Based on the context provided, here is the transcribed townhall meeting with speaker names added. **Note on Mapping:** To align with your provided municipality context, I have mapped the speakers as follows: * **Mayor Michele Hanson** (referred to as "Michelle" and "Mayor" in dialogue). * **Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore** (referred to as "Ethan" in dialogue). * **Councilmember Katie Hill** (identified as "Connie" in the transcript). * **Councilmember Carl Bliss** (identified as "John" in the transcript). * **Matt Kline** (City Administrator, identified as "Adam" in the roll call). * **Sara Taylor** (Assistant City Administrator). * **Jay Jackson** (Police Chief). * **Gabe Kinney** (Fire Chief). *** [0:54] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** ...allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Matt, will you please call the roll? [0:54] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Mayor Hanson—here. Councilmember Hill—here. Councilmember Bliss—aye. Councilmember Gilmore—here. Councilmember Hanson—here. All present. [0:54] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** That takes us to the approval of tonight's agenda. Are there any questions, comments, additions to the agenda? [1:40] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Madam Mayor, we had a late application for a liquor license—a temporary liquor license for Derby Days—that staff would like to request be added to the consent agenda. This is the same application that we get every year, but it is time-sensitive. [1:40] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Any other questions, comments, or additions? If not, would someone like to make a motion to approve tonight's agenda with this addition? [1:40] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** I'll make a motion to approve tonight's agenda with adding to the consent agenda number nine for renewable liquor license or application for liquor license. [1:40] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Sounds good. Thank you, Katie. Is there a second? [1:40] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** I'll second. Thank you, Michelle. Matt, roll call. [2:27] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Hanson—aye. Councilmember Hill—aye. Councilmember Bliss—aye. Councilmember Gilmore—aye. Mayor Hanson—aye. [2:27] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** As all that takes us to our proclamations, accommodations, petitions, and announcements. And the first is the July recycling award recipient is Christina Cook at 354 Fifth Street North, who will be awarded for her recycling efforts with funding made possible with a grant from Washington County. So thank you, Ms. Cook, for your recycling efforts. The second is that we have the pleasure of having a letter of accommodation for Police Officer Brittany Lepowski, and so I'll call upon Chief Jackson and Officer Lepowski. [3:13] **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council. The other officers here are here to support Officer Lepowski and her letter that she's receiving today, and they're on their own volunteer time, but they chose to wear their uniforms. I appreciate that; it looks professional. Thank you for coming in tonight. That's fine. Officer Lepowski, I'm presenting this letter of accommodation to her for her actions during a tragic incident in 2019. At that time, Officer Lepowski was assisting another agency with a mental health crisis. Officer Lepowski assisted with immediately taking action as she started CPR until paramedics arrived on scene. Officer Lepowski then assisted with securing a very chaotic scene. I wish to formally recognize Officer Lepowski for her response to this incident. The situation had the propensity to become very dangerous, yet she acted swiftly, placing others' well-beings before her own personal safety. I commend you for your attentiveness, your attempted life-saving measures, and your commitment to the safety of your partners and the public. Your actions reflect upon your outstanding ability and compassion for others, as well as positively representing both the City of Bayport and the Police Department. Thank you for your commitment to the residents of Bayport, the surrounding communities that you so proudly serve, and all of your community engagements that you do, most recently over the past five years. [4:54] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** So great. Congratulations, officer. Thank you, and thanks, officers, for all attending. That's great. It's nice to see you. Be safe; have a good night. Excellent. So that takes us to our open forum, which is 15 minutes of the meeting that we set aside for items that are not on tonight's agenda. And Matt, do we have any? We don't have anybody attending in the chambers or online—oh, well, we have one person actually online. I'm sorry, Madam Mayor, Mr. Mike Huntley from the Youth Service Bureau. [4:54] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay. And so we plan to hear from Mr. Huntley at this time, is that correct? [4:54] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Yes, he should—Mike, can you hear me? [5:46] **Michael Huntley (Youth Service Bureau):** Yes, Sara, now I'm unmuted, and I'll turn on my camera. There we go. Great. Welcome. All right, good evening Mayor and Council members and residents of Bayport. My name is Michael Huntley; I am the Executive Director of Youth Service Bureau, and I'm very pleased to be with you this evening. Some of you might know of Youth Service Bureau, and for some, this might be new information. I'll keep this brief so you can get on with your business. YSB is a non-profit organization providing a whole variety of services throughout much of Washington County. We've been operating since the 1970s, and we appreciate Bayport's long-standing partnership and support. That support helps us to keep our services available by providing and being able to offer a sliding fee scale to families in need. We take pride in our five main program areas. We offer diversion—that's an early intervention program for youth that have made a mistake and could be processed through the juvenile justice system. Diversion offers a whole variety of interventions that have a restorative justice quality to them; it's an alternative to court and to further legal consequences for youth. 87 percent of youth who complete our diversion services do not become re-involved with law enforcement for at least a year after those services. We also provide youth-focused family counseling services. This is early intervention designed to address concerns and prevent those concerns from getting larger in the future. Our counseling services are provided by licensed mental health professionals, and we offer them through in-person or telehealth options. About 84 percent of parents report that within three months of starting our counseling services, the reasons that brought them in for service in the first place have become improved. We also offer school-based chemical health supports in our local high school and the middle schools to improve the students' opportunities for success. We support the chemical health needs of youth and families in a variety of ways, including groups, individual meetings, presentations in the community, and other school-based services. About 80 percent of youth who access these services report that they have an increased resilience to using drugs or other chemicals as a coping mechanism. We have our military family support program; that's actually our newest service, about two or three years old now, and that is designed to support and assist families of deployed service members. And we also have our youth and family education program. This program brings information to youth, to parents, to caregivers, and other adults in the community who support teens and children. The goal of that program is to provide practical tools and information and resources that can be used to talk to their kids, set and enforce boundaries, and help kids figure out conflicts with either their peers or siblings or other adults. We can present on a whole variety of topics through this program. So thank you for your patience as I've been sharing about what we do. I'd also like to thank you again for Bayport's continued support to make these services possible. And finally, if I can take just a couple more minutes, I'd like to walk you through a little bit of the previous calendar year. Now, we're all familiar with the sudden ups and downs of 2020, and it had been a year of massive unpredictability. We know this was stressful on everyone: parents, kids, communities. With the onset of the pandemic, we closed our doors in March of 2020 at all three of our Youth Service Bureau locations, and we shifted very quickly into delivering our services via telehealth. However, we weren't even expecting to do that, of course, but what we soon discovered was that a very large number of families indicated that they preferred in-person services and were not interested in the telehealth option. These families put a hold on services until an in-person option was available. So I'm very proud to share with you that in response to that need and with lots of preparation and planning, we reopened our doors in August of 2020 so that in-person therapy services could continue again. And since then, we continue to offer options for families: they can do telehealth, they can do in-person, or we can mix and match depending on what works best for a family. I'm really proud of our staff who worked hard to make this happen so that client families could have services. With the pandemic and a drop in the overall numbers of youth served, we still served at least 19 youth who reside in Bayport, and we provided over 126 hours of services to those youth. We provided one educational presentation within the Bayport city limits that was attended by about 75 people, and we did many more presentations nearby in the community reaching over about 3,000 individuals. Last year, the City of Bayport supported our operations with a $1,500 level of support. YSB is asking if Bayport could increase that by three percent and come up to $1,545 in support for the upcoming year. This increase would help us with our increased costs related to the pandemic and new items and equipment that we need to keep delivering our services and maintain the quality and accessibility for families. Thank you again for your solid partnership, and I can answer any questions if anyone on the Council has those. [12:44] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thank you so much. It's a great, informative presentation, and you're a great partner. It's a wonderful organization. You have a very good track record of success, and I know that Chief Jackson really appreciates being able to work with you. [12:44] **Michael Huntley (Youth Service Bureau):** Thank you. [12:44] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Yeah. So with that, does the Council have any other questions or topics? All right, well, thank you so much for joining us, and we'll be reviewing our budget. We had a workshop earlier tonight, and we'll be continuing through that process over the next month and a half, and so you'll be hearing from us shortly. [13:29] **Michael Huntley (Youth Service Bureau):** Okay. Thank you. [13:29] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thank you. Okay, that takes us to this evening's consent agenda where we will consider items now one through nine, including: the July 12, 2021 City Council workshop minutes; the July 12, 2021 City Council regular meeting minutes; the July payables and receipts; the July plumbing, building, mechanical, and zoning permits report; the appointment of Gabe Kinney as Fire Chief for a three-year term from July 2021 to July 2024; the donation of toys to the Police Department from Nancy Alderman; the approval of hiring an accounting specialist; the special event application from Marie Adukovic for Inspiration neighborhood block party on August 20, 2021; and the latest edition of a one-day liquor license applied for by the Afton Bayport Lakeland Lions Club. Would anyone have any questions, or would someone like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda? [14:15] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** I'll move to adopt the resolution of the August 2nd, 2021 consent agenda as presented and read by the Mayor. [15:02] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thank you, Carl. Is there a second? [15:02] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I'll second. [15:02] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thank you very much, Ethan. All in favor—oops, do we need to vote? Sorry, with an expenditure. [15:02] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Yeah, Madam Mayor. With that, Councilmember Bliss—aye. Councilmember Gilmore—aye. Councilmember Hanson—aye. Councilmember Hill—aye. Mayor Hanson—aye. Aye's all. [15:02] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thank you. We do not have a public hearing this evening, so we move firstly on to unfinished business. We have one item, and that is to discuss Barker's Alps Park field improvements as proposed by St. Croix Prep Academy. And so, Matt. [15:50] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the Council. At the May 3rd, 2021 Council meeting, the City Council tabled the discussion regarding the improvements, specifically a permanent outfield fence to the Barker's Alps baseball field. They directed essentially staff and St. Croix Prep to potentially come up with other alternatives that could be used on the Twins grant that has been applied for. So I just have a list of the alternatives and what has been determined. One of the alternatives would be a hybrid outfield fence: so about two-thirds of the fence area would be permanent, and then one-third of the fence that is closest to the sledding area would be able to be removable so it would not impede with the active winter activities that happen in the park. Essentially, the hybrid fence would be installed—well, the permanent and hybrid fence would be installed in roughly the same location that the temporary fence currently is, and it would allow for the soccer fields to be placed in the same locations that they currently are, so it would not impede on the soccer fields. I know St. Croix Prep and the Soccer Association worked together on putting that up. The other item that were a couple of the other items that were looked into were a backstop overhang. What they don't have for the backstop overhang is what the current poles were put in with, essentially—were they cemented in or were they just driven in? And that needs to be determined in order to for the added extra weight. The poles are big enough, but they added extra weight without cementing them in—it is an unknown. And essentially, to dig up one of the poles and take all the fencing off, that cost there kind of impeded on using that money in other places, and it wasn't any cost-effective to try and determine that. The infield grass option—a lot of baseball fields do have infield grass, but the cost to do that is pretty expensive and they need to irrigate. It also becomes a fairly big expense, one that neither the City nor St. Croix Prep is willing to undertake at this point in time. The number four thing down there—it wasn't really—this is still happening, so sorry if that was confusing—the improvements to the softball dugout will still happen. So this includes installing a roof on the dugouts and then also rubber matting under class 5 material so that it's easier to walk on with your cleats. A couple of things that maybe not were reiterated in the first meeting: the proposal for the permanent and hybrid fence would not enclose the whole area, so there's still room to move around without that being entirely closed specifically for a baseball field. And then the question about having other activities in the area—no, one of the big things was having the sledding activity which is, of course, not City doesn't necessarily allow that, but it's a given that the community goes there for that. So that's why the hybrid option was considered by St. Croix Prep. At this time, staff is open to questions. We're recommending that the City Council just provide feedback specifically on the fence option and that a formal decision could either be made tonight or next month if you want to give more time on this presentation from the public. There's not a hard deadline for the funds, so if we wait till next month, it's still okay. [19:40] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thank you very much. Discussion by the Council? Questions for Matt? Anyone want to jump in? [19:40] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** I have a question, please. Um, so I guess first off, let's talk about—we talked about this the last time. Maybe Rich is here. Yeah, maybe he can help us answer some of these questions but go ahead and introduce yourselves, sir. [20:27] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Madam Mayor, members of Council. Name is Rich Dippel. I'm the Activities Director at St. Croix Prep. I have been there for 13 years now, and it's a great opportunity to be here to talk about this. [20:27] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Yeah, thanks for coming too. So we talked about this at the last meeting or whenever we last discussed this, and I asked: do we really—do you need to have the fence? Is it—or is it just sort of a nice thing to have? And my understanding—the takeaway from that—was that it's part of high school baseball requirements that you have a field that has a outfield fence, but other people interpreted it differently and told me that, well, this is just a need or a want, not a need. So if you could explain that more clearly. [21:12] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Certainly, Madam Mayor, Councilmember Hanson. Um, from a rulebook perspective, they will—the rulebook will say that the field should be enclosed, but there should be a field fence defining the field. Would we not be able to play on that field if we did not have a fence? No, we could still play on the field. We played for a number of years on Barker's Alps One without a fence, and we played for a number of years on Barker's Alps Two without a fence. It makes the game better; it makes the game fair, and it does improve the playability of the field. So to answer your question, we could play without any fence. [21:57] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** And it sounds like I talked to someone at St. Croix Valley Athletic Association who also plays on the fields, and I asked if they find the fence to be a benefit or not, and they said it didn't really make a difference to them if there was a fence, in case anyone cares about that. So it's not a hindrance to them, but it's also—they didn't really see it as a huge benefit for what they do. But they don't have—I mean, they do all grade levels, so... [21:57] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Correct. Again, Mayor, Councilmember Hanson. VAA tends to have lower-level teams that play. They have their high school level teams that they also play on that field. The fence doesn't tend to come into play for those teams. Right. [22:43] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Actually, I think the backstop overhang would be much more wanted, but that's—that's my... okay. Um, I am curious: you know, you sent some pictures that we have; I assume you sent these that we have in the packet? Okay, you did those. Okay, okay. So one of the pictures has like a yellow thing on the top of the fence and some covering, and another picture is just a plain, you know, regular old—what are they called?—chain link fence. So curious about what the actual final look of the fence is going to be. [22:43] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Madam Mayor, Councilmember Hanson. At this point, it would be a standard chain fence matching everything else that's currently on the field. The yellow capping that you see is something that generally gets added on to help define the playing area and to help the umpire see if a ball goes over or doesn't go over. You'll note on the current temporary fences that we put up each spring on both Barker's Alps One and Two, there's a yellow top; it just adds definition for the players and for the people and the umpires that are participating in the game. I don't necessarily anticipate putting the yellow capping on right away. It used to be in the olden days when I was a parks director, you had to put the yellow capping on because the chain link was different; it had the tops that were spun together and were very sharp, so you put that on in order to protect the players and the playability of the field. Currently, we don't have to do that. So whether or not we put yellow capping on the top of it, that would be for definition. The one item in relationship to what the fence looks like—I want to make sure that I'm correct here, Matt, on item number four where we talked about the difference between the temporary fence and the permanent fence and the height of the fence. We gathered numbers, and I don't think it's necessarily in a part of your packet, but the height of the fence—we got quotes for three different sizes or heights of fence: four feet, five feet, and six feet. So however high we want to make the fence, we can certainly entertain that input. [24:14] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Would the permanent and the temporary fence be the same height? [24:14] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Yeah, yes, Madam Mayor, Councilmember Gilmore. Yes, we would match it up. [24:14] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** And so that picture of a temporary fence is kind of what to expect there? That's what that happens? Just like a chain link fence, but it's just easily removed, and it would come in like small sections that you could take away? [24:14] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Yes. [24:14] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** And how does it stay secure in terms of it not like tipping over when wind blows—or if a guy, you know, comes to catch a ball and he falls against it, how does it stay there? [24:14] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Madam Mayor, Councilmember Hanson. Those are secured just like we would secure any soccer goals; they're secured into the ground tight by down pins holding them in place. [25:46] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, that makes sense. Thanks. Um, one last concern that I'd like to address is: Barker's Alps Number One currently has a temporary fence, correct? And that is mostly used for—from your perspective—as a softball field? [25:46] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** That's correct. [25:46] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** So are there going to be equity issues down the road, and you're going to be coming to us and saying we need a permanent fence in the outfield for the softball field, which would be really difficult because of the sledding hill and that soccer field? [26:32] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Madam Mayor, Councilmember Hanson. At this point, no, that is not a concern of ours. Traditionally, you'll see this across pretty much every field: softball is played at different levels, from slow pitch to adult men fast pitch to high school. So therefore those fences have to be movable. Most softball is played with different length fences, and temporary fences serving as that change. Again, back in my other olden days, we had a softball field that was the varsity field in South St. Paul that was too deep—it was 210 feet, which was much too deep for a girls high school varsity field—so we installed temporary fencing. From a Title IX perspective, we do not see this as an issue. [27:18] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, thanks for clearing that up as well. Um, so if we decide that we don't think a fence is a great option and maybe we think the overhang is a better option, what do you know about the cost for that? Because it's possible the City could help with funding some of that if that's what we decide is a better option. [28:05] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Madam Mayor, Councilmember Hanson. I'm going to add a couple of different notes to this conversation. One is: we understand it in order to be able to determine the load factor on that current backstop, it would be about $3,000—is what we understood from the contractor that came in—to be able to get down and understand what's underneath. And then adding that height to the backstop—does it actually serve the purpose? Does it actually catch baseballs as they're headed towards the wetlands? In my experience, we would catch some of those balls, but we would not catch the majority of those balls—just the reality of the physics of a pitch traveling somewhere between 70 and 85 miles an hour coming off a bat, majority of our hitters being right-handed, balls coming off going to the right side of the field. At this point, we're seeing about $24,000 just to install the up-part of that fencing. We currently have, I believe, $14,000 projected—maybe a little bit less than that—for the fencing project, with another part of that money, about $4,500 or $5,000, going towards Barker's Alps One dugout project. So we have an $18,000 grant: part of the money going to Barker's Alps One to do that project to upgrade those dugouts and that flooring, and then about $14,000 or a little bit less going to the fencing project or to the Barker's Alps Two project. I think that it's a feasible project; it doesn't fit with the money that we currently have available, and I'm not sure it would be a long-term solution. We would still end up with baseballs down in the wetlands; it's just not an avoidable situation. [28:05] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** So to clarify, the $24,000 is to add the overhang if the poles are in the right—if they can withstand it? And as I understand this, that $24,000 doesn't factor in taking down the current fence—it's changing out, taking what's there, putting in the new one? That seems really expensive to add some... I mean, considering your outfield fence is $14,000 or whatever, how could it cost $24,000 to just add? [28:05] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** As I understand it, because of the engineering, going up that high requires a much stronger fence—a fence that's going to have to deal with... [30:22] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** So you're saying we would have to rip out the fence that we have and put a whole new back side? I think that that's premature to say that for sure until we find out what's underneath it. Okay, I feel like we still don't—I don't have a solid grip on what the cost is to just put the overhang on. It sounds like this cost is to have to reinforce what's already there in some way, whether it's ripping it out or whatever. So I would like more information on that if that's—if we decide that the outfield fence doesn't work and you want to pursue another option. I was just kind of curious about—I just feel like it got sort of pushed aside too easily like "oh, and then it was too expensive." It's like, well, like how much more expensive? Because maybe the City could help with something if that was a better option. So um, I think that covers my questions about it. [30:55] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Um, I think you kind of addressed everything. I think the having the dual use, having the soccer field there is important, and it sounds like that, you know, those worries can be put to rest. Um, I know through some emails and just talking to public, you know, they're worried about having dogs out in the field or riding bikes and that sort of thing, and I don't quite see that being an issue with a fence there. I mean, dogs can still run in the field. I know I went down there and looked at it, and I do believe that the, you know, one-third temporary would allow for plenty of room for the sledding hill. So yeah, I don't see an issue as far as the City goes, because it sounds like it's being paid 100 percent by the grant from the Twins. So I don't know what other issues there would really be. I mean, there's already fences down there. I know people say, "well, the look of it and everything else"—it's like, well, it's a baseball field, so there's already fences down there. So yeah, I guess I don't really have a problem with it. [31:42] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** Yeah, it would actually look more in line with the fence that's there instead of a temporary fence. [31:42] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Exactly. I think those temporary fences are terrible looking. So I'd rather just have the regular fence as long as the kids can sled and everybody can use the field for soccer and everything else. I don't see an issue. [32:27] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thank you, Ethan. [32:27] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** Well, Michelle got a lot of my questions answered. Um, I guess I'm torn because I've gotten a lot of feedback from the public that they're not interested in it, and some of it's because it's a community park—the aesthetics back there, more openness—so I'm kind of wavering on that fence, even though I'm a baseball family. But Michelle did get my questions answered. I was interested in the backstop issue if that would be... because I know that grant money is there to be used, so I was hoping that would maybe be an option to go down that avenue. But I guess I'm up for more discussion. [32:27] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Well, just to be clear, right now there's a temporary fence that's up from April to August, right? So there's a good chunk of the year that we already have a fence there that isn't even that attractive. You know, it's just more work for them to take it, put it up, and take it down every year. So just one other point I clarified earlier that I thought—I just don't know what activities are hindered by a fence that's, you know, an inch thick. I mean, it's weird to me, but you know, I guess—I mean, I want to listen to everybody and hear what everybody has to say, but you know, no one's really here arguing against it. [32:27] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Right. Well, I guess I did that picture you had up did help me to see where the permanent or the temporary fence would be, because my main concern originally was the sledding, because that is used a lot. [33:13] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Yeah, absolutely. Right. So the temporary is between those little slides? [33:59] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Right. Just to be clear—so it's just that one little section there and that's where the sledding... I actually went down to the hill and I was with—is it Tim?—I met with him, and we walked down there, and we figured it'd be, you know, about a hundred feet, and if that was removable, then the sledding hill shouldn't be affected. [33:59] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Yeah, it would be better to have a picture of like the actual hill from there too. [33:59] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Yeah, we have to—be better for me to have a picture that's just not somebody scribbling with a Sharpie. That—sorry—but that's what I wanted: something way more specific to see exactly what the difference is of the temporary versus this. Um, I didn't notice that other slash for the temporary of where it stopped. I was thinking that's what I thought... [34:46] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** But go ahead, Carl, with your questions. [34:46] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** I just want to—so I'm going to start out saying that I don't support this, for a variety of reasons. Nothing's changed since this was brought to me last time, really. Um, I would consider a temporary fence throughout the whole thing. One point I do want to make because it was mentioned, but as far as I'm concerned, sledding is not against any city ordinance, correct? [34:46] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** All right, no. It's not indoors, it's not sanctioned by the City as an activity on that facility, that park facility, but it is not prohibited at all by any means. [34:46] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** Aesthetics are talked about a lot, and aesthetics are in the eye of the beholder. That park to me is a multi-use park. There are ball fields in the park, there are—it's used for Easter egg hunts, it's used for soccer games. I've literally skied right through there—cross-country skied right through there—where the fence would impede me. Is it a big deal for me to curve around? No, of course not. But for the 10 or dozen games a year—whatever it is—to have that there... and I realize there's practices and stuff. I think from an aesthetic standpoint, it's a detriment to the park for a very exclusive activity. To me, that's the beauty of any park, and that park specifically, is that it's multi-use, and that limits the park. The other thing is, I've not had any—I've had several people reach out to me against this, not in support of it. I think it benefits probably a very, very small percentage of Bayport residents, and that's the way I want to look at this is on a day-to-day basis: how is this helping a Bayport resident? How is it making it a more useful park for them? I think the status quo is fine. I personally think it's a solution looking for a problem. So that's where I'm at. [37:06] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** So I'm still struggling with what the real advantage is of it. The current temporary versus a permanent—I'm not seeing a big distinction. Yes, it's a convenience, and yes, it may be easier to install and take out and maintain. I'm with you, Carl, on the greater good. I mean, if that's where I struggle with this—I mean, I understand that it's—I think I'm just... it seems to be for a smaller group of people than our community at large who is maintaining the park and using it for multiple uses. So I have a harder time supporting it although, you know, it sounds in theory like it makes sense, but does it make sense for all the uses? So I also would—I really would like to hear something that's like, "this is why it's so wonderful." [38:38] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Madam Mayor, let me just try and capture that just a little bit. When we came to start partnering with the City 13 years ago, we felt that it was important to be good partners—and you are, we appreciate that—and we brought this idea to the City based on the fact that it's at no expense to the City, and it quite frankly relieves some pressure on the maintenance department because the temporary fence that we set up is difficult to maintain around. It's difficult to maintain around that grass—I don't want to speak for Matt, but it is—and that fence needs to be replaced on every two or three year basis. And we will replace it if the Council rejects this; then we will replace that fence next year, and we'll buy a new one, and we'll put it up in the spring, and we'll use it until the end of our season with your blessing, and then we'll remove it again in the fall or in the summertime. We see it as a baseball field; it was built as a baseball field. We offered to help improve the baseball field—that was our intent. One of the things that was fascinating to me—I grew up in southern Wisconsin, but I've been in the Twin Cities for over 35 years—one of the things that you see normally, particularly in the outstates, is that the baseball fields are owned by the cities. They're not generally owned by the schools, and they're operated that way. And it was fascinating to me that the Stillwater area has one baseball field, and that's at the high school. There really are no other fields that are of quality in this area. And it fascinated me that there wasn't that investment by Stillwater itself or any of the other communities surrounding it. So I took it upon myself to try and find a way to help give that opportunity to the programs that I was going to be a part of in the community that I was going to be a part of. That's all this is. We completely recognize that the City has ideas and plans for that park. We'll continue to come and work with you as best we can. We think it's an improvement; we think that it's good for the park; we think it's good for the people that are using the park for the intended use of baseball. So that's what we brought it to you for. [40:58] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Is there—I mean, a good section of it would be temporary? [40:58] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Yeah. [40:58] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** That temporary looks like the permanent? Is there any way to put in the nicer permanent all the way around versus the, you know, the kind of semi-permanent that you're using now—the temporary that would impede on the sledding? [40:58] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Yeah, no, again, for only the months that they already have a temporary fence up. Because the temporary fence, you're saying, is removable and it's put in by underpins? [40:58] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Yes. [40:58] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** I understand what you're saying. You're saying have it all be temporary but it's nice, like consistent? [41:44] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** I mean, I think the cost goes up. The cost goes up dramatically. We have looked at that option, and we've looked at a number of schools that have used that option. The fence becomes much more expensive once you start to add on the number of sections that you'd have, and then it becomes a big storage issue—where you're going to take that fence once you're done with your season. [41:44] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Okay. I mean, I keep hearing about the multi-use of the park, but we're still going to allow a temporary fence during their season. So when it's off-season, if it's winter... I mean, I don't know how many people are back there in the winter anyway besides sledding, and if we take care of that issue, then I guess I still don't see the issue with it. Because there's—as far as aesthetics go and being open, we're talking probably a four-foot fence. When you're standing back by the backstop, I mean, you're staring at an open field with a little fence out in the outfield. I guess I don't know... the aesthetics just don't seem to bother me because it is truly a baseball field that is used for other things, and we've figured that out with the temporary fence to allow for sledding, and the soccer field fits. I'm not sure what else those fields are used for besides those things. [43:20] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Rich, originally—I mean, the name of the park is Barker's Alps, and originally that part, people skied in. So if you go way back when, it wasn't ever... I mean, over time things have changed and baseball fields were put in. It is used back there in the wintertime; you'll see ski trails back there. Whether it's legal or not, you'll see snowmobiles. For the 10 games—I know there's lots of practices—but excuse me, that's a huge impact on the park, and it is a multi-use park. It isn't Barker's Fields; it's Barker's Alps, and it's a City park that happens to have two places that you can play ball in. That's the way I see it. Okay, so I'm not sensing that... do we have—we don't really have a consensus, do we have a majority, I guess? [44:01] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I would lean towards approving a temporary/permanent fence. So I don't know—it depends on how everybody... [44:01] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Everyone knows where I stand. [44:01] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Yeah, I guess I'm not seeing enough reason to deny it, because I feel like we—for all the reasons Ethan said. And I think it—I've been to many baseball fields with my son playing games, and typically you would have a field fence at a baseball field. I would think even kids out practicing with their parents, it would be an advantage to not have to chase the ball quite as much and that kind of thing, to have that fence there. As long as it doesn't—I mean, it's hard, like I said, to tell from this picture how it affects the sledding hill specifically. It looks like it would be nice if it was a little bit more expanded for the temporary, but I don't know, because the picture isn't good. But I have no problem as long as the temporary fence is long enough to not prohibit or to hurt anyone if they were sliding down that hill. I don't want anyone to run into the permanent fence at the bottom of the hill. And it looks like the soccer field fits in there, and we can see it... I don't know if we have to—if they usually spin the soccer field, too? [44:47] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** They do every other year, and we talked about if there is room for that, but I'm not seeing... there is? Then it goes that way. So is the fence going to be too close to the very edge of the soccer field for when the kids are running on the field? That's the only other concern I would have. I don't know—kids didn't play soccer, so I don't know how that works—but it looks like it would be really tight in there between, you know, like their actual line of their field might run very close to that permanent fence if when we spin the soccer field. [45:34] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** I think if we were to approve it, we could put some language in there that says, you know, we'd have to go out there and measure out soccer fields and make sure that we've got 15 feet between the edge of the line to the permanent part of the fence and even the temporary fence. You know, that's what I wanted specifics about. I feel like, like someone who said, that a little hand-drawn line is not very clear about how this is going to work. But so before we approve it, I would like to have all that. But that's kind of how I work. And if we're not in a big hurry, maybe we could get—like actually spell out exactly how it's going to—where it would be. That would be helpful. Yeah, I have a question for Matt now. As far as maintenance on that field, do you see a difference as far as—which fence type? Yeah, either one is going to make a big difference for you? [47:06] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Well, currently we let the essentially the grass and the weeds grow up alongside of the temporary one, just over a period of time, because we don't want to get too close to weed whipping it. As far as the permanent one, it's likely that we would just spray some type of weed control all around it and then mow up close to it. So it would be easier with the permanent. Well, part of the potential—when it's gone, it's easier. [47:06] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I have a question for you about the temporary fence. Do kids ever get injured running into those and getting their legs all wrapped up in there? [47:06] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Madam Mayor, Councilmember Gilmore, at this point I'm going to knock on wood and say at this point we have not had any players injured running into the current fence. [47:54] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** All right. Okay. I don't know... I am really sitting on the fence, because like I said... no, really, that was a good pun though! Because I know what he's talking about. When my son played baseball and we'd go to Wisconsin, they had these beautiful baseball fields and you know, I can think of many little towns that we'd go to, and I always thought, "Why don't we have that in Minnesota?" So I get that. And I think, great! And yet I guess I'm torn because I'm getting, like Carl said, I've gotten no positive feedback from the residents in any support of it. So that—I feel like my job is to represent them. And yet, so that's why I say I'm hanging on the fence—one is pulling me over one way or the other. But yet, I agree with a lot of things Ethan has said. It is a multiple-use park, and as long as... my big thing was the sledding. But then Carl threw in the skiing—that he'd go around. So I'm wondering how many people cross-country ski. So I'm really just kind of... [48:40] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I mean, I'll admit the only thing that I've that's come to me through an email has been maybe negative about it. But in talking to people, I have had people say, "Yeah, I don't see a problem with it." But that being said, it's more of those conversations that you have with people in the community. As far as emails go, I don't know how many positive ones you've received through the years you guys have been on the Council. And I'm not saying anything bad about the people—I want people to email and continue to do that—oh yeah, voice their opinions, of course! But you know, talking to people and getting out there and talking... it's like, I guess I can't prove that somebody said, "Hey yeah, that's no problem for me; I think it'd be great," but I have had those conversations. And I've had more of the positive conversations than I have—no one's ever been like, "No, that's crazy; you should never do that," barring maybe the few emails that I've had. Maybe I haven't had as many as you, but it seems like... [49:26] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** I have a business in town, Ethan. They stop in and they talk about it. The original complaints and the emails that I got were mostly about the sledding hill—that everybody was concerned that it will restrict the sledding hill, and we've come up with a compromise on that. I have still heard from a couple people that are concerned with other things. The soccer field—the soccer field is one. And then also how we own this field as a City, and why would we let this school come in and do something to our field? But I feel like... [50:12] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** But yeah, I was going to say—I didn't see that, because I see that we own the field and they're improving it for us. So that hasn't been an issue for the relationship that we have. We don't want them to feel like they have some kind of ownership in it, and I don't get that sense at all from them. Go ahead, Carl. [50:12] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** Just... a regular Bayport resident and park user: how is this benefiting them? How many pickup ball games do you see? I don't see any. I guess I would go on the flip side or the other side of the fence and say: how is it negatively affecting anybody? Aesthetically, what I mentioned—winter use. It limits it. And I don't want to play the hypothetical. Okay, how about lights next year? How about we put in 20-row bleachers on either side? And so then to me, that's a step toward that—toward, okay, now we're going to have a town baseball team, which would be really cool by the way, but I don't think this is the right fit for that. Just like several years ago, I think Barker's was considered for a dog park, and it wasn't the right fit for that. I don't think this is the right fit for Barker's Alps. I don't think it benefits Joe Q. Bayport Resident enough to justify this, even though it's not costing us a nickel. I get that, but just because somebody... if somebody came in and said they wanted to put a drive-in theater in Lakeside Park and they're going to pay for it, should we do it? Well, maybe, maybe not. So just because we can... I mean, should we? 10 games a year. VAA plays on that field too, and I'm sure that they could see it as a benefit if they actually had a permanent one, but they don't. [52:33] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** I mean, it's not only... I mean, we're making it sound like that field's only used for 10 games, and there's practices there and other things that I'm sure it's helpful. But the fence doesn't—there's no advantage for most of the kids that play St. Croix Valley; the little kids barely get it out of the infield alone. [52:33] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Yeah, they don't play Barker's Number Two for that. [53:20] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** Okay. All right, so we don't have an answer for you this evening. We don't have a consensus. Do we need a consensus or do we need a majority? [53:20] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** You need a majority. [53:20] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** Um, we don't know if we have that yet, do we? Well, I guess anyone may want to make that motion and stuff. I'm wondering... I guess I would like first of all, Rich, when what is your time frame like? I mean, obviously you're not going to get it in to use it this year, right? [53:20] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Correct. [53:20] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** Okay. So I would like to have some information like with the soccer—I want the measuring. If you flip it the other way, I guess to throw me over the fence, I'd like a little bit more on that. Like if you do that, can we get a definite? I don't need a fancy drawing, but something that shows, "Yeah, we'll have 10 feet of clearway with the soccer field; this is the size of a soccer field; this is where the fence will be X amount away." [54:52] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Yeah, if we could get something. And better pictures of this! Because it looks like there's a hook on the hill that kids would run into. So I guess that's where—that's what could make the difference for me is if I had some a little bit more clarity on some of that. I don't know that if you, one of you guys, made a motion that I could go ahead and vote on it tonight, but yet... it's not that I think having the specifics is smart. So before we—I know it's a lot more coming back to us for you. Do you have anything? Oh, I thought you were reasonable! All right. Well, I personally don't feel like there's enough of a consensus yet to get three votes to move forward. So am I wrong? [54:52] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** No, it doesn't sound like we do have that. [54:52] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** So more definition, more detailed design would be very helpful. I think that what you're looking for, you want specific dimensions and exact layouts of the proposed permanent fence in relationship to how the soccer fields lay out. And maybe some pictures of the sledding hills and dimensions from the bottom and the top of the sledding hill to the proposed corner post of the permanent fence? [54:52] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Yeah. You just need to make sure... you can just even have written like "this is home width" for me. Have someone stand there and pretend that they're the end of the fence so we can see. I think having it posted also in advance, well in advance of our next meeting, so that people can see those diagrams. So that it's not verbal—I mean, I know that we post the agenda like two weeks earlier than we used to, which is great, but I think if we can add in some visuals that this is a proposal, that there would be at least the opportunity for people to also see. [56:25] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Okay, well thank you very much for visiting with us again this evening, and thank you for being a good partner. I know that you've made vast improvements and you do a lot of maintenance, and we are very, very appreciative. So we just—we have to make sure that we're looking out for everybody. [56:25] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time tonight. [56:25] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Thank you. Rich, I have an unrelated question. The other gentleman that works with you—or Tim—did he—was he a batting coach for a long time? [56:25] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** He's been a head coach with me, yeah. [56:25] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** But I mean, did he used to do batting? [56:25] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** He coached in the VAA program; he coached in the Stillwater program. He's the former head coach of the University of South Dakota. [56:25] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Okay, that—I was going to ask you that the last time. Thank you very much. [56:25] **Rich Dippel (St. Croix Prep):** Thank you. [57:10] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thank you. Okay, good discussion, and we will address this in September. Under new business, we have one item: it's consider authorization to prepare plans and specifications for upgrades to the City booster station. Matt, I'd like you to present. [57:56] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Madam Mayor, members of the Council. As the Mayor indicated, this is for the preparation of plans and specifications for potential upgrades to the City booster station. At the January 4th City Council meeting, staff presented essentially an overview of summer irrigation usage within the upper zone. The potential was there that we would need mechanical upgrades in order to keep up with the water demand in that area, and we were going to let it essentially go for a year and see what this summer brought. The thought was that maybe with reduced watering from new homes and stuff like that, we would see a reduction in water usage. Well, as it turns out, we had a drought, and actually we see in late June a very significant increase in demand. Now, lately, it's actually come down to only a little above levels that we saw last year. So I think there is the potential there that we would see less of a demand in the future, but I think the drought has shown that on the high end—with the potential of less rainfall in a year—that in emergency situations and a drought, we still need to move forward with these upgrades, and that would be my recommendation at this time. So the water supply—just wanted to reiterate a couple of things—the water supply at this time is not an issue; we have enough supply easily to supply the demand up there. It's the amount of water that we can pump in the morning at any given hour that is becoming an issue. So SEH has provided a proposal for plans, specifications, and some technical assistance. We need to figure out how many horsepower pumps that we need now. A fair amount of this has been looked over last year, but I think we need to review this summer's demand on what's currently going on and project for—we know what drought conditions do on demand now, and so now we can essentially plan for a worst-case scenario practically. Staff is continually monitoring water usage in the upper zone. This last billing period, we actually broke it down—I haven't totally analyzed it yet—but we've broken it down between neighborhoods up there so we can break out Inspiration and the neighborhoods of Baytown. In the future, we can push some education on more conservative education on certain communities and maybe put more potential pressure on them or call them out if we want to go that far on what they're using. I just want to reiterate to you that by making the mechanical upgrades, staff obviously is not condoning the exorbitant water use that is viewed by us for the water usage, but we've seen that there is, especially in drought times, a significant water usage that's occurring. We still have the ability to do conservation stuff, to require... obviously we require current odd-even watering bans. Some cities have actually only just gone to odd-even watering bans; Woodbury actually put in what we were considering earlier this year if our usage hadn't gone down, but they're only allowing watering two days a week. So we still have those things in our back pocket if we think we need those even with the mechanical upgrades. So the recommendation would be that the Council adopt a motion authorizing SEH to prepare the plans and specs for the upgrades to the City's booster station. One of the reasons we want to get started early, too, is as I'm sure many of you know, there's a supply and demand issue out there with everything from electrical to mechanical components, and our hope would be that we could get everything installed by like next April so that everything is in place and ready to run for next summer. [1:02:33] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Very good. Thank you. Questions for Matt? [1:02:33] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** No, it seems to make a lot of sense. Something I'd just like to to say publicly is I think we should stop talking about the "exorbitant" water usage and start hitting people where it hurts and curbing this behavior. It's silly; people are being bad neighbors, they're being selfish, and I think we should stop talking about it and do something about it rather than... so I'm pretty adamant about that, and frankly I'm tired of hearing about it and I want some action, I guess. Thank you. [1:03:19] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Of note, Madam Mayor, actually one of the residents up in Inspiration was recently hired with the Washington Conservation District, and she is somewhat influential as a neighbor up there. And so she has actually called and wanted to know about storm water, and then we also got talking about water usage up there. So that would be a potential "in" for us on the neighborhood up there, that she could be helpful. [1:04:06] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Well, we don't want to put her in a really awkward position and offload our responsibilities either, but... [1:04:06] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Right, but she was actually interested! She was actually interested in starting with herself, essentially, and then broadening that out. [1:04:06] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** So I think that—I agree, Carl, because this year just shows us that things can change dramatically from one to the next, and having a super green lawn is not as important as maintaining our water supply for everyone. So but until we had the data of who's actually using and overusing, I think that that's been something that we've been lacking up until this point. So I'm glad that you're starting to look at where the instances are. I mean, changing how frequently or changing fines or adding fines or, you know, obviously education is probably one of the fastest and easiest things that we can do, but I don't think that we should take any option off the table now as we look at this because it's been perpetual up in that particular area. Is there some action we can take tonight—a motion or something—to direct you guys to kind of do the next step? [1:05:40] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** Well, first, let's get—let's make sure that we know about this because I think I'm of the thought that regardless we need to make sure that we're prepared and we have all of our equipment functioning properly. So let's table that for a second, Carl, and circle back. Does anyone else have any questions regarding this particular proposal for engineering services? [1:05:40] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Makes sense to me. I'll make a motion authorizing SEH to prepare plans and specs for upgrades to the City's booster station. [1:05:40] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** Thank you, Katie. Is there a second? [1:05:40] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I'll second that. [1:05:40] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you, Ethan. Councilmember Hill—aye. Councilmember Bliss—aye. Councilmember Gilmore—aye. Mayor Hanson—aye. Aye's all. [1:06:27] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, is it appropriate and can we continue the conversation for this other topic? [1:06:27] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Absolutely, Madam Mayor. [1:06:27] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, I want to make sure that we were following all the rules. So what kind of what kind of action or direction would you need from the Council to bring back some different proposals for us? [1:06:27] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** So, Madam Mayor, technically at this time, no one is doing anything illegal per se or against our code from what I've seen. You know, the few times that I've gone out for our odd-even watering ban, people are following that fairly well. As far as water usage, there's always a possibility that you can increase water rates or make another tier on the water rate for high-end users. I do know that Woodbury has tried in that in the past and increased it, and people are very willing to pay a fair amount of money for a green lawn, essentially. But that would also increase your revenue and cover some of the costs of increasing the booster station, obviously. Again, education is one of the big ones. I know not to keep bringing up Woodbury, but they offer the ability to purchase essentially a Wi-Fi controlled irrigation controller. And so what that does is help—some of those are like this year, if you have a Wi-Fi controller essentially and then like an in-ground soil sensor that shows how wet it is or dry it is... I would say that on a normal year that would probably work well, but on a very dry year, there's a potential that that controller would actually increase your usage. So really, a lot of times your best usage—I'll give my example at my house in Hudson: I hadn't used my sprinkler system for probably four years up until this year, and now I try and monitor it so that it just keeps the grass green enough. I also don't mow my lawn very much, so at times it gets up to three or four inches tall. So that takes a lot of monitoring also. But education is one of the big ones. If people can water only say two days a week and water more, and if we can get them to do that on opposite days... which is something we could set aside. We have the ability to pass our own ordinance; it doesn't necessarily have to be odd-even. I mean, we looked at doing it in the upper zone by neighborhood: so Inspiration could water two days a week, Baytown Miller Farms could water two, and then there's the Audubon and a couple other smaller neighborhoods. So it would all be offset. There's a few different things we could definitely look into. [1:08:44] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, well, please come back to us in September with a list of options, and we'll probably put some of those into place. [1:08:44] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Okay. Yeah, can I actually have like two months? Because I got a street project. [1:08:44] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Two months is going to take us out of—hopefully... well, I've heard that we probably won't get any real rain through October, but it moves us in the right direction for conservation long term. And whatever you can do education-wise to push out, even if it's through other sources or if we have a contact that's willing to continue to educate, because it just takes a handful of people to start making efforts to make a difference. And you're not seeing that type of level of usage in lower Bayport? [1:10:16] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** No, absolutely not even close. We obviously have an increase with more people watering their lawns by hand, of course, because obviously downtown Bayport has no proliferation of irrigation systems. But no, the levels—you know, we always talk about the DNR level of it should be no greater than like 2.6 times your winter usage, that's kind of what the recommended level is. I don't even think downtown Bayport makes it; it might just make it over two. But this year we had seen all the way up to like eight times winter usage. [1:10:16] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, time to take some action. Yes. All right, well we'll look forward to hearing from you. All right, so that takes us to our City Council Liaison reports. So I'll start at your end, Carl. Anything to report? [1:10:16] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** No meeting, so nothing to report. [1:11:04] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thank you. Katie? [1:11:04] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** Okay, well, the Library Board did meet. Jill has 172 kids involved in her summer reading program, so she was really excited about that, and she signed up 152 new students or library cards. Everything is still going in a positive direction as far as people coming in with COVID, so she's hoping we can stay moving forward. The big thing that we talked about was they're busy planning their next step to their fundraising goal, and they had several questions and I kind of relayed a couple of them to Matt, but then he had talked to Joe and he said we're going to have that Library Board workshop on the 23rd. So it was just what what they could do to go forward, and so they're going to take care of getting that. But Sara Wagner has been doing awesome contacting people and getting money, fundraising and stuff, so they're really hitting that hard. And we will meet again here on the 17th at six o'clock. [1:11:50] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** The workshop for us on the 23rd—isn't it? I thought it was... go ahead. [1:12:36] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Well yeah, I think—sorry—the workshop on the 23rd is a budget workshop starting. We're going to cover the CIP as well as the library budget. And as part of that discussion, because the this project, the proposed project for the library is a little unique: one in that the Library Board is the one who controls the library operations. The City, as everyone knows, sets the levy for the library budget, but the City doesn't control the library budget or the operations. But the library itself—the physical structure, the assets—those are all City property. So there's this quasi intertwined relationship where the City is going to need to approve this project and the legal process. And so I'm working with Attorney Lunin on how that specifically needs to look because we have these two somewhat separate entities for this project. And so the 23rd meeting will be discussing the library budget and the capital improvement project as this proposal is related to that. [1:13:24] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, so thank you. Okay, great. Well, we'll look forward to—and that will be here, yes. All right, great. Ethan? [1:13:24] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** We did not meet, so I have nothing to report. [1:13:24] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay. No planning commission meetings either. I'm busy with the Derby Days planning still. We're hoping—I mean, it's on, and starting to get a little nervous because things are changing again, but at least it's all outdoors. So we have not talked about not having Derby Days; we've been actually pushing that we are having Derby Days. The fireworks are planned, everything as usual; we got the pet parade back and all kinds of fun! So watch if you're on Facebook; follow Bayport Community Action League or the Derby Days Facebook page, or we should be posting some things on our website as well. [1:14:09] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** Super. [1:14:55] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** And the only thing on my calendar just coming up immediately as the Lake Elmo Airport Commission is meeting August 25th. That'll be the first official meeting since just gathering a kind of level setting. I never did receive follow-up notes or presentations from the first, but I will keep you posted on what's covered in the next, and I'll be asking about that from the last meeting. But that's going to be on August 25th. Otherwise, I had no other commitments. Over to you, Matt. [1:14:55] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm going to start with Chief Kinney, our re-elected chief. Congratulations again. [1:14:55] **Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council members. For July, our call volume was 102 compared to 97 in 2020. Our year-to-date calls are 529 compared to 2020 which was 560. Monthly drill was water flow and boat operations. Fire inspections are ongoing as well as plan reviews. Had our Fire Improvement Team meeting. We had our first—my first—public get-together was the St. Paul Power Squadron with a boat demo, and they donated $100 to the Fire Department for appreciation down there. Tomorrow is going to be Night to Unite; we're going to be up at Oak Park Heights, Baytown, and West Lakeland, so we're getting back out to neighborhoods there. The Washington County Fair starts up Wednesday, so we'll be out there doing that stuff. And the Lift and Loop this August 14th—they're going to have fireworks; we're going to do a fire boat standby up there. With that, I'll stand for questions. [1:16:22] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Questions for the chief? Great to see you guys. Nice to see you all. Yes, congratulations! [1:16:22] **Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** Well, thank you. [1:16:46] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you for coming in. Chief Jackson had to step away, but I do have some information I just want to share from her report. The total calls so far year-to-date are at 4,598 was the updated number. As you saw, she also wanted to just point out, as the Council may have seen in the report, back on July 8th of this year, Officer Rusich and Officer Lenander were recognized at a ceremony held at the BCA for their efforts in supporting Officer Eric Mattson during his recovery. He was injured—he was shot in the head during an investigation—he's with the Zekon Police. And in the moments and hours/days afterwards, he was surrounded by security of officers, deputies, troopers, FBI agents, conservation officers, and many other law enforcement members from Minnesota and outside of Minnesota as well. They stayed with him, and he is recovering, which is great. But I do want to congratulate again our officers who, on their own time, went and spent time with this injured officer. The other item was that in the report—and it was, I know, the Police Department shared it on Facebook—there were some raffle winners. The Anderson Elementary raffle... there was a family that won one of the prizes, which was a tour and introduction to the Police Department. And there were some photos of the children that really enjoyed experiencing that. It was a great example of some community-oriented policing that our officers were able to share the department with with that family and the broader community. So it was enjoyed by all. Next, I will move on to Public Works. It was a short month, so not too much going on. We've been line striping on Highway 95 to renew the striping lines for the parking, and then we did wood chip installation on all the City parks; we do that kind of on an annual basis. We have gotten a lot of tree questions about the ash trees. I know last month we passed the thing for treating some of the trees, and so we marked those in orange. A significant amount of people called and said, "Well, why are you cutting down my tree?" when we're actually treating those. So City Hall's been handling a couple of those, and I've answered a couple of those questions. I just like to reiterate: we will be cutting down trees again this year and replanting new ones. Those will likely have green flagging this year. So just to let everybody know: the orange flag is the one we're saving; the green will be the one that we will be actually cutting down. And then finally, a couple of things on Highway 95: the median planting got done. Just like to reiterate—we had this discussion at the workshop partially—the min or max height on some of the plantings there was 24 inches, so we were limited on what we could do. So mainly we have some native plants out there like Little Bluestem and a lot of resilient salt plants like lilies, sedum, and some coneflowers. So here in the coming years, it should be very colorful. And then on 95, a couple of the newly planted trees are starting to yellow. So we've touched base with the contractor there, and he's actually educated us on... you know, mostly it's an insect that is hampering them but not one that is going to kill them. So we have a final walkthrough here, I believe in October, to determine whether we're going to pass the certain trees or whether they need to replant them. That's all I have for my report. Stand for questions. [1:20:39] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Any questions for Matt? Oh, just a quick comment about the tree questions that you get: you could—if we want to—that's the perfect thing to be posting on our Facebook page! "There's orange markers, and that means such and such," and you can share that on the Bayport neighborhood and wherever so you hopefully feel fewer questions when you do the green ones. [1:21:25] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** We don't want to do that... I mean, it's not too late actually to do the orange if you want to post something about it. Actually, Madam Mayor, I have one other thing. So with the treatment of the trees, the City is setting up—or the contractor has set up—their own website which we will be linking to the City website. And also we'll do an email blast just giving them that option to treat their private ash trees. We do have one City employee who's already having a consultation for that, and I have one other resident who is thinking about doing one of the trees actually on the boulevard that we're not treating, but they're considering treating one of the ones on the boulevard. [1:22:11] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** I have a quick one, and I think I know the answer, Matt, but somebody asked me. They said they're always looking for firewood for a bonfire and stuff, and if they had an ash tree that came down on their boulevard, could the contractor take away the brush but leave like the big limbs and logs behind for them to use for their personal use? [1:22:11] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Yeah, so normally we don't get involved with like a contractor and a private citizen like that, and I don't think they like to do that just from a liability standpoint. I do know that likely either Bayport staff/Public Works staff or Sentence to Serve will probably be taking down about 10 to 15 ash trees in Lakeside Park this year. And so what we've done in the past, if it's been STS, I just have them actually cut it up in like firewood length and then we put it over in the boneyard south of the Public Works building, and it's gone within two weeks. [1:23:00] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** Sounds good. Thank you. [1:23:00] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** I had just one other quick question. I think it came up earlier about the Barker's parking lot median and how there's like no plantings anymore. What's going on? [1:23:00] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Yep. So we will be—with our tree planting this year—we're considering... we actually had donated at least three, we're going to put Japanese Lilac trees in there. So they'll be like the one out front here, essentially; it's a lilac but it's a tree. And they only get like 15 feet tall, so it won't impede anything like that. So that's planned up there. One is from the Bayport Community Action. [1:23:47] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I forgot one more! I was asked about on 5th Street in front of Froggies and Manger and the chiropractor there, there's like an empty planter tree spot. Is anything... [1:23:47] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Tentatively, we were able to dig out the stump next to the library, and we were likely going to put... so the bigger trees don't tend to survive there real well, at least in my experience. So we were thinking about either a crabapple—just a flowering one that produces no fruit—or another Japanese Lilac in that location. And if they're interested on that side, I know there's two locations where there had been trees there. I don't see why we couldn't put trees back there. I think it would be nice. And if you go up to Wilder, he's got shade up there for outdoor dining, and it is really nice to have some shade both aesthetically and functionally. [1:24:32] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Hey, we'll plan on that; that'd be great. Thank you. [1:24:32] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** And we'd certainly appreciate and welcome any tree donations, so just please keep that in mind. With that, we'll turn it back over to you, Sara. [1:25:18] **Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** Thank you, Madam Mayor. Over the past few weeks, I've been in contact with MnDOT to resume the conversation and process for installing the wayfinding signs that we had talked about along Highway 95. The purpose would be to promote and direct visitors to parks and other City facilities and amenities. I included an example photo, a mockup of what that could look like, in the staff report. Unfortunately, though, they have really strict regulations on what can be included on those signs. And I know part of the reason we were pursuing these was to promote direction to businesses along especially along 5th Avenue there, and unfortunately that can't happen. They have strict regulations that it has to be a city or public facility. So Matt and I created a map of proposed locations, and I did send that to MnDOT; I'm waiting to hear back. And then we can resume that conversation. If it's something that meets their requirements and we want to pursue further, we can go into costs and what that would entail for plans and specifications to make that happen. So there's an update there. SEH has completed the phase one preliminary temporary access design for the clean water land and legacy site. We're going to be talking this over with Anderson and wrapping up that design here hopefully in the coming week or two. Next steps will include execution of an easement to allow for the access on their parking lot there to access the property, and then contractor bidding and construction. I'm working on the next edition of the print newsletter. I spent the last couple weeks reviewing the ordinances from 2017 to current that will be sent to municipal code to incorporate into our online ordinance and our ordinance book. That was not a fun project, but it needed to be done. So our online code will then be updated since 2017. There was, I think, 20 or 25 ordinances. You have to pay when you do a supplement, so usually we try and gather those together to do a larger supplement versus every time we update an ordinance sending it to them separately. And then on August 18th, the Allen S. King plant advisory panel is going to resume their monthly meetings, and that's to talk about the decommissioning of the plant and resources that Excel offers to mitigate the impacts associated with that. Otherwise, I stand for questions. [1:27:36] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Any questions for Sara? Thank you. Nice to have you back! [1:27:36] **Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** Thanks. Good to see everybody. [1:27:36] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you, Madam Mayor. One of the items in my report was the budget prep. Staff has been busy working on that. We did have the City Council have a workshop tonight immediately preceding this meeting to go over the preliminary budget numbers. As was previously mentioned, on the 23rd, we are planning a second budget workshop to go over the CIP, as well as that'll include some of the infrastructure questions that the Council has had, as well as the library budget, the water and sewer budgets. And then we will be also having a conversation regarding the 15-year fire contract, which was identified as one of the priorities the Council selected this year as we are in the seven-year review of our fire contract. So we'll be having some preliminary discussions about that. The City did receive its ARP funds—the American Rescue Plan funds—just this last week, and so that was just about $200,000—I think it was $195,000. That's the first half of our ARP funds. So staff has now... we're still working on what some of the projects are that would be eligible for those funds under the Council's direction. And the booster station tonight that the Council authorized the plans to be created for is one of those projects that would be eligible. So we'll continue to bring those to the Council for consideration. Also, we have three labor contracts: we have a public works contract (the Teamsters), and a police contract with the Teamsters, and one more with the Minnesota Public Employees Association for the police chief and sergeant union with the state. I am in the process of starting negotiations with those three entities, and the Council will be bringing back input to get from the Council on some of their preliminary demands and negotiations. And as I had mentioned during our workshop earlier, that is one of the exceptions to the open meeting law, so you can schedule a meeting to review those if we'd like, separate. And with that, I just want to remind everybody on Labor Day, September 6th, City Hall will be closed. Our next regular meeting is... yes, that was rescheduled to the 13th due to Labor Day, so that will be our next regular meeting. And we have the one special meeting for the budget workshop on the 23rd. Depending on what we need—if the Council recalls, or for those who haven't been through it before—in September, by September 30th, the preliminary budget needs to be approved by the City and submitted to the county. So typically, we only have one meeting in September; it's usually done by the end of the month. So the plan is to have the preliminary budget adopted by the Council on the 13th. We didn't really get into it, but that preliminary number can be lowered by December when the final number is set, but it cannot go up. So depending on what we can accomplish on the 23rd, we may need to have another workshop on the 13th right before that, because we are going to have a full meeting on the September regular meeting agenda so far. It's growing. Hopefully, we won't have too much left to wrap up. So I will get that information to the Council. Other questions or announcements? [1:32:13] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** On the 23rd, did you have a time yet for that meeting? [1:32:13] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you, Councilmember. Because we don't have a regular meeting that night, we have more flexibility. I was going to propose 4:30, just because that's a very typical time. But if there's a time that the Council would like to choose now? [1:32:13] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** 4:30 is fine. [1:32:13] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Yeah, we don't have another meeting that we're butting up against, so that should provide us enough time. [1:32:13] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, thanks a lot. Any other questions, comments, announcements? Um, when would we address the Youth Service Bureau's request? [1:32:13] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** We can do that as part of the budget. It's, you know, we do currently have that in the budget—the previous amount that we've had for the last past several years. With their request for the three percent increase, the Council can discuss that at our next budget workshop. It's not too late tonight if the Council, because it's a regular meeting, wanted to add that, but it's really up to the Council's prerogative. [1:33:48] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** I mean, there's not a whole lot to discuss, I think... well, or is there? Does anyone want to act on it tonight or should we wait the two weeks or so? [1:33:48] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** It's for next year's budget funding cycle. So the Council can decide it and it'll be part of the budget. [1:33:48] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Well, we'll be regrouping on the 23rd, so if we could just let Mr. Huntley know we are considering it. All right, okay. So if there are no other questions or announcements, would someone like to make a motion to adjourn? [1:34:54] **Katie Hill (Councilmember):** I move we adjourn. [1:34:54] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thank you, Katie. Is there a second? [1:34:54] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Second. [1:34:54] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thank you very much. All in favor? [1:34:54] **Council Members:** Aye. [1:34:54] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you.