[music] Thank you. Good evening and welcome to the city council regular meeting for Tuesday, July 21st, 2026. Please rise and 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. Good evening. Welcome. We get started here. Any additions or corrections to the agenda? >> Just one item, mayor. We would uh propose to flop items 3A and 3B uh to allow our Leprechaun Days folks to get back to the work of Leprechaun Days. [laughter] >> Leprechauning. >> Leprechaun. Leprechaun. >> There we go. All right. If uh nothing else, then uh I'll move the agenda. Is there a second? Second. >> I have a first uh motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. We have an agenda this evening and we'll move to presentations and proclamations and then we'll start out as indicated. 3B Leprechaun Days Update. Mr. Schultz. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council members. Um I think as you are all aware that it's that time of year again for our largest city celebration, uh Leprechaun Days. With us tonight, we have the chairperson of the committee, uh, David Chumley, and he's going to give an update for this year's events. >> Go ahead, David. >> Yeah, thanks, Dan. Mayor, city council, city, uh, staff. Thanks for having me tonight. Um, we're we're all ready for Leprechaun Days 2026. We got a another great week of eight days of events planned. started off last Saturday as with the run for the gold and the fire department breakfast. Um we're starting set up for uh Midsummer Fair tomorrow. So we've got the carnival coming back. We've got um three great bands again this year. We have um Belfast Cowboys on Thursday nights. We brought back uh country band for Friday night, Mason Dixon line, and then we have Viva Conval on Saturday night, followed up by the uh fireworks for um the the end of the event, I guess, on Saturday night. So, we have um a new fireworks partner this year, Premier Fireworks. They um we expanded the budget a little bit this year, thanks to all of our sponsors for um America's 250th. So, we're hoping for a little bigger show. Um, so a little better show, a little bigger show, I guess, is the way to think of it. Um, we the the staff got some new updated our uniforms this year. We got new colors this year. We're trying something new, not just the leprechaun green anymore, so we'll stand out a little more maybe. I don't know. Um, but yeah, we've got a lot of great stuff already going on. Um, >> yeah. Uh, any any questions for me tonight or >> I'll open it up to council. Any questions or comments? I'll just start by expressing appreciation for the volunteer crew who puts this amazing event on every year. Um, eight days is a long time to run a community festival and I think Rosemont shows them how it's done. Um, I also think one thing that's really cool is the amount of engagement and partnership that you guys have gotten from local businesses. So like tonight the parking lot party, um, I know there's other events with local businesses putting on. So that's really cool to see um the business citizens of the community engage with it as well. So um thank you for all you do. >> Yeah, thanks Sammy. That's a good point too. We've got we've re you know we reach out every year for sponsors and just to welcome the new businesses in town to Leprechaun Days and what opportunities exist there. So, we've got like my credit union comes to mind right away because they're doing a lot of events this year and we're a big sponsor this year in their first year and um they're they're doing a lot in the community as far as just general even outside of Leprechaun Days, but with the veterans and other things. So, a lot of great businesses that are coming into town that are helping support the Leprechaun Days event. >> Got to say thanks to And I think it's great. Uh, I know over the past year's prior you guys always struggled to get new volunteers and it seems like you guys have done a tremendous job on Oh, >> sorry. >> You're red. You're red. [laughter] >> Uh, you guys have just done a really tremendous job on getting new volunteers and new new ideas. And I think it's incredible. a testament to someone like you who I think everybody knows you in the community and you you and your team do a pretty good job recruiting new people and think you you attract you attract good people that do a tremendous job. So, >> thanks. Appreciate that. We do have I I don't know exact number anymore, Heidi. 12 maybe. We got 12 on the committee I think is where we're at right now. Had some people leave and we got like four new members this year. So, always looking for more help for anyone watching this. >> Yep. >> Anyone else here? Um, I'll just throw in a couple of reminders. Um, you can f get all our events at leprechaundays.org. We're very active on our social media sites. And then for Midsummer Fair, a big shout out, a pre-shout if you will, to our p our public safety >> um partners, if you will. They they work really hard, both the agency in Rosemont and our surrounding communities. Just a quick reminder is we we do have a no bag policy. >> Yep. um coming into Midsummer Fair and then a reminder that you can take a shuttle via our partnership with MBTA and this year it's at DCTC and so all that information could be found on our website as well as our social media channels. >> Yep, >> I think I covered it. >> Yep. And public works staff, they do all kinds of things for us, helping get ready, >> stuff that we wouldn't be able to do. >> And I I could go to the website, but I can ask you because you're here. What time is the fireworks do you think? Because just to prepare for >> 10ish. >> 10ish. Yep. >> 10. Okay. >> For everyone with their pets and their dogs and um >> get your nap >> 10:00 10 p.m. >> for sure. >> Yep. >> All right. Thank you. >> I just encourage uh all residents take the opportunity to check out some events. Uh some amazing things um have already occurred uh this afternoon. I found some new entrepreneurs, some of our small um young kids that were doing their craft. They were selling stuff, some of it for profit, some of them to donate to charities. Uh it was pretty exciting to see all the craft type stuff that they were doing. Uh I saw Merchants Bank this afternoon over lunch uh providing >> um a little bit of uh treats and pizza and things. I mean, all the businesses in town contributing to this just really makes this a great event for everyone. So check them out. It's great. >> For sure. Thanks, Mayor. >> All righty. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks guys. >> Thanks Dan. >> I like the shirt. [laughter] >> Coral. Yeah, I think it's coral. [laughter] >> That completes item 3B. We'll move to 3A, the 2025 management and annual comprehensive financial report. >> M. >> And I'm looking to Yes. >> Mr. Felica to tee it up. >> Mr. Mr. Mayor, members of city council, each year the city's financial records are audited by an independent public accounting firm and the goal is to provide reasonable assurance the city's financial statements are free of material misstatement. So, our city's financial records have been audited by LB Carlson. So, I'm going to turn this over to Aaron Nielsen, a principal at LB Carlson for tonight's presentation. >> All right. Very good. And Mayor Councel, I'm pleased to be here this evening. It's always probably the most exciting part of the audit for me, the wrap-up, but probably more exciting for your staff that have been working so hard to prepare for it and complete it. Um, tonight I'm here to present the three reports uh that we have issued this year or um opined on. We've got the annual comprehensive report uh which is a 125page document with a ton of information in there both financial non-financial information. Uh the city has received the as GFOA award for the past 29 years. So uh this year's has been completed to allow you to submit for that award. Uh we also have our special purpose reports for the audit under government auditing standards as well as the uh report for the office of the state auditor's legal compliance manual and then our [snorts] management report which we try to use to summarize required communications with governance as well as to share the results of our audit. Uh the PowerPoint presentation I have before you this evening is simply to kind of keep us all on the same page of what I'm speaking to and I'll move through it pretty quickly because I feel like everything went relatively smooth for an audit as smooth as it can go. I'm sure that your staff might have some different feelings as to [laughter] our disruption. But um I think that's a good thing. If if they said it went too good then I get nervous. So um with that I'll go through our slides and you can see as Tia mentioned the the role of the independent auditor is to provide that opinion that the financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and then we have also issued our reports on internal controls and compliance with the financial statement audit as well as with the office of the state auditor's Minnesota legal compliance manual. And getting right to it for our role, we've issued, as you can see over those financial statements, an unmodified or a clean opinion on the financial statements. So exactly what you're looking for. Uh the the financial statements are fairly stated as of December 31st, 2025. And the results are fairly stated for the year then ended. Uh the next portion of that slide, you can see the internal control and compliance over the financial statement. Uh so we're speaking to that internal control over financial reporting. And I probably should have added a little more there, but I'll share that we're reporting no material weaknesses in our testing this past year. Uh no material deficiencies um with regard to the financial the internal controls over financial reporting. So again, exactly what you would be looking for in the financial results there in our testing. With regard to the Minnesota legal compliance, there's seven broad categories, but within each one of the seven broad sections of that manual, um there are several questions and pages of testing that we complete and inquiries. And we had just two findings this past year. Uh for just one of the quotes that we selected for testing, the the documentation we found was that there was only one kept on file, which you're supposed to make sure you're keeping for one year. Um but we wanted to make sure to enforce that there should be two, you know, at least two quotes obtained and kept on file. So, um making sure that's completed and retained. Uh with regard to payment of invoices, we had a few invoices that we tested. there's a payment prompt payment period of 35 days. And this is probably our most common finding that we run into with our audits. Um, and we had four instances where they were paid beyond the four days and interest wasn't paid on those uh invoices. But, uh, often times we find it's probably lost on somebody's desk, didn't get sent to the business office for processing. uh there might be, you know, communications going back and forth on making sure quantities are accurate and we would understand that and we'd then reinforce make sure you're documenting it. So, we're not finding out after the fact cuz I'm going to report it just for transparency um in that case. But nothing that I found of concern where it's still unpaid or anything like that or disputes ongoing with those vendors. the first portion of our moving into kind of the results of the operations this past year. We're focusing on the governmental funds. So, I'm ignoring at this point your utility operations. Uh this would include the general fund, your capital project fund, debt service, the port authority governmental funds, and then all the remaining funds lumped together as non- major funds. Overall big picture you can see the fund balance of these funds combined was a reduction of about $2.1 million. Uh you can see there was a significant shift between restricted and assigned. Uh and that's the source of your resources received this year uh rein reestablishing some of the resources that were spent which were restricted unspent bond proceeds that went towards the completion of two major capital projects this year. So uh when you look by individual funds down below in the major fund, you can see that decrease was largely and I would say as anticipated with timing of capital project activity this past year with the completion of two major projects this year. So a slight spendown in uh that year-end fund balance in that capital project funds you can see really accounts for the change. uh the general fund had a slight reduction overall but I'll save that as we move on to the next slides on we have several for the general fund uh getting right to the components of fund balance for the general fund. So that primary operating fund of the city uh as you can see better get my notes open so I don't miss anything here. Uh as you can see the operations this past year uh there was a slight spendown in total and then you can see that breakdown of unassigned making up a majority of the fund balance. There's some dollars that have been assigned for specific purposes and then you can't even you know see the amount that's in non-spendable which is amounts you uh have held in prepaids and inventory as of year end. So it's as it's an asset, but you really can't transition it to something else without selling it and using you know simply utilize those resources. [snorts] Looking a little deeper into the general fund revenues. So over the past five years, you can see uh how the revenues by major source have changed. Uh a couple of comments that I'd share this past year just for size of operation of the general fund operation. And you can see the well we don't have a total but in the financial statements you'll note that the total revenues the general fund amounted to about $21.3 million. Uh this past year revenues came in better than anticipated uh for the budget and the areas we noted that were over budget were largely for licenses and permit activity and that all other category which is miscellaneous collections investment earnings and uh not uncommon to see that where people are conservatively budgeting for these areas that you you know find it difficult to you can't require anybody to complete that and you've been experiencing elev ated uh con construction uh construction capital activity within the city and with regard to development. [clears throat] The last comment I'd like to share is not uncommon for cities is recognizing that source of the revenues of the general fund and that dependency on uh local property taxpayers. As you can see, uh you get minimal amounts of intergovernmental revenue, uh state aids, uh and the other components, whereas taxes this past year made up 68.8% or we're closing in on about 70% of your revenue sources. So, you really only have that one primary source that's driving a lot of the uh funding for the programs in the general fund. A similar graph on the next slide here for the expenditures. We look at the past five years. Uh as you can see here, we've showed in the financial statements that general fund expenditures amounted to about $21.6 million. Uh expenditures also came in over budget. Uh the areas where we found the amounts over budget were largely in public safety, police and fire. Uh I noted also within public works as well as culture, education and recreation with uh ongoing growth in those areas uh with the change in the city size and uh increased salary and benefit requirements. Um yeah and I guess the only other comment I would say is that public safety not uncommon again as that primary uh spending component of the general fund operation. [snorts] All right. So, moving on to the enterprise funds. So, this is really the enterprise uh utility funds are also known as the business type activities. And you'll note we talk about their equity uh as a net position. Uh these funds are under the full acral of accounting. So, we capture capital assets as well as the long-term obligations of the utility operations because they're meant to uh operate with the users and the beneficiaries of the services they provide paying a majority of the cost. Whereas the governmental funds which are financed by property taxes, the focus is more current and what are the dollars available to you invest into programs in the near future that's available for future spending. uh the focus of these enterprise funds is more long-term uh and as you can see here one thing I comment on as you can see in the top half is that investment in net investment in capital assets which is the infrastructure the you know water sewer lines and the holding ponds and that such infrastructure capital assets that's heavy in these funds. Uh when you look at the change overall, the sewer fund was the only fund that saw us decrease this past year. Um but as you'll see on the upcoming slides, each fund actually saw an improvement compared to the prior year in operations. And we'll start. As you can see here, we've got two lines where the green line is really looking at operating income. So it includes the uh expense for depreciation. And you can see the impact depreciation has on these financial statements with all the infrastructure being contributed with growth with developers along with the any of the city's required com uh additions in these utility funds to operate. Um but you're seeing a big increase with that and growing cost of that depreciation as some of these new developments come online. So we also provide that line that's in red which is that operating income and the only adjustment we do is adjust for depreciation which we see as a non-cash item. And so you can see some of those capital assets. It's becomes some kind of a philosophy where some cities won't finance all of the cost of replacement. It'll be a bonding issue. But if you're able to uh cover it with operating income as depreciation and making it positive, then when that time comes around, hopefully there'd be enough resources to uh replace uh keep investing in them and repair along the way without having debt issuance because uh you know the infrastructure comes kind of that one time when the development growth in the city is occurring and now it'll be your assets to keep and maintain. Uh again as you can see with that sewer fund uh the decreases largely in some of the operating income uh this year when you look at that change in overall net position there was some interesting changes you'd see if you open last year's actor to this year's aer with the completion of the public works facility and some of the transfers of capital assets then that occurred with that completion of that facility to show it all in one location. So there is some of that one time kind of shifting but um some big numbers down below the operations point of transfers and contributions coming in. Um but as you can see you you from an operating standpoint there was an improvement this last year really closing in on break even operation at the operating income level and then without that non-cash depreciation you actually had a positive increase there as you can see. Uh similar story with the storm water fund. I see I got some spacing issues with water fund uh at the top of the graph there. But um again the seeing an improvement almost break even at the operating income level but positive uh before depreciation. Uh one thing I want to make sure I'm pointing out here because it I tripped on it preparing for the meeting. This is a different graph with the remaining two funds, the other enterprise funds. We've got the street lighting fund and the arena fund. And we're simply prep sharing with you the operating revenue of each of those individual funds. Uh as you can see, if I slide back one slide, this is the smallest of the previous three where your operating revenues are $2 million. In the water fund, they're at $4 million. uh these two they're considered non- major enterprise funds. The operating revenue the scale of the operations is much smaller $340,000 $550,000 and both of these operations also saw improved financial position with a increase in their net position at year end in each of them. Okay, so I think I'm to my last slide which we save for last and we're all worn out talking finance and it's the most difficult one to cover. So to this point and I'll I'll cover half of it really quickly. this lower half business type activities where you see that increase of 11 million split between net investment and unrestricted uh that is exactly what we started with when we got to that enterprise business type activities because they're under the same full acrruel accounting so I don't have anything to add with the business type activities it's simply we've consolidated all of them together on the top half what we the reason we include this is there is a dual perspective presentation with the governmental acter uh in that we've talked about the fundbased statements which is a current financial resources more a short-term look and we want to also share with you that entitywide presentation where we've consolidated all your uh governmental funds the internal service fund included in there um but we're capturing debt service funds capital project funds the general fund and uh [clears throat] combining them and then the additional adjustments we make to that is to include capital assets That's the infrastructure. And again, you can see how heavy that is with the 142,000 or $142 million in net investment in capital assets. So the streets of a growing city and the related infrastructure with, you know, new buildings that you've added in recent years, public works facility. Uh so you can see that change over the prior year. Restricted position increase this past year about $3.2 million. Uh that was largely driven by some more resources received uh for future state road improvements that can be made as well as some debt service funds as those debt service funds are getting more established for future payments. And then you can see almost had a break even on the unrestricted fund balance. And as I wrap up and didn't follow my notes close enough, I probably missed the key component I should be sharing with you is that uh your general fund operation at the end of the day continued to meet your fund balance policy. So um that minimum of staying above 45% up to 55% and I think we landed or you landed at 50% right on the spot this year um by design. Um but you're well within that goal of the general fund operations. So again, positive uh results there when you get to year end and moving forward. So with [clears throat] that, that uh completes my presentation. I'm happy to answer questions. I do want to thank the team and I'll even extend it beyond just the finance department. I know the other departments get uh some of our pressures with uh stat tables and other components in preparation of it. Uh this year probably the bigger challenge was capital assets and adding new software and some of that conversion but I think that's going to pay dividends moving forward and a lot of work went into it especially on your staff's end to uh hopefully make that much smoother moving forward. So >> that'll open it up to council. Any questions, comments? >> Yeah. Can you go back to that slide that has the um the general fund revenue And maybe this is a question for Tia, but I was surprised that our charges for services and license and permits dropped substantially from 2024. 2024 was on charge for services, it dropped quite a bit. We'd been running in north of two and then license and permits looked like 24 was an outlier. just curious why why why such a drop in those two areas. >> I would have to look exactly to see what it is. >> Okay. >> Um because I'm not sure off the top of my head. I know we've recategorized some of the things too with the software transition. >> Okay. >> Um so some of that may have landed into the all other instead, but I'm not positive off the top of my head. >> Okay. I'm >> just kind of curious if you kind of top your mind. large projects are kind of received some of the >> if they bought it in 2024 and then yeah >> we had a lot of >> new projects in 24 that >> we did have a lot in yeah 24 was a busier year for projects than 25 too >> for permits >> substan yeah we have some substantial projects that came through we did >> and then only because you mentioned it it wasn't in the numbers but the over budget did you say like police like public public safety public works, police and fire all three were over budget. >> Yes. >> Within public safety, both police and fire within that each individually budget. >> Like what as a what what percentage over budget were we? >> Um >> the majority fell into um police with fire close behind that. I don't think the others um the others over budget were much. Um, a lot of that landed in police. >> Was it compensation levels or staffing or >> um, it was salary and benefit items. >> So, over time, >> overtime. >> Overtime. Um, additional staff members. We had the payout we had. >> Oh, yeah. >> At the end of the year, that fell in there, too. >> That's right. >> Okay. >> Okay. Other questions? >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Um, you had mentioned in the beginning of your presentation that we paid off two capital projects. What were the two projects that we we finished paying off? >> Um, that was Lifetime and the police public works. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, we've still been working through that. >> Okay. >> Got it. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Anything? >> How many how many people have touched this throughout the the whole life cycle of this report? >> Um, from my team? >> Yeah. Um, we bring out is it three or four that are on site at times. Uh, at the end it's still that same team. I'm not here as much during this fieldwork and then so you get a heavier bit of me at the end and then when as part of our process when I'm done with it and drafted it then a separate partner manager that was not involved on the job reads through the whole report again just to be you know independent that wasn't sitting here too lost in the weeds and see something I should have caught that year first set of eyes and everything >> right so five to six is a probably a pretty good number not counting the admin time, a couple typers and so on. >> And then how many staff? >> Um, five from finance plus some from every department. >> So, because we require stuff from every single one of them, they um >> they work well with us and our requirements and need to drop everything sometimes. >> When um Aerin's team needs stuff, then we need stuff quickly and it gets keeps Aeron's team moving faster. though a lot. >> I I bring it up because to your point, you have to ask each department to get their reports to you on time, then those reports to you and your staff on time and that whole to see this all to come together. I mean, yes, we see it on maybe what 15 20 slides, but all the work that goes into and and just I just want to I guess pause and just say thanks to Tia and her team and as well as the rest of the staff for all the work that they do because um >> you know this is kind of how the sausage is made. But it's it's it's really cool to see that um things are heading in the right direction. We're being fiscally responsible. We're doing the right things as we're growing at a you know such a aggressive way. So thank you for everything. >> Thank you. >> That's all I have. >> Ready? I think um just I wanted to touch base on the two findings uh if you could speak a little bit to how those have been addressed internally. >> Um so with the payment of claims finding um this one is kind of challenging. It can be because of the process with our um approval process because we want to make sure that everyone approves it as needed because you have one person that buys it but then you know supervisor has to approve it, department has to department head has to approve it, Logan may have to approve it, council may have to approve it. Um but what we have done is we are we've um implemented our new accounts payable workflow system which is automating the timeline. It autoes escalates the invoices so you can't sit on it too long. It automatically flows to the next person. And then we have now moved to weekly check runs. So we were doing them bi-weekly. So our new person is now doing them weekly. I think we started a month or two ago she moved to that. So that's been great to help that piece. And then um with the bids and quotes piece um that has been followed up on and we continue to discuss that with um department head level and and communicating that to staff is ensuring we are following the bids and quotes as guidelines that we've been given by the auditors to follow legal compliance. Um it's just ensuring that we're doing that, you know, trust but verify. Mhm. >> And then as a followup, I know um Council Member Tyson mentioned all the work and effort that went in there. Could you speak a little bit to some of the other things that are going on behind cuz you've actually had a fair amount of change within the systems that you've been implementing over the last several years and could you just speak to how that is progressing? >> We've had a lot of change. Um and the auditors have been great working with us. um we have fully changed over our chart of accounts. That was a challenge for them last year. Um so they're working um on combining them on their end and then last minute it was great that we were able to pull that together for them. But we have fully changed over our financial software, our accounts payable software um and our fixed asset software. Feel like I don't know what else. There's been so many changes in the last um couple years. Yeah, payroll changed over Oh, time sheets have changed over. Everybody helps contribute to this because we've changed so much. I feel like we've changed everything over in um finance, but it's been busy. It's been good and it's helps contribute to move us forward and get us in a better place and hopefully not run into the same issues. And audit will go has been continuing to go a lot smoother. That's the audit team's been phenomenal to work with with our accountants in helping to improve our processes too and helping eliminate some of our worksheets and our workbooks and all of this redundant work we've been doing just streamlining that stuff. It's been awesome being able to do these transitions and then work with Aeron's team just to make it better. >> I just wanted to highlight because there's a fair amount of work as as we continue to grow. we're we're moving beyond where we've been and so that transition is particularly hit hard um in the finance area and then to be able to go through an auditing every year and uh basically come up clean >> uh as as we see that each year we're recognized for the effort and things. So, just a thank you to uh your staff and actually all of staff because they feed information to you and if it's not there that makes it kind of hard >> on uh on the finance team. >> Any other questions, comments? >> All righty. Congrats. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Just maybe a call out to uh Chief Thomas for being the leader for the expenses this year. So [laughter] I have someone in the back smiling. >> I don't know that he wants to be there. >> No, just wanted to get a smile. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> So with that, uh would anyone like to move the uh motion to accept the 2025 financial reports? >> So moved. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Esler, second by Tyson. Roll, please. >> Esler. >> I. >> Climple. >> I. >> Weisensel. >> I. >> Tyson, >> I. Resky >> I. [clears throat] >> And that is accepted. 5-0 and completes item 3A. We'll move on to item four, response to public comment. I believe we do not have anything to respond to this evening. We'll move on to five, public comment. And seeing no one in the audience, uh, we'll consider public comment closed. We'll move to consent agenda item six. We have items A through J this evening. We have bill listings, minutes of our June 23rd city council meeting, our July 7th regular meeting, and July 7th works session proceedings. We have a city comp city council compensation adjustment, authorization for temporary street closings and adding events in the service agreement for leprechaun days. A request by Marcus Ramos and KDP Biscane LLC for a conditional use permit for a major auto repair business located within the Biscane business park. We have the 2027 SIP engineering services and feasibility report. This is for the street improvement project 2027-0. This will be uh east on Biscane of the public works and police campus in the streets of Belfast, Burch and Belmont. Uh that'll be coming forward. This is the uh engineering services report release of that redesation of precinct one polling place for the 2026 elections. those that had been anticipating uh voting at the uh EOTC church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has been moved to the Rosemont Community Center along with precinct 7. That's located at 13885 Robert Trail at our Rosemont Community Center. And the last one, donation acceptance from the American Legion in the amount of $3,500 for the 2026 Kids Dance for Leprechaun Days. Would anyone wish to pull anything for further comment or discussion? Seeing none, uh, I'll accept a motion to approve the consent agenda A through J. >> So moved. >> A second. >> I have a motion by Tyson, second by Fresky. Roll, please. >> Climple I. >> Weisenel, >> I. Tyson. >> Hi, >> Fresky. >> Hi, >> Esler. >> Hi. >> That completes the consent agenda. Consent agenda 50. Approved. We'll move past public hearings, which we have none this evening. Unfinished business. We have none. And we'll move to item 9A, new business, the Dunore Greenway Trail, accepting bids and award of contract. Mr. Schulz, >> Mr. Mayor and council members, uh we recently put out for bid the greenway trail in the Dunore neighborhood area. Um this is a trail that we've been working on now for a handful of years uh with Dakota County. Uh we have a joint powers agreement with Dakota County to pay for the construction of the trail. uh the city takes care of the design and then we also implement the uh project and complete the work uh with a with a bidder uh that we're talking about tonight. Um the trail uh will go from uh 132nd Street in Dodd up to Kamera Trail. Uh the Greenway Trail consists of a 10-ft wide asphalt trail on the east side of the neighborhood. This is a unique designed trail because of the easement um that this trail sits in is a 10- foot or I'm sorry, a 30- foot wide easement um in the backyard of several homes. So, we've had a handful of meetings to meet with the residents to talk about the impacts. Uh I think a couple meetings ago, we did have one construction, temporary construction easement that we did get approved for one of the residents uh in this area. Um and so um you know we're doing our best to try and keep them informed and keep them very up to speed on on what the impacts will be and you know it's going to be in some of their backyards like I said earlier. Um so we're working with some of them on fences and landscaping and things like that. But um back to the topic of tonight's item. Uh the project was put out to public bid and the results are included in your packet. Uh the low bidder was Urban Edge uh contracting. Um they came in considerably lower than all of the other contractors. Um they were one of two contractors that came to the pre-bid meeting um to get more information about the project, to learn more about it. I know they've been out there. Uh we had our um project engineer from SRF actually call and talk to them about their bids. Um this was not just a lump sum bid. This was an itemized bid. Um so we could see everything that they were including in their bid. When I asked the engineer to call them, uh my my direction to the engineer was let's have them uh let's give them the opportunity to pull their bid. Uh we've done that before with projects where if if someone is just way out of line with a bid. You know, we feel like it's probably less of a headache for us to try to, you know, deal with a low bid like this. But they were insistent that uh they need the work um that they looked at some of their margins and that they were comfortable that they could complete the project for this price. Um, with that being said, um, you know, we have not signed a contract with them yet, obviously. Um, and we will, uh, you know, be doing that soon if, if this gets approved tonight. Um, but, uh, I just wanted that to be very upfront on that and be clear that we've had the discussions with them. They think they can do it for this price. And so staff is recommending uh that we do go with the low bidder uh which is urban edge construction in the amount of 314,655 uh for this project. The engineers estimate was about 420,000. So, um, you can see that the the the the biders who were, you know, you know, from the second down, they were all fairly close in in a pretty tight pretty tight, uh, grouping. And so, um, again, we we've talked with the low bidder. Um, you know, want to make sure that we go into this project on good footing. We don't want to be constantly, you know, battling change orders and issues with, you know, things. And so, um, the engineer after talking with them, uh, has a has a clear understanding that that they are going to stand by that price and staff is recommending that we go with the low bidder and I will stand for questions. >> Okay, questions. >> Um, two questions. Have we worked with them before? >> I have not worked with [snorts] them before. They have bid on several of projects that we've done in the past. Um, but we have not worked with them. Mr. Edgar, have you worked with them? I know they are, you know, [clears throat] known in the Twin Cities and have done other projects for other communities and so I did talk to a couple other cities and they said that they have had them work for them and did not have issues with them. >> Okay. So, we have checked their references. Okay. >> On this way, anyone? >> I'm good. >> Okay. Um, I got uh one question if I'm looking at this correctly. Um, so this trail is going on the east side of Dunore, but on that north side it looks like Is that connecting to the trails that run on kind of the north side of Glendelo as well? Is that going to connect all the way to that trail that goes behind the Carlingford Court homes? >> It Yes. So it does go so Dakota County CDA owns a piece of property up there in the north side. So we have an easement to go through that property. >> It will then connect to the sidewalk on >> Todd Road. >> I don't know if I can see this. Let me see. It connects to the sidewalk on Nope. I don't have it on my map. >> Um I think it's Carlingford and then it runs right into Okay. And it's going to turn a sidewalk into a trail. >> Okay. >> And then we go right into Kamera and connect >> and then that crosses over Kamera and then goes down um past the community center. >> Yeah. I was thinking on the north side as you weave north closer to up to Bonire and it turns west up there. You know that along Carlingford Court up there on that north side there's trails behind those homes. Yep. >> But they come to like a weird end. >> It'll connect to that. >> It's going to connect right there. >> Correct. >> And then when you met with the neighbors at um Dunore, what was the general feedback from those folks? I know like I live in a place with a home with an easement across my own backyard and nothing more frustrating than when you want to do something and you're like, "Oh crap, I did agree to that easement when I >> Yeah. The first thing we wanted to, you know, find out from all the residents was who was aware that there was an easement there." Um, and the developer actually did a good job of letting them all know that. Um, and so I don't think we've come across any residents yet that are not aware of the easement. Um that being said, um you know, some of the houses, uh in our opinion from just being homeowners in our department is that some of the homes got built a little deeper than we had maybe thought. Um, and so I think some of the people might be um, a little surprised at, you know, having this trail right in their backyard, but there is space for landscaping and we're being as flexible as we can to push the trail all the way to the the east side uh, if possible uh, on this. And then again, we're working with the the one resident um, that you know was impacted, you know, quite heavily. We had to actually grade into his yard. We're working with him on a temporary construction easement. He'll be getting paid for that along with landscaping and a small burm where he can put a fence on. So, um we have one resident right now who um did put a fence into the easement. Um they were aware of it when the fence went in and we shared that with them. Uh we've been communicating with them recently since we're getting closer to the bids um just about you know having to you know remove a portion of their fence and then keep it outside of of where the trail is going to go. We're going to allow them to bring the fence back into the easement a ways but not right up on top of the trail. So, but uh you know, again, I think most of them because we've been out in front of this and you know, interacting with them. I don't think we've had anyone who is um been super [clears throat] upset. I know a few of them have said, you know, boy, we it'd be nice if it wasn't going to happen, but we've told them that we've been planning on this for over seven years now, and we're, you know, getting it uh to the point of trying to get it built. And so, um, you know, I don't think this is going to be a real busy trail for the first several years that it's built because it's it's really the connector from Dodd, which does not have a trail on it. Uh, and that's really the connector to Lebanon Hills, which we don't get a ton of traffic on. I think a lot of the the the people using it will be people in the neighborhood to get to the park or the playground, things like that. So, >> Okay. And is there a uh a bond in place then for for this contract? >> Yeah, there's there's a there's a bid bond. Uh there's also performance and payment bonds that come with that. So, >> yep. >> Don't like to resort to those, but >> the risk is >> Yep. >> there for these kind of situations. So, >> and the project is slated to start uh early August and then uh be for the most part completed by November, but then you [clears throat] know we always have a little bit of restoration work in the spring depending on how the materials grow that we put down in the fall. So, >> okay, there's no other comments. Thank you. Would anyone wish to move the motion to approve? Yeah, I'll make a motion to approve accepting the bids and awarding the contract for the Dunmore Greenway Trail to the low bidder urban edge construction in the amount of $314,000 67655. >> I'll second. >> Have a motion by Tyson, second by Freski. Roll, please. [clears throat] I >> I climple I. >> Completes 9A50 approved. We'll continue on announcements. First item up 10A, city staff uh updates, Mr. Martin. Thanks, Mayor, members of the council. First item we were going to be a check in on was uh Mr. Edgar with a water update uh from some of our recent test results. >> Thank you, Mr. Martin. Uh council members, I just wanted to because this is pretty fresh news for me. I we received our most recent monitoring uh results for gross alpha on our wells that have been on quarterly cadence for testing. Among them is well number eight as you all know and wanted to report that what we uh what the most recent test result indicated from June sampling was that that level had dropped to uh quite a bit lower than the previous sample did. It was at seven pico curies per liter. If you remember, we were on this a annual average that that put us in this state of having to provide a response where the the rolling annual average was over 15. Uh it was in in the low 16s. That number alone now drops our annual average to uh about 12. Just over 12. Now, I I still have to receive the the more elaborate report, but the initial comments from the Department of Health indicate that that doesn't mean we get to stop going in the direction we're going with exploring solutions and implementing something. But I think more than anything, it points to what we've always uh stated in that we do see these levels fluctuate annually, seasonally, etc. So, uh, I think it just helps to for folks to understand that we we're constantly looking at this stuff and we ought not get locked in that one number says it all. Um, it it's continual monitoring. We we'll be doing that. We'll still have the quarterly sampling cadence on well number eight and uh well number 12 uh although well number 12 is well within compliance. Um that was one of the quarterly ones. We are able to drop off to a less frequent testing on well number 14 because because we've had consistent sample results now over the last year plus that have been well below the standard. So, uh things can and do change with these and and I'll report back further uh the next time around when we when we get our next batch of samples later this fall. >> Great. >> Well, that's encouraging >> question. >> Yeah, I was just going to for Nick. Um [clears throat] thanks that's that's great news. Um and um you know once again in in par with what you were saying when you know at the presentation that you know that this numbers these numbers can fluctuate and we're just going to continue to monitor them. Um uh in in regards to our um filtration system or the the Brida um initiative that we put out there for new mothers and everything like that. Do we have any update on that? >> Thanks for the question. I'm glad you caught that council member. We have uh had about 13 residents come in and apply for the program to date. That's as of a day or so ago. >> Oh, great. All right. So, people are utilizing that service. >> Great. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Just a final thing, Mayor. I just wanted to mention just a couple of as folks, you know, living in town have seen, we've had a number of uh significant public safety events recently and just take a moment to highlight uh the incredible work that our teams do. I mean, so we had the the semi situation on Highway 52, the Aldi situation, some challenging medical response calls, and then of course the fire at the church. And uh Chief Springer is at a training event tonight, but he sent a really heartfelt email to a number of us internally here uh that I would just summarize to say that it was just a the church fire specifically was a really cool um display of what I think makes us really proud to be [clears throat] on your city staff. uh really incredible work by police, fire, public works, communications, administration, uh folks, things as as significant as having to flip polling locations, you know, due to the fire that we had to do tonight's on council agenda. So, it trickles so so far. Uh and then would flag too, the one Rosemont group of community leaders uh met last week and and the church community is already kind of putting its arms around that church to find them places to worship. And uh when we were out there just folks bringing out uh uh Gatorade and water and snacks and so really cool um moment in spite of a very tragic event obviously. So just proud proud of the team and wanted to shout those guys out. And when you see police, fire, public works walking around this weekend at leprechaun days, maybe an extra high five is in order. They're going to look a little more tired than they normally do. Uh cuz they've been working really hard. So, just wanted to share that with you. >> Yeah. And and I would just add I was on the scene that morning of the fire and it was it was it was great. We saw the police department working with handinhand with the the the the fire department making sure that the the task force was assembled and figuring out if there's any people in harm's way, the neighborhood surrounding. But then what we saw is beyond that, we saw administration from the city was there. We saw public works blocking off for safety for people getting close to the church. I mean, it was like a full uh staff all hands on deck type of situation. And I just it was from a council person's perspective, it was just kind of really um it's really neat to see everybody kind of come together for the greater good in a in a horrible situation. And then to your point about one Rosemont where everybody was collaborating on let's find solutions instead of, you know, asking questions. We'll figure that out at the end. But yeah, it was very impressive. Congratulations. >> I just wanted to um follow up on that. Um one of the heartening things uh despite the tragedy uh the parishioners there obviously um impacting them as they just opened this church uh earlier this year and their celebration was Easter was also the opening of that church for them and they were very stunned. Um, but I do want to call out the uh the local residents that were around there really displaying that hometown feel of uh of Rosemount. Uh they were coming out whether it was uh some cookies, water, anything just, you know, some of them consoling obviously the the congregation that was there and also some of our local businesses. Um, I think Culver's in particular had provided some some food for food and uh I don't want to say ice cream. >> Custard. >> Custard. It's custard. Uh, for the uh public service people that were there, too. Um, it it was a long day. Uh, it takes time to do some of that uh things. is the fire marshal um was obviously waiting for some of the uh the structure to be taken care of before he could actually get in there. So, uh just just a shout out to the community. Uh recognize that we've seen this in other um catastrophes uh uh fire structure fires that we've seen around uh people just stepping up and uh I it just speaks really well of our community. So, so that'll complete 10 A. We'll look at the uh upcoming calendar. Uh July 27th, Parks and Natural Resources Commission meeting here at the uh chambers uh 7 to 8:00 p.m. Planning Commission July 28th on Tuesday, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. And then a change to uh to highlight is our next council meeting will be on Monday, August 3rd from well the work session will be from 5 to 6 and then the council meeting from 7 to 8. This is because we have Tuesday night, the night to unite uh where have the opportunity to um meet your neighbors, police and fire personnel, city council, city staff will be out public works uh for a night of fun and connections. Uh again, just to call out, register your night to unite gathering, big or small, to receive a visit from uh the city teams. Uh that's register at night to unite on our web page. Again, that's Tuesday night, August 4th from I want to say that's 5 yeah 5 to 9:00 p.m. And then uh just to note uh due to the uh fire uh health concerns that occurred uh this previous week, the splash pad summer celebration got moved to August 14th um from it'll be 11 to 12 at Central Park at the splash pad and I believe is that also following a um park event too. >> Okay. So a concert prior to that from probably 10 to 11:00 will be announced in coordination with that. So with that, is there any other business to come before council? Seeing none, I'll move to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Opposed. We are adjourned. Thank you and good night.