[0:24] **Unknown Speaker:** Does that mean we have to get start? [0:34] **Unknown Speaker:** Cute. [1:00] **Unknown Speaker:** Ready. [1:06] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Lens okay. Time being 7:00, I call the Hastings City Council meeting to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Welcome, and let the roll reflect we do have a quorum with the absence of Councilmember Leifeld and Councilmember Haus tonight. We will be reading a proclamation, and it is Down Syndrome Month, so council members, would you please start with Councilmember Pemble? [1:53] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Certainly. Whereas approximately one in 640 babies born in the United States have Down syndrome, representing an estimated 5,700 people a year; and whereas Down syndrome is the most frequently occurring chromosomal disorder and is the leading cause of intellectual and developmental delay in the United States and in the world; and whereas possessing a wide range of abilities, people with Down syndrome are active participants in educational, occupational, social, and recreational circles of our communities; and whereas individuals with Down syndrome should have equal opportunity to achieve the universally desired goals of self-fulfillment, pride in their achievements, inclusion in their communities, and reaching their fullest potential; and whereas quality education programs and a stimulating home environment, good healthcare, and positive support from family, friends, and the community enable people with Down syndrome to lead fulfilling and productive lives; and whereas the City of Hastings encourages all citizens to work together to promote respect and inclusion of individuals with Down syndrome and to celebrate their accomplishments and contributions; therefore, be it resolved that I, Mayor Mary Fasbender of the City of Hastings, do hereby declare the month of October 2024 Down Syndrome Awareness Month in the City of Hastings. And at this time, I'd like to have the Becks come up and their friends if they'd like to; we'll present you with this award. And Council, they would like a picture, please. [4:04] **[Music]** [4:18] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Come on, sneak—you can stand over here if you want. There we go. All right. Two this way. One, two, three. One, two. Perfect. **[Applause]** [5:05] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** All right. Tonight we also have a presentation from BR4R and 4RM+ULA. And tonight with us, we have James Curry, and they have a couple things to set up and then we shall be ready to hear their presentation. Welcome. [5:30] **James Curry:** Thank you. [5:32] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Boards facing you—they all have the screens or... would you prefer the same on the side? [5:39] **James Curry:** Maybe on the sides this way. Sure, that'd be great. Let's do that. Kind of spread them out here. One on that side, one side here, maybe a couple over there and then... [6:36] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** And you can either scroll on here or do the arrows, whichever one you want to do. [6:52] **James Curry:** So, thank you. Um, we have BR4R, which stands for Building Remembrance for Reconciliation. I'm James Curry, I'm the chair. And we've been thankful that there are CIF funds and a proposal that tied into this work that we're presenting tonight, where we enlisted or contracted Formula to pursue this greater vision of commemoration and memorial of the Black history in Hastings that's been marginalized, or disappeared, or silenced, and revisiting that in multiple ways. And I'll let Lisa and Nathan do the speaking regarding that. Thank you. [7:37] **Nathan Johnson:** Thank you, James. So, my name is Nathan Johnson, I'm one of the partners at Formula, and I'm here with my colleague... [7:45] **Lisa Washington:** I'm Lisa Washington, I'm a project manager at Formula, and happy to have learned a lot more about Hastings than I think I knew three months ago. So, thank you for welcoming us today. [8:10] **Nathan Johnson:** If you want to, I can get started. I mean, I think one thing—spent a little bit of time in Hastings, not a lot of time—but I think Hastings, like every small city or big town across this country, there's an American story here where the Black community is kind of embedded within. And I think kind of learning about it, it's just a true American story, which I think is kind of a beautiful thing. And I think being able to highlight it and be able to tell it in kind of a unique way is a great opportunity. The way that Lisa and I and our colleagues approached the work is we just didn't want to come in and do like a quick study, put a sketch down, and kind of be done. We wanted to begin to think about maybe a process or a program that you all could consider implementing within the city. And what I will say, at least right now, it's an idea. Nothing is fixed or saying "must do" or "have to do," but it's more we began kind of talking with James and the BR4R community about what are some ideas that could help you tell the story—some of them that are maybe stretch goals and some of them that maybe are much more achievable is kind of what we were considering as we started having the conversation. So we started—and BR4R has done a wonderful job maintaining and caring for the story of the Black community in Hastings. It's been here since I assume the founding of Hastings, since the 19th century, right? When some of the early families and George Daniels and people like that kind of arrived here in Hastings, actually, and the population of the Black community was quite large in the 1800s as well. So what we—the way we kind of approached it—we started to think about what are some different devices that begin to help tell the story? And I will let you know that some of the devices or ideas that we were considering are right here already in the city. It's not like it's not anything new; it's something you're doing. We spent some time walking along the river and all the interpretive panels and monuments and things like that, and thinking about then how does that kind of peel off and become part of the city? The way that we describe this kind of handout—we call it additions to Hastings' Black History Trail. It's not a true trail in the sense of we're not trying to build like physical infrastructure trail; what we understand is there's this series of these historic places in the City of Hastings that you can begin to highlight and tell the story of the Black community that has been here since the beginning. So what we did is we took a lot of the work that BR4R and we mapped it. We said, "These are where maybe historic businesses, this is where historic houses, this is where a house or a business may have disappeared over time." And we're at like 25. And so this is a story that we don't think is even finished. I think BR4R would say they're still discovering and uncovering some of these histories that exist within the City of Hastings. And a lot of these stories are about celebration; there is some tragedy kind of layered over the top, but there is a lot of great stories and great historic families that have called Hastings home over the years. And so what we were doing is saying, "What are different ways that we can highlight it?" So what we did on this map that you see—and it's not the clearest, I know, on the screen, but it's that board kind of over there—is we kind of lettered off all these different sites around the city and then we began to give them kind of a two-color coding to think about like, what does this mean? The "A" is—we think because you've done such a great job at the river here and telling that story, maybe that's the starting point. So it's parking and things like that; we can start at the river, and we kind of gave three different paths that you could consider traversing through the city. And along those paths would be different stories that we could tell about the City of Hastings and how the African-American community have been kind of embedded and integrated into this city for a real long time. So we identified primarily kind of in the downtown area, you'll see a series of businesses that we've highlighted. And then as you get out maybe west of the city, there's some houses. We also identified maybe there's some locations for murals, monuments, or maybe actually a physical building that could be renovated to be part of it. I think what we said is there's four different approaches that we use that could be implemented. One of them could be implemented, two of them, all of them—but the four different approaches we said is: Could we create kind of a Visitor Center (we call it a Bookstore on the map, I think on the diagram over here we call it a Visitor Center)? Could we create an actual Visitor Center, a small Visitor Center within the City of Hastings somewhere? Could we create these series of markers? And you have a lot of these like interpretive markers—we've seen some kind of placed in the ground, some on pedestals—but just really simple kind of interpretive panels and strategic locations at historic places that could begin to tell the story of how the African-American community kind of touched that place. You could also look at monuments, and we have monuments at different scales. So you could have a really big monument, let's say along the river or maybe at Wilson Park, that could be kind of built and dedicated to tell that story of the African-American community. But we've also talked about kind of a smaller monument. I'm going to show you an example of that that we're thinking about specifically in relationship to Brown's Chapel, which is kind of one of the two tragedies that have happened in the city. But there's something that we saw—Lissa actually lives very close to Minneapolis where they've created this kind of small "U" monument that kind of tells a lost story maybe of a place. So that was something we were thinking about. And then also when we were walking around here with James a couple months ago is you all have some really, really beautiful murals. I don't know if there's a mural dedicated to like telling some of that African-American story, but maybe if there was a building or a wall or somewhere, could there be a mural? So it's like you could do one of these, you could do four of these, you could do whatever. But it's a way of saying these are these different devices that you all have at your disposal and you can begin to tell that story or that history—we could call it "her story" sometimes as well. And so what we do here is we identify 25 different sites that are historic. The other thing that we did here is we did highlight at the bottom of this map—it says "former." All the items that are highlighted are places that were here but are no longer here. So obviously Brown's Chapel maybe being the most famous. Hastings High School—that wasn't necessarily an African-American high school, but a lot of the African-American community that lived in Hastings would go to the Hastings High School. The George Kennedy barber shop, places like that. So we still wanted—even though physically that property or the building may not be there—it is still there in spirit because it kind of housed a portion of history. And then we have houses like James's family houses—obviously not in his family anymore—but there is the Curry residence, which is still in the same place where his father built it in the City of Hastings in the late 1800s somewhere kind of in there. The LeDuc Mansion is still there, and George Daniels spent a lot of time kind of at the LeDuc Mansion—that's kind of a historic site, but you could layer in some of that African-American history. The idea with the trails is we have three pathways that people can decide how much time they want to spend on it. We do a loop that connects the river all the way out to Wilson Park, and that's about one and a half miles, so that may be like a 30-minute walk plus your stops along the way. There's a longer loop which is 4.3 miles, which you say maybe takes an hour and a half or something like that, which takes you out to the cemetery, takes you out to some of the houses where members of the African-American community decided to actually build their residences—the Douglases, the Wallaces, and the Currys specifically. And then the longer loop—and you could drive it if you didn't want to walk the five and a half miles—you could go all the way out to the LeDuc Mansion or something like that. That would be the opportunity. And then along that trail, there are these different devices: some of them are the monuments, we have the Visitor Center that we talked about, maybe a marker, a mural—those things could be layered on that path. And it's something that doesn't have to happen immediately; you could begin to build this story over a longer period of time in phases as well, depending on how much capital and resources that you have to be able to do that. One thing within this packet, and it's this board over here, is we want to make sure that you all are aware of the history. I will admit we're designers and architects; we're not historians. So we leveraged BR4R a lot and some of their historians and kind of shared some of the stories that are there. So these are just kind of some of the images that are represented where you have a photo of the Brown's congregation on the top right, you have George Daniels kind of down in the middle, and another church which is historic here is the Methodist Church that people—after Brown's Chapel burned down—that's where a lot of the African-American community kind of ended up in Hastings after that specific event. So just thinking about some of those stories that already are existing there and kind of some of the images that we could leverage. Like, we're creating these interpretive panels which are not too expensive—they're not free, but they're not too expensive—but if we wanted to create like an interpretive panel monument, we could think about what are the stories that we really want to capture and begin to tell. Then what we did is we began to look at kind of different recommendations. And so we obviously identified and we tried to grab a lot of the things that we saw in Hastings as we kind of walked the city. So you have a lot of murals—beautiful murals. You have these markers and interpretive panels all over the city—some in the ground, some are kind of sitting up, some are on walls—but there's different ways that you could do that. And then on the monument side, you obviously have some of the monuments kind of down by the river. But this top image, which is kind of interesting, are these series of monuments that are created—is it 6th Street or 5th Street? Northeast 6th Street. In the Northeast Minneapolis area, there's a series of buildings that were lost historically. And so what the artist did, and I think it's a beautiful kind of interpretation, they created an artistic rendition of that building. And so what we were thinking about—and this is specifically in the context of Brown's Chapel where Brown's Chapel is right now, it's a house, right? Somebody lives there. But in the public right-of-way, could you put a little small pedestal with a monument of what Brown's Chapel may have looked like in the late 1800s? At least commemorate that story. So that was one of the ideas that we kicked around because we didn't think we had the physical space to do something large at Brown's Chapel, but we think it is an important story to tell and it was important to the culture and the Black community here within Hastings. So was there a device that kind of allows us to do that? Those are some of the thoughts that we're sharing with BR4R. Nothing is a final design; we're just putting these out there as kind of ideas for you as a City of Hastings to consider, for BR4R to think about how they could maybe implement these in the future. And then the last image and last board we have, which is right over here—is we are architects, we like to at least do something kind of three-dimensional. And we identified Wilson Park. What's interesting about Wilson Park, if you go back and look at the map, it's at the intersection of all three trails. We kind of layered it over there; you can see the blue for the shorter trail, then you have the gray and maybe more the maroonish color. But we say this becomes kind of that intersection at a really important point. You have an old building which is like a little storage building on the site, and could that be renovated into a small Visitor Center, or bookstore, or an exhibit or something like that? It doesn't need to be anything big, but it's a place that you could actually capture the stories. And then the other thing we said, because we don't want to interrupt kind of the flow of Wilson Park in the context of—I'm assuming kids play there, there's playgrounds, things like that—but you could still put a monument on there. Maybe you could put a mural on the face of that building. But this could really become a nexus of a place that could begin to tell that larger story of the African-American community within the City of Hastings. A small intervention within the city. So that's what we spent three months working with with BR4R on and really thinking about how they could begin to effectively tell that story within the City of Hastings. And it gave us also a great opportunity—we did hire a summer intern so he could learn a little bit more about the breadth of what architects do. That's our primary job, but we do a little bit of everything. So it allowed that opportunity for him also to learn a little bit more about what we do as a practice and what it is like to, you know, not just plop a hypothetical building into a space, but really understanding the community and understanding some things on how the push and pull of every decision is being made. So then yeah, we went from there, and then we were able to pull in one of our younger designers to help kind of—he had some germinations of ideas. And as college students go, they have to go back to school, so we let him go back to school because his education is important. And one of our young designers was able to pick up the baton and help us bring this back around to you all. [20:35] **Nathan Johnson:** So we have questions? I have my phone just because I was going to take notes with it, but if you've got any questions or comments... [21:23] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Sure, thank you. Love it. I love the update. I love the trail system. As you probably know, this community—you've seen lots of trails around us, so we have a lot of walkers and I think it would be appreciative. I love the Wilson Park area. It's just very connected to the downtown area and it does have a lot of history to it, too. Council? Councilmember Vihrachoff? [21:23] **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Thank you, your honor. I just want to thank you all for being here and this incredible presentation. You all kept making the notes that you are architects, not historians, and you could have fooled me from the very beginning of this because you've obviously spent an enormous amount of time and love and energy getting to know our community and what's important to us and where these gathering places are. I just love that. I especially love the attention that you brought to saying, "Here's a smaller, perhaps maybe lower-cost way that you can implement some things," as we know that we're facing some water crisis funding here in Hastings. So I'm very appreciative for that. And then also gave us ideas for bigger structures and ways that we can honor the past, too. I just love this, and I hope that this is something that we can talk about more as a city as a body as we go through planning. So thank you for being here. [22:09] **Nathan Johnson:** Thank you. [22:09] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Councilmember Vihrachoff. One thing—will you be able to send the presentation to the council? [22:15] **Nathan Johnson:** I can forward it. [22:18] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay, Dan forward it so we can have it at hands and look at it further. It's great. Thank you for being here, thank you for coming, and your continued works as well. Thank you. We'll disrupt you for a couple more minutes here. Approval of minutes—council members, are there any corrections to the September 3rd meeting? Okay. Comments from the audience—at this time, we will hear comments from the audience. Please step to the podium, state your name and your address, and let us hear what you have for the council to listen to. [22:56] **Theresa Auge`:** Greetings. I have a couple notes here. Mayor, council members, and city staff—first of all, I just want to thank you, each of you, for your commitment to the city. My name is Teresa Auge` and I reside at 1926 14th Street West. While my husband and I are not lifelong residents—we moved in 2020—we have completely immersed ourselves in the Hastings community and we value public safety. I come tonight to ask you to consider gathering public input before you finalize any proposed changes to a city ordinance that would govern the use of ATVs, etc., on our city streets. Now, this has not gone to the Public Safety Advisory Commission, but as the chair of the Public Safety Advisory Commission, imagine my surprise last week when two different taxpayers reached out wondering if our commission had weighed in on this topic. At minimum, I feel you should have asked our commission to gather opinions on this topic. And you might ask, "Well, why?" Remember, only two of you council members represent the city at large; the rest represent smaller pockets, and this is not happening across our city—it's happening in smaller pockets. I read that some of this you want—you might say, "Well, because we're seeing it on the streets, let's make it legal." If that's your rationale, I would challenge you: Will we also see open bottles in cars? Do we want to make that legal? So in closing, I'm asking—and my husband—to have you think about this. I don't feel there's any urgency to this. We feel that this could take some time, but we ask you to gather some public input and ultimately put it before the taxpayers. It's our city as well. Again, thank you for what you do and thanks for letting me speak tonight. [24:29] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Teresa. We do appreciate PSAC. And I would be open to a motion from the council to pass it on to PSAC. [25:12] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Motion. [25:13] **Councilmember Tim Lawrence:** Second. [25:15] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** All those in favor of the motion, state by saying "aye." [25:19] **Council (Multiple):** Aye. [25:20] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion, state by saying "nay." [25:23] **Councilmember Mya Beck:** No. [25:24] **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** No. [25:25] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** All right, thank you. All right. At this time, are there any items to be considered, council? Okay. Consent agenda—I would accept a motion to approve the consent agenda. [25:56] **Councilmember Mya Beck:** So moved. [25:58] **Councilmember Tim Lawrence:** Second. [26:01] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Oh, I'm sorry, we did not vote on the consent... Hey, all those in favor of the consent, state by saying "aye." [26:08] **Council (Multiple):** Aye. [26:09] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that, state by saying "nay." All right, that is moved. Now we will hear an introduction by Public Works—Parks and Rec Director Chris Jenkins. Now I'm all messed up. Welcome, Chris. [26:47] **Chris Jenkins:** Thank you, Mayor, Council. I am a bit of a chameleon, so I appreciate it. Tonight we are here asking to award the contract for the Three Rivers Trail reconstruction project. This is a trail you may be familiar with—it connects the Tuttle neighborhood to the south, north to East 31st Street. It was identified in our pavement management plan as one of those trails that was in really low quality and needed to be replaced. So we put that through, and that was a budgeted project for this year. And we had good bidding come back, and good bids come back under engineer's estimates for a total of $249,500. Additionally, I am asking Council to authorize myself to sign off on change orders at a maximum of 10% total of the project. That's just to keep things moving and on schedule, and it is very specific to this trail and to this project. So if there's some spot corrections and soils that we find during excavation that we need to fix, instead of waiting and delaying and asking for a change order, we just take care of it at that time. It will still remain within budget even with that. So with that, I can stand for any questions. Thanks. [28:12] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Chris, Council, any discussion? Okay, if not, I'd accept a motion to award the contract for the Three Rivers reconstruction project to New Look Contracting and authorize the Parks and Rec Director to execute change orders to an amount not to exceed the total of 10% of the construction contract award. [28:38] **Councilmember Mya Beck:** So moved. [28:40] **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Second. [28:42] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Discussion, Council? All those in favor of the motion, state by saying "aye." [28:46] **Council (Multiple):** Aye. [28:47] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion, state by saying "nay." Thank you. Thanks, Chris. [28:57] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Under Community Development, we have a resolution for a special use permit for cannabis for Smokies Tobacco at 300 Vermillion Street. And for this item, we will have an introduction by our City Planner, Justin Fortney. Welcome, Justin. [29:21] **Justin Fortney:** Thank you, Mayor Fasbender and council members. This is the special use permit for cannabis retail sales. Since passing the ordinance amendment this last November for C3 and C4 districts, the city also adopted licensing requirements to be considered tonight for this location. This is a relatively new business with a current tobacco license; it was formerly a cell phone supply store. They recently failed a cannabis compliance check by selling without a special use permit or City license. This occurred before they were aware of the special use permit requirements, but staff had notified them of the licensing requirements prior to them selling it. A special use permit is intended to regulate businesses that are presumed to be appropriate for a district but reviewed individually to consider if special conditions are necessary for each location. Staff believes the site meets the special use permit requirements. The Police Chief performed an inspection and approved a security plan for this location. Notification of this request was mailed to property owners within 350 feet and we received no comments. At the Planning Commission meeting, there was no comments during the public hearing, and the Commission recommended approval unanimously. With that, I can stand for any questions you might have. [30:30] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Justin. Council, any discussion? If not, I would accept a motion to approve a resolution for the City Council of the City of Hastings granting a special use permit for the retail sale of cannabis products at 300 Vermillion Street as requested by Hassan Al-Abad Abalo of Smokies Tobacco. [30:58] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Motion. [30:59] **Councilmember Mya Beck:** Second. [31:02] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Any other discussion, Council? All those in favor of the motion, state by saying "aye." [31:07] **Council (Multiple):** Aye. [31:08] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion, state by saying "nay," and that motion prevails. Thank you, Justin. [31:16] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Tonight under Administration, we will have an introduction by our Deputy City Clerk, Emily King, and this will be a resolution for the cannabis product retail license for Smokies Tobacco. Welcome, Emily. [31:32] **Emily King:** Thank you, Mayor and council members. Before you tonight for consideration is the cannabis product retail license application for Smokies Tobacco. You just heard the special use permit request that coincides with the license request here. As you've heard before, this license currently allows for the sale of cannabis products to 0.3% THC or less. The applicant has met all other requirements for the license application, and that includes the criminal history background investigation and then also the security plan as well, approved by the Police Chief. Staff is recommending approval of the application with the condition that the applicant pays all the fees prior to issuance of the license. I can stand for any questions. [32:15] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Emily. Any discussion, Council? I would accept a motion to approve the resolution approving a new cannabis product license for Smokies Tobacco at 300 Vermillion Street. [32:32] **Councilmember Mya Beck:** So moved. [32:34] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Second. [32:37] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Any discussion, Council? All those in favor of the motion, state by saying "aye." [32:41] **Council (Multiple):** Aye. [32:42] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion, state by saying "nay," and that prevails. Thanks, Emily. [32:49] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Tonight also under Administration, we have a first reading to amend the city code, Chapter 34.03: Civic Arena Fees. And this item we will have an introduction by Parks and Rec Director Chris Jenkins. Welcome again. [33:14] **Chris Jenkins:** Thank you, Mayor, Council. Yes, tonight first reading to amend the prime ice rates at the Hastings Civic Arena. We do have an increase as part of our current 2024 budget that was a $5 per hour increase effective July 1 of this year as part of our regular fee schedule. This is in addition and part of our 2025 proposed budget to increase revenues at the Hastings Civic Arena to help us start to offset the costs of the current construction project that's out there that's $5.2 million. So this is in response to our needs to be able to raise some revenues out at the Hastings Civic Arena as part of the 2025 budget. We'd rather do that increase now, and then we will do the same as we prepare our fee schedule changes for 2025 which would be then effective July 1 of 2025. So we'll be looking to increase our fees again as part of that. And all of these fee increases combined will still keep us well within the normal range of all of the other ice arenas around us and, quite frankly, throughout most of the state. This change from $220 an hour right now to $230 an hour right now still keeps us at the bottom end of the comparables in our region and throughout the state. So tonight is the first reading. Ordering the second reading and ordering public hearing will be held at the October 7th [meeting], but I can certainly stand for any questions about this. [34:55] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** I do have a question, Chris. Just for clarification—do we have much room for other ice time for others to come in? What's the occupancy at? [35:14] **Chris Jenkins:** Total number of hours sold—I mean, do we have room? I mean, can others come in still and buy ice time? They can. The majority of use being High School teams, Hockey Booster teams, our Riverblades school, our ice skating schools, and then we schedule in our own open skating, freestyle skating, those sorts of things. So we make sure that our programs have time too. The remaining hours of the day, yes, people can schedule them. Most people don't; it's during a school day, it's during a workday, or it's super late at night or super early in the morning. So most of the practical hours in any given day are reserved out. [35:54] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay, good to know. Councilmember Pemble? [35:56] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** When you say that we're pretty close to the lowest level around the area, I mean, is there a big gap or are we right at the bottom? I'm trying to remember the chart off the top of my head. [36:09] **Chris Jenkins:** Councilmember Pemble, I believe there is one rink currently that might be $225. The next is South St. Paul in the Doug Woog Arena, which is $230. Farmington and Lakeville both at $260. Eagan, I believe, is at $250. And there's some maybe in the $235, $240 range. And talking with their Ice Arena manager and some of those folks, I think he said Burnsville—don't quote me—they're looking at something like $270 or $280 for next year. Everything costs more, right? And ice is prime. [37:16] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Thank you. [37:18] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Councilmember Pemble. Councilmember Vihrachoff? [37:21] **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Thank you, Mayor. Chris, so the increase that we are voting on on the first reading tonight is for $10 per hour, is that correct? And then what would—do you have a sense of what the proposal would be when you come back to us next spring or summer for the increase then, or are we not that far yet? [37:46] **Chris Jenkins:** An estimate, yes. I would assume we're going to want to be in that $250 to $260 an hour range for prime. We'll also be taking a look at our non-prime, which are different hours of the day and different days of the week, as well as our off-season, which is our summer, and looking to increase those probably $10 or $15 bucks an hour. And that will help keep us again kind of in the range with everybody else, and it just helps us to kind of offset the cost. We've historically been low; we've tried to stay very low, but it's time now for us to start increasing. [38:12] **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Totally understand. Can I ask when the last increase was? Do you know off the top of your head? [38:17] **Chris Jenkins:** Well, this year, 2024, is a $5 increase from 2023. So it was $215 last year, it's $220 this year. And part of our rationale, too, for this $230 this year is we know that our Hockey Boosters, our biggest prime ice buyers, have already set their budget, right? So this is going to be a hit to them. I've talked to the president of Hockey Boosters and they're okay with it; they understand. But we didn't want to go too far and really break the bank for them. [38:52] **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Chris, I really appreciate that. That's kind of exactly where my brain was going and what I was getting at, which is that I didn't want it to necessarily be a surprise to any of the youth organizations or anything like that. So thank you for your due diligence and thinking that. [39:09] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you, Councilmember Vihrachoff. Any other discussion, Council? Okay, if not, I would accept a motion to approve the first reading of an ordinance of the City of Hastings, Minnesota, amending Chapter 34 of the Hastings City code pertaining to fees for municipal services. [39:27] **Councilmember Mya Beck:** Motion. [39:29] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Second. [39:31] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Any new discussion, Council? All those in favor of the motion, state by saying "aye." [39:35] **Council (Multiple):** Aye. [39:36] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion, state by saying "nay," and that motion prevails. [39:46] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you again. Tonight we have a 2025 budget pre-authorization, and for this item, we will have an introduction by our City Administrator, Dan Wietecha. [40:02] **Dan Wietecha:** Thank you, Mayor and Council. As you know, a couple of weeks ago, Council set its preliminary budget for 2025. And that's a big step, but the final budget isn't for a couple months yet, in December. So there may be changes between now and then. But I ask that if you're reasonably confident that the items listed here will be in the final vote, can we start the process now? And I'll highlight a little of that. This has worked real well the last three or four years that we've done it, but for a variety of reasons—whether it's trying to line up labor, whether it's supply chain issues, or very short windows (especially in vehicles) for authorizing purchase from manufacturers—a lot of the things that we deal with and things on this list here have just tremendous time. We, with one of the apparatus for the fire department just a couple of weeks ago, we ordered it over a year and a half ago. These things take so much time that if we can order some stuff now instead of waiting till the final vote in December, it helps just to shorten some of that process. I will note two of the items here: the first two on the list actually would incur costs this fall. Automation for the HVAC controls—heating and cooling controls—for the police station, and the roof over the Zamboni room at the Civic Arena. If those are approved, we intend to get those done here before winter, ahead of precipitation on that roof that's already had leak issues. And the heating automation needs to be done when essentially the lines are drained down because of the boiler project; it's easy to do that now, otherwise the project waits till spring. So I'd like to take advantage of the circumstances so that we could do it early. Those two would have costs incurred this fall. Quite frankly, if Council later decided that it didn't want those in the '25 budget, we could draw down reserves to pay for those. The other items—whether it's hiring for new firefighters or a number of vehicle purchases—if we later in December decided against it being in the '25 budget, we just cancel the order. You know, it was nice that we went through a hiring and interviewing process, but we don't fill the position. So to a certain extent, it helps us start the process now, but Council does have the ability to still back out if circumstances look different in December. I can certainly take questions on any of these items or others. It might be possible that you might see something else come in October, but I really asked my departments to bring a list of everything so we didn't want ones and twos coming every meeting. Try to get it comprehensive as possible. Something might come up in October, but this should be pretty much it. [43:41] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay, thank you, Dan. Councilmembers, do you have any discussion? Councilmember Beck? [43:47] **Councilmember Mya Beck:** Thank you, your honor. Dan, my only question—and you kind of touched on this, but just for public recognition—can you dive in one more time about... do we have the funds this year for the items that are asking us for pre-authorization on, or do we dive into 2025 money? Just to be very clear. [44:06] **Dan Wietecha:** To be very clear: all of the above. The intent is that these are 2025 budget and would use 2025 money. And nearly everything on the list—$1.25 million worth of items—about $60,000 of it we intend to actually incur costs this fall. So really, it's intended to be 2025 funds. Strictly speaking, if we needed to, we could draw down savings reserves/fund balance to actually complete these purchases without the 2025 budget, but then it would be drawing down reserves and unavailable for unforeseen [needs]. It would also have some impact on credit rating, likely, if we were to take that kind of drastic drawdown, but there is cash to do it if need be. [45:18] **Councilmember Mya Beck:** Okay, thank you. Just to be really transparent to our public—we're not trying to spend the money down in this budget early, we're trying to spend '25 before it's '25? [45:30] **Dan Wietecha:** Correct. Yeah, it's 2025 pre-authorization and really the only reason that we're looking at this is because of the long lead time on some of these items. [45:41] **Councilmember Mya Beck:** Thank you for changing that narrative in my question. And I just—I know we all get a lot of questions from our constituents about where's the money going, what's happening with it. So I just want to be really clear that this is so that we're saving money in the long run. We will have these items within the 2025 budget if we order them now. So this is not spending money that is not set for that time. But I would move to approve the authorization to begin the process for several 2025 budget items. [46:17] **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Second. [46:19] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Discussion? Councilmember Vihrachoff? [46:21] **Councilmember DawnMarie Vihrachoff:** Thank you, your honor. Thank you, Councilmember Beck. I think those were important, thoughtful questions and clarification for people that might be watching us at home. And I just want to thank the city and city staff. I feel like I'm very agreeable during this meeting—I keep thanking people publicly and stuff. I don't know if that will always be the case, but tonight it is. I think that these were a really good example of department heads and city staff and leadership coming up with different ways that we could be transparent with these purchases, different ways that we could save money. I appreciate this. I think that to do some of to take out some of this money now, to make some of these purchases now to save time and money going forward, is really, really thoughtful and smart in my mind. This is a great example of good government working and being a good steward of our taxpayers' money. And as chair of the Finance Committee, I very much support this and I'm grateful for this process. So thank you, Dan, for leading us through this. [47:36] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Great, thank you, Councilmember Vihrachoff. There is a first and second. Any other discussion, Council? All those in favor of the motion, state by saying "aye." [47:45] **Council (Multiple):** Aye. [47:46] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed that motion, state by saying "nay," and that motion prevails. Thanks, Dan. Also tonight, under Administration, we will have a closed meeting pursuant to Minnesota Statute 13D.05, subdivision 3C, to develop offers for purchase of real estate property. But first, Council, do you have any announcements? [48:21] **Council Members:** No. [48:22] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay, I have a few. Quite a few. Summer Rec programs at Levee Park: Tuesday, September 17th, Comedy in the Park with stand-up comedian Tim Hamsten, sponsored by Smead Manufacturing Company. Wednesday, September 18th, Storytime in the Park with the theme "Underwater" in partnership with Pleasant Hill Library. Dakota County residents can get help repairing household items—clothes, electronics, and more—at the Fix-it Clinic on Saturday, September 21st; pre-registration is required. The Chamber of Commerce and HCTV are hosting a Candidate Forum on Tuesday, September 24th. Join us for Paws in the Park for an evening of fun and socializing with fellow dog lovers and their furry companions on Thursday, October 3rd. In recognition of National Fire Prevention Week, the Fire and EMS Department Open House is Tuesday, October 8th. Meet the department, learn about fire safety, and see the trucks and equipment; all ages are welcome. Happy birthday today to Councilmember Haus, who is not with us. Hope you're enjoying your birthday. Tuesday, September 17th meetings coming forward: 7:00 PM Heritage Preservation Commission. Wednesday, September 18th, 6:00 PM Joint Meeting with Parks and Recreation Commission and Parks and Recreation Committee of Council. Thursday, September 19th, 6:30 PM Public Safety Advisory Commission. Monday, September 23rd, 6:00 PM Utility Committee tour of the hydro plant; a quorum of City Council may be in attendance. And 7:00 PM is the Planning Commission. Monday, October 7th is a 5:30 City Council Workshop, which is on cannabis and Highway 55 study. 7:00 PM City Council regular meeting. With that, we will go into closed door session. We will meet in closed session to develop offers for purchase of real property for Water Treatment Plants 2 and 3, specifically at 1292 North Frontage Road and on General Sieben Drive at 2035 15th Street West. Closing the meeting is authorized by Minnesota Statute 13D.05, subdivision 3C. I will therefore seek a motion to move into a closed door meeting at this time. [51:17] **Councilmember Dave Pemble:** Motion. [51:19] **Councilmember Tim Lawrence:** Second. [51:21] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Additional Council discussion? All those in favor of the motion, state by saying "aye." [51:24] **Council (Multiple):** Aye. [51:25] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Opposed to that motion, state by saying "nay." For the City Council, we will now move into a closed door session. No voting will occur and no action will be taken in the closed door session. I will now call the City Council in closed door session, and I will now turn the discussion over to our City Administrator, Dan Wietecha. I think we're going down the hall? [51:50] **Dan Wietecha:** Yep.