This transcript features **Mayor Jim Michalski** presiding over the meeting, with **City Administrator Ellissa Owens** and **City Superintendent Phil Entner** providing the bulk of the staff reports. [0:06] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I'd like to welcome everyone to the regularly reading of the Moose Lake City Council for Wednesday, March 13th, and I'd like to start with the pledge of allegiance, please. [0:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: ...by the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under. The next item is agenda. we do have an addition and that will be under new business 6L, and that will be frozen water lines. Also, we do have a few guests here tonight, so once we finish the consent agenda and a public comment, [1:08] I will then call forward our visitors which are under new business which is 6A and B. So those will be moved up out of order, and then we'll continue with the regular meeting after that. So with that, the next item [1:32] with addition we have to an approval agenda. A motion to approve the agenda? [1:45] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Motion. [1:46] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Do we have a second? [1:47] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: Second. [1:48] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. (Aye). Opposed same. Motion carried. And at this time, I’d like to just do a thank you to the Moose Lake Fire Department—I should say the district—the Carlton Fire Department, Sturgeon Lake Fire Department, the Barnum Fire Department, and the Willow River Fire Department, and did I say Kettle River? And also the Kettle River Fire Department for the response to the fire at the Moose Lake Motel. And also best wishes to the [2:22] owners and the customers that were staying at the motel. My best wishes to them. And I believe the whole fire’s out, Chief? Okay. And thank you to the Police Department and Public Works. Thank you very much. From that, we’ll go to the consent agenda number 2A, the minutes. This is for February 13, 2019, City Council regular meeting minutes. Have any questions or discussion on the minutes? [3:11] Hearing none, do I have a motion to accept the minutes? [3:15] **Council Member Kris Huso**: So moved. [3:16] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Have a second? [3:17] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Second. [3:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. (Aye). Opposed? Motion carried. Moving on to 2B, the financial reports. 2B-1, this is the City Claims table for March 2019. Number two, the City financial statements for February 2019. Any discussion or questions? [3:44] Hearing none, do I have a motion to accept the financial reports? [3:48] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: So moved. [3:49] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Have a second? [3:50] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Second. [3:51] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. (Aye). Opposed? There. Number three, public comment. This time is reserved for comments from the public on matters not listed on the agenda. Please keep comments to three minutes. And just for information, the frozen water line was added into the agenda, so you don't have to come forward at this time. It's an item. Any other items for questions or comments? Hearing none, we'll move on then to [4:32] 6A, the Moose Lake School presentation. We have the Superintendent Bobby Alworth with us. [4:40] **Bobby Alworth (School Superintendent)**: Thank you. Thank you for letting me address the board here. My goal today is to inform the City Council as to why the school is going out for a voter-approved bond. Why would we ever do this? We went out in 2014 and I'll give you some insight as to the process we went through. So I'm going to start my story with where we started, which is there was some things that were not finished on the project that got cut because of the last bid going a little bit over. [5:18] One of the things was a parking lot. Believe it or not, there was supposed to be another parking lot on the south end of the property that was going to be like an event parking lot for traffic and baseball and stuff like that and overflow parking. I don't know if any of you guys have been into the school like on a grandparent day or things like that, but we have people parking on County Road 10 and we don't think that's a very good idea. That was never supposed to happen because that other parking lot was supposed to be there. The other issue that we have is that the runoff, even though it was designed the way it was designed, there's too much runoff going across Connecticut Road right now and it floods that property on the other side of the road there. The county has approached us and said that we need to do something [6:05] about that. So we are looking at that parking lot and how do we go about diverting the water and solving the other problems that we've got. So we started there. Schools in general have to go to the public to get additional money if they have to bond for money. There is one tool that we can use that we don't have to go to the public, and that's an abatement bond. In the first page that I want you to look at with us—the first page—I'm just gonna use a hundred thousand every time so we can be consistent. So we started our story with this: Okay, well, if we're going to do a parking lot, you know, we've got a value of 750,000. We can go for an abatement bond. It's gonna cost that person $26 for that bond. [6:53] And then we thought, you know, what would happen if we went out to the public and we just did a voter-approved bond? Because typically they're cheaper, they're a better value for the taxpayer, but the tricky part is of course you have to get the voters to vote yes and pass it. Well, in the process of doing this, unbeknownst to us, we still have the availability to get the state aid that we got before, and we did not know that that was the case. So when we did this, if you look, there's basically going to be two questions on this ballot. But let's just look at question one for a second. We can get 3.9 million dollars for $11. Now if you flip back to [7:40] the first page, you'll see: "well crap, we can only get 750,000 for $26.00." So then we're like, okay, well, you know what, there was a lot of things that did not get finished on that original project. We can go one way and we can get a parking lot done, or we can go a different way and take a risk and go up to the voters and say okay, we can almost get four million dollars for much less than we can get 750,000. Now there's a little caveat there and it's not apples to apples because an abatement bond is five years and the voter approved is 18 years. But if you do the math, it's a very good deal for us and we get so much more done at [8:26] the school. The next page is basically how the bond is structured. I don't really need to go into that; it's basically an 18-year bond for a voter-approved one. But the next page that you've got is a picture of the facility and what we would get for the 3.9 million dollars. The big things are the parking lot. We always had it in there that we want our cross-country runners to actually have a trail, and that got cut in the original project. Instead of them running down County Road 10, we were looking at putting an actual trail out there. It could be used for [9:12] cross-country skiing. We have a locker room down there, kind of like a concession stand locker room area down by that football field. It is actually needed because they can literally not house the football field in the locker room that I've got, so that would be part of this bond. One of the things that's a big passion for many people is the ECF playground. That's probably the number one thing I've heard since the building was built: "how come you didn't build an ECFE playground?" That would be part of it. And then of course seating for track and baseball, and then there was a softball field there. And there's other little things there you can read what they are, but the big-ticket items are the ones that I highlighted. [9:58] So instead of just getting that parking lot, for essentially close to the same amount of money, I can get those things that are listed there. And so what we did then is we went to the public, we went to the staff, we have meetings. I've talked to Tim [City Administrator] a couple times about what we're doing. And the next page is kind of our plan. I've been looking with the school and working with the city because I think they have an interest in developing some of that land on 73. The school wants the land, so we came up with the plan. One of the things that we started talking about is what would happen if there was a Sports Complex out there. It came up in conversations with [10:48] the community that, well, if you're gonna put one softball field in—and you guys are looking, I believe, at maybe moving your field that floods all the time to a different place—this could be a place where that could happen. If we work together on this, the monies that I'm getting are basically two-for-one. That's basically what we've got. And this might be a good community green space sports facility, and that's going to basically be question two. That's up to the community whether this is really what we want. You've seen it in other communities where there's like a cloverleaf with a concession stand and a shelter in the middle and [11:35] appropriate parking. If you look at the last page, that’s kind of basically everything in yellow there is what we would get with question two. The way that I look at it: Question one is more finishing what didn't get finished with the original project. Question two is enhancing what we've got into more of a community facility. And so, there's a couple points that I want to make. When I went out in 2014 and talked to the public, there was a certain dollar amount that I promised people their taxes would only go up that amount. In reality, they're paying way less. We had always said it was 60% state [12:23] aid; that actually was 70%. The bonds were less than what we thought. Even if we pass question one and question two here, the taxes will be less than what I promised in 2014. So when we as a school board or a school district looked at this, we said: "All right, well, we know we got to get this parking lot done. Here's the cost. The school just doesn't have 750,000 sitting around." So we're gonna have to go and do a bond somehow. When we looked at it, we said well, we can go this route and get a parking lot, or we can go the other route and pretty much finish what did not get done. I think that that message has to get out there because it will be very easy for people to say, "you guys got your money, [13:09] that's it." That may be the answer, but the bottom line is you most likely are going to be doing that parking lot. If we do it, there's one way to do it, but the other way really fulfills kind of what our vision was for the facilities. Question two really is a community question and I think that we're looking for your support on this and just making sure that you're knowledgeable. Because if people come up to you and say "what is the school doing," you need to know that if you look at the numbers, [13:54] it makes a lot of sense for us to do what we're doing right now. Questions? [14:02] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: When would you vote for this? [14:05] **Bobby Alworth (School Superintendent)**: It's gonna be May... I want to say it's Tuesday, May 14th. I can't remember. Yeah. And so on our website, we're gonna have information and we'll have the tax impact and that type of thing so people will be able to plug in their numbers to figure out what the cost is. [14:26] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Let's say it does pass. When would you actually start construction? [14:30] **Bobby Alworth (School Superintendent)**: Yeah, that's a good question. Obviously some things can't be started right away. The one [14:40] thing that we're really looking at is that parking lot because we need to address that runoff issue as soon as possible. So we will try to get the things done this summer that we can get done, but as you know with the bid processes and whatnot, a lot of the stuff may be pushed into the following summer. [14:58] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: You know, as far as the Little League field that we have down by the campground, we have talked about that. How would that fit into the overall feel? You know, you got a four-leaf clover up here. It would be one of those fields, and those fields are going to be multi-use fields. [15:25] **Bobby Alworth (School Superintendent)**: And so I have talked to Tim [City Administrator] a little bit about this. This might be a good opportunity again for the city and the school to cooperate with each other and make a facility that might be better than if we did it just on our own. [15:43] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: At the same time, right now we do opposite fields—one by the hospital, the varsity field, and one down there. They take money every other night. But this would totally change that. Four fields is a lot more than what we have. [16:03] **Bobby Alworth (School Superintendent)**: Right. I don't think you can have enough fields, but this is a concept [16:11] and it's the big picture concept. Question number one is really the crucial one for the school personally, but question number two is more of a bigger picture community thing: Is this what we want in our community? A nice green space? I mean part of that is not going to be developed, so where do people play soccer here? By the way, one of those fields would not be developed; they're just a green space out there that would be mowed for future things. [16:51] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Is the road around the back of the school included in either of these questions? [16:58] **Bobby Alworth (School Superintendent)**: So there is a couple—the road around the back would be included as part of the cross-country trail. We are going to be doing some sort of aggregate type of thing going through the woods in particular places. If there's a field, there's gonna be parts of the field that will be mowed that we have way in the back. But the idea is we want the kids to be able to get out to our forest without getting 100 wood ticks on them, and we would have an actual path in a good portion of it. Then coming back around would be behind the school. So there is a [17:45] really small area where there is not a road around the school and we are looking at that. [17:51] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I think it would certainly be a part of our responsibility to support ensuring that our Police Department and Fire Department would be able to access the entire grounds. The second question I have is the estimated tax impacts you have here. Are they monthly or annual? [18:24] **Bobby Alworth (School Superintendent)**: Annual. So I mean 26 dollars a year versus what we have [18:33] here—11 dollars a year or a total of 21 for question one and question two. So question one and question two with a $100,000 valuation is twenty-one dollars per year to have everything that is on this back page here. That seems like quite a bit for a very little fee. Another thing is this back page and the second-to-last page. This one right here comes from that small development plan that we had put together. And I can't stress enough that the value of the land, the value of developing that land, is [19:18] certainly greater with all-fields, with trails, with a cross-country trail—with all of these features in our community, I think that development in that area becomes a lot easier, quicker, and more valuable with question 2 passed along with obviously question 1. [19:46] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: My last question would be: Have you met with the community and staff already? [19:54] **Bobby Alworth (School Superintendent)**: Yeah, that's how a lot of this stuff came about. We had many meetings with staff, the community, and the Board of course. [20:05] That’s where a lot of these items were prioritized and came to the top. [20:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: When will you do that community outreach on these projects? Setting a specific date to inform the community? Advertising and everything? [20:31] **Bobby Alworth (School Superintendent)**: Yeah, I'm getting a little anxious on this right now because I know when the vote is—it's a month and a half away—and I realize that the citizens really don't know what we're doing at this point in time. But it was kind of difficult in the fact that the board just passed the resolution that we're doing this about a month ago. So the group that we have helping us with this is ICS, and they're going to come up with a plan for us to get this out to the community. I think March 25th, I was talking to them today, you're gonna start [21:01] seeing a lot more stuff coming out. [21:05] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Okay. What would you like from the City Council? Just informative, or what would you like? [21:13] **Bobby Alworth (School Superintendent)**: What I'm just looking for is hopefully this made sense to you as to what we're looking at. I think you can see I've got one path to get the parking lot in, and if you look at the value you get with even both questions versus just the one parking lot with the abatement bond, you can see why the school board is taking a risk. You might have heard things about "why would they ever do this, they got their money," but I believe it's a very smart move right now to do. And hopefully it does pass because [21:49] I think that financially it's a good thing for our taxpayers. Over half of it will be paid for by the state, and most schools don't get that. So we have a big advantage and we can help the city a little bit on the field portion and the fact that we can develop a field a lot cheaper than normal. [22:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: That triggered a question. When does that state aid end? [22:25] **Bobby Alworth (School Superintendent)**: It ends when the bond ends. But the longer that you go, the less advantage that you get. I could show you later on how that works [22:35] but the bottom line is we had a 20-year bond; this is an 18-year bond that we're looking to attach to the bond that we've already got. So that's why we're able to still get the additional aid, which is a good deal for our taxpayers. [22:58] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Well, thank you very much. [23:05] **Bobby Alworth (School Superintendent)**: Thank you. [23:08] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Moving on in our agenda, this is 6B, the hospital presentation. Robbie? [23:33] **Robbie (Mercy Hospital Board)**: Thank you guys all. I’ll provide a digital copy after this. As you know, we just spent some time with physical here again. We recently finalized everything, so it’s a good time to come in and visit with you guys. For the fiscal year 2017-2018, Mercy Hospital has a positive bottom line of 1.9 percent. This does include non-operating revenue, so that's from interest from investments and [24:10] also the tax levy. These dollars are used primarily to invest in equipment for patient care, maintain competitive wages for our employees, and develop new services for the communities we serve. Mercy does take our responsibility for great health care services very seriously. Some of the accomplishments that we've had in the last year: Mercy saw dramatic increases in our pain management clinic. Part of that is we have two CRNAs. I mentioned last year that they were leading in the nation doing this, and they went through the University of South Florida. They’re actually writing [24:56] a book on this whole process. It's very cutting-edge that we're having CRNAs do this, especially in a rural setting, so we're really proud of what those guys are doing. Mercy also, in part of our strategic plan in expanding our existing services, we welcomed Dr. Daniel Hansen, a spine surgeon from the Minnesota Spine Institute. This isn't so much reflected in this last fiscal year, but I think the impact will be this coming fiscal year. Dr. Hansen sees patients by referral once a month at Gateway Clinic in Moose Lake, and he performs surgical procedures at Mercy Hospital. [25:42] Dr. Hansen provides clinical assessments and treatment for spinal conditions. Another item over the last year is, as many of you probably personally knew, Rhonda Skelton was one of Mercy's longtime managers. She was posthumously awarded the National Lois Lerner Award for outstanding achievement in rural health care for the hard work and dedication she exhibited in moving Mercy to being a fully accredited "Baby-Friendly" hospital. At the time, we were one of two critical access rural hospitals that had this designation. [26:27] It was great to see her department follow through on this. This is something that was years in the making for Rhonda. Unfortunately posthumously, but she was awarded for her efforts. And then also Mercy became the first hospital in the region to begin placement of new cardiac loop recorders. Dr. Gossett, a general surgeon at Gateway Clinic, began implanting these devices in August. So again, we'll probably see the impact in our next fiscal year. What this device is: it's implanted and it sends data to an application on a smartphone so the [27:14] patient's physician can better monitor the activities of the heart. To me, it's just amazing—the fact that you can implant that and if something doesn't look right, your physician through the application can call you and see what's going on. Real quick, I'll give you the balance sheet and then also the statement of revenues and expenses. If we look for fiscal year 18, gross revenue by service area: Surgery is at 15 million, followed by Radiology at 11 million, and then Lab and ER/Ambulance each at about 7 million in revenue. As far as expenses, predominantly [28:01] it's wages and benefits at 52%, professional fees at 14%, along with supplies at 14% as well. And I'm sure probably parallel on your mind, Mercy is a levy. And I'll be honest with you, I don't like seeing that property tax statement, but I do believe it's necessary. It's a one-year levy that's voted on each year. We will be voting on it, I believe, September 1st. The board is using industry standards as guidance. The standards are: operating margin, capitalization, debt coverage ratio, and days of cash on hand. Operating margin: Mercy wants to be at 2% or higher without the levy for three consecutive years. Right now, in fiscal year 2018, that was at 0.3 percent. So it's not near the ballpark where we need to be yet. There were some things that went into that like the resignation of the GI doctor, which we've since replaced with Dr. Barrett Thornton. [29:34] So that should have a positive impact on this coming fiscal year. Capitalization: They want the total debt compared to the financial value of the organization to be 0.55 or lower. That's currently at 0.68 for fiscal year 2018. Debt coverage ratio: measures our ability to pay our debts. The goal is 2.4 or higher; we're currently [30:21] at 2.72. So that's definitely one of the goals that we're beating. Days of cash on hand: Our goal is to be at 150, and right now for fiscal 2018 we were at 122 and a half. That's gone way up from four years ago, so it shows that we've come up 70 days of cash on hand from just a few years ago. With that, I’ll open up to any questions. [30:54] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Robbie, on your board, do you know the members that are currently out there? What are the terms? [31:05] **Robbie (Mercy Hospital Board)**: It's a four-year term. I believe this year there were two new members. My term is starting my third year. There will be new elections in 2020. We have two new board members from the city side: Split Rock Auction, Silver Sterling... [31:43] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you, Robbie. [31:56] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: Robbie, a couple things. First, I think we would respectfully request that you guys take a look at the levy. I think that's the first and foremost on our mind. I know when we are going through Truth in Taxation and even Local Board of Appeals and Equalization, the first thing that comes to mind for people is when they think of their property taxes, they are thinking of the city. They are not thinking of a hospital levy; they are not thinking of a school levy; they are not thinking of the county. One of the things that I prove time and time again is that Moose Lake has a very high tax rate. People ask, "Why would I bring my business there? You guys have highest taxes around." One of the tools that I use when we are going through our budgeting is comparing our city tax to other communities. And what I find is that for just the City tax levy, we are lower than most. So let's just say that Moose Lake is roughly in the middle for city government. I think that's right where we want to be, especially considering the number of services that we provide in Moose Lake, which I believe is very high. However, [33:29] what ends up getting mixed in there is the fact that we have a Fire District, the hospital district, the county, the school—it all kind of piles on top of each other and we end up a bit higher than I think that we would all like to see. So I guess I would request that you guys do take a good look at the $500,000 levy. The second thing that I would ask—I think we brought this up last time—is what's called the PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes). The hospital is certainly a user [34:15] of our Police Department, of plowing with our Public Works departments. I think all hospitals in general are looking for healthier communities and healthy alternatives, and we certainly have a number of parks and trails for healthy living. All of this is not contributed to—at least through payment in lieu of taxes—by the hospital. Certainly, I would say that the hospital along with the prison, MSOP, and the school are obviously large entities within our community with some of the highest value property in Moose Lake. I think that as a [35:01] good-faith effort of making the community a better place, a payment in lieu of taxes makes sense. Our own HRA (Housing and Redevelopment Authority) makes a payment in lieu of taxes every single year, recognizing that Phil [Public Works] comes in and plows out the parking lots and all of their residents have parks and trails and the Police Department to rely upon. So I would certainly request again looking into Payment In Lieu of Taxes. [35:36] **Robbie (Mercy Hospital Board)**: Yeah, I had to bring that up to the CEO last year. Mr. Donnell said he brought it to the Finance Committee but it doesn't appear that they went forward. They did, as you probably know, Mr. Donnell did resign because he had an [35:47] opportunity closer to his home in North Dakota. We have hired a new CEO starting April 2nd, Mike Youso. I'm really excited to be bringing him on board. He's coming from Grand Itasca and his resume is unbelievable. It's certainly something that when he starts next month I can certainly bring up the PILOT. [36:26] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: When I first came to Moose Lake, the Mayor and I sat down and spoke with Mr. Youso about this. There’s an entire study that I would suggest skimming. I would love to once again sit down and go over that with the new CEO and describe how PILOT is more of a benefit to the community than just the city looking for money out of the hospital. The money really does go towards things that the hospital needs, uses, and desires out of its community. [37:19] **Robbie (Mercy Hospital Board)**: Yeah, we can certainly look at getting some time set up for you and him. I'm sure we can carve out some time. [37:25] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you very much. Anything else, guys? I do appreciate our guest here. I think he’s here for 6L, so I think we’ll move you up to now: frozen water lines. [38:07] **Steven (Resident)**: Thank you for taking the time to listen to me. I live in 942 South Birch. My water main froze up; this is the third time in the 20 years we've lived in the house. Basically petitioning the City Council to find out, 20 years later, what are we doing. Long story short, I’ve got a presentation from my neighbor to the south who is presently the reason I can flush my toilet and take a shower. I've talked extensively with Phil [Public Works] about the problem. [38:52] I do understand about City Council procedures and I don't expect some fountain tomorrow, but we'd like to see something change. If you wouldn't mind, I would like to read a statement from my neighbor, Kara Peterson, and then I'll go on a little bit. [39:39] **Steven (Resident)**: This is from Kara Peterson, 933 Birch, in reference to the planned operation of using direct current to thaw water lines. "The history of the problem: since we have new City Council members and a City Manager, I feel the need to provide some history. The winter of 2014, the city of Moose Lake hired a contractor to open the water line serving the Stevens's house. I saw the city outside working; we had no idea what was going on. Nobody contacted me even though they came onto my lot. The contractor, under supervision of the city, failed to isolate my house electrical system prior to applying current to [40:24] the lines. I happened to be working that day and noticed noise in the basement. I went to check it out and found my floor joists on fire. My furniture had ignited from an electrical line that was being back-fed and began to melt. This electrical wire was inches away from my gas line. Fortunately, I had a chemical fire extinguisher and put the fire out. I told the contractor what happened and he said I should talk to the city. I got in touch with the city utilities manager and after about a half-hour more of continued back-feeding, they finally figured out that they should stop the operation. The city manager at that time stated that [41:11] they would do whatever was necessary to make things right. I should have gotten this in writing because the city did nothing but deny responsibility once their legal counsel came into the picture. The city's actions cost thousands of dollars of damage to my house's electrical system. Therefore, this lists my following concerns: Back-feeding water to the neighbor's house—if/when this happens again, which is happening right now, the city should provide licensed plumbers for my house to the neighbor's including backflow prevention to make sure my system isn't contaminated. What is the long-term solution? This is not an isolated instance. [42:42] Using commercial welding and plumbing firms to open water lines... I will only consent to this operation if the following terms are met: I want a written step-by-step procedure... I do not consent to this operation unless I am present... I will only consent if there is a trained person sitting in my house the entire time... I require in writing that the city of Moose Lake state that they will be [43:29] responsible for any damages incurred on my property as a result of this operation." As I said, this is the third time this was happening since 1998. The first time in 2004, the second time was 2014. [45:00] I’ve been measuring the water temperatures. As of November 12th, I started measuring at my kitchen sink. The water temperature was 65 degrees. January 20th, it was 52 degrees. [45:49] February 18th, it dropped to 50 degrees. March 2nd, it dropped to 49. The next day it froze. When we worked on it, we noticed that the main is five feet down. [46:36] I believe code is around six feet. When we thawed it out, we went past the curb stop. The city's policy states that from curb stop to my house it's my problem, and the curb stop out it's your problem. Even if I take the time to dig up my property and insulate it, it still freezes at the main. I understand there's [47:24] about 60 properties within the city limits that have a very similar problem. So I see a bigger problem than just little old me. I was hoping to sell my property... but I'm a very honest person, and when I go to sell that house, I will have a hard time knowing that every one of my neighbors knows that's the city's problem. [48:58] I know the city doesn't want to damage houses. I’ll let you talk now. [49:13] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Phil, could you state a little history? The line has been in there a long time. [49:45] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: From what we know, from curb stop to the main, we think it’s an eight-inch main. But until we dig [50:01] it, we don't truly know. We have a good guess. [50:08] **Steven (Resident)**: The main goes down, they T-tap off of it. The sewer line runs down to the center. They either have to go above it or below. As I've heard, they went above it, which now puts it probably at three to four feet on the middle of the road, which would be consistent with the freeze. [52:03] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: So I've got a couple thoughts. First, yes, for a list of properties that are similar, we were at just under 60. You asked for an estimate. We’re at about $6,000 from the main to the curb stop. So you're talking about $360,000 total. [52:49] One of the questions you asked is what are we doing differently. I think that some of the points in this letter are important to what we're doing differently. The first is: "I had no idea what was going on." That's an important point. If a [53:35] homeowner is being connected for welding, they should certainly know that. I think that Phil does an excellent job in communicating with all the residents that are involved. The second thing is because of what happened there, we changed the policies. Phil came to the council and explained what happened and the dangers, and we totally changed that policy so that can never happen. [54:21] About the back-feeding and coming into the house: Again, somebody from Phil's department is always there now, ensuring that at the very least we know what's going on and we're trying to make sure that everybody's being safe. Regarding the house grounding: Homes that are built today are not allowed to ground their homes to the water main. Most of the time lightning is the reason, but when you weld from one metal item to another, the current can jump. If a home is tied into the water main as their ground, this can happen. [55:53] It's not so much that we failed to do something so much as the home was grounded to the water main. Regarding the $360,000 total: I cannot ever suggest that we go around and start fixing these 60 individual service lines. [58:11] Our job with the CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) is to use the money the most effective and efficient way for all of our residents. I just can't see us digging up individual service lines rather than doing an entire stretch of road and fixing [58:59] water and sewer mains that are 60 and 70 years old. [59:44] **Steven (Resident)**: I'm not looking for a solution to go around individually. I'm looking for prioritizing these faces and figuring them into the master plan. I'm paying a lot of money in taxes. I'm not looking for an overnight fix, but I expect the city to start figuring a long-term fix instead of me being sat in front of you again 20 years down the road. [1:01:48] **Steven (Resident)**: We come home from work and find our water frozen. How are we supposed to know? [1:02:35] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: We started going door-to-door after the last cold snap. And there's no exact science to this. It's not like we can tell you "March 1st is the day to start running it." [1:03:41] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: We appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Phil, I know you and the guys are doing what you can to notify people. It would be great if we had unlimited money, but it's a prioritization thing. [1:05:00] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: We have the strategic plan that we just started with the roads and sidewalks. Do these properties get put into that as far as the rating system? [1:05:15] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: They were not, but we can add them. Phil and I can take the list of all of these and include that into the ranking system. So that nails what you're talking about for a long-term strategic plan. [1:06:40] **Steven (Resident)**: I do want to thank the City Council for the time. I want to thank Phil and Jim [Mayor Michalski] for all their dealings with this issue. There are no hard feelings. I believe everybody is trying the best they can. [1:08:24] **Sheriff Kelly Lake (Law Enforcement Lead)**: Last Friday, George Mack was sentenced on the charge of attempted murder after the attack at the MSOP—sentenced to 20 years. Probably one of the quickest cases I've ever seen. Hopefully, that'll give a [1:09:25] peace of mind to the employees at the MSOP that we do take this serious. [1:10:13] **Sheriff Kelly Lake**: We hosted TRIAD this month. Officer Junker gave a presentation on the K9 training he has been doing at the various schools. Mandatory training is coming up for Taser usage and firearms qualifications. Also, I have the opportunity to speak at WKLK radio on a regular basis to promote the Moose Lake Police Department. I'd like to continue doing that. [1:12:32] Thank you to the area fire departments for your help with the motel fire. [1:12:44] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: Another busy month. Water department: distributed 3.9 million gallons of drinking water in February. Sewer department: collected 9.3 million gallons of wastewater. Ponds are getting full; we're looking for a spring discharge. [1:13:51] Frozen water: look it up on the website, get ahold of me. We have had up to 11 frozen water services this year. [1:14:50] Even though it’s warm outside, frost is still going down. Continue to monitor your water temperature. Snow and ice: Catch basins are all opened up. I also attended the Minnesota Rural Water conference. They are a wonderful agency. [1:16:23] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: Our new Library Director, Shelby, started a few weeks ago. She’s learning from Tina and met with the library board on Monday. [1:17:11] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: The Capital Improvement Project (CIP) will be done next Friday. I will send that out so you have a couple weeks to review it before the April meeting. The engineers will be here to go over the whole project. Regarding the assessment policy: they came with three separate drafts. Once I bring that back to the engineers, they'll put together a draft for your review. [1:18:41] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: The Chamber met Monday night. We’re working with people from other communities to promote the whole area. We’ve elected the same officers. Upcoming event: Business Expo on the 18th. [1:23:48] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: We were notified today that we have received the $300,000 that we requested from Safe Routes to School. We’re now up to $910,000 for this project, which is about 75% funded without any resident taxpayer dollars. [1:26:10] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: Wastewater treatment facility capacity: For organic capacity, we could add 291 additional households. For flow capacity, we could add 163 additional homes. We are currently over 80% capacity, so the MPCA is evaluating us. I suggest we take a look at two high-impact projects: lining the 21 and 24-inch lines running through downtown, and addressing the prison sewer main. [1:29:55] Replacing their clay line would significantly reduce our inflow and infiltration (I&I). [1:33:57] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: Well rehab: This is the second phase which would be to actually design a new well house. The engineering cost is roughly $39,800. I am looking for you guys to approve this so we can continue to design. [1:36:51] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Do I have a motion? [1:36:55] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: Motion. [1:36:56] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Second. [1:36:57] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. (Aye). [1:37:30] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: First National Bank 100th Anniversary: They are looking to do some service projects including building 15 new picnic tables for the park and upgrading the park pavilion electrical, lighting, and kitchen area. [1:40:55] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Resolution 19-03-01. [1:41:30] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: This is the third grant we are applying for. The resolution states the Council is in support of the trail. [1:42:01] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Motion. [1:42:02] **Council Member Kris Huso**: Second. [1:42:03] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Motion carries. [1:43:43] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: Stray dogs and cats: Some communities met to discuss using money for preventative services like spaying and neutering. I don't think we should participate or budget money for this any longer. We don't currently have a stray dog problem. It’s a Carlton County thing, not a Moose Lake thing. [1:48:44] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Liquor Store Manager position: I would recommend we hire Elaine for the Liquor Store Manager position. Do I have a motion? [1:49:33] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: Motion. [1:49:34] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Second. [1:49:35] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor? (Aye). Motion carries. [1:51:01] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens**: Regarding Tony Grim’s frozen lines: He has had service lines freeze every year. He is requesting the city pay the $1,100 he spent to hire a plumber to weld them. I strongly suggest we do not do that. Our policy for the last two years is that from the curb stop to the home is the resident's responsibility. If we do it for him, we have to do it for everyone. [1:55:45] **Council Member Kris Huso**: I would make a motion to deny the claim. [1:56:01] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen**: Second. [1:56:02] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Motion carried. [1:57:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: 6J, PEG Fees. This involves Channel 7 and Channel 18. PEG fees are negotiated between the state and Mediacom and can only be used for those channels. Years ago, a project was approved for community messaging, but after the 2012 flood, funds were shifted to a security camera project. The problem is the security camera system has nothing to do with those two channels. The PEG fees are being used to pay for the cameras, which means there is no money left for the channels. [2:06:48] I’d like the Council to look through this information and we'll discuss it next month. [2:11:58] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: We have several announcements for April meetings. Do I have a motion to adjourn? [2:12:44] **Council Member Lou Ohly**: Motion. [2:12:45] **Council Member Walter Lower III**: Second. [2:12:46] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor? (Aye). We are adjourned. Thank you.