Based on the names and roles provided, here is the transcribed townhall meeting with speaker names added: [0:00] **Mary Fasbender:** 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. [0:15] **Mary Fasbender:** Welcome. And let the role reflect. We do have a quorum and a full council tonight after a long fun weekend. Council members, are there any um items to be considered or corrections to the June 16th meeting? [0:37] **Mary Fasbender:** No. Okay. Comments from the audience. At this time, we will hear comments from the audience via Zoom or in house. And we ask that the attendees raise the hand or step up to the podium and in uh to speak. and give their name and address, please. I also want to remind everyone that the public comment period is not for intended for an extended dialogue. [1:05] **Mary Fasbender:** In respect for everyone's time, I ask that comments be limited to three minutes per person. Thank you. Anyone wish to speak to the council at this time? Please step to the podium. State your name and your address. [1:28] **Mary Fasbender:** It's already on, Phil. [1:28] **Philip Beer:** Okay. I don't know how this work. I'm used to having to go green. There you go. Uh my name is Philip Beer. Uh I am a director at the school board, District 200. Um my address is 301 Maple Street in Hastings Minnesota. First of all, I'd like to to we don't get down here enough. Um I'd like to say on beha on behalf of the school board, um we're happy to be down here, but I'm really excited about introducing Dr. Christine Waramp Herman as our new superintendent. And I just wanted you to meet her. And here she is. [2:14] **Philip Beer:** She wants to say a few words first and and then we'll move on. Welcome, Christine. [2:14] **Dr. Christine Waramp Herman:** Thank you. Thank you. Yes, as he said, I'm Dr. Christine Waramp Herman, superintendent here for Hastings. Very excited to be here. Um, we are staying at the uh Confluence Hotel. We have a suite there. This came up pretty quickly, so we had to move fast. So, I just want to say I'm very excited to be here and love to partner with the city and and see all the opportunities we can have for our kids. So, thank you so much. [2:41] **Philip Beer:** Thank you. All right. Thank you, Beck. Um, I'm also here tonight on behalf of the school board and school district 200. um with on behalf of the Arena Project um in August of 2024, we had an outreach um and a request to pay for 30% of the cost of the fix of the roof. Um which is a building that we use 18% of the time. and is not owned by the district. Um we considered a lot of issues here. Um a few of them one is well we had a verbal request on this. Well verbal requests are not legal. Uh not for school boards. We can't spend public money on verbal request. Um it's statute 123B52 and all uh district expenditures must be supported by written contract formally approved by the school board with a defined purpose. No current or written agreements um are in hand right now are joint powers agreements. We don't have anything like that. So, it's something that um I know we can maybe talk about later. I know we're trying to move things along here. So, but I just want you to know we want a relationship. I don't know what's happened the past 10 years or 15 years, but I think the last couple of years we've really tried to build a relationship with the city of Hastings. Um we need that relationship. You need that relationship. Um, but we have to have things properly done and and just accounted for. And so I'm sure we'll probably discuss some stuff later, but um, this ask was a pretty tall task to ask for public funds, which we really can't even do because there's no written contract. There's nothing. So, um, it's, like I said, it's something that we can talk about later. Um, but I just wanted to make uh the known uh everybody known the feelings of the board. So, thank you. [5:13] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Phil. Anyone else wish to speak to the council at this time? And no one on Zoom. All right. Thank you. Any items to be considered council? [5:29] **Mary Fasbender:** Okay. Council, then I will accept a motion for the consent agenda. Council member Pemble has the first and a second by Council Member Lawrence. Any discussion councel? All those in favor of the motion state by saying I. [5:44] **City Council:** I. [5:44] **Mary Fasbender:** opposed to that motion state by saying nay. And that motion prevails. Tonight, under community development, we have a resolution for a special use permit cannabis retail for ABJ KM LLC 33rd and trunk highway 316. And for this item, we will have an introduction by our community development intern, Amelia. Welcome, Amelia. [6:14] **Amelia:** Hi. Good evening, mayor and council members. So, I'm here today to present the special use permit application that was then approved at our past planning commission meeting two weeks ago. And it's being um applied for by ABJKM Holdings LLC um for a business called Mango Cannabis, which is easier to refer to going forward. Um they currently have all of their application um materials all set including their security plan which has been uh signed off by our chief of police and all of the other correct zoning including this lot which is zoned for retail. It's currently an outlot for the Crossroads Mall and they have a purchase agreement with the Crossroads Mall that if all of the other parts of this uh end up falling in line, they will then officially purchase this property. Um they currently had uh this concept plan submitted to us, but we've already had discussions with them about changing a lot of small elements about it, including um access to 33rd Street, which they would not have a direct access to. Um so they would only have access through the parking lot of the Crossroads Mall um just for safety and a lot of other things like that. Um, but what we did come to an agreement upon for the special use permit is that the kind of net square footage of the site would not change drastically or they would have to go through another special use permit. Um, they also still do have to go through all of their uh platting, preliminary plat, final plat site plans, all of that because this will be a new construction um as well. So that will be a whole separate um discussion going forward. Um, and this, um, fits within all of our code in terms of 500 ft from, uh, low potency hemp, um, retailers, which there is one just past 500 ft um, because it's uh, close to the Cohorns, which has um, that um, license. And so it's pretty much um, good to go. And the staff recommended it and so does um, planning commission. and I can stand for any questions. [8:33] **Mary Fasbender:** Great. Thank you, Amelia. Any discussion? Councel? No. Council member Leifeld. [8:50] **Lisa Leifeld:** Hi, Amelia. Question for you. At the beginning, you said so they have not yet purchased the land. [8:50] **Amelia:** Correct. So, they have um a purchase agreement that is contingent upon them, I believe, receiving this special use permit as well as the licensing from the state. But it gets a little complicated with it being a new construction because they probably would have to start construction before they might actually get the license. So, we're currently in a kind of a conversation with that as well because it's seeming like a little bit confusing in terms of timing compared to other special use that have come before you that are um taking over a previously like constructed building. [9:28] **Lisa Leifeld:** So do they completely understand that this is in no way a yes to opening this facility or this um business there? [9:28] **Amelia:** Yeah. So they have um previous history in other states doing work like this, but we have made it very apparent that they we have two other special use permits that have been granted. The city will only allow one to be operational once the licensing from the state comes in. And they are now technically third. They're not third in line necessarily, but they are the third to come through. And it seems as though they have the toughest barrier to cross in terms of also having a new construction, but they are aware of those risks. And we um at planning commission had their legal representation here with us. [10:23] **Lisa Leifeld:** My my big concern would be that they completely understand if this were to pass here. That in no way is an indicator that so they've not been able to apply for their state licensing, I'm guessing, since they don't yet have our approval. So they are weeks if not a couple months behind the other two businesses that have already applied with the state. [10:41] **Amelia:** Yeah, that's my understanding. And it's it seems like through all the communication we've had with them that they understand that as well. Um we've been hearing from them today that they're once this gets through they'll start sending in their applications for their platting and all of that as well because they also we um have been talking with them. There was an easement on this property that is not in use whatsoever. And so they're also we're working with the vacation of that easement as well. But it seems like they are aware of all the risks in terms of that this is not a full steam ahead. [11:14] **Lisa Leifeld:** Yes. And I appreciate that comment. Mildly concerned about it seems that they're fully aware. So in an effort to not feed a dead horse here, I want to make sure that I'm going that we're going on the record and saying this is in no way an okay that this is going to happen from our from the city standpoint. So, I I understand where you're coming from and I understand where the staff's recommendation, everything's in place with that, but it does seem like a pretty big um cart before the horse sort of thing. So, thank you so much for the information. [11:53] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Leifeld. Council member Pemble. [11:53] **Dave Pemble:** Amelia, my question is now you said that the roadway to or the access to um 33rd Street is uh not going to happen. But is there um on the south side is this going to be just basically a driveth through into their area from the large parking lot? [12:19] **Amelia:** Yeah. So they will have concerned about that. Yeah. So they'll have um a joint parking agreement with Crossroads. Um the concern is just having an access point so close to that intersection. um and it doesn't really make sense to have access on um the state highway as well. So, they would only have access through the parking lot. Um and that's at least the discussions we'd had with them the last time we talked about any kind of site plan changes, but that would still all be approved at a later date. [12:54] **Amelia:** And there's like 56 parking spots or something like that. We we have discussed with them about reducing there. we those are not um in line with our um minimums. So um we have had discussions about reducing the amount of added parking spots as well. [13:09] **Dave Pemble:** That's that's what I was concerned about is how that parking area is going to lay out and we just don't want to see a drive-thru to the door into the rest of the parking lot. there needs to be some kind of uh divide with some kind of uh you know shelter or not shelter but uh trees or something there to make that separate totally. Thank you. [13:32] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Pemble. Council member Beck, just a really quick question and maybe you don't have the answer for it. [13:32] **Mya Beck:** Would purchasing this property only happen if they are able to build their cannabis retail or do they still want to have a business in town un or you know to my understanding it... Oh, also Jason. [13:53] **Jason Terasc:** Sure. Sure. Yeah. [14:06] **Jason Terasc:** Good evening everyone. Uh, my name is Jason Terasc. I'm a cannabis attorney with a law firm called Vicente. I work in Minneapolis. My law firm is um a the only national cannabis law firm in our country. Um, and I recognize all this is very confusing. So, I've been working on cannabis related legislation since 2019. Um, and I can tell you that I think to answer your question, um, council member our client Mango is interested in operating a retail location here if it's permitted and we are under no illusions as to whether there's a guarantee. So, I felt like wanted to pipe up about that. U, we understand that there are some other applicants and that there is a process in place to pick one among those. Um, to be honest, I don't fully understand how that's going to go and maybe you don't either, but we we are in this with eyes wide open and we are just looking for approval of the permit at this time and obviously we recognize there's still another step to take in terms of actually getting the final retail registration that we'll need to operate. So, I don't necessarily mean to interrupt uh the planning department here, but I'm I'm happy to take other questions if you wish. [15:17] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Vihrachoff. [15:17] **DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Thank you, your honor. Thank you, Amelia. That was a great and really helpful presentation. I do have a question for you, and I very much appreciated Council Member Liefeld, Council Member Pemble, and Council Member Beck's questions. Um, because I had many of the same when I was reviewing my packet last night. And so since there are to use your words no illusions that the business will go forward if they do not receive their state lensure, we are very clearly saying that this is simply one step um in that longer process. But because time is of the essence and they need to be building now, what does that potentially look like for the city? Here's what I'm actually getting at. Is it possible that they start building something, don't receive permission from the state, and now the city of Hastings has an eyesore and a half put together kind of business. That's... Do you do you know what I'm saying? I don't quite understand how something like that would work. Can you speak to that a little bit? [16:25] **Jason Terasc:** This is the first time every city in in Minnesota is going through this process. And it's been a I think confusing um for starters, but it was also confusing because the state legislature amended the statute just this last session to provide that cities and towns could provide retail registrations even with a preliminary approval for a license. Not until they these applicants actually have a license in hand. So, it's a long way to say that we have a conditional purchase agreement here. This is happening throughout the state. Many of our clients are doing this because it doesn't make sense for us to buy a property that we might not ever get the green light from a city to do anything with. So, we are not going to start construction unless and until we receive that retail registration. [17:17] **DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Thank you. Yeah. [17:17] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Vihrachoff. and uh council member Leifeld. [17:17] **Lisa Leifeld:** Your honor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the resolution for the special use permit for cannabis retail sales as presented. [17:39] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Leifeld. Second by Council Member Pemble. Any new discussion? Council. All those in favor of that motion state by saying I. [17:39] **City Council:** I. [17:39] **Mary Fasbender:** oppose of that motion state by saying nay. And that motion prevails. Thank you. Thank you again, Amelia. Nice work. Tonight under administration as we always do the first um meeting of the month we have a PFAS update and that introduction will be our city administrator Dan Wietecha. [18:25] **Dan Wietecha:** Dan thank you. Uh a lot going on. Uh it is unfortunately all in the background. So it's not necessarily things that you would see or uh realize are going on and and um maybe a common theme here they're one step in a long process also. So they might be exciting to me but uh not not so exciting to others. Um uh noting a few uh uh key updates over the past month. Uh we submitted two applications uh uh for consideration in the 2026 next year's state capital budget. And this is for the eastern treatment plant uh and also the western treatment plant. And although we expect we would only be proceeding with one at a time, uh this is just trying to keep our options open. Uh there's a deadline that we needed to meet with the application. So we submitted both figuring that as we proceed uh we can pull one back if necessary. Um but important to to keep that uh moving forward and and seeking uh state state funding. Uh uh couple of months ago we had uh applied uh for uh congressionally directed spending uh basically federal earmark uh and uh Senator Klobuchar submitted our project uh to the Senate appropriations committee uh that is for the western treatment plant uh and we applied for 50% of the costs about $10.8 million. Uh realistically, I think if it makes it through uh the congressional process, it'll be a lesser amount than that. Uh but we we'd rather uh uh start high and and come down if if necessary. Uh but very good that appreciate Senator Klobuchar passing that on. Um uh and also recognize that uh although it came out of her office, uh we've been told that uh Senator Smith and Congresswoman Craig also supported it, they they and the other uh uh members of Congress work together in order to submit as many projects for Minnesota as they can. So, uh it does have support of all three of our delegation. Um some very exciting news. I wish I had it in writing uh but is extremely exciting. Uh the new state budget. Uh so although we did not get um uh uh bonding dollars uh in the wording of the state budget, uh there are new state funds uh to augment the emerging contaminants grant program. Uh and we expect that our central plant, which we're expecting to break ground this summer, uh will receive an additional $2 million uh of assistance. Uh we had previously been told we are fundable, still waiting on the paperwork for $3 million of emerging contaminants, federal funds, uh but apparently the state budget included some additional funding towards it, but little bit different language, so it doesn't have the same cap or restrictions. So, here's a $2 million bonus uh that we were not expecting and and uh hadn't applied for because it didn't even exist. So, uh some good news coming. Uh we are anticipating I think it's even later on my my list of highlights here. We're anticipating the uh uh loan and grant paperwork with the public facilities authority uh in the next next couple of meetings. um not as exciting. Uh but uh here in the office we are uh beginning to or sort of midway through our process at working through uh budget recommendations for the coming year and absent uh additional funding and just noted we have that 2 million. So obviously this number is a little bit out of date, but absent additional funding, we're expecting a 37% water rate increase next year uh in order to uh work with the next uh treatment plant. That's exactly why we are out there trying to get state dollars, federal dollars, other grants, uh look at modifying some of the construction, taking some of the cost out. Um and certainly also uh continuing the uh environmental studies that uh hopefully can uh determine the source of the pollution and responsible party there. Um but uh it it absolutely I do want to emphasize that we are seeking uh assistance in multiple sources in order to try to reduce the impact on our residents and businesses. Um, uh, I just noted the public facilities authority, uh, PFA, that's the low-interest loan. Uh, but they also are the entity, uh, that handles both the federal and the state emerging contaminants grant. Uh, so that paperwork is, um, getting finalized for the central plant. Uh, and hope that it will be on the agenda in two weeks on the 21st. uh so that we um get can lock up that piece of the financing and with that in place we can begin awarding contracts for portions of the project and begin work this August. Uh the other big piece of the financing is the grant agreement uh with the state for the East Metro 3M settlement funds. Uh that amount is about $13.7 million. Uh last week uh as as packets were going to press last week, we were having some back and forth between city and state attorneys about uh some of the legal ease in that uh agreement and making sure that it um fairly represents the the project as well as um protect our interests. So that uh is also pending and hopefully will uh be on the agenda for the 21st. Uh the last piece which you can almost see but not quite is the the construction uh the uh plant the central plant was bid out as two separate projects. One being the raw water main uh connecting well 7 uh sort of near the tennis and pickle ball courts up to the the new treatment plant site and then the second project being the treatment plant itself. Um the bids were opened on the raw water main, but until we get some the the financing actually signed and in place, um we don't want to sign a $3 million contract until we've got the the loan to back it. Um uh and then the uh uh bid opening for the treatment plant itself will occur uh in a couple of weeks. I think the date is the 24th. uh and both both pieces are on schedule to uh begin construction this August. So there's a lot going on in the background. A lot continues to be going on and uh and as we go forward will be um but with that I can certainly take any questions that council may have. [25:28] **Mary Fasbender:** Thanks Dan. Any questions council? Appreciate the monthly update for us and also for our residents. Council member Leifeld. [25:28] **Lisa Leifeld:** Do we have any updates on the relocation of Carbonis that can be shared? It's a wonderful way to tell the public where they're going. [25:48] **Dan Wietecha:** I have heard, but I haven't heard it from them. So, I I'm reluctant just... Okay. I I think it's reliable, but I I I I haven't heard it from them, so I don't want to say, but but obviously they're planning on staying in town. Uh um timing and scheduling. they they needed to vacate before a new facility was ready. So, they're putting stuff in storage for several months, but excited that uh there'll be some some good news coming. [26:15] **Mary Fasbender:** Thanks Dan. Thank you, Council Member Leifeld. Council member Vihrachoff. [26:15] **DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Thank you, your honor. Dan, can you remind me when we're talking about the potential of the grant agreement from the East Metro 3M settlement that we hope that we're going to be talking about at our next meeting? Do we have a sense of potentially how much that is? [26:33] **Dan Wietecha:** Yes, because those are the numbers that we sent them and we're hoping that that's fully funded. Yes, the numbers are the numbers for the grant agreement are not in doubt. Uh, and I don't know it off the top of my head, but it's about $13.7 million, but it's actually to the penny in the agreement. And that's not the piece that's in in question between the the attorneys. Uh, that 13.7 is in addition to the 1.4 million that we uh had earlier this year for the uh land acquisition and business relocation assistance. Um although those are real dollar amounts, they're also based off of construction. So if the the prices come in less well, we get less grant. If the prices come in a bit higher, uh we may need to revisit and and look for an amendment to get additional funds. But that's based off of the engineers estimates and review what's u uh fairly attributable to well number five which has uh been determined as eligible for the 3M settlement funds. Uh and uh the other two wells served by that plant three and seven uh at this time are not eligible for uh uh the the settlement funds. So, uh, it's broken out. Uh, the construction figures about a 59 to 41% split. Uh, so, uh, a fair share of the cost is being uh, carried by well number five. You you need to have a site, you need to have a parking lot, whether it's serving one or three wells. So, a lot of the costs uh we're able to u uh get confirmation would be covered under the settlement agreement. [28:28] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Vihrachoff. And thank you, Dan. All right. Tonight, we also have a resolution for lower potency hemp edible retailers. And for this item, we will have an introduction by our assistant city administrator, Kelly Murtaugh. Welcome, Kelly. [28:47] **Kelly Murtaugh:** Thank you, mayor. Good evening, mayor, council members. Here I am. We're going to chat about cannabis again. Uh so today we're going to focus on lower potency hemp edibles. And I want to give you a little bit of a timeline of what's happened in this brief period of time since we started talking about some of these things and some changes that have happened that are causing then us to bring this to you tonight. Uh so we have licensed uh lower potency uh retail operations. Last year we licensed a number about seven locations and before the office of cannabis management existed they were also asked to register with the department of health. Okay so keep track of the language here. So we're starting with they register with OCM or they register with the department of health but they licensed with the city. Okay. And that was through about November early December of 2024. Then we switched roles with some of the uh legislative changes. OCM was created and the um registration moved from department of health to OCM. They started managing the registration of low potency. Okay, still with me? We're doing this together team. Uh so they had registration open through April of this year. We stopped licensing as a city when we changed our ordinance last December. So there was a gap where we aren't licensing low potency anymore. But the seven that were licensed are continuing to operate with our blessing through our ordinance. Okay. Still good. It gets messy. Okay. So then OCM reopened registration at the state level for low potency and said hey if you're selling and you want to keep selling you got to make sure your name is on this list. Okay. So then that caused some questions that came into the city like say if I put my name on that list, can I sell low potency in your city? And our response was no. Our ordinance doesn't allow it. Right? We're not doing any now registration of low potency retailers until they can get a license from OCM, which isn't going to happen until October of this year. So, what's happening right now is OCM is accepting registrations that started at the beginning of June. They're going to accept registrations until the end of August. And then they're going to say, "Hey, we're all going to pause for one month and just chill while you all prepare your applications for October 1st through the 31st. Low potency retailers can apply for a license with OCM." So, licenses won't be issued until, you know, November, December, or 2026. I don't know. Uh, so that means that our seven that we have approved already will have to wait that long to apply for their license. We continued to get questions on whether or not folks can outside of those seven operate in this city. And our answer was no. And so they're like, "Yeah, but the state says we can." So we reached out to the state and we said, "Hey, there's a little bit of confusion here as to what we can and cannot do and the role this the municipalities play in this." And their response was, "Yeah, they need to register with us. And if they want to continue operating, then they can continue operating, but if you have some rules that they have to follow, we encourage people to reach out to you. But there's no checks and balances on OCM's part like there is with the retail that we heard about earlier with the full strength retail with zoning and all of those kinds of things. But we still have those rules in place right now. We also looked at the list because it's published the list of folks who have registered and it's an interesting map. I shared this with the admin committee uh not too long ago and we and it shows our seven, but it also shows a number of other folks. We don't know if they're selling necessarily. We haven't done compliance checks, nor have they had conversations with us. Some of them are in areas that aren't zoned according to our ordinance. Some may be too close to others who already have approval to operate in our city. And so we thought, you know, maybe we should pay attention to this and see if there's a a workable solution. So, we talked with the administration committee earlier and we have a recommendation uh going forward for what we might be able to do in this what I call this gap between the opening of registration in June and the licensing that starts in October or whenever licensing will happen after that. So we have a gap of activity right now kind of this no man's land and our answer is no right now which is acceptable but another option is to have an interim process where we don't throw out our ordinance. We don't even change our ordinance. We amend it briefly with a resolution to say we're going to make you do all the things that you need to do for a normal registration except licensing because it's not available yet. And so you need to be registered with OCM, but until licensing becomes available, that's that's your requirement. And then once licensing becomes available, then you have to give us your license information. Did I lose anybody yet? Okay. Uh so that is our recommendation is that we start right now by communicating with those folks that are on the list for registration saying, "Hey, here's our ordinance, but we've created an interim process for you to register your business. So if you have an intent to sell in this city, here is what here are the things you need to do. Here's an application form. Here's an SUP you'll need. Here's the things that you need to do to have a business here. And you can start right away. And then you'll need to get a license later when OCM is issuing the licenses because some of these um establishments may be in potentially overlapping areas which would put them in conflict zoning wise. I am recommending that we also adopt uh res the resolution or connect the resolution from May where we did the first come first serve. If you are the first one to complete that process in this particular area then that you would be the one who would get the business in that area. If there are two or more that are in that similar area or would bump each other out because of zoning, then there would be a drawing if you completed that process at the same time. So, I'm going to pause now because I see questions floating about. There's little thought bubbles, question bubbles. [36:32] **Mary Fasbender:** They are. Council member Haus. [36:32] **Angie Haus:** Thank you, honor. Thank you so much, Kelly, for all your hard work on this. I know it is a long time coming and it's a really hard process and it's very confusing. And so I appreciate it so much. Uh, one of the questions I have is how many conflicting um businesses do we know of uh that are wanting to start or already have started within that that distance area group? [37:02] **Kelly Murtaugh:** So we don't Thank you, council member. Good question. Uh, we don't know of any that have started because we haven't done compliance checks or anything at this point. We are assuming all businesses come into town wanting to be compliant, right? So we don't know of any that have started already. We do know that some on the list are in a residential area. It's not allowed. Not allowed to have residential. Through communication, we will let them know that's not allowed, right? And they may have no interest because as an aside, folks may have put their names on the list or put a business name on the list just to be on the list. We don't know. We don't know their intent and OCM does no followup on these folks that we know of. Uh, so there are some that are within the 500, but just a handful at this point. And the only reason we know that is because they registered on the list. There could be more interest that they haven't registered yet. And we need to make sure that we have clear communication about what the rules are so that we can all play nice with our within our ordinance. Does that help? [38:04] **Angie Haus:** It does. Okay. [38:04] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Haus. ... Council member Leifeld. [38:04] **Lisa Leifeld:** This is so confusing. So, are you are you suggesting based on the ordinance currently there should not be anybody in the city of Hastings selling low potency... [38:29] **Kelly Murtaugh:** That is not what I'm suggesting. [38:29] **Lisa Leifeld:** Except for the seven. [38:29] **Kelly Murtaugh:** Except for those seven. Correct. [38:51] **Lisa Leifeld:** So, those seven are okay. [38:51] **Kelly Murtaugh:** Correct. But we shouldn't have any others that are correct until OCM comes in and starts handing out the licensing in October or we create an interact. [39:08] **Kelly Murtaugh:** That is correct. And it is not just OCM giving them a license. They still need to meet our local ordinances. They need to meet zoning requirements, distancing requirements. They don't just get a a free pass by the state. [39:08] **Lisa Leifeld:** Okay. I would imagine that that attorney back there is one of the busiest guys in the state right now because I don't Kelly, I don't know how you've done this. I mean, we're trying to keep up with it. But it just feels like every couple weeks there's a new daily, right? There's new additions, there's new changes. So, thank you so much for keeping us as up to date as you possibly can. Um I know this is um something a lot of businesses are really looking forward to and for for now understanding that the decision with one it is absolutely something that can be looked at in the future. It was a decision made by council. This is new. There's a lot of moving parts, right? We don't really know how it's going to, you know, pan out. So, understanding that at someday in the future, you know, there could be more than one. I don't know. I'm not saying there will be dispensary for dis right that's for re that's for full strength retail. That's what they're what our members in the audience are looking to do. From this standpoint, we have capped it at... we are not allowed... that's on my next on my list of things to talk about. We are not allowed to cap low potency edible retail um operations in our city. We are not allowed to cap it. Now there may be some interfering because of our zoning requirements and that kind of thing. So that may eventually naturally cap it, but it's not not in our ordinance and nor in any conversations have we had any capping of this because we're not allowed to cap low potency. [40:50] **Lisa Leifeld:** That's kind of where my question was leading to. So thank you. And then so these seven that are currently selling low potency that have been approved for zoning and everything within Hastings will have to go do this... They don't even have to do the OCM... [41:07] **Kelly Murtaugh:** They will have to do OCM. They won't have to do this interim process because they'll have to do the OCM. And if for any reason OCM came back and said, "Nope, then they'd lose then they would lose their current license registration depending on which time frame you're looking at. [41:24] **Lisa Leifeld:** Thank you, Kelly, so much for trying to make sense of all this for us. [41:24] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council. Council member Lawrence. [41:24] **Tim Lawrence:** Thank you. Uh, first I want to thank you again. Uh, we were just up at the LMC a few weeks back and they had the um this discussion and somebody went into that and they said, "Man, I wish Kelly would have come up here. She was way better at explaining everything." So, just that's very... I heard that I'm like I thought you needed to know that. [41:50] **Kelly Murtaugh:** Thank you. [41:50] **Tim Lawrence:** Um, but what I really want to know is so is the OCM limiting the amount of licenses they're giving out or is it anybody who gets on the list and follows every the things they will get a license? [42:30] **Kelly Murtaugh:** Yes, great question. So, right now with their registration list, there's nothing. It's just a list. You can fill out an application. Every one of us in this room could fill that out and get on the list. Um, so they aren't doing any checking, no no evaluation to my knowledge of any kind. When they get to licensing, there is no limit. They are not allowed to limit either. Uh, and so but they will still have to go through their process. [42:30] **Tim Lawrence:** Thank you. Yep. [42:30] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Lawrence. Council member Pemble. [42:30] **Dave Pemble:** Kelly, thanks for a lot of information. Um my question is there are seven retail establishments that meet our zoning our ordinance right now and there are 20ome in total or whatever the number is and I think the right idea is to try and get that information out as soon as possible to these other folks. [43:06] **Kelly Murtaugh:** I agree. [43:06] **Dave Pemble:** There may be people who sat down and they said, "Oh, I live on such such a street. I'm going to apply and see what happens." And you know, but we need to clearly get that information out as soon as possible. But I would recommend also that there should be a followup with these folks to make sure these are the things that have to be done and they don't misread what the information we're giving them. That's my only comment on this. I support the resolution being adopted and we'll have to wait. We'll have to wait until the state moves farther down the road. [43:36] **Kelly Murtaugh:** Fantastic. Thank you, Council Member Pemble. That is a a nice way to wrap up what I wanted to make sure that we communicated because one of the key things that we wanted to do was communicate with those 24 people no matter what. Just you're on the list, we're communicating with you and we wanted to share with you here's the city's perspective on this. Here's how you can be compliant for example. And so assume compliance and obviously these are businesses in our community and we want to support them in a positive way, right? And so we intend to communicate with all of them and say whether or not you intend to um retail do retail sales. Here's what you need to know about that and we'll communicate and open the doors to them. Uh Amelia's had a lot of phone calls on this and so we just want to make sure that she can tell everyone the exact same thing so that everybody's reading from the same pamphlet and that we can even put this information on our website so that if someone doesn't make the phone call and they're not on the registration list they can still access the information whereas right now we're kind of silent on it and this I think will help clarify a number of things. So um that was my final piece was clear communication. [44:58] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Kelly. Council member Leifeld. [44:58] **Lisa Leifeld:** Okay. 24 what? [45:18] **Kelly Murtaugh:** People on this registration list. 24 entities within the city of Hastings with Hastings addresses. Hastings addresses. Seven of them are already licensed. Two are outside city limits. Okay. two are in a um residential area and the others are um potentially in the right zones, but some may be too close to other retailers and that kind of thing. We haven't evaluated I did not bring that level of detail here. So, we can tell them exactly what challenge they might face in their letter. [45:55] **Lisa Leifeld:** So those additional 16 entities or names on that list with Hastings addresses have not come forward in the city of Hastings necessarily to apply for this. [45:55] **Kelly Murtaugh:** Correct. Some of them have made phone calls but they haven't done anything else. [45:55] **Lisa Leifeld:** Thanks. Yeah. [45:55] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Leifeld. Any other discussion? Councel? Council member Haus? [45:55] **Angie Haus:** No. I'd like to make a motion to approve the resolution for new lower um potency hemp edible registrations. [46:13] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Haus. With a second from council member Leifeld, any new discussion, councel, all those in favor of the motion, state by saying I. [46:13] **City Council:** I. [46:13] **Mary Fasbender:** opposed to that motion, state by saying nay. And that motion prevails. Kelly. Thank you so much. It's a dayto-day. We know that and it's a challenge, but we're going to get through it. All right. Under administration as well, we have Hastings Civic Arena Rates. For this item, we will have an introduction by our city administrator, Dan Wietecha. [46:39] **Dan Wietecha:** Dan, thank you, mayor. Um, I get to follow another complex topic and try to present after Miss Murtaugh. Um, there's two or three pieces that are moving in parallel here. Um, so I want to try to present it in in order, but although they're they're distinct lines of of thought that they are all related. Um, uh, obviously this is related to um expenses that the city incurred, capital expenses the city incurred with our civic arena project. Uh, it was about a $5 million project. uh after we net out uh some grant money that was thankfully received. Our debt service, our uh bond payments are about $577,000 per year for for 10 years uh to pay the uh project costs as well as interest and and issuance costs. Um we uh consistent with uh past um practices um approached the school and asked uh if they would have an interest at paying 30% uh as we've done with other capital projects that benefit both entities. Uh the school board said no. Understand that. um uh mind to jump off on a tangent here. Discussion that several of us had back in September after that was we could do something very similar to this, probably at higher numbers for the school district, but uh wanted to take time to invest in our relationship with the school board. uh and the JPA group has met probably at least a half dozen times since then. Uh we had a joint meeting earlier this spring of both full boards or at least those that were able to attend. Um so take that that um relationship piece as important for the community uh both the school and the city and and all of our shared uh residents. Um anyways, um recognize that uh the school board was not interested in at the 30%. Uh we still have uh payments to make and it's expensive and uh the recommendation coming out of the parks committee of council. Uh they met a couple weeks ago, I think on the 20th on the 20th of June. Uh is two parts. one, um, recognize that, uh, we already increased our prime ice rental rates, uh, by $30 an hour. Uh, let's do it another 10 bucks an hour. So, the 30 bucks is about $50,000. Another $10 per hour uh, is about 16,17,000. depends on the actual amount of ice ice rental, but uh mathematically it's it gets there. Um uh and and put that on all of our users of those prime rates. Essentially, uh the boosters and the high school combined 1,600 to 1,700 hours. Uh but uh we have a lot of uh a lot of users and let's spread that across all of them. uh uh the the prime users if they're taking sort of the the leftover times, early mornings or uh odd times uh uh they pay also but uh not not raise those rates as drastically. Uh so that's the first part is looking at uh prime rental rates. Uh the second part is uh recognizing that the school district gets first choice of times for its games and practices and all the other users including the other prime time users get a workaround schedule. Um uh with that the recommendation is put in place an additional uh $55 per hour uh premium. And these I guess the other piece I should note is that these uh two different pieces uh would be uh in different uh uh legal uh contractions. Uh so the acrosstheboard rates are currently in our fee schedule set by ordinance. First reading, second reading, adoption, publication. Um so put that additional $10 an hour on top of the prior 30 in the fee schedule in the ordinance. Uh but we also have annually a lease that get that gets approved with the school district saying here's the terms of their use of the facility. Uh pay the prime rental rate exclusive use of the locker room with an upcharge for cleaning. Uh they get gate fees. Um there's some piece in there about um some some staffing for for referees I think for the games. uh but lays out the terms every year October to March. Here we are before after March, so the contracts expired. We're before October. We don't have a new contract yet. Let let's put that second piece, the the premium into the lease since it applies to one entity, not across the board to all entities. So, it's sort of two parts. uh the prime rate uh prime prime rental rate as well as the premium rate. Neither one's ready to adopt tonight. Uh this is more for discussion, feedback, right direction. Uh if this is the direction to go, we can bring the ordinance to the next meeting, first reading. It'll take you a couple meetings to adopt that 10 bucks. the lease um really just needs to be adopted before October. So if the school district were to say, "Hey, our finances work a little bit differently. Can we... I don't even know what it looks like, but I've heard repeatedly that the school district has different buckets of funding and this can be paid for that, but this one can't do that." If we happen to hit the wrong bucket, as long as the math works, I think there's other ways to work with it. But here we are, three, four, four months uh before that October date. There's time for the school district to work with it or not work with it. Uh there's time to have the attorneys put this update into the lease so that there is a written contract saying here's what's expected. Um, it's not in front of you tonight, so you can't vote and say we like the lease. Uh but you can certainly give some indication if this concept is in the right direction. Um, I think I bounced around a little bit, but I think I hit the highlights of the... Oh, the other piece I would note is in total $30 on rates, an additional $10 on rates, and $55 on premium totals about $87,000 a year. uh which uh over 20 years, a 20-year payment would be pretty close to that 30% figure. So, in terms of is the city comfortable with these numbers, are we um expecting too much on our uh general residents and property taxpayers that aren't using the facility? This is consistent with a number that we were comfortable with uh a year ago or or eight years ago or or even just consistently with how uh capital projects have been funded in the past. So I I think that there's noting where that math comes from is worth uh pointing out. Also with that I can take questions from the city council. [55:18] **Mary Fasbender:** Thanks Dan. Any questions council? ... Council member Vihrachoff. [55:18] **DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Thank you, your honor. Thank you so much, Dan. Um I am um a part of the parks and recck committee, which also means that I'm a part of the uh joint powers uh committee as well, and we have had many, many, many meetings. I'm very thankful to the school district and to um my fellow council members for helping us to get to this point. Um, I know that there is a lot of of of math of explanation of of history that has gone into this. Um, and I just wanted to thank both entities. It's it's a lot of work to get to this point. Um, I think that we all have the same goal and that is working to serve our community. Um, especially our students and our student athletes to the best of our ability. Um that is my sense that comes out of those meetings or at least that would be my goal for what's coming out of those meetings. Um we have had quite a few meetings and we've got kind of buried in some of the details and and the information in our in redoing our joint powers agreement. So I had two questions for today that I just wanted some clarity on that I was hoping that you could help with. Dan, since most of the elected officials with the school board and on city council are newer, when we talk about having a precedent of a 30% 70% split where the city covers 70%, the school district covers 30% of those shared projects, shared entities. Historically, to the best that you can remember, how long back are we talking about that? My sense was well more than 10 20... oh 50 years. [57:08] **Dan Wietecha:** 50 years. Okay. Easy. [57:08] **DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** So again, more than 40 years of this established agreement with the school district and the city making that partnership. More than four established decades. Thank you. And so my next question would be um if we did not if the school district is not able to reallocate renegotiate um be able to make this payment and this falls onto the city as part of the $5.2 million the city has already paid for the civic arena in terms of these uh upkeep and changes. Where would the city get that money? What would we be looking at as a city council? Would that come to us to cut other programs? Would that come to us necessarily to possibly raise taxes if the school district isn't covering that established 30%. Could you help me to understand that? [58:17] **Dan Wietecha:** I I want to step back from the 30% figure. It's too easy to throw that out. I don't think that's the right answer to your question. If the... maybe it is your question. Um if the if the school district and other users uh did not pay additional funds towards this, that cost entirely would be the city's responsibility. And it I believe there's a GEO backing to the bond saying we will raise taxes if necessary to make this payment around $577,000 per year. Um any amount that is passed on to users of the facility obviously reduces that amount. Uh so um the proposal here the increased rates prime rental rates plus the additional premium on the school is about $90,000 or just under $90,000. So 577 minus 90 means $460,000 is being paid through property taxes. Um, so if if that money wasn't coming in, yes, we would still have to pay that either raising taxes or cutting police and fire or road maintenance or park maintenance or whatever it might be, we need to to balance that. Um, that said, if the uh school district entirely were to say, "We're out. we don't want to lease it for the next season. We would lose whatever the math on their portion is, $30,000, $40,000 uh for their portion of this increase. We would also lose about $85,000 of their existing rent towards the facility. We'd certainly see some uh reduction in costs. I think we could backfill that with some additional other users I you know renting it. Uh but it would it would put a hole in in the budget and we would need to similarly make that up with raise taxes, cut services, uh find other entities that want to rent um ice time. I understand that there's a shortage of ice in the region. So hopefully we could backfill those whoever 360 hours fairly easily, but don't know that. Is that... [1:01:42] **DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Thank you, Dan. Mayor, may I answer? Continue. I just wanted to thank Dan for helping me to better understand that. And then to reiterate to this body and to anybody that's watching. Um, as well of course to the school board that that would not be my first choice, right? We want Hastings Raiders to play on Hastings ice. Um, and I really appreciate you being here tonight, Director Beer, and I intend to come to more schoolboard meetings in hopes of deepening our relationships together between the two entities as well. [1:01:42] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Vihrachoff. Council member Leifeld. [1:01:42] **Lisa Leifeld:** So being on council now for nine years, um hearing that this is an agreement that's over 40 years old, we could probably say it sounds to be a bit of a gentleman's agreement, right? Back when there was probably only gentlemen sitting on both of these boards, the school board and the DAS. Um obviously something needs to be in writing. There is a lease agreement that discusses certain aspects of course and I think what we're looking at right now is increasing the fees on that lease agreement is what we're talking about. Okay. I will say um I am not of all the things I say this up here all the time. Um this is not my day job. You'll be surprised to know I don't know the law, but I do sit next to Greta. And um the first time I've ever heard reference to statute 123b.52 was tonight. So last August when the school board said no, nobody mentioned the statute. When we got together in September of last year to talk about that decision, nobody mentioned this statute. So kudos to you for coming up with this statute, but it's the first I'm hearing of it. I don't know if anyone else sitting here has heard reference to this, but again, not an attorney. Uh, now we've got some more information. I mean, and I I can Google with the best of them, right? and understanding that a lease agreement is a contract because it talks about contracts on school build of school buildings and I guess according to our attorney a lease agreement is a contract. So had the school board in August said hold up we can't say yes because we need something more formal. That is not what happened. That is not what the school board said in August of last year. Had they said that for the last 11 months, we could have been having a different conversation. If this was about dotting eyes and crossing te's and putting something on paper, this could have been done. We have an attorney who sits with us every week, right? This is something we could have pursued. Um, so as said, this is just talking over financial options, right? This isn't a decision-making night. We're not voting on anything. We have been making excellent progress. I sat on the JPA for years. In my first four years, we met regularly and then everything sort of went away and now it's back. And that's great because we do need this relationship, right? We need residents and you need students. So, we have to come to something as a community to make this all work. My children were hockey players. I'm a firm believer in athletics. Not everybody sitting on your school board or necessarily at the DAS feel that same way. So, when you stand up here and say I speak on behalf of the school board, that concerns me because it's not what I'm saying. I'm worried that you are not able to speak just as any more than I could. I would never be in front of anyone and say on behalf of the city council, this is how we feel. I don't know how you all feel, right? I respect that we have differences. I respect that we have different things that drive us, different things that we're passionate about, different places we want to see our our tax dollars go, right? Which is why we're a council. It's why we're elected officials. Same for you. We're fortunate though that we do get to listen to each other and come together, put aside some of our differences and make decisions that's based on the best of our community. So, that being said, we need to come up with this money. That rink needed the help. No doubt about it. We would have had another empty building and the school would have been looking for a place to play hockey. It needed a roof. it needed. It no longer has the the freon or the chemicals used to cool the ice to make the ice. Right? So, I just want to say that 11 months later, here we sit. Thank you for coming to our meeting, but to me it feels like a Hail Mary, right? Touchdown. Tommy is throwing the ball and we just don't have any answers from the school board. So they said no to us in August. We have to come up with a way to increase this money and it's not fair to put it on the taxpayers. So that's my two cents. I am a despite what might have been said in the paper, I absolutely want hockey to stay in Hastings. I do, but not everybody plays hockey and not everybody in the community... Everybody flushes their toilet and everybody drinks water. That's a concern for me. And if you're going to raise taxes, it better be to get clean drinking water. I will not stand behind raising taxes for soccer. Thank you, council. Or for for hockey. So, thank you. [1:06:56] **Mary Fasbender:** Council member Pemble. [1:07:26] **Dave Pemble:** I agree with what's being said all around and I guess I'm partly guilty as a former member of the school board and also a former member of the school board's maintenance uh committee. And yes, we've gone through I think uh six superintendent, maybe seven since this was originally started on developing this. Basically, it's a handshake agreement. It's a gentleman's agreement that happened that we have not neither when I was on the school board or now that I'm on the city council. We did not address and bring the legal aspects as noted by statute that was given by Mr. Beer. I think we as two parties in this community, we need and absolutely have to work together to make this community greater. And yes, handshake agreements were the days of a bunch of old guys sitting in suits in both entities and okay, this is how this works and everybody agreed. But we did not stand up and do our part in both instances when I was on this the school board or even before that in the maintenance committee not thinking about what these things are going to implicate and and have to be dealt with. We've just kind of... yep, it's all fine. We'll work through it. Well, now we've gotten to a point that we have flared up and made a very pointed statements and issues, but we need to calm down and make this work for both IDS 200 and the city of Hastings. Thank you. [1:09:12] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Pemble. Council member Lawrence. [1:09:12] **Tim Lawrence:** Thank you. Uh I'm also part of the park and wreck. Um I've been to those joint meetings. I've had conversations with um Mr. Beer and everything that I was hearing is number one, they made the vote so they're not going to do anything unless something changes. Unless you bring something else to our table, we're not going to talk about it because we made the vote, right? You were in those meetings, you heard the same thing. The other thing again concern was everybody needs a piece of the pie. Who is eating the piece of the pie? So all the hockey players, all the hockey associations, the whatever. So, in the sit down that we had as the three of us and Dan and uh Chris, we all said, "Okay, how does everybody kind of take a little bit of everything and whatever?" So, that's how the the that's how the $10 came up. Okay, everybody. Yes, we're doing your 30. We're going to do another 10. Okay. In those same meetings, I heard "we know you're going to up the price on us. We just need to know what that number is." Right. So then, so that's when we came up with, okay, you're getting prime ice, prime time, 3:00 and four o'clock, whatever, right after school and then your 7 o'clock hockey games and then your tournaments, whatever. So that's where that other number came from, right? So that is what this document that you're putting in front of us, all that put together is everyone's getting a little bit of the pie. the school board is going to have to look at that and say, "Hey, is this kind of the number we were looking for or expecting?" I don't know. But we had to start somewhere. So, just so everyone's aware. Again, we're not voting on this right now. We're just we're throwing it out there to say kind of get the interest having us having this discussion. I feel like we've had a really good discussion and I appreciate everyone's comments tonight and I just wanted to make sure that was put out there as well to everyone. Thank you. [1:11:01] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Lawrence. Council member Beck. [1:11:01] **Mya Beck:** Just to add one more thing now that we've made it clear that it's council member Lawrence, Vihrachoff and I on the JPA, the parks and rec committee. Uh we have spent like Dan mentioned countless meetings going line by line with contracts and I think what we all figured out in those meetings is that we need a contract for something. This is our solution. I we spend two hours at our parks and recck committee meetings minimum just talking about this one topic. It doesn't seem like we've gotten anything done in our JPA meetings and I think this is our solution to have everything in writing. Again, it's not finalized tonight and it's something we can always talk about, but this is what we've come to an agreement as countless hours and I spent a lot of time thinking about it at home and it it's hard and we just want to do better. So, thank you. [1:11:46] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Beck. Council member Haus. [1:11:46] **Angie Haus:** Thank you, Honor. Um, I just want to echo everyone on council here. I I'm in full agreement with you all. I uh know that these meetings have been um a long time coming and they have been vigorous and um I appreciate the JPA's commitment to that as well. And I appreciate the school board's commitment to meeting with us as well um in fostering our relationships together because I do believe that this is an extremely important for our city in Hastings um for all of our residents. But I do want to echo um something that council member Leifeld said that if we have to raise taxes for me it's got to be on water. It's got to be on more important issues um that are critical towards our life um for all residents. So thank you again. [1:12:41] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you council member house. I'll just add I I appreciate both bodies trying to get together to become to make a resolution but as we know history was 40 years ago and it was talked about as we all know not in a contractual type of a document but moving forward that's what we want to do. We want to move forward for both parties, for this community to continue to have an ice arena for our hockey players in our community, both hockey boosters and the school. So, I appreciate everybody's efforts working together. It has been numerous hours and I know there's been sleepless nights over this some of these people on this Diaz because they're hard conversations to have about kids not being able to play hockey in our community. So, we need to work together and I'll just again say thank you and we will come to an agreement and we're hoping that it's for the betterment of Hastings. Dan, just a quick comment for clarification. [1:13:51] **Dan Wietecha:** Um, although the framework, the format of this joint powers agreement, uh, goes back to the 1970s. Um, and I don't know, I didn't research all the history. It might have been largely a handshake agreement back then. I do want to point out that multiple capital projects over the last couple of decades have had a formal approved written contract. So, it's just a matter of... I've heard a lot of impression that somebody less knowledgeable might just be hearing some of the comments here thinking that this has just been made up as we go. maybe a couple generations ago, but the last couple of decades at least, uh, these projects have had a formal written contract to them. So, I just want some clarification on that one point. Thanks. [1:14:50] **Mary Fasbender:** Thanks, Dan. Council member Leifeld. [1:14:50] **Lisa Leifeld:** Dan, but this one did not. So, excellent clarification. This one did not have the opportunity to have a contract written. Do we know why there was no... I I understand what you're saying. We don't want to put a blanket statement out. [1:15:13] **Dan Wietecha:** I I I I don't want to speculate on but but I a year ago over several conversations with uh school representatives primarily uh Dr. Champa. Uh there were concerns about if the school were to agree to 30% of this project, what does that project entail? Does it have to entail the include the uh solar array on top of the roof? Uh does it have to include the roof? Could it be just the refrigeration? Does it have to be over 10 years to match the city's bond payments? or could it be spread over 20 years? Um, what sort of interest rates? Uh, could it be phased in so that the school wouldn't have to pay for the first year or two? We didn't have the opportunity to particularly negotiate those, put it into some written contract saying here's the vote. It was more a matter of here's the project historically 30%. Is there an interest at working with something like this? What do we have the attorneys write up? [1:16:31] **Lisa Leifeld:** Clarification then, Dan, based on your last sentence, this was just the city going to them saying, "This is what we're doing. Are you interested?" When the answer was no, we didn't proceed with the contract piece that we're talking about. That's what I just took out of that. [1:16:46] **Dan Wietecha:** Yes. Thank you. [1:16:46] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Leifeld. Thank you Dan. If you wish to just have a a couple of questions. Prime Ice. Phil, would you state your name again, please, and your address? [1:17:08] **Philip Beer:** Philip Beer, 301 Maple Street, Hastings, Minnesota. Um, just have a couple of questions. Do we have a copy of the joint powers agreement? Do we have one in place? a a signed copy. Is it ahead? Is there one that's signed and in force right now? [1:17:43] **Dan Wietecha:** There is an existing JPA uh from I believe 2018 or 2019. Uh but it does not spell out any specific project. It's more of an umbrella form. [1:18:29] **Philip Beer:** All right. Prime Ice 3 to 5:00. You know, I talked to uh the old Hastings hockey coach and he... matter of fact, I just talked to him about it last night about uh prime ice time. He said we did the district a favor by using practice time at 3 to 5 because the arena always sits empty and it always used to. So, um, the hourly rate, and this is going from the the man who who was there every night. So, um, what I'm asking is how do you charge a prime rate? Is it 7:00 at night or is it uh, you know, or is it to me everybody, the youth program should have a prime rate, too. if they have an evening hockey tournament or a daily, you know, a Saturday, Sunday hockey tournament, how do you how do you charge a premium rate to one entity and not others or do you not do that? So, are you charging the prime rate to just the school district or are you are you charging every entity? Saturdays are prime time, right? I mean, um, 3:00 to 5 in the afternoon at the hockey arena, you could you could shoot a cannon through it and not hit anything. So, um, except because the varsity hockey team practices then, um, because like the former coach said, we used to practice in the morning, you know, but we adjusted it and we made that adjustment to kind of do the district, the the city a favor as far as, you know, nobody uses the ice from 3:00 to 5. So, how do you charge a prime rate from 3:00 to 5:00? I don't I don't get how you see that's a prime rate. I I don't understand that. I guess that's open for discussion, Phil. I mean, this is just a what we're talking about tonight. It's what was written up by the committee and it's a proposal right? Right. And I understand, believe me, I know proposals and we'll hear. But you know what we don't want to do either? I don't want to have to cut teachers because students need to learn and um uh we just made adjustments of monies that we had to do. That's part of our jobs and uh so you know we understand fully what the situation is. Matter of fact, I think it's more important because we deal with kids and learning. And so, um, this sounded a little one-sided tonight. Um, I think we came to the table. I was at the August 24th meeting, the work session. There was no other proposals. Okay. And so, you know, I was there and I remember it. You know, we can get we can get the records of it if you want. there was there was nothing there. So, um to say that we just said no, no, no, no, that's just not a fact. Um we're starting maybe to hear some changes now in in what this situation resolution could be. But um the ask was huge and as you know education right now is not strong either. We're blessed because we have a very strong district financially right now. But that can turn quickly just as it can here. So, we have to watch ourselves and we have to be smart with what we do because we love our teachers and we love our kids and and that's what it's all about to us. Um, and the taxpayers pay every way. Okay? they pay whether it's levies for schools for tax for the we're always getting taxed as citizens and I'm talking as a citizen now um it's not just uh if the school district walks away the city's got to pick up the tab I mean the way that was stated to me and the way it sound that's the way it sounded to me um you is is a little shortsighted and making us making it look like the board decided to just move away and and not not come to the table and that's just not true. Now, I haven't been to the joint powers. I I I'm not part of that committee, but um I've heard very little conversation in my three years of being on the board about this issue. Very little conversation with anybody. So, um, and I asked a couple of questions at the August 24th meeting, and they weren't answered really, I thought, adequately. The first one was, who's the biggest user of the facility, and I was told it was the school district, which is wrong. And then I asked about other entities, and I talked to you about other entities, didn't I, when we had our discussion, Tim? Um, so there are solutions. Um, but we do have to work together. [1:23:39] **Tim Lawrence:** What are those? [1:23:39] **Philip Beer:** huh? [1:23:39] **Tim Lawrence:** You just said there are solutions. [1:23:39] **Philip Beer:** I I don't know. You know, we haven't had enough conversation. Like I said, I I don't know. I don't know what they are just just as much as you do. But we're not the bad guy here. A 40-year handshake legally. I don't know. We got legal, too. Okay. So, um we'll see. Let's let's I think people have to sit down. But, uh this this handshake that was done where most of the guys are dead and I said the same thing at last year's last week's school board meeting and everybody laughed. But you know what? It's the truth. This agreement was this agreement is a nothing burger to to 2025. And if we're dealing with anything financial, it has to be contractually. I mean, that's just common sense. I used to be a business person. When I went for my business loan, I had to have a business plan put together, right? I mean, we have to have a plan. Okay? And because something was what it was 45 years ago, that is not the way it necessarily is now. As you said, all of those men who probably made that decision maybe did it wrong. Thank you. [1:24:57] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you. Thank you for your comments, Phil. Council member Leifeld. [1:25:14] **Mary Fasbender:** Oh, did someone else want to speak? Um, the public comments were actually at the beginning of the meeting, unless you're speaking against... No, I just asked. Okay. Thank you though. [1:25:31] **Lisa Leifeld:** So, if at any point it seemed accusatory, I want to just state the facts. That's all it is here is in August of last year, the school board voted this down. That is a fact. This isn't an accusation. It's a fact. And that's okay. You, the school board has a bucket of money. Nope. Nope. The school board has their money. And I get it. Everybody's cutting. We get it. We can't all have everything we want. So, guess who ends up paying this? The hockey players. These rate increases would absolutely I I know quite a bit about business myself. I'd have to assume, you know, that this is going to work just like a tariff that the students are going end up paying more money. And that's unfortunate. We don't want to have to fee students out of being able to be in chess club, be in any organization. This isn't just about sports, you know, right? Theater, um, choir, any of these things. That's who's ending up picking it up is the students and the parents. So, we're with you, Phil. This isn't accusatory to the school board at all because you have to make cuts. So if I made any implication that made it sound like it was, it is not. It was just a fact. And I agree with you. A gentleman handshake, shame on both of us organizations for not having something as council member Pemble indicated written down sooner. So I do want to state at no point are we pointing fingers at the school board on this. We just have to come up with the money is what this is about. So, I appreciate your input and we abs we absolutely understand how hard it is to have to cut. We get it right. 37% next year on your water bill. We understand how hard this is. So, thank you, Phil, Mr. Beer for being so passionate. We love that. [1:27:19] **Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Leifeld. Any announcements council? Okay, I do have a few. Uh, Tuesday, July 8th, which is tomorrow, uh, party in the park. Celebrate National Parks and Recreation Month with live Caribbean music, activity booths, caricature artists, bouncy house, face painting, and inflatable obstacle course. The event is free, but food trucks do charge for food. Thursday, July 10th, music and market with the International Reggae Allstars, supported by Ruth and George Dawing Charitable Fund. Friday, July 11th, movie in the Park with Muasa The Lion King, sponsored by Ardent Mills. Please bring a non-perishable food donation. Wednesday, July 16th, story time in the park. The theme is Bears, a partnership with Pleasant Hill Library. Please take note that closure from Tuttle Drive to 180th Street begins on July 16th. Arts Wreck and Police Wednesday, July 9th from 1 to 2:00 p.m. at Pioneer Park with live reptiles exhibit and message on a rock art activity art activity supported by SC Toys Country Financial, Hastings Lions Club, Hastings Family Service, Community Education, and Hastings Prescott Art Council. Coffee with a Cop will be Tuesday, July 15th at McDonald's. Happy birthday, late last month to Council Member Mya Beck. Meetings. Wednesday, July 9th, 6 PM, Art and Culture Commission. Thursday, July 10th, the Hedra meeting has been cancelled. Monday, July 14th, the planning committee meeting has been cancelled, but there is a planning commission meeting at 7 pm. Tuesday, July 15th, Heritage Preservation Commission at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 16th, Parks and Recreation Commission at 6 PM. Thursday, July 17th, Public Safety Advisory Commission, 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 21st, 7:00 p.m. council. And another addition, our Hastings Rivertown Days is starts Thursday, July 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th. And you can view um all the activities on our website also on the chamber of commerce website. I would stand for a motion to adjourn. [1:30:20] **Mary Fasbender:** Council member Pemble and council member Lawrence. A second. Any discussion? Councel. All those in favor of the motion state by saying I. [1:30:20] **City Council:** I. [1:30:20] **Mary Fasbender:** opposed to that motion state by saying nay. We are adjourned.