[00:00] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Oh, was for me? It's for me specifically. Okay, on here. We all ready? All right, we're going to go ahead and call to order of the regular meeting of the Oakdale City Council, January 28th, 2025. Sarah, will you please take the roll? [00:15] **Sarah Ludwig (City Clerk):** Council Member Moore? [00:17] **Council Member Kari Moore:** Here. [00:18] **Sarah Ludwig (City Clerk):** Council Member Morcomb? [00:19] **Council Member Andy Morcomb:** Here. [00:20] **Sarah Ludwig (City Clerk):** Council Member Severson? [00:21] **Council Member Gary Severson:** Here. [00:22] **Sarah Ludwig (City Clerk):** Council Member Wrich? [00:23] **Council Member Katie Wrich:** Here. [00:24] **Sarah Ludwig (City Clerk):** Mayor Zabel? [00:25] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Here. Please join me 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 righty, first up on the agenda tonight is the approval of the agenda. Council members, no changes in front of us, so can I get a motion to approve the agenda presented? [00:45] **Council Member Kari Moore:** So moved. [00:46] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [00:47] **Council Member Andy Morcomb:** Second. [00:48] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. [00:50] **Council Members:** Aye. [00:51] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Opposed? And the agenda is adopted. Next up, we have approval of minutes. Two sets in front of us tonight. First up, Workshop meeting minutes, January 14th, 2025. Uh, council members, any changes or corrections? I'll look for a motion. [01:05] **Council Member Gary Severson:** So move. [01:06] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [01:07] **Council Member Katie Wrich:** Second. [01:08] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Uh, all those in favor say aye. [01:10] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:11] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Opposed? And Workshop meeting minutes are approved. Next up, regular meeting minutes, January 14th, 2025. Uh, council members, any changes or corrections? Look for a motion. [01:20] **Council Member Andy Morcomb:** So moved. [01:21] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [01:22] **Council Member Kari Moore:** Second. [01:23] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. [01:25] **Council Members:** Aye. [01:26] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Opposed? And those meeting minutes are adopted. I'm gonna pause here. Jake Foster, could you turn on the lights up here for us? We're feeling a little dark up here. There we go. Shine a little light on the subject. Thank you. Uh, next up is public hearings. We have one in front of us tonight related to city project 2025-01. Staff has a brief presentation for the council and property owners as well. [01:50] **Brian Bachmeier (Consulting City Engineer):** Good evening. I'm Brian Bachmeier, the Consulting City Engineer for the city of Oakdale. Joining me this evening is Brad Swanson. He's with [SEH], he'll be helping me with this presentation. Uh, he's the project manager involved with the design and construction management for the project. Um, the neighborhood that we're talking about tonight is generally described as the neighborhood that is east of Greenway Avenue, north of Hudson Boulevard, west of Grovner, and south of Sixth Street. It's about two miles of neighborhood streets in the city of Oakdale. We are going to be conducting two hearings tonight. The first hearing is the Improvement hearing where we'll be talking about the improvements that we're proposing. There'll be an opportunity for the residents and property owners to testify before the City Council on their opinions regarding the improvements, and then it will be going back to the City Council where they will deliberate on ordering the project—and it does require a four-fifths vote of the council. Once we've completed that hearing, we will then move into the second hearing, which is the assessment hearing, where we'll again describe how the project is going to be financed. There'll be another opportunity to testify for the Council on your thoughts on how the project is being financed, and then the Council will deliberate and determine if they adopt the assessment role. Generally, when we're completed with these, we will have addressed the why, the what, the how, and the when. The objectives of the improvements that the city considers every year is to improve safety. We strongly feel that pavement conditions have a direct correlation with safety in our community because a lot of walkers and bikers use our streets in addition to motorists. The second is to control maintenance costs for our community. I'll be showing a chart here shortly, but as our streets get older, the costs increase at an accelerating rate. Patching—we've been doing a lot of patching in this area—is very inefficient and ineffective. So we've reached the point of diminishing returns. We're also looking at replacing water mains where there is a history of multiple breaks in the area. I think about half the streets in this year's project, we're seeing a need to replace the water main, so we'll be talking about that. We're also looking at improving our energy efficiency with the lighting system. Currently, it's a high-pressure sodium, so it consumes a certain amount of energy. We'll be converting that to LED, which is a more efficient, more effective lighting system. Then the final objective is to eliminate service barriers. As I mentioned earlier, as the streets get older, they become brittle and there is a point where we need to protect them by imposing some load restrictions, which could limit access to your property primarily in the spring of the year. If you're doing any improvements on your home, there may be some contractors that can't get to your property because the streets are being protected through load limits. This is the chart I was referring to. Let me just indicate: on the left side is pavement conditions—on the very top is a street that's new, has a rating of 100. On the bottom is the age as the street gets older (10 years, 20 years, 30 years). On the right side, we show the cost to maintain the street. What this chart is really showing is the street deteriorates over time at an accelerating rate. At the same time, the maintenance costs are increasing, and there's a point right in here—generally around 28 to 30 years—where we've reached the point of diminishing returns where it's no longer cost-effective to maintain the street. So we need to do something more dramatic, and that's to resurface the street. This is a map that shows the pavement conditions throughout the community. The green and the blue indicate fair and adequate streets; the streets that are purple and red indicate poor and very poor condition. If you look across the community, we have neighborhoods where we have a street that'll have a poor condition and then we'll have others that'll have average or adequate condition. What we're seeing in the neighborhood down in the southern part of the community, we're seeing a concentration where there's a lot of streets that are now in poor condition. So we have this annual program where we do two to three miles of reconstruction a year and we target those areas where we can identify a neighborhood and where there's a concentration of poor streets. So over the next couple of years, we will be working in this area. The neighborhood we're looking at tonight is east of Greenway. Next year, we'll be looking at the neighborhood west of Greenway Avenue, and then we'll be continuing to other parts of the community. As I indicated earlier regarding load limits, these are the neighborhoods now that we're having to post at five-ton load limits. Again, it's generally down in the southern and southeast part of the community. That would limit access to your property by people providing services. With this, I'm going to turn it over to Brad to review a typical project and the process. [07:15] **Brad Swanson (Project Manager, SEH):** Thank you. Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. Before you have a picture of First Street North looking east. This particular section of the street in the project is slated for water main replacement. The water main was installed in 1966, making it 59 years old. We've experienced a few breaks in this area, so we are going to be replacing the water main. Along with the water main, the street surface has fallen into a point where it really can't be restored or repaired, along with the curb and gutter which is settled and cracked. This whole area will have the water main replaced as well as new surfacing and curb and gutter. This area is Third Street North. In this area, the city utilities are currently working adequately, so we aren't going to do any mass utility repairs. However, the surface is failing to a point where we really can't repair it. The curb and gutter is cracking and settling. So we're going to do a full surface rehabilitation and curb replacement in this area. During this time, we'll be assessing and looking at all the street lighting. We'll be addressing the street poles as necessary as well as replacing the fixtures with the current LED standard. This is Greystone Avenue looking north. Again, this water main was installed in 1966. There have been several breaks in this area over the past several years. We're going to be replacing the water main in this area as well as the services going out to the right-of-way line for each residential property. The surface is also fallen into disrepair. We'll be also replacing the curb and gutter. The streets in this project are: First Street North from Greenway to Greystone; Third Street North from Greenway to Greystone; Fourth Street North from Greenway to Greystone; Fifth Street North from Greenway to Grovner; Fifth Street Court North; Upper Fifth Street North; Sixth Street North from Gross Point to Guthrie; Grenadier Avenue North from First Street to Third; Gresham Avenue North from First Street to Third Street; Greystone Avenue from Hudson Boulevard to Fourth; and Grovner Avenue from 150 feet south of Upper Fifth Street North. For the proposed improvements, there's essentially three categories. The first one is pavement rehabilitation and complete curb and gutter replacement. Those streets receiving those are going to be First Street, Third Street, Fifth Street, Fifth Street Court North, Upper Fifth Street North, Sixth Street North, Grenadier Avenue North, Gresham Avenue, Greystone Avenue, and Grovner Avenue. Number two is pavement rehabilitation where the utilities are okay and the curb and gutter is still relatively stable, but the street surfacing is in need of full surface rehabilitation. Those streets are going to be Fourth Street North and Upper Fifth Street North from 300 feet east of Gross Point to Hadley Avenue. And then number three is going to be the water replacement areas. These are going to have their water main replaced as well as the service laterals, full curb and gutter replacement, and surface restoration. These streets are First Street North, Fifth Street North, Fifth Street Court North, and Upper Fifth Street North from Greenway Avenue North to Grovner Avenue North, and Greystone Avenue North from Hudson Boulevard to Fourth Street. The construction process: initially, the contractor is going to come in and they're going to do pavement reclamation. They bring in a piece of equipment that grinds up the existing driving surface and blends it into the existing aggregate base below. At that point, they'll remove it as necessary to do the utility repairs and replacement. We'll be repairing the public utilities at that time. Some of the private utilities take advantage of this opportunity to come in and replace some of their service laterals—communications, gas services, and electricity lines. Also, we'll be doing curb removal or repair and replacement. Again, those roads that have water main replacement will be fully removing all the curb and gutter. Along with that, we'll be removing a portion of the driveway section directly adjacent to that curb and gutter, where each property will get a new concrete driveway apron. Then those areas that aren't getting full curb and gutter replacement will be doing spot repair. At that point, we'll be putting in the base course of pavement. We'll be adjusting all the cast iron, which is essentially all the manhole castings. We'll be doing boulevard restoration; we will be importing black dirt and restoring all the yards with sod. Then the final wear course will be put on. Issues typically with these projects are access during construction. Typically, residents can get to their home at any given time unless activity is happening right in front of their home. We send out a weekly newsletter and we advise all the residents what's going to be happening. Mail delivery will continue; mailboxes that are removed will have temporary mailboxes put up. Working hours in the city of Oakdale are 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday; on Saturdays, it's 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. SEH will have site representatives out there at all times. This is a local area map showing all the streets that are going to be affected. This is the southern half of the project. Also identified are all the street lights. This is the location map of the water main areas that are going to be replaced. These water mains were essentially all installed in 1966 and have all had water main breaks. These particular streets, we actually over-excavate those streets and we put in a two-foot sand section as well as aggregate base and asphalt. This helps with stabilization and is going to prolong the use of the street. As far as the project process: we've already had the neighborhood information put out in November. Tonight is the public hearing. On March 11th, we're going to be bringing plans to the city council for approval. We'll receive bids and award the contract in April 2025. Start construction in May and we're aiming for substantial completion in September of this year. With that, I'll turn that back over to Brian. [14:10] **Brian Bachmeier (Consulting City Engineer):** Thank you. So with that, we are done with the presentation for the public improvements. It's an opportunity then to turn it back to the Mayor to talk about neighborhood testimony. [14:20] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Thank you, Brian. I know why you looked up here to start, because I was supposed to follow the script and I didn't, so there was a section I was supposed to read before the presentation, but here we are. Good evening everybody. We're here tonight to consider the improvements and assessments for the 2025 Street Reconstruction Project. Tonight, two separate hearings will be held. The first public hearing will review the 2025 Street Reconstruction Project, and the second hearing will review the assessments and other financing related to this project. Notice of these hearings has been provided through mail and published in the city's official newspaper. I ask that City Clerk Sarah Ludwig include the Affidavit of Publication and the Affidavit of Mailing in the official record. In a minute, City Attorney Jim Thompson will provide important details related to tonight's proceedings. Before we begin the public hearings, I'd like to go over a few ground rules. First and foremost, we want to treat everyone with respect and courtesy. If you wish to speak, please step up to the podium, provide your name and address for the record, and proceed with your comments—no more than three minutes in total. If someone has already shared something similar, please do not feel like you have to repeat what has already been said. At this time, I'm going to go ahead and turn things over to Jim Thompson who will provide an outline of the procedures. Jim? [15:45] **Jim Thompson (City Attorney):** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, members of the public, as the Mayor indicated, the first hearing that is going to be open was for the project itself. That's an opportunity for you to come up and make comment—any comments you want about the project, things you'd like changed, things you'd like not changed. After that hearing is conducted, the Council will vote on whether to proceed with the project. As Mr. Bachmeier indicated, that does require a two-thirds vote because this is not a petition project. Once if that vote is passed, then they'll go on to the assessment hearing and they'll give you information on that, and at that time you'll have a chance to come forward and talk about the financing. Typically you'll want to talk about the assessment that's going to be on your property. If you do want to challenge the assessment, it's really a two-step process. One is to sign an objection here tonight—and there are forms I believe in the back of the chambers that you can use for that purpose—and you have to submit those before that public hearing is closed. It doesn't need to be formal, but it's critical that you do that because if you don't do that and want to go the second step, you'll be precluded from doing so. Then if you do sign that form and want to continue, the next step would be for you to file an action in court. There's a very short time period to do that—it's 30 days from the adoption of the assessment role. If you have any questions that come up during either hearings, I'm happy to answer them. [17:20] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Thank you, Jim. One thing I want to call out is by filling out the form in the back, it doesn't mean you are going to court, you're just preserving your right to do so. So even if you're not sure if you want to go all the way through the process, you have to take that first step of filling out it's just a one-page form and handing it to the city clerk before the assessment public hearing closes. At this time, I'm going to open the public hearing and invite property owners to comment on the proposed improvements only. Please hold your comments or questions about the assessment until the second public hearing. [18:05] **Brian Rinsky (Public):** Yes, hello. Welcome. I'm Brian Rinsky, I'm at 142 Greystone. I was looking at the chart on the whatever, and it was one of those streets is actually my street, and if you guys are tearing that up or trying to contract that to be torn up, I don't understand why because it's not that bad. I do agree that if the streets are bad—I don't drive through Oakdale only on my part of town till I go to my job—so I do agree if the streets are bad, tear them up and then fill out the sewer and all that stuff. But I don't see a point in wasting money, especially on my street because my street is not even that bad. I guess I don't know how well thought out—I looked at everybody's name here and I didn't notice really anybody living in the Oakdale area, so you guys won't be affected by the assessment, which is unfortunate. But yeah, I guess I was just wondering what drives you to want to replace streets that don't necessarily need it when in 5, 10 years you're going to have to rip it up again with probably another assessment if the tax money isn't being used appropriately as it seems to do that sewer stuff as well. [19:20] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Thank you. Um, Brian, do you want to touch a little bit on the street improvement program and how the scoring of individual streets works? [19:28] **Brian Bachmeier (Consulting City Engineer):** Sure. As the Mayor indicated, we had that map that showed the pavement conditions throughout the community. [19:35] **Brian Rinsky (Public):** Yeah, I saw the map. I mean, I live in the area, so I see the streets probably more frequently than most people here. So I guess I would 100% disagree with your assessment, which is fine, that's why we're here. We don't have to agree on everything, right? I guess I would rather hit the big things, like I agree with the sewer and the water stuff. Like if that stuff is old—I had the water line break in my yard a couple years ago and I know why that happened and that was a fault of my own because I have a big tree there that ripped it up. I just want to do this responsibly, not just because it looks bad. [20:10] **Brian Bachmeier (Consulting City Engineer):** Well, I completely understand that. I guess what we're looking at there is a range of poor conditions, and it's a scale of 1 to 100. Your street might be a little bit on the higher end of the pavement rating, but the reality is we have a concentration of streets in a similar condition in that area that are in poor condition and we need to address them. It's more cost-effective to do it as a neighborhood in a concentrated area than it is to do a block over here, a block over there. Generally, when we do these improvements, it's a good 30 years. In fact, the last time we did improvements down in this area I believe was in the mid-90s, so we were about 30 years ago. [20:50] **Brian Rinsky (Public):** When I was looking at the chart though, Greystone—that street wasn't listed for sewer replacement, that was just repaving. [20:58] **Brian Bachmeier (Consulting City Engineer):** Greystone is water main replacement. [21:00] **Brian Rinsky (Public):** Was it? Okay. Yes. Okay. I guess I just want to make sure that we're ripping up the water at the same time because I know not all of them are, and that's where I don't like the waste. So hopefully you guys see it that way too. I know you guys don't live here so you don't probably see it the same as I do, but yeah, that's all I have. Thanks. [21:20] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Thank you. Is there anybody else that would like to speak to the improvement portion of tonight's presentation? Going once, going twice... I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back up to the City Council for consideration. Council members, are there any questions or comments for staff or SEH? [21:40] **Council Member Gary Severson:** Yeah, welcome. And this is general and it probably applies to both, but I know there's been a lot more water main breaks in the city of Oakdale. I'm just curious in a general sense—and it can vary wildly—but what is the approximate cost to repair a water main break? [22:00] **Brian Bachmeier (Consulting City Engineer):** Typical water main break can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 to repair. To replace a water main, it's about $500 a lineal foot. So you can see it takes quite a few breaks to total what it cost to replace it, but we also understand there's an inconvenience cost. [22:20] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Council members, any other questions for staff? All right, I will look for a motion. [22:25] **Council Member Kari Moore:** I'll make a motion to wave reading and adopt resolution 2025-05, ordering the improvements and preparation of plans and specifications for City Project 2025-01. [22:40] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [22:41] **Council Member Gary Severson:** Second. [22:42] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [22:45] **Council Members:** Aye. [22:46] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Opposed? And resolution 2025-05 is adopted. Next will be the presentation for the assessments. I'll just go back to my script, you know, it's just easier if I read what staff prepared for me. Staff will review assessments and financing related to the project. Nailed it. Who is tackling this presentation? Brian or Kyle? Yes, all right Brian, take it away. [23:10] **Brian Bachmeier (Consulting City Engineer):** So similar to the previous hearing, we are going to have a quick presentation to talk about tax distribution, defining what special assessments are, and assessment policies. Just a comment on local property taxes: I know a lot of times people will say, "Well, I'm paying property taxes, why am I being assessed for these improvements?" The fact is your property taxes pay for services—police, fire, public works, parks. Only a small part actually goes to capital projects. In fact, of your property tax bill, only about 10% goes to capital projects; 90% goes to services. It's just: is it being done based on value or being based on use? As it relates to the assessments to the properties, we do have three different assessment rates depending upon the improvements. If we're just removing and replacing the asphalt, that assessment rate is $55 a foot for residential properties. If we are removing and replacing the curb and gutter in addition to the pavement, the assessment rate is $79 for residential and it is $114 for commercial. There are two commercial properties on Greystone Avenue just off of Hudson Boulevard. The reason that assessment rate is slightly more is because the pavement section has to be thicker to serve the commercial properties for the nine-ton rating. The project cost is estimated at about $5.8 million. The special assessments are covering about a little over $1 million—$1,090,000 or about 18% of the project. 81% to 82% of the project is being financed with a combination of city funding sources, with the lion's share of it coming from the utility system replacement for the water main at $1.8 million. We also have storm sewer fund of $120,000 and a street improvement fund of $300,000. The rest of the costs will be through a bond and through debt payment. What special assessments really are is it's like a loan over a 10-year period. There is an interest rate component, and it's 2% above what the city sells the bonds for. The interest rate starts accruing in October of this year. You can prepay up to that point and accrue no interest. But if you choose to do nothing, then what the city does is we certify it to the county and it's collected with your property taxes. The first payment would be then in May of 2026. You can pay the remaining balance at any time by coming into the city. We do prefer the prepayments to be at $500 increments. If this does create a financial hardship, there is a discrete process through the finance department where they can apply for a hardship deferral. This is just a typical assessment—this particular parcel happens to be a 70-foot wide lot with curb and gutter replacement. So the total assessment was $5,530. In the first year, you pay the principal plus interest, so the first year the payment would be $938. By year 10, that payment would be $584. With that, that's the presentation. [27:15] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Thank you, Brian. At this time, I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing for the assessment portion of this project. I invite property owners to comment on the proposed assessments. Those wishing to appeal their assessments must fill out the assessment appeal form located on the back counter and this form must be submitted to the City Clerk prior to the close of the assessment hearing. Anybody wishing to make comments, please feel free to step up. [27:50] **Dannyelle Le (Public):** Hi, my name is Dannyelle Le. I live on 154 Gresham Avenue North here in Oakdale. I've been here for about six years and I love this city, but I don't love being forced to do something that I didn't ask for. It's not that I oppose these improvements to the streets and to the sewers—I know that that's a necessary thing to happen—but to put this burden onto us that we didn't ask for is not okay. There are people that are struggling. I know you mentioned like the assistance, but that shouldn't be needed. What do you say to like the single parent who's struggling to get by, the people that are living paycheck to paycheck, the people that are on a fixed income that can't afford this, but you are forcing them to pay this? It's just ridiculous and cruel to them to make that happen. So I just ask that if there's anything to lessen the burden for us, that would be greatly appreciated because this was something that I think—I know I've talked to some people—we didn't even know that this was happening until we got the assessment letters. How do you justify us spending thousands of dollars, like five, six grand plus? That's all I have to say. Thank you. [29:05] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Thank you. Is there anybody else that would like to speak under the public hearing for the assessments tonight? Under the rules of open forum, the Council doesn't interact with that in that respect. Any questions directed at staff we can certainly follow up, but it's not an open dialogue back and forth. [29:25] **Brian Rinsky (Public):** Brian Rinsky, 142 again. Um, so I do see most of us who have—what is it, the chart wasn't very good—the frontage? I guess what does that entail? I read most of this multiple times because like she was saying, four grand—that's not coming out of your guys's pocket, so you don't care. But I see some people who have like 70 listed as their frontage and some as 75, and I compared with one property that had 70 and I have 75—or we both have 70—and total cost is about a grand less. So I don't know where these numbers were coming from. And again, I agree with her, this was very sudden. I found out in like October. The communication was extremely terrible. But I guess my question is this frontage question. [30:15] **Brian Bachmeier (Consulting City Engineer):** So, there's two things that are coming into play here. One: the frontage is the width of the lot at the building setback line. We actually measured how wide is the lot at the building setback line and all the lots, and so it's whatever the lot width is, but it's capped at 80 feet. So there's no frontage over 80 feet. The assessment rate difference—the one you're seeing must be on Fourth Street or a portion of Upper Fifth Street. In that area, the curb and gutter is not being replaced. [30:50] **Brian Rinsky (Public):** Okay. A grand? Okay. Yeah. [30:55] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Brian, do you have that slide with the different amounts that you could pull up? I think it's illustrative. Yes, so the rehabilitation—if the curb and gutter is in suitable condition to remain, it's $55. If it needs to be replaced, it's $79. [31:15] **Michael Dobbins (Public):** Oh, my name is Michael Dobbins. I live on Greystone Avenue North. And you said something about there might be a service to help people that would have trouble paying. Could you elaborate on that? That sounds like a good idea if there's really some people that struggle. Because it sounds like it's going to uplift the whole area, but I know there's a lot of people that struggle right in our area. We've had a quite a turnover of new residents, and I think a lot of the new residents for some reason seem a little lower income than some of the people who have sold their homes. [31:55] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Yeah, it's called a hardship deferral. Kyle, why don't you come on up and just give a 30-second overview of what that process looks like and what resources might be available. [32:10] **Kyle (Finance Staff):** Yes, so good evening Mayor, Council. Yes, as part of the assessment policy there is a hardship deferral portion. With that, there's certain criteria to be met depending on age, disability, and income along with other extraordinary circumstances. And so with state statute, that needs to be turned in within 30 days if the assessment's approved. So we'll take anybody's contact information, we can get a hold of them and get them a copy of the form. [32:45] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Okay. Or would you like to just make your business cards available and residents can reach out to you directly? Let's grab a stack and we'll just put them in the back of the room then. Any residents that want to reach out or if you are at home viewing from home tonight, you can just call City Hall and ask to speak to the Finance Director. Thank you, Kyle. Is there anybody else that would like to speak? [33:15] **Peggy Dobbins (Public):** I'm sorry, Peggy Dobbins, 79 Greystone Avenue North. Um, I know one of the options for paying off whatever we've been assessed is just having it become part of our taxes. Now, when we pay our mortgage, we also have our insurance in our taxes, we have an escrow account. Can we therefore surmise that every year we're going to be getting a notice from the bank that our escrow is short because of the additional monies that will have to be there? [33:50] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** I can tackle this one because I just went through it. So your monthly mortgage payment will get readjusted annually to account for that difference or for that shortage in the escrow account. But Brian, could you pull up that slide of the amortization schedule? The amount being paid each year decreases as you go through it. Your mortgage payment would stay relatively fixed, but the annual payment actually goes down as you go through the 10-year cycle. [34:30] **Peggy Dobbins (Public):** Okay, that—thank you. [34:35] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Is there anybody else that would like to speak under the public hearing tonight? Okay, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. Bring it back for Council consideration. Council members, any questions or comments for Brian or Kyle or any of our staff tonight? All right, I will look for a motion. [34:55] **Council Member Kari Moore:** Actually, could I just... I'm sorry, before I close the public hearing, I was going to give like one final call if anybody wanted to fill out the assessment appeal form. If anybody would like to fill that out, please feel free to. Okay, well Jake's on that, so we'll count it if it comes in. That's fine. I'll make a motion to wave reading and adopt resolution 2025-06, adopting the assessment role for City Project 2025-01 in the amount of $1,090,240. [35:30] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [35:31] **Council Member Andy Morcomb:** Second. [35:32] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [35:35] **Council Members:** Aye. [35:36] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Opposed? And resolution 2025-06 is adopted. Next up on our agenda is the open forum. This is an opportunity for anybody who would like to share anything that's on their mind. Seeing none, we'll bring it back up and move into our consensus motions. Council members, we have A through C as presented. Are there any that an individual council member would like to pull? Seeing none, can I get a motion? [36:00] **Council Member Gary Severson:** Make a motion to approve consensus motions A through C as presented. [36:04] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [36:05] **Council Member Katie Wrich:** Second. [36:06] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and second. All those in favor say aye. [36:08] **Council Members:** Aye. [36:09] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Opposed? And those motions are approved. Next up is our opportunity to check in with our advisory boards and commissions. Only one met since our last meeting, the Tree Board. Council Member Moore is their liaison. Any update? [36:20] **Council Member Kari Moore:** We worked on the 2025 Tree Board work plan and spent most of our time talking about the main events that they hold every year. Lively conversation about the different tree species that will be offered at the Arbor Day Giveaway, which is April 26th. Otherwise, just a wonderful time to get to know each other. [36:45] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Wonderful, thank you, Kari. Keep things rolling. Award of bids—nothing tonight. Staff reports. Mr. Thompson, anything for us? [36:55] **Jim Thompson (City Attorney):** Mr. Mayor, members of Council, nothing specific to report but happy to answer questions. [37:00] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Anybody have any questions for Jim? All right, turn to our right. Christina, what do you got for us? [37:05] **Christina Volkers (City Administrator):** Mr. Mayor, City Council, I do not have anything to update today. [37:10] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** How about Council presentations? Anybody have anything? [37:15] **Council Member Andy Morcomb:** No, I was just going to add a quick reminder for those listening at home in case there's any question—to be on the Oakdale City Council, you have to live in the city of Oakdale. So we do all live here. [37:25] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** I have a few. First off, time is ticking. If you still have your natural Christmas tree and you would like Public Works to dispose of it for you, you can bring it to 1900 Hadley Avenue North. It's a small cost of $3 per tree. If it's holding any needles yet, can you send us a photo because that'd be impressive. If you haven't had a chance to stop out at the Oakdale Indoor Market, please do. The next two markets will be on Saturdays, February 8th and the 22nd, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Discovery Center. Are you planning an outdoor event this summer? The rental process for Oakdale picnic shelters for the 2025 season is now open. You can book those on the city's website. Finally, a reminder: City Hall now offers free disposal of unused and expired household medications. There are two year-round drop boxes located on the first floor next to the Police Department. Time to pay the bills. Claims roster in front of us in the amount of 1.689 million and change. Council members, were there any claims that we wanted to flag? All right, can I get a motion? [38:45] **Council Member Kari Moore:** Make a motion to approve claims as presented. [38:47] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [38:48] **Council Member Gary Severson:** Second. [38:49] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. [38:51] **Council Members:** Aye. [38:52] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Opposed? And the claims roster is approved. Can I get a motion to adjourn? [38:55] **Council Member Gary Severson:** So moved. [38:56] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [38:57] **Council Member Kari Moore:** Second. [38:58] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. We are adjourned. Thank you and good night.