Based on the context provided and the content of the dialogue, here is the formatted transcript with speaker names and corrected name spellings. [0:09] [Music] [0:23] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** [Music] okay we're ready. Time being 7:02 we call the Hastings City Council meeting to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Welcome, and let the record reflect that we have a full council tonight. Tonight we will start with a presentation by the Heritage Preservation Commission Awards, and with us we have Justin Fortney and we have Cindy Toppin. Welcome. [1:08] **Justin Fortney (City Staff):** Um hello, I'll introduce uh first uh the chair of the HPC, Cindy Toppin, and then after that will be uh Trish Bremer, commissioner of the HPC. [1:17] **Cindy Toppin (HPC Chair):** Good evening. I'm Cindy Toppin, the current chair of the Heritage Preservation Commission. I'm here tonight with my fellow commissioner, Trish Bremer, to present the 2024 Preservation Awards. Preservation Awards date back to 2001 when we began recognizing homeowners and business owners who've done an admirable job of preserving their older buildings in Hastings. Older residences as well as the downtown historic district are a big part of tourism in Hastings and something that we want to preserve as part of our history. I'm going to turn it over to Trish now for the first two Awards. [2:06] **Patricia Bremer (HPC Member):** Thank you um our first award is a 2024 historic preservation award and it is awarded to the home at 523 Ramsey Street. The current owner is Arnold Relic. The house at 523 Ramsey Street was originally constructed between 1868 to 1870 in one of the oldest settled areas of the city. It is believed to be the first house occupied by Shepard Judkins and family before they constructed a new brick house just down the street. This two-story house originally had a side entry flanked by sidelights with regularly placed windows. It followed a typical rectangular home layout with a basement, four rooms, and a half bath on the main level and two rooms and a full bath on the upper level. Over the past 100 years, this house has been altered to add on and then to remove other amenities like a wraparound porch and a storage shed, but the main rectangular structure has primarily remained intact. In 2021 this property experienced a fire and the home was substantially damaged in addition to having unrelated structural issues. Gary Lechance with BLT Remodeling purchased the home and rehabilitated it. Gary received an award in 2021 for rehabilitating the home at 327th Street West. Both homes were threatened with demolition. Gary received HPC approval to rebuild this home to recreate the original wraparound front porch and to add an addition with the garage to turn this historic structure into a modern day home. Um our next award goes—is Mr. Relic here? Oh, I didn't think so. Okay, sorry. Thank you. Um our next award goes—is another historic preservation award and it goes to the Confluence at 200 West 2nd Street. The Cow Mills building at 200 West 2nd Street became the Libby Saw Mill in 1872. Over its nearly 37-year run, the sawmill was highly successful. The sawmill and adjacent structures were nearly all destroyed after enduring one of the most disastrous fires in Hastings in 1899. In 1900 the facility was rebuilt and resumed production. After the lumber supply diminished in the state, the sawmill closed in 1909. Following the closure of the sawmill, the property was purchased by H.D. Hudson and came to house the manufacturing operations of Hudson's various spray manufacturer companies. In 1913 there was another devastating fire that destroyed the building. In 1914 the building began reconstruction and eventually came to house what we know today as the Hudson Manufacturing Company. This company operated out of the facilities at 200 West 2nd Street for nearly 90 years before moving to the Hastings Industrial Park. Over this time, the building was renovated and expanded to support business needs including major additions completed in 1921, 1927, 1946 and 1974. At its height, this building encompassed nearly 200,000 ft. of usable space on three levels including the basement. In 2010 the property was acquired by the City of Hastings. After nearly 9 years of studies, remediation efforts, and diligent work, the property was reimagined and restored to become the Confluence. Opening in 2023, the Confluence is a fully renovated and restored 1900's factory facility that includes a hotel, a restaurant, bar, and event center. Restoring this property involved regulatory oversight by the Minnesota State Historical Preservation Office and other authorities to ensure the historic integrity of the building was maintained. Several original details, materials, and elements were restored or repurposed through this building. One example is the reuse of the original wood beams believed to be fir dating back to the 1800s. The fir beams were used throughout the building including the stairs that access the event center, accent shelving in the hotel rooms, and a slatwall feature in the private dining room. The slatwall feature also includes hand-honed beams salvaged from the building. Another example is the reuse of the diamond plate sheet originally used for the floor in the factory. Diamond plate was used to create accent walls throughout the hotel. These repurposed materials create unique touches of history throughout the facility, creating an excellent example of historic preservation. Uh with that, I'll turn it back to Cindy. [6:32] **Cindy Toppin (HPC Chair):** Oh, we have a person from the Confluence development company, so if you want to come up here and we'll hand you your awards. So, and I think Confluence deserves a round of applause [Applause]. Absolutely. I also want to point out that there are lots of myths about what the HPC can do, and you'll notice that the insides of the buildings are modern and they can do anything they want. So if somebody tells you that we tell them they can't do something inside, they don't know what they're talking about. Now I want to talk about the stewardship award, and these are for previous award winners who have in ensuing years maintained their beautiful homes. And today we want to recognize 535 5th Street West. This house is known as the Tinquist House and was built in 1895. It has narrow siding which is typical of the time. It's an arts and crafts bungalow style with heavy cove molding under the roof overhang. It has a 1 and 1/2 story gabled roof. There are colored glass windows in the portico of the sunroom. Inside the home, there are beautiful hardwood floors and interesting nooks and crannies. There are seven bedrooms; a former owner used to rent rooms by the week for Koch refinery workers. The current owners are Daniel and Lacy Boston, and Lacy is here today with her family and they live there now in a multi-generational home. This house previously won a preservation award in 2003. If you'd like to come forward. It's over there. Congratulations. The next house I want to recognize is our mid-century modern award winner, and this year it's for 605 11th Street West. This one-story home was built in 1955 for Everest Rod who eventually became Mayor of Hastings in the late 60s. He owned a hardware store downtown and he was very active in civic affairs. The next owner was Dr. Dale, some of you might remember him. The current owners, Ron and Karen Ruckdashel, are just the third family who have lived there and they purchased the house in 1998. The house is across from Roadside Park and sits diagonally on the lot. This house is shaped like a 'C' with a backyard enclosed on three of the four sides by the house or the garage. The home is brick with contemporary looking stonework in the front. When the current owners hired an architectural engineer to do some renovation, he discovered what appeared to be steel beams from a bridge in the basement. Speculation is that the beams could have come from the Spiral Bridge which was torn down in the early 50s. The house has been renovated several times on the inside and currently is being renovated in the backyard where the owners are building a water feature with murals that will feature Hastings scenes such as the Vermillion Falls. This house has been well-maintained by the current owners, the Ruckdashels, and uh Ron is here with us tonight if you want to come forward. Ron, I said the wrong name, come on up. [10:07] **Cindy Toppin (HPC Chair):** Ron. And our last thing tonight is about our Facebook contest. And we have been, the last few years, having a Facebook contest for homes that were turning 100 this year. And I'd like to thank City staff, Don Scell and Justin Fortney, for helping to promote the Facebook contest and for Justin to finding the homes. If you want to show us all the homes—homes that were turning 100—and the winner is 539 West 7th Street. They will receive a century home plaque to put by their front door. Anyone with a century old home who wants to purchase such a plaque can do that working with the city staff to determine eligibility. So tonight, uh Jeremy and Kate Sorenson are the owners of that house and come on up and we'll give you your Century plaque. [11:16] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** So congratulations to all the winners tonight. And do we want to take a photo? Yeah, all right. If the award winners want to come forward and the council members want to come below the dais, we can take a picture together. [11:49] [Background conversation during photo session] [13:04] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Great, thank you. That's always a great way to start uh one of our Council meetings uh in the springtime of the year. Councilors, are there any items—or I'm sorry, are there any corrections to the minutes from the May 6th meeting? Okay, and um we will have a comments from the audience at this time or from Zoom. And please, if anyone wishes to speak to the Council at this time, step to the podium, give your name, address, and we will hear your comments. Nothing on Zoom? Okay. And we ask that you please limit your comments to two to three minutes. Thank you. [13:50] **Stephanie Tucker (Citizen):** Hello council members and Mayor. My name is Stephanie Tucker. I appreciated um being with you recently and following up today. Um I'm a pediatrician uh living in Hastings and again just want to thank all of you for the work that's being done to help get safe water accessible to everybody in the community. Um I know that a plant is in the process of being built—or plantings—and um just share the concern with everybody here regarding the contamination of PFAS, nitrates as well as some other things in our water. Um as a pediatrician, we really take a stance of how can we prevent all that can be prevented, how can we do all that can be done. And we know that these are chemicals that can cause developmental delays, birth defects, that can cause cancer, that can cause immune issues, endocrine dysregulation and other issues. And I just really in the strongest and most loving of ways want to reemphasize um my belief that although we're getting messaging that it might be okay to drink the water, very respectfully I disagree. And you know, there's been a report through the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a study that I shared recently about 10 babies in different areas of the country that were tested on their first day of life for industrial chemicals that are not natural to the human body. And in each of these 10 different babies in different locations across the country, they already were finding well over 200 industrial chemicals including PFAS, including PFOA. And although we might have some sense of some numbers through other studies, for me this one kind of takes precedent over many of the other ones because no matter what—no matter what we think we might know about PFAS—what this study tells us is it's prevalent. We're hearing that most people in the country would be testing positive for it at this time and that we are getting additional exposure to it now. And this is something that I just want to urge in the highest of ways. I want to urge us to join together to find a way to get clean, safe water to everybody in the city including our children immediately and ongoing while the plant is getting built. And even if we don't know yet how we're going to do that, that's okay. I just want to really emphasize and really invite and really encourage us to come together to find a way to just find a way. Um I—I know that a really incredible work is being done and I want to appreciate and honor that, and I—I can't emphasize enough: I just don't believe that it is a safe option for our children to be drinking this, to be getting—to be eating food that's prepared with this water, to be getting bathed in it, to be being fed formula with this water. And not just our children, you know, but all of us including our—our mothers that are pregnant right now, including each and every single one of us. You know, every single one of us is precious. Every single one of us—I can tell you from a personal point of view I've recently found out that I have some precancerous polyps growths. None of us wants to hear anything like that in the future. Let's—let's nip this in the bud. Let's find a way to just say you know what, this is—this is a real exposure. This is something we can actually make a big difference in preventing potential additional risk of exposure for our children and for all of us. So what I'd like to invite is the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org). It is a citizen advocacy organization. They tested different filters for the effectiveness of the filtration of PFAS. They gave four specific countertop filters um that they actually found eliminated approximately 100 or 98% of PFAS from the filters. Um I looked into this a little bit further because um I shared recently that I also on their website they have a tap water database. When you look up Hastings in their tap water database, it says that we have about 20 contaminants, most of which are carcinogens, including something called hexavalent chromium, which was actually portrayed in the movie Erin Brockovich. And so we have the PFAS issue, we have PFOA, we have nitrates. Nitrates—we also have other contaminants that I really want to empower us to be including in our planning. And I would love to invite and empower us to find a way—if community members, if families don't already have a filtration system that's effective for PFAS specifically—effective for PFAS—I—I really want to empower us to find a way to just pull together somehow, find a way to help every single person in the community including every business and restaurant to have access to filtered water that filters at 100%. Um and some of these um—so I—I would love to invite finding a way for whether it's—it's you know, federal, state, county, local town... I—you know, I really—we can—we can find a way to—to find the money, to find a way to get this to people and to get it to people quickly. You know, this is an ongoing exposure that doesn't need to keep happening. And—and just as—as an offering, I started to call around. One of the filters—you know, and I have no affiliation with these companies—but one of the filters um is called a Berkey filter that filters for you know, many, many chemicals. And you know, it—it's a little bit over $300 per person basically or however it ends up getting used—it's a countertop—but it filters approximately 100% of the PFAS, PFOA. And you know, what a small investment to be able to potentially prevent developmental delays, cancer, birth defects. You know, like this is worth it. This is so worth it and so important. The other thing is I—you know—so I—I would love to invite our consideration of making something like that accessible and available to every single family in the community and every—and every um home. I would love to invite you know, the—the folks that are experts in the water here you know, to share their um input. And—and just out of what I've come across from Environmental Working Group, whose recommendations I trust and who hold the standard and the stance that there is no safe amount of PFAS for ingestion. And you know, so the other thing that I came across that to me is promising um is there is a pitcher—and this is kind of like a Band-Aid—but there's a pitcher called um—one of the four filters that they found to be um 100% or close to effective um was ZeroWater. Um I looked a little bit further because I was also looking for you know, faucet filters and shower filters. I could find no shower filters, and if anybody finds them I'd love to know. But I did find one faucet filter, one. And it's through the same company, ZeroWater, that's recommended by EWG. And I contacted the company and they have a faucet filter that filters 98% of PFAS, PFOA. And um and I—you know—I—I would love minimum if possible—if possible—to see everybody in the community very rapidly access something like a Berkey filter and at minimum something like this at their faucet. Um this is something that can be done very rapidly. These filters are like $40 and the replacement filters are about 20. Um this can immediately stop ongoing exposure to the PFAS, but it doesn't get everything. It doesn't get—get the nitrates, it doesn't get hexavalent chromium, it doesn't get the other of the 20. You know, so—but—but it would—it would stop some of the immediate exposure, you know. So I would love to invite um follow up with the Council if—if that's an option. If—you know—in any way possible um this is new for me, so I'm sorry I don't know the process, but um you know I'd love to make myself available as a resource. Um just I—I want to invite collaborating with—with the Council however we can find a way. Um let's do it, you know? And I—I'd love to empower us to—I'd love to empower us to—to take that stance. I'd love to invite that kind of commitment together to find a way to make sure every single person in Hastings um has access very rapidly to clean, safe water now, ongoing, and until and beyond when the plant is up and running. So thank you for your time and thank you for all you're doing. [23:05] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Thank you. Thank you Dr. Tucker for your concern and your comments. Council, are there any items to be considered? Okay, and under the consent agenda Council, I'd like to pull number 10 which is the approval for the special event designation with temporary liquor license for Rivertown Days. We will put it under Administration, as Councilmember Fox would like to abstain from that vote. Without number 10 Council, I would accept a motion for the consent agenda. Councilmember Lawrence? Councilmember Fox? All those in favor of the motion state by saying 'Aye'. [Ayes] Opposed to that motion state by saying 'Nay'. And that motion prevails. Tonight under Community Development we have a resolution for a special use permit for the Cannabis retail for Bip Patel at Jake's Liquor on 1608 Vermillion Street, and for this item we will have an introduction by John Hinzman, our Community Development Director. Welcome John. [24:37] **John Hinzman (Community Development Director):** Thank you Mayor, thank you City Council Members. Tonight we're considering a resolution to issue a special use permit for the sale of cannabis products at Jake's Liquor, 1608 Vermillion Street. The applicant being Bip Patel. Uh with the new regulations pertaining to cannabis, the City Council adopted ordinances last year that allowed for licensing of it as well as an action within the zoning code for a special use permit. So we're coming forward with you tonight on that zoning action, the special use permit. What this does is allows for the sale of cannabis products within certain commercially zoned properties, this being one of them. The license itself, which would follow—inadvertently in the report it states the license would be tonight, there's actually one more detail that uh will delay that till I believe the next meeting—so we're just looking at the special use permit. The license itself will be an annual license that our City Clerk's office will issue. It's subject to police check, a background check, and—and a variety of other rules in there. Those rules have been incorporated into the special use permit. So with the special use permit, we did have the Planning Commission review this at their last meeting. They voted unanimously to recommend approval of this with no uh really little—limited comment on this. It was a public hearing. We did not have anyone come at the public hearing to speak for the item. We also sent out notification within 350 ft. of the project area itself and did not receive any comments from anyone there. So we are offering this forward to you as a recommendation for approval. I will note that this is a special use permit; with special use permits it does require uh the support of six of seven council members. So I could stand for any questions. Thanks. [26:14] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Thanks John. Council, any discussion? Councilmember Leifeld. [26:18] **Lisa Leifeld (Councilmember Ward 3):** I'd like to make a motion to approve the special use permit as recommended by um City staff. [26:24] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Motion second with Councilmember Haus. Any discussion Council? All those in favor of the motion state by saying 'Aye'. [Ayes] Opposed that motion state by saying 'Nay'. And that prevails. Thank you. Secondly then we have a resolution for a special use permit for the Cannabis retail for Judith Koua at Carrying Hands Massage at 427 Vermillion. John. [26:59] **John Hinzman (Community Development Director):** Thank you Mayor, City Council members. Same background information as the last item on this, similar type of request: special use permit for cannabis sales. Uh this one is—does have an accompanying license for the—the city licensed portion of it which will follow this one. Special use permit again, 6 of 7 necessary for passage of this. Planning Commission reviewed this at the last meeting as well. No one came forward at the public hearing, no comment from the mailing as well on this one, and comes forward with the unanimous recommendation for approval. So I can stand for any questions. Ms. Koua is also in the audience tonight as well. [27:44] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Thank you John. Council discussion? Councilmember Pemble. [27:46] **Dave Pemble (Councilmember At Large):** I'd like to move the motion and uh move that resolution forward. [27:49] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Thank you Councilmember Pemble. And a second by Councilmember Lawrence. Any new discussion Council? All those in favor of the motion state by saying 'Aye'. [Ayes] Opposed to that motion state by saying 'Nay'. And that motion prevails. Thanks John. Thank you. Under Administration tonight we have a resolution to approve the new cannabis product retail license for Carrying Hands Massage, and for this introduction we will have Kelly Murtaugh. [28:22] **Kelly Murtaugh (Assistant City Administrator):** Thank you Mayor. Uh this won't require much of an introduction. I think that our Community Development Director did a fine job uh explaining things. This is just the piece for the retail license uh for the cannabis sales, and this would be cannabis products containing 3% or less of THC, which is the current ordinance and current state law—which may be changing of course in the near future, but at this point that's—that's what we're—we're working with here. And uh this would then be accompanied by the special use permit and issue that license to Carrying Hands. And I can certainly also stand for any questions that you have. [29:05] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Great, thank you Kelly. Councilmember Haus. [29:07] **Angie Haus (Councilmember At Large):** Thank you Honor. Uh I'd like to make a motion to approve the attached resolution approving of a new cannabis product retail license for Carrying Hands Massage at 427 Vermillion. [29:17] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Okay, Councilmember Haus, thank you. And a second by Councilmember Vihrachoff. Discussion Council? All those in favor of the motion state by saying 'Aye'. [Ayes] Opposed that motion state by saying 'Nay'. And that motion prepa—prevails. As was stated earlier, we will um have an update or an introduction by Dan Wietecha for the Rivertown Days special permit temporary liquor license. [29:43] **Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** Thank you Mayor. Um the Chamber of Commerce's annual Rivertown Days event is in mid-July, I believe the 19th to the 21st. Uh as in past years um that they apply for the special use permit uh in order to utilize uh sole use of parks and and uh downtown streets. Uh this uh is essentially the same as prior year um permits or special use designations. Uh they also uh—part of the application is for the um temporary liquor license um associated with their beer sales. Uh I can uh certainly take any questions, but it's somewhat prior years. [30:37] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Okay, thank you Dan. Council, any discussion? I would accept a motion. Councilmember Haus and Councilmember Lawrence. All those in favor of the motion state by saying 'Aye'. [Ayes] Opposed to that motion state by saying 'Nay'. With one—yes, one abstaining from Councilmember Fox, and that motion prevails. Council, any announcements? Okay, I do have a few. The week—this week is National EMS week, and it's also National Public Works week. Please join me in a great and heartfelt thank you to all of our employees in these departments on their service for our community. Thank you. [31:21] **Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Filing for municipal office opens tomorrow, Tuesday May 21st, and that runs through Tuesday June 4th. The City Clerk will hold an optional candidate information session on Tuesday May 21st. City offices will be closed on Monday May 27th in observance of Memorial Day. Coffee with a Cop is Tuesday June 4th from 10:00 a.m. to noon at the Coborn's Caribou Coffee. Join the police to ask questions, voice concerns, and get to know one another. On Tuesday June 4th, join us for the summer kickoff at 2020—uh to our 2024 Levee Park events. Free entertainment, interactivity motorized race course, bouncy balls, climbing walls, caricatures artists, balloon artists and more. All ages are welcome and this is also a free event. Memorial Day—there is a program. I will go through the program; if you need further information I would reach out to the VFW. 8:30 there is a Vets Raising Flag um program at Vets Home. 9:00 is at Roadside Park this year and there will be a short program there. 10:00 a.m. is Soldiers and Sailors. 11:00 is the—I'll say grand program—and that is the—at the Rotary Pavilion. 11:00 sharp there will be a flyover. So lots of activities for Memorial Day. Meetings coming forward: Tuesday May 21st, 7:00 p.m. Heritage Preservation Commission. Monday May 27th, the Administration Committee has been cancelled. Tuesday May 28th, 7:00 p.m. is Planning Commission. Monday June 3rd, 5:30 p.m. City Council Budget Workshop and 7:00 p.m. City Council regular meeting. With that, I would stand for a motion to adjourn. Councilmember Pemble? Councilmember Fox? No discussion? All those in favor with the motion state by saying 'Aye'. [Ayes] Opposed to that motion state by saying 'Nay'. And we are adjourned.