This transcript has been processed to identify speakers based on the provided city officials list and the contextual clues within the dialogue. [0:03] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: [Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [0:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Right, thank you everyone who's present for coming. The next item is approval of the agenda. Do I have any additions or corrections to the agenda? [Pause] All in favor? Opposed? [0:49] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Motion carried. Moving on to number two, consent agenda: (1) Minutes of the regular City Council meeting April 12, 2023; (2) Emergency City Council meeting April 19, 2023; (3) Local Board of Appeals and Equalization meeting April 26, 2023. Do you have any discussion or questions on the minutes? Agreed. Now, do we have a motion to accept the minutes? Do we have a second? All in favor say aye. [Council responds: Aye]. Opposed? Motion carried. [1:36] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Under consent agenda B, Financial reports: City codes payable April 2023, City financial statements April 2023, and number three, the liquor store profit loss statement for April 2023. [1:53] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any discussion or questions on the financial reports? Okay, now do I have a motion to accept that? A second? All in favor say aye. [Council responds: Aye]. Opposed? Motion carried. Number three is a time for public comment. This time is reserved for your comments from the public on matters not listed on the agenda. Please keep your comments to three minutes. I've never done one of these—that's okay, can you state your name please? [2:38] **Bryce Beer**: My name is Bryce Beer and I just have a proposition, I guess, for the new ordinance on the pets. It's a $50 registration fee lifetime per pet, and as I know we don't have any animal control in the city right now and we've been relying on the police. I just was thinking maybe we could—after all the fees are collected—maybe go towards an animal control department if you will have that work done. [3:18] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All right, thank you. Appreciate your comments. Anyone else? Thank you. [3:24] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Moving on to number four, departmental reports. Police Chief or department report for April 2023. [3:30] **Kelly Lake (Sheriff)**: Mayor, members from the Council, Administrator Owens, in your packet you'll see the police report for April totaling 281 calls for service. 54 of those are for extra patrol, 109 traffic stops, 49 community engagements, nine assists to other agencies, 58 calls for service, and two medicals. And also you'll have the pie chart that we've been looking at for a while now; we're still trending in the right direction. You know, look at our calls for service are less than 25 percent of what we're doing now, so the proactive piece is still, I think, making a difference. Or we're seeing a lot more of that and less responding to some things—so trending in the right direction there. Our new speed signs came in, so up on 10th going by the school, we'll have electronic speed signs get put up on each end that'll tell you, you know, what your speed's doing. You can have messages put on there, you know, if you're over. Plus, it comes with a software package that's going to track all the speeds. I don't remember that—I think we're watching them, we won't know a plate or anything like that, we'll just know at this time of day, you know, for a month, this is where the speeds are so that we can look back and get some of that data. And those were paid for by Water and Light. And then we'll have another thing coming up later on the agenda that we'll talk about. Our new squad that we purchased here a while back is getting a new engine. We've had problems with it now for a while. We brought it in, we've argued at Ford on a few different things, they couldn't seem to figure it out, and finally brought it down to Sam’s Town and they said it needs a new engine. It's all covered under warranty. It's got the twin turbos on it and the law enforcement stuff is probably a little bit harder, but yeah, we weren't having much luck up in Duluth so brought it down there. They ordered the engine, it's just a matter of time. We still run it, but you've got to watch—check the oil constantly because it'll shut down. Also, in the process of possibly getting a Polaris Ranger side-by-side with a full cab so that we can start doing some ATV enforcement and some of our special events. It's actually through the DNR, who I've been working through with the department to get it, and it's in relatively decent shape in miles. So there is the possibility of getting that donated to the department. We'll see where that goes. Other than that, yeah, we'll cover a little bit that's coming up later unless you guys have any questions. [6:00] **Council Member**: I do have another question, maybe clarify this because some people have been asking about it. The speed limit up by the school—is that in effect all through the summer or is it just during the school year? [6:15] **Kelly Lake (Sheriff)**: Well, it should be just the way it's posted; it's going to be all the time. We're in the process now trying to talk with MnDOT because MnDOT's doing the signing even throughout the county road, through making it a 30 all the time. Because you've got sporting events that are going in now outside that time limit—it's Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 4:00, it's got to be 20. So now we stop somebody but my wife says it's five minutes to eight, you know? So we get into that whole deal. 20 is a little slow; 30 all the time would just make it a lot better. So that's the route we're going to try to look after doing. But really it doesn't say anything about when kids are present, it's just Monday through Friday. So the way it's written out is through the soccer gym. Hang on Chad, you’re good yeah. [7:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Oh no, thank these two gentlemen. You know that flood that happened just a few weeks ago? We jumped in with the emergency team right away and the Police Department and the Fire Department sprang to action. The committee had a quick response to what was going on, came up with great ideas, jumped in the field, got it done. And I want to thank these gentlemen for their good work and serving the community and public safety—you guys are exemplary. [7:55] **Kelly Lake (Sheriff)**: Thank you, I appreciate that very much. I asked to go to the Mayor because he called that meeting early, and I think we got ahead of things before it got too bad. To support that decision to do it, and it turned out well. [8:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Yeah, congrats to you as well. Nice job. So, Phil Entner [phoneticized as Nick Harris in transcript], thank you. [8:40] **Kelly Lake (Sheriff)**: And I guess as I was saying, since we're passing this out, I mean it's a feel-good thing that things did not go bad, but it's the lessons that were learned in the past. I think we have a City Administrator that's been here now for a while, the Mayor has been here for a while, at least she and Phil and his department as well took these proactive steps getting these pumps and everything in order. All those steps saved the city of what could have been very terrible. I think it was a great community effort. [9:00] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Yeah, I think so too. Everybody involved did a great job. Like I see you learn from every one of them, and it went good. No, thanks, I appreciate that. No, great job, thank you. [9:15] **Kelly Lake (Sheriff)**: I just wanted to address the school because you're probably getting some questions. I will tell you that we have done enforcement up there by the school. The tickets that have been written have been written for 45 and above all the way up to 60-plus miles an hour. It's not uncommon every day to have 30-35 miles per hour over the limit. Questions that you get—if they see us up there, are we enforcing the 20? The answer is higher speeds: the 49s, the 50s, the 60s through there. [9:55] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Yeah, I think it was more it was just coming to summer and people think in their mind that it's a school and it's not open during that time. I'm hoping we can get a change by summer. Is that okay to put it to 30? Because that would definitely ease a lot of people because it starts 20 way back there. Thank you all right, thanks. Thank you. City Superintendent Department report for April 2023. [10:21] **Phil Entner**: She asks well, we're really going to get into it now. Materials, a busy month. We go from ice and snow about a month ago to now—it's just full-on next week. So it's really good things. We're moving very long but we were behind, but we're really gonna invest in. Starting the Water Department, like we always do, distributing 5.8 million gallons of water a month in April. Hydrant flushing got kicked off because of the flood; we are going to do it here probably in the next two weeks. I would say just before Memorial Day we'll get that done. That slipped by the wayside, it did get kind of kicked out from that burner. Sewer Department collected 28.5 million gallons of wastewater. One vehicle talk—I see you writing that number down [to Council/Admin], you write it down all the time—way higher than any other ones, right? Yep. The I&I reduction that we've done we're going to help. Yes, absolutely. Currently still doing some wastewater sampling throughout all of town—that's going to be your mercury permit standard and our phosphorus permit standard as well through the PCA. We'll be doing that; that will happen for the next probably two and a half years. There's that—that’s a huge project. It's just going to be something we continually deal with, continually monitor, but it's something we have to do. It actually encompasses like 47 different locations every month. It's a pretty big program. I really dislike it, but it's part of my job. I heard me talk about a grant opportunity with Minnesota Rural Water, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and the University of Minnesota. That paperwork came out; I did apply for every opportunity to pull from that. The problem with that—it's only for $200,000. Every project in wastewater treatment should probably be at least $25,000 a piece. It breaks it down to one-day projects, 60-some facilities across the state. We'll see, we're throwing our hat in the ring because that's what we do and we're going to try it, but I'm not making the guarantees. At least we're in the game. We'll see what happens. The treatment side: we ended up discharging in April—that was a huge discharge, biggest one we ever had to type in, 48 million gallons. We did beat all our parameters so that was good. PCA still thinks things are great. That's awesome because they didn't when we started, so that's super cool. The parameters were all met. Street Department: pothole filling. I know potholes are everywhere, they're great, they suck, they're deep. It is what it is, we're doing our best. Cold mix is super limited right now. Hot mix plants are opening up next week; we'll switch over to hot mix applications to those holes, but then we'll also start patching. You'll see bigger patches happening all over town that'll start happening here really soon. Just a couple of small stormwater projects this summer, nothing major. The Park, Cemetery, Campground—they're all fired up, they're all ready to go. We have a campground update coming up here, but from a Public Works standpoint, we're all good to go. I think that's all I got for now. [13:25] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Stay there. Listen Taylor, why not? Oh yeah. [13:42] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: This part of the administrative team that jumped in on this emergency also with the flooding and filled with the major work of a physical part of it, which was major—your team jumped in, the whole Street Department, and made it happen. I appreciate that because that helped get everything organized and everything laid out and our Administration took care of the back-office stuff, which ends up to be a lot. People have no idea how much data has to be recorded and captured: every penny that's spent, the time, the people involved—data, data, data. And you have to do it the way the state runs. If the county has a dollar amount over $80,000 in a flood within the county, 75 percent of your expenses are covered. And ours is probably very high, probably more than $80,000. So if you take the county itself, it probably was very high. The state has a minimum of $10 million for the state which was called a Statewide emergency. If it reaches $10 million, then the feds will cover... the state covers 75 still and the feds come in with additional 25. All that data collection is so important and that was accomplished so thank you so much for the whole city. I appreciate it. It's a great working day, thank you. [15:44] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thanks, Phil, for the report. Municipal Liquor Store—unfortunately, Ryan [Finance Director] is not here and I would like to have also thanked him for the help of that data collection. Ellissa [Administrator]? [15:55] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Yes, we are getting ready to extend the contract to Murray Boss for a supervisor role down at the Municipal Liquor Store. The city is currently working on that. Once that is established—I know Council has given consensus for that—we do need to do some part-time hiring as well. We will get that accomplished and then from here forward we'll be working through the Liquor Committee regarding training opportunities and process pieces and kind of just diving into inventory and things like that. So we'll be sure to provide updates as we work through that. If you have any questions, you can feel free to reach out to me or Ryan throughout this process, but Mari and the team down there have been doing a fantastic job and we're excited about moving forward. [17:05] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Questions by the Council? Thank you. 4D, Technology/Library Department report for April. [17:16] **Taylor Hansberry (Deputy Clerk)**: So I do have some Library updates. There'll be a book sale on June 16th and 17th. This is the first year that the arena will be utilized for this book sale, so that's really exciting. We're going to see how that goes and we'll have a lot of space, so encourage everybody to come out and visit the book sale. In addition, Steve Hamilton, a local magician, will be doing a show on August 3rd in the library. And lastly, Rock Chiropractic has notified the public library that they'll be giving a donation of all Newberry award-winning books for the shelves at the Moose Lake Public Library. So it's really exciting. I just want to make sure to do thank-you letters too for the donation. [18:03] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: For those on the emergency team, just so you know, I'm going to make a visit to CIP to thank them. I want to do that in person for all the men that participated in that effort they made with filling sandbags. Anyone's welcome on our team to come with me, it's up to individuals. Moving on: City Engineer report for May. [18:49] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: There are a lot of moving pieces on this. A lot of the really important stuff is going to be addressed here in additional items. So at this point in time, if anybody has any questions regarding the engineering meeting minutes, please feel free to let me know, otherwise, we will cover the main highlights of these in other agenda items. [19:15] **Council Member**: I think I have just one question and that is on the initiative to check for lead in drinking water. Is that later? [19:25] **Phil Entner**: It is not on an agenda item. I can do it maybe just quick. So, the Lead Service Line Rule is a new rule from the MDH. It starts off with basically a survey, and our survey needs to be looked at through every water service we have in town. That survey needs to be submitted by May 2025. There's quite a bit of time to work on this here; we have 11 services left to check. We had some previous data that we can go back and look at that can verify some of this information. We did our job super simple, so that was awesome. With that being said, as soon as those surveys get turned in, there's going to be some opportunities for some grant dollars to replace some of those lead service lines. We don't have any pure lead service lines, but we do have some pipe service lines involved which are then connected with what's called a lead "gooseneck"—it's what they call the trade to show a piece of lead pipe. In our situation, that's what we're going to be going after to get rid of right at the lowest funding opportunities for the second wave of this through the Minnesota Department of Health. Our survey is just about complete; we'll be turning that into the engineers here probably the next couple of months. We have some time to go out and check kind of catch up on something else. There is some grant dollars out there to go after. Our city engineer group is working on some of this activity in other cities as well, so they've been a really valuable resource and have a lot of information for us and experience with dealing with this. We are being guided through this process as well. [21:24] **Council Member**: You know, when we did forestry, which had I believe the oldest infrastructure, did it show up in the water lines? What you mean—the gooseneck lead? Was that apparatus present on Johnson? [21:44] **Phil Entner**: Yes, absolutely, quite a few of them. So those are done already, they're done already. And there's some guidelines as far as your assistant installation when they quit using lead. Yep. [22:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: 4F, Chamber of Commerce updates. [22:15] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Yes, the Chamber of Commerce board is currently looking to establish a theme this year for the Fourth of July festivities. They are looking for ideas. We've met with the Chamber of Commerce regarding the 4th of July fireworks event and the city's been really fortunate—the Chamber has in years past done some fundraising activities for the city for the fireworks show, and they will be doing those efforts again this year. That's very much appreciated. In addition, there's a "Nine and Dine" golf event on July 28th that the Chamber is facilitating. There's a pancake breakfast fly-in facilitated by the Kiwanis Club on June 17th, and they're already planning—they're looking to distribute raffle tickets sooner this year, so even as early as the summer you'll see them at local businesses. That raffle event will be October 19th. Actively planning the Agate Days eventually—that's a pretty big sign, correct? Which may want to do a special meeting with the Police Department on how many thousands of people that brings. [23:44] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you. Any questions from Council? We're going to move on to number five, previously discussed business: Moose Lake City Campground update. [24:00] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: So, the flooding did quite a bit of damage to the City Campground. We've been working to identify the damage and rectify it, as our season is set to begin this coming weekend. All of the activities that we've been working on here are attempting to meet that deadline. From a groundwork standpoint—water, wastewater, utility—those are all turned around correctly. Of the electric, Phil, you want to touch on that now? [24:45] **Phil Entner**: Okay, so we have 77 pedestals down there for campers. Saturday, turned the power back on to those—there's breakers that need to be replaced in 70 out of 77. That work started today. It was going pretty good; I'm going to check in with them when I leave. I think that they should be done by Friday. So hoping everything turns out good. The bathhouse that was flooded was completely cleaned up and power-washed and sterile, and then everything in there is fired up too and running. Everything is good as far as that. We are kind of waiting on that last electrical piece of it. [25:33] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: We have completed the staffing process for the campground, so we have a meeting tomorrow for all new staff. We're doing training on the campground software, having a meet and greet, and looking at scheduling in combination with our campground hosts this year. We are working through some of those challenges and addressing some of the needs that we've identified from operations of last year. [26:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any other questions? Moving on to 6A, Joe Schmidt property discussion. [26:23] **Joe Schmidt**: Yes sir, I'm Joe Schmidt and I own the property that's just east or just west—oh, just east of the ponds and the east side of the Soo Line Trail up into the park area. [27:00] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: What the council has is the documents that you provided, so if you want to give a brief update on what your request is to the city, that would be helpful. And just know they do have your visuals available to them right now to reference. [27:10] **Joe Schmidt**: I've owned the land for three plus years and whenever I go onto the land initially, we had to go through what I want to call a "goat trail" to get to the land and of course alongside the ponds on the west side. We go through that goat trail; there used to be a gate there and that gate was put up to keep the kids out because they were going down there partying. So we all had keys: myself, Paul Schmidt who's just south of me, and the city. And somebody removed that gate. And so now there's more traffic and you can see the goat trail is becoming more of a river. What we're looking to do—we have a "cartway" that was approved that goes right alongside the sewer ponds. It's right now through some fairly heavily populated trees, and for me to go through there, I would be tearing down a lot of woods to put a regular road back in there. So our thoughts were that it would be nice to just piggyback onto the already existing roadways or goat trail and try to work it through that and update that a little bit more and have access to our land. I've been working with the Carlton County people to make sure we're not determining any land. I've been working with Paul Schmidt, who is just south of me, to help us to get back in there a little bit better. One of the reasons that we're looking to do that is every time I go into my land I have to talk with Greg Bernu with the County—he takes care of the Soo Line Trail—to get a permit to go on the Soo Line Trail to get into my land, because there's no way for me to get out of my land other than through the Soo Line Trail. And so you're not supposed to be driving vehicles on the Soo Line Trail. So we are trying to work with Paul Schmidt here to put a roadway in between there so we don't have to be on the trail even longer. What I'm looking for from you is I want to have access on that just like Paul Schmidt; I want the same access that they have onto the property. Part of the problem is that they sold some of the land to the city and so the access stops halfway through the goat trail and then it starts up again. So I'm okay once I get halfway through, I'm kind of breaking the rules because I don't have access to that unless I go through my cartway. And the only way to get through my cartway is to rip down a bunch of trees and make a trail through there. In that, if we do that, we're going to be making a big mess down there because the way the cartway was originally done, it doesn't really have great access. There's going to be a lot of fill that's going to have to go into the wetlands there and it's going to cost everybody money because the way the cartway is written up, all three parties are responsible for any work that goes in there: myself, Paul Schmidt, and the city. I'm trying to prevent a lot of extra money and everything for you guys to be able to go on their cartway and get through there. That about sums it up. [31:10] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I'd like to hear your concerns, Phil, first of all, and make sure you have a good understanding because of the work and protection you have to give to the sewer ponds and the land out there. [31:25] **Phil Entner**: Now I have a better understanding. What Mr. Schmidt is asking is—essentially, you're just asking for permission to cross that corner property that we own? [31:46] **Joe Schmidt**: Well, and part of the reason I'm trying to get this all done is I'm trying to gift the land to my grandchildren so I want perpetual access. I don't want to have to come back all the time and ask for permission. I have my cartway right now that gives me that access, but I'm looking for... I'm happy to get rid of the cartway, but I need to have access. [32:15] **Paul Schmidt**: Can I... so when we sold the land to the city—again, this was Leonard Schmidt and our family sold the one piece of property to the city—we reserved the easement across there. So I guess all we're trying to figure out is do we have the authority to add him to that easement or how can we get Joe's name added to that easement? Greg Bernu has some input here. [33:20] **Greg Bernu (County Land Commissioner)**: For the record, Greg Bernu, County Land Commissioner. I know a lot but not a lot of everything, so I'm dangerous. I'm not an attorney and I don't play one on TV. First and foremost, before anybody exercises rights, seriously consider legal counsel on this. But when this came up to me this past week with both a phone call from Mr. Schmidt and also from Mr. Entner, I just went back into a quick abstract of what I could find within the county records. What I found was that in 1991, Orris [Schmidt] gave it to the Schmidt family—Paul Schmidt's family—and then Leonard took it; he sold a piece to the city for the establishment of ponds, reserving unto the grantor a 66-foot-wide easement. So they retain ownership of that piece of property; it's not the city's property, that's still theirs. Back in 2010, I was involved with the condemnation of city property, private property, and county property by the townships of both Silver and the Town of Moose Lake. Because the town created it under statute 164.07, only they can vacate that. That's out of your guys's realm of ability. You can make the recommendation to both Silver and to Moose Lake townships to vacate provided that he secured access across Paul's easement and across the rest of Paul's land to get into his property on the east side. I think this is going to be very simple. It'll allow you to maintain your ponds and expand them. If you were to expand those ponds out, you would have to deal with Mr. Joe Schmidt to compensate him for the taking of properties for his cartway at the condemnation. You don't want to do that; it's all swamp. So I think that you're just going to be... this is my opinion, Ollie, I'm not an attorney, would be to recommend to both Town of Silver and the Town of Moose Lake and say yes, we would like to see this vacated provided that the families come together on using the easement across the city's property. I think it could be pretty simple. [36:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Phil, do you understand this? [36:18] **Phil Entner**: I do, and it makes a lot more sense now. I'm on board with Mr. Bernu there. [36:26] **Joe Schmidt**: Okay, so that's exactly what we're looking to do. But as Greg pointed out to me when I talked on my phone, I don't want to give up my cartway until you guys give me permission to move on. [36:45] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Let me ask you a question. Until you establish this road, and you want to keep people out of there though—are you going to put a gate up again? [36:55] **Greg Bernu**: It's going to be an easement versus a cartway. Yes, in either of these two families, or with your permission or you ask them, can we put up a gate? It's completely legal for you to put up a gate. It's not a public easement, it's a private easement. Completely legal for Mr. Paul, Mr. Joe, or Mr. Phil to put a gate up to block access to the public. [37:11] **Joe Schmidt**: Okay, so there is a private easement. Most of the people that are back there right now are neighbors and they're accessing the Soo Line Trail. And so I don't know that we necessarily put up a gate at this point in time, but I think it was a deterrent initially. When they put it up, I think it was a deterrent from the kids going back to it because we don't see as many kids back there. We mainly see the neighbors that are right along Hagueford's Road there. [37:50] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Who took the gate down? I don't know. [37:58] **Council Member**: Does the snowmobile trail still go through down past the ponds down Egbert? [38:15] **Greg Bernu**: I was going to bring that up. If the private landowners so decide to change that trail, they can say to the club, we don't want you here anymore. [38:59] **Joe Schmidt**: My wife and I have been out there a few times this winter snowshoeing and so we're not... we don't have any big plans to build or anything like that, we just want to have access to our land. I did put up a pole barn just to kind of keep all of our stuff—you know, four-wheelers and that kind of stuff—out there. I don't have any plans to build, but I can't tell you what my grandkids will do when they get older. [39:44] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I got a question though just for the Council. Now let's say to improve that, Phil is the... I want to make sure that you are happy and understanding this. I would imagine this is going to go to our law firm that, you know, with our decision... what are your next steps once that's approved? Are you going to the townships like it sounded like? [40:15] **Joe Schmidt**: The easements and the dissolving of the cart path should coincide. We've told Joe that we'll give him—because he's asking for another easement from us too, which I understand isn't part of this—but we need to get that cartway... Joe was completely right, doing the cartway along the property line where we gave it to the previous owner, all they needed that for was to sell saying we have access, but it was the worst possible. It runs right down the property line. It was good for us and we're trying to make it easier for Joe to make a road in on reasonable property. [41:15] **Greg Bernu**: One thing that I caught up that you stated—let's say this is approved. Then the old cartway is what you're mentioning that we the city or Phil would have to deal with to put the piping through if we build ponds on the west side of that road. Because the Towns of Silver and Moose Lake condemned that property and gave it to Mr. Berkman who then sold it to Mr. Schmidt, you would have to deal with Mr. Schmidt to cross his property at the cartway in its current state. Once if these two gentlemen can work out the easement among themselves and their attorney agrees—yes, we can add Mr. Joe on top of Mr. Paul's easement—then no one across makes it very easy for the Towns of Silver and Moose Lake to vacate that cartway and you don't have to deal with it. [42:35] **Phil Entner**: It benefits all of us to get rid of that cartway. [42:47] **Joe Schmidt**: Yes, but we need to be able to give him the easement first or coinciding with getting rid of the dissolving of the cartway. And we've agreed in principle on the easement amongst ourselves; we just need to put it on paper. [43:10] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: What are the timelines? [43:12] **Joe Schmidt**: Well, we started this back in August. We just kind of took it over ourselves and said it's not going to work out unless we work on it. So we'd like to get done as soon as possible. [43:34] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Ellissa, on the legal ends of this... I'm just thinking what kind of motion we can make today, but we have to make sure that it goes through our legal department. Are you looking for the city to do the work and draft the documents, is that your request? Or are you looking for us to review existing drafted documents? [44:01] **Joe Schmidt**: Now we have attorneys, both of us, that can do our part of the easement. Once we get that done, we want to bring it to you. Unless the city is offering to do that? [44:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Well, that's where I was coming from. Our involvement is with the cartway. And so we have to do our part, but we didn't want to go forward with our part unless the city was involved and ready to go through motions and the necessary... I don't think we do a motion at this time. We can do consensus and discuss with our law firm and start that process. [45:11] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I think we would ask for consensus here for Ellissa to have the authority to move ahead with our law firm to work with your law firms to come up with the draft documents that solve what everyone is looking for, and then it's brought to the township boards. [45:50] **Greg Bernu**: So in my also my role is to act as kind of the clerk for the County Board. When a private party wishes to vacate a road, he has to be the private party requesting the vacating. They can have "Amicus Curiae," which are friends of the court, which the city in this role would play. I would say we support the Schmidt families in their petition to vacate to Silver or Moose Lake, and that would be your role. "We agree with this, here's why we agree with that." Action—only this gentleman [Joe Schmidt] can make the action to vacate that cartway to the townships. [46:35] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: So then does the request go to you or does it have to go to the boards? [46:40] **Greg Bernu**: It's got to go to both Silver and Moose Lake. Then there is a process for that under 164.07 as to what they do. They'll have to schedule a public hearing. You make the petition; 30 days later at the next meeting they can have the public hearing. So it's going to be at least a 30-day, maybe a 60-day deal with the townships. [47:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: With consensus, we would work with our attorneys to come up with that communication that we support the process and here's why. I just want to make sure that we all understand. We go ahead and do that—would that have to come back here for an official motion? I think it does by the city. It's not the city that owns the cartway, but you're acting as a "friend" of the plaintiff. Joe is the owner. I understand; it's just that to me, my responsibility is at some point this has to go through our law firm. That step should be taken. That's why I asked your timeline. [48:18] **Joe Schmidt**: No, I recognize that. If I can get something saying, "Hey, I'm on board with this," I can start working from my end. I think at first concession can be a start. [48:40] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: We're basically in consensus as long as we would be able to build our ponds way after. Correct? And I want to make sure Phil has a full understanding of that. [48:55] **Phil Entner**: I understand what you're talking about. Before I would say anything, I would want to actually go on-site and take our proposed plan that we had at one point for existing ponds, laying it out, and make sure we wouldn't have to be involved in your easement for your cartway. That involves me going through the network of the ponds, which is not a big deal, but now that I understand what's going on, I can actually take that information on-site and figure out where we can run pipe from point A to point B. So that expansion would actually work for our utility. My recommendation is just give me a month to look into this from a wastewater side and how it would affect us. You guys actually dump now in the creek that goes through my property. [49:50] **Joe Schmidt**: I don't have any problems with that. It doesn't even smell! [49:55] **Phil Entner**: I'm talking about the H-guns. I'm talking about the stabilization ponds, which are going to be coming from a different location crossing Hagueford's, going to the treatment process, and coming back across Hagueford's to meet our district point. So before I can say anything, I'd want to look at how our proposed project, if we decide to do one in the future, how that would work. [50:35] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I think at this point... do I have consensus to move ahead? [Council nods]. So we have consensus to take the next step. But I've got to make sure Phil knows what he's doing and we go through our law firm. I think we have to do those steps. I would say next month's agenda item, this will be on it. Can you come back at that time? Okay, and I'll be in communication as well as we advise. [51:17] **Joe Schmidt**: All right, thank you very much for your time. [51:24] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you. At this point, I know they've been doing a lot of permits because Greg always has to be the one coming out there. Thank you for sending those. Greg, thank you for your information today. [52:02] **Greg Bernu**: Thank you. I know enough to be dangerous. Appreciate it. [52:11] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Moving on to 6B, Region Electric and Mechanical campground repair quote. [52:15] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: This is the official quote for the repairs that are being conducted in the campground. This was sent out originally for consensus prior to, but this will be the official approval of the quote for repair. The motion would be for the invoice from Region Electrical and Mechanical for $21,735. [52:50] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Questions by the Council? [52:56] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: At this point in time, the threshold has been reached for the $80,000 mark with the county for 75% reimbursement. And then we have actually just been contacted by the county as the state is compiling data to meet the $10 million threshold for 100% coverage. We will update Council and residents as we get closer to establishing whether it is 75% versus 100%. The sooner these are fixed, the sooner we can open the campground. [53:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: That is a motion to approve. Do I have a second? [Council responds]. All in favor say aye. [Council: Aye]. Opposed? Motion carries. 6C, sign stop proposal, 7th Street and Birch Avenue. [54:01] **Kelly Lake (Sheriff)**: All right, do they have a copy of the map in there? In the packet, we've been getting a lot of complaints of speed on 7th Street. There's a lot of little kids on that stretch and now with the ball games going on there, we're getting more and more people that are seeing that traffic come through there pretty fast. It's used more of as a pass-through. Phil's been gracious and has a portable speed bump, so we're going to get that set up here probably in the next week or so halfway down that stretch. But part of the problem is when people are exiting off Arrowhead making that right turn onto 7th, they're continuing that speed right down that stretch of roadway. We found some sign stuff that we needed to change and fixed, so we took care of that last year, but I think the best effort here would be to put stop signs where they’re marked on your map there. One person was just looking at them one way, but you don't want to leave that one section open without the stop sign because it causes confusion. Between that speed bump and those stop signs, making it where they have to start slowing down a little earlier I think is probably a step in the right direction. So we wanted to bring it to Council and Administrator Owens to get approval to move forward with that. I hear it all the time—the speeds through there. Even today at the baseball games, the speed that the traffic comes through that stretch of roadway... and there's a lot of kids there. I'd rather see us be a little proactive before somebody gets hit. So my recommendation would be to add those stop signs at that intersection. [55:32] **Phil Entner**: One thing that might help out too—there seems to be a sidewalk that runs along there on the south side of 7th Street but it's completely under those cedar trees and it's hard to access that. And that guy always has trucks and everything parked there numerous times too. [55:55] **Kelly Lake (Sheriff)**: Those are going to have to get moved. As far as right-of-way on the street, if it's there, we'll be able to limb those back because there's got to be a clear sight to that. That's something that Phil and I can deal with. But yeah, part of the problem is... and we've had several conversations with that resident and we will be again. Even for some of the bus stops there, it's been an issue. [56:19] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: It'd be helpful to give them a little bit of time to get used to it, so we'll probably be sitting there once it’s approved. But for safety issues, I think we should move forward with that. Council, do I have a motion? Got a second? All in favor say aye. [Council: Aye]. Opposed? Motion carried. All right, thank you. Thank you. [56:59] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: 6D, lift station service checks. [57:05] **Phil Entner**: You guys see these... we service those stations twice a year. I try to include these every time we do them. These are basically all your lift stations and all the documentation saying when we actually look at your location. First page—I did not write that comment that's highlighted, I think the inspector did that. With that being said, these documents are what we build our budgets for for the following year as far as what we need to do for upgrades for the following year in wastewater. We're crossing our fingers everything holds out. With this main lift station—on the back of this packet, I'll get you a page number here in a second—there's quotes for pumps in that station. There's three different quotes: one's for one pump, one's for duplex, one's for triplex. That is a triplex station. It doesn't mean you have to do all three at one time, but if you replace all three pumps at one time, it's $260,000. Just let's remember here when we get going in a couple months and start budgeting in August or September, we're going to talk about serious money in wastewater. Serious. And this is just one station, right? We always have smaller ten to twenty thousand dollar repairs on stations—that happens and we get them done and we move on. But this is a little bit bigger one. Just keep that in the back of your mind. [58:58] **Council Member**: Are these part of the projects that you've included in your grant requests? [59:02] **Phil Entner**: No. [59:05] **Council Member**: If we are to go forward with these pumps, is there a process in which we could rebuild any of these pumps that we have as spares, or is it something that they're switched out to get a core charge? [59:15] **Phil Entner**: There is no more adapting to make this product work with an impeller or anything like that; those days are pretty much over. Trust me, right after I saw $260,000, I thought there's got to be a better way, and there isn't. With that being said, I'm not saying throw all three new ones in, but I am saying someday when we're sitting in a meeting—maybe even an emergency meeting—we've talked about this. Everyone knows about it because I don't want to get in that situation where we're dumping a whole bunch of money in a hurry. [59:55] **Council Member**: For budget purposes, can you recommend a sequence of which ones to replace in order? [1:00:05] **Phil Entner**: Yep, I sure can. I'll go through that and figure that out. Once again, not all these need to be replaced; we're just looking at the main lift station box which basically is the heartbeat of town. [1:00:29] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Is it accurate to say that flow from our district partner and the state facilities utilize this station? [1:00:35] **Phil Entner**: Yes, everything in the city uses it. [1:00:45] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: So one thing we've been looking at is through our contracts, a percentage-based split between all the entities. Just know that that is something that we're looking at and using in our planning process as well. [1:01:05] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: And that's what we used when we initially made any changes on the joint use. All entities were involved. But if we do this, we have to remember the contract with the Sewer District—you have to do that by a certain date. We have to make sure we do the right steps. And the state, because of their budgeting cycle, they want to know before their new budget year starts, which is July 1st. So whatever we do, we want to coordinate with those two entities well in advance so it gets into their budget. One thing about the state—I think their budget is two years out. That is something that we have to remember when we deal with the state. I don't know if this classifies as an emergency or not. All we can do is if we plan this year, we just have to notify them immediately. [1:02:40] **Phil Entner**: We're digging into those contracts as we speak. [1:02:45] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I think we have to find it and be ready for it; it's the cheapest way to do it if you can budget it. [1:02:50] **Council Member**: When were these changed? [1:02:55] **Phil Entner**: 2016. It gives the hours on the pumps. [1:03:00] **Council Member**: Is there an average run time that they run a day? [1:03:05] **Phil Entner**: Yes and no. Those numbers are accurate up until you have a high amount of flood, for example. We were right at that threshold. Your lift station will be overwhelmed enough to where those pumps run all day long; they'll run for five, six, seven days in a row just coping up with what's coming in. Our hours are a tool we use from an operator side just to try to diagnose anything wrong. It's up there, definitely up there. I mean, what goes through our wastewater system... it's amazing this equipment can last as long as it does, honestly. [1:04:00] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: We will be adding these to Capital Improvement. It's lasted eight years, and we're looking at $200-some thousand dollars. It should just be one of those items that we're adding so much a year for these new ones. [1:04:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Absolutely. Does the state pay 40 percent? I don't know... it used to be a higher number but I know that they cut back because of their I&I on the roofs—they were dumping all stormwater and everything into it, but not anymore. But I think they're 40%. That's something we should know and we should be doing it. And I believe the Sewer District is 18%; the rest is ours. We should look at that data and be setting aside money for that split for us, whatever that is. [1:05:10] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: I think that's a good idea to start informing them of what the split is and that these are on the horizon. Then they can put it in their budgets as well and for us to start saving too. [1:05:25] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Correct. We all understand that. The other pumps that you're talking about, Phil, that's another story. [1:05:40] **Phil Entner**: Yeah, those are all ours. The first lift station is run the same way as the main lift station, so we should be putting that data together too for the long term and setting aside money for those also. [1:05:56] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Not that you need more work, but can you bring that to us as soon as possible? Those numbers, those percentages per district, and then for the EOC. [1:06:15] **Phil Entner**: Fantastic. Yeah, the pumps that we have in the city that are our own. [1:06:25] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: We may only be able to pay a small portion of that and you might have to go to some type of bonding if it gets to be too big. [1:06:41] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: 6E, SEH Moose Lake Gravel Pit memorandum. [1:06:50] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Council has been made aware that we were looking into the potential of having a city facility, a gravel pit. So what we've been doing is working with our city engineers and just gaining information regarding the permitting process and costs of permits and what it would take to facilitate starting or initiating a gravel pit. This memo outlines the information that we've received thus far. They've given us a dollar amount of what the permitting process would cost—they threw out a $10,000 figure as far as what we would have to expend in order to acquire the permits necessary for a gravel pit. What it would take at this point is looking at that land and determining what type of monies could be generated from prepping that area in order to compensate for that $10,000 permitting cost. What we're looking for at this time is consensus to continue to move forward and investigate this. What we would be doing then is looking at logging of that land and potential revenue generation from logging to determine whether or not it can compensate for that $10,000 permitting cost and to see if we can get the gravel pit established at a "net-net" for the city. [1:08:45] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: We need one more step too with this consensus, and that is a meeting with the Cemetery Board. [1:08:50] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Phil and I have discussed that; we understand it is necessary. We wanted to proceed with informing Council of this activity first. Once we know that there's interest, the Cemetery Board will absolutely be included in the process. [1:09:03] **Council Member**: Can I ask exactly where this is? Is it beyond the backside of the cemetery? [1:09:11] **Phil Entner**: Southeast market... in the cemetery, if you go to the columbarium and go straight to the east. [1:09:27] **Council Member**: It would not be right in the backyard of the cemetery? [1:09:30] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: No, we would be looking at establishing a buffer. Again, working with the Cemetery Board, but just knowing that there's consensus, then we can identify what area we would log to get a revenue generating estimate. [1:10:00] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: And once that gravel is taken out, we would not dig deep. Once it's leveled off, then that land would become usable still for the cemetery. It would not be lost forever, but put back in use—but you're talking many, many decades. There's so much land yet that hasn't been used for cemetery. It's one more piece of the puzzle of road projects that we can financially get done. We're trying everything we can. Do I have consensus? [Council responds]. So we will take this to the Cemetery Board and we will start moving forward with getting some estimates and bring it back. Thank you. [1:11:00] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Moving on to number seven, Reports of Correspondence. 7A, Minnesota Department of Transportation, Transportation Alternatives Grant. [1:11:15] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: The city was notified that we have been awarded additional monies for the grant that will facilitate the last phase, phase two, of the Trunk Highway 73 trail. This is the proposed trail from the roundabout connecting to the Portage Trail. This would complete the loop—the entire loop around the city. The project estimate at this time is right around $700,000. We have been awarded $492,000 in grant monies. In addition to this $492,000, we've applied for additional grants from the DNR that we should hear back on in the coming months. The idea would be to complete the loop with fully grant-funded monies. [1:12:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Good job. Any questions? [1:12:28] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: 7B, Minnesota Department of Health Source Water Protection Grant. [1:12:35] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: This is one of the grants that Superintendent Entner has been working on. We were just notified that we received a $10,000 grant. In addition to this $10,000 grant, he applied for and was issued a $4,500 grant. The total project cost is right around 19.5 [thousand]. Between the previous grants and this $10,000 grant, we have $14,500. So other monies required to complete the repairs or the lining we budgeted for. So we now have all the monies required in order to line the lift station. Thank you. [1:13:48] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Moving on to 7C, the Star Gazette thank you. This was put into the Star Gazette: "We'd like to offer our sincere thank you to all the people who helped with the flood and volunteer fire department, police department, Team Goal and crew, Phil and crew, and the Moose Lake City Administration. Once again, thank you. Dennis and Barb Lindorf." Good job, thank you. [1:14:25] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Number eight, committee and board meeting minutes. 8A, Park Board regular meeting minutes for May 1, 2023. 8B, Moose Lake Area Fire Protection District meeting minutes April 11, 2023. Any questions on the minutes? I think the Fourth of July planning is going ahead of schedule. Hopefully, it’ll be good weather. [1:15:20] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Number nine, announcements. Regular Moose Lake City Council meeting: Wednesday, June 14, 2023, 4:00 PM right here. Moose Lake Economic Development Authority: Wednesday, May 17, 2023, 12:00 PM at the City conference room. Moose Lake Water and Light Commission regular meeting: May 17, 2023, 1:00 PM at the Water and Light office. Moose Lake Housing and Redevelopment Authority board: Monday, June 12, 2023, 11:00 AM at the Hillside Manor office. Moose Lake Area Fire District: Tuesday, June 13, 2023, 6:30 PM, Emergency Response Center. Moose Lake Park Board meeting: Monday, June 5, 2023, 5:00 PM right here. Any other ones that were not mentioned? The EDA board will be today. Anything else? [1:16:15] **Council Member**: I have one question. Were the people responsible for the vandalizing of the memorial caught? [1:16:30] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: You're talking about the [inaudible]? The family wants to take care of it themselves. They decided they're going to go back to the vendor and talk about how to fix what was done or decide if they want anything else. I haven't heard back from them, but I don't think we have any idea of what happened, who did it, or when, unfortunately. But I'll pass that on; I should know the next meeting what the family decided. They asked me not to do anything; they wanted to take care of it themselves. It's commendable. [1:17:10] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Anything else? Do I have a motion to adjourn? Have a second? All in favor say aye. [Council responds: Aye]. Opposed? We are adjourned. Thanks everyone.