This transcript appears to be from a Hastings City Council meeting on **February 1, 2021**. Please note that the council roster in this transcript (Folch, Vaughn, Brox, Fox, Lund, Leifeld) reflects the officials in office at that time, which differs slightly from the list provided in the prompt. [0:00] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** pandemic and closure of city hall to members of the public as a result of the foregoing the city council meeting will be conducted solely by telephone or other electronic means as provided in minnesota statutes 13d .021 and no one in person meeting will be conducted in the city council chambers i think it is important to recognize that using a video conference is different than in person but it is necessary under the circumstances we are doing the best we can to maintain transparency and due process i would appreciate everyone's patience and cooperation as we work through the meeting tonight please stand for the pledge of allegiance [0:52] **All:** i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice and justice for all [1:05] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you looks like council member leifeld's having a little technical difficulty so should be right on um at this time seeing that the meeting is being held remotely when i call your name please indicate your presence council member brox [1:27] **Councilmember Jen Brox:** here [1:28] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** council member folch [1:29] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** here [1:30] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** council member fox [1:31] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** here [1:40] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** council member leiffeld councilmember lund here councilmember vaughn here let the role reflect that excluding council member lightfelt at this moment all council members are present and a quorum has been established today we are having a moment of silence for uh denise keane it was great gladness sadness i'm sorry that we heard of the um passing of denise keene on january 3rd 2021. was an active member of the hastings community she was dedicated to helping with the [2:27] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** elections for many years her can-do attitude and willingness to help when and wherever was greatly appreciated especially during this last election cycle denise was a selfless woman and she will be missed let us recognize her with a moment of silence [3:02] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** uh thank you today we have the approval of a minutes council members are there any corrections to the minutes from the regular meeting of january 19th seeing none they are approved comments from the audience for public comments we have options for comments to be emailed prior to the meeting as well as an interactive feature during the meeting for the email comments they have been forwarded to the city council and their receipt is acknowledged please recognize that items not on the agenda will not be discussed this evening we ask the attendees use the raised hand feature and they will be invited to speak one at [3:49] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** a time i also want to remind everyone that the public comment period is not intended for the extended dialogue is there anyone here that would like to speak to the council at this time [4:08] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** i see no one okay council i would accept a motion to approve the consent agenda [4:18] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** your honor council member folch thank your honor i'd like to pull two items off of the consent agenda i'd like to pull number four and number nine [4:30] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** okay any other council okay with that we'll move number four to community development john hinsman and nine we will put under administration dan wietecha this time is there something else said thank you [4:54] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** okay at this time i would uh take a motion to approve one through nine excluding number four and number nine [5:02] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** council member folch [5:05] **Councilmember Joe Lund:** and councilmember lund [5:08] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** discussion please call the role [5:11] **City Clerk Julie Flatten:** council member vaughn yes council member fulch yes council member fox yes council member leiffeld yes councilmember lund yes councilmember brox yes mayor fassbender yes [5:34] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** and that motion prevails tonight under public works we will have an update from mndot [5:39] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** um highway 316 project for this item we will have an introduction by public works director nick egger and by molly klein from the minnesota department of transportation followed by council discussion this is not an action item tonight for council and welcome molly [6:00] **Nick Egger (Public Works Director):** mayor fastbender i'll keep my comments really brief uh it's been a while since we've last brought uh information to the council on the project i think uh we had a meeting maybe last summer june-ish or so with the municipal consent step that was necessary for this project to [6:24] **Nick Egger:** move into the final design stage so that work has all taken place since then and the plans are uh in the home stretch so to speak of of having their final approval and it's on its way to being bit out shortly here in the next couple of months with construction later this summer but i'm going to leave the finer details of it to molly klein who's been gracious enough to join us tonight and she'll provide a brief presentation and then be available for q a thereafter so molly take it away [7:02] **Molly Klein (MnDOT):** thank you uh it says i am not able to share my screen is that uh something that [7:09] **Nick Egger:** nick could you pull up the presentation or is there right we should be able to get that for you here molly looks like john hinsman's all over it [7:19] **John Hinzman:** i'm uh i'm all over it let's see uh maybe i might have to have dan do it i'm trying to make her uh give it a try a co-host but i don't see the option on here for me there it comes once okay good [7:46] **Molly Klein:** all right yep perfect can you see just the presentation now [7:53] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** we do [7:54] **Molly Klein:** perfect sounds good thank you very much again we're here to talk about highway 316 our favorite road through the city [7:57] **Molly Klein:** of hastings at the moment we have just four items on our agenda tonight it'll be pretty quick with a quick project overview then we'll go into construction impacts the budget update and then next steps so this is just a recap of the project area the pavement all along this stretch of highway 316 is deteriorated and needs to be replaced we heard from residents commuters and the business community that there were additional needs on top of just the pavement that needed to be addressed in addition to the pavement so we we heard that speed is a concern access is a concern especially during peak periods there's no bike or ped facilities and that safety was a known concern as well [8:44] **Nick Egger:** hey molly uh the slides didn't seem to be changing just there if you could uh that quickly hey which slot is it the project area slide now we just have the title sheet up right now [9:06] **Molly Klein:** um let's see sorry about that all right is that better [9:17] **Nick Egger:** we're seeing the layout now yep perfect thanks nick [9:21] **Molly Klein:** okay so this is the concept layout this is the same graphic that we have shown for quite a while it's very small so we'll go quickly over [9:31] **Molly Klein:** this um but it includes the three roundabouts the median all the improvements that allow us to provide the safety improvements the speed reduction the access modifications as well as the bike and pen connection so the next slide is the visualization and my favorite of all of the slides tonight um it's a quick overview this starts on the south side this is the first of three roundabouts at tuttle there's the trail on both the east and the west side as you can see we're coming up to malcolm and 37th street the west side trail in this section does drop off because we didn't have an adequate right-of-way to put that trail in at this time but the trail on the east side does continue [10:16] **Molly Klein:** this is tiffany drive and the second of three roundabouts at about the midpoint of this section of highway 316. 33rd street is located here coming up on 31st street and then the third of three roundabouts is here at spiral now we continue north up to the intersection of 316 and 61. [10:37] **Molly Klein:** um but that will be a very big change from what is out there today so again we're we're looking to slow speeds improve safety reduce intersection delay and provide that bike and ped connection through this area production impacts what we're all looking forward to being done this fall but we have to get through it first so we do have a ton of work to do out in on 316 this summer um so we're like nick had said we're getting ready to bid this project we're planning for uh bids to come in in march so it will take us a little time to process the bids and get a contractor on board but we do anticipate construction lasting from spring through fall of 2021 [11:23] **Molly Klein:** so pretty much this whole construction season we will be out working on highway 316 in this area and we have a lot of work to do we have utility relocation that needs to occur we have a lot of grading a lot of drainage work a lot of paving of both the road the trail and the roundabouts we have to put in the trails we have the roundabout construction like i just mentioned lighting signing striping it is a full reconstruction of this roadway so it is more work but it also then will last longer as well um stages sorry about something but that works too construction stages we anticipate four distinct stages during construction [12:08] **Molly Klein:** this is what we have in our construction plans but like i mentioned we don't yet have a contractor on board and contractors are known to streamline our process so we might say there's four stages and plan for that but a contractor could come in and find efficiencies which we appreciate right it goes faster we'll be in and out faster if they find efficiencies and implement those so as you can see here we have four stages why we named them one a and one b instead of one through four i'm not exactly sure but on this graphic it's stage one a one b two and three so one a is the yellow stage which includes the tuttle roundabout on the south end of town this um that allows us to get that [12:53] **Molly Klein:** um roundabout installed first which frees up that intersection so there will be a point in time during that stage specifically stage one a and b where that intersection itself will be under construction and it will be a little more challenging than it is today to get in and out of there um if you do have access only off of highway 316 whether it's business or residential you will always have access to your property throughout construction it might not be exactly how you get to and from today and it could change throughout construction based on where the contractor is working but you will always have access and we have staff dedicated to providing information about when things change [13:40] **Molly Klein:** when the road will close when you know these stages will progress through construction and we will communicate with both the businesses and the residents directly along 316 as well as provide email updates as we move through construction so i know that that is not ideal to have your driveway or your business be on a construction route so we will do everything we can to provide information as quickly and as timely as we can through construction to ease as much of that concern as we can there will still be trash pickup mail you'll still be able to get deliveries it just will be closed to that through traffic and anyone that doesn't need to be in that area [14:28] **Molly Klein:** we have two different detours the first i'll mention is the regional detour so the trips that aren't destined for the construction zone we are signing a detour road on highway 61. both in hastings and south of hastings we're going to try to keep as many of those regional trips on highway 61 as we can that being said i personally use google to find my way if i'm not familiar with the area and we know that google doesn't always follow our detours so we also have a local detour knowing that some residents along this stretch of highway 316 as well as businesses might be coming from a different area and it might be easier for them to use county 91 to [15:13] **Molly Klein:** ravenna trail to 10th street as you can see on the right side of the slide here this will also be assigned a tour row but it is intended only for those folks that uh are destined to the 316 corridor where there is construction so this will just allow residents and businesses again just to go to the east instead of all the way down to highway 61. [15:44] **Molly Klein:** when the tuttle roundabout is being built and until the roadway is open between tuttle and malcolm this will be the route in and out of the tuttle drive neighborhoods so unfortunately during that time there isn't alternate connection north with city streets so those residents in the tuttle drive area will need to head south on 316 north on 91 and back around whether it's ravina trail the 10th street or another city street that if their destination is off another local street there will be a temporary access for residents off tuttle drive on the east side of highway 316 when the tuttle roundabout is being constructed because again we'll be working on that intersection itself so we we [16:32] **Molly Klein:** know we need to provide access in and out of the neighborhood to highway 316 so we are planning for that in in the construction plans this anticipated detour route is about nine minutes so from um tuttle drive and highway 316 following the blue detour route is about nine minutes so it will add a little bit of time during construction but as soon as construction is done in this area we expect this to be an improvement over what is is available today and the delays that we heard about budget our favorite topic on a project um this project is now fully funded as [17:17] **Molly Klein:** you can see here the estimate the current estimate is 7.6 million dollars and there are four different funding sources so mndot is contributing 5.4 million dollars in funding plus design services and construction administration the city has some utility work that's needed in conjunction with the project and that estimate is three hundred thousand dollars according to the mndot cost participation policy the city also has to contribute towards some of the design features for the project and those are specific roadway elements such as local legs of the roundabouts and some of the trail work and that estimate is eight hundred and [18:04] **Molly Klein:** ten thousand dollars and is shown in yellow and then the 2020 legislature awarded this project geo bond funds which filled the funding gap and is shown in dark green on this graphic the geo bond funds are dedicated towards the trail and associated elements including curb and gutter and storm sewer elements so the trail carbon gutter and storm sewer and those are estimated to to be 1.08 million dollars i just want to reiterate that this is an estimate this is our best guess at this time but we will update these funding amounts when we receive the bids for from the contractors or the potential contractors and again that is anticipated in may [18:51] **Molly Klein:** or march excuse me march okay next steps a couple of documents that will be coming to city council through this through staff so nick and ryan and others regarding this project so while we're the plans are turned in and we're working towards our um bidding prop working through the bidding process we do have a few documents that the city will still need to review and execute before we can begin construction the first one is the cooperative construction agreement these these are fairly standard we do a lot of cooperative construction agreements they typically handle the funding so [19:37] **Molly Klein:** those three buckets of funds that are not mndot funds are handled through that cooperative construction agreement as well as some maintenance activities following the project then there's a limited use permit we call those lups internal so if you hear lup it's limited use permit and that is typically for trail work so the trail the second trail would be covered by that limited use permit and just says the city will plow it and um keep it in good repair i think there's a time limit on that lup now so they just are renewed every set number of years there also is a detour agreement that that local detour route that we were just talking about with the blue [20:23] **Molly Klein:** dashed line uses 10th street which is a city street and this detour agreement allows us to sign that detour route on highway 60 or on 10th street excuse me and it provides some funding for the use of that roadway as well then there's the lrip or local road improvement program agreement this is the formal agreement to reimburse the geo bond funds that we just talked about that the legislature awarded the project so there will still be a couple of items coming your way for review and action but we're getting close to construction for the next steps here tonight february 1st we're providing the council update [21:08] **Molly Klein:** we do have a a virtual business update planned for february 10th and we're working with the hastings chamber chamber of commerce on that open house or the business update meeting then we also plan a virtual open house this spring where we will go into more depth about construction staging timing answer any sort of construction related questions that we are able to so we do plan to get back out to the public one more time before construction begins this spring and with that thank you very much here's the project website it's kind of long it's quicker for me if i just google mndot highway 316 but this is the actual project website link [21:59] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** great thanks molly yeah thank you yeah it's very exciting like i said there'll be pain but it'll all be good at the end i counsel any discussion or questions for molly or nick or [22:12] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** your honor this is tina [22:15] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** okay thanks tina because i only i know it's hard to see when you can only see like four people at a time there we go thank you yes councilmember falch [22:24] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** thank you your honor um molly i thank you for that update it it's exciting that things are moving ahead and but then it was like gulp when i saw the detour route going around the neighborhood um when you were talking about the four phases i was and then i get it [22:47] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** when you bring on a contractor and they start to lay out their project time frames um what i was curious about is just the flow of traffic for the residents that live in that area um and how it is that you're intending to let folks get back into their neighborhoods i know that there's a there's a couple ways to skin a cat there and sneak around on back ways into the neighborhood and such but um so i was wondering if there will be close-off 316 like starting at highway 61 and 316. [23:22] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** so it will be that whole section all at once um or will it be that it'll actually be in four sections as was denoted on that that map i i don't know what slide it was we don't think we received the presentation in advance to be able to have that on handed view talk about that a little bit i'm sure there'll be lots of questions for residents in that area [23:51] **Molly Klein:** sure right now councilmember folch we anticipate there will be multiple stages so lake was on the graphic with the four different stages we believe that that's how the contractor will complete the work that being said we have utility work that's the utilities have to be out of the way before we can begin some of the construction so i i don't want to say that we will [24:09] **Molly Klein:** only be working in one of those sections at a time there's a potential that a couple different sections could be under construction whether it's the contractor or the utility companies as well that we'll have to get in and again move the utilities in advance of the roadway construction i think the the residents off of tuttle have probably the least connectivity into hastings um of of all the other roadways that connect onto highway 316 so those residents will definitely have that nine minute detour for a portion of the summer um again it's it's gonna be a little painful during construction but it will be very very nice when it is [24:56] **Molly Klein:** done and it will help with all of those things we heard right all the concerns that we heard from the public those delays that it's hard to get in and out during peak times these roundabouts will help with that by slowing traffic and providing the gaps necessary for residents and business owners deliveries all of that to to have better and safer access following the project [25:21] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** okay and then so you're going to have uh some open houses this summer is there just going to be one opportunity and how are you planning to publicize that in the past when we've done open houses it's just been the properties that are immediately on highway 316 that received the notices is a mass mailing going to be sent to everyone that's being affected in these [25:43] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** in these neighborhoods or how's the word getting out on that one [25:49] **Molly Klein:** and i don't know that we've determined yet exactly how the word will get out we're still continuing to work through choosing a date and working towards that notification i would anticipate working with the city to use social media we we have had really good luck with notifying folks about the previous open houses so taking some of the things we've learned from you know the three open houses we've had before and and understanding that now it's a virtual environment so we might have to do more than that we'll continue to work with city staff as well as our mndot communications staff as well to figure out a plan of how to best reach reach the neighborhoods the residents [26:31] **Molly Klein:** the businesses and and i would welcome comments if you have thoughts about how to best do that we're happy to to hear your thoughts and and implement those as part of the plan [26:41] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** sure although i'm always happy to you know walk the the neighborhoods and and do a drop you know leaving a piece of lit or something like that um i would really highly recommend doing a direct mailing to everyone that is in those neighborhoods um so that they get a direct piece and so and sometimes i've noticed sometimes not necessarily with this project but um that notices come out kind of too close to the date of an actual event happening and so just to make sure that people are given at least a couple of weeks of notice that it it's occurring so it's not a you [27:17] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** know a last-minute thing i know i check my mail maybe once a week or actually read it so you know what i mean and then my last question is um just about uh the the geo fund um the the goal the go bond um that was received originally that was for 1.5 million right and so and you had in your slide there that it was down to 1 million 80 000 and and so is that what's been determined can that's actually related to the trail system that's eligible for the reimbursement piece [27:56] **Molly Klein:** yep you've got it absolutely right yep it has to be items that are eligible for using those geo bond funds and we have went through our estimate a handful of times making sure we have [28:04] **Molly Klein:** captured as much of those items as we possibly can to use those geo bond dollars and the estimate is right now at 1.08 million again that's an estimate and those costs will be updated once we get a contractor on board [28:18] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** okay that's good it's more than what i was thinking it may have been and then so the city is on the hook for eight hundred and ten thousand dollars that's the final or close to the final number besides this the utility piece just for planning purposes [28:38] **Molly Klein:** okay and again these are estimates and they will all be updated at the time of project award [28:44] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** okay i was just curious how nick was feeling about that so thank you very much molly [28:51] **Molly Klein:** you're very welcome [28:53] **Councilmember Jen Brox:** thank you molly for the presentation my question is just about redirecting truck traffic i recall from living on highway 316 that although it is not the preferred route for semi-truck traffic that it is often used as a shortcut and so how do you get the word out to private enterprise truck driving companies people who use that road to know that they shouldn't be using it during this construction season because obviously if there's detours and things like that through neighborhoods we don't want semis driving through neighborhoods and disrupting you know creating noise and traffic that wouldn't otherwise be there so how do you how do you guys handle that piece [29:38] **Molly Klein:** again we're gonna try to capture as much traffic as we can with the highway 61 regional detour um i will sign only the local detour so i would see the local detour um being targeted more for the the residents on tuttle and those residents along maybe highway 316 but north of 61. [30:01] **Molly Klein:** so kind of outside of the city limits but still close to the project area i don't see folks traveling south to catch highway 61 and coming around um and we also plan to reach out to the businesses we have that business open house on the 10th where we hope to share graphics and thoughts and ask for ideas of how they could best reach out to their deliveries their their shipping partners as well to make sure they have a an accessible route to those businesses which i don't think anyone wants to have that come through a residential neighborhood so making sure that they also know um what the preferred route would be from the city's perspective [30:46] **Molly Klein:** we'll be working with city staff at that open house as well [30:49] **Councilmember Jen Brox:** okay thank you very much [30:52] **Molly Klein:** you're very welcome [30:53] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you councilmember brox councilmember vaughn [30:57] **Councilmember Trevor Vaughn:** thank you honor molly thank you can you confirm then you are not going to put a sign out on 61 316 towards red wing to say preferred route is to keep going forward to get to 61 and don't cut through hastings [31:12] **Molly Klein:** that will be it will be yup the highway 316 signage for the detour route will be on the south junction of 316 and 61 trying to capture as many of those trips as we can keeping them on highway threes or highway 61 not on highway 316. [31:27] **Councilmember Trevor Vaughn:** thank you for that clarification and one last question you may not know this yet but did is it written in the contract that will they be allowed to work seven days a week and do you think they will work seven days a week um on this project [31:47] **Molly Klein:** i will have to look into that and get back to you i don't know offhand [31:51] **Councilmember Trevor Vaughn:** okay thank you [31:54] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you councilmember vaughn any other discussion council okay molly thank you again i'm sure we'll see you soon nick did you want to say something [32:11] **Nick Egger:** i i did just real quickly touching back on the the detour element a little bit molly might have to help me out here but molly going back to the uh the nine [32:19] **Nick Egger:** minutes that you cited i i believe from some of our project planning discussions that was the entire trip uh thing for that detour route all the way back around to the intersection of 10th and 61 correct so that's nine minutes that's what what everybody has to keep in mind is that there already is some travel time between tuttle and 10th street and highway 61. [32:47] **Nick Egger:** so it's really the differential there is is less than that correct molly you know maybe something more like four to five minutes total increase time in in travel not nine minutes makes sense and the the other thing that i wanted to touch on was although we understand that uh you know it that will present some frustrations for folks that are in the immediate area having to go around something we also don't encourage is cut through traffic to existing neighborhoods uh and and displace a detour on one or otherwise neighborhood streets that's [33:33] **Nick Egger:** uh every other time that i've experienced that it's uh it causes problems all around and neighborhood streets aren't set up to facilitate that sort of thing so why uh the route was chosen as it was to go around on glendale road around the east side of town there for that one [33:51] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** discussion again molly thank you and i'm sure we'll see you soon so will this be on our website the what you just presented tonight [34:16] **Nick Egger:** anywhere well um a good good point mayor i suppose we can put that we we've got kind of a brief page on the project there that we could put that slide show on um i think really for continual news about the project we do want to encourage people to visit mndot's website as mndot taking the lead on the project and that was at that link that was provided at the end of the slideshow [34:44] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** okay great and i i've heard many people say when that the video first came out how good that was just because it was so clear you know they had to visualize they could see what was going to be happening so that was a good thing to have as well [35:11] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** okay now we'll community development john would you mind uh helping us in the number four item that was pulled from the consent on the parklets [35:22] **John Hinzman (Community Development Director):** sure mayor what we're asking for tonight is to consider first reading and order a public hearing for changes to our city code related to parklets so tonight's action would be to to have that reading schedule the public hearing for our next council meeting which would be february 16th and i think the council is aware of some of the background of parklets we had a version of it last year which was albeit kind of a duct tape version quick version in which the expediency of doing something [35:56] **John Hinzman:** was the penultimate in getting things done this year we wanted to pause a bit we wanted to put something in the city code that would provide more direction to it also we wanted we wanted to take into consideration some of the comments we got back from uh the survey that we conducted in the downtown area as to the use of the parklets the look of the parklets and looking at something today within the parkland ordinance that would have some more permanency towards it something that would not be of last year's variety in which we had traffic demarcations and cones and orange things around the downtown parking spaces and have a situation which the pedestrian traffic was routed around these parklets that's [36:42] **John Hinzman:** one of the things we're looking at this year is to create an ordinance and a process in which parklets would be within the parking spaces only and that the second street sidewalk would be clear for passage and so it would have a different look than last year more of your traditional parklet look that most other cities have with that we have caution within the report that there is a portion of uh state law that requires liquor service to be contiguous and continuous and that with having a separation of these facilities away from the building uh there may be some risk involved in not meeting those requirements of contiguous [37:28] **John Hinzman:** uh from state statutes in looking at the application and the enforcement of this upon other cities we have noted that there are a number of other cities within the state that have created parklets within parking spaces that have not been physically contiguous to a building and that has not posed an issue so i will caution that that is a risk that we are undertaking but based upon the enforcement of this provision uh in the past which we have not seen enforced in other municipalities uh we we feel uh strongly in bringing this forward as a recommendation to do it in this fashion because when we looked at the the parklands from last year and the configuration and having to move people [38:13] **John Hinzman:** around the parklets and into the street area we did not feel that was a good situation from a pedestrian from visiting stores and restaurants and also for pedestrian safety so not sure if there was any specific questions that you had tonight bearing in mind that we're we're looking to hold the public hearing uh in two weeks as part of that public hearing we've had outreach with this ordinance uh we've sent the ordinance out to uh various people in the downtown area and the dba for their comment as well so i can stand for any any questions comments that the council may have thank you [38:58] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you john councilmember folch would you like to um [39:01] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** first of all i'd like to thank john and his new hire eric moss and i'm sure nick has had a hand in this as well and working together and pulling together this parklet ordinance as you have i've been super impressed with eric and the outreach efforts that he's been doing um with the with the downtown uh business association and so thank you very very much um i had i pulled this because i was concerned don't that who you sent it to um but i hadn't seen it and i've been a part of those conversations with the with the downtown business association members and the chamber um you know myself jen fox and um merritt fassbender have been um working together you know as a team that you know paying [39:47] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** attention to this issue and i haven't seen a draft float within that group and so they didn't get an opportunity to ask questions and and and i'm a little concerned about one of the provisions um under f which was building code requirements um number three the frame should be freestanding blah blah blah so there's a requirement in there that it from how i'm reading it is that a parklet has to actually be a form above the street up adjacent against the curb and and but when we were having conversations with the group some of the business owners had um had [40:34] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** said that they didn't see themselves wanting to construct an actual raised parklet that they would like to be able to utilize just the street at surface itself and they realized it was a bit of a tripping hazard but that they felt that that was a better route for their particular circumstance and so i'm concerned that if we didn't give this and if we didn't give people an opportunity and advance to ask questions and um and to deal with little nuances like that i'm just a little afraid of it being i'm going to the second reading and and you know honestly we don't work so great um amending on the fly ordinances and so um so i'm concerned that like so john i'm asking [41:21] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** like i'm okay with moving this forward if we're going to have the opportunity for people to give input at the next meeting and then make changes to the ordinance if if need be but um i just don't feel that we've given um the opportunity for there to be there's been no council committee discussion um i didn't go to any of the commissions that coveted task force even though we were supposed to met last week we didn't and that would have been a good opportunity for us to to talk about this and so it just it hasn't had an opportunity for any questions and comments and so i'm having a little heartburn about it [41:59] **John Hinzman:** i'm sure councilmember appreciate the comments on that what we're scheduling is the public hearing for next week and it's important i think to get as much outreach and comment [42:07] **John Hinzman:** for that meeting at that meeting we would have the public hearing we'd have the opportunity for the council to adopt the ordinance if they feel comfortable at that point if there's significant comment and changes and the council is at the point where they are not comfortable moving it forward we do not have to do that we can hold the public hearing table the discussion with any changes directed to staff and bring that back at another time [42:31] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** okay that makes me feel better i just want to make sure that we get the opportunity for input and and so i mean it's better when we have the opportunity to do it in a smaller group discussion um so that you know everybody has the opportunity to talk i mean let's just face it during a council meeting um discussion [42:54] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** is much different than it is when we have the opportunity to have a smaller group um off the you know off the camera a conversation people feel a lot more relaxed um to ask questions so any who i just would encourage in the future if we have the opportunity to ask for comments in advance right before we do this but okay so with that um said oh um i don't know if if anybody else wants to ask questions but i can at least make a motion to um what was the motion for it to have a first reading order public hearing for the amended city code on parklets so i can make a motion to move that forward [43:37] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** i'd second that your honor [43:40] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** or uh second invite council member leifeld uh other council discussion i see councilmember vaughn would like to speak [43:49] **Councilmember Trevor Vaughn:** and thanks for councilmember folch for pulling this because i think it needs some awareness that we want to get some involvement two questions for staff and i'll just let them come back at the next hearing to answer it i just wanted to make sure the community knows this is for all of the community not just downtown it sounds like we've we sent some information to just downtown i just want to verify this ordinance will change for all businesses throughout the community to confirm that and then the second part it talked about a grant application and we did talk about this at hedra i just want to verify um in the memo it said it's a matching grant i just want to confirm is that [44:27] **Councilmember Trevor Vaughn:** going to be a the business has to if it costs two thousand dollars to build a park that does a business do a thousand dollars in the city thousand and then the unit will be owned by the uh business i think um that's how we read it at hedra so two questions i can staff can answer next time but those were questions i would be asking on the february 16th too thank you [44:52] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** okay thank you councilmember vaughn any other discussion council member lightfield [44:59] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** thank you honor quite a couple of questions john so just to clarify this is in addition to any of the businesses who already have the sidewalk correct [45:11] **John Hinzman:** that is correct councilmember we [45:14] **John Hinzman:** uh we purposely made this distinct from the sidewalk cafe ordinance it doesn't preclude a party from doing both so they could do one or the other or both on this [45:26] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** okay and then a question which i now thought of thanks to councilmember vaughn when we talk about this being in the end you know through the whole community could this effect would this be something that restaurants without a liquor license could participate in since i'm the only one i can think of offhand would be subway up bike hub they've got picnic tables out front do they have a sidewalk license for those picnic tables because i don't remember ever seeing them come [46:00] **John Hinzman:** through council something that comes to us because of the alcohol i think two things are involved for the sidewalk cafe license and similarly for the parklet number one the service of alcohol requires any sort of amended permit on that requirements for outdoor service so anytime that occurs that that's a point in which uh the council needs to take action on the liquor license the second portion is the use of public right-of-way uh within the downtown area in particular when you have parking areas those are going to be within the public right-of-way and so now you're having commerce that is occurring within the public right-of-way which has its own stipulations and we want to make sure that some of the insurance requirements and [46:46] **John Hinzman:** safety requirements are there that that being said a lot of the areas outside of the downtown area that have sidewalk areas parking areas are not in the public right-of-way they're in in public streets themselves so i think that would be distinct from what we're doing here because we're talking about the public right-of-way that being said it wouldn't preclude those individuals from from making making a uh a conversion of those parking spaces uh but it wouldn't be per this uh this uh parklet ordinance because we're not dealing with the public right-of-way [47:28] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** john for that clarification because i too and brought this up previously is i i can't think of any other situation quite like this within the city um every other location that i can think [47:33] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** of has their own a parking lot associated with it and such or their own space so i appreciate your clarifying that thank you [47:44] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** councilmember lightfield councilmember fox [47:48] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** thank you madam mayor i just wanted to um thank councilmember fulch for bringing up the concern about um the scaling of this plan so if somebody wants a park like we had last year if they want something in the middle or if they would like something that's constructed on second street um i know that that's been part of the conversations that um mayor fassbender and council member flinch and i have been a part of for a couple months now and that's [48:18] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** something i just really appreciate those comments um i also wanted to to mention that i will recuse myself from this vote so just so everybody is aware [48:29] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** okay thank you councilmember fox council member folch [48:35] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** thank you may i ask one other question of john um john in regards in your little memo um and councilmember vaughn he just alluded to it that you had mentioned that there was um a grant a grant grant match and so i listened to the last hedera meeting and it was brought up in the sentiment of the of hedras members were that they would be more interested in a grant rather than a loan there wasn't really discussion about there being a [49:05] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** match requirement and so i think that's up in the air and i and i just wanted to provide feedback again when we've had these conversations with the downtown business association members the restaurant owners and such i think there's varying degrees of how much they're suffering i think some of them are completely on their knees and they have not they are holding on by a thread and so i'm like super nervous about this um ambiguity about the grant match and um and and how and how it is you guys are thinking about structuring that there hasn't been an opportunity for staff to ask anybody yet for any feedback on that and what it is that you're thinking about proposing and so um i would ask you to tread [49:53] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** softly on this issue because i know that um like i said they're really suffering and it could get worse before it gets better um yet this winter as it sounds with these new strains coming that are more contagious and so um so i just i'm looking for john i'd like to hear what are your intentions at this next meeting in regards to further discussion about the grant match [50:23] **John Hinzman:** council member yeah we do have hedgerow took action at their meeting in january to provide forty thousand dollars towards parklets now we had some general discussion as to what that would include but certainly no specificity as as to how the program would be uh would be would be completed and so [50:39] **John Hinzman:** we have a meeting coming up with hedra next thursday we will bring that topic back to them bring back forward our plans our plans at this point are to have a match program in which uh this the hedgerow would provide 75 of the cost up to 4 000 and an individual business would provide 25 uh that that's open for discussion could be open for change i know what some of the discussion we had at hedra it was a a very close vote it was a 4-3 vote in favor of providing funding there was some discussion among hedger members as to where the where the program was at if if the funding how necessary the funding would be at that point so we'll have continual discussions with them next thursday [51:24] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** okay well i don't know if um eric had the opportunity to get some cost estimates for what these parklets are and i would just like to suggest rather than having a 25-75 um match requirement that that you rather look at an allotment being made for what a basic parklet might be so that the the opportunity is first of all provided if first of all going back to what it says in the ordinance that if they don't want to have a raised surface that they just want to use the street surface that that a that should be a possibility so that they can use the parklet space but then secondly if that and i'm just making stuff up here because i don't know any better if it costs on average three thousand dollars to make you know a structure [52:11] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** like a basic structure nothing fancy then make it a three thousand dollars and then anything over that maybe is a match you know it's something of that um caliber just to be able um so that there's an opportunity for all of those businesses to participate not just the ones that are doing well enough to be able to come up with that extra match so anyhow that's just what i'd like to say about that so thank you john you've been so wonderful and eric as as well so thanks again [52:54] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** council member folks council member brox [52:57] **Councilmember Jen Brox:** john i have two questions um one is just about the availability of parklets to non-food and beverage establishments because the language in this appears that it would be only available to those that serve food and beverage is that [53:14] **Councilmember Jen Brox:** an accurate statement that there would not be parklets available to other kinds of businesses like retail [53:19] **John Hinzman:** council member brox is a very good point uh i will check on that i our intent is not to limit it to restaurant service but now that now that i'm i'm thinking about it more i we may have language in there that's prohibitive towards other types of uses so i'll look at that one my intent is to make it open for retail use because i know there's at least one if not two uh businesses that have expressed interest that are that are not restaurants [53:42] **Councilmember Jen Brox:** so i was just thinking back to the ones that were set up this past summer and i know for sure there was a parklet in front of quaint quirky and eye candy in that area and i don't [53:51] **Councilmember Jen Brox:** think it was utilized as some of the other ones were but i wouldn't want to preclude them from having the opportunity to have one so that was my first question which is half of a statement also my second question is about um is about is there any consent or notice required to a neighboring business that is maybe not a food or restaurant business to have their buy-in on the occupation of the parking spaces because essentially you know when you have a retail business next to a restaurant you know we're going to be taking up a certain number of spaces do they have to discuss this concept with their neighbors or is it just you know all of these parking spaces are public parking spaces so how do we sort [54:29] **Councilmember Jen Brox:** that out if there's a retail establishment that's really concerned that all the all the parking spaces in front of their establishment are taken up [54:38] **John Hinzman:** good questions there with the ordinance as proposed there would be a public hearing element to it upon the the initial issuance this is similar to what we do with sidewalk cafes so with that everyone within 350 feet would be notified of it we always encourage those businesses that are applying that have a public hearing aspect to it to talk to their neighbors it's always easy to do that and have consent prior to the public hearing but they would be notified of this and one of the things that we want to be able to get a handle on is the number of parklet spaces that would be requested and how that would integrate into the [55:16] **John Hinzman:** downtown area you take a look at the parklets that we established last year you know there was there was a mixed bag from from businesses down there that that was that worked that didn't work so we want to make sure that we have an idea of how many parklets would be coming in and how those would fit in in the parking loss that would occur there [55:41] **Councilmember Jen Brox:** thank you very much [55:43] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you councilmember brox there is a motion on the table if there's no other discussion clerk flattening please call the role [55:53] **City Clerk Julie Flatten:** council member vaughn yes council member fulch yes councilmember fox abstain councilmember [56:06] **City Clerk Julie Flatten:** leifeld yes councilmember lund yes councilmember brox yes mayor fassbender yes [56:19] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** and that motion prevails okay under administration tonight we have a budget amendment for the updated strategic planning proposal for this item we have an introduction by city administrator dan wietecha dan welcome [56:37] **Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** thank you uh this is picking up where uh we were interrupted for the past 11 months by covin um about this time a year ago we were talking with chad [56:49] **Dan Wietecha:** weinstein about contracting with him to facilitate some work with the city council and department heads quite frankly i think it's some of the most important work we could be doing to get us all growing in the same direction had initially planned on a series of interviews uh followed up with a half day retreat to work as a group and had to cancel that when when kovitz started forcing everything to go remote and social distance hard to to get 15 20 people in a room together um here here we are some months later [57:36] **Dan Wietecha:** and have seen some experience uh doing sessions along these lines uh in a zoom environment um it may limit some of what we would otherwise be able to do but can still have a productive meeting or series of meetings and come up with some common goals that we can work towards it does require as noting the budget amendment it does require some additional funding above what we anticipated before that's partly a matter of in the zoom environment adding a couple of meetings instead of doing half a day on zoom let's do three two hour sessions and try to avoid some [58:24] **Dan Wietecha:** of that fatigue but it also means additional work in between the the meetings and additional time of the consultants it also um i don't want to say it's duplicating some of the work but it's uh with the restart if if back last february chad had interviewed each of you and invested that time although i believe that that input would still be uh inputted into this uh this new work it's a year later as well as we've got a couple of you know one new face on the council needing to basically redo those [59:10] **Dan Wietecha:** interviews here again this february so some additional time there those resulting in the additional time and the the budget impact of it and hope that we could approve this agreement with the associated budget amendment but i can certainly stand for any questions [59:34] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** and any questions counsel [59:43] **Councilmember Joe Lund:** make a motion to approve [59:46] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you council member lund [59:48] **Councilmember Jen Brox:** second [59:52] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** second additional discussion council member vaughn [59:56] **Councilmember Trevor Vaughn:** i guess my only concern is uh we did some work already and we we paid for [59:56] **Councilmember Trevor Vaughn:** those services i have a tough time paying for more services that we already did and then i'm still not sold on the the value of trying to someone hasn't proved to me yet that it's going to be successful it seems expensive to do via virtual right i just i use a little bit of caution i'm more interested in doing this when we're back together as a as a whole um i think it's more effective in my personal opinion but i'm a little iffy on spending this much money especially during these amount of times or during these times with this so i'm going to probably vote against us because i think we're better off pausing this until we are together again as a group thank you [1:00:43] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** additional console discussion council member folch [1:00:47] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** thank you your honor um councilmember vaughn something i noticed in reading through this this updated proposal is that this is actually an expanded scope of work you know he this is taking on more it's it's more it's more definitive in identifying what uh strategic priorities there are and then something i've been squeaking about for the last few years is actually having the initiation of work plans for attaining these goals and and and having a plan for how are we going to move some of these things forward um you know that's more in the realm of real strategic planning rather than getting together [1:01:28] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** holding hands and singing kumbaya you know i mean come on let's so i am ecstatic about the fact that the scope has been broadened so that um there's something with more teeth to it and that um something that we can all stay on the same page on and expect regular updates and work together as a team rather than just um yeah just getting together holding hands and hoping for the best that things are gonna work out because i'm sorry that's not how if we can't define specifically where we're going and how we're gonna get there how we ever gonna know that we actually got there and so i'm i'm really pleased with this and um and i thank dan for taking in that i think that he heard that um overwhelmingly [1:02:14] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** um from us as a group you know the last several months and uh and i'm i'm really pleased so thank you dan for listening um to us and and and i'm and i'm making this a lot more robust um in an attempt to do it in a virtual environment god only knows how long it is that we could be in in this particular state of um being i know some of our council members still have health conditions within themselves of their family members that makes them hesitant to be in public environments and so um yeah so who knows and i'd hate to you know sit for another year hoping that we would have the ability to come back together and work on this another year is really long so um so i'll be voting yes so thank you mayor fassbender [1:03:02] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** additional discussion clerk flattening please call the roll [1:03:08] **City Clerk Julie Flatten:** council member vaughn no councilmember fulch yes councilmember fox yes member leifeld yes councilmember lund yes councilmember brock's yes mayor fassbender yes [1:03:32] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** that motion prevails and we'll look for you as well for this next item which was pulled from the consent agenda the exception the accept to accept the resignation of julie flatton and councilmember fultz did you want to [1:03:50] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** speak to that or would you like to hear dan first or what are your questions your thinking it's not a question but i want to express my gratitude for julie's service she is so absolutely wonderful um you know it's in our write-up that she's worked for the city for the last 13 years and i just oh i just lost it shoot about all the things that she does it's unbelievable um is the clerk functions and over human resources i mean we just look to her she's the number two and i don't think a lot of people realize that in 2019 that julie was our city administrator for almost the whole year and a few of us begged her to stay on [1:04:37] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** permanently and we you know we she just has served with so much dignity and she just has my utmost respect and gratitude for everything that she's done for us and i'm sure i'm speaking on behalf of everyone here but i just could not let your resignation go on the consent agenda without saying something julie we have been so blessed to have you and i wish you all the happiness and i hope you make big bucks in the private sector as a consultant that's so exciting for you um because you deserve it and i'm so glad you're still in cow town and i still get to represent you for another couple years so i i am looking to you to um you know to help you know provide feedback from the [1:05:22] **Councilmember Tina Folch:** community still and still be an ear you know to talk things through with when we need you um so thank you julie thank you i have to accept it that's true sorry i think the memo said otherwise [1:05:42] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** yeah no uh councilmember folch has truly made a statement from all of us i hope and i couldn't have i couldn't appreciated you more the year that you were the interim my first year um you are a wealth of knowledge and you definitely will be missed forget you know we still have your phone number [1:06:07] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** historic mind that you have so councilmember leifeld [1:06:14] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** thank your honor so i had a little fun today texting with with julie when i saw the the competencies and such of of the position so i was just kind of joking around with her throughout the day but one thing that i noticed that really resonated with me was um it's within the competencies common to all city positions um this is one that i just really felt um had julie's name all over it and it says that you must possess unquestioning unquestioned honesty and integrity and a high sense of personal and professional ethics my opinion is that is the epitome of [1:06:54] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** julie and to to mayor fassbender's i the last four years i can't imagine what i would have done without julie's knowledge and her support and never making me feel like an idiot for asking the you know there's no such thing as a dumb question question um i've appreciated your candor and your support and your friendship and as much as i'd like to not accept this resignation um i ca i have to wish you just the absolute best in in your next chapter and and my sincere thanks for everything you've done for me and more importantly people don't know what you've done for this city and thank you even brings a tear to my eye thanks julie appreciate you [1:07:40] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** thank you council member leifeld councilmember brox [1:07:44] **Councilmember Jen Brox:** i just also wanted to say thank you julie um and add my gratitude to everything that's already been said and i was just gonna say what councilmember leifeld said that you've done this position with a high level of honesty and integrity and kindness and i really appreciate you i just want you to know that and um and i wish you all the best and i encourage you to call your local council member if you have any concerns going forward that would be tina not me or an at-large member yeah for sure [1:08:18] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** well you are appreciated at this point i would look for a motion to accept sadly julie flatten's resignation [1:08:29] **Councilmember Trevor Vaughn:** no one's going to make them see a motion to accept it regrettably [1:08:34] **Councilmember Joe Lund:** thank you councilmember vaughn in a second by council member lund [1:08:39] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** additional discussion claire flatten please call the roll [1:08:44] **City Clerk Julie Flatten:** council number vaughn yes thank you sponsored member fulch yes and thank you again julie councilmember fox yes thank you julie councilmember leifeld yes councilmember lund yes councilmember brox yes mayor fassbender yes [1:10:04] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** i will thank you everyone and that motion prevails council do you have any announcements okay i have a couple so we have the state of the city virtual presentation what will be at noon on wednesday february 10th it features must much of the city's adaptations this year in the response to covid and looks ahead to plans for 2021. please considering ordering take out lunch from a local restaurant [1:10:31] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** watching this over your lunch period the recording will also remain on the city website and hctv's youtube channel for later viewing city offices will be closed on monday february 15th in observance of presidents day monday february 8th we will have a planning commission meeting at 7 pm tuesday february 9th a parks and rec commission meeting at 7 p.m thursday february 11th uh hedra meeting at 6 00 pm tuesday february 16th city council will meet at 7 00 p.m and there is also a 7 p.m heritage preservation commission meeting [1:11:13] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** one final note we want to move our city administrator dan with teacha a happy birthday yesterday have that right okay i would accept a motion to adjourn please [1:11:28] **Councilmember Jen Brox:** councilmember brox [1:11:30] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** and council member leifeld [1:11:32] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** no discussion clerk flattened please call the roll [1:11:36] **City Clerk Julie Flatten:** council member vaughn yes councilmember fultz yes councilmember fox yes councilmember leifeld yes councilmember lund yes councilmember brox yes mayor fassbender yes [1:11:58] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** and that motion prevails thank you all