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 roll call please council member Cole here council member schweer here council member Wong here council member nordby here mayor mangy here a motion thanks second second hi emotion second favor hi way to go next part of me is meeting open to the public I think we need to excuse me uh read the consent agenda first yeah you were so close you don't have to read it you typically do but you did just approve it [Laughter] it's moving right along if you want to read what you've just approved by by all means well no not technically you have a long history of reading it but all right so the consent agenda item a February 21st 2023 regular meeting minutes Item B February 21st 2023 HRA meeting minutes General claims of 485 893.70 HR claims of 208.78 approving appointment of the Planning Commission approving appointment to The Economic and Development Authority approving appointment to the park and rec commission resolution supporting requests for federal Appropriations for the community center item I State Statute 72.02 winter parking ordinance so a temporary exemption for March 18th to March 19th of 2023 from 1am to 7 00 a.m that is St Patrick's Day item J resolution support for State Legislative solution to the Minnesota law enforcement Staffing crisis item k Electric Department contract directional board for sepula Boulevard overhead relocation it's due to the Lilly project item L electric Department purchase a various size pad Mount Transformers and item M temporary on sale liquor license and charitable gambling application to church of Saint Peter annual School gala gala for event on Saturday April 22nd of 2023. we asked if somebody wants to pull anything if they would yes yeah even though it's fruit we'd have to back up backwards now because I was I got a little bit too crazy with the individual invisible gavel I have so my apologies technically you don't need to remotion it at this point it's it's approved what we just did is informational so we we can move on to open to the public at this point you're earning your money tonight aren't you you better not put in for overtime all right open the mean of the public at 6 34. your Smalls address please in three minutes if you could uh John Schmall 2750 Chisholm Avenue this will be the only person up here because there are no more slips there so evidently there was a planning ahead that nobody else could speak that was it huh anyway uh I read what you send out City sends out and maybe I should stop but uh this time around two notifications for uh within two minutes for the workshop had to read it had to read both of them there might have been a change I don't know or there wasn't but maybe you uh you know I don't know what to do should I just ignore it when you see two of for the same meeting or not but I I guess I am just taught to read what you send out anyway uh second item is that uh was there talk about starting workshops at 5 30. and uh did is that didn't happen or did it happen and you are not holding workshops at 5 30. there was a request from wall to have it longer in case it was needed okay but that could happen at 5 30. yeah well and it should happen at 5 30. but it's an odd ball when it happens at five so be aware that nothing is static you got to know what's going on okay and last item March 22nd newsletter an increase from 1201 calls on 2020 through 2030 with a calls of 12 30 1230 calls for the fire department is not an increase of 76 percent per the newsletter said it was thank you okay thank you appreciate it information all right I will close the meeting at 6 36. public next up is the city business action items and recommendations but we have on tap is the accept the bids and award contract for the 7th Avenue street and utility Improvement projects city project 22-01 we have Morgan Dolly here city engineer welcome Morgan thank you Brian Mr Mayor members of the council so this item before you is a resolution for consideration by the council to accept bids and award a contract for uh the Seventh Avenue what we're calling the 7th Avenue street and utility improvements project at city project 22-01 you may recall that this was a project that was bid last year during um what was probably some of the more volatile construction pricing conditions that the state of Minnesota and frankly Nationwide have experienced in recent history at that time the project came in overestimate and the council did act to reject bids at that time and then with the plan to rebid the project so what you're considering here tonight is the rebit of that project with some slight scope reduction to again just work within the limits of existing financing and funding available to construct the improvements and really kind of prioritize using the most important things just a background of the project area this is in the vicinity of 7th Avenue and Helen um and on 7th Avenue the roads and utilities between uh First Street on the west side and then just east of Helen which in 2020 the Reconstruction of Seventh Avenue was left off so this will tie in directly to the new pavement on 7th Avenue there and then go west to uh First Street and then also Helen Avenue between 4th Avenue and sepula it's really kind of centered on what was not originally planned for but then became a consecutive consecutive activity the Redevelopment of the Lilly site which is on the corner of 7th Avenue and Helen and the work has been coordinated discussed between the Lilly folks Lilly Redevelopment team and the city and so there is some coordination between the two efforts there which will if the council Awards a contract here will move forward through construction into 2024 ultimately ending up with similar to what happened in 2020 with the Sentinel building Redevelopment and the streets and utilities being reconstructed at the same same time generally everything should be finishing up in 2024 on the same schedule or very close to one another at the very least and working in conjunction with one another the bids were opened on March 15th um I'm sorry I don't have that date on March 15th the bids were authorized uh I love last year by city council and bids were opened um on Tuesday February 21st sorry about that and uh they were competitive we had seven bids they ranged from the apparent low bidder of uh 3.8 million just over 3.8 million dollars with Eureka construction to a high bidder of just below the engineers estimate of 4.5 million at about 4.4 million so that is a good number of bids received a decent spread and so um I'm happy to recommend Award of the project to Eureka Construction in an amount of three million eight hundred and twenty five thousand two hundred and twenty three dollars and 40 cents from a scheduling standpoint if the council does award a contract here tonight construction would anticipated to begin in May date to be determined exactly but will be communicated publicly as soon as we would receive that information from the contractor with their schedule and then continue through until uh June 30th 2024 is the specified anticipated completion date and again as I mentioned previously that would be in coordination with some of the Lilly Redevelopment activities and construction that is going to happen on their site specifically with that again the uh consideration here in front of council is resolution and recommendation is city council consider that resolution which is accepting the bids and awarding a Construction contract for the 7th Avenue utility and Street Improvement project city project number 2201 so with that I'll stand for any questions the council might have nothing I guess yeah no questions okay and then I think there's motion and need for the second then to act on the resolution still moved by councilmember Wong second second by council member Cole did you see it up and back on the books right right and with that good pricing as well too so we're happy all right thank you thank you Morgan reports yeah thank you mayor um so we have the PD they have they're going to be doing some interviews for two part-time csos and a full-time police officer this Friday that'd be nice once they get that up and that would be full staffed once that happens um they're also going to be starting a program of community engagement they are working with Brandon over at Max that they will allow public come in and sit down time with a police officer and uh Brendan said that he would pick up lunch for people that comply with that or work with that so that'll be great um electric departments went out tree trimming um just doing General distribution system maintenance as I mentioned before that tree trimming really pays off in the summertime storms for keeping the outages down um the finance Auditors are here they will be finishing up early next week we're still waiting on some information from Ramsey County to be able to finish it off but uh Dan's been right on the ball with that they've gotten all their information in so they're just waiting on their Ramsey County and everything's looking good so far so and uh they actually did put a contingency offer for a person who applied for the accountant position that you guys have placed us approved last year so yeah looking forward to that and it'll be a nice addition um Public Works you've been doing anything no snow huh yeah yeah lots of snow plowing sounds like we got more on the way so uh I think the Public's about done with snow plowing and shoveling Ron's got a Target on his back um [Music] and the fire department's also going to be bringing back that safe haven program it's been a while since they did that but they get carbon monoxide and smoke detectors that then they will go into the homes and actually install them for them so that's that'll be really nice um any date that they'll receive I haven't have a start date yet uh but I will let you know on that and that is all I have for now all right thank you for the update yeah so next up would be your reports of the council and commissions um which would be the Eda annual report um normally Robert Dew has done it uh the chair of DDA he is out of town so Randy's gonna pick that up thank you Brandi well I just have a black screen now I want to work I don't know why this won't work so I'll just come to the rescue it's a little puppet show it was just fine before it's doing something different this time oh good okay thanks for your patience um yes Robert Dew would normally be providing this update to you so I kind of just took his report and put it into presentation format for the for the public so as you maybe already know the Eda is a sever seven member body and their primary goal of is to establish and maintain um the primary goal of establishing and maintaining the Eda is to have an entity that is dedicated to work in concert with the city council to a to achieve a shared vision of building a strong and adaptive local economy so this is primarily accomplished by setting a strong strategic vision for the economic development is framed in the cop plan defining and guiding a tactical Economic Development agenda attracting retaining and expanding business within the sub within the city and promoting the city to internal external audiences the eda's primary activities include commissioning plans and studies fostering new development projects and business retention and expansion in its activities the Eda has continually attempted to balance the needs or sorry the demands between What the residents of North St Paul want it to be and what the market wants the city to be ultimately the Eda has to provide recommendations and guidance to the city council on what is best for the long-term economic health of the city the Eda has served as a driving force to put many pieces in place for downtown Redevelopment for example this the Eda worked with the St Paul development sorry the Saint Paul Port Authority to solicit developer proposals for the former Little League newspaper building site the Eda ultimately engaged with the developer to redevelop that site which will bring 82 market rate housing units as well as seven live work units that development is anticipated to add 20 million dollars of new taxable real estate value and bring approximately 100 residents to the city the Eda was also instrumental in the highly successful Sentinel residences and anchor view anchor Commons Redevelopment and they also worked with the proprietor of Max Diner and provided funding to help bridge the financial gap that allowed that restaurant to pick up to become reality these developments in total have added or will add a million dollars in taxable Real Estate Value to the city the Eda recognizes the contributions of Staff the Planning Commission the HRA and of course the mayor and city council to what has been achieved in the last decade in 2021 the Eda also initiated an update to the Redevelopment master plan the updated plan serves as a guiding document for the city as a Consolidated and agreed upon vision for the future Redevelopment in the downtown area the Eda is proud of not only the final product but the collaboration and Broad input that went into the plan and believes it provides a definitive Source on what the aligned vision of where we were where we will be going we the Eda encourages the city council Planning Commission and others in the city including residents to use that document frequently when evaluating plan development activity so in summary the Eda looks forward to continuing its mission of building a strong adaptive economy in the city and they the Eda thinks the mayor city council Planning Commission and the North St Paul Business Association for their support and collaboration and most importantly the Eda is grateful for the support and opportunity to serve the residents and businesses of North Saint Paul that is all thank you we'll go on to uh Council Mission reports Jason Norman you have any we had a wonderful presentation by the man to my left um about the open meeting a lot especially what was nice is he really tailored it to how it affects the Planning Commission specifically um so I think you know as a city we have a wonderful asset um and are very lucky with um the gentleman's heading to my left now I know I got moved on here number one yeah so um the arts and culture Commission meeting is actually tomorrow usually it's on the first Wednesday but there was a schedule issue but they are definitely busy at work with different working groups around utility boxes the Project's snowy the art cart and the paint party the paint party is happening March 23rd at Casey lake at 6 30 p.m and there's going to be a guided painting activity to celebrate spring so that's what's happening with the arts and culture Commission and that's all I got thank you Parks and Rec commission decided to recreate in their homes because of the snow so we put Ron to work outside we have canceled the meeting and it'll be rescheduled for the end of this month thank you Brandi first off thank you for presenting the the Eda presentation I mean um I hope everyone especially the the newer folks on here recognize that the Eda has done a lot over the last several years in developing and and moving the city forward in the in the areas of What the residents actually want to have and see for for assets so I want to thank you for that the next DDA meeting is Wednesday March 14th three o'clock here in council chambers uh I want to thank Kevin Fuller and Archie vickerman for their service they were they have stepped down and I don't know their total number of years I will find that out and I'm sure we'll recognize them as well and I'd also like to welcome on board Chris thurson and Joe Matthews as the new members of the Eda General business councilman Norby anything all right let's remember one I just sure there you go uh our residents and just the broader Community I think a lot of felt very experiencing a lot of mental health issues and so in our community to uh I think that's been a big issue too and and something that's been a challenge and so um there's a 988 number now for those um thinking of suicide and so that that number is now 988 before it was really complicated so they changed that to be a little bit more accessible but just wanted to bring that up good information thank you cool uh not a whole lot I attended my introductory class for the Ramsey County Legal local government I'm backfilling some some big shoes left by candy and I'm looking forward to the first meeting on Friday morning okay my mind we had the league of Minnesota cities we went to as some new members here so we had a lot of good information on that so that was a very good very good uh information so it was two days it was Friday and a Saturday so we learned quite a bit and opened opened uh just what we learned from our wonderful lawyer down there Mrs horn so we're able to unders learn more about that and some of the ins and outs so it was it was very good as far as that also we have uh Planning Commission out there Jim has joined us recipe thank you he's on our Planning Commission also I was able to do a ride along with the police department so that was uh that was a good uh Saturday a couple Saturdays ago two Saturdays ago from 6 p.m to midnight it was good to be able to go out with the officer I apologize I'm terrible with last names but Sergeant Ben what's his last name Ross thank you that's why I didn't try it so both of those two so and uh in our police chief Phil hooked us hooked us up with it so we went out and we went on patrol we were um we had a lot of a lot of goods preventative from the police department we saw we were going around looking at different areas that were that were there were some trouble areas just to see the preventative Patrol they do and just understand they know the houses that have had issues they know the area so well and it was a great experience um a shout out to St Mark's St Mark's Lutheran Church over there they have a side door that the police officers can go in anytime they have snacks down there for the police officers so they can stop and have that they have blankets and toys if they have kids if there's any kind of issues they're able to have that so that's a that was amazing to hear from St Marks does that so I was really uh it was a that was a great great to hear about that and just too see the cars understand all the equipment they have in there I mean he has a big roll tray with there's so much Electronics they got to have the cars plugged in when they're parked that's why they're running all the time because if you shut them down you'll never start them again so just understand that with the with the police department was it was a great ride-along and a and a great way to see how well our our police staff does and how much they care and how much they know about the neighborhood I was at places even though I ran for mayor I didn't even know existed that we're North St Paul these little Corners so it was it was a it was very good I also had a chance to go along uh yesterday with public works if you're able to ride in a plow so that was a lot of fun to be able to do that and just to see what our public works department does and the staff and how hard they work and I went over to my uh my son's house a day before the storm in St Paul over on Hatch went down the street and just about lost every filling and every fake body part I have with all the all the bumps in the road and the terrible plowing jobs so it's just a big thank you to Public Works and how they take care of the streets around here and they're they do excellent work so we're blessed to have that so it was a it was a it was a good couple weeks for me to understand more about North St Paul and to get to see what our all of our community does and the services I think we appreciate and hopefully we don't take for granted so with that anything else I will I I just think it's it's it's interesting how we all want to ride in in the plow truck but nobody wants to mow I will mow winter I will mow give her her own section yes yeah public yeah Parks and Rec should have to mow I like that idea anything else they don't they don't I will uh adjourn the meeting if nothing else anybody called move to adjourn so moved council member schweer all those in favor say aye aye good night 36 minutes