Say, I'm going to call this meeting to order. >> I'm going to call this meeting to order >> for the Cottage Grove City Council >> for the Cottage Grove City Council >> for November 5th >> for November 5th, >> 2025. >> 2025. >> And the next item on our agenda is pledge of allegiance. Oh, everybody stand up. We're doing the pledge of allegiance. >> We're going to do the pledge. >> You want to lead us? >> Yeah. >> 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. >> All right. So, will the clerk please do the role? Council member Clawson >> here. >> Council member Olsen >> here. >> Council member Theiti >> here. >> Council [snorts] member Garza >> here. >> Mayor for a day Kinley >> here. >> Mayor Bailey >> here. All right. And so two things real quick uh for the council and and uh the audience. Uh the first thing is just to mention that this meeting is being recorded by True and Linds Community Media. You can view city meetings live and replay them on cable channel 799. And the meetings are also streamed live and archived on the Cottage Grove's YouTube channel. So if anybody's interested after the meeting, you get to go see yourself on TV. Oh, >> yay. >> There you go. So, um, good evening everyone and welcome to the, uh, Cottage Grove City Council meeting. I did want to mention before we, uh, we approve the agenda as it's presented. I would like to propose a modification. We have with us this evening, as noted, our special guest for a mayor for a day, which is Kinley Frankfurt, which is sitting right next to me here. And I would like to move item 6A under presentations to the front of our meeting uh to follow immediately a obviously we did roll call and this allows us to honor our guest before we get into the main items of the business tonight. So if there is no objections from the council we will proceed with that change uh moving to item 6A mayor for the day. Uh and then we'll go from there. Good for that. All right. So we're going to go down in front. Are you ready to come with? >> All right. Let's go. Yeah. The chair is almost taller than me. >> We'll go this way. Okay. All right. So, for the public, uh, what's really neat about this evening is every year now, for I don't know how many, we've been doing this for a while now. Um, I know the state of Minnesota and other communities and other, um, states actually do like a mayor for day essay and such. Here in Cottage Grove, uh, we've been doing mayor for a day. Uh, and we get this information, we put it out to all of our uh, schools out there, elementary schools, and we get uh, quite a few entries, and then staff kind of goes down and narrows it to a couple, and then uh, they send it to me as the mayor, and I get to read through a couple of them, all of them, but a couple of them to make a choice. And, uh, this year I was I'm honored, uh, to, uh, choose Kinley here, uh, as to be the mayor for a day. The one thing that she did mention to me, uh, we did, we did get her to read her, uh, her letter in the other room. [laughter] So, we did have some, uh, pizza earlier, uh, for dinner as a group. And, uh, I'm will just mention that she got, uh, as part of being mayor for a day. They get to go and check out all kinds of stuff around the city. So, first of all, they get picked up from school in a police car, right? do. We also got to do we rode the Zamboni and we got free snacks at the ice arena and I think the free snacks was definitely my favorite part. [laughter] >> So, they got to go to the uh ride uh go in a firetruck and put the headphones on. They got to go to public works and be in a couple of the the loaders and uh the uh snowplow and so on. And so it's just kind of a neat opportunity to um uh engage with our our youth in the community. And so I just wanted to recognize the fact that she got to be our mayor for a day today. And so what we'd like to do is we're going to present you with this uh certificate of appreciation. And it just basically says uh Kinley Frankfurt uh in sincere appreciation for your service to our the city of Cottage Grove, Minnesota. And so on behalf of the rest of the council, all of our staff, and all of the citizens of Cottage Grove, let's have a round of applause for um Kinley Frankfurt. [applause] Congratulations. All right. Yeah. Do you want to take a picture? Oh yeah. What? She one of the things. >> Oh, who you giving a shout out to? >> My my math teacher, Mrs. Sam, she asked me to do this, so I'm doing it. [laughter] >> That's awesome. Well, one I will That's great. Thank you for bringing that up. So, one of the uh neat reasons that I thought it was cool uh as she was giving her why she wanted to be mayor for the day, she did state one particular thing that she wants to be when she grows up. Do you want to share with the public? >> I want to be the first girl president, but hopefully not the first, but I want to be a president. >> There we go. So, we may have a future president from Cottage Grove, Minnesota in the future here. So, all right. So, we'll go ahead and I'm going to give you this, too. This is your little name plate. And I'm going to give this to mom. So, she has the I love Cottage Grove pin, but I think she lost the other piece inside her jacket there. So, I'm going to give this to you and then we can uh we can go from there. All right. Anything else you want to say? >> All right. Well, thank you for coming and spending the day with us and our staff. They enjoyed having you as mayor for a day. And now you get to go home and have fun stuff and we get to deal with the work. That's okay. [laughter] Thank you. Thanks, Kinley. [applause] Buddy, nice job. Thank you. No. You want your water? >> You want your water? >> And you only want this >> and this. >> Did she change any street names or anything that I need to know about? We Okay. All right. >> [laughter] >> All right. [clears throat] All right. So, next on our agenda um this evening, uh before we get down to presentations and adoption of the agenda is open forum, uh this is the opportunity that anybody wants that wants to speak on something uh that's not on tonight's agenda or something that's open to the public, if you would say, for the tonight's agenda is welcome to do so. At this time, we did have a signup sheet out in the entryway. And on the signup sheet, I'm just going to go from the top to the bottom. And if there is somebody that maybe got in here that didn't get to sign up and they do want to speak during open form, you're absolutely welcome to do that. What we do is just after I call the names down the list, just go up to the podium and state your name and address for the record. And you have uh three minutes. And uh Tammy will be good about making sure that you know if you if you if you're going to run long, she's going to let you know. So, we do need to hold it to 3 minutes. All right. So, the first one here on open form is Bobby uh Tanahill. >> Me. >> Yep. >> Okay. Hi. Um my name is Bobby Tanahill. I live at 8215 Ingberg Trail South. I've been living in the Cottage Grove area for 55 years, living and working in this community. My husband was a naturalized citizen of the United States and he became the first band director of Woodbury High School and he was handpicked by the administration there for his job. He was the first teacher to be awarded the teacher of the year. He was the grand marshall at homecoming parade and my immigrant husband gave back to this community in countless ways. I am a product of my immigrant grandparents. Some came from Norway, some from Germany, Poland or Ireland. You could say I'm Hines 57 like many of you. We are all descendants of immigrants who came with talents, aspirations, hopes, dreams, and grit. They are what really made American great. There was no masked ICE agents like now disappearing people. There were no armed ICE agents at their immigration hearings. The immigrants were not being sent to foreign prisons or removing them at gunpoint to places that were not their home. These things are happening now because of ICE agenda. Things have changed. We need ICE agents. I bet that's my phone. [laughter] >> But we need a humane ICE agency. The Hero Center is funded in part by taxes from Cottage Grove and Woodbury through taxation. I am opposed to ICE as it is now, coming into my town and using my facility to sharpen their shooting skills. It is against my values and I do not want to spend my money on something that I morally object to. Please, please do not renew the ICE contract at the Hero Center. Thank you and thank you for your time, for listening, and for your thoughtful uh thoughts on this matter. Thank you. >> All right, the one that ran out with the phone. >> The one that ran out with the phone. I had my mic off. Diane Frederickson, if you want to come up. I was timing my speech. You was supposed to go off in three minutes a long time ago. [laughter] >> Hi, I'm Diane Frederickson and I have been a Cottage Grove residence for only 45 years, not 55. I live in River Acres neighborhood and uh my husband and I have raised two children here. I've worked in 833. I was a teacher, reading specialist, um the curriculum coordinator for reading and writing and um volunteered here. I was on the parks and recreation commission, um the historical preservation. I was I'm I am a master gardener, um campfire leader. I do lots of volunteer work at All Saints. So, we really love living in Cottage Grove and feel like this is a really good place to live. But, um I've never come before the council. Tonight I have two things I wish to say to you. One is I live in River Acres and it's a beautiful, peaceful, quiet river neighborhood right on the river. It's a friendly and stable neighborhood and I'm asking that they not be permitted to build a backwater mine there. Cottage Grove has this little tiny piece that they own on the river and it's such a small presence. You're building a brand new neighborhood there for Pete's sake. Why would you build a mine next to it when you're trying to say it's a beautiful place to be? Secondly, I oppose the city renting to ICE. We rent the Hero Center to ICE for their gun the gun range for them. ICE might have had some things that they did that were positive and keeping uh criminals under control, but ICE is out of control. Um, do you know your brown neighborhoods, your brown neighbors, brothers and sisters, and those with Latino names are hiding? They're afraid to come out. They're afraid they'll be nabbed when they go to school, to have conferences with their kids, when they go to the grocery store. They're afraid. They're afraid. They live [clears throat] in fear. We shouldn't have our neighbors living in fear. We can't have the presence of ice in Cottage Grove. So, I ask you to keep ICE out of Cottage Grove and when the contract comes up the next time to please consider not signing it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Diane. >> All right. And then next uh that's on the list here is I believe it's Belinda uh Melinda Lewis. Did you want to speak? >> She had to leave. >> Oh, she had to leave. Okay. I'm sorry. All right. How about Sue Chamberlain? Good evening. My name is Sue Chamberlain and I live at 8151 Riveracres Road in Cottage Grove. All of us living in Cottage Grove should consider ourselves blessed to be living near such a magnificent national treasure and federally protected Mississippi River. Unfortunately, the Mississippi is also the number one endangered river in America. To even consider allowing a mining company to mine 200 feet down into the Mississippi over vast acres of protected wetlands is in my opinion unconscionable. Tonight, the council must vote yay or nay to accept this EIS report as a satisfactory report of what potential impacts mining could have on the Mississippi River. I ask you as the governing unit responsible to vote no on the acceptance of this incomplete report. The council must request and insist on more detailed research in several areas. For example, impact of underwater noise and immense vibrations created by the mining on the aquatic life and in turn the surrounding wildlife. This area of study is nowhere to be found in the AIS report. Yet, it can have a major impact on the wildlife of the river. It only references noise issues above the water, not underneath the water. The constant drone of underwater under underwater mining 247 could potentially be as loud as a jet engine and travel miles under the water, possibly creating a a [clears throat] complete dead zone of the river. Where is the critical detail on the burm construction and impact on river flow and erosion? They state that it's to be further determined during the state and federal permitting process. That huge unknown should not be acceptable to Cottage Grove. This is the only EIS study and it's very lacking. What about restorations for for the destroyed wetlands? Where's the financially secured funding that this company will provide for the reclamation at the end of the life of this mine in 20 to 25 years? How much will it cost then? What if they refuse to pay or they're no longer in business? What about the funding for liability claims or natural resource damage that might happen during mining? What if some down river city is detrimentally impacted and decides to sue the city of Cottage Grove or the state of Minnesota for allowing this mining operation? [clears throat] All of this information is sorely lacking in the EIS study. Please do not accept the EIS report in its current format and vote no. Thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you, Sue. >> All right. And um the last one that was signed up is Bonnie Matter. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Bonnie Matter, 66490 in Skip Avenue, South Cottage Grove, Minnesota. Um, what I what I want to say is I oppose this is going to be short. Um, I oppose the Wholesome Amry Nelson backwaters project in the Mississippi River riverbed. There is no new information in the updated final environmental impact statement that changes any of the concerns outlined in my January 16th, 2025 letter relating to the draft environmental impact statement. The updated uh final EIS just confirms my reasons for why this project should not move forward. Please keep mining out of the Mississippi River, the Mississippi River bed, the surface waters, the aquifers, the wetlands, and the groundwater. This is an ecosystem. Uh, and for the public, I just suggest that they go out to the city of Cottage Grove website and read the comments in the in the draft EIS and then also the final comments that came back after the Minnesota EQB posting. Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Thank you, Bonnie. Okay. Um, that was who whoever signed up. Is there anybody else in the audience that would like to speak? Uh, yeah. So, we'll start with this gentleman here. And again, just uh name and address for the record, please. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor and council members. My name is Whitney Clark. I'm the executive director of Friends of the Mississippi River, 106 106 West Water Street in St. Paul, Minnesota. I'd like to add my comments to those of uh neighbors tonight and dozens of uh comments um that have been received by the city uh regarding the council's plan vote today on the environmental impact statement for AmI's proposed expansion of the Nelson Mine on Great Cloud Island. The EIS is deeply flawed and should not be approved. The proposed project is not legal. City and state regulations ban mining in shoreland shoreline areas within the Mississippi River corridor critical area. The city claims those rules somehow don't apply to the Nelson mine, but they do. The city's own shoreline mining ban very clearly applies to expansions of existing mines such as this one. The language in the city's ordinance is clear. The city claims that the mine has legal non-conforming or grandfather rights that allow it nearly unlimited expansion. But that's also rooted in flawed legal analysis. Non-conforming use rights do not apply to a public waterway like the Mississippi River. The Minnesota DNR, the National Park Service, Friends of the Mississippi River, and other parties have all pointed out these legal issues. It's illegal to approve an EIS with such serious factual inaccuracies. Cottage Grove's insistence on pressing forward regardless of the facts could result in legal challenges that will cost the city and its residents for years to come. In addition to this propos in addition, this proposed mine will damage wetlands, muscle beds, and rare plant communities. It will reduce backwater access for boers, hunters, and anglers. It will add noise and visual pollution to local parks and neighborhoods. And all of that harm will go on for decades. I also want to share our concern about how little effort the city and Amoris have made to engage Dakota tribal nations in this project. Greycloud Island was a significant Dakota village site and has numerous burial mounds. Mining has already done a lot of damage to these mounds, but the city hasn't made any real effort to talk with the tribal nations about protecting what remains. Why is the city so insistent that this illegal mining proposal must move forward? Why is the city ignoring input from so many other government agencies including the Metropolitan Council, the DNR, the National Park Service, the Army Corps, Prairie Island Indian Community, Shakapei Midwakad and Sue community, and others. Cottage Grove is ignoring the law in favor of one corporate tenants's interests and I urge you to halt the EIS approval process until the document accur accurately reflects the damage this project will cause and the legal issues associated with it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. And I think there was another gentleman. Yes. Good evening, council. My name is Tom Drew. I live at 8005 River Acres Road. And pardon me if my dentures are slipping. Um, I'm I just would be echoing so many statements that I've heard tonight and read online and I hope that you've read all the things that are online and I it tells me that Cottage Grove is not standing alone in this issue. >> [snorts] >> What I'd simply like to say is that it may not occur to you that this might be the biggest decision that you've ever encountered sitting on this council, maybe any console for Cottage Grove. The ramifications are unbelievable. But on the high better side of things, what I've noticed in the last few years with the development of the Mississippi Dunes uh area and now this project that suddenly Cottage Grove is recognizing that we have the Mississippi River flowing through our community. We happen to have the most shoreline of any major city on the whole of the Mississippi River. This is our our gift from God. The place is unbelievable. If you haven't been there, get there. Fish there. Kayak there. See, this morning I woke up. I had an eagle in my front yard 20t away from me. What's going to happen? You know, you could make a real easy decision. I call it the conscious pilot decision. and just go ahead and approve this. Or you could do maybe the more courageous decision and send it back and say until you answer all the questions that have been presented by the public, by state, local, national people about the issues here that have been voiced by others. Um, but most did I mention that I I lived in River Acres for 51 years, >> so I think I beat out somebody. [laughter] Anyhow, thank you for your time. >> Thank you, sir. Okay. Was there anybody else that would like to speak on this topic? Yes. My name is Sandy Cateria and I live uh at 8077 Riveracres Road. And I just I don't have anything new to say other than what everyone else said. I just want to kind of echo that and let you know that there are I see several other of my neighbors here. So, we're just all on the same page. Um, and one extra impact other than all of these other things, our house faces what literally would be a half a mile from this new proposed site. Not I don't know about any of our neighbors, but most of our neighbors don't have even shades on that side because we like to watch the stars and the moon and just over the river every night. and that would change to a big light from a mine and a bunch of noise and and not being able to open our windows. So, in addition to all of the environmental things, um there there is also the light pollution and noise pollution as well. So, and the other thing I'd like to say, I didn't know that the there was an issue with an ice being trained here. I I don't know anything about it other than I would like to say respectfully um I I don't see a problem with them being trained here. I I respect law enforcement and um but again I don't know the issues. I just want you to know that I do respect that and support them. So >> thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Yes. >> [cough] [clears throat] >> My name is Dick P. I live down Greatcloud Township. The only thing I want to remind the council is years ago the city already approved uh back then the Sheileley company of mining farther on Greycloud Island. when they were moving from the west end of that island to the east end, they had to come to the council to get the land reszoneed. Okay? So, you already gifted them years ago. The other half of the island, they didn't have the right to give. I mean, you don't have to keep giving and giving and giving to them. They were given a real good gift because you probably gave them more than half the land of already mined before. So saying no, I mean they can't say the council's been nasty to us all along because you've given them what they already got. I think enough is enough. The communities around here have given plenty. That's all I got to say. >> Thank you, Dick. [clears throat] All right. Anybody else? >> All right. All right, I'm going to go ahead then and uh close uh the open forum and we'll just continue at this moment with the meeting until we get to uh consent and then I'll I'll mention a couple things there. Um so the next thing on our agenda then is approval of the agenda as we spoke earlier. So move >> we have a motion by council member uh Olsson, second by council member. [clears throat] All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I opposed. Motion carries. All right. So now um next since we did the mayor for a day earlier um we're going to move to B which is under presentations uh which is the Cottage Grove Lions Club fitness equipment donation and our director of public safety Pete Kerner is going to start us through this one. So welcome Pete. [clears throat and cough] Well, thank you um honorable mayor and councel. Um as you're aware about a month ago, you already you accepted the official donation [clears throat] and I'm just going to give a short update on this and where we're at with it. And on the slide, we actually have a picture of what was purchased with the donation. But and um last summer in August of 2025, we had the um hometown heroes golf fundraiser and that was sponsored by the Cottage Grove Lions. Um they worked in partnership with our local VFW and the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon organization and numerous public safety staff. um they did really well um for the the first year of doing this and with that they've kind of reached out to public safety and that you know obviously with some different veterans groups with donations and one area that um has been really uh a primary focus with cottage public safety is um employee wellness and fitness and that's just not for our staff within the police department. It's also city staff. We have a a wellness group um our city clerk Tammy Anderson's one of those members. Captain Brad Peterson is a member of that. And one of them is um we we have this great fitness center here, a lot of equipment. Um and it's been here since October of 2012. And some of the stuff was getting tired and it was just kind of a time to revamp. So with that, um we would like to have some of our local Lions members come up and do the the big check. Um on the slide, it shows what was purchased. And we also just updated our um plaque here too that we hang in the fitness center and our our first one was Cottage Grove Lions, Cottage Grove Crime Prevention and the Association. And now we have the Lions again. So with that, now they're starting to come on up guys, gals. John, I can trust you with the check. I I signed Ron Williams name on it. So we might have a [laughter] That was pretty good, wasn't it? >> Yeah. So John, can you pass that down then, too? And we'll get a >> Yeah. John. Yeah. I would just say it's an honor as a part of the Lions Club to partner with Beyond the L ribbon and the VFW to support our public safety members and uh their wellness and we're happy to be a part of the community and appreciate everything that you guys do. Oh, >> we appreciate you guys. Thank you. >> And I guess I'll just I'll just mention and I know on the other side of me here is the current president still, right? >> Unless I got impeached. >> Oh, did you impeach him yet? No. uh the current president uh of the uh Cottageg Grove Lions Club and and you know this is to be honest with you this is a small piece of a lot of things that the Lions Club does for the city of Cottage Grove and its residents and whether it's donating equipment to support our public safety department and others within the community or others within the staff I should say or fire equipment or park buildings or I mean I could just keep going with all the different things that you guys do and I just want to say thank you because uh you truly do make Cottage Grove an amazing place to live and work and play uh with a lot of the stuff dealing with the play um with the things that we like to do with the Lions and I just wanted again to say thank you once again on behalf of myself and the staff and I I and the and the council and with the many people that we have in the room tonight which is neat to see. Uh why don't we just give the Lions Club a round of applause please? [applause] And if I'm if I'm understanding right, this is going to go up into the fitness room. >> Yeah. In the fitness room with the uh information on the plaque that shows the people that donated it. So with that, I want to Did you get a picture or do you need a picture? >> Okay. I'm good. Thanks, Justin. >> I'd probably fall. >> Thanks, Mike. I got to put it back. [laughter] >> I don't see anything. Sounds good, John. Thank you. [clears throat] >> All right. >> Just another of the many donations they do. Thank you, uh, Council Member Brosman for your leadership on that. great uh great committee and group. Um so the final thing under uh presentations this evening is a proclamation uh and it's Native American Heritage Month. And I did ask uh Council Member um Oh, actually Council Member Garza, right? Yeah, Council Member Garza to actually read the proclamation. And once she's done, um we'll go ahead and look for a motion in a second. So kick it off to you. >> Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Proclamation for Native American Heritage Month, November 2025. Whereas the area known the area known today as Minnesota is located on ancestrial and contemporary lands that have been that have been called home by indigenous peoples since time in Murro. And whereas Minnesota is home to 11 tribal nations and a resilient and robust Native American community. and Native Americans have made essential contributions to the history, culture, and economy in Minnesota, including traditional knowledge, labor, technology science philosophy industries, and arts. and the Dakota and Ojiway resided resided on this land prior to the arrival of European settlers and experienced a history of interactions with Europeans and European-American settlers that were defined by broken promises, violence, deprivation, and disease. And this history that we must reconcile as we actively promote practices and policies to address longstanding in inequities and disparities that exist and work to eliminate systemat systematic racism and discrimination towards indigenous people. And during Native American His history History Month, the city of Cottage Grove honors the vibrant and diverse national or Native American cultures that form part of Minnesota today by renewing our commitment to government-togovernment relationships and promoting appreciation, reconciliation understanding friendship, and continued partnerships among all motans and the native people of this land. Now therefore, the mayor and city council of the city of Cottage Grove, County of Washington, state of Minnesota, hereby proclaim November 2025 as Native American Heritage Month, passed this fifth day of November 5th by the mayor. >> All right. So, uh, Council Member Garz, would you like to make the motion? >> Sure. I would love to make the motion to declare November 20 November as the as the her Native American Heritage Month. I should have proof or pre-eread this. Sorry y'all. [laughter] >> It's a little tongue twister there for you. So, we got a a motion by council member B uh Garza. Do I have a second? Second. >> Second by council member Biti. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. Thank you again for reading that. All right. Now, we're going to move on to number seven, which is the consent agenda. Is there anything council would like to pull on consent? Um, I am going to pull Since we did have a lot of people that spoke on the MRI National Mine or Nelson Mine and I've got a statement that I was going to read. Is there anything else that council would like and I'm just going to pull it to read and then we can go from there. Nothing else. Okay. All right. So, uh, what I thought I would share with the public, um, is just some information that that we have from a city's perspective. So, the resolution before the city council this evening is a determination of adequacy uh for the MRI National Backwaters Mine Project Environmental Impact Statement or as it's called uh EIS. I first want to start off by thanking residents uh here and in surrounding communities for participating in this process. The city of Cottage Grove takes our role in the EIS process very seriously and it's important to note what that role is. The city's narrow role here is to gather the potential impacts of this proposed project to inform permitting decisions made by other agencies. And we did just that. Next in the process, this proposed project would move on to permitting where the DNR and the Army Corps of Engineers will make decisions about the proposed project based on this information. This action tonight does not permit the project. It is it is specific to the adequacy determination of the final EIS and would not permit the project or allow for the applicant to take action on this proposed project. The purpose of an EIS is to compile the potential impacts of the actions of the proposed project and to inform the work and decisions of the permitting agencies. Over the course of three plus years, the city since day one has taken our role as the responsible government unit to gather potential impacts very seriously. The city assembled a technical advisory committee inclusive of the friends of the Mississippi, DNR, Army Corps of Engineers, Washington County, the tribal nations among others. You as the community have expressed your concerns and we have heard those concerns and obviously we heard them again tonight. In addition to the technical advisory committee, the city has spent the past three years working with specialists and experts in their field including hydraologists biologists archaeologists ecologist noise specialist, ge ge geologists, a lot of them here. Uh and engineers just to name a few. We now have a 1,000page document that is comprised of over 100 of your comments and concerns that will be a reference for agencies such as the DNR, Army Corps of Engineers, and the tribal nations to inform their decision around permitting of the proposed project. Our role was to gather the potential impacts of this proposed project and we did just that. permitting agencies including the DNR and the Army Corps of Engineers are responsible to refer to and expand upon the identified potential impact that was outlined in the EIS. These permitting agencies will consider mitigation measures and conduct further environmental analysis as part of the permitting process. The action before us this evening is to deem that the final EIS is adequate to inform the permitting agencies as they make their decisions. So I just wanted to kind of give an idea of what that what that is. So we are not just to be very clear again we are not um voting to approve uh the mining project uh in the backwaters of the Mississippi. >> Yes. Uh, Council Member Mthiti, >> just for clarification, [clears throat] does this come back to the council at any time before they're allowed to to actually mine that area? >> Mayor, members of the council, it's a very complex process. Um, what we have undertaken is a Minnesota uh process for environmental. The federal process has not undertaken by the Army Corps of Engineers. So there's an environmental federally uh NEPA process that would have to take place. So that would be another step and also when we look at the permitting the DNR would have to do that extensive work in the Army Corps of Engineers. So the city of Cottage Grove will not see this again for quite some time. We would be last for any permitting activity. >> But we will see it again before they're allowed to buy in the area. We we'll see. We'll have an opportunity to >> We would be the last permitting entity to see this. >> Okay. >> Yes. The answer is yes. >> Okay. >> Uh council, any other questions on this topic? >> I don't have any questions though. >> Okay. So then at this point, um I just pulled it to read a statement and then allow any council members to make any comments or ask questions at this point. So, if there is no other um items that need to be discussed or pulled on consent. >> Consent. >> All right. So, we have a motion by council member Olsson. Do I have a second? >> I'll second that. >> Second by council member McCclen. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. So, if you are here for anything that is on tonight's consent calendar, all of those items have been approved. All right. We'll move to number eight which is approved dispersement. 8A is to pay the bills. >> A move to pay the bills. >> We have a motion by council member Garza. Do I have a second by council member Theiti? Any discussion? >> Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I opposed. >> Motion carries. Nine is public hearings. We have none this evening. Bid awards we have none this evening which is 10. Uh regular agenda. We do have one item this evening. A uh item A is site plan review for proposed addition to Greycloud Elementary. And uh Max Ericson, our planner, is going to walk us through this one. Welcome, Max. [clears throat] Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh, Koma Architects on behalf of School District 833 have applied for a site plan review for Great Cloud Elementary. As you are aware, the school is located off of Indian Boulevard South. It shares a parcel with Cottage Grove Middle School. Um the partial zone R3 schools are allowed uh as a condition of use in the R3 zone. Um Great Cloud Elementary was approved uh in 1990 uh under a CUP. The proposal uh before you is um in anticipation for a future increase uh into the student body. Uh they proposed to um add two additions to the school. one being a gymnasium, the other being um a classroom block. Uh they also uh proposed to make various uh site improvements such as a removal of a drive lane, uh parking area. Um they're planning on uh relocating a playground, and then they're adding a a new storm water. The site is currently accessed off of Indian Boulevard South by two accesses. Nothing is changing with these accesses. Um uh they're planning on removing a drive lane. Uh staff have uh observed traffic during the school hours. There are no issues uh that have that staff have observed with traffic. Um they're planning on removing uh park 10 parking stalls on the north um corner of the um school. Uh the [clears throat] site currently uh well exceeds the parking standards requirements of city code. Uh the removal of these parking stalls will not change that. Uh proposed architectural materials uh will meet city code. Um the majority of the materials will be comprised of brick uh prefab, concrete, slab uh and uh glass. Um as seen on the image on the bottom left are the proposed uh materials against the existing um building material and so it will match the color palette uh as is. The applicants have also um uh proposed to add some lighting on the gymnasium edition. Um this will also meet city code. It'll be downfacing uh and light uh will not leave the site. uh minimal site uh impact will occur uh for the existing landscaping. Um they do plan on removing some trees. Uh no mitigation is required uh based on the number of trees and the size of the site. Um uh they are required to plant uh various trees and shrubs based on the uh impact of uh the limited u new construction. Uh they propose to uh add a new storm water feature, new storm water pond in the north uh part of the parking lot. [snorts] Um the existing storm water uh on site was constructed uh under in the 1990s under 1990 standards and this will uh treat current impervious as well as the uh proposed impervious surface uh under current stormwater standards. Uh the applicants propose a new sewer connection to a public node on Indian Boulevard. Uh the classroom edition will have bathrooms uh and plumbing code makes it a challenge to connect uh the exist to the existing sewer node um on site. Uh this will require a rightaway permit with the city uh for any work that they do in uh on Indian Boulevard. Um slight alterations on a couple fire hydrants on site. Um, with all projects that have hydrants, uh, the city has worked with the applicant to, uh, come up with a excess easement so the city can continue to maintain, uh, maintain those hydrants and service them in the future. U, there is an existing drainage and utility easement uh, and a storm water pond on the north uh, west corner on property line. Um the uh original easement uh does not uh currently uh match the the existing Stormar pond. Um and so uh an amendment to this easement has been worked on with the applicant to uh encompass the entire entirety of that stormwater feature. This storm water pond treats uh city or it treats public water as well as private water. [snorts] And before I leave the recommendation before you. >> Okay. >> And I also have the applicants uh and the representatives of the school district. >> Fantastic. So uh council, first of all, is there any questions that you'd like for um for Max? >> Okay. How about the applicant? Is any concerns or anything? Would the applicant like to speak at all or this is like well how many for us now? I know it's different schools but kind of the same thing. All right. So I'm seeing none. Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, Council Brolson, >> this is for the applicant just because I know you don't want to. Um, parking. Uh, we we've discussed it several times as you're in the midst of several of these types of projects and I know that, uh, on occasion when you do these, you have to reconfigure the parking lot and, um, manage parking spaces, etc. And it sounds like you don't have really any concerns that you're going to lose significant amount of capacity or anything like that, but um out of curiosity with all the various events that go on in the community near Greycloud Elementary as an example, Strawberry Fest as an example, the food truck festival, etc. Um, is there going to be any concern on the part of the school district uh when it comes to the public continuing to utilize parking at Greatcloud for some of the overflow from these events? Do you guys have any concerns or or uh is there any sort of conversation going on about that or do you think it'll just be business as usual? >> Yeah, I would come up there so the public can hear you. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Almost. All right, good evening everybody. Um, Kyle Uker, director of facilities for the school district. Um, actually Zack Doctor just sent me an email on that the other day that works. >> So, yeah. [laughter] So, we actually just started preparing a long list of he had about six points on his email. Um, I we don't really see much of an impact to those things. You know, there's some questions about um you know, using Greycloud uh gym as the storm shelter. >> I was gonna ask that next, so he beat me to it. >> Zach's got it covered. >> Yeah. Okay. >> So, we are looking at all that stuff. >> Um excuse me. I should have spit my gum out. I didn't plan on speaking. Um public speaking faux 101 right there. [laughter] So, yeah, working with those guys on that. Um, I don't think we're going to have major impact in terms of parking. Uh, we're going to try and leave the bus lane open, bus parking open as much as possible because we know they also have the U10 National Softball Tournament. >> You're totally in my head right now. Perfect. Good. >> Well, we realize, you know, the public loves to use the space. Uh, it's a great space. So, we're trying to work in conjunction with everybody that's trying to use the space at the same time. So, >> and as long as Zach's on it, then I'm good. So, thank you. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Any more questions? >> No. Any other questions, council? >> Thanks. >> All right. Thank you. >> Kind of covered the >> Yeah, I think you did. >> All right. With that, council, if you noticed on the screen, I believe there is four different um items. I if somebody wants to take number one and then we'll kind of work our way start. >> Yep. Go ahead. Um, I'll move to adopt resolution 2025162 approving the site plan review of an approximate 3,476qt classroom addition and approximate 6,55t gymnasium gymnasium addition and reworking of the site storm water and parking lots at Greycloud Elementary School located at 9525 Indian Boulevard South. >> All right. So, I have a motion by Council Member Clson, second by Council Member Olsen. Uh, any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Number two. >> I'll move that we approve the amended permanent drainage and utility easement. >> All right. So, we have a motion by council member Olsson. Do I have a second? Second by council member Thei. Again, any questions? Councel. >> Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. Number three. I would move that we approve the hydrant access agreement with independent school district 833 which allows the city access to the sites fire hydrants. >> All right. So I have a motion by council member Thei. Do I have a second? Second by council member Garza. >> Any questions? Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. And last but not least, >> I can handle this one. I move to approve the storm water maintenance agreement with Independent School District 833 for the proposed storm water pond. >> All right. So, we have a motion by council member Garza. Do >> second by council member McCclawson. >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I opposed. >> Motion carries. There you go. On to the next project. Right. >> Thanks, guys. >> Thank you. >> All right. Now, we're down to 12, which is council comments and requests. I will start with uh as normal with council member Clawson. >> Mayor, nothing to add tonight. Thank you. >> Nothing. Okay, sounds good. Council member Brolson. >> Thank you, mayor. One of the things that we approved uh on our consent this evening was a gambling permit for the uh Mississippi River Valley Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Network team, which I'm very proud to be part of. Um, first let me say uh congratulations to that team for being named the nonprofit of the year by the Cottage Grove area Chamber of Commerce this year. Um, they they were uh very very grateful for the honor and this comes on top of being named volunteer organization of the year um by the city of Cottage Grove at our volunteer banquet. So, uh, it's been a good year for Mississippi River Valley Beyond the Yellow Ribbon. Um, we want to continue that. For those who don't know, November is military appreciation month. And, uh, next week, Monday, November the 11th, is uh, the uh, Veterans Day celebration that we do nationally in the United States of America. [snorts] Our Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Network team is uh always working to support military families and veterans, but it gets particularly um focused during the holiday season because uh we have every year um you know dozens and dozens of families in need at the holidays due to having family members who are deployed. um you know there may be situations where somebody's dealing with uh PTSD or some other related illness that comes from their military service. And so uh what we do is we partner with the Cottage Grove Lions. You'll all notice I have my Lion shirt on tonight. Um and we do uh adopt a family uh where we shop for these families in need with the Lions Club. Um, and then we all go back to the VFW and we wrap all the gifts. We shop at Target. Target's always treated us very, very well. Um, you know, they they give us dedicated uh shopping lanes, etc. And um you know, generally speaking, we spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 to $12,000 a year uh just at the holidays to make sure that uh every family that's in need that comes our way, and sometimes they're even outside our network area, um they don't get turned away. We also support the veterans who live in our retirement communities here in the city of Cottage Grove to make sure that they also get gifts at the holidays uh that recognizes their contribution through their service to their uh fellow residents and uh fellow Americans. One of the ways we do that is we fundra and we fundra all year long. Uh you saw the results of some of that fundraising earlier this evening where we had our uh hometown heroes golf tournament. We were able to raise some money uh in partnership with the Lions Club and the VFW. And um you know we try to use those funds to their best uh and highest use or or purpose. Um and at the holidays as I stated earlier that purpose is to support military families and veterans. If you'd like to help us with that, we approved a gambling permit earlier this evening for what we call our hometown helpers or our holiday helpers raffle tickets. Okay, we we started this program last year with uh uh the help of our Lions Club. Uh it's modeled on the big ticket raffle that we do through the Lions Club. Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Network members, including myself, uh we sell these tickets for $100 a piece, and there's only a hundred tickets. That's all we sell. Um all of the prizes are cash prizes, and one ticket can win multiple times. Every winning ticket goes back into the hopper for the next drawing. And again, there's only a hundred tickets. So, the top prize here is $1,500. And the prizes range from uh we have 10 prizes, $1,500 all the way down to 150 bucks uh for your $100 ticket. And again, you can win multiple times. So, if you'd like to help us out uh by supporting Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, please reach out to any of us. Uh myself, um Captain Peterson uh is our vice president. Um Sergeant Nickel is our president. We also have a number of community members including Mary Dingle from St. Paul Park. Um, uh, Matt Jordan here from the city of Cottage Grove and so on. We're happy to deliver these to you. I'll tell you right now, we're down to our last 25 tickets. They're that's it. They'll be gone. They're gone. The drawing takes place on December the 6th at the VFW. And again, we'd love to sell you one. You just got to reach out to us. So, uh, wanted to encourage everybody to help the helpers. And don't forget uh from the 4th through the 11th in honor of uh veterans and military families, it is Operation Greenlight. That's a national um endeavor that we do. Uh you can put a green light bulb uh out on your porch light or by your garage and uh that's a very simple way to say um we support our military veterans and uh we thank them for their service. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Wilson. Council member Theiti, >> I guess I've got uh one item or I'll let I'll let you take the other one. But um one item tonight at our our Strawberry Fest committee meeting Monday night, we actually had, you know, we had solicited uh uh themes from people to turn those in and and uh button designs and so forth. And uh we chose one out of six entries that were were made. And I'm not going to tell you what it is, but watch for social media and uh for the announcement and seeing what the Strawberry Fest theme and and button is going to be uh uh for next year. So >> awesome. Thank you. >> Council member Garza. >> Well, I don't really have much. I lost my paper, but I noticed that the holiday train wasn't mentioned on here. >> I have that. >> Okay. I was wondering like, okay, I didn't see that. Um, but there's a lot of events that are coming up in the next month or two. Um, during the month of November as well as December, we have a holidays lights tour that's happening on Friday, November 14th. So, that will be a lot of fun to go around town and see everyone's holiday lights that will start. Um, there's a makers market at River Oaks on November 8th. So, that's this weekend coming up. So, that'll be a lot of fun. And I just wanted to mention what a little bit of um, piggybacking off of what Justin had said. Um there's a lot going on in our communities and our local food banks would love their the support of our communities. So if you are able to support the local food banks, I think that would be a really amazing thing to do and it would help some people in our community. It help a lot of families. So if you're able to, I would say support them if you're able if you can. And with that, I'll give it back to you, mayor. >> Okay. Thank you, Council Member. I'm gonna have you just do it. I'm going to throw it back to Council Member Olsson real quick. I've tried to read his writing. I forgot something and I apologize for this. Uh as as uh council person Garza said, uh there's a lot going on and sometimes I can't keep it all straight. To also celebrate uh November being a military appreciation month, um the Minnesota Asian-American and Pacific Islander group who spoke at Memorial Day this year here in the city of Cottage Grove are holding their annual ball in Oakdale on November the 8th. And again, this is to support Asian-American and Pacific Islander military veterans and active duty soldiers. Um, I'm very grateful to be able to attend this. Um, looking forward to it very much. But if you would like to support the Asian-American and Pacific Islander uh military veterans as well, feel free. This is open to the public. You don't have to be a member of the military to attend the ball. Um, you can certainly reach out to me or anybody else uh part of our Beyond the Yellow Ribbon network and we will give you all the information. I want to personally thank John B. Yang who was one of our speakers at Memorial Day this year uh for his gracious invitation and uh really looking forward. This will be at the Prom Center. I believe it starts at 400 p.m. on on the 8th, but um if you'd like to attend, just let me know and I'll get you in touch with the right people. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. Just a couple uh additional items just to share with you. First of all, Council Member Rosa mentioned uh this last week we had the opportunity to uh experience I'll say the uh Cottage Grove area Chamber of Commerce uh and what they do at the Chamber of Commerce is every year they have like a banquet uh and they celebrate and recognize businesses and such. And one of the uh council member Morrison mentioned uh one with regards to beyond the yellow ribbon that was recognized as the uh volunteer group of the year. Um what was interesting to me and pretty cool is uh River Oaks Golf Course was uh recognized as a small business of the year and the city of Cottage Grove was recognized as a large business of the year. So talk about like a clean sweep. >> That was great. >> Um uh so it was very cool to see that. It was great to see a lot of our staff and people that were able to be there to uh uh glow in that opportunity there. So, I just want to say congratulations to our staff and our citizens and the council and that for uh all of that that happened in all of those cases, whether it's River Oaks uh supporting the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon or the city as a whole. Uh uh Council Member Garza was mentioning the holiday lights tour. Um the one thing I did want to mention real quick um is registration is beginning actually on Friday, November 14th. Um, and so you can register online uh to have your home uh on the tour and uh the maps will be available beginning on November 26th because I was going to notice when you said that my stuff will not be done by the time the 14th rolls around. Uh and then entries can still be added to the list, if you will, through December 15th. So if you're one of those late comers and trying to get stuff up, depending on how the weather's going, um feel free to do that. It's uh it's a great opportunity uh for that. Um, and then also just looking ahead here, so you can put it on your calendars, a hometown holiday celebration will be December 4th here at city hall from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Uh, you can have photos with Santa, Mrs. Claus, there's going to be wagon rides, games, food trucks. Uh, there'll be inflatables, there'll be reindeer, and all that out here. We've been doing this for a few years now. It gets bigger and better every year. Uh, it's a like a holiday tradition you can do here in the community of Cottage Grove. And I I don't have the date yet about the um for the um Lions Club Santa breakfast, but I do know River Oaks also has a Santa breakfast which will be on December 21st from uh 9:00 a.m. to 12. Adults are $25. Kids 6 through 12 is 18. And then kids under six are free. And you do sign up online. And I will tell you the the spots go fast because it is pretty cool to take the the sleigh ride, if you will, around the golf course. Um it's a great event. And I know that usually the week or so before >> December 14th I believe is our date. But I will confirm that >> and then bring that to the next meeting. That would be perfect cuz uh both events are are very well attended and uh they're both different. So it's kind of cool to have take the kids or grandkids in my case uh to those event. And then uh final thing which was council member Garza was commenting about. So once again this year uh the CPKC um uh holiday train will be arriving back here in Cottage Grove. Uh it'll be arriving uh which is great news on a sata on Saturday, December 13th. Uh the train will be arriving on uh West Point Douglas Road around 5:15. Uh though the event as a whole runs from 3:30 to 6:30 because there's other things to do at the event. There's food trucks and music and so on. Um and again, um the goal this year, I asked this at the uh chamber event last week. Uh the goal this year is actually to raise $125,000 uh for the Friends in Need food shelf. And as we've all been hearing about what's going on in the nation with the government shutdown and SNAP benefits and that um as as was mentioned by council member Garz, if there's an opportunity for you to help uh your fellow neighbors out there um and whether it's um providing items in specific items, matter of fact, they mention they prefer cash, which obviously going to buy a lot with cash. Uh but personal care items are real important. So, if you're a local business or something or you want to, you know, capture that stuff and bring it down there, there's opportunities for you to actually uh drop off sites there or literally we'll all take it down to the uh Friends of New Food Shelf, which is in uh St. Paul Park. So, again, uh it is Saturday, December 13th. Uh train arrives at 5:15. There's plenty of space to park. There'll be uh wagon rides to get from the parking lot down to where the event is. Uh we are one of the largest events in the United States, literally. Uh and we've uh raised more money than any other stop in the United States for the friends in need food shelf. So um we have a lot to be proud of and let's uh support our local neighbors. Okay. All right. That was it for me on my topics. Um so just for the public um we do have two uh we do have a workshop this evening which is open to the public. We have two items on the workshop. Uh one is mobile food licensing and fee structure. Um and the second one is 80th Street and East Point Douglas rehabilitation project. These are both workshops that will be in the training room. They are open to the public. So, if anybody wants to come in and and sit in and listen, they're welcome to do so. Uh we do not have any uh workshops that are closed to the public. So, we won't be adjourning in here. Uh we will be adjourning in the training room. So everybody have a great uh Wednesday evening and uh take