We're good. >> We're good. Thank you. >> All right. I'd like to call this meeting to order for the city council of Minatrista. Um but first, I'd like everybody to rise to say the pledge of 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. >> Well, Mayor Whan is out ill tonight and her normal replacement, uh, Kathleen Refkin is out, I think, on vacation. So, uh, so I'm Peter Vickery and I'm taking over tonight. Um to to my left I have council member Claudia Lacy and Brian McGovern and public works director Gary Peters >> [clears throat] >> uh assistant county excuse me assistant city manager Paula Bowman and to my right Jasper Krugal the city manager and Craig Swear is the safety director. I'm not sure if anybody's on remotely. >> Uh let's see. I think we do have a few. Um, let's see. Yeah, we have um we have Yan Meer off the the city clerk, David Ael, the um community development director, and then Sarah Solo, our city attorney. Oh, >> okay. Thank you. All right. Uh, so before we begin, I understand that there are two items that will be taking off the agenda. >> Uh, yes, if I may. Um, Council Member Vicky, uh, the two business items, uh, we're proposing to take off the agenda. Um the one requires a supermajority vote which is a four fifths vote in order to pass or to be denied. Um and the other item is kind of paired with it as well. So um due to scheduling we would push that to February 18th. Um on February 18th we should have a full city council here. >> Okay. All right. So do I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> So moved. >> Seconded. >> All in favor? I >> All right. Well, before we proceed with that, it's my pleasure to honor Michael Kirkwood, who has done so much for this community and Lake Minnotonka as a member of the Lake Matonka Conservation Board. Um, how many years have we been on there? Looks like six. All right. Well, [clears throat] >> if we could get a little photo op here with you and council member Vickery, that'd be great. I think um Paul I can grab something. Thanks be >> all right. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Pleas I want to do [laughter] >> smile together. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. >> So, we just have one person to be heard. >> Oh, Christian. >> All right. Uh, well, next we'll go to persons to be heard and I understand that Bob Christians you want to see. Could you come to the microphone? Of course, we all know you, but could you give your address as well? >> Okay. Well, first of all, as a member or board of directors for West Community College conference now called West, I first of all, I'd like to say thank you to all the people here at Trista for your support of all the events that we take place in. Uh it's really appreciated as uh uh as Jasper knows and and Craig, you're coming up with the next polar plunge, which is next Saturday. away from Saturday. Hopefully, it won't be 40 below windchill because then Claudia won't jump in the lake when it's that cold. But anyway, I'm sorry to be here. I've been a resident here in West Taka for uh since 1989 and this has never happened before and I'm sorry to have to take your time. I I appreciate all you do. I used to sit in that chair myself years ago. Uh but uh we had a situation come up where uh I got my water bill and uh I I I didn't know what to I mean it was crazy. And so I immediately called my plumber and Jasper I was talking to my plumber uh regarding what happened. So he checked everything out and went through everything and he found out that there was a problem. And the problem was from the Minatrista city water line. There was some debris in the line that created and caused this to be open. So I mean he said it's really nothing you could have done. It's it's basically the city's response or fault whatever be. So, what I'm asking for is not for you to forget the whole bill. I'm here as a hopefully I think is a reasonable cause is if you just split it with me and pay the cost of what it is could cost me uh and split it 50/50. And I put that on the notes that I think Jasper has given you. Correct. >> Yes. >> Each of you have that. And I hopefully that we can resolve this. Uh uh we all got better things to do and it's going to be cold. So stay warm this weekend and be safe and hopefully we can come to a resolution where I think asking you for 50% or half of what the cost would be is is reasonable and fair. So thank you for all you do and thank you for your time. Any questions? >> Thank you. >> Do you have >> I don't have questions. >> Okay. I don't know what happens now. Somebody tell me what happens now. Do I leave here? Well, like somebody I mean, >> it sounds like the two of you have been talking. Uh, how how long has this been going on? And >> yeah, I think I I'm not sure. It's been probably a few weeks, I think, since we've been corresponding. Okay. >> Um, but I did talk to talk to uh the plumber and got a little bit more information and and cooperated the the the story, I guess. Um, couple things that we could do. um you know staff doesn't have discretion to modify utility bills, right? So that's a city council thing. Um if if if there's a desire to look at this further, I would say we we put it on a work session f future work session. I have some um ability to to pull a policy together that that I've worked on in the past in a past city where you can look at some of these things and and and and look at what happened and and come up with a a solution potentially with this if that's something that you'd like to look at. Um we could do that at a future council meeting. Um I would say probably the 18th would be the best since we're going to have a full council. Um, but if there is no desire to to look at this and create a policy. I would say I I wouldn't recommend doing a one-off thing, I would say should if we're going to do it as a city, we should do a policy so that if it happens to another resident that we have the ability to to say here's a form, fill it out, we'll bring it basically bring it to city council, you guys evaluate it and either approve or deny it. Forunately, it is a very very rare case and I don't know why mine was, but it's it's probably very very rare that it ever happened. So, anyway, thank you. Yes. >> Well, I was going to say, Carrie, is there anything you could speak to on this? >> Um, quite frankly, I mean, I do not believe that there was any debris. There's no debris in our water that would cause that. I would say it's more of a [clears throat] mineral issue either, you know, because we do not take out iron. There's always calcium in the water. So, you know, I mean, that's why every six months you should be cleaning, you know, running a cleaner through your softener. I mean, we've had issues with this in Huntress, we had one that happened, too. And um, you know, I I find it hard to believe that it was anything in the water that caused this. I mean, it's, you know, it it to me it's just, you know, mindboggling that there'd be a quote unquote chunk of plastic in our water. I mean, it's just it's it's not reasonable. I mean, it can happen, I suppose, but I've never seen the 13 years I've been here already. So, I've never seen it happen either, but I'm just going with my plumber saying this is what the problem was. So, I I you know, I wouldn't be here. I just want to make sure that we can resolve this thing in a friendly manner. Okay. Any questions? Anybody else? >> Great. No questions. >> Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for your participating in the all the events that we take place in. >> Thank you. Well, I think maybe we should bring that up to the general counsel and in the work session and figure out a policy. So >> Alison as well would be good. Somebody contact me to let me know where we're going with this. I think it's what best at some point in time. >> I will. >> And it's something that I could probably like, well, obviously before the bill is due, which is sometime in February. >> Well, if you stick around for like maybe a minute, they'll probably give you direction and then you'll know right away. >> Yeah. >> Well, yeah, it sounds like we're in unison that we would like to bring this up at the B session on February 18th. And I think Alison will [clears throat] need to as well >> Yeah. >> All [snorts] right. So, >> February 18th, work session 5:00 p.m. >> February 18th. Uh, you know what? >> The bill is going to be due by then. >> Well, I'll talk to our utility. If it's all right with you, I'll talk to the utility billing and put a hold. >> I think the bill is due with 16. I think you're right. >> I don't want another problem. I just >> Yeah. No, we'll we'll make sure that nothing happens. It'll be Yeah. Well, thank you for paying half of it. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Uh let's see. So, there are no other people to be heard, so we'll close that session. Um then we'll move on to the consent agenda. Are there any additions or items that anyone would like to remove? Nope. No. All right. Well, uh let's go through those then. Uh so, u item A is approve the city council regular meeting uh minutes uh from January, uh 7th. Uh item B is resolution number 8-26, approve claims. Uh C is resolution number 926 approve extension of preliminary plat for highlands at Whale Lake, excuse me. Uh item D is resolution number 1026 approve simple subdivision between 3265 and 3320 Williams Lane. Item E is resolution number 1126. Authorize ex execution of accessory structure agreement with the MCWD at 6300 Painters Road, excuse me, Painter Road. Uh item F is resolution number 1226, approved purchase for replacement of the ditch flail mower. Thank you for getting a little better price than that we estimate, by the way. Um, and then item G is uh, resolution number 1326, accept improvements and authorize final payments for Minneapolis Avenue drainage work. Do I have a motion? So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I oppose. Passes unanimously. >> Okay. Uh, I don't think we have any public hearings. Okay. you know, we're not going to discuss the business items. Um, okay. Administrative items. We have staff reports. >> Uh, yeah, Council Member McCree. Um, the only thing I want to bring up is uh the strategic planning uh session. We have that scheduled for uh February 26th starting at 3 p.m. Uh we're hoping that can wrap up by 6 PM and then uh we have a joint city council meeting with the city of St. Bonafacious here at our city council chambers starting at 6:30. Um so hopefully it works out for everybody. It's it's you know scheduling is is challenging so if if you can't make it just let me know. Um but I think St. Bonnie has four out of their five that are able to attend. Um and in general we we kind of crafted an agenda that talks about the fire partnership. Um St. Bonnie has an annexation request uh from uh Minatrista. a little portion of land that Minatrista is in is in the corporate limits of Minitrista that they'd like to discuss with us about possibly giving to them. Um and then the third item is the water interconnect agreement that we um have been working on on and off for probably the last three years. Um and hopefully we can get get that finalized. So those are the three items. >> Okay, great. Um any other reports from staff? Oh, council reports. >> Um, well, I guess I can say that, um, I had a board meeting with the Gillespie Center last night and their their biggest issue right now is they have a 25-year-old HVAC system and it's quite costly. The most, I think, competitive bid they have is about $188,000. And so, um, I contacted Gary because he knows a lot about things like that. He gave me some additional people just to maybe run that by and do some checking. Um, gosh, they have a new president um on the board who's wonderful, has a lot of business experience, corporate experience. She's lovely. And her name is uh Carlson D. I want to say Donna Carlson. I I'm not her last name is Carlson. And uh she's wonderful. Um that's really about it as far as that's concerned. The Minnesota or the um Lake Minnetonka Community Commerce um organization was kind of like our chamber of commerce is changing names. Um, I mentioned last time to connect West Hanka has like a logo with a bridge kind of connecting nonprofits, forprofits, the the city government, um, all things down in the western suburbs. Um, they've got Plan Moose, which is um, kind of a wonderful marketing company that's going to be helping us kind of really get up and running and bring it to a new level. So, City of Manista is uh one of their uh members and um the charity I run is also a member. So, we're um giving them quite a bit of support and hopefully it'll drive some more business and interest to the little community. >> That's about it. >> Brian, no updates for me. >> Okay. Uh well, I was at the Pioneer Sarah Creek watershed board meeting and um uh they're promoting the uh responsible use of salt, which seems very appropriate given all the icy conditions that we have out outside here, but they're pointing out that just a tablespoon of salt will [clears throat] ruin five gallons of water, which Mike probably knows. So, they're really trying to rain that in and just use it where it's absolutely necessary. Um I talked with Gary about this in the past know that the city is very responsible for this item. So that that's encouraging. Um so that's it for me. Um well um guess this is a >> what do we use other than salt here? >> Uh well gravel or what do you call it? Not sand but uh >> what was the question? >> What do you use besides salt? um supposed to be still using like a salt sand mixture other words treated salt to cut down on it. But I mean that's really you know sand or straight sand you know it's that the the problem with you know straight sand is it's a more expensive cleanup cost in spring you know it gets into the um the sumps the sump the catch basin sumps and stuff and it causes a lot more deltas in you know at at the drainage points but salt is equally as bad I mean that gets in the lakes prevents it from turning over I mean it's you know really bad so but yeah you're you don't have much choice I mean they they've did try different liquid treatments with molasses, with beets, different stuff like that, you know, and stuff to try it. But, uh, you know, um, you know, it's nothing beats salt, unfortunately. So, >> gosh, that's too bad. >> Well, the gravel roads you put down, uh, >> chips. Yeah, that Yeah, that's uh, you know, 38, you know, rugged, rough chip is what it is. A limestone chip >> for those slid up live on gravel roads >> because a gravel road will freeze on it faster than a than a paved road. I mean, like we had those little bit of raintorms and it hits there and it just you got glare ice in a matter of minutes and they're terrible. So, >> yeah, I've noticed that the city salt trucks, they'll put a little patch down, then go down like 50 to 100 feet and put another one down, then let the cars kind of spread it out. >> Yeah, they're um so in the the actual um controller itself in the truck, it's programmed for lane miles. So you can set it so it drops either you can spread constantly or you can set it up for the staggered drop you know stuff like that. So um a lot of the guys just do the you know depend on where it's at and let it go through and intersections of course we can hit the blast if we want to do more but you know all the trucks are calibrated every every season beforehand so we keep the right amount of salts going down. We don't want to try to over apply or you know or underapply. So and then we do pre-treat our salt. We take our same um chemical that we use for dust abatement. We actually water it down because it's a little bit too thick. We add water to it and then we add that to our tanks and that sprays onto the salt. So what happens is that salt starts to break down faster. So it actually starts working faster on the roads. >> So that's why you see the side tanks or the tank in the back of these trucks. It's a brine solution to help the salt activate faster. So, >> but there's there's tons of different uh ideas out there and stuff, but uh salt's still the still the best thing, you know, and so we try to keep it to a minimum. The the real culprit are the private contractors that are doing parking lots and stuff like that just because the slipper falls. You ever look at a parking lot a few days after a storm, they're completely white with salt, which is really sad. >> Is that what they use at the airports? Like that scares me. >> Yeah, I mean they Yeah, I mean the airport use a lot of liquid chemical too though. Um they use a lot of calcium or mag chloride to help break it down faster. So but a lot of that stuff too I think is in a containment area too that they you know where they stuff I'm assuming it would be in a containment area so that it's not just going into the environment that it comes back and stuff. So >> but thank you. >> Well with that do I have a motion to close the meeting? >> So moved. >> I second that. All in favor? [laughter and clears throat] >> I >> I >> oppose. No, I guess not. That's an easy one. All right.