[0:04] Speaker Unknown: Now that's my [0:20] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Council. Council ready Lindsay. Time being 7 o'clock, we 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. [0:53] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Welcome and let the role reflect. We do have a full council tonight. So, a quorum has been established. Tonight, we will be having a couple resolutions um in recognizing a couple of our employees who have been here for multiple years um on in both departments. First, we will have a proclamation for Jeff Elliott. Councilmember Haus, will you please start the proclamation? [1:22] Councilmember Angie Haus: Thank you, your honor. Whereas Jeff Elliot is retiring on July 31st, 2025, having served the City of Hastings for 27 years and 5 months. And whereas Jeff has been the civic arena assistant manager and the civic arena manager during his tenure. And whereas Jeff has been instrumental in creating and maintaining a welcoming environment at the Civic Arena. And whereas Jeff's passion and dedication to ice arenas and hockey have been felt and admired by the skating community. And whereas Jeff's commitment to ensuring the civic arena is always well-maintained, clean, and friendly. And whereas Jeff was instrumental in the recent refrigeration system upgrade, ensuring that the facility and its skaters received the best experience [2:09] possible and has continued that legacy of keeping the civic arena at a just right temperature. Therefore, be it resolved that the Hastings City Council hereby recognizes Jeff Elliott for the dedication and commitment of the city of Hastings. [2:31] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Jeff, would you please come up and receive this? There you go. Chris Jenkins is absent today who is uh our director of parks and rec. So, I will just make a few comments about Jeff. Um, the hardship of losing good employees after so many years is the hardship of losing good employees. So, the sad thing when you go to the arena, you always see Jeff there. [3:00] We always used to see Sliver there and now that hat is being handed off to the next person. And I just want to thank you, Jeff, for all you have done for our community, for from the little kids to the big kids that skate on great ice and uh always that welcoming smile and all the efforts you've done um to keep our ice arena safe for everybody. [3:23] Jeff Elliott: Oh, thank you very much. I've enjoyed all the years I've worked here and had a lot of great people to work with and like to thank all of you. [3:33] Mayor Mary Fasbender: You're welcome. We're going to have a picture right council? [3:41] Councilmember Angie Haus: First, yes, please. Let's do it separate because then [3:51] we've got for a while maybe [4:09] two. Best smile ever. [4:18] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Congratulations. Enjoy your retirement. Next, we have a proclamation that Councilmember Pemble will start. [4:30] Councilmember Dave Pemble: Whereas Bill McNamara is retiring on July 31st, 2025 after serving the city of Hastings for 33 years. And whereas Bill brought a strong work ethic and commitment to the community every day and served as a leader and go-to operator for all things related to water system operations. And whereas Bill McNamara's deep institutional knowledge and dedication to training others have been cornerstones of the department's success, leaving a lasting impact on every employee he's guided. And whereas Bill's thoughtfulness, problem solving skills, and consistent ability to deliver solutions have set the standard and shaped the expectations for our [5:14] utility operations. And whereas over the years, Bill has been in nearly every home and business in the city, played a vital role in countless construction projects and has been the steady hand responding to every water main break. And whereas Bill's willingness to take on any challenge and go the extra mile for our residents and businesses defines service excellence. And therefore, be it resolved, the City of Hastings Council hereby recognizes Bill McNamara for his dedication and commitment to the city of Hastings. Bill. [Applause] [5:54] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Want to say a few words? [5:57] Bill McNamara: Yeah, thanks for um tonight and um especially all my ex-coworkers and my coworkers now. So, it was a good group of people I work with for all these years. [6:07] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Again, we're used to seeing Bill in a red truck [6:12] driving around town and there was always a smile and a wave. So, we'll miss that for sure. [6:15] Bill McNamara: That's why I got all white vehicles at home. [6:17] Mayor Mary Fasbender: So, let's do a photo. Congratulations. [6:41] You heard it here. Okay, here we go. Three two one. Smile. Nice. [Applause] [7:10] Thanks, gentlemen. Perfect. What is it about this job that makes your hair—it's doing it to me too? Well, and enjoy your last few days as the City of Hastings employees, guys. Thank you. [7:53] Mayor Mary Fasbender: All right. Tonight we will be having a presentation from the Metropolitan Council update on the Hastings Long-Term Sewer Service. But first, I would like to introduce our new representative for Met Council, Mark Jacobs, who as you know maybe that uh he is replacing our past representative, Sue Vento. Welcome, Mark. [8:17] Mark Jacobs (Met Council Representative): Thank you, Mayor and Council and staff. Um, great evening to be here. Um, I feel a little intimidated following Bill, who has more years of service than I have hours right now in my role. Um, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to come and first of all say thank you to the mayor who um, dedicated some of her time when I was interviewing for this position to tell me about some of the opportunities that the Met Council has with the city of Hastings. I joke with her and I'll joke with you. I would love to say our conversation led to me bringing our team in. Fact of the matter is they've been working with your staff longer than I've been on the council and [9:04] you've got a good team at the council working with your good team here. So, um I'm just happy to align myself with them tonight and introduce myself. Um, if you're not familiar, whether it's council members or people watching, um, the Metropolitan Council is a partner with every city in our district. And in District 12, it's southern Washington County, Eastern Dakota County, and I just look forward to the opportunity to be your voice on the Metropolitan Council. And sometimes I'm going to be the Metropolitan Council's voice coming back to you—hopefully always with good things, hopefully aspirational thought—but um I do look forward to our partnership and as far as today goes, you [9:52] know, while the council's overall role is to promote smart growth, um make sure that our infrastructure is resilient and investments reflect both local and regional priorities, we recognize that the growth and vitality of Hastings is directly tied to the success of the entire region. Um that includes planning together for regional wastewater services for Hastings. Um I've discussed more—they've discussed with me—um our efforts and your city's efforts on planning for the future of regional wastewater service. And I know that both the council and the city share [10:41] their vision for the partnership with the city and the importance of success in our future steps in this endeavor. And with that, I've said about everything I know right now about um the issue in front of us. So, I'm going to bring up people who know a lot more than me. So, I want to introduce Sam Pasy who is um on our environmental services staff. [11:19] Sam Pasy (Met Council Environmental Services): Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Got it. Thank you. Um, thank you, Council Member [Jacobs], and thank you, Mayor Fasbender and council members for your time tonight and for having us with you. I'm Sam Pasy, assistant general manager for the Metropolitan Council's environmental services division. And tonight, we're here to share with you an update on our wastewater infrastructure plans for the city of Hastings and the Southeast metro region. We appreciate this opportunity, as Representative Jacobs shared, to share our thinking and collaborate with you on important long-term decisions. [11:54] And with me tonight are members of our project team, including Chad Davidson, our engineer; Judy Senteck is our program manager; Adam Gordon is our interceptor engineering manager; Kyle Colvin and John Klebeck, our manager and assistant manager in our wastewater planning and community programs group. So if there isn't a question we can't answer tonight, we will come back. But I think we've got it covered. Um, tonight I'd like to share with you a little bit on the status of planning for a new wastewater treatment plant and next steps. You'll hear a brief background on the Met Council's role and mission, the status of the Ravena trail site, how we're moving forward to serve the city, and how that impacts the southeast region and Dakota County area, opportunities for local trunk sewer investments, and what the next several years will look like. And I'm happy pausing at any time to answer questions. This is just to kind of come back after several years uh since we've been here with the city council members and refresh where we're at and how we're [13:03] moving forward. So, there's a lot we do know and a lot we don't know that we're going to be finding out over the next few years. Um, a little bit about the Met Council. We serve as the regional planning organization for the 7-county Twin Cities metro area. We plan for water resources, wastewater collection and treatment and water supply for the region. We are a planner for water supply. Um our role includes collaborating with state agencies and local governments on all aspects of water and there's some of those roles listed above. [13:41] Um the Met Council wastewater system is shown on the map to the left. Um you can see the different uh sewersheds as we call them where plants serve the full region. Um that regional system serves 111 communities with collection and treatment um and nearly 3 million people. We maintain 600 miles of regional sewers and operate nine water resource recovery facilities across the metro, including the Hastings facility here. Our mission is to ensure reliable wastewater service while protecting public health and the environment so that future generations can have clean water. We treat on average 250 million gallons of wastewater per day. And you can see some additional statistics here like the value of our assets and our annual budget. A regional system faces key challenges that drive our planning efforts. We're experiencing significant growth across the metro area, requiring [14:45] expanded capacity. Our infrastructure is aging, needs ongoing investment, and regulatory requirements continue to increase um including with pollutants like nitrogen, PFAS, and sulfate. Water availability and contamination issues are also common across our region. These drivers inform our approach to serving Hastings and the Southeast metro and region scale. And our investments must help us manage these challenges for many years to come cost effectively as there just simply is not enough money to solve every problem. And we know things I just said are not new to you. You're facing them here. [15:30] Sam Pasy: So, a little bit about the existing site. The Hastings plant was originally built by the city in 1955 and it was acquired in 1970 by the Metropolitan Sewer Board, which was then merged with the Met Council some years later. It was part of the regionalization of the wastewater system. At that point, we had over 30 plants in the metro area, and as you saw before, we're down to nine. Um, the Hastings Water Resource Recovery Facility has a capacity to treat 2.34 million gallons per day and it has adequate capacity to serve the city's current and future growth needs as approved for through 2040 and in recent population forecasts through 2050 and [16:18] you'll hear in a second that after that it does not. Um, it's important to note that this facility is not a standalone plant, but an integrated component of the regional system. The plant provides liquids process treatment and delivers clean treated water to the Mississippi River with the solids component transported elsewhere for processing. You've seen our blue trucks. Uh, it also contributes to a regional permit strategy for phosphorus management. And this integration at a region scale with all of our facilities working together is key to understanding how we approach future service planning. Uh the current site is limited by space. It's not a large site. It will eventually run out of capacity to serve future development and it lacks right now the ability to address increased permit requirements like the ones I mentioned earlier. And for this reason, the Met Council has been pursuing treatment at a different location. The new location also frees up this downtown site for other uses that are aligned with your vision for the use of the Mississippi Riverfront area. [17:25] Just a more detail on capacity so you can see what it looks like. Um the blue line with the dots is the capacity trend over time. Um you can see it goes up and down and the down is due to water conservation efforts which is good news. We're saving water and getting more value out of our infrastructure. Um, however, based on housing studies and forecasts, there is a time at which that line will grow. And you can see it it dipped and now it's not dipping down anymore. And that plant will max out at its current capacity, which cannot be expanded. Additionally, what it's required to do will limit is limited as well. So, there's a point in time in the future at which that plant won't serve anymore. and we want to be well ahead of that curve and that's the purpose for our planning for a new plant site. [18:19] Sam Pasy: So, let's talk a little bit about the Ravena Trail site. The council purchased property on Ravena Trail. You can see it on the right side of the screen um in 2005 with the intention of serving Hastings and a small area outside the city from that location. During our site investigation work a few years ago conducted as a normal part of any of our projects, we discovered important cultural resources on the property. Disturbing this area to build infrastructure would have significant adverse impacts that could not be mitigated. With deep respect for the input that contributed to our understanding of the impacts, we determined that the Ravena trail site is no longer viable. We are working closely with city staff on a new approach that better serves both the cities and the region's long-term interests. And I'll talk a lot more about that and how we're moving forward. [19:21] We're committed to serving Hastings with new regional infrastructure from the west side of the city. This infrastructure will also serve additional portions of Dakota County and represents a significant change in our approach. This regional investment will be substantial, hundreds of millions of dollars, and will require thorough planning to make sure that we make the right decisions for the long term. And by long term, we think toward buildout, which is generations ahead. In the interim, the downtown plant will continue to operate while we develop and implement those solutions to transition service to your city from the west. [20:01] We're starting a a comprehensive planning process to identify the best regional long-term wastewater service solutions for southeast metro communities, which includes not only Hastings, but all of the communities that we currently serve at the Empire Water Resource Recovery Facility. This planning process will take two to three years once we have consultants on board through our procurement process which is underway right now. To allow the time needed for that planning and authorization, we want to reiterate that we will continue to keep the downtown plant in sound operating condition to meet service levels until a date is set for decommissioning. I understand you probably want to know when is that? Um, I do too. That planning work has to be conducted before we really know what we're going to be building. And until we know what we're building, it's hard to estimate what that time is. I can say that it won't be sooner than 10 years and we're going to expedite that as much as we can to minimize that impact to your city. I understand that's a really big change and that's one of the reasons we're here trying to be transparent and collaborative about it. [21:11] We know that that shift in plans also creates other uncertainty about your city's development. And we hope we can answer any questions you might have today. Um we're working to provide clarity on permanent and temporary conveyance decisions through a trunk sewer planning project that will be complete this December. So we'll have a little more clarity by then. And in the interim, the Met Council is committed to ensuring that Hastings has the necessary capacity to meet the growth that we've committed to in your comprehensive planning process. [21:48] I can talk a little bit more about what that longer term planning study looks like and Chad will talk in a in a bit about what that short-term study with Kimley-Horn through December is going to look like. So, this map shows a graphic image of this new approach. You can see a couple arrows on there that indicate potential routes for service uh for flow from Hastings to go to the west. It could possibly go to the Empire Water Resource Recovery Facility, a facility at our former Rosemount site, or other options that we may not have yet identified. [22:30] Um, a key element of this is a new service point location that we'll talk a little bit more about later in that oval um in the upper right hand corner of the image. It's in a different location now than your current service point, which is the existing plant. Um, this new approach offers benefits. It ensures adequate capacity for long-term growth needs and future regulatory requirements in the southeast metro area while protecting cultural resources. It also identifies opportunities to reuse wastewater, reduce energy use, and continue to ensure affordability with an awareness of water sustainability challenges like water quantity limitations, contamination [23:16] and potential high volume water users like data centers. There are benefits to the city as well identified um in our ongoing conversations with city staff. Those include continued service to meet plan growth as we've been talking about, but also the ability to meet additional growth beyond 2050 where the existing plant is limited. Um, efficient trunk sewer configuration can eliminate some pumping and reduce travel time of wastewater from city sewers to the Met Council interceptors. We achieve economies of scale and we eliminate solids management trucking. And of course, the riverfront site will ultimately be available for a use that is more appropriate to the city's plans. [24:06] The near-term looks like this: pivoting from that current plant site to a new configuration with service from the west requires three primary efforts. First, we need to look at the needs and challenges collaboratively with communities in the southeast part of the metro to decide on the right long-term investments. While we are doing that, knowing at a high level that service will be provided from the west, we can make some investments in trunk sewer reconfiguration that takes advantage of road reconstruction projects that are currently planned in the next few years. [24:40] And that's what's shown on this on this graphic. Finally, once those investments are made and the plans are in place, we can put the infrastructure on the right side of the screen into action as the planning work and interim trunk sewer investments allow construction of a new service location or lift station that connects the city to a new regional interceptor sewer conveyance and additional treatment infrastructure. And following this, the downtown plant will be decommissioned. [25:12] A little more detail on that regional planning study that's underway right now. It'll run from now through 2030 and at that point we will have final clarity on what that full alignment and set of investments entails. It will define service options and infrastructure needs through community outreach engagement and technical analysis and identify the optimal configuration to serve the city of Hastings and other communities by studying population forecast development, future regulations and treatment requirements, regional solids management, conveyance options, including land acquisition and other drivers, including the potential for reuse. [25:57] And while we're working on that long-term plan for the service point location, we are working closely with city staff to address immediate trunk sewer modifications needed to connect to the new service point location. With consultant Kimley-Horn, we are identifying necessary changes to the city's comp plan to reconfigure trunk sewer flows. We're coordinating with two upcoming highway projects to take advantage of opportunities for pipe installation. Uh and Chad in a second will provide more details on that work. We're hoping these changes bring those additional benefits to the city that I mentioned earlier, including continued service, improved trunk sewer configuration, uh eliminating trucking, and freeing up the riverfront site. [26:50] Chad Davidson (Met Council Engineer): Thank you, Sam. Uh, honorable mayor, council members, staff, Chad Davidson, work with the Metropolitan Council Engineering Group. I've been involved with Hastings since we were planning to go to the Ravena Trail site. We've been working closely with staff ever since the very beginning. Um, so over the last year or so, what we've been looking at is: is it feasible to serve from the west? Is it feasible to bring the flow from downtown up to a point in the city where we could reverse the flow and take it out west? And we've answered those questions that it is feasible. And now we're trying to answer the questions of how do we coordinate with these major transportation projects that are coming through town. Primarily the Trunk Highway 61 project. If we were to get flow from the current plant site out to the west, it has to cross that corridor somewhere. And we want to make sure we [27:49] plan that properly so you don't have to tear it up again in the future after we've done all this investment and time and preventing, you know, more delays with city traffic and stuff like that. Um, so we we understand those schedules. Those schedules are shown on the screen here. The lighter blue is the MnDOT project. We understand that the city is um still in the process of getting a design engineer with the state on board. So it's slight bit of a delay on the start, but the end construction is what I've been told is going to stay the same. and we feel very confident that we can get our design in and coordinate with that project so that we're set up for when this flow change happens in the future at the end of our study. [28:41] Along with that is the County Road 46 project um that's going to come a couple years behind the MnDOT project and we're we've been in some conversations with the county about it. The city has been in more and they've given us some information. Um, yeah, I believe this was originally planned for a year or two earlier, but then they pushed it out to not interfere with the Trunk Highway 61 project. Um, so part of our analysis that we're currently doing with Kimley-Horn, um, we're looking at your existing system. [29:18] We're looking at where some efficiencies could be improved knowing that we're going to the west instead of coming around. The system currently is designed—starts in the northwest corner of town and flows to the southwest corner then to the southeast then back to the northeast. Um, so if we're intercepting flow halfway in the middle, there's potential for bringing some other those uh more outlying areas that that were planned to go more straight east. They could come west and you could actually expand some of your service and some of your pipes in your system without having to do upgrades because you would take the flow more directly to the service point. [30:05] Um, we're also looking at a potential trunk pipe that could alleviate some um some pinch points in the system that are right by General Sieben Drive. Um, so that pipe would be coordinated with the construction of County Road 46 and there's some good opportunity there to not have to tear up that road twice. Um there's some cost sharing with the county on the pavement to replace it. So it's just uh at the end of this study that they're doing right now, we'll have those answers and we'll be ready to plan it with the county and ready to install that infrastructure. I'm going to turn it back over to Sam. [30:57] Sam Pasy: Moving forward, we commit to completing the Kimley-Horn study and identifying interim solutions by the end of 2025. We're working closely with city staff and leadership to ensure ongoing communication and coordination on a weekly basis. And we're moving as fast as possible to finalize our planning contracts and begin that regional planning study. Um, we'll work with you to develop appropriate agreements for infrastructure improvements and cost-sharing arrangements as we learn more about what is required. [31:34] Um, throughout this process, we'll maintain regular communication with the city council, city staff, and provide updates as we proceed. Thank you for your time tonight. That's good timing. Uh, we're committed to ensuring the city of Hastings has the necessary capacity to serve its growth needs while supporting your vision for your community. And we welcome your questions and look forward to our continued partnership. [32:01] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thank you, Sam. Thank you. Thank you, Chad. Uh, council, any comments? Councilmember Leifeld. [32:10] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: Thanks, honor. Something that you had mentioned that I wouldn't have even thought about and I really appreciate the due diligence working around the Highway 61 Vermillion corridor project as well as with the county on 46. We've we've seen that happen right where a project comes through and then five years later there's another type of a project and we're ripping things up again. So love that. Um, one, it seems like it would be cost-effective, less impact on traffic in the community, but also cost effective. So, I appreciate that. And for those who are listening, and I'm sure they're in the in the hundreds that are listening, um, [32:47] what we have now works, correct? What we have in place now works for our community. What we're talking about is the growth of the community and what this is going to look like. So for anyone who's wondering what this is all about, it it works right now. [33:05] Sam Pasy: There are several reasons beyond just growth. Um the regulations that drive wastewater treatment and water resource reclamation are always moving. There's actually a law against them going backwards. They cannot by law and they increase as technologies become better and better. So the the requirements for that plant will increase no matter what. Um, and at some point we'll just be out of space there and we won't be able to do much more. [33:33] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: Well, thanks for bringing these talking points to us. Oddly, I had somebody last week just asking me about this and I'm like, I haven't heard anything in a little while. So, I knew the last we were talking was going out to the west towards Empire. So, thank you so much for the time and this will definitely help us let people know what's happening. So, appreciate it. [33:53] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thank you, Council Member Leifeld. Councilmember Pemble. [33:57] Councilmember Dave Pemble: I guess my question here is, okay, we have a plant that was originally built in 1955 and it was rebuilt a couple of times to its present state. Correct? Basically, in the transition time, there was some rebuild and then it's been modified since then. Where do you think we stand at capacity right now of the plant? Are we at 70%? Are we at 90% of the plant? Where are we at? [34:36] Sam Pasy: We're at about 1.5 million gallons a day, give or take. And max capacity, what it's rated for, is 2.3. [34:44] Councilmember Dave Pemble: Okay. Thinking about looking at a future community. We have 22,000 whatever residents in this community right now. I'm trying to rationalize the idea of: where is the cut off date? Can we say, "Oh, we're going to annex a chunk because a developer is coming in and wants to build a big housing development." And where's the point? Are we at 5,000 more population or 10,000 more population? Where's that cut off going to be? I think we need a sense sitting here at this dais to understand what your thought is. Where are we going to [35:31] be? You know, I mean, do we literally—and where's the situation about growth? I mean, that's what I'm trying to grasp here. [35:36] Sam Pasy: Thank you, Council Member Pemble. I I think it's—this is a good opportunity to bring some of our expert planners up and we can dig into that a little bit. That's why we're here. I will say while we're maneuvering here, um that those questions are questions we're going to answer through the longer term planning study as well. This is John Klebeck, one of our master planners. [36:11] John Klebeck (Met Council Planning): John Klebeck. I'm assistant manager of wastewater planning and community programs at Met Council. Um the question about population—council is committed to providing wastewater service to meet the forecasted growth for the city of Hastings. I don't have the exact population numbers in front of me, but um the orange line actually on this graph is based on the forecasted growth for the city of Hastings and the per capita wastewater flow that's generated um by the city. [36:48] And so if we use that forecast, it looks like that plant has a lot of capacity for the future just based on the amount of wastewater generated um in the city currently and what we're looking at for population growth into the future. And we looked at it from a range of different scenarios to make sure that we're not underestimating um and wanting to be conservative with it. So the green line represents a different methodology for forecast that takes a linear trend of—it gets kind of technical and probably our plant engineers could explain it better than me—but a linear trend of the organic loading at the plant for the last 10 years and then forecasting that out into the future. And that's kind of [37:34] a a worst case accelerated growth. Um not that it's a worst case for the city, but just in terms of making sure that we're prepared with plant capacity. [37:43] Councilmember Dave Pemble: I understand that the the committee is or your study is going to move forward and give us some more answers, but it's like okay to try and understand where the city's going to be at moving forward and seeing okay—looking at a change in where that resource facility out 46 is projected to be built. Where where are we looking at? Is there a sense that by December we'll have a good understanding of what these facts are and you're going to come back and present to us so that we have an ongoing relationship and and understand where we think this project and where you guys are going to tell us how this is going to move forward. [38:46] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thank you, Council Member Pemble. Councilmember Beck. [38:51] Councilmember Mya Beck: We all know regulations change. We're all very aware of that. My question is what happens if regulations change and we don't meet them anymore? Because with PFAS right now, what we're looking at 2029 before we get fined or maybe it moved to 2031, something like that. But is there a punishment to not meet regulations if that plant no longer sustains what Hastings needs plus on top of that doesn't meet regulations? [39:14] Sam Pasy: Um I can start and if I and get to the end of my knowledge maybe John can back me up. Um the planning process for wastewater treatment takes decades. That's one of the reasons why you might see extended time frames here. Um, typically when there's a regulation that changes, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will start that with scientific findings. They have multiple paths they can follow, but they all take significant time. They involve public engagement around the rulemaking process. And then when that finally ends up in a requirement, those requirements are put into a long-term capital investment plan because we just simply—like you're saying—we could not meet a new requirement the next day. We need 10 [40:02] years plus to meet that new requirement. So there's a long lead time of maybe generations. Um we've been talking about nitrate for, you know, longer than I've been in my career, uh and so it does take a lot of time. I don't think we'll be caught off guard at the existing plant. However, we are seeing some of these factors come up much sooner than we maybe have anticipated and altogether in a way we haven't had to address before. It doesn't push the timing up. It just pushes the challenge even higher. So, we do have time. [40:37] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thank you, Council Member Beck. Councilmember Haus. [40:43] Councilmember Angie Haus: Thank you, honor. And I appreciate you guys coming out to do this presentation today. Um, you may or may not have uh answered these two questions because they're pretty specific, but does uh Metropolitan Environmental Services cover the added cost to the city to install sewer for the new developments on the west side of town that may need to be rerouted for your changes and uh does it cover the cost of the new conveyance pipe and lift stations to the west as well? [41:07] Sam Pasy: We understand cost is one of the primary concerns and while we can say we are going to be a full partner, especially if we're causing you cost, you know, that's not where we want to be and we want to own that. We just don't know what those costs are yet or what the components of something new that's of value that the city wants to invest in that brings you more versus a position we put the city in unintentionally. We we haven't seen that yet but we we are here. That's why we're in front of you today with our team that are committed. We're committed to being partners to figuring out what those cost arrangements are. So, thanks for bringing that up. I expected that question. [41:51] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thank you, Council Member Haus. Any other discussion, council? All right. Well, we will be seeing you probably more often than [41:56] certainly will. Thank you so much for being here. [42:04] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Council members, are there any corrections to the minutes from the July 7th meeting? Okay. Comments from the audience. Anyone wish to speak to the audience at this time on Zoom? No one's on Zoom. Okay. Uh, council members, are there any items to be considered? Okay. Consent agenda. Council, I would accept a motion for the consent agenda. Councilmember Vihrachoff with a second with Councilmember Lawrence. Any discussion council? All those in favor of the motion state by saying I. [42:43] City Council (Unison): I. [42:44] Mayor Mary Fasbender: And opposed to that motion state by saying nay. Any um items that the council wants to announce? Okay. If not, Councilmember Vihrachoff, did you have something? [42:52] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Shockingly, no. [42:59] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Oh, okay. You gave me the look and I thought maybe she had something. All right, I have a few announcements. National Night Out is an annual community building event. Please join us Tuesday, August 5th at Lions Park or in local neighborhood gatherings. Summer rec programs at Levee Park: Tuesday, July 22nd, Comedy in the Park with the stand-up comedian Mike Brody, sponsored by Smeed Manufacturing Company. Thursday, July 24th, Music and Market with the Hot Totties, Swing to Disco, supported by the Ruth and George Doffing Charitable Fund. Thursday, July 31st, Music and Market with Double Down Tribute to the 1980s, supported by Ruth and George Doffing Charitable Fund. Rec Arts and Police is Wednesday, July 23rd, 1 to 2 pm at Roadside Park with a foam party and pipe cleaner sculpture activities supported by SC Toys, Country Financial, Hastings Lions Club, Hastings Family Service, Community Education, and Hastings Prescott Art Council. The utility meeting for Monday, July 28th has been cancelled and there is a planning commission meeting Monday, July 28th at 7 p.m. with a council meeting Monday, August 4th. Council, with that, I would accept a motion to adjourn. [44:33] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Councilmember Pemble and Councilmember Lawrence. No discussion. All those in favor of the motion, state by saying I. [44:42] City Council (Unison): I. [44:43] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Opposed to that motion state by saying nay. And we are adjourned. [44:51] Speaker Unknown: What's that?