welcome to the mountain city council today is Tuesday March 11th at 6 o'clock uh can we rise for the Pledge of Allegiance 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 right we got our agenda do we have any amendments no amendments okay can I get a motion to approve the agenda motion to approve the agenda and can I get a second second any other discussion all those in favor please say I I those oppose all right the agenda is passed uh we also have the consent agenda does someone want to go through those items I can go through it um unless anyone else really wanted to but I I wanted to ask a question about a couple okay we should pull the ones that you want to and I don't even know if they need to be pulled or not but items H and I I just wanted to see exactly what was changing I didn't really feel like I got it clear okay if it was just verbage or do you want to pull those yeah discuss what do pull those okay so I'll read a through G oh uh yeah okay um consent agenda a approved payment of claims B approved minutes from the February 25th and and February 18th joint meeting C approv resolution approving variance for Lakes Shore setback for deck replacement at 4366 Wilshire D approve resolution approving variance for undersized lot at 2914 meal Lane e approve resolution approving variance for front set back for replacement house at 4609 tuxedo F approve res approve resolution approving public gathering permit for Bastion for use of Surfside Park um and Beach for Way Station on May 31st 2025 G approve ordinance amending chapter 46 of Mount city code um for code offenses and miscellaneous provisions and then J approve 2025 Planning Commission work plan and project list all right so we went through those and we're in h and I does anybody else want to talk about any other ones all right can I get a motion to approve a through G and J I make a motion to approve consent items a through G and J okay got a motion can I get a second second okay roll call please council member Herrick hi council member mckin hi council member Pew hi hi council member castalano hi mayor Hol hi okay so if you were here for any of that items that's pass and we're you're good to go or you can stay congratulations easy enough all right so now we have H uh we'll bring that up if you want to go ahead and talk about that I didn't have any questions in particular but I didn't see like the striketh through or changes um but was it just like verbiage Chang mostly mostly it would be great if Sarah was here so she could go through it but maybe Jesse can so obviously Sarah's not here um we talked about it a little bit earlier um generally things that were approved by the Planning Commission uh unanimously have gone on consent Sarah's going to be at the next meeting I think even along with Rita trap so I can do a couple different things we can just table them and approve them it's not they're not uh world changing here but it's generally text changes um okay but I we're happy to do that too I just being that it was just a couple consent items I gave Sarah the night off but um yeah no I mean we can approve it tonight I just wanted to ask like either you or Sarah and council member McAn if there was anything like additional to add if it was just text like there really isn't it's mostly just updating some old verbage you know that wasn't very clear okay yeah I read it and didn't have any like yeah feedback or anything um we did talk at length about a lot of the signage but again there was nothing that was Earth shattering it was just mostly to clarify the language okay maybe a suggestion for next time is um to Red hering it you know to have strike through language so we can see yeah with the changes if I was reading this right I think this is a complete replacement isn't it yeah so that that would be why there wasn't but we could I suppose unless it's too cumbersome to have strikethroughs on two different yeah yeah if it's a complete you wouldn't do it visually uh I don't recall anything would be changing okay you know as far as signon buildings and yeah I didn't like have any questions in particular either I was just curious yeah but certainly um I mean I wish I could give you more in-depth answers but just not a whole lot more to it kind of there really isn't but again Sarah maybe give her a buzz tomorrow and she can kind of walk you through it there was some clarifications or where our code didn't line up with State Statute too some of that I mean okay just uh text references type of thing I mean I don't mind if we put those back in and approve h& I I didn't have anything else I don't think we need to table it or do we need to table it now that it was pulled no definitely not you would just make a separate motion but um that was just our offer for more if you really wanted to dive we certainly can otherwise feel free to make a motion mostly that really got re-evaluated because we were going through all of the you know the work rules everything that's kind of what we spent the year on kind of like we had our agenda yeah and I saw like the unanimous approval yeah so I don't know do anybody else have any questions on h& I or was it just me I think just you okay um if you go to page 680 um there's just kind of a executive summary on there and it says in accordance with federal case law the code was updated to organize ass sign regulations based on the type of sign temporary or permanent uh location and size regulations have also been modified to remove regulations that were based on what the sign said for example the city cannot have specific regulations for garage sale signs or real estate signs that's kind of number one uh regulations for dynamic display signs were added since the city already has some another one is clarification was provided on how sign area is measured and then to ease Administration permits for temporary signs were eliminated staff will still enforce the regulation uh for temporary signage uh regulations for murals were added since they were are not considered signs and the Planning Commission requested regulations for signs painted on buildings and again then the next few pages goes through the actual ordinance M um so I mean unless there's any other conversation do you want to do a motion to approve it yeah um I'd like to make a motion to approve um items H and I um should do do do it separately just do them separate okay um on the consent agenda to add back in h and make a motion to approve ordinance replacing repealing and replacing chapter 119 of Mount city code and it's entirely related to signage okay got a motion can negative second second any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppose all right so that H passes and then I do you want to yeah do a motion for that I'll make a motion to approve uh and read consent agenda item I approve resolution authorizing publication by title and summary pursuant to Minnesota statute 4121 91 subdivision 4 of an ordinance repealing and replacing chapter 119 of the mount city code in its entirety related to signage all right got a motion can I get a second second any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppos all right that pass all right so number five we got comments and suggestions from residents that their item is not on the agenda uh really we only have kind of besides the the police after this uh we have the state of the water so um if it's not one of those two things kind of come up and give us your name and address welcome can you give us your name and address yeah Patricia Edington 4567 doorchester Road hi I'm a longtime Mound resident and homeowner and today I'm here to advocate for the mound rental property license it has been under consideration by the city as a longtime Mound resident I have experienced firsthand the repercussions of unregulated home rentals in our city over a decade ago nearby Home became the property of an investment firm that monopolized on an expensive inexpensive foreclosure What followed is a series of problems it it is an example of the phenomena that we don't want to see in Mound and I'm referring to the private equities ruthless takeover of the last of affordable housing so property that was once a well-loved family home began to Decay away home repairs and maintenance are being neglected by the homeowner the home has fallen into disrepair even simple tasks like grass cutting and trash removal are often left undone the house basically is now nothing more than the Homer the homeowner's ATM machine and it has had a procession of rotating renters some of these creating serious problems for Neighbors the property owners have made themselves invisible nearly impossible to track down The Times They Are contacted they do nothing meaningful to resolve any problems on their property although there has been problems with some of the renters I sympathize with them because they're being exploited by predatory landlords I would encourage you to initiate the rental ler for the city of mound to protect our residents from predatory investors entering the city so that anyone looking to speculate on our city would understand this isn't a place for slum Lords there are laws to follow and they will be required to invest in the property and the city so I just thank you I just wanted to um present that because I heard that this was under consideration and um it's like an ongoing problem um around a lot of I mean at least my neighborhood and I'm guessing others as well because whenever there is a complaint about this um there's really no like no no regulations no ordinances like covering rentals and that's what I'm told and that's what other people are told so these people can just like you know do whatever they want and not take care of the property like if they choose to not at all yeah we appreciate you coming out we did talk about this in our joint planning and uh Council workshop and actually in our own Workshop as well and it is something that we're uh looking at a lot of other cities do have policies with uh rental code and stuff and we're kind of one of the the ones that doesn't so all right we're definitely going to look into it so appreciate you coming out thank you all right do we have any other people hey come on up can you give us your name and address Tyler Piper resident at 5504 Church Road um just two quick notes um first one is I've just been having a slight issue ongoing with the um the road Church Road coming down with truck traffic and it's about three times a year that I've have to buy about $ 20 $30 worth of soil to replace because they can't make I think it's the Belmont and Church Road um turn and so they always end up back into my yard um I have some plum trees that are growing they're going to be very thorny so hopefully eventually that will stop that but I just wanted to raise that for awareness to them as different roads are being you know considered and worked on and then definitely not a part of my parks and open space commission uh this is me speaking as just a resident of Mound but also of henen County of Minneapolis in that raised your awareness that the V to legumes program which is a grand program and I apologize I didn't come with um an research to tell you how many people in Mound or nearby areas have received that grant funding but it is not included in the current Governor's budget um and proposed Bill SF number 1211 seeks to repeal funding putting pollinators like the rusty patch and monarch butterfly and Jeopardy um Etc there's more in the the website but I just wanted to as a resident voice my support for this program and um uh we'll be looking into it in my other capacity as well but just wanted to raise can you repeat that bill number yes SF number 1211 and I think it's it's not in there so you wouldn't you wouldn't find it in there but that was the um the name of the uh the current bill what was the name of it it's a uh the lawn to legumes program which is part of I think they work in coordination with blue thumb is the organization and they typically do $250 Grant Awards through a lottery system and they prioritize I think henpen County because of our Russy patch bumblebee population um but I've I've served as a mentor served had my name on the volunteer list for many years but never been called to actually help anyone which was kind of a bummer but it is a good program and again just as a resident wanted to voice my support so and it was LA to lagum yeah or let me see part of the pollinator yeah le le leggings or lagoons I heard leggings and legum oh my gosh definitely not leggings l u g u m e s legumes legums legums WS to a bean right it was initially it was initially um authored by Kelly Morrison when she was our State Rep she authored the bill she authored the original bill I did not know that yeah sure anyways thank you all right thanks appreciate thanks all right anybody else all right uh next up we got Oro please welcome C CC uh met two weeks ago not a lot has changed uh weather's changed so a little more activity um at nights and during the weekends we've been seeing but nothing is up ticked on us or anything uh big thing is weight restrictions are on now so we will be out enforcing that um day and night uh we have several trained officers on dealing with the road restrictions on days and nights and we are next week we'll be training up more to deal with that CU it is a problem it can be a problem if it's not monitored so um our department has always been pretty Vigilant on you know heavy trucks going down roads and damaging stuff so um and then also people just call in if if they see them we try to um cut them off and and correct the behavior and usually it's a fine and uh heavy fine depending on what it is can you put a little concentration on the west edge of Boulevard yep yeah that's usually where our problem is because they try to sneak around our city and and go down so y they come up 44 yeah we are well aware of that so we'll we'll capture that as much as we can um Tuesdays and Thursday next week we'll be conducting our annual uh spring use force train the guys and gals of orop PD have to go back and research on tasers and um other things to keep up with the post board so we'll be busy for the the next week with a lot of training for our officers uh other than that application process for our new OPD has closed and our uh hiring process uh interviewing will start next week uh Thursday I believe we'll start interviewing people and then uh our new K9 Onyx has started training he's second day today um got to see him come in he was a big mud ball all and he got in but he's training he's a very large one-year-old Shepherd so very nice dog so I'll keep you guys update on that but it looks like it it's going pretty well so far they're working on obedience and just handling of the dog and stuff right now so and then officer Schultz reported me our school resource officer she has finished up uh our lady the Lakes dare program and that will be the last dare program for the year um anything else any questions the if you have any questions on the readouts for the three points um I looked over them everything kind of averages into the 27 30 mph Mark there's a few where someone spiked at a 50 but uh we don't know where how or where that came from it might have been a patrol squad going to a call but we have no idea we don't have ways of tracking it but looks you just saw one basically say what you just saw one big one in the 50s which I'm like well I don't know how they can I don't think I've ever done 5050 going to a call on that road I don't think we can do that I you have to be a race car driver BL a screw up thing or we don't know it was an odd thing but there's a few 41s you know 40s and stuff that people had had but um the spike shows right in the 30 to 32 Mark okay is what I I saw I noticed um I don't know if you guys did you guys get these readouts and yeah Josh shared them you got them okay so if there's any questions on them uh Chief forac uh said there was going to be a uh police commission meeting tomorrow and you you'll be there so if you have any questions on it he'll answer them fully if you have anything so right other than that that's all I have for this can can we move the trailers now to West Edge you want West Edge we're talking about right before the hill before we go down okay uh to the north uh what's the crosssection there Evergreen Evergreen is the circle part that's it okay Evergreen you said that's before the that's before the the dip down before the curve there okay can I ask did you have a healthy number of applicants uh I I just peaked at what we had sitting there I think we had either four or five I know we had four for sure so um I don't know what what their backgrounds are yet and stuff like that and I don't I don't participate typically in the interview process because I have the training process to deal with them so I'll find out as we go along and what's going on and how the uh process goes so great thank you so I'll keep you post on that too and let you know how things come out so we want a dearwood dearwood right before you go down right before you go down the hill yeah so there's Evergreen that's Beachwood and then Evergreen as you go south yes so the deerwoods right before you go down correct you want it on the on dearwood on the left side that' be on your left if you're coming down towards the water plant so when you're coming over from so you're coming off 44 over um Bartlett you want to catching traffic coming that way is that right we want to see it going down the hill cuz going up the hill they're not going to speed as much as they go down the hill that's kind of what you're concern yeah so I'm not sure maybe they need to they need to use their judgment yeah I I'll go take a look at it when I'm done here it's literally right when you come down I'm at 26 30 West Edge so right my house is right at the base of that Hill okay so if you want to put it in my yard that's fine and you're talking like when you go down the hill and it's the curve it curves right am I thinking right yeah do you want to look at it is it oh you got it be at the bottom yeah so here's Bartlet right they come down at the bottom of that here's the de flying before they hit the C so the problem is they're speeding here so they're going down this hill and they're kind of speeding around we already have 15 and 15 there mhm but this is right where it starts where they start going fast so if you put it over here you're not going to get that's too early that's too early Beachwood might be fine I mean that's going to deter people but you want to get true Ros you want right right before that goes down or you'd hit them at the bottom of the hill I guess I mean if you want to put it in my yard I can give you written permission I I don't have a problem with it we have well we have the uh trailers and we have the signs that we attached to so we can see what we got available you just do a strip too or no uh like the count no we we just have the signs and the um trailers that we use that's so yeah I I'll go take a look at now and uh I'll have Josh set it up and we'll we'll go we'll see how it reads and if you're not getting the right readings I'll we'll have it adjusted and make it just maybe just shoot the two of us since we're on the police commission May shoot us an email after two weeks or something and then maybe we'll see what we find sounds good I'll do that okay thanks again for com thank you appreciate it all right number seven we got state of the water presentation you do this all from memory huh slides oh there you we all dressed up for us toight good evening Mr Mayor members of the council I am wearing a jacket tonight this is important important stuff uh you'll notice some things in here are recycled a little bit just so we've got some uh recitation sort of some history and then there are some new things uh and so what we're doing here uh we we came out with this purpose statement a couple years ago when we first started doing this um I will say our focus on our water more or less we've always had one uh but in this venue we've started talking about this since the main notifications in 2021 a lot more and that's when we came out with this purpose statement to provide the residents of Mound with safe and affordable drinking water uh and after conducting a study working with the council and the mayor at that time staff uh we came up with the solution that we needed to build a water treatment plant and all the things that go with that which includes some trunk water mains and a new well uh originally that study we said that was about 36 million and some change well thanks to inflation and how long it's been we're currently using around 40 million for that total solution price take um this might look similar to a slide you saw last year other than we've included some 2025 test results Ryan has been continuing to sample around the community and uh we've done some repeat sampling at some similar points uh the reason we are doing this sampling sort of around town is to try to get some idea of uh how the manganese is permeating throughout the system and so trying to get it you know this these samples should look a lot more like it would be in your home pre-water softener I'll just I'll make sure that I I keep that caveat in there um and you can see you know these interesting these amounts have not changed significantly they haven't gone up they haven't gone down a huge amount but the manganese is still present and it's still present above that health-based limit uh anybody who is tired of hearing me say health-based limit has listened to these presentations before uh but manganese um just real quick since this might be first time for some uh manganes does not have an actual contamination limit because it is not considered a primary contaminant but we do know that excessive manganes causes all sorts of health problems and so because there is no hard fast science on that uh there is a health-based limit it's 100 milligrams per liter or 0.1 in this um chart would be for adults I'm sorry for uh infants and 300 or3 for adults so as you can see we have test results above that and so that's why in 2021 we set out the letters we recommend if you don't have any sort of water treatment in your home that you should be consuming bottled of water so Brian were these tests taken in somebody's home is that what how did they Brian where were these taken from exactly I don't need to know the exact house I'm just is it from the house or not in a home easy access fail most of them were City buildings okay but wanted to get around the whole city so we have from all four and then since we are talking about that right now we want to continue to make sure that we make public for our residents uh where they can go to find out what the manganese is like in your Unique Home and the reason the reason we recommend testing is because we acknowledge that water softening removes the manganese the floculation process for taking out the calcium chlorides does take out a good portion of the manganese and so if you're curious does my water softener do the trick you should go to one of these places and have your water checked and we we recommend that for anybody that's nervous about this that's worried about this uh unfortunately we as staff here at the city we don't have the capability to test this for residents I would love it if we did but there are plenty of capable places not too far away um lots of people I know that have been to uh Tri City in Bloomington which is actually the back side of bloomington's water treatment plant one charge for that they do charge for that and I don't know off hand how much that is but I know it's not a lot like 30 30 bucks or something yeah I have another question what was the last time the aquafer was tested so there isn't a way to directly test the aquafer okay we we can test it at our source which is directly from the well okay and that is one of the places that has been tested in the past okay I did not put that up in the chart because I don't think that we haven't been updating that on a regular basis we've more been concerned with what kind of Manganese are we getting at these points within the city for a couple of reasons one of them is we know there's manganese in the aquafer itself but also we know that there is likely some manganese in some of the sediment that is in the pipes and so the question is how is that coming out you know we even if we were um suddenly able to completely stop the manganese from coming up from the aquifer then we may still be experiencing some likely not in the amounts that we see here and that is an eventuality that we have talked about on our end of what is it going to look like how long is it going to take to flush this and the initial estimate is that the maganese that's in there will be such a small amount that it will be below the health based limit well below the health based limit but we will be testing we'll be applying science to that instead of just my gut feel make these numbers are consistent but Bartlett was up quite a bit is that probably from the construction we've had done the L and I'm I'm not going to speculate it's it has more to do with the the mixing you know of the water that is the sediment that is already in the pipe so the farther we get away from the wells okay that has that probably is contributing to it yeah there's just so many moving pieces and that that's part of why Ryan tested all over the city and then we've tested those we've sampled those points more than once now just trying to educate myself all right absolutely I'm sorry I don't have a better answer for you that I understand so in the last year we've finally gotten the start on the design of what will hopefully someday be more than just a crappy 2D drawing we should be able to get to actually standing outside our water treatment plant kicking our shoes in the dirt talking about what we've accomplished however um we spent a good portion of 2024 navigating the monies that we have already been given as well as continuing to ask for more and so since 2021 we have continued to apply to the iup and the PPL which are the intended use plan on the project priority list those are ways that the state of Minnesota allocates the drinking water revolving fund monies uh and they continue I'll get more in depth on that I've got our our rankings in on another slide um but just talking about things that we have accomplished in 24 so we got to an answer of how we can use the 10.3 million that we were given by the state legislature because that was um congressionally directed funding it didn't come through any one of these you know drinking water revolving funds or anything like that uh the state seemed at first to not know quite what to do with that and so they gave us that money through the public facilities Authority and that is who handles those loans anyway on public facilities Authority along with us needed to navigate through some things to set some ground rules or was that mid session last year we had to have the language amend amended to make sure that we could unlock that money as soon as possible and so then we got some language given back to us that said for some portions of this money you will have to have bid numbers which means that the things that we have out to bid right now as soon as we have those awarded numbers then we've got actual construction dollars that we can then start getting reimbursed which Noah is not here but he will tell you that is one of the biggest things on his mind is to make sure that the cash flow starts going the other way so we have not received any cash on this I mean I know it's been designated but have we actually received it dollars as we spend it we get reimbursed okay so it's a reimbursement process okay unfortunately and just in the interest a full transparency our bills you all have been floating until now once we have you know the design of things and the administration of bidding that the city has been covering that and then now that we have as bid numbers for those things or as those come in then all of that becomes eligible for reimbursement we submit that monthly quarterly annually uh it's a it's a monthly it's monthly okay monthly draw all right uh one thing that we we had started and we felt like we were Johnny on the spot with that we were throwing a curveball is what I'm calling in here the part 10 part 106 cultural resources uh we do we are in Mound uh and if anyone thinks about what the implication is of the Mounds or you know where the name came from uh part 106 is uh you know all of those archaeological cultural resources things um out of respect for ancestors people who may be buried in places around the state as well as the rules that are set forth in the Minnesota cemeteries law uh we were prepared Bolton bank was prepared to do the investigation and clear the site however with the just under a million dollars that was given to us by the federal government that was also congressionally directed spending they didn't quite know how to handle their own money either and so they gave us over to the EPA who said we would like to administer that process um that unfortunately has sort of ground that process to a halt uh you won't see me putting this in the slides in writing but my take on it is that the EPA is woefully staff to be able to handle that process and so we have been asked to wait a number of months in fact we first sent them the letters that they could have sent out um to the Consulting parties in October of 24 and that still has not happened so we've been brainstorming the last couple of weeks on ways that we can move that forward um what we are currently doing on our end is um having conversations with the the administrators of the EPA to attempt to further direct those funds and so what we're doing right now is even though the water treatment plant itself isn't designed we're trying to figure out can we purchase some pieces of treatment equipment or some things that are going to be needed to go inside that plant so that we can shift their focus off of anything that is landbased anything that we are doing that is infastructure underground you know sort of landbased that gives them the jurisdiction to want to control that process uh and so it they've indicated that if we can come up with $935,000 worth of equipment that will cover that and they will pull out of that process now that doesn't give us the Scot free um we will still then be at the mercy of the state of Minnesota and so the state of Minnesota may still want to be that part 106 administrator uh but the state of Minnesota we know to be far more responsive in this case and also we have a much better working relationship with the section 106 people at the state of Minnesota so we're trying everything we can right now to keep that moving but honestly that has brought some design things to Halt one of the things that's kept us from doing is geotechnical investigation on the plant site itself so we've not been able to design and site the well or design and sight the foundations of the new plant because we cannot you know poke any holes we've not been able to take any cores I can't tell you where the soil is bad where the soil is good because we want to make sure that we are not inadvertently taking some of those cores in a very disrespectful way and so I mean this is a good thing that we are doing this it's not good that it is holding us up uh but it it is you know it's a worthwhile fall rule to follow it's a worthwhile law to have in place to make sure that everyone operates with respect however it's sure a pain in our butt right now do we have any idea as to the potential of um a cultural site being in this area so some of those are cataloged um I want to be careful how much I say here because the locations of those things where where they're known they are also lawfully protected uh but what we do know is that there are some in the area but we don't believe any to be directly on site um we we did do some of that before we chose this site you know we we were wanting to make sure that we weren't putting it smack dab on top of something that was going to force us to move to begin with but obviously you never know for sure until you do the actual investigation so that does involve somebody going out there with a shovel yeah they continue to tell me that that person does not have a whip and a hat like Indiana Jones which really bums me out but um yeah so they do go out there and they they look for artifacts they look for things so I thought all archaeologists look like Indiana Jones but unfortunately no so that has been our our current sort of I'll call it challenge SL opportunity that we've been working our way through and then uh I just I want to take a second to Hype everything that Mr Mayor you've been doing you know all the council members Jesse you know you guys were recently at the capital stumping for moreone that's a thing that we have continued to do together you guys have been doing great at you know we just got to keep hammering away at that until we get the rest of the monies so that's that's the other thing I I consider both an accomplishment and an opportunity for us is that we've not gone away we've stayed in people's faces you know these legislatures obviously your relationship with representative Myers you know he knows we're still here it's not paid for yet I I don't know if you want to add anything to that well he just called me when we were when we were talking about did he I don't put onone May got some news so see that' be great um we did just sort of talk through this but funding to date um a little bit of a a Roundup for you you know we've gotten direct Appropriations from both the state of Minnesota and the federal government 10.3 million from the state 0.9 million from Federal Direct Appropriations and when we round up the current cost of things to 40 million that leaves us with about a 30 million funding Gap um keep in mind that is you know we've always approached this as we need a whole TurnKey solution even though um behind closed doors I often get asked you know what portions of this can you do without and we have responded to that question with we can build this in stages we can do some of these things because they are sort of discrete projects hence the water main projects you know I was in here just a couple weeks talking about right a couple weeks ago talking about the things that they can come apart as Lego pieces but they all go together to assemble the whole solution go ahead Jesse oh yeah I couldn't I couldn't help but throw that picture in it's a good one and then I've T I talked kind of most of my way through this already but on when I prepared this slide I was calling it EPA required due diligence uh we're sort of even since I've prepared this slide we've sort of reached a point where we think we can back them out of administering that process so that's been very variable just in the last two weeks uh we continue to submit on M's behalf to the iup and the PPL why do we do that because it's the first question that any funding source is going to ask us are you in line for your State's drinking water revolving fund loans um you can see on there the rankings strangely we went down in 2025 and I do have an answer for that and that is because the number of cities that are asking for money due to manganes has gone up and they ranked us all together so so part of it is a a function of the fact that mountain starts with an M great and all the manganes city well they rank us all together then you know it's like a tie but um a bunch of cities tied at the same place so and you can see the points went from you know in 2022 10 5 and 23 and then 24 is when they really started acknowledging manganese as a crisis because they made it a crisis and it is a crisis but that's when they started giving out an adequate number of points um I've got the as asterisk in there as well things that are fundable via part B1 that means that based on that rank we are eligible for low interest interest loans so to date we have continued to ask for monies to build this you know without placing any burden on the city or on the city's residents because of the amount of infrastructure that mound has taken it upon themselves to build already or reconstruct or replace you know in a very responsible manner however um I I want to I want to mention that is that could may be part of one of the puzzle pieces of when we get to the end and so we're in line for that already we've been asking for those monies you know and so they're May they're saying we'll make this available to you here's your rank you're eligible for low interest loans so in 2025 what comes next we're going to continue to submit for those direct Appropriations so every time our state senators our uh National Senators you know reps whenever they come to us and say we have an opportunity uh do you fit in one of these categories we always say yes it's not the first time we've done this now obviously so we've been through it a little bit and um it's it's easier to ask for money once you've already gotten some money you know we figured out that there are some some buzzwords there that are related to safety of drinking water and things that you know that our project would fit into a number of categories but some of them we are more likely to get money than others so we will continue to do that efforts by Mr Mayor rest of the council and the city manager uh we will I I suggest we consider the future of a city-led solution and this is just me not wanting to be the harbinger of things but just suggesting that at some point in the future we may not get that full 40 million handed to us and so I want to ask the question out loud how long can we wait you know at at some point we are going to be asked by our residents hey Brian you've been talking to the council about this for a number of years you've gotten some money we see you've done some things but at what point you know do we take the rest of it upon ourselves and and I'm not asking us to have that conversation right now I'm just wanting to plant some seeds that we are not ignorant of that question and so we're we're saying that out loud that that will become a financial burden on us and our residents if we answer that question however I think we need to think about it and talk about it we'll continue to submit to the iup and the PPL that goes a little bit to that last question of we will continue to stay in line for low interest loans as well as ask for Grant dollars obviously who knows maybe at some point in the near future they'll decide that manganese is worth 30 points and then there'll be a whole bunch of us communities that are on there at a 30 and we'll be you know tied with 45 other communities at of 50 I don't know we'll continue to push manganese and manganese as a contaminant at the state level um that's more of a little bit of a behind the scenes thing obviously as a consultant that works with you know I don't work with too many other communities but Bolton M as a whole does you know we've we've seen this problem from the other side of the desk uh and the fact that the state does not consider manganese a primary contaminant if they did it would put us in line for other things like the money that's been made available for lead service lines you know which we have taken advantage of and we've gotten some money from the state to correct those things in mind what does it take to get the state to recognize Mages do we need to be lobbying it's it's a little bit more of a of a philosophical discussion of um you know hey let's acknowledge uh that the EPA published the health based limit the Minnesota Department of Health opted to use that Health based limit in requiring cities to make those notifications so in 21 when we sent those letters a good portion of that verbiage was required of us by the Department of Health based on epa's limit but then the the Department of Health has not followed up that you know that requirement of you have to tell your residents that they should not be drinking the water directly with here's a you know here's a bucket of money directly for manganese removal they've just sort of put us back in the in the bucket with everyone else and said ask for money so it's the Department of Health as well as the legis the Department of Health is they're the lead agency I don't want to say lead offender but I'm thinking it yeah you know what I mean they're they're the ones who required us to make those not notifications and have not followed up that process with an easy path to a solution and then let's let's keep advocating let's keep asking let's keep telling our story I think we're doing a good job of that I don't think I'm preaching to anyone that isn't but every time I get a microphone in front of me and we talk about water and Mound I'm going to give that message so with that I will stand for any questions we can bump back to any slides if you want to talk about anything I assume we're going to have a little discussion up here so does council have any questions well I I have a couple questions and some thoughts I I've tried to do a lot of research on this and in trying to find numbers prior to 2021 is really difficult do you have any idea what the acceptable limits were before they created this crisis for cities so because it's not a not a primary contaminant there was really No Limit and that's why there is only the health based limit if if I answer the next question I assume you may be going to ask me which is how much manganese was in our water before 2021 I don't know because we were not required to test for it and we did not have even a you know even even being a responsible you know water system operator there wasn't a good reason to test for it thank you I I I that was going to be my next question because I look at this you know and we all grew up drinking manganese without having any clue it was not good for us and this is one of those situations where I look at this and I go okay we're being poisoned from all our food our our lubricants that we put on you know we are toxins and contaminants are in every single thing down to baby formula but then they create this crisis for us that's going to be costing us 40 million and I just I I I keep wondering if we should be more judicious to try to be our own saviors and figure out a a better way than waiting for the government and we're going to be six billion in debt possibly by 2026 so I just don't see the money coming so what else can we do and I that was one of my questions always how long are we going to wait before we say you know let's round up our ideas and come up with with a short-term solution at least um the reason I asked that about the levels is can you can you clarify is this filtration system going to solve our discolored water problems so it what we have in our water is iron and manganese and the iron is what causes the brown and black coloration the brown coloration manganese is is primarily black if if there's enough that you can see it and so um a water treatment plant will remove those things so everybody with the bad Brown water in the little pockets throughout Mound should see it's going to take a little bit because a lot of that is sediment that is in some of those lower older pipes uh I I don't want to say that it's clean dirt you know because it's existed in in the pipes and and Ryan and his Crews do a lot you know starting a couple years ago when we started like unidirection flushing water Ms figuring out which water systems sort of have an equilibrium right water is generally flowing One Direction all the time and when we have a water main break or we are doing some construction or we have some reason to close a valve and change the direction of the water in the system there's usually something a foot that results in those phone calls that they get there's usually something that causes the direction of the water to change and that will stir up that sediment and then carry it farther and so it will be a little bit before we work all those things out of our system I just I just want to caution that it's not going to be immediate but the water from its source will not have that anymore and the little bit of Manganese that'll be hanging around will be well below the limit thanks because I I want everybody to understand they need to manage their expectations the other thing I want to going to be Crystal Clear overnight the other thing I want to mention since since I I'm sort of one of the points of continuity here right having worked on this since 2020 and I know some of you as well but uh we talked about and we decided that we did not want to pursue softening you know as as a city that that was not one of the goals we had because it made the price tag get even bigger but you know I keep looking at this and going I I think all of us have probably test a water and I know it just varies throughout Mound but you know in for example in December I had to get a new water heater furnace water softener and air conditioner because you know it was just boom they all died they were 26 years old but every single one I'm still getting rebates in the mail so why couldn't we look at you know somehow for a temporary solution as we wait for this 40 million talk about legislation not that you can solve this I'm just trying to throw I do have some answers for you though okay because that why can't we just buy everybody a water I'm not asking to buy everybody I'm just saying would that be feasible to take care of the immediate problem so that can we just buy everybody a water softener was a question that was asked while we were brainstorming Solutions and that became problematic in a number of ways uh frankly residential water softeners are not a great solution to this problem because there's moving Parts you have to keep salt in them uh at some point your resin has to be refreshed and so then there was no way for us if we provided those then would we also have to provide that level of service that we would have to service those to guarantee that they stayed in service so that the manganese was see how we kind of went down Rabbit Hole I like I like your idea but I'm not suggesting Mound you know give everybody a water softener I mean I've been changing salt you know for years it's just part of our maintenance the homeowner maintenance I what I'm what I'm just trying to talk about is should we be brainstorming to maybe go to the legislature and ask for other opportunities such as rebates because all the rebates I'm getting are all from St Paul I believe that so I I can answer that so I worked with uh the senator to have her draft legislation to do that and I think I mentioned that few a month or so ago um I don't know if she's actually dropped the bill yet but uh it would be reverse osmosis and water softener and then you get a rebate of some much or great and that it would be a Statewide Thing versus just a mountain thing um Jesse do you want to remind me or shoot her an email yeah and see if she'd uh drop that bill or was working on it or something and that's Johnson yeah we just met with her yeah I love that you've done that because that seems like a really great short-term solution as we wait you know for this 30 million otherwise it's going to be we take what 3,000 residents and it's 10 grand each and we got ourselves a water treatment plant right so I just I just feel like and and mayor Holt it's and Jesse and briyan too I know all of you have been working really hard at trying to find solutions to this and we're not as in front of this as you are um but I I just feel like what if we wait another 10 years for as the cost of this keeps growing and then we've spent the 10 million you know that you've done your due diligence and done all your pre-work and we end up with nothing so I without playing all of our cards on the table I think I mentioned this a little bit before but I let's wait to see what we get this year right as in end of May and then in June July August I think we're going to have to have some serious planb discussions yeah we're not going to get all 30 anyway I just it's not going to happen so let's just just say we get something what's what can we stomach for the rest of it and again this so far it's just kind of a discussion between us so far but um we're really crossing our fingers for 30 and then just trying to get that's what we just testified for um but let's just say something doesn't happen where we just don't don't get enough and we got to figure out well how do we do the rest of it um what what I want to do is kind of get somewhat of a a plan and knowah was working on it as well kind of behind the scenes um and then probably bring it to the budget committee kind of crunch the numbers how does this fit into our financial plan remember we're trying to get out of debt in the first place right yeah so how does this you know affect the whole plan and then probably again sometime in the summer I think we need to invite everybody from M out and you know push it out there for weeks ahead of time you mean Plan B to to propose Plan B and to say you know here's what we're thinking maybe maybe we do a workshop first but see what we all think but in Plan B you are meaning we'd have to do a referendum for a bond issue right how long what type of turnaround do we have any kind of idea that we through the through the PFA you can do up to 30-year loan okay uh or Bond you know at two and a half okay so but again that's us paying for it right yeah now again I think we're kind of five years four years into this thing and it's like are we either going to just figure this thing on our own at least part of it um minaka beaches did that they they're assessing every resident and they're doing a 5year uh increasing schedule I think they're starting at like 1300 and it's capping on at two grand a resident now they only have 220 people yeah but but they've got an income of Greater well I just met with the mayor and yes there's definitely a lot more I think wealth in that town but there's also residents that don't have the wealth and they've been there for years and years and years and can't you know handle a $2,000 extra bill um again that's Plan B I I would say I don't want you know to to push it out there too much it's going to suck that's it will suck I mean it's just the reality and we're not the only Town dealing with this that's what that's what so frustrating here because every small town is is faced with the same crisis trying to figure out how to um averted by them suddenly tell us this manganese that we've been drinking our whole lives is now suddenly bad so the you know this is where you were on Council but you know was it the second or third meeting on on Council and I and I came on I was like I want to lower a water bill what the hell our water bill is ridiculous seriously it is that's one one of the that the crosswalk was number one yeah and then number two was our water bill I think you you actually came in one meeting waving a water you had it with you you had it with you I was like yeah what is your long range I mean what is the plan that you guys have discussed that you know we'll give another just till May I want to see what legislator does this year and to see if we get money we're also you know we'll see what the fed or the uh yeah the federal government does here with the budget we're in that a little bit too right now remember the strings are a little more stringy with the federal money we can work with it if they if they were Mone money give us a full 30 million we'd figure it out yeah but there there could be many alternatives you know I was just singing um when I first got out of college I worked for Housing Finance the city of um I think it was bule Minnesota I think that's in the Iron Range is that correct okay they were on the central heating of the mine and the mine closed down so there all the houses in that town had no heaters oh God and and the state came up with a program I'm pretty sure that mhfa financed the purchase of furn is for that town so like you said we've got a lot of towns in this so it's not just us maybe it's a combination of we've got to get um Public Health to do what they need to do and maybe with other agencies through deed or mhfa maybe they could bond it and take some of the burden off of our residents a little bit so so one one of the things that Sher you mentioned something sort of important is that we are not alone not every small town grows from the same aquafer but all of us that do are in a similar position uh and and I've had you know offline discussions with engineers and Public Works directors from from many of these communities over the last couple of years and part of the reason at least I think this is just personal opinion now as a resident you know of a city not of an engineer that it has not become you know a class action thing why we haven't all been able to bond together is that everyone is in various stages of having that exact conversation of how long do we wait and how much of this do we tackle ourselves and that's you know cuz obviously with that iupp PPL ranking of all of us being in there you know everyone is considering some of the same funding sources but also there are different tolerances for being able to pay for the solution obviously everybody's solution looks a little bit different as well and ours happens to be one of the more expensive so with our ranking if all everything goes well I mean we're we're not even expecting maybe 3 million of like free money right you know obviously we can go there and get a loan right and do that for 30 low interest loan right yeah two and a half and again we will pay it back but the the free money you know we're talking maybe three now the legislator still have to fund it right so that's the other problem and that's where we're down at the capital uh you know lobbying last week um so actually we're down there twice um this last week Tuesday and Thursday um I don't know if you want to put up the picture sure but um we met with uh well first of all we we did the the the testify so you can see there um I'm still bum that isn't a dirty bottle of water no I want clean water know saying that we need clean water not Costco water um that I just clipped this so I look weird but um uh and then this is uh on Thursday we went uh City on the hill day and kind of hard to see but that's the senator there as well as Jesse and Maggie and Council Pew and in our hands we're holding uh a Mounds bar so a little M Mound candy bar and then we put a a QR code on there that ties to our website so if you know what we did is we handed it we tried to hand it to all the the the Reps the problem is Republicans are on one floor we got half half of the Republicans then I gave the the other uh to one of the chief of staff so he could do the other side and then the Democrats were on the the level above us well we couldn't get in there because representative Myers was there and we don't have another rep because we don't have a Democrat um rep so can the m is such a fun I did tell you you were there was it receiv I thought I we were trying to get on the next level but anyway I I I asked the Republican Chief of Staff I said well can you get on the Democrat level and hand it out to them too and he goes so I don't know if they made it to them or not rece well from the people handed it was great thank you for the work doing it yeah that's fun and then but I will say we hit every Senator right we hit every single Senator's office so there's a lot less them but you know they're building themselves a huge massive building right um down there right uh the the the rep so they're all in a separate thing and you got a security to get up there I mean talk about see your own reps you know you shouldn't need security to see these people but senators are free-for-all you can just go in they should be giving us water instead of a new uh office building that's I mean that's my point right it's not that much it's and you knew before you met with her that she's a civil engineer right oh yeah and she so she's very very supportive she's very receptive and johnon yes yeah right when she sat down she said you know this is my number one priority I don't know if she says that to everybody every town but she said this is our she actually did want to talk about it cuz she wanted to go to the next thing cuz she's like I already know I believe me I'm on it and we're like okay well we still want to talk about it for half an hour so and so she's a civil engineer but she's been on it I talked to her before um she ran one 34 and didn't get the endorsement and we talked at that time and she was on board with us about the mound water issue yeah and the other thing too is remember both her and Myers both in their campaigns their their literature their website and their live debates and I saw them all they all mentioned Mounds water so it's they know it but it's also Inc coming on us and whoever's going to watch us later that we need to keep emailing and calling them and I'm not kidding actually do it don't just pretend like you're doing it we need to it's one thing to come from me and from us but if the residents and you know they got a stack of emails that people that were demanding we need help here um that's going to go a lot farther than you know us meeting they they know we've heard it we call them all the time we're texting we're emailing calling um so it it does help if it's from other people too not just you know me Jesse public officials are sick of meia conferences well it and it works I mean I I think relationships are very helpful because I do think that even the first round I mean it's it's who you know and and you know kind of taking care of people so uh I will say minca was there as well um both had you know you know this and and then the the testifying thing they need they asked for 27 million I think somewhere in there um we asked for 30 uh they have a treatment plant they just need another one you know I think theirs is more of a growth issue um but they still need you know they have their own problems as well too and you know they're probably pulling more or less from the same water that we're pulling from the difference is they have treatment plant they have two already and they're trying to get another third one so we have zero you know all we're doing is we're doing choring and fluoride per you know what we have to do right from the ground we don't have a treatment plant so this is the whole point of this is we need a treatment plant that we've never had before and never needed because we never had a look at this um go going back to like your testing page um again we I got on here and 21 right and second third meeting whatever it was hey we have a magnes issue like great what's this um this last year we we we said and I remember we were talking about too we're like when's the last time we tested and again love Eric but you know he just didn't say think that he needed to test and we were like no we want to test this you know again and so I'm glad to see that you know we're keeping it up too Ryan thanks um that you know I think we should test every quarter you know and the point in the past was well it's not going to change you know if it's in there it's in there but it's like it clearly is changing it did change on Bartlett big significant well Bartlett yeah you know depending on when that you know that's two items so let's just say we did it quarterly right and see but point is it's still very very high and it's change I think Eric in in the past was it's it's not going to change in other words it's there it's high it's not you know I just want a re reconfirmation of that no it is still there it is still high it we still have a problem and it's a problem everywhere well it still is a problem everywhere but I am glad that we're keeping testing and that's a a good thing the other thing too is just on the personal level I don't know who's done it here but um I've tested my own right um do it from the kitchen sink typically but um it depends on where you drink your water I guess but um I did it from the kitchen sink and you know I've talked to my kind of water guy that came out and helped me and so I was having a water softener issue so this is the whole thing right so like if we buy everybody water softeners and well then are we going to get them salt and then we're going to so my water soften was having an issue was kind of like leaking out the discharge line right and it was just kind of like leaking a lot and I was like well called the guy you know he put it in four or five seven years ago whatever it was I said hey you know come out and you know look at this thing and so he he took something apart right replaced something thing on there and then you know a couple hundred bucks later now it works right and it doesn't you know but he's like that's the problem you got to keep these things up so you you know you have Grandma in her house that doesn't ever change it and then all of a sudden or doesn't put salt in there you know it's not you got to be careful that you're staying on top of these things you got to have salt you got to have make sure your works you should still test it I mean if you're drinking the water you should still test it now the other thing too is since he was out I said well how much is for like a reverse osmosis I'm sick of this I'm really I'm sick of bottle water so I said how much is this I mean we spend I mean we have four people in our I mean just tons of these things plus plastic you know tossing it all over the place um so I actually just bought a reverse osmosis for myself and family uh 16 1,700 bucks later right um so now I have a water softener it it has to go through there first then you have to reverse Asos if you go straight from the line it'll jam it up I mean I've seen the picture I've had residents email me they'll Jam them up in a couple days AR is too efficient at removing the hardness right that's the problem and so then reverse osmosis you don't see reverse osmosis systems to soften water because they will immediately clog because they take it all out so point with this is make sure if you're drinking the water you have the correct setup you know go ask you know find a professional to help you you can do these things on your own right I'm just sick of this and I'm I want to drink the water and now it tastes phenomenal I mean once you do it now again I I tested my water and I live up on Beachwood I'm kind of where this new water treatment plant will be and my numbers are actually fine before this now again I have a water softener so I think the softener was doing what it needed to do to take it out I mean it was very very low but again for me and my family you know I'm like you know I still didn't try we still bought this you know I tested it probably a year year and a half ago um and then now I've done this new ver one of our challenges is and we've just talked about that and that is we have we have a high level high number of rental properties so our landlord's going to invest in water softeners and treatments for their tenants more than likely not because that wouldn't be in the profit margin but I think as we move to the future we probably do need to think about collaboration with the other cities rather than fighting amongst each other trying to position what what can 10 cities do together in moving the state or the feds to give us the resources versus you know our town alone um and I think that that's probably going to be um key if we can form a an alliance and collaboration with the other cities we'll have more to fight with you know we'll have more state senators and House Representatives and more Congressional people fighting for the resources and yes as individual homeowners we can do our own self solution but that's not a permanent solution it really is the treatment facility and that's what we need and that's where we we need the power of the other cities to come with us and fight Sherry I think the term I used in the original Water Treatment Plant report was that water softeners are not a municipal or Municipal sized Solution that's that was the most diplomatic way I could come up with to say the same thing you just said but but it's true right well most other cities have treated water at the to and you we should have treated while they at the to now back to your water softener should we soften it at the treatment plant and again that was I think a decision of the old Council us is that it would have been a lot more money plus now you're Watering your lawn and you're throwing salt all over year long right does that make sense no so we said we said no we're not going to we're not going to have that as part of it um I think there what there aren't there three cities around the lake Excel Exel and is sure for you there are three cities that have water softeners Municipal softening yeah I don't I apologize I don't know off the top of my head but I know that there are some I remember reading about it one how many cities are on this aquafer do we know that uh I could find that out for you okay I don't know off the top of my head I don't know or I wouldn't have asked do you you said that the water softener helps and we've been talking about that but can we is it okay for us to push that information out to our citizens to say look if you have a water softener our understanding is blah if you want to check with a water specialist if if you look at the communication we sent in 21 you did we we we said that at the time we we say it very carefully still on the website but we we say that your softener if operating properly likely removes the manganese as part of the softening and if you're going to rely on that we suggest you have a water tested we just can't Market it as a cur all right that's why I was asking I I think there's enough caveats in there that Mr lman would be proud of me got a big disclosure at the bottom the other thing is we we do refer them to the Minnesota Department of Health yeah uh and they have kind of a one page r as well as other I think links and stuff on there too so there's lots there's lots of resources not just not the resources looking for necessarily lots of information for people but not uh the help to remove it one thing I do want to mention um it probably in preparation for having that discussion later this year and and it's already come up in our discussions with Noah is that we will revisit and and I don't want to keep referring people to a report now that's four years old but the original water treatment report does have some good information in there and we did look at Cash flowing the whole thing how that would look if the residents paid for it and I think we need to take that math and update it with what we've gotten so far and then the next time you ask you know we'll project um what we what you know we've gotten something new at that time but then we can talk about what does the cash flow look like for the rest of the project and just so everybody knows originally it was that your your bill on the the number on the bottom it would be double so that's why we said well we're we're going to just pause on this plus it was brand new at the time and we didn't know you know if there there's going to be you know options in the state I think there's what 60 to 70 cities that have Mages now I can I can actually easily sort that list and get them to you if you want to know who they are that are in that list for mag I think this was last you know we were we were one of the first ones that went to the state right away didn't work out the first year but um we managed to get in the iup PPL right away that first year not everybody else did but in 22 there were a lot more names right so again we'll talk about this more probably in the summer but depending on what we get after May uh yeah and I I do have some ideas and we've been floating them with Noah and Jesse about how can we more or less stay on our track with our financial plan remember we're 4 and a half million in the whole in our water fund as it is plus this storm we have a plan to get out of that and then I mean you know it's not there's like good better best ways to do it and you know we've been spending like over a million dollars a year on lift stations and you know that'll go away pretty soon and I don't know we never say it goes away shift to maintenance right shift to main caveat shift to maintenance shift to maintenance well I want you to I want you to think we're done the LI station still exist they have to be cared for we just want to build any new ones right so this 2021 document is it out on our website it was under the water I I can I can give Jesse a link to redistribute it we'll make sure you have cop that you could get a list of the Cities I we'd all love to see that absolutely you help me out with an email later Jesse misery loves company right no it's it's it's worthwhile to know who uh one thing too that will be part of our discussions is that um there's not a few things that I say government is doing a spectacular job at but when it comes to those low interest loans they do have some tolerance to refinance existing debt so we do have some option to roll you know we're so close to paying some of those off and we have a pretty stru waterfall already on top of that I don't want to dabble in Noah's business however that will be a a factor in those discussions is that some of that existing debt could be refinanced into you know low interest cool so that'll be another piece that comes into play when we're having a serious discussion about when are we done waiting yeah I think no matter what we're going to have to have a conversation this after legislator in June June is after the session's over um day after the session Clos this yeah that that's after they pass a budget then they look at bonding so it's like you know and I know sometimes they they've held over to Memorial and it was important I think when we met with um an um Stuart Johnson she said you need to understand that the bonding money the First Take on the bonding money is there's a pot of money that goes to the University of Minnesota and all the state facilities so there's you know x amount probably 30% goes to them then there's another amount that goes to I can't remember what there there's like prisons yeah the prisons and colleges no colleges were in the first one Do's in there somewhere yeah yeah and so and so we're we're we're what we're in the group that's what's left after right and so it's a smaller pool of money The Peasants yeah when we've gotten verbal support from both of them yes saying that they will V vote for a bonding bill right no matter what's in it and I mean think about that it's hard to do right like I wouldn't want that job cuz you got to vote for a bunch of stuff that you probably don't agree with you know you know part party lines right um it's party lines and yeah so you know I know last year or last time we got it it was you know the cash bill I don't care how they have to do it as long as we get the money if it's cash or Bond but this time I I don't think there's going to be a cash bill so I think they're going to have to do bonding bill so we'll see um this is not a public comment section but I do know there's a few people here that might want to say something soan thanks your hard work this does anybody want to come up and say anything at all any residents yeah come on up hi my name isy I live at 593 of Beachwood Road years yeah on Lake Lane and I moved here in uh October of 2021 and my sister lived next door to me the only reason I knew about the water issue is because of family so I'm encouraging you to think of people who come to the city without neighbors or family next door and if they don't read the mail a lot of people just toss it there's no way to know that you need to get your water tested and I didn't know that we could get a tested I didn't know there was a fee I didn't know where I just put water softeners and she told me to put a filter that I paid like $5 underneath every sink but for others that aren't like me they don't know and I don't want us to promote this but I think we should educate new people and I don't know how you do that but if there's a way I think it'd be really worthwhile and welcome and FYI we have wonderful parks and lakes and check your water type of thing we're working we're working on it an opportunity to promote what you're doing as well CU I know you're working really hard but new people don't know that it is tough to they only hear the hard stuff yeah I promote it all the time but I think for new people it'd be a great way we did also float an idea this is just between me and Jesse but uh kind of a letter to Residents yeah cuz I miss I moved here after your letter went after your letter went out so II or Spirit of the Lakes maybe a booth i' you know man I don't know just for new people yeah that's great thank you thank you anybody else yeah come on up just give us your name and address Patricia Edington 4567 Dorchester Road um I'm really glad I came because I I I did get the letter about the water but I I didn't like really get that you're not supposed to drink it and I we've been drinking the water and so um I wish they'd like send out another letter that was you know like since it's such a serious issue and we only got like the one letter and not everyone really got that you're you know it was this B of a deal that you shouldn't drink it right like I wish they'd like do more to emphasize like maybe send out another letter like being really clear about it yeah um just like the other lady had mentioned because um it's kind of a scary thing like I I don't know what can happen like as a result of the magnes and all that but um I I wish they'd like send out a letter to be more specific about like not drinking it and whatever else we can do to like protect ourselves from the magese yeah well I've been drinking it for 35 years and I might be crazy but I think I'm pretty healthy oh you know so again we didn't know any of this prayer in 2021 and we've been drinking away so okay and if you you again you might be fine test your water okay maybe you're fine with if you have a water softener and you've been keeping that up and okay you know just I would chest test it if you're going to keep drinking it all right thanks yep and we have those resources on our website of where to get them i i s it's also in the agenda tonight that they could look at so basically what I did is I called Bloomington and I said you know hey can you send me the little vial right and then it tells you how to do it you do it right and then I actually mailed it to him because I didn't want to drive over there all the way to Bloon and then they emailed me the the results it was very fast and the people that I talked to were pretty nice you just sent a check with it so either that or you can go pick it up and then do it so um as I mentioned I had to just replace all of my water everything and um they took they tested my water which I got the results and now I'm going to send it back in to Bloomington just to kind of compare you know it'll be kind of fun like the old vers the new well from December from the company that sold me that works on all my stuff to see what comes back from Bloomington you know just a little cross reference do you have reverse osmoses too or just water softener I have a water softener and about five years where I got some reverse osmosis in my drinking sink okay but but I'll drink out of any faucet I I'm to me this is I there are bigger things out there that worry me like you know kids eating poisonous cereal than mang knees in the water so but I'm taking it seriously but you know I think there's bigger threats out there to our health than yes um any other public want to come out talk all right um going back to council any other conversation or discussion that anybody wants to have on this just thank you for all the hard work that you've all been doing Brian Jesse uh Sherry I think you've been to the capital a couple times maybe Kevin I I was out of town so yeah thank you do you have any leftover Mounds bars we gave them all way you did we got them at the front desk now actually they have at at the desk that would have been fun sitting at each of our chairs and I you know in the few days since we've been back more have been picked up than I expected I personally Coconut's not my favorite but I surprised do do we get a count on people who um look at that texture there there is a way but I I think it might be skewed from all the uh cross contamination from people around here scanning it things but I just to Echo the mayor's point I mean the handful of centers that we did see that were there were really tickled by it uh and pretty much every staffer was like they're going to get the information but they're not getting the candy um but that was the Senator's point when uh and she recommended doing something like this sort of sure something a little different because I mean you were stuffing uh mailboxes in the house side and it's all one pagers you know that look the same and so if they just remember you know one little thing it's piece of candy or whatever great idea maybe can do it at um the festiv the leg oh it's a good idea to just have a bunch of them there as another way to remind people about checking their water yeah you need something else all right we'll move on uh more to come on that in in the next few months number eight we got Council uh reports from Council Members council member Pew well I was um let's see I went to the leagues training the Advanced Training it was really a session they talked about um labor negotiations negotiating with your unions and different ways different city councils have configured who the negotiation team is for that and then um they talked about leadership styles and how to um organize Yourself by you know getting all the information and there was a workbook and a and a book that was given out at it so it was well attended ended um a good two days or day and a half of training at that and then um I went to the city day at the hill with u my colleagues here and we had a good time um both um an and um and Andrew Myers were both very receptive we had good conversations um they were very positive and and I think we were also pretty straightforward and saying you know we we hear you say it's a priority we want you to really make it a priority and that we needed the money so I think we set down firm firm U affirmations and then I went on a wonderful civil rights tour which um I'll tell people in private about but it was really great got to go to my birthplace so that's it all right uh councilor MC um the only thing I've got is the pancake breakfast is this Sunday at the leion and it's uh the proceeds are going to the Island Park preservation society and they're still doing a great job restoring that building I think it was built in 1933 wow yeah so they're doing a great job and it's fully the mound owns the property but it's I think they started a 5013c and they're doing all the uh put a new roof on it too yeah they got a new roof and they're getting it painted the inside is just beautiful it's got its own fireplace so anyway that is from 9: to noon at um the legion this Sunday and then I'm just going to mention if if anybody wants their photo taken following this for the newsletter and for the website I can take a picture of you and we're going to do the group for yeah we can do a group too so we can so don't leave right away yeah okay all right uh Council M castano uh I don't have anything from from me personally but I was hoping to maybe get a refresher I guess for personally for me as well but maybe anybody listening or as this rolls out too but I got one um one just took one phone call of a resident that was kind of upset or off caught off guard I guess on how that the $2 fee was going was working on the is it cloud like the invoicing right and so she was under the impression that it is not optional um and that it should have been communicated but I I think we did communicate that in previous Compass maybe a little while ago but I don't know can you like provide like a quick Refresh on like the different options to pay you know well as I recall the it is specific to AC transfers so anybody that was already on AC autopay did receive notice of the $2 of the of the the change okay any other way to pay is going to have the normal uh fees Associated so if they want to bring in a check to City Hall they would avoid the $2 fee correct okay you can also set up a bill pay oh yeah like through your yeah that's like what I do y um I think you do that too right monthly and then we just reconcile the differ yeah they sent me a little you stole 40 bucks or whatever um we we sent this to 700 people so there's about 700 out of 40 500 or how many houses we got I was just thinking if I got you know someone else is going to maybe have the same yeah mindset so just to air it out and kind I think I had her potentially and then I think I got one other call I think she actually spoke with Maggie as well so yeah I'll follow up too but yeah want to be Crystal Clear myself yeah and then the other thing too is I mean what what if you do want to do it and pay the $2 I mean remember every every other place charges transaction fees for certain things and then plus you know you get an online site it shows all your stuff it you know so you can talk about the benefits of it's two bucks a quarter right so we're not talking ton of money but I get it you know y um I think it's just uh knowing there's an option yeah there's an option to get out of it if you want yep I don't know I didn't have anything else okay thanks put the spot there and then council member her um not a lot going on I do have that meeting tomorrow with the Oro police commission are you going to be there or okay um and Jesse I just looked again I don't think I have a copy of that contract can you get that to me yeah maybe it's stuck in my email somewhere oh I I'm pretty sure I sent it but I will yeah I thought you did too so um and then I also have a comment um I got an email from Andrew Meyers about these house bills that they're trying to work through I did comment individually but do we need to come back as a city council to present that to him or is it just responds individually yeah he gave yesterday oh maybe that's why he called yeah I I mean I responded to right away yeah I responded this morning I if I read correctly I thought it was being presented at 3:00 today yeah so we did Lobby on behalf of the council okay more or less against or for for uh against it okay um and when I say that I I assumed that you guys would agree yeah but um both of us you know we were there right um and you know we so basically what we're talking about is sorry the bill from it was called like Missy middle from last year well no now it's got a new name it's got a new name and which is completely arbitrary it doesn't even make any sense yeah well miss m didn't make sense either no it didn't bill is called here I've got it it's called um the Minnesota starter home act which has nothing to do with starter homes so basically what they want to do is they want to take local control in other words us and you guys as you're voting us up here uh away away away from zoning so if limiting the zoning Authority the actual verbage say if apartment you know complex wanted to come in here they basically say mom and dad at the state would say no too bad you guys don't have a choice this is just going to happen and it just gets kind of rubber stamped through and then we're kind of out of the whole thing and you know we've chose to live here right and we want to keep it you know how we want it right or if we want to develop it we want to you know kind of how we want it uh to be developed so but that's that's that then they also the parking bill got killed all right yeah so we and we were again both against that as well good um and I think on Monday I have a meeting with the senator and other Mayors in the area and um about basically well what might have happened at 3:00 whether they voted on it or not but supposed there's supposed to be a meeting on Monday about that so well for those who want to look up the bill it's HF uh 1987 and then there was another bill HF 2013 2013 which I was a little skeptical on that one too yeah it's talking about municipalities imposing aesthetic conditions I think it's more involved like with some of the housing yeah but it's also talking about um removing our Min minimum uh lot sizes and things like that so and part of what we said too is like we just spent money last year redoing our comp plan right and we went through Matt Council who's another quasi government organization that we had to go get permission in how we do our comp plan here which it is a normal thing but to get it updated to the comp plan and part of why we did that we already said we have a lot of affordable housing as it is just naturally and as well as 25% is rental stock in our in our housing stock um and they they came back and approved it and they said yep you guys are good we like your density requirements we're good this bill would basically just take off everything we just did and um well we would have take it away right a council would have no Authority on how we use our our zoning laws right so any time i'm opposed to any anything that's regulating a city government from making the best choices for their residents did you write my response I've had the same response many times all these bills yeah that's yeah I mean that's well that's the case I mean it's going to restrict us our ability to um require or match or well anyway let me start over again basically it would restrict the city's abilities to implement its current zoning rules and would impose these rules so hopefully um we get news that it got stricken out we'll see we'll see um anything else nope I'm good thank you all right um and I mean I think we've kind of talked about all my stuff so think that's all I got I already talked oh okay um do you have anything I will mention the fire partnership our next meeting for that's next Tuesday um and I'll be at opd's fill the bus on Friday I don't I think that that went out to the commission but um it's kind of a fun thing I did last year but I don't know if you got that or not no I didn't get it I can forward to you I thought it went to the police commission pretty sure it did maybe just you guys could have been well I forward okay was that Shirley Hills there it's uh all the all the school all the schools okay they just go to each of them and they end at the food shelf okay what day is it Friday this Friday or next Friday this coming Friday I'm sure he'll be talking about like a couple days okay oh I have something I should have announced oh um Thursday the 13th is age friendly day at the capital and so if you're available there's a free breakfast at the Wilder Foundation which is at the corner of University in Lexington at 8:30 we'll be briefing people and then going over and um lobbying for age friendly continuation great all right anything else Jesse nope that's all I got okay uh anything else from Council here not I'll take a motion to adjourn make a motion to adjourn got a motion can I get a second second any other discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppos all right we're adjourned