e e uh good evening welcome to the February 4th 2025 city council meeting I hereby call the meeting to order members of the public May attend the city council meeting in person or may watch and listen remotely by viewing the meeting on Channel 8 WCTV and at the city's website at www.org WCTV public comment during the public forum Andor public hearing portions of the meeting may be provided in person at the meeting in advance or by logging into team's online meeting and raising your hand during the public hearing when your name is called in the meeting you will be seen and heard in our council chambers and the cable channel and you'll be asked to unmute and then you begin your comments all public comments must include your full name and address uh next we will stand for the pledge allegiance if I could ask everyone to stand if you able and follow along IED Al 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 uh the next item on the agenda is our roll call and uh let the record note that all uh council members are present I will also note that earlier this evening the council participated in a workshop and reviewed and discussed the following discussion of Public Safety priorities for our downtown initiatives and Communications uh for those initiatives our second uh agenda item for uh this evening's Workshop was discussion of council priorities for 20125 and an update uh by staff on progress towards our city strategic plan the next item on uh our agenda is to approve the agenda may I have a motion to approve the agenda or does anyone want to make any changes so move Mr Mayor second okay moved in second and any further discussion all in favor say I I I motion passes next on the item is the public forum uh the public forum for a reminder is for those members of the public in attendance tonight are interested in speaking we ask when your name is called to please uh approach the podium state your name address and indicate if you're representing a group and limit your comments if you can to 3 minutes if the item you wish to speak about is on the agenda for those or in person please fill out a form um and offer it to staff and then for those who are watching on teams uh online please send a note via chat to staff and let them know that your agenda item you wish to speak about and then once you are called upon we uh require you to turn on your camera when you speak um so the we're going to do two items on the public forum and I think we have a couple of uh uh citizens that are uh wanting to speak so the first item on our public forum is the introduction of Tyler basil Public Works technician uh city manager thank you Mr Mayor I'm going to ask uh our Public Works director and city engineer Mike Kelly to go I don't know if you're plan on going up to the podium or not um but he's goingon to introduce uh Mr basil our newest employee uh down at Public Works he's been a great addition a great fit to a position that um uh director Kelly had to get creative in uh tweeted a little bit and we're super happy that we found uh Mr basil thank you Jeff Mr Mayor city council we always appreciate the opportunity to introduce our new employees and tonight we're pleased to introduce Tyler basil our Public Works technician I'm going to ask him to go stand up in front of the podium because and and I'm not joining him cuz the hot seat gets pretty hot over there and we've been we've been prepping them for weeks for this um Tyler joined our team on October 21st of last year uh he came to us from the private World a little bit different as Jeff mentioned we went through uh a couple years of trying to find what we were hoping was going to be an engineering technician and Engineering technician always led to very uh unexperienced or someone that wanted to take a position we already have in our assistant city engineer Jen Schuman who's also joined us tonight and that's not what we were looking for um so we had to get creative as Jeff mentioned Tyler comes from to us from uh some past private experience he worked at Danos Power Solutions as a supply chain specialist and before that John Deere as a materials coordinator before that where we grabbed him from and why we were most interested in him he had about four years of seasonal experience with the city of forest lake and some things that stood out to us these are his words not mine I'm a quick learner I'm organized I'm self motivated I'm detail oriented he is exactly all of those things done very well he's fit in extremely well with our team out at Public Works and with Jen and uh the engineering department couple things that stand out wasn't a GIS guy he's slowly becoming a GIS guy which is great and our permitting process process is can be confusing uh but he's jumped in head first with that as well so with that please help me welcome Tyler basil welcome yeah Mr Mayor and Council it's a pleasure to meet you all thank you for the time tonight um like Mike said Tyler basil um right now I'm living in corkran Minnesota um the new Public Works technician been with the city for few months now since October um I enjoy coming to work every day the staff at the city is amazing and very very easy to work with and it's been a pleasure to learn learn a lot and use my skills to help the city with this new position and yeah I'm an open book so if you guys have any questions I'm willing to answer uh welcome Tyler any comments or questions from the council I got one on okay what's been your um biggest eye openening experience since you've been here that's a good question I would say for me personally it was just the community that Yetta is I didn't realize how small of a footprint it is but how big of a impact the city does have on not only just our community but the surrounding communities um so I think that's been very eye openening for me is how much of an impact a small City can make have you made any mistakes yet plenty of mistakes yeah but I'm a quick learner so I've been learning well I hope Mike's been forgiving Yes yes again uh welcome aboard and and uh we're pleased that you're here and thanks for making the time with us uh tonight yeah thank you okay um oh sorry just go ahead just quick comment uh Mike I'm not sure if you have a public works basketball team but you may want to start one not yet someday we're hoping to Vibe for the softball opportunities maybe awesome Tyler I mean your list is growing here of things to do all right next on the public forum is recognition of merily Borg Babcock um most recently Park and trails board member and Community volunteer extraordinaire city manager please thank you uh Mr Mayor so I have a a a short little intro I want to do about um Miss Babcock and ultimately I'd love for her to uh we can get her up to the podium to have her say a few words and I'm sure the council probably has a few things to say as well um this we asked uh marily lee to come tonight to acknowledge her over a decade of service to the parks and trails board she was a pioneering member back when it first started over a decade ago um but in addition to all of her work on the parks and trails really leading parks and trails um she's done a lot more things so I'm going to just add uh to uh the recognition tonight it's more than just about parks and trails um but starting with parks and trails she was really a driving driving force behind many many initiatives uh that were Parks related whether through that board or separately uh she was a big advocate for preserving the Big Woods she worked with the Parkson Trails board on the maple tree tapping program which she volunteered um hundreds maybe thousands of hours and her own equipment to help with the community and really educate folks in the community about that process um she was a key uh Forest behind the Post Office Park uh public art and just creating that space and making it uh more significant for the city all of the Earth Day events music in the park uh tree giveaways um basically any event whether it's in a park or around preserving historic structure uh merily was heavily involved probably leading um all the other City related events dig it day cleanup days uh Mar Lee was a driving force behind that to selfish selfish ially giving her her volunteer hours uh to the community um so and it's not just about parks and trails although that was uh key for merily Lee uh it was about preserving our historic uh buildings preser preserving the character of our town um and making sure that we thought things through appropriately um bu the bushway project is a good example of that too notley's fan club is here too by the way yes yes and they're excited too um Bush away uh the project that was that was another good example of not necessarily A parks and trails initiative or anything like that but preserving uh the character of Yetta through different means whether it's a transportation Corridor uh sacred Woods in our community or other ways uh merily really stood for natural resources in the environment again historic preservation and and providing her perspective to Big transform transformational Community projects where her perspective allowed us to make sure that um the projects were right siiz and respected the history and natural environment of the community uh and she did this not just for her own perspective she did it also to educate others that that was a primary component of all the service that she uh has gifted the city to educate our community to be better to understand what historic preservation means to understand with what um preserving all that the uh our natural resources have to offer um there's a lot more and I hope that some of you guys will touch on all the different things that Mary helped out with but um on behalf of staff and the entire city we're extremely grateful merily for you to serve for so long um this award that we're going to give you is a small small token of our appreciation it it means a lot more to us uh uh your service means a lot more to us than this but at least it's something to show how much we are deeply grateful and care for you yeah so before we bring you up here merily for your comments and the last word I want to open up to the council to offer their remarks for your exemplary service and then we'll have you approach the dis for your award and commentary so who would like to start I'll start that's okay council member McDonald right thanks mayor um I was um inspired by some of the words that manager doll mentioned about um merily and I I just wanted to extrapolate on those I it um with some of the history one of the things I really liked serving with you ever so briefly on parks and trails was um that like oral history you shared with the group um any little pocket or intersection of town Mery could tell you what it was how it got to be what it is and I just think that's really cool and you can't find that um in print generally somewhere so it was um an incredible experience just like very briefly for myself to get a sense of what you were really sharing with the community more so even than just your time and knowledge but really your experiences and a vision for the community and I just think that was really special and I know I'm grateful to know that you've shared that with so many community members and and then of course just being grateful for your public service and um all your great ideas too that you've brought to the city so thanks amazing thank you council member who who would like to go next I'll jump in okay go ahead Alex um merily Lee we've intersected in so many different ways over the years since the first time I uh ever met you and uh I will say that um you are the epitome of what a resident in wetta should look and aspire to uh not only have you served on various commissions boards and so on but uh outside of that you're a volunteer educator uh you're kind of everywhere you are wi Isetta and your imprint has definitely been felt in this community I've always enjoyed enoyed interacting with you and I cherish the time we're right out here and I got that little tiny tree that I so carefully planted back CU I love trees and I love nature I so carefully put that in place to make sure it was going to grow as far as I know it's going to survive the winter and it'll still be there it's been terrific and I'm glad that you're here amazing go ahead council member par merily we haven't known each other very long but a couple years ago I did the maple syrup with you and just sitting out by your fire and talking and being with your wonderful spirit because you just have this aura about you that's just kind and and U loving and you know it's just enjoyable to sit out there and spend them a few days in March by a fire talking to you we've also exchanged plants a couple times and that's kind of fun she's a fellow phytophile I just looked up the word plant lover or horiculture cist so um anyway thank you for all you've done for Yetta and uh the friendship that uh We've shared thank you you okay so so u merily i I have a few comments um in the 17 years I've been doing this work we've cross paths on numerous projects initiatives uh sometimes spirited debate but always uh civil and your dedication as a volunteer is really commendable um spanning over 30 years of service in various volunteer capacities to the city of wetta and I would say the themes that struck out when you and I had a chance to visit I think yesterday on the phone are your commitment to history the environment the environment and sustainability and your impact uh can be seen across many boards and commissions and volunteer initiatives many of them been mentioned but I'm just going to tick them off again the wisett a historical society now the lake motanka Historical Society both as a volunteer and a board member the city of wetta Heritage preservation board Friends of the Big Woods uh where you you single-handedly Champion both a referendum and the the preservation of the largest uh original Woods track left in in wetta and and the greater uh metro area um the post office pocket park which I'll talk about in a second a longtime planning commissioner member uh you were the founding member and where I served with you on the park and trails task force back in 2011 um you were the first and founding member of the reconstituted park and trails board 2012 to present which brought you here tonight but I think it's becoming very clear that your service is well beyond the park and trails board um the bushway road TR task force saving uh the city of wetta from a four-lane highway to a one lane uh you know sa saving hundreds of trees and then numerous numerous times as an election job so it's safe to say your leadership and contributions have left a lasting mark on our city and and showing you as a true champion of community community betterment but I wanted to amplify some of the things that you got done while you were serving on all those different boards so some of the more notable projects that merily has been a part of include establishing the museum at the Depot which we we take for granted now um it used to be I think storage for the city embarrassingly but uh it it now you know has a museum uh in it uh that's active uh at all times um you with Irene stemmer uh rest her soul um Champion the HPB Centennial house Awards and and got that going um I already talked about the Big Woods which was not only um preservation of uh of of the landscape and the trees but also this notable house the Arno house and the senal property which now is a um you know Retreat Center which would would have you know probably gone away without your your championing to save it um organizing and implementing programs to help promote and maintain the big woods so not only did you preserve it but you organized countless volunteers to go uh prune it and cut down invasive species and garlic mustard which made you popular and unpopular in some circles Buckthorn um you spearheaded enhancements to the post office pocket park and promoted that gem which was originally a gift from Judy Lucy and Ken dat in the mid90s and most people don't know this but you and I visited about it it was designed by a world-renowned uh designer Sia armajani and he's known around the world probably most notably for Designing the Olympic torch in uh 1996 in Atlanta and he he designed this beautiful little pocket park here in our town and you championed it um let's see what else I mean the list is so long she also was a champion of establishing the little Beach next to the Sailing Center um the maple tree chopping program which we already talked about the Earth Day tree program which is now known as Arbor Day and maybe most notable uh to me and these are your words not not mine you are a self-proclaimed and proud tree hugger and for merily um you know what I would say that how I would characterize you you're one of those people whose actions speak louder than their words um I think I'm going to quote Ben Franklin and he said a well done job is better than a well said job and actions speak louder than words and primarily you practice letting your words teach and your actions speak and I want to thank you on behalf of the the city for your 30 years of service and now you can accept your word and have the last word merily thank [Applause] you one little addition Mr Mayor uh the Centennial award from the HPB she's also an artist and uh designed and and uh created the uh the the images or the the paintings of the homes which the Dres thank you um which is incredible as well um so merily I'd like to give you this uh award that recognizes your service on the parks and trails board uh as a Pioneer uh but as we said tonight there's so much more than that thank you thank you thank you well thank you uh first I'd like to say congratulations to Andrew for becoming me May winning the election second of all I'd like to acknowledge Alex pish for your new state what is the what is the exact title the party chairman of the Republican Party Party chairman congratulations to you also well I just have a small you know something that I'd like to do because I certainly would be unable to to do any of this by myself so I have a list and I'm sure that I've forgotten many many people but I have a list of all the people who have supported um you know helped in some way um and they're not going to have you're not going to find their name on a plaque these are just the you know the regular people that are in any one of these neighborhoods around town and so I'd like to mention these people who have helped to make all of this possible and first of all I'm going to uh talk about Chuck Shon who was the one that got me involved with the Historical Society but this was something that my father started in 1981 and it ended up you know coming to fruition in 1982 the day or the month that he died um and he also was the founding member of the wetta country club so he is the one that inspired me to go forward and push a lot of this stuff that a lot of people thought was a little crazy but that's okay uh Chuck Shon uh asked me to be membership chair of the wisett a historical society we had 150 members at that time and he challenged me to get 500 well I did it um because we had a number I put together a number of incentives first minaha boat tour around wetta Bay and Donnie scandin drove us around and I brought uh Jim ogland Jim James wire Mary Ellen ghee to talk about the different areas around the lake so we could have a great you know uh Adventure there and let people know what was going on um other incentives over the three years uh we put together a number of calendars for uh the history of Y Zetta and we handed those out as membership incentives and this was with Lynn Gruber and Phil little and Keith Waters uh funded was a donor to some of those Jack amdall Mary Brown Heidi uh Backstrom sus artino Joanie Holz and a number of others were wrote on these you know wrote the history on these when I became president of the Wisa Historical Society uh the depot was being used as Andrew said as a storage area for the chilly open equipment we were lucky though that that's what the city did we were lucky that they didn't turn it into a coffee shop or something like that because all of the original stuff was still there and it was still in beautiful shape so we're very fortunate to have that building um uh we and when I became president in 2000 uh the board decided we had three initiatives one was to put together the timeline that talks about wetta and what was happening around the country in the world at that time when Yetta was just forming uh saving the senle Big Woods we had the tenacity to take that on and to Champion uh a new uh fun Riser with Bernie Klein who was now I want you to write all of these names down you guys because I want when you see some of these people I want you to thank them for all the stuff that they've done because like I said their name is not on any plaque on any scroll on any rock or any uh railing now it's on TV though well right but not everybody will see it anyhow so um I want to thank Becca so then came the senle Big Woods and this was kind of serendipity and it was Becca NES who was working for TPL the trust for public land at that time and she gave me a call and I had just read something called Embrace open space that talked about individuals could save tracks of land so being the idiot that I am I thought yeah hey yeah let's go for it so we started with three people we ended up with I just counted my list today there were 160 three people on this list and my thanks to Becca Nash and my thanks to Susan Schmidt and Bob mcelver of uh of TPL uh and because they saved not only the tract of land but the Arnold Building and I'd also like to thank John Curtis who is a wonderful wonderful neighbor to us he has the inside of the donnut our park is on the outside so uh we we are very lucky to have him there uh so during all of this we had people that went around and you know delivered Flyers to all the houses to let people know there were a lot of people that got involed involved that we're really sorry that they got involved but you know um Joan mikowski Sandy Harvey did a lot of writing for the uh newsletter that they sent out dick flint and Bob gizal were legal counil to what we were doing uh we had a number of newspaper articles and letters to the editors written by Mary Bader and Patty gizal early fundraising was done by Mary plant Steve and jod polling and following by a fundraisers from TPL and rendy Dayton other leaders during this were Phil harder dick Howell and Dick Harmon I don't think any of those people are still with us today you know and Grant Meritt and his knowledge on preservation so um sorry I'm anyhow when we were saving the Big Woods the a number of people on the city council were not happy with us and they were going to you know we had a tie vote a 22 vote and we were able to break that tie by Bob Ambrose flying back into town you know Joe McCarthy picked him up from the airport and he flew back into town to make it make sure that we didn't have the tie vote so it would I think this was for the referendum that we had so I thank Bob Ambrose for doing this then we talked about Irene stemmer Judy starky who are both you know charter members of The Heritage preservation board you know and uh Irene wrote a lot of history on many of the parks which is very interesting if you like history but at least we've got it you know we've got the information there because Irene is no longer with us either uh thanks to the people who volunteered to do the planting at the Post Office Park I have wonderful photos of so many of these people but they're never used in our newsletters or on our website which I think is unfortunate so I'm going to name a bunch of these people Lyn McCarthy but Lyn McCarthy is there all the time she brings coffee she does the plantings she you know Jan and Dennis Hyman Christine halberton Laura Mariam Debbie and Tom vanderhyden uh Joanie Cunningham Bridget and Jason Anderson Kathy door Kathy Jones Mary Bader Joanna McCarthy and her parents Linda minck Linda sleeper Holly Evans Bennett myON Sarah Randolph Sarah shalter B Bika Baka um where am I Jansen uh Peter hitch Ann LEF France and Bruce Mary Ted and T Terry and Tim Foster Sandy Harvey Kade stbaker Su doell uh Tori and Kelsey I never pronounce it right uh Shankle and John Ericson and his wife so many of these PE people also planted the bulbs at the city hall up here when we got donated bulbs and also uh participate in uh pull it and dig it which is Lynn McCarthy and Pat BRS I was never in charge of that I was just a grunt on the job and that was it so let's give credit where it's due uh so many of these same you know people pulled garlic mustard plus Carill was very influential and bringing people in and so that was also wonderful uh they were brought into the Big Woods then I also appreciate the team of volunteers who cleaned up the little beach it was pretty trashy before they rolled in uh the new pier with the with the chairs and that was Lynn McCarthy uh Ellie anari and her husband Jim mcy and a team of other others that uh Lynn McCarthy enlisted to help and may I also thank Jack amdall so he he I talked to him I'd heard that mccormix was trying to put together a uh rolling cart for food down at the the beach and it wasn't going to work because it couldn't be covered there was some problems so I talked to Jack andall and I said Jack do you think we have a big enough space he went down to the he went down to the uh beach house he measured uh the cement blocks and said I think we can do this and so he accompanied me in to talk to Jim uh McCormack uh to get this done and then with the city the two of them made this happen and with our Big Woods a lot of people have helped with the Buckthorn but it's been Lynn McCarthy who has really been the person who has done most of this she would call the coach at wi Isetta high school every year and get the football team in in the spring to come and help pull the Buckthorn you know we thought you know this would be good you know then when they get back and to practice they're going to have better muscles because kind of slacking off all winter so but Lyn McCarthy did that and so uh we were able to do that Joel papa is one that always went around and took all the photographs we have so many photographs of all of this you know and finally uh our editor and Chief from the plaque on the railroad history to the brochure to the general maintenance plan letters to the editor and council member who suggested forming a parks and trails board because she said marily you can't keep doing this on your own we've got to have something that's a little bit more official Mary Bader you know she was the spearhead of all of this so of all of these people um I'm sure that have I forgotten oh I did forget I must have missed a page here sorry about that when we were doing the Big Woods and we would get all of these high school kids in you know we'd get a whole crowd and so what I did is I got leaders and I get four leaders a time and on these leaders I just want to read their names it was Joel Papa Tom paps Bill Bering Dan Goodmanson John Barry Hill Joe McCarthy Dan Goodmanson Jack amdall and Bob Ambrose and these are the people that would kind of take groups to different areas and we walked first of all and we decide what those areas were so that's that's kind of it for my big list but like I said you know all of these people don't have their names on plaques they don't have their names on railings or anything like that and so they are the ones that made this all happen I could never have done this on my own so this is a wonderful plaque and everything like that but it's these people people that really deserve so much credit I mean this town is so lucky to have all of these people um my father always said to make this a better place make the pl make your community a better place to live in by what you contribute so I've tried to do that thank you thank you marily and thank you for your patience you bet marily you more than deserve it okay uh city manager do we have anybody uh waiting on teams Madam um Mr Mayor Madam we not round uh oh you owe me money I know okay Mr may we do not okay great so we have two individuals that like to speak in the public forum um so we'll give them their due first um we have Jeff an anino first um if you would come to the podium okay you're going to defer to Chris so Chris Hickock could you please address and if you wouldn't mind just stating your name and your address and what you'd like to speak about uh my name is Chris Hickock I live at 213 Walker Avenue South so just around the corner here uh mayor councel city manager and staff Mike nice to see you I'm here just to make some comments on um the 641 Lake Street proposed development I've been contacted by a number of the neighbors to the east to the north and to the West most of them are there's a lot of uh snowbirds within that group there's about 40 homeowners that are in that neighborhood and a lot of people are traveling I'm I'm here so I ended up being the mouthpiece but um just three points I wanted to make uh everyone was very surprised to hear about this development it just kind of came online within the last couple weeks plus it's been in the work since like last summer augusti um and I've I've been involved with a lot of developments in town and that's that's kind of a new thing for sure uh the second one is and the third is kind of related but is people are talking about their loss of sight line or view corridors to the lake which I know is been a big Topic in the city and then the third one is there's a precedent from buildings it's not written but all the feeder streets into Lake Street from uh minaka over to Barry uh Broadway as well have the the feeder buildings have a side street set back to I think that the purpose of that was to avoid a tunnel effect into Lake Street and and that doesn't exist here so I just want to throw out those three items for your consideration I appreciate the time tonight okay thank you thank you did you want to go next Jeff okay please and just state your name and your address and uh please thank you mayor uh Jeff anino I live at 253 uh Lake Street East um we are the tenant in 308 Walker Avenue South we will be directly impacted by the new um project we'll lose probably 100% of our southerly um view of the lake and a majority of our Western view of the lake um I want to thank Chris for his leadership just representing the neighborhood and thank you and uh the city manager for meeting with us last week and also the kishes who uh we met with yesterday we are um I'm new to town I've only been here for about two and a half years um so I think over that time I've learned the importance uh that everyone in in the city has for the downtown Lake District and it's I guess disappointing to learn about a project of such magnitude um so late in the process and hoping that um you know there there's more consideration given uh for the project as we understand it's not quite approved yet and some of the points that Chris made uh tonight about the the sidelines and thank you very much yeah thank you both um appreciate you stepping up in offering commentary uh this was going to be part of uh our city manager's report but rather than wait till the end of of the meeting just if we could uh perhaps just pull that and and offer some commentaries uh while these two gentlemen are here uh and for for Council so city manager if you wouldn't mind uh responding yeah thank you Mr Mayor um so just to summarize the uh the project it's um it's essentially tearing down the the the oldest component on the west side of the 600 block of the carish building so we refer to it as like the Caribou space uh it's that oldest part of the building that that the property owner is intending to rebuild similar footprint but just an up more upto-date space that they can Market appropriately still two stories similar footprint uh a little bit taller um I think five fiveish feet taller or something like that um the uniqueness of this project is that because the the design um didn't trip any needed uh development approvals and it was a smaller component of a larger building there is no uh development process where it needs to go through uh the Planning Commission and or the city council and that is why there hasn't been any type of official not legal notification or anything like there would normally be for a new development that's asking for approval um so that's why uh we staff has been working on it for several months now it's the building permit is not approved yet yet uh despite that the uh design and everything is on our website so folks can um take a look at what is being proposed ultimately building improv improvements uh permits that are improved are uh we send uh we get notification of those uh in our Yetta weekly which is distributed to a lot of res uh residents um so that's kind of the a summary the background um as uh uh um I think Mr Hickok mentioned we did have a meeting and we have linked the concerned uh residents and community members with the the property owners to have a dialogue about what their concerns are and if they're able to accommodate or mitigate any of them so that's where it stands at this point time happy to answer any questions yeah questions of uh staff by Council on this topic okay I just would like to you know thank Chris and and Jeff for bringing this forward in the public forum just just just to state in the record we did um reference it at last week's council meeting um it has been uh communicated to all Council in a full brief as well as our Planning Commission and um you know we did have a chance to sit down and meet I I respect and understand your concerns and I think they're valid and um as as city manager uh articulated you know we're hopeful that through dialogue with the developer that some or may be mitigated and um this is an open forum and we encourage enourage folks to use the public forum as they see wish as they see fit rather to to comment on this but um it is uh you know as would any applicant of this kind be um considered administratively so that's where it's at and thank you for coming so with that we'll move on to new agenda items so does anyone have any new agenda items to discuss or bring up on Council here okay hearing none um the next item is seven the consent agenda um we're going to review approval of the consent agenda on the consent agenda tonight is approval of the check register approval of Municipal licenses authorization of Mayor and city manager to execute uh an engagement letter with lb Carlson for fiscal year 2024 auditing Services approval of second reading of adoption ordinance 846 amending chapters 920 and 955 of the wetta zoning ordinance to address home design uh as well as I believe there's a tweak to oh no that's next approval of the second reading and Adoption of ordinance 847 amending the design standards of chapter 909 uh which is commercial approval statement of approval of statement of work with laugher for virtual Chief Information Security Officer Vis Cisco no I can't say that vcio cyber security services an approval of consent to Plat and approval of assignment and Assumption of the development agreement for Meyer place at Ferndale 222 Ferndale Avenue South so do does anyone on Council want to pull any of those items from the consent agenda okay so I would accept a motion to approve the consent agenda as uh presented I'll make that motion mayor second second okay all those oh any further discussion all those in favor say I I the motion passes we're next up on new business first on our new business is consider approval of wi yach Club request to modify the slip configuration at the wiata Yacht Club at 1100 Eastman Lane city manager thank you Mr Mayor uh uh director Kelly is going to take this item thank you Jeff Mr Mayor city council uh before you tonight we have a somewhat unique um agenda item typically and as mentioned on the agenda we would look for approval as I mentioned in my memo the yacht club has presented us with a request to do a modification to their slip configuration why isn't it going there we there we go as we all know the yach club sits on Eastman Lane on the east side of our downtown the request before us tonight I don't know if this doesn't want to go M just advaning for me thank you uh the request before us tonight uh the yak club is looking to modify up to 12 of their buoys which are circled down in the bottom right hand corner with physical slips attached to the docks which you can see highlighted in red if you can move forward to the next slide please as I mentioned this process is somewhat different than most um back in 2012 as part of a PUD Amendment uh the city council at that time laid out an approval process both for the land use potential changes for this site as well as highlighted Marina configuration the marina configuration is spelled out in our resolution 12202 and if you could go to the next slide in resolution 12 2012 mentions that their the approved amount of slips is 186 and then goes on to talk about if there wants to be modification the following process pertains the applicant shall notify the city in writing and come to a city council they have provided that written notification and are here tonight to answer any questions that you might have following my presentation and that the council shall review the request and provide comments it's not necessarily an approval but provide comments on their application those comments will then be documented in a formal letter back to the Yetta yach club which they will include in their application to the lmcd couple things that I want to clarify and you can move on to the next slide thank you um again they've provided us with that that writing uh notification in writing um there is no proposed change to the number of slips no increase decrease we've looked at this plan we don't see any land use impacts to this um request that's why they're following this particular process there is a much broader process if they were asking for land use changes um I don't believe that the slip modifications uh are going to have an adverse impact in fact if we went back to and I'm not going to ask Aurora to go back but per that site plan I believe their footprint on the lake is actually getting a little bit smaller and might have less of an impact to the lake so I've provided a couple potential comments that you might consider tonight those being the proposed slip modifications maintain the allowable number of slips 186 per our resolution and that it doesn't have any impact or significant impact on our land use secondly our propos the proposed location appears to fit well with the existing do structures and I might even add and minimizes the footprint to the lake if you have additional comments we would take those and document ment this those this evening we do have a couple members of the yach club here tonight to answer any questions that you might have and based on that our recommendation would be to relay any comments to staff on behalf of the city council and we will forward those on to the LMC to to the yacht club for then forwarding to the lmcd with that I'll stand for any question yeah questions of staff and then if the applicant wants to make comments after the questions then we'll give you that chance but questions of staff from Council at this point okay I just have one comment for context so so I actually was serving as a council member back in 11 and 12 and just to add a little more context for for why this was written the way it was so so the Sailing Center and the yach club you know have a combined land use uh around the use of that property and the triggering event for this is the correlation between more boat slips equals more parking more parking equals more impact to the neighborhood and therefore um at the time we added this as uh an additional step that is not customary um of applicants but but was agreed to by the yacht club in the Sailing Center to say that anytime there was a material change to their BSU and uh as long as it wasn't going Beyond 186 which it's not if it did go beyond 186 then that triggers a whole separate process but it it just gives us a chance to offer any comments um around our concerns about the impact of BSU to to land use Andor parking Andor impact to the neighborhood and so that's the context for this as staff articulated um they don't see any concerns they're not even coming close to the 186 and they're simply taking floating buoys and moving them to fix docks so that's just for context I just lived through that three years of my life Jonathan you and I were sitting in this room for hundreds of hours for three years and it was interesting but that's where we landed um so so with that um I guess if there's no other questions of council we'd give the applicant a chance to offer any comments you don't have to it's certainly at your discretion if you want to offer comments um so I leave the floor to you if you choose to or not yeah if you just introduce yourself and and give your address um Mr mcdna yep I'm Jonathan mcdna I'm live at 115 Mattis Lane Golden Valley um I'm on the board of the Y yach Club I don't really have any comments I think that uh you've covered it quite nicely if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them any questions of the applicant okay no questions oh go ahead just one I mean I I think this looks perfectly fine but I'm kind of curious why the the original plan didn't include these docks because it makes more sense to me to be this way the the docks just didn't exist at that time and we didn't have a need for them and now most people don't want to be on a buoy anymore and would rather be at a dock so we've seen a kind of an interest for that so that's why we're moving over that way okay another question of councel here yeah has it been um any discussion with uh neighbors sailing school about this any any type of feedback we've talked to the sailing school they seem fine with it um we' have not approached any of the Neighbors at this point uh that generally happens when we apply to the lmcd thank you yep okay so no further questions I guess now we would give staff any feedback on do we do we like the comments that Mike has proposed that would run with this application or I guess would be forwarded to the lmcd as they review the application for the change would anyone are we comfortable with what staff's proposed does anyone want to tweak it or make any adjustments I'm comfortable personally with director Kelly's comments okay anyone else okay so one thing we could add is safety I think it's safer to have the um um the use slips versus buise yeah everyone comfortable with that okay Mike do you have that as a noted uh comment I do okay unless stingy storage right so if there's no further questions or comments I would uh accept a motion to approve the wi Yak club's request to modify slip configuration at 110 Eastman Lane so move Mr Mayor second second moved in seconded any further discussion all in favor say I I the motion passes thank you Mr thank you um next on our agenda is the presentation of the 2024 annual report we're on item 8 B for those following along um turn it over to staff thank you Mr Mayor uh so tonight um we have for you the 2024 annual report um the beginning of the year we like to kind of recap the previous year and and celebrate All That the council staff and the community accomplished um and uh this it's it's still in draft form so after you know we're presenting there's no real action to take but if the council has any questions or um edits you would like us to make we're happy to to make those before we really kind of publicly unveil it out in social media and and other form um so I'm going to we're going to uh tag team this presentation between myself and Deputy city manager jger I'll start hand it off to mger and then I'll finish so um the first part of the report and and just before I start we have a PDF document that's very that's very um thoughtful and uh well put together that looks better on paper and we'll distribute that as well uh our amazing incredible staff uh communication stuff Liv merendino put together the story map and last year our first year we tried to do it we had some AV issues so tonight we're happy to actually walk through it without knock on wood any U uh AV issues um I think you'll be pretty impressed so the first part of this is just recognizing it starts with the uh communication uh from myself and the mayor talking about how proud We Are of our community uh reiterating another successful year and uh mentioning the overall vision of the city of this organization which is really to enhance everybody's quality of life while preserving the character as a thriving Lakes Lakeside Village to live work shop and play you know that distinguishing factor of our residents but also other communities as well and obviously despite our small size we do strive to maintain uh a superior and Rec and and um well recognized level of service uh Excellence uh we strive for in our operations that we provide to all of our residents and community members um in this um uh we emphasize especially uh with mayor Mullen wanting to focus on and and we all agree uh really our commitment to our residents and that second goal which is in our strategic plan of diversifying revenue and and really taking that burden or or finding other ways to fund all of our resour all of our services that we provide not completely reliant on property taxes so looking at other sources uh hopefully coming from users and visitors to the community that's going to be a it has been a major Focus back in 2024 and will continue to be a focus um so the big uh I think the highlight of the year you know we're going to go through all the the um accomplishments but the big high highlight of the year was the lakewalk opened on uh July 13th it's been in the works for many many years over 100 years and more specifically with this addition over a decade uh this has really been the Cornerstone the Crown Jewel of the panaway project and uh it really included many city city uh Partners not only just this Council previous councils but many community members including the wetta Conservancy um uh for bringing for making this uh decades long project come to fruition and really celebrating giving complete access to our most treasured asset Lake motanka uh and to note uh on this this was all constructed with funds outside of the general fund meaning the taxpayers dollars did not go up to fund this project this was funded by Conservancy the state of Minnesota and City Redevelopment and restricted Tiff doll which we're very proud of um with that uh director jger is going to talk more specifically about um accomplishments of our diverse apart departments um I'll make this brief mayor and Council there's obviously a lot of highlights in the actual annual report I'll just touch on a couple to shine a light on the work that different departments are doing in the city and then obviously would direct people to read the annual report check it out online that's a great source to learn a little bit more um so in our administration department a couple of things I wanted to highlight is um two things one that we launched a new Recruitment and onboarding software um which may seem not too exciting to the resident but since we've launched it we've seen the number of job applications increased 69% so we really see this as this is a way that we're going to get the the best talent to Y Zetta um and other than that I want to highlight our amazing DMV operation they continue to have like one of the highest Google star ratings um ever and we continue to get feedback from people of wow I was surprised I had such a great experience at the DMV so kudos to them for continuing to do a great great job um next I want to highlight public works again this is often an unseen Department um but a couple of really cool projects that they took on over the last year one they started um a yearlong water meter replacement project so they're going to touch a lot of houses in the city to replace water meters um and i' ALS also want to talk about all the tree work that they've been doing from planting new trees to getting um a bunch of funding towards tree maintenance that's non-t tax dollars that's comes from our tree ordinance and grants um to and they've distributed over 50 potted native trees so a lot of work to preserve the tree canopy and invest in our in our trees in Community Development we continue to see active Redevelopment in this community so last year they issued over 600 permits with a total construction value of over $79 million so not only are we you know bringing money into this community Through Redevelopment but they're also very active in applying for grants in just the last three years the city has been awarded 18 grants um that total over $800,000 so great kudos to that staff for for seeking out those opportunities for the city in our Public Safety departments there's a lot we could highlight here um some that I just want to talk about the workload um and our fire department they answered over 329 calls and the police department answered over 9,400 calls in the last year so both really active um departments there and then other than that I do want to highlight the work in the fire department um you may hear of a lot of places that have paid on call Firefighters struggling to recruit um and they've really been taking an active stance on this in the last couple of years and on boarded three new firefighters we're up to 29 um whereas a couple of years ago we had only 22 so that's great sign from folks in our community stepping up to join the fire department um and then talking about the mun so that's our both our Municipal liquor store um and our Barn Grill operation um a couple of things I want to highlight there um first is on the bar and grill side um they've launched several new menu programs I think Jeff will highlight that again later but in general I just want the message back to the community to be that these businesses are run very well and that helps save money on our tax levy it keeps our property tax low taxes lower and the revenue they generate goes towards other future capital projects so in the last year again this is preliminary and not audited but made um about $53,000 back to the city across those two businesses so I want to highlight just the impact that they have on our community and what a better place we're in because of those businesses over you Jeff thank you uh director Jagger this is dy of battery um okay I just want to highlight a few kind of stories that serve as a good example of our uh successful and diverse departments uh first uh first off is our bar and grill uh uh director Jer mentioned some new menus uh this year we or this past year we launched we launched three menus one is our Sunday brunch first time in a long time we've actually served breakfast breakfast food uh We've launched a happy hour um in the uh afternoon uh that's been wildly successful and some premium Cocktails so we're no longer just a place for a rum and coke or a Bud Light we're uh we've got some really um diverse cocktails that come and go with the seasons I encourage everybody who are interested to try them out they're amazing uh next item that highlights our Public Safety teams um uh Sergeant Jason German uh received an award for the SE search and rescue work that he does with our our K9 Loki uh he's use the Loki to uh find many uh I know children and other folks that go missing uh he's used and recognized regionally um he gets a call out and he'll go wherever he's needed he also uses it uh for wetta and our Public Safety Services as well so it was great that um he was recognized for that and many communities um within the state are actually um copying or utilizing this approach to search and rescue and doing it themselves as well next we have uh just another way to engage the community and we're going to be doing that more this year but we had our first uh separate state of the city event you know typically those were more chamber activities we wanted to do something that was more focused for residents uh so last year we did that for the first time and it was I think it was successful uh just because we had a packed house and I think everyone enjoyed uh the event uh more recently we had our panway project was awarded uh the structural of the structural uh facility of the Year award by the apwa um um at the apwa conference and by that entity uh you can see the picture there I don't know I must have been having a bad day or something I don't know I can't smile but uh kudos to Mike Kelly and his team because it really represents the Innovative construction uh that the community and the design team put together and it's a quite a impressive structure that's built to last um in terms of just our Personnel our our great team that we have who I'm incredibly incredibly proud of um we saw a picture of the Public Works team they uh for the first time we had two Citywide awards that folks could apply to or apply for uh that really had to embody our four core values uh teamwork responsiveness uh friendliness and Excellence uh our individual award was Kathy lervig our city clerk anybody that knows Kathy um knows that she's well deserving of this award uh for all that she does and how she does it for uh the organization and the community and our team award went to public works for the great work they do they care they're responsive they're professional and um they're they're around at all hours um you know uh providing the services and keeping our city Clean safe and well-run uh so that was the first year we we will continue to do that for in in future years as well uh from a Parks and Recreation perspective in addition to the lakewalk uh Bell courts opened up uh wildly successful it's very well utilized we have four pickle ball um courts now in addition to overhaul tennis courts uh and an important note there is that uh a lion share of that project was paid out of Grant dollar so kudos to Nick keer our Parks planner the parks and trails board and everybody that was involved in um putting that project together widely successful and most of it was paid out of Grant funds uh solar panels at the mun were finally completed uh in 2024 uh it's at they're at our mun City Hall Library fire department and Public Works they're saving us money um and it's setting the example to U be sustainable and um you know preserve uh uh the environment and and control our carbon footprint lastly uh hard not to smile at this uh dep Deputy city manager joerger mentioned our fire department and how grateful we are to have a full Volunteer Fire Department when so many others are struggling um I think one of the reasons why it's uh they haven't had an issue recruiting is just the culture there uh they really do give back a lot and this is a great example of our fire department on their you know volunteers going out to our community delivering gifts uh to our seniors that are may not get a gift from somebody else or may just want to see and talk with somebody um so what a great example of our our team and all these examp examples show the diversity um show all our values that they represent and uh we're just I I know I speak on behalf of the organization we're incredibly proud of what we've accomplished and grateful for the council's leadership and uh providing the support we need and I hope the community appreciates that I know they do and we're just grateful to be in this community um and 2025 is a new year new Council New Opportunities new challenges uh we're looking forward to um uh launching new engagement initiatives and also as I mentioned before getting back exploring continuing to explore uh ways to reduce the dependency on locally local uh property taxes as our primary uh funding source we do strive to accomplish even more and serve our residents at the highest level we will not rest on our Laurels um again after any comments from the council we'll we'll make sure that this is is sent out publicly on our website social media so we can you know show it off and show all that we've accomplished and and ultimately let folks know what we're working on in the next year so thanks for your time and happy to answer any questions about the data and the report and again thanks to Liv marandino for our all her hard work so so questions of Staff or comments on the report before it gets released publicly we got the preview tonight but comments or questions of Staff great job you guys really wonderful yeah I think it was a wonderful job first time I've I've seen it it's very robust and uh I look forward to getting it out in the public domain and and uh seeing what reaction we get to it okay so is that the direction you needed yeah thank you appreciate it all right so next on the agenda is the city manager's report Mr city manager thank you I'll try to be brief uh two things uh some exciting news uh okay um it's G to be a quick city manager and Public Works update I think okay um uh two quick things for me one is uh great news we got a substantial check 100,000 for from the Conservancy to help fund the cabin we've been uh you know it's been a topic of discussion for the past couple months and uh that part of the project is funded so thank you Conservancy for um uh coming through with that great grateful for their service and um providing those funds for a pre premere and higher level of finish on our public amenity like that uh next is just a reminder for chile open uh talk to uh uh president um Pearson from the chamber today uh they're planning on a on a uh full um I don't know with they're planning on a a an event without any limitations but obviously they'll um work with our Public Safety folks the Sheriff's Office to make sure that they can have everything at full full blast uh but ultimately the fund starts on Friday uh in the evening with their pre-party then Saturday is the big event it starts at 9:00 A.M with snowga yoga outside in the snow I'll see you guys all there I'll be there we'll do a public public meeting notice we'll get it covered so we can all be there uh and then at 10:00 a.m. the fun starts with the golf uh through the afternoon and uh during that time there's going to be of course the the chili cook off which are mun is participating in again and hopefully we'll bring home I don't know if they do a trophy or not but bring home whatever they're giving cuz I know uh dino at in the kitchen works very hard to uh make the chili just right so we can win um that's all I have thanks Jeff two quick things marily Lee grabbed me on her way out in her wonderful speech she forgot to mention that as always she is trying to promote maple tree tapping again this here so she just wants people to pay attention to any upcoming communication on that um so I want to make sure that that was said on her behalf secondly I want to give a big shout out to our Public Works team with the warm weather that we had last week it was a big pain um they resurrected the rink and it was opened for use again this evening so well done Public Works team I'm hoping the weather holds out we're already about four times longer than or five times longer than we were last was pretty low Mike yeah so last year the bar was set at 8 days we're way past that so I just wanted to shout out to the public works and let everybody know the rink is reopened okay any questions of uh public works or city manager um I just have one comment uh I just wanted to it was just was reflecting when I was writing my colum for the newsletter how how fortunate we are to have is that a crime coalition uh second call uh was that a Conservancy was that a legion um uh uh was that a lions all contributing funds to you know for public safety for public amenities and I just don't think we lift them up enough and I know there was some discussion late in the year about the conserves you know efforts and whatnot and and you know as they promised they delivered exactly what they promised and and uh I've been told by uh chair uh sandvold that that another uh little bit amount of money is coming to True up that uh that $120,000 commitment as as as they stated so it's great to see them follow through on that I never had a doubt but um here we go and that's my only comment so thank you with that I would accept a motion to conclude tonight's meeting adjourn so moved second second all in favor I I I motion passes thank you the meeting's closed e