This transcription includes speaker identification based on the context provided and the dialogue within the meeting. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, uh, good evening everyone. Uh, this is the October 18th, uh, 2023, Cottage Grove City Council meeting which I'm calling to order. Um, before we, um, move to, um, the Pledge of Allegiance, I did want to mention that in accordance with requirements of Minnesota statute section 13D.02, Councilmember Tony Kada will appear remotely, uh, via interactive technology from the following public location—so some of you might be able to see him on the screen—uh, he is at the Hilton Garden Inn conference room at 101 East Hiawatha Drive, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin 53965. And I guess we're, uh, unfortunately for him, he's not in some water slide right now. So, um, the next thing on our agenda then is the Pledge of Allegiance, so if you would please rise. 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. All right, will the Clerk please do the roll? [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Kada? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: Present. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Thiede? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Here. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Olsen? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Here. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Mayor Bailey? [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Here. Uh, the next item on our agenda this evening 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. Uh, we did have a sign-up sheet out in the entryway and we did have, uh, one gentleman I believe sign up—and I believe is it, is it Raphael Robert? Robert, I’m sorry. Urban Nessa? Thank you. I was butchering her name; she even tried to spell it out for me to help me along here. So, and you live at 6999 East Point Douglas Road, correct? You got it. So if you want, just go right up to the podium there, sir, if you... Okay, and we'll have you, uh, speak to us. It looks like you have some concerns about sidewalks. [Timestamp] **Robert Urban Nessa**: I’m going to pass this iPad to you guys so you can see what the hell I’m talking about, so that I don’t have no misconception that what I’m doing is pretty serious because we have to fix it. If you have to brighten it up there as a pen to keep it going. I live at 6999 East Point Douglas Road in the Dominium property; it's over there. And there's a sidewalk that runs on the opposite side of the road of Dominium property. It’s a city property and it's a sidewalk that the city should be maintaining, not—not left like it is. This has been this way for over a year now with that hole in the sidewalk. Now I guess what the city's looking for is one big lawsuit by not fixing it and it costs maybe $20 to send a man out there to put something in it. Now there's no excuse for that hole to be there for over a year when you have nothing but senior citizens walking in that area 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with cats and dogs. And when they run, you don't know where they're going to run to and you're going to have somebody fall in that hole and you better have deep pockets 'cause you'll need it. Thank you. I wish you could get it done and within the next 48 hours before somebody does get hurt. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Okay. Um, Councilmember Thiede might have a question for you. [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Yeah, so did you—did you bring this to anybody in the city? [Timestamp] **Robert Urban Nessa**: What’s that? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Did you—did you actually bring this to anybody in the city to let them know about it? [Timestamp] **Robert Urban Nessa**: I have brought nobody to it. I'm just bringing it to your attention now 'cause I figured the city has had more time—the Street Department has more time to fix that in one year without having me to come and tell them about it. That's neglect on their part, not mine. Their part. Now you can say that City Street Department is doing a fabulous job; maybe they are, but I don't think so when you see stuff like that out there on the streets. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Okay. Well, and what we'll do, sir, is, uh, we have your information and, uh, once we get feedback from our Public Works team on what they're going to do or what—why it's there—I have an idea, I might know why—um, but they'll—they'll be able to provide, uh, feedback to you and to us, uh, directly so that, uh, you'll know what's going on. [Timestamp] **Robert Urban Nessa**: Have Tammy email me. I think she’s got my—Tammy's got my email address over there. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Absolutely. All right, yeah, thanks for letting us know. Appreciate it very much. Yep. All right, was there anybody else that wanted to speak during Open Forum on something that's not on tonight's agenda? All right, seeing none, I’m going to go ahead and, uh, close Open Forum and I'll move to number five, which is Adoption of this evening's Agenda. [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Move the agenda. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, we have a motion by, uh, Councilmember Thiede. Do I have a second? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Second. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Second by Councilmember Olsen. Uh, any—no, actually we just go to roll call. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Kada? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Thiede? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Olsen? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Mayor Bailey? [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Aye. All right, now we're going to number six, which is—which is Presentations. We do have one this evening, uh, which is the Washington County Food Scrap Program. I've been seeing them out and about in the community and our County Commissioner, uh, Carla Bingham, is here to at least start the introductions. I believe we have a couple guests from Washington County that are here with us. [Timestamp] **Carla Bingham (Washington County Commissioner)**: Yes, thank you Mayor, Council, and Councilmember Kada. Uh, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak here tonight. As you know, for the last few months we've been in a pilot phase of just a—a specific area of our community: the community of Newport, North St. Paul, and Maplewood. Well, I’m here to say that every resident in Cottage Grove and the other three communities I mentioned can now participate in this amazing program. And, um, I just first want to give a shout-out to the staff, uh, that have been out all summer long, fall long, at various events—Fire Open Houses, Booyas—uh, you name it, they've been there. And they're not done; uh, they—they still have some events to go to. Um, and just really getting the feedback and talking about these—this event, uh, or this program, and at the events, and I just think it's really made a lot of difference. Um, we've really been promoting this on social media, so I’m encouraging folks to, um, check that out as well. But, um, I’m—I do have staff here, uh, and we also have some starter kits for you guys—it’s under $5 in case you were wondering. Um, but, uh, and also for Cottage Grove residents, uh, or Washington County residents that would be in Newport as well, or if you're from North St. Paul or, uh, Maplewood, uh, you can take one of these too. Um, but I want to turn this over to Annalie Garlet, uh, who is here to, um, talk about the details and kind of, um, give some feedback about the website and different details. So, Annalie? Thank you. [Timestamp] **Annalie Garlet (Supervisor, Food Scraps Pickup Program)**: Thank you. Good evening. Um, again, my name is Annalie Garlet. I'm with the Ramsey/Washington Recycling and Energy, um, and I am the supervisor of the Food Scraps Pickup Program. And as the Commissioner mentioned, I’m—I’m going to run through a little bit about how the program works, about how easy it is to sign up. And again, if there's any Cottage Grove residents in the audience here, we do have some trial kits available at the back of the room. Love it if you grabbed one of these and, um, took it home and gave it a try so that you could sign up for the program. So once you determine what size bag that you would like, you can go online—and I'll—I'll run through that here in a second—you'll order your free supply of food scrap bags. Uh, you collect your food scraps in the bag and you—believe it or not—you put these in the trash. And so they're thicker than regular compost bags and you—you fill them up, tie a knot, and you can put it in your trash or your dumpster for collection. And from there it gets hauled away and it gets sorted out at the facility. Um, a piece of this—now that it's fully rolled out in Cottage Grove—we did do a pilot in the four communities and it was, um—we thank Cottage Grove for letting us do the pilot. You're kind of a guinea pig, um, as we were learning about the program and how it worked. We, um, piloted it with a total of a little over—we gave a—a little over 2,000 people the opportunity to be participants in the pilot program and we were able to gather a lot of information. There's lots of moving parts for the program; we learned about customer service, worked with haulers, uh, worked on ordering and delivering. We developed a website and we worked with staff and vendors. And so from that, we were able to identify education—and I'll talk a little bit about that coming up. Um, we were able to do a lot of testing and a lot of learning. Some things that your residents may see coming to them: um, everybody received—everybody in the city of Cottage Grove, all households should have received a postcard, and that’s in the bottom corner of the presentation. They will soon start seeing geo-targeted ads letting them know that they're eligible and the program, um, they're eligible for the program and can sign up. And then also we've been at community events, and if city council members do know of any other future events, we would love to attend. If you think there's a good opportunity, please—please let us know. There's a lot of resources that we have available. If there's any questions that people have, we have a—we have a, um—a line that people can dial in. It's available in five—we have translations available on the website and on the line—the call-in line—um, in five different languages. We have a lot of resources: we have videos, um, instructions, and, um, different notifications that people can opt into. Right now, as of the—as of September 29th, we have just under 5% of the population that's eligible in these communities signed up. So that's just, um—just a little under 5% and we're excited to see the—the participants rolling in each day. Food scraps make up about 20% of the waste that goes into the trash, and so by participating in the program, we're keeping that amount out of the trash. And so I know that you have a busy agenda and I will stand for any questions if you have any. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Fantastic. Well, first of all, thank you for coming and thank you, uh, Commissioner Bingham, uh, for, uh, kind of spearheading this for our neighborhoods down here, our communities on, uh, this part of the county. Um, I will tell you, I did have the opportunity a couple months ago to take a tour—first time I've been into the Newport, uh, facility—and, uh, to see how that technology works to pick—the machine that picks these green bags out of the trash was unbelievable to me. That the, uh, artificial intelligence things we have nowadays is pretty amazing. So I, uh, definitely encourage everybody to, uh, sign up and help, uh, reduce obviously the amount of, uh, product that goes into our landfills and such. Uh, and that's ultimately what the goal is here: better composting of this kind of product. And I—I've had the opportunity to speak with our County Commissioner about what—what all that means from the future standpoint if we can get more and more people to do this. So I think that's great. Uh, Council, uh, any other comments? Councilmember Kada, anything from you? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: No, I'm—I'm just really happy to see that this has, uh, taken off and that it's—I remember the first time, uh, Commissioner Bingham came to discuss this project with us and I'm—I'm glad to see it's getting rolled out on a—on a larger scale. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Absolutely. Uh, Councilmember Thiede did have a question or comment. [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Yeah, I don't know if you want to be handing things out and as you—as you're in a parade, but we do have the Monster Bash parade, uh, on the 28th. And, uh, if you just go to—you go—go to the Strawberry Fest site because it's—Strawberry Fest runs that, uh—uh, or I can help too get—get—get you signed up if you want to take and walk down the street, have—have people hand out, uh, trial kits. But you can let me know. I guess we can—we can talk about the options there. Might be maybe Commissioner Bingham wants to, uh... I'm there. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Yeah, I know she’s going to be there. All right, well thank you again for coming and sharing with us. And, uh, I guess what I'll ask from the future standpoint, somewhere down the road, is to work with our staff to come to give us an update, you know, at some point to let us know, uh, the successes you're having, you know, what percentages, things like that, so that we can continue to, uh, push this out into the community, uh—uh, for the betterment of everyone. [Timestamp] **Annalie Garlet**: I appreciate that opportunity. We would love to—love to get the word out about how many people are using it, if there's any tips and tricks that we're learning along the way, and to share the successes of the program with people. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: You got it. Thank you. [Timestamp] **Annalie Garlet**: Thank you so much. Thank you guys. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, uh, the next item on our agenda this evening is Consent, uh, Cal—or the Consent Agenda, I should say. Is there any that anybody wants to pull on Consent? Councilmember Olsen? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Mayor, I'd like to pull item E, please. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Item E. All right. Um, I think I will just pull D just for comment, um, just because I'm—we're changing or adding or fixing a couple appointments, uh, due to one last coun... making adjustments—making adjustments, thank you. Anybody else? All right, so then I will go ahead, uh, for you first, Councilmember Olsen. E is Appointment to the Convention and Visitors Bureau. [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Thank you, Mayor. And as you mentioned, um, we are one councilmember down at the moment. Uh, and as everybody is keenly aware, um, Councilmember Steve Dennis, um, provided his resignation at our last meeting. And of course, um, as sad as we are to see Steve, uh, move on, we certainly have to continue doing business. And part of that is ensuring that we have a full roster on each of our various City commissions, and that includes the Convention and Visitors Bureau, which is a relatively new entity. Uh, Councilmember Dennis was the chair of that, uh, and I have been the vice chair since the inception. Uh, the Mayor's been kind enough to, uh, offer to have me as the chair, so, um, I will graciously accept that opportunity. And I also wanted to just take a moment to congratulate two new appointees to the commission, one of whom is Eric Olsen—not spelled like me, he's an O-L-S-O-N, so he's no relative; I'm an E-N. Uh, but I do know Eric and his wife Jenny very well. Jenny serves on our Public Services Commission and, uh, they are both tremendous people. Eric will be a great addition to this Convention and Visitors Bureau board. And we also have an appointment for Sarah—and I may say the name wrong—if—if I do, Sarah, I apologize—but it, uh, is spelled G-R-C-U-L-A, and I’m going to say Grcula, um, because I have friends that are Draculas, so hopefully this is in the same boat. But, um, I want to welcome Sarah and Eric to the board and look forward to having you at our next meeting. Thank you, Mayor. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Fantastic. And—and then I'll just piggyback on that. Uh, as you mentioned with Councilmember Dennis no longer on the Council, uh, there was, um—in essence, three positions, one of which, uh, Councilmember Olsen just mentioned, uh, that we're doing temporary placements on. Uh, what—for the general public—what'll happening has come in December, I will re-uh, do—uh, reset up appointments for different, uh, people, uh, from the councilmembers on the Council. By then, I’m assuming we'll have a—another councilmember joining us, uh, that will be appointed. But just for the public to be aware, uh, my recommendations is: uh, the, uh, Mayor Pro Tem and the Economic Development—Development Authority personnel will be Tony Kada; uh, the Investment Committee will be, uh, Councilmember Thiede; and as mentioned earlier, uh, the Convention—Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau Chair, uh, will be, uh, Councilmember Justin Olsen. So I just wanted to mention for the public that is, uh, the plan for the end of the year. Okay. So, uh, being that we didn't have anything else pulled for Consent, I'll look for a motion to approve Consent. [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Move Consent. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, we have a motion by Councilmember Olsen. Do I have a second? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Second. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Second by Councilmember Thiede. Uh, any comments, Council? No, I don't. All right, so roll call vote. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Kada? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Thiede? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Olsen? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Mayor Bailey? [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Aye. All right, so if you happen to be here for anything that was on tonight's Consent Calendar, all of those items have been approved. Now we'll move to eight, which is Approved Disbursement, which 8A is to pay the bills. [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Move the bills. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: We have a motion by Councilmember Olsen. Do I have a second? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Second. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Second by Councilmember, uh, Thiede—almost a Kada because it looked like he was going to speak. Uh, any other discussion? Roll call. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Kada? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Thiede? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Olsen? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Mayor Bailey? [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Aye. All right, next is nine is Public Hearings. We actually have, um, three, uh, public hearings this evening. Uh, the first one is the 2023, uh, Pavement Management Assessment Hearing. Um, this is now at the point where all the work is pretty much done, uh, and now we have to pay for it. Um, and so our, uh—uh, City—our City Public Works Director, Ryan Burfeind, is going to walk us through this one. [Timestamp] **Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director)**: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. So for tonight's public hearing, I'll first have a brief presentation. I'll run through the work that we did, uh, look at some outcome, some final photos, and those final costs and assessments. Just real quick, we always like to show our Pavement Management History Map. Uh, it's been a long-running project going back to 1995. Uh, this neighborhood was—was actually the 1996 Pavement Management Project, which we talked about, um, when the project was ordered, uh, last winter. Um, but it's a long, good, uh, process that we do to keep our roads in good conditions. And part of that with our policy is assessments to the, uh, property owners within the project area. This is a map of the 2023 Pavement Management Area. All the roads in blue are the—the streets that were, um, rehabbed this year with a—a full new pavement replacement and then spot curb replacement and spot utility repairs. Um, the neighborhood itself, um, has been around, you know, for quite some time, longer than the pavement. So the utilities are actually a lot older than our average neighborhood, so utility costs were a little bit higher than usual, and that was anticipated just based on the age of the neighborhood. Uh, looking at some before and after photos—uh, I've got a few here in the next two slides—um, very common for the type of work that we did. You can see in the before is lots of patching, lots of issues around the manholes. Uh, you can see some of the thin overlays that the Public Works staff had done, uh, many years ago to kind of hold that road together. And then also a lot of alligator cracking—so you see some on 80th Street to the Frontage Road and Homestead Avenue here—and then the after photo of that finished new pavement. And then also on Hemingway Avenue, Hyde Court—uh, very similar, you know, very poor road condition, uh, going into the project, and then you have the new, uh, asphalt with that spot curb repairs upon completion. Uh, for a funding breakdown, our total project cost ended up being just over 3.4 million. You can see the four, uh, utility funds, uh, that pay for part of that. All those utilities are accessible, so a portion of those utility costs are in the assessment and the remainder picked up by the utility funds. Uh, the general levy, um, picks up a good portion of the project, just over 1.5 million. And all the total assessments—if they are adopted tonight—were 1,326,125. Here's a map of just all the accessible properties; everything in green, those are all the single-family residential properties. There's 308 of those. Uh, a few park properties—the city does pay that portion of the road, um, that's adjacent to a park property, uh, no different than a private property owner would. Um, and then also you have, uh, the church—the religious institution at 8300 Hyde Avenue as well. Uh, so for that assessment information for those, uh, single-family, um, units, in our assessment policy there's a very official term of Residential Buildable Lot Equivalent. Um, these are one RBLE; they're one single-family unit. Um, based on the estimates back when we had the—the ordering of the project on the feasibility report, it was just under $5,000 was the calculation for the assessment. Uh, we did multiple special benefit appraisals on a wide variety of those single-family units; they range from $5,800 to $7,100, so they did support the proposed assessment. Um, you know, we do that special benefit appraisal that we—we do not want to assess more than that amount. And with those project costs coming in lower—which is a good thing, we’d like to see that—uh, the actual assessment proposed is $4,234.50. So, you know, about $730 lower than what was proposed last winter. Just over the 15 years, the average annual payment, if it were to go to the taxes and be assessed, is just under $400. And like I mentioned, there was the one religious institution. Uh, that estimated assessment based on the feasibility report was just over 43,000. Um, did the recalculation, you know, based on the—the final project cost, at 37,000, but that benefit appraisal only supported $21,900. Um, that was stated at the public hearing as well last winter. Um, so that does cap the assessment—we do not assess more than that special benefit appraisal. So their assessment amount, um, is proposed at $21,900. Uh, talking about assessment terms: if they are adopted tonight, uh, within the first 30 d—first 30 days, if they're paid, which would be November 17, 2023, there's no interest charged. Um, otherwise, it does go under the taxes payable over 15 years. Uh, the interest rate is always 1 and a half percent above the bond rate, so we're looking at interest rate of 5%. Uh, partial payment is allowed, um, in that first 30 days, minimum of $500. And deferral is available, uh, for a few things: disability, military, and those 65 years of age or older. There is proof needed for that, and interest still accrues during the deferral period. So if folks have specific questions on that, we can work with them afterwards between, uh, myself and our—our Finance Department. I do want to note, we did receive, uh, one obj—objection, uh, letter on October 10th, 2023, from Hope Community Church. They're the ones at 8300 Hyde Avenue. So we did receive that letter ahead of this meeting, which follows the requirements of the state statute. Um, if the assessments are ordered tonight, they would have to perfect that appeal. Um, there's a few more steps they'd have to do, um, with the District Court and with the City Clerk. Um, and we can discuss those if that's something that—that—that moves forward. But I do want to make note that we did receive that objection letter. And with that, the recommendations tonight are to hold the assessment hearing and then also the second, uh, recommendations before you as well. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, so before we, uh, move to, uh, open the public hearing, if anybody wants to—is Council, any—any questions for, uh, Ryan at this time? No? Oh, Councilmember Olsen. [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Ryan, thank you for the presentation and—and the information. I know, um, you and I and the Mayor actually spent some time in this neighborhood, uh, along with our, um, Streets, uh, Supervisor, Gary Orlof, um, kind of looking at the condition of the road and—and, um, you know, trying to gauge, uh, what we needed to do and when we needed to do it because we had some—some neighbors who reached out. And I have been in the neighborhood recently and it is a night and day difference. I mean, it is unbelievable. Um, and it—it needed it—it needed it in a big way. My question is this: you mentioned some of the infrastructure relative to, um, utilities. And obviously that neighborhood is a little bit older; it has been through, uh, a couple of these now, um, you know, in the '90s and now, uh, today. Um, can you give a little insight into what exactly from a utilities perspective a neighborhood like this presents that is a little bit more challenging based on the age? Obviously, when we have the roads dug up it's a lot easier to get to various utilities, but can you help people understand what the improvements really are? [Timestamp] **Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director)**: Yep. No, certainly, Mr. Mayor, Councilmember Olsen. So before any project, we do a lot of utility investigations. We're doing televising of all the pipes in the ground, we look at all the water main, the valve bolts—are they in good condition? We recondition the hydrants, we look at all the structures. So based on all of that, we come up with a, you know, scope of work to include in the project, because like you said, now's the time to do it. Uh, there was no wholesale utility replacements needed, which is good because that's extremely costly if you have to replace, you know, all the water main or all the sanitary sewer. Um, but what we found—and what we'd expect—just, you know, more cracked pipes. So we have to do these things called the short-liner, so they actually—they don't, uh, do as much work. It's a more cost-effective way to do it where we actually line the pipe and you don't replace the entire structure. Um, and then with the manholes and—and such, you know, we're making sure all the—the lids and the—the castings are all at the right location, height. They're not, you know, leaking—you see them sucking all the road into it with all the patching going on. Um, so we do a lot of additional, like, you know, mudding in the structure and rehabbing all the concrete. Um, and then some lining of the—the catch basins as well, because the trouble is when they start to break down, they just—they pull the road in and all the material right into it. So that's what we're fixing. Um, with that, we also reconditioned all the hydrants. Um, and then we also did a bunch of street light work as well. [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Perfect. And I know that, um, in the past few years we—we have changed our approach to pavement management to some degree where, um, in addition to doing these sorts of projects at about a 15-year lifespan or so, we do what's called a mill-in and overlay on these projects, uh, to help them last longer. And I know you've talked about that, uh, with—with us in the past, but if you could just sort of briefly remind people of what the new process looks like, because it—it will definitely help extend the life of this road, which means—means that, uh, anybody paying an assessment is going to get a lot more bang for their buck because they don't pay anything for that mill and overlay. Could you just maybe walk us through that briefly? [Timestamp] **Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director)**: Certainly, Councilmember Olsen. So, um, in the past it was the—the seal-coating applications, which worked really well. Um, but like we know, not just in Cottage Grove but just as pavements change—um, MnDOT makes changes to it—um, some of those become less effective. So that's where we're seeing this pavement management right now at around 27 years. This one was right on 27 years. Um, some of them have a bit more of a range; let's say 22 to 30 years in a neighborhood. Um, but our goal with that mill and overlay is like you said—at that 15, 16-year mark, we're going to do that mill and overlay, uh, with those funds that we have to replace that top inch and a half of the asphalt. And then we will also do that thin overlay method like we've talked about—that's done in-house by our staff, no assessment—you know, hopefully around that 30 year of life and then push these roads for, like, the actual assessment full replacement project closer to 40 years is really our goal. You know, we're just starting that now and then we will—we'll see how we can meet those goals. But so far it's worked well; the mill and overlays have been a great process and they're—they're just very cost-efficient, right? We don't do a lot of other work; we just take that pavement on—or take it off—put the new stuff down and rain it out in about two weeks. So... [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: And unlike a project of this nature, there's no assessment for that. There's no cost, uh, to the resident in the neighborhood for that? [Timestamp] **Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director)**: Correct. Correct. Yep. [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Okay, perfect. Good. And I like, um, having you talk about that because the major benefit is our road’s going to last longer. So, you know, you're going to pay your assessment today and in the past you may be paying again in 27 to 30 years if we were lucky. And now we're looking at a 40-year lifespan, so that's pretty fantastic. Finally, you know, this is a legal process; assessments are a legal process. We're bound by state law or statute as it relates to this. And you mentioned that there are some opportunities for people to, uh, have deferrals and those kinds of things. So, um, I appreciate you bringing that up because, uh, you know, those options exist for a reason and—and we want people to know that they're there. Um, and every time we do one of these there's always a few who are eligible for that deferral and—and, uh, we want to make sure they have that right information. So thank you so much. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, so at this point I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing. Uh, this is the opportunity if anybody wants to speak on this item, uh, or, um, um, object maybe to the assessments, is welcome to do so at this time. Seeing none, I will go ahead and close the, uh, public hearing and, uh, Council, we do have item number two as a recommendation for Council. Who would like to take it? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Mayor, I'll adopt resolution—or I'll move rather that we adopt Resolution 2023-131, adopting assessments for the 2023 Pavement Management Project. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, so I have a motion. Do I have a second? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: I would second that. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, so we got—there we go. I was waiting. So we got a second by Councilmember Kada. Any further discussion? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: I do. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Councilmember Olsen? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Mr. Shank, do you approve? Are we okay? You—I know this is your area. Do you—are you happy? Does it look better? Good. Perfect. One of the greatest directors of all time at Park High School, Mr. Daryl Shank. Old—a former teacher of mine too, so I got to make sure he's happy, otherwise I'm not going to be happy. So thank you very much for that. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Did you notice his wife just started laughing next to him when you said that? Um, she's been laughing for a long, long time. So that's—that's okay. Yep. All right, there we go. There we go. All right, so roll call vote, please. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Kada? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Thiede? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Olsen? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Mayor Bailey? [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Aye. Motion carries. All right, the next item under Public Hearings is the Tall Weed Assessment Hearing and Brenda Malinowski is going to take us through this one. So welcome Brenda. [Timestamp] **Brenda Malinowski (Finance Director)**: Mayor, members of the Council. Uh, tonight, uh, you'll be holding a public hearing for the removal of noxious weeds and plants from, uh, private property, and that is in accordance, uh, with our city code. Uh, specifically, it is unlawful to allow or permit any growth of weeds, grass, brush, or other rank vegetation to a height greater than 8 inches. Uh, in 2023, our city, uh, Code Enforcement Officer, uh, did issue 36 letters, uh, to property owners for violations of that code. Um, the owners were given five days to abate, uh, that condition, um, or else the letter stated that the city would come in, abate the condition, and invoice the property for that amount. Um, in five instances, the city, uh, did have to hire a contractor, uh, to remove, uh—to mow the lawn, and then we did invoice those properties, uh, for the cost of that lawn mowing and for the cost of—or and the administrative fee. Um, on four occasions, um, on those invoices, uh, they did not pay the city. Uh, so City Council at your meeting on September 20th, uh, you did—did declare costs and we sent assessment notices to those property owners. Uh, one property, uh, since that time has paid, uh, so we did remove that from the role this evening. Uh, Council, uh, you should, you know, hold the public hearing and consider the assessment. Um, if you do adopt the assessment, uh, it will, uh—if it's not paid in the next 30 days, it will be certified to their property taxes next year. Um, I would like to note, um, of the three, um, that are on the this evening, we did receive payment this week on one of them, so they will already be, uh, paying in the 30 days and so they will not be certified to the property taxes. Uh, so with that, uh, you would hold the public hearing and consider the resolution. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, thank you Brenda. Uh, com—comments, Council? All right, I will go ahead then and open this public hearing if there is anybody in the audience that wants to speak on this item is welcome to do so at this time. Anybody at all? All right, I'll go ahead and close the public hearing here and we'll look for a motion. [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: I would move to approve Resolution 2023-132 adopting service charges for the removal of noxious weeds and plants from private property. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, so I have a motion by Councilmember Thiede. Do I have a second? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: I'll second. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Second by Councilmember Olsen. Any other discussion? Seeing none, roll call. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Kada? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Thiede? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Olsen? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Mayor Bailey? [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Aye. Motion carries. And then finally for public hearings this evening, uh, we do have the Street Reconstruction and Overlay Plan, a public hearing. And Brenda is going to also start us through this one. I think you may have somebody here to introduce, but I'll turn it over to you. [Timestamp] **Brenda Malinowski (Finance Director)**: Mayor, members of the City Council. Uh, this year we did do the 10-year Financial Management Plan, um, earlier this year. Um, and the things that I incorporated, um, were our operating budget, um, staffing, equipment replacement, uh, Pavement Management Programs. Uh, so the assessment hearing that we had this evening and another, uh, portion were Street Reconstruction Projects—uh, projects such as, uh, East Point Douglas, 80th Street—um, and so we incorporated the debt payments, uh, for those projects that needed to be done for streets, um, into our Financial Management Plan. Um, and so now, uh, we have the opportunity, uh, to do a Street Reconstruction Overlay Plan, uh, based on our Financial Management Plan. Uh, since this is the first time that the city has followed this process, uh, Ehlers, uh, did assist us in preparation of the plan. And I do have Keith Dahl here from Ehlers to, uh, review it with you and take any questions—pest. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Thank you. Welcome Keith. [Timestamp] **Keith Dahl (Ehlers)**: Good evening Mayor, members of the City Council. Before you tonight is the Street Reconstruction and Overlay Plan, more commonly referred to as an SROP. It lays out the revenues and expenses for the projects that we have identified in that plan over a 5-year horizon. So we're looking from 2024 to 2028. Now this hasn't been the traditional approach that the city has taken to Street Reconstruction projects. Typically you use the assessment process with the improvement bonds, uh, but this is another option if you're not able to achieve that 20% of project cost being assessed against benefiting property owners with an SROP. Um, you are able to assess, but if that assessment amount is under that 20%, um, this is when this approach comes in handy. Now it is subject to a 30-day reverse referendum, which means that after we hold the public hearing and take comments, if the City Clerk receives a petition from signatures of 5% of the voters from the last general election, this item would go for a referendum—go for a vote. So now with that, just looking at what the revenues and the expenses are and going off of what was in the Financial Management Plan and the Capital Improvement Plan, we did add some inflation to account for time, um, anticipating that costs may rise over this 5-year horizon. And we also accounted for some contingency on the amount that we would potentially issue for bonds. This is a not-to-exceed amount, so the amount that you end up issuing for these various years could be less. It does not mean—does not require or commit the City Council to issuing bonds of that size; it's just a maximum amount. And we also incorporated the cost of issuance, uh, capitalized interest, and underwriter discount in that size. Um, so that's just a high-level general overview of the Street Reconstruction and Overlay Plan, and I can turn it back over to the Mayor for any questions that he or the Council may have for me. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, sounds good. And I do know the Council but general public may not know—we've actually been discussing this program, uh, at the—in our workshop session. So it's, uh, different for Cottage Grove, uh, than what we've done in the past, but actually in my opinion a great planning tool, uh, and foresee needs, uh, budget-wise going into the—into the future. Uh, Council, any questions for Keith here or Brenda? All right, I'm not seeing any. You did a great job there. So I'm going to go ahead and, um, open the public hearing. Again, this is the opportunity for anybody who wants to speak on this item is welcome to do so. Is there anybody at all? All right, then I will go ahead and close the public hearing and, uh, Council, we do have a motion before us. [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Mayor, I'll make the motion that we approve Resolution 2023-133 adopting a Street Reconstruction and Overlay Plan and approving the issuance of General Obligation Street Reconstruction bonds. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, so I have a motion by Councilmember Olsen. Do I have a second? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: I'll second that. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, second by Councilmember Kada. Any further discussion, Council? All right, seeing none, now we'll go to roll call. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Kada? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Thiede? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Olsen? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Mayor Bailey? [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thanks for coming tonight. Uh, next, 10 is Bid Awards—none this evening. 11 is the Regular Agenda, and we do have one item on our regular agenda tonight, which is the cannabis and tobacco use on public properties and public places. And our, uh—uh, City Attorney, Corey Land, is going to take us through this one. Welcome. [Timestamp] **Corey Land (City Attorney)**: Thank you honor, members of the Council. Um, I think I told you in July I'd be back in front of you to talk about cannabis every month because that's just where we are, uh, with dealing with the, uh, legislation that was, uh, bestowed upon us in May. So in July we talked about, uh, a moratorium—public, uh, use of cannabis in public places. Uh, we talked about in—in August then, you adopted a moratorium, uh, but you didn't want to take action on a public place ordinance at that time, uh, prohibiting, uh, the use of cannabis in public places, but instead, uh, you wanted to hear some feedback from other commissions. I mean, that's what you have the commissions for, is to provide you with, uh, what the—what the residents think about things that you are making policy-level decisions about. And so in September, we did hold a meeting with the Parks Commission and the Public Safety Commission to talk about these three cannabis-related topics. And I know tobacco is not a cannabis topic, but it was sort of a—outflow from the discussion, uh, at that September 11th meeting. I think we had a pretty good—I don't know how many people are on both commissions, but I felt—felt like it was a pretty good turnout, uh, from both of them. Uh, and in general, I would say more than a—a majority supported all three ordinances. The first one is prohibiting, uh, smoking and vaping of cannabis in public places. The second is they felt like tobacco use, uh—smoking and vaping—should be treated the same, uh, because it's a public health issue. And, uh, third, the penal—that the statute does not allow—does not provide a penalty for underage use of cannabis, and they overwhelmingly supported that there should be a penalty. So we'll go through each of those ordinances which have been prepared separately. They are three different sections of the code, but I felt like you really needed to discuss them and approve them as separate ordinances instead of packaging them in one. As you know, the state law indicates, uh, that the use of cannabis is restricted to certain places. It is only allowed in a private home—inside, outside your yard, your curtilage—which is considered—considered, uh, areas of that the general public could cross, such as your driveway or your sidewalk to get your front door; private property with the permission of the owner; or any business that has an on-site consumption license—which there are none, because, uh, that is only—can be issued from the Office of Cannabis Management and that will not be operational until, uh, 2025. However, there's the two caveats, little asterisks, in the: yes, they can smoke or vape in these three locations, but it must be outside the presence of a minor and it cannot violate the Clean Indoor Air Act. But again, there's no penalty in the statute. So that's what we are discussing is a—is the—the legislation does state that the city can provide a penalty and prohibit public places, but the penalty can be no more than, uh, a petty misdemeanor. So the way we've defined public places in this ordinance is that it is property generally open to or accessible by the public, and it includes public property. And then we define public property as it is being owned by the city. So that can be real property, buildings, parking lots, rights of way, uh, trails, and sidewalks. So cannab—smoking and vaping of cannabis—of the adult-use version of cannabis—would be prohibited in public places, both any place generally accessible to the public as well as on public property. So we recommend adopting an ordinance prohibiting smoking or vaping of cannabis on public property in public places. The violation would be a petty misdemeanor and the fine would be $100. This would be a—what we call a payable ticket, so if someone were to receive a citation for this, they can pay it and it does not show up in any kind of a criminal history. It's like getting a parking ticket; failure to pay it is where you get into trouble. But that is not the—the petty misdemeanor is not intended to have any kind of criminal consequences. But that out from that, you wanted also the—the Parks Commission and the—the Public Safety Commission to weigh on whether or not we should prohibit tobacco smoking and vaping in our public parks, because it was—even though it hasn't been an issue, it's a public health issue just as smoking and vaping of cannabis is a public health issue. And the—the Joint Committee meeting did recommend adopting an ordinance prohibiting the smoking and v—v—vaping of tobacco in public parks. So it's not as broad as the smoking and vaping of cannabis; it's restricted to just public parks. But felt that River Oaks is sort of a separate kind of park—it's not really a park because you got to pay to play—uh, so that's more of a venue than it is a park. Uh, the violation would be the same, however, as—as the cannabis, uh, smoking and vaping: would be a petty misdemeanor and the fine would be $100. As far as underage use, uh, it is illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to use any form of cannabis, whether it's a 3% or less or 3% or more. It is illegal, but again the legislature decided not to punish the children and so there's no penalty for them to violate. So we are recommending adopting an ordinance prohibiting underage possession and use of cannabis products. So it's anyone under the age of 21. The penalty should mirror the state law on, uh, underage consumption of alcohol—both are intoxicating substances—and violations would be a misdemeanor, but the penalty or the fine would be $100. Now anyone under 18 is going to qualify for a diversion program. Anyone between 18 and 21, it's like getting an underage consumption ticket when you're in college. So that's—that's the penalty; it would be a misdemeanor. So we are recommending you discuss all three ordinances and recommending approval—but discuss and approve them separately. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, so first, uh, question is obviously for Council. Is there any questions you have, uh, for our City Attorney, Corey Land? I've got one. Councilmember Kada, go ahead. [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: When researching these ordinances, um, I’m sure you compared them against other municipalities, um, and other case law. Is there—is there any reason to think that by adopting these ordinances they may be challenged, um, by an individual for their constitutionality or, um, kind of, um, overreach? [Timestamp] **Corey Land (City Attorney)**: Councilmember Kada and, uh, Council, given its similarity to a prohibition on tobacco use in a park—and I'm not aware of any challenges, uh, to those ordinances under a public health, safety, welfare sort of, um, justification—uh, I—I feel like that's a pretty solid, uh, ground. And prohibiting, uh, use of cannabis in public places is specifically authorized in the legislation; it says cities can... it is prohibited in public places. Don't—I mean, please don't misunderstand: it is not allowed in public places today, but there's no penalty. So unless you say it out loud in your ordinance—I mean, it—it's not allowed and here's how you will be punished—there's no way to enforce it. So that is absolutely 100% solid. [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: Thank you. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, Councilmember Olsen had a comment. [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Yes, um, thank you to our City Attorney. Uh, we know it's serious when she walks from there to there, so I appreciate you taking the time to bring this forward. Uh, I was fortunate enough, as was Councilmember Kada, to be part of the commission meeting. And, uh, I can speak from being part of that meeting, um, that there was overwhelming support for each of these items. I really want to thank our Commissioners. We have advisory commissions to the City Council for a reason—they exist for a reason—and the reason is we want to have as many citizen voices of varying backgrounds, experiences, uh, points of view, to come online whenever we're dealing with challenging, uh, situations like this. And their job is to advise the City Council; their job is to—to tell us, "Hey, you know, we've looked at this, this is what we think, this is what we recommend that you do." Ultimately it's our decision; we're the ones who, um, you know, have to make the call. But it's always helpful to have input from as many people as we got in that commission meeting, and it was very well attended. A lot of great questions, a lot of great dialogue. My compliments to all the commission members and the various staff liaisons who are in the building for that meeting. Uh, and I think the outcome of that is pretty solid. So I'm certainly in support of all of these recommendations based on the—the fact that this is what the commissions brought forth to us as well. Um, but I want to really give them the credit they deserve for—for helping us with this, because this was a heavy lift. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, Councilmember Thiede. [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: And—and just to be clear, I mean, this covers any type of cannabis, no what—matter what form it's in? [Timestamp] **Corey Land (City Attorney)**: Yeah. Um, members of the Council, it is smoking and vaping of cannabis. So if somebody’s eating a gummy bear, we’re not going to go up and try to test gummy bear, okay, to see if it was just purchased at your local candy store or the CBD shop. Uh, it’s just smoking and vaping. [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Okay, thank you. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Perfect. All right, seeing no other, uh, comments from Council at this point, uh, I—you want these as three separate? I do, correct. I just want to make sure we're clear. So, uh, Council—I know it was up there, but Tony's—I see Tony's smiling face there, but, uh, do you want to start it? In the packet... [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Mayor, I'll move to approve an ordinance amending Cottage Grove City Code by enacting Title 5, Chapter 1, Section 6, prohibiting cannabis use on public property and in public places. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, so I have a motion by Councilmember Olsen. Do I have a second? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Second. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: I got—Councilmember Thiede beat you to the pun—punch there, Councilmember Kada. Any further discussion, Council? All right, roll call vote. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Kada? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Thiede? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Olsen? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Mayor Bailey? [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Aye. Motion carries. Uh, then we got number two. [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: I will move make a motion to approve an ordinance amending Cottage Grove City Code by amending Title 7, Chapter 3, Section 4, prohibiting smoking and vaping tobacco products in public parks. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Thiede. Do I have a second? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: I'll second that. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Second by Councilmember Kada again. Any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Kada? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Thiede? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Olsen? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Mayor Bailey? [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Aye. Motion carries. And finally number three. [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Mayor, I'll move to approve an ordinance amending Cottage Grove City Code by enacting Title 5, Chapter 1, Section 7, underage possession and use of cannabis products. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, so we have a motion again by Councilmember Olsen. Do I have a second? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Second. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Second by Councilmember Thiede again. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, roll call. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Kada? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Thiede? [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Councilmember Olsen? [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: Aye. [Timestamp] **Tammy Anderson (City Clerk)**: Mayor Bailey? [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: Aye. All motions carried. Uh, thank you, uh, Attorney Land. All right, uh, we're moving on to 12, which is Council Comments/Request. I will start, uh, with Councilmember Kada. Uh, is there anything you would like to share with the Council or the public? [Timestamp] **Tony Kada**: In light of the, um—the new appointments to our various, uh, volunteer commissions, I did think it was, uh, noteworthy to just, uh, give credit and give thanks to our, uh, volunteer citizens of Cottage Grove who, uh—for—for no compensation other than their goodwill, um, donate their time and input to our volunteer commissions. It is an essential part of what we do in shaping our ordinance and, uh, making the city run as smoothly as it does. So thank you to all of our volunteers. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, thank you Kada—good comment. All right, I guess I'll move to Councilmember Thiede. [Timestamp] **Dave Thiede**: Yeah, I mentioned it a little earlier, but, uh, on, uh, Saturday, October 28th, is the Monster Bash parade. It'll be over on East Point Douglas Road between Applebee’s and it—it actually starts at the District Administration Center for the school. Starts at 10:00 a.m. Uh, it's a fun parade and everything. And—and if you go out to cottagegrove-strawberryfest.com, back and then click on the Monster Bash deal, there's a parade application out there and it shows the parade route. And—and I think it, uh—you should—supposed to get your application in by the 20th. So what is today—18th? So that's by Friday. So remember that Friday the 20th, you want to get your application in to be in the Monster Bash parade. And—and I’m pretty lucky because I don’t even have to wear a costume and I’m scary. So, good. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, that's it for you? Yep. All right, Councilmember Olsen. [Timestamp] **Justin Olsen**: You know, um, Dave's always a tough act to follow; I'll just say that first of all. I want to take a moment to congratulate our Park of Cottage Grove High School Boys Soccer Team, who are in the state tournament. They are section champions—they won the other night. And, um, I know that, uh, we're all going to get behind them as a community here in Cottage Grove. It's always fun when we have one of our teams in the state tournament. Uh, the Mayor and I and—and, uh, some others had an opportunity to go out to Target Field to watch our Park High Boys Baseball team a couple years ago play in the state tournament final. And it really didn't go our way that day, unfortunately, but you know what? It was super fun following that group all the way through the sections and into the state tournament. And it's a real honor for our community to have, uh, teams that—that, uh, represent us in the state tournament. So again, congratulations to Park Boys Soccer, and let's hope that, uh, one of these Council meetings coming up soon we can congratulate you on a state championship. We would love that. The second thing that I wanted to bring up today is, um, you may notice that I’m wearing a shirt that says "Beyond the Yellow Ribbon," and I did that on purpose. Um, as a member of our, uh, Beyond the Yellow Ribbon team here in the City of Cottage Grove, one of the things that we do is we support families who may be challenged, um, with different situations related to—to, uh, their participation as members of our Armed Forces. And one of the most difficult is when we have National Guard soldiers who get deployed, and that deployment call can come at any time. With the conflict that is currently taking place in Israel and, uh, the—the Gaza Strip and, um, the Palestinian-held territory, a number of, uh, National Guard soldiers from across the country have been called into active duty. And, uh, right now the number is over 2,000, and in the state of Minnesota, we have, um, a couple of different armories who are going to be deployed, uh, because they are going to be there to support some of the aircraft carriers and—and, uh, other military personnel that are already there in that region. And I just wanted to take a minute to ask for everybody: um, please give some thought to the fact that we're approaching the holiday season and there's going to be a lot of families out there who may have mom or dad or both, or aunt, uncle, son, uh, daughter, etc., who aren't going to be around this holiday season because of this situation. And they don't really have control over when those deployments happen. So we're here as part of the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon team to help support those families. If there's anybody in need that you know of, or anybody who is in need who is watching this at home, uh, I would ask that you please reach out to our Beyond the Yellow Ribbon team. You can contact me directly—my phone number and email and all the rest of it is all over the place. All you got to do is Google me. Uh, I am not the Justin Olsen who is an Olympic snowboarder, just so you know—you probably can tell by looking at me—but I want to clarify that's not me; I’m the other guy. But I am, uh, willing to have that conversation with you and we want to help those families have a great holiday season. So please lean on us if there's a need. And with that, Mayor, I'll turn it back to you. [Timestamp] **Mayor Myron Bailey**: All right, thank you Councilmember Olsen. So interestingly enough, we're actually getting into the—the holiday season as you were just mentioning, and there are all kinds of events coming up. And I—I will just mention one real quick—excuse me, or one comment real quick for—for staff is I think maybe during our first meeting in November, uh, maybe we'd want to have a—a review of all the events that are going to be coming up, uh, between, uh, end of November into December. Uh, there are a couple though, that before we have our next council meeting, that I did want to bring up. And—and obviously one was, uh, the Monster Bash parade, which is a great event here in Cottage Grove. Uh, the other one is on October 25th at the Ice Arena is the Halloween Skating Spooktacular, uh, which is, uh, $10 per skater, and then if you need to rent skates—which you can there—it's $5, uh, for the skate rental. And you can go to the City website to check that out. Um, the other item is Pumpkin Chuck, and I wasn't able to get there last year to see this, but I heard it was pretty amazing. Greatest thing. Uh, and it is free. It is at Peter Thompson Park and it's on November 2nd, uh, of this year at between 3:30 and 5:30. So I encourage, uh, anybody that likes to maybe chuck a pumpkin can absolutely come out to Peter Thompson Park and enjoy, uh, the festivities of that. Uh, and then, um, again, because, uh, we're getting into the beginning of November, the other, uh, two—well, one main item I want to mention is down at River Oaks. Uh, they are going to be having an event that they've had—not had for a couple years, of which a couple of us—actually all of us up here have had the opportunity to be participate in or particip—or to be a part of, and that's what's called the "Friendsgiving," uh, which is just an opportunity to meet with friends and family if you like, uh, for a family-style meal. And that is November 10th. Uh, and so I encourage, uh, the public if you want to find out more information, uh, check out the City's website or River Oaks' website. Um, I know we got a large group of actually now two tables, I think, of people that I've talked to, because once you've experienced this at River Oaks and the great food by our chefs and such and our staff, uh, you want to go back. Uh, and it's—it's absolutely amazing. So, uh, being that that is also, uh, coming before or right close to the next council meeting, and I’m assuming they're going to need to have headcounts by then, uh, and, uh—I don't have the fee in front of me. I don't recall what the fee is. Zac, do you remember at all? So I just would again—I don't off the top of my head, but I will tell you, it's very much worth it and it's a great—great event, uh, to be participating in. All right, uh, but again, we'll have, uh, some additional items, uh, for the, uh, Hometown Holiday celebration at the end of November. And then we did just recently find out that the Holiday Train will be back in Cottage Grove on Sunday, No—or Sunday, December 10th, at I believe about 5:00. Uh, and so, uh, they're excited to be back into town; they’re celebrating—I believe is it 40 years? Uh, 40 years celebration, so they're, uh, very excited to be back in Cottage Grove. So I thought—I think they're doing the—aren't they doing the collect... um, the paper goods and and what have you for train prior and that's why? Yeah, that is why I wanted to make sure that we catch all those things, uh, and share with the public what are some of the other events, things that are coming up. So I think that is—that is perfect. All right, uh, so that was it on, uh, Council Comments/Request. 13 is a Workshop, uh, which is open to the public, which we do not have any this evening. Uh, on 14, uh, we do have a Workshop, uh, in—or a hearing, I should say, and it's a License Revocation Hearing, uh, which is closed to the public. Uh, and just so the public is aware, uh, pursuant to Minnesota Statutes Section 13D.05, Subsection 2B2, uh, we are—will as a Council be considering the tobacco license revocation—revocations, excuse me—of Cottage Grove Tobacco LLC and Cottage Grove 4G LLC, doing business as Smoke Leaf, which will involve the discussion of active investigation—investigative data as defined in Minnesota Statute Section 13.82, Subdivision 7. Uh, so the, uh, Council, along with, uh, certain staff and the representatives, uh, that are here representing those business—that business or businesses—will be moving to the training room. Uh, and so we will not be adjourning, uh, in here. Uh, and then once the, uh—discussions have happened, uh, between, uh, the Council, staff, and, uh, the representatives, we will then open the meeting in the—in the training room, uh, so that the public can hear what the decision has been made, uh, publicly, uh, by the Council. So at this point, I'll just say goodnight to everybody from in here and, uh, Council will join in the conference room. And Tony, you have a third link, so we'll get you on your third link now. Okay, thank you.