some of good evening ladies and gentlemen it is now 5 30 and i will call this regular meeting of the burnsville city council to order and if the clerk can note that all council members are present it is our tradition to stand for a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance and we invite you to join us [Music] 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 we are in a coveted environment and we continue to look for creative solutions for how we can continue to communicate and engage with the citizens and businesses of our community tonight's meeting is being conducted in person our city council members and staff are in the council chambers and practicing social distancing members of the public may attend in person if they like they may also watch this meeting online at burnsvillemn.gov meetings or comcast channel 16 or 8 59 if you would like to participate during the meetings remotely you may join online at zoom dot us slash join or call in at 651 it's 372-8299 callers will need to dial 9 star nine to raise their hand to speak and dial star six uh to unmute when we open a time for your comments more information is available on our meeting web page and in the council agenda packets the next item on the agenda is announcements and we have one proclamation our announcements have to do with all of our upcoming meetings council meetings are scheduled for monday november 2nd at 5 30 pm and the reason for having the meeting on monday rather than tuesday our regular day is because of the elections and we're not allowed to hold meetings during an election and then tuesday november 17th at 5 30 p.m we have a work session we have two work sessions scheduled tuesday october 27th at 5 30 and tuesday november 10th at 5 30. we have a special work session to canvas the general election results scheduled for friday november 13th at 1pm and this time every year is a very special time for us here in burnsville it's when we recognize community builders and our proclamation is for make a difference day where a serious social problems concern our nation and threaten its future and whereas connecting with others and working together through volunteer service can bridge the difference that separate people and help solve serious social problems and whereas we the american people have a tradition of philanthropy and volunteerism and whereas since 1992 volunteers and communities have come together on this day with a single purpose to improve the lives of others and the people of tegna with support from arby's foundation and points of life have joined to promote an annual national day of doing good that celebrates and strengthens the spirit of volunteer service and whereas volunteer service is an investment in the future we all must share now therefore i elizabeth coutts mayor of the city of burnsville on behalf of the city council do hereby proclaim saturday october 24th 2020 to be make a difference stay in burnsville and urge my fellow citizens to observe this day by connecting with friends fellow employees and relatives and with religious school and civic groups to engage in in projects benefiting our community proclaimed this 20th day of october 2020. and now it's just my privilege and honor to present the community builders award and i'll do it here and what we'll do is that when we call for the community builder to come in come into the chambers and then we will give the award and pin you with a star thrower starfish that is a symbol of making a difference and then we'll take a picture so tonight oh okay you thinking yeah yeah i think this is better can you hear me outside okay great so tonight the city of burnsville celebrates the resilient strength and dedication of our diverse community as we present our annual community builders award we started this back in 1998 and we have recognized people in our community who make a difference every year presenting awards to individuals groups or businesses that have helped make a lasting impact on the quality of life in burnsville in light of this year's pandemic our 2020 awards take on special meaning you all belong here on behalf of the city council i'm proud to present eight community builder awards and i'd like to ask the winners to please come to the presentation area when i read your name to receive your award and take a picture due to covet 19 pandemic we will not take a full group picture like we do every year but we want to capture this moment and memorialize it and we have a photographer here so thank you so much uh christian for doing that so the first recipient of the award of our community builders award is amy burrell burnsville convention and visitors bureau first amy has been instrumental in celebrating the burnsville community finding innovative solutions for residents and visitors engagement throughout this year's pandemic as executive director of the burnsville convention and visitors bureau known as experience burnsville amy does an excellent job of promoting local restaurants and hotels she welcomes visitors to the city by highlighting all that our community has to offer rising to the challenges of this year amy created online games and activities using burnsville locations and amenities to keep people engaged during the stay at home orders she has partnered with the city for many events including the successful tour the flavor her ability to connect with people and organizations is essential to our community's strength as local businesses experience the impact of cobot 19. amy partnered with the chamber to get out information on business assistance amy thank you for your contribution to our city and for being a community builder and amy if you would come up please and i would like to continue is that okay yeah absolutely okay so everybody stand up melanie oh he's gonna say smile but nobody's gonna see it thank you thank you thank you thank you okay yeah the water's warm over here i kind of like how you came left okay then the next recipient is emily and andrew hayden kids and kinship volunteers so if emily and andrew mr and mrs hayden they're here oh they're coming please come in okay so mr and mrs uh hayden are making a difference in our community by dedicating their time and energy to supporting youth as volunteer mentors through the kids and kinship program they get together weekly with their 13 year old mentee welcoming him in their home going on adventures throughout the city or simply tossing a ball around the backyard emily and andrew regularly attend his football games providing encouragement and support and countless ways they have three kids of their own daniel is five micah is three and joseph is one and a half there's joseph out there even with their busy family they find time to give back they serve as role models for this young adult while also giving him a chance to be a positive role model for their sons emily and andrew's dedication care and guidance has helped this young man through many difficult times and it doesn't stop there andrew also coaches high school cross country and emily volunteers with the prison ministry as pen pal coordinators thank you emily and andrew and so emily and andrew if you would come up please first i'm going to ask if i can pin you with the make a difference symbol and it's a starfish so may can you yes thank you hi oh no no oh i'm sorry [Laughter] [Music] so you want to come here and so so you come stand next to me okay here you go okay okay okay thank you [Music] our next honoree is jennifer harmony this year has been difficult for so many of our local businesses and jennifer has been instrumental in making and helping businesses whether the covert 19 pandemic as president of the burnsville chamber of commerce jennifer has shown outstanding leadership and support for our community she has kept burnsville businesses informed of stimulus programs grants and various other types of assistance she has orchestrated numerous webinars and online seminars to keep businesses updated on changes and new opportunities her outreach is not exclusive to chamber members but extends to all burnsville businesses she has also partnered with the city of numerous programs and has worked tirelessly to keep the chamber viable despite substantial loss of revenue jennifer's dedication to our business community has a lasting effect on all of us and is vital to making burnsville a great place to live work and play thank you jennifer for all your efforts and your hard work first may i pin you thank you i don't want to ruin your jacket bulletproof vest no i just had to dress warm for that lovely thank you [Applause] the next recipient is todd buckwald and uh mr buckwald was nominated for this award by ryan peterson from burnsville public works department come on in when restaurants were forced to restrict indoor dining as part of the health pandemic todd proactively reached out to the public works department with a great idea for offering support as many restaurants were struggling to create outdoor dining options picnic tables were difficult and costly to obtain todd suggested that we lend city-owned picnic tables to those restaurants typically the city's supply of these tables would not be available but because large gatherings were not allowed we had some flexibility public works responded and worked with the community development department to get tables distributed at least 20 tables were distributed to six local restaurants todd's ability to find creative solutions and his willingness to reach out to the city with this idea made a huge difference for our businesses our restaurants thank you todd for being an engaged citizen and sharing your fantastic ideas [Applause] may i pin you yeah okay thank you so much thank you and you know todd is a new resident and they got engaged with the community right away thank you so much madam american i say to todd i eat at most of those restaurants so thank you [Laughter] very nice to meet you our next recipient is mr anita ranita ivan shank so i know she's here son this has been the year of virtual connections in online communities so it is very fitting that we celebrate renita's contributions in 2016 renita started a facebook group called burnsville beehive and serves as the administrator of the page this group has grown into an online community with over 1 600 members to date this is a burnsville centric spot where community members share information such as food drives lost dogs new businesses recommendations and services local events and so much more as the administrator of the page renita does a great job of moderating and sparking conversations with a cross-section of the burnsville community as it says on our page this group is for people who love burnsville renita we celebrate your love for our city and thank you for providing a positive online community for us all to connect and share so if you can come forward thank you for everything you do may i tell you absolutely okay thank you so much this is going to be the year when all the pictures come out we're all in math yeah face coverings our next award goes to the 30-day foundation and mcsterling presents and i think they're here he's just walking in through the door and he heard me come on in as we were all going a little stir crazy from limited opportunities for entertainment the 30-day foundation and mick sterling presents stepped in with their summer relief drive-in concert these summer concerts grew from friday evenings in july at civic center park to full day events in late august and early september they offered free local performances during the day followed by ticketed concerts in the evening every day for 12 consecutive days not only did these concerts offer a safe fun entertainment option for the burnsville community proceeds from the event benefited good in the hood and loads and fishes two minnesota non-profit organizations that provide meals and service to those in need organizing events during the pandemic is no easy task and they had to navigate attendance restriction online tickets assigned parking spots and social distance parameters they did all this and more with great success thank you 30 day foundation and make sterling presents for providing a much needed safe night out and giving back to the community in so many ways okay and if you guys can come up all right so can i pin you guys and you guys know the story about the starfish right okay and it's a symbol for making a difference and thank you so much thank you very much okay wait a minute you can do your presentation after we present for you okay sorry for being late it's okay we got the we yeah if you can be here and so we'll present this so okay thank you so thank you very much what would you like this was the banner that went across the stage yes yes over the 48 shows in 12 days every musician who stepped on that stage every soundtech stagehand all signed this thing over the 48 shows over 12 days historical moment during the state fair run yeah and we're kind of hoping maybe it would wind up in the walls of the garage or something okay well thank you and i will accept it graciously on behalf of the city council and our community thank you and i'll present it to our city manager thank you our city clerk thank you thank you uh our next recipient goes to costco warehouse and costco warehouse was nominated by burnsville fire chief b.j jungman costco warehouse reached out to the burnsville fire and police department in march at the beginning of the state of minnesota's quarantine to offer the department's first chance to purchase extra cases of bottled water bleach and hand sanitizers prior to the public distribution as you likely remember these commodities were becoming very limited or often out of stock burnsville fire and police department appreciate costco's warehouse in assisting us with keeping needed supplies on hand to serve and protect the community thank you costco please come forward [Applause] and and you tell john we thank him and everything yes and i'll bring it for him when i come into the store now yeah thank you yeah okay okay and she has a box for no reason i know it makes your eyes crinkled we all got and our last recipient is kevin whitley from home depot and he may be the last but not least and would like to honor home depot the state of minnesota's quarantine last spring presented a number of challenges for first responders and therefore fire chief gentleman has made another nomination and would like to honor home depot kevin whitley manager of burnsville's home depot store reached out to the fire department in mid-march with an offer to donate 83m performance respirators for firefighters to use as needed this offer came at a crucial time when respirators were limited or not available we appreciate home depot for their generous donation to keep our personnel safe so that we could continue to serve and protect the community to home depot and all of our 2020 community builders award honorees thank you for your community pride your spirit and for making a difference in our community and kevin would you come forward please [Applause] okay thank you so much okay thank you thank you oh that's amy's i think so can you turn the tv around the next item on the agenda is citizens comments this is the opportunity for anyone in the audience to address a council on an item that is not on the printed agenda and not an application form that will be coming before us at a future date is there anyone in the audience who wishes to address the council anyone is there anyone in queue that is okay very good we will then move on the next item is for additions to the final agenda and this is the opportunity this is only for emergency items miss mascoli are there any emergency items to come before the body fair not madam mayor members of the council okay thank you we will move on to the consent agenda the consent agent is a group of items that's con considered to be routine and will be enacted with one motion however an item and a consent agenda can be pulled and for a separate discussion and vote is there anyone in the audience who wishes an item on a consent agenda to be removed for a separate discussion and vote miss mescali no matter mayor members of the council i believe the council member schultz you wanted an item okay i believe you wanted k yes please if i could have k pulled uh item k is pulled for a separate discussion and vote may i have a vote for the balance removed council member gustafsson makes the motion second second by council member workman all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed say nay and the motion carries council member schultz k is to accept the bid and award the contracts for the nikola commons park water feature improvement project 20-405 bid package 1 water features and underground utilities and bid package 2 electrical controls and audio uh mr peterson you will be giving a brief summary of the background yes i can certainly do that um as you can tell from the background and we've worked hard to get a bid packages together for the project we've split that into three different bid packages of which two are presented here tonight for uh potential approval um the reason why i'm thinking this is polled is the budgetary reasons and i can understand that most certainly um as was discussed at the work session a month or two ago it's this was a very difficult project for us to estimate the costs on whether it's just not much like it around there um unfortunately the the bids did come in in a way that is going to be challenging to us um we had 750 000 um in the budget for this renovation and then it was included it was we were told to include uh five hundred thousand dollars in park dedication costs for enhancements to the system um as it uh once we've got the two bids in we actually have the third uh bid package in that's not for consideration tonight but the estimate for the entire project would be i needed one million seven hundred fifty thousand dollars as opposed to the seven hundred fifty thousand dollars that was in the budget um in order to complete this renovation on our prize park system or park that we have in our system so in order to make the recommendation to move forward what's going to be required is moving out by one year a lot of our asphalt improvement projects that were proposed for the following year we had a number of parking lots and we had trails in our system that were not necessarily the ones used all the time not the ones around early lake sunset pond those kinds of ones there are more internal ones and some basketball courts so we would push all those out by year and then it would have a cascading effect out into the future years basically our cip of one million dollars would be moved out by one year in order to have this um completed this year part of it is we've worked with the contractors to reduce their bids by a little bit and what they would do that is they would give us to july 4th as opposed to memorial day when we were forced to or would want to win the bids the specs as they stated so they would reduce it reducing their risk on not being able to complete the project on time so in exchange for that they would complete work orders with us and then that would get us down to that um budget that i just discussed so i jeff raddick our assistant publix director is also here he can answer any specific questions but we could i mean the other option on this is to reject the bids and you know come back at another time most likely be this winter and state or you could have the project um right after labor day 2021 and be done by memorial day 2022 we don't know would that be successful at reducing the cost is possible um it also was possible that time would also increase the cost um we did only get one bit bitter per bid package here so um that would be the one reason why we may think it would to do that but our recommendation is to move forward with the project as as we've laid out here tonight and um understand that we will these will be pushed out uh one thing i would like to state is these are up for the asphalt projects that wouldn't be completed or be pushed out of here would you know we'd patch them in order to keep them together this wouldn't be a situation where we were hoping to rehabilitate something and now by not doing that the improvement got incrementally more expensive these are already things that just need to get replaced into totality so the level service will go down but we're not anticipating an increased cost to complete those improvements moving into the future if that makes sense um what i'm saying on that so i'd turn over to jeff if you have anything else to add otherwise he is here for to answer any questions as well councilmember schultz is there anything else that you would like to if you could just and my apologies just so that i have the the numbers correct could you um go over what the and i and i let me preface this um you absolutely did say when you guys were estimating this that this this was a little bit of the dark arts going into this right so i i'm completely i'm completely understanding of that and i think you've also found some good ways to mitigate impacts on how this works you were very thoughtful in looking at which trails which basketball courts that type of thing very thoughtful in that could you go through because there are three bids and i know we're looking at two of them but they're connected what the estimated was and what we budgeted and then what it is presently just so that those numbers are clear can i take it from here yes please uh bid package one and two are kind of intermingled uh the rehab portion of the budget is 750 000 the enhancements portion of the budget is 500 000. for bid package 1 990 000 [Music] goes to the rehab 260 thousand goes to a bid package two goes to the rehab uh 241 thousand a bid package one goes to the enhancements 286 000 of bid package two goes the enhancements so roughly the ham the enhancements are on budget we are over budget 500 000 uh on rehab portion then plus you add all of our indirect costs uh to the rehab portion that's how we get to the 1.7 million total thank you i appreciate that um and if i may and then i'll be done um so seeing as our overage is the amount of the enhancements themselves is there any appetite by the council to discuss removing the enhancements i have a feeling it's going to be a no but i thought i would ask anyway members of the council we've gone over all of this and we understand what it was going to be we have bid packages the costs changed so i just wanted to give the opportunity and because because their costs changed and it was by a significant amount i think it's just worth asking yeah and and staff has a solution and if the council is agreeing to the solution that staff is offering we can certainly conduct we can certainly do all of it do the park as well as just pushing out the um i think the asphalt work and basketball for a for a year and trips yeah so members of the council do you want to make any changes council member keely and then council member workmen well shuffling projects around is not unusual that happens every year so that's whether we get in a situation where a project comes in over budget or not we're constantly doing that so that's not a a big ask in as a solution i think that's just fine i'm my concern on this it i i certainly don't like where the cost came in but we learned this isn't like repaving a street where there's eight bidders um and so it's very unique work it's not highly desirable work by contractors i'm i'm glad we got some some takers um because obviously there's somebody out there that will do the work but it's too bad there's not more than one in each of these areas but this is our our central park it's it's the centerpiece of our part of the city and i i can't imagine having it shut down for another summer waiting in hopes that we might save money and at the same time i think the water features were something i was very ad i was advocating for i was very strong on doing because um i think this this is the part to do that kind of thing in because it is such a central and heavily used park my my only real consideration or concern is you know we we've had to spend a lot of money on this park first because the design was not actually i think we maybe missed a few steps in in doing some vetting to find out what kind of water feature we should have put in there to to build something like that and not realize that people weren't going to play in it all day i think was just a real real bad miss that cost us a half million dollars or more to put in pool quality filtration system and then we get down here i don't know when that what year that was maybe five years ago six years ago um and then we here we are down the road and now we're having to put a million dollars in repairs and because we've got an underground leak this is not a project that has been light on the budget from day one and i just want to make sure that when this work is done and we do these enhancements that four years from now we're not back going oh we need another half a million because now this is broken or this needs to be repaired it seems to be a bit of a murphy's law in this with so far with the way this is going but i believe in the park i believe in the significance of the park and i believe that it is something that we need to make the investment in to make it better i really hope that it's done right to the quality level that we don't have to keep coming back and having this size of maintenance ever again in the future thank you okay councilman workman dan kind of touched on a lot of the points i was going to make i don't know that i would justify this type of move on any other park in our community but this is kind of a staple we're going to see the rest of this area fill in and this appears to be hopefully besides just some general maintenance along the way the fix that would again hopefully prevent having to have these types of discussions again so we can fix those kind of fatal flaws and put it behind us and add some enhancements that um i think the community is asking for so i'm comfortable with this plan and i applaud ryan and his staff for finding a solution internally it sounds like the projects that we're pushing back aren't in dire need right now that they're maybe not the most used areas you know they're not crumbling and they can afford to wait maybe one more summer before we get fresh ground on them so i'm comfortable with the application as presented okay councilman schultz thank you uh i too am very hopeful in i would rather that the money be spent on the rehab and it be done right um so i like i completely understand that um i also have a concern and i know you're going to watch for this like any rehab project once you open it up there's usually little extra surprises so we're going to cross our fingers on that [Laughter] and i do hope that this is fixed that it looks wonderful and it's very functional for everyone again this is something that our residents do use people outside of burnsville use this people really do enjoy it i have no problem with that i will point out though that with the extra costs and the enhancements even though we are pushing off projects we are still going above our budget so just so everyone's aware of that um and yes i know that the council is very excited about this i'm sure our residents will be very excited for it when it's done i know you'll do a wonderful job with it and it will turn out very well um but i would be remiss if when we came in five hundred thousand dollars over budget and the enhancements are five hundred thousand dollars not to ask my city council to reconsider especially in this business claimant so thank you very much though i do appreciate it okay members of the council may i have have a vote move to approve council member gustafson makes the motion second second by council member workman all in paper please say aye aye opposed say nay no did you say any council member schultz i did thank you does the clerk have the division of the house thank you so much we now move on to the regular agenda and the first item on the regular agenda yes well could i just say we um on behalf of jeff in the park staff we really appreciate the support on this it's it's hard to come in and and say you know we're a million dollars over so i don't take it at all lightly and i take your words of confidence in us that we can get this thing done very seriously so i just wanted to say thank you for that and we're gonna do everything we can to make this thing fly and then july 4th and hopefully we all can be out there so just wanted to um share our appreciation and understand your understanding for that so thank you mr peterson i do appreciate uh your words and commend you and your staff because throughout your tenure here you have always made it a point to speak your truth about the projects that come before us and this is not unusual we've had projects go over budget uh i remember some where i had to email and say what was the engineer's estimate again and in doing that i get my questions answered and then and then i understand where the overages were and the solutions that you have put into it and so i thank you for that and also one of the things that we have to do with this project because it's not going to open on memorial day in 2021 when we have communicated with our residents that the park will be open on memorial day 2021. so i think we need to continue to communicate and let people know so we manage expectations and because there are a lot of families and you know as well as i uh all of the emails we received by people who were disappointed that the park wasn't open so we concur and we'll make it happen yeah thank you so much okay we are now at the regular agenda and this is a public hearing we're to approve an on sale sunday on sale and brewpub off sale liquor license for bricksworth beer company llc to be located at 12257 nikola daven avenue suite v and presenting this evening iowa city clerk mrs collins thank you madam mayor brooksworth beer company has submitted a liquor license application this is to be able to provide on-sale intoxicating liquor on-site and also to sell growlers for off-sale consumption the investigation was conducted on the main principle mr cooper johnson and mr johnson is available in the lobby for any questions nothing was found to deny the license your background indicates that the license is contingent upon approval of all reviews and payment of all fees and i believe all the fees have been paid as of yesterday okay i stand for any questions this is a public hearing do you have any questions for miss collins no thank you miss collins but after the public hearing i'd like to hear from cooper johnson okay uh this is a public hearing i will now open the public hearing and he was trying not to say anything that's not gonna happen so mr johnson please come in and uh give us your name and address for the record and i think everybody just wants to know about uh when you're i know you're okay yeah absolutely yeah the only reason i didn't want to speak is i was going to run home and change before this but you're in good company i'm cooper johnson uh 1047 14th avenue southeast minneapolis minnesota okay so any questions for mr johnson when are you opening we've been we've been open for takeout food for the last two weekends we're going to do that again this weekend with some beer to go as well i just have to take the packet tomorrow morning to the state to get stamped i have some channels in my building i want to know when they can actually come so we've been treating the fridays and saturdays as something of a soft open where people can come and check it out uh so they're welcome this weekend four to nine friday and saturday i just have one more question i'm done okay what is a detroit style pizza detroit style is a steel pan pizza so it it it has kind of the crispy edges where you see the blackened cheese and the cheese crown all the way around it so it kind of turns the worst part of pizza into the best part of pizza thank you councilmember schultz this is probably gonna break my heart do you have gluten-free we do of course we are looking for volunteers to help us fine-tune our gluten-free crust i will so help you it's it's in-house i sampled one this morning but i think it's still bordering a little bit too much on the corn rather than rice but the texture is good and it's really really good just you know if she likes a restaurant she goes there two or three times a week perfect i'm pretty awful though awesome okay councilmember keeley thank you mr johnson uh i know you got a nice write-up i believe in the newspaper it was a good article but for those that didn't don't get the paper um i'd love to hear your your your campaign speech for your you know your elevator pitch for your concept uh the idea behind it and uh what people can expect when they arrive absolutely yeah we're our goal is to bring exciting beer to this part of the metro and we want to be an area where where the community can congregate so the space is large and that's deliberate so that it'll be family friendly and um i have a background of doing this we've done it in saint paul and it's a place where nobody has a reason not to show up so we'll have beer we'll have you know gluten-free alcoholic beverage options wine and and pizza that's really pretty spectacular if i do say so myself was this the original name that you were going with all along was always going to be brickwork or was it yeah that was mentioned at one point yeah it was going to be bricksworth beer company was always and it's inspired by the uh brick cheese we use on the pizza awesome one last question are you going to do a goza by chance yeah oh my yes absolutely my german food is excited to try that one yeah good and there's a connoisseur of goes we're doing a beer in collaboration with the city so we're just uh waiting for final details and who exactly will come and help brew and pour some grain into the mash tun and things like that so cool cooper are you still going to call it the you belong beer whatever whatever we decide collectively but i think that kind of has a nice ring to it it it does have a nice ring doesn't it mrs johnson yeah for long beer yeah so well mr johnson you know this is a celebration so thank you for choosing burnsville to be the home of your second endeavor so thank you so much for bringing your concept to burnsville we really appreciate it very happy to be here thank you very much you belong here and every entrepreneur there's a supporting member of the family my mom well welcome mom okay very good um so if there's no one else to speak on this public hearing uh i will close the public hearing um members of the council your pleasure move to approve second council member akili makes the motion second by councilmember workman all in favor please say aye aye opposed a and a motion carries unanimously congratulations and uh we'll be there and i think we'll be having a ribbon cutting yeah yes absolutely yeah yeah and i will be there and some of you will will help brew a beer yeah in the next few weeks awesome awesome looking forward to it thank you okay thank you okay the next item on our agenda is the covet 19 response update and mr lindberg is going to be giving this report mr lindberg thank you madam mayor members of the council just one brief update tonight we continue to work through our recovery efforts as a result of the pandemic and i'm going to turn it over to our city clerk michelle collins who will give us an update on elections okay ms collins it's been a busy place thank you mr lindbergh and madam mayor yes absentee voting did start here at city hall on friday september 18th when voters are the first time able to vote absentee and since that time we have gotten 19 327 requests for absentee ballots granted this was about 4 30 when i checked these numbers so that could have went up since then but um and and overall so far we've received back 12 656. if we're looking at so about 65 return so far we still have two full weeks to go before election day um in comparison in 2018 we had a total of one hundred and forty two so less than half and in two thousand sixteen nine thousand seven hundred and fifty four and that was the record up until to till this election um in 2016 our last presidential election we did get 94 percent of our absentee ballots back so we are expecting a lot more ballots to come back um the the direct balloting that hap people call it early voting where you can come and put your ballot directly into the ballot counter during the early during the absentee period will begin on next tuesday october 27th that's one week before the election one of the things that i want the one of the most important things that i want absentee voters from home to know is that you cannot deliver your absentee ballot to your precinct it must come to city hall and if you're delivering it in person it needs to be here by 3 pm on election day due to covid we are accepting absentee ballots that are postmarked by by election day for up to seven days after but it has to be postmarked on november 3rd november 3rd yeah correct councilmember workman um how does that play into the the drop-off box outside is that going to be shut up the dropbox will be locked at 3 pm on election day we no longer taking walk-ins or dropbox so we're just going to close that the dropbox gets locked to 3pm okay we'll put a little sign on closed captioning not them so they're available to vote and you explain that whole process sure and this is very similar to how people who would wear like political advertisements like hats and buttons and stuff it's a it's a similar principle where um it we tell the person that it is against the law the law says that you have to wear a mask or the law says that you can't campaign in the polling place by wearing your button if they refuse we still have to let them vote of course because we can't disenfranchise somebody the right their right to vote um but we you know like we write it down on our incident log that you know the the rule was or the law was broken that's all we do and what happens with that log so the logs the incident logs that these things are written down on they are turned over to the county and the county attorney can at their pleasure um do whatever they can want with those infractions are you aware of them ever doing anything i'm i'm not aware that they ever have okay thank you but we have to abide by the law i think people out in the public need to understand this you just don't want people to be scared yeah what's that you just don't want people to be saying no yeah and you want to wear your augustus and shirt to the plant please okay are there any other questions for miss cosby any other questions for miss collins or mr lindbergh okay thank you so much uh and thank you miss collins i think is there anything that you think the public needs to know about uh the process now uh and also on the day of election is there anything that you think is missing that you well i think there's so many people voting absentee this year in comparison to past years and this is maybe their first time doing that so um the process is fairly simple some people don't know that you can come to city hall and do the absentee process um before that that actual early voting or direct balloting starts on october 27th so this has actually been going on at city hall since uh september 18th so we are open eight to four 30 monday through friday we are also going to be open on saturday october 31st halloween day from 10 to 3. so if voters can't make it during the week we have a saturday option um if they have any other questions feel free to give me a call here at city hall i think that is the information that i wanted you to let people know that that process of boating is going on right now and they can come into city hall and vote that's true we were a little slow today i think the snow kept people yeah the snow kept people out okay thank you it's tuesday all right we got here yes community builder award winners if there is nothing else to come before the body this evening a motion to adjourn is in order motion to adjourn second council member uh schultz makes the motion second by council member keeley all in favor please say aye aye a nay and the motion carries thank you mr gemnick for being present we didn't have anything controversial for you to uh to navigate the legal aspects of it for us you