[0:00] Mary Fasbender: Hastings City council meeting in order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance 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 welcome and let the role reflect that a majority of the members are present in a quorum has been established except for council member Lund is absent tonight we have city planner Justin Fortney with us and Cindy Toppin as the chair of the Hastings preservation commission and they will [0:46] Justin Fortney: recognize Our Heritage preservation Award winners tonight welcome thank you very much a city planner on the staff liaison HPC and I'm just going to turn it over to Cindy toppin the HPC chair because it's the HPC that does all the work with the preservation Awards I pretty much just do the clerical work for for it Council thank you [1:18] Cindy Toppin: good evening I'm happy to be with you tonight to present the 2023 preservation Awards preservation Awards date back to 2001 to recognize homeowners who've done an admirable job of preserving older homes older residents as well as the downtown historic district are a big part of Tourism and Hastings and something that we want to preserve as part of our history so let's get on with the first award this first house is 207 West 2nd Street I'm sure you're all familiar with it this story home was built in 1875 by George Reed sold in 1877 to local businessmen and wheat farmer Charles Strauss and again in 1892 to train conductor Dell cook the architecture of this home is an example of French Second Empire with variations the front Tower is adorned with Slender arched windows and cubula along with a mansard roof and their Hallmarks of this style other original features include six bay windows a stone foundation stucco over brick eight Dormers a brick chimney a front portical and spindle work and bracketing and trim along the roof line during the middle of the 20th century John judge converted the house into Apartments but since then the house has been restored to a single family residence in 1996 then owner Bob lanenfeld I'm sure you know him contributed to the conservation of this home by replacing the roof re-roofing the original carry Carriage House and repairing and replacing Windows he added the metal fence like trim for the top of the cupula this house is classified as having local significance and it's a contributing property by the city of Hastings to their historical district [3:04] Cindy Toppin: this property was added to the National Historic register in March 1977. the current owner is here tonight her name is Laura Lidstrom Ryan and she's maintained the property beautifully she worked with the HBC to recently add a retaining wall and the roof with Copper Ridge caps on the tower she also added the copper the Cobblestone driveway which is of special note Laurel do you want to come up and get your award thank you for coming appreciate it [3:37] Mary Fasbender: and if the council members would like to come down up front and stand with the recipients we can get a picture when they're all up there when they're all done come on just sit just sit down and tweet yeah well at the very end at the very end [3:49] Cindy Toppin: yeah thank you thank you we've got a lot to cover anyways any more Awards and this and tonight we're lucky we have many of the recipients so our next house is on 651 West 5th Street this house was built in 1914 by John hoffenmiller and sports the original porridge and collaborate siding this home is a classic example of Dutch colonial revival with two and a half stories in a gamble roof additionally stucco exterior Details four bay windows a concrete foundation two Dormers and a brick chimney add interest to this house valued for its residential architecture this house is also classified as having local significance and is a contributing property by the city of Hastings the current owner is Steve McMahon who now lives out of state in a phone conversation he stated that they took great pride in maintaining as much of the original house as possible when they live there and then since then since it's turned into rental housing windows are original and The Woodworking side is original according to his anecdote he was told that the Gazebo behind his house was made from the remains of the Spiral Bridge we don't know if that's true but that's what he was told our next awards are the stewardship Awards and what stewardship means is that these houses received an award maybe 20 years ago and these are our award winners who have in the ensuing years maintained these properties which is no mean feat so this house is 413 West 2nd Street [5:24] Cindy Toppin: it's called the Pringle judge house and again I'm sure you're very familiar with this house it was built in 1870 by Henry Hudson Pringle on the outside of the house is a spacious square column porch with the lattice ballastrude on top unusually White cornice's Crown the house are supported by Massive Eve brackets the house has 16 rooms 11 downstairs five up the upstairs rooms were rented as apartments at one time inside the house is an entrance hall that boasts a gracefully winding stairway that opens into high ceiling rooms in which the narrow Windows reach almost to the floor windows are all original to the home as is the woodwork an addition and back was added in the 40s using Windows from the original House Pringle established the first hardware store in Hastings on 2nd Street it was later owned by the Johnsons and then the jacobsons so many of you would know that as well we have an additional picture here that the owner told us to look for in the file in the Pioneer room this photo was taken in 1870 and it shows the family just moving into this house Heidi langenfeld was able to date this picture because the photographer only worked in this area for a two-year period of time the current owner of the house is Fred Weiland who is here tonight congratulations Fred if you'd like to come up and get your award stick around so that we can get your picture [6:55] Cindy Toppin: I'm sure I give you the right one there you go all right we'll move on to our next winner this is 6 32 3rd Street West this house was originally built in 1895. the two-story rectangular shaped house has only been owned by three families and it's 128-year existence that's just amazing it was first built and occupied by John H Johnson and his family in 1953 the house was sold to Joseph Leo Berry and today it's known as the J.L Berry residence in 1983 the house was purchased by the current owner Diane Metcalf who wanted to join us tonight but her grandson has a band concert the two-story wood-framed house sits on a rough Fieldstone foundation and includes details such as a steep pitched Rook roof decorative trim gingerbread siding and a front porch that are characteristic of the time period the front porch though was actually designed by Diane Metcalf since taking ownership in 1983 the metcals have completed numerous interior Renovations exterior improvements and in 1995 they constructed an addition on the east side of this house all this work was completed with the intent to match and maintain the original character of the home [Applause] and our last award is for a mid-century modern home and this home is 1102 Tyler Street the current owners of 1102 Tyler are yander Sanchez and Kristen Selman Sanchez Miss Sanchez reports that they moved into the home after a fire destroyed their home on Blueberry Lane [8:44] Cindy Toppin: the intent was to be a temporary residence but they loved the house so much that they purchased it the house was built in 1956 by Lenny Bauer who moved into it himself at that time it was across the street from the golf course which is where Kennedy's School is right now as is typical of this style of home there are numerous built-ins especially in the basement where there were many nooks and crannies to store fishing lures which is a passion for Mr Bauer there was also a vault in the basement this house has been well maintained by the current owners and Kristen Selman Sanchez is here with us tonight before we take pictures we have one other thing to announce the last two years we've been doing a Facebook contest for homes that are turning a hundred and so this year thanks to the efforts of dawn Skelly and Justin Forney we've been promoting this the last couple of weeks this for we don't know who the owners are necessarily so this first home was on Prairie Street the next home was on Vermillion Street the next home is on Third Street West and happy birthday to the winner so the winner of tonight's Facebook contest is Ryan Conover and Bonnie Whitehall they are going to receive a century home plaque to be put by their [10:15] Cindy Toppin: front door and for the audience anyone with a century-old home who wants such a plaque can work with City staff to determine eligibility and can purchase their own plaque as well so congratulations to the winners and turn it over to Justin to organize the photo shoot you just want to come down the lower end of the Diaz and I'll take a picture and if the winners went let's come up to the front and stand next to the council members that's great [10:33] Mary Fasbender: I didn't know that you were allowing anyone to enter you know to get one of the plans for them yeah for sure as long as they're 100 yeah congratulations [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [12:14] Mary Fasbender: Cindy thank you [12:16] Cindy Toppin: you're welcome thank you very much [12:25] Mary Fasbender: okay council members are there any additions or corrections to the meeting from April 28th or the regular meeting on May 7th 17th okay at this time we'll have comments from the audience and anyone wishing to speak to the council at this time please step forward anyone on Zoom no one in the audience so we can move through that console items to be considered counsel any items to be considered okay Council had to accept a motion to prove the consent agenda councilmember pemble and council member Fox second all those in favor of the Motion state by saying aye I oppose that Motion state by saying nay and that motion prevails tonight we have the under Parks and Recreation we have Hastings Civic Arena roof and refrigeration and with us we have Parkson Recreation director Chris Jenkins with us welcome Chris [13:25] Chris Jenkins: thank you mayor council uh yes tonight we have a couple of items for parks and rec the first one is the um Civic Center West rink roof and the refrigeration plant for that and ultimately what we're seeking tonight is for Council to have reviewed the proposals that were in the memo provides Provide support and authorization authorization to staff to move forward with either the preferred or one of the options a little background the roof on that West rink is a 25 year old roof it is a ballasted roof there were some photos in the packet and it has served its useful life it's a rubber membrane with a bunch of rock on top of it it continues to leak it also sheep drains off of all four sides and one of those sides just happens to be the main entrance to the arena too so every winter spring we see a lot of icing in that area we've seen snow fall off that ice trunks fall off that all those sorts of things so what we're proposing is to replace that roof with a modified built up roof which is layer after layer of insulation tipped to drains we also will need to build up parapits around the perimeter of that roof as well to be able to get the elevation to tip those drains towards the middle of the building cut some holes in the roof and run pipe out and down the building out the building to the west where that new storm water Pond is around 316. so we're going to take all of that water off the roof and away from the main entrance of the building it's a much better roof it has a longer roof life and it provides much more insulation for the facility so much more energy efficient actually brings that roof up to Energy Efficiency codes the second piece of it and an even bigger piece is the refrigeration system and I know we've spoken about this in a variety of meetings Council workshops commissions committee meetings we currently have an R22 refrigeration system that Refrigeration can no longer be manufactured in the United States or imported into the United States per EPA regulations so what we depend on currently is recycled and reclaimed or Old Stock of R22 Refrigeration and with that it's becoming very very expensive our system holds about 3 500 pounds of refrigeration I've heard estimates between 103 and 300 per pound so if you extrapolate that out where 250 000 a million dollars if we spring a big leak and we have to replace that refrigeration and that's just to have ice what we're proposing to do is replace that system within an anhydrous ammonia otherwise just known as an ammonia refrigeration system it's the most common currently in ice rinks and it is a very efficient system so it'll be much more efficient than the current R22 system those are the big items much of it I understand isn't seen by people particularly from the outside but these are really the nuts and bolts that keep this building operating for all of the users in our community and in our region what staff is recommending is plan and commit to both of those projects happening in 2024. to be able to do a 2024 project we need to invest now to the tune of about four hundred and forty thousand dollars to order equipment and get the design finalized for that refrigeration system there's a motor control unit that must be ordered about 12 months in advance so we if we're going to do it in 2024 we need to spend the money on that now kind of no matter what um that project also comes with other energy efficiencies it comes with the lobby and Zam room rink or xam room roofs as well as well as the varsity locker room roof so completing all of those roofs completing that envelope helps Energy Efficiency it includes a low e ceiling in that West rink so if you can picture if you're familiar with the rink you can see all the steel beams with it right now there's some fabric that hangs down and some insulation that goes above that to help create an even better insulation barrier so it's an efficiency piece it helps the cooling from the ice and do all sorts of good Energy Efficiency stuff it also includes putting solar onto that West drink roof as well I think those are the big pieces oh LED lighting upgrades for the interior of the facility as well in total that's five million dollars so it's a big ticket item and again in 2024 no matter what we got to spend about four hundred and forty thousand dollars now to get that completed in the meantime we will seek some affordable repairs to that roof so we don't have leaks for this next winter season and completed 2024 project it's going to be funded through a variety of sources hopefully State bonding please but it's also going to include issuing some debt to be able to take care of that whether we're paying the full bill or paying the half the bill if we are able to get State bonding for that that's what staff would recommend alternates we can pull the trigger on a 2023 roof project hopefully contractors are getting getting busy they may or may not have time so we can pull the trigger on that to the tune of about 960 thousand dollars to get that done and then the ice ice plant Still Remains so in 2024 if we want to do the ice plant we still have to spend four hundred forty thousand dollars now and then we can plan for or commit to a 2024 roof project we'll have to do some repairs to it this year and again if we want to do the ice plant in 2024 we still have to put 440 000 together today they're very large but they're also very important for this facility in this region uh they're going to serve those two major improvements between the ice plant and the roofing systems they're going to serve that facility in the community and everyone that uses it for the next 30 to 50 years it is the stuff that's all behind the scenes that makes makes the facility work so we can have a nice season in Hastings there are a variety of different Financial scenarios certainly the arena has some fund balance certainly not going to cover it all but it'll help take a little bit up a little bit out of it and then again State bonding and issuing debt on the positive side of that when we go through the project we recover the refrigerant that's in there depending on what the market price is for it we can also sell that so we have a little bit of Revenue again just to chip away at it a little bit and council's talked about this in a variety of different meetings truly for a variety of different years a number of years now we've been discussing this and know that it's coming so ultimately staff are looking for Council support to move ahead with one of these options and again staff preferred would be let's do everything in 2024 and take care of that that gym of facility out there and I can certainly stand for any questions thank you Chris [21:18] Mary Fasbender: Council and discussion councilmember Leifeld [21:20] Lisa Leifeld: thank you thanks Chris you know we've had a lot of conversations over the number of years since I've been here that we really do have to put the money in and take care of what we currently own and we talk about it regularly with Parks you had a real quick little comment where you mentioned a solar system installation can you give us any more detail on that I'm really curious to know what that would include or the plan for that has been [21:52] Chris Jenkins: and this plan started in 2017 to install 160 KW solar system on that flat roof and so that gets tied directly into the meter for that facility so when we have an energy demand if we'll pull from that first and so that it'll get used in the facility itself if we need more energy from then that from at that time it then pulls from our Excel hookup out there [22:15] Lisa Leifeld: excuse me thanks Chris So the plan would be then that the those solar rooftop units would power that facility power a portion of that facility [22:30] Chris Jenkins: okay so it's it's one of those items that we can do for Energy Efficiency and when we originally put this plan together it was there's a variety that's all changed um on the on the way that you receive the energy credits the tax credits and all of those pieces that stuff's still to be fleshed out it's a very small portion of the overall project and we can put it in a plan really see if it works if it works we can keep it in the plan or we can pull it out [22:57] Lisa Leifeld: I love it I know with councilmember Vihrachoff having these conversations for a number of years and it's nice to see something coming before us on the city on one of our buildings so thanks Chris [23:08] Chris Jenkins: General 17 plan had solar on every flat roof of a city facility but it does require upgrading those roofs as well thanks Chris [23:14] Mary Fasbender: thank you councilmember lifefield councilmember Fox [23:15] Jen Fox: thank you your honor uh so Chris um so from what I'm understanding what you're saying is that regardless of what it is we do you would really like for us to commit to purchasing right now the motor control center for the refrigeration system right I mean that's your highest priority that's what I heard you say yes okay so that we can move forward in 2024 and replace it I mean that would just be devastating if it somehow collapsed or you know the refrigeration unit didn't work at the ice rink I can't imagine the impact that would have to the skating Community but the second piece about the West rink um so just so that I understand that because the way it says in the write-up it says the alternate less desirable options include pulled the trigger on the west rink roof in 2023 as a standalone project only as an estimated at an only at an estimated cost of 960 000 so we don't do here we I know that we didn't budget for the roof in this fiscal year and so what you're seeing then is that you have enough money in the fund balance to be able to cover the West rink if we absolutely needed to is that what I'm hearing you say [24:43] Chris Jenkins: between a couple of different fund balances won the arena and two parks there would be enough to believe that's correct enough to cover that project alone [24:55] Jen Fox: okay and so it's my understanding that that roof is leaking a lot in that it's you know you know it's hitting the scoreboards and we put nice little tarps and hoses up this year to try and divert it and it's our staff go up and and try and Patch what they think is leaking every year we've had other repairs done to it in the past as well right yeah I heard that what was it two years ago that it was a girls hockey tournament that was going on it and it triggered um uh an evacuation of the building um and so it's it it's serious right we really have to deal with it and so um you know I'm very supportive of dealing with it in the very near future and so um when we had discussed this before I had understood that the West rink roof could be done separately from the rest of the roofing project and all the other improvements right and so um what is your hesitation for not trying to do that right now [26:04] Chris Jenkins: it's only that then you wouldn't have those fun balances available to do other things and so what are the other things that you're hoping to do with the fund balance money instead so fund balance particularly for the arena can help in a few years replacing the Dasher boards for about three hundred thousand dollars they can help replace well we've got two of those coming up fund balance can be used to replace the Zamboni next year for 140 000 so we can do those Capital Investments with fund balance if we use it all right now then when we get to those other Investments that we need to make we're going to have to rely 100 on Levy [26:50] Jen Fox: so so why isn't that okay so in 2024 I feel like the the right thing that we need to do is that we as a city need to commit to bonding for the entirety of that project because I think that it's too important of a project at this point to continue to roll the dice on hoping that the state is gonna you know give us the funds right to do it and so that's not necessarily realistic even though Governor walls it was on his his agenda for bonding projects but it it I don't think it was on either the senate or the house so so there's that I think that we didn't need to bond for it and so why wouldn't we help why wouldn't we bond for additional dollars to help pay for the boards and the Zamboni at that time if we were taking a comprehensive approach to doing facility upgrades at that point because I mean inflation this next this lot this last 12 months I think we're at like five percent and so and there's hope that it's going to slow down but I mean it could be another five percent increase so to your point you know that what's you know another fifty thousand dollars or so if we wait until next year to do the roof replacement [27:54] Chris Jenkins: I think to your point council member if if we were committing to a 2024 project and we start to look we'll look then at a more full picture we'll go through our CIP and find out what's in the next couple of years after this and if Council desires to bring that into one bonding package at that time then that would be council's discretion to do that so there are other items like boards and zambonis and things that you could wrap into an even bigger project our priority right now is to we need to fix these roofs and we need to change out that ice plant so that's staff's biggest biggest pieces right like you say if we don't have an ice sheet we don't have a nice season for so many different users right [28:53] Jen Fox: right commit to the 2024 comprehensive project and so um I know that you had a at the end of year right up here you had placed that there wasn't a commission advisory commission discussion that that was not applicable and so but I know that the Parks and Recreation Commission did have uh discussion about the ice rink and that there um there was a conversation where the represent representatives from the hockey associations were present and they had been very supportive of working together to do a study of the ice rink and what the improvements are that are necessary and and to do more of a holistic comprehensive approach in in that light but that's missing from this memo and so I was wondering why did you not include the recommendations of the Park and Recreation Commission to do that study as a comprehensive approach to how it is we do the upgrades [29:43] Chris Jenkins: those conversations at Parks Commission are separate from the ice plant and the roof so the ice plant and the the roofs the overall project are the nuts and bolts pieces and that's that wasn't the Park's commission discussion that's why it's not included here the Parks Commission discussion was on a visioning plan for the ice arena for potential expansion renovation of interior facilities like restrooms and offices and lobbies and seating and those sorts of those sorts of items not the ice plant and not the roof the roofs that we're talking about [30:26] Jen Fox: well I would disagree in that agree and disagree that the refrigeration system is completely a separate issue completely but the renovations to the roof I mean that is woven into the very essence of doing a facility needs uh survey you know with the stakeholders who are involved because if it's determined that okay well we want to expand the lobby and increase that footprint in that area that I mean you don't build a brand new roof on the existing Lobby and then go tear the whole thing up and you know and then expand the the lobby and so that's why the two issues are they're intertwined so that what it is that and and the West rink roof is separate from the east roof in in the lobby and so um I would ask for you uh to you know to take two steps back and really understand holistically what it means to do a renovation to a facility and that we should be doing that we should be doing that visioning of the the facility um before it is that we pulled the trigger on the comprehensive project that as as that was proposed I mean those things go together you do the the stakeholder engagement and visioning of the facility and then we move forward with that comprehensive project and the renovations and then we fold it all in together at once you don't you know they're not two separate issues that you know they're combined and that was really the essence about why it is as we had our Council Workshop but we had those conversations that we asked for that survey that's why it went to the Parks and Recreation Commission and that's why the stakeholders came forward and asked for you know to be a part of that planning process for the facility and so um so yes I'm supportive of doing the comprehensive project but only if that stakeholder engagement is done before it is that we pull the trigger on do it doing all those renovations to the to the facility it just would be it would not be cost effective to do do the renovations and then ask the stakeholders later oh by the well well what do you think of this and what are your needs I mean that just doesn't make any sense to me um so anyhow that's my two cents [32:46] Mary Fasbender: thank you councilmember councilmember Fox [32:50] Jen Fox: thank you your honor um I I would like to voice my support for moving forward with the MCC and the roofing project I I value what councilmember full just saying that we should have that assessment done and look at what those specs and numbers might be for like the whole comprehensive numbers Target um and we are working with limited resources so if we're going to do a big project like the arena just even taking care of the infrastructure that we have invested in that our community uses that people from outside of the community use very well um we also have to pay for it and if we're concerned about um what we're going to replace as a business owner I have to do this every day so I'm pretty familiar with making really difficult decisions in a budget um but if we're going to have to decide to not do another project because we are going to do a bigger project I just want to um make sure that we're aware of the the consequences of these big budgetary items coming up and us making budget amendments um so I would like to see the information and what that might look like however at this moment I can only support moving forward with the the MCC and the roof and the ice I don't have all the details I'm so sorry yes so I believe the refrigeration plant and the West rink roof yes thank you [34:42] Lisa Leifeld: I'm really Phil thank your honor I'd like to make a motion to authorize to have to proceed with the Civic Center refrigeration and Rift project including ordering long lead time equipment [34:56] Mary Fasbender: second okay and you have a second additional discussion [34:57] Jen Fox: and I have to agree you know I think the urgency is what's what the memo States um futuristically that's really a big ticketed item we'd love to see that council member fulch but I think to keep our operations going and you know the viability of the rink in general is we know how important it is for our community I think it's really important um staff did a good job in in what our needs are at this point so councilmember felch you're honored to clarify what I'm saying is that of course I'm supportive of doing the West rink right now and the refrigeration but what I'm saying is that for the rest of the project is that before we go and move ahead with doing all of those Renovations that we should first do the visioning for what it is you know a facility needs assessment for the ice rink so that as we're moving then forward with the renovations to the rink we understand what it is what we want the rink to look like in the in the future and so maybe you know it has to be you know a multi-stage renovation as we can pay for it or maybe you know the the community can you know help with future fundraising you know to get you know certain pieces of it you know completed but what I do know is that the stakeholders who use the ice rink want to be involved in the planning process for future Renovations for the ice rink because they're the ones that use it and so they just I think that it would behoove us you know to listen to them and as we're formulating our plans for more of a comprehensive renovation to finish the project out that that they're engaged and that they're listening um you know because you know it just is a hockey mom myself I was I was just flabbergasted when um you know I had you know conversations with one of the previous uh coaches and he was like geez I would love to you know was in regards to the scoreboards and I know you're sick of hearing me talk about the scoreboards but um you know just about the importance of at the time it was making sure that on both sides of the rink so that there was time you know um there was uh time clocks so that the players you know regardless of which way they're looking that they could see the time clock and how important that is to play and so that's from a user perspective that only the users really understand why that is so and why it's so important right and so that I think that's why it's really imp that we are stewards of the ice rink and they are the users of the ice rink and so we should be making sure that we're fully engaged with them and that we're helping to meet their needs and you know they can ask for a Cadillac and maybe you know we you know can only give them you know something less and I don't want to you know name them a model or a make but you know something that's more you know uh practical but I just think that it's really um important you know it's not often that we make major investments in the ice rink and so this could be the major investment that we make in this ice rink for the next 30 Years and so I think that we should really plan for the future and that they're involved thanks [38:11] Dave Pemble: thank you councilmember councilmember Campbell I'm looking at this and saying okay I understand what councilman member fulch is talking about but I think it's two separate issues we're looking at maintenance items that have to be taken care of and then we're looking at the overall picture for the future but for right now the citizens built that or paid for that facility and this is like ongoing maintenance it's like repairing your car it's like okay the Transmissions going out you needed to know it's going to have to be fixed the other issue is like okay maybe we're looking at a study to buy a different car those are the two separate issues here and I think there's been a motion and a second and I think we should move call the motion and move that process forward thank you [39:27] Mary Fasbender: thank you councilmember Campbell additional discussion Chris if I can ask you Claire councilmember lifefeld what I understand your motion to be is to replace the West drink roof and replace the refrigeration plan so ordering the mcc's in design don't touch the lobby roof don't touch the locker room roof [39:35] Lisa Leifeld: understood [39:44] Mary Fasbender: okay motion and second on the floor all those in favor of that Motion state by saying aye aye opposed to that Motion state by saying they that motion prevails thank you Chris thank you mayor okay and he will just continue with his Trails wayfinding uh signage and uh we'll we're excited to hear about this as well [40:24] Chris Jenkins: well perfect uh thank you very much and as Council council is fully aware uh our trail system in Hastings is lacking significantly in wayfighting signage and we are proposing to um to hire hkgi who is the same consultant that did our people movement plan back in 2021 and they have a baseline data they've got all the mapping they've got some preliminary design for signage different types and styles for different locations so really to finish what they started in that planning process which was constrained by grant funding that we had to do that so just so so everyone's aware so each KGI has that Baseline and uh conducting finishing this planning process will then allow us to prepare budget recommendations to implement the plan get the entire plan and I expect you to see in 2024 some funds to budget for installation of signage on a the Hastings trail system and we'll do that a prioritized fashion to make sure the big things are taken care of first popular things are taken care of first and then we'll get to the little stuff after that through through phased implementation obviously the the Parks Commission and city council at a variety of meetings have discussed this and it was very well supported so staff are asking for for authorization to engage hkgi and get them started on this Trailway finding signage plan Chris [41:55] Jen Fox: Council council member Fox thank you Chris I was really excited to see this on the agenda and I think it's going to make a real great impact on future tourism efforts and so um I think that it's uh it's uh it's time so thanks for getting this done for us I'll make a motion to approve moving forward with the trails wayfinding signage plan [42:15] Mary Fasbender: okay popular council member house second discussion Council [42:30] Mary Fasbender: are those unfair the Motion state by saying aye I opposed to that Motion state by saying nay and that motion prevails too good luck excited to see the outcome of that as well thank you Community Development tonight we have a Community Development annual report and John hinsman our community director will community development director is with us and just looking at it John there was so much information it's very exciting to see what actually has really happened as we talk about it for how long and then it's here it is [42:55] John Hinzman: yeah there's been a lot of stuff that's gone on this year and it's it's interesting to look back a little bit uh at what we have accomplished it's been it's been great to be working with the council and the commissions to have growth and development that's occurred I mean we've had times in the last decade where we have not had as much to report so it's fun to look back at all the great things that we do here so a little bit of background on the Community Development Department again the Community Development Department consists of City Planning Economic Development historic preservation building inspection and code enforcement so that's what we charged with essentially anything that is constructed we plan for it and we inspect it and so that that's the duties that we're involved in we also work very closely with a number of commissions one of them we saw tonight with the Heritage preservation commission Justin Fortney serving as our staff liaison there our hedra board Hastings Economic Development Redevelopment Authority and our Planning Commission all of these elements the the citizen members there that commit their time to review this uh checks the work that we do as a staff I mean we may have ideas of things that we think should be done or ways things should be done but ultimately it's the Commissioners and the council that put a check on that come up with some great ideas so looking at this year we had a number of things that went on for housing for example we had 176 do Residential housing units one of our largest years in the last 15 totaling about 41 million dollars in valuation a couple of the projects we're showing here current 33 Apartments which is located or will be located down at 33rd Street in Vermilion under construction right now first building 100 units Total Building is going to be 211 with both of those and I believe the second building is likely to start later on this year as well also had the quill senior housing completed the 90 unit building down on Vermillion Street we've got another Senior Housing Development right in the same neighborhood here sweet living which will be under constructed and construction later on this fall with 32 units going in there we have can you continue development of Heritage Ridge fourth edition off of Fallbrook the final edition of that was approved last year so that'll be 116 units altogether single family Villa homes about half of those have been constructed so far Lake Isabel Flats I'll get into here in a moment that's another project that we did this is there's some projects that we do in which their market rate in which we have got Greenfield sites and someone comes in and redevelops them and then we also have sites like this where we kind of prime the pump a little bit UBC Lumber was a area within the downtown that was an objective for ours to move out for many years in 2006 we purchased the building through the former HRA and went through planning of what we would like to see this is what we wanted to see it just took a few years to get there Market wise and other considerations and so we were able to take a building site here which is an old storage building and transform it into a 90 unit apartment building which is under construction right now as you know and should be open later on this fall this com comprised with the Confluence building is going to serve to provide a major bookends to downtown and in fact some of the largest change the most significant change we've had to our downtown area and probably 40 to 50 years when you take a look at the number of units that are being provided downtown and you take a look at the other entertainment those type of facilities are likely to Spur other types of development in and around the downtown area and also within the city itself so this was a long-term project from city council and also with hedra on this uh I like this picture here uh it was it's interesting situation because when we had the former Target building I didn't think we would be in a position to be able to have another retailer come in there and purchase the whole building for retail I thought it was likely that it would be torn down I thought it was likely that we would have to be involved in some sort of Economic Development way to prime the pump but we didn't have to we were able to define a private entity Fleet Farm to command you to take over the building and to provide life back to there so I couldn't be happier about the project as that moves on here I mentioned Heritage Ridge fourth edition we approved KFC last year hopefully that'll be under construction soon I'd get that question a lot I don't know we've approved the building permit it's getting set therapy Ops is under construction over on Westview Drive and Highway 55 a therapy clinic and then United Heroes League we did an interim use permit as well so we had a lot of residential we had a lot of commercial from the commercial side of it we had a 131 million dollars in valuation increase last year that is a tremenous number when you take a look at this figure here from year to year I mean you've got last year we had about nine million dollars in valuation increase 129 million this year I mean that is a tremendous number we had a lot of work that was being done at the hospital at the government center in the schools a lot of things that didn't necessarily come before the uh the city council the Planning Commission but were significant numbers it's always great to see an increase in the commercial industrial remodeling the the value that's put into and the Investments that's put into the existing infrastructure within the city so that that's great to see here when you look at our housing permits overall you can see you know over the last 15 years this was our highest year we the purple represents apartment buildings this is single family here and we also a lot of mobile homes last year as well as the Three Rivers Park field out here so you can see it's certainly a great trajectory here from going upwards and we take a look at some of the largest years that we had you know about 20 years ago you know we were doing about 350 homes per year you know we're very close to that with some of these new projects that are coming up here so that's great to see uh with hedger we also work with priming the pump as I said before there's a couple of projects that we've been involved in one was the facade Improvement grant program we targeted towards uh downtown and Vermillion Street we distributed over forty four thousand dollars to 10 projects leveraged another seventy five thousand dollars in valuation so we had a great success with this project last year we've continued it into 2023 this is an example here uh on Second Street of before and after picture we also have a program too for a revolving Loan Fund where we could provide a larger loan assistance to provide for renovation of buildings uh spiral food co-ops as we're all familiar with on Highway 55 South Frontage Road the building there looked a lot worse last year and was not functional spiral Co-op has been a great company they moved around to a number of different locations in town they wanted to stay put where they were but expand and they were able to do that with a couple of loans and assistance through hedra as I said earlier the Confluence which has been something that we've been highlighting for 14 years since we've been involved in it between city council and hedra is coming close to fruition here that's going to bring the hotel the convention center the restaurant the activity the purpose behind all the toil that we've gone through with that building since the initial acquisition of that some 13 14 years ago was to provide for a reason for people to stop into downtown Hastings so when people went across the highway 61 bridge that time being the old blue bridge that they would come down and see we have got to stop down and check this out and it's taken a long time it's it's maybe taken more money than we expected and it's had more hiccups than we expected but will be something that'll be coming in here very shortly and I'm looking so forward to the impact it's going to have within the downtown also have the program here from open to business which provides our free entrepreneurial assistance for owners and also provides Gap loans as well so hedger is kind of involved in priming the pump a little bit planning commissions involved with reviewing some of the land use that we see Heritage preservations involved in the historic preservation of properties and then we've got our building department doing their work with all the building inspections that have occurred and all the changes there we have the the scooters come in this last year which was great we started a lot of new initiatives within the building department we had some new hiring with the new building inspector some promotions that took place here transformation every digital file system so great stuff that we did in 2022 as we look into the future here we still expect there's going to be another there's 700 homes right now that have been approved or under construction since 2021. we take a look at the annexation that we approved about a month ago here that could provide another 450 homes in the south end of town so we've got interest that continues and things that look to be in the pipeline for this growth to keep going we're working on the the what we call block 28 which is the 410 to 412 Vermillion Street property that is the Old River Town Liquors Country Nights property we've acquired about half that block at this point and we will continue to move forward to continue to get the rest of that block here and look at that for redevelopment purposes hedger and the city council went through planning a couple of years ago with the Vermillion Street development plan this was a key block we're looking to implement that portion of the plan within this block in the coming years here and really to put that in conjunction with while the great improvements that are going to be happening on Highway 61 during that time period so that's a summary of what I have here for activities for Community Development in 2022 and I can stand for any questions thanks thank you John [53:23] Mary Fasbender: Council council member Fox [53:25] Jen Fox: thank you your honor and thank you John um I deeply admire the work that you do and um that you the the staff under you work on as well um one thing I wanted to highlight that it's a it's a fun fact that I really like that we learned um while we were at hedra council member Pamela and I um and I'm gonna need your help with the data but we did so many business drop-ins and um business um connection meetings um significantly more than we've ever done in the past and I think um it's it is very noticed in the business Community people feel supported and they really love working with our staff at the city so I just wanted to make sure to mention that can you remember the number off the top of your head [54:14] John Hinzman: I have it right here simply we had 131 business drop-ins last year so that's basically going into a business hey how's it going what's going on just get get a face to a name and to see if there's any issues out there we had I think about 10 formal we call business retention and expansion visits where we make a deployment when we have more of a schedule but uh you know Eric in particular when he was here was excellent at doing that you know being able to drop down and that's something with with the new person upcoming that position is really going to continue to be a priority [54:57] Jen Fox: thank you for that I know that the business community feels the support of the economic I think it counts some member facts [55:00] Mary Fasbender: council member House [55:02] Angie Haus: thank you thank you so much John for all this information and thank you so much for all the hard work you do and your team does it's great to see so many new thriving businesses and Housing Development developments in town so thank you for that [55:12] Mary Fasbender: thank you council member house okay well again John you've heard it from most of all of us we appreciate what you've done what Eric has done and with the business relationships I think that really makes um it really known to the business community that we as a city really do care for them being able to sustain and to thrive so I think it's it's great so looking forward to what it's going to look like next year all right thank you so much thank you John hey council members any announcements [55:54] Mary Fasbender: okay I have a few this week is National Police Week and next week is recognition as both National EMS week and National Public Works week please join me in a great and heartful thinkable thank you to our employees in these departments and for their service and our community Tuesday which is tomorrow May 16th we have our Police Week open house from five to seven on Sibley Street in front of the police station all are invited to the to this free event cap on a roof is Friday May 19th visit Dunkin Donuts to support the athletes of Special Olympics Minnesota this event is part of the Special Olympics Minnesota law enforcement torch run for Special Olympics city offices will be closed Monday May 29th in observance of Memorial Day on that day Memorial Day I just would like to remind everyone that the Memorial Day services will be only held at the Pavilion at 10 A.M they're just going to have it in one spot this year and that is actually where the March for them walk will end during that program starting at 10 A.M on Tuesday June 6th during the summer kick off to our 20 23 Levee Park events live Congo music Raptor show with Carpenter Nature Center bounce houses climbing wall face painting characteristic caricature artist balloon artist and more all ages are welcome to this free event meetings coming up are Tuesday May 16th 7 PM Heritage preservation commission Wednesday May 17th the parks and recs commission meeting has been canceled Thursday May 18th 6 30 PM Public Safety advisory Commission Monday May 22nd the planning committee has been cancer or planning committee meeting has been canceled and the Planning Commission meeting meets at 7 pm Monday June 5th 7 PM city council regular meeting but this time I accept a motion to adjourn [58:16] Lisa Leifeld: don't remember lightfo [58:18] Angie Haus: council member house [58:20] Mary Fasbender: all those in favor of the Motion state by saying aye and that prevails we are adjourned