Here is the transcribed townhall meeting with speaker names and estimated timestamps. **Note on Council Members:** The transcript mentions Councilmembers **Tony Khambata** and **Steve Dennis**. Although they were not on your provided list, they were active members of the Cottage Grove City Council during this November 2022 session and are identified accordingly. *** **[00:00:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** November 16th, 2022. Okay, I call the meeting to order. All right, I have one statement to read real quick and then we're going to turn it back over to our Mayor of the Day, Mackenzie. Pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D.02, subsection one, Councilmember Thiede will be attending remotely at the following location: it's the Holiday Inn Express Albany, which is 2713 Point North Boulevard, Albany, Georgia, United States, 31707. And so that's that. So then the next thing you're going to say is "Please stand for the pledge." **[00:00:40] Mayor for the Day Mackenzie Delaney:** 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. **[00:01:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, please do the roll—well, of course, please do the roll. **[00:01:05] City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Councilmember Khambata? **[00:01:07] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Here. **[00:01:08] City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Councilmember Dennis? **[00:01:09] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Here. **[00:01:10] City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Councilmember Thiede? **[00:01:11] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Present. **[00:01:12] City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Councilmember Olsen? **[00:01:13] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Here. **[00:01:14] City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Mayor for the Day, Mayor Delaney? **[00:01:15] Mackenzie Delaney:** Here. **[00:01:16] City Clerk Tammy Anderson:** Mayor Myron Bailey? **[00:01:17] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Uh, here. Awesome. So, next on our agenda is Open Forum. This is the opportunity for anybody that likes to speak on something that's not on tonight's agenda is welcome to do so at this time. We did have a sign-up sheet out in the entryway and we do have somebody that did sign up, and so I'd like to—we'll start with that. If anybody else wants to, but we'll start with Bonnie Matter at 6649 Inskip Avenue South, and it's noted the topic is "Various City Government." **[00:01:50] Bonnie Matter:** Thank you. Good to see everybody survived our first snowfall. Mayor, Madame Mayor for the Day, and Councilmembers. I'm here to request a City Council public hearing and presentation of the 2023-2027 Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) plan. Excuse me, planned CIP spend dollars have increased substantially. Ultimately, it is the City of Cottage Grove residents who are going to be on the hook for the repayment of these dollars. It is the responsibility and the duty of staff and City Council members, while employed by the city or serving as an elected official, to inform and keep the residents up to date regarding what is known and how it is going to impact them. In past years, the CIP was presented at a City Council meeting; procedures seem to have slipped during the pandemic. It is difficult, if not impossible, to find searchable documents on the City of Cottage Grove's website. It's even harder to download and search for information. Residents need easy and timely access to meeting agendas, meeting minutes, relevant files—at all. It ain't easy to get the necessary information. Secondly, River Oaks irrigation system bid award— **[00:03:10] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Bonnie, I'm sorry. We're going to be talking about that later on, and so if you want to come up—I've mentioned that to you at the EDA—there'll be an opportunity for you to speak on that item because that is on our agenda. **[00:03:22] Bonnie Matter:** I wasn't aware it was a public hearing. **[00:03:24] Mayor Myron Bailey:** It's not, but I do let people speak if they have something they want to bring up but it's on the agenda. **[00:03:28] Bonnie Matter:** Thank you. And my third item is, and while we're on the subject of money, residents need to understand how the City of Cottage Grove's 1.2 million dollar email fraud scheme that occurred in the second half of 2021 will be repaid. How much of this loss did city insurance cover? How much will the taxpayer have to eat? Thank you. **[00:03:48] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay, thank you. Appreciate it. Yep. All right, was there anybody else in the audience that wanted to speak that did not sign up on Open Forum? All right, seeing none. If you want to hit the gavel, we're going to go ahead and close the Open Forum. And now we're going to look—you want to say "I'm going to look for the adoption of the agenda." **[00:04:10] Mackenzie Delaney:** I'm going to look through for the adoption of the agenda. Wait, motion? A motion to adopt the agenda. **[00:04:15] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** So moved. **[00:04:16] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Second. **[00:04:17] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Khambata and a second by Councilmember Olsen. All right, now I'll say roll call vote. For Khambata? **[00:04:24] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Aye. **[00:04:25] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Aye. **[00:04:26] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Aye. **[00:04:27] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Aye. **[00:04:28] Mackenzie Delaney:** Aye. **[00:04:29] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Aye. All right, so next on our agenda—so the agenda has been adopted—is presentations, and our first presentation—we have two this evening—but our first one is Mayor for the Day. And so what I am looking for right off the bat first from Council is to be official and make a motion and a second to appoint Mackenzie Delaney as the Acting Mayor for the Day today, November 16th, 2022. **[00:04:55] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** So moved. **[00:04:56] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Second. **[00:04:57] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Olsen, second by Councilmember Dennis. Any further discussion? All right, roll call vote again. Councilmember Khambata? **[00:05:06] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Aye. **[00:05:07] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Aye. **[00:05:08] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Aye. **[00:05:09] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Aye. **[00:05:10] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Aye. So if the Council would join me down in front, we're going to have Mackenzie come on down with us here. *(Council moves to the front of the room)* **[00:05:25] Mayor Myron Bailey:** So for the public, what is really amazing about this—and it's fun for me and I know it is for the Council and it is for our staff too—is the opportunity to read letters from our youth and students here in Cottage Grove that would, you know, what they want to be. And obviously, we have the contest which is Mayor for a Day. I know we have our contest here in Cottage Grove, but they also have a statewide contest that's there too. And so I believe we had over 30 letters that were sent in to us from various schools. Our great Mayor for the Day, she spent most of the day doing a variety of things, and I'm going to actually hand the mic to her maybe to tell a little bit about some of the things she did today as Mayor for the Day. But what I can tell you about Mackenzie is she was teaching Spanish today, so that was kind of cool. She does go to the Nuevas Fronteras Spanish Immersion school, but she lives here in Cottage Grove and she enjoys the parks. She's pretty excited, like I am, about the upcoming Glacial Valley Park. She plays soccer—I didn't know that—and her sister also put in a letter for the Mayor for the Day, who's not very happy that she didn't get picked but her sister did. So she could take this home to have some fun with it. I'm going to turn the mic over to you, Mayor, and if you want to tell everybody maybe in the audience a little bit—if you're okay—to tell what you did today as the Mayor. **[00:06:50] Mackenzie Delaney:** Um, so I got to see the police station, the fire station, the City Council, and I got to ride in a snowplow, and I had to see an engineer. And that's—and now I'm here. **[00:07:08] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Oh yeah, and then I didn't want Bonnie to find out—and Mom was kind of laughing at this one too—that she had Dipping Dots for the first time ever today at the ice arena. Oh my goodness, she was really sugared up. So you did have a bunch of stuff there, okay. They gave it wide open on the concession stand, so she had a good time there. So what I want to do is just present you with the little plaque here, okay? So it says: "Presented to Mackenzie Delaney in appreciation of her service to the City of Cottage Grove as Mayor for a Day, November 16, 2022." And so on behalf of myself and all the Council, staff, and the citizens of Cottage Grove, we want to thank you for your day of service here for us as the Mayor for the Day. And hopefully in the future, you can be the official Mayor—you have to run for that election, but that's okay—you could be official Mayor here in Cottage Grove in a couple years. See, there you go. So let's give her a round of applause please. *(Applause)* **[00:08:15] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Next under presentations this evening is the 2022 Cottage Grove Holiday Events presentation. Molly from our Parks and Rec Department is going to walk us through this. She's been doing a great job putting all this together and working with everybody. **[00:08:35] Molly Pietruszewski:** Good evening everyone. Mayor, City Council, Mayor of the Day. We had a great afternoon with Mackenzie at the rink; she for sure has a stomachache. So I have the honor and privilege tonight of presenting, kind of a chronological order, of events coming up the next several weeks here in Cottage Grove. Events, opportunities, different things to do here around town. The first event coming up is the annual Hail to the Bird race at Hamlet Park. This is held Thanksgiving morning at 9:00 AM. It is the 12th anniversary of this great event. It's brought on by a group of residents; they do all the planning, all the registrations, everything. The City of Cottage Grove is a great sponsor, so you'll notice our name on the back of the t-shirts, and they are raising money to support their Friends in Need Food Shelf. So it's super fun. They come, they raise money, and then they will come on out to the "Fill a Fire Truck" in a few weeks and drop the check off with us, kind of supporting the Holiday Train through the Friends in Need Food Shelf. You do need to register online for this great event. The best thing to do is social media—"Hail to the Bird"—there's a great Facebook page, it has all the links to the registration. So there's always several thousand people out Thanksgiving morning to do the Hail to the Bird 5K race and walk. Next thing is our Holiday Lights home tour. I believe as of this evening, our Communications Department—the Communications Department this year is leading the charge on the Holiday Lights home tour—so the link should be live this evening. Residents are encouraged to submit their addresses if you guys are having anything from small to very large to dramatic light displays at your house. And then the software that we use will create a map that will be posted. The software that we use then creates a map. In years past, we've had almost 100 addresses. So we will create a North Pole and South Pole map, both starting here at City Hall. Hopefully again this year—Eric and I were talking today—we are hoping again for over 100 houses to be added to that list. If you sign up after the 28th, the map does automatically regenerate a new route. We encourage people, if you don't get it done Thanksgiving weekend or maybe you decide to join in late, to add your address at any time and it will regenerate the map. It's been very popular; we always kind of watch it on our website and there's thousands of hits on it. People get in that map and going out with their families—it's a great two-night project, if I can make a family recommendation. The Hometown Holiday Celebration was previously called our annual Tree Lighting Event. It is now bigger, better, faster, stronger—everything about it has changed. We are super excited. Those of you following along on social media, I think there's almost 2,500 people interested in the event. Santa and Mrs. Claus are still going to be here. We've added live reindeer, there'll be games and activities for kids by local businesses sponsoring those events. I believe we have three food trucks coming, there'll be giveaways and more. More information to come on parking; we plan on using the Washington County Government Center and the HERO Center, and maybe some additional parking, and then providing wagon rides into City Hall to accommodate all of the people we are expecting that night. It is Wednesday, November 30th, and the event will take place from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. That weekend, we go right into Fill a Fire Truck, which is kind of like our first kickoff event for the Holiday Train—the CP Rail Holiday Train. So starting—oops, I see November 2nd, that's not right—it should say November 21st at 8:00 AM through December 2nd, the virtual silent auction is something that we've been very successful with in raising money for the Friends in Need Food Shelf. Those items do go live to start bidding then. That closes Friday, December 2nd. You can come to Fill a Fire Truck on Saturday, December 3rd, between 10:00 AM and noon to pick up your winnings. Santa and Mrs. Claus are there and the goal is to fill up a fire truck with toilet paper, paper towels—we do accept cash donations on site. Again this year, the Food Shelf is requesting that we do not collect food items; they're very busy and it's easy for them to buy in bulk with cash donations, but they cannot buy paper products in bulk. So that is where we're trying to come in, working with our schools and everything else to collect paper products, deodorant, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner—those kinds of toiletries as well. And like I mentioned, you can pick up your silent auction bid items that day as well at Hamlet Park. December 11th is the River Oaks Santa breakfast, a great annual tradition. I know for a lot of families in town, come get your pictures taken with the famous Cottage Grove Santa, enjoy a sleigh ride around the golf course—looks like we're going to have some snow, which will be great—enjoy a North Pole breakfast menu. Reservations are required and those can be submitted by phone. I know, give the golf course a call; if there's no answer, leave your reservation on a voicemail because reservations are required for that on December 11th. The very next day, Monday, the CP Holiday Train is back after a three-year pause. So they are coming back to Cottage Grove. They stop in Hastings the night before, so we have the five o'clock stop. I would say the train will arrive about five; it takes about 15 minutes to kind of set up. The proposed show where the boxcar opens is 5:15 to 5:45. We have lots of things planned that evening again—parking at the park and ride and then I would say it stops close to the Service Bureau if you're looking for a point of contact. Anything then from cookies and hot chocolate to cocoa for free, glow sticks provided for all the kids. We do have six food trucks this year including a merchandise tent, a Re/Max warming tent, so there's lots of activities. The road will close by 3:30 and all events and activities should be set up by four. So come out for the night, get a good spot for the Holiday Train. The committee this year, our goal between all of the events including cash donations collected the night of the train, is $100,000 then to present to the Friends in Need Food Shelf. The last thing I wanted to mention is the "Get Out and Play"—just a reminder to everybody that all these opportunities are open and free. Most of them are free for your family to do all winter. Get outside; the parks are still there, the playgrounds are there, trails—a lot of trails are plowed in Cottage Grove. We have that great amenity to take advantage of. Warming houses and skating rinks, if all goes as planned, will open the Monday after Christmas, December 26th. Don't forget we have groomed cross-country skiing or snowshoe trails at River Oaks. You can follow them on social media to be notified once those trails are groomed. And then new this year through Recreation, we are repurposing our kayak rental trailer for the winter to rent snowshoes out. As of right now, those will hopefully also open the Monday after Christmas, December 26th. You need quite a bit of snow for snowshoes, so pick your poison if you want a lot of snow or you want snowshoes right after Christmas. But that trailer will be set up at Oakwood Park for snowshoeing this winter. So we're retrofitting the back of it now—the kayaks are out and we're getting ready, the snowshoes are in. So it'll be two pair of snowshoes in a compartment just like the kayaks and then it's $15 for a two-hour rental of snowshoes. So if you're kind of looking for something fun to do as a family for 30 bucks, you guys can get outside and a family of four could definitely snowshoe for two hours around Oakwood Park. Plenty to see and do around that park. That—that's all, but it's a lot. **[00:15:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** I was going to say, there's a lot going on. Molly, thank you for working on a lot of these projects and getting this stuff or partnering with others in there too. I would just also just throw in there, I know our Public Works department's working on getting all the street light decorations up; they'll be up for Thanksgiving. And I mean, it's just amazing. And of course, just so I can say it, that Saturday after Thanksgiving is "Shop Local" day—small business, small towns. So please make sure that we do try to keep your dollars as much as you can in our local economy because that helps too. But again, Council, any questions for Molly? **[00:15:45] Molly Pietruszewski:** All the food, all the events, games, activities, reindeer, all of that will be outside. **[00:15:50] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Perfect. All right, thank you. Have a nice Thanksgiving. Council, next on our agenda is Consent. Are there anything Council would like to pull on Consent? I didn't see anything on the table—I'm going to look to my camera here. Councilmember Thiede, anything you want to pull on Consent? **[00:16:10] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Move Consent. **[00:16:11] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Second. **[00:16:12] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so we have a motion by Councilmember Olsen to move Consent, second by Councilmember Khambata. Any further discussion? Roll call vote. Councilmember Khambata? **[00:16:22] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Aye. **[00:16:23] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Aye. **[00:16:24] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Aye. **[00:16:25] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Aye. **[00:16:26] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Aye. So if you are here for anything on tonight's Consent calendar, all of those items have been approved. Next on our agenda is item 8, Approve Disbursement. 8A is to pay the bills. **[00:16:40] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Motion to pay the bills. **[00:16:41] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Second. **[00:16:42] Mayor Myron Bailey:** We have a motion by Councilmember Dennis, do I have a second? Second by Councilmember Khambata. Any discussion on the bills? Seeing none, again a roll call vote. Thank you. For Khambata? **[00:16:52] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Aye. **[00:16:53] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Aye. **[00:16:54] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Aye. **[00:16:55] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Aye. **[00:16:56] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Aye. Thank you. Nine on our agenda this evening is public hearings. 10 is Bid Awards. We do have a bid award this evening, which is the River Oaks irrigation bid, and our Parks and Rec Director Zac Dockter is going to start us on this one. **[00:17:15] Zac Dockter:** Thank you, Chair, members of the Council. Thanks for having me tonight. Tonight we're asking for your consideration and approval of a resolution awarding the River Oaks Golf Course irrigation project bid. The objective of the River Oaks Golf Course project is a complete replacement of the 1989 irrigation system. As our GM and our superintendent would say, the golf course is a living, breathing facility that needs constant care and attention, and the irrigation system is the lifeline of that golf course. So it needs to be in good repair; it needs to be operating for us to make sure that we're protecting that asset. The goals are to convert the PVC piping to HDPE—high-density polyethylene piping—which is a 50-year type pipe. Second goal is to convert to more efficient controlling systems, and then third is to convert to more efficient mechanical systems. The project schedule would be to start the spring/summer of 2023 with replacing the pump station, and then in July, we would start the actual irrigation system replacement. Important to note that we would not close the course; the course would remain open. We might have to close a hole; we would be closing a hole at a time and then we would adjust fees accordingly, but the course will remain open through the duration of the project. Some of the expected project benefits include improved turf conditions just by spreading the water evenly; reduced water consumption. The way I explain it right now is with the older system, you're kind of just chucking water—you're doing a lot of chucking water. This system is going to be more intricate in that it can actually specify where the water needs to go. We can track how much water we're putting on certain areas. We'll reduce water consumption by being able to do that and be more specific with where we want the water to go and how much we want to put down. We'll be reducing energy costs just from more efficient pump systems and things of that nature. Reduced labor and material costs—our folks are in the ground way too often right now. We've been kind of babying this system for 15 years; we've had it on our budgets to replace for probably about 15 years now. And so we've been looking at doing this for a long time, but our crew has done an amazing job to keep things going. But every year we're in the ground more and more often, which is a lot of labor and a lot of equipment and a lot of purchasing materials to keep the system going. So it'll be nice once the system's in because we don't expect to be in the ground for a long time. Increased operational efficiencies, a 30-year plus irrigation system infrastructure. We expect to work 30 years plus and then assure River Oaks continues to be a point of pride for Cottage Grove and then also the economic benefits that the River Oaks Golf Course and Event Center brings to the community. It is a 2.5 million dollar project, and then I'll have Brenda Malinowski, our Finance Director, talk more about that. **[00:20:30] Brenda Malinowski:** Thank you, Zac, members of the Council. I'm going to talk about the funding of the 2.5 million dollar project. We are proposing to fund it from two different sources. First, $650,000 would come from our Water Enterprise fund, and specifically our water conservation funds that are in that fund, because by replacing this irrigation we will have water conservation there. And then the second piece of that is an interfund loan, and we're suggesting that come from our ED Trust fund. That loan amount would be $1,850,000. The ED Trust fund right now has a cash balance of about 5.1 million dollars, so there are sufficient funds to loan to the golf course for this project. We are anticipating that we would repay that interfund loan in 2025 when we would issue debt for the project; that would then replenish the ED Trust fund so that it can be used for other development projects throughout the city. The interfund loan to the golf course will be paid back—the principal and interest payment on that interfund loan will be paid back from the Golf Course fund. The golf course did a business plan back in 2021 and based on that plan, there are sufficient revenues in the Golf Course fund to pay that interfund loan payment. The interfund loan—we did present that to the EDA at their November 8th meeting. They did recommend approval to the City Council of the interfund loan from the ED Trust fund to the golf course and an interest rate of two percent for 15 years or until bonds are issued for that project. As I stated, there is sufficient revenue to pay for the debt for the interfund loan, or if we replace that with a bond payment in the future from the Golf Course fund. We did include a memo from Ehlers, our municipal advisors, just describing some of the advantages of doing the interfund loan now but thinking about in the future of replacing that with bonds. But if we did replace those with bonds, we would pay that principal and interest payment for that loan with revenues from the golf course. **[00:23:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Thank you both. First, is there any Council that have any questions at this point on the topic? And I'm also looking at Councilmember Thiede if there's anything you wanted to ask since you're remote from a staff perspective. **[00:23:15] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Yeah, I would have one question. Zac, do we know how much we've been spending on repairs approximately per year on for the current system? **[00:23:25] Zac Dockter:** I think the reason he's shaking his head no, Councilmember Thiede, is because it changes—it all depends on the weather and how much water you're pumping and what the temperatures are. So I do know that our prices have gone up significantly this past year, but it can kind of ebb and flow from year to year. But it's significant. Our superintendent is projecting 30-plus individual repairs per year, if that helps. **[00:23:55] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** All right, okay, thanks. **[00:23:56] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you. First of all, thank you guys for going back to the drawing board on this. I know it's been a challenging bid environment, so it's really good that we have this in front of us because this is certainly a much-needed upgrade of that original system for this amenity that so many people enjoy. You know, I've had the opportunity to play the course for various tournaments, etc., many times. One of the things that stood out to me that I'd like to ask about is the current system has—for lack of a better phrase—blind spots where it basically isn't covering certain areas and you can see that on the course. This system, if I remember correctly, is intended to correct that issue, which will frankly upgrade what's already a pretty well-maintained golf course. Am I accurate in saying that? **[00:24:40] Zac Dockter:** You're correct. **[00:24:41] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** And when I do the math, you know, the golf course mentioned 1989—which is the year after I graduated from high school—we haven't done anything to this system since that time. The investment that we're making, I think, is in terms of maintenance costs going to save us a lot of money. But the most exciting part to me is the water conservation element. You know, we waste a lot of water unfortunately because those pipes break and they break underground and you don't know it until it becomes a visual issue. So I mean, you could have a pipe leaking underground for days or weeks. And of course, we pay a water bill at River Oaks just like every member of our community pays at their home. We're going to see a savings there. These newer systems, I'm assuming—correct me if I'm wrong—certainly not 1989 technology. We're talking 2022 technology, probably meet some pretty strict standards as it relates to water usage? Am I on the right track there? **[00:25:40] Zac Dockter:** Councilman Olsen, you're right. We call them "Smart Systems" and they're smart for a reason: water conservation, energy conservation, and putting the water where it needs to go when it needs to go and nothing more. **[00:25:52] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to need a little help here from somebody on the staff—I'm probably going to look this way. I want to go a little bit deeper into the issue with the water because I seem to recall that there's been increasing pressure upon cities from the State of Minnesota, potentially DNR and also Met Council. So when we find ways that we can limit water usage, that in and of itself is of beneficial consequence. Am I correct on that? **[00:26:20] City Administrator Jennifer Levitt:** Mayor, members of the Council, that's absolutely correct. When the DNR gives us appropriation permits for the amount of water that we can extract from the ground, there's a fee obviously associated with it. And as you will recall over the last probably five years, they continue to ratchet down the amount of water that they are essentially permitting to us on a per capita basis. And so it's really imperative as a city for us to take those types of actions to conserve water across the board in all of our facilities. **[00:26:50] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Thank you, Jennifer. And I'm glad you used that term "imperative." Additionally, from an economic development standpoint, we know the golf course brings a tremendous amount of people here to Cottage Grove to spend money, and we benefit directly from that. As I've always said, when we support River Oaks Golf Course, we support ourselves. I couldn't even tell you how many times do we have—whether it be 3M or Renewal by Anderson or any of the big businesses down there—that will come over and either have leagues or special events. It really serves a tremendous purpose. So if this system were to go down—and I've heard reports where people have been out there and seen these areas where water starts coming out of the ground—we can't let that asset turn to dust. We just can't. So I think the justification is here. As mentioned, the EDA—which Mayor and I are a big part of—that approved it. **[00:27:50] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** I'll kind of echo what Councilmember Dennis has to say. In government, it's really rare that you have an asset that covers its own cost, let alone generates a profit at the end of the year. The fact that in the golf course's budget they can cover the cost of the debt service on this, not even factoring the savings in labor and materials and decreased water usage—you know, I think if this were a privatized entity, this would still make sense to do this. **[00:28:15] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Thank you, Mr. Khambata. I know for Zac—if you want to—I know I was talking yesterday with the staff down at the golf course. I did notice that it looks like the last few years you've been averaging around 40,000 rounds. And I'm assuming when we say rounds, that's per golfer, is that correct? And I also thought it was interesting as I'm looking at the data, the average spend from our golfers went from $32.06 in 2016 to $40.59 in the current year. That does not include food or beverages—that is just using whether it's the golf range and all those other things, correct? **[00:28:55] Zac Dockter:** That's correct, Mayor. **[00:28:56] Mayor Myron Bailey:** I also want to ask Brenda: can you kind of explain what the ED Trust Fund is? Because it's different than a levy or anything that the taxpayer is being charged. **[00:29:10] Finance Director Brenda Malinowski:** Yep. The ED Trust Fund has been funded in the past—it was established back in 1999—and it was donations from Cogentrix at the time. That has been funded with donations, and so there is not a levy or any kind of property taxes that are going into that ED Trust Fund. It's been used for economic development in the city, and even at the golf course for some of their projects in the past. **[00:29:40] Mayor Myron Bailey:** I just want to make sure that the public is aware that this—the dollars that we're using or proposing—it's not taxpayer dollars per se in this particular case. It's money that was granted to us for economic development. Council, any other questions? I do know we had at least one that wanted to speak, so I did say I'd go ahead and let you come on up. **[00:30:10] Bonnie Matter:** My name is Bonnie Matter, I live at 6649 Inskip Avenue South. Well, I'll give my spiel and then I've got just a couple of other comments. This bid award should be delayed until after the City Council public hearing and presentation of the CIP. Tonight's plan is that the Economic Development Authority loan for 15 years at two percent will need to be repaid to the Economic Development Authority in two years. So that means that loan is going to have to be repaid in 2025. At that time, the loan will be bonded; you'll go out for a bond debt. I think that means the City of Cottage Grove residents will pay for the 2.5 million dollar golf course irrigation system, which is fine—that's fine as long as residents are informed now when the loan is being incurred. There are too many questions. Is the River Oaks Golf Course going to repay that bond in its entirety over the 15-year period at a two percent interest rate? Another concern is EDA dollars are for specific things, and it's economic development—and that means commercial and housing, not golf courses. Not as far as I can find. The other thing that's interesting is the water costs have been hardly anything; they might be using a lot of water but it's not really costing them anything. I have no gripe about this at all, I think it should happen. I have a concern about how it's happening, that's all. Thank you. **[00:32:00] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Okay, thank you. Jennifer, do you want to comment on a couple of those? **[00:32:05] City Administrator Jennifer Levitt:** Mayor, members of the Council. We'll start with the CIP. Each budget cycle, we start talking about Capital Improvement, and you had a workshop in August to go over the CIP. The debt service that you would incur in anything in the next two years was part of that budget; that was what you adopted in your preliminary levy in September. The public hearing was held at the Planning Commission in October. The final adoption is bringing the CIP together with the budget on December 7th. There was a question about escrowing money every year. In public financing, there's a theory of who should pay for it when. If we would have started to escrow those funds 30 years ago, residents 30 years ago would have paid for the investment today, but the actual benefit is going to be those for the next 30 years. And to be absolutely clear: the city's levy is not going to pay for that debt service. It's actually the profit that's being generated by the people that are golfing that are paying for it. It's not going on the general levy. **[00:33:45] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Jennifer, could you just clarify that the business plan is published and it is public? **[00:33:50] City Administrator Jennifer Levitt:** Mayor, members of the Council, yes. Their business plan is public because that's obviously part of the budget. **[00:34:00] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Jennifer, thank you for commenting on how the financing actually works. I had to learn very quickly that business finance and public finance are very different. One of the things that I learned is that, in very simplistic terms, we have a bunch of buckets and every bucket has its own purpose. With regard to the EDA, however, the EDA is its own entity. It is entirely possible that the 2025 Economic Development Authority personnel could say we feel as though that investment we made in the golf course meets all the requirements for how we use our ED Trust money, and they could frankly forgive the loan if they chose to. I'm not saying they will, but it's something they could do. The benefit is today. It's the same reason why when we do road projects, we do special benefit assessments on every household that is impacted. **[00:35:10] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Thank you, Mayor. I just want to ask Corey Land—we have a fantastic municipal law firm that represents us—Corey, I just want to ask you: when you look back on this particular subject from A to Z, have we done everything that we were required to do legally by the book? **[00:35:25] City Attorney Corey Land:** Your Honor, members of the Council. This is one of the most thorough and complete processes that I've seen for bidding a project and for awarding a project and figuring out the complicated financing for it. All "T's" have been crossed and "I's" have been dotted. **[00:35:40] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Mayor, I'm going to move that we adopt resolution 2022-142 awarding River Oaks irrigation project to Mid-America Golf and Landscape Incorporated in the amount of $2,146,921. **[00:35:55] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Second. **[00:35:56] Mayor Myron Bailey:** All right, so a motion by Councilmember Olsen, second by Councilmember Thiede. Any further discussion? Roll call vote. Councilmember Khambata? **[00:36:04] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Aye. **[00:36:05] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Aye. **[00:36:06] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Aye. **[00:36:07] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Aye. **[00:36:08] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Aye. Then we have a second motion. **[00:36:10] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** I move to adopt resolution 2022-148 authorizing interfund loan in the amount of up to $1,850,000 for the Golf Course fund. **[00:36:20] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Second. **[00:36:21] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Second by Councilmember Dennis. Again, any discussion? Seeing none—roll call please. Councilmember Olsen? **[00:36:30] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Aye. **[00:36:31] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Aye. Motion carries. Thank you guys down there, keep up the good work. All right, next on our agenda is item 11, the regular agenda, which we don't have anything this evening. Now we're down to Council comments and requests. I will start with Councilmember Khambata. **[00:36:50] Councilmember Tony Khambata:** Thank you, Mayor. As always, I'd like to echo again my appreciation that Bonnie shows up and that we have a strong level of civic engagement. I'd also like to note that on Thanksgiving Day, I will be attending the 5K, and if I can find one in time, I'll be dressed as a turkey. So if anyone wants to come and donate to a good cause and/or chase me around. But in all seriousness, it's for a really good cause and anyone who's ever donated to Friends in Need Food Shelf know that they do incredible things. **[00:37:30] Councilmember Steve Dennis:** Thanks, Mayor. Two quick things. First off, we had an election and so I just wanted to take a moment to thank the community for their support. I'm very happy that my two colleagues are here as well. And second, next week is Thanksgiving. Wishing everyone a safe, happy time. Unplug, enjoy your time with your family. **[00:37:55] Councilmember Dave Thiede:** Yeah, I also would like to thank all the residents for their votes and getting out to vote. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. **[00:38:10] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you, Mayor. To echo what Councilmember Dennis said, I want to thank all of the candidates who put their names forth on the ballot for this year's election. Speaking from experience, it takes an awful lot to run a campaign. I want to personally congratulate Carla Bingham, Councilmember Dennis, Councilmember Khambata, and Councilmember Thiede for a successful re-election. I want to thank Mark Wiens and Shane Hudella and congratulate them for their victories in the Minnesota House of Representatives, along with Rick Hanson. I also want to congratulate Judy Seeberger and Senator Matt Klein. And finally, I want to congratulate our congressional representative Angie Craig. Pivoting from there, I want to remind everybody that tomorrow in the State of Minnesota is what we call "Give to the Max Day." I hope you'll consider our local non-profits—Friends in Need, Youth Service Bureau, Basic Needs. And then I wanted to ask a question of our City Engineer, Ryan Burfeind, if that's possible. We've talked at this table about some of the challenges that Xcel Energy has had. We had another outage recently. Somebody asked me about whether or not the outages are a result of the community putting stress on the grid. Can you answer that? **[00:39:50] City Engineer/Public Works Director Ryan Burfeind:** Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. Kirsten from Xcel did a good job explaining what happened this summer—there's some redundant feed they need to work on, which they are working on completing this year. It wasn't growth-related. This most recent one we actually found out was a squirrel that got into the substation and got fried. Quite literally, the breakers all blew and it shut down the entire substation. So 8,500 customers without power. Really nothing from growth, nothing Xcel can do—it's just something that happens. Power was coming back on within 30 to 45 minutes. **[00:40:40] Councilmember Justin Olsen:** Thank you very much for answering that. And then for Councilmember Khambata—I'll commit to $20 per kilometer for your 5K. So if you complete it, you get a hundred dollar donation from me. **[00:40:55] Mayor Myron Bailey:** Very excited to have the full team back up here at the Council dais going forward. I've had two people call me about the sprinkler systems at Walmart going off along East Point Douglas. I'm assuming they never blew out their lines or whatever, which is kind of concerning. If we can make sure somebody reaches out to their manager and says, "Hey, you probably need to get somebody out there," that would be great. And then my only other comment—I know Bonnie had brought it up during her questions about the CIP. There are things in our CIP that are "place markers." They won't happen unless something happens like growth. We need to start planning today for things that might happen five years from now, like a Public Works facility. I just wanted the general public to know that sometimes those numbers can look pretty huge, but that's only if development happens down the road. With that, that was it for comments. The next item on our agenda is a workshop in our training room. I hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving. With that, Council, we'll move to the training room.