[0:28] Speaker: e e [1:25] Mayor Matt Montgomery: We'll be good. We'll be good. Call to order the City of Cannon Falls City Council meeting for Tuesday, February 18th, 2025. If I could get a roll call, please. City Clerk Sara Peer: Sorry, that’s all right. Johnson absent. Zimmerman, here. Chad Johnson, here. Jeppesen, here. Nobach, here. Kronenberger, here. Montgomery, here. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. All: 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. [2:12] Mayor Matt Montgomery: Uh, before I ask for an approval of tonight's agenda, we are going to take Council Business Item B and we are going to postpone that to our next regularly scheduled city council meeting because, uh, the representative for Three Rivers Community Action was not able to make it here tonight. So, uh, we did as the finance committee discuss that, but we are going to move that to our next city council meeting. Okay? So with that change, I would seek a motion to approve tonight's agenda. Council Member Ryan Jeppesen: So moved. Council Member Chad Johnson: Um, I just wanted to bring down—I don't have in front of me the, uh, one about the signage? Mayor Matt Montgomery: Yep, that’s—not right now. Right now we're just approving the agenda as it sits in front of us. Okay? So I've got a motion from Jeppesen. Second? Council Member Lisa Zimmerman: Second. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Second from Lisa. All those in favor? Council: Aye. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Opposed? All right, so we've approved tonight's agenda. [2:57] Mayor Matt Montgomery: Public input. Public input is intended to afford the public an opportunity to address concerns to the city council. The public input will be no longer than 30 minutes in total length and each speaker will have no more than three minutes to speak. Speakers may address topics relevant to the governance of the city. Speakers must sign up in advance and must provide their name, address, and the topic they intend to address. Comments must be on topic, respectful, pertinent to City business, and adhere to the applicable data privacy rules. Any speaker that violates these rules will be asked to sit down and 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 these issues raised by the public input but may choose to schedule consideration of the item on a future agenda. Uh, up tonight, Aaron McMahon, Public Works. [3:50] Aaron McMahon: Hi, I'm Aaron McMahon, Hoffman Street. And, um, I'm actually not here to talk about the track tonight. I know, surprise! But 10—eventually. I will say that I'm here to tell you that there actually is something for parents to bring their kids to do in this town that's free and fun and amazing thanks to our public works department. Our figure skating rink and the hockey rink are in pristine condition. And I know that's really hard to do because there's not a cement slab underneath that pleasure rink. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And I'm telling you it's free and you can make as much noise as you want and no one will complain. It's wonderful. Thanks. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Thank you, Erin. Uh, next up, Kurt Bisil, racetrack. [4:38] Kurt Bisil: Oh, and there was no one there on Saturday. I was there twice, nobody there. No parents with their kids, crazy. Thank you, board. Kurt Bisil, 1231 Minnesota Street West, uh, just up above the fairgrounds. And I am just mentioning a little bit about the track and that is when, at the last meeting we had, um, Mr. Nobach, council member, had just talked about having a little clarity as to what they're requesting of the track. And I got to say, afterwards, it's kind of—kind of cloudy. I wasn't sure exactly what that was. So at this time, I'm just asking that the fair board or the council just provide a little bit more clarity as to the specific actions directed to the fair board and how you would probably go about handling any violations should the directives be ignored. Thank you. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Thank you, Kurt. Uh, last up, Jerry, racetrack. [5:24] Jerry Shanik: Good evening. I'm Jerry Shanik, 101 Tamara Lane. And I was wondering how—what is the status of the track right now? It was deemed illegal before. Now, was that changing or not? Because, uh, the representative from the fair said he wasn't going to be here this meeting, but I wondered if there's any—anything that you know that we're—they're going to talk about. And if there is, I'd like to know what it is so we—we know what the status is on that. And that's all I would like to know. Thank you. [6:12] Mayor Matt Montgomery: Thanks, Jerry. Um, again, usually public input is not a question and answer, so I'll wait till the end when we go around the horn and just give a quick update. So, uh, that gets us to the consent agenda. Tonight's consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as Council business. This is what you're talking about here, item A: Just and correct claims for the accounting period ending on February 13, 2025; Item B: Meeting minutes for February 4th, 2025 council meeting; Item C: Approve St. Olaf internship program and hire Jane Spading of the ambulance department; Item D: Resolution 2804 authorizing a utility adjustment agreement with MnDOT; Item E: Approve submission of grants for wayfinding signage for city of Cannon Falls Trail system; Item F: Set joint work session with Planning Commission; Item G: Approve 2025 Street Maintenance projects; and Item H: Approve purchase of pickup truck and Boss plow for Public Works. Is there anything the council would like to be pulled down? Council Member Chad Johnson: Uh, E. The council—the signage. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Yes, wayfinding signage. All right, that'll get moved to City Council Business B. Anything else from the council? Hearing none, I would seek a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. Council Member Ryan Jeppesen: So moved. Council Member Chris Nobach: Second. So Matt, I—I do have to say, sorry, I gotta get on my high horse here, but, uh, before we get to any of this, I do work for MnDOT. I just want to be clear. So my policy here is [7:44] I'm a resource for you guys just if there's any in-workings that you need to know about or I might have knowledge of I can totally help you with, but my policy is going to be to abstain from anything MnDOT related just because they're my employer. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Yep, totally understandable. Council Member Chris Nobach: And then on top of that, any opinions are my own, not MnDOT related, I guess. So yeah, so I'm going to abstain from item D. Mayor Matt Montgomery: All right. Um, thank you for letting everybody know that. If you just want to abstain from the entire consent agenda to include it, that's absolutely fine, up to you. Council Member Chris Nobach: Fine, yep. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Uh, so for the rest of the council, a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda—did I get the—? Council Member Diane Johnson: Yeah, me, Diane. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Yep. All right, so the motion from Jeppesen, second from Diane. All those in favor say aye. Council: Aye. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Opposed? Council Member Chad Johnson: No. Mayor Matt Montgomery: And abstain? Council Member Chris Nobach: Abstain. [8:30] Mayor Matt Montgomery: All right, so that gets us to our Council Business Item A tonight: Resolution 2805 adopting the active Transportation plan for the City of Cannon Falls. Laura, you have a presentation tonight, and I've been told that you are very brief with this? Laura Qualey (Community and Business Development Specialist): Yeah, because I don't have a voice. Oh, well, so it's going to be super—bullet points are okay too. I know. I know it's 97 pages, so I know I shortened it down to 40, and it's still going to be shorter than that. All right, there you go. [9:15] Laura Qualey: Okay, good evening mayor and Council. Um, I apologize for my like Stevie Nicks kind of voice. I need to record something while it still sounds like this. Um, so first, before I even get into this, I want to ask: Did you look at the Active Transportation Plan? Even if you didn't memorize all 96 pages, did you at least look through it, kind of get an idea about—? Okay, great. Because then that will really reduce my presentation. For those new council members that aren't familiar, we started this last year. Um, and the purpose of it basically is to try to create more walkable, bikable spaces for our residents in the community. Because we have the beautiful Cannon Valley Trail, we have the beautiful inner city connections, and we have the [10:02] Mill Towns State Trail, um, out to Byllesby. But we have to think about not just tourism; we have to think about how can our kids get safely to the pool, or people walk to the grocery store, um, and all the other places and amenities in town. Over the last year in '24, we spent a lot of time identifying these, um, areas. Um, really did give us some different perspective. Um, we had different groups, um, that we broke it down. We had some kids from Cannon Kids. Um, we did—um, we had different people of all different ages, different backgrounds. Um, and we did different areas around town walking, biking, or I was a pilot car [10:48] because I didn't have a bike, darn it. Um, Council Member Johnson, she did participate in, um, the workshops and in the audits; that was really great. Um, but I just want to fly through this pretty quick because what I'm hoping from you tonight is that you will approve this plan so that we can adopt it. Therefore, then any um, opportunities that come forward for, um, any infrastructure or planning assistance, then we can use this as kind of our foundation to say, "Hey, we've already done the footwork," literally, figuratively, um, and say, "Hey, here's the information that we've provided, here's the engagement we did with our community, and now we would like to do X, Y, and Z [11:33] based on the information that we have evaluated." Um, sorry. Um, so um, I'm like I said, I'm going to buzz through quite a bit of this. What I do like is that they did take photos, um, throughout the process so that it is actually personalized to our experience. Um, I did find that it was interesting that of the people that answered the survey, that zero people bike, um, to uh, commute as far as uh, to work. 3.5% people will walk and 1.1% um, will take some type of transit, and that would be like the Hiawatha, um, Transit. [12:19] Um, so um, these are just the areas that we did our walk and bike audits. So we did the Ridge Crest area, which we also did stop and I, um, have a long conversation about the County 17, um, um, that road going out to like Primrose, Larkspur, um, in the Trough Court area. And we did a downtown walk with some of our business owners, uh, the trailhead, and then of course the school and park, and then biked or pilot car drove, um, to the south end of town to try to figure out what's the easiest, safest way to get to the end of town. Um, again it was really great to [13:05] incorporate, um, the students into it and kind of get their—their take on it. We learned a lot of things that had nothing to do with walking and biking, of course, whenever you engage students. Um, Tony Haan from our Public Works parks and streets department, he did participate, which it was really good to get his perspective as well. Um, and um, then like I said, I'm not going to walk through all of these things, but, um, what was—what's good is that it really kind of did identify what some of the key observations were, um, which feeds into the other line item that we'll be—that you pulled down that we'll talk about too is the lack of wayfinding, um, hence the other request that's—that will be in front of you tonight as well. Um, uh, what we did find also even during our [13:53] two-day walk and bike audit was how many people were coming off of the trail, um, and they're by the fire hall and they don't know which way to go, or they come into downtown and they're like, "Now what?" you know? So, I mean, yes, people have their phones, but, um, most of the time—so it's trying to figure out how can we make those spaces as we do construction projects and update, do mill and overlay projects, or whatever it might be, how can we incorporate some of those projects and make them, um, more identifiable with whether it is with signage, it's with striping, whatever it might be. So, um, and then obviously also dealing [14:41] with the topography in Cannon Falls—it's easy to get there one way but it's not done the way back, or vice versa. Um, so this is just the, um, interactive map comments, some of the things that we heard, learned, um, and what were some of the goals. Um, the existing network—this again, I thought was really interesting. Um, the sidewalks, uh, the blue are the existing sidewalks, the red is the existing trails, the green is the Cannon Valley Trail. Um, but I thought that it was interesting that of the bike lanes that are technically in Cannon that are identified, there's only 0.25 actual, um, bike lanes in Cannon. [15:26] And I think that that's actually that stripe area between like the pool to like the—um, the yeah, the John Burch Park, like uh, Mill Street Bridge. That's about the only area in town that's actually not a trail but, I mean, dedicated as a bike and walk trail. So, um, these are some of the areas that we kind of determined would be our, um, short, middle, or long-term goals. The kind of—I don't know actually what that symbol is, what it's—not a cross, it's—I don't know what it is, but anyway, the short-term Catalyst Crossings. So those would be kind of our demonstration projects. Unfortunately, [16:13] Chris, if you have power—we weren't able to get, um, we weren't able to get our demonstration projects installed, um, like we were supposed to have done in August or September because we couldn't get District 6 to respond to us. Um, so we're hoping to get them done this—this spring yet. Um, and then, um, because there is still a budget that was allocated to this project, um, for—so that we could put in some temporary striping or stanchions or something like that so that we can test it. So that we can, when there becomes grant or applications or grants available, we can say, "Hey, we did this, this is what the outcome was. It did slow traffic, it did calm traffic, it did make the lazy drivers stay in the lane," [16:59] whatever it might be. So we can test drive some of these projects. Anyway, so again, um, I'm not going to read all this to you. These are just some of the areas that we identified and some of the alternatives. Um, and I—anytime that I have an engineer on the phone, I always say, "Hey Bill or hey Jesse, can we do this?" I usually get a "no," but I always try since I have them on the phone. Um, so that's why I say—I know I just used to sell shirts and pants, but it's worth me asking if we can tunnel under something. So, um, so like I said, just kind of buzzing through all of this. But if you—you can lie to me and say you read it if you didn't. I do encourage you to go back [17:45] and kind of look at some of the things because in the positions that you're in, it is something that we do need to think about as we go forward, as to like, "Hey, there's a project that comes across in your packet. Hey, have we thought about how this is going to connect to such and such?" So it's just something that we need to be thinking about, um, as we go forward. So with that, I would ask for a motion to adopt and/or I would ask if you have any questions about it. Council Member Chad Johnson: I—I do have some questions. Yes. Um, so first off, was WHKS or Bill included in any of this or not? Laura Qualey: Um, he was—um, they were aware of it. We didn't include Bill in, like, all of our meetings or anything [18:31] because, yeah, we weren't going to pay him to come and walk and bike around town, honestly. Yeah. Um, but we—he was aware of the project initially, you know, like as far as, like, the, you know, application, all that kind of stuff. Um, and we did talk through a few things. But as far as, like, him sitting in on the meetings, we didn't have him sit in. Council Member Chad Johnson: I guess one of my concerns—I guess it’s just kind of a missed opportunity, I think. And I—I guess I don't know this for sure, but the—the plans we just kind of went forward, we just kind of approved in the consent agenda, the plans for the mill and overlay unofficially, but for Highway 20 and 17, that looks like it's one of our short-term crossings. So it's just—I already let you know about this but, like, [19:17] was anybody aware of that? Like if we could get that as part of the project that's coming up with this mill and overlay, that would be huge. Laura Qualey: Right, and that's what I had actually asked him. Um, I had asked him about it because after I had seen it too, yeah. So after the Public Works, um, Park meeting last week and I saw that, I took a screenshot of it and I sent it to him and I go, "Hey, can we do this? And because of this plan, can we add this?" And he goes, "Here's the deal: There's not a sidewalk across the street. You're not going to be able to add that." Yeah. So I'm like—same answer—"Can we add a sidewalk?" you know? So of course then that just, you know, then that's the ripple effect. Council Member Chad Johnson: So which is—yeah, and reading through here, I mean, I thought I saw that road might have been due for 2032 construction, so [20:05] we just missed out on, like, 8 years potentially or whatever. Laura Qualey: So yeah. And you know, and when we did the, um, the audits in town, that was right at the time when MnDOT also had just told us that they were going to be doing the ADA, um, the—the ramp, the bump outs and everything like that. So, um, we actually—this thing was revised I can't tell you how many times because of, "Oh, we're having this done," or, "We're having that done." So, um, so there were things like, "Oh, we should have ADA ramps put—" "Oh, wait, we are!" So we did have some things revised. But, um, but yeah, so there were some things, kind of some 'aha' moments that came out after—um, after that. The only other [20:51] thing I wanted, and Jed, just maybe keep it in mind, like, when—when we do this stuff—like, I think this is great stuff, right? Um, but if people start bringing up, "Hey, we wanted paint—green painted bike lanes," and stuff like that, don't forget if that's like a local road, that's utility cost for us or upkeep for us to keep painting those green and stuff like that. And I don't think some people understand that or realize that. It looks great on paper, right? And then on top of that, when you introduce all those curbs in the median, stuff like that, that's going to be a pain in the neck to plow. Just—just think about that stuff. Laura Qualey: And that was a lot of the discussion too was especially like on 19, trying to figure out, "Okay, this is our—how can we safely get kids or how can we add an additional crosswalk?" But that's a huge thoroughfare [21:36] for implements coming in and out of town, you know? I mean, so how are we going to get a tractor to drive across a median with trees? Okay, not going to happen. So what's an alternative, you know? So what are some ways we can visually narrow a channel? Well, maybe it's just painting, maybe it's adding school crossing, maybe it's flashing lights, you know? So that's—it really did generate a lot of conversation, um, for some of those things. But yeah, like I said, any—anytime I have an 'aha' and I have a Bill on the phone, I'm like, "Hey, can we do this?" and he goes, "No." Mayor Matt Montgomery: So no, this is—this is really well done and I appreciate the work and it looks good. I'm just—I’m gonna stay. So, and I get that it's not going to be [22:21] perfect, but it's a start, you know? It's—it's the beginning of something. Laura Qualey: So and it's great. It's been a work in progress, like you said, for multiple years. And, um, I think that when you look for the future—that slide says 20 years in the future—what are we going to be? And I think that, uh, biking and pedestrian safety is—it's—it's nice to see that it's a priority and we're working towards it. Yep. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Uh, with that said, I would seek a motion to approve. Council Member Diane Johnson: So moved. Council Member Chad Johnson: I—no, I don't like it. I don't want the town to look like Northfield with bike lanes going everywhere and running through side streets and tearing things up where the public works, like you said, plowing. But you also tied this in with a lot of safety concerns, say on Highway 19 by the school, like a possible roundabout in the future to slow the traffic down. Well, [23:08] that kind of thing makes sense, but it's all tied in together. So I—I'm not going—it's the whole thing for safety, and then each thing they're going to come in for and say, "Can we do this?" It's not—they can't do anything. Mayor Matt Montgomery: So we—we can do anything. So if they want to make the Cannonball apartment trails, like, that's just an idea or in here and it's on the works and it's in the future. It's not 97 pages of projects that we *will* work. They're all ideas that we would be working towards. Laura Qualey: It was—it was a matter of getting—um, creating, identifying the different areas where there's either obstacles, um, or there's, um, difficulty in getting from one place to another where [23:53] maybe there's not a crosswalk or maybe there isn't a safe route to get from—from one place to another. Um, so it is more about creating a more walkable, bikable community. Um, it isn't every project that's in here *has* to happen; it's more about, "Okay, what we did—we gave—we had the community, um, we had an interactive map mapping tool on our website." Um, and so it allowed the community to offer some feedback like, "Hey, here's an area that I would love to be able to walk or bike to, but I feel it's unsafe." Council Member Chad Johnson: And you got 70 people out of the 4,000 people in town to—and zero of them, like, actually are using bikes to get to work, and we're talking about it being bike trails all [24:40] around town for people to get to work when they're not doing that. People use their cars. Streets are for cars. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Well, well, okay. We can continue discussion if you want, but there's a motion on the table from Diane. Is there a second? Council Member Lisa Zimmerman: Second. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Second from Lisa. We can continue discussion before we vote, but there is a motion and a second, so we will come to a vote very soon. Uh, if there's other things that people want to say, feel free to make your point. Council Member Diane Johnson: I was just going to—she added some of what we did on this was took where we wanted to bike now, like 17. We'd like it so that your kids don't die on their way into town because they're going to want to go to the Dairy—Dairi-Anne and get an ice cream cone. And so we tried to look at things where it wasn't just people going to work; it [25:25] was, "How do we get our kids safely from point A to point B?" And, you know, even going over the swimming pool—well, they've got a kind of safe route to go, but they're not going to go there. They're going to go straight across and, you know, do the suicide route. So we really—this—these are ideas on how we can make it safer for all of us to get around too. Council Member Chad Johnson: There's good ideas mixed in with the bad ones, so. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Well, right. And but these are just ideas. They're not a checklist of things that we're going to spend money on on doing each and every one. And just a reminder: that study might show that there's that few of people that are using their bikes to commute to work, but we also live in a community where we have over 100,000 visitors a year that ride bikes. And they might park in downtown at the trailhead and they might just use the trail, but if they do decide to go down Mill Street to go get their coffee and their—you know. [26:12] Mayor Matt Montgomery: Oh, just so everybody knows, uh, we've been having issues—Jon, can—? We've, uh, been having issues with the fire alarm all day, so it's likely a false alarm. And the police chief is checking in right now. Apologies to those that are watching on YouTube, this will—it exists. So, uh, so we are a—might not be a heavily used bike community of people that are transit—transfer to work or school. But could we get there, and do we have visitors that already do that? We absolutely do. We're probably one of the more bike-friendly communities, uh, in the region. So, uh, we also would have to, you know, any of this stuff that costs money, we have to vote on it. Yeah. So nothing's a done deal. All right, so we have a motion and a second. Uh, all those in favor [26:59] say aye. Council: Aye. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Opposed? Council Member Chad Johnson: Me. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Yeah, so that passes four to one—no, and one abstain. All right. Uh, Item B in City Business is going to be—uh, Chad, you pulled down the approved submission for grants for wayfinding signage. Council Member Chad Johnson: Uh, they just—the signs, I assume in the picture were the worst of them, and they just look like they needed painted. And you're talking $6,000 for signs. So—$2,000 for one sign and seem kind of ridiculous. I get you get a grant and it covers half of it, but I mean, a bucket of paint's a lot cheaper and you can probably get five more years out of it. I used to have to paint my picket fence [27:46] and I’d do it every five to five, ten years. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Jed or Laura, I know that Laura, your name is attached to it, but it's also a public works—so whoever wants to field this one. Jed Petersen (Public Works Director): So there are—there are several signs that at the post where they've weed whacked around it, the—they're about to fall over. Um, so complete reconditioning of the—the complete sign is—is needed. Um, also, um, the grant will cover the signage. Um, it is a—what do you call it, Laura? The—the SHIP? Laura Qualey: Yeah, SHIP Grant and then—improvement. Jed Petersen: Yeah, so the grant would cover most of the signage and the—the part that the Public Works would, um, cover or the—the money that we'd put in or whatever, uh, we would do—it would fall under labor. Uh, we'd install the signs [28:31] and whatnot. Mayor Matt Montgomery: So, in-kind. Jed Petersen: Yeah, the 10% in-kind. So, um, really work that we put into it anyway to paint it or whatever, we'd just—the—the grant should cover all the signs and—and materials. Uh, the in-kind would be the labor installing them. They have a 10-year warranty in case someone comes spray paints them or runs their car through them; they actually are coated with an anti-graffiti resistant [29:18] coating. Laura Qualey: Okay, but the idea also is, um, you know, each park, um—if you've noticed, like, they've started replacing, like, the—the park naming sign in each of the parks and like East Side right on 19 is very visible. Jed Petersen: Yep. So—so they're planning on replacing each of those, but the idea is [29:18] also to, like, start freshening up and updating the other signage so that it looks nicer, you know? It's easier to read. Council Member Chad Johnson: I mean, they do look nice; it just seems expensive. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Right. Well, we have over 100,000 people that come to our community. I mean, I think that it's worth updating some of our signage too so that it looks more welcoming and not looks like a Girl Scout project. Council Member Ryan Jeppesen: Questions or comments from the rest of the council? Got one question. Yep. Laura, I already emailed you—I don't know if you got the answer, it's totally fine. Um, did we give a chance for Gemini to quote this just because they're in—to it? Laura Qualey: They did not. Um, Scott did not get a quote originally, but we are checking into it. Council Member Ryan Jeppesen: Appreciate [30:04] it. Yeah, just they do a lot for us or the community and the school and everything. So just a chance for them to match or anything would be good, I think. Laura Qualey: Yep, we're checking into it. Thank you. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Any other questions or comments from the council? If not, uh, I would seek a motion to approve the submission for grants for wayfinding signage. Council Member Ryan Jeppesen: I'll approve it. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Motion from Jeppesen. Second? Council Member Lisa Zimmerman: Second. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Second from Lisa. All those in favor say aye. Council: Aye. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Opposed? Council Member Chad Johnson: Me. Mayor Matt Montgomery: 5 to 1. All right, reports— Council Member Chad Johnson: No, no. We have to do the Three Rivers. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Nope. That—you missed the beginning. We—we amended it. Uh, that is being postponed to our next city council meeting. All right. Uh, so that gets us to our reports. Uh, [30:50] Laura, if there's anything you'd like to add about the EDA that met earlier this month. Laura Qualey: Um, I'm trying—it's hard for me to rewind that far, honestly. Um, I did just get a new concept, uh, for or renderings for our next, uh, subdivision of Hardwood Estates today to look at, which is great. Um, and I'm trying to think if there's—uh, we are—oh, I know. Um, we are going to be doing a kind of a collaborative, um, strategic planning meeting with the EDA, the economic initiatives, the Chamber, um, some of the school board, um, a couple of [31:36] school board members, and then some of the administrative members. And just to kind of think about, instead of working in silos, what are their goals and then where can—where do some of our visions align that we can start working on some projects together or using our resources smarter? Um, and that will be coming up at the end of the month. So it'll be posted just in case there is a quorum, but, um, it's not necessarily a public meeting, but it is going to be something that we're going to be sitting down together and working on. So that's coming up at the end of the month. Mayor Matt Montgomery: All right. Uh, Public Works and Park Board also met on February 6th. They pretty much had everything in— Jed Petersen: I was going to say—consent agenda. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Yep. All right. All right, we'll [32:22] head around the horn. Jed? Jed Petersen: Um, we were able to—to burn our—our brush pile last week, so it is still kind of smoldering, so I do apologize for the smoke. Um, but I think for the most part, we had perfect weather and everything, um, and it's drastically reduced in size. So, um, really good. Uh, Council Member, uh, Chad Johnson approached me and has—would like to take a tour of our waste plant and—and get familiar with, uh, some of the city infrastructure. I just like to put out the invitation to any other council members that are interested in that. Um, you know, give me a call or—or an email or whatever, and I would love to facilitate that for you. Mayor Matt Montgomery: So that's a great [33:08] idea. Jed Petersen: Other than that, I—that's all I got for now. Thank you. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Laura, anything else you'd like to add tonight? Tim, good news tonight on that consent agenda. That's cool that St. Olaf is doing that. Tim Sletten (Ambulance Director): Yeah, so I have a kind of a list of things. I don't—I know I don't make it here often because usually I don't have much business for the council, but we constantly are trying to figure out ways to innovate and try to get more staffing. And prior to COVID, we had a great relationship with St. Olaf and getting their kids because they do a lot of health care focus. And when the small virus came, um, kind of shook up the apple cart, but we're—we're back in and it's great. Uh, we're getting a lot of young kids, um, that are coming in and now we even have one of the professors working there and he's really been kind [33:53] kind of the push for this because St. Olaf is really trying to get their students in the, uh, Congressional District Number One opportunities and really try to focus on rural healthcare. And we were the only ones really willing to partner with St. Olaf and say, "Yeah, let's bring your students in and give them some experience with the expectation of them, um, staying as employees and helping us out for possibly two, three years." So I think it's going to be a great investment. Um, Jane is very on fire and wants to do a lot of things, and it's going to be great to have that energy. So—so thank you guys for approving that. Uh, Cheryl Stell’s been a long-time volunteer for us for a little over 10 years. Um, we submitted a—against her wanting it—but we submitted her recommendation to become a Minnesota EMS [34:40] Star of Life and, uh, she's been approved. So she gets to go up in March up to the statehouse, I get toured around, and, uh, there's a ceremony afterwards. So that's pretty cool. Um, she's very dedicated to the service and she picks up a lot of hours. So, uh, we also have the EMT class going on. Class in the 10 years since I've been here—we have 18 students, um, from all over, and it's just great. A lot of people will be working with either from Randolph Hampton Fire Department, Miesville Fire Department, but there's also some local people. So hopefully we'll get some people out of that class to also join our service. Uh, we did a big training last week on stroke care and that was a lot of fun. Um, we're going to be just implementing a few more things to our assessment toolbox—no cost, but just some different ways to identify [35:27] when a person's having a large vessel occlusion and what treatment would happen is we'd probably take somebody straight to, like, St. Mary's or Regions or United, which are, uh, comprehensive stroke centers. So hopefully improved patient outcomes is the ultimate goal. And, uh, lastly, we got half of our radios that Laura wrote the grant on, uh, with the fire department, so they're in the process of getting programmed right now and then I'm going to be able to install a bunch of those. Um, the fire department will have a little extra in cost because we're reconfiguring a couple of their trucks, but they're going to send those to a person that knows how to wire those. But it's exciting that we're getting that technology because it's super expensive. So and lastly, we're still working with a consultant. Uh, we're [36:13] really close to start bringing some stuff back to the council. The last thing we're really working on right now is: What is the cost per person? What it cost if we, um, included transfers, uh, as the revenue, and what would it be cost not to? Because I've had some conversations, um, just with some town—township people and they're just kind of curious what the ultimate cost difference would be per person if we included that revenue what we're not. So that was kind of a curveball, but I'm glad we have it now so we can give them that data when we start meeting. So, yeah. So thank you. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Awesome. Thank you, Tim. Chief? Police Chief Jeff McCormick: Well, I don't have a long list like Tim, so I'll just wing it. Uh, you may have [37:00] noticed the temperature is very cold. Uh, when the—gets like this, our officers will routinely check not just the highways that run through town, but we check 52 as well. Obviously, we don't want somebody to be out there disabled for an extended period of time. Uh, so if you see them out on 52, that's why. Uh, typically we don't spend a lot of time out there, but when it gets this cold, that's one of the areas I want them checking. They go from the south end at 24 all the way up to, uh, 86, uh, in Dakota and make that kind of loop back through the city. Uh, so just be aware of that. Uh, the other thing is we—like we get some more snow, um, we're going to see some melting. I did get an update from the National Weather Service on flood forecasting. Uh, right now they're putting it at very minimal, uh, [37:47] but they throw—always throw caveats, uh, because of the frost depth. Uh, I'm concerned that if we get significant amount of rain, we're going to see much more of it run off rather than soaking in until that, uh, frost comes out. Uh, so just, you know, something to be aware of as we approach that melting season. I don't think we're going to see significant problems, but, uh, we'll be monitoring if, uh, it starts to rise significantly. That's all I got. Thank you. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Chief. Sara? Jon? City Administrator Jon Radermacher: Uh, not much since I've been away for the last couple weeks, so I do want to say thanks to all the staff and—and, uh, for taking care of everything while I was gone. Uh, thank you for the council for opportunity to—to have this, uh, allow my family take this vacation that we had kind of planned before I—I [38:33] took this job. So, uh, really appreciate that—um, that flexibility. So really glad to be back, uh, even despite the difference in temperatures from where I was to—to here. But, um, excited to kind of pick up where we have. And then just one other thing—I know I've been trying to schedule this for—for months now, it feels, but the strategic planning meeting between us and the council. Likely now we're going to be pushing till June—because I know the mayor's got some time that he's going to be away—um, or not June, um, March. Uh, so we'll—I'll be sending out some more dates and trying to—to figure out what best works for—for us to—to come together and—and get that conversation going. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Thank you. All right, Laura? Laura Qualey: I'm good. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Chris? Council Member Chris Nobach: Good. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Ryan? Council Member Ryan Jeppesen: Good. [39:18] Mayor Matt Montgomery: Diane? Council Member Diane Johnson: Just, uh, high five, congratulations to the bomber dance team. Mayor Matt Montgomery: There you go. Council Member Diane Johnson: Good showing at State. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Yeah, 24 years, something? Yeah. All right, Lisa? Council Member Lisa Zimmerman: Good. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Chad? Council Member Chad Johnson: Uh, I don't know if this the time bring it up, but are we able to do public input up to five minutes? Council Member Diane Johnson: Um, I think it used to be and we used to take packets and things like that and then we didn't. So I think those have changed the last few years. Council Member Chad Johnson: Yeah, something to think about for the future. Okay. Um, anything else—? Uh, I've been getting a lot of people asking about QuickTrip. Is it in the works, is it not, did we stop it? And as far as I know, everything's still there. We were working with—uh, we did the grant and we're working on the state for— [40:06] I'll let Jon take over, but yeah. City Administrator Jon Radermacher: Happy to, uh, give an update there. Uh, we have met—uh, there was a traffic study that was completed, uh, by QuickTrip and their consultant engineer, Kimley-Horn. Um, we met, uh, late January to go over that with MnDOT so—uh, at a staffing level. So we've reviewed—reviewed that with them, and it's currently, as to—well, as to my knowledge, it's currently still with MnDOT and coming up with their opinions and comments on that traffic study and whether or not that, uh, they have any recommendations for changes to it. Um, but it's to the rest of our—our knowledge and awareness, it is still in the works. Council Member Chad Johnson: Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. [40:55] Mayor Matt Montgomery: All right. Uh, I just want to go back to thank Jed and what Aaron had said. I've seen a lot of kids that have been using the ice rink this year and they said that it is in really good shape. Especially early on the season when it was cold and there wasn't a lot of snow, they said that it was just perfect. And you guys went and resurfaced it not that long ago? Jed Petersen: Today, yeah. Mayor Matt Montgomery: So it—it's perfect. And the warming house—there were kids that ordered pizza and they were playing hockey and boot hockey and skates and, I mean, there—it's been great. It's been a good year for it. Enjoy it this week, um, with 40—40 and above temps. Uh, next week it's not going to stick around much longer after that. Jed Petersen: Right, right. Mayor Matt Montgomery: So enjoy it while you can. Um, I felt like I had something else, but I'm just—uh, I'm escaping. I'm—I'm going to be gone for a work trip to Chicago. Is that the week that you were thinking of trying to have that meeting? Yeah, so I will be—I will be gone. Um, Jerry, I'll be [41:41] happy to talk to you right here after the end of the meeting. All right. Uh, if I can get a motion to adjourn. Council Member Ryan Jeppesen: So moved. Mayor Matt Montgomery: I got a motion from Jeppesen. Second? Council Member Diane Johnson: Second. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Second from Diane. All those in favor, aye? Council: Aye. Mayor Matt Montgomery: Opposed? We're adjourned. Thank you, everybody.