I'm going to call to order the Mountain City Council meet member meeting for uh Tuesday April 23rd at 7 o'clock we're in Mountain City council chambers can you rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for [Music] all all right we got that done sorry my computer is slow here here we go I got the agenda here does anybody have any amendments none from staff okay all right can I get a motion to approve the agenda as is I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda as written okay and can I get a second second any discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppose all right that passes all right we got consent agenda does someone want to go through that um do we go through it first and then ask if there's any questions am I doing it yeah okay um I can go through the items um consent agenda item a approve payment of claims B approve minutes from the April 9th meeting C approve resolution approving Lakeshore setback at 4360 Wilshire um D approve resolution approving permits for 71st annual fire department relief Association fish fry and dance on June 1st waving fees for public gathering um a public gathering permit B concert permit C seasonal banner and sign permit d uh temporary on sale Li lior license permit e approve resolution approving public gathering permit to Midwest M Outdoors use of Surfside Park and Beach as way station for bass tournament on Friday June 28th approve resol F approve resolution approving perit to Harrison's Bay Association for rain barrel pickup on May 4th and waving fees uh G approve resolution approving permits for music in the park at Surfside Park Beach and waving fees h approve resolution approving liquor license for meblo at 2281 Commerce Boulevard and I approve resolution approving Mount Fire Department membership in henpen County Fire Chiefs Association okay thank you does anybody want to pull any of those I don't want to pull one but I do want to speak to um the rain barrel because the street conditions by the U um you know the street conditions need to be addressed oh like the in the parking lot the bricks yeah it's pretty it's pretty rough um so when you're driving into the parking ramp right there there's a lot of bricks from the winter that have um come loose and are even and it's a real sort of dangerous I think especially for walking a car probably isn't as bad but it's still pretty um like significance having it in a different spot well no I I just wonder if there's some way that this you know Public Works staff can go and do some sort of patching to just make sure that there's not dangerous fall areas for people walking through there I would offer that the public works could probably take a look at it maybe try to fill in some spots those are up for our project this fall so um it might be minimal but and being that we're sort of short on time I would say maybe I can talk to Ryan we we got a lot of I mean you know there's a lot of traffic coming through there and with the farmers market coming to um people walk through there and stuff so we just need to kind of monitor it maybe we'll definitely do that but that was all you know it's just a caution because we're issuing that permit okay any else not for me all right so I got the consent agenda here can I get get a motion to approve the consent agenda I make a motion to approve the consent agenda okay I got a motion can I get a second second okay roll call please council member larison hi council member macini hi council member Pew hi council member castalano hi mayor h i all right thanks that All Passes all right number five we got comments and suggestions from citizens present that the item is not on the agenda please limit it to 3 minutes come up Mr Mayor very very quickly we just had a a suggestion from our av that if everybody could speak a little bit closer and the mics I think they're having a hard time coming through so oh okay you want pull yours [Music] down okay is there anybody that wants to come okay go ahead can you give us your name and address please sure my name is Dean griffi I live at 2100 Old School Road um and uh uh I just wanted to say shalom and good evening uh my name is Dan griffi and I recently resigned from the store clerk position yesterday at Harbor wi and Spirits although my experience with a manager at Harbor one in spirits became more difficult over the last 10 months especially the last four months I have a lot to be thankful for tonight and I wanted to personally say thanks and put a face to one of the many people that work for this city city of Mound my presence here tonight isn't as a disgruntled former employee and honestly from my heart I'm here to personally say thank you I wish I had the chance to have met each of you over the last one and a half years well employed but as life would haveen for me my primary focus was on supporting my aging parents through the pandemic that unfortunately landed on our Shores the star clerk position was the perfect answer to be able to be close to home and be employed while supporting and making sure my parents were okay and thriving I give God all the glory and thanks as they are doing great and thriving like never before serving their Community especially at the Gillespie Center um that really has an amazing part of the city of Mound and it's been a vital Lifeline uh to their thriving thank you council member Pew um for being the connection to the city of Mound and the Gillespie Center um the city of Mound more importantly the people of Mound have really mattered to me and my family over the last 45 years um since we made the city of Mount our home in 1976 thank you again for giving me the privilege of serving the ever growing Multicultural citizens of mountain and serving with the most oh I got to say this a most amazing assistant manager store clerks keyholder co-workers that I could ever ask for they were more than supportive of me and accommodating me and I believe they would say the same of me um I also believe uh that the the customers also would say that of me as well that they mattered I hope my service really did matter to the city of Mound having used my 25 years of awarded customer service skills and higher education and multiculture and identity formation skills along with real world experiences working with people from over nine different countries and my career path using my conversational fluency in Spanish hakas and also having uh glean from various important phrases from Chinese Russian German Korean and actually Oru uh which is from Wanda quick example and a highlight for me I have to share as a store clerk was making a customer feel they really mattered and by using Chinese language skills I deeply connected with them which later resulted in a $1 1900 sale shocked me too um people really do matter um not because of their dollar signs and not because of any product sold but simply because they're people with real feelings real hearts sry it's okay real life Journeys real struggles and simply want to feel that they really do matter in closing I want to say again thanks really genuinely thanks and although my experience may have been difficult one over the last four months um I'm still thankful and ask that you show the people that serve under you that as people they really do matter go shake their hand have a cup of coffee and let the Hallmark of the city of Mound be that people do matter thank you thank you appreciate it thanks thank you know that just resounds with um the the response I had gotten from several people saying how the customer service at the liquor store was just above and beyond and that people were really friendly they served and uh fulfilled and obviously you were part of that thank you for your service yeah thank you thank you okay do we have anybody else want talk all right next up we got henpen County Commissioner Kevin Anderson Hey Kevin how are you Kevin thank you so much Mr Mayor and Council for for having me tonight um I my name is Kevin Anderson uh we can move to the uh the next slide here um we won't spend too much time on this one uh for anybody who uh who might not be uh familiar with me who I haven't had a chance to meet yet uh who or for anybody who might be watching this later on uh Kevin Anderson I've served as your county commissioner for the last four years um I serve as the Public Works chair um most recently I was also uh uh voted as the vice chair of our uh Public Service committee our health and human services committee and our Housing and Redevelopment Authority um additionally I've taken on some leadership roles with uh the association of Minnesota counties and the National Association of counties I I think it's been uh an incredible opportunity to be able to lend uh the voice of the western suburbs to uh to in some of these spaces uh sometimes I think the that voice of uh suburban and uh rural commissioner in a large County uh has can get lost so it's uh it's kind of great to be able to be uh your voice in those spaces and I really appreciate that opportunity uh we can move on to the next one uh this year uh I try to make it out to my city councils every year and uh this year my my intent is to be able to show uh how our budget is uh showing up in in the residence of uh Mound so as you can see this is kind of our VIs ual representation of the County's budget uh by and large uh the largest portion of our budget is Health and Human Services so over 50% of uh of our budget goes to uh supporting residents uh when they're their at their low point right uh when they need support henpen county is our primary job is to lift them back up on their feet um we can move on to the next slide um actually probably next side too um our for the residents of Mound uh one of the things that uh is striking and I think important to recognize uh 2,300 individuals receive support uh now this is by ZIP code and so it's possible that uh these residents are all within the city of Mound uh but it is important to note that uh it's our neighbors and the the needs that hanpen county is addressing is countywide uh and I think that's the the important thing is that uh we are always trying to find ways of meeting people's needs um even if we don't necessarily have a service center available uh we're investing in uh online resources uh making sure that our call centers are staffed and answering and uh dealing with calls um there's always more work to do right we're we're always going to continue to strive to be better uh but the need exists everywhere and so we're committed to making sure that we're helping people and uh doing that work across the board um the the next uh largest portion of our budget is Public Safety uh last year we increased our budget for the sheriff's department uh by a fairly significant amount to make sure that they had the capacity to retain and recruit uh detention deputies specifically um we want to make sure that they're uh able to take care of uh the public safety uh of our residents we're also investing in our facilities for uh for the sheriff's department we're building a new Patrol Division for them um we also um uh I'm just going to make sure I have my right notes here um uh we also have investments in our uh embedded social worker program that mount has access to um that is sometimes in my notes I have numbers but I don't today so uh I know it's part of a uh several cities that share uh embedded social worker um and that program has been wildly successful we just recently today approved uh a renewal of many of those grants um next slide here is our Public Works uh we have a lot of work happening uh as chair Public Works it's been kind of exciting to see the additional uh projects uh popping up in Western henpen um we uh in 2023 we did a number of uh these maintenance projects and Signal Replacements 2024 we're doing a lot of work on 16 um so uh we're going to continue to find ways of uh investing in our infrastructure and making sure that it's taken care of uh one part of our ability to do that is the complete and green streets policy this policy was passed last year uh and to me it's a fairly exciting policy uh it allows us to evaluate uh pedestrian improvements or bicycle improvements multimodal improvements uh on the interim uh between full reconstruction projects so uh you know where there's a a a path along a county road that doesn't have a sidewalk doesn't have enough shoulder and there's pedestrians that are using it anyways uh we all know those places right and this policy is going to allow us to revisit and evaluate those potential projects when we're doing uh more regular maintenance so like a a millon overlay or a chip seal that uh is designed to just prolong the life of the road historically what we've done is just come through done the uh preservation project and moved on to the next project this allows us to take a moment say is there any kind of improvement that we can make um in the interim uh that can impove improve the the life and safety of people who are using the road that may not be driving um so I think that's uh going to be particularly pronounced in the western suburbs including Mound move on um one of the fun things that I always like to highlight is our uh embedded or sorry our youth sports grant funding uh Youth and Mound have benefited from uh $47,000 uh for one uh playground Grant um and almost $150,000 in in various uh equipment grants so um it's not all through the city amone but through the the school district um and we're always finding ways of uh trying to find ways to get money uh to support youth so uh our next slide here is uh about the library we know that uh there's going to be a new library in town and I'm really excited about that um I think we're continuing to do the public engagement we're trying to find a spot to make sure that we have alternative uh uh space for programming and to pick up books uh in the area I think there's talk of partnering with the school but I'll have to check with our our library director um I was at the uh the most recent public uh uh listening session uh it's really exciting I think this this project is going to be really great for uh for the residents out here um we see you know as was mentioned in the public hearing usage is increasing year-over-year um and and that's true across our library system but it's particularly true out here and that building definitely needed some uh some TLC so uh happy to see that that project coming to fruition uh I think we're going to be seeing work starting uh I believe this fall so uh and continuing on through the next year so um with that happy to answer any questions uh I wanted to keep this short sweet so thanks yeah does council have any questions I don't have questions commissioner but I just wanted to thank you you've done a great job being in front of us and keeping us up to dat yeah and seeing you at you know the library and some of the other things that are going around in Mound so it's been really great and thank you for happy to do it I it really is such a joy to to be able to to come out here and and provide updates uh and and get to know the the community out here so um the trail Crossing you know this has gotten bump back here and there so in your thing it said 2024 um I I've heard anywhere from Fall 2024 to Spring of 25 let me see I know Jesse you might do you have any updates on that at all or no we haven't talked about it for a little while here it's up to met Council isn't it well I know met Council but I I guess if if they get in there and get done with the the road then it could be as soon as this fall but I just don't know on your I I don't have the timeline um happy to to follow up yeah do you want to follow up with Jesse and then sure maybe he can give us an update at the next meeting sounds good just people big thing we want to get it done so yep absolutely but yeah we appreciate and thanks for the uh helping out with the the Grant and on the park money absolutely and I just want to say I'm glad you're talking about the paths uh bike roads we've talked about County Road 15 and Wilshire to give us that circular path around Lost Lake so good we fit it we'll we'll keep working uh every chance we get so we want to make sure that we're we're meeting the needs any chance we can thank you all right any other questions all right thanks commissioner thank you so much for having me see you see you all right we got Belmont Park native plant proposal Maggie and Tyler yeah go ahead all right mayor and consel I'm just gonna uh introduce Tyler uh Piper yeah um in your packets I have a timeline of kind of some discussions that have happened over the and collaborations that has happened over the past several years with Tyler um and I'll let him kind of he has a wonderful presentation to go through as well um the specific topic he will be talking about tonight is expanding on the Bel Belmont uh Park Native Garden um there's currently um some Native Garden um sections there right now and he's looking to expand and so this has gone to the park commission a couple times and um within the proposal um they have talked through that with Tyler and it would include a partnership with the city um Public Works uh would help with some of the watering and mulch um and this has been relayed to Public Works and they agreed to to continue to work on this uh project with him um they've done so in the past as well it would also um uh uh the request is for $700 worth of plantings that would go into the park as well but I'll let um and the park commission did recommend approval of this um and so if you have any questions I'll be available after but I'll let Tyler go through his presentation hey Tyler hi everyone and Council thank you for having me uh Tyler Piper I live at 5504 Church Road uh so very near Belmont this is a near and dear you know project to my heart um this work began in 2024 and just a thank you for the introduction Maggie to fill in some of the um the gaps there uh began this project and it was a coordination with you know again um The Parks Commission and city council I think the previous um city manager um uh Eric was who I was working with at the time but um involved you know clearing a spot in the park it was just a lot of grass and you know by August it's pretty dead and Barren over there and uh planting some stuff that looks like this um with some flowers and things to attract butterflies and I think what I underestimated is how many humans it attracted as well there was a lot of people who liked it and um different ages I know um just seeing people out there was rewarding for me um and kind of made the weeding a little less hard um but uh what this project initially started out with and the idea was plant walls and buffers and this was part of the fun of working with the city is you know I had an idea in my head my son is two and so I'm just uh you know hyper vigilant about don't run the road um so my initial project was more based on let's build buffers around the different uh potential places you could run out into the street you know through different evolutions of the project and looking at the space you know there's concerns about salt and you know different things with that small strip of land we ended up adjusting and we have still kind of that benefit with one part of the roadway going um believe that' be East West uh across across Belmont um but what we did do is continue adding to it so again that was exciting for me to just you know evolve with what the city and the commission the park commission specifically thought would be best and so that's what's reflected in proposal two if we get to those Maps I don't know if there's two or if you removed one of them you know I I think I kept both of them in there which is good I mean just it shows uh but specifically what I'm here for is proposal 2 because that's what was approved by the uh the Parks Commission and so again the plants are all um 250 to about 350 it depends with a little bit of variability but what's nice is um in the previous process what I did in my followup for after this meeting should you approve it would be to coordinate with the city manager and um the vendor who we've used before which is natural Shore Technologies they're based out of Long Lake um they have to be honest the cheapest prices around in terms of good quality plants I mean 250 a plug if you check competitors online I I challenge you to find the better um and so you know around 230 plans to accommodate for the different spaces that I have and so you'll see these kind of rust rough estimates of the plans with you know potential plants in place if if you want a uh a translation so I don't go into scientific and Latin language you know we're basically going short to taller in the middle you know so people can see maximum amounts of the garden um you know concerns that we've had in the past about people trampling them or not looking slightly I think we've kind of dealt with those and there haven't really been that many issues um typically around May is when I clear the gardens give them kind of their buzz cut so if you've driven by recently wondering why is he proposing this haven't got to it I I leave the stuff so the bees and butterflies nesting in the stems can kind of uh have a chance to overwinter a little longer um but yeah if we want to keep going through the next uh area this was proposal one and again um the idea was that there was you know a driveway nearby um we talked with the um City crew and this they kind of semi quasi approved this recommendation they had no problems with it I think is a better way of saying but again I actually like and my wife does too I once I show her the design if we go to design two for a second so we're extending the current Garden extending another current garden and adding a buffer strip here and what's important to me and again I have a two-year-old son who will be aging into this is that that whole Green Space to that um nearby Road over there is open I mean this neighborhood does need places kids can throw football and you know kick a soccer ball that's more my cup of tea but um I didn't want to encroach on that space But what's nice is you kind of even in this design have this almost little shell of Gardens and butterflies and stuff that kids like to see too uh built around the gardens um I mean around the playground so where it's in blue is where the city would come out and this what we did last time I spray painted the ground they cleared it and obviously we do the um the checks with you know wires or anything like that the benefit is of plants is that I'm not really going low enough to hit anything it's what I've gotten when I've done this for about five or 10 years um and but still it's good to be safe and make sure we're we're not having any issues but we'll call that get that set spray stuff in and then I think it's by May 25th or 27th is the first that they have uh plant orderings available or at least for pickup and so I've already coordinated with the vendor in the past just because I I use them for other projects that I work on personal hobby stuff um so they would have the ability to you know take an order that large and make sure that it was kind of prepared on time and ready for us um should we go that route um so if we want to move to the next slide um the different areas you saw there's an old willow tree that's ginormous and it's frankly going to die and fall sooner rather than later but on that property but I just named this Garden because it's nearby it but um to not go into each individual plant they're all Native they all have great benefits and part of my plan comes from the idea that um it's a almost a symphony of Colors Over the the summer and so you're going to get some spring stuff you're going to get some middle of the summer and the Heat and then some stuff like the Asters that are very late in the fall and so you get a maximum benefit I don't know if I can promise at one time on Fourth of July when the fireworks are g off it's going to look you know all flowers at once but it is a really wonderful site when it's out there and I know this from you know pictures I've taken or seen people take you know little pictures neighbors with their cameras you know getting pictures of stuff like that so that that's been fun and rewarding for me we can go to the next next one this was the left Garden that's adding on to the second So currently you know there's two blocks of Gardens and this is that second one on the side and again same idea where we kind of start small with the uh butterfly weed that's a great one to attract monarchs and then we get uh you know some smaller stuff in the Middle with strawberry these are all kind of lower side because they're also going to be in working in coordination with the gardens that are there so that's the only thing that I wouldn't call it an nier cuz I love this whole process but you know it will look like a newish garden for a year um but why I like this vendor a lot is they have plants that have been in the pots for a year two years three years sometimes and so when you put them in they they take off and um I have the pictures it was in a uh a Laker article I think from a year or two ago but we we kind of documented the process over time and within a year it looked almost established so I'm hoping that you know if we plant early and you know through the coordination with Jesse and the team um we could pull that off so that by June July people are walking by and there's a Fresh coat of mulch these plants are growing and it looks like a nice addition to the park um final uh garden layout I recommend uh going to Minnesota native wild flowers on Google um there's a great repository if you're ever curious about these but I think in the next couple slides I don't know if this is shared with you digitally but I did link some of the uh um the names of the plants so if I've sparked some curiosity in native plants you want to go crazy um feel free to click the links but um you know that kind of sums up the the total summary of The Proposal as Maggie said the one thing um you know this was a drought so I'm probably a little bit scarred but the last time I did this and this is on me 100% but I didn't I didn't ask for help and so again with my uh wife ending up on some of these interior things she wanted to make sure I asked for help this time so I wasn't bugging over multiple 5 gallon jugs in our Honda Civic um I'm not a pickup type guy um but anyways you know shared responsibilities and that's I think through further coordination and you know again made sure we asked the the city Crews first because that's going to be you know part of their schedule as well the mulch has been extremely easy because I do a very minimal amount I don't want a giant Mound and they just come out when they're spreading left a pile for me I came and put it in there and that was that um so at this point any questions or concerns I'd love to hear otherwise I would just love to hear your opinion on it does council have any questions for tler well you've done a beautiful job over there and the fact that you've taken it upon yourself to plan the gardens that's huge I think so you know I think it'll look just great when it's done and I much prefer uh the layout to as well good it's it's not as random it's more concise together so yeah it looks really good and thank you for taking this on of course it's I'm really grateful for the city's cooperation over the the last couple years and you know it's h one more reason to convince my wife to uh stick around you know we've got the gardens we got you have a two-year-old to that that's another help exactly we want to take advantage of the school district you know I've heard a lot of good things like that so anything else oh I think it's awesome all right do we have a motion or anything he then we have to make a motion to approve the um I'm not sure has it been one the past here yeah I I would do one just maybe a motion um just affirming the recommendation from the parks and open space Comm Parks okay can someone make that I want you to reward your motion right okay I'll do it okay I make a motion that we um approve the recommendation of the Parks Commission for the budget of $700 to the Belmont Park all right got a motion can I get a second second any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppose all right that passes thanks Tyler thank you very much thank you all right now we got uh revised website update Magie mayor and Council the item this evening is to talk about a new website design um so when I started in August last year one of the priorities was to um work on ways that we could improve our Communications and um throughout that throughout the last few months we've made progress in some areas we've been working on the newsletter and social media um we I've uh also worked on up um our website a little bit with just making information um a little easier to navigate um but one thing I've been running into is that we're a little limited with our current website uh in the sense that they are doing upgrades of their own right now and that means that we are not able to do a full upgrade of their website until 2025 um and so I they've been a great partner it's Civic plus um but since uh we weren't able to kind of get anything moving this year we decided the communications committee we decided to um look at what our options were in general um as far as where we could go with our website uh and so over the past several months I've met with different vendors um including three companies that specialize in government websites specifically um and two of them are very large organizations um Civic plus and granicus and then revise is a is more of a smaller company um but again they all focus in local government websites uh I also looked at the option of working with a company that would completely redesign our website and it would be our own but um after looking into it a little bit more I I don't recommend that as a as the option moving forward um and so with kind of moving forward with the website um one of I listed some goals of the communications committee um in kind of what we want our new website to include and that is again enhance Communications just overall look and feel and the ability to navigate it um better um we also uh focus on discussions related to email and text notifications being able to inp orate that in there um adding and then from a staff perspective adding in that human resource element right now we don't have a great option to do online applications and so it's all very much paper based um incorporating eventually online bill pay option for um you know the uh permits and and utility bills um creating a kind of a city meetings hub where we can kind of keep all of our documentation for our meetings in one place and people can don't have to look in several uh places for that more administrative flexibility and a better connection with social media and uh e newsletter capabilities and so um again when working with all these companies um we've met several times with as a Communications committee uh we kind of T looked a lot at the cost of um the cost of these items and what we were running into is that uh a couple of the companies while they all offer great products um two of the companies we kind of ran into this all a cart problem where you're able to get the website designed but then if you want to add on the features we want you have to then pay for those extra and it's just kind of their business model um and uh it got it it added up very quickly and so um we did I explored a couple other cities in the area and the City of Victoria um I noticed had worked with a company called revise um I believe they're out of Michigan but um they in uh my interest was okay we have another local city using them let's reach out see what they have to offer um they are able to do their website um uh not as all a cart so they're able to bring everything in together and under one price so we know what we're getting um and it's again um we're not worried about having to add on those features later um and so uh council member McAn and I uh recently met with the company just to do one last meeting with them before we brought it to council we wanted to make sure that they were able to do everything we want them to do um as far as meeting our long-term goals and we felt that that um that they were able to do that um and so tonight uh I provided kind of a little bit of background that they provided to me uh and then their proposal or their um yeah their agreement proposal which the City attorney is currently looking at there are some concerns in there that we would have to negotiate still but um I I think that's doable um to to work with them and still get what we want out of it um so the there are two options that they propose as far as financing and um we can do a one the first year would be a more of a lump sum payment um I believe that was 14,500 and then the next two years would be uh 20 or the following years will be 2500 otherwise we can do a 5-year contract at at 4,900 [Music] um one thing I had to do a little research uh that's in line with what we're currently budgeting is about 4500 um the last few years we were about with Civic plus we were at about 4,000 um I reached out to another neighboring City that uses Civic plus and their new contract was about 4600 um and so I think if we were to go back with them Just For What B what we have right now it would be around that same price um but again if we wanted to add on features it would we' kind of do that all a cart model and it would the price would go up and so I feel like uh when we met with them again the price was right in line with what we're currently budgeting and it meets all the needs that um kind of we're looking for as far as a website in the future so um again that there's more information in your packets but um I guess we're looking uh the recommendation um is that we move forward again pending uh further review and comments from the city attorney as far as the contract but um yeah just looking for discussion and uh any any further comments on what you see in the packet all right does council have any questions for Maggie so we're just making a recommendation tonight to ending the so so I'm talking with uh Maggie excuse me um an option is to approve it subject to the final review and approval of of the city manager and myself that'll give us some time then to work through the negoti you know negotiation and those issues that I may have seen and then and if there is any material changes um as I look at it as like something that would materially impact the city price whatever and it can come back to the and one thing to note too is once the process is started it's about 20 to 26 weeks to design and get everything um uh kind of start to finish and it would be myself and Communications committee that would um kind of work through that process if approved okay well I want to say a thanks to council M your hard work and and me of course done the leg work but it's really exciting it's going to be really interactive and what we don't have currently is any kind of administrative flexibility for Maggie so we can't even go in and change a color you know without having the Civic plus do it so this is going to give Maggie a lot of flexibility it's going to add a lot more work but it might eliminate work with us adding the bill pay and um notify me so res we'll be able to harvest just email addresses of our residents and um the thing I'm most excited about is just being able to get up in front news and highlights for our residents right off the bat when they see the front of the website and it it's all reactive for phone and obviously and it just looks great on the phone too so oh it's like more mobile friendly yeah yeah it's reactive and stuff so it's it's it's really exciting for mound to get into the 21st century with uh visual communication yeah and it might be you know some work and you know front end but it'll be wor I think it'll be worth it in the long run and part of what takes so much time is mining all the information that's currently on our website and moving it over and then at that point you know Maggie will have to figure out if it it'll be a good time to purge kind of like cleaning your garage when you've decided to rebuild yeah like just looking at at what you the information and what maintaining what's relevant and what's not so well thank you for bringing that back and again all your work as well I think it's a great idea and this is what we're trying to do is be more communication friendly and uh can you go back to that little list that we had at the top there like that first one I don't know if you'd said that when or not but opt-in email and text notifications you know just things like that that you know on our current website if you click on it now it's like it doesn't go anywhere yeah looks like it took it but it doesn't do anything so hopefully nobody's doing that it'll just be modernizing everything you know even when it kind of cracks me up I've been here what 34 years and I didn't even know we had bill pay so then I got excited and then you have to go up to the city to get a piece of paper you know you can't fill anything out out online so everything will be able to be done online even for like um um citizen of the year yeah yeah I we won't be ready for that this year but going forward they won't have to turn in a type sheet of paper right and it'll it'll be really great for notifying me y good any other questions or concerns comments no okay again thanks for your work on that is there something to um improve here yeah I think as attorney lansman said if if you are in favor of moving ahead um it would be moving I guess moving forward with um working with Revis to for the website but then um with the understanding that the attorney and uh uh staff needs to kind of finalize that agreement okay um still and then if anything substantial any big changes are needed then we'll bring it back so Mr Mayor that that copy the agreement itself was starts on page 105 to may have seen that my S suggestion if maybe if this is correct would be a motion to approve subject to um the final review and approval of the City attorney and city manager yes and does there need to be decision at this point with regard to because there was two different op financing options um I guess my recommendation would have would be the fiveyear um just because that's what we're used to budgeting for um and it would just I guess keep our budget similar and I was going to say that too like pending the agreement you know coming out like spreading the cost for like five grand of year is probably best yeah all right so we'll make a motion question I don't mean to bring this out in the open B understand the financing so is the idea that they're looking at is a 5year contract is what $24,000 and that's set and that's set no matter what and if we if the city decides that it doesn't want the services anymore we still have to pay for that full amount oh pay for the five years and then don't renew well what if we what if we get to year three because and we the city doesn't like how they're the work that's happening and that's the only issue I have with the five years because you're kind of tied into that where if you did the larger amount up front for the design and then pay the smaller amount per year the city could have that option if they find that the services aren't quite what it wants to to be to be able to back out it's but there's a larger cost up front so the 145 up front and then 145 for the first year and then that was at 2 2400 I think or year two and so and onward that way because originally how the contract is written is that it states here that if we decide that year three four whatever we decide we don't city city council decides that the services aren't working anymore when trate the agreement it accelerates that I find that problematic because the whole idea for $2,400 is just um is just for hosting and if they're not providing that service the city shouldn't be paying for that but I I I don't we don't I don't know more until because I brought these issues up and I won't know more until we actually um talk to them maybe I maybe what I suggest is once we find out exactly what it is they're providing and how the structure is um lean towards the The Five-Year payment but if it's but if but if if the count if staff makes a determination that that it would be better for the city based on you know our discussions to go to the more front-loaded model then go with that well I mean that that begs you know you're in charge of all the finances is that doable it is doable yeah um I yeah I mean they're we do have flexibility the five and he uh attorney lansman did bring up some good points um and that is some I I think we do need to meet with the with them and just see talk through some of those talking points but um either way we can make it work I I think just having a stable five years is is nicer but um again if that is not the route that would work best um we can we can make the other contract work as well um yeah and we've been with this current one for what 3 years mhm about four yeah yeah and well I don't know if you remember the one before who was the one before pretty rough it was bad was it was like the first internet ever but like the vendor I thought Civic plus was just like the Walmart of government websites and I didn't realize how expensive they were they're one of several anyway this is going to be a heck of a lot better cool in all cases so yeah I'd rely on you on how how you think we should pay for it but yeah I'm open to either way or again if we want to say the fiveyear now and then if it's not come back and sign I I I said I I need to know we need to know more about structure how the structure is but the the issue is is that you know if you go into that fiveyear you're tying yourself into a 5year contract because if you're in your three it's going there's going to be a buyout right um where there where if you front loadad it maybe there won't be a buyout if you're not unhappy with the service that's provided and that does make sense because the main cost is the initial design and then May you'll have a ton of flexibility to change you know once we're set up so that does make sense in case what if something happens in 3 years and then we've already paid for the design up front they would they still host it then yeah yeah okay so I I I think maybe just give the flexibility to um staff to make that determination of you know what what would be the what would be in the best interest of the of the city at once we've gone through it and had a discussion with them right um because the the overall price isn't going to change yeah that will that will remain the same okay well can you tell us what our motion should be I I would say uh confus I would just like we said a motion to approve the the agreement um which is on page starts on page 1052 subject to the final review and approval of the manager city manager and the City attorney that will provide that flexibility okay does someone want to say that or say so maybe you should say it you know you um well it's on the record you can just say say so moved yeah you can say it moved as the City attorney um recommended how's that yeah did you get my motion someone's got someone's got to say it though I'll I'll say it one more time motion to approve the agreement starting on page 1052 subject to the final review and approval of a city manager and City attorney okay I'll make that my motion can I get a second second okay any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I those opposed all right that passes thanks Maggie thank you Magie thanks all right number nine we got s Lana and she's going to come up and give us a presentation can you give us your name and address hello my name is swetlana sapina and address is 30001 dry Lane Mound um thank first first of all thank you for inviting my husband and me today um we are the relatively the new residents of Mound we moved here uh in summer 2020 22 and uh let me introduce myself my art and possibly my exhibition idea yeah so my name is swetlana I am a beid artist and I started creating trees and flowers out of beads in 2007 so here is our little uh popup show today so you can um see some of the examples of my Works uh I teach this craft since 2010 uh I also have two published books um I I participated in more than 60 National and international uh shows and beaing events and my last uh participation was in the Minnesota State Fair where I've got some prizes I will show the pictures later in the slide next slide please um my um it was always my dream to to move and live in the US and luckily it uh it come true so in 2019 uh I've got the eb-1 green card as an artist and we moved here uh in Minneapolis first and then uh about 2 years ago we bought a house here in Mound on the Phelps Island nice uh let me tell about my some of my projects this was my first project in 2011 a lady contacted me and uh they had an idea of creation of a Beed wreath to commemorate people who served and died during September 11th attack attack so I sent several flowers together with other artists uh from all over the world and this wreath was presented and on the monument opening um in Indianapolis I only saw that wreath on on a picture that would be nice if if to see it in in real life so my next project was this uh replica of Kate Middleton's wedding bouquet and it was a long story but it was presented to her on my behalf in England yeah and I I would like to tell you more about it but maybe next time so here's my other project it's um American beauty rose which was presented to the first lady of the United States in 2017 and next uh some of my pieces like for example the geranium and my wedding bouquet uh which uh were the finalist at the Biden button show in Milwaukee in different years and yeah here is uh my most recent uh Alum flower the purple one which got the second place ribbon And The Sweep Stakes at the Minnesota State Fair this uh last summer and also you can see the little yellow flowers this is mimosa uh it got the second prize this this was my uh recent class uh we were creating the Beed Christmas tree with the members of the Upper Midwest beat Society I'm not sure if you are familiar with this Society in Minneapolis next uh more pictures from my classes and next you can see two of my books and I even created uh the be technique so I was contacted by um a man who collects the Beed flowers from I I don't remember for sure it was SW Switzerland or swiss and he wanted me to create a Beed Fern and none of the existing techniques worked for that it just didn't look real so I needed to invent my own technique which I later registered and called Russian beaing technique so next you can see some exhibitions which I used to have uh in the gallery of Modern Art Museum of stone in the Central City library and I would like to continue uh doing my exhibitions and classes here and what what do I need I need some place obviously it can be a library or church or some Gallery Museum uh show some showcases or the STS to place the pieces the bed pieces yeah and by the way uh I'm already going to have my first big exhibition in May and I would like to invite everybody who wants to visit it it's going going to be in Minnesota State uh in Minnesota Valley Chapter um the gallery is called Kuba Gallery uh th this is located in Bloomington on the bank of the Minnesota River so it's a beautiful place the open house is going to be on May 19th from 1 to 400 p.m. and besides food and drinks people will also see our work works of course uh I not I am not I I am not the only one the only artist who is going to present fabulous flowers but also there will be painters Mosaic artists so I think it will be interesting also they have the trail in the forest in the park so visitors will be able to to take a walk um and the dates of the exhibition Miss is from May 10th to June 4th but the open house the most interesting part will be on May 19th from 1 till 4: also if if you go if you want to give me an email address uh they will send an official invitation to everybody who gives their email address so please let me know and thank you for your attention and you are all invited to my first exhibition and hopefully um we can come with more ideas in the future somewhere in Mound if there is such a place oh by the way our first presenter was talking about the library so we have the old library and it's going to be a new one right I think it's an ideal place for for an exhibition like that oh and just we can scroll um quickly through some of the other pictures of my works yeah so this should be a popular flower here on Christmas mhm the sunflower and here you can compare the real flower and the beaded one I hope they look similar how long does it take you to create you know like that blue flower blue uh the little one no the big like uh Alien yeah uhhuh uh Al it took me two months and a half okay wow yeah it looks like it would be laborious work about uh by the way my husband recently I put time when I uh start beating and when I finish uh and you recently 150 hours for for the for the purple and for the geraniums those are uh like multicolored flowers it took me 176 hour hour I just recently I have a notebook I just recently looked through it through it so I remember what about my wedding Bouie you see those white color lies it just took me one month because I didn't have any choice I just the idea came one month before my wedding and the last uh D Drops I put in the morning oh wow this beautiful work my husband was helping he was holding my bouet and I was putting those beads and luckily I did it on time teamwork yeah so yeah here is the birch tree uh and the next are the Roses inspired by some people yeah and the last page is my contact information yeah please take a picture uh also I have my cards here with my phone number and the website please uh take a card and text me sometimes yeah thank you yeah does council have any questions for her at all I don't think so so she's a local Mound resident and actually her husband reached out to me a few months ago and then they did kind of a presentation for me uh and Jesse um in the other room and just I said you know anybody in in Mound is welcome to come and present anything if they want to so I said well first of all can I touch it no she's like don't touch right cuz you're it's not good to touch them you can touch Sometimes some of them okay all right well I learned that but then also she's got some books and so are you going to stay around here so then we can see it after when we're done going to stay maybe take a picture or something okay sure um but yeah i' urge everybody to look at that and uh really your stuff is not for sale right um it can be sometimes but uh I'm trying to keep my um Works to to have something for the exhibitions yeah yeah and also I I like if I calculate how much hours did I put into it and if I calculate the real price it's usually pretty expensive price so not everybody so we also talked about like she suggested about the the library and of course we're not going to have one in a minute here for about a year or so um but we thought of that that might be a great place for you to and we'll kind of help you maybe reach out and maybe they have some kind of exhibition area I think they do don't they have some glass cuz your stuff has to be behind glass yeah so we thought about something even here at the city hall if we could start some kind of program like that but I think right now it'd be probably best to have the library M something bigger like a geranium can stand just on the stand without the glass but for example the willow it's better to keep in the glass because it's tall so not to not to move it not to shake it kind of so it doesn't fa yeah are you teaching classes to people here Mountain uh or or just all over uh currently I only teach from time to time like I was invited to teach uh before Christmas uh by the Upper Midwest bit Society okay but I don't teach on the regular basis now because I also have a full-time job here and when I came I started to teach but then Co happened so now yeah but I would like to continue I just need some place and I need people who are wanting to come and be taught I was just thinking about you know Community ad right you know through the high school oh um they have a lot of classes that they offer for children so you you can sign up to to teach a class you can teach a class if you want uh which school the mount West Pack high school it's uh called Community Education and they have a lot of programs that people can sign up for and then they pay a fee and you would work with them to figure out what the schedule would look like for spring summer winter fall but it might be a fun opportunity for you to teach adults and kids alike okay thank you for that idea I need to contact them Jesse can you email them how to get a hold of the school district or something yeah we we all get them probably right quarterly we get the little sure and then we spend all of our paychecks on the all the different classes for the kids yeah anyway yeah well again we appreciate coming out and then if you would stay around then we can turn the lights on and look at your stuff and maybe take a photo or something thanks thank you for your attention thank you appreciate it all right number 10 we got Planning Commission recommendation Rita [Music] uh good evening mayor members of the council I'm Rita trap uh planning consultant for the city as was noted in the packet uh as we were starting to work on the 2024 code updates uh we noticed uh that the mixed juice districts had not been updated reflective of the comprehensive plan amendment that was adopted um earlier this year late last year um as we went through the timing so we went through and identified some potential changes that we should do to make sure that the zoning code is consistent with the comprehensive plan and that's what's before you this evening are the changes that we recommended based on our understanding of what the direction was from the comprehensive plan we met with the Planning Commission twice um the first meeting was to just kind of check in on a few items to understand uh what the direction might be and then we propose the ordinance that you see in front of you um we did some technical kind of organizational cleanup items which I don't need to spend a lot of time on but I could clarify if there's questions kind of the major changes uh are talking about the senior living buildings um and replacement uh Apartments making sure they're conditional uses not just permitted uses to kind of indicate that the city um would want to have more conversation if someone was interested in that that change does mean that there are no apartment specifically listed uh as an allowed use at all in the mixed use districts it would just be replacement um we would limit the height in both districts to 35 ft which I think reflects the discussion that we had in the comprehensive a plan Amendment um if you previously remember there used to be a 50ft in the downtown district and a 35- foot um in the corridor district and if we're only looking at town houses or mixed use buildings we really don't need 50 ft uh in order to accommodate those the third one is a little bit um interesting and it's specifically intended to address the reality of um our understanding is that we could have mixed use buildings in downtown that there would be an openness to that uh as part of the clarifying conversation with Planning Commission um we made sure that we understood that if you had for an example a retailer in our office on the ground floor and apartments above that there would be interest in that I think my understanding has been that we really don't want just Standalone apartment buildings but if we wanted mixed use um our concern was just that if you did that there still might be a scale issue that there was still that feeling that we don't want large large buildings um and so the strategy to address that was to limit um the length of the wall of a single wall along a facade um to make sure that we didn't get big buildings so how we came to 200 ft um is I took a measurement of how how long are Tessa one of their walls is how long is the wall behind True Value how long is uh the facade that's on where Scotty B is how long is the Commerce Place just to get a sense of where those measurements were and then pick a number that was lower than those um assuming that that's kind of what we feel like is an acceptable building so in general when we look at other communities not a a lot of communities have this um a few other ones that we had worked with in the past um they were saying you know between 200 and 300 ft so I felt pretty good about being at the low end but obviously that number could be different if you would like in order to have that standard included in the code though we needed to Define what facade meant um and so that's just an addition to our definition section so that is also included in the code um before you uh the Planning Commission reviewed this and were comfortable with the proposed changes um this is a public hearing tonight because you do hold the public hearing so we do need to officially hold the public hearing um then in your packet is an ordinance uh that uh identifies the changes that we would make with the code and then there is also the uh resolution um that we would need to have that just confirms the fact that uh the summary publication of that ordinance because the ordinance is fairly lengthy with a lot of different edits um is sufficient um in order to communicate effectively to the public about what the ordinance was about um and that does require 4 fths uh the resolution does the ordinance doesn't um it's just one of the fun things um about how codes work so with that I can answer any questions hopefully it makes sense I just have like two small questions um so the 200 ft would be in code and then if there was a particular project like it would be like a planning variance or if someone would want to vary from that they would need a variance yes well the reality is in our mixed juice District we basically say that other than a an existing building that you're going to modify you need to have a cup for a plan unit development so if someone would have a project and you would like it and you want to go bigger than that it would be part of that process and then the definition of facade if I remember from planning it's like doesn't there have to be you can't just have like one flat one material wall it has to be broken up we have that which is why I specifically um I described it you're correct what I was the reason I use facada not wall is we have a standard in the design section that says you can't have a wall longer than this long without having a breaking up and so I didn't want to use the term wall I wanted to use the term facade and the facade is made up of multiple walls so that you still you wouldn't be you wouldn't you would be able to still account for that entire that's why we have the definition of facade and I in specifically did not use the term wall so wall is in the code you do have to break it up but this is saying a combination of walls can't be longer than 200 ft perfect at least that was my intention if it didn't come across that way then we need to change it no that's that's all I only thing that I had on my mind so with that all right I don't have anything else so we just got to do public meeting yes a public hearing and then consideration okay 13937 you want me maybe Sarah would like me to mention I don't mind um just as a note the original um posting of the ordinance mentioned section 139 and that there was a when we had done code revisions uh back about two years ago there was actually a change in the number from 139 to 137 um and there was some code updates that we did to get everything squared away we worked with the city clerk on that so this ordinance is it says 137 the code online says 139 this is the right number got it thank you thanks okay I'm going to open a public hearing if anybody wants to say anything C all right here and none I'm going to close the public hearing all right so we have the actions a on 1,59 to approve the ordinance does someone want to make that just making a motion to approve the ordinance right yeah okay um I'd like to make a motion to approve the ordinance amending the mixed use zoning District regulations of chapter 129 pertaining to definitions and the mixed use downtown district and the mixed use Corridor District regulations all right I got a motion can I get a second second okay any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppose all right that passes and then we got B uh can someone make that motion on page 1062 uh I make a motion authorizing publication of ordinance blank 2024 by title and summary whereas the city council and do I read all that just just the title just the title okay okay got the motion can I get a second second okay any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppos all right that passes too thanks for that thanks Rita okay number 11 we got Council reports from council member Pew um well the um Parks Commission met and we talked about a process for coming up with names for the new events park downtown last year we did a day at the farmers market and we actually did solicit people to give us ideas for names so we have that group of names as a base um but we're going to um approach the historical society and just getting some information from them as to if there is some significant historic names or landmarks that we might want want to consider uh naming so we're going to be doing research and then um at our next meeting deciding on um a selection process and bringing that to the council so I would suspect by July August we'll have a recommendation good for names for the council for the new park Perfect all right anything else well I participated in a Thing Called chitchat and U cheesecake with the mixed blood Theater which was kind of fun and we talked about housing for aging and they're going to make a play from it it was a conversation and then they're going to make a play from the conversation so it was kind of fun anything else that's it all right con LaRon um unless you're G to talk about it about go ahead mayor Jerry Rock um excuse me if I keep my voice going here um I did attend his uh uh celebration of life last Saturday at Fletchers in Spring Park um uh Jerry Rock bam if I say he was a character I'm putting it lightly this man did a lot of things for our Lake minaka Community he um was mayor of Spring Park in kind of two phases but over four decades he did a lot to get that City up and running like him or not he he has done a wonderful has done such wonderful things there this service Ser this celebrational life they had on Saturday uh when I talked to his daughter she said they were going to wanted to his dad her dad would have called it get back to work and that's kind of Jerry Rock get back to work uh when he first when he became mayor of Spring Park and I'm just mentioning out here he was in 19 1966 he was uh that was his first term as mayor of Spring Park he was then the youngest person ever elected to the position of Mayor in the state of Minnesota so I think that was something uh Jerry had Mr Rock bam always worked well with our city he he was there he supported us um he he's going to be really missed even by our community of Mount he's a wonderful person and um he just was a little forceful I'll say because I've worked with Jerry um I um he got a lot of awards he was voted in 2017 rockan boatyards uh Incorporated was voted uh he was voted the na their company was voted the national Marina of the year for the United States so that's quite the thing and uh we're all going to miss him he's always been Lake minaka boy lived here his whole life and uh we are going to miss him and my condolences to his family um another thing I wanted to mention is our wonderful Public Works guys again I see they have our spring flowers up on our entrance to our Monument sign there and I just think that's a kind of a warm feeling for people coming to our our city of M that uh we have something pretty there at the entrance so thank Ryan and and is crew for me that's it all council member mck nothing counc coun nothing all right I just have one quick update the uh water bill uh fix is out of the house which we talked about but it's in the I guess in the Senate it's in that court now so we just need that to pass and move on with that so if you want to email or call um uh Senator Morrison that'd be that'd be good I know she's a supporter so I'm just let's not let this fail uh but that's all I got so do you have anything only that uh as of this afternoon flushing of the hydrant should be done so ni um there was a water main break last sign up on three points that was taken care of and then they came back around today and finished flushing up there so should be done behind us okay all right anything else no I'm not okay if again if you guys want to be in a picture let's do that right away um we'll turn light I take your picture if you all right well we could do whoever wants to be in the picture we'll do that right away so anyway I'll take a motion to adjourn Mo okay can I get a second second okay all those in favor please say I I I those opposed all right we're