This transcript has been processed to identify speakers based on the context of the meeting, the provided staff list, and the verbal cues within the dialogue. **Note:** While your provided list mentioned Councilmembers Garza and Clausen, the transcript identifies **Councilmember Tony Combata** and **Councilmember Steve Dennis** as present and active in this specific meeting. *** **[00:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, good evening. This is the March 15th, 2023, Cottage Grove City Council meeting, which I'm calling to order. Our first order of business this evening is the Pledge of Allegiance, so if you please rise. **[00:15] 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. **[00:30] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Will the clerk please do the roll? **[00:35] City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Councilmember Combata? **[00:36] Councilmember Tony Combata:** Here. **[00:37] City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Councilmember Dennis? **[00:38] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Here. **[00:39] City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Councilmember Thiede? **[00:40] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Here. **[00:41] City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Councilmember Olsen? **[00:42] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Here. **[00:43] City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Mayor Bailey? **[00:44] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Here. Uh, next on our agenda is Open Forum. This is the opportunity for anybody that wants to speak on something that is not on tonight's agenda is welcome to do so at this time. We did have a sign-up sheet out in the entryway, which is normally how we do this, but I didn't think anybody signed up. But in case someone came in and missed that, is there anybody in the audience that wants to speak during Open Forum? All right, seeing none, I'll go ahead and close Open Forum and we'll move to number five, which is Adoption of the Agenda. **[01:10] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Move to adopt the agenda. **[01:12] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Second. **[01:13] Mayor Myron Bailey:** We have a motion by Councilmember Dennis and seconded by Councilmember Thiede. All those in favor signify by saying aye. **[01:18] All Councilmembers:** Aye. **[01:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. All right, now we get the fun part. Uh, we have two presentations this evening, which is number six. The first one is the Craig Woolery Scholarship Fund check presentation and our Community Service Agent—whatever he's called now, that's true—uh, Mr. Dan Schoen is going to start us off here and uh, and then you'll tell us when you want us down in the front. **[01:40] Dan Schoen:** Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, if you want to start assembling up front. Yeah, it shouldn't take me too long and I can just speak while you're moving. We'll keep this under an hour. Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, it's an honor once again to be here with you to recognize how great our community is. Councilmember Justin Olsen and his wife Kim have always been a Public Safety family. This started with Justin's father, who I call a friend, Lynn, who was a small-town fireman much like my stepfather. And this priority has always been front and center when decisions are made by our entire Council about the needs of our Public Safety officials. Years ago, Councilmember Olsen and Kim took their family's commitment to a betterment of Public Safety in our community to yet another level. Not only are they concerned with present firefighters and officers in our communities, but they wanted to help future generations of Public Safety officials. They put their minds together and created the Craig Woolery Public Safety Scholarship. Former Director of Public Safety Craig Woolery was someone who embodied community. This continues in our department and City organization. You know, whenever I present an issue to current Public Safety Director Pete Koerner, I'll get a response of, "Well, what do we need to do?" Much like Craig would always ask, "What do we need to do to help?" Councilmember Olsen, Kim, and the Cottage Grove Lions Club—who can start making their way up—we have members of the Cottage Grove Public Safety Board and Katie Forsythe (and I would say her married name but I'll butcher it), always friends of our community, are adding fifteen hundred dollars each to the scholarship fund managed by the Cottage Grove Public Safety Board. And this ensures an opportunity for students who are willing to serve our communities as firefighters, paramedics, and police officers to obtain much-needed financial assistance. And I'd just like to remember anyone who's watching—the millions and millions of people watching us live right now—that if you have a family member who is pursuing these professions, you can go to the Cottage Grove Public Safety website, find information about applying for this scholarship, and it is fantastic. Uh, that Craig, you could join us tonight. Of course, our favorite, Katie Woolery, is in the crowd here too. So, I know it just shows we've been a family for a long time and this place continues to be family from top to bottom. Those that were here and continue to be here. So, here is the check. Come on, yeah, we'll squeeze in. As promised, I kept it under an hour. And uh, this is absolutely fantastic. Thank you Councilmember Olsen, Mayor, and our current Council for all of your continued support. I know what happens every day. I tell our officers and firefighters anytime something happens that's kind of major, I get a phone call right away from somebody on our Council asking if our officers and firefighters are okay. And that is pretty special. And this is a special moment every year that we get to see our Cottage Grove Lions Club also, who touch our communities in ways that is immeasurable. And thank you Katie for representing your organization which is here with Councilmember Olsen, who's also in the club as well. Brenda? Yeah, Brenda serves as both. And then Public Safety Director Pete Koerner is also a member of the Cottage Grove Lions. So, thank you very much. **[04:40] Finance Director Brenda Malinowski:** On behalf of the Public Safety Board, I'd like to thank the Lions Club for matching the donation from Justin Olsen and his wife Kim, and also the Explorers program that is offered in Cottage Grove that helps to make the young people aware of what goes on in the Police Department—it can be a feeder program. And so we're hoping that with more and more of the kids that are taking their pride into the Explorers program that we can certainly start giving more and more scholarships out. So, I want to thank everybody up here for helping to promote Public Safety. Thank you. **[05:15] [Applause]** **[05:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** No, I was gonna—Craig never likes to talk, so. Yep, no, he's good. But I just want to also thank obviously the Lions, they do so much for our community. And this is just another aspect of reaching out making it great. And Councilmember Olsen, you and Kim, I really appreciate all the support that you've done when you put this program together. And there are numerous youth—I'll say youth now, but youth—that have been going through this program now and using the money to further their career in law enforcement and Public Safety. So, did you want to say anything? No? Anybody else? All right, last picture. **[05:55] [Music / Laughter]** **[06:05] Mayor Myron Bailey:** You're perfect, everybody can be seen. Thank you. A little bit more—can we invite the County Commissioner up as well? I don't think we have time for—just don't trust me. Yeah, every year. We're good. All right. All right, thank you. Thank you. Yes, we keep reusing—yeah, it is race season! Where have you been? We're three weeks in, pay attention. All right, that was always awesome to do that. All right, moving on to the next presentation this evening, we have the Washington County Food Scrap Pickup Pilot Program presentation. This is something I know our County Commissioner has been pretty excited about—that Cottage Grove gets to be in our area down here, gets to be one of the pilot programs to see how this program works. And so I want to welcome our Washington County Commissioner Carla Bingham to the front here. And I think you have some guests that are here with you. **[07:05] County Commissioner Carla Bingham:** Absolutely. Thank you, Mayor and Council. It's a pleasure to be here today. I'm Washington County Commissioner Carla Bingham. It's always great to be here on a day like this when former Public Safety Director Woolery is acknowledged because, um, I just turned 44 and he was my DARE officer. So that is how long... and he heard that too out there... that is how long I have known him. So he is a community treasure and it is great that Councilmember Olsen, his wife, the Lions, and everybody contribute to a wonderful program helping with scholarships for our law enforcement and firefighters. Tonight, though, to talk about a very exciting program. Curbside organics are going to be coming hopefully by the end of the year. We're starting a pilot program as the Mayor said. We have four communities that are doing it in Washington County. It's Cottage Grove—an area of Cottage Grove which staff will explain in a second—and then Newport. And then there are two communities in Ramsey County. So you know, we do the pilot programs to make sure we get out any of the kinks or as many kinks as we possibly can. The reason we're doing this is—you'll remember back in 2016 when we bought the R&E Center and one of the conditions of that was to use waste for energy. And so we are using the organics that we'll be picking up curbside here for composting now, and soon—we just approved a Letter of Intent to have anaerobic digestion, and so that will turn it into biogas. And so you have a cleaner environment, you have jobs, and so we're excited to kind of really get this into third gear here and kick it off. So I will turn this over to Michael Reed from Ramsey County. He's on the leadership team for the R&E Center. So, Michael, welcome. **[08:45] Michael Reed (Ramsey County Public Health):** Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner, Mayor, members of the Council. My name is Michael Reed. I work with Ramsey County, the Saint Paul Ramsey County Public Health Department. And on behalf of my colleague Dave Brummel, who's the director of the Washington County Public Health and Environment Department—he could not be here tonight—but this Recycling and Energy Center in Newport represents a partnership between Ramsey and Washington Counties. And so I wanted to be here to be part of the presentation. We appreciate the opportunity and we're very excited about this. The state's got a mandate for 75 percent recycling, and we're doing I think everything we can in Ramsey and Washington Counties to move the needle up, and this program is going to help us get closer to 75 percent. But without a doubt, Ramsey and Washington are leaders in the state with not only the investment but the commitment. And I look forward to our solutions ahead. We're pursuing cutting-edge technologies. And Sam is going to talk a little bit about our food scrap program. It's the largest program that we're aware of of this type in the country. And so I don't want to steal any of his thunder, but with that, I want to turn it over to Sam Hansen, who is our Joint Activities Manager for Recycling and Energy. **[10:00] Sam Hansen (Recycling & Energy):** Thank you, Michael. And let's see here, I'll pull up the slide deck real quick. So, thank you again for having us, Mr. Mayor, Councilmembers. I'm gonna keep it pretty brief. We're going to go really high level. We can certainly get into the weeds with questions or at a later date as well, but I want to just give you a snapshot of this new program and what to expect. And while I start talking, I'm actually going to hand out these—these are some samples of the actual bags. So they're just kind of rolled together. If you want to take one and pass it down, they'll give you a feel for what the bag that I'm going to describe a little bit—what it feels like, what it looks like, all of that. So, as already mentioned, this is going to be a brand-new program. It's very large, it's innovative, something like we haven't seen in other places around the country. So we're really excited about it. But because it's big and it's going to be eventually available to every resident in Ramsey and Washington County, we want to start small to test all of our plans and theories to make sure that it works well before we roll it out everywhere. And we're calling it the Food Scraps Pickup Program, as you can see on the slide, because it's going to do exactly that. It'll give residents easy access to food scrap recycling from their home. How it's going to work is residents will sign up—we try to make it as easy as possible. You can sign up online or via the phone. Bags will be sent directly to the home and then residents will use the bags to collect food scraps. When your bag's full, you tie it up, you put it into your trash dumpster or your trash cart that you already have. So it's utilizing the same service. That trash is then delivered to the R&E Center that's over in Newport that's owned and operated by Ramsey-Washington Recycling and Energy through that joint powers between the two counties. And then we have specialized equipment—a lot of really high-tech, interesting machinery and robots that will actually pick out those specialized bags from the other waste so that they can then be sent to a compost facility and recycled into compost. So that makes it sound really easy, that's super high level, I understand, but we're trying to make it as easy as possible for residents. And the reason that these bags can survive that trip is they are specially engineered by the manufacturer to be thicker and more durable so that they shouldn't get punctured—they should be able to withstand the trip in the hauling truck to the facility so then we can transfer them out to the compost facilities. And here's—I kind of covered some of these—but just a little bit more information about how the program will work. And this will be a free program for residents and it'll be voluntary. So we hope that everybody is excited and they want to participate, but it's voluntary to sign up when it's available in the communities. When it's available in your community, you'll be able to sign up if you choose to and it'll be free of charge. We'll send the bags directly to your house. We're setting up a lot of different resources for questions and more information through call lines or websites—a lot of fact sheets, things like that that we'll be sharing as well. Again, trying to make it as clear and easy as possible for residents to participate. And then the pilot. So like was said, like Commissioner Bingham said, wanting to start small so we can work out any of the bugs that may exist in our best planning and best thinking. So we're starting in four communities beginning in April, so only a few weeks away. We're going to be looking for a total of about 2,000 households to start in this pilot in the four communities: North St. Paul and Maplewood in Ramsey County, and Newport and Cottage Grove here in Washington County. And those communities were selected for a variety of reasons, including what's on the screen of trying to test a lot of different geographies, housing types, different demographics—all of that to make sure that we have all the right resources set up once we start rolling out to more communities around the two counties. And so here's a look at the pilot area in Cottage Grove. And this might be a little hard to read, but as Commissioner Bingham said, it's going to be available to a portion of Cottage Grove, not the entire city. And it's going to be eligible for about 300 households is what we're looking for for participation in the pilot in this green area that you see on the screen. And anybody that's in that green area, regardless of their housing situation—whether it's multi-unit or a home like a single-family home—will be eligible. And the plan is—as the pilot—and I'll talk about this in a minute—but as we expand from the pilot, then this green area will expand. So we'll open it up to more communities in the city of Cottage Grove as a next step. How are we going to get folks to sign up? Here's some—I won't read through all of these—but we're doing some very targeted outreach and education because again, we're not broadcasting this to the whole county quite yet because we want to focus on that small pilot to make sure that we get things right. So we'll be doing a lot of very focused mailers, welcome packets, targeted ads, and then we'll be doing some info sessions, some focus groups, because we also want to educate on what the program is and how to participate but then also get feedback on the program to better understand how we can make improvements moving forward. And then here is a quick look at our projected timeline for the pilot. And as you can see, all dates are approximate—we don't know what we don't know. So hopefully we won't have a lot of things to change and then we'll be able to expand to the next phase of the rollout on time. But we'll see as we start to roll things out and get more feedback from residents. But starting in April, so just a couple weeks, we'll be communicating with residents in those pilot communities directly trying to recruit people who want to participate in the program. We'll continue that communication education through May and June, and we'll be getting that engagement work with those residents that do sign up for the program in June and July to get their feedback. And then August and into September is when we'll be implementing a lot of the changes—hopefully not a lot of changes, but implementing any sort of changes that we need to do before we roll out to more communities, which our target right now is that fourth quarter of the year. So after September into October, starting to expand to bring it to more communities. So that was very quick and very high level, but I wanted to share that information and I'm available for any questions. **[16:45] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Yeah, so yesterday I was at all day at an entrepreneur's kickoff down at St. Thomas Minneapolis. And so I had a brief discussion with one gentleman that had started a—somewhat of a recycling—but a process and a company to extract the oils and so forth from the organics and actually then recycle those to be run again through food companies and cleanse and all that sort of stuff. If you're interested... it's off the top of my head and I don't have a card with me... but if you're interested in connecting with that person, you can give me a card or something and I'll see if I can make that connection. **[17:30] Sam Hansen:** Mr. Mayor, Councilmember, I think as Michael said, we pride ourselves on being kind of on the cutting edge of a lot of new programs and technology, and because of that, we're always looking for other technologies—other things that are out there that could help us continue to improve the way that we manage waste in the two counties. So absolutely, I'd be interested. I can give you my card. **[17:50] Councilmember Tony Combata:** I'm really intrigued by this. I know that the more organics you can keep out of the waste stream, the better it is for the environment long-term. Do you guys have any sort of expectations or objectives with the amount of waste that you're diverting as far as what its long-term ecological and economic benefits will be to the overall process? **[18:15] Sam Hansen:** Mr. Mayor, Councilmembers, are you talking about all waste or just specifically to the food waste? **[18:20] Councilmember Tony Combata:** Well, I know that—so if we're converting that other waste into energy, if we're burning it to generate energy, the food waste is probably inhibitive or prohibitive to that process. So I'm just curious, with this pilot program, if it's successful, long-term, how does that benefit the overall waste management process down the road? **[18:40] County Commissioner Carla Bingham:** Mayor, Councilmember Combata, thank you for that question. We have a commitment of about 50,000 tons of food scraps and then organic-rich material. And so that is what we will be removing out of the system. And then obviously as we grow, that expectation grows as—because more people, more waste—and so more businesses, there'll be more waste. So as we grow, that threshold continues to grow with that. **[19:10] Mayor Myron Bailey:** So two quick questions. I'm assuming you must have... with this pilot you have like a percent that you're hoping for from an engagement standpoint? Because obviously, you're going to make it get out to the public and get the word out. Is there—what's your goal, what's your target? **[19:25] Sam Hansen:** Mr. Mayor, Councilmembers, that's a great question. Looking—and again, I know we've already said we haven't seen a program of the scale, size, using this type of process anywhere else—but there are other organic recycling programs that use different technologies. And looking at different programs and different cities, metropolitan areas, looking at participation rates... our minimum goal is getting, at full rollout of the program when it's available to every resident, to get at least 40 percent of residents to voluntarily sign up based on those stats that we've seen from other similar programs. But internally our goal is much higher than that, obviously, and we have the capacity to service every household that's in the two counties—all up to 800-plus thousand residents. **[20:15] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay, and I have one more question then a request. Maybe—question is, I noticed when you handed the bags, the cups... I'm talking about the kind for coffee. Are most people like myself now—I don't use the old type coffee maker—are the K-Cups part of what... the grounds and... because I saw the grounds and filters for coffee. Is that included in that? **[20:35] Sam Hansen:** Mr. Mayor, for this program we're branding it "food scraps" to try to make it clear that that's the priority. But anything that would be allowed at, say, like the drop-off sites here would also be allowed in the Food Scrap Pickup Program. So anything that's certified compostable or is organic material will be allowed. **[20:55] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Perfect. And then my request, maybe—and this is for both of you and then obviously our County Commissioner—once this program is up and running, I would very much love to see... because you're commenting about technology, robots taking these out... I think that's pretty amazing actually. And thank you. Well, and I don't know if the rest of Council is interested, but it just really is intriguing as Councilmember Combata mentioned, and pretty cool that we're going to be able to help with kind of cutting-edge technology here and help reduce our waste in the landfills and such. So, absolutely. Good. Any other questions, Council? Thank you. Thanks for all of you coming this evening. Looking forward to it. **[21:40] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, next on our agenda is the Consent Agenda. Anybody want to pull anything on Consent? Councilmember Olsen? **[21:45] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Yeah, I would like to pull item H, please. **[21:47] Mayor Myron Bailey:** You're gonna pull item H. And I think I saw a hand up down here—Councilmember Combata? **[21:50] Councilmember Tony Combata:** I'll be pulling item G, please. **[21:52] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Item G. All right, any other items? All right, seeing none, we'll start then with Councilmember Olsen. Item H is Public Service Commission appointments. **[22:00] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you, Mayor and my Council colleagues. Item H is an item to appoint Tracy Jensen and Nathan Lotz to the Public Services Commission. The reason I pulled this item tonight is I wanted to just inform the Council that I've had the opportunity to do several interviews for the three seats that are currently open that became open due to expiring commission appointment terms. These were not people who chose to leave the commission other than they had fulfilled their six-year timeline, so they're going to sit out a year and then potentially apply to be on another commission at some point. But you know, we lost some really strong people including our chair and our vice chair, and we're very lucky to have these two individuals on the calendar tonight for appointment. Tracy is a former Planning Commission member. She stepped away from her commission duties for a period of time, and so I was really, really excited to see that she wanted to get back in the saddle, as it was, with the Public Services Commission. She's always demonstrated a tremendous amount of engagement in the community and very good judgment. And Nathan is actually new to the community—he's only lived in Cottage Grove for about six months—but brings a very unique perspective to the Commission in that, you know, he and his wife have just fallen in love with the community. He is a retired National Guard member and currently works in IT, but when he was in the Guard, he was actually a military police officer. So he has a lot of experience with the public safety realm, and so naturally he'll fit in really well with our Public Service Commission. And I would just ask for your approval on these appointments this evening as we do have our next meeting for the Public Services Commission next week Monday. So, nothing like getting them to the deep end of the pool right away. Thanks. **[24:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, thank you. And then item G is a Planning Commission chair appointment, Councilmember Combata. **[24:05] Councilmember Tony Combata:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to bring to the Council's attention the reappointment of Evan Fraser as Planning Commission chair. I had the pleasure of working with him on Planning Commission when I was chair, and he took over chair when I was appointed to Council. He's done a spectacular job, in my opinion. He's a Dakota County prosecutor when he's not here serving the Planning Commission, and I've seen him and our other Planning Commission members work through some really hard applications over this last 12 months, and I think he's done an exceptional job. **[24:40] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, perfect. Glad to see him back in that role again. Awesome. All right, since nothing else was pulled on Consent at this moment, I guess I'll look for a motion to approve the rest of Consent. **[24:50] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Move to approve. **[24:51] Councilmember Tony Combata:** Second. **[24:52] Mayor Myron Bailey:** We have a motion by Councilmember Thiede, seconded by Councilmember Combata. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[24:58] All Councilmembers:** Aye. **[25:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. So if you're here for anything on tonight's Consent Calendar, all of those items have been approved. Moving on to number eight is Approve Disbursement. 8a is to pay the bills. **[25:10] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Motion to pay the bills. **[25:12] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Second. **[25:13] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Again, any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[25:16] All Councilmembers:** Aye. **[25:18] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Next is nine, is a Public Hearing, and we do have one this evening. We have the 2023a General Obligation and Tax Abatement Bonds, and our Finance Director Brenda Malinowski—did I get it right? **[25:35] Finance Director Brenda Malinowski:** You did. Close. **[25:37] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Wow, I did get it right. Um, is going to walk us through at least the start of this, and I believe Stacy will be coming up at some point. So welcome. **[25:45] Finance Director Brenda Malinowski:** Mayor, members of the Council, tonight we are doing one of the steps in the process of issuing our 2023 bonds. For 2023, we're issuing bonds for two projects: first is for our 2023 pavement management, and then the other project is our Glacial Valley Park building. Those will be paid back with special assessments and future property tax levies. They were both included both in the CIP that we reviewed last fall and in the Financial Management Plan. The pavement management portion—those will be general obligation bonds, no different than in the past when we've issued bonds for pavement management projects. And then for Glacial Valley Park building, those will be abatement bonds. And so tonight we will be holding a public hearing, and before we hold that public hearing, I have Stacy here from Ehlers that'll come up and explain a little bit more about that process. **[26:40] Stacy Kvilvang (Ehlers & Associates):** Mayor, members of the Council, Stacy Kvilvang with Ehlers and Associates, your Municipal Advisor. As Brenda had stated, tonight a part of your bond issuance is tax abatement bonds for the Glacial Valley park building that you are constructing. Your authority to issue that debt is the tax abatement statute. What you're required in order to issue bonds under that statute is that you have to identify parcels within your city that you are going to abate your portion of the property taxes from. Now, there's a couple requirements when we look at what parcels you should actually abate. The biggest thing is that you have to have parcels that you don't foresee redevelopment happening over the term of the bonds. The tax abatement portion of the bonds is for 20 years, and so we wanted to see parcels that you didn't think would be redeveloped over the next 20 years. And the reason why that is is because parcels that you have tax abatement coming from, you cannot include in a future TIF district. The parcels that were selected were Hidden Heights Apartments and Summerhill commercial properties—that was provided by staff. The second thing that you have to do, because you're issuing your bonds for 20 years, you have to have one of the other taxing jurisdictions decline participation in the abatement. So that's either the County or the School District. The County did the work for you, and they declined participating in abatement at their March 7th meeting. And the final thing that you have to do is hold a public hearing on the purpose or the authority for the tax abatement. And so those findings are in your resolution, which really is that you're constructing public facilities, you're providing services to your residents, and constructing public improvements. So Mayor, after you open the public hearing and take any comment and then close it, there's two resolutions that are before you. The first one would be approving the tax abatement, that you'd be issuing that, and the second one will be for the issuance for the bonds, which include both the street portion and the tax abatement portion. And that allows us to get all of our work done to move that process forward. So, I'm happy to stand for any questions. **[28:40] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay, Council, is there any questions at this point? Anybody? I guess not. So what I'll do then is I'll go ahead and open the Public Hearing. This is the time that anybody would like to speak on this item is welcome to do so. Yes, just come up and state your name and address for the record. **[29:05] Bonnie Madder:** Hello, my name's Bonnie Madder, 6649 Skip Avenue South, Cottage Grove. Thank you very much for letting me speak, I appreciate that. Um, first of all, one of the questions that I have—and I'd like to have an understanding, or if an understanding could be provided, of exactly what a tax abatement program is. And you went through the properties very quickly, so if you could just please repeat what those properties are—that's my first question. The second thing is, you know, my concern at this point is there's a thing about wants and needs. And I know we need pavement management, I understand that. We've gone through a lot of economic changes over the past year and things are still up in the air. I'm not comfortable with where we're heading, and I just think the Glacial Valley piece is maybe something that's a want that we could wait on a little bit. So that's kind of where I'm at. And if you could help me with those properties, I'd appreciate it. Thank you very much. **[30:05] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Thank you. Stacy, you want to take those? **[30:10] Stacy Kvilvang:** Thank you, Mayor, members of the Council. The parcels in which you are abating the taxes are the Hidden Heights Apartments and then the Summerhill commercial properties—there's two parcels with regards to that. How a tax abatement works is essentially, even though you're abating the City's portion of taxes from those properties, there is no impact to those homeowners or to those property owners or the commercial property owners. It's just that essentially what you're saying is we're abating our portion of the taxes, which really is flipped, and it's a tax levy. So you are increasing your levy overall as far as your debt issuance goes to cover that abatement portion. So that is how a tax abatement works. And again, no impact to those individual property owners. **[30:55] Mayor Myron Bailey:** So if I'm... in simple terms, and you can tell me if I'm on this or not... basically the taxes that we were collecting, at least the City portion that we're collecting from those properties that you mentioned, will now be, in essence, paying back this bond? **[31:10] Stacy Kvilvang:** Correct. Thank you. **[31:12] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay. And so Hidden Heights is... you're collecting taxes... and Summerhill commercial? Yep. Okay. Anybody else like to speak on Open Forum or on this part, the Public Hearing, I should say? All right, seeing none, I will go ahead and close the Public Hearing. And Council, if you have any questions, we can ask those; otherwise, there are two motions before us on the screen. **[31:40] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Mayor, I'll move that we adopt Resolution 2023-041 providing for the sale of the eight million one hundred and seventy thousand dollars in General Obligation Improvement and Tax Abatement Bonds, Series 2023a. **[31:55] Councilmember Tony Combata:** Second. **[31:56] Mayor Myron Bailey:** So I have a motion by Councilmember Olsen, second by Councilmember Combata. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[32:01] All Councilmembers:** Aye. **[32:03] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. And then we have the second item on there, 2023-042, approving the property tax abatements. **[32:10] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** So moved. **[32:12] Councilmember Tony Combata:** Second. **[32:13] Mayor Myron Bailey:** I have a motion by Councilmembers again. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[32:18] All Councilmembers:** Aye. **[32:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you both. All right, next on our agenda is Bid Awards. We do have one this evening. 10a is the East Point Douglas Road and Jamaica Avenue reconstruction and signal modification project bid award. And I think Amanda Meyer is taking us through this one. **[32:40] Amanda Meyer (City Staff):** Good evening, Mayor, members of the Council. So, as mentioned, bid award for the East Point Douglas Road and Jamaica Avenue reconstruction and signal modification project. Big project—just wanted to real quick highlight again the scope of the project just to kind of refresh your memory. Full reconstruction of Jamaica Avenue from Highway 61 up to 90th Street. Full reconstruction of East Point Douglas from Inwood Avenue to just east of Carlson Auto. Also with that reconstruction, we're removing the signal at that intersection just east of East Point Douglas and Jamaica Avenue, replacing that with a right-in/right-out, constructing a roundabout just east of that intersection, and then doing some reconfiguration of that East Point Douglas/Jamaica intersection to account for the addition of dual left turn lanes from northbound, southbound, and westbound traffic. I also wanted to then quick highlight that as part of bidding this project, we did include an alternate, and that includes a two-inch mill and overlay of East Point Douglas from the eastern limit of our base bid of the project to just through East Point Douglas Lane. This is just remove and replace the top two inches of pavement, as well as some ADA improvements at some of those pedestrian ramps in front of Menards as well as over by East Point Douglas Lane on the screen before you. So we did open bids on March 2nd. The bids are before you with the low bidder at the top. So, Meyer Contracting—no relation to my family—base bid of $8,325,708.90. Alternate one—again, that's that two-inch mill and overlay—of $266,443.25. And then the base bid plus alternate one: $8,592,152.15. I won't read all of these numbers before you, but then just wanted to highlight the engineer's estimate at the bottom of the table, with the base bid of 8.6 million, estimated alternate one of 310,000, and then ultimately that total project cost estimated at $8,910,000. So if you look at what the engineer's estimate was, that really falls kind of in the middle of those bids. So we did see favorable and competitive bids, so that was really good to see. Meyer Contracting was the low bidder. We have worked with them previously in the city and have had a good experience with them. So with that, short and sweet, there is a recommendation before you to award the project with the base bid plus that alternate number one to Meyer Contracting with that total that I had mentioned before. And staff is here for questions. **[35:35] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, any questions for Amanda at this point? All right, Council, so you have a motion before us. Who would like to take the motion? **[35:45] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Mayor, I'll move that we adopt Resolution 2023-037 awarding the East Point Douglas Road and Jamaica Avenue reconstruction and signal modifications project to Meyer—no relation—Contracting Inc. in the total amount of a big number, which includes the base bid plus alternate number one. **[36:00] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Second. **[36:02] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Olsen, second by Councilmember Dennis. Any further discussion other than I'll say it's been a long time coming to get this finally going down there. I think our citizens will be pretty dang happy. Oh, that'll take some time, but it will be nice to get that done. **[36:20] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** And Mayor, the number is eight million five hundred ninety-two thousand one hundred fifty-two dollars and fifteen cents. **[36:25] Mayor Myron Bailey:** There you go. Thank you. All those in favor signify by saying aye. **[36:28] All Councilmembers:** Aye. **[36:30] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Amanda. All right, the next item on our agenda is a Regular Agenda, which is number 11, and we do have an item here this evening. 11a is the Rocket Car Wash site plan review, Planned Unit Development, and Conditional Use Permit. And Connor Check is going to take us through. Welcome, Connor. **[36:50] Connor Check (City Planner):** Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. Great to be with you this evening for an exciting redevelopment proposal. For your consideration this evening is a site plan review, planning unit development, and conditional use permit for a proposed automobile car wash to be called the Rocket Car Wash. Proposed site location is at 8647 East Point Douglas Road South, which you're well aware, I'm sure, is the current Big O Tires site that operates on present day. The site is located adjacent to the current Wendy's restaurant as well as the Target parking lot and also just make quick note that it's adjacent to two major roadways in Jamaica Avenue South as well as Highway 61. A little background on the site: it was originally developed in 1991 for a proposed automotive repair use and has operated as such ever since original approvals and is still operating today as an automotive repair use. So the proposal before you is for a drive-through car wash facility, which is a conditional use within the mixed-use zoning district. In addition, a Planned Unit Development is being proposed. As staff and the applicant worked through initial site plan review and site design, it was clear that the 30-foot easement that runs along the northwest and southwest property lines greatly constricts the buildable and plantable area on site. So in terms of having an efficient site design, the two items that are related to the Planned Unit Development are the southwest parking lot setback as well as the overstory tree count, which has a slight reduction from the code requirement. Moving into the site plan review, site access is off the internal private drive. It's important to note that this is a private access owned by Target and all those users that have bought that access. So Big O Tires currently, Wendy's, and all the other commercial properties actually have agreements in place that allow them to utilize that access. So all maintenance of that parking lot and access are done on a private level. I will note that Code Enforcement does annual sweeps for potholes, different general maintenance concerns every spring. So once the snow melts—or if it ever stops this year—they'll conduct their sweep of that area and then follow up with the property owners on maintenance concerns. And then upon moving through the access, you come up to the entrance and exit locations, which are divided by a pork chop with a raised curb to just ease flow through the site and just make it straightforward entrance/exit. Moving through the site, upon entering the site, you move into two lanes of stacking, which provides about 34 cars worth of stacking on site. As you move through the stacking, you'll enter the car wash. Each wash is around a minute to two minutes—so pretty quick. The applicant uses a state-of-the-art conveyor belt system to keep cars moving through that wash. After you go through the car wash, you can either utilize the free vacuums on site or proceed to the exit location. I also just make quick note that the trash enclosure does meet all applicable setbacks and is proposed to match the principal structure materials. In terms of architecture, it was clear from initial meetings with the applicant they recognized this site is in a prominent location of the community with high visibility from Highway 61 as well as Jamaica Avenue and just a cornerstone of that commercial kind of node within the city. Applicants proposed 83 percent class-one materials—code requires 65 percent—and those materials for class-one are masonry, stone, and glass windows. And then they've proposed one class-three material in metal panels. Then the elevations proposed are before you on screen. The applicant also took it upon themselves to create a couple visual renderings from those adjacent roadways. This rendering is from Jamaica Avenue South of what the potential proposal would look like. And this rendering is from Highway 61. Then moving into the landscape plan, it does meet all applicable standards other than the overstory tree count that I mentioned before. As staff sits down and reviews landscape plans, one of the things we look at is survivability and ensuring that all plantings on site survive into the long term and aren't just a short-term thing. And in reviewing the plan and in conversations with the City Forester, a reduction of overstory trees just makes sense, as that plantable area is limited due to the easement. In terms of survivability, I will note that code also requires all stacking areas be screened. Applicant's done that with use of the principal structure to screen from the adjacent roadways and then landscaping along the other property lines. They've also provided a two-foot-tall landscape berm along that adjacent roadway just to provide reduced visual impacts as people access the site. And also in reduction of those trees—to offset that reduction of overstory tree count—they've also increased the number of shrubs on site as well pretty substantially. And with that, I'll leave the recommendation on screen before you. Staff is available for any questions and the applicant is in attendance as well. **[41:50] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, first for staff, Council—any questions for Connor at this point? All right, would the applicant like to speak at all? **[42:00] Jeremiah Harder (Applicant):** Well, first of all, thanks for letting us be here today and I appreciate your time and uh, looking into this for us here. My name is Jeremiah Harder, I am our Director of Project Management and Real Estate Development for City Adventures, which is the parent company to Rocket Car Wash. As Connor was nice enough to kind of lay it out for you, we are obviously looking at taking ownership of the Big O Tire store there, which they are currently planning on closing that location down, demolishing the building, and rebuilding a Rocket Car Wash there. This is one of the multiple sites that we're looking across the Minneapolis metro area and the surrounding communities. In total, we'll probably have anywhere between 8 to 12 locations across these metros with the initial look, and then hitting up secondary markets after that where options are endless. We are not a standard mom-and-pop operation; currently, we have 50 active sites in our portfolio and are growing. I believe by the end of the year we'll be close to triple digits as far as active sites across the country. We really do take pride in the experience that we provide to our members, to our customers there. We have taken great strides in engineering solutions for issues that you'd see in a standard Car Wash—from the "pork chop" entrance that Connor was nice enough to discuss to help direct traffic on which ways to go, with stamped, raised concrete wayfinding signage on-site there. Also making sure that we meet beyond the city count for stacking—we have a higher stacking rate that we require personally to ensure that we are a good neighbor to the surrounding businesses and communities as well. Along with that, it goes down to our POS system for our point-of-sales, where these are not automated systems—these are manned systems. We have people attending to our customers' needs there, along with our software package that ties into our tunnel to allow for efficient queueing of cars, which allows us to more efficiently process cars than what you would normally see in the industry. Our tunnels—we take great pride in them. We've engineered what we believe is probably one of the best tunnel packages in the industry, and it comes at a cost to us to be honest about it. We have twice as much equipment as our competitors do, and it's twice as many touchpoints that we get on the car. What allows us to do that, or the reason why we do that, is it allows us to speed up our belt speeds—again, helps us process cars faster—but ensuring the highest quality wash possible. Our building systems—again, we want to look premier, we want to be premier, which I hope you can see in our renderings there. We don't take our sites lightly. Our building costs are typically 30 to 40 percent higher than our average competitor. But again, we want our buildings to be nice, we want them to be there for our customers, we want them to be maintained for long periods of time, and we take great pride in that. Some of the other services that you'll see us provide: we have members' rooms which are unique in themselves where, yes, we have the standard mat washes that everyone else has, but we also have specialized systems for those individuals that have like the WeatherGuard mats that are preformed that can't go through those washers. We have specialized systems there to be able to clean those as well. We offer free detailing products and rags and chamois cloths, so individuals that are there that are vacuuming can take use of those—whether it's window cleaner, tire shine products, dash cleaner, polish—that's all provided free as part of the experience of working with Rocket. With that being said, I would be more than gracious to answer any questions that you may have. **[46:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Council, any questions? The only one I had, I guess, is what's your timeframe? **[46:05] Jeremiah Harder:** Our timeframe right now is... with approval tonight hopefully... we would be ready to submit for a building permit here within the coming weeks. Our average build time once we receive building permit is seven months. **[46:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay, so later this fall, maybe? **[46:22] Jeremiah Harder:** Yes. **[46:23] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay, perfect. Well, thank you. Thanks for coming up and frankly, thank you for investing in our community, though I obviously have to vote on it yet, but I just want to mention that to you. All right, so Council, there is a motion before us. Who would like to take it? **[46:40] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** I'll make it, Mayor. To adopt Resolution 2023-038 approving the site plan review, Planned Unit Development, and Conditional Use Permit for a proposed drive-through automobile car wash facility to be located at 8647 and 8649 East Point Douglas Road South. **[47:00] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Second. **[47:01] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Dennis, second by Councilmember Thiede. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. **[47:06] All Councilmembers:** Aye. **[47:08] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? Motion carries. Good luck. All right, next on our agenda this evening, Council, is Council Comments. Request I'll do my normal insert with Councilmember Combata. **[47:20] Councilmember Tony Combata:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to highlight that River Oaks is holding some events here that anyone who's interested in snowshoeing or outdoor activities might want to get down there. It's free and you get some great views of the river valley. There's also, beginning February 24th through April 7th, Friday night fish fries from 4:30 to 8:00 p.m., and you can get reservations online. Also, Easter Brunch April 9th, and a couple of dueling piano events April 14th and 15th—and again, tickets are available online. **[47:55] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Fantastic. I hear they sell out those, so if you want tickets... I'm even talking about the—and that is good too, by the way—but the dueling pianos seems to be a big thing down there. All right, nothing else for you? All right, Councilmember Dennis. **[48:10] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Mayor, I'll yield my time. **[48:12] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, Councilmember Thiede. **[48:14] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Well, there are a couple things. Obviously, we're getting closer and closer to Strawberry Fest, right? And so if you like to run the 5K or walk—then I don't know if it's 5K, but I don't recall what the distance is—but there's registration online on the City's Recreation page for those, and those are on June 17th. There is the sign-up registration available online for the Strawberry Fest softball tournament, which is always a good time; that's held down at Lamar Park. And I guess I was just going to mention, you know, Tony mentioned about cross-country skiing and so forth out at River Oaks. It's a great place to go; that's usually groomed and it's a little less hilly than the Ravine Park can be. You know, but the Ravine Park is a very good place. And I've personally been out to Shepherd's Farm—they do let you go out there. There's not usually too many people out there. It's not a groomed path, but it is a path, unlike sometimes where I followed the deer trail through the woods... that's a little tougher. But so, we're not going to have too much time left for that type of activity, so this weekend might be a little chilly, but the snow won't stick to the bottom of your skis when you stop for a moment. So, you get out there this weekend. **[49:40] Mayor Myron Bailey:** There you go. Fantastic, thank you. Councilmember Olsen. **[49:45] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you, Mayor. I want to start by thanking the members of the Public Safety Board and the Cottage Grove Lions who were here this evening to accept some funds for the Craig Woolery Scholarship Fund. The Public Safety Board has really done a nice job of managing that scholarship, and they are very focused on ensuring that young people who want to get into public safety from the area here have an opportunity to apply for some debt relief, as it were, for their school debt through the use of that scholarship. So I was very grateful that everybody was here for that. Secondly, I want to acknowledge that the month of March is National Women's History Month in the United States of America. That was designated by Congress in 1987, and we celebrate National Women's History Month every year in the month of March. There are differing themes just like there are for Public Works Month or Public Works Week or Public Safety events. And this year's theme for National Women's History Month is "Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories." And that really is the point of Women's History Month—is to celebrate women in this country's history for their numerous and important contributions to the growth of this country. Being that this year is celebrating women who tell our stories, I thought I might just take a moment to acknowledge two authors from the city of Cottage Grove. The first of whom passed away in 1898—you may all know about the Furber Farm. Well, one of the people who lived on the Furber Farm was Aurelia Furber, and she was a well-recognized author in her day. She wrote basically poetry, but she also did write some prose and was published in the Pioneer Press and many other magazine publications at that time in our country's history. And if you want to visit, she is laid to rest in our Cottage Grove Cemetery out there by Lamar Avenue. So, definitely somebody who was very, very well known during the course of Cottage Grove's history in the 1890s. And then if we look to the modern day, we look at our friend Sheletta Brundidge. You know, Sheletta has had several books published, particularly focused on autism. She and I share a common experience in that we both have children on the autism spectrum—Sheletta has three—and she and her family do an awful lot to bring autism awareness to the forefront, whether that be lobbying at the Capitol or utilizing her profile through her Sheletta Makes Me Laugh media company or writing books. And you know, I want to acknowledge that Sheletta is also a tremendous contributor to the community of Cottage Grove as somebody who tells our stories. So again, thank you to all of the incredible women out there who contribute in so many ways to the health of our city, our state, and our national well-being. And I also want to just acknowledge that in the city of Cottage Grove, we have some amazing women who work for our city and make all of our lives very pleasant by all the hard work that they do behind the scenes. And you know, that starts with our City Administrator Jennifer Levitt. We also have our City Clerk Tammy, we have our City Attorney Kori, we have several of our directors in the city who are female, and lots and lots of contributors in every department. So, I'd like to just acknowledge your contributions and thank you for all that you do for our city. And with that, Mayor, I'll turn it back to you. **[53:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, thank you. There's three quick things. One is just a reminder for the public that as we do—we do now since through COVID every year—we get the opportunity on Thursday, April 13th, to have a volunteer appreciation event at River Oaks Golf Course and Event Center. I know that's an exciting time for all of us on the Council and our staff to celebrate all the volunteers that make up the great city of Cottage Grove. So I just want to mention that. I also know that I believe there's still some space available—because they added some additional times—for the Easter egg hunt at Woodridge Park. I know the earlier times in the day were all taken, so I believe if I saw right on social media, they did add a few extra times. And if you want, it's fun; it's a great opportunity. We're taking our grandkids out there for that, but if you are interested, you do need to register online on the recreation page. And then the last thing is more for our staff—maybe for Ryan and our City Administrator Jennifer Levitt. Obviously, we're about to get some more snow, it sounds like, unfortunately. And there has been some talk in the news about a concern of flooding between Saint Paul and Hastings for—actually, Prescott. And so maybe if we get the opportunity here, and then maybe at our first meeting in April, if you wanted to come in and share with us what we've done in the past to combat some of the flooding concerns that will happen or could happen through the city of Cottage Grove, including the bridge that goes to Gray Cloud Island. And that would be great just to have that information. And then if you can kind of keep us in the Council updated on the forecast as things go forward here, that would be great. So, I know you guys do a tremendous job of prepping the homeowners along River Acres as an example, and our plans for Gray Cloud Island if necessary. But it's not some of the greatest at this point, what they're saying is, with all the snow we've been getting and the amount of water that's in that snow. So, I just appreciate that. I think the Council would too. All right, that is it. Any other Council comments? All right, 13 is Workshop open to the public; there is none this evening. 14 was a Workshop—or is a Workshop closed to the public; there is none this evening. So we are now to 15, which is Adjournment. **[55:45] Councilmember Tony Combata:** Adjourn. **[55:47] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Second. **[55:48] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we'll take Councilmember Combata made the motion, Councilmember Dennis did the second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. **[55:53] All Councilmembers:** Aye. **[55:55] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Opposed? We're adjourned.