Here is the transcribed townhall meeting with speaker names added based on the provided context. [7:30] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Okay. Like to call to order the April 7th 2025 uh meeting of the Bayport City Council. Let's all stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [8:01] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: All right. Thank you. Matt, do you want to call the role, please? **Matt Kline**: Uh, Council Member Kipp [Dah] here. Council member Gilmore here. Council member Hill here. Uh Mayor Hanson here. Uh just of note, uh Council Member Bliss is um out tonight. [8:20] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Yes. He actually had plans before he was elected, so we can't be um upset with him. **Matt Kline**: No, can't hold it against him. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Okay. Um anyone want to um Oh, approve the agenda. I forgot. We have to make one addition to the consent agenda. [8:37] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Um it's item number 10, renewal of the boat trailer parking agreement with Anderson Corporation. Um so want to make an approval of the agenda with that one change that. **Orin Kipp**: So moved. Thank you, John. [8:54] **Katie Hill**: Second. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Thanks, Katie. Um all those in favor? **Council Members**: I I **Mayor Michele Hanson**: All right, we will go on and we don't have any proclamations tonight. **Matt Kline**: Madam. Um, yeah. What did I do? Uh, you didn't do anything. Okay. Um, just a a correction on the uh for the open forum. [9:13] **Matt Kline**: Um, Alex from the mosquito control district will be going first and then um Kevin Magnuson is here from Washington County um office. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Um just to uh to we're going to flip them is all you're asking. **Matt Kline**: Yes. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Oh. Okay. Well, there that we're going to start the open forum then. It's a portion of the meeting to address the city council on subjects that are not part of the agenda. City Council may take action or reply at the time of the statement or may give direction to staff regarding investigation of comments expressed. A total of 15 minutes is allotted for public comment during the open forum. We might have to allow a little more than that. Um and we're going to start with Alex Carlson from the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District. Thanks for coming, Alex. [9:59] **Alex Carlson**: Yeah, thank you Mayor Hanson and council members. My name is Alex Carlson. I'm with the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District. I'm the public affairs manager and I'm lucky to have Kathy Beetle with she's a field operations supervisor at the Oakdale facility and her service area covers Bayport so she can ask answer those very specific questions about every single pond and wetland in this area. Uh but excited to share just an update on the mosquito season, a little background about who we are and what we do uh and then answer any questions that you might have. Great. Um so just a quick background on MMCD. [10:24] **Alex Carlson**: We've been around since 1958. Our governance is the county commissioners and Commissioner Cox is one of ours. uh board members who's here tonight. Um so the commissioners are appointed to our board and they determine our budget and our operations. We're one of the largest mosquito control districts in the country with over 2900 square miles. We serve over 3 million people and then we have over 80,000 wetland habitats and you'll see why that's important in a moment. Um our funding comes from property taxes. So the median home in the service area pays about $10.87 87 cents per year for mosquito control services which we think is a pretty good deal for the services which include comprehensive mosquito control, mosquitoborn disease suppression which public health is really the main goal of mosquito control. Um we do tickorn disease surveillance, public education about mosquitoes and ticks. Um as well as blackflies which are the biting gnats and we do control for them as well. So Kathy's going to talk a little bit about life cycle. [11:09] **Kathy Beetle**: All right. So um All right. So, mosquitoes, there are over 3,000 species worldwide. And here in Minnesota, we have 52 species. Um, but only about 20 of them are human biting and are a concern for the public. Um, the other ones tend to bite frogs or birds or things like that, and they don't even bother us. Um, and as you can see here, it's the mosquito life cycle. So, mosquitoes will either lay their eggs um at the edges of wetlands or on top of the water. And once those eggs um get flooded with water, the eggs will hatch. [11:51] **Kathy Beetle**: They'll turn into mosquito larae. They spend about a week in that time frame, which is usually when we do a lot of our work to try to control them and then they turn into mosquito pupa where they're turning into the adult mosquito. Then they emerge and then they fly fly away. And then depending on the species, they can live up to either two weeks or even the whole summer depending on what species they are. [12:14] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Can we ask questions? **Kathy Beetle**: Sure. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Do they live longer if they bite you? **Kathy Beetle**: Um, so only the females bite and they're biting to get protein for their eggs. Um, so that's kind of why they're biting. Um, they to just survive. They're actually drinking nectar. Um, so it's the males don't bother anybody. They just hang out in the woods and drink from flowers. And the females also do that, but then when they're ready to make eggs, they'll need to go get some blood. [13:02] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: That is so interesting. Thank you. Can you guys figure out how to get rid of the 20 species that bite humans and we can just knock those 20 species out? Golden. **Kathy Beetle**: Um, it's a little more complicated than that, unfortunately, but we're working on it. Um, all right. So, mosquito habitat. So, there's a lot of different places mosquitoes will come from. Um, essentially, they need standing still water. So, you're not going to find them in lakes, the river. they're not going to be coming from there. They need that still calm water. So that's either like a permanent water source um that has like cattails and stuff. Sometimes flood water. So I know you all know the park down there that will flood every once in a while. We'll get mosquitoes coming from that. Um and we'll we've treated that big pond or the baseball field before. Um and also just containers. So whether it's tires or tree holes, buckets, catch basins, storm water drains, um anything like baths. [13:45] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: I always think why do people have bird baths? It's like a mosquito. **Kathy Beetle**: Yep. So as long as people change out the water once a week, then they're usually fine. But um yeah, you got to look out for the You'll definitely see them. I mean, I've seen them when I've had a bucket or something. I mean, you'll see those when I go. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: So, that's a good reason to dump it out. [14:09] **Alex Carlson**: I do this one. I think I'm doing this one. Um, environmental stewardship. So, we use IPM, so that's integrated pest management because we want to be mindful of the environment. Uh, all of our decisions are driven by surveillance, which includes identifying species, um, seeing the abundance of the mosquitoes and where they're coming from. We have a technical advisory board. Um, and they review what we do annually. So people on the tech advisory board are people from the U of M, state agencies like the Department of Health and the DNR, federal agencies like the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the EPA. So they're kind of overseeing what we do and making sure that we're not causing harm um to non-target species. [14:50] **Alex Carlson**: And if you are curious, you can read the full tab report on our website. Yeah, basically the idea of IPM is we're very targeted now when it comes to mosquito control with a goal of just eliminating those 20 or so target species with no harms to anything else. So, how we do that is it starts with surveillance. Um, if you see our trucks and our staff out in wetlands, usually what we're doing is wetland surveillance. We spend a lot of summer doing that where we use our favorite tool, the long-handled dipper, skim along the surface where the larvae tends to congregate, get a sample. We use these pipets to pull them and uh put them in a sample vial. It looks like this, which I can pass around for you to see. [15:36] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: You want to go get definitely pass it to little man so he can check. **Alex Carlson**: Um and then we we slap a label on those vials and send it back to our entomology lab in St. Paul. So we have a full entomology lab um where they identify those samples. And then for adults collections, we do traps. So we set up about 200 traps of different types around the Twin Cities every Monday night from mid-May through the end of September. So we have a pretty good snapshot of what the mosquito picture is at any given week. Um and we also have a vector ecologist on staff who can test those adult samples to see if they're carrying West Nile virus um or other mosquitoborn diseases. So there's a our entomology lab. So the lab is taking those samples and they're trying to determine if they are one of the 20 human biting species that merits a treatment and if it's over a threshold. [16:06] **Alex Carlson**: Um, we find a lot of samples that have no human biting species. Last year was kind of a strange year. We'd we'd get a lot of a specific species that only feeds on frogs and so we mark that as a a blue site we call it means we're not going to treat it. Um, and and uh we we leave those mosquitoes alone. We really focus on on the ones that we're really trying to target that can spread diseases or really, you know, be a big nuisance for people. And the way that we do mosquito control is there's three primary methods, but our main method is larval control. So by far uh the majority of the work we do is treating for the mosquito larvae. Um and you can see the table below. We do you know hundreds of thousands of acres of larval control every year. Maybe one or two thousand acres of adult mosquito control. So our preferred method is larval control um for a couple reasons. One we have a geographic advantage because we have such a wide service area. [16:52] **Alex Carlson**: Uh whereas if we only served Bayport or St. Paul, you know, mosquitoes would fly in from the neighboring towns and then we'd have to do more adult control. Um so that helps. Uh but also the larval control materials are very specific to mosquito larvae. So our main active ingredient is BTI. Um this is a corn cob that's ground up with a bacteria on it and that bacteria is toxic to mosquito larvae. But it's a mosquito larva have an alkaline gut. So anything else that eats this bacteria is not impacted. So it's not harmful to fish or other insects and it only works in the water table. So it's not harmful to other insects that aren't um in the water. So, it's very very specific and very effective and it's been used for many many years. Um, so if you see our helicopters flying around or if you see our staff out doing treatments, this is what they're applying. [17:37] **Alex Carlson**: So, we're never spraying liquid or anything like that. It's these dry granules that are going down. Um, we do some adult control, which is the the what people think of as like the barrier sprays. Um, that's mainly in response to disease concerns. So, if we have um, you know, West Nile positive samples, that's usually when we'll send out people to do some additional adult control. Um, we also work with cities um for public events. So, if there's ever a big event going on, um, and it's going to be outside evening hours, um, you can call us and we may be able to help out with some additional adult control pending the um, you know, the IPM side of it if there's enough species that need threshold, things like that. [18:16] **Kathy Beetle**: You want to do this one? Sure. Um, all right. So, just kind of back off what he just said, no pun intended, because we use backpacks. Um, we I'm going to talk about larval control for a quick second here. So, like Alex said, we do apply those dry granules and we can do that in a very different ways. Sometimes, sometimes we'll use helicopter for those really big sites. We'll use like a backpack to throw the material out. We're using drones. That's new this year. So, there's a chance that your people in town might see a drone flying and that might be us treating for mosquitoes. Um, or just by hand, so with a hand spreader. And we have three different larval materials that we use. [18:56] **Kathy Beetle**: Alex talked about BTI. It's the corn cob. That's mainly what we use, but we also use something called methoprene. Um, that is something that we put in the water and it actually lasts 30 days and it essentially just makes the larvae not grow into adults. So, they'll like stay alive in the water, but it disrupts their hormones and so they just don't molt into that adult stage. Um, and then another one is spinosad. That is it's more of like a nerve. It affects their nerves and kills them. So, so those are kind of our three main active ingredients that we use. [19:42] **Orin Kipp**: The the the last two in terms of safety for people that get scared by chemical names like that. Can you sort of describe what they're all about? So, the BTI was corn husks going the bacteria sprayed onto it. **Kathy Beetle**: Um, yep. So, pretty much all of these are perfectly safe for humans and other things. even like your dog or a cat if they're like drinking water from a pond that we treated. Totally fine. Um it's again focused on those mosquitoes and a few other closely related species for some of them. But it's um yeah, we're very mindful of that and **Alex Carlson**: Okay. And very importantly, they're all safe for pollinators, bees and butterflies. So that's a big aspect of our program too. Make sure that we're not harming, you know, beneficial pollinators. Absolutely. [20:11] **Kathy Beetle**: Um and all right so mosquitoborn diseases so we don't have any of the really really scary ones here like dengue, yellow fever, malaria that are very common and widespread but we do have some mosquitoborn diseases that you know unfortunately can harm people um luckily the numbers aren't too high but we do have them um so West Nile virus is our most common one and that mainly affects older adults we usually find it in the Twin Cities every year usually increases in around August just because of the cycle of mosquitoes. Um, Jamestown Canyon virus. This one is found mostly in our spring species, spring mosquito species. Um, I don't think we've had a case here. It's not common. Um, but it's something that we're kind of keeping an eye on. [20:57] **Kathy Beetle**: Uh, lacrosse encephalitis. This is from a mosquito that breeds in tree holes or containers and tires and that kind of stuff. So, um, the mosquito that spreads that we try pretty hard to try to knock down because that one mostly affects kids and it can be deadly. I don't think we've had a case in a little while, but um it can be around so we take that pretty seriously. Uh eastern equine encephalitis. This one is very very rare um but it is one of the more highly deadly ones that are around. Um and then dog heartworm that's transmitted by the summer flood water mosquito. Um, so yeah, so we're kind of monitoring all the different species that um are connected to these mosquitoborn diseases. Different species spread different diseases, so it's um pretty intensive. [21:42] **Kathy Beetle**: And then the 2024 season review. So this past year, as you probably know, we had above average rainfall, which was great, but that did mean that we had more mosquitoes than last year. But for whatever reason, it didn't get as high as it normally does. um probably just because we've had years of drought before that. Um so as you can kind of see on this graph here, 2024 is in the green. Um and that is below our 10-year average. Um our main nuisance mosquito Aedes vexans and Coquillettidia perturbans. They remained low. Um we had a mild winter in a warm spring which meant we had early detection of deer ticks and mosquito larvae. [22:29] **Kathy Beetle**: Um, so yes, we had to kind of get out there pretty early to start working and we had fewer instances of West Nile virus than previous years. Um, which is because the vectors for West Nile virus, they actually prefer the hot dry summers. Um, so we had higher numbers of that in years past when it was really warm. Um, and then the spring flooding that caused a surge of blackfly numbers. Um, but they did kind of remain tolerable levels throughout the summer. um we kind of usually in the springtime we'll get that big spike and then they'll kind of drop off. [22:56] **Kathy Beetle**: So there we go. And then these are just the totals for uh Bayport. And um I put a caveat to the bottom just cuz the way our parcels work sometimes it's hard to get just a specific city. Um so 2023 to 2024. This does include Oak Park Heights as well um just because we couldn't differentiate. But um double the amount of sites inspected and increase the acres treated. That was just because there was more rain. A little bit more of the adult work about double that. Um just because um like I said, usually we only do adult mosquito control when there is concern about um vector activity. Um we we do remove tires. [23:24] **Kathy Beetle**: This is a good just uh program that we offer. We will come and pick up and recycle waste tires at no cost to residents. So if people have tires that are causing nuisance, call us. We'll pick up about up to about 20 per household. So have people call us and we'll be out there and getting them. Uh and then catch basins are a good mosquito habitat. So we treated slightly fewer than 2023 largely because we were spent so much of our time with larval control. Like you wanted to say something about tires. [23:58] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: I was just very excited. Were you not all excited about this tire thing? I don't have any. **Orin Kipp**: When you say catch basin, where where like where are these catch basins? **Kathy Beetle**: Um just on the side of the roads. Yeah. The storm water drains. Okay. Gotcha. [24:25] **Alex Carlson**: Yeah, yeah, and this is the question we always get is what is this year going to bring us? Um, and it's it's very early to make an accurate prediction. Uh, but there are a couple things that we have a pretty good idea on. If you want a more detailed um prediction, um, Star Tribune actually did an article that we collaborated on them with and then we have a a post on our website as well. Um, but what we're looking for this year is uh, it might start slower this spring because we're still below average even though we got a little rain and snow recently. Um, and the National Weather Service is predicting a drier summer. June, July, and August is predicted to be below average precipitation. [24:43] **Alex Carlson**: Uh, but there is one species called the cattail mosquito, and they actually are based on last year's rain. Um, so they all hatch in the fall. Uh, and then they overwinter as larvae in the water, usually connected to cattails, which is where they get their name from, and then they come out right around the 4th of July in a big surge. Um, and we're predicting the highest number of those that we've seen in four years, uh, based on our models. And that prediction is usually pretty accurate. Um, and so that's kind of that was the kind of the headline in the Star Tribune: MMCD is predicting a mid-summer surge of cattail mosquitoes. Uh just because just it just has to do with the weather and the surveillance that we saw last year. [25:29] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: And do they like to bite us, the females? **Alex Carlson**: They do. Yes. They're an aggressive human biting species. So people will notice that surge when it comes. Uh other than that though, we're just watching the rain. Like predicting mosquitoes is like predicting the weather. We have a pretty good idea what the next two or three weeks might be, but beyond that, it's very hard to know. Uh and then as Kathy mentioned, we are expanding our drone program. Um some resources for residents. Uh we do post helicopter activity on our website. So if anybody's curious when they're going to be out, um we update it every single morning. Um so you can know when they're going to be. We send email alerts people can sign up for to know when um helicopter activity is going to happen. [26:05] **Alex Carlson**: Uh and we do a weekly update on mosquito activity. So that's all on our website. Um we have a really cool interactive map feature. So people can pull up our website and click on all of the wetlands that we're monitoring and view about 20 years of data about when uh we were there, what treatments were done, what mosquitoes were found, and stuff like that. Just kind of cool. People can explore their neighborhood and see where the mosquito breeding sites are. We encourage residents to sign up for email alerts if you want instant notifications. And finally, we do a lot of outreach. Um so if you know of any events that we should attend, this is our mascot. Her name is Victoria. So, she makes appearances at parades and other events throughout the summer. We also do, you know, uh we do parades, we do city festivals, we do county fairs. [26:47] **Alex Carlson**: Uh we try to get out and just encourage people to dump out standing water, put on bug spray, and just know everything that goes into mosquito control. And with that, we'll open up for questions. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Wonderful. Wow. So much in terms of Yeah. information. very interesting presentation for me. Um, for people at home, I know it's been several years since I've had my yard treated by I don't know the people that come to your house and is it what are your thoughts on that or ways that people can I know of course get rid of empty your stuff out so there's not standing water, but any thoughts on those kinds of things? [27:34] **Alex Carlson**: Thank you, Council Member Kipp [Dah]. Um, so a couple things with that one, we do recommend people call a professional if you want to do any sort of mosquito treatments just because the Department of Agriculture licenses them. Actually last week was all traveling around the state doing trainings for all of them on pollinator safety and things like that. So they can follow the label correctly whereas I think if people are doing it themselves, they might overtreat or just not do it in the proper areas. Um, but we do have a great resource on our website. It is called a residence guide and it basically says everything that homeowners can do to reduce mosquitoes, okay? [28:20] **Alex Carlson**: From, you know, physical barriers to, you know, my one of my favorite tips is like if you're out on a hot summer night, set up an oscillating fan because mosquitoes are weak flyers and it can also help distribute your scent so they can't find you as easily. Um, so that just works really well. Uh, obviously if it's hot out, if it's cool, you might not want more cool air on you. But, um, and then just covering up, you know, we say long, light, loose—long sleeves, light colors, loose fitting. And then we have a list of our recommended active ingredients for bug sprays that are the most effective that people could try. [28:52] **Ethan Gilmore**: That's perfect. Thank you for that. Yeah, that weak flyers is a good—isn't it like they can't even go if you're on a brisk walk, they can't keep up with you? Isn't that sort of I feel like they do that. **Alex Carlson**: Maybe if you're running, but if it is a windy night, you know, they're not going to be out as active. Yeah. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Okay. Thank you. Good question. **Ethan Gilmore**: That's what I was gonna ask—like what what should we do here? And then is there maybe a little bit bigger picture? Is there something as a city we should be doing that would help with controlling um... [29:38] **Kathy Beetle**: I mean I guess if you know of residents that have you know—I I can think of tires a bunch of tires and empty boats and like a bunch of stuff in their yard and we go there once a once a month in the springtime and you know they they know us by name and you know we treat their stuff. But if you know of other people that are, you know, looking for those resources to how to reduce their mosquitoes, send them our way so that we can come and do those property inspections and dump out water and educate them about that kind of stuff. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Not a bad newsletter article coming up here, right? For you got it already. Of course you do. Um, so these chemicals that you're using for the mosquitoes, do they—they don't affect the fish because I would assume the fish are eating some of this larvae and whatever. **Kathy Beetle**: Okay. **Ethan Gilmore**: And then you mentioned ticks, but you don't actually have to worry about the ticks, do you? Like, is that part of your job? [30:09] **Alex Carlson**: So, for our program, we do tick surveillance. Um, and then we work with county public health and the department of health. Um, there's not an environmentally safe way to do widespread tick control. So, that's one area where we encourage people if you have a tick issue in your yard, you might want to call a professional to help with that. Okay? Um, otherwise, just, you know, keeping grass short in areas where there's, you know, people around, things like that. But what we do is we do tick drags where we take a big cloth with all these threads and drag it through the woods and pick up pick off all the ticks. Um, so we find ticks that way. And then we also do live mammal collections as well where we'll set traps and collect mice and then pull the ticks off the mice. So we're getting a lot of data on ticks, but we aren't controlling them, at least currently. [30:43] **Ethan Gilmore**: That's great. Maybe you could have our highway cleanup team do this dragging thing for you at the same time because I feel like we always come back with like three ticks. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Give them your—this has been really informative and I am amazed at how much I didn't know about mosquitoes and that you guys are out there helping us like—did you all know this? I mean, I knew that you existed, but I didn't really know that that was your job really, you know? I like this is amazing and I don't think people—I think we just take it for granted. So, thank you for in the swamps. **Alex Carlson**: To get boots on. Usually a safety vest and you know much a lot of the wetlands along scenic byway 95 here and the park we try to keep a good eye on to reduce those. Yeah. [31:20] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Awesome. Thanks for coming and informing us. Does anyone have any other questions or comments or Oh, all right. Thank you very much. **Alex Carlson**: Thank you so much. Great presentation. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Yeah, that was great. Thank you. I love how it had videos in it, too. Yeah, I did. All right. So, next up is uh Kevin Magnuson from uh Washington County. He's the—well, he'll tell us, but he's the attorney, I hear. Hi. Hi. Welcome. [31:54] **Kevin Magnuson**: Thank you. Okay. Well, thank you very much for having me. My name is Kevin Magnuson. I'm the county attorney for Washington County. Um, I thought it was interesting that you had—well, it's really hard to follow the mosquito. That's true. I'm pretty excited. But I was a little concerned when I saw that we were both on the agenda together and then you moved me to the back largely because my computer wasn't ready. But also if they—if you thought maybe mosquito control and lawyers have some like blood sucking... at least you said lawyers tell the best lawyer jokes, right? Yeah. And of course it applies to other lawyers. Eric is shaking his head. [32:32] **Kevin Magnuson**: Not the good. Not the good. I wish we did, but there's a reason why we're in the profession we are. We do not tell good jokes. All right. Um, so, um, again, my name is Kevin Magnuson. I grew up in Lake Elmo. I'm currently living in the home that I grew up in from 1898. Was Dr. Stevens Hospital. If anybody is ever interested in Lake Elmo history, very riveting history. Um I I bought it from my dad and he's laughing every day that I'm trying to spackle something and the whole thing is held together by wallpaper and spackle the whole house, you know. It's just it's but it's a nice spot on the lake there. Great. [33:34] **Kevin Magnuson**: Um and uh so my wife Lindsay is an attorney as well, so we have some interesting dinner conversations and my 13-year-old daughter has no intention of going to law school as a result. And uh I have a four-year-old who's going to be five tomorrow. And I was looking at this little guy and I thought she must be like kindergarten. Yeah. Huh. Yeah. Boy who's in Pre-K. Okay. Um we dads are lucky. I uh So in any case, we have um um you know, I'm from here. I went to I went to Wheaton College in Chicago. I was in the military in the army during the first Gulf War. stationed in Germany. I didn't quite make it down because that ground war was like 62 hours. [34:19] **Kevin Magnuson**: So, I missed that which is fine with me. But just to be clear, I was not in the Gulf at the time of the war. But when I got out, I was in Germany and I when then I enrolled in a PhD and philosophy program in a German university and then wound up at a Belgian university and did something similar to a PhD. It's called Lenciat. And then I had to figure out, well, what do I want to—what kind of career do I want? You know, something that doesn't require me renting a Santa suit, you know, to make money, working in a McDonald's or something. [35:06] **Kevin Magnuson**: So, I went to law school at the age of 29 and then went back to Europe for some more education. Wound up at the European Commission doing antitrust enforcement kind of work there and but eventually we all come back to Minnesota, right? All the umbilical express back home and and um I was in private practice for 20 years doing complex business litigation and then my predecessor—who knows Pete Orput? Anybody remember Pete? Mhm. I mean I miss the guy every day. I mean he was just uh such an amazing person and only he could talk me um to leaving that life to come be a county attorney which is the greatest thing I ever did. Um, and besides marrying my wife, of course. I mean, she's watching. Um, I'm sure she is everyone watching. Never miss watching. I think [35:52] **Kevin Magnuson**: Okay. Um, yeah. So, then that was uh 2019 and by uh and then in in the middle of summer in 2022, I became the county attorney. Was elected then that following year and it's just been a great experience. You know, I never would have thought I'd be doing this when I graduated from law school. I went in a complete opposite direction, but I just love the job. So is Bethany your boss, too? Well, um, my commissioner, actually. So, I mean, it depends how you look at it. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Okay. **Kevin Magnuson**: Yeah. Boss is—then I think you're we're her boss. Exactly. I mean, we're believers in democracy. Yes. Getting rare these days. [36:27] **Kevin Magnuson**: No, I'm thrilled to have her, too. I mean some big shoes with Phil but doing it ably and a lot of charm and grace has kind of start the new process. I think he meeting with some folks tomorrow I believe but unfortunately I can't go but talk about juvenile—you'll you'll hear just a little bit about that. Well we have um about 60 people in our office now believe it or not. So about half are lawyers and half are legal professional support staff. Um we have a half a person who is um kind of back on a maternity schedule for a few years and uh so we're growing. I think that's kind of a reflection of the times as well. So our our criminal division—I'm not sure why they have the where the next slide is showing. Let me just see what's going on here. [37:04] [Music Plays] [37:21] **Kevin Magnuson**: Sorry about this. I'm usually the guy that says next slide. Next slide. Yeah, we lost your signal somehow. All right. Um but we'll just go like this. Um and I'll wing it. Um I'm joking. So, you know, for us, for me, but I think I speak for the office that, um, you know, we we feel like we can do a lot of good in society. Um, and there's a lot of ways to do it, but the most important thing—did we get no signal here? **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Yeah. Harrison, should we just switch to the camera then or? Uh, yeah. [37:38] **Kevin Magnuson**: You know what? I mean, just give me a second here. I don't want to take up too much of your time, but I think if I um do here, maybe I think did—here we go. Oh, right. As soon as you got there. Isn't that how it always works? Perfect. We're perfect. You're very powerful. You should stop at my house. Walks in and everything starts working. Great. Um so the uh but what what I was saying here is that um you know we believe that one of the most important things we can do not just as a law enforcement or prosecutor's office but as a society is that people need to be held accountable or need to hold themselves be accountable to the laws of our society. [38:30] **Kevin Magnuson**: It's a it's a nation of laws. We don't have to put everybody's head on a pike, you know, and and but everything should be in proportion, but we really feel like, you know, accountability is an important part of what we do. Um, and we try to do that with a lot of, um, you know, specificity to which each of the needs are of the people. Um, and so a lot of times it's not incarceration. And so we have other programs that I'll talk a little bit about. But I do think that the the most important concept is sort of the theory that I have is when we're working with people, you know, who've been convicted of a crime or going through the process and we're looking at is this a person who's, you know, rehabilitation, some training, some diversion, that sort of thing. I don't want to put an undue risk on the public and make that sort of rehabilitation happen on the backs of someone's next door neighbors, you know. [39:18] **Kevin Magnuson**: So, I'm kind of I want to be really careful that as we look at what it means to try to work with someone at time, you're not the ones who are paying the price because you could be the next victim. So, public safety is a consideration we think a lot about. You know, kind of the first—and sometimes I feel with some of the prosecutors um they might get a little bit bent toward the direction of, you know, wanting to reform individuals at the expense of public safety in society. And so I'm mindful of that line. Um but I don't want, you know, people to think that we're we're about locking them up and throwing away the key. I mean very much a lot of what we do is working with uh defendants um to to get to a place where they can um you know get another chance. [40:06] **Kevin Magnuson**: But I will show you over the last decade the number of complaints that we've had and you'll see that you know 10 years ago we were at 820 and now we're at you know 1,170 and interestingly enough and this is this is the criminal—this is the adult felony complaints right um so when you look at um you know 2019 at the peak you know that's actually before COVID, you know, a lot of that is before COVID and so when you get into 2020, you know, you're pretty high, but then, you know, 2022, you know, so you'll see it's different with the the juveniles, but um and it's not this isn't based on like a per capita or anything. This is just straight numbers. So that could affect it as well. Yeah. [40:52] **Kevin Magnuson**: Everything we get is—we don't have an investigating arm. So everything we get is from law enforcement. So they'll make the arrest, the you know the booking and they'll decide what charge they want to refer to our office for review. Everything comes to us on referral and then um you know and about 75% of those cases are cases that we will then charge. And that 25% about a quarter moves for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes you know there just isn't enough evidence. Sometimes you have victims who are unwilling to testify, which actually happens quite frequently in domestic abuse and and crim-sex cases. Um and um and a lot of those things is really hard to to prove if you don't have a you know, the victim is willing to tell their story. [41:41] **Kevin Magnuson**: But that happens with other victims as well. Sometimes, you know, the auto thefts once the insurance money kicks in and they have a new car, they're really not interested in eight months later coming down and and for the good of of society telling their story and they just want to move on with their life. Um, so that's just examples. We have other times that we have federal prosecutions that may be going on. There might be multiple jurisdictions where things are happening. So something might wind up in Dakota or Anoka. Um, and so, you know, but I think a 75 um, you know, charge rate is is uh pretty high and pretty respectable in the in the in the metro area. [42:23] **Kevin Magnuson**: Um, talk a little bit trans. I'm kind of going to blow through—have a longer presentation, but I'm mindful of the time here. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Yeah, we're we're well over our 15 minutes for our open forum time. We have Patrick waiting as well. **Kevin Magnuson**: I'm in—I'm in I'm in like 6 minutes now. 7 minutes, I think. So, I'll blow through this really quick. Okay. Um, you can see, you know, total felonies. We we had that number there. Um, so the homicides, that's pretty been pretty typical the last, you know, five, six years. Hey, there was a time when people, you know, would talk about there being, you know, usually just one a year. Um, but, uh, but that's about right. Now, this includes manslaughter and criminal vehicular homicides. And so, if you're talking about first-degree intentional, you know, or second-degree intentional, you know, it's probably again to the one or two a year, the stuff you think of as classic murder. [43:30] **Kevin Magnuson**: Auto thefts are for me kind of a barometer of what's going on, particularly with with juveniles, and this is only adults. We'll get to juveniles in a second. Um and the the uh criminal sexual conduct number first of all most of the wants that we're going to charge are going to be on the more serious side for second and third degree. Um and that increase or I should say that reduction in 2024 that is actually just the variance between years and that's one of those things where it just sometimes it just works out just different factors. It's hard to to draw any conclusions from any changes in society from that number. [43:51] **Kevin Magnuson**: But auto theft, which includes joy riding, you know, unauthorized use of a vehicle, but also receiving stolen property that's a vehicle because a lot of times, you know, we don't catch them in the carjacking, you know, or I should say the theft, but when they do come into Washington County, they're in possession of a stolen car and we can tie the car. We know that they don't own it. We know that it was stolen and they're the ones who have it. So they're receiving stolen property and um you know and that gets to be uh a bulk of what we're looking at. But so these are auto-theft related cases that include um everything. [44:38] **Kevin Magnuson**: Now carjacking um as of 2023 was a new statute. So everything's just charged under the normal theft law not specific to auto automobiles except carjacking because they really wanted to send a signal, you know, and have higher um penalties and things for the carjacking crime. Fortunately, we have not had a carjacking since 2023 or in 2023 or 2024 and in 2025. The last one was uh we only had one in um uh in 2022. [45:04] **Kevin Magnuson**: So this is this is a slide that I always want to show because I think it tells you how people respond to encounters with law law enforcement. Tells me a lot about kind of where we are as a a society at least, you know, here um people in Washington County. Um and this is it's not it's not as dramatic. the numbers aren't proportionally as high as in other parts of the metro, but you know, you can see how in 2018 we're looking at 35, you know, and in 20 22, you know, we're peaking at 111. That's just a lot of people who are deciding they're going to take their chances. And then it's starting to drop, but it's still really high. [45:50] **Kevin Magnuson**: And I think that you can ask yourself what's going on in society that people are willing to take that chance now or are they even comprehending, you know, the chance that they're taking. I I get the sense that there's just a higher degree of unreasonableness in in some of the crimes that we're seeing than maybe we have in the past. And I'm hearing that from the prisons, too. You know, that they're seeing kids throw down over things that they're going to go—they're going to be punished in the system, but they're not even thinking about that, you know, at the moment they get into a fight and they're finding that that's a newer um trend and I it's something I note when I'm looking at these uh these fleeing numbers. [46:37] **Kevin Magnuson**: Um big part of what we do, a really big part of what we do and I'm really committed to it is um is law enforcement training. Um and Gilmore's got a great program too. They charge for theirs I believe. So a reasonable fee, a very um and you get some wonderful and talented people there. But we are providing as part of our core mission a lot of law enforcement training um as well and we only do it um you know in Washington County as opposed to national or international now training which is pretty impressive. [46:57] **Kevin Magnuson**: I think we have time for just a couple more slides. I don't know if there's certain highlights that you want to hit or because I think you had like 18 slides. We're not even halfway through. here. Um um the um the uh so the East Bay Human Trafficking, that's our sex trafficking task force. Um you know, we had a sting the Friday before last right after the um uh the sting that was in in in Bloomington. Of course, ours, you know, these are plans months in advance, so we weren't copying them. But it does show how important that is. And and we're fortunate because it's a just like in Bloomington, these are local task force, you know, and if you get away like BCA or larger, they tend not to be as focused on an area. They're more focused on the big cities and that sort of thing. And so that's why this task force is really important. [47:43] **Kevin Magnuson**: But one of the things that we've done is really focus on runaways in the last couple years. That's been something that I'm been working quite a bit about and I and I feel strongly about it. Um, so in 2024, so there's a grandmother, a 14-year-old girl who's from Cottage Grove reported her 14-year-old uh granddaughter missing. Um, and uh, so our—they contacted us and we have a lot of specialized technology law enforcement um, in our task force and they were able to track her through the text now app that she was using and they um, had a had a location hit um, that said she was at Boy's Motel in Newport. They went there and they found this this 14-year-old girl alone in in laundry sitting on this bed in a hotel room and she'd been there for seven days. [48:29] **Kevin Magnuson**: Um, and she had been assaulted by a 37 year old man um that she met online. Um, and you know, and that if you if you know about runaways and that in that journey into um that that oppressive life, you know, those beginning days are so critical. Um, and I'm gonna—these are some of the people that picked up his things, but this—this is a this is an older photo from a from a national magazine, but I find this is the same person. So, to the top left is the first picture, and the bottom right is the final picture. And there are lots of these kind of uh series of photos that show just how awful um this life is. And that's why a big part of what we do is we'll two usually do two stings together. [49:33] **Kevin Magnuson**: We'll do the sting to get the the um the buyers or predators, but then we'll try to do one to go recover the victims. And there we're not looking to charge anybody with a crime. We're just looking to try to find somebody, you know, and be able to say, "Okay, can we get your pimp?" And that sort of thing, but also, you know, what can we do to get you out of this lifestyle? And if I say there's one area where I think we really still need a lot of public um you know interest if people look you know what can I do and that is supporting those groups that are trying to help these women usually women get you know out of that life and that's group home that's you know financial support other kinds of things you can't put them in a in a you know in a in a shelter someplace and expect them to you know be able to put their life back together. [50:20] **Kevin Magnuson**: Um it just it takes a lot. Um I'm gonna go really quick. I'm gonna skip some of this. I just do want to show you. So this is the motor vehicle theft for for juveniles. Um there you can really see the effect that COVID had. I mean this is what happens when you have a bunch of kids with an iPhone, you know, hanging out sort of in school. Um, so here is a uh a car in Woodbury that um they they did a pit maneuver, pinned it up against a tree. Here's a kid running with a gun in his hand. And that's one of the reasons we take this so seriously because, you know, they are—so this situation is so dangerous. Um, you know, and here they run take the gun with them. [51:39] **Kevin Magnuson**: Um and uh, I don't have to tell you because everybody understands the the problem um, of what was that, but I will say the entry level crime used to be, you know, probably we were kids or even up to 15 years ago. You know, kids were smoking dope or shoplifting or doing something that, you know, underage drinking, you know, now joy riding is kind of the entry level crime. So if somebody steals a car, the friends piled in. They're 13, 14 years old, you know, and then then they use the car to commit crimes. And so they'll stop and they'll get the the new kid to go commit a crime. And then that cycle starts pretty soon. He's going to do the KIA challenge uh as well. [51:39] **Kevin Magnuson**: Our civil division. Um so I'll just stop. We fortunately Bayport is a pretty safe place. We don't have a ton of interaction um as prosecutors with folks in Bayport. And I think that's something you're probably pretty happy with. I would be pleased. We uh my civil division chief just um met with a um a group of seniors a few days maybe beginning last week. It's like a community thread. Yeah. Um and it was a good it was a good you know we do a lot of this kind of stuff and we love it. [52:26] **Kevin Magnuson**: We're talking about the extreme risk protection orders. That's the the red flag law that was recently passed. Um, and the idea behind that is if you feel like someone's mentally ill, you have a credible uh credible allegation, you know, based on that allegation, you can have those firearms removed so the person doesn't injure themselves or others. We thought when that law passed we just get hit, but we've only had a couple here. And you know, there was one where, you know, the guy went to a therapist and told the therapist because he knew something was wrong that he had a gun in the car and he wanted to kill a therapist or kill his family and, you know, the therapist was able to get the receptionist to call the police and and there, you know, we did an extreme risk protection order and now we're going through the process of uh having the mental commitment issue and trying to figure out now how severe is mental illness and what does he need to get the help. [53:12] **Kevin Magnuson**: Um, and I actually have um I feel pretty positive about that individual that be able to get the cases to get the health that he needs. So, we've only had three felonies in 2024 from uh Bayport and that's partly because your esteemed council here handles the misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor—or maybe not you, but your firm I believe, right? My firm, not myself. Yeah. Um, but representative of the firm. Um, and uh and that's no small thing. I mean, the city's handled the bulk of that kind of crime that affects a lot of people on a daily basis. Um, and again, Bayport's a pretty safe place given the level involvement that we have. So, thank you. [53:58] **Katie Hill**: Well, where—like if people would want to—like this presentation, where could people that are interested in these kinds of things where— **Kevin Magnuson**: That's a great question. Um, and I have a QR code. It's not with me unfortunately, but um, if you can go, you go to our website or look me up in my office. There's a there's a place to request presentations. Um, but if you have any trouble finding, just call the office front desk. they'll get you to me or my assistant or the person that handles our um community outreach stuff and we'll definitely—anything you want to talk about within reason. [54:27] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: All right. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming. All right. Um anyone else that'd like to come to the podium? Now's your chance. Hi. Uh, evening mayor and council. Patrick McInerney 19 Point Road. If we could get the overhead camera. [55:07] **Patrick McInerney**: So, um, Harrison, did you hear we need the overhead? Oh, let's see. I don't know who else is in there. He He must—I think he's got a tree. No, he just has a visual on the—is there like a camera above that you can turn on? **Matt Kline**: No, you have to use the—oh, we can't do that anymore. Oh. Oh this—oh, yeah. The other thing. The other technology always available—other thing. I don't remember how to use it either. The camera there. Break it. [55:44] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Is it something that we could pull up on a computer, Patrick? Like if is it a map of something? **Patrick McInerney**: I just have some. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: You know what I mean? Like like if Matt could pull up Google Maps and just show it or something. I don't know. **Patrick McInerney**: And then this is a street view. You just want to show these two of like right here. **Matt Kline**: Okay. If you put this on flick, I can put it up on the TV. Yep. Oh, bring Google up. [56:13] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Oh, okay. Something we can look at on Google Maps like on our—that's what I thought. Or maybe if Matt could do it and then put plug his computer in or something. I don't know. Sorry. I always thought when you were on the council, we had that, right? You just had a camera up above. **Patrick McInerney**: Yeah. So, um I'll try to be brief here. Uh what I'd like to ask if the city can help out with a safety issue along Point Road. If you're familiar with Point Road, it's off of 95. It kind of winds its way back in the neighborhood um past Anderson and the power plant. And there's a particular stretch along there. Uh it's a curve along Anderson Bay where there's uh pretty heavy vegetation along that curve. Ah. [57:18] **Patrick McInerney**: Um there's a cable barrier between the road and the trees and there's not a whole lot of leeway there coming around that curve—visibility is very very low and um the uh there's a lot of uh residents and non-residents of Point Road who like to walk and bike. Uh there's people who like to fish there. I like to run with my dog and um the speed limit—posted speed limit is 20. I've seen vehicles go in excess of 30 along there. [57:37] **Patrick McInerney**: Thank you. Yep. Thanks, Matt. Um, and I I don't have a speed gun on me, but I wouldn't be surprised if people are doing 40 along there. Uh, if some of that vegetation could be trimmed back or removed. Yeah. The other direction. Perfect. Right along there. So, you can see on the left is where uh all the vegetation that and that is for sure city property. I just I can't I don't know relative to everything else around there. It's not like um Excel's property or anything where that is. [58:12] **Matt Kline**: That would be Excel property to the left, Anderson to the right, I believe. Okay. But we would have the right of way to have to clear that as a city. Madame Mayor, it would depend on how how wide the rightway is. Yeah, exactly. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Okay. Okay. Um so, you know, I get through there quite a bit. Obviously, there's uh buckthorn ash trees that are dead or dying. There's some climbing vines on there or some other what I would call undesirable vegetation. Mhm. And there's a row of pine trees along there, too. If they could just be trimmed up or thinned out, I think it would go a long way. I'm just concerned there's going to be an incident along there. Okay. With the visibility and how how people like to use that. So, okay. [58:58] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Thanks for bringing that to our attention. **Patrick McInerney**: Yeah. Thank you for the time. See you. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Thank you for waiting through all the rest of it. Did you learn anything? I thought it would be a good educational. Yeah. So, you know, your dad used to sit up here. Uh-huh. He told you. Well, thanks for coming to visit us. Thank you. Thanks, Patrick. **Patrick McInerney**: Thanks, guys. Thank you. All right. Have a nice evening. [59:16] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Okay. I don't think any—well, there is someone else here. Are you—would you like to come and speak to the council? Okay. Bethany, she just—Bethany did not want to speak. She just came to observe. Okay. Um so now we will move on to the consent agenda. We're going to consider resolution adopting items 1 through 10. The March 3rd uh workshop and regular city council meeting minutes. March payables and receipts. [59:42] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: March building plumbing mechanical and zoning permits report. Special event application from Anderson Parent Group for the Razzle Dazzle Carnival on May 2nd. Special event application from Bayport American Legion for the Memorial Day parade on May 26th. and an application for a short-term rental license from Carla Estz at 496 7th Street North, replacement of beach retaining wall at Lakeside Park, automated license plate reader policy for the police department, and renewal of the boat trailer parking agreement with Anderson Corporation. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? [1:00:32] **Orin Kipp**: I move to adopt the resolution approving the consent agenda as presented. **Katie Hill**: Second. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: All right. Thank you, Katie and John. Roll call vote, please. **Matt Kline**: Council member Kipp [Dah]. I. Council member Gilmore. I. Council member Hill. I. Mayor Hanson. I. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: No public hearings, no unfinished business. We have new business. That is to consider authorization to proceed with the hiring process for a full-time fire chief. Matt's going to present this item and I just wanted to point out that we did um discuss this at our workshop prior to the meeting and had a chance to ask any questions and there were very few. [1:01:20] **Matt Kline**: So, thank you, Madame Mayor, members of the council. Um, as the mayor already mentioned, this was um a workshop item and so we discussed it um just to go over some of the wider parameters on it. Um the city staff and fire committee um which is made up of fire personnel and also um a council member um collaborated on the job description um and the job summary for this position. Um it was created—well, it was made a necessity when the current uh part-time chief Alan Eisinger um submitted essentially his uh potential resignation or retirement um here uh coming up. Um he in the short term he did fill an interim role for us um which is set to end roughly around July 2025. [1:01:59] **Matt Kline**: Um, so we um looked for other entities that had a similar um job um such as the full-time chief and um the on paid on call firefighters. Um this is kind of becoming a thing um currently and there was a number of them within the um metro area that um we used to uh uh support this job description. So, uh, essentially after the review, um, a couple of reiterations, um, we feel we're at a good spot with what we have, um, and looking at, um, approval for the job description and then also authorization for staff to move forward with the recruitment. Um it will be the intent to have someone in place um roughly about the same time when um uh the current chief Eisinger plans to step down. [1:02:44] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: All right. Thanks, Matt. Do we have a motion to adopt the job description and authorize the hiring process for full-time fire chief? **Orin Kipp**: So move. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Thank you, John. [1:03:08] **Ethan Gilmore**: Second. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: All right. Thanks, Ethan. All those in favor? **Council Members**: I I. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Anyone opposed? All right, let's uh hope we get a lot of good applicants. All right, city council liaison reports. Katie, do you want to start? [1:03:26] **Katie Hill**: Uh yeah, so I had BCAL meeting. Um they are getting another free little library and they're putting it in Village Green by the school and the Yeah. So that came in the mail and they have it. Um no one has put it together yet. So, they're going to see if they can put it together or drop it off for public works to maybe help Simon. Um, the Easter egg hunt is on Saturday, April 19th at 10:00 a.m. This is babies through fifth grade. So, they wanted to make sure it said through fifth grade, not through—it was an age before. Okay. Yeah. Um, and then the bar crawl is going to be May 10th. That's noon to 5. Um, they're still working on a band and where it's going to end. [1:04:12] **Katie Hill**: Because they like—they're trying to rearrange it every year so each business can have the ending be at their place. Mhm. Um, and then also they would like to know if city council would like to scoop ice cream on the ice cream social day. That's June 4th. It's a Wednesday. Um, it would be like half hour time frame that you sign up for. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Yep. So I'm—I will be there. Perfect. There's at least two of us then. I think Carl said something that he would do. So if this evening starts usually at 6. **Katie Hill**: Yeah. So yeah, you're probably Yeah, you then probably can't. **Ethan Gilmore**: I probably can. **Katie Hill**: Okay, perfect. I'll relay that. Thank you. [1:04:55] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Yeah. Well, there you like a sign up genius thing. We have to actually— **Matt Kline**: Okay, great. Madame Mayor, yeah. Can I interject here? Um, you want a scoop ice cream, don't you? You can have my spot. I knew it. I'll eat the ice cream. I don't know about scooping it. Um, as far as the Easter egg hunt um at Barker's Alps, just know that um uh today uh public works took down the signs for the parking on the north side of the of Fifth Avenue. So, we're allowing parking there. There's a baseball game actually tomorrow that will be occurring. Um Carl Anderson will be putting up a couple of um watch for pedestrian signs. Oh, good. [1:05:36] **Matt Kline**: On each of Fifth Avenue, but we're not doing anything exclusive like providing a crosswalk or anything like that. Um we might have some directed patrols potentially if we can try and coordinate maybe during the Easter egg hunt or even during baseball games to um just make sure people are are acting appropriately through that. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Yeah. We want everyone to be safe. Is there a way—I mean there it isn't road construction but um that we can leave some signage up just now that there is that north side parking closer to your mic. I don't know, just to keep keep it a safe situation. But yeah, certainly on those events like the Easter egg hunt and obviously they're not going to probably be able to make every baseball game or softball game and stuff, but that's a huge opportunity for something bad to happen and I would be feel awful. Yes, somebody who's injured because we're building a school in town. [1:06:44] **Matt Kline**: So, I don't know what could be done necessarily, but yeah, as I indicated, they'll be putting up a couple of signs on each end for watch for pedestrians. Um, it's just more signage, right? Um, I would think that having police out there, um, just doing a couple of patrols is definitely better than signage. Um, yeah, if there's any other ideas out there on on stuff that we'd be open to doing, absolutely. So, yeah, thank you. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Yeah, thanks. I think people just have to be mindful they're crossing the street. Okay. Um John, did Watershed meet soon? It doesn't or did you have one in between? [1:07:19] **Orin Kipp**: We—I had a last minute emergency and could not make last month. I didn't see anything in the minutes that were super—Okay, Bayport related, but I have a meeting this Thursday. Is Bethany there? She could update. No, I'm just kidding. Because I think you're on that too, aren't you? Yes. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Okay. And I think I'm still your alternate. So if you do have a last minute thing, you can always try. So like—I mean calling you at the last last—okay I won't. it's better than not sending anyone if we can make—wasn't there either. [1:07:44] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Okay. You want to—do you have uh any cable commission updates? **Ethan Gilmore**: I do not. Yeah, we haven't we haven't met since the last time. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Okay. And then um Carl did send a note that the Lake Elmo airport advisory didn't meet um and but he did go on the tour of the recycling and energy facility and enjoyed that the rest of us. Um I have a few things as usual. Um, I did set up a meeting and chatted with Melissa Taphorn from the Washington County CDA, Community Development Agency, after attending the Greater MSP Partnership event with Bethany, who just happens to be here in our audience tonight. Um, just wanted to better understand how the county and this greater MSP partnership work together and then how that could benefit Bayport. [1:08:30] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: And so, she helped me get a little bit more of that background. Um really for now I'm not sure there is much that they can help us with but at least now I understand that um did have some calls to keep the um walkability grant moving forward with um Simon and um our partners at SAFEP and SPAR (St. Paul Area Association of Realtors) contact. So that's all in place as you may have seen. We have a a study out among for the residents to participate, give their thoughts before we actually do the real study study just to talk about a little bit about like how any places that they're maybe seeing gaps in how we're connected. [1:09:16] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: And I'm especially interested in connecting um our Inspiration development to the rest of Bayport and everybody to our businesses and our parks and any um secret trails that we don't know about, things like that. I think it would be great for us to know what's out there. Um, we don't have any money to actually implement any projects, but we're at least going to know what's happening and we could possibly work that into a future project someday if there's a gap in a sidewalk or things that um we would find helpful. Eric, why are you looking at me like that? **Eric [Counsel]**: I'm just attentive and hanging intrigued, but I'm like, you look like you had something to say. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Okay, just checking. I I was looking at the other council members when they were reporting. Were they Okay, good. Okay. All right. [1:10:14] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: So, uh, we're going to be meeting with SAFEP, who's doing the study in early May. So, um, Simon and I will be doing that and keep things moving. I also had the opportunity to meet with a resident who reached out and was just wondering how he could be more involved in the community and civic affairs. And so, I thought for others who are interested in that, I would let you know that we talked a little bit about the planning commission, which is now complete, right? We have all the seats filled, but that we will have um expirations of terms coming up. The library foundation is always looking for people. We we have firefighters that we need, right, Alan? Um and then also joining local clubs like the Bayport Community Action League or the Afton Bayport Lakeland Lions who both do great things in our community. [1:10:40] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: And then I also just encourage this person to make sure that they receive the communications from the city. So, signing up for our e-email notices and then um engage with us if there's topics of importance to them. I also had a chance to meet with Derek Jagger, the new executive executive director at Community Thread. Um we discussed ways to bring more attention to the senior center here in Bayport. that's at at community thread and to make sure that it continues to thrive because I think they put a lot of focus on the Stillwater location and Bayport sometimes gets left behind. [1:11:07] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: So, um the regional council of mayors meeting was the one where the police chiefs are invited. Uh Chief Jackson couldn't go with me, but um we did have many police chiefs in attendance, including um Stillwater and Ted the mayor. We even had Mayor Frey there. Whoa. Yeah, it was very impressive. Um, where there was a panel of law enforcement officials that uh, so a member of ICE, a member from Homeland Security, US attorney's office, as well as Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the Ramsey County Attorney. We all just heard from our county attorney, and I had just recently seen statistics from there, and they're similar story with the the really uh emphasizing the drop in the car thefts. So, that was interesting. [1:12:09] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Um, and the the upside the other side of that is that there's an increase in larceny at least in Ramsey County due to greater police presence. So there's maybe not more crimes being committed but more people being caught is kind of the way he would frame that. I think um Matt and I had a Zoom call with a fellow named Will Cooley from the Minnesota Justice Research Center. He wanted to discuss the viability and future of the Stillwater Correctional Facility in Bayport. He first reached out to Mayor Ted Kozlowski in Stillwater, then realized he had the wrong wrong uh city. [1:12:44] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: So, um basically wanted to let us know that they're advocating for a legislative task force at the state level to examine the safety and viability of the prison and also the one in St. Cloud where they're both over a hundred years old. So that's all we really know at this point, but um he's promised to keep us in the loop. Uh I went to the fire relief association meeting. Uh we discussed some member training videos that they can watch, other resources available. Uh there's a new firefighter that joined, Luke Swelland. Um congrats and thanks for committing to do that for us. [1:13:11] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Um let's see. The treasurer noted that there's been a decrease in the earnings of the funds so far this year, which I think we're all seeing in our savings accounts or our um uh retirements. And that's basically what this is—is the retirement fund for the firefighters. So, it took a hit, but um we're still sound and can work through that. Um, we also talked about um just having someone come and talk to the council a little bit more about what the relief association does, especially the new members like maybe Carl or some you guys might never really understood how it all worked before either. So, we could add that as an item. [1:14:17] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Um, the March leadership in the valley session was a really powerful one. Again, it's so nice that Bethany's here. Everything is about her tonight. So Bethany Cox is in my leadership of the Valley cohort as well. Um we learned about diversity, equity, and inclusion and what that really means. Um and then we toured Valley Friendship Club and did a lot more than that, but it's always a jam-packed day. And then the April session—so we've already had two leadership in the valley since our last meeting—um uh that focused on public safety and law and we went and heard got to hear a judge from the county speak and it was amazing. I wanted to ask him if he knows Judge Freeman. She's she's great. [1:15:05] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Um so we learned about what a day in her life is like. We toured the the jail. We ate some jail food. And then we went over the Stillwater Armory and the fire station and did tours and more learning and connecting over there. I attended several chamber events as usual. Um, just great to hear about the new businesses coming in and ribbon cuttings for those that have been around a while. I was also nominated for the Chamber Ambassador of the Year award. This was the second year in a row and the second year in a row that I didn't win, but I got nominated, so that's pretty nice. Hey, thanks, John. [1:15:29] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Um, so I went to that award ceremony. They give you a free ticket if you're nominated. So, uh, sat next to the guy who did win the ambassador of the year award, Randy Gutsman. Um, he's super involved with planning Lumberjack Days. He's done the run Stillwater events. He's super guy. Um, well-deserved. Went to the library board meeting March 18th. I don't really have anything to add. You guys all saw Jill's report. She's very thorough. Um, we had the fire chief discussion meetings. [1:16:15] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Let's see. King plant stakeholder meeting on March 25th. Um my note here I wrote despite backlash from some residents near the proposed solar farm in Wisconsin, Excel has secured agreements with land owners for installing the solar farms and they said everything is on track for switching from coal generation to solar transmission by 2028. So I don't know if you've been reading about it in the paper, but I did ask about that a little bit and they said, "Nope, we're still good." There is still no decision on what else could be on the plant site after the switch over because they are still working through um just trying to figure out what needs to stay as part of the transmission of the solar and all that. [1:16:51] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: So, we don't really know about that yet. And then of course we went on the recycling and energy center tour which was super interesting to watch the grabber pick up your food scraps bag and was Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and I need to encourage everybody to—it's such an easy program. You can get a free container, a free—you get free bags. All you have to do is remember to put your banana peels and your coffee grounds and whatever scraps into that instead of your garbage and then um good things happen to it. [1:17:37] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: It becomes soil that is purchased and because their whole goal is to just to have as the least amount going into a landfill as possible. And so that's one way we can do that. I think it was—I saw two different numbers. It was kind of confusing but for sure at least 20% of our garbage can be um food scraps and and put through that process. And right now 10% of residents of Bayport participate in the program or at least asked to receive the bags and hopefully they're actually using them. The goal is to get up to 40% by in the first five years I think. [1:17:58] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: But we are on track because we just started. We're in our first year and they said they want 10% in the first year. But I want to beat everybody else. Come on Bayport. Let's do it. So that is my very long report. Um, staff reports. Matt, uh, Fire Chief Eisinger. [1:18:14] **Allen Eisinger (Interim Fire Chief)**: Good evening, Madame Mayor and Council members. Uh, for the, uh, month of March, the call volume was 111 compared to 101 in 2024. Our 2025 year to date is 316 compared to uh, 279 for 2024. Uh monthly drills were CPR, fire officer, and SCBA. Fire inspections are ongoing and plan reviews. Uh we had members attending fire officer classes. Uh escorted the Pony hockey team uh for the state championship. Uh anniversaries, James Doyle, 12 years. Carl Vendon, 12 years. Uh Duluth fire officer school. We had four members attend that. I attended the Baytown and West Lakeland Township annual meetings—one with Bethany. See, she's everywhere. [1:19:00] **Allen Eisinger**: Yeah, she's everywhere. And upcoming events, we have FDIC this week. Uh with that, I stand for any questions. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Did you do our annual like tell us how things went this past year compared to the last year and all that? Do we—we used to do that. **Allen Eisinger**: It's by invitation. I mean Oh, definitely could. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: I invite you to do that. I feel like we've done it like years ago. Like it's been a while. **Allen Eisinger**: Yeah, we we do a—we I have a presentation that breaks down and I promise it'll be less than 15 minutes. Okay. Totally. Well, yeah, cuz you have it ready for the other cities. So, I assume it would be piece of cake. [1:19:52] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Yeah. Maybe we should slot Allan to do that sometime when we're not super— **Allen Eisinger**: Every once in a while, Oak Park invites me and that. So, yeah. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Well, you went to Baytown, too, right? Oh, West Lakeland. Yep. In Baytown. Yeah. I'm confused. Okay. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions for Alan? No. Thanks, Chief. Uh, Assistant Administrator Taylor. [1:20:14] **Sara Taylor**: Um, it's been a busy few months for planning and zoning projects. The new school is under construction. Uh, the annexation for the Pratt Homes development, Bay Haven, is being considered by the state, and once approved, they will proceed with a final plat application. Uh staff is also reviewing preliminary plans for two residential reconstruction projects on Point Road and one project on Lake Street. And these are an effort to comply with the flood plane regulations um increasing the elevation out of the flood plane. And these um all these projects will require a variety of variances and conditional use permits. [1:20:53] **Sara Taylor**: Um over the past month, staff has also been busy with various recycling goals and initiatives and some of these were talked about in the workshop. uh coordinating with the county to offer a free mattress pickup again this year for city residents. Um the date is to be determined, but it should be rolling out in one of the next upcoming newsletters. Um allocating county recycling grant funds to offer activities and programming for youth safety camp this summer, as well as purchasing new trash and recycling containers for city parks. Also, we completed a survey to identify what refuge haulers provide services to city businesses and whether opportunities exist for consolidating or cost savings for those efforts. [1:21:57] **Sara Taylor**: Um, also, we did coordinate a tour of the county's recycling and energy center for the city council, um, which Mayor Hansen covered. Uh, lastly, residents should have received the latest edition of the city's newsletter by now. Article highlights include the Barker's Alps Woodland Restoration Project, pollinator friendly art tips, upcoming programs and events, and the mayor's spotlight on several new businesses in town. And the next edition of the newsletter will be printed in June. Stand for questions. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Thanks, Sara. **Sara Taylor**: You're welcome. [1:22:14] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: You skipped some—you went out of order. Okay. Public Works Director [Hansen]. **Joe Hansen**: Okay. Well, thank you, mayor, members of the council. Um, three things this month. Uh, solar on public buildings update really quickly. Um, they are sourcing components from America and those are taking a bit longer. So, I did write in here that they should be breaking ground by end of April. Um, we are still hopefully on track for that. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Um, just to be clear, it's called solar on public buildings, but it's not going on the building. [1:23:02] **Joe Hansen**: Nope. It's going in the back essentially the backyard of the fire department. Yes. So, it is the the title of the grant is solar on public buildings, but we are doing a ground-based solar array. Okay. Um, as you already mentioned, the walkability study. I won't go into that anymore. Um, but we did apply or we did send in a letter of intent for the 3M Pifa settlement priority 2 grant program which essentially um it's we're asking for $1.5 million to uh redevelop the clean water land and legacy property along the St. Croix um just north of Lakeside Park. um that has been submitted and these—the intention of this would be to um beautify the area um and minimize the amount of PIFAs potentially going into waterways. And with that I stand for questions. [1:23:28] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: All right. No questions. Matt. **Matt Kline**: Uh Madame Mayor, members of the council, just a couple of things. Um to expound upon um Sara's mention of Bayport Elementary, I was happened to be out there today. They're starting utility work. Um this includes sewer, water, and storm sewer. Um so that puts them slightly ahead of schedule. Um it is their intent to—and I know we've talked about this before but—um to um have the parking lot back to gravel here roughly around June so that it could be utilized for 2 months um uh for some of the baseball games, softball games that occur there. [1:24:33] **Matt Kline**: So um that was the intention all along to make sure that that gets done this first year so that um next year it won't get disrupted. Um, just one other thing, uh, a little update on Croyale. Um, they actually purchased two other properties along, um, Fifth Street, um, north. Um, their plan is to tear those properties down. Um, the condition of them uh, was beyond what they want to do in repairs um, for using use as rentals. Um, currently they have no plan in place, at least in the short term, on what they plan to do with those lots, but um, ultimately they will own about it's either five or I believe it's five lots currently along Fifth Street. So, with that, I will stand for questions. [1:25:04] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Okay, your update does say a total of five lots. So, yeah. Um, I swear that the elementary school the parking lot I thought in the contract said that they could use it for their equipment. **Matt Kline**: No. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Good. Okay. So, when it's open and there's gravel there, we will be able to park on it. [1:25:51] **Matt Kline**: Yeah. So, an update on that update. So, what they will do is um once it is graveled, it'll still be um gated all the way around or fenced all the way around, they will just open a gate up right at the entrance there with a rock entrance essentially um and then open up another area roughly by the pavilion. So, you're going to have to pay attention. You'll be able to park there, but it'll kind of look like it's still a construction zone. They plan on doing temporary fencing in between what will be the gravel parking lot and then the school property. So, um there'll be a fence inside the fence so that it's separated. [1:26:10] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Okay. Thank you. Um and I also wanted to just uh thank you guys for putting the um porta-potty up in Upper Barkers. I noticed that um a couple days ago and that's all Simon, you have nothing to do with that. So that's great. Um, and there are porta-potties ready for the Easter egg hunt as well if in case anyone from BCAL asks you. Katie, there. Okay. There's a one just sort of sitting there right on the walkway. Someone's giving me this perfect spot. Yeah, it's really not to put it. **Matt Kline**: Okay. What was that? **Joe Hansen**: No good place to put it. **Matt Kline**: Yeah, apparently not with the construction right now. [1:26:56] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Does anyone have any other items or announcements? **Orin Kipp**: Just for a good of the city thing. You know, it it's been talked about before. Police chief's not here, but um residents, I know everybody's watching. Can please slow down on surface streets. It there's no reason to be going faster than 20 miles an hour and there's lots of complaints and it's our residents. I've been told by the chief it's not people cutting through. There would be no reason to cut through these. Um just be careful. [1:27:16] **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Yeah. Thanks. Okay. Any others? Motion to adjourn. **Orin Kipp**: So moved. **Katie Hill**: A second. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: All right. Thanks, John and Katie. All in favor? **Council Members**: I. **Mayor Michele Hanson**: Yay. We are adjourned.