Uh welcome to the Mount City Council meeting for Tuesday, March 25th. Uh we are in council chambers and uh please stand for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. Um, let's see. We have our agenda. Do we have any amendments? We have an amendment. The two commissioners ended up with a scheduling conflict and we're going to reschedule for probably the second meeting in April. So, the presentation that was going to kick off the regular agenda can be removed. Perfect. Okay. For April 22 for that. Okay. Um, I would take a motion to approve the agenda. Second. Actually, we're we're looking for a motion here. Yep. We need a motion to approve the agenda. I make a motion to approve the uh consent agenda. Um not the consent agenda, just the whole meeting. Oh, sorry. I'm here to do the consent agenda and then consent. Uh approve the agenda with any amendments. I make a motion. Second. All right. Um any [Music] discussion? Hearing none. That will carry. Um, next. What? We got a vote on a vote. Oh, all those in favor? I I. All those opposed. All right. Now I can say it carries. On to the next. Um, we have our consent agenda. Does anybody want to discuss or pull any of these items before we uh read them all off? All right. Hearing none of those. Um, would someone please read the consent agenda? I'd be happy to do that. Thank you. I make a motion to pass. Weren't you uh I think we're going to read it first. First, we're going to read all the items, but nobody wanted to discuss or pull any Oh, okay. So, A, approve payment of claims. B, approve minutes March 11th, 2025. C, approval of THC offsale retail license. D. Pay request number four in the amount of [Music] 10,749 to concrete construction for the downtown PA sidewalk replacement project group two. E. Approve resolution approving permits for 2025 music in the park, the summer concert series at Surfside Park Beach, and waving fees due to public purpose of gathering. F. approved resolution approving permits for the 72nd annual Mount Fish Fry and Dance on Saturday, June 7th, 2025. And we will be also waving fees due to public per purpose of gathering. All right. Um I don't think we need a separate motion to approve the consent agenda. We just need a roll call. No, we need a motion. You make need to make a motion with a second and then it's a roll call. Okay. All right. Um, can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda items A through F? I make a motion to approve the consent agenda items A through F. Can I get a second? Second. All right. Um, any discussion further there? Uh, hearing none. That will carry. And can we do a roll call vote for the consent agenda, please? Yes. Council member Heric, I. Council member Mcanini, I. Council member Pew, I. Acting Mayor Castellano I. All right. Good. Yeah. No opposed. All right. Um then we will go right to number five. Questions and comments um from anyone present for items that are not on the agenda. We can probably hear a police report at this point, too. Okay. Um so I'll move past number five then. It looks like we've got no one here. So um yeah, let's move to the police report. Uh not a whole lot to report um from the last two weeks. Um everything is still as as it goes around mount. Everybody's kind of doing their thing. Uh just hasn't woken up from the winter time yet. uh to this week with uh spring break in the area. We did have a few things uh nothing serious. We had some trespassing in some uh vacant building that we're working on identifying the individuals now. We believe they're juveniles because no schools out schools out right now and they're moving around, but our investigators are working on that to identify and correct the problem. Um partially it's because the building wasn't as secure as it should have been. So that's the issue and hopefully we got things in place to correct it. So is that a private residence or a commercial building? A commercial building, a vacant commercial building that hasn't been in for a while. So it's been noticed here just recently. Uh other things, uh the weight restrictions seem to be pretty lowkey. Uh we had one in or we just got one in ornal. so far is all we've got recorded as a overweight. Uh but the guys are out, everybody that day shifts especially, they're all certified scales, so they're out checking and watching as much as they can for them. Uh other than that brings us to just uh last week or PD, we did our first uh trimester inservice training. Uh two days long, Tuesday and Thursday. Uh they were long days for instructors and for officers. Uh we got through it. No injuries. Everybody seemed to have uh enjoyed it and got refreshed on their skills and now we're moving on into April. We'll be moving into our firearms training sessions throughout the summer and uh fall months. So training season's kicking off and we're going to be busy with a lot of that. So, and then uh just uh Deputy Chief Whiti want to remind everybody on 4:16 at 7:30 cop coffee with cops caribou. So, we will be there with that. So, on that that's all I have for this session. On the 16th, 7:30 to what time? Uh I'm not he didn't he just said 7:30 it was starting. So, I'm sure it goes until whenever but he kind of fizzles out. So, cool. When do the weight restrictions come off? Um, I believe that's determined by the engineer, city engineer, state. State engineer. Okay. So, we don't get to say it. Just when they say they're done, they're done. We pull them. Thank you. How's Onyx doing? I think he's doing okay. Uh, I haven't heard from him since last week, so I'm assuming no news is good news. So, but sounds like they're real busy. Um, just learning the dog. So, it's uh hopefully uh the week after Memorial Day weekend, he should be in in service running around. So, I'll try to make a point to get him down here at one point here so you guys can see them. So, sweet. But anything else? Perfect. Not from Not from me. Anybody else? Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Oh, did you have any questions on the speed trailer? I forgot about that. Sorry. Speed. We did put up a speed trailer. We did get some data. Nothing overly. It's I can give you this leave this with you to look at. Um we re we repositioned them. One came down closer to like the Pine Pine Street there or uh Pine Lane um a little bit further back. These things have incredible range. So they're picking up a lot a lot of data. So we weren't we weren't aware of that until we drove them ourselves and saw how far out they were picking us up. So, but if there's any I should have some more data in about a week or so. He'll pull it again and then I'll make sure he's sends it to you and it's in your guys's uh hands to look at and any questions I can answer them. Cool. Thank you. Thanks. One thing about that report that was pretty interesting was the load of traffic that's running down West Edge. I mean, it's we thought it had increased, but it's definitely pretty high number. Not the speed like the counts. uh the the actual number of vehicles that came down the road and that's just it's only read well it is reading both directions actually but I think the report that he's got only reads it when you're coming towards Bartlett so that would be south um cut cut through it is and it's very very heavily traveled and so wide street yeah we've got a beautiful street we for a very lovely piece of pavement right there um all All right, I guess I'll move on to number seven, award lift station bid. Mr. Acting mayor, members of the council, Brian Simmons, uh, senior city engineer. I don't want to get between you and your seme agenda this evening, so we we will go quickly. Excellent work. What you what you have in front of you is is the result of our continuing lift station uh rehabilitation and replacement program. Um, obviously the one that we have for this year, uh, we got 1, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight bids, I believe. Yeah. And that is a pretty good spread. We don't usually get that many. Did I miscount? Mhm. It's nine. Numbers are numbers are hard. Seven. Yeah, that's right. I'm going to do some engineering after this. Actually, we'll have Matt do it. Uh, we got seven bits. Anyway, the thing I want you to focus on is not my miscount, but uh the fact that we have Woodmer Construction in here who has done a number of lift stations for us before. They're also the low bidder on the uh chopping at the bit to get started water main project. Uh and so they're already going to be in town. That enables them to sharpen their pencil a little bit. And you can see they came in a little bit at 504 thous,000. Uh and that is quite a bit below the engineers estimate. One thing I want to remind you all is that in these lift stations, that number there is not the total construction because we procure some other city equipment outside of that. So, we spend about another $130,000. And when I say we, I mean me and Jesse and Ryan. Uh Ryan orders the pumps and some of the other things ahead of time. So, the city procures some of those things outside of the construction contract. Uh but that's still a pretty good number. Yeah. And that was noted in there, too. It was like an extra 130,000. Yep. Yep. That's that's the the average cost. I don't know that we have the final on that because um Ryan may still be getting the final procurement on that, but it should be close. Uh and so this is the breakdown of the bids. Uh we find Whitmer to be a responsible and responsive bidder, and so we recommend award of this project to them. I believe that's on page 812. There is an accompanying resolution. Uh but before I jump you straight ahead to that, I will stand for any questions. Any discussion on number seven? All right. I didn't have any any questions or anything. Um I guess I would be looking for a motion for a resolution on page 812. I make a resolution except make a motion. I make a motion for a for a resolution accepting bid for the 2025 list station improvements project PW2503. Okay, we have our motion. Just looking for a second. Second. Um okay. All those in favor I I I those opposed. Motion carries. Um we can move on to agenda item number eight. accept plans and authorized bid for CSAH sidewalks. Mr. Acting mayor, members of the council, Brian Simmons, consulting city engineer. Again, uh this action is the continuation of the sidewalk projects. Uh and we have had a lot of discussion at this podium about um you know, continuing and doing some cost share with Henipin County because of the location of these sidewalks along uh County Road 15. Um I want to draw your attention to Jesse, would you go to the second page? There's a breakdown. Yeah. Um, now that we've finished with the design and refreshed all of the estimates, uh, we are asking for permission to, uh, finish plans and specs advertise for bid. Uh, I shouldn't say we finished with the design. We're working on the design and they've updated the cost estimates to show the portions that Henipin County has committed to. Uh, and I believe the initial cost splits for them were uh, 500 and 220 for their various portions. And as you can see, we're anticipating to come in below that. So we won't have any issues with Henipin County cost participation or the at least we're projecting right now that the project won't exceed their committed participation. And then you can see we've also got the city total there of 784,256. And just for what it's worth, we do always end up using the fixed soft costs, the actuals when it's all said and done. Right now that's just plugged in as a percentage. Are the these are concrete, correct? Yes. Okay. Thank you. And a lot of it is some of it is I shouldn't say a lot. Some of it is stamped and stained as well. Fancy. Well, we're replacing a lot of those those dilapidated pavers. Yeah. Uh and and uh I don't know if you recall, I know you sat through some of those meetings, but we you know, we had the palette up here of all the colors and we selected what we wanted it to look like and we chose what we were going to replace all of that and we've been slowly picking away at it. And while we're doing that, you know, we look a little bit like a patchwork quilt because we have some of those pavers that still need to go, but we're getting closer with each and every project. Consistent with the stamping. It'll all be okay. Yes. Thank you. Yep. No, we did. We We've not We've not come back and asked for other opinions because they're not welcome, but we're sticking with those colors. I mean, I say that jokingly. If you told me to do something else, we'd for sure do it. But as for right now, we have a palette that will look very nice when we done. Make them consistent. Yeah, I like consistency, too. Can you kind of like reiterate the timeline for both ha I call it halves again the halves of the project? Yeah, for lack of a better word. I don't know that Matt put that in this schedule and that's a little been a little bit of a Mr. Bowman. I mean the numbers like I I remember seeing that early like earlier earlier but like just a timeline a refresher for us and then anyone listening too. But in terms of when we're planning to bid it. Sorry. In terms of when we're planning to bid or when we're planning to construct it. Construct. Construct. Um, I know we've had a lot of conversation about how this interfaces with uh things that are happening downtown during the summer and lake traffic and all of that. I don't know that I have the information you're looking for right off the top of my head, but I can make sure we get it to you and we can make sure that it stands as part of the record. Cool. I apologize for that. And there is, if you if you're curious, there is a link in that if you scroll back up just a little bit, Jesse, there is a link right there to the plans. Okay. And then the cost breakdown. And accompanying that, we have another resolution. If there are no other questions, any other discussion on agenda item number eight? So this resolution is specifically receiving plans and specs ordering advertisement for bids. Okay. So no further discussion on number eight. Um I would entertain a motion for the res resolution on page 816. Um I can do that. Uh, I make a motion to approve the resolution receiving plans and specs and ordering advertisement for bids for the county road 15 sidewalk projects Belmont to Fairview and Fairview to Seatin project number 258 and project 259. Okay, we have a motion. Can we get a second? Second. All those in favor? I I. All those opposed. All right. Motion carries. Mr. Acting mayor, while I have the the mic, if I may, you asked a question a little bit ago about road restrictions. Oh, yeah. With the generally, they're only on for 4 weeks. Okay. But with the way the temperatures have been, it's possible that the state will end up opting to extend them. There is a statutory limit. I can't remember if it's 6 weeks or 8 weeks that they will automatically expire at the end of that. And with the how early they went on and the weirdness and the weather, it's possible that they will statutoily expire. Cool. But as for right now, they're still on. Thanks. Uh and and if we get any calls, you know, about things this time of year, like, oh, you know, there's a pothole, Ryan's guys will go and fill it. Uh but stuff like gaps and pavement pulling away from curb or concrete, we don't look at that until road restrictions are off. And I don't hang my hat on the road restrictions, but the reason for the road restrictions is as the frost and the heave from the freeze thaw leaves the pavement, don't forget that asphalt is flexible. So, it's moving. And so then in a couple of weeks, while you know, maybe the end of your driveway or something might look ugly now, it will change a little bit before we're done. And then that's when we will assess those types of complaints if we have cracks and things that need to be filled. So this time of year, we usually do get a couple that are, "Oh my gosh, this looks terrible." And then a couple weeks later, we'll go out and look at be like, "Oh, it's fine. I know what you're talking about, you know, but we we do track those. Cool. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, we approve number eight's done. It's approved. Um agenda item number nine, council reports. Um we'll just go down the list here. Council member Pew. Um G, I'm trying to think what did I do this week. Um oh, okay. We did have parks meeting last month and we had a pretty lengthy one. Went through a lot of of um issues. Had a discussion about what the council had discussed about um the play area for um Surfside versus uh the advanced park, but seemed everyone seemed to agree that they felt it was working well where it was. We um we looked at and um actually Tyler tested it out in Victoria. They have what they call a parks passport and families use it. It gives it people incentive to go and try out the different parks and to rank them. Cool. So Tyler, because he's a new member and hasn't done inspections, he took his son and toured all the parks and they ranked what they wanted. And we think it might be a tool that we could publicize in the future. Maybe, you know, and at farmers market, you know, the park commission for the last two years has been going one Saturday being there with the map showing where all the parks are and soliciting people to adopt the park. And it might be an opportunity for us to try handing out this passport as a way to promote people looking beyond their own neighborhood park to go and visit. Um and the um along with that I had something else around the parks. Um gosh going blank. Um oh we're looking forward to meeting with the council in April. um to talk about the parks and what we've done. Um and they had a lengthy discussion around um determining the impacts of parks, especially um what can we do with those parks where they're pretty much vacant lots. You know, could we do um natural play things on those sites? one of our sites um on the island. It looks like the neighborhood has turned it into a bike trail. You know, it's on Tuxedo. It's at Long Park there. Um and in the wooded area, there's a nice wood area. They've kind of got a dirt back trail and Swinson. Not Swinson. It's before if if you're coming off of Enchanted onto and turning on to tuxedo. Um it would be on the right hand side almost across from where that um condominium project is that Oh yeah. What is it? Something lakes or villages of island park? No. Pelican. Oh yeah. Uh well it's it's Yeah, it's probably just past villages on the lake too. Okay. Um so sometimes um our residents have taken creative license. They're using the park, right? Yeah. And you know, in the Sorbo Park, there's a there's a structure up in the woods there that the kids have built. You probably are familiar with it. Um I It's kind of like Huggleberry Finn, a little shack up in the woods there that the kids have done over the years. So, we're um looking at um ways to improve our parks, prioritize. Um we're going to be meeting with the um public works um folks to talk about sort of the scheduling out and the wayfinding signs because we still are charged with doing wayfinding signs um for the city and so we're looking at that. Um and I think that's I oh SR we did get um for new members we belong to the SR which is a utilities ratings commission and it's 30 cities and we each put in money and we hire an attorney and an engineer who help us battle cases against utility companies. And right now we have a case against utilities for the fees that they want to charge for our outdoor lighting. Um, which is sort of ironic if I get the story straight. couple of years ago they encouraged everyone to go to LED lighting and we did and it saved us money but it didn't make them enough money and so they want to you know up the rates and so we've been battling over that for the last couple years but anyway they sent their renewal of our membership and that and I don't I don't think we have to vote on it do we Jesse it's just automatic yeah I think that we pay it it's two payments a year it's $900 $ and each city pays based on its population. Um, I think that's it. I There's something I know I'm supposed to tell you, but I can't remember what it is. It'll come to me today. Oh, the capital. Oh, yeah. Today at the Capitol. Um I was at a senior um caucus day and Senator Mitchell in the Senate did raise the issue that she has a bill that would allow municipalities to not have to pay sales tax on items they purchased for construction. So like for our construction of our water facility, we would be waved of all sales tax on all. It's it's it's a big savings, but it's not it's it's not going to make it go right now, but it is something that will have significant impact for us. Every little bit helps, but they've got to pass the bill, of course, and it's it's on the Senate side right now. Um and so we'll kind of follow that. I think that's it. Okay. Um Council Member Mcame. Well, I've got some events to talk about. Um, the West Tank Tankabot Robotics team are advancing to the World Championships in Houston um, April 16th. They spoke, you know, they spoke last year with us and we're bringing them back when they get back from Houston. But they are just such a delightful group. They're just so awesome. They spoke at the WCC meeting last week. Um, and I just wanted to mention that they are solely funded from donations and fundraising efforts. The school gives them nothing. So there it they do have quite a few costs. So if anybody is interested in donating, especially before they go to Houston, they can go to tonkabots.com and you there's a little spot for donations and we wish them luck in uh April at the World Championships. And then another reminder that um Paul Falls um is retiring and his party is Wednesday, March 26th. He's been with Minatrista for 31 years. Um 2:30 to 4:30 on Wednesday, March 26th. The West Hanka baseball night kickoff at Back Channel Brewing is Tuesday, April 1st, 5:30 to 8:30. There'll be a silent auction, raffle, food trucks. It'll be fun. Kickoff spring. And then the Gillespie Center is hosting a paint and sip party. And that is um April 9th, Wednesday at 6 PM. It includes supplies and a glass of wine for $40. So that'll be kind of a fun event. And that's all I've got. You think that'll be like a recurring thing or is it just like the first one? Well, I think they're it sounds like they're trying throwing a lot of mud at the wall to see what'll stick and hopefully this will end up being something that people enjoy. Gillespie for the first time in years is actually operating in the black. Yeah. Good. And Rhonda, she has really a lot um little fundraisers and here and there. They're serving breakfast on Thursday mornings now and as well as the lunch on Wednesday. So every Thursday. Good to see. It is good to see Rhonda, you know, is really taking such an initiative and it really needed a new spark. So, she is kind of a godsend over there and they did a leader. They did. You're right. She's done a good job. Okay. Anything else? That's it. All right. Council member Heric. Um, nothing really new to report. I did meet with Jesse last week about the economic development committee and it was really just our initial meeting to discuss some thoughts and what we could and couldn't do and we kind of went over that. Um, one thing I did center in on is our image for bound. I think that's a really important thing for the council to be aware of and make sure that we're addressing any issues that could help improve that. Um, laughingly I was saying about the consistency on the sidewalks. I mean that makes us look nicer when you drive into the community and it's safety and everything else. So, those are all things um I did a little research um looking into like Henipin County and the state and that stuff. There's all kinds of economic development committees out there. Um and some of that we can actually leverage and reiterate. Um I'm hoping that we can actually do a separate page on our new website to kind of promote that we're open for business and things that we have available to our constituents and or um people that want to come into the area. um to make that a little bit easy and you know how are we going to introduce them to our city, how it works, what we need, you know, what we're looking for, that sort of thing. So, it's kind of, you know, we're still in the just kind of coming up with a game plan at this point. So, cool. Thank you. Awesome. Um, anything else? Yeah, I remember my other thing. Oh, yes. Trees. Um, this is more for staff. Metro Council, I think, is having a grant program. And we applied for this a couple years ago, and we actually got a grant to help us remove ash trees that had the ash board. And I think you can actually buy new trees, too, which we need for our event park. So, um, there's a webinar, I think, next week on, you know, what they're looking for in the grants and everything, but I'd like to see that staff would follow through and look at that as a grant opportunity to fill in some of our needs. I know the money that in the past was used, I think we took some trees off of one of the common sites where there were some dead trees or dying trees. And so it gives us a chance to manage our forest. I'm sorry. Excuse me. All right. Well, I saw Jesse writing that down, but the trees for the vent part are going to be needed for sure. I don't know what kind is the best kind, but um anything else? So, who does I mean the boulevard trees like you just mentioned when they die? Who's responsible for fixing? Is that a public parks? Is that the parks? Who owns those? Oh, like if it's on a county road or something. Well, like let's just say right here in downtown. Yeah, like county road one because that is part of our image, right? Yeah. I don't know. I always see public works seems to be doing it all. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. It depends on whose rideway it is generally. Okay. Did we plant all those trees or like the trees that are in the middle and then there's the ones like I'm looking like in my brain. I'm just looking at the post office. There's like the bullet like the boulevard on both sides and then there's also the middle. I guess the ones in the middle like I don't know. You know that we put Christmas lights on or that are dead and somebody ran over them. Engineer, do you know? Yeah, I'll come up with Henipin County has gone back and forth on this a little bit. They would prefer to see us maintain those trees even though the ones the ones in the median I believe most of those were if they've survived were planted when that road was reconstructed. So, for the most part, um, it does fall to us. Okay. So, that that also means we get a little bit of leeway on what we want to put there. I was going to say, yeah, it's not bad. We can choose what kind of trees we don't want. Yeah. And and when it comes to things in the in the boulevard or in medians, uh, we will have to have a discussion about sight lines and safety, right? However, we want the community to be beautiful. So, that's we support it. That's why I'm just bringing it up because that is part of our image. You drive into town and what do you see? a bunch of dead trees. That's probably not a good image. True. It's well worth a couple hundred dollar to plant for sure. All right. Anything else? Um I don't have anything myself, so I guess I'd move on to um number 10. Anything from uh you guys? No. Uh, I just probably seen the signs that flushing of the hydrants will start in about a week. So, was the first of the 25th, I think. Yep. There was some work today being done on the water tower that preempts the the flushing. So, if you noticed anything today, that was because uh um that's just mandatory annual maintenance. um which also was noticed and everything. So, and I know that's been a a big priority of Ryan's to overcommunicate, but we'll still feel the calls like normal and encourage you to send anybody that contacts the council to staff and we can, you know, work through it. But trying to get it out there. Cool. So, on that topic, I contacted Dustin this morning because on Granger Lane, they were up there doing something and it looked like in the sewer line, but it turned out it's Frontier adding new fiber optics. Do you know how long that's going to take? He said they were in the I just texted. So, he was saying they're going to be in the area doing that. Is that like a three-month thing, a six-month thing, or I mean, I'm just thinking maybe we want to communicate that in the newsletter. We're going to have them in because they've been out there twice in the same spot and that's why I contacted him. Right. What's going on? I do not know how long they're going to be here, but we can we can at least try to get an estimate. I mean, they might not know either, but just trying to help you feel those questions. Get ahead of it. Well, they Yeah, I know. And it's always a It's hard. I get it. Right. And uh you know, they have subcontractors that have different schedules and things, too. But hopefully they're in a hurry because I know upgrading internet is usually um well received. Uh, so yeah, we'll see what we can figure out. It's a lot of Yeah, it's a lot of noise at at, you know, eight o'clock in the morning. So, and now that you work at home, it's I hear this and I'm like, what is going on? So, anyway, yeah, first time was one thing, the second time, what are you doing? Well, speaking of trees, one of the concerns I've had, and I've raised this before, um, is last spring we had a storm and there were fires on our wires from trees that were rubbing against the electrical wires. And I don't know how do we um, how do we make sure that Excel is addressing that, you know, to get those tree limbs cleared away from the wires. The reason I think I I think we're going to be in a drought this spring and if we have a storm and it lights up, we're a forested city. We could be in LA very easily. And not that I'd want that on us, but you know, but if Excel could um if we could put some pressure on them to make sure that they're cleaning up the trees that are um entangled with our wires, it would be Yeah, I think for the most part they have prescribed maintenance that they do every year, but we pass along concerns and complaints that I seem to recall them eventually showing up last year and doing some work. But they did a lot on Wage, I think, and up in Bartlett, but yeah, I'm guessing it just takes an ask, you know, like maybe twice. Yeah, I'm happy to do it. All right. Um, anything else at all? Okay. I've been given minimal chances to mess this up. So, with that, I'll take a motion to adjurnn. I make a motion to adjurnn. And a second. Second. All right. All those in favor? I I I Those opposed. All right. We're adjourned. This is not a plate.