all call the me order [Music] alance IED Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible withy andice thank you very much roll call please council member Cole here council member schwe here council member Wong here council member nordby here mayor mongi here I get a motion to adopt the agenda please so move your honor so move council member Norby second second council member Wong all those in favor say I I hi thank you thank you mayor uh we have two presentations tonight the first one up was a recognition and appreciation of outgoing Park and recck member uh Arthur Rd Alvarez Jr but unfortunately he is feeling under the weather this evening so um we're going to put that off um next one up is the Community Development annual report I will turn that over to community development director Brandy how evening everybody even welcome Brandy well a lot of the presentations um related to our department have already occurred so this will be fairly short um as you as you probably realize we are a small but relatively hardworking Department there is three staff including three ministrative assistant Chris Journey Sarah langel officer and myself as the Director and our department is responsible for Community Services Parks and Recreation Economic Development planning and zoning and permitting and Licensing uh customer service for our department includes the monitoring of seven phone lines five email accounts and the walkup customers as well the day-to-day duties of our staff include responding to resident inquiries providing notary services uh completing data requests and providing administrative support for other departments particularly our public works department team um our Parks and Recreation Department works collaboratively collaboratively with Public Works to support our City's parks and athletic fields specifically uh Park rated issues that our staff worked on in 2023 include working with the Park and Recreation Commission and City Council in an update to the park rental policy and the facility rental rates uh similarly we worked with Council on a Ballfield rental policy earlier this year to address rates specifically and created a policy for Southwood Nature Preserve in addition staff submitted an application for a DNR grant for housing Park improvements and that was awarded for $194,000 and finally we started a comprehensive planning effort for the city's Park and open space system our Planning and Zoning division Services include comp plan implementation zoning Administration a development plan review grant writing and adist administration and conducting long-range planning for the city in 2023 our department transitioned from consultant Le planning services to providing Planning and Zoning Administration in house and in 2023 our staff issued 11 zoning permits including site plan reviews for new development projects major projects in 2023 included the Lily Redevelopment North High School expansion and the Taco Bell on mcnight staff has also developed several informational brochures for residents to help them out with simple projects um related to fences driveways and accessory buildings uh the department also works to promote Economic Development interests in the city um in 2023 our staff created a checklist to inform new businesses of the required permits and Licensing and any other requirements may they may need to open a city I'm sorry to open a business in the city and in 2023 we saw 12 new businesses opened um including hangtime board board shop the Blue Nile Restaurant the candy shop and Bower design build and we're also working on updating the economic development portion of our website to improve the ease of access for new businesses and developers um Community Development staff also managed the city's participation in several sustainability focused initiatives which include the Minnesota Green step Cities Minnesota B3 benchmarking uh the Citywide cleanup and shredding event our score Grant and we've also assisted um communicating the new Ramsey County food scraps program and finally our staff are also the support for the city commissions with meeting agendas um agenda prep meeting minutes and special projects and as I mentioned the commission chairs provided their annual reports separately in January so that is a short presentation if you have any questions about our department I'd be happy to happy to take those Brandy um I'd like to say thank you for all you do I get the added pleasure of seeing you're in Chris's work in the Planning Commission with all your support staff and you are just wonderful and I can't thank you enough thank you I appreciate that yeah thank you for all your work you um definitely have a vast um scope of work and um uh yeah you definitely take on a lot of that technical piece too and um I really appreciate your um your um um approach to getting grants and things like that so um thank you for everything thank you I have strong support staff as well I did all that thanks for finding money any more opportunities I will definitely work on applying for those grants thanks for holding us together you're welcome appreciate it thank you you're welcome next up for the consent agenda we have uh January 16th 2024 Workshop minutes uh Item B January 16th 2024 regular meeting minutes item C General claims of 4,625 78339 item D HRA claims of $159536 20th of 2024 item F consideration of an ordinance to amend the 2024 Municipal fee and utility rate schedule item G purchase 96 uh electric meters for the Lily Redevelopment project and the apartments that are there item h leue of Minnesota City's uh Municipal tort liability waiver item I project snowy purchase agreement item J resolution approving appointments to the arts and culture commission item K resolution approving a special event permit history history Cruisers car show of 2024 item L update purchase of the 2024 Mac plow truck item M well sealing program authorization and item n considering approving joint Powers agreement and authorize entering into a partnership with the Minnesota the state of Minnesota BCA violent crime reduction unit anybody have anything like to pull I'd like to pull item l l okay anything besides item L not I'd like to ask for a motion for the rest of them excluding l so moved so move council member Cole second second council member Wong all those in favor say I I I thank you all right open to the public we have John schul welcome um couple of items uh first of all was a situation that I've always come up here in the last uh four or three four or five meetings saying Lexus Nexus and uh was intent on doing the same thing except for the fact that I was informed by uh another Resident that on the website actually where it said it's available it's now been changed to it's not available and that you're working on it so it's only taken you know two months uh or Plus in order to get to this point but you would have thought that in this situation that someone who brought up the problem with this Lexus Nexus would have uh received notification an email or something that said we're working on it because for prior to that I've received zero so um and I had to get information from another Resident to say you realize that they have changed and it was just today an hour before I came here you realize that the website says something about actually dealing with the problem so uh frustrated a little ticked off to say the least um again uh I brought up I gave you mayor a copy of the uh proposed fee schedule that had to do with water and that we were charging uh something like uh $3 a gallon when it was really per thousand gallons I don't know what you did with that thing I gave you probably where filed it immediately but um it has been corrected it's now got the correct information it was taken care of then so it wasn't fil received a thank you for doing that too uhhuh yes anyway have a nice day thanks John thanks John thank you all right one second I lost my spot move on to City business action items um item A and B uh budget amendments for the fiscal year 2023 budgets and 20207 Street reconstruction project MSA reallocations both these will be covered by Mr WI our finance director welcome Dan good evening mayor and council members um these two items are really cleanup items um the first one being um it's a budget adjustment budget amendments for uh the fiscal year 2023 what it's doing is making sure that we have authorized by the city council uh the appropriate amount of expenditures to cover what we've gotten into the the budgets um and the significance um of this all of the expenditures have been approved by city council um this is just kind of writing the ship and in in certain ways because it is something that our Auditors will go through um and make sure that we're in legal compliance um there's um four of them that actually have an impact on fund balance so I'll kind of focus on those um uh the general fund Street Maintenance Solid Waste fiber optics um do not have any additional impact on fund balance from what was approved in the original budget um the uh Insurance Fund does um and that's uh a significant change um it's reducing the impact on the fund balance by $112,000 um and that is due to a significant increase in our workman's compensation um and at the time that we prepared the budget we did not know of this um increase we didn't know till later part of the year um uh and so that's what uh is attributing to that um in the equipment fund um it's uh actually going positive by about $113,000 um and then in the building maintenance um it has an additional negative impact of about $1,000 from what we had approved in the original budget um and then there's the HRA fund um and that one is uh showing that it's going to have about a $425,000 decrease in the fund balance and it's really due to that we haven't sold um the one house that's complete it's on the market um and so as soon as that is sold that all gets cleared up but in from a budgetary standpoint we included estimated Revenue which we're now decreasing um and we've uh you know started uh on the expenditure side we started the next house um that wasn't um into the budget so those are the the the budget amendments that are there um um all of our funds will uh right now were preliminary numbers there's still some journal entries for financial statement purposes that we're still working on uh because our financial statements won't be totally complete until um April um but um got some good news um and so I kind of want to share that good news um because there's um it's actually a very very nice story so of these of these funds obviously the the fiber optics has had a a negative cash balance and we've all all are aware of that one um but all of the other funds even with any of these changes still have a a very um good healthy um fund balance but here's the really good news that I really want to share some of the some of the the pieces and and and first of all I want to start out by thanking city council I want to thank you for your support that you've given me as your Finance director and leading um the city's financial affairs and I want to kind of report uh how we've done in 2023 that I think are pretty remarkable um when I started uh we had a fund balance policy that we had 35% for the general fund um city council um based upon my recommendation we move that to have a minimum of 40% to move up to 50% um we're sitting pretty comfortable that we are going to be at 50% at the end of this year um so in 3 years we have achieved that um there will be an item coming up in March or first uh city council meeting in March um that unfortunately how the contract was written for Building Inspections um that um and we switched to a different company a different vendor um that uh they were done at December 31st um how they were paid were was uh in the contract was written that they would receive any Revenue um that was given um not necessarily that the services were provided and completed um so unfortunately after the as the cross over to a new vendor there are a number a significant number of of uh um permits that are still open um so we have met with our current vendor um and we'll be bringing an item in March that will be written as a tnm not to exceed amount but that amount $145,000 um that'll be coming out of the fund balance but even with that we still should be able to make to be right around that 50% fund balance that's a remarkable um t uh feat that that the city has accomplished and that 50% um that I had recommended is really something that comes from the state Auditors and if you think about the the general fund the general fund's primary revenue is taxes and and our first tax settlement doesn't come in until the end of uh end of June early July um so that's really the reason that we need to be at that 50% on top of it it's just going to help us out when we go out for bonds um it's going to help with our rating keeping it definitely at the ablea and who knows we can keep our fingers crossed and maybe we can get ticked up a little bit and help us with our interest rates on that um because in the upcoming uh year in 2020 uh towards the end of 2024 and 2025 will'll be preparing to go out for our bond uh Bond issuance on um some reconstruction projects but kind of want to tell you how timing of things change uh we should actually see good fund balances and increases in our fund balances Even in our Enterprise funds um a big piece is your leadership um Brian's leadership um it's the department heads that we have cuz I've never seen a collective group that is so conservative that looks at how they're purchasing things and they treat it like it's their own money um and that is the philosophy that I definitely Embrace and love to see um we're we took a big benefit in 2023 not only from savings but from Investments um as interest rates rise there's a goofy thing that uh that we have to report on our financial statements and that's called market value and market value value fluctuates all the time every month as Market rates go up and Market rates go down in 2022 Market rates were going up so any investment that you had on the books as it goes up your market value on that investment goes down it's considered an it it it's really an un um recognized loss and we have to report it it's unrecognized because we don't sell any of our investments ahead of time we take them through maturity um so we never really truly ever have a loss but it shows up in our financial statements last year we had a market value loss City these are numbers are Citywide of $1.1 million this year we have a gain of $580,000 that's a swing from one year to the next of $1.7 million which is going to show our fund balances in a very very positive light in addition that this city the city council approved an additional position in the finance department an accountant and I think we've got one heck of a great accountant in Mary Kay her and I have been able to aggressively this year aggressively invest um last year in 2022 we had interest income of $624,000 I'm proud to report this year we're at $1.2 million for 2023 that's real dollars um that we have brought into the city to help our fund balance um so to me that's fantastic news so we have risen from 2020 in my three years that have been here we've Ren risen our general fund fund balance from a 36% $2.8 million to a 50% and we're a little over 5 million right now again there's still some invoices to be paid that stragglers to come in but I think we've done a very solid job and it's your leadership that is has made that um to be accomplished and I I sincerely thank you for all of that um there is a resolution with this budget amendment and I certainly will open to any questions question just thank you and Mary Kay for your work and um appreciate you you know changing things over in a matter of three years and for the one you mentioned with the with the permits and things like that we of course changed now are we prepared as far as covering you know not going through this again the next time a contract comes up um yes there is a clause in their current contract that will cover it but I I still want to have um our legal um review that before we bring it um to city council because we'll have to do an amendment for that 145,000 we've talked to the the vendor if in case our legal says it's not good enough um they're open for an amendment um to that contract so we would bring all of that on on we're targeting for the first meeting in March um and um Brian has made it perfectly clear clear to us and we're all in agreement we um that we're not coming forward and telling you that um we're going to do an amendment for $145,000 and let this ever happen again um so yes uh we will change P but as long as we're going moving forward that it does not contract we have a clear way out or clear be able to change out correct all right appreciate that anything else all right now we have to do Amendment me approve the resolution approve the resolution so the budget amendment for the fiscal year 2023 budget I have a motion so moved your honor so mov council member Wong second second council member Norby all those in favor say I I hi thank you very much appreciate it you nicely done Dan thank you yes the next item that I have oh you gave too soon oh um part of the 2020 20207 Street reconstruction project was um that there was a borrowing of MSA dollars um we've mentioned it through our budget process um the the Project's totally complete all all um bills have been paid um there was a um allocation of those MSA dollars and um it was about $2.8 million that went to the street portion and about $750,000 went to the storm portion um to it um that allocation could have been split up differently but it it did get city council approval so to change that allocation requires city council approval and that's what this item is about the Project's done um we have uh 100 approximately $132,000 that is still left in the surface water portion of the MSA dollars we have spent all of the allocation that was for the streets plus more um so what we'd like to do is to transfer um the money um and so we can clean up that um that account account um and make it whole um and so that's really it's just a more again a cleanup item um and what it does is that this is sitting in a separate investment account all by itself that can't allocate its interest to anything else so this helps you know move it into the allocated portion of our interest and so then all of our funds will share in and in in any interest income that um happens in the future okay that's good can look for a vote on that resolution can I get a motion for the 20207 street reconstruction project MSA re reallocation so moved so moved council member Cole second second council member Wong all in favor say I I I thank you very much thank you thank you Dan thanks Dan thanks again Dan next item is item C uh Rams County 2024 mcnight Road overlay project thanks Morgan and he has to start first yeah start with it turn over to you Morgan thank you Brian Mr Mayor members of the council um this next item before you here is um presentation of a project being contemplated by Ramsey County Public Works on mcnight road which is a County Road between 11th Avenue uh up to North to city limits with Maplewood at Beam Avenue and then their project does extend into Maplewood uh North to County Road D um they have been contemplating uh Lane configuration change uh through this area as a part of their improvements which uh is basically just an overlay of the pavement um but that's the time to kind of consider maybe different configurations for traffic and different things that the roadway might be used for um they are uh coming here to present uh the project a couple different Alternatives and really the council action here for consideration uh is by resolution parking restrictions which even though it's a County Road uh by ordinance and by Authority the city does have the ability to set uh no parking restrictions or parking allowances up and down the roadway and so sometimes with these types of situations on a county project County officials will uh come to city councils and request um action on that uh that may be necessary for them to move forward with uh one alternative or the other so the county uh has conducted uh public openhouse meeting for an invited residents up and down the project area both from Maplewood and North St Paul for kind of public comment public opinion there's uh copies of that information in your packet along with some um Graphics which I'm sharing one version here and uh I'm about to turn it over to the county as well here and let them talk through the project but as an ultimate and action item here there are uh resolutions no parking resolutions and there's two different versions and I'll let the county kind of explain those as well too but uh at the end of the presentation questions there will be a resolution uh either one or the other for the council to act on uh depending on how you'd like to move forward with the Alternatives so with that I'm going to introduce Alan Maxwell so he's uh engineer with Ramsey County Public Works alen's the project manager for this uh project after e and uh he'll provide a brief overview of the project be available for any questions and I'm going to try to drive the graphics here so hopefully that's showing up on your uh TV and and for those uh at home as well too so I'll hand it over to alen hey thanks Morgan and thank you Council for having the county here to give a little introduction of our project uh certainly let me know if you can hear me or if you can't hear me at home uh through the mic but yes Ramsey count county is looking to move forward with our 2024 Mill and overlay Improvement project uh mcnight Road from 11th Avenue to Beam Avenue is uh the portion located in North St Paul and one part of our overall program that we're looking to take care of this year so this section of mcnight road we are looking to take off the top three inches of pavement and then repave those three inches in order to address all of the cracking and deteriorating Road pavement that uh we see out there today um also included in this work are the storm catch basins some of which alongside mcnight road which are um worn and show signs of failure so there will be some work happening on the shoulders as they address the castings of the storm sewer and then a milling and Paving operation um part of this part of this project since we are removing the pavement putting it back we have the opportunity to restripe and back in 2020 Ramsey County undertook a uh 4 to three lane conversion study of Roads within uh the county which look at taking roads like this that are currently you know two lanes in either direction so four lane without a dividing median and looking at converting those to three lanes um the yeah U mot recognizes that a undivided four-lane Road section is the most UN safe intersection configuration in the state of Minnesota uh due to the amount of conflict points from having both lanes instead of only having to worry about one car in either direction um we're looking to move forward with the safety Improvement as part of this project and so by striping it as three lanes this is going to provide a seven to eight foot wide shoulder on both sides of mcnight and so the question before the council is what you would like what your preference would be for what goes into that shoulder following our project um the Ramsey County acting living team has identified a need for bike Lanes within the segment of mcnight Road uh which would extend over the I69 or I 694 bridge to the North in Maplewood uh connecting parks and um access to the church and the schools all the way down through the corridor to 13th Avenue and so um we would be looking at an alternative in which we have designated bike Lanes all the way throughout the maple and North St Paul section through the through that Corridor alternatively during our community engagement process we receive mixed feedback to the bike lanes and the loss of the existing parking along Mohawk Road to Beam Avenue and having conducted a parking survey and evaluated the design uh county is open to an alternative uh section in which we uh leave an 8ot shoulder on either side of the road and do not specify that as a bike lane um this option would allow us to maintain the existing no parking signs but we would be looking for a resolution from the council to uh include no parking signs where there is currently no parking today uh in an effort to align with our all abilities and multimodal policy within the county um so mention the right turn yes uh thank you for that Morgan um one point to mention at 17th Street in mcnight is that there's currently a right turn only lane as uh for us for one section of the road the right lane drops off and becomes a right turn lane and then you have a one lane for a for a time it goes back to being a two lane we're looking to clean all that up with one segment throughout and so we did create we did obtain traffic counts at 17th in mcnight to evaluate the loss of that right turn lane and what it would mean for traffic and while losing the right turn lane does affect the you know right turning traffic the um installation of the designated left turn lane is moving the left Turners out of the through Lane so that they are able to make to wait to take their turns um and not impede traffic so um taken as a whole our County engineer has our County Traffic engineer has evaluated this um this impact and has determined that the intersection is still going to be functional without the use of the designated right turn lane so our we would propose continuing the section through 17th as the three Lane section that um Morgan is showing you and maybe if if you want to go back and I can talk through sections as a whole here Morgan um when we're talking about the intersection of 11th and mcnight we're not proposing any changes there we show that that's going to be part of our Mill and and overlay to update the pavement section but the three 12 Lane sections on the top of your screen and the two on the bottom of your screen uh that is similar to what is there today and then from 11th Street through to 13th Street we are transitioning down to our on Lane section so that by 13th Avenue you are um in our three Lane section in Earnest and then this is what we would propose keeping the um 8T shoulders are shown in the example on the screen and are highlighted in red to indicate where those would go so we would be looking at resolution from no parking from 13th to Mohawk yeah thanks for Manning the screen so yeah here you see the intersection with 17th and MC Knight and uh what we propose for putting back the striped crosswalks are in the same locations as exist today um save one throughout the project limits that's being moved from 16th to 15th I believe um from a three lane or from a T intersection to a four-way intersection and then once we get north of Mohawk this is the section of road where parking currently exists today and so we would simply not install no parking signs there um if that would be the county the city's preference and then that would continue all the way up to Beam Avenue and the limits of North St Paul yep looking at the bike lane version it's the same configuration from 11th to 13th we're looking to keep the intersection the same and then slowly transition out until you get to 13th Street the areas of no parking would remain the same up until Mohawk and then we would just carry that forward uh the notable the notable change here is that um we would provide a s foot bike lane as is typical instead of the 8 foot shoulder and those extra two feet are being put into the center turn lane themselves changing it from a 10- foot center turn lane to a 12 foot and notably from the condition that exists today the travel lanes are being narrowed down to 11 feet instead of uh a variable 12T to 11 ft or 12et to 13 ft and we've seen um we've seen reduction in speeds at the county from adopting an 11t section this is typical of what we would install on our projects in recent history and notably as this continues into the Maplewood section Maplewood would be looking at a similar um no parking and bike lane installation option for their Road segment yes we did conduct a parking study for this section of existing parking and found that um we average between two to five vehicles throughout the project limits Maplewood included that um utilized parking and seeing as that is underutilized in the condition that it's in today um that is helping us with our alternative to adopt a multi-use shoulder in this in this alternative um because we're still allowing the access that we're looking for for the most part save a car every now and again I I think at that point if you if the council had any additional questions I Sher would be happy to answer them or any clarifications needed between the options otherwise I believe Morgan has presented the um the resolutions that we would be looking for one or the other either um adopting an 8ot shoulder or the 7ot bike lane to take up that space that the three lane uh conversion is going to provide I have a question thank you for your presentation um I'm wondering what um type of bike lane is being proposed I know it's 7 ft but there are also different uh ways in doing that um whether it's painted green um to give more visibility so it's safer stuff like that yeah that's a good question um we found that um striping a white or white shoulder stripe at seven feet with um white bike symbols throughout is the section that we would be proposing as you get wider than that um there there is the Temptation for drivers to treat it as a driving lane and so when you get larger than seven fets that's when we would begin looking at options like uh painting a bike buffer um but for this case that's um that isn't um isn't what we would pursue the narrowest that we get in this road section is 48 ft and so that's uh two 11t lanes for 22 the center lane for 12 taking us to 34 and then two 7 foot bike lanes for 48 and so since since that's restricting us at the narrowest point that's what we would like to um propagate throughout the limit when you get further north on the intersection and into Maplewood we do widen out to over 50 ft in a section and then we are looking at those bike buffer Alternatives thank you any other questions anyone sorry say that oh was just up are we ready for discussion okay see if there's any more questions um I don't think I have any more questions for um the County engineer thank you for your presentation um I'm a proponent I I I like the bike Lanes I think it's feels a lot safer um biking on mcnight I think that um it's an opport opportunity for us um to provide that safe route um and we know that at the end of mcnight um there's also access to the Gateway Trail on the other end too so I think it would just be helpful to have something that is clear um and clearly marked um as we know people Speed on mcnight I guess while I have you here I do have one more question if you don't mind um th this project the ultimate end goal is Southshore or how far are you going Southshore for now we're looking to we're looking to impact between 11th to between 11th and beam we recognize that Highway 36 exists where it exists and that there's um more desire for two lanes in that section and so we're not looking to carry it further any South at this time about north towards White Bear Lake after you cross over mcnight North on after you cross over 694 I meant on mcnight all the way up north of 694 the road Narrows again and what exists there today are uh one lane in either Direction with shoulders on the side and so when you get to the bridge on I on 694 itself there is a similar to 17th a lane that drops off as a designated right turn lane to go to um access to access to business over on that side and so by striping it all the way north of 694 then we would naturally transition from the um from the bike Lanes to the existing shoulder section that people are utilizing are they're going to change on the other side by the golf course on the other side of 694 they're going to make no parking and make a bike lane all the way to Whitebear lake or is it just going to stay parking the way it is now um that's outside of the scope of this project okay I was just wondering if this is if there's a game plan to get all the way to White Bear Lake from from here on mcnight so that was my question if they were going to do bik Lane continuous I can share that our our active living Council has shared that there is the identified need at 694 which is what led it to be included in this project they may have other identified needs that go further north certainly the possibility for connecting is you know agreeable to all parties involved but um I couldn't speak to that at this okay thank you anybody else have any opinions you said you look I my only concern is going from Oh I thought it was on my apologies maybe I turn myself off um the section between 11th and 17th is still heavily traveled it's four lanes it's two lanes each Direction um in recognizing that Northbound at 1th the right lane dead ends into a rightand turn You' reference that You' done some some studies um that's a big backup intersection going north um how is this going to solve or resolve the backup that comes all the way down to at least 15th if not further down the hill during um during high traffic time so that is an excellent question and that's certainly something that uh Ramsey County had looked into back in 2020 when we did our um our evaluation of possible road segments and within the county that would qualify for a 4 to three lane conversion like this the ideal amount of traffic that we're looking at for one of these conversions is in a daily traffic load of between 8,500 and 24,000 and at the time of the study which was pre you know covid traffic numbers um mcnight was sitting about 12,000 it's right in the range that we're looking for for this and so we recognize that by by saying we're looking to go from four lanes to three lanes three is less than four and so that has the perception that we're losing something but if you think about the use of the road when and somebody is looking to turn left then they're waiting for two lanes of traffic to create an opening for them to turn left and if you're stuck behind that person then you're looking to get over into the other lane and may make sudden mergers to try and get around where the block is and that follows all the way further further down the line and similarly um at least up in the Maplewood section there are bus stops but you also get mail delivery and people picking up and dropping off at houses where on the right lane that can equally slow down and look for people to go across the um the way that the three Lane section handles that is that by having a designated Center left turn lane if you're looking to slow down to turn you're getting out of the way so that the traffic can remain moving forward and for the shoulder that this is going to create eight or seven feet um is a wide enough section that your car can pull off into it if there's an emergency or if you're looking to drop somebody off or if you're looking to deliver mail and keep the center lane moving forward so recognizing that there are uh um stop signs along the corridor um it's within the bounds of what we've studied to show that it there's an acceptable level of traffic for uh projects such as this I just see a lot of traffic turn left prior to the intersection to avoid the intersection um so I just I I have concerns going to you know Nar taking it from four lanes down to three 2 plus one we recognize that up to that point well certainly thank you for sharing that with us um it it's something that we hear on a lot of our 4 to three lane conversion projects and um that's why we do take the level of effort that we do to evaluate each road because every Road in the county like every Road in the city is different but uh this did come away with one of the more positive results of that study as being appropriate for a project such as this I know when I take that home I'm always the right lane because I'm turning right towards Silver Lake and you know it's it's very quick and the other lane is is over there when you do your study does it just the number of intersection does it count how many people are going which direction left and right or is it just count cars by you know bumps going over how does it how does it do your study as far as that intersection uh mot does drive all of the roads and gather the average amount of daily traffic on the roads and that's available on their website and so that's one measure for when you're looking preliminarily at something like this and scoping out how it's going to work but then for intersections like 17th and mcnight we did um go out and put up cameras to um record during peak hours how many cars are actually going through so they looked how many turn left how many right then that's my question was it how is it more people going towards the west or the East when they're turning so offand I don't know that I could say but I know that that those traffic counts have been provided to Morgan they may be part of the council packet um and of course that left lane for return is going to be a you know everybody's going to be in that lane so the Middle Lane people going straight AR going to have to wait for the left turns like they are right now right that's you got wait to turn right now mhm now I'm stuck now you're stuck all right we got to talk about this again all right thank you yes thank you I'm waiting to see if there anybody has any more comments before because I don't want to interrupt anybody but I don't want to slow the show either we good so now what do we we got two things in front of us yeah so Mr Mayor there's uh two resolutions in your packet so the first one um would be for the multi-use shoulder option uh which retains parking on street parking between Mohawk and 17th and so that first resolution uh in terms of the now aore be it resolved prohibits Park working of Motor Vehicles on mcnight road on both sides of the road between 13th and Mohawk only the second resolution would be in support of the full bike lane option all the way through and that prohibits parking of Motor Vehicles along mcnight Road on both sides between 13th all the way to the city limits at Beam Avenue so those are the two options in order so now we vote on both that's what I'm saying we vote on the one the other one goes so it' be a motion in second to to vote on one or the other I'm going to so do I ask for a motion on the first one first or how does that I never had a t two of them like this in a row so I'm trying to figure it out yeah you don't have to vote on both you don't have to vot how do we get it get it cooking to figure out which one we're going to do so a motion and second to vote on one or the other and then you can take that vote okay um could also be further discussion if there's a consensus reached among Council on which one you would prefer you could then bring that one forwards and vote on that we can just do a consensus right now I can save for consensus for the first one that has parking on there you know what discussion among Council to try and reach a consensus on which option is preferred and then vote on that resolution that make more sense have more discussion clear's a mud okay so for the first one which has the the way the parking now is not the bike lane the full bike lane but parking in the middle does anybody that's the what I want I don't want to discourage the group home and I believe taking away the parking from the group home would be detrimental to it so I'm in favor of the first one the the multiuse that still allows some parking okay it's Where My head goes as well the mix mixed use Lane it doesn't sound like there's a lot of cars that are parked there but there are one or two spots where the parking is needed yeah I think my concern there is kind of um in the like the feedback um when they're referring to the group home it said that Vans were coming in and just dropping off and coming and leaving so I don't know if that's you know um many cars or is it more like they come and go kind of situation um but that's how I interpreted it when I read it my preference is the multi to be able to use them both Cassidy that's the majority right there very you go what's your thought I like the idea of a bike path but I would also be a really irritated homeowner if I didn't have bar kit so um if I lived down that street I want to make sure I have the parking I think that's why asked if it was a um if there are single family homes because um most of them or if not all of them will have driveways so to me it's like well the bike lane is for the public benefit whereas this parking only benefits a few uh residents from time to time and at and not always so that's kind of the trade-off that I see all right should we go vote on the the first one then for the first motion which is the multiuse can I get uh somebody to bring that motion Tim so moved so move council member Cole looking to my I'm looking down to my left and nobody's leaning in second second council member Norby all those in favor say I I I nay nay okay curious thank you Mr Mayor members of the council thank you yes thank you for having me appreciate it thank you for coming do we have to officially vote on the other one okay he said he we were good thank you appreciate the patience and we learned something new again today all right next item up item D is the update uh purchase of the 2024 Mac plow truck um thank you I I pulled um this item for one simple reason um uh I'm absolutely in for voting in favor but I view this as a possible opportunity to for the city to um help our plow truck drivers stay safe out there um they do a very very hard job a very difficult job um a lot of the other cities um when they're purchasing new trucks or adopting like name a plow truck or or um some way where they can engage their community in some um uh proactive safety measures and I just thought the purchase of a new truck might be a good way for North St Paul to kick off some safety measures around plowing as well um okay so that was why I pulled it not not because I don't want to purchase truck just I see this as an opportunity for the city to um Implement some safety and and learning measures um for our residents okay you want to come name your truck come [Music] on and I'll just say from the open house um you know for the Commissioners and we were able to go through um and see all the buildings and um or all the vehicles and um really have a good conversation um with Randy and and um what's your name Ron and so um I think that was a really educational opportunity and I learned a lot and um I think that was very valuable very nice so we just have to move a motion so would it be appropriate okay and help me out if I propose to add a friendly Amendment to the city to explore ideas to promote safety around this new purchase and then move to approve it with that friendly amendment is that the right way to do that um I think the the exploring Public Safety options I think can just be done as direction to staff if there's Council consensus I don't think that needs to be included in um any formal action right now and then that would be brought back um at a future council meeting or work session thank you so so moved with no friendly Amendment all right do I have a second second with no friendly Amendment well there we go council member Cole all those in favor say I I I thank you I want a seat in that truck we got to get snow speaking of naming things I had a resident walk by our place and she asked if there's a there's a name for the Snowman Kenny huh what the name of the snowman is Kenny really yes all right well I hope they're watching I told them I try to find out I had no idea it was a name for the Snowman so where did that come from where that you your dad I went was involved in quite a bit with that so you know where is that the guy's name who made it designed it no it is not where did it you're just gonna keep it to yourself I challenge that by calling Sue springborn yeah phone a friend okay well thank you sorry to interrupt but I didn't want to forget that I told her I said I don't know but I'll ask Kenny it is that's right for tonight for tonight yeah exactly has sorry all right could have name of snowman too all right next up uh reports from city manager and departments um met today with staff uh Fire's been having training done um for code enforcement along with other things um they've turned in their letter of intent for replacing the engine for the firr so they're get in that process moving forward Public Works have been working on um the EAB uh trees with the grant that they got it's a $400,000 Grant $100,000 of that will be available to low income for the public for them to get access to it they're putting together an application process for that right now so that will be released soon with the nice weather they've been uh able to get some more trees taken care of early this year which is good um they usually try to do what about 125 of them a year and um now they'll be able to do more but uh now with getting a contractor in here and helping out with that process that'll work well uh they've been doing maintenance um on well five I think they've completed that or pull all out right now gotcha you bump in my hand till it happens all right okay good uh Electric's also been doing some lighting work in some of the wells um also the Public Works building um had some we won't even get into the VOR truck uh uh car's getting ready to uh start planning the city garage sales we getting the signs ready to order for that coming up uh May 2nd through the 4th um Finance was having the Auditors back uh Monday through Wednesday and then they'll be back for the final time for the first week in March to finish up the audit uh asked PD about the Lexus Nexus program the records Management program um they found that there were software issues of communication communication between our system and um Ramsey County they also found a neighboring community that was having some issues so we got it involved and they're working on that communication to get that up and running um like he said that the they have their two new officers on staff now so they are at full staff um March 7th will be coming up they'll be having swearing in ceremony as well as their annual Awards so that'll be nice very nice um Community Development we're still working on the onboarding of Rum River that's going well um getting the RFP packed together for the park design concept um Electric's been uh just got some people back from Transformer school down and Marshall uh like I said they're working on lighting upgrades in the buildings uh working on job planning and prep for the 2024 season Once the warmer weather starts and that's all I have for now okay thank you very much reports for Council commissions and committees mby the Planning Commission uh meeting in February was cancelled due to no action items the next Planning Commission meeting will be on March 7th thank you very much council member Wong yeah I just want to acknowledge that we were able to identify two um uh new Commissioners and thank you for voting them in on the consent agenda um we also had a third um so we're hoping that they'll be able to join us in a student capacity um but we're really excited I think um our candidates or our our new Commissioners have a lot to offer so and a lot of connections to um artists so looking forward to that yeah um and their next meeting is uh tomorrow here at 6:30 thank you I appreciate being able to be a part of the the group and be able to do that Council memb s uh Parks and Rec was cancelled the in January due to both of our chair and vice chair out the next meeting will be in here on the 28th at 6:30 thank you very much council member Cole uh the last DDA meeting was cancelled due to uh lack of a quorum and we will not be having a meeting this month okay thank you all right General business um I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the 120 um redevelop M um section on a week ago today um there was two new plans and a bunch of intersection changes put out I've had um several residents reach out to me and I am trying to work with WSB to find out if they are online um and to those residents that have reached out I will contact you as soon as I know more um and also I invite everyone to come I believe see everyone on Tuesday the 27th at the Historical Society yeah yes good reminder thank you um yeah just want to say that the firemen appre firefighter appreciation dinner um went really well and um just a big thank you to them and all the work that they do um helping out our city and responding to um all sorts of situations including dogs in water [Laughter] that's all I have thank you I too had the pleasure of attending that event uh it was a very nice recognition other than that um I'll see you all on the 27th at the Historical yeah great reminder uh welcome back you were duly missed oh thank you um thank you for entrusting me with your shoes um and the car keys I didn't crack crash the car oh good wonder why the coordinated car was running around town council member Wong did a phenomenal job last year so thank you for trusting me with the keys this year thank you uh lot it was a busy three weeks a lot of City activities um February 22nd or sorry 23rd and 24th was the open house um several of us were present for for both of which um I think Council M Wong has a new position in the electric department now being able to exchange whatever the heck those things are up on the long toop polls insulators what are they called nice what is it fuses fuses fuses fuses insulators it's yeah 12021 so uh just big shout out to to everyone for the time energy and effort put forth um to to put something together for for Council and the commissions the Committees to be able to come in and uh in tour Public Works uh as well as come in here and the police garage and look for Contraband hidden in cars and and other things as well so um phenomenal night uh just wish that U um Mr winck was passing out real $100,000 bills not $100,000 bars but appreciate that um January 26 was the uh fire department appreciation dinner also had the opportunity to attend that thank you for all um I am February 2nd uh I attended the Minnesota mayor's event um and I just want to thank you thank uh thank you for the opportunity to attend that for that information along um it was great to meet all the other Mayors from from around the community and talk about common themes common problems common projects um so it was it was exciting I tried to deputize a posi while you were gone I tried to put a proclamation out while you were gone I got shot down by everybody I know I thought there'd be a Tim Cole day when I showed up but no no there wasn't that's every day that's every day ah at least I know now you can't leave anymore this year oh thank you all right I appreciate it thank you so much for taking over and filling in I appreciate your your hard work on that and you could tell by looking at me a Norwegian with a little color so I was gone for a little while now I look like the extra crispy colonel from Colonel Sanders so but it was enjoyable it was an enjoyable trip and I thank everybody that uh pitched in and I really felt sad that I missed the missed the fun open houses and uh so I thank everybody thank you very much can I get a motion to close please so moved so move council member Norby second second council member Wong all those in favor say I I thank you all have a great night appreciate