This is a transcript of a White Bear Lake City Council meeting. Based on the context provided, I have identified the speakers as **Mayor Dan Lis**, **Fire Chief Peterson**, **Assistant Fire Chief Brian Eickelberg**, **Finance Director Kerri Kins**, **Brad Faltheis** (Auditor from ABDO), **Public Works Director Paul Kauppi**, **City Manager Lindy Crawford**, and Council Members **Edberg**, **Walsh**, **West**, and **Hughes**. *** [3:50] **Mayor Dan Lis**: All right, we're going to call the meeting to order. Will the clerk please note those in attendance? All will be noted. Will you please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [4:20] **Mayor Dan Lis**: [Music] All right, we'll jump right into the agenda here. Item 2A, minutes of the regular city council meeting for May 13, 2025. I'd entertain a motion to approve those minutes. Have a motion to second. All those in favor say I. **Council (In Unison)**: I. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Any opposed? The motion carries. Minutes are approved. Item 2B, minutes of the city council work session on May 20th, 2025. I'd entertain a motion to approve those minutes. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Motion a second. All those in favor say I. **Council (In Unison)**: I. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Any opposed? **Council Member**: I should abstain. wasn't there. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Okay. One abstension. Motion carries. The minutes are approved. Item three, adoption of the agenda. Are there any changes, corrections, amendments to the agenda? Seeing none, I'd entertain a motion to adopt the agenda. **Council Member**: So move. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Motion to second. All those in favor say I. **Council (In Unison)**: I. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Any opposed? Motion carries. We have an agenda. Item four, consent agenda. Entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Motion a second. All those in favor say I. **Council (In Unison)**: I. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Any opposed? Motion carries. The consent agenda is approved. All right, on to fun stuff. Item 5A, swearing in of assistant fire chief. So, Chief Peterson, take it away. [5:41] **Chief Peterson**: Thank you, Mayor Lis, members of council. We're going to swear on Brian Eickelberg, who's our new assistant chief of training and operations tonight. He was here at one previous council meeting, but that was day two and we didn't really want to throw him into it that quickly. So, that's where he started. I'm going to briefly talk about a little bit of his experience just so the council is aware of it. So, um, Chief Eikleberg is got a bachelor's degree in in nursing. Uh, he has a master's degree in emergency services administration and leadership. He's been in the field, fire, and MS fields for 19 years now. [5:57] **Chief Peterson**: Uh, he he came to us from Lake Johanna Fire Department, uh, where he served full-time as a captain there. He's worked at and still works at Lifelink 3, um, previously as a flight nurse. He's also an ECMO specialist which is—I can't pronounce the full word. It's very difficult. Uh but what it is is a heart lung transport program or bypass program rather. Uh which is done in the field. Um so it's very very intense work that he does. Uh he was also worked at the University of Minnesota as a nurse emergency department. North Memorial is a nurse in the trauma ICU departments and emergency department. North Memorial air care and also critical care. He was a tactical paramedic and he also served active duty in United States Army as a as a um flight combat medic in the 82nd Airborne. He did two tours uh in Afghanistan. So he has a ton of experience. Uh he and I have known each other uh casually uh for a number of years and we're just really excited to have here. He's uh over the last seven weeks is adapted himself well into our program and really done a lot of great things. So we're happy to have him here. Uh, and we're going to go ahead with the ceremony at this time. [7:16] **Chief Peterson**: [Applause] Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, state your name. **Brian Eickelberg**: I, Brian Eickelberg. **Chief Peterson**: Do solemnly swear... **Brian Eickelberg**: Do solemnly swear... **Chief Peterson**: That I will support... **Brian Eickelberg**: That I will support... **Chief Peterson**: The Constitution of the United States... **Brian Eickelberg**: The Constitution of the United States... **Chief Peterson**: And the state of Minnesota... **Brian Eickelberg**: And the state of Minnesota... **Chief Peterson**: And will discharge... **Brian Eickelberg**: And will discharge... **Chief Peterson**: And faithfully execute... **Brian Eickelberg**: And faithfully execute... **Chief Peterson**: The duties devolving upon me... **Brian Eickelberg**: The duties devolving upon me... **Chief Peterson**: As a member of the fire department... **Brian Eickelberg**: As a member of the fire department... **Chief Peterson**: For the city of White Bear Lake... **Brian Eickelberg**: For the city of White Bear Lake... **Chief Peterson**: Without fear or favor... **Brian Eickelberg**: Without fear or favor... **Chief Peterson**: To the best of my judgment and ability. **Brian Eickelberg**: To the best of my judgment and ability. **Chief Peterson**: Congratulations. **Brian Eickelberg**: Thank you. [8:10] **Chief Peterson**: Now, we're going to have his wife Courtney uh and his sons Carson and Owen come up and place his badge. It was embarrassing. So, they're not going to enjoy mom. [Applause] **Brian Eickelberg**: Mayor, members of council, thank you very much for the opportunity to serve the city of White Bear Lake. I'm excited for the opportunity and looking forward to doing great things. Thank you. [9:11] **Chief Peterson**: Cupcakes. Nice. You all enjoy your meeting. I'll watch it later. Thank you all for coming out to support the swearing in. Appreciate it. Enjoy the cupcakes. [9:37] **Mayor Dan Lis**: All right. Item 5B, 2024, financial audit. Miss Kins. [9:48] **Kerri Kins**: Mr. Mayor, members of the council, today we have Brad Faltheis with ABDO here to review our 2024 financial statements with you. Thank you. [10:08] **Brad Faltheis**: Thank you, honorable mayor. Members of the council should be bringing the it's on the screen. Perfect. I think you probably have in your packet as well. So, um, so again, uh, yeah, I am in here again to present the audit of the 2024 financial statements. So, um, feel free to interrupt me or ask any questions throughout. We can certainly, um, try to get through those as we go through the report as well. Otherwise, or you can wait till the end. It doesn't matter. [10:24] **Brad Faltheis**: So, what we'll go through is, uh, just give you a little bit of a heads up. Audit results. We'll start with that first. Uh, our opinion uh, on the uh, report. Then we'll go through general fund results, other governmental fund results, enterprise funds, and then we'll at the end we'll have some statistical information where we compare your city to other cities of similar size within the county and without throughout the state of Minnesota. So the first slide uh is our auditor's opinion and mig on the re uh our report on Minnesota compliance related to the auditor's opinion. We do design our tests. This is what you're paying for when you have the audit is to get this opinion on your financial statement. So, we'll design our test and look at higher risk areas, high dollar areas within the audit to make sure things are recorded properly. Make sure that things are recorded that um the state of Minnesota says they sent to you, the county says they sent to you. All those types of things, those large dollar um revenue streams are being recorded properly in your system. And then we'll look at your expenditures as well. Look at your capital outlay, those are higher dollar amounts. Um payroll, those are um also high. And some of your debt service expenditures. So look at a lot of those different areas. U make sure they're quoted properly and reported um reported correctly in the financial statements. Um we are issuing an unmodified or a clean opinion on your financial statements. So it's what you're looking for when you have an audit performed. The the state auditor's office requires us to uh issue a Minnesota compliance report as well. So they require us to go through a series of checklists and make sure you're following different state statutes that they want us to test as part of your as your financial statement audit. So, we'll go through those uh checklist testing things like how you're depositing, investing your money, um how you're issuing debt, um entering into contracts and bidding and those types of things and take a look at those statutes and if there's anything in there that we feel that you didn't follow or or those types of things, we'll issue a finding and we are not reporting any u findings related to any of those either. So, clean up clean opinions on both um those reports. Any questions on those? [12:40] **Brad Faltheis**: Then we'll get into the results of the general fund. So this chart looks at your general fund fund balance compared to your following year's budget. You do have a policy to keep this at a minimum of 35 to 50%. So um within that range or above. You can see the that black shaded area is the 35 to 50%. Your fund balance finished at 50.8 which is that reddish colored line. And then the yellow line at the top is the budget. So that's what your your percentages are based on. So you're staying right at the kind of the upper end of that range that you established as a council a number of years back. So stand steady there. So what's that's really what you're looking for there. [13:26] **Brad Faltheis**: Next slide. Your general fund budget to actual. So we have your original budget, your final budget where your actual numbers came in and then uh that variance from budget. So you can see your revenues were about $670,000 above what you'd budgeted um and your expenditures were about a million dollars uh less than what you'd budgeted. The majority of that the revenues came in it was um you did if you remember you combined the ambulance fund within the general fund for that this was the first year in 2024. So some of those re the ambulance revenue came in about $230,000 above what you'd budgeted. Kind of a a hard one to budget. Um, but then your interest revenue came in above budget as well. So that's really what made up a lot of that over revenue than what you uh budgeted for. Your expenditures, a lot of that million dollars was related to almost half of that million dollars related to personnel services and just un unfilled positions throughout the year. So in um primarily the police and ambulance departments. Then we had uh transfers in, transfers out, ending increase the fund balance of $900,000. So you can see with that increase, you were able to stay within that 50% 35 to 50% range. So it's what you're looking for. [14:39] **Brad Faltheis**: Again, next slide, we have next two slides, we have general fund revenues and expenditures. Um just over the last three years within the general fund. So comparing how how the revenues in uh have been trending, you can see your taxes have trended up each year with those steady with those increases. Charges for services had a jump this year. Um again bringing the ambulance fund and those charges for services into the general fund. That's really what caused that jump. And then your state a state and federal aid stayed pretty consistent with prior years. And then your other includes transfers and those types of things. So pretty consistent there other than the tax ad increase and your charges. [15:19] **Brad Faltheis**: Your expenditures on the next slide here we have uh general government stay has stayed pretty consistent the last three years. Public safety again with bringing this uh ambulance fund into this year. We had that jump with CH or with ambulance expenditures and public safety. Public works and parks and wreck stayed pretty much the same. Had some additional transfers out. That's what's in that other fund this year. transfers to the equipment acquisition and municipal building fund this year to had that some little bit of a spike there in the other category. So that's really all with the general fund. [15:52] **Brad Faltheis**: We go into special revenue funds next. So these funds are funds where you either either have a committed or restricted revenue source. Um so we have these six funds here. Um really what you're looking for in special revenue fund, are you collecting enough revenues to support your expenditures? We had an increase in our in your s surface water pollution prevention um fund this year by about $250,000. That's just projects came in less than what you were budgeting. So that increased that fund balance. Um then with the housing fund, that last fund had $154,000 increase. That was a newly established fund this year with some housing housing money that came from the state that's restricted for specific purposes. I believe you're going to be getting that each year if I'm not mistaken. Um then this just shows where your fund balances are. So committed, restricted, assigned is where you have the majority of that restricted increase this year because of that housing fund. [16:34] **Brad Faltheis**: We get our capital project funds. These are the funds you have set aside for capital projects within the same thing. This could be buildings, this could be street projects, those types of things you set money aside for. Big decrease this year in the municipal building fund. you um you can see in 2022 and 2023 had significant fund balances in there that related to the bond proceeds for the public safety facility. Um spending that down had um decreased that fund balance just over three and a half just under $3 half million dollars this past year. So that project's done. So um what you do with that municipal building fund I'm sure you have um plans for that going forward. Then your payment management fund increased fund balance about a million2 there. Again um interest revenue you had uh good interest earnings this year. So that um had significant interest in that fund as long as well as some other your other project came in under what you had budgeted. [17:28] **Brad Faltheis**: So that's all those funds capital projects and then this is the same thing with where your fund balances are restricted committed assigned that red that reduction in restricted from 23 to 24 that those monies were restricted that was the bond monies restricted for the public safety building that were spent down debt service funds. This was a little harder to read. A lot of um we have few debt service funds here. So total cash, total assets, and remaining bonds outstanding. So total bonds outstanding $37 million um just over $37 million. And then the maturity dates there. So what we're looking for here is do you have enough cash and assets to support these bond or these debt service requirements? And um right now your c all your cash balances are positive. your assets are a little bit higher than your um your um cash just because you have taxes receivable, assessments receivable, those types of things in these funds. And then your debt service requirements for the next 10 years. So right around uh $3 million in debt service requirements. I know you going to be issuing another bond this year, so that will affect this. This doesn't include any of the the new bonding for that was done in 2025 or that will be done in 2025. [19:00] **Brad Faltheis**: Your water fund. So, this is just a cash basis looking at your operating receipts, operating dispersements and if you have any debt service requirements in these enterprise funds. We have that in the the black shaded. So, what we're looking for here is are your operating receipts meeting being able to cover both your uh dispersements and your your debt service requirements. You can see in the water fund each of the years presented um it has met that which then you can see on your cash balances on the next page um have stayed have increased slightly each year. um as a result of that. Um and then you can see that black line, that's a minimum um reserve that um we would recommend as auditors and uh finance would recommend having in there 50% of your operating expenses plus debt service for the next calendar year. So um 1.2 million is where that that minimum would be and you're right around that $2 million mark. So above that, so anything above that really would be available for capital or those types of things. [19:45] **Brad Faltheis**: Sewer fund uh similar results you don't have any haven't had any debt in this fund for the last four years um but your receipts have been um be able to support your dispersements and you can see on the next slide then your um your target line has hasn't really changed but you have been increasing your cash balance each year in this fund refuse fund again each of the years um this is really designed as a break even fund you try to charge out what you collect or um or you you pay out what you collect. Um so and you can see there's really no debt in this there's no capital in this fund. So have that 20 have a 25% operating cost there rather than the 50%. You're not you're not you're not needing that extra funding to uh support your capital in this fund. [20:31] **Brad Faltheis**: License bureau. Um, this one other than 2022, your receipts have been have met your dispersements and see your cash is quite a bit less in this fund. You're under 100,000 in 2022. You've um been able to improve that the last two years, but still under that minimum of we got 25% on here too. Pioneer Manor um here you do have some debt um but has fallen off quite a bit in 2024. Um and then so you can see that in 2024 you can see your cash balance has increased because of that but and and above that minimum target internal service funds uh these these are funds you just charge out to have a central location to charge out u expens expenditures for the entire city. So here you're charging out um different things to other departments that they're paying into this these funds to pay out those central costs. So, this is really designed as almost a break even as well. You can see each of the years um have been pretty close to break even, have steadily increased your cash to $6.7 million. [21:18] **Brad Faltheis**: In here, this chart shows cash investment balances for the last three years. Um you can see the last bar in 2024. We missed the or the capital projects chunk of this didn't get in the bar here, but you can see the numbers have stayed pretty consistent. 51 million in 2022 is your total cash. This is all cash within the city. Uh 53 million almost 54 in 23 and then u 54.2 in 2024. Um you can see what's shown there in 2024. Those bars haven't really changed as far as the colors and size of them from 2023. adding that capital in there, it's about the same size as well. So, no big changes in any one of these categories for cash balances. [22:21] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Why isn't the capital in there? I don't understand. **Brad Faltheis**: There's a formula issue in the in the chart. A formula issue in the chart. Oh, yeah. It was a total mistake. It should be in there. Yeah. But it would just bring it up and right above that 53. I noticed that today. [22:45] **Brad Faltheis**: Um uh so then here's where we start comparing your city to other cities uh AC in the county across the state. Um and then we have a a population of 20 to 30,000 population too. So that the population that you are class three city um is like 20,000 to 80,000. So we try to get a population in there that was more closely resembled you um because you otherwise you'd be way at the bottom of that that class. So anyway, tax rates um you can see that of your peer groups of these three other peer groups here, you can see you're on the lower end at 27% where your peers are at 43, 33, and 45%. So tax rates have stayed consistently low, somewhat trending up as you issue debt and those types of things, but still fairly low. We don't have um data for 2023 yet. state hasn't sent that out even as of today. Um so I think last year they sent it out sometime in May but we don't have the information yet. So that's why we have the two years um without any information there. [23:30] **Brad Faltheis**: Uh taxes per capita again have steadily increased this slightly each year but again quite a bit lower than your peer groups in this category. Long-term debt have issued some bonds over the last few years. You can see how that your line has gone up um actually even above the peers here and as far as all your outstanding debt per capita. Um I try to relate this to um not seeing any of these other rates go up quite as far. So you'll be able to you've been able to pay your debt other sources other than just raising your your taxes. [24:17] **Brad Faltheis**: Expenditures uh per capita with your debt. again seen that other chart we spending about $3 million on per cap or total for the city on all your debt. Um this is just per capita basis. So in 2022 you incre you're above your peer groups there. Um and we don't have the peers for 23 or 24 but fairly consistent though with what your peers were at in 21. Uh the last couple charts here this one is the current expenditure. So, this takes out any capital expenditures, takes out any debt service requirements, those types of things. And um at your governmental funds, so not looking at enterprise funds either, just look at your day-to-day operating type expenditures um and compares it to your peers. So, again, your the last 23 and 24, you're approaching where the peers were at in 2022. Um given inflation, they're likely going to have inflation, too. You're likely going to be under your peers in these last two years as well. But as far as day-to-day comparisons, 2020 through 2022, you've been significantly less. So, but you have since 2020 steadily increase and that's lot lots to do with your inflation. [25:48] **Brad Faltheis**: Last one, capital expenditures per capita. This is going to fluctuate. Um, I'm not sure I really even like it in here, but you do like to see what you're comparing for capital compared to your peers, I think, sometimes. So um 2023 you had majority of that your public safety building by adding that in there. Even 2024 your public safety facility was a lot of that. So um and then 21 and 22 is where your peers have been spending where they were at with spending as far as capital type expenditures per capita. So that's that's everything. Now I'll take your questions unless you didn't have any. [26:27] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Um, council, any questions? Council member Walsh. [26:42] **Council Member Bill Walsh**: Well, thank you. I don't know if it's it's for you or not, Mr. Faltheis, but where's the community reinvestment fund? I always get that name wrong. The the $6 million or so we drew down that we're holding steady. Now, that doesn't appear on this audit. And if maybe I missed it or or if it's not in here, why wouldn't it be in here? [27:02] **Kerri Kins**: Mr. Mayor, members of the council, that would be in the capital projects fund. Right there. Right in the middle. So went down about $400,000 this year. Finished at six and a half million. **Council Member Bill Walsh**: Okay. All right. Good. I just didn't see it. Thank you. [27:21] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Any other questions? Council member Edberg. **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Faltheis. Um so we had what struck me as being an unusual unusually positive balance um in fiscal year 24. We had uh greater than uh budgeted revenues and substantially lower um than budgeted expenditures. The the total range was at least to my recollection larger than most other uh prior years. Was there any surprises in in this year's combinations or anything that would say, you know, something has shifted and you may want to change how you budget or how you um how you estimate uh revenues and expenses going forward or is this part of kind of a normal chop and churn and we just happen to get lucky on interest rates and blah blah blah? [28:07] **Brad Faltheis**: How how do you—well interest rates I have seen interest in many cities—most cities—they did much better than prior years so that definitely is a contributing factor and that's very tough to um budget and forecast. So that's one thing. Another thing that happened this this specific year that was unusual is you combine the ambulance fund in within the general fund. So, that's another variable that um and you really don't know what you're going to get for ambulance calls and those types of things. You can kind of base it on, but some years you get more and this year you had more than you expected, I guess, and collected about $230,000 more than what you were expecting. Outside of that, you were under 4% of your—within 4% of your budget. So, it's not that far off. The dollars look big, but as far as your overall budget, it's under 4%. For the revenue piece, so expenditures, you were within 6% of your budget. Still not crazy. I mean, the number looks big, a million dollars under budget. But again, expecting to fill different positions within the city and not filling them. I think you got to budget—if you have a position there, you're expecting to fill it. So, you got to budget it. So, and if you don't fill it, I don't know if that's lucky because I think you'd want to have those positions filled. So, um it's just the circumstance you're in. [29:41] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: And then my read on all of our individual enterprise funds, the special funds and so forth. Uh over the past three to four years, in most of those cases, we have had a rate adjustment that has increased revenues. Um, the ending balances are all positive and stable and I'm not I didn't find anything that caused me concern. Are are we healthy in all of our enterprise budgets and and balances? **Brad Faltheis**: Yep. Yep. Your all your enterprise enterprise funds, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, had positive increases uh this past year. So, and that's not always the case. Um, I do I would say you're healthy in all of them. There's one that—trying to remember—I thought there was one that was somewhat lower than what the recommended balance would be. Yeah, license bureau was just under. But going in the right direction steadily going up, you able to transfer money out of that fund. And if it wasn't—if it was in bad shape—you just wouldn't transfer that money out, I guess. So, you're able to transfer out enough to keep it stable. Okay. So, that'd be the only one. **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: Thank you. [31:01] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Uh, thank you. If we could talk about the debt for a second. I think you had that the debt worksheet with the different notes. This one. Yeah. So, it's hard for me to read, but just—and maybe it's not a question for you so much, but since we're talking about it here, obviously, we just did the the big public safety building, so you know, that's what's the um going forward. I mean, we're we're our debt has gone way up. I mean, you saw some of the slides, you know, vis-à-vis cities. I think if you look back in time, we've been really low and so we've made a conscious effort to borrow some money for obviously the buildings uh but also a fire truck also streets now which we've never did for a long time. So what—I can't—can you tell the age or the maturity of some of these things? Is that the last column there like when they're going to start? [31:34] **Brad Faltheis**: So what what is the sort of prognostication on some of these dropping off if we don't add any new? Does it does it come back down? Yeah, the first one and the actually the first one listed there drops off in 28. The next one is 33 uh after that late 2030s. Okay. So, a couple will drop off 36 and up. Yeah. Couple of them will drop off in the next eight years. [31:58] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Okay. Thank you. Yep. Any other questions? All right. Very good. Thank you for the report. **Brad Faltheis**: Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it. [32:19] **Mayor Dan Lis**: All right. Council, we've got a resolution before us accepting the 2024 annual comprehensive financial report. I would entertain a motion to approve the resolution. **Council Member**: So moved. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Motion to second. Any further discussion on this? Council member Edberg. [32:39] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: I would only note that our staff does a fine job of preparing our statements, monitoring our budget, uh managing our expenditures, monitoring our budget, and these are fine results. And I just want to express my appreciation to staff and members. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Well said. Second. All right. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. **Council (In Unison)**: I. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Any opposed? Motion carries. Resolution is passed. Thank you again. [33:19] **Mayor Dan Lis**: All right. Item six, public hearing. Nothing scheduled. Item seven, unfinished business. 7A, downtown parking lot project order, project approval plans and specifications and authorized advertisement for bids. Mr. Kauppi. [33:19] **Paul Kauppi**: Uh thank you, mayor, members of the council. I'm going to go through a brief presentation here and we can answer any questions. But going to run through each of the uh start by going through each of the uh project areas of the uh four parking lots that we are proposed. Um this information is in the council packet. So kind of go through each one, kind of highlight the uh notable things that we are doing on each one and then show you the uh the layout that we've come up with in the plan. [34:05] **Paul Kauppi**: The uh parking lot number one um as proposed is at the third street and Banning Avenue, the marketfest lot is a—is affectionately called. Um the general uh layout is maintained. Um slightly revising the ADA parking to meet current requirements, getting it uh more evenly distributed throughout the parking lot uh closer to those um entrances and and uh to serve all of the businesses. Uh we will do—it's uh quite old, the curb is failing, so we will do a complete curb replacement, full pavement replacement. Um and then the last two we're going to be talking a little bit more in detail at towards the end of my presentation, but uh we'll be replacing the sidewalk between the curb and buildings. Uh basically that is, you know, full pavement uh some decorative. Um again, we'll chat about that in a little bit. And then also, uh replace the lighting and power supply systems. So, uh, just as we've had our, uh, consultant review the, uh, the lighting design, uh, we'll, uh, a lot of the old carriage lights that were the wooden carriage lights are long since in extinct. Um, just a couple of lights that were replaced at some point remain. Uh, we'll also be getting the power supply system that we use for a lot of the events back up to code. um found out some uh just did not meet code and uh Excel um would not allow us to continue with those um especially um revising the uh power supply systems for the lighting systems. Um so again um pretty basic uh replacing the uh uh the lot generally the way it is. [35:33] **Paul Kauppi**: The next lot I'll get into is the uh fifth and Banning lot. Lot number two, uh we'll be uh proposing a slightly revised layout that we had presented a few meetings ago in our uh concept review. Um that includes removal of the fourth tree uh near the Frattallone's Hardware. We'll get more into that in a couple of slides, but um uh we will keep the three—the cluster of three—closer to Fifth Street um but removing that fourth three closest to Frattallone's. Um, I'll get into those reasons in a little bit. Also looking at revised ADA layouts to meet current requirements. Um, again, this one would get full curb and pavement replacement. The drainage is uh parking lot was done in a number of phases over the years. So, uh, the drainage doesn't quite work perfectly. So, we're adding some storm sewer inlets uh that will uh help with the uh the drainage of that pavement, extend the life of it, improve safety, um, won't have the low spots that collect ice. Um uh we'll also be replacing the sidewalk between the curb and building similar to lot one as well as replacing the lighting system um in that parking lot as well. Um again the revised layout you can see the kind of in the uh grayed out we wanted to highlight the uh kind of the revisions to the curb lines to get better flow and kind of uh maximize safety and flow throughout the parking lot as people park. Uh you can see the uh curb island that houses that four tree uh to the top of the screen would be removed under this proposal. Um otherwise generally staying the same uh just kind of revising a little bit to help with flow throughout the parking lot. And this is the uh concept that council had gravitated towards um after the uh um concept review back in April. [37:24] **Paul Kauppi**: So uh next up uh this is kind of it with the um parking stalls. I wanted to show the kind of the grayed out background to show the revisions. This is what it would look like. Again, not all that different than what it is out there today. Um we'll talk about trees next. Um the CL on the left side of the screen is the cluster of three bur, uh council uh directed staff to have remain. So generally staying within that larger island uh closer to Fifth Street. Um staff is recommending uh based on council input and uh further review um the uh as you can see in the picture on the right you can see about a third or more of that tree is is basically dead will have to be pruned back and removed. Uh you know that's a significant branch main branch of that tree. Uh so staff does have concerns with liability from either not doing something to remain to leave that side um in place. Um um otherwise removing that provides undue stress on the other side of the tree potentially causing splitting or—and it isn't a well or heavily used parking lot next to a sidewalk, cars um opening up the city to obviously liability if something were to happen. Um it's also in a very small area about a little less than 20 by 20 um uh foot by foot. Um so a relatively small area for that size of tree to be growing. Obviously in decline as indicated by one of our um Rainbow Tree Care who did an inspection on it. Um again um in decline um not a big area for it to continue growing. [39:02] **Paul Kauppi**: I will note that uh the three that we are uh saving uh we are going to go through some special efforts during construction uh placing construction fencing around that entire green area um so that no construction activity can you know basically behind the back of curb—we only need a foot or so behind that curb to u get that replaced um so we're going to basically fence off that entire area around those trees. Um we also propose to—there's a uh some treatments that Rainbow Tree Care uh that we've reached out to them that they recommend. Um one is being canisat—what that does is it um inhibits canopy growth but it focuses more growth in the root system. So kind of um helping it with drought and shock during any kind of construction activities. Also you know again it is a larger area than the fourth tree but still not you know huge by any means. So uh that will help with uh strengthening those roots. They are pretty full canopy. Few dead branches but like any tree. Um no real significant die off. [40:26] **Paul Kauppi**: The other thing that we are going to look at is um um giving it treatment for two-lined chestnut borer uh the new pest in the area. Uh so um Rainbow Tree Care has been seeing more and more of that um affecting oak trees. Uh so we are looking at—again stress the construction—we're going to give it that just to uh in case they do show up in the area and it's not one more thing for the trees to have to deal with. The other thing following construction—and we'd likely look at this in greater detail with phase two the project or staff would do it afterwards—is um kind of the overall design of the area. um Rainbow Tree Care recommended putting kind of a mulch ring around. You'll see like a lot of the trees that we plant, we put mulch around the tree, the uh the uh trunk of the tree, that's to retain moisture to kind of keep people off of it. So, um, that would be proposed in this area that will look at that or native plantings that would um help keep people from walking over the root systems and then also keeping moisture. Um, so when you do have the uh the mulch over a uh around a tree, it helps keep moisture that either is um put there or um that naturally falls. Uh so we that we would uh hopefully help with uh maintaining those trees for a long time to come. [42:01] **Paul Kauppi**: Lot three. Um this is the small lot near um the bank at Fifth Street and Cook Avenue. A lot of people don't even know it's a public parking lot. So, uh we'll also—um go back a little bit—we're going to put some temporary signage in until we come up with the overall signage package for the downtown area, but we'll put some uh signage that kind of indicates that these are public lots um as had been recommended by the study. We'll kind of replace those as we move forward with the next couple years with the uh the the uh street project portion, you know, kind of the phase two so that we uh kind of have everything, you know, look how we want it to look, but at least something simple to uh indicate that they are public lots. Uh this lot really only needs uh pavement replacement. There's a few little pieces of curb that need to be replaced, but uh pretty uh pretty easy lot to do. Um again near Huntington Bank. Um just uh again we'll mill up the existing uh surface of the pavement and replace a couple of curb panels and be in and out uh pretty quickly. [42:48] **Paul Kauppi**: The last lot that I'll talk about is the Armory lot located at Third Street and Cook Avenue. Um again behind the Armory. Uh this has a little bit of minor layout um uh to the parking lot. There's a couple of unused kind of awkward medians that are in there. Um, at the same time, we found an opportunity to widen the main center median. Um, this gives us another two to three feet that will be uh housing the uh the new lighting as well as additional trees in that area. So, again, more area for those trees to grow. Also look at revised uh ADA parking uh to meet current requirements. Um, I say full curb replacement. A lot of it has to be replaced. It's a—again—this lot was done in a number of sections. There's one section on the north side behind the armory and um I forget the name of the—the old Big Wood produce. So along that stretch um I got to get used to all these new names. Um but along that stretch there's some uh relatively new curb when those uh businesses had done some improvement. So um that will remain but the most of it will be replaced. It's sinking. it's uh causing low spots. Um so we'll improve drainage in that parking lot as well. And then we'll uh replace the uh lighting system. Most of it doesn't work. We're also going to uh put in a new service. They the old service actually was fed off of the armory building which we no longer own. So it's kind of awkward to uh uh take their power. Um so we will be putting in a transformer that will um service that. It will also um service some of the um future street lighting along the street projects. Um uh we're setting all of them up to do that. So uh this one in particular, we just didn't have our own service, but the uh all of the lots that are getting lighting uh will also be able to service the uh adjacent street projects. [44:47] **Paul Kauppi**: The cool thing about this is it's all going to be LED lighting. So, um, our consultant basically said you can feed a ton of lights off of, uh, a much smaller service today than you ever could with the the old lighting. So, um, so again, uh, pretty small lighting services that we'll be able to service quite a bit of area with. Um, I'll point out you can see kind of the dash lines underneath kind of the couple little um, towards the left side of the screen. You can see kind of the couple of awkward little um medians that jutted out. Not quite sure why. And then the uh the one on the east side is one that um appears to be an old tree island that the tree didn't make it. And um uh we'll be able to straighten that curb line out. But we're gaining all that area back in that center median for the previous area, which again gives us more opportunity to uh plant trees along that uh center median. [46:18] **Paul Kauppi**: I'm going to go into lighting next. Um, so this is what we have existing in the downtown area. So, generally acorn style fixtures along Fourth Street. I picked Fourth Street. It shows the kind of the overall feel of uh what we have down there. Um, and then I bring up Lake Avenue. You can see the uh a little bit different style. That's down lighting that's uh generally uh used to flood the surface of an area. And we're talking about parking lots here tonight. So, we really want to uh be able to provide light directly down that's going to provide that uh safety and comfort of those that are using the parking lots. Um especially during the study, we had a lot of folks that said, you know, we are our um employees work late at night. They're uh walking down the streets. They're parking in these lots. So, um, just to be able to, uh, provide that safety even for, you know, people patrons using the restaurants and and establishments in the downtown area. So, that's what we have today. [47:04] **Paul Kauppi**: What we're proposing is kind of a um, combination of the two, I'll call it. It kind of has that acorn feel. Um, um the uh, the fixtures in the center, you can see kind of on a pole. That's not the poll we would use, but kind of some stock photos. Um, the kind of the line drawings on the right side of the screen is what we're proposing. And if I flip back one screen, you can see that's very similar to the light style used on Lake Avenue. So, we're not introducing another light style per se. We're just kind of melding that um that fixture head. Um, and again, I when we get to the end, I welcome council's input on it. Um but uh the uh the fixture provides a lot of downward—with the LED uh um elements in there—um can provide a lot of that down lighting and we can light the parking lot with relatively few lights which obviously saves some money to uh for the overall number. So that's the uh fixture that was uh recommended and chosen. Uh again, we would—I call out that we would—uh do these in green, not the bronze to match the existing downtown Stewart Highway 96. We have a lot of green lighting in town so that we wanted to kind of stick with that theme. [48:27] **Paul Kauppi**: Um, otherwise uh and then obviously the area north of Fourth Street as well. Um sidewalks. Um, so this is where we're going—I'm going to sway a little bit from the council memo, but um if you look at the left side of the screen, this is what we have existing in the area that we're we're looking at. Uh so the uh the parking lots have this. The um um the streets south of Fourth Street all have the stamping along the main walk of the uh sidewalk. So right now the issue with that is it doesn't meet ADA requirements. So even today um even the tool joints that we have um we have to use saw cut joints so that we minimize those tripping hazards. Um uh so the uh the stampings along the main piece of the sidewalk isn't uh um adequate anymore. Um but if you look to the right side, this is what we have to the north. So, Fourth Street up onto the north, we have the gray concrete main walk aisle and then we have the red borders. [49:14] **Paul Kauppi**: Um, initially in the uh council memo, we're concerned with—and our consultant was concerned with—having the deep stamping of the brick pattern on the red surface. um it's not necessarily treated as a walkway, but people that are crossing over it from their cars onto the sidewalk, um it could be construed as and and potentially cause that tripping hazard. Since that time, we've done more and more homework. We've looked at other options, uh that would pro could provide that similar pattern with a less deep imprint. So that would still kind of match the area um north of Fourth Street that has that brick pattern, but yet still be more ADA compliant. Um so if council uh wishes, we would uh look at doing that option of uh some stamping along that concrete as well. Um we reviewed again the uh area of the study recommended that colored concrete be used. it didn't dictate one or the other. Um, some people like doing some of the public input, some people like the gray or different colors. Um, however, after looking at the areas in its entirety, um, it is primarily red. I shouldn't say primarily, 99% red. Um, even to the west of Highway 61, if you look at Cup and Cone in those areas, um, that's kind of the gray concrete with red brick, uh, pattern. Some of that is actual brick, you know, the paper stones, which can cause some issues as well. [51:33] **Paul Kauppi**: But, um, generally that red color, um, I will note that, um, that area that on the pictures on the right, obviously concrete fades. You know, the gray isn't perfect. Gray isn't, you know, a fresh poured concrete. The red isn't as bright and vibrant as it probably was the day it was poured 20 some years ago. Um, one thing that we did look at is again, um, again, I'll go back to the existing that kind of is north of Fourth Street, but um, I'll lay out I know the a lot of the, uh, input that we got was to keep the downtown charming, historic. Um the picture on the right there is what uh when we redid the uh concrete around the depot, we put kind of the accent diamonds in there just to kind of restore or retain some of that historic brick while providing an ADA compliant uh sidewalk. Um so whether we wanted to or council would direct staff to do a darker color. I know it doesn't uh perfectly match to the north, but it still provides that um um generally a red color. It provides the uh um we'd still do the brick pattern. So um something to think about for a few minutes until we get to questions. [52:19] **Paul Kauppi**: Funding, this is what we have uh in the uh capital improvement plan for funding. Pretty self-explanatory. Um going to try to hit that. We obviously have to accept uh go for bids and accept council—have an opportunity to accept bids. So, um, we'll see where we—our estimate is pretty close to this, so we'll see where it all ends up here of council authorized staff to go for bids here tonight. Um, lastly, project schedule. Uh, kind of in italics the top where where we've been. Um, uh, council order plans. We had a public hearing on the, uh, potential tree removal. We, um, reviewed preliminary plans back at the end of April. Um we're here tonight uh to approve plans and specifications. If that moves forward and council authorizes staff, we would then uh publish an ad for bid. Um next week it would open the uh local paper. Um the end of June we would open bids, award contracts the first meeting in July and then uh start construction following marketfest. So Marketfest is the Thursday prior to that. um and then uh get it hopefully signi sign—significantly complete by the end of October. So there may be uh some restoration things that might carry into next spring depending on how late things go but um generally uh complete by the end of the season here. [53:24] **Paul Kauppi**: So, um, so staff based on the resolution would um direct council to consider um adopting the attached resolution or which would order the project approve the plans and specifications and authorize ads for bids for the 2025 downtown parking lot reconstruct project. Uh so I'd uh recommend council consider that resolution. Um, also we would accept any comments on the lighting and the sidewalks or any other uh topic that I covered here in my presentation. [54:11] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Thank you, Mr. Kauppi. Um, just as a preliminary thought before we get into the substantive things, I know we spent a lot of time talking about trees on this, but if we can set that aside for a second, um, thank you for all the good work that went into this. We've got a—these are big projects and a lot of big improvements that are going to come to the city, you know, well beyond just the trees, the sidewalks, the lighting, the ADA improvements, um some of the kind of utility improvements for drainage. So, I I want this to kind of shift from away from the trees as much as we can into this is a great project and is phase one of a two-part project which will improve the whole downtown area. Um and so for that, I want us to look at this from a positive standpoint and again, thank you for all the hard work. I'm sure it's going to be a good project. Um, couple quick questions regarding the lighting and the color of the concrete. Does that need to be decided tonight or are we really just approving a budget and then we've got some tinkering that can happen later on? [55:12] **Paul Kauppi**: Um, mayor, members of the council, typically we would include that level of detail in the plans and specifications that we would then—so once we go for bids that would show up in the paper and some of the construction um publications um contractors would need to bid on that. Not that if council change their minds, we couldn't do a change order. It's typically not significant, you know, it's typic, you know, uh typically the—I want to go to concrete first. The contractor would, you know, give us the kind of like you go to the paint store and you have the uh color chips. You would say, "Which color do you want before we mix the concrete up?" Um the um question would be is how that would come back to council. Um for a final decision, um the as far as the lighting goes, a similar approach. You know, we would approve shop drawings that would show the colors. um typically not a uh difference in cost between colors per se. Um the uh fixture itself is more significant from a—one fixture to another just like if you went to look at a fixture for your home. Um one different fixtures can have significant cost differences. [56:32] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Well, and the fixtures—the fixtures that we—if we decide on fixtures, I assume it would be good for that to follow along with the phase two of the project and other parts where we're going to have those improvements. I mean, there's going to be more fixtures. **Paul Kauppi**: Mayor, members of the council, so as far as uh staff's thought on this, this is the parking lots. So, this would get um—this would be the only area that would have that style of lighting because it's a downward uh facing lighting that would um provide that overall um lighting for the park surface of the parking lot. Um as it sits today and obviously there's a lot of time to discuss this, count or staff um would recommend that the acorn style lighting be continued through the um south of Fourth Street. It's already north of Fourth Street. It's out on Stewart, but it's on Highway 96. So, it's it's a general theme throughout the community. Um, so unless council wanted to significantly stray from that, that would be count or a staff's initial recommendation. There is also some uh in the study some pedestrian level lighting that was um at least recommended—thrown out there—to consider and we'll look at that more at a uh design level once we get to the street project. So, if there's significant corridors, uh there's some of those, I'll call them alleyways between pedestrian alleyways between the buildings that may need a different style of lighting. Um so, there's some other um areas that need different style of lightings, but uh the parking lot generally would be the only areas that would get this style. [58:00] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Very good. All right. Well, I'll be really brief with my comments on the tree. I support the resolution as is. I think keeping the three trees that we've discussed and then getting rid of the fourth tree as recommended for very significant safety reasons, financial reasons, practical reasons, I think strikes just the right balance between listening to the community, preserving our charm and character while being just practical in terms of the uh engineering and costs associated with it. As far as the lights go, I think the ones that we picked out are kind of cool, so that works. and I'd be open to a a darker kind of concrete accent color um next to it, but and I assume that would complement what what we already have and what's going to be remaining even after phase two. So, I'd be open to that concept, but I think there are very good reasons to move forward with the parking lots as proposed and that would be my recommendation to the council. Council questions, comments. [59:10] **Paul Kauppi**: Before Mayor, I just want to add to clarify the street project that phase two or three or whatever it ends up being. Um, we're not doing all of the streets and so, um, you potentially have two mixtures. You know, you have that existing red and then you have potentially different. So, I just want to clarify. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Yeah, I understand. Yep. Council member Edberg. [59:10] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I want to focus on the public realm uh investments and costs for uh this part of the project. My understanding—please correct me if I'm wrong—the primary public realm investments in this in the parking lot project consists of some signage um noting public parking uh publicly owned parking. Um would be in including the lighting and the sidewalks. I'm unclear about how much vegetation we're talking about and and how many—not the oaks—but the other trees that might be purchased or or installed. Um can you—is that all of the public realm um investments that are being called for in this proposal and if so how much of that budget is ex—is anticipated for the public realm uh material? [1:00:36] **Paul Kauppi**: Um, mayor, members of the council, as far as I'll call it the public realm uh material, um I don't have an exact breakout of every one of those costs um that I'm going to pull out of my—pull out of the air at at the moment. Um the uh the lighting is going to be the most significant component of that. um adding a little bit of color to the concrete or you know—we're still going to put sidewalk in—uh whether it's a little bit added cost for the concrete uh trees. We're going to um we have u some trees in the armory lot, the third or the fifth and um uh Banning lot of—get my direction straight again. Um, we would be putting those in regardless of—typically we would put those in regardless of um I'll call it the the study or not. Um, anywhere we have those um improvements, they're required by code um to um add trees to vegetative meetings within parking lots. Um there's a uh one other dead tree in the um ACE lot or the fifth and Banning lot that is dead that we'll replace. Um um otherwise it's uh the uh third and Banning lot. I think there's one tree that we can add in one of the uh existing islands. Um so there's not a lot of opportunity just the way that they originally designed and constructed. Um like I said, the replacing the lighting system is going to be the most significant component of that. [1:01:56] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: So I support the downward cast lighting. Uh, I think green is consistent with the other colors that we're using. I'm totally fine with that. Um, I'm okay with the mix of acorn and downward casting. Um, as you described, that all makes sense. Um, I don't have strong feelings on the colors of concrete. Uh, I like the idea that there's some color distinctions because I does do think it helps guide and break up at least when there's not snow and ice covering them. Um, and uh, so that all that part all makes makes sense and and the signage to uh, um, align with the wayfinding. Um, I can get on board with that. [1:03:28] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: Here's something that uh the environmental advisory commission met last week um following the u really fine public works open house event. Thank you very much for that. Um and heard from a uh an extension educator—an arborist—a person well skilled in in that ter—in that area. We are trying to—my—my issue is planting trees and being very intentional about species selection. Um we are planting into a built environment with a very small root mass area and there most of the species that we have uh historically put in do not require a greater root mass area and because we're planting them in places where they're as their roots go out they're going to run into concrete or into you know other immovable objects. Part of the reason that they don't—that we've not had great success in the in the built environment downtown is because we're putting trying to put trees into relatively small blocks that don't foster—don't support—that tree to grow at and and be sustainable at maturity and beyond. [1:04:14] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: So, I'm really skittish about saying—uh or at least I want some assurance or some guidance or some professional um uh assessment on what are those species that have a ghost of a prayer of surviving to maturity so that we're not getting something to a size that's usable. And then we cut it down because it can't—it can't thrive. And that gets really expensive and frustrating and creates all kinds of other obnoxious conversation. So, at least as it pertains to whatever new trees you might be contemplating putting in, I would want number one um assessment on what species are we talking about and what evidence is there that that they are suitable for the built environment that we're trying to plant them in. And then while we're at it, since we're going to be having more conversation about trees and planting trees, I don't know if we need to start uh formulating or gathering a compiling a set of our recommended internally recommended practices for how we select, plant, and care for uh trees, whether that be in boulevards, downtown spaces, wherever. Um, that's a topic that's going to come up and I'm just flagging that and saying that should be something that since we don't have an uh an arborist or a forester on staff, we need to go get ourselves smart on what that all looks like. And uh anyway, that's those are my concerns. Um the your response on budget was fine. I I don't have an issue with that. [1:05:49] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Any other comments? Council member Walsh. [1:06:13] **Council Member Bill Walsh**: Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, I'm staring at this map and I'm listening to your presentation. I know this is really late in the game, but my overwhelming thought right now, and I'll express it, is why do we own that parking lot at Fifth and and Cook um that serves the bank. And then, while we're on the subject, there's another one we own north of this neighborhood on the edge of this neighborhood next to the hotel. And I would ask the same question, why do we own that parking lot? because it really serves the businesses uh you know that are that are adjacent. So is there any thought—you know it's late and maybe this would be a thought where we fix it up and then sell it—but we ought to think about—entertain the conversation—you know why do we own these lots can we sell these lots and then and then get property tax revenue off of them and also some money to help pay for the the overall cost of all these other lots. So, sell one and fix the other three or fix all four, sell one to finance it, or sell two to finance it. [1:06:58] **Council Member Bill Walsh**: Now, we're a little bit, you know, we're a public body, so we have to discuss this in in public, which is awkward. Um, you know, not very good business, but we don't have any choice. Um and also I mean we you know the owners of these building I assume somebody owns I don't know who owns the Fifth and Cook—you know I don't—there's a whole bunch of uh business and retail shops there. Condo businesses. Yeah. And then the bank of course so who—I don't—I don't know who the landlord is I have any idea. Um but but you know we're at a bit of a disadvantage because why would they buy it—we—we were maintaining the parking lot for their customers' use. Same with the hotel. Why in the heck would they ever buy it? So maybe the price wouldn't be that great, but uh the negotiation would be difficult. [1:07:45] **Council Member Bill Walsh**: But but we ought to entertain that and maybe there is an interest um to to sell one or both of these lots. Um I'm just saying it in public today to get it on the record. I guess I I don't want to derail this project. Um you could have entertain a similar thought for the the the parking lot 4 uh behind the armory. Although that's that's much more in my mind public parking that people in this town understand that as a public parking lot that they use when they come to town as a public parking lot. So that one I think is a little stronger case to keep that in our our possession and upgrade it. But that's that's just a thought I wanted to express as I'm listening to the presentation. Um otherwise I'm I mean uh I don't have strong feelings, but I think we're headed absolutely in the right direction with the lighting, the trees. Can I ask a question on the tree? You mentioned the the parking lot two Fifth and Banning. You said a tree has—there's a dead tree. Is it—the tree's already gone though, right? There's an empty spot on Banning um with an empty spot where a tree was. I assume a small tree along the along the road there. Is that what you're talking about? Or is there another tree that needs to actually come out and get replaced? [1:08:28] **Paul Kauppi**: uh mayor, members of the council. It's a uh basically a dead tree about I don't know 10 feet high with one twig sticking out of the top of it kind of behind the dumpsters in the corner of that lot. **Council Member Bill Walsh**: Okay. Well, there's another space, an empty space that I assume there was a there's a square for a tree. Um it must have succumbed to Council Member Edberg's uh discussion of of how how hard it is. But so that that's another opportunity I think. I don't know if we'll get that now or we get that when we do the streets. [1:09:13] **Paul Kauppi**: Uh, mayor, members of council, I'll let uh, city manager Crawford speak as well if she if I miss a topic here. But, um, so there are quite a number. So, to council member Edberg's um, comments, um, when the area north, Fourth Street and to the north was completed, um, trees were planted in such a way that they did not survive. You know, they they make it 10, 15, 20 years maybe, and they're dying off, and we've slowly removed those. Sidewalk. Yeah. Yeah. Between the sidewalk and the curb line. So, you only have about two—two or so feet that these trees are growing in. Um, not, you know, basically just without a whole lot of thought, just, hey, we left a 2x2 ft spot. We planted a little, you know, 2-in caliper tree and we hope for the best. Uh, they do not survive in that environment. Uh the little tree grates. Um, and they do die off. Uh the struggle is is that when they do die off, it is next to impossible to remove a root ball to then put a new tree in without removing pavement, sidewalk um at a significant cost to do that. Other communities that we talked to during the study do do that at a significant cost. [1:10:19] **Paul Kauppi**: Um or as if you recall and will be a decision that will need to be made as we move into phase two of the project and the streets. And the reason we did not—you know, this is outside of the project area that Miss Crawford had mentioned—but um could move into the uh replacement of those trees in the future. But um the area south of Fourth Street that were would be in phase two had a—if you remember from the study—had a significant dollar amount for tree replacements. And what that does is it provides a growing medium. uh uh there's a number of different kind of proprietary uh style of plantings that are out there. Um um but they provide a growth medium. They often times will direct a corrugated storm sewer drains through there to kind of water it from the roots versus the surface. Um so there are a number of those systems that could be used to um help promote growth of trees. uh the right tree selections, things like that in a downtown area when we dig it all up when we dig it all up. So, and again, that could transfer to the area north of Fourth Street as well if we want to—if we find it successful to the south—we could move to the north and and do that. So, even as you go to the north, you see all the little planting beds with a few flowers in them. Those were trees used to be. [1:11:45] **Lindy Crawford**: Just to add to Mr. Kauppi's statement, that is something that the city did at Boat Works and it's worked very well. So we, you know, we've had limited projects that we've really been methodical and needed to be methodical about, but we have done it in the past, I think, to success. You tell me if I'm wrong, right? You live there, but um so that's that that is what we'd be looking to do within the street project. Um so I think, you know, the the trees along the sidewalk on Banning wouldn't be part of this, but the trees within that parking lot is what Mr. Kauppi has been talking about. [1:12:32] **Council Member Bill Walsh**: Then so then my last comment would just be I'm—you're on target with colors and lights and the concurrent proposal is—I echo the mayor's comments—practical uh financially responsible um uh to move forward. What is the ballpark itemized cost? Well, we've had it in previous meetings on this of lot three to for complete reconstruction. Whatever we have, whatever we're planning on doing. **Paul Kauppi**: Um, that one was—council member Walsh's point—um, that one was, if I'm going to recall correctly, roughly 500,000 for the lighting system. The—no, for lot three. The correct the entire project cost is about 1.4 million. Um, I'm going to probably three. No, I'm thinking a lot, too. You're like, man, that's cuz I was about to say, Council Member Walsh is right. Let's Let's kill that one right now. That'll be less than 50,000. Okay. Okay. [1:14:02] **Mayor Dan Lis**: All right. Cuz I—I kind of am—am warmed to that idea of—I'd be fine parting ways with that cuz most people don't really know that that's city parking anyways. Um, but as long as it's within the the realm of—if we did part ways—we're not like hundreds of thousands of dollars committed into improvements, then I think that can be decided at a later day if it really has kind of run its normal wear life. Um, and then we can make that decision. But that I'm open to that in the future because I think that that does make sense. I don't know who would want to buy it and I wouldn't want to give it away or give it away cheap, but there are some businesses that are directly benefiting from that to the exclusion of kind of everyone else and people that don't know about it. [1:14:02] **Lindy Crawford**: So, it's a good thought, Mayor, Council Member Walsh, to those thoughts. That's strictly a policy decision. I'm just going to weigh in um as city manager. Um the the mobility and parking study did look at identifying additional parking options for people and we've been talking about finding parking. Um, and with better wayfinding, I would hope that parking lot 3 would be used for the public. Um, another option that we had talked about, uh, you know, that we haven't really dove into and we'll see how this lands, but is pay to park and perhaps if there are specific lots that are only benefiting certain certain businesses, um, perhaps that's a discussion in the future. [1:14:45] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Well, you raised a good point about the wayfinding and it's sort of like message to the community. Use it or lose it. I'm not saying I'm going to pre-ordain that we're going to get rid of it, but as we go through this, know that it's there. So, Marketfest goers that are circling around saying where can I find a spot or you're downtown and you can't find a place to go. Hey, that's the city lot that isn't owned by the bank or those condominium business condominiums. So, use it, park there. I want to see it full from just residents coming and going. So, I think we've got a good communications opportunity with that to have people use the new newly redone parking lot. All right. Any other thoughts on this? Council member West. [1:15:23] **Council Member West**: Thank you, Mayor. Um I uh the lighting is fine. I I think that's good. Um the color is fine. Um, for the lighting, for the um sidewalks, uh, you know, I I'm I don't really care about what the color is. I think something that makes it unique, like those diamonds or something is perfectly fine. I'm really more concerned about sort of the—a—making sure that we're focused and meeting the ADA requirements. Um, I know that has been a concern from a lot of people in the community recently and so, um, I just want to make sure that that that is is is focused on. Um, and the mayor has asked for uh for us to speak positively about the tree. Um so I will positively project—I will positively say—um I would like to follow the environmental advisory um committee recommendation and keep the fourth tree um with the pruning later on and the assessment um after that. [1:16:35] **Council Member Hughes**: Um Mr. Kauppi. Do you have any idea how much it's going to cost the city to keep to it? Will there be additional costs for what you were talking about on the bur oaks that will are remaining? You were talking about mulching and spraying them and doing all sorts of really fancy things. **Paul Kauppi**: Uh mayor, members of the council, so from a—in speaking with um Rainbow Tree Care to do the uh the uh two-lined chestnut borer and the canistat treatment for the three trees. um just a onetime thing for kind of help us through construction would be about $1,000—a little over $1,000—uh yeah, 1,000 to 1,200. Um so that being said, that's kind of a onetime thing. It's good for two to three years. Um just to get us through that construction component um um outside of that um to put the mulch in there um is not a bad thing. It's a relatively hard area with the tree canopy above it to maintain or get grass to grow. [1:17:20] **Paul Kauppi**: The other option would be would be to put irrigation in there to get grass to grow. So um it's kind of a—to do the mulch and and maybe some other native plantings, things like that to keep people off of it. Mulch is relatively cheap overall to to do that. It's uh we'll cut down on man-hours to try to maintain it and mow it. And so uh kind of a wash on that standpoint from a maintenance at least the turf maintenance standpoint of it. **Council Member Hughes**: So you're talking about taking all the grass out that's around the tree. **Paul Kauppi**: You know, typically you just—not necessarily, but typically you would do that. You know, I'll call it'—be a larger ring around kind of that tree area. There would still be mowed turf outside of that, but... **Council Member Hughes**: Oh, okay. So, you would keep some grass on it. Okay. Um, and as far as that one remaining tree is concerned, I mean, I know there are people in my ward that want to keep it. I have heard lately from people who would actually just like parking. Um, so I think it's kind of coming up a little bit more and I guess my concern is, you know, this is a taxpayer funded parking lot and it's what's its highest and best use for the taxpayer dollar and I mean I struggle because some of the taxpayers want to keep the tree regardless of the cost. Um, and so that's kind of the struggle is that at some point it's like where's the cost-benefit analysis come down to keeping something that um that then we have to either continue to pay for or that fails and then we're we're left with as it is. Um, I mean, if you want to call for a vote on it, go for it. But I just don't know that—um I don't know how hard I would want to push for keeping that fourth tree in the location it is for the cost that it's going to be for other taxpayers. I guess is my thought there. [1:19:23] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Just for a reminder to the council, the proposal as the resolution before us includes removing the fourth tree, keeping the three. So that's currently what is before us and that that would be the result if we did pass the resolution. before you go on, could we hear—if you're comfortable sharing—about lighting and sidewalk? **Council Member Hughes**: I just left it because I didn't—because I I thought it was fine. I mean I I I like the lights that you've picked out—those—those down acorns. Um I mean I'm not a huge dark skies like proponent, but frankly if we just wanted to move to a completely dark skies light in the parking lot, I'd be fine with that. Um especially for how high they are. But, um, I assume that those are pretty minimal, you know, with the amount of light that's coming out. And I guess I'd be more sold on the—on the—I mean, I I recognize that the um red striping now on the sidewalk is sort of looking pink, but I'd probably be more inclined to keep it that color, but I don't have a huge dog in that fight. [1:19:23] **Council Member Hughes**: I would like to have a minor stamp in it because I just think it'd be kind of weird to have it be gray and then red with no fake brick stamping at all. Um, but if you went to a different color, I guess I would just suggest—go to a different color. Don't get like two shades close. You know what I mean? Like either do it the brick red or whatever. But what I don't want um is to have to come back and like repaint it like we're doing in the medians there along 61. That's so weird. Might not get it, but let's not do that. Let's not do something that requires like summer maintenance. [1:20:56] **Paul Kauppi**: [Laughter] Mayor, members of the council. So, there's a slight difference in the uh the colored concrete in the medians. So, what that is is the uh kind of the the rock look is actually cast in as gray concrete and each one of those rocks is hand painted. So, somebody went out, painted each one of those rocks, and we have to put a sealer on top of it to kind of keep that color. Otherwise, we'd have to have somebody come in and repaint each of those rocks again. Um, the concrete that we would use downtown is integral to the mixture of the concrete. So, it's when you—it's not just a surface treatment. So, when you break that concrete open, it's red from top to bottom. Um, so it's a little bit different of a product. Um, it doesn't need like anything. You can put sealer on concrete. The problem is is it creates a slippery surface. So, typically anywhere that we're um have pedestrian traffic, you're not putting a sealer on top of it. Out in the median, it it's glossy looking. It's it can be slippery, but no one's walking out there. So, um again, it's an appropriate product. Obviously, it's you know, uh we would look at—is that the appropriate thing to do in all cases? Probably not. um but would be, you know, looked at uh at future projects if that were the the look that we were going for. [1:22:16] **Mayor Dan Lis**: All right. We have a resolution before us ordering improvements, approving plans and specifications, and authorizing advertisement for bids. I'd entertain a motion to approve the resolution before us. **Council Member**: So move. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Do I have a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Motion a second. Any further discussion on this? [1:23:02] **Council Member West**: Yeah. I'm wondering if um I'm wondering if we can make an amendment um to approve it with the fourth—keeping the fourth tree. Am I doing this correctly? **Mayor Dan Lis**: Yep. So, if I know what direction you want to go. So, you would make a motion to amend the resolution to include keeping the fourth tree in the ACE parking lot. Is that the direction you want to go? **Council Member West**: Okay. Yes. **Mayor Dan Lis**: So, we have a motion before us to amend the resolution to include keeping the fourth tree. Is there a second on that motion? **Council Member**: I'll second for purposes of discussion. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on the motion to amend? Seeing none, all those in favor of amending the resolution to include keeping the fourth tree say I. **Council (In Unison)**: I. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Any opposed? **Council Member**: No. **Mayor Dan Lis**: God. Sorry. All right, let's keep the tree. Amend—amending. or I guess I maybe I even missed that moment now back and do it. That's okay. So, I'm just going to revote it. Um just just for clarity and for the record. Um all those in favor of the motion to amend the resolution to include keeping the fourth tree say I. **Council (In Unison)**: I. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Any opposed? **Council Member**: No. [1:24:18] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Okay. So, the motion carries. The resolution is amended now uh to—we'll say for purposes of the the meeting minutes—removing the cutting down of the fourth tree or emphatically and expressly saying we're going to keep the fourth tree. Um so any—do I need to remotion on that uh as as amended or are we good? It's before us. Okay. So, any further discussion on the resolution that's before us that's been vote—motioned and seconded as amended? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the resolution say I. **Council (In Unison)**: I. [1:25:04] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. The resolution is passed as amended. All right. Item eight, new business. Nothing scheduled. Item nine. Nothing scheduled. Item 10, communications from the city manager. Ms. Crawford, whenever your slides are ready. [1:25:16] **Lindy Crawford**: Thank you, uh, mayor, members of the council. Um, the filing period, um, is open for our 2025 municipal election. Um, so, uh, positions that are up this year are Mayor, Ward 2, and Ward 4. And just these are the current filings, um, as of about 4:00 p.m. today. So, for Mayor, Mary Nlowski has filed. Ward 2, Ellen Gerola, and Ward 4, um, existing council member Kevin Edberg. So, just giving everybody an update. Um, the filing period is open through 5:00 p.m. on June 3rd. Um, and that's all I have for tonight. [1:26:02] **Mayor Dan Lis**: Thank you. Very good. Thank you Miss Crawford. Having nothing before, entertain a motion to adjourn. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Dan Lis**: Motion to second. All those in favor say I. **Council (In Unison)**: I. **Mayor Dan Lis**: We're adjourned.