All right. Uh, good evening and welcome to 2026. Happy new year everyone. Uh, this is the first meeting of the new year, January 7th, 2026 for the Kadesko City Council meeting, which I'm going to call to order. Uh, the first order of business is the pledge of allegiance. So, would you please rise? 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. >> All right. Will the clerk please do the role? >> Council member Clawson >> here. [clears throat] >> Council member Olsen >> here. >> Council member Theiti >> here. >> Council member Garza >> here. >> Mayor Bailey >> here. Uh next on our agenda is open forum. This is the opportunity for anybody that wants to speak on something that's not on tonight's agenda is welcome to do so. Uh we did have a signup sheet out in the entryway, but no one did sign up. So just in case I think maybe you guys are here for payment management. Okay. So we'll get to that then. So uh if there is nobody that has signed up or wants to speak during open forum, I'm going to go ahead and close open forum and we'll move to number five, which is adoption of the agenda. >> Move the go. >> Move the agenda. Second. >> All right. So, we have a motion by council member Theiti, second by council member Olsen. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. Uh, six is presentations. We have none this evening. Um, seven is consent agenda items. Is there anything council would like to pull on consent? Council member Olsson. >> Item K, please. >> Item K for you. Anybody else? Everybody good? Good. All right. So, we just have the one item. uh will pull for comment and that's K which is the third quarter donations for 2025. >> Yes, thank you mayor and uh my fellow council colleagues. Like to uh mention for your consideration uh a resolution accepting donations received in the third quarter of 2025. We always like to recognize the folks who made donations to our community. And this evening we want to say thank you to uh our our donors. First of all, Carla Bigum. Uh some of you may know her as county commissioner Carla Bigham donated um $500 to uh put up a plaque and a tree uh in honor of the Hortman family uh Melissa Mark and their dog Gilbert. We also had a donation from Rosemary Callahan uh in the amount of $7,500 for a sculpture at Woodidge Park in memory of her son Ryan. And then finally, Amry Midwest uh donated in the amount of $2,348 tons of class 5 for Greycloud Trail in Greatcloud Island Township and also uh the connecting trail to St. Paul Park. Now that I know what 156 tons of class 5 costs, I might just buy some for myself. Um, so with that, mayor, I'll turn it back to you and ask for the council's consideration towards accepting these donations. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, if there's nothing else to be pulled on consent at this point, I will uh look for a motion to approve consent. >> I'll make a motion to approve consent. >> All right. So, motion by council member Garza, second by uh council member Theiti. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I opposed. >> Motion carries. Okay. So, if by chance you're here for anything on tonight's or watching on tonight's consent agenda, all of those items have been approved. We'll move to number eight, which is approved dispersement. 88 is to pay the bills. I'll move to uh pay the bills. >> All right, sounds good. Do we have a motion by council member Clawson, second by >> Second? >> Second by Council Member Garza. All those in favor, please uh signify by saying I >> I opposed. Motion carries. All right. Now, we're here already. We're we're moving pretty quick for you tonight. Uh we'll move to nine, which is public hearing. Uh we do have one this evening, which is the 2026 pavement management public hearing and and Paul Spanholtz, who is our city engineer, is going to take us through this. So Paul, welcome. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members, members of the public. This evening, I'll be giving you information on the upcoming 2026 pavement management project. Main purpose of my presentation tonight is to discuss the need for the improvements. will discuss current conditions, the proposed improvements, and the anticipated project schedule. If the project moves ahead, final assessments will be considered after the final costs are determined later this fall. Uh but I'll give some uh discussion on the preliminary assessment role and uh discuss that assessment process, but the public hearing for the assessments will be later this fall. [clears throat] The city has an extensive pavement management and preservation program to preserve and maintain our pavement in infrastructure. We have over 188 miles of pavement. After a construction of the pavement, the program usually starts with some basic maintenance like sealing cracks and filling potholes and so forth, trying to keep that water and ice out of the pavement structure. And that usually happens within the first couple years. As the pavement deteriorates over the next 15, 20 years, we start looking at doing a mill and overlay project, grinding off that first layer of asphalt and simply replacing it. That process hopefully will add another 10 to 15 years of pavement. Depending depending on the condition of the underlying layers, we may be able to do another cycle of mill and overlaying, adding another 10 or so years of life. Typically, doing that process gives us about 30 to 40 years of a life cycle on our pavements. But then as the underlying layers of the pavement be continue to be uh to fail, the next best maintenance strategy is a reclamation or pavement replacement. And that just involves either grinding up the existing pavement and u putting it back or um completely replacing it. [clears throat] And in barring that, the next strategy is a reconstruction strategy. When the base aggregate or the underlying soils uh fail to support the pavement, significant reconstruction is usually needed or if there's changes to the lane layout or to address significant under underground utilities under that pavement. The existing pavement management program here in the city was started in 1994. The program helps us maintain roads in good structural condition and serviceability and that ultimately provides good access for our residents and businesses to get to their homes and businesses and helps maintain their property values. Since [snorts] 1994, the city has completed about 92 miles of pavement replacement under this program. Roughly doing about 2 to three miles of pavement every year to help pay for that work. 8,150 properties have been assessed uh since or as of 2025 for this year's pavement management program here in 26. We're proposing the neighborhoods west of Jamaica north of 90th Street and south of Hillside to be included in the program. This includes the Woodidge Park edition, the Thompson Grove Estates 11th edition, Pineree Pond Town Houses first edition, and the Cottage Grove commercial edition. >> [snorts] >> The streets within this neighborhood were originally constructed between 1969 and 1978 and then we did rehabilitation projects in the 1997 and 1998. 90th Street was uh constructed in 1980 and then rehabilitated in uh 2001. This project proposes to address about 1.6 miles of streets. The streets were recently examined in a variety of ways to determine their condition. As a part of the feasibility report that the city council recently approved in determining the need for the improvements, we looked at several factors, something we call pacer ratings. This is a visual assessment of the roads that uh rates the condition of the surface of the road on a 1 to 10 scale. We also take a look at our maintenance records, take a look at what we've done to crack, fill, chip, seal, patch, and do a thin overlay. Most of the roads in this neighborhood had a thin overlay done in uh about eight years ago. And then we look at the uh we do some uh drilling of uh cores throughout the pavement uh to see what the underlying conditions are underneath that surface. So in 2025, the visual inspection of the neighborhood, the roads showed a lot of cracking, asphalt stripping, patching, and early signs of failure of that thin overlay that we did eight years ago. The pacer ratings we rated uh depending on the which road segments um pacers of five, six or seven. All these are below the city average of a 7 and a half citywide average. All these ratings are generally a fair condition. Um partially it's due to that recent uh thin overlay that we did eight years ago which is masking all those underlying conditions that are underneath there. our maintenance history on it has done a significant amount of patching beforehand before we did this overlay. We also looked at the curb and gutter and the vast majority of it about 70% of the curb and gutter is um significantly cracked or uh spalling and is needing replacement. Like I said, we did a bunch of uh pavement cores and we drill these cores out of the uh the pavement to see what's going on underneath. Uh here's just the three uh representative samples of the several of those curve cores that we had took. We get to analyze the puminous aggregate underneath which are not shown in these cores. So we can see what the thickness of the aggregate is underneath. We look at the structural condition of the the asphalt itself. And while we found while the top surface is in generally good or fair condition, the pavement core is showed under laying condition of the pavement is seen something called asphalt stripping. That's where [clears throat] it's a defect where the asphalt cement that oils that hold all that rock and soil, all that rock and sand together. They're no longer holding those together and it's starting to crumble and fall apart. It's hard to see in these photos, but certainly the the middle photo and the the right photo, you see a lot of black spots around on the white um desktop uh around the cores. That's when you just touch these things, they start crumbling on the edges here. Not something you want to see in your asphalt. So, looking at these cores, we determined that any surface improvements like a mill and overlay would not be well supported. Um the existing thin overlay while it is in fair condition will likely fail in short time frame here. So looking at a particular uh the core number P1 on the left while it's looks to be relatively good condition. It's one of the newer pavements 90th Street about 25 years old. It is starting to show that uh striping uh towards the bottom where the the uh the structure of the payment starting to fall and crumble apart. The other two uh cores here that are shown, we're definitely seeing a lot of that uh stripping and going on. Um the top layers you see, they've actually separated from the bottom layers here and a lot of the pavement structure that was between those two segments have crumbled off that there's no there's nothing holding it there. So, [snorts] uh just example of some of that deterioration that we're seeing underneath that pavement. This slide and the next two slides just show some of the safest surface conditions uh showing what we call a block and alligator cracking. Block cracks are cracks that are 2 to 5 feet apart. Kind of a big block pattern. Alligator cracking is uh cracking that's just a couple inches apart. Um and there's it can happen so frequently it looks like an alligator skin. Uh those conditions are just showing deterioration of that thin overlay and just showing that the thin overlay is starting to fail. Without work to address this soon, the overall condition of the pavement will deteriorate very rapidly and become unserviceable and difficult to maintain. These two pictures here show conditions in the Woodidge Park edition. Here we have two pictures from the Thompson Grove estates on 88th Street and Ironwood Avenue. And here are pictures from the Thompson Grove estates and pine tree pond town holes. Uh potholes are starting to develop block and alligator cracking. You can see again remember these pictures don't give the whole picture of what's happening under the surface. [snorts] In addition to the pavement, we also looked at the other city infrastructure in these neighborhoods. We inspected manhole structures and televised the sanitary pipes. We found much of the pipes in good condition, but in the area of the multif family town homes, uh those uh sewer pipes had significant root instruction in intrusion into those pipes. The project proposes to patch, repair or rebuild some of those manhole structures as needed and then repair, line or replace those pipes. While we did clean out the roots during the uh television, uh we will line those pipes to prevent further deterioration and that root intrusion. Water man is in generally good condition with no significant history of water man brakes. Valves and fittings will be inspected during the project and any repairs that we see will be completed then as needed. Likewise we looked at the storm sewer manholes and and televised the storm sewer pipes. Structures are in generally good condition and the pipes in fair condition. So, we'll patch, rebuild or replace structures, repair, line or replace the pipes as needed. Street lights are in pretty good condition, but similar to other cities, we have power feeds that are directly connected to Excel. this uh makes it difficult for our own enforces to maintain those systems. So, we'll be replacing those connections. Um we'll be replacing feeder cabinets and street lighter street light wire will be put into conduits uh to protect them from damage. The work that we're proposing here will be to rehabilitate these roads, replace that asphalt pavement. Uh we'll remove the total thickness of the existing asphalt and replace it with a new asphalt pavement. We'll leave the existing base aggregate underneath there. That was in generally good condition, so it won't be a full-blown reconstruction. We'll leave that a aggregate in place, saving the cost of a full construction. The new asphalt will consist of two lifts of batuminous asphalt totaling 3 and 12 in of uh batuminous asphalt pavement. As I mentioned earlier, the most of the curb is 50 years old with 70% of it in poor condition. So for economy of scale and just the construction operations, a full curb replacement throughout the area will also be completed. The spot replacement of curb when 70% of it's in a defective situation is just not cost-effective. Finally, minor utility improvements for sanitary sewer, water, storm sewer, and lighting systems will be included in the project. Also, to provide some connectivity and a safer pedestrian route, a sidewalk is proposed along Hillside Trail between Jamaica Avenue and Woodidge Park. The Public Services Commission reviewed and recommended this work. This particular work is not being assessed as part of the to the property owners as part of the project. Here we have a map of the area that's going to be doing the work and the the properties that will receive the direct benefit of the project. And these properties will then be assessed. Light green are single family residential homes. The dark green is the multif family town homes. Purple is a religious property. Orange is a school property [snorts] and red is a commercial property. We had a special benefit appraisal uh completed by an appraiser in accordance with the city's policy for these properties that have direct access to these streets. A neighborhood meeting was held on December 1st here at city hall to discuss the various improvements proposed and the findings of those special benefit appraisals and the proposed assessments. assessments are proposed to be contributing to the funding of this project. Per the city's special assessment policy, 45 45% of the cost of the project will be assessed to the properties, ranging from almost $8,000 for each of the 107 single family homes, 4,800 for each of the 99 town homes, and nearly 50,000 for AutoZone, 93,000 for the Armstrong Elementary School, and 150,000 for the Grove Church. However, we did complete a special benefits appraisal and that appraisal came in to determine the the value of the projected improvements to the properties. These appraisals all came under those policy calculations. And so then that's going to govern the amount that we can assess the properties. So for single family homes, we're looking [snorts] at $7,100 each. The town homes at 2,700. Aldi will be a 37700. Autozone since it doesn't have any driveways directly accessing the roads that we're working on was assessed at zero. Then Armstrong Elementary is looking at $20,000 and 23,500 for Grove Church. [cough] [clears throat] The total project cost is going to come into about $3.8 million. of that a little over 1.1 will be paid by the assessments. Then the various sanitary water, storm, sewer, street light, road and trail funds, and the general levy will cover the remainder of those costs. If the project moves forward after we determine final construction costs this fall, we'd hold the assessment public hearing. Then in the fall, if the city council adopts the assessments, then in the fall, property owners may pay that assessment within 30 days of that adoption to avoid interest charges. Otherwise, the assessment is payable over 15 years. And that amount will be added to the property owner's county property tax bill. Interest rate would be 1 and a half% above the bond rate that the city receives. Deferral is available for certain qualifications such as disability, military, or age. Here's a schedule of some things that we've already completed and what's to look ahead this year. The feasibility was report was authorized and started in 2024. A neighborhood meeting, like we said, was held here in December 1st and then the city council approved the uh feasibility report on December 3rd. If the council decides to move forward with the project, the public hearing will be conducted and the project will be ordered. These assessments become pending after the project is ordered. The plans will be completed this later this winter. Then we'll let the project for bidding into spring construction starting soon after in spring and then uh completed by the fall of 2026. Like I said, assessment hearing will then be conducted once the final construction costs are determined and those final assessment amounts will be reviewed and determined. So that concludes my presentation here tonight. Um if the council decides to move forward with this project, uh staff recommends holding a public hearing and then ordering the project. Council is reminded that per statutes, the resolution to order the project must be adopted by a four to five vote here to move forward. You have any questions for me? >> All right. Thank you, Paul. Uh questions, council. Uh Council Member Bson you >> Thank you for the presentation. Appreciate it. Um can you go back one slide, please, to the uh timeline? [clears throat] All right, perfect. I just want to make sure that I understand this correctly and I'm sure you've been through these many times. So, um, if you're uncomfortable with any of the questions I ask, pitch it to Corey. She knows all the answers. [laughter] Trust me. Um, so first and foremost, uh, as it relates to where we're at in the timeline today. Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but this timeline is in essence guided by statute. So each of these steps have to be taken um in the in the order that they're listed here uh for any sort of project of this nature. So tonight being the public hearing, what exactly um are are we doing at this point? Cuz I know we haven't ordered the project yet. I know we haven't had an assessment hearing yet. So what what is what is the purpose? today's public hearing or you can add to it but public hearing is to uh hear input from the public here. Um I presented the need for the project and that's the primary purpose of the the hearing tonight is to talk about the need for the project. So later then this fall we'll be doing a public hearing specifically on the assessments. Is that >> does that sound about right? >> Yes, your honor. Actually, the only thing I would add and members of the council, the only thing I would add is that before you can order the project, you must hold the public hearing. So, this input from the public is where you would potentially uh subtract from the project. So, if there's something in it that you don't want to see, you could subtract from it. Um, realizing that you can't cannot add to it because it was not included in the presentation or in the public notice. So, what's before you is the complete project. The only thing you can do tonight is detract from it. You can't later add back in those things though. So whatever you order, if you decide to order it, whatever you order is the project. You can always remove things from what you adopted tonight. You just can't add to it again. >> So the idea then is we're we're in essence looking at the feasibility of the project as it were versus uh you know what what is the project cost going to be because we don't have that yet. We haven't sent it out for bid. What are the assessments going to be? We don't truly know that. We saw some estimates, but we don't truly know that. So, this is really just about making sure that we feel comfortable with the project. Is that accurate? >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, Council Member Garcia. >> Thank you, Mayor. Quick question for you. [clears throat] Excuse me. I'm my voice is not so great right now. Um, I just you mentioned that um in the study, it was a few slides back that there were um root there there was some type of compromise in the um piping for the multif family homes. My question to that is um as far as the owners of those homes, will the city work with them? Because if we already have some type of compromise from the city to the properties, there's probably more compromise for the homeowners as well. So, we're sort of opening a can of worms, per se. So, I'm just wondering is there some type of plan in place that in case that we since we are already finding that there's roots in place or is there some something that the homeowners can know that there's some help for them there because that's probably going to cause a big issue for the homeowners as well. >> Thank you, council member. Um, as I understand, we are just looking at the the water the the the main the water main. Um, and that the the service pipes that lead off those mines to the homeowner to the home is uh that's the the property owner's uh uh domain that we are not addressing as part of this project. So, um when we uh televised the the the water [snorts] man or the the sewer main itself, we took care of the roots in there. We cut them out as we did that televising. And then what we'll be doing is just lining that main, that sewer main so that that roots don't in further intrude that main. But um any additional work would be up to the homeowner to address. >> So you're going to put a balloon in the in the lining or you're going to put a liner in the tube so that it will alleviate the type the um roots from going into the pipes. But from the city to the homeowners, is there any plan for them? >> Nothing that we have as part of this project or >> and I can jump in falls of mine only because being with public works, we deal with this quite a bit. Um it's more of a city code issue because it's solely the responsibility of property owners to deal with root intrusions and those issues in their service. Um so that's that's how it is always handled and it's important that we stick with that for um equity, right? because any other home that's had those issues across town, they're required to manage it. Uh we do the lining, it's more cost effective for us, but for a typical homeowner, um if they just actually hire someone to clean those roots out periodically if it if it actually causes a plug in their case, that's usually a lot more cost effective than lining. So, >> thank you. >> Okay, any other questions uh for council at this point for Paul or staff? >> [clears throat and cough] >> I think somewhat question whether it whether it truly applies to tonight but in what we're we're trying to decide but and it was quite a while back when different areas of which group you know homes would be done at one time where we've got the whole plan you know back uh and I'm trying to recall because I was on that pavement management task force back in like 2005 or six or seven or whatever it Um did did we identify a kind of like a economic order quantity of sorts? Uh you know of how many homes in a certain area to to include obviously this it looked like what was this? this was only like 107 homes or uh I think uh you know and obviously there's certain costs that are overall you know cost and then some are a little more driven by the num you know each each home type of deal. Do you have any feeling for that? I I I I apologize. It's kind of kind of off the the cuff question, but >> but I know that the terms got >> No, thank you, mayor. [clears throat] Members of council, I pro I I look at Paul. I told him I'd let him run with this first night, but this is a good question for me. This is a good one for me to answer just with the history. Um when you look back at kind of that pavement management program, they definitely did kind of identify areas um that were done the 90s and the 2000s, right? Um and as you start to reset that and you you come back because of your 25 to 30year pavement life, we're doing similar areas again. Um partly with this neighborhood, it is uh split in half from what it was done in the first goound in '98. Uh because now we are in that full curb replacement, which is a much more costly project overall. So as you look at our financial management plan, you can see it's nearly a $4 million overall project cost. So that also plays into it. It it certainly has the efficiency of scale, right? you think about a big enough project to have good efficiency, we we hit that no problem with this cost. Um, but if we did the whole neighborhood together, we looking at like $8 million, um, which can be a challenge to tackle in one year, um, with our bonding capacity and such. So, that's kind of what led to this project size. >> All right. Yeah, because I was just I was just thinking because because Hidden Valley, you know, just got done this year and and we got 229 homes in in the neighborhood and we uh uh you know, it was it I mean apparently did a good job on cost, but it was it was almost a couple thousand dollars lower, but then the number of homes were 229 or so and versus the 107. Y and mayor, members of council, one thing I'd add just thinking of those assessments just kind of two very different projects. Hidden Valley was a spot curb replacement. Um so a much much lower scale just because of the the newer curb age. Um because in that neighborhood it was around a 30% replacement and 40% is kind of where we generally draw the line for full curb versus spot curb. Also the older neighborhood, you know, 1970s, uh just the utilities worse condition as well. So those are the two factors for the cost. >> All right. All right. Thanks. Okay. Anybody else? >> All right. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Paul. So, at this point, I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing. Uh, this is the opportunity if you want to speak on this topic or ask questions, you're welcome to do so. And all we ask you to do is just come up to the podium and state your name and address for the record. And um uh no more than three minutes [laughter] if you want to speak. Anybody want to speak at all? Yes. Go ahead, ma'am. [clears throat and cough] >> Go first, right? >> Yeah. Somebody has to always go first, right? [clears throat] >> Hi, good evening everyone. Thank you so much for the opportunity to um for the community to come and speak about this. My name is Mallerie Martin. Um, I've been a resident of Cottage Grove for 17 years, a parent in Cottage Grove for 14 years, and an employee of the school district here in Cottage Grove for 17 years. So, I have multiple perspectives on this project. Um, I think it's no surprise that the biggest um struggle that me and my neighbors are having is the price tag. um $7,000 is a lot for one family. And um whether or not my family can personally afford it or not, I think about my neighbor across the street who is a single mom who just moved in this fall from Minneapolis trying to get a better life for her daughter and now this is how we welcome her to our town. Or I think of my other neighbors whose youngest child is in high school and they might pay for this project and not be around much longer if they decide to move after their child graduates and they won't be here to, you know, reap the benefits, I believe, is is how it was phrased earlier. Um or my other neighbors who have five children and one of only one of the parents works out of the home. Um, we found out about this in November as many families were preparing for the holiday season and you know that is a big budget crunch for a lot of families and we are finding out that we have a very small time window in which to pay it and if we can't pay it in that time window we're going to be punished even further by having interest put on top of that. Um, personally, I know that, um, the payment plan is not necessarily or the payment policy is not necessarily up for vote tonight. Um, my perspective on that is that everyone in Cottage Grove uses all of the roads in Cottage Grove. So, it makes more sense to me to spread that cost out among the whole community every time rather than just on the homes where the um work is happening because I don't only drive in my neighborhood and you know other parents who are dropping off their kids at school um are coming from other places as well. So, it's it's something that we all share and as taxpayers I think we've already agreed to all share each other's burdens um financially through our through paying taxes on a regular basis. Um, at the very least, my ask would be that in the installment plan that there would be no interest. Um, just as an honor to those families and those residents who are being charged with this extra fee. Um, that, you know, we don't have a lot of time to to gather this much money. Um, and just as a way of saying we for us residents to feel um, [snorts] at least respect [laughter] I'm almost done. at least um respected and and honored that you understand that this is a financial burden for us and and to kind of help us out that way. >> Okay. And can I can I get you to state your address though, please? >> Yes, of course. 8645 IRA >> because that also helps for us for getting back in contact with you for any questions or anything. Okay. >> So much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Was there anybody else that wanted to speak? Hi. Um, Bobby Frey, 8656 Irish Avenue Court South. Um we live in obviously a cult and we don't have a lot of traffic in our area there and um over half of the people in our cult have already had um we've replaced and updated our driveways and such and it's my understanding that you know the aprons and such are going to get redone on the driveways and we've had cracking and stuff like that before where it's it's been caving in and it sounds like there's not going to be any additional type of rebarb or anything else like that on the aprons to ensure that you know the the driveways are going to hold and such. Um so that's a kind of a concern. And then um how do you gauge um if you have the root issues with your um your water system or whatever that thing is called? Um how do you gauge that? And then um how how would we go about if something is found that there's a problem there about getting it fixed as well. >> And then um there's going to be a period of time where there's going to be no parking on the street. Um is there going to be direction as to where the parking accessibility is going to be and for how long? Um, so those are just a few concerns that um, >> no, all great questions and we'll before even we're we vote, we'll answer those questions for you. >> Thank you >> 100%. >> All right. Was there anybody else that wants to speak before I answer some of the questions? Yeah, go ahead. >> So, my name is Michelle Chadik and I'm 8724 Hillside Trail. Not sure if I'm even part of this because half the mail I got said yes and half of it said no. I'm like kitty corner from the other side. But um my only concern is like cuz I live on Hillside which is a very hightraic area. There's a lot of people who use hillside. A lot of people who drive right by there that don't live there that aren't going to get charged for all this. And uh and I just feel like it's very unfair to pay over $7,000 for somebody who when everybody in the whole neighborhood uses it. I mean, I know our property taxes went up, I don't know, almost 9% this last year. And so I don't know why we can't use some of that money that, you know, we had from our increase in our property taxes. So, okay, that's all I wanted to say. >> All right. Thank you. All right. Is there anybody else that would like to speak? Right. So, maybe we'll go ahead and answer some of the questions. So, um do you I don't know if Paul wants to answer or Ryan if you want to answer. Um I know there's a good question about the notifications, which I know we have a process, so you might want to speak to that. >> Um the Yeah, that deals with the parking and such and and making sure there's coordination there. percentages of payment also in terms of what the resident pays versus what the >> Yeah, I was going to get to that. And then the other part was um if they redid their driveways um what the process is about that or this is actually the second time now we've heard the rebar comment. So, you know, with our previous pavement management, so maybe you want to take those ones to start out with. >> Yep. Yep. Thank you, Mayor M Council. And I I'll go [clears throat] off my notes here as well. If I miss anything at the end, just let me know and I'll make sure to address it. Um, with the first uh your question in terms of the the cost being too high, I know it's it's always hard to talk about that. You know, these are obviously big costs that we're talking about. Just in terms of comparable projects, I would say, right, what have we seen in the past for this type of work? 2024 was a full curb replacement like this. Um, but two years ago and uh and actually a newer neighborhood where the curb just failed very early. uh so less uh utility work and that was about $6,700 when we had this meeting here tonight that we were proposing. So if you fast forward two years um to $7,100. I mean you're you're within line of of what we've seen in the past. Um just from a comparison perspective in terms of communication uh with this one because we did have our 10-year plan to go off of. Um we [clears throat] did send out the first letter in March of last year um just to try and get more notice. There certainly wasn't an assessment number in that because we didn't have a feasibility report completed. Um but just in terms of general notification, we did the early notification then we try to get that out uh early in the year uh when we can um following our plan and then we do the neighborhood meeting which has you know an advanced notice. We had one extra letter in there just cuz the public hearing um we were thinking be earlier so we uh we had additional mailing about the public hearing and then the notice for tonight. So um four letters in total but the key one was that one in March trying to give earlier notice of the project. Um um kind of two different residents spoke about that cost right and and should more of the the tax base pay it that actually is the reason behind our uh assessment policy and that payment management task force decided 45% to the residents 55% to the general levy. So that general levy tax base is paying for a little over half the project. Um, and in [clears throat] this case, when the uh assessments are capped by the benefit appraisal, the levy is actually picking up more um because they're picking up that difference between what we calculated and what the benefit appraisal had. So, it's probably more of a 60/40 split. Um, I would say um regarding the the apron, that's a question that we do get with concrete. Um, our [clears throat] standard is to do a thicker concrete section. So, a full 6-in concrete section with class A aggregate. Um, that's how we do all of our commercial truck entrances. is that's how we do all of our sidewalks, ped ramps with no rebar. Um, and we're very very confident in that. As you can [clears throat] imagine, if if we had issues, we wouldn't want to use that design and and we're very comfortable with that. A lot of times you see the rebar, they're actually doing a thinner concrete section um to kind of account for that. And then in terms of parking, there's definitely a lot of communication. And if this neighborhood uh does move ahead with the project, uh we'd have a construction neighborhood meeting and then we have a dedicated city inspector with just constant communication um with the entire neighborhood uh talking about all aspects of the project. One of course being the parking because when we do these full curb jobs, there is some parking that we have to move around and that would be addressed uh very clearly throughout the summer. >> Yeah. And and I'm glad you brought that up because one of the one of the comments that was made about that was there is in the past, you know, we've had like a number to call to get information. Is that going to be in the case here too? >> That's correct, Mr. Mayor. There'll be a number and then email as well that would go to our inspector. >> Yeah. And I do know in the past cuz the council here gets the emails for when they do uh neighborhood pavement management so that we know kind of what's going out to the community, too. So you can get it directly sent to you whenever there's an update or here's what's happening in the next week or the next two weeks. So they would let you know uh exactly the process there. Um the one thing that you asked, I don't know you're going to know this answer, but um you you when you were talking about the full curb replacement that happened a couple years ago, the was that the final number was 6,700? >> Uh Mr. Mayor, in that case it did come in lower. Yeah. um here because the the benefit appraisal already kind of governed and brought it down a little bit. Um you know that that number wouldn't move. It had to be that calculation. So it's hard to tell if it would be lower than that 7100 or not. But in 2024 in that case it did come in lower that project uh bids came in good and then we had a good construction process. >> Yeah. Yeah. And so what I would share with the public just so that that you're aware so what'll end up happening so if the council votes to approve uh moving forward the next in essence step if you saw on the on the line um is we'll go out to bids and when the bids come in depending on what the price of the bids are then we determine again there's another stop gap there. If the bids come back way high then obviously that would be an issue for us let alone for you because we have a budget just like everybody does and you can only make it within that budget. um if it's better or comes in under that then obviously the benefit goes back to the homeowners uh well in the city to as a as a whole but the other thing is after tonight the max the cap would be 7100 which I believe is what the one I saw on the the single family correct 2800 or something for the town homes um so whatever the whatever would be voted on or approved tonight that is we can't go higher it can only go lower so just um to share that with And one thing Mr. Mayor I should add I looked at my notes I missed was that question about the roots and the private line. Thank you. >> Um and in that case you know we have the information that they gave the address we could speak after the meeting but with our televising we can certainly look at that and we can a [clears throat] lot of times they'll look up at the the why the connection and they'll see if there's issues up the line. Um so while it is a private uh responsibility to deal with we can certainly work with you and then take a look at that footage and see if there are issues. And and to her question though too, if let's say what's a what's a sign that somebody's having I'm assuming their water starts to trickle or >> Yeah. typically, Miss Mayor, when we see these red issues, it it uh it happens, you know, pretty quick. It stuff keeps getting through and then it's just too much and it's plugged and that's when people can see a backup into their basement. Um luckily, it's very easy to deal with. Um, roots are very easy for um, any type of plumber to cut out. And that's why we typically see people just doing that and not doing a lining of a private service um, just because it's so much more cost-effective um, to have a the roots cut out. Um, but certainly if if we're seeing it in the area with our pipe, that's probably a good indication that it could be in the private service and we can definitely work with homeowners to look at that. >> Okay, sounds good. >> Um, did I think we caught everything. Did I miss anything? [clears throat] >> That's what I have written down. >> What's that? That's >> that was what you wrote down. >> Was there be I haven't closed the public hearing, but just to ask, is there any other uh follow-up questions or anything as regards to this on some of the comments that were made or the the information that was shared? [clears throat] Okay. I will then go ahead and close the public hearing. Um and then I'll just ask for questions for council first. Uh council member Olsson. >> Thank you. >> Um first of all, want to say thank you to everybody who came and spoke. Uh we certainly appreciate the feedback. Um, I'm going to take a sidebar here and just tell everybody in the room that uh Mallerie Martin's an amazing teacher. My my uh son had had her and um she does a great job. So, uh on the way out, make sure you pat her on the back cuz she does an amazing work with young kids who don't always want to be taught. Um speaking personally, of course. So, uh, the question I had, mayor, is, um, there was a comment made about the assessment policy itself and more specifically, um, interest on, uh, anybody who would want to pay overtime. And what I want to ask is, uh, either Jennifer or Corey, um, I know that this is a statutory process, so it we have to follow the law. Does the law dictate um the uh interest if paid overtime or is that uh something that's under the city's perview? How exactly does that work? >> Mayor, members of the council, you'll probably remember back, we'll go back 20 years just to use round numbers. If you'll remember at that time, we had a policy on the interest rate. It was a straight 7%. I do remember. >> And I think some of you maybe were on the council and you probably got beat up over the fact that we were charging 7% interest. Um, and at that time council said enough is enough. Let's lower the interest rate. And so that's how we got to one and a half percent above the bond rate. So if we sell our bonds, I'll make up a number at 3%. The interest comes in at four at 4 1.5%. And so that's been in place probably now for about 15 years. Um, once um we got tired of uh hearing the complaints about the high interest rate. So um that's how that came about um in that. Oh, and since I do have the mic, council member Theiti, when you said about pavement management, is there been ever any direction to staff about the size of a pavement management? I do remember in 2008, the council said, "Don't ever do that large of a project ever again." I remember those words being spoke to the city engineer that time, and those words have always been uh taken into uh perspective since then. And so I know what size on the high side we will never do again. Hopefully that answers some of your questions. >> A very good answer. And u [clears throat] speaking about the interest rate, [snorts] I think something else worth mentioning there is um one of the things that the city team here uh at city hall has worked very hard on is improving our bond rating. And the reason we wanted to do that is because when your bond ratings higher, um you tend to [clears throat] get more bids and uh better bids for your projects. >> And [snorts] we are AAA rated city. We can't go any higher. That's as good as it gets. Um that's been in place now for several years. But uh prior to that, um double A+ uh we would have had to pay additional interest and I I suspect that's one reason why um it used to be 7%. as an interest rate is because the city's bond rating wasn't as good at that time. Um, and that then resulted in, uh, larger interest payments on anything that the city would have bonded for. But, uh, it sounds like to answer my question, um, the payment management policy is kind of the guiding force there. All right, perfect. Thank you. And the last thing I wanted to ask is, um, I wanted to talk a little bit about that, uh, root question that came up. So, um, Ryan, you said that, uh, you know, the the city could certainly work with the homeowner if they have a challenge. Has there ever been a time when we've had a similar situation, whether it's, I don't know, ash trees or something like that that uh, were going bad where we were able to put the homeowners in touch with a specific contractor and maybe get them because it was a larger group of people using the same contractor, get them a little more advantageous pricing. Is that something that we've ever done or thought about doing? >> Mr. Mayor, Council Member Olsson, uh for something like this, um because there is other work being done on the sewer lines in the area, kind of like if there's paving going on, uh sometimes the contractors will be willing to do driveway work at the same time and it's very cost effective. So in this kind of case, that would probably be the first course of action is who are the the you know utility contractors and would they also do work um in terms of cleaning those roots out um on the project as well because they're in the area. Sure. So we can certainly ask that question. It depends on you know the equipment they have and the scale of work if they're interested but we always ask those questions. >> Yeah. Or if there's even a problem but Okay, good. So so that might be one of the things we could do should that situation arise. Yep. >> Perfect. Thank you. Back to you, Mayor. I will just say it's I've been unfortunat Well, I should say unfortunately I've been around long enough to remember that there were issues with roots on Hamlet. >> That's correct. >> Uh in the old Thompson Grove neighborhood kind of close where I grew up and uh there was something done with that contractor there because they're already in the area and worked with those homeowners. Still cost the homeowners from the the the the Y or whatever the T that you're talking about up to their home, but it was significantly cheaper. So, good call. Uh, council, any other comments at this point? All right. So, um, we do have obviously the recommendations before us and [clears throat] I guess I'll look for a council to make a determination here. >> Mayor, I'll move that we adopt resolution 2026-005 ordering the 2026 pavement management project. >> All right. So, I have a motion by council member Olsen. Do I have a second? >> Second by uh council member Garza. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. Thank you uh for speaking tonight and thank you for listening. And if there is any questions as we get closer in this process, you're welcome to reach out to one of us up here. Our staff is always uh available and then eventually we'll have um a contractor who will who will kind of take the project over should we approve the bid. Uh and then there'll be some uh further communication to the to the neighborhoods. Thank you. Now it's up to Ryan to get really good bids. Yeah, that's the key. >> Oh, no pressure, Ryan. >> Yeah. >> Well, just to just let you know in Hidden Valley this last year, [clears throat] it had come out uh over 6,000 and the final bill ended up about $1,000 less. So, we can keep our fingers crossed and see if if uh if everybody can do a good job again and get that that price down because that's a that is a chunk of change for most people. So, yep, it is. All right. Uh, next on our agenda is bid awards. There are none tonight. Uh, we have nothing under 11 regular agenda. So, we're now [clears throat] down to Council Comm's request. I will start with, uh, Council Member Clawson. >> I'm going to defer tonight, Mayor. No, nothing to add. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, uh, Council Member Olsen. >> Thank you, Mayor. Real quick, I wanted to just take a moment um to acknowledge and remember uh some heroes. If uh you recall about uh 5 years ago, in fact exactly 5 years ago yesterday, there was a um I'll call it an incident that took place at the uh United States capital. And [clears throat] that incident resulted in um pretty chaotic scene with um you know, law enforcement being called in from both the Capitol Police Department and the Washington DC Metro Police Department, etc. And uh unfortunately as a result of that incident um there were uh several law enforcement officers who were injured and uh tonight I want to remember the ones who uh passed away as a result. Officer Brian Siknic from Capitol Police. Um he incurred uh enough injury at that event where um he suffered two strokes and the last stroke uh was fatal and he passed away 5 years ago today. So just one day after that event took place. In addition, um, there were, uh, Metro Police Officer Jeffrey Smith and Capitol Police Officer Howard Leeben Good. Hopefully I pronounced that correctly. Um, who, uh, shortly thereafter the incident, um, each took their own lives. Law enforcement's hard. Uh, public safety is hard. And unfortunately, our first responders often have to deal with very traumatic situations. Um, just a couple of meetings ago, I asked our city administrator to share some of the things we do here in the city of Cottage Grove to help all of our team members, whether they're public safety or any other department, uh, with their mental health. And she did a magnificent job of, you know, going through the litany of options that we have. And I only wish um, Officer Siknic, uh, Lebanon Good and Officer Smith from Metro Police were able to access resources like that. Um, unfortunately, Officer Siknic uh passed away from two strokes. So, that would not maybe have helped him as much as it would have helped officer Lee Good and Officer Smith. So, please join me in just taking a moment to remember the service and sacrifice of these first responders on uh January 6th, 2021, and hold their family in your prayers. Back to you, mayor. >> Okay. Thank you, Council Member Olsson. Council member Theiti, >> I guess I don't have uh don't have much. Just want to say here's uh here's wishing everybody a happy and and uh new year and and looking forward to a great 2026 and hoping that all everything that uh events and everything else that go well for for everybody. >> Fantastic. Thank you, Council Member McGarza. >> Thank you, Mayor. I don't have anything. >> All right. So, just a couple real quick items for everybody. First of all, um uh we did see just recently out on the uh on Facebook that uh the holiday train uh which is a uh 100% of the proceeds that uh the holiday holiday train creates, if you will, goes to the local friends in need food shelf. And the latest number that I just saw, and I know there's still money coming in, but was that just for the public, I think the the target was to get to like 120,000. >> That's correct. Um the current uh number that's out there is $246,000 uh that uh is being provided and and that's also including some goods and services or goods and and such that's being donated to the friends in need food shelf. So I wanted to say thank you to the public out there for uh your gener generous support of our uh local food shelf. Uh, thank you to the the holiday train committee that puts that pro puts that on and then obvious obviously the KC KPCP. Did I get that right? >> CPC. >> Thank you. Or the it's the used to be CP Rail, but they they merge. So, um, they do a fantastic job. They come to Cottage Grove every year. We're one of the largest stops for them, one of the highest uh in uh donations uh across the entire United States. And so, uh, very proud of, uh, everything that's being done here, uh, within Cottage Grove. And then lastly, I'll just, uh, throw out a a kudos. We've had the opportunity in Cottage Grove most recently to have a couple new, uh, restaurants open. And I've had the opportunity to, uh, and a couple times now, uh, to visit both of them. Uh, and just for the general public, if you're watching or in the audience here, uh, there is a new, uh, Mexican restaurant, uh, Mi PBLO, which is just out kind of out near Almar, near Carbonis and such out here, uh, between 70th and County Road 19 or Keats Avenue. Um, great family. Uh, it's been crazy busy. Um, and but >> food, >> it was wonderful. Amazing. >> It is amazing. Yeah. When they say gigantic burrito, it is gigantic. >> Um, very, very good food. So, I wanted to mention that. And then uh Kasamia, which is an Italian restaurant uh which is currently located where Tom Moyes used to be along 80th Street there kind of near Great Clips in that center there near uh Goodwill. Uh that uh restaurant is also open and I've been there a couple times and they do also have some American food there, but they have uh some very good Italian food and uh the tiramisu is I'm not a tiramisu guy, but it is really good and it's enough for two. So I just wanted to share that with you. Go there. You don't need two. They're not going to be happy. I said that, but you don't really need two. You can share one. >> The meatballs, too. >> Yes. Oh, they're very, very good. So, what's really neat is both of these are not big chains. And yes, we'll continue to get chains and such in our community, but we have people that are now investing within our community with restaurants and opening their own businesses. And so, I encourage everybody to welcome them to town. Uh, stop in and say, "Thank you for investing in our community. Thank you for making an offer uh to come here in Cottage Grove." and you will see more. There is more uh in the in the pipeline that we hope to uh announce in the in the not too distant future. Uh but I did want to just acknowledge both of those new restaurants that have recently opened here in Cottage Grove over the holidays. Um so with that, um we don't have a workshop which is open to the public or a workshop closed to the public. So at this point, I'm looking for a motion to adjurnn. >> Move to adjourn. >> We have a motion by council member Theiti, a second. Second by council member Garza. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I opposed. We're adjourned. Thanks everyone.