all right call the meeting order at 6:44 Pledge of Allegiance please iedge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible andice thank you roll call please council member Cole here council member schweer here council member Wong here council member nordby here mayor mongi here I got a motion to adopt the agenda so moved so moved council member swe second second council member Wong all those in favor say I I I thank you thank you mayor uh consent agenda item a February 20th 2024 Workshop minutes Item B February 20th 2024 city council meeting minutes item C General claims 2,776 32431 item d h claims of 19,1 $1 16342 item e purchase seven snowy statues for arts and culture commission item F resolution approving student commissioner appointment to the arts and culture commission item G purchase of electrical equipment of fuse cabinets and switch gear with basements item H First Amendment to agreement for building official Services item I revised 2024 retainer agreement Ericson Bell Beckman and quinnn Pa item J modify the use of funds item K Emerald dashboard Grant budget adjustment item L resolution approving an encroachment agreement for the Taco Bell site item M resolution accepting donations for February 2024 item n building permit report informational item o Surplus item of Chevy Vault item P service agreement between the city of North St Paul and Landis and gear technology Inc thank you anybody like to pull any of the items if not okay a motion to adopt the agenda so moved so move council member Cole second second council member Norby all those in favor say I I I all right remember those Dark Nights of winter before the sun before the sun came in the window now we got our Spotlight uhhuh yeah all right next part is is open public meeting open to the public open to the public at uh 6:46 John good evening mayor and councel um just a short note I have I met a neighbor here for the first time oh and we were talking and I said he said he has a rain Garden I said if it then he told me where it was and I said you're you're the only person who maintains a rain Garden it's in you it's in beautiful shape it doesn't have thistles growing out of it and trees and all this other stuff that most of the other rain Gardens situation is right now anyway cleanup day it's on the opening of fishing again you know can't we have another day except for opening of fishing we have enough problems right now that the number of people involved in outdoor activities I know cleanup day is an outdoor activity but uh could you think ahead please because I have things to drop off but I won't be here just like last year I won't be here okay um we had a problem with email notification of a uh the meetings and uh Ray went by the what has occurred is a big blowup all I would say is if I say you forgot to send out the email notifications I don't care if you send it out two days later I you know just so you get it out there that I know people know that it's happening and if uh uh Jenny and I joke back and forth uh and say things that are probably improper in an official uh communication but that's just the way it is sometimes but anyway I just was ticked off because it's still to this minute there was no email notification as there had been for eons years and anyway and then I just wanted to thank uh the finance director because he made sure that I knew of how to determine what the tax incident would be when there is the estimate of $8 to $900,000 a year to run the CC and that is on a $300,000 house a $200 bill and nobody is saying that to everybody who gets up and says are you willing to pay what's your house worth will tell you what your bill is going to be thanks thank you thanks John thank you all right close it to public and anybody online is there anyone online all right thank you no public it's all yours all right so City business action items and recommendations uh item a housy park reconstruction project uh receive bids an awards contract Morgan is out of town but Candace are you going to address that welcome thank you do my best to fill in while Morgan my name is Candace Amberg I'm a landscape architect with WSB and so I'm just here to answer any questions that you might have on the bidding process we did bid this project once last year and right after we bid we received some bids they were a little bit High and the city decided to try and get one of those DNR Rec creation Grant so they applied for that and they were successful and so that brings us here one year later so we rebid the project knowing that we had that Grant opportunity involved and we got I would say very optimal timing for the bidding process so we had those out there for about three weeks we received 15 bids and uh it was pretty tight bids uh the bottom two I think we're just like a little over a thousand apart and so the low bidder was Odessa 2 um they have done work on numerous par projects for us over the years so we are very confident in in them being able to handle this project and uh just to let you know with all those bids 15 bids that came in I think only three were right at or above our estimate and our estimate was based on the pricing that we received last year the low bid came in like 100,000 in underneath that estimate so again just very optimal timing this year compared to last so with that I can just just answer any questions that you might have no questions but thank you appreciate good number thank you all right thank you and resolution to receive bids and award contract y can I have a motion for that so moved your honor so move Council Norby second second council member Cole all those in favor say I hi I nay thank you thank you uh Item B is contract for private development for 17th Avenue in Delaware and Brandy Howard Community Development director is going to address that good evening mayor and city council um I apologize it looks like the staff report for this particular it item did not make it into the agenda so I'll read through that quickly with you um you'll recall that the city is owner of 2329 17th Avenue a site that's located at the corner of 17th Avenue in Delaware if you think back to last year about this time we issued a request for proposal um from developers interested in purchasing the property we selected two developers to present their proposals to Planning Commission in January who reviewed U their proposals and made its recommendation in favor of Andress built LLC the developer proposes to a acquire the property and plat it to develop is it still 10 Twin Homes or is it nine I think 10 T Twin Homes um the the um so there would be total of five buildings 10 units okay that's better um together with all the necessary public and private improvements an appraisal was completed last November and the estimate of the site value was 100,000 uh the market estimate is the most probable price where the property would bring in a competitive and open market bid um the East Eastern most easternmost portion of the site is essentially landlock and has minimum development potential so that that market value is really based on the the one acre portion of the lot that's considered developable so the developer has agreed to a purchase price of $100,000 with 10,000 in earnest money at closing the developer will pay for the cost of the issuance of the title commitment and the Alta owner's insurance policy half of the closing fees uh charged by the title company the cost for any environmental investigations tests or surveys elected to be completed by the developer um all taxes payable in accordance with the terms of the enclosed agreements their attorney fees and recording fees for documents to be recorded at closing um the revenue from the sale um less the city's closing cost would be 9 $99,450 [Music] and with that I'll take any questions regarding that [Music] contract questions anybody it's pretty straightforward good all right I'm just so you're aware or just to preemptively answer the question that may be coming next steps for this project would be uh the developer will prepare a plat and a PUD um and that will go before the Planning Commission for approval and uh and city council ultimately so I think they're they intent is to put the dirt um shovels in the ground as soon as possible yeah I appreciate that that's that's good to hear all right there's no more questions can I get a motion so moved move council member go second second council member all those in favor say I I I nay thank you great item C Margaret Street Commons final plat turn that over to Brandy again okay thanks for holding for me um the the city and the Housing and Redevelopment Authority own approximately three a 3/4 Acre Site across the street on Margaret and sea um the city also owns the adjacent parking lot to the Southwest the majority of that property was acquired by the city back in 2018 um some of the purchase history goes back to uh 1987 as you know the city and the Eda have been working for um over the past few years to try to find a developer for that site and a couple of proposals have come forward um for residential mixed use however the those projects didn't come come to fruition due to the market conditions at the time City staff has been directed to try to better prepare that site for development so one of those steps is to get it platted so that we could legally establish the Redevelopment site that we would uh essentially sell in the future so that plat has been um prepared a preliminary plat was approved by city council back in December and the um next step is to approve the final plat which has been included in your [Music] packet and when I looked at that it's taking that part out and still keeping the little park Triangle Park is it called or what's that Central Central sorry okay I think triangle fit too [Music] would yeah okay perfect any questions anybody any calls okay if not can I have a motion so moved move council member Cole second second council member schweer all those in favor say i i i i n thank you next up is the marget Street Commons property conveyance again Brandy so as I mentioned a moment ago the city and the Housing Authority both have ownership of part of the the property over there and in order to consolidate the the land we also need to consolidate the ownership and so in consultation with our City attorney it was recommended that the H become the the owner owner of that and so this item is to convey the parcels that are related to the um HRA to the city for ownership and I would defer any questions as to the benefit of the H versus City ownership to to our attorney what are the benefits City attorney um so to to start with one the the consolidation uh simply makes life easier in terms of having a single entity uh control at least the transfer of the property when you look at the statutory schemes set up in terms of why why have an HRA or an Eda they cities are set up for General governance the edas and the hras are have a little bit more specificity and by a little I mean quite a bit actually in terms of what they can do in terms of helping establish housing or Economic Development so we do have a broader uh pallet of tools that we can utilize and it's just more clear what exactly what we can start to impose so on these sorts of things when you're envisioning the Redevelopment that's going on it is a common recommendation to use the HRA we have included a memo in your materials um we can certainly go over any aspects of that um I don't consider it to be a um a big deal necessarily to move it to the HRA it's it's I would say sort of a custom and Norm which sometimes is accepted as an okay answer sometimes it's like well what does that mean um and what I can say is when the legis isure keeping in mind that as a city and what we've discussed in your training is you're a body of the statutes you're controlled by what the legislature has given you what the leg legislature has specifically set up is uh Provisions like the HRA where they've laid out specific statutory processes um that contemplate exactly what you're doing uh here tonight so high level that's what we're suggesting um and certainly the consolidation makes the most sense so in talking to Randy and Brian on it it is our recommendation to uh go forward with what's in your packet here for your consideration tonight thank you I know we do have another piece of property under H as well correct that one sixth street across from Webster yes yep so that is underneath there too and that's another one for future development sometime as well cor so it makes sense to get all our exsit one basket then okay any questions yep um City attorney do you anticipate any other drawback um that you may have not mentioned I don't no I don't um if if we if there was a a fatal flaw to going to the HRA or hey look out for this then then we would just keep it here at this deis and let the city determine it but I I do think it makes the most sense to transfer to the HRA okay thank you any more questions from any members if not can I get a motion so move so move council member second second council member Norby all those in favor say I I I nay thank you all right uh business action items oops excuse me reports from city manager and departments um at our staff meeting today we had the fire department has got their certificate of compliance again for doing their uh investigations or investigation inspections of the fire systems for businesses um they've been sending employees to uh investigative training for fires Public Works is trying to figure out the weather just like everybody else been working on prepping ball fields well now we're talking about a lot of snow coming so we'll start over again they've already made it one time around the city for street sweeping to pick everything up and now we'll probably be putting salt down again so we'll start over um the VOR truck is here uh after a long wait of getting it built and went to the truck show and then got it back here so it's in their possession and running it through the paces um student build house is now dry rocked and taped and that's continued to move along pretty well um we got all sorts of salt now uh with the contract was a 10% above or below what uh and we've used what 56 tons this year but we just got 560 tons delivered so fill up your salt shakers um we have the emerald dashboard for um contract is going to be released tomorrow to the public for uh first going out to low income for assistance with taking trees down on their private property so hopefully we have a good um good showing for that for people applying for that uh Finance been working hard with the Auditors um they'll be closing the books next week for 2023 uh PD um we have our police chief has turned in his resignation um he got a job over with Ramsey County uh he will be moving over there as of the the 5th of April be his last day here um during that time we will have Ray Rosales be acting chief he actually was an acting Chief in the past um we have an internal posting for that position open right now um we also had two officers that have turned in their resignations that will be going to St Paul so we have some positions open but we do have some applications in the pool so we're uh getting through them as we speak um I think that's about it thank you all right reports from Council and commission committees council member Norby we had a wonderful Planning Commission we talked about our fence regulations um actually was kind of interesting um and Brandy and her staff are doing a wonderful job of going through all our regulations and ordinances and cleaning them up and consolidating um but and I can thank her enough she she does a wonderful job gives a great presentation and our next one is on April 4th thank you very much um the arts and culture commission um is on schedule for project snowy now so we're really really looking forward to that and thank you for approving those purchases um I think we have um artists ready to go and working with um some of the sponsors or the um purchases of um snowy and then there's also a student contest that's happening right now to um um wrap the electric box so um there's a lot of Engagement um with ISD 622 and so they were able to connect with um their students to promote that so um really looking forward to to that and then our next meeting is the first Wednesday of April here in the chambers at 6:30 and that would be April 3rd okay thank you very much member sh I missed the meeting in February however next week Wednesday it's here for parks and wck at 6:30 in the chambers um that's what I got thank you very much also member uh there was not a February Eda meeting and due to uh conflict issues we were not able to gather a quorum for the 12th so there will be an Eda meeting uh in Chambers this Thursday the 21st at 4 o' great thank you very much General business at this time okay Council Juan uh yeah I just want to say a shout out to um our Forester um Josh Bond he was in the league of Minnesota cities um representing um some of the work that he does here and um certainly with that Grant um I think he's going to do a lot more so um congratulations to him and for representing our community that's all I have thank you very much C okay no not today okay try tomorrow it seems like forever ago that we've had our last meeting um but I again I just I want to um just again thank one more time um the Minnesota History this the North St Paul history for having all of us show up um I think it was a great time for for all to be had it's nice to be able to shed the proverbial jacket and tie and just be who we are so thanks s again Sue springborn for the for the invitation and we look forward to uh to doing this again on an annual basis um and just a shout out to Public Works I saw tree removal going on in Casey Lake today it looks like two pretty good size trees came down and uh uh it's actually a sign of spring even though we got snow coming it's it's nice to see so big shout out to public works yeah thank you business I had a mayor for the day the gentleman's I can't remember his name now I apologize but uh what Leland Leland thank you we had a great time we uh we did the the city C he was able to get his picture up here we did the fun stuff after that we went over to Public Works blew the air horn almost threw him out of the truck when he hit that thing and we went in all the different trucks we went to the fire department so it was a it was a great time and I was glad that him and his father were able to come for the for the afternoon and it was just a delight to to go around with him it was much much fun so if nothing else I'll call for adjournment so move so move council member W second second Council Norby all those in favor say I I I I nay thank you everyone thank you next meeting April we next yeah what is it have an h meeting second after this oh after this next council meeting yeah next council meeting and then we have another one that we have to log into for HRA then right correct is we stay here we're done here yeah yep so we just signed out we just adjourned great um for