All right. At 6:30, we'll call Monday, May 12th, 2025, City of Mayor City Council meeting to order. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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. Thank you. And do we have any additions to the agenda tonight? One item to add tonight, mayor. Uh under the consent agenda, moving the the next council meeting May 26 to May 27th as the 26 falls on Memorial Day. Perfect. Thank you for that. And I'll look for a motion to approve the agenda with the one addition to the consent agenda number eight to move the meeting from May 26 to May 27 due the holiday. Motion second. We have a motion, a second. All in favor say I. I. I. Post same sign. Motion carries 4. With that, we'll open for public comments. If there's anyone who would like to discuss anything that is not on the agenda, please come forward. Seeing none, we'll close public comments and move to the consent agenda. Is there anything on the consent agenda that needs to be pulled for further discussion? Hearing none, then I'll uh just want to make one comment on number six for the claims. It will be for April and May um for the last uh meeting in April that we missed. So, it'll cover claims for both of those. Okay. So with that, I'll look for a motion to approve the consent agenda with the one addition from the earlier motion. Motion second. We have a motion second. All in favor say I. I. Post same sign. Motion carries 4. With that, we'll jump right to summer hours for staff. Thank you, mayor. Each year the uh city uh receives a request from city staff to open or uh change from normal hours to summer hours which usually takes the form of Monday through Thursday 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for a 9-h hour day and then a half day on Friday of 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. And this year we're requesting to begin uh summer hours on May 19th uh and then go until September 12th, which is a 2025, not 2024. So May 19th to September 12th of this year. Any questions or comments on that hearing? None. I'll look for a motion to approve the proposed summer hours from May 19th through September 12th. motion. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? My only comment um on this is I certainly love summer hours. I just feel I'd like to maybe stick with kind of what the intent of summer hours is and maybe go from Memorial to Labor Day. Certainly not this year by any means, but I I just feel that it just lines up more for what the incentive is. But again, as me and Nick talked, is certainly nothing I would uh oppose. If Nick feels this is fine for for the staff, I'm I'm aligned with it. It just seems to make sense to me. But um so with that, with no other comments, all in favor say I. I. I. Post same sign. Motion carries 40. And with that, we will move to the quote to remove trees from city hall. Thank you, mayor. Uh around city hall, we have about eight trees that we are recommending that we have taken down. Six of those are ash with two maples. Um take a look at the aerial photography here. We have the boxes here in red on the northeast side of the property. this one last year during uh one of the windstorms. Um it's got some dead fall in there and it's begun stabbing branches down into the rubber membrane when we had that windstorm which caused about $700 in roof repair damage. So we're recommending this one come down to prevent any future damage caused by that. Uh we have six ash trees. One, two, three, four, five, and six here, which uh we've had companies come out and take a look at. All of a sudden, they likely have emerald ashbor. Taking a look at them, they have quite a bit of dieback on the top of them indicating death of the tree. And then the maple here, while it's still in okay condition, I looked at it that today and it does have on a few of its top canopy branches some dieback occurring there. So, we're recommending removal of all eight. And then um not pictured here on the south side of the property, we have some trees just north in this area, three trees, and we're looking to have the company come in, trim those up with the dead fall that's in that area, and then also do treatment to those trees because they are still salvageable. Will you be replacing any of the trees? Uh the trees on this north side uh we're going to we have the baseball club donation as part of the splash pad. So we're going to plant trees in better locations around there. Okay, that's what I wanted to know. Yep. And the three of trimming and uh treating are those part of the quote or will that be addition that uh so to the quote uh obtained three quotes to do the work. Discount tree care of Wakonia came in at $8,950. That includes all of the work I just mentioned. Perfect. Um, Shorewood Trees Services of Watertown also includes all of that work. And then I was able to get one from Minnesota Tree Boss Wonia. That is just for um the taking down of trees and the trimming. However, they don't do the herbicide and treatment work. So, this is son's the treatment work. Perfect. Good. I just wasn't sure if those were add-ons to trim. All right, any other questions hearing? None. I'll look for a motion to approve the contract with Discount Tree Care of Waconia for $8,950 for tree removal, trimming, and um treatment. Thank you. Do they grind the stumps to them? Yes. Good question. Motion. Have a motion. Do we have a motion and a second? Any further discussion? And I think it's due. It's time to to pull out some of those. It'll give us a good opportunity to make it clean. Maybe not only trees, maybe some landscape, some bushes, some different things to, you know, uh, make it look really nice over by the splash pad. So, you hate to do it, but um, it comes to that time. And the one up against the city hall I certainly agree with um with the damage we've already had and we could incur more um after just replacing that roof. I think um obviously hindsight's 2020. We probably should have looked at it then but um certainly agree with that. So if nothing else, all in favor say I. I oppose same sign. Motion carries 40 and that will take us to city council reports. Council member health, anything to report on? Uh I had a planning commission meeting. Uh still going through the language for updating the planning and zoning uh with the project going with the overall the whole um drawing a blank now. Toning code. Yes. Is okay. Perfect. Council member Fouch, anything to report on? Uh, we haven't had a meeting since our EDA, right? No. Okay. So, we did a EDA meeting a couple weeks ago where we picked the grant applicants for the businesses in town and I think they've all been notified. Yep. Yep. Yep. And those were all awarded, correct? Correct. From our last meeting. Yep. Perfect. Thank you. Council member Jackson, anything to report on? Nope. Our meeting's tomorrow night and I think we're going to discuss some of it tonight, too. Y perfect. And I have nothing to report on as my last two personnel committee meetings have been postponed. Um I should have something by next next meeting. So with that, I'll look for a motion to adjurnn. Motion second. Motion a second. All in favor say I. I. I. Post. Same sign. We are journed. So with that, we will jump right into the workshop. Thank you, Mayor. Um, Chief Metzel is here and we'll be giving an update on the fire department 125th celebration event updates. We're going to go over uh the plan as we have it. As long as everything's looking good, I would anticipate at the next council meeting, you should see agenda items for intoxicating uh temporary intoxicating liquor license, uh, special event permit, and then road closure request. With that, I will turn it over to Chief Metel. All right. So, for our 125th celebration, we are um proposing to have uh so date is September 20th uh that we're looking at. Um as of right now, looking to start around 2:00 in the afternoon with um basically an open house. uh um display the trucks station. Um probably have some kid activities and stuff to be uh that they can do. Um we will be um serving burgers all day. We're also going to have a pork chop dinner. Um pork chops that we are going to be uh selling. Um we've uh got two different bands that will be uh playing. one starting around 4:30 um 73 paces which has donated their time uh to play um from way I understand um most of them on the that band are ridge View doctors um and so they said they would donate their time and play for us um and then the second band being uh foreplay which would play from 8 to 11 Um we have got um map drawn out of where we were going to have stuff. Um on the so as we um asked about kind of containment of as we plan on serving beer um we're going to have everything kind of on the north side of the um property. Um on the south side is probably where we'll have our trucks displayed or whatever. Um but at I think we've talked around 5:00 or 6:00 we plan on shutting all the station doors on the south side and keeping everything then to the north side kind of um enclosed. Um the um so looking on the top left hand side, those little orange boxes would be biffies. Um just to the right of that, the blue little spot would be where we would be serving um beer. Um those rounds are just tables. We've got um you know the light blue square box is where um the first band is going to play. They said they didn't need a stage or anything. They were just going to play on the ground. But then we have got the bigger blue long rectangle there would be a stage for the um main band to play on. Um down in the bottom in the corner of the station would be where we would sell food. And then there's uh tables along that front apron. We'd also have some tables set up in the bay itself. Yeah. Um and then um couple little uh stands in the front there. We plan on selling some t-shirts uh and items. And then the one right along where we've got the kind of orange where we will kind of gate off. That is where people would come in and then we would ID them for um wristbands for uh purchasing alcohol. And I assume these are like your little barriers here. Yeah. Correct. So that so most of that is uh fenced uh against public works is all fenced there. Um so like I said we would with you closing the station off on the south side at that point and then we would have a fence just on the front side to kind of have things contained just like that plastic fencing or a cell fence something like that a barrier. Yep. Okay. Perfect. Um I miss it those brown boxes up front. Is that like biffs or something? Say that again. Yeah, these right here. Those Yeah. would be biffs. Uh we have spoken with all the um people along Shimcore, all the businesses there. We have spoken to them letting them know uh when we're having this and stuff. Um the thought or one concern was with with parking. Um so uh in doing that we want to have Shimcore Street just a one-way street. We close it off coming you wouldn't be able to enter from 30. Um but the only entrance would come in by Casey's and yeah kind of stopping the or starting the one way just uh east of Casey's there so people can get in and out of Casey's easy enough. all the other businesses are mainly the businesses that are only used during the week anyway. Um, and so we would create just a oneway so that we've can very easily park cars on both sides of the street um possibly angled um so we can get more parking in there. A number of uh businesses did offer um either a their empty lot or part of their um you know parking lots themselves uh for parking for the event as well. Wonderful. Um the uh Great Plains Mini Storage um right there, that big open area between us and there he said we could park vehicles on there. Um, like I said, and another a few a number of other ones had said that they'd be willing to let people park in their lots. And what's the plan for alcohol? Will it be just beer or will you have beer? Beer and sers and yes, not hard. You won't. No. Good. And will you need any other volunteers? is the do you guys have enough out of your Lions have reached out and offered their assistance? Y um which I'm sure will take them up on helping out in some ways. But um I can certainly be available if there's anything you need for someone to do anything. Pick up garbage, do whatever. It doesn't matter. If you need another person, certainly let us know. Sure. Any other questions on It's great. No, I think it's great. I I like the plan. Um thought out. Now, do we need security? No. No. Okay. No, I don't have a concern over that. No. And I don't either. I mean, yeah. I mean, especially with it having a barrier for the alcohol, right? Town cop will be on that day anyway, I'm sure. Right. Yeah. So, yeah. No, I think it's a great plan. I I'm all for it. Absolutely. Any other questions for Andy? Now, it'll still be open. This will still be open down here, right? Yep. People getting out for exiting. Yep. Yep. I'm working with uh Carver County to see if we can't get the turn lane shut down here just so people don't accidentally try to take a right. Right. Pass through. Yeah. Trying to think of those little extra details to make it as safe as possible. Good. Yeah. Cool. Cool. No, I think it's well thought out. We uh also so along the front side of the station um we will leave those parking spots there open for handicap. Okay. Oh, sure. Will you need anything from public works on there for any of the parking for maybe fire department? I mean like city parking or you know possibly barriers or something like that with you know closing off one way and um I meant I meant more that the space like if you need it for like your all the firefighters maybe parking for some of the either a firefighters or b the the band will have some sort of uh truck or whatever that with their equipment that they'll come with that they'll need somewhere to park. Mhm. Yeah. Because I think opening up for things like that seem to make sense, right? Just to free up other spots. They can certainly use our public works lot. Yeah. Park whatever they need. Right. Right. Good. No, I'm looking forward to it. It's a good plan. Certainly keep keep Nick in the loop and whatever we can help with and he can help with. It's I'm curious what happens if you get a call. uh we will have uh one crew um dedicated to help our to run medicals and stuff, but other instances where we've got um we'll have probably New Germany most likely on standby that uh anything comes they would be you know called for assistance right away which is common for anyone going into festivals and sort of things. So, perfect. Good. Looks like a great plan. I appreciate you coming in and then going over it with us. Sure. Thank you. Any other questions for Chief? Mhm. Perfect. Thank you, Andy. Y All right, we will move to review utility shut off schedule. Do you want me just toss it right back to you? Jump in there. So, I just want to re discuss this schedule partly because of my mis and if you don't want to stick around, Annie, certainly don't. Partly because of my misunderstanding of what my intention was when we first brought this. I thought I was under the impression we kind of have three months before any notice, but not thinking through enough of one of the months is a back, you know, we're behind a month. I feel the way it's set up today, we are get we'll be sending out shut off notices one month earlier than what I had anticipated happening and we saw that with one of the residents where that happens. So if if someone doesn't pay March, they're going to get a shut off notice in April. Then they get their next one and if they're a couple days late on that one, then the notice is there and they're really and it happened to me actually. You guys probably have the dates better where you could explain it better where Yeah. But I feel we we missed one month. I my intention was to have one more month in there before the notice went out. So I'll quick recap of how the schedule is there now because when you explained it made that it made sense to me. So we'll take the current months. U May for example, everybody should have just received their utility bills probably last week. Y the due date is going to be June 1st. If we don't receive payment by June 1st, you'll get your second bill. Now, you've missed the first month. Now, the second bill goes out. That will include the disconnection notice that says if you don't pay by July 1st, you are subject to disconnection, right? And then what we do after that is then we'll put the door hanger on the door that says 48 hours after this is on your door and we'll put the date and time it went on, then we'll come come by to shut off. And it makes sense. But I will I I mean I get how it's going to be confusing because I mean I paid mine right I was like oh shoot I forgot to pay by the first. So I I paid it but I was really shocked to see that delinquent you're going to get shut off right away when we were like two weeks not even a week late but um or I guess it would have been two weeks. Yeah. I was like I just forgot to pay it because I'm not used to it. So I can get why probably people in town are probably like oh my gosh you're shut me off already after one month. That's how it comes across even though that's how it isn't how it is, right? And I know that for me that was my intention to not have it the way it's set up today. I think I was thinking April because your May is paying April. So I think I was thinking April, May, June, which was three month. I think that's where the confusion for me admittedly came from. Mhm. So, I'd like to propose we move it. Think about it. I mean, if you got any questions on it or what thoughts are um or some direction for Nick, but I just think it's a little soon to get that notice right away. Personally, all that would take is a simple amendment to the ordinance. I don't know. Maybe it'll get their butts in gear to pay it on time. I mean, it made me pay it the day. I was like, "Oh, shoot." Yeah. And I And I think we've made great strides. We got it back to the first of the month. We don't have the grace period. I think we're going in the right direction, but I don't think the intent was to put fear, right? Hey, pay it now. A lot of it was to not have that end of the year, put it into assessments through the county and some of that. I now I certainly wouldn't be proposing let's go nine month grace period, but I I think three seems um to get a shot because there's some fees with that and um and I know obviously staff will work with people too when they call in. they have that they have to work with people, but there's just so many that are lax on paying it. I don't know. Maybe maybe they get the notice. I don't I don't know. I I I I don't understand because you could literally drop it off up here. Well, and to be I again to play devil's advocate here. I mean, I usually am on time all the time, but for some reason I thought I paid it by the first and didn't and that's why. But then I as soon as I got it, I paid it. I was like, "Oh, shoot." So, I don't think it's always, you know, granted I've been wanting to get it set up to be automatic anyway. I don't know. I think people just get busy. You know, all my other bills are online and they're all I don't know. I get what you're saying, though. I I'm I guess I'm fine either way, but just Would you want to see some data? Who have you had any shout outs? Not yet, but that's on my list to follow up with it today since I this week since I was gone last week. Call us on it. But and even though if we're not getting them, you know, that would maybe warrant Well, let's not change it because we're not. But it's that I just think it's a little aggressive to be getting that notice that soon. I'm not saying we shouldn't shut off at a certain time and do that. Yeah. Like the follow through is a good thing to be doing. Yeah. Yeah. I think we do that. I just know for me I was off a month. Yeah. Okay. So, let's let's get a few months worth of data. H has there been a lot of notices that went out? If there is, maybe leave it. If there isn't, then lax it. I don't know. Yeah. Have there been a lot of complaints? That's what I was asking. The one, right? I don't think we've gotten very many complaints. I think there was people who misunderstood the grace period, right? But I think when we explained that you're getting just as many days as you did before, that put a lot of people at ease. Lot of face. And for me, I'm not proposing anything because of we had a resident. I'm pretty much I've always stood I don't change many policies for one person. You know, it just opened my eyes to realize, oh, wait a minute. As we talk through it and then I talk with staff and it's like, well, that wasn't ever my intent. Well, that's what it did for me. I said, so I'll bring it up. I'll bring it up and not I'm fine either way. It doesn't make or break me. Yeah. And it's not going to make or break the city. So, no, I think we're making good progress on getting things shored up and, you know, getting things in order. I I think we've done the right things. But, um, and if we want to wait a couple more months and and see how things are, but I just know for me it was I was didn't think it through. If if we didn't do the shut off notice until like technically the second month, right? Would they still have they still would get a late fee though for being late? Correct. Yes. So, I feel like they're still getting penalized. Penalized for being late, but then maybe not such like a fear factor like you said. Like, oh my god, it's aggressive. Yeah. Oh, that's fine. All right. Agreed. I had to be crow and pay the late a late fee. Three months. I will draft language for three months. Yeah. Let's Yeah. Go extend it out. However, you got to draft it to extend it out one more and then Yep. So, what that'll look like is at the next council meeting, I'll have it as an agenda item introduction of the ordinance change to update it to go from two months to three months. Perfect. Sounds good. Good. I appreciate it. Thank you all. I appreciate that. Uh so we'll move to number four, discussion on renewal of waste management contract. Thank you. Uh five years ago in August, we signed a contract. My understanding is the city went out for an RFP uh for waste management services and selected waste management as the new hauler. That contract is coming due from its 5-year period. So I just want to have direction. We can certainly renew the contract. There's no requirement to go out for an RFP. If we're satisfied with service, we can simply continue renewing the contract. They're cheap. They're efficient. I like their pickup days. You know, they're junk days. I don't know. I haven't had any issues. I'm very satisfied with them. I'm the same where you're at. I haven't had any problems with them. I mean, get some numbers from now. if they triple all of a sudden and we have to look at something obviously, but if they're still in line with kind of the increases we've been seeing, I think it's like 53 bucks every three to four months and I got the two big containers. We had a boat that broke and they fixed it like the next day. So, I'm fabulous. Good. A little background is we did have waste management for many years. Y then went out for an RFP and got some other company that wasn't so good and ended up going back to waste management. So, I think we stick with what works. I think we had shown change wasn't my only thoughts are and I'd have to I don't even remember how if we put it in the contract or not, but I thought when we signed this one we were going to try to get some sort of report or some sort of some sort I think report from them on an annual basis because one of my concerns was they handle all the phone calls. We don't know if our residents are not getting the service they need. if they're not getting treated right, if they're we don't know unless someone happens to call one of us and say, "Hey, I called Waste Management. They treated me pretty poorly, you know, and I haven't get those calls." But that's just one thing. So, it's hard for me. Are they, you know, we we always go under low responsible bid. Well, are they still responsible, right? Yeah, they're picking up our garbage and doing, but we don't know the customer service side of things. But usually, I mean, somebody if there's usually an issue with something, we typically in some way, shape, or form, we hear about it. And I haven't seen or heard, and I would agree with that with with with social media now and how people want to light up social media. I I I my gut tells me we would have heard something if it was a big deal. And they must have changed their route or how they do things or whatever because we did get a nasty gram that our stuff wasn't out before 7 a.m., which it's never been in five years. and they were serious. But they came back for us for the first like two weeks and then we learned our lesson. But now you drive through Hidden Creek and everyone's got their stuff out Wednesday night. I was I always I've always put mine out the night before. And you never know. I'm sorry. And the community loves the yearly. Oh yeah. Spring clean up. Oh my gosh. That's a great bonus. Do other communities. They're putting stuff on my curb after they've already picked up. There's so much traffic in town for that week. Well, in our neighborhood, too. Everything we put out there was gone like that. Oh, yeah. It's gone before the My stuff was gone the Monday before check in the swap to see if they were selling my stuff. You know, if it's still there, it is junk. Yeah. Yep. It's like, oh, wow. No, I think my only thing would be if, like you said, if they're pricing suddenly out of line or I don't see why it would be. I mean, there may be something. I don't even know if they run diesel anymore, but you know, we had some diesel charges when diesel went out, but I think they're probably running clean cleaner trucks now. I'm guessing. Yeah, it's all propane. We're moving towards that. Yeah. So, but I'm sure we'll get updated when they come back with the new contract with new pricing. Yeah, I'm fine. I I don't think I wouldn't want to go for RFP right now. I think we learned um unless there's a drastic I'll try to fix things if they don't need it. Agreed. All right, perfect. Sounds good. That's all I have. Perfect. That's all we need then and we will adjourn. Enjoy your seven evenings. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't Did you initialize? I initial them. You did? Yep. They've been wonderful. Always.