Yeah, Mayor and Council, we've definitely seen an uptick in number of biders. I don't know that the prices are necessarily changing. It's still a little bit uncertain, but there's definitely more uh bidding on projects. We were down to a few in past projects, and there's a lot now.

First a comment. I just want to commend uh the fire department, Minnitonka Fire Department for achieving that uh grant. That's terrific. I understand that's the first time that we've received this grant. As somebody who has written my fair share of uh federal grants in my time, I know how difficult and challenging and timeconuming that is. So, uh we don't have a a professional grant writer did not write that. So, I I commend the the staff for doing so in the department.

Our club is the uh the club that uh is building responsible youth and the club is more fun than you want it to be. And 100% of the net proceeds of this event go to uh local organizations that we support as part of our work as Rotarians in this community, which include uh Lyft Garage, Resource West, Can Do Canines, the ICA Food Shelf, um GE Graduation, uh awards, um we do uh uh scholarships at both Minnitonka and Hopkins High School. um in a whole host of other uh organizations that uh maybe aren't as well known.

a fence is a clean enforcable distinct edge. You're either in it or you're out of it. It functions as a physical barrier. soft barriers. Despite me trying to describe vegetation and sight lines, it's permeable. A dog isn't going to read the signs and run through. In that scenario, we are relying on people understanding the rules and following the rules and having general control of their dog. So, it's a question of whether or not we can rely on residents to understand these rules that we set in place and understand their dogs needs and behaviors or do we need to draw a firm hard barrier? It's really become a, you know, a complicated issue that I don't necessarily have a very clean design decision for. It becomes more of a policy question at that point.

I would make a note that uh thank you for including the other optional fencing. I agree that it is at the very high end of fencing. There is welded metal fencing that looks quite nice, requires no digging, and is $5 a linear foot. that doesn't include installation, but it does include um but it's non-professional installation, which means it could be done by interns. Um it could also be done by our uh kind of our seasonal help that are from the corrections facilities, things like that. So, I think it's important to keep in mind that this is a very high-end estimate for fencing and there are a a lot of other less invasive, less um expensive ways, like way less expensive that I think are on the table that, you know, keep in mind and I hope my fellow council members will keep in mind.

The current proposal as it stands would I I presently use the ex exclusively use the excelsia parking lot because I have very easy access as a disabled person to it and at the north end of the park over the years I have developed going around trails that I never counter a hill that I can't manage there if you know the trails well enough you could you don't have to go up any steep hills Effectively, if I I could no longer park with this proposal at the northern end in the current parking lot, I'm totally incapable of walking down a hilly trail and back for approximately over a mile and then doing anything. I couldn't do the f get there and back at all. I will be forced to muse the parking you're proposing on Stoola Park Sta Road put Culac and I suspect there are many other people that we put in the same position.

What makes a safe off leash area are confined pathways where there is continuous movement. And what happens is the dogs go along that pathway. They're directed by smell. It is calming to them. Okay. As a previous speaker mentioned, when you have these fenced in areas, the dynamic of how dogs behave changes. And especially when you're concentrating them in a small group like this, the whole dynamic of it that this that is actually what makes a dog park dangerous. So this is this is what you have here is actually probably the safest thing is having these continuous pathways.

The idea that people would go down to Stadola, find a few parking spaces blocked off and go all the way back to the other entrance and then park there and then walk another quarter of a mile up. No, they're going to be parking all the way out to Scenic Heights Road because that whole length of that road is going to be blocked wall to-all on both sides. So, better plan on putting up no parking signs the entire length of that thing cuz residents are going to be furious when they see the amount of cars.