[0:00] [Music] [0:46] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Not exact. Good evening, we'll call this meeting to order for the December 28th, 2023 Apple Valley City Council meeting. We'll give everybody a second to get settled. Thanks for being here, everyone. Um, as we get ready to start the meeting, for any members of the audience who have signed up to speak, as your item is called, please come forward and approach the podium and address the Council. We'll start our meeting this evening with the Pledge of Allegiance. I'd ask everyone to rise and join us in the pledge. [1:34] All: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America... [Music] [1:51] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Thank you. Uh, the second item on our agenda is to approve the agenda, and Tom, do we have any changes or updates? [1:58] Tom Lawell: Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. The only thing we have for you tonight is an updated calendar of upcoming events that should be before you as item number seven on the agenda. [2:10] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Great, thank you. Do we have a motion to approve the agenda? [2:13] Ruth Grendahl: Moved. [2:14] John Bergman: Second. [2:15] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Have a motion from Councilmember Grendahl, a second from Councilmember Bergman. All in favor indicate by saying aye. [2:20] Councilmembers: Aye. [2:22] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Opposed? Agenda passes. The next item is our audience participation portion of the meeting. This is for items not on the regular agenda. I did not see anyone on the sign-up sheet. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to speak at this time? Seeing no one, we will close this section and we'll move on to the consent agenda. These items are considered routine and will be enacted with a single motion unless a Councilmember or citizen request to pull an item. Councilmembers, are there any items you'd like to pull from consent? Right, hearing none. Citizens, any items to pull? All right, do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? [3:00] Tom Melander: So moved. [3:01] Councilmember Goodwin: So move. [3:02] Councilmember: Second. [3:07] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: We have a motion from Councilmember Melander, a second from Councilmember Goodwin. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. [3:12] Councilmembers: Aye. [3:14] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Opposed? Consent items carry. That moves us on to item 5A, which is our introductions and oaths of office, and I believe Chief Francis is going to come up. As Nick makes his way up here, for family who are here who want to get pictures, please feel free to find a good spot, whether you want to sneak up behind us or whatever so you can get a good shot tonight. Uh, don't hesitate. [3:43] Police Chief Nick Francis: Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. Another exciting night for us again. From this time, it feels like Groundhog Day—we keep coming up with staff, but the good news is we have people coming in, we have people going through training, we have people hitting the street. So tonight, I'd like to welcome up Officer Faith Atman and Officer Troy Reler. Come on up. I'll start by way of introductions. Officer Atman here grew up in Lakeville. She graduated from Lakeville North High School. She's at least second generation—dad was 25-plus years in Burnsville. Any more generations than that? So, second-generation law enforcement officer right here in Dakota County. She obtained a bachelor's degree from University of Minnesota Duluth in criminology and Hispanic studies. She then went and obtained her law enforcement certification through Rasmussen University, and she worked as a community service officer for a couple years prior to being promoted to police officer. Outside of work, she spends time with family and her close friends. Like many of us, she's a Minnesota Wild fanatic, so last night was pretty exciting. Good game. Yeah. Um, she loves to play volleyball and hopes to get into coaching sometime in the near future. And I'll let her introduce anybody else with her tonight. [4:39] Officer Faith Atman: Yeah, I have all my members of my immediate family with me: Dad, Mom, sister, sister-in-law, and sister's boyfriend. My brother couldn't make it—he's at school with us tonight. [4:51] Police Chief Nick Francis: Excellent. And turning over to Officer Troy Reler. He grew up in Rosemount, again a local kid here, graduating from Rosemount High School. He attended Rasmussen University, gaining an associate's degree in law enforcement along with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice leadership and management. He too worked as a community service officer—so both from Rasmussen College, both worked as community service officers here prior to being promoted to police officer. Outside of law enforcement, Troy likes to build and fly model airplanes, playing games with friends, going on walks with his wife Emma and puppy Truffles. I don't know if Truffles is here but in the house, but I'll let Troy explain anyone else with you tonight. [5:32] Officer Troy Reler: My wife Emma is here, and then my parents and sisters, then my other side of the family. And then I have friends here from my old work and the person who actually first got me interested in law enforcement, Joe, who's over at Maplewood. [5:54] Police Chief Nick Francis: Excellent. So I will invite them both over here to take their oath. [6:09] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: I... [Officers state names] ...do solemnly swear to support the Constitution of the United States and of the State of Minnesota, and faithfully discharge the duties of the office of police officer of the City of Apple Valley in the County of Dakota and the State of Minnesota, to the best of my judgment and ability. [Applause] Congratulations. Yeah, we'll invite up their family here to pin the badges. [7:12] Police Chief Nick Francis: Thanks for the opportunity to introduce them and get them their official oath and badged. As you can see, they have a good support network here in a great department behind them that they'll be working with. It's always great to see all of their fellow officers here, and it starts, honestly, at the Council level with the support of Council and support of community for folks that want to come in the door and spend a career doing a very difficult job during very difficult times. So thank you for all your support and we'll get out of your way here. [7:45] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Perfect, thank you. Welcome. I know you've both been around a little bit, and Faith, you've dropped lots of things off at my door and been barked at by my dog more times than you can probably count. So welcome. You know, nothing fills these chambers up like swearing in law and fire and pickleball. It's great to have you here. You're joining a great group of men and women, and we're proud of you, the community's proud of you, and just stay safe and take care of yourselves out there. Thank you. We'll give everybody a few minutes to kind of regroup and get out of here before we continue with the meeting. So thanks. [8:51] [Wait period/Background noise] [9:42] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: All right, thanks for the patience, everyone. We'll go ahead and move on with item 5B, and that is to proclaim February 3rd, 2024, as Apple Valley Mid-Winterfest, and Nate is here to tell us the story. [10:04] Nate Rosa: Thank you, Mayor and Councilmembers. Nate Rosa, Recreation Superintendent with the city here. Um, it's tough to follow up a swearing-in of police officers and fire department, but yeah, to try and keep those that wait in the room for us a little entertained here, in keeping with traditions of Mid-Winterfest, we do have a guest present with us. This is Klondike, our mascot. [Applause] Hey Klondike, how are you? Didn't want to shake your hand, I don't blame him. Yeah, there we go. Still respecting and moving on here. Um, so 2024 Mid-Winterfest is going to be held Saturday, February 3rd. We just like to have the community join us for some outdoor fun. I know this has been more of a warm-season winter here, but we're still planning on it to be an outdoor event and in what we consider winter months for us here. Oh, got to go back one. So, general information again: Saturday, February 3rd, 2024. We will be at Johnny Cake Ridge Park West. There's the address there. The morning will start off officially on the event from 10:00 to 3:00 with the Mayor’s hockey jamboree, weather permitting—so we got to build ice on those two rinks out there first before we do that. The rest of the event will run from 3:00 to 7:15 with activities and entertainment. We just wanted to highlight for families there that there will be a kids' dance DJ from 3:00 to 4:45. There will be live music and everything that starts at 5:00 and runs till 7:00 afterwards. All activities are outdoors, so we do ask people to dress for the weather on there. Maybe it'll be warm, maybe it'll be in tank tops and shorts, we have no idea. Still make sure that they're keeping everyone else warm. Just to emphasize too, though, should it turn cold, we have plenty of ways to keep warm there, whether it be at our fire pits, inside the warming house that'll be there, or the Valley Transit Authority's warming bus that they're graciously donating for us for this event again. So we appreciate them for that. Just going down some activities and concessions here: the police are looking to do an ice fishing contest at Cobblestone Lake Park. As we discussed earlier, might have to throw the fishing pier back in and might have to do it off the pier versus some ice on that one. Again, we thank the Apple Valley Police Department for hosting that and making that part of this event. There will be a medallion hunt that day, like we said, potentially the hockey jamboree, some food trucks, some beverages, and some adult beverages with the support from Rascals just down the road from us here. Um, we have horse-drawn wagon rides that are going to be there, snowshoeing should there be snow for that, garden cart train rides also put on by the Police Department—so again, highly involved with us on this event, we appreciate that. A kite flying area that we'll have there for people to fly their kites, and then live music again starting at 5:00 o'clock. This year's band is called Flannel and is a '90s-style music band. And then fireworks will start at 7:00 p.m. for us. Just to go over some of the highlights: some other events, again, food trucks out there. Klondike is looking to have some of his mascot friends with us there that day. So we know that Sparky from the Fire Department will be there, and then McGruff from the Police Department. We're still trying to secure a few more of his friends. He's got them on speed dial, but they're not answering back. Again, looking for the horse-drawn rides, we are looking to do, since it was so popular, we're looking to have two sets of horse-drawn rides this year so that we can have a better rotation, make sure everyone gets in on that. Again, there's an example of what the garden cart rides are. Um, you know, Sparky wanted to feel like a police officer that day, so he jumped in on one of their carts. Live music again with Flannel, and then fireworks. And then per consent earlier, we are going with RESPYRO again as the contract for that. They've been with us 15-plus years and so we re-upped again with them for this year, and so thank you for that. And we're looking forward to a fantastic show with them. Going down here—and this is one change from what you see earlier—I changed the map on here to give you a better overview of what we're going to do that day and just wanted to highlight one major change for this year. We are moving the fireworks display area to the south fields there. They used to be in the north fields and we're flip-flopping that with the horse wagon rides, and the reason for that was for safety issues. It was just something that the south area fits better with the fireworks blast zone, just being able to contain people to the correct areas on here. Just want to highlight for the public, too, because I know on that northeast parking lot there, some people would show up and park there and watch the fireworks at the end there—kids show up in their pajamas. We just want to point attention to people that that's going to now be in that south parking lot. You'll still be able to, you know, see them from your car since fireworks go up in the air, but just wanted to highlight that so that people were aware of that. Want to say thank you to our sponsors. So we got the Apple Valley Arts Foundation who is sponsoring the band again this year. Both of our hockey associations, Apple Valley Hockey and Eastview, are looking to support us as well. And then we want to thank the Rotary Club as well with their donation and then also doing our apple cider and our hot cocoa at this event with that. The last thing I will say is we did promote this on the back of our brochure cover here with a QR code, so as things may change or update, weather permitting, we can quickly advertise that to the public, and then the public can go to that back page and that QR code to get any additional information. With that, I open up to any questions. [15:18] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Thanks, Nate. Any questions? All right, we have a proclamation. Do you have a copy? Would you like to read it? [15:23] Nate Rosa: I do not have a copy. I know last year you read it, so let's use your better voice than mine. [15:30] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: I'm not sure that's the case, but I'm happy to read it. So, all right. So our proclamation is: "Whereas the City Council feels strongly that winters are here to stay in Apple Valley (ironically after this week); and whereas we are not going to hide from winter, rather we're going to go out and celebrate winter at Mid-Winterfest; and whereas there is no better place to celebrate winter than right here in Apple Valley; and whereas the activities proposed will foster a sense of individual and community pride within the city; and whereas the Apple Valley civic organizations, business community, Police, Fire, and Parks and Recreation Department, along with Mid-Winterfest volunteers, have joined together to support a wide variety of activities in civic celebration. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the City Council of Apple Valley, Dakota County, Minnesota, that Saturday, February 3rd, 2024, is hereby proclaimed to be Apple Valley Mid-Winterfest 2024. The City Council further declares this event a community festival and encourages all the citizens of Apple Valley to support and attend Mid-Winterfest events." Proclaimed this 28th day of December, 2023. Do I have a motion to approve the proclamation? [16:38] Ruth Grendahl: I'll move. [16:39] Councilmember Goodwin: Second. [16:40] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Motion from Councilmember Grendahl, a second from Councilmember Goodwin. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. [16:45] Councilmembers: Aye. [16:46] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Opposed? That carries unanimously. Nate, Klondike, thank you for being here this evening and we look forward to Mid-Winterfest. [17:05] Nate Rosa: Thank you, Mayor and Council. Thank you. [17:08] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: All right, that brings us to staff and Council communications. Tom, do we have anything from staff? [17:13] Tom Lawell: Mr. Mayor, just one that I will mention as we get past the holidays and you're going to be taking down your holiday lights: know that we do have an opportunity to recycle any that might have given out on you. And just a PSA, if you will, from the Dakota Valley Recycling Group. There are locations all through the county where people can take their old lights for recycling, and the closest one for Apple Valley is right next door at the Western Service Center. So if you're interested in that, more information on holiday light recycling is on our city's website. [17:50] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Do you know off the top of your head how long that is available next door? [17:58] Tom Lawell: Through the end of January. [18:00] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Perfect, thank you. Anything else? Nothing. Council, any items this evening? All right, we'll move on to the calendar of upcoming events. Our next informal City Council meeting is Thursday, January 11th at 5:30, and our next regular Council meeting is Thursday, January 11th at 7:00. Do I have a motion to approve the calendar? [18:05] John Bergman: Motion. [18:06] Ruth Grendahl: Second. [18:08] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: Motion from Councilmember Bergman, a second from Councilmember Grendahl. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. [18:11] Councilmembers: Aye. [18:13] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: And that wraps up our agenda. Do we have a motion to adjourn? [18:15] Councilmember Goodwin: So moved. [18:16] Tom Melander: Second. [18:22] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: A motion from Councilmember Goodwin, a second from Councilmember Melander. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. [18:28] Councilmembers: Aye. [18:29] Mayor Clint Hooppaw: We're adjourned. Happy New Year, everyone. Thank you. [18:35] [Music]