[0:02] Mayor Mary Fasbender: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [0:18] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Welcome. Let the role reflect. We do have a quorum with an absentee of council member Haus. Tonight we have a couple presentations and first off Christie Bars with our Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau will give us an update and provide us with an annual report. Welcome Christie. [0:40] Christie Bars: Thank you very much. Uh good evening council and mayor. I'm here to just give a brief update of tourism in Hastings for the last year. Um I did provide a budget for our upcoming year. We do work off of a fiscal year which starts in in October and ends at um in September. So as we go through some of those numbers, just keep that in mind. Um I did want to start out so Explore Minnesota released a spring and summer report here in early October of the state of tourism across Minnesota. And there are a couple things to highlight. Um it looks like 2025 is slightly down in um tourism across the state. Um, some key areas are air travel. It's slightly down in uh people traveling to visit Minnesota. Tourism from Canada is down. And we are hearing from tourism based businesses that 51% of them are showing a decrease in sales um from the spring and summer reports. Um so I I did want to highlight that just as we compare some of our numbers here in Hastings. This is the uh breakdown of the survey for tourism based businesses. As you can see, spring summer season, 51 reported that their businesses were down. 30 said that it was up and 21 reported that it was um staying the same. So, not major numbers, but something to just be aware of. Um and I thought that this was interesting because we at the chamber are starting to hear reports from our tourism based businesses that they are seeing a uh a slight downturn in in their sales, particularly with retail. and they're um attributing that to the economy. It seems that people are uh being a bit more tight with their budget. Uh still willing to pay for experiences um but may be a bit reluctant to be uh shopping like they used to. So just something to keep in mind. The report also said that 2024 had an uptick which would be consistent from what we had seen in our businesses. Uh but 2025 is starting to trend downwards. [2:48] Christie Bars: Um, so just a little overview of who we are. We do have a tourism committee that meets every other month. It's made up of a mix of our uh lodging community and tourism based businesses. Um, so you can see all of those listed there. It's really hard for us to get a group photo. So that's the most recent one. Um, and I did want to highlight that we have hired a new tourism coordinator. Her name is Ray Urbach. Um, and she will start with us on the 29th. Uh Rey has a lot of experience in marketing, a ton of experience in the hospitality industry. She is not from Hastings and I was really impressed with her view of Hastings in her interview. So I think she's going to have a great perspective for us. Um it's a part-time role and we are really uh going to have her focus on our social media and and our website itineraries. So that is going to be her key focus. Uh Dave Younren is still going to be volunteering for us and doing the step- on tours. Um and we'll go over the financials a bit, but we are starting to see more requests for for group bus tours coming to town in the summer and fall. Uh so we do charge those groups and that money goes directly to the tour guides. So um Dave has a couple friends from the historic society that help him with those tour guides. [4:05] Christie Bars: Um, okay. So, this is going to be review for those of you who um were on council last year, but uh a quick overview of how the tourism bureau is funded. We are funded through a 3% lodging tax. That 3% is the max in the state of Minnesota. 95% of that those funds go to the tourism bureau um at the chamber to be used uh for marketing and promoting the city. And I always like to highlight that it is uh part of the law that funds cannot be used for um project like capital improvement projects. So it does have to stick with marketing. [4:39] Christie Bars: All right. So um financial overview. This is a look back on our lodging tax. Um and I I think I compare everything to pre and post-covid. So that's why I kept the the long dates here. But as you can see, um, we had a downturn in COVID and since then have had pretty consistent upticks in our lodging tax. Um, last year when I was here to report, we had a 30% increase in our lodging tax from 2022 and 2023 to 2023 and 2024. Um, and this year shows pretty similar trends. So, we're at about a 28.5% increase in our lodging tax over last year. Um our budget is uh made up of these categories. So we have in the yellow is our operations which covers our staff time and and rent and and everything we need to operate the tourism bureau. Um and then the other colors show the print online advertising our printing needs and the small uh dark blue box is miscellaneous which is used. Part of that is the the funds that go towards our tour guides and then the remaining goes to sponsor tourism based events like the holiday hoopla and the candy crawl um that bring people to our community. Um so I did highlight that our print and online advertising takes up about 42% of that. Um we did do more print advertising this year than we had originally budgeted and that's because many of the print advertising comes with online ads as part of it. So um our print advertising will also get us sponsored uh social media campaigns and then online banner ads with the target markets um through those ads. [6:22] Christie Bars: Uh and speaking of target market, so um we have been continuing to focus on our our Minnesota residents and I think uh the most recent Explore Minnesota report um is comforting to know that it's good to be targeting these Minnesota residents because we are not seeing as many people travel um into the state and and there's a a a ton of people that are looking for a place that they can drive to and um experience a staycation or something where they can uh be outside of their 50-mile radius and stay for a few days. So, uh, the tourism committee really wanted to take the focus away from the northern part of the Twin Cities and focus more south. So, we did a lot of our advertising in the Rochester and surrounding areas this this year. Um, we stuck to the Twin Cities because our Google Analytics still say that Minneapolis and St. Paul residents are the ones who are visiting our website the most. Um, and then we we spent a little money in the east metro as well. Um we typically will divide our target market between those who are 60 and older, so recently retired couples who are traveling together, um those who are doing multi-generational travel, and then the younger families who are looking for those day trips. Um and active lifestyle is still a huge uh target market for us. [7:41] Christie Bars: "Get away to someplace close" is still our slogan. So looking ahead uh to this year, we are keeping things pretty consistent with the past. We are seeing success uh in uh increase in our Google Analytics and also increase in our open and click-through rate on our online campaigns, which are ways that we track outside of the lodging tax. Um and we did have a pretty significant uptick in our requests for visitor guides. Um the Mall of America and the airport asked for additional guides. So, we sent last year 3,000 to them and this year we sent 6,000 to them. Um, and we're seeing a huge uptick with the uh visitors that are coming to the confluence. Um, so we're going to stick with our Minnesota traveler target market. Um, we will be doing our seasonal targeted online campaigns like we've done in the past. I did want to put a note in here that we'll be putting additional resources towards the late fall and winter campaigns as Hockey Day Minnesota is coming to town. So, we're going to be looking at the communities that are going to be part of the hockey day schedule. Um, and then the tourism committee is really interested in getting ahead of spring break travel, excuse me. Um, so we're going to be looking at more of the western suburbs and um, researching when those spring breaks are so that we can get some targeted ads out to those families ahead of time. Um, we did start for the first time uh, investing in TV advertising. [9:05] Christie Bars: So, we do have a Hastings commercial that's running in the Rochester area. Um, it was a small budget commercial. Uh, I'm still proud of it. Happy to send it out. Uh, but I think we would like to invest in uh some some more professional videos that we can highlight. Uh, because the TV advertising has proven to be pretty successful just in the first month that we've done it. Uh, print advertising is still within the budget. We're going to focus on that. Uh, active lifestyle with our AAA and bike and hike magazine. Minnesota Monthly has uh been an excellent reach for us and our click-through rates on their online ads have been fantastic. And then we also did start investing in sports yearbooks just particularly with Hockey Day Minnesota uh coming to the community. So we do have a full page ad in in the Twins yearbook and then um we will have one in the Minnesota Wild yearbook. [9:55] Christie Bars: And then as far as our events and programs, uh Rivertown Days is still a huge tourism draw which takes up a decent amount of our staff time. We will be doing the Hastings Prescott bike tour, which is actually now the Birds and Bison bike tour. Um, our step-on tours are still going to be available for those that want to bring a busload of people to town. Um, and then we are going to be budgeting to support our our tourism events that mainly happen through the DBA. Fast and furious. But that is all I have and I will open it up to any questions. [10:31] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thanks, Christie. Any comments, council? Councilmember Vihrachoff. [10:41] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Thank you, your honor. I don't have a question. I just have a comment. Christie, I love this. I love when you come and give updates um to the council. I feel like I always learn a little um something new. Um I was curious though about the sample size for the statewide um survey that you had talked about at the very beginning. Do you have a sense? [10:52] Christie Bars: I not off the top of my head. [10:55] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Okay. I could probably look it up too. I just didn't know if you knew. It's just always nice to know like when there's a data point like that is like are we looking at like 50 people or like 5,000? Um but I'm so impressed with um the the the the staff and the resources that you all have and the way that you do so much with them for folks um that I think that have lived in our community for decades to be able to witness all of the changes especially uh downtown I think is really incredible. I'm really grateful for your work. Thank you for this update. [11:24] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Vihrachoff. Anyone else? Christie, thank you for all you do. Thanks for the partnership and it's so many activities and everybody loves it. [11:35] Christie Bars: Thank you. And just because I have the microphone, I am going to say one last thing. As we are going into the holiday season, um I do want to remind everyone how important it is to support our local businesses as a resident um and not just as a visitor. Uh we are starting to get those phone calls from businesses as costs continue to go up to operate a business. Um, and I don't think 2026 is going to be any different. Um, so I would just for anyone who's listening out there, um, if you can buy it in Hastings, do so, um, as opposed to buying it online. So, I will end with that. [12:12] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thanks, Christie. So, with that, I know typically you always do a support local campaign. Is there anything like that coming out? [12:18] Christie Bars: Actually, mayor, there is. We are—the chamber is going to be putting together a local committee um starting next month. [12:24] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Awesome. [12:24] Christie Bars: Um and the focus is going to be a shop local campaign because I really think through COVID that is what helped these small businesses survive. You know, it got into our heads that if we don't shop there, they're going to go away. No difference now. Even though we're up and running and it's not COVID we still need to support local. [13:01] Christie Bars: Yes. Yeah. And we hear from a lot of our businesses how supported they've felt during COVID um and they're telling us now they need it now more than ever, probably even more than 2020. So that is coming. [13:01] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Great. Thank you. [13:14] Christie Bars: Thank you. [13:16] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Always fun to hear the uh updates from from our chamber. Tonight with us we also have um Paige Marschall-Bigler and she is our Levee Park programming and she will give us an update of all the events that happened down by the river and throughout the community. Welcome Paige. [14:14] Paige Marschall-Bigler: Okay. Well, good evening, council and mayor. Uh, happy to be back here and happy to share our 10th year of programming at Levee Park. We just wrapped up in September. Similar to previous years, we utilize communication platforms online and with our local media partners here in Hastings. Calendars were distributed to local businesses and featured in the spring and summer newsletters. I created event pages, our reels, our stories, and our Instagram posts, Facebook posts, as well as a "Schedule this week at Levee Park" feature that went out on Sundays. [14:55] Paige Marschall-Bigler: Our platform analytics showed an average of 3,000 views per post and an average of 600 views per story and 2,000 views per reel. We continued with consistent branding for our city events for easy recognition on our social platforms. The two ways people still hear about our events are through our city newsletter and our social media platforms. And the third highest being word of mouth. This has been consistent since we started outreach for our community events in the past 10 years. [15:37] Paige Marschall-Bigler: Our attendance was just shy of 10,000 people this year. We scheduled 28 programs and events and we were able to hold 23 due to weather. Attendance averaged 430 people per event compared to 2023 when we scheduled 28 events and canceled seven due to weather averaging 315 people per event. Attendance varies depending on the type of the event as well as weather. Um so as you all experienced with me the storms resulted in cancellation for some of our events. Light rain, we can usually host certain events such as our story time in the park events under the pavilion. Those are typically under 200 people per event. So that space works nicely. As well as the air quality alerts and heat advisories typically result in lower attendance, but we still see um people come out and are thankful that we host the events. [16:33] Paige Marschall-Bigler: Based on our agreements with our vendors, we're able to reschedule some of those events for 2025 at a reduced rate or no additional cost. For example, many of our performers for our summer kickoff event will be rescheduled at no additional cost. And then our movie license is valid through June 2026 next year. So, we'll reuse that. Movie licensing typically costs around $500 per movie for licensing. So, it's good we can reuse that. In a lot of our performance fees, we've seen jumps about 20% for different performers depending on what field they're in, about 20% for the last two years. So those price hikes increase, but we still have really great relationships with those performers. However, most bands that we work with, they're um a higher caliber band, larger group, so they do require a full payment with weather cancellation. So we do lose those funds um but we do have the opportunity to build those relationships for future years. [17:41] Paige Marschall-Bigler: We offered a variety of events this summer including our expanded Comedy in the Park series which was developed based off of our community feedback we received. We also rebranded our Music in the Park series to our Music and Market series. I worked with our economic development coordinator, Alex Menke, to redesign this event. We incorporated our makers market with an average of 20 vendors per event, a kids zone with activities hosted in partnership with the YMCA, Community Ed, Pleasant Hill Library, and Crossroads, and we had three to four food trucks per event each week. Our goal was to broaden our demographic of attendees um and increase attendance. And based on the numbers in our weekly um audience assessments, we saw a slight shift to younger families and um more families and younger adults in our attendance. [18:41] Paige Marschall-Bigler: And I would like to extend my gratitude for our funding support. We have consistent funders over the last several years. Um, locally here in Hastings, Ardent Mills continues to sponsor our Movie in the Park series. Smead Manufacturing supports our Comedy in the Park series. Dakota Electric Association contributes to our summer kickoff and the Ruth and George Doffing Charitable Fund sponsor our Music and Market series. The events and programs at Levee Park are possible because of the generosity of numerous organizations, businesses, and individuals. We also have a lot of volunteers. I work with about 82 different organizations, businesses—well, 82 to 85 depending, you know, we have no shows. Um, so it's pretty incredible having all those moving parts come together for all those different event series and programs that we host throughout June through September. And special thank you to you, mayor and council, for your continued support for the past 10 years. And I'm happy to answer any questions. [20:00] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thanks, Paige. Any questions, council? Uh, Councilmember Leifeld. [20:01] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: Thanks, your honor. You know, this is always a bittersweet moment, Paige, because it does mark the end of summer. [20:04] Paige Marschall-Bigler: It does. [20:05] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: So, as much as we love your presentation, it reminds us that it's over till next spring, next year. [20:08] Paige Marschall-Bigler: Until next year. [20:09] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: So, again, what a wonderful job. I just I love going down there and seeing some of the same faces. I feel like we're starting to see older folks, which I love seeing that. I tell people constantly at the bank, "Hey, are you going down Thursday for the music?" I mean, I tell people constantly because what a great free event and I am seeing the same people over and over. But what I love about it is I'm—and you know me, I'll talk to a tree stump—so, I'm meeting people who don't live here and I love that people are coming down specifically for these events because when you look at those numbers, my gosh, you know, that it just increases every year and word gets out and I think the process by which right that we're advertising and just putting it on Facebook, people know what page to go look for it and you know, I'm a huge fan, absolutely love these events. Um, and I just what you do is fantastic and the community and myself really appreciate all the effort. I know it's—I can't imagine how much work you put in to put these events on and then rain comes and you know, so I just want to say thank you and keep up the great work and I can't wait till spring. [21:30] Paige Marschall-Bigler: Yes. Thank you. [21:32] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Very exciting. Thanks, Paige. Thank you, Councilmember Leifeld. Anything else? Paige, thank you again. Great year. I I love going down there. I do have a question though. From last year to this year, the markets came every week. [21:41] Paige Marschall-Bigler: Yes. [21:42] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Did they feel that they should have been there every week? [21:44] Paige Marschall-Bigler: So, we um—Alex and I—we'll have um a survey that go out to our vendors and then food trucks and then my kids zone and our bands. So we get internal external communication from attendees, vendors, partners, volunteers. So we take all that into consideration and see how we want to structure it from year to year. So this year having the makers market every week in conjunction with a new kids zone and food trucks um and our bands and then also changing the time frame. So yeah, we will see. It'll be a surprise for 2026. [22:21] Mayor Mary Fasbender: It was just great. It was just great. Thank you for all you do along with Alex too. All right. Thank you. Um comments from the audience. Anyone wish to speak to the council at this time? And no one on Zoom. All right. Council members, are there any items? Oops. Sorry. Oh, sorry. Approval of minutes. Council, are there any corrections to the minutes from the meeting on October 6th? Okay, seeing none. All right, now moving forward. Council, any items to be considered? Okay, consent agenda. Council, I would accept a motion to approve the consent agenda. Councilmember Lawrence and a second with Councilmember Pemble. Any discussion, council? All those in favor of the motion state by saying aye. [23:23] Councilmembers: Aye. [23:23] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Opposed to that motion state by saying nay. And that motion prevails. Tonight under awarding of contracts, we have an authorized signature for the first amendment of PFAS planning and design grant agreement. And for this item, we will have an introduction by our City Administrator, Dan Wietecha. Dan? [23:51] Dan Wietecha: Thank you, mayor. Um although this is really fairly uh housekeeping, uh it's exciting and important to do. Uh as you may recall, we received about a $3.2 million grant uh from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency a couple of years ago to be used towards the uh engineering and design work for our three water treatment plants. Uh, and it's really been an uh, I think underappreciated grant. You know, we certainly like the dollars, but it really has also helped us keep the project on schedule and moving forward uh, and and not have to figure out where does that initial upfront money come from? Um uh but what we have before us tonight is an amendment to that uh adding an additional $281,000. Uh and this is primarily two different things. One uh as we've gone into the design work, uh there's been some additional expenses that were not anticipated when we had uh scoped out and and sort of itemized the um uh expected expenses for that $3.2 million. So, uh doing some uh specialized um analysis for uh making sure that we have the um uh GAC (granular activated carbon) filters appropriately calibrated for our water. So, instead of just being a generic filter, we want to make sure that it's meeting our water needs. Uh so some expenses that weren't anticipated uh uh in the original design or the original scoping for the design work. Uh the other place that we've had some expenses is um earlier this year uh the Pollution Control Agency as one of the co-trustees of the state's uh East Metro 3M settlement funds uh had indicated um some expenses that we were uh occurring very early on during the uh central treatment plant. They said, "Well, bill it to the planning and design grant." Follow their directions, but uh probably a little bit beyond what the initial intent was. But the other pieces means here's some expenses being uh attributed to that that uh we need to make sure that there's money to cover those. So, some additional expenses related to uh appraising the property uh or hiring SRF to assist with uh relocation assistance. Let's make sure that those costs are covered appropriately. So, that's what's behind the $281,000 increase. Uh certainly appreciative of having those funds available and that support. Uh but with that, I can take any questions. Thank you. [26:39] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thanks, Dan. Any questions, council? Okay. Hearing none, then I would accept a motion to accept the authorized signature of amendment number one for MPCA grant agreement for drinking water planning and design funds for PFAS treatment. Councilmember Pemble, Councilmember Vihrachoff. Any discussion, council? All those in favor of the motion state by saying aye. [27:14] Councilmembers: Aye. [27:14] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Any opposed to that motion? State by saying nay. And that motion prevails. Thanks, Dan. Under reports from city staff community development, we have a conversion of a building into apartments at 321 6th Street East, a resolution to amend the special use permit in the historic apartments, and a resolution to amend the variance for parking. And we have with us tonight our Community Development Director, John Hinzman. Welcome John. [27:43] John Hinzman: Thank you, mayor. City Council members, as the mayor pointed out, we have two separate actions for you tonight. I'll go through a little bit of the history of how we got to this place. We're looking at 321 6th Street East, which is the old convent building across from the old St. Boniface Church, which is now known as SEED School. It was used for many years uh for teen treatment and has been vacant for a number of years here. We passed an ordinance amendment about six years ago to utilize historic larger buildings by granting them a higher level of residential units. So, this is the first one that came under that ordinance amendment. And it was approved by the city council about 5 years ago in 2020 for a special use permit to allow for units within a historic structure and then a variance to the parking levels on that. Over the last five years, the the people that were applying for it and are still involved in it have been working on it. It's gone a little slower than they had expected to do, but we're happy to say that they're committed to the project and they are making steps towards the building permit. With those two original actions, there was a one-year sunset clause on both of those. So, we would like to be able to keep those approvals going. And so the actions we have before you tonight are to amend the special use permit. The amendment to the special use permit does two things. One of them, it delays the expiration date another year until one year from this date, but also raises the level of dwelling units from nine units, which was originally approved, to 10. Now, under the calculation we have for number of units in historic structures, it could have 10 units and that was pointed out back in the original staff report. So, even though this does have one more unit than was approved in 2020, this is allowed under the code here. And the variance to parking would be for one parking space in the rear of the building itself. Both of those actions are separate resolutions. Both of those actions would require six of seven council members to vote in affirmative to that. So I can stand for any questions you may have. Thank you. [29:54] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thanks, John. Council, any questions? Councilmember Leifeld. [30:01] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: Thanks, your honor. John, to confirm then, so from 2020, this is the same owners? [30:08] John Hinzman: It is. [30:09] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: So it's not been sold and they're just continuing to work on it. [30:13] John Hinzman: Exactly. Yep. Same owners that applied in 2020 are moving forward with it today. [30:17] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: And then I know nothing's been brought before commission regarding the parking. Do we foresee any issues adding in another unit? [30:40] John Hinzman: We—yeah, with the parking on it, with the original application five years ago, we did have the Heritage Preservation Commission and Planning Commission review that. Since that time in 2020, we also amended our parking standards. So we allowed instead of having two spaces per unit, 1.75 spaces per unit. If you do the math on this one, it would still allow—even though you had nine spaces five years ago with a variance of one space, our parking changes still would have a one space variance requirement because the parking standards were reduced. That probably wasn't eloquently stated, but the result in that through this is that it would be the same effect. [31:25] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: And then as far as parking in that area, I know the school's across the street. What about street parking? I'm not super familiar with the no parking areas. [31:34] John Hinzman: Yeah, off the top of my head, councilmember, I'm not exactly familiar with them either. With the parking requirements that we put in place, we anticipate that we try to provide for all parking to be made on the site itself. So, if you've got 10 units in there, you've got 17 spaces. We feel that most traffic should be accommodated within the site itself. [31:55] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: Okay. Thanks, John. [32:01] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thank you, Councilmember Leifeld. Councilmember Pemble. [32:06] Councilmember Dave Pemble: John, mine is tied to parking, too. Are they taking out the so-called basketball court in the backside to make that room? Is that what's happening? [32:15] John Hinzman: Correct. Yeah. Essentially, the parking area would go back here. [32:20] Councilmember Dave Pemble: Okay. Thank you. [32:21] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thank you, Councilmember Pemble. Councilmember Vihrachoff. [32:26] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Thank you, your honor. Um, thank you, John, for your presentation of this. I just had a clarifying question. Forgive me if you went into this. It is not about parking, though. So, there's that. Um, so I'm supportive of this. I know that you said that this took a little bit longer. And when I actually read the resolution, we're talking about 5 years that this last special use permit and this last time that this came before a body... so is it within the city's purview to allot any kind of with approval of this today. Is there any way to say that we would like for building and whatnot to be done at a certain time frame? Um that is not an extension of another five years. I see the October 20th, 2026, but is that just for the one additional spot that we're talking about or is that for the whole thing? Do you get what I'm saying? [33:24] John Hinzman: I think so, councilmember. That would be to have the use underway. So, that would mean construction completed and use of the structure. [33:35] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Okay. So the variance would come under that as well as a special use permit. [33:38] John Hinzman: Correct. [33:40] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Okay. So we're looking out a year for this entire project. [33:43] John Hinzman: Correct. [33:45] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Wonderful. I would love to vote yes on this, Mayor. [33:48] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thank you, Councilmember Vihrachoff. Any other questions? Okay. Council, then I would accept a motion to approve a resolution amending the resolution number 113020 adopting written findings of fact, conclusion, and decision of the city council of the city of Hastings, acting as the board of adjustment and appeals granting a special use permit for historic apartments in the R2 zoning district located at 321 6th Street East and a resolution of the city council of the city of Hastings granting a variance to the minimum parking standards for property located at 321 6th Street East. [34:40] Councilmember Lisa Leifeld: Make a motion to amend both resolutions as stated. [34:45] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thank you, Councilmember Leifeld. And a second by Councilmember Pemble. Any other discussion? Council, all those in favor of the motion state by saying aye. [34:55] Councilmembers: Aye. [34:55] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Opposed to that motion, state by saying nay. And that motion prevails. Thank you, John. [35:01] John Hinzman: Thank you. [35:02] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Under administration tonight, we have a resolution for the 2026 budget pre-authorizations. And Dan, you may give us your introduction. [35:14] Dan Wietecha: Thank you, mayor. Um as you know uh the budget process starts early uh late spring early summer. Uh in September uh the council approved the preliminary budget uh which certainly can and will have some changes to it. Uh the final budget uh is on the agenda in December. Uh so another six weeks or so. Uh as uh we've done the last several years, uh staff has come to council after the preliminary budget and said, "We've got a few items that if you're confident that these will be in the final version, can we start early?" Uh and those are typically because they have a long lead time. Uh for example, um ordering a squad car can take six to nine months before it comes here. Uh a new plow truck can take a year to a year and a half. So '26 budget might actually even be '27. Um but as a matter of because they take a long time, can we start now instead of waiting until December or even January and officially being 2026? Uh other times we've requested ordering because there's some cost savings. You know, the vendor has told us prices are going up January 1. Geez, let's order before January. It's not the case in front of us today, but uh this process the last four or five years of uh some pre-authorizations really has worked for the city's benefit. I am here tonight asking for two pre-authorizations. One being a pair of police squad cars and the other being a replacement of a plow truck as well as the wing and blade for the public works department. Total between those items is $424,000. Um would recommend or if you're not sure about these being part of the final budget in December, we don't need to rush. But if you're confident that this will be part of the final piece, would like to start the process. Um would note that I do not expect any of these to actually need any money until the 2026 budget. More of a delivery item. But, with that, I can certainly take questions on these items or the process. Thank you. [37:48] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thanks, Dan. Councilmember Beck? [37:51] Councilmember Mya Beck: Can I just have clarity, Dan? Um, the squad cars, according to Chief Linscheid, were going to be about in the 30,000s. Is that extra because I think 124 breaks down to 62,000 a piece? Does that include his special cop equipment that goes on the squads? [38:08] Dan Wietecha: Yes. I don't have the breakdown of those. Uh but that's the vehicle itself. Uh both of them being hybrids, a little bit of an upcharge for that. Uh but then additionally, it's the computers and equipment and the light bars and sirens and the cop cage and all. Yeah. All the "cop stuff" that makes the cars fun, but it actually even adds some time. So it might be six plus months before the vehicle's here and then another three or four weeks before it's on the road and equipped. So but that's the explanation of this cost. Thank you. [38:43] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Okay. Thank you, Councilmember Beck. Councilmember Vihrachoff. [38:51] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Thank you, your honor. Thank you, Councilmember Beck, for that question. We serve on finance committee together and um I was thinking of that same thing, so I'm glad to have clarification for that. And maybe next year in terms of as we think through budgeting and finance, maybe we could get clarity around that at the time of those presentations too that we know that there's going to be an additional charge for some of that equipment that gets put in there. But that being said, what I really wanted to say is that I just very much appreciate this thoughtfulness that the city brings to this. I think that so often in the news today, we are often reading stories about cities that have not necessarily planned ahead or have not thought about unique ways to maybe rightsize their fleet or things like that. And I think the City of Hastings is doing a fantastic job of this. I'm very thankful to department heads that brought us all of these different budget requests and Dan for helping us to walk through this process. Um I support this, but I don't know that you actually need a formal... You don't need anything formal from me in terms of this, right? You want a motion? [39:52] Dan Wietecha: I would love to. [39:53] Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff: Okay. Make a motion to approve the resolution of the 2026 budget pre-authorizations. Would that work? [40:02] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Councilmember Pemble will second that. And did you also have a comment? [40:07] Councilmember Dave Pemble: No. My only question or comment to this is now we have currently one hybrid squad and this will be two additional because we're not we're not getting rid of the hybrid that we currently have, right? [40:19] Dan Wietecha: I think we might have two in the fleet right now but we got rid of—I don't drive them so I'm not sure the specific number. We definitely have one, I think two, uh but no, neither of those is being replaced at this time. Uh this is replacing gas ones. Uh we have liked the hybrid. So um want to continue converting the fleet over. [40:48] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Pemble. No other discussion. Council, then I accept a motion to approve and pre-authorization to purchase vehicles and equipment in the 2026 budget as presented. Councilmember Vihrachoff, Councilmember Pemble. All those in favor of the motion state by saying aye. [41:16] Councilmembers: Aye. [41:16] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Opposed to that motion, state by saying nay. All right. And that motion prevails. Council members, do you have any announcements? I have a few. The Hastings community Halloween party is Friday, October 24th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the high school. Recommended for families with kids 12 and under. Please bring a non-perishable food item for the Hastings Family Service or a cash or check donation for Youth Impact Council Scholarship. The Hastings Downtown Business Association presents Downtown Hastings Halloween Candy Crawl on Sunday, October 26th. Please bring a non-perishable food item to donate to Hastings Family Service. Residents can drop off their pumpkins at the Dakota County Highway Shop in the labeled bin Saturday and Sunday, November 1st and 2nd. Painted pumpkins and pumpkins with excessive wax or another inorganic residue cannot be accepted and should go in the trash. Please do not put anything other than the pumpkins or gourds in the container. Outdoor winter clothing swap: bring your gently used and clean outdoor winter clothing you no longer want to our swap event and bring home items that are new to you on Tuesday, November 4th in the Rambling River Center in Farmington. Accepting coats, jackets, mittens, gloves, winter hats, scarves, winter boots, and snow pants in all sizes. No item donation is necessary to shop for the swap. I'd like to recognize coming up October 28th as National First Responder Day and thank all of our first responders for their work and service in our community. Friends of the Pleasant Hill Library hosts its used book sale Thursday to Sunday, November 6th to November 9th. Very special day tomorrow: happy birthday to Councilmember Vihrachoff! Meetings on Tuesday, October 21st, 7:00 p.m., Heritage Preservation Commission. Monday, October 27th, 7:00 p.m. Utility Committee and a 7:00 p.m. Planning Commission meeting. Monday, November 3rd, 5:30, City Council legislative priority workshop and a 7:00 p.m. council meeting. With that, I would accept a motion to adjourn. Councilmember Lawrence and Councilmember Leifeld. No discussion. All those in favor of the motion state by saying aye. [44:17] Councilmembers: Aye. [44:17] Mayor Mary Fasbender: Opposed to that motion? [Silence] Motion carries. Meeting adjourned.