e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right good evening uh this is the March 5th uh 2025 cage gr city council meeting which I'm calling to order our first order order of business this evening is the Pledge of Allegiance so would please rise 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 all right will the clerk please do the role council member Clon here council member Olen here council member the here council member Garza here mayor Bailey here uh next on our agenda this evening is open Forum uh this is the opportunity for anybody that wants to speak on something that's not on tonight's agenda uh we did have a sign up sheet out in front nobody did sign up but just in case somebody scooted in is there anybody that wants to speak on open form this evening okay seeing none we'll move then to number five and look for a motion in a second to adopt the agenda I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda second all right so I have a motion by council member Garza second by council member the all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed motion carries next is presentations we actually have three this evening um our first uh presentation excuse me is an eagle scout award and on bulky belky sorry so um Council why don't you join me down in front uh and we'll have uh him join us up front all right your spot there we go so this is one of those great opportunities once again we've been doing quite a few of these over the last few years specifically uh where we love to uh recognize and honor our Eagle Scout uh award recipients which is what we're here for this evening or uh Girl Scout Girl Scout gold Awards and the reason we do that is because typically and in this case it's the same thing uh these individuals as part of their final project uh to to attain Eagle Scout uh they do a project of some type uh to benefit the community in this particular guess I'll let him share in a little bit of what that project is um that he did for Cottage Grove but uh Owen obviously made it all the way through and his mom and dad are sitting over on the over here on the left uh I know his dad is telling me he's got to get out to fly a plane this evening so we'll make it fairly quick here uh but one of the things we do on recognizing um our EOS Scouts is one is we obviously get you up in front of the room here and uh present you with a plaque and then also for those that know we do have down our side hallway outside the council chambers here uh a wall of Honor if you will uh where any past Eagle Scout or gold uh Girl Scout Gold Award winner um winners excuse me uh have their name posted out there and if you go over there and look you'll see that there's quite a few that go way way way back and we always like to say I mentioned it earlier um we have a few my sons on there uh Dave uh a customer with the two eels and a gold uh so he's uh he's got them all through there so that's pretty awesome so what I'll do here is I'm going to read this plaque and then I'm going to uh let you tell the public uh once we do the presentation here uh what your Eagle Scout project was so what we're going to be doing is uh ow and belky uh belky I got it right uh congratulations on attaining the rank of EOS scalp through troop five Cottage Grove Minnesota presented this fifth day of March 2025 from the city of Cottage Grove uh myin Bailey May mayor so on behalf of all of us up here are staff and all the citizens of Cottage Grove congratulations there we go now we'll make you uh tell us what your your project was hello everyone my name is Owen belky uh I just achieved my Eagle Scout and had my Ceremony this past February and my Eagle Scout project was building a tetherball court for the city of Cottage Grove I built it in Pine Tree Pond Park it is still standing I would really hope um I built it out of cement so I would really hope it's still there I built it there it took us about um it took us three days to build it entirely but o over six months to plan out and fundraise and I wanted to thank everyone here for um for being here to support me for this and I also wanted to thank my parents for supporting me throughout my entire scouting journey and for um anyone if they are listening or watching that have lended support to my project through financial funds or through helping me out uh via volunteering thank you so much this project would not have gone the way it did without any of you thank [Applause] you yep they did so Mom and Dad you want to come up we're gonna take a picture with the group here I was just informed that our Minnesota Lions Club is currently sitting back here I wanted to extend a very special thank you to you guys you the Lions Club was the one of the deciding factors on whether or not I was going to do my project and your support made all of the difference I cannot thank you nearly [Applause] enough all right right over here one two want to scoot in a little bit you going Indianapolis he was asking your dad where he flying he was worried he was going to be gone all right so thank you again uh let's give him one more round of applause for great job fantastic all right our next uh presentation this evening is the East Cottage grow scramblers donation to the police K9 program and our director our public safety director uh Pete Kerner is going to start us through this particular one and then I know you're going to do another one here a little bit well thank you mayor uh good evening Council um yeah this is this is great to get this donation um up on the screen here in a moment I have I just tried to highlight a couple of things um the East Cottage gr scramblers that they participate in as you can see that first one the Washington County Trail star Trail we have 140 Mi of snowmobile trails in Washington County our club here in Cottage Grove they um groom over 50 miles of it um another big thing is they promote another recreational activity in the area and promotes responsible riding um the club meets with our Public Service Commission once a year to go over the the trails is he going to be a good boy all right I don't know if I want him right behind me and then obviously the the club The Last 5 Years have done the dust them off vintage show it's a snowmobile and swap meet they have food vendors Raffles and a vintage uh radar run this year the cottage Ro Police Department brought out our our Speed trailer and they were able to do that they actually transported snow in for their event um would have been better tonight I guess but um so with that in a moment I'm going to have um the club come up they would like to present the check for $1,000 um they've decided that they want this money earmarked towards our canine program and obviously with talking with our canine officers we have kind of two things we're looking at a um a treadmill for canines and they're also we're looking to partner at some point with an eagle scout to build some of the different um equipment that we' use for training out of the out in the field for training like we had years and years ago so um with that I would like uh to invite the members up and they they brought their big check and then Mar afterwards um we'll have you accept it when you're so yeah do you want sure if you feel comfortable with it so I guess does anybody from the scramblers want to speak I make it I'm standing next Jeremy is like no no hey you so as we're getting all of them in here uh I just want to say thank you obviously this is amazing uh a couple years ago I got a chance to come out and check out what was going I wasn't able to be there this year but it is amazing that you guys uh do what you do out there and then raising money and then literally in this particular case looking for a way to give back to the community and our Public Safety department so on behalf of myself and I know the rest of the council and that thank you uh for this generous donation uh it'll go to very good use for our K9 program so I know there's only a few people left in the audience since they here now but uh let's give them a round of applause for this while they be pictur come on man I just like to say thank you to everybody for partnership we've had with the city uh We've grown big last few years and getting along with working with the public works commission getting the trail to stay where it stays um working with the police department now it's it's been great and I just want to say thank you appreciate it thank everyone want look right over here we'll do a quick photo good good boy Jeremy if you guys want to go out you guys can talk with brand meet the dog and stuff so thanks again I really appreciate yeah we'll see you later see that for [Music] nice all right while while they're making their way out I do need just to make it official from a council's perspective I need a motion in a second to accept the donation we have a motion by council member the or council member olon second by council member the AL those in favor signify by saying I I opposed motion carries thank you to the group out there uh next item is the Craig Wy scholarship fund check presentation and again once again we'll start with our public safety director uh Pete Kerner will get us going here and then of course our board is here and our council member next to me here and I know and and the lions are here obviously too I know I'm keep talking here and then I know Craig is not able to be here tonight but Katie is here so that's that's even better more that's even better all right all right um I always like to take this opportunity also just to kind of explain a little bit what our Public Safety Board is who they are and some of the outstanding things they do for our department I mean this goes way back to crime prevention board and they've had a lot of change um they they grew into the public safety boards we are a public safety model with police fire and EMS so they um they they work with all of us so um but it's a a board that's made up of Citizen volunteers from various backgrounds we also have a lays on Ryan Pierre from the police department and John Pritchard um from the fire department they meet once a month and they work together promote the partnership between the citizens of cage Ro and the public safety department in support of A Safe Community uh kind I have their mission right there in front of you um a lot of these things that we've done we we couldn't do without the board so we really greatly appre them a lot of this equipment they're the the ones that founded our our canine program way back when Carla bam just kept pushing pushing we finally got it and got some great funds from the P public safety board there so um they're really involved in community engagement education um they're in all the parades they're the ones that really help fund the night to unite they actually go to a lot of the parties as well um they contribute to our safety camp they're at our police and uh fire open houses Community Showcase if there's a public safety event they're going to be there somewhere helping and being involved um where do they get their money it's through generous donations um we do get some grant opportunities um like our explorers they go down to high ve and they do the grocery bagging so there a lot of different ways they've had they've gotten created over the years they do different fundraising I know this year they plan on I don't want to take your thunder Julie but they're going to do like a a spaghetti feed we did one years ago for the reserves and it was very successful um they do the monco events they started selling different things they have the plushies um and they've also um helped us with all the different awareness patches that we do su are for sale and also our officers wear them we started the military patch last year that they can wear um the veterans can wear them in in support of military families too and of course they're big with their challenge coins as well um some things that they gave us um obviously Central fire station that came in we were able to get some equipment um they were able to fund raise and um it's a great gym our fitness center now because of them probably the most popular thing I they've given us a lot of good things but those portable speed signs we get requests and you'll see them out on the they also they did the speed trailer originally um you know moving around but now we have the portable signs that we can put up and uh we get calls on those every everyone wants one in their neighborhoods so um huge support of our K9 program they're the ones that purchased the dogs equipment last year they sent um officer Sor guard down to um was it Tex where did he go Louisiana Louisiana so um and they helped fund that they um gave money towards the firefighter particle hoods and finally the they're the ones that have been administering the Craig Waller scholarship with that I just kind of want to go over the um the scholarship um but it's um to residents of kage TR pursuing postsecondary education and law enforcement Emergency Medical Services EMS or firefighting the cottage Ro Public Safety Board welcomes and sports diversity in the application and award Pro uh process I believe one of your people that you sent through a couple years ago just became a police officer is he or almost he's getting there which one I can't remember his name Colin yes yep he was uh just last year okay with that um if you want more information on the application process that our web page has the the form on it um it's really if you just go to Cottage and search Public Safety Board this all pops up um the deadline is quickly approaching it's on May 1st and kind of one of the when I was talking to council member ol about this um obviously he's the one that got this rolling in 2019 with a $500 donation and now we're up to they've raised or there's been over $122,000 donated in the last five years so um with that um I'd like to you know give councilman rolson a chance to kind of say a few words and then we also have the Lions Club is also partnered with us as well so thanks if I could i' invite the public safety board the Lions and of course Katie to come up to the front Kati wanted to say that some words yeah this is uh this is one of my favorite times of year um you know we started uh Kim and I my wife Kim and I started this scholarship in honor of um our friend and colleague uh Craig willery when he retired from being the public safety director here in the city of Cottage Grove that's one way to um preserve the tremendous Legacy of Craig's service to this community uh he he did so many great things whether it was as a police officer DARE officer uh he was one of our bike cops which I think all the ladies in town really liked um he he uh you know he progressed through the ranks of our Cottage Grove Police Department and ultimately became our public safety director uh not only that uh Craig also served for a short time as our temporary City administrator um and what that tells me and what it should tell you is that Craig's Legacy is service he was always willing and uh very passionate about serving the residents of this community serving the members of uh the city council and uh serving his family and and his colleagues and he would do whatever it took in fact when um he became the public safety director he went through firefighter training even though you know his uh chosen profession was police officer and paramedic uh but he went through firefighter training so he could demonstrate to those that he supervised who are in the fire service that he was willing to put on the same uniform and do the same work that they were doing and it also gave him a much broader understanding of the day-to-day that they did and that really speaks to who Craig is as an individual and as a leader so uh Kim and I were honored to start this scholarship and we're grateful very grateful to the public safety board for uh every year taking in the applications from local people uh young people who want to go into post-secondary education for uh Public Service in the public safety realm this year we are uh very excited to donate $1,500 uh on our behalf to the public safety board for the Craig willery scholarship but in addition to that uh we've been able to develop a really great partnership with our Cottage Grove Lions Club Kim and I are both Lions members um it it's something that uh we value tremendously and we are so grateful to our Lions friends and family for um their generous donation this year as well and I'm going to turn the mic over to one of our board members Eric wit to explain briefly uh what the donation from the Lions Club is this year and um how the Lions Club feels about Public Safety here in the city of Cottage Grove thank you Justin just to follow up on Justin's words about Service uh Lions International our motto is we serve so it couldn't be a better partnership we appreciate this partnership so much the Lions really enjoy the the relationship we have with the K public service with the Fire EMS um the support they grant us in all of our events we could not put these events on without this so we're honored and privileged to be here to present a donation tonight and we're looking forward to the young people that are coming up in this department so with that I'm going to turn the microphone over to our Public Safety Board president Julie rice and again I want to thank the Lions for donating $2,000 in addition to the $1,500 that Kim and I were able to donate this year uh to the Craig Willer scholarship thank you Justin Chief Corner mayor Bailey Lions Club Public Safety Board retired Mrs uh wery both um it's been an honor thank you for entrusting our uh our board to take in the scholarship applicants and vetom and decide who's going to receive the scholarship for this year and um oh my gosh excuse me it's been a long day I snow blowed I'm glad to see that there's a lot of people here um also um with our scholarships we as Chief Corner mentioned we have one of our previous recipients is working his way up into becoming a police officer for the city of cotage grou several of them go through CSO training they become CSO officers some started out as police explorers which our board also supports so all of the fundraising efforts that we raise from the city from other people from organizations we take that money and we try to support as best as we can so where the Lions club serves the community our fundraising serves the public safety so we want to thank you again for entrusting us and we will look forward to our applicants for this year thank you so I know Craig couldn't be here tonight he has been at every one of these presentations previously but uh he's on an out of town trip and we felt like um having Katie here was better anyway so uh Katie did you have anything you wanted to say come on up come on up yeah come on up stand by do not have the gift of uh public speaking that Craig has but you're Irish it'll work uh no but I do want to thank Justin and his lovely wife Kim for starting this scholarship and also mayor Bailey director Kerner the C gr of lions the council the uh Public Safety Board I can't thank you enough for what you've done to support this scholarship I know Craig is very humbled by it um so thank you all for for everything you do you're welcome back to the mayor all right all right so we'll make it official now y you guys ready your time come on inbody stand up Kim not upside down as a [Music] f so thank you guys again we really appreciate it and uh you know look forward to hearing who the recipients are later this sure great fantastic look thank you all thank you the Lions as normal yeah thank you for coming and the public safety [Applause] for well done y thank you well done no no we talk about that will we thank you good to see you all right these are obviously these kind of events are uh amazing and uh what we do need to do to make it official well first of all before we make it official I do want to you know we were talking about the The Cottage Grove Lions Club obviously which is tremendous they do a great job uh in our community whether it's this project or many many others I'll be actually talking a little bit about Fourth of July fireworks here not too long from now um but also uh uh Justin and Kim Olsen uh who got this program up and running uh to obviously uh give back to our community and such a great way um and honoring obviously it's weird because we talk about honoring but it isn't like we're honoring somebody that's passed he's still here um and very humble as was brought up earlier but uh thank you uh council member ol and your wife Kim for generously getting this program up and running uh and uh we'll see hopefully in not too near future and our first official uh person that's going to be uh coming through the whole program uh on those scholarships That'll be amazing absolutely so um do you do I need to do them separate to them together okay so I do need a motion and a second to accept the donations both from the uh uh K uh Justin and Kim Olen and the kajo of lions uh in a m of 3,500 uh total towards the public cat Public Safety Board I'll move that we accept both we have to do it separately okay we no we don't no okay I I would move that we accept both donations okay so we have a motion by council member the do I have a second second second by council member Clawson uh any further discussion again thank you all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed motion carries all right uh next on our agenda this evening is is consent uh is there anything Council would like to pull on consent yes mayor okay item F please item f for you okay is there anything else Council has no I think I'm fine all right not seeing anything else then I will turn it over to council M Olson item f is uh an appointment to the uh Convention of visitors bureau that's correct pardon my voice um I'm just getting over the grunge which I know lots of other people are as well and this cough has just been nagging so um I sound like I'm a a base when really I'm a baritone but uh this item is to uh recommend approval for cottage gr resident Michael hotvet to serve on the convention and Visitors Bureau for a term ending on December 31st 2028 and we're lucky that U Mike's here in the audience um Mike is also uh a vice president of our Cottage Grove Lions Club he is a member of our police reserves um he he also uh is a business owner operator and uh somebody that definitely is passionate about giving back to the community and concern for the uh Public Welfare here in Cottage Grove uh I believe Mike would be a tremendous addition to the CVB as uh he's always got his thinking cap on and he's very entrepreneurial in spirit and I look forward to having him serve if approved here by the city council on tonight's consent agenda and I just want to thank Mike for applying for this position and uh also thank you for your willingness to serve fantastic thank Youk you awesome so seeing no other items being pulled on consent I will look for a motion to approve and and a second I'll make a motion to approve all right so we have a motion by council member Garza do I have a second second second by council member Olsen all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed motion carries so if anybody was here for the um all these items we had quite a few items on our consent this evening um all of those items have been approved uh number eight uh in the 8A is to pay the bills move the bills motion by council member Olen second second by council member Clon all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed motion carries uh nine is public hearing or are none this evening 10 is Bid Awards there are none this evening 11 is the regular agenda we do have one item this evening which is the sale of uh a 10 million General obligation bond series 2025a and our finance director uh Brenda melanowski is going to take us through this one so welcome Brenda mayor members of the council uh you will be awarding the sale of the 2025a general obligation bonds uh for the city of Cottage Grove uh as a reminder uh those this year will be used to pay for pavement management uh equipment uh the water tower construction and then the River Oaks irrigation project uh two weeks ago uh City administrator lit uh myself and Stacy kelving with Ellers uh were in a bond rating call with SNP uh regarding these bonds uh we were awarded a AAA Bond rating uh for these bonds um at the same time they also affirmed uh AAA Bond rating for other debt here in the city so very good news there uh bids were open at 10:00 a.m. this morning uh for this Bond sale uh there were 10 biders which very robust environment um some of the reasons is we were uh early to Market this year there's not a lot of other debt being issued we work with our financial management plan on our debt issue uh so we know uh at the beginning of the year what we're going to be issuing in debt so we're able to go to the market earlier uh rates are just down for Municipal debt in general uh due to other market conditions um and then our credit quality our AAA Bond rating so that was some of the reasons uh that we had as many biders as we did um and because of that uh we had very favorable results uh our low bid was 3.97% uh our pre-sale report was 3.9% so quite a bit lower uh the high bid today was 3.26 73% so those uh 10 biders were right you know together uh the winning bid was the baker group uh in okl Oklahoma City Oklahoma uh because of that uh favorable bid that we received today we are we have over a million dollars in premium on that Bond and so what that means is that we will be utilizing that for pavement management and equipment so things that we identified in the financial management plan that we would be issuing debt for in the future we'll be utilizing that for so with that um I'm happy to take any questions or the resolution is on the screen yeah it's fantastic fantastic results and you know kudos to the staff once again and I got to say our Council here for you know managing the the finances which kept our a solid tripa and obviously uh they know we're good good in our in paying our bills and such because to have that many biders uh and may be that low compared to what you thought the market was going to do is quite amazing so uh councilor do you have any questions council member olon any questions first of all thank you so much for such great news oh my goodness um having done this for a few years uh you know you kind of get used to um what it looks like when you have to go to market with with your bonds and uh when you look at 10 biders and 3.09% and most importantly that million-- dollar premium um that really says that the market likes our paper a lot and full credit to uh you Brenda your team team and the staff as a whole as it relates to managing our budgets year after year after year so well uh I know you get uh awarded regularly for um you know the way that uh uh the city of Cottage Grove manages its finances but you know this is really the proof in the pudding and uh I just wondered if you might take a moment and speak to um the residents who might be watching this either tonight or in the future about you know really what it means to be a triaa rated Bond City I know it sounds good when we say that but people may not know like that's the best you can get right so what do what does that really mean and how does it impact the taxpayer it it impacts the taxpayer because we can um issue debt we get lower rates so that principal and interest uh payment just like when we own a home um if those excellent borrowers right get the lower interest rates and so because of that then the property tax levies that we need to um do or uh place um for our city are lower because of those lower principal and interest payments and so that goes back to our our taxpayers perfect so it saves money in their property taxes correct um it also provides us I think with a little more wiggle room as it relates to borrowing power and those kinds of things um also when you uh talk about you know AAA Bond rating and how do you get there um what would you suggest are some of the key reasons or maybe you know a couple key reasons why we first of all achieved it but most importantly have been able to hold on to it now for quite some time they they look at different things so they you know one of the things that they look at is the tax capacity of our city so when we had you know not only population but with your population in your commercial area your tax capacity grows um and so we're you know we're at that point uh but importantly uh for the city of Cottage Grove and and city council uh you took the time two years ago to do a 10-year financial management plan and to look at you know what are the impacts uh to our community and how do we uh navigate property tax increases uh that aren't going to have big swings in the market uh to our community um and so that financial management plan did that when we go out and we do our rating call with uh S&P uh we show show them that uh based on the needs of our community for those pavement management projects or the equipment or the other things that we need to do to issue debt because we are a growing city uh that we've worked it in to not only we can manage our operating budget but our debt service also fantastic so I think what I heard you say is you know we we uh work together with our friends at aers to put together a 10-year financial management plan that was very well thought out and and reasonable and rational and and the market likes that and we've been able to stick to that plan by and large and and so uh as a result we continue to get favorable Bond ratings and I think uh that's a real credit to you and your team so again thank you so much great news tonight uh this is unbelievable thank you anybody else have any questions at this point all right thanks again um so uh somebody on the council would like to uh uh make the motion on the resolution that's before you that would be fantastic move to approve resolution 2025 d24 authorizing issuance and general obligation bond series pledging for security thereof special assessments sorry should I I restart why don't you I'm sorry be official um I move to approve resolution 20 2524 authorizing the issuance and awarding the sale of $10 million in general obligation bonds series 2025a pledging for the security thereof special assessments net revenues tax abatements and levying a tax for the payment thereof all right so we have a motion by um council member Clon do I have a second oh second second by council member Garza any other discussions seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed motion carries there you go fantastic news all right uh next on our agenda is Council comments and request uh which is number 12 and I'll start with uh council member Garza let's see um I don't really have much to say today other than I hope everyone was shoveled out and or just played in the snow today it was a beautiful day to enjoy it so but other than that the our Public Safety did a great job I know they um people I seen a few people make comments that it was a little later that they got out there plowing plowing but I think it wasn't that they were a little later getting out there plowing I just think that that snows a bit heavier and it caused them to be a little delayed on each place that they were actually plowing at so they did an excellent job we were able to get out there and move around our city street so I appreciate them thank you guys so much fantastic thank you uh Council M yeah I guess I don't have too much tonight either just uh you know it uh it was quite the interesting weather and again I started out this morning in Kansas City and it was it was uh almost the same they didn't get as much snow as as we got up here but uh but so far this year they've had more snow in Kansas City than we've had but uh so everybody uh can go out it probably was a great day for making snowmen right or forts Forts and everything else like that right and snowball fights or no we don't fight but uh so uh just be safe and uh um have fun in the snow fantastic Council M rson thank you very much uh again I want to thank the C Grove Lions and the public safety board for their participation this evening in the donation uh this year for the Craig Willer scholarship um it's always fun to make the donation but what's even more fun is when you um you know get into May and you can identify who the scholarship winners are and they'll certainly be back uh here in front of the city council to award the scholarships at that time so we'll just kind of keep watch on that um I have two things for this evening uh one of which is just a recommendation or or a suggestion uh I've noticed that um some of our uh commission meetings start with the Pledge of Allegiance and some don't in the city of Cottage Grove and um I just wondered if maybe we want to try to suggest uh being consistent with uh our commission meetings and um similar to what we do here at at the uh Council table um oh no did you forget that oh my goodness okay our our Eagle Scout uh almost forgot something but we're safe um no problem uh so uh I just wanted to suggest that maybe we consider um you know asking uh the chairs of each of the various commissions to begin their meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance certainly not something that um you know I think we need to create any kind of Statute around or anything but just a a thought I think it's a great way to start our meetings and some consistency may be nice the second thing that I wanted to mention is uh the month of March is uh not only uh boy State hockey tournament month and basketball tournament month and all the rest of it but it's also National Women's history month and it's a really important time for us to recognize the fact that um you know throughout our nation's history we've had some absolutely amazing women who have made massive contributions to uh the Improvement of people's lives and the month of March is a great time time to just reflect upon that and remember that um not only do we have uh a lot of great history to look back on with regard to the women who have contributed so many things here in our country but uh we also have a very bright future to look forward to and I specifically wanted to mention one individual this evening uh to give it a little local flavor so uh of course many of you know that Carla bam is our current County Commissioner here in Washington County but what you may not know is you know Carla's whole life has been dedicated to service she started in 2005 along with Mar Bailey in fact uh on the Cottage Grove City Council and you know that's that's 20 years ago and Carla's still a pretty young person uh especially if you sit in the chair I sit in because I'm definitely older than she is but um you know she got her start in public service very young and has served both as a city council member uh and a county commissioner but she's also served in our state State Legislature uh both in the house and in the Senate and I think it's important that we remember that uh there's a lot of Carla bams out there in communities all across the Twin Cities and the United States and how lucky we are that we have people like Carla and KY sein and Jill CEST and so many others who have served the city of Cottage Grove uh honorably in elected seats and represented our citizens uh very effectively no matter what role they've played in so uh let's remember throughout the course of this month of March uh some of the wonderful women that we've had serving our community uh South Washington County I think a lot about Myra Peterson as an example who was our longest serving County Commissioner here in Washington County and uh other communities across the country and thank them for their dedication to serving others with that may I'll turn it back to you fantastic thank you thank you I have um I'll say four quick things but important things um one is this last Friday I started the uh the seasonal fish fry um and had the opportunity actually to uh have some have the fish fry down at River Oaks uh which I know the BFW and places other places have it too uh but I just want to say the the chef and that down there was amazing uh did a great job with the with the fish fry and they have other Foods if you don't want fish that you can have there uh they do recommend that you take reservation so every Friday now through um through Easter um and you just go to River Oaks mun golf or um open I think it's open table open open table is where you can make reservations and you can plug how many people and what time you want to be there but great service and definitely great food uh the other item is in about 5 days from now on March 10th uh The Cottage Grove Medallion hunt which we do uh this time every year uh will run for 5 days or until somebody finds The Medallion uh the clues will actually be posted here at City Hall uh on the in the bullet on the bulletin board in the lobby at 8:00 each day and then at 9:00 they will be posted on the uh parks of recreation Facebook page so if you really want to get into this thing you want to come up to City Hall be here right at 8 get that get that clue and get out there and look um it to win you must be a cottage girl resident um and if you're under 18 you must have an adult with you uh because there is I believe it's a cash prize am I correct cons yep yep Z shaking his head yes I believe so and then lastly from a Parks perspective um the 202 Easter egg hunt is back up at the Catal Vice Arena this year because Easter is later this year uh it's actually uh April 12th uh and again if you uh you do need tickets because there's so many literally it's great that we have so many kids that come out with families uh for this event it's inside so you don't have to worry about uh the weather uh just go to the city's website and you can register uh your your kids or how many people that you want for whatever time that is currently available and then lastly and yes it is going to be bizarre I I know C remember theti has been chopping at the bit with regards to Strawberry Fest but I have uh started my um annual checking out with different uh businesses for the 4th of July fireworks this year and I am very pleased to to report um every well so far everybody I've spoken with um has either has committed or are in the process of committing including maybe some additional uh dollars which means that amount would go up so what I try to do is get $55,000 from uh area business business to put towards uh so we have a $225,000 show uh and so far we do have firm commitments uh from North Point once again uh We've also got a firm commitment from tennis sanitation uh Willie is like just tell me where I send the check uh which pretty cool and 3M has also uh stepped in uh with already uh yesterday and mentioned yep we're we're in for it for uh for the $5,000 then we do have a few others I'm not going to say them yet because uh there's a few other business that we've had in the past that have committed to uh being part of it and some of them are actually looking to up that amount so we may actually have more than $25,000 for a fireworks display this year so I just want to thank them uh that obviously helps us make uh the fireworks the city doesn't pay for the fireworks uh the kajo of lions actually kind of get the pro program running uh they have a family day and such um and I I think I don't know if it's been official yet but I'm hearing that we may be shifting it to days it is official okay so just this last year just just I'm going to throw this out there then if you're okay with that so last year if you all know the 4th of July was uh very stormy and so basically everybody had to um cancel their fireworks or postpone them and in our particular case um the Lions then moved it to Sunday that's correct uh after the 4th of July and the crowds were huge much more than normal and I think part of it has to do with Cottage Grove just loves to go out and go to cabins go up North and ever and then they all want to come back and so um I believe if I'm hearing this right uh the 4th of July fireworks in Cottage Grove will actually be the Sunday uh after the 4th um so they're going to do the same thing as they did last year so that people can be in town they're back if they're heading back into work I know that works best for me because since it's on Sunday I'm going to actually be able to see the fireworks and and enjoy the festivities so uh we'll get more of that out to the public but I did want to let the public know that even though it's the 4th of July I know a lot of people are out um at cabins and and such um I just want to mention that that will be a change uh that uh again we'll try this year to see how that goes uh ceria yeah you did jog my memory of uh uh the besides having the Strawberry Fest fireworks that're going to have again this year not quite as big as the the city one but uh we are also going to have a drone show yes oh cool with with like a 100 drones and so forth so uh think that's on Friday I believe it's on Friday night night yeah be Dave's dancing drones or something like that F okay all right well that should be interesting this year so yeah and it's so it's just it's it's amazing because once again obviously the Strawberry Fest committee uh does all their fundraising and businesses are supporting them um uh you never know with the economy sometimes wondering how things are going right now if all these businesses are going to say oh this is not the year I can I can fund you know help but every body that I've spoken with so far has stepped up and and it sounds like same thing for Strawberry Fest and frankly if you would have seen uh in our consent agenda this evening the number of grants that our our amazing staff has been going after to fund things within the community is just tremendous so more to come on that as we get those things up and rolling but I just wanted to uh publicly at this moment uh thank uh North Point uh development uh Team the tennis sanitation uh and 3M for their generous support of the Fourth of July fireworks okay all right uh no other councel comments or requests so uh just for the public to be aware we do have a workshop which is open to the public uh we are going to be going into our conference room to talk about Poco uh Community survey uh it's a a a survey a process that we're looking at doing here in the very near future uh and we do not have any workshops that are closed to the public so we won't be adjourning in here we will be adjourning in the conference room so everybody have a great evening e for