This transcript appears to be from an **Oakdale Park and Recreation Commission** meeting. Based on the context provided and the dialogue, I have identified the speakers (including correcting phonetic errors in the original transcript, such as "Sherlock Heart" to **Chair Paul Hart**, "Macomb" to **Andy Morcomb**, and "Cruisling" to **Jeff Koesling**). [0:11] **Paul Hart (Chair):** but no we'll all be good to go away Thursday welcome to the you know we're gonna get caught welcome to the Oakdale Park and Recs Commission meeting on February 21st please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance [0:35] **Commissioners:** one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [0:40] **Paul Hart (Chair):** awesome take roll call and we are missing Glenn and Freddie but we still have a quorum right all right May everyone get a chance to take a look at November's minutes yes question comments concerns the wasting a motion to approve second all in favor opposed those minutes are approved all right we have no old business in new business we got Monica right you're up welcome [1:30] **Monica (Oakdale Resident/Workgroup Representative):** representative awesome business that's a long title [1:50] **Monica:** Metro environmental damages that were incurred from the way site I think we all remember it it was over on Old Highway five Hadley Granada and the railroad tracks there's a big fenced-in area still I live on the south border just south of there so I've been aware of this for a long time for what it's worth I am a 3M alumni and when we when my husband and I bought that lot to build our house two desks over for me at work in the lab was Art Frye the famous Mr Post-it and he said oh Monica that's the old 3M dump site so I knew it was there and after we [2:36] **Monica:** moved into the house in the 80s we got notification from 3M that they were digging it out they could detect levels of solvents and in the city water and from Wells that they had in that area but they couldn't measure the materials that are in this lawsuit that was settled at the beginning of 2018. [2:59] **Monica:** they could measure like the toluene the heptane things like that we didn't even know how to measure this stuff that we're concerned about so much now until relatively recently just since the turn of the century and the Millennium really so a lot has happened and actually I'm very proud to be a Oakdale citizen I've lived here since 1974. [3:21] **Monica:** so I've been drinking Oakdale water for a long time but here's the thing you know the people that came before us had the good sense to put in City Water separating the storm and sewer drains and all that stuff Paving the streets putting in curbs that's part of why we built here was because the city fathers and mothers before us had the foresight to really develop this area when I went to these work group meetings it was very interesting because it involved everybody that was from Oakdale South into the East because that was where this material was migrating both above ground and below ground Oakdale was way ahead of even Woodbury [4:08] **Monica:** as far as having City Utilities throughout the city we have very few people that have private Wells I don't know if you realize that I remember asking Brian bachmeier hey how many private Wells do we actually have in the city it's well under 50. [4:26] **Monica:** it's well under 50. there's a few out at the end of Old Highway 5 and Century or Geneva and then there's a few that are up by Olson Lake but that's basically it everybody else is on City water and since we had the carbon system which by the way was first in the nation it's the proven way to to deal with this material we were looked to as a role model which was very interesting very interesting through the whole thing Brian bachmeier played a big role in really mentoring and helping the other communities figure out what to do you know how much was it going to cost how much does it take to run an operation like that so it was an extremely interesting time we're still having [5:13] **Monica:** meetings by the way so our meetings started in July of 2018. good thing I retired this was keeping my brain active but um we've been having meetings ever since because it was a huge undertaking okay what I'm going to talk about tonight is actually the second priority in that lawsuit the first priority dealt with drinking water and again we're in pretty good shape however we've got a lot of Wells we have the quantity of water the challenge we have in Oakdale is with that big development that's going in behind the ultimation site that's a lot more Demand on our water so we need to get the quality of water for everybody [5:59] **Monica:** up to Snuff so that's why we actually need additional carbon treatment that is the plan and that's what's going to be going forward so oakdale's got a good plan we're moving forward all the other communities are catching up basically um again we've been a model for them for how to deal with it but I'm back to this priority two thing in the actual lawsuit it's only 11 pages long you know and five of the pages are like the definitions and then three pages of signatures they actually had a they listed priorities number one was the drinking water and and the bulk of the monies from that lawsuit are going to that [6:45] **Monica:** effort but there was specifically 20 million dollars laid out for priority two which is what we're going to talk about tonight so here's and again you've got this in your handouts pretty much what I'm going to go through if you noticed on that title page there was a person listed at Karen Carney from Associates they were one of two consulting firms that were brought in to help the state agencies and the work groups work our way through how do you how do you deal with Doling out the money and basically what we wound up doing was developing a huge plan proposal that said for all these communities that were affected [7:30] **Monica:** here's what they could be doing there were a lot of technical presentations we got had a number of presentations from the health department we've had several of those here for Oakdale citizens um it was it was a pretty big deal to work through all of this stuff and it made me feel good because I kept my technical brains working I would ask a lot of questions about well how many ways are there to treat contaminated water so it's suitable for drinking turns out in the state of Minnesota carbonate is the only system recognized at this point there is a pilot program going on down in Cottage Grove it's iron exchange it's kind of like your water softener but a real specific kind of iron treatment [8:16] **Monica:** they found out they still needed to do carbon with fat to get the material out but um they're really looking this presentation again was from one consulting firm that helped basically um manage the meetings and all this documentation that was put forward they had experience remember the big deep water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico they helped the federal government figure out how do you hand out monies because there was a billions of dollars in that legal settlement you know to to again try to repair the harm that was done from that so they had experience working with diverse communities with diverse [9:01] **Monica:** objectives and get through this stuff the other consultant we had was more on the technical side uh I believe it was called wood associates they have an office in Minneapolis they actually had the technical know-how about how how do you track all the underground water movement the above ground water movement how do you predict where things are a lot of modeling and so forth that went into it so some of these meetings were pretty technical but it was fascinating to see you know how much came of it that that's really been a contribution on a national scale so back to Priority two which was again what we're going to be talking about so here's a quick little agenda for what I'm going to be covering this [9:48] **Monica:** presentation was actually given back in our January work group meeting so that's I figured it looked pretty good so that's why I just pulled it up okay so first thing we're going to talk about is this priority two background here's part of the wording right out of that settlement that said we are going to be utilizing some of this grant for these types of projects again drinking water protection or remediation was Priority One Second was natural resource because this lawsuit was about damage to Natural Resources so it made sense 20 million dollars okay so how do we figure out in all of this East metro area how do you divvy it [10:35] **Monica:** out here's the wording that was in there and it's kind of interesting item three the boat ramps and fishing piers nobody in the work groups like that so we'll talk about that in a little bit but it was a wording that was actually in the in the legal settlement which by the way how many of you have actually been following any of this water settlement work has anybody here the one percent yeah yeah it's really interesting because there's um the state agencies involved put together a really nice website and you can go down all kinds of rabbit holes of information on it but all the meeting minutes all the way from the beginning back in July of 2018 till now they're [11:21] **Monica:** all posted in there along with all the presentations that we saw so if you ever want to do a dive actually if you ever have a sleepless night some of it can be that way anyway this was the wording right on it so again monies were specifically set aside again to the tune of 20 million dollars to work on this so the other part of this earlier in the in the settlement language was the advice that the state agencies which are basically the Department of Natural Resources the Minnesota Pollution Control agency established work group to advise and consult with them on matters of this whole legal settlement [12:09] **Monica:** okay so again and it was just broadly defined as you know people in the area um and three and then 3M also participated in the meetings so they were there to kind of make sure you know we were following the intent of that legal settlement Okay so the next thing we get into is the process and structure I think I'm on the correct page I'm hoping I'm turning these pages right okay so what they're going to wind up doing Priority One was quite different we had to make sure we did something about drinking water for all the people impacted by the the materials being carried by surface or groundwater [12:56] **Monica:** um priority two though so again there were people that originally said well why don't you just you know divvied up based on population well that wasn't going to work either so it was back to really getting technical information okay how much water needs to be treated where should it be treated you know just all sorts of technical matters on it but priority two with this natural resource thing is more open-ended on how that's going to be distributed okay so what they're gonna do for priority two it's actually going to be a competitive situation which is why I'm here I want you folks to know there's some money out there that you could put to good use in Oakdale okay that's why I'm here [13:43] **Paul Hart (Chair):** I like that [13:44] **Monica:** okay the the other part of it the drinking water part of it again Brian bachmeier was participating uh Christine volcker and her predecessors also were participating in those meetings we were keeping the mayor briefed on everything he was he was actually attended a few of the meetings so that you know we understood what was going to happen with drinking water in Oakdale but now this is a little different animal to look at Okay so here's the what's going to be the state agencies are going to be selecting the projects that actually get money awarded to them okay so just know that right off the bat so they're going to have a request for proposals process RFP and you're going [14:30] **Monica:** to see that term RFP come up a couple more times but basically they'll have a format for you know if you've got a great idea here's how you fill it up send it in okay so that's the way it's going to be none of this is going to be reviewed they're going to have new work groups established for priority two I've already volunteered to be the representative from Oakdale and the reason I volunteered was the work group for priority two is basically going to set up here's the criteria you know here's how you're going to hear State agencies here's how you're going to score those submittals okay because as we see further on in this there's gonna there's gonna be a whole raft of of groups and organizations that [15:16] **Monica:** can are eligible to submit requests for funds okay during the priority One Work group meetings though which are still ongoing we had a lot of concern about conflict of interest was somebody going to have inside information which made it they were going to get all the money they're separating the work group from the project selection so we won't see the list we won't get a vote we gave a lot of criteria on those drinking water projects back on Priority One you know you know which ones are viable and so forth um it'll be different for priority too because again it's going to be a competitive process okay so again we were very concerned [16:03] **Monica:** about conflict of interest and again there's going to be this kind of separation for what we're doing the work groups are basically going to set up okay here's the framework how now how the proposals are going to be evaluated what even needs to be on the proposal form um is a big deal um we just don't want to have people say well I think I could use a million dollars you know it's got to be pretty specific what needs to be done that's what I'm talking to because again later on I'll show you what the timeline is you've got a number of months right now to put your heads together and say okay what's the wish list we ever had and so forth and then kind of look at some of the information I have in this [16:49] **Monica:** presentation to kind of see is it going to fit into the intent of this legal settlement okay so let's go to I hope the next page so priority two structure and again um this is just a comparison of how things worked in the priority one with the drinking water compared to how now priority two is going to work again both the both times there's going to be two work groups uh Christine volcker has already said she will serve on the the one that's the the government 3M group um I'm not sure if anybody else from Oakdale applied to be on the resident work group uh we were told in the priority One Work [17:36] **Monica:** group if we wanted to stick with it we could we could uh join up and I did um we used to have a second person from Oakdale on the citizen group his name was Bruce Johnson very unfortunate accident he passed away a couple several years ago they concluded I could do just fine so I you know I basically covered the bases for Oakdale but um I don't know if there's been any other residents that oblide to be on the priority to resident work group I haven't heard yet so I don't know if anybody knew about that okay anyway um you can see on Priority One there was [18:21] **Monica:** a drinking water supply sub group that's the one that Brian bachmeier participated on and again it was a very technical group they were talking specifically about pressure zones in the city and flow rates of pumping and Well locations and water tower I mean it was you know all the all the engineering detail you needed for Designing Water Systems which again Woodbury major challenge you know they had no carbon treatment until recently they got a temporary system down there Cottage Grove I believe their system is considered temporary also so they're already moving ahead on getting their permanent structures and systems set up again we're already [19:09] **Monica:** well on the way we plan on adding to ours but we already have some of that in place so again those subgroups are very technical in the case of the priority too that subgroup is basically going to be more of an information providing function to the state agencies they're going to be looking for hey did you already have big plans in place for environmental matters for Parks and Recreation matters things like that so I don't know do you have like a five-year plan a 10-year plan for parks and recreation not particularly I don't think we did yeah I mean we have our CIP yeah for playground equipments and some other sure paths and stuff like that but sure [19:56] **Monica:** nothing more towards that yeah well this might be an opportunity to kind of step back and take kind of take a bigger picture look because again there's funding potential funding available that's the opportunity that we're talking about but this Eco services and Recreation subgroup is basically I don't even know if they're going to have meetings but they're going to basically going to be soliciting from all the communities involved okay you know did you have big plans or small plans whatever for for development developing natural resources Parks whatever in your area Okay and then of course at the state level they'll have their own planning team and again the state people are going to be actually selecting [20:43] **Monica:** the proposals that will actually be funded Okay so here's what we're going to wind up with again communities will have Representatives if they don't want to participate and I'm going to show you a long list of communities in groups that are that are potentially involved but notice it says Washington Ramsey and Dakota County and part of that is because some of these materials have gotten into the Mississippi and the saint cry and it's getting to Hastings so that's why they're they're kind of in the loop as far as Ramsey County most of Ramsey County is on the Saint Paul Regional water system which actually draws its water from the Mississippi River [21:32] **Monica:** however South Maplewood turns out a lot of those folks around private Wells way down down McKnight Road down there in that little strip of Maplewood way down there airport area kind of yeah well it's it's a technically it's Maplewood so we actually had a Maplewood representative on the priority One Work group because of that okay anyway um so again work group role will be provide feedback on priority two goals evaluation criteria and the again the solicitation scope and language we will not discuss specific project ideas or proposals and again this is this conflict of interest that we're [22:17] **Monica:** trying to avoid the reason this all came up there was people who said hey conflict of interest if you know what group people are going to have Insider information the Newport people smaller Community they said you know what we don't have that many people in our community that are actively involved some of us involved in this are probably going to be helping write some of these proposals so they pleaded with you know figure out a way to avoid conflict of interest but still let us also put in proposals so that's why this setup is in in place that it is okay so the other part of it was remember I showed you that language out of the uh actual settlement that talked about the [23:02] **Monica:** boat Landings well here's kind of a first crack at at possible revisions to goals as far as what's going to get you know the most emphasis the most Credence as far as a proposal for funds and it's back to restoring protecting enhancing resources wildlife habitats the fish tissue contamination is a really big deal is there still a fish advisory on Tanner's Lake I think so I don't think so because I see them out there all the time you see people out there fishing but it's because they're fishing doesn't mean they're keeping them yeah but the fish consumption advisory thing has been a big deal for a long time well it seems [23:48] **Monica:** like it comes on at least once a year doesn't it yeah it's I don't know it's relaxed yeah anyways that's another thing to you know think about you know because I think is that our only fishing lake really in the city I think it is yep I mean we've got a lot of ponds that's funny you see kids fish in the ponds well I know I haven't seen a lot of it but I've seen them you have seen some yeah but improve and enhanced outdoor recreational opportunities again what they're really looking forward is okay have you specifically had any of these areas that were impacted by this [24:33] **Monica:** particular material contamination so that that's something to keep in mind Okay so again here we go again project evaluation projects that demonstrate a central focus on Key Resources injured by release of those materials by 3M projects clearly substantially benefit multiple injury resources we evaluated more favorably and again this isn't money that's going to be like giving out like a thousand bucks every year it's going to be kind of on these lump sum of attributes they want to try and get things that okay we're going to fix something and then it can go forward with somebody mowing the lawn whatever kind of kind of thing so that that's the [25:21] **Monica:** kind of thing you know kind of the self-sustaining benefit okay are you with me so far okay okay so let me get to the next page I'm trying to make sure I get this okay so again this is part of the stuff that uh I think some of the discussion the work group's going to take place one of the interesting one was should projects be allowed on private property I and again I don't have I'm trying to imagine what that would be for you know who could claim you know that this contamination impacted private property well would that mean like if your property backed [26:07] **Monica:** up to a lake or Pond of some sort that might be one way to look at it that might be one way to look at it well you being right next to there you know on your back did you feel any higher than the rest of that it didn't it well I'm not right up to it I mean there's a couple houses between me and there but I mean there was there was never really I mean it was kind of interesting because they were still pulling out some of the residential Wells when we built we built back in the late 70s and they were still pulling out the old residential Wells even though the city water was in they were they were going around and making sure that those had all been pulled [26:53] **Monica:** um but we didn't have that particular situation and actually for the areas like in Woodbury and Lake Elmo where they are going to put City water in and they're going to be removing private Wells for for household use um the Washington County Health Department is really taking a lead on that and there's already you know another source of funding to deal with that so that's not the recreational natural resource really kind of thing but yeah we didn't really see any impact I mean the only impact I remember from when they dug things out back in the 80s was when you went outside during the summer time you could kind of smell kind of like a sweet Aroma and I happened to recognize that as you [27:38] **Monica:** know kind of some Ester type compounds because the waste that had been there had come out of Saint Paul tape Saint Paul abrasives and I don't think 3M Center had really been built because I think they quit using that as a as a as a dump site like early in the 50s which is just when 3M Center got built so anyway um examples again the level of the detail here's this thing about detail that we need to think about short summary submit ideas detail plan you know is there going to be permits needed to the extent you can figure out what kind of costs you're talking about and again ready to go if you if you get the funding so it's [28:26] **Monica:** it's they don't want to have like money spent on well I need to hire a consultant to help me figure out no we're not going to do that it's we need to have ideas get them on paper get you know get some fun you know early on cost estimates and those those will be the ones that will be regarded highly okay so face solicitation separate solicitations for Habitat fishing recreational again some of this stuff will be some of the advice that the work group is giving the state agencies for you know what types of projects do we try to allocate you know a percentage of that 20 million for certain types of of projects that that's [29:13] **Monica:** yet to be seen that works out so here's some of the differences again between this first priority which was the drinking water second priority these these natural resource remediations and again right off the bat Focus was on drinking water in Priority One that's what we talked about the health aspects all the rest of it projects were awarded based on drinking water needs of the community so again we didn't try to prorate how much each Community got it was you know what what's actually the the need in a given community only communities encount and counties [30:00] **Monica:** could apply for Project funding um there may have been one or two private individuals that put forth things but it was basically the communities that were putting things forth and the work group was really it was very interesting that they had the two work groups you know this the citizen one and then the government one it turned out I went to both meetings they wanted to have a liaison between the two they basically always had the same agendas for these meetings they were about three hours long but the discussions were completely different part of it was you had big city Cottage Grove big city Woodbury who knew they would wanted to have a big city-wide system to provide water and [30:46] **Monica:** then you went all the way out to Afton where everybody's on a private well and they kept on saying don't forget us private well users and that was that was the ongoing Mantra so every time the lady from Afton wasn't there I was her designated don't forget the private well users because they you know so much of the the discussion was dominated by the by the big city uh people sitting there but it was very interesting because you never lost sight of um there are people that are just plain afraid they hear chemicals in the water well we put chlorine in the water to kill the bugs every time there's a pipe break you can smell more chlorine that's a [31:32] **Monica:** chemical we know we put fluoride in the water for our teeth that's a chemical I mean everything's a chemical you know not not to dismiss it or anything but um there's some people that just have this terrible fear and it's it's hard to get them past it and so we would have every so often uh people come into those meetings and just be terrified and we turn them over to the health department because they had some very good people who could number first thing first we're going to sympathize with your fears and any health issues that you may have and then we're going to sit down and talk about okay you know here's what you can do to to work through some of this stuff and the health department is actually very very [32:18] **Monica:** good they've been excellent about that in contrast we aren't going to have those types of issues necessarily showing up in priority too um again focuses on restoring wildlife habitats on a regional scale whether rather than a jurisdictional again I think they're going to have more participation by The Watershed folks on this um and again due to limited funding funding it's going to be a competitive bidding process and non-governmental agencies and so forth can apply for Project funding so it's quite different than the drinking water proposition okay where are we next [33:06] **Monica:** so communities will be invited to join this work group and again you can see this I wanted to show you this list though of who all is going to be participating again Oakdale is going to be participating I've already put in for the resident group Christine said that she'd be going to the government group meeting and again a lot of this stuff is kind of by invitation but the the state agencies are the ones that are notifying uh people throughout so you can see a pretty long list of of places here that are potentially going to be involved that's why I came so you had a heads up it's Clay very competitive with all these people well that's it and some of [33:52] **Monica:** them you know Mary may not step forward to do anything about it like I said I wanted to make sure people in Oakdale knew again I'm going to give this same presentation at the environmental commission meeting um they canceled yesterday because it was President's Day but I'll be going to their March meeting to give this same presentation so that they will also be aware of this so I'm not sure if you commissions talk to each other but that might be something you might want to you know brainstorm together at some point okay so this new priority tourism work group form in 2023 and I I think they expect there's a potential plan for when they're going to start the [34:38] **Monica:** meetings um you can sign up by the way this is something I wanted you guys to know this priority to government delivery for application announcement see this website you need to sign up you can get uh all the notices of when the meetings are um you know kind of the news briefs and everything else I really suggest that you sign up for it it's not you know it's not like they send out five things a day or anything it's it's pretty low-key but uh I would I would really suggest that you sign up for this it's under the auspices of the DNR okay so that was one thing I want you to do wow um we started doing hybrid meetings for [35:25] **Monica:** the priority One work when the covet thing all hit um we actually suspended meetings for a month or so and then decided we better start meeting again so we we've been having regular Zoom meetings we already had established rapport with each other in those groups um I think I have a bunch of new friends from working on this it's been really nice to talk to them but it but it's been interesting because again with that Rapport there's a lot of back and forth and you kind of know and you can reinforce what what people are saying as something that's important particularly from the citizen group okay they aren't looking at very many many meetings for this to get underway so here's what's going to happen in the Sun Group subgroups well this is the [36:12] **Monica:** subgroup business and again this is where they're going to try and get a lot more information from the communities about okay do you already have plans in place that this funding could really help out things like that that's why I asked if you had like a five-year plan or anything you know other than you know ongoing maintenance of of equipment and so forth okay so again these folks are going to be mostly consulted with I don't know if they're going to have very many meetings but here are some examples of you know some plans that they were looking at you know the point Douglas Regional Trail and so forth Dakota County had some stuff so again I'm not sure if we have [36:58] **Monica:** that particularly right okay so again they're saying for the subgroup no no formal meetings I expect possibly this group and or the environmental commission might be contacted for okay do you have plans so anything that would be available could be and again because they're just looking to see okay they're trying to get a good sense for what types of projects they could see coming the extent of them possibly you know budgeting type issues so again those proposals are going to be evaluated by they call them the state code trustees it's basically the Minnesota Pollution Control agency and the [37:45] **Monica:** Department of Natural Resources are the co-trustees they're going to be the ones going through those proposals reviewing them for content are they meeting the criteria for selection and all that sort of thing so again work groups will not provide feedback on the projects so we avoid the conflict of interest problem so that's all going to be going through the state folks okay and again uh this was again working through that conflict of interest problem that we wanted to avoid that's how we're going to avoid it so here's the important stuff next steps January February they're recruiting the members again I'm not sure if anybody [38:32] **Monica:** else from Oakdale applied for a resident participation or not I will find out eventually they're looking um again the state's going to invite eligible communities that long list of communities you know and we'll see who responds to those invitations like I said I already know that Oakdale will be you know represented on that government work group Christine said she'd be doing that sounds like March April will start having work group meetings that's when they're going to start getting this information gathered so again if you can connect to the environmental Commission that would probably be good and then it looks like it's going to be in the fall before we get around to actually opening [39:19] **Monica:** up the system to actually get the proposals for funding so you've got a few months to think about potential projects that's really what I wanted to come and talk to you because it's it's an opportunity to get some money again it can be a few hundred bucks it can be a few thousand dollars I wouldn't go for a million necessarily but um you know think think through okay okay I have money that I could you know put to good use here in Oakdale what would that be for and again in the context of okay have we have we seen damage from any of this material that contaminated some of our areas what can we do what can we do so I'm assuming that [40:07] **Paul Hart (Chair):** they're testing our water our ponds regularly [40:10] **Monica:** I can't answer that question um I know there's always been a lot of questions to the Department of Health about their testing plan and to actually answer that question the best would be to go to actually the Minnesota Department of Health Website they've got a lot of information and all kinds of maps for where they have done testing they obviously test our city Wells you know and they have a very active program on the carbon treatment to make sure that's renewed when it needs to be I believe I can't remember what they said about the private Wells [40:52] **Monica:** I know they have done some testing in some of the Lakes like Eagle Point Lake and certainly Lake Elmo I can't remember if I looked up to see if they had testing on Tanner's lake or not but the ponds I don't I don't know if the ponds you know had a priority with them or not my thought is just the animals that go to the park and drink out of it and right play in it and why not so yeah there's been actually um in my backpack over there I have two volumes of stuff in there one of them is just uh all the my meeting notes and the handouts from all those meetings I've been to but the other one is about newspaper clippings [41:41] **Monica:** I've been saving newspaper clippings you know since this whole thing got started back when I saw that ad in the Saint Paul paper that said hey the state agencies want people to volunteer for these work groups and I put in for it um I've got so I'm just wondering some but but in Wisconsin they said that they tested some of the deer that you know Hunters were getting they were checking it for chronic wasting disease but then they also started checking it specially over on over near Green Bay where Ansel chemical had their firefighting grounds and there was a lot of that firefighting foam that was made its way into into the environment over there [42:26] **Monica:** um so they were they were checking that for just chronic wasting disease they were checking for these materials in Deer and they they were finding some okay fish we knew were a problem in the Mississippi River and I asked the question hey when are they going to renew the you know how how is the fish situation in the Mississippi River and you know so much of the Department of Health got side sidetracked correctly for the covet response that it was that was difficult for them to keep up on on some of these other Associated natural resource um issues but um I think if you went to the Department of Health or even sent in a question hey do you ever check knowing out ponds and in uh Oakdale area [43:13] **Monica:** specifically that'd be a great question to submit to them because I know they've been they've had several people have been very active on monitoring the presence of the materials okay thank you now any other questions or comments I've been trying to serve the city by by participating in this this was an opportunity for me to actually come in and say hey folks There's an opportunity we're going to get funding to again increase our water treatment capacity out of that Priority One but here's an opportunity and the priority too that that uh we should take under serious consideration and I think it'd be you know good brainstorming activity for you [44:00] **Paul Hart (Chair):** you know can you actually identify you know areas that uh would have good potential for funding out of this uh set aside money specifically for this purpose okay all right thank you okay Monica thank you great information yes thank you very interesting presentation [44:17] **Monica:** what was kind of kind of fun [44:18] **Paul Hart (Chair):** thanks for investing your time [44:20] **Monica:** well like I said it's it's keeping my retired brain active and it's it's it's been a really fun meeting like I said meeting these people from the other communities and seeing you know how it's impacted people and and it there's not easy answers to this stuff um like I said Oakdale took a leadership [44:47] **Monica:** role as far as I'm concerned not only in the state but in the country for for really stepping up and and having our system in place and uh you know again working with 3m in a collaborative effort to uh work this through one other side note I don't know if you knew this one I was requested to come in a couple of summers ago I think it was before covet so it had to been 28 well 2019 Maybe there was a group from Germany that came in and they wanted to look and it was a it was government groups like some environmental scientists from there agency in Bavaria and they wanted to come in and see what our water treatment system looked like and they specifically [45:35] **Monica:** asked for me to be present they had been reading all the stuff that's available online in the newspapers and so on and they wanted to know what was my role in this whole water settlement business it was very interesting well we had a 3M representative actually from that area of Germany who I happen to know from prior work and and in the manager for the environmental area from 3M here at the center it was really interesting because they were really interested in hearing that okay how do you get citizens to participate how do you get them to be knowledgeable about these things how do you how do you [46:22] **Monica:** communicate with them we've had some communication here in Oakdale I also keep the Oakdale updates we've had several articles about you know the system being put in place just down the road here um the fact that we had the water settlement coming on that we were participating it's it's been very interesting to see how that all worked out but this was my opportunity to come and talk to a commission [46:58] **Paul Hart (Chair):** we appreciate it thank you very much thank you appreciate your time hopefully I took way more than I thought I would but uh it's all right it was detail and hopefully it didn't mess up your agenda not at all [47:09] **Paul Hart (Chair):** thank you thank you again okay thanks [47:16] **Paul Hart (Chair):** all right next up is the election for chair and vice chair so we are opening up nominations for chair okay buddy I'll nominate Steve Meyer I'll second that anyone else with hearing that we are closing nominations and do we need we need a motion on closing nominations all motion motion Jam second I'll second all favorite all right and do we want then we need to [48:02] **Paul Hart (Chair):** um a motion to elect yep okay so next up to the that step is to make a motion to elect Steve Meyer as chair for Park and Recs all motion then I mean oh second all in favor aye opposed congratulations and we'll do this same for vice chair so open up nominations for vice chair I'll nominate Glenn jacaletto even though he's not here um I'm glad you said that I can't pronounce his last name oh second [48:50] **Paul Hart (Chair):** all right then we can close any other nominations for Vice I'll close the nomination section and look for a motion to elect Glenn for vice chair the clothes almost emotions second on that opposed now we'll like motion motion to elect Glenn for vice chair I'll motion that a second you got it good all in favor opposed awesome [49:30] **Paul Hart (Chair):** so Steve take over or did I just finished [49:31] **Steve Meyer (New Chair):** next up is Mr Koesling yeah [49:33] **Jeff Koesling (Parks Superintendent):** oh good evening Commissioners uh welcome our new council member Andy Morcomb nice to have you here with us um don't have a whole lot I'll just touch on uh the rink issues this year it's been horrible for outdoor ranks and we're not the only one in that boat but um in the 22 years I've been here I think it's the one in the top two so I think 2005 it's pretty bad but one week it's five ten below and the next week we have inch and a quarter inch and a half of rain and 47 so Crews have done their best I don't know what's what's to come in the [50:16] **Jeff Koesling:** future here with obviously we know what's on our plate for the next 72 hours and then after that we'll just have to wait and see we're getting close to March the sun gets a little higher it gets hotter we'll flood them two or three times and then they just they don't take it later we get into February early March so struggle but I know it's been a tough season so um other than that I don't have a whole lot I was just going to touch and and let any viewers out there know or our snow plan for the cactus snowstorm that's on top of us yeah so uh Crews will be in at 4am this morning we'll do a full plow it sounds like it's going to sort of lay down late morning early afternoon we'll have time to clean everything up and then it's [51:02] **Jeff Koesling:** supposed to uh come in force even heavier through uh tomorrow late afternoon through the evening into Thursday so we'll have Cruise we'll have four trucks three or four trucks we'll stay we'll just run Mains we won't run any residential on on that um and the reason for that is that we just don't have enough trucks to do it and we're there to keep the mains open to get our police officers around fire paramedics have to get into a residence they'll get a hold of us we'll plow them in we'll get them in there and get them out so they'll be on that crew will be on until three and then following the crews will come back at three and plow until we're done so sort of Around the Clock we don't have a huge membership shop we have 20 some guys and we can only run them dot there's hours we can't run them past so these [51:49] **Jeff Koesling:** guys need to get rest it's a stressful job so when you're out there I miss it I used to love doing it maybe won't have enough guys and I can get in a truck so but I just wanted to touch on that just in case people are watching and just so you all you members known too so um hoping we don't get what they say we're supposed to because we're on the right track for about three weeks there it was looking good like the new president over there was giving me grief with her the fields are going to be open next week so I was hoping they would be but we'll have to wait a little longer now very quickly so yeah so other than that I know it's I didn't have a lot of info we haven't met for three months but that's where that's where we're at once we get a little deeper into spring early spring then can touch a little bit on the fields and [52:34] **Jeff Koesling:** I know Mark's the new uh field liaison for the OAS so that'll be fun to work with them too so he'll be good yeah a lot of questions for you yeah I stand for any questions right now if anybody has anything [52:50] **Steve Meyer (New Chair):** how are the warming houses working out this year [52:52] **Jeff Koesling:** well we can use them they're good that's what's just been frustrating you know they're not cheap to rent and then just trying to get them open and usage I don't know as far as the the usage Julie can maybe touch on that I don't know um if when they are open if they're being used I know the crews will come back and say yeah this rink was skated this rink was skated you know even when we don't have them open so I would assume when they're open they're being used but maybe Julie can touch on that uh in their presentation so no I just [53:22] **Steve Meyer (New Chair):** thinking abuse or any graffiti or [53:24] **Jeff Koesling:** I haven't seen any of that have not seen any but you know we'll look at them we know when we turn them in there they go over go over them with the fine-tooth comb so they did last year so but I took pictures when they delivered them so I know what what was there and what isn't so yeah [53:40] **Steve Meyer (New Chair):** anyone got questions for uh Jeff all right thank you thank you [53:45] **Steve Meyer (New Chair):** Julie [53:47] **Julie Williams (Recreation Superintendent):** yeah yeah thank you uh Commissioners um just a February update here our spring newsletter is out um we're taking registrations for those programs and that covers the months of February through May and we're already busy working on all of our summer information and that'll be available online early April so watch for that [54:10] **Julie Williams:** AARP tax assistance the Discovery Center is again a Texas system site for AARP and they're in the building on Mondays and Thursdays and they are here April through April 13th all appointments are already booked so they book up fast and word gets out that they're at our site so really busy but good to see yeah yeah indoor market it's really been a great Market season so far we've had record numbers that most of our indoor markets so people really coming out to support it we've got a couple remaining dates March 4th and 18th so if you haven't been able to stop by make sure you stop by something sometime in March Nathan Timmons is our indoor market coordinator [54:57] **Julie Williams:** and he does a great job with that of snowshoe rentals have been extremely popular this summer really busy so we've seen over 90 rentals since the end of December obviously we've had a lot of snow and really good for that um just a reminder rates are five dollars a person for a two hour rental and we've got both kids and adult sizes if anybody has wanted to take those out give us a call and we can get you set up ice rinks and warming houses so Jeff touched on that so yeah it's been a challenging season to say the least people are skating and I do know that the skaters and our rink attendants have really appreciated the the new warming houses they really like it and they are really nice so it's the [55:43] **Julie Williams:** I know that for a fact that they really enjoy those but um we'll see we might maybe have a week or two weeks yeah I hope so you know we don't know so we'll see what happens there um artist of the month in the month of February features the acrylic paintings of Lynn Krueger so she's a new artist to the Discovery Center however she has participated in our art fair her work is mainly abstract pieces very interesting stop by if you if you have a chance to see her work it's also for sale as well and we've got some Sunday Bingo coming up um those programs are very popular as well the next event is Sunday March 5th and that is from one to three at the [56:28] **Julie Williams:** Discovery Center those typically fill as well so if you're interested in more of anybody make sure they get in there and sign up for that one best snow sculpture of Oakdale contest a great week to get outside and build a snowman right so pass that along um we'll take those entries through March 31st and a reminder this year's theme is upside down snowman we've already got a few a few in so far really really unique and really fun submissions to see and the winning snow sculpture will receive a hundred dollar gift card from Target so nice yeah um employment opportunities we're hiring for summer Recreation program instructors applications and the job [57:16] **Julie Williams:** descriptions can be found on our website so hard to find staff these days so if you know anybody send them our way we're taking applications through the end of March and then we hold those interviews in April um and then lastly I included our 2022 rental report which included rental of the Discovery Center and picnic shelters as well um with the Discovery Center rentals we're actually up by 20 total permits that we were issued we were down 10 with the picnic shelter rentals from 2020 um one so interesting to kind of take a look and see you know where that ends up and what shelters are reserved more than others [58:01] **Julie Williams:** other than that that's all I have I can stand for any questions that anybody I thought last year we had talked that you had record numbers in that area also so just kind of curious to see the difference between the two I haven't compared from last year yeah yeah but um I mean really good this year so I'll I'll follow up with that one when we're done for the season hopefully it's not much longer [58:28] **Steve Meyer (New Chair):** all right we'll see it'll be a good weekend anyways thanks anyone got questions for Julie [58:36] **Commissioner:** are we Park cleanup [58:37] **Julie Williams:** yup that'll yep and I will comment on that information next month March thanks Julie you're welcome [58:48] **Steve Meyer (New Chair):** councilman member Morcomb welcome here [58:50] **Andy Morcomb (Council Member):** thank you so much I'm so sorry I'm crashing you today oh thanks Commissioners for having me and Chair Hart a former chair and new chair Steve Meyer congratulations um I was just saying my six weeks of being a public public elected official you have an appreciation for how much work goes into all this stuff so I just want to say thank you for spending your time on the commission because it's important so thank you for doing that but a few updates and many of these things were enacted well before I uh got involved here a few weeks ago number one with uh Willowbrook and Commons park I know we're spending a lot of time and effort designing these Parks working with a consultant srf Consulting was [59:35] **Andy Morcomb:** hired to do the work and they've got a tentative timeline to start working on the Commons park with Willowbrook March they've got public hearings that would be tentative to discuss design and layout and then April and May they cited working with city council and workshops and then Parks and Rec so those two items would be coming up with hopes of bidding and awarding the contract for that Park in June of this year and then the other item to share was having to do with fertilizer in the Parks and this is something one of the council members brought up we've contracted with True Green for some time for the parks but just like Monica was talking about we want to be good stewards of the environment so there was something brought up to look at organic [1:00:22] **Andy Morcomb:** fertilizers so as organic Bob fertilizer was brought up and quotes were obtained the organic fertilizer is more money so they didn't want to spread it across all the parks they decided Guthrie Park was going to be a trial for this year so encourage everybody to take a look at Guthrie Park see if there's any difference that you notice and how it looks but that is the two updates that I had for the commission awesome thank you [1:00:59] **Steve Meyer (New Chair):** three Parks yeah total there will be three parks in there and they're doing them in stages uh the size of the parks makes them quite expensive Endeavors and uh they'll do one at a time I believe it was the three that we reviewed yeah but then I thought I heard maybe there was only going to be two so I thought well they'll start out small but it progressively I think it goes to three Parks total yep The Commons park is the first one the main one perfect any questions bring back good thank you thank you council members or commissioner members any comments no Chief I got nothing [1:01:40] **Steve Meyer (New Chair):** Jim [1:01:45] **Jim (Commissioner):** I just have a quick one on our Wellness 50 plus um we're doing a great series that started last Thursday on Recycling and um really informative and they were um telling us you know really great details about Recycling and what to recycle what not they showed some videos but what's coming up is really great is that we can tour the Washington currently Environmental Center that is Thursday February 28th from 5 to 6 p.m then the tour of the recycling Energy Center in Newport is Thursday March 2nd from 1 to 2 30. those items if you want to sign up for them you can go on um [1:02:30] **Jim:** www.okdalefun.com or you can reserve a spot by 651-747-3860 and then always if you want to do things with our Washington County Twin Cities events you can go on to um it's Wellness 50 plus Twin Cities in Meetup so great and we're always in our in the Oakdale Wellness or Oakdale updates if you want to look what what other activities we have going on [1:03:00] **Steve Meyer (New Chair):** Glenn [to Commissioner] [1:03:16] **Commissioner:** another event the Oakdale 50 plus is doing that's coming up is on March 28th it's the quarterly blood drive at the Oakdale Discovery Center starts at nine I'm not sure two o'clock three o'clock it goes to and the Maplewood Oakdale Lions will be there again this quarter [1:03:40] **Steve Meyer (New Chair):** what day is that again sorry [1:03:42] **Commissioner:** March 28th March 28th sign up now because I tried to sign up last time and it filled up pretty quickly awesome thank you motion to adjourn um I'll second all favorite I post motions adjourned thank you and have a great night yeah well thanks Paul for being chair and congratulations [1:04:00] **Steve Meyer (New Chair):** it's fun yeah