This transcript has been formatted with speaker names based on the provided city official list and the context of the discussion. [Timestamp] Speaker Name: <Dialogue> 74. **[Unknown]:** That's going to be really interesting. I don't know like four months ago. I want to get Hill. Okay. Are you sure? Ready. I'll bet you a beer after the meeting. I'm aware. **[7:00 PM] Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All right. 7 o'clock. Going to call tonight uh the city council meeting for the city of Lake Elmo, July 15th, 7 p.m. Please stand with me for the pledge of allegiance. **All:** 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 Charles Cadenhead:** All right. B on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Everybody's okay with the agenda. If you'd like something moved or changed, please uh speak now. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** I would like to um add our 100 years anniversary celebration. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** 100-year anniversary celebration. Okay, we'll put that at 14. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Thank you, mayor. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Yep. Anything else? All right. If everybody's cool with that, uh, I'll I'll entertain a motion for the amended agenda. **Council Member Matt Hirn:** Move to approve the amended agenda. **Council Member Nick Kragness:** Support. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** We have a motion and a second to approve the amended agenda with item 14, 100-year anniversary celebration discussion. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. **Council Members:** I. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Okay. Okay. Approval of minutes from the July 1st, 2025 meeting. We're in our packet. We had a chance to read if there's anything outstanding that needs to be changed. Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes from July 1st. **Council Member Matt Hirn:** Move to approve the minutes from July 1. **Council Member Nick Kragness:** Second. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** We have a motion and a second on the agenda for—or the meeting minutes from July 1st. All those in favor, please indic—uh please indicate by saying I. **Council Members:** I. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Right. Good deal. Public comments inquiry. Inquiries. We have one this evening. Um when I say your name, please come to the podium. State your first and last name along with your address for the record. And you'll have six minutes to speak. We please request that you have respectful dialogue. Council does not uh answer questions during this time, but we will take notes if needed to have staff get back to you. Would Mr. Paul Boltman? **Paul Boltman:** My name is Paul Boltman. I live at 8243. I'm here today to make sure that the members of the council are aware of how much of a problem the noise is for the neighbors. My home is 40 park. We are subject to nearly constant percussive sound paddles hitting the wall. Sometimes it 14 hours a day. Some some days have legs where you don't hear it for in the middle of the day. There is also a fair amount of yelling that you hear from the participants, but the real problem is that percussive sound. I don't know if you'll call it a thack or a pop or whatever you want to call it. It's quite loud. I like to believe that if the council members were aware of the noise that pickle ball puts out, they would not have placed the courts in neighborhoods without any notice to the neighbors of the parks or feedback from the affected neighbors. Exposure to constant noise is a known stress inducer with serious health consequences. There have been numerous studies on this topic. I am not against people having a fun physical activity to participate in. This country needs anything that promotes physical activity. We all know that. But any positive health effects that the participants are gaining comes at the expense of myself, my family, and my neighbors. It comes at the expense of our health. On page 57 of the Lake Elmo Park System plan, there is a recommendation that the pickleball courts not be placed within 600 ft of a home. My experience is that this is a pretty valid recommendation. I think if you get 600 feet away, you're not going to hear much. But my home is 340 ft from the courts and it's not the closest one. And there's one that's about 40 ft from the courts. There are 15 homes within 600 ft of the courts at Pebble Park. There are 12 homes within 600 ft of the courts at Tablin Park. There are 41 homes within 600 ft of the courts at Ivywood Park. And there are 11 single family homes and an unknown number of apartments within 600 feet of the court courts at Lions Park. In addition to the negative mental and physical health aspects of being exposed to constant background noise, there is the issue of the detriment to my property value and the property value of my neighbors. I would not be surprised if my property value has declined by six figures. While I would welcome any form of noise mitigation such as noise barriers around the courts, I believe that the ultimate solution to be would be to relocate the pickle ball courts and and follow the 600 ft guideline. Something that generates as much noise as pickle ball does not belong in neighborhood park with adjacent homes. If you have any questions about uh what we experience, I'll answer them. Also, you're welcome to come to my property and uh listen to what we endure. I will u follow up this talk with a email notification to each of you so you can contact me if you have any questions now I could answer them or— **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** We don't engage in conversation during that. Thank you sir. **Paul Boltman:** Thank you. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Thank you. Okay. Um then we have um presentation from Mr. Mike Huntley representing the youth service bureau. **Michael Huntley:** Good evening mayor, council members, and residents of Lake Elmo. Thank you for the invitation to speak tonight about Youth Service Bureau, and we appreciate your support. In fact, that type of support is necessary for our continued success and operations. My name is Michael Huntley. I'm the executive director of Youth Service Bureau. I've been with the organization since 1989. I'm still with the organization because I love what we do and the purpose that we serve in the community. Some of you may be familiar with YSB. And for others, this might be new information. And I'll be as brief as I can, but I also want to be complete. Youth Service Bureau is a 501c3 nonprofit organization and we've been operating since 1977. We have an office in Stillwater, an office in Woodbury and an office in Cottage Grove. And we serve the whole area, you know, up and down between those cities. We provide a variety of early intervention and prevention services for youth and their families. And we're the only organization in the area that works exclusively with kids and families. That—that's what we do. Our services include diversion, family counseling, school-based chemical health support, youth and family education, and a military family support program that is actually in expansion and development right now. And in about a year or so, it will be officially launched. And at that time, it will be called the first responder family support program. And in addition to military, we'll be adding uh firefighters and law enforcement and their families into that programming. The financial support that we receive helps our fees remain affordable. We have a very generous sliding fee for families that need that. We also um help families who may need interpreter services and we can provide those through donated funds at no cost to the family. In 2024, so last year, we served 635 unduplicated youth and their families through all our services, which totaled up just under 4,000 hours of direct service to those families. That number does not include public speaking presentations where we—our staff were out uh presenting on topics about youth development and parenting and discipline and drug use trends and things like that. and those presentations um had just over 1,500 attendees here in your city of Lake Elmo. In 2024, we served at least 34 youth and delivered almost 200 hours of direct service to those youth. And I have um a little breakdown here that will help uh illuminate that a little bit. In 2024, there were 34 um kids and their families receiving services. Five of those youth came through our diversion program. 22 of those youth were involved in our school-based chemical health services and seven of those youth were involved in our family therapy program. And I have an update for the first half of 2025. We've already seen 27 youth here from Lake Elmo. Three of those have come through the diversion services, 20 have come through the school-based chemical health support service program, and four have been involved in family therapy. We have um some really good outcome measures and I'd like to share a little bit of that with you too because we're pretty good at what we do and I'm—I'm proud of that. I'm proud of our staff. One of our statistics and it—it's the highest it's ever been. We actually get—I call it a report card but it's a report from Washington County. So it's not our own data collection. This is a external um source and they measure how many kids who come through our diversion program stay uninvolved with the juvenile justice system for at least one year and our report card uh this year is 94%. And that's the highest it's ever been. We're really excited about that. We have a couple of other statistics I can share. Um, we do some evaluation of our services with the kids who come through our chemical health support services and those are at the middle schools and high schools um in all the districts that we serve, which includes uh the Stillwater district. 90% of those youth indicate they're able to use more healthy coping skills instead of substances when dealing with stress and other pressures that they're experiencing. And for the families who come through our counseling services, 72% of the parents say that the situation that brought them in for services was either resolved or made manageable within 3 months. So, we're excited about those results and that effectiveness. For 2026, we are asking for $5,775 in support of our services here in your area. And we have submitted a purchase of services contract for your consideration. We have a website. It is www.ysb.net. It has all kinds of information about uh what we do and and how we do things. and you're welcome to check that out. Are there any questions that I can respond to this evening? **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Council member Holtz, thank you for that and and for the services the work that you all do to help me understand and I we're definitely going to be approving this because it's for our community. But to help me understand with—I know Family Means does some counseling as well in the area. Is there—are they distinctly different for some of the services that they are offering when it comes to the counseling side? **Michael Huntley:** Um yes. So family means covers um adults as well. They'll work with adults individually. We don't do that. We only work when a young person, a youth, is identified as the um primary receiver of services or if we're billing insurance, which we will do, it has to be a youth who has a diagnosis. That's how we do it. Family means can also serve um adults and they have a special senior citizen program as well. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Gotcha. Thank you for all the work and providing the update to the community. **Michael Huntley:** Thank you. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Can you remind me what the total amount was? **Michael Huntley:** The total amount that we're requesting? Yeah. 5,000. Um, let me double check. Make sure I say it right. 7775. $5,775. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Got it. Okay. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Thank you. If there's no other questions, uh, I thank you for your time and your support. **Michael Huntley:** Thank you, Mr. Huntley. Thank you. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All right. On the consent agenda this evening, we have approved payments and dispersements. Approve pay request number one for the 2025 street and utility improvements. Four, accept improvements and approved security reduction for Union Park West. Number five is approve release of warranty security for public improvements for Eastn Village fifth edition. Number six, accept improvements and approved security reduction for the Dairy Queen at 9923 Hudson Boulevard project. Number seven, a pave—approved pay request number five for well number two POS water treatment plant project. Number eight, approve POC firefighter hiring. Number nine, approve youth service bureau contract. Uh with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. **Council Member Matt Hirn:** So moved. **Council Member Nick Kragness:** Second. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All those in favor of the consent—approving the consent agenda, please signify by saying I. **Council Members:** I. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Consent agenda here's by—hereby approved. Jumping into the regular agenda, we have the 2025 bond sale resolution 2025-054. And we did get a revised motion sheet um on this from staff and I think uh was hand directly over to Tammy. Tammy. **Tammy Amdall (Northland Securities):** All right. Mayor, council, good evening. Tammy Amdall from Northland Security serving as advisor to the city on the sale of the series 2025A bonds to finance street improvement projects. Um this morning Northland took bids on behalf of the city. I will cover those results, but first with respect to the bonds, the bonds um were offered at an original par amount of 2,185. The bonds are structured over 10 years with relatively level annual debt service payments. As part of the process, we did recommend that the city pursue a rating on the bonds from Moody's Investor Service. The city has an outstanding rating on your outstanding bonds. The city's existing rating of double A1 was affirmed by Moody's as part of this process. So, congratulations to the city on that. With respect to the sale process this morning and the acceptance of bids, there were seven bids that were received. The low bid was from Brownstone Investment Group out of New York. There was national interest in these bonds despite a relatively smaller size. Um the final um offering with—and we use the true interest cost which takes into account the purchase price of the bonds at 3.32%. The estimate in the finance plan which was from um June—the beginning of June and I presented to you on June 17th was 4.18% at the time the bonds were bid with premium that means that the underwriter is offering more than the purchase price of the bonds in order to um offer higher coupons. The net effect of that is that premium and unused discount meaning the underwriter is working for less than what was estimated is being used to reduce the par amount of the bonds which is why the resolution before you this evening has a lower amount at 2,025,000 is the final amount and that reflects that reduction on use of that premium bid rather than to fund construction cost to reduce the amount of principal that is being issued. With that, mayor and council, it would be my recommendation to you to approve the resolution awarding the sale of the bonds to Brownstone Investment Group for the stated rate. With that, um, I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have for me. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Any questions from Doll? Hearing none, uh, I'll entertain a motion. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Motion to approve resolution 2025-054. Resolution awarding the sale of 2,025,000 general obligation improvement bonds series 2025A fixing their form and specifications directing their execution delivery and providing for their payment. **Council Member Nick Kragness:** Second. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Second. Discussion. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** I just uh couple just takeaways from reading through that. I just think as we move forward looking into the capital improvement and budgeting process just the—I'm no uh Council Member Dragisich here with the uh financials but a couple that stood out to me the long-term liabilities ratio the fixed cost ratio I think both show um as we're moving forward in the process the rest year with the CIP that maybe we need to as Council Member Dragisich has mentioned before think a little bit about uh the debt load. I know we're taking measures to to reduce that as is. Um I think that's just if I'm reading those numbers correctly, those are definitely where looks like we could could use a little work at improving. So I think we just need to make sure we take those into consideration as we're moving forward in the CIP and budget process this year. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All right. Any other discussion hearing? None. I'll call a question. All those in favor resolution number 2025-054, please signify by saying I. **Council Members:** I. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Any nays? **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Nay. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All right. Passes 4-1. Okay. Moving on to number 11. Accept bids and award contract for the I-94 lift station and force main improvements. Resolution 2025-055. **Nate Stanley (City Engineer):** Thank you, Mayor and Council. Um, on July 8th, we received bids for the I-94 lift station and force main improvements. Uh, we received a total of five bids. Uh, the low bid was in the amount of $1,248,683 for the project. Um, we are recommending that the city move forward with that bid from A1 Excavating LLC and award a contract. Just to provide a few details, um, this work includes replacement of a failing 8 in uh, sanitary force main with a new 16-in HDP force main. Uh the line was upsized during final design to accommodate ultimate service flows for development in the area. The project also includes replacement of a failing 90-in corrugated metal pipe culvert that uh traverses Hudson Boulevard near the lift station. This project was its separate CIP project. um it was discovered last year during development of the Amira site. So these two projects together total that 1.25 million or so. The project is proposed to be funded with a combination of sanitary sewer and storm sewer enterprise funds. The total is a little higher than initially estimated. However, of the five bids, the three low were very uh tight bids there. They were very close to each other and uh we believe these are good bids and do recommend that the city moves forward with the project at this time. With that, my recommendation is to approve two motions. Motion approving resolution uh resolution accepting bids and awarding the contract to A1 Excavating LLC for the bid in the amount of $1,248,683 for the I-94 lift station force main uh improvements. Additionally, uh motion authorizing the city administrator to enter into a material testing contract for the project construction phase services in the not to exceed amount of $25,000. Stand for questions. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Questions for city engineer. Council member Holtz. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Where was the difference then in the in the estimate versus the final for the sanitary portion because that's obviously where the increase was? **Nate Stanley (City Engineer):** Yep. So, uh, mayor and council, I we did an exercise to comb through the numbers and unfortunately, uh, so this project was an ad—a very late ad and acceleration to the capital improvement plan last year. It uh it was added and accelerated as a result of um a water—a sanitary force main break that occurred last fall. um it became an emergency situation which kind of unfortunately forced staff into a reactionary rather than you know being able to plan uh mode. So, um in—in this project is very complicated as as final design progressed a number of things were were discovered um that were not necessarily considered last year when the number was sculpted out. Um, a few examples would be replacement of the pumps at the lift station. Um, upsizing of the main itself. You know, the existing main out there is an 8 in. We're actually going to a 16 to accommodate all future development in the area. Um, and as well as some other complicating factors. There's, pardon me, there are um a number of utility crossings that this contractor has to make and those uh you know have to be exposed. There's additional work uh to verify that they're not, you know, hitting—they're they're going to miss the line. You know, we certainly don't want them to hit the line when they're going across it. Um but also just the the nature of the area. Inwood Avenue is a high-traffic wide roadway and um the during final design we were actually finding it difficult—it was finding it was a little difficult in finding the proper spot to cross and that was partially because this—the existing main has broken so many times that it's it's hard to locate. So, um, that really I I guess I would call it a, uh, a site constraint or constructibility concern that pushed that price up. I'd like to think that if staff had a little more time to dig into the details last year, we would have had a number that was closer to this. I think the bottom line is, like I said before, of we got—we got a good number of bids. We actually had three bids that were very close to each other. So this is what it costs. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Thank you. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Maybe a little more than he wanted, but the cost is the cost. Any other questions? Council member Dragisich. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** You know, I just wanted to comment that I had discussed with Nate the difference in the price and and the process. And after my discussion with him, I walked away thinking, you know, I've been in that position before. You just you come up with your best with the information that you have on hand and you know at the time and then you get into the project and you find some things that you couldn't have been aware of when you started and so I think you know he it's tough for him to stand up here and tell us you know oops we we missed it but it's completely justified. I'm completely satisfied my discussion with him that nothing was done inappropriately it's just sometimes stuff happens and you're asked to give a price based on your best estimate but for the information you have and that's what they did and down the line we did increase the size do a few other things so I want to thank you for taking the time to explain that to me because I know it can be a pain sometimes when I ask these questions but spent a good deal of time telling me about it and I was completely satisfied with the response. Thank you. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All right. With that I'll uh entertain a motion. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Motion to approve resolution number 2025-055 accepting bids and order a contract to A1 Excavating LLC for the bid amount of $1,248,683 for the I-94 lift station force main replacement project. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Second. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** We have a motion in a second discussion. **Council Member Matt Hirn:** Yeah, this will be uh interesting. Hopefully the design is taken into account so we don't have change conditions in the project because I know that when you're going underneath roads that's always a difficult uh endeavor. Um and hope it it turns out with minimal changes. So uh appreciate the work and explanation. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** I'll call the question. All those in favor of resolution number 2025-055, please signify by saying I. **Council Members:** I. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Resolution passes. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Motion to authorize the city administrator to enter into a material testing contract for the project construction phase services in the not to exceed amount of $25,000 for the I-94 lift station force main replacement project. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Second. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** We have a motion and a second for construction phase services testing not to exceed 25,000 for the I-94 lift station force main project. Any discussion? Hearing none. I'll call the question. All those in favor, please signify by saying "I." **Council Members:** I. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Motion passes. Next, we have a quarterly goals update. **Nicole Miller (City Administrator):** Mayor and council, it's my pleasure to um give you an update on the quarterly goals update. It's our second update since um the council adopted their strategic plan earlier this year. So, uh, any time you can ask any questions if you have any as well. Under our goal of building a vibrant, inclusive, and connected community through celebration, engagement, and shared spaces. Couple updates is that um the city council approved that contract with uh ULA to do the TAP program, that technical assistance advisory panel, advisory panel um for the 180 acres in May. And that project should start um still this fall. That's what we're hoping for. The community development department provided um an update um kind of a timeline on the ball fields planning. Um and our community development director will be leading um a discussion and update with the parks commission and the joint workshop in September with the council as well. Under managed growth with purpose and intent. Um, we just recently held a workshop to discuss the Musa boundary for the comprehensive plan 2050. And for the old fire station and the public works building, we are still in the process of um receiving submissions. And so that does close um for the RFP in August and that they've had a couple open houses as well. For our balance finances consistent with current needs and future growth. Um, there was um for our new um our BS&A software, new financial software, we're scheduled to uh implement that in quarter 1 of 2026. So, our finance department has been working with them on um the timeline for the transition this year. We also implemented those new capital levies to fund the long-term capital needs. We also um just recently had a street light funding discussion where um staff is now working on exploring a street light fee. And we've had um scheduled in August, we actually will be bringing back um you know kind of scope of work in price to uh address our storm water fees, city sewer and water connection fees as well as um kind of talking about our long-term financial planning tools. So that's next month. This year um staff served the city center building committee and we're currently looking at our city center um our maintenance needs and future planning for that as well as well as public works has been starting to inventory public works building needs and build out the CIP for that stuff. Under maintain responsive and transparent and adaptive governance. Um, hopefully you all saw the water brochure, our first water brochure that we mailed to all residents this spring. Um we have created an internal SharePoint site and um you all should have access to it as well so we can share share the good stories of our our employees and important information with them as well. We're going to continue to build that out as we move forward to deliver efficient, reliable, and innovative public services. Um for um seeking community input on fire response. We are just starting to internally brainstorm some ideas for gathering input from the community and maybe um thinking about any sort of public education that might help with that. We had um the public works uh operational assessment a draft form presented at city council workshop in May. We are um meeting with Raftelis tomorrow to go over next steps after they've added um benchmarking to their report as well. We are happy that Bolton and Menk is able to provide us with GIS mapping and so um staff as well as Bolton Menk have been working on developing this platform and um we just recently had a meeting and we're hoping to go live end of July, August I would say. there's going to be internal um layers as well as an external um portion too. So, we're working to see what kind of layers we want the public to have access to. And under build and sustain resilient infrastructure to support a thriving and sustainable community, we did um implement the Sensus um technology and I think it's pretty cool. Staff is working with that um to identify high water users. So, so we can kind of um look for irrigation that's on during um the appropriate zones as well as identify someone that might have a leaky toilet. So, staff's been able to work on that. And then we did just recently have our close session um and discussing the area for the water treatment plant. So, you have any questions can try and answer them. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** I think this looks fantastic. It's a nice uh catalog of what's been going on and what we're doing to kind of go over the things that we talked about in January. Just a question on the left hand column. Some of them are dark print and some of them are like a shaded print. Is that just a— **Nicole Miller (City Administrator):** That is um—I can't remember the exact terminology, but there were um our high-high goals and then our next highest goals. So the next highest goals are the gray ones. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Got it. **Nicole Miller (City Administrator):** But just based on how things work out, sometimes we're working on those as well. Yep. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Just say it's fantastic to see it documented and to be able provide that to the community. It's—we haven't had it provided in this way potentially ever. I mean, so it's it's very—very much appreciative of it. Is there kind of a summary of this for the community on the website too by chance of—I mean I guess like a similar document to—um—but well it's included in obviously the packet. **Nicole Miller (City Administrator):** Okay. But good point. I was wondering if maybe because it is really helpful since we're doing this for the first time. It's been I know very helpful for us, maybe for the community. I don't know if the information maybe wouldn't mean as much um or if you'd feel like you'd have to expand more. So, it's just more work. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Yeah, we'll explore something to explore even um with our new website exploring how we display the strategic plan. Maybe um we'll look at it. It might not just be a document, but it could be an embedded um page. We also talk a little bit about dabbling in the idea of annual reports for different departments and so maybe that would be where we could capture it. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Yeah, I think that falls right in line with maintain responsive transparent and adoptive governance. So yeah, that'd be cool. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All right, if there's nothing else, then we can move on to item 13, which is a point planning commissioner. Uh earlier this evening at 6:00, we had an interview with um a candidate that wants to serve on the planning commission. Uh Danielle Sorro and that's up for appointment. If somebody would like to make a motion, I'll entertain that. **Council Member Matt Hirn:** Move to appoint Daniel Sorro to the open planning commission position. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Second. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** We have a motion in the second to appoint Daniel Sorro to the planning commission. All those in favor? Well, I should open it up for discussion first. Any discussion? Sorry, I jumped the gun. All right, I'll call the question. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. **Council Members:** I. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Any opposed? Hearing none. Uh Daniel Sorro is hereby appointed to the planning commission. Thank you, Miss Sorro. The added uh agenda item is the 100-year anniversary celebration discussion. Um, so, city—the city of Lake Elmo first started as a—well way long ago. It started as the East Oakdale Township and then became the Lake Elmo Township in uh 1925, which would make this 100 years for Lake Elmo. And so I think the discussion is—I know that there's some grassroots uh planning that's been going on and I think—well I'll let Council Member Dragisich uh go on about it since he brought it up. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Yes. I you know I actually became aware of this 100-year celebration. I think Marty Powers posted something on LinkedIn uh about a month or so ago and I saw it and I really wasn't aware but I got to thinking um as a city you know will—have some kind of celebratory or celebration process now I've learned that there's something being planned um by connect lake Elmo but seemed like for a hundred years the city could be a little more proactive and and my thought was one way we could make this more fun would be by sponsoring some fireworks um one evening. My thought would be if the mayor as a leader of our community could say a few words about the city and its 100 anniversary and how we've evolved and and where to from where we started to where we got today. We culminate that with you know fireworks display. I know we don't have that in the budget and it'd be an addition. I did some preliminary research um and found—don't know it to be accurate, but it says fireworks generally run like a thousand to $1,500 a minute um by those professional companies. I was thinking 30 minutes that's $45,000. We'd have to decrease, you know, our $12 million we have in cash in our general fund to cover that, but it's a hundred years. That's only 450 bucks a year um for 100 years. And and I would think bringing the community together to celebrate this and and some of the things are being planned if we just you know evening it'll be dark a little earlier then I think it just be a lot of fun to have everybody standing around downtown and have a fireworks go off and we could all cheer and I know it's half crazy but um you know that's the kind of stuff that in rural Minnesota where I come from you usually do on a 100-year celebration um I would like to think we could even get fancier at some point during the day. We could get, you know, some fighter jets to swoop over the city, which is some place other people do. So, how would you do that? Me, I would contact Senator Klobuchar and ask her if we could get a display saying 3:00 on September 4th, we'd like to get four or five fighter jets to fly over the city. And, you know, we'd all be downtown again celebrating. My little hometown of Chisholm did that all the time. the one year the Blue Angels flew over our for our first all class reunion. The Blue Angels flew over the main street during the parade. And so you have to ask for those things and it can be tricky. But the worst they can say is no. And you know I just think whatever we can do to improve—if I was a had more time you know and I thought of this earlier and I'll take the knock for not doing it but the other thing I would do is I would set up a street dance one night. you know, if we get a DJ or a band or something and bring everyone together, you have the fireworks, you have the jets, and you have the street dance. And now you got a hundred-year celebration that people will remember. And I know that Clarissa would love to write those checks. Give me a heart attack. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** So, that's—that's the uh thoughts from this one crazy city councilor and I fully agree. The—the hard part is it is July 15th which means there is last I checked about four to five months left of the year. Um but I have zero issue. Our—our fund balance is beyond healthy. The 100-year anniversary happens once a hundred years. Here's the thing. Next year the country is turning 250. So, there's also be an opportunity there. Um but there is absolutely an opportunity to let the community know there's a 100th anniversary here. Here's a reason to get together. Now, it does that mean blending it with National Night Out as an example? I don't know. But I have—if the question is the fund balance on fireworks hypothetically, I have zero issue with that. That is why we have a fund balance for things that come up that are unexpected. In this case, I would be shocked if a resident were to say that's a terrible use of money to celebrate a 100-year anniversary. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** I think there's something planned for Labor Day weekend or that week by a connect lake. And so I was thinking be, you know, for national—probably out of time, but we have a short fuse between now and Labor Day that we might be able to accomplish that. And I, Nicole, I know Nicole's nothing else on her plate, right? You're causing two heart attacks right now. So, connect Lake Elmo—something about Friday, September 5th. It looks like looks like Lake Elmo Bank involved. They have a green day picnic which is always good to get a hot dog and a couple years of corn on that Friday. I mean it is—it too quick. Do we—our next work session is the second Tuesday in August? It is—it too quick to have it as a work session item and then not enough time to discuss for potential September fi—September what? 5th. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Yeah, I think it's—I think that's too—I think I would think the fireworks, you know, if we were—if I was—if I was a supreme dictator of the city of Lake Elmo, I would ask the fire chief to coordinate that because they're going to need to be involved. Where you set the fireworks up has got to be thought about strategically um given property and all that other stuff. Um and you can see them from a ways away anyway. But I would think asking, you know, fire chief to help us coordinate that and and you know he probably knows some vendors that do that stuff because they all kind of know those things. **Nicole Miller (City Administrator):** The potential exists. Might not be a site. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Might not be. I mean, you know, we may have to go somewhere way out of town. I don't know. But we couldn't do it without the fire chief saying this is the appropriate place to shoot them from. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** The mayor's backyard might work. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** No, it's too wooded. It might have been early on in the development age, but the trees have grown. Maybe back behind Lions Park potentially. Well, before we get into the logistics, I'd just like to hear some other thoughts. I I would like to hear uh staff's thoughts as well. Um since this is just kind of brought up and they haven't had any time to really digest it or maybe they have been thinking in the back of their head. I'm not sure. **Council Member Matt Hirn:** Yeah. So, all I—I do like the idea. I'm concerned about the uh time frame of it. I think maybe one thing that comes to my mind with this because if we're going to do this, we're going to have to get the community involved with it to help out. It's going to be involving Connect Lake Elmo because they have a lot going on as well and they're planning things. So, you know, I think it's going to be important that we work with them. I guess my first thought um when we're doing something like this is I'd like to see some community involvement as well versus just the city of Lake Elmo being for these. Again, that's another added complexity in a short period of time. You know, I—I almost would rather say I'd prefer seeing something where, you know, we would match commu—the the city account—the city would match uh community donations up to 25,000 uh support half of it where the community is is getting more involved to help fund some of this as well, the businesses, etc. Um because, you know, like at Lake Elmo Bank, I know is—was already working with Connect Lake Elmo. Um, I'm sure there's businesses that would be interested in in stepping up and and celebrating the 100 year as well. You know, I—I think—I think it would just be another way to really make sure that this is something that people really want is if other people are stepping up to to commit and and put some skin in the game as well. So, I guess that's just my thought on it is the time frame is a bit of concern. I love—I love the idea. I wish—I wish we would have thought of it sooner, I guess, is kind of the main thing. Um, if we're going to make it work at this point without having really planned it, I think I'd like to see it be uh partially funded by the city, but also partially funded by community. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** I just don't think we have the time to do that effort with about six weeks. I mean, if we got donations, we could reduce the city's contribution, but if you're going to get a vendor and get it all lined up with only just six weeks left, yes. you know, we could ask for donations if people would like to defray the cost to help out, but I think we need to commit the funds if we're going to get it lined up. **Council Member Matt Hirn:** Yeah, I don't disagree. I think that's the—the tricky part is the time frame is is tough to do this without just kind of jumping in the deep end. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Yeah, I mean I completely agree. The time frame is tough. Wish we would have thought of it earlier, but I absolutely love the idea. I think it's great. Hopefully you can rub some elbows and try to get some fighter jets flying over here. But with the time frame, I think it's going to be tough. But anything that I can do to help out, I would love to see this happen. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Thoughts? Administrator Miller? **Nicole Miller (City Administrator):** Well, I was just reading um the email from Connect Lake that we all received earlier um this evening to see, you know, um since they are our community event partner planner to see what they have um in store. So, it looks like the, you know, the month of September, they're going to be—well, they're asking right now to see um if businesses or organizations want to plan anything for the month of September, as well as developing looks like a website to share memories and um maybe photos of Lake Elmo. So, um, so I guess more interested in the scope of what you're looking at, uh, just the fireworks or an event where the mayor is saying something and we're doing more, um, be— **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Yeah. **Nicole Miller (City Administrator):** So, just kind of more interested in that. Also, um, yeah, we—we could certainly reach out to firework vendors. Um, I have no idea how far out they get booked, right? Right. I wouldn't think they'd be that busy in the month of September, but you never know. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** So, is the thought—are we more looking, do we want to be willing to spend up to 50,000 if we're able to organize this? Is—Is that kind of the—the thought process here? That—I mean, that would be my—I would be okay with that. Um, and I will uh I'll commit myself at least to talking with some business owners and connect Lake Elmo and try and uh probably use under the advisement of someone else to figure out how we could maybe get some fighter jets and maybe some sort of quick street dance put together. That's kind of a big thing, but um I think it'd be pretty cool. Couple ideas rattling around in my head, but yeah, I wouldn't mind picking up that yolk and pulling it. **Council Member Nick Kragness:** It's a good opportunity actually potentially for the the Lake Elmo airport as well. Um when I was at the uh the air show in Eau Claire, um some of the Lake Elmo airport pilots were there and it it—they uh a lot of the um the airport was using it as an opportunity to reach out to a lot of the neighbors as more of a positive um aspect. And so from that standpoint, but then two from connections from as far as for, you know, maybe we're not going to get the Blue Angels for it, but uh, you know, potentially some sort of fly over for it. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** As luck would have it, I have had those discussions with the MAC regarding our 100th anniversary and what is even potential regarding what can land there versus also how do flyovers work if you don't have a senator's phone number in your pocket. Um, which I do not. Um, we can't land anything substantial of that nature. No, but we do have opportunities that do exist. There are multiple historical planes that exist at South St. Paul and they often have a need to exercise their planes. They need to be out and flying and that's just a part of their nature. And there are opportunities that do exist with other planes. I'll phrase it that way. So it—it is—it's about having those conversations and I absolutely will—can help out with that being on—being on that uh chair of the committee actually. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Were there any discussions with the MAC about helicopters or anything like that? **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** I broached that topic as well. They did—they were not aware of any easier opportunities in that regard. But yes, helicopters—if there were such a—like we don't—there's a helicopter unit at MSP. Uh but that's—that's another—their main recommendation was to reach out to South St. Paul with some of their historical planes like they have a B-25 there. They have a couple other historical planes that do need to be— **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** That'd be really neat. Yeah. Yeah. That B-25 is actually just out of Duluth. I was just in it. Um, but those planes do need to exercise, which—but yeah, I—I have no—just as the mayor said, I will gladly do whatever is necessary to have those conversations, especially given that this is a quick turnaround. Um, I fully support having Charles give a 20-minute speech on the history of Lake Elmo. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** That's going to cost a lot. Nobody wants to do that, including me. But— **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** I 25 now. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** But I—I do think given it is a quick turnaround, we might need to have a conversation like—the city fireworks that that is it and everything else is uh you know coordinating with other entities or is it city uh also is coordinating a second thing whether it's the dance—a talent show—like because our staff do need to know how crazy are we going to be from a council standpoint. Um, and I—again, and fireworks, it may not happen. Who knows? But I—I think that would be priority one for me. And then priority two might be at least city coordination to help to lead like what is that that get together thing. Maybe it's a dance-off, maybe it's a talent show, maybe it's a um, you know, law enforcement versus celebrity softball game, like whatever that that might be. Um, I—I think there's that second piece. And the other can be your scavenger hunt coordinated by connect lake Elmo or by the local church or the lake Elmo PTA like there are many other entities. If Tesla wants to do something—fantastic, Dairy Queen, Blizzards... **Council Member Matt Hirn:** Do you think is it possible that we could do a little bit more of the the groundwork to have the details figured out and actually vote on this at our first council meeting in in August? I just—I'm concerned. There's so many details here that I'm concerned we're going to spend $50,000. It's going to be—well, we don't know where we're doing the fireworks. We don't have those details. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** And I think, you know, I think if we just authorize up to 50,000 in fireworks, provide all the details can be worked out because again, the fire chief may say there's no place to do it. I mean, I think we have to work with the fire chief. But if we authorize it, provide the details can be worked out then I think you know the other thing we talked about the mayor coordinating with connect lake and I'd be glad to help with that mayor you know and councilor old talking about you know see if you get a flyover of some sort. I think that we've done enough then then we've planted the seed for a really nice celebration for the hunter. We just need to coordinate that with Connect Lake Elmo so we're not doing something that would be they think would be crazy or wouldn't work or whatever. And so if we authorize up to 50,000 fireworks that never gets spent, we haven't lost anything. But we have such a short time fuse. I think we need to, you know, 6 weeks is is fairly short and we need to um we need to move—if we delay, we may find there just isn't enough time. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** I like that idea because I agree fully with you, Council Member Hirn, and it—we—there is a risk to it and if it's up to and it fails and it doesn't happen, then there's no dollars. Um, but I also think it would—it would help with connect Lake Elmo if it can be shown the city is willing to take a step and then I think that can help also with the impetus of others who are, "Oh, there's going to be a fireworks show. Sweet. I will help with this. I will help with this." Because there have been at least with events the last couple times, it's been hard getting volunteers. Whereas in this case, if—if we're showing that the city is offering a potential fireworks show, which to my knowledge, I don't know if there's ever been a firework show in Lake Elmo, I don't—I've been here 20 years. I haven't seen one. I mean, that— **City Attorney:** Mr. Mayor, yes. Um, there might not have been one because I don't know if it's a—it has to be a public purpose expenditure. Yeah. Under the city's—a statutory city, so everything has to fall with under a statute that allows you to spend the money. Um, I'm not aware of anything that allows you to spend money for fireworks. Okay. But there is a statute that allows for community celebrations and there is actually one related to centennial and historical celebrations. Okay. Which is what you have here. So, I think we would need to do a little bit more looking into whether the city could expend the funds for fireworks for a centennial celebration or a community celebration of some sort. And I'd want to feel more comfortable with that before you go and spend the money on fireworks or whatever it is that you want to purchase for the celebration. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** So, here's what I'm going to I'm going to ask is that we table any motion, get our homework, figure out that we can spend the money. Um, just because we don't take a vote tonight doesn't mean we can't start the discussion to have something ready. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Yes, I think we have to have the discussions. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Okay. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** So, I agree. We can start the discussion and find out if there's a vendor available and I'm pretty sure we have the authority find out that we're illegal—knowledge legally okay to do that. **Nicole Miller (City Administrator):** I can talk about the auditors short order. Okay. Yes. Um I was just thinking that the um vendors if you're doing it on short notice might require a deposit, right? And so and they're not going to hold a date unless you put the money down. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** So, I might be naive, but I'm just not seeing a ton of need for firework displays in middle of September. I wouldn't think. But who knows? **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Yeah, I've been wrong many times before as Jeff likes to tell me. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** So, well, Bayer—like so far, if we go on the path and it just doesn't work out, we've lost nothing. Right. Right. And for those discussions, what date are we thinking? I mean, have we even gotten to that point of like maybe what weekend to discuss with firework vendors or anything? **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** I think connect they come something September 5th or something. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** You said there—they said September 5th. Yeah, I mean you could go uh what is that? Hang on a moment. I think we—some—we coordinate with—I mean you could look at the 12th or the 13th or the you know I mean you've got a number of days in September. I don't think you want to get into October but— **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** No. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Yeah. But if we coordinate connect we're all on the same page and a community celebration. As long as it doesn't interfere with the home go for a football game, I'll be okay. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** That's the— **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** But that is the thing, right? **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** I second that. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** That there's so many logistics and that is what I'm concerned about. You know, I don't want to get too concerned. It makes stuff happen. But people don't like uh poorly put together fireworks shows either. So that's the last thing I'd want is a poorly put together show and then saying, "Well, why did you—why did you even spend this?" **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** Yep. No, that's true. My recommendation is get her done. **Council Member Jeff Holtz:** Get her done. **Council Member Nick Dragisich:** All right. All right. Write the check. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All right. So, sounds like I got a lot of things to do in the next couple weeks, which is fine. Um, moving on to council reports. Council Member Dragisich, he'll report. Council Member Holtz, no report. Uh I do not have a report this week. **Council Member Nick Kragness:** You know, just at the cable commission meeting, um it came up that Woodbury might potentially be looking at um challenging some of the uh the utility—the ability to use utilities for um uh um broadband. Um, I know that wasn't passed this year in the legislator—legislative um process. Woodbury, it sounds like, is going to try to challenge that a little bit. So, it might be something to just kind of pay attention to. **City Attorney:** Mr. Mayor, members of council, we have a person in our firm that's been looking into that and talking about that they were looking at that. They're in a different commission, cable commission than we are in. They're in I think it's the East—I can't remember, East Metro. They're in a different one. But um so just something to— **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** So what does that mean? Yeah. What does that mean? **Council Member Nick Kragness:** Where we could charge a utility a franchise fee for um for broadband being run along the road just like for uh telephone—for the power. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** For Comcast. Yep. For the cable. Yep. **Council Member Nick Kragness:** Because currently it's not allowed. **City Attorney:** Correct. **Council Member Nick Kragness:** And I think the reason it's coming up is the fiber stuff. **City Attorney:** Well, and they're—they're struggling with revenue sources because a lot of people are cutting the cable cord and they're just using their internet service to watch the cable TV. And so I think that's where a lot of this is coming from. Um we connect a fr—collect a franchise fee from Comcast. It's limited to 5% by the federal telecommunications act. Thank you, attorney. Um, this is broadband, which could—could be other firms that like um T-Mobile that's do it, you know, over the air type and put antennas on on your street lights or whatever it would be. And I guess and the reason I just think it's fitting, right, Nate mentioned it tonight, you know, the the cost of this project that we're doing is is significantly higher because of having to deal with all these utilities. And you know I was having a conversation with council member Dragisich about this too and it kind of hit to really understanding like you know when we're charging these fees like that's what it's trying to cover is for when we have to do this type of work. Um and I guess this utility really is no different, right? We have to incur the extra cost as a city to make sure we're not hitting their lines as we dig. So something to just be watching I guess. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Thank you for Kness. No report. Um, staff reports. No report. Okay. Johnson—anything? **Clarissa Hadler (Finance Director):** Thank you. Uh, the quarterly financials are in your packet. I'm happy to answer any questions. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** No, appreciate it. Thank you. No report. **City Attorney:** Uh, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I don't know if you're aware, the court of appeals issued a decision on Monday. I don't if you got a copy of it relating to the DNR water appropriations and it's going back to the ALJ. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Okay. So, will we get an update from Mr. Thompson on that? **City Attorney:** Yes. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** Okay great. **Nicole Miller (City Administrator):** As well as um Clark will be providing a summary for your Friday update. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** I mean, I read through it, but I'm not a law dog lingo guy, but I got the gist of it. Much to be decided still. **City Attorney:** Yes. **Mayor Charles Cadenhead:** All right. So with that, I'm going to adjourn this evening's meeting at uh 8:04. Perfect.