This transcript has been formatted with speaker names based on the provided city context and meeting flow. [0:02] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay, time being 7 o’clock, I call the Hastings City Council meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of 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. [0:33] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Welcome and let the role reflect. We do have a quorum tonight. Tonight is always a special meeting because we have a couple proclamations for the month of March. And first off, we will um have a proclamation supporting Hastings Family Service and their March Food Month. And Council Member Pemble, would you please start? [1:00] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Oh, I’m sorry, council member. Oh, thank you. I flipped that. Sorry. [1:05] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Whereas Minnesota Food Share March campaign has helped restock food shelves throughout the state of Minnesota for 45 years. And whereas Hastings Family Service has been helping neighbors in our community meet their basic needs of food, housing, transportation, and clothing for 55 years. And whereas all programs and services at Hastings Family Service are made possible by 550 volunteers in a supportive community that believes in neighbors helping neighbors. And whereas Hastings Family Service provided 3,075 families with over a week's supply of food in 2025, an increase of 39% over the previous year. And whereas 25,500 neighbors were served in the Hastings Family Service food programs and over 19,000 meals were delivered through Meals on Wheels in 2025 with the need continuing to escalate. And whereas the generosity of our community makes it possible for Hastings Family Service to provide help and hope to our neighbors and gifts of money and food for matching proprietary matching the Minnesota food share throughout the month of March. [2:19] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Mayor Mary Fasbender of the city of Hastings, hereby declare that the Hastings community will fight hunger in our community during the Minnesota Food Share Month campaign by working together to support and restock the market food shelf at Hastings Family Service. [2:40] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** And I'd like to invite Amy Sutton up from Hastings Family Service to present her with this proclamation. And I bet she wants to say a few words. [2:55] **Amy Sutton:** I never use a microphone. Thank you, Mayor Mary, city council members. Um we really just appreciate the opportunity to be here and the support. This is the 45th year of Minnesota Food Share and it's so important that um it goes well for us. Um it's a big month because what um the proclamation didn't say is while we had a 39% increase this past year, it's been a 278% increase over the past 5 years and so it continues to escalate and the help is is needed and deeply appreciated. Uh we want to take the opportunity to invite you all to our culminating event for Minnesota Food Share which is Hastings Tastings on March 30th. Um those tickets are on sale now and a $55 ticket purchase can feed two families of three to four people for a week. So it's another important piece of of what we do for the month. And um as the proclamation said, the big thing about Minnesota Food Share is that every single pound of food, every dollar is proportionately matched by Minnesota Food Share. So it has an even larger impact. It goes without saying that um this has been a time of great uncertainty and unpredictable change for the neighbors that we serve. Uh but Hastings Family Service has been able to keep up with that escalating need because of your support, because we are a community that embodies the idea of neighbors helping neighbors and caring about each other. So, thank you for supporting Hastings Family Service and helping us make sure that no one in our community suffers from hunger. [4:46] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Here we go. Three, two, one. Really appealing. [5:41] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Next year. Thank you, council. Our second proclamation tonight is for Multiple Sclerosis and we have with us Mary, who is always a huge supporter for us, and we have a proclamation to be read. Council Member Pemble, if you would start. [6:02] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Certainly. Whereas Multiple Sclerosis is an unpredictable and often disabling disease to the central nervous system, affecting nearly 1 million people in the United States and most individuals diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50. Approximately 10,000 children worldwide are living with MS. No one knows the cause or the cure currently existing. And whereas the National Multiple Sclerosis Society founded in 1946 is committed to achieving a world free of MS by raising public awareness, elevating the voices of those affected, transforming what it means to live with the disease and serving as a driving force in prevention, treatments and cure focused research. [7:13] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Whereas the National Multiple Sclerosis Society has invested more than $1 billion in groundbreaking research initiatives and aligns worldwide resources to fuel critical efforts aimed at identifying pathways to cures for MS. And whereas the society also invests in the next generation of researchers through fellowships and training programs contributing to significant breakthroughs in MS research and treatment. And whereas the mission of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society is to cure MS while empowering people affected by MS to live their best lives. A mission deserving of the support of all Americans and the residents of Minnesota. And whereas the city of Hastings recognizes the importance of finding the cause and cure for MS and expresses its sincere appreciation for the dedication of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and working towards a world free of MS. [7:50] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Now, therefore, I, Mayor Mary Fasbender of the city of Hastings, proclaim March 8th through the 14th, 2026 as Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week and encourage all Minnesotans to learn more about multiple sclerosis and what they can do to support individuals with MS and their families. [8:12] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you. And now I'll ask Mary to come up and I'll present this to her. I'm sure she would like to say a few words. [8:28] **Mary (MS Guest):** Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman, Mayor Mary. Um, one thing I found and I remember—nearly 1 million people in the US and 2.9 million people worldwide live with Multiple Sclerosis, far more than previously understood. MS isn't rare, it's just often invisible. The global count keeps rising, not because MS is spreading, but because diagnosis is improving, awareness is growing and more countries are finally reporting data. So this is personal to me. I've lived with Multiple Sclerosis for 25 years. But the most exciting thing I want to share with you with everyone is this year at the worldwide conference of researchers, they have finally done a breakthrough and they are starting phase two trial human trials of repairing the myelin which is the cause of the disability in MS. So for the first time in my lifetime of MS, we have a viable point to slow down, stop and repair damage. So I am extremely—and that is all through awareness like of this week. So thank you for your proclamation and thank you for your support. [10:50] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Three, two, one. [11:33] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** All right. Council approval of minutes from the February 17th meeting. Thank you. Comments from the audience. At this time, we will hear comments from the audience. If you'd wish to speak to council at this time, please step forward to the podium. State your name and address and we will hear your comments. [11:56] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** See no one and no one else. All right. Council items to be considered. We did receive an appeal from Broadway Pizza after the packets went out. So, let's move that from the consent agenda to public safety. Council members, are there any council items to be considered other than that? Okay. With moving that. All right. Council, I would accept the motion for the consent agenda. [12:33] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** So moved. [12:35] **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Second. [12:36] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Council member Pemble and a second by Council Member Vihrachoff. All those in favor of the motion state by saying aye. [12:39] **Council:** Aye. [12:40] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion state by saying nay. And that motion prevails. Tonight, under awarding of contracts, um we have the 2026 neighborhood infrastructure improvements and authorization for advertisement for bids. And for this item, we will have an introduction by our City Engineer, Cody Mathisen. Welcome, Cody. [13:03] **Cody Mathisen:** Thank you, Mayor. Uh good evening, mayor and council. Thanks for having me tonight. Um yes, so tonight is part two of I'll call it our three-part series for the neighborhood project. So you'll see us one more time on this one. Uh but tonight we are covering the uh proposed scope and features of the project and we'll be holding a uh public hearing for that. I just want to say it's worth noting here at the beginning that we will have a separate hearing on assessments at a later date that'll be on April 6. So tonight is covering predominantly the scope and features of the project. [13:37] **Cody Mathisen:** So, what we'll cover tonight, I'll give a brief uh presentation and then we will conduct the public hearing and ultimately looking for a resolution to approve our plans and specs and then authorize our advertisement for bids. So, the 2026 project map you've seen quite a few times now, so won't belabor this point, but the project includes Pleasant Drive from uh Trunk Highway 55 to 4th Street and 4th Street West from Pleasant Drive down to River Street. Uh we'll get uh more into the division of what's taking place in those various segments here as we go along. [14:10] **Cody Mathisen:** So, as is the goal with the neighborhood infrastructure improvements every year, uh we're looking to address failing pavement and curbing that's beyond useful life. There's plenty of that on both of those streets if you've driven them recently. It's also a great opportunity to address aging utilities, water mains, sanitary sewers, which we also have a lot of on both these roadways. We like to look at enhancing pedestrian facilities with the level of investment going on on these projects. Uh we also look to optimize our street widths for traffic calming and better our long-term cost going forward on these roadways. [14:46] **Cody Mathisen:** So what we're going to be looking at in the reclaim sections, uh these are sections where we're going to be leaving the existing curb lines largely in place, still doing a relatively robust pavement improvement. The width is going to be varying in those sections. Right now uh we're looking at Pleasant Drive, Trunk Highway 55 to Whispering Lane, a little bit wider section. That's going to remain as it sits today. Same thing with Fourth Street, from Pleasant Drive to Farm Street. The utilities in these roadway sections are better. They're newer materials. Uh they otherwise, if they're not newer, they just don't require immediate maintenance. So we're able to get a little bit more useful life out of those. That's why we're able to do the reclaim improvement. [15:17] **Cody Mathisen:** The reconstruction sections: Pleasant Drive from Whispering Lane all the way down to 4th Street and then 4th Street from Farm to River. It's a little bit of a different story. I think we were up to three water main breaks in two years on Fourth Street near State. Uh so it's definitely overdue to be hitting the utilities in that portion. And then essentially as a result of needing to do a full utility reconstruction in these sections, we're going to get all new curb and gutter, new roadway completely. [15:59] **Cody Mathisen:** Uh, as I mentioned, every year we do take a look at the pedestrian improvements with the city of Hastings neighborhood infrastructure improvements and the people movement plan, which is essentially the guiding document that covers pedestrian improvements that are going to be looked at with any future CIP. So, here in this product area, Pleasant Drive and Fourth Street, uh the only addition that was called for was a new trail on Pleasant Drive. So, essentially we looked at both sides with this project—what would be the better side to add the trail. They were both feasible. Uh but ultimately the west side provides better connectivity. Uh there's an existing trail from County Road 42 down to Fourth Street already on the west side. And then in 2023, the city invested in a trail from 15th Street down to County Road 46. So this is getting one step closer to having a full trail system on the west side of Pleasant Drive all the way from County Road 42 to County Road 46. [17:11] **Cody Mathisen:** We were also able to coordinate with MnDOT to accommodate uh the proper pedestrian facilities at Highway 55 for getting across there. Fourth Street, no additional facilities were identified in the people movement plan. So that sidewalk that exists on the north side today will remain. Uh the one piece that was added after conversations with the operations committee to include in the bid was improvements to the existing trail to Lions Park that starts at Pleasant Drive and Fourth Street and makes it into the park. That trail is in pretty rough condition as well. So that is going to be looked to be improved with this project. [17:42] **Cody Mathisen:** A very colorful picture of Pleasant Drive here. Uh but just kind of trying to highlight that this roadway has a lot of different demands as you traverse south to north. The orange section—the southernmost section—is where we've got our turn lanes and accommodations as you approach Highway 55. The sections in yellow, the southernmost section, we've got a really heavy parking demand. Uh that's from the existing town home complex there. There's a daycare that's also located in that vicinity. If you ever driven through that section, you'll see a lot of vehicles parked through there. And we'll talk a little bit more about that later. The section in green, uh we see much less parking. Essentially, there's only housing on the west side. This backs up to the CDA parcel. This is going to be an opportunity for us to take that existing 44ft roadway all the way down to 36 feet. Save a lot of pavement. Uh hopefully calm speeds a little bit in that area. [18:25] **Cody Mathisen:** So now we're just going to step through some of the highlights of the plan view here in the design. Uh so looking first at one of our larger changes geometrically with the project is looking to narrow at Whispering Lane. And I've got a little bit better picture that zooms in on the issue here following. In short, it's a challenge to enter and exit at this intersection. There's very poor sight lines. This is also an opportunity that we were able to take to calm speeds and calm traffic along Pleasant Drive because we do have a lot of accesses and a lot of driveways here. We're still massaging some of this intersection with public works, some of the geometrics, just to make sure it's maintainable for plow trucks, school buses navigating around here, trying to make sure that all works. [19:11] **Cody Mathisen:** So, more so communicating the intent here. And then we're going to sort of iron out the finest details in the last 10% of our design. This map here shows where that division between the two-sided parking and when we'll start to convert to one-sided parking once you get north of having town homes or businesses on both sides of Pleasant Drive. So, the road will start to narrow as you get closer to Westview. It will then widen back out closer to 40 feet when you get to the intersection of Fourth Street to accommodate those turn lanes there. Also pictured in this figure that I didn't show or didn't mention previously is the new Bituminous Trail in yellow on the west side. You can sort of see how that fits into the roadway here. [19:41] **Cody Mathisen:** So looking more at this narrowing at Pleasant/Whispering Lane. Effectively you can't see very well when you go to Whispering Lane today. This is what you would see. You're almost always going to see vehicles lined up here. So, if you were trying to take a left or right on Pleasant Drive, you are going to need to do so while crawling out and just sort of crossing your fingers that you're not going to have somebody coming down the road. With the proposed design and that narrowing, we're going to limit parking for a stretch. We're going to bring the entrance in closer to the road. Both those two things combined are going to over double your available sight distance. What sight distance equates to is more time for you to see and react. Both you as the driver pulling out and the driver coming down Pleasant Drive. So that's sort of the crux of the issue there. Again, still kind of fine-tuning how those radiuses are going to look, but that's what we're looking to improve from a safety perspective there and also calm traffic. [20:51] **Cody Mathisen:** Putting all that together for Pleasant Drive, this is what Pleasant Drive is ultimately going to look like at 40ft wide in the we'll call it the standard section. That new 10-ft trail on the west side is replacing a 5ft sidewalk. So, you're getting five more feet of pedestrian space and we're losing 4ft of road. So, essentially, we're taking that real estate from the road, giving it back to the trail. The boulevard space is only going to shrink by about 1 foot. So, it's not going to feel a lot different in terms of the green space that's out there today. [21:23] **Cody Mathisen:** Now looking at Fourth Street, this is primarily the reclamation section that's between Pleasant Drive and effectively what would be Farm Street. You can see how that trail winds into Lions Park. This portion has not been rehabilitated anytime recently where you see us stopping there along Fifth Street. From there to the east inward of the park has been improved more recently. So that's why we're stopping right there. One thing I did mention when I was here last month talking about the feasibility report is that what we did hear at our open house from folks on Fourth Street was the concern for speeds and cut through traffic. Right. Uh so what we did look at here is the midpoint of Pleasant Drive and River Street is actually Ash Street. It's almost perfectly in the middle. It's an intersection that has an opportunity to incorporate some traffic calming. Uh somewhat similar to what you know we saw at Whispering Lane or what you've seen at 15th Street and Prairie Street. This is an area where we're able to do this without impacting any driveways negatively. So it also provides a good opportunity to do that. [22:30] **Cody Mathisen:** Down below uh we're showing a pretty standard section for the remainder of Fourth Street. A lot of driveways, just keeping street parking relatively consistent. We are eliminating as of right now, or proposing the elimination of, the Tilden angle parking. Again, for those who are familiar with Fourth Street, you'll know that there's some angled stalls there. There's about seven of them. When we take this away, there's still going to be about three or four parallel stalls, so it's not a huge change. Uh they effectively stated they don't really need them. It's primarily actually residents that end up using them. Uh, police chief Linscheid has stated many times in the past that uh, we're not big fans of this angled parking and people backing out at 90 degrees backing onto our collector roadways. [23:13] **Cody Mathisen:** And again, putting that together for Fourth Street, uh, very similar, a little bit narrower than Pleasant Drive. It's 36 to 37 1/2 ft today, and we're actually going to be putting it back at a consistent 38 ft. So, not trying to sound inconsistent with our intent typically to narrow and calm streets, but it's actually only two blocks of Fourth Street that are 36 ft today. So, um most of the corridors actually only widening about 6 inches. So, 3 inches either side. Just trying to bring it to a consistent width and give sufficient space for a full standard parking lane on Fourth Street. [23:51] **Cody Mathisen:** Total project costs right now, um, this is all fees, soft costs, construction costs, is just over 4.8 million with about $1.2 million in utilities and about $3.6 million for the street and storm sewer costs. Some of that will be reimbursed through special assessments over the next 10 years. [24:14] **Cody Mathisen:** Getting into the assessments, just at a high level here. Again, reminder, we will have a separate hearing on the assessments themselves, but uh the total amount estimated right now to be collected by assessments is just about $680,000. You can see the rates there based on the type of home on the project uh ranging from $6,300 per lot for single family homes down to about $3,100 for condominiums. And at the assessment hearing again, we'll get a little bit more into the the methodology, other lot types um as they pertain to this project. [24:50] **Cody Mathisen:** Where we're at in the greater picture of the project timeline, we're here tonight, March 3rd, with the public hearing. We're at about a 90-95% design right now looking for council to approve our plans and specs and authorize us to advertise for bids. And you can see through the month of April, we'll keep working towards our bid procurement. And then in early May, the fun begins and we get to start construction and start getting this thing built. So, uh that's how things are looking right now from a schedule perspective. Just wanted to highlight that, you know, as part of these public improvements, we're always going to strive for excellent project communications, whether it's through weekly updates or bow out there putting door hangers on folks' homes when critical activities might cause disruptions. And then our engineering staff will be on this project through its entirety. [25:43] **Cody Mathisen:** The project website is now new and improved, so that is up and running. And right now that's home to all the figures that you're seeing through these presentations. And then looking forward, that's going to be the home for construction updates and things of that nature once things are actually getting built. And that's all for my formal presentation. [26:03] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay. Thanks Cody. I think we'll open the public hearing first and then have the discussion from council. At this time I will open the public hearing to speak of the infrastructure project. [26:22] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** No one wishes to speak. All right. At this time, I will close the public hearing, open up the discussion for council. Council member Leifeld. [26:42] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Thanks, Honor. It's nice to see you, Cody. Um, no, we're in good hands here. So, question for you as we're looking at the map. Um, a lot of this section of Pleasant and Fourth, there are some pretty big sections that don't have homes, right? There's that section along Pleasant that runs along the CDA site. There's the section up front that abuts to the frontage road. And then we get down to the apartments. We take a right onto Fourth Street. We've got the apartments which aren't street facing there. [27:01] **Cody Mathisen:** Yeah, they do have an access. [27:03] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** They do have—not on Fourth Street, they don't. [27:07] **Cody Mathisen:** Correct. [27:08] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** So that section of Fourth Street across from that on the north side is some farmland. How did we look at assessment rates? So, I know we have our mathematical equation. Was that affected at all due to the fact that there are not near as many doors in this area? How did we get to this? [27:28] **Cody Mathisen:** Yeah, Council Member Leifeld, thanks for that question. So, the way assessments were looked at for this project is—I'll start with, you know, maybe some of those examples of no doors. So like rear frontage: when we've had rear frontage only historically, which the CDA for example has rear frontage only, they are not being assessed. Um so traditionally the, you know, Pleasant Drive had a lot of these south of 15th Street homes that for example, Old Bridge Lane—they were not assessed for Pleasant Drive when it was in the back of their homes. We're usually only looking at corner lots, the front, or the side lots. So that's sort of the rear frontage piece. Otherwise what the appraiser did was just looked at, you know, benefiting parcels on a per parcel basis. So agriculture was looked at separately. The Westview apartments were looked at separately for, you know, their access that just comes to Pleasant. There's a dividing parcel, as you mentioned, between the Westview Apartments and Fourth. So they were really just looked at for their benefit on Pleasant Drive. Uh so I'm not sure if that answers your question. [28:34] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** It does. So secondary question to that followup would be: it appears then that we're as a city we're paying a little bit more in what we're putting in because there's not—doing the level of improvement. [28:51] **Cody Mathisen:** Yeah, that's exactly right. Very unique parcel. It’s a... (technical audio gap). [29:27] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you so much. Hey, you know... (technical audio gap). [29:50] **Cody Mathisen:** ...55 roads. Question and this week is not—there will inevitably be... (technical audio gap). To answer your question... (technical audio gap)... time. But we are contractually... (technical audio gap)... long way of answering your question. There may be a time when we have no way to send you but the long way around and uh I apologize in advance for that but u we'll try to minimize the duration of time that that takes place. [31:25] **Councilmember Mya Beck:** Awesome. Thank you Cody. [31:28] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you council member Beck. Any other discussion? Council. [31:33] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Council member Pemble. [31:35] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** I'd like to make a motion to move the resolution forward on this project. [31:40] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Pemble with a second by Council Member Leifeld. (Voice vote occurs). Resolution carries. We will have... (technical audio gap). [32:18] **Dan Wietecha:** Thank you, Mayor. A very brief introduction by me. An alcohol violation... sold alcohol to an underage patron. Ordinance states the first violation, which this was, resulted in a $500 civil penalty. The difference is linked to the participation of civilly. The owner with me requested a hearing tonight. [33:04] **Broadway Pizza Owner:** I've never done this before. Um, we believe... which... one of our employees. It's not common know that we're not 1953. Our current ownership... we operate with integrity and genuine. So, thank you. Wait, you just... in there with the... aware that uh state content. Uh so that's something they provide us. kind exist. Uh helps ensure that eliminating. Is that... is there... I don't know the cost might and it's hours of uh it's but we do for proof of... (technical audio gap). [39:05] **Councilmember Angie Haus:** Wait, open last year. We those... comment said the information parties to their desire in our participate or not participate on the participate but want credit for the program. And so that is—we're going to do all the program. I think they need to know if employee let go. [41:03] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yeah. New town something. Can we... (technical audio gap)... with formal resolution. [42:08] **Councilmember Angie Haus:** Table until 3/16. [42:15] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. Second, but thank you, Council Member Haus. [42:35] **Dan Wietecha:** Um brief brief update this evening. Uh construction continues. Um we're anticipating that the underground work—uh some excavation and pipe installation—will be completed. Um and then moving on to the next stage in late March. Uh so uh rock and winter weather just make for some slower work. Uh but it continues. Uh couple of months ago had noted that a neighboring property had uh claims or complaints about cracked concrete. Uh those claims have been submitted to insurance for review. I do want to note that our contract with Magney definitively states that Magney as the contractor is responsible for damage claims made due to the work. Um uh also of note, earlier this evening, March 2nd, city council held a closed session meeting to discuss legal strategy regarding potential litigation against the 3M company. Uh there is no action this evening. Uh and then last note, uh we have required mediation with Carbon's Pizza that is scheduled for April 30th. If there are any questions. [44:11] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Dan. Any questions, council? All right. Any announcements, council? All right. I do have a few. Uh, happy birthday to the city of Hastings! Incorporated as a city 169 years ago on March 7th, 1857. If you didn't know, first review of community investment fund applications will be Monday, March 9th. You can bring your clean, used sports equipment in good usable condition to the sports equipment swap on Tuesday, March 10th at the high school. [44:40] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Meetings coming up: Monday, March 9th, 7 p.m. a finance committee meeting and also a 7:00 p.m. planning commission meeting. Wednesday, March 11th, 6 p.m. arts and culture commission meeting. Thursday, March 12th, a 6 p.m. Hedra meeting. Monday, March 16th, 5:30 p.m. City Council workshop and a 7:00 p.m. City Council regular meeting. With that, I will ask for a motion to adjourn. [45:12] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Motion to adjourn. [45:14] **Councilmember Angie Haus:** Second. [45:15] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Council member Pemble, Council Member Haus. All those in favor of the motion state by saying aye. [45:16] **Council:** Aye. [45:17] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion, state by saying nay. And we are adjourned.