Based on the context provided, here is the transcribed townhall meeting with speaker names and corrected name spellings. [0:09] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner**: First item is roll call. Council Member Barnes? (Here). Doumbouya? (Here). Ross? (Here). Rowan? (Here). Van Sluis? (Here). Thiele? (Here). Mayor Spooner? (Here). 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. [0:45] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner**: Number two is approval of the agenda. **Peter van Sluis**: Mayor Spooner? Yes, I make a motion to approve the current agenda. **John Rowan**: I'll second. **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner**: Motion by Van Sluis, seconded by Rowan. All in favor? (Aye). All opposed? (No). Motion passes. Presentation: Approval of the minutes of June 10th, 2025. [1:00] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner**: Mayor Spooner? **Peter van Sluis**: Yes. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of the June 10th, 2025 city council meeting. **John Rowan**: Second. [1:17] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner**: Second by Rowan. All in favor? (Aye). All opposed? (No). Motion passes. And we have none. A consent agenda item 6A through 6G. Would anybody like anything pulled for discussion? [1:37] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner**: Mayor Spooner? **Peter van Sluis**: Yes. I make a motion to approve consent agenda items 6A through 6G. **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner**: Motion by Van Sluis, seconded by Barnes to approve 6A through 6G. All in favor? (Aye). All opposed? (No). Motion passes. Item number seven, public hearings. We have none. Items for discussion: Resolution 2025-167. [2:12] **Mark DuChene (City Engineer)**: Thank you, Mayor, members of the council, and the public. Before you tonight is a resolution to demolish the existing building and pavements at 505 Central Avenue highlighted in the blue outline here on the screen. The city purchased this property a year or so ago with the intent for redevelopment. Since then, the redevelopment plans for this block have somewhat shifted to another area of town. So at this time, the proposal is just to remove the existing structure and the pavement, restore it with green space, and then wait for another redevelopment project to happen. The estimated project cost is $50,000. Seeking approval of Resolution 2025-167. [2:56] **Peter van Sluis**: Thank you, Mayor Spooner. Um, is there any chance when we do this we can fill in the curbs on either Fifth Street or Central Avenue for more parking? **Mark DuChene**: Yes. So, at this point, under a separate contract—not part of this contract—we are going to likely fill in the parking on Fifth Street as part of this. **Peter van Sluis**: I'd like to see that done. Thank you. [3:20] **Mandy Barnes**: So, this is the old Central Auto property. Are we concerned about any contamination being that it used to be a gas station? **Mark DuChene**: We did have a hazardous materials inspection done primarily on the building materials and site. We, you know, we don't know—there's not been like a dry cleaner or anything there. Okay. [3:55] **Peter van Sluis**: Mayor Spooner, I'll make a motion to pass Resolution 2025-167. **Chuck Thiele**: Second. **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner**: Motion by Van Sluis, second by Thiele to approve Resolution 2025-167. All in favor? (Aye). All opposed? (No). Motion passes. Resolution 2025-165, approve plans and establish bid date. [4:30] **Mark DuChene (City Engineer)**: Thank you, Mayor, members of the council, and the public. Before you tonight is a second resolution to approve the plans and establish a bid date for the citywide tree removal project. As you're aware, earlier this year, we solicited participants from the community who have diseased and dead trees within their properties for removal as part of a citywide contract. We received close to 90-plus properties that responded that were interested in participating in the program. Of those 90-plus properties, there's over 180 trees amongst them. [5:19] **Mark DuChene**: When we took in all that information and how to bid this out and figure out the way to get the most competitive bids while allowing the most people the opportunity to participate in these contracts, we've decided to split the overall contract up into four separate bids. So we've divided the area of town. Some of the areas look wonky compared to the others—it's just because of how the trees were spaced out. The majority of the trees are in the south half of town. We've got four contracts that we're going to bid out. Each contract has roughly 50 trees in it, hopefully getting some competitive bids and allowing some of our smaller tree removal contractors to bid. [5:47] **Mark DuChene**: We knew about the EAB (Emerald Ash Borer) and we're looking at this workload to bid on these projects, not expecting one contractor to come in. Some of these trees are going to require different bucket trucks and whatnot. So, we put it up as best we thought we could get it. Pending approval tonight, we'll put out four separate contracts tomorrow. Contractors can bid on one of the four or all four. We'll award to the lowest responsible bidder for each of the four contracts. We do have an October completion date because, as you recall, these trees then will be specially assessed back to the property owners. Once we have the bids for every tree, we'll write up a special assessment agreement with the property owners and if they don't like the cost for their trees, they can back out. [6:30] **Mark DuChene**: We actually have to bid every tree. We're estimating about $2,000 a tree, so about $400,000 if everything moves forward for all four bid projects. I'll take any questions, but we are looking for approval of Resolution 2025-165. [7:03] **Peter van Sluis**: Mayor Spooner, I make a motion to approve Resolution 2025-165. **Royal Ross**: Second. **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner**: Motion by Van Sluis, second by Ross. All in favor? (Aye). Motion passes. Resolution 2025-168, miscellaneous street reconstruction. [7:39] **Mark DuChene (City Engineer)**: Thank you, Mayor and Council members. The last resolution tonight is to accept the bids for our 2025 miscellaneous street reconstruction project. This project, as you recall, is three separate small street projects: the construction of Amber Court off of the Stone Ridge edition; the realignment of Grant Street and Park Avenue on the north side of Highway 60; and the third project is the realignment of Division Street and Old Fourth Street to make the through movement from Division to Old Fourth Street with a stop condition on the north. [8:20] **Mark DuChene**: Bids were opened last Wednesday on the 18th and we received three bidders. The low bid came from Icon LLC at just over $475,000. This was about 11% over the engineer's estimate, but when we take total project costs and funding into account, we're at about $546,000, which is still well underneath the budgeted total. We had estimated that we'd have a little bit more competitiveness given the small nature of this. We recommend approval and moving forward with awarding the bids tonight. Construction is scheduled to start in July and August and be wrapped up. With that, I'll take any questions, but we are recommending approval of Resolution 2025-168. [9:18] **Peter van Sluis**: Thank you, Mayor Spooner. What's the special assessment for $14,000? **Mark DuChene**: So, that's for the Riverview Ridge/Amber Court project through that development agreement. **Peter van Sluis**: Okay, so it's going to the developer? **Mark DuChene**: Yeah, it's a single-family lot being developed that necessitated the extension of a public street. We discussed this in work session where the city is participating in a portion of the cost, the developer/subdivider is participating in a majority, and there's a second existing residential property relocating their driveway who is also participating in a portion of the cost. [10:06] **Peter van Sluis**: Thank you. **Royal Ross**: Mayor Spooner? Yes, I'll make a motion to approve Resolution 2025-168. **John Rowan**: Second. **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner**: Motion by Ross, second by Rowan. All in favor? (Aye). All opposed? (No). Motion passes. Administrator reports and announcements. [10:29] **Jessica Kinser (City Administrator)**: Yeah, I have a few things. Just a reminder that we are looking to schedule a joint work session between the Council and the HPC (Heritage Preservation Commission) towards the end of the month. When I looked at the Doodle poll today, which still needs some responses, the 21st at 5:00 p.m. is looking like the ideal date for everybody so far. So please enter your responses so we can get that on the calendar. The other thing that requires your attention before noon on Friday is the strategic plan priorities survey that Brad [Phenow] had sent out. There's going to be another reminder coming out with that deadline. We are looking to get that information back so you have a rough draft to look at at the July 15th work session. As of this afternoon, there were two City Council responses—great staff response though, I think more than 58 staff members have responded. So we're definitely interested in your opinions on the front end. That's all I have. [12:01] **Chuck Thiele**: Our goal is to make Brad [Phenow] work. You make me nervous, too—that's our secondary goal. So, this Saturday at 1:00 p.m. at Maple Lawn Cemetery, the local ham radio club will be having Field Day. So if you're into radio, whether it's CB, GMRS, ham radio, or shortwave, come on down and visit with us. It'll be open to the public until 7:00 p.m. [12:30] **Jessica Kinser**: And Heather [Slechta], Chief Sherwin, Brad Phenow, and myself will be attending the conference. Should be interesting; there are some good things, and Brad is actually presenting. [12:49] **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner**: All right. Anything else? **Chuck Thiele**: Motion to adjourn. **Peter van Sluis**: Second. **Mayor Thomas J. Spooner**: Motion by Thiele, seconded by Van Sluis. All in favor? (Aye). Meeting adjourned.