Based on the roll call, the names mentioned in the dialogue, and the provided list of officials, here is the transcribed town hall meeting with speaker identifications. **Note on Names:** There are some discrepancies between your provided list and the actual speakers in this specific meeting (e.g., the City Administrator is addressed as "Neil" rather than "Jon," and several Council members go by names like "Derek" and "Steve" which correspond to the roll call surnames "Lundell" and "Althoff"). *** [10:10] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Welcome everyone. Welcome to spring. I’d like to call the August 6, 2021, City Council meeting for the City of Cannon Falls to order. Could we have roll call please? Ringgold? **Council Member Mary Jill Ringgold:** Here. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Duncan? **Council Member Duncan:** (Absent). **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Gesme? **Council Member Gesme:** Here. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Kronenberger? **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Here. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Lundell? **Council Member Derek Lundell:** Here. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Montgomery? Here. Althoff? **Council Member Steve Althoff:** Here. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** We rise for the pledge of allegiance. [Music] 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. [Music] Okay, could I have a motion to approve the agenda? [10:57] **Council Member Derek Lundell:** So moved. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Lundell and a second by Gesme to approve the agenda. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Opposed? Carried. Okay, we'll get right into the consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as council business. For you at home and in the audience, I'll go through the consent agenda. Item A: Disburse correct claims for the accounting period ending April 2nd, 2021. Item B: Minutes for the March 16th, 2021, city council meeting. [11:45] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Item C: Approve police officer resignation and the hiring opposition. Item D: Approve the public works equipment replacement. Item E: Approve the sewer main line televising. Item F: Approval of water meter reading software update. Item G: Approve Mill Street West curbing and sidewalks. And item H: Approve a swimming pool diving board replacement. Is there anything the council would like to pull down? Anything? [12:30] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Not hearing anything, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? **Council Member Derek Lundell:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Montgomery and a second by Ringgold to approve the consent agenda. Is there any other discussion? All in favor? Opposed? Carried. Okay, we'll get right into reports. I don't see Kyle here from the Chamber. He had a good crowd, I think, for the easter basket over at the fairgrounds. I went by there around 10:15 and there was a steady line. I'm sure they gave away about 500 baskets or something. Yep. Okay, Joint Powers Board? [13:18] **Council Member Mary Jill Ringgold:** Anything? Not really. We’ll maybe have something at the next meeting to talk about what Scott's vision for the trail is. He's out with surgery right now, so he's home recuperating from shoulder surgery. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay. EDA? Matt, you want to say—Laura’s not here. [14:04] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** We just recapped previous business, but we had a pretty long discussion with the superintendent regarding the referendum. There is ongoing business with the development of the possible apartment complex; I believe negotiations are ongoing there at the Cannonball location site. But yeah, I think the most discussion we had was with the referendum. To reiterate, it had been brought up by more than one person that there have been questions or some confusion with the John Burch Park project and the referendum. They are not related in any way, shape, or form. They’re two separate issues that just happen to coincide. The vote for the referendum is in May. John Burch Park is in the very infancy of looking at the wall and what needs to be done. So there are no facts or figures in that yet. Don't expect to see anything about John Burch Park on the ballot in May. Yeah, I think Jeff Sampson's going to be at our next meeting to go through that referendum vote. Public Works, Derek? [15:37] **Council Member Derek Lundell:** So, most of our consent agenda is what we talked about: the equipment replacement, the mainline televising, getting new water reading software, and we're going to be doing new curb and sidewalks on Mill Street kind of by the brewery and winery. We did talk a little more about the water issue on Covo. It's a lot more complicated than it should be, but public works is working on it all the time and we're hoping to find a solution sooner than later. That's about it. We were talking about curb where there's three spots on the south end of Mill Street that we want to curb—just three spots in conjunction with when we mill and overlay that part of the street. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay. Park Board, Matt? [16:23] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Similar to what I said, we had some members of the Bears come and share some renderings of images of John Burch Park and the wall. We also had our engineers there to give a spitball of what the cost could be depending on different styles and sizes. We also, on the consent agenda, approved the new diving board for the pool. It was introduced and discussed, but there was no vote on new signs for our parks. It has been suggested by public works to get rock signs with the words etched into them, similar to what we have here at City Hall. That's it. Okay, thank you. Let's go around. Let's see, is it Nicole up there? No. Danny, you got anything for us? [17:12] **Public Works Director Danny:** The work continues on the rehab of the swimming pool. They moved in today with their equipment, so the restoration company, weather permitting, will start tomorrow. Hydrant flushing starts April 19th. We're cleaning up the compost pile getting ready for wood deliveries. Ball fields are up and the Third Street bridge water main project is progressing. A lot of things going on there. That should do it. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, thank you. Fire Department? [17:56] **Fire Chief Mike Althoff:** Good evening. I don't have much tonight, just some updates. One, we had a boat delay. You guys approved a new boat purchase probably about a year and a half ago, and that shut down because of COVID—they couldn't get the motor. But I've been notified that it's in. I've worked with Neil and Michelle to get the bill of sale transferred, so we should see that this month. Our new boat is on its way finally. And then I wanted to give an update on the rail incident over at Progressive. We don't have a ton to report tonight. I've talked with Neil; we're on for a presentation at the next council meeting from the Pollution Control Agency and Progressive. [18:42] **Fire Chief Mike Althoff:** They want to give you folks an update on what happened. I highly doubt we'll have an answer on how it actually exploded yet. There's a lot of agencies involved. They’ve been reaching out to the product manufacturer for the molasses product that was in there. It’ll probably be three to six months before we get a final answer. It was a pretty significant energy release. We found molasses a mile and a half downwind. The manhole cover off of the rail car was found on the other side of Hannah's Bend over by 9th Street. The video shows it goes about 400 feet in the air and travels all the way across the park. [20:14] **Fire Chief Mike Althoff:** We do need answers because it's our town. Progressive is private property, but they exist inside our city limits. The PCA is assisting us. As Fire Chief, I took charge that morning and made the calls. We determined there was no more threat to the public within 45 minutes. We wanted to contain the spill because of the proximity to the river. At the next meeting, we'll have a detailed timeline and a Q&A. [21:00] **Fire Chief Mike Althoff:** I'm happy right now with the way things are going. They seem to be working well with the private property owners. They had a contractor, Wink, that started tackling things at noon that day. Progressive has been very open. In Fire Department Relief Association news, we are not going to hold a pancake feed again this year. Tonight at our business meeting, we're setting up a drive-through dinner at the fairgrounds. Pine Island tried this and it worked well. I also brought the Easter Bunny over in the ladder truck recently—it was a gorgeous day and a good turnout. I think that's it unless somebody's got questions. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** So don't burn anything, right? **Fire Chief Mike Althoff:** Yeah, we need this rain. Burning restrictions are still on. That should change in the next few days. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All right, thank you. **Fire Chief Mike Althoff:** Thanks. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Neil? [21:56] **City Administrator Neil:** Just a couple things. We’ve got a finance meeting coming up on Monday. We’re going to be talking about the stimulus money. We’re expecting to receive $230,000 in May and then another $230,000 in May of '22. [23:20] **City Administrator Neil:** Because water and sewer projects can be spent on that, we're looking at our water tower painting project. I’ll be bringing that to the finance group and then to Public Works. Secondly, the final capital equipment schedule for the street department will go to the finance committee and then the whole council. Expect to see that in the future. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you. Let's go around. Laura, you got anything tonight? **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** No, I'm good. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Mary Jill? **Council Member Mary Jill Ringgold:** Nothing. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Matt? **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** (No further comments). **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Derek? **Council Member Derek Lundell:** Nothing. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Steve? [24:10] **Council Member Steve Althoff:** Well, somebody's got to say something. I just want to commend everybody on the city staff, especially Mike and his department, on our molasses deal. As Mike alluded to, there hasn’t been one of those since 1919 in Boston. It's very new to us and everything went pretty darn well. I appreciate the staff. I had fire chiefs from around the state calling me wondering what we did. So, big thumbs up. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thanks for that. You had a busy weekend with all the players, too; we appreciate that. Okay, let's go to public input. Citizens may speak to issues not on the agenda. Before speaking, please give your name and address and limit comments to three minutes. [25:48] **Tim Diemer:** Tim Diemer, Cannon Falls here. I just came tonight to voice some concerns. I hope I can find some answers or ask the fire department and EMS people to help me clarify some resolutions. Chief Althoff was very professional today with me this afternoon, but regarding the treatment I received—if I don't get something in writing, at the least an apology, regarding how unprofessional and belligerent the EMS director was... I don't want it to go to court. [27:33] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Anyone else? Public input, second call. Third and final call. Hearing none, before we adjourn, I'm going to bring up what Neil mentioned: finance committee meeting next Monday, planning commission next Monday, and Joint Powers Board is Tuesday, April 27th. Library board is next Monday, too. With that being said, I’ll take a motion to adjourn. **Council Member Derek Lundell:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Montgomery and a second by Gesme to adjourn. Any discussion? All in favor? Opposed? Carried.