Based on the context provided and the dialogue within the transcript, here is the formatted version with speaker identifications. *Note: There are discrepancies between the provided list of officials and the names used in the transcript (specifically "Councilmember Carlson" and "Councilmember Dahl"). I have used the names as they appear in the proceedings.* [7:43] **Jordan [Technical Support]:** jordan [7:50] **Jordan [Technical Support]:** this would be why [8:10] **Jordan [Technical Support]:** remotely [8:24] **Adam [City Staff]:** here councilmember gilmore here all president two uh doll and customer carlson remote thank you that takes us to the approval of tonight's agenda does anyone have any comments questions or changes that they'd like to propose from the council please if not would someone like to make a motion to approve tonight's agenda [8:55] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** i'll make a motion approving tonight's agenda thank you and thank you ethan roll call please [9:00] **Adam [City Staff]:** councilman carlson aye councilmember gilmore aye golf member dahl aye anson aye mayor st arch hi as all [9:10] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** that takes us to our proclamations commendations petitions and announcements and the may recycling award recipient is robert newman at 423 2nd street north will be awarded for his recycling efforts with funding made possible with a grant from washington county they and the bayport city-wide cleanup day for residents will be held on saturday june 19th from 8 a.m to 12 p.m at lakeside park visit the city's website for a list of materials accepted and to disposal fees that concludes our proclamations combinations petitions and announcements and leads us to our open forum the open forum is a time within our meeting that we set aside 15 minutes for topics that are not on tonight's agenda and so i know that we have several folks in visiting with us this evening so first i'd like to call upon anna wilcheck from anderson elementary school [10:23] **Anna Wilcheck (Andersen Elementary):** good evening mayor st oars and council members thank you so much for providing me with just a little bit of time today to come here and tell you a heartfelt thank you um we have just wrapped up the school year today is the first day that our students and our teachers and our paras and all of our staff are hopefully home just resting after what's been nothing but a roller coaster year i'm here because i need you to know the role that all of you played in supporting our kids our teachers our families and just all of us in a year that's been unlike any other in education and so i just wanted to share specific things about a very special gift that you provided to our school that has made a difference throughout this crazy school year so i've shared i'm hoping you can see the presentation i have the joy that you see in those students um is is how heartfelt we really um are coming to you for with this thanks and so i'd like to just be able to i hope i can just proceed with clicking here awesome okay so there are so many ways that we can um we can thank you things that we want to thank you for but specifically it was the donation of the cares act funding to be able to provide our classrooms with seven new interactive boards i need to understand what our old boards are like you know we recently had our 100 birthday celebration at anderson i think some of the boards could probably have been displayed as part of the walk through history and so when you were able to to dedicate funding to us for this really important technology i just need to understand how much that helped us during this pandemic year of learning and so take a peek we had those old boards and now we have seven new viewsonic interactive tvs with carts that are in classrooms and being used throughout our school this is just a few of the ways that those boards have helped students this is a picture actually of one of our staff members who when she was on quarantine at home could still teach art to her group of students using the screen big bright and bold being able to demonstrate and model things for her students and interact with them and have conversation while she couldn't even be in the classroom the same thing held true for our students there were times when we might have had a student who needed to be home and when that student was at home they could be brought right into the classroom too and we could see their faces they could see the other students in the classroom and please take special note that our teachers were the people who made this kind of experience happen for kids who needed to be home and with that i have to tell you just one of the many comments of thanks this is from julie eckren our second grade teacher and she just said our new smart tv is reliable flexible and engaging for all students it has technology tools embedded that make it much easier for everyone to use and everyone including students it's the kind of board where teachers certainly use it but our kids can interact with it too so this has just been a wonderful gift to our school and in a year like no other something we really needed so i just wanted to definitely share a heartfelt thank you for thinking of us thinking of our school and making that donation possible so that you could help so many kids i also wanted to take a minute to share another thank you it's just a testament to the love that we feel from this community it's not every elementary school that gets to have a retiree parade and i am actually saying goodbye to six staff members at anderson elementary this year and what we were able to do because of the love of chief eastman for our school and her team you see of course officer larry and officer brittany who we just admire and respect and have such positive relationships with the kids you're seeing that that leadership of chief easement staying connected with our school and those officers doing something really special to show kids how much we care for our teachers who are leaving and how our community cares about education and the value of teachers so we had a retirement parade led by officer brittany and trailed by officer larry and those teachers for them that that meant the world to them as they head off to retirement it was really a special day for all of us and and you can see from their smiling faces it's something they will talk about with their families and their friends for a very long time and again something that only can happen in bayport so with that i just want to again share my heart felt thank you these children that are pictured here are just a few of the hundreds of kids at anderson elementary who feel your love and support thank you so much for thinking about our school for supporting us in so many ways not just during this difficult challenging year but all the time we feel it from you and we just want you to know how much that means to all of us so thank you very much [15:47] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** wonderful to hear and uh not your fault i was doing that earlier thank you thank you all right so we have our next presenter is elisa eliza are you on the line? [16:29] **Eliza Klebek (Andersen Corporation):** yes [16:48] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** okay... [Pause for technical issues] [17:16] **Eliza Klebek (Andersen Corporation):** no... [17:38] **Adam [City Staff]:** can you hear me sounds like maybe those of us online can maybe they can't in the room yeah you're coming in really that way we're getting feedback in the chambers i'm not sure if you're hearing that connie and john and elizabeth there that's what you see elizabeth go ahead and try or no you're muted if you want to go ahead and try now [18:12] **Eliza Klebek (Andersen Corporation):** all right how's this you hear me now adam? yes all right all right thank you um eliza klebek i lead communications and community relations for anderson corporation uh thank you mayor st norris and council members for inviting me here today and on behalf of anderson corporation i'm pleased to present the city with a contribution of 50 000 to further the conservation area efforts along the sancre river um just south of the our plant um in bayport and through this contribution we're just really honored to continue to support the work that the city is leaving is leading to create additional conservation and green space and public access to the river for all bayport residents and we thank you for all the work that you're doing to steward that effort and residence but also the conservation of the river and continuing to make sure that this is a great place for everyone who has the opportunity to live here and to interact with the great scenic river way that we have the privilege of working alongside and many of us have the privilege of also being able to recreate is a meaningful way to help advance the work to keep that project moving forward and we're just proud to continue to be a great partner to the city and to continue to support your work thank you [19:45] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** thank you so much eliza i think we're gonna have to use the art funds for post-traumatic stress i'm like every time i'm like oh thank you for your partnership and thank you for your kind words and the contribution well i'll tell you thank you very much and thank you wonderful thank you cubby america thank you i didn't hear you but i think there's a i appreciate all of your work thank you [20:30] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** it's gonna be a long meeting yeah it is [20:45] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** hey adam zalin we're we're not able to hear the mayor i think it's coming with that feedback that you're getting there i don't know if you can turn the podium mic off or not [20:52] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** who's talking? [20:55] **Adam [City Staff]:** helen oh he's not on the screen so it scared me [21:14] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** can you hear me now? [21:16] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** you're very muted we can barely hear anything [21:20] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** can you hear me now test one two test one two no no still quiet can you hear me now test one two test one two check now i think we're either hearing you through the point we we're not able to hear mayor scene or when she was talking right she wasn't muted partially we just had this... [22:02] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** so eliza thank you so much for your kind words and your contribution and the partnership with anderson corporation we greatly appreciate it and thank you for joining us tonight and the generous donation will be put to great use so thank you very much for joining us and apologies for the technical difficulties [22:38] **Eliza Klebek (Andersen Corporation):** no problem at all we're all used to that these days thank you we could hear your presentation yes [22:54] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** all right so we're gonna try this a third time and go to our third presenter and that is um joe iris johnson from washington county with an update on the highway 36 project cross your fingers [23:06] **Joe Iris Johnson (Washington County):** actually joined by emily jordan he's a project manager so i'm not sure how i got top billing alphabetically you are gonna get really good okay [23:34] **Emily Jorgensen (Washington County):** good evening our mayor and city council members as joe said my name is emily jorgensen i'm a planner with washington county and i'm also the project manager for our highway 36 corridor transit feasibility study we're joined also by our commissioner gary kriesel um this really is a project that was kind of his baby that we've been working on over the past year we're really close to wrapping up our transit study and we wanted to come to your meeting today and just give you an update on the results we don't have a specific ask of you at this point but really felt it would benefit the city council to hear about the work that we've been doing um one of the benefits of being project manager is that you get to delegate so my assistant project manager joe is going to walk us through the majority of the presentation and then i'll come back for study recommendations and wrap up [24:21] **Joe Iris Johnson (Washington County):** thank you thank you mayor and council members so we know this will be a lot of new information so we'll start off with some study background and scope of study we will touch on the study goals and give a high level summary of public engagement uh the results of public engagement that we did then we will introduce the transit scenarios a little bit for consideration how we evaluated them and ultimately getting this recommendations and next steps so starting with the study scope and goals some important context for this study is that you know commissioner cressel frequently hears from community members and stakeholders that there's a real need for better transit in the greater stillwater area this is something that we as county staff here as well uh and the county frequently lobbies uh for increased transit service but it's not really something that has necessarily translated into metro transit priorities uh from their perspective they don't see a large demand and in the past they haven't viewed frequent transit out here is as a viable service for them so commissioner kriesel and the county board tasked county staff with finding out whether it's feasible to bring transit out to stillwater area and if so what the general look feel and cost of that might be so the purpose of this study is to identify transit needs and recommendations that reflect the corridor needs today and what we anticipate for the future and as part of the study we are considering transit and transit facilities that would provide alternative travel options for folks traveling throughout the corridor the study was led by emily myself and the project consultants in coordination with the project management team which had members of washington ramsey and hennepin counties as well as mndot and the met council the city the process was also featured ongoing coordination with two technical advisory working groups which we called tags there was the city tog which consisted of staff representatives from each city along the corridor and then the the operations tag which had staff representatives from mndot metro transit in washington county community services and i want to shout out bayport's own sarah taylor here who was an active participant on the city tog and helped review the deliverables as they came up and get the word out about the study through city channels i won't get in depth into the study goals but i will say that when we were developing the goals we wanted them to be goals that would address the issues that were identified early during the phases of study and we know that as we think about the future we need to be sensitive uh to existing contexts we we recognize that there lot of growth planned for the corridor but that some communities prioritize their existing character and do not anticipate changing much and so we wanted to ensure that we captured that goal as well [27:31] **Joe Iris Johnson (Washington County):** well kovid changed a lot of our initial engagement plans we were able to shift to a lot of online engagement we conducted virtual focus groups we hosted and attended virtual meetings we created digital content like self-guided presentations and fact sheets that we distributed to our city partners and one of the key ways that we were able to reach people living working or going to school in the highway 36 corridor was through an online questionnaire which yielded over 1200 responses which for us was kind of a lot we wanted to learn about people's pre-covet travel and transit habits and what their interest in transit is and why they may not be taking transit today and we've tried to summarize all that engagement into these three bullet points the questionnaire revealed that 73 of respondents are interested in taking transit uh the questionnaire did get a little bit more into detail this isn't just people wanting to use it once or twice a year for a twins game people were mentioning they want to use it up to five times a week for things like work or recreation or shopping of most importance to folks were traffic congestion along highway 36 improving mobility for people who rely on transit and improving convenience of traveling without a car in the corridor and in both focus groups and questionnaires two two needs really emerged there's there's the need for the east-west travel on the highway 36 corridor in connection to the larger transit network but then there was also a need for travel within that bayport stillwater oak park heights area and that's something that we've heard throughout this study but also before this study from our project stakeholders before we get into the scenarios i do want to review the different types of transit service that we looked at as part of this study we haven't locked into any particular type of service yet but what you see on this slide have all informed what has become a suite of transit options and the recommendations that have emerged bus rapid transit is a higher amenity higher investment transit option that that operates is sort of a hybrid between light rail and your standard bus route it either operates in mixed traffic or in its own designated lane and it's typically all-day frequent bi-directional service that has infrequent station locations so as to move lots of people quickly express buses that's your typical park and ride service they operate primarily during peak morning and afternoon periods designed to serve commuters at the start or end of their work shifts and then local express buses are more like your regular route bus service with more spacing between stops and they have fewer amenities but they're also more flexible in their service timing and spacing this last one on demand public transit this is an emerging service type that is gaining a lot of traction it refers to a service that will respond on call and travel anywhere within a designated region sometimes even providing door-to-door service and this is something that i'm going to get into a little bit more in the next slide [30:36] **Joe Iris Johnson (Washington County):** so recall that there were that those those two needs that emerged during this study both in engagement and during preliminary analysis there's that east-west travel throughout the corridor and that travel within the greater stillwater bay port or park heights area on-demand public transit was identified as a potential recommendation to better meet that second need that travel within the greater stillwater area and it's not a perfect analogy but some people think of on-demand public transit as dialride means uber or lyft and it's really carved a niche for itself as a transit solution in areas that need transit but where fixed route options have not really been successful in the past or aren't sustainable long term there's no formal route that it circulates instead communities designate a specific service area or geographic area and then users can request a ride via app website or phone call and unlike the uber lyft comparisons these vehicles are ada compliant will sometimes pool riders they can accommodate bikes or other mobility devices if necessary um there are no price surges meaning there's a lot more reliability around uh fares and pricing there are also more reliable hours of service and more accountability with the drivers so with the stage set i i'll walk you through the transit scenarios here [32:08] **Joe Iris Johnson (Washington County):** there are four transit scenarios three of which include all the transit types that we just talked about oh yes yeah yeah good call yeah there are four transit scenarios three of which include all those transit types that we just talked about the brt the commuter express the local express then that on-demand public transit and the scenarios vary primarily by where the eastern terminus of that brt is located so for example in transit scenario one here the brt would run from downtown minneapolis through the university of minnesota up highway 280 to highway 36 and then stop at rice street and at rice street there would be a connection to that local express bus service type that would connect all the way out to the stillwater area to address that peak period commuter need the commuter express would run from that bayport stillwater oak park heights area all the way to downtown minneapolis and then an on-demand public transit service area would be established around that bayport stillwater oak park heights area to serve travel needs within that that area to connect to the regional connections scenario two is basically the same scenario except the eastern terminus of the brt has moved from rice street to maplewood mall which would allow for some connections at that location and then in scenario three that eastern terminus of the brt has moved to hadley avenue the other change that you'll see is the brt does not run along 280 but goes 36 all the way into downtown minneapolis and that's because during preliminary analysis the further east that brt went the less of a connection it was the university of minnesota so we just wanted to test that that routing there to see what that looked like uh this last scenario differs from the other that it only includes brt and on-demand public transit and that's because uh once you run brt all the way to this greater stillwater area the commuter express and the local express options become rather redundant and inefficient so this would just feature the two options there these are the four scenarios we're looking at and again i just want to be clear that none of these are being advanced as a preferred alternative to move forward with engineering these are just scenarios that we developed to test against each other to test for feasibility of transit in the corridor and compare against each other as to which performs best in terms of ridership and cost and one of the primary ways that we do evaluate these scenarios is through developing and comparing ridership forecasts operations and maintenance costs and capital costs and this is where we really start to put numbers to some of those scenarios that we just saw what we found was that in all four scenarios they're all very comparable to each other looking at this chart you see the scenarios across the top of the chart and then you see the evaluation metrics down the left side and looking at the ridership you can see while ridership varied slightly by scenario in the transit world these are all still quite comparable and you can see that there is a fair amount of overlap in the ridership forecast ranges and one of the key takeaways here is that while scenario 2 had the highest projected ridership there is no one scenario that is head and shoulders above the other scenarios here when it comes to ridership that's really the story with all these metrics with regard to operation and maintenance costs we also see a lot of similarity here generally the further east the brt goes the higher the o m costs but again we see that no scenario is header shoulders above the others here when we talk about capital cost estimations that includes things like right-of-way buses stations and associated infrastructure and these aren't final costs but they are used to get an order of magnitude and again it's the same story they're all very comparable all the different scenarios are very comparable to each other but the heart at the center of our study was you know are these transit improvements on highway 36 between the stillwater oak park heights bayport area and downtown minneapolis feasible and the answer is yes we saw that the transitway investment in the highway 36 corridor is feasible we saw that specifically brt in the highway 36 corridor is feasible and we saw that transitway investment along highway 36 all the way out to the stillwater area is feasible so the question arises you know which scenario is best and the answer is we don't know that's not what this was for this was to determine feasibility in the in the corridor and the next steps would be to determine um future in future phases of study that would be something that would be determined you know which scenario is best which one wants to be advanced if any and but this was just a determined feasibility and uh it was at this point i'll hand it over to emily thank you [37:28] **Emily Jorgensen (Washington County):** great thanks joe so at this point you may be thinking what is the county doing you may be feeling very excited about this maybe very unsure because we just showed you a bunch of information and then said it's all the same which was a surprise to us um so we are thinking about next steps as we're coming out of the study um so we do have some recommendations and we did order them chronologically because there's quite a timeline that we're attaching to this but before we get into those recommendations we wanted to kind of acknowledge the context that we're in right now and the challenges that we're still seeing ahead of us so just starting with the kova 19 pandemic which is you know why we're in a hybrid situation here um we know looking ahead things are getting better covid wise but we still see a lot of financial challenges and constraints and particularly in the transit world we're not really sure where that demand will bounce back you know that we don't expect park and ride service demand to be what it was pre-pandemic levels for quite a long time if ever so we're keeping that in mind as we think about our recommendations uh similarly for this study washington county was the only funding partner we know moving forward we'd want to see some financial contributions from hennepin and ramsey and then we think about our partners at the met council metro transit who have their own different financial constraints and also competing transit priorities as you think about transit in the twin cities there's a lot of other lines usually associated with the color whether that's orange gold there's the rush line all which are very close in project development about to enter engineering or perhaps construction so a lot of stuff going on in the transit world right now that we know that perhaps right now is not the best time for us to advance this as a top priority for washington county so with that in mind we can start with our study recommendations and so what we're calling the near term which would be zero to two years the themes of this is really focused on what washington county can control so that first one would be to study and consider a pilot for that on-demand public transit service that's that blue kidney you saw on all those maps this would allow us to identify funding sources really hone in on where that geographic service area would be and really understand what that would mean for a service for the county to deliver we would also want to continue to prioritize maintain and invest in mobility management this is some of the work that sheila holbrook white with washington county community services does now which is really that day-to-day boots on the ground people need a way to get somewhere and they're unable to drive and she kind of connects them through buses through lifts through taxis through volunteer drivers to get them where they need to go so really kind of continuing to prioritize and fund that work and also track it because we know that that data will help us in the long run whatever type of service we do manage to bring um to the community we want to make sure it meets those needs [39:47] **Emily Jorgensen (Washington County):** then we have our midterm recommendations this will be about three to five years and this really centers on forming that highway 36 corridor commission so that's usually a commission made up of the involved counties and cities um usually created by a joint powers board of sorts and with that commission is really when you'd have the political um power to really identify funding sources to advance this as an initiative develop multi-jurisdictional agreements and as joe said you know we need a lot more studies in order to figure out kind of what type of transit solution best fits the highway 36 corridor and that's what this commission do we'd also want to continue to work with metro transit in st craig county uh we know that just across the bridge they're moving a lot of dirt all the time and we get a lot of their folks coming into our communities um so continuing to see if there wouldn't be a need for transit expansion uh across the river and see if that isn't something that we could capitalize as well and then we have our longer term recommendations this would be about five to eight years away so this would be once we have that corridor commission um we'd want to do things like develop a plan for mobility hubs so these are usually areas where you have perhaps a parking ride along with a bus stop maybe some electric scooters or electric vehicle charging just really if you have kind of a first mile last mile need for your transit trip you can do it all in one spot you know that they're really good for economic development they're really biking head friendly that would go along really well with our second recommendation which would be to develop a small area plan for transit access areas so we know that if we bring transit to communities we want to make sure that the area is transit friendly itself that's going to mesh with the community character so that would be when we pursue those and then we want to partner with mndot for what we call transit advantages which are usually shoulder advantages so for folks who maybe do have a car do like to drive but are considering taking the bus getting that shoulder savings time is really kind of what lets people see that there's an advantage to taking the bus and really kind of pushes them um into making that choice you really get a good uh travel time savings with those and then we have our ongoing engagement so this would be where we partner with uh continue to do things like we do now which is partnering with cities and mndots on our bike and pet infrastructure we know that when things are like ped-friendly they're transit-friendly i'm always looking for grant opportunities and opportunities for partnership and then continuing to our engagement efforts so while we don't have a specific ask of bayport today we want to continue to kind of talk with you all keep this fresh in your mind because this is something that we are hoping to move forward in the future so that was a lot of information and we're happy to answer any questions you might have and i will frame it by saying we're particularly interested in your reactions to just bringing more transit to bayport and specifically that on-demand public transit piece thank you very much [42:05] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** i'll open it up to the council for questions [42:15] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** so excited to hear this because when i was on the community thread board several years back there was a lot of discussion on the need for this type of transportation within the corridor and within the surrounding community so i'm excited to see that it's progressed this far and i was like i mean down the road i know but including that in there or looking into it anyway so... [43:10] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** you could hear most of what you said connie oh there was just a lot of feedback going on in here so we heard most of what you said [43:20] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** oh i was just saying and i can't hear you at all now michelle but i don't know i was just saying i was excited to see that it hasn't progressed this far because they're identifying the need for you know different resources of travel for people yeah we got that part so and then i just said i told her thank you and then i was glad to hear that they were looking also [44:05] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** [Laughter] with what connie said i think a huge need in our area in that highway 36 corridor um appreciate the update and uh keeping us in the loop i do have a question... do you think it's gonna work if i talk can you hear me connie and john? [44:30] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** no i'm muted never mind... john can you hear anything? hi i heard you can you hear me? i don't know if they heard me can you guys hear me john connie can you hear me talking okay can you can you guys hear me? [44:55] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** barely you're really quiet then connie blows my earphones out sorry if i ask a question could you hear well enough and then she can answer it go ahead [45:10] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** okay i was just curious i know that you you know you talked a little bit about the survey respondents and they're from different counties ramsey washington mostly and mostly washington and then a little hennepin but uh and then you mentioned sacramento county when you came to the financial part of it but we didn't actually survey anyone in sacramento county because i think that could impact that stillwater scenario quite a bit just it's a really nice [45:45] **Emily Jorgensen (Washington County):** yeah that's a wonderful observation so we didn't particularly um so because this happened during cover we had to pivot all of our wonderful we had so much so many great in-person engagement things planned we had to pivot everything and do everything online so the survey really was um a big push for us so we did get respondents from st craig county um it was pretty negligible specifically because we didn't advertise um to sacred county on in a paid social media way what i will say is their their ridership was taken into consideration for all of the modeling that we did okay so as we start to attach those numbers we know already how many folks come from st craig county every day and start using metro transit but then you know with the opening of the st credit crossing bridge things have dramatically shiftedly or shifted dramatically traffic is up 30 so we have all those numbers we're able to incorporate in our modeling so in our next phases of study yeah we can absolutely start to kind of include them and start talking to sacramento county specifically and start figuring out what that relationship would look like [46:40] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** okay good i assumed you guys were doing that but it just wasn't clear in the presentation that that was considered so thank you and thank you for doing this i think it is a it's a huge need and i don't know that looked like that one line kind of went into oak park heights but maybe not all the way down to bayport so i don't know how we're going to be involved in all of that eventually but it would be nice if it wouldn't we wouldn't have to go to oak park heights to get on the bus from here right [47:00] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** well and there's a need for workers in every community and to allow them to travel from the metro out to us as well yes as us in is very important [47:15] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** so anything from you oh i was interested in the local the little you refer to it as the gray the blue little area and how that how that'll work it sounds like a potential pilot program with that in the short term so that that interests me um because i think yeah moving around there's not a lot of good options uber's not out here you know lyft aren't they're barely ever out here and you have taxi services that are that are that are okay but we could always use more i feel like so that interests me [47:45] **Emily Jorgensen (Washington County):** yes that's a wonderful segue into our timeline which is we're visiting with all the quarter city councils who want us to come and give them an update we're going back to the washington county rail authority in the late summer early fall with adoption and then at that point we'll start to approach the county board of okay how do we want to start to kind of do this pilot how can we involve you know the valley community so that you all make sure if we were to identify that blue kidney in in reality that we make sure we get the right kind of lines drawn on the map and it's flexible um but it's a wonderful surface model there are examples of it in the twin cities already which are quite successful um and we think that the kind of the the urban landscape of bay port orchard heights in stillwater would really lend itself to this type of model because while you're a suburb you're not very suburban in the way that you're laid out so we think it would work really well [48:30] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** thank you thank you very much for coming and presenting to us and taking the time so we'll look forward to more updates and more conversations and uh looks like a good strong plan so thank you very much thank you okay so that is there anyone else online or anyone else in attendance that would like to address the council that we know of or anyone else here for open forum items that are not on tonight's agenda? they're here for the liquor license right? yes [Laughter] okay well great then we will um conclude sorry we're going to move on to our consent agenda i'm going to um a resolution adopting items one through nine the may 3rd 2021 city council workshop may 3rd 2021. [49:56] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** bernie and i can't hear you guys [50:00] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** i'm going through the consent agenda so you can just read it usually that's what she's doing [50:05] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** well i did read it i didn't have any objections [50:10] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** i did as well no objections [50:15] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** okay great so the uh may 3rd 2021 city council... Jordan, there we go now we can hear you... the may 17 2021 city council special meeting minutes the may payables and receipts in may plumbing uh building mechanical and zoning permits uh report request for placement of a little free library kiosk at 260 fifth avenue north from anna ostrusco um the special event application from the big board american legion for a five burning ceremony at perro park on june 14th 2021 monetary and in-kind donation of plantings on public property by dan and kit ridgeway and nicole bell the application for new on sale sunday and a 3.2 off sale liquor licenses from a 210 barbecue llc for operations at 328 fifth avenue any questions comments um or recommend or additions to the consent agenda? [51:30] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** oh yeah madam mayor members and council uh there were a couple items in the minutes we were going to uh where they were the last special meeting councilmember carlson was remote we're just going to make a designation of that on the roll call and the um the actual that's the only changes okay [51:49] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** all right anyone else from the council have any changes or additions if not would someone like to make a motion to approve [51:55] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** i move we approve the consent agenda thank you michelle is there a second i'll say thank you ethan world cup please [52:05] **Adam [City Staff]:** counselor hanson aye councilman hi... she muted... it's like she's saying i but you can't hear me do this i'm not going to vote we can't hear you john hey can you thumbs up or thumbs down it's the consent agenda johnny thumbs down in something oh yeah yeah well we have enough of the eyes is that okay? [52:55] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** okay sorry you had to sit through this no this is our first time with this trying to do both and it's not going very well and it's our being collectively back yeah we were usually all on zoom and it was no problem hybrid is not working for us yet so yeah and i can personally test that john likes barbecue so his boat has nothing to do with you he also likes alcohol i think we're talking about you john [53:40] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** well great oh there he said i'm going to abstain on every vote when i can't hear what is being discussed completely understand we get it yeah thanks for coming in [53:52] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** okay so we're gonna pause until we get this going right and if we need to we're going to just cover topics we can tonight and otherwise table things till the next meeting do we have to make a motion to pause or anything or can we just... [54:10] **Adam [City Staff]:** just just do it okay good we're going to never have to do that just recess for a few minutes here okay see if we can get this figured out come back on the record and adjourn and we will vote [54:25] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** but you can put it into recess i'd like to recess this for the moment thank you maybe you could john you heard the recessing for a few minutes right? [54:35] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** no i have to i've got it turned down so you don't blow me and i'm not it's not your fault but when i turn it way up then it's feedback and i mean it's hurting my ears... so i heard something about the consent agenda but then there's something that added and i don't know what the heck's being added so i just feel more comfortable not voting maybe if they get it's technically not a public key i think it's one particular mic that's a problem but what do i know i think it's that because when we're used to that it always was an echo there coming from that mic it'd be interesting to swap microphones around and see if the problem moves with the microphone or stays at one particular location [55:45] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** l can you hear them? [55:55] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** i i have to turn my volume up super loud and then when the feedback comes my earphones almost go off you know it's because i i'm only here in bits and pieces so i'm kind of like you john i feel like i'm hearing some but i'm not hearing enough and then yeah bits and pieces about that's what i just was trying to abstain from boat on stuff it's just yeah there's a few votes that need a four to one but i don't think anything's tonight so we'll see i'll hang tight i'm at work [56:45] **Sarah Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** hey you guys it's sarah you guys are i can hear them faintly but i suggested maybe they should all join by zoom instead of using cheaper like your phone that's what i think hey good idea because we didn't have problems with zoom yeah so adam said they're obviously taking a quick recess but maybe that's something though try out i see adam just grabbed his computer because it might be the feedback between adam's computer and the other speakers i just feel like the workshop i didn't i didn't get a whole lot out of that i was missing half of what yeah it was being discussed [57:55] **Adam [City Staff]:** so bring it in i don't think we have anything too terribly controversial tonight which is no kind of helpful too i think so yeah a month ago we tested it and everything was just everything was perfect and then he just did something obsession about a couple weeks ago that was fine can we just so just open up your audio and see if we can hear them i can hear you loud and clear... can you hear me right now testing one two three can you hear me? [59:22] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** do we have to approve the events do we have to... [59:25] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** not necessarily they'd like to do the batting cages because they have them already i mean they'd like to get them up um but that other stuff on other stuff they were still getting pricing on and all that stuff and the only action they wanted on first and fore prep was the batting cages essentially because they were bringing all the other stuff back so when were they planning to join the meeting or were they not rich was going to be at the meeting yeah he's not online only if he really needed to and i told him it's pretty much so that he probably did we should get you and she's good that i would say is probably for sure the banning cages would be good to get it done but i'm assuming i mean because they probably want to get what's the time in their grant the grant's not a big deal in the batting cages has nothing to do with the grant but they have the batting cages and they'd like to get them up for use [1:03:33] **Adam [City Staff]:** because he unmuted the he unmuted it so now they can hear us can they hear us they can't right connie and john you guys can hear us? [1:03:45] **Connie Carlson / John Dahl:** yes yes yes [1:03:50] **Adam [City Staff]:** okay so let's try this i have one of the units unplugged well if everything works oh it's working if everything's working now we can just go so i need advice of how to reconvene yeah we're just coming out of the recess so we're going to recall the meeting order um order and say they still... [1:04:30] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** so we're going to reconvene the meeting right now at 7 00 pm or not was it because you brought in and we still have a quorum of all five uh members presents let's try it could be these speakers up here okay gonna continue and so we will uh resume the meeting can they hear us can you hear us now? okay yes good um so um and continue with the agenda and just for the record we do still have a quorum all five council members remain present at the meeting of the recess yes so do we want to move forward do you think we want to move forward with the public hearing in july okay is everyone okay with us moving that to the july agenda we have a motion to table item item one under the public hearing [1:05:40] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** i can make a motion to um table item one okay to the july meeting is there a second i'll second thank you ethan roll call please [1:06:10] **Adam [City Staff]:** councilmember carlson aye councilmember gilmore aye councilmember dahl aye councilmember hanson aye mayor st aye [1:06:19] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** that will move us to our unfinished business and um to all people participating remotely please understand that we've been having audio technical difficulties throughout the meeting and workshop prior so we appreciate your patience and uh that's why we're we're configured in this way and doing the best we can to conduct the city's business so we're going to jump to unfinished business and our first item there is to consider a revised proposal from saint croix prep academy for field improvements at barkers alps park and matt i'd like to call upon you to give us the uh update [1:07:05] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** madam mayor members of the council um at the may 3rd meeting uh 2021 this kind of discussion was tabled mostly due to the outfit permanent outfield fence and staff was given direction to go back and work with synchro prep on different options and what the twins current could be used for the uh synchro prep is currently asking or at least this memo is currently asking for just batting cages and those can be seen in the the um the documents that um was provided um essentially the blue outline document is the softball field and then the red drawn one is the baseball field and that's where the batting cages would go the blue softball one is along the third base line and then the red one is along the the trail and the third base line essentially these would be used for batting practice essentially to keep the balls from going different places [1:08:15] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** isn't the red one technically on the first baseline of the baseball field i think they yes ma'am okay just want to clarify sorry [1:08:25] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** councilmember instance yes because they used to be third yes um and so there are other aspects of this um uh procedure that they're still looking into along with pricing they did go back i know we talked about the outfield fence and that was kind of a sticking point but they are looking into a hybrid version they thought that they may have found a version where it's less expensive to do a removable portion of it and they'd like to bring that back potentially for as a proposal they're also looking at the backstop overhang that we talked about last time to protect balls from going into the wetland and then the softball dugouts is still a goal um and that was never really a change to anything um though for the softball fields they're getting made exactly like the baseball fields for the dugouts with a cover and then some solid surface inside the dugout at this time they're just asking for permission to go ahead and install the batting cages in the location that is proposed so this one shows the blue uh softball field and then the next one there shows the uh the baseball field it'll fit in between the the well in between the trail and the current location there may is it appropriate time to ask questions yeah [1:09:45] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** are these chain link batting cages so what what kind of structure are we talking about [1:10:00] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** yeah john doll they will be chain link on the outside so they'll be see through and then on the inside there'll be a netting so that it catches the ball essentially and slows the ball down so the cage itself will be a you know a permanent there'll be some sort of footing poured and and um correct there'll be probably uh yes six posts um along the long way six or eight posts and then chain link on the outside and then the ability to hang the netting on the inside okay [1:10:45] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** um and then the other question i had when i was looking at the packet earlier the we've got a purple line and a red line for the outfield fence i know we're not necessarily is there something distinguishing those two lines [1:10:55] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** sure so the purple line is essentially just the current location of the fence and this was more this is a more of a discussion for the outfield fence there was some concern last time and i just wanted to show it better because i don't know that we explained it real well um they were worried about closing off the whole outfield um and so i just wanted to show that the current purple fence along the baselines is still wide open just like it currently is with the um the movable fence that's out there currently or the temporary fence and there's no intent to ever cl enclose the whole area so that'll that'll play somewhat of a role in next month's discussion when they bring back if they can find a feasible temporary fence solution for a part of the outfield fence [1:11:35] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** one one thing if i could add to it um it's faint but you can see the soccer fields on there you can see some goals and you can see the lines so i know there was concern from the community about uh multi-use um so that that shows that with that fence if that's where it is i mean i know those lines aren't perfect but um you can fit and talking with tim you can fit they do every other year they'll do one that way and then they flip it 90 degrees the other way too to keep the grass from not getting you know beat down so i guess that's one thing when we do discuss the fence that i've no i've not seen a picture like this where you can still see the field but you can you can get a soccer field in there like like he had said so thanks for pointing that out i didn't notice that [1:12:35] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** yeah i noticed it as well um i'm just throwing this up there because it doesn't hurt um i'm gonna have a hard time supporting any sort of permanent fence i think it should be all removable but just putting that out there right now if part of it can be removable i think the whole thing should be removable just throwing that out there i know that's not what we're discussing now i'm okay with the batting cages as shown here okay thank you john [1:13:00] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** connie what any thoughts [1:13:10] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** um i'm okay with the batting cages too and i was kind of talking to adam i'm i'm still not sold on a permanent fence out there i'm i guess i have my reservations on it i was glad though that uh ethan thank you for pointing out that soccer issue because that was i'd gone out there this weekend to kind of look at a little bit more so it was easier to see and to be able to tell that they could have that was one of the concerns but for right now i guess i'm fine a phone with the batting cages i don't have a problem at all with that um and i just i guess i have to think a little more [1:13:55] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** one one other observation quick on the soccer field because i noticed it too and and i know it's hard to tell from just those drawn lines there but when you take a corner kick in soccer you you need some room to maneuver outside of those boundaries [1:14:15] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** if you put that back up yeah the one corner um well you can't i can't point to it but yeah move your cursor like right right there there's what i so i do have to admit this is my 10 year old drawing as a 10 year old so those would be exact they work the the baseball team works closely with the scba the soccer club and there would easily be enough room in there um to to make a corner kick because they have a temporary fence there now exactly so that comes down though but i'm just saying if it works now with a temporary fence and the other fence is going to go in the same place should be fine [1:14:45] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** just so the soccer field fits the other direction it does both ways yes it's hard for me visually to make i'd be like it looks like i get cut off but okay that's good you know i'm good with the batting cages too as long as public works doesn't mind the extra weed whipping they're gonna have to do around all that fencing and maybe... [1:15:05] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** so we were gonna so just a just a an outline of the batting cage is essentially we were gonna provide some of the uh work to do the batting cages we're gonna dig out um the locations and then put class five down and so the class five would be far enough past the edge of the batting cage is that it wouldn't involve any more weed wood thing actually that's good that's good okay anything else i'm good okay i don't have any questions regarding batting cages either so um with that would someone like to make a motion [1:15:35] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** i'll make a motion i don't even know what it just approving the batting cages yep yes that's great thank you connie there a second [1:15:45] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** thank you ethan and adam you're on mute adam we can't hear you can he not hear us i don't think he's talking he's in his office right? we're in the conference around solar oh congresswoman... [1:16:15] **Adam [City Staff]:** council member carlson aye council member gilmore hi council member dahl hi council member hanson hi mayor stan orders hi hi okay great thank you [1:16:30] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** and um just for those that are interested from the public we have been receiving emails regarding the topic of the um potential uh flex fence of permanent and removable we are not discussing that any further this evening it will be on the july agenda but we do hear um what you're saying and your concerns and taking those into consideration as well so just um we'll uh we'll revisit that in july all right so that at least allows them to move forward with that item that takes us to our item under new business which is to consider a resolution accepting american rescue plan funding this was a topic of a workshop prior to the council meeting this evening and adam will take us through some details [1:17:35] **Adam [City Staff]:** thank you madam mayor members of the council i hope you can still hear me um as we've been discussing or at least very at a very high level the american rescue plan which was passed in march of this year uh gave 1.9 trillion dollars and a large portion of that and several billions has been given to state and local governments um as part of the local government allocation uh there's cities that are 50 000 more or 50 000 people or more are getting the money directly from the federal government and then non-entitlement cities are non-entitlement units which are cities less than 50 000 people which bayport does qualify as they have to apply for their allotment directly from the state the minnesota management budget office is distributing the funds for these non-entitlement units as part of the application for these funds it was recommended that all cities pass a resolution accepting these dollars and basically stating that they will comply with all the guidelines that the treasury department has provided as was mentioned by the mayor we did have a workshop prior to the regular meeting where i presented a little bit of information as to what types of expenditures were eligible for these funds and the council provided a little bit of direction one of the items was to provide or to look into doing more research on improvement projects that the city uh may need to do that would benefit all the uh all the all the city um as well as a couple other small items and uh one of the items specifically is covering the lost revenue bayport is fortunate that in 2020 the city did not experience a large loss of revenue uh so that that's that was good 2020 and it will be good going forward as it will free up some of the additional funds to do other items with other projects the funds themselves are being tranched out in two separate distributions uh half will be within the next 30 to 60 days and then the other half will be 12 months from now bayport's updated estimate of funds is 395 and hundred twenty five dollars uh that's based on 105 dollars per capita uh our 2019 census estimate uh was just over thirty seven hundred um so with that uh the staff has provided a model uh resolution for the council to consider uh which is uh the model is based off of the league of minnesota cities template um and so with that i'm happy to answer any questions otherwise the resolution was included for you [1:20:50] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** very good thank you adam any additional questions from the council we did discuss that we would make sure that all of this would be tracked and visible on the city's website so anyone who is interested would be able to understand exactly what our total allocations are should we approve and to apply for this funding and then it would all be tracked visibly as well so just knowing that the community will be interested in how these funds are being spent so are there any questions or comments further from the council if not would someone like to make a motion [1:21:30] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** uh make a motion or is it just a resolution i don't know what i'm doing i move to accept the corona that we that we make a resolution to accept the coronavirus local fiscal recovery fund established under the american rescue plan act you michelle is there a second [1:21:44] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** i'll stop go for it john we'll give that to john and uh thank you and adam would you do the roll call please mayor councilmember hanson aye councilmember dahl aye councilmember gilmore aye councilmember carlson aye mercenaris aye aye right thank you great thank you [1:22:20] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** that takes us to city council liaison reports oh we're moving a little slower due to our technical difficulties um is there anyone that has anything from the council that they'd like to report on michelle ethan... [1:22:35] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** i i didn't i had they were done in like 30 minutes and we ran long the last time so i missed that one but they said it went smooth and they didn't really they sent me the minutes i guess thank you um connie anything big for the library [1:22:55] **Connie Carlson (Councilmember):** no nothing really new they still haven't they've gotten a few more grants in for their um fundraising i'm not exactly sure the amount but um so that's they're progressing um quite they're going pretty along pretty well with that so they're happy with that other than that not a whole lot new okay very good [1:23:25] **John Dahl (Councilmember):** john anything from the wmo we did not meet last month i have a meeting this thursday though [1:23:30] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** okay great and i have one thing that i attended the first of the lake elmo airport commission meeting it's made up of 10 members from the airport they're pilots or managers of the airport so they're directly impacted with the the business that takes place there and then there are 10 government officials gary kriesel ted koslowski mayor mccumber among others are also on the council at the commission it's going to meet about four times a year it's this commission is good for two years the it was a very initial preliminary meeting and it was uh hosted by the mac themselves and then the next meeting will be turned over to co-chairs one from the airport one from the city roll and then it will continue to conduct business um the two items that were covered were bylaws just how it will operate and then a general scope of work for the two years so i have a variety of questions that are i'm going to continue to pursue with them if anyone has concerns or questions for them i welcome those questions and i'm still waiting for the presentation that was um shared so i could even send it out to the rest of the council so you can get a feel for what's being covered um and i will keep you up to date so with that i'm going to turn it over to adam for staff reports you're muted adam [1:25:05] **Adam [City Staff]:** thank you madam mayor because of the technical issues we have tonight we're going to dispense with the staff providing each individual report if there's any questions from the council we do have the chiefs as well as the assistant administrator taylor matt and myself available with any questions the only the one thing i want to just mention is we do the farmer's market starting on the 14th and uh the on the 19th we have the cleanup day event which you had mentioned in the proclamations um but other than that we can just answer questions [1:25:35] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** questions from the council no we also have the ice cream social on wednesday night this week so i just throw that out there at lakeside park six to eight ice cream social put on by the bcao mabel's is providing the ice cream this year thank you mabel's at lakeside and there'll be live music from the live live the library jammers or something like that i forgot their name very good yeah sorry thank you okay [1:26:15] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** anything else that any other questions in the counsel for staff all right great um any other items and announcements i think we just covered all right so with that again sincere apologies to anyone who's been joining us remotely we hope to have all of our technology working smoothly next meeting we will revisit the mp4 topic and others so please join us next month and with that um with someone like to make a motion to adjourn [1:26:45] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** i'll move we adjourn thank you michelle is there a second one thank you ethan um adam please call the roll [1:27:00] **Adam [City Staff]:** thank you better mayor councillor hanson hi councilman gilmore aye councilmember dahl hi councilmember carlson hi you're st harris hi oh thank you meeting thanks guys thank you guys [1:27:31] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** you