Based on the context provided and the names mentioned within the audio, here is the transcribed townhall meeting with speaker identifications. *Note: There is a discrepancy between the provided official list and the names called during the roll call (Bringgold, Duncan, Gesme, Lindell). In these instances, the names from the roll call were used as they represent the officials present at the meeting.* *** **[2:30] Matt Montgomery (Acting Mayor):** Call the Tuesday, August 17, 2021 City Council meeting to order. Roll call, please. **[2:30] Sarah Peer (City Clerk):** Bringgold? **Council Member Bringgold:** Here. **Sarah Peer:** Duncan? **Council Member Duncan:** Here. **Sarah Peer:** Gesme? **Council Member Gesme:** Here. **Sarah Peer:** Kronenberger? **Council Member Kronenberger:** Here. **Sarah Peer:** Lindell? **Council Member Lindell:** Here. **Sarah Peer:** Montgomery? **Matt Montgomery:** Here. **Sarah Peer:** Altoff is absent. **[2:58] Matt Montgomery:** I'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. To the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, before we get started, I just want to send out my greetings to Mayor John Altoff, who is recovering from heart surgery. The rumor is they did find a heart, so they did go ahead and fix it. Prayers for John on his recovery; should be back shortly. Moving on, can I get a motion to approve the agenda? **Council Member Duncan:** So moved. **Council Member Lindell:** Second. **[3:43] Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Duncan, second by Lindell to approve the agenda. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Okay, it's the consent agenda. I'm going to read that for the audience wherever it went here. Item A: Correct claims accounting period ending August 12, 2021. B: Meeting minutes for August 3rd, 2021 city council work session. C: Meeting minutes for August 3rd, 2021 city council meeting. D: Approved WHKS preparation and feasibility report for Bluff Drive. Item E: Approved deputy registrar pay grade step increase. Item F: Approve temporary easement MnDOT Highway 19 project. Item G: Approve acting zoning administrator. Item H: Approved curb replacement. Item I: Approved John Deere 325G compact track loader trade. Item J: Approved WHKS preparation feasibility report for River Road. Item K: Resolution 2571, acceptance of a bike donation from Art.org. Item L: Approved roof inspection reports and repairs. Any item any council member wants to bring down? **[5:23] Council Member Duncan:** I want to bring down K, which will turn into Council Business 6C. **[5:23] Matt Montgomery:** Okay, other than Item K, does somebody want to make a motion to approve the consent agenda? **Council Member Bringgold:** So moved. **Council Member Duncan:** Second. **[5:23] Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Bringgold, second by Duncan to approve the consent agenda except for Item K. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carries. Okay, on the council business—preliminary budget. Neil? **[6:09] Neil (City Administrator/Staff):** Yeah, at the last work session we went over the budget in detail. There were two council people missing, I think Derek and Steve you were missing, so I thought I'd put it on the agenda just to clarify some of the high things or the stuff that we discussed of kind of importance. Once again, the department heads put together a really good budget; they kept everything under two percent. I really feel, I've been here on two budget cycles now, and they've really worked well. I can't say anything wrong that they have done; it's just been great. One thing is, last year we discussed how the local government aid may or may not [come], and somehow we did get paid our local government aid for this year, and that was a good thing. And then they certified local government aid for 2022; it went up from $700,111 to $704,781, so we got about a three or four thousand dollar increase, which is good. The Invernergy in-lieu-of-tax payment that we receive, that gets a three percent increase also, so that's another increase in our revenues. Yeah, if you remember back, our liquor licenses, we cut them in half for this year, so we went back to normal for them revenues, which is a nice increase—not a lot, but it's an increase. And also, there was a small increase in police aid. As far as highlights for the expenses, the increases of salaries were one percent in January and one percent in July, which equals one and a half percent total, but for accounting measures, you gotta talk two percent at the end of the year for the next year's budget after that. Health insurance—we are going to be changing companies this year, and with that, we had an actual decrease of 10.6 percent. That's the first time, as far as I can remember, that we've had a decrease in health insurance. One of the things we also talked about was the bituminous mill and overlay; we increased that from $150,000 to $175,000. I think last year we discussed if we could get that up to $200,000 in the near future; that will provide us with a nice batch of revenue to keep the streets up. I know there was discussion about the DMV in work session and, pending what we do there, there could be an increase in levy of $40,000 or a decrease in the levy. So more to come on that one. I know we talked about doing an RFP, but I will further find out from the state probably tomorrow on the actual steps that we have to do. It doesn't sound good; the state is very controlling on the DMV process—imagine that—but we'll see more to come on that one. So the proposed levy for 2022 is actually $3,195,334, and it's a decrease from 2021 of... I missed some numbers... $3,905,000 and some change. So with that said, if you got any questions on the budget, otherwise I'll bring a resolution at the next council meeting for approval. I think we answered the questions at the work session, so if you got any additional, I'll answer them now or you can contact me later after the meeting or at my office. **[10:33] Matt Montgomery:** Do we need a motion to approve that? **Neil:** No action. I just, you know, everybody was okay with it at the work session, but I discussed it with you. **[10:33] Matt Montgomery:** Yeah, I just wanted to hit it again. Next item on the council business is Resolution 2572: Approve concept plan for Keller Baartman 79-unit apartment complex at 415 Hickory Drive. Neil? Laura? **[11:16] Neil:** I'll take it. The concept plan is exactly what [it says]—a concept plan. It's a big picture of what we got going on on the Cannonball lot. It's step one of many steps that have to be taken to get this project from start to finish. The planning commission reviewed this at their last meeting; it was a long meeting. It ended up being a 3-3 tie on the resolution to approve it. And so with that said, I think everybody has been on board with what actually the project is and what it's all about. I can go in detail—I don't know how much detail you want. It's 79 units currently. I'll let Sarah take over on the details here in a little bit, but it's 79 units and it's a B2 zone. We're going to be looking at doing a PUD and right now, like I said, it's in the concept stage. There's two more stages after that: the development stage and the final plan. Sarah, did you want to touch on some of the details? **[12:49] Sarah Peer (City Clerk):** Sure. Good evening Acting Mayor, members of the Council. So as your council agenda note report notes, this is really complex procedurally. It's actually a fairly straightforward development; it's one building. You know, you can fight about the details, but it's not a complicated development, but the procedure is. And that's because they're seeking both rezoning and a PUD. So what it will—if it moves forward—the request to the council will eventually be to rezone the property to R4 PUD. So it'll be a base R4; all the R4 rules will apply except for any PUD exceptions the council grants them. We've included in the report what some of those exact exceptions they're at this time seeking. We're not asking for any action by the council tonight on that particular issue; it's really more of a heads-up for the developer. If the council looks at any of these or any of the project and says "that's a no-go," this would be a really good time to let the developer know. You don't have to, but the next step is the developer putting together their detailed plans, and this is what they're going to propose absent direction from the council. So as Neil noted, this is really a big picture concept plan. If this gets approved, it would then go back for the development stage. And if you've done any plats, the next two steps are very similar to preliminary plat and final plat. Preliminary plan is 95 percent of the detail; you're going to start seeing grading plans, easements, more details on the building plans themselves. All of that kind of stuff is going to come in the preliminary stage, and then the final stage is just sort of the final stamp. Each of those stages goes through both the planning commission and the council. The public hearing is at the development stage in front of the planning commission. So if you're trying to figure out meetings, this is the second meeting out of essentially six. The next meeting would be in front of the planning commission, and that would be the public hearing on this. So hopefully that gives you a big picture idea. Like I said, really looking for approval of the concept plan tonight. If you grant that approval, the developer would move forward, presumably taking any direction the council had and incorporating that into the plans. If you deny the concept plan, then the ball is back in the developer's court. There isn't a ton of detail for the project yet. I mean, you've got what's in your packets; you can see the building height, what they're proposing for units, what they're proposing for parking. Again, those will be fleshed out more if it is approved tonight. Council would see everything essentially again. Just trying to think if there's something else that the council should be aware of before it votes on the concept plan. Like I said, the planning commission will see it two more times. Oh, it is subject to the 60-day rule. So if you're familiar with zoning approvals, if someone applies for a zoning approval of any kind of variance or CUP, the city only has 60 days to review it and get back to them. If we don't get back to them within those 60 days, it's automatically approved. So if it looks like we're rushing, we sort of are, just because we don't have that choice in doing that. That being said, if you hit a point in the discussion today and decide the way this is looking we're thinking "no," we always go back to the developer and try and get an extension if that's something the council would desire. But again, really we're looking for, one: approval of the concept plan or denial of the concept plan; and two: any comments, thoughts specifically... you know, you've got what the planning commission was worried about in front of you, you've got the requested exceptions. If there's anything you think the developer needs to do in developing these, tonight would be when we would hope to hear those to give the developer a heads-up. I don't think I'll go into any more detail unless the council has specific questions. **[17:24] Matt Montgomery:** My question is, no matter how... hey let's just say we approve the concept plan, but we don't like what he brings back. I mean, we're not signing anything tonight saying it's a go, right? This is just a... we agree with how it's drawn up now, and now you got to come back with, like you say, the easements and the actual open space, the blah blah blah this, blah blah blah, and we can say no to any of that, correct? **[17:24] Sarah Peer:** Correct. You're not approving anything... I shouldn't say that. All you're approving tonight officially is the concept plan—big picture. Does this make sense? If the council looks at this and says "this is a bad project, we don't like it, we don't like the location," then you deny it. Otherwise, you approve it and you give the developer some direction. Yeah, we're happy with the building, but we think there's too many efficiency units, we don't like the parking, we don't like this... that just gives the developer a bit of a leg up when they come back then for the development stage piece both before the planning commission and the council. That's when you get into the nitty-gritty details. That's when you really look at: okay, is there enough open space? Do we like the easements? How is this working out? And that's where that piece is worked out. And then like I said, if you've done a plat, then the final plat... really by that point, it should pretty much be approved, you're just working on those final couple of details. That being said, if you know you're going to deny it at the preliminary stage, I would recommend you deny it tonight. The reason they do these concept plans is so the developer doesn't spend a ton of money designing a project just to have the council say "yeah, we were never going to approve that anyway." **[18:56] Matt Montgomery:** Right. Discussion from the council? **[19:04] Council Member Lindell:** I'm going to make a motion we move forward with the concept plan. **Matt Montgomery:** Second. Motion by [Lindell], seconded by Matt to go ahead with the concept plan. Is there any further discussion? So if you don't agree with the location, then you would vote "no." We'll have a roll call. **[19:35] Sarah Peer:** Bringgold? **Council Member Bringgold:** Aye. **Sarah Peer:** Duncan? **Council Member Duncan:** Aye. **Sarah Peer:** Gesme? **Council Member Gesme:** Aye. **Sarah Peer:** Cronenberger? **Council Member Cronenberger:** Nay. **Sarah Peer:** Lindell? **Council Member Lindell:** Aye. **Sarah Peer:** Montgomery? **Matt Montgomery:** Aye. Motion carries 5 to 1. Moving on to... where my page went... thank you. Item C: the acceptance of the bike rack for Art.org. They want to put it over by the Lee Chevrolet lot using an existing parking spot. They said that we had approved it back in 2020 sometime, right? At that time, it was supposed to be a Holstein cow laying down taking a nap from the Cannonballs, and then we moved it across Mill Street and approved it there. They want it now at the aforementioned place by the Lee Chevrolet old parking lot on the northwest corner. Here comes my individual observation: it doesn't look like a bison, it does not look like a Holstein cow, it looks like some type of rock. And I'm not... if Dennis Caleb was here he knows that I got a D in art and I'm not sure if I like that situation where it's at. I guess the placement is okay, I'm just not sure if they can improve on that. So, you got my input. **[21:53] Council Member Lindell:** Well, I'm no art critic either, but I think it looks like a bison taking... I don't know. It's a rock. It is a rock, that's what it is. I think it would have been cuter as a Holstein cow, but it's not in front of Cannon Bells anymore; they got their own bike rack. So I think the worst thing that can happen is they put it out, people don't like it, and we say "take it away and do something else." I don't think it's harmful to do it, but I'm not an art critic either. Steve, I didn't do well in pottery either, so that's my take on it. **Council Member Duncan:** Didn't they have a thing it was supposed to look like a rock but then it... I mean what was the name of that sign that he had, that green sign? **Matt Montgomery:** Yeah, there's no picture on here. I can't remember. **Council Member Duncan:** Well, that's right. He had a sign at that meeting: "Bike Rock Rack." Rock Wrap. Yeah. Well, I'll agree it looks more like a rock. Maybe they could change the colors a little bit, but as far as I know, I think it's pretty much done. But it does say in our paperwork here, it does say "Bike Rock Wrap Rack," and they did add one of the racks for the fat tire bike. **[23:28] Matt Montgomery:** I certainly don't have any real problem with it. Like I say, if we had to, we can move it. Having said that, I will make a motion to approve Resolution 2571. **Council Member Duncan:** Second. **[23:28] Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Montgomery, second by Duncan to approve the bison placement at the Lee Chevrolet parking lot. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Nay. Motion carries. You can do the next one—I told you what Caleb told me. All right, so that takes us to reports. Kyle? **[24:23] Kyle (Chamber of Commerce):** Good evening council, and I wish Mayor Altoff all the best and hope he comes back well. I would like to start off tonight with thanking the community for coming out for our August Open Air Fair. We did have 40 vendors; there were 300 hot dogs given out and 200 sweet corn for the sweet corn feed, and so actually quite a good number. It was a nice event, beautiful weather. We did have one person fall on the sidewalk, and I have reported that to Public Works, only to find out that it's MnDOT's sidewalk, not ours. And so I hope that gets looked into and taken care of. This Friday night is the youth mural project arts project; it is the dedication to the city of the mural. The artist, Kelly Bickman, has been working with high school and middle school students. Today I saw senior citizens, so I mean it's really the gamut of people who are working on the mural and it is coming along very nicely. And so 6:00 p.m. on Friday, August 20th, if you're interested in being part of that dedication, please be at the mural. **Matt Montgomery:** Are they going to have it blocked off with cones or something just in case there are actually too many people? **Kyle:** I don't know for sure. Okay, then on to Citywide Garage Sale—that's the next big event coming up. It is September 17th and 18th. Please watch the Beacon this week for the sign-up to have a garage sale. So, August 19th Beacon. I don't know the deadline date, but we're going to need 50 garage sales to get this one to go, so please sign up early, sign up quickly, and let's just have a great weekend with a lot of garage sales going on. That would be wonderful. The Chamber Board will be meeting in mid-September, and that is our planning meeting for 2022. So if anyone has any topics or events that you would like us to be looking at, please let us know. You can email the Chamber, you can call the Chamber, you can come and visit me at the Chamber. It just has to be doable, and you might need to volunteer. Okay, we are planning ahead for the first weekend of October—that's October 2nd and 3rd—and it's individual events going on throughout the community. Right now there are five individual events planned: Ferndale Market, Tillion Brewing Company, Cannon River, Simon's Arena, and the Sogan Valley Art Fair. And so if anyone knows any other activities and events going on that weekend, please let the Chamber know so we can promote this as a big community event. Any questions? **[28:16] Matt Montgomery:** Wow, thank you very much. Thanks, Kyle. Thank you. EDA, Laura? **[28:16] Laura Qualey (Community and Business Development Specialist):** I had a videographer in Cannon last week that was shooting some footage to update a promotional video for Cannon Falls, featuring opportunities whether it's land available in our industrial park, future housing development areas, also some of our businesses, and just kind of an overview of what Cannon Falls will be. Cannon Falls did one in 2017, and this one will update that with some of the newer businesses that have been added since then. And so that should be... I would hope by this fall we should be able to have that available. **[29:04] Matt Montgomery:** All you got? Park Board? You met August 5th? **[29:04] Council Member Gesme:** Yep, Park Board met. We approved the use of John Birch Park for a senior concert at the band shell and a Fellowship of Christian Athletes event, and then talked more about the wall—the construction of the limestone wall and what's happening and what that cost will be, and different attempts to try to come up with funds and possibly talking to people outside of town. So that's it. **[29:52] Matt Montgomery:** [Finance] Committee? **[29:52] Neil:** Yeah, we discussed two items: the deputy registrar, which was on our council agenda, and we did talk about the RFP for the motor vehicle services. **Matt Montgomery:** Neil, you said that's kind of on hold? **Neil:** State got in the way. Oh well, that figures. Okay, we'll... I'll know more tomorrow, he'll be back from vacation. That's it for Finance. **[29:52] Matt Montgomery:** Planning Commission? **[29:52] Neil:** That we only had the one item, which was the concept plan for Keller Baartman apartments, which was also on our agenda this evening. **[30:38] Matt Montgomery:** Public Works? **[30:38] Council Member Bringgold:** Yeah, the majority of our agenda is on the consent agenda tonight. The only couple things that weren't: we discussed whether or not to give a refund of sewer credits to Riverside Terrace—we didn't take any action on that—and then we discussed some water drainage issues behind the antique store, the old Gerstubs, and no action was taken there either. And I think that was it. **[31:25] Matt Montgomery:** Okay, thanks. Um, Dan? **[31:25] Dan (Public Works Supervisor):** The last day for the pool is Saturday, August 21st; it'll be closed for the season. We're blacktopping our second alley this week, so that'll be done. We're prepping Park Street, 8th Street, 9th Street, Floyd Street, getting ready for the mill and overlay. They poured the deck on the bridge; the sidewalk should be next Tuesday, so that's coming along. And one request from Public Works: we've been having some issues with flushable wipes clogging our pumps down at the wastewater plant. So if we could just put a message out there to not flush the real heavy-duty flushable wipes—they just don't break down and they'll shut the pumps down. Just an FYI. Thanks. **Matt Montgomery:** Dan, do you know anything about... I had a couple complaints at the swimming pool that [the water] was a different color now in the deep end. Do you know anything about that? **Dan:** We had some issues with algae this year. And when you kill the algae, then it settles to the bottom and then you have to sweep it and filter it. It's a process. **Matt Montgomery:** Is it all the heat? Is that what caused it? **Dan:** It seems like the rain. When we had the rain storms, that seemed to bring on the algae. **Matt Montgomery:** Rainstorms? What are they again? Yeah, wow. Laura, anything else? Tyler? Everybody know Tyler? He's one of our new coppers. **[32:56] Tyler (Police Officer):** I'm the newest officer; I started like four months ago. I'm not allowed to speak. **Matt Montgomery:** Well, you broke that rule! That might be wise, but yeah, exactly. You're out. Okay. Sarah, thanks for coming. Do you have anything? Neil? Derek? Laura? Oh, Bill? **[32:56] Bill Angerman (City Engineer):** Uh, yes. Today—or actually this week—is National Concrete Pipe Week, and a number of us were... I know the council got an invite. I went out to a tour at Hancock; that was very interesting. Learned a number of things. So that was a nice trip. Had a couple of senators—not state senators from our area, but that attended. So I actually learned something today; that's always a good day. Otherwise, that's it. **[33:42] Council Member Lindell:** Going along with what Dan said, I just want to say thank you to our lifeguards this year. It was an amazing year at the pool. Kids were there this afternoon; I asked if they were doing anything fun on Saturday and they said "nope, it's going to close pretty quiet." But I think this year, after being shut down and all the refurbishing that was done, I've heard nothing but good things from the kids, their parents, and the lifeguards. And our lifeguards really do a great job. It's not a complaint, I just wish that the pool could stay open for another week or two. We got 90 degrees here. I know that the kids go back to college, I know that the kids have football and soccer and tennis and volleyball, but I just wish that we could squeeze out another week or two of summer if we could. So, thank you to all of our lifeguards. **[34:28] Matt Montgomery:** Hey, Joe, nothing? One thing I forgot to ask you, Dan. I heard reports when I talked to you about the water line going under the river—it went swimmingly, or went somewhat well from what I understand. So that's all set to be finished up, correct? **[34:28] Dan:** So the next step with that is to... we've sent out for bids to do the connecting on each end. So hopefully that'll be starting early September, the bidding process, and then conclude late early October, maybe mid-October. **[35:14] Matt Montgomery:** All right. Anything else from anyone? Otherwise I'll take a motion to adjourn. **Council Member Duncan:** So moved. **Council Member Montgomery:** Second. **Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Montgomery, second by Mr. Duncan to adjourn. All in favor? Aye.