This transcription has been organized by speaker with names assigned based on the municipality context provided. Note: There are some discrepancies between the "Context" list provided and the names used in the audio (e.g., the transcript mentions "John Carlson" and "Connie Dah," while the context list identifies those seats as "Carl Bliss" and "Orin Kipp"). I have used the names from your provided context list to ensure consistency with your official records. *** **[00:00:00] Mayor Michele Hanson:** I'll 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. All right, let's do the roll call. Matt? **[00:00:20] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Bliss? **[00:00:22] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** Here. **[00:00:23] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Gilmore? **[00:00:24] Councilmember Ethan Gilmore:** Here. **[00:00:25] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Kipp? **[00:00:26] Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Here. **[00:00:27] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Hill? **[00:00:28] Councilmember Katie Hill:** Here. **[00:00:29] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Mayor Hanson? **[00:00:30] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Here. All right, um, do we have a motion to approve the agenda or do we have any changes to it? **[00:00:35] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** I'll move to approve the agenda as presented. **[00:00:38] Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right, thanks, John. **[00:00:40] Councilmember Orin Kipp:** I'll second it. **[00:00:41] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Second by Connie. All right, all those in favor? (All: Aye). Oppose say nay. All right, that passes. Um, proclamations, accommodations, petitions, and announcements: The April recycling award recipients are Chissa and Savalia Blockheart on A Street North. They'll be awarded for their recycling efforts with the grant from Washington County. And then we will have the open forum. There are people here, so maybe I should read it. It's a portion of the meeting to address City Council on subjects that are not part of the agenda. The city council may take action or reply at the time of the statement or may give direction to staff regarding investigation of comments expressed. A total of 15 minutes is allotted for public comment during the open forum. Is anybody here for something that's not part of the agenda? Okay, sounds good. **[00:01:45] Mayor Michele Hanson:** And then the consent agenda. This is the shortest one I've ever seen. Resolution adopting items 1 through 5: April 1st, 2024 Workshop minutes; the April 1st, 2024 City Council regular meeting minutes; April payables and receipts; April building, plumbing, mechanical, and zoning permits report; and appointment of Anna Denby to fill—sorry if I hacked up your name—to fill the remaining term for a vacant seat on the library board. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? **[00:02:15] Councilmember Orin Kipp:** I'll make a motion approving the consent agenda. **[00:02:18] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thanks, Connie. **[00:02:19] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** Second. **[00:02:20] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thanks, John. Roll call vote. **[00:02:22] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Bliss? (Aye). Councilmember Gilmore? (Aye). Councilmember Kipp? (Aye). Councilmember Hill? (Aye). Mayor Hanson? (Aye). **[00:02:30] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay, there are no public hearings, so our unfinished business starts with a resolution accepting a bid for the 4th Avenue street improvement project, and Matt is going to present this item. **[00:02:40] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council. Um, as you are all aware, um, we are currently looking at completing a street improvement project on 4th Avenue North this year. Bids were received on April 10th, 2024, opened and tabulated by SEH, who is our engineering firm. Bids were actually very favorable to our project. We received seven bids, with the lowest bid being Dressel Contracting in the amount of $215,372.25. This was significantly less than what our projected estimate was. So, um, we are very happy with it. And so moving forward, the Minnesota 429 process, as best practices, asks us to do a resolution for accepting this bid. It's not something we normally do, but um, we like to follow that process. So at this point, um, staff is recommending that we adopt a resolution accepting the bid in that amount. I will stand for questions. **[00:03:45] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay, does anyone have—so this just kind of—so first we're just accepting the bid, and then we're going to move on to the actual ordering of it? Because it is a little confusing. I don't know if you guys read Mr. Brady's memo; it says the bids ranged from 215 to 329 blah blah blah and that the project should go to the low bidder, but then goes on to say that the opinion of probable construction costs for this project is 320,000, which was a little confusing. So I don't know if you want to explain. **[00:04:15] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Madam Mayor, I can do an explanation there. Sorry. Um, so the original estimated amount for the whole project was 344,000. Now, that includes engineering and construction. John Prior is indicating he's estimating a probable total cost now of 320,000. One of the items that is not clear yet is the amount of correspondence and work with the railroad that we are going to have to do. There is some work around the railroad that will have to be dealt with. The question becomes whether, from their perspective, it's either a maintenance project or it's a construction project that potentially could require flaggers and all kinds of work from on their end, and so there's that added cost there that he wanted to stipulate and just give us a heads up to. So on the low end, we could be saving $50,000—on the high end, John's projecting a $20,000 less than estimated costs outcome. Does that make sense? **[00:05:15] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Makes sense. Okay. Does anyone have questions or comments on accepting the bid? Does anybody want to make a motion to adopt it? **[00:05:25] Councilmember Katie Hill:** I move to adopt the resolution accepting the bid for 4th Avenue Street Improvement project as presented. **[00:05:30] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** I'll second. **[00:05:31] Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right, thanks Katie and John. And we need a roll call. **[00:05:34] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Bliss? (Aye). Councilmember Gilmore? (Aye). Councilmember Kipp? (Aye). Councilmember Hill? (Aye). Mayor Hanson? (Aye). **[00:05:40] Mayor Michele Hanson:** So the motion passes, and then we move on to considering a resolution ordering the improvements for the 4th Avenue North Street Improvement project. **[00:05:50] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you, Madame Mayor, members of the council. As I indicated with the previous resolution, this is part of the Minnesota State Statute 429 process for assessments, as this project will be assessed partially to the property owner. Essentially, what this is requiring is that a 10-day mailed notice and a two-week published notice of the hearing was given, and the hearing was held on February 5th, 2024. That's part of the process. This resolution is indicating that the improvement is cost-effective and necessary and feasible, and that such improvements are hereby ordered as proposed in the resolution, which is what you're passing. By the city council, plans and specs have been prepared for the project. So this is just ordering the improvement to continue on the bid that you currently accepted. **[00:06:40] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** Okay, pretty straightforward. I'll move to approve the construction services proposal from—no, we're on the adopt the resolution to order the improvements? **[00:06:50] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Number two, sorry. **[00:06:52] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** I move to adopt resolution ordering the improvements for Fourth Avenue North Street Improvement project. **[00:06:58] Councilmember Orin Kipp:** I'll second it. **[00:07:00] Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right, thanks John and Connie. Another roll call. **[00:07:02] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Bliss? (Aye). Councilmember Kipp? (Aye). Councilmember Gilmore? (Aye). Councilmember Hill? (Aye). Mayor Hanson? (Aye). **[00:07:10] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thank you. And then we're going to consider the proposal from SEH for the construction engineering services for the same project. **[00:07:18] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council. This is the last one related to the Fourth Avenue street project. Any street project that has an engineering component to it has two essential services from them: one is for the plans, bids, and specifications, and then one is for the construction engineering services portion. SEH is proposing a cost of $28,900. This is all included in that $320,000 estimate. Hopefully, he doesn't have to come back depending on the amount that they have to deal with this from a construction engineering standpoint, hopefully that number doesn't increase. **[00:07:55] Mayor Michele Hanson:** So should we have set it up as a "not to exceed" number? **[00:08:00] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** That's already technically a "not to exceed" number at this point. **[00:08:05] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Right, but that's what I'm saying—like if then he doesn't have to come back at some point? **[00:08:10] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Well, I think it's fine coming back because I'd like to hear the reason for the cost for that. So I think that number is fine. So at this point, staff recommends city council adopt a motion authorizing SEH to perform this construction engineering at that price. **[00:08:25] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** So moved. **[00:08:27] Councilmember Katie Hill:** Second. **[00:08:28] Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right, thank you John and Katie. Another roll call vote. **[00:08:31] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Bliss? (Aye). Councilmember Kipp? (Aye). Councilmember Gilmore? (Aye). Councilmember Hill? (Aye). Mayor Hanson? (Aye). **[00:08:40] Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right, so now we're going to consider the potential litigation regarding outstanding city code violations on Point Road, and Eric is going to present the item for us. **[00:08:50] Eric (City Attorney):** Thank you, Mayor, City Council Members. And City Administrator Kline, would you be able to put up the photos? Is that possible? That would be great. I might be able to—I'm sorry, I was thinking of that while you were presenting road improvement resolutions. **[00:09:10] Mayor Michele Hanson:** You weren't paying attention to the road improvement project? (Laughs). **[00:09:15] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** There’s no audio. **[00:09:17] Mayor Michele Hanson:** No audio? No, because we just got notified by our neighbor that there's no audio. Can you hear this, John? We'll hold on until we take care of audio technical issues. **[00:09:30] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Going to YouTube... just the cable channel? Okay, it was the cable channel. So if they watch YouTube, it's your better bet. I'm gonna hook up to the Click Share. **[00:09:45] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay, so that's unfortunate for the people trying to watch on TV. I think it's probably because they're still working in the process of moving everything. So okay, well watch us on YouTube. Oh, you can't hear me say that if you're on TV, right? Yeah, I mean that's the difficulty is those that on cable can't hear you say switch to YouTube. Should we put it up on the bottom there? Matt, are you going to do something? What are you doing over there? Are you going to put the pictures up? **[00:10:15] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Sure. Thank you. **[00:10:20] Eric (City Attorney):** Well, Mayor, Council members, while our assistant city administrator/city planner, Sara Taylor, puts the photos up, I did prepare a report to the Bayport Mayor and City Council that's dated April 1, 2024. I did present that and stated that report into the record in our April city council meeting and therefore will not read that verbatim. But basically, what that report is informing the council is that the criminal proceedings for defendant David Kringle have basically exhausted themselves. Mr. Kringle has not complied with the guilty findings of violation of junk and debris and other city code ordinances, and therefore the criminal court only has two options available to itself, and that is continued criminal fines or jail. But the criminal court and the judge does not have authority to order the city to enter Mr. Kringle's property and remove the unlawful stored items on that property. Simply put, any resident in the city of Bayport can have motor vehicles on his premises, but they have to be operable vehicles; they have to be legal vehicles; they have to be vehicles that operate but also have fully licensed and tabbed. And any other vehicles can only remain there for 72 hours. Vehicles on Mr. Kringle's property have been there obviously in excess of 72 hours; they've been there for years. Mr. Kringle has been found guilty as a matter of law in criminal court, and that standard is beyond a reasonable doubt. Mr. Kringle has obviously indicated by inaction that he's not going to comply with the law. Therefore, in order to essentially remove those items and bring Mr. Kringle's property into compliance, unfortunately, the city of Bayport's only option is civil action and obtaining a district court order for the city itself to enter on the property and bring that property into code compliance. There should be, hopefully—and I cannot prognosticate what a district court judge is going to do—but this should be a pretty easy case to prove. Mr. Kringle has been found guilty of violation of city code beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest standard that we have in our civil society. So now we just need a district court order for the city to bring that compliance. In order for any civil action to be commenced by the city of Bayport, we need approval by this governing body to retain counsel, initiate a civil action, and obtain that court order. Unfortunately, that's going to incur the expenses of an attorney. I cannot guarantee, but I am hopeful that the district court would look at this extraordinary circumstance and would find that it is unfortunate that public monies will have to be expended for such an effort and also award attorney's fees and costs, even though that is generally not the standard. I think such extraordinary circumstances in this instance might mean that the court would do that. I have asked the city administrator and assistant city administrator the ability to hopefully bring up some photos, which are part of the packet, because photos speak very loudly that this is not just a theoretical condition, but it's a situation that has been in place without any corrective action by Mr. Kringle for many, many years and remains the current status even as of today. **[00:13:50] Mayor Michele Hanson:** I would actually add to that, Eric, that not only that it remains current, it got worse over those years instead of it getting any better. It has gotten worse. As a matter of fact, during this period of time, Mr. Kringle also brought in a semi-trailer, so has added to the number of junk vehicles on the premises. **[00:14:10] Eric (City Attorney):** Okay, the photos are up. I just wanted to indicate that it was Judge Brennan that found in court order number one, number two, number three, and number four a series of violations. This is not an issue as to whether Mr. Kringle is in violation of the law. It's not an issue as to whether even some city administrator 10, 20 years ago permitted some type of storage. The issue is of facts and the law and compliance with the law, nothing less, nothing more. As far as the city code and the facts and so forth, I'm more than happy to speak to any of those, but again, I think the photos do the speaking for me. **[00:14:50] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thank you, Eric. Um, I guess I wanted to just—I don't know if I—I mean, last time we met, we had only three of our council members here. Even though, personally, it was pretty cut and dry to me how I was going to vote on it, I felt it was fair to have the rest of the council here to hear it because this is unfortunately going to cost our city some money in order to take care of it. Hopefully, we can get that money back, but there's no guarantee, and so I wanted everyone to have a chance to vote on whether they thought spending that money was worth it. I did ask Mr. Kringle to send us his side of what he wanted to say about it, and some of what he mentioned was that there has been some "moving goalposts" throughout this process, which I think can easily be refuted. "Non-specific demands" was another thing that he said; I think we've been very specific about what we've been asking him to do. He claims he's been storing legal items on the property that he's owned for more than 20 years. Again, I don't think that's the case; maybe some of it's legal, but the vast majority from what I can tell is not. He claims he had pre-approval to do this from a long-long-ago city administrator; again, there's nothing that would, in my eyes, say that that makes it permitted now. And then he did want to meet. We met—well, I think it was about a year ago—did not talk anything about this case specifically, but just to get to know each other and what he was doing. He wanted to meet again to help us save expenses and time on this, and I personally feel like if you wanted to save expenses and time, you should have taken care of this 12 years ago, and we wouldn't be where we are right now. So I just wanted to say that. I also wanted to mention that we did hear from neighbors. 19 Point Road, Patrick McAn, and he said: "Any consideration to give Mr. Kringle more time to clean up his property should be met with skepticism. The recent criminal case against Mr. Kringle brought a conviction and then a one-year probationary period to bring his properties into compliance under threat of jail time; however, no results. Similarly, any symbolic attempts to show progress should also be met with skepticism for the same reason." So thank you for giving your input, Patrick. And we also heard from the Lambs at 3 Point Road, and they said the property owner has avoided any action since 2012. He has shown no effort to comply even when being served criminally. Unless this Council takes action, he will continue to add to this problem. We also received a detailed report from Officer Slinger of the police department that went back to April of 2012, documented all of the steps that we have gone through and all of the extensions that we've given Mr. Kringle, and it's sad that we're at this point that it's gone this long, but I just I can't see us spending any more time on this personally. I just—I don't know if anyone else has anything they want to add or say or contradict me, whatever your opinions are, but that's where I stand on this and I'm kind of ready to be done with it personally. **[00:18:15] Councilmember Orin Kipp:** Well, I was one of the absent council members last month, so I appreciate tabling this until we were all here. It's important, and people's property rights are—I value my property rights very highly, and so does I think most property owners. One of my biggest questions, just to get it out there, is I would love to hear—and I think I know the answer—if there are some extenuating circumstances or any sort of progress that has been made? I think I know the answers, but I mean, I'm a reasonable person. I can change my mind. But as I see it, it's pretty darn cut and dried. So if there are some extenuating circumstances or some progress that had been made, I could be convinced differently, but I have not heard of or seen any of those things. **[00:19:10] Councilmember Katie Hill:** Yeah, I'm with you, Mayor. From everything that I've gone through, that whole police report that he wrote up—it's been going on since before my middle child was born, and she's now going to be in middle school. So I'm surprised we even let it go on this long. We've had plenty of time to fix it. When you're saying "I'm gonna try to fix it," you had a decade to fix it, so it's hard to want to give you more time. **[00:19:40] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** I guess, um, it's not like we're just talking about one extra camper or an extra boat or something. I guess I've driven by there a few times, but the pictures speak louder than what I've seen from the road. And I guess I'm surprised your neighbors haven't taken dramatic actions on their own. I don't understand why you're not willing to clean up some of this. I mean, I know some of it might be valuable, but a lot of it looks like it could just be hauled off someplace to get rid of. So I guess that's why I'm having a hard time. And I know it's gone on because I've been on the council now, and I remember discussing this 12 years ago, and at that time, those pictures were not near what I'm looking at right now. So I'm just—I guess I would understand why you don't see the issue here. I mean, you don't have to answer me; I'm just—it's a rhetorical one. Yeah, it's a rhetorical one. I guess I just don't know what else to say. You know, I know neighbors will complain if a neighbor has an extra vehicle or something parked in their driveway. Well, this is far more than a couple extra vehicles. **[00:20:50] Councilmember Ethan Gilmore:** Anything to add, Ethan? Or... going along with what John said, I'm all for property rights for sure, but you know, you have neighbors that have property rights as well, and you're bringing down home values and danger to kids. I got an email from the Lambs and they were concerned about kids, and I know kids technically shouldn't be on your property, but you can't always control 8-year-old kids; they're going to be running around. And if somebody was climbing around on something and got severely injured, that would just be awful. So yeah, I mean, it's 12 years, that's a long time, and if nothing's been done, I don't see any other course of action. **[00:21:40] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yeah, and Eric, can you touch on a little bit for us about—so if we go through this process, we are allowed then to go clean up the space? What happens if it happens again? How do we keep it from accumulating again? **[00:21:55] Eric (City Attorney):** That's a great question. And one of the things we would seek would be a court order in order to have that continue, right? So that we don't have to keep commencing legal action. Whether a judge would go to that extent, because that would be somewhat of an extraordinary order—but I think these are also extraordinary circumstances. Worst-case scenario is that we've set a precedent so that the next time we need a court order, it should be fairly quick and expeditious and relatively inexpensive. **[00:22:25] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** One other thing: once if this happens and the city goes in, is there recourse financially so we're not paying for it? **[00:22:35] Eric (City Attorney):** Well, he's going to see if the judge will do that, right? Mayor, council members, that's an excellent question. The cleanup costs themselves are fairly clear under statute as far as being able to assess. And if Mr. Kringle does not pay, the city then of course has that assessed against the property itself. Where things are a bit of a question mark would be the ability to also recover and get reimbursement for attorney's fees and costs. **[00:23:05] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** Matt, do we have any ideas? I don't imagine—you know, I mean, we're going to put this out for bid or something to come in and clean this up. I don't imagine it's our personnel doing this work. Any ideas on like a cost estimate ballpark figure and what it's going to cost to get rid of this? **[00:23:20] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Mayor, council, I wouldn't even—depending on what's considered hazardous waste or anything like that—I wouldn't even want to fathom a cost. The good thing, as indicated by Attorney Larson, is that those costs can be assessed back to the property, right? So at some point, we would get reimbursed potentially if it was ordered that way to conduct those cleanup costs. **[00:23:45] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay, I guess we're just waiting for a motion then if we've had our discussion. (To Mr. Kringle in audience) No, I don't feel the need to hear—I feel like I personally, I've heard from him. I have received emails from him trying to explain his side. We forwarded those on to the council, Matt forwarded that information to you guys, so you've seen his side as well. And I don't think we need to spend the time hearing it personally. What? It's up to you guys; I'll let you all vote on whether we want to spend time listening to him after 12 years of not. **[00:24:20] Councilmember Orin Kipp:** I'm okay listening, but I I want to hear specific answers and not obfuscation. And I want to limit it to—how many minutes is reasonable to tell your side of a story? Three minutes? Five minutes? **[00:24:35] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Three to five minutes. Five minutes with Q&A. Five minutes total. And answer Connie’s question: why? Give us something concrete other than what we've already tried to explain about the city administrator and not feeling like you understand what's being asked of you, because that seemed very clear to me. So, want to introduce yourself? **[00:24:55] David Kringle:** I'm Chris Kringle, the owner of Point 2 Road. This has been going on for quite some time. Next year will be my 30th year on the point, and I've had things stored on this property for about that long—longer than out of the 18 homes that are presently on the point, longer than all but one of them. They've all moved in while there has been things on that property. I did seek permission before I actually bought Point 2 Road from the city to put things on the former owner's property, and I sought that permission again before I bought that property for that to be okay. I have requested a number of times since the inspector that has been hired by the city—who has stated himself that he's had over 500 pictures of things that are on the property, some of which you've seen here—to give me specific pictures of what is in violation. I requested the prosecuting attorney, I requested him, I requested the city, and what I get back is a copy of the city ordinances hard copy that says, "to not be in violation, just comply with what the ordinances say." The ordinances are written in such a general way that virtually anything you have can be interpreted in any way. One of the things where you have to question what's really going on here—and we don't have time to get into that now, it's one of the reasons I requested a workshop or a breakout session or whatever the case for everyone who wants to can attend so it's not spending time that is critical with the city council to know what I think is really going on here. One would have to question why the initial contact on this wasn't by the former police chief and a conversation, a phone call, stopping by, knocking on the door, anything else. It was started by a criminal citation. Criminal means they can put you in jail. We were proceeding after wrangling with that through the court system to go to court and before it started, the question was asked how was the stuff discovered? And one of the things... one of the former police officers was caught basically when I was coming home in a snowstorm entering my property with a camera, but from the other side opposite of my house. He's a good fellow and I talked with him, I said, "Why are you coming in this way? There's a driveway and the other side." "Well, she doesn't want you to come in, she doesn't want you to know we're here." **[00:27:30] Mayor Michele Hanson:** I feel like we're getting—like you're not answering our questions. I mean, do you think this is okay, what we're seeing in these pictures? It's a yes or no; I don't need an explanation. **[00:27:40] David Kringle:** Yeah, stuff is there. But let's understand something. **[00:27:43] Mayor Michele Hanson:** I'm understanding. I see it in the pictures. **[00:27:45] David Kringle:** There's 18 homes out there... **[00:27:46] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** I understand that and one a lot doesn't matter. It doesn't—we have court orders that there’s a problem, and it's yours. So give me an excuse—I mean, okay, convince me. You're not convincing us. **[00:28:00] David Kringle:** The things that you see on the picture are partially things that we've used when there's flooding... **[00:28:05] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Come on. You can't—Mr. Kringle, with all due respect, you're treating us like we're fools, and I'm not okay with that. Have you been out there? **[00:28:15] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** Yes, I have been. **[00:28:16] David Kringle:** Have you knocked on my door and let me walk you through? **[00:28:18] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** It doesn't matter. I don't need to knock on your door to see the mess. **[00:28:22] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Okay, let's be done. I'd say we've heard enough and apparently you have, because you only want to know... in how many more years? Do you need a paragraph? How many more years? Hey, tell me in two years it'll be fixed? Come on. **[00:28:40] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** No, we're done. We're done giving any kind of extensions. **[00:28:45] David Kringle:** The reason there's a semi there is that things from the lot have been put in the semi to move... **[00:28:50] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yeah, but that never got moved. It's been left there and now it's just added to the pile. We're done, Mr. Kringle. Can you please sit down? We're going to move on. You're... thank you. **[00:29:05] David Kringle:** Sorry for taking your time, really am. **[00:29:10] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yeah, it's very valuable. Thank you. (Almost uses gavel). Okay, so let's make a motion. (To Patrick McAn) I think he wants to... do you think so? I mean, I understand. I tried to read your statements so that we could just move on from this because I feel like we all know where we stand, but you definitely get a minute if you’ve got four. **[00:29:35] Patrick McAn:** One of my fellow residents put a lot of work into it. We have a good contingent from Point Road here. **[00:29:40] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Don't forget to tell us who you are, Pat. **[00:29:43] Patrick McAn:** Oh, Patrick McAn, 19 Point Road. Thank you. This is a petition. We have 12 individual signatures on here. Thank you. Again, showing that this is not just one or two disgruntled people; this is the neighborhood. **[00:30:00] Mayor Michele Hanson:** I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, Patrick. And sir, if you could bring that petition and hand it to our city clerk so that could be part of the record. Hand it to Sara. (To Mr. Kringle) No, you're done, Mr. Kringle, sorry. **[00:30:20] David Kringle:** I have a comment about a similar subject to this... **[00:30:25] Mayor Michele Hanson:** No, you can come back another time but not tonight. We're not going to talk about another subject. Have a seat. Thank you. Okay, do we have a motion? (To camera) Put these on the video... know I follow Mr. Kringle—the Mayor requests—I’m the leader of this meeting and I asked you to please sit down. Thank you. Okay, do we have a motion? **[00:30:50] Councilmember Orin Kipp:** I'll make a motion to proceed with the litigation as outlined by the City Attorney for the outstanding city code violation on Point Road. **[00:31:00] Councilmember Katie Hill:** I second. **[00:31:05] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thank you Connie and Katie. Do we need to have a roll call since money might be spent? How does this work? **[00:31:10] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** We probably should. Okay, go for it. Councilmember Bliss? (Aye). Councilmember Gilmore? (Aye). Councilmember Kipp? (Aye). Councilmember Hill? (Aye). Mayor Hanson? (Aye). **[00:31:30] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Motion passes. There's no new business, so let's move on to our council liaison reports unless you guys want to take off for a second? We can leave you 30 seconds to kind of skedaddle, or you're welcome to hang if you want. The meeting's almost over, but I know sometimes it can get disruptive, so I'll just let you have a second if you want. Thank you all for coming. Okay, and we will start our council liaison reports with... thank you... with Connie? With me? I said Connie... I thought no... I didn't say... I just said "with" and then she said "who's that?" and I was like "I don't know." Okay, want to go, Connie? **[00:32:15] Councilmember Orin Kipp:** I can go. Okay, um, well the—first of all, I guess I'd like to thank, as everyone knows, Marie Hudachek resigned and we appointed a new board member, and I just want to thank Marie for the time she put on the board and what she does with the foundation too. There was a strategic planning session that was held on April 20th at the library, and we had a consultant that came and went through stuff, and it was actually—it went really well and there was a lot of good feedback. And then she'll come back to Jill and Clean and give them kind of the feedback of what we want to implement or what we want to collaborate with. Nice. So um, it was like I said a good turnout and good feedback. And then they had a really cute little—otherwise there isn't a whole lot of report because that was in our main—but they did have a cute little plate right before Easter that was put on. It was an interactive play with the kids, and um, they always do some cute things down there. So I want to thank Jill for that. And then I guess pretty much that's it. Our next meeting will be the 21st at 6 o'clock. **[00:33:45] Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right, thanks Connie. Library board liaison. Ethan, Cable Commission? **[00:33:55] Councilmember Ethan Gilmore:** Cable commission did not meet. I did attend the Fire Relief meeting. Thank you for going for me. I know it was probably confusing to try to catch up, but it's interesting, nice to meet the other guys I haven't met. So kind of nice to go down there and check out the fire station too. **[00:34:10] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yeah, good. Thank you for taking my place. John? **[00:34:15] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** I do not have anything to report. **[00:34:17] Mayor Michele Hanson:** We have a Middle St. Croix Watershed Management Organization meeting this Thursday, which I cannot make. If anyone is able to make it for me, that would be amazing. Okay, and Katie? **[00:34:30] Councilmember Katie Hill:** B-CAL I didn't go to, but I have the meetings... but you were there? Would you like to talk about it? **[00:34:35] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yeah, I'll talk about it in mine then. Thank you. **[00:34:40] Councilmember Katie Hill:** What time is the watershed management? **[00:34:42] Mayor Michele Hanson:** It’s in... you'll send it to me? I think it's Thursday the 9th and it's coming up Tuesday. I think I can go for you. So really fun. Yeah, I've never been to one in person; I did a zoom that was confusing. Okay, so I did a couple separate meetings. From the—I'm on the Lake Elmo Airport Advisory Commission, and we didn't meet in this timeframe, but we did meet with—I'd say maybe there was 10 residents affected by the increased frequency usage of the airport, and just to hear their feedback. It was me and Rick W-Rock from Baytown Township Board, and he pretty much led that, invited me to come along. So I just went to listen to what their concerns were, whether they should be taking legal action, etc. Then Rick and I met after to debrief. It's a pretty complicated thing they've got going over there with an airport and increased use and how that affects their quality of life, so it's kind of a big deal we're dealing with right now. I also tried to go to the one big birthday bash at the library that ArtReach was doing because I thought it'd be fun to see all the community members, and no one told me it was cancelled. So it's okay, I ended up chatting with Heather Rutledge, the Executive Director of ArtReach; we had a great talk and I talked a little bit about how we can incorporate more art into Bayport. And so now she knows that we're—at least I am—interested in things like that. So it worked out great. I better be careful; no murals with advertising, we just learned. Yeah, um, on the 18th and the 23rd, I did a couple Chamber things, went to a mixer and the Ambassador meeting. I also had a fun time on May 3rd, which was this past Friday, at the Razzle Dazzle Carnival. I worked in the Bingo room. Oh, I didn't, but yeah, so it was fun to go back and do that. And then I did attend B-CAL the night before that for Katie—I guess for myself too, but we'll see—so I could give the report. Bar Crawl is this weekend, Saturday, May 11th; I believe there's still tickets available. It is super fun if you haven't been. Check out all of the local bars and restaurants; tickets on the B-CAL website. You get food and drink specials; there's also swag bags for the first so many people, things like that. You can go to the website or their Facebook page. Ice cream social is coming up on June 5th; it's a Wednesday night, kind of the kickoff to summer. And there's going to be live music from the Bayport Jammers that the library is paying for—Library Foundation. They're going to—Library is also going to have some activities there for kids. They're going to do the sign up for summer reading. Of course, there's going to be free ice cream; Mabel's is helping with that, contributing some of the ice cream. And the Afton-Bayport-Lakeland Lions Club is doing a diaper drive at the ice cream social. There is a huge need in Washington County, and they will be donating all the diapers to the... what's it called... Help for Women? I don't know, it's Washington County had like several... it's like the blanket, their service area covered so many different things, so we thought just go to the county and then they can get them where they need to go. I say "we" because I'm a Lion, but... And then the Citywide Garage Sales are going to be June 7th and 8th, which is right after the ice cream social on Wednesday, so in that weekend. And you can sign up for that on the B-CAL website and then you can be part of the map. Or at City Hall, you can also sign up there; I think you can buy little garage sale signs too at City Hall. And save the dates for Derby Days: September 20th and 21st. Fun as always. We're going to have Audio Circus play on Friday night at what used to be called the Street Dance and now is called Party in the Park. And then, of course, all the great activities on Saturday ending with fireworks at Lakeside Park. So that is my update. Matt, do you want to call on city staff for updates? **[00:39:15] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Fire Chief Kinney? **[00:39:20] Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** Good evening, Madame Mayor and council members. For the month of April, our call volume was 100 compared to 102 in 2023. Our year-to-date is 379 compared to 377 for last year. Monthly drills are brush fires and grass fires, our EMR (Emergency Medical Responder) quarterly review, and our fire inspections are ongoing as well. A lot of activities this month: we had Fire Improvement Team, the Oak Park Heights council member meeting that went very well—good questions there. We have some anniversaries: Dustin Vincent 9 years, Brandon Johnson 18, Jake Vindal 20, myself 23, and I had a typo in Jason—he's 29. So we've got 99 years of service this month! **[00:40:15] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Wow! That's great. That's awesome. **[00:40:20] Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** Lot of tours in that. We had the Valley Friendship Club. We had three members attend the FD conference down in Indianapolis. Boy Scout Pack. And we had the Anderson Elementary kickoff meeting at the fire station. We had the Washington County—and upcoming is the Washington County Fire Chiefs, the Memorial Day Parade, Anderson Elementary kindergarten station tour which was today, and I survived! Great kids, they were just tremendous. We were supposed to do it last Thursday and I called and I said, "don't make them walk up here when it's raining," so we did it today; it was beautiful. **[00:41:00] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Oh yeah, what a great day. **[00:41:02] Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** And then we have a Bethlehem Church confirmation class tour, and we do have a couple of guys up at the Lacrosse—up at the Stillwater High School tonight, so that just came on late. With that, I stand for any questions. **[00:41:15] Mayor Michele Hanson:** What is the Anderson Elementary school construction kickoff meeting? What does that mean? Did you host—? **[00:41:20] Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** Yeah, I hosted when you met with the... I filled it for what I do so you guys know I work but— **[00:41:30] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Oh, so that was just talking about what might have to get done, the engineering items, traffic studies, some high-level stuff like that. Just kind of the kickoff of "yep, we're going to start working on this stuff." Provide them with a schedule. **[00:41:45] Mayor Michele Hanson:** You just attended that meeting that they used the fire station for? **[00:41:50] Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** I got to sign in, so... Alan was involved, he answered questions about accessibility around... **[00:42:00] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Good, I'm glad you were there because the fire station is like very critical, it's across the street, and yeah, you need to know how to get into the school and all that. So all right, good. Thanks for clarifying that. Okay, anyone else have questions for Chief before—? Okay, thanks Chief. **[00:42:15] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Police Chief Jackson? **[00:42:20] Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** Madam Mayor, Council. We also are ramping up a lot of tours at the police department. Officer Lowski had the Anderson Elementary class on April 4th. The department had all of our members in for pepper ball and less lethal training, which we did with Oak Park Heights Police Department. And then we have a lot of upcoming information: we did apply for the Safe Roads Grant, which would be an extra $25,000 if we should get awarded it, for specific enforcement of traffic safety issues—pedestrian crossing, distracted driving, speeding. We're hopeful; we put some work into it and hopefully we'll be hearing in the near future on that. Special thank you to Officer Cornell; he did a lot of work on that grant, so I really do appreciate that. We have a confirmation class, kindergarten class coming in for tours in May; I suspect we may get one more requesting that. Planning is underway for the Memorial Day parade and then safety camp and Night to Unite as well. Safety Camp will be August 5th and 6th, and Night to Unite will be in the evening on August 6th. And then as you'd request, Mayor, we're still working on the scam thing. We'll get that figured out here shortly and hopefully present a date at the next council meeting. And I will stand for any questions. **[00:43:40] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Just a thank you from me for—you delivered a speed sign to a neighborhood where it was a problem. I think it's helped. **[00:43:50] Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** Good. I appreciate it. And I encourage anybody else that would like to have us get it out there; we're happy to do it. Rather it's out somewhere than sitting on the charger. So we do try and get it out, especially in these warmer months where it'll last a little bit longer. We also did receive a request today to use the handheld radar unit that we have by one of the citizens, so we'll be dropping that off later too. So if anybody has those requests, just shoot me an email. **[00:44:15] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Great, thank you. Thanks. Thanks for the reminder about the Memorial Day Parade too; it's coming up quick. **[00:44:25] Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** Yeah, coming up quick. **[00:44:27] Mayor Michele Hanson:** We're not going to meet before that? No, we wouldn't meet before that. **[00:44:30] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Public Works Director Hansen? **[00:44:35] Joe Hansen (Public Works Director):** Madam Mayor, members of the council. Last time this year, it's hard to imagine, but the crew was cleaning up after that April 1st snowstorm and simultaneously preparing for the unprecedented flood. This year it was a little more smooth, so we definitely appreciate Mother Nature cooperating with us this year. They were able to get out grading alleys, sweeping streets, and getting the parks ready for their opening, which they have been, and it's been a beautiful past couple days so that people have been able to get out and enjoy the parks. We've also applied for a local climate action grant to get an electric truck and a charging station to add to our vehicle maintenance fleet. This will hopefully help—hopefully if we are awarded this grant—it would be for the amount of $50,000 with a smaller contribution by the city. It would help to alleviate some of the pressure for vehicle replacement for our fleet of maintenance vehicles. Lastly, we are going to be starting to flush fire hydrants in the next week or so, so just a word to all residents who may get this that there may be some discoloration in your water just due to the sediment being stirred up in the main lines. Don't panic, just run your water until the water goes clear. It is an annual or semi-annual procedure. With that, I stand for questions. **[00:46:00] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Thanks, Simon. And thank you for applying for that grant and all the other things you've been working on. I know we've been doing some other kind of sustainable things. Again, I want to give a shout out to one of the residents, Tim Nolan, who's been encouraging us to do these things, looking at the grants for us and kind of emailing us frequently about what we should be looking at. And so we have taken him up on some of those ideas, and I think this Public Works vehicle as an electric vehicle is a great idea because it really doesn't leave the city. I mean, it seems like a really good opportunity to save some gas money. And is that like a full-size pickup? **[00:46:40] Joe Hansen (Public Works Director):** It would be for—well, what we're looking at would be a Ford Lightning, and it would be a full-size pickup, yeah. **[00:46:48] Mayor Michele Hanson:** So it would be great if we can get it. So hopefully, yeah. So thank you for that. Anyone else have questions for Joe? All right. **[00:47:00] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Assistant Administrator Taylor? **[00:47:05] Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** Madam Mayor, members of the council. Just to expand on the school district meeting we had on April 17th—we did discuss potential opportunities and challenges for the site, mostly from a land use standpoint, and then what applications would apply for the annexation and development. As Matt mentioned, we're in constant communication with them, and we anticipate they'll be ready to pursue an annexation sometime in June, we're thinking. So that's coming. We've had several meetings with the property owners and contractors for 395 Lakeside Drive. We finally received a Planning and Zoning application which includes a request for multiple variances and a conditional use permit to expand the existing house on the site. A public hearing has been scheduled for the May 20th Planning Commission meeting, and that will be followed by city council consideration on June 3rd. A draft rewrite of the city sign ordinance is complete and was reviewed earlier this evening in a joint workshop with the Planning Commission. Based on direction at the workshop, staff will prepare a final draft for consideration by the Planning Commission at a public hearing on May 20th. The city is offering residents the option to participate in "No Mow May" or the latest is "Slow Mow May"—and that's for pollinators to promote their habitat. That's going to be offered through May 31st, the end of the month, and free yard signs are available for pickup at City Hall during business hours. I just want to give a shout out to Cheryl and Mary, our front counter office support staff. This year we've seen a substantial increase in early park reservations, especially for Lakeside Park. The beach house is completely booked on weekends in June, July, and August. **[00:48:50] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Wow! **[00:48:52] Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** There's still some availability for picnic shelters, but we expect most weekends will book up in the coming weeks. To date, we have a total of 97 park reservations—58 of those are residents and 39 are non-residents. So it's a lot of work; they take a lot of phone calls. Finally, annual boat trailer parking permits are available for purchase at City Hall. **[00:49:15] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Question about the beach house: we talked a few months back about having the kitchen available for renters. Have we made any progress on that? **[00:49:25] Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** Your honor, that would be a good question for Public Works Director Hansen, I guess, or Matt. **[00:49:35] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** So the last I heard from maintenance worker Josh Eisinger indicated that everything is good to go. It could use a cleaning, but we're unsure on—because everything is booked up—on advertising it as being available essentially. **[00:49:50] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yeah, so we weren't able to know that ahead of time before we started booking everything? **[00:49:55] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** We might have been able to, but it would have taken a lot of coordination, and if anything major had turned up as far as water leaks or anything like that, it would have been difficult to make that... **[00:50:05] Mayor Michele Hanson:** So when people pick up the key, can they be told about it? **[00:50:10] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** They can, absolutely. Um, we haven't set a fee though for an extra charge, and no one—only a couple people have specifically asked, "well, is there like a back room or something specifically available?" I think moving forward at the end of the year when we do the fee schedule, we'll have to set that fee, and now knowing that it's good to go, we'll just amp that up next year. **[00:50:30] Mayor Michele Hanson:** So it's not going to be available to people who rent it this year because we didn't come up with a fee schedule for it? **[00:50:35] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** If you want to, you are more than welcome to discuss a fee schedule change next meeting, next month. **[00:50:45] Mayor Michele Hanson:** She did earlier... but without that, we wouldn't be able to charge them anything, right? They would just have use of it. **[00:50:50] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** I think the thought might be that on the weekends when staff comes in to clean the beach house, it would be an added—I understand the reason for the fee, yeah. It's just I was hoping we were going to get ahead of it this year, but I guess we have to wait a whole another year. So again, Madame Mayor, there wasn't much of a push now. We didn't necessarily say it was readily available, but people ask every once in a while about, "well, is there a kitchen?" and we have to watch what we're advertising, right? Sometimes all of us speak of it as a kitchen, but it's not really a kitchen. It has a sink and that's about it. And I think we want to set parameters on what's allowed to be washed and all kinds of stuff. It might be a long discussion on "what do we charge then for the base fee?" and "do we have a $100 escrow over and above the escrow that's for the other main area?" just because we don't want to have to be unclogging sinks every other day. **[00:51:45] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yeah, there has to be precedent for something like this in other cities. Other cities have rooms with sinks that they rent out. So okay, we will deal with that later. Sorry, I didn't mean to—I thought maybe it was all ready to go and I didn't mean to put you on the spot to say no, it's not. **[00:52:05] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** In terms of the—just while we're on that subject, but I know Sara mentioned the boat trailer parking, the permits—our project is after this "quote-unquote" our Fourth Street boat ramp project is after this boating season just so everybody is aware of that. I don't know if we need to—probably don't need to make them aware of it, but that's the game plan, right? That's what I've been telling people that have asked me. **[00:52:30] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** Yes, the current plan... there's been a request by Anderson Corporation to push the start of construction to, I believe, middle of September essentially. We're still discussing that with Dressel and the engineers on whether that is feasible to get everything done in that shortened season. I don't see it as a problem, but I don't want to speak for the contractor either. We do have to have enough time to make that happen, but yes, even if that's not enough time, I would still think that construction would start sometime in early September at the earliest. **[00:53:10] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** That was my—I just want to make sure we wrap it up... (Get closer to the mic)... I just want to make sure we have a feasible amount of time to do what's necessary. **[00:53:20] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Yep. If we've got to cut voting season a little short on the backside, I think we need to make sure and do that. **[00:53:30] Mayor Michele Hanson:** Yep. Okay, thank you. Anyone else? Okay, thanks Matt. Do you want to—is that it, or you have to talk about your stuff? **[00:53:40] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** I don't have too much to talk to. Everyone likes to talk about your stuff for you and you don't have any, right? We discussed most of mine, so I just stand for questions if anybody has any. **[00:53:50] Mayor Michele Hanson:** No, I think that's good. Everyone good? Anyone have any other city council items or announcements? Okay. Anyone—do we technically adjourn if we're going into a—? **[00:54:05] Matt Kline (City Administrator):** We do, Madam Mayor. We will adjourn and then we will conduct the closed session, and then next time we will provide an update on the closed session. **[00:54:15] Mayor Michele Hanson:** So we're going into a closed session for Matt's review, but we're going to adjourn this meeting. So do— **[00:54:20] Councilmember Orin Kipp:** I'll make a motion to adjourn. **[00:54:22] Councilmember Carl Bliss:** Second. **[00:54:23] Mayor Michele Hanson:** All right, thanks Connie and John. All those in favor? (All: Aye). Anyone oppose? Any nay? All right, we are adjourned. Thank you all.