Based on the context provided, here is the transcribed townhall meeting with speaker names identified. **[0:00] Unknown Speaker:** for **[0:40] Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Hey okay, today is Tuesday, February 25th, 2025. We call the Faribault City Council meeting to order. First, start with roll call. Council Member Barnes? **Council Member Mandy Barnes:** Here. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Ross? **Council Member Royal Ross:** Here. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Rowan? **Council Member John Rowan:** Here. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Thiele? **Council Member Chuck Thiele:** Here. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Van Sluis? **Council Member Peter van Sluis:** Here. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Vice Mayor Doumbouya here. Now we stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance. **[1:36] Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** All right, we will need a motion to approve today's agenda. **Council Member John Rowan:** So moved. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Motion by Council Member Rowan. **Council Member Peter van Sluis:** Second. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Seconded by Van Sluis. All in favor say "aye." **Council Members:** Aye. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Against? The agenda passes. Uh, we don't have any presentation. Any? Okay. Um, we don't have any presentation or introduction tonight, so um, we move to the fourth item on the agenda which is to approve the minutes of the February 11, 2025, city council meeting. I need a motion. **Council Member John Rowan:** Motion. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Motion by Council Member Rowan. **Council Member Chuck Thiele:** Second. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Second by Thiele. All in favor say "aye." **Council Members:** Aye. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Against? Minutes approved. We don't have any requests to be heard tonight, and we move to the consent agenda. On the consent agenda, we have items letter A through letter U. Anyone need any to be discussed or removed? **Council Member Royal Ross:** Motion to approve. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Motion by Council Member Ross. **Council Member Peter van Sluis:** Second. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Second by Council Member Van Sluis. All in favor say "aye." **Council Members:** Aye. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Against? Consent agenda passes. Okay. Um, we don't have any public hearing. Um, on items for discussion, we have items A through D. Uh, we will be starting with Item A: Resolution 2025-041, approve plans and specifications and establish bid date for Water Reclamation Facility Improvements, by Director Travis Block. **[4:01] Public Works Director Travis Block:** Thank you, Vice Mayor Doumbouya, members of the Council. Resolution 2025-041 is approving the plans and specifications and establishing the bid date for the Water Reclamation Facility improvements. Those improvements consist of improvements to the final clarifiers, the addition of launder covers, improvements to the digesters—or a digester, sorry—and an alternate to replace the primary clarifier splitter box. So the picture before you is a picture of the final clarifiers minus the launder cover. The launder cover will go over the area there that on that picture on your right—that's the launder or the weir. That's where the final wastewater discharges to either the chlorination or, I mean, disinfection process or the river, depending on the time of year. The launder cover will cover that space, prevent algae from growing on there, which then, when that algae grows on there, staff does have to spend an extensive amount of time cleaning it off. It also can impact our treatment efficiency; that growth causes increased energy costs when we are chlorinating. So it's kind of a two-fold thing. It creates a safety issue at times; we do follow a protocol that we developed where staff members have to put a life jacket on and you have an observation person there present to make sure nothing happens. So that improvement would take care of both of those. The digester repairs consist of repairs to the digester number one. In the picture there, you can see around the bottom—those are weep holes that are designed to allow moisture that's between that block face and the actual concrete tank structure to weep out. But due to their age—approximately from the 50s—there's a little bit more seepage and moisture that's getting in there, and then it's causing that freeze-thaw etc. to cause that block to fail. So you're looking at the improvement to remove that block from the interior of the tank and then put a facing of some sort, whether it be block or a combination of a block and a facing of some type. That's what those improvements are. You can see that's an interior where there are some small weep holes that have been—or real small cracks and fissures in that interior wall of the tank that we've done some in-house patching of, but it's time to make those improvements to extend the life cycle of that. Then with the primary splitter box, that started out as looking at making repairs to the structure you see in the picture. Started that process with the consulting engineer, it was determined that the extent of the repairs outweighed making them and we just need to start from scratch. This is, again, this is a 1950s structure. What happens here is when the water is pumped in, comes into the facility, leaves our headworks building and gets pumped into this structure. This structure then splits that flow up into four primary tanks where the settling begins and that kind of biological treatment. Valves have failed in there to where if we need to isolate a tank, we have to disassemble the valve to make sure that we can do that. And so it's just time to replace that. We're looking at doing that as an alternate, just mainly because of cost. That item was not initially in our budget, as the other two items were approved as part of the CIP. So if we get favorable bids, then we would be bringing forward, you know, at that—when we receive those bids—bringing forward acceptance of that approval in a budget amendment if they're, like I said, if they're favorable. This is just another picture; you can kind of see there a little bit on the bottom where the surface meets the sidewalk where it's starting to crack. We've made some in-house repairs again to that, but time has come to replace that. So just kind of a recap: the installation on the scope of improvements, the installation of the launder covers on the finals to improve performance and safety of staff; improvements to the digester to enhance the structural integrity of that; and then the alternative of replacing the primary splitter box to ensure viable flow distribution and obtain ultimate optimal biological treatment. The preliminary cost estimate for the launder covers and the digester repairs is $535,000, which is just slightly over what's been budgeted. And the alternate of 1.2 million—when we looked at this, the intent to include this as an alternate, we and the consulting engineers were thinking that we may get some better pricing if we're kind of packaging all these things together. We're hoping to attract, you know, maybe some folks that normally wouldn't have bid on it but you know, with just that—the launder covers and digester repairs—but maybe with this a little bit, you know, a few more bidders and hopefully we'll get some favorable bids. And the funding for that then would all be proposed to come from the sanitary fund. From a scheduling standpoint, improvements were ordered last year in May when we started the preliminary feasibility and looking at alternatives. Tonight we're at approving the plans and specs, and we’ll be looking to receive bids on March 17th, board a contract in April, and start in June, with final completion. With that, I would recommend the approval of Resolution 2025-041. Questions? **[10:46] Council Member Chuck Thiele:** Yeah, uh, do it. But that's where we're going to— **[11:00] Public Works Director Travis Block:** So when we receive those bids, we'll see. You know, we're hoping it comes in under the engineer's estimate. The one thing that was difficult is in preparing that cost estimate, they wanted to be as, you know, kind of "worst-case scenario." So we're hoping maybe it's, you know, quite a bit less than that. It could be, we don't know. So when we receive that, then we'll see. I'll revisit it with Kinser and then we'll sit down and we'll look at and see if the fund can sustain that. If it cannot, then we will have to just program that into a future year. **[11:56] Council Member Chuck Thiele:** Correct. **[12:10] Public Works Director Travis Block:** Ideally, yes. **[12:50] Council Member Chuck Thiele:** But we're going to have a million— **[13:12] Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Any other comments or questions? If not, um, we need a motion to approve Resolution 2025-041. **Council Member Mandy Barnes:** Motion. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Motion by um, Council Member Barnes. **Council Member Peter van Sluis:** Second. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Second by Van Sluis. All in favor say "aye." **Council Members:** Aye. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Against? Resolution passes. Um, we move to Item B: Ordinance 2025-01, amend sections 28-52 and 28-59 of the city code of ordinances regarding resolution of backflow devices. First reading by Public Works Director Travis Block. **[14:20] Public Works Director Travis Block:** Thank you, Vice Mayor Doumbouya, members of the Council. Ordinance 2025-01 deals with our backflow preventers. Recently we've partnered with BSI Incorporated, which is managing our data for our backflow preventers. Backflow preventers are in places you'll find—those are institutional typically—that would have a chemical in their facility that if there would be a main break and there basically would be a backflow, or it could potentially siphon that material into our water system, the backflow preventer prevents that from happening. So when we partner with BSI to help manage these—I can't remember exactly, but it's over a thousand of these running around that are in various places throughout the community. One of the components of those is they're regulated by the plumbing code. So the addition in Section 52 would just reference that those are—you know, the installation and procedures and testing, etc.—is regulated under the plumbing code. And then also dealing with the maintenance and the testing requirements of it. Currently, in our partnership with BSI, we're going to have two notifications. So the person who has the backflow gets sent a notification; they get sent another notification that they need to test it. But right now we don't have "what do we do if they don't test it?" So this establishes that we could utilize and we will then amend the administrative citation section to apply that as kind of our leverage to get compliance for that testing. So you can see in the ordinance that that information is outlined in there. So with that, I’d be recommending approval of Ordinance 2025-01 on the first reading. **[16:32] Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** We will do a roll call. Okay, um, we will need a motion to approve Ordinance 2025-01. **Council Member John Rowan:** So moved. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Motion by Council Member Rowan. **Council Member Peter van Sluis:** Second. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Second by Van Sluis. Now this is a roll call. Council Member Barnes? **Council Member Mandy Barnes:** Aye. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Ross? **Council Member Royal Ross:** Aye. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Rowan? **Council Member John Rowan:** Aye. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Thiele? **Council Member Chuck Thiele:** Aye. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Van Sluis? **Council Member Peter van Sluis:** Aye. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Vice Mayor, aye. Ordinance passes. We have Item C: Resolution 2025-047, approve conditional use permit for childcare facility at 550 Wilson Avenue, presented by Director David Wanberg. **[17:29] Community & Economic Development Director David Wanberg:** So the item in front of you, the resolution, is to approve a conditional use permit for a childcare facility at 550 Wilson Avenue. The applicant for this is Little Scholars LLC. They've been working very closely with the Chamber in order to establish another location for them within Faribault. They are working very closely with the property owners. The location for this along Wilson Avenue is kind of just behind Taco Bell, also just behind the Chamber between Highway 60 and Lindale Avenue. The building itself was built in 2005. Um, the part where the childcare center is going to be is on the south side of this building. I think there's a warehouse door also within the building. Um, it'll just be taking a portion of the southern tenant space. And as I mentioned before, it's a conditional use permit for a healthcare center within Shoreland. To provide some history: in 2005 actually, a childcare center did go into this particular tenant space. Since then, it actually transitioned to an office. The regulations for Shoreland, as dictated by the DNR, state any new uses—if they've been discontinued—have to go back through this process. The zoning map shows, hey, you know, this is C2, commercial thoroughfare, which is not unlike a lot of our other commercial areas around town. When we take a look at our overlay district map, we see the Shoreland buffer which is kind of this big white area. The tenant space is covered just slightly by this Shoreland overlay. Just a little bit more outside of it we wouldn't be in this process, but because it is within Shoreland because of Crocker Creek, we are here. So the childcare use, from staff's point of view and from the Planning Commission, we've both recommended that this is actually considered consistent with all of our CG district standards as well as the Shoreland overlay district. We have received some feedback from the DNR that they are—they don't have any opposition to this request and are supportive of it. So generally this is meeting all of our code and ordinance standards. So we do—staff and the Planning Commission do recommend that you actually approve Resolution 2025-047 for the childcare facility. Any comments? **[20:10] Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Okay, um, will need a motion to approve Resolution 2025-047. **Council Member Chuck Thiele:** Motion. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Motion by Council Member Thiele. **Council Member Mandy Barnes:** Second. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Second by Barnes. All in favor say "aye." **Council Members:** Aye. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Against? Motion passes. So tonight we have Item D: Resolution 2025-050, approve revised plans and specifications and establish bid date for Straight River Water Main Crossing, contract 2023-09, by Director Mark DuChene. **[20:53] City Engineer / Director of Engineering Mark DuChene:** Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor Doumbouya, members of the Council. Before you tonight is a resolution to approve the revised plans and specifications and set a new bid date for the 20-inch water main crossing underneath the Straight River. As you recall, we bid this project last year in September. We received two bids, one of which was way over our budget and the other which was under budget but deemed non-responsive due to the contractor having a mathematical error in his bid. They requested to be rejected—their bid rejected at that time. We rejected all bids, went back, worked with the consultant, we worked with the railroad to see if we could come up with a design that would satisfy the railroad conditions. Unsuccessful in getting them to move, we are back before you tonight with some minor revisions to the plans but looking to bid this project again. This project replaces the 20-inch water main that currently crosses the Straight River underneath the pedestrian bridge. Right now we're looking at boring a new water main under the railroad and under the river to remove some risk with that water main underneath the bridge. We had a fracture in that water main's fittings back in 2019. So this new crossing will—the other timing thing with this is the proposed ice feature at the Viaduct. This encompasses this before we go further with investment. A new 20-inch water main transmission pipe—this water main carries all of the water from our filtration plant reservoirs. On current estimate, including engineering fees, it's $1.1 million. We've got a construction estimate. Approval of plans and specifications tonight, setting a bid date for March 19th. We'll be back for award on March 25th. We have a somewhat flexible construction start date for the contract, but we do have a contract completion of September. With that, I'll stand for any questions, but we do recommend approval of Resolution 2025-050. Any comments? **[23:19] Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Okay, if not, um, I need a motion to approve Resolution 2025-050. **Council Member Mandy Barnes:** Motion. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Motion by Council Member Barnes. **Council Member Peter van Sluis:** Second. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Second by Van Sluis. All in favor say "aye." **Council Members:** Aye. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Against? Motion passes. Okay, that was the um, end of our items for discussion, and we don't have any bits tonight. And um, next is the board and commission reports, announcement, and project updates. **[24:25] Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Yeah, thank you Administrator Kinser. Um, I think we received bad news, the passing of Susan G. So just express our condolences in this difficult time. Also, um, our Mayor [Thomas Spooner] is not here tonight because of that too. Well, any other comments? If not, uh, I need a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting. **Council Member Royal Ross:** Moved. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Motion by Council Member Ross. **Council Member Chuck Thiele:** Second. **Vice Mayor Adama Youhn Doumbouya:** Second by Thiele. All in favor say "aye." **Council Members:** Aye. **[Meeting Adjourned]**