This transcript features **Mayor Michele Hanson**, **City Administrator Matt Kline**, and several councilmembers. Please note that while your list provided certain names, the transcript includes **Councilmember Connie Dahl** and **Councilmember John Carlson**, who appear to be the "Connie" and "John" referenced throughout the meeting (likely preceding Orin Kipp and Carl Bliss, who is mentioned as a resident/member-elect in this session). [4:21] Mayor Michele Hanson: of the Bayport City Council. Stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. [4:44] Matt Kline: Okay, let's call the roll. Matt. Council Member Carlson. Council member Dahl? Here. Council member Gilmer? Here. Council member Hill? Here. Mayor Hanson? Here. [4:55] Mayor Michele Hanson: All right, so next we have approval of the agenda for tonight. Anyone wanna make a motion? [5:02] Councilmember Connie Dahl: I'll make a motion approving tonight's agenda. [5:05] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks, Connie. [5:06] Councilmember Katie Hill: I'll second. [5:07] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thank you, Katie. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. All right, so. [5:18] Mayor Michele Hanson: Proclamations, accommodations, petitions, and announcements. The November Recycling Award recipient is Pam Stockwell at 553 5th Street North, who will be awarded for her recycling efforts with a grant from Washington County. Okay, something's crossed out on my agenda, but I see why. And then we'll move on to the open forum. This is a portion of the meeting to address city council on subjects that are not part of the agenda. And the council may take action or reply at the time of the statement or may give direction to staff regarding investigation of comments expressed. A total of 15 minutes is allotted for public comment during the open forum. Anyone here wanna get up during the open forum or are we here for things on the agenda? [6:04] Resident: Is the taxes on the agenda? [6:08] Mayor Michele Hanson: It's on the agenda. It's on the agenda. Then you're good, okay. All right, consent agenda. We're gonna consider a resolution adopting items one through 10, the November 4th, City Council Workshop Minutes, the November 4th Council Regular Meeting Minutes, the November 13th Special Meeting Minutes, November Payables and Receipts, November Building Plumbing, Mechanical and Zoning Permits Report, Renewal of Liquor and Tobacco Licenses for 2025, Renewal of Employee Health and Dental Insurance Policies, Pay Application Number 1 from Dressel Contracting for the 4th Avenue North Street Improvement Project, Certification of lot line adjustment for conveyance of land from 128 6th Street North to 160th Street North. And designate January 6th, 2025 as the next regular meeting of the City Council. Do we have a motion? [7:10] Councilmember John Carlson: I move to adopt a resolution approving the consent agenda as presented. [7:16] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks, John. [7:17] Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore: I'll second. [7:18] Mayor Michele Hanson: All right, thanks Ethan. We're not gonna let Connie do it all for her last meeting. Just kick back Connie. Okay, roll call please. [7:26] Matt Kline: Council member Carlson. Aye. Council member Dahl. Aye. Council member Gilmer. Aye. Council member Hill. Aye. Mayor Hanson. Aye. [7:38] Mayor Michele Hanson: Motion passes. Now we have our first of two public hearings. Does that make sense? Let's see, a certification of past due utility bills to property taxes. Matt's gonna present this item and then we will open the public hearing about that. Thank you, Matt. [8:02] Matt Kline: Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council. As indicated, this is an assessment hearing which will be had shortly for past due utility bills. Pursuant to chapter 444 of Minnesota State Statute, property owners are given the opportunity to come forth to the city of Bayport to plead their case as to why these bills haven't been paid and contest the charges. In compliance with statutory and city code, all delinquent property owners were notified that they could appeal their past due utility collection amount to the City Council at this meeting. The city is not charging a penalty nor interest on the amount added to be certified. A list of the accounts that the past two balances are owed on is currently in your possession. Mary has worked diligently on reducing this list. Initially a couple months ago there were 73 property owners on the list with 19,000 owed. She has provided a couple of notices and called people to reduce that number to 42 residents on the list and $10,000 owed. Staff recommends that the council adopt a motion holding the public hearing and then moving forward with adopting a motion certifying the past due utility balances to Washington County. [9:44] Mayor Michele Hanson: I thought that we did charge some kind of a fee for this. We don't? [9:49] Matt Kline: It's not what it indicates on here. Okay. What am I thinking of? I think you have that option. Oh, okay. What am I thinking of? But you don't necessarily have to do it. I was thinking that was this, but it must be something else. [10:04] Mary Goulette: Madam Mayor, that... The penalty might be for when we do garbage. For when we do garbage. When we certify for garbage. That was last month. Oh, this is the utility bills. This is water. The garbage. Oh, yeah. Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. [10:24] Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay. Do we need to open the hearing before we do any discussion? [10:33] Matt Kline: If you have specific questions to process or anything like that, not necessarily. [10:38] Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay. All right. Well, we'll open the public hearing. Is anyone here to talk about utility bills being certified to property taxes? All right. Do I have a motion? [11:03] Eric Ackerman: So, you just made mention that you don't charge. So wait. Right. [11:06] Mayor Michele Hanson: Are you gonna speak to the council? Cause you should come up to the podium if you want to. We need your name and address if you'd like to speak to the council. [11:15] Eric Ackerman: Okay, so Eric Ackerman, 539 Second Street, North Bayport. So it was made mention that there's no charge for the utilities that are behind, but it sounds like warnings have gone out and the attempts have been made and people are not coming and paying their bills. It seems to me that the rest of the taxpayers are then paying that price. So unless someone comes forward and has a hardship case, there should be a charge like there is with any other utility. [11:41] Mayor Michele Hanson: Yeah, so they will end up paying their bill. It's just an extra fee that we might charge for the time that we go into for putting into the assessments. Right. Okay, so you understood that part. So they are paying it. The city's not paying it. Okay. Yeah, something to consider. Thank you, Eric. Anyone else wanna speak on utility bills? Okay, do we have a motion to close the public hearing? [12:10] Councilmember Connie Dahl: I'll move to close the public hearing. [12:12] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks Connie. [12:13] Councilmember Katie Hill: I second. [12:14] Mayor Michele Hanson: You guys all sleeping? Okay. Okay, Katie seconded. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay. So... Now I proceed to item number one under unfinished business, consider resolution adopting assessments for the fourth Avenue North street improvement. [12:38] Matt Kline: Madam Mayor. Following the public hearing. Yeah. So we need to adopt a motion certifying the past due. [12:42] Mary Goulette: Oh, see, it's very confusing. Can I also say that we will hold out as long as we can to certify these amounts so that if somebody is coming in here in the next couple of weeks, This does not get certified until the end of the month. [12:56] Mayor Michele Hanson: Oh, okay. So they still have time. If you're on this list, you still have time. [13:00] Mary Goulette: Yes. And they must've got some kind of notification. They've got multiple notifications. Thank you. [13:07] Councilmember John Carlson: I'll move to approve the certification of the past due utility bills to property taxes. [13:12] Councilmember Katie Hill: I'll second. [13:13] Mayor Michele Hanson: As presented. Thank you. John and Katie, I think the problem is it cut across the two pages too. That was hard for me. And thank you for reaching out to everyone. Yes, Mary is very good at that. Thank you. Okay. So now, all in favor of approving that, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Say aye. Okay. Now we'll move on to unfinished business. Resolution of adopting assessments for the 4th Avenue North Street Improvement Project. Right, Matt? [13:46] Matt Kline: Yes, Madam Mayor. Thank you, there was a lull. I thought I screwed something else up. So, Madam Mayor, this will kind of be the same sequence, right? We'll hold the public hearing. This one has a separate unfinished business line item resolution for adopting the assessments, though. Okay, so public assessment hearing for the Fourth Avenue Street Improvement Project. in line with Minnesota State Statute 429 regarding assessment procedures. The purpose of this hearing is to hear from affected property owners on the assessment costs. Notification of the assessment hearing was published in the city's official newspaper and sent directly to the single property owner in accordance with state statutes and the notice is attached to the agenda. Of note, I will say that the assessment amount in the notification that was provided does differ from the assessment role. We were able to get more concrete numbers of work completed in order to update that amount. Anderson Windows or Anderson Corporation, the loan recipient, is aware of that reduction. Following the public hearing, the City Council will be asked to consider a resolution adopting the proposed assessment. As indicated before, Anderson Corporation is the only assessed party and they have indicated their intention of paying the assessment in full prior to the start of 2025. [15:35] Mayor Michele Hanson: So, clarification. The assessment role that's provided in the packet is labeled preliminary assessment role. And it says it's, just to clarify for people, and it says it's $216,500 to be assessed to Anderson Corporation. All the paperwork before that says it's $220,000. So the final number is actually the 216, even though that says it's preliminary assessment rule. That's just mislabeled and actually final. [16:05] Matt Kline: That is correct, Madam Mayor. [16:07] Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay. Okay. And then this is just about assessing. So it's not anything about what our share of this was, which I was confused that our share looked like it would have been very small, but it actually isn't. Cause I thought the total cost of the whole project was different than what I thought. [16:26] Matt Kline: Yeah, Madam Mayor, I can provide that data if you would like. So the total cost of the project with some estimating at at the end here because there's still some punch items list to do is $393,000. The city cost portion is $176,500. The original preliminary estimate for the city cost portion and for the Anderson Corporation, which was split evenly in half, was $172,132 each. And they added on some things that we didn't have to share. They added on some significant concrete work. During the process there was a couple of items that needed more asphalt because there wasn't some present where we thought there was. And then there was an issue with what was thought to be contaminated soils but turned out to be non-contaminated soils. So there was added cost related to engineering and hauling on that. So in the end, it turns out that the original preliminary estimate was very close to what the city is paying. [17:42] Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay, so earlier in the meeting we approved the Dressel Contracting application for payment and that was just a partial payment then because I thought that was the amount of the project, but it must not have been. [17:53] Matt Kline: Well, so it sort of is the amount of the project, but it doesn't take into account any of the engineering work that takes place. So the assessment cost summary takes into account engineering. [18:04] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thank you. That helps a lot. Okay. So move to open public hearing then. Is that what you're here for? I doubt it. You're not from Anderson. Okay, so do we have a motion to close the public hearing? [18:32] Councilmember John Carlson: So moved. [18:33] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks, John. [18:34] Councilmember Connie Dahl: I'll second. [18:35] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks, Connie. All right, all those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay, so public hearings done. Now we can adopt a resolution to adopt the assessments. A lot of adopting going on. [18:51] Councilmember Katie Hill: I move to adopt the resolution adopting the assessment of the 4th Avenue North Street Improvement Project. [18:57] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks Katie. [18:58] Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore: I'll second. [18:59] Mayor Michele Hanson: Now he's afraid to second because he's afraid to cut. He's going to jump in. I held off. All right, we got Ethan seconding. A roll call vote, right? Or not. Yes, roll call. [19:12] Matt Kline: Council Member Carlson. Aye. Council Member Dahl. Aye. Council member Gilmar. Aye. Council member Hill. Aye. Mayor Hanson. Aye. [19:25] Mayor Michele Hanson: Motion passes. All right. Consider authorization to proceed with a solar installation at the fire department with a grant from the state department of commerce. And Simon is here to tell us about that. [19:44] Simon Worth (Public Works Director): Thank you, madam mayor, members of the council. Excuse me. I'm starting to battle a little bit of a cough cold here. Uh oh, take some zinc. So we've kind of reached the point where we've been waiting for for a very long time and that is signing the contract with the state of Minnesota Department of Commerce for the grant that they will be providing us for the solar array at the fire department. Before you is a brief summary just outlining what we've done so far, where we are and where we're projecting to be hopefully soon as well as the grant, or the contract. Seems pretty boilerplate to me, just more of an accountability measure, some checklists, tables, things like that, seems pretty straightforward. I know that Wolf River is chomping at the bit to get going on this, so they're pretty excited. I've been holding them off until Council approved this and I get this into the state so that we can officially know that we are secured with the money that they are awarding us, which is $72,000 towards this project. The remaining money will come from direct pay through the federal government. Not a tax credit, it's a direct pay. So no tax returns, anything like that. Sounds hopefully simple, I'm thinking. Or I shouldn't say simple. but we'll keep our fingers crossed. But there are a lot of resources involved with this process that I can reach out to in need of guidance, if I'm in need of guidance for that. So essentially this is where we are. And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. But moving forward, I would like your blessing to move, have this signed and sent into the state so that we can proceed with Wolf River on building the solar array at the fire department. [21:55] Mayor Michele Hanson: Just for anybody that might be interested in the public or here or watching online, can you just go abroad, go over the financial part of it so people understand how that all works? You just kind of gave us a summary of where the money's coming from? I think ultimately what we landed on. Or what do you mean numbers? [22:12] Simon Worth (Public Works Director): I think that people want to know that we are getting a 40, well, it's gonna be the exact number, about 40 kW array that will power approximately five and a half residential homes annually. And this will be used to power the fire station, which utilizes a lot of power. This will supplement it greatly. We are looking at zero cost to the city for this array. It will function hopefully for the next 20 to 30 years and the city will see savings throughout that entire time, potentially upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars off the energy bill alone. So it's really hard to find something that you're gonna lose on this deal. So that's really what we were aiming for. That's where we're at. So I'm anxious to see how this progresses and I encourage everybody to watch this and I'd be happy to provide updates as we move forward. I plan to provide regular updates on this project. [23:36] Mayor Michele Hanson: Yeah, that'd be great. I know you've spent a lot of time on this and I really appreciate it because it's a huge thing for us and I feel like we're not treating it with the excitement that it should be treated with because it's a very big deal. So we're, yeah, the money that we're getting to cover this is amazing. And the fact that we will have our own solar array in town is monumental to me. I'm very excited about this. So thank you for doing that. It's a big deal. [23:57] Simon Worth (Public Works Director): It is. It's a very big deal. [24:00] Mayor Michele Hanson: I originally wanted it on the building. I wanted us to be able to have something on the roof when we built the building and that never happened. So I'm excited that we're putting something out there. [24:06] Councilmember Connie Dahl: What is the Wolf's... What are they called? Wolf River. What is their role? So they install and then they walk away and it's up to us to maintain or do anything or can you give us just a little background? [24:19] Simon Worth (Public Works Director): They'll play a role in ongoing maintenance. They will. Certainly for a year. Their workmanship, I believe I've seen 10 year warranties on the, just the parts. So, you know, one of the things that they really look at is the financials. When we go through this application process, they requested financial documents of these companies and it was almost like, really? But you kind of get the idea that they wanted to see that these companies are in it for the long haul so that they will be there. They have shown history of being there so that we can anticipate that they will be there in the future. So it's comforting to me to know I think they're out of Forest Lake. I've seen billboards in the last couple of since I read the packet. I'm like, oh, I see them on billboards now. I think they're the official solar provider of the Vikings. So that's a pretty big deal. [25:15] Councilmember Connie Dahl: So then when there is maintenance, that's a cost to the city or that would be all covered under some kind of a warranty? [25:21] Simon Worth (Public Works Director): Well, the warranty provides coverage for the non-moving parts, the panels, the batteries, the inverters, I believe for a minimum of 10 years. I believe even the framing for holding up the panels has a warranty for maybe even 25 years on that. But at least for a year, they'll be around. I can say that much to aid and assist us. We'll probably want to talk at least, probably get the ball rolling about budgeting for ongoing maintenance on this. Just because we shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess if that's the right thing. We're taking on responsibility here. The county just turned down 300 acres because it was gonna be too much money. We have to look at this as yes, it's a gift, but it's not gonna be free for the next 25 years. There will be a savings and we will have to work with Wolf River to create an ongoing maintenance plan looking 10, 20, 30 years down the road, getting rid of the batteries. How does that look? There's a lot, right? So we're at the very beginning stages. We'll certainly make sure that we work with these guys to make sure we're covered for now and into the future. [26:59] Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay. We aren't the first ones to have solar panels. So there's precedent out there for how all this could work and saving for it and understanding what maintenance will be involved. Right. Any comments, questions for Simon? Thank you, Simon. [27:18] Simon Worth (Public Works Director): Happy to do it. [27:22] Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore: I'll move to proceed with a solar installation at the fire department with a grant from the state department of commerce. [27:30] Councilmember Connie Dahl: I'll second Ethan. [27:32] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks Ethan and Connie. All right. Since we're just proceeding with the grant, not actually spending any of our own money. It's just all those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed say nay. Okay. Awesome. Ready to move forward. Thank you. All right. On to new business, consider amending appendix D, the fee schedule of the Bayport City Code of Ordinances and summary for publication. And Matt is gonna present this item. [28:11] Matt Kline: Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council. At the November 4th City Council workshop, staff and the council discussed fee schedule in depth and any proposed changes for 2025. Really, there were two areas that really saw changes. The park dedification fees have increased from $1,500 to $2,000 and classified into two categories. One, commercial industrial, which is based on a single family lot equivalent, and then residential single multifamily, which is just based on a dwelling unit. Essentially, for every single family residential, house that is built in Bayport, the city receives $2,000 from the builder. The other discussion that was pretty significant was beach house rental fees. They were increased for $25 for residents and $50 for non-residents. This is in addition to what they already were set at. [29:36] Mayor Michele Hanson: Because we decided we were going to open the storage area? [29:38] Matt Kline: Yes, because we can, are able to, there's a back storage area in the Beach House facility that can be used for storage, food prep, washing items, things like that. So a draft of the proposed amendment is attached for your consideration in the agenda. There are additions, changes that are indicated in red text. There is a fair amount of red text, but 90% of that was already in place in some form or fashion. It just wasn't in the fee schedule. Most of them are water and sewer line item costs. So, oh, it should also be noted that there were increases for the sewer usage fees based on the city's financial management plan. I believe those have strikethrough and a red text line item change on them. That was a per gallon fee, or per 1,000 gallon fee that was increased. They were not included in the draft presentation at the workshop. That said, staff recommends the City Council adopt a motion amending Appendix D, the fee schedule of the Bayport City Code of Ordinances to be effective January 1st, 2025. Stand for questions. [30:52] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks Matt. Anyone have any questions for Matt? [30:55] Councilmember Connie Dahl: So people know we spent a significant amount of time on this. Yeah, on the changes. I don't know that we looked through the whole entire fee schedule. We just looked at what you guys were suggesting changed. Right. Last month, right? Yeah. workshop so I'm Katie wasn't there so maybe she has questions or something. [31:21] Councilmember Katie Hill: I don't I would look through it yeah okay yep [31:26] Mayor Michele Hanson: okay then you can have a motion. [31:28] Councilmember John Carlson: I'm ready to make a motion. I'll move to adopt an amendment to appendix D fee schedule the Bayport City code of ordinances as presented and a summary for publication. [31:38] Councilmember Connie Dahl: I'll second it. [31:39] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks, John and Connie. Roll call please. [31:43] Matt Kline: Council member Carlson. Aye. Council member Dahl. Aye. Council member Gilmore. Aye. Council member Hill. Aye. Mayor Hanson. Aye. [31:58] Mayor Michele Hanson: Motion passes. Okay. So now what everyone's been waiting for? Public input on the truth and taxation. So Matt, you get up and do something? [32:10] Matt Kline: Yeah, Madam Mayor, normally the process is that I give a budget presentation, and that will happen, but I think we can, if both of these residents are here for questions specific, I don't know that they need to sit through the whole budget presentation. We'd be more than happy to answer your questions first. What would you prefer? Would you like to see the budget presentation and see if it helps answer your questions, or would you like to get up and make your comments? [32:41] Resident: It would be nice to have seen it. [32:44] Mayor Michele Hanson: meeting yeah it was in the packet if you I don't know if you ever go online to see okay well maybe we should oh that's a good that's good we didn't know it was that confusing yeah it's on the city website but so I say let's just go through the because I think maybe it will be hopefully you learn something and maybe it's not as maybe your questions go away or your concerns. [33:01] Mayor Michele Hanson: When Carl's on the council, he's gonna fix all that and make the communication better. Just teasing that. Are you signed up for email alerts? Because you can do that on the website too. Yeah, they'll send you an email or a text, whatever you want, and it'll say the packet's out there. You can go look at it. Ask Mary. She'll get you shot up. Put Mary to work. Yeah. She does. And she's watching, you know, if you want to talk to her right now. [33:41] Matt Kline: Okay. All right. Madam Mayor, members of the council. As every year, I'm pleased to present the final budget for 2025. Budget calendar is as shown on the screen and includes a lot of planning. In June of 2024, we usually distribute the preliminary budget to department heads and ask for any input from them as far as capital improvements, cost increases, give them a deadline of July of 2024 to provide input to the city administrator. August 5th was our first council workshop to discuss preliminary budget. tax levy and capital improvement projects. And then on September 9th, we conducted a second workshop to discuss alternative tax levy options. Ultimately, the council adopted a preliminary levy in the amount of $1,935,964, which was an 11.2% increase over 2024. November 13th, we actually held a workshop to discuss stormwater fees, which definitely will have an impact on tax levy options. The city administrator will provide tax updates, or sorry, updated impacts on the tax levy and residential city taxes at this meeting. As it turns out, the use of stormwater fees was relevant because ultimately what was determined was that charging stormwater fees because it's not an equal distribution out into the system, it has a greater impact on commercial and industrial properties. So we were able to bring the residential property tax down while still charging a fee for the stormwater amount. So yes, you will get charged a stormwater fee, but it will be at a lesser amount than what you would have paid in taxes. So December 2nd, we held another workshop to discuss the final budget levy and the impacts of current union agreements that are still being worked through and the stormwater fees on the budget and levy. Ultimately, what was decided is that the final proposed levy is in the amount of $1,887,653, which is a resulting amount of 8.4% increase over 2024 or a 2.6% reduction from preliminary levy that was certified to the county in September. Now, there's a couple of people here who probably have their property tax statement and that levy amount is actually indicated on your property tax statement. So you'll be happy to know that that amount should be coming down with this new proposal. So there's a couple of deadlines for Washington County. The last remaining one is the deadline to certify the final tax levy and the budget to Washington County, which occurs on December 28th. As we all know, the city of Bayport is a full service city, even as a very small city. We provide police, fire, public works, and even have an independent library, which we levy taxes for. The city also has five city parks, most of which come with rental opportunities, and we are in charge of a city cemetery. So maintaining personnel, equipment, and infrastructure to offer this wide range of city services does come at a cost to residents. Some of the significant factors contributing to the 2025 budget. We conducted a financial management plan in 2024 that identified some shortcomings in how previous budget planning occurred resulting in spending down the general fund. We've worked to start the fix of that by actually saving for the future rather than spending down that fund. The proposed 2025 budget does not reduce the general fund and specifically allocates future savings to capital improvement funding. Wage increases due to union contract negotiations that strive to maintain competitive wages to retain employees. We have worked through three union contracts and we'll be hearing those contracts in January with the intent of completing them. And I believe that we have maintained competitive wages. There was a 1.5% decrease in residential housing market value. And we saw increases to the property and liability insurance. A couple of other factors include a significant increase in health insurance costs. This includes a premium increase and an increase in actual family coverage usage for city employees. We also saw an increase in fiscal disparities distribution. And then new allocations to specific capital improvement funds for future infrastructure capital needs. That's specific to items like street reconstruction, public works equipment replacement, fire and also fire and police equipment replacement. And then we also saw a $10,000 increase for the library levy. So that specific is also eligible for additional funding by the library foundation. So what normally occurs with our library is if we provide a levy amount for the library, there is also a significant portion of library operations that's paid through what is the Bayport Library Foundation. [40:34] Mayor Michele Hanson: I have one quick question, Matt. Just for clarification, the 7.6% increase in fiscal disparities distribution That's money we received increased or money that we put out? [40:43] Matt Kline: Yes, that is actually money that we have received extra from years past, Madam Mayor. Okay. And I'm not going to get into the details about this. [40:53] Mayor Michele Hanson: No, I just, the way it was written, I wasn't sure if it was a negative or a positive. So we received more. Okay. [40:58] Matt Kline: Yep. So in speaking about the capital outlay funding, here's the list of where we will be funding for short and long term expenditures specifically into these funds. Municipal buildings, police equipment, I discussed these already. So this is just a synopsis of the budget revenue summary. As you can see, there will be a slight decrease in overall revenue that's generated. The most impactful line item is the decrease in the transfers line item that helped fund large capital improvement projects. That line item was actually just decreasing the general fund rather than actually saving for the future. Now, we still have a transfer in of $379,500 in that line item. What that is, is it's pulling from a different fund to try and offset some of the money that we're losing from transferring in from the general fund. So we're trying to make it less impactful on the residents throughout the next couple of years until we get set with savings. So the 2025 budget expense summary, as you can see in the general fund expense line item, we're actually reducing budget for general fund items by 1.87%. The library fund expense is going up by 4.32% with an overall decrease of 1.41%. Some of the significant line items are police, mostly due to wages and property and liability insurance and then also streets and lighting which is setting aside money for street repairs. So this is just a graph showing the budget over the past five years. As you can see, as indicated before, we have a reduction in the budget this year. even though there is a significant increase in the levy. So then the 2025 property tax levy summary. So for the general fund, our levy will be increased, and this is specific to the general fund, 10.28% increase in that. In general obligation debt service, which is the debt we pay, there's a reduction of 2%. And in the library fund, an increase of 10,000, which equals a 4.89% increase. So overall, an 8.4% increase in the levy. Again, this is just a graph indicating the levy over the past five years. As you can see, it has steadily increased over that time period. This graph is just a comparison to cities and other entities, townships, the county in close proximity of Bayport. This does not take into account 2025. So Bayport is about middle of the road over the past five years. We're not at the level of Grant, nor are we at the level of West Lakeland. Over the past five years, we have an increase of about 25.1%. That's not every single year that's combined. So about a 5% increase every year. So property tax rate, you'll see on you if you have your property tax statement, it probably indicates there on the tax rate, which is just the portion of the tax statement that is allocated to the city. So this year for the 2025 budget, that tax rate will be 31.5% give or take, which is actually a 13.8% increase from 2024. So there's obviously an impact to residential properties with that big of a levy increase. This graph shows that tax impact. So the green line item, the first highlighted one is the median home value for a property in the city of Bayport. For 2025 that value is $375,400. So the city tax portion would be $1,143.97. That's about a $96 increase over 2024. Then you can also see the other values that are indicated on this. I'm not going to go through every single one, but they're all seeing roughly that same increase. Just like to thank the leadership of the City Council and staff. This was one of the difficult budgets that we've done. The financial management plan has us having some increases over the next couple of years to try and keep up with inflation and also saving for the future for projects. And so we tried our best to keep this below double digits, which we did make happen, but also still provide a high level of service with that modest tax impact. This budget ensures maintaining a high quality of life for residents and property owners but also showing responsibility for public resources. I will say that there are three resolutions that we'll be adopting that are in your packet. The first one is establishing the 2025 final levy certification. The second one is adopting resolution for the city budget. And then the third one is adopting resolution for the capital improvement plan 2025. With that, stand for questions. [47:50] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thank you, Matt. I think it might be helpful to... Also, do we need to talk about the capital improvement plan? Because I had some questions about, it says that we're gonna be using money from funds that don't have any money in them right now. So we were gonna maybe talk about how that was gonna work. [48:11] Matt Kline: Madam Mayor, if you're referencing the Park Improvement Fund, it actually does have funds. It's just the packet information we received says there isn't any. Yeah, and I think the reason for that is that there was none deposited this month and it only shows ones that get deposited this month. [48:27] Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay. Okay. I also don't think it can be emphasized enough how, just how pleased I am that we were able to decrease that levy increase. So originally it was an 11 whatever percent. And just so everyone here understands, when we did the financial management plan, they had recommended to us that the levy should increase 20 some percent for the next few years. And we said that's not, you know, in order for us to be able to catch up from the past very small tax increases that we implemented and then helping us to save instead of always having to dig into our general fund, which is basically like our savings account if you're thinking about your home, right? We kept doing that year after year because we were not raising taxes to the level that we should have. And now we have some catching up to do is probably the best way to put it. And so we should have done even more catching up to go with their projections of what the financial management plan suggested. Dialed it back to that 11% range, not sure how, because at that point we weren't sure how the union negotiations were gonna come out for wages, which is a big share of our expenses. And so, did some good negotiating, also got that down, and then on top of that, that pulling out the stormwater fee was also very helpful to reduce the increase that we were gonna have to put out there, so. What happens for most of the homes in Bayport because of the stormwater fee, you're gonna see an extra fee now coming on your utility bill and it will be $6 a quarter. But if you actually had to have paid that in your taxes instead of as a utility fee, you would have been paying more because of the value of your home. So what, like you said earlier, the commercial industrial properties that have more stormwater runoff are being charged at a higher rate to help us make up some of that money, to help us save money for the stormwater projects that we're gonna have to do, but instead now, so then the individual homeowner is only paying $6 a quarter, but it's kind of like, calculated out for the, depending on how much space you have. But like say Mabel's, they're the size of a typical residential unit, they're gonna pay about $6. But other like Anderson, even the prison now is gonna be able to pay we are gonna be able to get some funds from the prison and from churches and some other non-taxpaying entities through the stormwater utility fee, which is helping alleviate some from our taxpayers. So not sure if that was all clear and hopefully my explanation is clear. Does anyone else have anything that they wanna add or have questions? [51:44] Councilmember John Carlson: I mean, yeah, I mean, a lot of things you said, but it's, This gets talked about for a long time. I don't remember where the timeline was, but a lot of stuff's been going on behind the scenes. A lot of creativity on the staff's part has happened and a lot of back and forth between us as council and staff and trying to make things as palatable as possible for the residents while still maintaining our level of services and being thoughtful for the people that are gonna come after us and not leaving kind of the cupboard bare in some of these situations. So I'm pretty proud of what staff did and what we've accomplished this year. Yeah. [52:16] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thanks John. Nothing else? Okay. [52:19] Mike Hiles (Resident): What is the stormwater runoff money for? [52:23] Mayor Michele Hanson: do you wanna explain what that utility fee is gonna be used for? Yeah. Matt will get back to his microphone and he can tell you, but. [53:01] Matt Kline: Yeah, so Madam Mayor, members of council, as far as the stormwater fee, there's currently items within the street budget that are currently paid by taxes that will get moved to this stormwater utility be paid for. So items such as the purchase of a new street sweeper, wages for street sweeping. We pay what's called the Middle St. Croix Watershed Management Organization. We have a fee that we associate with them. So a portion of that fee will get put in there. Anything stormwater related, even stormwater reconstruction that reconstructs like ditches or city infrastructure, like stormwater infrastructure would get paid out of that fee. [53:35] Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay. Would you guys, the people that are here, would you like to come to the podium and have any comments or questions for the council or did that help answer some of your questions? [53:49] Eric Ackerman: I still do have a couple of things to know. [53:51] Mayor Michele Hanson: Well, come on up. You can read, cause you need to repeat. [54:02] Eric Ackerman: I know you won't probably have the instant answer for the, cause it sounds like that it'll go down a little bit from what was originally published, but for mine, it was published, it was $129 increase for the year, which in light of most people's income in this area isn't too bad taken over the course of a year. But then when taken into everybody, it's an 11% increase. So that presents kind of a challenge for me to look at because I didn't get an 11% pay increase over the last two years. Neither did my spouse. So I know I can pay this, but not everybody can pay this. So that's why I'm here today is just to say that you guys are doing a great job. And I've been in Bayport now for 24, 25 years. I know you've done a wonderful job over several iterations of the council and staff to keep taxes down and I greatly appreciate that. The one thing is to call into account, there's appearances and changes in the country that less is better and not on the national level, but also at city and council level that citizens are willing to do with less to pay less. So I appreciate that you creatively have been able to come down with costs this year. I hope when I meet with the school district tomorrow, they're actually just as creative. But I do want to actually have everybody keep that in mind that as we see things increase, make sure that for everything that we're paying a little more for, are we getting our value out of it, right? And the solar panel thing, I see long-term dividends, and now that's real apparent to me, may not be to everyone else. Our current, soon to be outgoing government did a lot of great things in the federal level. Their mistake was they didn't publicize it. So again, that comes back to appearances. Make sure the great work you guys are doing gets publicized back to us as citizens so we don't feel Oh, I'm a little shocked, 11%. What am I getting out of that? Now I better understand that and I appreciate it. So that's really all I have to say. [56:26] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thank you. Thanks for coming, Eric. [56:30] Mike Hiles (Resident): Mike Hiles, I live at 294 South 4th Street. I guess I echo his sentiments. I appreciate the work the city council does do. I think the 11% is a little outrageous and I don't think you've justified the cost to it. The other thing I think that is missing that maybe you guys don't see or don't understand, I've noticed now that I'm getting charged on my utility bill from NSP a surcharge that goes to the city. It's a city fee that never used to be there. That has started appearing. [57:07] Mayor Michele Hanson: We don't have a new fee. [57:10] Matt Kline: Madam Mayor, it's a franchise fee. [57:11] Mayor Michele Hanson: Yeah, that's been on there for a long time, since like 14. [57:14] Mike Hiles (Resident): It hasn't been on there that long. [57:16] Mayor Michele Hanson: Yeah, it has been since I've been on the council, it's been on there. It was when Mitch was our city administrator. [57:21] Mike Hiles (Resident): I've lived down here since 1980. [57:23] Mayor Michele Hanson: Well, I've been on the council for that time. So anyways, keep going. [57:26] Mike Hiles (Resident): Anyhow, it hasn't, either that or NSP didn't put it on the bill. I'll put it to you that way. Because I've started watching some of that stuff in the last year and a half. So I've seen that. other little nicks and dimes that are getting pushed back onto us from should be the general fund. I guess I disagree with Matt on the street fund for the stormwater thing. To me, that should just be part of running the city. Just like the street lights are part of the city. There shouldn't be an additional fee for all of that stuff. I guess I would like to see something in your newsletter that you put out then that, hey, we've mismanaged the budgeting process for the last three or four years. I assumed as a resident, I was appreciative that the rise was only like 5% for the last two or three years. You guys were doing an outstanding job. I made the assumption it's because we have the new addition and with new houses going on up on top, that that was giving us additional tax monies, which was keeping my stuff low. I'm disappointed to find out that because we didn't budget correctly, now we're having to make it up. And like you said, 20% to get back in, that's ridiculous. And I think that speaks to mismanagement on the council's part, whether you guys were all here then or not. I am appreciative that you lowered it from 11 to 8%, but that still puts us, when you look at the tax bill, we're in the still top five or six. We're not the number one anymore, but we're right there with the other cities. So I think that's something we need to take into account. That's all I guess I have to say. I've just noticed a lot of little fees. Also like a map brings up, well, we have a building inspector and all that other stuff. That's great. Why did I pay $500 a window to have a building inspector come out? What's going on with that money? Same thing with my siding. I had to pay a fee for my siding. I had to pay for my roofing. And those aren't little fees anymore. Those are major fees. And to say that well that's why we have to have this for this. No, we're paying for that out of all the fees. So I also don't think it's right that you have to pay $2,000 to build a house in this. Is that something that Matt said that you, any builder that builds a new house in the city has to pay a $2,000 fee. Did I misunderstand Matt on that? [1:00:15] Mayor Michele Hanson: It's a park dedication fee. We've always had a $1,500. Well, not always, but the most recent fee was $1,500. We increased it to $2,000. [1:00:24] Mike Hiles (Resident): So the developer is paying that, not the homeowner. [1:00:26] Mayor Michele Hanson: Oh, to go to the park fund. Okay, you didn't make that clear. I thought it was a $2,000 fee to build a house in the city. That's okay. Now I understand. Because yes, other counties and cities do do that too. Okay, thank you. Yeah, thank you for your feedback. Good points. Yeah. It's a balance, right? I mean, we... And some of us have been on the council for a while and didn't always agree with the tiny little increases we were putting out there. And we only had our votes and we sometimes got outvoted. I will say, to his point about the stormwater dedication fee or whatever it's called, the $24 that you'll pay, most of the residents are going to see like a lot of them were $70, $80 in savings on your property taxes. So yes, you're paying the 24, but the vast, I think it's, what'd you say, 45 homes are like even or the other way, but the vast majority of homes are actually saving money by the fee. And we just want to make sure people understand that it's kind of, if we don't have the fee, you don't have to pay it, but then you're going to be paying more in taxes, which is how we're able to bring taxes down from 11.5 down to whatever it is, 8.4 or whatever. So that's part of that. [1:01:34] Mike Hiles (Resident): I agree with that, but you're also emphasizing my point, which is you're hitting us with a bunch of little fees instead of just saying, look, this is what it costs to run the city. This is what we need for money. [1:02:00] Mayor Michele Hanson: It does look that way, but by doing that, we're actually saving you money. And it sounds crazy but we are because we're able to distribute that fee across non-taxing entities like the prison. Yeah, so we're trying to save you money and it does appear like, like Eric said, you know, appearances mean a lot. And so it's hard when not everyone's paying attention. And so they see a fee and then they may get frustrated with that. [1:02:30] Mike Hiles (Resident): You said too, as far as being able to tax, or not tax, but to get a fee out of the non-taxable properties, that wasn't in the letter that I got. At least I didn't get it clarified in that letter. I do read the city newsletter from cover to cover, so I know what's going on. I'm like, yeah, I don't get onto the website because it asks for a bunch of stuff, and I'm like, no, I'm not going to do that. So I think the communication on that would be a little better. I don't have as much issue as I understand what's going on. But it's not just the water fee when you were talking about that. I'm just saying that it's all these little things that I'm starting to see instead of, hey, this is the cost, let's pay this. That's all. [1:03:00] Mayor Michele Hanson: Yep. I wish it were that easy. I wish we could say, this is the cost and pay it and then no one would complain. [1:03:07] Carl Bliss (Councilmember-Elect): Hey. Hi. Who are you? I'm Carl Liss, 164th Street South in Bayport. Hi, Carl. I just want to ask a quick clarifying question. In Matt's presentation, we talked about Advice of prudence of a 20% increase in the tax levy, which we pulled down to 11 and a half, now down to eight, and I'm very grateful. I'd love to hear a little more about the implications of moving beyond the advice of 20%. Is this extending into multiple years, that 20% increase, or are we looking at reducing some services or? [1:04:06] Mayor Michele Hanson: Good question, will that Matt answer? [1:04:09] Matt Kline: Yeah, Madam Mayor, members of the council. future council member please. That's a really good question. So yes, obviously if a financial management plan is calling for a 24% increase and we're not doing it, then it's resulting in something, right? So as far as services, no, definitely not reduction in services. We were able to do a couple of different things. One instance is the fire department was able to put off the purchase of a new tanker, I believe, for multiple years down the road. So that helped. We also put off future street projects by two-year sequence. Instead of starting next year, they would start the year after. So then the debt service for that wouldn't have as much of an impact on the budget. And then smaller things that I won't go into, but those were kind of the two major ones. [1:04:54] Mayor Michele Hanson: And the more you push it out, the more expensive things get too. So it's like, it's hard. It's really hard to manage it all. But Matt did a lot of good work figuring it out for us. Thanks Carl. Okay. So do we want to start moving ahead with, oh, do I have to, we didn't really have like a, hearing right? I didn't open anything we just allowed them to come up. [1:05:25] Matt Kline: Truth in taxation is not necessarily a public hearing even though. [1:05:29] Mayor Michele Hanson: Right okay. So there's no motions to close it. [1:05:32] Matt Kline: Correct. [1:05:34] Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay. Do we want to move ahead and adopt some of the three resolutions or do you have more conversation you'd like to have? No. All right go ahead. Go ahead Connie. [1:05:47] Councilmember Connie Dahl: Okay. I'll move to adopt a resolution establishing the levy for 2025. [1:05:54] Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore: Second. [1:05:55] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thank you. Connie and Ethan, roll call vote. [1:05:59] Matt Kline: Council Member Carlson. Aye. Council Member Dahl. Aye. Council Member Gilmore. Aye. Council Member Hill. Aye. Mayor Hanson. Aye. [1:06:11] Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay, I'll move to a... Motion passes. Oh. He never says that. I just feel like we should say it. [1:06:18] Councilmember Connie Dahl: Okay. I'll move to adopt a resolution. establishing the budget for 2025. [1:06:22] Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore: I will second. [1:06:24] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thank you. Connie and Ethan. [1:06:27] Matt Kline: Council Member Carlson. Aye. Council Member Dahl. Aye. Council Member Gilmore. Aye. Council Member Hill. Aye. Mayor Hanson. Aye. [1:06:36] Councilmember Connie Dahl: Okay. Should I finish it off? Motion passes. Might as well, Connie. Okay. I'll move to adopt a resolution establishing the capital improvement plan for 2025. [1:06:48] Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore: I'll second you. [1:06:49] Mayor Michele Hanson: All right, thanks. [1:06:51] Matt Kline: Council member Carlson. Aye. Council member Dahl. Aye. Council member Gilmer. Aye. Council member Hill. Aye. Mayor Hanson. Aye. [1:07:05] Mayor Michele Hanson: Motion passes. All right. Thank you again for coming out and listening and hopefully understanding more and voicing your opinions. Do appreciate that. For sure. And being respectful. Keep reading that newsletter. That's nice. We are gonna put out more information about the storm water utility too. That was just a quick little, it's probably coming, little blurbs. Okay, thank you guys. You're welcome to head on out if you want. Okay. All right. Thank you for listening to us. Thank you for coming in. Okay, so now we move on to our council liaison reports. Okay, Connie, do you wanna do your very last council liaison report? [1:07:46] Councilmember Connie Dahl: Yeah, okay. The library board met and we welcomed our new member, Wendy. I know her as Wendy Roble and I can't think of her married name, but she was excited to be there. Okay, I can't remember. I know I can't. Sorry. But anyway. [1:08:05] Mayor Michele Hanson: You met Wendy. [1:08:07] Councilmember Connie Dahl: Yes, and we met Wendy. A few things that Joe wanted me to, oh, and they received for the kids area, they had purchased a few, like a little sailboat and a few things, little wooden things, and they finally arrived. So Joe was really excited about that. And it's not a little sailboat. No, it's not. It's a big sailboat. It can fit quite a few little ones in there. I think the kids will get a kick out of it. A couple things she wanted to mention was the lighting of the green, of course, on the 4th. On 12-27, they're planning an escape room on that Friday. She didn't have an exact time yet. And then on the 30th, it's Movie Monday, and that'll be at 2 o'clock at the library. 12-31 they'll have their New Year's Eve noon party, so it'll do the countdown at noon that day. Our next meeting, which will be my last meeting as a liaison, will be December 17th. [1:09:23] Mayor Michele Hanson: How are you going to give your report? [1:09:26] Councilmember Connie Dahl: Well, I'll have to pass it on. to whoever. Oh, yeah, come and sit there and then we'll make them stand up. I never thought about that, but anyway, yes. So that was kind of what, a lot of things coming up in December. [1:09:43] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thank you. Awesome. Ethan, how is the Cable Commission? [1:09:47] Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore: Cable Commission. So I was able to attend this time, excuse me. They're in their new space. We, as far as a few little things, I guess we had, we changed or adopted some new bylaws that hadn't been messed with for like 30 years. They did buy a new van, which they are very happy with. They got one cheaper than what they originally had planned for. I guess the main thing over there is the high school decided to drop the, Valley Access is no longer able to be... They can't film any of the high school sports. They went with a company that they put like one camera up and it scans and the coverage is, I don't think, nearly as good. I mean, we didn't really look at it side by side, but I looked at one of the videos on their website or whatever. So I know some people are going to try to get into a little more conversation about who and why they may have picked that. [1:10:55] Mayor Michele Hanson: I heard it was pay per view now. [1:11:00] Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore: I think it's going to be a pay situation. Yeah, which the other stuff kind of was, some of it was with the Valley Access as well, but now we can't get advertising. I mean, they can't, how do you sell anything? So it's a problem for sure. So they're looking into that and seeing what they can do for new revenue streams as far as that goes. Yeah, because that was pretty frustrating. You could tell that the people there were pretty upset about it, which rightfully so. I think that's gotta be a predominant revenue stream for them was the selling advertising for that kind of stuff. [1:11:34] Mayor Michele Hanson: Do we know when the school board might be talking about that or should we just be showing up at a meeting and not talking about it with them? [1:11:41] Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore: I don't think the school is a done deal. It's like a done deal. And it wasn't anybody from the school board. It sounds like it's somebody from the high school. I'm not sure if it was an I don't know. I don't want to throw anything out there too much, but it sounds like somebody made the choice and hopefully we can get some answers about who and why they made the choice and then maybe people can hold their feet to the fire about it, I guess. It seems a little weird to me that they would just make that decision and go that route. That was kind of the main topic of conversation the last time. Other than that. [1:12:19] Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay, thank you for attending the meeting. John? [1:12:22] Councilmember John Carlson: Nothing to report. We did not have a meeting due to lack of business for Middle St. Croix Watershed Management. [1:12:30] Mayor Michele Hanson: And you don't have one later this week? [1:12:33] Councilmember John Carlson: I don't think so. [1:12:38] Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay. Katie, what's going on with BCAL? [1:12:40] Councilmember Katie Hill: Yeah, BCAL, I wasn't able to make it, but they're doing the lighting of the village green on Wednesday at 6.30. Santa will be going, Fire Truck will be bringing him again. And then they are talking about bands already for next year and how they do, bands do get filled up fast. So right away in January, they're gonna try to find a band to get it for Derby days. And if you wanna volunteer for Derby day or just for BCAL in general, they're always looking for volunteers go on their website or on their Facebook and I will show you who to contact and you'll be able to get in there to one of their meetings. [1:13:23] Mayor Michele Hanson: Yeah, and definitely reach out first because they have been moving the meeting around. It used to always be at the Legion and it's not necessarily always at the Legion and it's not even always on the same day. So definitely reach out and ask when the next meeting is before you just show up because someone told me they showed up and nobody was there. And no one was there. Okay, I had a a fun November. I started off on November 5th helping with a mock election at the elementary school. They asked me to come as the mayor and hang out and kind of just encourage them to vote. Every class came in and they were all very well behaved and voted for the president, which was really interesting, even the kindergarteners. I also had the opportunity to Anderson Elementary... Kamala and Walls won at Anderson, but it was not a predictor of the actual election. It was interesting. Let's see. We did send out some thank yous to all of the city volunteers and staff that have helped us for the last year and more than that, just because I feel like we have not made that effort as often as we should have, so everyone was able to come and pick up a little gift from the city and I sent personal emails out to all those different groups. The Scam Trends event was held by the police department in conjunction with the First Aid Bank at the library and I attended that. Mary Gillette and I were both there and a lot of bank people and the Legatos. But it was a great event. We learned a lot and we had a great discussion and it was filmed by Valley Access TV, so you can watch it on YouTube. There's a link, I think, on the Facebook page, and then I think, I don't know if we put it on ours, but if you just go to YouTube, you look for City of Bayport, and it'll be posted on our page. Thank you again for doing that. That was great, and thank you to Valley Access for filming it for us. I attended the Veterans Day ceremony at Community Threat in Stillwater. Some of the Bayport veterans were up there, and that was, always a nice event. Went to the dinner at the Legion that night as well. Had to duck out early though for another meeting so I didn't get to see the whole program. The Valley Community Center is still in the works so they're trying to, there's a group out there that they have a board formed and everything and they're really trying to work on getting us a community center in on this side of the river in the valley, it's like a YMCA, doesn't necessarily have to be a YMCA, but they're really moving along great with it. They have a great vision. They have a couple ideas of where this central location could be. It's going to have recreation and arts and education and just a place to play and gather in the St. Croix Valley that we're missing, including a swimming pool, indoor swimming pool. So that was just really helpful. There was over 100 people came to that meeting up at Community Thread about that. Lots of vocal support for it. A couple Bayport residents were there speaking out about it too. So Matt and I will be meeting with the board chair, Diane Placic, and the project manager, Sherry Mogren, on Thursday. So Matt can learn a little bit more about it and they can learn a little bit about how we as a city feel about that. So if you guys have any feedback you want us to give them, if you think it's a great idea, if you think of something you'd like to be at that community center, let me know or let Matt know. Let's see. I've been meeting with the local bars and restaurants. We're trying to plan a winter event in Bayport. Ethan joined us at the last meeting, so hopefully we haven't seen any more emails since we met, but we will be meeting again tomorrow. we're meeting tomorrow see how things are moving on so don't want to talk too much about it in case something doesn't know we're actually on the agenda on there so the ice we could talk about that part there's an ice bar series that Minnesota ice is doing and so Bayport is on their calendar for February 20th to the 22nd to have an ice bar it's going to be on fifth avenue between Manger and Oleo are sponsoring it so it's probably going to be it sounds like it's going to be outside the barbecue but we're trying to add on to that by adding some other businesses in that might do some ice sculptures or some of these so we're trying to make it a fun place to come in the winter for at least that one weekend and hopefully the sculptures last longer than that in the bar. I attended the Legion meeting to talk about the ice bar thing so that we could maybe get some funding for that and they did give us they gave donated a sculpture. Matt and I met with Gail Cederberg, the Met Council representative. Very great conversation with her too. And we should probably invite her back to just speak to the entire council sometime just to give us, you guys would really enjoy her. She's super smart. Let's see, went to the community meal with Connect Center at Bethlehem. And Connie was there, it was very nice. And her son cooked for everybody. Yeah. That was great. Let's see. Lake Elmo Airport Advisory, which is actually one of my liaisons, reviewed the sound study that they did. Main takeaway from all of that, after I don't know if you guys have been listening to that, but my other reports have always been that we get like hundreds and hundreds of complaints about the Lake Elmo Airport every quarter. Like, it's amazing. Most of them come from the same few homes that are at the end of the new runway or the extended runway since they knew it was there before. And the takeaway from the sound study was pretty disappointing, but nothing that the MAC is, Metropolitan Airports Commission isn't able to do anything about it basically. So all those residents have to find another way to figure out what they're going to do to alleviate the noise. Yeah, that's a really tough one. They do live by an airport, but the airport has changed and it's all very, very, one of those balancing acts again, right? And then just today, I got to go meet with the first graders at Anderson and introduced a new project that Simon's gonna be involved with too, I heard. You're gonna show up there later this week, maybe? That's right. So they're doing a... learning, a project-based learning lesson about community jobs. And so I got to go introduce this whole thing to them and for Frosty Town, I'm the mayor and we're gonna hire them to do jobs in the town and they're gonna have different people come in and explain their jobs and then they get to write a persuasive essay to apply for the job and then we choose them for whichever jobs they apply for. So it's super cute and I'm so glad that you signed up to help with that Simon. as a city worker. Yeah, city worker, they're gonna sign up for that and council is another job they could get. Little do they know the pay is not great. I didn't tell them that part. I also went to some chamber events as usual, a couple ribbon cuttings, Renew by GRU, which actually some Bayport residents could probably use when the floods here. They do residential damage restoration and it's a small family owned business. They seem really nice, so keep them in mind if you ever have damage. Lake & Company, downtown Stillwater, super cute little place. They also do a magazine, which is rare nowadays. Leadership in the Valley was great this past month. Went to Cub Headquarters and Deasaurin and learned about what they do, among many other things throughout the day. It's a day-long thing that I get to do every month because of funding from you guys from the city. So... And then the monthly ambassadors meeting for the chamber. Just want to give a little shout out to the winter snow celebration that's going to be happening starting January 15th in Stillwater. They still need sponsors for it. And it is a world event. So they have teams coming in from all over the world to do the snow sculptures. And it's a pretty cool thing. So any companies or individuals out there that want to help sponsor that, they could use it. And then lastly, The gingerbread building contest will be Saturday, December 14th. We got Katie and our new council member, Carl, will be going to build a gingerbread house and Matt, Matt, I'm making sure Matt's gonna show up. They need more than two people. Hopefully someone will show up. I wish I could go because we did it a few, a couple of three years ago and it was actually kind of fun. Wasn't it? We had fun, Ethan. Yeah, so you can go watch the council members and Skullwater Council and Oak Park Heights Council all make gingerbread homes from 10 to noon down at Water Street Inn on December 14th. They're going to have Queen Elsa, Olaf, and Sven from Frozen will also be hanging out there. So it could be kind of fun. You can decorate your own Christmas cookies. Anyways, I just thought I'd give you guys a hug. People go down and watch you and make you feel guilty for not going. That's all I have. All right. staff and city administrator reports. [1:22:56] Matt Kline: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Chief Kinney had to step out, but current November call volume to date was 96 compared to 86 in 2023. Year to date is 1,163 compared to 1,114. He just also wanted to make note that they completed the sale of the 2001 tender for a fairly significant amount to help off the set the purchase of a new one. Not quite equal amounts but it helped. And then they will be escorting Santa to the lighting of the green in a couple of days. With that, Chief Jackson. [1:23:55] Police Chief Jay Jackson: Thanks, Matt, Madam Mayor, City Council. We have just a few things on the list today. The Toys for Tots drop off is going through December 12th, so that's the last day that we can take any toys. We do have quite a bit here at City Hall, thankfully this year, but we would like to get as much as we can. So please feel free to come on down and drop something off. We did put out to the city like we did last year to get some cash donations so we can hopefully go out and purchase some more. So we're hoping some more participation with the staff here. So we are going to do that and hopefully like last year, we got people literally handing us gift cards up at Target or up at Walmart and we were able to purchase more toys. So it was really good faith in humanity was restored there. So hopefully that's gonna go on sometime around the 10th would be my guess. Scammer Trends and Awareness Class, the mayor mentioned, that link is on our Facebook page. Special thank you to the bank for that. They were very helpful. We have very good working relationship with the bank. Also in your packets, the compliance checks were completed. I mentioned that at the last meeting and everyone passed. So that was a good thing to hear. Upcoming events, the big thing is tomorrow, Officer Lepowski is being honored by the Minnesota Wild. So hopefully you guys can watch the game, see her up on the Jumbotron. The lighting in the village green, we will be participating as well. I believe I will be there and hopefully the officer on duty. And then officer Lapowski is also once again this year delivering gifts through the holiday hope through the community threat organization. So I stand for questions. [1:25:28] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thank you. Thanks. Public Works Director Worth. [1:25:35] Simon Worth (Public Works Director): Madam Mayor, members of the council. This past month, Public Works crew spent significant amount of time getting the holiday lights set up around town. So big thank you to Josh, Kyle, and Brandon for taking care of that. Looks great around town. If you haven't had a chance, drive through at night. It's beautiful. Obviously, a significant amount of that time went to decorating Village Green. So we're looking forward to that. Fourth Avenue North Street improvement project is completed. As you saw for the pay application, Fifth Avenue North street lighting, I did stop in at some business owners and speak with the majority of them up there after our discussion on the street lighting the other month. They're all certainly in favor of it. No real significant changes that they'd like to see, but who isn't on board for fancy new hardware out in front of their stores, right? I got some good feedback. I'd be happy to share it with you guys. But all in all, well received. Point and road culvert has been repaired. It is completed. They will be doing the repaving of the road next spring due to the conditions now not being favorable for repairing the blacktop at this point in time. And Barker's Alps restoration continues. They were up there today, as well as STS managing the volunteer portion of Barker's Alps. It's starting to take shape. I encourage anybody to go take a walk through. I know it's cold, but you can really see what they're doing up there now. If you can see the end result, which I can't, I think it's gonna be beautiful. So enjoy watching that unfurl. With that, I stand for questions. [1:27:36] Mayor Michele Hanson: Just a comment. So the fifth street lighting, just so people don't think we're out just spending money on fancy lights, it's because we literally had a light fall down on a car and we need to replace some of the old lights out there. We're not just like, well, they're spending money on pretty lights. So that's why that came up as a project that we need to do. And then we'll have them match too, because we have like three different styles of lights out there right now or something. So we'll be discussing that more in detail later. And then did you say that the Point Road repair project, I'm sorry, I was half listening, I guess, it didn't get completed because it's- [1:28:13] Simon Worth (Public Works Director): It is completed. [1:28:14] Mayor Michele Hanson: Oh, it is completed. I thought you said because of the, it got cold or something. [1:28:18] Simon Worth (Public Works Director): Just can't pave yet. Couldn't finish the pavement of the road. It's gonna remain gravel for the winter. [1:28:24] Mayor Michele Hanson: How did it end up coming out? Did we have to do the expensive? I'm guessing you would have told us if we didn't have to use it. You would have been like, yay, we saved lots of money. [1:28:38] Simon Worth (Public Works Director): I don't have the final numbers. We're going to actually sit down with the contractor tomorrow and discuss with the engineer all the totals to see if we can come up with some kind of a compromise on our worst case scenario versus our best case scenario. [1:28:55] Mayor Michele Hanson: Okay, so it might be somewhere in between? [1:28:57] Simon Worth (Public Works Director): Somewhere in the middle. That would be ideal. All right, thank you. [1:29:02] Councilmember John Carlson: The only other, I just wanted to jump in. I know some people, I think there was a little outcry about what happened in Barker's and I think they're tearing everything down. People need to trust the process here and it's not overnight. Barker's Alps isn't supposed to be 75% buckthorn everywhere. That's an invasive non-native woody plant. I think it's great for doing it. I appreciate that we've made that a priority. It's been a big sticker for me. So feel free to send anybody that has questions or comments my way too. I'd be more than happy to share any information that we have on that project too. [1:29:36] Simon Worth (Public Works Director): I will do so. Thank you, Simon. [1:29:41] Sara Taylor (Assistant City Administrator): Madam Mayor and members of the council, November 13th, the City Council held a special meeting to canvass and certify the results of the local election held on November 5th. A total of 1,629 residents voted in the election and a record number of 606 residents voted by absentee ballot. I'd like to give a special thanks to my head election staff, Colleen Siegfried, Ray Vallee, Heather Kennedy Bordeaux, and Colin Goulet, and all the other individuals who helped me staff the polls for this year's elections. Planning Commission will not meet in December, but is anticipated to convene in early to mid-January to consider annexation, preliminary plat, and land use applications for residential development on the Anderson Farm parcel in Baytown. The application is submitted by Len Pratt Homes. Progress on other planning and zoning projects continues, including processing the annexation, final plat, land use applications for the new Bayport Elementary School, also a development proposal for the vacant lots on 2nd Avenue South along Peril Creek by Rick Fedorowski. Liquor and tobacco license renewals are in process and will be forwarded on to the states for final certification this week. Waste hauler license renewals are also in process and will be included on the January Consent Agenda for approval by the City Council. Based on direction earlier this evening, staff will complete the revisions to the City's fee schedule for 2025, as well as update any application forms and handouts. The next edition of the City's print newsletter is slated for late December or early January, so look for that by mail in the coming weeks. And finally, just a reminder that the City will be accepting 2025 Park Reservations from residents beginning January 2nd, which is a Thursday. The Beach House in particular books up really fast, so if you're planning a graduation or a special event, you should reserve early for best availability. I stand for questions. [1:31:48] Matt Kline: Thanks, Sara. I just have a couple of items for city administrator report. Union negotiations are ongoing. The police officer union has has voted in approval of what was proposed to them. That will come to the City Council for approval from their standpoint in January. The hope is that the public works contract will also be at the same time. Currently the chief and sergeant contract is still being worked through, but hopefully expedited by the end of the year and in place by January 2nd for that meeting. Other items, mostly just upcoming events. The City Hall will be closed on Christmas Eve starting at 1 p.m. and then Christmas Day, also closed on New Year's. And then finally, the lighting of the green will be December 4th at 6.30. All are welcome to come and visit and see Santa and have some hot cocoa. [1:33:07] Mayor Michele Hanson: 630, okay. All right. [1:33:11] Councilmember Connie Dahl: Can I just take a minute to? Yeah, I wanted to take a minute and say thank you to you, but if you want to speak, of course. No, I just wanted to just thank everybody, all the council members, past and present, that I've worked with. I've worked with five administrators in my 20 years. I've worked with three police chiefs, three fire chiefs, no, only two fire chiefs, three library board directors, and I've worked with one city planner. Sarah's been with me this whole time. So I just want to thank everybody. It's been a great experience and kind of bittersweet. My grandkids are all getting busier. So I spend a little more time with them, but I know I'm gonna miss it too, but I just wanna thank everybody, everybody that I've worked with past and present. And I wanna congratulate Carl, my replacement and welcome him to the city council. Yeah, so anyway. [1:34:03] Mayor Michele Hanson: I wanted to thank you, Connie. 20 years, I don't know if anybody realizes that. It's been 20 years we've had, guidance of Connie on our council and you've done a great job I've been with you 14 of those 20 years a long time and you've always had such a a great outlook on things just very level-headed and calm and I just have always appreciated I'm gonna cry because it's gonna be so weird to not have you up here yeah and I'm looking forward to having a little away celebration do that sometime in in January we're working on the date so we can all go and Connie a big hug and tell her and I forgot I've worked with numerous attorneys I couldn't count how many how many public works directors Mel Matt and Simon mayors you know what let's see not Schneider was my first Jonathan Noah check Susan St. Ors, Michele. I feel like I'm missing somebody. I feel like you are too, but I can't think of who. We can go look on the plaque. Yeah, well, like I say, I know Rick and Jonathan. Yeah, I can't remember who was in between. You know Sarah? Who was after Novacek? Was it Susan? I think so. Was it? Okay. Okay, well. It's amazing. Doesn't 20 years go by fast? It does. When I was trying to think how long it was, I thought, oh my God, it's been 20 years. And I got myself involved and never wasn't really interested in city stuff. [1:36:13] Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore: It was your idea to join? [1:36:15] Councilmember Connie Dahl: It was because it was when inspiration was going in up there and they wanted to put 900 and some homes and it was kind of like, No way. That's where I went and hung out with the inmates. Not really. When I was a kid, though, really, we would walk up there and the trustees would be up there doing plowing or whatever. We'd go up there and chit-chat with them. But anyway, I just didn't want to. [1:36:44] Mayor Michele Hanson: So you helped get inspiration to know. Down from 900 and something to 300 and something. Any other great, think about... some of your accomplishments you feel like? [1:36:55] Councilmember Connie Dahl: Well, I think the fire department was a big thing to get. Well, I'm leaving the ship before the school, but yeah. [1:37:05] Mayor Michele Hanson: No, I think the school. Yeah, so many things. It's like, once you look back, you'll be like amazed, I bet, at all the different things that you've had a say in, how to partner. Anyway, so I just wanted to thank everyone. [1:37:16] Councilmember John Carlson: Thank you, Connie. [1:37:17] Mayor Michele Hanson: Thank you, Connie. And welcome, Carl. would be a great asset. And he'll even, what did Michele say? He'd be able to do better than me? He's gonna work on communication. The communication. I'm just saying. Just picking on him. Was that a dig at me? [1:37:41] Deputy Mayor Ethan Gilmore: No, no, it was a dig on me. Obviously we're not doing a good job, so the new person is gonna come in and help us. Anyway, so thank everyone. [1:37:52] Mayor Michele Hanson: Yeah, thank you, Connie. I feel like we should do a standing ovation or something, but that would be so weird. All right, I guess unless someone else has any announcements. Should I make a motion to adjourn? [1:38:05] Councilmember Connie Dahl: I think you should. All right, I make a motion to adjourn my last meeting. [1:38:09] Councilmember John Carlson: Second, because I'm like third seniority and you never- All right. I got to be with Connie the most out of everybody but Michele. [1:38:17] Mayor Michele Hanson: All right. All those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. We are adjourned. All right.