This transcript has been processed to identify speakers based on the provided list of officials and the context of the meeting proceedings. **Format: [Timestamp] Speaker Name: <Dialogue>** [0:10] **Matt Montgomery**: Well, I was a little late, too, but [0:18] **Matt Montgomery**: I'll wait till she—All right. Call to order for the city of Cannon Falls City Council meeting, Tuesday, December 16th. If I could get a roll call, please. [0:24] **Sara Peer**: Diane Johnson. [0:25] **Diane Johnson**: Here. [0:26] **Sara Peer**: Zimmerman. [0:27] **Lisa Zimmerman**: Here. [0:28] **Sara Peer**: Johnson. [0:29] **Chad Johnson**: Here. [0:36] **Sara Peer**: Jeppesen. [0:37] **Ryan Jeppesen**: Here. [0:38] **Sara Peer**: Nobach. [0:39] **Chris Nobach**: Here. [0:40] **Sara Peer**: Kronenberger absent. [0:41] **Sara Peer**: Montgomery. [0:42] **Matt Montgomery**: [snorts] here. Please rise 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. [1:02] **Matt Montgomery**: If I could get a motion to approve tonight's agenda. [1:06] **Lisa Zimmerman**: Motion. [1:07] **Jeff McCormick**: Second. [1:08] **Matt Montgomery**: Motion from Lisa. Second from Jeff. All those in favor? [1:10] **Council Members**: Aye. [1:11] **Matt Montgomery**: Oppose. It carries. Gets us to public input. Public input is intended to afford the public an opportunity to address concerns to city council. The public input will be no longer than 30 minutes in total length. Each speaker will have no more than three minutes to speak. Speakers may address topics relevant to the governance of the city. [1:25] **Matt Montgomery**: Speakers must sign up in advance, must provide their name, address, and the topic they intend to address. Comments must be on topic, respectful, pertinent to city business, and adhere to applicable data privacy rules. Any speaker that violates these rules will be asked to sit down. If the speaker refuses to comply, they may be removed from the meeting. Speakers shall not address topics that are the subject of a public hearing. All such comments shall be made at the public hearing. The city council will not generally act on issues raised by the public input, but may choose to schedule consideration of the item on a future agenda. Tonight we got Tim Demer. [2:08] **Tim Demer**: Tim Demer at Cannon Falls since 91—1991. Um, I took—I had notes I was going to read from, but I think I'll just do it um from the—from trying to figure out how to proceed with things when... Um, [2:48] **Tim Demer**: I—there's—there's a kind of serious, but to everybody else, it's not at all. It don't even come up in their [snorts] day-to-day life or in responding to my concerns and um and just feeling abused. So I don't—it's—you know, it's any—it's not physical abuse but it's any—you know, there's emotional... [3:34] **Tim Demer**: I [snorts] just read there's like three or four types of abuse and I'm—I'm not— [3:46] **Tim Demer**: I'm at a loss so I—I don't know who to turn to. I went to a council meeting in Red Wing. They—two—two of the council members afterwards took my name, number a month ago. They're—they're—they have the same two—month—two meetings a month. So, um I don't know who—who to speak. I reached out to one of the police, but he's been gone and I left him a voicemail back on the 6th. [4:18] **Tim Demer**: Um he came to check on me one day and then these—this—I had the second welfare check. They didn't even come out. He just called Taylor. It's—it's one of the officers I'm having—he talked to him on the phone. I should have um asked him then about an incident that happened at the mall. So, um not sure who to have a sit down talk with and it's—it's um—should be looked into. [4:54] **Matt Montgomery**: All right. [4:55] **Tim Demer**: Yeah. [4:56] **Matt Montgomery**: Thanks, Tim. Um All right. Uh that'll get us to our public hearing for resolution 2848 adopting the 2026 tax levy and budget. Jon, before we open the public hearing, would you like to do share information or any presentation type thing or just go straight to open the public hearing? [5:16] **Jon Radermacher**: I—Sorry. Thank you. I—No, I'll just do a quick—a quick summary. I won't have a uh presentation for the PowerPoint. We've had a lot of conversations about the—the budget. I sent out in an update a couple weeks ago, more of the finer details on—on where things were going to be. So, heard from a couple council members since then. And if there's any other questions, I can uh do uh what I can to answer them. But just want to emphasize that, you know, the—the preliminary—our process this year with the preliminary levy was we were um making some uh conscious efforts that we knew we could bring the—the levy number down. Um so yes, it was a 10.8% preliminary levy. [5:59] **Jon Radermacher**: That's what went out in the uh proposed levy statements. Um, however, when all things have been said and done and where we're—we're at with what's being presented in the final levy, uh, we're down to 3.17% of an increase. So, did—did the—the math to try to um evaluate what that was going to be. Most home values next year look like they're going to stay uh flat. [6:22] **Jon Radermacher**: Uh so it's for the median residential house in Cannon Falls that will be $38.45 likely roughly estimated uh change in their taxes increase in their taxes from this—this year to next year. [6:38] **Matt Montgomery**: All right. Um we will open up the public hearing. See if anybody wants to step up and speak. Uh and after that we'll have discussion for the council. All right. So the public hearing is officially open. If there's anybody that would like to address the podium, speak on behalf of the 2026 budget. [6:54] **Matt Montgomery**: Going once, going twice. Third and final call. All right, we are closing the public hearing. Uh discussion up here from the council. Any questions or comments? I know we've had a lot of uh meetings, informational, finance, all those things, but if you have questions, now is the time. [7:17] **Diane Johnson**: I was just going [clears throat] to again say thank you to Jon and and the staff and whoever worked on it. Uh great job and appreciate it. [7:26] **Matt Montgomery**: Wonderful. Uh if there are no questions or comments uh or discussion, I would seek a motion to approve resolution 2848, the 2026 tax levy and budget. [7:35] **Diane Johnson**: So moved. [7:36] **Lisa Zimmerman**: Second. [7:37] **Matt Montgomery**: Motion from Diane. Second from Lisa. All those in favor? [7:41] **Council Members**: Aye. [7:42] **Matt Montgomery**: Oppose. It carries. Gets us to our consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as council business. Item A, adjust and correct claims for the accounting period ending on December 11th, 2025. Item B, meeting minutes, December 2nd, 2025, city council minutes. Item C, resolution 2849, accepting a $1,000 donation from Invenergy to the ambulance department. [8:12] **Matt Montgomery**: Item D, second reading and adoption of ordinance 413 and summary of publication and ordinance amending city code title 2 relating to fees, charges, and rates. Item E, approve sewer credit 101 Timberlane. Item F, sewer credit 102 Bavarian Circle. Item G, approve sewer credit 107 Maple Court. Item H, approve sewer credit Mill Street Tavern. Item I, approve purchase of sewer inspection camera system. Item J, approve hiring of part-time EMTs for the ambulance department. Item K, resolution 2850, accepting a $1,500 donation from Invenergy to the police department. Item L, approved memorandum of agreement with law enforcement union to extend the probation period. Item M, approve police officer Alto promotion. Item N, resolution 2851, establishing fire department officer stipends. Item O, approve Cannon Falls Fire Department relief association bylaw change. And item P, approve final pay request 2023-2024 street improvement project. Is there anything the council would like to pull down? [9:18] **Chad Johnson**: Item I, sewer inspection. [9:20] **Matt Montgomery**: Item I is the sewer inspection camera system. We will put that down to council business B. Okay. Anything else from the council? Hearing none, I would take a motion to approve our consent agenda. [9:35] **Jeff McCormick**: [Motion] [9:36] **Matt Montgomery**: Jeff has the motion. Is there a second? [9:38] **Lisa Zimmerman**: Second. [9:39] **Matt Montgomery**: Second from Lisa. All those in favor? [9:41] **Council Members**: Aye. [9:42] **Matt Montgomery**: Opposed? Carries. Gets us to council business. Resolution 2852 authorizing budget transfers for year-end 2025 Cannon Falls City audit and revised transfers for 2025. Jon, [9:53] **Jon Radermacher**: Thank you, mayor. Uh so in our budget transfers um we typically budget uh you know it's in the—it's in the budget that we approve each year to actually transfer money. Most of them are for capital items uh that we plan to—to purchase maybe in the next year or even into future building up reserves into future years. Um and in the evaluation of the budget this year, uh there were a couple um kind of key areas that we noticed that had some differences and changes. So, uh we tried to—to find a way to incorporate them into this resolution. [10:23] **Jon Radermacher**: So specifically the—the key ones that I found in the process were that in 2021 um there were a couple budget resolution transfers that were made and then the funds were—the resolution was approved and the funds were either one in the resolution designated the wrong fund that they were supposed to go to or they were designated the proper fund and just in the process of—of moving the money uh an error was made. um it didn't affect anything specifically with the projects at the time of those—those purchases or the needs for those dollars, but seeing that they were incorrect um or wanted to kind of clean a couple of those things up. [11:10] **Jon Radermacher**: So, one um is $166,500 uh was transferred back in 2021 and it was intended to go to the fire capital improvement project uh for the purchase of a truck. Um that wasn't—um that ended up actually going to the park capital improvement pro—uh fund. So, we're correcting that by moving it back from park to fire. Uh, additionally, in 2021, there was a project related to the uh water tower restoration um and $365,000 were supposed to be transferred from um the water fund to the that project fund. Um it didn't go to the project fund. It ended up in the park fund. um it has just been there for those uh four years. Um I'm proposing that we move that to municipal reserve and—one and with that—u make um you know as part of this resolution indicate that $100,000 of that would be dedicated towards the—the roof on the museum, the repairs for the roof on the museum. [12:22] **Jon Radermacher**: Uh then lastly uh wanted to indicate that uh in our conversation with the auditors over the course of the year when we were working through the budget process—and I think I've talked about this a number of times—uh we identified that our bond payments amount allocation—the—the process for that was happening in two different forms. We're—we're consolidating that into the one process where we have a budget line for bond principal for our utility funds and a budget line for bond interest in our utility funds. Um, prior to that, we had both of those lines plus we had these transfers that would go from those utilities. So, water, sewer, storm, and that money would get moved into the bond fund where the payments then are made from. [13:10] **Jon Radermacher**: Um the auditors are the ones that make that adjustment for the principal and interest and we do the transfers for—for the budget. Well, because they were both coming out there was um we're actually overcharging utilities uh for—for those transfers. So this year identifying that we're going to move the transfers towards uh the capital improvement fund for public—public works dedicate it for what's the next item that we—we pulled from consent um for some of that for this sewer camera that's being um requested uh and then the remaining will be undesignated for—for those funds in future budgets including this one that was just approved uh that those transfers won't be made. We'll just go with the principal and interest payments uh and have the auditors make those adjustments through the years. [13:56] **Jon Radermacher**: So, the benefit to that is that there's been enough funds built up in those—those debt service accounts over the years that those debt service accounts have pretty strong balances. So, we don't need to make the same level of contributions in futures and hence that's why a big—big part of the levy um made that reduction. So, so yeah, kind of explaining um you know how we ended up receiving some of that benefit and that—and a lot of that is actually going to carry forward into—into future years. So, so it's—it's both a kind of a—a good and you know identified something that could have been done differently, but in the end it has a positive impact in my opinion to the—to the rest of the city. [14:42] **Jon Radermacher**: So, um, we do have, uh, I will note that we were talking about closing out, um, a couple of the project funds. We did have the last approval payment for 2023-2024 project. Um, we'll work through that next year and that will likely be um, brought up in the audit where we'll close out the funds this year in the—when we do the audit approvals and transfers um, mid-mid 2026. Those were were in part earlier presentations. We—we pulled them out and are processing that—going to process that through the audit. [15:05] **Matt Montgomery**: All right. Questions, comments, discussion from the council. [15:08] **Diane Johnson**: Question. Um I've [clears throat] noticed we're—we're taking two rather large—at least in my—large chunks of money out of the park capital which was not supposed to go there. Uh had park capital people had any plans for that money they thought they had or— [15:35] **Jon Radermacher**: No. No, it wasn't. Yeah, I don't think they were ever really expecting that they had this and that it would—they had things in—in store. The benefit to having that mistake made to them is that actually in the—in the time since that transfer, we've had some of the better interest earning periods. So all the funds earned on interest from that—it do get dedicated and allocated to the appropriate—the funds at which the time the dollars were there. So we're not touching the interest earnings. So they did—they did get some—some positive things of having, you know, those—those accounts sitting in that fund for—for extra years. So they'll—we'll leave that—that interest earnings alone. And you know likely with—uh again as a reminder with the uh uh development agreement with Tract uh we do have the park dedication fee. So that will be coming directly to that—that fund as well. So [16:20] **Diane Johnson**: Thank you. [16:21] **Matt Montgomery**: Any other questions, comments or discussion? Hearing none, I would take a motion to approve resolution 2852 authorizing the budget transfers. [16:30] **Lisa Zimmerman**: Motion. [16:31] **Matt Montgomery**: Motion from Lisa. Is there a second? [16:33] **Chris Nobach**: Second. [16:34] **Matt Montgomery**: Second from Chris. All those in favor? [16:36] **Council Members**: Aye. [16:37] **Matt Montgomery**: Opposed? Carries. Gets us to council business item B, which was item I in the consent agenda pulled up by Chad: approving the purchase of the sewer inspection camera. [clears throat] [16:50] **Jed Petersen**: All right. So, don't have a problem with it necessarily. It just—it's a big purchase and I—I guess questions are like when did we have it last and how often do you use it and what's like say using it versus a contractor when someone does work for us? I imagine we can inspect it as they do it so because it is such a purchase I did do a little bit of background on what we pay for because we'd like to video the whole town because it'll help us in our comprehensive plan to know uh infrastructure and whatnot. So, the city currently has um about 161,346 linear feet of sewer. Um just I think it's right around 30 miles. [17:35] **Jed Petersen**: The price we got two quotes that do per foot and then one quote that's hourly, which I don't even know how to figure how many hours it would take, but uh the one quote uh is $1.20 per foot plus mobilization fees. Um which comes out to about 193,000 to video the whole town. And the other quote is 150—or sorry $1.50 per foot which comes out to about 242,000 to—to video the whole town. [18:00] **Chad Johnson**: That's just once. [18:02] **Jed Petersen**: And that's just once. Um this—uh this should last us years and years. It's—we were initially looking at more of a portable type system that we could throw in the back of a truck. Um the one that we were going with when with Envirosight is still that portable system, but it actually they had a used trailer that they're willing to—to sell to us as well. Um and so it—uh we—it would be used—it be best run out of a trailer, but for—we do have a few manholes that are, you know, back in the woods we could throw it in the back of a truck and use—use as well. [18:34] **Chad Johnson**: Is it like the camera is on a hose and the hose goes down in and then you can— [18:40] **Jed Petersen**: Not a hose. It's on a—Yeah, it's on a reel and it has about 800 feet of—of line, but it's—it's connected and it's remote control from uh either the cab of the truck or—or the back of a—a camera. So, we looked at three different cameras. Um, one was an Aries, one was Envirosight, and the other one was some off-brand and—and they—barely—Q's, sorry, not really an off-brand, but they didn't even bring out a camera for us to look at, so we kind of disregarded that one. [19:21] **Jed Petersen**: The Aries um and the Envirosight were very comparable apple to apples to apples. Um other than the Envirosight, it has the portable option for us. So we can actually grab the reel, the camera, throw it in the back of a truck and use it where the Aries was only mounted to a trailer. Both Aries and Envirosight or McQueen is who Envirosight's through um had a used trailer that they were willing to throw in. The one from McQueen was a little bit nicer trailer than the one that Aries had. [19:56] **Jed Petersen**: Um, and the big kicker for us is why we went with Envirosight over Aries is the Aries had a software that has a subscription that's like three grand a year. So where this one has software built in and we can just use it there. There is options for us down the road if we feel like we need more software for inspections, we can buy that. But right now, this will get us hitting the ground running. Um, it does come in 171,000. There is a big wheel kit uh that's about 13,000 and that is going to come out of the storm—uh storm sewer because that will be used mainly for your 15 to 8 inch lines and that'll be able to video sewer as well. Um yeah about the old camera it was so old they use VHS to record with it and it hasn't worked in— [20:15] **Chad Johnson**: We expect that the new one will last us 20 years like the vehicle itself probably will if you're just using for that but— [20:25] **Jed Petersen**: Right. and—and and it's just a trailer. It's not a— [20:30] **Chad Johnson**: It's a trailer. So, [20:31] **Jed Petersen**: Yeah, it should it should at least 10 to 15 years. [20:32] **Jon Radermacher**: I—I could add I was actually just by happenstance driving through the area when they were pulled up with the um camera to do the demo. So, I got to see it, you know, firsthand. Um a lot of the components on the camera in and of itself are all replaceable. Like that was—that was a big—that was a really interesting uh component to me. So like the—the camera itself, the arms, the booms, the wheels, all of that housing—like a lot of those parts you can get replaced and—and change out. Is it going to last 20 years? I mean, a piece of technology like that, probably not. Um but it's—it—these are—these things are well built. [21:28] **Jon Radermacher**: He talked about the—the person doing the demo talked about they—they sent it down a line and there was a—I don't know if it was an industry—had some really hot 200 degree water sent down the line. They pulled the camera out—the—you know, some of the softer parts were melted but the metal housing in the camera in of itself they cleaned up replaced those parts and put it back in and it worked. So so they're—they're—they're pretty well built. Um the—you know, the software upgrades I think are—are—we'll—we'll see but yeah not having that annual maintenance fee I think was important for us. [21:48] **Chad Johnson**: They have any type of warranty on it like say there's software breaks after— [21:55] **Jed Petersen**: Yes. There—there is—there is a warranty. I'm sure it's—it's probably about a year. I don't know the details on it there. Um yes there is a warranty. But— [22:05] **Chad Johnson**: Are they going to honor this quote because— [22:08] **Jed Petersen**: Those are—those—Yeah. We—we got it up—to—updated. [22:10] **Chad Johnson**: All right. I just had some questions because I don't know how that stuff works. So [laughter] [22:15] **Matt Montgomery**: Good questions. [22:16] **Jed Petersen**: Good questions. [22:20] **Matt Montgomery**: Uh, would you like to make a motion to approve? [22:22] **Chad Johnson**: I'll make a motion to approve it. It sounds like you guys needed. [22:24] **Matt Montgomery**: Perfect. Motion from Chad. Do I have a second? [22:25] **Jeff McCormick**: Second. [22:26] **Matt Montgomery**: Second from Jeff. All those in favor? [22:28] **Council Members**: Aye. [22:29] **Matt Montgomery**: Opposed? Carries. That gets us through council business and gets us to reports. Um EDA December 4, if you— [22:34] **Jon Radermacher**: Uh yeah so we—we had our meeting—one of the uh big parts of that uh was when they started the project this fall and at Hardwood Estates. Uh in some of the areas where they're digging they ran into—to bedrock. Um there was a possibility that, you know, they—they didn't have it—soil borings didn't indicate exactly where it was and in the first phase of the that they didn't run into any issues with it. Um, they knew they were getting close. I think in part where they dug the storm sewer, they were getting really close to it, but it never impacted the—the original—the first phase of the project to my knowledge. [23:25] **Jon Radermacher**: But in the second phase, they did run into areas where it was uh shallow bedrock and they did need to um bring in um uh extra equipment to—to address that. So, um within the bid document, there was uh quantities quoted for doing that work. Um, Phil and his team evaluated that and—and prior to authorizing the additional digging. Um, so it was—it was known to them and they did know the quantities and they did believe the price was very competitive with—with that type of work for—for that area. So, uh, it was indicated and and authorized to move forward with with doing that extra excavation uh for the rock and that will have an additional cost to the—the total project. um at most the Phil believed it would be like $40,000. [24:14] **Jon Radermacher**: So in that we—in the EDA project when we were establishing or set—setting up for the final uh lot prices um it was determined to uh address that and and add some an additional thousand to uh originally it was all the lots. I believe Laura was discussing potentially if we wanted to keep the most expensive ones under 80,000. We'll still make that final determination, but we're—we're at the point where I think the parcel IDs are now issued for all of them. So, we're getting, you know, very close to having those completely available for the market. Um, that was on the hardwood update. Anything else, Diane? [24:48] **Diane Johnson**: No, just um—yeah, I—the biggest—the partial IDs, the public hearing for listing them for sale will be January 8th—we changed the meeting date. [24:55] **Matt Montgomery**: So yeah—all right establish that. Uh public works park board also met on December 4th. [25:01] **Jed Petersen**: You want me to take that? [25:03] **Matt Montgomery**: Go for it. [25:04] **Jed Petersen**: Uh most of it's in—well all of it's in the consent agenda. We had uh new homes that were built on Timberlane, Bavarian Circle, and Maple Court. All those uh vacant homes uh were trying to establish grass and ended up watering quite a bit trying to establish that grass and so they asked for a sewer credit on that water since none of it went down the sewer. Um, Mill Street Tavern had a issue with a—I think it was the water softener broke a fitting uh due to the slope of the floor even though it happened inside every majority flowed out the door and and into the storm sewer which didn't go down the sewer. So he—he also asked for a sewer credit and then we talked about the uh—I addressed the—the camera a little bit but that was the majority of it was those uh sewer credits. [25:58] **Matt Montgomery**: All right. Uh planning commission December 8th. [26:00] **Diane Johnson**: We—I was going to say we had another exciting—you—there was no—no uh action but we did uh have a uh a very good discussion on the proposed uh amendment to the city code creating a fair district. Izzy did an incredible job. She sat all day Friday and allowed people to come in and and share their thoughts and concerns and proposals. And we're now have a um—Jon is our ad hoc group formed— [26:28] **Jon Radermacher**: Facilitator. Yeah. [26:30] **Diane Johnson**: Facilitator. What? Yeah. [laughter] [26:33] **Jon Radermacher**: So yeah, I—I will add to that. Uh so the the conclusion um with where mission—and then uh two members from the neighborhood group that has, you know, specifically been—been attending a lot of this and and providing a lot of this—this feedback as well as offer for a council person to assist—attend or uh join us in that conversation. So, we hope to find a time to schedule that um sometime. I know with the holiday season, it's going to be very tricky. I have some um scheduling conflicts where I'm not in—in town uh during those couple weeks, but you know, likely very early January. [27:14] **Jon Radermacher**: And in fact, um Izzy and I just tonight uh before the council meeting were able to meet with uh the two members from the neighborhood group that they're interested in—in participating. Um and we had a very—very productive conversation in terms of if this is going to happen, sides need to give—like both—both sides. So, and it was—I—I think in—in a lot of—a lot of this and in the experiences that I've had with—with where we've gone is, you know, the history of—of what happened and the—the frustrations that all parties, I think, have had with—with—with the racetrack and the things that happened with the fairgrounds and just needed to air a lot of those frustrations out. [27:58] **Jon Radermacher**: I think that was evident in some of the early conversations I know with the mayor and Ryan uh when we—we met with initially with the fairgrounds. Um those community members needed to get that—their voice and ensure that it was heard and—and I think we accomplished a lot of that today and last week and uh in the time that I had with just making sure that that was heard. Um, you know, I can—and I could anticipate that, you know, there's likely other people that are very supportive of this—of what—what happened and wanting that to—to take place and certainly those voices can be heard as well. Uh, and recognize that we are trying to find—find common ground that um, you know, that the—the fair can have opportunities to—to operate that support their—their mission to, you know, carry out the fair during—during the week. Say, you know, that this year that was commented in—in the public hearing. [28:54] **Jon Radermacher**: So, I can kind of quote to it that this was a really rough year financially because the dates of the fair um where they generate revenue were—were slower in attendance because much due to weather. Um so, it was—it was a rough year and they—you know, events like that that can generate additional revenue for using their facility um keep them viable in the future. So I think that's—that's where kind of this good—good balance can happen in terms of the fair doing the services and providing the—the—the—the actual week of the fair or the four days of the fair. Um you know they just need that ability to make sure that they can keep it going because not every—some years it might be great other years it might not. Um but then if I get a chance I would like to bounce back to the chamber because I did meet with them last. So, if anybody else has any planning, Chris, do you want to share anything? [clears throat] [29:45] **Chris Nobach**: I just—I guess I just want to share that the timing of it is somewhat important too because I think we wanted to be fair to the fair board um so they can plan their yearly schedule. So, I think what you're—we're aiming—I mean do you anticipate it being on the January planning commission agenda or not? [30:02] **Jon Radermacher**: Uh not January. No. Okay. No. Um I could—I think maybe February planning commission and then have the recommendations going to the council in—in March. Hopefully, if—if—if we do get to a place where we all feel very comfortable with it, like it wouldn't prevent them from potentially scheduling events, if we know, you know, we're—it—it all ends up really well. I'm—I'm not promising that, but it all ends up, you know, going the direction that it—it expects to go at that—by that February time and it stays consistent to that through March, then, you know, I think that gives them the—they should be safe to—to booking events. Yes. [30:45] **Matt Montgomery**: All right. Uh so then back to the chamber. [30:46] **Jon Radermacher**: Uh yes. So um as we've said before, Maggie Wilson uh and ended her uh term as uh chamber director. The chamber of commerce met and invited uh members of our um community to uh provide some input on the direction where they want to go with with hiring a new director. Uh their—their board had that meeting here last Friday uh in the morning and I was able to attend remotely. So do have a positive direction. They do intend to—to go out and seek uh a new chamber director. [31:25] **Jon Radermacher**: However, uh one of the kind of key elements to that was the downtown space in which they—they rent and and operate out of a few days a week. It was looked at in terms of was—is that space really needed for them and would they have a—an opportunity to um, you know, potentially go somewhere else that may be cheaper um or no cost to them and use the—the $10,000—or was they estimated about $9,000—of rent and utilities that they're spending on that office space. [31:55] **Jon Radermacher**: Um, so it was asked and I, you know, committed without—or it expressed that, you know, there's definitely a possibility. We do have ample space here at city hall. Like we have a lot of—a lot of unused um space. And I think if they're comfortable with not being in a—not being downtown, um, not necessarily on a high-traffic area, but something that's accessible, I think we could—we could find a way to make that work. [32:18] **Jon Radermacher**: Um my opinion of that is if we are making contributions to them as—as a chamber—as a lot of cities do—um if they're—if we're providing them a space then the dollars that we're contributing to them are even going farther versus hey maybe the dollars we give to them we can't dictate exactly what they use them for but, you know, if we're giving them that money and they're spending that much in—in rent—hey, this means that they maybe have the capacity to do more or maybe it just goes into ensuring that they can hire high quality candidate that is going—going to kind of carry forward the great things that Maggie's kind of built up in the three years that she's spent on that chamber director. [snorts] [32:56] **Matt Montgomery**: All right, let's go around the horn. Jed. [32:58] **Jed Petersen**: Okay. Um, one thing I failed to mention—on the first Thursday of the month, January 1st would be the first month. We are not meeting on the first—um city hall is closed. So we will be meeting on January 8th just—just for the record. So right. Um I do want to give like a little bit of explanation of snow plowing especially downtown. Depending on the nature of the storm the guys come out—they—they plow the downtown and then they can blow it off and then or plow all the streets then they plow the downtown. Normally, if the storm ends, you know, early in the evening, they're in at midnight, one o'clock and and they're able to plow the entire town and blow the downtown area very easily within that eight hours and and be done. They very efficient at it and go good. [33:50] **Jed Petersen**: This last storm, the storm didn't quit until after 4:00 in the morning, which—that—we got traffic and it's just not feasible for us to—to blow the downtown. I got a few questions about why we didn't blow the downtown. It's just too hard. It's such big equipment and when we do the windrows and everything it—it's just too clustered to—uh to try to do that and it's not safe. Um and so we came in the next night and—and blew the downtown which majority of cities around here—that's what they do. They plow the first night curb to curb and then they come in the next night and clear the downtowns. Our guys are very efficient at what they do. So just an explanation of how we—we get after it. [34:25] **Jed Petersen**: Um the other thing is—is if there looks like there's going to be plowable snow, please don't park on the roads. Um the city ordinance is no street parking from November to March 31st. Um the guys will be in to plow. So if it—if it's plowable, we'll be—we'll be doing it. So uh other than that, thank you. [34:44] **Matt Montgomery**: All right. Thanks, Jed. Izzy. [34:46] **Jeff McCormick**: I just want to echo what uh Jed was talking about. I mean, if it's going to snow, please get your cars off. Um, we don't like writing tickets and towing cars because we know the impact it has on people the next morning when they come out and their car is gone. Uh, but that's what we have to do. And the reason we have to do it is to make that uh uh for public works uh to make uh safe and efficient. That's how they're able to get the downtown cleared in that same day. Um, when we have those odd snowfalls, obviously it offsets um but we try to put out the notices um let people know, but it's Minnesota. Um it's going to snow again. If not this year, next year, uh so, you know, please when it snows, doesn't matter if it's just a light dusting, just you're better off not being on the street. So, I'm just going to throw that out there. Thank you. [35:42] **Matt Montgomery**: Real quick, um yeah, is it working having—I know by Nick Steiner Library, those cars that used to park there overnight are down in the—by the winery parking lot now. [35:59] **Jon Radermacher**: I haven't gotten feedback from public works one way or the other. They—they don't typically use the parking lot, but I think those uh residents or people that park there, I—I know I—I pay attention to that pretty closely because my apartment's on the other side. Um they get their vehicles moved. Like there was an—the night before they—the night where it snowed till 4 in the morning and they didn't clear. I—I left—I was out pretty late and I saw and there wasn't a vehicle there. So they—they I think the the people that are there typically know and they would have find another—another place for their vehicle to go until— [36:31] **Matt Montgomery**: I—I thought we designated that one facing the river. I've—I've utilized that myself. I try not to park there when I know they're going to be moving snow also because I—you know, want the whole parking lot to be clean too. [36:45] **Jeff McCormick**: Yeah. We have a significant number of spaces available in either the uh the lower city lot or the upper um EDA lot. Um and they are being utilized. We know that. I think even across the street from the public safety building, some of those public spots might be available. So there's—there's spaces and— [37:15] **Jon Radermacher**: Yeah, I—I would say I—I haven't noticed them on—when I know like specifically that night I—I was actually very attentive and they were—there wasn't a car there. It was really kind of serene because usually there—there's always cars parked there. But— [37:22] **Matt Montgomery**: Sarah, [37:25] **Sara Peer**: Uh, our auditors were here today doing a prelim audit and they spoke with you, Matt, and hope that went well. Um, so and then they asked us a bunch of questions, looked through a bunch of stuff, but more to come in May. So they're going to come the first week of May all week. So, yep, that'll be the presentation. [37:44] **Matt Montgomery**: Yep. and just merry Christmas. Yeah, thank you, John. [snorts] All right. [37:46] **Jon Radermacher**: All right, got a really short budget meeting from me. I committed to—to keeping it shorter. Uh, no, I—I—I want to thank uh a lot of the—the staff. Um, so it's been a year um one—one full year roughly since I—I've started. I really am um honored and very appreciative of the opportunity to—to serve this community. It has been um a whirlwind. There's been a lot of things that we've—we've worked on, we've accomplished, we've—we've struggled through, um been frustrated with, but I just want to give a lot of credit to everybody that I've been working with that have—have made the efforts to give the time to have these, you know, have at times difficult conversations. [38:35] **Jon Radermacher**: Um, ultimately to the—to end goal of working through and and doing the things that are really good for this community, which I'm—I feel very confident and comfortable with the direction that things are going. So, I—I just want to um offer that and and my—my gratitude to—to all those that have been involved in this and everybody that I've gotten to work with. So, I really truly do appreciate that and especially you all and this council. Um it is—it has been uh tremendous um to—to have have the chance to work with you all because uh, you know, I've been doing this for a long time and it's not always—not every year, not every council, not everything has—has um gone the way that this one has but I—I think despite the challenges it has been very good like I've—I feel feel like I'm in a really—really—really very good place and—and it's a credit to you as well. [39:21] **Jon Radermacher**: So, um, with that, I—I do, um, again, it's end of the year. Thank you for—for muddling through my—my budget stuff with me. I do enjoy that. But, as we move into next year, a lot of—we'll kind of be talking about pretty early on. A lot of big things that we want to accomplish. Comp plan probably being one of the—one of the biggest ones. So, [snorts] so I know we've been through a lot and we want to, you know, maybe take a break and take things easy, but uh I hope that you all have the opportunity to—to find ways to engage with that as well um as other people in the community because I think that can—that can be a very valuable tool for us um as we move forward in the future. Thanks. [40:07] **Matt Montgomery**: Thank you, Jon. Uh Chris, [40:09] **Chris Nobach**: Nothing. [40:10] **Matt Montgomery**: All right, Jeff. [40:11] **Jeff McCormick**: Nothing. [40:12] **Matt Montgomery**: Diane. [40:13] **Diane Johnson**: Well, and I—I didn't get this out in time at the planning commission, but uh Jesse Fox, who's been a member for a while, uh has—is resigning or has resigned actually and just a thank you to him for his service. He's been great to have on there and just wish everybody a safe and joyous holiday. [40:33] **Matt Montgomery**: Thanks, Diane. Lisa, [40:36] **Lisa Zimmerman**: Happy holiday, merry Christmas, safe travels, and happy new year. [40:40] **Matt Montgomery**: All right, Chad. [40:41] **Chad Johnson**: Um, I guess I'm just a little disappointed in the planning commission. We having to wait on the fair. Um, I—I didn't have a problem with a lot of the things that were put in there. I think if we step back to where this all began, it's because they had the micro sprints and a lot of people did not like that. And even people that really like the fair did not like the micro sprints. They got away from the micro sprints. And now we're talking about regulating their camping and how long their vendors can set up ahead of time. Um, and I heard people at the meeting say, "Well, both sides have to give." Well, I feel like the fair already gave by, "Hey, we aren't going to do the micros. We're going to run these things by you." [41:35] **Chad Johnson**: Um, and people are saying they're driving by. They're seeing trash. Like, no. I just—there's just a lot of things there. I get you guys are going back to it. I think you got your work cut out for you there. Um, and probably the best thing—just get something really solid here for the next meeting because I—I'd hate to see them being pushed back like Nobach already hint to—they need to start planning their events and if they can't what do they do? We have to run everything by us to like they—they want to have a birthday party or a wedding and like what—and at a certain point like if we try to overregulate—like let's focus on the problem—but I guess that's all I got. [snorts] [42:07] **Matt Montgomery**: Um thank you everybody for covering while I was gone. I really appreciate the ability to uh enjoy my time not wearing the mayor hat and uh being in with my family and going on vacation. That was—that was wonderful. Um, going along the lines of what Diane had said with Jesse stepping down, thank you to Jesse for his service, but also if people are interested—and this goes to council members, this goes to uh staff members—if there are people that you are interested in the community to recruit, to serve on a board committee, uh to possibly run for council—next year's an election year—um I—I would strongly advise people that the first step to getting involved in the community and getting to know the system is serving on a board and volunteering. [42:55] **Matt Montgomery**: Uh, a lot of that times it's one night a week or one night a month and then the—the emails and the phone calls, but that is really how you get your—your feet wet and start to figure out the—how everything works and get to know all of our wonderful staff members and department heads and work a little bit closer with them. So, I would definitely encourage if you have people in mind, encourage them. Uh, you can come to city hall uh fill out applications and then I will get an email. The uh appointments get made in January and the approval is by you guys. So, I get to appoint, you get to approve. Um, and I strongly encourage people uh to get involved. [43:30] **Matt Montgomery**: And it's nothing against the people that have served. Um, because I've been around for seven years now. I'm probably in that camp, too, where it's time for some fresh blood. But, uh, there's a lot of people that serve on these boards that if they don't change, nobody else gets the opportunity to get involved and then it just is the same old same old. And I know that there are some people that are former council members that, you know, in January I have to ask, hey, are you interested? Are you not interested? But if there's nobody to replace, they're—they're the default option. So nothing—they're not elected positions, they're appointed positions and it's year-by-year. So um you know for the calendar year it's yours. So I definitely encourage people if they want to be involved uh if they want to—you know—think about serving in the council in the future—that's a great way to start. [44:02] **Matt Montgomery**: Uh so happy holidays to everybody. Uh have a good new year. Celebrate appropriately. Have a good time. And uh this has been a great year. Similar to what John had said. This—we—we've accomplished a lot as a council. So, uh, be proud of each other, be proud of what we've done. Uh, I would take a motion to adjourn. [44:20] **Diane Johnson**: So moved. [44:21] **Chad Johnson**: Second. [44:22] **Matt Montgomery**: Motion from Diane, second from Chad. All those in favor? [44:24] **Council Members**: Aye. [44:26] **Matt Montgomery**: Opposed. We're adjourned. Thank you, everybody.