[00:00:00] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, good evening. This is the September 6, 2023, Cottage Grove City Council meeting, which I'm calling to order. The first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance, so if you please rise. [00:00:15] **Group**: 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. [00:00:30] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, will the clerk please do the roll? [00:00:35] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Combata? **Councilmember Combata**: Here. **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Dennis? **Councilmember Dennis**: Here. **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Thiede? **Councilmember Dave Thiede**: Here. **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Olsen? **Councilmember Justin Olsen**: Here. **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Mayor Bailey? **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Here. [00:00:50] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Next on our agenda is Open Forum. This is the opportunity for anyone that wants to speak on something that's not on tonight's agenda; you're welcome to do so at this time. We did have a sign-up sheet out in the entryway, but nobody had signed up, so I'm just looking to see if anybody in the audience wants to speak this evening. Seeing none, I will close Open Forum and we'll move to number five, which is adoption of the agenda with one addendum. [00:01:15] **Councilmember Dennis**: Motion to adopt the agenda with—well, we're doing that for the consent agenda—we're going to ask to pull item O off and remove that from tonight's agenda pending additional preparation by the applicant. [00:01:25] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Okay, thank you. That's a motion by Councilmember Dennis. Second? [00:01:30] **Councilmember Justin Olsen**: Second. [00:01:32] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Councilmember Olsen. Just before I move forward, just so that the public knows, the item that we're just pulling off at this moment is the Kwik Trip development agreement/escrow agreement. No one has to freak out about it; they're just working through some final details, and they had a bunch of people on vacation, and so it'll be back before us at the next council meeting. All right, so any other discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. [00:01:55] **Council Members**: Aye. [00:01:56] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Opposed? Motion carries. Next is six, presentations. We have two this evening and our first one is an Eagle Scout presentation, and it is for Troop 9005. And we have Riley Smesek. If you want to come—if you want to join me down front with Riley, that would be awesome. [00:02:15] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: [To Riley] I feel for you. All right, staff makes these things bigger for me now. All right, so we're here this evening to celebrate what will be another Eagle Scout here in the city of Cottage Grove. I will mention, not that we hold it against him at all, he is actually out of a troop out of Woodbury but lives here in Cottage Grove, attends Park High School. And so we're very excited to be here tonight to celebrate this achievement. For those that don't know, whether it's the Girl Scout Gold Award or the Boy Scouts Eagle Award, we take that very seriously and hold it up to real high standards in our community. Other than presenting this plaque, which I'll do in a few seconds here, we also have a wall down the side going to our right outside of our council chambers where any Eagle Scout or Girl Scout Gold recipients get their name put up at City Hall dating all the way back to—I don't know how old it is on there—but there's a couple of our family members that are up here. Myself, I had a son that was in scouts. We're excited to see him up there. And Councilmember Thiede has three, I believe? Three, sorry. There you go. That's right, I apologize, I forgot about the gold. So, a pretty exciting day and exciting time that we recognize you for this. So what I'll do is I'm going to read this plaque, hand it to you, and then of course, as we always love to do, we're going to let you speak to us and tell us about your project. So for everybody here, it says: "Riley Smesek, congratulations on attaining the rank of Eagle Scout through Troop 9005, Cottage Grove, Minnesota. Presented the sixth day of September 2023 from the city of Cottage Grove, Myron Bailey, Mayor." So on behalf of myself, the council, the staff, and the citizens of Cottage Grove, congratulations. [Applause] [00:04:30] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Fantastic. All right, now I'm going to hand you the mic so you get to tell us about your project. [00:04:35] **Riley Smesek**: So my project was a little different than I've noticed with scouts and other things. Most of them I see were make benches or make Gaga ball pits. What I decided to do was I decided to make care packages in the form of backpacks with contents in them. We put in some stuff you normally wouldn't see donated to different organizations for people in need, and we packaged together 60 of them. We sent it off to Listening House, the homeless day shelter in St. Paul, and we passed it out to the residents and patrons there just to give them a smile on their face to see that there's some help on the way. So, yeah. [00:05:15] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right. So Council, if you want to—one picture? You good? All right, so we'll let you go ahead and do all the handshaking across the front here. Dad, you want to come up? Mom? All right, we'll get one picture with them up here too since dad's all involved here. Good, I'm glad you did it to them. I don't do that. Sister? Yep, you got her. Right there you go. [Photos/Music/Laughter] [00:06:30] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: You ready? Yeah, I think so. The next item on our agenda this evening is the Public Safety Board and a check presentation to the city and the city council. Our Community Service Officer, Dan Schoen, is going to start the discussion, I'm assuming, or share with us what this is all about. [00:06:50] **Dan Schoen (CSO)**: Well, thank you Council. We'll just wait down here. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and honorable council members. I will spare you a PowerPoint presentation tonight; I know you've been busy already. First, I want to talk about a donation in the form of a collar for one of our canines, and then two tactical medic kits for those canine officers. We didn't bring those in tonight, we just wanted to make you aware that that's on your agenda as well. But the big presentation—and I'd like to call the board up here as well because we have the juice coming up—is for fitness equipment at Central Fire. And as I give the check to Julie here, it does say Cottage Grove Police Department on the check. That's something we print up for a good photo op, but anything that says Cottage Grove on it is for the city of Cottage Grove and for that facility. So here's what I want to say, Mr. Mayor and members of the council: Last year, we kind of partook on a little adventure to update fitness equipment at the Central Fire Station. One of the reasons is that I think it's important to understand that our firefighters operate out of two pieces of equipment each day; they have an engine or a fire truck, or the paramedics, and then they need the ambulance. So they're not as portable as the rest of our employees, and they need to be at the station in between calls. Plus, they work as a team; they're not independent, they need to be together. So we know the health benefits of good fitness include a decrease in type 2 diabetes, a decrease in several forms of cancer, a 30 percent lower risk of early death, depression, and dementia. But interestingly enough, an 83 percent lower risk of osteoarthritis. Well, as I get older, I feel it every day. Now I know Councilmember Olsen isn't cold, but I'm actually a little chilly tonight because the weather has gotten a little cooler. But Whole Health Chiropractic—my friend Beth Caitlin and her crew—last year started us off down this journey of fundraising for equipment at Central Fire in the form of health and wellness by a patient appreciation day. They selected Cottage Grove Public Safety as their recipient; in that, they raised nearly a thousand dollars from their patients for health and wellness for Public Safety, which we started to move forward in the process of identifying. We really needed to update the fitness equipment at Central Fire. It is extremely important that all of our employees are healthy and well, and we thank our Public Safety Board, who has gone over and above on this particular donation so that we can start to replace some very aging equipment in that facility that is usable by all employees in the city of Cottage Grove, but in particular, it'll be in their house so that they have it every day and have it available to them. So our recommendation is obviously to accept the donation so that we can start to move forward. So thank you very much to the Public Safety Board, we're really excited to move this forward. [00:10:00] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Absolutely. So again, amazing job to this group. The amount of fundraising that you do for our Public Safety department—and again, when we talk Public Safety as you're doing in this case, it's not just police officers, it's also firefighters and such. So we're very excited and honored to have you here presenting us this check. Do you have a few words you'd like to say? [00:10:25] **Julie (Public Safety Board)**: It's obvious—it's not only us that are raising the money, it's the community that comes out and helps support our fundraising efforts. So a lot of this money has come from our annual golf tournaments. So next summer, look forward to coming to a golf tournament and helping support us. And September 17th, we're going to do a little tiny fundraiser; it's a Bunco tournament at Park Place Bar and Restaurant in St. Paul Park. Bunco is a fun little game; it's on a Sunday without the Vikings playing. So we raise a lot of money coming in, and it goes directly into our fund to help purchase equipment for police and fire and our new canine friends. So thank you. [00:11:10] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Awesome, thank you. Let's give them a round of applause and thanks again to the Public Safety Board. [Applause] All right, so now I suppose you want us to squeeze together for a picture? Cool, perfect. All right, thank you all. Thanks. We'll do handshakes. I know my wife there... thank you. Thanks again for your support. Thanks, Julie. [00:11:45] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, so I guess what we do need to do is to make it official. So if somebody on the council would like to accept and approve the donation as noted? [00:11:55] **Councilmember Justin Olsen**: Make the motion to accept and approve that donation. [00:11:58] **Councilmember Dave Thiede**: Second. [00:12:00] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: That was a motion by Councilmember Olsen and a second by Councilmember Thiede. And again, that is in the amount of $15,000 for fitness equipment and the canine equipment in the amount of $1,406.56. All those in favor signify by saying aye. [00:12:15] **Council Members**: Aye. [00:12:16] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Opposed? Motion carries. Next is seven, which is the consent agenda. Is there anything on that Council would like to pull on consent? [00:12:25] **Councilmember Justin Olsen**: Move consent. [00:12:26] **Councilmember Combata**: Second. [00:12:28] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Olsen on consent. Seconded by Councilmember Combata. And again, just for the public, item O is not on this consent agenda. All those in favor signify by saying aye. [00:12:40] **Council Members**: Aye. [00:12:41] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Opposed? Motion carries. So again, if you're here for anything that's on tonight's consent agenda, with the exception of O, all of them have been approved. Eight is approved disbursements. 8A is to pay the bills. [00:12:55] **Councilmember Dennis**: Motion to pay the bills. [00:12:56] **Councilmember Justin Olsen**: Second. [00:12:58] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: We have a motion by Councilmember Dennis and a second by Councilmember Olsen. All those in favor signify saying aye. [00:13:02] **Council Members**: Aye. [00:13:03] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Opposed? Motion carries. Nine is public hearing; there isn't one this evening. Ten is bid awards; there's none this evening. Eleven is the regular agenda. This is kind of our normal for the first meeting in September, which we do have one item, which is certifying the preliminary property tax levy. Our Finance Director, Brenda Malinowski, is going to take us through this one. So Brenda, welcome. [00:13:30] **Brenda Malinowski (Finance Director)**: Thank you, Mayor, members of the Council. We are at that time of the year where I have a short presentation regarding our 2024 levy. Here on our first slide is just our budget calendar for 2024, and it indicates that we have been working hard and diligently on our budget since January of this year. My thanks to City Council on their dedication in this budget process; it's never easy and it takes a lot of time. Our city staff, our department directors, our city administrator—we spend many hours before we get to you this evening with this levy and this budget. Tonight, you are considering a preliminary levy. That preliminary levy that you adopt, we will certify it to the county. They will use that levy to prepare proposed property tax statements for our taxpayers for 2024. They will mail those; taxpayers will receive those statements and it will let them know, based on this levy, what their property taxes will be for 2024. They can, if they wish, come to budget comment meetings, and ours here for the city of Cottage Grove will be December 6th at 7:00 PM. At that meeting, City Council will adopt the final levy, we will certify that to the county, and they will use that to prepare the 2024 property tax statements. Actions tonight is to adopt that preliminary levy, and just a reminder that the levy that you set tonight is your maximum levy. When we come before you in December, you can have a levy that is less than the amount that you adopt tonight, but it cannot be more. So this is your maximum levy. In 2024, in our budget, we have quite a few accomplishments and I have them outlined there on the screen. First and foremost, we are able to provide for 2024 the same quality level of services for our police, fire, streets, snow plowing, parks and recreation to our residents and our business community that we provided in the past. As part of this budget, we are showcasing again our stewardship of our capital assets and infrastructure. So we've included our capital outlay replacement that has been identified. Then our city infrastructure; so our pavement management program, our streets program, is in this budget. We continue to maintain our distinction of being an employer of choice because we are maintaining those commitments that we outlined and committed to in our bargaining units with our employees. We are meeting our debt service requirements in this budget; as we issue debt, there are certain levy amounts that we need to adopt every year and those are included in our 2024 budget. And then finally, we are starting to increase the funds for economic development and redevelopment here in the city. The last time that we had an increase in our EDA levy was 2017, and so we're accomplishing that in this budget tonight. Our city tax rate is based on two components. The first is our city property tax levy. For 2024, that is increasing 11.99% or about 23.1 million dollars. The other component in determining our city tax rate is our city tax capacity. Our tax capacity for 2024 is increasing by 19.3%; five percent of that is due to new construction. That's a very high increase, and because that tax capacity is increasing by a higher percentage than our tax levy, our city tax rate will continue to fall. Based on the proposed levy in front of you, it will fall to 32.745%. Details on the levy are outlined here on the screen. It is an 11.99% increase in the levy. The general fund we'll talk about in a few more slides, but other increases are our equipment levy. It's a separate levy this year; in the past we've included it in our general fund, but for 2024 we are breaking that into a new line item for more transparency on our equipment replacement. Our pavement management is increasing; that is for our 2023 pavement management new debt that's going on, that is one component. And then we also had a bond reissuance back in 2021 refinancing to have interest savings; the first two years had a lowered levy, and then an increased levy for 2024 that was planned. Glacial Valley Park building is being included as a new levy in our property tax levy, and then we are starting to bond for in our levy the East Point Douglas roadway project. A little bit more detail on our general fund. That's our chief operating budget here in the city of Cottage Grove. It funds such things as our fire services, police services, parks, recreation, snow plowing, street services. And it is considered a balanced budget for 2024, meaning that we have equal revenue and expenditures. Those services that I described, we provide those to our taxpayers, to our residents. We don't necessarily charge for those services when we provide that service, such as snow plowing or police services, so we have to generate the revenue to provide those services and we do that through property taxes. For 2024, in our revenue pie chart, 74% is through property taxes. On the expenditure side, we're in the people business. We provide those services through our personnel, so 69% of our general fund is personnel services. A deeper dive in our general fund revenue for 2024. It is an increase of 8.96% over 2023, however property tax increase for the general fund is only 5.82%. That is due because we have other revenue sources that we're pulling from. One of those is our one-time Public Safety Aid. All communities in Minnesota are receiving a one-time Public Safety Aid from the state based on a per capita basis. We'll be receiving about 1.7 million at the end of this year. We will be utilizing a portion of that in our 2024 budget in the amount of 716,000 dollars to fund two police officers, three firefighter-paramedics, a part-time firefighter's wages, and then capital. We'll continue to utilize a portion of those funds in 2025 and then the remaining funds in 2026. LGA, or Local Government Aid, we have not received here at the city for a couple years. We will be receiving a portion in 2024 in the amount of about 54,000 dollars, so we've included that in our general fund. License and permit revenue: we are continuing to decrease that amount for 2024 thinking that development activity and building activity may continue to be down. So that's a decrease of about 4.48%. We are offsetting that though, however, by keeping one building inspector position vacant for 2024. On the expenditure side for the general fund, our expenditures are increasing by the same amount as our revenue. Our union contracts are settled for 2024 at 3%, and so that's the amount that we've included in the budget. We have several new positions that are outlined there, however, most of them are either revenue-neutral, funded by other funds in the city, or those one-time Public Safety Aids. We have included a weather warning siren in the budget in the general fund at the 9500 block of Military, so that's been included. And then finally, when we did a 10-year financial management plan earlier in the year, one of the things that we talked about was including a contingency item in our general fund budget. It accomplishes two things: it's there if something unexpected happens, such as a storm, but then second of all, it helps us fund our fund balance policy. Our fund balance policy states that we should have 45 to 55 percent of our fund balance in reserves of the next year's budget. A deeper dive on the general fund expenditures by department: no different than previous years, Public Safety is about 47% of our budget. Public Works is about 19%, General Government is 13%, Parks and Recreation 12%, Community Development 8%, and then we have that small amount of contingency. Our median home for 2024: the county assessor is the one that determines the property tax values for all property in the city. Our median home will increase 9.2% for 2024, so valued at 359,700 dollars. Based on the preliminary levy in front of you, that median home next year will pay city property taxes of about 1,162 dollars. That is an annual increase of 71 dollars or 19 cents per day. We also follow four sample properties. The average tax impact on those four sample properties plus the median home has a change of 97 dollars or 26 cents per day. As you know, in our financial management plan, we identified that Sample Property One would need an increase of about 100 dollars per year to fund the projects. This is a 113 dollar increase on that property. The median home is 97 dollars—oh, 71 dollars—and so that average tax impact for those five properties is 97 dollars, so within what we identified in the financial management plan. A little bit more on that median value home: those annual city taxes of 1,162 dollars... if they instead wrote a check to the city of Cottage Grove per month, they would write us a check for 96.82. Here we're showing Public Safety would get 40.87, and how it's divvied out into the other departments. The daily cost on that median home is about 3 dollars and 18 cents to provide all the city services. With that, I'll take any questions the Council may have; otherwise, the recommendation is on the screen. [00:23:05] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, thank you Brenda. Council, any questions for Brenda or staff? [00:23:10] **Councilmember Justin Olsen**: Brenda, thanks very much for that. Obviously, it was a very time-consuming and thorough effort as it is each year when we go through the budget process, but your team as always came very well prepared. A lot of good information for us and that is very much appreciated. I want to give you a little recognition. You and your team and the rest of the staff in the city deserve that. You are standing there providing us and the public with all of the facts and all of the data, but there's more to it than just that. This year the city became a Triple-A stable rated city for our bond rating, first time in our history. And the bond house, when they make a change in your bond rating, they give you all kinds of different narrative reasons why that was. There's no doubt that the financial plan that you and the team worked so hard on along with our partners at Ehlers to bring forward was a key component to achieving that Triple-A bond rating. And I want to thank you very much for that because that took a lot of work. In addition to that, every single year the team here at the city of Cottage Grove seems to get recognized by the Government Finance Officer Association (GFOA) for financial excellence. I can't remember the exact number of years, but I know it's well over 20. And that is a direct result of the hard work that every member of the staff puts in each and every day to manage our public finances as well as possible. I really like the slide where it broke out the departments and talks about what the median home value pays. The city of Cottage Grove continues to provide just an unbelievable value to our residents. I said a lot of stuff, now I'm going to ask you a question. As you look forward, understanding that we have a financial plan that we've agreed to... how do you perceive our position with respect to having a good solid understanding of a growing community that's going to need to continue to provide a high level of service? Do you feel like with that financial plan in place, we are on track? And I'm asking because you also took a pause and went and worked somewhere else and now you're coming back with a fresh set of eyes. How do you feel about things? [00:26:00] **Brenda Malinowski (Finance Director)**: The financial management process that we undertook this year took a lot of staff time and Council time, but it was great. The department heads, leadership teams, City Administrator, City Council all gave feedback on that plan. It leads us in a great direction and it manages expectations. We all can't get everything in one year. And so the department directors were able to work together, City Council was able to work together. [00:26:30] **Councilmember Justin Olsen**: I want to make sure everybody watching at home knows that we did not have a conversation before this meeting; that was a question she did not know I was going to ask her. But part of your answer is exactly what I was hoping you might say, which is the team that we have at the department head level works so well together and understand that, as you said, not everybody can get everything every year. That's a very different approach than when I first became a council member here where it seemed like people were competing for limited resources. I really appreciated how well everybody worked together along with the Council to put a budget together that would provide our residents with ongoing high levels of service at a very reasonable price and lowering our tax rate again. That's just a function of the great team and the culture that we have here in the city. So with that, I'll thank you once again and I'll turn it back to you, Mayor. [00:27:30] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Council, any other comments? [00:27:33] **Councilmember Combata**: Councilmember Olsen alluded to this, and you didn't have the slide in there, but I know while we were going through the extensive process of building this budget, one thing that I and other members on the Council kept asking is: how do we stack up against other communities our size facing similar goals and challenges with growth? Where did we end up falling in that range? [00:28:00] **Brenda Malinowski (Finance Director)**: We will know more once everybody adopts their preliminary levy. We were second-lowest in city property taxes in Washington County last year. St. Paul Park was lower than we were, but they get a significant portion of LGA. We also compared ourselves to growing communities over 40,000 in the metro area. There were only two communities based on our median home that were less than we were; everybody else was higher. Based on the levy percentages that we are seeing from other communities, I would suspect that we stay in that lower quadrant. [00:28:45] **Councilmember Combata**: Thank you. [00:28:46] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Fantastic, thank you. Councilmember Dennis? [00:28:50] **Councilmember Dennis**: Thank you, Mayor. I want to commend both of my colleagues for statements made. The financial management plan and what that has achieved for us as a community... the Triple-A bond rating alone will save this community over time untold millions of dollars in terms of what we're going to be able to finance projects for. The level of services that we provide here channeled through a very capable staff is amazing. The condition of our roads, the services that people have come to expect... if there's an intruder in your home in the middle of the night, we're going to get somebody there to you as quickly as possible with the right training and equipment. The last thing that I'll add is this: when this whole idea for a financial management plan was brought forward, I asked our administrator point blank where exactly did this come from, and she said one name and it was yours. It was your idea and your impetus, and so myself and everybody sitting at this table greatly appreciates that. This has made an incredible difference here. So thank you. [00:30:10] **Brenda Malinowski (Finance Director)**: Thank you. [00:30:11] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Fantastic, thank you. The only other thing I'll just add—everybody else did their kudos—but what I thought was interesting too, the highest cost per household was Public Safety, which is understandable. The other one was Debt Service. When Councilmember Dennis and Councilmember Olsen mentioned about our bond rating and such, one of the things that I do hear from our citizens is they want more road projects done. We have to measure and manage this number. Because you've done such a good job, the staff has done, Council a good job on the bond rating, we get lower interest rates. So that debt service line pays for all the roads and all the infrastructure. I just want to let the public know that. The other thing I'll just say, part of the management plan is to be stable; the goal is not to have one year where your taxes go way up and then the next year they drop. It's easier for all of us to manage a budget that is stable. So once again, kudos to you guys. All right, anything else? Council, we do have a motion before us on the screen if somebody would like to take it here. [00:31:35] **Councilmember Dennis**: I'd like to make that motion. Resolution 2023-111 adopting the proposed preliminary 2023 property tax levy collectible in 2024 in the amount of 23,125,600 dollars. [00:31:50] **Councilmember Justin Olsen**: Second. [00:31:52] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Motion by Councilmember Dennis, second by Councilmember Olsen. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. [00:32:00] **Council Members**: Aye. [00:32:01] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Brenda. All right, I will start next on our agenda, 12, which is Council comments/requests. I'll start with Councilmember Combata. [00:32:15] **Councilmember Combata**: I don't know how many comments or requests for the city, but I will say that I have a five-year-old who just started his first day of kindergarten and that was a big day for me. So for all the staff and members of our community who got kids back to school, I know they're having a tough week because I sure am. [00:32:35] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Fair enough. I've seen a lot of pictures out on social media yesterday and today with all the first day stuff. All right, Councilmember Garza? [00:32:45] **Councilmember Monique Garza**: I yield my time. [00:32:46] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, sounds great. Councilmember Thiede? [00:32:50] **Councilmember Dave Thiede**: Yeah, I will kind of mention here that in my 13 years that I've been on Council, there are significant changes in just the attitudes and how much people work together. I think creating a financial plan with some of my background in finance—that shows a plan and stability. I think that goes a long way in getting us that Triple-A rating and I agree with Councilmember Dennis that that should make quite a bit of difference when we need to go out and get money. Good job. [00:33:30] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Fantastic. All right, Councilmember Olsen. [00:33:35] **Councilmember Justin Olsen**: Thank you, Mayor. Real quickly, I want to thank John Yang and the members of the one family non-profit group who once again had just an outstanding event at Kingston Park Labor Day weekend. The "One Family" event is kind of a sporting competition along with food trucks and vendors focused on the Hmong community. They have been running their event twice a year, Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend. The park was packed; they had just a ton of people out there. I even had a conversation along with our Economic Development Director, Nate Carlson, over there with a family who's looking at bringing an Asian food market and/or restaurant to the city. So they're working diligently to try to make that deal come together. And the reason I didn't really dig into much with the food trucks is I was saving my appetite for our first annual Discover Cottage Grove Food Truck Festival, which will be taking place on the 16th of September. This is a new thing for the city, but boy, we've had a tremendous response from the various vendors. We're also going to have a beer garden hosted by the Cottage Grove Lions. Swashco Cares will be out there volunteering. Nate, could you just spend a minute maybe telling people what exactly they can expect when they come out to Kingston Park? It starts at 11 o'clock, is that right? [00:35:05] **Nate Carlson (Economic Development Director)**: It goes from 11 to 6. And you summed up the entertainment and the food and the vendors well. When the folks receive their September Cottage Grove Reports, there will be complete details about the event in that. [00:35:20] **Councilmember Justin Olsen**: Perfect. Now in terms of entertainment, anything going on other than just the food trucks? [00:35:25] **Nate Carlson (Economic Development Director)**: Two different bands will be playing, one during the day and then one towards the end of the evening. The names escape me right now. [00:35:35] **Councilmember Justin Olsen**: That's okay. But it's exciting to hear that we're going to have some live music. How many vendors have we kind of nailed down? [00:35:40] **Nate Carlson (Economic Development Director)**: 21 confirmed as of the last report. [00:35:45] **Councilmember Justin Olsen**: 21 confirmed different food trucks! Boy, that sounds like a lot of fun. I'm definitely going to come hungry. Thank you, Mayor. Back to you. [00:35:55] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Thank you. Just two items for everyone here. Councilmember Olsen just mentioned about the Food Truck Festival, which will be fantastic; that is Saturday, September 16th. I also want to point out that on Thursday, September 21st, the Public Works and Parks Open House will be from 3:00 to 7:00 at the Public Works facility off of West Point Douglas Road. That is always a fun event. If you haven't been there, the kids love it, adults love it. The reason I bring that up is that the at the second council meeting in September, which is the 20th, our Public Works Director, Ryan Burfeind, and I are actually going to be in Washington D.C. advocating for some transportation funding for the city of Cottage Grove at the Transportation Alliance meeting. We're going to be meeting with various elected officials out there to see if we can work towards some of these projects that everybody really wants. And while I am out there, since we will be out there on the 20th, in my absence, Mayor Pro Tem Councilmember Dennis will be officiating for me. So just letting the public know that September 20th meeting, you guys will be in good hands. Just for the general public, we do have two workshop sessions which are open to the public this evening in the training room. The first one is THC beverages at off-sale liquor establishments; our City Attorney is going to discuss some information and provide some direction. And then the second item is our street reconstruction plan. Our Finance Director, Brenda Malinowski, is going to take us through that. We do not have any closed sessions this evening. Everybody have a great evening and Council and staff will meet you in the training room.