This transcript covers a Moose Lake City Council meeting from February 13, 2019. Based on the context provided, here is the formatted transcript with speaker names: [0:00] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I’d like to welcome everyone to the Moose Lake City Council for Wednesday, February 13th. First item on the agenda is to approve the agenda. Do we have any additions, changes, corrections? Motion to accept? [0:47] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Agenda now. Second? All in favor say aye. (Council: Aye). Opposed? Motion carried. Under number 2, consent agenda, we have the minutes for January 9th, 2019, City Council organizational meeting minutes and number two, January 9th, 2018, city council regular meeting minutes. Any discussion or questions? [1:19] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: There. We now have a motion to accept the minutes. Seconds? All in favor say aye. (Council: Aye). Under number 2, consent agenda, the financial reports. Number one is the city of Moose Lake bills payable for December 2018 and February 2019, for January 2019. Number 3 is the liquor store profit/loss statement for January 2019. Questions? Discussion? [2:01] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Just give anything? Very good. Motion to accept the financial reports? Second? All in favor say aye. (Council: Aye). Moving on to number three, public comment. This time is reserved for comments from the public on matters not listed on the agenda. We ask you to please keep comments to three minutes. Seeing none, we'll move on to number 4 which is departmental reports. 4A is the Police Chief. This is a departmental report for Andrew 8 in February. [2:56] **Kelly Lake (Sheriff)**: This is still a lot of accidents. Snow banks are starting to get high, it's hard to see at the intersections. I just want to let people take the time and listen while snowplows are out. A trooper's car was hit yesterday. No difference. People just have to remember that they need to take two extra minutes and slow down. It’s a busy month. The main thing that we had was a major assault at the MSOP complex where a person tried to slit the throat of a clinician. We had many, many hours working on that investigation. Ultimately, we charged him with attempted homicide. Another incident was a call of a suspicious person up at the Best Western; turned out he was in a stolen vehicle with a bunch of methamphetamine and felony warrants. The only reason it stopped was the freeway. The freeway is a wonderful thing, but it also brings us a lot of business. Other than that, it looks like 176 calls. Thank you very much. [3:44] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Chief, I need to ask you not to leave yet. Thank you. Love the work. Superintendent report. Mr. Entner? [4:39] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: Mr. Mayor, members of council. Yeah, another busy month. You can go tighten belts or we're going crazy. Other than that, it’s good though, it’s not 40 below anymore, so that's possible. Water Department: Water distribution system produced 2.6 million gallons of drinking water in January. Every month, Tim, we had an incident at the well house. We had the heater fail on us twice now. Once on the 30th of January and then once on the 9th, last weekend. Jim and I talked a little bit about this. I’m looking at approval to replace this heater. It’s 28 years old. The cost of a new unit is about $742, and then the labor to install it. [5:26] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: We have reserves that paid for it, but the only reason I'm bringing it up is collectively it's over $1,500. Technically we've already started it because it’s over $1,500 and it is an operational necessity. [6:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions? Do you need a motion? This is for the one that’s coming on the wall? [6:12] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: Yep, this one is going on the wall. This one is oversized. The reason it’s oversized is in hopefully in a year or two we'll have an added well house. I’d like to move a different source of heat in there for that building. I’m hoping to reuse this unit in the front part of our shop as a recovery heater because the big doors are open all the time. I don't want to just replace it with a 30,000 BTU unit which would be too small later. [6:59] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Have a motion to accept the purchase of the new heater and the well house? (Council Member: So moved). Second? Any discussion, questions? All in favor say aye. (Council: Aye). Opposed? Carried. [7:45] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: Sewer department collected 10.5 million gallons of wastewater. Our calibrations for flow meters have been put on hold with the cold weather. By the end of this month or in March, we'll get that done. Street department: Obviously like Chief mentioned, snow banks are high. Next week we are planning on pushing those banks back or removing them with the snowblower. Visibility will be a lot better. We’ve been working long hours, early mornings, and late nights. Another thing, I'd like to invite you all to the back bar of the shop to take a look at it. It’s working wonderful and we saved a lot of money on that. Last thing: frozen water. Please, all residents, look at your lines. If you have questions, call me. Be proactive. It will be better for everybody. We’ve got six frozen lines right now, but everyone is back on. [9:19] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you, Phil. Appreciate that. Library report? Doesn't see them. The Engineer? We missed that one with the elections. Hartley, for Chamber updates? [10:06] **Hartley (Chamber Representative)**: Thanks for having me. I just want to give you an update on a few things with the Chamber. Annual dinner was a success. We made changes to our bylaws as part of our strategic plan. We put a three-year term limit for board members. We also structured our leadership differently. It’s now a three-year rotation: Vice President moves to President, then to Past President. This way it’s not a life sentence and people are more willing to step up. [11:40] **Hartley (Chamber Representative)**: Next event was Ice Bocce. Extraordinarily successful. We had 17 teams. A lot of fun was had by all. We might develop it into a Winter Carnival for Moose Lake. I also want to thank you for the money for plowing the lanes; that’s extraordinarily helpful. Two other things: an area leaders meeting on March 11th at 6:00 PM at Sturgeon Lake City Hall. And lastly, the Business Expo is coming up on May 18th. Any questions? [14:02] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you very much, Hartley. Any questions from the council? Moving on to number five, previously discussed business. 5A, the 2018 flood items? (Council: None). 5B, publishing city budget. On page 38 there's a one-page summary budget statement. [14:48] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: At the last meeting we talked about publishing something along these lines. Just wanted to throw this out there. Is this too much information or too little? It’s only the general fund. If we get into water, sewer, and the liquor store, it gets very long. [15:08] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Counselor was talking about this. I don’t know if that meets his expectation. [16:07] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: It's a general summary of the health of the general fund. [16:07] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Okay, that’s what we’re looking for. So would you like us to publish this then? Yes. Moving on to 5C, Safe Routes to School application. We should hear back within a couple of weeks. Late February is when they said results would be out. Any questions? Moving on to 5D, primary and special elections. We had a primary and special election. We tried to keep staffing to a minimum, but we will have expenses for that. [18:15] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Moving on to new business 6A, Kenwood feasibility report. This is the report I sent out last month. Matt is here from SEH to discuss extending water down Knollwood to the residents that do not have water. [18:15] **Matt Bolf (SEH Engineer)**: Thank you, Mayor and Councilors. Last summer we started talking about concerns on that 400-foot stretch of Knollwood. There are private wells that are shallow, which leads to high risk of contamination. The street is in poor condition, and the sanitary sewer is non-compliant because the main doesn't run the whole stretch. We looked at three options. One was doing nothing. Two was directionally drilling just water main, but that doesn't fix the sewer or the street. Three was a full reconstruction. For the full reconstruction of 400 feet, we estimate a cost of about $330,000. $193,000 for roadway, $51,000 for sewer, $82,000 for water. [22:08] **Matt Bolf (SEH Engineer)**: If you did a 100% assessment over seven lots, it’s about $48,000 per lot. Usually, an assessment shouldn't exceed the benefit value of the property. $48,000 likely exceeds that. I would recommend seeking other funding sources. If you get a 100% petition from all seven landowners, you can move forward, but otherwise, you’d look at a standard policy, like assessing 30% for reconstruction. [24:29] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: The big thing is we have one property owner in particular having issues. An assessment of $48,000 is risky. We don't have buy-in from all seven. If we pick a different number, say $30,000, and offer it to them, we need to know how to pay the rest. We could use sales tax, but we might want to save that for larger road projects. [28:23] **Matt Bolf (SEH Engineer)**: In other communities, the policy is often 30% assessment for reconstruction and 50% for new construction. Roughly 30% is what you can typically justify as benefit to the property. [31:26] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: If we did that, we’d be assessing $100,000 and the city would be on the hook for $237,000. Also, many residents there are seniors who might defer their assessments until they sell their homes. We need to decide if the city is willing to pay $200,000+ for this. [33:32] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I think we want to wait to see the CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) for the whole city before we make a decision on this specific road. Let’s table this until we get the full report. Does that make sense to the council? (Council: Yes). [35:36] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions on the assessment policy itself? [35:36] **Matt Bolf (SEH Engineer)**: We can provide examples from other cities or the League of Minnesota Cities. It’s good to have a boilerplate policy so you treat every project the same, especially regarding corner lots and frontage. [39:35] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you, Matt. Number 6B, Historical Society building expansion. [40:23] **Dan Reed (Historical Society)**: For those who don't know me, I’m Dan Reed. I’m a member of the local Historical Society. We have over 200 members and we’ve done a lot of work on the pavilion, the murals, and reconditioning the survivor organ from the 1918 fire. We are at a crossroads. We have so many items and researchers that we are climbing over each other. We have material in containers because there’s no room. We want to apply for state bonding for an addition that would include classrooms and work centers. We have the right political climate with Representative Sundin and Mary Murphy. We are asking for a $600,000 state bond. [50:34] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Dan, I appreciate all the work. However, there’s a piece we need to talk about. I spoke with Representative Sundin last night. The Historical Society is not a political subdivision, so you cannot request state bonding directly. Because the City owns the building, the City would have to be the requester and the fiscal agent. That means the City is on the hook for the project. If we receive the money and turn it down, it's a black eye with the state. This is a million-dollar project and we’re only asking for $600,000. [53:46] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: This feels rushed. One option is to wait until next year. Another option is to talk to Carlton County to see if they want to take the building over, as it’s becoming a regional asset rather than just a city asset. [55:23] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Are you guys open to meeting with the County Board and city representatives to look at options? $600,000 is a lot for a city our size but a small piece of a county budget. [57:41] **Dan Reed (Historical Society)**: Politics is a funny thing. We have Sundin and Mary Murphy in key positions now. This might be a "perfect storm" year to get the money. If we wait, we might miss the window. The County already sent a resolution in support of it. [1:03:10] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: If we move forward this year, we are saying the City of Moose Lake is responsible for a million-dollar project. The $600,000 bond doesn’t cover engineering or contingencies. That makes me nervous. [1:08:23] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I think we have consensus to try and hold a meeting with the County and the Historical Society board as quickly as possible to see where this goes. [1:10:33] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Moving on to 6C, Historical Society gambling permit. (Council: Motion and second). All in favor? (Council: Aye). 6D and 6E, Moose Lake Brewery off-premise sales permit and Ice Bocce. I’ll make a motion we accept the permits. Second? (Council: Second). All in favor say aye. (Council: Aye). [1:12:12] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: 6F, Public Works sander and plow bolt. This is part of the state bid and was already in Phil's budget. (Council: Motion and second). All in favor? (Council: Aye). [1:12:58] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: 6G, excavator rental. This is to clear the area behind the shop for material storage. We have two quotes. Titan is $2,631 and CAT is $3,050 for a two-week rental. Titan is the cheapest. [1:13:48] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: I’ll make a motion we accept Titan rentals for the excavator. Second? (Council: Second). All in favor? (Council: Aye). [1:14:55] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: 6H, council direct deposit. Is everyone okay with the paperless process? (Council: Yes). 6I, Board of Appeals and Equalization, April 4th. Right now, zero of you are trained and registered. If we don't have three trained members, the county takes over this meeting. It takes 10 minutes online. Please do it. [1:18:57] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: 6J, computer replacement quote. This is in our budget to replace half of our computers across the DMV, liquor store, and general fund. (Council Member: Motion to accept CW Technology quote). Second? (Council: Second). All in favor? (Council: Aye). [1:20:30] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: 6K, Cable Coordinator position. With Steve leaving, we need someone to record council meetings and update content. Rory has been recording and knows the equipment. We propose a monthly stipend for him as Cable Coordinator. [1:22:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Motion? (Council: So moved). Second? (Council: Second). All in favor? (Council: Aye). [1:23:51] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: 6L, Library Director position. The Personnel Committee interviewed candidates and Shelby was selected. We recommend rehiring Shelby. (Council Member: Motion to accept). Second? (Council: Second). All in favor? (Council: Aye). [1:25:33] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: 6M, Liquor Store Manager position. The committee recommends hiring Kirsten Foyle. Do I have a motion? (Council: So moved). Second? (Council: Second). All in favor? (Council: Aye). [1:27:08] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Number 7 and 8, reports and minutes for Water & Light, Park Board, and Fire District. Any discussion? Seeing none, we have announcements for upcoming meetings in March. Motion to adjourn? (Council: So moved). Second? (Council: Second). All in favor? (Council: Aye). We are adjourned. Thank you.