Here is the transcribed townhall meeting with speaker names added based on the context provided. [0:00] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Okay, let's call the meeting to order and stand for the pledge of 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, [0:27] **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Please. Councilor Geissler? **Councilor John Geissler**: Here. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Hjelle? **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: Here. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor LeBlanc? Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. Councilor Peterson? **Councilor Joe Peterson**: Here. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Mayor Boucher? **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Here. And Councilor LeBlanc is ill this evening. Announcements. Do any councilors have announcements this evening? [0:48] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Next, presentations. Mr. Mulder, should we have Chief Crace go over the tobacco and alcohol compliance checks? [0:53] **John Mulder**: Sure. Chief. [0:54] **Chief Jim Crace**: So, as I said during the pre-agenda, we had a couple of failures in each category, both alcohol and tobacco. Um, we used the under 21 volunteer to help us with those compliance checks supervised by our school resource officer and like I said we had a couple of failures but all in all the percentage of passing was very high. Letters will be going out to those establishments and license holders indicating what the administrative penalty is from the city for the establishment. The actual clerks that sold and violated the law did receive citations from the police department, but the administrative fine comes from the clerk's office. Our ordinance allows for them to cut those fines down by attending training—awareness training—if they choose to. And if we do have takers on that, we will schedule with them and get the training done. [2:17] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. Mr. Mulder, would you go over the trails update? [2:23] **John Mulder**: Yeah. So, the city engineer, David B, presented a just a brief update on some trail options from Ingalls South past Keen Creek Townhomes, then to the area just north of Morris Thomas Road and how to deal with the necessary crossing of the creek there. So, we looked at three different options. One option would run all the way over to Okerstrom and just do a crossing along the road. And the second option was to put a fairly long bridge over the creek there. And then the third one was a boardwalk. So we looked at those options and kind of discussed the pros and cons of each one. And then the council kind of provided some direction as to which option that we should continue to do some planning on. [3:03] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. And next is public comment. Time for individuals to address the council about items not on the agenda. Time limit is three minutes per person. A signup sheet is available in the lobby prior to the meeting. For verbal remarks and written comments can be submitted to the city clerk. We have what appears to be two people so far for general public comment. First person is Mr. Derek Strumm. Mr. Strumm, could you step forward and state your name and address, please? [3:44] **Derek Strumm**: Derek Strumm, 5853 Highway 194, Hermantown. So, I'm here to address everybody about what this data center actually is. This data center is about fixing what this city council cannot provide, which is adequate stuff for our community. Because of the mismanagement of funds with this city, you need this data center to reimburse yourself for the money that you stolen. Under the Minnesota Government Data Protection Act, I was supposed to be allowed to get every text message, every email, and transcript from anything that you guys talked about via this data center for the past 5 years. But what you guys did August 1st of 2022 was you changed the way Hermantown is allowed to release information. I was slapped in the face with what I received. I received one email and six text messages. For something this big, that is inadequate. There was more planning. There was more communication than what I received. Now, we take something just to give you an example of how much fraud and waste that you guys commit. Hermantown out of 843 cities is ranked 100th in population. Yet, we are 21st in taxes. We have one of the highest tax rates in the entire state. We are above the national average, which is 0.99%, and we are above the Minnesota average which is 1.11%. Hermantown is at 1.43%. Now we bring in storm water. Now storm water was brought in about 5 years ago. Since then you have raised the storm water tax 25%. Now with the people that we have here you make and the businesses you make roughly $1.25 million a year just off storm water. Now, I don't know how many people look at their electric bill, but Hermantown taxes us on our electric bill at 1.5%. You also administer a Hermantown Association fee, which charges every business and every resident another $2 a month, which comes out to be about $30,000 you make on top of the assessed tax. Just off the association fee, you make 30 grand off businesses and residents. Now, recently we've been made aware of all the fraud that's been going on in Minnesota. We had 98 mayors that signed a petition trying to get accountability for what? Notice how you didn't sign anything. So, are you in on the fraud with BlackRock and Amazon? We don't know yet because none of the information is being released to me. So, basically what this data center is a push for what you guys overspent. You look at us like a piggy bank. Now to the residents of Hermantown, we can overturn this vote. We can organize a petition signings and look at constitutional grounds for both state and federal and look up where we can change for where the city has changed already land. We can also recall any member sitting up here. Seeing that they don't care about us, we don't care about them. [7:16] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Your time is up, sir. [7:18] **Derek Strumm**: Yeah, go figure. I got 10 pages here of extra fees. [7:23] **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: You're not listed, sir. You're not signed up for speaking. [7:28] **Derek Strumm**: You can't—you can't see it. [7:38] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Do you have the next list, please? Thank you. Next is Sarah Lofal. Please step forward and state your name and address. [7:49] **Sarah Lofal**: My name is Sarah Lofal. I live at 5502 Hermantown Road. And happy new year everyone. I'm here once again to express my opposition to the proposed data center project, also known as Project LONI. And again, I am feeling like a broken record. On October 6, I joined many other Hermantown residents at the city council meeting to try to get more information regarding the only recently confirmed data center project. And with surprise, we found out that this proposed project was actually much farther along than most realized. On October 20th, this chamber was completely full, overflowing into the larger conference room down the hall and even filling the entryway of the building. We all sat through hours of speeches from residents and surrounding community members, the vast majority of which were voicing their opposition to this project with topics ranging from the use of NDAs to the insufficient EAW. In subsequent meetings, citizens have practically begged for more information, answers to their questions, and to simply be heard by the public officials who we elected to represent us. We have sent emails, met in person, spoke during meetings, only to hear either nothing at all or some watered down statements that provide no real information and empty promises. During these last few months, it became clear, only with written data requests, that this project had been in the works for over a year and potentially even longer than that. Since then, our community has had to organize to find their own answers. I and many others have come to each and every single city council meeting and planning zoning commission meeting to reiterate our concerns. We have researched public policy, NDAs, environmental reviews, the impact of data centers, cold water trout streams, advocacy groups, and more. We have found other communities facing this exact issue in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and all over the US. All fighting their own elected officials to make a stand against these data centers. Our little community has somehow found itself in the middle of a nationwide debate against the Fortune 50 companies that want to build massive data center compounds in our rural areas. Multibillion dollar corporations that want to benefit from our water resources, power grids, and infrastructure. All while enjoying tax incentives that save them billions and cost the citizens their livelihood, health, and financial stability and threaten to raise the cost of our utilities. All for unrealized and unsubstantiated benefits for our community. You are faced with a growing group of citizens that have lost faith in our elected officials and are not interested in handing our communities over to these multibillion dollar corporations. So again, I ask you, if the residents of Hermantown show up to a city council meeting and voice their opposition to inviting a Fortune 50 company to build a 1.8 million square foot data center complex in the middle of a rural area, will you stop the project? Thank you. [11:08] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. Next is Jeffrey Donahugh. Jeffrey, name and address please. [11:15] **Jeffrey Donahugh**: Hi, Jeffrey Donahugh, 5540 Pinehill Road, Duluth mailing address, but I live in Midway Township. Happy new year everybody. Good to see you all. Microsoft has about 400 data centers in the world. They just are finishing, due to come online, their largest data center in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. That'll be their largest. It'll be the world's largest AI data center. They call it a massive project on their website. It's state-of-the-art. It will use at a minimum 3.3 gigawatts of power. That's at any given time. That's ongoing. That's the low end of the estimates. It could—I've seen estimates all the way up to nine gigawatts. If you use the 3.3 gigawatt number or estimate, that's three to four large nuclear power plants or three-plus of the largest gas-powered power plants. All would be new coming online. It's a mammoth facility. When we look at estimates on projects, we also have to consider the indirect pollution that comes from those new power plants. Tremendous. That's a big facility. Guess what? How big is it? 1.2 million square ft. The same as the planned one here. Now, there are a lot of things we don't know about the project because of the NDAs some of you signed and the EAW. We are lacking a proper environmental study and EIS. Without that, we're blind. The NDAs, they're blind because we can't get our questions answered. But we know certain things and we can draw some assumptions with the improper report that's been done by the city. We know that wetlands are going to be filled in. We know that there's going to be tremendous water use. By the way, Microsoft says on their website that AI data centers cannot be air cooled. It's insufficient. They have to be water cooled. I believe that you're all good people that have been given bad information. This is a multi-trillion dollar industry. Billionaires are involved. BlackRock is the largest investment firm— [14:48] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. [14:49] **Jeffrey Donahugh**: Okay, another three minutes. BlackRock is the largest investment firm in the world. That's what we're dealing with here. We don't know how to deal with that. We don't know how to go up against BlackRock. You don't? I don't. All I know is this is a big business. Generators. The largest generator is 4 megawatts. That's a large generator, by the way. A large solar power plant is less than four megawatts. So a 4 megawatt generator is big. They're 55 ft long with the space required; two to four of them every football field. If you do the math and let's call this 3.3 gigawatt project, that would be almost 900 of those. Each one of them has to be moved with a special device. Looks like you're moving a space shuttle. That's each one of them. Each one of them produces about 115 dB. Now with soundproofing and mufflers, you can get that down about 30 to 35 dB. In other words, not one of those diesel generators can go in this residential area. 55 to 65 dB are required. That's it. Night, day or night. Not one of those diesel generators. If it's 1.2 gigawatt, which I've seen, that's 300 generators. Now, the cumulative sound is larger and there's formulas online that show us how much power would be used for 65 decibel generator. I mean, if you can get it down to 65, the cumulative is still 80-something. And I have these numbers. I'm going to send them to the councilors anyway after the meeting so you have the numbers. I have a lot of good sources. I've been asked to source my material. So everything I'm saying tonight is sourced and I have that in written form and I'm going to send it out to you so you have the numbers. It's easy to find. This project is large. It would be the largest thing that would ever happen in the north. It is approximately in the top four or five largest businesses in the state of Minnesota. It would use more power than all the households in the state put together. [17:08] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: 30 seconds. [17:09] **Jeffrey Donahugh**: The city of Los Angeles with all its power requirements is 2.4 gigawatts of power. So what you're proposing to put in this residential neighborhood is large. It's large beyond belief. So anyway, I would certainly ask the council to reconsider its rezoning, reconsider its approach to the data center. And I thank you very much for your time. You've been a great council. Thank you. [17:46] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. We'll move on to motions. Motion to approve or deny the following tobacco license renewal application effective January 5th, 2026 through December 31st, 2026 contingent upon complete applications being received, successful background checks, and license fees being paid in full: Holiday Station Store at 4795 Miller Trunk Highway. Do we have a motion? [18:24] **Councilor John Geissler**: Motion to approve. [18:26] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Motion by Councilor Geissler to approve. Is there a second? [18:28] **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: I'll second. [18:29] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Second by Councilor Hjelle. Mr. Mulder. [18:31] **John Mulder**: We do tobacco licenses typically in December. The holiday store on Miller Trunk Highway got theirs in late, so they're asking to have a tobacco license. [18:45] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. Any questions or comments from council? Is there any public input on the motion to approve the tobacco license? Is there any public comment on the tobacco license for Holiday Station store at 4795 Miller Trunk Highway? Last opportunity for public comment on the issuance of a tobacco license to Holiday Station Store, 4795 Miller Trunk Highway. Roll call, please. [19:30] **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Geissler? **Councilor John Geissler**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Hjelle? **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Peterson? **Councilor Joe Peterson**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Mayor Boucher? **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Aye. Next, we have the consent agenda. And this is the first time we have had a consent agenda that is this long. So bear with me while I read through it. Minutes: Approval or correction of the December 15th, 2025 city council continuation minutes. Accounts payable: will approve general city warrants from December 16th, 2025 through December 31st, 2025 in the amount of $1,168,271.51. Motions: Appoint official newspaper Hermantown Star. Appoint depositories: Multi-Bank Securities, Morton Capital Markets LLC, Wells Fargo Securities, RBC Dain Rauscher, US Bank, PMA Financial Network Incorporated, Bell Bank, National Bank of Commerce, Form Funding, Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC, and Ehlers Investment Partners. Appointment of Mayor Boucher as the city's designated representative to the Hermantown Chamber of Commerce. Appointment of Andy Hjelle as the city's designated representative to the Hermantown Legacy Fund. Appointment of Mayor Boucher as the city's representative on the Metropolitan Interstate Council with David B, city engineer, on the transportation advisory committee with Trish Crego, city utility and infrastructure director, as alternate. Appointment of the following for a three-year term on the park board: Jim Nelson and Michael Miller. And Board of Appeals and Adjustments: Cindy Reno, Jim Nelson, and Michael Bass. Resolution 2026-01: Resolution appointing Councilor Geissler as the acting mayor. 2026-02 resolution appointing ex-officio members to various boards and commissions or other appointments for 2026. 2026-03 resolution authorizing and directing Mayor Wayne Boucher and city administrator John Mulder to sign checks and drafts for the city of Hermantown with alternates acting mayor Geissler and director of finance and administration Kevin Orme. Is there any motion relating to all that? [22:20] **Councilor Joe Peterson**: I'll make a motion to approve. [22:22] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Motion by Councilor Peterson. Is there a second? [22:23] **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: A second. [22:25] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Second by Councilor Hjelle. Mr. Mulder, did I miss anything there? [22:28] **John Mulder**: That is all the consent items. Again, a large part of these are just annual housekeeping things that we do every meeting of the first of the year. [22:44] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. Roll call, please. [22:46] **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Peterson? **Councilor Joe Peterson**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Geissler? **Councilor John Geissler**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Hjelle? **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Mayor Boucher? **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Aye. Next, under ordinances, we have the second reading of ordinance 2025-23, an ordinance of the city of Hermantown, Minnesota, amending chapter 18 of the Hermantown zoning code by adding a new section 1830, accessory dwelling units. Do we have a motion? [23:14] **Councilor John Geissler**: Move to approve. [23:16] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Motion by Councilor Geissler to approve. Is there a second? [23:18] **Councilor Joe Peterson**: I'll second. [23:20] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Second by Councilor Peterson. Mr. Mulder. Let's have Community Development Director Eric Johnson explain this. Mr. Johnson. [23:25] **Eric Johnson**: Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. Um as this is the second reading, I'll do kind of an initial recap. The city has been looking at accessory dwelling units for well over a year, almost 18 months. We looked at different communities as to how they permit their ADUs, generally what requirements are for those associated with minimum size, maximum size, parking, lot widths, etc. that way. So the ordinance before you this evening, I'll give you the highlights associated with that. So we're looking at a minimum size of an ADU unit as 350 ft, a maximum size of 1,000 square ft. The primary residence owner of the property must live somewhere on the premise, whether it's in the existing home that's there or the accessory dwelling unit. The water and sewer connections can either come from the primary structure or from the street. Now, in the case of a well and septic, the property owner, the applicant, would have to provide documentation that the well and septic system could accommodate that proposed ADU for it. There's a requirement of one additional parking space for the ADU and it may be part of a garage or a separate structure. Maximum height is 35 ft and then a minimum lot width associated with the parent property is 130 ft. That generally really only falls into the R3 zoning where a minimum lot size is 100. The other two zoning districts for residents that this is allowed in, the R1 as well as the S1, minimum lot width are greater than that 130 ft. Other setbacks associated with the ADU are the same as the primary structure once again reflecting the underlying zoning district that it's in. The ADUs are only associated with single family homes. They would not be permitted on lots with two family structures, i.e. duplexes or twin homes for that. And lastly, this would be an administrative review process. Application would come in; staff would look at this both from a permitting or zoning standpoint as well as a building standpoint and basically make the decision as to whether this is permitted or not. [25:39] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. Any questions or comments from council? Any public comment? Any public comment on ordinance 2025-23? Last opportunity for public comment on the second reading of the ordinance adding accessory dwelling units to the zoning code. Roll call, please. [26:14] **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Hjelle? **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Geissler? **Councilor John Geissler**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Peterson? **Councilor Joe Peterson**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Mayor Boucher? **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Aye. Next are resolutions. Resolution 2026-04, resolution approving a special use permit for cannabis cultivation at 4599 Abrahamson Road in a C1A office and light industrial adult use zoning district. Is there a motion? [26:41] **Councilor Joe Peterson**: I'll make a motion to approve. [26:44] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Motion by Councilor Peterson to approve. Is there a second? [26:46] **Councilor John Geissler**: Second. [26:47] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Second by Councilor Geissler. Mr. Mulder, did you want to take this or should we have Mr. Johnson? [26:50] **John Mulder**: Let's have Mr. Johnson do that. [26:52] **Eric Johnson**: Great. Thank you again, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. So, this is an existing 40-acre parcel at the end of Abrahamson Road. To help out members of the audience, this is a road that takes access off of Highway 53 and it's essentially about 3/4 of a mile north of the Ugstad Road/Lavaque bypass intersection. So this property is zoned C1A. It is interesting the fact this is a split zone property. The northern two-thirds of this property are O (Open Space) with the southerly third being the C1A. That's where the proposed application is for is within the C1A zone property. It's also abutted by other C1A properties, open space, as well as M2 zone properties. There are wetlands existing on this property. They have been delineated in the past and this proposed application does not affect any of those wetlands. So what this is is an application for indoor cannabis cultivation. It would occur within a 2,700 square foot building that would be constructed on the site. To access this property, Abrahamson Road essentially terminates in a rough cul-de-sac. The applicant would be deeding to the city a hammerhead type of turnaround into their property. So public works should continue to maintain this road and have the ability to provide access to backup turnaround etc within this area. This applicant does have a retail license for cannabis sales within the City of Duluth. This facility is strictly for manufacturing and would be utilized then to provide product to that store in Duluth. As part of this process the building is going to be secured for the Office of Cannabis Management requirements. There'll be on-site alarms and monitoring, motion detected flood lights, security cameras all part of the system as well as keypad access associated with it. The cannabis cultivation is a permitted use with a special use permit in the city assuming they go through the proper channels with the state of Minnesota with the Office of Cannabis Management. [29:10] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. Any questions from council? We have one person that signed up for public input on this. Sarah Lofal, please. [29:28] **Sarah Lofal**: All right. Hi again. My name is Sarah Lofal. I live at 5502 Hermantown Road. And last month I was actually surprised to see this at the planning and zoning committee agenda. And while I did speak in approval at that first meeting, I actually had the opportunity to speak more with Rob and his partners about his proposed business. He spoke in detail about his business plan, the intentions for the proposed site, and pretty much everything that had to do with his project. He spoke quite passionately about the safety of his workers and the site itself. His plans for the building, which include multiple cameras and a security system that would allow only specific people access to the site. And as it was stated in those meetings, even the police chief had no concerns regarding the safety of this proposal. Rob was particularly insistent on making sure everything was built and prepared to go above and beyond the state-mandated regulations. And overall I was quite impressed with his knowledge and passion to make sure that they would grow a quality product that was safely produced in an environmentally friendly and organic way. And this is how businesses who want to invest in our community should act: with excitement and passion and openness, transparency, and a willingness to speak openly with the public about their project. Rob and his partners were open books and spoke with compassion about those who had hesitations and concerns. Um I have no concern over this project. I think that um he's going to do a great job as well as his partners. Um I do have one question somewhat related to this—more related to the city council meetings in general. Why do you call for any comment for every other agenda item without the speaker needing to sign up for on the list, but then you're no longer allowing the same for general public comment? It's a recent and fairly concerning change of your procedure. Sorry to take a bit of a tangent there, but um that is concerning. Thank you. [31:43] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. Any other public input? Last opportunity for public input. Roll call, please. [32:06] **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Peterson? **Councilor Joe Peterson**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Hjelle? **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Geissler? **Councilor John Geissler**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Mayor Boucher? **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Aye. Next is resolution 2026-05. Resolution approving change order number two for Keen Creek Trail segment 4 construction to Veit and Company in the amount of $6,044.09. Do we have a motion? [32:29] **Councilor John Geissler**: Move to approve. [32:31] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Motion by Councilor Geissler. Do we have a second? [32:32] **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: I'll second. [32:34] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Second by Councilor Hjelle. Mr. Mulder, should we have David B explain this? [32:38] **John Mulder**: Sure. [32:39] **David B (City Engineer)**: Yeah, Mayor and Council. So, this is change order number two for the trail that we're constructing right now. And there are three pieces to this change order. The first piece is when we were making the connection to Johnson Road, we decided to add a culvert there. So, that's one piece of this. The second is we had some fixes that we did on the trail that we previously built and there was some extra work that was not accounted for in the first change order. So we're just making the contractor whole on that effort. And then the third piece is there's two different permits that the city of Duluth required for the parcel of property that we bought that resides in the city of Duluth that we're building a parking lot. So they had some administrative fees for the permits within the city limits. So those combined three things added up to just over $6,000. [33:38] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. Any questions or comments from council? Any public comment? Any public comment on the pay request number three for Keen Creek Trail segment 4 construction to Veit and Company? And last opportunity for comment on 2026-05. Roll call, please. [34:25] **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Geissler? **Councilor John Geissler**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Hjelle? **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Peterson? **Councilor Joe Peterson**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Mayor Boucher? **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Aye. 2026-06. Resolution approving pay request number three for Keen Creek Trail segment 4 to Veit and Company in the amount of $47,086.37. Do we have a motion? [34:44] **Councilor Joe Peterson**: I'll make a motion to approve. [34:46] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Motion by Councilor Peterson. Is there a second? [34:48] **Councilor John Geissler**: Second. [34:49] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Second by Councilor Geissler. [34:50] **John Mulder**: Um, no. This is just a pay request for the work that's been in the last month um on the trail. [35:02] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. Any questions or comments? Any public comment? Any public comment on a pay request? Uh, any public comment on pay request to Veit and Company for $47,086.37. Roll call, please. [35:31] **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Hjelle? **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Peterson? **Councilor Joe Peterson**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Geissler? **Councilor John Geissler**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Mayor Boucher? **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Aye. Next is resolution 2026-07 resolution approving the 2026 City of Hermantown standard specifications for construction. Is there a motion? [35:53] **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: Motion to approve. [35:55] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Motion by Councilor Hjelle. Is there a second? [35:57] **Councilor Joe Peterson**: I'll second. [35:58] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Second by Councilor Peterson. Mr. Mulder. [36:00] **John Mulder**: Let's have David—Engineer David B discuss this. [36:04] **David B (City Engineer)**: So yeah, thank you Mayor and Council. So this is a change that was necessary um with our Hermantown construction standard specifications in 2026—or excuse me in '25. MnDOT updated their construction standard specifications and the City of Hermantown's construction specifications in multiple areas of that document, we referenced the previous or 2022 version of the MnDOT specifications. So there were six different areas in our specifications that needed update. There were multiple references to the old specification. And then the seventh item was our construction contract. So my office along with the city attorney worked with updating our construction contract. So that's the contract we use on like the trail projects or any city-initiated projects. So these documents were all updated to reflect the MnDOT standard specifications. [37:22] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. Any questions from council comments? Any public comment? Any public comment on resolution 2026-07? Any public comment on the resolution approving the 2026 City of Hermantown standard specifications for construction? Roll call, please. [37:54] **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Peterson? **Councilor Joe Peterson**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Hjelle? **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Geissler? **Councilor John Geissler**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Mayor Boucher? **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Aye. Next is resolution 2026-08, resolution approving a contract with Budget Blinds of Duluth for replacement of blinds in the city training center. Do we have a motion? [38:14] **Councilor John Geissler**: Move to approve. [38:16] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Motion by Councilor Geissler. Is there a second? [38:18] **Councilor Joe Peterson**: I'll second. [38:20] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Second by Councilor Peterson. Mr. Mulder, do you want Chief Crace to address this? [38:22] **John Mulder**: Sure. He wants to, otherwise I can. [38:24] **Chief Jim Crace**: Thank you, Mayor and Council. Yes, we received two quotes for replacing the blinds in the training center. As you know, the training center gets used very frequently. It's got heavy use. The blinds are inoperable; have been for a number of years. Um, and as I said, it's something that we have to darken that room to be able to use the video. Should be noted that it's not just used for public safety; it's used for the community members as well as for many, many other uses for the city. So, 25 years, 27 years it's been in use. So, we got our use out of them. We need to replace them. [39:09] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Thank you. Any questions or comments from council? Any public input? Any public comment on 2026-08? Does anyone have any comment on the contract with Budget Blinds of Duluth for replacement of blinds in the city training center? Roll call, please. [39:44] **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Hjelle? **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Peterson? **Councilor Joe Peterson**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Geissler? **Councilor John Geissler**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Mayor Boucher? **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Aye. Next is a motion for close session. Motion to close the meeting of the Hermantown City Council pursuant to Minnesota statute section 13D.05, subdivision 3B, to consider attorney-client privilege information relating to pending litigation. Following this closed session, the Hermantown City Council will reconvene into open session. Do we have a motion? [40:17] **Councilor Joe Peterson**: I'll make a motion. [40:19] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Motion by Councilor Peterson. Is there a second? [40:20] **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: I'll second. [40:22] **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Second by Councilor Hjelle. Roll call, please. [40:23] **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Geissler? **Councilor John Geissler**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Hjelle? **Councilor Andy Hjelle**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Councilor Peterson? **Councilor Joe Peterson**: Aye. **City Clerk Alissa McClure**: Mayor Boucher? **Mayor Wayne Boucher**: Aye.