This transcript appears to be from a meeting of the **Hastings City Council**. Based on the provided context and the flow of the meeting, I have identified the speakers (Council members, City Staff, and guests) and formatted them according to your requirements. *** [0:00] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Welcome and let the role reflect. We do have a full council tonight, a quorum in fact. So, uh, tonight we are we will be having a proclamation for the Veterans of Foreign War, Buddy Poppy Month. Council member Pemble, would you please start? [0:20] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Certainly. Whereas at the end of World War I, veterans of foreign wars adopted the poppy as a symbol of freedom and the blood sacrificed by the troops in wartime. Poppies are worn and displayed as a symbol of tribute to our fallen and further the living veterans and servicemen. And whereas the annual distribution of buddy poppies by the veterans of foreign wars of the United States has been officially recognized and endorsed by governmental leaders since 1922. And whereas the buddy poppy was registered with the United States Patent Office in February of 1924. A certificate was issued May 20th, 1924 [1:07] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** granting the VFW organization all trademark rights in the name of Buddy under the classification of artificial flowers. And whereas the Buddy Poppy was adopted as the official memorial flower of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States as it remains today. And whereas the Buddy Poppy program provides financial assistance in maintaining state and national veterans rehabilitation and service programs and partially supports the VFW national home. And whereas the basic purpose of the annual distribution of buddy poppies by the veterans of wars is eloquently reflected in the desire to honor the dead by helping the living. [1:46] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Therefore, be it resolved that I, mayor of the city of Hastings, do hereby urge the citizens of the community to recognize the merits of the cause by contributing generously to support through your donation for body poppies in the day set for distribution of their symbols of appreciation of the sacrifice of our honored dead. Further, I urge all patriotic citizens to wear a buddy poppy as mute evidence of our gratitude to the men and women of this country who have risked their lives in defense of freedom which we continue to enjoy as American citizens. [2:32] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** In witness whereof I set my hand and sign my proclamation on this day of May 5th, 2025. And tonight we have with us Mark Gellhar. If he would like to come up, I would present him with the actual proclamation that he could take back to the VFW. [2:55] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** And he would like to say a few words, I think. Thanks. **Mark Gellhar:** Thank you very much. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** You're welcome. [3:11] **Mark Gellhar:** Just want to thank uh Mayor Mary and the council uh for the proclamation. Uh May is an important month for the VFW. Um besides the Poppy's Memorial Day, which to me is the uh most heartfelt Veterans Day there is. Um so thank you. Uh hopefully you can all attend Memorial Day at the levy uh 11:00 a.m. and uh we'll have a nice program to honor our deceased veterans. Thank you. [3:46] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay. Council members, are there any corrections to the minutes from the April 21st meeting and the workshop? Okay. Comments from the audience at this time. If anyone would like to speak to the audience at this time or to the council at this time, please step forward, state your name and your address to the podium. Anyone on Zoom? And no one on Zoom. Okay. Any council items to be considered council? [4:16] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay. Consent agenda. I would take a motion to accept the consent agenda. **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Motion. **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Second. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Council member Pemble. Council member Leifeld. Any discussion? Council. All those in favor of the motion. State by saying I. **City Council:** I. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion state by saying nay. And that motion prevails. Tonight, under awarding of contracts, we will have a public hearing to vacate, resend, and terminate the release for the permanent storm water easement recorded on document number 891566. And for this item, we will have an introduction by our community development director, John Hinzman. Welcome, John. [4:56] **John Hinzman:** Thank you, mayor, city council members. Tonight, we're asked to hold a public hearing and to take action on the resolution within your packet. I'll give a little bit of background of what we're doing tonight. You may recall that earlier we approved a site plan and established an easement for uh the uh the armory down on Spiral Boulevard, 31st Street, Highway 316. They're building a stormwater pond essentially in this area. What was planned is for that to connect to a stormwater pipe just off the site on city property which necessitated us to uh dedicate an easement area for its use. [5:34] **John Hinzman:** Unfortunately, during the construction of it, found a utility there that prevented that from occurring and they're going to be going straight out with storm water pipe to the northwest towards Spiral Boulevard. Therefore, the easement is no longer necessary. So, we're asking you tonight to do is to hold the public hearing and then to vacate that easement area and I can stand for any questions on that. I will note that we will need six of seven votes to vacate that easement. Thank you. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, John. Council, I'll first have the public hearing and after that we can have discussion. At this time, I'll open the public hearing. [6:07] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Anyone wish to speak to the easement on the property at this time? No one wishes to speak. Okay. Close the public hearing. Council, any discussion? Council member Leifeld. **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Thank you, honor. I'd like to make a motion to vacate, resend, terminate, and release a permanent storm water easement recorded as document number 891566. [6:28] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay. First, and a second by council member Haus. **Councilmember Angie Haus:** Second. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Any discussion, council. All those in favor of the motion, state by saying I. **City Council:** I. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion, state by saying nay. And that motion prevails. Thank you, John. [6:44] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Tonight we have a resolution also awarding contract for 2025 sanitary sewer lining program. And for this item we have our city engineer Cody Mathisen. Welcome Cody. **Cody Mathisen:** Good evening Mayor and council. Uh tonight uh requesting to adopt the attached resolution to award the contract for our lining program. [7:02] **Cody Mathisen:** This is a program we do every other year. Uh the bid package for this includes work on our neighborhood reconstruction project. As mentioned in your packet, we try to lump together all lining work for the year into one contract to get the best bid price instead of having two separate liners come into town. We got five bids on this project with the low bid being received by HydroClean LLC who has done work in the city before and successfully completed similar lining projects. The sanitary sewer lining program itself has a budget of $450,000. add in $130,000 being contributed from the neighborhood project. That brings us to a total of 580. Uh that would be our budget. With this bid coming in at 532,000, uh we're looking good from a budget standpoint. So with that, staff recommends the city council adopt the [7:49] **Cody Mathisen:** attached resolution awarding the contract to HydroClean in the amount of $532,997.80. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thanks, Cody. Council discussion. Council member Haus. **Councilmember Angie Haus:** Thank you, your honor. I'd like to make a motion to approve the sanitary sewer lining program um to HydroClean for $532,997.80. [8:14] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, council member. And council member Pemble. **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** I'd second that motion. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, council member Pemble. And any discussion, council, all those in favor of the motion state by saying I. **City Council:** I. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Oppose that motion. State by saying nay. Thank you, Cody. That motion prevails. [8:31] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** All right. Under reports from city staff under community development, we have a resolution for a special use permit for cannabis for Joshua Bruns (Minneapolis Kombucha) at the building at 215 Ramsey and John Hinzman, our community development director, will give us an intro. **John Hinzman:** Thank you, mayor, city council members. Tonight we have a request for a special use permit for consideration by the city council. This is for cannabis retail sales at 215 Ramsey Street. The property is owned by Suriri Group LLC and the applicant is Joshua Bruns Minneapolis Kombucha. So tonight I'm going to give a little bit of background on the location, some of the action that occurred at planning commission and [9:17] **John Hinzman:** options that are available for the city council. So first of all, let's take a look at the property itself. We are looking at this property here at 215 Ramsey Street, which is half of a building that HEDRA owns. HEDRA owns the other half of the building here. It's being leased out to HPAC right now, the Hastings Prescott Arts Council for their services. And then these other parcels in the front are part of a joint parking lot that we own jointly uh with the Suriri Property Group who owns the property under question tonight. So, this is what the property looks like. [9:49] **John Hinzman:** Present day, this is home to Tippy's Corner Store. If this was to go forward, Tippies would go away and the cannabis retail store would go into its place. So, options we have before the council tonight with the special use permit. We have two options, two recommendations moving forward to you. [10:07] **John Hinzman:** One is from the planning commission. Planning commission did look at this at the April 28th meeting. Public hearing was held during the meeting. We had a a number of people that spoke to it had questions pertaining to the location of this operation in conjunction to art spaces programming in the adjacent building. If you are to go with denial of this tonight, specific reasons relating to the inability to establish conditions to ensure protection of public health, safety, or general welfare need to be stated. So, if the council does choose to deny this tonight, the reasons need to be specific. What we would do at that point is ask the council to direct us to prepare a resolution for denial consistent with those conditions [10:53] **John Hinzman:** discussed and brought forward by by council to staff tonight and then we would take consideration of that at the next meeting on May 19th. The recommendation for denial is consistent with the planning commission. They voted 4 to 1 uh with uh Chair Messino voting nay on that one to recommend denial of this to the city council. This requires a simple majority. If you were to deny this, it would take a simple majority of council. If you were to vote to approve the project tonight, we have an attached resolution that would be include conditions for the approval. This is a recommendation of city staff. City staff's review of this found that it does meet the requirements of the code and we would recommend approval of it. [11:36] **John Hinzman:** Approval of the special use permit and any special use permit would require six of seven council members. So, just want to lay those options out before you tonight to uh to take one of those two options with cannabis. It's a process. The special use permit tonight does not guarantee an individual to be able to sell cannabis. What this does tonight with an approval of a special use permit, it allows one to be able to meet the general licensing requirements by Office of Cannabis Management or OCM to check a box to say, "Do you meet local zoning?" Check. Then it will go through licensing requirements from OCM. We did hear news back today that a first drawing of that for uh certain [12:21] **John Hinzman:** individuals would take place June 1st with other applications following at that point. So they're moving forward in that process. This would go through backgrounding and other requirements. Upon approval of that by the state, there's a registration process under our clerk's office that would come into play. This is coming under chapter 117 of the city code. One thing that's important with that is that only one retail cannabis business would be allowed. During our establishment of of cannabis rules back in December of last year, we limited it to only one cannabis business within the city. The important part is the determination of the registration, if we do have multiple licenses from OCM that could be registered with the city, would need to [13:08] **John Hinzman:** be determined by the council at a later date. I'll stress that tonight is not the time that we're asking for the council to make any determinations on whether if multiple applications are approved, how we should make the determination. It is an important consideration, but a consideration we will do independent of tonight's discussion. Tonight, what we're looking at is do does this special use permit and a subsequent similar special use permit meet the requirements for action by the city council. So, have a map here of the inside of the building itself. They would have shelving areas, vault areas. [13:46] **John Hinzman:** They have a security plan that has been approved by our chief of police. And I should qualify by saying he's reviewed it. He he agrees with the the layout of it and it would be subject to the inspection once and once these things are put into place and constructed within the building itself. When you take a look at the property, let's go back here. Property is zoned uh C3 and special use permit for cannabis is allowed within that zone. When you take a look at surrounding uses, HPAC operations are next door to it. Other commercial uses within the downtown. We do have a home listed over here that is zoned commercial. This is a home that's been vacant for some time, was subject to a development for a potential [14:31] **John Hinzman:** apartment complex by Luke Seaward uh a couple years back. And then we have the senior building uh Mississippi Terrace operated by Dakota CDA across the street. So we have a mixture of things within there. One of the things within the requirements of the zoning portion of cannabis is in most districts there are the establishment of setback requirements of certain types of uses either from park facilities attractive to children or u schools and a few other qualifications. [15:07] **John Hinzman:** When the council reviewed this ordinance back in December, uh it it adopted the ordinance with the provision that any property within the downtown area was not subject to those requirements. So there are certain items that are closer to it, but under the code that we adopted, uh they do not need to meet those setback requirements. And so they do meet the requirements of our special use permit qualifications for operation in that case. And so Mr. Joshua Bruns of Minneapolis Kombucha is here tonight if you have any questions for him and I can stand for any questions as well. Thank you. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, John. Council. Council member Leifeld. [15:53] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Thanks John. John, you started out by when you talked about the building. Who owns the building? **John Hinzman:** Half of the building is owned by HEDRA, the north half of it. And then Suriri Group, who I I think they're related to Walker Chiropractic, who's owned the building for quite some time, but they... **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** So they own the south side of the building. HEDRA does own the north side of the building. **John Hinzman:** Correct. And we share the parking lot. **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Thanks, John. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Leifeld. Any other discussion, council? [16:24] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay, she's pondering. So, I'm just waiting. Council member Vihrachoff, thank you, your honor. **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** I'm appreciative, John, for this presentation tonight. And thank you for diving a little bit more in depth of what's expected of us tonight in terms of us making um this decision on this day. Um, as you said, there have been um many concerned folks that have come forward um and spoken at the previous meeting and a lot of those uh folks reside in my ward where this would be in Ward 1 um that I represent. And so I want to make sure that their voices are being heard. The way that I'm hearing this tonight is the issue that is actually up for city council to approve or not approve is did this license did [17:13] **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** this request for the special use permit meet the requirements that were stated in the application. It's not anything more than that. That is a conversation for down the road at some point. What we are doing tonight is saying yes this application fulfills those needs somewhat and I can make some qualifications to that... **John Hinzman:** Council member, with a special use permit, special uses within the zoning code are termed either permitted uses (there you can do them outright by right) or special uses, which means that they may be able to be approved if certain conditions to ensure their operation to fit within the health safety general welfare uh can be verified. And so what we've done here as staff is we've put certain conditions on the special use permit that we feel would allow this to operate in harmony with the neighborhood. And so if the council was to take an opinion that that was not the case, we're asking for those specific reasons to be cited because what we would need to do that within the general terms of how the approval works. This would be one step that the city council would have in ultimate determination of sale of cannabis within the within this application or within the city. This allows one to qualify for OCM licensing and then during the registration process a selection would need to be made as far as who that registrant would be. [18:42] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you council member Vihrachoff. Do you want to continue? **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** May I? **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes you may. **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Thank you John. That's very very helpful. So, would it be fair to say that as we continue going through this process, assuming that both special use permits are approved tonight um by this group before you um that those are conversations that we could have in terms of um the neighborhood, the populations that are surrounding it? Um talking maybe um a little bit more with Josh about "Hey Josh um some of the concerns that the neighbors might have going forward." So that would be something that would be amendable to next steps in this process. Would that be acceptable or permittable? **John Hinzman:** Sure. With the special use permit, I think it's most appropriate if there's certain conditions that would need to be established upon operation. This would be the time to to establish what those are. If you are concur with the opinion of staff and the condition staff has proposed on that one, fine. If there's other things to add, that would be the time to do that. During the registration process, I think it's more formulaic at that point. Do you meet these requirements? Check this box. The one thing that we haven't made a determination of is if we do have multiple licenses that have been approved by OCM, how is that [20:06] **John Hinzman:** determination made? So, we we plan to bring that back at a subsequent meeting so that that's clear to folks. But Greta, am I missing anything there? **Greta (City Attorney):** No, John, I I agree with what you said and and to answer your questions, council member, the I mean the zoning ordinances has already been amended. A lot of the things I think that you're talking about have already happened. So to John's point of if you think there should be some sort of conditions or special provisions applicable to this property and this matter, that should be addressed now because there really is no time down the road when the if this gets approved and we go down the road and [20:53] **Greta (City Attorney):** they apply for the registration from the city as John said that that is a bit more just of a perunctory paying a fine or paying the fee, be, you know, checking some of the boxes. It's not going to be a time for discussion necessarily. [21:11] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Vihrachoff. Council member Leifeld. **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Um, to kind of on Council Member Vihrachoff's comment, we're at a our hands are tied to a degree because this is all coming from the state, right? So, this is unlike anything I've ever seen before in regards to dispensaries around the country. Um, but this is what the state has set up for us. So, under the circumstances and based on that address being zone C3, I would like to make a motion that we allow or that we go ahead with the special use permit for cannabis retail sales for Joshua Bruns of Minneapolis Kombucha at 215 Ramsey Street. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Leifeld. Council Member Pemble. **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** I'll second that motion. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Pemble. Discussion. [22:06] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** No discussion. Councilmember, did you have something else to say? Sorry. Just checking. Okay. All those in favor of the motion state by saying I. **City Council:** I. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion, state by saying nay. [22:23] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay. And that motion prevails. Thank you. Okay. John, you can continue with our second resolution for a special use permit for Steve Benowitz at 21103 Vermillion Street. Thank you. And same kind of same type of um special use permit. **John Hinzman:** Correct. Council uh mayor, similar special use permit request, different location here. Applicant is Steve Benowitz. The property address is 21103 Vermillion Street. commonly known as "The Bar" which is this location of the building and more specifically would be located in a portion of it which is behind this car over here which used to be a bottle shop at one point. Steve does own the whole building on that one. [23:09] **John Hinzman:** Planning commission did review this on April 28th as well. During the public hearing we did have two people speak to this. Uh the applicant spoke of his years of operation in Hastings and uh we did have Mr. Bruns asking some questions about setback distance for operation for park facilities. Uh planning commission did discuss the park facilities aspect to it. When you look more specifically at setback requirements for the sale of cannabis, there's mention in the code of park facilities that are used by by children or something similar in the language of that. There are a number of different items that are stipulated within there and we did speak with the city attorney to determine whether we concurred that the proposal did meet the 500ft setback [23:56] **John Hinzman:** requirement and concurred that it did. Even though the property itself is within 500 ft of Vermillion Falls Park, the facilities within the park attractive to children underneath the code are further than 500 ft. It would meet that requirement. So, we bring this for you tonight with a recommendation of approval by the planning commission. Mr. Benowitz is here if you have any questions for him. Thank you. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, John. Council, any other discussion? Council member Leifeld. [24:54] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Thank you, honor. Um, this one I feel it really important to state out loud again that tonight's decision is not allowing it's not stating that you are going to be the dispensary within the city even though the signs and products and such might be in the building. Just want to state that piece of it. Uh that being said, I would like to make a motion to uh approve the special use permit for cannabis retail sales for Steve Benowitz at 21103 Vermillion Street. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Leifeld. Council member Lawrence seconds. **Councilmember Tim Lawrence:** Seconds. [24:54] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Any discussion? Council. All those in favor of the motion state by saying I. **City Council:** I. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion state by saying nay. And that motion prevails. Thank you. Thank you John. Um, also tonight, John will present be presenting for uh 413 2nd Street West, Fred Wyland. We will have a resolution for a variance for a sideyard setback and a resolution for a garage move. [25:25] **John Hinzman:** Thank you, mayor, city council members. We have two separate actions for a similar type of thing going on at 413 Street West. Uh, our property owned by Fred Wyland. property itself has a home on it right here and is proposed to bringing a new structure which would be about 22 by 46. The structure to be brought in is currently a home in Rosemount but that home would be resided and reconverted into a garage for storage on the property itself. So there are two actions that we're looking for tonight, two separate resolutions. [26:02] **John Hinzman:** The first of which is the resolution for the council serving as the board of design adjustments, excuse me, for compatibility of the structure. The other one is a variance request. Mr. Wyland is requesting that the 10-ft setback requirement from uh the side street here be reduced to 5ft. And I'll go into some details on that in a moment. So this is another view of the property where it sits. You can see that there is a a slope and some some trees on the property at present. This is Second Street. This is the side street, I think that's Forest over there. And structure itself. [26:44] **John Hinzman:** We'll start with that. Built 1949. 920 square ft. Doesn't look like a lot at present. Let's... This is what the structure looks like. This would not be what the structure would end up being on the property itself. Uh it would be resided. Uh gables would be changed on it. And in fact, part of this structure itself and the property is within the realm of the Heritage Preservation Commission. They reviewed this project and did recommend approval of this from a design standpoint. So, what we're looking at is this. This is what the building is going to look like after the fact. The house will be turned into a garage structure for this. This will be facing more towards the front. The front will be set at the same setback as the house from Second Street. So, the view from Second Street will be this, which has kind of a residential look to it. When you take a look at the property itself, you can see the slope on it. The red arrows show where the house is going to be. And the more you move it towards [27:49] **John Hinzman:** the east or towards the west, excuse me, the more you're moving up slope here. So the 10-ft setback requirement would require further cutting into the slope, which puts the the roots of some of these trees into potentially critical condition. So this is what we term a differentiating circumstance to allow for the five-foot setback to take place here. And that's what we documented within the staff report itself. Planning commission did review both of these options at the last planning commission meeting on April 28th. Recommended unanimous approval of both those. So I do have Mr. Wyland here tonight if you have any questions for him. I will note that during the discussion of the project, we did add a condition on it that the improvements to the conversion [28:36] **John Hinzman:** of the house into a garage would need to take place before September 30th, 2026. We there was some concern raised that we didn't want to have the condition of the house in the condition it is for longer than necessary on the property. So I can stand for any questions. I will note as well that with the votes on this one, the variance does require six of seven but the action on the board of design control can be simple majority. Thank you. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you John. Council member Leifeld. [29:16] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** I'm on a roll. Um, I would like to make a motion. Can I do both of these at the same time? Structure move and variance. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Structure move... one needs a super majority, one doesn't. **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Structure move. Make a motion to allow the structure move of to 413 Second Street West for Fred Wyland. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Leifeld. Council member Pemble is the second. **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** I'll second that motion. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay. And I'll open it for any discussion. [29:33] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Council, I did have one question actually. Council member Haus. **Councilmember Angie Haus:** Thank you. Uh, John, I I'm struggling to find it here. I wanted to make sure staff recommended as well. **John Hinzman:** We did. **Councilmember Angie Haus:** Thank you. It wasn't stated. I just wanted to double check. Thank you. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Council Member Vihrachoff. **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Thank you, your honor. Um, I support this as well. Um, I support both of the issues for for Fred here tonight. Just on a personal note, Fred, I just want to say that I was super impressed by your uh packet that you put together and that you personally found me at my place of work and um talk to me about it. That is um a little unorthodox, but um actually really appreciated because I knew exactly what was coming before the council. I was able to read all about it and understand and then contact you if I had questions. So kudos to you, sir. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Fred, she's a hard person to find. She's very busy. [30:18] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** All right, we have a first and a second. Oh, council member Pemble. **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** John, um I think one thing needs to be referenced here is that the street that is to the west that we're going to vacate down to the five foot uh area. That is a dead end street. **John Hinzman:** Correct. Yeah. Forest Street is located to the west here and it because of the grade it's not going any further than it is right now. **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** That that was the point I wanted to make. Thank you. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Pemble. Another question, Council Member Leifeld. **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Do we maintain that section of Forest? **John Hinzman:** No. No, we don't. **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** We don't. **John Hinzman:** Okay. **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Has there ever been any conversation of vacating that? **John Hinzman:** I think we've got a very large utility underneath there for storm water. So, we would need to keep it open for that. [31:21] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Leifeld. No other discussion. All those in favor of the motion state by saying I. **City Council:** I. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion state by saying nay. And that first motion prevails. And council member, you may want to continue. **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Thank you. Motion to approve the variance number 2025-08 for 413 2nd Street West. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Council member Haus has a second. **Councilmember Angie Haus:** Second. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Any discussion? Council. All those in favor of the motion, state by saying I. **City Council:** I. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion state by saying nay. And that motion prevailed. [32:23] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Follow-up question. Hypothetically speaking, if when this home is moved in, what happens on September 30th of '26 if it's not done? **John Hinzman:** If it's not done, he's in violation. I'd imagine that there could be an administrative citation that is issued at that point to compel compliance. **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Okay. Just curious. I've not voted on something like this quite before. So just kind of curious and I thought I was special with him finding me in my place of work. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** DawnMarie, okay, thank you council. Uh tonight also we have to approve a program for the art event program grant and for this item we'll have an introduction by the economic developer coordinator, Alex Minke. Welcome, Alex. [33:39] **Alex Minke:** Hello. Thank you, Mayor Council. Uh, I'm coming before you all today to present two very similar but uh different uh grant programs that have the um full uh support from the arts and culture commissioners. So, just a little bit of background. Um I presented the 2025 work plan to you all earlier this year and the uh document and kind of trajectory of the commission is pivoting away from hosting events themselves to supporting local groups uh so that they can host events. Um part of it was derived from being an arm of the local government. It was difficult to do event planning um and so why not try to support nonprofit groups in the city that can be a little bit more flexible with um their event planning and things like that. So uh in that work plan there were line items to research and draft uh two grant programs. [34:25] **Alex Minke:** Um one is an arts event grant program, one is a cultural event grant program. Both are very similar. Uh and that is what I'm presenting to you tonight. Um the programs are similar in uh the fact they're both matching grants. And so they are for up to uh an amount of $1,000 each uh to go towards uh local nonprofits uh to host specific events. So, uh, applicants do have to have a specific event they are planning in mind to apply for this grant. It's not a blanket uh amount that a group can just apply for and say, "Oh, we'll find some way to spend it later." Uh we do want specific events in mind. Uh the ways that these programs differ is that the arts events program uh is specifically available for uh nonprofit art groups that are within the city of Hastings. Uh and the cultural events uh grant program is available for [35:12] **Alex Minke:** groups that are maybe outside of the city of Hastings, but the event has to be hosted within the city. Uh both programs do require the event to be hosted within the city and made public uh made available to the public. Um I believe that's the largest thing that we have on here. Um we currently have uh budgeted for each uh $3,000 annually and uh this first year these would be on a rolling uh kind of first-come first-serve uh rolling application. Looking at having a more formalized uh open application period starting in 2026 where uh there will be an open period, collect the applications, and then the commissioners would review it, provide their recommendations to you all for uh approval for later in the year. But um I'm happy to stand for any questions about these programs. Great. [36:08] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Alex. Council member Haus. **Councilmember Angie Haus:** Thank you, Alex. I appreciate your hard work with this. Um with this being said, I wanted to have a point of clarification. I just want to make sure I heard this right. So the nonprofit does not need to be an organization within the city of Hastings, but the event has to be held in the city. **Alex Minke:** Correct. Yes. So, uh, it's this is where the the two programs differ. The arts event grant program, you have to be an arts nonprofit that is within the city of Hastings. For the cultural event grant program, it can be a cultural nonprofit that is not within the city. Um but both programs do require that the events be hosted in town. So I I understand there's a little bit of confusion with that. The um discussion point behind that was that we know there are a myriad of arts nonprofits within the city whereas the number of cultural groups may be smaller and we'd like to be able to open that up to a wider range to host more events. **Councilmember Angie Haus:** Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. With that being said, do you by chance know how many art nonprofits there are in town? I'm just curious. **Alex Minke:** At least five if more. **Councilmember Angie Haus:** Yeah, that's more than I thought. So, thank you. [37:54] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Haus. Any other discussion? Council member Beck. **Councilmember Mya Beck:** I just had a quick question. So, say I'm an arts program in the city and I've already planned my event like right now. I already paid for the permitting. What if I wanted to apply for this grant? Do I still need to match you dollar for dollar if I've already paid certain fees or is there specific provisions because of this rolling basis before '26? **Alex Minke:** That is a great question that I think I'd have to check the verbiage. I'm fairly certain that... they could have an event that they're already planning and say have put down payments on for things, and if they can prove that those funds have been spent and want to seek to apply and the event hasn't happened already they can uh request funding. Now if the event had already happened they couldn't seek to be uh retroactively reimbursed for that. **Councilmember Mya Beck:** Yeah. Thank you, Alex. [39:01] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Beck. Council member Haus. **Councilmember Angie Haus:** Thank you. I'd like to make a motion to approve the creation of the art events program and approve the creation of the cultural event grant program as well. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Haus. Council member Pemble. **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** I'd second that motion. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Council Member Pemble. Any discussion, council? All those in favor of the motion state by saying I. **City Council:** I. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion, state by saying nay. And that motion prevails. Thank you, Alex. [39:39] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Under administration tonight, as we always do the first meeting of the month, we will have a PFAS update. And Dan, you may start with your update. **Dan Wietecha:** Thank you, mayor. Um, as you mentioned, we do a similar update every month. uh just trying to make sure that as a lot is happening, we're we're keeping pace with it and making sure that we're sharing updates. Um but with that said, I changed the format of the memo a little bit. Uh, so if it's it's like six pages of of text, instead of having important pieces scattered throughout, uh, although they're still there, I pulled the the [40:24] **Dan Wietecha:** more prominent pieces, uh, the new updates up to the front of it as a series of bullet points to make it a little bit more user friendly. So, just just pointing out a different format. Uh, a few key things in the last month. Uh on April 18th, we officially closed on the purchase of 1292 North Frontage Road, uh the property for the Central Water Treatment Plant. Uh as uh previously noted, uh the current tenants have been given um the notice to vacate by the end of June. Uh appreciate that they're working towards that. Personally, I get a little bit nervous that that time is coming fast. uh but uh uh certainly uh looking forward to working with them at at finding uh new locations. [40:59] **Dan Wietecha:** Um, also very notable uh um earlier this evening on the consent agenda earlier this evening you finalized and approved the uh 10% water rate increase effective July 1 um which is uh necessary for uh payment on this upcoming construction project. This is the second of multiple rate increases. Uh we're certainly in the meantime seeking funding trying to minimize the impact on our residents and holding off having to do increases until uh sort of the last minute, but um uh that was approved earlier this evening. Uh that'll be effective in a couple of months here and certainly various communications going out to our residents and businesses about that. [42:02] **Dan Wietecha:** Uh also earlier this evening you approved the application for the public facilities authority loan application. Uh that resolution is a formal part of that loan process. Uh it is a low-interest loan through the department of health. Uh and uh although the paperwork is will determine the final numbers, figure it's around 1 and a half percent interest rate and project that uh it will save us over a million dollars in interest payments over the next 20 years but uh certainly like seeing those savings come in because it's an expensive project. Um we also continue to seek financial assistance. Uh we've got uh three plants to build and although the first one's about to kick off uh we still have a lot of other bills that we're we're trying to chase down. So uh at the moment although the uh uh state uh legislative session is coming to an end in the next couple of weeks, our uh bonding bill request is still in [43:06] **Dan Wietecha:** consideration. Uh, also note that a couple of weeks ago, we applied uh for uh depending on if whether it's a senator or uh congressperson, the uh congressionally directed spending or community project funding. Uh this would be specific for the western treatment plant. Uh matter of where the the dates and construction schedules line up. Uh but seeking federal funding uh assistance there. Um uh we also are in the process of updating our intended use plan applications. Um actually we're doing that on all three plants. Uh partly just to make the the timing match up with the construction schedule, but I think of note there when talking about seeking [43:51] **Dan Wietecha:** additional funding is uh on the western plant, the third plant, involved in that would be an application for uh the emerging contaminants grant. So we previously received approval for $3 million each on the central and eastern plants. So seeking to do that also on the the western one coming up. Uh the other piece notable um the central treatment plant is on schedule to go to bid later this month and construction could begin as early as uh July or first part of August. So, it's coming and becoming a real reality. Uh, the other part that um I think is notable on the construction side is at [44:39] **Dan Wietecha:** our uh last meeting uh council um actually maybe it was two meetings ago. Uh in April, uh council talked about um another way to save some of the costs on the central plant. So um PFAS tends to be the headline, but realistically the project all along has been PFAS and nitrates removal. And on this particular plant, the central plant, the nitrate levels are not as high uh or the wells served by this plant are not as high as uh on the eastern side of town. uh as well as with the existing nitrate treatment they have on site uh we're doing partial treatment for nitrates already. Uh the short [45:26] **Dan Wietecha:** version of what that means is um with this project we are proposing to still build the footprint the space for uh future filtration for nitrates if we need it. But on this one we think that we don't need it right now. We save about $3.1 million by pulling that equipment out and just building the shell around it so that we can add it in the future uh if if a future council sees that need. So, uh pull back on some of those costs about $3 million. Those are the highlights over the last month. Uh with that, I can stand for any questions. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thanks, Dan. Any questions? Council member Leifeld. [46:04] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Thanks, Dan. Okay, I have a couple questions. So on the consent agenda, are we when you talk that the 10% water rate increase and the PFA loan application, are those seven and eight on the consent agenda? **Dan Wietecha:** Item 4: second reading and adoption of ordinance amendment city code chapter 34, fees for municipal services. That's the water rates. And then item 7: approving application to Minnesota Public Facilities Authority. That's the low-interest loan through the PFA. **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Perfect. Thanks, Dan. I appreciate that. I just the the wording of them weren't driving together in my head. And then my last question, um, trucks digging up on the north frontage road west of Westview right there in that stretch. Have they started any of the laying any lines or anything for this project up towards the central plant? **Dan Wietecha:** No, I'm not sure what those trucks are, but that's not... **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** I just noticed them today. It's not this project. Okay. Thanks. [47:13] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay. Announcements, anyone? I have a couple. May is National Building Safety Month and National Historic Preservation Month. This week is Municipal Clerk Appreciation Week and next week is National Police Week. Please join me in a great and heartfelt thank you for the employees in these departments for their services in the community. (Applause). **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Tuesday, May 13th is Police Week open house. All invited to this free event. Uh the fifth annual Sound the Siren food for kids drive is kicked off this week and runs through May 17th with collection spots at Hastings Police Department and City Hall. We're taking both monetary donations as well as kid-friendly individual wrapped food items. All donations benefit the community in partnership with United Way of Hastings. [48:47] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Cop on a roof is Friday, May 16th. Visit Dunkin Donuts to support the athletes of Special Olympics Minnesota. This event is part of the Special Olympics Minnesota Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics. Help shape the future of Dakota County Parks. You can review the draft of the 2050 parks, greenways, and natural spaces vision plan online through May 20th or share your feedback in person at an open house. On Thursday, May 8th at the Lebanon Hill Visitor Center. [49:22] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Meetings: Thursday, May 8th, there's a HEDRA meeting at 6 PM. Monday, May 12th, there is a finance committee meeting at 7 pm. There's a planning commission meeting at 7 pm. Wednesday, May 14th, arts and culture commission 6 pm. Thursday, May 15th, public safety advisory commission is at 6:30. And Monday, May 19th, council, we have a 7:00 pm city council meeting. I will take a motion to adjourn. **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Motion to adjourn. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Council member Pemble, and a second by council member Haus. **Councilmember Angie Haus:** Second. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** All those in favor of the motion state by saying I. **City Council:** I. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Oppose to that motion state by saying nay. And we are adjourned.