yeah all right red light camera's on let's go ahead and call the order the regular meeting of the Oakdale city council March 25th 2025 Sarah will you please take the role council member Moore here council member Morcom here council member Severson here council member willenbring here mayor zel here please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance IED Ali to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all righty first up tonight is the approval of the agenda council members we have an amended version in front of us can I get a motion to approve the agenda as amended I will move there's a motion is there a second second motion a second any conversation all those in favor say I I opposed and the agenda is adopted next up we have meeting minutes first Set uh Workshop meeting minutes for March 11th 2025 uh council members any changes or Corrections look for motion so move there's a motion is there a second second Motion in a second all those in favor say I I I opposed and those meeting minutes are adopted next up regular meeting minutes from March 11th 2025 any changes or Corrections on these I'll look for motion so move there's a motion is there a second second motion a second all those in favor say I I I opposed and those meeting minutes are approved as well next up uh nothing under public hearings tonight so we will move into open Forum before we open the floor for that I have two proclamations um that I would like to read uh whereas oh first is recognizing autism acceptance month whereas on March 4th 2021 the Autism Society of America officially announced the shift in terminology from Autism Awareness Month to autism acceptance month and whereas April aims to celebrate and promote acceptance for the condition that occurs in one in every 36 children in the United States and whereas autism is the fastest growing developmental disability in the world and whereas autism is a complex developmental condition affecting the patient ability to interact communicate and pro progress and has not one but many different subtypes and whereas first held in the year 1972 by the Autism Society autism acceptance month emphasizes the need for public awareness to promote acceptance celebrate the differences and be more inclusive towards autistic individuals around us and whereas with the autism diagnosis rate increasing fast we take these 30 days in April to celebrate the differences oh celebrate the differences of learn more about and Empower autistic individuals therefore I Kevin zel mayor ofok Del Minnesota do hereby proclaim the month of April uh 2025 as autism acceptance month we're also issuing a proclamation recognizing fair housing month in the city of Oakdale whereas the Fair Housing Act enacted on April 11th 1968 enshrined into federal law the goal of eliminating racial segregation and ending housing discrimination in the United States and whereas the Fair Housing Act prohibits prohibits discrimination in housing based on race color religion sex familial status national origin and disability and commits recipients of Federal funding to a affirmatively Fair uh further fair housing in their communities and whereas the city of Oakdale is committed to the mission and intent of Congress to provide fair and equal housing opportunities for all and whereas our social fabric the economy health and environment are strengthen in diverse inclusive communities and whereas more than 50 years after the passage of the fair housing act discrimination persists and many communities remain segregated and whereas acts of housing discrimination and barriers to Equal Housing opport opportunity are repugnant to a common sense of decency and fairness and whereas the city of Oakdale is an inclusive community committed to fair housing into promoting appropriate appropriate activities by private and public entities to provide and advocate for Equal Housing opportunities for all residents and prospective residents of Oakdale therefore I Kevin zel mayor of Oakdale Minnesota do hereby proclaim the month of April 2025 as fair housing month in the city at this time we proceed with open Forum if there's anybody in the audience joining us tonight that would like to step on up to the podium share anything that's on their minds uh please feel free to do so we ask that you begin with your name and address for the record and uh please limit your comments to three minutes seeing none we'll bring it back up for Council consideration or not Council consideration uh we'll just keep going uh consensus motions council members we have a through through e and G through K in front of us tonight F was pulled with an agenda Amendment um council members are there any you'd like to pull for individual consideration Chris did I have one I was going to pull no never mind okay uh council members can I get a motion to approve approve consensus motions a through e and G through K is presented I'll make a motion to approve consensus motions a through e and G through K as presented second motion and second uh all those in favor say I I opposed and those consensus motions are adopted uh next up let's check in with our advisory boards and commissions uh first one that met was the Environmental Management commission I am their Lee yison uh they continue to work through their 2025 work plan um they have some um totally lost my trans plot they're also they also reviewed stats from last year's um community cleanup last fall um so we now we have those aggregate stats and so they reviewed that and uh heard cil's feedback for hosting that event again in 2025 so they are very excited um they are also working on our ecoair so oakdale's first ecoair taking place on April 27th I'm looking at staff nodding yep April 27th at Castle Elementary um lots of great vendors I think there's like two dozen vendors there's going to be food trucks there's going to be activities for the kids um the EMC Commissioners will be out there helping at that event um interacting with members of our community so they're very excited to be taking part in that event as well uh tree board also met on March 18th council member Moore you are there Le on I have notes uh Tre board talked about a lot of things they spent much of their time considering chapter 22 article 6 of the city code which covers Disease Control and tree trimming so it was a really interesting um opportunity to hear their thoughtful feedback on that part of our code um they wanted to remind everyone about the Arbor Day tree giveaway which is Saturday April 26th if you are registered to receive a tree uh you will attend from 9: until 11: if you are on the wait list you will attend between 11 11:30 um they are very passionately reminding everybody that this has moved locations this year the tree giveway is at the North fire station um so new location north fire fire station um the registration for the tree giveaway will open on Tuesday April 1st at 8:00 a.m. and the link to the registration form and details will be in the Oakdale website once it opens um residents must pre-register and select their preferred type of tree and pick up time the times will be in 15minute increments I'm telling you I'm a commercial for the Arbor Day tree giveaway um there are two 100 trees to give away there are four different options all of that information is on our website I also think it's really important to notice that it or to note that it has been noticed in the last few years the number of people that register to get their free tree and do not show up to pick it up and so they are building in um new processes to track that information so if you do register for your tree I highly recommend showing up on that day you don't want to end up on some list somewhere right um so it's a wonderful an amazing incredible opportunity inside of our inside of our community and the tree board is really looking forward to having another successful year and really cool the event was founded 50 years ago exactly very exciting by a former mayor yeah gring yeah so big milestone Milestone year for our event um thank you council member Mo uh Award of bids nothing tonight so we will go into staff updates Community Development Luke come on down we have a conditional use permit to consider thank you mayor and councel so uh the location of this uh for uh request is 7360 33rd Street North this is the former LA Fitness site the property is owned planed unit development or PUD and the request is to establish a church there or convert the the former gym to a church um I would like to note that places of worship are allowed in all zoning districts in Oakdale through the conditional use permit process and I would like to note that there is federal law that we have to follow it's called arupa the religious land use and institutionalized persons Act of 2000 uh it it essentially requires that religious assemblies and institutions be treated the same as any other secular assembly or um institutional use such as a city building or a public school facility so access to the site there is an existing access off Hemingway as you probably know the intersection of 34th and Hemingway is a bit trick tricky to navigate because you can't make a a left turn there or go westbound on 34th Street in other words um so at the request of both the city and the county the developer commissioned a traffic study for the proposed change in use and I'll talk a little bit more about the traffic in just a moment so the existing facility it or that the building itself is approximately 45,000 Square ft and the main Assembly Hall would accommodate up to 9915 people for parking requirements this is based on the the size of the Assembly Hall and also the associated office space so uh per code 247 parking spaces are required and the uh the actual site U there is 300 existing parking spaces so the parking requirements have been met uh the applicant has stated that there will be no exterior building expansions or additions and all renovation work will be limited to just the internal uh portion of the building only uh so as a reminder conditional use permits are subject to certain review criteria that's found in the city's ordinance and staff finds that the cup review criteria has been satisfied as detailed in the Planning Commission staff report that's in the agenda packet tonight the Planning Commission did hold a public hearing for this request back on March 6 and they recommended approval and staff recommends approval of the request subject to just one condition here and that is that way finding signage shall be added at the intersection of 33rd Street and Hemingway Avenue and also along 32nd Street to the satisfaction of the city engineer essentially the way finding signage is intended to help uh direct uh drivers to make the proper uh West or left uh turn lane on 34 Street which is actually at Marketplace and 34th or right next to Speedway and I guess if you're curious about what that signage would look like there's a similar signage along Helena Avenue so if you're exiting the sergeant pepper and wild boore property there's some signage that helps direct people to make the proper turn to to get back onto 694 uh one final note here the traffic study was prepared by the developer's engineer and it concluded that the levels of service at the intersection within the neighborhood would not be negatively affected by the use uh the uh County had the opportunity to review the the study and the city engineer of course reviewed the the study and uh concurs with the findings so although there is only one condition of approval here uh staff is suggesting but is not required um or adding additional conditions of approval here that the applicant implement the the recommendations that are found within the traffic study and these include uh the following adding a future sidewalk connection from the church to Hemingway a Avenue developing a shared parking agreement with the adjacent property conducting further traffic analysis adjusting internal driveway alignments and also working with Washington County on potential traffic improvements uh staff is also uh encouraging the the church to consider other methods to help improve the traffic flow for Sunday services such as having volunteers direct traffic um for those Sunday services and uh I can imagine there maybe there's some some additional questions here about the traffic flow but staff would be happy to answer and uh the applicant is also here if you have any questions thank you thank you Luke we appreciate it uh council members let's start with questions for Luke I have one council member more take it away um you talked about parking 300 spots um with 915 people as a capacity if we think about the highest of the holiest days and the most attendance is there an overflow opportunity what if people start parking along the side streets there um what is the plan for for at overc capacity parking sure um thank you council members and maybe I if you would want that the applicant to also elaborate on that but sure so I I I do want to point out in the traffic study that was prepared for this uh one of the recommendations was to work with the adjacent property so that's a multi-tenant building that's um a health clinic is is there but I believe there's like 80 or 90 or so additional parking spaces so that's an opportunity for the the church to work with uh that that property owner on like a cross parking agreement thank you following up on that though so some of those recommendations in the tra traffic study are they requirements is there an element of time associated with them so you'd mentioned one was um building the sidewalk to Hemingway is there a time element connected to that saying you have to do this by xstate as a condition of this permit or is it we'd like you to do it whenever you get to it so mayor U the staff is not necessarily recommending any of those um we didn't incorporate those into our into the resolution that that you have before you tonight it's a bit of a wait and see in terms of you know what how the the operations or the church in particular Sunday service would actually look like if this is if this is going to be um uh an issue gradually over time then it would be an option for the church to consider okay but my concern with the weit and see approaches with a conditional use permit we can't come back later and put on additional conditions right so so to council member Mor's point about overflow parking should requiring an agreement be in place be a condition of this permit I guess that's what I'm getting at is like it's great to say these things it makes sense that you know if you don't have enough parking but we get one bite of this Apple so once we approve the cup unless the conditions are firm and say it has to be done if there is a time element attached to it or that agreement has to be in place I'm having trouble squaring that like how would we come back later and say okay well it turns out you've had a lot of excess overflow parking now we need you to go get this agreement with the property owner over at Alena how do we go about doing that well um mayor I guess from the staff's perspective when we reviewed this we felt only strongly about the the wayfinding signage that that would be the the One requirement that we would request to be included but the the other suggestions are are they're good good suggestions but from staff's perspective and um relying on the code relying on on our expertise our our engineering uh staff as well we don't find that those other suggestions rise to the level of of requiring u u or rise to the level of actually being conditions of approval what uh can you elaborate on what that level is like what would rise to the level of requiring a condition is it disruption in the neighborhood by excessive street parking for me that feels like that would be something that could warrant or should warrant a condition and we just don't have a lot of streets there you know it's one street Hemingway and I guess 302nd so if that is a recommendation that came out of the traffic study I'm having a hard time understanding why we're not making that a condition of the permit and and I might have to pull in our our city engineer here as well here um but with the the capacity that the the parking lot has currently we we felt that it it was sufficient for the congregation and um the the applicant noted in their staff report or they accompanying narrative that um yes the the Assembly Hall can accommodate up to 900 some people currently their their congregation out at St Paul or the church there is only around 700 or so Brian anything you'd like to add good evening mayor and Council the the one item that we had with that is a lot of the signing the directional signing if if parking restrictions are necessary these would all be within the city's control to do that and uh so we could um pursue ordinances to restrict parking on Hemingway Avenue if there appears to be a problem that's purely within the city's discretion the directional signing would be installed within the city right away again that's something that the city could direct and install so these are items they were very minor uh they appeared only if necessary um so we didn't see any reason to make that a condition of approval okay thank you Brian um council members what are the questions do we have I had one yeah I was just curious I mean uh 9917 people and a conditional use permit but on occasion churches especially Evangelical churches have big events so if a lot of people are coming to attend for some event at what point would they be required to get a special permit is it at 1,500 is it a th000 or is I believe churches are exempt from special event permits correct I seem to stop me there um mayor and Council I I I I don't know for sure you I I don't know it seemed I and it's really just down there like I feel like maybe when you say excuse me m May when you say special permit what special event permit oh special event permit oh I don't know good question I'd have to look at the code and and certainly if if it if that event triggered the the need for a special event permit from we would enforce that provision in the code they would have to get that y it's needed our city clerk is looking at up so keep going okay mayor if you'll allow it I mean these are common things that happen in any church planning so if there's someone here that can speak to kind of the traffic pattern and the use of the facility I think that might help too yeah if the applicant wants to speak to that even welcome uh please begin with your name and address uh Chuck beer uh 16625 Firestone Path in Farmington Minnesota I'm an attorney I've been helping uh the Evangelical Church in the acquisition of the property and then also on this conditional use permit Pastor Steve here can speak to some of your questions I think one of the things um Luke had mentioned the congregation being 700 that's actually like 400 to 440 adults 700 would include children I think they're um parking on a weekly they they only have one service on Sunday the the parking is about what 200 250 cars at most uh they currently are located in St Paul with no parking lot whatsoever it's all street parking um you know so they're accustomed to that but the size of their congre although it's 915 uh in the assembly area uh right now anyway unless it grew dramatically uh their congregations far below that at the moment and a lot of those are children and they car pulled together but if you have specific questions on their services and special events and Pastor Steve can maybe speak to that a little bit sure welcome hi my name is stanos salamu I'm the pastor of thean Evangelical Church we do not have special events in our church so that's the only thing I want to comment on MH there we go excuse me Mr Mayor city council um the code does not does list a um a group that are exempt from special events or situations um churches are not exempt from special event permit requirements so now the next question would be well what triggers I don't know I'd have to check on that but I I would point to so I live there's a church across the street from my house when they have summer events you know they utilize their parking lot and it pushes everything out in the street we've had instances where locking intersections blocking hydrant what I think our standard for special events permits have been when it creates a strain on city services to enforce the law Etc you know so increase traffic enforcement would be an example or emergency vehicles can't get down the street Jim miss my I I access the code and the code does actually Define special event so it list thing so if they were to do one of those things uh rallies uh bicycle races I mean there all there's a whole list here so we got real Crea with that list if so if it sounds like they won't be doing any of those but if they happen to want to sponsor or do a special event and it triggered this provision they would need a permit right perfect well it really my comments were really I'm in favor of what you're doing there just want to make sure there's a mechanism for safety for the police to be involved for traffic so that it it goes well whatever you choose to do uh council members while we have the applicant are any questions for the applicant directly I just wanted to say that I'm glad you chose Oakdale as a new home for your congregation I'm really excited about um everything that this community has for you and vice versa I'm also really excited Council about um those businesses that are all down there and that that Sunday rush for you know Aldi your Starbucks or whoever else comes in over there I think it's um just a win-win for everybody I'm really excited thank you guys thank you Council M more you you can have a seat thank you um my only question isn't tied to this project or to this application necessarily it's more so just a concern about traffic patterns off of Hemingway um we've fielded some neighbor property owner complaints about cars going north on Hemingway even though it's right out only they go left to kind of fish into that turn lane for Aldi um so when I saw the amount of cars that would be going out there the question I posted to staff was would it be advantageous to make Heming way a one way and then redirect all traffic down 302 to Marketplace and the stoplight it it doesn't have to necessarily be decided because of this it can be decided later but it was something I wanted to put out there and say uh you know we've Chris You' feel the complaints from uh who's the gentleman that owns the storage facility Mr Raleigh yes um that and I've seen it personally going to Aldi like cars going the wrong way just so they don't have to go down the light and you turn around so it is a concern that I have um so I just want to put it on our radar and say uh it may warrant a change later um and I don't even know what that process would look like and I'm sure pins would have some thoughts as well um making that a one way also tenants at the Harland there' be a lot of traffic in their front yard as well so um not directly related to this but I do want to just recognize concerns from adjacent property owners of the traffic patterns in general um and it's newer so uh council members any other questions a motion I'll make a motion to wave reading and adopt resolution 2025-the in the attached resolution there's a motion as there second all second Motion in a couple seconds uh final comments all those in favor say I I I opposed and that cup is approved welcome to Oakdale uh let's check in with our City attorney Jim what do you have for us tonight Mr May m c nothing specific but happy to answer you never do I mean one of these times he's gonna bring something and we're gonna be scared Jim thank you uh let's turn to our right check in with Chris our city administrator Chris what do we got Mr Mayor city council thank you um I do have um One update we're going to do an update for you on the um Public Works facility a progress update so we have here our owner's representative Don Tyson we also have car Anderson um here to assist Eric is here as well so don do you want to take it away thank you Chris evening mayor city council once again uh don Tyson your owner's rep for the public works project and as excuse me as Chris noted Eric kwam our project manager is here um before the meeting started I was in the lobby and we also have four University of Minnesota civil engineering students and they have a class assignment to learn about a project and see how city council works and I told them you couldn't find a better project or a better conso for tonight so for uh four young M gentlemen back there just to show along I've been around I told them about year I graduated from the U and they weren't even born yet I'm sure I fall into that category too I guarantee all righty so our agenda topics tonight uh it's a little bit of background recognizing that uh new residents watch these presentations and certainly we have new council members uh this year progress on the uh construction progress just a quick slide on the budget and an update on the schedule so as background this is the site in blue here this odd shaped uh not quite a a rectangle it's a a 3200 Granada Avenue this is Old Highway 5 up here now County 14 this is Granada Avenue this is 32nd Street so 3200 gr Granada Avenue it's a 9 acre little bit over 9 Acre Site it was previously owned by 3M as a it was a super fund site and as you know 3M did a environmental R remediation on the site and we now have an environmental Covenant filed with Washington County the cleanup was approved by the mpca and the city has a no determination no association determination letter that says if anything does come up in the future it's still 3m's responsibility but 3M did a great job out there cleaning that up little bit more background uh last June we opened up bids you awarded the project on August 14th and also at the same time signed a contract with car Anderson Construction to set the guaranteed maximum price at that 24, 383 980 and the total project cost is set at 31,39 to 23 324 and the difference there is you have soft costs involved uh architectural fees permits all the furnishes the technology that has to go out there into the building so the architect HCM Architects they started by showing you this is what the building is going to look like and I just want to for reference point out this is the office area and we call this area a this is the fleet storage area where all the trucks are going to be stored this is area B and this back here is the operations area where the mechanics will work you have the sign shop you have the parks and you have a vehic wash bay and this is area C so that's what the architect said it's going to look like and this is what it looks like today so here's area a and you can see the steel framing has started this is area B and you can see this is where the trucks are going to go in here and the doors where they come out and then here's area C with the walls up and you can see the doors there coming in there but we didn't just get here uh overnight a year ago we started and actually it was 3:00 a.m. that started by cleaning up the site and this is what it looked like back literally a year ago and you can sort of see it but there's three excavations one 2 three were the old dump site where where they had the barrels the barrels weren't there but they were taken out in the 80s but 3M excavated out all that soil that was uh uh still had any kind of levels of contamination from the from those barrels and back so this is another example of that taken out you can see a couple staff here that were out there constantly taking samples of the soil to make sure that they got far enough till we got to clean to clean soil and then certainly put more uh SE it to prevent erosion happening so 3M completed their work and then the city did have a contract with the 3M contractor to start doing some of the work needed for our project and we hope to get as much as we could get done in the spring and as things go as soon as our contract is ready to start we had the March 20 9th snowstorm out there and this kind of was the you'll see a theme Here of this on this project so so with that we certainly had to wait a while and we were able to start work finally in May and this is what the site kind of looked like you can see water here from the rain storms are the melting snow and then our contractor was able to actually do some filling there and put in some compacted soil that the buildings and parking lot's going to sit on and there's picture of that a lot of water that had to be pumped and treated off site oops o I'm going go back and then compacting the fill for the buildings this is about where area B sits right now in that area there so finally it kept raining and we just decided that it was time to stop trying to do this work until we let the full contract back in in August that you awarded and the the the contractor get there and they just take over completely so now we're in September and this is after now the city owns the land all the cleanup has been done and you can see actually the the the great work the seating did from the 3M contractor we actually had grass growing out there but we also had a lot of water that we also had to deal with before we could uh start doing more earth work so the cross Anderson team is there now hitting it hitting this project hard and this is a nice aerial photo with you can see the earth work going on here but I want to point out and I'll show some more pictures of this this is the underground storm water treatment system the storm trap system as we call it and you can see the size to this compared to even some of the industrial buildings in the area it's quite a large uh system it's basically uh half a football field in in uh square footage I got to catch up with my notes okay so this is the slab being poured and you can see also the workers here pouring the slab uh Big Crane pumping the concrete in there and these this was probably a 14-hour day for these gentlemen uh Mak making sure that we can do this in one quick pour and then they start bringing in these sections uh you can see one section here being lifted in here each of those sections weighs 8 tons and there's 143 of them that were plac there uh thanks to artificial intelligence I can tell you that's the equivalent of 200 African elephants so I thought that was fun so what's the completed system look like this is this is it right here with with the lid on there uh what's going to go over this is now about 18 in of gravel and then the pavement and this is this is the part of the yard area uh for the public works folks so all the water that falls on this site from on the roof in the parking lot it all will go into this system and be settled out and it controls the rate and then there's another little treatment thing that'll happen at the end of this so when the water's discharged into the Wetland it certainly not only Meats but it looks seed water shed District requirements so this is really a significant environmental effort that the city has here I think that shows your commitment to protecting the environment here in Oakdale so now we're able to begin in December excuse me actual construction of the building and you can see some of the footing work going on uh this is the corner of area a the office area this is actually is where the employee training room is this is footings in area C where the building uh operations are and then we start putting up walls and actually this is the first this was the first vertical construction this is the Elevator Shaft uh we do need an elevator in the building with the two stories and here's the First wall panel that was put up in February of 2025 I probably could have the exact date but that was what it was but you can certainly see the snow and the crews kept working through the snow and cold in February that we had and actually with the frozen ground that was great uh be able to because these cranes you imagine just bringing in these conc planks that alone is is heavy uh but let alone the crane but then the ground thought out and we're back to mud and this was in March uh you can see the mud that we were dealing with out there this isn't the first building K Anderson has built through the winter and so they actually planned for this and constructed a road with crushed concrete from uh recycled concrete so the trucks could go get on that and not sink in the mud and keep the project moving ahead so that was another a great example of using this construction manager on this project they're professionals they know what's going to potentially come their way and they had a plan to deal with it so just another couple comparisons where we're at now compared to architectural renderings this is what the architect said the front of the building look like and here's where we're at now so these two windows are these two windows right here and this is around the corner we don't they didn't quite capture the front of this building yet here but it's right here's the front uh uh of the building Being Framed up so people that come into the building will walk in right here at this point and another example is this is area a once again what we in the offices and you can see the steel framing going up here so you can see the two stories you can see the Elevator Shaft there the doors that people will walk through to get into the mezzanine that's also there and then finally One Last Picture This is the operations area where you've got the mechanics base uh like say the sign shop this final one is the wash bay where trucks are going to come in and uh wash and there's a dry area also and then you can see those doors here on this so it is it is looking like the architect said it would look that's good that's yeah yeah what a relief just quickly on the budget just a couple Snippets uh we have paid out about 30% of the construction cost so far you can see the number there uh we do pay for materials that are delivered even though they're not installed yet and there are some materials that contractors have on Supply but we won't pay for it unless they verify that it's insured and taken care of in the right spot and Carl Anderson does that so we just don't say we just don't take it their word like oh yeah we got this stuff we just haven't brought it there yet so 30% of the construction cost have been paid uh but we've also only used 10% of the project contingency to date and those are so far 100% related to those weather conditions I've showed you is frozen ground muddy ground water and dealing with those which uh but now we're out of the ground we're uh and we're feel confident where we're at with the budget so far uh working with Kyle and Chris and and everybody else schedule wise uh we still are shooting for an opening next November December uh it's probably closer to the December date to have that certificate of occupancy and Public Works can be operational there certainly been by uh January 1 of 2026 with that console look forward to the next photo shoot which will be uh you'll have a scissors in your hand versus shovels and uh we go from there but glad to take any questions council members any questions for Don college students any questions for Don pretty cool project here's a chance perfect Chris anything you'd like to add no I one thing so we were very fortunate to get done as owners rep and then partner with our major Partners which was Ka and hcmr Architects we have had a really good team going on this project and the with the involvement of all the public work staff and everybody else involved this is quite an effort right and it's a a huge project and the council's been very generous in giving us some money to to do this project and the result will be something great for the community so thank you thank you to everybody thank you to cross Anderson and thank you to our residents for approving the sales t tax that's paying for this project thank you yes and the amendment to the sales tax that's covering the cost of this project Don thank you uh Council presentations council members anybody have any think I probably have the same one you do so I'll def to you all right is it about trees no oh what is it it's about the Gold Line oh yeah I got that one I'll give an opportunity for followup if you have additional comments how about that no thank you Andy Gary anything for me all right I got a few uh City Cruise began street sweeping this week hard to believe uh to clean up debris from the winter th please be sure to give uh sweepers plenty of space keep your trash cans out of the street um we should be doing that anyways like year round not just when the street sweepers are out they need to stay on the curb um and move please move your Park cars um thank you for your cooperation as Crews do this important work it does keep a lot of um organic material as well as trash out of our Wetlands um it is a very helpful thing um and a big and Endeavor of our Environmental Management commission so they appreciate it as well uh council member Moore mentioned this online registration for the uh Pete grasy Arbor Day tree giveaway will open Tuesday April 1st at 8: a.m. in honor in honor of Arbor Day the city will hand out 200 trees free to Oakdale residents on Saturday April 26th somebody said it was the 27th 26th is that right yeah yeah it's the 26 it's that Saturday last Saturday of April we'll go with that uh to those who have registered for a pickup time in advance the limit is One Tree uh per Oakdale address or household more information about registration can be found at Oakdale mn.gov also the different types of trees are listed on that website as well also every year we have to make this pitch these are not small trees okay uh these are bear rot trees some years they are like seven eight feet tall so um please plan Transportation accordingly we always do our best to make it fit um but it's always a little funny when residents show up the day of and they're like I thought I was getting something in a pot nope uh these are grown be root trees um to give your yard a u a head start on some foliage so um April 1st 8: a.m. Tuesday April 1st registration open if you want a tree you got to get there last year I think they were all cleaned in like two three days like it went really fast so um this is always a great um a a great event in our city uh winter parking rules um prohibiting on street parking from Midnight to 5:00 am ends on Tuesday April 1st however big old caveat a reminder that on street parking is prohibited anytime we get two or more inches of snowfall hopefully we are done with that but we always put that out there to say it's not an automatic prohibition anymore but if snow starts falling again which it probably will it's Minnesota the rules automatically kick back in and cars need to be off the street uh the city's indoor garage sale will be held Saturday April 5th from 9: to 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Discovery Center great opportunity for bargain hunters um to find some some Treasures um please join us then in coordination with the city of Oakdale the eard group will be hosting its annual free community paper shredding event on Saturday April 5th also Saturday April 5th from 9:00 a.m. to noon in the city hall parking lot this is a great way to safely dispose of confidential documents it is a drive-through event again this year there is a 10 bag or two box limit per person um so completely free event a big thank you to the eard group uh Real Estate Group for sponsoring it again this year it is always a very popular event great opportunity to clean out your home offices and get rid of a lot of those papers and medical bills and sensitive documents that you don't want in the recycling bin come on down and join us Saturday April 5th finally as council member more alluded to it was a big weekend this last weekend the Metro Gold Line bus Rapid Transit project finally opened um this project has been 15 years in the making um it is it was a great celebration on Saturday with representatives from all the cities along the line we had our members of Congress here who played a big role in securing the Federal Transit Authority funding about 45% of the project um we heard from we got a chat with a lot of people who will be utilizing the line um like I said this has been a very long um process to get here it has t the project has taken on many names over the years I want to say a very special thank you you to everybody um who's been involved with it um from feedback from our residents on what development around helmo station should look like um to the elected officials that have come through this building and the county building that have worked on this project um I had the opportunity to to speak at the ribbon cutting on Saturday and one of my comments was four Mayors and more than a dozen City Council Members have worked on this project um throughout the 15 years it is um it was a very it was a very detailed project with a lot of communities having very different needs that they wanted along the Route but it is a very um beneficial project for Oakdale when we think about $250 million in new development we're going to see in our community because of it more than a thousand uh new units of housing two new Interstate overpasses um all of these things are good for the future of Oakdale so um the count Ramsey and Washington County are sponsoring free rides on the Gold Line until uh through Friday of this week so please hop on um check it out the buses are pretty amazing I mean free Wi-Fi and power outlets so anybody that wants to head downtown and wants to do a little work along the way or commute to work downtown great opportunity for that um but all in all a very exciting opportunity for our community so um I think we are all pretty glad to be done with that it's been a long journey so anybody that participated have anything that I missed or want to add any additional comments I think being the person who wasn't a part of this for 15 years um it was just really exciting to see all of the different people that showed up on Saturday morning to celebrate it you know we had Transit Riders we had elected officials we had interest other interested parties and just seeing everybody come together that many people on a cold um Chile chil maybe chile uh Saturday morning I thought was really cool and taking the ride on Friday night um was wonderful I now have my plan for my family for the um Wild game and we have passes to the um Science Center so you know hopping on and taking it down and not worrying about parking is um it's easy it's exciting and it was really cool to be a part of it thank you Carrie I would just that I I had the same comment as council member Moore had about the turnout on Saturday um the full Spectrum people right like she said writers and elected representatives and former rep elected people who were worked on this product were there it was great to see uh and I was surprised at the number of people there so it was great and yes it was chilly now when we cut the ribbon on the helmo andberg bridge that was cold that was five degrees so I'm glad we did not have to redo that I did notice that the ribon cutting was not 45 minutes like they planned but instead was 60 Minutes my toes noticed miss that on Saturday morning if you put a dozen politicians on stage oh I knew it was going to be bad it happens but it was welld deserved it was yeah uh let's pay the bills claims roster in front of us March 12th through March 25th 2025 3.8 million in change I'm going to guess that's a lot of construction bills uh council members any claims you wanted to flag can I get a motion move we approve claims for the period of March 12th 2025 to March 25th 2025 in the amount of 3 million 82288 464 62 don't over we almost overpaid 2 council member Mo made a motion can I get a second second Motion in a second all those in favor say I I opposed and the bills are paid for another two weeks can I get a motion to adjourn so moved there's a motion is there second second motion a second all those in favor say I I opposed and we are Jour thank you and good night c m let's take let's take 10 minutes uh