I just wanted to speak towards just a couple of things. I was involved with the St. Paul negotiations when that transitioned to organized collection back in 2018 and the several hundred hours of negotiations that happened there. So I'm intimately familiar with the current process, assuming that the state statute hasn't changed in the last few years. I just wanted to speak towards a couple of points. Lower costs with a city contract are usually—it's generally realizable, especially if people aren't price checking, which everyone should do with any subscription service. Cable bills—like if you don't call you'll be paying a lot, you want to be checking on that stuff. Garbage industry is no different; you want to call every couple of years make sure you're getting a good price and it's not just getting inflated with yearly increases year after year after year. But there is usually service sacrifices that come because it can't be as flexible as an open market system where people can find companies that are willing to work with them. Um, you know, so like less frequent pickups and weekly is a common thing. Does a company do every other week? Does it give you an option coming into a city contract once a month on call? Shared carts? Things of that nature. Additionally, you'd mention the city potentially being able to put the trash services on the water bill. In my experience and through the St. Paul negotiations, generally that would only happen if you paid the trash bill too, because just through the negotiations—so just something to be aware of—is that through the negotiations we wouldn't want the trash bill if we don't have the revenue because then there's the risk if the city delays it at all, then you're really in a really rough spot. So generally those kind of go hand in hand as if the city was doing the billing, you'd have to pay the trash bill directly, which creates then the discussion of how you police making sure that there's not non-city waste going to the landfill that you're paying for. So that gets into—it's more complicated than one would think. So just something to be aware of in regard to that. And then the road conditions thing always comes up. It would actually be interesting—I don't know the answer—St. Paul and Bloomington, I believe St. Paul went to organized collection October 1st of 2018 and Bloomington did I think a year or two before that. And I genuinely be curious to see if they had any savings in their public works department in regards to road repair because they've been running organized collection for five and a half years now. So there should be the way to actually look and see: is there definitively any savings there? Because what we always see is the weather wrecks the roads before the trucks ever get a chance to, because usually you'll see the ruts from the tires from where the trucks drive on for high traffic truck roads, and they don't get to that point. They get potholed, they get destroyed by the flex and the frost heaves, and they just don't survive long enough for the trucks to actually be a main cause of damage. So that would be one way just to look into that, because I genuinely don't know the answer and it'd be a good thing to just know. Did that help them? Because it's always a talking point. I'd be curious—it'd be curious for me even to find out. **[27:17] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** I guess we just thought of—you got six trucks and they're running six days a week, and you had one hauler doing it a couple of... maybe he's doing enough haul and then those two days it makes up for the other trucks coming six days a week. **[27:32] Bobby (Highland Sanitation):** Yeah, and it's tricky too, because if you have one truck and he's full picking up everybody, versus if you got six trucks that are half empty. You know, because it's like the weight of the truck—I think it helps and it impacts how much wear and tear there is on the road based on the weight. So there's always—there's so many different facets and I think the weather's always the biggest thing. But really with St. Paul and Bloomington, that'd be the best way to actually check and see if they've had any savings in their public works department. Um, gosh, I have one more point... I don't remember what it was. **[28:06] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Sorry I interrupted you. **[28:07] Bobby (Highland Sanitation):** No, it's totally fine, I should have made a better note for myself here. Um, you know, and appreciate the public forum and yeah if anybody has any questions, you know I'd be more than happy to talk with anybody about it. Same with the residents, because having gone through the St. Paul transition, it's like there was pros and cons. The transition was a nightmare, you know, like any transition for a major system like that is very difficult and for everyone involved. But there are—there can be pros and cons on both sides depending on where you end up going with it. And public input is key; public participation and feeling like the community's involved is definitely really important. So thank you for your time. **[28:46] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you. Say, Bobby—Bobby, I got a question for you. Has Highland had a contract as a single hauler with a town? **[28:57] Bobby (Highland Sanitation):** Yes. So we've—we actually were awarded our first contract when I was 13 and it was the city of Afton, Minnesota, up there kind of by Lakeland/Sunfish Lake area. And they won that contract away from Waste Management after they bought out the local hauler, Bel-Air Sanitation back in the day. And um, yeah one of the one of the difficulties they had at the time is that with any city contract they want multiple other city references, and my parents at the time had zero, which can make it difficult for a smaller hauler, a newer hauler coming into it, to be able to even like qualify for the bid. Because yeah we're good, but like Countryside—if he was still around, he would have been... that would have been a negative aspect to a bid he could have proposed. You know, and this market's incredibly difficult to break into right now; it's multi-million dollars just to try to start up a single route operation at this point in time. Unfortunately, that's not the only problem for anybody trying to break into the market. But yes, we had—that was our first one. St. Paul when it changed in 2018 became our second, third technically actually because we took over the recycling earlier that year in April of 2018 for... there's three cities—Lakeland, St. Mary's Point, and Lakeland Shores—that did a JPA, a Joint Powers Agreement, and they did their recycling services bid and we won their bid for their recycling services earlier that year. So now we currently have three different active cities that we work with and service, whether it's trash, recycling, or both. **[30:20] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, thank you. You know just for FYI, a few cities around here what they do—of course Red Wing's a bigger city, but in Red Wing they've got those incinerators over there, so the Red Wing Public Works picks all the trash up in Red Wing and hauls it to the incinerator. So that's a little different story over there. But Wanamingo, Lake City, Zumbrota, Kenyon—they all have one hauler according to the books and... just throwing it out there. I mean we don't have to do anything. I mean we could leave it the way it is as far as that goes. Floyd? **[31:02] Floyd Hauser (Resident):** I'm going to ask one question. You said you don't have to take the lowest bidder? **[31:07] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** No. That was something I had on my notes here but I forgot to mention it. There's always the perception of corruption, and a lot of times it's real. Like Bill mentioned, five years ago we—it was a Gibson versus I think Waste Management that time and we took Gibson and he was a little higher. Now I kind of got corrected on that because I said that and I think—wasn't it that actually Gibson was slightly lower but Waste Management wanted to come back and bid again? Didn't they want another... I'm not looking at you necessarily. **[31:53] Jon Radermacher (City Administrator):** Gibson went through two different bid processes because the recycling has been a contract for quite a few years. Either way, we do not have to take the lowest bid. **[32:04] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, anybody else? **[32:06] Bobby (Highland Sanitation):** I did think of one more point, should I come back up again? Sure. Um, I did want to mention Goodhue. The county of Goodhue I think a year or two ago implemented designation and that did impact the rates that everyone in Goodhue County pays. Because Goodhue County, for disposal to go to Red Wing, I believe is at $118 a ton right now. And what we're paying like in Dakota County, we're roughly at $81 a ton, which is a substantial difference. Ramsey and Washington County, which have designation for their dump up there in Newport now that they took over, that's at $87 a ton. So it's like out of everywhere we service, Goodhue is the most expensive to get rid of the trash at, substantially so. And that can make it difficult to compare city to city too when you look at costs, because if they have different disposal costs, it's a huge factor. $118 versus $87 is a big increase in price. **[32:55] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** And all the trash collected in Goodhue County has got to go to Red Wing? **[32:59] Bobby (Highland Sanitation):** Got to go to Red Wing. Right. So that should make the rates pretty competitive with everybody and we've got information here based on Zumbrota, Wanamingo, Lake City, and Kenyon, Pine Island—all Goodhue County. So yeah, those numbers should be similar. **[33:15] Bobby (Highland Sanitation):** You know, and I don't know further south if they all have to come to Red Wing also or if there's other locations that are also acceptable for the county because we don't operate too much further south. I just want to mention that part. Thank you. **[33:31] Belinda Kuhn (Resident):** Sure, come on up, why not. Simply because I tried to do some homework about it because... okay, I take the point that it's not "Waste Management Incorporated," it's waste management in general. But I think the big fear in a small town is that big business is going to come and walk over us. And I know you're aware of that, but I mean when I looked into the bigger business that's been buying out our smaller ones—I mean that big business, WM Incorporated, has been guilty of fraud in the past. They have huge lobbyists and they are aiming at being, you know, the one and only. So it's just something that—it I think it raises the hackles in each one of us like, "Oh our little town is going to be taken over by these big businesses." And that's I think just our heartfelt concern. I know you're hearing it, so thank you. **[34:54] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you. Okay, anybody else? **[34:59] Joe Guertin (Resident):** I guess I had a question on—as you move forward with the process, what is the... is there any talk about an "out"? You know, if the company that you get—if it did happen and they end up getting bought out such as Gibson by Waste Management—does that now put the contract in void? It should be. I mean it's happening more and more. Not saying that Highland is going to get bought out by Waste Management, but it's happened twice to this small town already. **[35:34] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Well when Highland—when Waste Management took over for Gibson with the recycling, they had to abide by the contract in place. **[35:45] Joe Guertin (Resident):** Yeah, they had to abide by the contract. But regardless if they have to abide by the contract, the one thing I have noticed with recycling services—it's gone down substantially since it's been taken over by Waste Management. **[36:00] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** What's gone down? What's going down? **[36:01] Joe Guertin (Resident):** Uh, I could speak for my entire neighborhood that the days that it's supposed to get picked up, it doesn't happen. I mean the quality of the service. **[36:11] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Oh, the quality of service. Okay. **[36:12] Joe Guertin (Resident):** Yeah, I'm sorry. But I mean and then you call—and I don't know who the poor gal is at the city that has to hear from the whole neighborhood when our recycling doesn't get picked up—but you know I find myself throwing recycling in the garbage can because it's like, I wish I had more time to run it down to the recycling place too. But when the can sits out there for two weeks and it doesn't get picked up, I have to call the city and hope that they represent my frustration. You know? So if—that should be a... I mean I don't know the legal end of it, but if the company sells then it should go back out for negotiation in my opinion. **[36:58] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Can we make it non-transferable or is that...? **[37:02] Sara Peer (City Clerk):** That's all stuff we can negotiate. No assignment, or assignment only upon approval. It can be tough because you can't just stop everyone's garbage collection on a Friday and have something up and ready to go by Monday. So it can be difficult to administer, but those are things we can negotiate. And we can also—the hope would be that with the city being a bigger client, that when the city calls and complains, it would get... you could say within six months or something of... So that's certainly something we can negotiate. We can also negotiate um, service level quality, and if they fail to fail X number of times and they're in breach. And so yeah, there are those types of things. We can put all that on to negotiate in. **[37:54] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, anybody else? This is the time. Well, there'll be other choices. Yeah, we'll probably have more public hearings in the future. Okay, I'm not hearing—I don't see anybody else. We're going to close the public hearing. Thank you for your input. Thanks everyone. **[38:15] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, let's get into the consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as Council business. For you at home and in the audience, I'll go through the consent agenda. Item A: Adjust claims for the accounting period ending March 30th, 2022. Item B: The minute meetings for the March 15, 2022 City Council meeting. Item C: Approve K. Larson to an unscheduled part-time paramedic. Item D: Approve the summer/fall event street closures in Cannon Falls. Item E: Approve the 2022 contracted police services rate. And item F: Resolution 26-24, accepting a monetary donation of $750 from Country Financial to the ambulance department. Is there anything the Council would like to pull down? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? **[39:24] Council Member Gieschen:** Motion. **[39:25] Council Member Bringgold:** Second. **[39:27] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Gieschen and a second by Bringgold to approve the consent agenda. Any discussion? All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carried. Okay, we'll get into reports. Kyle here from the Chamber. **[39:44] Kyle Paulson (Chamber of Commerce):** Good evening Council members, staff and community. And so, um, I do want to let you know that the 2022 Discover Guides have arrived. They are at the Chamber of Commerce and they are going out very fast. Speedy Delivery has been there and taken over 60 boxes to be shipped out throughout the state of Minnesota. They are at all of the tourist centers, they are at chambers and tourist convention bureaus in communities that have requested them. And so we ordered 5,750 guides this year and I put in a request to see how much it would cost to get more because we're limited already and we've only had them a week. To let you know, our children's Easter hunt is scheduled for Saturday, April 16th. It is going back to the city parking lot where we will have the northeast quadrant blocked off for families to do a zigzag line to get to see the bunny. And the Easter Bunny will be arriving by fire truck. He will also be giving out the colored numbers and then the Easter hunt is throughout downtown where you match your colored number to the number on the bag of candy that are scattered throughout the downtown area and a few other places. We are also collecting non-perishable foods and cash donations for the Cannon Falls area food shelf. And so please remember that even if you don't have children, you can stop by and give your donations—that would be much, much greatly appreciated. Along with our Discover Guides, I want to let you know I did share one of our magazines that we are advertising in this year. That is part of our role for the city is to promote Cannon Falls. And so the Twin Cities Guest Guide—that guide that I shared with you—will be in every hotel room in the metro area. And Cannon Falls has a story on one page: a half-page story and a half-page ad in a different part of the magazine, and I think that will get us some great exposure. We're also advertising in *Minnesota Monthly*, *Minnesota Trails*, *Having Fun Biking*, the *Entertainment Guide*. The newest one is *ROVA*—it is an RV magazine, and what it's really pushing this year is that people working from home are purchasing RVs, and so we have an ad in there about Cannon Falls and our campgrounds and everything that we have to offer. The last one is AAA—I don't know how many of you get the *AAA Living* magazine—it has a little tear-out card and you circle the numbers that you'd like to get information on that location. And so we will be fulfilling those requests when they start coming in. And we are in, I want to say, their June and a fall—like either September or October—so two different times. And so therefore we'll need more Discover Guides just to fill all of those. But it is exciting. We are also doing a lot more online and we will be doing a billboard in June for six months, and so hopefully our promotional monies will go to good use. Okay, one last thing: we do have two Fun Fests scheduled this summer, one in June, one in August. And the Open Air Fairs are in July and September. They are all four on the second Thursday from 4:30 to 7:30. Okay, the difference is Fun Fests will be on Mill Street and we block off Mill Street. The Open Air Fairs are on the sidewalks of 4th Street, Mill Street, and—whenever the construction is done—on Main Street. Any questions? **[45:15] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** The Open Air Fairs are in July and September? **[45:18] Kyle Paulson (Chamber of Commerce):** Yes, July and September. And the Fun Fests are June and August, and all four of those dates are the second Thursday from 4:30 to 7:30. Any other questions? We're ramping up, things are going good. Our golf tournament has four teams now and I still don't have the registration form done so... let's get your team signed up soon. Thank you much. **[45:51] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thanks, Kyle. Okay, the only meeting we had since the last Council meeting was Joint Powers Board. Anything I had to report on that? No, Scott said don't worry about it. No. Okay. Okay, let's go around. Mitch, got anything tonight? Sara? Neil? **[46:13] Jon Radermacher (City Administrator):** Just one item. I got noticed from the Department of Ag that Cannon Falls just had their first infestation of Emerald Ash Borer. It's up on the northeast part of town. So we'll be sending out public notices here shortly and getting it out on Facebook. But just so you know, it's here, and if people have ash trees in their yard and they want to save them, they probably should start treating them. So... that's all I got. Thanks. **[46:53] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay. Okay, let's go around. Derek, got anything? Mary? Jill? Steve? No. Laura? Nope. Matt? Nope. Phil? Nope. I don't either. Well, just the meeting schedules: this Thursday we've got EDA, Public Works, and the Park Board. And next Monday we have Finance Committee and Planning Commission next Monday. Okay, with that I take a motion to adjourn. **[47:19] Council Member Gieschen:** I'll move. **[47:20] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Second? Motion by Gieschen and a second by Montgomery to adjourn. All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carried. **[47:27] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you.