Based on the context provided and the dialogue in the transcript, here is the formatted version with speaker names identified. **Note:** While the context list provided names **Jon Radermacher** as City Administrator, the Mayor and Council repeatedly address the staff member as "**Neil**." Based on municipal records for Cannon Falls, Neil Jensen preceded Jon Radermacher; however, I have followed the transcript's vocal cues while referencing the staff roles provided. [6:24] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** I’d like to call a City Council meeting, July 19th, 2021, to order. Roll call here, please. [6:30] **City Clerk Sara Peer:** [Roll call names—phonetic: Nobach, Kronenberger, Lundell, Montgomery, Jeppesen]. [6:40] **Council Members:** Here. / Here. / Here. [6:45] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Would you rise for the Pledge of Allegiance? [6:48] **Group:** 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. [7:02] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, do I have approval of the agenda? [7:08] **Council Member:** So moved. [7:09] **Council Member:** Second. [7:11] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by [Jeppesen], second by [Lundell] to approve the agenda. Any discussion? All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carried. Okay, first thing on the agenda tonight, we have a presentation. I’m going to introduce—we’ve got Bucky Lindau, Keith Myers, and Luke Winchell here. They’re going to give us a presentation on John Birch Park. John Birch Park has kind of fallen into a little disarray the last few years; it needs some work down there. These gentlemen have come up with a plan to kind of renovate it, and they’re going to present it to us tonight. They were at the Park Board here a couple weeks ago and listened, and we told them to come to the Council meeting tonight and kind of explain it to the whole Council. So, the stage is yours. Go right ahead. [7:56] **Keith Myers:** Thanks, John. Um, so I guess tonight I’m representing the John Birch Park Committee. Obviously, I’m a member of the Cannon Falls Bears. John Birch Park Committee really was started when we raised money for the lights back in, was it 2000, 2001? Yeah. And we’ve kind of carried it forward ever since. To Luke’s credit, you know, we’ve been talking about doing something down there for a long time, and I said, "Well, somebody’s just got to come up with a plan." And Luke kind of did that, and he did a really good job of running with the ball and kind of putting some things on paper that we just want to show everybody else. So, does everybody have this presentation? I think I sent it to Ellen, hopefully. Some of you had a chance to look at it. So really, we divided this—I’m going to keep it short, I’m not going to go through side-by-side and spend a lot of time, but I’m going to kind of hit on the high points. [9:28] **Keith Myers:** This is the view that you really think of when you think of John Birch Park. Now, when you’re looking at it from this view, it looks great, but there’s a few things that we think at field level need to be addressed. [Explains history of the grandstand, dugouts, and concession stands]. It’s really been 18 years since we’ve had any major things done to the structure down there. [10:32] **Keith Myers:** When Luke put this together, if you’re looking through it, there are some "red light" items—things that probably need to be addressed right away. Yellow light might be larger issues where we need to take a step back and say, "All right, if we’re going to tackle one of these things, we probably should put it together as part of a larger plan." And then the green light issues would be kind of a wish list. [Explains water pipe issues and the state of the home dugout and bathrooms]. [13:24] **Keith Myers:** Luke Winchell took the initiative to talk to Michael Conzeemius, who put this drawing together for us. Our thought was to combine a deck, much like what we have off the new concession stand, with a new concession structure that could be used for multi-purpose. [Explains needs for press box, handicap accessible bathrooms, and storage for field drags and equipment]. [17:16] **Keith Myers:** These are some renderings that we had done. That structure would be something that we think would make good use of the facility. Obviously, as we talk about that, we don’t want to cobble it all together. [Discusses current bathroom conditions]. [18:34] **Keith Myers:** Probably the bigger project, certainly the more expensive project, but the one that is on everybody’s mind—and it’s been on everybody’s mind for probably 30 years—is what do we need to do with the concrete seating and the limestone wall? I know Mike Daniels has done a good job repairing and keeping that in as good a shape as he could, but quite frankly, it’s at a point now where the entire wall is... there’s a noticeable shift in where it’s going, and it’s getting closer and closer to the first base line. [20:51] **Keith Myers:** Anyone that’s been down there knows that wall is iconic for the ball field. Anything we do, we would love to incorporate the wall or the limestone in some way, shape, or form. That was the old mill; we think it’s a big piece of Cannon Falls history. It’s just a matter of finding the right people with the artistic talent and engineering background to give us a visual of what that could look like. [22:23] **Keith Myers:** Whether that be a long-term solution down at John Birch Park or a long-term solution up at the school, either option is fine. We just need to come up with that long-term solution. The two topics I really want to talk about tonight were the dugout and that wall, and really start a conversation with the City on how we can come up with a long-term solution. Any questions for us? [23:56] **Council Member Steve Nordin:** Well, Keith, as I understand it, the cement bleachers were done, I believe, in the 50s, if I had to guess? [24:05] **Keith Myers:** Yeah, I have a picture in my office that’s from the late 40s. [24:09] **Council Member Steve Nordin:** Well, the reason I say that is my grandfather helped build those. He was a cement guy. Babe took over his business eventually. So, the way they’re leaning then, would that be under your warranty yet? [24:28] **Keith Myers:** After 60 years, I think it might be out of warranty. [Laughter]. Yeah, I mean, you’re talking 70-plus years ago. [24:51] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Keith, in all the renderings and discussions, has there been any talk of permanent seating up on the high-view top? If there were to be terraced bleachers—not bleachers, but actual seats like a ballpark, like CHS Field? [25:28] **Keith Myers:** You know, that conversation, we even talked about doing that maybe down the left-field line with a deck. [Discusses seating options and sightlines]. [26:14] **Council Member Steve Nordin:** Well, I was down at the Park Board meeting when you made your presentation. I think the consensus of the Park Board—and Matt or Neil, you might want to add to it—is that the field is a pride of the city. But the thing that we’ve got to do first is find out how much money it’s going to cost. We’ve got to get some estimates on the wall and your dugouts and start from there. [27:00] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** I think you summed it up. I think we’re definitely in support of it. We’ve got to figure out how to pay for it, what it’s going to cost, and how to break it up like you said with your "stoplight"—whether we go after grants for preservation because of the limestone, or go first with the third-base side. [27:46] **Keith Myers:** Exactly. I think from our perspective, this is the beginning of a larger conversation. But I don’t have grant-writing expertise or an engineering degree. If we can come up with some drawings and a fundraising plan like we did for the lights—our group raised about $100,000 for that. I think the community would step up. [29:19] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** The City might be able to help. Our City Engineer is on Zoom seeing this, so he may have some ideas or something he might want to contribute later on. [29:35] **Keith Myers:** Okay, well, I appreciate your time, guys. Thank you very much. [29:45] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Thank you guys for coming down. But that’s something we should probably do is work with Bill [Angerman] from Engineering and maybe get some costs together. That’s the starting point. [30:00] **Bucky Lindau:** I had Justin from WHKS go down and look at the wall. They’re going to put together kind of a planning number for us. We’ll bring it to the Park Board at the next meeting. It’ll be around $1,000 to put together a number for the wall. There was some money in John Birch Park's memorial in a bank account—it’s about $1,300—so it would be enough to get a plan. [31:00] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, thanks Bucky. Thank you guys. [31:17] **Council Member Steve Nordin:** Well, even if the limestone itself doesn’t end up back in a wall, things get repurposed other places too. If it’s not feasible—limestone is a very soft rock—it may not even be a good idea, but I think that’s a great idea: send the engineers after it. [31:37] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, moving on. Consent Agenda. [Reads Consent Agenda Items A through H]. Is there anything the Council would like to pull down? [Pause]. Anything? And I'd take a motion to approve the Consent Agenda. [32:55] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** So moved. [32:56] **Council Member:** Second. [32:57] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by Montgomery, second by [Nobach/Gisvold] to approve the Consent Agenda. Any other discussion? All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carried. Okay, Council Business. Item A, Resolution 2535 relating to Market Properties Number Two LLC and the option to purchase land agreement. Laura, you want to take that? [33:37] **Laura Qualey (Community and Business Development Specialist):** The new owner of the Robinson Outdoors building will be Market Properties Two. He’ll be taking possession later this month and has asked about the two adjacent city parcels directly north. [Explains the EDA negotiations and proposed terms for the option to purchase]. [35:15] **Council Member Steve Nordin:** Can I ask you a dumb question? Option for Lot One, on page three... "construct a commercial building with an estimated value at least $5,000." [35:36] **Laura Qualey:** We had to put something in there. Obviously, the building would be significantly more than that, but we just don’t know yet. It was a filler. [36:40] **Council Member Steve Nordin:** I’m just wondering, to satisfy the agreement, I mean, you can throw up a little $5,000 building and carry it for how long and not do anything for the land? [37:05] **Laura Qualey:** The size of the structure he puts on it also helps determine the price of the property that the City would sell to him. If he’s going to put a $5,000 building on it, he’s going to pay [full price]. If he puts a $2 million building on it, we’d negotiate the terms of that. [37:35] **Council Member Steve Nordin:** Should we put a deadline on there that he’s got to build something within a certain period? [38:11] **Laura Qualey:** It does say that he has to have a permit or paid for a permit or brought plans to us within the first two years. He has three years that we're holding that property. He will pay the estimated taxes for the next three years upfront at the time of the agreement. [39:35] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Any other discussion? Entertain a motion to approve Resolution 2535. [39:41] **Council Member:** So moved. [39:42] **Council Member:** Second. [39:43] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by [Nobach], second by [Jeppesen] to approve Resolution 2535. All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carried. Okay, that brings us to Resolution 2534, setting a public hearing for the Hayes annexation. Neil, you want to take that? [40:04] **Jon Radermacher (Neil):** Sure. Josie Hayes has made application to annex 12.4 acres of her property on the north end of Cannon Falls. What she’s wanting to do is an R3 medium-density residential district. The Planning Commission has reviewed the annexation application and they make a recommendation to the City Council to set a public hearing for March 2nd at 6:30. [40:55] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Any discussion? Okay, I have a motion to approve Resolution 2534. [41:03] **Council Member:** So moved. [41:04] **Council Member:** Second. [41:05] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motioned by [Jeppesen], second by [Lundell] to approve Resolution 2534. All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carried. Okay, reports. Chamber? [41:42] **Kyle (Chamber of Commerce):** Good evening, Board and community. [Reports on garland/holiday decoration removal, the 2021 Discover Guide, flower basket sponsorships, and the status of the Children's Easter Hunt]. [44:11] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, thank you. Planning Commission, Bill? [44:17] **Bill Angerman (City Engineer):** Um, yeah, we only had the one item, which was the Hayes annexation, and we took the first step tonight on that. [44:28] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay. Library Board? [44:31] **Council Member:** No, nothing to report really. Just keep checking along. [44:44] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay. EDA, Laura? [45:00] **Laura Qualey:** First of all, I just want to welcome Matt Montgomery and also John Dahl, who is the new bank president at Merchants Bank, to our EDA board. [Reports on new meeting times, the upcoming EDA annual report, the regional trails grant, and the Goodhue County business relief program which distributed $242,000 in grants]. [49:40] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay. Public Works, Derek? [50:00] **Council Member Derek:** Well, Mr. Chairman, we talked about setting up interviews for a new Public Works Director. We also talked about looking into changing our policy of the homeowner being responsible for the water main. Right now they’re responsible all the way to the main; we may look into switching that to the curb stop. Neil was going to look into that. [50:35] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, very good. Okay, staff. Let’s see—Jeff, you got anything? [50:40] **Jeff McCormick (Police Chief):** Nope, just thank you for moving forward on those items I had on the Consent Agenda. We’ll be moving forward to get those positions filled. [50:56] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Neil? [51:00] **Jon Radermacher (Neil):** Um, this weekend there was some concern over some rough-looking water on Colvill again. We did have the Public Works department come out on Sunday and flush the hydrants, but I think that’s a recurring issue. [Suggests reconstruction is needed for the 4-inch cast water main]. Until we come up with a fix, we’re going to go back to flushing once a week. [52:00] **Council Member:** Neil, for the uninitiated over here, what is the source of the problem? Do we know? [52:10] **Jon Radermacher (Neil):** It's cast iron pipe. They've got rust. You're not going to fix it; you either use plastic now or ductile iron. [52:41] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay. Let’s go around. Derek, you got anything? [52:45] **Council Member Derek:** As we saw earlier, we are unfortunately losing a couple of police officers, so I want to thank Officer Larson and Officer Good for their service. I wish them luck going forward. I can't help but think at least part of it is due to some actions and words made by our Council, and if that’s the case, that’s unfortunate. [53:40] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Laura, anything? [53:42] **Council Member Laura Kronenberger:** No, I’m good. [53:43] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Mary Jill? [53:44] **Council Member Mary Jill:** Nothing for me. [53:45] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Matt? [53:46] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** I wanted to say thank you to our law enforcement and our emergency services and Fire Department, who just received that award from the Sheriff’s Department. [Refers to a life-saving event shared on social media]. Also, regarding our law enforcement—we’re about four officers down from where we were a year ago, and that’s going to be a rough patch. Neil, I was wondering if there’s going to be any exit interviews or if the Council will have access to the information shared in those? [55:01] **Jon Radermacher (Neil):** [Confirms they will conduct interviews]. [55:40] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Bill? [55:41] **Bill Angerman:** Nothing. [55:42] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Steve? [55:45] **Council Member Steve Nordin:** I had the opportunity to observe the Cannon Falls Fire Department’s response this morning down at John Birch. As far as a 100% volunteer fire department, from the time the call came in to the time their trucks were flying through town, it is just awesome. What a good department we have. [56:36] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Okay, I’ve got nothing, but I’m just going to go through some upcoming meetings. [Lists EDA, Planning Commission, Library Board, Public Works, Joint Powers, and Park Board meetings]. That being said, we’ll get into Public Input. [Reads Public Input rules]. Open Public Input... Second call... Third and final call... Okay, we’ll close the Public Input. And with that, I take a motion to adjourn. [58:08] **Council Member:** So moved. [58:10] **Council Member:** Second. [58:11] **Mayor Matt Montgomery:** Motion by [Nobach], second by [Lundell] to adjourn. All in favor? (Aye). Opposed? Carried.