All right. All right. Good evening. Uh this is the April 16th Cottage Grove City Council meeting which I'm calling to order. Our uh first order of business is the pledge of allegiance. So please rise. 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. Right. Will the clerk please do the role? Council member Clson here. Council member Olsen here. Council member Theiti here. Council member Garza here. Mayor Bailey here. Uh, next on our agenda this evening is open forum. This is the opportunity for anybody to speak on anything that's not on tonight's agenda. Uh there was a signup sheet out in the entryway and there was no one that signed up. So I'm just going to check to make sure no one in the audience wants to speak this evening. Not seeing any. I will go ahead and close the open form and then we'll move to number five uh which is adoption of the agenda. Move the agenda. Second. Motion by council member Olsen. Second by council member Theiti. All those in favor signify by saying I. I I opposed. Motion carries. All right. Number six, we have two presentations this evening. Uh both of them by our our public works director, Ryan Berine. We'll start with A, which is the uh everybody's favorite time of year, uh spring cleanup and uh the presentation of what we do in Cottage Grove. So, welcome Ryan. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. And you also have the flyer uh in front of you uh tonight. So, on uh Saturday, May 3rd, always the first Saturday in May, we have a spring cleanup. I'm here a little early talking about it because we don't have a council meeting until May 7th. So, few weeks in advance. Um, real similar to other years down at the public works facility on West Point Douglas Road right across Highway 61 from Target. Um, we take all manner of of things for either trash or recycling. Um, also other other uses like like shredding that we do there as well. Um it's been several years, but I still like to mention the hazardous waste component that did go away. Um I guess four years ago now when Washington County doesn't come there anymore. They look for folks to go to the environmental center just up in Woodbury. Um so that that is something that we do not accept. Uh everything's on the screen here that we do. Prices are very similar to last year. Um able to, you know, really maintain those. We have good vendors that we work with um to do that. Uh you know, I think a lot of people I always like to mention like to come early. So, we'll have a line all the way down to the roundabout early on. Um, and I think people like to get about their day, but if you do want to come later, it's a lot quieter. So, I'd say by 10 or 11:00, the line's kind of worked its way through. And you can probably get through in 10 or 20 minutes after 11:00. So, just something I like to mention. We are there rain or shine. And I'm hoping it's more shine this year cuz last year it was about 40° and raining the entire day. Some of the guys who've worked in public works over 30 years said it was probably their coldest event that they've ever worked. But we we were there the whole day and we made it work. So, um yeah, come on down and and bring your items. Any questions? Uh council, any questions for Ryan? The only thing I'll just mention, Ryan, is uh I think it's pretty awesome that yeah, there are some fees for most most items, but uh they're small, but there are, for example, if a car battery, it's free and pretty much anything electronics, including uh microwave ovens. And the only reason I'm bringing this up or old TVs or such is the one thing we don't want to see is those out on the side of the garage or out in the out in the backyard or something like that just collecting dust, so to speak. So, uh, use this opportunity to kind of clean out uh clean out your garage or the areas around uh your yard. For sure. All right, sounds good. All right, then. Uh, B is Arbor Day presentation. All right. So, next week uh is uh Arbor Day in uh well, not just in Cottage Grove, but across the United States. So, talking about all those events we have for our 2025 Arbor Day uh celebration. Um it is actually an internationally recognized event. We're really promoting, you know, the planting of trees, conservation, uh, reforestation, uh, both protecting everything that we have and planting new trees, which is both of those are a big part of what we do. Um, first is a volunteer tree planting event um that we do each year. It'll be next Tuesday, April 22nd, and it's in that trailway corridor. So, that's the uh corridor where we've got the overhead power lines with the trail, not under the power lines because we can't plant trees there, but near Imperial uh Street uh where it crosses through. Um that's where we'll be uh doing uh the planting event starting at 1:00 p.m. Uh we also have a tree giveaway that we keep doing uh that's always been extremely popular and the the way we started doing it during CO really stuck and and we're continuing to do that. So, it's a drawing. Um it's out there on social media. There's a QR code I know that people can uh use to to put their name in the drawing uh through next Wednesday at 8 a.m. uh for a bare root tree. We have 100 trees that we're giving away. Um I think we usually get like a thousand or more people entering. So definitely put your name in and and see if you can be a lucky one to get that tree and then we actually deliver it to the home between 7 a.m. and noon on April 25th, which is Arbor Day. So that's always a great event. And then when you think about kind of maintaining what we have, maintaining our forest, we'll do a buckthorn pickup. Uh so if you have buckthornne on your property, um and you remove it and bring it out, you know, to the edge of the rideway or the back of curb depending on what your street is like, um we will pick it up for you next week. So we do look to have folks call that in um by Friday of this week so we can plan to do that pickup um throughout the week uh next week. With that, I do have the Arbor Day proclamation on the screen and stand for any questions. Sounds good. I'm gonna ask one weird kind of question and do you know what kind of trees I was gonna ask for giving away? You know, Mr. Mayor, council, I should probably know that and I couldn't tell you off the top of my head. That's probably a smart thing to answer, but maybe someone else knows from the Don't ask me. I do believe they're more of a ornamental. Usually they're usually I just was curious if you do by chance. Um, didn't you put it out on Facebook, Phil? Blue Beach and Admiration Hill. There you go. Blue Beach and Admiration Oak. Both of those sound absolutely fabulous. All right. Some good trees. Thank you. The funny names of trees nowadays. All right. So, what I'm going to do then, uh, thank you, Ryan, for the presentation. And so, I've asked, uh, Council Member Theiti, if you would go ahead and read the Arbor Day proclamation. I'd love to. So whereas in 1872 the Nebraska Board of Agriculture established a special day to be set aside for the planting of trees and this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska. And Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. And trees can be a solution to combating climate change by reducing the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water. Cutting heating and cooling cost, moderating the temperature, cleaning the air, producing lifegiving oxygen, and providing habitat for wildlife. And trees are a renewable resource, giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products. And trees in our city increase property values, enhance the economic viability of business areas, and beautify our community. And trees wherever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal. And whereas the city of Cottage Grove will host a ceremonial tree planting and volunteer planting event at the Cottage Grove Trailway Corridor on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 and tree giveaway to residents on Friday, April 25th, 2025. And now therefore, the city council of the city of Cottage Grove, County of Washington, state of Minnesota, hereby proclaim April 25th, 2025 as Arbor Day in the city of Cottage Grove. To be passed this 16th day of April, 2025. All right. Thank you, uh, Council Member Thi, for reading that. And because of, uh, that proclamation, do you want to make the motion to accept? I will make that motion to accept uh the Arbor Day as uh um this the proclamation. Just just proclamation. Okay. Yeah. All right. I have a Jeez, I didn't have the words in front. I know that's how it works. I'm glad I'm not the only one that does that. So, we have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Second. All right. We got a second by uh uh Council Member Clawson. All those in favor uh signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. And I think we'll be seeing you a little bit later. All right. Next uh is consent agenda. Is there anything council would like to pull on consent? Yes. Council council member Clawson, you said S. S is in Sam. Okay. Uh council member Bolson. M as in Michael. M as in Michael. And I'm just going to mention I'm pulling H just to share some info. Anybody else? I'm good. All right. So, why don't we go ahead and start with uh council member Clawson? S is a 2025 water conser conservation program. Thanks. Just very briefly, I just wanted to mention uh the city works in cooperation with the South Washington County Wershed District uh for a program every year. And one of the main things that we do is we help um fund smart irrigation controllers. And that program is uh used every year and it offers at reduced cost smart uh smart irrigation controllers. I know when I installed mine, I saved thousands of gallons of water a year and I want to um especially reach out if anybody's watching from HOAs um HOAs and businesses can uh take advantage of that and see what we can do and work with South Washington County to watershed district to try and save some water. There you go. Thank you for that. And I I'm also one years ago got mine and it definitely makes a difference. It's very good. Um, all right. Uh, M is, uh, Council Member Olsson is the 80th Street feasibility report. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'm going to ask, uh, Ryan Berine from our public works team to step back up to the podium if you don't mind. Uh, this is a bit of an update in what we're doing with the 80th Street um, reconstruction project. And I think it's important for people to understand uh not only what but but why because uh this is really a this is a big thing and uh it's going to really benefit a lot of people. So could you take a few minutes and walk us through the change please? Ryan. Yep. Certainly Mr. Mayor, Council Member Olsson. So originally in 2026 we had the 80th Street reconstruction from Highway 61 to Ideal. That was that last stretch of 80th to redo. Then we also had East Point Douglas Road uh from Jamaica all the way up to well where it makes the turn and then goes by HY. As we talked at last year CIP, that was too much work in that area. So we moved East Point Douglas uh to 2027. But that section of East Point that goes by HY, so just south of 80th Street down to that three-way stop kind of by Arby's that we really do need to have done in 2026. Um one there's just an efficiency. You know, all those signals kind of interact together. But one of the things we're really working to do is right now when you are going let's say westbound on 80th and you go south on East Point a lane drops when you go to Hi Ve and it's created it's just what we had to do in 2017 um with all the reconstruct but we want to expand that we want to have two through lanes and two left lanes in um but with that we have to do all that work at the same time and the feasibility report that council initially authorized was specifically for 80th Street only from Highway 61 to Ideal. So, we're just expanding that scope of the feasibility study a little bit to make sure we're including that section of East Point um because that will be part of that overall project now in bid as one project. Wonderful. And I think you get an economy of scale when you kind of do things like that. Uh and the opportunity presented itself and we took advantage of it and it certainly will make life a little easier for residents who use that intersection which you know pretty much everybody who lives in town does. So, I appreciate the update. I think it's a really wise decision and I'm grateful that you made the call to do that. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you. And then uh the last item I had uh that just I wanted to bring it up to the public for uh just a heads up. So every year uh as as I think most people realize the city of Cottage Grove runs the ambulance service. So, we obviously um make our make a point to um have fantastic service, which we do, uh with full uh full array of of tools, if you will, um for in the event that uh somebody's having a heart attack or something's going on. Um and one of the challenges though that we're having um and have had uh for the last I don't know how many years, but is uh we end up having to write off uh a bunch of the ambulance uh bills, if you will. Uh so the accounts that uh we cannot get money back from. One of the one of the big challenges that I will share with you is um Medicare and Medicaid has a has a cap um that uh only allows doesn't matter how much money it cost anybody whether it's our ambulance service or somebody else's. Uh it doesn't allow us to uh charge any more than that a very specific number. And frankly it's like pennies on the dollar. It's just really ridiculous to be honest with you. Uh we had been hoping that um there was a study being done uh federally to relook at that formula because the issue that I'm going to bring up to you about writing off ambulance bills um uh is happening nationwide. This is not just a Cottage Grove issue. But what I wanted to do is just to bring up to the public that, you know, as we run our own ambulance service, uh, the amount of money that we will be, I guess you'll say, approving to write off this evening uh is 4,742,890. And a big chunk of that is because of the amount of uh, Medicare or Medicaid write offs that we cannot go back after anybody um, to get that money back. And because the federal government was looking at doing a study, we were kind of hoping in a year or so that, you know, we can kind of keep things moving along and and do the best we can uh with that big number. Um but uh they with all the changes that are happening in Washington DC right now that that study that they were doing has been stopped. And so uh what we have been doing um is we as a city now are starting to reach out to our uh neighboring cities who uh we have their coverage area. So currently we are are managing those areas. And so what we're doing I just thought I would share with the public. So when I mentioned the 4 uh,742,890 uh 1,359,000 of that is coming uh uh what we're paying for as taxpayers of Cottage Grove uh is coming from those surrounding communities. And so for example, Newport, uh their cost um to us, if you will, uh for write-offs is 567,000. Uh St. Paul Park is 650,000 and Greycloud Township is 142,000. And you might go, "Oh my gosh, that's just ridiculous." And I agree, it is ridiculous. Um, but I also wanted to say that we're having conversations now uh with the mayors and staffs of those communities. Um, and you know, so far I would just say that at two of the three communities have been very receptive um, in helping, not necessarily this whole dollar amount, especially not right now, uh, but at least to help um, cover some of the losses, if you will, that we're taking uh, in our ambulance service because at this moment, and that's why I know this council up here is very adamant about getting a program together with our surrounding communities uh, to help pay for those costs that are are being borne uh, by the citizens of Cottage in their taxes for those other cities around us to be able to help uh fund some of that if not eventually maybe all of it. Um there are a couple other options that we can look at we'll get as a city when it comes to you know divvy out different cities to an different ambulance service if they're not willing to work with us. Um hopefully that won't be the case but that is an option that the council would have that uh ability to do at some point in time. But as I mentioned, uh, two of the cities have been, uh, we've had meetings with so far, um, have been very receptive and understand the excellent service that Cottage Grove provides. Um, and just lastly, I'll just share. Um, if we were to, um, generally, if we were to say we're going to cut off, so to speak, cut off a city, uh, and give it to another ambulance service, the the response time, uh, getting to, um, an incident, if you will, uh, from an ambulance service that's not from Cottage Grove, uh, is 20 to 30 minutes. Um, and that might not necessarily have all the the bells and whistles of the things that we do that we can do to uh life- saving uh measures within our ambulance service. So, I want to bring it up to the public because we're starting this conversation. You may hear more about that, especially as we get into budget cycles and such. Um, and if you have questions, you can obviously reach out to myself or one of our staff members. Uh, uh, Brenda, our, uh, Melanowski, our finance director, does an excellent job of tracking all the numbers and being able to literally give me these numbers tonight, uh, so I could share with you. So, um, we're just working to make sure that everybody is helping, I'll say, pay their fair share, uh, as we go forward. So, uh, that was my only reason for pulling that for this evening. Consent. All right. So, we have a motion by cons uh, to approve consent by council member Olsen, seconded by Council Member Garza. Any further discussions? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Sir, if you're watching or hear for anything on tonight's consent agenda, all of those items have been approved. Uh, next on our agenda is 8A is to approve the bills. I move to pay the bills. All right. So, we have a motion by council member Garza. Do I have a second? Second. Second by council member Theiti. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Nine is public hearings. We have none this evening. Uh 10 is bid awards. We do have two. As I mentioned, our uh director of of uh I almost said public safety. Oh. Uh public works, uh Ryan Berine, is back up here uh for two items. Uh the first one is the 2025 Denser Park project uh rejection of bids. So, I'll turn it over to Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, member of the council. So, um, we did, uh, take bids on March 25th for this project after council had approved plans and authorized bidding back on March 5th. Um, just a real just quick discussion on where this park was. So, this is down kind of in the southwest corner of Cottage Grove. You can see it labeled here uh, just east of where we had that 40acre civic parcel. We were realigned Hunter Street, 103rd Street and Hadley Avenue uh, last year. And a couple things to call out. And of course, we're here talking about the rejection of bids. Um, that was discussed at the last council meeting at the workshop. Um, with specifically here, one of the major considerations was the Norheart property where they actually had their permit in and withdrew that and really when you looked at the park dedication fees that was really going to have the funding source for this park. Also, the immediate use, right? You had that highdensity product that was going to be using this park. Um, there is some additional single family residential to the south. um Prairie Dunes that's really just getting under construction, but you won't have really any homes um you know people living until next year at the earliest. Um so looking at that, looking at all the other projects that are in the city, uh with the Oldman Park project specifically, the direction at the last council meeting was, you know, let's reject the bids at this time and revisit it as development continues in the area. So here is the bids that were, you know, discussed briefly at the last meeting um that we received. um did obviously have a lot of interest um in this project um and did have good bid results, but as we discussed, there's just really um not the priority now in shifting that to the Oldman Park project, which also has the grant of $350,000. So, very important to complete that project and not lose that grant funding. So, tonight the recommendation is before you for rejecting bids, and I'll stand for any questions. Fantastic. Uh council, any questions at the moment? And again, just for anybody that might be interested as as uh uh Mr. Berine just shared, it isn't that we're not going to build this park. We're just going to wait for some development happen over there. Uh because we do uh capture park dedication fee money in those developments that will help pay for this park. So versus just having a park kind of in the middle of nowhere with nobody really around it yet uh does not make sense. So I think the council and staff did a great job of coming up with this alternative. So all right. So uh who would like to make the motion in the second? I'll move that, excuse me. I'll move that we adopt resolution 2025063 rejecting all bids submitted for the 2025 Denzor Park project. I'll second. All right. So, we have a motion by council member Theiti. Second by council member Clawson. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries. And then under bid awards B, we got the public workshop remodel. All right. My last item for you tonight before I kick it to someone else. So, we had uh bids taken last Thursday for our our remodel of the shop area of public works. Um just looking really quick, here's just kind of a rough diagram, but just to give you an idea what we're doing in this kind of light green, that's the existing shop with all the different hoists and and places for our mechanics to work. And on the bottom end is the existing washbay. That's kind of the full area. It was designed as a pullthrough washbay which we actually haven't used as a pullthrough washbay for many many many years just the way we store things and do different things. So uh what we're looking at doing is with the addition of a fifth mechanic in the budget was also the expansion of the shop. So in the area in that kind of orange red color is where we're removing the wall between the shop and the wash bay building a new wall um to basically cut the washbay in half and then create this space for a new portable hoist. So, it's a hoist that um someday whenever we do move to a new building, we can take it with us. So, that's a complete reusable item, no loss of investment there. Um and then a pretty, you know, in general for what we're trying to do, I'd say cost effective way of looking at adding really usable space because there's a door on the end. So, we have the overhead door to pull large trucks in. So, this this portable hoist will handle any of our large equipment all the way up to a tandem uh dump truck. So, what we have was um the total engineers estimate uh combined between the base bid and the alternate was 301,000. The reason I showed us combined is when we did take this to council the first time, we didn't show that item as an alternate. That was for um as long as we were in there, the actual lighting in the shop does is not really up to currently what you'd look for in standards for uh the lumen output level. Um and that's been a a serious kind of complaint issue in the shop for many many many years. So we had that in the bid, but it's also a, you know, a project that has a very tight funding source, right? So we didn't want to have something, you know, were a little high and then we had to reject the bids, right? So we added that alternate during the bidding process. We just kind of broke it out um to to have that separately. Um we did get eight bids, which was really great to see and Roan Corporation was a low bidder and um they were underneath that that combined engineers estimate um that we had um brought forth uh previously. So, uh, we're happy with that. Um, specifically because of the type of work this is, we haven't worked directly with, um, with these contractors, but our architect, uh, with Stantech in this case, uh, they had good familiarity with many of these contractors and specifically have worked with Rokan on on other projects with other clients they have. So, um, so that's something that we talked to them about just because we haven't specifically worked with these contractors. Um, and with that, the recommendation is before you. Okay. Uh, council, any questions? Mayor, I'll move to adopt resolution 2025-054 awarding the public works facility mechanic shop remodel to Roan Construction for the base bid amount plus the alternate for a total of $298,915. All right. So, I have a motion by council member Olsen. Do I have a second? Second. Second by council member Garza. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries. Now you get to go sit on. Congratulations. This is long overdue. Yeah. And we're and we are very excited for this. This is a small project, but it really means a lot uh to the mechanic shop. So, we're very excited. Fantastic. All right. All right. Uh 11 is our regular agenda. We do have one item on our regular agenda this evening. It's Leafline Labs uh conditional use permit. And Samantha and is it Perier Purit Pir? Yeah, Purit. Sorry, I butcher name so I apologize. Uh she is our senior planner and she is going to walk us through this. So, thank you. Yes. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Let's turn this on. Right. So, Leafline Labs has applied for a conditional use permit to allow their operation on 97th Street to be licensed as a medical cannabis combination business with the state of Minnesota. The property is currently approximately 21.8 8 acres zoned I1 general industry and currently they are using it for medical cannabis manufacturing production cultivation and warehousing which was permitted uh via a conditional use permit in 2014 with amendments in 2020 and 2022. In 2023 uh the state of Minnesota legislature created an adult use cannabis marketplace and the office of cannabis management or OCM. OCM uh will oversee and enforce statute 342 and the licensing of cannabis businesses. In response to these changes, the city of Cottage Grove updated its ordinances for adult use cannabis. At the state level, the statute under which Leaf Line is currently operating will be repealed December 1st, 2025. And so to account for these state and local changes, Leaf Line has applied uh as a medical cannabis combination business and a new conditional use permit must be approved to ensure they comply with the new city and state regulations. They're not proposing any footprint changes or substantive changes to their operations at this time. Um the biggest change is going to be that their products will be allocated to the medical and the recreational cannabis marketplace. Any future building expansions or operational changes would require a new a separate planning application to the city for review. Um the OCM was tasked with rulemaking to establish the final state regulations governing adult use cannabis. Those were adopt or approved by the administrative law judge April 7th and will be official once they're posted in the state register. The statute created 13 different license types, one of those being this medical combination uh license. The deadline for businesses to apply for consideration to OCM was March 14th, 2025. And OCM is now reviewing these applications for compliance with their standards. and they will issue preliminary approvals after which the applicants have 18 months to finish the next steps which include obtaining local government approvals um finalizing their lensure with the state and obtaining inspections from office of cannabis management as one of only two medical cannabis producers in the state of Minnesota. The applicant does not foresee any issues getting through this the rest of this process. So in the city code title 11418 cannabis use performance standards are included and the applicant does meet these standards. Um buffers are also required from other cannabis businesses, schools, parks, daycarees, um things of that nature and the property does exceed all of these setbacks. Oops. The operation has been the subject of various odor complaints since the construction of the building expansion in 2022. The applicant hired buyer scientific to analyze odor mitigation equipment and processes on site in February 2025. Uh they toured the entire facility, identified odor mitigation measures that could be done in the future or uh taken at the present time. Leafline plans to do all of the immediate mitigation measures and complete the long-term mitigation measures as order lead times allow for their facility. There are also conditions included in the resolution uh related to odor mitigation. The it is important to note that condition number four is an odor mitigation plan that the city and the applicant will be working through. But there is a 45day timeline for them to get that into us as staff. Um the recommendation is on the screen for your approval and we'll stand for any questions and the applicant representatives are also here tonight for any questions. Fantastic. First of all, council, does anybody have any questions for uh Samantha? Okay. Would you would you guys like to speak at all? And if you just state your name and address for the record, please. Good evening. My name is Carol Moss. I'm an attorney at Helmouth and Johnson. Um, lucky for you, I dental work this afternoon, meaning I won't talk very long. Um, again, we appreciate the time that the council has spent with us and especially with the city staff and city attorney. We've worked with them very closely and we um are adamant that we are going to address all the concerns and and work diligently uh to continue to be a good corporate citizen in the city of Cottage Grove. I just would like to um reiterate I know it's comes up it has been spoken or said but um sometimes gets lost in the translation that our operations are not changing our products are not changing. our processing, our manufacturing, nothing is changing. All it is is the end result. The products can also be sold recreational or or to continue to be to medical patients. So, I just wanted to make sure that that was addressed and um that we are not changing anything. We've already made all of the immediate uh remediation recommendations that the expert has told us um and already feel confident that order complaints or order mitigation has already started to approve improve. So, we're continuing to work with the staff to address all of the city's um concerns and if there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer um any that you the council may have. Fantastic. Thank you. And thank you, by the way, for working on uh those challenges, if you will. Um I have a kind of a maybe a weird question, but um so with the new process that you're going through with the state of Minnesota, heaven forbid, but let's say that you apply for this co-permit process they're doing and let's say they don't give it to you. Does that mean you just continue to do medical marijuana? So our current medical license it is under statute pardon me the 15 I think it's 152 that expires December 1st. Okay. So if for some I'll say freak reason we aren't able to get a business combination which I'm very confident we will we'd be able to continue till to December 1st. That's obviously not what we want to do. we um are transitioning um and we have to because all of the rules and regulations that are in place will apply to cannabis businesses licensed under chapter 342. So in order to stay compliant, we need to switch our license. Perfect. And obviously I want you guys to be able to continue on obviously uh within uh Cottage Grove. I think we've had a good uh overall good relationship from the first time that uh we talked about getting this facility here in Cottage Grove. So, um yeah, let's just make sure that I'm not I know there's nothing you can do, but make sure that that happens. But I I just had to ask if I didn't know if there was a a clause in there or something that if you're already doing something if that was the case. But the answer is no. No. Well, as of December 1st, the answer would be no. But we are we've been working with OCM. We've had we've been um very good stewards of the medical industry and worked well with government regulators. So I don't foresee any issues coming up. Fantastic. Council uh Council Brson. Thank you. I had the opportunity to sit through the longer version of this presentation at the planning commission recently and there were a couple of relevant points that I wanted to bring up. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Um relevant point number one in terms of your overall production capacity. Nothing's changing. You're just reallocating what you're producing. Is that correct? Correct. We are reallocating products that today are only sold to motans in the medical or could be out of state too. People registered in the medical program. M um once we have everything in place and the license in hand, those same products could be sold on the recreational market. Perfect. And then item two uh that I think a lot of people um will will be interested in hearing about and I know the planning commission asked several questions about this. When buyers came into your facility uh and they are they are known internationally for doing this kind of work. Uh they came in with a standard. They said that um you know the standard is X. I believe the number seven was the standard uh in terms of the degree to which you can either notice or not notice this odor within a certain um you know square footage uh essentially your lot line. And they made several recommendations that you have already implemented. I believe one of which was adding some uh new technology from scrubbers and those kinds of things. Can you just tell us uh just a just a smidge about um you know how you work in conjunction with buyers and the science that they're using to make sure that you are meeting the standards that the the public and the city uh are looking for with respect to odor mitigation. Council member Olsson, I greatly appreciate that question. Um, and my answer I would have to say will be superficial on the on the science part. Understood. Yeah. But as it relates, so what you were talking about on the ratio of seven. So that has to do with um detection using what a device that's called the nasal ranger. It is a device that we will be using and it's outlined in the proposed cup where a staff member of of a leaf line will be taking daily readings of odor and there is a range and it has to do with the DAT I can't remember exactly. So seven is considered the industry norm um as to whether an an obnoxious odor is is detected. So that is a reading that is taken that will be taken daily and is outlined in the the cup. In addition, uh we are working with city staff that if there is a odor complaint from somebody within the city or somebody within the community that we have a system in place so that information can be shared with us um so that we may use it as a data point in order to rectify any order mitig order issues. For example, if somebody um says that, oh, I was I was driving and I got a whiff on Tuesday. That that's probably very difficult for us to do anything with. But if we had a complaint that said somebody is standing out of this location at six o'clock and he stood there and he was a constant odor then getting that information we can have staff go out there immediately detect it and then would help us determine if there is a issue with our odor mitigation plan. So we are putting uh systems in place so that we could take immediate actions. Um, regarding the filtration system that you mentioned, um, one of the slides talked about short-term and longer term mitigation actions and, uh, some of the short terms ones were things that we could do immediately. And probably the biggest thing that we immediately did and has already um, showed improvement is uh, Bri buyers noticed that we had our rooftop units on economizer mode. and this loud um leakage of air that has been switched off and so there were things that we could do immediately that could improve the odor leakage. Some of the things are going to take longer. We have been working with buyers on what those systems will take to get them. They are customuilt systems and right now we've been told at least 8 to 10 months to get those systems in place. There's probably going to be other issues that might delay that. We have tariffs. We probably may have supply line um is issues. So those longer terms, those longer issues, longer remediations, we are not going to be able to get done in a short time. And that's one of the issues that we've been working very diligently with city staff is what can be done now versus what can be done later. We are hopeful that the systems that we can get in place sooner rather than later will help rectify the issues and those daily odor readings that we will be doing will help give the city data to understand if those systems are working. But that is something that is more a lot long-term than things that we can get done um right now though we are doing quite a bit. My understanding was um from listening to Mr. Buyers and it was great that he was able to come to the planning commission meeting and explain the science is that each of these individual actions actually work in conjunction with all of the others. So, uh, while you're making progress at the moment, the the full system is not calibrated because it's not in place yet, but that's what you're working towards. And if I recall, you also have a team that you've built in the facility whose job it is to consistently monitor uh whether these mitigation systems are actually in place and and working properly. And that's a daily function. So they're they're checking like I know you mentioned the airflow changes and some different things. They're they're checking all of that every day just to ensure that you know somebody didn't flip a switch that they weren't supposed to or whatever the case might be. And and then further you're reporting that data to the city on a consistent basis. Is that accurate? We are we are reporting um so we're taking daily readings. We're not making those reports daily. We're making them on weekly and we are providing those will be provided on a weekly basis without being asked. We are keeping records so that if we get if the city gets an order complaint, Emily can give us a call and we'd be like, "Here's our record." So that we have that information available uh to you. So yes, and it's really it's important to understand um as we talk about these systems that this facility is growing 24/7 365. There's no breaks. In order to have adequate supply, there constantly has to be a rotation of crops. And we are trying we need to mitigate the order as a facility as a whole rather than breaking it down by room. We look at the facility as a whole because pretty much every part of the process is going to emit an odor. Some parts, some parts of the plant, some parts of the drawing may admit more odor than others. Really the office area may be the only area not committing or not admitting any kind of odor. So while we do look at all of this, we are looking at the facility as a whole and not necessarily room by room or process by process. Hence the the comment about, you know, the systems have to work in unison with each other and and as you mentioned, they're not all going to be in place at the same time. There's going to be sort of a progression of that. So, um, thank you very much for clarifying that. I think, you know, that odor piece is really what people uh get concerned about and that certainly was a a primary uh focus of the planning commission. So, I appreciate your feedback on that. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, council? I'll move to adopt the resolution. All right, you're good. Thank you very much. Thank you. You want to read it on the screen? A move adopt to adopt resolution 2025-061 rescending prior conditional use permit and site plans resolutions and approving the conditional use permit for a medical cannabis combination business at 8235 97th Street South. All right. So, we have a motion by council member Garza. I have a second by council member. Any other discussion? Thank you again for the great information. We appreciate it. Um, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. There you go. Thank you. All right, we're all the way down to 12, which is council comments request. I will bounce all the way down to Mr. Clawson. Nothing new from this mayor. All right, sounds good. Council Brolson. Thank you, Mayor. I have two things this evening. First of all, this week 413 to 419 is public safety telecommunications week, which sounds really fancy. And what it essentially is is our time to really focus and thank uh and honor those who work as 911 dispatchers this week and actually all year round. Uh we definitely want to give thanks to those who connect those callers with non-emergency services or emergency services based on the call and often times the dispatcher is the unsung hero in the chain of events that occurs when uh something unfortunate may happen and a first responder has to actually address that issue. The 911 dispatcher is the person in the middle who makes all of that happen and gives all of the critical information to the first responders and also provides significant support to the caller. And I'll remind everybody a few years ago in the city of Cottage Grove, we had a situation at Menard's where a customer uh had a cardiac event and uh what happened is one of the employees from Menards noticed that this event occurred, called 911. This person did not have training that a first responder would have in trying to um you know give uh any kind of resuscitation effort. But the 911 dispatcher actually worked very closely with the caller while help was on the way to make sure that they could start critical care and that ended up saving this woman's life. 911 dispatchers are a critical piece of the public safety apparatus. So, let's take some time this week through the 19th and then of course all year round to give uh honor and thanks to those who serve in that very very difficult role. It's a high stress, high burnout role and it takes a very special person to be good at it. So, thank you to our telecommunications professionals in the public safety realm. Additionally, mayor, uh, tomorrow night we have the opportunity to spend some time at River Oaks, as we do each year, honoring our various volunteers in the city of Cottage Grove as we celebrate volunteer appreciation. And uh one of the things that I always enjoy about that event is we will identify a volunteer of the year, an individual that has gone above and beyond uh just the normal call of duty with regard to giving uh great volunteer service to our community in some way, shape or form. And we will also identify a volunteer group of the year. I know you like to talk about this and I'm sure you will, but the one thing I wanted to say is this. Cottage Grove is an extremely special place and one of the things that makes it so special is the spirit of volunteerism in this community. For as long as I've lived here, from the time that I was a kid playing CJA baseball and um you know all the way through my time as a coach and working with uh other individuals who work with youth, whether it's in athletics or some other function, Boy Scouts, etc., Girl Scouts. Um, the city of Cottage Grove steps up. We have a lot of people in this community who give of their time and of their talents and we want to be grateful for that. Trust me when I tell you, especially when it comes to youth sports, and I know my friend Zach Doctor can attest to this probably better than anybody, it isn't always easy, especially if you're a ref. Um, you know, there's a lot of people out there who uh have opinions that they'd like to share with you, but it is a very rewarding experience. And the fact is everybody can do something. Everybody can do something. So if you're interested in giving back in some way, shape, or form, please reach out. Speak to somebody on the city council, speak to somebody with the athletic association. Uh call city hall. We'll connect you with people who are looking for volunteers. There are uh hundreds of opportunities that people don't know about. But the fact of the matter is we've got tons and tons of people in this community who give of themselves selflessly, very humbly, and uh this is our opportunity to show our our respect. So, thank you to everybody and uh take some time and consider maybe what you can do to to volunteer. Could be as simple as reading books at the library for a few hours each week, but uh trust me when I tell you, you can do something and you will make Cottage Grove an even better place than it already is. With that, mayor, I'll turn it back to you. Sounds good. Thank you. Uh, Council Member Thei. So, uh, speaking of volunteers, we we always love to have people on Strawberry Fest committee. So, if you if you if you're looking for some place to volunteer and you want to have fun, that's a place to do it. And, uh, I do want to mention that there's the uh, Chamber of Commerce 20th annual community showcase actually a week from this coming Saturday. a week from this coming Saturday, April 26th at Park High School from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. And they have all sorts of booths. They have all sorts of fun things to do. They have food. They It's just a It's just a great time to see some of the other businesses in the community, some of the other places that you could actually volunteer also. And uh Strawberry Fest will also have a booth there and you can get your uh get your button for this year and everything else and get into the raffle and and uh it's just a uh a fantastic time to to pop over there and and see what's going on. So uh um you certainly can get more information. I believe they got things online at the Chamber of Commerce and at the city and so forth. So um so yeah, come on out and have some fun. Fantastic. All right. Uh, Council Member Garza. Well, thanks, Dave. The showcase, I'm excited. Looking forward to that. I know we are going to have free painting for the kids. So, come on out, bring your families. It's going to be a lot of fun. Um, I know too this weekend coming up on Saturday, it's another pancake breakfast. So, we just enjoyed last week's with the Lions Club. This week, um, the 2025 pancake breakfast for the AOSA Masonic Lounge. Did I say that right? Aasha. Masonic Lodge. Tried it. 51. Um anyhow, that is this Saturday, Saturday morning. It is at 110947th Street South. Tickets are online. It's $11 for the adults and for kids 12 and under, it's only six bucks. So, I would say get out if you have nothing to do on Saturday or just start your day off with a great breakfast. Fantastic. All right. So, um obviously, uh the only I'll just kind of pigg on on Council Member The Council Member Wilson. One of the one of the things obviously the month of May is you know volunt or month of April I'm sorry is uh volunteer month uh for for the city of Cottage Grove as well as others and um one of the ways also that can be volunteered here is my segue um I do know that the cottage Grove Ambassadors program is still looking for uh uh women girls or boys um it can be either uh to join or or at least uh sign up to compete, if you will, uh to be the ambassadors of Cottage Grove for the next year, which obviously they crowned it uh right after Strawberry Fest just finished, usually that Monday after. And so I do know in talking to uh Lorie Olsen, she's a little concerned because they have not had much uh for interest at this point. Now, mind you, that happened last year and then they finally got a bunch of bunch in this case a lot of uh girls and ladies that came up. But I just wanted to share if there was interest in that, obviously check, you can reach out to one of us here. Uh we'll get you into there. I know they had a meeting last night at Carboni. It's like anformational meeting. I have no idea how many people were there or whatever, but if you're interested and want to support uh our great city uh in again in a volunteer uh uh status, uh that is another opportunity for that. To mention, they definitely are ambassadors for the city and it's really quite uh huh. They really are. Yeah. and and uh you know it's actually quite fun if you if you like to be in parades and things like that. You go around to the different cities. We you know take our float and everything like that and uh so uh so it really is is fun. You get to meet new people all around uh the area and uh so uh so yeah it uh I haven't heard of any anybody that has not had a great experience uh being an ambassador for the city of Cottage Grove. I my family definitely can attest to that. We actually were ambassadors last year. My daughter was an ambassador and it was an amazing experience. I mean, the confidence, the the um just the experience of of being able to grow with our our community and learning all of the different communities that we went and learned their history of the communities. So, it was a really a really great experience and I would encourage anyone that has littles that would love to learn more about our city and other cities to go and sign up or at least just learn more about it. Sounds good. Awesome. I knew I'd open up a can there, but a good can. So, uh all right. So, with that, uh the next item on our agenda this evening is a workshop which is open to the public and it is uh we're starting already uh the 2026 budget uh starting early indications and and discussion. So we're going to have a workshop about that uh in the training room. Uh 14 is a workshop that's uh close up. We don't have any this evening. Uh so so we will not be uh uh adjourning from in here. So uh everybody have a great uh Easter and uh thank you to all of our volunteers. Take care.