This transcript features the Canon Falls City Council meeting. Based on the roll call and the context of the dialogue, the meeting is led by **Council Member Laura Kronenberger** (acting as Mayor Pro Tem in the absence of Mayor Matt Montgomery). Note: Several names mentioned in the transcript (Grote, Gimse, and Derek Lundell) are current or former council members not explicitly included in your provided list but are clearly identified in the audio. *** [0:28] **[Audio Interference]** [0:58] **[Audio Interference]** [1:28] **[Audio Interference]** [2:29] **[Unknown Speaker]:** Got all— [2:38] **Laura Kronenberger (Mayor Pro Tem):** Right, thank you. What happened? What’s his name? Okay. Call to order City of Canon Falls City Council meeting for Tuesday, September 17th. Roll call. **Sara Peer (City Clerk):** Gimse? **Council Member Gimse:** Here. **Sara Peer:** Grote? **Council Member Grote:** Here. **Sara Peer:** Jeppesen? **Ryan Jeppesen:** Here. **Sara Peer:** Johnson? **Diane Johnson:** Here. **Sara Peer:** Kronenberger? **Laura Kronenberger:** Here. **Sara Peer:** Lundell? **Derek Lundell:** Here. **Sara Peer:** Montgomery is absent. **Laura Kronenberger:** Stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. **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 for all. **Laura Kronenberger:** So, can I get a motion to approve the agenda? [3:25] **Derek Lundell:** Could I make an addition to the agenda, please? **Laura Kronenberger:** Sure. **Derek Lundell:** I would like to add um, Canon River Raceway discussion, and with that, I will make a motion to approve the agenda with that addition. **Diane Johnson:** I’ll second. **Laura Kronenberger:** Okay, so with the addition of Canon River Raceway—the go-kart track, got it. Second? Discussion? All in favor? **Council:** Aye. **Laura Kronenberger:** Opposed? Carries. Okay. Public input is intended to afford the public an opportunity to address concerns to the City Council. The public input will be no longer than 30 minutes in total length and each speaker will have no more than three minutes to speak... Josh? Yes. [5:01] **Josh Cre:** Hi, my name is Josh Cre. I live at 1221 State Street West. Uh, I'm here tonight to talk about the property that joins mine, the Terrace. Um, it’s been a point of contention of mine for about two years now. Currently have an individual that’s taking care of the property and it looks phenomenal, but what he's bringing with that is my concern. Um, he’s got people coming in and out of the area all hours of the night and it seems to me that it’s nefarious activities and I’m concerned that things are going to escalate and get worse. I was wondering if there’s anything that the city can do to help me with this problem? I've exhausted the Canon Falls Police Department; I feel like I'm annoying him at this point with all the calls that we've made... He’s collecting garbage back there at this point. Um, guess that was that’s about it for me. **Laura Kronenberger:** Okay, thank you. **Josh Cre:** Thank you. **Laura Kronenberger:** Thank you. Okay, that brings us to the consent agenda... Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda or did anybody want to bring anything down? [7:20] **Council Member Gimse:** Motion to approve. **Ryan Jeppesen:** Second. **Laura Kronenberger:** Motion to approve by Gimse, second by Ryan. All in favor? **Council:** Aye. **Laura Kronenberger:** Opposed? Carries. So that brings us to Item A, City Business—the Canon River Raceway. [7:34] **Derek Lundell:** Yeah, I just, you know, we didn't even really get a chance to discuss it last meeting because they withdrew their uh, zoning request, but um, this issue isn't going away. I get stopped almost every day asking: Are these races legal? If not, why is the city still letting it happen? What’s the plan going forward? So, um, like I said, it ain't going away. I figure we might as well discuss it. I know Shelly is on Zoom with maybe some information for us. So I guess my main question is, are these races legal or not? And then we can go from there. If Shelly could help... there she is. [8:26] **Shelley Ryan (City Attorney):** Sure. Um, good evening Madam Mayor Pro Tem and council members. Uh, thank you for allowing me to visit with you over Zoom this evening. Uh, the issue of the racetrack has—uh, we’ve looked at it on more than one occasion... I’ve come to the conclusion that the racetrack use is in fact contrary to what our city code allows in their zone. Um, so what we’ve done thus far is issue a notice pursuant to city code that... it does qualify and constitute a public nuisance under Chapter 97 of the city code. But I think more importantly, it's a violation of the zoning code. It's an unlawful use and we did put them on notice um, early August that we viewed it as such. [9:52] **Derek Lundell:** Can the city be sued or held liable for allowing them to keep going? [10:32] **Shelley Ryan:** Council Member Lundell, it's—it’s difficult in the sense that I don't want to give a legal opinion on whether or not the city would be uh, subject to a lawsuit. Uh, note that the city council has great discretion in this area as to determining how to proceed. [11:00] **Derek Lundell:** Are they an Ag Society? Does that have bearing on what we're doing? [11:20] **Shelley Ryan:** Yep, that’s an excellent question. Our view again is that based on additional materials that I’ve reviewed, discussions with the county, it is not an Agricultural Society as that term is defined in state statute. There can be only one official Agricultural Society per county, and that already exists. So at best, this is a Fair Association... Fair associations are not exempt from local ordinances... they still need to abide by city ordinances. [12:20] **Derek Lundell:** Like a noise ordinance? **Shelley Ryan:** The Fair Association would, yes. [12:39] **Diane Johnson:** Michelle—did you or anyone on behalf of the city actually contact the Minnesota Agricultural Society and ask for a list of the members in good standing and for the booklet that governs them? [13:26] **Shelley Ryan:** Um, yes actually. We—I don't know that we had to ask them, all of that is available on their website online. I could not find—as public documents—it gets a little confusing because of how much the State Fair is ingrained in all of this as well. [14:12] **Diane Johnson:** Because I found on my list of Minnesota county fairs that there are several counties that have more than one. One is called a County Fair, one is called a District Fair, and they all are members of the Minnesota Ag Society... [14:58] **Laura Kronenberger:** Diane, I saw that website too. There's a Minnesota County Fair Association. That’s just a group of fairs. You can also be an associate member... it’s not a legal thing like bylaws. [15:10] **Diane Johnson:** The bylaws state that they have—that’s state law though, that the Ag Society is the official— [15:45] **Derek Lundell:** Well, I asked someone on the Fair months ago... and they just said, "Oh, we are," but they could never show me anything. So it tells me they probably aren't. I mean, if they were, they would have brought it a year ago, wouldn't they? So what about a conditional use permit then for the races? [16:32] **Diane Johnson:** I think one of the things that I asked um, the Goodhue County Fair, if they were under the same bylaws as the ones they're running under, and they said no, they're not... [quoting statute 38]... it says this section shall not be construed to preclude the continuance of any Agricultural Society now existing. [17:19] **Derek Lundell:** Well anyway, I don't know, I just wanted to discuss it because this ain't going away. At some point, either we need to make a decision on if or what we're going to do. I know they only have one race left this weekend. [18:04] **Laura Kronenberger:** Should they have a conditional use permit to do the races? It's not even a conditional use—or yeah, it's not a conditional use for that zone. Um, what was Kurt—he referenced a law in 1994 about racetracks? Can you hear that, Shelly? [18:50] **Shelley Ryan:** I did, and I'm not familiar with it... Here we’re talking about the underlying use itself, and the Planning Commission did go ahead and deny their requests for a conditional use permit at its last meeting. [18:50] **Laura Kronenberger:** Yeah, well, like I said, I mean, to me it's—whether you want the track or not, that's really irrelevant. It’s "Are they allowed to have it?" And as a city, we may not agree with every ordinance... but if it’s not allowed, it’s not allowed. [19:53] **Laura Kronenberger:** So, um, Shelly, where should we go from here? Do we have to prove that they're not, or do they have to prove that they are? [20:00] **Shelley Ryan:** That’s a great question. And how this would go is that we would initiate a legal action uh, under the context of unlawful zoning and nuisance... That would be my recommendation. You can do nothing, you can take that legal course. I think at this point there’s so much disagreement between the Fair Association and the city that I’m not sure that there’s going to be a meeting of the minds on this use. [21:50] **Laura Kronenberger:** So we have to decide if we want to do that or— [21:55] **Diane Johnson:** I was going to say, being this was an addition to the agenda, I don't think we should make any decisions tonight. We can ask for more information and talk about the next meeting. [22:20] **Derek Lundell:** Actually, let's not at the next meeting because I might—at the most I'll be on Zoom. [22:24] **Laura Kronenberger:** Yeah, I think you're right. I don't think we can make any formal decision because it's just a discussion... Should we put something on next meeting's agenda then? [22:37] **Jon Radermacher (City Administrator):** How about let’s do it a month from now so we have time to get information? Not that meeting, that one’s going to be bad enough... that’s when we hire our new City Administrator. [23:15] **Derek Lundell:** Well, we can't wait forever. **Laura Kronenberger:** If the last race is this weekend, then indeed there's no pressing need until next spring season again. Jed told me it was this weekend and he's never lied to me. Way to go, Jed. It’s Friday, right? Friday and Saturday. [23:27] **Jon Radermacher:** What would you like us to do as Staff? [23:45] **Diane Johnson:** First of all, get a list from the Minnesota State Agricultural Society of all their members in good standing... Bruce Hammer said he saw a copy of the Minnesota State Ag Society's thing of rules and regulations governing members and that would be nice to have. [24:55] **Derek Lundell:** Also, do we want to just not enforce the rules for this weekend's race? Just let it go? [25:07] **Laura Kronenberger:** Well, I don't want to be a party killer, so... [25:24] **Jon Radermacher:** What was the cease and desist—I guess I wasn't aware we did that. They got that like a month or two ago. As far as I know, they just threw it in the trash... We sat down with one of the fair board members... and I said, "Until we work through this process, this is more of a friendly cease and desist." Well, that process ended last Friday when they submitted their written letter of pulling their application. So now we're back to square one. [26:56] **Jon Radermacher:** You as a governing body need to figure it out. Um, we as staff need to provide you with that information and do what you guys want us to do. Shell will provide you with options... unfortunately, it's going to be your guys' decision. [27:44] **Diane Johnson:** Well, it’s my understanding that they pulled their permit request because it was never their intention because whatever they had applied for would have given the authority for a racetrack to be anywhere in the city, right? [28:29] **Jon Radermacher:** Correct... In fact, that bigger racetrack is split right down the middle—one is R2 on the south side and UR on the north side. In order to have that racetrack... they would have had to get a zoning amendment for that particular zone. [29:50] **Diane Johnson:** If we’re asking for what we need, I guess I would be much more comfortable if our attorney would actually write up different options so we had it in print as opposed to just orally, which sometimes I get confused. [30:28] **Jon Radermacher:** We can do that. When do you want to review this again? First meeting in November? [30:30] **Laura Kronenberger:** Is that too far? **Sara Peer:** We're going to have to move that meeting anyway because it's... we're going to have to accept the election results. [31:37] **Derek Lundell:** Well, I just—I mean, if this takes two or three meetings to resolve, all of a sudden we might have four all-new people jumping in to take over for us for something they don't know anything about yet. [31:55] **Laura Kronenberger:** Yeah, that’s fine. First meeting November, whenever that is. [32:22] **Sara Peer:** I’ll have to look at that. I am not sure I haven't looked at all that yet to be honest... Typically it is a week, but I know some of those laws have changed. [33:11] **Laura Kronenberger:** Okay. So that moves us to reports... [33:14] **Diane Johnson:** EDA met on September 5th. Basically, they just gave an update on the housing situation. Correct, Neil? Do you remember? They set a public hearing for the 23rd? [33:24] **Jon Radermacher:** 23rd for the sale of lots, yep, in Hardwood Estates. [33:59] **Laura Kronenberger:** And Public Works met on September 5th. That was a short meeting but we had the discussion on the well inspection. Anything else, Derek, that you can think of? [34:14] **Derek Lundell:** And the—yeah, Library Board. Yep. Um, they need a new drinking fountain... they’ll be closed for inventory on October 5th. [34:44] **Laura Kronenberger:** And then Planning Commission met on September 9th. Yes, we just had one item and that was a discussion and an application for conditional use permit for a rehab eating disorder facility at the old nursing home. It was denied. [35:22] **Officer Berg:** Well, we’ve had a good start to the school year so far. We're extra patrolling a lot of our school bus stops as we had lots of bus stop arm violations last year. Everybody knows every single bus has awesome cameras; it makes our job a lot easier. [36:07] **Sara Peer:** Uh, absentee voting begins on Friday the 20th. Um, to absentee vote within the city, Goodhue County has taken that over. [36:31] **Jon Radermacher:** Got a request to do a work session on October 9th. What’s availability? It’s kind of a needed general development and planning work session... 6:00? [37:41] **Laura Kronenberger:** All those in favor of an October 9th meeting at 6:00 work session? **Council:** Aye. [38:15] **Jed Petersen (Public Works Director):** Tonight, Dad—um, so this year the MPCA is a sponsored sampling for PFAS... we just did another round of eight samples and kind of narrowed down that high sample coming from the North Industrial Park. We would like—the MPCA is sponsoring a grant... up to I think $125,000 to do more sampling. The grant is called a PFAS Source Identification and Reduction Grant. I’d like to request we have WHKS apply for this grant on behalf of the city. [40:34] **Derek Lundell:** I’ll make a motion to have WHKS apply for that grant for us. **Diane Johnson:** Second. **Laura Kronenberger:** All in favor? Aye. [40:40] **Jed Petersen:** Thank you. And just the other projects in town: John Birch Park, the first base dugout has three walls up... our 2023-2024 street project is moving along... Timber Ridge, they got small utilities being installed... and 72nd Avenue Way, they are going to next week start working on the turn lane. [41:35] **Derek Lundell:** Just a question for Officer Berg: Have you guys looked into what they were talking about with The Terrace if anything fishy is going on there? [41:50] **Officer Berg:** Yes, we have been working with residents up there addressing their complaints... The challenge was the owner is allowing him to be there, so we’ll look more at the junk that’s around there and serve that order. [42:20] **Diane Johnson:** That was the only question I had, so thank you. [42:24] **Council Member Chris Nobach:** Well, it’s a sure sign of fall. The Bombers are doing great, but a sad thing was watching the flower baskets come down from the boys today. It’s a sure sign of what’s ahead. That’s all I got. [42:50] **Laura Kronenberger:** Nothing, Ryan? Lisa? No? Laura? Oh, I am just good. So with that, I’ll take a motion to adjourn. **Lisa Zimmerman:** So moved. **Diane Johnson:** Second. [43:08] **Laura Kronenberger:** All in favor? **Council:** Aye. **Laura Kronenberger:** Opposed? [Meeting Adjourned]