Based on the city official names and context provided, here is the transcribed text with speaker names added. Note: Some phonetic misspellings in the original transcript (e.g., "veroff" for Vihrachoff, "witi" for Wietecha, "leld" for Leifeld, and "posos" for PFAS) have been interpreted to match the provided list of officials. *** **[0:00] Unknown Speaker:** Just waiting. You good? Okay. **[0:11] [Music]** **[0:41] Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Okay, the time being 7:00, I call the Hastings City Council meeting to order. We will please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and after that, we would stay standing, please, for a moment of silence for a past employee of the City of Hastings, Butch Stephen Kane, who passed away recently. Thank you. [Pledge of Allegiance recited] 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. **[1:43] Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Thank you and welcome. Let the roll reflect that a full quorum is here tonight. Welcome, everyone. Council members, are there any corrections to the meeting from the October 21st meeting? Okay, no corrections. Approval of—let's see. Comments from the audience? Is there anyone wishing to speak to the audience at this time? Anyone on Zoom? Anyone wish to speak to the Council at this time? Okay. Council items to be considered? Any Council items to be considered? **[2:30] DawnMarie Vihrachoff (Councilmember):** Your honor, yes. Um, we, the Finance Committee, just had a meeting and we would like to add um, a Community Investment Fund memo to the agenda. **[2:45] Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Okay, which Council—that would need a full motion. And we have a first on Councilmember Vihrachoff, second? All those in favor of the motion state by saying "Aye." [Council responds "Aye"] Opposed to that motion state by saying "Nay." And that motion, or that um, will be put under Administration number two under Community Investment. Council, I would be accepting a motion for the consent agenda. **[3:16] Tim Lawrence (Councilmember):** [Makes motion] **[3:18] Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Councilmember Lawrence, and—sorry, Councilmember Leifeld, second. Any discussion, Council? All those in favor of the motion state by saying "Aye." [Council responds "Aye"] Opposed that motion state by saying "Nay." All right, then moving under Administration tonight, we will have a PFAS update as it is our first meeting of the month, and Mr. Wietecha, our City Administrator, will give us an introduction. Welcome, Dan. **[4:03] Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** Thank you, Mayor. Um, well, although I think it's important that we do an update on a monthly basis, there isn't really a whole lot new this month to update. Um, so highlighting the couple of new items: we have a City Council workshop on legislative priorities coming up in two weeks on the 18th. That meeting will, although include many topics, certainly include discussion about the State Bonding Bill or other potential efforts towards seeking additional funding towards the PFAS mitigation project. So, certainly high in our minds. It was our number one priority last year; I expect it's probably still our number one priority this year, but worth noting that that is coming up in two weeks. The other item—which Council voted support of, the final decision would not be till December, but voted support of a couple of weeks ago—was to do a two-step water rate increase: 10% January 1st and a second amount to be determined July 1st. The thought for that second amount being depending on 3M settlement funds or other funding, or construction costs, that dollar amount or the percentage amount might vary. So, waiting till we get closer to that date before finalizing that second increase. Though that January increase of 10%—that's recommended on an average residence with 15,000 gallons of use per quarter—would be about a $4.00 increase per quarter. Obviously, although average is a standard to use, there are people that use less, and there are families that certainly use more, but it's a benchmark that people can measure off of. Although that was discussion two weeks ago on October 21st, the part that's happened since then was kicking off some of our communications plan around that. So we sent a postcard to all residents. The utility bills will have an insert in them—so the ones that just went out last week have an insert, the ones that go out first of December will have an insert. So as we work through that quarter cycle, everybody will get an insert with additional information. The website also has been updated with FAQs. So those are the new pieces on PFAS, preparing for a new legislative session and communications about the proposed water rate increase. **[6:33] Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Thank you, Dan. Council, any discussion? No motion or anything, just a discussion. Okay, thank you. Community Investment Fund—that was just added under Administration. Would you like to give us a little update, Dan? **[7:20] Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** Sure. The Community Investment Fund is a budgetary line item that we've done the last few years. It's a chance for the City to partner with community organizations to do some extra projects identified by outside organizations to benefit the community and add some enhancements. We typically do it early in the spring, but if there's leftover money, we take additional applications throughout the year. So we had two applications here towards the end of the year. Finance Committee met two weeks ago and then had some follow-up questions, met again tonight and reviewed those two applications and have recommendations towards funding. The first application is design for a new mural on the Quarry Tap House building. As you know, the stucco on that is being replaced and we lost a mural in the process. The building owners would like to put up a new community mural. Their thoughts are to, over the winter, do some planning design work. If they hypothetically found three or four muralists that they might want to work with, they would have each of them do a mockup of what that design might look like. In order to get good design from somebody that's going to put some time and effort into it, we would pay them for their time. So, the recommendation is $3,000 in order to work with those potential muralists on the design. I would not be surprised if, in the spring when it's thought for the mural itself, we see a full application towards that, but this gets the process started. That recommendation is $3,000. The second application was from Rotary, also in partnership with the Hastings School District. Rotary for a number of years has run a "Cycling Without Age" program where they have trishaws to ride primarily senior citizens around town and a chance to get out and see some events or just socialize. They are looking for a new and more permanent home for the trishaws—a place that they can start them, keep them out of the weather, be able to maintain them, and do work on them. They have talked with the school district industrial arts program about actually having students build the garage, and the school district providing land to site it next to the Tilden property. That project is estimated somewhere around $35,000 in total. The committee's recommendation is $6,000 of funding towards that. It helps them get started and we anticipate that they would be finding other funding sources additionally. That one possibly would come back again in the spring also when we do the 2025 round of funding. With that, I can take questions or the committee certainly could too, but recommendations are $3,000 and $6,000, total of $9,000, and it's within budget. **[11:05] Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Thank you, Dan. Council discussion? Any discussion, Council? Any comments from the committee? Councilmember Vihrachoff? **[11:10] DawnMarie Vihrachoff (Councilmember):** I'm sure. Um, we are always thrilled when community organizations come to us with partnership ideas, and this is a really effective way for us to support some of the really incredible programs in our community. So we're grateful for the Rotary and all the work they do, and we're grateful for the Quarry to be investing in an historic building to beautify and make sure that our downtown is delightful. I would make a motion to approve this action. **[11:50] Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Thank you, Councilmember Vihrachoff, and a second by Councilmember Haus. Discussion, Council? Okay, all those in favor of the motion state by saying "Aye." [Council responds "Aye"] Opposed that motion stay by saying "Nay." And that motion prevails. Thanks, Dan. **[12:05] Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Council members, do you have any announcements? Okay, I do have a few. City offices will be closed Monday, November 11th, in observance of Veterans Day. There are several events in town in recognition of Veterans Day. River Valley Band hosts its annual Veterans Day concert at the Middle School auditorium on Sunday, November 10th. Please bring a non-perishable food item to benefit Hastings Family Service. Following the concert, the VFW Post 1210 will hold an open house at its new location on Glendale Road—and if you don't know where that is, it's the old Extreme Sandbox building. They have moved there. The annual VFW Legion Veterans Day dinner is Monday, November 11th, at the 2nd Street Depot. Meetings: Monday, November 4th, after this council meeting, council members, we do have a workshop on cannabis. Thursday, November 7th, 9:30 a.m., the Great River Rail Commission is meeting. Tuesday, November 12th at 4:30, there's a canvassing meeting. 7:00 p.m. that same day, Tuesday, November 12th, is the Planning Commission meeting. Wednesday, November 13th, 6:00 p.m., Arts and Culture Commission. 7:00 p.m., Administrative Committee. Thursday, November 14th, 6:00 p.m., there's an HRA meeting. Monday, November 18th, we have a 5:30 p.m. City Council workshop on our legislative priorities, and after that at 7:00 p.m., we have our regular meeting. With that, I would ask for a motion to adjourn. **[13:48] Dave Pemble (Councilmember):** [Makes motion] **[13:49] Tim Lawrence (Councilmember):** [Seconds] **[13:52] Mary Fasbender (Mayor):** Councilmember Pemble and Councilmember Lawrence. No discussion. All those in favor of the motion state by saying "Aye." [Council responds "Aye"] Opposed to that motion state by saying "Nay." We are adjourned.