we have north st paul allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all like to welcome everyone at this time of motion our uh we'll do the roll call jenny councilmember thorson here councilmember peterson councilmember wong here councilmember cole here mayor furlong here quorum is present this time motion to adopt the agenda your honor by councilmember peterson second second by council member cole any discussion not all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries we do have one presentation and we've done this in the past it's a mayoral proclamation constitution week in north saint paul and i'll read the proclamation here whereas the constitution of the united states of america the guardian of our liberties embodies the principles of limited government in a republic dedicated to rule by law and whereas september 17 2022 marks the 235th anniversary of the drafting of the constitution of the united states of america by the constitutional convention and whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to its to this magnificent document in its memorial anniversary into the patriotic celebrations which which which will commemorate it and whereas public law 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the president of the united states of america designating september 17th through the 23rd as constitution week now therefore on behalf of the city council of the city of north st paul i tarry furlong by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor city of north st paul do here proclaim the week of september 17th through the 23rd as constitution week be it further resolved i ask our citizens to reaffirm the ideals the framers of the constitution had in 1787 by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us through this guardian of our liberties signed this day 16th of august 2022 that is the proclamation and at this time uh we have our consent agenda and they are the general claims of 501 598 dollars and one cent hra claims of 232 291 dollars 62 cents eda claims of 212 dollars and 50 cents uh the least extension between the city of north st paul and kokora volleyball the park and recreation park entry signs the building permit report july of 2022 and the resolution of proven acceptance of donations received by received on july 20 received july 2022 this time any council member can pull an item at this time if they so want to i would like to poll the park and recreation park entry signs if we can move that down to general business for item c and um may i pull item d please which one item d the leases these six now okay and uh lease extension between the city of north st paul cocora volleyball and then we'll move that to uh d down below city business and action items so at this time motion to approve the consent agenda so moved moved by council member call second second by council member wong any discussion not all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries this time the meeting is open to the public i do have a couple people uh and i'll just read what this open forum is an opportunity for persons to address the city council on items not on the agenda a completed public comment form should be presented to the deputy clerk prior to the meeting comments will be limited to three minutes per person while the city council may ask clarifying questions of the speaker no formal action by the city council or discussion will be held on these items so at this time john small welcome john mayor council there was a time uh a previous uh city manager said with the new uh television system that there would be the opportunity for someone who spoke to use uh whatever they had on their phone as pictures to do this that they could cast it to the system and he said that would be a wonderful thing when you get up to be able to explain i guess we've never had that opportunity because that city manager is no longer here and probably nobody else knows that your system supposedly would allow that but just off subject anyway uh lexis is nexus is not lex us carr or uh nexus a uh joining together or a confluence of the meaning of the words uh does anyone in the council know what i'm talking about lexisnexis i guess not alexis okay uh one council member this is the way you are able to obtain information on crime in this city it's it's a provider it's a contractor with this city and since july 19 we have not had any reports of crime it is there's nothing there there's this berlin wall next to maplewood with multiple crimes happening in it and nothing in north st paul not entirely nor nothing because every once in a while a maplewood police officer will enter into north st paul chasing a drunk driver or something there was yesterday a crime reported in north st paul by a maple wood officer because it was we stopped them in north st paul so anyway at this particular point in time since july 19th there hasn't been a report of a crime in north st paul i called the police office here and said hey do you know yeah we know oh what are we doing about it well we've we've done something i don't know what it was that they did and i said well there's also been a change with the program that's associated with this and it's completely different as you look at it especially on your phone to get the information and i said the information isn't there when you try to accident access it with your phone and the person i'm talking to in the police office said well here's the email address and a and a phone number that i could call and explain what i was having a problem with for someone who's in north st paul where there are no reports so i said i'm not even thinking about doing that so for anyone who's running for office uh in the next election you can look at this lexus nexus and say there's no crime in north st paul which i think is not entirely true i you know look into it if it's important to pay a vendor it would be important to have the vendor provide the service i would say simple uh i had an experience in at a planning commission meeting where a group from the um condos i can't remember the name that are next to public works that go up uh seventh they were at the planning commission meeting and made a complaint about something dealing with shift skis that came up many years ago that they were going to make a change and things had to be done and they just poured out their hearts on what was bothering them and i thought are they in the wrong pew in the church and planning commission committee listened to them and then they left but as they were leaving i remember when this came up before the planning commission and i went out the door and i said is the guy with the white sox still around and one of the council members that i talked to remembers the guy with the white sox and he was the guy who said i had put these this pair of white socks on the sill of the window and he said after a week they were black and he was complaining about the dirt that comes from schifsky's anyway i ran out the door is he still around and the woman that was in charge of this says i don't think he's in the condos anymore and her husband said no he died so i don't know if he ever felt that he got his questions answered or not but have you heard anything about this group that got together and came you know so evidently wasn't passed on from the planning commission to the council and i thought they were they were wasting their time and evidently they were wasting their time just letting you know if you're not aware of it and then uh the profit on the sale of the house on 19th you approved the sale of the house on 19th on the july 26th meeting and there was a statement made by the city manager as to the profit made on the house on 19th and i didn't write it down so i thought well it's in it's in the agenda no it wasn't an agenda the only the sale price of 4.6 million or 460 thousand dollars was 4.6 million well it's outrageous that it went at that price either either but well and so the profit wasn't uh at 460 thousand dollars that the ami the uh well uh area median income for a person that can afford the median house or something like that and i don't think that house at its sale met those requirements of the uh what is that yeah the thing that you get the out every 10 years the plan anyway um i and it wasn't in the minutes and then i went to look at the video there wasn't a video so it's a secret as to what the profit is so uh if somebody can tell me uh remind my mind because i just didn't write it down but i think it was in the range of 130 i'm sure the manager can get you that information he's not going to say anything what it is no okay well now we'll have to look into it and get you there well he's the one who stated it at the meeting he wanted to tell everyone about the great profit you made and so but as i say here i missed it i forgot it and i'm asking to know what it is but you're not going to tell me do you know the exact number for exactly but it was around 120. 120. well i guess i can put in a data request for the exact number you can just call them too no we have to get it in writing because you never know what happens between the requests and that i've been here a long time i'm sorry and the last item is is kind of a funny item but i'm sitting in my cabin on the 7th of august looking at the email and there's an email from north st paul and it was sent at 8 10 on a sunday and it said something about a meeting and i thought oh my god that's got to be an important meeting it's the usual notification you get when you when there's a meeting you're going over three minutes so yeah i know but but it turns out that i think it was sent in error but for an email to come notification of a city council meeting on sunday at 8 10 i try not to open anything up from north st paul when i'm at my cabin but i had to at that time but i in the end i guess it was not to be sent in the first place so that's it thank you john uh david nelson are we gonna learn about the goats or oh that's me yeah dave nelson at 25-74 fourth avenue east north st paul uh southwood i think uh i was on the parking wreck with terry and that and we were all divided up a park and southwood was i was supposed to be in charge of well my daughter is a wildlife biologist she come down and she walked through she says dad this has got to go this has got to go this has got to go we pretty much eradicated the uh giant japanese knotweed i got pictures of don bienick out there and i cut it a foot and a half off the ground because i didn't know what there's trees or stumps there and he's holding it on the ground and it was four and a half feet taller than he was so that's how big that stuff was no he shrunk great is he gonna say did you shriek a little bit down or yeah but anyway that was pretty much eradicated and a lot of volunteers come out to help and that so we we did that without poisoning or anything like that we started pulling the buckthorn and the people were upset a little bit about pulling the buckthorn at first but the residents come out and they start pulling and i gotta thank the residents and some of them here lloyd was a big help down there helping and that and terry was there when we put the overlook on well we finished that december 22nd or 21st that's how cold it was when i had a shovel snow to finish it but anyway uh those are some of the things that we did and that but right now the people that we're volunteering and that are [Music] we're retired we can no longer pull stuff like that or anything that's why i brought pictures of the goats that's in maplewood you probably saw them on news and that they almost used them stillwater's used them i don't know about oakdale but there's quite a few other communities right down the warner road used them along the mississippi river they used them and that they save the people's backs they take and strip them if you anybody here if you've got time go down to the ymca in maplewood you can go down and watch them there's probably about 40 or 50 goats there they put up a fence they're in charge of them and that's there they have all the liability the goats do the goats do or the city does no they've got to go the people that put up the goats have it but also there is um grants out there i try i think there's two grants out there where they'll pay for a big portion of this and i tried to look at it but i'm not in charge of the city so i can't do it has to be a city employee that does the legwork on this and that but i mean at least call maplewood see how they like it and that that would be very helpful and i gotta say when the residents are out there cleaning out the buckthorn they complained at first but when the buckthorn was clean they says man we never knew how nice that was because they had owls in the trees owl's nest that we had there they had guys come out with cameras taking pictures of the birds and people from their homes could see the pond they could see the deer walking through there and everything like that but anyway uh if the city would please at least contact maplewood and there is grants out there that will help you i'm sure and on the second page that i handed out i don't know who's doing the weeds treating down there but in 2014 was the first year and we were the very first city to win the leap award in the city of you know in the uh washington county ramsey county watershed we won the leap award and that's because of the safe practice we had of no spraying next to the water pulling stuff hauling it out removing the unwanted stuff um like burdocks when the burdocks has just got a little blue tip now's the time you go with a shovel and you cut the root and then and just pull it out and just literally and it won't spread but uh as far as uh uh and that was if you could just go a little bit faster over the three minutes but anyway the the spraying out there i don't know who's doing it because we went on the watershed tour and was question and answer how do you get rid of reed canary you do not go out with a four-wheeler and drive all over spot spraying you've got the mist going all over the butterfly garden that we put in out there for the monarchs which you know is in base i mean critical now they wipe that totally out some of the other people that have been out there working with us they went out and looked they run over the blue stem blue stem will not seed this year because they they run over it and the spray stemmed uh set it back if we're gonna take and get it back we need to get it done and the watershed says you cut the tops off the reed canary grass which there was three volunteers we went out there it was probably 30 some hours we cut all the tops off the reed canary's grass and that one acre and then you're supposed to take and cut the grass off about three inches or four inches above the ground when the shoots come up you spot spray with a tank you don't drive out there and and shoot it uh this is right from the watershed that's how they get rid of it and if you can't do it right the first time the city is wasting their money you're throwing your money out the window what those guys are doing so it's got to be done the right way maybe cost a little bit more but you'd be farther ahead in the long run and they need to learn their plants you don't spray volunteer i mean pollinator gardens and pollinator plants to kill them so thanks okay dave thank you appreciate it we do have the saltwood commission that actually works down there and it works with the uh supposedly with the wheat people so evidently some communication has to be done between that and the work force down there workforce so at this time i'll turn over to unless there's anybody on zoom or there's nobody else so at this time we'll turn over to city manager brian frandl thank you mayor uh on to the city business action items and recommendations we have two items first one is the 2022 street maintenance crack ceiling uh receiving quotes an award contract engineer morgan dolly is here to speak to that i'll turn it over to him thank you brian mr mayor members of the council this item before you for consideration is the award of contract for street maintenance work in in terms of crack sealing something that we do on our streets between every two to five years it is something that is in our budget our annual street maintenance budget every other year and the last time that this occurred was in 2020 there's a map in your packet that generally shows the areas to be done and also we can keep track of second-tier areas or if we had additional budget or if costs allowed where we would go next basically is just kind of an ongoing record-keeping effort in terms of what streets need that type of maintenance in terms of review of why we do this this is just kind of recommended ongoing ceiling work to seal up any normal cracks that might be occurring within pavement primarily the newer roads so roads which have been reconstructed or rehabilitated or overlaid in the last uh well since 2014 when the kind of our modern capital improvement plan kicked off so staying on top of those we can extend the life cycle of those roads and pavements getting as many years as we possibly can out of them and so we went out for quotes we received a couple quotes from two contractors which we've worked before and the recommended low quarter is allied blacktop and with a grand total quote of 83 100 i should know that uh the and we've worked with allied here in town before previous efforts so um they do good work um the price of oil i think is a little bit higher now than it was probably two years ago when this was done and so the budgeted amount for this particular activity is seventy thousand dollars staff's plan in terms of managing this contract if it is awarded by council would be to just reduce the number of linear feed of roads that we have within like on the map for example um roads that might be kind of borderline between tier one and tier two if you will a little bit more than a mile but not significantly enough that i think in my mind would put additional risk on those roads but just staying within the budget amount unless the council wanted to give direction for staff to at least look into if there's additional funds that can be secured but staff is perfectly comfortable working within the budgetary means and the identified 70 thousand dollar and again just uh providing direction to the contractor in terms of uh fewer linear feet uh for completion of this activity if awarded by council here uh at this meeting then um the anticipated date of completion is october 1st and we would move forward with that contractor getting them on the schedule as soon as possible so we could get that done before the end of the year and within the current budget cycle so with that i'll stand for any questions uh for this particular item you do have a resolution so the action item is to um accept the quotes and award by resolution the construction contract for the 2022 street or i'm sorry crack ceiling project um so again i'll stand for any questions council might have this is no overlap this is just crack ceiling so this is what yeah residents or council may have seen in the past where they actually bring in oil and they fill the crate it's actually not oil it's a little bit thicker than that but it seals up the cracks sometimes on the edges of the road with the curb they put toilet paper down to kind of keep it from spreading around it is actually toilet paper it's the real thing yes nothing special about that um but you know typically as soon as they are done with that and the toilet paper is down it can be driven on right away it's very non-invasive in terms of uh disruption to vehicular traffic or anything like that we're extending the life it prevents potholes and what do we correct yeah um well yes so uh potholes actually start by cracks right and so by keeping the water out of the cracks you prevent um that that water intrusion will actually get into the sub base which is underneath the pavement and expands and contracts especially in the winter and the spring with freeze thaw those things open up and turn into potholes right so we're trying especially on the new newly invested roadways that we've built over the last several years and all the cracks that we're seeing are seeing are normal right so roads will crack over time but if we keep those sealed over time again mndot's done research on this and you know every two to three five years i guess on a regular basis keeping those cracks sealed uh really give the roads their best chance of um you know not just lasting 20 or 25 years but again with kind of ongoing uh investments with maintenance and then maybe eventually getting to an overlay in 15 or 20 years we can hopefully get 50 60 maybe 70 years out of these roads so that's the recommended practice maplewood kind of follows a very similar practice i know uh and um again every two to three years is what we kind of plan on in north st paul uh you know the questions for morgan but you're looking at you're asking for something else rather than the resolution or no just the resolution if the council wanted to give direction on should we see if there's an additional 13 000 so we can just do the full contract amount if there's uh if there's not if that's not available again at a staff level we would just go back to that 70 000 but if if the council wants me to look into that i can but if you want to just stick with the budget amount because that's set and it's been in there since the beginning of the year that's perfectly fine as well too well i'm okay if you if you could find the money the thirteen thousand dollars i'd be okay with that also okay with that i would welcome that that generally okay we'll look and if we can't you know if the funds aren't there we'll we'll stick with the budget so the resolution is accepting quotes and awarding the construction contract for the 2022 crack ceiling project correct so moved moved by council member thorson second second council member juan any discussion if not all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed the motion carries and it back over to city manager frandl thank you mayor next item up is the downtown landscape improvements receiving quotes and awarding contract that also i believe morgan is going to speak to thank you brian mr mammers members of the council so this next item uh is a a natural conclusion almost i guess if you will to the to what uh started with the sentinel redevelopment and the street and utility improvements that occurred beginning in 2020 on 7th avenue and margaret street in and around again the the that intersection and the sentinel development roads were reconstructed sidewalks etc and at that time based on fiscal constraints there was landscaping that was intended to go into some of the areas which you may be familiar around the downtown area that are currently filled with mulch as a temporary measure but it was always intended to be planted with trees and shrubs and plantings and i do have some visuals to share with the council really quickly before we move forward but so at that time again operating within the project budgets the landscaping and i think irrigation were removed from that existing contract and everything went in basically knowing that what was being done at that time wasn't going to preclude the addition or the installation of the landscaping until you know a later date now that project is in large part complete there's a couple outstanding minor punch list items remaining however we wanted to get the landscaping and the planting under contract and if possible if the nurseries and supply chain issues cooperate we want to get that in before the end of the year here so we went out for quotes with the exact same landscaping plan that was originally in the original plan set to get pricing there is again also looking at budgets there's available funds to be able to accommodate these improvements now at this time and so what's before you for consideration is we took three quotes again with the exact same plan as what was conceived in 2020 but put that back out to public quoting those prices ranged from 53 approximately 53 000 to 73 000. staff is recommending award to the lowell quarter of the southview design out of saint paul minnesota in the amount of 53 047.96 i should also mention that what is included in this package is only the the plantings of the landscaping they are uh going to have the responsibility of taking out that existing mulch uh and replacing it with new mulch once the plantings are in um consecutively under a different umbrella which actually is a part of the original construction contract for the street and utility improvements is the completion of boring in irrigation sleeves and the actual irrigation so we got some pricing for irrigation and so the coordination here and we wrote this into the specifications for this particular effort that everybody needs to cooperate and time everything so that it works together but by the end of this year if everything works out we should have all the sleeving installed an actual irrigation system installed and then the plants as well too which need the irrigation to be able to survive so this will kind of put a cap on that project and get us to the point that we had originally conceived in terms of what the vision was in terms of irrigation sleeving plantings everything all working well together and then moving forward um that will kind of complete at least that you know especially the above ground visual vision that was conceived two three years ago when that project was first undertaken so um and i should also mention that that other effort with the irrigation again by my review anyway if you combine the pricing that we received here with these quotes and then also the cost of that irrigation system it all seems to fit within the existing budget that we had identified for all of this kind of happening now two years later so these the pricing appears to be favorable and staff is recommending award of that low quote as i said in the amount of fifty three thousand forty seven dollars and if i can share my screen here really quickly i will try to show you an image of let's see this is did that work there we go okay so i apologize that these are technical drawings and not kind of more colorful renderings if you will but what this shows here and i can zoom in a little bit so this what you're looking at here uh from left to right is seventh avenue and this uh little bump out if you can see my curt my cursor moving here or my pointer this little bump hou that that's the crosswalk that is lined up with the post office and so currently these planting areas on either side of that walk through are as i said they're open areas it's not concrete but it was left open intentionally to receive these landscaping improvements and so as you can see it's a series of lower level plantings and shrubs some flowers and then each one of these areas does receive a larger tree the size of the trees that we're planting here are two and a half inch calipers so that means the trunk of the tree is measured at two and a half and that's typically what we would might look to do downtown no larger than that trees larger than that tend to get much more expensive and they actually have a harder time surviving after getting replanted and transplanted the types of large trees that we're looking at here are master locusts which is consistent with there's some other locusts in and around kind of mixed throughout downtown and then i'm just going to slide over here this is actually well i'll move down the street if that's okay so this next slide is kind of moving towards margaret so in between that post office crosswalk if you will there's some smaller little planting areas that as you can see are strategically spaced in between uh street lights and other things like a pedestrian or not the handicapped kind of ramp and those are either a simply just low-level plantings with some shrubs or some of the other ones have kind of medium-sized ornamental trees and then as i move again towards the intersection this is the intersection of 7th avenue and margaret just down the street from city hall here as you can see kind of on all four corners plus a couple extra areas there's planting areas as well there that's four of them do include the larger trees the locusts and there's some landscaping that go around the area where the traffic signal operations electrical cab cabinet is and the lighting utility cabinets as well too as far as species are concerned let's see if i can re-share is there anything going on in front of the lily building um i can come back to that in one second just to double check so this is adam's crap apple crab apple this is a it's not going to drop apples but it is a good tree for sidewalks and and downtown but it does kind of have some nice flowering color to it that's one of the ornamental trees japanese lilac is the other small ornamental trees those are again in kind of those smaller areas that are intermixed between the street lighting and then the shade master locust is uh looks kind of like this and again there's some there are some locusts on seventh avenue to the east of margaret and also to the west kind of mixed in with other species as well too knowing that it's important to keep a variety of species to kind of protect against like what's happened where all the ash trees or all the elm trees get to be at risk for a particular type of disease right so we don't want to have too many of one thing but this generally conforms with kind of that concept for downtown and also in large part with the downtown revitalization master plan that the city adopted in 2017 so all of that kind of went together to inform this landscaping plan um moving back to the post office or what which building were you talking about lilly building the lily building there was a yep as you heard tonight so there are and this is something that actually i've spoken to the developer about um there's only two little planting areas right there that are the more minor ones we do have to install the irrigation there to get to a point where eventually it will have to keep going down the street as well too and that will be another coordination issue with their improvements right now though that there should not be a significant impact with what they're proposing um in terms of what they're looking to do against the curve is mostly to the west of this location um and this falls within kind of our new pavement area if you can visualize that which actually is a little bit west of the post office property and overlaps with the lilly redevelopment by about 100 feet or something like that so um that's all that's in front of their building are those two one ornamental tree more towards their property corner and then again one smaller planting area that does not have a tree those are the two two spaces right right there so you think we should eliminate that well not at this time no i know i think that um you know as we get a contractor on board and as we learn more from the developer and what their construction program is because there's a lot of unknowns with respect to what they're planning from a construction standpoint and timing standpoint and in my opinion they should be able to work around this now as we get further through conversations and as this contractor is waiting for irrigation to be installed and we get mobilized it certainly is easy enough to pull a tree out if we think it's going to be at risk from their construction process but at this time i don't think it makes any sense to to make those decisions too hastily and if we can get them in and get them irrigated and get them growing it just means that they'll be bigger and more healthy and more vibrant for downtown later on rather than being planted you know a year or two later so if we can plant them i'd want to um just to maybe help soften the uh construction that we'll be potentially seeing downtown with their project right so um that's my thought on it and with that i'll stand for any questions again for this item i don't have a resolution so it'd simply be a motion in a second to um award the uh south view landscaping dollar amount 53 000 correct that's correct mr mayor any questions for morgan regards to the planning if not uh motion is to award a construction contract to south view design of st paul uh for the downtown landscaping improvements in the amount of fifty three thousand forty seven dollars and ninety six cents removed by council member peterson second second by council member cole any discussion if not all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed the motion carries good so they'll start doing that when well uh the two efforts as i mentioned before the the irrigation sleeving and the irrigation system are gonna have to work hand in hand and so um the irrigation contractor has been given the go ahead but that's under a different purview so we'll need to make sure that they're done first and i think that it's reasonable to expect that what we well we can't we don't want to plant too late but i think what i'd like to see is that we are at least starting to um plan for that either late in september or maybe early in october so that we can get everything in and planted and happy before it gets too cold out that would be the goal you know are these guaranteed for a year uh nurseries and our contract will provide a warranty for the trees and all the plantings one year from the time of installation good good okay uh turn over to city manager thank you mayor uh reports from the city manager you do that to the general or do that right away uh we moved one down uh we added two so the park and recreation park entry signs we'll uh deal with that right now uh we do have people here from the park and wreck mike the reason i pulled it is we had a question from our planet commission chair in regards to how big the sign can be uh position of the signs and i was told that somebody might be able to tell us answer those questions that she had raised yes i can i actually brought a sample so you can kind of see how big it is and this is so this is inches larger they stand probably about this high so it'll be three feet from the ground to the bottom so the 24 inches would be five feet and then five and a half the poles are about four and those are metal signs [Music] are they double-sided or single-sided bigger than the green color very user friendly maintenance great durability is great as far as placement um if there's an existing sign there it'll be going in the same spot i'm working with public works to see if it's going to be a full base or just post romance reasons if there's um if there's no sign like at silver lake we were going to work with public works also to put one by the pickleball courts and over by the playground um and really just where they're going to be is visibility and maintenance so the signs that you replace the signs are like eight feet they are very large they're very large right now those would come out correct and then this sign you're saying the width would be four feet um the smaller parks are four feet the larger perks are five feet five feet and they're blue so um i don't know if you have the i don't have the computer so i think it's in the packet i think they're going to be very visible so you can probably see did you have other options that you looked at when you we did they use them yes there were wacker signs in roseville um we started with them and then i didn't hear anything back i did reach out to the company was a creative impressions in oakdale um and the commission looked at both their signs and and these and this is what they had selected i know like the kobe hills one here you show and i know because it's eight feet long right now people can put up things to advertise like national night out you know and i'm sure that's not the purpose of the sign but because the sign is so big they're able to you know say their stuff going on in the park i think with this sign you're really not going to have that ability to to do that maybe or maybe you can you can hang something down underneath so house number one yeah if i may it looks like the um uh con contract or quote is pretty much under budget so are there other specifications that you know are desired by the parks and rec commission that would i mean yeah are there any other specifications that's a great deal that would that you would want to upgrade to or add on oh um i don't think so i don't know there is a there is a cleaning solution that helps with graffiti works great on that so they they would sell that along with that and so the maintenance of the signs would be so they're graffiti proof kind of or i'm not graffiti there will be magic markers out there okay any other questions for jill or lloyd cole you want to add anything to this um no real questions um the only other comment that i had was um in in the email that we received earlier in the week uh there was a question on sign count and i believe there was a request for kobe hills to get an additional sign in the vacant space um i mean i'm we're definitely under budget so i don't know i know the park and rec discussed that chill and i can't remember i mean clearly they went with one but i don't remember lloyd maybe you can help too i don't remember why so i think we were open to it it was um it is a grass area so they were thinking maybe one of those smaller metal signs just saying colby hills public users but not like a full-size park sign i think they're open to it though okay could be done now could be done later there's also a fence that runs along the side maybe hanging it on the fence just getting a sign to hang on the fence rather than the poles in the ground because they do flood that rink again in the winter time so maybe that might be problematic if there's a sign there and then kids probably shooting hockey pucks at it you know that's that's what i think there used to be a sign up there and i think some kids i grew up with shot pucks at and that's why i came to no i didn't do that no i would never admit to doing it anyway that's a good idea just right some sort of advertisement that it is part of the colby hills park all right why there's nothing else there's no uh motion or anything no recommendation needed so it's already been been approved so i think because we pull it we just need to vote on it individually though because it was not on the consent agenda and now it's just as a standalone item it says recommended action this is informational no recommendation needed oh that's my doing is that what you wanted or yeah it was just informational okay legal right yeah there's no vote to be taken okay there's no option okay on the memo to be heard so unless if someone wants to make one no vote okay good thank you appreciate it thank you and then the fourth one is the core volleyball elise and i'll turn that over to councilmember cole or juan sorry sorry that's number one thank you yeah i just have some questions in regards to the condition of the building whether we're able to last the winter and all of that to extend the lease so i think that'll turn that over to city manager yes um so that was a couple of items that i was going to bring i know we're going to have another meeting on on that later on yes so in a month about the middle next month they're doing the it's more or less a patch of the roof to get it at least eight watertight for the winter before we do a serious re-roofing of the unit another [Music] thing that popped up was one of the boilers went out there as well so we have ordered a new one at a cost of 15 000. um there are two boilers in that place there the other one is going to be looked at and hopefully after getting deeper into it we can fix what's there but that's yet to be determined so these are just some of the items that we're doing to get it through the winter into next summer so if you guys pass the renovation as you would say of the building then we'll we'll do it more deeply um i think that's all i have thank you any other questions on the lease motion to approve the lease at cocor thank you six month extension ending june 30th 2023 so it's extenuation of the continued of the existing lease which makes the existing lease 18 months that's right so it doesn't need to have a new lease for the six no we're just extending the existing lease and then all the other conditions are the same yep that's right okay so the motion is to approve an extended lease agreement with the city of north st paul conchora volleyball through june 30th of 2023 so moved moved by council member call i'll second it second by councilmember peterson any other discussion if not all those in favor signify by saying aye i opposed motion carries you're there till june 30th uh is that it that's it for so to turn it back over to you for general uh thank you reports for city manager and departments a couple of updates um probably specifically for the hra we did close on the eldage property last friday so we do have the keys for the property now we have it scheduled for next week for the hazardous removal of the asbestos on the house let me see what else we have we also have the closing this friday for the 19th avenue house so that closing will be done as well we also have scheduled this week for the eldridge house that it's being surveyed so we can split that lot make it two lots for the two different projects that we're looking at there for the student build homes spoke of the boiler at the community center today we did so cynthia is retiring from the community development department so uh we did interviews today for five people who turned their application and we believe we found a good one for it we have placed that offer out there for them and they have accepted so that's great we'll have somebody be able to come in and work under cynthia for a little while before she actually is leaves us so that worked out really well it's going to be a really good employee and then in mentioning of the the downtown we were talking about the cabinets that were in front of well the north west corner of margaret and seventh avenue we have three cabinets there uh they're for the street lighting also for the traffic controls there we are gonna be able to narrow that down to two cabinets um but they're gonna be adding another cabinet there a smaller one for the uh sprinkler control system that's there so try to get some of the at least one cabinet out of there and consolidate it down a little bit and they might be making the project for the arts council to wrap them up maybe yeah um that is all i have general business or actually reports of council commissions and committees council member call park and recreation held their last meeting on the 27th of july just a few topics that that consumed a lot of time one was the sign design that was brought forth for um for approval or notification of council tonight the second is they are continuing to review options at halsey park to redo uh the tennis courts potentially turn them into pick pick a pickle ball pick it pick it pickle ball courts um as well as expand the ada accessibility uh up that hill to where the courts currently are and off and up into the road so more to more to come on that next meeting is 6 30 uh on the 24th here um in council chambers uh eda met uh discussed a lot of things that were brought forth here we discussed um the housing study that was included in in the workshop packet tonight as well as the lilly building and the presentation that was included in the workshop and the eda will be working on um their wishes for the eda level for 2023 to be presented shortly next meeting is september the 13th that's all i've got what's the number one um the planning commission had met the first thursday of this month and the work that was done was recommendations for council on the prioritization of different projects found in the comp plan living streets plan and the redevelopment master plan the next meeting is september 1st in the chambers here and i did want to also mention in regards in response to our resident bringing up resident other residents concerns their com their concern is about air quality um so just to clarify that that is something that not just one but several residents did come to um share that the arts and culture commission they're working on project snowy they had to call out for artists there they also worked on a rubric to determine which artists would be doing the art and then that meeting will be tomorrow it'll be a special meeting at 6 30. is there one artist doing all the artwork or is it artists for each snowy or i believe it's artists for each snowy cool yeah okay uh councilmember peterson yeah i attended my second improving local economic policy committee through the league and it was interesting today we had commissioner steve grohl he's the deed of economic development and jobs and he was interested in saying that you know there's so many not so many so many workers i mean not enough workers for all these jobs i mean we've got the lowest unemployment and probably in the nation they can't fill the jobs and we also had the jennifer hull commissioner of the minnesota housing and that was interesting too she said if anybody is under water or they can't make their mortgage payments there is money available and she said just contact them and um she was kind of surprised how much money was left over so she wants to get rid of it so otherwise it's been an interesting committee one more meeting in september that's all i have council member thorson general business actually i got something on veterans park we have the pow mia parade september 22nd we do have a guest speaker that is going to be john silliman i'd like to thank councilmember cole for getting me that number and talking to him and he will be our guest speaker for that night uh other than that that's all i have and general business councilmember cole last week of the pardon me last week many of us had the opportunity to attend the swearing-in service for four new north st paul police officers as well as a promotional ceremony for someone who was promoted to sergeant always very moving just just just something really really neat to attend um i would also like to invite the chief of police now to attend one of our council meetings he's fully staffed we would love to love to have the opportunity to to hear his vision and and where he wants to go from here so that's always that's always exciting to to hear uh tim thursday night is the last scheduled music in the park it is thursday the 18th at six o'clock at casey lake the music is provided by mt pockets is the band um so they've i believe this is their third or fourth year performing it at uh in the august promotion the august event so this is exciting to hear uh and just one other question that i had i'd been been reached out to just for us to be able to provide an update on the ordinance um that opens up some sidewalk space for local businesses and and where we stand um i know we've had conversation around it i know that there's there's a lot of things going on they were just looking for some direction and uh at some point in time brian if if you can you can either update us where we are now i know it's got multiple locations that it's got to sort itself through um but if either now or we can catch up at a later time for to give you a more detailed update later after looking into it please perfect thank you and that's it for me thank you also remember why i have nothing thank you councilman peterson yeah i just want to piggyback on what uh councilmember cola that swearing in was very good we've got some very good folks uh we're very lucky to have those young talented men and women and and it's great because i've been on the council for a long time and we've never been in a full compliment so kudos to the chief and he's got some good plans for them and that would be good if he could come in and kind of tell us what his plan is i just want to wish everybody a happy labor day councilmember thorson a couple items just want to recognize the american legion for their big beautiful patriotic mural that went up i think it was a couple weeks ago it finished hopefully that inspires some other businesses to look at doing something similar if they have empty wall space throughout town um it's kind of cool here it's a it's a wrap yeah it's like a 30-year guarantee on that we we all got an email with a concerned resident um expressing her concern about boulevard trees and i understand the area that she was talking about is one that's slated for a full reconstruct so we're not looking at planting trees that are being removed but i know there are other areas throughout town where boulevard trees have been removed and we've either done a full reconstruction and no boulevard places have been replaced and in reviewing our city ordinance there is nothing specifically that says we will not plant trees in the boulevard so i'm just curious if that's something that is just up to manager's discretion or public works or if that's actually something that the city council should consider and future consideration for adopting as a up as a policy about actually planting trees in the boulevard so just to bring that up and then with this second student build house assuming it's going to start soon i think it would behoove us to have an hra meeting where we can maybe discuss a budget and a plan and maybe get some sort of a recap of the actual expenses that we incurred from the last house we had one resident questioning what the profit was maybe if there's some kind of layout where we can go back and look at the actual costs and the acquisition and maybe the the in-kind time that staff has put in i know it's not you know maybe we don't budget for that but just some kind of recap of the last home rather than just a mention of a number and then looking at the next future houses developing some sort of budget and plan for those as well that's all i have thank you uh i'd like to mention uh driving down by 7th avenue and mcknight we have that piece of property that the city owns uh just looking at that maybe a possibility to maybe look into doing some sort of monument sign advertising our downtown you know we got the space there advertise the downtown you can advertise the car show advertise you know come see newman's or new restaurants or what have you they've got i don't know how many cars go by on mcknight there and they drive by our town and don't even know that we have a downtown i think it'd be kind of interesting just to look into and see if it's i don't know doable to put something down there just wanted to mention that uh from the uh from the uh veterans park we do have uh 1377 uh pavers that are gonna that are in there i believe uh next friday they're putting in another 25 pavers so just want to update you on that and that they don't have anything else unless anybody else forgot anything or if not motion to adjourn some of those grouped by councilmember peterson second second by council member juan any discussion if not all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye opposed we are adjourned