As an expert transcriptionist, I have added speaker names to the transcript based on the context provided, the roles of the individuals mentioned, and internal cues within the dialogue (such as names used during introductions). Since the original text did not include timestamps, I have used `[00:00:00]` placeholders as per your requested format. *** **[00:00:00] Chair (Steve):** Thank you, thank you, thank you. The United States of America, justice for all. Roll call, has that been taken? Like to have an approval of the agenda, please. **[00:00:10] Commissioner:** Make a motion. **[00:00:12] Commissioner:** Second. **[00:00:14] Chair (Steve):** Motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. **[00:00:16] Group:** Aye. **[00:00:18] Chair (Steve):** Aye. Opposed? And also approval of the minutes. **[00:00:20] Commissioner:** Approve them. **[00:00:22] Commissioner:** I'll second. **[00:00:24] Chair (Steve):** Any discussion? Corrections? Anything? All right, all those in favor of the minutes say aye. **[00:00:26] Group:** Aye. **[00:00:28] Chair (Steve):** Open Forum. We have anybody here tonight for open forum? Anybody at all out there? All right, I think he's begging. Moving right along. Presentations. Three on presentation. Ryan, did you want to start that? **[00:00:35] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Yeah, thank you Mr. Chair, members of the commission. So tonight we're going to give an update on where we are with our 3M settlement projects. So this is tied to the 850 million dollars that the state settled with 3M in 2018 to deal with PFAS contamination and drinking water in the East Metro. So whether it's a public system like us or people on private wells who also might have PFAS contamination, it's the funding to address that. And this conceptual drinking water supply plan, that's what the state called it, that was approved last year. So it allowed cities and private entities to start, you know, tapping into that funding for the drinking water supply. With Cottage Grove, we've started a bunch of projects this year that we're actually wrapping up and we also are working on our water treatment plants. Lee Manske, Stantec, he's our project manager kind of helping guide all these projects along. So he's here to just show where things are at. I think it's good for the commission to be up to speed on this project and you can be advocates in the community on what the city is doing for clean drinking water and also give you a chance to ask Lee any questions you might have. So with that, I'll turn it over to Lee. **[00:01:30] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** Good evening Mr. Chair, members of the commission, Councilmember Olsen, and staff. Thank you for allowing me to be here to give you this update. These projects are very fun to be working on for the city, so I greatly appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight before you. So tonight we'll be talking about seven of the projects that are underway currently: the low Zone Water Treatment Plant, the intermediate Zone Water Treatment Plant, the Goodview Avenue water main extension project, the low zone of raw water mains project, well number 13, two new temporary treatment plants (one for well 2 and one for well 7), as well as the Grange trunk water main project. So on your screen there, we have an overall map of the city which shows the locations of all these projects as well as several projects that have already been completed. Some of those completed projects up in the top here: the Granada Avenue water main extension; down below, the River Acres water main extension; the pilot study location that is being worked on to determine the differences and pros and cons of granulated activated carbon versus ion exchange resin for treatment of the water. Also, the Goodview water main project is up here in the northwest corner—that was just completed this fall. The water treatment plant site over south of 80th and behind the fire station in Pine Tree Pond Park. The Grange water main, which would bring a water main from the new water tower site up to the Grange Tower. Talk a little bit more in detail on all of these. The low Zone raw water mains project kind of in the middle of the city here. The water treatment plant and well 13 site down at 110th and Ideal. And with that, we'll move to the specific projects. The low Zone Water Treatment Plant: the site location for that is at the northeast corner of 110th Street South and Ideal Avenue South. Proposed capacity for this plant is 3,200 gallons per minute, which is equivalent to 4.6 million gallons per day. Currently, we are in preliminary design and we're working through the design justification report under review by the MPCA. Currently, we're looking at the treatment process for this plant to be granular activated carbon (GAC). There is also naturally occurring iron and manganese in the city's water, so we're looking at providing pre-treatment for that iron and manganese to get that out of there, which allows the GAC to last longer, perform better, and eliminates the pressure that builds up with that iron and manganese in the vessels. Our current schedule is to bid this project in early summer of 2023 with the plant commissioning in 2025. So again, here is the location of the low Zone water treatment plant site at Ideal Avenue and 110th Street South. On this slide, we have a concept plan—our initial concept plan—for the layout of the treatment plant as shown here. We're looking at eight vessels to hold the granular activated carbon in this area here. The room over here, the pump room here, allows the water to be pumped back out as well as pumping needed to the backwashing of the process. Over in this area, we're looking at placing the pre-treatment vessels—basically a green sand treatment medium—that will take out the iron and the manganese, and those tanks will have to be backwashed to remove that iron and manganese, as well as an office and all the chemical rooms over in this area. Now underneath all this is a clearwell which will hold water which would be available then for the backwashing and other parts of the operations. Intermediate Zone Water Treatment Plant: the site location for that plant is south of 80th Street behind the fire station and Pine Tree Pond Park. That proposed capacity is 7,100 gallons per minute, or 10.2 million gallons per day. And you see the asterisk there—there is a possibility that wells 11 and 12 could eventually be routed to this plant. Currently, they are not planned for that, but then we would be up to a plant that would need to have a capacity of 14.5 MGD. The design process on this plant is to commence in early 2023, kind of to follow along behind the low Zone treatment plant process. And that current schedule is to bid early summer of 2024 with the plant commissioning in 2026. And again, here is the location of that treatment plant site. The Goodview Avenue water main extension project included bringing water main to properties on Goodview Avenue South, Goodview Bay South, Goodview Court South, and properties on 70th Street South. On this project, there were 41 properties with wells with varying levels of contamination—from zero to varying levels still below, however, the health-based values. 22 properties connected with this year's project. The remaining properties on the project have until October of 2024 to connect and still be able to utilize the 3M settlement funding. After October of 2024, property owners will be responsible for the cost of the ongoing treatment or connection to the city system. **[00:05:40] Chair (Steve):** Lee, let me ask a question at that time. Why is there a time limit on that? **[00:05:44] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** That is the limit that the MPCA has put forth on the funding. **[00:05:48] Chair (Steve):** Okay. **[00:05:50] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** This slide shows basically the project area—the boundaries of the properties that are being served by this project. This project was substantially completed this fall. The low Zone raw water mains project: the alignment for the low Zone water mains project goes from well 10 South through the business park to 100th Street, east to Ideal, and then South to 110th Street. This water main is a direct raw, meaning untreated, 16-inch water connection from well 10 to the future low Zone treatment plant. The construction on the first leg of this was completed this fall. The final connection in 2025 would occur with the completion of the treatment plant. The reason that it was built this year is there was significant development in the area and the city wanted to make sure that we got that water main in now so that we weren't coming back a couple years later and tearing up areas that had been recently developed, adjacent to or along with the road work that was completed with those developments. This was the basic alignment of the raw water main down to the low Zone treatment plant site from well 10 down through the business park to 100th Street and then down to about this location here. And then the final segment here will be completed with the treatment plant project. In addition, that I'm not showing on this map is we also made a connection over to Jamaica Street as well with a distribution line that would be coming from the treatment plant in the future up to Jamaica Street. **[00:07:05] Chair (Steve):** So if I may, the red line—that's going to be the raw water line? **[00:07:09] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** That is the raw water line. **[00:07:11] Chair (Steve):** And so the one that's coming from the well, did we put in dual pipes there then? Raw water coming in with a distribution line coming out, or is that part of the...? **[00:07:16] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** We did put a distribution line coming out going up to Jamaica. **[00:07:20] Chair (Steve):** Okay, so there is a dual pipe right now. **[00:07:22] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** The final segments of those pipes we'll make with the treatment plant. **[00:07:25] Chair (Steve):** Okay, correct. **[00:07:27] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** Well 13: the site location on well 13 is down on the same property as the low Zone water treatment plant. This well will replace wells 1 and 2, since 1 and 2 are a far distance away from the treatment plant—it's more effective to put a new well in rather than try to bring water mains down to the treatment plant. The proposed capacity of the new well is 1,200 gallons per minute. We did complete a test well and we were able to determine that that site is conducive to putting in a well of this capacity. We did the testing of the well and it did test positive for the PFAS chemicals as we expected, and the iron and manganese was similar to other areas in the city as well. This project will be bid and constructed for the startup of this well to coincide with the commissioning of the low Zone treatment plant in 2025. And that again is the site plan area for well 13. We also have new temporary treatment plants in process for wells 2 and number 7. Currently, we have temporary treatment plants for well number 3, well number 10, and then a combined plant for 7 and 8 which allows either 7 or 8 to run at one particular time. There has been a talk, and we're aware, that the EPA and the MDH are going to be lowering the health-based values for the PFAS chemicals. And so in order to stay ahead of that circumstance, the city has two new treatment plants—interim plants—one at well 2 and one at well 7, which will then allow well 7 and 8 to both run at the same time. Construction is to begin on these either late December or in January, and both of these are planned to be complete in June of 2023. This is the proposed location for the well 2 temporary Water Treatment Plant. This is well 2 right in the corner here of Grenadier Avenue and 87th Street, and the treatment plant would be just behind the well in that location shown on the map. **[00:09:10] Chair (Steve):** A question if I may. Why are we putting in temporary—I mean, temporary treatment plants? **[00:09:15] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** Well, with the lowering of the health-based values, one of the things that the city is committed to doing is providing safe drinking water for the city. And in order to continue to be able to provide water that's below the health-based value, we need to add these interim plants until the permanent plants are online. **[00:09:30] Chair (Steve):** Okay, so these aren't additional plants, these are just until the real stuff gets done. **[00:09:34] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** Correct, they're temporary. **[00:09:35] Chair (Steve):** Got it. **[00:09:36] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** And one thing I'll actually add, Mr. Chair and members of commission, is we're actually buying the treatment vessels for these plants that will go into the permanent plants, and that's well over half the cost of those plants, which will just then be reused for the permanent facilities. Outside of those treatment vessels, they are just going to be metal sheds, essentially. **[00:09:55] Chair (Steve):** So how are you going to get them down those streets when they're only posted at fifteen thousand? **[00:10:00] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** It's a good question. Exemption for necessary infrastructure. Sidecar on your motorcycle. There you go! But one thing I want to mention, because that was a key part of the state approving these additional temporary treatment plants, was that we could reuse the vessels, knowing that we are pretty close to having the permanent plants. **[00:10:15] Commissioner:** I have a naive question. I'm noticing that it's in the neighborhood. Is that where the other ones are going to be placed as well? I don't understand the reason why it's placed in a neighborhood. **[00:10:25] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** The temporary plant needs to be placed adjacent to a well. **[00:10:28] Commissioner:** Oh, very close. **[00:10:29] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** Very close to the well, correct. **[00:10:30] Commissioner:** Okay, thank you. I didn't know. **[00:10:32] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** Any other questions? This is the site—a more detailed site plan for the well 2 temporary treatment plant. This is the outline of it right here on the map. This is well 2 and this is where the plant will be. This plant will have two vessels. You may recall from the concept that we had for the permanent plant, there were eight vessels in that plant. This interim plant will have two vessels. We'll be connecting to the sewer and the storm sewer over in 87th Street. There are a couple of trees that need to be removed in order to make this work, but we're fortunate that we can fit this on here and make this work with well 2. So here's the location for the temporary plant for well 7, which is basically in Foothill Park, just north of the church (I think it's Mount Zion) and then south-west of Foothill Road. And here's the detailed site plan. You can see the current plant over in this area—it looks like they took this aerial before they had the roof on the building—and then this is the area for the new plant which will have four vessels in it. A new driveway will be built in this area and then the water main will be connected. It runs along this current roadway/driveway. And we do have a neighborhood meeting tomorrow night to discuss these projects with the residents for both of these plants. **[00:11:45] Chair (Steve):** When they repurpose the—does that building get repurposed then? The vessels will move, right, but what happens to the structure then? Does it stay? **[00:11:52] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** The building would be removed and it goes back to the original? **[00:11:55] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Correct. **[00:11:56] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** Okay. And then the last project on the list is the Grange trunk water main, which is a 16-inch trunk water main that will run from the new million and a half gallon water tower site adjacent to Hamlet Park, northwesterly through Hamlet Park up to 80th Street. There are two options that we're going to be looking at for the alignment of this water main along the east or west edge of Hamlet Park as it goes to the northwest. This water main is necessary to keep the water level and supply at the Grange Tower when well number 1 is removed from service, which is anticipated to happen in the relatively near future. We will need to have this water main in place so that we can keep that tower at the level that we need it to be at. Well 1 right now is very close to the tower and that keeps the tower where it needs to be. Once well 1 is removed, we will need this water main in order to transfer the water basically from the rest of the system up to that Grange tank. Right now, the water mains that feed that Grange tank are smaller and can't supply the amount or the pressure needed for that tank. Here's the site map that shows the two potential alignments. The water tower site—new water tower site—is down in this corner here and we will be looking at both the alignment along this northeasterly edge of Hamlet Park and then this other alignment that's on the other side of Hamlet Park up to 80th Street. And there are larger water mains up in this corner that we would connect to that then would allow these lines to feed the Grange tank. And as a side note, the city is in the process of designing the water tower as we speak, and we look for that to be going out to bid early next year as well. **[00:13:20] Chair (Steve):** You have a question on Road Route option A. Is that the more difficult route to run? **[00:13:25] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** It's our sense right now that it probably is, because of the railroad tracks and the pond and as well as—right now we're waiting to get our geotechnical information as far as how much rock is in that area, and we know there is some. So that is potentially a more difficult route, but again, until we have our geotechnical and our survey done, we'll use all that information to decide which route makes the most sense. **[00:13:50] Chair (Steve):** Okay. So any further questions? Anybody have questions, maybe for Ryan? **[00:13:55] Commissioner:** I'm curious with all the new plants, who maintains it? Is it our staff, is it subcontracted out, and then are we going to be fully staffed ready to go with all these different plants to monitor them? **[00:14:05] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Yep, that's a good question, Commissioner. So what the 3M settlement—really the focus was making sure these East Metro communities are fully funded by 3M, and one of those is staffing. So they do have right now two full-time staff that would be funded by those settlement funds from the state. Once our permanent treatment plants are online, we are actually looking to have one of those hired in 2023 because now we have five temporary treatment plants—it's gotten to be a lot of work for our current staff. So we're looking to have that person on board next year that can operate the temporary treatment plants, but also be around while we're commissioning the permanent ones. Since they're going to operate them, it'd be good to have them on board so they know how they're going to work. **[00:14:45] Commissioner:** Yeah. **[00:14:46] Chair (Steve):** Any other questions? I do. So the Grange water tower, what is the main reason for that? I mean, there's a water tower right next to it up on top the hill, correct? Up in Pine Hill? **[00:14:55] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Yeah, so with our water towers, as of right now, we want to have two in each pressure zone. We actually have different pressure zones in the city and south of Highway 61 is all one pressure zone. So that and the Pine Hill are in tandem, so if one would be taken out of service for painting and such, we have both. The other thing is, like Lee mentioned, those water mains from farther south up to the Grange area are really small and the water tower really helps to normalize all the pressures in that area as well. **[00:15:25] Chair (Steve):** Gotcha. Any other questions? If not, I have one. What are we using for pipe? Are we using DIP, HDPE, C900? A variety of everything? **[00:15:35] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** Well, for example, typically the city prefers ductile iron pipe (DIP). On the Goodview Avenue project, there was an area that we needed to drill because of the geology again below the surface, and so there was a stretch of I believe it was HDPE that was utilized along 70th Street. But whenever we can, unless there's some very extenuating circumstance, we use DIP. **[00:15:58] Chair (Steve):** Okay. **[00:16:00] Commissioner:** Not to be a pipe expert, what is the difference? I'm just curious. **[00:16:05] Chair (Steve):** Two are plastics. DIP is a ductile iron, it's what they call a gray cast iron. It's got some flexibility where cast iron has no flexibility. HDPE is a thick wall, it's a welded joint—it's heated and pushed together. And C900 is just a push pipe, but it's a thicker PVC pipe. **[00:16:25] Commissioner:** Okay, thanks. **[00:16:27] Chair (Steve):** So they're all good products. It's just no matter who wants to do what with what, the preference is... I guess I should have said ductile iron pipe instead of DIP. Sorry about that. Thank you, Lee. **[00:16:35] Lee Manske (Stantec Project Manager):** Thank you. **[00:16:40] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Waiting for the chair... go ahead. All right, so our next two agenda items have to do with signs and sign requests around the city. And the reason they're coming before the commission is because they're both a little unique. The first one with some radar feedback signs are much more costly than a typical sign. If we get a normal sign request for a stop sign or "no outlet," things like that, we have a sign policy that our engineering staff follows and then state guidelines for the installation of those. But our policy does require that these radar feedback signs come before the commission for recommendations on whether or not we should be installing these in the city. The two streets that we're looking at tonight are Hinton Avenue and Jamaica Avenue, both sections between 80th Street and 70th Street. Recently, we've had requests for additional traffic control—some way of monitoring and helping bring down speeds on both of those streets. When we're looking at those street sections, we collected some data. We have temporary radar feedback signs that we can move around town and put on signposts, and our Police Department did that and they collected speeds. On Hinton Avenue between 80th and 70th, the speed limit is 35 but the 85th percentile speed is 40 miles an hour. What that 85th percentile speed is, it's quite literally if you had 100 cars go by and you took the speed of each one, the 85th car is the 85th percentile. MnDOT looks for that to be what the speed limit would be set at. **[00:18:05] Commissioner:** I have a question on that. So with your 85th percentile, that's typically what we use to set speeds, which means then the difference is typically what goes over the speed and 85 percent of them follow that speed or under. And here it's saying 85 percent went over that? So did we reverse that whole study or are we just saying that the difference went over? **[00:18:25] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Yeah, good question Commissioner. That might have been maybe a little bit of a typo too. Typically, it's 15% are going over that speed. So, yep, that might have been not communicated properly in the memo. So thank you, that's a good question. And for Jamaica Avenue, it's a 45 mile an hour zone and we found the 85th percentile speed to be 47, so closer to what the posted speeds are. Let's say MnDOT did an actual speed study, which we did not request in these cases—this is just staff collecting data—they would actually look to have Hinton Avenue set at 40 miles an hour. As a city, you know, it's a balance. Hinton Avenue has crosswalks and different things, so we want to do what we can. Is there a way to bring that speed closer to the speed limit it's set at? It is hard because drivers drive the conditions of the road, right? If they have a nice straight road as you can see with Hinton, they're more likely to drive at a higher speed. But with these radar feedback signs, which we do have a handful in town (we have them down on Hadley Avenue by Pine Hill Elementary and we have them on 90th Street just down by Woodridge Park now), they are shown to decrease those 85th percentile speeds a little bit. They do have a measurable effect when they're there all the time and they're telling the driver what speed they're going, you know, it's blinking at you if you're going too fast and such. So it is something that we have used and, like I said, we also have two temporary ones that we can move around and collect data. So we do find them to be very useful, but they are three thousand dollars per unit. So it's not something that we can just put all over our town because it would be quite expensive, even though they are beneficial. As both of these are busy roads in each direction, we looked at a couple different options on where these signs could go. If the commission were to recommend installing them on Hinton Avenue, Option 1 is very close to the existing crosswalk, the rapid flashing beacon there, or closer to the south where you're more in the school zone—right where you've got technically kids are supposed to cross at 80th, but we do know kids have a tendency to cross at 79th Street as well. Two options there. And then for Jamaica Avenue, two other options. One closer to 75th Street, which is at that Option 3 on the screen—really Option 1 for Jamaica, but listed as Option 3. 75th Street does not have a stop sign for Jamaica Avenue, so that's just full speed going through that intersection, but it is a school zone school crossing with just some flashing lights to kind of help with driver awareness. Also, Option 4 is more between 75th and 80th—that's the longest stretch with no turning movements, no side street connections, likely where you maybe have your fastest speeds because there's no cars coming and going and slowing down for turning movements. So those are the different options. Really all of those would meet our intentions for these signs, and I think the speed limits that we're seeing are there to justify the installation. But you are looking at six thousand dollars per road—we'd only look to have one on each roadway, we wouldn't want them in each location because it's just quite expensive. But with that, just really looking for direction from the commission—thoughts, questions you have. Should we be looking to install in these locations, and is there a preference between those different locations for the installation? **[00:21:40] Commissioner:** I have a question. So with the installation of where you're thinking about putting these, are you using battery operated, solar, or wired? Because it sounds like you're probably wired, that's why you're putting them... **[00:21:50] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** So we would have—for these, we would ideally do solar, actually. So we'd have some flexibility, yes. **[00:21:55] Commissioner:** So then why would we put them closer to a crosswalk when we want cars slowing prior to the crosswalk instead of at a crosswalk? **[00:22:05] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Yep, that is a good point. So that would maybe be a good reason to maybe slide them around a little bit because we do have flexibility. We have found the solar units to be really good and we do use those because even though we have street light wires, our street light wires are only powered at night. So we do use the solar powered units. **[00:22:20] Chair (Steve):** Thanks. That was the same question I had as why we got them so close to there. Why don't we put it in the middle of it to break it up? You beat me to that one, Lisa. Exactly. **[00:22:30] Commissioner:** This is my hot spot, but is there any statistics that would say that would be better? I mean sometimes when you think of a crossroad, depending on the visibility of when that light is flashing at you before the beacons flash, you know, if someone's pushing a button... sometimes that can be just as an advantage in my mind. I would be leaning towards the school crossings because again, with especially kids out there and walking at this time with daylight the way it is, I just think it would be a big plus. Plus I've seen the big benefit down because I live real close to Woodridge with that 90th Street one. And that one's fairly close—it's just past the—as you're coming down the hill you see it flashing and it's fairly close to the crosswalk. So to me, it's really slowed people down coming down the hill before you even get to the crosswalk. So I don't know if there are statistics to say, and they get you any data that can help too. **[00:23:25] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** And one thing we can do is they don't need to be next to each other since it's a divided road. You know, we could—if we find the crosswalk proximity to be a good spot for it—you can put one south of the crosswalk for people heading north and one north of the crosswalk for cars heading south as well, kind of split them up for each direction. **[00:23:40] Chair (Steve):** Where is the crosswalk located on Hinton? **[00:23:44] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** So on Hinton, like I said, actually technically the main crosswalk is up here at Option 1. It is a fairly safe crossing really because it does have the rapid flashing beacons and it has a—now it has a refuge island, it didn't used to. A refuge island that was built in 2019. Otherwise down here, 79th Street is where children—I think they do try and cross the road there because it's convenient. They do prefer—the school has a crossing guard at 80th, that's where they really want them crossing. But just with the proximity of the school, we have had a lot of work with the school district over the years trying to get kids to cross at 80th and not elsewhere. On Jamaica: for Jamaica Avenue, the crosswalk, the main one, is at 75th Street. And 75th does not have a stop sign on Jamaica, right? But that is where Kingston is, right? **[00:24:35] Commissioner:** That's correct. This can be a high populated kid area that would be up... **[00:24:40] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** And that is a school crossing zone as well, to get from these neighborhoods on the west side to get them over to Cottage Grove Elementary and Gray Cloud Elementary/Middle School. **[00:24:50] Chair (Steve):** Any other questions? This time are you looking for just feedback? **[00:24:55] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Feedback and if there was—I guess for one, if the commission I think would vote in favor of installing them, that's helpful for me just from a budgetary standpoint. And if you do have a strong preference in one location over the other, we'll definitely take that into consideration. **[00:25:10] Chair (Steve):** So if the commission doesn't mind, I'll go ahead and make a motion. I'd like to see the Hinton Avenue one to be moved around so it's more centrally on that road versus at the two intersections. And on the option three—or on the Jamaica Avenue one—I'm real open on that one, probably number four because it's more centrally located there. Okay, so that's my motion. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion say aye. **[00:25:35] Group:** Aye. **[00:25:36] Chair (Steve):** Aye. Opposed? All right, thank you. **[00:25:38] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** And the final discussion tonight is on wayfinding signage for the old Cottage Grove business district. This is kind of just a unique request that has come in—staff has been looking at—with the old Cottage Grove kind of out on Lamar Avenue and starting to get some more businesses out there. So wayfinding signage, of course, is just a way to guide motorists to a specific, you know, part of a community. It really is guided to areas, right? You're not trying to have signs for specific businesses, but if we have an area that we're trying to get residents notified of, we can kind of help guide them to that location. Common theme—so it's typically like a blue sign—when you're guiding those motorists to an area of town. And now that there are more small businesses in operation in Old Cottage Grove, this request has come in kind of general, not from any one specific business, but just discussion on people are trying to get to those businesses and some confusion on how to get there. So we did look at work for those businesses, talked with their planners and different folks on how we could do the signage because we don't have a lot of it in town. You see more of it on the highways and things like that, so it does need to be on a city street. The County doesn't allow this type of signage on a County road. So we're really looking at cars that are coming off of Highway 61 going north on Keats Avenue—those are most likely the people who are coming from out of town to go to those areas. On the map here, just looking at... we see a lot of them using 80th to Kimbrough to then get to that area of Lamar Avenue that's south of 70th Street. These arrows are really oriented on 80th, so the one that looks like it's pointed north would be a straight arrow on 80th Street, guiding motorists down 80th Street to Kimbrough and then taking a left on Kimbrough Avenue up Lamar Avenue. So, not a lot to this topic, but because it is kind of some special signage, we do want the commission's recommendation and vote if you do find the signage to have some benefit for those businesses out in Old Cottage Grove. **[00:27:40] Chair (Steve):** I've got a question on this. So these are basically destination signs to get people to Old Cottage Grove from Cottage Grove? **[00:27:50] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** From out of town. We're actually seeing with the different businesses out there that it is not just Cottage Grove residents. **[00:28:00] Chair (Steve):** Right, yeah, I've gotten something interesting. So I guess my question is, you know, 20 years ago I could see saying yes to this, but as I look at it now, who doesn't use their GPS to punch in a place that you want to go to? So they know how to get there. And that's what's confusing me here—if we're going to put them on the local roads but not on the highways because they're not allowed, are we accomplishing anything or are we just making a certain group of people happy? I guess that's my question. **[00:28:30] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Yep, and that is a good question, right? Because everyone does like to use their GPS. I think it was more the thought of as they get close, we've had just a couple instances where people have had some confusion. It sounds like as they're getting close to there—it shouldn't be, right? You think follow your GPS and your GPS takes you there—but I don't know if it's because it's more of a rural area, right? And you're out in the country almost. You know, I grew up out in the country and I used to have my friends from the cities come down and there would be confusion how to get places, you know what I mean? Even though it should be kind of obvious. But I think that may play into it just because it is such a rural area. **[00:29:10] Commissioner:** So the businesses—what are they saying? Are they coming to the city saying, "Hey, we're trying to get our customers to come to Old Cottage Grove" generally? **[00:29:20] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Yep, that's really where it came from. **[00:29:22] Commissioner:** I'm thinking from an out-of-towner's perspective, if I'm going to Cottage Grove, I'm going to Cottage Grove—I wouldn't know that there's an "Old Cottage Grove" and how that's different than regular Cottage Grove. So I'm curious, like, what has the feedback been from the businesses there? **[00:29:40] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Yep, that's a good question. Because we call it Old Cottage Grove, right, and other people know it as that—I think that's some of... and without people knowing it, no, they would not know it's Old Cottage Grove. I think some of them might be advertising that way, potentially? You know, "We're located in Old Cottage Grove," for example, and that's where some of it is. **[00:30:00] Commissioner:** But without that advertising, if I'm going that way, people won't know what the difference would be. And if I got onto Waze or something and I went to a business there like Lamar Field as a baseball field or something else, I would type in Cottage Grove, not Old Cottage Grove, so I wouldn't know from an outsider's perspective to know that that's where I'm going. **[00:30:20] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** I think one thing I'll add is, I think there is a... for the businesses out there, I think they're actually trying to get that feel, right? They're trying to be the Old Cottage Grove business district and there's a lot of... it is Cottage Grove, right? We're all one town. But I think there's a lot... they're trying to market, there's a lot of pride in Old Cottage Grove. And yes, they are part of Cottage Grove like all the rest of us, but that's what they're trying to do, is my understanding. **[00:30:50] Chair (Steve):** Well, and what is the cost of these signs? **[00:30:52] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** These signs would be made by city staff with our own printer. We have our own sign machine. So just the raw material, probably a hundred dollars. **[00:31:00] Chair (Steve):** Okay. Yeah, well, are we as a city okay with saying—I mean, I know we talk as residents the "Old Cottage Grove" side and "regular Cottage Grove" side—but are we okay with saying Old Cottage Grove is over there? **[00:31:15] Commissioner:** Well, I think so, because I thought I grew up in Thompson Grove, I thought I lived in the city. I mean, it's—there's a lot of history out there. There's a lot of history as to... what word am I looking for, Justin? **[00:31:30] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Nostalgia? **[00:31:32] Chair (Steve):** Nostalgia. Are you talking about the beauty and the shooting that used to go on between Cottage Grove and Old Cottage Grove with different departments or what have you? I mean, that is not as predominant as it used to be, but it's still there. So if we can do this in-house, my recommendation would be to go ahead and do it. But you can't do it on 70th Street, correct? **[00:31:55] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** We cannot, no. County does not allow wayfinding signage. **[00:31:58] Chair (Steve):** So you'd have one at 80th and the other one would be on Kimbrough? 95th or Kimbrough? **[00:32:02] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Kimbrough, yep. **[00:32:03] Chair (Steve):** Okay. But this is what the sign would say? It's not what we see on the highways with the actual businesses' logos on it, though? **[00:32:10] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Correct, correct. Yeah, it would be just specifically the Old Cottage Grove business district. **[00:32:15] Commissioner:** And would it just be a... is this the mock-up of the sign or would there be some sign contest to figure out what a new attractive sign would be? **[00:32:25] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** So typically they are just... they won't look just like this. This was our graduate engineer doing some work in PDF. But we do have sign standards for those blue signs. So I did initially... it was just going to be just a lettering with the arrows and no particular design. Wayfinding signage, when it is like that, is pretty direct. But it would follow a nice standard template in our sign-making program that we have on the computer. **[00:32:50] Chair (Steve):** And then probably my last question then: does it go on an existing sign or is this a standalone sign all by itself? **[00:32:55] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** If we can, we'll put it on an existing sign. We can't mount it on a stop sign—that's against regulation—but if there are some existing signs that we can put it on, we will, just so we don't have to put another post in the ground. **[00:33:05] Commissioner:** I'm supportive of Mr. Chair, because off of 70th Street when you come to Lamar, isn't there a sign right there that says "Old Cottage Grove"? Isn't it like at 70th Street? **[00:33:15] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Yep, yep, yep. On Lamar, tells you that you're already at Old Cottage Grove. **[00:33:20] Chair (Steve):** Yep, yeah, this was more—the request came up from vehicles coming from the south more. It was this one. Okay, yep. So what are you looking for, a recommendation from us or just some feedback? **[00:33:30] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** I think a recommendation with the vote would be fine. **[00:33:32] Chair (Steve):** So, yeah, well, I recommend it. Do we need to vote on that or...? **[00:33:35] Commissioner:** Yeah, yeah. I'll move a motion we would recommend putting the signs up to help identify traffic to Old Cottage Grove business district. **[00:33:45] Commissioner:** Second to that. **[00:33:46] Chair (Steve):** Anyway, I'll second. Okay. Any other further discussion? All those in favor say aye. **[00:33:50] Group:** Aye. **[00:33:52] Chair (Steve):** Opposed? Motion is carried. **[00:33:54] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Correct. Thank you. **[00:33:56] Chair (Steve):** Thank you. Do we have any old business tonight? Any? We don't have any responses to any raise commissions. Before we start the commission comments and requests, I don't know—I know one of you have been here at this meeting, but I don't know if all three of you have been—but I'd like to introduce our newest commission members. On my right here is Kelsey Moyer... yes, with an O? **[00:34:20] Kelsey Moyer (Commissioner):** Yes. **[00:34:22] Chair (Steve):** Well we'll have to make that correction, it's right up there. Then we got Lisa Radeski and Lisa Collins. Welcome. Thank you. For comments and requests from the Commission? I'd like to state that just for everybody to know that at our January meeting we'll be doing elections for new officers because two of us are leaving—one of us wants to, and the other one wants to stay. So just keep that in mind. If you are interested, let Ryan know or Justin know and they can take it from there. Moving to staff updates and reports. I guess I'll start with Fire first. **[00:35:10] Jon Pritchard (Fire Chief):** Commission Chair and commission members. First off, under Personnel, we've had a little update on our three new part-time staff that we hired. They are starting their FTO program. Even though they are still in their schooling for firefighter one, two, and Hazmat, they already are EMTs and as soon as they go through their live burn in firefighter one, they can start to respond to calls. Firefighter two is just an additional certification that we require, so at firefighter one they are certified as a firefighter as well. So they have started their FTO programs. They started, I believe it was October 27th, and they'll start working right along shifts to complete their FTO, which will probably be done by the end of December, we're hoping. We also filled all of our open full-time positions. Our third person we hired, Bill King, is on track to complete his FTO at the end of December as well. He was a full-time HCMC paramedic and he had prior fire experience with Centerville. Calls for service for September and October: EMS calls, we had 707 calls in those two months; and for fire rescue, we had 174. I believe if I remember right, in September we did have a 400-call month, which was our first time in history. So call volume is going up. Under... let's see. We also had during that time, we had three structure fires during that time with one of them being an arson fire. We had called the State Fire Marshal's Office on that suspicious fire and they're assisting us with investigating that fire. Unfortunately, it was also a house that was for sale at the time—it had only been on the market a few days. So I don't have an update on that part, but I know it is still in the investigation stage with our fire investigation team within the department working with the State Fire Marshal's Office. Some other items: November 12th, police and fire divisions did a joint training here at City Hall which involved a response to a mass casualty incident. That was very well received. It's good practice for us—we know what's going on in the world now and the Public Safety Division wants to be ready to... I don't know if you can say handle, but respond to a situation like that and be ready in case something like that would hopefully never happen in our city. But we want to be ready for that. We are nearly complete with the Staffing study proposal. We're doing some fine-tuning with the help from Ethical Leaders Consultants and the Davis group who have assisted the city in the past with the org study. We hope to have a council workshop in January of 2023. Fire prevention and subsequent open house in October was a big success this year. We're estimating between 500 and a thousand people attended on that day. We didn't have snow, we didn't have rain, and it was above 40 degrees, so it wasn't too bad. A tough time of year—we always gamble with the weather, but I think we got lucky this year. We're working with the police department, the Hero Center, and Rise Up Recovery to offer a free opiate overdose awareness and naloxone training, which is also known as Narcan. November 29th here at City Hall from 12 to 1. This is a free training for anyone that signs up and it's to get people trained in how to use Narcan to help save a life of someone that may be in an overdose situation. People that sign up for that training will receive a free kit to take with them. And hopefully, in the event they don't ever have to use one, but if they come across something like that, they will have the opportunity to use their training and a kit to save someone. The Department training committee is putting together our 2023 training schedule. They plan a training for the entire month—all 12 months—that culminates in quarterly drills each quarter. So it keeps people up on their training which we now recertify all of our staff every year, so they have to have 24 hours of continuing training. Let's see. November 30th we'll be at the Hometown Holiday event celebration here at City Hall. Hope I didn't steal Justin's noise... **[00:39:20] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** I won't elaborate more so he can... **[00:39:22] Jon Pritchard (Fire Chief):** I have plenty to talk about. **[00:39:24] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** All right. **[00:39:25] Jon Pritchard (Fire Chief):** December 3rd, we are helping with the Holiday Train committee with a "Fill the Fire Truck" event at Hamlet Park from 10:00 a.m. to noon. This event helps the Friends in Need Food Shelf for the Holiday Train, which will show up on December 12th in town. That will stop down on West Point Douglas near the Youth Service Bureau building, and that event runs from four in the afternoon until about 6:00 p.m. I think the train arrival is anywhere between 5:00 and 5:15 that night is what Canadian Pacific is telling us. So we'll have staff at all those events making some type of an appearance and equipment to display as well. **[00:40:05] Chair (Steve):** How long—how long is the train going to be there? **[00:40:08] Jon Pritchard (Fire Chief):** It's usually there about 40 minutes, 45 minutes. The bands that they have are up-and-coming groups, or they're Canadian groups that are up-and-coming, and they usually play like a 10-song set—a few Christmas songs, a few of their own songs. There's some type of presentation for the donations from the surrounding communities for Friends, and then they pack up and go to their next stop. **[00:40:30] Chair (Steve):** So is it coming from the south to the north? **[00:40:33] Jon Pritchard (Fire Chief):** Yep, it'll come out of Hastings that night, stop here, and then head on to St. Paul. I believe Union Depot would be their second time. **[00:40:40] Chair (Steve):** We can just have the gas company there's a road again up there... no, we're good, we're good. **[00:40:45] Jon Pritchard (Fire Chief):** Okay. That's all I have for the Fire division now. Does anyone have any questions? **[00:40:50] Chair (Steve):** I got one on the live practice that you had here. Is that open to the public or is that...? **[00:40:55] Jon Pritchard (Fire Chief):** That was not open to the public, generally because it talks about initiating emergency response plans and we don't want that out. **[00:41:00] Chair (Steve):** That's what I kind of figured, but yeah. **[00:41:02] Jon Pritchard (Fire Chief):** There was a Facebook post showing some of these situations and some of the actions that people were taking, but nothing of detail of response. **[00:41:10] Chair (Steve):** Okay. **[00:41:12] Commissioner:** I have a question. I don't know who it falls with, but what's with the blue fire hydrants on 100th Street? **[00:41:18] Chair (Steve):** I was going to ask when he was up there too! I'm like, what's with the blue fire hydrants? And they're right next to the red ones. **[00:41:25] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** So this is actually kind of funny, because the blue ones are the untreated raw water line. And you would think blue equals drinking water, but actually per AWWA (American Water Works Association), blue is the standard for untreated water. Seems counter-intuitive, right? But that's what they are. **[00:41:45] Commissioner:** So why that—way we know not to use those, not to open? **[00:41:50] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** So we do have to install those. When you install the water main, you need a place to get the air out of the lines and that way you can do all your testing and whatnot. And just in case you have to open them, you can. The way PFAS is, it's not a toxic substance, right? So if it had to be opened, it could. That's a way of designating that that's the untreated water. **[00:42:10] Commissioner:** Gotcha. Thanks. **[00:42:12] Chair (Steve):** Anything else for Fire? All right, thank you. Thank you. **[00:42:15] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** All right, so for engineering and Public Works, we had our first week of plowing last week. It was kind of interesting—it didn't look like it on the ground, but we actually got almost six inches of snow over the course of those five days. So it's a real nuisance, right? We had to keep going out and taking care of it because it doesn't matter if it's November or January, we still want safe roads. So our staff did a good job of that, you know, dealing with the first plowing of the year. We did have our annual plow training and plow meeting in October since our last meeting. With the plow training, we actually set up a course in the back of Public Works. It's kind of a standardized course that different counties, cities in the state all use to train our drivers, whether they're new drivers or well-experienced drivers. And we do score them—it's kind of part of that event to see who has the best score. It's kind of a common tradition with Public Works, and Dustin Dowdy, our streets lead worker, was the high scorer this year. So, fitting he's one of our senior plow drivers, so he did a good job. And then the annual meeting we get at the Hero Center, we get all the Public Works and Parks maintenance staff together for a morning just to go through issues from last year, you know, what did we learn, what things can we do better, and just have a lot of good different sessions with the staff. And also talk about salt usage, because obviously salt usage is always a key topic. It's inevitable that we get complaints that we use a lot of salt, but I always like to mention that we've been growing like crazy and over the last six years, we've never on average used any additional salt even with all the miles of streets that we've been adding per year, just because we've been doing new technologies and new ways of getting the same effectiveness out of less salt. So I think that's important to know. We actually only use on average for a whole mile for one lane only 300 pounds of salt. So it's six bags of salt for an entire mile of a lane of roadway. So I think it's pretty impressive how little salt we do need to use to keep the roads safe. It's inevitable that we get, you know, calls and complaints and questions saying that we're painting the roads white, and we really do our best to keep the roads safe—have that balance, right? But then also reduce salt usage because once salt gets in your local water bodies, it ain't coming out. So it's always an important balance for us. Some other Public Works items: so we did have our annual stormwater pond maintenance project that got wrapped up. That's a project that we have a contractor do every year focusing on a handful of ponds throughout the city. These are all up in The Preserve at Cottage Grove on the west side of Jamaica Avenue north to 70th Street. So our in-house stormwater staff kind of work with a contractor to make sure those are done. So that was wrapped up. And then Lee mentioned it briefly, but the one other big water project that we're working on—and with our utility superintendent Rick Alld—is that new water tower. It's a large one-and-a-half-million-gallon water tower that'll be kind of right south of the park and ride, so you will be able to see it from Highway 61. It'll look a lot like the water tower that St. Paul Park has close to the highway, but it'll be a concrete column, not a steel column. So that way we don't need to paint it, because it's very expensive to repaint water towers. And we looked at all the different options and we did decide to go with that concrete column to reduce that ongoing maintenance in the future. So that's a city project that's part of our growth and following our water comprehensive plan. So that's something that we are doing directly; it's not part of that 3M settlement process. Other than that, for engineering projects, we really touched on a lot of the current projects we're working on, so I won't talk about those again. But we are working on pavement management for 2023, which is the area north of Hillside Trail and then along and west of Hyde Avenue and then south of 80th Street—that kind of triangle neighborhood. It'll be our first pavement management that we've had to redo. You know, city streets, depending on how they're maintained, what kind of issues they have, you know, 25 to 30 year lifespan, and those were replaced in 1995-96. So we're looking at replacing those 28 years old. So, very typical—not the curb and gutter, just doing new pavement and, you know, keeping everything else the same. Also, we're very busy with the East Point Douglas and Jamaica project. That'll be redoing all those intersections. I did an update I think back in May on the status of that project. So, still working on that to begin construction in 2023. So that's another big one. That'll actually be a two-year project now. I think when I presented back in May, there was a hope of doing it one year, but it's just too much work. We know that we can't complete that amount of work without doing major road closures, and being in a commercial area, we just can't do that. So right now we're looking at doing Jamaica Avenue in 2023 and then most of East Point Douglas Road and that new intersection east of the signal in 2024. **[00:47:05] Chair (Steve):** Thank you. Commission have any questions? **[00:47:08] Commissioner:** I have a question about the sidewalks. So them being plowed, how is that really determined? I'm wondering because I used to actually have to walk those and it's like those kind of get forgotten or later throughout the day when you may need to go earlier, you know, to walk on those and then kids as well. Just wondering, like, how is that managed or how is that kind of determined when that gets done? **[00:47:35] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** That's a good question, Commissioner. So that is also done by our staff. Our utility staff actually do all the sidewalk and trail plowing in general. It is an entirely different crew that does that with different machines. We do try and do those earlier these days. We try and keep them on the same schedule as the main roads because, as you mentioned, there are the kids walking to school. You know, sometimes if it's a weekend, you know maybe we'll wait till 6:00 or 7:00 a.m. to start, but if it's a weekday we try and get out there at 4:00 a.m. especially when there's a lot of snow. And this past week it was melting quite a bit so we weren't really hitting it every single day where we do try more and more these days to get out at 4:00 a.m. And it's also a good question because we'll get complaints that "why did the trail get plowed before my city street?" Well, it's completely different equipment. So if we go out at 4:00 a.m., you know, the big plow trucks start on the main roads, then they get into the neighborhood, but the sidewalk and trail machines, you know, they start right at 4:00 a.m. So it is pretty common to see those plowed before your neighborhood street. **[00:48:40] Commissioner:** And then with the water system—is there... because with the question with the blue fire hydrants and things like that, I'm kind of wondering, is there going to be—is there two different systems? Like is there some water that's going to be cleaner than other water? And is that water going to certain neighborhoods and that other water going to other neighborhoods? **[00:49:00] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Yep, that's another good question. So actually, the way we stand now with those new values that we have to meet in January, that's looking like every single well will be treated in the city. So every single bit of drinking water going out to our residents will all be fully treated. Those blue hydrants with the untreated water, those just go directly to our water treatment plants and then get treated. So we are looking at, we believe, full city-wide treatment for everyone. **[00:49:30] Commissioner:** Michael. It's a good question. **[00:49:32] Chair (Steve):** Any other questions of Ryan? I guess I will. Anything new at North Point? I mean, they're just going to do the two buildings? They're going to build more or they hold them back now, or...? **[00:49:42] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Yeah, so for North Point, they were approved for nine buildings, which they said they were doing four phases. Just the two buildings for this year. They do have approval for a third building, but they aren't going to start construction of that until spring of next year. So those three buildings would be the first phase, and the remaining six—two at a time—would be the remainder of the phases, kind of as the economy and their demand dictates. **[00:50:10] Chair (Steve):** I guess my last question: are they ever going to move that house? That house that's sitting on blocks? **[00:50:15] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** So with that house, this is another interesting one. So that's a private company moving that, and it's a lot of coordination—city permits, County permits, MnDOT permits. They actually had to coordinate with the railroad to take down one of the crossing arms by the 3M entrance, which is a huge coordination effort. And then there's 43 lines that go over the roads that are in the way, and Excel Energy is all on board to move those, but it was the private communication companies they couldn't coordinate with to get theirs lowered. They coordinated the railroad company, which should be the hardest thing to do, and they couldn't get the coordination done with them. So that's all done now and they are looking at December 1st to move that house. They were going to move it last week—with the snow, they pushed it out to December 1st. But it's been sitting there for quite a while, a couple months now. **[00:51:10] Chair (Steve):** Yep. Where is it going? **[00:51:12] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** It's going to the Lighthouse Baptist Church right across the road here. Will be a parsonage for them. **[00:51:17] Chair (Steve):** All right. Mark that, I saw. **[00:51:18] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Yep. So that's what all that is, all those markings. **[00:51:22] Chair (Steve):** Okay. Any other questions? We have no police report tonight, so we'll move right to Justin. **[00:51:30] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** I'll throw you a little bit of police information, how's that? Rick [Jon Pritchard] talked about the Fire Department open house, which I had the pleasure to attend. Very well planned, very well coordinated. Mike Dandel deserves an awful lot of credit for the time and energy he put into that along with his colleagues. But the week previous, we had the Police Department open house here at City Hall—that drew about a thousand, maybe a little more, people. And if any of you came, you saw that essentially the entire city hall was set up in different areas. We had an area in the training room for non-profits that wanted to visit with people and talk to people about the various things that they offer, including our Beyond the Yellow Ribbon team—so I was actually there for that. Excuse me. Out back, we had our Cottage Grove Lions people grilling hot dogs and brats—they did that at the Fire Department open house as well and then donated all those proceeds back to the public safety board. Public safety board was here, YSB was here. It was a really, really great event. The weather was nice. You know, it was creeping up on Halloween, so we had a lot of kids in there in police department costumes. It was really great. So kudos to everybody who helped with the coordination of both events—the Police Department open house and the Fire Department open house. As far as agenda items, I have five weeks' worth here, so I've picked out some that I think will be of interest, but as I always do at the end, I'll open it up to questions so you guys can ask me about anything you want. So the first thing I'm going to start with is EMS billing, and Rick can chime in on this if he chooses to. But as we've gotten busier with our EMS service—and as you all know, we have a service area that we cover that includes Newport, St. Paul Park, Gray Cloud, etc., and then we also do a mutual aid with surrounding communities—and there's been quite a bit of that. We've been sending our people to Woodbury an awful lot. You have to bill for all of those different runs and services, and the billing software that we had previous to this new software upgrade was struggling to keep up. In order to improve our collection rate and just make sure that everything was accurate, we went out and we looked at a bunch of different billing software companies and we landed on LifeQuest, which specializes in this sort of billing. And they really are just getting started right now—they're taking care of some of the old bills and then they're, of course, handling some of the new bills. But from what I understand, Brenda Malinowski, who is our Finance Director—you guys might know her as Brenda Pepper previously—she's been very pleased with a small sample size with LifeQuest. Rick, do you have anything you want to add on that? **[00:54:30] Jon Pritchard (Fire Chief):** I think it was time probably for a change. We had been with the previous company for many, many years and it had changed hands a few times, and they weren't just... probably put it this way: they weren't meeting those standards that we were needing for them to do with the increased call response that we were experiencing or have been experiencing. So this new company—it is out of Wisconsin—but they do offer a lot of features for us that is real-time numbers, real-time information that we can log in, see where we're at on revenue capture, report writing, and they offer training for our staff on how to improve areas to capture the most in our bills. **[00:55:15] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thanks, Chief. Some other Public Safety related things: in September, or excuse me, in early October, we agreed to a Professional Services contract with a company called True North Psychology and Consulting. So for those of you who, you know, know people who are in the public safety realm, there's an awful lot of PTSD and other mental health-related issues that can crop out of doing that sort of work. I mean, you're seeing a lot of bad news on a pretty regular basis. And so as a city, one of the things that we like to implement as often as we can is what we call a "checkup from the neck up" for our public safety professionals. We have a program here through the city where if somebody feels like they need some guidance, they need some help, they can do that confidentially, and we have now another service provider with True North that they can go to. The fact of the matter is, you know, the needs all grew [beyond] the one response person that we had, so we had to add another person to the menu. And I know our public safety professionals are very proud of the work that they do, and you know, they do everything that they can to kind of keep some of those things at bay. But we want, as a Council and as a city, we want everybody to go home safe, we want everybody to have a good home life, we want people to be able to find help if they need it just to talk about a specific incident or when things feel like they're a little too heavy to carry. So we're really happy with that. We also are looking at replacing our canine, Gunner. Gunner's getting up there in years and at his most recent vet check, a couple of things flagged that are probably going to result in taking him out of service sometime next year. So we've been working with our public safety board on some funding options for a new dog. We always like to get a new dog in while we still have the current dog working, and of course we've got Scout as well, but we want to have two dogs so that we can cover any shift. To give you a perfect example of why that's important, some of you may have heard about an incident in Woodbury that went a little sideways last week. Lisa, I'm sure you heard about it, where it was a drug deal that went bad and the individual who was the suspect ended up ramming a bunch of squad cars and then he left his vehicle with a gun in a very public space over by Tamarack. Of course, as I talked about earlier, there's mutual aid agreements there. We had several of our people go to help with Woodbury and Oakdale, etc. And of course, one of the requests was a dog. So Sergeant Torning took Gunner and went to the scene. We want to be able to provide that kind of service anytime, anywhere. So that's why we try to have two going at any one time, and our public safety board has been really, really good about helping to fund our efforts with the canine. And in fact, we recently took in a fifteen-thousand-dollar donation from one individual to the public safety board, and her request was to put that money towards the new dog. So we're very, very pleased that the public is responsive to our public safety team's needs. That's one of the things that we love about our city is we are very supportive of our public safety folks. To move on to a couple of other things of consequence: there is a plan in place to address the issue at East Point Douglas and Jamaica with the lights thereby Holiday and Taco Bell, etc. You know, we did authorize the feasibility study for that. We've had several workshops to talk through all the various challenges associated with that. I think Ryan has been busier than three people working on that project, trying to figure out how we're going to acquire the proper right-of-way and what the right road configuration is going to look like, etc. So just to let you know that that plan is underway. Ryan, do you want to share anything about where we're at and what our target timeline is? **[00:59:15] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Yeah, so for that project, we'd be looking to bid it out late next winter and get it started as soon as we can early in the spring. Because, like I mentioned, it would be two full—well, one full construction season in 2023 and most of the construction season in 2024. So we really want to capitalize on that. We're hoping Mother Nature plays in our favor a little bit to give us some good long construction seasons because it's a lot of work. **[00:59:45] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you. **[00:59:46] Commissioner:** I have a quick question on that one. Does that one still include the roundabout at the exit of the Cub? **[00:59:52] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** It does, yeah. That roundabout is still there. **[01:00:00] Commissioner:** Okay, I'm just curious. Yep, thanks. **[01:00:03] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Yeah, that's one of the many challenging issues that we're having is, you know, do you build that all at once or do you build it in phases? And for those of you who worked in construction—or I know, Steve, you spent a few years working on roadways—roundabouts that are done piecemeal tend not to work very well, right? So we're trying to figure out ways to make that construction timeline as short as possible and hopefully, you know, prevent too much disruption. That sounds a little silly to say, but any less disruption we can provide, we're going to do that. So a couple other things: Rick talked about the Hometown Holiday celebration here—that's November 30th, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at City Hall. We are asking people to park at the Hero Center and then we are going to have hayrides to and from the Hero Center to the event for people, so that'll be fun. We're going to have Santa here, we're going to have Sparkles the Elf, we're going to have live reindeer are going to be here. Lots of food, food trucks, lots of music. There's going to be a Santa's mailbox available for kids who can write their letters to Santa—they can mail them right there at Santa's mailbox. It's going to be a really, really fun night. A lot of kids' activities, goodies and treats and all that sort of thing. And then, of course, it'll culminate in Mayor Bailey lighting the city's Christmas tree, so that should be really, really fun. So plan on that if you can get here. We already talked about the Holiday Train. I don't need to touch on that other than to say for Friends in Need, the Holiday Train event is about 25 percent of their total annual budget. So they're trying to raise about a hundred thousand dollars this year, and we've had just tremendous fundraising year after year after year, even during COVID when we were doing the virtual. If you're interested in contributing in some small way, the silent auction is virtual and it is up and running. So you can go to Friends in Need Food Shelf, you can go to the Holiday Train—I think the city has a link on our website and on our Facebook page. There's some pretty neat items you can bid on. I also wanted to just say that for that Old Cottage Grove business district sign conversation, one of the driving factors to that is to ensure that the businesses that are there, you know, have a little bit of visibility to people who might not know that they're there. But the other thing is it is a historical area—there are several historical sites out there. So you know, at some point we're going to want to try to market that it is a business district, but it's a historical area as well. And you know, we're very grateful for anybody who wants to invest in the city of Cottage Grove. I can tell you from experience, I did most of my Christmas shopping last year at the Boondocks Boutique and nobody yelled at me or called me names, so I think I did pretty well. But I also had a lot of help from the ladies at Boondocks Boutique. So if you're looking for that special gift, they have stuff that, you know, kind of turns over on the regular—you can really find some neat things there. **[01:03:00] Commissioner:** I'm sorry, what? **[01:03:02] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Well, I was just talking... oh, okay, all right. And so the last thing is, you know, we are coming up on the Thanksgiving holiday, and we all have probably many, many things to be thankful for. I can tell you one of the things I'm thankful for... in my job, my day job, I get to go to other Council meetings in other cities for different reasons, whether it's building permits, business permits, different things. And we are so lucky here in the city of Cottage Grove to have a citizenry here who want to participate in the process. That means you. We're very grateful as a Council, and I personally am very grateful, to have people who want to help and want to provide some insight and some input and fall back on their own knowledge and experience and opinions as residents to make us a better place to live, work, and play. And I'm grateful that each of you stepped up, each of you volunteered and said, "I want to do this." We have a lot of really great volunteer organizations in this community, including our city commissions, Lions Club, Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, YSB, the Friends in Need Food Shelf—I mean, the list goes on and on and on. And that volunteerism is really what makes this city tick. I was at the Park High Hall of Fame dinner at River Oaks on Saturday night with Mayor Bailey and Senator Bigham, and Pete Kerner was there as well. You know, we're all Park kids, so we were there. And one of the teachers that I had back in the day has also taught in another community in District 833—who shall remain nameless, to our north—but one of the things that she pointed out is, "Look at this room, it's packed." And it was, River Oaks was packed—I mean we had 15 tables packed full of people. She's been to these other events of a similar nature in a different community where they're lucky if they get 25, 30 people. People in Cottage Grove love this community, including, you know, our city council and obviously you. And part of that love of the community is the willingness to give back, and we're very, very lucky to have that in this community. And again, that's something that I'm very grateful for. So with that, I'm going to stop flapping my gums and allow you to ask me anything that might be on your mind. **[01:05:30] Commissioner:** Any questions, comments? One just... yeah, question. I know that Pizza Ranch is coming and they're building. Are there any other restaurants that are coming to the Cottage Grove area? **[01:05:45] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** You know, if I had a nickel for every time I heard that question, I could retire. But unfortunately, I'm still working. So here's the answer in short: we are always marketing our community to different businesses. The Economic Development Authority (the EDA) is keenly aware of what some of the market gaps might be, and we sit at a very interesting time in our city with respect to our population. So for those of you who grew up here, as I did, when I was a little kid we were bigger than Woodbury—we had more population, we were the bigger city. And then over time Woodbury started to develop. Some of that's because of the access that they have being right at the intersection of 94 and 694. Also had to do with, you know, Bill Hargis as the Mayor and Dwight Pica and them getting involved in a lot of different land acquisition deals and so on. We are at that stage now where we're a 40,000-person community, and the magic number is about 60,000 for when you're considered a "big city." So we're kind of medium right now, but of course we're growing quickly and you have to strike that balance between how many new rooftops do you want, how many more people do you want driving the streets, how much pressure do you want to put on your infrastructure, so on and so forth. And then think about the amenities that that brings. Because if I'm a business operator, obviously I need customers to survive, and we need to make sure that those business operators recognize that the market is rich with customers. Which is why we always talk about shopping local whenever you can. Small Business Saturday is this Saturday. There's Black Friday, there's Small Business Saturday. Every holiday season my wife and I commit to buying as much as we possibly can within the 55016 area code instead of doing it easy through Amazon or whatever. I mean we go to Target, we go to the smaller family-owned businesses—I talked about Boondocks Boutique, etc. That shopping local is really the key to continue to drive more business to our community. Yes, we do have several restaurants who are exploring opportunities in our city. The first thing we show them are redevelopment options—for example, the former Las Margaritas. But now that has been spoken for—there's a business that's going to go into that site; it is not a restaurant, but there is a business who's going to go into that site. And then we talk about Greenfield development—you know, where do we have open space where somebody may want to build? Those conversations never stop, never. And we're always trying to strike that balance between service provider and, you know, population density, etc. The one thing people need to be keenly aware of, though, is that we are required to follow the law. When there are business agreements that come to the table that meet all of the city's zoning requirements, ordinance requirements, etc., we can't just say, "Ah, we're not really interested in that, so you guys need to go find someplace else to build that." There are private land deals between landowners and end users, and when those land deals come together, they come before our Planning Commission. Lisa [Lisa Radeski/Lisa Collins] used to be on the Planning Commission—you know how that works. They come before the Planning Commission and if they meet all of the requirements that the city has in our zoning code, then they meet all the requirements and they're eligible to come to town. So you're always going to get people who say, "Pizza Ranch? Another pizza place? Oh my god, that's terrible, why would you do that?" The fact of the matter is that landowner and that end user came to an agreement, all the requirements were met, and even through COVID with, you know, negotiating different building materials because they couldn't get the ones that they wanted and those kinds of things... the last thing we can do is just tell them no, because we're going to end up in court, we're going to lose, and we're going to pay their legal fees. So we prefer not to do that. Good question. Anybody else? **[01:09:50] Chair (Steve):** With that, we're going almost move to adjournment. I'd like to take a moment to thank everybody for coming tonight and to have a good holiday—good holidays coming up since we won't see most of you until January. And for everybody in the audience, have a Happy Thanksgiving. Now I'll move to adjourn. **[01:10:10] Commissioner:** Motion for adjournment. **[01:10:12] Commissioner:** Oh, second. **[01:10:14] Chair (Steve):** All those in favor, you know what to do, say aye. Meeting's adjourned.