This transcription identifies the speakers based on the provided city official list, context within the meeting, and phonetic interpretations of the raw text (e.g., "kada" as Tony Kamada, "thei" as Dave Thiede, and "Pete ker" as Pete Koerner). *** **[00:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, uh, good evening. This is the February 7, 2024, Cottage Grove City Council meeting which I'm calling to order. Uh, the first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance, so if you please rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, will the clerk please do the role? **[00:30] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Councilmember Kamada? **[00:31] Councilmember Tony Kamada:** Present. **[00:32] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Councilmember Olsen? **[00:33] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Here. **[00:34] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Councilmember Thiede? **[00:35] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Here. **[00:36] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Councilmember Garza? **[00:37] Councilmember Monique Garza:** Here. **[00:38] Tammy Anderson (City Clerk):** Mayor Bailey? **[00:39] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Here. Uh, next item on our agenda this evening is Open Forum. Uh, this is the opportunity for anybody that wants to speak on something that is not on tonight's agenda; you are welcome to do so at this time. I'll mention two things. One is, uh, there was a sign-up sheet out in the entryway, and we did have four individuals that did sign up. I will mention, though, there's two individuals that signed up regarding road assessments, and that will be a public hearing a little bit later, and at that particular time, I'll call you up to speak on that particular part. And then there's two other ones that are not related to anything that's on tonight's agenda—I don't think so, anyway. Um, so I'll first call up Eli Weinman. Is it for the road? It is for the road. Okay, we'll save that one for you, too, then. And then, uh, the other one that was signed up is Bonnie Matter. **[01:30] Bonnie Matter (Public):** Yes, you got her. Good evening to see everyone. It's great to see a big crowd in this City Council meeting. It's great. Hello Mayor, Councilmembers, good to see you. Staff, good to see you. Um, yeah, I just have a couple of things. First of all, um, the January 6, 2024, strategic planning meeting minutes are missing, and I would just like to know when they're going to be available for public access. The other thing is on the 2/7/24 consent agenda—that's tonight's consent agenda—item N, Mississippi Dunes Building Concept design. My understanding is that it's a city's plan to bond for $15 million to pay for the following projects: Hamlet Park, $17 million; Mississippi Dunes Park, $13 million; and River Oaks Golf Course, an additional $6 million. The plan is that the $15 million bond will be paid for by local option sales tax—that's also known as LOST. That local option sales tax will be part of a referendum that the residents will vote on in the November 2024 election. Before spending money on the Mississippi Dunes Park building design, wouldn't it be a good idea to first verify that these are the three projects that the residents want and, two, pass a referendum in November 2024 to ensure that dollars will be in place to cover the necessary bonding dollars that the residents will be borrowing? Thank you. **[03:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** You got it. Thank you. Okay, all right. Now, there was nobody else that did sign up during open forum, but in case somebody came in—is there anybody else who would like to speak on anything that's not on tonight's agenda? All right, seeing none, I will go ahead and close the open forum and we'll move to number five, which is adoption of the agenda. **[03:20] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Move the agenda. **[03:21] Mayor Myron Bailey:** We have a motion by Councilmember Olsen. **[03:22] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Second. **[03:23] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Seconded by Councilmember Thiede. All those in favor signify by saying aye. (Chorus of Ayes). Opposed? Motion carries. All right, next is six, which is presentations. We do have two this evening. Uh, the first one is the part-time fire department recognition this evening. Uh, and we'll start with the Director of Public Safety, Pete Koerner, is going to get us kicked off. And then Council, if you want to join me down in the front, that would be fantastic. **[03:55] Pete Koerner (Director of Public Safety):** All right, well, good evening Mayor, Council. Um, very pleased to be able to kick this off. I don't have a long speech because, and I'll tell you that in the last year and a half, there's been so much change. Well, there's been a lot of change obviously in the last 20 years, you know, in our service when we transitioned from a police medic to a fire medic program. But the one thing that we heard loud and clear last year—we started talking about some staffing plan things or staffing plan, Mayor, Council—you were very clear with me and the rest of the fire staff that we're going to continue with the combination program which, um, is both full-time and part-time. It's been a good delivery, a good service. And last year we also talked about transitioning from the old relief fund into the PERA, coordinated a lot of things that went on. Listened to all the troops about what is realistic for how many hours can they give, you know, how many call backs. And so we redid a lot of the requirements, and at the end of the year, we did have, well actually I have listed eight here, but we had nine—because Kevin Zidell we recognized at the last one. So, we—I didn't want to dilute and have one meeting where we had everything at once. So tonight it's really for the eight folks that are here; four of them are here, four couldn't make it. So, um, but with that, as you know, last year the round table did this policy on how do we recognize people, and they have a really good list of, you know, you've been here five years you get your locker name, you get your helmet front, you get different things. And there’s kind of a neat thing on page three that I appreciate the round table put in there: there's some discretion there. The discretion of the Fire Chief to recognize firefighters above and for prescribed years of service. Plus, if the Mayor and Council tells me that they want to recognize people, darn it, we're going to bring them in here. So, um, tonight we have four of our members here. We do have a smaller platform for their desk, but we are getting—they all get their helmets, their badges, and again we're going to be doing a recognition in April for all of the firefighters and that's more awards. But when you guys said we want to make a night of it and recognize them, we did that. So I'm going to turn it over to you guys. **[06:30] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Fantastic. You want me to start? All right, so as we know and as our Director of Public Safety had mentioned, you know we've had a lot of changes in the fire department, different models and processes, and of course with change sometimes there's people that say, "You know what, I've been here quite a while, maybe it's time to try something new and move on." But we also want to make sure that we recognize the amount of years of service that many individuals that we're going to recognize this evening have put into our community. And frankly, as I talked about at the last meeting with Kevin Zidell, we wouldn't be the city like we are without each and every one of these individuals that we're going to be recognizing tonight, and obviously the individuals that are behind Pete Koerner right now. The fact is, we have been known as a community that takes great pride and excitement in our Public Safety, which covers both police, fire, and EMS. And so, I just wanted to say thank you once again. And that's part of the reason that we wanted to mention: whether you're an outgoing member of the fire department or existing members of the fire department and the public safety team, we do appreciate everything that you do. So what I'll do is I'm going to read down the names of the individuals here. I know there's only four, but I think it's important to recognize everybody. We do have a plaque, so if I do mention your name and you are in the audience, if you'd please come up front. And I know this one is Mike McCoy. There you go, we can clap, absolutely. And I should mention Mike's 17 years with the department—that's our top right there. Ryan Sandell, right in the front here. Yeah, Tony might beat you—it shows on my sheet here 16.5 years, so that's pretty cool, that's amazing. Tony Rich. (Applause). Now I did have to look down a little bit farther; he beat you out by five months, so he's at 17.5 years on the department. So that's amazing. I did the math, so I apologize if there's any errors, I rounded and did so... yeah. Well, and what I'll do at the end here, too, because of math, I'm going to turn to Councilmember Olsen and say, "Get the total years all together," so we'll see if he's got that in his head. But, and then Alex Wagner? Are you here? (Applause). Yep, and Alex has been five years with the department. And then I'm assuming the others are not here, but I'll read their names: Xavier Gomez (not here), and that's seven and a half years. Kyle Kankowski? You want me to try it? None of us really know either... Kankowski? Yeah! All right, look at them, they're all going, "Yes, please." That's good, they know me and names, but uh, yeah, there you go, I'll take that. That's 5.5 years. Eric Morcos, which is also 5.5 years. And Mike Scara Jr., sorry, and he's been with the department for five years. Um, so with that, I'm going to have Councilmember Olsen hand out the plaques, and then did you want to say a few words, too? I knew that Councilmember would, so I'm going to turn it over to him and then I'll kind of finish things up. **[10:15] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you, Mayor. And really excited to see so many of the family members and friends and children, etc., of our retiring firefighters come out. Great to have Commissioner Bigham here as well; she's the daughter of a firefighter. I'm the son of a firefighter, so this is a really special night. I did do the math, Mayor: the names on that list comprise 78 years of experience working for the city of Cottage Grove. And if you don't think that's going to be a tough loss, you got another thing coming. That's 78 years of, you know, blood, sweat, tears, training, knowledge, etc. The good news is, all of these folks standing to my right and all of the names on the list have done an amazing job of passing their knowledge down to sort of the next generation of our Cottage Grove Fire Department members, whether full-time or part-time, acting as true leaders and mentors for the younger firefighters that are currently on staff. So we owe them a debt of gratitude. I'd appreciate a round of applause for them if you don't mind. (Applause). And even though this is just one small token of our appreciation, we want to make sure that you all understand how grateful we are for the time that you've spent serving the citizens of Cottage Grove. It is not an easy job. And for the public watching at home, you know, all of the folks on the list have spent a lot of time away from their families serving our residents, whether it be as firefighters or as EMT personnel, going to various events like the Hometown Holiday Celebration or Strawberry Fest, 4th of July, interacting with the public. This isn't just a part-time job; this is a calling. And all of these folks stepped up to the largest degree possible to make sure that that call was answered here in the city of Cottage Grove. So again, a small token of our appreciation, but please know that our hearts are full of gratitude. **[12:30] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay, and I'll start with Tony Rich. Tony, if you'd step forward here to the Mayor. You want me to read this to him? Okay, yep, there you go. So it says, "In recognition of years of dedicated service to the Cottage Grove Public Safety Department and the citizens which we serve, Anthony Rich, Firefighter/EMT, City of Cottage Grove Department of Public Safety, Fire and Emergency Medical Services Division, serving 2005 through 2023." And it's "Thank you" from the Cottage Grove City Council. (Applause). Alex? Yep. Do you want me to... I'll read it again, what the heck, right? We only get this one time! So, "In recognition of years of dedicated service to the Cottage Grove Public Safety Department and the citizens which we serve, Alexander Wagner... Wagner, did I do it right?" They're all laughing again. "Firefighter/EMT, Cottage Grove Department of Public Safety, Fire and Emergency Medical Services Division," and he served from 2018 to 2023. So again, thank you. Next on up, Ryan. Here we go. "In recognition of years of dedicated service to the Cottage Grove Public Safety Department and the citizens which we serve, Ryan Sandell, Lieutenant, City of Cottage Grove Department of Public Safety, Fire and Emergency Medical Services Division, serving 2007 through 2023." So again, thank you. (Applause). And I know this guy's Mike. I know it says Michael in here. Mike? Yep. So, "In recognition of years of dedicated service to the Cottage Grove Public Safety Department and the citizens which we serve, Mike McCoy, Firefighter/EMT, City of Cottage Grove Department of Public Safety, Fire and Emergency Medical Services Division," he served 2007 to 2023. So again, thank you. (Applause). Bring the families in? Yeah, actually what I was going to mention—you going to take a picture? You got it. Okay, um, I do want to just mention, I know Councilmember Olsen briefly made a comment about it, but... and I know I think I can speak for these gentlemen that are over here and the four that aren't here: but the families, thank you. Thank you for having them be part of our community. When Councilmember Olsen mentioned, you know, time away, getting called out at the middle of the night, birthday parties, whatever things that are happening and the events that happen in your everyday lives—when they got the call, they came in. And that was in their dedication to the community and the citizens for which they serve. So thank you as family members for doing that and allowing them for the time that they were with us. After how many years again? 78. 78 total years. So, and we've got the guys behind here. Do any of the family members want to come up with us for a picture? Anybody? Let's get you over here. Yeah, come on over! I see we have more in the back there. Get up here. Everybody ready? One, two, all right. One last round of applause. (Applause). Future doctor! All right. Maybe I'll mention... is it J? Appointments also, and J. Which one is it? G? I mean, Tony was going to do it, but that's fine. **[16:45] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, next on our presentations this evening is—and I'll ask for after Councilmember Garza reads this proclamation, we will then vote to approve it—and so what we are doing on behalf of everyone is we're celebrating and recognizing February 2024 as Black History Month. And like we do with these types of events, we do a City Council Proclamation. And so I did give the proclamation to our Councilmember Garza, and she will read it at this time. So, Councilmember. **[17:25] Councilmember Monique Garza:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So this is the proclamation: "February 2024, Black History Month. Each year, the Cottage Grove Council takes pride in recognizing February as Black History Month. This month is a time for honoring and exploring the culture and history of African Americans, as well as recognizing that our society's rich diversity is one of our greatest strengths. Black History Month is a time for all Americans to remember the rich history of people who helped to build this country through neighborhood leadership and involvement, advance the cause of civil rights, and strengthen families and communities. In 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard scholar, established the observance of Negro History Week to inspire schools and communities to organize local celebrations and host performances and lectures. The event was celebrated during a week in February that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Minnesota is home to many prominent black trailblazers, including Dr. Robert S. Brown, the first black doctor from Minnesota; Lena Smith, Minnesota's first black woman lawyer; Neva Walker, the first black woman elected to the Minnesota legislature. The City of Cottage Grove remains committed to acknowledging the generations of African Americans who struggled against adversity, injustice, and discrimination in order to achieve equal rights in American history. Black History Month calls our attention to the continued need to battle racism and build a society that lives up to democratic ideals. We must reflect on our collective past, reveal its impact on present conditions, and implement equitable solutions for a more just future. The City of Cottage Grove is proud to honor the history and contributions of African Americans in our community, throughout the state, and nation. Now, therefore, the Mayor and City Council of the City of Cottage Grove, County of Washington, State of Minnesota, hereby proclaim the month of February 2024 to be designated as Black History Month. Passed this Wednesday, the 7th Day of February 2024." Thank you. **[19:40] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Thank you for reading that. And so with that, I'll look for a motion and a second... well done by Councilmember Garza. **[19:48] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** I will move that we vote in favor of this proclamation. **[19:50] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Olsen. **[19:52] Councilmember Tony Kamada:** Seconded. **[19:53] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Seconded by Councilmember Kamada. All those in favor signify by saying aye. (Chorus of Ayes). Opposed? Motion carries. And thank you again for reading that, awesome. There you go. All right, now we're moving on to the consent agenda. Council, is there anything you would like to pull off of consent? **[20:10] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** J, please. **[20:11] Mayor Myron Bailey:** You're going to pull J. **[20:12] Councilmember Tony Kamada:** G. **[20:13] Mayor Myron Bailey:** And G. Who... well, we can announce who's going to be... both of us? We'll do our own commissions. Okay, so I'll start then. I'll just say Councilmember Kamada, I'm assuming you're talking about G, correct? Okay. Is there any other... no items? Okay, so what I'll do then is we'll go ahead and start with Councilmember Olsen. J is accepting donations during the fourth quarter. **[20:30] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you, Mayor. As we like to do whenever we kind of finish up one of the four quarters of the year, we like to reflect back with gratitude on those who have made contributions to our community. And these are financial contributions that we'd like to recognize today. First and foremost, we'd like to say thank you to the Cottage Grove Athletic Association. They made a donation in the fourth quarter to the City of Cottage Grove in the amount of $4,300, and that donation is being used for seven AED units and five Safe Station units for our parks—at Lamar, Highlands, Kingston, Hamlet, and then the sports building by Cottage Grove Middle School. So thank you again to CGAA for that. We also want to say thank you to our friends at Stantec. They made a donation in the amount of $2,200 to fund the reindeer at our Hometown Holiday celebration this year—or last year, I should say now even though it's 2024. But, um, I'll tell you, they stepped up, and they made that donation two years ago as well, and the reindeer are always very popular, especially with the young people who come to the event. So we're very grateful for their contribution. And then we also want to talk about a donation by First Response Fire and Safety Incorporated, who made a donation in the amount of $3,900 to Cottage Grove Public Safety for the Fire Department to get a new hose roller system. So obviously, that is a really important tool for our firefighters to be able to use to make sure that the hoses are rolled properly and that they maintain their value for an extended period of time. Those hoses can get pretty messed up if they're not well taken care of. So we're grateful to First Response Fire and Safety Incorporated for that donation. And with that, Mayor, I'll turn it back to you. **[22:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Awesome, thank you. And yep, we do really appreciate all the donations that individuals do to support the community. The next item that we're pulling is G, which is reappointments of Commissioners and CVB directors. So I'll start, I think, with Councilmember Kamada and then maybe move to Councilmember Thiede. **[22:40] Councilmember Tony Kamada:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll leave Historic Preservation and Public Services to Dave. So I just wanted to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our committee commission members on our volunteer commissions. So, um, I'm moving that we reappoint the following Commissioners: we have Samantha Crabtree on Parks and Recreation, David Olsen on Parks and Recreation, Shane Waterman on Parks and Recreation. Planning Commission: we have Evan Frazier for another term as chair, Jessica Fischer for another term as commissioner, Eric Canal as another term as commissioner. And then we have CVB (Visitors Bureau): we have Eric Olsen filling an empty seat, and we have Lori Levine coming back on and Drusilla Nash coming back on. **[23:35] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Fantastic, thank you. And then I'll continue on with Councilmember Thiede. **[23:38] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Yes, we've got Joseph Gaul on the Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation that has agreed to be on the committee for another couple of years. He's served on it for a fair number of years; some of these will have some additional years because of allowance on the COVID year in terms of their span of being on that commission or committee. For Public Service Commission, we've got Lisa Kones and Lisa Riski. And going through, all those will go through 2/28/26. And again, I'll echo what Tony said about just really appreciating all the people that volunteer on these commissions and committees because it helps us tremendously to get a broader opinion of what's going on and being able to look at things and cover some things that we just don't necessarily always have time to cover every little thing. And so we take their recommendations very seriously. And such. So, we appreciate all their help. So I would appreciate appointment/reappointment of those people. **[24:45] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, sounds good. And just as a reminder for the Council up here, in April—which is typically Volunteer Appreciation Month—we will be recognizing all of the city volunteers and the Commissioners and committee members for the work that they do to make our community such a great place to live, work, and play. So with that, that was it for things to pull, so I'll look for a motion to approve consent. **[25:10] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Approve consent. **[25:11] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Second. **[25:12] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Olsen. Second by Councilmember Thiede. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. (Chorus of Ayes). Opposed? Motion carries. So if you happen to be here for anything that was on tonight's consent agenda, all of those items have been approved. I'm moving to number eight, which is approved disbursement. 8A is to pay the bills. **[25:35] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Move the bills. **[25:36] Mayor Myron Bailey:** We have a motion by Councilmember Olsen. **[25:37] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Second. **[25:38] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Seconded by Councilmember Thiede. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. (Chorus of Ayes). Opposed? Motion carries. Next is nine, is a public hearing, which we do have one this evening. A is the 2024 Pavement Management, holding a public hearing and ordering a project. And our City Engineer, Amanda Meyer, is going to walk us through this. And then I do know we had some people in the audience, so this will be an open public hearing. I'll open it in a little bit here, and then we'll go in the order of the people that signed up and then anybody else that wants to. Amanda, welcome. **[26:15] Amanda Meyer (City Engineer):** Good evening, Mayor, members of the Council. As mentioned, the next item before you is related to our 2024 Pavement Management project. So we have a variety of pavement rehabilitation methods that we've used in the past on our streets. Seal coat is something that we're no longer doing—this is a big discussion that we've had, part of which is to lengthen the life cycle of our roadways. So now we've moved more into just the crack seal and the mill and overlays, trying to lengthen our road life cycle more from that 27-year to the 40-year. We have the reclamation process—so grinding up that existing asphalt with the aggregate base underneath, creating a more structurally sound aggregate base, paving over it. We have full pavement replacement, which we'll talk more about tonight as part of the 2024 project, and then full reconstruction—so really getting out the pavement, the full aggregate base underneath, really getting down to that subgrade and building the road back up. So why we do pavement management: keeping our roads in good structural condition, but also maintaining the infrastructure in those areas. So as I'll talk about a little bit later, we do review our sanitary sewer, our water main, our storm sewer, our street lighting systems in those neighborhoods where we're doing pavement management to ensure that those other pieces of our public infrastructure are also being maintained along the way, and then also maintaining property values for our residents. The map before you—this shows some of our pavement management history areas. Now, this only shows back to 2010, but our pavement management program really has been in place since 1994. So if I had all of the neighborhoods on here from 1994, I think most of our community would be highlighted. But just noting we do prioritize pavement management in our community to ensure that we are providing a good level of service to our residents. So that brings us to the purpose of this evening, which is our 2024 Pavement Management area, which is Prestige Estates. And before I dive into that, I do just want to mention—I know we had a workshop talking specifically about our project for this year—we are still planning to do the mill and overlay of Jamaica between 80th and 90th. We are planning to pay for that project through our street reconstruction and overlay bonds, and therefore it needs to be a separate project, so you'll see that come before you in some separate Council items at a later date. As we look at the history of the Prestige Estates neighborhood, it was built over three phases between 1990 and 1994. We did actually review this neighborhood in about 2011. The intent was to mill and overlay that neighborhood, but we started seeing asphalt stripping, and this was new to us—this was not something MnDOT had completed any sort of research to understand asphalt stripping and good methods to really rehab that pavement. And so our Public Works department in 2012 and 2013 completed some thin overlays in this neighborhood to try and get that roadway to last a little bit longer until we fully understood what was happening in the roadway with that asphalt stripping. We then reviewed this neighborhood again in about 2016-2017 with the anticipation of it being part of a 2018 pavement management project. At that time, we did note that this neighborhood would be a full curb replacement project. The thin overlay was holding up quite well still in that time frame, and so we did push that project a little bit further, and that's how we've landed here tonight, proposing the Prestige Estates neighborhood for 2024 pavement management. Here are some pictures of core samples from the area. You'll see a lot of asphalt stripping—that structural stability of the roadway really is gone. We've for sure reached the end of the life cycle of this pavement, and I think you'll see that as well with some of these existing condition photos with the cracking, the stripping, a lot of patching. And actually, we heard kind of an interesting story at our neighborhood meeting last week: one of the residents mentioned they had seen one of the street sweepers come by, and the road was degrading so much that the street sweeper actually started picking up some of the roadway, and that's why some of these patches are here—that's how bad that street condition was getting. So as I mentioned, as part of our review of the neighborhood, we do review all the utilities in the area. Through that inspection, we did find that our systems are in good working condition. There are some minor maintenance items that we'll include in the project, which is standard for our pavement management project. So that brings me to our proposed improvement. We are looking at a full pavement replacement and full curb replacement. This neighborhood, in total, is about 39 to 40% curb damage. On top of that, when we reset our catch basins, there's additional curb on either side that also needs to be replaced. And when we look at kind of economy of scale and how that curb is placed back—at the 40% level, it's more... we get a lot more benefit by the curb being placed by a machine instead of the hand work that would be required when we typically do some of that patch curb work. You have a more consistent flow line, so if there's any drainage concerns, we're really hitting that through that machine-formed curb. You can see on here some minor utility repairs, but I do want to highlight: because this neighborhood was a direct-bury street light wire, when we are pulling that curb, some of that wire may be damaged. We are planning to replace all of that in conduit, and then while we're in that neighborhood, we'll also be looking at—the street lights are right now high-pressure sodium, so we'll be looking at potentially swapping those out to be LED and more consistent with our neighborhoods. I should also mention—this was brought up in the neighborhood meeting—with the curb replacement, there's an old style of curb out in this neighborhood. It's more of a V-curb, it's about 24 inches wide, it's a bit more abrupt to get into driveways. We are going to be replacing the curb with more of our standard curb style that you'd see in our neighborhoods now—it's more of a rollover curb and it's a bit more gradual of a transition. The back of curb alignment would not change, and the height of the curb does not change, so it's not impacting height or grades as we tie back into driveways and sod along those areas. Bringing us to assessments: there are 79 assessable properties in this project. Based on the city's special assessment policy, the estimated assessment is at $6,647.65. We did have a third party complete a special benefit appraisal, and that came back at $7,500. And I'll talk a little bit more about assessment terms, but if a property owner chooses to pay that assessment back over 15 years, the approximate average annual payment with interest is just under $650. And then there's some... pay any amount upfront within 30 days. The accessible parcels are on the screen before you. There's two very small, kind of darker blue rectangular shapes—those are city parcels. Looking at the funding breakdown: total project cost is just over 1.1 million. You can see there's some funding through some of our other funding sources, and then assessments are actually just under that 45% because of those city parcels that are directly adjacent to the roadway. The assessment terms: so if Council does decide to order the project this evening, the assessments become pending on the property. The assessments would not become final until the project has been completed. We have our final assessment hearing, and at that time, if Council chooses to adopt the assessment rule, that's the time at which those assessments would become finalized. Residents at that point would have 30 days to pay that fee without any interest. They can choose to pay that assessment over 15 years with interest. Right now, the estimated interest is 5.6%, and that accounts for that 1 and a half percent above the bond rate, which is typical for our projects. Partial payment is allowed, um, I mentioned the pending assessment, and then just wanted to mention of course we have deferral of assessments available. There are some conditions that need to be met, but interest still does occur over that deferral period. Real quick on schedule: so we did have a neighborhood meeting earlier last week, and I will say we had a really great turnout. I was really thrilled, actually, by the number of residents we had come out. They were very engaged, they had a lot of really great questions—that was nice to see and hear. A lot of their questions were related to access and parking, rightfully so, as a full curb removal and replacement project. Tonight we have the public hearing. We hope to bring the plans and specs back to Council on February 21st for approval and set a bid date. Open... have a bid opening on March 21st and award a project on April 3rd. And then I did want to mention we are going to hold a second neighborhood meeting, probably mid-April. At that point, we have a contractor on board, we have a schedule, we have a phasing plan, and we can provide those more detailed plans with our residents to explain more of, you know, "Phase one is going to be here, so parking is maybe over here," and kind of work through those more detailed things after we've got that schedule from the contractor. Then construction will begin about April/May, completed in September, and then of course we'd have that final assessment hearing in October once the project has been completed. So with that, there are two recommendations before you on the screen, and I'm happy to stand for any questions. **[36:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Yeah, just... I have a couple quick ones, then I'll throw it to any Councilmembers. And I don't know if this is really for you, if it might be for our attorney. So, two things. One is on the assessed amount: so if we were to approve this this evening, the maximum amount is the amount that's in this report, correct? **[36:40] Amanda Meyer (City Engineer):** That's right. **[36:41] Mayor Myron Bailey:** I just want to make sure I know what the answer is, but I want to make sure the public knows. **[36:43] Corey Wallner (City Attorney):** Actually, your Honor, members of the Council, this is a little different than the levy question. When you adopt a levy in September, that's your maximum amount; you can go lower, but you can't go higher. Tonight, you have a preliminary assessment—it's just an estimate. It actually can exceed it by the time we get to the final assessment. I'm guessing it would be frowned upon by the members of this neighborhood if that happened, but it could happen. So this is not a ceiling. The ceiling is the appraised value, the special benefit appraisal. That's really the number that we cannot exceed, because that's what our consultant has determined to be the maximum benefit for this particular project. **[37:25] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay, thank you. And then the other comment—it's more of a comment than a question—is the 1.5% above the bond rate. I just wanted to acknowledge the fact that because we are a AAA bond-rated community, the interest rate is lower for us, which is why we're getting better interest rates, which obviously this is a big example of how that benefit gets passed along to the residents as it relates to what the maybe another bond rate or rating would be not as a AAA bond-rated community. So I just want to mention that for the general public out there too. Council, do you have any questions for Amanda? **[38:00] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thanks, Amanda. Appreciate the great information. There's no question that this is a necessary project—all the testing has proven that. I have a few things I would like to just touch base on, so feel free to punt if any of these don't apply to you. First and foremost, when we do projects of this nature, one of the things we hear about frequently are driveway aprons. So would you maybe talk a little bit about how we ensure that when the project's done, the driveway apron is right and the resident is made whole in terms of the damage that we might do to that apron from a construction standpoint? **[38:40] Amanda Meyer (City Engineer):** That's a great question, Councilmember Olsen, Mayor, Council. This actually was brought up in our neighborhood meeting, so I'm glad you asked that question. This is going to be a bit of a unique situation with the concrete curb being placed by a machine instead of hand-poured. With concrete driveways, it is a little bit easier; we generally go back to that first joint in the concrete pavement, if necessary, so that we're replacing back into existing, not creating additional joints. As it relates to a paved driveway—an asphalt driveway—generally that distance we go from the back of curb is about 2 to 3 feet, and that allows us to ensure we get compaction when that pavement goes back. Now, we will take a look at the current state of the driveway, so if there's some certain cracking that's currently occurring, if we can try and avoid that so we don't leave any small chunks that are going to pop out, we will take a look at that. But at a minimum, it's that 2 to 3 feet to really make sure we get that compaction back. **[39:45] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you. My next question has to do with the electrical wires. You mentioned that when we do projects of this nature, one of the things that we've done in the more recent past is we've put the wire in conduit. And I just wanted to ask you, with regard to some of the other projects we've done and the way in which we've approached that through using the conduit in the ground, what benefit does that provide in terms of the lifespan of say the street lights or the quality of service of the street lights? **[40:15] Amanda Meyer (City Engineer):** Yeah, so I'm going to start and if I miss anything I'll maybe pass it to our Public Works Director. But generally with the conduit, we're protecting that direct-bury wire—so we're providing a barrier from shovels or other things that are happening in the right-of-way that could impact our street light wire. But it also helps us for any wire breaks that we have; it makes finding those breaks a little bit easier, repairing those breaks a little bit easier, because we're not pulling wire out of dirt, it's in that conduit. **[40:50] Ryan Burfeind (Public Works Director):** Perfect, nothing to add. **[40:51] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** And part of the reason I asked that question is, like you said, when we have wire breaks, which do happen—I know that the conduit provides us with first of all a safer way to get to the wire, but more importantly, a faster way to get to the wire, especially if we're dealing with freeze and thaw cycles as we do in the state of Minnesota. And it will protect that wire for a lot longer than if it's just direct-bury underground. So thank you for that. And then the last thing I wanted to touch on is in terms of the assessments and the way in which assessments work. I know that sometimes when we're in the midst of these projects, there are lots of questions about all the various manners in which an assessment can be paid, etc. But the fact is, an assessment for a road project like this and the payment for that, it's a legal way of going about ensuring that we're taking care of this and paying correctly. So I wondered if you could maybe give a little bit of an explanation around sort of why the process is what it is and how that has to do with State Statute? Or if you're not comfortable with that, ask Corey because I know she knows. **[42:10] Corey Wallner (City Attorney):** I'm more than happy to. As you know, this is a Minnesota Statute 429 project. Whenever the Council wants to assess property owners for a public improvement, you can do so, but you must follow all of the rules in 429, which is a very detailed process. This is the first step of a public hearing; you will have another public hearing later in the process. But along the way, there will be other hearings where you have to make decisions on it—awarding the project is another decision you'll have to make. And as Amanda said, when the project is completed and you hold an assessment hearing, there will be notice to all the property owners and they will have an opportunity to come before you and be heard and object, and that is their opportunity. Tonight's decision is to order the project. So if there are objections to, "My road's fine, please leave it alone," this is where the public should be coming and telling you that. If it's, "This is too much money," that really is an argument for the assessment hearing. So again, this is a very strict process. This is the hearing where you will order the improvement, where you feel like the feasibility report is appropriate, that they have indicated all of the right factors, all of the right process for the construction, as well as for how to pay for it—that's in the feasibility report as well. Ordering the project is this step tonight. Then it will go out for bids, bids will come back, you will award, construction will occur, and then we come back for the assessment hearing. And that again is another statutory process. And if people don't like the amount—which again cannot exceed the $7,500, so that's the worst-case scenario is it goes up just that much—but that is absolutely the most you can assess for legally without challenge and probably losing. So I would highly recommend we not exceed that amount. But that is the special benefit that has been determined to be the value to these homeowners for their shiny new street at the end of the day. **[44:15] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you very much for explaining that. I think it's important for folks to understand sort of the chain of events as it relates to these kinds of projects. And then moreover, the fact that the numbers that we're seeing tonight are estimates, and we won't have a firm handle on that until we bid it and then moreover until it's finished, because it could very well come in under budget and that final assessment number will exist only when that has been established. So thanks for all your help, great explanation tonight, and thanks for taking my questions. **[44:45] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Thank you. All right Council, any other questions for Amanda at this point? All right, so the one I'm going to do at this point now is I'm going to open the public hearing. And again, we did have three people that did sign up that wanted to speak. I'll just go down the list, and then if you would just come up and state your name and address for the record. Eli Weinman? **[45:10] Eli Weinman (Public):** Good evening, Mayor, Council. Eli Weinman, 9498 79th Street South. Anything else you needed me to state before? **[45:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** You're good. **[45:21] Eli Weinman (Public):** All right. So I guess my main point and what I would like to be stating here is that the project should not be ordered. And I guess my main objection is it comes down to an "improvement" versus a "maintenance." In the Minnesota Constitution, Article 10, one of the sentences in that is that the legislature may authorize municipal corporations to levy and collect assessments for local improvements upon property benefited thereby without regard to cash valuation. So the key word there is improvements. There have been other cases recently—neighboring cities, St. Paul—that have fought special assessments that did not improve instead they maintained, and they've won. *First Baptist versus the City of St. Paul* just May of 2022 is a very similar case. The primary purpose of charging individual property owners in cases like the roadwork in that case was to raise revenue to pay for regularly scheduled maintenance. So my argument would be: is this an improvement or is this maintenance? An improvement would be an upgrade from a baseline. So the baseline of this neighborhood started when all the houses were built—a brand new road was made. That's the baseline. So if we started with gravel and we got a paved road, that's an improvement. We started with a road paved much like it was today, and it degraded. To further explain this point: let's just say a house is worth 100,000 and 5,000 of that is because of the road that it resides on, a brand new road. 30 years later, if that road was junk, we could say that the house was worth 95,000, excluding equity, just looking at the road. So if that hypothetical scenario—that house needed a new road and they redid it, the city did—that house would be theoretically brought back up to the baseline 100,000 valuation. That is not an improvement; that is just getting back to the point where it started. That is maintaining the road. If we newly repaired a road it will increase our property value, that must mean that the degraded road would decrease the property value. And I don't see the city paying for... paying us for the property value that their road decreased us by. So this is not an improvement; this is a return to baseline. In that same case, *First Baptist versus the City of St. Paul*, another excerpt from that was, "Finally, the name of the program itself was telling." The program was called Street Maintenance Services Program. If we look at our example, we will see under the City of Cottage Grove Special Assessment Article 3, subsection 1, "Types of Improvements," this falls under—according to the presentation—full pavement replacement. The very next two words are "major maintenance." Maintenance. That same PowerPoint presentation I just noticed... other telling words that this would be a project that maintains infrastructure in good working order. We're not getting a road that improves where we started; we are getting a maintained road that is meeting expectations. So I am here to not object to the amount, but object to the project in itself. I don't think it stands up to every one of the stipulations in the Minnesota Constitution and the actual assessment policy itself. **[48:45] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Thank you. Thank you. Do you want to... I don't know if you want to do these one at a time. Go ahead. **[48:50] Corey Wallner (City Attorney):** Your Honor, the St. Paul case is a little off-point because in that situation, you may recall, the City of Woodbury had a road improvement program, and they assessed for any new development you had to pay the major roadway fee. They used it as a bucket of money. When any new development came in, regardless of whether the street in front of that development was going to be improved or not, they put all of that money—the major roadway fee—into the bucket that they used to pay for roads in other areas in the community. And that fee was struck down because it was not a specific benefit to that particular development. The city of St. Paul was doing something similar: they assessed every single property owner in town a road fee—a road maintenance fee—and again it just went into a big bucket. Didn't matter if your street was being improved or not. And that was struck down, rightfully so. This is following Chapter 429—the only people we assess are the people who are getting the shiny new road, which is exactly what the statute was intended for. **[49:55] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. And then next on that was signed up here was Dan. You're the next one on here. How you doing? And just a name and address for the record, of course. **[50:10] Dan Shuel (Public):** Dan Shuel, 7929 Jenner Avenue South. When we do things, we buy things ourselves, we get our prices ahead of time. $6,700 is a ridiculous assessment. I'm going to just say I expected $4,400. I'm not saying we don't need roads; I'm not saying we don't need curbs. But what I am saying: the number that we are being thrown at as neighbors is obscene. I kind of got a really good eye-opening last night. I went up to a neighborhood up off a Hyrum and 50th in Oakdale. Pulled into the neighborhood—beautiful neighborhood, very nice homes like Prestige Estates. Brand new streets, brand new curbs. And I'm like, "Hm." So I go talk to the gentleman I'm getting a hitch from and I said, "If you don't mind me asking, what did they do?" He explained me everything they did—they did exactly what we're getting. His total assessment was $4,200. And this was done last year. So I'm saying, why so damn high? I just don't understand where this number comes in. Based on even other people that in Cottage Grove that have had these repairs, we seem to be really astronomical. And that's what I'm saying: if we come back in and you're going to tell me we're going now bid this and we come back to a number and saying, "Hey, we're going to be about $4,800," okay, that's good. But right now to hear, "Well, it could go as high as $7,500," that I think is really, really high. It seems to be much higher than anything I've ever heard of for anybody for any assessments for this kind of repair in any development of Cottage Grove. So that's my... that's my gripe. Thank you. **[51:50] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Thank you. Okay, all right. Was there anybody else that would like to speak on this that hasn't already spoken? Anybody at all? All right, I will then go ahead and close the public hearing. And then I guess what I'll do is, I don't know if staff or anybody wanted to speak on this... his comment about the money, I guess the only or the cost. The only thing I can tell you—and we obviously can't guarantee the guarantee is the assessed value that they say is capped at $7,500—staff is usually pretty darn good when it comes to, I'll say my opinion again, erring on the high side. And I cannot tell you even, I think last year—and I'm looking to see, I don't know who's going to be able to tell me—but last year when the streets we did... when we did the streets that we did, the assessment actually came back less than the original amount that was shared with the public. So ultimately our goal is to get the deal as cheap as we possibly can, but obviously get a quality street out of it. And if I remember, it's been a long time from my neighborhood, I was also one that had a full curb and street replacement, and I think mine was around seven grand. And that was quite a few years ago—bigger area too. So I was when I saw the number come that they're estimating for your area was... I'll be... I know it's high, I mean it sounds high, but I compared to what I had with the neighborhood many years ago that was bigger, I had more homes on it, and the number was high. I was kind of surprised. But I got a new road and new curb out of that deal. Councilmember Thiede? **[53:45] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** So are we in a position to kind of explain to people a little bit how that assessment comes about, that $7,500, and what the elements of that are and why it... how they, whoever gets to that number, how they arrive at that number? **[54:00] Corey Wallner (City Attorney):** Your Honor, members of the Council, Councilmember Thiede, I think you're talking about the special benefit appraisal. Appraisers have different methodologies on how they appraise properties, but in this particular... whenever we do a road project, we ask them to look at the various different kinds of lots—you know, whether it's a corner lot or if in some of our projects there's commercial property, multi-family, single-family residential. We ask them to take a look at the category of property and then base it on their expertise on how they appraise properties for the value of the new street and the infrastructure that that provides, from comparing from the original value of the home or of the property to what that improvement brings to it. And to be honest, I wasn't trained as an appraiser, so I don't know all of the things and the factors that they consider. But they look at comparables with other communities; so it's not just within the city of Cottage Grove on literally what the value of that home increased from a sales perspective—what it was before the street project and after. So they do a "before and after" assessment comparing it to other properties. So it is real data and it is relevant data, not, you know, five years ago, 10 years ago—it's within the last... they have a kind of a time frame in mind, 6 months, 12 months at the most. And then they compile all that together, average it out. So they're not just taking one example of a property that maybe increased in value; they average it out and that's how they come to this value. So it's a lot of research. It's again, this is their area of expertise and they do this year after year for us. **[55:45] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Sure. So is it... you know, because I was a little surprised by the amount too. But so I guess is it possible if any of these homeowners would want to see that information and see how that number came about, that we're able to find that information somewhere? **[56:05] Corey Wallner (City Attorney):** Typically what we do is... this is a preliminary special benefit appraisal. This is not a document that we consider public, but it is the number that we use to cap it. If someone wanted to challenge the assessment—which again happens at the second assessment hearing in the fall—that is their time to object. It would go into a different, more of a litigation mode in District Court, and the city then would actually have a full-blown appraisal report and the appraiser would testify in court as to the value. And at that point, that appraisal is public. At this point, it is not public. **[56:45] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you. So again, I'm not sure who wants to take this, but the question is this: could you take a moment and explain how the bid process works with respect to these sorts of projects? Because I think again it's important for folks to know what the bidding environment looks like and the way in which we receive those bids, and then essentially how we are bound legally in terms of the bid that we would accept should we order the project. Whoever wants it can have it. **[57:15] Jennifer Levitt (City Administrator):** Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. One of the things that we strive to do is bid as early as we can in the year to ensure that we are getting a lot of bids and competitive bids. And I think you've seen over the last few years our engineer estimates are actually coming in maybe in the top quarter when we compare our bids to our engineering estimate. When it comes to actually awarding the project, the recommendation is always the low bidder. **[57:45] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Yeah, thank you. And I'm very glad that you mentioned the bidding environment. That is something that the team here at City Hall has done exceptionally well for as long as I've been on this City Council: try to get in early. You want to be first in line because the various construction crews and companies, you know, they're starting to plan their calendar out right now. They want to know, "Where are my people going to be able to work? Am I going to have enough work for my people over the summer and into the fall?" whatever the construction season looks like. And so being part of those early bidding opportunities gives us the most competitive marketplace. So I appreciate you sharing that. And then again, by law, we're bound to take the lowest bid, which obviously we'll do. So thank you. **[58:30] Mayor Myron Bailey:** The only other thing I'd make, I guess, mention for the public too is, so should the Council vote and approve this this evening to move to the next phase, the next one I think what they're talking... I think if I remember right, the intent would be the... we'd go out for bids in the next meeting, and then the bids would come back and then we determine if we accept the bids. And the bids would be accepted obviously if they're within a range. If the bids come back and they're out of whack, we're certainly not going to accept the bids; then we probably have a different situation that we'd have to deal with or postpone or do something different when it comes to the price of the bid. Because obviously there's a cost factor to the residents, there's a cost factor to the rest of the residents at Cottage Grove, because that's how the assessment process—or the pavement management process—is; it's the percentages. And I think actually in this case, you said it's a little bit less on the two percentages because there's a couple city parcels in there, isn't that correct? **[59:20] Amanda Meyer (City Engineer):** Yes. **[59:21] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** I just had one more question. So I was just curious... you said you had a good turnout at the neighborhood meeting. Do you know how many homes are in the neighborhood and how many were represented at that meeting? Was it in here? **[59:35] Amanda Meyer (City Engineer):** Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. So there are 79 residential properties within this neighborhood. I believe we had about 25 to 30 individuals there. So assuming there were two per home, probably about 15 homes were represented at that neighborhood meeting. **[59:55] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Thanks. **[59:56] Councilmember Monique Garza:** Thank you. I'm just wondering, and it may be a small amount compared to the assessment total, but you mentioned that they would be doing some repair or replacements of the lights. So is that an additional charge, or is that already covered from a previous... I mean... **[1:00:15] Mayor Myron Bailey:** I can... I mean you can ask... any of those other items are actually coming out from separate accounts will be... yeah. We're all paying into those different accounts—the sewer, the street lights funds, all that kind of stuff. All of that would be separate from the road itself. **[1:00:30] Councilmember Monique Garza:** Thank you. **[1:00:31] Amanda Meyer (City Engineer):** I'd just like to make one quick clarification. You know, the assessment is based upon the total project cost. So when we look at all of the road, the curb, the utilities—which is the storm, sanitary, water, street lights—all of that total project cost is then divided by 45%. 45% is assessed, and then 55% is then being borne by those additional costs. So I just want to be really clear that the residents are paying 45% of the total project cost, which does include those utilities. **[1:01:05] Councilmember Tony Kamada:** This is a question for Corey. I could go hop on the Revisor of Statutes quickly and answer this for myself, but I think you might already know. In 429.031, does it give a definition for an "improvement"? **[1:01:20] Corey Wallner (City Attorney):** You know, Councilmember Kamada, that was a very interesting argument, the difference between improvement versus maintenance. I'm sure there is a definition, and frankly, I haven't been faced with that particular aspect of a challenge to the 429 statute. It's usually about the special benefit and that "my property did not see," as some of the audience members indicated, that much improvement for that value. So as far as his argument that this isn't an improvement, therefore you shouldn't order it... I guess he's asking you not to order the project. **[1:02:00] Councilmember Tony Kamada:** Thank you. The reason I was going to ask that is, as somebody who has read a lot of appraisals, "improvement" is a specific term in real estate. So in real estate and in real estate contracts, an improvement is any positive permanent change to land that augments the property's value. So for instance, if you've read any standard appraisal and it would ask, "Are there any improvements to the property such as new roof, new siding, new driveway, updated kitchen?" those things could be classified as maintenance, but in real terms of real estate terminology, they're classified as improvements. So I think there's a little bit of a misnomer happening there where I think I'm sure that the spirit of the law is again to address the augmented value of the property. So if they're using that term in its real estate context, that's what an improvement is in a real estate context. And I just wanted to add a little bit of clarity there. I don't have the authority to bring... Mayor may or may not... but I just wanted to add a little bit more clarity in terms of when we're talking about real estate evaluations, improvement is a specific term for those types of value-adds to a property. **[1:03:15] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Yeah, so the public hearing was closed. But I mean, if there is a question that you have afterwards, we can, depending on how this goes. But if you do, then myself or one of our staff members, our attorney, would be more than happy to speak with you. **[1:03:30] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Mayor, I'm going to move to adopt resolution 2024-12, ordering the 2024 Pavement Management project. **[1:03:40] Mayor Myron Bailey:** I have a motion by Councilmember Olsen. Do I have a second? **[1:03:43] Councilmember Monique Garza:** I will second that. **[1:03:44] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by Councilmember Garza. Any further discussions? All right, seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. (Chorus of Ayes). Opposed? Motion carries. All right, next item on our agenda is 10, bid awards—we have none this evening. 11, our regular agenda, we do have one item this evening, and that is A, which is the proposed Discount Tire facility at 8647 and 8649 East Point Douglas Road South with a conditional use permit. And Connor Jakes, who is our Associate Planner, is going to walk us through this. So, welcome. **[1:04:20] Connor Jakes (Associate Planner):** Yeah, good evening Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. Great to be with you. The application before you this evening is a conditional use permit for the proposed Discount Tire use. The site location is located at 8647-8649 East Point Douglas Road South. The subject site is located adjacent to the current Wendy's restaurant as well as the current Target site. Also note the site is located adjacent to two major roadways in Jamaica Avenue South as well as Highway 61. Little background on the site: the site was originally developed in 1991 for an automotive repair use. Following those approvals, a minor subdivision lot split was completed in 1992. The intent at the time was for that northern portion of the site, 8649, to be utilized as office space. However, the site was utilized as an automotive repair use since the original approvals. And then most recently, Big O Tires occupied the site up until fall of 2023 when it closed, and the site is currently vacant. Also note that there were approvals for an automobile car wash granted in March of 2023, which was the Rocket Car Wash. The applicant of that proposal has withdrawn and is no longer moving forward with that project. The proposal before this evening is again for an automotive repair use (minor). The site is zoned mixed-use, and the use does require a conditional use permit, which is why the application is before you. The applicant is proposing to utilize the existing site layout and building with minor updates to the exterior elevations, parking lot, and landscaping. Moving into vehicle parking, there are 34 stalls currently on site; the applicant is proposing 38 stalls. That increase in stalls comes from the northern side of the site. Currently, there's angled parking on site, and they're proposing to change that to 90-degree parking stalls. The updated elevations are on screen before you. The applicant is proposing updates to paint, trim, and then a new storefront with a canopy overhang on that. And the landscaping: the applicant did propose a detailed landscape plan. They're proposing the plantings that are listed on screen before you in addition to keeping the landscaping that's on site currently. And with that, the recommendation is on screen before you. The applicant is in attendance for any questions as well. **[1:06:50] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay, first of all, Council, is there any questions for Connor? **[1:06:55] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Connor, not sure if you can answer this—hopefully you can. I happen to be real familiar with that building; worked in there for a long time. So my question is this: that building is segmented. There's a business space and the garage, and then there's sort of a storage space, and then there's an additional space at the end that hasn't been used for a really long time. Do you know if the applicant's planning to use the entire building? You said they're going to use the existing building... or are they just planning on using sort of the garage space, sales floor space, and then backroom space? **[1:07:35] Connor Jakes (Associate Planner):** Yeah, Mr. Mayor, Councilmember Olsen. I believe the applicant—they can correct me if I'm wrong—but is planning to utilize the entire building. They would, you know, submit for a building permit for the interior remodel and then utilize that whole interior. **[1:07:50] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** And the reason I asked that question is because the previous owner did not use that kind of third space that's further away from the sales floor space, and so they acted as—not using probably the proper name here—but they acted as a landlord and they tried to encourage people to come in and utilize that space, and it just wasn't really successful. So knowing that the applicant's going to use the whole building, I think is really going to be helpful in terms of just putting that entire footprint to use. So I appreciate the information on that. That's exciting news. **[1:08:20] Connor Jakes (Associate Planner):** Yeah, and then Councilmember Olsen, I'll just add that a condition of approval is also to combine those lots into one parcel as well. **[1:08:30] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Fantastic. Thank you. **[1:08:31] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Any other questions for staff at this point? Would the applicant like to come up and speak at all? And if you would just state your name and address for the record, please. **[1:08:45] Todd Moser (R. Smith, representing Discount Tire):** I'm Todd Moser. I'm with R. Smith representing Discount Tire on this application. Yeah, we are going to use the whole building. I think we did submit a narrative which may answer some of the operational questions if there were any, but the flyover is: we're closed on Sundays and we're open basically like 8:00 to 6:00 p.m. during the week and Saturday. Only tires and wheels—no oil changes or anything of that nature. All the tires are stored... the new tires are inside the building, and the used... you know, come off the vehicle... those are also stored within the building and then they're taken away to be recycled. So I'm sure you're all familiar with Discount Tire, so Discount Tire is an excellent operator. It'll be a nice addition. **[1:09:40] Mayor Myron Bailey:** The only question I had is... and I appreciate the fact that you're going to do upgrades to the building, bring it up to your standards. I've seen quite a few Discount Tires around town, and they look nice, they're very nice. Are you going to keep the garage doors the same as they are currently there? I do know—just so I can share with you—I noticed actually I drove by there and some of the doors are painted and some of the paint's peeling. So I didn't know if you were going to use the same doors to just paint them or... **[1:10:10] Todd Moser (R. Smith):** I don't know yet because we haven't done the permit set yet. I think the elevation we submitted considered painting everything so that it matches. **[1:10:20] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay, yeah. All right, sounds good. Council, any questions for the applicant at this point? Awesome. Thank you. **[1:10:30] Todd Moser (R. Smith):** Thank you. **[1:10:31] Mayor Myron Bailey:** So at this point, there is a recommendation. If there's no other comments, I will go ahead and move... **[1:10:38] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** I'll move to adopt resolution 2024-17 approving the conditional use permit for a minor automotive repair use for Discount Tire to be located at 8647-8649 East Point Douglas Road South. **[1:10:55] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Thiede. Do I have a second? **[1:11:00] Councilmember Tony Kamada:** I'll second that. **[1:11:01] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by Councilmember Kamada. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. (Chorus of Ayes). Opposed? Motion carries. We'll be excited to see a ribbon cutting. Yes, thank you. Awesome. All right, next on our agenda is 12, is Council comments and requests. I'll start with Councilmember Kamada. **[1:11:25] Councilmember Tony Kamada:** You have my time. **[1:11:26] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Oh, okay. I'll move to Councilmember Olsen. **[1:11:28] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Nothing tonight. **[1:11:29] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Nothing for you? Okay. I'll skip right along here to Councilmember Thiede. **[1:11:35] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** I'll just say that there's still time to really participate in Strawberry Fest. And we have our meetings and so forth on the first—typically on the first Monday and the third Monday of the month. And we definitely... and a lot of times it's mostly at Carbonie's... but so we'd love to see additional people there. We can use all the help we can get. **[1:12:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Fantastic. Um, how about Councilmember Garza? **[1:12:05] Councilmember Monique Garza:** No. **[1:12:06] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right. So just a couple things real quick. First of all, I've actually gotten some messages back just a little bit ago in good comments. Earlier this evening, I had the opportunity to provide the State of the City address. Did it a little different this year—it wasn't live. We did it as a taping, but I think it worked better only specifically because—I shouldn't say only—specifically because we were able to show a lot of diagrams and pictures more so than maybe we did if I was standing in the Council chambers. And I wanted to thank the cable, SCTC, for doing such a great job of putting all that together, along with our staff. Jaime is specifically helping out too, so thank you for that. So I just want to mention that it is already out on Facebook—both the City's Facebook you can link to it, you can go to the website if you are interested. I've had a couple people send messages, "Hey, I'm looking forward to this or that," so it's kind of cool to see that already. Also wanted real quick just to acknowledge what I'll say was some amazing work by both our Public Safety Department, but I'm also going to incorporate the Public Works Department. As some of you may or may not be aware, around the Twin Cities and frankly around the nation, there's been a lot of copper wire theft going on. And Cottage Grove was not... we had some of it happen here, which whether the public knew that or not, fairly extensive in a couple areas of town. Well, after that happened, our... one of our Public Works individuals happened to be driving down a street, noticed that some of the items on the bottoms of particular streetlights looked like they might have been tampered with. So that information got fed to our Public Safety Department. We put some officers on it, and lo and behold, they were caught! And then come to find out that in their car, they also had copper wire from St. Paul. And so very good job working as a team, which our city does—whether it's Public Works noticing something and sharing it with Public Safety who then by chance staked out the location and came across these gentlemen coming back to try to steal the copper wire. So good job. Please pass my appreciation along to everybody that did that. And then the only other thing I'll mention—I'll kind of put these together—is season is starting to gear up at River Oaks. And I know it's hard to believe that we're in February and the golf range is open. I don't know, the course isn't open yet, I don't believe, but starting on February... the annual fish fry... **[1:14:45] Councilmember Tony Kamada:** 16th. **[1:14:46] Mayor Myron Bailey:** 16th? I'm sorry, they have it wrong on here then. Thank you for that. So fish fry begins February 16th. And if you want to make reservations, obviously make reservations going to either the Facebook page, which you can do the link, or you can go to RiverOaks.com or you can give River Oaks a call. So the fish fries start every Friday. You do need reservations, so please do that. And then looking out a ways—and I haven't seen anything specific on this yet—but there has been a really good Easter Brunch there, which is on March 31st. So eventually there'll be some information coming out about that so you can make reservations there for Easter Brunch at River Oaks. There are other things coming up here, like Dueling Pianos, so there's a lot of stuff happening at River Oaks. Dueling Pianos, I've been told by our Director of Public Safety, is pretty amazing. I've not been there; I know he has a couple times. All I know is that he said do not sit up in front. Is that correct, Pete? **[1:15:45] Pete Koerner (Director of Public Safety):** That is absolutely... don't sit right up front. **[1:15:50] Mayor Myron Bailey:** So you better get your tickets now so you can be in the back versus up in the front, otherwise you're going to be stuck there! But those are my comments. Seeing nothing else from the Council, I will mention that we do have a workshop, which is open to the public, which we will be going into the training room. The item that we're going to be reviewing in the training room is our Police Annual Use of Force reporting, which we do every year. At this point, there is no workshop closed to the public this evening, so we will be adjourning in the other room. So if anybody has any questions, you can head over to the training room. Thank you. Have a good night.