Roll call, please. Kate, council member, here mayor here. Uh, on to approval agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda tonight? I'll make that motion, Mayor. So, I'll move by Councilman Udvig. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second by Councilman Muower. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. On to consent agenda. Anybody want to talk about anything separately there? Hearing none. So, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'll make that motion, Mr. Mayor. Motion by Councilman Muall. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Second by Councilman Fanis. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Pull the same sign. On to meeting open to the public. Nothing. Seeing nothing there. All right. On to special business. Kate or excuse me, I think it's Michelle. Yes, Mayor and Council. We have Michelle here. Update on plans for days. We're getting down there. Just over a week to go. Okay. take those um just state your name blah blah blah west I am with the Francis area Chamber of Commerce and a week from Friday we'll be kicking off Pioneer days um as of right now everything seems to be coming together nicely We haven't had any major setups. Yes. Yes. Is the key word. Thanks. Um we have such an amazing support team right now. Um between the fire department, the police department, public works, the St. Francis Lions, um I made a list. Go look at my list. I don't want to forget anybody. Um the St. Francis ambassadors. Um everybody has been working really hard. We've had a couple of meetings with um police, public works, and fire kind of talking about game plans um going over the whatifs um to be prepared. Um and I think we're sitting pretty good. We have over 20 food trucks that will be at Pioneer Days. Um and we will have 47 additional vendors. So, it's going the is going to be very busy this year. Um, we're really excited about that. Um, our Pioneer Days parade, we are at about 30ome units right now, but we always get this is this next week and a half. We'll get we'll we're hoping for 50 again. That's what we had last year. We had 48. Um, we could easily fit up to 58 in in the space for the lineup. So, we Plenty of room to go there. Um, let's see. Do you guys have any questions? I don't have any questions, but thank you for all you guys do. You're welcome. I um it is it is a fun event. It's it's every year tends to go easier and easier. So, um I mean this is only my third year of that, but so far this one I'm not having any major anxiety yet. So, the only new thing that we really have this year is we are doing bingo in the park on Saturday. That's something that we haven't done. Um we will be doing that through the Cam Lake Chamber of Commerce is is hosting it. Um We're hoping that if that works out that in the future we'll probably do like the St. Franc. It's just that we had started working with them before the St. Francis boosters had had started everything. Um other than that I think I'm just trying to look through there's anything different this year but I don't think there is. How are you doing on volunteers? Do you still need people to sign up? Great question, Sarah. We can always use volunteers. Um, we do have a volunteer signup sheet. Um, I posted on Facebook today. Um, I would be happy to send it to all of you. It's also on the St. Francis Chamber page. Um, and I mean, we have volunteer spots that are short and easy. Other things that we are always reaching out for is people if you're at the park and you see a full garbage can, if you're able to grab somebody and help us out with that or little things like that. I mean, anything helps. Um, setting chairs up in the tent, moving tables around. There's there's always things that can be done. So, go ahead, Amy. Um well this looks this all looks great. Really excited about it. Um Sarah, were you on the committee this year for this or who who was? Yes, you were. Okay. If next year if I can lend a hand too, I would love to. Um I um and then is it is the St. Francis High School graduation always on does it always on Friday night of pioneer days? That sounds a little like So we actually had a meeting about that last month. Um because we have had some strong feelings both ways. Um historically when Pioneer Days falls on the same time as high school graduation, we get a bigger turnout. And the reason we get a bigger turnout is because people come into town for graduation. Families are here. Um we just get a lot bigger turnout. The other issue that we run into is as soon as school gets out, that first weekend, as soon as school gets out, people flee. They go to their cabins, they go wherever else, and our numbers drop significantly. So, after Pioneer Days this year, we are going to be sending out a survey. Um, but we didn't want to do it before Pioneer Days because we don't want it to cause the for this. Sure. So, that survey is going to go out and it's going to ask, "What do you prefer the same weekend as graduation or the weekend after school gets out?" We can't move it earlier because that's Memorial Day. Um, we don't want to move it farther out because then we run into other town festivals. We've got Zimmerman and Princeton both going the week after or I'm sorry, Princeton. I don't remember which the other one but I mean so there's a lot of variables that we have to look at. Um one thing also we have found is we have we can get more volunteers the weekend of graduation. Okay. It's always a bummer for the parents of graduating students because they're swamp. They're super busy. But even if it wasn't on that graduation, are they still gonna be super swamp the following weekend? They've got parties and things like that. So, but we don't know. It's it's really up to the community. We're going to put that out there for a survey and just get feedback and then we'll determine. We're going to have to try to have that figured out by like August what weekend it will be next year. Yeah, I noticed that it moved a little sooner and I I asked the question as it always that day. I mean it I I I agree with whatever everything you said that you're going to get more attendance if people are in town. It's just going to our town will just be hopping in that night. So um the other thing about it too is the place is already already has everything set up. They have extra control, extra things going on for graduation. So tying it all in together then it's not two weekends in a row. They have, you know, city available, police available, fire available. A lot of those pieces play into it, but before I got involved, I never realized. Right. No, I actually like it. I I I like I like that. And I like I like the bands you guys got this year, too. So excited about that. Actually, the bands are all up to the local bar. We didn't We try to have Community Park kind of shut down by like 9:00. That's kind of wrapping it up for us there. It's just a lot easier to keep keep that away from there. We do the Lions do serve um beer and salters out of the Lion's trailer during the day. Um but they're usually done by 7:30. Okay. By dark for sure. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for all your hard work. You bet. Any other questions? Awesome. Well, we look forward to seeing you all there. Thank you. And just one comment, Michelle. I mean, not only thank you for all the time you spend on this, but your energy and enthusiasm is infectious. It is. So, appreciate it. Thank you. It's It's fun. It I get my payback when I see the the fun things. I don't know if you've all heard my story about the Pioneer Days parade cleanup the first year that I did it. Um the very first year that I f I followed the parade afterwards and then we put the football team through first and then the football team walks the parade route afterwards. picks up the garbage. And um I was following behind the football team and I saw so much great community connection between the football players and whether it was older people in the stand or in the stands in the in the crowd, you know, sitting in their front yard saying, "Hey, how's the football team going to do this year?" or young kids throwing the ball and playing catch with some of the football players. and you just saw this amazing connection and it was with all ages and it just like open my heart like this is great. This is what it's all about. So yeah, so hopefully we'll have that again this year. And just just one more. Maybe next year I'll throw this out here now so you guys can think about it. Maybe next year the city council can have a float in the parade. As long as we don't have a quorum. As long as we don't have a quorum. Yes. A lot of other cities do that for their parades and I think that would be nice. You just provide notice. Yes. Notice that you're more than welcome to sign up for the parade. Okay. All right. Just got to get these folks on board. We we have been asked in years past, Amy, if we would do it. And there has not been there's not been a consensus of people who wanted to do it. Well, that's why I threw it out there now. We can mail it over for several months. You're always welcome. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Looks like we're on to uh new business. Darcy, good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh before you tonight is the 2024 uh annual comprehensive financial statement and audit report. We did something different this year. We I sent out a couple weeks ago. Uh Justin did his presentation through with a video and we put that online and we put the financial statement online and I did send that out to everybody. Uh I don't know that anybody I didn't hear any questions from anybody. So they still gave us a clean opinion. We're good there. The same finding that a lot of small towns have is segregation of duties. You know that's we just don't have enough people that can split up all the tests. So, um, if you don't have any questions for me, um, all I need is, uh, acceptance of the report by motion. No, I have nothing. Amy, thank you. I have no questions, sir. I have no questions either. I don't either. And just I thought the report was very straightforward and just so everybody knows, I mean, they're willing to come here and do it in person, but it'd be like $500 more. And I I don't see the purpose of that. I like the YouTube thing of those. I thought I thought it was well done as well. Yeah. So they they've trying to move to that just um then actually then the public can see it too. So yeah. So do we need a motion on this then? Yes. A motion to accept the report. Motion to accept. Okay. So somebody want to make the motion to accept? I'll make that motion. Yeah. Councilman Odwig made the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Second by Councilman Fis. Uh, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. All the same sign. Sorry. Got four eyes. Thank you, Mayor Council. Thank you. Meeting open to the public again? Change your mind at all, Hunter? All right. Moving on to reports. Public works. Uh Mayor and Council, before you this evening is a public works uh first quarter report. I'll just uh kind of highlight the spring what we're up to. Um gravel was completed already this spring. Uh we added about 16,000 tons or 1,600 tons of new gravel uh and applied it to the roads. Uh this is a little bit more than usual. The winter for some reason was on the gravels this year. Um public works hauled away all the mulch generated from the tree clearing across the street. Uh have some numbers now. Uh there were about 280 loads, dump truck loads hauled out, approximately 3,700 yards of mulch. Uh since then, uh we actually have saved some of it and and we've moved the rest of it on. It's getting used um in another process by another company. So it's gone. Um the snowplow ride this year was uh very popular again. um especially when the trucks get to school, the classes now all come out. They dress the kids up and they meet the drivers and the kids in the snowplow trucks now. So, it it's a pretty good draw. It's one of the biggest draws uh for open house. So, we've uh the guys really look forward to it every year. And this year we had some snow, so the kids got to see what it was like and how rattly them trucks get when uh you drop all the plows down and push it off the road. So, it worked out pretty well. Um, one of the things we've been working on this spring is a fit the fit test was completed for the warming house ice rink space and a plan to remodel the space is in the process. The plan is to work on two grants for the project at the same time we are designing it. Uh, we will not start the actual project though until the summer fall 26. So there's a lot of planning going on right now. uh you'll see tonight was on consent was for the uh grant work and next week we'll bring forward the actual scope of the the work for the uh warman house ice rink. So um staff has been working uh very closely with the parks commission to remodel rum river woods park this year and council will receive the results. Uh you'll see the results next week. Um looking forward to presenting it. Uh so far it it's it's been working out very well. I'm glad we added the parks commission. They've had some excellent uh input and things are moving along quite smoothly. Um police and public works had all the walls repaired and painted in our space this year. Um we want to thank the police for helping us out get it done. It was it was a it was a big project. Uh the building it was time. The building is what 12 13 years old and it was time. So it turned out quite well and we really appreciate the the police help. Uh recycling events. Um, we've changed it up this year. We are we're focusing around the 4020 building now, keeping it close. What we're doing is we're using that 4020 building so we can store things from our residents and then it gives time for the vendors, you know, to come and pick it up. We can schedule things a lot better that way. Uh, mattresses, for example, you don't want sitting out in the elements. You want to keep them under cover. Um, we've also changed it up. We're also accepting uh recyclable items during the week now by appointment because we have the space. So, we've kind of changed that up a little bit as well. And we did add our compost is that was the one we added this year was the compost site and we are permitted now and we've been stirring it. It's working out pretty good. So, um this spring staff assisted Oka County with the Bridge Street Trail connection here on the east side of the Rum River. Um it was the project was a go and then they discovered that we have utilities underground that go underneath the river there. So, we're we're still in the process. Originally, it was going to happen this fall. Um, engineering has changed now because we have three lines that go underneath the river right where they're going to put the actual trail. So, uh, word to come later on whether or not they're going to complete it this year or not. Uh, one of the one of the uh, things that we did this year was we toured I I took some staff with me and and some other cities. We were able to tour the the Met Council wastewater facility. Um, it's one of the biggest in the country. It was interesting to see one of the biggest plants ever designed and steps that day. It took it was three miles of walking and we only seen a portion of it. So, just kind of give you how an idea how large that was. It was very very interesting. Um to that note, uh we had an MPCA compliance inspection this year. The mayor was there that day. Uh it it went well. Um we're inspected about every three years, but no issues. We're in compliance. Everything's rolling along as it should. Um staff's continuing to work with the DNR. What we've been doing is trying to um increase our water appropriations. Uh what we hope to see an answer this year. We'd like to bump it a little little bit. Um uh the water operators, they continue to monitor to monitor the uh high usage uh with the city's Neptune 360 system. uh this public works program initiative has been very popular when we're able to help people save the the resource. We also help save money. So we really haven't anyone had anyone tell us not to continue the program. So it's working out pretty well. Um the operators have also completed hydrant maintenance, water treat water treatment plant maintenance and inspections. They also the guys also rebuilt our chlorine feed system this year in the water plant and saved us some money there. Uh they're quite handy. um with working on both working on both plants. So, works out pretty well for the city. Um the water operators have started collecting chloride samples from from our lift stations. We're using them as the actual samples. Uh more to come on that when we get all the information. Parish is working on that. As soon as we get everything collected, uh we'll we'll present it and we'll have some ideas of where we're getting, you know, where we're having the most issues in the city. So, and last but not least, just a reminder that we have Woodbine and 229th this year, both the first week of June. These will be full reconstructs. Um, that it'll be quite messy on this side. And then the mill and overlay on 233rd and and 229th as well. And again, it start here in a few weeks, end of first week, maybe beginning of the second week of June. So, that's all I have. And with that, I can answer any questions. Thank you, Sarah. I do not have any questions. Great report. Um, something I was looking for and I don't know if I missed it, but have we been have we been having to pull any pumps? I know we used to talk about that a lot. Have we How's that been going with our So, mayor and council, that's an excellent question. We have um particularly in our in our Turtle Run lift station. Uh, we actually have sent out letters to the we we know who the suppliers of that lift station are. Uh, it I don't want to say it's it's gotten better yet because I don't want to jinx it, but it seems to have improved a little bit. So, yes, good question, Sarah. Thank you, Amy. Um, uh, just a couple things. Um, good report. Um, Paul and I spoke a couple times this in the past two weeks and I'm sure you'll give us an update on the lawn out here. Um, I know you met with Stall Construction today. I did and I mayor Council, I can I can I can speak to that as right now. I met with Stall this morning at 7 a.m. Uh Stall is going to be um they'll get some black dirt added out here and probably some receding. Uh as far as what is under the mulch that that that has to be written in a spec and they're going to get back to me on that. We don't know whether that was inspect or not, but um but yes, as far as leveling it out here, that's going to happen. They're going to help us with that. So, okay, I'm glad for that. And I know this isn't probably you because it's a Coney Road, but have you noticed a little sinkhole out here right by the stop sign on Ambassador and it's about this it's about this deep and about this big around I have. So So Mar council that's in there that's county roads. So they've been we've actually contacted them twice today and we've got them in touch with the bus garage actually brought to our attention today actually. Okay. So yeah. Yes. because I have a low profile van and you could lose a bumper in there for not paying attention. Uh that was it. Thank you, Joe. Uh no questions. Thank you. Keep up the good work. Um I know we talked a little bit about the the salt thing. Um hopefully that grant is going to come through at some point. Um but I was investigating myself on upgrading my own softener. But no questions. Thank you for everything and pass it on to all the employees. I will. Thank you. Likewise. And only thing I want to you you can comment on it if you want, but I at the last meeting somebody talked about the copper roof on on the on the gazebo and and I I suspected it wasn't, but that's kudos to picking out one that people think is copper. So, I don't know if you want to talk about that. Absolutely. So, mayor and council, no. Uh that is not that's a co they call it a copper penny color. That is a tin roof. And it was only $8,600. It was considerably cheaper than the than Yes, Jeremy talked to us. So to replace, just so the council knows, to replace that gazebo roof with cedar shakes, depending on who we talk to, is between 25 and $42,000 last year. It's not nice decision. What is that like a 12 x 12? But yeah, it's not very big. And just just so everybody knows, it's kind of funny. I was I have a few minutes to kill. So, I was pulled pulled over by Woodbury Park over there and it was interesting that it's testimony to the team out there because when you when you got Jen and everybody out there planting the plants and it it look it looks fantastic. So, good work and thank you for the report. Thank you. On to fire department. Yes, sir. Mayor and Council for your reviews the monthly report for the fire department for the month of April. We had to 66 total incidents on the month. That was down from 85 in the previous month with our average in route time of 9 minutes and 20 seconds and an average at scene time of 14 minutes and 9 seconds which is a slight increase from the previous month. But we do still see our mutual aid responses pretty high for this time of year. Uh our breakdown in our dispatch codes is following that and our incidents volume by station. station one with 36 responses, 18 all calls on the month, nine for station two, and three duty officer responses. On the second page, it's our um how we coded the incidents that we responded to. As you can see, um our medical um calls are broken out by type. Um and again, grass fires were still high, injury accidents were still high, and a fair amount of structure fires on the month as well. Our current projected volume for the year is a 10.55% increase with the lower number in April. You can see that that's dropped from 11.6% previous month and our average daily incidents dropped by6 from the previous month down to 2.2. Incident by hour remains consistent throughout the first quarter um with Friday with that uh 5:00 range really starting to be our peak response time. Um and the same with our incident count by day of week where Wednesdays and Fridays continue to be pretty consistently our busiest days of the week. Staffing remains consistent by firefighter response by day of the week. Tuesday, for some reason, seems to always be our lowest day of the week for firefighters coming back. Um, must be something pretty important on Tuesdays that I don't know about. But, um, firefighter response by hour of day, pretty consistent as well, where we see that 3 to four:00 hour we see our numbers increase for available responses. 23 fire events, 43 EMS events, and our average time on scene was 40 minutes and 13 seconds for the month. Uh we did report a property loss of $3,000. We did find out with our RMS system that's kind of an anomaly when we have a property loss. We had a small pole shed fire on Ambassador a few weeks back. It was content loss only, but because we had to put in a structure fire code and we had a content loss, we had to put a dollar value in for property loss. So that's why you see that or that content loss, we had to put in a dollar value with the property loss. So, um, we're working, we have a ticket in with our RMS system to fix that field. So, if there's not that contents loss, we don't have to enter a value. So, we'll get that corrected on our annual report moving forward. Um, our turnout goals, as you see, we met our turnout response by for 44 44% of the time and our arrival on scene 46% of the time. We did nine mutual aids on the month. We only received mutual aid twice and now was our biggest mutual aid response city for the month. So, East Bethl last month or in March, now that in April, we're kind of our busiest assists. So, with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Amy, I don't have any questions. Joe, uh, no questions. Thank you again and again, pass it on to everybody. Yes, sir. Sarah, Joe, no questions. Great report and just thank everyone for their hard work. Thank you. Ditto. Likewise. Yeah, but I I really I really, like I said, as I'm getting more familiar with this, I really like this new reporting because things like the mutual aid at the end of the year, I'm really going to be curious what those numbers look like at year. So, yeah, especially with our neighboring department struggling as much as they are, we have seen an increase in those mutual responses this year in particular. So, thank you. Thank you. Uh, council member reports. Uh, Joe, uh, I don't have a lot to report. Uh, touch base with a few different staff here and there on little talk to Paul quickly about the salt situation. Um, I just look forward to Pioneer Day. So, May 30th, 31st, and the 1st. So, we'll see how that goes. Thanks, Amy. Um, I don't have a lot to report either. We I mentioned I talked to Paul. Um, I just have a couple questions. I'm not sure I really want to say them, but I'm going to go for it. So, in the past couple weeks, we've had a couple more accidents on Ambassador and 47 and I know it's State Road, County Road, I know all that. Have we I'm sure we did, but have we asked for a reduced speed through as you get close to the intersection there? Kind of like the student or the school zone here. Um, I mean, there's a school lawn ambassador. Um, and I don't think that's a school zone slowdown area. Um, but have we asked M um the state to reduce the speed all the way through past Ambass ambassador? Last reduction was when the girls got hit, they put it down to 45, but I don't think it goes all the way to ambassador at 45. Yeah, it does. It does. Does it? It goes past just outside of town where it switches to 55. I thought people I guess I actually don't drive 47 all that much. I live on that side and I'm I'm crossing this way mostly. But um Okay, Mayor Cussell. So speed, we've talked to the state and the county a lot about speed. Speed in itself, we could reduce the speed to 25 miles per hour won't correct the issues. And even the road itself, the intersection isn't necessarily the issue of some of these accidents. So we have to remember could it could be any intersection is a lot of driver concerns not necessarily road design speed design. We are working with MDOT constantly and trying to do something at that intersection but you know until either they make a move or we get to our our full redevelopment of our project. It's we are we are working that road. I didn't know that it the 45 went all the way past there because like I said, I don't drive it that much. But and and I'm I do know that speed isn't always something that if if they're a bad driver, they're going to not follow the speed limit. I I get that. I just I just was wondering. Um and then also um Oh, I guess that was it. That was my only question. There was another question. What was shock? I might think of it later. That was my only question. I was certain we did everything we could, but two more accidents in two weeks is is upsetting. But drivers drivers getting worse. I mean, I I there's there's accidents every day on the highways like bad ones. Rollovers just had one. Highway 10. Yeah. Just had one rollover accident today between Main Street and Hansen, I believe. It's just it's it's a danger to be on our roads. Excuse me. Sure. I had a busy couple weeks. I don't know what y'all were doing. But I had on Tuesday the 6th I had the upper Rum River water management meeting which sadly we could not have because we did not have a quorum. So we are going to try again for June 18th. So, um, and then on Tuesday the 13th, I attended the Citizens Academy and it was a, um, it's very enlightening. It's it's good. I encourage anybody, well, I guess Amy and Mark, next time it comes around, one or both of you, if you can do it, um, it's there, it's it's fairly small. We have besides me, there's five other people, so there's six of us, but um, some good good conversations. Um on the 14th I uh went to Woodbury Park in the evening and helped the ambassadors um plant some plants. Um they will be keeping that up during the summer for us. On the 15th I attended the parks commission. Um and that was a great meeting. We actually um it's a great group of people. They're really excited. They're really energetic and really want to see what we can do with the park. So we have a lot of exciting stuff. So, just be watching in the next couple weeks for stuff to be popping up. And then yesterday on the 18th, I attended the Ambassador's fourth annual golf tournament. Um, this is, like I said, it's their fourth year. Um, the first year they started out with four teams and they've built it up to 14 teams at golf. Um, so it's a it's an event that, um, keeps growing and I encourage people to attend. Um, also I just wanted to mention there is a culture festival on May 21st from 5 to 8 at the St. Francis High School lunchroom. And I'm going to put in a a plug here for our Hometown Highlights. If if you haven't checked it out, um, please um it's online, right, too, Michelle? So check it out online. It's called Hometown Highlights, and there is great information in that. So I encourage everyone to check that out. And otherwise, I encourage everybody to attend Pioneer Days. It's always a great time. If you're out and you see something that needs to be done, find somebody who can help you. Pick up garbage when you're out and just be respectful of everybody and everybody's property. That is. Thanks, sir. Uh I spoke one of the things I did is I spoke with our lobbyist and uh Representative Lawrence and unfortunately it's not looking good. We can't be surprised first first attempt at this and it's not final yet. I think they're still continuing to meet today and we'll see what happens with special session, but it they're added some twist to it as well and but he's been he's been in contact with us and I I can't appreciate thank him enough for his sponsoring the bill and and his continued interest in our issues. Uh, I went over and met the RNR who was one of the biders for our uh, new city, the old city hall. So, I met with both parties now. And I just, it was a very good, again, I encourage you to take a visit. It was a very good visit. I appreciate meeting them and learning more about their operation. Uh, I sat down with her for police a police chief with a citizen that called me with some concerns and and and I I bring this up mostly because I it was it was a wonderful visit. I don't know half an hour, I don't know how long it was, but citiz our citizens have all these concerns and questions and I just I suggested to him I said I said sit down with the chief and they they were like can we do that and I said absolutely. So, we sat down and it just it really clears the air. So, I'm encouraging anybody watching is in in the public, reach out to our department heads. They're happy to meet with you and and clarify things. So, it was just it was a really good meeting and I and I thank the citizens and I said that that's what that's where it starts is they're interested citizens concerned about what's going on in their community and they're doing something about it. So, I I thank them very much for that. Then we also had another meeting with the St. Francis Bethl Fire. Uh continued ongoing discussion about a joint department here, so to speak. And it's I think the we're making great progress. We're getting down to the point now where I think we've got enough information that where we're going to have to start making some decisions to present to the two councils. But it's it's it's going to be we've got time and and we're well ahead of the curve and appreciate Dave's work on it and and Mr. Weaver's work on it. So discussions continue. So that's all I have other than again pioneer days as everybody said May 30th, 31st and June 1st. And with that I have a motion to adjurnn. Make that motion Mr. Mayor. Motion by Councilman Muer. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Second by Councilman This. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All the same sign.