This transcript covers the Moose Lake City Council organizational and regular meetings held on January 11, 2023. [0:03] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome everybody to the Moose Lake City Council organizational meeting here on Wednesday, January 11, 2023, at 4:00 PM. First, we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. [0:22] **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. [0:42] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All right, so um, we have approval of the agenda. All in favor? Aye. Do business letter A: Oath of Office. So we should know... [1:17] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: All right, if you could repeat after me please. I, [insert your name], do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Minnesota, and that I will discharge faithfully the duties of the office of council member in the City of Moose Lake, County of Carlton, the State of Minnesota, to the best of my judgment and ability. Thank you. Impressive. [2:15] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thanks, Ellissa. Take a little bit agenda for our next item is the committee and board appointments. Everybody has a handout. [2:41] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All right, I'll do uh let's see, one, two, three, four, five... so I'll do the first seven items all in one motion and then we'll go through each committee after that. The City Attorney is Flaherty & Hood. City Engineer: Matt [at] SEH. City Finance Advisory: Northland Securities, Bob [Vokes]. Council: Kennedy & Graven. Chartered City Auditor: CliftonLarsonAllen. City Funds Repository: First National Bank of Moose Lake. The official city newspaper: Star Gazette. Do I have a motion to accept those? **Council Member**: So moved. **Council Member**: Second. [3:27] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: A second. Any discussion? Questions? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Moving on to the Planning Commission: there's myself, Doug Juntunen, Doug Skelton, Joanne Unzen, and William Hayden. And none of those are up for the public citizens, but myself and Doug need to be approved annually. So, do we have a motion? **Council Member**: So moved. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Opposed? Motion carried. [4:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: The next: The Economic Development Authority. Doug Juntunen is the city council member. Greg Sarvela is the city council member. Yvonne Skelton, hers is 2023. Terry Burns is 2022. Steve Olson is 2024. So Terry Burns we need to approve, and he has agreed to serve. Do you have a motion? **Council Member**: So moved. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Motion carried. [4:43] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Zoning Administrator: Ellissa Owens, City Administrator. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Housing and Redevelopment Authority: Sharon Poppy, 2022. Catherine Brekke, 2023. Alice Miller, 2024. Ardy Isaacson, 2024. Grant Morsi, 2023. So we have one individual, Sharon, for 2022. Do I have a motion? **Council Member**: So moved. [5:35] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Moving on to the next one, the Park and Recreation board. There's myself, Walter Lower, the Council rep. Becky Leaf is the township rep, and her term is up, but that has to be approved by the Township first, so hers will have to come back next Monday. Rod Stewart 2024, Barney Inman 2024, Greta Lane 2023, Lowell [Huset] 2023. And we do have one vacancy, and I believe did we get a second? We have somebody—oh, come on. [6:21] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: So we do have the ones that need to be approved for Becky, Ross, and Barney. I’m not trying to—excuse me—but we’ll have to wait on Becky. But Ross and Barney, do we have a motion to appoint them to the Park and Recreation board? Someone? **Council Member**: So moved. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Library Board: Kris Huso, the Council member. Karen Johnson and Sawyer [Grant]. [7:08] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I can’t hear you... okay. And Dave [Meyers]... and it'd be Walter Lower. Karen will have to be approved by the township, so Walter Lower to be approved by the council. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Cemetery Board: Greg Sarvela, city council. Mike Peterson 2022, June Mackey 2023, Walter Lower 2024, Natalie [Mikrot] 2024. So we have Greg and Mike. Mike did say he'd like to stay on. Is there a motion to approve them? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. [7:57] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Public Utilities Commission: we have one vacancy which I stepped down from. We have Kurt York 2024 and Doug Skelton 2023. Is there a volunteer? Because this is a city council position to serve on the Public Utilities Commission. [8:23] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I do have the responsibility to assign someone to that position, and if a person that I select does not want to serve, they'll have to make a motion to open it up to the public, it'll have to be advertised, and then we would collect those people that applied, and would have to do an interview and then select them at our next city council. So, if you do not wish to serve, you can make a motion to open it to the public. **Doug Juntunen**: You ask me to do it, I'll do it. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Do I have a motion? **Doug Juntunen**: I'll make that motion. [9:36] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you. Fire District Board: Walter Lower and Robert Hoppe. And we need to approve both of them. And Robert did want to serve, correct? **Ellissa Owens**: Yes. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. [10:24] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Okay, City Officers and Officials. Mayor Pro Temp—I'll go through these items underneath here, looks like it's just on this page and then we will do them all at once. Mayor Pro Temp: Doug, you still want to hold that position? **Doug Juntunen**: Yes. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Weed and Tree Inspector: I know my name was on that one. [10:49] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I should... yeah. Safety Officer: Phil Entner. Police Manager and Director: Phil Entner. Building Official Inspector: Andy Sharp. Township and Marina Machines and Animal Control: Moose Lake Police Department. Board of Health: Gateway Clinic physicians. Emergency Preparedness: The Mayor, myself. Cable Television Public Access Coordinator: Rory Buckowitz. Do we have a motion to accept those assignments? **Council Member**: So moved. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. [11:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Next I will start with the city council committees. I'll go through them down to the last area of the City Administrator and Department Directors. The Municipal Liquor Store: Doug Juntunen and Greg Sarvela. Do you wish to serve? **Doug Juntunen**: Yes. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Police Protection: Kris [Huso]. **Kris Huso**: Yep. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Cable Television Committee and Communications Technology Committee... yes, there is one you missed... **Kris Huso**: Administration. Did I miss my mother? **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I did. Administrative Committee: Kris and I. The cable television... you should really have—I don't know—there was one there. That's why I'm thinking that it should be put on there. **Kris Huso**: Okay. [12:25] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Oh yes. Chamber of Commerce: myself. Walter Lower, do you wish to? **Walter Lower III**: Yes. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) Advisory Committee: myself and Kris. **Kris Huso**: I'd like to be removed. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All right, so Kris will be removed. We have a volunteer to serve on that? I think it used to be just you, but because I was in that capacity... yeah. So there's a meeting coming up; they meet at seven in the morning, seven to eight, once a quarter. [13:11] **Doug Juntunen**: Okay, sure. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All right, Doug. Thank you. Um, we have Active Living Coalition: myself and Doug. How's it been going, Doug? **Doug Juntunen**: We're actively listening. You've done a great job. We should probably look at that. [14:03] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: It’s been a little while, about 20 years. Do I have to ask more? No. Okay. That we wish to continue to sort of share it. Thank you. Safety Committee: myself, Phil Entner (Public Safety Officer), Ellissa Owens (City Administrator), Aaron Johnson (Police Chief), and Ryan McKeon (Finance Director). [14:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Do we have a motion to accept those appointments? **Council Member**: So moved. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Can I have a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. [15:23] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Okay, nope, just we've got one more section. City Administration and Department Directors. City Administrator/City Clerk-Treasurer: Ellissa Owens. Deputy Clerk/Finance Director: Ryan McKeon. Electronic Fund Transaction Designation: Ryan McKeon. Public Works Superintendent: Phil Entner. Chief of Police: Aaron Johnson. Municipal Liquor Store Manager: Elaine Henninger. Library Director: Laura Helwig. Motor Vehicle Deputy Registrar: Karen [Laine]. Do we have a motion to accept those appointments? **Council Member**: So moved. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Are there any other ones? Was there the depository? [16:09] **Kris Huso**: There's another thing. Is Ryan the one who does all the deposits? You remember, Kris, there was always something we had to do for like checks—signing checks—and there's a signature page for... [16:16] **Ellissa Owens**: We did do that already. It was when [Ryan] first [started]. Correct. We re-upped everybody else at that time as well. [17:01] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any other items from the Council? Hearing none, do I have a motion to adjourn the reorganizational meeting? **Council Member**: So moved. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Do you have a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you all. [17:02] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I will now open the regular meeting of the Moose Lake City Council for Wednesday, January 11, 2023, and it is now 4:17. We've already done the Pledge of Allegiance. So approval of agenda is the next item. Do you have any changes or additions? **Council Member**: No. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Can I have a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Under number two, Consent Agenda 2A, we have the minutes for the regular city council meeting for December 19, 2022. Do I have any questions or discussion on the minutes? Hearing none, can I have a motion to accept the minutes for December 19th? **Council Member**: So moved. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. [18:34] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Under 2B, Financial Reports: Number one, the City Accounts Payable for December 2022. Number two, the City Financial Statements for December 2022. Number three, the Liquor Store Profit/Loss statements for December 2022. Any discussion or questions on the financial reports? [18:45] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Do I have a motion? **Council Member**: So moved. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Do I have a second? **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Before we vote, were there items last month that needed and we couldn't get done? **Ellissa Owens**: What month was that? We had to wait a month, three or four months ago, and we caught them back up. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Moving on to Public Comment. This time is for comments from the public on matters not listed on the agenda. Please keep your comments to three minutes. Looks like none. Moving on to number four, the Department Reports. Police Chief. [19:31] **Aaron Johnson (Police Chief)**: Department report for December 2022. Mayor, members of the Council, Administrator Owens. In your packet you should have our December police report totaling 158 calls for service. 25 over for extra patrol, 12 traffic stops, 32 community engagement, 11 assists to other agencies, 73 calls for service and five medicals. It seems like every time we turn around it's another snowstorm and that I think that's helped keep things down. Phil and his crew have been making it a lot easier for everything around town. Hopefully, the parking problem has been probably our biggest thing—getting some of those people off the street. We've been sending out a lot of letters. At some point here we'll probably start towing some that are repeat ones. [20:16] **Aaron Johnson (Police Chief)**: I want to take part of the time here to introduce Pat Walsh. All of you approved him a while back here. He started on January 2nd as full-time. He's got a lot of experience, worked as a police officer in South Dakota, military vet, has run a couple businesses and he's been doing a great job so far for us. I just wanted to give you guys the opportunity to meet Pat. Pat, if you have any questions for him? I think you've met some of the people in here. [21:02] **Pat Walsh (Police Officer)**: Yeah, first time meeting you guys. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. You guys have a great little town. Just so you know, Moose Lake has a great community. Some of you might know my past, maybe you don't. I own a couple businesses in St. Louis County. I also did run for St. Louis County Sheriff. So I do know a lot about communities, and I tell you that Moose Lake is by far one of the better communities. I plan to applaud you guys for that. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Welcome aboard. **Pat Walsh**: Thank you very much, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here. [21:48] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you. Great job. Where did you work in South Dakota? **Pat Walsh**: Huron. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Have you been there? No, I have not. But you've been to South Dakota. Oh yeah. A different world in South Dakota. **Pat Walsh**: It's a nice state. Yes, I spent quite a few years in the Army. I was an MP in the military, so I've been deployed all over the world. I truly enjoyed it. I always wanted to move back up here to Minnesota. After I got out, I was offered a job in South Dakota and took it, then moved back up here and started a couple businesses. I've known Derek for quite some time, and he said absolutely... I've heard nothing but great things about this town. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Well, thank you for coming on, we certainly appreciate that. [22:26] **Aaron Johnson (Police Chief)**: And then just a last follow-up. We're in the process of hiring somebody that is totally green as just a part-time officer. We've already got a background check wrapped up on that. Somebody that Pat ends up knowing that worked for his business for a while is already eligible to be licensed... passed the POST and everything. We just have to activate that. He has some other job experience that relates to law enforcement pretty well, did an internship with Minnesota State Patrol, and is really looking forward to coming to work for us. He is someone that we should be able to have on our part-time list to help keep things moving along since everybody is working all the overtime in their own department. We look forward to getting her going pretty soon. Other than that, this last month was pretty good. We had that power outage that included people in the surrounding areas for four to five days, but other than that, things are going pretty well. Any questions for me? **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thanks, Aaron. **Aaron Johnson**: All right, thank you. [23:59] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: City Superintendent report for 2022. Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, Administrator Owens. We'll start off in the Water Department. Water Department distributed 5.6 million gallons of drinking water in the month of December. The Engineers are reviewing some previously collected data from a previous engineer. It looks like a lot of that data is pretty accurate. This end of this month, possibly beginning of February, I'll be reapplying again for that MDH source water protection grant, which is what got your camera on this station line last year which didn't cost us a dollar. So we'll be doing that again. We’re moving right through it. If we can keep doing that through grants, that would be awesome because we all know finances are tight here. [24:46] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: Sewer Department collected 10 million gallons of wastewater in the month of December. The bridge lift station pumps are still on hold; we're going to wait until spring to install them. We’ll touch later on in tonight's meeting about some random wastewater stuff we were doing for the phosphorus management plan or Mercury management plan. [25:31] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: Street Department: yep, we know there's a bunch of snow. It seems like it snows every other day. Equipment is holding up, but it seems like we're running during the day, we're fixing at night, and then we're trying to get back in here and do it all over again. A reminder—Aaron, you might not have to tell me about this one—Minnesota State Statute 160.27 subdivision five: it is illegal to place snow in the right of way or across the public road. We have that happening all the time. [26:17] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: Between Aaron and I, we're going to sit down and talk about it a little bit more. We have a lot of brush piles left in the right of way which is a traffic concern or safety hazard, so we're forced to do something about that. We're going to start addressing some of those. I think a little bit of communication goes a long way with that. [27:02] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: Parks, Campground, Cemetery—everything is shut down for the winter. The columbarium did arrive last week. It's at the shop, but it's not going to be in place for a while. And that's okay. It’s in one piece, so that's a plus. And then we have some safety stuff to touch on here tonight. There's an AWAIR (Workplace Accident and Injury Reduction) policy later on in the packet. The Federal program is the first step of even any of this happening for Moose Lake, just because the current program in place only covers part of the employees. This one will cover all of them. From there, we can build on trainings, requirements, and a lot of those are going to be done electronically—YouTube videos or videos from the League of Minnesota Cities which are very cheap. This is definitely the first step. [28:34] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: Second thing under safety: there is a 50/50 matching grant out there in the first quarter of 2023 that would apply for a trench box. The trench box was 10 or 12 grand, so there's a possibility of some funding there. We're going to go after that pretty hard. That's all I have right now. [28:34] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any questions? Are you going to call a Safety Committee meeting in the next quarter? **Phil Entner**: In the first quarter for sure. And then we'll have them on a quarterly basis. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: And you're aware we do have that meeting coming up on the emergency response, which is part of the Safety Committee? [29:20] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I've asked Ellissa and Taylor just to start updating the stuff in the emergency response book. **Phil Entner**: I guess I missed that. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: We're going to hold a meeting on the 18th and go over the book and get input from the fire chief, police chief, yourself, and Ellissa. I am not up to date anymore; my training goes back to NIMS, and now it's all changed again. I started updating some of that today after the power outage. **Phil Entner**: Good question, nobody knows the name of the new system. I guess we'll learn. [30:53] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Phil, the same snow pile we talked about before... the problem was you moved it, but it was so big that literally when you come from on Second Street, you have to have your entire car out almost across the street to look down towards Lakeshore Drive to see if anybody's coming. Is there another intersection we could push it down farther? [31:40] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: No, I understand your question. However, it does cost more money if we push it farther. However, I was thinking there's a pretty good size right-of-way right there in front of that residence. We could actually back that pile off the corner and move it farther west to open up that intersection better. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Yeah, it's just a little less... I mean it was cleared out, but literally I was almost across the street to look down. Everybody comes to the post office in the morning and it's just a matter of time before somebody gets hit. **Phil Entner**: Absolutely, we can see about pushing it back. Not a problem. [32:27] **Doug Juntunen**: I just wanted to say, as a city council member and a business manager downtown, we really appreciate you getting all that snow from downtown. It's looked really good this year. And the old people too that struggle to get over all that stuff—thank you. **Phil Entner**: Just doing our job, bud. Thanks for keeping us employed. [33:14] **Elaine Henninger (Liquor Store Manager)**: Municipal liquor store Department report for December 2022. Tonight I do have some exciting news. We were open for the first time ever on January 1st. From 3:00 to 12:00, our total for on and off-sale was roughly around $2,500. Transfers were around $400. The extra wages to work on the holiday were around $250. So it was definitely worth opening up that day. People enjoyed it; everybody was ecstatic. "Oh, you're going to open on the first? Wow, this is awesome." And the E-tabs—the Hockey Association decided to switch from Pilot to Woody Chase, which is still making 15% off of that. The transition went smoothly. Any questions? **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Thank you, we appreciate it. [34:36] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Moving on to 4D, Technology/Library monthly update. Anything from the library? **Ellissa Owens**: Nothing. [35:24] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: Moving on to 4E, city engineer monthly update for January 5, 2023 meeting minutes. We had a conference call this month instead of a meeting due to snow. We did not touch on the entire section of minutes, but a few things: the stop sign is still on 4th Street to finish up that project. To be honest with you, I just assumed they'd not even put it in right now because it's just going to be in our way and they’ll have to fix it in the spring. [36:39] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: For the 2023 paving project, there's going to be a conversation I'm going to want to have with Administrator Owens and the Mayor. I think we can save a lot of money doing it a little bit differently. Also on the trails—people are walking out and using it. It's technically still not posted and they haven't finished the signs yet. Right now, we're stopping them and talking to them, saying "you're not supposed to be on here," but they don't know because the old snowmobile trail used to come through a portion of that. [37:25] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: Shift gears a little bit to the Sewer Department. Mercury management plan and phosphorus minimization plan. There is still a bunch of sampling we are going to be doing this winter to target some of those heavier users. There's some stuff on an SIU (Significant Industrial User) agreement that we're going to explain later. The mapping I touched on earlier. The MDH Lead Service replacement... that survey rule is basically that we have to check to see how many lead services we have in Moose Lake. I feel we have very few lead service lines left in this town. The downfall is we can't go through that survey and say "Yep, they're all copper." If we don't get information on a residence, it's automatically qualified as a lead service. [39:45] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Regarding the Genesis lease agreement—essentially we've been looking to update our contract with Genesis. They were given the option to pull the contract to the city, otherwise as part of our agreement with them, our city engineers could draft a new contract that they would be required to pay for. They chose to draft the contract internally and sent it to us. We then had our city engineers review it, and there are some items that we're going to have to negotiate with them, for example, sunset clauses and annual increases in the lease amount. We're getting a little bit closer but it's taking time. [40:50] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Moving on to 4F, Chamber of Commerce updates. The Chamber of Commerce has hired a new executive director, her name is Michelle Anderson. She has worked in the area for an extended period of time. She starts Monday. They have an annual dinner on Saturday and an Icebox event coming up in February. I think some of you may know her; she was the head of the Mercy Foundation for years. [41:44] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: She's done a really good job. She did a real good job for Mercy and had to go through that changeover to Essentia. She should be a good addition to the Chamber. [42:31] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Previously discussed business, number 5A: Police District exploration discussion. What I wanted to do with this is to get consensus from the council to move ahead. Ellissa, myself, and Aaron have talked about it in the last couple of days, and we'd like to take the next step with this discussion with the pursuit of the Moose Lake Township. **Council Member**: What is the next step? **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Just to start discussion with them, either with the chair or one of the members, just to start that process. **Council Member**: I’m fine with that. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: We're hoping that it would look something like the Fire District. So we have consensus. [44:14] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: New business, item 6A: 2023 City of Moose Lake fee schedule. We handed out a new one; everything that has been updated or changed is highlighted. We have changed the dog and cat licensing and tag amounts. The park pavilion daily rental fee has been updated. The water and sewer rates in conjunction with the rate increases that were passed in December. And then the I&I (Inflow and Infiltration) inspection information has also been added to the fee schedule. [45:12] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Any discussions or questions? **Council Member**: What is the purpose [of the rental fee]? **Ellissa Owens**: It was voluntary, and we've officially put a dollar amount on it. We’ve had costs associated with maintenance and appliances in there. The park pavilion does rent out every single weekend in the summer. It's going to be nice to be able to recoup some of the maintenance costs for that. [46:54] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Do I have a motion to accept the 2023 fee schedule? **Council Member**: So moved. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carried. [47:45] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Item 6J, seasonal tent site rental. We've received a request from a community member to have our tent site available for a seasonal rental. A couple of pros and cons: our tent sites sometimes do flood, and for activities such as the Fourth Fest, we have to have the tent area clear in totality for the fireworks display. [49:18] **Aaron Johnson (Police Chief)**: I wouldn't go forward with it. What you find is you're going to get a lot of people that have been kicked out from other campgrounds. We evicted a bunch this last year; there were problems everywhere they went. Once they know you're going to stay there, you're going to have junk piled in there everywhere. **Phil Entner**: I agree. The couple we had last year, the mess they left behind was... we had to clean it up. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Greg, seasonal? **Greg Sarvela**: No. **Kris Huso**: I agree, no seasonal. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: So we have consensus. No. [50:43] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Item 6B, Minnesota Lottery 2023 annual contract renewal. **Ellissa Owens**: This is the same retailer application that we've filled out in the past. **Council Member**: Motion to accept. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. [51:31] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: Item 6C, city of Moose Lake annual AWAIR program. This is the entire workplace safety program. We do need it adopted by you guys to move on. **Ellissa Owens**: This is the first step of our safety program process. **Council Member**: Motion to accept. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carried. [52:17] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Item 6D, Fourth Street reconstruction project, Veteran Company change order number three. **Phil Entner**: Essentially, the contractor is requesting an additional $2,780.49 because their density on the blacktop was that good. You beat the standards and there's an incentive portion in the contract. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: SEH said this is only the second time in 20 years they saw this being requested. I understand it's in the contract. **Ellissa Owens**: The change order amount is $2,780.49. **Council Member**: Motion to approve. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carried. [55:26] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Item 6E, Fourth Street pay application number five. This is the fifth payment application for the Fourth Street project. We are releasing some of the retainage. The amount due is $9,956. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: I have a question. The seed did not take in a lot of areas. I would like to make sure that's taken care of. **Phil Entner**: There will be some reserve for that, and that would also follow under the warranty as well. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Motion to approve? **Council Member**: So moved. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carried. [56:49] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Item 6F, Highway 73 Trail project, Ulland Brothers pay application number eight. This is the final. The trail is not finalized as far as workmanship; there are some items left on our punch list. We ran into a position where the County and ourselves could be penalized if we didn't close out the project because it has ran on for so long. We need to make sure this project got closed out to protect our state grant funding. We have a letter of accountability from the contractor and a one-year warranty. The final pay app is $63,245.64. [59:52] **Doug Juntunen**: I make the motion that we pay this, but also that it was a requirement and recommendation by the County, and that there's an understanding that we have a one-year warranty to have all items fixed. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carried. [1:00:40] **Phil Entner (City Superintendent)**: Item 6G, SIU agreement draft. Basically, in 1993 Moose Lake passed Ordinance 127 with the ability to develop Significant Industrial User agreements. This protects our wastewater facility from big contributors. We have contributors that contribute extremely strong wastewater—up to 2,100 times stronger than it should be in terms of CBOD. If this continues, we’d have to build a new wastewater treatment plant. [1:05:38] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: We’re working with a couple of identified entities in town on these agreements to maintain the longevity of the ponds. **Phil Entner**: Keep in mind this is nothing new. This is just an old ordinance being put in place to protect the sewer department. This is informational only at this time. [1:08:43] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Item 6H, Resolution 23-01-01, business authorization resolution for account signers. **Council Member**: Motion to approve. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carried. [1:09:53] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Item 6I, lease agreement with Moose Lake Area Hockey Association. This contract includes an $11,000 increase for part-time wages at the arena. **Council Member**: Motion to accept. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Motion carried. This was excellent work; I don't think we've had an offer to help pay for employment like this ever. [1:10:54] **Taylor Hansberry (Deputy Clerk)**: Item 6K, Ordinance 169 regarding dogs and cats. I've been getting calls from citizens wondering about licensing. I’ve modified the old ordinance. I added that we should have a current rabies vaccination certificate on file. Licenses are valid for one year, but we also added a lifetime option. Each household can possess a maximum of three dogs and/or three cats. [1:13:14] **Taylor Hansberry (Deputy Clerk)**: Regarding impoundment, we don’t have a local animal shelter, so I reached out to Rough Start Rescue out of Princeton. They agreed to be our primary contact for strays that don't get reclaimed. **Kris Huso**: Is there a fee for Rough Start? **Taylor Hansberry**: No, they are a non-profit and volunteer-based. [1:15:36] **Aaron Johnson (Police Chief)**: This is great because there is nowhere to go. Animal Allies in Duluth isn't taking them if you aren't from that county. Taylor was able to get us a scanner so we can check for microchips. **Council Member**: Are there differences between rental properties and other residential? **Aaron Johnson**: Typically the problems we run into are apartments where there are no grounds for the dogs. [1:17:13] **Walter Lower III**: One of the problems is the landlords themselves. You call them up and tell them they shouldn't be renting to people with dogs in certain buildings, and two months later they rent to somebody else with two dogs. There's just nowhere for the animals to go to the bathroom. [1:19:21] **Kris Huso**: I just had a question on the fee schedule—you should probably add kennels onto it. **Taylor Hansberry**: It’s nice to have your dog licensed in case they ever get loose. **Aaron Johnson**: If we pick one up that’s not licensed, they’re going to get fined. [1:22:45] **Ellissa Owens (City Administrator)**: Item 7A, loss control field visit. We have a visit with the League of Minnesota Cities on February 7th. Troy Walsh will be helping us with our safety program review. [1:23:31] **Mayor Jim Michalski**: Moving on to committee and board meeting minutes: Fire District for Dec 13 and Park Board for Jan 9. Moving on to announcements. Regular City Council meeting is Wednesday, February 8 at 4:00 PM. Anything else from the Council or Administrator? **Council Member**: Motion to adjourn. **Council Member**: Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski**: All in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you.