Bayport City Council Meeting 2/2/2026

Bayport City Council Meeting 2/2/2026

[5:15] All right. Like to call to order the February 2nd, 2026 meeting of the Bayport City Council. Uh let's all stand 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. [5:41] >> Right. Thanks, Matt. You want to call the role? >> Council member G. >> Oh, wait. Don't do that yet. We got to swear in a room first. >> Okay. >> I'm just so used to the other thing. I think we both go over here, right? >> Yep. Yep. Just go. [5:56] >> Quick, fast, run. We're gonna Who wants to get on? >> Oh, yeah. >> Take a picture. >> Is that okay? >> Yeah, of course. What's your name? >> Nice to meet you. >> Nice to meet you, Michelle. >> Thanks for letting us have on >> you like. [6:13] >> Where's the best uh angle for the Here you >> good? Yes. You raise your right hand. Make sure you do that. I, Orin Kip, do solemnly swear >> I, Orin Kip, do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the state of Minnesota >> and the state of Minnesota >> and faithfully discharge the duties >> and faithfully discharge the duties >> of the office of council member >> of the office of council member >> of the city of Bport >> city of Bport >> in the county of Washington >> in the county of Washington >> and the state of Minnesota >> and the state of Minnesota >> to the best Best of my judgment and ability. [6:56] >> Best of my judgment and ability. >> That's it. You're in. >> Would you get a picture of him? >> Well, >> do you want a better one? >> Sure. [7:18] >> Of course. Yeah, it's going to make important decisions. >> Thank you. >> Uhhuh. >> Thank you, mayor. [7:36] >> Okay, >> now you can call the role. >> Council member Bliss >> here. >> Council member Gilmar >> here. >> Council member Kip >> present. >> Council member Hill >> here. Mayor Hansen >> here. All right. Does anyone want to make a motion approving tonight's agenda? [7:57] >> I move to approve the agenda. >> Thanks, Katie. >> I'll second that motion. >> All right. Thanks, Orin. All in favor? >> I >> I >> All right. There are no proclamations. Um, and no one's here for the open form. Let's Did you want to talk a Okay, we'll skip the open forum part. Um, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Um, consider a resolution adopting items 1 through 10, the January 5th city council workshop minutes, city council regular meeting minutes, and city council and planning commission joint meeting minutes. The January payables and receipts, January building plumbing mechanical and zoning permits report. Um, city registration for Bayport Liquor at 1023rd Street North as a state OCM [8:45] approved lower potency hemp edible retailer. Offsale liquor license for the Langford Exchange at 328 Fth Avenue North. Reimbursement policy for damages caused by a city water main break or sanitary sewer backup. [9:01] and special event application from Kenny Croy Girl Scouts for Twilight Camp in June at Lakeside Park and a special event application from Anderson Corporation for their quarter century picnic August 7th and 8th at Lakeside Park. And that's it. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? [9:23] >> I move to adopt resolution approving the consent agenda. >> Thanks, Carl. >> I'll second. >> Thanks, Ethan. All right. Roll call. >> Council member Bliss. >> I. >> Council member Gilmore. >> I. [9:38] >> Council member Kip. >> I. >> Council member Hill. >> I. >> Mayor Hansen. >> I. All right. That's approved. There are no public hearings. There's no unfinished business. There's no new business. So, we will move on to city council leazison reports. We gave Orin the easiest meeting ever for his first meeting. [9:56] >> Start me off slow. >> Yeah. But you already made a motion or seconded a motion. It's all good. Um, so liaison reports want to start at Carl. >> Yeah, Lake Elmo Airport Advisory Commission meets next week. Uh, council member Kip will be filling in for me and then had a chance to join a few of the council and staff uh, touring the the prison. I'm sure others will will speak on that as well. Uh, looking forward to continued conversations with the state on that property. [10:27] >> Awesome. Ethan, did the cable commission get together? Uh, >> we were supposed to meet, but we had to reschedule. So, we're meeting, I don't know, next week or Okay. In the next couple weeks. >> There's so much to talk about in March. >> I know. And I also was at the prison tour. >> You were? Yeah. [10:42] >> Yeah. So, >> any thoughts you want to share about it or >> No, I think it's interesting. It's a It's a big property, that's for sure. It'll be interesting to see what happens with it. >> Yes, definitely. Did you have any leazison assignments yet? >> No, I did not. Okay, Katie Bal still. [10:58] >> So BCAL. Yep. Um BALL. They approved the budget for the stage for the band. They did get good for Gary back for the band for Derby Days again since it got rained out. We thought we could get them a little more chance again. [11:13] >> Good. >> Um and then the dates they put on to their Facebook events. So I'll just run through some of them. The Easter egg hunt is the first one. Uh yep. First one. April 4th, it's a Saturday. They'll be at Barkers. And then the bar crawl is May 9th, Saturday. And that's down here. [11:32] I don't know if it says where they're starting and ending yet. I don't think they know yet. >> Um the garage sale is June 5th and 6th. The ice cream social is June 3rd and Derby Days is September 18th and 19th this year. >> Wonderful. >> Yeah. And then I uh their next meeting is Thursday, February 19th at the Legion. Okay. [11:54] >> And then I also went to um I'm part of the parent group meeting at Anderson Elementary and we're looking into doing cool shirts for the kids um since they're done here and they're either moving on to middle school which the fifth graders are done here and then or going to the new school. So we're looking to maybe find somebody to donate money to make t-shirts for that would something about the old school being in with the new school. Something to those terms. So, if anyone knows any great t-shirt designer or want to donate, reach out to the parent group at Anderson Elementary. And then I also go I'm a part of the um SCVA baseball board and they were looking into maybe lo using Lakeside for some type of [12:41] practice. So, I don't know if they've reached out to you, Joe, at all, but they're hoping >> I had heard maybe they were going to do soccer down there. Yeah, cuz they're losing. Well, they didn't use Barker or Barkers that much last year, but now that's completely from Did we know that? [12:59] >> Um, St. Croy Catholic might be using it and St. Croy Prep. >> Okay, >> that's news to you. >> Well, that's what we were told at the meeting. >> Okay. I would talk to the office support specialists that booked the stuff because that's interesting. I've never heard of Catholics. [13:17] Yeah, they use Pero for like T-ball and that's great, but maybe something for the older kids like Lakeside would be good as long as it's not flooded, which they know is >> part of the issue and they're on it. So, >> okay, great. Thank you for that. Yeah. I um actually to go off of your point about the school and these kids and >> I was talking to the staff there um about is there's going to be something to Memorial like uh >> can people come and say goodbye to the school before it closes and they're working on it but there's no plan and of course they're all very busy. So I'm >> if anyone wants to take the lead on that would be great. [13:56] >> Good idea. Um, okay. So, I wanted to close the loop because we all received an email from a resident that just basically voiced that they're in favor of rank choice voting. Do you remember that email we all got? >> And I just kind of took it and responded and she didn't really have a lot of information about it, but just wanted us to know that um that's something she's thinks we should consider. And I explained to her how it could work okay for like the mayor level, but city council, it's always at least two seats are up. open. So, you're kind of already choosing to. So, I'm not sure how rank choice voting would work. And so, I didn't hear back, but um also have been in communication with Brandon Van Aston. He's the new owner of Hartfeld Silks that's going to be the cannabis retailer. And he learned that [14:43] creator of Dots next door is so it's he owns both of those buildings now. And um she's no longer going to lease. So, that space will be available for lease. starting. Oh, it already is. I think it was the end of January. So, if anyone knows of anyone that would like a little spot in on our not technically Main Street, but you know what I mean, Main Street, um just uh reach out to me and I can connect you with Brandon. Uh I went to on the 7th I went to the uh Chambers World Snow Kickoff at the Wild Hair. Um it's been all over the news, the world's known sculpture thing, but we don't need to go there. I also went to the watershed meeting on the ETH. Um main [15:31] takeaway there was that we uh so everyone every one of the partner cities in this watershed group pays there's like a formula kind of like our fire department, right, where we pay into the wershed. And so it was brought up that maybe it should be relooked at because Baytown is getting smaller and Bayport is getting bigger. And so they were kind of saying maybe we should look at how the fee structure works then because of the square the acreage that we took from Baytown that got annexed in. I know. So anyways, it be um so we decided that we're going to have uh they're going to relook at that formula every time there's a census. So at least it's going to be looked at every 10 years. So, that was one decision we made. They're also doing these really cool like um collector bags [16:18] that they're testing in the um storm drains and they only had a few of them out in some not in Bayport. But it'll be interesting to see how those work out for them and because I think it's a cheaper way of kind of trying to collect the debris that gets in there rather than digging in. it kind of can hang there and so you learn all kinds of cool things at the watershed we're branch um let's see I went to the regional council of mayors meeting on the 12th um super interesting um mayors her from St. Paul and Fry were both there which is highly unusual for them to come to our regional council and mayor's meeting. Um her had a chance to talk before she had to leave early but she talked about how the ICE operations [17:04] are affecting their community and Friday did as well at the end and before in between there we had a very lively discussion about multifamily housing. Um there was a group of property managers and developers that came to kind of talk about working with cities and the hindrances that they find and how housing is a big deal. So we need more housing and they're like can we just have like a streamlined process basically like a a template for every city that's just the same? We're like no it doesn't work that way. So it was it was a good discussion. and they kind of finally understood that, yeah, Bloomington isn't the same as Bayport or Newport or all these other cities and you can't have just streamlined. [17:46] Um, let's see, the 12th was also the fire relief association meeting. The financials for that are in excellent shape. Um, returns on those investments are even higher than the benchmarks. So, nothing to worry about there. We will actually at our next meeting be um discussing whether so someone from is it technically parah that so they're going to come and talk about the state managing the funds instead of having this fire relief board. So we could eliminate the cost of having an audit and some other things but we want to better understand that and whether it's worth it. You also have to if you have a fire relief board people have to volunteer to be on it. So that's right now we got great people and they want to [18:32] do it, but in the future can we keep that going? So So that'll be interesting to learn. Hopefully I can report back on that. And then um the the bank sponsored team Malta again as I announced last month. So I got to go on a tour with them along with Chief Eisinger. Um super interesting because he's going to visit Malta. So try to visit Malta while he's uh abroad. So he learned some things and the best part is the what they call a clap around at the school. So we did that again. Um it was a different teammate that went with the captain this time. So she was tearyeyed >> watching all the kids clap as we walked through the school and cheer them on. So it was it was a really nice day. I [19:17] attended the library board meeting on the 20th and Jill does a pretty good job of summarizing everything and that's in our packet. We don't wasn't really too much more we talked about. And then I went on the tour. Um, huge takeaway from that for me and from that packet is that there are 57 buildings on 1 million and 1 million square feet of usable space and on a 100 acres. [19:44] I mean, who would have thought that's what's there for the prison? So, so anyways, we got to see maybe six buildings, I think, out of 57 on our tour. So, it's very very insightful and um there's some really cool spaces there. It would be nice if we could preserve some of that, but we'll see see what happens. We haven't got to see the warden's house, which apparently anyone can rent the warden's house if they want for conferences or meetings. [20:12] Maybe that would be a better breakfast. >> There you go. All right. So, do you want to do any any highlights from the staff reports, Matt, or you want to skip it? Um, >> is there anything in there that was worth pointing out? [20:29] >> I don't know. Oh, oh, one intriguing I'm was looking through Sarah. She's not here tonight. Uh, just the the food scraps uh pickup touch base on. Um, it looks like uh in 2024 we have participation of 106 households. In 2025, we are up to 149 households. [20:48] um the information and some of the containers, we do have some here at city hall um or you can pick them up for free um with the county and just schedule that. So, um pretty significant participation there. [21:03] >> Yeah. Do we have bags too or just the bins? A little >> I don't I can't remember if we have any bags left. We did have bags at one time. >> Yeah, it's really easy to order the bags and they're free. You get two huge boxes of them every year. so easy to do this. So, I hope I I wish that they could track like like we could have a competition with cities and we could be like the one that gets like the highest percentage of people doing the Wouldn't that be fun? I think that would be >> to that point. I don't think they actually track usage. They track how many people have signed up. [21:34] >> Well, I know because they can't really track usage. We talked about that. But, you know, >> Yep. Uh, one other big one I would like to mention is the railroad quiet zone. Um, every two to three years the I love how the federal government works. Uh, every 2 to 3 years you have to decide the city is responsible for reaffirming essentially the quiet zone. So, we're in the process of that. You have to go through and identif update all of the railroad crossings, send them in to about 10 or 12 different people just so that um you can uh um renew it the uh quiet zone essentially. Yeah. So, we did that. [22:12] >> Yep. >> Yep. >> That's >> because there was a time when we didn't and we heard from everybody that lives by there. So, >> yes, if we don't do it, the train start sounding they just starting their horns again. >> Um, with that said, um, city staff would be open to uh any questions council might have. [22:30] >> Okay. And Allan's here. Do you want to come up and talk or not? I mean, >> oh, I guess >> you don't have to. >> I don't have to, but I just want to know. We still have a few minutes. >> Yeah. For the fire department members, the end of uh January was pretty tough and that cold snap. We assisted >> Hudson fire, >> uh Cottage Grove fire, lower SR Valley fire, and Stillwater fire on house fires and building fires. So, the guys froze out there. And we've already had a ice rescue yesterday. So, just use caution out there. So, >> with that, >> any questions? Thanks for the reminder about caution because the plant is running again right now and that means the water is >> went in one down and after [23:17] >> okay >> thanks thanks for all you guys do and it's >> a tough job so >> okay does anyone have any other announcements >> record time movement to adjourn anyone >> you should do it Yeah, >> I move to adjourn the meeting. [23:38] >> Thanks, Orin. Thanks, Carl. All in favor? >> I. All right, we're out of here. >> 10 years.