This transcription identifies speakers based on the roles, names, and context provided in your municipality list. [0:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I'll call to order the Wednesday, July 9th, regular city council meeting. First the thing is pledge of allegiance [0:20] **All**: 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. [0:39] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Next, we have the approval of the agenda with corrected minutes from the fire district that were passed out. [0:45] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: I move approval of agenda. [0:48] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? [0:54] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Second. [0:56] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor? [0:58] **Council**: Aye. [1:01] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Carried. Consent agenda. The minutes from the regular city council, June 11th, 2025. Financial reports. City council payable June 2025. City financial statement June 2025 and local store crop and loss statement June 2025. Any questions? Motion to approve. [1:24] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: So moved. [1:26] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? [1:28] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Second. [1:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor? [1:31] **Council**: Aye. [1:32] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Carried. Public comment. This time is reserved for comments from the public on matters not listed on the agenda. Please keep your comments to two minutes. [1:42] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: I just wanted to bring up we had a lot of ETD traffic this past weekend. I'm sure it's just cuz the holiday, but they were consistently coming out of the campground driving circles around the old school in front of my house. Um, some of these look like little kids. Look like here the adults are probably with them, but um, you know, I just don't know what we have for supervision at the campground if there's an attendant on on the weekends or not. But, um, I know I call it in 911, but I just kind of want to talk to you guys about it first, make sure you're aware of the issue if you guys have any questions. That's all I have to say. [2:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions? Well, no. Thank you. Is there any other public comment? And then we'll go to the Carlton County Sheriff's Office report. [2:37] **Sheriff Kelly Lake**: Thank you, uh, Mr. Mayor and Council members. Uh just to give the uh report for June 2025 totaling 170 calls for service by contract deputies and 68 calls for service by county deputies. And you can see from your report it is broken down by um different code types. So extra patrol detail traffic stops business checks community engagements on view or public assist and then paper services. um in addition to our stone garden patrol. And just as a reminder, that is a federal grant that the sheriff's office has received um where we do um extra checks on critical infrastructure and traffic uh and narcotics enforcement throughout Carton County. Um some of which um happens within the city of Muslike as well. And uh there was, as you can see, the calls for service broke down um and medical calls and assist other agencies. If anybody has any questions on those calls for service or anything else. [3:39] **Council Member Kris Huso**: I see on here there's six total adult abuse calls in. [3:44] **Sheriff Kelly Lake**: Yes. [3:45] **Council Member Kris Huso**: There's five of them for Highway 73. Are those the same location? [3:56] **Sheriff Kelly Lake**: Yes. So, uh, I don't have that in front of you, but I can tell you right now it is likely that is a code specific for what's called, uh, through the Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center. So, mark reports, and that is a statewide system. And that is just how we code it in our, uh, computer system is under adult abuse. So, any of those reports that come into Carlton County, that's what it's coded under. So, a lot of those we get from uh, facilities that are mandated reporters. So, it's probably going to be either MSOP um or hospital or nursing homes. [4:32] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Okay. Thank you. [4:34] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Other questions or comments? [4:36] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Thank you. Yes. I was just going to say staffing, how far or how close are we to— [4:38] **Sheriff Kelly Lake**: Yeah, we're still in the process of um we have four in the um background and pre-employment process. So unfortunately that takes a little bit bit of time to get through, but we want to make sure we're doing our due diligence and checking everything and making sure that we're hiring people that are um you know going to pass our backgrounds and the the physical and psychological as we're required to do the postport. Um, so it's it's still going to be a little bit um on getting that done, but we are working uh diligently through that and hopefully we'll have them um on boarded soon when all that is and then they'll go through the training. [5:18] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Perfect. Thank you. [5:20] **Sheriff Kelly Lake**: Fingers crossed they'll all four make it through and um through the training and and be ready to go in in one person squads and on their own and then we'll get those spots filled. So, Thank you. [5:43] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you. Next we have superintendent Phil Entner. [5:47] **Phil Entner**: Mayor, members of the council, Mr. Rollins. Um I want to start Mr. Bender to answer your question about um campground staff. There is campground staff in the office seven days a week. Um over the holiday weekend, I know we had staff in there for between 10 and 12 hours. Both I think Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So, I mean, there is staff down there. Granted, they don't see everything that's happening or what's going on, but — [6:14] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: I'm sure they're busy with other stuff. [6:19] **Phil Entner**: They are. But just to answer your question, I just I was walking up here. I'm like, you know, trying to answer your question, so I apologize for that. [6:26] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: So, I was just hoping maybe you guys can just make them aware. [6:28] **Phil Entner**: Absolutely. I should pass that. Absolutely. Okay. So, we'll start in the water department. Water department in the month of June uh distributed 6.9 million gallons of drinking water. um chemical feed equipment right now is currently being serviced at the wellhouse. We have temporary equipment that is uh currently taking its place. So everything is working the way it should. It's just time to clean some of those quills and some of that uh technical piping. So sewer fund uh collection system collected 12.2 million gallons of waste water in the month of June. Um the — I'm sorry in my notes. Um the wastewater facility had it did finish its June discharge at the end of June totaling 24 million gallons of waste water. Um all the parameters and everything for the BCA standpoint were met and set and they're happy. So that is good there. I'm still looking at looking at attending a couple trainings later this summer into the fall to look at other opportunities we can uh we can utilize for additional capacity at waste. So that's a huge thing for all of us out there. So, still looking into that. Um, street department, um, road patching, um, pothole building is happening just about every two weeks right now. Um, we'll be working on some bigger patches here later in the summer. Uh, 301 Third Street, we had a storm sewer failed there. We replaced 61 Airway Lane, we had a storm sewer replacement we did there in this last month. Um, from equipment standpoint, everything seems to be running fine as of right now. Cemeteries is business as usual. campground is business as usual. It's really busy. Super super busy down there. Uh the new bath house is uh is open. So that is good. We're working out some small issues there, but nothing that can't be fixed and taken care of there. Um parks, everything else there is running as it should. Um I think that is all I have for right now. We have more coming up later in the meeting. Is there any questions for me? [8:27] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: Is the beach getting raked periodically? [8:33] **Phil Entner**: So, uh it is getting it is getting drugged and picked up twice a week right now. [8:39] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: Great. [8:40] **Phil Entner**: Yep. So, that that is happening. [8:43] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you very much. Any other questions? Thank you. Next is municipal board. [8:52] **Ryan McKeon (Finance Director)**: Members of the council, Mayor Michalski, Administrator Owens. Uh 4th of July very busy. The staff did great. Um it was a great crowd down there. Uh music was awesome. Um recently we talked about uh having a better social media presence. So we've got some stuff lined up for that and also looking at different ways to measure some items down there for better efficiency moving forward. So we're doing that as well. Um I did want to take a a minute here and share with you guys an email from Brenda. So there's a report that comes out from the state auditor's office. um in regards to municipals. So, recently they put out the 2023 municipals and that's this handout here. And I kind of just highlighted where we are for 2023 compared to some other ones. And Brenda, she gave a lot of big kudos to Mari and myself on here. Um sales are up, gross profits up, net income's up. Again, this is 2023, so they're a little behind the the the gun a little bit. Um, but still great information to have and you can kind of see us compared to Barnum, Pinston, Hinkley, Cromwell, places like that. So, pretty interesting stuff. Uh, let's see. Um, looking ahead, uh, tomorrow I'm going to power wash the building. So, that's going to be fun. And we have a little bit of a break after that, but then we have Rukas coming up. That's on July 19th. Uh, Saturday 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Tickets are 25 bucks. You can find more details at the muslakechamber.com. So, I highly advise everyone who's listening to log on to do that. Any questions? [10:45] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you. [10:46] **Ryan McKeon**: Thank you. [10:48] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Next, we have technology department. [10:52] **Ryan McKeon**: Uh, yes, technology department. That's me. Uh, let's see. Very busy with the DMV. We have workstations being installed here next week. Um, we're looking at a new translation app for an iPad for them so they can uh better communicate with some of their clientele that come in. Having a few quirks with the digital sign that's up, but we're working through that. Um, and then just the same internet in-n-out kind of stuff. Phones were out the other day. Um, we're having some firewall issues, but I'm working with uh VC3 through all of that. Questions, comments? Thank you. [11:29] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All right, next—Library. [11:40] **Librarian**: Hello, members of the council, mayor, and city administrator. uh the second half of the year um the second quarter of the year for the library uh went pretty well. April and May were typical months and and then June was a bit overwhelming for a variety of reasons. Um but let's see for um people coming into the library um April was 1,500 people, May was 1,300 and then June was 1,600 people coming in. So, um those are all really good numbers for coming into the library. Um April and May I had uh about nine um larger programs going on. So there was 97 people that came and attended just those programs in April and 84 attendance um in May. U June we only had four programs but that's because we also had the annual sale and then I was gone. Um the annual sale was fantastic. Uh kudos to all of the volunteers that helped. Um we had 34 volunteers that helped. Some of them were there every day setting up uh organizing books and then helping us take it down. Um they worked 463 hours in total on the book the book sale. And it was very amazing. We got $5,200 from the book sale this year. Um so each year we've we've gained more. Um it's been been going amazing and we had um about a thousand people come to the sale this year. Um uh the vendors say they really enjoy participating as well and many of them would like to come back again next year. So all in all very successful and then and then of course directly after the annual sale I got to go to Philadelphia for the annual conference. That was very overwhelming um but amazing too. Um I learned a lot. I got to listen to some amazing speakers and I collected books for the library from the various vendors. So, I brought home like $1,000 worth of books. Um, so I I think with everything I learned and all the interactions with the vendors, it was totally worth it. Um, it was an amazing trip and I'm still working on a bigger report about it, but very good. All right. And then, of course, July is our big month for summer reading program. We have uh a few programs coming up next week. We have a program about dinosaurs from the science museum on the 15th. And then of course live zoo animals, they'll be in on the 16th. Um and then on the 26th of July, I have a puzzle tournament, so people can still sign up and participate in that. [14:32] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions? Thank you so much. [14:38] **Librarian**: Excellent. Thank you. [14:42] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you. Next is motor vehicle and the finance department quarterly update. [15:00] **Ryan McKeon**: Okay. Uh firstly, I'd like to—I haven't done this before, so I just kind of some financial updates and things that have implications as far as finances for the city. First, I'd like to just go over this a little bit as a handout I flipped for everyone. Um as of January 1st, 2026, we will be the 14th state to implement the paid leave program. Uh what that is is it's a job protected partially paid time off program for eligible employees. Uh the program allows up to 20 weeks of leave per year and it's managed by the department of employment and economic development (DEED). So this is just for information for you guys to read up on. It's not really anything you need to do, but just something that you know that we're working on and we'll be working with the city attorneys to get it into our handbook and all that good stuff. So stuff that we're busy with. Uh let's see next is we are still working with Eisenberg our auditors uh going through some journal entry stuff like that. They did request a 45-day extension which was approved by the office of state auditors. I sent that out. So August 15th is now the new deadline for us for reporting purposes. Just wanted to put that out there and it's mainly due to the HA fire kind of set them back a little bit. Uh, let's see. We're past the halfway point as far as the fiscal year. So, I'll be ramping up some department meetings to kind of let everybody know where we're at as far as budgets go. Um, the Department of Public Safety, uh, their portal is now open. So, I'll be busy probably next week in putting all of the PTSD reimbursement claims in. Um, that was a big deal last year. Takes quite a bit of time, but I'll be working on that here. And then the deadline for that is the end of July. Uh we'll also be starting next year's budgeting uh stuff with every all the departments. So that's going to get busy real here uh real quick. And then I'm also working on the holiday comparison report for the campground and for the liquor store. Just didn't quite I'm 90% done with it, but I want to make sure it's done all the way before I bring it forward. and I'll probably bring it to the committees as well, the liquor committee and then the park board um working on that. Any questions on any of this? [17:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you. [17:28] **Ryan McKeon**: All right. You're welcome. Oh yeah, sorry. Back to me. I do have one request that actually does need a vote. Um, we are still very busy in regards to moving things over into the new account. If you guys recall, that was from the fraud a while back. Um, so I will be asking for a $2 million transfer from our old account to our new account just so we can rip the band-aid off more and get this done. So, I do need a vote on that. [18:13] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Who wants to make that? It's quite a leap of faith. [18:18] **Ryan McKeon**: Yeah, it's a leap of faith. Do you guys trust me? [18:21] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Do you have account numbers or anything? [18:24] **Ryan McKeon**: I do. I don't know if I should mention them—from the old account to the new account and checking. [18:29] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Correct. [18:30] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: I'll make that motion. [18:32] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? [18:33] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: I'll second. [18:35] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Further discussion. Thank you. All in favor? [18:41] **Council**: Aye. [18:43] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Oh, scary. City engineer report. Short Elliott Hendrickson. [18:48] **SEH Representative**: Oh, yes. So, in the packet, um, council received the monthly meeting minutes. Um, a lot there. Um, but making progress on a lot of different aspects on city projects. One thing I did want to mention um that is an update from the meeting that it's provided is the um the Minnesota Office of Civil Rights did approve uh Senate's um bid and so Senate has been awarded the bid for the trail project. There is a pre-construction meeting scheduled for next Wednesday the 16th in the morning. So we will have city representation at that pre-construction meeting. um construction start date is still tenatively um the third week of July at this point in time, possibly the fourth week of July, but final completion has not been pushed out. So, we're still looking at the end of October for a final completion date. Uh we are happy to get that project moving. It's been a couple years in the making. Um just want to remind everybody that that project is funded with uh grant money. Um and so we will be working with all of the um different agencies affiliated with the TAP grant and the DR DNR grant received um in order to facilitate the reimbursements for the city and also the uh project facilitation from a fiscal standpoint as well. Um everything else is pretty cut and dry in the meeting minutes. If you as always if you have any questions please feel free to let me know. Um, other than that, we will cover some of the other items in the engineering minutes later on in the meeting. [20:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions? Well, the looks like here, Chamber of Commerce update. [20:40] **Penny (Chamber President)**: Hello everyone. My name is Penny. I'm the president Chamber and I just want to kind of go over some of the events we have for um this summer. Uh we just recently had the uh kitty parade and we think we had minimum we knew we had 150 because of things we gave out at the chamber and we ran out. So that was a safe location and a good turnout. There was about five different vendors uh locally that were there that had little tables and whatnot. So everything turned out great. So thank you for all your um participation with that fourth of July. Uh this was the first time Michelle, Lori, and I had done the traffic control. Um it was a learning curve, but it went really well. Nobody was hurt. So, um that's always what you want to see. Um but everything went well. The only thing we did find out is that people when they registered, they didn't tell us that they might have two, three, or four vehicles coming. So, that made a little pick a little hiccup for us. And one of the biggest concerns I saw with the traffic coming at me two different ways. I had the people coming from Lake Shore, they had pieces of paper with the number of their booth, but it was laying on the dashboard. There's no way I can see that. So, it was very difficult to know how many people were actually together because some of the booths you wouldn't know until you get on top of them. So, that would be my only takeaway for next year. It's a different way to um to market like their license plate or something with a a number. So, if they have multiple, they all have the same number. Something in like that would be a great great help. Um, annual raffle tickets, we have them printed. Uh, it is a gun raffle this year and the drawing is going to be in October 8th at the Squirrel Cage following our board meeting. Uh, so if you see people out asking if you want to buy some tickets, it's all about this um chamber uh kind of growing fund because we've had a few hiccups this year and I'm going to talk about them as we go. But that is a very large fundraiser for the chamber. Okay. Agot days is the 19th and 20th. Uh everything right now is going smooth. Lori is going to be working with Phil regarding the parking setup for marking everything. I believe they'll be doing that probably on Friday. Um along with that um we had originally had somebody set up to help with parking. um something seriously happened within the family and they were no longer. So we reached out to many different organizations to see and kind of put a little cry for help because it's so last minute. Um the football team and robotics are stepping up to help out for the whole weekend. So I do know that the uh Gem and Mineral are going to be donating some funds towards them for their assistance. And then Brewfest, I know uh Phil had touched on that and um we do have I think we have somebody who's going to be helping out with hauling all of the chairs and tables that we need for for the event. And then nine and nine, we are full at 22 teams. We this is the first time we've done this full this early and um right now the chamber and nine and nine are looking for donations. So that's the update there. And then the Moose Lake triathlon, I know it's been touched on, but I guess it wasn't clarified with the city. So, we had to cancel the triathlon this year. Um, we have very little participation as far as people. We had 16 people, usually were sitting close to 40 at that time. Uh, we also found out there three other um triathlons in the local area. They had as well had to cancel to low participants. So, the letter went out to all of the participants who registered. They all got their refunds. So, for the sponsorship, um Michelle has sent an email out to all the sponsors this morning um asking them if they would like a full refund or if they would be willing to move that sponsorship to another event such as AGOT Day since that, um Stampede is now costing the chamber a lot more money and and whatnot. So that's all I know right now as far as how that's going to flow. And then we have the bingo that's going to be on August 23rd at the um Barnum Muni. And so the time and everything is going to be announced very soon. It is not going to be a purse bingo. It is going to be an adventure bingo. So, we're going to look um reach out to a lot of um outfitters and different places, Airbnbs, people who own places just to kind of keep it something different and bring out everybody, not just women for person. We want to get everybody involved. So, any questions for the chamber? [25:34] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you. [25:35] **Penny**: Thank you. [25:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you. We'll go back to the Motor Vehicle Department report. [25:49] **Motor Vehicle Representative**: I'm sorry guys, we're a little hung up back there. Okay. Well, good evening everybody. Um, as you if you walked through our office, you know that we've been really busy lately. Um, um, we've hired our new employees and it's all going pretty well. Um, lots of training to do. We have um lots of stuff going on still with them getting into certain programs for us. Um answering a lot of questions. We will be doing some fraud training with them pretty soon online and also getting them into proctoring exams and waiting for a reply from the state. We've sent in the paperwork, but um they haven't gotten back to us yet, and they also have to do a little bit of training on that before they can fully start proctoring exams. So, um we're working on deposits with them. Um the next thing they'll be doing is the passport photos and also working on some crash reports and DL and motor vehicle records um for customers also. So, there's still a lot to do. They've been here probably—is it like eight weeks? Yeah. Yeah. So, it's all taking some time, but it's coming along. Um, and then after their six month period, they'll be taking title certification class test with our field representative and regional representative from Duluth. So, um, so then I'll have to—and it's an open book, so it's not pressure, not a fail. So, um we will be getting ready for getting a couple computers in their office next week and just hoping all that goes real smoothly. Um I think they have it they should have a down pat. So, getting all our programs on there. And let's see, starting in August 1st, we're we just got a legislature brochure that said um a lot of some of the things that we do for free in our office will we will be getting paid for. Um it won't be immediate. Um the state will be dispersing those funds and they could either be anywhere from $2 up to $12 depending on the transaction that we're doing. Um, we all we survived the May 7th deadline. Talked about that the last time. We still have got a lot of people coming in for them. Um, I thought it would slow down a little bit, but um, that hasn't. And they're running like three months behind. We go to get them back right now. So, we got those people coming in and checking on these sites. Um, um, me and Tracy were going for a tour in Rush City, um, prison to watch how they make license plates. We really wanted to do that. And, um, a deputy in the cities, um, that owns a few deputies. Um, set it all up for whoever wanted to go. And if it got cancelled, um, it was supposed to be sooner than this and they were having issues at the prison. So now we're able to go and so we'll be on the 21st. So it'll be interesting for us to be able to see that after working with license plates all these years. So looking forward to that. Um I you guys have any questions for me? I guess I wanted to say thank you to letting us hire a couple employees. um it's going to asset to our office and looking forward to getting them all up and running and um get feel confident and yeah and hopefully that will happen and I just think it benefits our city have people being able to come into my office and from all over the place. So, um, I appreciate it. I guess that's all I have. [30:07] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: That's all I got to—Thank you. [30:14] **Motor Vehicle Representative**: Thank you. Okay. [30:16] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Okay. Thank you. Next, we'll go on to previously discussed business. Gardener and Beautification. [30:26] **Phil Entner**: Well, I'm not the city gardener, but I am here speaking for the city gardener tonight. Um, so I guess the big one is I did believe I do believe we received some grant paperwork back from the DNR for the Emerald Dashboard. So, we are in the process for submission of that and then returning that to them. And then the other thing I'm getting a lot of uh a lot of comments and questions about is the Elm Avenue beautification plan. Right. So after 80 days, I'm thinking it's going to be in order to do this the way we need to do this, we're going to have to shut the street down. So if we don't shut the streets down, we'll shut it we'll have to shut it down in segments, which will take way longer. Doing it that way versus having a couple of people, staff members coming on Sunday and just doing this and being done with it, going in one shot. The administrator and I have been in contact about that, making a plan for that. That's going to be happening the end of July, beginning of August. We'll we'll do a one follow sweep. We'll grind out all the stumps. We'll prep the few places where trees are no longer going to go for concrete. We'll plant trees back in the existing places where trees are going to go. And then I believe if Rene has the planters ready to go, those will go up on the hole all at the same time. So, I think nobody wants to work on the weekend, but it's just going to be the most cost effect I'd like to think for everybody just to get it done and get it over. So, just an update on that because I have been getting some questions on that. That's all I got. [31:55] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Good questions. Uh, city of Loose Lake ordinance discussions. [32:01] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Good evening council, Mayor, members, Council Member Owens. Um, we have been talking about ordinances that need to be submitted to the state court system in order for the city to cite them and have them hold up um should they escalate to court. Um, in order to do this, we need to submit these to our city attorneys. This is not a cheap process and it's not a not a fast process. So we have identified six ordinances. Um the nuisance ordinance, uh use of public property, the pet ordinance, zoning ordinance, traffic ordinance, and the ATV ordinance to submit to the city attorneys for review and then subsequently submitting them to the state court system um to be recorded. We have discussed splitting these into two groups of three so that the city attorneys can focus on three at a time. Um the next step is to continue to um the the first three that we're going to prioritize the nuisance, the use of public public property, and the pet ordinance um is to make sure that we have everything in there before we submit them to the city attorneys. Um we don't want to submit them to them, have it take several weeks for them to come back and have us make more changes. We want to make sure we get everything in there at once. Um, so at this time we are working on making sure everything that we need is in there prior to submitting them to the city attorneys for review. Um, it was considered that possibly um it would be worth combining our livestock ordinance with the pet ordinance um so that when we submit that to the state court system that's all included in one thing um and then citable under that ordinance. In addition to that, with our conversations with the um county attorney, Lori Ketta, she indicated that in order to site ordinances, um it's important for the city to have a board of appeals. So that if somebody wants to contest the citation, we have a process in order to um to—they have a process to appeal it. Um so that is something in addition that we will be looking at establishing. Um, Mayor Michalski also recommended that the city adopt the DNR's open burning laws. This would eliminate the city's um need to have an open burning ordinance of our own um and obviously would make it consistent with all of the other laws in the area. So, if there are any questions, um, Ellissa and I can try to answer those. But, as of right now, we're just, um, really trying to get them ready to submit to the attorneys and then we'll go from there. So, any questions? [34:54] **Council Member Kris Huso**: I guess I have questions about nuisances. Sure. What all is covered under nuisances? [35:04] **Ellissa Owens**: And I would have to look, but I know that um there's noise in there as well as like unsightly yards, having vehicles and things in your yards as a um a visual nuisance, engine breaking, um things like that. But I can send you the ordinance if you'd like to read through it as it is. [35:28] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Now, would sidewalks fall underneath that—sidewalk shoveling and and ice? [35:36] **Ellissa Owens**: I think I think it might. And I I believe that parking after a snowstorm falls under the traffic ordinance, but sidewalk shoveling falls under the nuisance ordinance, I believe. [35:48] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Okay. Thank you. And then, do we have a time frame for that? Because I believe the nuisance one is why a lot of people are here. [35:56] **Ellissa Owens**: Yeah. So, um my my goal was to have that done this week, Fourth of July, if you were mentioning that. Um, so I'm hoping to now that we kind of have a little bit of a break between Fourth of July and egg days, hoping to get those first three done next week. [36:05] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Okay. And then we still have three months generally because don't you have to read the ordinances? [36:11] **Ellissa Owens**: It's not a requirement that ordinances are go through three um readings. It's been precedent for the city and what the city's always done. uh we have engaged with the city attorneys on that particular question. Um and as long as you're following um you know the public hearing process per se for for reading and reviewing um with ordinance approval. Um three readings are not necessary but it is precedent. So that would be up to council to decide whether or not to to modify um away from the three readings that has been previously established. [36:45] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Definitely we could with the nuisance one to help out with the neighbor dispute. [36:50] **Ellissa Owens**: One thing too that we've talked about internally from an administrative perspective is we are amending ordinances versus creating new. So a lot of times when you're creating new, you want that three-month process in play to give everybody ample time to review, weigh in, um, and analyze and assess. With these amendments, it's a little different than approving a brand new ordinance. And so that would kind of lead into the one, you know, a one-month turnaround from a council perspective. [37:25] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any other comments or questions? Rob's got something. [37:28] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: Yeah. I was just wondering if there been any changes to the pet ordinance since the last time we talked about it. [37:34] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: There has not been any changes at this point. [37:36] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: To which ordinance? [37:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: The pet. [37:40] **Ellissa Owens**: Yes. Um Mr. Bender, it is on the list. um as and prioritized at with the first round that's going to go to the city attorneys. Um but no formal changes have been approved since the last— [38:03] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: Yeah, that's all I wanted. And then I I do have another question about it. Um has there been any discussion amongst the council or even with the police department as far as enforcing these ordinances when that time comes? [38:09] **Ellissa Owens**: So, our discussion with the sheriff's office and the county attorney's office in recent months, um these ordinances are citable as it stands. Um what we're trying to do in the background is is build up the foundation to ensure that um they they won't be thrown out um by a judge along the way. So, with our ordinances comes the fines process. And so with non-payment of fines, then it escalates throughout the the court system. At that point in time, we want to make sure that everything's buttoned up um and that we have utilized the state court system, which is not something that has occurred in the city um to then have everything shored up in the background to empower and give resource to the county attorney's office to then be able to prosecute for non-payment of fines and things of that nature. So we're trying to build the foundation in the background to make sure that not only can they be cited, but they can be enforced utilizing the system as in totality moving forward. So they are citable as they stand. We're reinforcing in the background. [39:13] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: Yeah. Well, and I and I understand all that. Um I think you know we talked about like finding out how many pets somebody has can be difficult. That could be a challenge. So that's what I was wondering if there been any further discussion about how that process is going to play out because it's going to be a tough one. I know we talked about it. [39:34] **Ellissa Owens**: Correct. Um discussions are ongoing. It is absolutely on our radar and I appreciate you bringing it forward. [39:46] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any other comments, questions? Thank you. Okay. Home Run club request. I don't remember. Okay. So I guess I will um at the last city council meeting there was a right. Yeah. Yes. There was a request to add batting cages at little twilight field. I believe that had we had consensus for that. Right. So that was all good. Correct. Two days later, home run association asked if they could—they want to upgrade them and put concrete floors underneath them. They would be paying for this. It wouldn't be a city expense. Just wanted your guys' consensus on that change before they just go into that. [40:49] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Would public works be assisting with the concrete? [40:53] **Phil Entner**: Nope. It would all be done. Everything uh for for labor and for materials would all be on all level. But since it is changing versus what you guys saw originally, just wanted to bring this to you. [41:07] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: This topic was brought up at the park board and the park board made a recommendation to the city council to approve the um concrete addition to the batting cages. [41:24] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: We have consensus motion to approve. So, make a motion to approve. [41:29] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: Is there a second? [41:31] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: A second. [41:33] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Further discussion. [41:39] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Just oversight. I mean, we're having somebody do work for the city on behalf. We're going to own it. I I have concerns about that. [41:48] **Council Member Kris Huso**: My question too. What happens when it breaks up? But liability of—what happens if it's too high and someone hurts themselves? The city's liable. [41:59] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Yes. So, I think there should be some type of oversight or some type of approval. I think a maintenance agreement on a project just like this would be a wonderful thing for the city to start implementing. We can draw that all up just like every one of these other little projects we have in town. We should have maintenance agreements on. Completely agree spells out who's liable for what, who does the work, when something happens, who's in charge of repairing it or fixing it because otherwise all those expenses right now are falling on you guys. And it's happening everywhere in this town. That's just my opinion. [42:44] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any other discussion? Would you entertain adding to your motion—agreement, maintenance agreement with the home run club? [42:54] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Yes. [42:56] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: You second that. Would you have—you second that? Any further discussion? All in favor? [43:00] **Council**: Aye. [43:01] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed? Carried. Fence discussion. [43:04] **Phil Entner**: Let me start this one too. Okay. So, this also came up to the park board uh from the same organization. Um there was a request that the city repair some of the damages to the outfield fence, back stop fence, and the uh outfield fence, first and third base fence, and the back stop fence. So they essentially what they did, I I wasn't sure how you guys wanted this. Uh I also wasn't sure how how much what we had for finances to make these repairs. So I had to break it down as far as first base, third base, and back stop versus the outs. Um the home run club is uh asking that the city make these repairs on the city own field. Um one repair we I only did get one set of quotes as the hockey association. The home run club is going to be having additional work done by the same contractor. So this is probably going to be the best bang for the buck we're going to get here. Uh two quotes. One was for the first base, third base, and back stop fence. That was for—now I got to find it. [44:14] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: 2500. [44:15] **Phil Entner**: Sure. Yep. And then 15. Correct. But I can't remember which one's which. My iPad just totally—There it is. Home run. The home run fence was 1,500 and the other one was for 2500. So, this went to park board um Monday night and it also went to park board the month before. Uh got a table at the park board meeting the month before until we found out what types of monies we have left over from the beach house renovation which there was approximately $10,000 left. So, with that being said, this is what uh the park board has decided they would like to—Walt, do you want to add anything from the park board? [44:59] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: Not really. I think it's all—I think you covered pretty much everything. Okay. [45:03] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: The question right there. Sorry, Bill. Is it—Are we talking the the repairs that requested? Is that the field across the street from my house? [45:13] **Phil Entner**: Nope. That's the old baseball field. The little league field behind—behind. [45:19] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: That's—I'm sorry. Yes, that's the one. Thank you. [45:22] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any other questions or motions? Further comments. I believe that there is money in the budget that we could do this. Correct. [45:35] **Ellissa Owens**: Uh correct. So um an assessment was done based on uh the park board's inquiry um where the funds would come from. So after after it was tabled um in June, it was brought back forth in July and then it was determined that we um are coming in under budget for the beach house renovation due to public works doing a lot of the work in house. Um and so there was an additional $10,000 in capital um in savings and so the park board then made the recommendation to council to utilize some of that savings um to fix these fences. [46:25] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: I'll make a motion that we approve this—the two quotes. [46:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any further discussion? [46:33] **Council Member Kris Huso**: I just think it may be a safety issue with the fences on either— [46:39] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: It is heavily used too. I mean it gets—there—provides a lot of fun for the for the kids. [46:44] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor? [46:45] **Council**: Aye. [46:46] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed? Carried. New business—straight line surveying quote discussion. [46:59] **Ellissa Owens**: I guess so. What uh council received in their packet was a map and a quote from straight line surveying. So the city received a request um to determine if a newly installed fence um in the alley uh is on city property. And so the city maintains the alley. The alley does not go all the way through. Um the area that we're talking about is essentially the alley that goes between 7th and 8th Street. Uh you can see on the map provided the green GIS outlines which are not exact um but end at the boundary of um parcels affiliated uh with the properties at 228 street and then um 135 and 297th Street. So, right behind each of those residents in the back is the alleyway and the point of um point of view request that the city received. Um again, the city does maintain um mowing and snow removal in that alleyway. Um and so we've just been assessing it—further requests that the city received to establish the alley boundary um and property lines. Um, Superintendent Entner did obtain a survey from straight line surveying and that quote uh is in the packet. The total amount uh for the establishment of the approximately 150 ft of the existing alleyway as platted uh came in at $1,000. Any questions, discussion? [49:00] **Phil Entner**: So from a per public works standpoint, I mean I I get what's going on here and it's unfortunate for everybody for this to come to the city. The city has a prescriptive easement that runs down that entire water vein. Whether there's an alley there or not, there's a break, there's a repair that's needed, we're going regardless. It doesn't matter if I have a survey or not. You have a prescriptive easement which is based over a utility but has been in service for x20 years and if this has been there way longer than that. Um from from my standpoint I don't need the survey to go in and go out. We have all the authority to go in there and fix that utility. [49:50] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Did you say this was a newly erected fence or—? [49:57] **Ellissa Owens**: Um, there has been a fence placed at the end or potential end of the alleyway by a property owner. Um, and so there are questions coming in um from neighboring properties about whether or not that fence has been erected on city property in the alleyway. um we know about where it is. Um but in order to know definitively if that city is encroaching or if that fence is encroaching out of the city property, we would need to have it surveyed. [50:35] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Can you put tell me the um number of whereabout—it's a map? [50:41] **Ellissa Owens**: Well, I'm looking at the map, but I don't know exactly where. So the question was they put a fence in an alleyway. We have a survey. We have that test. [50:58] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: The question essentially—otherwise got to leave it as is. [51:11] **Phil Entner**: Um if we have to go and repair a water man, it's coming out. [51:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Yeah. There's there's fences all over our alleys, prescriptive easements rather, uh throughout all of town. And then the understanding is we have to fix the water. Um this is more of a neighborly dispute and that's where this is coming from. Um I know um a couple residents came to came to us and asked for us to look into this. This is on the table. Um so um Ben just said he would do it for less than $1,000, right? [51:50] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: And then—yes, sorry. Well, we can answer Louis' question first. The quote is for—Yeah. So, and I got the same quote. Um, this is the same homeowner that erected the fence in the—or the the tent in the alley last year. Um, we were having a lot of issues in our neighborhood when that tent was up. I don't know if any of you guys remember that. We had cars that were being broken into. A lot of garbage was all of a sudden appearing in the alley that we were cleaning up. Um, I've been using that alley for the last 13 years, maintaining the neighbor's yard. Um, he's been paying me for 13 years to do it. And so, this has really impacted me because now I can't utilize an alley that I'm used. So, you know, I—from what I understand, there is the option that I can pay to have the survey done. Um, if I—if I pay to have the survey done, I'm going to be suing somebody to recuperate that cost because I shouldn't be paying for a survey to prove that the city owns the property and I shouldn't be paying for a survey to prove that the neighbor put her fence on the island. Um, so that's—that's where I'm at with this. I'm—I'm the one that requested this survey because a survey has to be done in order to deal with this person. I don't want a tent back there again. I'd like to continue to use the alley. Like I said, I've been doing it for the last 13 years and maintain that property. So, that's—that's why I'd like to see this uh get taken care of. [53:18] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Was there a permit for the fence? [53:23] **Ellissa Owens**: No permit is required for a fence under 70 ft—if it's on city property. [53:35] **Council Member Kris Huso**: So we don't know that—is it—it's very close to the property line and and I asked public works to go assess and and and determine where they mow where they plow. It is really close but we don't know exactly—if—if you're the person building the fence. What kind of responsibility do they have to find out where the property line is before they build the fence? I mean, you just can't go out and take a guess where your property line is and build a fence. [54:16] **Ellissa Owens**: And so where the fence the line of the fence goes, it does it—a majority of the fence is in between two private properties, not on the alleyway. There's only one small section of the chicken wire fence that cuts potentially at the end of the alleyway. The only involvement from a city perspective is whether or not it's exactly on the alley boundary at the very end or not. There's other area—the chicken wire fence extends into other areas but then it's a—it's in between two privately owned properties that— [54:48] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: So let me get this straight. Is it crossing the road at any point? Crossing the alley. [54:55] **Ellissa Owens**: It is—because our alley ends at the end there. [54:58] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: So it's—so it is—it may be crossing the or correct know where the property is. [55:04] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: Correct. So when you look at the map that you have there and you see the end of the alley on the west end of the—the west end of the alley, that fence is roughly 50 ft into the alley from the end of the alley because the—the alley is always ended at at the west end of 131 7th Street and then the—the neighbor across the alley has three different lots. So it could be her first lock on east that's always end at the west end of that lot which and there's a telephone pole at the end of the alley too. They just replace it but the old one was right pretty much dead were on where I would believe the alley the be ending at. Uh and that's and I know all the utilities are in there too like Phil said cuz I watched him replace all the gas lines years ago. Oh yeah, it's it's the fence is cutting off about the last 50 ft of the alley. That'd be my belief. [55:49] **Ellissa Owens**: That's what the belief is. We're not sure. [55:54] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: The other—and the other section of fencing, it's it's either in the neighbor's yard or it is actually running up the alley. Then it could be who knows—a foot or two in the alley. I don't know where that line is either, but and then it runs another I don't know another 20 30 ft into the neighbor's yard. This is just—Yeah, it's made out of chicken wire. It's just a chicken wire, some metal stakes. I got videos of the three people that installed it. I know and I can identify them all. I know who they are. [56:28] **Ellissa Owens**: I I have had contact with the property owner with whom erected the fence. Um I did communicate that um the city does have a prescriptive utility easement, an alley easement. um if a if accessing public utility was needed that it would be done so um at the owner's expense of the fence removal and potentially damage um of of the chicken wire. Um we do have other locations in town that exists. Uh we do work with other residents in the city from a prescriptive easement standpoint. I did ask if the property owner was going to engage in a survey um because the fence is supposedly outlining that property boundaries um and the property owner was entertaining it um but had not engaged in it yet at the time that I spoke with them. [57:23] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: That's kind of my feeling that if you're going to build the fence, you need to make sure that you're building it on your property. And the only way for the property owner to know that is to have their own survey done. [57:44] **Ellissa Owens**: That would be done by ordinance and we don't have that enforcement. Correct. I would like to point out too that the city—that the city staff isn't comfortable saying definitively whether or not the fence is on the property line because when you look at the GIS there are a lot of lines that are going through houses and whatnot. Um, so if we're trying to eyeball it based on that, there's no way for us to with human error eyeball exactly where a property line is without somebody surveying it professionally. So, initially there was a request for the city to contact the property owner and ask for removal of the fence and—and that—that can't be done um because we don't know if it's—it could be entirely on the—that property—the owner's property entire property. [58:45] **Ellissa Owens**: I do have concerns over setting the president and not that I don't want to assist all parties in rectifying the situation in the way that the city can engage. But in my role and my chair, I do have to be cognizant of precedent and that is a concern of mine. We do have prescriptive easements that are infringed upon with fences all over the city. [59:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Yeah, that happens a lot of places too. And what people realize when they do that—there's possibility that whatever structure they've erected can be taken down at their expense. So going beyond that to get a survey done. I don't know about that either. [59:49] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Can I answer all the question? Yes. So your concern is—is you—you help somebody out and you're on the alley or what? [1:00:04] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: I am the caretaker of the property next to mine. That's 131 7th Street. Okay. And I—like I said, I've been using the alley for 13 years, maintain that property. I keep the brush—the bushes in the back trimmed up, okay? You know, so the power company doesn't have to deal with my keeping trims. They're not hitting the power lines. I just—And that's the kind of stuff that I've done. I got to get back there. And it's nice to be able to drive back there if I got to haul a bunch of brush out. So—So these are the things that I can't do now. It's not even wide enough for like a vehicle to shoot through. I guess I've never driven— [1:00:36] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Well, the alley is only 16 ft wide. [1:00:40] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: Okay. Uh, but like I said, she's—she's blocking off the end where I've been accessing the neighbor's property, you know, to maintain it. So, I realize I'm the only one that this is impacting, but at the same time, uh, you know, getting the survey done will fix some issues that we've been dealing with, like I said, with the tent and, you know, and—and it'll hopefully stop some of these shenanigans. Um, is lot the owner of lot 131. Are they—do they live there or they—? [1:01:13] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: Yeah. Okay. Oh. Oh. 131. No. No. Ken doesn't live there. Okay. No. He—uh he lives in Birdsville. Okay. And he, you know, if any of you guys want to call and talk to him, I got his number. He said I can—I can certainly get it to you. [1:01:45] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Sounds like that's another ordinance we should be looking at then as well because we're going to be running into the—the fence—the fence type deal. [1:01:53] **Ellissa Owens**: So use of city property is one that's been identified um and so the fence placement would be um could be addressed on that use of property. That—that would be the big one is that it should be approved by city—city staff possibly. [1:02:03] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: There used to be—I don't know if there is any. There used to be an ordinance that said you know your—your fence had to be 6 in in from your property. So I would assume if you're going to follow that you'd have to have a survey done so you know where to put. But I—but I don't know that the—that that—that ordinance ever, you know, specifically addressed you had to get serve. [1:02:22] **Ellissa Owens**: Yeah, that—that doesn't sound good. So, there's no ordinance that exists that addresses fences or—We do um we do have verbiage um zoning and use of city property. The problem is we don't know if it's on city property or not. [1:02:42] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Well, I guess I'm going back to what counselor Law stated that if you're going to put a fence up, I think it'd be on the party putting the fence up to—have know where their property was. [1:03:00] **Ellissa Owens**: And from their perspective, they are on their property and they know they're on their property, so they put a fence on their property. That's what was communicated to me. So now you have a dispute between someone saying, "My fence is on my property," and somebody else saying, "Your fence is not on your property." [1:03:22] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Don't they drive those stakes into their own identified property? [1:03:26] **Phil Entner**: Certain times they do. Sometimes they do. Um if a survey was to be done here, we would get new pins. Y—but that whole area is literally built on the old dump. [1:03:38] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: You should be the old dump down there. I can vouch for that. [1:03:42] **Phil Entner**: Yeah, absolutely. I bet you I've pulled a 5-gallon pail full of spark plugs out of my garden. What? We dig a water break down there and there's cars and all kinds of stuff we pull out flat. [1:03:55] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: What year was this? It exists—before I was alive. I can tell you that. Before I was alive. Never heard of that. And you heard the discussion of this—agenda item. [1:04:12] **Council Member Kris Huso**: I would just like us to look at that again, the fence thing, and that maybe make a requirement for people to have proof of survey. I I know that's expensive, but at the same time, if there's pens in there, there's proof of survey. Um that it shouldn't be up to a resident to come on in and say, "This is where we're falling short." [1:04:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: So, they're saying they should have an ordinance that you're going to put up survey. [1:04:35] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Well, if—if you have pins and you can prove that you have a—that your lot was done and you—you can show where those survey markers are, that's already done. I don't think the person should have to redo it, but there should be proof of lot lines. [1:04:53] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: There was a lady that put up a fence in the alleyway in between third and fourth and she did go out and get a survey done before she put it up. So there—there are some people already doing that. You know, it's mostly new—new—new buyers that—that do that. [1:05:08] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Mhm. Well, I think in a city environment, uh, I mean, anything like that, I mean, we have to get building permits and stuff like that. So, I do believe it should be on the person putting up a fence to do their due diligence and—and verify that that is their property—to be able to prove it. [1:05:34] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Yeah, that's true. You know, there's different kinds of fences. So, if I'm just going to put an expensive—pencil, it'd be—kind of silly not to get a survey on to know where they are. But if you're talking chicken wire about some steaks, that's a—that's kind of a nothing else. So, there's not—you got to take that down. There's not going to be a lot of expense doing that here. [1:05:58] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: But, I think that's part of the problem here. [1:06:01] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Is there another fence beyond that? I mean, yes, because I thought there was a taller fence. [1:06:10] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: She does have a chain fence around a portion of her properties. And now there's a sunscreen that's being used as a sort of a fence that's about 10 ft off the ground between a couple trees in the alley as well. And I don't know if those are in the alley or on property. Like I said, I'm asking you guys to help me out with this because we're just going to keep having these issues. And I have a police report from about four weeks ago when she told the officer, quoted telling him, "I'll be getting a survey done in the next two weeks, and it's not—it didn't happen." So, she can keep telling you she's looking at getting it done, but she's not. [1:06:53] **Ellissa Owens**: It's not—It's m—It's not mandated by the city for our ordinance. [1:07:05] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Oh, I understand. that that's where I'm saying moving forward we should be looking at that—is garbage or stuff being strung across the alley from trees—I mean—is that a nuisance of—? [1:07:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: well once again we're not sure if it's on the alley or their property or whose property—that is the biggest problem here is we don't know where the alley ends. So we don't know whose property anything is on truly down there. [1:07:38] **Ellissa Owens**: From a public works perspective, the only assessment we have is is that at the boundary where we usually mow and or maintain and or plow to. And that was my question to Phil. Um, and it's your interpretation that it's at that boundary. [1:07:59] **Phil Entner**: That's—Well, that's my interpretation. Yeah. [1:08:03] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Well, to me, it seems like we should put forward a motion that we spend the money for that and then decide whether we're going to do that or not. I'm kind of worried about the precedent, too, that Ellissa brought up. If we do this, if we pay for the—the survey, how many other fences and alleys are we going to have to pay for? [1:08:45] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: At least we can vote it up or down. Y—I don't know about the precedences because—do we have anybody else in town that is you know obstructing a resident from using public street basically they've been using for 13 years and I don't know that that's happening anywhere else. [1:08:56] **Ellissa Owens**: Yeah, there are other—we have had other issues. [1:09:02] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: And how are they resolved? [1:09:05] **Ellissa Owens**: Some of them haven't been resolved. Some of them are unresolved. Some have been surveys from the property owners. with if the council is not engaged in— [1:09:12] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: and—and like I said, it's not just about the fence, it's the tent and then you know what's going to be next. It's just there's ongoing issues here and this is one one area where you guys could help us. [1:09:30] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Go ahead, Chris. Is there any other property owners along there that would be willing to um do a survey—have it surveyed—and share the expense with you? [1:09:43] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: We've discussed it. Nobody really has the money right now. Um I'm looking at selling personal properties in preparation to take this on myself if that's what needs to be done. But like I said, I'm going to be, you know, filing some paperwork with the courts to seek reimbursement from somebody. I got to spend the money to regain access to something like this. That's it doesn't feel like it—I don't feel like it should be my responsibility to pay for it. I'm going to do what I got to do. Uh, you know, like I said, the the quote that we got is also to uh help the neighbor out that's got a fence in her backyard because, uh, you know, the neighbor that that put this fence up thinks they own, you know, basically 8 ft into the neighbor's yard as well. [1:10:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: The neighbor being the 131—135. No, Jenny. Jenny's 135. 135 7th Street. Well, I do think we should be clear that this—this survey quote that we got is only for the alley and doesn't address that issue. [1:10:44] **Public Speaker (Mr. Bender)**: Yep. I'm not trying to fight their battles. [1:11:03] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Further discussion motions. I guess further discussion would be—if—if we don't know where our alley is, that would be our responsibility to know where our alley is. And if that's in question, I think that then we should get a survey. That's not setting precedence. If we don't know where our alley is and we don't have markers in our alley, we should know what is our—our property. I'm just saying that's what—what I believe is if we don't know where our alley is, then we should know where our alley is. And that has nothing to do with Mr. Bender coming here. Now, do I want to do that for every alley? But no, but this is where we have a major issue. So, I'd make that motion to survey the alleyway. [1:11:47] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? [1:11:52] **Council Member Kris Huso**: I'll second that. [1:11:54] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Further discussion? All in favor? [1:11:56] **Council**: Aye. [1:11:58] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed? carried. Next is the Wai Hockey Association lease agreement memorandum. [1:12:14] **Ellissa Owens**: Uh yes. So in the council packet is the—is an MOU to the existing lease agreement between the uh Malaha and the city of Mlake. Um what this does is extends ice through um the fall season. So we tried this in spring. We did an MOU that extended ice past our our normal lease terms in the spring to allow for additional practices um some training purposes. And then the hockey association was able to sell ice time to help um recruit monies to um go towards the financing for the compressors, their half of the compressors. So that went really well. Um they are now coming back with the same request for the fall. Um so extending it out a little bit or putting ice in a little bit earlier than normal. Um I think it's important to mention that this is kind of a test period, a test run. Uh, a couple of things or accommodations have been included um with this agreement. And so the ice would go in um in mid August. The ice would not be lined or painted or have logos or anything of that nature. Um going to test to see whether or not it's viable with the new compressor systems to have ice in a little bit earlier. Um, if it's going well, the hockey association does have things lined up for training and leagues, a men's league, I believe. Um, things like that. Um, in addition, from a city perspective, internally, we've talked about if the ice goes in early, we would bring on arena staff early and do training on that sheet of ice um earlier in preparation for the season. This ice would then be removed at the expense of the hockey association with time and volunteers and assistance. Public works does a little bit as well. Um we would have September events that are normally scheduled at the end of September in the arena and then the official ice would go back in. Um essentially that is the request that's coming forward to the city from the hockey association. It's very close to uh what occurred in the spring um but just in the fall seasons. This only binds us for trying it one time to see if it's something that's doable or not. Um we've talked about taking advantage of it for training and is there anything I'm missing Phil from our discussions with the hockey association? [1:14:53] **Phil Entner**: I don't believe so. My concern—my concern would be—is it—could the ice—in the building could handle the extreme heat in August, September of the—All right. But August, beginning of August is usually the hottest month of the year. [1:15:18] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: That was my concern, too. We talked about it. We talked about looking at the weather. So, if this MOU were to be approved, we talked about looking at the weather in those first midweeks in August and making a determination with the hockey association like it—it's 90° out. This isn't going to work—or the temperatures are a little cooler, the forecast is a little cooler. Let's give it a go. Um, I think everybody's on the same page that this may not—this may not be viable and it might change year to year. Um, but engaging in these types of um, arrangements just kind of helps everybody sort out what we're working with with the new compressors, what's viable, what's not, can they make money. If they can't make money and it's not assisting them with their ultimate goal of um, helping pay for the financing for the compressors, they won't want to do it either. It's a lot of volunteer time. They're taking on the—a lot of—a lot of expenses from staffing and things of that nature. whereas um it won't be um feasible for them or worthwhile for them to continue to engage in this. So another trial. [1:16:22] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: What kind of load is this on the compressor? [1:16:25] **Phil Entner**: Great question. [1:16:27] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: We don't know. [1:16:28] **Phil Entner**: My concern would be I think it'll be super expensive to put ice in in August for the buildings. They even said—extending it—in the in the spring is one thing because it's already in there and frozen and cold, but to cool that building out would take a lot of energy to cool off. [1:16:55] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: I believe September might be too warm in September. And ultimately, if—if we're taxing these—the new system so much just to try to put ice in to make a little bit extra money, I have concern. It's a new system. I know other arenas have ice year round, but they have dehumidifiers and the other equipment too that—take a lot of the big moisture out of the building. [1:18:02] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Yeah. Would there be a mold concern? [1:18:05] **Ellissa Owens**: Um, they did talk about bringing down the humidity in the building. Um, but I cannot speak to them. We did ask a representative to—to to be here as well and I know they have a lot of conflicts going on right now. So—just wait for the request. [1:18:22] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Could we take this until next month and have somebody else come in and talk—or is it too late to—I suppose they want to get—these camps and things set up? [1:18:34] **Ellissa Owens**: Yeah. [1:18:35] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Are there other hockey rinks that are doing this—that have ice in August that we could talk to and see what kind of a load it's—? [1:18:41] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Are there other arenas doing this? Oh yeah. Keep around but they have different—they have different facilities than we have. [1:18:52] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Correct. What would be equivalent? Would Carlton's be equivalent to our—? [1:18:59] **Phil Entner**: That's a great question. I'm not sure if they are even artificial ice. They might be just winter ice. [1:19:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I'm not sure. I—I totally understand what you guys are talking about. They may, but I don't think that they put ice in either because they didn't use volcano there. I mean, I'm not against trying it for a year. [1:19:35] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: The city's going to be paying for this though right? [1:19:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: We're—Well, the utility portion of it—utility bill—just to cool the place down. We—I know we don't know, but I mean—we don't know. You don't make snowballs in August. [1:20:00] **Ellissa Owens**: Um, you know, from a uh electric utility standpoint, the city is still under the agreement with water and light. So, we would not be footing the bill for the electric utility this season, but we could be moving forward. [1:20:18] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: We have a cap on that, correct? So, hypothetically, if the bill goes up 20-30,000, the citizens—look like—pay for that if it's over that 180. [1:20:30] **Ellissa Owens**: Um, we're—we're still under the three—the three years at a max of 180 per year. [1:20:41] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: I don't—So if it goes—if we're spending a lot more than that— [1:20:47] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Humanity further discussion motions take no action. [1:20:57] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Can I ask a question? Yes. Phil, what—what is your thought? Not knowing the ice—in the arena the best—out of—are everybody in here or maybe—? [1:21:11] **Phil Entner**: I have huge concerns of the building holding temperature. I understand and I really appreciate their willingness to try to do what they're doing because they were a huge partner in that project. I agree with you—don't want to see a brand new system ran into the ground and tax that hard—because that's what we're doing. [1:21:40] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: My main thought of it was, you know, the more you use it, the sooner it's going to wear out. We just got done going through a big process to get all this new stuff in there, and it's all very expensive. I would rather see them have the camps instead of putting practice ice down—taking it out and putting it back in when we need to put it back in. Just start earlier. Have your camp before that. And then it's in the fall. [1:22:07] **Ellissa Owens**: There's an event October Fest. [1:22:09] **Phil Entner**: Oh, October Fest. That's right. [1:22:11] **Ellissa Owens**: It's an annual event in the arena. And so we—we've always put in ice after that event. [1:22:18] **Phil Entner**: Yeah. Y—it's it's a difficult scenario. They're invested in the compressors as well. They covered half the cost. [1:22:25] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Yeah. And then, you know, they're looking to recoup some of those monies. But is this the—is this the best solution? You know, that's—it worked in the spring. I don't know that it works the same in the fall. [1:22:41] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: And I would say this is summer. Yeah. Understood. [1:22:44] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: It's a summer solstice. So, we're not in the fall. Where do these kids come from to the camp? Are they local kids? which we had representation from the association requesting this tonight because this is— [1:22:58] **Ellissa Owens**: so it says the—ban on 12U and high school age skaters—have all—that's what they did in the spring so they're looking to replicate that—my understanding is that it's a camp for local kids around the community—not specific to Moose Lake but the hockey association's reach which is what—correct Barnum—Um I think Hley Carlton—Hley Carlton Cromwell loose lake willow—any movement on it. [1:23:45] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Moving on—to the playground. It's an old school—played out playground discussion. First National—First National Bank original arena digital sign advertisement. [1:23:59] **Ryan McKeon**: Uh yes. So with the new digital sign on the arena comes some more opportunities for us to generate some ad revenue. Uh this is in your packet. It's just a form that we came up with. Um so this already went by the parkour. They recommended that we go through with it. Uh, one week 100 bucks. Two weeks 200 bucks. You do four weeks get a little bit of a cut. 350 bucks. So, pretty self-explanatory. Need a—to add it to the fee schedule. [1:24:28] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any discussions, motions? [1:24:32] **Council Member Kris Huso**: One question. You're the one that would set up the—the ad. [1:24:38] **Ryan McKeon**: Yep. That's a great question. And so with all these great things that we're doing and it's awesome, uh, comes extra responsibilities. So this would be a combination of Taylor and myself putting on there. So I'd also ask for patience and grace if we don't get to something immediately. So but yes, we would take that on—but it would be regulated by our—correct. We would review it. Yes. [1:25:02] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Okay. the money brought in and go where? [1:25:05] **Ryan McKeon**: Uh they would go into the arena revenue revenues. [1:25:10] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: I'll make a motion we approve the digital ad. [1:25:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? [1:25:15] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: I'll second. [1:25:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Further discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Carried. There were two seconds there. Did you get that? I'll just decide whether I—or—Thank you. playground incident. The old school playground discussion. [1:25:41] **Ellissa Owens**: Uh yes. So in the packet, the council received um some pictures from the old school playground. Um the current state of the equipment um has resulted in an injury. Um upon being notified um within 24 hours uh city staff removed that particular um piece of equipment from the playground and also did an additional assessment on the um state of other parts of the playground. Um at that time there were other parts of the playground that were deemed unsafe and removed immediately. Um this was brought to park board for discussion. Um the park board made a recommendation based on the current state and current events um to remove the old school playground um in totality. Some of the discussions that have happened from an administrative perspective and with park board um would be how to utilize the space moving forward. Whether it be additional campsites or other opportunities, those types of discussions would be had at the park board and then brought forward to council moving forward. I think what um the reason um for this being on the agenda at this time is the park board's recommendation to remove the playground. [1:27:47] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: I—I got something to say on that. Uh I've kind of second-guessed my vote on that. I I've had time to go down and look at what's left down there. the broken pieces of equipment were removed. And I I think that that the park board—should—all the members should have gone down there and taken a look at what was already down there. That—that playground is heavily used. It's—it's—it's—there's always people down there. And for the cost of playground equipment now, you know, we know that that's very expensive. We—we know that the—the wood one that we have in the park is going to be needing replacement at some time here coming up. We really don't have the funding for that. We're looking into grant—to—in—into grants currently to try to find funding to replace that. And you guys know that grants can't be relied upon. So, I was thinking, you know, it would be best if all of us went down there and—and looked at that playground to make your own personal decision on what condition that—that it's in. The one behind the school is made out of steel and plastic that will last a lot longer. You know, obviously it had a lot of use when it was to school and that, but I just after thinking about it and going down there and looking at it, I don't know if that's the right decision to take the whole—the whole thing out. Now, it does contribute to a reason of why people would like to use the campground. And, you know, a lot of people from town—do—do use it. I'm just kind of worried that we'll get to some point in town if we get rid of that and then if this one in the park, the wood one, deteriorates that point and then we can't get grant funding, where are we going to get the funding? We—we also don't know what the cost would be, you know, for—for a new playground. They are very expensive. I know that, you know, so I—I hate to second guess the—the park board's decision, but that's—that's where I—where I'm sitting at it myself right now. I just think that we should all take a—take a look at that and make our—our own opinion before we go ahead and take it out because once it's gone, it's gone. But also, you know, like they said, if it was removed, there is some advantages of that too by possibly putting in some more campsites there. As Phil brought up, there's how many? There was three or four campsites forward that are hard to access down there, and maybe that would be a place to move those. But, uh, I I just think we should think about that before we go and make a motion today to get rid of it completely. [1:30:32] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Any other discussion, Chris? I I mean, I've been down there with my grandchildren and um haven't had any issues. What Phil, when your people looked at it, um what was their assessment of the parts? And I mean, obviously they took down the pieces that they thought were unsafe, but is there a company that could come and—and—I—give it a once over or? [1:31:07] **Phil Entner**: So, Taylor and I went down and looked at it. Um, you're more into this than I am. I haven't had little kids in a long time. Um, so my initial assessment of it was that um the plastic that's covering many of the platforms and the stairs are cracking um including the ladder. Those are what you would call pinch points um for kids. Um so those are deteriorating and that's not something that can be replaced. Is it terrible right now? No. But it's getting there. Um, in addition, it is a very popular site for vandalism. Um, it seems as if there were kids that came down there with a torch and burnt holes in some of the plastic. It also appears that they used some sort of saw, sawzaw of some sort to cut holes in some of the slides. Um, so, um, maybe it's not necessary to get rid of it right this moment, but it would be a preventative measure to get rid of it um, before somebody else gets hurt. [1:32:17] **Ellissa Owens**: The incident has been turned over to the city's insurance company. And I'm not going to speak anymore on that. Um so now that we have been made aware from a city perspective, um we need to make sure that we are continuing to monitor the state and and remedy any issues immediately to prevent future injury. Once you are notified, you then are obligated to respond. So we've done that. However, a lot of the pieces down there that do have burns and cracks and things of that nature, there was no immediate remedy for those because there you'd be taking down the—all the slides, you'd be taking down ladders and things of that nature. Those are still there. So, that is a—a concern. um that should be at least considered and then you know—directive giving them from council what we want to do moving forward—and you heard a discussion Chris— [1:33:35] **Council Member Kris Huso**: is—replacing those plastic—I know you're saying talk about vandalism and stuff but is—would replacing those plastic parts um be cheaper than having to buy a new swing set as a—? I don't know if we can get replacement for the—the covers for the platforms, but I know like the slide was a 4,000—four or $5,000—$5,000. [1:34:05] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: I guess I didn't notice those things when I was down there. I I should go down there and look again. [1:34:10] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I think you need to go play on it. [1:34:13] **Phil Entner**: At first glance, it honestly looks super cool and I was like, what's wrong with this? But then when you get up close, you notice all of those minor things and um Phil's guys had already taken one thing down. So, we're kind of at the point where we just—things keep breaking and we just keep taking it down piece by piece and pretty soon all that's going to be left is a platform and some stairs. So, um we're headed in that direction. [1:34:40] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: further discussion. [1:34:42] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: If there's still things that were—that need to be addressed, we should be closing that anyhow because if somebody else gets hurt, then again, it's the statute—failure to act and that's where we're at whether we want to keep it or not. So, we should—we should be closing it. That's my belief. Any other discussion? Motions. [1:35:05] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: I just got one thought on closing it. We—We can't keep people out of the old school. I don't know how you're going to keep them off of the labor other than—maybe they'll remove you from some liability or something. [1:35:14] **Ellissa Owens**: Well, we'll be taking it apart. Yeah. Unless there's money for that something new. You going to do that? You said no. [1:35:36] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Um, I guess I'll make a motion that we remove the lake ground equipment as it's— [1:35:45] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? [1:35:46] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: I'll second that. [1:35:50] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? [1:35:57] **Council**: Aye. [1:35:59] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: opposed? [1:36:02] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: Opposed. [1:36:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: 3 to one. Next uh—Ricky city and community center—discuss community center discussion. [1:36:12] **Ellissa Owens**: Uh yes. So it has—there's been ongoing issues uh with access to city hall and the community center. um they have recently kind of come to a head regarding um certain areas of our city hall that are required to be under locking key whether it be for um filekeeping records, audit information, um personnel information, things like that. Um so some of the experiences that have been had um are you know city staff working, you know, maybe at 6:00, 7:00 and, you know, having community members just coming in and—they're—they meet you in the office. They're in city. They're—they're in city hall and they're like, "Hi, how's it going?" They have access. The the way the building is keyed now there's access. So, we've talked about rekeying. What we're looking for is some direction as far as how things are rekeyed um and and what that looks like. And I've—I've asked Phil to kind of um kind of map out some different ideas as far as checkpoints, so to speak, of what should—what should remain with one key and or another. [1:37:35] **Phil Entner**: Thank you. And yeah, it's really pretty simple. It's just this hallway, this common hallway that runs right up here right out the other entrance. I think this can all be considered common space. And then the door going into the office I think would be obviously key to a different—a different key. Um and then on what you want to do with the other room. [1:37:55] **Ellissa Owens**: So the the second area um that we're looking for guidance and direction would be the city's conference room. So as it stands right now that room is the only room city staff has to engage in meetings. I mean, we use it for all boards, all committees, but we also have a need to use it Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. It's our only meeting space, and a lot of the times we don't have access to it because other entities are utilizing it. So, we want to engage in a in a way where the community center can be accessed and utilized by all residents. It's super important to have those spaces available for different activities, but we're getting to a point where we don't have access to the only meeting room that the city has available. Um, as Phil mentioned, that room can be accessed with the same key as utilized to get into the common spaces in the community center. And so, um, although a lot of people do notify us and we try and maintain a calendar, uh, we oftentimes run into just, you know, people being in there and wanting to utilize that space when there's other city meetings occurring. So, we're going through this transition period of how do we embrace community access, which is really important. Um, and how do we transition some of the entities utilizing the space to utilize—we have this really big council chambers that can be partitioned off and can be utilized as well. Um, and so we're looking at direction from council as far as whether or not that conference room is rekeyed as the city office is or whether or not it's re-rekeyed from a community center perspective. [1:39:48] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Chris—how are people—if that's—I mean—that's mainly locked unless you know something's going on for people—? Correct. [1:39:55] **Phil Entner**: Otherwise, how are people getting in there that—don't belong there? to keep—this in this building. [1:40:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Yeah, but—a piece of keys. So many—a lot more than you would think. [1:40:11] **Council Member Kris Huso**: I mean, do the bridge people have keys to get in? [1:40:13] **Phil Entner**: There's so many people. Yeah. So key it—people will have to make pointed use of it, not just walk in. Any other discussion motions? [1:40:37] **Council Member Kris Huso**: I make a motion that way. [1:40:42] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Both the two doors—that—that's what you're requesting, right? [1:40:48] **Phil Entner**: Actually, hold on. This is going to be our common space, right? [1:40:51] **Ellissa Owens**: So, we could leave it. Just leave it. [1:40:53] **Phil Entner**: Leave this—but keep the two doors. City hall—front and back door. Correct. [1:41:00] **Ellissa Owens**: And the conference room. [1:41:01] **Phil Entner**: And the conference room. [1:41:02] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: That would be extremely reasonable. Very way better than going through the whole building. [1:41:09] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: So there was still the same—done. [1:41:13] **Ellissa Owens**: There still be a lot of people that can access this area. Um but that—and—and that's—it's a community space, but it's a community space. But I don't think that every community member should have a key. I mean, that's a little unnervy. [1:41:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: It's really unnervy—that they can get up around the corner to me—or into the kitchen or I mean—cuz that's all. Is there—is there a second to the motion? Then we can further discuss. [1:41:57] **Council Member Kris Huso**: I'll make a second. [1:41:59] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Further discussion. [1:42:01] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: Yeah, I think letting those entities know that we're doing this would be helpful so they just don't come in someday and it's a key and then uh—make sure that anybody else that uses this uh—space has first dibs on it and those times are set and then then it's community space in my mind. I don't know if there's anybody else that used it. [1:42:25] **Ellissa Owens**: Um, yes, there are people—there are groups and entities that utilize spaces. I don't think there's a ton of conflict between the two. It's just the preferences to utilize the conference room. We've started having dialogue talking about, you know, a transition when we have meeting conflicts like, hey, we have this other space available. What can we bring over there for you? Um, so we've started to have that dialogue and we can continue to have that. Um, I don't think there's a ton of overlap between the two, but it would just be transitioning things over to the community center and council chambers and partitioning the room, you know, doing some things to meet needs um for the utilization of the space, but it's—it's doable. It—there'll be a transition period. Chris— [1:43:20] **Council Member Kris Huso**: at the same time though, shouldn't we be collecting some keys? I mean, if if these people are using the rooms on days of the week that people are here, what is the reasoning that they have a key to get into the building when the building is unlocked? [1:43:46] **Ellissa Owens**: It would be really hard to determine—other than self-reporting—just how many are out there. Took the same approach of—we—we learned who had them and who needed them after that transition, right? [1:44:09] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Do you have a cost estimate—what would it be—for three doors? [1:44:14] **Phil Entner**: It'll be less than 1,500 bucks for sure. I—I could—I'm not—but that's five—if it was going to be the whole—if it was the whole building and that's—for comparison—that's absolutely—yeah. [1:44:28] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: so I mean that definitely makes it much better. I know with the fire hall we just had one door repinned and that was $160—$160. [1:44:42] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: any other discussion—All in favor? [1:44:50] **Council**: Aye. [1:44:52] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed. Carries. Uh, looks like gravel pit discussion. Starting on page 84 in your packet, you will find the signed and submitted gravel pit. Permit. So, it's not approved yet, but they—nobody seems to have any issues with it or do not think we'll hit any hang-ups. Um, Question for you guys—next month. What do you want for stripping—stripping and mining? [1:45:29] **Phil Entner**: Screening. [1:45:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: H—and screening. [1:45:32] **Phil Entner**: Yeah, my—that's undermining. But it'd be stripping first would be one and then mining. Whether it's screening, washing, crushing, whatever. That's all mining. [1:45:41] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: My opinion is we need to be getting at this as soon as we can. [1:45:44] **Phil Entner**: Okay. I would agree. [1:45:46] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Do we have consensus on that? Okay. I'll bring in the next one. Thank you. No, that's all I need. Uh, Greater Minnesota Housing Infrastructure Grant Program. [1:46:12] **Ellissa Owens**: Yes. Wanting council to have this ability to um a few aspects of the uh application for the infrastructure grant for the rebel's development. Uh the application was submitted. Um, in the council's packet, I did uh include the eight letters of support um for the residential development, which was excellent. We did have a lot of community engagement, which is super important. Um there—it was necessary to determine that the housing development meets um the stipulations of a workforce housing category. And so there was a lot of assessment done in the background with the city engineers um and city staff regarding um determining whether or not that we met that workforce housing category criteria. And so what was established is that the duplexes and the apartment—the apartment building—um did meet the statistical mathematical qualifications for workforce housing. And so we were able to in our grant um submission isolate those um infrastructure needs and those needs did exceed the um maximum uh grant request of $500,000. So we were able to request $500,000 for infrastructure um and it is pertinent to those particular aspects of the development um but ultimately would be very very helpful regardless. So that submission is is in um money will be awarded in late 2025 or early 2026. So we'll keep council informed as we hear more. Uh but that was a um a big undertaking. It's done and um very pleased to see the community engagement and support on the application itself. So that's excellent and—and thank you to—to everybody who um was supportive in this process. [1:48:10] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: And this is a 50% matching grant. [1:48:13] **Ellissa Owens**: Correct. So as discussions have been had right now with the developer, the city would be putting forward the—in the—if awarded—the monies um from the grant proceeds and then the developer would be responsible for the match. [1:48:22] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any other comments? Okay, moving on. Rabbel Heights development and had a turnaround easement discussion. [1:48:33] **Ellissa Owens**: The city engineers have um drafted a proposed easement for the end of the um residential development as it stands right now. Uh this was tenatively approved by the school board. It's been discussed with council previously. These are just the legal documents that will then go before the school board for approval. Essentially, um, city ordinance requires a, um, a turnaround to be established in order to maximize lots and maximize development in the residential development. Uh, we are requesting an easement from the school to infringe upon a little bit of their property to create the hammerhead needed um, in order to have a turnaround for emergency vehicles and things of that nature. So, looking for council approval and then I will bring it forward to the school board as well. [1:49:24] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: So move. [1:49:26] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Is there a second? [1:49:27] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Second. [1:49:28] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor? [1:49:29] **Council**: Aye. [1:49:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: carried. Next is contract negotiation. So we'll have to go into close session. So you are done with your portion.