This transcript appears to be from a **White Bear Lake City Council** meeting (likely June 25, 2024). Based on the context provided, here is the formatted transcript with speaker identifications. **Note:** Speaker names were identified based on vocal cues, self-introductions, and the Mayor’s prompts. [0:28] **[Audio/Static]** [1:12] **Mayor Dan Vane:** All right, we're going to call the meeting to order. Will the clerk please note those in attendance? All will be noted. Will you please stand and 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. And item 2B, minutes of the regular city council meeting on June 11, 2024. To entertain a motion to approve those minutes... I have a motion, a second. All those in favor say "Aye." (Group: "Aye.") Any opposed? The motion carries, minutes are approved. Item 2B, minutes of the city council work session on June 18, 2024. To entertain a motion to approve those minutes. [1:58] **Council Member:** So move. [2:00] **Mayor Dan Vane:** Second. A motion, second. All those in favor say "Aye." (Group: "Aye.") Any opposed? Motion carries, the minutes are approved on that one. Item three, adoption of the agenda. We have uh, one request to pull item 4E, resolution authorizing execution of a license agreement for use of public land with the Cottage Park Homeowners Association; that will become item 8C. And if there are no other corrections or amendments to the agenda, I would entertain a motion to adopt the agenda. [2:30] **Council Member:** Second. [2:32] **Mayor Dan Vane:** Motion, a second. All those in favor say "Aye." (Group: "Aye.") Any opposed? Motion carries. We have an agenda. Item four, consent agenda. I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. [2:40] **Council Member:** Second. [2:42] **Mayor Dan Vane:** I have a motion, a second. All those in favor say "Aye." (Group: "Aye.") Any opposed? Motion carries. The consent agenda is approved. All right, item five, visitors and presentations. The White Bear Lake Conservation District annual update and 2025 budget. Mr. Ponto and Mr. Costello, whenever you're ready, please step forward and deliver your report. [3:04] **Scott Costello:** [Laughter] I'm Scott Costello, 2359 Joy Avenue. And uh, I'm here with my colleague Mike Ponto. We are your two representatives to the 10-member White Bear Lake Conservation District board. And we like to stop by once a year to give you an update as to what we're doing, how we're spending the taxpayers' money, etc. Now, I am chair of the Lake Education Committee, which does all the outreach kind of activities, and Mike wears two hats—he is chair of the Lake Quality Committee, which handles the invasive species treatment and things like buoys. So, I will start off with a few overviews, and I think Mike will be better able to talk about the financials since he's also treasurer of the board. In your packet, there's a bunch of documents. The first one is our 2023 annual report, which contains 26 bullet point items of all the things that we did in 2023. You can sort of peruse that. There's a better summary of that in our insert in "The Laker." What "The Laker" is, is a publication from Press Publications. We pay well less than a couple thousand dollars for it; we get four pages of our content in the first issue and one page in each of the subsequent issues throughout the year. They do a very good job making the content look nice. What's really important to us is that they actually mail it to all the people who live on the lake, which is one of our key constituent groups that we want to contact on a regular basis. In this four-page insert, it sort of summarizes these 26 bullet point items in a little bit different way. It talks about aquatic invasive species, the surveys we conduct and the treatments that follow, the buoys we place, the reimbursement of the municipalities for swimmer's itch treatments, our contract with the Ramsey County Sheriff for extra patrols beyond what they would normally do. We work with the DNR conservation officer. Last year, we engaged a survey company to survey Commercial Bay to try to straighten out some of those boundary issues that we have there. It goes on with a few other things. We updated the fee schedule to put a little more burden on the users rather than on the cities. We did a number of things like that. If you have a chance, you can look at it and you can see all these other things. There's my wonderful article on buoys, so if you want to know where the buoys are, you check that out. That's my highlight from my angle on the board. Do you have any questions on that, or I could call Mike up to talk about some of the specifics? [7:45] **Mayor Dan Vane:** No, I think we can hear from Mr. Ponto whenever he's ready. [7:47] **Mike Ponto:** Thank you, Scott. Like Scott said, my name is Mike Ponto and I'm your representative on the Conservation District. In addition to what Scott said, we're doing the activities and such, we're also doing this year—we put out bids and awarded to Blue Water Science—a lake use study. The last time we did that was 2006. The lake's gone through a lot of changes since then, but now it's kind of coming back to a little bit more normal times. We're really excited to do this. The survey is going to be a part of a survey; they'll ask questions like: "What kind of boat do you have?" Excuse me... "What kind of boat do you have?" "What times of the day do you use the lake?" "What are your main uses of the lake: skiing, tubing, pontooning, etc.?" "Is there anything about other people using the lake that bothers you?" "Are you aware of the ordinances that the Conservation District has for Lake use?" "Please comment on enforcement issues." "Do you think the lake is crowded?" "Do you ever feel unsafe on the lake?" There are also exit surveys: "How many hours were you on the lake today?" "How many visits do you make to White Bear each year?" "How far away do you live?" "Where do you park?" "What's your main activity?" And a really good one: "Why did you choose White Bear Lake to come?" That'll be an interesting one. There's also going to be boat counts during peak hours on the lake and off-peak hours. How many people are using the launch? How many people are coming out of the commercial docks? There'll be a shoreline inventory counting all the docks and all the boats completely around the lake. There's going to be an update of the fish inventory, aquatic plant inventory, water quality, Zebra mussels, and lake levels. It'll be done this fall and it'll be on our website. It should be a very good working tool for our next project which would be a Lake Management study. Also, we're checking on Milfoil because that's a problem—it's an invasive species. This Thursday, we've hired Steve McComas, our lake limnologist, to go out and I'm going to go with him and help on Thursday. We will cover the entire lake, and it's about 400 to 500 points that we will cover on the lake. Now, that sounds like an outrageously big number, but when you find Milfoil, you say "we need to treat this." So you start in and you go across it, and we will go to every spot that we've ever had Milfoil on the lake. It takes all day, but it's what we have to do. I budgeted $15,000 for treatment thinking that we would have a normal year—snow, ice, snow covers the ice and keeps the sun out. Well, I missed that by a lot. There was only ice on the lake for 51 days, and it was full growing season all year round. So we earmarked another $27,000 just in case. When that's done, we will treat it, and that'll be right after the 4th of July. There'll be notices online and in the areas that we treat. We'll use products that are not harmful to fish or people. With all this money going out, we changed one of our fees this year. In 2019, we changed our commercial slip fees from $60 to $75. For 2025, we raised it to $125 a slip. It's not that much considering what we put into the lake—treatments, patrols, managing events so there's not a big conglomeration of things happening at one spot. So, let's talk about the budget. The city assessment for 2025 is $21,679. This year, your assessment was $13,000. In 2023, it was $22,400. In 2022, it was $36,000. In 2021, it was $42,659. We've been bringing it down to get our reserves in line with our fund balance limit. We have a fund balance of about $252,000. We want to try to keep a balanced budget going forward. One little factoid: we divide out how much that is per person. Every person in the city of White Bear pays 88 cents towards the Conservation District. If you lived in Delwood, it's $2.65. In Birchwood, it's $1.27. Any questions? [16:05] **Mayor Dan Vane:** None for me on the budget. Do we have any questions from the Council? Council Member Edberg. [16:10] **Council Member Kevin Edberg:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, I want to start with congratulations and kudos to both you and Mr. Costello. I read your minutes faithfully and I know that you are regular in your attendance and participation. Scott, I know you have a particular passion about education and the storm drain contest. Mr. Ponto, I know you are fastidious in your monitoring of lake levels. I wouldn't be surprised if you'd be able to tell us what the lake level is today or yesterday if you were asked. [16:55] **Mike Ponto:** I forgot to mention this, thank you for saying that. Lake level today is 922.79. When the ice went out, it was 921.97. So the lake has come up almost a foot—11 inches and a fraction. And we had nothing to do with it. [17:21] **Council Member Kevin Edberg:** Well, first of all, thank you for being our representatives and doing the work that you do with care. I also want to express appreciation to the whole District. You guys are taking care of some thorny issues that might have landed on our desks were it not for your work, particularly in Commercial Bay. I have no criticism whatsoever of what you spend your money on. However, I look at your fund balance. You're carrying a balance of $250,000. Your total interest earnings were only about $800. I'm just curious why—who you're getting your financial advice from. 200 thousand at a 5% CD is 10 grand. We pay about 43% of the total budget, so 10 grand of revenue is about $4,300 for us. Can you give us some insight on how you're managing funds? [19:56] **Mike Ponto:** We have a $50,000 CD and a money market account. The rest of it is just in a balance. This is my second year as treasurer, so you've seen things change. After the expenditures of 2024, I think the picture will look a little different, but I'll look into more of the CD-type things. [22:20] **Mayor Dan Vane:** To echo what Council Member Edberg said, the Conservation District is a unique legal animal, but government can invest in various vehicles that are low risk. Our City Finance Director might be able to point you in the right direction. I have two questions. First, we've had reports of unregulated boat rentals operating out of Matoska Park. Is the Conservation District doing anything to address that? [23:45] **Mike Ponto:** If they're renting a boat offsite, there's not a lot we can do. If they're using the park as their staging area, that's a no-no. We have a permitting mechanism for a commercial permit. [25:15] **Mayor Dan Vane:** The other question I have is about the property line at Lions Park. Last summer, the Conservation District voted that down. Can you share why it failed and what the status is today? [26:10] **Mayor Dan Vane:** Rick [Juba], can you enlighten this? [26:15] **Rick Juba (Assistant City Manager):** Mayor and Council members, actually Mr. Koppy is working right now with Docs of White Bear to finalize that arrangement. [26:49] **Paul Koppy (City Engineer/Public Works Director):** Mayor, members of the Council. The City entered into an agreement with Docs of White Bear memorializing that line. Myself and a surveyor will go out—I'm going to say this Thursday—and we will memorialize that line and put points on the ground. [28:20] **Mike Ponto:** We had the area surveyed, and there were different property lines—one that would cut right across Docs of White Bear and one that referenced a court case. We asked what was fair to both of you, and we came up with a line. [29:43] **Scott Costello:** We met with city staff the week before that vote. Mr. Koppy came up with an excellent compromise. But at the time of the meeting, the discussion hadn't happened yet with Docs of White Bear, so the board wasn't comfortable going forward. [32:58] **Scott Costello:** Last year, we commissioned that survey and that was the beginning of starting to know where things actually are. I would like to get it to the point where it becomes a whole lot more automatic and not all these arguments every year. [33:44] **Council Member (Mr. Juba):** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Ponto, Mr. Costello, I just want to say thank you. There's been a ton of effort on the administrative side over the last couple of years. It's much appreciated. [34:30] **Mayor Dan Vane:** All right, thank you again for the detailed report. Item 8A, Ward 2 parking restrictions. Mr. Koppy, whenever you're ready. [35:10] **Paul Koppy:** Mayor, members of the Council. I'm going to go through a brief summary of the Ward 2 parking we discussed at our last meeting on June 11th. Council directed staff to look at Morehead Avenue and to send out an invitation to the neighborhood for public comment. We sent out 340 letters. The existing conditions involve various "no parking" or "no trailer parking" areas. [39:27] I'll get the little mouse to work... All right, there we go. We've added Morehead Avenue from 11th Street to Highway 96. These roadways were rebuilt on the narrow side—22 to 24 feet wide. Engineering standards for parking on one side recommend 28 to 32 feet. So we are on the low side. What sparked this was mobility issues—it's difficult to get around when cars are parked on both sides, especially with wider boat trailers. This photo is Morehead looking North from 11th Street on the Friday of the Manito Days parade. You can see a truck with a trailer and a passenger vehicle. We watched cars really have to snake through just to get by. An emergency vehicle would have struggled. The proposal for 8th through 11th Streets is "no parking" on the north side and "no trailer parking" on the south side. For Morehead, the recommendation is "no parking" on the east side and "no trailer parking" on the west side. We've received 13 email comments: 10 were supportive, one was neutral, and two were against. One resident on 10th Street asked to reverse the side because of driveways, but we chose the south side for consistency across 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th. [53:38] **Mayor Dan Vane:** I have one name on my signup sheet: Steve Goron. [54:10] **Steve Goron (Resident):** Thank you. I am one of the two letters not in favor. I've lived in the neighborhood for 32 years. If we make it too easy to drive through, people will drive even faster. I like to think of cars on both sides as a traffic calming device. This seems like a 365-day-a-year solution to a problem that occurs on four or five days a year. Wouldn't a weekend restriction be a better alternative? [57:15] **Jim Nash (Resident):** 2277 9th Street. We’ve lived there 32 years and have absolutely no problems with parking. The concerns are speeders and loud people. I think the upright curbing is restrictive. I find no problem with the existing structure. If you put restrictions in for these main events, are you restricting access to the parade or the 4th of July? I’d rather not see the public restricted from the beach. [1:00:16] **Christopher Hughes (Resident):** 4984 Stewart Avenue. 11th Street gets much more parking than 9th or Morehead. On a nice weekend, it is impossible to get out of the neighborhood because visibility is impossible with boat trailers. However, the trailers will find another spot in another neighborhood if you restrict them here. You’re going to have to be prepared to step up enforcement a great deal. [1:03:10] **Mayor Dan Vane:** On 11th Street, it currently has the Saturday-Sunday restriction. Is that staying the same? [1:03:20] **Paul Koppy:** The change there would be "no parking" at all on the north side, not just the weekends. 11th is the worst because of the beach access. [1:04:41] **Council Member Bill Hughes:** What if we just did "no trailer parking" on the weekends during the summer? I guess it wouldn't bother me if the sign was confusing and someone from out of town went and parked somewhere else. And regarding 10th Street, if those residents want it on the other side, let's just move it to the side that makes sense for them to get out of their driveways. [1:10:45] **Council Member Walsh:** I'm struggling with the 10th Street north-south decision. Why are we telling people to park further south? [1:11:45] **Paul Koppy:** It's psychology. People circle to find a spot that’s easy to get back to the launch from. [1:13:54] **Council Member Kevin Edberg:** Mr. Koppy, are we dealing with a problem, an irritation, or an annoyance? Do we have data on accidents or ambulances being blocked? [1:18:40] **Chief Dale Hager:** I don't have that data for you tonight. I could get it. It’s never a problem until it’s a problem, and then it’s a big problem. We look at it from a perspective of mitigation. [1:21:40] **Mayor Dan Vane:** I support this solution, but I don't claim it's the end-all-be-all. I spent 45 minutes this afternoon observing. Those streets are really, really narrow. I parked my pickup truck on 9th Street and was troubled by how little room was there. We've become a victim of our own success. I take very seriously the residents who say there's a concern. I'd like to try this for a couple of seasons and circle back in a year or two. [1:25:50] **Council Member Walsh:** I’ll move the resolution, but I want to amend the 10th Street portion to flip it from north to south side. [1:28:40] **Council Member Kevin Edberg:** Council Member Hughes, they're your neighbors. What’s your take? [1:28:45] **Council Member Bill Hughes:** The boat trailer parking is a no-brainer. They are so wide. The struggle I’m having is the "no parking at all" on a Tuesday afternoon when you want a lawn guy to park there. [1:33:16] **Mayor Dan Vane:** I spoke with one gentleman who can't get his boat in his driveway because of the parking situation across the street. There’s no perfect solution. [1:35:05] **Council Member West:** I think about the safety aspect. I would feel horrible if an ambulance wasn't able to get to someone. I support this. [1:37:06] **Council Member Walsh:** I move to amend the resolution to flip 10th Street parking restrictions from the North side to the South side. [1:38:10] **Paul Koppy:** So 10th Street would be "no parking" on the south side and "no trailer parking" on the north side. [1:40:58] **Mayor Dan Vane:** All those in favor of the resolution as amended say "Aye." (Group: "Aye.") Motion carries. Council Member Edberg, you had a point? [1:41:02] **Council Member Kevin Edberg:** Do we need to stipulate that this topic should come back to the Council in two years for review? [1:42:29] **Mayor Dan Vane:** Let's revisit after Labor Day 2025. Let that be reflected in the minutes. Item 8B, School Resource Officer agreement. Chief Hager. [1:44:02] **Chief Dale Hager:** Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. We are asking you to authorize an agreement with White Bear Lake Area Schools for three SROs for the 2024-2025 school year. We've had two SROs for over 20 years. This year, they unified the two high schools into one large campus. The district asked us to increase from two to three officers. This will increase our sworn officers from 31 to 32. [1:48:39] **Mayor Dan Vane:** I think this is a no-brainer. We just built a new super high school. My only concern was the financial structure, but it sounds like the school district was receptive to an equitable breakdown. [1:50:59] **Council Member Walsh:** My concern is hiring. You're likely to get an internal applicant, which creates a vacancy in patrol. [1:51:45] **Chief Dale Hager:** That is going to happen, but we've been doing a good job filling positions. I don't anticipate it being a challenge. [1:53:57] **Mayor Dan Vane:** Motion passes. Item 8C, Cottage Park Homeowners Association license agreement. Mr. Juba. [1:54:04] **Rick Juba:** Staff is recommending a license agreement with the Cottage Park Homeowners Association to maintain existing improvements on three strips of public land. These were annexed from the township. The HOA maintains stairs, railings, and docks. This agreement memorializes that the HOA is responsible for maintenance and liability, not the city. [1:58:40] **Council Member Walsh:** Why do we need to continue to own the land? [2:01:45] **Rick Juba:** We have one parcel at Lake View that has a dock and kayak racks. [2:02:31] **Council Member Kevin Edberg:** Are we creating a built-in advantage for a select group of people on public land? Is the city getting a reasonable return? I also found the "therefore be it resolved" phrase in this resolution to be really vague compared to the SRO agreement. [2:11:43] **City Attorney (Mr. Anderson):** It’s a good question. The delegation to enter into contracts here is unique. This agreement is taking liability off the city's plate. I’d like to take a look at the Charter and report back on how specific these resolutions should be. [2:20:12] **Mayor Dan Vane:** There are going to be more of these because we want to shore up these "handshake agreements." I would entertain a motion to approve the resolution. [2:25:10] **Council Member:** Move to approve. [2:25:12] **Council Member:** Second. [2:25:20] **Mayor Dan Vane:** All those in favor say "Aye." (Group: "Aye.") Motion carries. Item 10, communications from our city manager, Mr. Juba. [2:26:00] **Rick Juba:** Market Fest is this Thursday, and the Farmers Market starts Friday with "Donuts and Coffee with a Cop." Next week is the 4th of July fireworks. [2:27:09] **Mayor Dan Vane:** Thank you, Rick, for the time you spend on the 4th of July away from your family to organize these events. Motion to adjourn? [2:27:40] **Council Member:** So move. [2:27:42] **Mayor Dan Vane:** All those in favor say "Aye." We are adjourned.