momentum, expanding industrial and business park development, bringing new jobs and investment to the community, supporting continued residential and commercial growth, uh because people increasingly want to work, live, and invest right here in Rosemont and continuing to position itself as one of the most forward-looking communities in the entire region. This this growth is not accidental. It's intentional. It's strategic. And it's leadership driven. And a city and a city like this should not have an ordinary state of the city. Right? So today, you can see we're going to do things a little bit differently. And I need everybody in the room here, put down your delicious tacos. And um help me out. But I need you to count down from five. So we're going to give a big television style countdown. Ready? Five, four, three, two, one. And broadcasting live from channel 1 and GRW Grow TV. It's the Rosemont State of the City Talk event. But before we begin, every great show has great sponsors. So, a huge thank you to SKB Environmental. You toss it, we handle it, no problem. Meta, you post it, the world sees it. Minnesota Energy Resources, we keep the region powered in you moving forward. Spectro Allo Alloys Corporation, turning yesterday's aluminum into tomorrow's possibilities. Paul Aen, State Farm. You burn it, you crash it, you flood it, I've got you covered. Let's give all our sponsors a huge round of applause, please. Their in their investment in Rosemont in events like today helps fuel the momentum that we're here to celebrate. And now, here we go. Behind every great city is a team that makes things happen. the planners, the staff, the problem solvers, the people who turn vision into action every single day. And leading that team, the mayor who understands that growth doesn't just happen, it's built, it's planned, it's earned. A champion of smart development, strong infrastructure, and thriving local economy. The mayor of the fastest growing, one of the most talked about cities in our region, just back from his tour with the view. Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for your mayor of Rosemont, Jeff Weissel. Here, Jeffrey. I've retired from my regular job. So, I've just been exhausted working so many years and thought we'd start up a little different here. So, thank you. Thank you for the warm welcome. Thank you to the entire chamber team for hosting us today. Your partnership makes days like this run smoothly and we appreciate it. So, first off, I'd like to introduce uh my colleagues at the Rosemont City Council because certainly I don't do this myself uh just by myself. I have uh the council members here. And if you'd please stand, Paul Esler, Heidi Freski, Tammy Climpmple, and unfortunately Paul Tyson, he's he's still working down in Chicago. So, uh he was unable to join us today. But for for these people, this is I want to thank you personally for everybody to hear your your steady leadership and t uh teamwork here. This is um this is such a great team uh your city council working uh for the city. So again, thank you very much. I'd also like to take a moment uh I'm fortunate enough to continue to do this. Uh I just want to acknowledge my wife Kathy and other leaders that I have uh just to recognize here are Dakota County Commissioners Bill Drossy and Mary Haymon Roland. Thank you for being here today for your partnership. The city of Rosemount. I'd also like to acknowledge Michael Basani from the District 196 office in the back. And then from our Met Council, Mark Jenkins. Thank you. So, we're going to have a little fun with this. So, apparently, I don't know how to say the name of our local restaurant and catering service, but I'm going to work really hard here. They actually phonetically spelled it out. But a special thank you to Ryan and Jen from Lost Tortillas. How's that? For providing that delicious lunch today. We're grateful for your ongoing support in this community and certainly for this event. And now to all you chamber members, business leaders, and community partners. Thank you for taking the time out of your day today. Your work, your investment helped to keep this community moving forward and driving that hometown feel that we know we have. And finally, certainly to our city staff who are both here in the room and those back at the city hall and across the community. Thank you. You help shape the quality of life in Rose Mounts every single day. And you play a central role in the accomplishments and goals we are sharing today. And so, as mentioned before, if you haven't quite figured out, we're trying something a little different this year. And so, I'll give my 45minut speech after we're done here. But we're introducing today a light conversational talk show. You'll see each of our department leaders join me as guests in a fun way to highlight the work of our team that's been going on to support the strategic priorities of our city council. And like I mentioned before, I've retired from my day job, which apparently means I'm really relaxed now. So, yes, we're going to try to have some fun. And this is me being fun. All right. We want to feel this to be informative, engaging, and to give you a real sense of the people behind the work. And to help me with this new FA format, I'm bringing out to you someone who is truly at the center of it all. I call him the architect of implementation, the one who turns policy into action for city council. Please help me welcome our city administrator, Mr. Logan Martin. Thanks, mayor. Thanks, everybody. >> Hey, Logan. How are we doing today? >> Oh, we're so good. What an awesome day in Rosemount. It's fantastic. It's fun to see you be fun, right? The mayor's fun. This is phenomenal. Yeah. >> Well, thanks for being my right-hand man today. I'm calling you the architect of implementation, the guy that keeps everything on track. So wondering, we've had some uh uh highlights this year. Um what kind of drew you to this role being the center of all this for the city? >> Yeah. Well, I definitely don't want to see myself as a center of it. I because what drew me to the role is really public service. Uh you know, I was raised in a family that valued public service. My my father was a Dakota County Deputy Sheriff for his whole career. Uh, so I think that's deeply instilled in me that we give back to the communities that we live in and and I just have loved my time here. But, um, what drives me to the role and what I wanted to flag in this moment, mayor, is the city staff that you guys are about to hear from today. We're going to get to hear from a good smattering of our city staff. Uh, and and they're just like the top-notch people. You're going to see how excited they are about their work, how much they love serving the city of Rosemount, and that fires me up every day. >> So, anyone in particular here that's not on our uh, guest list here? >> Yes, mayor. You had mentioned that we get to hear from a lot of our city leaders. There's a city leader that's not on our stage today. She is our right-hand man at city hall and that's Tia Mala. Can Tia wave to us? Tia is our Tia is up on the screen. Tia is our administrative services director which means that she's in other cities effectively what you've heard of as like the assistant city administrator. Tia is in charge of HR, IT, budget, finance, accounting, communications, oversees it all. And she's such a humble leader that she's having our city clerk talk about elections today. and she's back there. Uh but but just know that Tia is the only member of the department head team that you're not going to see on stage today, but we thank her for what she does at at city hall for sure. >> Certainly running that budget. >> So there's a couple of highlights. Uh as I think back on 2025, uh we were named the city of the year by real estate journal. Second time in a row for something like that. We opened up our PD PW comp. What what kind of things do you think about uh as you look back on the 2025? >> Yeah. And just so that our other city partners, if there are any in the room know, we chose not to submit for city of the year here in 2026, so we won't win it a third time. We just didn't feel like it'd be right to win it three times in a row. So, we'll we'll stick with two. Uh that's probably enough. Uh but, uh no, uh we're really focused on uh supporting the council strategic plan and and again focusing on the staff here. The fourth pillar of our strategic plan is all the things that you guys as business and community leaders see in town um doesn't happen without a culture of high performance at city hall uh and in everything that we do. Uh and so what we want you to hear today is just how focused your city staff is uh on serving you guys as members of the community and really driving towards that strategic plan. >> You know, you mentioned three times in a row and I know John was very humble in not mentioning it, but I couldn't help. We received this um if anybody's wondering these two wonderful >> it's not the Lombardi trophy. Is that correct? Okay. >> No, this isn't the Heisman, but it's close enough for us. Uh what uh what John was so humble not to share was uh the kicks for cure, which uh he's a strong um uh person behind the drive here in Dakota County. And so there's a challenge for the mayors and we get to kick uh for it. And for the last three years, um, Rosemount myself and I had a help little help last year from Paul Tyson when I was having my knees done, but we won for the most number of kicks percentage- wise and things. So, that was one of the deals, but there were also that first year, um, we kind of added a second one in because we needed a tiebreaker. I actually tied with another, uh, I think it was Farmington's. Yeah, I believe it was Farmington's mayor and we tied. And so to break the tie, it was who could raise the most money. And so I was fortunate enough to get that. And so we got two trophies. And you'll see the football down in front. So we've done this now three times in a row. Um I'd like to get these back again next year. So if any of you when when this comes out probably in October, there's a thing I'm going to put a promo here to we'll take your donations. This is a great cause. We raised a couple thousand dollars last year. like to get a little bit higher for John on that. And so just in case you were wondering what that was all about. So >> yeah, there you go. There you go. >> All right, I think it's time. Let's bring on the crew. >> Let's do it. >> All right. First up, department with a major job this year, elections. Please welcome our city clerk, Aaron Fosbender. Hi, thank you. >> Big year or nothing going on this year. >> Well, as it does say, it is my Super Bowl year. So, yeah, pretty big year. >> What uh what kind of election improvements do you think uh voters should notice this year? >> Yeah, absolutely. I would say first and foremost um with our partnership with Dakota County, we have new election equipment this year that you'll see at all polling locations um which is very important because that will allow additional accessibility for our voters who need that, but also just a quicker vote in uh check-in process as well. >> So, uh we do some of our coordination with state and with the county. Could you share a little of that? Yeah. So, as I mentioned, Dakota County, we have a great partnership with them. Um, they handle maintaining all of our election equipment. They do a lot of the testing, you know, in partnership with us, uh, city staff as well. And then in addition, new um, as of 2022, they still continue to handle our absentee ballot process, which is a huge weight lifted off of our shoulder. Um, I don't want to say that I'm scarred from 2020, but I am. Processing processing over 10,000 ballots on my own was not an ideal situation. So, we're very grateful for our partnership that we continue to have with Dakota County. >> So, one thing uh for residents, if they want to get involved, uh how could how can they do that besides voting? >> Yes. First and foremost, vote. Um, but also we're always looking for election judges. So any of our residents who are interested in partaking in that, they can go ahead online and and um fill out an application on our website and we'll look to get in touch with them or certainly if they just want to know more about the election process. We have a very much an open door process or open door and we're happy to connect with voters at any point in time. >> Oh, here we go. This is the perks of being live. Um, yes, certainly. So, election judges certainly uh we're always looking for more. So, if anyone is interested, go ahead and fill out an application on our website. >> And I know one time you uh uh came to the youth commission and mentioned that to them. So, how um how old do they have to be that they can be an election judge? >> We love student election judges, especially with the new technology that we have. Students are very good at running an iPad. So, um we look for students starting at age 16. >> 16. >> Yes. >> Pretty good. Well, thank you, Aaron. Logan, what do you think of uh elections coming up for this year? >> Yeah, it's always a a really big year for us in ad in administrative services and Aaron and her uh partner in crime, Sarah Saunders, who's actually out getting certified for an additional year of clerk certification right now, just do a phenomenal job. And I guess would remind folks to uh show some grace to your election judges as the lines might get long or we're learning the new equipment, but the new equipment is so voter or so voter friendly, so user friendly. It should be an awesome year and uh we look forward to to to seeing election day. >> All righty. Well, thank you very much, >> Aaron. >> Election season already on us. >> I You should focus on that more than me, Mayor. I I don't I don't think too much about elections. I >> Yes. >> You have that date circled on your calendar, right? Are you here to make an announcement? No, I'm kidding. >> I don't know. I I heard it's May 19th. Um, so a couple council members and I are running for reelection. So, um, I guess May 19th, we'll start that, uh, season off. So, next, uh, what do we have up? Public safety. >> I think we do. >> A key found a key foundation of any of our, uh, of our communities. Uh, I would like to welcome our new police chief, Carson Thomas. Well, Chief, it's great having you officially on board now. I know you've been hanging around as a deputy chief, but how does how does it feel being chief now? >> Well, that's a good question. No. Um, it's it's awesome. I I have an awesome staff, an amazing opportunity in the city of Rosemont, the community to really invest in the future of our department. Um, being a 20 plus year, 10 year veteran from California, I know that uh my ceiling is going to end in 5 to seven years most likely. And being able to have a a really influence on our young officers, the men and women who are going to protect the city for 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now is a is a blessing and an honor. So, >> so how are things going so far? Yeah, you know, um each day, um we look for opportunities to build relationships in the city. Each day we look to take to look at our ceiling and say, "How do we create a ceiling that's higher that sometime is not achievable?" Because we constantly want to be moving the needle to be better at what we're doing. Um I can say if I look at the men and women that we're hiring right now, um they're the cream of the crop. their their intellect, their ability to communicate, their empathy, and their ability to to reason out in the field and make decisions based on sound professional standards is amazing. And so, um, I have no problem when our men and women go out to serve that we're providing the very best service we possibly can. >> I know you're focused on certainly the, uh, the officers that, uh, work with you. Tell us a little bit about yourself and, uh, and your vision here behind the department. >> Sure. Um I I I was telling uh Chief Springer that secretly I always wanted to be a firefighter. Uh it just didn't work out so well in California. Um but um no, so I I I yeah um I my mom is from Redwood Falls. That's what brought me back to Minnesota. I grew up in California, the Bay Area. Um, I spent 20 plus years in two different agencies up in Alama County, the city of Newark, which up by Oakland and the city of Morgan Hill, which is in Santa Clara County by San Jose and a lot of Silicon Valley. And um, came out here, retired, and then opportunities opened up and this was a perfect opportunity to figure out what I could do from my experience in California and blend it with Minnesota and could not have picked a better place. And so, it's just a blessing to be here and and every day to me is is a blessing. I I don't take it for granted. >> I noticed um if anybody's been reading some of our posts and things, uh you got a couple of new tools out there. Uh I understand drones and canines are in our future here. >> Yeah. So, one of the things, and it seems like sometimes government, especially law enforcement, we tend to be on the back end of what's going on in the greater community. And so as we look at utilizing resources out to make our ability to serve the community at a higher level, uh, drones and canines definitely came across our table. And so from a a drone standpoint, we're able to get eyes on the scene, allow our our public safety resources, not just police department, but fire to have a better idea of what they're walking into and then get resources there. And so we have seven drone operators, we have an exterior drone, and we have an interior drone. um were sanctioned through statutes through the state as well as the feds. And so we're working through those processes. And then we did add a new partner um K9 Jet. And K9 is a tracking article and also gunpowder uh sensitive uh K9. And so when we look at our city and we looked at what kind of resources we needed, we looked at there's countless times when our city or other city we have missing adults, we have atrisisk youth, we have areas that we really need to locate quickly and having that resource has been amazing. And then Jess, if you have a chance to meet Jed and his handler on us, they're just amazing people. >> Chief, we are researching the drone canines as well, right? Is that still a plan? >> We we are. We're hoping that uh that we we'll get there closer. So on the on the other side, um our officers, uh they put in some uh uh a lot of times uh sometimes they're not really positive experiences. Um talk to us a little bit about wellness care. >> Sure. I would say over the last uh definitely within the last 15 but in the last 10 years research has showed us that uh trauma stays in in any kind of trauma and we all go through trauma in life and so having the ability in Sydney partnership and the resources through Dakota County and the greater Minnesota to provide wellness programs. We have a strong peer support team. We do something called the checkup from the neckup where we provide our personnel at the PD to meet with a licensed physician and we actually mandate it once a year. Just go talk to somebody. It can be about whatever you want to talk to them about, but start building relationships. We're also looking at different foods and different wellness opportunities. We have a wellness room where someone who maybe has to travel had a busy day and they just want to go in there and decompress before they go home and they can be the best individual for their loved ones. And so we're constantly looking for what is out there in a way that's mindful within the city. But really we want our personnel to be better off when they retire than when they started too often. I think the average officer's lifespan is between five and seven years after they retire. So you put 30 years in a career and then you live for five years. Well, that's unacceptable. And so, we're trying to change that uh change that change that marker. >> Well, thank you. Um I noticed there's a uh a new community dashboard tool. Do you want to share when that's coming online? >> Yeah. So, one of the things that we're also looking into is how do we educate the community in a way that's beneficial for them. And so, we've looked at different uh resources out there and the city of Brooklyn Park, Tacoma, Washington, there's multiple cities that have a dashboard that's interactive. And what we do is we have information that dumps into our CAD system. It's called Logis. And it's usually 24 to 48 hours that we can upload real information. So we're looking at pushing out a dashboard of the community that you could take a look and see where accidents have occurred within your area or is there areas of concern that you're wondering, hey, I I heard down the road that there was maybe uh law enforcement's presence and you'd be able to take a look at that and may see a small summary of the event. uh the dashboard would not pinpoint on any particular place. It'd be a block rad couple block radiuses. So there would be some some confidentiality there, but we think that just getting that information to the public is probably the best way that they're informed about what's happening in our city. >> And when do we think that dashboard will be coming online? >> We we're doing the kind of the beta testing right now through the police department, um a few of our partners in the city. So, we're looking at hopefully the the end of May or beginning of June to get that out to the the community and then get uh feedback there if it's something that's valuable for them or if our community says, "Hey, we'd really like it a little bit more robust in this area." We're working with our gsi team to to alter those things. >> Well, that's great. Well, thank you, Chief Thomas. >> The police change in operations. What do you think about this? We did pretty good moving from now and transitioning and sounds like Carson's got it well in hand. >> Carson's just a phenomenal leader of our department and and there's no secret that Rosemont went through a a challenging police transition this year and uh you know that's kind of part of what we what we have to do as we proceed through organizations. But Carson has done a phenomenal job leading our team. Uh initial feedback from our officers, many of whom are here and just public safety heroes present. It's police week this week. were able to name police week uh at last night city council meeting. We love our our women and men in the police department and and serving them uh with the strong leadership that they need has just been absolutely critical. >> All righty. Well, let's now take a look and welcome on the other side of public safety, our fire chief, Kip Springer. So, Chief, you put out many fires recently. >> Lot of administrative fires. Just administrator. >> Just administrative fires. So, uh how was Rosemont's growth coming? Uh uh impacting I guess our fire operations. >> Yeah. Uh with the city growth that we have as a fire department, we expected um some changes were going to happen. Uh our call volume has definitely increased. We've uh had a double our call volume in the last 10 years. We're on pace this year for about an 18% increase from last year, which was a record year. So with that, we're going to have to change our model a little bit and how we respond. When you also look at some of what is being built in our community, you know, multi-level family or multifamily, you know, apartment complexes, large warehouses, um our training has to change as well. We're no longer fighting fires in small single family homes. Now we have to prepare for, you know, apartments on the third floor and how we're going to change our strategies and tactics for that. Um, and then the other impact that is having, um, and you probably all see this, it takes a little bit longer to commute around town nowadays. Just there's more traffic, more stop signs, more street lights, things like that. Um, as a payon call department, all of our firefighters, you know, their pager goes off. They leave their homes, they leave their places of work to drive to the fire station to get on the truck to go to the call. So our response times are being impacted by that. Um so we're going to have to look at a a different model on how we respond to calls to help address um that need. >> So what one what one what one what one what one what one what one what one what one what one what one one of those response uh I know when we had the uh consultant come in and was sharing that uh that that response time was getting a little bit longer than what we would necessarily had. But we did have some positive things where our fire stations are actually located very well right now within where our current uh growth and and houses are. Can you share a little bit about this duty crew model? >> Yes, absolutely. So, our stations are in a good spot. Again, right now they're uns unstaffed stations. So, what we started here in April is a duty crew program. So, our firefighters are able to sign up to work shifts at the station now. So rather than having to leave work or leave home to come to the station, now we'll have a crew at the station that's ready to go when a call comes out. And that'll probably save us 3 to five minutes in our response time by having crew crews in the quarters. Uh we'll have to do a little bit of remodeling. So you'll see a little bit of construction um at our fire stations in the next few years. Uh we just need to create some space for those duty crews, some overnight staffing capabilities um and pieces like that just so we can staff 247 out of those stations. And I know we've hired on uh a couple other uh additional staff, full-time staff. Um how how about the uh the businesses? What are they going to see from that as as it relates to risk reduction? >> Yeah, so as we continue to add staff, we have a new deputy fire marshall, a new administrative specialist. Um we're going to continue to look at increasing our staffing here as we come up. And I think our big goal with that is to try and be a little bit more proactive in preventing fires and preventing those emergencies from happening. Um so what you'll start to see examples u we just partnered with Dakota County Public Health on a fall prevention program. So when we respond to these calls for, you know, in our elderly community where they're falling in and having accidents, we can get them the right resources to come out, meet with them, and maybe make some changes in their home so they're able to stay in their homes longer and not have those accidents. Uh just recently we were out at an apartment complex and met with residents talking about kitchen fire safety and safe storage and charging of lithium ion batteries in apartments. Um things that will help decrease emergencies from ever happening. And then we'll also be starting a pre-plan program where we'll be out doing some inspections on our existing buildings and meeting with business owners, being able to help them identify some target hazards and things they can do to help um decrease the likelihood of an emergency um coming up. >> I just wanted to share um last evening uh council accepted uh nine in one case and I think actually there was 10 donations from some of our local businesses. Did you share uh uh anything about that? >> Yeah, so we partner with the National Fire Safety Council every year um and they collect uh funds from our community that go towards public education programming in our schools. >> Uh I think we raised >> a little over $3,000 so far and that will go towards fire prevention materials that go out in October during fire prevention month to all of our schools. I think we had about 700 students that we'll be able to uh to bring supplies out to this year. >> So quite quite impressive and thank you to the businesses that have donated. Uh certainly the fire chief will take more of those donations as they're available. >> So with that, thank you very much, Chief. Appreciate you coming out. >> All right. Thank you. Logan, I know um it sounds like there's a lot of money involved or impacts to our budget. Anything you care to share about that before we move on? >> Uh there's no secret that our our largest budget stress stressor coming up will be the additions in the fire department. And that's something that the city council has been uh fully focused on and aware of and chief and the mayor mentioned that staffing study that the city did engage that that called for a duty crew model and that combination model. And so, uh, potentially an initial hire of nine full-time firefighters. And so, all of you folks running businesses know what a budget impact of of nine folks with benefits and equipment and things like that could do to a budget. Um, we will be pursuing federal grants and looking forward to partner with our federal partners on that safer grant program. You've likely heard of. Um, so would would really hope to get that and and they've been really good to fund. The federal government's been good to fund fire department expansions like ours. uh and want to be really purposeful as chief mentioned about threading that line of of full-time folks but not losing Rosemont's tradition of volunteer paid on call firefighters as well and and he's done a wonderful job navigating the culture inside the department. Um sometimes these changes can lead to culture impacts and our guys and gals at the fire department are excited about these changes and and are are are looking forward to it. >> That's great to hear. So let's move on and uh see how we plan and shape our community. So, next up, please help me welcome Community Development Director Adam Keenburgger. >> You didn't you didn't you you didn't get the thing there. >> Here. Oh, he is here. Wow. >> They didn't pull that back fast enough for you there. >> It's fine. >> How are we doing today? >> Good. >> Welcome to the show and thanks for taking the time out. I know >> showing up on time, Adam. We appreciate it. You spend an awful lot of time in a lot of meetings and things. Uh, >> I heard there'd be tacos. >> You heard there would be tacos. >> Time's been pretty busy the last few years. Can you give us a few examples of, you know, this is always the question that council always goes to our meetings and they're asking Adam is like, "So, what's new out there?" And it's like, >> "Nothing. >> Nothing. >> No, there's not nothing." Go ahead, share some examples. >> Pretty pretty quiet around here lately. Um, you know, a couple of, you know, fun facts to to share is that last year we had the highest number of new residential units in the entire state. So, it's it's just it's amazing to see that progress take place out in the community. Um, so we have housing, commercial, industrial, spectral wrapped up a $70 million expansion at their facility. Um, Meta is almost done with their new $800 million data center project. Um, and then you have the folks at Omni Winery. Um they're they just completed their new event center as a a a great business here in town offering that type of a retail or retail attainment is a term that we're starting to use now for type of businesses we're looking to bring um bank credit union pile of daycarees um quick trip you know we just have a lot of lot of different things happening right now >> and some things that are kind of a little different uh talk to us a little bit about first state bank because it's not just a bank. Yeah. So that that was kind of a unique project when we first talked to them about it. So a bank, traditional bank, they have their location here in downtown, but uh partnered with Sweet Needs a Bakery bakery and coffee shop. And when they first said that, we're like, "Have you have have have you seen these things before? Have you done that before?" And like, "Well, there's one over in the the east or west metro." And it's been a great thing. And you know, we like getting coffee and donuts and stuff there for the team sometimes. And it's it's a great combo, and it it's always bringing traffic into that area. I just find that amazing. It's it's just uh interesting to see the synergies that get developed and how our businesses are looking at different ways of pulling together uh what seemingly would be different or needing a different place. We can put two in the same place. I I just think that's fantastic. One of the things um we've certainly noticed over the years is a uh a change in our um property owners, the University of Minnesota, and they're monetizing that. Can you speak a little bit about uh what that's doing for us and uh you know, putting that back on our tax roles? >> Sure. So, you know, one thing to think about because it was and is the the rest of it owned by the University of Minnesota, it's tax exempt, so not generating tax dollars. So with with Meta's acquisition of 280 acres, that's now fully going to be fully taxable upon completion of their project. Um, another big one on the horizon is Northwind is doing their Minnesota Aerospace Complex there, which is going to be approximately another billion dollar investment into the local economy here in Rosemount and throughout Dakota County. Um and then as they continue to sell off parcels that they deem appropriate for development, seeing those those parcels of the land not only bring new housing, jobs, um and then ultimately tax base back to the region. >> You know, I remember um back a little bit on a strategy session, uh council had gotten together and was talking about what things that we kind of need and as we continue to grow. And one that kind of stuck out in my mind, um I'll I'll give credit to uh council member Fresky on this and the thing was up there is we need more daycare centers and this has probably been about five, six, seven years ago. Um how are we doing on that? >> We have a bunch. >> No, truly that's that's something that um you know it's we have a lot of young families in in Rosemont, a growing subsection of that. you watch our schools. There's a new middle school under construction. Just opened up uh Emerald Trail Elementary, the school district did. So that's there there's this there's our school folks. That's great. Thank you. >> Um so it's really a reflection of of that is what comes after that. What's the high demand for for new and young growing families, our our daycarees and other types of similar services. So yeah, definitely seeing an increase in those. And so some of this um this is kind of one of uh our things is you know working you know planning our work and working our plan and we've got certainly the 2040 plan which is what we're into right now. Can you speak a little bit about are we on track? You know, this is 20 26 and and it's a 2040 plan. How are we doing? And then uh knowing that at uh towards the end of this year or maybe we've actually kind of started looking at our 2050 plan uh where their theme is imagine. Um tell us how your uh department is looking at this. >> Yeah, so this is um something that we do every 10 years. It's a 20-year outlook into that the future growth, development, infrastructure, streets, roads, um all the underground utilities, that type of thing. Um definitely on track, if not exceeding, in terms of growth projections for the community. Um one fun fact that was reported on a different network, not ours. Um just uh I think last night was that Rosemount had the fourth highest number of new homes constructed over the past 10 years in in the entire suburban metro area. So it's it's not just you know the the bigger cities that are doing that type of development. You have Rosemount with around 30,000 people that is continually in the mix adding to the housing stock. A diversity of housing stock is a part of that. So that's a huge part of our our our growth projections, our planning. So now as we're getting ready to do our 2050, so that next 20 years um starting in 2030, that outlook um thinking about the next chapter, that next phase of growth in Rosemont, what that means, not just from a population projection, but also from what types of uh development, industrial, commercial, um amenities, retail, that that type of stuff will all come together. >> And kind of to wrap up here, I know the Port Authority just uh uh updated their strategic plan. anything there that you'd like to share? >> Yeah, one one term and maybe I said this earlier, but kind of really honing in on this term retail attainment. So, a lot of what we hear from the residents and people is where, you know, we'd like more restaurants, we'd like more amenities. So, whether it's for uh youth sports, and we'll have our parks director to probably talk a little bit more about some of that stuff, but um facilities, uh restaurants, entertainment, um a lot of that, but then also future tech. So things that are, you know, um job creators, uh forward forward-looking future, um technology types, sustainability industries, all all that type of stuff, uh coming into the future. >> All righty. Well, thank you very much, Adam. Appreciate your insights. >> Great. Thanks for having me. >> So, so Logan, the 2050 guide plan coming up here, what does that mean for staff here? We heard a little bit here, but it's not just uh community development. >> It's a it's a critical regional planning tool. I know Mark from the Met Council, our our sector rep, is here. We appreciate him being here. Uh it's a critical tool for the region, but then for Nick, Adam, Dan, uh specifically knowing what our our networks need to be, right? So, our water network, our sewer network, our our our roadway infrastructure, and then developable land, right? So land owners can know my land is planned for in 30, 20, 10, 20, 30 years to be retail and right now it's a farm or maybe it's a farm forever. You know, it gives folks that guide book of what Rosemount sees as its potential future. >> Well, let's take a look at the team now that builds and maintains the backbone of the city. Please welcome our public works director, Nick Edgar. >> It's good. We're doing it. >> You're not jumping out of your seat. >> Not yet. We'll see what happens. >> A lot of infrastructure happening, huh? >> There is. Everywhere you look. >> And uh how do you like your new building? >> It's fantastic. Uh it it's just been uh it's hard to believe we've been in there 18 months actually, but just the change and transformation of how we're able to organize all of our fleet, our equipment, our uh materials that we need to do our everyday jobs to keep things running smoothly around town. It's it's been a huge boost for our crew. >> Have you broken anything yet? >> Uh no comment. Um uh I I know some some guests at our building have broken things unfortunately by accident but uh fortunately we had uh you know a claim to make there so help pay for it. >> Can you speak a little bit about now this new building the impact that it has now in services? What what should our residents hear and feel about this building now for for the public works people? >> Yeah, I think the biggest boost was just getting the whole team under one roof. That was a goal from the onset in that uh it helps with the collaboration that we have to have across all of our different divisions. Uh again, like I said, having all the the things that we need to do our jobs at one location, much more convenient, able to set up projects, load up trucks uh the day before, having to head out and do the next day's task, just jump in and go. uh just the centralization has been uh immensely beneficial for our team. >> So we heard a little bit about you know we're going to be comprehensive guide planning and things we're growing. It's like so how do how do we deal with all this uh extra infrastructure that's popping up now. >> Right. Well, I I did overhear that conversation a moment ago uh between yourselves and Adam and Logan there and uh really from a public works standpoint. Well, we take into account the the cues that that comprehensive plan has in terms of the types of land use that we expect to come into the city over the next 20 years. And we're able to uh then evaluate what sorts of infrastructure demands those land uses would present and turn that into uh technical plans for each of our major utility systems as well as transportation network. Uh that way when development plans come in from each individual parcel, we're able to compare and contrast their plans that they submit to the overarching guide plan. And uh we need to make sure then that things are clicking and matching up uh well enough that that we know what we can expect to see for performance of the infrastructure and and that we're getting uh the types of things that we need to serve the community for a long time. I guess I understand this a little bit to be uh we work with our partners uh transportation. I think of the state. I think of the county making sure our roads can handle all the extra traffic. Uh the DNR uh we make sure we got water enough water around and things. Can you share any thoughts on uh our partnerships that we work with? >> Uh it it's very very intense. I I want to say uh we've been very busy working on a variety of transportation related projects over the last handful of years. Uh and that's expected to continue in the future with all of the growth and the extra trips that are on our not only our local roads but then feeding into the state and county highways. Uh we have to be on meetings and coordination phone calls with uh folks from those agencies almost daily it feels like because there's just so much happening. But folks will definitely see the impact of that in the next couple of years um starting with this year and our our Kamera Acron roundabout project. So uh and then it just goes on from there with things on County Road 42 and eventually uh changes along Highway 3 over time. >> I know it looks like our uh state partners did a nice job at the uh the roundabout at the high school. People are kind of learning how to deal with that. Uh, now can you speak a little bit as when residents and businesses can expect that actually to shut down? I know we just recently had a a public hearing or a public uh night for that. >> An open house. Yeah. Just last week. Uh well, the Kameron roundabout project is scheduled to kick off at the beginning of June. Essentially, right after school is out. We'll be shutting down that intersection to be able to knock out that project in the very short time frame that we have between uh end of school this year and the beginning of of school year uh for the fall of 2026. Uh it it's kind of what I like to refer to as a short-term pain for long-term gain type of project. We know it'll present some inconveniences for the the traveling public, but uh when you contrast that and against being able to get in and out of there relatively quickly, uh things will be put back into service um within just about 3 months, which is very fast for that type of project. >> I know we're already receiving some uh emails, council, myself uh directly hearing from residents concerns about that. How how are we mitigating some of that? Uh you know, the traffic is going to have to obviously go around that roundabout. What are we doing there? >> Exactly. We do have a variety of uh maps that we've created to help point out to residents and business owners in each of the quadrants around this intersection that identify access routes in and out. And that's something that we've published on our our city project web page for this which is rosemmon.govcarb or >> carb carb that stands for Kamera Acron Roundabout. >> We love acronyms in public works so we had to make use of another one here with this. And >> yeah, it's a it's a heavy construction diet, not a low carb diet. and and I I >> there you go. >> I know on uh uh we have a couple of smaller things happening uh particularly here on Highway 3, pedestrian crossings. I know it's uh a lot of residents have been concerned about how much traffic is coming down Highway 3 here. How have our partners responded to that here at the state? >> We did work with Mindot to get a grant to install a couple of enhanced pedestrian crossings along Highway 3. One of them will happen to be right outside the steeple center door here uh at at the crossing that's already in place. We'll add some flashing beacon lights there that you can touch a button and activate. The other one will be down at uh 147th Street near Rosy's gas station and those are coming up this summer. Uh but we also have a variety of other spots that we're looking at around town to provide pedestrian crossing enhancements in hightra areas. And I know we couldn't get through all of this without touching a little bit on what was just put out in our quarterly newsletter here on uh our water issues. So gross alpha water updates, anything you can just give a few comments on? >> Yeah. Well, just to start, gross alpha radiation is kind of a naturally occurring uh issue in groundwater and particularly in this part of Minnesota. It's a geologically uh related item, not not a pollution related item per se. And the city is required to address it. And we do have we're in the middle of a study of exploring the different options uh for infrastructure system changes that we could do to address that. Um the next big step will be financial analysis of those various options. And then once we're work once we've worked through that, we'll be able to make a strong recommendation to the city council as to what we feel is the proper course of action to take uh for a construction project thereafter. >> All right. More to come. Thank you, Nick. >> So, so Logan, he's kind of busy, right? >> He's a busy man. Very busy man. Yeah. But we so appreciate having Nick and his team working for the city of Rosemount. >> And so finally, the team that maintains the spaces where our community connects and spends time. I heard this guy is a big deal. >> It's a big deal. >> Big deal. So let's welcome our park and rec recreation director Dan Schulz. It's a big deal. Hey. So, Logan, before we get started here with Dan, tell us about this big award. >> It's a big It's a big deal. It's Dan's fun fact. They're on the bottom of the screen, but Dan's been serving the city of Rosemount for 31 years. Uh, and then Dakota County in a couple other spots, you got 35 in parks and recreation. So, Egan and Apple Valley. I don't know, Commissioner Hmon Roland was maybe when you were when you were No, maybe not. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Uh but but Dan was recognized for like a legacy career service award called the Distinguished Service Award by the Minnesota Recreation and Parks Association. It's the highest honor that a park and wreck professional can receive and we're so proud that Dan got that. So yes, he's a very big deal. Give it up for him. >> I was able to uh attend that lunchon and I can tell you it was a big deal. Um, I think one of the things I learned is the uh individuals that Dan had worked for was her six. Six of the people that he had worked for also had received that legacy award over the years. So quite a gem here in our community. Again, thanks to them. So with that big buildup, what do we what did we do in 2025? Well, Mayor, in 2025, uh, we had a really strong year in the parks and recreation department. Uh, we saw a several projects come to fruition. One of them was the pickle ball court project. And we've been, uh, pushed by our residents in Rosemont for several years to build a highass competitive style pickle ball project. And so we did that, brought that online in 2025 and it has been busy from the get-go. Um, ever since we, you know, cut that ribbon on that event or that project, we've had people out there using it constantly. Um, we now have pickle ball leagues on Wednesday nights. And so we are really proud of that complex and the ability that it gives our residents to play pickle ball. And speaking of pickleball, I have a question for you, uh, mayor. Do you know why Logan brings uh a uh candy jar to the pickle ball courts every night he comes to play? >> It's true. It's a great question. >> Oh god. >> This was not on the script. >> It was not on the script. All right. Not on the script. There we go. All right. No, I don't know why he brings candy. Logan brings a candy dish so he has somewhere to store his sweet serves. >> There it is, Jack. >> There it is. Yep. Thank you. >> Oh my god, that place. >> You could do that at 35 years. You can stump the mayor when you're >> the mayor. That's a good one. All right. Well, maybe this next one here is uh so council's been looking at a portfolio of amenities. Maybe we don't move so fast on those. >> Yeah. So, just backing up to 2025, we've got a few other things that we really accomplished. One was opening the UMO Park building. >> Yeah. >> Um that's one that is used every weekend for uh athletic teams, for baseball and softball, >> really promotes sports tourism in Rosemount and so we're really happy to have that open. Um we also uh completed um or started a trail actually on Bon Air Path, which has been something our community has needed for quite a while. that's got kicked off in 2025 will be completed in 2026. And the final thing we I wanted to highlight is that we added um a playground a new playground to Delera Park. And just a bit of history um about Delera Park 50 years ago. I used to go to the city's parks and recreation program at Delera Park when I was a a wee lad as as Nick Edgar, our community development director would say. Nick is the man of a thousand voices. So if you ever come to one of our leadership meetings, you're going to hear several dialects from Nick Edgar. So that was it for 2025. >> 25. Well, we're rolling into 26. Uh council's been shown some amenities, some wants, some needs. What are we doing with those? >> So, mayor, in 2026, we are planning on several new amenities uh that will benefit the community in several different ways. We're looking at some additional ball fields for baseball and softball players of all ages. So, these are fields for our smallest 5-year-olds up to uh a large baseball field for something like a town team that would be made up of adults. Uh we're looking at refurbishing uh Ericson Park, which is built back in the 1970s. Again, that's another uh complex that is really supports the sports tourism idea in Rosemount. And then we are looking at expanding Central Park, which is where we hold all of our city special events uh starting in May all the way through the end of October. Um and then the the last thing that we're looking at is um doing some improvements in some of our neighborhood parks, playgrounds, and things like that. We're also looking at the need for indoor ice. So, we're studying that. We're looking at trying to provide more indoor ice ever since we lost an indoor ice arena in our community a couple years ago. We know we have a big need for that. So, that's something else we're looking to tackle in 2026. So, with all these things going on, we're obviously going to have to figure out some kind of budget arrangement. uh those but these are all kind of quality of life things and I think they're amenities that our residents are looking for and we hope to be able to uh to do that. 2026 is a big year. Uh can you share what semiquincentennial means for our community? >> Well, it's the 250th celebration of our country and so we've got some fun things planned for Rosemount. you know, we don't have a Fourth of July celebration that that we uh work on in our community. We have Leprechaun Days. And so, um I think some of the things that people will see out in the community this year uh related to the 250th anniversary is number one, Leprechaun Days has some plans for uh some special fireworks with their annual fireworks celebration that they put on. Um, we're also going to be looking at doing some things during the Memorial Day event that's coming up here at the end of May. Uh, and then we are going to be working with some local groups on creating a time capsule, putting some, you know, some stuff into a capsule and then burying that. And then we're also going to be working with youth groups, you know, just to promote um the celebration and their awareness of of what this means to our country. And then the last thing is that I know our public works team is going to be putting up banners again to promote and recognize that we have the celebration taking place this July. And so those are some of the things that the community is going to see this year for that. >> That'll be great to see out there. Red, white, and blue in the green community. All right. Thank you, Dan. Yeah, >> we we've covered a lot of pieces uh of the puzzle today, so to speak. Uh any final thoughts from your seat? >> No, I just thanks for for doing this new format with us. Hopefully the chamber folks enjoyed it. I know mayor is going to wrap up here uh with some some comments. So, I'll leave the stage, but I just hope that you felt from a city staff perspective the pride that we all carry in leading this city and working for your city. um and and just really how much we appreciate the trust that you guys give us to to work as city staff to to do this work every day. We love it. It's our life's work and and we're honored to do it. So, just hope you felt that and we thank you for that. Speaking of that, there's a there's a stable of public servants over here that have been quiet all day, but they're pulling this thing off. So, can we give the team a shout out from our local cable commission? And then the person who runs it all just waved at you. You all know Lee. Lee runs this event. She pulled this together. A shout out for Least a for being a phenomenal Yeah. Thank you, Lee. Thank you, Lee. So, that's it, mayor. I'll give you the microphone and thanks for having us. >> Thank you. >> I thought he was supposed to go out stage, right? Anyway, you heard a lot of things today and I again want to thank again to our department leaders for joining us today and all all of you for being here and staying engaged in the work that we're doing with our community. You heard a lot today, but if there's one takeaway for our business leaders in the room, it's this. Rosemont is not growing by accident. We are being very deliberate on how we align infrastructure, workforce, and private investment, and the results are tangible. We recently received a letter from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers that puts this into perspective. On the Rosemont data center project alone, roughly 500 licensed electricians logged about 3,000 hours each, generating $82.5 million in direct wages and well over a hundred million in total economic impact when you include local spending. In fact, several of our local restaurants saw a direct revenue total impact of over $200,000 for catering services. But those are aren't just numbers. It is the workers supporting local businesses, utilizing our restaurants, and even even choosing to make Rosemont home. That's what responsible development looks like when it's done right. It translates into real opportunity for working families and real revenue for local businesses. At the same time, we're seeing innovation taking hold in these projects that are being built here. An engineering news record uh feature highlighted the work being done right here in Rosemalt using an AI algorithm optimized concrete design. It's not that difficult to uh understand what that is, but they plugged it in and the results were strengths in the concrete that was poured achieved that 43% faster. That's a big deal. And they reduced carbon impacts by 35% at our metadata data center project here in Rosemont. That's not theoretical. That's happening on the ground. It is a clear example how emerging technology and sustainability are no longer tradeoffs. They're becoming competitive advantages and communities that are ready for that with the right planning with the utilities and partnerships are the ones that will continue to attract investments. That's the lane that Rosemont is in now. We're aligning our comprehensive plan, our infrastructure investments, and our development standards to support projects that are not just bigger, but smarter, faster, and more sustainable. And importantly, projects that create ripple effects across our entire local economy. As we look ahead, we have a unique opportunity in this country. In 2026, as we noted, we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States. That milestone invites reflection, but is also challenges communities like ours to think forward. What are we building that will last? What kind of economy are we positioning ourselves for? And how do we make sure that the benefits of the growth are broadly shared? In Rosemont, the answer is being prudent in our discipline and execution of our plan. We plan our work and we work our plan and none of that happens without the people carrying it out every day. So, I want to close with a sincere thank you to our city staff. The consistency, the professionalism, and the long-term focus that you bring in is what allows us to deliver on these opportunities and maintain the trust of this community. To our business leaders, partners, and residents, thank you for being a part of this effort. The momentum we are seeing is not just citydriven. It is shared and it's getting started and moving forward. Thank you for being here and thank you for continuing to invest in Rosemont. Thank you. And with that, I made it in time. We're done.