Based on the context of the White Bear Lake City Council meeting, here is the transcribed text with speaker names identified. [0:28] **Background Noise**: e [0:58] **Background Noise**: here [1:28] **Background Noise**: do [1:35] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Well that's great, I can't wait to hear about—all right, let's call the meeting to order. Will the clerk please note those in attendance? All will be noted. Please join me in 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. All right, let's jump into item 2A: minutes of the regular city council meeting on February 28th. I would entertain a motion to approve those minutes. Do I have a second? Motion and a second. All those in favor say "Aye." (Council: Aye). Any opposed? Motion carries, minutes are approved. Item 2B: minutes of the city council work session on February 28, 2024. [2:21] **Mayor Dan Olson**: I entertain a motion to approve those minutes. Motion and a second. All those in favor say "Aye." (Council: Aye). Any opposed? Minutes are approved. Adoption of the agenda: we have one item to add which will be item 8B, Shade Tree Bonding Grant Program. And if there's nothing else to add or amend, I would entertain a motion to adopt the agenda. Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor say "Aye." (Council: Aye). Any opposed? We have an agenda. Item four: consent agenda. I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor say "Aye." (Council: Aye). Any opposed? Motion carries and the consent agenda is approved. Item five: visitors and presentations. We have nothing scheduled. Item six: public hearings, 2024 Pavement Rehabilitation Project. Mr. Copy, is this you? [3:06] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Uh, yes it is. Uh, thank you Mayor, members of the Council. Uh, so tonight uh in front of us we have um our public hearing for the 2024 Pavement Rehabilitation Project, and I'll go over a brief presentation and then um can open it up to the uh public hearing and any questions. Um, so the area that uh is included in our 2024 pavement rehabilitation project is generally located north of Birch Lake Avenue, west of Bald Eagle. Um, the streets showing on the on the screen. Um, another area that we are completing is over by the Sports Center, uh south of uh County Road—County Road 96, uh including Sports Center Drive. [3:53] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: In addition, um as long as we're in the area, we'll be doing the uh Sports Center parking lots themselves. Um, I don't have it shown on the map other than the uh leaders there because it's a 100% city project, not assessed, so um those will also be uh bid as part of the project. Um, so the project scope: uh we have a mix—and I can go to the map if we back to the map if we need to but—um we have about a 50-50 mix of streets that are being completely reconstructed that don't currently meet uh City standards with curb and gutter, uh storm sewer systems. The other half of the project is complete pavement replacement. So, um back in the time frame that these roads were uh completed, uh pretty light pavement sections. [4:40] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Two inches of blacktop. Uh, we're going to uh propose to uh reconstruct those to current standards um to get those upgraded. Uh, we'll also look at throughout the areas different uh utility improvements, including uh reviewing sewer and water service um issues, um including any sewer, um root intrusion and and issues with those. As well as uh a new program that I've alluded to a few times in the past but we're required to look at um water services for potential lead water services. So we'll be uh doing an additional review uh with residents to determine their water service uh condition and material to make sure they are not lead. [5:27] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: And get those replaced if needed. Uh, we also look at different water main, sanitary sewer repairs. Uh, typically we go in and we replace old manholes that are made of brick and are—are failing uh on the sewer system. On the water side, we uh test and look at hydrants, valves uh that need repairs. And then we also work with the private utility companies such as Xcel Energy to come in and—uh typically they've been the uh primary um utility coming in to do any gas replacement. So they would come in, or they'll be coming in and replacing the gas mains in the area as we do those projects. Uh, estimated cost and funding: um the total project or total estimated cost for this year is 2.6 million. [6:13] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Um, of that, about 2.4 million is the actual uh roadway project um and about $250,000 is for the Sports Center parking lots themselves. Um, of that um 2.4 million, uh we're proposing uh special assessments in the amount of just over a half a million. Uh, the remaining uh would be uh funded through city—other city funding sources, including bonding. Um, as far as the estimated assessments go, um for single family for the reconstruction, on the uh typical um single-family lot within the area is roughly um $3,300 to $5,500 is the proposed assessment. [7:00] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Um, if they have additional optional um sewer wye replacement that they'd like to do, or if we need to do uh water service replacement once we do those excavations uh to determine the materials, that would add to that assessment as well. Um, those are pretty good deals for homeowners. Uh, typically if a—you know, as we see homeowners come in and have to do this on their own, uh not as part of a city project, they're $5,000 to $10,000. So it's a pretty good um to be able to link this on for residents as part of our uh bigger street projects. Um, and then the uh total uh pavement replacement areas—those are the areas that already have uh good curb and gutter where we're just going to go in and do some spot repairs of the curb and replace the pavement. [7:47] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Those assessments uh vary from about $2,000 to $4,000. And our assessment policy looks at um the size of the lot, whether they're corner lots, things like that. And then also add that such as Sports Center Drive where we have commercial properties or other properties, we uh do look at those individually. We have an independent appraiser that reviews that benefit and uh works with us to determine that um assessment. Um, I didn't put each one of those on the screen but uh we do have them available and I've made those available to the property owners. Um, as far as the assessments go, uh we assess over a 15-year period. The interest rate is 2% over the bond rate. Um, the interest rate last year was uh 3.72%. [8:35] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: It's going to be a little bit more this year, but we won't know until um the actual bonds are issued after the uh project is uh bid and we go up for bonds. Um, and the assessments would be payable on the 2025 taxes. Um, so schedule-wise, uh we started with a neighborhood meeting uh back in November. Uh, we received the feasibility study in February and ordered the public hearing. Uh, we're holding that public hearing tonight following my presentation. Um, if Council elects to move forward, we would uh go for bids, uh open bids in April, and with the way the winter is treating us, hopefully uh I'll be able to uh start construction right away. [9:20] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Um, I would anticipate by early May that we would be um on a contractor's schedule um bidding. If Council moves forward, and then typically construction—um depending on the contractor's schedule, we would—we typically say, you know, spring to fall. Um, although it could be done much earlier depending on um uh what contract we get and what uh schedule we work out. So um and then the last step in the—the overall process is to go and do the assessment hearing where um residents would have a second opportunity once we get through the project to um um appeal or um question any of the final assessments based on the bid amounts. [10:06] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Um, so tonight we would, uh following my presentation, we would uh um have the council hold the public hearing where uh residents can um voice their opinion for or against the project per uh Minnesota statute 429. Um, that is part of the um um process that we follow for public improvements. Um, and if Council after hearing testimony uh decides to move forward with the project, uh staff would recommend that the council adopt the resolution that would order the—the improvement. Um, it would approve the plans and specifications, and it would authorize staff to go out for bids. Thank you. [10:52] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Thank you, Mr. Copy. At this time I will open it up for a public hearing. We have three names on the list. So when they call your name, please come up, state your name and address for the record. And once we get through the three names, if anyone else would like to speak, please do um come up um once these three are done. So the first name I have on my list is Terrence Berg. If you could come up at this time, state your name and address for the record. [11:20] **Terrence Berg (Resident)**: My name is Terrence Berg. [Address redacted for privacy]. Main one being, I saw the previous work in previous years, looks great. Um, parking? Any ideas where we're going to be able to park? Um, are we going to be notified—for example, let's say I'm in my driveway, I'm not home, I come home at the end of the day, I can't get out. How are we going to be notified of accessibility to our properties? [11:47] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Sure. Mr. Copy, if you could walk us through the logistics of kind of how that works. [11:51] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Okay, Mayor, members of the Council. Um, including the uh the notices that we send out typically for for um each of these meetings, um we uh put information—um we we had a uh a detailed um presentation back in November when we had our neighborhood meeting. Uh, we go through um all those types of questions as far as garbage service, mail service, where to park. Um, so typically um at the end of every day, um the uh road is reopened for people to get in their driveways. Um, we—uh let me back up. So once we get a contractor on board and we move forward with construction, we would um send out a very detailed um uh schedule. [12:38] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: So uh once the contractor—once we know that contractor, they know when we're on the schedule, um we'll send that out. Um, as far as when the actual work starts, um we will notify homeowners either through mailings, uh door hangers, um personally knocking on the doors as we uh go out uh go through with the project. Um, notify of any disruptions or interruptions to your street. Um, typically um in most of these areas um that we're reconstructing today, most people have um adequate driveway parking. Um, access is um typically guaranteed first thing in the morning and when you would come home from uh work or in the evenings. [13:21] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Um, they're actively working on projects throughout the project throughout the day. Um, if there's anything such as a u utility dig out in front of somebody's house, we would—would go and and notify them at least 24 hours in advance that we would be disrupting that. If you needed to get your car out of the driveway, we would work with the homeowner to get them onto a street that's not being constructed or just down the street um in adequate distance. Uh, we've worked with people with disabilities or or other issues um to uh maintain access to those properties. So um not an issue as far as getting people in and out, but you will be disrupted. Um, I'm—to be expected. Um, you know, so there'll be that process of tearing the street up uh and we might come in and do curb um and you'll get a reprieve for a little bit. Then we'll come in and do the blacktop um followed by restoration. So each of those uh steps aren't continuous, but you would be disrupted for a little bit and then you'd have a little reprieve, be disrupted again. So um it's an iterative process, but uh we work with people all the time. [14:23] **Terrence Berg (Resident)**: Well, the part you said about like when you go to work in the morning and come home at night, that might mean I have to go get a job, right? [14:31] **Mayor Dan Olson**: (Laughing) Very—hiring seasonals! Yeah, good plug. All right, um I have a Mike B. at 1761 3rd Street. [14:47] **Mike B. (Resident)**: Mike B., 1761 3rd Street. You didn't want to try that last name, yeah? I just—that's okay. Just a couple questions. Um, I know that you did a lot of preliminary work and this was on the—on the original on the schedule for last year, correct? (Mayor: Correct). Um, just a question for you guys: why was it delayed? Um, and secondarily to that, the Engineer's budget—it was up on the screen earlier. What was the Engineer's budget last year for the project? [15:09] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Sure. I—I'll take the first one. We delayed it because it was a bonding issue to not go over a cap, and we had the public safety building that we needed to finance. So that's why. And I kind of figured that, but never heard that. And I think many of you know this: my road is being done, the where my house is. Um, and trust me, I wanted the new streets last year too. I can't wait for this project to be done, but that's—it was a logistical reason. Um, so that's—that's the reason. As far as your second question, I'll defer to Mr. Copy on the budget and what it was last year. [15:43] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Uh, Mayor, members of the council, as far as our Engineer's estimate goes, uh very similar to what we had last year. Uh, we always anticipate some minor increase in construction um until we start receiving bids. Um, we typically go out and we, you know, uh poll other cities' communities. No one's—no one's really gone out for many bids yet this year, so we don't have um any kind of anecdotal um sense of where things are at. Um, uh we don't know if it's a normal year for projects, if it's a busy year, if it's a—so we really don't have that data yet to say what those actual uh costs are. Um, but yes, um anecdotally, you know, year to year it does go up slightly. [16:21] **Mike B. (Resident)**: Okay. I'm able to pay my assessment upfront and we'll do that without the interest. Um, those that are paying 2% above the bonding rate is—I guess they'll have to pay more than they would have last year, correct? [16:34] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Uh, that would be a correct statement that—typically. And but we don't know until we actually go for for bonds. Um, with the City's bond rating, etc., um until we actually go for um and uh bid those bonds out, we don't know what that rate's going to be at. [16:53] **Mike B. (Resident)**: Okay. Appreciate it. For the record, I'm for the project and I—thank you, Mayor. I do want my road done. [17:02] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Thank you. I have Jordan Han at 1856 2nd Street. [17:15] **Jordan Han (Resident)**: Jordan Han at 1856 Second Street. Um, I might not just be understanding some of this stuff. So when we've received the final assessment, is that—is that the September 24th date is what the actual cost will be per household? [17:28] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Uh, that is correct. So typically what we do is once we—this is based on estimates. Um, if we get significantly lower bids than what we are estimating, um typically we've gone in and recalculated those assessments. So um it could be lower, could be higher depending on what those bids come in, but um typically um over my years of experience, we um are typically the high bidder, and typically the the bids that come in are lower than what we estimate. It just depends on how much, whether we actually adjust those assessment rates or not. [18:05] **Jordan Han (Resident)**: Okay. And then, I think you answered it, but I just want to make sure I understand. We have the option to either pay it through our taxes over a period—period of time, or can we pay it upfront so we don't have—so we don't have to increase the interest rate? [18:13] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Um, Mayor, members of the Council. As far as uh payments go, uh residents do have the option to assess it, and that was the—the previous screen. I can bring that back up, but I—typically we assess over a 15-year period. Um, and that interest rate is that 2% over the bond rate. Uh, so you have the option to do that. However, a homeowner has the option to pay that off at any time. Uh, once the city certifies it with Ramsey County, um the homeowner can contact Ramsey County and pay that off at any—at any time. Uh, to—you know, to uh um if you—if you're not quite sure upfront, you can have it assessed and two years from now you can uh pay it off if you have the money at that time. Otherwise, the homeowners have the uh option to also pay upfront to alleviate any of those um interest costs. Um, so once we hold the assessment hearing, we give 30 days to pay following that assessment hearing. Um, at that time interest starts accruing and then we certify any remaining assessments to Ramsey County. [19:01] **Jordan Han (Resident)**: All right, thank you. Um, and then I'm on Second Street, so we don't have curb or anything like—no sewer. So will the street be lowered in order to accommodate that? [19:12] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Mayor, members of the Council, very good question. So um it—it's going to vary depending on where you're at in the street. So when we look at um uh creating an urban section in an area that currently is—does not have curb and gutter, does not have storm sewer, um we look at—we go out there and we pre-survey everything. So we have a sur—our in-house surveyor goes out there. We um try to match in to make sure driveways drain out to the street. We uh make sure that um the storm sewer that we extend out into the streets that um the uh everything drains to those low points. So some areas may go up to match um homes. Um, some may go down to accommodate that storm sewer. So um we look very carefully to make sure that we don't create any low points to trap drainage or trap water, and that um the streets drain well. Because when the street drains well, it lasts longer and uh we protect our infrastructure. So we look at all of those things. [20:19] **Jordan Han (Resident)**: And then so, like for example, I have a concrete driveway that goes all the way up to the blacktop right now. If we have to lower the street, I'm assuming my concrete driveway will have to be dug into, especially since we don't have curb right now. Will my driveway get fixed or will that be 100% on the homeowner? [20:34] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Very good question again, uh Mayor, members of the Council. What we do is um within the right-of-way typically um the majority of the area we're able to accommodate the work within the right-of-way, or the area that the city owns. Um, any of that um you know, whether it be turf, whether it be driveways, whether it be um other things that we touch, we will uh restore back to original condition. We'll—it's concrete driveway, we replace it back with a concrete driveway; blacktop, we replace it with blacktop. Um, in cases uh where it makes sense, we will work with individual property owners where we may have to go back a little bit further. We'll work with them to get temporary easements or rights of entry to uh do that work uh to help um create a better product for the resident. [21:18] **Jordan Han (Resident)**: Um, so will this impact like our sewer and plumbing? Are we expecting like us to not have access to utilities during a period of time if like certain things are being replaced? [21:28] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Um, another good question, uh Mayor, members of the Council. We—um I'm going to start with the public utilities first. Um, as far as um public utilities go, we may be replacing some hydrants or valves or we may have uh brief uh water shut-offs for for properties. We will notify people in advance if we have to do that. Um, we need that water shut-off in order to pull the old hydrant or valve to put a new one in. Um, the other instance for public utilities or, you know, water sewer service—if there is that fact that we—a homeowner has opted in to do the sewer wye program. Um, many of the residents had their sewer services televised already under the program, and we determine whether or not they have any conditions that would warrant uh that replacement. Um, the one thing that we—we cannot do ahead of time is uh there are some unknown water service uh materials out there. Um, for that um federal program that's coming down in the cities, we have to excavate a lot of the water services to determine what that material is. We'll work with each of those individual property owners to determine what that course of action is to get that replaced if needed. Um, so there may be a—a second shut-off for those um individual properties, but we'll work very closely with those. Um, as far as private utilities, typically the gas company will uh operate very similarly to the City. They'll come in, replace their gas mains, um work with homeowners to go in and and get that um um service line reconnected. May have to come in and and work with property owners to relight uh pilot lights for their water heaters or uh furnaces. So um again, they work very closely with each of the residents to get that done. [23:25] **Jordan Han (Resident)**: And then is there like a phased approach to the project? Like the sports area versus like the streets that are doing the reconstruction and everything versus the ones that are just getting the blacktop? Is there an order of operations what we're thinking that that's going to be done? [23:38] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Uh, very good question. So at this point um I will hesitate to answer that in detail. Um, often or typically what we do is once the contractor is on board, uh we sit down with them in a what we call pre-construction conference, and we sit down and work out that level of detail with them—what makes sense. Um, in this case, uh um she brought up the uh the sports center area. That's obviously a commercial area. The sports center has events going on, so we're working around events that uh they're holding—the skate—skating show and things like that. Um, we'll also work with uh once we send out that final notice to residents, if there's special needs. We've worked around graduation parties, we've worked around weddings, we've worked around other things to help uh determine how we do that. Um, typically what happens though first is we come in, we remove the blacktop um of most of all the roads. This is pretty small area overall uh compared to, you know, some of the other years that we've done projects. Um, next thing we'll come in and we'll put the curb in, and then typically immediately following that, we'll at least get the first lift of asphalt. So the asphalt is done in multiple layers um and then they'll do restoration and finish it up with a final lift of asphalt. So um it'll be phased more on construction technique. Um, sometime in larger areas, we'll actually do it in in um you know, an area-by-area basis. So we'll kind of wait and see. Um, I anticipate this being more as a um done in one block. It's small enough of an area. [25:08] **Jordan Han (Resident)**: Sounds good. I think that's all my questions. Thank you. [25:12] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Thank you. Those are all the names on my list, but if anyone else would like to speak, now is your opportunity. Please—and again, if you could state your name and address for—for the record, that'd be great. Thank you. [25:27] **Sue Hilman (Resident)**: I think I just have a quick question. My name is Sue Hilman, and we live at 4711 Campbell Avenue. And um what I was wondering—so I noticed um between north of 4th Avenue going to Lincoln School that there's a sidewalk, and I noticed the Campbell that we're on, there's no sidewalk. And I just have concerns with that if for pedestrians. And I'm just wondering if that's something that's been discussed or and if so, where—where would the sidewalk go? Um, a lot of traffic through there, especially with in Sunday mornings with the Catholic Church right there. [26:11] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Uh, Mayor, members of the Council. So um as far as uh sidewalk replacements go—as or sidewalk additions, replacements uh go as part of the project—um looking at um the project as a whole, um Wood Avenue has a—a sidewalk, a current sidewalk on it. It's very narrow um does—it's very difficult to get city snow removal equipment on there. It doesn't meet ADA requirements so that—and it's not the greatest condition. Um, that piece of sidewalk will be replaced. Um, the—at this time, there is no recommended addition of sidewalk to the uh project area. Um, that being said, um uh we look at—we review that as a more of a holistic city-wide review. And we do our comprehensive plan, um that was was done finished up in 2019—2019 um era, so it's fairly new. Um, so each—every 10 years the city is required to do a comprehensive plan. Part of that is a transportation um um plan, which includes non-motorized pedestrian. So we look at different sidewalk gaps, and that was um not an area that was identified as a specific sidewalk gap per se that would be added to the system. Um, theoretically, um you know, uh uh sidewalk could be added to any um street in town. Uh, there wasn't any streets that were felt that needed that addition both at the comprehensive plan level as well as this uh construction-level review. [27:48] **Sue Hilman (Resident)**: I'm just thinking because um I'm pretty sure we have um kids that go from our neighborhood up to Lincoln, and so that's the only reason—that's one of the reasons I bring it up too. So I just want to bring it to your attention. And I—I'm not even sure if I want it with—but you know, because then you do have the responsibility like the snow removal like you're talking about, but um I just want to bring it up for attention. So... [28:13] **Mayor Dan Olson**: All right, thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak to the road construction project, please? [28:22] **Katie Knudsen (Resident)**: Hi, I'm Katie Knudsen. I'm at 1789 3rd Street. Um, at—at the November meeting, uh I asked if a surveyor could come out and look at our street, because there are several of the houses where it doesn't drain and we do have curbs. How do we get the outcome of this surveyor, what their report—? [28:44] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Um, that being said, we will—uh those areas that were um reviewed as part of the survey, if you want to contact the Engineering Department, um we can uh meet you out there, we can look at it. Um, in most of the areas that there are curbs, um there are—um I know there were a couple homes that we did look at um that just based on the uh adjacent streets, how the home was situated and built on the uh on the property, there's not much that can be done as part of the uh at least this uh type of project where it's just a pavement replacement. Now, in uh typically we design our roadways to uh you know, curb and gutter, everything—the last, you know, uh 50 plus years. Um, so to go in and wholesale tear out um all the curb and redo the entire neighborhood is not practical under the uh under this level of reconstruction or rehabilitation of that road—of the roadways that have curb on them. [29:44] **Katie Knudsen (Resident)**: So for the houses that have that issue now, the water and ice is going to keep pooling at the end of the driveway when this—when this project is done? [29:52] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Um, we will do our best when we come in to uh regrade things. Um, if you have again specific issues, we can um um handle those one-on-one with—um if you contact our—the Engineering Department, we can—I go out there and individual—individually meet with a residents who may have that issue. [30:14] **Katie Knudsen (Resident)**: Okay, thank you. [30:17] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak to this issue? All right, I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the council. Um, I'll just briefly comment and—I support this project. This is nothing new and crazy. We've been doing this for two and a half decades, and every year a little piece of the city gets done, and we're finally getting to the tail end of it. This is actually one of the the last, you know, stretches of roadway in the city that don't have modern curb and gutter um and updated streets. So um I can't wait to get it done. I support it and uh Council, we have a resolution before us. What would we like to do? [30:54] **Council Member Bill Walsh**: Well, Mr. Mayor, just—just a clarifying question. Sure. Uh, Mr. Copy, one of the questions was about service interruption for utilities and things. Just want to be clear: it'll be hours, not days or weeks. And those—those interruptions are like during a—during a construction day, right? We're not going to shut people's power off or their water service off for a day or two. Am I—do I have that right? [31:15] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: That is correct. Uh, Mayor, members of the Council. Typically those types of uh service outages last uh just a couple of hours um in order to do those, you know, valve or hydrant repairs. And we do communicate those with people well in advance to uh um, you know, have a few pitchers of water or, you know, you know make sure they, you know, get in a shower of things before or after that if—if need be. So, and we try to accommodate folks as best we can. Um, if they say, you know, "Hey, we have something going on, this is not a good day to do it," uh we typically will work with the contractor to go to a different area, come back uh to when it's more convenient if—if there truly is an issue with um cutting somebody's service at at that typical or particular time or day. [31:59] **Council Member Bill Walsh**: Thank you. [32:00] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Thank you. Anyone else have a thought, comment, question on this? If not, I'll move approval of the resolution. (Council: I have a motion). Second. Any further discussion on this? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the resolution ordering improvements, uh approving plans and specifications for the pavement rehabilitation project, say "Aye." (Council: Aye). Any opposed? Motion carries, the resolution passes. Thank you. All right, item seven: unfinished business. We have nothing scheduled. Uh, item eight: new business. City of White Bear Lake Strategic Plan. Miss Crawford, is this you? [32:41] **Lindy Crawford (City Manager)**: It is, thank you, um Mayor, members of the Council. And I do have some slides for this, you can pull those up. Thank you. Okay. Um, so uh as you know, the City Council and the uh staff leadership team met a few months ago—just a couple of months ago—to develop long-term strategies and short-term goals for the organization um in 2024 and uh the future years. So just to highlight what we um—what this group did during that uh discussion. Um, we uh considered long-term vision elements and developed strategy statements to define that vision, followed by evaluating the present status of the city and organization to develop uh a goals list consistent with that vision. Then we considered um areas of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities on the horizon. Lastly, we discussed and developed uh consensus around how the different functions of our organization need to work in order to be successful um, establishing organizational expectations and values. [33:38] **Lindy Crawford (City Manager)**: So tonight I'm going to go over the uh report a little bit um in detail. Um, for just those that are watching, it's—it is in the city council packet, but want to go over that for the public um before the city council considers adopting the Strategic Plan. Paul? Okay. Um, so we came up with—um or the—the city council and the staff leadership team agreed on seven core strategies that make up action statements that identify the organization and the city's long-term strategies and objectives. So I'm going to go over each one just a little bit here. So the first couple: Safe and Welcoming Community. I'm not going to go over everything, but just a few of the bullet points. Um, you know, facilitate and encourage community connections, maintain appropriate staffing levels and public—public safety departments, maintain welcoming presence, maintain our small-town feel, um maintain the historic character and charm of White Bear Lake, and strategically approach change through public particip—public participation. [35:05] **Lindy Crawford (City Manager)**: Next couple are Engaged Community, Responsive Leadership. Um, so utilize relevant communication tools to support two-way communication with the community, foster relationships, maintain stability and expect professionalism, ensure that we are responsive to both uh the wants and needs of citizens of all stages of life, levels of need, and background. Um, Complete Community: uh offer a wide range of life-cycle housing, partner and support thriving educational systems, create community and identity through a wide range of arts and events, um support redevelopment to revitalize local economy and business districts. Um, here we'd like to ensure business districts are attractive, walkable, and accessible, just to name one of those bullet points. Um, regarding Excellent Services and Values as a the next um strategy, we want to emphasize proactive budgeting versus reactive budgeting, maintain resources in a sustainable manner, maintain um the long-range financial planning efforts that we have been going through. And then lastly, the seventh is uh Dedicated and Supported City Staff, so ensuring that staffing levels are appropriate to meet community expectations, sustain employee retention through various opportunities, policies, and strategic actions. Next slide, please. [36:26] **Lindy Crawford (City Manager)**: Um, we also developed short-term goals, uh a short-term—short-term goals platform and work plan to guide us in the coming years. And so these high—we have a couple of slides of high-priority goals. So just to define—to define high-priority goals, they are goals that are uh—that were identified by at least three members of the elected body and as a top priority and also received um support from the staff leadership team. There's uh the final few of the high-priority goals. And then next, we have Opportunity Goals. Um, and so opportunity goals are defined as goals that were identified as top priority by at least two members of the elected body, and they also received support from the staff leadership team. [37:23] **Lindy Crawford (City Manager)**: Next steps um are for us to implement the plan. Um, uh also for um myself and another staff members to work within each of the identified goals to develop um action plans and establish um and the establishment of benchmarks to measure our progress with the uh strategic plan, in addition to finding ways to integrate the goals um into our organizational processes. So that work will begin following um the city council adoption of the Strategic Plan. Um, and then the—the hope and goal is that the city council and staff leadership team will conduct biannual goal setting um as an accountability measure. So we conducted goal setting in 2024. 2025 we'd have a—a check-in um with Council and the staff leadership team, and then the following year we would go through goal setting again. So um and kind of follow that staggered approach. Um, so we will be working on um—as I said, implementing the Strategic Plan should the city council adopt it tonight. We would put that plan on our website um so that's available for the community to—to review and and begin working within that um um internally. So um that's kind of a high overview. If anyone wants to share anything, you guys were all there. Thank you. [38:39] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Thank you, Miss Crawford. Um, I'll just note and first thank Miss Crawford for organizing the workshop on January 31st. That was in the two years of being Mayor, the first one that I participated on. I don't know to what extent the council has done that in years past, but it was, you know, six-plus hours of of the council and department head getting—department heads getting together and really doing a deep dive into what we want the community look like long term. I thought we had really, really good discussions, interacted well together, and I think this report nicely captures what we—the conclusions we came to. Some of it hopefully we can achieve; obviously, we can't check every box, but it gives us a good roadmap for where we'd like to go and uh some—some comments, some—some notes for continued conversation as this body deliberates future issues. So my—again, my compliments to Miss Crawford and to the City Council, all department heads, for really working well together for what was a pretty long period of time. Um, a good long kind of grind-it-out session um with a lot of progress that came from it. So with that, we've got a report in front of us and a resolution. Um, if we have any other comments on the session itself, otherwise I'd entertain a motion to approve that. Mr. Walsh? [39:56] **Council Member Bill Walsh**: Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I—I think there's one thing missing from the short-term goal list, and I don't know if we talked about it a lot at the—at the retreat, but I think it fits. It's the zone—the zoning code update. I think is a short-term goal we're on our way to doing it. It's not that we have to say, but there's some other things on here that we're already on our way to doing. I think it belongs on the list. It's—it's going to impact a lot of the other items, you know, it's going to affect or influence a lot of the other items on the short-term and long-term list. So I think I'd add that, uh make sure we—we have that on the list. Otherwise, it's good. Thanks. [40:27] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: Thank you, Mayor. Um, Miss Crawford, in the spirit of of uh preview of Coming Attractions, this being Oscar week, um when do you—when during this 2024 do you anticipate us having the conversations about specific metrics, um monitoring tools for the—for the goals and objectives? [40:53] **Lindy Crawford (City Manager)**: Mayor, uh Council Member Edberg. Um, to be honest with you, I was going to prepare that internally um a document for staff to work within, place all of these, kind of section them out department by department um and then have regular check-ins with staff. And then next February—because we already have a quite a uh a lengthy work session every January—was planning on February, hopefully meeting with the city council to um to evaluate, you know, just a status—a progress update: where are we um on those things? So but if the council as a whole has a—has some other suggestions, we can—now's the time to talk about those. [41:35] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: Yeah, my intuition is that um it's not—it's a management function, but it—it deserves some feed—the opportunity for feedback. Um, so keeping us aware sometime later in 2024 would, I think, be appropriate and useful. [41:54] **Lindy Crawford (City Manager)**: Okay, thank you. [41:56] **Council Member Bill Walsh**: Just as a kind of procedural point: is it your goal, because it looks like we're actually adopting this document, to add a bullet point 10: "Zoning Code Update"? Or is it sufficient to—to verbalize it here at the meeting um what would—what would you like to see in terms of an outcome on what your request is? [42:15] **Lindy Crawford (City Manager)**: I don't think the resolution doesn't go into that level of detail, does it? [42:19] **Mayor Dan Olson**: The resolution doesn't, no. [42:21] **Lindy Crawford (City Manager)**: But the—I think... [42:22] **Council Member Bill Walsh**: I think—I think we just—at some point somebody needs to just I think add that to the short-term goal list. I think—I don't think we need to take a vote on it, I—I hope we don't. I mean... [42:32] **Mayor Dan Olson**: I don't see it as we do either, but we're... [42:33] **Council Member Bill Walsh**: Well, it's—we're—we're—we're—we're officially adopting what is the Strategic Plan, and we have a document that says "Strategic Plan." So that's—that's why I raised the issue. It depends on what you'd like to do. It wouldn't take much to add uh uh to add a bullet point 10 into the proposed short-term goals for the zoning code update. So... [42:47] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Well, if—if we need that, if we—if you think that's better as an amendment, I'll absolutely move to amend that. I think it plan—I think it adds—I think it it uh clarifies things. So why don't we do this? We don't—it's not properly before us, so I'd entertain a motion to approve the res—resolution adopting the Strategic Plan. [43:04] **Council Member Bill Walsh**: So moved. Second. [43:06] **Mayor Dan Olson**: I have a motion and a second. Would there be a motion to amend? [43:09] **Council Member Bill Walsh**: Yeah, I would amend the short-term goals list to add the zoning code update uh process. Very good. [43:16] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Do I have a second on that? Second. Any further discussion as to the motion to amend, adding item 10: "Zoning Code Update" for the proposed short-term goals? Seeing none, all those in favor say "Aye." (Council: Aye). Any opposed? The motion to amend carries. So I have a motion and a second before us for the resolution adopting the Strategic Plan as amended. Is there any further discussion on that? Seeing none, all those in favor say "Aye." (Council: Aye). Any opposed? Motion carries, the resolution passes with the Strategic Plan as amended. Mr. City Attorney, how do we do on procedure? [43:55] **City Attorney**: Darn good. (Mayor: Right?) It was very well done, very well done. [44:00] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Very good. It felt good, it felt good inside. Jesus, right? Yeah, for those in the audience or watching at home, we've been really working hard to polish up so that we've got Robert's Rules of Order down pat, and dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's, and we did just that tonight. So we're proud about that. All right, item 8B: The Shade Tree Bonding Grant Program. Mr. Copy, is this you? [44:21] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Uh, Mayor, members of the Council, thank you. Uh, so a pleasant surprise uh that staff received uh word that we have received a very large uh grant uh through the Minnesota Shade Tree Bonding Grant Program. Uh, it's administered by the Minnesota Department of Natural—Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. I have Transportation on my mind, sorry. Um, that said, uh we received a grant in the amount of $499,800, uh which is a significant step towards uh the city uh dealing with our EAB or Emerald Ash Borer issue that we have. Um, it was a competitive grant program that we applied for um last fall um just kind of continually waiting for word whether or not we got it. Uh, many, many applicants as you might uh imagine. Um, so a lot of the things that we had to look at is, you know, what is the issue that we have? You know, how many trees? Um, did we do an inventory—which we did in 2018? Um, you know, what are the uh um ability—what's the ability for the city to carry out a project like this uh based on staff experience? Um, I was trying to hit some of the highlights for you. Um, again, we have, you know, over 2,000 ashes uh that we have to deal with. So um this is going to make a significant dent in us dealing with them. Uh, the Shade Tree uh Grant Program is a two-step uh program. It um it helps fund the removal of those uh infested trees. It also requires that we replant as part of the program as well. So when we did the um uh Water Gremlin um settlement and the City received a um host of uh free trees through that program, uh we used a uh third party to help administer that replanting, um and it went very well. We learned a lot from it. Um, that was part of the experience that we put into this competitive grant program. So um the uh um it allows us to both remove as well as reforest and uh restore the City's canopy in areas that would be devastated by the concentration of ash trees that we have in a lot of our areas. The areas that we submitted on as part of this application um generally between County Road E and County Road F, east of uh White Bear Avenue. It's the—kind of a very high concentration of boulevard ashes that we have and uh just during a timeframe that we were coming off of Dutch Elm disease and ash tree was the next best thing. So um unfortunately, we have street after street of um ash. So um that being said um there are a few things that we are not—were not able to submit as far as cost go. And if you recall when we went through our Capital—Capital Improvement Plan budget and we look at these kind of things, um there are—um as part of the project, we cannot uh once we remove trees, uh restoration cost um, you know, where we remove stumps to uh revegetate people's yard, you know, boulevards—is not included as a reimbursable cost. Um, staff time um is not included. Um, if we need additional assistance, um that would not be included. The uh other significant thing is a communications plan or um that public outreach that we need. Um, so as part of the grant application, it requires significant outreach to those affected um by the tree removal and replacement. So uh significant mailings and and uh communications with those folks. So um that's the other major component that is not included. Um, so the next steps in our process will be um to—if you recall from our workshop, uh probably going on a year—year ago, over a year ago—um we looked at going um after the uh EAB issue we have in town. Um, one of the first things or the first two things that we're going to be bringing back to Council is some ordinance revisions that will clarify ownership of boulevard trees. Second component will be to actually adopt a uh EAB um uh work plan um that we'll have to submit to the DNR as part of the grant program. So how we're going to, you know, um it's really reiterating what we put in the application into a formal plan that Council will adopt and uh move forward with uh under the grant. And then um if we get everything in order, the thought would be is that we'd be ready to do removal starting probably this coming winter, and then uh replanting would start in the summer of 2025. Um, winter is the best time to get these mass tree removals completed um to meet a lot of the uh, you know, removal requirements from spreading the uh infestation. So I'd be happy to answer any questions Council has. [49:55] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Thank you, Mr. Copy. So let me see if I can just distill this down in simple terms. We had—have a multi-million dollar issue ahead of us to remove all these infested ash trees, and this is a huge, huge grant from the DNR that's going to significantly defray the cost of that project. Do I have that right? [50:11] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: That is correct. [50:12] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Wonderful. Well, my hat's off to staff and everyone who worked on the grant. This is a big, big deal. For those that are watching at home that might not know, um this council has grappled with—and still will—figuring out how we're going to spend two-plus million dollars um taking out these trees. And ideally replacing them, which that alone has a huge cost. So um this is a big deal for the city and a significant uh cost deferment for us or uh laying off a cost uh that we would have to pay for. Um, so again my—my utmost compliments to City staff for—for making this grant happen. And we're—we're thrilled about this. So with that, I would entertain a motion from Council to uh adopt the resolution uh accepting the grant. [51:00] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: Um, Mayor, would you pref—may I ask some questions first, or should—would you prefer to wait for a motion? [51:05] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Um, it's really up to you. It's—if you want to have questions now, that's fine. [51:10] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: Thank you. I'll ask a couple. Sure. So Mr. Copy, um we have some City uh funds that we have dedicated to ash borer removal. Will—how will those funds be uh used to augment this specific project, if at all? And um are they eligible to use for the non-reimbursable portions of the grant? So for example, here's what—here's what I'm trying to uh picture: we're going to go in and chop down trees. I support that. We—the future of ash in this uh state is not—uh they are not going to be long-lived. Um, but we're going to leave stumps. Or uh since the grant funds can't be used for stump grinding, is what I'm hearing, and restoration, we're going to have a whole bunch of yards with uh stumps, and uh we're going to want to go back in and replant. How—who's responsible for that, and is that a place for City funds, or what's the thinking uh in back of how we implement a total program? [52:17] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Uh, Mayor, members of the Council. As I stated earlier, the um that is one of the ineligible costs. The stump grinding or stump removal is part of the—uh this grant program. There's not technically a match, so we don't—we're not held to um, you know, matching one-for-one dollar-wise. But we are um required to um fund um those ineligible items. Um, those are that restoration cost. So once we remove the stump and we have this giant hole in the boulevard, we need to come in, bring dirt, get rid of the chips, uh uh put grass back so that homeowners don't have a big crater in their front yard. Um, so those kind of things. If we have to um as part of the removals, we have to repair sidewalks, things like that, that aren't eligible under the grant. Um, so those are those um kind of side costs. The other thing that um like I said, until we get to this uh detailed um EAB plan and uh, you know, this—you know, we're applying for these grants, they're relatively high level. Um, so as we dig down and get into the details and bring that back to Council, um get bids, things like that, and actually get into the areas—we are, you know, we're looking at maps with dots on, you know, streets that indicate a boulevard ash tree. There may be some additional trees that are not ash trees that are dead that need to be removed or make sense to remove that aren't eligible under the the program. We would use those City funds that we have dedicated to the City's budget to cover those costs. Um, uh until we dig deeper, until we actually get into the neighborhood, start this communications process, we're not going to know every one of those details yet. Um, but uh um or there may be um uh as part of the program, um areas that we remove um the trees, uh we have to—like I said, at minimum one-to-one replace the trees with uh a new tree. As we learned with the Water Gremlin uh tree program, um there's areas that because of underground utilities or overhead utilities, things like that, that we can't put trees in those areas. So there may be ineligible, you know, stretches of ineligible areas where we won't get reimbursed because we can't replace one-for-one. Um, you know, talking with the DNR a little bit upfront, uh there are some exceptions to that. Um, but again, until we dive into it in more detail, we won't know those exact uh um issues that we'll run into. [55:08] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: So Mr. Copy, I—I didn't hear—so I'm going to ask slightly differently. Um, will citizens be on the hook for any of the costs of cleaning up after a—after a removal, or will City funds um be used for that purpose? Or do we not know, and the plan is yet to be written so you're going to bring that back to us for for our review and understanding? [55:34] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Uh, Mayor, members of the Council. Based on uh past Council uh conversations at that workshop, uh with the city taking over—or at least at this time proposing to take over—uh full control of boulevard trees, the city would uh fund those restoration costs, uh not leaving the community members with any cost at all. [55:57] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: And then our liability—or the liability that we're seeking to take—to undertake—is limited to trees that are on the boulevard approx—approximately. Is that 12 feet, 15 feet? What's the—what's our definition of the boulevard um that we're using? [56:11] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Uh, Mayor, members of the Council. So uh what we would look at as a boulevard tree would be those within the City's right-of-way. Um, that obviously varies throughout town. Uh, but you're right, it's that 10 to 15 feet on average—not on every street, but kind of that 10 to 15 feet behind the back a curb that is typically uh still within the City's right-of-way and—and what we are referring to as boulevard trees versus a—a private yard tree or a uh something outside of the City's right-of-way. [56:45] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: So private homeowners that um have trees that are outside of the boulevard, that's on them. We are only taking—this conversation is limited to those trees that are on the—on the City's right-of-way and boulevards. [56:58] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Uh, that is correct. So under the uh uh DNR Grant programs or the state Grant programs, private trees are ineligible for any of the uh grant funding. So it is only public uh or areas that are controlled by the public. [57:11] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: And I think my last question is that um—so do we have an estimate of how many dollars per tree it takes for removal, restoration, all of that kind of good stuff? The numbers that I've informally heard is that it's something on the order of $2,000 a tree. Now, I don't know if that's high or low or any reasonable ballpark. But um based on our prior experiences, what number do you have in your head? [57:37] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: You know, uh Mayor, members of Council, very good question. I'm not prepared to—I have a spreadsheet that I—that we uh submitted as part of the grant application. Um, I did not print off all of the uh um the attachments to that application. I can definitely make that—but you're in the ballpark of that uh a couple thousand dollars per tree that we're looking at um uh so you know, a thousand—I'll say $1,000 to $2,000 per tree for removal and replacement. [58:14] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Council, I would just add: obviously it depends on the size of the tree. Um, so you know, they're not all going to be one-to-one, but that's probably from my personal experience in my private yard, that's about correct. [58:24] **Council Member Kevin Edberg**: So as a point of just kind of getting our heads into a ballpark, if it were as—as high as 2,000 per tree and we can play—do the math all numbers of ways—um 2,000 into 500,000 gives us about 250 trees of our 2,000. So it's a meaningful contribution. Uh, we still got a long ways to go. [58:48] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Uh, Mayor, members of the Council. So one thing that um, you know, the uh—we obviously don't have costs yet. Based on some of the um—I'll call it preliminary quotes—that we received from uh tree contractors, uh we're hoping it's more in the lines of that thousand, uh maybe a little bit over for that removal and replacement. Um, in talking with those contractors, the more mass removal—if we can shut a street down from end to end and come in, cut all the trees down, do one cleanup—uh is—is a much cheaper option to do that. And then we're looking at maybe that $800 per tree for removal, stump grinding, that kind of uh component of it. And then another couple hundred on top of that for replacement. So we're hoping it's more in the 450 to 500 tree range that we would be able to replace. So you know, uh you know, wagering on that 20% of the issue that we're you know sitting with right now. [59:58] **Council Member Heidi West**: Um, I heard the word "communications." Um, and I know that um the Council has talked about uh communications position but did not support it. So I'm wondering what kind of um plan and kind of time commitment you're thinking the plan—the communications plan—for this will need? [1:00:23] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Um, Mayor—Mayor, members of the Council. Um, very good question. Um, not sure I have a solid answer for you tonight. Um, based on the uh—again, that Water Gremlin program, and it was in the neighborhood of about uh per cycle we did about four cycles, we were, you know, close to 1,000 trees that we planted through it. Um, there's a lot to do with the—and—and we enlisted a lot of different uh City staff members uh when we did that. Um, a lot of it is, you know, taking phone calls, scheduling um uh you know, uh the locate meets to figure out where private utilities are. Obviously, a lot of our private and public utilities are—a lot of the utilities are ours. So then our staff ends up out there, you know, our public works staff, our water sewer staff end up out there doing the locates. Um, there's letters, postcards, uh different uh social media um posts, things like that, um that we will be doing some city-wide uh just for that edu—educational component of it. Others very targeted towards individual or the targeted area, some of it individually targeted towards um individual streets once we come in and start doing removal. So um I don't have a—until we lay out that detailed communications plan, I don't have a um a uh detailed estimate for you, but I know it's going to be significant. [1:01:52] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Any final thoughts? Otherwise, I'd entertain a motion and approve the resolution. [1:02:08] **Council Member Steven Hughes**: Sorry, Mr. Copy, I'm just curious how you came up with—and it's probably a great area—the area located east of White Bear Avenue between County F and County E? [1:02:18] **Paul Copy (City Engineer)**: Um, very good question. So um I briefly mention it in—in my uh discussion earlier, but um it is a generally an area that has the highest um concentration of ash trees. Also, the grant application—and I'm going to um let's see if I can find my little list here but um—um so it looked at different, you know, um so we had to look at census blocks. So we look at what um disadvantaged um people are within those age, income, things like that. So uh based on those 2020 or 2020 census block data, um we can do a whole host of GIS analysis on—on the city and uh basically laid it out uh to give the city the best advantage of being or submitting a successful grant. So um that's really what drove it. So when you look at—and not that it's kind of an interesting GIS uh exercise, I'd be happy to, you know, sit down with Council sometime—but um we didn't vary significantly but um, you know, from area of area to town. But if you plugged all those kind of components in, the one—those um there's two—so we split the city into five separate areas, kind of equal amount of trees, about, you know, the uh kind of that 400 to 500 trees per area to get us to that 2,000. And we played with kind of boundaries and then started looking at that census data. And—and uh we're not significantly different from each of those five different areas, but enough in those two areas, along with that concentration of trees, that it made sense to submit on those areas as at least the initial priority areas. [1:04:18] **Council Member Steven Hughes**: So those areas are written into the grant as the—the space? Correct. And so I guess I'm just kind of assuming whatever—that you just kind of take down trees until the money's gone? Correct. Okay, just I was curious about that. [1:04:30] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Final thoughts? Final comments? I would entertain... (Council: So moved). Second. Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this? All those in favor say "Aye." (Council: Aye). Any opposed? Motion carries, the resolution is passed. Thank you. Item nine: discussion. Nothing scheduled. Item 10: Communications from the City Manager. Miss Crawford, do you have anything for us tonight? [1:05:01] **Lindy Crawford (City Manager)**: I do, thank you Mayor, members of the Council. We did have a—an open house uh last Thursday here um for the uh downtown mobility and parking study. And we had about 70 people—uh, actually 70 on the dot—um come to the open house. Um, received uh a lot of good verbal feedback. Um, we haven't received the results quite yet, or we haven't talked—uh met as a staff, but not sure there was a lot of written feedback on the Post-it notes on the—on the individual boards. Um, but a lot of good discussion. Um, and so I just wanted to provide an update. So next step, staff um—the project management team needs to meet, and then the um steering committee will meet one final time, I believe, um before the City Council um has a discussion about um the potential recommendations. But we are working on an online portion um for one more um public feedback opportunity. So um, you know, Mayor, Council Member Hughes, um Council Member Edberg, if you have anything to add, or City Engineer Copy? [1:06:08] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Yeah, I'll just note, just as a matter of process, this was kind of the last official public outreach touchpoint. But it's important to note that the—the work product will be a report and recommendation from the steering committee, which will serve the basis of this body having a conversation. I say that to underscore the fact that they are not set plans. They are—there's nothing set in stone. This was the preliminary step as part of a community conversation, because nobody sitting at this dais claims to have all the grand answers for what the downtown should look like. And we had to start with a good and robust community engagement, which is what this is. Um, primarily the steering committee, which is representative of residents, business owners, the Historical Society, um folks from the arts district, everybody we can think of, um to really have this conversation along with our own expertise um with engineering and public works to—to see what—where we should start with. Um, and again, this was the final official public outreach, but the work product again will go as a recommendation to this Council, which I am confident will have a good, robust conversation about what the downtown should look like. Um, so this won't be the last chance for the public to weigh in, but it was just the last chance with regard to the steering committee's ultimate report and recommendation. So it'll be a continued conversation. My email and phone is still open for additional comments for those that might have missed out. I'm sure other members on the council uh share that sentiment. Uh, and the online platform, thank you Miss Crawford. So we're excited to see what the—what the final report the recommendation is of the steering committee and continue uh a good discussion about what we want our downtown to look at—look like. So um just want to make that—that process point uh because this is—this is a big, big deal. We've got to get it right. There's lots of competing ideas. I think my overall sense of this is those that maybe aren't quite on the same page, we're not as far apart as people might think. We're going to—we're going to tweak and pick at the edges and decide where sidewalks um might go or be tweaked a little bit. But uh I—I'm only one voice among the council. I don't see anything dramatic changing to downtown, but the—the finished product will be something that hopefully we're all proud of. So, anyone else on the council have a thought on that? Miss Crawford, is that all you have for us tonight? [1:08:24] **Lindy Crawford (City Manager)**: It is, thank you. [1:08:25] **Mayor Dan Olson**: Wonderful, thank you all. All right, with that I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Move. Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor say "Aye." (Council: Aye). We are adjourned. Thank you. [1:08:54] **Background Noise**: [Unintelligible] [1:09:19] **Background Noise**: e