This transcript features **Mayor Jim Michalski** presiding, with **Ellissa "Katie" Owens** (City Administrator) providing the majority of the administrative and budgetary reporting. **Phil Entner** (City Superintendent) and **Tyler** (SEH City Engineer) provide technical reports. [0:00] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I'd like to welcome everyone to the regular meeting Moose Lake City Council for Wednesday, September 9th, 2020. I'd like to start with a Pledge of Allegiance, please. 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. I’d like to thank everyone for coming today, and the first item is the agenda. Do we have any corrections or additions from the council on the agenda? Hearing none, there are two from— [0:49] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** —under new business, number six. This would be 6g: it would be the Medora quote. That's one of the handouts that you have in front of you. Under 6h would be the Election Cares Act resolution, and Katie will explain that when we get to that point. Are there not any other questions or additions? Hearing none, do I have a motion to accept? [1:18] **Council Member:** So moved. [1:20] **Council Member:** I have a second. [1:22] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor say aye. [1:24] **Council Members:** Aye. [1:25] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. Under consent agenda— [1:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** —two eighth minutes. Um... [1:49] **Ellissa Owens:** And they did explain to Katie if she needs help, she can ask Paula. [2:00] **Ellissa Owens:** Um, I'll be working on it this month. I just wanted to focus on the budget. [2:05] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay, no problem. Under 2b, financial reports. Number one: the city accounts payable for August 2020. Number two is the city financial statements for August 2020, and number three is the liquor store profit-loss statement for August 2020. Any discussion or questions? Do I not have a motion to accept the financial reports? [2:36] **Council Member:** [Unintelligible motion]. [2:40] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor say aye. [2:42] **Council Members:** Aye. [2:43] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Carried. Number three, public comment. This time is reserved for comments from the public on matters not listed on the agenda. Please keep comments to three minutes. I don’t think we have them today. As we move on to number four, departmental reports. 4a: the Police Chief report for August 2020. [3:15] **Police Chief:** Mayor, members of the council: for August, we had a total of 340 calls for service. Three of those calls were for EOC and one MSOP. [3:32] **Police Chief:** In addition to the calls for service, we spent an hour on MSOP calls and two at ECRC. Our self-initiated for the month of August: we had 103 extra patrols, 92 traffic stops, and 26 community engagement events. We responded to 15 assists to other agencies and 85 other calls for service along with 19 medicals. So again, very similar to the other summer months at 340 calls for service. As some of you probably noticed, the large presence of ATV traffic again over the holiday weekend, with one fatal just on the outside of town here. I just want to let everybody know that we're still in the process of moving forward of trying to control some of this activity, but yet let it— [4:18] **Police Chief:** —bring in, you know, revenue stuff for the business owners here. We have another meeting coming up September 14th with the ATV clubs, which has also been brought down to the head of the state ATV organizations where they reach out to the legislators and everything and plan to be at this meeting as well. Members from the DNR and the trails, a lot of other entities are getting involved with it with the two ATV clubs from here. So, um, when they were reaching out to the different ATV organizations, it seems like a lot of people are looking at to see what we're going to do here because everybody's having the same issue in a lot of these small towns around Minnesota. So we'll try to get some things moving and put into place to have things a little bit better prepared when we get into the next— [5:03] **Police Chief:** —season. But yeah, there's a large activity, but there's a lot of enforcement as well. I know our department's been making some stops over the—primarily—the weekends when we see most of them. I know the DNR was out, and it was one of their officers alone stopped 50 of them this weekend with several citations as well. So, um, it's just a huge number, and it's different people for most every weekend, so you gotta re-educate. But I think we'll get things put into place for next season. [5:39] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Darren, when will that meeting be? [5:42] **Police Chief:** It's going to be September 14th at the Moose Lake Police Department. [5:46] **Police Chief:** And I know I've been in talks with Kelly Lake from the Sheriff's Department and she's going to be at the meeting as well. I do see where the county has done some changes when you go on 61 south Moose Lake with the widened shoulder there; that's beneficial too, just so even those things like that keep them off the highway a little bit more. It was nice to see that that was put in. I know they've been getting the same amount of calls and complaints that we have. And over the weekend, I was getting emails from people reporting things as well. And the direction to everybody that's listening is: I wouldn't just call the Moose Lake Police Department, because most likely they're going to be out and about, they need to call the Carlton County Sheriff's Department dispatch so that they can dispatch our officers to the call. Otherwise, it might be hours before they come in and see that on the phone. [6:32] **Police Chief:** So, and yes, a lot of times it's hard because, you know, they call us and they're going to be gone, but if we know the direction they're going and a group and a description of some of the ATVs, we can probably get them stopped somewhere down the line. But, and again, for the most part, there's been minor offenses, but a lot of them are just driving right down the middle of the lane and going through all the stoplights and stuff and on a state highway, and they can't be doing that. So, other than that, though, kind of I guess you could say on a good note: one of our officers was involved in a life-saving incident where they did CPR and brought the person back. So I don't know the final condition as of today with that person, but they were life-flighted out and so I'm going to be putting that for a life-saving award for that. One of our— [7:19] **Police Chief:** —part-time officers made an assist to the State Patrol on I-35; a party driving the wrong way on the freeway at high speeds and finally got him stopped. This guy has 15 DWIs. So, but other than that, I sent you guys the pie chart again, just a little bit of a breakdown on our calls for service, and they're almost identical as the other two months of the summer. So nothing's really changed much on that end. And I think you got some other stuff on the agenda about the run coming up later, so I'll leave it for that. But other than that for the police department, I think that's about it, unless you guys have any questions for me? [7:58] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** That's a lot of calls: 340. [8:02] **Police Chief:** Correct, that's a lot. [8:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. Yeah, we'll pass it on to them and please appreciate it. [8:09] **Council Member:** Yeah, thank you guys on the enforcement piece, too. That's the most citations I've seen looks like right in any one month. So that's—that's amazing and it was well deserved for the people that are driving like that. [8:18] **Police Chief:** Yeah, so appreciate it. Thank you guys. [8:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. 4b: the Superintendent report. [8:25] **Phil Entner:** Mr. Mayor, members of the council: busy month, busy month. We're spread pretty thin. We're helping up—helping out in a few different areas that we normally wouldn't be doing, but we're spread—we're spread pretty thin and we're doing a good job. So we're a small crew, but we're doing what we can do. So, Water Department: [8:51] **Phil Entner:** Distributed 4.2 million gallons of drinking water in the month of August. Hydrant flushing will take place the end of this month, so we'll get them complaints; you'll have dark water, they'll have a little air here and there. It'll happen the last week of September—September 20th through October 2nd is when it's going to happen. So any questions, feel free, give me a call. [9:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Public Works Department, whatever we can do to make that—that task a little bit more enjoyable. [9:24] **Phil Entner:** Yes, enjoyable. It never is, but that's the way it is. Our goal is we don't break anything, which hardly ever happens, but we try. So, Sewer Department: collected 17 million gallons of wastewater in the month of August as well. Treatment system: we're going to talk about that a little bit later. The manhole on Lakeshore Drive we— [9:37] **Phil Entner:** —discussed at the last meeting, that's kind of still... I haven't heard anything. [9:44] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay, so we're just sitting tight on that one. [9:47] **Phil Entner:** Um, the link for the sewer lining that was requested last month to be put on the city website was sent to Rory there. So, I don’t know... [9:58] **Ellissa Owens:** Yeah, he said he wasn't sure if he got me yet, but it—AJ just got it over there last week. [10:04] **Phil Entner:** Thank you. Yep, not a problem. Street Department: pothole filling as always. Once a month we go through and do that, just kind of take a streak through town. We work on the lists a lot. People call, we get a complaint, write it down the list. We get half a dozen stops, hook the trailer up and go. So feel free to call them in, let me know, but all of us know, whatever we can do— [10:23] **Phil Entner:** —seems to go better that way. The gravel alleys, streets, everything else we have there, the shoulders—they were all shaped up here a couple weeks ago. They were looking good. 25 new stop signs were installed here two weeks ago. That was brought up the last meeting as well. That 25 went quick, really quick. So, but they're gone. I mean, I can definitely get more with a phone call. So if that's something we want to do... we did go through basically the worst condition and non-reflectability that was put on the signs. So now they're reflectable, now they're nice and pretty and shiny and they're big and they're good. So along with some of that, some of the right-of-way was cleared back, always around a lot of stop signs. We have a lot of stop signs this time. I mean, just for what it's worth, there is a full load of signs. I'm not even kidding, there's a ton. [11:09] **Phil Entner:** Um, other than that, if you see some more, reach out to me, let me know which ones, you know, which ones are ugly or whatever, because I know we've missed a lot. But we did 25 in like a day. So, yeah. Other than that, Cemeteries: the mowing, the weed-whipping is good. Starting to slow down a little bit. We’re doing some more grave filling, straightening things out there, getting a few things squared away. Starting to possibly start thinking we'll get wrapped up for winter. We don't want to say the "W" word, but it's reality. So one other thing I want to mention, too: the 16th of September is the last day all flowers, shepherd's hooks, plant hangers, trinkets—whatever on gravesites—need to be removed. If they're not removed, they will be thrown away. It's right on the sign at the— [11:54] **Phil Entner:** —cemeteries. Since the 15th last year, we gave an extra day just like we will this month earlier this year as well. And, um, yeah, so it will be set around the pump house for a week and then people can go through them and after that, then they're done. [12:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Fair enough. Any questions? Catch basins—that was just done? [12:17] **Phil Entner:** Oh, well yeah, we put a catch basin in last week. It went well. Last week—yesterday, I'm sorry, it was yesterday. This week is just going by. Yeah, it's in, it's done. It'll be patched. They're going to pour concrete tomorrow night. We're going to patch next week and then with that, they're going to also patch the corner of Hickory and— [12:39] **Phil Entner:** —[Unintelligible] street as well. Yeah, there's a pretty good patch up there we're gonna do. So yeah, we're going to kind of try out something new here: we're going to rent a roller from the county for quite reasonable, very reasonable, and start doing this ourselves. So it's one more thing that a small crew is going to have to do, but same thing—a ton. Yeah, it's unbelievable. Power patches are so expensive. [13:11] **Council Member:** So you did talk about concrete briefly? [13:13] **Phil Entner:** I did. [13:14] **Council Member:** I have been walking around quite a bit throughout the city and there's a few sidewalks heaved about six to eight inches. If, uh... I know that you have a million things on your list, but if you can get a— [13:25] **Council Member:** —few of them done before... well, the one that I was thinking on was 5th Street, I think between Cedar and Douglas. There was at least six inches on the end that someone's going to wipe out. [13:38] **Ellissa Owens:** So we do have a sidewalk budget and we always wait until later on in the summer to use it because we offer—if the residents want to replace the sidewalk in front of their homes—we will reimburse them, I think it's 25% of the cost of it if they bring me the invoice. But nobody's done that yet, so we've got that entire budget to use by the end of the year. [14:06] **Council Member:** Was it a long strip or was it... [14:10] **Council Member:** No, it was right off the edge of the roadway. It was just the—the approach had eroded away. [14:18] **Phil Entner:** [Unintelligible], I'll look at it tomorrow. [14:19] **Council Member:** Thank you. [14:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Not a problem. Any other questions? [14:23] **Council Member:** And it's a call from people on 5th street, and that is the old "Safe Routes to School" signs that go to the old school. If they're asking, is the city going to pull those? And I said of course you will. [14:38] **Phil Entner:** When did you get that call? [14:39] **Council Member:** Um, probably a week ago. [14:41] **Phil Entner:** Was it already done? [14:42] **Council Member:** Yeah, okay. [14:43] **Phil Entner:** All the school signs, all the Safe Routes should have all been buttoned up last week. We had talked about that and I think if we missed one or two, let— [14:57] **Phil Entner:** —me know. We'll gladly take it down. Not a problem. [15:00] **Council Member:** I'm sure you got them then. [15:04] **Phil Entner:** But yeah, if you see anything else that has anything to do with the old school—school crossing, parking, whatever—just let us know. We'll gladly... we're always looking for other things and, you know, what people think we're looking for. [15:15] **Council Member:** So that keeps me on one other thing for Darren and that was, uh, people on Birch asked me if the city was going to take any stop signs around the old school, if we were going to take them down. And I know there's some one-way streets, I think it goes... something that was going to change, and I said well— [15:43] **Council Member:** —I'll pass it on to the Police Chief to analyze that. [15:46] **Police Chief:** Well, I just met with the owner of the building this week. They've been having some issues around there, so they are actually probably going to be chaining off all those entrances to the school and also putting up some "No Trespass" signs and everything on those gates. So those probably will be taken care of. [16:11] **Council Member:** Okay, thank you. [16:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All right. Technology and Library report, 4c. I have nothing for technology or the library. Katie, do you have anything for technology? [16:23] **Ellissa Owens:** Very good. Computers were all installed. That was my big technology for the year. [16:29] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Great. Council have any questions? 4c or, excuse me, 4d: Engineer report. City Engineer. [16:42] **Tyler (Engineer):** So, um, I'll just briefly run through this, Tyler. The big thing that we talked about and that we'll be talking about in just a couple of minutes here is the Soo Line Trail. We'll need some action on that. Obviously, we talked about a lot of things, but everything's just— [17:00] **Tyler (Engineer):** —kind of plunking right along. I wouldn't be surprised if we get going on the Well House, probably within the next month. It sounded like they were just finishing up some contract stuff there, so you may see some activity down in that end of town. [17:16] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay. Council have any questions? [17:29] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Chamber updates. I think Katie and I, Bird and at least were at the meeting today. And they are doing some events even though it's very hard for them because of the COVID thing. They have another golf—a virtual golf event—going on. You'll see the flyers around town at different places, or you can jump on the website for the Chamber; it talks about it there. What else was there? There's another event they're doing... but I just found out about this today: Valley Printing has designed a shirt and they're selling them for fifteen dollars. And the proceeds of the shirt, I think like seven dollars every shirt— [18:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** —goes to the Chamber for the COVID-19 relief fund. So that's—that's pretty awesome of them. That was one of the big things that I can remember. Do you remember that total dollar amount that they have given out? Was it 31,000? [18:31] **Ellissa Owens:** Yeah, it was something else... about 31,000 that they've given out to a large number of businesses. A couple grand helping each of them, as many as they could that applied, to help them get through this COVID. And that's partly what we donated towards too as a city. So that—that was a huge dollar amount they've donated. And they're a little bit in the hole, I think a couple grand, because of gift cards that they have— [19:01] **Ellissa Owens:** —purchased and then they sell them for the businesses. So they do have gift cards still at the Chamber building if anyone wants them. And they're doing a great job. [19:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, the proceeds helping those businesses. So they have raffle tickets as well. [19:18] **Ellissa Owens:** Yep. [19:19] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, started, and the drawing will be in October. [19:23] **Ellissa Owens:** That's what it was, yes. [19:25] **Council Member:** Are they putting them out? [19:27] **Ellissa Owens:** Yeah, I think some area businesses have them as well. [19:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, you could probably pick them up at almost any of the businesses or at the Chamber. I went to the Chamber. This is KJ's normally, and there's a person selling on the weekend outside KJ's or right inside if it gets cold. [19:49] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So, that is previously discussed businesses. 5a: part-time PD administrative assistant. So this is one of your handouts. The Personnel Committee interviewed and is recommending Sarah Radzak for the part-time admin assistant. So, any questions, discussion, or motion by the council? [20:18] **Ellissa Owens:** I will just say that it was a very, very strong applicant pool. So she'll do good. [20:25] **Council Member:** I'll make that motion to the one with you— [20:37] **Council Member:** —I move to hire a part-time administrative assistant, Sarah Radzak, at the wages and hours and sick leave as presented. [20:49] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Very good. Do I have a second? [20:52] **Council Member:** Second. [20:53] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any further discussion? Questions? All in favor say aye. [20:58] **Council Members:** Aye. [20:59] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. So the next step will be just getting her start time. [21:10] **Ellissa Owens:** Yep. Looks like everything else is negotiated. [21:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, so just her... any indication when it would be? [21:19] **Police Chief:** If we passed it, she could start as soon as Monday. I've already done the background stuff, fingerprints had to be in to get into some of the systems. That's all taken care of, so we're just kind of waiting for approval here. [21:26] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Fantastic. 5b: 2011a Water Bond resolution. [21:38] **Ellissa Owens:** Um, so this is the information that was presented by George at the—when we reviewed the Water Rate Study. George did the—I should say, Tammy did the water rate study with the understanding that we would choose the 25-year bond. And that was George’s recommendation, going with the 25-year bond because interest rates are incredibly, incredibly low. And so that would be my recommendation also, and really you're looking for a motion. [22:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I am. Yep. [22:17] **Ellissa Owens:** Yep. I would like to get this decided on sooner rather than later so that we have the money by the end of the year. We'll have some bigger invoices coming up and so far we've been paying for everything with our reserves. [22:31] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Council questions, comments, and/or motion? [22:36] **Council Member:** Make a motion that we accept the 25-year term. [22:41] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Very good. Do I have a second? [22:43] **Council Member:** Second. [22:45] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any questions? Discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. [22:49] **Council Members:** Aye. [22:50] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. Moving on to 5c: Soo Line Trail reconstruction update. So Tyler's going to talk about the estimate that is in your packet on page 52. [23:10] **Tyler (Engineer):** Council members and Mr. Mayor: thank you for letting me come speak. I just want to give a little brief overview of that project. The Soo Line Trail bypass, which runs from Folds Boulevard or Trunk Highway 27 up to North Road County 15. We've been working with the City on reconstruction plans for that trail in preparation to try and get it done before the next MS-150 bike ride, which I believe happens next spring. And what we've been working on is creating a new 10-foot wide bikeway and pedestrian trail on the east side— [23:55] **Tyler (Engineer):** —and paving that, and then also paving the west side as an eight-foot-wide ATV trail and doing some improvements with raising grade and things like that to help with drainage. And then the ditch way along the west side, to try and improve that, just because if you’ve ever walked on that, it's almost constantly flooded. So just a little background on the funding: the City has secured $150,000 from the DNR local trails connection program, which is the max amount that they gave out for that grant. That comes with a $50,000 match that the city has to match local funds for. And so for our preliminary engineering— [24:41] **Tyler (Engineer):** —estimate, we had estimated a $200,000 total project cost, which included approximately $160,000 for construction and then another $40,000 for design and construction services. Since discussing more with the City, we've done a few more improvements to the trail section, which has raised that estimate up to $199,000 [construction], so an increase of about $40,000 [total]. Some of those things include just extra Class 5 material to bring up the grade to help that drainage get away, especially from the pedestrian and the bikeway side of the trail. And then with our topographic survey— [25:27] **Tyler (Engineer):** —that we completed at the beginning of design, we did find a lot of those big potholes out there that just calls for more Class 5 to bring it up to grade and correct those areas. We also looked at defining that ditch a little bit better on that west side, because right now it holds a lot of water. So having in the documents to have them actually construct a ditch from basically the entire length of that trail to try and... it's very flat, so it's going to hold some water, but to help improve that drainage just so it's not washing out that trail more and more. And then also we've decided to add in some Class 1 rip-rap in the ditch along— [26:15] **Tyler (Engineer):** —with on the end slope of the ATV side of the trail to help with any ATVs that are running off the path, because I'm sure they want to play in the water as they're going down the trail. And so that basically—those additional items of Class 5, the ditch work, rip-rap—is where that forty thousand dollars is coming from that's additional cost of the construction estimate right now. And so with trying to get this project done yet this year in preparation for that MS-150 bike ride, we're asking permission to go ahead and advertise the project for bids contingent on the execution of the DNR funding contract that has come through. We're— [27:00] **Tyler (Engineer):** —just waiting on one more review and approval. We don't think there's going to be any hold-up, we're just waiting on it. But then just as a reminder to Council that if we do go out for bid—if you guys approve to go out for bids—once we receive those, you'll have to take action again and approve the low bid on that. So if the bids don't come in quite where you want them to, we can always reject all the bids or change the plans and try and lower the cost somewhat and whatnot. [27:36] **Ellissa Owens:** And we have until 2022 to spend this money. [27:40] **Tyler (Engineer):** Yes, so we've got time. [27:42] **Ellissa Owens:** But I do know that that MS-150 is a fairly large event. And we talked about it multiple times in— [27:46] **Ellissa Owens:** —the engineering meetings. That's a couple thousand riders, and if they can't use the bypass—which they won't do if it's not hard—they'll have to go right through the middle of town on the Arrowhead, which Darren would have to have a team to control that. I don't know how you’d do thousands there. [28:13] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So today we're just looking for approval to go out for bid. We'll see what they come back at. They may be lower, they're not going to be higher... no, I'm just kidding. We'll just see what they come back. [28:32] **Ellissa Owens:** It sounds like we may have to have a special council meeting, because if we—if you're going to get going this fall, you don't have a large construction time ahead of you. So let's see, your next council meeting would be the 14th of October. So we'd have to... you know what? Let's wait. We can discuss this shift, right? Because we'll need a couple weeks for advertisement and then bid opening and then the council would have to act on it. So it might be right here, it might be close to that anyways. [29:06] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** It'll be close. Okay, well we once—still gotta wait for... [29:12] **Ellissa Owens:** We have those Wednesdays open for COVID anyhow. [29:16] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** That's right. Yeah. All right. [29:19] **Council Member:** I'll make that motion to go forward with getting bids. [29:22] **Council Member:** Second. [29:24] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any questions? Move it. All in favor say aye. [29:27] **Council Members:** Aye. [29:28] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Carried. Thank you, Tyler. [29:31] **Tyler (Engineer):** Thanks, Tyler. If you guys need me for anything else on the agenda, feel free... [29:36] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Tyler, you got your stuff to head out if you want to. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to new business. 6a: 2021 budget presentation. [30:17] **Ellissa Owens:** We should have that on... it's page 53. It starts on page 53. I did include it in your guys—I knew that. Yeah, that was a test. Did I pass? All right. Um, okay, so we're going to go over the preliminary budget for 2021. Um, none of this needs to be like set in stone today, but we just have to set the initial levy for property taxes—the initial property tax levy. So the first page are revenues. Without increasing the property tax levy, property taxes increase by about 30 to 35 thousand— [30:51] **Ellissa Owens:** —because the values of the properties in Moose Lake increased. Our sales tax, I kept the same. We're on target to hit about 225,000 this year, so I left that alone. LGA increased right around 35,000, so we will be getting 945,000 from LGA. Our transfer from Power and Light remained the same, and I am estimating campground fees to stay the same for 2021. So the next page, just a brief overview of some expenditure things to note: elections will be removed from the budget in 2021. The operating transfer from the general fund to the DMV remained at 20,000. I did include— [31:39] **Ellissa Owens:** —wage increases in all of these budgets. I also contacted the health insurance companies to see what the estimated increase will be, and PEIP was about 10% of an increase, which is one of the largest increases they've ever seen. And then I also did include all the staffing changes in the police department. [32:05] **Council Member:** What's the percentage on the wage increase? [32:08] **Ellissa Owens:** Three percent. Yes, that's where it was last year as well. [32:12] **Council Member:** Correct. [32:13] **Ellissa Owens:** Yep, since I've been here, that's been what it is. So the next page, going over each— [32:25] **Ellissa Owens:** —department. General government didn't change. City Council didn't change. City Administration went down about thirteen thousand. Elections was reduced by twenty-five hundred. The Community Center stayed the same. The Police Department, just with the staffing changes and some of the retirement changes and things like that, reduced about twenty thousand dollars. Building Inspector stayed the same. Public Works increased a little over 23,000, and the reason being is we budgeted for having two staff come out of the Public Works department for right around two months. So I did account for that with wages as well as insurance. [33:13] **Ellissa Owens:** Recycling increased three hundred dollars. The next page: the Depot and the Parks Department stayed the same, as well as the Gardens. The Library, we did some a little bit of some staffing changes, utilizing people a little bit differently, so that decreased about 3,500. We no longer have TIFF districts. The Cemetery increased two dollars. Cable TV went up about 400 and the Riverside Arena increased about 2,000. [33:48] **Ellissa Owens:** And a lot of those small increases were just wage increases, so very, very minimal. The next page are Capital Improvement Projects. A couple of things for the Public Works department: Phil needs a new plow for one of the dump trucks and then he would like a brush hog to clean up, of course, right-of-way. Okay, that's what I thought. He needs a new mower deck in the cemetery. The Arena—I know we talked about some different possibilities with the roof. We are in the process of getting some quotes on some steel. I talked to the insurance company and— [34:34] **Ellissa Owens:** —they're checking in with some things and getting back to me on some different possibilities there, but I did keep that in there even if it's just a placeholder just to keep it in there. But we have reached out to some—some other contractors, and actually SEH is going to send their architect through here when he's out and about. So I just told him no huge rush on it, I don't need him here tomorrow or anything. The other item for the Arena is the overhead door needs to be replaced. The Community Center is... we're just on track with replacing one of those air conditioning units a year, so that's in there. The next page— [35:20] **Ellissa Owens:** —the next page is just a total of all the Capital Improvement Projects and where the changes were. So the Police Department reduced theirs by 7,500, Public Works by 25,000, the Parks by 7,000, the Arena increased quite a bit, the Community Center decreased, and then the Cemetery with that mower deck. All in all, a change of about ninety thousand dollars in capital. The next page compares net income from last year to 2020—well, 2020 to 2021. Revenues for 2021 total $2,287,886, operating expenses of $2,043,745, and then the CIP expenses of $218,000, bringing us to a net income of $26,000. [36:28] **Ellissa Owens:** And then just a note that the sales tax, franchise fee, and the gambling are included in revenues and expenses. So they're—they're in there, but they're not a part of that net income. Um, so some of the remaining items: we just talked about the wage increase, anything that you guys want to see in here, which I know we've talked about a couple of things that I need to look into with insurance, the sewer lining, and then the liquor— [36:55] **Ellissa Owens:** —store budget, which we'll talk about later on. Um, these are old figures from just to compare how we compare to neighboring communities, so I'll skip ahead. I'm not sure what page I'm on now, but the historical levy: this just shows—I'm not proposing a levy increase for 2021—but it just shows where we're at from 2016 to current. And then another thing to note down there is the taxable market value. We are 71% tax-exempt in the city limits. Um— [37:41] **Ellissa Owens:** —so that means only 28% of our property is taxed, which... yeah. Well, I didn't say it. Um, I think that just shows how creative we are with the money that we do levy. We get a lot done for not a lot. So the next page are where we're at with debt service of that property tax levy. For the 2011a bond, 41,000 of that will go towards that bond, and then some township and fire district—they help out also. The 2014a bond, which is the Park Place— [38:28] **Ellissa Owens:** —Drive, we are setting aside forty-five thousand dollars to cover—help cover—some of those bond expenses. Special assessments help that one out too. But 2017a, we're taking 35,000 for the Kenwood and Third Street road improvements. And then the next page is the Water Fund. So for the water revenues, I made the assumption that we were going to increase water rates by 20% and I would like to include something in— [39:13] **Ellissa Owens:** —the water bills this month that will be mailed out, I believe around the 25th, giving the public some type of an idea of what—what they're going to see in an increase. So I don't need that to be set in stone, but I do just want to make sure that I'm on the right track with the 20% increase. And that was—that would be what our revenue would be is $304,000. Um, so we can talk about that at the end, but I did—I do just want to make sure that I'm on the same page as you guys and can get the accurate information out. Water expenses went up a bit. I took the information from the Water Rate Study for the bond schedule and I included— [40:01] **Ellissa Owens:** —that in there. So that was the major increases because of a bond payment of interest. And as Tammy explained, we will see a net loss for the first year of about nine thousand dollars. I do have some engineering fees in there still, because we'll be finishing up the smaller Well House projects in 2021. And then the 20% rate increase is what I've been suggesting. The next page, I did include information on what the net loss would be if we increased the rates by 10%— [40:47] **Ellissa Owens:** —15%, and 20%. And then I also just wanted to note that with the 20% increase, a low user—so I think they use 2,000 gallons—the water bills will go up about five dollars a month. Medium users, between six and seven dollars a month, and then high users are 17 to 18 a month. And that all just depends on usage; those are just averages. [41:20] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Katie, would you put that in the information so people kind of have an idea: the low, medium, high? [41:28] **Ellissa Owens:** I can. Yep. [41:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I think we should get that in the paper if we can, also, that information maybe? [41:32] **Ellissa Owens:** Yeah, it would be a good idea to get it... like when you hear 20%, you think "wow," when you actually—realistically—yep. I can do that, I can do that. Uh, the next page is the Sewer Fund. So the Sewer Fund, I assumed a 2% rate increase, although that—we can change that too. With that, the revenues would be $577,000— [42:20] **Ellissa Owens:** —operating expenditures of 355,000. Debt payments go up just a bit at 341. That gives us a net loss of 117,000. Next page—one of these other pages shows why. So like I said, I suggest a 2% rate increase, and we do have adequate fund reserves. I forgot to check and see after I cut bills how many months we have, but I do have a note to check that. I just finished doing that really late last night. So, um, so the next page, I did do scenarios for a 1%, 2%, and a 3% increase and the net losses associated with those. [43:07] **Ellissa Owens:** The average increase per month for 1%, 2%, and 3% is 25 cents, 50 cents, 75 cents—so it's pretty minimal of an increase. The Water and Sewer Capital Improvement: the water we kept—we did this last year too—and I suggest we keep a valve replacement and a valve break in our budget. Phil is shaking his head. And then we'll also be finishing the well project in 2021 for the Water Fund. Sewer Fund: we are keeping the sewer lining in there. I think most all of us agree that that's another good idea, which is the cause for the larger-than-normal loss in that department. I also think— [43:54] **Ellissa Owens:** —that we've streamlined that process and we learned a lot through that, so that'll hopefully be a little bit less next year. Moving on to the Liquor Fund: revenues I kept the same. I've noticed over 2020 a bit of a decrease in on-sale—that's to be expected—but that has increased off-sale, so I haven't really noticed a whole lot of revenue loss with COVID and everything. So that's good. I kept everything—a lot of things—the same. Expenditures went up a bit, and the reason that is, is because I talked about it last time about the siding, and I did check with insurance on that too. So more to come on that, but— [44:42] **Ellissa Owens:** —that also does include the trim work around the bottom of the building, which I think Elaine has wanted to get done for the last couple of years, and that's why the net income is a little bit less than normal at 41,000 because of that larger project. Moving on to the DMV: I kept revenues the same for the DMV and I kept expenditures very much the same. The small increase is due to some wage increases. I took the capital projects out that was complete—and I don't know if you guys have been in there, but it looks great. They did a really good job. [45:28] **Ellissa Owens:** And even with all that, there's a net loss of eighteen thousand dollars, which I know is a bit frustrating. But there's nothing we can't raise—we can't raise rates, it's all state-run. So all we can do is complain to the state. Even if you go through there line by line, there's—there's not a lot to cut from. [45:49] **Council Member:** You’ll see if the new program changes? [45:51] **Ellissa Owens:** Yes. Yes, they have a new—they'll have a new driver's license program coming out in November finally. So we're going to cross their fingers... or no, maybe it's not driver's license, it's motor vehicle. So we're going to cross our fingers at a better outcome, but it's the same company that does the driver's license, so crossing your fingers. The next page shows the increase if we do a 0% increase, 1%, 2%, all the way up to 5%. And again, I'm just suggesting a 0% increase for 2021. And then the only thing I need from you guys today is a motion for an initial property tax levy, and then just consensus that you want me to include the 20% increase in water bills and then— [47:00] **Ellissa Owens:** —I'll put something in the newspaper also. [47:03] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** That's a great idea. Um, maybe I should throw something on Facebook too? [47:08] **Ellissa Owens:** Absolutely. [47:09] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Discussion by the Council? We're not looking for a maximum levy at this time? [47:19] **Ellissa Owens:** We are looking for a maximum levy, yes. [47:36] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any further discussion? Very good. Just for the public's understanding, we set the maximum tonight and then in December we set the actual, which is being recommended at zero. And you do [the max] now just in case there's any changes between now and December that we're unaware of, that we would cover them. So more to come on that, and that'll happen in December. [48:15] **Ellissa Owens:** Something else that I should note that I should have included in here but I didn't: I talked with Mike... from now Essentia, and because Mercy merged with Essentia or however that went, the hospital tax levy will be dropped— [48:22] **Ellissa Owens:** —off in 2021. So residents should see a little bit of relief there. So that's—that's good for residents. [48:28] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any further discussion? Questions? All in favor say aye. [48:32] **Council Members:** Aye. [48:33] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. Were there any other motions within there that we needed? [48:54] **Ellissa Owens:** All right. Very good. Thank you. Is everyone comfortable with me including the information for the 20% water rate increase? [49:03] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Oh, did you say no? [49:05] **Ellissa Owens:** Do you want to see it lower? [49:10] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Yes. [49:11] **Ellissa Owens:** If we do anything lower, we have to basically extend the problem with the water. [49:16] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Raising the water—it also raises the sewer. [49:21] **Ellissa Owens:** No. [49:22] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** People want—no, it does not raise that? Bill coming for our sewer is based on the amount of water you use. [49:33] **Ellissa Owens:** It's based on the usage: your gallons, not what you're charged. [49:38] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Well, in other words, watering their lawn has a higher sewer bill? [49:43] **Ellissa Owens:** Yep. [49:44] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** So something is wrong there. [49:46] **Ellissa Owens:** It's the usage: the number of gallons that they use. [49:49] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Right, you know, if you use more gallons, your sewer bill [goes up]? [49:53] **Ellissa Owens:** Correct. But that's—that's going to happen no matter what we do. [49:57] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** That's right. That's what I said: there's a problem with it. I mean, why should I pay—or why should the little lady down there, because she likes to keep a nice yard and flowers and stuff, pay more of a sewer bill than somebody else that lets their yard go to hell, when the water's not going in the sewers? What you're saying—that's— [50:27] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** —right. My water is not going [in the] sewer. [50:31] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Well, that's how this has been set up, Greg. [50:34] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Well, you know, that's been set up probably 30 years ago, 40 years ago. [50:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** You would have to come up with a suggestion between now and December how to change that. And we would—that would be changing how we bill; that wouldn't be—that wouldn't have anything to do with the rate. So we would be changing basically... they would still stay the same, but if you're looking out right now, the rate increases the sewer bill. So if you're looking at... you'd have to work on suggestions of how to correct them—or not correct it, what to— [51:12] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Yeah, and hey, correct the rate, but the rate—I don't agree with it. [51:17] **Ellissa Owens:** I understand. I understand where you're coming from, but the rate doesn't—the rate for the water fund does not affect the sewer. If your usage goes up, then yes, that affects your sewer, but the rate—that's your bill. [51:33] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Right. But... we can talk about this afterwards. And I think the recommendation for the 20% was based on the study that was done, that we need to have a 20% right away or that fund is not going to be a healthy fund. [51:50] **Ellissa Owens:** Correct. [51:51] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So if we do this, we can mitigate things down—we can taper. [51:57] **Ellissa Owens:** Yeah. What we would have to do: if we went lower each year, we would have to increase it a higher amount. If we—if we do it on the front end, we do less the next couple years to pay the bond off. [52:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, and if we—if we go lower now, every year would have to be higher than what is projected now to pay that bill off. And we would be paying it out of our reserves because our water fund would—would disappear. But that's—we kind of didn't have a choice because of the failures going on in the old wells. [52:43] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** I certainly didn't want to do wells now. What—what was the total cost? [52:50] **Ellissa Owens:** 2.4 million? I don't know, it's changed... [52:55] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, it's just... what a time to have to [do this]. [53:13] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Rates as they are now, with a percentage worked in as we go—they can be totally separate. It doesn't have to be the way it is now. So I understand. I—I had somebody... I'm just bringing this up because it's something that's got to be taken care of. [53:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah. [53:31] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** And Moose Lake is paying the bill for wells. I have no problem with that part of it. I just... and the only way to bring a problem out is to bring it up now, otherwise it'll never change. And the poor lady down the street is going to pay more sewer than she's supposed to in the summertime for sure. [53:50] **Ellissa Owens:** If you're looking at June, July, and August, that's when people are watering their lawns. Maybe there could be some type of something built into the billing cycle for those months. I just don't know a percentage... I just don't know how you track that. [54:10] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So somebody did come to me and say at one time—years and years and years ago, that they did this—probably before you were here, that they—the Water and Light department did do that. Um, I just don't know how you track that to make it accurate or fair. [54:27] **Ellissa Owens:** If you just took an average is what we did, and lowered it by an average... [54:33] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** This is talking about something different. This would be setting up a billing different, which can be looked at. It can be done. It's just a matter of mathematics. [54:43] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Well, I know... yeah, I know. [54:46] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** What we have to look at also, if we separate, is the bond payments for the work we did on the sewer, on the collection system. We didn't do much on the ponds out there because of what the state did, but we did a lot of work on the collection system and there is a fixed increase for those also. So we probably should look at the whole thing anyway. It's not a... yeah, I guess I maybe I'm just not understanding, like, how you're explaining it to me. [55:20] **Ellissa Owens:** We can—we can definitely go through that. [55:23] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay. [55:24] **Ellissa Owens:** Okay, yeah. But I just need to know what to include for a potential rate increase. [55:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Well, the vote would be... I haven't called it yet. I have to do that next. Since there's no more council discussion, I... and I would just say a proposed agreement, whatever that is, that's already in there. And it—it wouldn't be final until December, right? Further questions? Discussion? Thank you, Greg. All in favor say aye... well, nobody... we don't have a motion? I thought there was a motion and a second. [56:06] **Council Member:** No. [56:08] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I think we were just talking about 20%. Okay, we have a motion? [56:14] **Council Member:** Yeah, as per the rate study, it was 20%, so I'll make that motion. [56:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Have a second? [56:19] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** What can we do this with your motion, please? Motion on 20% with us looking into the billing of how water and sewer is billed as part of the balm in my motion. [56:45] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. I care about that. Katie got it? Do I have a second? [56:52] **Council Member:** Oh, second. [56:54] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any further questions? Discussion? All in favor say aye. [56:58] **Council Members:** Aye. [56:59] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you. You have a 6b, community—oh, excuse me, that was it for 6b. Community Center roof repair. [57:09] **Ellissa Owens:** So I went back into our storage room for like the first time in the spring and we had a rather large leak over the winter at some point. So I got two contractors out here. One is telling me he can patch it, the other one is telling me that he will not patch it. Sorry. Um, so Beaver is telling me that he will patch it for, I don't know... yeah, 5,960. Commercial Roofing gave a few options and—and he did send me pictures. I've actually never been up there, but he's sending me pictures of the nails all kind of pushing out of the— [57:56] **Ellissa Owens:** —roof and tenting the rubber roof. I personally don't know which one is the best. I don't know a lot about roofing. Commercial Roofing did say that if we patch, the water is just going to go to where you patched, which I can kind of understand that. So we have two options: we can either patch or it looks like we can make the appropriate repairs until we're ready to replace the roof completely. It looks like option two, they have a 10-year warranty for $18,000 and they'll coat the entire roof as well. And then option three—I didn't think— [58:42] **Ellissa Owens:** —that was terrible either, because I know how much it is to re-roof the Arena. I thought that would be much higher too. [58:50] **Council Member:** It’s 160 to start, isn't that what you're looking at? [58:53] **Ellissa Owens:** And option three is 35 to 40 thousand. [58:58] **Council Member:** Yes. [59:00] **Council Member:** I guess I have a question: so is he saying his option one is comparable to [Beaver]? [59:11] **Ellissa Owens:** Yes, because he said things—option he said that he would not patch. He said "I'm not even gonna give you a quote to patch because I—I won't do it." So that isn't even... they're not even comparable. They're not even really the same. [59:22] **Council Member:** Not really. [59:25] **Council Member:** But I guess I don't know who else does rubber roofing. [59:27] **Council Member:** When he says coating the entire roof, is he talking just above the storage room area? [59:33] **Ellissa Owens:** No, the whole thing. This whole—this building here. [59:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Correct. [59:40] **Council Member:** How often does the city check the roof up here? [59:43] **Phil Entner:** Um, when it's—usually annually. Yeah. We normally have, I would say, at least one—one leak. I mean, you can look up in all the tiles and there's at least one leak every year. [59:58] **Council Member:** The water is going to find its way in. [1:00:01] **Phil Entner:** Yeah, it's a good thing to have them looked at every year, that's for sure. That's how we do our later—get to the problem before it turns into a major problem. [1:00:15] **Ellissa Owens:** So I don't... I know that something needs to be done, but I honestly don't know which one is the best option. [1:00:22] **Council Member:** What was Beaver's first? [1:00:25] **Ellissa Owens:** Theirs was... I couldn't read it... 5,960 or 2,013. And that would also—with this, we would have to have an electrician come out here and put an outlet in so that we can plug a tape in so that this won't happen every single year and it'll just kind of melt the—the snow and ice also, which we—we have all over, we just don't have one in that particular place. And then Option One— [1:01:03] **Ellissa Owens:** —from the other contractor would make those corrections for 5,265. Extend the life of the roof for two to three years, and then he did suggest replacing it after that time. And to be fair to Beaver, I did not ask him—I did not ask either of these people to give me a quote to replace the whole thing. So to be fair to Beaver, I don't have a quote to have him replace it because I did not ask for one. [1:01:34] **Council Member:** Well, I guess I—I would like to see some more comparing, you know, the roof coating and the full replacement then, if we're kind of considering doing more than just a little patch. [1:01:50] **Ellissa Owens:** So would you like me to contact Beaver to see how much it would be to basically do what Commercial Roofing is—the options? [1:01:57] **Council Member:** Well, yeah, because I—I don't see that even Option One and what he's doing are anywhere terrible. [1:02:08] **Ellissa Owens:** So how do you... and I—I don't know what that about. I contacted Beaver first because he's who I call into. [1:02:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah. Yep. [1:02:16] **Ellissa Owens:** If it's currently leaking, I call him and he was here. [1:02:22] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** To me, I think we should have it repaired and have a little bit more time, maybe next year, to look at replacing the whole thing and working it into the budget. I can see repairing it either—using either one of them, you know, going with the lowest bid. It was fine with me to repair the roof for now and then look for a full project later. [1:02:50] **Council Member:** Yeah, they both have different ideas on what repairing exactly... one has electrical tape, this one doesn't. So how do you go with the low bid because it's not even—they're not... if you read what Option One does, "extending for two to three years," you'd have to believe the person bidding it. If you're looking for more exactly how you want it repaired, you'd have to write up—you'd have to have the engineers write up a list of how we want it repaired. No, I don't throw out the bids because how—how else are we going to bid on this— [1:03:22] **Council Member:** —if—if we don't have a list of things we want done? [1:03:26] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I understand that. I'm just saying that you said it was a little bit... well, they're not both—they didn't define... I mean, one has the heat tape and an outlet and, you know, and this doesn't. So what are we actually... I mean, I'm looking at the end result: this will extend the life of the roof another two to three years. [1:03:52] **Council Member:** Yeah, but Beaver has a five-year contractor warranty against leakage. [1:04:02] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So let's... I'm throwing it out to the Council. I think we should have it repaired and then I said either bid, I'm fine with that, or go to the low bid and then look at a— [1:04:07] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** —more comprehensive project when we have more time. We're at the end of the year right now, the construction year. [1:04:15] **Ellissa Owens:** I guess I will say this, too: I can ask Beaver if he would give me a bid to repair all the tented screws, open flashing, those metal joints—do things like that. I can ask him that. I contacted Beaver first and then Commercial Roofing. So Commercial Roofing—I frankly, I asked for what a 20x20 patch would be so that it was like-for-like, and he said he would not do that. So that is why he came up with this. So I—what I will do is I can go back to Beaver and ask him how much it would—how much it would cost to repair the tented screws and basically exactly what Option One— [1:04:54] **Ellissa Owens:** —says, to extend the life of the roof two years. So then we have a like-to-like. Because I understand what you're saying and I thought the exact same thing. So, um, I can do that. I can call Beaver back. It's—it's not... I would say I—I would love to have it voted on today because it is getting closer and closer to snowing. But, um, it's gonna—the roof will not cave in, it'll be fine no matter what. It'll be fine. We could put a bucket. The problem is is I just don't go in that back room often enough and I noticed that it was wet, and that's like the last place I want it wet. [1:05:41] **Council Member:** Well, it's concerning to me that one of the parties said that they wouldn't even do it 20 by 20. [1:05:46] **Ellissa Owens:** The reason why he said he wouldn't do it 20 by 20 patches because he said the water will just travel to— [1:05:54] **Council Member:** I understand. That's what I'm saying is one said that they won't even do it. They're giving a professional opinion. I think... is to me, is they—they specialize in these roofs. That's—that's all they do. So to me, I don't think the 20x20 patch is even realistic. But I do agree that we should be comparing apples to apples. [1:06:23] **Council Member:** Well, then maybe when you talk to Beaver, ask him—ask him about this Option Two, what it cost me for to quote the entire roof. [1:06:29] **Ellissa Owens:** Okay, I can do that. And we can have a special meeting if it's something that we had to do. [1:06:36] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay. We're not in agreement, we're kind of going by consensus instead of any [motion]? Consensus altered? [1:06:48] **Council Member:** I wouldn't agree with that and see what this quote would be for that. [1:06:55] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So pretty—we have consensus. Thank you very much. Moving on to 6c: Newberry Street water main maintenance quotes. [1:07:17] **Ellissa Owens:** So these are what you guys asked about last week—two weeks ago, last week maybe. Um, and so they are very similar. It looks like Global's a little bit less for both, and we have them broken out by—by location. So, um, I will say that I—I—I'm not—I'm not sure that I recommend going forward with these. I understand why we want these projects done, but I am concerned that this will cause a lot of other future problems to pop up. [1:08:02] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Phil, do you have a recommendation on—on the solving on this? [1:08:17] **Phil Entner:** Sorry, Darren, I missed the question completely. What’d you say? [1:08:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do you have any recommendation on the solving of this problem with the water? And I'm just talking just them there, not anybody else or anywhere else. [1:08:31] **Phil Entner:** So definitely lowering the service to get it below the frost line is—is the proper fix of this problem. Hands down. [1:08:44] **Council Member:** How many more? How many more on the list? [1:08:48] **Phil Entner:** 62 to 65. That's what's hanging me up from giving anyone an answer on this. Those other ones that we're packing water, their water lines are high like these, you know. They're not at the normal depth eight to nine feet, they're more— [1:09:12] **Council Member:** Correct. [1:09:14] **Phil Entner:** So any portion of that service is above the frost line. Depending on where the frost depth is at that time of the year, um, it's definitely going to interfere with the flow. So right now, if the main—the problem starts with our main line, it's not low enough? [1:09:33] **Phil Entner:** Correct. Our main is low enough, it's the service line coming off the main is not. Otherwise, the main would freeze. So our main is staying... well, we're looking into it and they're going up how many feet? I can't tell you until it's exposed. But it comes off the top of the main and then goes through the house, and typically that's where we see him freeze also: our portion of the service. [1:09:59] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yes, correct. [1:10:01] **Council Member:** So if everyone came in and wanted this done, we'd be at $260,000 just lowering the water lines—water services? You know, the gentleman has come in each year, so his service is what—is high? [1:10:14] **Ellissa Owens:** The city's portion of that service is high. Because when the policy was adopted—the Water and Sewer Ownership Policy in 2016, I believe it was passed—the council voted to adopt it from the curb stop to the house, which would have been the property line to the house, not to the main. Right? So that—and that—and that's the way it was adopted, that's the way it was—it was put together. So after— [1:10:43] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So our stuff is part of our equipment—lines, whatever—are too high. And if we lower them, then the homeowner will have to pay for those being lowered to hook up? [1:10:55] **Phil Entner:** I wouldn't say they'd have to. Typically where that—where that portion—where that area of the line is where the curb stop is, is typically in someone's front yard on the edge of the right-of-way. The frost depth is usually considerably less there than it is in the street, which is why it ends up being the portion the city owns which is why it's a problem. Because like last year right there... I mean, we had—we had a foot of frost in the ground. We got all that snow pulled all the frost—there was no frost in the ground after that. There was all winter long. We shoveled curb stops and there was no frost under the snow piles. No way there's no frost there. None. There's still six feet in the road, but there was nothing on private property around the right-of-way. [1:11:47] **Council Member:** Still we have lines that are too high and that is our problem. [1:11:55] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** At some point—at some point they have to be corrected. I don't know when, but I mean... Chris brought it up last time. If we don't do anything, they'll be high forever and that is our problem. We will continue to have to protect those lines and steam them when they freeze and everything else—run water, tell them to run water in their house at a good rate somewhere in the house to keep them from freezing. Right. [1:12:40] **Council Member:** That's—that’s 262 that had froze in the [winter]. It was the '12-'13, '13-'14 winter. They literally locked up. They were froze. Done. And there was—there was probably another—there's probably another 40 that are running just to protect themselves from freezing. [1:13:06] **Council Member:** What have the last few years been like? [1:13:10] **Phil Entner:** Last year was good. Well, last year we didn't—it wasn't too nobody, but the frost depths in the road were—they were still there. Um, but the last three years we've been able to stay on top of everything and get people running their water a little bit early just to prevent any of these nightmares. And I think a lot of these people that have frozen in the past expect and know winter's coming. [1:13:51] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, it's on the radar for sure. But I mean, this is a—this is a spendy road to start traveling down. Um, I just got—I just got numbers. That's... I was asked to get numbers, I got numbers. But this is a very difficult one here for me. I get it, but again, we're responsible for the problem that this gentleman that has come in and brought this to our attention [is experiencing]. The problem with him is it's kind of a time issue with him: he leaves, he would like to sell his house because he doesn't need a house that big anymore because his children have gone on, and he would like to move to a smaller house somewhere. But— [1:14:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** —when it comes time for him to sell it, he says that that'll be difficult to sell that house. He says he's an honest man, so whoever wants to buy the house, he has to tell him that "you're—you're buying a house with the potential of having a frozen water line into that." And that will cause him difficulty in selling his house. And I—I would agree, you know, that that is a problem for him. So he's hanging on to his house for now, but if he wants to sell it and get the value of what he thinks is in his house, he needs to have this—this line fixed, or he's going to have to sell his house for a lesser amount than what it is actually worth. [1:15:01] **Council Member:** And like Chris says, this is the city's problem, and sooner or later we're going to have to start doing some—something about this issue. [1:15:18] **Council Member:** I want you to do how much to do it? It says 4,000 some hundred dollars. I just wanted to help... if we did all of them, I just went at four thousand dollars counting 260. They gave us a break on doing them all or whatever... and these are quotes on two different locations. Same roads. And one's 4,300 and one is 4,700. I'm kind of wondering what the 400 difference is... like it's longer—it's a longer distance? [1:16:03] **Phil Entner:** I will mention this too: if—if we're thinking about this as—as city-wide, a lot—a good number of these services are going up... under Highway 73. We've all heard the story how the road was lowered and now there's not adequate frost coverage, and there's water main up there that's five feet in the ground. West? I've worked on it and it's laying right on top of bedrock. There's not a good cheap easy way to fix that. So those ones will be even more expensive. [1:16:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Oh yeah. [1:16:40] **Phil Entner:** Not to mention long-side services, meaning the main is on the far side of the street, the home is on the opposite side of the street. Shutting down the state highway—nobody likes that. Taking up brand new road. You have to blast that rock. You can't... it's solid bedrock there. [1:16:55] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** That's a whole different situation than what we have at Newberry. Totally different. [1:17:00] **Council Member:** Counsel, we're gonna do it for one, we better start having a program to start fixing these other ones because we're opening up Pandora's box. Because the one person does not have the right to come in here and have it changed and everybody else has to deal with it. That's my opinion. Um, you know, insulating these—it's no easy way to insulate either. Now everything is buried, everything is covered up. Even putting styrofoam underground and re-burying it just to keep the frost from hitting those spots, and that's just a hopeful solution. Right? [1:17:39] **Phil Entner:** You want to be below eight feet. Yeah, that's as good as it's going to get. We're never going to get that on—on 73 going west because the bedrock there. You're not going to multiply it by these numbers. You're going to have to blast rock down to 10 feet. And would it be 5 feet? [1:17:58] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Maybe. [1:18:00] **Phil Entner:** Yeah, there's a—there's a portion by—by Grove that's right... yeah, that's it. We're talking mega, mega dollars now. It's supposed to—this is huge. This is totally different than this. [1:18:22] **Council Member:** Well, then when we're looking at all the other projects that we have to do and other infrastructure projects, it makes it very difficult. I—I don't... to me personally, I don't have a problem fixing this because yeah, there's bedrock, that's totally different. But that's just me, and the Council is going to have to make that decision. [1:18:52] **Phil Entner:** I wouldn't say all of them are, though. There's some down in this area of town, too. [1:19:02] **Council Member:** If we started, we should put money aside for next year to do a couple next year too, and that's—then we're not showing preference. [1:19:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, I could see something along that lines. If I mean... you could—we can start doing this, trying to—try and knock off a few every year. Whatever we think is affordable, the number that we could do. And obviously different areas are going to cost different—different amounts of money. Or some of those services are on some of the roads that we're planning to do road projects on. So I mean, we really could fix some of those during that period of time when we plan on doing that road if we're doing complete reconstruct. [1:19:48] **Council Member:** Yes. What money do we have in the budget to do this this year, these two? [1:19:54] **Ellissa Owens:** Um, not a lot. Um, without having money for proceeds from the bond, it looks like we are negative in the Water Fund right now. Um, so I would have to take out all of what we've spent for the Well Project. We also have a reserve and sales tax? [1:20:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, so we've got—we've got plenty in there. Um, we could use that. [1:20:25] **Council Member:** Yes, that's supposed to be used for infrastructure anyhow, our roadways. So we could use some of that this year and then set aside [money] for next year to do a couple. [1:20:34] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** That's an option. We could use that. We can also use the Franchise Fee for that. Have we ever—I mean, I—I guess I don't get the complaints, but have we heard from the other landowner here about the water freezing? [1:20:51] **Phil Entner:** Or we had... was that 2012-13? That same winter, it was this. [1:20:55] **Council Member:** Yeah, but they don't freeze as easily as the neighbor does. And usually it's "he froze up, run your water because you're going to be next" kind of, you know. It's never—it's more of the—the one that's—it's more the one. But I mean, I—I just keep a list by every year who freezes up, who has complaints, who hit certain temperatures, who's running—that kind of thing. And that's pretty much what you build this list off. [1:21:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Phil, you know, in the past, center—we helped them totally. Everything. But we're not doing that anymore? [1:21:30] **Phil Entner:** Correct. No, we aren't. After one house got flooded with us hooking up a hose, we are totally not involved in that anymore, and I would highly recommend we keep it that way. But they—the ones that have... they were able to get a contractor out and—and do the work and unthaw in a reasonable time or—or use water from their neighbor or whatever, however. But the city is not involved in any of that anymore. [1:21:55] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, no, that was a—that almost caused an electrical problem too, I remember. [1:22:01] **Council Member:** Yeah, it started a couple fires. [1:22:04] **Council Member:** One house got flooded. [1:22:06] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, it was—those are the—those are the kind of things we just need to stay away from and be like, you know, that's—that's out of our realm. This—this work would be done by... [1:22:15] **Phil Entner:** [Unintelligible]. [1:22:19] **Council Member:** So there's an estimate from Land Logic, okay. And right before that, an estimate from—two estimates from Global on two separate pieces of paper. [1:22:36] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** There's a third option here with the Council: if they—if you're uncomfortable doing it right now and need more time, we can budget for this for next spring. We can notify the gentleman... but he hasn't been here this year, but when it comes, we can tell [him] that we did budget, we're going to start a program. That is the third option: it gives more time to think about it, more time for planning and more time for budgeting. [1:23:01] **Ellissa Owens:** I believe he was here in... it was—maybe he was here this year, I know this summer. [1:23:07] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I just don't think putting it off another year— [1:23:10] **Ellissa Owens:** —well, we can do this: if we put it off until October, I can then have time to go through and take out all the expenses that we've paid for the well project, because we can essentially reimburse ourselves with the proceeds from the bond. Um, so I can go through that and see where we're at. [1:23:31] **Council Member:** Will we be able to get something like this done if we're in October? [1:23:36] **Phil Entner:** Oh yeah, we have consensus wait 'til it— [1:23:39] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yes, sir. [1:23:41] **Council Member:** Well, if we're going to do that, I think our first thought should be in whether or not we're going to try and set up a—a precedence of what are we going to do from this date on. Not just say, "okay, we're going to fix this," but are we going to fix something next year? And some type of thought on what we're going to do until we have a program. If we say we're going to do 10 of them a year or 5 of them a year, right? That—that takes care of us to a point, you know. [1:24:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So would that satisfy the people? It could only take us, what, 15 years? But I mean—I mean, it's going somewhere. Because 73, you're going to have to have a whole different program, Greg, and go across that highway. We won't be doing... I don't see us ever doing 73 though, not—not with a rock bed like that. [1:24:42] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** And it's a state highway. You're talking a major, major project there. That's huge. [1:24:49] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I can see us doing the ones that are not affected by bedrock. That's different. [1:24:55] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Well, that would be okay. If we're going to set up a program that we're going to go ahead and do so many a year, it would have to start with the ones that we know would be okay to do and then just start moving down the line. [1:25:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, that's—it's kind of to me, I think that would be the way to go. We would have to do a study. Phil's the one who's got the data: where they're at. Um, we're not sure if there's bedrock in all of them or not, but I'm sure some of them you do. You could set up a program— [1:25:28] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** —and actually get it in a budget like it should be planned a little bit. I understand this year we can do a couple. Council, we're not going to break the bank. And then Katie would have to know where we're at though in October, because every time you go—you spend money outside of your—your area—it is a write-up, or, you know, the auditor looks at that. But we can use it for—we can use it for, uh, with the sales tax or gas franchise, we could do that. [1:26:01] **Ellissa Owens:** So if nothing else, we could just budget 10,000 a year out of sales tax. [1:26:08] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** It's not that big of a hit. On average we get between 20-25,000 a month in sales tax—some less, some more, but right around there. Um, so we could do that. And that's not that big of a hit to the sales tax because we also have the gas franchise coming in too. I just... I think also, as—once we start fixing these, it's going to alleviate some of that hassle in the winter for you guys also. [1:26:44] **Phil Entner:** For sure. Absolutely. I mean, it might be a slow process, but it's certain—it's a start. And taking two off your list right away then, you know one you're gonna be working at it anyways, you know? [1:26:56] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Can you get a line item in that budget? [1:26:59] **Ellissa Owens:** Yeah, okay. [1:27:00] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do you hardly think I would like to— [1:27:03] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** —see it if everyone would like [to]. Ted? Ask for consensus, maybe we could do that as well? [1:27:11] **Ellissa Owens:** Yeah. Consensus. Yeah. Do you guys want it out of the sales tax money or out of the—the Water Fund itself? Because what I could do is every year kind of see where we're sitting with the Water Fund. Because I'd prefer to keep it in the Water Fund if—if we can, but if we aren't doing so hot in the Water Fund, it would be nice to revert to the sales tax and using something— [1:27:42] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I think that's—I think that would be probably appropriate. Yeah. Does everyone else agree with that? [1:27:47] **Council Member:** Just kind of see where we're sitting. [1:27:48] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah. Otherwise, it's gonna have to come out of sales tax. [1:27:50] **Ellissa Owens:** Yeah. All right. So I'll put it in the—in the— [1:27:54] **Ellissa Owens:** —Water Fund initially. [1:27:58] **Council Member:** 20 years to get it done before you retire, I guess. [1:28:03] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Then the question is: are we going to go ahead this year with Newberry? Are we going to look at the... okay, consensus was to—to look at this differently. Are we going to do it or not? [1:28:22] **Council Member:** I thought it was consensus was to put it in the budget for next year. [1:28:26] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah. [1:28:27] **Council Member:** Okay. [1:28:28] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** And then that would hopefully come out of the Water Fund if that's feasible, otherwise it'll come out of the sales tax. [1:28:34] **Ellissa Owens:** Okay. So for this fall, we're not going to do anything. [1:28:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** That was just the first part. Okay. [1:28:39] **Council Member:** I would like to make a motion that we do Newberry this year at the little— [1:28:45] **Council Member:** —quote. So together they would be nine—nine thousand. [1:28:53] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Oh, I'll make that... so Global Excavating? [1:28:57] **Council Member:** Yeah, for 926 Newberry and 933 Newberry. [1:29:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Same thing. Would you like me to see where we're at with the Water Fund? Um, right now it just looks terrible because we've had some pretty high contract amounts. So see where we're at and put it out of the water but if I can—or if I'm not able—I'll use the sales tax. Does that be appropriate? Does that sound all right? We have a motion. Do we have a second? [1:29:21] **Council Member:** Second. [1:29:22] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any further— [1:29:25] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** —questions? All in favor say aye. [1:29:28] **Council Members:** Aye. [1:29:29] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. Now, Phil, this—real quick question: do we need black-topping behind this? How big of an area? [1:29:43] **Phil Entner:** I don't know yet. Don't know until we're done. [1:29:47] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay, but if—if his patching goes well, we watched the YouTube video we said... if you can rent the roller— [1:30:01] **Phil Entner:** Very easily. [1:30:03] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. Yep. Appreciate it. Moving on to 6d: Liquor store on-sale cooler quotes. [1:30:17] **Ellissa Owens:** In the 2020 budget, the Liquor Store has budgeted for a couple cooler replacements just to get on top of some of these items that we know are getting a bit older. And you have in your packet two quotes: one from Katana Restaurant Supply and one from the Webstaurant Store. It looks like the low bidder is the Webstaurant Store. [1:30:41] **Council Member:** I got a quick question: did they replace the—the dishwasher? [1:30:45] **Ellissa Owens:** It is being worked on right now, I believe. [1:30:47] **Ellissa Owens:** She ordered it, just waiting on it. [1:30:49] **Council Member:** Brand new one though? [1:30:50] **Ellissa Owens:** Yes. Yep. And I believe the low bidder there was Appliance Repair Service. Um, so they did—they did not require additional electrical, so we went with that one. [1:31:07] **Council Member:** Is there any differences on warranties or maintenance and stuff like that? [1:31:13] **Ellissa Owens:** You know, I—I know little to none about the coolers. Um, I could ask, but I don't know. They're both professional services. Um, it looks like the one you can buy protection. [1:31:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Would you stay like [Unintelligible]— [1:31:33] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** —under the other quote? This was budgeted for two. [1:31:54] **Council Member:** Um, I'll make a motion we accept the low quote of Web—Webstaurant or whatever. [1:31:59] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Do you have a second? [1:32:01] **Council Member:** Do you want the protection plan, too? [1:32:04] **Council Member:** Um, five-year protection plan for 30—30 years? I wonder what that all includes. Yeah. Is it just compressors? What is it? [1:32:15] **Council Member:** Then did the other one have a protection plan or not? Or aren't people... uh, we don't know. [1:32:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I'll check and see if what—what the protection plan includes. Still would come under less even with that—the three-year or five-year—because it comes in... I’m doing my math right? Yeah, less than the other one. So I guess I’d check into the—yeah, to see what that— [1:32:41] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** —would cover. If it's something that you feel... this one says "Save $635 by ordering now." Is that $635 off of the $2,200? I wonder? [1:32:55] **Ellissa Owens:** No, no, because it was retail at $2,866. [1:33:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay. So you have a motion on the floor. Do I have a second? [1:33:09] **Council Member:** Second. [1:33:10] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any further questions? [1:33:14] **Council Member:** Good point though about that. [1:33:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Sure. It's because it kicked in the question about picking that up for a five-years warranty. [1:33:23] **Ellissa Owens:** I'll see what that all entails. [1:33:26] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor say aye. [1:33:28] **Council Members:** Aye. [1:33:29] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. A quick question that just hit me, Katie: yes, do you have insurance on this roof? Is there a roof covered by insurance? [1:33:43] **Ellissa Owens:** Everywhere that we cover—or that we have insurance on—is covered, so yes, the roof is all covered. [1:33:50] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I never even thought—the leak should be covered. I never even thought of that. [1:33:55] **Ellissa Owens:** That's... I'll check into that too. I'll add that to Yvonne's list. I never—I just don't ever think of that. I don't know why. I’m glad you talked about insurance on this because it hit me. All right. [1:34:10] **Council Member:** So I did not struggle... [1:34:13] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yes, it is... I'm just checking everybody, making sure everyone's on their toes. All right. 6e: Motor Vehicle Office—excuse me, it is Motor Vehicle Office. DMV office printer. [1:34:36] **Ellissa Owens:** Yes. So the current office printer that they have is much too small for what they are doing right now in volume of customers. Um, they're having to order toner like every single month, and like, I never have to replace my toner in my office. They're also going to be having to print—the stickers eventually, so they need an additional tray. [1:35:10] **Council Member:** Yeah, the state's got some crazy changes coming down the pike. [1:35:13] **Ellissa Owens:** So, um, this is state bid, which is why there's only one quote and it's—it's basically the bigger version of the machine they have with an additional tray. [1:35:23] **Council Member:** Do we own that other printer? [1:35:25] **Ellissa Owens:** We do. So, um, I was going to see if maybe Phil wanted [it]... so we'll—we'll utilize it somewhere in in the city. I just don't exactly know where it's going to go. [1:35:41] **Council Member:** So the state changes are requiring us to make a change too? [1:35:46] **Ellissa Owens:** Well, that, and we—and it's used a lot. [1:35:50] **Council Member:** It is used, but they give us zero money to help out? [1:35:54] **Ellissa Owens:** Correct. Um, with something like this. [1:36:01] **Council Member:** Print a sticker? [1:36:02] **Ellissa Owens:** Yeah. So each—so the stickers will be on like a piece of paper, yeah, with a—like a sticker on it. So that's how they've explained it. Like it'll just be a half-by-eleven piece of paper with a sticker on it. Okay. [1:36:09] **Council Member:** Should we be recommending a lease or— [1:36:12] **Ellissa Owens:** —purchase. Purchase. [1:36:14] **Council Member:** The lease was... you save a year on the price. [1:36:18] **Ellissa Owens:** Very expensive. You save 600, I think. [1:36:23] **Council Member:** Council, kind of support you get with this? Do we have a contract for that? [1:36:28] **Ellissa Owens:** We... so anytime it breaks, they'll come and fix it. Um, the only thing that is not included are the paper and the staples. So um, it says "Maintenance: break-fix service, service calls, travel time, labor, toner, parts and all consumables." Which is—this lease is probably better than what we have now because we have to pay for the toner. [1:37:01] **Council Member:** I'll make a motion we approve purchasing— [1:37:14] **Council Member:** —for $1,817. [1:37:17] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Have a second? [1:37:19] **Council Member:** Second. [1:37:20] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any further questions? Discussion? All in favor say aye. [1:37:25] **Council Members:** Aye. [1:37:26] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. 6f: Loon Running Hiking Club race. [1:37:37] **Ellissa Owens:** Um, so the Loon Running/Hiking Club is—is putting on a social distance set of races. So I believe he's—is he doing a 5k? So he's doing multiple races. He's been working with Darren on the route and making sure that the DNR knows about this and— [1:38:00] **Ellissa Owens:** —everything like that. I just wanted to present this to you guys to make sure that it's okay that he uses some of the roads and the Arena parking lot. He has a lot of precautions in place for face masks when—when they're waiting around and things like that. He's... [1:38:20] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Was it Rick Bothwell? Sorry. [1:38:22] **Ellissa Owens:** Um, when is this taking place? [1:38:26] **Police Chief:** Sometime October. October 3rd, okay. [1:38:31] **Council Member:** That a Saturday, I'm assuming? [1:38:34] **Police Chief:** Yes. Um... [1:38:36] **Council Member:** How are we going to control, say, four-wheelers and...? [1:38:40] **Police Chief:** Yeah, I asked him the same questions because he had to apply for a permit through the DNR just for that fact, that you're going to have to probably close portions of those— [1:38:46] **Police Chief:** —trails, because you can't have somebody out there running, walking, with an ATV coming down there. So I don't know where he's at with the permits. I also talked to Doc Form because part of what's going to run down the back side of that property between MSOP and the OC—that would cause them any problems with their security around there. We're going to obviously make that a no-spectator zone, which I don't think anybody would be in there anyway, but it's going to run around the state trail on the backside of MSOP and then come back into town again, and it would have to make multiple laps. My concern to him was they're going to be crossing the highway, so it would have to be just like the MS-150: they would have to come across at times. And initially it wouldn't be so bad to get— [1:39:31] **Police Chief:** —the full group across to get going. Um, but it's going to be an all-day thing of people coming through; it's going to be a little bit more work. I also... um, he—he emailed me yesterday that so far three people have signed up. So he wanted me to run it and... no, but... [1:40:01] **Council Member:** Has he talked to the state agencies? [1:40:04] **Police Chief:** Yeah, he's talking because he had to apply for the different permits to even run the race to get it. Um, I think he has the one from the DNR on using portions of that. [1:40:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, but I'm just thinking... and you know, just MSOP coming up from behind there, you have people coming in and out of work all day and they gotta cross that road to get to the trail. That—that— [1:40:16] **Police Chief:** Right. I also think that he's got volunteers... like this. Yeah. Hopefully. I'm not sure what, but right. We'll be starting there, too, and once they split apart you have to get one or two across here and there won't be that big of a deal. But... because how many people are [unintelligible] in the event? But I think he's got a cap too, and I don't know what that number is. I want to say it's like 75 total between all of everything. [1:40:48] **Ellissa Owens:** Yeah, yeah. It's very small. It's not going to be like a huge... I think eventually he'd like to build it to more of an actual event, but this is the first—the first time, and he's going to take it as a learning experience, I think. [1:41:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** What is he looking from us? [1:41:06] **Ellissa Owens:** Just information at this point. [1:41:08] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay. [1:41:09] **Ellissa Owens:** And support from our local police, which may—may cause overtime. [1:41:15] **Police Chief:** I would imagine, if you have to have a couple people in to cover the crossings at the major highways. Unless—unless they have somebody... sometimes they hire people like from Fond du Lac that are training to do these things, I don't know. [1:41:35] **Ellissa Owens:** Correct. [1:41:37] **Police Chief:** Yeah. The only thing we have to worry about is that we're having people that have the training and ability to be stopping traffic and dealing with those kind of issues, so that we don't have somebody that's just volunteered to come out there and do that and we have an incident and they have no legal or no reason to be doing it. So, but— [1:41:49] **Police Chief:** —I've been... [the] group's been over a couple times. We've been going over different things, you know, with them, and parking and how we're going to get people across and when. So, but he also has some signs that say like "Event"—is it "Event in Progress" or "Race in Progress" or something that he's borrowing—so he's going to put some signs... I would guess all on the trails and things like that. So... [1:42:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay. So for us this is informational. All right. Does council have any questions to pass on? Sounds like we already did. Okay. 6g: Medora quote. Phil? [1:42:36] **Ellissa Owens:** So you guys can be mad at Phil for this... no, I'm just kidding. It is absolutely nobody's fault besides the lightning. Phil came to work on Monday a few weeks ago and the mixers are not mixing. So what he did was he got a quote, and this is worst-case scenario if they had to replace absolutely everything for the mixers. I will—before I turn it over to Phil, I will say that I am working with insurance to see... we currently do not cover the ponds, which is common I guess in municipalities that have sewer ponds, because I have no idea how much it costs. Yvonne's working on that right now, but it's apparently very expensive. So I'm working on what it would look like if insurance did— [1:43:23] **Ellissa Owens:** —cover this. But regardless, we still need to have this done. And the insurance suggested that we go ahead and start on it, because it's going to take a while to schedule with them anyways. So we may have to kind of eat this one, but we'll be hopeful that our insurance information comes back better than what I think it will. Go ahead. [1:43:44] **Phil Entner:** Okay. So mixers: mixers of the things we put in in 2016-17. It was part of the wastewater project we did. That is what—that’s what—that's what mixes our chemical for our phosphorus— [1:44:08] **Phil Entner:** —treatment at the ponds. So, um, yeah, came to work two weeks ago Monday, I think it was after that bad storm, and—and you can see up on the wall one of them when the fuses were blown open. So we have lost the phase due to whatever, really. And we have tried—we've tried braid boards, we've tried the transformers, all three different transformers that are in there, and there's something else in there. Not a one of them make anything work all together, all on singly, upside down, it don't matter, they don't work. So we spent a lot of time out there. [1:44:48] **Ellissa Owens:** But a lot of quality time. [1:44:51] **Phil Entner:** Yeah, and the bugs are really bad right now, so it was a lot of fun. No. Um, but yeah, so that's—that's what they're proposing to fix all these. I don't know... I'm not an— [1:44:55] **Phil Entner:** —electrician. I don't know if it's all or none, or parts, or this or that, or whatever. It's all electrical components that are exploded out of these things. So that's... and this is for a lightning strike. This is for a—I’m believing a surge. Because surges usually went to the fuses out of poles, which on a phase coming in through a pole or through a transformer to even anyone's house or this building, there's a fuse that goes through there before. And when I had came to work that morning, one of them fuses were blowing open, which kills the power to lightning strike in a line somewhere, went down the line, blew a fuse, but the power surge blew the equipment. There is no—one control panel for this either, is there? [1:45:39] **Phil Entner:** There's only one main one? [1:45:40] **Council Member:** One main one. [1:45:41] **Phil Entner:** Yep. One main one. Yeah. Well, there's power to it still... now power's back on now, there's power across everything. [1:45:51] **Council Member:** Right. So you need them to look at the control panel? [1:45:55] **Phil Entner:** Oh yeah. This is way out of my wheelhouse. I'm not... it's all—it’s all computerized, it's all microprocessed. [1:46:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** So this happened in 2016 with the wells too, remember that? Right? [1:46:08] **Ellissa Owens:** Yep. Took out all the controls for all of us. [1:46:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** And Phil, you are talking to the power company about lightning surge protection? [1:46:17] **Phil Entner:** Yes. To prevent it from happening again, hopefully. [1:46:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay. That was my question. [1:46:23] **Ellissa Owens:** That's something we talked about right away is looking at protection for this, because if it happened now, it can happen again every year. Um, but what I am doing in the meantime is checking with insurance to see—um—if this... if we could get this covered if—if they approve it. And if they approve it, then we would add—I’ll see how much it'll cost—but I would add the sewer pumps to our policy. I just want to make sure that it makes sense to do that monetarily. I just don't have any clue how much sewer ponds are to cover, but I know that every single time somebody has to go out there and fix it— [1:47:14] **Ellissa Owens:** —it's very expensive. Every time. [1:47:17] **Council Member:** Just a question: this Medora, they're—are they the ones who put it in? They own it? They're nationwide? [1:47:26] **Ellissa Owens:** They're the only ones that deal with them. [1:47:28] **Council Member:** Okay. So they have had to have this problem before. They should know what kind of surge protection we need. We should be talking to them about that, also, what they recommend and what they've used in other places. So, I'm sure this has happened. I'm wondering why it wasn't done in the first place? Did we not have anything? [1:47:52] **Phil Entner:** They may depend on the power companies, but a lot of these things are... because they're making money and we— [1:47:58] **Phil Entner:** —don't have a choice. We have to get it fixed. [1:48:01] **Council Member:** I'll make a motion that we fix it at the cost of $34,143.04. [1:48:14] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Have a second? [1:48:15] **Council Member:** Second. [1:48:16] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any other questions? And this comes out of the sewer fund. All right. All in favor say aye. [1:48:26] **Council Members:** Aye. [1:48:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Motion carried. Um, the last item here: this is election Cares Act resolution. Katie? [1:48:35] **Ellissa Owens:** I came to work on Tuesday and the—Carlton County, sorry, Carlton County Auditor's Office had emailed me that they are—I’m not sure if it's the Secretary of State or if it's the County—is giving certain election districts money to spend on COVID-related items. Um, she said they were going to send me a resolution and she hasn't. I just—I don't know when the deadline is, so I would like us to pass a resolution without having the resolution [text], accepting... um, it's a little under 900. It's like 890. Uh, we just have to pass a resolution accepting it in order to get it. And I just want to make sure we have it done before the deadline. I don't know what it is, but... [1:49:28] **Council Member:** I'll make that motion. [1:49:31] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay. All right. Any reports of correspondence? Committee and Board meeting minutes? [1:49:43] **Ellissa Owens:** [Was there] to come... I don't think we had any last month because I was on vacation. [1:49:49] **Council Member:** We did have some Park Board, I'll have to get them from— [1:49:54] **Ellissa Owens:** Yeah, she signed them sometimes and... [1:49:57] **Council Member:** Right. At the Fire Department meeting last night, they thought that they were going to be able to—uh—keep—keep the levy the same and have no tax increases. So that was good news to hear. [1:50:11] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Yeah, that'd be great. Moving on to number nine: announcements. [1:50:20] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Regular Moose Lake City Council meeting: Wednesday, October 14, 4:00 p.m. right here. Moose Lake Economic Development Authority: Wednesday, September 16th, 12:00 p.m. in the City Conference Room. Moose Lake Water/Light Commission regular meeting: Tuesday, September 15th, 3:00 p.m., Water/Light Office. Moose Lake Housing Redevelopment Authority board: Monday, October—excuse me, September 14th, 11:00 a.m., Hillside Manor office. Moose Lake Fire District: Tuesday, October 13, 6:30, the Emergency Response Center. Moose Lake Park Board meeting: Monday, October 5th, 6:30 p.m. right here. Also, the Park Board for this month has been rescheduled for this coming Monday because of the holiday this—this last Monday. So those are the updates. Do we have a motion to adjourn? [1:51:14] **Council Member:** So moved. [1:51:16] **Council Member:** Do you have a second? [1:51:18] **Council Member:** Second on... [1:51:19] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** We’re adjourned.