I'll call the regular city hall meeting for July 8th, 2026. Receive the pledge of order. First, the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we have a couple of additions to the agenda under new business. F will be resolution number 26.07.01 01 for election judges for the primary and G will be resolution number 26-07-02 and that's election judges for the general election and then we will move up the new business a the old baseball field discussion to after the department reports Thank you. >> Is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> So move second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Carried. Consent agenda. We have the regular city council meeting from June 10th, 2026. The financial reports, accounts payable, June 2026. Financial statements June 2026. and the liquor store profit profit and loss statement June 2026. Any [clears throat] discussion on any of those? >> Motion to approve. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I post carried. Public comment. This time is reserved for comments from the public for matters not listed on the agenda. Please keep comments to two minutes. Seeing none department reports County Sheriff's Office. >> Good afternoon. Uh present the law enforcement activity report for June 2026. uh had a total of 156 calls for service including 39 extra patrols details, 34 traffic stops, six business checks, one community engagement, six ondue public assist, 10 paper services, one medical assist, and 59 other calls for response. Uh included in those numbers were four citations issued and three arrests were made in the month of June 2016. >> Any questions? Any questions for the sheriff's department? >> Well, thank you for Thank you. >> Uh department board city superintendent Bill Lner. Mr. Mayor, uh members of the council, Mr. Jones, um busy month here as we get really long here into the summer. I'll start in the water department, but 3.3 million gallons of drinking water was distributed on June through your systems. Uh the city um city had a couple water services. The city own side of the services. One was at 612 Industrial Road and one is at 517 Birch. 612 was repaired last week. 517 will be done the week after it. Um it's just uh we're good for now. It's just they do need to get fixed before they're a problem later this winter and it cost us way more to repair. This is the section right of the service line that's owned by the city, not the homeowners. So, we'll be seeing more construction happening through town as you've seen all summer so far. Sewer department collection system collected 11.0.1 million gallons of waste water in the month of June. Um, treatment treatment facility perspective, we're still looking at some other options for creating additional capacity at the ponds. I know last month I told you I'd have the sludge judge results from the wastewater facility. They do not have those yet. So, when they do come in, we'll go over those in a council meeting kind of in depth, get to know a little bit more what's going on and things we can do there. Um, streets, rightways, I know you haven't seen a whole lot of black top going out yet. We've been more focusing on sidewalks, concrete repair, that kind of thing. We had a couple water mans that we came up last minute we're trying to get done. Uh, you'll be seeing more of that here the second half of the summer. um streets, rightways, you're no noticing some rightways in town starting to be mowed now. Uh we got uh getting a little later into July here and um some of our contract mowing is happening right now. We're doing the other portion of that that's already happening. I think we're about 50% done with that. If there's anyone that sees other areas that are missed, please reach out to public works, city hall, uh any of us get those complaints in us. We'll make sure we get out there and take a look at that. Uh from equipment perspective, we're all good. the cemeteries as of right now there's been constant burials two to four every month uh split between Riverside and uh Sunset so campground is opening and running smoothly the parks are as well the arena there's nothing to report um storm sewer we do have a couple of storm sewers center pipes to replace yet this year and a couple catch basins to rebuild so you'll be seeing some of that work happening um the gravel pit that's the big one uh that got started here Monday. >> That's not it. Okay. I don't know nothing about this. So, um gravel pick got started Monday. Results are initially looking at what we found out there so far look really really good. Um we're finding coarser gravel in places we weren't sure were there. So, right now it looks like the volumes of gravel that are out there are much more than we originally thought. So, that is fantastic. Um, we're looking at uh I have Thron Inner Techch which is a testing company out of Duth worked out there on site working with the material manufacturer right now. So, Ro paving brushing. Um, our big my biggest concern was on the select granular sand to make sure that meant spec. Essentially, what it means is we need a 7% sand grade coming out of our pit to work for any of the public money that we get for our projects. 7% or any or anything lower is fantastic. Right now, after two days, we're managing or averaging about 4 and a half%. So, the material coming out of the bank version is just fantastic. So, super good decision there that's [clears throat] going to save this town a boatload of money in the future. Something I don't know how we uh how we haven't done this in the past, but it doesn't matter. We're doing it now. So, that's all that matters. Uh there's a few more things here, but uh we're touching on them later. So, >> is there any questions? >> I there was an article in the dark that said someone was asking about Nwood. Can you go through the process of the streets and how those were chosen and about the comprehensive state street projects that we have lined up as far as the orders? >> Oh, the orders of how the streets are selected. >> Sure. And how people should go about and and notifying the city. >> Absolutely. So, I believe it was 2018 or 2019, the city did a capital road improvement plan that looked at every street in town and some of the streets were so big, the projects were so big, they weren't fiscally, you know, manageable to be able to rebuild in one shot. So, some of them were broken up in portions, right? Ended up with Walt, you know, this number, how many total projects? >> I think it was around 80. >> Around 80. Okay. That were manageable size that the city could do financially. Um those those roads were graded on a multitude of things. There was uh obviously the smoothness of the surface, storm water, water manes, water services, sewer mains, sewer services. Um volume of traffic was another one. Uh if they were um they were patuminous or they were gravel constructed up because we do have some gravel streets down. Um there was a lot of things that were looked at. Also, I believe there was there was traffic loading population on them as well. So, um those are those were how they were graded. Uh moving forward, I guess if there's any concerns moving forward from a maintenance perspective. I mean, I've I've said this before, please reach out to public works. The public works phone is rolled over to what whoever is on call and the shop at the time 24/7. So, I mean, if it's not an emergency, we ask you don't call after hours, but obviously if you do, we answer. We can take messages, someone will get back to you, that kind of thing. Obviously, there's another option, too. I think my all of my information, I believe, is on the city website, including my city cell phone number. I think you can find it on there because I think I have a couple times. >> I believe it is. So, feel free reach out, give me a call. City Hall office. There's always there someone answer the phone there, too. Email, and then you Taylor, I believe, go through all the voicemails because I get them from you constantly as far as complaints and >> and then we have a report of concern button on our website as well. Um, and I filter those and send those. >> That's right. That's the thing I really don't like. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So, someone can sit up mad at night and write me Instagram. That's But yes, we have that option as well. So, we have >> there's a lot of options for that. So, >> all right. >> And that goes from everything, water, source, streets, trees, rightways, anything in the rightway that's public right away for the most part comes to me. So, anyone in the public can feel free to reach out. >> Perfect. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Questions? >> Thank you. >> Yep. Molder Vehicle Department. >> Um I guess uh I'll just go through some of the things that have been happening in our office. Um we've been we've had a very busy spring as some of you know that a little bit Okay. Okay. Um, we've had lines of people. Um, last week was absolutely crazy. I think um, everybody everybody that comes up from the cities or surrounding areas. Um, we're in last week lines from 8:00 till closing all of you. But, um, we're thankful for the business, but it wears us out. Well, um, today wasn't bad, so we got to catch up a little bit. on other things that that had to be looked at. Um anyway, some of the changes that have gone on um since I've been here last is um the DVS has um changed their phone systems and so we don't have our 800 number that we can call anymore for advice and help. Um they have like a hotline support line. Um that has been a very frustrating thing because it's very time consuming just to get through to the right place um and instruction and then for our driver's license we're calling just for the public the same as the public so we could be put on hold for a long time. So we're getting a little frustrated. Um when we call there they tell us to call our lens and then when we call our lens they tell us to call the sport line. is working two different answers all the time. Um so that's been takes longer. Um frustrating for us a lot for me anyway. Um and then they'll get mad at you if you call the wrong line. So there's too many lines now. Um but um it gets a little complicated, you know, because if there's situations we can't take care of on our own, um we do need some backup. So, we are going to be going to an AR meeting in September and I'm guessing um a lot of the deputies aren't happy about this situation either. It's just like there's no support over the state from the state anymore, you know, not like there used to be. So um another change we've had is um we've been doing driver's license and all the documents that we take in for everything that we enter has to be put in buckets and we are now doing that for the motor vehicle also which is another time consuming endeavor but we're getting there. It gets faster as we go with all the buckets they want us to put them in. Um, we got a new legislature bulletin just recently and um, they just informed us that they gave the general fund, state's general fund, $755 million. Um, and I'm guessing a lot of that has to do with our blackout plates that we've been selling. The last meeting I attended, um, they said there was 411,000 blackout plates in the state of Minnesota and that was a couple months ago. So, which makes 84 million? Yeah. And so, we were kind of hoping that would kind of come some of that would be given to us like in finding fees or some some that would be nice. Um they also said that next year starting in January that your tabs will be temporary temporarily reduced to the same rates that they were in prior of 20 to 2023 for that year. So that year next year when you buy tabs the rate should be back what you paid in 2023. They have not said any word about what the rate will be when come by 2028. So [laughter] that's and then they're also going to start doing the rounding down or getting rid of the penny that'll be taking effect um as soon as they get our program set up for that. We um they are al also doing a new um state plate state and park plate. They're doing a contest and it's gonna have it is for celebrating the Northshore and Agots. So if you have would like to enter that, they have to be in by December 18th, 2026. Um I think that's kind of cool. Kind of cool if we had some kind of sign in there from our city for the idiot capital. So that's the new but um we just wanted everybody to know that um we've been working very hard in our office to help our customers as much as we can to get accurate and complete service. Um and just ask the public to give us patience and kindness for our transactions we are helping them with. Um so we just have to follow the rules just as the Department of Public Safety requires us to. And um we it seems to be our office seems to be flowing better when we have three people when it's a busy day, but we do have summer vacation and time off and so so if just everybody could be patient with us. We're doing our best and that's about it. Any questions that you have coming? >> Oh, thank you for the report. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. Municipal liquor store report. >> Good evening, members of the council. Mayor Machielski, administrators. Let's see. Department report. Yeah, it's been an incredibly busy, you know, last seven days for the municipal liquor store. Uh the staff and Mari have been doing a fantastic job. They're tired, um but they've been doing really great. Um, and we'll get into some of the numbers here in a little bit, but um, yeah, I just want to give them a big shout out here because without them, I mean, who knows what it'd be doing out there. So, uh, let's see. We're not slowing down either. So, on Friday, July 17th, we got Donnie Buck coming in from 6:00 to 9:00. Saturday the 25th, we got Shotgun Johnny. He'll be playing from 7 to 10. And on the Sunday the 26th is Ted Eastman. He'll be there from 2 to 4. So, if you're free, come on down. You want some uh camaraderie and listen to some great music, that's the place to be. Uh let's see, next on the list here. So, every year the office of the state auditor comes out with an analysis of the municipal liquor store operations. That's for the state of Minnesota. Not going to really get into it. 70 pages long, but you you guys all received it in your email. thought it'd be good for to be visible to you guys and kind of read through it, digest it. Um, keep in mind it is two years old, but you'll see that we're doing incredibly well in comparison to other municipals uh with our population. And then when you consider, you know, a good chunk of our population is at a state facility, we're doing even better when you take that into consideration. So, um, you'll be able to see other municipalities that are in our zone, so to speak, and our size and kind of compare how we're doing. I think you'll be all be very happy with that. So, um, and this could spark further discussion at a liquor committee level, too, once we've had time to digest it a little more. Any questions about those two things? You know, get into the numbers. Yeah, I would just say some of the numbers that are interesting is 22 in of the municipals in the state of Minnesota are have been required to hold hearings whether they're going to be viable or not out of the 208. Uh I think Moose Lake ranks 63rd out of 174 municipals. Uh the only thing that uh I think that all of us have talked about wanting to do is the transfers because state average is close to 8% on the transfer and we're at zero. And now that we've built that fund up, we can use the profits from the liquor store for projects that we have in in the city, which is very important. >> Yeah, you'll see transfers like Doug's talking about for projects. There's also some municipalities that are getting transfers the other way because they need help right supplementing. Yeah. Okay. Then I'll break into some over revenue reports here. This is just revenue. um expenses aren't all in yet, so I can't give you a full picture, but you can see that the Fourth of July, Thursday through Sunday, um outpaced last year, a little over by over $6,000. Um and then I put some notes over here in regards to that. Um, I would argue to say that those Friday, July 3rd and Saturday, July 4th, which is really good that it's on those days of the week, but I believe those are probably the highest two revenue grossing days that we have on record. So, as far as I could find and then I gave you a a little bit of a quarter recap because June is the end of second quarter, kind of where we're sitting. We all faced last year um but a little behind 2024. as far as April, May, and June. Any questions on the book store? >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Technology department. >> Oh, okay. Technology department. Uh, let's see. Recently, uh, we actually had our city cameras went down for a brief period. Um, I did get those back up and running. Checked out all the departments. We're good there. And I actually met with uh, Ricotta. That's a company that does alarm systems and cameras. We're going to do a trial camera and see what they have to offer and if they can match or beat some pricing that we're getting. Um, just to remind everyone the support we have for the city cameras now. There really isn't any support for it. So, um, if we can get that figured out, that's great. Uh, let's see. We are hopefully getting some temporary speakers installed down at the arena for egg of days that have our wireless mic that we purchased hooked up to them. We won't get our permanent speakers until the 24th of July. So, we're looking for a like some whatever we can do to help make a days go off better. So, we can get a wireless speaker system down there temporarily until we can have our permanent solution. So, and they're willing to do that free of charge for us. So, uh, and then I want to give a shout out to Taylor. She got the credit card swipe machine. She's not expecting this, but I just want everybody to know, uh, she got the credit card swipe, uh, machine installed down at the campground. I know this isn't easy. In fact, uh, truth be told, about a year ago, I kind of gave up on it. So, she really comes through. It's not just me working on IT stuff. I just wanted to point that out. She does a great job. Any questions? >> Thank you. Library report. >> All right. Hello, mayor, counselors, and city administrator. Um, so for the library, uh, I feel like we've been doing very well. The first half of the year, we had a bit of a dip in numbers for people coming into the library. Um, but the number of people coming into the library for June, that was higher than the same June last year. So, going up again, which is great. Um, last June or this June, we had 1,641 people come into the library that month. All right. Um, and July is looking to be nice and busy. Um, this it's only been a few days already, but for example, this morning we had 17 people come into the program, a sustainable safari. We had some fluffy animals that the little kids could pet. So, that was amazing. Um, and it was definitely worth it having sustainable safari come up from the Twin Cities and visit us. Um, let's see. We recently had our annual book sale in June. The final donation count from um the annual book sale was $5,357. So um Musl community really came out and donated. It was amazing. We had 14 different vendors who participated um had booths set up in the arena along with our books. We had 32 volunteers and they donated a total of 366 hours of their time to help us set up and keep those books nice and neat for everyone. So, we had about a thousand people come over that weekend, the Friday and Saturday to come into the arena. So, I think it was a great use of our time to get all of that. Um, it was wonderful seeing all the people um come down and help support the library. Um, and I just started the um, summer reading program. This theme is this summer is plant a seed, read. So, I've got some flower decorations in the library. Um, and we've got about 75 um, people signed up already. Lots of [clears throat] kids coming in. Very excited about um, the various prizes we got. Uh, Quick Trip donated uh, gift cards this year. So that's the $25 gift card and they donated a $50 gift card as well. So someone will be um the recipient of that at the end of the summer reading program August 14th. Uh the library has also purchased a few Lego sets, some art kits um and stuffed animals, stuffed toys um for prizes. So the kids are always very excited looking at the boxes of what they could try and win. So, we've had a lot of kids turning in reading lots already and it's only been a few weeks. So, I look forward to seeing how many minutes of reading they have by the end of the summer. Uh, and for people in the summer reading program or anyone in the community, we do have some fun programs coming up. Let's see. Uh, we are going to have National Treasure Play in the theater in the in the library. Um and that is going to be the free movie night in the library at 5:30 on this coming Friday. Um next week we have a gardening program on Wednesday, July 15th at 10:00 a.m. and that's with the um Carlton SWCD group, the water and sewer and water district. So that'll be a good gardening program. They're always the ones that do the native um plants each year. Uh and then bugs in the library. I don't think I look forward to that, but I think there will be a lot of kids who will be super excited to come and see the icky bugs that we can have at the library. That's um July 21st. Um so I don't look forward to it, but I think a lot of people will. [laughter] Um, but I look forward to the tea party that I have >> [clears throat] >> uh scheduled for August uh 4th at 3 p.m. So, that tea party will have to be registered ahead of time. So, just contact the library if you want to come to our tea party. I've got lots of little fancy um teapotss and so it should be a fun time. We'll see how that goes. Any questions? >> Oh, thank you. >> Excellent job. financial department. >> You asked to have me back, so here I am. Okay, let's see here. Year-over-year looks like campground revenue. So, like the liquor store, did some analysis for you guys. >> [snorts] >> um year-over-year. This first group of numbers, it's through July 5th uh for the year. And this is not including seasonals. So, this is strictly based on reservation people that are coming in to stay. So, you'll see over the last three years, we're doing really well. We're better than 2025 and 2024. And our site nights are better than last year, but a little down from 2024, but we raised some rates, so that's why you're seeing a jump in revenue there. Any questions about that? Perfect. And we got some Fourth of July year-over-year um analysis. I probably won't get into this as much. I just point out that this year, Fourth of July weekend, Thursday through Sunday, outpaced last year by about $2,000. Again, due to the rate increases about the same book, but Walty Wilies, there's some dry sites getting rented on there. if you want to take a look at that. Any questions about Fourth of July comparison? Excellent. And then um through Campspot Analytics reporting, I created this report. It's the top 20 25 lifetime spend customers um in the campground. And these again are not seasonal people and I have to black out for public data uh stuff like that. Um but you can see on there how many nights they're staying in their lifetime spend. And this could be a great sales tool for us in the campground staff. So we want to make sure these people are having a good time. We're treating them well. All that stuff. And I know we are. So any questions about that? Excellent. Moving on then to the net promoter score of the NPS. So, we're currently at a 4.6 out of five and that's based on 383 ratings. This is a survey they get. Um, you'll see that one of the scores that's bringing it down is the Wi-Fi. Well, we really don't have Wi-Fi in there, so I'm surprised it's at a 3.3. Um, and then there's a lot of customer reviews in there. I'm not going to go through them all, but the gist of it is, um, people really enjoy the campground. It's very clean. Staff is friendly. Um, so kudos to Phil and Taylor and the whole campground staff um, across the board for all performing years past. So, great job. Any questions in the campground? Okay, there is something in your packet in regards to the state local fiscal recovery funds. That's a report I've been working on really since I've been here. But just to let you know, we've completed and is sat as factory all the reporting requirements that are necessary and they've now closed us out. So, we're all good there. It's really just a notification. And then we have the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Um, that's for the healthcare reimbursement. So, again, I had to block out the names, but this is just an estimate, so it isn't completed yet, but this will give you an idea that we're going to come in at about 141,6492 of reimburseable healthcare funds. Any questions on that? >> Excellent. And then just a quick update on the city of Musite audit. Um the auditors did ask me to contact the office of state auditors and extend it. So I did do that. They gave us 45 days. So the reporting requirements are now due August 14th to the state. Just wanted you guys to know that. So ideally we would then have reporting from our auditors in September. September's council meeting. Any questions. >> Thank you. >> All right. See the engineer. >> Uh yes. The council received the engineering meeting minutes from the July 1st monthly engineering meeting. A couple of items to highlight uh regarding the trunk highway 73 phase 2 trail. Uh the second reimbursement was submitted to the DNR. um that grant reimbursement process is very tedious. Uh Taylor has done a fantastic job on that. There [clears throat] are some punch list items that are continuing to be monitored. Uh there is a benchmark for a 70% establishment with vegetation growth that has been being monitored. Uh there'll be final walkthroughs and um activities to come to close out that project, but we're getting very very very close. Um, as far as the uh joint uh sewer lining project with the state facilities, uh the contractor has agreed to uh move the construction date back into the September time frame. That allows us to establish a um agreement with the state regarding the bonding bill monies that the city received for the citywide sewer lining project. This will then um allow us to coordinate with the state regarding the utilization of our uh our this year's project as a portion of our match and hopefully that is something that is approved. In addition, the bid came in very low. And so we are working with the engineers and the contractor to add on work from um First Street and get those change orders in to then be able to reduce some of the cost of uh the First Street reconstruction project as well. So more to come for council on that. Um as Superintendent Edner mentioned, the sludge survey um we are expecting those results soon. So, we're hoping that we have that for August city council meeting. More to come. Um, and then our storm sewer inventory and analysis project that uh we were able to conduct with the MPCA grant. Uh, those documents are being finalized and we will present those to council in August as well. Uh, if you have any questions regarding anything within the engineering uh meeting minutes, please feel free to reach out. Uh there's a lot there, but we are um we're getting a lot done. So, more to come. >> Any questions? >> Thank you. Looks like Chamber of Commerce monthly updates. >> Mayor Michel, administrator, members of the council. Uh last weekend we just had the kitty parade and it was one of the most well attended ones. There was 150 kids that were there. a free local DJ or the local DJ provided free music the 4th of July parade there were 86 entrance and that was the largest since pre-COVID um our membership revenues are up 54% from last year for chamber members upcoming events egg days coming up not this weekend but the next so that's going to be a big one. And I have flyers for all of the members that I will pass out to you. Um, we've been working with the city and the sheriff and all the different moving pieces taking what we learned from last year and since this year seems to be everything seems to be going back to pre-COVID, [cough] so it's pretty busy. So, we'll be ready for that. Um, 9 and9 golf will be on Friday, July 31st at 1:00 p.m. And then National Night Out will be at the arena on Tuesday, August 4th from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. And uh, just back to Eg Days, what I just found out is there is going to be an animal adoption at the credit union. So, and that will be during the egg stampede. So, um that was new. There are raffle tickets available in many of the businesses. And I think that is about it. Are there any questions? >> Mayor. >> Yes. >> I would just like to um say thank you on behalf of the city. So, the chamber has worked really hard to do some fundraising for the fireworks, and the chamber has raised over $10,000 in uh donations for the fireworks. So, um this the city council elected to spend a little a little bit more this year for the 250th anniversary at about 15,000 and so over $10,000 in donations came back uh to the city through facilitation of the chamber. So, thank you for that hard work and that's very very helpful. >> Thank you. And just as a note that um positive positive feedback on the 4th of July everything the city did an excellent job and it went very well and the city should be commended. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Now we'll go to new business baseball [clears throat] field. Thank you. Thank you, >> honorable mayor, city administrator, council members, city staff. Thanks for having us this afternoon. I thought I'd start by stating exactly what we're requesting so you know why we're here and then after that go to the reason why. So, we were asking that the old baseball field be dedicated as a historical site used for baseball. It is over 125 years old, which is half the age of our nation. We just celebrate 250 years. That ball field's been used over 125 years. I found records that went back to 1900. to have them here that uh will speak well later. So that is totally legitimate those years. I've heard stories of it earlier than that but I couldn't find proof. Um a lot of the records were destroyed in the 1918 fire and I believe some of the sto that stuff went down to the um state to St. Paul where they were archived digital archive. I tried to get in there and find it but I didn't. that wasn't successful. But this the uh historic society helped us in gathering this data. Uh Diane Olsen and Rose Coleman did a lot of research and uh came up with a a lot of information that we're going to use tonight. Before I start though, I I thought I would ask some of the baseball members that are here, the committee, and working with the youth and stuff, if they could speak first on how it's currently being used. And that that use that we're using right now goes back decades. It's been used like that year after year after year. I think there was a year after the co per the co years when it wasn't used and it wasn't mowed but we're able to uh reestablish that quickly um after the city purchased that and which to me was a a great thing that we did at that time. Um so think if if you could come up start Spence to introduce yourself. >> Thank you guys for letting us be here. I'm Spencer Kluff. I'm the president of the Moose Lake Buzz, the amateur baseball team. Um, our second year being um, an organization. Um, along with the high school baseball team, there's a lot of other summer programs that are playing on that field. Um, Moose Lake Buzz being one of them. Um, I think 12 of the last 15 years we've had a Legion ball team. This is one of the few years that we haven't had a Legion ball team. Um, the junior Legion team, the U15 team, and a BMW team. Um, so roughly on any given year, 70 to 85 players. um in the summer playing on that field um with almost 40 sponsors uh between local businesses, local organizations um that sponsor, whether it's teams, whether it's buying banners, different um ways that they sponsor us. Um and about 200 250 um future kids that'll be playing on that field within our little league program. So, um numbers really going strong to to kind of support the history that we've had here. Um again, just continuing on that strong tradition that that baseball's had for over 125 years in this community. Any other members want to speak? >> Okay, >> thanks. Good job. As you can see, it's heavily used and it has been heavily used for for many many decades. And I know that the city is going through a lot of other processes. I know that uh there's problems with infrastructure. I'm well aware of it. I've dealt with that for enough years. Um, and that's come up at each of the two presentations at the park board. So, at first I was thinking I got off subject when I spoke about it, kind of responding to it. Then I realized no that I was right on because if it is one of the reasons not to do this, then it's definitely part of the discussion. And uh I would respond to any items on that that as time goes on. Did do you guys have the the handout that I gave to the park board? Is it in your packet? >> Yes, it is. >> Um in that first page number one, it it talks about the number of athletes that played on that baseball field through the years that have played professional baseball. The last one that I'm aware of was Pete Ingram. This was in the in the early 60s and he he pitched for the Detroit Tigers. Um, as you can go through the names, which to save time, I won't you guys can see him. There's a number of them. Probably one of the most famous is uh Ernie Nevers, who I believe was born in Roller River. Yeah. He played baseball here and and also some pro baseball, but he became a famous football player in the end. I think he played for the Duth Eskimos, which was a pro team way way back. But uh but it kind of gives you an idea that how important baseball was to the generations. You know, this field was originally built by the city of Moose Lake, owned and run by the city of Moose Lake from sometime in the 1890s up to about 1951. And in 1951, that's when the first high school baseball team was introduced to the the sports program. And at that time the school district asked to take over the field which of course the city allowed them to because of the bus barn everything was right there for equipment for the field. So it just made sense. Um and of course that continued on until the flood changed everything for all of us and uh now we are where we're at. If if you go into the packet, I'm not going to hit every page because I know there's a time element. I'm guessing Ryan's keeping my 15 minutes under schedule. >> You're at 19. [snorts] >> Yeah. Thank you. But if you go into uh page five um going back into some of the history, if you go down to the second paragraph, it says on May 19th, 1921, um you can see that for some of the donations and some of the things happening that far back, how important it was to the community. And I believe this is talking about a dance to try and reestablish the field after the the 1918 fire because of everything that that was down there that burned up. There used to be stadium seating and they had a wooden fence, not a snow fence, but an actual wooden fence all the way around it. But there's a a picture of the stadium seating that I'll talk about as we go into it. If you go next to page seven, this is a layout of the of the city. It doesn't have all of it, doesn't it? Have some of the Sue Hill, but it it this is 1900. And you can see how they're start starting to lay out the blocks now along Birch Avenue. I think houses have only been built on those first lots. the second and third lot going towards the field were never built on. And you can see how the how the field has been in this same spot for over 125 years. It's never been used for anything else. It's probably one of the few places in the city that is being used, but it was originally planned for. If you look behind the diamond, you see a little square. That was the start of this the stadium seating that was built by the city back then. That tells you how important it was. This this was not just a throw together field and it's a bunch of guys out there. This this is well thought of and they actually built a a wooden fence all the way around it. Um probably 150 people in the city at the time. income was probably $1,500 a year. I mean, you're when you think about it, they really cared about this. This is probably one of the main activities. And 1900, this is horse and buggy time, no television. I don't know if most people had radios even. If you go farther south from the field, you can see where the original uh pavilion was. Well, there's a school. I'm sorry. the original school that burned. And farther south, you can see the entrance to the park and you can see the layout of the parking lot and the road actually back then and the original pavilion where it was sitting. And uh that burned also. And I know uh Jamie asked me about where the other pavilion was. There was another one that was built that burnt also, but not during the 1918 fire. That was a a different one. If you go to page eight, these are just some of the pictures of teams going far back in the 1920s. If you look at page nine, this is 1919, part of the Fourth of July program. You can see down below at 3:00 there's a baseball game with Al Louise. Now that I found out that is in Superior as one of the guys knew where that was. I didn't know that but considering coming down from Superior. They they took the train because I I remember asking uh Sweden Nelson about the use of the trains back at that time. He was a train master for Moose Lake for many years and his his father built the Sooline bridges that are down to the north of here, the big bridges. But the teams would come by train because you can imagine trying to get here by horse and buggy from Superior. I don't think many people had even had cars back in 1919. I know they're available, but I don't know what existence. You could tell the dedication people had to baseball at that time period. I know again on the next page 10 there's just a few articles that the historical society found in the star gazette talking about baseball how important it was at the time as part of the the whole Fourth of July program and even having a dance after the 1918 fire to rebuild everything When you think about it, there's maybe I don't even know if there's a dozen structures standing after the fire. But yet, they considered important enough to have a dance to rebuild some baseball, the whole field and and uh get back into use. But I can understand that because after the flood in 2012, I really pushed to have our Fourth of July parade and stuff with all the disaster and all this stuff. I thought that would really be good for the community to celebrate. So I kind of had understand the idea why they would do that after that disaster was worth worse than 2012. If you get into uh the next page, this is 1911 baseball team. You can see they had multiple uniforms put together. But if you look in the back, you can see the wooden fence they built around the field. That's you can tell that how much they cared about it. I was surprised to see that myself. I think next page is some names of players and just going into that normal. If you go to page 15, this is the 1907 to 1910 team. And then these players stuck together for for three years. That was kind of unique. Usually players come and vote because they graduate from high school and they move on, but they this group stuck around for quite a while. Probably all age groups there. Again, on page 16, you have a good visual of of the few homes that were built. This is before the 1918 fire. And you can see the fence, the uh baseball fence that they built all the way around it. If you go to 19, that is the original pavilion. This is a picture from 1910. And you can see how many it goes up about probably 10 rows of seats. A lot of people in you got to remember that the time frame here we're still talking horse and buggy. I wonder where they parked them off. They had a big in back of there. Now from what I understand from left and right of this old pavilion, wings were put on. Um, so it was kind of like a horseshoe shape around home plate, but that whole thing burned and I couldn't find any pictures of it archive and maybe they were lost during the fire, but it it shows to you this was built by the city. The city owned this. Um, you can you can see what our founding fathers how important this was to them at the time. And uh, I thought that was really unique. That's about all I have on the history part of it, but I just wanted to stress how how important it has been to the community all these decades. Um, we're talking at an age that that uh I was surprised to go back and find that it has existed that long and the efforts put into it kept alive all these years. So that at this point questioned by the council if I can answer any of them. >> Any questions? Any comments? I was very impressed by your research. It was very interesting that I would never have thought that field was back that far. >> Um, so do you know what the year the names the the old new >> school? The current old school. >> Yeah. Was built. >> Well, I know it was built when they built it, they didn't clean out all the clay underneath. >> Clay holds water. This old field is on sand. So when in the springtime, this is one of the first fields in the region to clear dries up, water flows out. Barnum and uh Carlton, I know their fields have some clay in them. They call and use this field in the early spring because theirs are not playable. >> So they use that old field. Not to interrupt, but we just wanted to know when the school that's by the field was built. >> The school. >> Yeah, we know the story of the >> Well, baseball that was that on that one picture I showed you. That was the original school that was built. But >> I know that uh I'm trying to think. I >> was it 1910? Is that picture? 1911. So that school goes back early part 1900 maybe even into the 1890s. >> But that wasn't this No, >> that burned >> the original >> 1921. 1921 was >> Well, I built it in 1921. It burned down in 1925 and they built it. And then they built a new one. >> There was two of them that burned. >> Yeah. >> Two schools that burned down. The first one was >> Do you know Do you know when the first actual first one was built? >> The wooden one? >> Yeah. >> No, I have it right here. You can look it up. >> Was >> this one that we have here? >> Yeah. That's >> That would have been the the oldest part of it would have been in the 20s. >> Yeah. And of course through the I think it was like the 1950 there's addition put on probably 36 there's addition there's a couple additions onto it I think 1950 was of the old portion was 5051 was when that was put on. So when you're asking for historical site, is that something that goes through the uh >> it can be done two ways. It can be done two ways. Probably three. If you go the federal state route, you guys learn to lose control of that. You still have to maintain it. It's part of the city property, but you lose control of it. If you do designate it yourselves and designate it for use for baseball so that we don't lose that asset as a baseball field. It's part of the park system. And I always stress never get rid of park land or or fields because you can never get them back. There isn't room in the city for it and it's too expensive to reestablish them. What was the third one? >> What's that? Oh, it if you do that route, you lose control. If the city does it, you have control of that. It's it's always city owned. It's your your control. You dedicated it for baseball. If sometime which if you go that route far in the future there are other problems or other things have have happened and the field has no longer has a use control of it then to develop it. That's the difference. If it goes the city, it will be dedicated for baseball and use it allowed to be used by the youth for generations to come. But ultimately then you whoever that future generation or whatever will have the options that that they won't have if it goes others. >> So it' be through the council versus through the historical society. >> Yeah, it's a council. It's city owned. It's yours. It would be you that would dedicate it. If you do, I'm I'm I want to work with baseball and with the city to try to get a plaque or maybe a board down there covered that shows some history, some of these pictures right up on the field that they kind of need historical identity down there. Any other questions? I just think that we need to [clears throat] have some discussion among the council of what route are we looking at doing for the future. Um, and then what does that look like taking that route from the city and not going federally and we should have some answers more answers I think before we >> and I agree that there are no current plans to do anything with it under leases >> right now with organizations that we can't do anything with it anyhow. >> Just want to make sure it's done right. What we're going to do as we get I just let you know that I'm I would myself start the federal route because it can be done by citizen. Um I don't want to lose that field and if it goes into long discussion and and decisions are made I'm going the federal route. I'm hungry to contact it um legislature, the state on direction and what has to be done. >> Yeah. >> Because I'm I'm serious about dedicating that for >> use. I don't think anyone up here is not serious, Ted. And and this is the first time I've seen this. So um I don't think asking for more information is uh you know detracting from what what their goal is. >> So you're going to what do we probably be doing? You're talking about strategic planning for the city, for housing, for construction, for expansion. >> Well, we we've talked about that when you were here. That that's what that field was as we were looking at um for the campground and things of that nature. That doesn't mean that there isn't other opportunities for I mean, we have a housing development as well. So, I don't think anyone here wants to lose uh any historic sites or anything like that. So, I I'm I'd like to hear more and find out more what our options are, not just have a presentation here. I'd like to find out what do we what do we need to do to make make that happen and what does that look like? That's all because that's the first time I'm seeing this. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> So, are we are you looking like shortterm months? >> I don't know what the process is. So, I would like some more information if we could direct city staff to find out some information uh for us so we can make an informed decision. The mayor has the ability to call a special uh meeting if we need to have one. And then uh yeah, I I just prefer to see as much factual information as we can because we're talking about that historical thing that you just brought up that's been here for 100 years or more. So, I think that's worth the effort. >> I got to ask baseball because you guys have put together the amount of money that you presented to the park board which is as high as how much? >> $75,000. >> 75,000. Are you on a timeline with that? You have people that dedicated but it's you know doesn't go on forever. >> It's something that we would like to start as soon as possible because we can't obviously start collecting that until we have the confirmation that it's a longterm thing. So, some major updates to the field, >> but you're not going to do it if if you don't know if that's going to either. And that's >> a huge amount of money that you're willing to dedicate to this city own. >> Are you talking about for the DO in all these pictures? I think for the sake of of you know their interests as well it it might be in the best interest of most likely Buzz to engage in some type of lease agreement with the city like the other entities have. Um so there is a current lease with the school district and a current lease with the home run club. Um, so if the Moose Lake Buzz would like to see that same type of commitment, we've just engaged in three-year lease agreements uh with these other entities as well. So, we could be doing the same thing and and provide um a little bit of a commitment through that type of of um mechanism as well. Um, just since the park board city staff did a little bit of research, it looks like a resolution might be the way for the city council to engage in some type of historic designation. Um, so a resolution could be drafted and then council could review what that looks like. Um, that's just again since Monday night what has been discovered um since then. Um, did have conversations with the school district as well. Um, we do have an ongoing collaboration with them. Uh, we are we are in a a three-year lease agreement with them. Uh, we did reiterate to them that there are um no plans within that time frame to do anything different with the field. um council obviously would be the deciding factor as far as long-term use, but those conversations were had with the with the uh school district as well and they were reassured that um our leases still stand uh with both entities that we currently have them with and um I don't know there there's been discussions with the school and the city as well about you know if if the school does needs a way to maintain a field long term for utilization uh what possibilities there are between the city and the school district as far as a land swap or things of that nature that would then account for them to be able to um secure that field for long-term use. Um those are the types of discussions that we had. But um no no no rush on a decision like that or a need to engage in a land swap immediately because we do have existing three-year leases and there's no um urgent uh request to council from a development perspective uh on the table either. So we are making progress in the background. Those conversations were had and we can bring forward to the next council meeting what a resolution would look like and any other information that council would like to see. Any other questions? Chris, >> I have a question on these buildings at the building. Would they then be belong to the buzz or would they >> they be for whoever is able to use the field? >> Okay. So it is it is standard that any um type of uh building or um structure on city property is city property once it's established. Um but there can be like maintenance pieces and usage pieces which are important like we have those set with those other entities through leases. So again that might be a way to to to bring a commitment to the Moose Lake Buzz would be engaging in that type of lease with them as well. um and formally establishing that. Uh so that that's an option too if council would like to see that. Um >> any structured build also would have to go be approved by the engineer. >> Yeah. I'm just wondering, you know, obviously have to turn over the city and then >> is it >> used by everybody that plays down there? Is it only going to be accessible to >> us or you know I mean >> it would have to be the dugouts. >> If there is a committee working on it, I would volunteer as a community member that would to sit on that help but in any way I could. I'm sure anyone guys here too. So just you know know that it's there if you need it. >> Yep. And I know as I said there are no future plans of doing anything right now with you know any other questions or comments. >> I would just say piggybacking off what you said about these uh an agreement. You could always do a longterm agreement. We would have to do a three-year agreement because if they're putting up that type of capital, we can do a longterm agreement for that property so everyone has a comfort level. >> Is it 1459 minute >> went over just a little? >> I don't know. This is one of my longer meetings. >> All right. [laughter] I love it. >> Any other questions? Thank you. >> Thanks everyone. Thank you. >> Feel free to stay or you leave if you'd like people here. >> Thank you. Thanks. >> Thank you. Before I leave, can I ask one question? Totally off subject. >> Huh? >> Just [laughter] you guys better go. [laughter] That's from the city tax because I was so much involved with it getting it passed with the with the legislature. Can that money be used for operational use on the parks and the library? In other words, take over the operational funds that the city puts in every year. >> We're we will research that. I'm not sure of that answer right >> because I know you you lost it for use with roads. >> So to me right away I thought well one way to save money for roads is to use that money each year because it's going to come in a couple hundred thousand a year. It has been if it can take over the operational cost of the parks all of everything. and everything with the library that other money that you put in the budget for those can be put into the >> road construction. >> Just an idea. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Take care. >> Previously discussed business 8 vacancy. Um the attorneys uh requested that the city do some additional um survey work and the additional survey work was regarding structures that are currently in the proposed easement. Um, so the attorneys wanted us to make sure and establish that all structures that were starting to impede on this uh utility easement could then be moved and uh the easement could be established. So now we are engaging in a secondary survey process to make sure that um those structures are not within that and if they are we will address it and uh continue to move forward for the road vacancies. Any questions? Local tax, local sales and use tax update. >> Uh yes, so council received the uh general information that's been incorporated for a couple of months now in their packet. In addition, uh there is a potential projects list. Um uh we can add the the suggestion that was just given as well onto the list, but wanting to get um some discussion and dialogue from council regarding prioritization. And if we can get a couple of projects um prioritized from a council perspective and and consensus, then we can go to the city engineers in order to um get some type of cost opinion regarding those. And then we know what our threshold and cap is as far as our request is concerned. And we can start to plan what our resolution looks like as far as our specific request to uh the legislature to renew. >> Any questions, comments? >> Do we want to have a special meeting for prioritization? Do we want to, you know, email or or, you know, meet individually regarding prioritization? What would council like to see? I'd like the CA as a group. >> Okay. And everybody come with their priority >> with their ideas. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Should we establish a working meeting then? Is that >> Yeah. So, >> okay, we'll do >> uh LRP LRI first construction. >> Uh yes, we have a couple items for council's discussion. ment council did engage in a walkth through with the city engineers. Um what we are looking to establish today in order to continue to stay on track with design is having a council decision or opinion on uh lighting. And so those lighting options have been presented to council. We did discuss them at the walkth through uh looking for engagement on a preferred lighting option. >> Any questions, comments? motions. >> My understanding was that they're looking at the intersections and then one >> intersection from 73 to >> Yes. And I I think that's where we're at. That was like $60,000. The other one was 120 and the final one 144,000. So I think this is the one that would give us enough light. the intersection only with one mid with one midwalk. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> I agree with that. Uh I'm wondering about down on the corner by the lake. There is a street light there now. That's kind of where this is ending at. So I'm wondering what the situation would be with that street light that would be on the corner there. We haven't discussed really what's going to take place if we go around the corner there. Is it both? So you're thinking maybe intersection one mid block >> there also >> block between there and >> and one at the end >> yeah one on the corner >> cedar and birch mid block between there which well it's right on the corner well birch really starts right at the corner so there would probably be one there anyhow >> cuz that's where the project ends >> just off the corner it's right at where the project ends where that last leg is. >> So, I'm not sure if that's considered at the intersection right there or not. >> They don't have one on the map, but I'm just wondering what the situation is with that one. >> Would you like to see one added at the end? So, it would be intersection only, one mid block and one end point. Chris, >> I think that would be um for um security and safety and that that that is a dark corner and I I think to have one there would be smart consensus or motion. >> Uh can we get a motion for that? >> I'll make that motion. area that is intersection one mid block and one at the end >> project. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Any further discussion? >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Comment on the corner of Elm there in first there would only be one light there. >> I believe so. Yeah. And is that light sufficient for that intersection? >> That's what we have right now. >> I know. I know. >> Yeah. I guess I'm just >> Is it as bright as the I don't >> Are these as bright as that one? Our old one. >> They seem to be on for street. They seem They seem to be working. >> Okay. >> Any other discussion or comments? >> All in favor? I >> I oppose carried. >> Go ahead. >> Okay. So, um, in the packet, the council received a memorandum from Short Elliot Hendrickson that went to the Carlton SWCD. And what that memorandum um was designed to do is communicate to the to their funding board um our intentions with our first street reconstruction project. It outlines what our needs are from a storm sewer um perspective and then what are different treatment improvements that could be incorporated into the project. Um this memorandum is supposed to essentially um tie in our request to the Carlton SWCD for funding uh for storm water improvements and infrastructure for the first street project. um if granted then that helps us reduce the cost of the project overall. Um and so we'll continue to engage with the engineers and the Carlton SWCD in order to uh request funding. And I just wanted to provide council with an update of where we're at currently. Uh we have not heard whether or not their board is receptive. Um this would be the the first time they would engage in something of this magnitude so to speak and of this nature. So, we're doing our best to make it make sense and to have it meet their uh funding requirements and we'll continue to work on that. >> Any questions on that portion? >> Okay. I think the the the last item in regards to the Elbert First Street reconstruction project is there'll be a publicformational meeting occurring on July 15th at 6:00 p.m. Uh this will not be an official city council engagement. Uh we have posted for a potential quorum. What it will be will be the city engineers engaging with residents and the public to answer questions, give a presentation on the project. Um, and so again, that is scheduled for July 15th at 6 PM here in the city council chambers. And then, um, we have contacted all residents on First Street. And then we're also utilizing the city website and Facebook to get information out regarding the the public meeting as well. >> Any questions? Moving on to D, ordinance number 177, traffic regulations. >> Oh yes. So this is the third reading of ordinance number 177. Uh the ordinance has been posted on the city website and we have not received any comment. Uh we did publish the ordinance originally prior to making the adjustments for um the snow plowing. Um but we are required to publish again once approved. So we have had it very visible to the public and this is the third reading. So um looking for council engagement if if desired. >> Questions, comments, motions. I'll make the motion that we approve ordinance 177 as amended. >> Second. >> Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? >> Opposed? Carried. New business. Uh Carlton County Rescue Gambling Fund contribution request. So, the uh municipal >> the municipal liquor store participated in a fundraiser. Um and the fundraiser was for the Carlton County Animal Rescue. Uh the fundraiser had a proposed match component. In order to facilitate that match, um the proper mechanism is that the animal rescue then requests monies from the city's gambling fund. We did ask the auditors on this one of their preferred method of of facilitation and this was it. So this is essentially a request from the Carlton County Animal Rescue for gambling fund contributions um as for a match for the fundraiser that um occurred with the Any questions? >> Emotions. >> It meets the guidelines, right? >> Yes. >> Looking for a match of 500. Are you looking for,500? Matching the city of 500. I'll make [clears throat] that motion to match 500. >> I'll second. >> Any further discussion? >> All in favor? >> Opposed? carried >> uh annual appointments to the tree committee. >> Yes. So the city gardener brought forward that um upon doing more research the composition of tree committees usually has some additional residents on it. Um there was some um solicitation from interest of the public and we have come up with two new additional tree committee appointments. Uh that would be Gail Longren and Michael Rosini and looking for council approval. I'll motion. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I carried. I will move down to F, which is resolution number 26.07.01. >> Make a motion to approve. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any further discussion? >> All in favor? I >> a we'll go to G resolution 26.07.02 for the general election. >> I'll make that motion. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Any further discussion? All in favor? I >> and D and E, we have to go into the city council's the city of Blue Lake will meet in close session pursuant to Minnesota statute section 13D.05 subdivision 3 to evaluate the performance of an individual subject to the city authority. The meeting will take place in the council chambers at the community center at 313 Ellen Avenue. Following a closed session, the city council will reconvene in open session pursuant to the posted agenda for that date and time. During such open session, summarize its conclusion and make any motions. So now I need a motion to go into close session. >> Is there a second? Second. >> All in favor? I oppose. We are now in close session.