This transcript has been updated with speaker names based on the context provided for the City of Cannon Falls. [0:28] **[Silence/Intro]** [0:58] **[Silence/Intro]** [1:53] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Call to order the City of Cannon Falls City Council meeting for Tuesday, February 4th, 2025. If I could get a roll call, please. [2:10] **City Clerk Sara Peer:** Diane Johnson? **Council Member Diane Johnson:** Here. **City Clerk Sara Peer:** Zimmerman? **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Here. **City Clerk Sara Peer:** Chad Johnson? **Council Member Chad Johnson:** Here. **City Clerk Sara Peer:** Jeppesen? **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** Here. **City Clerk Sara Peer:** Nobach? **Council Member Chris Nobach:** Here. **City Clerk Sara Peer:** Kronenberger? **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** Here. **City Clerk Sara Peer:** Montgomery? **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Here. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. [2:25] **All:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [2:34] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** If I could get a motion to approve tonight's amended agenda. [2:41] **Council Member Chad Johnson:** So moved. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion from Johnson. **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Second from Zimmerman. All those in favor? **Council Members:** Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Opposed? And it is approved. That gets us to our public input. Public input is intended to afford the public an opportunity to address concerns to the city council. The public input will be no longer than 30 minutes in total length; each speaker will have no more than 3 minutes to speak. Speakers may address topics relevant to the governance of the city. Speakers must sign up in advance and must provide their name, address, and the topic they intend to address. Comments must be on topic, respectful, pertinent to City business, and adhere to the applicable data privacy rules. Any speaker that violates these rules will be asked to sit down, and if the speaker refuses to comply, they may be removed from the meeting. Speaker shall not address topics that are the subject of a public hearing; all such comments shall be made at the public hearing. The city council will not generally act on issues raised by the public input but may choose to schedule consideration of the item on a future agenda. Tonight, we've got David Alvestad to talk about the data center. [3:52] **David Alvestad:** Whoa, that's—sorry. David Alvestad here, live on the North side of town. In light of the Cannon Falls Beacon article from last week—and it's been talked about online and Facebook, other social media—but in light of that, I know there's other communication that's going to be coming up in the future, but what can we expect as far as a guideline of when are we going to know more? Because a lot of people in town are talking. You've got the subject of new wells—I asked Jed about it. Are there going to be additional residential building lots put near this thing? I understand the area is going to be in between 52 and the cement plant out here, that big open field. And that's the short version of my question: just when can we as a community expect a guideline of how things are going to progress? And it's more of a city planning question probably, but I just wanted to ask. Thanks. [4:54] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Yep, thank you. And just a reminder, public input is for your own comments, not question-answer, but happy to talk to you after the meeting's over. Thanks, David. That gets us to our public hearing. So tonight, Resolution 2801, certifying unpaid utility charges that are collected with taxes. We will just open up the public hearing to start. If there's anybody in the crowd that would like to speak, now is your chance. Public hearing going once, going twice, third and final call for the public hearing. All right, hearing nobody step forward, we will close the public hearing. Council, any discussion or questions about Resolution 2801, certifying unpaid utility charges collected by taxes? Hearing none, I'd look for a motion to approve. [5:42] **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** So moved. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion from Jeppesen. **Council Member Chad Johnson:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Second from Johnson. Any further discussion? All those in favor? **Council Members:** Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Opposed? Carries. Gets us to tonight's consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as Council business. I'll read them off. Item A: Just and correct claims for the accounting period ending on January 29th, 2025. Item B: Meeting minutes for the January 21st, 2025 city council meeting. Item C: Resolution 2802 accepting a monetary donation of $1,000 from Great River Energy to the fire department. Item D: Approve change order number four for John Burch Park. Item E: Resolution 2803 accepting a grant of $70,000 from the MPCA for PFAS source and identification reduction project. And item F: Approving a 30-day extension to the Cannon Valley Fair ordinance letter. Is there anything the council would like to get pulled down? [6:47] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Item D, John Burch Park, will become Council business. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, D. **Council Member Chris Nobach:** And Item F. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, D and F will become A and B. Hearing nothing else, I would accept a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda minus items D and F. [7:08] **Council Member Chad Johnson:** So move. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** A motion from Johnson. **Council Member Chris Nobach:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Second by Nobach. All those in favor? **Council Members:** Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Opposed? Carries. Gets us to City Council business. What was D is now A: the approved change order for John Burch Park. Lisa, it’s yours. [7:21] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** So, whose responsibility is it besides the city, and it not being done correctly the first time? Is this question for Jed or for John? What's your question—like, they built it and now it's not stable? [7:34] **Public Works Director Jed Petersen:** No, so what happened is when they were building the wall, for the most part, the sand that was currently there was fantastic. But as they got to the South End, they encountered a bunch of rock and they couldn't reuse that as fill, and so they had to bring in better fill to do that. That's all that that was. [7:58] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Was that all done then? **Public Works Director Jed Petersen:** Yeah, it's all done. It's done; nothing's being rebuilt. They were just finally... that just got added as part of the this pay request. So anyhow, that’s why they had to bring in, was it 95 yards of material? It's because when they got to the south end, it was just rock and it wasn't the awesome sand that they had to work with before. But it is done, they are done other than turf restoration. The project as far as the first base side is all but finished. [8:44] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Okay, does that answer everything? Okay. [8:48] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, with that said, I would accept a motion to approve item A, which was D, approving the change order number four for John Burch Park. [8:52] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Motion to approve. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion from Lisa. **Council Member Chad Johnson:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Second from Chad. Any further discussion? All those in favor? **Council Members:** Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Opposed? It carries. Gets us to City business Item B, which was F, and Chris, it's yours. [9:14] **Council Member Chris Nobach:** Yeah, I guess this is just—it's been a hot item, I guess, in previous discussions. So I think just for transparency's sake, I don't have any issue with the proposed anything, it's just transparency's sake. I think we owe it to the public to kind of let them know what's going on or where we're at and how things evolved. So that's kind of what I want to cover, I guess. [9:40] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** Um, so what has happened in the latest moments: based on the decisions of the Planning Commission and the confirmation of the Council at the end of December, staff was left in a position of—we are on notice about violations and activities of the, you know, fair board happening at the fairgrounds. The City Attorney put together a letter compiling the list of those items and that was sent to the fair board. In response to "don't continue with those violations" or "correct the things that we have in there" in order to elicit a response, I was then able to meet with the Mayor and Council Member Jeppesen and Ferland Miller, the Fair Board President, yesterday to respond to that letter. That's where we've come with the direction of: provide us additional time for meeting the terms of the ordinance and the ability to discuss how we can make sure that compliance is kept. I think the conversation went really well in terms of... we see a path where we all can come together and work together, where it's the City and the Fair working together and addressing the issues at hand regarding the nuisance things with noise of racing, but continuing to do activities that are at the Fair. [11:08] **Council Member Chris Nobach:** And I guess just for again for transparency's sake, can we say what was in the letter to them in terms of like actions that were asking them to meet? [11:15] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** Specifically, it was on the racing items, camping at the fairgrounds—because those two are not in compliance with the ordinances—and we did also address RV parking because of the nature of what the zoning is there currently. There's a limitation to that that they were exceeding; however, we recognize that that has been a longstanding activity that they've had. We did get some clarity on camping, that there's some allowable camping activities when they are associated with the event holders, but racing was certainly a big component of previously what we had. Those were the three critical items that were addressed in the letter. [11:58] **Council Member Chris Nobach:** Okay. And as I understand it, they were directed to pull down any references to autocross or demo derby as part of that too, or something from their website? [12:11] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** I mean, in terms of compliance to the letter... we have the extension, but the timing of them were not that direct. I mean, it wasn't that we saw the posts and then we sent the letter; we were working on the letter well in advance of that and they just happened to go out in sequence. But it's certainly a point that would contradict the order of the letter. [12:40] **Council Member Chris Nobach:** Okay. Yep, like I said, I have no issues with it. I'll even motion to approve it. I just wanted transparency, I guess. [12:44] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Any other questions or comments from the Council? There is a motion on board from Chris. If I can get a second? [12:49] **Council Member Diane Johnson:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Second from Diane. Any further discussion? All those in favor? **Council Members:** Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Opposed? Carries. That gets us to reports. Jed? [13:00] **Public Works Director Jed Petersen:** So I'm going to beat Jeff to it. Um, there's a chance of snow what, this week? Just a reminder, if there is snow, please stay off the street so we can get the streets plowed. So, all right, thank you. That is all I have. [13:20] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you. Nicole, anything going on at the library? [13:28] **Nicole (Library Staff):** Um, yeah. For local library news, we have started our winter reading program for kids, teens, and adults. The theme this year is "All of the Cozy Feels," and we have some cool prizes because I chose them and they're pretty cool. So please check out our website, our Facebook page, or drop in the library to sign up. But then I also wanted to let the community know about just larger SELCO region-wide library news. This goes back to December 2023. All of the library directors in SELCO had a meeting and we decided—well, we didn't decide, but we have been having long-standing issues with Horizon, which is our current library catalog database (which in library terms is called an ILS). We told SELCO we can't do this anymore; it's a terrible database, it's so buggy, it's not very well-maintained, we need something new. So all of last year, SELCO did their duty and they found us a new database, and we are now in the process of transferring our data from all of the libraries of Southeastern Minnesota—and we're the northernmost one. All of the data, all of our books, all of our DVDs, all of our other ephemera—like our library has puppets that people can borrow—and the library patron information, that's all being migrated to a new system. All of the library staff all over Southeastern Minnesota are now in training on this new database. So right now, everything is going as normal, we just are spending more time on a computer learning a new system, and it's days and days worth of training. But then the go-live date for the new database is May 1st. So that last week of April and we expect the first few weeks of May, there are going to be hiccups in checking things out, so just so people are aware. And I'll be letting people know more of what's going on as we get closer. And then we've also been having issues with delivery of inter-library loans from other libraries, and that's because the delivery company has been very inconsistent. So like a couple weeks ago, I drove down to Rochester to pick up our seven bins because I just could not make my staff have to sort 10 to 12 bins in one day on a Monday; that's just absurd. So sometimes I might have to drive down to Rochester to go get bins, but just letting people know that there are delays in getting books from other libraries because of that. And yeah, that's it. [16:38] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All right, thank you. Chief? [16:40] **Police Chief Jeff McCormick:** Chad stole my thunder, but he is right. If it does end up plowable, we wanted people to get off the roads. We don't want to have to tow cars, but we will, because Public Works needs to be able to remove the snow from the roadway without obstructions. Thank you. [17:01] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Sarah? [17:03] **City Clerk Sara Peer:** I just wanted to update you: there is not going to be a Planning Commission meeting on Monday for lack of items. [17:10] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All right, thank you. John? [17:12] **City Administrator Jon Radermacher:** And thank you. I will quick touch on the public forum item because it fits within discussions that we've had today. On the data center with Track, we're in the process right now of developing the scoping document. The public comment from the agencies that are involved in that is going on right now, and then in March, we'll get that back and that will come to the Council for approval. One of the items we discussed tonight was hoping to schedule a work session with the Council, and I think the date that works for Track is to do something on March 4th. So if we could start maybe an hour earlier with a work session, the intent of that is to go over the process for AUAR, talk about where the dates are for informational sessions, where those public comment periods are, where can people go and submit those public comments, and what those periods work for. We’ll try to kind of clarify this, so the AUAR is very much the environmental study. If there's comments and issues related to environmental issues like water use and the like, then those public comment periods will be where that issue is addressed. The next phase of the project, or kind of running simultaneous, is the zoning side. So the intent is they will bring a planned unit development (PUD) process for their zoning. And then, you know, anything in terms of building setbacks—those types of land use issues not related to the environment—that's where comment periods will come up for those public hearing processes. So a lot more information than that will be provided; certainly give us a rundown of what that schedule looks like. So hopefully it gives you the opportunity to know when and where you can provide those comments. A lot more information will be coming. That was very much the tone of the meeting is "Hey, we're here to provide answers to the questions," but we want to make sure that there are bureaucratic processes that we have to follow. The AUARs are required from the State, so we have to make sure that the opportunity for those comments falls in the right place. So that hopefully will be March 4th; we'll let you know if anything changes on that date, but likely one of the March meetings. Then I know we discussed earlier about having a strategic planning meeting with the Council. I think we're running out of dates because my next point limits a lot of time in February where I can participate, but if there's the opportunity that we can do that on February 24th, I'd like to have some feedback on that—if it's better to do something maybe during the day or early evening. But that would be the last Tuesday in February. I think it would be just good to kind of have that opportunity for us to all come together and talk about just how best to work together as a Council and Administrator. And then I will be out of the office starting tomorrow through February 17th. Kind of had a planned—well before starting here—had a planned vacation with the family. So that lands in between these dates and then just with the President’s Day holiday and some other things that I need back in Little Falls, I'll be out for almost two full weeks. [20:53] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Enjoy that vacation. Thank you. Thanks, John. Laura? **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** I'm good. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Chris? **Council Member Chris Nobach:** I'm good. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Ryan? **Council Member Ryan Jeppesen:** Good. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Diane? **Council Member Diane Johnson:** Good. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Lisa? [21:04] **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Um, we met with the Trail Board. They're going to get their truck fixed. They were going to first get an estimate down in Red Wing because they were towards that way when it died, and then they got a referral to go to Zumbrota to get it fixed, so that's where it ended up. And I recommended that they check Cannon Falls first; we're supposed to be supporting our town. So in the future, since the truck is already down in Zumbrota and it does not run or drive, they're going to get it fixed down there, and then in the future, they will check with Cannon Falls first. [21:42] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All right, thank you. Chad? **Council Member Chad Johnson:** I'm good. [21:46] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** All right. I'll just be quick, but I want to thank John and Ryan and Ferland Miller. I think that that meeting was extremely fruitful. I think that we've gotten to—and thank the Council for extending that 30 days. I think that in this time, the next item that comes before the Planning Commission and the Council will be much more agreeable and maybe less contentious than we've been for the last couple years. So I think that that meeting helped to reset the stage, get us on the same page, and look for compromise instead of conflict. So again, thank you for your time; that was a very good meeting. So with that said, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. [22:21] **Council Member Diane Johnson:** All moved. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion from Diane. **Council Member Lisa Zimmerman:** Second. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Second from Lisa. All those in favor? **Council Members:** Aye. **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Opposed? We're adjourned. Thank you, everybody.