It is 7 o'clock. So, I'm going to call the meeting to order. Are we rolling? Yep. All right. Uh, so this is the uh regular city council meeting for Minitristo of June 16, 2025. And first order of business, I'd like to remind everybody to turn your phones on silent. But Gary, but keep the keep the weather update up. Don't put yours on silent, Gary. Um anyhow, so we're currently it's uh very inclement weather and we're watching uh the satellite to make sure if we need to quickly adjourn, we can do that. Anyhow, with that, uh please join me in pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. So, um I'm going to start out before we approve the agenda. I just want to say a few words. um you're all familiar with the events that um unfolded over the weekend and I would like to just say um on my behalf and I'm sure on the entire council's behalf and staff's behalf that we send our condolences and our love and prayers um to those families, the Hortman's and the Hoffman's um that were affected um by this very cruel, very very cruel and criminal act. um we just uh it's just kind of uncomprehensible. And I I do know that um Melissa Hortman was a dedicated service a ser um servant. Uh even though if you're a Republican or Democrat, it doesn't really matter. Uh I think we need to recognize um anybody that serves their community, especially in the fashion that she did. And also um this isn't a political this isn't about Democrats or Republicans. this is about right and wrong and it was definitely a very very heinous crime, a very wrong crime. So our our sympathies and our condolences and our thoughts and prayers go out to the Hartman and the Hoffman family. We hope that the Hoffman's will uh fully recover very shortly. And of course we um appreciate the law enforcement that was on this and they um have um apprehended the criminal um apparent criminal I guess but still um and so we're very grateful for their involvement. It was a very uh a collaboration between many different agencies. So with that I'm going to then ask um for approval of our agenda. So moved. Thank you. Is there any second? I just have one thing I forgot to add. Um I have a special presentation if we could if that's okay. Okay. Thank you. Um with that then a motion to approve with that minor adjustment to um approve the agenda with that minor adjustment. All those in favor signify with I. I. All those opposed? Motion passes 40. So I'm going to start out with a special presentation. Um as Hold on, hold on. not reaching for my foot. All right. So, as you all know, this is um Alli Palace's last meeting and she's been here for a few years. I just want to say, you know, Ally came to us in 2020 during the pandemic and uh I know Kathleen, you were here and I was here and and uh we didn't even meet Ally for quite a few months and so and we just spoke with her over the phone and we we you know communicated in other fashions, but um we actually it took quite a few quite a while before we actually met her in person. But um since her arrival here, I can say it's just been absolutely fantastic having you on board and part of our team. You've done a fabulous job and I have um I know I probably have worked a little closer with you than some of the others, but um I have appreciated your um prompt response to everything. I'm just amazed. It's like I ask for something and five minutes later it's done. Um, so I just wish you and I know the rest of the council wishes you the very very best in your next endeavor and I know you will be very successful in that one. Um, I know the opportunity was something you couldn't pass up. So um, thank you. But I do have this certificate and why don't you come here and they can take a picture. [Music] They would trust me, sir. So, this is this is just a certificate of appreciation that you can hang in your new office. Yeah. Breezy Point to remind you of us. So, don't forget us and um hopefully uh you'll Well, we've appreciated you. Yes. We can we can do this. Yes. Yes. [Music] [Music] All right, perfect. [Laughter] Thank you. Who's going to post this? Oh, I need the P. I need the Facebook account password. Right. Or do it tomorrow. That was And thank you. Thank you for your dedication. We appreciate it. Um, we don't have anybody here this evening and persons to be heard. We don't have anybody here period. Um, except our staff and officers. But with that, we have consent agenda items. Um, are there any you wish to remove? If not, then we have consent agenda items number A, which is approve our work session meeting minutes. B is approve our city council regular meeting minutes from uh let's see, I don't have the date on here, but it's from June 2nd, 2025. And then we have uh C is approve our temporary liquor license for the Northwest Tonka Lions. D is approve the Bayside Lane retaining wall license and maintenance agreement. E is approve A2S task order number 16 for optimized corrosion and control treatment plan. And then F is approve our claims. G is award equipment CIP purchase of truck for truck number one replacement. And then we have another one a resolution number 60-25 and again award equipment CIP purchase for truck number seven replacement. And I is a resolution to award equipment CIP purchase for truck number 99 replacement. And I is a resolution to for reapprove and award equipment CIP purchase for the skid loader. Any questions? Hearing none. Is there a motion to approve consent agenda items A through J. Thank you, Miss Lacy. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Govern. All those in favor signify with I. I. All those opposed? Motion passes. Next, uh, we don't have any public hearings, so we'll move on to our business items. And this is the water treatment plant, approve plans and specifications, and authorize advertisement for bids. So, I'll hand that over to Jasper. Yeah, thank you, uh, Madame Mayor, members of city council. Um, I think this is probably close to the 10th or 11th time that we've talked about the water treatment plant, which is good. It's it's one of the largest, uh, expenditures I think we we've ever seen as a community. So, um, what we're looking for today, the plans and specs are not in here. If you're interested in seeing them, we have 90% plans and specs. Um, they're literally, you know, hundreds of pages. So, if you really want to get into it, you you definitely can, but what we're asking tonight is to approve those plans and specifications and then authorize us to go out for ad forbid. So, again, I'll just um summarize the plant itself. It's a 2100 gallon per minute plant. Uh, there's a 700,000galon clear well. Uh that's the storage that's going to be underneath underneath the plant potentially. Um it's located out in the Woodland Cove neighborhood. I think everybody knows where it's at. So um a little bit um about the timeline. If approved tonight, uh we would start advertising July 8th. We'd open bids on August 7th. City Council would consider award on August 18th. uh notice for to proceed on the project to to the apparent low bidder would be in September or September 15th and then construction would likely start in October and then it would it would commence in October and then go until um the final completion date of May 2nd 2028 and that's uh important because that's right before the summer and the summer demand hits. Um there are some additional uh approvals that are required that are part of this process with Department of Labor and Industry, Department of Health, Miniatic Creek Wershed District and and the Met Council. So the estimated cost for this uh project right now, engineers estimate is $20 million. There's a contingency likely in there too of about $500,000 is what's recommended. This will all change when we get bids back. If bids come in lower, then contingency generally comes down to. Um, as you remember, I think from the last meeting, uh, we had some contractor, two contractors give us a a wide range of what the bid may be. So, I think this will be a good, uh, good test to actually figure out what this is. Um, and city council has the ability to, um, consider that on August 18th likely. So, with that, I'll entertain any questions. Uh but when if if approved tonight then we will proceed um with the timeline as we mentioned realistically how many companies do this kind of work. Yeah I think if we get if we get at least um three to six. Okay. So if we get so we'll get at least you know the two two for sure I know will bid. They've indicated that they would and then there's a few other in Minnesota that will do it. So hopefully we get five. I mean that would be ideal. That'd make me feel really good about you know the bid range like like tower companies or there are some out of state comp there are out of state businesses that will also look at these plans and specs and might want to have an appetite for it. So So it could be a company out of Indiana or something like that. That was the tower company I think that did did our tower. Yeah. Um so um my only question and comment not a question comment. It's like, you know, plans and specifications. You know what? I'm not an engineer. So, even if I looked it over, I I have to trust our engineers who are exceptional um that they did their due diligence and that they are correct because of course, we have to authorize it to go out for um bids. So, yeah, that is correct. And you can see the rendering on the on the on the screen as well. Um that's David Abel's truck, I think, is in there. So, he's going to move his office out there. Um, I know he's listening in, but he's listening. So, yeah, that's what we're looking for tonight. Um, then we can get then we get some bids and we can evaluate them and and make a decision in about two months. Okay, that sounds great. All right, any other questions or comments? This has been in the works for a long time. So, um, do I have a motion to approve plans and specifications and authorize advertisement for bids for our water treatment plant? So moved. Thank you, Miss Refkin. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Govern. Any further questions? Hearing none. All those in favor signify with I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes 40. Um I will mention I forgot to do intros. But um Peter Vickery, our count one council member is absent this evening, hence we have four four votes. Um so next is approve our task order number 17 with St. Bonafacious interconnect analysis. And I'm going to hand this over to Jasper. Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of of council. Um, I'm going to pivot a little bit on this. I got some feedback from from city council, some questions about about the the cost, and there's really a lot of um variability potentially with this project. So, um, and what I mean by that is there's there's currently three locations uh that could have an interconnect meter. uh what the modeling piece, so the the I guess the the study and report phase, that's the $14,700 part. That's to model our system as if our Kings Point water tower is empty. We obviously can't do that in real life because we can't empty the tower. Um but that's what that piece does. And what that study will tell us is if we need one, two, or three interconnect locations um in order to supply our system with enough water to take that tower down. So there's that piece of it. Um yes. Don't we already have that from all of the studies for the water treatment plant with the new tower and how much our daily usage rate is if we take the tower down since we were talking about painting it anyways? No, not we don't we don't exactly know what's going on in St. Bonnie's system and how it'll interact with our system. So, we don't know that and that's what the modeling would do. Um, we have we know everything, you know, inside and out about our own system. Um, really what this would do is tie in St. Bonnie's system and the parameters and the amount of pressure coming from their system into ours if those interconnects are open. But why do we need that? Uh so it's going to I guess rightsize the future potential project as far as how many interconnect meters we want to do in order to um take that tower offline to do maintenance on it. So I guess well what it does what it does hold on just a second. Um what it does is it tells us how many o how many interconnects we have to open. So do we have to open one? Do we have to open two? Do we have to open all three in order to supply the um appropriate water to our system? So it'll tell us that Gary can and you also want to make sure that when those are open that the capability of not only their tower but their pumps are capable of of producing enough water to help us with this at that time. So that that's the big thing I mean that we don't know. That's the big unknown. Um they don't have a lot of data um on that. So that's what they're um they're working with both the mink to try to get that data so we can figure out what actually are their pumps capable of pumping how much can they you know for us but their water treatment plant how much can Yeah. Yeah. Well that's well what's it feeds the plants. So you know and the tower itself so because we don't want to have it so that we open it up and all of a sudden you know there's a major fire and all of a sudden we're draining the system down so they can't fight the fire. So, that's kind of one thing they look at for sure. Um, the other thing is just in a normal usage just to make sure that they're not draining that down to a point where we're getting down to low pressure systems and stuff like that. So, you're at a boiling point. So, but now Gary, we wouldn't really need that. So, we've opened up these valves in the past for on an inter on a short-term interm. Yes. So, that's okay. It's just that if we want to do the water tower uh rehabilitation at Kings Point earlier than when our new treatment plant is online, then we would have to know this. Correct. Cuz you're talking 2 to 3 months worth of downtime for that. Down time. Okay. All right. No, and and the other thing Oh, sorry. And we didn't get this when we did the first interconnect two years ago. What's that? We didn't get this information when we did the first interconnect two years ago. Just put the meter in. No, we did not. We just put the They just put the meter in. We still haven't gotten any asbuilts for it from them. We have I've never got an engineer's estimated estimated cost. Uh looking at that, they did not, you know, do it to what we had wanted. I mean, there's a lot of things wrong with that. I mean, it's there. It's working. Um but that that's one of the problems. They're just it was a kind of a let's just throw it in as a change order and they didn't do any of the prep work. So, we don't, you know, it's there. We know it works. It's just fine to have it open, but what happens if we open two, three of them, if we need to for a for a 3-month period of time, what's going to happen with the system? So, two, three days, it doesn't m you know, that's that's not a not an issue, but it could be for, you know, especially 3 months when it gets to be the hot time of the year. So, how big is their tower? That's only a 300. Oh, there's No, I think there's only I think it's a 250 maybe. I don't think it's very big. It looks bigger cuz you're right under it when you're driving by it. So, it's smaller than a north treatment. Okay. Yep. Okay. One what I was going to bring up, there's there's kind of a more global question about this whole initiative, too, and I just want to get get a little guidance on that as well. Um, so the whole whole reason for this is is the possibility to rehab uh the Kings Point Tower potentially about two years early. And I and from a policy perspective, city council, I'd like to get your direction. Um, if this amount of money, so this if we do all three interconnects, let's say all three new interconnects need to be done, we're looking at potentially about a $400,000 plus project. If we just do one, let's say the model comes back and there's just one, that's still a $150,000 project. Is that if if if the 150 the the best case scenario is too much, if that's if that cost point is too much to, you know, expedite that maintenance, which isn't required. It, you know, we've done a um an inspection. It's not like it's imminently going to fail in the next two years or three years. Um, but it's an aesthetic piece aesthetic thing. It needs to get done either way. Um, if if the 150 is too much, then I think we just don't do anything. If the 400 is too much, then but maybe 150 is okay, then I would say let's do the modeling, figure out what we need, and then bring it back at a future city council meeting. Well, I guess first question is, is, you know, the $150 to $400,000 range to do this project potentially okay to expedite this? If the answer is no, then I guess we we're not going to do anything with this. So, let's just say 400,000 I don't think is is on the table. That's it's not worth it. Um, is 150,000 on the table? Is that a consideration? Well, why is this interconnect so much more than what we did two years ago? There's there's a bunch of different reasons. I I can go over them for the group. So, um the the one last or two years ago with St. Bonnie was a change order on an existing project. So, they already had the whole area ripped up. Um it was a matter of just bringing in a structure and then a meter and then doing um some some SCADA work in an existing I believe they they connected it to a panel at a lift station. So at our flow station panel that they tapped into where the new one will be have to have a whole new panel put in and all that. So So they have a new PLC panel expensive. Um it's a standalone project. There's going to be pavement rehabilitation and two of them. One of them is in the rightway. So different projects, different scope. Ideally we would just pick these off when there's projects in the area. Um but you know from our discussion there would seem to be some appetite to at least examine this from city council to see if we could get that tower painted um a little bit sooner than 2028. Uh so that's why that's why we're here. And so the project is is quite a bit more um than the 44,000 I believe the the St. Bonnie one was. Um and they didn't do any engineering like Gary said which is problematic from our side. There's no asbuilts. Uh we don't really know how it works. So we we would do it I would say the correct way. So it costs a little bit more on the engineering side too. So for each one we're looking at probably about you know $125 to $150,000 for each one potentially connection. So it is expensive. Um sorry if it wasn't clear that it was going to be that expensive when we started having these conversations, but at least we have the option. If we want to do it, we can. Um, and if we if we like the mayor said, if we're okay with 150,000, then I'd say we approve this with just the first item, the 14,700 to do the modeling. Um, but if it's just completely off the table, then we just we don't we don't do anything. Would that modeling be accurate for like a number of years? So, let's say we decided not to spend 150,000 now, but five years from now decided we want to do it in interconnect, would that still be valid or is it just a short? Once they once they figured it out and they know the balancing point, towers aren't going to change and stuff like that. Um the only thing that would make a difference if St. Bonnie would, you know, add something to their water treatment plant or something like that. But yeah, once it's done, it's done. But we wouldn't necessarily need it because we have if once we have the nuclear well, then we would have so we wouldn't need it maybe until, you know, 2050 somewhere down the road. They will probably need it before. They'll need it before we will when how old is their tower? I mean, their treatment plant is their treatment plant. I mean, they've had issues with it and stuff like that. So, I in the long run, I would think they would probably need our water before we would need theirs. So, if it's just off the table, that that's fine. At least we looked at it. Um, right. and I can get that feedback and we'll just we'll just put basically then we're we're waiting at least two more years, two and a half to do the rehabilitation of the King's Point water tower. I've already been telling people it's going to get done when the treatment plant's done. So, I'm okay continuing with that statement as much as I don't like looking at it. Well, I I I agree because I don't know that we should be spending, you know, 100 even 150,000 for something that's aesthetic. I did ask staff, I asked Jasper, I said, "Is there anything that would um that's that's needed that for for function? I mean, is something going to deteriorate be beyond the point of no return, so to speak?" So, um if there isn't if we don't have to do it for for function, whatever, then I if it's then we should wait 2 years. Well, and even if there is something for function that needs to be done, there is also the option of a watering ban. So, I mean, we don't have to use St. Bonnie's water. People can water less and we can take the towel tower offline. So, if people really really want it, then they need to sacrifice for it. And and in between time, we can we can interconnect when need be. I mean, when when it's an emergency. So, yeah. Can someone tell me how old that tower is again? And Kings Point was the '9s. The '9s. Was it No, the Kings Point Tower. Yes. Yes. 93. Talking about the St. Bonnie tower. Was it 93? 94. Tell a second. 94 sounds about right. Let me look here. So, we're talking nearly 30 years or over 30 years. And has there ever been examined like talking about interconnects like making a regional water authority between Minatrista and St. Bonnie or they talked about that. That's where we put the plants in. That was the original plan to get St. Bonnie Matrista and mound that it it was many many years ago. Minatrista did um have conversations with St. Bonnie before we did anything and um it just wasn't an option and we don't like talking about regional water authorities because not to mention any names but the Met Council um has talked has talked about that and uh yeah I I always think um local control over local issues is a better way to go but regional we we do we did talk with St. Bonnie years ago about collaboration and whatever sharing and it just didn't work out. So, and we we collaborate now. I mean, 1994 went in and there was some documentation I did come across that I think originally when Hunter's Crest Development was put in that um I think that the notion was that as expanded that St. Bonnie would be delivering more water than what is used there now. So I think that was the original um the original plan for it. So right. Yeah. So there you go. So what I'm hearing is there's no appetite to proceed. Um if we do have future projects in the area, we might have this conversation again and so just so you're aware, it's probably best practices to to have something there just because of the future potential partnership with water, right? Um but it makes more sense to do it with a project. Yeah. What roads are they on? What is it? What road? What roads? Uh, there's one in Partridge, there's one on Spruce, and there's one on Highland and Wildwood. All right. So, um, moving. So, you can still say the same thing to yours. Um, so now we'll move on to council reports. We'll start with staff. any I don't have anything, but Ally said she has something for No, she doesn't. Yeah, if you want Alli's been kind of she's been really helping out with the process and we have um some candidates selected uh and scheduled. So, yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we got 25 applications for the position. We scored them, narrowed them down to interview five, and those will happen. I sent um the personnel committee some information. Those will happen on the 24th. So hopefully that'll get narrowed down to two, maybe three. Three. Yeah. Okay. And then hopefully that'll be what? Early July for people. Correct. Yeah, we're hopefully July 14th. Have something um brought forward. Hopefully at the when would the council be interviewing? That is the week of the the 7th. 7th. Okay. The week of July 7th. Sometime in there. We'll we'll schedule something. I think it works for everybody's schedule. Um, sure. We'll try to do it early in the week so it doesn't affect the weekend potentially. No, later because Yeah, you don't want to do it the seventh or the eth. Yeah, sure. Seventh is not great. Yeah, we'll send something out to really dial it in. Okay. Or late week. Okay. The seventh. So then, yeah, hopefully by the 14th we can have something to bring forward to council and then they can give notice and maybe it's two weeks or 30 days, one of the two. And Sounds good. had somebody in here by mid August. All right, sounds good. Um, any other reports? Do we need to report on our meeting on Wednesday? Oh, um, I mean I if you want to give an update or I can give just a I can give a brief update. Brief if you want. Yeah. So, we had we had our mediation on Thursday and uh we were there for I don't know, seven or eight hours. Um, and so it was it was it was good. I think the outcome will be or the direction from the mediator was that um we'll likely see another IUP application and go through that process and um what was said was you know put your best foot forward uh as far as addressing some of the concerns that were talked about at the public hearings and then we'll give it a fair shake, have it go through the planning commission and potentially to the city council and um and go from there. We said we're not promising anything. Yes. So they they're aware of that. So um all right. And then uh let's see any other staff reports. Okay. I'll start out. So yeah, we were in mediation on um uh Wednesday and we were there from 9:00 until 5:00. So um fun day. Anyhow, um we will I um I also attended the uh Northwest League meeting on Wednesday on last I don't know the 11th. Oh, we were in mediation on Thursday. On the um 11th I was at Northwest League and um we had Annne Finn from the League of Minnesota Cities there to give us an update on the legislature and the outcomes and so on. So, um, and then we did, uh, city updates and, yeah, interesting just little tidbits from various cities, the projects that they're doing and so on. Um, and then, um, I know Kathleen and I and Jasper have been meeting regarding our fire partnership. Um, uh, ongoing discussions. We will not be meeting tomorrow as planned. Uh, that has been delayed until next month. So, we'll be meeting next month. And um so far I think that's all we did our city bus tour and that was well attended. I think we had a full bus and um uh people really seem to enjoy it. Um everybody said it was fun and a great time. So um that was good to hear. So we had a lot of new newcomers um and also some people that have lived here for a while. So both so good good to you you participated. Yep. Fun. I know it is fun. Yeah. Drive next year. [Laughter] So that's all I have for now and uh anybody else? I I do have one one additional thing I will just let know because um it's about open meeting law and a change with uh remote participation. Thank you. Yes. So, as of May 24th, all of you have the option to participate remotely in a meeting. That's great. There's a couple rules. There has to be at least one of you here, so you can't all go to wherever on vacation. Um, but so there's got to be one person here. It doesn't have to be the mayor. It can be anybody else, but there's got to be one council member. Me. Yeah. Um, we don't have We no longer have to notice where you're at. Uh, you no longer have to be in a public location. You can do it from your couch at your house. Oh, nice. Uh the nuance is that you have to be visible on the screen. Uh and we have to be able to hear you, which you that's always been the case. And then uh we'd have to do a roll call after every vote. So if you're if you were here during COVID, you're used to that. Um so you'd have to bring that back. So if if it's something that you're interested in, I can help you get that set up on your computer to make sure that you can do it if you think you might have any any struggles. But um it it is an option. We don't even have to put it on the agenda anymore. like we don't have to say, "Yeah, Claudia is gonna be gone. We miss all of you." Unfortunately, but I will I will say, you know, be here as often as possible and and we can set up I mean, each city could set up a policy, if you will, as to how many times you should be absent, but I'm not saying that we need to do that, but I would strongly encourage you to be here. And this is why, and Kathleen can attest to this, and so can Anne McGregor, um, when we first started out with Kathleen and Anne coming on board, we had to do it remotely. It's a whole it's it's horrible. Um, and it's it takes a lot longer and there's just not that um, communic that connection between council members as well as staff. People nodding their heads. Yes. Or there's a lot of silence as well. Well, it's um so but if you're on vacation or you're not feeling great and you want to use this, I think it's a really good tool to have. So consider that if if you're not and not saying you can't you have to do this next time. Um but just every and sometimes when you're on vacation you just want to be on vacation. I get that too. So don't worry about that. But it's another option that's that's a good option. Now, if we're done with that, just another another thing that I'd like to throw out there that we just briefly talked about before is um maybe changing our meetings to 6:30 rather than 7:00, which would mean starting our work sessions at 5, but we wanted to see if that would be available to people and if you're interested in that. I am interested in that. Yeah. Yeah, I am too. Okay. Um, and Peter's retired, so I'm going to just say he's he's in favor of it. Uh, we it's an ordinance update, so I'll try to get something on the agenda for the next meeting. That would be great. Yeah. Yeah. So, we'll still have a 7:00 council meeting on in July. And if we do, maybe the end of August or second meeting in August, we could start implementing it. Sure. Okay. So, we made a couple changes. If you remember, we uh moved our park commission meeting to the fourth Monday right before our planning commission meeting. We're trying to be efficient here. So, this this will help efficiency. So, um with that, that's uh great. And uh otherwise, we don't have anything else on the agenda. We can sit here, you know, if you'd like. Otherwise, is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Thank you, Miss Lacy. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Reken. All those in favor signify with I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes 40. Well, we didn't make it in 11 minutes, but 35 ranger.