This transcript has been formatted with the correct speakers based on the municipal context provided. [0:00] [Music] [0:52] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Good evening and welcome to our June 3rd City Council meeting. If you'll join me for a moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance. [1:05] [Music] [1:13] **All:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America... [1:27] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Michelle Volk? **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Luke Hellier? **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** John Bermel? **Councilmember John Bermel:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Dan Wolter? **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Here. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Joshua Lee? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Here. [1:32] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** All right, we’ll now move on to Citizens' Comments. This is an opportunity for anybody who wants to share something with the City Council. You have up to three minutes. If it's an item that's on the agenda, we typically will set aside time for comment as well. Name and address for the record, please. [2:00] **Citizen (Mr. Hammer):** 9025 210th Street West, Lakeville. Um, I've lived in Lakeville all my life, uh, 75 years. I've lived in the same house for over 70 years. My father bought the place, the family farm, in 1931. Bought it from his uncle Palmer, my uncle, his brother. He was actually mayor of Lakeville at one time, Palmer Hammer. Um, what I want to get at is the website—it's a very good website, very easy to get around. I came across the parks and trails map and ledger. 111 maps or parks and trails in Lakeville, very good. First one was Antlers Park. I see Lakeville spent what, I have it here in my notes, $11.7 million in improvements in Antlers Park. And now we have the Grand Prairie Park, which is being developed, another $19.5 million. $30 million virtually for the two parks. Getting to my point: The city of Lakeville—I've called the Forester first on the ash tree problem that the city of Lakeville has. I first called them and asked them if the city had any funds available to help residents cut the trees down, haul them away, do whatever. He said no. So I thought about it for a while, called them back, and I told him I was going to come to the City Council and ask the City Council if they had any suggestions to help the residents of Lakeville with the ash trees. He thought it was a good idea. I asked him to come back me up and he for some reason didn't want to come back me up. So I did call the county; the county has no funds available to help the citizens of Lakeville. I ride my bicycle around the town every morning and just the number of trees is astonishing, how many dead ash trees we have. So what I'm here for is to ask the city for a disposal site. I've got 22 dead ash trees. You don't have to come out and mark them; I've already contacted a person to take them down, but it's the disposal. I mean, there's over a thousand trees in the city of Lakeville, and if the city could come up with a disposal site to take these trees to is what I'm asking. I'm not asking for funds, I'm not asking for help, just a disposal site. That's a huge part of the cost of taking these ash trees down is where to put them. So that's my seal to the City Council. [5:26] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Mr. Hammer, thank you for coming. A couple things: We do have a program with a vendor to help on some removal and also treatment, so if you were wanting to treat some, we can talk to you a little bit about that. [5:54] **Citizen (Mr. Hammer):** It’s too late. [5:55] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Yeah, and you know, you remarked about some of the trees. We do have a plan, and especially in our parks, to kind of tackle a lot of that. I don't know if we've had discussions about disposal, but we'll talk about that and get back to you because I think that's a good idea. I don't know what the right answer is, but... [6:07] **Citizen (Mr. Hammer):** And you know, it's not—and I'm under the understanding once the city marks a tree, you have to take it down within 90 days, I believe it is. So I mean, it's a pretty urgent request for a disposal site for these ash trees. And I'm not—I'm speaking for everybody in Lakeville. I mean, I drive the streets of Lakeville and it's horrendous. [6:36] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Would you be willing to leave your contact information with our Clerk so we can follow up? [6:39] **Citizen (Mr. Hammer):** Sure. Just, I don't know if you have paper, I can give you this piece of paper or whatever works. Thank you. [6:44] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Any other citizen comments? [6:47] **Andrew Bame:** Hello, my name is Andrew Bame. I live at 20640 Ipava Avenue. Um, been a resident of Lakeville for 35 years. And, uh, thought it was interesting that I've driven by a water treatment facility and never had any interest in what actually happened there. So I decided to take a tour. It's a very fascinating place. And um, one of the things that stuck out to me was some of the chemicals that they add to the water, and one of them being fluoride. There's kind of a big movement across the United States now about removing fluoride from water because it's linked to all sorts of, you know, diseases. A couple of them being skeletal fluorosis and dental fluorosis, which is like an osteoporosis of your skeleton, dementia, cancer. And these are studies done by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). One of the unique things about fluoride is it does take a fairly expensive filter to remove it from your water. So you know, it's a disadvantage for people that are lower income and just people that don't really have the knowledge about this. Another thing is that it has a direct proportion, a direct correlation to how much water you drink. So if you drink more water, you're ingesting more fluoride. Studies suggest that there may be a slight benefit to just a topical treatment in your toothpaste, but they say ingesting it, there's no benefit—the risk far outweighs the benefit. We in Lakeville fluoridate our water at 0.7 milligrams per liter. And that's kind of at the upper end; some cities do 1 milligram per liter. So I was just—really my goal is just to put it out there that you should just remove it. What it amounts to is a kind of a medical treatment that 70,000 people haven't consented to. I just—really, that is my goal, just to have it removed. If people want to add it to their own water, I think it makes more sense that they have the ability to do that and people that don't want it don't have to ingest it. Is there any hope of that happening? [9:44] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** I have to admit that this is not an issue that I'm totally familiar with. So again, if you would just leave contact information, I would love to look into it and maybe connect with you after to have more conversation. [9:58] **Andrew Bame:** For sure. [10:04] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Aren't we regulated to put some in there? [10:07] **City Administrator Justin Miller:** Mayor and Council, there are state requirements, and we can provide those to you as well as Mr. Bame. [10:14] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay. Yeah, so be happy to connect with you after this. [10:20] **Andrew Bame:** Sure. All right, great. What I'm saying is you might have to contact your legislators too. Okay, great. Where do you...? Yeah, right there. Thank you. [10:24] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Any other comments? Okay, moving on to item number four: Additional Agenda Information. Mr. Miller? [10:29] **City Administrator Justin Miller:** Nothing tonight, Mayor. [10:31] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Moving on to our presentations. We'll turn it over to Mr. Hennen for his final Parks and Recreation Quarterly Report to the City Council. [10:38] **Parks & Recreation Director John Hennen:** I thought I'd do a 10-year report if that's okay with you. This is the Park and Recreation Quarterly Report for March, April, and May. Starting off with Administration, the Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources Committee discussed the renaming of Avonlea Community Park to be consistent with the park naming policy. Five recommendations were presented to the Mayor and City Council, and after the Council rated them, the new name of the park is called Grand Prairie Park. We used to be Avonlea, which was tied to the development, so we wanted to change that name. Again, Grand Prairie Park is the new name of the community park off of 185th and Cedar. Also, we executed a number of bid packages as you know for the project. Rees is doing the dirt work, a company called APX is doing the construction of the buildings, and we have commenced construction. It's been a little wet the last couple weeks, so it's not as fast as we'd hope, but it'll dry out and we'll keep moving. Also executed some agreements for the splash pad and playground. On the lower right, you can see a rendering of the grandstand looking from the parking lot of the baseball complex. On May 22nd, we had the official Grand Opening and ribbon cutting for Antlers Park. About 400 people attended the event; it was a beautiful night. As of last week, we already had 287 reservations for the three outdoor shelters and the Pavilion, so it's going to be busy out there. Under Park Maintenance, our park staff assisted the environmental resources staff with tree and vegetation removal at Ritter Farm Park. With the mild weather, staff opened up some fields and courts early. We also did playground inspections and bench installation. This spring, the crew also worked with a contractor to reconstruct Aronson Park Field number one. Our seasonal staff started as well, and we're training them in how to operate and clean the new facility down at Antlers. Also, staff will be striping 94 turf fields and 24 baseball and softball fields this summer. At Knob Hill Park, we just had a few touch-ups left to do, like removal of the silt fence. We also replaced the Foxboro playground. Under Recreation, this spring we kicked off the Easter Egg Scramble, Golden Egg Hunt, and bird banding. Enrollment is already over 2,200 for summer programs. The popular ones are basketball, baseball, softball, along with golf and tennis. The adult leagues will have eight Co-Rec softball teams, 166 pickleball teams... [13:48] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** 52 volleyball teams? [13:49] **John Hennen:** 52 volleyball teams that are participating down at Antlers Park. [13:51] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** 52! [13:52] **John Hennen:** Yep. Yeah, so very, very popular. We have a very robust sand volleyball league. The Heritage Center has a number of programs that started up this spring: bean bags, motorcycling, walking group, bocce ball, golf, and biking. As a reminder, these are all volunteers that run these programs; if it wasn't for them, we couldn't do this. Also, a luncheon for St. Patrick's Day had 70 people. In the upper right, we have an open house once a year which allows people to look at the activities we have to offer. We had about 100 people that attended this April 30th event. As of last week, we have 1,540 members, which is an all-time high—up about 100 from a year ago. At the Art Center, we had Youth Art Month open on March 5th with over 400 pieces and an estimated 2,500 visitors. A new Spring Art Break was hosted at the Fine Arts building with 80 youth participating. Registration has increased 102% from last year as a result of having our Fine Arts building opened up. Kudos to Joe and Scarlet for that. Also, the second annual Downtown Lakeville Art Crawl was held on May 11th; there were 35 artists and over 2,000 people attended. On the lower right, Joe Masiarchin was promoted to the Lakeville Parks and Recreation Director position. He's in transition working with the current director at this time and he'll take over duties next Monday. With that, I'll answer any questions you might have. [16:32] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Well, as I alluded to before, this is John's final meeting as he's retiring this year after 35 years of service to the city. I just can't thank you enough on behalf of the community for the legacy that you built in our park system. I hope you feel that and the gratitude from residents when we had the last couple events. I just want to extend my thanks to you for years of service. When people say why they pick Lakeville, it's either schools or the parks, and your legacy certainly helps cement that for us. So thank you. I don't know if any of my colleagues wanted to share anything else? [17:15] **Councilmember John Bermel:** I’ll reserve my time for Friday. [17:16] **John Hennen:** Thank you. I've been very fortunate to work here over 35 years. As I've mentioned the last couple weeks, the last nine years have been the most fulfilling and enjoyable being your Park and Rec Director. Thank you very much for the opportunity, Justin, nine years ago. It’s just been the best. I don't have any complaints. Great coworkers and a great community. Thank you. [17:49] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Thanks John, appreciate it. [Applause] Happy retirement. All right, I'll now move on to the Annual Arenas Report and Budget Presentation. I'll turn it over to our Arena Manager, Joe Burquest. [17:58] **Arena Manager Joe Burquest:** Hello and thank you for having me once again. It’s my second one since taking the helm, so hopefully I'm a little more calm this year. I'm here to give the annual report and our budget presentation. You all received a copy of the budget in the consent agenda. A lot of things are changing. I'd like to start off for the general public’s sake, as many people don't understand the structure of Lakeville Arenas. We were formed when Hasse Arena was built and we are a Joint Powers Agreement between the city and the school district. We have two members on our board from the city—Ms. Volk and Mr. Miller—we also have two school board members and a member at large. I report to them. The Arena is challenged to operate and meet our operating budget with revenue taken into the facility, and to my understanding, that's never been an issue since the history of Lakeville Arenas was established. I'm proud to continue that. It’s actually one of the reasons I accepted the job here; I love the enterprise-type operation because I come from a private background as well. We contribute approximately $75,000 towards annual debt service and $140,000 to our capital reserve fund. The city owns the arenas, pays 50% of the debt service on Hasse, 50% of the debt service on the new energy improvements project, and is contributing $5.5 million towards the construction of the new Pavilion rink at Hasse Arena, made possible by the referendum. The School District has a commitment to purchase 740 hours per year. They pay approximately 50% of the debt on Hasse and the energy improvements project. Lakeville Hockey Association is another partnership; they are under an agreement to provide $85,000 a year towards debt service on the parking lot and the new Pavilion rink. Their contribution to the Pavilion rink was like $1.4 or $1.5 million. Our other partner is Heritage Figure Skating Club, contributing $11,000 a year. Ice usage over 2023 has continued to go up. 3% goes to our Learn to Skate program—Tanya Patterson does an amazing job there. 5% goes to the Heritage Figure Skating Club, 12% is used by high schools, and 25% of our ice is now being utilized by the public. We started a lot of new public programs that provide ice for them. They come in and pay $10 or purchase a membership. Our largest single user is Lakeville Hockey Association at 27%, and all other users are up to 28%. Total hours are trending to be at 5,500 this year. A little bit on the Pavilion rink: The new ice plant was completed and started up on April 1st. As far as the perimeter slab, I have to get together with [City Engineer] Andrea [Johnson] this week and finalize a five-year extended warranty. We believe we are well covered there. Construction resumed this spring and the new hockey floor was just poured before Memorial Day. We’ll be finishing up sidewalks and the base soon. Then the boards will be installed in July. We do have some credits coming; we cut out bleachers and a sprinkler system to save costs. We plan to open around Thanksgiving and host a grand opening on Hockey Day Lakeville. Overall, we are about half a million below our original budget estimate, mostly in unused contingency funds. Our goals are to provide the highest quality rental at the lowest possible rates. We plan to add tournaments next year with the new sheets of ice to add revenue. We want to provide the highest level customer service and minimize the effect on taxpayers. Our business model is an Enterprise Fund, like the liquor stores. We cover all our operating expenses. This is the first year we won't be increasing rates; we are holding them flat. [34:07] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I'm not a skater, so I have some naive questions. How many sheets of ice total do we have? [34:11] **Joe Burquest:** We now have three indoor sheets and the outdoor sheet which can run from November through March. [34:18] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** So when you're projecting 6,000 hours in 2025, what is our capacity out of that? [34:23] **Joe Burquest:** In the summer, we're not even open on weekends, so it's very large. During the season it's limited, but by utilizing that ice year-round rather than closing for three months, I anticipate the tournament business will have at least 10 weekends a year booked. On the Pavilion rink, I will not be surprised if someone comes here asking for walls eventually. [36:09] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** You mean walls for the outdoor rink? [36:11] **Joe Burquest:** It’s built with footings, so walls can be tipped up. The goal was to get another sheet, but it needs to be operated year-round. [37:11] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Well, it's exciting to see all the growth. Congratulations. All right, we'll move on to item number six, our Consent Agenda. Mr. Miller, any items you want to highlight? [37:16] **City Administrator Justin Miller:** Thank you, Mayor and Council. It’s getting close to Pan-O-Prog time, and items 6C, D, E, and F are all related to Pan-O-Prog. These are either liquor licenses or street closures. Item 6M is approval of the ALFA budget—that’s the Apple Valley, Lakeville, Farmington ambulance budget. Each participating city is required to approve that. [37:46] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Mr. Mayor, I'd like to pull item 6H, Renewal of Liquor Licenses 2024, as I'll need to abstain. [38:03] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Anything else? If not, I'll take a motion. [38:06] **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda minus item 6H. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** All in favor say aye. **Council:** Aye. [38:15] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Okay, we'll move on to taking up the renewal of the liquor licenses. [38:20] **Councilmember John Bermel:** I move to grant On-Sale Liquor, Club Liquor, Wine, 3.2 Malt Liquor, On-Sale Brew Pub, Off-Sale Brew Pub, Taproom, Small Brewer Off-Sale Malt Liquor licenses effective July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025, for entities and licensees identified in the staff report. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. [38:52] **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Just want the record to note that I'm abstaining, as I'm employed by one of the license holders. [38:58] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Volk? **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Aye. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier? **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Aye. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel? **Councilmember John Bermel:** Aye. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Wolter? **Councilmember Dan Wolter:** Abstain. **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Lee? **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Aye. [39:15] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Moving on to item seven, there is a public hearing and resolution for the Wellhead Protection Plan. I’ll turn it over to our Public Works Director, Mr. Oehme. [39:31] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. As you recall on April 15th, city staff presented the Water Wellhead Protection Plan in its draft form. The goal of the plan is to focus on reducing potential contaminate pathways to the source aquifer. We are educating property owners on how to best protect groundwater. We also have a component for water conservation and land use management. Since the April 15th meeting, we have not received additional comments. Staff is requesting that a public hearing be held and that you consider approval of the resolution. [41:03] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Council, any questions? If not, this is a public hearing, so I'll open the public hearing. Is there any public comment? Seeing none, I will take a motion to close the public hearing. [41:25] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I move to close the public hearing. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** All in favor say aye. **Council:** Aye. [41:49] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** The public hearing is closed. I'll take a motion on the resolution. [41:59] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Move to approve adoption of the Wellhead Protection Plan. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Second. [42:15] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Hellier? Aye. Bermel? Aye. Wolter? Aye. Lee? Aye. Volk? Aye. [42:30] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Moving on to Item 7B: Resolutions adopting assessments and awarding construction contracts for Ipava Avenue, Indiana Avenue, and 175th Street. Mr. Oehme. [43:00] **Public Works Director Paul Oehme:** Thanks again, Mayor. This is our annual street improvement project. This year we have identified three segments: Ipava Avenue from 185th to Indiana, Indiana Avenue from Ipava to Dodd Boulevard, and 175th Street from Junelle to Ipava. Total of a little over two miles. For Ipava, the pavement is going to be replaced. For Indiana and 175th, it’s a mill and overlay. We are also replacing curbs, gutters, and storm sewers. One intersection we’re focusing on is Ipava and Indiana; we’re extending the medians to give a better pedestrian refuge. We received four bids; the lowest was OMG Midwest at $1.1 million. The total project cost, including engineering, is $2.6 million. Construction is planned to start in early July and wrap up before school starts. There are assessments associated with Ipava Avenue. The terms are 3% interest over 10 years. We have not had any written appeals to the assessments. [48:47] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Council, any questions? I'll open this public hearing. I see no comment, I'll take a motion to close. [48:54] **Councilmember John Bermel:** I move to close the public hearing. **Councilmember Michelle Volk:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** All in favor say aye. **Council:** Aye. [49:15] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** I do have one question. The timing works out well for post-fireworks activities, but does Pan-O-Prog know about the second half of their activities? I don't know if busing from Lakeville North will have any concern here. [49:30] **Paul Oehme:** We're going to talk to the contractor. We’ll probably start like Indiana and Ipava after July 15th, after Pan-O-Prog. We don't want to conflict with those activities. [50:00] **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Move to approve the resolutions and awarding the contract to OMG Midwest and supplemental agreements for Ipava Avenue, Indiana Avenue, and 175th Street improvements, City Project 24-3. **Councilmember John Bermel:** Second. [50:18] **City Clerk Ann Orlofsky:** Bermel? Aye. Wolter? Aye. Lee? Aye. Volk? Aye. Hellier? Aye. [50:31] **Mayor Luke Hellier:** Thank you, Mr. Oehme. I'll take a motion to adjourn. [50:35] **Councilmember John Bermel:** I move to adjourn. **Councilmember Joshua Lee:** Second. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** All those in favor say aye. **Council:** Aye. **Mayor Luke Hellier:** We're adjourned. [50:53] [Music]