[0:08] [Intro/Background Noise] [0:22] [Incidental Conversations] [0:49] [Recording in progress notification] [1:15] [Pause] [1:48] [Ready Mike] [1:59] [Music] [2:14] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** The time being 7:00, I call the city council meeting to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. **All:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Welcome, and let the role reflect we do have two absent council members tonight, but we do have a quorum. Tonight we will be reading a proclamation for Black History Month, and Councilmember Haus, if you would start please. [3:01] **Angie Haus (Councilmember):** Thank you, your honor. Whereas Black History Month is celebrated to raise awareness of African-American accomplishments and contributions to our society; and whereas African-Americans are part of Minnesota's story from before it was a territory to the present; and whereas the first Minnesota territorial census in 1857 recorded four African-American men living in Hastings, including Robert Burns, a barber who, with Andrew Jackson Overall and J.H. Brooks, worked as a committee to draft a petition to further their rights to vote, which was presented to the legislature of Minnesota in 1865; and whereas both houses of the Minnesota Legislature passed a bill as an amendment to strike "white" from the suffrage provision... [3:46] **Angie Haus (Councilmember):** The amendment was adopted in 1868 by a majority of more than 9,000 voters, becoming law in Minnesota two years before the 15th amendment was passed nationwide; and whereas George Daniels was an enslaved African-American man who freed himself during the Civil War by crossing battle lines to join Union troops. In the process, he and Brigadier General LeDuc became acquainted and built a strong, trusting relationship. Daniels moved to Hastings where he lived and worked alongside LeDuc, married Chloe Hudson, and started a family; and whereas the story of George and Chloe Daniels is not unique and represents other African-American families that found their way to the Hastings area following the Civil War... [4:32] **Angie Haus (Councilmember):** And whereas in the early 1890s, the Korean and Wallace families organized other African-American community members to establish Brown's Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which served as a center of religious and social activities for African-Americans until it was destroyed by arson in 1907, resulting in the eventual exodus of African-Americans from Hastings; and whereas the recent census data shows that the number of African-American residents in Hastings has increased in the past decade, Hastings continues to strive for racial equality and provide a healthy community for all; the City Council has made diversity, equality, and inclusion as an important part of its work... [5:18] **Angie Haus (Councilmember):** And whereas the importance of observing Black History Month in the City of Hastings is to acknowledge, recognize, and welcome people of African descent and their contributions to the City of Hastings while simultaneously recognizing the injustice they have endured; and now, therefore be it resolved that I, Mayor Mary Fasbender, the City of Hastings, and the Hastings City Council hereby proclaim February 2025 as Black History Month in Hastings, Minnesota. Thank you. [6:04] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Council, tonight sitting next to me we have a very important guest. Amelia Caponigri has been the Mayor for the Day, shadowing me, going to all the departments of the City of Hastings. She has been a wonderful partner; she's asked the right questions. She's had one question pretty much asked to her, and if you want to turn your speaker on, you could tell everyone what the most important question everybody wanted to ask you. **Amelia Caponigri (Mayor for the Day):** How much budget do you have each year? **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Oh there you go, you asked them that! But they asked you what? [6:52] **Amelia Caponigri (Mayor for the Day):** Um, can you give me a raise? **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** [Laughter] Which she just smiled and she just smiled, yes. So I do want to share with you Amelia's very cute essay and the reason why she won. We did have 11 applicants and she just kind of tugged at my heartstrings. "A letter to the Mayor: Hastings needs a community group to help people who need help, whether it's to pick up trash or help them read. But we need help sometimes in the community and that is okay. I would call this group 'Commnity' because it is for helping those who need help in the community." [7:38] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** "When I was in kindergarten, some kids did not have parents who would help them at home practice their reading and they fell behind. We could do those things with people to help them with their homework. The group would have meetings on certain days to figure out where their next project would be. 'Commnity' would have at least one to two projects unless everything else is fine in the community. People would call 'Commnity' during their meetings and ask them if they would consider their new projects for the coming week." [8:24] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** "Some people could sub for teachers while others donate or babysit for a dog. If people like kids do not have a ride, we could—we can drive them to their lessons or dance. This is why there should be a community group in Hastings that is... a community group in Hastings that is called 'Commnity'." I appreciated Amelia's letter and like I said, it just tugged at my heartstrings and I think we all do that as a city already—we come together when people are in need. So with that, I would like to present Amelia with a certificate thanking her for her duties today and even considering to write the essay. So we'll go up front and we'll have a picture taken with our council. Does that work? Okay. [9:54] [Photography/Commemoration pause] [10:08] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** We got work to do. Okay, approval of minutes. Council members, are there any corrections to the meetings from January 21st? [Silence] Okay. Comments from the audience. At this time, we would hear comments from the audience or via Zoom. Anyone wish to speak to the council at this time? [Pause] And no one on Zoom. All right, council members, I would look for a motion to accept the consent agenda. **Angie Haus (Councilmember):** [Motion] **DawnMarie Vihrachoff (Councilmember):** Second. **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Any discussion Council? All those in favor of the motion, state by saying aye. **All:** Aye. **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Opposed to that motion, state by saying nay. [Silence] All right. [11:14] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Under Community Development, we have an Arts and Culture Commission work plan to be presented, and with us tonight we have our Economic Development Coordinator, Alex Minky. Welcome, Alex. **Alex Minky (Economic Development Coordinator):** Thank you, Mayor. Hi Council. For those of you that don't know me—I think I've met most everyone here—I'm Alex Minky, Economic Development Coordinator, and I'm also the staff liaison for the Arts and Culture Commission. So I'm going to be presenting tonight on the 2025 work plan that the Commissioners and staff worked on over the December and January Arts and Culture Commission meetings. This is the third year—going into the third year—of the Arts and Culture Commission, and the work plan is a new addition due to the newly amended Arts and Culture ordinance. [11:59] **Alex Minky (Economic Development Coordinator):** Submitting a work plan annually is great for going back and checking through the year just to see what we wanted to get done versus what we were able to get done, and this was a great goal-setting exercise for us to do the end of last year and beginning part of this year. The staff and Commissioners worked through and first listed out a lot of the ideal goals that we wanted to do and kind of put them all on a big list and were able to split them up into three broad categories. The first of which was to increase public art access. [12:44] **Alex Minky (Economic Development Coordinator):** Things in this list include the Hastings Civic Arena mural, which is an active ongoing project; keeping the Dale Lewis sculptures in the parks; filling space for other empty sculpture pads in the parks; and then other larger projects like helping develop neighborhood identity, including placemaking initiatives for the Highway 61 reconstruction projects. Some of these are longer-term projects not likely to get accomplished in this year, but we wanted to have them on this list for visibility over the year as well. The other bucket is support for Hastings Area Arts and Cultural groups. [13:32] **Alex Minky (Economic Development Coordinator):** This is where I'd say the larger pivot from the first two years of the commission has been. In the first two years, it was the Commissioners taking it upon themselves to plan and host events. A good part of the discussion was: Is the commission the right vehicle or group to plan and host those events? Being an arm of the city, they are under certain rules that make event planning a little more difficult—open meeting laws, things like that. So it was discussed: Do we want to be a commission that throws events or supports organizations that know how to already plan and host events? Under this category, it's looking at researching and developing some grant programs for arts and cultural groups that we would then give a portion of our budget to these groups to help them throw and host these events. [14:19] **Alex Minky (Economic Development Coordinator):** The final category is just operational and policy initiatives. These are maybe some of the more miscellaneous things that don't fit in the other two buckets, but investigating different policy initiatives such as potentially a public art dedication ordinance, the creation of an Arts directory with the Pioneer room for City Hall, and developing a policy on accepting art donations when artists donate things to the city. But we feel it's a good list of things that we're going to be working on through this year and having some of those longer-term projects that we'll just be able to keep visibility on as we continue to revisit this. I'm happy to stand for any questions. [15:05] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Thank you, Alex. Council, any discussion? Councilmember Haus. **Angie Haus (Councilmember):** Thank you, your honor. Alex, I'm really glad to see more of kind of a strategic plan happen for the Arts and Culture Commission. One thing I want us to be very precautious of is your time management with adding on more duties. How do you feel about the future of the group and the plans that are made and your ongoing primary duties? [15:53] **Alex Minky (Economic Development Coordinator):** Yeah, I appreciate the question and appreciate the numerous Council and staff members that are always checking in to make sure I have work-life balance. I do greatly appreciate that. As of right now, I feel good about the balance and the projected time needed for these things. Obviously, this is new this year—my addition to this as staff liaison is new as of this year—so that might change, but it's something I'm very cognizant of and I'm in pretty constant communication with my boss, John Hinzman, about those things too. **Angie Haus (Councilmember):** Fantastic. On our radar. Thank you. [16:39] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Councilmember Vihrachoff. **DawnMarie Vihrachoff (Councilmember):** Thank you, your honor. Thank you for presenting this tonight. I love hearing about this; I love the Arts and Culture Commission. I'm super-excited about these ongoing plans. I've attended some of their meetings so no big surprises here to me. I just wanted to thank you publicly for stepping up as part of City staff to take on this initiative, and please know that if you need any assistance at any point to call on us. **Alex Minky (Economic Development Coordinator):** Thank you. [17:24] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Councilmember Pemble. **Dave Pemble (Councilmember):** What is the—is this a two-year outlook right now? **Alex Minky (Economic Development Coordinator):** This is just a one-year outlook right now. **Dave Pemble (Councilmember):** I would suggest that... can the council get a six-month review to see how you're doing at this project? **Alex Minky (Economic Development Coordinator):** I can definitely put that in my schedule and provide a six-month review. I know in the ordinance it calls for an end-of-year review, but we can definitely put in a six-month. **Dave Pemble (Councilmember):** Thank you. [18:11] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Thank you, Councilmember Pemble. Alex, I'll reiterate to you what we've already heard at the dais and I've mentioned it today—concern for your hours that you're putting into it not taking away from your coordination of Economic Development. So I think we all love this commission and we want to continue to see it grow and do good things for our community with your help. So thank you for stepping up. **Alex Minky (Economic Development Coordinator):** Thank you. **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Under Public Safety tonight, we will have with us Chief Dave Wilsky, who will give us an update on the Gores Pool Number Three Wildlife Management Area. Welcome, Chief. **Dave Wilsky (Police Chief):** Thank you, Mayor, City Council Members. I appreciate it. I'm in a holding pattern... [18:57] **DawnMarie Vihrachoff (Councilmember):** I guess would like to speak before your presentation. Thank you, your honor. Apologies, Chief, for interrupting; appreciate your patience. Mayor, thank you so much. I would love to move if there was a possibility that we could table this for another meeting. I've heard from a number of constituents in Ward 1 as late as about an hour ago that they have some concerns in terms of our current decision that was coming before council tonight. I'm very grateful for the work that Chief Wilsky and the Hastings Police Department has done in meeting with our neighbors and meeting with homeowners and of course PSAC—our Public Safety Advisory Commission—as well. But what I'm hearing is that neighbors need a little bit more time and want to have some more thoughtful discussions with the aforementioned groups. And so I would look to this body—if in favor of tbling this, I would very much appreciate that. [19:43] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** You'd make that into a motion then? **DawnMarie Vihrachoff (Councilmember):** Yes. **Dave Pemble (Councilmember):** Second that motion. **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Okay. Just for a little discussion also, because we do have two council members missing tonight and I think that they would want to be able to comment on it. So, there's a motion, first and second. All in favor of the motion, state by saying aye. **All:** Aye. **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Opposed to that motion, state by saying nay. [Silence] And that motion prevails. All right, thank you, Chief. **Dave Wilsky (Police Chief):** No, that's okay. Thank you, appreciate it. [20:30] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** And under Administration tonight, we will have a PFAS update as we always do the first meeting of the month. So with that, we will have an update from our City Administrator, Dan Wietecha. **Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** Thank you, Mayor and Council. A lot going on, most behind the scenes, but a lot going on. As you know, at our last meeting January 21st, the City Council approved the grant agreement with the Pollution Control Agency, which was certainly a milestone. It's the first funding that we're getting through the East Metro 3M settlement monies, but it also helps set in motion next steps that have been waiting for that piece in place. Our consultants at SRF, assisting with business relocation analysis, have had initial conversations with Carbonic and Stacy Stars, the two businesses that are currently tenants in the building that we're looking at purchasing. [21:16] **Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** I know that they've had lots of questions over the past couple of months that they were just sort of on hold until we had this grant agreement in place, so it's nice to have that moving forward. The other piece: on the consent agenda earlier this evening, you approved working with WSB to do a Phase II environmental assessment. This will likely mean delaying the actual purchase and closing on the property that we're looking at at 1292 North Frontage Road. Back in 2005, the Phase I study found that there had been, I believe, a petroleum spill on the site. [22:03] **Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** In order to make sure we're taking our appropriate precautions—it also sets us up for some appropriate liability waivers—we called for doing a Phase II. Essentially what we'll be doing is going out and doing some borings in order to determine the location and the extent of any contamination in the ground. Although we believe it was a petroleum, we are confirming that's what's there and then being able to determine a proposal for during construction: if that's encountered, how it would be cleaned up and remediated for the state to approve. So, it's an important part of the process that we have to do. [22:49] **Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** And that Phase II study is actually covered under our PFAS planning grant that we got a couple of years ago. It'll take a month or two to do that; it'll probably wind up delaying the actual closing, but it's important to have that moving forward. The other piece is appreciation and thanks to Senator Seeberger and Representative Dipple for their support as the legislative session tries to get underway. They both have been drafting—I don't know if any are actually introduced yet—but drafting several bills to support our project. [23:34] **Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** Senator Seeberger has two bills: one for Capital funding and one for just a general cash budget funding for the Eastern treatment plant at about $16 million. Representative Dipple has three bills. His preference is to let Hastings into the 3M settlement fund and not ask for separate funding from the state. So there's a request or a proposal there for essentially the $45 million gap in our project and then also two bills similar to Senator Seeberger's at 16 million apiece for the Eastern treatment plant—one cash and one bonding. So I appreciate their support. I do think that it's vital, critical, and important that our legislators work together, but it's certainly good to have their support moving forward. With that, I can take questions. [24:22] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Thanks, Dan. Council discussion? Any discussion? [Silence] Okay. Announcements. Council members, any announcements you have? All right. I do have... Councilmember? No? I do have a few. The Hastings Chamber of Commerce will host its annual State of the Community with presentations by the city and school district on Wednesday, February 5th. [25:07] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Hastings Rivertown Lions Club is hosting a Super Breakfast on Saturday, February 8th at Resurrection Methodist Church. The breakfast is free-will donations and all the proceeds will be donated to support our Fire and EMS department. Thank you to the Lions for their support. Experience Ice Fishing on Saturday, February 8th at Lake Rebecca. Poles, bait, and tackle provided; no license needed under our DNR waiver for the event. Pre-registration required on the city website. [25:53] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Experience Snowshoeing on Sunday, February 9th at JC Park. A park naturalist will lead participants through floodplain, forest, and prairie. Snowshoes and instructions provided. Pre-registration required on the city website. If there is no snow, we will still have a guided hike. City offices will be closed Monday, February 17th in observation of Presidents' Day. [26:30] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Meetings: Monday, February 10th, 7:00 p.m. the Public Safety Committee meeting; 7:00 p.m. Planning Commission Wednesday, February 12th; 6:00 p.m. Arts and Culture Commission Thursday, February 13th; 6:00 p.m. there's a HEDRA meeting Tuesday, February 18th; 5:30 p.m. we have a City Council meeting workshop, and that is Emergency Management, with our regular council meeting at 7:00 p.m. There is also a Heritage Preservation Commission meeting that night at 7:00 p.m. as well. I would be remiss if I did not send a happy belated birthday to our City Administrator Dan Wietecha, whose birthday was Friday. So happy birthday, Dan. [27:16] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** With that, I would accept a motion to adjourn. **Dave Pemble (Councilmember):** [Motion] **Angie Haus (Councilmember):** [Second] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** All those in favor of the motion, state by saying aye. **All:** Aye. **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Opposed to that motion, state by saying nay. [Silence] We are adjourned.