[0:02] [Music] [0:51] [Applause] [Music] [1:38] **Jeff Weisensel:** [Applause] Let's see. Good evening. I'd like to call the city council regular meeting for Tuesday, December 17th, 2024, to order. Please rise and join me in 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. Welcome, everyone. Are there any additions or corrections to the agenda? No, sir. Seeing none, I'll move the agenda. All in favor signify by saying... [2:24] **Councilmembers:** Aye. Aye. [2:25] **Jeff Weisensel:** Opposed? We have an agenda. Looking under presentation, proclamations, and acknowledgements, this evening we have the Robert Trail Library presentation. Like to come forward? [2:34] **Terry Ruma:** Hi. Um, this is just my notes here. Um, I'm just gonna check. All right. Um, thank you Mayor, council members, City officials. My name is Terry Ruma. I'm the branch manager of the Robert Trail Library here in Rosemount. We are a division of Dakota County, and I'm just here tonight to present kind of an update on the library—where we're at, what we've done this year. You may get questions about what's been happening or what's going on, so we just like to connect with you occasionally and let you know how things are going within the library overall and then within our local branch here in Rosemount. So, my first slide here is just Rosemount at a glance. For numbers, we've had over 135,000 visits so far this year. These numbers are through the end of November. We'll end up with close to 150,000 for the year, which is going to be up probably about 7 or 8%, which is considerable considering the summer that we had, which I'll get into in a bit. We've currently checked out over 400,000 items. As a system, we've checked out over 4 million, so Dakota County—or so your Rosemount Branch does about 10% of the overall circulation. This is just physical items that are checked out in the library. The library also circulates, or I'm sorry, we check out about 1.5 million digital items every year. And with Rosemount doing about 10% of the circulation, if you just extrapolate that out, that would be about another 150,000 items for Rosemount people. Now, we don't do that at the county level—we don't extrapolate out to know where people are borrowing from—but just kind of as an idea, it gives us an idea of how we're doing. That number is increasing; it continues to increase, not as much as it has in years past, but digital collections have become more and more popular amongst our constituents overall. So far this year as a county, we've had over 58,000 people attend a program. This would include our story times, our summer Discovery programs, our meet the author programs, and things like that. That is countywide. With the way we report our numbers, we don't report them by branch necessarily, so those just get all accumulated through our calendar. Some system highlights that the Dakota County Library has instituted this year: early in January, we went fine-free for all. So that's been a really big push amongst the library administration. So there are no more fines in the Dakota County Library System. We did go fine-free for children a few years ago; this now includes the adult material. We still encourage people to bring items back on time—we would like them to bring them back on time so people who would like to use them next can have access to them. However, we have seen that fines in the past have been a barrier for access for some people in some communities. So, this has reduced that barrier and we have seen an actual increase, especially in our children's collections. So that's been very good. Technology-wise, the library continues to advance this technology. We have a regular rotation of replacing equipment. We regularly get our equipment at Robert Trail replaced. Educational support throughout the county—libraries are known for that. This year we have instituted self-service hours, and I'll discuss those a little bit more on an upcoming slide. Our Kaposia Library in South St. Paul opened this year. So, South St. Paul was a city library; they folded into the county system and so they're now a member of the Dakota County system and they have a new branch which is doing extremely well, very popular, right next to the middle school and high school up there. We have also launched a Community on the Go van. We've had this for a couple years, but we got our own electric van this year just for the library. So that is out at community events and parades to meet our customers out in the community. Self-service hours: this is now instituted in all the Dakota County Libraries. This allows customers to access the library from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., 365 days a year, including holidays. So, customers will go online, they'll apply for a self-service access card, we will grant them that card, they will come into a library, pick it up, and we'll explain how to access the library and what their responsibilities are when they're there. Obviously, from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. like in the morning during the week, Robert Trail is not staffed. So the people there, they know that it's not staffed, they know that they're responsible for their items. We do have security in place. We have not had any security issues at Robert Trail. We haven't had any damage issues, which is one of the things people are concerned about, especially our risk management department. But we've had no issues at Robert Trail to speak of, really. A couple hiccups here and there, but nothing that would rise to the level of a concern. Some of our other branches have run into a few hiccups here and there; they negotiate and navigate through them and they move forward. So it's a system that's been extremely popular. I think I have some numbers here... so we've had over 3,500 visits during our non-regular hours and during that time 5,400 items have been checked out. A lot of people use our space during that time to use our meeting rooms, to come in and study, to do all sorts of things. So self-service has been really popular amongst our customers and all the branches now have it in place. Specifically at Robert Trail over the summer, we've had a solar canopy installed. This is an artist rendition, so it's not exactly what ours looks like but it's pretty close. With this efficiency in the library, we've had all of our LED lighting replaced and the canopy... this will allow this canopy will provide 94% of the electricity for the building. So that's outstanding. The county has provided that for us; it's been a great—it'll be great. I think it goes live in January. They're still testing it now, they're finishing up some final wiring and doing all the logistics of it, but they think it'll go live in January. So that'll be a great addition. They're also putting these canopies at the Northern Service Center and at our Western Service Center. And staff are looking forward to parking under it during the winter! So, Library events that we have at the Robert Trail Library on a regular basis: there's just a few of the highlights. We obviously have hundreds of programs every year. A couple we like to highlight is our Student Art display. Our Friends of the Library coordinates with local schools; the kids bring in their artwork or the kids' artwork is displayed in the library. We do a reception the first Saturday of every month from November to May. We invite the community to come out and visit us during that time, see the artists—the artists come in with their family and they enjoy having their work up during a specific month. Meet the Author programs: we coordinate with the Rosemount Area Arts Council. They're very popular; author programs for libraries can be somewhat challenging—it's kind of surprising that people who are so into literature sometimes have a hard time coming to author programs—but Rosemount does a great job getting a crowd every month for our Meet the Author. And then through the Friends of the Library, about three times a year they do a book giveaway. So they do a book giveaway on Saturdays, primarily for children but it's also adult books as well. These are books that the Friends of the Library people have donated, or items that the library has removed from the collection for various reasons. So with all of that, we have a lot of thank-yous. We'd like to thank first off our County Commissioners. They do a wonderful job supporting the library. The fine-free and all of that stuff has to go through them and they have to approve it and we have to find the money for it, so it is a logistic challenge and they support that. The County Manager, our new County Manager Heidi Welsch, has been very supportive in her short time here, and Matt Smith, the prior County Manager. The County Facilities Department: they do a wonderful job keeping our building clean, keeping our building safe, keeping it operational. The city staff does snow removal for us, so we appreciate that. Our library administration: they support all of the libraries, but they are the ones who oftentimes push these things like self-service hours. So these things kind of percolate and then it takes their initiative to push it forward through the County Commissioners, through the County Risk Management Department, things like that. So, great thanks to them. Friends of the Robert Trail Library (FRTL): they're a great community organization, I'm sure you know a lot of them, and they do wonderful work and support the library in a lot of fantastic ways. The Rosemount Area Arts Council: we like and team with them on many programs including our author program. And of course the City of Rosemount as a whole—without the citizens and the customers who come in on a regular basis, we wouldn't be there. So we appreciate them and their support for everything that we do. Finally, I'll just say thank you to you as Council and Mayor and City officials in supporting the library. Free to take any questions you might have regarding any of the topics I've discussed. [11:42] **Jeff Weisensel:** Thank you, Terry. Open it up to council. Any anyone have any questions or comments? [11:48] **Paul Theisen:** No, just a thank you and I'm glad to hear that the self-service seems to be... I know early on that there wasn't really any issues, and I'm glad to hear that there's really no issues going on in Rosemount. [12:02] **Terry Ruma:** Correct. I just checked with the Police Chief on my way in to make sure that was true and they have not had any calls or anything like that. So, you received confirmation of it again. [12:15] **Jeff Weisensel:** Thank you very much for the presentation. [12:18] **Terry Ruma:** All right. Thank you. [12:20] **Jeff Weisensel:** Thank you. With that, that completes item number three. We'll move to item four, Response to Public Comment. This evening we do not have any. We'll move on to item five, Public Comment. Anyone wishing to speak before Council may do so at this time. The podium is open. Please state your name and address and your comment or question for Council. Seeing no one making a move to the podium, that'll close public comment. We'll move on to the Consent Agenda, item six. This evening we have bills listing; minutes of our December 3rd regular and work session for Council; our 2025 schedule of rates and fees; the firefighter relief association benefit interest rate change; the meeting schedule for 2025; adjustments position reclassifications for our park and rec facility maintenance specialist; our 2024 acceptance of our street improvement project finalization and final billing; request by Minnesota Paving Materials for renewal of its interim use permit for its seasonal asphalt plant; a request by Frattalone Companies for renewal of their 2025 small-scale mineral extraction permit; our Tree City USA recertification application; and then our Heroes and Helpers donation acceptance where I believe it was $3,172, including a $200 donation from Beyond the Yellow Ribbon was made. With that, are there any items wishing Council to pull? [14:15] **Paul Essler:** Not this time. [14:17] **Jeff Weisensel:** Seeing none, someone like to move the consent agenda in its entirety? [14:23] **Paul Theisen:** So moved. [14:26] **Paul Essler:** Second. [14:27] **Jeff Weisensel:** I have a motion by Theisen, second by Essler. Roll, please. [14:31] **Erin Fasbender:** Essler? [14:32] **Paul Essler:** Aye. [14:33] **Erin Fasbender:** Weisensel? [14:34] **Jeff Weisensel:** Aye. [14:35] **Erin Fasbender:** Theisen? [14:36] **Paul Theisen:** Aye. [14:37] **Jeff Weisensel:** And that completes consent agenda, 3-0 approved. We'll move on to item seven, Public Hearings: Request by Keystone Development Partners for vacation of a certain drainage and utility easement. Mr. Kienberger. [14:52] **Adam Kienberger:** Great. Thank you, Mayor, members of the Council. Before you this evening, we're going to hold a public hearing for a request for an easement vacation. It's located in the Biscayne Business Park by Keystone Development Partners—I'll refer to them as KDP throughout the presentation. So, a little bit to orient everybody where this is: just south on Biscayne, north of 46. Omni Winery and Brewing is directly a house and then another parcel north of there. There's a proposal by KDP for three buildings on those three parcels highlighted on your map. That was approved as a part of a site plan by the Planning Commission back at their November meeting, but as a part of that request, they conditioned that Council hold a public hearing and then request to vacate the easements that run between those two parcels under that original plat. So, just a reminder that the site plan is already approved, but just to put it in a context about what we're talking about: the multi-tenant warehouse lease buildings that were approved... some 3D renderings from that Planning Commission meeting as to what would be located on that parcel. Here's a site plan that shows the different building layouts across those three parcels along with the parking and other site amenities. And then we have the easements that are required to be vacated as a part of that approval. So with that, request is to hold a public hearing and then upon the conclusion of that public hearing, make a motion to adopt a resolution vacating those perimeter drainage and utility easements impacting this development. I can stand for any questions and then again, it would be a public hearing. [16:46] **Jeff Weisensel:** Floor is open to Council. Any questions for staff? [16:51] **Paul Essler:** No. [16:52] **Paul Theisen:** None here. [16:53] **Jeff Weisensel:** All right, seeing none, we will move to the public hearing. As indicated before, anyone wishing to speak on this topic may do so. Please come to the podium, state your name and address and your comment or concern. Seeing no one at this time, I will move to close the public hearing. All in favor signify by saying "Aye." [17:28] **Councilmembers:** Aye. Aye. [17:29] **Jeff Weisensel:** Opposed? Public hearing is closed. Move back to staff. Any questions, follow-up? Nope. Seeing none, can I have a recommended action motion, please? [17:40] **Paul Theisen:** I'll make a motion to adopt a resolution vacating perimeter drainage and utility easements between Lots 6 and 7, Block 1, and between Lots 7 and 8, Block 1, Biscayne Business Park. [17:55] **Paul Essler:** Second. [17:56] **Jeff Weisensel:** I have a motion and second by Theisen, second by Essler. Roll, please. [18:00] **Erin Fasbender:** Weisensel? [18:01] **Jeff Weisensel:** Aye. [18:02] **Erin Fasbender:** Theisen? [18:03] **Paul Theisen:** Aye. [18:04] **Erin Fasbender:** Essler? [18:05] **Paul Essler:** Aye. [18:06] **Jeff Weisensel:** It completes item number seven, 3-0 approved. Moving on—and that completes public hearings for this evening. It also completes unfinished business, item eight. Move on to item nine, New Business. First item up is the UMore Ballfield complex park building bids. [18:24] **Dan Schultz:** Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Councilmembers. Before you this evening is a recommendation to accept the bids for the UMore park building and award a contract to the low bidder. As part of the UMore Ballfield complex development, we are kind of bringing that project to an end, and the final piece of that is to add the park shelter building which would include restrooms, a concession area, a small electrical room, and a very small storage area. This complex provides athletic fields for people in Rosemount, so baseball and softball for youth, high school, and college-age kids. We also will be servicing the people who use the future pickleball complex at this location. So these bathrooms will be on electrical timers; they'll be open from probably, you know, 7:00 a.m. till probably 10:00 p.m. when the lights go off at the pickleball courts and at the ballfield complex, which is also lit. We've been working with Ortell Architects on the design of this now for the last several months, and we have gotten to that point where we finalized the plans and specifications and put the project out for bid. The funding for this project, if approved, would come from the Park Improvement Fund which has a balance of just shy of $7 million at the current moment. The estimated project cost for this building was $1,125,000. As you can see, we received seven bids for the project. The low bid was submitted by Brennan Construction... their bid came in at $932,000. So as you can see, we had a pretty tight bid range on this project and we had some real good bidders—some people we know about. Ebert Construction—they built the Steeple Center, so we've worked with them. Weber Inc. has done some work in the area; DeEing Pearson has been out in the area; Parros is doing some work over in Amber Fields; Met-Con is well-known in the Twin Cities as is Rochon. And so, we are looking at this project to get started fairly quickly. They have included winter conditions as part of the specs, so we will not be getting any unexpected requests from the contractor due to the potential winter conditions they'll get started in. Obviously, those winter conditions are designed for kind of your standard Minnesota winter. Now, if we have a winter like we had a few years ago where we're in the minus 20s for two or three weeks at a time, we'll have to maybe make adjustments as we go, but right now we're feeling comfortable with that low bid number. There is in the packet... there should be a recommendation letter from the architect. We have done background reviews of Brennan; we've talked to folks in Dakota County, they've done work with Dakota County. We've also talked to a few other cities—they provided some of their own references—and so we feel real comfortable working with this firm on this project. The Parks and Recreation Commission looked at this and discussed this topic last night; they also recommended approval of the low bidder so that we can try and move the project forward as soon as possible here in January. And with that, I will stand for questions. [22:20] **Jeff Weisensel:** Floor is open to Council for questions. [22:23] **Paul Theisen:** Go ahead. [22:24] **Paul Essler:** Yeah, so I think one thing I'm noticing is... so the design, is the design pretty similar to what you did at Flint Hills? [22:34] **Dan Schultz:** No, the design's a little different. It's a little different—like the photographs are in the packet and internally the space... internally, like the restrooms and the family restrooms, is a requirement of code. The exterior is a lot different than what the UMore building is going to look like. There's going to be a couple different colors, there's going to be multiple finishes on it to give it a little different flavor. We're going to have different branding on it so that it really kind of screams "Rosemount," things like that. [23:08] **Paul Essler:** Was any thought about trying to keep it consistent with... I mean... [23:13] **Dan Schultz:** We talked about that at the Park and Rec Commission, Councilmember, and the goal was to try to maybe make our parks a little different so they're not all cookie-cutter and look just the same every time you go to a park. It's just a little different, you know, a different flavor in each of our parks so they look a little bit unique. [23:31] **Paul Essler:** Yeah, okay. Can't argue with you. [23:33] **Dan Schultz:** Yeah, so that was the idea the Park Commission had. [23:36] **Paul Theisen:** Yeah, so I just want to call out—and I think this is an important thing you mentioned earlier—about the proximity to the pickleball courts and then the future dog park as well, right? So the idea of approving this tonight, and one of the reasons why I think, you know, I'm definitely behind this, is the whole idea that it not only just serves when we have baseball teams practicing or playing baseball or softball there on those fields, it's also for the other amenities that are soon to come, right? [24:02] **Dan Schultz:** Correct. Not quite there with the pickleball, but that's just something I guess I want to kind of reiterate. So we're going with a low bidder here, or the motion is, but that's also for this facility and that whole park area. It is, and we also, Councilmember, will have greenways running—Greenway trails running past this facility. So we'll have a lot of people that will be accessing this park, maybe not for baseball or softball or pickleball or dog park; they might just be biking past this and might want to stop here to get some water, to, you know, run to the restroom quick. And they'll have access to do that also, as well as that Amber Fields addition right across the main road there. There's also kind of a park shelter there, right across the street from where the entrance to the pickleball court area is, and so those folks will have good access to that location too. [24:55] **Paul Theisen:** All in proximity to these. [24:56] **Dan Schultz:** Yeah, and like I said, Councilmember, Mayor, these bathroom doors will be on the electronic lock system like we do over at Flint Hills and like we do at Central Park. So they're open and in the morning they're open till, you know, dark, and we haven't had any issues—knock on wood—with anyone causing problems with the facilities. And so people have been respectful of that and so we'll continue that practice. [25:21] **Paul Theisen:** That's great. Thanks. [25:22] **Jeff Weisensel:** Uh, one question and then a comment on the green color, the forest green. Is the rendering just light, I guess, and the color is going to be more of what's on that palette? [25:34] **Dan Schultz:** We will, Mr. Mayor, we will try to work with our communications team and pull the Rosemount green color that we want—a little darker. I think it came through on the scan a little bit light. We're hoping not for anything like a lime green or a soft green; we like more of a dark, the Rosemount green, the color we chose. [25:56] **Jeff Weisensel:** And then simply a comment: really looking forward to this amenity being added. I know we've been... ever since I've been on Council and we kind of opened up some of the first fields there and just realizing it's taken a long time to get to this phase of that area, and just wonderful to see that it's happening now. So, and with that, thank you. Anyone like to move the recommended action? [26:22] **Paul Theisen:** Yeah, I'll make a motion to accept the UMore Ballfield park building bids and award the contract to the low bidder, Brennan Construction. [26:31] **Paul Essler:** Second. [26:32] **Jeff Weisensel:** Have a motion by Theisen, second by Essler. Roll, please. [26:36] **Erin Fasbender:** Theisen? [26:37] **Paul Theisen:** Aye. [26:38] **Erin Fasbender:** Essler? [26:39] **Paul Essler:** Aye. [26:40] **Erin Fasbender:** Weisensel? [26:41] **Jeff Weisensel:** Aye. [26:42] **Jeff Weisensel:** And that completes item 9a, 3-0 approved. Next item: 2025 to 2034 Capital Improvement Plan. Mr. Martin. [26:50] **Logan Martin:** Thank you, Mayor and members of the Council. Let me pull up my presentation here real quick. Happy to be in front of you tonight to get Council's final authorization of our 2025 to 2034 Capital Improvements Program. And this is kind of a capstone to our annual budgeting process that we just gave final authorization to as a City Council at the last council meeting. And so inside the budget includes some of the consistent long-term funding for our overall equipment purchases and our fleet programs and our capital expansion utility expansion programs. And so we wanted to give a chance to have Council get eyes on the 10-year CIP as we do every year, and so asking for your consideration and authorization of that here tonight. As Council's aware, what our CIP does is really serves as a critical long-range planning tool for both Council and staff. Not only does it help us plan for long-range capital projects for fleet acquisitions, for the expansion of our utility and roadway infrastructure system, but it also allows us to both plan for that work from a staff management and workload standpoint, but also from a long-range funding standpoint. As that second bullet talks about, really what our bond rating agencies strongly look at: this type of a tool as they analyze our credit rating and our credit efficiency to ensure that we are looking at things like this, that we are being planful about some major expenditures that we are undertaking, and that we know kind of the churn of our infrastructure as our city evolves and grows over the years. So a really critical tool for us as we plan both short-term and long-term. The most immediate year and the years thereafter are well understood and well analyzed. As we get longer out, we are able to place some kind of placeholders on the CIP to have an expectation of things that may be coming—bigger ticket items like a water treatment facility or potential water towers that aren't quite yet known as to when they will hit development-driven needs or system-driven, but we can place them on the plan long-term, kind of charge the budget for it in the out-years to then plan for it, and then allow those things to modify and move as our system and as our systems evolve and as the city grows. So what we want to do tonight is just take a quick peek through 2025, the big ticket items in 2025, and then also ultimately ask the Council to approve the 2025 to 2034 CIP. So looking at Park and Recreation projects... and I should remind folks at home, Council took a peek at this at a work session back in December, and then we are bringing it forward here tonight for final approval. So Council's had a chance to chew on this just a little bit. As folks are aware, Council's aware we're currently doing a remodel at many sections of the Rosemount Community Center in relation to the Armory project that's happening over there, and I just had a chance to walk around that with Park and Rec Director Schultz last week. It's looking awesome. It's totally kind of gutted inside and it's back up to being shelled out for many offices and walls and meeting rooms, and it's going to be great. We had some offshoot from that Armory remodel as well down in Dan's office and some of our other areas, and so we've got a $510,000 item in 2025 as we wrap up the Armory and RCC remodel. You just approved the bids on the UMore park building, so the CIP carried 1.2 million for that, as you saw. And then two trail Greenway projects next year: the Bonair Path Trail—that's a critical connection along Bonair Path getting folks from Bonair and the Bellavista neighborhood kind of getting down towards the new elementary school on the south side of Bonair Path there—and then also the Dunmore Greenway Trail that's part of the County's overall Greenway network that comes through Rosemount. 2025 in Public Works shows the Street Improvement Project that we do every year. As Council has already started the process, you're well aware that the 2025 SIP for next year is in the Moore subdivision near Rosemount High School, 145th Cameo area. And so a placeholder or a budget item for 2025 for that project for both the accessible items but then also our utility costs and roadway improvement costs for the SIP project. And then the roundabout at Highway 3 and Rosemount High School. The city has some minor costs in the large-scale project there related to some of the utility work that we can do, but largely really pleased to report that that project will be paid by other parties including MnDOT—so very small cost to the city for a pretty significant roadway project in 2025 here in Rosemount. And then moving to equipment and fleet: as Council's aware, most of our fleet vehicles are actually leased now through fleet leasing, both with Enterprise and also the state of Minnesota. So that allows us inside the CIP to really retain consistent levels of funding on an annual basis for our leases and our annual recurring lease costs. And then the big ticket item that we would call out in 2025 is the replacement of Fire Engine 21, a 2001 vehicle that, as you received a report on earlier this fall, is at the end of its useful life as it hits 25 years. So what we've done and will do is begin the build process for that vehicle in 2025 to then receive it in 2027. In 2027, then, we'll actually sell equipment certificates, which is our basically short-term loan for the city, and that's how we'll fund the vehicle. So you'll see that costs showing in 2025; it'll actually hit us in 2027 with some initial costs and then the full load of the loan hitting in 2028, but we kind of charge the CIP for it as we plan for it here in 2025. And then Public Works and utility projects on a broader scale: for the utility side, we've got the Boulder Trail lift station, which is a project in conjunction with the RMS Middle School, the new Middle School by Biscayne and 42. So a lot of this is funded by utility area charges that the school district pays as part of their construction of the new building, and so they absolutely have a role to play in funding the lift station out there, which is an integral part of our utility system. And then Well 17 is beginning to be drilled very soon here yet this calendar year, it sounds like, if not early 2025. And as folks may remember, that is on Akon Avenue, right near the railroad crossing at Akon Avenue, so just south of the new elementary school is a small area that we'll install Well 17. So this isn't a water tower; this is just one of those smaller one-story small buildings that we'll have on top of the well there. And so excited to start building Well 17. Couple other things just to call out: we have a potential roof replacement project at the former Public Works central building. This juxtaposes with the work that staff and Council have already begun on really analyzing the future of Central Park and Erickson Park, and as we decide what to do with those buildings, we will have some decisions to be made in terms of what we do for maintenance of the buildings that are going to remain. If we have long-term use for them, then we need to do the remedial maintenance on the buildings to make sure that they are an asset to the city as we reimagine what Central Park/Erickson Park could look like. So wanted to call that out as showing in 2025. And then just a reminder to Council, as we talked about during the budget process, that one of our past practices has been to utilize excess fund balance. As we wrap up the 2024 budget here, if we have excess fund balance—we project that we may—what we would recommend to Council (and you'd be seeing a fund transfer in 2025) is to assign some fund balance from the general fund to support the long-term funding of these CIP budgets that we have, because we have some big ticket items in here and the long-range budget surpluses are starting to run thin and even appear as deficits in some places. And so they are in need of an infusion of some fund balance, and so we'll look to do that as we get some general fund potential excess fund balance. So with that, happy to ask and stand for any questions that Council may have, otherwise we would look for your authorization. [34:55] **Jeff Weisensel:** Floor is open for Council. Any questions or comments? [34:59] **Paul Essler:** None. [35:00] **Paul Theisen:** None here. Excellent presentation. Appreciate all the work staff does behind that. So with that, look for the recommended action. [35:10] **Paul Theisen:** I'll make a motion to adopt the attached 10-year Capital Improvement Plan for 2025 through 2034. [35:18] **Paul Essler:** Second. [35:19] **Jeff Weisensel:** Motion by Theisen, second by Essler. Roll, please. [35:22] **Erin Fasbender:** Essler? [35:23] **Paul Essler:** Aye. [35:24] **Erin Fasbender:** Weisensel? [35:25] **Jeff Weisensel:** Aye. [35:26] **Erin Fasbender:** Theisen? [35:27] **Paul Theisen:** Aye. [35:28] **Jeff Weisensel:** And that approves item 9b, 3-0. Completes that and we'll move on to announcements. To Mr. Martin for City staff updates. [35:36] **Logan Martin:** Thanks, Mayor. I have a couple of kind of fun announcements that we wanted to give a call out to. One was the Heroes and Helpers program—you guys had a donation accepted on consent—and I was going to ask Chief Thomas to pop up and give us a share-out on this awesome community event. [35:54] **Carson Thomas:** Yes, thank you Mayor, members of Council. We had the annual Heroes and Helpers event—I think it was our ninth annual event this year. As you saw in the consent agenda this week was the donations from grocery bagging. So not only Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, but then also going to Cub Foods and just watching the community partake in the event. So in two hours we were able to raise that much money—that would at least... that was several thousand dollars, over $3,000 at Cub Food. So just a huge thanks to the community that comes out. Everybody gets involved; they hear about what we're doing, and I think, you know, we're starting to... people are gaining awareness that we do this every year and they actually strategically plan to come to Cub on that day to donate. In fact, a few people actually missed it and they came back and were like, "We were trying to get there in time," but we still accept the donations. So that's what makes it possible is the great community members that we have. And then of course our businesses—the Legion always throws, Legion Post 65 always throws in a huge, huge donation. Culver's provided free ice cream this year, of course. Cub gives us the space, Hosanna allowed us to host the event at their location. And just to kind of give you a feel of what goes on: we meet at the initial location. We had all 30 kids present this year, and that's a first—we typically have one or two that drop out, but we had perfect attendance. And these kids come from a variety of situations. There's no application process; it's all done throughout the year, you know... I'm not going to say ad-hoc, but as you come across things, right? So it might be a family member that's died—someone, a mother, father—terminal cancer, it might be a little bit of needs-based, it could be whatever reason might have happened that they need a boost. It comes from school counselors, from some of our church leaders in the community, it comes from officers being at calls, firefighters as well. So really good showing from the fire department this year. Chief Springer was there—it was his first event. He had told me this morning that it was great to be at and be a part of something like that. The boy he got to take around was a super nice kid; he's going through some struggles with gene therapy and some muscular dystrophy stuff, but just the attitude that he had as a perspective builder was really nice to engage with. After shopping at Target—I want to say thank you to Target as well—they provided some salads and some food there in Apple Valley, as well as they brought on extra help that night to help us shop and find the stuff we needed quickly and efficiently, gave us our own checkout lanes. We go back to Hosanna, and that's where we have volunteers from the Legion as well as Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, and they're the ones that get all of the wrapping done and the tags and the lists and everything, and that's a huge lift for those volunteers. So it wouldn't be possible... that allows us to then spend more time with the kids, eat ice cream. One thing that stuck out for me was I went up to get the Culver's ice cream and a kid that I recognized, but I couldn't put my finger on where it was... he asked me what I wanted. I said, "Okay, I'll have some Oreos on mine." So he's putting some Oreos on it, little cookies and cream, and he says... I said, "You actually look familiar," and he's like, "Well, I came to this event two years ago." So he was a kid that came two years ago; he had brain cancer at the time, he's now in remission, but he wanted to come back and help with the event. So just a lot of cool stories like that, and just very thankful for again the community partnerships, all the donations, and looking forward to a big year ten. [39:27] **Jeff Weisensel:** Awesome. Awesome, thank you. Congrats. [39:31] **Logan Martin:** And Mayor, we also had the Santa Tour, and I know that you were there to help tour around Santa. Chief Springer was too. I'm not going to force him to get up to the mic 'cause I didn't prep him... [39:41] **Jeff Weisensel:** I want him to come up! [39:43] **Logan Martin:** Oh, well, that's Mayor's prerogative, but I was going to say, talk about that the amount of donations we received on that one too. [39:48] **Jeff Weisensel:** Yeah, no, I... well, Chief, if you're ready, give it a shot, otherwise I can stumble through it. I know I got the text so I know you know the numbers. [39:52] **Logan Martin:** This is not hazing to the new Chief, this is... I didn't prep him on this, so I apologize. [40:00] **Kip Springer:** Correct, you did not prep. Mayor... yes, this was my first year of participating in anything like this. I've been a firefighter for 35 years; I've never had opportunities like what I see in Rosemount—part of what drove me here to begin with. But this Santa parade, I believe it's around four or five years that we've been doing this event. We spent over three hours of driving around in our community engaging with our residents, collecting food donations for 360 Communities. This year we collected 1,155 pounds of food and $110 in cash donations as well. That was all dropped off. We had several trucks out on the road. Thank you to our partners in police for escorting us around town, keeping us safe, and also engaging with our community. Again, this was just an amazing event. I thank you, Mayor and Council, for supporting efforts like this for us to engage with our community. So many positive comments from our residents. I know there's some pictures that are out on the website, and certainly... just tremendous amount of participation, people coming out, getting their pictures taken. Some of these neighborhoods, they just collect, and just a fantastic time and opportunity to be out there with our residents. So, thank you. [41:25] **Jeff Weisensel:** Yeah, and a lot of positive press on social media as well. It was good. Thanks. No, I'll give it back to you. Thank you. All righty. With that, then, we'll move on to upcoming community calendar. Are there any announcements from Council? [41:40] **Paul Theisen:** None here. [41:41] **Jeff Weisensel:** Seeing none, tomorrow December 18th, we have our Youth Commission meeting from 3:45 to 4:45 at the Steeple Center. City Hall will be closed Christmas Eve, December 24th, and on Christmas, December 25th. And then also January 1st, City Hall will be closed. And then our next City Council work session meeting will be on January 7th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., and City Council following at 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Is that right? 5:00 to 7:00, okay. Just expecting a short one, sure. And so with that, this is our last meeting for 2024 for the City Council. Just like to extend, on behalf of City Council and myself and staff, happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and whatever else you want to celebrate during the holidays. Stay safe out there, stay warm. Again, Merry Christmas to everyone. With that, I'll move to adjourn. [42:51] **Paul Theisen:** Second. [42:52] **Jeff Weisensel:** All in favor signify by saying "Aye." [42:54] **Councilmembers:** Aye. Aye. [42:55] **Jeff Weisensel:** Opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you. [43:02] [Music]