Based on the context of the dialogue (references to White Bear Lake, the Environmental Advisory Commission, and specific city projects), I have identified the speakers as **Mayor Dan Steffen**, City Manager **Lindsey Crawford**, Public Works Director/Engineer **Paul Copy**, and EAC Staff Liaison **Connie Talon**, alongside the guest of honor **Rick Johnston** and the **City Attorney**. [0:28] (Silence/Background noise) [0:58] (Silence/Background noise) [1:28] (Silence/Background noise) [1:58] (Silence/Background noise) [2:28] (Silence/Background noise) [2:58] (Silence/Background noise) [3:42] **Mayor Dan Steffen:** All right, we're going to call the meeting to order. Will the clerk please note those in attendance? All will be noted, thank you. Will you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? [Pledge of Allegiance] 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, and justice for all. All right, item 2A: minutes of the regular city council meeting on June 25th, 2024. I'd entertain a motion to approve those minutes. [4:18] **Council Member:** So moved. [4:19] **Council Member:** Second. [4:20] **Mayor Dan Steffen:** A motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. (Council: Aye). Any opposed? Motion carries, minutes are approved. Adoption of the agenda: we have one correction, item 4C, which currently reads "resolution authorizing a lease agreement extension with New Singular Wireless" should now read "resolution authorizing a lease agreement extension with Whitebear Dance Center." And if there are no other corrections to the agenda, I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda. [4:40] **Council Member:** So moved. [4:41] **Council Member:** Second. [4:42] **Mayor Dan Steffen:** A motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. (Council: Aye). Any opposed? Motion carries. We have an agenda item four: consent agenda. I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. [4:55] **Council Member:** So moved. [4:56] **Council Member:** Second. [4:57] **Mayor Dan Steffen:** Have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. (Council: Aye). Any opposed? Motion carries, the consent agenda is approved. All right, item five: visitors and presentations. We have a recognition of service for Rick Johnston from the Environmental Advisory Commission. Miss Talon, whenever you're ready. [5:15] **Connie Talon:** Thank you, Mayor, Council. As the staff liaison for the Environmental Advisory Commission, or EAC for short, I would like to introduce Rick Johnston. Do you want to raise your hand in a minute? It's up to you. That's Rick. Um, he has served on the EAC since 2018 and as Vice Chair since 2022. Rick was extremely active on the EAC over the years and supported numerous environmental initiatives. I will highlight just a few of his many contributions. Rick was part of the EAC Recycling subcommittee and encouraged the EAC to support work towards zero waste. He was involved in conducting research on zero waste events and created a handout on sustainable purchasing and preventing and managing organic waste. In the handout, he also included a summary of compostable products that are available online and locally, and personally visited local stores to create this list. Rick was also very involved in the EAC downtown recycling bin initiative. He conducted extensive research on proper recycling bin placement and signage to maximize recycling rates and prepared an outline on Citywide recycling opportunities based on this research. Rick visited each trash and recycling container in the downtown area to determine the level of contamination in the recycling and to create a location map of all the existing trash and recycling containers. Rick was also actively involved in the East Goose Lake adaptive lake management process, which we partnered on with the Vadnais Lake Area Water Management Organization, and he attended the Water Management Organization board meetings to learn more about this process. Rick reviewed the EAC web page and drafted language that updates and expands the purpose of the EAC. He also helped plan the Environment Resources Expo, providing folding chairs for all of the exhibitors and helped to transport the exhibitor tents, tables, and chairs to and from the event each year, which is no small task, I just have to say. Um, Rick, we are very fortunate to have had you on the Environmental Advisory Commission. Thank you for your volunteer service and for being a role model in our community. And if you could come up now, the Mayor and Council would like to recognize you for your volunteer service. [7:38] **Mayor Dan Steffen:** As has been custom when serving on a board, you get one of these [plaque/award]. I have one from the commission so... my thanks and my treasurer's thanks. I hope you'll accept that for all the hard work you did. I've said it many, many times, we've got really, really good volunteerism in this community. I talk to our city manager and others that worked in other communities; they'll say that's not the norm. So the fact that you and so many others dedicate so much of your time—we are able to do so much more than what our budgets could ever allow. And as Connie just listed off the many, many good things you did... um, that's a lot. So congratulations on a job well done. We're sorry to see you go, but we thank you for your service to the community. Thank you, appreciate it. [8:33] **Rick Johnston:** Um, thank you. Uh, it's been a real honor for me to have served on the commission. Uh, it's a group of very committed, intelligent, and very knowledgeable people, so it's been a real joy to work with them. It's been wonderful to work with Connie; she's absolutely one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life and also an excellent environmental engineer. I was lucky to—fortunate to have the opportunity to work with her, and the city should be very fortunate to, or should be very grateful to have her on the staff. So thank you very much, I appreciate it. Thank you. [9:12] **Mayor Dan Steffen:** Thank you again. All right, item six: public hearing, nothing scheduled. Item seven: unfinished business, we have nothing scheduled. Item eight: new business, 8th Street Parking restrictions. Mr. Copy, whenever you're ready. [9:22] **Paul Copy:** Uh, Mayor, members of the Council, um, might as well have a trend here with parking items on the agenda here lately. Um, so this is the final step in the High School unification street projects that need to be done as part of the conditional use permit and the traffic study that identified certain improvements that needed to be made. If you recall, we are doing a traffic signal at Highway 61 and 8th Street. They are doing some turn lanes on Division Avenue as part of their entrances into the new campus. Um, and then finally, we are doing the 8th Street improvements between Bloom and Highway 61. Specifically tonight, we have before you the 8th Street improvements. The final thing that we need to do is enter into a "No Parking" resolution that would allow us to park the—or make the north side of 8th Street no parking. The configuration that was landed upon through numerous public outreach and working with the neighborhood, as well as looking at the needs of the traffic for the school and the neighborhood... so what we landed on is a single lane in each direction. We also have a dedicated parking lane on the south side as well as a new sidewalk to allow students and others to move along 8th Street. It's rather busy, and we expect it to become even busier with the new additional school traffic, busing, things like that. So, um, that is the final configuration. So in order to make this work, we need to sign the north side "no parking." That'll allow free flow of traffic along 8th Street off of Highway 61 to more efficiently get to the high school entrances, um, as well as the busing. So, um, this is the last approval that's going to be needed by Council for these projects. As you remember, we entered into agreements with the school district for the overall project and funding; we entered into an agreement with the Minnesota Department of Transportation for the signal project, as well as the Burlington Northern Railroad for the signal as well and the crossing of—or the new crossing and the sidewalk of the railroad. So this is the final step in this process. So tonight we have before you a resolution that would designate parking restrictions on the north side of 8th Street from Bloom Avenue to Trunk Highway 61. And the [document] at the dais is a revised resolution that the City Attorney had a little tweak to some language in the "Now Therefore Be It Resolved" item number one to make it stand a little bit better with how we should have worded it. So, um, with that I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. [12:20] **Mayor Dan Steffen:** Thank you, Mr. Copy. Uh, quick question: so this was sort of decided long ago as part of the broader project and this is kind of a formality. Since this has been noticed for this meeting, have we received any calls of anyone who has an opinion to the negative as to us passing this resolution? [12:44] **Paul Copy:** Mayor, members of the Council, so through the neighborhood meeting—we had a number of neighborhood meetings and open houses to gather input from residents in the neighborhood hosted by the school district. Um, obviously to maintain parking, the residents were happy with the designated parking lane on the south side. Um, that served the residents along 8th Street to have parking adjacent to their homes. So that seemed to satisfy everybody's worries of parking along 8th Street. [13:16] **Mayor Dan Steffen:** Very good, thank you. And for City Attorney: I noticed we just—we simply changed the wording from "the city shall ban" to "the city hereby prohibits." Is there anything that the City Council might need to know as to why we did that and what its significance is? [13:41] **City Attorney:** Yeah, thank you, Mayor and Council. Um, fairly technical, probably a matter of semantics with that change, but uh, under the city's ordinance, the Council itself has the authority to restrict parking in certain areas. And so rather than the Council's "Be It Resolved" clause stating that the city *shall* ban parking, I think what we're doing, and what more appropriately the Council is doing, is actually *prohibiting* it. So, um, I just—I made that very technical tweak so there's no, you know, on the off chance that someone wants to get cute and try to argue that the language isn't unequivocal. Probably highly unlikely, but figured I would point that out and make that recommendation. [14:15] **Mayor Dan Steffen:** So, very good. Well, good catch and thanks for making sure our resolution is as tight as it can be. Council questions for Mr. Copy, or would we like to move the resolution? [14:27] **Council Member:** Move to approve. [14:28] **Council Member:** Second. [14:29] **Mayor Dan Steffen:** Have a motion, do I have a second? Any further discussion on this? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. (Council: Aye). Any opposed? Motion carries and the resolution is passed. Thank you, Mr. Copy. Item nine: discussion, nothing scheduled. Item 10: communication from the City Manager. Miss Crawford. [14:48] **Lindsey Crawford:** Thank you, uh, Mayor, members of the Council. Um, we have Public Health and Safety Night this Thursday at Marketfest, so I know I'll see many of you down there. And police and fire are excited, and with all of their other public safety partners—and NF S is joining this year and it should be a good time. Um, Senator Gustafson and Representative Curran are holding a town hall, a joint town hall, on July 17th, which is a Wednesday, at the White Bear Lake Library at 6:00 p.m. So I thought I would share that out. I'm sure there's more information from both of them that you can find on their websites, but wanted to share that out. And that's all that I have for today. [15:28] **Mayor Dan Steffen:** Thank you. Any questions or comments from Miss Crawford? Seeing none, I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. [15:35] **Council Member:** So moved. [15:37] **Mayor Dan Steffen:** All those in favor say aye. (Council: Aye). We're adjourned in record time—12 minutes, pretty good. And there was discussion! I don't know that that's a record-record, but maybe a record for you.