This transcript has been processed to identify speakers based on the provided list of city officials and the internal context of the discussion. [0:28] (Atmospheric noise) [0:58] (Atmospheric noise) [1:50] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Call to order City of Cannon Falls City Council for Tuesday, May 21st. Just before we get started, I want to thank everybody with the weather tonight for pushing things back. It just felt like when you're under a watch and you're told the sirens are going off and you're supposed to seek shelter, it would be wrong of us to try to come here and sit at City Hall and meet. So, I'm glad we were able to delay. So with that said, I’ll take a roll call, please. [2:17] **City Clerk Sara Peer:** Nobach? [2:19] **Council Member Chris Nobach:** Here. [2:20] **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Here. [2:21] **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** Here. [2:22] **Council Member Chad Johnson:** Here. [2:23] **Council Member Diane Johnson:** Here. [2:24] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Here. [2:25] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Here. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. [2:36] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** If I could entertain a motion to approve tonight's agenda. [2:40] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** So moved. [2:42] **Council Member Diane Johnson:** Second. [2:44] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, we'll go with the motion. Motion from Lisa, second from Diane. Sounds good. All those in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carries. [2:50] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Gets 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. Each speaker will have no more than 3 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. Babel Gorman, Dollar General. [3:47] **Babe Gorman:** Good evening. First and foremost, I owe you all an apology for being—can I call myself a knucklehead? Yeah? Okay, good. Well, I sometimes am. I had my wife bring up off the city website the zoning map and I was completely wrong and totally wrong, and for that I apologize. If it hadn't been for Derek blowing one up and sending one to my phone that I could blow up even further, I—well, now I know what you're talking about. And Mr. Jeppesen, I for sure accused you of either having the application wrong or the zoning map wrong, and for that I apologize, sir. I'm sorry. [4:33] **Babe Gorman:** But one thing that I—I own property within a couple hundred feet of this across the road and—don't get me wrong—I think it'd be just fine. I care less, you know, that Dollar General goes there. Somebody should go there; Russell Moore tried to sell it for 50 years. So that's a good thing. But this conditional use thing... I do take exception if we're going to treat that differently than, like, for instance, the Rick Nolton property up on Bluff Drive. If you remember a year and a half or two ago, Shelly Ryan was here—I believe it was Shelly—and went up and down how you cannot change that property. You cannot have conditional uses just because it doesn't fit the property that you wish it to fit on because it is bare land. So, just so that they're treated equally, that's all I care about. Thank you for your time and again, I'm sorry. [5:39] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you, Babe. Next up, Randy Rexal, setbacks. [5:41] **Randy Rexal:** It's kind of the same thing that Babe said. I own land within a couple hundred feet of this property and I would think that if there's going to be a public hearing, that everybody should be noticed. Everybody within 300-400 feet should have a notice of it happening, and I never did receive a notice. I'm not against Dollar General either, but I just think that people and everybody who's close should be notified ahead of time, which I was not. I'm on the Goodhue County Board of Adjustments and I know on our group, if it's a new construction, we have a hard time giving variances. We usually have it to where you have to meet the setbacks. It better be a pretty, you know, hardship for a pretty good reason, otherwise we don't allow them at the county level. And here they're asking for variances on two, three sides of it, and I don't really agree with that. And that's at a public hearing I'd be able to speak on that, but I never was notified of any public hearing. Thank you. [7:02] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Randy, thanks. Jim Hery, setbacks. [7:05] **Jim Hery:** Probably gonna—excuse me—good evening. Probably going to be a repeat, but yeah, I'm probably the only adjoining property owner to this property to the north. And again, I don't know if the right guy sent it out; he probably sent it out but I didn't receive a notice. So that's why I wasn't at the hearing. I'd like to be informed again, and when it comes up that when you want to talk about it, I have some concerns. Thanks. [7:40] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Jim, thank you. [7:45] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All right, that gets us to tonight's consent agenda. The consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as Council business. I'll read them off: Item A, incorrect claims; B, meeting minutes for May 7th; C, approve early model home permit agreement; D, approve hiring of unscheduled part-time employees for the ambulance department; Item E, Resolution 2755 approving variances for Dollar General; Item F, Resolution 2756 approving conditional use permit for Dollar General; Item G, Resolution 2757 approving variances for 620 Grove Street North; Item H, Resolution 2758 approved vacation for William Marsh; and Item I, approve temporary liquor license for the Cannon Valley Fair Board. I would like to pull down Items E and F. Are there any other items that the council would like to pull down? No? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to approve. [8:54] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** So moved. [8:55] **Council Member Chris Nobach:** Second. [8:57] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion from Nobach, second from Zimmerman. All those in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carries. [9:01] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Gets us to Council business. Item A will be item what was E in the consent agenda: Resolution 2755 approving the variances for Dollar General. Similar to what Randy said, variances for new builds... I think kind of rubs me the wrong way because there are other places where anybody could do what is necessary without having to ask for all these variances and follow the setbacks. To me, the biggest one that sticks in my craw—and I applaud our Planning and Zoning going through it—I don't know if we've done our due diligence yet with all the parties who are involved. As the gentlemen here said tonight, they haven't had a chance to talk about it. But the biggest one to me is Progressive Rail, because the railroad running through it and that setback that is supposed to be 10 feet, they're asking for like 3.6 feet. That's where the semis are going to turn and use that back driveway to do their delivery, and they're going to be getting very, very close to where those train cars separate because they split to that Y. They've got two tracks that go to the grain mill. So the fact that we haven't had all parties informed or to be part of the discussion, I don't feel comfortable as a council making a decision that could have an impact on somebody like Progressive Rail. And yes, they don't own the land, but they have the easement and operate the vehicles on the tracks. If they said we have 10-foot—can anybody here answer why we have 10-foot setbacks for the railroad cars? If we can't, then we need to have Progressive Rail present to answer that question because there could be some safety issues there. Anyway, that's to me, that's my biggest beef. Safety number one. Traffic concerns with MnDOT, State Highway 20... I know that they gave us this alternate trucking route but, Diane, as you said, now that's just going to be pushing it to Hinkle and Cannon Equipment and other, you know, right on County Road 17. I know traffic is traffic, but there's a lot of people that live up there that are going to—you know, we're going to be pushing them down to a one-lane bridge to get to the south part of town. I don't know. I have some issues with that. And I know that as a council we are not to talk about bigger things, just the information that's in front of us, but to me the biggest issue is we need to get Progressive Rail's input on this. So I would entertain the idea that we table this for at least a couple months so that we can get other people involved in the discussion and answer some of these questions. [11:33] **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** Yeah, I agree on tabling, and I think I don't know if we can send it back to planning or something. And I don't know who sends the notices out; evidently if two people right next door didn't get it, who else didn't get it? So I would agree that we table it, maybe send it back to planning. And I also agree with those guys: why does a new construction need a variance? You know, if you need a 6-foot variance, just build it 6 feet smaller or move the location a little bit, right? Then the location probably isn't right. Yeah, so I would be on board with tabling as well. [12:09] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** So this did go through Planning Commission and it was approved? [12:12] **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** It did. [12:13] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** It did, but nobody spoke at the public hearings, probably because they didn't know about them. [12:18] **Council Member Diane Johnson:** We got more information after the Planning Commission that a lot of the neighbors weren't informed in time to voice their opinion at the Planning Commission. So I really think we need the input from them somehow before we move forward. I agree with it too; it's just from 10 feet to 3 feet, you know? Yeah, that was the thing, my issue. There's a reason it’s set at 10 feet, so to give them three is—I don't know. Got questions about that. [12:35] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Then, you know, I think if there's at least two that didn't get their notice, maybe we could just restart. Send this—do we have the authority to send this back to Planning Commission? [12:39] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** You have the authority to send this back to Planning Commission. It's our statute. If you don't like what you see, send it back, we'll start over and they can relook at it. That’ll give us a chance to call Dave Felton, who is the president of Progressive Rail, and get his input or get him here to the meeting if you so choose, whatever he feels. And yeah, if you want to, we can resend the notices out. But you have an option to table, and if you want to deny, state your case. If you want to approve, state your case. But still table it, because then we will draft findings of fact that correspond with your discussion. But if you're seeking more information, maybe the best route would be to send it back to the Planning Commission as it says in our code. [13:58] **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** If we were to table, how long would that be to give Progressive Rail time to be involved and to notify? Would it be a month? Would it be two months? What would the calendar look like? [14:18] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** 60-day rule is in effect. If you guys feel that you're going to run up against the 60-day rule, make a motion to extend it to 120 days, and we have to notify them in writing that we've extended it to 120 days. I can't remember when—Zach, do you know when the application—I can find it here I suppose, but what was the date of the application? [14:45] **Zach (Staff):** It was 4/18. [14:47] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** So 60 days from 4/18 is 6/18. We probably should just make a motion, if you want further information and want to send it back to Planning Commission, that we're going to extend the application out for another 60 days or 120 days. All right, but them are some of your options that you can do. And if you're not satisfied, you can always send it back. It's right in our code. Send it back, get more information. You know, you talked about the rail, you talked about the turning radius on the semis, among other things. So I believe that would be appropriate. [15:37] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Does tabling it open it up for other analysis or asking for—you just said we want more information? [15:43] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** Right, we want more information. We’ve got to find that information for you. Okay. [16:04] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Is it kind of the logical thing though to send it back to the Planning Commission, or do you table it and send it back, or do you just send it back? [16:11] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** Well, you're not going to make any motions to approve or deny, so you're tabling it back to—okay, so to table it sends it back to planning. Yeah, send it back. It's not denial, it's just delay for information. [16:25] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** And I didn't know if the tabling it and sending back to planning were the same thing or two different motions. [16:32] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** But with that, extend it to 120 days, sure, because I think you'll butt up against the 60-day rule. Yep. [16:47] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Now, can we do both of these items as one motion or do they have to be... the variance and the conditional use? [16:49] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** You’ll just have to—if you do not approve the variances, they can't meet the conditional use permit. [16:54] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay. Okay. So what was item E, Resolution 2755, is what we're talking about. If that gets tabled, then item F is... [16:56] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** Item F is just moot, and yep, you’ll just table it. And if you approve the variances, that automatically meets the criteria for a conditional use permit, so then you'd still have to approve the conditional use permit, but you've just made it so it's approvable by approving the variances prior to that. [17:05] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Got it. After discussion, I would entertain a motion to table Resolution 2755, the variance for Dollar General, and extend it for 120 days. [17:15] **Council Member Diane Johnson:** I would make that motion. [17:17] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Second. [17:21] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** I heard Lisa. Okay, the motion from Diane, second from Lisa. All those in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carries. We don't have to talk about Item F then that we pulled down. [17:43] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** So that gets us through our business. That gets us to basically reports. Chamber of Commerce, Maggie is not here. Planning Commission? [17:48] **Brian Douglas (Planning Commission):** I assume that was most of what we saw here tonight. We met on the 13th and we had a number of public hearings that night. Well, the variances and the conditional use permit for Dollar General. Also, we approved a variance for 620 Grove Street North, which was a burnt house and he's going to rebuild. We approved that and we passed it tonight. And also we had a vacation request down on Stalton Street for William Marsh, and we approved that, and we also approved that tonight. So that's all we had. [18:30] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All right. Library Board? [18:31] **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Yeah, we met last Monday. Library use is up from last month and also from 2023. And we went over the preliminary budget, and that was about it. I see the preliminary budget; there's a turning red over there, budget time. [18:43] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** And then the special EDA meeting that happened yesterday... if Laura wants to speak on it, but it was Item C in the consent agenda: approving the early model home permit agreement. [18:51] **Laura Qualey (EDA Specialist):** Yes, so yesterday we held a public hearing and we have six lots that technically are in the process of... we held a public hearing to sell those, so we will be closing on those this week. And then the two model homes for Fieldstone will be breaking ground as soon as the rain quits. So that's what we're looking at. And then we did take another down payment for another lot, so we're moving ahead. Awesome. [19:35] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you. We'll go around the horn. Jed? [19:42] **Jed Petersen (Public Works):** The last Council, or maybe the Council before that, we are accepting a grant from the state to do our lead and copper survey. I think today was the plan that they sent out the some letters to the 980 homes that potentially have lead and copper. Doesn't mean they do, but there's potential. So all homes that were built after 1985, there's a lot put in place so they're not to worry. We only have 980 connections that were previous to 1985, so letters will go out today. If anybody has questions, there's plenty of information on that letter, but I'm sure we'll hear it here at City Hall and everywhere else as well. [20:34] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All right, thank you. Zach? [20:36] **Zach (Staff):** All right. [20:37] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Laura? [20:39] **Laura Qualey:** I just wanted to remind everyone that the active transportation planning grant, that interactive map is out there along with the survey. So I did put it out on our Facebook page, it's on the community TV website, and I will have a link up on our city government page as well. But the more information that people can put out there—what they feel is a good place, a bad place to walk or bike—the more information we can collect the better it will make our plan be for MnDOT. Thanks. [21:18] **Council Member Diane Johnson:** Are they having a public meeting? Are they inviting the public? [21:21] **Laura Qualey:** We're doing on June 25th and 26th a walk and bike audit around the town. So I will actually be asking for people to participate. We're going to be breaking up in different groups around town on those two days—I'm sorry, the 25th and 26th of June. So we'll be looking for different people from all different demographics—you know, kids, parents, active seniors, parents, whatever—and we'll do different areas around town and kind of walk, like I said, walk and bike and kind of identify different areas that are safe or unsafe. So if anyone's interested, they can reach out to me; my contact information is on the website. [21:55] **Council Member Diane Johnson:** How long is that survey open? [21:57] **Laura Qualey:** Probably through at least till the beginning of June. And then I'll also talk to someone at the Beacon and probably get an article in there and then also maybe a QR code people can scan; it'll take them to the link as well. [22:00] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All right, thank you Laura. Jeff? [22:04] **Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** So we had a little active weather today. I'll just remind people: initially when you heard the sirens go off, the city limits was not in the warning. But when Goodhue County activates the sirens anywhere in the county, they're going to activate them here. In this case, the storm definitely was coming our way. We were fortunate enough just to get a lot of rain, but it was a lot of rain. So hopefully those roads are nice and clear now; we got all the sand off of them and the motorcycles will be safe. Better news is Lake Byllesby started to fill on the 15th. It's only filled about a foot; it's got about two more feet. So hopefully a lot of that water coming will maintain Lake Byllesby and we won't see much for flooding, but we are going to keep an eye on all those river levels and work with any homes that are affected. So hopefully no more rain for the week to let this calm down. [23:07] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you. All I got... Sarah—Jon? [23:14] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** I think I'm going to piggyback on what Jed said about the lead service survey. It's very important that everybody that gets the letter reply in one form or another. You know, what was it, the town in Flint, Michigan? Remember when they had them issues? We do not have them issues here. The lead survey is mandated by the EPA and we have to do it, but it should be nice to know. And I'm sure as a resident or a homeowner you'd like to know if you have a lead service, whether you take care of it or not, because it would be very expensive and it's not the city's problem to take care of it, but at least you'd know. And you can adjust by drinking other kinds of water or whatever, but you'd know. And there's going to be a lot of activity and you can either inspect it yourself or there will be some door knockers coming up. But we don't have a lot of time on it, so I just wanted to reiterate what Jed said—that it's really important and please fill out the survey. I know there's QR codes, but the older folks that don't have the phones that deal with that, there'll be a form right on the letter. You can send it in. Ellen will answer questions, I'll answer questions, Jed will answer questions, but we should get it done. [24:55] **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** For those two on the lead issue, do we have any access to—if somebody has a lead service line and they want to test their water to see if there's any lead leaching in it, do we have access to anybody who does that testing? [25:10] **Jed Petersen:** I can answer this. So every—I think it's every year—we do a lead and copper test. So if somebody does know that they have a lead line or whatever and wants to, they can contact Public Works and we can have them be one of our sample places. [25:26] **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** How many samples do we get? [25:29] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** I don't remember what the— [25:32] **Jed Petersen:** There's like 20-something samples. Yeah, it's a fair amount. I know I just recently... [25:52] **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** It would be wonderful to make sure all of those samplings go to people with lead and at least you get one free test, right? Right. [25:56] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you. Laura? [25:58] **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** I'm good. [25:59] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All right. Lisa? [26:00] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Nothing tonight. [26:01] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Ryan? [26:02] **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** No. [26:03] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Diane? [26:04] **Council Member Diane Johnson:** No. [26:05] **Steve Nordin (Public Works/Park Board):** Just one thing. You guys out there—Jim, Babe, and Randy—don't hesitate to call if something like this that we discussed tonight you haven't heard any communication. It might be a slip-up by us or something, and don't hesitate to call before we get too carried away. I actually expected more input at the Planning Commission and I was surprised that we didn't have any. [26:38] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All right, that's all I got. Cannon Falls baseball and softball: softball played on Monday, I don't know the result but playoffs have started. And tomorrow is baseball at home at John Birch Park. And we are less than a month away from the John Birch Park project; I think June 17th is the date that we have for when they're going to start moving land there. So yeah, summer is right here. So with that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. [27:01] **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** So moved. [27:03] **Council Member Diane Johnson:** Second. [27:06] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion from Jeppesen, second from Diane. All those in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Thank you everybody, we're adjourned.