This transcript has been formatted with speaker identifications based on the provided list of officials and the context of the meeting proceedings. **[8:05] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Call to order City Council meeting for Tuesday, April 4th. I'll take a roll call. **Council Member Steve Gesme:** Here. **Council Member Steve Grote:** Here. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Let's see... Ryan? **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** Here. **Council Member Chad Johnson:** Here. **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Here. **Council Member Derek Lindell:** Here. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Montgomery here. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. *(Collective: 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.)* **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Here we go. I would take a motion to approve tonight's agenda. **[8:53] Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** So moved. **Council Member Steve Gesme:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Got a motion from Lisa, a second from Steve Gesme. Discussion? All those in favor, "Aye." Opposed? Roll call—oh, that’s right, roll call. I'll just go left to right. Laura? **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Yes. **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Yes. **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** Yes. **Council Member Steve Gesme:** Aye. **Council Member Diane Johnson:** Hi. **Council Member Derek Lindell:** Yes. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Carries. It brings us to public input. Public input is intended to afford the public an opportunity to address concerns to the city council. The public input will be no longer than 30 minutes in total length and each speaker will have no more than three minutes to speak. Speakers may address topics relevant to the governance of the city. Speakers must sign up in advance and must provide their name, address, and the topic they intend to address. Comments must be on topic, respectful, pertinent to City business, and adhere to the applicable data privacy rules. Any speaker that violates these rules will be asked to sit down; if the speaker refuses to comply, they may be removed from the meeting. Speakers shall not address topics that are the subject of a public hearing—all such comments shall be made at the public hearing. The city council will not generally act on issues raised by the public input but may choose to schedule consideration of the item on a future agenda. Mr. O'Gorman? **[10:23] Dave O’Gorman:** There you go. Um, just a couple things that I've been watching all winter long from afar. But this public input portion that you just read says we can speak no more than three minutes, and just recently I watched a gal set up here for about two and a half times that. And last fall, just before I left, I remember Tim Demers here—he got shuffled off the stage and it wasn't three minutes, at least in my opinion. And so there's a difference of... I don't know if it's a gray area; there's been a lot of gray area going on around here. But, and I get it, okay? But we go through all this and it talks about "you must be respectful." Well, it's not real respectful to Mr. Demers, and I've been interrupted up here before. And while this is just one public venue, there are others like Facebook in which some of you have called people names and been disrespectful. And why is this place so special and none of the rest of it is? I think we all should be held to that standard throughout. It talks about applicable privacy data privacy rules—now, I don't know if any of you have ever read it, but do you really know what it entails? Because it's a vast pile of herbage and it's quite adept and in links, and to me, boils down to probably not talking about personal issues of employees. So I'm just saying that you run the meeting, Mr. Mayor. Why don't you run it and use good judgment and forget about all the "cura," because I do believe that some people need more time than others. There's no question in my mind, and I got nothing against Nancy Hole or the Fair Board here speaking their peace, nor anybody else that has a viable topic to speak about. The City Attorney contract—and there's all the verbiage in the Charter about "must attend"—apparently that was taken care of several years ago, but it was tossed around for two or three meetings here lately. It boils down to the only problem that I can see was the contract itself. So when the contract comes back to the city council—and thank you, Derek, for bringing up that one of the two changes hadn't been changed—it just seems odd to me. And I'm wondering why we developed the contract that's in conflict with our city Charter. So thank you for your time. **[13:27] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Next up, Mr. Deemer. Tim Demers? Or no "s"... Deemer. **Tim Deemer:** I was really glad to hear that from Dave at the beginning where I was thinking the same thing. I remember some Council meetings I've watched, and they even get a timer that counts down from three minutes, or usually three—they give some lenience which is acceptable. I remember a year or so—I think it was last year—somebody running for some position and he was up here almost like a part of his, I don't know, just getting the word out to vote for him, and that went on for well over seven, eight minutes or something like that. But the reason I speak—wanted to bring up something that I wasn't sure if I should keep... or I've talked to some people about it. And in regards to a city facility that I would really like to—I think not just me, but many people—would like to see our flag represented and all that it stands for. Like what I see at the... it's been almost a month, I believe, at the Fire Department. They've taken it down. I've talked to Tim really briefly as he's coming out of the mall and I just happened to be there, and he explained why it's not up. But to me, it would be such a simple—it could have been done immediately, or to where it could be just the American flag up there. I don't know if any of you noticed what this one veteran... I pointed out to him and he first said, "Oh, I didn't even notice it," and then once he seen it he said, "That's stupid." And to me, I would say it's very, very stupid or... like, un-American maybe or whatever. But if they could just revert, pull down the thing and it would loop back around and attach... where the I think the Fire is on the bottom and then the EMS flag. Just... I'm sure some people think there's a shortage of flags. I'm sure there's somebody that has a flag that could be put up, especially during the half-staff, which was for like five days until the end of the month it ended. But that's just a simple something to, you know, make our city look better, I guess. Thank you. **[16:30] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All right, that leads us to public hearings. Tonight, the introduction of the first reading of Ordinance 392, authorizing the sale of the East half of vacated 9th Street adjacent to Block 8, Cannon Falls Addition to Cannon Falls, Goodhue County. I'll open the public hearing. First public hearing is open. I'll give you a brief explanation of where this came from. It's part of our agreement with the Fair Board and Hannah's Bend Park. There was a 9th Street vacated—half of 9th Street that was in the City's name and the other half went to the Fair Board. It's inside the fair fence as we know it, and that was part of the agreement. It's a real thin strip, probably 30 feet wide or 33 feet wide—whatever vacated half is—and I don't know if it's a half a block or a block long. It's very small, but then they'll own all of the land inside the Fairgrounds if this goes through. **[18:03] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, public hearing is officially open if anybody would like to address the podium and speak on this issue. Public hearing take two, anybody? Public hearing take three, final call. All right, we will close the public hearing. Council, we can have a discussion. Any questions? No discussion? No questions? All right, there’s... we don't need an easement under there; there's nothing under there. Okay. And I would take a motion to approve the first reading of Ordinance 392 authorizing the sale of the East half of vacated 9th Street. **[18:50] Council Member Diane Johnson:** So moved. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Diane. Do I have a second? **Council Member Derek Lindell:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Second by Mr. Lindell. Any other further questions? Roll call vote. Laura? **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Aye. **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Aye. **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** Aye. **Council Member Steve Gesme:** Aye. **Council Member Diane Johnson:** Hi. **Council Member Derek Lindell:** Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** It passes. Moving on to consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as Council business. Item A: Just and correct claims for the accounting period ending March 30th, 2023. Item B: Meeting minutes for March 21st, 2023, the City Council work session. Item C: Meeting minutes for March 21st, 2023, the Council meeting. Item D: Second reading for adoption of Ordinance 391, the ordinance of the City of Cannon Falls authorizing the sale of parcel number 52.420.0160. Item E: Approve the City lot closure request. Item F: Approve the appointment of Gary Tipton to the Police Commission. Item G: Approve appointment of Sean Mothershead to Library Board. Item H: Resolution 2679 authorizing acceptance of a donation from the Cannon Falls Lions Club. Are there any items that the Council would like to pull down? **[20:22] Council Member Diane Johnson:** A—Just and correct claims. I just have a question on it. If there's just a question pertinent to one item, does it have to be pulled down for a discussion? **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, all right, we'll pull down A. Do you want that to be... it doesn't matter. Okay, I'll make that Item B in Council Business. Anything else from the Council to get pulled down? Hearing nothing, I would take a motion to approve the consent agenda. **[20:55] Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** So moved. **Council Member Steve Gesme:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Lisa, second by Steve. Any further discussion? Laura, your vote? **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Aye. **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Aye. **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** Aye. **Council Member Steve Gesme:** Aye. **Council Member Diane Johnson:** Hi. **Council Member Derek Lindell:** Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Passes. Moving on to Council business, Item A: Resolution 2678, approving plans and specifications and ordering advertisements for bids. Bill Angerman, take it away. **[21:09] Bill Angerman (City Engineer):** Thank you, Mayor. So in your packet is a resolution. What this resolution is doing is the Council would be approving the plans and specifications and you would be setting a bid letting date for April 27th at 2:00 PM. So there's a bit of an explanation—the memo that's in your packet goes in a little more detail, but I thought it was worth the time to explain where we're at because this is a little bit different than the direction that the Council approved in December. In December, the City Council approved a project that would reconstruct parts of Third Street, Kansas Street, and would include what we're approving tonight with a lift station and a force main. So it was a bigger project. And since that time, we've had some issues. And the issues are that the sewer bridge—if you guys know where that is, that crosses the river—the sewer bridge and the related piping that comes to that is not owned by the City, but on property owned by [a private owner]. The discussions had been: "While these public sewer mains are on your private property, will you transfer that to the City?" And the property owner does not want to do that. So we are at an impasse at the moment regarding what to do with the sewer bridge, the piping, and how to proceed. We have time. So what we've decided to do—or I'm sorry, recommending to do—is that we will split the project into two. So that was an assessment project, but we were not assessing all of the project per City policy. You assess the roads, the sewer, the water, the storm sewer, etc., but you do not assess lift stations and force mains and the pipe under the river. So what we are recommending is we break that project into two and we get going on the lift station and the crossing under the river. So that'll be basically complete and we'll do the rest of the project next year. Now, one of the other things that this helps us out with is we are still experiencing delays in electrical controls and pump components; we still have long lead times. So this actually helps us out because this will give us longer to build this lift station. So the project that we're asking you to do—which you also have plans included—are the lift station and the parts of the river, and that would have a completion date of August of 2024. So now we're going to give our contractors a long lead time to get their equipment, hopefully to get the best prices possible. Along with that, then, to do this lift station, we will be purchasing property on the north side of the river as well. That is in the works; there is an agreement in place, but we still have some things to finalize with the property owner’s bank who has a mortgage on the property, but we do not see that being an issue. A little bit more about the project: what a lift station does—for our new council members—we have a pipe going across the river. The reason it's going above the water versus under is the sewer pipe is very shallow. That's not the best situation because when we have flooding—kind of like now—we've had trees and stuff pile up on that, and the staff has been concerned that that sewer bridge could get knocked down by debris and flood. So what we evaluated is what's the best way to cross the river? Either keep a sewer bridge or what we call build a siphon, or literally build a pump station where we will pump the wastewater under the river. And that was the only viable alternative: to pump it under the river. So that is what we're proceeding with. If you guys recall about a year ago or a year and a half ago, we drilled what we call a directional drill underneath the river. We did that adjacent to the bridge with the water main. We're going to do the same thing with the sewer main. And I'm going to give you guys the same story I told you last time, which is anytime you drill a pipe through rock underneath the river, it's not a guarantee it will work. It will most likely work, but there is some uncertainty with that. So when we do something like that, the City does bear some risk as far as when you're drilling through rock. But there's been two of these—the gas company completed one, the City completed one—so we're pretty confident this will work as well. But I always want to point that out. Most projects you don't have a lot of risk when you do them, but this one we have a little bit extra. So again, just pointing that out. Otherwise, the project is pretty straightforward. I was not intending to go through any more details. I guess I would pause and, Mayor, Council, if you had any questions I'd be happy to entertain them, or if Neil had anything to add or if you wanted me to point anything else out. **[25:50] Council Member Diane Johnson:** Did you say the sewer part is going to be completed this summer or August of 2024? **Bill Angerman (City Engineer):** So the deadline... we would give the contractor all the way till August of 2024 to build both items. Most likely the part where we drill the pipe under the river would be this summer or fall, and then the actual lift station structure and the electrical components would most likely be completed over the winter and all the way into next summer. The main thing is we want to give a big enough window to give flexibility because then we get better prices. **[26:36] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Any other questions or discussion from the Council? Hearing none, I'd take a motion to approve the Resolution 2678 approving the plans and specifications for ordering the advertisement for bids. **Council Member Steve Gesme:** Moved. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion from Gesme. **Council Member Chad Johnson:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Second from Johnson. Roll call vote. Laura? **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Aye. **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Aye. **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** Aye. **Council Member Steve Gesme:** Aye. **Council Member Diane Johnson:** Hi. **Council Member Derek Lindell:** Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** It's approved. Thank you. Moving on to Item B, which is Item A in the consent agenda: Just and correct claims. **[27:27] Council Member Diane Johnson:** I am okay. And this is a real question, not arguing or anything else, but on page three and page four under Planning and Economic, number 235: are those property taxes we're paying? I just wondered because the City of Cannon Falls—I'm assuming on our city-owned land—does not pay property tax, and then I was looking at that and I just didn't understand what it was. **Jon Radermacher (City Administrator):** Yes, they are property taxes. We do pay property taxes on land that's for sale for development. You know, we've got four parcels there: the two lots that the Christensen brothers have down by Cannon Bells, and then behind Robinson's—I guess would be Robinson's Outdoors—there are two lots back there. And then we do have one more that we have down by Loran's Meats and Sweet Harvest. So yes, they’re... and then also there's taxes to be paid on the Mill of the Hill property. So you'll probably see more of these unless there's some of these that are lumped together. But for development reasons, yes. Parks, no—all that kind of stuff—we don't pay taxes on that. But anything that's for development. **[28:58] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you. With that being pulled down as its own standalone item, we still need to make a motion and a second to vote to approve. **Council Member Diane Johnson:** I will move to approve it. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you. Do I have a second? **Council Member Derek Lindell:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Diane, second by Derek. Any further discussion? Roll call vote. Laura? **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Aye. **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Aye. **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** Aye. **Council Member Steve Gesme:** Aye. **Council Member Diane Johnson:** Hi. **Council Member Derek Lindell:** Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** And it carries. That brings us to reports. It is not on the agenda, but our new Chamber Chair, Maggie, is here, and so she will take the stage. Welcome. **[29:45] Maggie Wilson (Chamber Director):** Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm Maggie Wilson. I am the new director with the Cannon Falls Chamber of Commerce. Just wanted to provide a couple quick updates on the events that we have coming up. This Saturday, the 8th, we have our Easter Hunt and that'll start in City parking lots; participants are asked to bring a non-perishable food item for the food shelf. June 1st, we're having a Fun Fest—we're hoping to have vendors, food trucks, music events. Mayor Montgomery has graciously offered to be involved in this and play a special role. June 19th is the Chamber Golf Tournament fundraiser; this will be at the Cannon Falls Golf Course. And August 4th is the night of the Cannon Cruisers Car Cruise, and so we are hoping to have some food trucks, perhaps some music on Mill Street to provide some entertainment for the public before, during, and after the car cruise. That's all of the events for now. These can also be found on the Chamber's website. And just a reminder that the Chamber has moved—we are temporarily located in the Nelson Insurance office above the bakery. Hope to be in our permanent location, which is next to the bakery, in May. So that's all I have. **[31:18] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Quick question for you. I think I saw on the email you're looking for people to volunteer to help maybe with some ideas for Fun Fest, is that correct? **Maggie Wilson:** Yes. So you know, if you're part of a Chamber business and you want to help be on the Fun Fest Committee, that would be great. If you want to help with the night of the Fun Fest with setup or just running... well, not running it, but helping run it or even teardown, let me know. We'll gladly accept volunteers. And that goes for all of the Chamber events. If anyone is interested in helping, we're more than willing to have anyone who's interested. So thank you. **[32:03] Council Member Diane Johnson:** Thank you. All right, um, the Joint Powers Trail Board had a meeting on March 28th. I went to that one. Talked a lot about how to... sorry, wasn't expecting this so quickly. Talked about how to get money for the... someone throw me a word... no, not trail passes. To get money to repair the trail. There's a lot on the Red Wing side that needs repair and a lot on the Cannon side that needs repair—more so on the Red Wing side, a couple bridges. Yeah, that was basically how we are going to slice it and dice it and present it to hopefully get the grant. Good grief, it's been a heck of a long day, people. So yeah, how to write the grant properly so we have everything in the correct order for the needs and wants of the trail. So yeah, it was a good meeting. **[32:50] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Police Commission met on March 30th. Laura, would you like to handle this one? **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Yeah, so we had some additional interviews and approved a conditional hire, so that's in process. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Wonderful. Let's go around the horn. Bill, anything else you'd like to add tonight? **Bill Angerman (City Engineer):** Nothing additional, Mayor. Thank you. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Mitch [Jeff McCormick], anything from the Police Department? Sarah? Neal? All right. Council members: Laura, anything? **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** I'm good. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Lisa? **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** I'm good. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Ryan? **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** All good here. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All right, Steve? **[33:37] Council Member Steve Gesme:** Well, I just want to say, wherever they are, the Howards—their last day is coming up pretty soon, and I just want to say how well the communication was between me and those two. I mean, any questions were always answered in a timely fashion. I think we're going to miss them severely. That's all I have to say, I guess. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Diane? **Council Member Diane Johnson:** All right, we'll just second Steve again to our thanks to Diane and Dan Howard for their service. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Derek? **[34:25] Council Member Derek Lindell:** I just want to say thank you specifically to Mr. Althoff. March 29th was a crazy day for our community and that situation could have been much worse. I don't really know how to explain getting a text from somebody saying that there's an active shooter in your community, because specifically with what's happened in our country recently, when you hear the term "active shooter," the first place you go to is the most vulnerable—that's our schools. And so I just want to say thank you to the people at our schools also, because that situation is obviously something we don't deal with very often. It's very unique, and the school put kids' safety first. The pickup situation with so many parents, and then seeing all the staff members stay longer than your regular school day and personally walking every kid out with a walkie-talkie, knowing they're with their parents or their caretaker... And then, I mean, there are so many agencies involved to say thank you to: the BCA, Red Wing, obviously Goodhue County Sheriff's Department, our Police Department, our EMS, the headquarters, all that stuff. And then our local police that were not only dealing with the situation but then the afterwards and dealing with the street. I mean, there are so many tentacles of things that shot out from that day, and every agency that was here dealt with it so well. So thank you. Safety and keeping us free from harm is one of your duties and you guys did it great. **[35:57] Mayor Matt Montgomery:** With all that said, I would take a motion to adjourn. **Council Member Derek Lindell:** So moved. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Lindell. Second? **Council Member Steve Gesme:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Second from Gesme. Roll call vote. Laura? **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Aye. **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Aye. **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** Aye. **Council Member Steve Gesme:** Aye. **Council Member Diane Johnson:** Hi. **Council Member Derek Lindell:** Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** We are adjourned. Thank you.