This transcript has been formatted with the correct speaker names based on the municipal context provided. Please note that "Dan Schultz" (Parks and Recreation Director) was identified via the dialogue context, as he manages the Community Center mentioned in the project. *** **[0:00] [Music]** **[0:58] Unknown Speaker:** Other—oh, we're on. **[1:07] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** There, oh look at that right there. Pretty cool. Where's Paul? He's still going to the bathroom. All righty. Talk to Judy—that was my bad. I'll say: I'd like to call the City Council regular meeting for Monday, March 4th, 2024, to order. Please rise and join me as we 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. **[1:53] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** All right, welcome everyone. The agenda—is there any additions or corrections to the agenda? Seeing none, I'll move the agenda. All in favor signify by saying aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Opposed? The agenda is approved. This evening we do not have any presentations, proclamations, or acknowledgments. We'll move on to item four: Response to Public Comment. I don't believe we have any this evening. Thank you. That completes item four. In Public Comment, we'll open up the podium for anyone wishing to speak to Council on any item not on the agenda this evening. To do so, please come to the podium, state your name and address, and your comment or question for Council. And seeing no one in the audience at this time, we will close the public comment and proceed on to the Consent Agenda, which we have items 6A through J. These include our bills listing; minutes of the February 20th regular meeting; donation acceptance from State Farm Bank for safety camp; the 2024 Leprechaun Day service agreement; ball field use agreement for ISD 917; a Joint Powers Agreement for the National Guard Armory and Community Center remodel project; appointment of additional election judges for 2024; approval of contract award for commissioning of the building systems at the Public Works and Police campus—as I understand, that's the last major contract award; the Parks and Recreation bylaws amendment; and donation acceptance from Tori Eide for the Fire Department. Any council member wishing to pull any item for further discussion? **[3:25] Paul Theisen (Councilmember):** Yeah, I'd like to pull F and J. **Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** F and J are pulled. Any other items from anyone? Staff? All right, then I'll move the consent agenda items 6A through J with items F and J pulled for further discussion. Is there a second? **Heidi Freske (Councilmember):** Second. **Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Got a second by Freske. Roll please. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Esler? **Paul Esler:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Klimpel? **Tami Klimpel:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Weisensel? **Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Theisen? **Paul Theisen:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Freske? **Heidi Freske:** Aye. **[4:13] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** That completes the consent agenda, except for F and J, which are approved. We'll have item 6F come up first. Councilmember Theisen? **[4:13] Paul Theisen (Councilmember):** Yeah, I pulled this just because there's some changes that are going to be happening in the community at the National Guard Armory and the community center remodel. So, I just asked Dan to come and speak a little bit more about this. **[4:47] Dan Schultz (Parks & Recreation Director):** All right. Mr. Mayor and council members, as you know, the National Guard Armory is taking on quite a large remodeling project. The total cost is a little over $27 million. The building is about 100,000 square feet, and they will be touching every surface and every system of the building owned and operated by the National Guard. So they're going to be in there; every floor surfacing will be new; they're replacing every outlet, every light, every ceiling panel. Any and most non-loadbearing walls will get removed and they will be replaced with a metal stud wall as they reframe in offices and classrooms and things like that. So it's quite a large undertaking for a 30-year-old building. This is all being done to better house the National Guard in that space. This is the second largest Armory in the state, next to the headquarters up in Arden Hills, and so we do have quite a bit of activity in this building both during the week and on the weekends. We were approached by the Guard a couple years ago to talk a little bit about this project with them and we identified a number of improvements that we actually needed to make. Originally, we were looking at about a million-dollar project. Through working with the Guard and really looking at whether we need to replace elevators and some things, we were able to get that price down to the $672,771 number. Improvements that you're going to see on the Community Center side include replacing a hot water heater and air compressor equipment that runs the HVAC controls for the City. We will be replacing the windows in the Parks and Recreation Office—that is being done because all of the other windows in the building are all getting replaced, so we felt it was the right time to do it. Right now, we have very few operational windows on our small area of the building just because of the age and the equipment is outdated. We will be also adding some hot and cold water equipment into the space. We will be doing quite a bit of exterior repairs on the building—that's tuck-pointing, brick repair, foundation repair, things like that. We will be putting in a new dumpster enclosure, as they will are no longer allowing us to have dumpsters that are up against the building. This one will be what we're calling "front of house" by the Banquet Hall, but it'll be along the curb line. We're also doing some finishes to the Park and Rec office: ceiling tiles, lighting, some paint, some things like that. Then also, we are doing some other site improvements in the way of tiles and painting of door frames, replacing doors, things like that. And then the final item is the translucent panels in the Ice Arena. If you're familiar with the Ice Arena on the south side where the bleachers are, on that south wall we have our original 30-year-old translucent panels, which should be nice bright white allowing a lot of light into the building. Because they're 30 years old, they're now dingy and tan and brown and definitely have had their life expectancy met, so we are replacing those as part of the project for us. Some of the other things that you'll notice is that the National Guard is actually looking to come into compliance with current National Guard standards. They have really strict standards for every division that they have within the Guard. Whether it be the band or RSP or Infantry, they have specific thresholds for square foot space for all those groups. I can tell you that there is not a space in that building that is going to be unused. They're not remodeling this saying, "Oh, we gained some extra space." They're actually using every square inch of that building for the purposes of the National Guard in those Guard-only areas. They're looking to meet the National Guard standards, the UFC, and they're also looking to meet the State of Minnesota accessibility and energy codes. Some of the things that I think are important to know is that, as I mentioned, this is the division headquarters. They host weekly trainings, monthly trainings for drill weekends; they have 50 full-time personnel there during the week at a minimum, and then anywhere from 250 to 300 soldiers there on the weekends. We've had a long history of working with the Guard and we continue to plan on doing that. One of the things that they are looking to do that I'll just call out is that they're currently not meeting some of the standoff distances from where vehicles and the general public can access the building. They also have a chiller and a generator that are not in a secured space. So some of the things that they're going to be doing is really about security and safety for the people at that facility. With that, they will be expanding their secured fenced areas, which includes extending fencing all the way back to the curb on the west side of the building between the Armory and the Dome, which will stop traffic from cutting through there any longer—which is unfortunate. We had a lot of conversations about trying to avoid that, but it just wasn't possible because of the spacing that they need for their security. We also... they're going to be shrinking that back west parking lot a little bit and they're going to re-orientate the parking to go north and south, which again, it's not the end of the world for us. We like to have that area for people to drop off and come for Learn to Skate and for some of the younger kids to come in for hockey and stuff like that. So we'll continue to park all of our City vehicles up top, like we did over the weekend for the Expo, and leave that space down below for our constituents and our customers to use. The last thing I will say is that they are also doing a lot of work on sidewalks and landscaping and actually beautifying that building. Moving forward from today—because today was really the actual start date for the real part of the remodel—I'll be bringing monthly updates with photographs and before-and-after pictures to show the people what is happening. There are going to be some changes to some of the classrooms; the Band is picking up a couple extra classrooms just for their use, so we're losing a couple classrooms, but we're confident that we can work with the Band and try to maybe share some of those spaces with us like we've done in the past. There are a lot of changes to where the bathrooms are today and where they'll be in the future. The main larger classrooms are going to be accessible off that main hallway right across from the auditorium where those church pews were; those will be glass walls with classroom space in there. So, we're going to have some nice public amenities that come out of this. They're also gutting the Auditorium, putting in all new chairs and AV equipment. There's a lot of good things that are going to come out of this project. We had a couple little blips on the radar of things we maybe would like to have seen stay the same, but with time and the needs changing at the National Guard, we understand why they're doing this. They'll also be doing a little bit of work to improve the storm water drainage on that site. That was one of the issues that they've dealt with for quite a while, with water getting into the lower level of the building. So they're going to be fixing those issues. With that, we are looking to enter into a Joint Powers Agreement with the State of Minnesota and the Department of Military Affairs. We would be paying them on a quarterly basis for the improvements that we are part of, and then we would again be bringing you updates as we go through this project, a lot like the lifetime updates that we bring. **[14:48] Paul Theisen (Councilmember):** Well, I appreciate all that and that was a great overview. With the Expo this weekend, we had all kinds of people walking through there and we started to see some of the planning that they started today. A lot of questions came up, so this helps answer a lot of those questions. They've been a great partner in the past and it's great to see that while they're remodeling, we could actually do some of the remodel that we were looking to do from a City standpoint and save some dollars that way as well. So, definitely thank you. **[15:03] Dan Schultz (Parks & Recreation Director):** Yeah, I didn't mention but the contractor on the project is BCI, I think they're out of Sauk Rapids, and then they have several local contracting firms that work with them here in the Twin Cities. They're looking at probably 20 months to complete. **[15:33] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Any questions? **[15:48] Paul Esler (Councilmember):** Yeah, so I mean first of all, there's definitely a perception that this is a city facility. I think the fact that we're getting all these upgrades at for the cost here of $673,000 is tremendous. A question on the 20-month construction period: I know this is utilized pretty heavily by the community—a lot of community events and activities organizations use this location. Over the next 20 months, what are they going to be able to use and what are they not going to be able to use? Like the gym, the classrooms? **[16:21] Dan Schultz (Parks & Recreation Director):** It's easier to tell you what they *can* use. They'll be able to use the Banquet Hall, and we're kind of reserving the use of the Banquet Hall in most occasions for evenings and weekends. We're trying to stay out of there during the day if we can just because there's so much work happening right around the corner. They'll be able to use the Ice Arena still. The gym will not be available, the classrooms will not be available, and the auditorium will not be available. **[16:47] Paul Esler (Councilmember):** Basically for the whole 20 months? **[16:48] Dan Schultz (Parks & Recreation Director):** Basically the whole time. And we've worked with our RAAA, we've worked with all the other groups and any of the groups that meet there on a regular basis. We've helped them find other spaces; a lot of them we've got coming over to the Steeple Center to use that space. We're still able to have some events in the Banquet Hall because that's really not being touched. The only challenges we run into is when they decide to shut the water off for a certain period of time; we need to coordinate with them so that they're not impacting our users on a weekend when there's a wedding reception or a large event. We think the contractor is going to be good to work with. We've met with them already a few times to talk about some events that we're planning to make sure that they're not hammering a hole through the concrete wall 50 feet away from the Banquet Hall entrance, and they've said they can do that. We've helped some of these groups secure spaces, like through Community Ed at the Meeting Point, or some churches. We've known about this project long enough where we've given these groups a heads-up on what it's going to look like. We provided them with contact information and connected the dots. We've offered our conference room to some of the real small groups; if there's a group of six people on a finance committee from our RAAA, we can open up our conference room in our office. We're looking to try to help these folks out as much as we can because we've had relationships with a lot of these groups for 30-plus years. I know like the Stamping Club, it's a small group, but they've been meeting in Classroom 212 for as long as I can remember, and we don't want to see them be displaced. **[19:07] Paul Esler (Councilmember):** Okay. And then you didn't specifically mention any upgrades in the gym, but because it's not available for these 20 months, I'm assuming there's some upgrades or renovations going on? **[19:20] Dan Schultz (Parks & Recreation Director):** In the gym, they're more cosmetic than anything. They will be doing some refinishing on floors and they're really looking to get rid of that light blue flooring and the light blue carpeted wall. **[19:31] Paul Esler (Councilmember):** Are they putting hardwood floors in? **[19:33] Dan Schultz (Parks & Recreation Director):** They're not. That's not a standard. We asked them to approach them on that and that's not something they're interested in; they do too much military drilling on there with equipment that it's just not compatible for hardwood. **[19:37] Heidi Freske (Councilmember):** Mine is more of a comment, but just to bring it all home because I think this is a good project: the total cost for this is $27 million, correct? And the City is only contributing $673,000? Correct. Thank you. **[19:54] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Any additional questions? Yeah, I just wanted to note—particularly for the residents who are probably driving by there and all of a sudden fencing started showing up today, or maybe even earlier... **[20:10] Dan Schultz (Parks & Recreation Director):** Yeah, earlier. **[20:11] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Radar is going up: "What's going on?" type thing. Hopefully, that allays some of their fears and just recognizing it's going to be a long project at 20 months. **[20:25] Paul Esler (Councilmember):** Yeah. Just one more: what have we done from a communication standpoint to the community in terms of communicating what's going on? Have we put anything in the newsletter? **[20:39] Dan Schultz (Parks & Recreation Director):** We have had things in our newsletter, Park and Rec brochure, and things like that. Now that the project has started, we'll work more with Lee just to announce that it started. But we've been working directly with all of our user groups for probably the last 8 to 10 months letting them know, especially RAAA, because of the gym. **[21:11] Paul Esler (Councilmember):** I bring it up just because it's such a visible location. I mean, people drive by Highway 3 and everybody sees it. They may not be associated with those organizations but are wondering why there is a fence around it. **[21:20] Dan Schultz (Parks & Recreation Director):** Lee will get some pictures. We've already talked about that; she'll get ready to put some stuff out and let the community know what's happening and what they can expect to see. **[21:30] Paul Esler (Councilmember):** Awesome. Thank you. **[21:31] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** All right then, would you like to go ahead and move the recommended action? **[21:35] Paul Theisen (Councilmember):** Yeah, so I'll make a motion to approve entering into a Joint Powers Agreement with the State of Minnesota Department of Military Affairs for the remodel project of the Rosemount Armory and Community Center. **[21:49] Paul Esler (Councilmember):** Second. **[21:50] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Motion by Theisen, second by Esler. Roll please. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Klimpel? **Tami Klimpel:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Weisensel? **Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Theisen? **Paul Theisen:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Freske? **Heidi Freske:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Esler? **Paul Esler:** Aye. **[22:01] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** And that approves 6F. We'll move on to 6J: Donation acceptance from Tori Eide. **[22:05] Paul Theisen (Councilmember):** Yeah, I just wanted to point out that there was a donation to the Fire Department by Tori, and I just wanted to pull it just for the recognition and just say thank you. I wanted it documented here. So with that, I'll make a motion to approve the acceptance of the expenditure of $100 from Tori to be used in the operations and equipment for the Fire Department. We appreciate the donation. **[22:29] Tami Klimpel (Councilmember):** Second. **[22:30] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Motion by Theisen, second by Klimpel. Roll please. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Weisensel? **Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Theisen? **Paul Theisen:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Freske? **Heidi Freske:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Esler? **Paul Esler:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Klimpel? **Tami Klimpel:** Aye. **[22:48] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** And that completes 6J with a 5-0 approval. Item number seven: Public Hearings tonight. Request by Spectro Alloys for the vacation of drainage and utility easements and the Doyle Path right-of-way. And look there, you're not Anthony [Nemcek]. **[23:05] Adam Kienberger (Community Development Director):** No Mr. Mayor, I'll be taking this one for him this evening. Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council, this is a continuation of Spectro Alloys' expansion. This is probably near the last step that you'll be able to take an action on as a part of their project. So, a little bit of the summary of what they're requesting here for you guys this evening: it would be a vacation of the drainage and utility easements within a parcel that is now owned by Spectro Alloys, as well as requesting the vacation of Doyle Path, which is a public street and its associated public rights-of-way, as the street is now only internal to the Spectro Alloys property off of Highway 55. Just a little bit of a note there: the City doesn't often vacate streets, but the vacation of this right-of-way will relieve the City of the responsibility of maintaining that road and it will solely serve Spectro as a driveway for them. Just a little bit of a geographical reference: you can see Highway 55 right adjacent to Pine Bend Trail there. Their parcel is outlined in red, and then the expansion area—the newly acquired parcel—is highlighted in yellow. A little bit of site history... and some of this is a repeat from previous actions that you've seen, but just to put this in context: background on Spectro culminating in just this past two years ago—warehouse building expansion with office space, paving a parking area as a part of their overall 70,000 square foot expansion plan that they are advancing on. An existing aerial shows the expansion; you can see the newer area of the asphalt there and the gravel area that will be covered and used for storage. I have some additional photos that kind of show what that'll look like in its upcoming renderings. Again, another aerial looking kind of north and west here along Highway 55, which is on the left side of this photo. This is a rendering as a part of the site plan that was approved by their Planning Commission at their last meeting, showing the visual from Highway 55, increased landscaping and buffering. The outcome of this is not only increase in jobs and tax base in the new building, but also really a cleaning up of the site. I mean, you saw the history there—1973—it's an older, heavier industrial type of business that is moving towards more modern processes. What comes out of that are new buildings along Highway 55; it really has dressed up the site nicely and will continue to do so with their proposed expansion. And here's just a shot of the plant, but this one I think shows a little bit better where existing Doyle Path goes into the site and, as you can see, the property is surrounding the entirety of that street. A couple elevations of the building... again, the Council isn't taking action on the building or site plan per se. I was before you last month as we went through the plat process; this is the culmination of those activities. One of the conditions of approval was the vacation of the easements as well as the right-of-way for Doyle Path. Two motions as a part of this public hearing: to adopt a resolution approving the vacation of drainage easements within Lots 1 through 3, Block 2 of Hollenbeck and Nelson Inc. First Edition; and then a second motion to adopt a resolution approving the vacation of Doyle Path and the associated public right-of-way easement pursuant to Minnesota State Statute 412.851. And again, this is a public hearing and after that I can stand for any questions. **[27:14] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Questions for staff at this point? Just one: could you pull up the map that shows Doyle Path? I'm just curious, did that path end there or did it actually go all the way through the site and back out the other entry? **[27:26] Adam Kienberger (Community Development Director):** Let's see... so it does loop. You can see my cursor here, Mr. Mayor? That loop right there—so it does go through that other parking lot. And then the black outline is the public road that is Doyle Path with that cul-de-sac right here. So if we jump back up to the actual plat, you can kind of start to see the outlines there showing where that right-of-way is requested to be vacated. **[28:07] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Great. All right, any other questions or comments at this time? With that, I'll open the public hearing at this time. Anyone wishing to speak for Council on the vacation for drainage easements or Doyle Path may do so at this time. The podium is open. Going once, going twice... seeing no one moving towards the podium, we'll close the public hearing at this time. Motion to close the public hearing? **Councilmembers:** Motion. **Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** All in favor signify by saying aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Opposed? Public hearing is closed. Back to staff—any additional comments or questions? Otherwise, I look to each of the motions separately to move the recommended action. Motion number one? **[29:02] Paul Esler (Councilmember):** I'll make a motion to adopt a resolution approving the vacation of drainage easements within Lots 1 through 3, Block 2, Hollenbeck and Nelson Inc. First Edition. **[29:14] Tami Klimpel (Councilmember):** Second. **[29:15] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Motion by Esler, second by Klimpel. Roll please. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Theisen? **Paul Theisen:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Freske? **Heidi Freske:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Esler? **Paul Esler:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Klimpel? **Tami Klimpel:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Weisensel? **Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Aye. **[29:26] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** That motion passes 5-0. And the second motion? **[29:29] Tami Klimpel (Councilmember):** I'll move to adopt a resolution approving the vacation of Doyle Path and the associated public right-of-way easement pursuant to Minnesota statute 412.851. **[29:43] Heidi Freske (Councilmember):** I'll second. **[29:44] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Motion by Klimpel, second by Freske. Roll please. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Freske? **Heidi Freske:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Esler? **Paul Esler:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Klimpel? **Tami Klimpel:** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Weisensel? **Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Aye. **Erin Fasbender (City Clerk):** Theisen? **Paul Theisen:** Aye. **[29:55] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** That completes the second motion 5-0 and completes our public hearings for item number seven. We have no unfinished business this evening nor any new business. We'll move to Announcements/City Staff updates. **[30:08] Logan Martin (City Administrator):** Thanks Mayor, members of Council. A couple items tonight: First of all, I just wanted to thank members of the community for coming on out to the Community Expo this weekend. Just had a wonderful time. I think those of us that have been here since the beginning—it's certainly our most well-attended Expo we've ever had. A lot of new energy surrounding it, and that's in large part thanks to Alicia Grant on our development staff. Just a wonderful job. Thanks for the community support, and hopefully the businesses got some good connection out of that as well. And then also, just put a final plug in for anybody watching at home: tomorrow is, of course, Super Tuesday, presidential primary day. We're ready; we've been voting for many, many days, but tomorrow is the big day. So make sure to come on out and exercise your right to vote if you would like to. With that Mayor, I can turn it back to you. **[30:54] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Just confirming the time that we're open? Should be 8:00 to 7:00? Like a normal... or 7:00 to 8:00? **[30:58] Logan Martin (City Administrator):** Polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. tomorrow. You want to reference your polling location is where you'll be voting. **[31:07] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Roads? **[31:08] Logan Martin (City Administrator):** Sure, can do that. Councilmember Esler recommended that I just mention: in the work session tonight we met with our County Commissioner Mr. Gay and some County staff. We had a good, robust conversation on County roadway infrastructure, traffic issues, the two incoming schools and how that impacts traffic. We appreciate their continued partnership and just letting residents know that we are always tracking traffic and how our growth is impacting traffic. So thank you for that reminder; that was a good session. **[31:40] Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Great session, actually. All right, that completes item 10A. We'll move to 10B: upcoming community calendar. We have a Planning Commission special meeting on March 6th, Wednesday, 6:30 to 7:30 here in the council chambers. We have a subsequent Planning Commission meeting, an updated date of March 18th, 2024, 6:30 to 7:30 also here in the chambers. Parks and Rec Commission meeting, updated date March 18th from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. The Port Authority, March 19th, 2024, 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. here in Chambers, and the next City Council meeting, March 19th, 2024, 7:00 to 8:00. And with that, if there's no other business coming before Council, move to adjourn? **Councilmembers:** Second. **Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** All in favor signify by saying aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. **Jeff Weisensel (Mayor):** Opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you. **[32:34] [Music]**