[0:03] [Music] [0:15] Mayor Nick Lien: first thing I do if you want to come up to the the podium here to the microphone yeah all right we will call the city city council regular meeting to order for Monday March 3rd 2025 uh we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance and we actually have Thomas here who's going to lead us in it so on up [1:05] Thomas: 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 thank you sir [1:23] Mayor Nick Lien: call the rooll please [1:28] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: council member Wilson here council member ctis here mayor hoy here council member bernad here council member Lee here [1:40] Mayor Nick Lien: all right any changes to the agenda no all right unless there's any changes I would seek a motion to approve the agenda [1:45] Councilmember Steve Wilson: motion to approve [1:47] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: second [1:48] Mayor Nick Lien: motion by Steve second by Holly all in favor say I hi all right next item on the agenda would be our citizen comments [1:50] Mayor Nick Lien: there's anyone in attendance that's wishing to speak feel free to come to the podium at this time if not we'll move on to item seven which is our consent agenda I would seek a motion to approve the consent agenda [1:58] Councilmember Jake Cordes: so moved [1:59] Mayor Nick Lien: motion by Nick [Second] [2:01] Mayor Nick Lien: motion by Jake second by Nick all in favor say I hi all right our only action item tonight under new business is item 121 which is our Public Works 2024 annual update John [2:25] Public Works Director John Powell: thank you mayor city council members uh I first want to introduce uh some of you have met him some have not our Public Work superintendent Eric Whitmer is also here this evening uh Eric is available to answer questions I'll be doing the talking but he'll be doing more talking next year and he's brought two of his children also and we're happy to have him here welcome so this is our 2024 update so presented in 2025 just a reminder the Public Works service areas streets lighting sanitary sewer water storm water Fleet Solid Waste which is kind of contracted to DSi engineering GIS and natural resources uh the group that makes it all happen more toward the top less toward the bottom no offense to Rich but um we have I'm on the bottom so that's um in public works we have 20 full-time equivalents and we now have 10 Public Works maintenance workers thanks to uh City council's approval of that last year we hired two we went from 8 10 last year and a lot of these staff are new as you'll see on the next slide our most recent change senior administrative support technician so Tory wolf uh has agreed to become our Public Works uh administrative assistant and that action is scheduled for the next city council meeting so staff changes in 2024 uh Ben van blam retired Joel Cooks Steve Groves and Isaac sheral all Public Works maintenance workers joined us in 2024 as did McKenna rhin our Water Resources specialist Ben humbley Eric started in at the end of July we had three seasonals so if you look at it 30% of our full-time staff was new to the city in 2024 so there's a lot of acclamation orientation uh finding out what where the knowledge bases complement each other a lot of that going on over the past uh the past year really so accomplishments uh the 2024 Street Improvement project was right next to Farmington Elementary and we had very wet weather you'll see that based on our water pumping it it certainly turned up there but we did complete that on time despite the W weather conditions uh it did cost us a little bit more to do soil corrections uh but we accomplished our goal of having it open substantial completion by the time school opened we expedited preparation of the duchaine parkway Spruce Street intersection realignment design uh because of the apartment project and we have a bit opening for that project this week we evaluated options and purchased a new salt storage facility uh we've done extensive geotechnical exploration actually relocated the salt storage facility to reduce the amount of soil correction we have to do and we'll start that soil correction the spring and then they'll be able to erect the soil uh salt storage for facility we completed the 2024 millon overlay project uh we had I was mentioning early eight full winter maintenance events and 10 salting events so that shows up in our uh snow budget uh both last winter and our most recent winter were late winners last winter was almost nothing uh but very similar as far as the number of events so we've saved money there on salt use and overtime and things like that we also had some new equipment that we purchased this year and really um the staff um Eric Glenn and mechanics Ron and Damon take the lead and identifying equipment and pricing that out and and talking with the other staff about functionality what do they want what doesn't work what where have we had problems with maintenance we've initiated the industrial park ditch cleanout project uh that project's taken longer than expected one of the challenges is the ditch runs right through Northern Natural Gas property and it kind of Clips uh XL Energy property and those are two agencies not Northern Natural Gas has been very responsive XL you know we're hoping to minimize any impact and then a farmer um so uh the goal is this spring to go out and take soil samples and probes to find the original ditch invert the bottom of it Northern Natural Gas already has a concern because they have pipelines passing underneath that ditch they want to be sure they don't lose cover so those are some of the design issues that come up there we updated our's four documents and processes McKenna did a fantastic job with that she hit the ground running her background was with the mpca so she she spoke that language she knew exactly what to do and and got it done we've initiated three storm water pond maintenance and water quality improvement projects and you'll see those coming for feasibility reports in the near future completed three and a half Citywide street sweeping so typically it's spring and fall but we really want to do more street sweepings because the more we pick up the less goes down the storm sewer the less goes into our ponds and storm water ponds uh we fully implemented the open go software for Fleet asset management and supported the transfer of Legacy Fleet data and Damon really took the lead on that and he's done a fantastic job uh with that Ron and Damon uh lead mechanic and mechanic respectively received the police Chiefs Award of Merit for their exceptional work on the turnovers of vehicles and having everything ready to go and uh when the PD needed it so I appreciate their recognition Danielle continues to provide extensive GIS services to public works and then many other departments Community Development Parks uh she's a great asset to have on staff I pulled this out separately we administered 131 RightWay permits so here's a breakdown of who requested those permits Charter Frontier HBC and Metronet are all fiber type permits Dakota Electric and XL electricity obviously and Minnesota Energy uh for gas permits out of those 73 gas permits though a lot of those are small service type permits the fiber permits is really where where we end up spending all of our time we're continuing to actively implement the approved EAB management plan so in 2024 we removed over a thousand ash trees and stumps we administered the EAB Grant preparing for EAB and the shade free grant which is A5 million an additional 30 non a trees were removed uh those come up uh when we have um Property Owners concerned that a tree might be falling on their property or it's in poor health in the boulevard things like that so uh Ben goes out to evaluate that and if it's a hazard then we do take those out reviewed proposed lot surveys for 203 new single family or townhouse building permits you'll see that 203 number I think again in community development's presentation that's where it comes from every new building permit for single family or townhouse goes through an engineering review to verify that the grades they're proposing fit with the grading plan and 73 asilt grading surveys uh were completed so that's our engineering technician Rich Shimmel visiting the site checking the turf checking make sure the monuments are on the corners before we sign off and release the es girl and we completed warranty inspections and final acceptance of whispering Fields Whispering field second and Via thir interesting issue came up on uh we recently completed it wasn't 2024 but um Fairhill the manhole covers uh we had the wrong manhole covers on we literally could not get the manhole covers off about a dozen sanitary manholes when we went out there and it took the supplier two or three attempts to make sure we had the right lid such that we could pop it off when we needed to but that was that's something that's caught in those warranty inspections we just kind of go through make sure everything's working additional accomplishments so over 693 million gallons of water um last year 2023 that was up around 830 million gallons so that's really the result of a wet season that's what you're seeing there we also initiated our first annual water system leak survey uh that was listening to about 50 mies of Maine so it's about a third of the city and what that does is proactively identify where we may have water loss and we repair it proactively not on a weekend when it's raining out and right before a holiday or something which seems to happen we also completed the Farmington East and West serviceability analysis that was 3 respond to utility inquiries as a result primarily of the two major aars uh that were processed we did complete the replacement of the W five retaining wall um the Department of Health and requirements that came down uh from the federal government we completed a water initial water service line inventory and submitted the results by the completion date uh to the Minnesota Department of Health that's a process that's ongoing so as we get more information we keep researching it and we identify what those are we put it into the database and that database is viewable by the public and we have that information on the website we flushed 1359 hydrants twice and we cleaned over almost 117,000 ft of sanitary sewer and televised uh 153,000 ft of sanitary SE so that was a I think the weather uh had something to do with that where we could get a lot more of that done some years uh when we had eight staff a lot of these are things that you need more than one staff person to go out and do so we had three seasonals and we had 10 maintenance workers and I think you're seeing the results there that we got got more done certainly in televising and cleaning so goals for 2025 completing a Citywide natural resource inventory update it was last has completed in 2010 and the timing is very fortuitous because you heard Dakota County talk about the Greenways and whatnot and we want a solid inventory of our natural resources not Parks Trails things like that but the natural resources really focusing on that uh that we have to build on as we get into our comp plan update and as we get into conversations with the county rightaway management is a big area identifying any potential built out areas of the city from a fiber perspective so some neighborhoods in the city have had two fiber carriers go through their yards and it's to the point where we have limited space in the public right away in easements and we need to be able to indicate that we're built out we don't have any space for additional fiber and that's I think a legal test that we have to meet and make sure we have the backup for that but um we're running out of public RightWay and easement for new fiber and also I don't think it's reasonable to expect the property owners when they put so much effort into their yard can have them dug up a third time for another carrier we are transitioning all the rightaway permit Administration to Rich we're updating the rightaway permit construction requirements and also implementing permit issuance requirements going into winter conditions to make sure we don't have permit activity going on uh when we're trying to do snow and ice control and limitations on active permits so they need to wrap up one permit get it restored and whatnot before they're allowed to move on instead of issuing a permit for a large geographic area the city has uh engineering guidelines and detail plates dating back to 2019 we want to develop standard specifications so when we do a project the specifications are the same if they're from the city uh this is to benefit the contractors they're looking for continuity from Project to project so there's no surprises um instead of missing something because one consultant did it one way another consultant showed it another way um this is very common to have standard specification sections it just saves contractors having to dig for information if it's the same it's the same every year and also we'd like to implement the use of to reduce overall salt use from a water perspective we want to identify the next elevator water storage site that study is near completion right now so you'll be seeing that in the near future we want to secure the site and then secure a Construction contract and extend trunk water man as needed to connect to the new water storage site we anticipate that we'll have our next storage will be an elevated tank but then after that it would likely be ground storage a large tank at at grade or partially below grade instead of a tall tank we'll continue to the process to identify a site for well 10 as I indicated previously that's about a two-year process that has started we also want to install a trunk Waterman on 190th and develop a joint Powers with Empire for an emergency interconnect so uh we can share water as needed if they have major outage on their side that would include an interconnect Vault with uh the trunk waterm project initiate infrastructure expansion or rehab to meet new development needs so that's kind of a general as we have new developments come through we want to be sure we're keeping up and staying ahead of it with our infrastructure evaluate Street lighting standards maintenance and funding needs uh the city XL Energy had a program a prepay option for street lights many years ago and it was good for 25 years and at the end of 25 years they don't do any further maintenance aside from replacing bulbs and whatnot we have about 170 lights that have expired warranties right now so if something happens we have to decide do we take them out do we take them over and do we do the repairs and the new installation we've got probably another um 300 to 350 lights that are still in the warranty period but that's something that's coming down the road so we need to have a conversation about what we want to do uh increased Public Works transparency via expanded external communication so this is really where Tor is going to be able to help us a lot um we've got Ben on board Eric McKenna uh Danielle that can prepare that information and we need you know Tori can prepare additional information clean it up package it for various consumption the newsletter the website flyers and things like that we've we've uh have a lot of potential to do more Outreach from a public works standpoint continue onboarding and integration of new public work staff that's going to be a like I said it's an ongoing issue and we're going to be doing that all year from a roadway standpoint uh we'll update the condition ratings for a third of the city this is keeping our PCI Data fresh and a firm foundation for decisionmaking we want to complete the 2025 Street improvements and the mill and overlay project we also want to initiate the 2026 Street improvements in April at the latest our goal and it's ambitious but we want to bid that project in December of this year um contractors utility and Street contractors they get very quiet in December and January I talked to one contractor a couple weeks ago and they had 120 projects generally in the South Metro Area bidding in the next four weeks and so that's what we're trying to avoid is having contractors filled up or just not have time to respond um so we also are evaluating alternatives for a traditional seal coat process so the the TR traditional seal coat is you put oil down you put a aggregate down you roll it then you sweep it up and then you sweep it out of your house for the next year um that seems to be what happens we're looking at options for that uh where it's more a bonus based uh process where there's less sweeping up after it's more integrated into the oil and and the topping that we put on the roadways and then replace retiring Public Works staff in a timely manner such that there's no drop in Staffing of service levels um Ron Le our lead mechanic will be retiring this year uh Jeff Jones is retiring this year uh we want to make sure that first of all they're imparting their knowledge on the folks that are here now but then that we're not we don't have gaps in our staff so we're U you know we're without two people in a critical time which is midsummer so it's a lot of fast talking uh another goal for 2025 for next year is to use more images in my PowerPoint presentation um this is pretty dry it's a lot of you know a lot of data a lot of metrics and things like that um I'm looking forward to having a more user friendly viewer friendly uh presentation for next year and I'm sure Eric will be able to help me that uh as well as Tori and others so with that happy to respond to any questions and I do want to thank you again for your support because we can't do what we do unless we have your support thank you sir [21:42] Mayor Nick Lien: Steve [21:44] Councilmember Steve Wilson: wow that is that is really impressive John I mean you you uh obviously show up um at our work sessions and we're talking about you know a different thing we're talking about a speed study we're talking about uh you know getting ahead of different things but when you see it out there that you know with all the things that you and your team are doing it is unbelievable so please extend my gratitude to everybody that works you know with you under under you and collaboration with you and of course the stuff you didn't even mention you know coordinating with Deanna coordinating with Kelly coordinating with Kim so I mean it's really just amazing all the work you're doing uh for our department I do have one question though this thought occurred to me this summer as uh uh HBC was going through our neighborhood you know we do have I don't think they're a legacy utility company yet but we do have a company in our neighborhood probably throughout the city that isn't quite as popular as maybe it used to be so do we have any policy out there where if a company essentially leaves our community that they have to take the stuff with them so we don't have like abandoned equipment sitting out there in kind of the utility box RightWay area [23:07] Public Works Director John Powell: U mayor and council members we do not have that and I've not heard that anything's been abandoned because if they have conduit in the ground it has some value so I'd be very surprised if they're kind of moving on from there [23:25] Councilmember Steve Wilson: no I'm just saying if that were to occur there's none abandoned at the moment I'm just saying that if for example a company were to leave the community let's say at some point 10 15 years down the road you know we just can't keep up with technology it's too much money we're going to go a different direction fiber is too expensive for us so we're we're all things for whatever I mean can we can we request or do you see where I'm going with that I mean at a minimum we get as buils of where their facilities are so so we know what's abandoned what's not abandoned uh so from utility locating standpoint um we can recognize that but that's something to probably look at on the code I don't recall that we have a a requirement specific to that um but we can certainly look at that [24:14] Councilmember Steve Wilson: yeah it's nothing urgent just a something that popped into my head [24:20] Public Works Director John Powell: and generally a lot of the the Telecommunications it's smaller diameter pipe a lot of it's plastic so we're not as concerned about it settling or caving in as we would would be if a storm sewer or sanitary sewer was abandon and it wasn't filled um you know this a small diameter pipe typically and plastic which lasts much longer than you know Clay and [24:45] Councilmember Steve Wilson: yeah and just to confirm John I'm not talking about the stuff in the ground I'm talking about the essentially the towers above the ground yeah [24:53] Mayor Nick Lien: okay Jake [24:54] Councilmember Jake Cordes: um no questions for me just a couple of comments um first of all thank you John for sharing um tonight it was a long list of accomplishments um to go off of your comments about maybe next year adding more pictures and making it more flashy I was talking to somebody this weekend about what was on the agenda for city council this week and I said it's going to be a light meeting it's just the 2024 Public Works update and they said that sounds like the most boring meeting ever and I said it's not the most flashy subject to talk about but it's important so kind of like Steve was saying share our thanks to your staff for everything they do they you know Keep Us Safe Keep the water flowing and everything they do throughout the year um and then you also made mention about increased uh transparency going into the new year um specifically again thank you for your proactive communication in the um I'll call it construction zon so we had some work uh mail and overlay project done in front of our house this summer and Rich shimel came to our house and dropped off the flyer letting us know that uh it was going to be happening so I think that's appreciated that and I'm sure other community members appreciate that when you kind of have that personto person communication [26:07] Public Works Director John Powell: yeah we don't want to surprise anyone if at all possible thank you [26:10] Mayor Nick Lien: hie [26:11] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: uh I don't have a whole lot to say that hasn't already been said I think I just marvel every time I see how much um of the community Public Works touches like in in how many different ways right uh and I think it's one of those areas where sometimes people look back at city government and they say well there's got to be a better way or a more efficient way or an easier way uh or a less expensive way to be able to run this and everything that you do um you do with such intentionality within this department that there's it's not just on a whim it's not just we feel like today um and I I appreciate that because it helps us answer some of those questions but why uh and so as others have said and I would Echo um just a hug huge thank you for the entire team um that there's so much that we couldn't possibly wrap our heads uh around that that you do day in and day out and and are paying attention to um and it's just a nice relief to be able to sit back and say I trust that John's got this and his entire team by extension then has this um so that's a pretty awesome spot to be in for my opinion thank you [27:22] Public Works Director John Powell: we'll do and along those lines one of the great things about having new staff is they bring that knowledge base of how things were done and we like to look at things we do and hey is this the best way to do it even though we've been doing it this way but it's an intentional change not you know sort of Helter Skelter so but we're looking at processes uh we can always improve but um uh we appreciate that it's it's very intentional [27:53] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: well and in our house we we call that road confetti so uh if you're if you find way to get rid of the road confetti a lot of people are going to be really excited [28:03] Mayor Nick Lien: as the only other engineer in the room I would prefer less pictures more words more numbers and maybe a chart or two please um it's it's a little bit like a flock of black birds I don't know how to pick one thing I guess so maybe the one we haven't talked about as much is is um the street lights in the future I mean just broadly speaking at the 10,000 foot level what kind of options are out there when we talk about starting to replace street lights I mean you look at kind of what the school has done with some of its motion activated lighting and kind of things like you know strategies like that for despite many of them being kind of broken and nonfunctional but I mean are those the kind of things you want to start talking about as we go in if we're talking about large swats of a city starting to go out of warranty I mean what does that future look like [28:56] Public Works Director John Powell: yeah Mayor and council members we are just getting into that um a quick example we had uh four lights uh that were not functioning at the time I think we've found you know so maybe we have two left um we contacted XL Energy got a price for replacing those lights it was about $9,000 per light and for four lights and um they have options if you you can enter into the prepay option again if you'd like uh if we want on to if we decide that's the best route but they think the life expectancy of their street lights is 25 to 28 years so are we getting into a constant replacement of street lights or can we do something that's a little more sustainable uh we are just starting to evaluate that and uh more to come for sure [29:50] Mayor Nick Lien: I don't know how the rest of you feel but I I for one I'm just I'm a country person so the darker it is at night the happier I am so um I just get fascinated when I walk down the aisle at high ve and you know the freezer turn on for me they turn off if I have not around there so I don't know why we can't do that with the city but maybe I'm in a minority there great job otherwise though thank you yeah to piggyback on all the things that my peers have said um I think that's what I have the greatest appreciation for is your teams and specifically your comprehensive approach to the data driven decision-making right I mean little or six years ago when I started there was it was hard to gather a lot of the information and some of it was outdated plans had not been updated in a timely manner um the PCI the pavement condition index is is one of the the leading parts of that um just being able to complete that within our streets and our trails and go back in on the every other in our trails and you know every third within the streets it just it it allows us to plan more effectively and to better use tax dollars moving forward so we can you know not make necessarily arbitrary decisions but really bed that decision making in the in the in the data that your team continues to put together um you know and when you get outside of local government and you're working within a business we we always talk about touch points right and every time you have an opportunity to touch point with your with your guest or your client you're always evaluating your service and I think our team um touches a lot more residents in whether it's you know flushing out a a hydrant or repainting a hydrant or you know the salting the plowing like we have so many touch points that even though we don't hear it from our residents I know that the actions of your department are appreciated um Far and Beyond what they have been in years past because that's a small picture I mean that's just a snapshot of of what your team does and I mean I couldn't be more appreciative and and more thankful for everything that you guys do uh I do have a few questions um I recently received one of those uh notifications of a leak um and to test it so if I'm a resident that's received one of those letters um and I'm not quite sure what that water leak in my house is uh what are some best practices that or things that I would look at first so would that be a lead service letter [32:38] Public Works Director John Powell: no with the The Leak Detection oh the leak detection y [32:41] Public Works Director John Powell: that's you're looking for and we don't have the technology to do this necessarily but you're looking for um water water use it's disproportionate from your typical use if your monthly bill has gone up um some cities have moved to Smart Meters where Property Owners can bring up their meter reading and they can see if they've had a spike in their water use uh it part of it's listening essentially what we're doing for leap detection is listening to the system and hearing seeing if there is a rush that we can hear which means there's a leak somewhere because it's a pressurized it's a closed system uh listening for leaks for water that might be running when nobody is doing anything in the house that sort of thing and then I mean just general awareness of of what you have um you know from an exterior and interior standpoint making sure you're those bibs are shut off and and uh you know emptied in the fall so they're not frozen and cracked over the winter things like that draining your pipes down if they're going to irrigation or something like that [33:43] Mayor Nick Lien: so to keep residents from like not freaking out thinking that they have an underground leak and they've got to tear up their yard with something as little as a toilet that needs to be maintained and that constant running would that be something that we' be looking out for [34:10] Public Works Director John Powell: abs absolutely uh people are surprised how much water a a a simple running toilet can consume okay um I've had on more than one occasion a property own well it was just my toilet running you know we were going to have that fixed well that toilet running that pencil size stream running through the system but 24 hours a day adds up to a lot of water okay [34:19] Mayor Nick Lien: absolutely yep I appreciate that um my second question is pertaining more to Farmington fix um do you find that the amount of usage of things being reported has increased with the update in our website or you would you say it was average to what it was prior to the update do you feel like you're getting more reports of [34:49] Public Works Director John Powell: I would say it might be it might be down a little bit part of that might be a lot of our Farmington fixes were related to trees and what's happening and when's my tree going to be taken out and we've communicated a lot about that so the the trees the tree amount has dropped down I think so overall I probably say it's down a little bit in the past year or so [35:08] Mayor Nick Lien: good thank you I appreciate it I don't have any other questions again just thank you so much uh on behalf of the entire Community for everything that you and your team does it's it's uh it does not go unnoticed and it is very much appreciated thank you sir absolutely All Right Round Table time go ahead [35:25] Councilmember Jake Cordes: no report for me this week [35:28] Mayor Nick Lien: all right sorry Nick nothing for me holly [35:32] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: it's going to be snowstorm maybe so uh parking restrictions are still on right till April so if there is snow on the ground and you don't want your truck or car or anything else put someplace where you can't find it um make sure you park it in your driveway so that all of our hardworking Public Works people um can get by and open up our streets again assuming that we get the amount of snow that we're supposed to get that's all I got [36:18] Councilmember Jake Cordes: so I can I have my time back for one second sure welcome David yes yes welcome David had an easy softball in front of me and I wasted it I thought I was GNA have that easy softball but uh welcome David welcome to the team we're glad to have you [36:31] Councilmember Jake Cordes: what what is the date actually [36:34] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: ironically did steal an item from me CU I was going to bring that up but what is the uh parking restriction date April 1st [36:42] Councilmember Jake Cordes: goes through goes through April 1st could you theoretically pull an April fo Fool's joke by parking in somebody's car who like you know a family member a neighbor you don't like and maybe it gets to or is it cut off before that not that I would do that to Jake but you probably want to do that on the 31st okay [36:58] Mayor Nick Lien: thanks Steve [36:59] Councilmember Steve Wilson: and welcome David it's great to have you here I to want to welcome David chansky to our team and he's the new assistant City administrator and welcome and it's been great great having you here so far so thank you [37:16] Mayor Nick Lien: shirley [37:17] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: same welcome David it's great to have you here [37:21] Mayor Nick Lien: all right David you're on the spot now [37:23] Assistant City Administrator David Chanski: well I'm very happy to be here it's this was day three so I'm still actively drinking from the fire hose but Lin can rest assured I will be back in the morning good so we accepted an an offer on our house in brainer yesterday yesterday and we're very excitedly looking forward to relocating in April that's what I've got for you today [37:44] Community and Economic Development Director Deanna Kuennen: thanks sir and welcome aboard thank you yeah thank you mayor and Council welcome David to the team um I would just like to let everybody know that you know January takes forever right to get through it feels like the month that keeps on giving and then February is over in a blank of an eye and we're now in March and this is when a lot of activity starts happening in the community Economic Development Department with building permits and all of that but also we have been invited to um do a number of speaking engagements to really tell Farmington story and get out there and continue to Market all the wonderful things that are happening in this community so um I'll be speaking twice this month so I'm really excited to be able to share farmington's story just wanted to share that with you thank you ma'am [38:20] Mayor Nick Lien: John [38:21] Public Works Director John Powell: thank you mayor welcome David um just to show how we work as a team when I got back to my seat Dian told me exactly how long I talk for and how much with Q&A because last year I was trying to gauge you know how long my presentation should be so I was clocking everyone's you know 15 minutes 25 minutes so I appreciate having that data [38:43] Community and Economic Development Director Deanna Kuennen: I do though have to tell you that he writes down all of those times things start and stop and I was just trying to do him a favor too so that his notes would be complete for of [38:52] Mayor Nick Lien: well he wanted to make sure he was on point for if Charley ever took vacation that somebody could fill in with clerk duties [38:59] City Clerk Shirley Buecksler: I had to fill don't take vacation David did you know what you were getting into John can clear John can be the backup clerk I've done that before he can have it [39:07] Public Works Director John Powell: I do want to remind everyone load limits went on in the metro area today so um we typically don't issue overweight permits uh unless it's a delivery to a business but for construction and whatnot typically we had a call they're doing some concrete work at the quick trip on Pilot Knob we said you just have to shorten your loads until load limits go off this year they may go off fairly quickly but um if you go on to mad's website you can see the historical dates on and off in the metro area but just a reminder Lo ns are on [39:46] Mayor Nick Lien: thanks sir Kelly [39:47] Parks & Recreation Director [Kelly]: good evening mayor and Council on tonight's consent agenda you promoted Dan Schmidt from Park maintenance worker to lead Park maintenance worker I want to congratulate to Dan and well deserved position for him and look forward to him growing in that new role uh seasonal job postings they are out there we have Recreation assistants uh 15 plus years of age and then seasonal Park maintenance 18 years of age and older so hop on to the city's website Farmington mn.gov to apply probably only a couple more weeks uh to apply and then we'll start interviewing and uh welcome David happy to have you here and we look forward to working with you thank you ma'am [40:24] Mayor Nick Lien: Kim [40:25] Finance Director Kim Sommerland: I'd also like to welcome David to our team look forward to working with you as well um just a reminder to our viewers that Washington County will be sending out valuation notices this month and this is the value that your taxes will be based on for next year and so they will also have some information on there with regards to if you want to peel that valuation so if you do not like that valuation this would be the time and place to do it they'll have those instructions thank you ma'am [41:00] Mayor Nick Lien: deputy chief SE [41:01] Police Chief Nate Siem: thank you uh welcome David otherwise I don't have anything thank you Chief [41:06] Mayor Nick Lien: uh welcome was it David welcome and uh I brought a puppy yes Sergeant come on [41:27] Chief would you mind doing a quick uh recap of um what the dog is for and for sure for sure [41:33] Police Chief Nate Siem: this is moose and his Handler officer Kyle Miller uh moose is our new employee Wellness Dog uh he's currently in training he's going to be in training for for quite a while I suppose but uh but yeah he's uh he's here to lift Spirits see look at it everybody's smiling it's already ohe I love it I hope there's a shot of that on TV doing great so far as trainers really love them they say super smart um we're hoping by the end we can start teaching them some fun tricks for Community [42:15] Mayor Nick Lien: awesome and and as a reminder for those that had not caught this in the past um uh through sponsorship with Enterprise uh we received the funding that uh cover the cost of the acquisition of our dog and so another great uh Community Asset and all the things yeah the only thing I have to add on top of what all the good information that's been shared again welcome David uh welcome to the team uh I I know in the short time that we've had to chat uh you'd be a tremendous asset to the team and uh look forward to all the collaboration that we're going to do over the years to come uh for those watching don't forget the daylight savings time uh thank you John for the reminder daylight savings time is uh Saturday night um into Sunday morning so yep there we go hopefully we Dodge the snow that's supposed to be here tomorrow night into Wednesday and outside of that shop local and uh support Farmington in all the ways and seek a motion to adjourn [43:18] Councilmember Holly Bernatz: make a motion go ahead motion to adjourn [43:23] Mayor Nick Lien: motion by Holly [43:24] Councilmember Steve Wilson: second [43:25] Mayor Nick Lien: second by Steve all in favor say hi hi hi we're jour at 7:42 [Music]