This transcript has been processed to identify speakers based on the provided municipal context and the flow of the meeting. **Note on Speaker Identification:** * **Carl Bliss** and **Orin Kipp** are identified as the speakers the AI transcript phonetically misidentified as "Carlson" and "dah" during roll call. * The Mayor refers to two council members as **"Connie"** and **"John."** Based on the official list provided, these are likely nicknames or transcription errors for **Carl Bliss** and **Orin Kipp**. I have used the official names from your list for the labels. * **Simon** is identified as a staff member (likely City Engineer or Public Works staff) who is present but was not on the initial list. *** [00:00:00] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** I call to order the March 4th, 2024 meeting of the Bayport City Council. Let's all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. [00:00:10] **All:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [00:00:25] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** All right, Matt, will you please call the roll? [00:00:28] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Bliss? [00:00:30] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** Here. [00:00:31] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Kipp? [00:00:32] **Orin Kipp (Councilmember):** Here. [00:00:33] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Gilmore? [00:00:34] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Here. [00:00:35] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Mayor Hanson? [00:00:36] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Here. [00:00:37] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** And Councilmember Hill is absent. [00:00:40] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** All right. Does anyone want to make a motion to approve the agenda as prepared? [00:00:45] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** I'll make a motion approving tonight's agenda as prepared for us. [00:00:48] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thanks, Connie [Carl]. Do we have a second? [00:00:50] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I second. [00:00:51] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thanks, Ethan. All right, all those in favor, "Aye." And anyone opposed? Okay, agenda is approved. Next is proclamations, commendations, petitions, and announcements. The February recycling award recipient is Donna Sereno on Third Street South. She'll be awarded for her recycling efforts with the grant from Washington County, so thank you, Donna. And then we get to our open forum. Open forum is a portion of the meeting to address City Council on subjects that are not part of the agenda. City Council may take action or reply at the time of the statement, or they may give direction to staff regarding investigation of the comments expressed. A total of 15 minutes is allotted for public comment during the open forum. Do we have anyone that would like to address the Council? All right, and we'll go on to the consent agenda. Consider a resolution adopting items 1 through 8: February 5th, 2024 Workshop minutes; the February—did I say 8th or 5th? I did say 5th, okay—February 5th City Council regular meeting minutes; February payables and receipts; February building, plumbing, mechanical, and zoning permits report; donation from the Bayport American Legion for the Centennial Pavilion at Village Green Park; appointment of Mary Aert to the Library Board; Joint Powers Agreement with Washington County Sheriff's Office to purchase fuel for the Police Department; and a lawful gambling application from the United Way of Washington County for a raffle at the Bayport American Legion on June 8, 2024. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? [00:02:40] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** I'll move to adopt the consent agenda. [00:02:42] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, thanks Connie [Carl]. Second? Anybody? [00:02:44] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Second. [00:02:45] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** All right, thanks Ethan. Moving on. All those in favor say "Aye." Oh wait, I need a roll call. I made all that up. [00:02:55] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Bliss? [00:02:56] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** Aye. [00:02:57] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Kipp? [00:02:58] **Orin Kipp (Councilmember):** Aye. [00:02:59] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Gilmore? [00:03:00] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Aye. [00:03:01] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Mayor Hanson? [00:03:02] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Aye. Okay, thanks everybody. There's no public hearings. Unfinished business: we're going to consider a resolution approving the plans and specs for the 4th Avenue North Street Improvement project and ordering the advertisement for bids. Matt is going to present this item. [00:03:15] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you, Madam Mayor. On October 7th, 2023, the City Council approved the preparation of these plans and specifications for the Fourth Avenue project. A condensed version is actually found in your packets; a full version is up on the dais. Staff is requesting the approval of these plans and specifications. This approval also is for advertisement for bids for the project. The bidding procedures outlined in the resolution include publishing requirements and a proposed bid opening date of April 3rd, 2024. Upon receipt of the bids, staff will review the bids for accuracy and provide a recommendation for approval at the May 6, 2024 Council meeting. The April 1st meeting just doesn't quite work out for bidding requirements. An assessment hearing will actually be scheduled for the fall of 2024 after the project is done so we know all the costs. If costs are more than what the bids came in at, we can assess that at a greater amount essentially. Staff is recommending the Council adopt the resolution approving the plans and specs for the 4th Avenue North Street Improvement project and ordering the advertisement for bids. With that, I or Simon stand for questions. [00:04:30] **Orin Kipp (Councilmember):** I was trying to look in the drawings when I was going through the packet over the weekend. How much less of a crown is there going to be, or what's kind of the new norm? That's got a heck of a crown right now. [00:04:42] **Simon (City Staff):** Yeah, a significant less crown. It would be like on any given highway; you're probably talking just enough to slope to get the water to flow off to each side, right? So maybe three inches, which is almost unnoticeable. [00:04:55] **Orin Kipp (Councilmember):** Okay, that's it for me. It needs to be done, so it's bad. [00:05:00] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Yeah, it is very bad. And my questions for Matt when I asked him were just kind of better understanding what was happening close to the launch, and pretty much not a lot is changing there. That's just going to be like a mill and overlay and nothing huge, because who knows what's going to really happen with the end of that street in the future. And then just timing—we talked about making sure that it was sort of the end of boating season so that it's not disrupting that for people that use the boat launch. [00:05:25] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Yeah, Madam Mayor, just an update on that. Anderson Windows did indicate that they are having their normal picnic somewhere around the middle of September, and so we'll shoot for a start date right after that. So it shouldn't have an impact on boating season. They will work around the Anderson schedule as far as trying to keep the road open the best they can for parking, and obviously pedestrians—they will have to accommodate that. I suppose they can always come from the landing strip to park if they really needed to. But the pedestrian access and keeping certain sections open for that will be the primary issue. [00:05:55] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, anyone else have questions or comments? All good? Anyone want to make a motion? Okay, go for it Connie [Carl], the queen of motions tonight. [00:06:05] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** I move to adopt the resolution approving plans and specifications for the 4th Avenue North Street Improvement project and ordering the advertisement for the bids. [00:06:12] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I second. [00:06:13] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, thanks Connie [Carl] and Ethan. Roll call. [00:06:15] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Bliss? [00:06:16] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** Aye. [00:06:17] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Kipp? [00:06:18] **Orin Kipp (Councilmember):** Aye. [00:06:19] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Gilmore? [00:06:20] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Aye. [00:06:21] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Mayor Hanson? I. [00:06:25] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay. New business: consider awarding a contract for the Barker Alps Park Woodland restoration project. Simon, would you get us up to speed? [00:06:35] **Simon (City Staff):** Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the Council. As you are all aware, we were awarded a CPL Grant in the amount of $25,000. As a result, we sought bids and requests for proposals from willing contractors to essentially give us their ideas and their prices. Since we don't entirely know what we're looking for, we decided to go out for proposals rather than quotes to see who would be able to give us their best foot forward as far as being able to restore the area. Since they do it day in and day out, we felt that it would be proper for seeking proposals rather than quotes. We did have quite a bit of interest; we did receive five proposals, which was a fantastic turnout. They were different, but they were all very similar. We graded these proposals on several criteria. Ultimately, we had a few people who have a very deep background in rating these proposals on board to assist us with the grading, and ultimately we came up with a company called Landbridge Ecological. We felt they had the greatest understanding and the best plan for the restoration of Barker's Alps. We have split it into two phases so that the approach will serve multiple purposes: it prevents overwhelming the landscape and it also allows for clear separation of the project on either side of the walking trail as it ascends the hill. The deliberate division enables community members to witness the transformation firsthand and gain a deeper appreciation for the work that is going to be underway. So with that, we did reach out to about 8 to 10 companies, and Landbridge Ecological was rated the highest and within our budget. They did come in at—I believe it was 148,000, or excuse me, 149,000—which does leave sufficient room for us to go for the phase two as well and have it all-encompassing at the end of this project. With that, I would recommend, and the other members of the committee that looked at this came up with the same consensus, to recommend Landbridge Ecological for the project beginning in late fall. With that, I stand for questions. [00:08:45] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thanks, Simon. So it looks like they gave us two different quotes—a full proposal that was about 189,000 plus some alternates that brought it up to 264, and then option number two, which is the one I think you were leaning towards, was about 150 for the base bid and then 225 with all the alternates. So I guess my question for you is: we would be approving the quote for option two, just the base bid? Or because it's more than—do we have to also contribute some as a city in order for the grant to work? [00:09:20] **Simon (City Staff):** So we will be contributing some from the city that is not included in this. We would go with the base quote of $149,898.96. Three acres of the park in the lower part of Barker's Alps, the sliding hill included, will be taken care of by City staff and Washington County Sentence to Serve. For those of you who walk through that park on occasion, you will notice maybe that they have been working on it already, and the sliding hill in my opinion already looks fantastic. So three acres should get us to our match portion, which is approximately $30,000. So with volunteer hours and equipment usage and staff time, our in-kind match will be met. [00:10:05] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay. And so are there any of the alternate items that we're actually going to be approving as well, or how does that work? Like, what is the actual plan? I guess I'm confused. [00:10:15] **Simon (City Staff):** The base bid includes items 1 through 7, which goes all the way into 2027. We ultimately felt that the alternate items would not be necessary. [00:10:25] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, so then we're not using the full grant that we were awarded? [00:10:30] **Simon (City Staff):** There are two phases. There is 17 acres, which this breaks down, and then the additional six acres on the south side of the walking path as you ascend the hill will be phase two of the project. So this is for 17 acres. We will release an RFP in the fall for the second portion, which is phase two, and that should get us—with these numbers for 17 acres doing the math—well, let's call this 150,000, right? Six acres should leave us enough to have the $55,000 remaining to cover that portion of the project. [00:11:10] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, gotcha. That's where I was confused. I didn't realize that the second phase wasn't part of all of this. [00:11:15] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** And so there's a map in here that was kind of helpful. So the 1, 2, 3, and 4—all those things are going to be taken care of in Phase One? [00:11:25] **Simon (City Staff):** Yes, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are all part of phase one. If you're looking at that map on the southwest portion, the highlighted portion follows the trail ascending the hill. On the southwest portion of that trail, that is the remaining six acres. The wooded area that you can see there on the south, which is not highlighted—that triangular shape cleared area and the pond—that will be phase two. [00:11:55] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, that makes sense. I wish we were able to show that on the screen so anyone can see what we're talking about, but it's probably too hard. So it's basically everything to the west of that trail? [00:12:05] **Simon (City Staff):** Yes. It's not exactly west, but as you're walking, you feel like it's west. [00:12:10] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I see we chose not to move forward with the alternates, right? What are we going to do to make sure all this work that's done isn't going to, you know, all of a sudden five years later we have Buckthorn and all over the place? I know there is seeding happening and stuff like that. I'm just worried—I just want to make sure we're doing our due diligence so it's not a complete waste of time for it all to grow back. [00:12:35] **Simon (City Staff):** Well, what they're going to be doing is planting plants that will essentially choke out the possibility for Buckthorn to regrow. They'll eliminate it, then they'll plant native species grass and undergrowth that will not allow Buckthorn to grow. Realistically, once you get to square one, it shouldn't be as challenging to manage by our staff moving forward in the future as long as we are diligent about maintaining it, which shouldn't take a lot of time. Just a couple days out of the year, every year, just going through and cutting things back. At this point, it's beyond overwhelming for our staff to take care of, but it'll be added to the schedule of things that we take care of. [00:13:15] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** That's awesome. [00:13:17] **Orin Kipp (Councilmember):** I'm a little worried about that line where people have their property, about what is woods. I just want to make sure we're communicating well with the neighbors. [00:13:30] **Simon (City Staff):** Yes, and that is certainly something we will make them aware of prior to—well before we do this project—is making the neighborhood aware. We hopefully will get some positive feedback from neighbors who will want to contribute to this because they're going to extend their view. At this point it's a wall, and there's not much behind these neighbors' property as far as walking paths or anything, so it should optimize the value of their property ultimately. [00:13:55] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Yeah, especially before we do the prescribed burns. It looks like there's just one, but that can kind of freak people out, so make sure we're telling people that it's going to happen. [00:14:05] **Simon (City Staff):** I know they do it at the end of my alley sometimes; they come in and burn that. And that will be certainly something on us as a staff to communicate. We will want to communicate this to the residents to show the pride in what we're doing, because it's a huge project. [00:14:15] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Yeah, I was telling John before that I feel like this can also be once it gets cleared out, it'll be really nice for when all the school stuff happens. If kids are walking down that hill, I think it'll feel safer because it's not as overgrown and it's just more of an open feel. [00:14:30] **Simon (City Staff):** I envision it as being an educational resource for the school as well in the future with just learning about nature and collecting seeds or learning plant life or getting out and just walking and enjoying. [00:14:45] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Great. Well, thank you so much for going after this grant and figuring all this out. I think it's great that you had that team of experts to kind of help you choose the best plan and everything. So thank them for us for helping us out. Does anyone else have any comments or questions? [00:15:00] **Orin Kipp (Councilmember):** I saw some of them working on the side last week, I think Sunday. Did you have some Sentence to Serve guys up there? [00:15:05] **Simon (City Staff):** We did, yes. [00:15:08] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Did our visitor want to say anything? Are you just here to listen? [00:15:10] **John Hartford (Visitor):** I'm thrilled with it. [00:15:11] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Were you one of the people that helped with the— [00:15:12] **John Hartford (Visitor):** Well, I approached the city with trying to clean up— [00:15:15] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Oh, okay, you were the one. Okay, great. All right, just want to make sure you had a chance if you wanted to speak. [00:15:20] **John Hartford (Visitor):** Hopefully I can help volunteer some hours for the project. [00:15:25] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** In case you can't hear him because he's not at the podium, he's saying that Simon and Matt ran with it; he was the one who suggested it, and he may be able to volunteer some hours for this project. And your name was John? [00:15:35] **John Hartford (Visitor):** John Hartford. [00:15:38] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** John Hartford. Well, thank you very much for bringing this up and getting this whole ball rolling. I think it's great. All right, so we need a motion. [00:15:45] **Orin Kipp (Councilmember):** I'll move to award a contract for the Barker Alps Woodland restoration project to Landbridge Ecological. [00:15:52] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I second. [00:15:53] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, great thanks John [Orin] and Ethan. Roll call vote. [00:15:55] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Bliss? [00:15:56] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** Aye. [00:15:57] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Kipp? [00:15:58] **Orin Kipp (Councilmember):** Aye. [00:15:59] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Councilmember Gilmore? [00:16:00] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** Aye. [00:16:01] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Mayor Hanson? [00:16:02] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Aye. Right, motion passes. Then we'll move on to the Council liaison reports. John [Orin], do you want to start? Can you come back to me? Sure. Connie [Carl]? [00:16:15] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** Let's go back to the other end. For the Library—the main thing that's going on right now is the strategic planning. They're going to have a retreat for that in April, one with the staff and one with the board. I'm sorry, I can't remember the dates; I wrote them down, but it's in April. They're not inviting us anyway, right? They're going to do it on their own, so it's fine. And Jill was happy to report that the numbers are up and kind of back to a normal usage. And then they're going to have Bunny Story Hour on the 26th with the bunny visiting, so if the kids are interested, it’d be on that Tuesday at 10:30 for Bunny Story Hour. Other than that, our next meeting is the 19th of March because Jill's going to be on a much-deserved vacation next week. At six o'clock. So that's the big thing right now, this strategic planning. [00:17:15] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** I thought it was really nice to see in her update that they hosted 225 class visits during the past year. That's awesome, how much those kids are going to the library. We always see them walking by. I hope they can keep doing that. All right, well thanks for the update. Ethan? [00:17:35] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** The Cable Commission did not meet; they canceled the meeting. But I do have a little news: they found a new location with lower rent, so they spent last week moving into that. [00:17:50] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Where is it? [00:17:52] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** It's over by the Government Center, I think east of where Walgreens is. I kind of looked at it on a map, but I'm not exactly sure; I haven't seen it yet. But last week they were moving, so they canceled the meeting and I'll get to see it next time I'm there. [00:18:05] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Great, give us an update on that. Maybe you'll actually be able to tell us where it is then. [00:18:10] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** I’ve got a general idea. [00:18:12] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Because—can the public still go in and use facilities, or is that the idea of moving? Did they kind of cut back? [00:18:18] **Ethan Gilmore (Deputy Mayor):** That might be the idea because since COVID, that aspect has not been—you know, pretty much everyone carries cameras around with them everywhere now. Exactly. It's getting a little... yeah. But I'll have more to report next time we meet and exactly where it's at and what the services might be. [00:18:40] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Good. Are you ready, John [Orin]? [00:18:42] **Orin Kipp (Councilmember):** Yeah. One of the things we discussed at Middle St. Croix Watershed was—we get a lot of information passed back and forth during these meetings—and one of the suggestions was there's lots of success stories that come with this. Adopt-a-Drain is one. It's just a way to engage more with the public and put these things front and center. I think City staff is going to see a little bit more reaching out from that standpoint, trying to grow the Adopt-a-Drain program, for example. So that's not really a specific thing, but there is an opportunity—I'm just going to read it here. It says the Watershed Management Organization will be hosting a plan update Community and Technical Advisory Committee event at the Stillwater Library in the Margaret Rivers room on Tuesday, March 19th from 5:00 to 7:00. Members of the public are encouraged to attend and you can contact Rebecca Oldenberg Downing. They'll be looking for public feedback on how they do what—like, what this is going to be. This is going to be more of a presentation type of a situation. I think they're just moving forward with more awareness. Many people, including myself, wasn't aware of this organization before I was assigned this liaison position. So it is—some of the meetings can be pretty interesting. We scooped up 500 and some pounds of stuff out of the drains in their neighborhoods for Adopt-a-Drain. That doesn't sound like a lot until you realize how few people it is and that it's mostly leaves and that kind of debris. That's a lot of stuff. [00:20:15] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** If you adopt a drain, do you have to track how much—like, weigh what you're taking out of it? [00:20:20] **Orin Kipp (Councilmember):** I really—I think people—I'm not sure how that is accomplished. I always wondered the same thing. [00:20:25] **Simon (City Staff):** There's a 5-gallon bucket and—how it goes is you have the option, I believe there's a link on the Adopt-a-Drain site, you have the option to indicate how much you pulled out. [00:20:38] **Orin Kipp (Councilmember):** Yeah, okay. So that's really it. [00:20:40] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** All right, well thank you, and thanks for going to those meetings, too. Let's see, I was kind of busy in February. I did attend the Bayport Community Action League meeting for Katie because she couldn't make it. They pretty much just hammered out who the leads are going to be for each event and then tried to figure out budgets for each of the upcoming events—same ones as usual. Starting with the next event: the Easter Egg Hunt. That will be at Barker's Alps on March 30th, which is the day before Easter, at 10:00 a.m. And I think even if the weather's bad, it's still there—they just hand them out instead of hunting. Bar Crawl is the event after that, on Saturday, May 11th. They are working on window clings instead of magnets with all the upcoming events on it. I think that was the decision because they're a little less expensive and maybe can be used in more places since people don't always have refrigerators with magnets anymore. So something new and different. I attended the Fire Relief Association meeting as part of my liaison duties; nothing really huge to report there, everything's plugging along. Also did the Lake Elmo Airport Advisory Commission, which is another of my liaison appointments. We had a big crowd again, including the *Pioneer Press*. You may have seen the article she wrote about the last meeting. We worked on the Noise Abatement Plan and renamed it because it's not really a plan, it's more of just recommendations. So we called it the "Noise Abatement Recommended Practices." There isn't really much the Metropolitan Airport Commission can do to like enforce any of it either. So it's just more asking pilots to be neighborly and friendly and not be as disruptive, and see how that goes. So they're going to publish the recommended practices at the end of the month and then distribute it to the airport users. They were going to come back to us next month with more about the communication plan and how this is going to move forward. Before that meeting—because this is a really big issue—I think I've told you in the past about how the number of complaints has gone up drastically compared to the past. A lot of it is because the Lake Elmo Aero flight training school is doing a much better business than the previous flight school had done. So a lot more pilots being trained—which we need more pilots! So they're just a lot busier. And it also happened that they extended the runway at the same time that Lake Aero started doing better. So there's some confusion among residents about whether it's because of the runway, but I think it's mostly because of the flight school doing well. I met with them to better understand what they could do, and they were very receptive to wanting to do better and be more neighborly. The airport's going to be putting up some more signs for the pilots to remind them to be neighborly and follow the rules. I also met with one of the residents because he wanted me to see what it was like to live near the airport right now. Of course, the day I went there were crosswinds, so they were not flying over his home, so I didn't really get to witness it. But he did have a lot of information that he shared with me, so I kind of got to hear both sides of the story before I went to the Commission meeting. I did a bunch of Chamber events as well. There was a Coffee Talk for BizRecycling, which is super interesting—any businesses in Bayport should look into that, and they'll help you for free figure out the best way to deal with your recyclables. Went to a Chamber mixer for the electric bike company in Stillwater, Pedego. We had a Chamber Ambassadors meeting. I also went to something about unleashing the power of AI and learned a little bit more about ChatGPT, which is amazing, as I told Matt all about it. I also had a meeting with the President of the Chamber and Matt so that they could get to know each other. Went to the Winter Gala for the Chamber because I was nominated as Ambassador of the Year—but did not win, which is okay! I did not expect to win after one year as an ambassador. It was really fun. Also went to the Washington County Long Range Transportation Planning meeting on February 7th, where they got feedback from city officials about what the county could be doing to help with transportation issues. League of Minnesota Cities Elected Leaders Institute was February 9th and 10th; I went to that and had some great sessions. Regional Council of Mayors meeting was on the 12th. It was fun to get together with other mayors and hear what's going on. And I'm also part of the Fire Chief Position Review Committee—we've had one meeting so far to talk about possibly moving to a full-time Chief. And I went to the "Meeting Our Hidden Neighbors" presentation about homelessness in the valley, which I think a lot of us don't tend to see, but it's there. So I'm just learning a little bit more about the resources for that and what we could do as a city. And then I was in on the Accounting Specialist interviews; that was four days of that. So we're getting closer to hopefully having that position filled, but we're not ready yet. Hopefully in April we'll have someone that we're approving. That was kind of, like I said, a pretty busy month, but really learned a lot. All right, Matt—Staff and City reports. [00:26:00] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** Thank you, Madam Mayor. Fire Chief Kinney. [00:26:05] **Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** Good evening, Madam Mayor and Councilmembers. The February call volume was 78 compared to 92 in 2023. Our year-to-date is 178 compared to 181. Our monthly drills were highway safety and "right to know." And we did put in service our new Rescue 2—it's a pickup with a utility box on the back, and that took 18 months to get delivered from the time we got it ordered. We will be going through MinBid to sell the old rescue pickup. Plan reviews, meetings, and events: we had the Washington County Fire Chiefs leadership training; a station tour for the Oak Park Heights Administrator and the Police Chief; our officers meeting; and department head meeting. We're working with MnDOT on the vehicle inspection building—they're going to add a building for the vehicle inspectors on I-94, so we have some Minnesota Rule 1306 on sprinkling and all that, so we're working through that. We have the Minnesota Officer Schools coming up in March, as well as our Washington County Fire Chiefs. With that, I guess I do want to say thank you to the Anderson Elementary kids and staff. They provided the Fire Department with some great treats and cards last week, and we needed that after the last couple of weeks. So we appreciate that. With that, I stand for questions. [00:27:35] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Nice. So this vehicle inspection building is on 94 at the weigh station? [00:27:40] **Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** That's correct. [00:27:42] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** And is that part of our territory over there? [00:27:44] **Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** We actually—we also have the rest area there. They're remodeling that rest area. That will be the largest rest area in the state of Minnesota. So we had to go through this—that's going to be a huge rest area and tourism center. We get involved with all the township stuff. [00:28:00] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Yeah, that makes sense. I was thinking it was Lakeland for some reason, not West Lakeland. [00:28:05] **Gabe Kinney (Fire Chief):** No, we cover a little south of Lucy Wht and bells, actually, in our area. [00:28:10] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Okay, well thank you. Any questions for Chief? No? Thank you, Chief. [00:28:15] **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** Madam Mayor and Council, pleased to be here. Couple things I want to touch on: Sergeant Slinger and I did attend the funeral for the two officers and the firefighter paramedic in Burnsville. It was a really good showing by all; that was definitely a powerful experience. Last month, if you recall, I showed you guys the fire suppression system that we started putting in our squad cars. At the last Chiefs meeting I attended, they did actually report that a Deputy was assisting St. Paul Park and did end up using one of those. They kicked in a door where the fire was, threw in the fire suppression system, and it did put the fire completely down. So we're really happy to have that. The St. Croix County Sheriff also said that they have used it twice, I believe, over there as well to great success. So hoping we don't need to use them, but glad we do have them. Myself and Sergeant Slinger also did a presentation to the residents at Croixdale for some senior scams. That went very well, was probably attended by 15 or 20 people. I was pretty amazed that almost all of the residents that attended had all been subject to scam phone calls and different attempts. It was pretty good interaction. My capstone when I got my bachelor's degree was actually on senior exploitation of vulnerable adults, so it’s pretty near and dear to my heart. Ultimately I decided to do that based on some of the calls that I did have here in the city. Important issue, glad we could do that. We look to try to make it a quarterly event like we used to do out there. We plan on having the K-9 go out there and then potentially having one of the minimum security inmates come down and do a presentation. That was done close to 10 years ago now but was also well received. So we're looking to do a little bit more up there with Croixdale. We also did receive treats from Anderson Elementary. The Principal came over with a couple of students and her staff, and if you look on our Facebook post, they really did treat us quite well. So we thank them for their support as always. We really strive to create a really good relationship with them. The other thing I want to say is our upcoming event: Officer Olkowski is doing a presentation to the Girl Scouts later this week. And then to mention briefly about the speed complaints that we have been made aware of that are going online. Couple things I want to report on that is that, as of right now, we have not received any actual complaints to the Police Department on any recent speeding. We have been out there—we did receive the information—but we would ask that residents call or they can certainly email me to get us the information instead of just putting it out there online. We do eventually get it, but it's much more effective to actually reach out and talk to us. I will say some of the things that we have seen while we've been out on the side streets: I want to make people aware that just because you don't see us, it doesn't mean we're not there. How radar works is we don't park in front of your house; if we're trying to get speeders in front of your house, we might park two or three blocks down. Our whole idea is to try and correct these issues. I will also report that a rough estimate is 95% of the people that we are stopping and seeing speeding are residents. These aren't people coming out of town, these aren't semis—these are actual residents, these are people going to the businesses in the area. Some of the things we're doing is, obviously, we're out on the side streets and where some of these problem places are using an unmarked vehicle. I myself have been out there. Officer Cornell and I were out there today doing this on Main Street and then also up in Inspiration as well. So again, most of these people are your neighbors; those are the ones that are having issues. We also did monitor some areas on Highway 95 as well that was mentioned during specific times at the Minnesota Street/95 split there. And obviously, you know, we're always going to have some of those outlier speeders, and most of the people we're really trying to target and educate for this. One of my officers at one of these just moments in time—we did an observation for a 2-hour period—only 2% of the vehicles were going over 5 miles per hour. So it's not a widespread issue. It's still an issue, I'm not diminishing that, but it's not as widespread as people's perception. How fast these cars are is oftentimes way off. We've had so far two residents that have taken us up on our offer to loan them our handheld radar unit, and both of those residents said that they were amazed at how fast cars were *not* actually going. They might have thought they were going 30 miles an hour; it turns out they were going 24 miles an hour or 20 or even 19. Some of those perceptions can be based on parked cars, the width of the road, or if they're going around a corner. Obviously all of those things come into play as far as what you perceive to be a vehicle's speed. I want to let the residents know we are aware, we are out there every day, so watch your speeds. But talk to your neighbors, because that's who's doing this. That being said, I will stand for any questions. [00:33:30] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** I thank you for getting on that so quickly. You got your staff out there and I saw it happen—I saw Officer Olkowski pull someone over right when I was walking by. So you guys were doing a good job of handling that situation and the complaints. Thank you. And I know it is much better if they reach out to you specifically instead of on Facebook where it kind of blows up. [00:33:55] **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** Yep, and I understand that people may not want to call, so feel free to email me. A couple of things that we can do is we do have our speed sign, though it does have to be recharged every couple of days. We're actually in the process of getting a new battery, so hopefully it'll hold the charge a little bit longer. And then we do have the handheld radar unit if someone's interested in doing that; feel free to email me and we'll get you set up next time it comes back. [00:34:15] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** I thought that was really an awesome thing that you offered that, too, and people took you up on it. So thank you. [00:34:20] **Jay Jackson (Police Chief):** Wish more people would. Yeah. [00:34:22] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Yeah, that's great. Be part of the solution. Exactly. Any other questions? Thank you. Thanks Chief. Assistant Administrator Taylor? [00:34:35] **Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator):** Staff is trained and prepared for the election tomorrow, which will be held at the Bayport Fire Department. All residents vote there at that location. Thanks again to the individuals who are helping me staff the polling place this year; I really appreciate their help. A total of 15 applications were received for the Accounting Specialist position and six candidates were selected to participate in an interview. The hiring process is expected to continue into the coming weeks with a candidate to be presented to the City Council at potentially a special meeting later this month or at the April 1st regular City Council meeting. The application deadline for the Public Works Maintenance Worker position was today at 4:00 p.m. Interviews are tentatively scheduled for the week of March 11th and a candidate will likely be presented to the City Council for consideration on April 1st. Staff has been meeting with several property owners and contractors over the past few months on tentative projects, most of which will require conditional use permits or variances due to their location on the river or in the flood plain. No formal land use applications have been submitted to date, but staff expects the next few months may be busy with multiple Planning Commission meetings or joint Planning Commission and Council meetings to review those projects. That's all I have for now; I stand for questions. [00:36:15] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thanks, Sara. Did you mean to skip Simon? No, okay. [00:36:20] **Simon (City Staff):** Madam Mayor, members of the Council. I guess I first want to express my slight disappointment that the Fire Department and the Police Department got treats from Anderson, but the Public Works Department... [00:36:35] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Oh! I think it was in response to the Burnsville incident. They were trying to show their love for them. [00:36:40] **Simon (City Staff):** Thank you for clarifying. Yeah, now I don't feel— [00:36:42] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** They love you too, I'm sure. [00:36:45] **Simon (City Staff):** However, there are firefighters on the Public Works Department, so I guess they got to partake of that. Good for them. First significant snowfall in the month of February that actually required plowing. At the beginning of this year, before this season started, we opted to not hire another Public Works person and I volunteered to be the plow person in their absence. So it worked out swimmingly for me. [00:37:15] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Do you want to do it next year, too? [00:37:17] **Simon (City Staff):** Yeah, please. We'll see. Currently we are working on the lead service line inventory which is mandated by the EPA. We are trying to get a handle on who has lead service lines for our water distribution system. So if residents do notice a door hanger from the Bayport Public Works Water Department, please call to schedule a brief inspection—takes 5 to 10 minutes. We did finish the emergency eyewash stations in all of our water well houses; that was provided for partly by the safety grant, so we'll be wrapping that up here in the next couple of weeks and getting reimbursed for that. And finally, we did complete the sanitary sewer cleaning and televising. Hours upon hours of footage of sewer pipes were reviewed. It was determined that they did need to come back to finish up some spots that they missed. They promptly came back and completed that and provided us with the video footage. We did notice some small areas that will need some work here in the near future; we'll be consulting with our engineering firm on how we should process those potential problems here. With that, I stand for questions. [00:38:50] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Thanks. All right, last but not least—Matt. [00:38:55] **Matt Kline (City Administrator):** I just have a couple of items for the administrative report. One: there's been some correspondence out there, at least on Facebook, about the Anderson School relocation, wondering where that is. Currently we've supplied some criteria for a traffic study that will be required by the city, essentially. And then the whole development process will probably move fairly quickly here rather soon. Officially, there has not been a purchase offer accepted by the church yet from the school district; we expect that to happen shortly. The process after that will include a fair amount of items, including but not limited to: annexation, conditional use permit process, and infrastructure study. That process does allow the city a fair amount of discretion where we can make requirements from the school. So we'll want to make sure that we have a good idea of what we want as far as handling traffic, aesthetics, landscaping, even different things like that. So it's likely we'll be hearing more from the school in the next couple months regarding that stuff. And then finally, Northland Securities has completed their first draft of the financial management plan. We expect that to be presented to City Council probably at a workshop in April—the first workshop in April. And we will be going over some of the items identified in that plan and working through the plan as a whole. With that, I'll stand for questions. [00:41:00] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Questions for Matt? No? Okay. Thank you, Matt. Anyone have any other items or announcements you'd like to make? [00:41:10] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** I want to thank Mary Aert for stepping in. It looks like they needed someone to fill in at the Library Board, and she kind of already had been there, so it was a good fit for her to do that while they're doing this strategic planning. So thanks, Mary. [00:41:25] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** And I guess just a motion to adjourn is all we need, then. [00:41:28] **Carl Bliss (Councilmember):** I'll make a motion to adjourn. [00:41:30] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** All right, thanks Connie [Carl]. Second? [00:41:32] **Orin Kipp (Councilmember):** Thank you. Second. [00:41:33] **Michele Hanson (Mayor):** Everyone in favor say "Aye." Anyone opposed say "Nay." Okay, we are adjourned. Thanks guys for coming.