[0:32] Flashing investment mics. We >> all set. Oh. >> Good evening and welcome to the regular city council meeting for Tuesday, December 16th, 2025. You please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. [0:55] 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. [1:11] >> Welcome everyone. Are there any additions or corrections to the agenda? >> No sir. >> Seeing none, um I'll move the agenda. Is there a second? >> Second. Motion been made and seconded to approve the agenda. All in favor signify by saying I. [1:28] >> I. I. >> Opposed. We are approved 40. First item up is presentations, proclamations, and acknowledgement, which we have none this evening. We'll move on to item four, response to public comment, which I believe we do not have anything this evening. And that takes us to public comment. Item five. Anyone wishing to come before public council may do so at this time. Please state your name, address, and limit your comments to 3 minutes or less. The floor is open. [2:00] John Zwber, uh 4218 158th Street West. Uh I just wanted to bring up a couple of things. You guys had this year some changes with permit requirements for number one chickens, number two bees, and it I don't think it was really well publicized. I've approached I've I received a citation for chickens, which is fine, not a big deal. I received a citation for not having a permit for bees, which I think was I went to the city hall a couple of times to get that said permit. Apparently, this you guys didn't inform the city clerk how a person goes about getting these permits. [2:40] It happened twice. Both times the city clerk had no idea that there was a permit for this for bees. Since then, I've received a citation and fined for not having that permit. And I just received an email today saying that, you know, it's been up on the website. Well, I don't normally go check the website. [2:59] And my thinking is if the city clerk doesn't know that there's a permit request, why do I need to go search on the city website to see where this permit is? And as far as all these other citations that I've received, it's and I I think I was here in July. I was not I could not make the August meeting. So I don't know what uh you guys uh uh comment from you guys were, but between July and now I have received nothing from you guys. Haven't heard anything from the city. have not heard anything from the code enforcement person except for a letter back in November 15th, I believe it was, that I received a letter stating just citations [3:47] and fines, which it's not a big deal, but the communication that the city has with the public is not very good. This whole thing started back in May. They d sent me a letter saying I needed to do this and that, which a lot of the stuff was taken care of. Some of it was not. [4:05] Uh I have reached out to the code enforcement sections but they have not been very responsive. And it's like I said before the resp I seem to hear from the city when I've posted messages on Facebook and that seems to be the easiest way. You write some comments about the city someone seems to reach out. That is not a very good way to conduct business. [4:30] As far as the communications, like I said, it has been minimal. And I have reached out to the city. I have talked to individuals and trying to get a hold of Andrew's schedule is he's not always in the office. Same thing with when I received his last citation. So, apparently I missed the deadline to send in a written notice, which I've stopped by the city before that 14-day deadline was. And apparently, um, you know, they couldn't inform me, hey, you know what? [4:59] If you have a formal complaint against society, you could write a letter or whatever, but nothing like that. Uh the other part is that, you know, city promotes the whole pollinators and this and that with the natives, plants, and this, but now with you guys charging $100 for a permit to have bees seems to be a little bit excessive. uh then to renew it every year for $50. You know, you if you guys are trying to promote these things now, you tack on additional fees, that's more work for the city. I think you guys have better things to do than to go out and check out to see about checking these permits. And if this is a way for you guys to generate revenues, it seems a bit ridiculous. [5:42] Okay, I think you guys have better things to do than to go out and see if somebody is keep properly keeping chickens or somebody's keeping bees. If there's complaints about it, fine. But to have these permit requirements nowadays, I think, you know, and at the same time pro trying to promote the natives and pollinators and you guys put out a letter promoting all of that. Same thing with the whole normal May and this and that. And right now, I missed all the stuff that I'm going through with the house there. And I don't know if you have individuals that can actually identify natives and wild wild flowers or not cuz I don't think you do because I don't know who your qualified person is because I don't think they have any idea what they are identifying. They're [6:28] sending me pictures that I need to chop down my purple cone flowers. They're natives. But somehow for whoever is taking these p pictures and writing comments thinking that it's weeds that I need to cut down. So, just wanted you guys to be aware of that. And there's just no personal communications within the city for these things that's happening. Okay. [6:51] >> All righty. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh I'd just refer this to uh staff um looking for a followup probably from uh code enforcement. >> All right. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to come before council this evening? Anyone seeing no one coming forward, uh that'll complete our public comment. Uh item number five, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Item six, uh have a fair number of items this evening, bill listings, minutes from our December regular December 2nd regular and work session proceedings, designation of polling places for the 2026 elections, approval of the joint powers agreement with Dakota County. This is in relation to County Road 46 expansion study. [7:40] Approval of the pre-application escrow agreement with Gymnast LLC authorizing 26 to 27 union contracts and non-un non-union benefits. The 2026 community waste of grant agreement uh with Dakota County between us Hastings and Farmington. [8:01] RAA storage building, a memorandum of understanding. The Tree City USA reertification accepting improvements Talore 2 and four. Accepting Amber Fields additions two 31 4 9 5 10 and accepting improvements at Amber Fields 8th edition and a request by Fredaloney Companies for renewal of its smallcale mineral extraction permit for 2026 and 27. And with that, open up to council if they would wish to pull any items for further discussion or comment. [8:37] >> F, please. F is in Frank. >> 6F. >> Okay. I >> 6 I. All right. Can I have a motion then of approval of the consent agenda items A through Q with F and I pulled for further discussion. [8:54] >> So moved. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Esler, second by Climple. Roll, please. Esler >> I I >> Weisenel >> I >> RKI >> I >> convention then approved 40 we'll pull up item 6F the approval pre-application esco agreement with gymnast LLC with that who is going to take >> Mr. can take it, sir. [9:21] >> Okay. >> Sure. Mayor, council, this um agreement in question is it's really kind of become a little bit of a standard practice that we've had with larger scale exploratory uh development projects. In this case, this is the the land on the north side of County Road 42, opposite of where the ongoing data center project is located. Um the uh entity that's exploring that is the same one who who is currently under construction right now. I think uh it's been publicized in the media and various places the purchase of the land in that area uh in recent times. So uh beginning conversations with them about uh impacts to infrastructure [10:07] and so forth. And uh we don't have an application in hand yet for this. So it's there there's anything but a sure thing about it. But uh what we do is we're asked to do a lot of analysis work to try to help uh developers find their way and and come to a point of uh making decisions for their project. So, uh, in essence, the city gets asked to expend a lot of time or third-party resources to help work through that and we need a source of payment for the invoices that we then get from thirdparty consulting engineering firms and what have you. Uh, so this agreement in this case sets aside $100,000 from Gymnast LLC to [10:52] provide the funds to help work through those items. Care to expand on that? >> I think it's great. >> Okay. And I apologize. I uh should have turned it over to council member uh Fresky for for why she pulled that item. So I apologize for that. [11:08] >> No problem at all. I just wanted to pull this for transparency with our community because it is about a data center and I know there's can be sensitivity for it. So it's just all about transparity transparency and making sure people see it. That's all. [11:24] >> Maybe a piece I should have added, mayor, but just I I think a good to that point, Council Member Fresky, the the good news for the community is that this is the the city taking the proactive steps to understand the impacts that development has on our system and and ensuring that development can can be handled within our system. So certainly a proactive and a purposeful move by the city. [11:43] >> I think um just to restate it, this is the developer is paying for all these costs. This isn't city paying for this. >> Correct. They'll they'll deposit $100,000 and that will fund >> uh expenses up to that amount. >> Okay. [12:00] >> Any other questions from the rest of council comments? Uh would you like to move the uh >> Sure. >> Six off in the affirmative, please. I'd like a mo make a motion to approve a pre-application escort agreement to provide funding for advanced review and engineering planning work on a potential future development project. [12:20] >> Second. >> I have a motion by fres second by climple. Roll please. >> Climple >> I. >> Weisenel >> I. >> Fres I. >> Esler >> I. >> Completes item 6 F40. We'll go move on to 6 I, the RAA storage building. And I'll turn that over to Council Member Climpmple. [12:41] >> I just wanted to flag this one for a little bit of visibility for the community. Um, I know several of us have been in leadership positions with Rosemount Area Athletic Association, RAA. Um, and whether your kids are going to go on to play athletics forever or like mine picked dandelions in the corner of a soccer field, um, RAA is really one of the very first extracurricular activities that so many children of Rosemount actually participate in. So, just wanted to kind of reiterate a little bit of our commitment to the young families of our community. I've been here 18 years. My kids have grown up, but we've got so many more young families moving in. and just wanted to um show give a chance to feature some of this support and the outstanding work of our parks and recck team. So, I'll turn it over to Dan [13:27] Schultz. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor and council members. Just a a real quick overview of what we're looking at is uh RAA has approached the city uh with a request to consider building uh a storage facility that they would be able to centralize all of their equipment. Right now, they've got it in multiple locations throughout town. some of those areas they're going to eventually lose because of development or because of redevelopment of like the middle school, things like that. Um, we are looking into this option for them. We have not picked a location yet. We have about four locations we're looking at. The idea is that we would try to build one centralized building. It might end up being two smaller buildings. We don't know. We're still investigating that and we still need to get some some planning [14:12] and some work done. Um, the city has a history of doing a lot for our community organizations, whether it be Leprechaun Days, uh, Haunted Woods Trail, Rack, um, Yellow Ribbon, you know, we provide storage for all those organizations. [14:28] And, um, I can tell you that RAA is probably other than Saturday nights down here at Leprechaun Days, RAA probably impacts the most families in the community um, uh, of any organization in town. So, they do a lot of great things for us. [14:46] And so, uh, again, this is a non-binding agreement. We don't we're not bound to do this. They're not bound to do this. Um, we are just agreeing to work through a process to try to get to an area where we can store. Um, they're willing to pay for it. Um, you know, and and obviously they know that um, you know, they're not going to be capped at 15,000. I mean, if if if the building comes in at more, well, then they might be asked to pay more and uh or we might need to shrink the building a little bit. You know, it all depends on where we go on this. But, uh but we are just kind of, you know, hitting the ground right now running this winter trying to get ahead of the the game for spring and summer. [15:24] Hopefully some kind of construction. Um but, uh RAA has been great to work with on this. They've been very flexible. Um, as much as you know, football wants it in one location, baseball wants it in another location, we're going to settle on kind of a centralized where everyone can be happy, um, the one thing that the Parks and Recreation Commission has done, um, regarding this facility is they've made it very clear to staff that they would really like to see us put it somewhere where we already have infrastructure in place with roads, sidewalks, parking, and stuff like that. [15:56] So, they've tossed out a few things like maybe Shannon Park. They talked about maybe the pickle ball court location. They've talked about a spot out at um more. And so we've looked at a lot of variety and in trying to make a real smart long-term decision, but what they don't want to do is have to, you know, ask RAA to spend, you know, 500,000 on a building and 400,000 on on streets and parking lots and things like that when we already have locations we might be able to use. So, um, we'll be reporting back at work sessions on this each month as we go forward. Same thing with the parks and natural resources commission. [16:30] We'll be reporting back to them. Uh we talked about it u last night at their meeting and that was one of the things that was brought up um and that we're going to continue on discussing. So it's kind of an update on what where we're at with this. >> Right. Thank you for that update. >> Yep. [16:46] >> Like to move the recommended action, please. >> All right. I will move that the city council move this project forward by signing a nine non-binding with our AAA. >> Second. >> I'll second. >> I have a motion by Climple, second by Esler. Roll, please. [17:06] >> Uh, Weisenel, >> I >> Climple >> I. >> And that completes 6 I40 and completes all our consent agenda items this evening. We'll move uh through item seven, public hearings. [17:23] Item eight, unfinished business. Uh which both we have none this evening. On to item nine, new business, the 2026 2035 capital improvement plan. Turn this over to our administrative services director or am I turning over? [17:40] >> I'll I'll start with it, mayor, and then Miss Malik is ready to help at any moment as well. But uh thank you for the opportunity. Uh yeah, as you mentioned, mayor, this is the uh 2026 to 2035 capital improvement plan, which is kind of one of the the tailing tasks of our of our annual city budget process. And so, as you folks approved the budget uh two weeks ago, you established the funding mechanisms for the CIP um in in large part. Uh and then what this then what this plan then does show is is our ability to spend some of those funds on some of the necessary capital improvements throughout the organization on things like facilities fleet parks and recre recreation projects, utility system expansion projects and things of that nature. Our utility funds are also enveloped inside of this this CIP. Um so funds that we that we save from our [18:28] utility expenses that allow us to expand the utility system live inside the CIP and help fund the CIP as well. As we say every year, this is a a critical planning document for us. Bond rating agencies really like to see us doing this kind of work to show that we have a plan for how our facilities, our our fleet, our utility systems, our roadway network needs to be uh improved and and maintained over the course of the years. [18:52] It's very accurate in in many ways in 2026 and 2027. And then as we get longer term out, it is there's a lot of placeholders, a lot of reminders, um, on things that could happen if development continues, if roadways continue to degrade or expand or as you know, specifically like fleet vehicles, um, maintenance schedules as we kind of predict how maintenance schedules may go on some of the larger fleet, they may last a year or two longer as we kind of band-aid things along and things of that nature. So, want to just remind everybody that what what folks see on the attachments and what council looks at on the attachment are not guarantees to happen. Every one of these items will still come back to the city council. Um, it's planning documents for us as your leadership team to know what we could be working on in 2026 as we look to to schedule and plan projects. Um, and then [19:39] gives you a kind of a predictive element of what your staff might be bringing back to you. And so, with that, there's just a few items I can flag out of the um out of the memo. uh largely in 2026. It would be of interest to uh to maybe folks at home and certainly council just as a reminder and you're aware of of of all this as well. But um as mentioned uh starting out and some maybe our more uh splashy interesting stuff often comes out of excuse me parks and recreation. [20:03] Uh one of the items that shows in 2026 is a placeholders for some funding for acquiring land for a future indoor recreation facility. This could be a second sheet of ice complex. this could be an indoor uh recreation amenity that we acquire and protect land on the on the eastern edges of Rose Mount, etc. [20:20] So, you see that in the 2026 plan. Also, in 26 shows uh the demolition of the former public works buildings to support the expansion and remodeling work um and revisioning work at Central Park and and in some ways Ericson Park ballfields. And so, there's some work to do the demolition that we expect to see next spring uh on the public works buildings that are remaining over here on our current city hall campus site. uh beginning uh placeholders for you know phases of uore baseball fields that that need to respond to our AAA um uses and needs and and and and the community's needs for baseball fields. So don't know exactly what that would look like yet based on trajectories of teams and things of that nature, but some store some placeholder dollars there. Uh one of the items there that's flagged is what you just talked about with the RAA the JPA to potentially construct the [21:06] storage building. And so that shows up in your CIP and things of that nature. road projects. We always show our our uh prepared or our plan for 2026 street improvement project which for next year is in the the Geronomy Pond area um council in the budget this year supported both a pedestrian safety enhancement program and a trail pavement management program. So funding for those two programs uh that were approved in the budget are shown here in the CIP. [21:32] And then we do every work every year on on sticking with our pond maintenance schedules. And so Comarant or Coran Pond is is uh due for some work here in the winter of 2026. And so that shows in the CIP as well. Nothing major to flag for equipment and fleet this time. U most of our a lot of our leased vehicle or a lot of our vehicles certainly passengerized vehicles are in a leasing program and so those are gives the city the city an ability to have a recurring fairly flat dollar amount um for our leases every year. So, not too much to flag for equipment and fleet. Public works and utility projects. These are getting a bit longer term uh 2728 type time frame based on how development might go, but Blaine Avenue has some sanitary sewer upgrades possibly in 2027. That's a [22:19] larger ticket item that we wanted to show. And then a water tower potentially a blade in 42 um is a large ticket item in 2028 potentially again driven by what the development trajectory could look like. And then lastly to flag a shorter term project that is of note to the community is a a likely remodel um of fire station number two that will be talked about with the city council here as part of our goal setting session and in response to our staffing study as we consider transitioning the fire service model here in the city of Rosemount. So carrying a $3.5 million number in the CIP to potentially do a remodel to fire station 2, which would essentially allow um and provide for support for the duty crew model that the city would consider that where day rooms are constructed, where extra rooms for potentially folks [23:06] that need to sleep at the station could happen along with um bathroom shower type facilities for folks working 24-hour shifts. So um those are kind of the big items that we wanted to flag. uh anybody on the team who's this these are their divisions you want to ask them any questions are ready to answer any questions um otherwise we can turn it uh back to you >> thank you open up to councel any questions comments >> I do have one um I guess I apparently missed it on the uh items related to the central park expansion uh we have demolition here but I'm curious I thought we were moving forward with some larger portions. And I guess maybe spending is is in 2027. [23:54] Um I guess I'm looking to Mr. Schultz to speak to that because I thought that was coming before us. Um I thought late this year, but um early this coming year in 2026. Um, it looks like we have money set aside for Central Park improvements in 2027. [24:16] Um, I mean, if the council >> It looked like it was about 1.2 billion there. >> If the council wants to push it forward, I mean, that's a something we can definitely talk about. I think by the time we get something designed, demoed this, it'll probably be a 2027 project. [24:31] Okay. Um, but we're definitely making plans to move forward and keep keep, you know, >> okay, >> moving along on it. >> I guess I'm I was hoping for a little faster >> turnaround on that. So, um, we can take that up at our strategic thing is to kind of push that along a little bit. I think >> I I do got one question. Uh I know over the past few years we've we've talked about like uh water treatment facility and I know we've done a lot of work to see what what we can be what we can be doing to mitigate the need to actually do that. Where does that stand currently because that doesn't is not showing up on here. So what what what's the plans for that? [25:09] >> Yeah, I'll take that one a little bit. Council member, we we've been doing some data gathering over the last year and in trying to understand what our uh manganesees delivered water concentrations are around the city. So, we're we've we've gone through six quarters of monitoring on that. And it was staff's intention to bring that digest that data and then bring it back to the council at a work session here in the early part of 2026. [25:34] >> Okay. kind of land the plane as it were in in terms of uh determining direction >> the need for it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Maybe Nick to add on to that too. Just as a reminder, the the funding for the potential need for large scale infrastructure does still get carried in our utility rate model. So the the kind of per thousand gallon rate that residents are paying is is helping to contribute a savings fund basically for what those those could look like. So Yep. Yep. Right. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Uh would anyone like to move the uh recommended action forward please? [26:14] >> I'll make a motion to adopt the attached 10-year capital improvement plan for 2026 through 2035. >> I'll second. >> Have a motion by Esler, second by Freski. >> Roll, please. >> Fres. [26:29] >> Esler. >> Climple. >> Iel. That completes item 9A40 completes our new business for this evening. We'll move on to announcements. Uh first up 10A, city staff updates. Mr. [26:46] Martin. >> Mayor, I don't think we had much to add tonight. I know you've got some uh some events to call out. Uh and so we can just give the mic right back to you. >> All righty. Uh upcoming community calendar. So, uh, we have, uh, tomorrow, December 17th, our youth commission meeting, uh, at the Steeple Center from 3:45 to 4:45. [27:11] And we have a postponed event for this weekend, December 20th, from 10 to 2:00 p.m. throughout the Rosemont neighborhood. Uh, Santa has graciously decided to join our fire department and police. Uh we have >> we have Mrs. Claus this year too. Mayor, >> we have a Mrs. Claus clause. Well, we don't have Oh, we have Mrs. Claus coming. So, yeah, it's big deal. [27:36] >> So, it is a big deal. Um so, we waited an extra week and we got >> You had to get Mrs. Claus. >> And we got Mrs. Claus. Uh so, the fire truck uh will be touring the neighborhoods along with our police officers. They will be collecting uh food for uh uh community 360s. [27:53] And uh we had uh I want to say it was about almost 2,000 pounds last year. So looking to uh increase that amount and uh for those that are going to need that services. So uh again December 20th 10 to 2 they can follow us on the website. [28:11] Right. >> Yep. There's a GPS tracker so they can wait inside and stay warm as long as they can until Santa and Mrs. Claus come around the corner. So >> great. Felt warm today at least. >> It's Yeah. Yeah. much warmer than last Saturday. The December 22nd planning commission meeting has been cancelled for this month. Uh city council city hall will be closed Christmas Eve on the 24th, closed on the 25th, Christmas Day, and it'll be closed uh New Year's Day, January 1st, and our next city council work session will be January 6th from 5 to 6:00 p.m. here at city hall. and the city council will follow from 7 to 8:00 PM on Tuesday, January 6. And with that, [28:56] uh before I close this evening, I have a holiday message from uh myself and city council. As we enter this holiday season, I want to extend warm wishes on behalf of the entire city council to all who call Rosemount home. This is a meaningful time of year for many of our residents, including those that celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Quanza, and later Ramadan in the spring, as well as those who observe this season through reflection, family gatherings, and service to others. While traditions may differ, the shared values of compassion, hope, and care for one another unite us as a community. [29:40] This season also arrives during a time of complexity and concern. Recent events both locally and nationally have created fear and uncertainty for some of our neighbors. Acts of violence affecting faith communities and schools and heightened anxiety experienced by immigrant and refugee families remind us that safety, dignity, and belonging cannot be taken for granted. We want to be clear. Every resident deserves to feel safe, respected, and valued in our community, regardless of background, faith, beliefs, or circumstances. [30:19] As we reflect on the past year, we recognize it has been an exciting and transformative time for our city. We have seen continued growth in population and economic development alongside ongoing efforts to preserve that welcoming hometown character that defines us. Change and tradition are not in opposition. Rather, they strengthen one another when guided by shared purpose and mutual respect. [30:48] We also want to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to city staff for their dedication and professionalism throughout the year. From public safety and utilities to parks, administration, and public works, our employees serve the community with care and commitment every day. As winter weather arrives, we are especially grateful to our public works teams who work long hours, often overnight, to keep streets, sidewalks, and public spaces safe through snow plowing and ice control. [31:22] In addition, we extend our deep gratitude to our public safety professionals, particularly our police officers who continue to serve with professionalism, integrity, and care during challenging times. Their commitment to protecting residents, responding to emergencies, and building trust through everyday interaction plays a critical role in maintaining a safe and welcoming community for all. Looking ahead to the next year, we remain committed to fostering a community that is welcoming, joyful, and connected. A place where neighbors look out for one another, where new relationships are formed, and where curiosity, discovery, and neighborness continue to shape daily [32:09] life. Together, we can ensure our city remains a place where people feel at home, not just during the holidays, but throughout the year. So on behalf of myself and city council, we wish you peace, safety, and warmth for this season, and we look forward to the year ahead with hope and resolve. Thank you. [32:34] And with that, unless there's any other business to come before city council, again, uh, from me personally, merry Christmas as we come up on that time. Thank you. I'll move to ajourn. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> opposed. We are adjourned. Thank you.