This transcript identifies the speakers based on the provided roles and context from the meeting proceedings. [0:04] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay, we’ll call the regular city council meeting for Moose Lake Wednesday, October 8th to order. First thing is pledge of allegiance. [0:15] **Group:** I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. [0:26] One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [0:37] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Next, we have the approval of the agenda. Any additions? **Council Member Kris Huso:** Motion to approve. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Is there a second? **Council Member Walter Lower III:** I’ll second. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor? **Council Members:** Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Carried. Consent agenda, the regular city council meeting from September 10th, 2025. [0:58] The financial reports, city councils payable, September 2025. City financial statement, September 2025. And the liquor store profit loss statement, September 2025. Any questions on those? [1:15] Is there a motion to approve? **Council Member Douglas Juntunen:** So move. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Is there a second? **Council Member Lou Ohly:** Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor? **Council Members:** Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Opposed? Carried. Public comment. This time is reserved for comments from the public on matters not listed on the agenda. Please keep your comments to two minutes. [1:39] **Unidentified Resident:** Am I good for one person? Yes. Um I just have one question um regarding the portion of last year’s budget, this year’s budget that is not being used for law enforcement services. Um what that’s going to be used for. Um if there’s been any decision on that or if there’s any plans on what it may be used for. [2:05] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** Yeah, that’s a great question. So, um we are waiting to get our invoicing um from the sheriff’s office and so that happens on um an ongoing basis and um today today we’re going to announce some additional staffing um that’s occurred with deputies for uh for Moose Lake and there’s an introduction in place and so once those items are kind of hashed out and then from an administrative perspective they issue the city an invoice um then we can look at budget versus what’s remaining and what’s going out. So, um there will need to be dialogue about what those numbers look like. We’re almost there, but not quite there yet. [2:46] **Unidentified Resident:** Thank you. I appreciate it. **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** Yeah. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. Any other public comment? We’ll be at the parking reports for the county sheriff’s office. [3:01] **Sheriff's Deputy (Lieutenant):** Good afternoon. providing uh to start here provide the activity report for the month of September 2025. Uh so there were a total of 134 135 calls for service by the contract deputies and 111 calls for service handled by the other county deputies for the month of September. Should all have the breakdown in your packets. Um 32 were actual calls for service from the public. The others were various forms of self-initiated activity to include 63 extra patrols in details, 14 traffic stops, 14 business checks, uh, and six on public assists. [3:43] Any questions about the activity report? **Mayor Jim Michalski:** No, thank you. **Sheriff's Deputy (Lieutenant):** Okay. uh to give a little bit of a staffing update. Um to start with internally, administratively in the sheriff’s office, we made some administrative changes. I have taken on more of an administrative role within the sheriff’s office as the administrative lieutenant. So with that, we promoted a new patrol lieutenant. Lieutenant Ryan Ranquist is here tonight. Um so he will be taking or he has already taken over um direct supervision of the patrol division including the patrol deputies and the contract deputies. Um so you will start to see him more at your city council meetings along with Sheriff Lake. So with that uh we were able to bring the third contract deputy on board um the first part of September. So he’s been on for a few weeks. Uh, Deputy Ryan Linda is here to introduce himself to the city council and the city staff. [4:45] **Deputy Ryan Linda:** Hi, Ryan. Uh, I’ve been with the sheriff’s office since April, uh, for KPD for many years and excited to come uh, work down here and get to know everybody. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. Nice to meet you. **Sheriff's Deputy (Lieutenant):** Nice to meet you. And in addition to that, uh, we are we have Deputy Megan Connley who also came to us from Kate Police Department with a couple years experience there. She is in her final stage of field training. Uh, her field training should wrap up the end of next week and she will be assigned here um after that. So, we will have the fourth deputy in place before the end of the month. [5:22] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Good news. Thank you. Superintendent. [5:36] **City Superintendent Phil Entner:** Phil Entner here, members of the council, administrator Owens. Um, we’ll start with the water department like we always do. Water department distributed 7.2 million gallons of drinking water in the month of September. Hydrant hydrant flushing was completed uh last month. [5:52] Uh, it’s very early for this, but we’re seeing a lot of water breaks. Seven um We’ve had uh September 24th, 361 Lakeshore Drive, we had a water break. September 25th, 91 Lane, we had a water break. And I’m sure everyone is aware, the two water routes we have here next week on El Man for street. Um just so uh everyone knows, there will be some road closures the 13th through the 15th with intermittent water on and off, on and off kind of thing. Might be some cloudy water, dirty water, maybe no water for a little while, but we are uh we will be working on those next week. In the sewer department collection system, uh that number is not correct. Holy cow. Um I have it somewhere. Our inflow is [6:38] somewhere between 10 and 12 million gallons. I have 27. It’s not. 27 was the effluent going out of our wastewater facility last month. So that was our last discharge. Um the annual sanitary sewer cleaning maintenance program has kind of taken a back seat this year. We are getting it done. It’s just it’s taken all summer to get that done as we can only dedicate one to two days a week towards that with uh about 30,000 ft of pipe to clean. So it’s a it’s a large project for for our crew. Uh the treatment facility this fall and winter I’ll be attending a couple trainings in St. Cloud. There’s one in Brainer and then there’s a couple in on the range that I’m going to go to trying to find more options and avenues for us to gain capacity at our wastewater facility. The bug program [7:24] came from there. The lining program we’re doing came from those trainings. And then there was something else that’s been just I can’t remember what it is off the top of my head that uh that has came from those trainings as well. So I’ll be bopping around a little bit a couple trainings here or there. Um, street department right of ways, uh, road patching, we’re going to be doing that like crazy in the next couple of weeks till Hopkins shut down, which will be about the end of this month. Uh, equipment, I gave an update on that last month. Uh, cemeteries are all buttoned up and winterized. Campground will be winterized next week. The parks are closed uh, for the year. We have some parts stuff to talk about later tonight. [7:59] Um, other than that, I think that’s it for right now. We have some more stuff to talk about later, unless someone has some questions. **Council Member Kris Huso:** Of course, I do have a question. **City Superintendent Phil Entner:** Yes. **Council Member Kris Huso:** Have you um figured out with the water and light what you’re going to do at that first intersection for Halloween? [8:19] **City Superintendent Phil Entner:** Great. Thanks for bringing that up. Uh I did reach out to uh the power plant superintendent [Jim Pederson] last week. I got a communication back from him saying that they’re going to try to get that button up sooner than we would. So that’s uh that’s what I know for now. I can definitely put another plug in his ear to see if we can clean that up. I know it’s getting into winter. I would assume they want to get that project wrapped up. I know I want to get all of our projects wrapped up. **Council Member Kris Huso:** Well, even if they can’t get it whatever covered up, they’re going to have to put some sort of fencing around there. some some type of better barricade. [8:59] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any other questions? Thank you. Municipal liquor department report. [9:05] **Finance Director Ryan McKeon:** Good evening members of the council. Mayor Michalski, administrator Owens. Uh liquor store is going great. uh Octoberfest. I met with Sean from the brewery. We had a recap session. Uh from his standpoint, everything went awesome. Uh and he wanted to extend his greatest gratitude to Steve, the park supervisor, was really on top of it. Um was had everything ready to go. He was available by the phone. So, good job, Steve and Phil’s crew. Um let’s see. Thanks for uh the consensus right away for the Vikings game last uh Sunday. So just an idea, I just ran a quick quick number. We did 3463 for revenue that day and the or sorry 3655 and the average Sunday revenues was 3463 last year. So made a couple hundred extra bucks by opening up early. So in my eyes anyway. So that’s really good. I did distribute the December sneak peek calendar to you guys. You can just take a look at it. Um, otherwise everything’s going really well. We’re looking at capital and revenue items for budget for next year. [10:24] So, things are good. And I have some other financial stuff as far as Octoberfest coming up later in the financial report. But if you have any questions? **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Municipal, you you’ll be covering this later. **Finance Director Ryan McKeon:** Yes, I will. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Okay. That LG part. **Finance Director Ryan McKeon:** Uh, not a whole lot there. Pretty quiet, so that’s nice. Um, let’s see. I’m waiting on an install date and delivery for Laura’s computer for the library. Otherwise, status quo. [10:57] Any questions? **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. Library update. [11:14] **Library Representative (Laura):** Hello members of council, mayor, and City Administrator Owens. Um, so yep, I’m here for my quarterly library report. Um, the last three months have gone well for the library. It was the summer reading program. Um, so in July and August, we had over 1,700 people come in each month. And then September came and we lose a few hundred people that come in um once everyone starts going back to school. So, we only had about 1,500 people coming into library for September. Um, but our summer reading program went really well. Um, that started at the very beginning of July and went to August 15th. Um, and so we ended with 103 participants that had signed up and participated in our summer reading program. Uh, we had some amazing programs. The Zoo Mobile is always very popular with the live animals. We also had like um singing programs, some learning science museum program, crafts and scavenger hunts. Um and just very recently we had a felting program. So that was really great. I’ve heard great things about that and hopefully we’ll be able to have her come back and do that again. [12:22] Um coming up later this month, we do have a musical program um Klay. They’re a folk musical performance. They weave together culture and history. um so you can learn a bit about the musical um people from Minnesota. Uh so that’ll be later in this month and then we’ll also have a painting program too. So we’re trying to keep up with um lots of fun programs in the library. Um it is a little bit quieter um until we get to December when we start our winter reading program. [12:53] Um and um one of the programs we do have still continuing is our book club that we started this year. um that has still had very good retention for people coming and participating in the book club. Um so if people still want to come um they’re welcome to join the last Thursday of each month. Uh we do take a break in November and December for the holidays, but then we’ll start up again in January. [13:18] **Council Member Kris Huso:** What time is that at? **Library Representative (Laura):** Um Thursday, the last Thursday of the month, it’s at 10:00 a.m. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. Motor vehicle department. [13:44] **MV Representative (Taylor Hansberry):** Good afternoon everyone. Um just to fill in what’s going on in our office I guess. Hold the mic down please. Tell me I’m short. Um, we went to our MV meeting um in September which is very interesting and always informational. Um, one of the things that was the topic of discussion was, um, two years ago in January 24, we had that dollar surcharge that the state gave us on every um, driver’s license, renewal, and title. [14:27] And, um, they want to quit that. It was just supposed to be a temporary thing. So, our lobbyist is, um, fighting for that in our next session to keep that on for us. Um I just did a quick thing this afternoon and um in the last couple years that’s almost brought us $30,000 just that dollar per application. So that’s great to see and I don’t want it to go away. So hopefully it won’t. It’s a big um other topic of discussion was um our revenue sharing. Um so that would be if a customer um did an application online or mailed in their renewal. Um they’re talking about sharing those profits from where the customer is a resident of. Um [15:16] that will be another thing that will be going through the legislature that um they’re working on. Um also DNR was there too. Um their new program has not um been finished. It was supposed to be done back in March. Um but they’ve been having a lot of issues and they’ve just gotten another company involved to help with the completion of that. [15:38] I’m a little worried about it because that new program will allow people to renew online their boats, ATVs and snowmobiles and also um for their fishing and hunting and licensing and harvesting and all that. We don’t do those harvesting and all that, but the ATVs and boats and all that. So, um hopefully that won’t hurt our business at all when that does come up. [16:11] Um we’re also um starting to get our no fee transactions as of August 1st. all the no not all of them but there is a list of no fee transactions that we do quite often in our office that we’ve never gotten paid for through the state and um we will now be getting—the customer will not pay for them but the state will pay us back um could be some are $2, $4, $8, $11 per transaction. um that started in August and it will be every third month. But this um we should be getting our first payment um by October 15th. So we’re kind of curious to see how that will go [16:58] and how much that’ll be. Um they’re still working on the program for us to be able to look to see um a countdown of what we are actually seeing processing for free. Let's see, they were trying to um pass where driver’s license could be renewed or replacements or duplicates online. Um that was rejected. So luckily that was shot down. So we hope that doesn’t come up again. That would be devastating for our office if that happened. [17:38] We also had a speaker that talked about de-escalation, a sergeant from St. Cloud. He was very um funny, humorous, fast talker. Um we’ve been in service there for a long time and it was very um informational and fun. We also had a fraudulent um speaker about vehicles, people that buy vehicles on marketplace um that are vehicles that are stolen and um people fall into it. They go to somewhere in Montana and they can get a title and registration and not have to pay tax and then before everybody that pays the huge amount for some vehicle they go to the DMV and they can’t transfer it. It’s fraudulent. [18:36] So, they’re just saying be aware if you’re ever buying a vehicle online to um look at everything and not if it’s a good deal, probably not a good deal. You’re wasting your money. [18:52] We also um since the Stillwater prison is shutting down, um the delivery of our license plates have um been an issue because um they used to deliver our plates and bring them right in and put them right in our closet. So now they have no one to do that. [19:09] So a lot of DMV offices have been sending pictures about um they leave them outside a door. They don’t let them know they’re there. They’re all broken pieces. So they’re trying to figure that out how they’re going to be delivered. We had some training today about uh driver’s license is changing for us. Um we are going to be having to put um applications that we take from REAL IDs and emails with all the documents that we have to scan in differently into certain buckets. [20:12] Um so that those will get a little bit more time consuming for us. But I guess that’s about it. Um, except I just want to say that Chris has been working with us for a few months and we’re glad to have her on in our office and we enjoy having her. [20:33] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any questions? Thank you. Okay. Finance Department. [20:50] **Finance Director Ryan McKeon:** All right, I’m back. All right, let’s see. First in your packet I believe is the MUN analysis that’s for October 5th. So you have the proformers the first column the actual and the variance over there. So the proformer numbers of bar sales for the event I just took what actually we got from bar sales last year. So you’ll see we made an additional 82 bucks this year. That’s sales at the event itself. [21:14] Revenue at the MUN. Again I just took what we did last year at the MUN a little bit short of what we did last year. ticket sales. That’s new. So, I just used my own experience. I put down I figured we’d get about 2,000 bucks. We ended up with 2420. So, made 420 bucks. [21:33] Uh campground. Again, had no idea. So, I just put what we made in the campground last year. Um and then what we did this year, and I attributed that to Octoberfest in the promo code, you know. So 235 bucks there. Then you’ll see the expenses. Entertainment 3,300 bucks. [21:56] Wages roughly 350. Advertisement 1740. And then what we actually did—3,300. That’s because I knew that’s how much it was going to cost. 289 in wages. Advertisement, I knew what that would cost there. So, all in all, pretty good event. Talked to Sean from the brewery again. He was very forthcoming with how they performed. So, they actually made a little bit of money this year. So, they’re very happy. They’re looking forward to next year. Um, any questions on that campground analysis? So, September wrapped up. This is kind of just updated numbers of what you guys have seen in the past. So, nothing changed in the seasonal revenue 2025, seasonal revenue 2024 because that’s just is what it is. They were all paid up. You can see our site counts are down a little bit, but remember we changed some of those sites to seasonal. [23:04] Um wood sales were up a little bit over previous year and ice was up uh almost double from last year. So, that’s awesome. And then all-encompassing, we still outperformed last year about $21,641. [23:22] Any questions on the campground? **Council Member Kris Huso:** Yes. Who did we get the wood from? **Finance Director Ryan McKeon:** Lo. **Council Member Kris Huso:** And this is the profit? **Finance Director Ryan McKeon:** That is not the profit. That is just revenue versus revenue last year. [23:42] These are just revenue numbers. No costs in here. Any other questions? Okay, moving on to this other one. Just kind of something that I’m doing off to the side. Um, it really helps with strategic planning. This is the municipal liquor store. On the very left that’s the sum of revenue for a day of the week. 2025 we did $5,917,987. Last year was really good at $6.37 and the year prior for 2023 at $6.27. And then in the middle there is just kind of a bar graph illustrating that by day of the week. And then off to the right is an average revenue of the day of the week for that quarter. Just kind of something for you to look at. [25:16] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. **Finance Director Ryan McKeon:** All right. I do have one more quick note, not analysis related, but I did I got an email uh from the AEOA. So, it sounds like the senior dining and everything will be back up and operational. They hired someone uh next Thursday the 16th of October. Just thought I’d share that. [25:36] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. City engineer. [25:36] **SEH Representative (City Engineer):** Uh yes, the council received two uh sets of meeting minutes as far as engineering is concerned for uh the month of September. Uh just a couple of highlights. The city did have a coordination meeting uh with MSOP and DOC regarding the um upcoming sewer lining project for 2026. [26:05] Um that’s a collaborative project funded off of the uh city’s grant award of $658,000. Um the schedule project schedule um right now uh it’s still in the design phase. So, a lot of the discussion at the meeting was regarding um site access to the state facilities, record drawings, things of that nature. Moving on into the project bidding and award phase, that’ll be January through February of 2026. And then project construction will start in summer of 2026. [26:50] Um in addition a couple of other items um the city was also awarded a grant from the MPCA for um storm water planning essentially. It was a $76,000 grant and it’s going to help the city take inventory and analyze the city’s storm sewer infrastructure. We’ve also been coordinating with the Kettle River Upper St. Croix Watershed and there’s a funding opportunity through them [27:38] that we’ve been investigating. It’s looking like there’ll be some opportunities for the city to partner with them to help with funding of the city’s portion of the match. [28:24] In addition, the city will be required to engage in an updated wellhead protection plan. The scoping meeting for that will occur on October 28th. Then, um we did receive the structural analysis for the depot uh through an engineering firm. We’ve not had an opportunity to review that. So, that will be coming to council soon. What that is is an engineering report about um the current state of uh the depot and the historical society buildings and then what is needed moving forward. Uh what was budgeted for from a city perspective is just that reporting and then turning it over to the historical society so that they can then utilize it to apply for funding. [29:27] One last item that we’re working on is the Elbert funding application. Those project details will be brought forward to council as well. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. Any questions? John Lund, Chamber. [29:42] **Jon Lund:** Councilors, mayor, administrator, thank you for having me. My name is Jon Lund and I’m on the board of Moose Lake Area Chamber of Commerce. And just a real quick update, uh, we had some recent events here. We held our first annual bingo event Friday, September 19th. It was an adventure bingo. It sounded very successful and they’re going to look at doing that again next year. Uh we just drew our annual raffle this afternoon. Uh the winners will be contacted. Um and that wraps up pretty much our revenue producing events for the year. Uh we do have some other upcoming events. uh trunk or treat will be Friday, October 31st at the Moose Lake City Park between 3:30 and 6:30. [30:43] And then the following day, Saturday, November 1st, uh the Lake Theater is going to have a free movie sponsored by United Country and Diamond Dance. Uh sam at the depot—we worked with Essentia Health in the past, we’re not sure if they’re going to be on board this year. And then looking ahead to next year, we’re going to have our annual dinner in January. [31:27] As far as events for next year: the Kitty parades on Friday, July 3rd in the City Park. Thank you guys for that suggestion. It worked out fantastic this year. Uh the 4th of July will be on Saturday, July 4th. Agate Days will be on Saturday and Sunday, July 18th and 19th. Uh Brewfest, we’re debating whether or not we’re going to have that next year. Um numbers have been declining. [32:20] 9 and 9 golf event will be Friday July 24th and we might replace Brewfest with a spring golf event um potentially in mid-May. And we want to bring back the triathlon. We’re evaluating that. That did not happen this year mainly because of low participation numbers. And then also the bingo event was so successful, they’re looking at doing a second event next year. And then finally, um we’re going to be meeting going over membership for the upcoming year. Any questions? **Mayor Jim Michalski:** No, thank you. Thank you so much. Previously discussed business, American Legion flag design update. [33:04] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** Um I believe there was going to be a member from the American Legion that was going to come talk about some of these design updates. I don’t see a representative here, so we might want to table it until next month. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** City parks play discussion. Safety first playground maintenance. [33:35] **City Superintendent Phil Entner:** Okay. Uh as of last council meeting we made a recommendation to reach out to Safety First to see what they can do as far as fixing it and what cost estimates would be. So I did that. They came and provided another inspection. You see their estimates in there. I guess I could try to answer any questions you have. [34:22] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** So essentially there are multiple estimates that have been provided regarding um more immediate needs and repairs to each of the city’s parks. Broken out by park. Correct. So combining with the next area of discussion, council did receive this document today. Essentially we’ll kind of start to talk through it. Um so one thing that we’ve been doing internally as a staff is reviewing the repair estimates to figure out uh what is immediate and what we can address internally here. [35:10] Those dialogues resulted in the following repairs being either already completed or scheduled to be completed in two of the parks. We selected the parks that needed the least amount of repairs and that we could perform the most amount of activities in-house. What has and or will occur at Rory Peterson Memorial Park is essentially addressing the slide gaps, the bolts and caps, and new swings. [35:57] And then we will be looking at replacing wood chips in Roy Peterson Memorial Park in 2026. Um, and just to remind council, we do have a partnership with Essentia that we’re working through as far as updates at Roy Peterson. As far as the main city park is concerned, the repairs that are being done by the city’s public works team again [36:43] addressing slide gaps, the bolts and caps, the need for a toddler swing, and certain board replacements. What additional has been called out is the removal of some items. Council direction is needed for the removal of the swings that are located right next to the flagpole at the main city park. With that new flagpole project, the swings on that side are too close and so they do need to be removed. [37:43] In addition, there is a digger that needs to be removed and the tire swing. **Council Member Kris Huso:** Uh I’m just want to make sure I know what swing set that you’re talking about. Uh **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** They are the set closest to the pavilion. **Council Member Kris Huso:** Closest to the pavilion. Yep. So not in that main area where the city playground structure is. **Council Member Walter Lower III:** The old metal ones. **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** The old metal ones that are the original ones. Okay. So, essentially with the repairs that the public works team has been able to do, in addition to the removal of those three items, we have addressed the safety concerns within those inspection reports at those two parks. [38:44] The next layer of that conversation is in order to be able to direct funding towards a new city park—which is the ultimate priority goal here—would be decommissioning and removing the Old School Park. The inspection report called out a significant amount of repairs that our public works team cannot do. Um and then with the removal and decommissioning of that park, then we’ll be able to direct funding towards the main city park. Taylor’s done a ton of work on this as well, um, as far as working with Game Time playground equipment. [40:09] **Deputy Clerk Taylor Hansberry:** Yes, absolutely. Um so with the Game Time Playground Grant, there are specific playgrounds that are eligible. The playground layout that we identify as best for the area that we’re looking at came in at $103,000. Something that he was very transparent about was this could increase next year. Uh, right now he advised that we should budget about 30% of the equipment cost for installation and 10% for freight. And then with our estimates that Phil provided, we saw that resurfacing was going to cost about $10,000 and then $10,000 for the removal of the old structure. [41:21] So with that knowledge, we’re looking at around $160,000 for a new playground in City Park. With the 50/50 match, we can cut that by around $50,000. I have already submitted an application for a Bernick’s grant that is up to $40,000. There are two other grants I am looking to apply for next year through the DNR. Northwoods Credit Union also expressed interest and said that they would like to contribute in some way. [42:28] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** Thank you, Taylor. So, what this means from a budget perspective would be an initial allotment in 2026 of half of the playground equipment ($51,500). In August of 2026, the city submits proof of budgeting to Game Time, and then the playground is actually delivered and installed in 2027. **Council Member Kris Huso:** So the park would not be—we’d fix what we need to fix for the meantime? **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** It would be demolished then in the end of the 26 season so it would be ready to be installed in 27. [44:41] But in the interim, we need direction from council as far as removal and decommissioning that Old School Park in addition to the removal of the swings, digger and tire swing immediately at the main park to make sure that all safety concerns have been addressed. [45:00] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Walt. Uh, the removal of the swings there that have been there forever. I’m wondering if there’s a possibility of relocating those. They’ve been here in town for my entire lifetime and there’s never really been any problems with them. I just know that there’s going to be people who will question why we move that. If we do remove these things, we have to make sure that we inform the public. I’m also wondering what role the park board will play in what playground equipment we would be purchasing. [46:55] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** Yeah, thank you for bringing that forward. So, the park board has been involved as far as the inspection reports and the initial dialogue. They actually made the recommendation to council for the initial removal of the Old School Park as well. This information will be shared back with the park board, but in order to make sure that we’re addressing the repairs that need to happen in an immediate fashion, we had to bring this dialogue forward to council today. [47:56] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate everybody for all the time that they’ve taken on this. You guys have done a good job of answering those questions. I feel more comfortable in making my decisions with this information. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Is there a motion to remove the equipment to decommission and remove the Old School equipment? [48:54] Well, is there can we get a motion to remove the swings, remove the digger, the tire swing, and decommission and remove the Old School equipment that is called out for being in major need of repair. **Council Member Douglas Juntunen:** I’ll make that motion. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Is there a second? **Council Member Lou Ohly:** Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Further discussion. **Council Member Kris Huso:** I do have one question. Is it possible, Phil, to move that metal swing down to where we’re taking out the school? [49:40] **City Superintendent Phil Entner:** That would be a great question for the company [Safety First]. I have no idea. We’re trying to help out the best we can but this isn’t what we’re trained in. **Council Member Walter Lower III:** We just haven’t had time to look at the possibility of how hard it is to move that or if there’s another good location. I just feel that that swing set has been part of the park for so long. [50:56] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor? **Council Members:** Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Carried. New business. Rebels home field improvement request. [51:14] **Michelle Washi:** Hi, I’m Michelle Washi. I am the Rebels Home Run Club summer director and I am working on getting donations to put in a couple batting cages. A single one at the Twilight Field and then a double one down at the Little League field. I’ve been working with Phil here a little bit on the city location lines. We’re looking to put it in in the spring of this next year. From you guys, I’m looking for maybe $3,000 from the gambling fund just to go towards the cages. [52:18] **Council Member Kris Huso:** If we’re taking a request for money, we should probably have some information out there so we could have it on record. **Michelle Washi:** Sure. I can email a cost breakdown. It's for concrete flooring, foam and netting, tension kits, poles and backstops. The Rebels One Run Club will have that all donated by volunteers. [53:03] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen:** I have a question for the city. Um so this would be paid for pretty much by them but put on the city’s fields. What liability does that create for the city if somebody gets hurt in these batting cages? **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** So the city already has insurance for any activities and or events that occur on city property. So we are covered for all of that. Council received a breakdown of our gambling fund. This request does meet the requirements. [54:31] We’ve had a lot of collaborative dialogue with the Home Run Club. Phil, do you have any concerns from a public works standpoint? **City Superintendent Phil Entner:** Uh mainly just long-term maintenance. Who would be responsible for them? Is it something city would want to sign a maintenance agreement on saying that the city’s not on the hook? Mowing would obviously still be done by the city. [55:27] **Council Member Kris Huso:** Well, my other concern is you know all the vandalism that was done down by the old school. Is this something then they're going to move to? [56:11] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** We want to take action on this. Do we have a recommendation? **Finance Director Ryan McKeon:** Um the project does meet all the requirements for the gambling fund. We’ve donated to the Home Run Club in the past. Like she said, it’s a really great relationship. I don’t see an issue with approving it now contingent upon getting those set items. [57:36] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** We also did engage in a lease for utilization of the fields recently. This would fall into our existing agreement and partnership with them too. **Council Member Douglas Juntunen:** Just ownership, I guess, once it becomes city property. I think that there has to be something in place that it becomes city property. **Council Member Lou Ohly:** I make a motion to go ahead with the donation for $3,000. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Is there a second? **Council Member Douglas Juntunen:** Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any further discussion? All in favor? **Council Members:** Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Thank you. [59:18] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Am I allowed to go back and ask a question I had about the folks on the park stop? **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Uh You can, but that’s going to come to the park board. We're going to have ample opportunity to discuss the quote stuff after it goes to the park board and we get a recommendation from them. [59:57] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** What we’ll do is we always like to have two quotes anyway. We’ll take these, we’ll get another quote, and then we’ll bring those to park board and to council. [1:00:13] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Minnesota House of Representative Capital Investment Committee 2020 bonded tour. **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** Yes. So, the city had an exciting day yesterday. Presentation was given up at the Suline Event Center. There was a coach bus of about 30 plus members of the finance committee who attended. We also had support from Carlton County there. The project outlined is the $3.1 million sewer lining project of all city sewer mains and manholes for a significant reduction in capacity at the sewer ponds that then allows for residential housing development. [1:02:38] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** I’d like to thank Doug [Juntunen] and Ellissa for presenting. They did a very good job. 15-inch clay trunk sewer line bolts. [1:02:54] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** Yes. As part of the design phase to have that infrastructure televised, council received two different quotes. Superintendent Entner, do you have anything to add? **City Superintendent Phil Entner:** I do not. We have used both these contractors before. I would recommend Nelson Sanitation. [1:03:27] **Council Member Douglas Juntunen:** I’ll make a motion that we accept the Nelson Sanitation rental quote. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Is there a second? **Council Member Lou Ohly:** Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor? **Council Members:** Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Annual appointments, tree committee designations. [1:03:45] **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** Uh yes, as part of our grant we received to do a tree inventory, we do need to establish a tree committee. Looking for formal approval. **Council Member Kris Huso:** I’ll make a motion we accept the tree committee. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Is there a second? **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Any further discussion? All in favor? **Council Members:** Aye. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Reports of correspondence. [List of reports including dispatcher reports, truth in taxation meeting notice, drug prevention meeting minutes, and watercross event proposal.] Any questions? [1:04:50] **Council Member Walter Lower III:** Yeah. Uh, Phil, could you explain a little bit on that pump number two there? I think that was something that’s very positive that we were able to get done. **City Superintendent Phil Entner:** Sure, absolutely. Uh, that’s on the the main lift station. We had a couple years now of some really ugly estimates upwards to $350,000. Uh you guys approved those replacement parts and it came in at $15,000 bucks to fix one pump. Less than 50 grand, we’ll have the whole station rebuilt. So, save the city $250,000. [1:05:45] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Excellent work. The watercross event proposal? **City Administrator Ellissa Owens:** So the proposal came in and there was no park board meeting in October. It will be discussed at the park board level at November’s meeting and then brought back to council. [1:06:34] **Council Member Kris Huso:** Can I make one comment on that? As reading it, it talks about hosting it during any available summer weekend. I don’t think that’s going to go very well with the citizens. Summer the campground is full and kids are swimming. It'd be very hard to shut that down and tell the campground people they can't use the lake. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Is there any time frame that the event used to occur during? **Council Member Kris Huso:** I believe it was always the first weekend in June. Before things came to the water. [1:08:23] **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Announcements. [List of upcoming November and December city meetings]. Can I get a motion to adjourn? **Council Member Douglas Juntunen:** So move. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** Is there a second? **Council Member Kris Huso:** Second. **Mayor Jim Michalski:** All in favor? We are adjourned.