All right, we're not having Cassie's not here, so we're going to be ready to start in a minute here. Once uh once Jenny gets back to the helm ready. Okay. Stand for pledge of allegiance, please. To the flag of the United States of Americ here. Thank you very much. Can I get a motion to adopt the agenda, please? So moved. So move council member Woods. Second, council member McKenzie. All those in favor say I. I. Thank you. Presentations. All right. We got two presentations this evening. The first one up is the Arbor Day proclamation. Whereas in 1872, the Nebraska Board of Agriculture established a special date to be set aside for planting of trees. And whereas this holiday called it Arbor Day was first observed in the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska. And whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. And whereas trees can be a solution to providing climate change and reducing erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water, cutting heating and cooling cost, monitoring the temperature, cleaning the air, producing life-giving oxygen, and providing habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees are a renewable resource, giving us paper, wood for homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products. Whereas trees in our city increase property values, enhance the economic vitality of business areas, and beautify our community. And now, therefore, Mayor John Ni for the city of North St. Paul, Minnesota does hereby proclaim Friday, April 25th, 2025 as Arbor Day in North St. Paul. And I urge all of the citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and support the efforts to protect our trees and woodlands. Thank you. The next presentation is uh National Animal Therapy Day. Whereas there are thousands of pet pet partner therapy animal teams serving communities across the United States. Whereas scientific research shows that interacting with therapy animals can reduce stress, relieve depression, slow heart rate, lower blood pressure, and strengthen the immune system. And whereas therapy animal teams in the city of North St. all play an essential role in improving human health and well-being through the human animal bond. And whereas these exceptional therapy animals who partner with their human companions bring comfort and healing in those in need and whereas therapy animal encourages the people of the city of North St. Paul to celebrate the therapy animals and their human handlers. So now therefore on behalf of the city council and the city of North St. Paul, Mayor John Mangi for the city of North St. Paul does hereby proclaim Tuesday, April 30th, 2025 as National Therapy Day. Thank you. Next up is our consent agenda. So item A, April 1st, 2025 workshop and regular meeting minutes. Item B, general claims of 1,188,89363. Item C, H claims of 37,46465. Item D, proposed ordinance amending chapter 117 of the North St. Paul City Code consumption and display permits. Item E, parks and open space master plan, final approval. Item F, ASME non-essential union supplemental agreement. Item G, charitable gambling permit, Metro North Metro Flex Academy annual carnival May 9th of 2025. Item H, building permit report for March of 2025. and item res. Thank you. Anybody like to pull anything? No. If not, can I get a motion to adopt the consent agenda? So moved, your honor. So moved. Council member Norby. Second. Second. Council member Woods. All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you. Open to the public. Jeff Schmidt, is it? Yes. All right. How are you? I'm good. Yourself? Good. Um, I'm here tonight. Uh, I'm Jeff Schmidt, uh, 251616th Avenue East, North St. Paul. Uh, nearly and I'm here on behalf of St. Peter's Catholic Church, nearly lifelong member there and nearly lifelong resident. And uh I'm just here to ask for your consideration as you consider the um special event um umbrella license fee changes that uh if there can be any consideration to nonprofits or churches or that sort of thing. Um so it doesn't negatively impact um their ability to host um events with food trucks or craft shows or whatever the case may be. So and uh that's why I'm here. All right. You appreciate it. Thanks for coming. All right, kid. Yeah, Carrie welcome. Good evening. Carrie Urban. I'm here on behalf of the Church of St. Peter at 2600 Margaret Street. Feels really weird to sit on that side of the room. Um like Jeff said, um we're really concerned about the proposed changes in um the special event permit. Um, for us, the ability to, if we lose that umbrella license, which we've operated on the last several years, um, it's really going to inhibit our ability to attract food trucks to the city of North St. Paul. Now, people can say just take from the car show. Well, after 13 weeks of eating car show food, they're all delicious, but we kind of like a little variety, and we we'd like to bring in some different trucks. Where the issue comes in, um, is the fee. the fee for the city because we charge our trucks a participation fee. That's how we that's a big part of our fundraiser. So, we charge them $100 a day to be there and my ability to pay for an umbrella fee that covers all their licenses makes us an attractive city to come to and an attractive event. Um, we're a growing event. Um, we've been growing for we've been doing business this way for the last five or six years. We'd very much like to continue it that way. I'm concerned that if they have to pay for the license that we're not an attractive venue anymore. Um, and that's what we're here to to please ask you to humbly reconsider doing that. I just want to clarify that when we have an umbrella license, which we've been able to get from the city, our trucks are still going through all the due diligence with the city. They're still submitting their insurance. They're still submitting their Ramsey County food license. and they're still either submitting their um fire inspection or they'd have to get one. Um the thing with our event is we're midepptember. By the time trucks get here, they've been inspected thousands of time. I have trucks who are coming from the state fair. I mean, they're they're they're good. They've been inspected and for them to have to pay that additional fee and help us with their contributions to participate really will um inhibit our ability to track trucks. So again, I humbly humbly as a nonprofit in your city who is only a year younger than you, we are for we were um dedicated in 1889. So we've been neighbors a long time. Um please, as an area nonprofit, I please ask you to um consider letting us keep business the way it is with the umbrella permit. Um there's no threat to um health and safety. And I see Jenny's clock is going to run out on me. So, thank you for any consideration you can give us. And I hope you'll see I hope you come to our festival September 20th and 21st. Nice. Thank you, Carrie. Thank you. Appreciate that. All right, jump into city business action items. Item eight, approve ordinance amending chapter 122 of the North St. Paul city code, which is a special permit. Let me turn that over to attorney Jeff is going to speak to it. Good evening, mayor, members of council. Uh so before you you have uh something of a cleanup ordinance um on the um special event permits and food truck or food vendor permits uh that have been handled here. Uh so what this specific ordinance is doing is actually removing a vendor license requirement that is currently inactive under the code. So how it used to work is the event had to get a you know a blanket event permit and then each vendor had to get a vendor license which was a fairly proforma thing. Uh now we have um put in place a slightly more robust food vendor permit. Uh and that was we've had this discussion that was with the fire department. Um there were some you know safety concerns that way. Uh and the city council has already approved those permits requiring those permits. So that is an annual permit for food vendors um with the city of North St. Paul um for food trucks I and then it would be a day of inspection if it's a a more of a from scratch like a tent. Um and those have already been approved. So what this is doing is now taking out the uh former requirement that there be an umbrella event permit and a vendor level permit. Uh so now what will need to happen is there will be an event umbrella you know umbrella level event permit for the whole event. That'll be a special event permit and then each food vendor there will need to have a food vendor permit from the city of North St. Paul. There is a fee for that because there is a fire inspection for that. Um but that is an annual license or annual permit and so that would be a oneoff and then it's good for the whole year uh for any operations within the city of North St. Paul. Um so again that that action has been taken already and this is just to remove the vendor permits uh and then as well to correct um there were a number of uh typos and misspellings. So as long as we're changing it, I figured I'd we'd go through and fix those. That's all I have on this particular one and would be happy to stand for any questions. When we Oh, thank you. When we approved the food truck thing, um, and maybe my memory is faulty. Um, it was Did we say that the North St. Paul license was reciprocal or they had it for the state? I if they had it for somewhere else, it it also covered it for the city or they could have an an excuse me an egg license which covered them for the entire state or they could have a county permit that would cover them for that county was my understanding is that so if the food truck has a state or Ramsey County then they do not need the North St. Paul one in addition to Right. Well, no. and they wanted that to to be in place for even if it was um that they had had one in Ramsey County that just the followup of getting that information from that city or that from that event that to follow up that information, get that from them, follow up with any questions that they may have had and make sure everything looks good. Um so they were still looking to implement that fee. So then they're saying that if they're bringing in a food truck that has not been inspected by our city fire that they would be have to pay that uh inspection fee prior to them serving food up at the church. Yes, that is correct. So there are there are sort of two sets of licenses that a food truck needs. So they have a um county or department of agriculture food safety license. Uh and that is not something that we're getting involved in. We're leaving that for the county. They would also then need a city fire inspection. Uh and that was the specifically that was the the fire department's concern. um was the sort of you know doing an inspection of gas lines and burners and those sorts of things based on a couple of recent accidents. So that we do not currently have um anything in the code that would make that reciprocal with other inspections because I I don't know that uh there is a general requirement for fire inspections like that in state law or at the county level. um could we could potentially look into I know there are some other city level licenses that do have a more robust fire inspection. We could look into adding something to say that you know if there is a fire safety inspection component to another license they hold then we could make it reciprocal. Um, but it would still be there would still be some amount of administrative work to make sure that they do have that fire safety component in addition to the food safety component. Okay. Then you there's I've seen many food trucks around. Some of them have multiple four, five, 10 units running through the city. Okay. They bring only one truck here to be inspected. That's the only truck that will be able to sell food at this location in our city because of the fact that let's say that truck was number four, number 9, 10, and 11, they have not been inspected by our city. Even though they're thinking that they had one inspected is going to be come be able to come here. They're going to actually have to technically get all of them inspected. Is that something that we can thin down to? they can bring in a different vehicle if that one's down that night. Uh so the the way that the ordinance uh that has been passed uh already for the food truck vendor ordinance, the way that that is defined is it defines it on a per truck basis. So each truck requires that permit requires an inspection. Um, I bet we could work something out where, you know, because we have the the fee the fee is mostly for the fire inspection. Uh, and I bet it would be a lot more effective to inspect 10 trucks at once, right? Than to inspect that way one truck town 10 different days, right? Um, it would require some further tweaking to the code language, but I bet we could, um, we could talk with the fire department. I bet we could work out some kind of a formula for um, you know, the fe the fee gets you, you know, an inspector and then if you bring a bunch of units to be inspected, that would potentially work. Um, that would, again, that would require an amendment to how the code is currently written. Uh, and I I do not believe that would address the specific concern that has been raised here of they would still, you know, they would still need a city permit um to operate within the city um even if they've been operating at, for example, the state fair. Okay. So, if she were to bring in a vehicle that was at the fair and if they had two vehicles, the one vehicle that she had scheduled to come here was broke down, that second vehicle would be best to have been uh inspected here. The the you know what I mean the same scenario because if they're at the fair for 10 or 11 days there so could something go wrong. Yes. So the way the code is written would require an inspection of the truck that is operating in the city of North St. Paul. Um, however the vendor wants to go about ensuring that the truck that is here is the truck that has been inspected. And to be clear, this is per inspecting the capability of that truck to operate safely and not or that vendor, the vehicle uh booth, whatever it may be to operate safely within the city limits and ensure that they're not going to, you know, blow up or something like catch fire, harm our citizens. And this applies not just to events like the one at St. Peter, but to the car show and everything like that. So, so yeah, it would apply to the car show. It would apply to a food truck that wants to park on a corner in a parking lot for a couple of random days. Yes. Any food vendors. And again, it is an annual fee. So, if there's a food truck that is here for two days in the spring and then gone all summer and then wants to come back for St. Peters, if they've already done that inspection once that year, their initial payment of that fee would still be good. So they would not have to get a new permit for coming back good from the day that they inspect it until one day of the next following year a certain day whatever how do they consider that is that per month month to month I mean month to the year of the next year how do they want to do that uh so it uh all licenses issued expire on so I guess I perhaps misspoke slightly so it it's um April 30th of each year is the turnover date and that's just an administrative easy to keep track of that day. So if they got an inspection on May 1st, then they are they are good. They do not have to pay another fee. They do not have to get another inspection until the following May 1st. Okay. And there is no changes what the cost of the special event permit. Yeah. What was that cost to get that? Well, that permit fee is waved because what's that? Right. But it's good profit. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And the fee for the trucks is $80 per I believe it's $85 per year per food truck. Yeah. Which for most food trucks is easily recoverable within sorry. Yeah. worth of sales. It's a $80 fee uh as long as they are applying at least seven days before they need the license to issue and then it's slightly more expensive uh if they need either a rush inspection uh or if we catch them without the license and they need to get an after the fact uh they would be probably escorted out of the city at that point without a permit. They would be um not necessarily escorted out. they would be shut they would not be able to operate. They would be shut down for that day and then they would have to get the permit which would require uh it's a $160 after the fact permit fee. So just to make sure I'm understanding things correctly, the the because of this change, the the special event permit fee is going away for nonprofits that you guys already determined that. Okay. So, so, so, so, so, so that's already done. And then the additional thing would be the $80 for the food truck, which has already also already been decided, right? Any more discussion? Nope. So the the approval is that we go with the way it's written here. It's the the ordinance and a clean up and clean up that and then and it goes and it covers the what we discuss here with the $80 and the once a year. So the the $80 and the once a year inspection was a previous ordinance that has already been passed. already done. The ordinance that is in front of you tonight is removing that individual that each um right now there's a still a requirement that so you'd need an umbrella event permit, a vendor license and a food vendor license. This would be to remove the vendor license requirement and clean up a couple of typos. So that is the ordinance that is in front of you tonight. So, just to make sure I'm understanding this and and I appreciate you um bearing with me, approving the ordinance in front of us today truthfully has no bearing on them or any nonprofit within the city. And it would be up to us if we want to revisit if the food truck ordinance is overly harmful upon events. But but the ordinance before us today really has no effect on them. I'm not sure it has no effect. So it does if they are holding hosting a special event at which there are vendors those vendors are required to get an individual vendor license for the event. So this would have the effect of reducing the burden on an event at St. Peters by removing the reducing the number of approvals required. And then yes, if you wanted to revisit the food truck inspection and the food food vendor fee, that would then have to be um a subsequent action. So then if she brings a vehicle in that has not been inspected, they decide to set up here, they have to pay the cost to have it inspected while it's sitting here before they open up the shop. So that would be the same effect as whether they came down to the fireh hall and and got it inspected. Uh yes, depending it changes how much the inspection costs depending on if they brought it seven days prior to the event it would be 80. If they brought it the day of, it's it would be 125. Okay. And then if they just try and get away with it and get caught, then it's 160. Okay. C can I ask a favor, mayor? Um, with your permission, I I see members of the audience shaking their head about what Jack does. Would you be okay if I invite one of the members of the audience up front to see where the disconnect is? Sure. Carrie, would you approach again? Thank you. I just want to make sure I'm understanding this so I can vote accordingly. Um, in my communications with city staff, the issue is the fire and I agree. I don't want a truck to blow up my event either. We my insurance requirements through the arch dascese are probably more stringent than the city of North St. Paul's. Um, I was told by staff that as long as they have a fire inspection from a reciprocal city in the metro, which all of my trucks do by the time they get to September, that they could submit that and that would take care of the fire requirement. That's why we're requesting, you know, some help with not having these trucks have to pay again because, like I said, we're the middle of September. We're the end of the season. These trucks have been licensed and inspected all over town and we're still sharing all of that information with the city. Every single one of our trucks submits their certificate insurance listing Church of St. Peter, listing city of North St. Paul. They submit their Ramsey County food license. They submit a fire inspection if for some I do have a vendor who comes from Sterns County. He probably's going to have to pay for the fire inspection because he's probably not going to have one that our city will will um accept. But I'm I'm I want you to understand we care about the fire inspection as well. We're asking for some financial loyalty assistance so that we can continue to use food trucks as a fundraiser. The other problem we have is North St. Paul's small. I don't have a lot of trucks to pick from. If we were Maplewood or Oakdale, they do huge food truck events. I could just go down the catalog and and and pick out the trucks I want. Um, you know, we don't have a lot of food truck events in town other than the car show. The car show us and I believe the city brings in some trucks for the autumn arts festival, but even with the autumn arts festival. See, you wish I didn't work here in News. At the Autumn Arts Festival, the city has them pay for the license, but the city doesn't ask for anything in return. Not a cut of pro of profits, not a participation fee. So, for those vendors, it makes perfect sense. where the where the challenge is is with us because we do use it as a fundraiser. So again, Carrie, I I don't disagree with the thing you said there. Um but my understanding is the fire license part of it we voted on two months ago. Now that might have already been overly burdensome. Watch that meeting, right? But now, we might have been overly burdensome to you, but the part we're voting on today, what what impact does the part we're voting on today have to them? Because the firetruck part has already been passed. And we have full agreement and participation in that, right? I have kids all over that parking lot. I want nobody to get hurt. The problem is is if we lose the ability to pay the umbrella fee, which covers all of my vendors, so that they don't have to pay. That's that's the challenge we're at because again, we use it as a fundraiser. We're we're a nonprofit, you know, that's how we pay for our ministries. That's how we serve our neighbors. Sure. But this doesn't change that. You already passed the $80. We're asking to right right now for my event this year. The city of North St. Paul will bill me $95. That covers all of my vendors. That goes away next year. All of my vendors have to pay for their own license individually and then I won't be able to use that as a fundraiser because again, can they make it? Yeah. But we're we're a short-term event. We're a few hours on Saturday night and a few hours on Sunday. Um and we've been known to have rainstorms go through, you know. Yeah. Um and so we're just we're just humbly humbly asking um for um some kind of concession workaround for the nonprofits who are trying to use food truck events as fundraisers. And I understand what you're saying. I'm just trying to make sure I understand things right. But to me, if if we wanted to give uh St. repeats what they're asking for. We would need to visit revisit the fire food truck license that we already voted in. Us voting yes today really doesn't our trucks are going through the exact same process of a license to right. But to to give you what you want in my understanding, we would have to revisit what we already approved two months ago. voting yes on this does doesn't have much bearing on what they're asking for reducing the cost that the vendors would have to pay because they don't have to pay the vendor license. My understanding is is if we can still pay the umbrella fee which is how we've operated. Um that is the best solution for us besides this that's outside of the realm of the what we're voting on tonight but it does impact my trucks. Right. So what Jason is saying is we would have to revisit what we've already passed two months ago in order to address your issue. We cannot address that tonight. Well, the I guess the part of the ordinance I'm referring to is removal of the umbrella permit because that has worked very well for us. That's not in the It's in this ordinance that's being removed, right? But we would have to amend it and then send Yeah. So, okay. How does this do for other ones as far as other events other places that there's not a lot of other people that do what we do during the Halloween and then Casey Lake with the arts festival that's really and St. Marks hasn't gotten into this yet but you know who's to say they couldn't So I think I maybe see where the disconnect is coming from. So in the the part of the ordinance that is being deleted, it does say umbrella fee. Any special event conducted by a public charity is subject to one special event vendor fee for all vendors. That's it. Amen. So it is removing the umbrella, but it is also removing the requirement that there be any vendor fees. So it is you no longer have to pay one vendor fee. you now have to pay zero vendor fees, but my but they have to pay the food truck vendor fee. And so that is how it is. That's where the that's where the the challenges. And so the ordinance tonight does not have anything to do with the food truck vendor fee. It is just removing the individual vendor fee. I want my umbrella fee. I can't wait to pay you my umbrella fee. which which is how it's going to be this year. What's going to affect you is the next year. Correct. So if you wanted to bring this back, you would have time to do that. Again, not affecting what you're voting on tonight. So, she's good. We still vote on tonight because this removing the Yeah. I mean, my my um at this point in time, my recommendation would be that a we do vote on this tonight, but we also asked Brian to contact local charities and get the um cost burden that this will change in in 26 to a workshop to see if we would want to revisit the food truck ordinance. Um, but from everything I'm hearing, I I because it'll actually reduce their fee to me voting yes today on this ordinance makes sense, but revisiting to see if we were overburdensome upon local charities wouldn't um might make sense for a workshop topic. I can tell you I've done a ton of research on this. I do a lot of work with Minnesota Food Truck Association and it's really all over the map. Some cities totally exempt their nonprofits, some don't. Um I I I was trying to find a trend or numbers, but it truly is all over the map. I know Ardan Hills, they just they got rid of their food truck ordinance. They just let make people be licensed through the county, but it it it is um every city really is kind of doing their own thing. So, vote on this tonight and then have a discussion if you'd like to bring it back. Yes, please. All right, we'll do that. Thank you. For a motion. Motion, please. Approve the ordinance of the chapter 22 North Code Enforcement Special Permit. So moved. So move. Council member Woods. Second. Second. Council member Norvy. All those in favor say I. I. I. Against. Nay. Nay. All right. Next up is the award and sale of the $6.74 million general obligation street construction and utility mods series here to speak to this. Welcome. Do you want to sit? Sure. I'm going to finish that. Don't take your hand almost. Good evening, mayor, members of the council. Um I'm Michaela Hwitt with Baker Tilly and here to present the results of the city's um issuance for the general obligation street reconstruction and utility bonds um series 2025A. I was here about a month ago um in which the council authorized the sale of the bonds and I know you heard during the work session tonight um kind of a preview of the results of the sale and kind of the volatility of the market. But I'm here again to present the results um share some information and happy to address any questions that you might have um with the uh recommendation to um award or um award the sale um of those bonds. So again, the purpose for the bonds um the proceeds are used to finance um various street reconstruction projects that were identified in the city's 5-year street reconstruction plan for which the city did hold a public hearing um and approve that plan. um various utility projects within the city as well as related costs of issuance for the project. The term of the bonds is 20 years. Um and the um one of the interesting uh pieces in the market was when we presented the pre-sale summary um we were showing a true interest cost of 4.18%. Um there was a lot of volatility in the market last week which um based on all the interest rate increases we were showing um 100 basis point um increase closer to 5.19%. So there was a lot of uncertainty in the market um there uh we were seeing um higher rates less bidders and just general volatility. Um after uh watching the markets yesterday um we were um happy to see that the actual results of the sale were 4.02% 02% and um as we'll see um here I'll go into the uh the actual bids that the city did receive on the issue but this is the bond buyer index which does provide um a preview of the interest rates and you'll see over the last couple weeks or excuse me within the last uh couple weeks the the increase in the rates and again that volatility in the market. So, the city's bond issue, uh, we did receive six biders. Um, you'll see the range of the interest rates with the winning bid of the 4.0217% and the highest bid going all the way up to 4.3263%. In a less volatile market, we'll probably see a little bit less of a spread between the um the the the uh ticks that were um presented with the bids. So, again, you can see a little bit of the volatility in the market. And this is just showing with the bid um what the uh the pricing um related to that bid was for the bonds. Again, here's the uh as the long or excuse me, the semiannual debt service schedule based on the um the uh pricing and um the other aspect of it was the city did go through their annual um uh rating review process. Uh we met with SNP and reviewed their topics of discussion and questions and pleased to um present that the results of the rating review this week week was an upgrade from a double A to A plus. So that's great um great news for the city and reflects the accomplishments that the city's made related to um the financial stability. Um some of the highlights related to that upgrade include um increases in the reserves so you have a stronger sustainable um balance um for the city. also the recent adoption of a formal fund balance policy which again reflects um having um a set uh fund balance uh within the city. Um a long-term operating forecast which results in the u longerterm budget and planning um as well as the uh commitment by the city to maintain a structural balance and and overall um strong financial performance. So again, the rating, why do we have it? Well, it's a measure of the city's financial strength and ability to repay the debt. Um, and really at the end of the day, the stronger the rating, the lower the interest cost. And the estimated interest savings, um, going from a double A to a double A plus is about, give or take the market, um, eight basis points. So, we expect to see, um, interest rate savings as a result of the, um, the rating increase as well. Here's um, showing there's three rating um, agencies, Moody's, Fitch, and SNP. And you'll see the double A plus is on the very high um grade credit and it's one below the AAA within the credit rating report. Um some of the highlights the credit strengths again um stable tax base, strong operating performance and really uh available reserves and um strong management practices that lead to um um strong financial performance. um some credit challenges and these are are um some you can control, some you cannot, right? A fully built out community and they also look at the um incomes um the average incomes within the um within your city. We always look at factors that could lead to an upgrade. Um if you have improved income levels, which again, you know, based on the the uh per um resident income, median income um as well as um there was some consideration and I know um Dan has talked has been conversations about the balance of debt and the structure of debt versus cash payments. Um but again another consideration is what the long-term debt burden for the city is and what that um whether it's the the term of the debt and the overall level um factors that could lead to a downgrade and um the way the city's performing. This seems not the trend and seems unlikely. But if there were continual um deficits or um unbalanced budgets or draws that fund balance, which again your fund balance policy maintains what your um minimum policy or excuse me, your minimum fund balance um will be. So the recommendation for tonight is to approve a resolution that awards um 6.53 million to Northland Securities based on their low bid of the 4.021%. Um, with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have on um either the the sale or the rating or any general questions. Questions? Thank you for your presentation. Was very thorough. I appreciate it. If not, can I have a motion? If there's no questions, I'll make Okay. Council member McKinzy. I'll second. Second. Council member Woods. All those in favor say I. I. opposed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Appreciate you coming. You want to use the computer? You want to sit by her? I don't have a presentation. So, what do you think for she is? Well, you know, if you if you stand up there, you have to do a little song and dance. That's right. Puppet show. All right. I'll announce you first. Item C for city business action items is the 2025 street utility improvement project. Uh city project number receive bid award contract and authorize professional construction services. We have engineer Dolly here to speak to that. Thank you, Brian. Uh Mr. Mayor, members of the council. So, this next item before you is contemplating award of a construction contract related to the last item that you just heard in terms of the bonding for the 2025 street and utility improvement project. Um that project is uh includes improvements to streets and utilities and some other items which I'll uh go through just in a sec on a few streets. Gerald Avenue between Mohawk and Msabi. Shauny Drive between Mcnite and the Casey Lake Parking lot. Uh Buell Avenue between Msabi Avenue West and Msabi Avenue East. A little bit of a loop there. and also some improvements within Casey Lake Park, including uh the east parking lot off of Shaunie Mcnite. Um some trail improvements on the north side of the park there and improvements to the storm water basin to accommodate uh Ramsey Washington Metro wershed uh requirements for these types of road improvements. And we're also taking care of the storm water improvements for the future 2027 project. So, we're just working in the area once getting it out of the way. So, when we get to 2027, we won't need to do anything. We're we're banking wetland or not wetland, watershed credits, if I guess I can put it that way. So, uh that's the project. Uh again, uh full road reconstruction, new curb and gutter, uh new driveway aprons for everybody, um new water man and water services to the property line with shut off valves for everyone. Uh and uh line sanitary sewer services to protect uh against the instance that you know an old clay tile sewer service might collapse and then we've got an issue with a multi-million dollar road on top of that. So, we're trying to do everything we can to kind of protect that investment and then walk away and reset that infrastructure life cycle clock for this whole area. Um, trying to address as many things as we can. So, uh, the project was in the capital improvement plan. Um, and moving forward then we opened bids on April 7th. Uh, the bids did come in favorably. So they ranged from a high at 5,745,000 uh down to the low uh of 5,137,000. So that's a pretty good spread. Uh the engineers estimate was right around uh $5.5 million. So right in the middle. That's where we want our estimates to be. We want some bids higher and some bids lower. And I guess the most interesting thing to me was that the low two bids were only separated by $23,000 on a bid that was over $5 million. So that generally indicates that um we're probably getting the best market price for the improvements that we possibly could given the timing and whatever else, the price of tea in China. I mean, there's a lot of factors that go into these projects, but uh I was very satisfied with the outcome here. Um, as you heard with the uh bond sale information and uh deposit into the construction account, um we uh pulled this all apart with the uh low bids and made sure that everything including a 5% contingency just in case uh there's some construction cost overruns. Plus with the engineering indirect cost, there is adequate funding with these bids to account for everything, including some, like I said, some contingency extra just in case. So, uh, we're comfortable that, uh, funding is in a good place to pay for these things given the bond sale results. Um, and, uh, I guess the other thing, uh, before I go into reminding you of what the action item is here, I just want to remind the council and the public that we do have an open house tomorrow at the Casey Lake uh, building from 6:00 to 7:00. It's just an open house, so there isn't like a presentation. you have to be there at a specific time for, but certainly welcome any welcome any of the council members or anyone from the public to come and learn more from city staff, from project staff, folks that work with me. Uh we'll have uh the electric director will be there because there is some electric work that's going on kind of around the same time. Um, and we've sent out some letters to invite people and let them know that we do have some things happening in the neighborhood before the city project starts, which is uh mostly gas company and some Century Link telecommunications work that'll be happening. And we want those guys to hopefully get done and get out of the way before the city work starts. So, um, if a contract is awarded here tonight, we anticipate a start of actually city construction, not necessarily the gas company, but the city work might start, um, late May, maybe early to mid June, I think, is fair. So, not right away by any means. Um, but, uh, still should be plenty of time to wrap up most things. We think that, uh, we will have, uh, substantial completion, which doesn't include every aspect of the project, but uh, there will be a drivable road. We should have all the utility work done by um October. There might be a little bit of cleanup before Thanksgiving, before the construction season formally ends. And then we always see a little bit of activity the following year in 2026 for um maybe growing some grass that didn't come in, some minor landscaping, planting of trees, uh and that last layer of asphalt that goes in after one freeze thaw cycle. So, um, that's the general time frame frame and what we're expecting, but like I said, uh, certainly come to the open house tomorrow night, 6:00 to 7:00 at the Casey Lake building, learn more. Um, and with that, the action items before you tonight are twofold. There's two different ones. First one is to uh award by resolution a construction contract uh to the low bidder RL Larson Excavating in the amount of 5,137,76848. And the second item, which I can't recommend this, uh Ron left me hanging here. He was gonna come up here with me. His name is also on the staff report. Um but there is a professional services agreement for that construction phase for WSB. Now that includes um constru full-time construction observer. So we're having Mark Lynch come back who's worked on the last several projects for us and is he's actually a North St. Paul um born and raised. I think he lives right next door in Maplewood right now, but very familiar with the community, our construction standards, uh public works, electric department. Um and so we're happy to have him back on the project. um plus just contract administration and um surveying, staking, that sort of thing. So, pretty typical. Um and so that's also as a sep separate item to approve that uh construction services proposal uh with WSB in the amount of $625,936. I can make that recommendation. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Since I cannot Thank you, Brian. Um so, with that, I'll stand for any questions the council might have. Are you satisfied with the uh contractor? I think he's out of cloud. Uh yes. So RL Larson is a contractor that um we I don't think we've ever had them in town before. I don't think they've been around that long. Yeah. And and um so and I have not worked with them before. um I don't have any reason to like disqualify them or you know so we're looking forward to working with them and like I said we've got controls quality assurance built into the contract or with some of the folks that work for me to make sure and keep eyes on them uh to make sure they're doing a good job. um certainly encourage the the council and the public to utilize our communication tools with the hotline and if they do if they're concerned about something whether it's related to the contractor or not let staff know and we will uh address that sort of thing. Sometimes for example they start their diesels too early in the morning which is a disruption to the neighborhood and there are specific hours 7 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. that they need to be within. So sometimes we get some complaints like that. Um, and it's nothing against RL Larson. I guess we just don't have any evidence to say that they won't do a good job, but we're looking forward to working with them as a new contractor in town and hold them to our standards really is what it comes down to. I've read the other listings and I' I've been to jobs that all these other ones have been, but I've never been to RL Johnson because or Larson because he's up in St. Cloud. Seems like I read some that he's like four to six years old contract. I've heard they're doing a project for the city of Lino Lakes right now, which includes some deep sewer. So certainly more complicated uh utility work than what's included in our project. Um well, at least our local they're doing they're doing work local. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yep. Yeah. And some, you know, Northdale is from up uh in that area. They have worked in town before. Ryan Contracting is from Shakapey Savage. Um Yeah. So I think um I mean the days when we had Shipsky in town, those were nice because they're all right next door. Well, uh, I knew what you're getting. Yeah. But, you know, trustworthy operation. Yeah. The fact that they're coming from St. Cloud, I guess, um, doesn't concern me at all. In 2014, we had a contractor that was based out of MOA, uh, and they did an amazing job. Um, Redstone Contracting. So, you know, I think it just depends on how they operate away from their headquarters, right? And you know they may have shop and properties or I don't know how they do it but you know I'm I don't think there's anything to disqualify these folks from and they've got all the concrete all submitted through the bids were do then and did they uh so we river yeah so I don't know about supplier but we uh hold them to mindot specifications for all concrete walk and curb uh and that's a part of our city specifications and we do have quality control testing for concrete cylinders and they're required to submit their mix design before they get started. And so the engineers will review and approve that prior to uh start of work. So we've got kind of those controls in there. I don't know if it's coming from Knife River or another readymix plant, but we will know that before we start. And generally the plants that we see are Mindot certified plants. So, um, Morgan, one question if you don't mind, and this is irregardless of, um, who you're picking, um, just cuz there's so much uncertainty, um, could you speak to what protections there are for the city, let's say gas and asphalt go five times their price if this, um, uh, contractor happens to default or go under. Um, is is the city protected? And do you believe there's adequate verbiage in the contract for that? Uh I do. Uh Council Member Norby, Mr. Mayor and Council. So um a couple of contractual facts I guess that help protect the city. Um they uh are required to submit a performance bond, right? So their shy is guaranteeing performance under the contract to the full amount of the contract. uh you know, if they were to go out of business or something like that. Um uh we also um uh have I I believe 95% on this. We've got a a non fuel escalator clause in the contract. Some MDOT jobs sometimes they'll allow like if fuel prices spike, they'll allow the contractor to, you know, make a request for some additional compensation. On city jobs, we usually write that out. So, I don't think they'll be able to make that claim. Um, and you know, they're submitting unit prices for things like uh that might have steel or some of the other things that might be volatile volatile right now from a pricing standpoint. So, uh and the pricing was good, right? It was below our estimate. Um and so, the good thing was there wasn't much difference between them. So, it's not like you have a real low one at the end. Yeah. Exactly. Not like a huge outlier, right? That we had two kind of down there. Yeah. And so, um, you know, you never really know. Some contractors have different styles in terms of how they like to, uh, approach the owner, meaning meaning the city of North St. Paul, and I guess myself as the engineer, you know, on the contract on like extras, extra cost. I mean, they're all entitled to their opinion, but there's certainly no reason why we uh we have to hear them, but we don't have to approve their requests for additional compensation, right? Unless they're justified. So uh we do take those uh into account. If there is something that's justified, we might approve that um either by change order or informally. Uh but if if it's something that we think is not within the uh ex expectations of the contract in terms of compensation for performance, um you know, I work for you, not the contractor, right? And so we're we're interested certainly in seeing this project come in as close and hopefully under if everything goes according to plan the contract amount. You've done a good job. We've had quite a few that have appreciate that. Thank you for your due diligence for no rain. Yes, that will help. Yes. Do you want to read the first one so we can uh on it? The the amount. Sure. I can read and then you Yeah, you then he's going to do the second one. Uh yeah. Uh so uh accept uh bids and award by resolution a construction contract for the grand total bid in the amount of 5,137,76848 for the $225 street and utility improvement project city project number 25-01. Thank you. Can I get a motion, please? So move. So move. Council member Woods. Second. Second. Council member McKenzie. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Thank you. And you're gonna have to read the All right. Which one is it? Uh, it is page 160 of 169. Got the big cheese doing this one. Uh, next up, approve construction service proposal with for the 2025 street and utility improvement budget by WSB in the amount of $625,936. Thank you, Ryan. Can I have a motion, please? So moved, your honor. So moved. Council member Norby. Second. Second, Council Member Woods. All those in favor say I. I. Against. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Uh before we move on, I would like to make one correction. I apologize. Uh the print off that I had used numbers that we had calculated uh due to the best educated configuration for the GO bonds that were last week. They changed as of today because we knew exactly what their rates were. So I misspoke talking 6.74 million. She um Kayla said the right number at 6.53 million. that it's a good way to go if you're going if you're going bowl. Might as well for the better. That's right. All right. Reports uh from city manager. So, we had a staff meeting today. Electric has been working um back out at Casey Lake. We got the rest of the lights up for the the trail, which is more along the uh west side and then up to the uh lift station. We haven't gone back behind and around by the houses. We just want to throw it like back bedrooms of those homes, but so that's up and running now, which is great. Um, they've had some training. They did their pull top training and their bucket repel training here this week as well. Um, sent in some of their uh equipment for testing for their high voltage communications. Um, Eva's Eva's been Eva has uh been busy with launching the website which will take place on April 29th at 10 a.m. U don't expect any major disruptions and I think you like the outcome. Um finance of course has been busy with the bond doing the rating. He's been really on top of that prepping all the information for everybody involved. Baker Tilly S&P so he did really did a good job. um place as their uh two new hires that they had have completed their field training. Now they're able to go out in the field on their own now. Um they still have one uh person in training going through that field training process. Um they still are down one officer and one cso, but uh and our cso um will be taking their test probably next month and uh we moved on to the officer. They already did the interview process for him and bring be for hopefully a little while to train on him as the new CSO as he moves on in his career. Um Ray was at Chief School last week, had pretty good attendance, like 400 attendees there. Said it was a good outcome and good training. Uh public works, uh this time of year, they're pretty busy. The road restrictions are coming up tomorrow, so things are going to start happen. Um they got four summer help ready to go and one horse horiculturist uh coming on for the summer. They've been out street sweeping kind of cleaning things up from the winter. Um doing ball field prep too which every year this time they get a little anxious and want that open right away but got a it's built on a box so it takes a little longer to dry out. doing some PVC sewer line sewer line cleaning um that's in progress right now. We've got the lead service line inspections going on again. We got that back online. They're doing probably five to seven uh each day that they're doing the inspections. So picking away at that. Um student build house is coming along. They're working on the sheetrocking right now. So won't be long that thing up and ready to go for the market. Uh been busy. They got two new time on call members starting here and uh classes begin in mid August. They'll be doing a live burn training tomorrow which is at their training center out there on Highway 12 in Con 14. Um new engine is still uh things are moving along well. No more delays. So they're expecting that come mid June. So they're looking forward to that. Um still working with the uh getting door lock bids for uh contractors we've dealt with. So, a lot of good um options out there. So, just keep your check. And then, uh we've been doing fire inspections on our city buildings as well, which I'll be uh finishing up here shortly. So, I got very much reports from council commissions and committees. Well, the EDA met last Tuesday. I think it was in the eth and we uh voted in some president, vice president and the secretary and treasurer and then we start working on the initials of the uh fascia for our city downtown. So that's in the process. We did have two members still absent, but we went on with the uh facade with the facade. Yes. Perfect. Thank you. If I could add to that that program, we should have that up and on open gov as of tomorrow. Oh, nice. Awesome. That's cool. Thank you. Um, arts and culture commission uh met after the day after our last uh city council meeting and talked about the uh arts festival and plans for some of the activities there and the mural that's going to be done over at the historical museum. Okay. So, so facing towards the um Legion. I believe it's facing I believe it's facing towards the uh scout meeting. Oh, scout. Okay, that's fine. All right. I'm not sure what side they're doing. That's going to be great. That's a good spot. Yeah. Thank you, Norby. The planning commission met on the 3rd. Um there were two topics of discussion. One was the approval of the master plan for the parks which we voted in the consent today. And the other is they are discussing the downtown design manual. Had some um great discussion on it. Um and uh more to come on that. But that's probably going to be a couple of meeting discussion of how to um streamline that. But great discussion, great group. Couldn't be more proud of that commission. Great to hear. Thank you for your time for all of you guys when it comes to uh when it comes to your committees and commissions. Thank you. General business. Anything? Nope. All right. What? Nothing for me. All right. Just would like to remind everyone as of today, you can now start putting your yard waste out. Yeah. I got my barrel. It's overflowing. Yesterday, yesterday was out. Oh, you must be Wednesday. Yeah. Yeah. And we're Tuesday. So, ours has been gone for a day. Mayor privilege. Yeah, exactly. Yep. They just come just for me. Just that one truck. Yes. Um I did want to mention that I drove by the um student build home. It really looks nice in that spot. I mean, they did a great job. It fits in really well. Looks like it really belongs there. So really really proud of it. Yes, it's been a great uh we did talk about having Tom in to one of our meetings. Is that still on the schedule? Yes. To thank him for all he's done for our community. Absolutely. Awesome. Good deal. All right. If there's nothing else, I'll ask for adjournment. So moved. So moved. Council member Woods. I'll second. Second. Council member Kinsey. All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you all. Have a good evening. 5th is the next meeting. Appreciate it.