Uh, she's gonna be >> All right, we're call the meeting to order. Roll call, please. >> Council member Nordby is absent. Council member Woods, >> here. >> Council member McKenzie, >> here. >> Council member Schweer is absent. Mayor Mongi >> here. Thank you very much. Can I please get a motion to adopt the agenda? >> So move. >> So move. Council member McKenzie. >> Second. >> Second. Council member Woods. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Thank you much. Topics. >> We got two topics up tonight. Uh we're going to have two department reviews and overviews. Uh just going to be a quick look at uh 2025 accomplishments and just a brief look into 2026 and what to see and expect. So we'll start off with uh fire chief Minger to discuss the fire department. >> Hello mayor and council members. Can you hear me? Y >> great. >> Uh yeah, looking forward to talking about uh 2025 in review. Uh I have a lot of data and statistics as it relates to uh the fire department uh response and um >> excuse one second. Maybe it isn't working. >> Should the light be on? Yes, >> light's on. >> Yeah. Check test. Yes. >> Yeah. Be close. Yours is working. better now. >> Y >> much better. Okay. Again, I have a lot of data as it relates to the fire department from 2025 and uh we'll look to um 2026 as an outlook and and review some things as well. Um so with that, uh I'll try not to bore you to too much. If I see a n and off, maybe we'll get up and stretch or do some calisthenics or something. But a lot of what I have is related to our response and the numbers and what we've seen. So Jenny's going to help me out and uh we'll keep moving forward here. Okay. So 2025 uh total incident response um again increasing over last year uh 1932 total incidents average 5.2 2 incidents per day and averaged 158 incidents per month. And we'll get into the breakdown of where those uh came from. 1500 and 19 or 1519 uh were in EMS, 326 in the other category and 87 in fire. And there we go. >> Now we're talking. We're really talking. Okay. Um, and we'll break down the next one as well. Uh, as you can see on this one, it it talks about or it shows uh the call volume by m by month. And a lot of times we get the question um you know, are you busier in the wintertime because people may be doing unsafe heating activities or how does it play out? And really it it doesn't because the majority of our calls are EMS and it can uh really change uh throughout the months, but there's the breakdown from month by month through 2025. Next, uh incidents by hour and day. This is really the one one of the graphs that I like a lot. Um, I know it's difficult to kind of see, but if you can just see the darker shades of red, you can see most of the calls actually happen between the hours of 8 a.m. and 1000 p.m. Uh, obviously we do have calls um in the overnight. Uh, but the majority of them are during the daytime. It also breaks it down from Sunday through Saturday. At any point you have questions, just throw them out. Uh next we'll get into some statistics as it's broken down by the NFRS group which is the national fire incident record management system. Um under the medical we have 14669 that are categorized as medical illness unknown problems 48 as injury trauma motor vehicle collisions are categorized within this medical portion. if we have an injury related with the accident and then two as other and standby requests. Next, uh public service broken down 67 citizen assist or service calls. These could be for any reason somebody calls 911, maybe they have a water leak in their bathroom, something along that. They're looking for help from the fire department because they don't know what to do with whatever situation's going on. uh smoke fire alarm. Uh that's more of an actual detector in somebody's home, not an alarm activation, which would be an entire system, but more of a smoke fire alarm in somebody's home, a single unit. Um along with eight CO alarm, three standby requests, and three weather response related type calls. >> What exactly does standby request mean? could fall into a couple areas maybe where PD asks us to specifically stand by for an incident. It could be unknown. >> Okay. >> And a lot of times what could happen is we can go to standby >> and then be cleared because they were able to handle the situation >> more than likely. Uh and again uh 121 under the no emergency category. So 54, there was no emergency found once we arrived on scene. Um 38, a malfunctioning alarm system. Um 13 or 18, uh smoke from non-hostile source, a smoke scare. So, a lot of times we'll get dispatched for smoke in the area type call and it could be a recreational fire or just unfounded because it could have been a recreational fire and now it's calmed down and we're unable to locate. >> Hey Jason. >> Yeah. of the uh false alarms, are you seeing a lot of them from the same address or >> There are times when we may see false alarms from the same address. And if we do um per our ordinance and within our rental licensing agreement, if it's the same reason, if it's a consistent alarm issue or smoke detector or head or some type of issue mechanical that we're seeing time after time, usually by the second time, we'll take it out of service and make them fix it and put in a firewall. watch where they have people watching or caring for the the building. If they don't fix it, um that's where we can charge per our ordinance if needed. But usually by the second or third time, they're were on top of them to get it repaired. Um six intentional false alarms. To be honest, I should have looked into that category a little bit more. of where that is, but I believe it would be somebody maliciously pulled a um pole station um and there was no fire. Um and five of those was a location area error uh with no incident found. Under fire incidents, actual structure fires uh 38 and that includes a portion of our auto aid and mutual aid um that we'll get into a little bit later. Uh 24 outside fire. So that could be anything from um separate from a trash or rubbish fire, but something else that isn't categorized in trash, rubbish, or grass uh vegetation fire. So maybe wood chips that were burning next to a sidewalk because somebody was smoking there or something odd like that that isn't captured in a spec specific group. uh when we go to categorize it within the incident response uh and two specific vehicle fires. >> Jason, on on the new tankless water heaters that companies are putting out there now, folks are well, I've got one in my house now. I've noticed that if people start smelling gas that these things release the gas through the outside of your house and if start people start don't realize that someone's got a tankless they're going to call because they smell gas. So, I mean, that's the difference of uh the tankless versus the tank that's in someone's basement is I have a lot of gas running through the exterior now. and we'll get called too because depending on Excel's gas system, there can be times where certain areas can get overpressurized and the on the exterior of your home, it will if it there is a regulator within everything that could release it. Um, but no matter what, um, we always tell people or we ask them to call 911 if they smell gas or see something. And, uh, we have a bigger problem along the same lines with the same area where they don't want to bother us and they don't want to send um, a fire truck because they don't think it's something. And to be honest, we would rather play it safe and have somebody respond and, you know, make that determination. Um, but I think it's good for homeowners to know what they have so that if their neighbor were to say something, they could understand and know it. Yeah. >> And you know what to do when you come to my house. Just bring a shovel, right? >> Just drive by. >> Drive by and drop me into the ground, right? >> Okay. All right, next hazardous situation 6722 of those gas leaks, gas odors, 15 electrical power line downs, but we were back in service right away because we have the best electric department around. Um, 10 smoke investigation, five motor vehicle collisions where they were leaking fluids and required cleanup, five carbon monoxide actual releases. So these are the ones where when we get there we're actually detecting the CO where sometimes a CO alarm we don't uh detect anything uh for electrical hazard short circuit type issues three fuel spills typically those are happening within the gas stations and three uh rupture without fire. >> Hey Jason. >> Yeah. You know, the general public sees the road blocked off and fire trucks at a gas station, they you should think the worst. But it's a reportable quantity is what, five gallons? >> Anything over five gallons. So when we um if we see a spill uh if there is a spill on the ground, no matter what, most of the time they call us to help help clean up. Um but yes, we'll report um to the state and make sure that when it's severe, we've had some severe issues where maybe a tractor trailer has had something spear the bottom of a 55gallon tank on their truck and they're leaking it all over, we will help try and contain it. Um, but usually if it if they're on site at a gas station, they have resources that will be able to get people out to clean it up and deal with it. We're just trying to keep it spreading and keep the public out of it from driving through it or doing something bad like throwing a cigarette near it. >> Do our Do our trucks are our city trucks do they have spill kits on them? Yeah, they're required to and we carry we have a lot of spill and >> containment um on the trucks and in the station. >> Yep. >> Uh again, next six of our calls related to law enforcement support that could be with um the SWAT teams or something like that where we're assisting them. uh four specific to rescue, three elevator, one structural collapse, but it wasn't as bad as it sound. It just got categorized as that. And then two calls that were non-specific. Uh in 2025, 202 incidents occurred while we were on a previous incident. So meaning we had overlapping calls. We had people out on calls and another call came in. So 202 times we had that scenario. Un. Unfortunately, I really don't have the breakdown of EMS or fire right now. I'd have to do a little bit more digging, but this is a concern for a lot of departments to make sure that they have the necessary resources. It's not always that first call that you may have, it's that next call. And if you're on a current call, do you have the resources to be able to handle that? Um, auto aid and mutual aid given. So, auto aid, I've talked a little bit about this before, but what we provide um as far as auto aid through Ramsey County Dispatch means if when somebody calls 911 and they say they see fire or they say they see black smoke, it will trigle trigger what's called auto. So, if it happens in North St. Paul or Maplewood or Oakdale or White Bear Lake, three to four departments are responding or being dispatched at the same time to get resources there as quickly as possible. Mutual aid would be I'm on scene and maybe it's just um North St. Paul that's there and I'm requesting uh assistance from one department or another. However, uh we had 62 of those that we responded um throughout the year for fires. 39 in Maplewood, 12 in Oakdale, three for Roseville, three for Lake Johanna Shore View, North Oaks area type place. Uh two in White Bear Lake, one in St. Paul, and one in Lake Elmo. uh two of those EMS we provided um to Maplewood as well. And a lot of times what can happen in the EMS area as well is we have closest unit dispatching. So if there was a cardiac arrest and we had a unit that was within a mile radius, it would automatically grab them to send them to start CPR. Next. Um, >> is there a status of how many times they responded to us for mutual aid? Oh, that's next. >> That's next. >> Oh, we received. Okay, perfect. >> Received. So, um, in 2025, we received, um, 10 of those for in in 2025, four from Maplewood, three from Oakdale, and three from uh, White Bear Lake, and then three in the EMS realm were Maplewood responded um, specifically because Lake View, a lot of times what happens with Lake View is if they're not in here because they have four other ambulances that are in two are in Stillwater and two are in Hudson. As soon as one ambulance goes on a call, they start rotating their ambulance around to provide maximum coverage for the entire area. But once all of their ambulances are out of service is when we go outside. Unless I know I have an ambulance coming from Lake View that may be coming from Stillwater, except this has happened before where we have an accident and a person is struck by a vehicle on a bike and I don't want to wait a long time to get an ambulance there. So I'll request the closest one which typically would be Mapwood or Oakdale. So we're for that Lakewood then we're or Lake View, I'm sorry. We're probably the farthest west they go. >> Nope. >> Nope. They go farther. >> Yeah. So they're when they're here >> Mhm. >> they'll they'll get dragged >> like >> they'll get they're common going west into Maplewood, Roseville, Lilana. >> They go that far. >> Okay. >> Even further. >> Oh, I didn't realize that. I thought maybe they were just eastern only. >> Nope. Um the EMS service right now is a little short staffed. Um again, even though Maplewood has three ambulances and their own staff, they can get stacked with calls where they're busy, all of a sudden they got five calls coming on and they'll um be looking for assistance from Lake View or a different ambulance service to cover their area. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Nice to know. Yep. >> Are the are the times where we had to request assistance from other um services. Are those situations I know you talked about situations where we had to double up and you know we had a crew off at one site and something else happened and we needed people over there where we would generally call in for help. automatically if there's a second um call that comes in that's EMS and this happens all the time for some reason we're prone to have two to three medicals within a 30 minute period it it always happens quite a bit and with the benefit of having uh our first responders respond is if they are on scene with Lake View on the first one when that second ambulance is coming from wherever wherever they are. Our first responders can then first respond to the medical and take care of things until that next ambulance gets there. But that that's what happens when we have that overlapping call type issue. Yep. Good questions. Uh response times um dispatch to in route the the mean uh for fire incidents 0 minutes and 58 seconds and uh dispatch to at se scene time mean 5 minutes to 26 seconds. Um, and the EMS incident response times, uh, dispatch to end route mean 0 minutes to 12 seconds. And that's not quite 100% accur accurate because it's not an unsign assigned unit like fire is that EMS unit doesn't get it until they choose it. So they because we don't assign like for EMS calls like we do for fire calls. Um that's why the dispatch and route time is uh so small but the dispatch to at scene time 2 minutes to 38 seconds is is accurate. So that's the our response times to getting people a first unit on scene whether it's a fire or a medical I mean for a predominantly part-time paid on call department is really good response times. >> Yeah. Are there in uh industry I don't want to say industry standard but are there standard like service level agreements or anything like that that you know like this is what you know is you know most people hit and I would say that we're probably well under that you know based on what I'm >> so um as it relates to to fire um the national fire protection association has some minimum imum requirements for fire response as it relates to departments that are staffed full-time and departments that are well they they still call them volunteer type departments. Um and we're kind of in the middle there because we're a little com uh of both. We're a combination. Um but our our time frames for fires were far exceeding uh those requirements. Um, having Lake View here, um, definitely helps us out for having an ALS unit on scene, but also the EMS first responder. Um, because a lot of times if they are going to a different community, Lake View is going to a different community and that ambulance is coming from somewhere else. until we have that truck back here. It's up to our first responders to handle that gap. >> Is there a a uh difference in cost on whether we still lease through the the Lake View Group or because I know we used to have our own for many many many years. you know, how much difference of cost would there be owning our own again or going back to the >> big a big part of it, you know, back in 1997 when the the fire department switched to go to Lake View, a big part of that was because we were BLS ambulance. We didn't have um paramedics, if you will. we were EMTs and and predominantly that's what most of us are now. Um for an ALS service you need to have paramedics and that would require a lot more training and that that's the problem for a part-time paid on call department. Uh we don't have we don't pay uh Lake View to provide service to our community. It's simply a an agreement for them to be part of us and respond. If they respond to your house and they don't transport you, there's no fee. So, if they were to come out, assess you, even if you were a diabetic and, you know, gave you started an IV and gave you blood sugar, there's, you know, it's not like a transport bill. So that's that's where they get paid is on the transport. >> Interesting. >> Yeah. And to be honest, we Lake View has grown quite a bit in their area and their response and the amount of people that we have. Uh but we're very close and work very closely with them. >> Yeah. >> And staff stays on site here when they're on duty. >> Yep. When they're on duty. There's two of them here. in in quarters. They have sleeping quarters, bathroom, showers. Yep. They're typically their schedule is a 24-hour schedule when they work here. Um, department training in 2025, we had 3,940 total hours, so around 106.5 per firefighter. uh conducting live burns at the East Metro Public Safety Training Facility, uh conducting forcible entry, made a firefighter down, what we call VIS, vent, enter, isolate, search, incident command training, fire inspections investigations vehicle extrication, fire apparatus operator, pumpering, pumping and driving, electric vehicle and stored energy, and EMS training. Those were some of the topics we covered in 25. Uh moving on to fire inspections. Um so these are based off of uh what we had in open gov. So and an entry um as it relates. So this could be uh we haveund 105 single family rental units. Um, typically for the single family, uh, if they pass the first inspection, they're not going back. But when there's, um, any failures, they'll write them up and then they'll have to go back and do an inspection unless it's something that they could send back to us via a photo on a text or email, and we'll accept that on certain items. uh 52 multifamily apartment complexes. So even though we uh went out to those obviously one complex could be Cedar View Commons where there are 12 buildings with multiple common areas and multiple units. Um, so we're not able to capture the amount of actual times we've gone out there, but that's how many uh complexes that we've been to. Uh, last year, the mobile food vendor license, we had 38 of those. Uh, 21 fire certificate of compliance for commercial building inspections. Uh, 13 duplex rental properties, and five group homes. code compliance 182. And again, this could be one entry in open gov, but multiple even more so than the fire inspection. The code compliance is multiple times of going out to the properties and checking and speaking and working with the uh property owner to get things completed. Uh 49 tall grass weeds, 45 snow and ice, 33 trash and debris, 24 parking, 17 tree, seven uh property maintenance, three animal issues, three other and one illegal dumping. uh accomplishments for 2025. The fire relief association voted to join the statewide volunteer firefighter uh SVF plan. We had six time six part-time paid on call firefighters complete firefighter one two and hazmat and emergency medical responder classes in 25. Uh we put in service our new engine. That was quite a great feat and had a lot of work. Uh, our truck committee met with multiple vendors and reviewed numerous ladder trucks before choosing E1 to build our next ladder truck with your approval. Thank you. Uh, passed annual pump testing and maintenance on all three frontline apparatuses. uh conducted annual flow testing of our 30 SCBA and RIT packs and spare bottles with no failures. Uh annual MIS mask fit testing uh conducted on firefighters. So every year their SCBA uh is fitted to their face to make sure it's proper and annual testing of over 9,000 ft of fire hose. everything that we have. Um, and last year we had no failures on that. Uh, every year our annual agility test is conducted by everyone full-time and part-time paid on call members. Uh, updated our hose loads on our truck to be the same as Maplewood for interoperable ability on the fire ground. So, meaning if we do go over to Maplewood, uh, what we see on their truck is the same as what we see. So if they come over here and help us um it really helps for deployment and stressful situations and helps to just keep things moving forward in a positive way. Uh we conducted our first blood drive with Red Cross which was really successful and um met with four different vendors last year to learn about access control systems and approve a contractor for that installation that's going on. Uh completed our insurance service office ISO review with the fire department, the city and water supply system. uh current rating is at a at a three. So, we're proud about that. Uh 2026 volume to date. So, so far this year, we're at 388 or I'm sorry, 355 where we're um a little down 8.5 uh% lower than last year with a projected total rate now of set 1728. Uh again 2025 with 1932 in incidents total incidents was quite a spike from the previous year. Um we really weren't expecting that. So I think this number that's projected is probably more in line. Um but as you'll see on the next slide, uh in 2024 we had 1771 total calls and as it as you can see going back to year 2020 which we were at 1478. Um since 2020 we've had a 30% increase in call volume. We'll see where the year brings us I guess in 2026. It's always surprising to me to see it consistently go up by these big numbers. Um, and obviously EMS has a lot to do with it. It also has to do a lot with um people calling 911 for a lot of things they didn't normally call for in in the past as well. And that's not just in EMS, but also um you know, service calls or fire type calls or concerns. Uh new for 2026, uh the National Emergency Response Information System nearest platform uh was replaced uh and the outdated NFRS national fire incident reporting system uh that was done in on January 1st, 2026. So for the past few few years nationally fire departments were prepare preparing with this or I should should say mostly record management systems were um but we had to become trained in how things were working. Uh why did they do this? It was really to capture better data than what they had been doing. Uh so Nerys is supposed to be the premier source of all hazards information and innovative analytics informing the nation's fire problem and the capabilities of state, local, territorial and tribal services resource capacities and capabilities to handle the problem effectively, efficiently, and safely. They're hoping that this data that has been changed in how it's categorized and how it's being collected will be able to influence the needs of the fire service quicker. Uh also in 26 we partnered with echo data analytics um to get live information from our record management system uh which we use image trend which is provided to us free by the state. However, uh we have a contract with ECO data that goes into image trend and extracts data for us for things like this. And it's been uh it's been really good. The outlook for 2026, uh continue recruitment of our part-time paid on call firefighters. We're currently at 34. Uh we have leadership development training for lieutenants and captains. Uh we'll review, update and create fire department policies and procedures. Um we've been talking about interdep departmental training with the PD. Uh we definitely are going to continue our blood drive with Red Cross. We have one scheduled for I believe it's May. Uh continue our CPR training with North High students in their health class. We go out there a couple times a year on multiple days uh provide continue to provide instructors for the Ramsey County Fire one and two class uh where we send uh our students to learn uh continued partnership with the Ramsey Chief's Fire Investigation Team and continued GP JPA with the East Metro Public Safety Training Facility uh which recently received a 2 million uh federal funding from with help from Congressman Betty McCullum and trying to keep it short. That's where we're at. Any questions? >> No, I applaud you for all that you do and the level of detail that you have and the statistics that you have. Um, it sounds like that's attributable to the echosystem. >> Yes, system that you >> There's a lot there. Um, and if you are ever have any questions uh regarding data as it relates to the fire department. I'd love to show you of what it's pulling out because I'm still learning. Um, but it's it's impressive and we've had some problems. I shouldn't say in general a lot of these record management systems are still working around nearest and trying to figure things out and how they categorize things. Um, and it's different and everybody's trying to um make sure they're capturing the correct data. I know we are with what we have, but there's more there to to get as well. And once they get some things straightened out, it will only improve. Good. >> Thank you. Great information. Appreciate all the the work you do and your team. >> Thanks. >> Pass it on to the group. >> We'll do. >> Thank you, Chief. >> Thanks, Chief. >> Thank you. >> Doesn't Mr. Wick usually want a full hour to talk? He really likes doing >> He likes that talking stuff. >> Two hours. >> That way we can go home early. >> Thanks, Jason. Thank you. >> Have a good night. >> Have a good night, Chief. >> Yeah. Next up is the electric department for 2025 year in review and the 2026 outlook. We have electric director Wick here to discuss. Welcome. Hopefully it's uh I can send it to you again too. Okay. I got a little presentation uh but I can get started a little bit without uh the visual but thanks thanks again for having me. Did you >> What was it? >> That was me. Sorry. We actually have it in our packet. So I was right here. Yeah. Good. >> 25 2025 year in review. Good. >> Okay. So, uh, thanks for for having me and giving the opportunity to kind of talk about what we did in 25. Um, and then some of the things we're looking to do here in 26. I don't have as many statistics as Jason did, but uh, we do have a lot more um, if you're ever curious on how much overtime the guys are putting in, uh, the number of calls coming in. uh kind of kept it more to the work the guys were doing uh things that kind of led towards the accomplishments that we we reached in uh 2025. So for um the 2025 statistics um you know each year we do a uh an inspection of our entire system uh the power poles any equipment transformers um you know cab any cabinet of any kind uh just to make sure that there's no uh inefficiencies or or things that need to be replaced. Um, from that uh list of inspections, we replaced 26 power poles that were um in deteriorating state, uh, the crossarms that support the the major conductors on the pole. Um, we replaced 33 of those. And there was 28 pole tops that were found to be um in disrepair. And there what we do is we just remove that top portion and move the conductors down lower if we have the space to to do so. Um, so it saves us a little bit of time and effort, but uh, still a a pretty big job to do that. Um, total outages, we had 41 unscheduled power outages. Um, we do schedule outages with uh, the projects that we're working on or if there's a scenario that comes up. Um, but usually it's not a significant number of outages. Uh but of those 41 outages, uh a major storm in uh July, it was like a two to three day stretch there that we had 19 power outages. Um that, uh you can see accounts for, you know, a pretty good portion of what the actual total outages for the season was. Um if you remove those outliers um we had about a 44minut uh from time of call the power restored uh average and only uh 305 meters affected by those uh remaining 22 outages. Um the bottom statistic there is the um from the projects in 25 and I'll I'll touch on them briefly. Uh but we did a total of 12,800 ft of new underground installed um and 2400 ft of upgrades to the main lines in the backyards to increase capacity and reliability. Uh some of the highlights from 2025. Uh we adopted the e safety data tracker from um American public power. Um some of the requirements for electric utilities have changed now where we are required to do safety tail boards before each job and have documentation. uh just in case OSHA ever stopped by and wanted to see, you know, did you take the proper steps to identify hazards on the job um take steps to um eliminate those hazards or reduce the the risk of exposure. So, we adopted the e safety data tracker. It's a it's an application on the iPads that we keep in the trucks um that the guys fill out daytoday on any job they're doing. uh identify any sort of explosion hazards, electrical hazards, uh traffic, um you know, a number of of uh elements that uh can contribute to um improper workplace safety. Um and the crews go over them in a tailboard session. They all sit, identify the things, talk about the job that they're doing, and everybody signs off that they agree that this is the best way to to move forward. Um we also had a heavy focus on um updating and upgrading our uh existing online mapping which is um run through WSB that datafy. Uh it it's been there. We've had the map all this time but we just haven't really made it the most readily accessible thing for the guys on the cruise. We do keep paper maps in all the trucks as well. Um, but just making it so that they have a tool on their phone or on their iPads to, you know, before they even come to the job site, they can open up the map and see what they're getting into. Uh, but there was a lot of information that needed to be added and, uh, a lot of details on the map that just needed to be corrected so that it was more legible to the guys. Uh we did start our um in in the fall of 2025 we did introduce the uh electric vehicle rebate program. Um it is for Energy Star rated EV chargers installed in homes, garages. um where if if you submit the doc the proper receipt and the uh application, you can receive $250 for the the install of the charger. Um to go with that program, uh we did introduce the time of use metering for the EV charger services. Um and I think that that came to you guys for rate approval. Um, and we currently have uh three customers signed up. Uh, but it's been a lot of interest um in the program and just what it takes to to get up and going. We currently have a requirement that you install a dedicated meter to the EV service so that we can uh read that meter separate of your main service and give you the the proper rate based on when you're charging your vehicle. And everybody that's actually joined that program has been adhering to the rate schedule uh very strictly and uh have been keeping to the off peak periods for charging. Um we reached 29 solar customers by the end of the year. Uh it's over 30 now. Um you know we're I think 31 or 32 now. But they also receive a rebate for the install um based on the size of the system they're putting up and the cost that it's that they're incurring from uh the contractor putting it in. Um and and with that uh the residents receiving credit for any power that they're putting back onto the system. Um for one, you're already saving power by generating your own, but anything you don't use in excess goes back onto the grid and you get a credit for that on your account. Um, another highlight was, uh, our apprenticeship is handled through Northwest Lineman College and, uh, we currently have one apprentice. Um, the second one is on his taking his final test, so he's kind of in limbo between apprentice and journeyman, but um, we have one that's actively in the apprenticeship program through Northwest Lyman College. Uh, but we did introduce uh, MMUA, which we're a part of. um to help manage that program. And the benefit of that is just seeing uh tracking the hours uh that they're putting in for uh how much overhead time they're putting in, underground time, metering generation substation trainings. Uh it's all logged for them to gain credit towards an apprenticeship. Um, prior to that, we weren't keeping track of the hours, but we were you were required to complete a three-year or four-year apprentichip based on where you came in here. Uh, but at the end of that apprenticeship, um, the tests that you take are certifying you for the state certification as a journeyman lineman. You're not required to have that to be recognized as a journeyman here. Uh, just have to complete the program. But it's definitely a benefit for the guys and I think a of a feather in their cap to be able to to hold that card. So >> a question for you. The uh so with the EV vehicle rebate that was introduced and the time of use metering rates that are tied with that and with your last slide saying that you're upgrading some of those um wires to the secondaries to the homes. Is those tied together? >> Yeah. I I mean in general, yes, the the the main reason we're going through uh in these project areas and upgrading those rear lots is just to add some capacity. Um you know, if we have to upgrade a transformer, that's one thing, but the main lines that run from pole to pole and not necessarily to the homes. Um it's a smaller wire. It's it's a wire that's spread out and vulnerable to, you know, tree damage, rodents, squirrels, you know, chewing through the wires. Um, it's just not as protected. Um, so us going through putting in a bigger wire for more capacity, you know, should be able to accept more of these EVs in the future. It doesn't mean that all the transformers are up to snuff, but at least we're kind of going down the right road. Um, and I I think in general, um, most of our transformers aren't loaded to the capacity they could be. So, I think we're sitting in a good position, especially with the projects that we're going through, uh, to be able to accept more of these. I did attach uh, we have this one uh, mutual aid accommodation from Kiss, Florida. That was kind of right at the end of 24 and then beginning of 25. and the guys went to Orlando as well, which is the the next one. >> Um, and that's just something that I think, you know, I've touched on it before here that uh the guys take a lot of pride in that and it's getting them, you know, into new experiences that they've they've not been a part of before. Um, and building, you know, good networking with other utilities. Um, and just giving them opportunities that, you know, they they might not be able to receive at other utilities. Um, just it does seem like, and I was going to touch on it maybe a little bit later, but it does seem like there's a a trend in I don't know if it's not only the utility workforce, but when I came on, it always seemed like you were grateful to have this job and you wanted to do what can I do to make myself an asset and to keep this job and to be a contributor to, you know, this the city, to the company, wherever you're at. Um, I'm not saying that they're not doing that, but there's been a mindset shift to what what are you doing to keep me here? What, you know, what are the good things that I can do here that I can't do other places? And why would I want to stay here? And I think we're doing a lot of good things in that regard. Great. And one of those those I know those might seem like a long way away for sending help from Minnesota down there, but uh they happen to get hit by a backto-back Helen and Milton uh hurricanes. So they of course draw from the closer utilities. They kind of wore them out a bit and then that other hurricane came in right behind it. So they had to kind of expand the area they were asking for help from. So but it was really good. They were very appreciative. >> Not used to dodging alligators up here, but they might have had to worry about that down there. Huh. Yeah, there's some pictures. Yeah, >> sure there would be. >> Yeah, some new exposures for sure. >> Uh I did I did put an a picture of uh East on there because I'm sure not many of you get to see his face very often and he's a but he's a pivotal part of our team. Um he's our electric superintendent. Uh he doesn't like to toot his own horn and he's definitely a guy that likes to let his work speak for himself. Um, and but I it was much to his embarrassment, but I've nominated him for an award at one of the conferences through MMUA, and he did win. Uh, it was about 40 nominees for that same award. Uh, and they picked three. Uh, and it was the rising star award. So, it's just recognizing people that have been in their position for less than five years and are making, you know, substant substantial contributions to their community um and making changes for the the better of, you know, the whole workforce. I did put a little snippet of what I had wrote. It was much longer, but um just you know that he came from a background of being a lineman here. uh he easily relates with the guys. Uh and he cares deeply about their safety and and just um he he's he's been a big part of some of the changes we've made for new programs, you know, the the safety tailboards, um any new technology. He's always the one pushing it. I'm I like new technology, too, and I like to explore things, but I definitely have to kind of rein him in a little bit on what's what's feasible for our size of utility. So, uh, he's he's definitely been a a good person to lean on and, uh, to, uh, to bounce my ideas off of and to and to put some of the workload that I, it would take a lot of trust for me to put that into somebody. uh some of the projects that we completed in 2025. Um the Gerald Mohawk um conversion, it was along the road project. Uh but we had a few radio high voltage lines there, meaning they didn't have a secondary backup um you know, where you could feed them from another direction. Uh we buried those lines and now they're all looped. So if there's ever an issue, we can just change where it's fed from and and fix the issue later or or right then and there. Um and like I said, all the high voltage is now underground in that area. Um and that was, you know, kind of a a project that was coordinated pretty rapidly just because the decision to do a full uh road reconstruction project there kind of dictated that. Uh 17th in Delaware is an area that we buried a main circuit feeder. Main circuit feeder is kind of the main artery for uh portions of town. And when you're burying that, a lot of care and consideration needs to be put into um the route and just uh what kind of protection you have in place for not causing any major problems. Uh we did complete that uh this in 2025. Uh there's also the new development homes right on the corner there that we've been as they've been introducing them, we've been uh adding them to that to to the the circuit in that area. Um Target, we uh we increased our reliability over there. Uh we did have uh a single feed to Target that if it was interrupted for any reason, some sort of fault or problem, uh they would have been out of power for an extended period of time before we could fix it. Uh, and what we did there was change how things were fed, uh, by adding some wires and, uh, made it so that if anything happened there, they have a backup feed and we can switch out any equipment in the area without taking outages in the future as well. And then lastly, I misspelled Casey Lake, but uh, Casey Lake Lighting. Uh, we finished that up in 25 as well with the west end of the park just increasing the safety on the trail there. Uh, real quick, the 2026 outlook. I'll touch on the goals, projects, and uh, some of our concerns for the future. Nope, they're fine. So, I'd like to for some of my goals for 26 uh, would be to introduce as many, you know, programs and incentives for for residents as we can. Um, you know, we already have one in the works that's for, um, electric equipment like lawn equipment, um, lawnmowers, leaf blowers, weed whips. If you buy a battery powered unit, we can get you a rebate for that. Um, varying from the size of the unit. Uh, a riding lawnmower, I think, is $200. uh weed whip is like 75 or 25, I can't remember exactly, but we have a a rebate form for that that uh we'd be like to be introducing soon. Uh but things along that line, things that you know, we get a benefit for energy savings. Uh but not necessarily everything has to be along that lines in my mind too. You know, things that can be a benefit to the to the customers is um a big deal. Uh there's things too that you know it could reduce the amount of call outs we get in the area even though we're not saving power. Um it might save on overtime too. So I'd like to finish the upgrades for datafy. I think it's at a place now that the guys I trust that they would all be able to read it well and use it well. Uh just the final touches on it and I think it's definitely something that we can finish in 2026. Uh I did, this one's kind of vague, but uh develop standard procedures for events that can occur. Uh we have a lot of them. There's a lot of scenarios that can happen and there's a lot that we're we do have standard um switching procedures or or work practices for them scenarios. But there's definitely ones that I think with some of the senior guys on our crew, they take for granted that they know how to do it. And a lot of the younger staff are left wondering, you know, what do I do in this situation? um you know, maybe even uh one of the main circuits in the substation failing. I', you know, if I went to one of the younger guys on the crew and said, "What would you do in this scenario?" I think, you know, they're going to have the help they need to get it accomplished, but in that moment, if I'm asking them that, it might be a 50/50 shot that they get the right answer. Um, and it's not that they're not knowledgeable and they don't know what they're doing. It's just it's a lot of stress in a in a very, you know, a high stress moment. So just getting making the right call in that time and just having a procedure that would be not what you have to do but a guideline to just get them in the right ballpark would be be nice. Um participating in more mutual aid and and networking uh with other utilities. I think I've said it to you guys before, but um it does feel like it's the electric utility field as a community and and you get as much of it back as what you put into it. If you're willing to engage with other utilities, they're willing to engage with you and help you in in in situations and uh uh really uh be a a resource that you can tap for uh for for information that I you know I might not know or they might need from us. Uh it just it kind of works both ways. And the mutual aid, you know, it's not always sending guys to Florida. It might be, you know, Owatana gets a windstorm and they need they need help and they might call anybody in the, you know, metro area to come down there. That might be something that we'd be a part of. Uh, engaging the community. I know that was something that we had touched on um at our retreat. Uh but you know it I don't know 100% what it looks like but I would like to have stuff where not necessarily bragging about the municipal but what are some of the benefits of being in a city with a municipal putting that knowledge out there for the residents to consume and to you know to take for what they what they interpret it. But at least showing them the good things about being in a in a small utility like this uh versus a big investorowned or a cooperative or something like that. Oh, and and maybe even, you know, uh some sort of social media interaction element to that as well. Uh I'd like to keep our outage times uh low and our outage counts low. I think we're already well on our way. I mean, a good example would be look at the snow storms we just had here and the high winds. Uh we did not have a single call out during that span. The last call we had was uh 3 4 days prior to that. So, um, it just and the things we're doing to kind of remedy any sort of problems we may have had with storms is, uh, you know, keeping up on our tree trimming line clearance, doing our annual inspections, and being proactive about the the maintenance schedule and all the equipment and the the poles and and relocating overhead to underground and just keeping ahead of those things. And then lastly, uh just I'll touch uh real quick on the project from 2026, but it's just completing those projects on in a timely manner. Uh here's a small portion of kind of what we're we're looking at, but kind of the major uh project areas. Uh in Tower Park area, we're actually out there working right now. the guys are out upgrading the lines in the backyards like we had talked about with the increased capacity. Uh at the end of May, we'll have a contractor out to start putting the conduit in the ground and then we'll we'll kind of hit the ground running with that uh putting the lines in. Uh Northwood Park, the contractors will be out to put the conduit in at the beginning of May. So, it'll kind of be a balancing act of upgrading on the north end, going down to Northwood and putting in lines underground. uh you know kind of coordinating that. Um but it it'll it'll just you know both these areas have lines that are I've called I've said radial before but just it's the line goes down and comes to an end and anything that happens on that line everybody beyond it it's out until you fix the problem and we'll be looping everything so that you know we can get people back on you know pretty quick. I do have on there switch gears and overhead switches. Those are equipment that you have on like your those main feeders that I talked about. Um, we were uh prior to my time in this position, we were on a good schedule of doing like upgrades to the older switch gears that are the the biggest green box you see around town. Um, I'd like to get back on a schedule like that, doing one to two a year and having a new one in stock ready for if uh, you know, one of them gets hit by a car or we have something blow up inside of a switch gear and burn all the the inards, uh, you need to have something there to replace it. We do have one at the shop, but it's an old one, and it's it's kind of a hope you don't have to use it type of scenario. The last thing there is not a necessarily a project that we're working on. Uh but it's what does and I'll talk about it in my challenges and concerns here, but what does the presence of the increased fiber optic companies in the area cause for us for workload? Uh maybe we can jump to the next slide for that. Uh that top portion there, the fiber optic providers. um each one of these companies that's coming in wanting to put fiber optic in in North St. Paul, you know, everybody needs internet. Internet is it's not a a privilege anymore. It's it's needed for everything you do. Um but there's also concerns with every one of these providers wants to attach to our power poles and every one of them wants to bury lines in the boulevards. We only have so much space on the poles and we only have so much space in the boulevards. So, um, you know, what what does it look like for, uh, a company coming in saying they're going to attach to 500 poles and of those 500 poles, they've they've checked the engineering and they need 100 of them upgraded because there's not enough space for their utility on there. Now, we have agreements in place that, you know, that will be in place um for uh, you know, that's that cost isn't on us to do it. Uh but the workload's still there. Is it contractors coming in setting poles and us coming in behind them and transferring everything? We're not the only ones on those poles. And you know, we change out 20 to 30 poles a year. And it's hard enough to get those utilities to transfer on those poles, let alone how many are these fiber optic providers going to ask us to, you know, get transferred as well. So, uh, it's just it's something that it's a little bit of an unknown on how much it what the scale of everything's going to be. Um, I definitely think we've positioned ourselves well for, you know, if they have big demands, but also not just the power poles, they want to put it in the ground. What does that look like for keeping our utilities marked for their install? And what do the boulevards look like for our future installs? Like it's going to be you call in for a locate in your front yard. It'll be from the curb to about 5t back all orange. You might see a red or a yellow mark and then you'll see all orange all the way to the back of the rightway. It's just going to be full. I mean obviously within reason, you know, you can only fit so much there, but we need to get our stuff in the ground as well. So just kind of coordinating that with those providers is is a challenge and keeping our utilities marked is uh these projects areas that they're wanting to call in are are huge and other projects don't stop when when they come to town. We got to keep up on all the other underground projects as well. So just keeping our utilities marked and safe and protected is uh is a major concern. And then just where does it stop? How many providers are going to try to come to town? You know, we got Lumen fiber in town, Metroet looking to come, Intrepid looking to come through. Um, you know, Zo Arvvic fiber in the ground. More St. Paul has fiber in the ground. Um, you know, where does it where does it stop? Where does it start? How many providers are actually going to try to, you know, come into the area? >> Are they going to lease all off our poles then? Do they lease space on the poles of each one that they tie into? That's correct. Yep. There's a pole attachment agreement that they that the city signs and they sign um and they get charged per pole. >> So, okay. If if uh they're not satisfied with the pole that they're going to tie on to, do they replace the pole in? >> It's on them to replace it. >> It's on them. Or will they tie onto a pole of their own in that corner? >> It it kind of depends, I guess, on, you know, what what they can do in the rightway. But um if the pole needs to be upgraded, the cost is 100% on the utility that wants to attach. Um whether it be, you know, depending on the workload, it might be something we can handle going out replacing oneoffs. We keep about 60 to 80 poles at the shop. >> Yeah. >> They're not they might not be the size they need. They might need, you know, a bunch of 40footers and we only have 20 of them. you know, and they might want 50 replaced. So, it might be a matter of having a third party come in and replace a bunch of poles and and then we come in behind and transfer all the wires. Um, it's just the the coordination there is going to be critical. It's just the cost. It's not going to be the cost to us so much as, you know, what is our what does our role in the project look like from the utility stand? Well, then we would charge the company coming in the time for us to move to a new new pole. >> That's correct. Yep. Yeah. Any other questions on the the polls? >> Stay in the hot air too long though. >> Yeah. Um, another concern uh with the time I got left here is um just the increase in costs, you know, around CO all everything shot up. it wasn't realistic to think it would ever come back down and that's pretty much kind of held true. Uh and some things have even increased in costs. Uh in turn making our projects cost more. Um obviously in the budgeting process we've kind of planned for these things but uh it's something that I don't think will be I don't I think we're in the new norm. If not it's just going to get more expensive. Um and then this uh real quick there I had the supply chains being interrupted. One of the things on the consent agenda for tonight is purchasing pad mount transformers. Uh we reach out to a number of sources for pad mount transformers. We do have one that we prefer since they're a reliable company, a reliable brand, and a pretty uh reasonable price. Uh they were able to quote and get us what we wanted. Um another company we reach out to, Herby, has Howard Transformers. They've been a reliable brand in the past, one that we've purchased. Uh Herby decided to no quote because Howard is now an unreliable source. Now, they don't expand on what that is, but I mean, you can read between the lines of it's not that they put out a bad transformer, it's they can't deliver on lead times and they can't give them a reasonable date to get stuff in. uh there's just not enough inventory there for for what these utilities all around the na herbies nationwide are asking for. Um so they they're not willing to put us a bid out there for this purchase because they don't want to they don't want to commit to something they can't deliver on, right? Um and and there's always refurbished transformers, too, but then you're kind of getting into a gray area there of you're taking some risk on Um yeah. So yeah, in uh in summary, you know, we just we want to keep our outage times low. We want to keep our rates competitive. Um we want to keep converting the system to underground. Uh whether it's putting new underground in from overhead or um upgrading older underground to to new. Uh we just want to keep our staff safe and well informed. And like I had said, um, you know, with wanting to wanting to work somewhere is just keeping this place somewhere that, you know, our staff wants to love to come to work. Um, and I think we're doing a great job of that now. And I think, um, everyone that I work with in close proximity, whether it's the electric or any department, um, there's always good positive interactions and and, uh, it doesn't seem like anybody dreads coming to work every day. So, U with that as I got a few minutes here if any questions. >> I have a comment. Um just incredibly thankful for the you guys' outages are incredibly low when they happen and that return time to have the power back on is incredibly a narrow amount of time. Um it can be a dangerous job especially when it comes to storms. It was only a couple weeks back I heard a call go out over in Maplewood that the guy was down. He got and he was the guy not in the air but he was on the ground next to the truck and he got they had to give him CPR but they brought him back and you guys have an incredibly low rate of injuries in there even for all the work that you guys do and um just great job. Thank you. Thank you. >> Echo that. Thank you so much for your wins this weekend were just incredible. I'm I was just wondering if there was any outages. So >> I was waiting but kept a close eye on things but it yeah nothing nothing came through. Usually, even with the high winds, you know, they're going into the night. The next morning, you get flooded with calls because people are waking up seeing the aftermath and still really nothing. I mean, we had a few tree calls this week that were more routine stuff, not not damage. So, >> well, please extend our gratitude to your whole team. >> Y Thank you. >> Oh, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. I get a motion to close the workshop. So moved. >> So moved. Council member Woods. Second. >> Second. >> Second. Council member Mackenzie. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. We got a few minutes, four minutes, and we'll be back.