Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States indivisible with liberty and justice for all Kenny could you please do roll call council member Cole here council member schweer here councilmember Wong here council member nordby here mayor monkey here can I get a motion to a job adopt the agenda I move to motion Cassidy moves second all in football all in favor aye aye nay approved next thing on our list is presentation to Mayor furlong former mayor for a long whatever we're going to call you from here now right ready yep that's right please step forward young man the answer good how are you good to see you good good good all right so let me come up here so this is uh my oral Proclamation honoring Terry Furlong as an extraordinary leader of the city of North St Paul whereas Terry Furlong has selflessly served the city of North St Paul for over 21 years as a member of the Park and Recreation Commission Economic Development Authority city council and as mayor whereas Terry Furlong has made significant contributions to many charitable and service organizations in North St Paul and the surrounding communities whereas Terry Furlong was instrumental in creating the conditions for successful Renaissance of our downtown or historical downtown whereas there is nothing that makes Terry Furlong happier than a red ribbon cutting at a new business in town whereas Terry Furlong was the brainchild behind the newly imagined Mac Dinettes through the vision determination and relationships he brought a much desired restaurant to our downtown whereas there is no one in town with more snowman pins than Terry furlong whereas Terry Furlong has promoted the city tirelessly through his many activities and connections whereas Terry Furlong successfully led the city through some of the biggest challenges including a pandemic civil unrest and staff departures whereas Terry Furlong has earned the status of beloved resident and City leader now therefore Mayor John monge of North St Paul Minnesota do hereby declare Terry Furlong as an extraordinary leader of North Saint Paul [Applause] yeah well thank you so much well I just want to say thank you to uh Council staff it's been a pleasure working you know the last 21 plus years and I'm still kind of in the background being on the Eda and the Veterans Park but I just want to say you guys are going to do great I admire you up there and you're going to do good things for the city so I you guys are all the newbies except for Cole and Wong we've got four years of experience between the two of you uh but I but I what I do like is the new blood New Blood on the council new mayor John I think you're going to do a fabulous job I just I'm excited for where this town is going and where where we've been in the past and where it's going now and I just want to say thank my wife too here so thank you and good to see everybody thank you thank you oh pictures well we could we get her up here Brian oh gosh thank you thank you any guy great police chief too just let you know it doesn't hurt to throw that in you're now opening we need to cover yourself regularly scheduled program next part is um consent consent agenda kind of motion to accept the consent agenda would you like me to read it off or oh yeah go ahead I told you sounds good thank you thank you mayor consent agenda a January 17 2023 Workshop meeting minutes Item B January 17th 2023 regular meeting minutes item C General claims a four million 259 950 and eight cents item D HRA claims of 29 614.99 League of Minnesota cities Municipal tort liability waiver item F purchase 2022 Chevy 1500 pickup itemg application for charitable gambling to exempt permit from exempt permit for North Presbyterian Church on February 25th 2023 item age service agreement with ADP Inc for payroll and Human Resource Services item I 7th Avenue landscape project approved final payment and accept project thank you Brian anybody like to pull anything from the consent agenda not motion to accept the consent agenda so moved bye council member Cole second second by council member Wong all those in favor say aye aye aye nay next part is open meetings open to the public we'll do that at Benita maybe the time okay so yep I got two slips uh open the public at six 38. we have two we have David Nelson come up please State your address that'd be awesome we have three minutes please jogging not a boy um [Music] if it takes a little bit longer please it's uh something that I've been bringing up before and that and I must thank the city the young lady downstairs The Crossing on Fifth that goes over by the new apartment buildings they were not cleaning out the crosswalk there I because I walk so slow I cannot cross on Fourth and the light changes green it's a drag strip coming over and if I get caught in the middle it's it's not where I'm at Fifth I'm at top I can see traffic both ways it's safe for me to cross and I must thank the city for cleaning that it was very nice but if the homeowner has to clean the crosswalks like my neighbors doing that and clean the sidewalks why can't the apartment building clean that where those two Crossings are that should be their responsibility because my property owns to the center of the street I had paid taxes for the center they must pay taxes to the center that should be their responsibility and number two uh I brought it up before I talked to Public Works and about uh pedestrian Crossing science right at where the post office when you come out you can come right across and if nothing else likes like you got up the holiday and they said they talked to a Morgan is not feasible okay I talked to uh Terry Furlong when he had meetings open to the public on Monday about it he wrote it down and apparently I don't know what happened then but I brought it up to the same lady when I talked about plowing that down there it happened to me three times it's the traffic going east and west have no problem because everybody can see me when I'm crossing and the older lady printer got hit it's when they turn right off of Margaret you know um let's say it turns yellow it's just about red the guy wants to get out there ahead of the other traffic he's got the pedal to the metal because he wants to be ahead of the cars you cannot see the crossing right there if there's a sign there or flashing lights or something like that he's going to see that first before you can see that pedestrian and that is going to make them stop and think and slows down it's always the right turn off of Margaret that's the worst uh you very seldom see it on when they turn left off a Margaret and go west and that because they're sitting there they by the time they turn they can see the pedestrian but that right turn with the cars there [Music] happened to me three times the first time the guy yelled at me go down by the Light I don't want to go down to the light and walk in front of the bars they got the doors open you smell the smoke and hear the music and and the liquor I got bad lungs that's why I tried to stay on the other side of the street all the time so I don't know what the signs cost or what it put what they cost to put in but how much do you put on the value of a human's life if they get killed what's the value what is the value up there if they get hurt and there's a lot of Hospital stop I know a young lady that helped me with by The Fifth Street there she says it's not in the city budget wait a minute what's the price of science compare human life human life worth 74 dollars or eighty dollars or a hundred dollars I think it's worth a lot more it's something that needs to be looked at and your budget that's coming up and there's a lot older people that are crossing I'm one of them and that and there's a lot of seniors here in town we don't want to go down to the light because it's shorter to go across there than if you go by the stoplight you go another third distance longer to cross at the light than you do Crossing at the post office we'll bring it up again okay thank you thanks for thanks for talking we can get some we've already discussed and it was anxiety in motion and actually I had conversations with mayor Furlong with that as well um but yeah and there's that place and a couple more in the future that we're looking at Double crosswalks so we are looking we're moving forward with it yes did you hear that okay thank you Mr Smalls front and center John Schmall 2750 Chisholm Avenue uh uh I just want to let you know I have other things to do than this but if you are going to ask me to sign up for things like push information I will sign up I think that's a wise idea to do that but I will read what you send me and that's when the problem uh rears its ugly head uh last week or the 26th of January there appeared believe it or not at 10 54. timestamp an email message notifying every one of the Planning Commission meeting there were two of them both at 10 54. two notifications usually that means there's been a change if there are two and I've been before this Council last year multiple times saying if you're making a change in the net last one let us know what the change is highlight it do whatever just don't put it in there and say that's it well they were the same exactly the same but I'll get to why I can't prove that at uh 1 53 p.m a message comes that's titled information on your subscription you have been successfully uh been successfully unsubscribed from the following list Planning Commission I didn't ask for anything maybe they don't want me to be getting the Planning Commission notifications but that's it nothing said but then again on 126 we get our 127 we get a Planning Commission notification two of them again two Planning Commission notifications and I believe one of those two had a change but no notification that there has been a change but guess what another Planning Commission notification goes out on 131 which changes the date for the Planning Commission meeting from 2 2 to 2 9. and in order to figure whether you've made a change or not I go back to the original email messages to see what they said and compare it with the new ones can't do it they wipe them off the face of the Earth no record of this other than the saying that we canceled the the 2nd of February meeting I didn't think that you were allowed to just wipe things off the the face of the Earth like that what you had presented to the public is gone in four messages other than to say uh that it has been canceled and not even when the date of the new one it just says canceled and when you got the 2-9 or the I'm sorry the 131 message that's when it said the new uh meeting will be on 2 9. it just I can't believe it well I know that one was canceled because we're short on Planning Commission people we didn't have enough to do a quorum so that's what popped up the two two to two nine well that's that's your ability to to do it whenever you feel like it but don't wipe it off the face of the Earth we'll check and see where the where they go thank you you're welcome thank you all right I mean the 647 public comments closed next part of business is business action items and recommendations thank you mayor um first up is the 2023 North St Paul history Cruisers car show memorandum of agreement looking for acceptance of the agreement and a memorandum of agreement but we have Bob did you want to say a few words not really you don't have to stamps so we can get our vendors because they're knocking on our door to get signed up for Friday night so if we can get your stamp of approval we'll move forward we'll go from there and see what happens this summer right yeah can I ask one question sure are we as a group financially hamstringing you at all by only proving it year by year would there be significant savings let's say if we could approve it for two years by insurance or anything no our insurance has luckily enough to stay really consistent the last few years now just that you know next year it'll be all easier for everybody because hopefully we have the same faces across the front and we'll all know what we got to do because you know shortly try to get this done by the middle of January because our vendors start really knocking on the door because well if we ain't going to be there we've got to find a place to go so no we're fine okay thank you yep thank you guys remember does the hot dog and she said to me as I was out taking the garbage can back in when is this going to happen tonight tonight's going to happen so that's all we need and we'll be in business all right thank you appreciate it foreign looking forward to that first meeting in June there'll be 16 car shows this year and what we're looking for uh Improvement or an agreement for the car show agreement and the memorandum of agreement from Council moved second any questions all in favor hi hi eyes have it [Music] all right next up is the ordinance to reduce the membership of the Park and Recreation Commission from nine to seven members were you going to discuss that Brandy sure uh I put this one on the agenda as you may know the Parks Commission currently has nine members but they recently have been um it's been reduced to six based on retirements and and ending of terms so to be consistent across the board with all the other City commissions and the Eda staff is recommending that this also be a seven member commission and the ordinance to accomplish that is included as an action item in the packet do we currently have a full lineup of Commissioners for Parks we have one opening and we have one applicant so we are looking to fill that position through an interview process any questions um anybody move I move okay Cassidy moves second second by Lisa Wong all those in favor say aye aye aye item C is resolution authorizing a cost share for open window Productions marketing uh video proposal I believe that quote came in at about ten thousand um half of that bill will be paid by the Eda and then one quarter by the city and one quarter by HRA any questions anybody move so moved your honor second all's in favor hi hi hi opposed except item D resolution committing local match and authorizing contract signature for a deed grant for the Lilly building Redevelopment project deed is a department of edu Department of Employment and Eda Economic Development uh turn that over to you Brandi sure um we have received a request from Jim Lavelle the developer for the Lilly building project and he is seeking a fourth grant for this Redevelopment opportunity he's received two from deed so far and this one is a Redevelopment in Brownfield Grant they uh he has provided his engineer who actually is submitting the Grant on the city's behalf so she is here in the audience if you would like to have her come up and do a little presentation about what the grant yep opportunity can contains sounds good welcome sir I'm Jennifer force with seh so the project is applying for a Redevelopment Grant through deed it funds slightly different activities than the cleanup Grant which is related to soil and groundwater cleanup this one will pay for geotechnical costs public infrastructure such as lighting sidewalks as well as demolition so it's has a slightly different Focus than the cleanup Grant so and there is a there's a match requirement but it is a restricted match and so that'll be paid for with either Tiff or private financing questions thank you okay you want to move it I have a question sure I have a question in regards to um how um the determination for um 20 units 20 of the residential units will be 80 percent of the Ami the area mean income just curious on where that number came from can you speak to that it's a fix regarding that um that would be a better question for Jim are they the development team so I will get that information for you foreign looking for a resolution on that questions I want to move a motion I moved to motion second all those in favor aye opposed carries next up is action item e resolution approving plans and specifications and ordering advertisement for bids for housing Park Court reconstruction project and would you like to take that over Randy sure we also have Morgan um Dolly in the audience as well to assist with any questions on this but from my understanding the park commission has been working on a plan for and design for this tennis court pickleball court reconstruction for many many months and so they have finally come with a recommendation to to city council to to re um refurbish that facility from tennis courts to pickleball courts and the request on the agenda tonight is to authorize bids and um approve the reconstruction plans is this the same footprint as an existing part it's a little bit bigger I think it extends about 10 to 15 feet North and West and in that direction so it's a little bit a little bit larger the gates into the courts are it looks like four and a half feet within ADA compliance oh yes it's my understanding that the plans as drawn do conform to Eda thank you and the plan also does include walkways and connection ways that are ADA Compliant to get from the new tennis courts down to the picnic area and over to housing work today none of that is connected that's been what we've been doing at both parks when we redo them is bring them up correct yep yeah the the um it's my understanding from speaking with the engineer and also the landscape architect who designed the plans is that if any facility is being improved that's the trigger for bringing it up into Code Compliance or ADA compliance and so whenever we do another Improvement in housing Park we'll have to make sure that those also come up to Ada standards thank you questions just looking for a resolution approving in court reconstruction project so moved your honor number one second second council member Cole all those in favor say aye aye opposed thank you I think the parking Iraq will be really happy this is a multi-year project this started prior to covid um we've had WSB involved working at different things so this is a this is a good move for the park um it's the park closest to downtown so right now it's our downtown park so um you know it's a great move so thank you everyone for their support next action my item is item f um executing certificate of completion and Tiff note relating to contract for private development with anchor view LLC and tax increment financing housing District number 4-10 turn it over to community development director Brandi Howe and probably Michaela from Baker Tilly as well oh Yep this is one of the requests that came from the developer there at that point where they are ready to consider their project complete so we're closing out some items and Michaela will do the presentation on the Tiff note related to that thank you good evening mayor members of the council here tonight to provide a brief overview of the action item which is executing the certificate of completion and the tax increment financing note related to the city's tax increment financing housing District number one dash or excuse me 4-10 again before you tonight is the consideration for both of those two as background the city entered into a contract for private development with anchor view LLC which was a developer of that multi-family housing project pursuant to the terms of the contract um once the developer has completed the minimum improvements it is customary for the city to execute that certificate of completion and the Tiff note the Tiff note is the the systems between the city and the developer when the tax increment District was created there was a financing Gap and the city pledged 2.4 million to the developer for report to reimburse for a portion of the costs associated with construction of that project the developer did provide proof of incurring up to the 2.4 million pursuant to the contract so all the terms within the contract at this point have been met by the developer which would allow the city to proceed with executing both the certificate of completion and the Tiff note if you have any questions related to the documents or the the district itself I'd be happy to try to address them okay thank you thank you so I just wanted to point out there's no resolution required so this will be they'll be signed documents and and put in the files thank you thank you thank you next up item G ordinance creating section 94-22 sidewalk encroachment in the municipal code and uh Randy I'll turn that back over to you if you'll recall from our last city council work session we looked at a draft ordinance that would create the sidewalk encouragement permit that would allow restaurants and bars and other um entities that would want to apply for a permit to place private property in the public right-of-way this would be a mechanism to allow them to do that and at that meeting we had several questions and comments from the city council in terms of how we might amend the you know at that point the draft ordinance so of those we modify the ordinance to change the timing the time frame for which the permit would be um applicable from May 1st to November 15th it was from April to November 1st and given this change we've kind of eliminated the provision for heating equipment because it seems like it's a little bit extraneous at that point and it just simplifies the ordinance we also added Provisions that would require permit holders to lock their Furnishings at the end of each day and to store them on off-site at the end of the season and related to serving establishments serving alcohol they would need to demarcate the specific outdoor seating area and that would also be a requirement in their amended liquor license we clarified that ropes or change would not or sorry Chains would not be permitted as a barrier to separate the seating area but something a little bit more decorative like fencing or Planters would be required and the revocation section was also amended to simplify it and to improve the due process for permit holders so if there's a any other questions I can field those but if this is something that would move forward then the next step would be to amend the fee schedule to establish a permit fee for these so that people can start applying for them this spring I have one question um as to our police chief are you happy and comfortable with the way this is written I am excuse me yeah I've I've been in the loop for a little while throughout the creation of this and I don't have any concerns okay the questions oh sorry Brandy for clarification the only other question I think I have did we have the discussion around um whether it's open container leaving the building and getting into this contained area while they're on the six feet of sidewalk when did we also talk about whether that the alcohol any alcohol then would need to be carried by a server yeah and that's maybe even a fill question right can you can you go again with that sorry are you talking councilmember Cole are you talking about will people be able to drink a beer out in this area I mean no my question is because the the Str the area is not directly connected to right property there's uh I can't remember if was it five feet or six feet that was put in the ordinance I think it's seven and a half feet so in that seven and a half feet if I walk out of a bar before I get to the seven and a half feet in my open container no so they're and Phil correct me if I'm wrong but I don't we don't there's I'm not aware of anything that would prohibit that in just a general sense what you have is liquor license issues and so one of the things we had to work through is a compact and contiguous area so when we issue these liquor licenses what we're going to have to do is be mindful of areas where alcohol is going to be served and we have to describe that area in the liquor license and so what we've talked to the state about and this is something that's evolved is you used to have to have all of the area you know touching and here we have sort of an island if you will and so what the state has indicated and they're okay with is that you simply describe the whole area now you may have an area where you're not allowed to put tables or congregate and things of that nature but you describe the whole area where service is acceptable um one of the things that we have talked about internally on this is you know we understand that there's been a desire to do this and this is an ordinance that's going to allow this to go forward it is something I would encourage us to keep an eye on uh the idea of not having these alcoholic beverages migrate off the approved area is something that is important but beyond that uh We've I have no other concerns about it thank you I'll just thank you Brandi I know that everyone's been really excited for this and it's been a long time coming so I appreciate your work on it you're welcome thank you you worked on it before you had worked here if we need to vote on that motion motion to approve second favor aye aye opposed all right um item H is resolution of support for corridors of Commerce funding request for Highway 36 and Highway 120 interchange by Washington County we have city engineer Morgan Dali here discussed thank you Mr Mayors members of the council this item before you here tonight is a resolution of support for funding for the corridors of Commerce funding program that is put up by MnDOT specifically for a funding request made by Washington County for potential grade separated interchange at the intersection of Highway 36 and Highway 120. the background on that potential Improvement for that intersection goes back several years even to the Improvement on Highway 36 in the mid-2000s originally there was thought that 120 and 36 would be a part of the separated interchanges that were constructed with that project that was delayed and since that time there haven't been any funds identified about MnDOT or other agencies to be able to complete that Improvement it has been identified as a uh safety need within the area with the completion of the Hadley Avenue interchange by Washington County just to the east on 36 it's the last at grade signalized intersection on 36 inside the 694 Loop and has a high crash rate and so it certainly has been on the radar for both the cities of North St Paul and Oakdale as well as being on the border of Ramsey County in Washington County so previously in I believe it was 2019 there was another corridors of Commerce solicitation by MnDOT at that time Ramsey County supported funding for The Interchange and put in a request it was not successful although the project did score relatively well it just did not make the cut for the funding at that time so this time Washington county is taking the lead Agency on that funding request and has asked cities of Oakdale North St Paul and also the business communities for letters of support or resolutions of support to be able to submit that funding application so there's no requirement for this resolution to be completed but the projects that do have these resolutions or letters of support from I should have mentioned the Oakdale Chamber of Commerce and also North St Paul Business Association that they'll score better right and so the idea is to for the county to reach out to these cities and business organizations hopefully collect these and then they will be completing that application sometime in March and I believe the announcements will be made later spring possibly early summer in terms of whether or not the funding has been awarded so there's up to 250 million dollars as part of this program expected for this solicitation in 2022 2023 and again it's a simple resolution of support for the funding it doesn't replace any sort of Municipal consent for an ultimate project if it does move forward so Municipal consent by Oakdale North St Paul that would be a separate item to consider in the future by the cities this is simply just lending support for the idea of applying for these funds for Washington County to be able to complete their application this year with this round of funding so with that I'll stand for any questions the council might have before considering the resolution in your packet I have one uh one I will certainly vote affirmative to to moving forward with that and I know the last time we went through this we did have a decent score but the score still wasn't high enough to get it approved is there anything more that the city can do to help Elevate the the score for lack of a better term um to move this higher to the higher top of the decision tree councilmember Cole Mr Mayor members of the council so at this time really what they're asking for is this where these resolutions of support I think that the city manager will be the Business Association meeting is coming up is that correct yeah so there'll be some opportunity for the Business Association to be able to hear about that and I think for that business Community to understand you know if there is city a resolution of support already passed I can't say that Oakdale already passed theirs but I believe that it was on a previous Council agenda so uh you know making sure that there's some sort of uh consensus or understanding amongst those areas I think that's going to be the best thing that the the city can do at this time to lend support there have been some discussions about a corridor Coalition if you will on Highway 120. that has been idea has been floated in some meetings that were hosted by Washington County and the idea is that that um that Coalition would be made up of possibly some elected officials or city staff people from all of the different cities up and down Highway 120 including representatives from you know not not just Oakdale and North St Paul but Maplewood matamidai right and so it's it's bigger that Coalition is potentially bigger than this interchange but this interchange certainly is a big part of that so um you know as those opportunities for participation advocacy with State elected officials those sorts of things you know if the community wants to be able to find support for the funding that it will take to build this I think that will be important moving forward because it just so happens that that Highway 120 and certainly The Interchange is right on the border of two counties and two cities and sometimes that can be a challenge to build that consensus among multiple you know government agencies or parties right so I think we will look for more communication from our neighbors and from the county as to that Coalition and and certainly Council might have a discussion about who might sit at the table for that Coalition moving forward but I think that staff will bring forward to you you know other updates as they become available including updates on the success for this funding or if there are other funding packages that might be needed to really to complete the project knowing that an award is unknown and even you know fully developed cost estimates have not been done yet by Washington County there there may be multiple sources of funding that are needed so this might just be one there might be others and it might take several years to put something together to actually find the funding to to build the Improvement at the intersection we know after many many years of meetings with MnDOT that MnDOT has not been able to allocate or they don't allow they don't want to allocate funding to this project as they kind of see this more of a local Improvement and Highway 120 ultimately is anticipated to be turned back from a state highway to a County Highway at some point because it functions more in that um type of roadway as opposed to kind of a more of a trunk Highway even though that's the designation it holds right now so um it'll be something that will be evolving and and staff will continue to communicate opportunities and uh potential you know other support but I think ongoing participation and engagement and um uh those types of things will be important not just for city council but for the public if they're interested to reach out to ask questions get information when when those opportunities arise he said 120 is going from state to government uh yes Mr Mayor so the the question was about that idea of a turn back I guess that's more of a technical jargon term but uh turn back is when a road a road authority might change jurisdiction of a road like from a state to a county or a county to a city for example exactly it does occur aren't we Ramsey County and Washington right in the middle of that right that creates a complication with two counties and it could be just like North St Paul jointly owns responsibility for Ariel Street for example where it's a 50 50 between North St Paul and the city of Maplewood it might be a 50 50 um County Road between Ramsey County and Washington County that's to be determined MnDOT kind of identifies roads within their system that are candidates for turn back and 120 has been on that list for 20 years maybe even 30 years it just has not happened yet so and we don't know when that might happen but a lot of the discussions that are going on with respect to the interchange and there's an ongoing study being conducted right now by MnDOT as the lead agency looking at the whole Corridor and what they're trying to do is get ahead some of of some of the necessary environmental study things that would have have to happen if there were significant improvements made to 120 using federal funds for example there's a requirement for a lot of that environmental work to be done and so they're trying to get ahead of that by conducting this Corridor study for 120. and um that may also inform once that's completed more of a comfort level by either one or both of the counties in terms of are we willing to take that on if we are going to take it on um does that come along with some funding from the state or another agency to be able to take it on but in an improved fashion and is that only in some locations or the whole Corridor right so a lot of that will become more apparent I think in the next 12 to 18 months as that study is completed if I could add so it sounds like this process for the Century Avenue Coalition that they're putting together started years ago but they were more focused on south of I-94 I guess they've gotten accomplished what they were looking to get accomplished and now they're moving north of 94 going all the way up to 694. so yes they were looking for two members of the elected body to be on there I discussions with John on that John was going to be on that and he had suggested Tim to be on that as well and as a staff liaison I think Brandy and myself were going to be just the liaison on that as well yes this is uh I believe it's nine or 11 different cities two counties the state it's it's a really big deal and part of this hopefully with any luck we could get that trail completed around Silver Lake as well that'll be one of the parts of the discussion definitely on our list yes good morning any other questions for tomorrow we just have the resolution looking for a voter resolution so move second second council member one all in favor aye aye aye curious thank you thank you appreciate it next up in the business action items is item I uh police employees suspense our overages for 2022 and we have Chief bill babenroth here to discuss well hi everyone Mr mayor council good to see you everyone I'll see if I can get this uh screen shared there we go perfect just to start just a General overview of how our schedules work in the police department so we are our Patrol Team Works 12 hour shifts so we can maintain full coverage of police services 24 hours a day they work a schedule of four days on followed by four days off in a row we have a day team on the 18 days and then a B Team days and then same for night teams A and B on the on the night shift so our current setup is four sworn officers per shift that's one sergeant and three officers this setup make sure that we have enough officers to keep themselves safe and then keep the community safe it also allows for proactivity and community policing and then when we're fully staffed officers are able to properly use all of their suspense and accrued vacation time so here's how that looks to put put it in a Excel picture format so we have our our a team and V team day shift night shift one Sergeant three officers on each team we currently have one officer in training so that he's highlighted and then we have one open position so we have two teams that are only staff with three right now um but other than that the other the other two teams are full at four so the suspense our system it was new to me uh coming here so it took me a little bit to fully understand it but I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on it now uh it's a bank of ours that's utilized to pay during to balance out pay periods at 80 hours for every single pay period so officers work a schedule of the four consecutive 12-hour shifts followed by four consecutive days off in this schedule officers and sergeants will work either 72 84 or 96 hours in each pay period on a rotating basis throughout the year uh during pay periods the officers work above the 80 hours those extra hours are added to their suspense Bank and pay periods where they work below the 80 hours the hours are supplemented from their accrued suspense Bank in order to make them whole at 80. so this doesn't include any additional overtime shifts or details or special assignments that they might this is just regular wage that they're working so under this schedule officers work 2184 hours in a year that's 104 extra hours beyond the 2080 of Fair Labor standards act so it's it's basically an extra 104 hours that they need to get off on vacation um which they can do when we're fully staffed so on a typical year suspense hours were are going to be balanced out when we're able to give everyone on the team days off or they start late or they leave early the Staffing shortages and Duty injuries that some of our officers sustained in 2022 did not allow all of our officers to use these excess suspense hours and now we're in the situation that we're in so if we were to say you know it's just a it's it would have been a if we were to allow all of the suspense hours to be used then we would have been below minimums which then would have created the need to fill officers working on overtime so it would have been a horse a piece when it comes to you let them use their suspense and then you have to ask for overtime coverage in order to allow that so um we're in a tough situation uh long when we have long-term injuries which we have had it's the trying to balance out allowing people to take time off uh as they request continuing still making sure we're we're keeping our pulse license so we can be licensed peace officers Minnesota and complete the mandatory training uh allowing bid vacations which we did every nobody was canceled their their bid vacation in 2022 which was very glad that we were able to do that um and then you're I'm always concerned about just creating that unhappy overworked culture which brings additional stress burnout and retention if people can't get time off so the overages and suspense is not something I am glad to see and I am absolutely going to be working to make sure that we don't have the situation again going forward but it all comes back to Staffing which allows us to properly use these excess hours banks that we accrue so here's the whole schedule a lot of math going on a lot of uh number crunching looked at uh when I was at Camp Ripley uh all week last week for a training I was uh deep into the 2022 schedule and went through every single pay period and tallied up the total amount of hours that each team worked within those pay periods and that's how I fully understand the system now so when one Team Works a pay period and and only has 72 hours the other team is working that same peer period with 96 hours so it constantly is when one's low the other one works more just how they're they're four days on four days off fits within that 14-day pay period and then they both work the 84 at the same time and then it's back to the when one's low the other's high so on the far right is the 2080 so that's your standard Monday through Friday uh eight hours a day and then the total hours worked under the schedule shows at the bottom for team a and Team B is 21.84. through each pay period in 2022. so we're now here with a couple officers Having excess hours beyond that 2080 because they weren't able to utilize all of those hours unfortunately the total amount of hours in excess of 2080 for all officers and sergeants 264.75 hours total salary cost of this equates to 16 910 six cents when you throw Pera and Medicare in there it's 20 148.33 as I mentioned going forward once we can hopefully get this final officer hired we won't be in this situation again and all of our officers and sergeants are able to properly use all of their accrued hours including suspense any questions for me on the suspense or the police schedule happy to answer good how do you plan to alleviate this going through this upcoming year Irene it's a hundred percent uh it all it all comes down to having the full team so if we have a full team this can be achieved if we don't have a full team it is tough to give people vacation or or suspense because we can't we can't have zero police officers in the city so we have to sacrifice things like leaving early and taking days off in order to show up to work to take 9-1-1 calls so if we can get Staffing which uh is is not an easy thing and the modern day law enforcement uh absolutely seen a huge lack of Interest across the board as I mentioned being at Camp Ripley last week got to meet lots of Chiefs from around the state and I was uh you know sad to hear but also glad to hear that it's a problem that's affecting every single agency throughout the state and it's not just a North Saint Paul thing every agency is short 5 10 15 20 officers so it is widespread but if we can I mean that is the Nexus to allowing this schedule or or making the schedule work and letting officers use all the suspense and their vacation and even just improving overall morale getting days off and improving their Wellness is a very important thing so we're we only have one to go thankfully we've definitely been in worse situations being short more than just one so we're heading the right direction and I'm very hopeful that we get fully staffed in a short amount of time have you come up with a plan with the two additional officers that were just hired to start alleviating some of those additional hours that are sitting in the bank so this is going to be to to wipe the Slate clean and then we'd be back at zero basically with a couple pay periods started in 2023 but this is to solve the the excess from 2022. so back on CE we get these two spots filled then every single team will be able to adequately use all of their their excess suspense hours and Vacations so there's there's only soon to be one team that's only staffed at three the rest of the teams will be great so this is what's coming to them I mean it's it's been done and this is to wipe this late so that we start over with this and you have another another officer coming is it always been three officers and a sergeant as far as teams in North Saint Paul it is not no you've gone up or it is yeah thankfully so what was it before uh I believe it was three which then uh equates to two often with sick calls and vacation and and uh just yeah taken utilizing time off so yeah now we're at a much safer number for the police officers and the community because if you get you get two calls that are bigger calls at the same time uh crimes of violence happening at the same time which they often do then you're running the risk of only sending one officer to somebody that has a gun or uh you know how it's it's a tough decision it's a bad place to be in so so this is your comfortable level you're comfortable with what is on this board right now as far as Patrol yeah I mean it would be fantastic and I'll get to that in my my later update it would be great to have an additional officer to help with the when there is somebody gone because I mean basically when we have four that equates to three because when somebody on this team is able to use vacation then we're down to three and with the 104 extra hours the 160-ish hours of vacation the 96 hours of holiday that each officer gets each year I mean in the in the warm months we're definitely at three because somebody's always going to be gone so uh yeah having somebody as a vacation relief would be great we've gone from two to three since you've been Chief was that before that uh we on the street yeah we've increased the officer number uh Council has uh greatly appreciated and the support that what we had in an additional sergeant and an additional officer and two thousand yes yeah sure I'm trying to keep up then as far as where we're at our you know been able to you have security and yeah absolutely we're heading the right direction City this size it's you know it's it's always tough with with budgets and things like that so it's good to see that you know things are moving as far as forward with things but you know it's it's it's always it's always a tough situation because like you say criminals don't call in sick because the officer is not there right so just wanted to get the feel of where we're at if we've been going in the right direction you know as far as our size budget where where we've been and how we've been doing as far as that because you know at City this size it's it's always tough to be able to like like I've been talking to Brian others you know we're at that we're too small to be a little too too little to be big so right that size where it's it's really a tough for us but we've showed you know the appreciation so I want to make sure that you know for the police department that uh that we're always talking and understanding the expenses plus the safety and where we're at for our size is always a concern that I hear about you know we love our police officers how are we doing as far as our size city with our officers and for the safety and the overall being as far as that in budgets sure appreciate you keep an eye on the budget and doing that that's and we can still move forward yeah well I I greatly appreciate all the support that uh councils has shown our Police Department throughout the time that I've been here um getting the two additional has been has allowed this um you know have only having two officers on the street is just not safe for officers or the community and definitely does not allow any proactive police work that is a pure uh call response model only so having the four as long as we can get fully staffed is a great plan just to make sure I understand this um if if you would have been fully staffed this would not have happened correct so I'm going to pull a number out of thin air let's say an officer starts at 80 000. it would have been an eighty thousand dollar hit to the 2022 budget for this not to happen with only the city approving this twenty thousand although you're asking for money technically you were already approved that money so it's actually a sixty thousand dollar savings to the 22 budget that you are already approved for so these are ours actually worked already can you repeat the question I'm not quite sure if I may so yes so some of these times where um if he's not fully staffed then clearly we're not paying for that police officer so he might be showing um extra overtime for the year trying to fill that position but also at the end of the year he may actually be under budget because we didn't have an officer there that would have right or 80 000 the sample you gave um wasn't being paid out so does that answer your yep thank you you're staring at me um being one of the two longer term people up here we've supported everything you've asked for Phil we continue to support it thank you for what you do appreciate it um you know the the hiring and recognition ceremony last week was fantastic thank you I look forward to continuing to see those um Council has supported you with an additional six hundred thousand dollars in budget spending since you've been on board we in pre- increase the overtime budget from sixty thousand dollars to a hundred thousand dollars um if I'm not mistaken I believe over time for last year rolled in a probably rolled in at 140 000 adding this 20 000 on top of it puts if you add them together the overtime overspending over over what was done rolls up to about 180 000 my ass because I know you've got a lot more coming and we want to continue to support my ask is that we figure out a way in 2023 to bring those numbers back down to within budget sure yeah that's uh completely understandable and uh the additional number I think is an important one to to bring up is we're still within the employee costs of even so overtime was high but then employee costs were low because of the Staffing issue so we still came within budget if I'm not mistaken on employee costs um yeah I absolutely agree uh we're hoping to get it all under control when it comes to uh budget and that all depends on Staffing so if we can find the the magic to get good folks on board and get Staffing then that's that's the key but I'll be sure working hard we got a nice recruitment video uh coming out soon so we're hoping that helps it was a boost are there any other alternative Staffing structures that you can explore that would you know alleviate some of that over time foreign there are absolutely different models so just to be clear this model doesn't create any overtime in the schedule just at its core that and in this system there's no nobody's getting overtime just from working their shift so another option so I came from range County Sheriff's office they have a different option they work 10 hour shifts four days on four days off they actually end up owing uh County in in the Sheriff's Office sake about 120 hours a year under that model because they work less than 2080 hours uh that presents some difficulty because then it's um you're calling deputies and nursing back in on their days off saying you owe us time you have to come to work and then if you get to the end of the year and people haven't worked all of their their version of a suspense time then you end up having to take their vacation bank or another bank of ours so it's really uh it's it's not a fantastic alternative either it's just the opposite of this so they work to they don't work as much hours but then they have to pay back ours so then you're begging them to come to work on the days off and nobody really enjoys doing that and nobody enjoys getting their vacation hours taken away from them so and not to mention that schedule only works so we wouldn't be able to work 10 hour days because we don't have enough officers to uh you know they're basically be four hours of the day where we don't have cops on the street so we need the 12 hour shifts in order to maintain full coverage and not to mention our our officers really do like this schedule they like the four days off it's a mini vacation every single time that they're not working so I really want to stick with it and that's why I'm absolutely gonna spend some more as much time as as it takes to get fully staffed and and uh the recruitment strategies it's it's tough I mean we're up against uh read an article the other day thirty thousand dollar signing bonus for police officers it wasn't in Minnesota thankfully but that's the kind of things that are being thrown thrown out there just to get officers on board it's just a tough time in law enforcement question on your schedule you have up there when it's full and you have that other position if somebody goes if somebody's on vacation does somebody fill in with overtime and is that counted for in your budget for two weeks of vacation for for officers and things like that so when somebody's gone no no if we're down to three and we've even dropped it down to two in order to allow all of the proper use and and additional trainings so in order to prevent this we had to sacrifice an extra person on the street without having to pay overtime to cover that so we dropped down as low as two it's not something I took lightly on doing that but that is going to uh allow training allow us to complete the mandatory training prevent excess suspense allow vacation that's a crucial piece that that is going to allow this to work going forward all right thank you any more questions all right next up uh business item J McKnight Road water main improvements do we need we have oops do you have to I apologize to prove it you have to prove it I'm sorry motion to approve a second all those in favor say aye aye aye Ariel thank you very much appreciate it all right next up McKnight Road water main improvements city project number 22-04 received bids and award contract uh engineer Morgan Dolly to speak to that please thank you Brian Mr Mayor members of the council this is this next item uh for consideration in front of you actually I'll take the next two items all together there's two separate actions as two separate agenda items but they're both related Council can certainly act on those following presentation and questions um and really what we have before you is receiving bids and contemplation of awarding a Construction contract for an infrastructure Improvement project that includes improvements to the city of North St Paul water main within McKnight Road which is a County Road a little bit of background I have a map up here on the screen for the benefit of the council anybody in the audience and folks watching at home but just to give a project location uh General understanding on McKnight Road which again is a Ramsey County Road within and under that road within County right-of-way the city of North St Paul does maintain water main drinking water distribute system and also even outside of the city of North St Paul you can see north of Beam Avenue I don't know if I don't know if see my pointer or not right about there that is kind of the North St Paul border so north of that is actually the city of Maplewood but North St Paul does serve Maplewood residents with drinking water in that area in about 2019 2020 by way of background Ramsey County contacted North St Paul staff letting them know that they had plans in the next five to ten years to do some roadway improvements on McKnight Road to do an overlay project the date was not really set in stone but they had said that it's coming up and you might want to take a look at your utilities under the road see if they need any attention at that time Public Works did a little bit of investigation and actually on the map here now this is not a complete indication illustration but some of those red stars are some of our record-keeping in terms of where we have water main breaks and mostly in the southern area of where Ramsey County was intending to Overlay there were a few water main breaks but the overlay that the county wants to do is from 11th Avenue which is highlighted in this red line here on the south end all the way up to County Road D which is up by 694 in Maplewood so that's what they want to Overlay and that was kind of the extents of where Public Works took a look at potentially doing some improvements this was included in the capital Improvement plan as a city project 2204 and previously the council did authorize going out for bids last fall now knowing that it's a really large area there were concerns in terms of the costs what our approach was was to give as many different options available in terms of awarding a project for the city council to consider so in some of the material that you'll see in your packet those discussion of Base bid and Alternate a and Alternate B um but basically what we have done is set up in three different sections breaking it into pieces so that not everything needs to be awarded if the council um doesn't want to or if there's different options the second item in your packet is also another option in terms of rather than digging up or what we call pipe bursting some of these water main there's an option to actually line through them with more trenchless technologies that last year during some of the volatility in the construction Market there was some information to show that maybe lining water main would be competitive so we put that out there for a bit as well unfortunately the water main lining did come in slightly more expensive so that's why the second item that you'll act on is actually accepting those bids but rejecting all of them and that's recommended by staff now back to the initial offering which is pipe bursting and it also is trenchless it's not going to be digging up all of McKnight Road at once we're trying to X excavate as little as possible but it is replacing the existing water main with new water main and replacing the existing services that might be to homes or businesses on either side with new services so there is some excavation involved and I'll just focus on the base bit because following receipt of these bids with all the different options and the different Alternatives from a construction standpoint city manager Public Works director myself Finance director looked at all of these different things different competing interests with respect to utility and infrastructure throughout the city and available budget numbers so at this time staff is recommending Award of the base bid only which is the southern portion of the area that we looked at so that would be from 11th Avenue North to 17th Avenue so just focusing on those areas with the bid the bid that we had six bidders which is actually very competitive those bids ranged from just over one million dollars to 1.385 million dollars the engineers estimate was was 1.26 I believe so just slightly higher than the fifth bidder but still in the middle of the pack which is where we want to be I guess from an estimating standpoint and the low bidder is uh bituminous roadways in the amount of 1 million uh ten thousand eight hundred eight dollars and seventy cents so staff is recommending for the initial bid Award of just the base bid only none of the other alternates which are areas to the north I mentioned in the staff report that those other areas will be considered in the future if they you know depending on funding depending on priorities within the infrastructure system we have had good proactive talks with Ramsey County in terms of them working with us from a scheduling standpoint to make sure that they don't just preemptively come through with their paver before we're done so we think that they'll give us some flexibility if in fact we want to try to do some of those more areas but scheduling wise if the contracts awarded by council tonight contractor would start typical kind of early construction season May and and be wrapped up by this fall I believe that there might be more exact dates in the memo but that's typically what we would expect with that I'll stand for any questions a reminder also that so the first action would be acting on a resolution to receive the bids and award a contract to the low bidder for the base bid for the first bid offering and the second one would be to receive all bids and reject all bids for the water main lining or cipp which stands for cured in place pipe lining that's a techno technology term but that was the second offering so those were recommending that we reject all bids so with that I'll stand for any questions Council might have are the remaining areas on the CIP council member Wong Mr Mayor members of the council so they are on the map and they're in um kind of slotted order uh area a or the base bid was identified for this year um alternate one which is the second area to the North 17th Avenue to Beam Avenue that was slotted for 2024 and in in the third area which is alternate two was Beam Avenue to County Road D that was slotted in the CIP for 2025. and I should mention now that we actually have these bids it's a very good indication of how contractors will bid it in the future we can't predict you know inflation or how prices might change between now and 2024 for example but it's very detailed and a good indication of what to expect within reason for future you know offerings if the city does put that out but again that will be a determination made with public works and weighing kind of all the different Alternatives and available funding as well too for that area if memory serves they did a bunch of storm sewer stuff so we have to worry about that at all the flooding area down there Mr Mayor yes so there were some storm sewer improvements made about McKnight Road and Shawnee Avenue if I'm remembering correctly that improved some of the flooding through that area and the counties project from an overlay standpoint is not anticipated to do anything significant from a drainage standpoint they look at it mostly just as a pavement preservation effort where they'll grind off the top layer of asphalt pivot they do make Ada upgrades at ped ramps at different intersections and they might do some striping and things like that to improve the road but they do limit it to just pavement and not utilities so again in terms of what we're seeing on our radar for potential needs the water main kind of rose to the top they Public Works did look at sanitary sewer nothing significant or that was rising to the top as obvious as some of those water main breaks especially in the southern portion now all of that water main is relatively old the northern peace seems to be performing better and so we may be able to get more years out of that an overlay might be expected to have a 15-year lifespan right and we can't predict exactly when the county is going to come and do you know multiple improvements on the road over time but the hope is that you know if we do have a problem that we're trying to take care of it proactively such that you know a water main brake repair might not need to be made right after they're done Paving for example okay now you have to say that again for the actions sure so the first action is consideration of a resolution uh in your packet um to accept the bids and award a Construction contract for the base bid amount of one million ten thousand eight hundred eight dollars and seventy cents for the McKnight water main Improvement city project 22-04 to beduminous roadways Incorporated motion about that so moved so move councilmember Wong second all in favor say aye aye victory in the second action Mr Mayor would be uh that the council accept all bids received and reject all bids by resolution for the McKnight water main cipp lining Improvement city project number 22-04 I'll make a motion council member Cole all's in favor say aye aye opposed thank you he does a good job that's why he's going to stay here and do another good job uh next up is the Silver Lake aerator operations and maintenance Cooperative agreement authorized signatures turn that back over to you Morgan thank you Brian Mr Mayor members of the council this next item before you is a consideration for authorization of signatures execution of a joint Cooperative agreement a copy of which is in your packet that contemplates the transition of ownership and maintenance responsibilities for an aerator in Silver Lake it's on the north side of the lake off of Joy Park technically in the city of Maplewood uh and what I can say is that this has been a very long conversation between the city of North St Paul the city of Maplewood uh and Valley branch Watershed district and Ramsey County there is a lot of detail in your packet with respect to some of the history there with the past conversations basically the very short version is that Ramsey County um had indicated in early 2021 I believe that they they were not going to maintain that aerator anymore they weren't going to put it in take it out they'd been doing it for several years I think they're feeling at that time that it was just it was the only aerator they had in their system it wasn't anything that Public Works was technically set up to do and they were advocating or lobbying for an agency or a group of agencies the two cities in the Watershed District to consider a transition of ownership on that aerator now what is that aerator and what does it do the background on that is that uh basically it's a bubbler like in your fish tank right it bubbles oxygen up in primarily in the winter time it goes in the winter time uh they pull it out in the springtime I believe when the the snow melts or when the ice melts and it's there to prevent the ice from completely closing off or icing all the way down to the bottom of the lake which can cause or apparently according to the annals of history that I've been able to find in the past without a an aerator it has caused kind of a significant fish kill situation which is from an environmental standpoint is not good if you lose all of your fish population in a lake that can affect the aquatic plants and that can affect the ecology and then that can affect the water quality over time so at some point in the DNR permits this sort of thing and allows with in a DNR water body such as Silver Lake for aerators to be installed they issue permits to different agencies in fact the city of North St Paul maintains a similar aerator in Casey Lake for similar purposes which I think was probably initiated by conversations between the city of North St Paul and the DNR years ago in this instance Ramsey County had initially started owning it and maintaining it installing it in the first place originally Joy Park was a Ramsey County Park and I think that is how Ramsey County got wound up with it in the first place that it was their park originally eventually Joy Park was turned back or transitioned to city of Maplewood so now it's a Maplewood Park um and you know I guess again why does this aerator exist it does provide some environmental or ecological benefit to the Lake DNR certainly supports it but somebody needs to own it and maintain it in Ramsey County had said at that time that we're just we're not we're not going to do it somebody else has to take it over so with this joint conversation with multiple cities in the Watershed District as a water regulatory agency that is in and around Silver Lake for that portion of North Saint Paul um there were several meetings several conversations uh Ramsey County had put forth some ideas about how it could work certainly it would need to be by a Cooperative agreement that would be formally entered into by the different agencies and that's really what the council is considering here tonight is this authorization of signatures on that agreement um at that time previous administration for the city of North St Paul had indicated that North Saint Paul had a desire to have that aerator remain in existence and it said if we can talk about some of the other details North St Paul is willing to be the lead agency or consider being the lead Agency on this to keep the conversation going at that point there was a conversation with the city council in um gosh I put that in the packet at a work session in July of 2021 Workshop I'm sorry and so some of the outcomes of those multi-agency conversations with were shared with the council at that time with North Saint Paul potentially being the lead agency at that time City Ramsey County had offered a one-time lump sum payment of ten thousand dollars to be able to come cover initial maintenance or and potential I mean capital I guess contribution knowing that at some point the the pump and the aerator and some of the components of that will need to be replaced there's a you know a definite lifespan to those items and that I think at that time uh Maplewood and Valley branch Watershed District had agreed to share pretty much 50 50 the ongoing electrical energy costs for running the aerator on an ongoing basis at that time the city council had said well were generally okay with that we agree that you know it provides a benefit to the lake most of the residents that live on the lake um or most of the properties that are on the lake I think all our North St Paul residents so even though you know part of this is that North St Paul Public Works would have to enter the city of Maplewood to install and retrieve the aerator um that they wanted to leverage that position as lead agency to be able to get more upfront money so with that staff did continue negotiations Ramsey County did increase their financial contribution to twenty thousand dollars from ten thousand dollars and the city of Maplewood added another five thousand dollars so at this time the one-time lump sum payment as a part of this Cooperative agreement would no city of North St Paul would receive twenty five thousand dollars in addition to uh Valley branch Watershed district and the city of Maplewood still splitting the electrical costs so that's the general background I know that's a lot the City attorney reviewed the agreement there is um he pointed out that this agreement uh does have I don't think I put it in my staff report I don't want to like put words in your mouth but there's kind of an end date to the agreement right if this doesn't there's it doesn't last forever so that's a positive thing from a an agreement standpoint that it can be re-contemplated apparently at that time there's also some Provisions for adjustments to the energy costs knowing that electricity you know can can change over time and so after a certain point within the agreement North Saint Paul can adjust those electrical costs contributions by city of Maplewood and Valley branch on an annual basis to keep track with maybe changing energy costs as that might happen over time there's also information in your packet more than you want to know in the presentation but all the information about when was the last time the pumps were installed how much that replacement cost is anticipated to take we do have Public Works director Ron Ritchie here in case you have specific questions questions in terms of Maintenance Public Works has met with Ramsey County maintenance folks to they've kind of been observing what's going on so they generally have an understanding of how to do it North St Paul again does have a similar Contraption at Casey Lake but it is a little bit different up there so the Assumption of Duties by the city of North Saint Paul would probably start next winter because it's already in and operating by Ramsey County right now in anticipation of execution of this agreement Valley Ranch Watershed District did approve their version or their signatures on this same agreement at their last board meeting and I think that the city of Maplewood is considering it on their agenda next week as well too so with that I'll stand for any questions you mentioned that for the the power we're getting it off of excel North St Paul doesn't go to that corner correct that is one of the areas that is actually um so the borders of every electric utility in Minnesota um are spelled out through the Public Utilities Commission and that originally was our service territory but we have what's called uh exceptions to the service territory because of just the logistics of trying to get there and the expense so we would have to put in all new polls along Highway 120 we'd have to have an over under build of Excel and us for us to get the power up there so by exception they are serving that because it didn't make any sense for us to do that 30 40 years ago I believe part of the reason was is that because the deepest part of the lake is right by there as well to keep that oxygenated and so that doesn't freeze all the way down yeah and there's there's Public Access with the park um and there is some infrastructure there right so I mean if you if it were to be moved there would be I guess I would say significant additional cost is that something Ron that we're going to be taking out ourselves then in the fall or the spring or are they going to take it out and restore it that type of thing oh good evening everyone um it's not something that we actually even have to take out or take in there's a there's a structure that's in place it's basically a big it's a manhole that is down in the ground it goes down at like say 10 12 feet there's a pump that's in there that takes water into that manhole it goes actually around the pier there's a pipe that goes around the pier and then the water gets put back into the lake there so it's just taking water out of the lake and putting it back in to keep that circulation going and keeping the The Ice going so there's really there won't be dealing with the pumps or anything like that unless they're bad or have to be serviced or something like that that work for you yeah sure you want to make sure no well and it falls to Public Works I could get on my swimsuit and dive down but no I mean it's something that I guess benefits the residents of the lake you know it's mostly all North St Paul residents on the lake and you know I wasn't involved with any negotiations on this when they first started talking about this so just kind of been going with the flow and seeing what happens it seem like a lot of a lot of extra work it's it's not we met with Ramsey County last year to see the basically we have to put thin ice signs it's got to be monitored daily to make sure the signs are up um we have to keep records of that there's some permitting that we have to do with the DNR each year you know to fill that out before we can turn that on um you know stuff we have to put out notifications a couple weeks ahead before we turn that on um so I mean it's it's in a little extra work but we do a lot and we appreciate it so I just want you as you can see well my guys will be like you should have told them no yeah so you do have an oven a city to take this on we can we can handle it as long as you don't get beat up when you get backwards yeah I'll get beat up any other questions yes sir I have one for clarification when I read through the packet I interpreted the the average electrical bill I think was three to four thousand dollars and I interpreted that between Valley branch and Maplewood combined they were going to cover 13 or 1400 but when I hear it from you it sounds like they're going to split the full dollar amount so I just want to make sure that yeah so the I think I might have uh averaged or uh rounded up there with a 50 50. the original conversations were 50 50. I don't think that as we went through the discussions they knew exactly what the number would be every year uh both Valley branch and city of Maplewood said well it would be helpful if we could just arrive at a number so that we can build it in our budget and we'll know each time and then again we can uh put in the agreement that if it needs to be adjusted that we can adjust it over time so I think it was originally intended to be 50 50 it doesn't come quite out to 2000 a piece or 1500 a piece but I think they maybe split the difference to arrive at that 1750. [Music] are you looking for a motion I believe yeah so the uh recommended motion would be to authorize uh by signature of the mayor and city manager of North St Paul execution of the attached Cooperative maintenance agreement for the Silver Lake aerator between the city's North St Paul Maplewood and Valley branch Watershed district and Ramsey County move so moved your honor so move council member Wong second second council member goal those in favor say aye aye thank you all right I appreciate it welcome to the aerator business yeah hmm you can figure out all the good fish are all right next up is the report so the city manager and departments uh item a is the Community Development Department annual report 2022 actually at the last council meeting we did have Brandy give an update on the department itself so this was just the annual report but if um probably nothing really to go over unless you have specific questions for her yeah it's just something that you can expect from us in January of 2024 and they all the accomplishments that we've done in 2023 hopefully no questions okay all right next up is the police department update I'll turn that over to Chief Evan Roth thank you all right another PowerPoint prepared for everyone I just want to start off by recapping our award ceremony uh thank you to everyone who was able to attend I thought it was a a really uh greatly needed thing to do to honor our all the great work that's going on by our police officer team just to highlight and and swearing two fantastic new officers as well so fun event I was happy to put it on um yeah we kicked off the night with swearing in for Leah Culbertson and Raphael Rangel Sanchez two great new parts of this team Leah's actually been here for a couple months but we waited a little bit to get her a partner in crime to get sworn in with so we at least had two but they're they're already a tremendous value to our team uh then we we started the award portion with Sergeant decori officer Tyson and officer Allen officer Betts uh way back one a long overdue award for uh that team stopping a school shooting from taking place they were informed of a student with a handgun loaded handgun they were able to get the kid from class and then the fight was on and they were they had to fight the student to remove the handgun from them then they found out that the student had threatened and intended to shoot another student that same day so they essentially stopped the school shooting and likely saved the life of another kid who was the intended target so a very high honor uh medal of valor awarded to those four for doing that the next we had merit awards for each team of officers the whole team that responded to our tragic homicides in the city first one on August 25th that whole team got a absolutely deserved a merit award for it we ended up arresting the suspect within 12 hours of the crime which is uh uh rare and very difficult to do but thanks to that team we got the suspect so next one was for our another unfortunate uh very tragic homicide the team that responded to that one on November 1st with three very critically injured folks involved in that one thankfully one of them did survive and was recently released from the hospital uh then we go on to the uh the life-saving awards so Cody Hadler saved a student from jumping off the pedestrian bridge over Highway 36 uh uh just immediately ran and grabbed the kid as he was trying to climb over the the fence so absolutely deserving of a life-saving reward then officer puniwala saved a person who had uh tried to hang themselves cut cut down the Rope as they were hanging and near lifeless and thankfully this person came back too then officer Whitman and Sergeant Fredericks saved a person from a third story window of a burning building at Cedar View grabbed a ladder and and uh got the person down there's no way the person was going to be able to go out of the building any other way so that was uh pretty awesome that they did that then officer wakamoto Sergeant Frederickson officer Woodman stop the bleeding they responded to a person who had slit their neck with a box cutter from side to side and they controlled the bleeding and got them to the hospital and they saved their life a person still alive and then gave a life-saving award to Maplewood police officer Canada who had a worked on the one stabbing victim who did survive from our homicide incident so she did a fantastic job saving that person's life and we gave two leadership or three leadership awards one for sergeant Ray Versace for stepping in to become the acting chief of police in 2021 uh rated a fantastic job and he's a great Sergeant so I was happy to give him that award and then sergeant badwich and officer Mao they have just been absolutely working above and beyond when it comes to the evidence reorganization that has been going on they donated uh most recently a ton of bikes to the Salvation Army which is pretty cool to see and a huge win for us in our limited storage getting all these bikes out of our area was a big win as well and then they had destroyed up to over 500 items lots of firearms lots of Controlled Substances so they uh they really have our evidence practices and evidence from in a much better place than it has ever been then gave out three Community Police Awards to officer guacamoto officer Woodman and CSO bombshell miles for for bringing back McGruff the crime dog and making some pretty funny videos uh Crystal for setting up a lot of our coffee with the cops and then Jonah for making every single Community event that we either attended or put on in 2022 so very happy to give them all awards for the extraordinary things that they did last year so Switching gears a little bit here's a rundown on calls for service and stats some of them don't have all of the fields of the past five years but most of them do overall calls for service are up about 700 from 2021. I'll get into a couple highlights on the next couple slides sorry it's pretty small print a wrestler up search warrants are uh High Medicals are pretty stable our assists are up assisting other agencies which is great to to see it's just a sign of the collaboration that's going on amongst agencies investigations are absolutely up uh uh and our person in crisis calls are are also up here's a couple just highlights that you can read in a little larger print so 356 arrests nearly double from last year and the most in 2019 that is absolute sign of all the just what's going on there's there's crime occurring and there's proactive police officers on our team making arrests and catching criminals and preventing crime 261 assist other agencies highest in the last five years happy to see that worked very well with all of our partner agencies in Ramsey County and that is a definite sign of that 145 investigations highest in five years likely the highest ever 116 percent increase from 2020 54 increase from 2021 34 Community organized events that is I didn't list them all up there but that is our Trunk or Treat coffee with the cop our theft prevention events that we've done at uh Hillcrest catalytic converter prevention uh community policing partnership meetings that we've had with residents they bring up a concern and then we sit down with residents and talk about the problem and try to develop a solution with them using their input those have been great National Night Out was a big success this year I went to Saint Pete's for their Fall Festival North Haven for the Summer Fest put on fishing with the cop we had a great time I touched truck night and most recently at the Fire and Ice uh event that the city put on that was a lot of fun 80 DWI arrests nearly doubled since 2021 one of our officers actually just got three dwirs in one night so we are preventing drunk driving and traffic deaths and accidents by drunk drivers so uh really really good to see that number 370 percent increase from 2020 where we only had 17 so the cops are working and they're proactively trying to prevent crime unfortunately we had 54 victims of Motor Vehicle theft in 2022 that's a lot of cars stolen uh 30 percent increase in our person in crisis calls from 2021 and one of the uh biggest highlights of this entire uh update is we had 60 incidents that involved a response to resistance that's a use of force and we had absolutely zero use of force complaints in 2022 I think that is a huge Testament to to show the the training and the um just the level of of how great this team of officers absolutely is because they know how to handle situations and they they don't abuse any any use of force they do what needs to be done what's reasonable necessary and they and that's it so pretty happy to see that I had the most domestic assault calls in five years at 175 43.44 increase from 2018 conducted 28 search warrants that's on property that's houses people Vehicles getting his cell phones getting DNA swabs 17 controlled substance DWIs DWI warrants 114th school resource officer incidents and investigations that is a huge number from uh years past there has been a lot of stuff going on so I'll get to an idea of helping out with that number but then to round it off the two tragic homicides that we diligently investigated last year so major concerns as far as our area and safety we've had two police officers shot in Suburban Ramsey County agencies within less than a year these are this isn't Minneapolis St Paul this is Roseville and White Bear Lake so the safety issues to all cops are not uh contained to two cities in Minnesota anymore they are hitting our neighbors and they're they're out there so uh that's a major concern and and thankfully both of those two officers are uh they're doing okay um just the amount and type of Investigations more violent uh they're more demanding and more complex with the the types of crime that we're seeing a major thing for me is is I'm always concerned about officer mental health and wellness from the president's task force report on 21st century policing I think it was completed back in 2015 but there's still some very relevant things in that report that report just quoting from it law enforcement officers are subject to more stress than the general population only to the nature of their jobs in addition to working with difficult hostile individuals responding to tragic events sometimes coming under Fire themselves they suffer from the effects of everyday stressors and then you cap that off with the stat from what Minneapolis PD is experiencing an estimated 35 million dollars spent on PTSD workers comp claims due to more than 200 police officers leaving the Departments May of 2020 so mental health and wellness is going to be a constant concern of mine and I'm I'm always going to be trying to do anything that I can to minimize the stress that naturally comes with this job uh on the other side we are seeing the mental health issues also in society as a whole the persons in in crisis calls it's it's often I mean these are these are dangerous calls that used to be domestics are still absolutely a very dangerous call but persons in crisis it's just the unpredictable um there's uh there's often chemical dependency involved they're often suicidal there's often a weapon and it's a just a dangerous call and we're seeing more and more of it um the Trump the tough part for for police officers and responding to these incidents is just the we can respond to them and try to solve the situation in the immediate which happens almost every day and our officers do a great job they know how to talk to people in crisis and they do a fantastic job but it's our our inability to provide the ongoing support so we solved the problem today but the problem didn't go away it's probably going to happen for the next team or or the next shift you know we we share information and we we try to give any next interaction the best opportunity for the best outcome based on past information that we learned from dealing with them but ultimately it's well if the medication wasn't taken on this next time then the outcome might be even worse so it's just a tough situation that we're seeing more and more of folks in crisis Ramsey County is and and we we actually took part in the developing of this Sergeant Decor was on a group that helped shape it's called the appropriate response model they're still working on it but this is going to be hopefully a soon new resource to all agencies within Ramsey County they actually we met as a Ramsey County Chiefs group last month and they offered up their ability to come give a presentation to any Council in the city so I'm going to ask them if they'd be willing to come talk to all of you about what this program is but we're hoping to get additional help wherever we can get it when it comes to folks in crisis and and responding to them and getting them that ongoing care that we're in a tough uh position to to give them everything that they need motor vehicle thefts are obviously a concern that's just rampant all over the metro and and with our 54 it's uh it has not missed us we are we're working with other agencies around the county to try to catch them but it is the well let's try to prevent them from ever occurring is what we want to focus on so uh working with the Minnesota Department of Commerce and and fraud Bureau to get some additional resources and tools that we can we can try to prevent uh these these crimes from happening uh violent crowd is the stat from the BCA Uniform Crime Report uh seven County Metro Area violent crimes increasing aggravated assault robbery rape and murder all jumped from 2020 to 2021. and you know as I mentioned in my suspense update it's the Staffing and law enforcement retention and recruitment that we're all experiencing that is uh uh major concern and focus to try to right the ship as far as what's good some some progress in our Police Department uh absolutely focused on our culture so we have a great team of of Sergeants on the on the police department and were myself and the sergeant team were we're focused on the team so that is us giving the support the care we're very family focused and everybody is is on board with making sure that Wellness physical and mental is a priority for all of us um recently used some forfeiture money to get some new gym equipment in our PD garage everybody's pretty pumped about that helps reduce stress by a little physical activity and having things like our award ceremony just recognizing great work and even having conversations of saying great job on that incident I think go a long way so we have a a good culture going that uh um I'm very happy about and we're just going to keep trying to build it uh one of my favorite books is uh Jim Collins good to great I don't know if anyone has ever read that but one of the the main takeaways from that book is you first have to focus on who and then you focus on what when you're you're talking about building a team so if you begin with the who rather than the what you can more easily adapt to a changing world if people are on the bus because of who else is on the bus that it's much easier to change directions we're getting the right people on the bus it's taking a little while to get there we're not just hiring to fill holes if I wanted to be fully staffed I could have absolutely done that based on the amount of applications we didn't hire to fill needs we hired the right people because they're the right people to be on the bus and I I'm going to keep doing that as as painful as it is to not be fully staffed it is going to hurt us a lot more if we do not have the right person on the team so willing to wait it out um at the at the thought that it does depend on people when we're in the profession of working with people all day every single day and having conversations with people and and talking we need the right people to do that so um we're getting there but we we are absolutely getting the right people on the bus also focused on our environment just organizing stuff throwing away stuff that we don't need and that is not uh we're no longer required to retain based on uh data practices and and uh retention periods once we're beyond that while we're getting rid of the old that's been happening a lot because at the end of the day I think the environment that you work in matters when it comes to your overall overall happiness and your job if you go to work and you're in a clean professional looking updated environment that allows for efficiency you're going to enjoy your job more and you're going to be able to do your job better because you're not surrounded with clutter and outdated stuff that doesn't work so our overall workplace environment is improving uh council is is absolutely been great when it comes to helping us get the right tools that we need for the job we've I came with a lot of asks last year to try to get us up to speed we're a little outdated when it came to a lot of different things and now we are getting the things that we need so we can keep our officers safe so they can keep the community safe and so we can even we got brand new radials last year that was a major Improvement we got a repeater on this building we couldn't hear emergency calls on our own radios when we're in the police department downstairs without that repeater now we can we also couldn't hear them when we were in North High School um the school district thankfully uh paid for that repeater and got a repeater installed on North High so now we can hear emergency calls when we're inside that building before we couldn't hear anything even during that incident we were fighting with a kid with the gun couldn't could barely hear anyone that was in that building so it was a major safety issue not having our radios function in here or or any building throughout the city we're getting a new records management system they keep pushing back the start date unfortunately it's supposed to be January 1st of this year and then it was March and now it is August of 2023 but knowing that the it's a major overhaul so they have to convert every single old record that we have which is a lot of Records to the new system in order to let it work we can't just say okay we're done with the old system see you later all all the old police reports we have to keep them all by Statute for set periods of time so we're getting there but that's going to allow every single agency in Ramsey County is going to be on this system we're going to be able to share information have better communication and and collaboration amongst all agencies other than St Paul police department they're the the only one that won't be on the system but every other agency will be uh very focused on our Partnerships it's rare that a day goes by I don't talk to someone from another Police Department around uh Ramsey County uh we're absolutely having good communication with Ramsey County Attorney's Office and and we work with them almost every single day too we had the national black police officer Association here for an event a couple weeks ago it was fantastic to to have them host gave a bunch of bikes to a few families that was great to be a part of that event we're also hosting the national Latino peace officers associations coming here for a meeting so we're getting involved with all of our our partners in in law enforcement and various groups so it's it's pretty fun on the state side we talked to the BCA we worked with them all the time Department of Commerce and fraud Bureau they're a great partnership and on the federal side we've been working with the ATF and FBI on a couple cases so Partnerships are increasing as far as community policing we are absolutely achieving it we're listening to Residents and we're helping solve problems together we're going to events we're creating events we're going to be creating even more events this year which I'm looking forward to we're having conversations and we're getting to know each other the community is getting to know us and we're getting to hear from them so it's it's been pretty successful in the community policing approach as far as changes uh switched up our vacation bid process to allow so it used to be a bit by seniority if you're the leasing year you basically get no shot at uh any warm weather vacation bed well we changed it up so on that I wish I could put that old slide back up so that team schedule that 18 days 19 days now we made it so you only have to bid for your vacation amongst your team so you're only really bidding against three other people instead of 17 18 you know our full staff so everybody was pretty happy about that because that means more people can be off at the same time because it really only matters if you're you know missing one from your team the other teams can also be missing one because you're not impacting another team so that was a nice change I think that was warmly received by the all of the officers uh a fun policy change I made a while back was any officer or Sergeant or uh any of our admin team you can bring your dog to work with you anytime you want uh it's been a fun thing uh we have dogs running around we don't have a canine program yet but we have a lot of canines running around the PD thankfully it's only been a couple accidents on the on the on the carpet but it's pretty fun I love having dogs around I think it just adds to the uh stress helps helps remove the stress level when you have your four-legged companion uh back at the PD after you get back from a difficult call so that was a fun fun policy change as far as training so last year this is the amount that I submitted for reimbursement from the state 61 700 so it's a little more than that and we spent even more than that so that does include staff time but that's courses registrations it's a big number I think we got back a little under 20 000 of that from the state reimbursing us for training but uh we're absolutely improving our our training and doing more so some of that's been through Ramsey County Attorney's Office uh BCA came into a little critical incident training Crisis Intervention and mental illness and crisis autism training uh Conflict Management mediation and recognizing the value in community diversity and cultural differences to include implicit bias training that all of our officers have done in 2022. uh then on collaboration I love working with this North St Paul Team every other division uh fantastic around is back there I call him uh hopefully not too much but uh he's just it's an awesome team to be a part of the fire Public Works electric uh Finance community service everybody is just they've been fantastic to work with and anytime we need anything it's uh it's people saying absolutely um you know how else how else can I help so it's it's a fun team to be a part of and um yeah just enjoyable environment it's a road ahead I mentioned this in our suspense suspense slides but this is what the the hopes are for the future like to get another SRO I'm going to be talking to the school district soon on what that looks like um also working with Maplewood and Oakdale because we all share the school districts so we're all going to be a part of that conversation and there's needs not just in North St Paul when it comes to schools so a second detective uh you saw the stats on on where investigations are going and there's an absolute need for another detective position I'd love to have an additional officer for patrol backfill community outreach and Community engagement specifically assigned for those goals of completing the Outreach and engagement with the additional option of vacation backfill that would be a huge addition crime analyst would be invaluable some type of non-sworn Mental Health crisis unit in-house would be fantastic to have k n program absolutely looking forward to developing that and then a reserve program which wouldn't cost us much and it's a built-in recruiting pool by having our our reserves and so those are those are the plans and goals for the road ahead uh also been working with a lobbyist who is a uh I think pretty um thinks it's a pretty good idea and it might actually pick up some traction what's going to help is if I get a resolution from Council supporting this concept but it's going to be for a bill that's going to provide State funding to all employee medical and dental costs for every cop in the state of Minnesota with single or family coverage to help with retention recruitment diversity morale physical Mental Health all the above and it also I think is going to slow down the incentives and the let's steal another agency's officers game that's going on you just make it a this would be a drastic change that I think changes the way law enforcement would be viewed as a viable option for going into as a profession if you if it gets out there that law enforcement comes with free health care and dental care for you and your family I think that's going to change some pers perceptions about interest in the field and it wouldn't be the Band-Aid fix of uh shiny objects and ten thousand five thousand dollars here and there it's going to keep people in for the long term because you would get it for the duration of your career so I will I'm happy to put together some information on this and further discuss it with you all at a council meeting possibly the one in in two weeks and hope to get your approval on a resolution to give this some support at our state legislator any questions that's the last slide that I have would happy to answer anything that I just went through or anything at all about the police department questions just want to say thank you for your service we appreciate everything you do and adding your staff thank you [Music] I had the pleasure of being or the ability to tour your guys's department on the awards day and um I thought it was really cool to see where everybody was office and I I got to see the um the evidence room and how clean that was and um I you guys are doing a fantastic job Brian had informed me about the dogs I think that's incredible I mean that's the relief that brings and just the ease and fun of the fun for just even going in and seeing them uh is pretty exciting so I encourage you all to get a tour of the police department it's pretty cool thank you yeah if you you all are more than welcome anytime it's the hop on ahead just ask for a tour don't get arrested yeah I just want to say thank you I know that mental health is a big priority for you and you keep bringing it up and I I can't thank you enough for making that a priority for your team and as you had mentioned it's definitely an issue in society so hopefully we can find some collaboration around that to support you and your team thank you all right go ahead Phil I'm nothing but consistent I'm rough finding on the financial end but the return on investments there what you've done in your short term with the staff with the culture with everything is phenomenal um you know bringing in the Drone program the introduction of potential canine program brings the ability for those with with you know on your team to learn and do other things and hopefully retain you know hopefully retention so they don't need to go outside of of North Saint Paul to to seek other opportunities in the creation of other opportunities in here as well so my hat's off congrats thank you very much appreciate it thank you much appreciate you thanks uh just another couple more quick updates um with staff meeting today um we got departments doing their training electric always sends their guys down to Marshall where mmua has their training center so they'll be heading down they were just down there for uh Transformer Banking and now that we've got a couple guys going next week for uh metering uh been doing some hiring uh where the fire department has just brought on Ethan Johnson last week this is the second week he needs a new dad with twins actually too so yeah busy exciting for him hope he got a lot of sleep before that yeah Public Works is also doing some hiring they're getting that posted out for their Public Works guy um just an update too on uh the conditions that we're dealing with and Iran can certainly attest to this that the issues that we're having of getting material not only in the supply chain aspect of it the ordering the costs the delay on getting equipment I was talking to a Salesman today that for just single phase Transformers they're anywhere from 72 to 80 weeks out after you order them and that's at three to four times the cost of what they were just a couple years ago um you know we're just looking into buying some trucks we used to be able to go through the state bid for that well which would amount to probably about fifteen thousand dollars in reduction of the cost of the truck they aren't honoring that anymore just because do there's just you can't get the vehicles even as uh just Joe citizen but we're not seeing those reductions I think we got a thousand dollars off for these trucks is the best that they can do now so really seen some difficult issues with uh you know of our Sip and uh with the improvements and trying to upgrade some of our vehicles and equipment and just trying to get equipment um pretty tough time for that so we're doing the best that we can I know for example Excel Energy has actually shut down some of their jobs um just they don't have the supplies to energize some of these new projects um so it's kind of tough but we're doing the best we can that's all I hope oh you know what I got one more I'm sorry I just wanted to remind uh everybody we have a clean energy Choice program that the electric department has through our power agency um and this is both to business customers and residential customers so how the program works is uh the clean energy energy Choice provides North St Paul electric utility customers with the opportunity to have 100 of their electricity coming from environmental friendly and renewable resources this program supports meeting customer demand for more renewable energy and gives electric customers another Choice regarding their electric supply and this is a much cheaper option than you know putting solar on your roof and dealing with that actually we have our first solar customer sitting with us today Dave you were the first one in our system um so this allows us to um for businesses to meet their renewable and sustainable energy goals promotes their business for being powered by 100 renewable energy and how the program works the program pricing and incremental charge of one tenth of one cent per kwh is added on to their bill on top of what the regular cost is um and actually we do that the city so this building and our Public Works building is on that program so 100 of the power that we use is through renewable resources per the current law in Minnesota uh 20 of the power that Municipal sell already has to come from sustainable energy so that part is already considered into that so it's the rest of that 80 percent that they can do that with and residential customers it's made nice and easy it's low cost uh it's either one dollar to three dollars as a monthly Adder um one dollar we get you 50 renewable uh 2.75 and for three extra dollars a month you get 100 renewable energy that will supply your house to that so it's a nice predictable fixed monthly cost an easy way to sign up we have it online and uh hope we do more people signed up for it as of right now with the 12 cities that are in our power agency we are the second percentage-wise of the amount of customers signed up for the renewable energy program so it's kind of nice people are getting on board yeah all right thank you appreciate it reports [Music] the Planning Commission was moved from last week to this week yep just to note that we're still looking for why do we do have one that has applied so yeah I believe the interview was pushed out two weeks for that yeah yeah that's number one yeah so uh the arts and culture commission met on February 1st so that was last week at 6 30 here in the chambers um there was a lot of discussion about projects snowy and finalizing the details around that and the communications around that and then plans to work with our stakeholders The Business Association and they did have a question for Council in regards to statues and whether um Council or staff would be interested in kind of designating some spaces or if they're high like spots that would be suitable for um uh sculpture so um not sure if anyone has suggestions but they're open to it um there's also the electric or utility box wrap project that's moving along um and we also had our first youth commissioner participate and she stayed the whole time so that's good but yeah she's 10th grade and it's it's pretty remarkable to to see some young people out and interested in public service and the next meeting is March 1st at 6 30 here in the chambers thank you for the update that's what I'm sure Tim handed over the Baton to me on January 25th and I had the pleasure of joining the park and rec uh Commission I am happy to hear well sad to see but also happy that we have had 46 combined years of service between Nancy Thorson Larry msden and Heather Haas the all three retired on January 25th so much thanks to the three of them uh we are tabling the chair positions until the next meeting Laura Greenlee was not there for that and I also want to give a shout out to Brandi she provided a great presentation in regards to the responsibilities expectations and opportunities to the commission uh which was pretty exciting to the parks and rec commission as a are looking forward to some opportunities that do arise like conferences and things like that um lastly I had the ability and was as all of us were invited to the police awards ceremony and the um firefighters award and recognition ceremonies and I have to tell you that um it was an honor to be in front of both of your departments and recognizing both your departments you guys go above and beyond call and you work so well together as a community not only within your department but also with every Department here so I was grateful to have met both the new hires in the police department um you hit everything so I I won't hit anything more on the ceremony itself but recognition is a big deal on my end as with the position I hold so the awards ceremony that you had provided was incredible on Friday Night Last Friday excuse me Jason and Brent I put on their firefighters awards ceremony and recognition for their department and volunteers I'm not going to steal any of Jason's Thunder as he will be presenting next week but I have the um what's the word I'm looking for hey the opportunity to sit with Matt watt who had been with the department for 13 years and he also he was a lieutenant and also served as the chaplain unfortunate for us Matt uh Matt's family all grew with their capacity here in North St Paul so they moved to an outside area however he is now a member of the Lake Elmo fire department so I really want to recognize his years of service and also serving as the chaplain here that is all I have thank you very cool I think sir uh um currently conducting interviews the Thursday afternoon there is one opening on the Eda and there are three um people that are first president taking place on Thursday afternoon next Eda meeting nothing says Eda like Valentine's Day three o'clock in the afternoon that's for sure thank you so much appreciate it um General business that's number one I just wanted to also thank um City attorney Matic for um your presentation for the arts and culture Commission she's she's our lead now that's for sure I also have to thank you uh for just tonight's presentation it brought a lot more clarity to the role that we have within the city so thank you for that councilmember cool and I also have the police hiring Awards on my side um I want to thank everybody that put the packet together yeah I know there's so much work we're up here doing the easy part of it but I know there's lots of hours that go into everything so you make our job much easier by doing the due diligence and getting all the information together so I really want to thank the group and how well how well you do that for us I also want to thank you for the for the information and to remind us about you know how how it works and being able to um with our with our city manager how what an important role you have Brian for all of us you are the one that's the glue that we get able to get things done and be able to to work with on that so that's just important and it's appreciated that you're able to Corral this group here and keep us moving forward so I want to thank you for for all the effort you do too as well anything else I think we're good let's move to adjourn anybody gonna move do it I'll second who moved me oh I didn't hear you oh sorry can I ask a question can I have my gamble back so I can adjourn it I've been I've been a little naughty so she took it and hit it adjourned at 8 55. thank you everyone your girl's okay