This transcript has been processed and speaker names have been assigned based on the context of the meeting, the provided official list, and the subject matter of the reports. [0:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Call the regular city council meeting for August 13, 2025 to order. Do the pledge of allegiance. **All**: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [0:36] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Next is the approval of the agenda. Is there any additions or corrections? **Council Member**: Motion to approve. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Carried. Can you pull that, Mike? [0:54] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Next, we have the consent agenda. The minutes from the regular city council meeting, June 9th, 2025. Minutes from the special city council meeting July 31st, 2025. Financial reports, city council payable, July 2025. City financial statement July 2025. And the liquor profit and loss statement July 2025. Questions comments? Is there a second? [1:28] **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed? Carried. Public comment. This time is reserved for comment from the public on matters not listed on the agenda. Please keep comments to two minutes. [1:48] **Public Speaker**: We're still having some problem with ATVs over on Seventh Street. Um, from what I can tell, a lot of them are coming out of the campground. Uh, I don't know if you guys are familiar with the little forest area by the old school. Uh, there's some walking trails in there. Lately, I've had to contend with ATVs in there. Um, I've had recently I've had three girls I would estimate to be 12, 13 years of age out in front of my house arguing because one was on an ATV, two were on scooters, and apparently the one on ATV almost ran over one of the girls on a scooter. Um, and I've had a girl on electric bike almost t-bone me on my motorcycle blowing through a stop sign on our road. [2:20] **Public Speaker**: And again, I watch where she came from and she came out of the campground. So, I don't know if this is something we get on the agenda to maybe address it. I have called 911. Um, and generally the answer that I get is there's not an officer in the area or not one available to deal with it. And I get that it's a low priority, but you know, I get kids that ride their bikes up and down the sidewalk and I try to keep them out of the streets, but you know, that's there's no adult supervision. These kids in these four-wheelers, I've seen them go by my house three wide, you know, riding side by side. Um, and like I said, they're they're making loops around the old school. Sometimes they're driving between the old uh the ball field there and the old school and that sidewalk. Sometimes they're making circles up and down my street, you know, just driving around circles coming out of the campground. So, like I said, I I can only call 911 so many times because, you know, they're busy. So, I mean, it's the city's campground. So, I don't know if there's something you guys can do about it. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: We can put on the agenda, maybe discuss this more. Probably put that on the park board agenda and have it discussed on that in a portion. [3:22] **Public Speaker**: Thank you. **Council Member**: I do have a question. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Yes. **Council Member**: Do we have something when uh people are bringing their side by sides with four-wheelers to the campground? Do we have something they have to fill out? Um so we would be able to—we should maybe do something like that suggested parkour. I know when we go camping we if we brought something we have to um site them. So at least if you could some of the advice to track some of these people or campaign. [3:55] **Phil Entner**: Um, what type of information is recorded? Um, attached to like their their cam site. It would be the make, model, and license plate number because if they're on the road, they got to have a license on them. So I see this number and maybe some information on what the rules are too on city streets and possibly a map of where they can make it how they can make it to the trail cuz if they're doing damage in the in the campground too. We want to know who. [4:39] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Anything else? Any other public comment? Next we have department reports: Carlton County Sheriff's Office. [4:54] **Sheriff Kelly Lake**: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council members. Uh you should have in your packet a report which—I don't know if I got the um—there it says in the sentence that it was for June of 2025 but at the top of it it is July. So, if you could just make that correction. And it is for July. But you'll notice there was um broken out again by what contract deputies respond to as well as uh separately what county deputies respond to outside of the contract deputies. Um contract deputies: there was total calls um including self-initiated and calls for service um and which include the self-initiated would be the traffic stops and so some of the extra patrol and extra details community engagement and then the actual calls for service and medical calls um totaling 144. And then for the county deputies, that was 69. [5:59] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Do they have any questions on that specific report? I was just looking at the ATVs on here to see how many complaints there. I saw a couple from Hot Rod. **Sheriff Kelly Lake**: That that was all that was and I will let the uh make the squads aware that that complaint was made to the city and um to keep an eye out for that when they are in the area as well. Um but that would be—I agree—would be helpful if uh they did have to provide that information at least uh just because they can't go right then and there they can respond after the fact uh and speak with us particularly if you have 12-year-olds that are flying around ATV. So they can certainly respond and speak with parents on that. [6:55] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions? Do you have any more? **Sheriff Kelly Lake**: Uh, we do have uh nothing on the report at all. There's no questions. Um, we do have a deputy uh experienced lateral uh hire that will be starting August 25th for training. And then we have two more in the um final phases of their background um process and they should be starting hopefully shortly after that. One of them is an experienced lateral and the other one is not. But just so you know, um we will soon have three in training that will be starting soon. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Okay. Thank you. **Sheriff Kelly Lake**: Yes. Thank you. [7:36] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: City Superintendent Phil Entner. [7:45] **Phil Entner**: Mayor, members of council, administrators. Um now that day is done, we're kind of just in regular maintenance mode. Um we'll uh we'll start in the water department. The water department distributed 7.2 million gallons of water in the month of July. Uh hydrant flushing will be happening here at the beginning of September. So we may miss the next city council meeting for that update. So there'll be notices on Facebook and the paper. Uh Taylor's really good at taking care of that, making sure everyone's aware uh as quick as we can. [8:16] **Phil Entner**: Uh the water tower will be down for service at the end of the month. Um, we're hoping for a week-ish. Um, no water customers should experience anything abnormal in their water. Um, possibly a little discoloration, but other than that should be uh business as usual there. The sewer fund, the collection system collected 13.4 million gallons of waste water in the month of July. Uh, the annual sanitary sewer maintenance cleaning program is not complete yet. Um, we've had a bunch of things happen and a lot of gear shifting, I would say, we had to kind of kick that on the back burner. [8:55] **Phil Entner**: So, we'll be hitting hitting that again hard here this fall. Uh, the treatment facility um that's doing its thing. We'll be starting a September discharge somewhere to the tune of 30 to 40 million gallons in September. Um, so we'll be going through that process. Still, I haven't gotten a chance to get any trainings this summer. I'm hoping to hit a couple of them this fall to see if we can look at some other options for uh for capacity or increasing our capacity at wastefire facility. That's where the bug thing came from. Um yeah, there's a lot of other good options out there that I want to try to get out there and research. Um just haven't had an opportunity to get out there yet. [9:14] **Phil Entner**: So, um from a street department, right-way standpoint, road patching, um we put down a lot of concrete the last two to three weeks, I think we're we're almost close to 200 yards now. So, we're probably going to be short to be—we're almost I would say we're probably done with that for the year. There'll be a little little bit left, but those budget monies I'm sure are pretty close to being gone for the year. Black topping that'll really kick off tomorrow. We're going to start with our first round there. We got six or eight spots in town and then obviously pothole filling and crack filling and grinding in as well. Um so that'll be happening here just the end of this month, beginning of next month. [10:00] **Phil Entner**: Um nothing major to report on the equipment, the cemeteries, um business as usual, summer maintenance and mowing. Uh just a reminder that the grave decorations do need to be picked up by this September 15th. That is posted on all the cemeteries that we have. Um campground, Ryan's going to touch on some of the financials on that here a little bit later. Other than that, from a maintenance standpoint, not too bad. Couple of small minor stuff, water service leak. We fixed that. That was last week, I believe. There was an electrical pole issue today. They're working on it right now actually. So hopefully that'll be up and taken care of. Um bath house, we got the beach house bathroom. We have a little bit of odds and ends to clean up there after the building is shut down for the year. Uh those are things we can't do until we close. So uh that'll be taken care of in October. [10:47] **Phil Entner**: Um parks, I know Taylor and I are going to talk a little bit more about that later for the arena. I know ICE is going in here I believe this weekend. So um for that six-week window that we had at the last council meeting. Um storm sewer, we've had a lot of issues with storm sewer failing this year. I think there's been four of those repairs made; they were pretty spendy but it is what it is. Gardening, Raenee is going to touch on some stuff here in a little bit. Recycling center, there's nothing to report and I think that's it for right now unless anyone has any questions. [11:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions? Thank you. MUN (Liquor store) department report. [11:56] **Ryan McKeon**: Good evening members of the council. Mayor Michalski, Administrator Owens. Uh the MUN is full speed ahead. Right now we're dealing with some media common and television issues. So those are things I'll bring to the next liquor committee meeting. Um that's the next steps with that. So I handed out—this is not in your packet but I handed each of you a calendar. It's something that I'm implementing down there. The plan is to be three months ahead of schedule and this will help from strategic planning to what we're doing to social media to the whole gambit. So, we'll be filling these out and hopefully being three months ahead of schedule and all of that stuff. Any questions about this? This is just a basic look at it. So, nothing on here is set in stone, but you kind of get the gist of it. [12:42] **Council Member**: What's the "flip off Wednesday"? **Ryan McKeon**: Oh, I can't tell you. Someone might steal that. I say it out loud and Barnum might be listening. Okay. Um, it's over on the side. Yeah, on the side it tells you about it. So, that's for a description of what would be on the calendar. Uh, next, uh, I'll touch base on the first annual customer appreciation event. So, we are partnering with the Moose Lake Brewery. That is Saturday, August 23rd from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the Moose Lake City Park. You'll see in your packet the brewery's asking for application later on in the agenda. Uh there's music by Savannah and Keith 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Hot dog lunch by the Moose Lake Fire District. Thank you. Games and activities, $3 drinks. Come on out. It'll be a fun time. [13:45] **Ryan McKeon**: Questions about that? And then we're also partnering with the brewery for October Fest. That is Saturday, September 27th at First National Bank Arena. Uh the first band hits the stage at 5:00 p.m. You have that handout, I believe, as well. Um $10 pre-sale tickets, $15 at the door. I would also like to say we're doing a 30% off coupon code to the campground for that. Um and it's we actually have several people that have already taken advantage of it. So, if you're coming to the event, which I encourage you to do, go on to campspot.com and when you're checking out, just type in the promo code OKTOBER30 and get 30% off your stay. Um, in looking at uh historical trends of the last couple of years, not a heavily um attended campground day for that weekend. So hopefully this does what we want it to. Okay, I think that's it for that part. [14:51] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions? Thank you. Technology department. [15:15] **Ryan McKeon**: Technology department. Uh let's see. Uh I helped Karen in the DMV take care of a direct-to-email feature for the passport machine. So that is up and working now. And last week I met with Jim Peterson at Water and Light and Asgard. They're an IT company. Um they say they do the whole gambit, the whole shebang. I'm not sure they do another municipality yet. So I sent them like kind of a forensic of everything program-wise that we do four or five days ago. I haven't heard back yet. But it was a good first initial meeting anyway. So Any questions? [15:58] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Financial department. [15:58] **Ryan McKeon**: Financial department. So, I was asked a few weeks ago to put together some event analysis for all of the holidays for the liquor store and the campground. And we'll just start—I'll try and go in order here of what's in your packet so you could follow along. So, first up is Memorial Weekend for the MUN. Right off the bat, you'll see some terminology in there like "proforma." That's kind of what I do before the event happens. So, it's what we can expect to get out of it based on historical trends or data. Um, in this instance, because we don't have a lot of that tracking and background, I just used last year's actuals. So last year 2024 we did $42,684.73 and this year $39,473.67. So we lost a little bit there but you'll see looks like Friday was better, Saturday not so much. And then Sunday, Monday were about normal. And that's Memorial Weekend for the MUN. [16:59] **Ryan McKeon**: Any questions about Memorial Weekend? Okay, we're moving along: Fourth of July. So, a little bit more to this proforma and analysis because we actually had allocated expenses towards it. So, what I did was put an expense percentage as a percentage of revenue. That's kind of how I've looked at stuff in the past and 9 and 7% is really good. So pro-forma wise for 2024 we did $53,273.32 and this year $58,695.53. So we are up over last year $5,422 for the 4th of July weekend and we spent less this year. So we spent $563.14 less than we did last year. Um, you'll see some things that have zeros on there. Those are just placeholders I put on there for if we do end up wanting to do that in the future, spend towards advertising or if there's other expenses. So, any questions on that, the outside revenue? [18:07] **Council Member**: What all constitutes outside revenue? **Ryan McKeon**: Bar sales. The band is playing, you have a drink, take five bucks. Outside bar. Yeah. Okay. All right. Any other questions? Moving on to Agate Days. Uh once again, we did $28,503.27 last year for the 3 days over Agate Days. This year $27,440.38. So down a little bit, thousand bucks basically. Um, and then I also just took a look quick at the previous year when there was no Brewfest. So in 2023 we did $26,299.12. So we actually did a little bit better than that year. [19:03] **Ryan McKeon**: On your next handout—this will also aid us in strategic planning. So, I took a good few hours to put this extensive spreadsheet together. So, what you're looking at is only the top 10 days of revenue for the liquor store for the past 3 years. These are the days that had the highest revenue for us. Um, one note I would put is I don't see an Agate Days weekend on here. So, really it's dominated mostly by Fourth of July. And then there's one Labor Day in there. I've been asking Mari what we did that day that made that the fourth highest grossing day and we can't figure it out. I don't know if it was a retirement party down there or what, but anyway, there's a spot for notes. Eventually, I'm going to hand this over to Mari so she can put in the notes: was it raining out? Did we have a retirement party? Whatever took place so we can strategically plan ahead. [20:02] **Ryan McKeon**: This really helps in strategic planning for the future when you're looking at, okay, December Wednesdays are really struggling. If I were to do that without this spreadsheet, it would take me a long time to figure out because we don't have a report that would just cover that. So, this spreadsheet will do that. We can look at seasonality, day of the week, specific holidays, or special events. And I look forward to bringing that to the labor committee as well. Any questions on that? All right. Now, we're on to the campground analysis. [21:07] **Ryan McKeon**: These first set of groups of numbers are not containing our seasonal people that are staying. And you'll have to remember that we took seven of the water and electric sites off-grid and gave it to seasonal people. So the actual reservation totals would probably be quite a bit closer in knowing that. So Memorial Weekend down 24 reservations—probably very close if you add back in those seasonal sites—and then income just down a little bit. 4th of July, down again a little bit, 32 reservations and a little over a thousand bucks. But again, I think another thing to note is these holiday weekends when you're looking at campground analysis, we fill it. It's full. [22:38] **Ryan McKeon**: Well, one thing it does tell us is we could probably do with some more sites for these weekends cuz a lot of these weekends even the dry sites are taken. And then Agate Days weekend obviously really full. 18 reservations, 630 bucks. But then I decided to do an overall just so you guys can see with the seasonal numbers back in into reservation revenue. When I plunk back in what the reservation revenue does for us, we are up through July 31st $26,346.75. So from an analyst standpoint, kudos to the team that had the foresight to increase the dollar amounts and transfer those sites over to seasonal people because that really made a big difference. Wood and ice was down in June, but we just had a rockstar July and we're up now in both categories. Any question on the overall? [23:49] **Ryan McKeon**: And this is not in your packet, but as a handout I gave you this morning. Just one thing I want to key in on—this comes from the campground analytics dashboard that I do with Campspot. If you look at the KPIs in the weekdays and the weekends, and then you see that word that says "compset." That is what Campspot uses. They look at all of our competitors and what their occupancy rate is for the weekdays and then the weekends. And you'll see that we're beating them out. So kind of interesting. Any questions? [24:39] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you. Good information. **Ryan McKeon**: Yeah. Couple more financial things. Uh the portal for the PTSD claims—I did submit all those. So, they're just pending and waiting now for review. [25:10] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All right. Thank you. City engineer. [25:10] **Ellissa Owens**: Yes. So, council received two sets of meeting minutes this month from our city engineering meetings. Um a pre-construction meeting did occur on July 16th to which the trail project was discussed. Um Senate Contracting has started construction on the trail. There was a little bit of an issue that we've encountered regarding some additional tree removal that needs to occur, and we are outside the season of when those removals can be done without additional process based on northern long-eared bats and the protections that are in place for the bats. [26:17] **Ellissa Owens**: So what we've been doing in the background is Senate Contracting has been working around a specific area of the trail. In the meantime, we've had relevant state departments and staff on site to do some inspections of the additional nine trees that need to be removed. Trying to be as efficient and as effective as we possibly can. We did have somebody on site inspecting today. There were four trees that needed a little bit of additional assessment. There could be implications that the trees cannot be removed as far as timeliness of trail completion. So we are working through those challenges. Hoping to hear in the next 24 hours what the final verdict is regarding those four trees and I will provide council with an update via email. [26:45] **Ellissa Owens**: Any questions please feel free to let me know. In addition, the city has executed a grant agreement with the MPCA for the $76,500 storm water or storm sewer inventory and analysis project. We'll see that supplemental letter agreement from the engineers later on in the packet. Um, and I also wanted to mention from those meeting minutes, the Minnesota Department of Health is facilitating lead service analysis replacement all over the state. And so as far as the city of Moose Lake's engagement goes, MDH is now contracting directly with our engineer group in order to facilitate the remaining inventory mechanisms that need to take place in the city. [28:18] **Ellissa Owens**: How the city will be involved is our engineers will provide us with the necessary documents to inform residents of process. There's a portal established. For any unknown service types, those residents will be contacted and they'll be able to enter information into a portal in order to determine whether or not they could potentially have a lead service. Um and then there'll be support if they would prefer an on-site inspection. So, a lot of work was done preliminary through our public works department. Hats off to them. We're far ahead of other communities. Ours will be relatively minimal, but we do have over a hundred that we need to address remaining. You'll see information come out on the city website and Facebook as this portal gets launched. [29:10] **Ellissa Owens**: Um the city will be meeting with QuickTrip and the engineers on August 19th pertinent to the storm water retention pond. That will then have to be a collaborative effort between the city and QuickTrip. We'll have an agreement to present to council once we get closer, but the purpose and intent of the meeting is to establish the city's utilization of that storm water retention pond for drainage from the residential development. The next engineering meeting will occur on September 3rd. As always, if there's any questions, please let me know. [30:14] **Council Member**: Who owns that retention pond right now? **Ellissa Owens**: That is a great question. We're working through that. Documentation has been difficult to come by. Um, but both parties are highly engaged and willing to sort it out. So there'll be some type of easement and or ownership agreement that talks about maintenance as we proceed. There were certain filings that we cannot access. So we'll be starting from scratch a little bit. Uh but QuickTrip is also very experienced with their retention ponds as it has been a requirement for a lot of their sites. [31:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you. Any other questions? Chamber support. [31:25] **Chamber Representative**: Council members, Mayor, Administrator Owens. Thank you for having me. Um, at our meeting this afternoon, we went over various events. Um, since the last council meeting, mostly what we covered was Agate Days. We are currently doing a recap with all of the different groups that work together. And for the city, there were safety concerns that we are looking at and the kids area. We'll be doing the recap Zoom tomorrow at noon, so we'll have a more complete report for September. Um Brewfest was a part of Agate Days weekend and it currently has not grown since previous years. So we are probably going to move that off Agate Days weekend. [32:30] **Chamber Representative**: Um Nine and Dine Golf went off very well on Friday, July 25th. The Moose Lake Triathlon was cancelled. Unless we find a new race director that wants to actually take over that, we will not be doing the triathlon anymore. Um, date change for bingo was on Saturday, August 23rd; it is now moved to September 19th. Uh we also discussed National Night Out and the Chamber will now be more of a partner with the city in getting National Night Out more advertised and coordinated. Um the main thing that the Chamber really needs is volunteers. We had a historical turnout for Agate Days. Phil, thank you so much. God bless everybody in the city because everybody did great. [34:11] **Chamber Representative**: We've had a few Facebook complaints about mostly little children—they were new and they didn't know that the stampede was really a stampede and were kind of surprised with that. But other than that, we have had hundreds of compliments on how many people had such a good time. A lot of that is thanks to the city and the fire department and everybody working together. And we're going to recap what we can change and improvements tomorrow. [34:40] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions for the chamber? Thank you very much. Previously discussed business: Straight Line Surveying alley survey discussion. [34:52] **Ellissa Owens**: Yes. So, what council received in the packet was the official report provided by Straight Line Surveying of the alleyway that has been a part of previous discussions. Um in addition, there was a map included. It was determined based on the survey that there was a fence belonging to a resident that was infringing on the city's alley right-of-way. Since then, that property owner has been contacted and the request was made to move the fence off of the city's property. We now have markers back there establishing the city's right-way. Um and so that process has been completed. [35:45] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions, comments? Okay. City ordinance amendment update. [35:55] **Ellissa Owens**: Oh yes. So, Ellissa and staff have been working really hard on ordinance amendments, and what occurred since the last meeting is that three ordinances have been prioritized and sent to the city attorneys for review. Amendments were made based on dialogue, city office administrative review, and council interactions. Um also our interactions and discussions with the county attorney played into the modifications. Um we have set those off to the city attorneys. They are going to assess, review, and then send them back to us. City staff will take part in a Zoom meeting with them and then we'll bring those three amendments back to city council for final review and adoption. [37:04] **Ellissa Owens**: There were six total that were identified as an immediate need. We did it in two batches of three. We'll now continue to work through the other three. We are reviewing the next three that's in process and the three that have been prioritized: Nuisance, Use of Property, and Animal. [37:50] **Council Member**: Did we express the need to the attorneys that especially the nuisance one we have is a super high priority? We obviously have people here and got a lot of complaints. If we're going to forego having the three meetings, maybe we could have a special meeting so they're not waiting another month? **Ellissa Owens**: Excellent. Uh the attorneys are very responsive. They would like to establish a meeting in the next couple of days here. The email just came through. So um it is absolutely a priority. [38:34] **Council Member**: I just had a quick question. Was there still going to be like a quiet hour thing in there? **Ellissa Owens**: So the the nuisance ordinance does incorporate quiet hour times. Um, but there's also verbiage in the nuisance ordinance so that even outside of quiet hours there can be enforcement of volume and things of that nature. It identifies quiet hours, but also volume from a macro standpoint. **Council Member**: One of the new things we're dealing with is the basketball at 1:00 a.m. **Ellissa Owens**: There is quiet hours in the proposed. [39:28] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any other questions? Moving on. City Moose Lake gravel pit permit update. [39:28] **Ellissa Owens**: Uh yes. What the council received in the agenda packet is the approved NPDES comment. Um so the city's gravel pit has officially been approved from a permit perspective. Next steps: test holes will need to be drilled and Phil has been working on getting mining and stripping quotes to bring forward to council hopefully in September. We've worked through establishing a gravel pit fund as an entrepreneurial fund for the city, just like the water, sewer, liquor and DMV. From a monetary perspective, I believe there's about $339,000 in the fund based on council's previous appropriations. [40:58] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions? Old school playground inspection discussion. [41:03] **Ryan McKeon**: Yeah. So, at the last city council meeting, you asked that I go and get a new quote to cover all three of the playgrounds. So, that's what this updated quote is. I also contacted five other places and either didn't get a response or they don't do the inspection part and they recommended IEA. So, we might be dealing with they're the only game in town. It's only an extra few hundred for them to stop at the other park. Most of that must be travel. So, it went from $1,360 to $1,900 for all three. [42:00] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Anybody got any questions? That's for all three. They're all listed on here. Any further comments? Motions. [42:25] **Council Member**: I'll make a motion we approve the proposal for the playground inspection for $1,900. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any further discussion? All in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed? Carried. [42:47] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: New business. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Tree Inventory and Management Plan Grant. [43:11] **Raenee Bennett**: Um, good evening everyone, council members, mayor, Administrator Owens. Um, we had a Zoom meeting on Monday with Madison Matasuchi from DNR concerning our grant. Uh, we just wanted to give you guys a brief update on what's happening. We've been approved for a $35,000 grant to include an additional amount to top out at $70,000. Um, that includes a tree management plan, an inventory plan, and then that information will set us on track for ash tree removal for the Emerald Ash Borer and then replanting of those trees. All of those funds will be going towards that. Um, that includes labor and any necessary equipment. [44:40] **Raenee Bennett**: We're starting to look at getting things scheduled so that as soon as we DocuSign the documents, we'll be ready to hit the ground running. Um, we also discussed future funds for the public. They're going to let us know when those funds become available so that people in the city will have an opportunity to have their own ash trees removed. Um, this is hugely important because just because it's not on city property doesn't mean that it can't affect us. The city will apply for that grant and then it will become available to the public. If it's approved tonight, we should be ready to go within the next couple of weeks. [46:12] **Ellissa Owens**: Um, thank you, Raenee. Uh, this project does run out through October 1st of 2027. We do have the ability to submit on a monthly basis for reimbursement as soon as expenses are incurred. I think these efforts are absolutely fantastic. There are other communities that have been just ravaged from the Emerald Ash Borer. We would not be able to engage in these activities without this type of money. So I just wanted to thank Raenee for her efforts. These are activities that occur in big cities with a lot of money and we're able to now engage in this proactive activity based on Raenee's effort. [48:02] **Raenee Bennett**: One of the interesting things too with this tree management plan—they'll literally be able to identify the very worst of the trees that pose the biggest danger. So, as we work with our tree removal company, they'll be targeting the worst of the worst, like the campground or something that's next to a road. [48:49] **Ellissa Owens**: There are species recommendations regarding replanting. We'll make sure that in areas where there's critical city infrastructure, the types of trees being replanted are not going to affect infrastructure. They're trying to eliminate another Dutch elm disease or Emerald Ash Borer tragedy. Diversification is key. [49:46] **Council Member**: Um, so, somebody's got a tree. It's in rough shape, but this is only for ash trees? **Raenee Bennett**: Correct. **Council Member**: Um so if somebody had a question, who would they get a hold of? **Raenee Bennett**: Call me. They can contact the public works department and he'll communicate with me and I'll meet with the owner and we'll discuss it. [50:23] **Ellissa Owens**: And just to be clear, this initial grant is for trees on city property. There's a second phase that we are engaging in that would then allow residents to have access to trees on their private property. [50:59] **Council Member**: I was curious as to whether the old school forest is included in this? **Raenee Bennett**: Well, I've already talked to Kelly Tuttle about that with Bluestem Forestry. That'll be an area that we can discuss. It will certainly give us some information about what we need to do moving forward for the health of that area. [51:36] **Council Member**: And one more question. We had talked about starting a tree committee at one time. Where are we at with that? **Raenee Bennett**: Are you volunteering? **Ellissa Owens**: We we discussed that and Lou is definitely going to be on it. We've been holding off until we get this grant locked up tight and then we'd like to move into that and start having some discussion. [52:25] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: So I believe we need a motion to accept this grant. **Council Member**: I'll make that motion. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any further discussion? All in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Carried. Thank you. Roy Peterson Memorial Park Discussion. [52:51] **Ellissa Owens**: Yes. So, the city has been engaged with Essentia Health regarding a three-year partnership to make improvements to a city park. Essentia Health did a review and identified Roy Peterson Memorial Park as the one they would like to collaborate on. The partnership looks like a $10,000 commitment for three years totaling $30,000. If you remember, the city did allocate $10,000 of city budget for park improvements outside of the campground. So the discussion at the park board level has been to match funds with Essentia to essentially have $20,000 worth of monies to commit to this year's revitalization. [54:18] **Ellissa Owens**: There's two quotes in the packet for removal and repaving of the basketball court at Roy Peterson. Those quotes are coming in right around $10,000. In addition, we are looking at quotes for striping and a new basketball hoop. Essentia Health has installed a counter on the fence to see how these efforts increase traffic at the park over the next three years. What's on the table right now is two quotes for repaving: Rock Construction in the amount of $10,000, and Kaminsky Paving at $11,000. [56:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions? Did the park board make a recommendation on who we should go with? **Ellissa Owens**: Yes, Rock. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Do I have a motion? [56:45] **Council Member**: We'll make a motion we accept Rock Construction for the Roy Peterson Park. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any further discussion? All in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed? Carried. QuickTrip Opportunity Drive EV charging station discussions. [57:05] **Ellissa Owens**: Oh yes, this is just for council's information. QuickTrip has been in contact with the city and Power regarding the installation of EV charging stations on Opportunity Drive. Funding is a partnership between MnDOT and the Department of Energy. It looks like the installation of four EV chargers and six additional parking stalls. We've gone through a review from a city perspective as far as zoning and building officials. There are no city ordinances that pertain to this. Working hand-in-hand with Water and Light. [58:46] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Resolution number 25-08-01, a resolution authorizing 2026 capital budget request submission. [58:46] **Ellissa Owens**: Uh yes. These resolutions are needed for capital budget requests and state bonding bill requests. This will cover the 2026 bonding bill request regarding the citywide lining project. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Questions? Motion. [59:32] **Council Member**: Make a motion to accept Resolution 25-08-01. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any further discussion? All in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Carried. Short Elliott Hendrickson (SEH) supplemental letter agreement planning grant. [1:00:00] **Ellissa Owens**: Yes. So, as council was informed, the city did receive an MPCA grant for storm water and wastewater activities. This supplemental letter agreement essentially establishes the project with SEH. The fee is the amount that the city has been awarded with the grant in the amount of $85,000. [1:00:34] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Questions? Motion. [1:00:45] **Council Member**: Motion to accept the supplemental letter agreement. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any further discussion? All in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed? Carried. Supplemental letter agreement for the trail project. [1:01:00] **Ellissa Owens**: So this trail project planning started back in 2021. Over the course of time there has been an increase in cost and activity—there were a lot of unplanned experiences with this project, to be very transparent. We have been informed by the engineer group that we need an amendment to the existing contract, which is an increase of $75,875. In addition, we've asked SEH to engage with us regarding a reimbursement from the DNR. At this time, the eligible total is $86,216.95. So, when we cut this check for $75,875, we'll be getting the grant reimbursement on the backside. [1:03:04] **Council Member**: Motion to approve the supplemental agreement. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: So moved. Is there a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any further discussion? All in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed? Carried. Joint powers agreement. [1:03:22] **Ellissa Owens**: Oh yes. So council received the State of Minnesota joint powers agreement. This is not a new agreement, just new terms as far as timelines. This agreement gives the city secure access to the Minnesota's criminal justice network and BCA systems. We are working with the county on these agreements now as our internal city dynamic has changed with law enforcement services. [1:04:35] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Motions. **Council Member**: Motion to accept Resolution 25-08-02. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any further discussion? All in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Carried. Court data services subscriber amendment. [1:04:54] **Ellissa Owens**: This also goes hand-in-hand. This agreement allows the prosecuting attorney at the county to use BCA systems to access court records. The city must ensure only authorized personnel use the systems and follow all court policies to protect and destroy materials as needed. [1:05:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Questions? Motion to approve that. **Council Member**: I'll make a motion to approve the address amendment. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any further discussion? All in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed? Carried. Moose Lake Brew Company, the application for temporary on-sale liquor license. [1:05:53] **Ellissa Owens**: As Ryan had mentioned, there's going to be a first annual customer appreciation event on August 23rd. This is for the brewery in order for them to have a temporary license to be able to sell on city property for that event. [1:06:16] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions, motions? **Council Member**: I'll make a motion to approve the application. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any further discussion? All in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed? Carried. First National Bank Arena, Moose Lake Arena attendant job posting discussion. [1:06:40] **Ellissa Owens**: Yes. So, with the early ice coming on, city staff would like to take advantage of training opportunities. Looking to post the arena attendant positions. We will be engaging with the personnel committee for interviews and then bring hires forward to the council. [1:07:08] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Looking for approval to post. **Council Member**: So moved. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any further discussion? All in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed? Carried. Reports of correspondence: MPCA tank release closure notice, remote meeting attendance open meeting law changes, and campground customer correspondence. Any questions? [1:07:45] **Ellissa Owens**: I would just like to make sure—Grady Oolen has done a fantastic job at the campground and he was given a pat on the back from some of our guests. So hats off to Grady. [1:08:00] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Committee and board meeting minutes: Park and Rec from July and August. You didn't receive the fire district? **Council Member**: Not from July and not from yesterday. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I received them from July. I'll request them. Announcements: Moose Lake City Council regular meeting Wednesday, September 10th at 4 PM. Economic Development Authority, Wednesday, August 20th at 12 PM. Water and Light, Tuesday, August 19th at 1 PM. Housing and Redevelopment, Monday, September 8th. Fire Protection District, Tuesday, September 9th, 6:30 PM. Moose Lake Parks and Wreck, Monday, September 8th, 5:00 PM. Is there a motion to adjourn? **Council Member**: So moved. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Is there a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor? **Council Members**: Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed? We are adjourned.