This transcript appears to be from a **Cannon Falls City Council** meeting. Based on the context provided, here are the speaker identifications: * **The Mayor:** The presiding officer (addressed as "Chris" in the banter). * **John Heinen:** City Administrator (addressed as "John"). * **Jed Zimmerman:** Council Member (addressed as "Jed"). * **Laura Croninberger:** Council Member (addressed as "Laura"). * **Diane Johnson:** Council Member (addressed as "Diane"). * **Lisa Montgomery:** Council Member (addressed as "Lisa"). * **Jeep Jeepson:** Council Member (addressed as "Jeep"). * **Chad Johnson:** Council Member (addressed as "Chad"). * **Jeff McCormick:** Chief of Police (addressed as "Chief"). * **Sarah Wheelock:** City Clerk/Staff (addressed as "Sarah"). *** [0:08] **Council Member:** That's a lot. [0:09] **John Heinen:** Yeah. Will be coded for project. [0:11] **Council Member:** Anything they want to use it for. [0:13] **Council Member:** Feel entitled extra, right? [0:15] **Council Member:** I just like that's cool. There's their kitchen. They were asking a few months back. [0:23] **John Heinen:** Agreement we had like their own people reinvesting their retirement dues back in right now. Is that what it is? [0:36] **Council Member:** I I don't know to be honest. It doesn't copy of this. [0:41] **Council Member:** We're not asking for anything. [0:43] **John Heinen:** A very polite reply that said my number. [0:48] **Council Member:** Nothing. [0:49] **John Heinen:** Yeah, there might be a meeting um next month. [0:53] **Council Member:** We don't know yet. [0:55] **John Heinen:** Which is quite the art form. Uh new contact I was check sounds like a Klingon name in Star Trek or something which is kind of cool. [1:07] **Mayor:** You know what I get a lot... [1:19] **Mayor:** Chris for over a year and Becky Young's been calling me Chris too. You know who that is? Becky Omar, she was... Well, she saw me at that thing last week the convention at the school. [1:34] **John Heinen:** John, did you have to get him online or Chris? [1:37] **Mayor:** Let's just say that's me. She was talking to me. Well, I don't know. Some people get I don't know how they get Chris out of it, but I've literally had like five or six agenda. [1:46] **John Heinen:** Was there something you wanted to bring up? [1:48] **Mayor:** I'm fine. [1:49] **John Heinen:** We called a lot, but you know, technology doesn't always work for us. [1:57] **Mayor:** Thank you, sir. Call to order for the city of Cannon Falls City Council meeting, Tuesday, January 20th, 2026. If I could get a roll call, please. [2:08] **John Heinen:** Diane Johnson. [2:09] **Diane Johnson:** Here. [2:10] **John Heinen:** Zimmerman. [2:11] **Jed Zimmerman:** Here. [2:12] **John Heinen:** Chad Johnson. [2:13] **Chad Johnson:** Here. [2:14] **John Heinen:** Jeepson. [2:15] **Jeep Jeepson:** Here. [2:16] **John Heinen:** Novak absent. Croninberger. [2:17] **Laura Croninberger:** Here. [2:18] **John Heinen:** Montgomery. [2:19] **Lisa Montgomery:** Here. [2:20] **Mayor:** Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [2:37] **Mayor:** If I could get a motion to approve tonight's agenda. [2:39] **Lisa Montgomery:** Motion. [2:40] **Mayor:** Motion from Lisa. [2:41] **Jeep Jeepson:** Second. [2:42] **Mayor:** Second from Jeep. All those in favor? [Chorus of Ayes]. Opposed? Carries. Uh there is no sign up for public input tonight, so we're going to skip item five, go straight to consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as council business. Item A, adjust and correct claims for the accounting period ending December 31st, 2025. Item B, adjust and correct claims accounting period ending January 15, 2026. Item C, meeting minutes, January 6th, 2026, city council minutes. Item D, approve 2026 fire department officers and pay rates. Item E, resolution 2855, acceptance of a monetary donation of $11,440 from the Cannon Falls Fire Department Relief Association to the fire department. Uh, item F, resolution 2856, acceptance of a monetary donation of $500 from Olmsted Medical Center to the fire department. Item G, resolution 2857, approving a conditional use permit for outdoor storage for Knudson construction. Item H, resolution 2858, accepting a donor recognition sign and approval of installation at John Burch Park. Item I, approve Greater Minnesota small city's housing aid grant program application. And item J, approve cancellation of February 3rd, 2026 city council meeting. Is there any any council member would like to pull down? [4:06] **Mayor:** Hearing none, I would take a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. [4:08] **Diane Johnson:** So moved. [4:09] **Mayor:** Motion from Diane. [4:10] **Lisa Montgomery:** Second. [4:11] **Mayor:** Second from Lisa. All those in favor? [4:13] **Council Members:** Aye. [4:14] **Mayor:** Opposed? Carries. Gets us to round the horn. Uh well, we can do uh reports first if anybody wants to talk about uh EDA. Laura, if you just want to go straight with that one, unless there's something from the chamber that somebody wants to say first. [4:35] **John Heinen:** I will um I did have a a meeting brief meeting with Andy Alto uh from the chamber. He did come over to city hall and looked at uh the space. So in uh considerations that they do have for uh an executive director. They do have some applicants. Uh they're pretty um feel pretty good about them actually that they're going to find qualified. Um at the time it was there were three applicants that they had and they felt all all of them were pretty qualified for the position. Um, but we wanted to look at this facility for them to kind of base their operations out of. It would still likely looking at part-time. Um, but they would, uh, need a office space and some space to, you know, store some things. So, we clearly have plenty of room here and I think we could definitely make that, um, an accommodation for them. Um I I asked basically on in terms of rent. I really wasn't expecting anything since we are you know a funder for for the chamber. Uh this would help them to to make sure that they would have operations to continue funding that position and do other events and other expand other operations. Um, but one thing I did ask is like, hey, if we can provide some training and if they're here and they can help cover our staff when, you know, maybe we have, you know, some lunch breaks or times where we're we're down to one person or they need to meet and they're meeting with somebody, they can just be a little backup for us to answer phones and just direct people to the right place and I think that would be a um acceptable. [6:09] **Mayor:** Yeah. All right. Thank you. Sorry, I didn't mean to jump. Is there normally chamber now? Maggie's not here, so I thought we'd skip it. But EDA, they met on January 8th. [6:14] **Laura Croninberger:** Uh just uh Thursday, I'll be up in Minneapolis speaking um at the Economic Development Association for Minnesota um about our Hardwood Estates project. So that's kind of a big deal for um Cannon Falls. Um I've been working with a local business owner for a grant application for some equipment for their business. Otherwise, um not much else. Um, that's it. [6:50] **Mayor:** Thank you, Laura. Uh, public works park board also met on the 8th. [6:53] **Jed Zimmerman:** Jed wants it. I'll take it. Um, uh, the sign at John Burch Park, you know, it's on the asenh consent agenda. We, uh, approved that. Um as well as we had pretty extensive conversation about the ice rinks and uh public works is going doing some research of how we can upgrade either the soils or you know come back with a few options to improve the ice rinks this summer so that next year even if we have warm days we can should maintain some ice. Um it's cold enough now we have ice although it might be too cold to use it but [laughter] um yeah. [7:34] **Mayor:** All right. Awesome. Thank you Jed. Uh planning commission January 12th. [7:37] **Diane Johnson:** And basically we had one thing on the agenda and that was Knudson conditional use permit which we passed. [7:41] **Mayor:** Wonderful. Thanks Diane. We'll do around the horn. Jed, anything else? [7:44] **Jed Zimmerman:** Uh just that possibly snow over the next couple days. If we do get plowable snow, public works will be out plowing middle of the night. Um make clearance streets. So please park accordingly. [7:56] **Mayor:** Izzy anything. Laura? [8:01] **Chief Jeff McCormick:** Chief. Jed talked about the uh possibility of snow. Just want to remind people in addition to that, we're going to have very extreme cold. Um so, you know, if your vehicle does break down, you can't get it started. Uh please call us and let us know. Um we still may need to get it out of there. Um but we would much rather have you contact us ahead of time than you come out in the morning and find it gone. So, we can try to work with people as best we can. But the other thing would be is, you know, if you've got uh u you know, elderly neighbors and stuff, just check in on them. Um make sure that their furnaces are working, that type of thing. In these temperatures, it doesn't take real long for a house to go cold if uh if the heat isn't uh isn't [clears throat] there. So, just things to be aware of through the weekend. And we're still keeping an eye on for next week. Uh we might get uh some more days that are be going to be cold there. We just don't know yet. That's all I got. [8:44] **Mayor:** Thanks, Chief. Sarah? [8:48] **Sarah Wheelock:** [Nods/Indicates no update]. [8:49] **John Heinen:** John, I got a couple. Uh, so [laughter] I got a call today. Um, a different owner or partner that's involved in the nursing home property uh reached out to me and said that they would be the main point of contact moving forward. Um, so I expressed our concerns with the property and that it is uh hazardous and that, you know, we don't want to be sending uh staff in there unless it's an absolute emergency. Um, that there's been, you know, series of break-ins and vandalism that's going on. So, they needed to be working on securing that. They did have a person that was out here that that had been trying, but I believe there were after the time that they were there, there's still some reports of activity going on. Um, so I uh they requested some time to just get an better understanding of of the property, what's what's going on. They're actively trying to sell it. Um, but I did explain and I sent off the information and the application for for the DEED redevelopment program, which does offer uh funding for uh demolition purposes for prop sites for that um would be used for redevelopment. So, uh, there's two grant application deadlines for that. Unfortunately, we will not be able to meet the February deadline. Um, because it's at the beginning of the month, we wouldn't have a council meeting in advance of that and nor would we have all the documentation needed to put together a competitive one because the funding is competitive. There's limitations at each grant cycle to how many projects get funded. Um, so the next deadline is August 1st. Uh so which by that time hopefully if this is something that they would be working out um and this would be the cleanest option for now um I would be working with them to to try to get that um demolished and uh continually advising them to secure the property ensure that it's safer and prevent people from going in there. Uh one other uh update for grants. Um, so back in early December, uh, Bill and I, um, agreed to put in a submission for what's called LPP funding with, uh, MnDOT District 6. Uh, this would be used to fund a design study, design alternative study for the intersection of Highway 19 and that on-ramp to find a solution for for that. Um, present that to to MnDOT to help um, move hopefully move forward with some sort of improvement. so that the redevelopment of the nursing home property could be uh something that that could take place in the future. Then uh some uh considerations going on with the cable commission. So we're having some issues with other equipment. Um obviously we did have the TriCaster that was replaced. Uh that is now working and and doing the way it's supposed to be. However, there's other pieces of equipment and they're all kind of at the end of their useful life. So we will be trying to schedule a cable commission meeting uh to discuss options for for that equipment upgrade as well. Um our franchise renewal with Mediacom is due and that is something that I have been in contact with Mediacom about drafts for for that renewal. Uh but one piece element of that that uh creates some issue for me is that the uh funding for that comes from franchise fees which is a percentage of gross revenue for cable services and cable services obviously for a lot of people are not in use anymore. Um so there's not a lot of more revenue drawn from that. There's very few customers that are left on the system. So it just it strikes me as as challenging for us moving forward and that being the primary source of funds that we have for operating the channel um when when that stream is going away. So I know this is something that is being has been brought up at the state level and trying to find ways that we can um modify that so it's not only um subject to maybe cable services but maybe it goes into some sort of fun fees for internet services as well. And then uh for the council um I will need your devices dropped off at at city hall next week because we are doing our email conversion now. So um as an update again the email server that we have is on a version of Microsoft that is no longer um serviceable or upgraded. And in the process of evaluating what you know ways we can move forward, we can move to a Microsoft 365 cloud-based you know subscription service or we could try to spend the money and upgrade the the server to the more current one. I think the long-term most cost effective is is actually the subscription-based. So that conversion is taking place. Um we actually just did a couple staff ones that were more easy today. Um, so but your devices will all need to come back so that we can get you re-logged into the system because there's um some different authentication and credentialing that needs to happen with that conversion. And then our fair ordinance committee will be meeting next week. [14:10] **Mayor:** Wonderful. Thank you, John. Uh Laura? [14:13] **Laura Croninberger:** I'm good. [14:14] **Mayor:** Yep. Jed? [14:15] **Jed Zimmerman:** Good. [14:16] **Mayor:** Diane? [14:17] **Diane Johnson:** Good. [14:18] **Mayor:** Lisa? [14:19] **Lisa Montgomery:** Good. [14:20] **Mayor:** Chad? [14:21] **Chad Johnson:** Thoughts and prayers go out to the police and ICE agents up in uh Minneapolis. [14:25] **Mayor:** Yeah. Uh I want to say thank you to our fire department. I know there was a fire this morning and when we're dealing with these cold temps, I know we deal with snow and we talk about parking, but when we're dealing with the cold temps and house fires, that is about the worst combination and it it happens all too often. So, thank you to our fire department uh for what they had to do this morning. Also want to say thank you to uh the um Goodhue County GOP hosting the uh gubernatorial I would say debate but uh more of like a a meet and greet or a forum. Um that was very interesting. I'm glad that the high school is able to host something like that. Uh I encourage people to attend no matter which political party you belong to uh to attend those events because you can learn a lot get to know uh the people and uh where they stand on the issues but also just you know when there's nine candidates out there put some names to faces so that when you read it in the paper you you see who they were. Uh and it was nice to see some other familiar faces there as well. So uh with that I would take a motion to adjourn. [15:26] **Chad Johnson:** Motion. [15:26] **Mayor:** Motion is from Chad. [15:26] **Lisa Montgomery:** Second. [15:27] **Mayor:** Second from Lisa. All those in favor? [Chorus of Ayes]. Opposed? We're adjourned. Thank you everybody.