[Music] Good evening and welcome to the Mountains View State of the City. We are so happy that you are joining us either here in the audience or at home watching on television or maybe a recording later. Uh we do the state of the city a little differently than a lot of other cities do. Typically what you'll see at a state of the city address is you'll see the mayor come up and they'll talk about the state of the city and share everything about that. Um uh we happen to believe in in Mounds View that the entire council is actually what makes up the city. So we all have uh take the opportunity and share and uh so you're going to hear from all of us tonight about different things and uh you know where our individual thoughts lie and then uh so we'll have the four council members speak first and then after that I I will come and just kind of share what things look like from my desk. uh throughout the night if you have any questions. I know that there's been paper circulated. You can uh feel free to write those questions down and then when we're done with the um presentation part of it, we'll take and answer any of the questions that you may have. And so to start the evening off, we we did a virtual flip of the coin, not really. and uh decided that there's no better way for the newest council member on the team to start their uh first state of the city than being the first one to share. So, I'll invite Katherine Smith to the podium. [Applause] >> Hi, welcome everybody. All right. I didn't know I was going first, but that's okay. So, I'm gonna, as you all know, you get kind of nervous as you walk up here in front of a crowd. I've been learning over the past couple years with my dog, Sergeant Fuzz, that it's okay to speak without my dog alongside me. So, here we go. First of all, I want to thank you all for being here. And once again, my name is Katherine. I am the newest council member, newly elected this year. Um, I'm going to talk a little bit about what it's like to be a new council member. And, um, first I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself. I have lived here in Mountains View for 31 years. I have two children, Cody, who is 28, and my daughter Ashley, who is 24. I've been married for 31 years to Mike. Actually, our anniversary was this past week. Um, I run a daycare in my home for the past 31 years. I am a first responder therapy dog handler with the St. Paul Police Department. And my dog's name is Sergeant Fuzz. And yes, he does outrank me. Yes, he is a sergeant. Um, people who know me, um, they know me as the human at the end of the leash because I always have the dog with me. The joke running around is I'm going to have this little name tag that says, "Where's Fuzz?" Because no matter where I am, no matter what I'm doing, even when I'm here at council, anywhere, everyone goes, "Where's Fuzz?" I'm like, "Hi, how are you?" They're like, "Oh, I'm sorry. I should say hi to you first, but no, it's like where's Fuzz? So, that's our running joke. Um, a little bit more about me. Um, I am also a reserve at the Ramsey County Reserves and I am on the Ramsey County Search and Rescue dive team. Uh, the onboarding process is is for newly elected council members involves a series of briefings that the department heads to familiarize them with the scope of each department's work. Additionally, new council members are introduced to the city staff who play an essential role and instrumental role in facil facilitating the council's access to information. This collaboration is crucial to the effective functions of the city's government. I want to personally thank the city staff in our departments with the city. We could not do this without you. It's a joint effort. When you become a council member for the first time, um first council meetings, you're you get sworn in and you are right up there and ready to go. There is no down. Let's let's go. Um the second meeting is known as our council work session. Our council work session, we decide on what committees we are all going to be on. There are multiple committees and we all have on an average of five committees that we are on. Am I correct? On an average of five. And along the way, sometimes we'll pick up more. it. It's what we all do. Um so with that, uh I'm going to give you a little example of some of the or I'm going to give you a list of the committees that I am on. Um the economic develop development authority is the monsoon's economic development authority is a governing body that works to improve the city's tax base through business retention and expansion, the community redevelopment. Its members are same as the council and it meets before the regular city council meetings. The key functions are to enhance tax base, business support and community development. The city's administration department handles the economic development services, business licensing, and the city strategic plans. The structure of the economic development authority is known as the EDA. is the governing body the same members as council as I already stated. The administrative department is the city which carries out the day-to-day economic development services. The Ramsey County League of Local Government The Ramsey County League of Go Local Government is a nonprofit organization that fosters fosters incorporation among governing bodies of Ramsey County, Minnesota to improve public service delivery. Its members include cities, the county itself, school districts, the watershed management organizations. The Ramsey County League of Local Government as RC LLG works to increase effective and efficiency of public services through communication, collaboration on planning, research into common problems. Their mission and purpose, their mission is to foster cooperation or cooperation among the city county units of government to increase the effectiveness in the efficiency of public service delivery. The goal is to increase the efficiency and economic of public services by increasing cooperation among local governments activities. The league conducts meetings, facilitates research, and encourages its members to become more active in the legislative process. Their memberships include a wide range of local government entities such as 16 cities, one township which is Mounds View or not Mounds View um White Beer Lake Township, Ramsey County, four school districts, three watershed management organizations and associate members. The key functions acts as a hub for local governments in the county. It encourages cooperation and planning physical development activities. offers educational opportunities to members, research local government problems and promotes the common interest of its members. Works with groups like the League of Minnesota Cities and Association of Metropolitan Municipalities. I truly enjoyed one of our field trips that we went on. We went to the um St. Paul Water Treatment Plant. The plant was originally built from 1920 to 1922, which is still in operation 2 today. with the new St. Paul McCarron's water treatment plant was officially opened in September of 2025. Before that, I had the honor of going with Ramsey County League of Local Government to go do a tour of this new building. This is a locked facility. So, it was an honor for us to be invited to go. We actually got to tour the inside of the building inside where they clean the waters and learn all the individual um aspects. And just to let you know, I am terrified of heights. I went into one of their silos and we walked up these stairs. They were all open and I walked up there and I was like, "Yep, I didn't make it any further." Um, the final phase of this project, including a completion of a new lab in landscaping, it is is all expected to wrap up in 2026. It provides clean, reliable water for the St. Paul and 14 nearby communities. They also learned or they also earned the prestigious President's Award for Water Treatment. It's one only one of 31 nationwide honors that was given out. The Ramsey County League of Local Government Subcommittee. This is another one that I picked up on my own. It's a collective action work group, also known as the CLAW. The claw is a climate action of a collective priority of the members of the Ramsey County League of Local Government which represents Ramsey County municipal municipalities. That is a very hard word to say. Um including 16 cities, three school districts, four watershed management organizations um and various associates and individual members. The cloud group met regularly without throughout the year and created a three-year action plan for the community engagement in manufactured home parks. In 2024, the collective action committee formed into a climate action work group to represent the Ramsey County League of Local members of the Ramsey County jurisdictions working to meet the initiatives outlined in the work plan. The claw was awarded a grant from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in fall of 2024 early or ending here in July of 2025. The purpose of this grant was to build the Ramsey County Lo League of Local Government's capacity to increase resilience and mitigate greenhouse gases emissions in the 15 manufacturer home parks in suburban Ramsey County. In January and February of 2025, the work group's outreach team met to plan an engagement in an education event for the residents in the 15 manufactured home parks and their city staff of elected officials. The CLA group met regularly throughout the year to create three action plans for the community engagement and manufacture home parks. If anyone would like any more information on that, you can reach out and I can get you more information. I am on the ACBAC that is known as the Anoka County Blaine Airport Advisory Commission. The Anoka County Blaine Airport Advisory Commission is compris comprised of appointed airport users to the community representatives of noa county and the cities that surround A&E. A&E is the name of our airport. The commissions brings together MAC, the Minneapolis St. Paul Metropolitan Airport Commission staff and the A&E tenants and neighbors to discuss airport development, aircraft operation and noise concerns. And now we have a subcommittee of the ACBAC of the American C or the Anoka County Blaine Airport Advisory Commission subcommittee. It is just we just named this subcommittee last week at our meeting. It is now known as the Anoka Aviation Festival or the AAF. We are looking into aviation days and we were looking at having one in June of 26, but we felt that it was being too rushed. So, we decided this past week to plan better and to make it more of an enjoyable um event for all. We are waiting until June of 2027. The NC or the NSCC and the NSAC. Trust me, this has taken me a long time to remember all these. Um, North Suburban Communications Commission and the North Suburban Access Corporation is also known as N North who is recording this for us today and thank you. The North Suburban Suburban Commun Communications Commission and the North Suburban Access Corporation, which operates as NOR, are related but distinct organizations or Yeah. The NSCC is the joint powers organization of nine cities that oversees a franchise agreement with the cable company. While the NSAC, which is non north, is a nonprofit organization established by the NSC to manage public access television providing video production services, training, and equipment to the communities. Their function is a joint powers organized that represents nine member cities to administer and enforce franchise agreement with the cable company. Their purpose is to provide a meaning um the means of public access to cable television and to inform member cities and public about developing cable communications technology and issues. The members are the cities of Ardan Hill, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, Little Canada, Monsu, New Brighton, North Oaks, Roseville and St. Anthony. It is a nonprofit organization as I stated and it is operates on the nine under nine north members. A member of the League of Minnesota cities. The League of Minnesota Cities is a membership organization dedicated to promoting excellence in local government. The league governed by the board of directors is is locally elected and appointed by city officials. served serves more than 800 members cities through its advoc adversary education and training, policy development, risk management and other services. The League of Minnesota Cities mission is to promote excellence in local government through effective adversary, expert analysis and trusted guidance for all Minnesota cities. Earlier this summer, I enjoyed going to my first conference with the Minnesota League of Cities. It was great. I got to meet other members from other cities, other council members, city administrators, great workshops. We can never learn enough. It is always ongoing learning. I will never know everything being on a city council. That's why it takes a team to be on a city council. Um, all right. So, I am also the president of the Mountains View Festival in the Park. I would like everyone to know because many do not realize that the Mounds View Festival in the park is not part of the city. The Mounds View Festival in the Park is a 501c3 and separate from the city. It is all volunteerbased. Next or actually our meeting is tomorrow and this month's meeting um is for officer elections and board elections. Our meeting is tomorrow at 6:30 here at the community center and all are welcome. Even if you don't want to be a board member, just want to volunteer and help, we would love to have you be part of our festival because anything, any ideas, thoughts, it's more than welcome. It's how we grow and that's how we build our community festival. Being a new council member, I have not only had the honor to meet many other city staff, council members, community commissioners, as well as state legislators, but Mountains View's very own residents. As I was handing out flyers for election time, I got to meet many, many residents. I handed out over 2,000 flyers. And it was amazing talking with people. What I learned. Everyone has their own thoughts. Everyone has their own ideas. I learned that if you divide our city by our Mountains View Boulevard, what happens on the north side of that is different than what happens on the south side. Who knew, right? It's like having two separate cities. It's kind of interesting, actually. Um, people would come up to me and they would go, "Hey, hi Katherine. I'm so I voted for you." And I am very truly humbled. And my joke to them would be, "I am so sorry. I dearly apologize." But in all realistically, I say thank you. Um, has anyone ever checked out our newest website? Our our new website is up and running. Some of you probably do not know that it is it is a work in progress. I would love for you all to go check out the website. On the very bottom lefthand corner is that little thought bubble. You can click on it and you can type in stuff. And if it does not pop up something that you are looking for, please reach out to the city hall because we're trying this new AI program to to help find things in our city on our website. You have to teach it. So, it's it's we're teaching our website how to find stuff through the community. I have a huge goal. Many of you do not know. Um, this ties into our MA master parks plan. This summer, I was invited and honored to be part of the Mountains View adaptive baseball games. The youth 10 helped to be mentors with these kids with disabilities. While I was there, I was looking over at the park, which was at the Long Lake Park, Lions Park over there, where they have their um their new water outdoor water park. I watched and I observed for a while and and I saw a few families sitting over there. And what I realized is there were kids that were sitting in the grass. There were kids sitting on benches and there were kids sitting in wheelchairs while with someone sitting next to them while their siblings or friends or parents were playing on the playground or playing in the water. They were not together. So I started up conversations with these parents and I said, "Did you guys know that the city of Monsu has a splash pad? Did you know the city of Monsby you can actually take a wheelchair and you can have your kids play in that water in that splash pad?" Some of them did not know that. They were excited to hear that because they're like, "That would be great. My kids love the water." Talking with them more. There's only that we know of. There may be more, but there's not very many. There's only two that we know of, inclusive playgrounds in the metro area. We have added a zipline that is adaptive, but there is so much more that we can do. I would love to see and have an inclusive playground that goes beyond basic accessibility by designing for physical, social, and emotional needs of all children, including those with disabilities, sensory sensitivities, and or social emotional difficulties and for their families. Well, an accessible playground focused on meeting minimum standards like the ADA compliance to eliminate physical barriers like wheelchairs and ramps for wheelchairs. An inclusive inclusive playground integrates a wider variety of play experiences, sensory elements, and quiet zones to ensure everyone can play together and feel a sense of belonging. The focus would be eliminating physical barriers to ensure a child with a wheelchair can reach the play equipment. Key elements would be ramps, accessible pathways, firm and stable surfacing and transfer stations. We have already started that with our zipline. The focus is creating and welcoming environment for children of all abilities who can play and integrate um and interact together. You include the physical access includes elements of an accessible playground. Sensory rich features include technical panels, musical instruments, sand and water play, and a visual stimuli to encourage different senses. Social and emotional considerations provided multiple levels of challenge. Promote social interaction through the cooperative play and includes quiet zones for children who need to rest or to de um stimulate. A variety of play experiences offers a range of activities that cater to different preferences and abilities, encouraging everyone to engage and play together. And my goal would be to create a space that fosters a sense of belonging and allows children and adults of all who can play interact side by side. If you are interested in helping the city to help find and fund for our new master park plan, there is a newly created committee for that. You can find that information on the city's website or you can call city hall. And with that being said, you have all made it to the end of my my little speech and what committees I am on and what I have done so far for this past couple months. I want once again thank you all for being here and thank you for making through my lengthy little chat. [Applause] Good evening. I'm Council Member Julie Clark and I'm so happy to be here again this year at the state of the city. Uh, uh, last year I talked about what makes the city feel like home. Safety, convenience, and familiar familiarity. Tonight, I want to share some of the ways that we've made our city safe, convenient, and familiar this last year. Safety. Safety is one of the most important parts of feeling at home. And this year, we've built that through projects grounded in integrity and accountability. We've continued to support our police department, fire department, and public works department with necessary staff, programs, and equipment to best serve our community. We made major improvements to City Hall Park, uh adding a new parking lot for safety and accessibility, a bodyweight workout fitness court, and our new tribute park, which honors our police, fire, EMS, and military service members. It also reminds us of the lives lost in local tragedies and celebrates those who continue to serve. We continued our work in removing discriminatory covenants from property deeds, a meaningful step towards ensuring Mounds View is a place where everyone feels safe, respected, and in and included. We strengthen our relationships with Mountains Police Foundation, the Lions Club, Festival in the Park, Project Darden, Quincy House, our local churches, and countless volunteers. We've continued events like the Daddy Daughter Dance, Shop with the Cops, St. Patrick's Day party, the Easter egg hunt, Junth Festival in the Park, fall festival, and the new spring yard and garden expo. These uh these strengthen our community uh strengthen our sense of safety by creating opportunities to know your neighbors, creating a sense of belonging and community, living proof of what collaboration looks like in action. convenient. We've also worked hard to make daily life more convenient, showing courage to try new things and excellence in how we deliver them. We welcome new businesses that make our community more vibrant, the Big Dipper Ice Cream, Planet Fitness, Turbo Tims, uh, Turbo Tims, Anytime Automotive, and AutoZone, and the Minnesota Roots on their way. We've also maintained local favorite, a local favorite CrossFit gym, CrossFit Northstar under new ownership and is still going strong. Our completed park master plan sets the stage for years of park improvements and helps us compete for grant funding. We're currently restoring Silverview and Ardan Park ponds, uh, protecting wetlands through preservation and wetland banking efforts, and making sure our natural spaces thrive for generations to come. We even upgraded one of our most loved park features, the zipline, moving it to Silverview Park with an additional new ADA compliant zip track next to it, giving everyone a chance to join the fun. That's accountability and action. Following through on community feedback and developing and delivering uh developing a plan and delivering on what families ask for familiar. Even as we grow and change, we stayed rooted in what makes Mounds View familiar. Connected by integrity and strengthened by collaboration. This summer, we celebrated the return of our beloved mermaid statue, a piece of our city's history and identity that brought people together for one unforgettable community event, and many more to come. We've continued to host celebrations at our community center and parks. And in December, we'll gather again for a new tree lighting party on December 5th at City Hall Park and for a second annual community dinner at the Mermaid Event Center on December 10th 8th. It changed already. Well, new traditions that I hope become part of our city's story for years to come. These events remind us that while buildings and programs may change, our values, connection, kindness, and civic pride are what keeps View feeling like home. Uh, as we look ahead, we're guided by our new strategic plan developed this year to direct city staff and leadership for the next three to five years. This updated plan reflects the values requested by many of you over the past few years. Stronger communication, greater inclusivity, transparency, and continued commitment to excellence in how we serve you, our residents. It gives clear direction on how we plan to grow responsibly, work collaboratively, and provide the best possible experience for everyone. and um for ex sorry experience for everyone who lives works and visits Mountains View. We'll also continue to improve how we communicate with hopefully more frequent Mountains View Matters editions, a new website featuring AI powered chatbot search and community events around our new park features in our community center. We'll c we'll keep building partnerships with local businesses, schools, churches, and nonprofits because when we work together, we reflect the very best of our city. We are committed to serving our diverse community through integrity, courage, and collaboration. We've continued to adapt and move forward with purpose. Tonight, I want to thank you, our residents, volunteers, and community partners, for living out these same values every day. Your integrity and how you care for your neighbors, your courage to try new things, your collaboration in showing up, and your accountability in being involved, and your excellence in helping Mountains shine. Together, we're creating a city that's safe, more convenient, and familiar. a city that truly feels like home. Thank you and enjoy the rest of the evening. [Applause] Well, I want to thank all of you for coming out tonight. I'm Council Member Gary Milhouse. I want to start by saying it has been an honor to have served this community for 13 years as one of your elected officials. I've had the pleasure of serving with eight other individuals who have served for just the right reason, just wanting to serve the community to the best of their ability. As a result, these individuals can be very proud of the part they have been very proud of the accomplishments they have been part of as it is an exa exhaustive list to not be re to be recapped at another time. Tonight I want to touch on two on three topics. Two of the topics are associated with my primary areas of concentration as a council member. City infrastructure and city finances. As everyone will recall, the city had a 10-year reconstruction plan that addressed approximately 90% of the of the city streets. Since that plan was completed, succeeding s succeeding councils have been committed to addressing streets that were not part of the project and from a financial standpoint have been committed to utilizing the same financial mechanisms used for the 10-year project, which has included not assessing, let me repeat, not assessing property owners for the project. As probably everyone is aware, this year's street project primarily involved Bronson from Long Lake Road to Quincy. Unfortunately, street projects are now be on a two-year cycle because project costs have increased significantly and it now takes two years for the financing mechanisms which are the special citywide street improvement property tax and 50% of our franchise fee income to accumulate the necessary funding for the project to pay for the project. Thus, the next project will not occur until 2027. For those residents who live on or drive on Mounds View Drive, H2 and Park View Drive, Park View Terrace, please continue to be patient as these streets are the next priorities. But as I indicated, the time period for addressing them has unfortunately been extended because of today's street reconstruction cost. Also, the city realizes that streets from the original 10-year project are approaching or have reached the point where maintenance is becoming necessary. From a city finance standpoint, I'm very proud of the 2024 council that balanced the city's general fund budget for the first time in almost 20 years and eliminated deficit spending. [Applause] Even though the deficit spending had a funding resource, this resource would have ultimately been depleted and a future city council would have faced a significant financial challenge dealing with that built-in deficit. Lastly, as many know, the city of Mounds View is a home rule charter city along with about 90 other um Minnesota communities with the rest of the communities being what are known as statutory cities. A charter city has a document that defines how the city is organized such as the council makeup, the role of the of the mayor and the city administrator, council terms, etc. Thus, the charter serves and has to work for many constituencies, the residents, the charter commission members themselves, city staff, and the city council. Before highlighting a charter update the charter commission has been working on for approximately two years and will be coming to the city council approval in the near very near future. I want to recognize charter commissioner Brian Amenson. Unfortunately, Brian's not here tonight. Um, Bryant has served on the commission for 20 years and has devoted countless hours outside of commission meetings, documenting their meetings, organizing the next meeting agenda, updating the charter language as the commission has made adopted changes. He has also developed an outstanding working relationship with city attorney Joe Savvy which has resulted in clear charter language updates. Brian's dedication and commitment to the commission and to the charter has been exemplary and I want to thank him for his years of volunteerism, dedication and contributions. May 20 20th May 20th 2023 was a sad emotional day for the city with the passing of Mayor Al Hall. The city charter defines how council vacancies are dealt with and it requires a special election be held if there are more than 365 days left in a council member or mayor's term. Also, by state statute, in addition to November, special elections can only be held in the months of April, May, or August. Mayor's halls passing in May didn't provide Ramsey County with sufficient time to conduct a special election in August. And thus, the mayor's seat was vacant until November 2023 when council me then council member Lindstöm election was elected as mayor. and Mayor Lindstöm's vacant council seat remained open until April of 2024 when council member Clark was elected. Thus, as most know, the city council operated as a four-person council from April from May 2023 to April 2024. A four-person council can work, but it is totally dependent on the relationship between the four council members. as a minority of two can prevent the council from approving anything, including potentially the next year's fiscal budget and property tax levy. In our case, a potential development project did not move forward and there was another topic that was tabled because there were potentially two votes against it. In late 2023, a resident recommended to the charter commission a potential remedy for avoiding the four council member situation until a special election could be held to fill the vacancy. The resident's recommendation was that the charter define a temporary process for filling a vacant council seat until the election is held. The recommendation process was similar to the defined line of succession for the filling the vacancy of the office of the president of the United States starting with the vice president followed by the speaker of the United States House of Representatives the president prom of the United States Senate the secretary of state etc. The resident's recommendations was the development of a similar temporary line of appointment defined in the charter with the chair of the charter commission being first being the first individual asked if they would be willing to temporarily serve on the city council until the special election was held. If the charter commission chair is unwilling to serve, the line of succession would be the charter commission vice chair, the planning commission chair, the planning commission, the excuse me, the park recreation and forestry chair, the planning commission vice chair, and lastly, if needed to go that far, the park recreation and forestry vice chair. After many hours of discussion, the charter commission has adopted this recommendation and at their September meeting unanimously passed a resolution forwarding this charter language change to the council for approval. I will close by saying that I have many things that I am proud of in my life and serving the community and serving with other dedicated pro public servants is definitely one of them and for this I say thank you. [Applause] Good evening. I'm council member Sherry Gun. Um I have been on the council for >> 20 years. >> 20 years. 20 years. Long term. I have one year left. So, um, I'm going to talk about things that we've brought to Mounds View that will help bring our community together. One of the things that we always hear is Mounds View Boulevard divides the city. That side over there doesn't know what this side over here is doing. And how do we bring them together? Well, about six years ago, the talk was started about a splash pad. Took six years, but we finally got the splash pad in, and it's been busy every day that it's been open. Um, and for those of you that don't know, the name is the splashdown splash pad, which our uh former council member, Bill Berseron, came up with that name. There's a new parking lot that is behind there that will be able to be used uh when it opens up in the spring. Now, about three years ago, another item came up and that was doing a veterans memorial. We got to talking about what do other small town communities have that brings them together, you know, at least once a year for the veterans memorial service or whatever you want to call it. Um, so our former mayor, Carol Mueller, kind of took the reigns on this one and got a group together and we started talking more and more about the possibility of uh putting this park in. Now, thanks to our public works park and recre forestry director, Don Peterson, um he also stepped up and brought these ideas to fruition where we could come up with designs. We formed a committee. They worked very hard for those three years to come up with a design that would do right by everybody. So, it was first it was going to be just a veterans memorial and then we wanted to pay tribute to our police department, our fire department and our EMS EMT group. This part of the memorial has never been done that we could find in any other community. um those particular groups of people were very pleased and honored that we were honoring them because it hadn't been done before. So after that there was talk about well we had three tragedies in our community uh the 65 tornado, the uh pipeline fire and the 35W bridge collapse. We lost residents and all three of those. So, we decided we would honor them also. When it came time to have our service, the tent was filled with family members from each one of those events. SPM Fire had their department lined up in full dress uniform to pay honor. Our police department had officers and cars that were out there also to take part in that that tribute. Um, if you walk down the meandering path, which was Mr. Peterson's design, you will come across the monuments and on each one of them is an engraved history of the particular tragedies, the EMT, uh, PD, and the SPM fire. So, take your time and read what um, each one of those presents. Now, when you continue down the path and you look off to the left and the right, you'll notice pavers. And on those pavers are special names. My dad, I got one for my dad, Sergeant Firstclass Reinhardt Dhinets, Army, served in Korea. I have a place where I can go here in town that I can pay tribute to my dad when I need to. Um, and by the way, we still have forms that are over at city hall in the lobby. You can pick up one of those and uh if you want to purchase a paver for your particular loved one. So once again, I want to thank Bill Berseron. We'll bring his name up again. He's the he was the uh person who named the particular park the tribute park for everybody. So we have a new event that's coming up and this is another one that we've talked about and Mr. Peterson and I have talked about it and others have talked about bringing this forward and that is a tree lighting ceremony. Now, if you notice last year, we happened to have lights out in front of city hall during the holiday season. Well, we're going to have our tree lit in the middle of the park. So, we're still in the process of planning this out. Not quite sure how it's gonna work. We're talking about bonfires and and uh oh, if you don't know, the police department has gone together with the New Brighton Police Department and they have a hot dogs gz cart that is been out and about in the community, which is another way of bringing people together. So, we might have the hot dogs cart there. Mr. Mrs. Claus might show up. We're gonna have we might have music. So stay tuned for that one. On November 11th at three o'clock, Mounds View is going to have their first veterans memorial service outside here at at the park. Um hopefully we'll have uh the lights on so we can have all the flags flying full day and night. Um, the reason why they're not out at night is we uh are still missing some lights to light them up. Uh, other than that, trying to come up with ways and means that we could do community events that everybody can enjoy. um such as this Thursday is the fall festival here at the community center. Uh there'll be trunk trunking outside and trick-or-treating inside and games and snacks and and uh I'm sure some crafts that the kids can put together. These are the things that we need to continue. These are the things that I know there are people out there who don't think they're important, but they are. This is what is kind of like the glue that holds us together. Um, it doesn't have to be expensive. It doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg for a family of four to go to the splash pad and and enjoy it. You know, this is our community. This is their community and uh it's nice to share. So with that I will say thank you very much for attending and have a good night. [Applause] [Music] Well, it appear I don't even need to go. Looks like we got everything covered. Um, to everyone in attendance and those watching at home, welcome to the 2025 Mountain Mounds View State of the City. We are so happy to have you joining us here in person and joining us uh watching on television this evening. And I do want to mention on a side note that it's my wife's birthday today and I just want her to know how much I love her and how grateful I am of how supportive of she is of me and uh being able to spend this evening with all of you and in fact she's here this evening. So kudos to Mrs. Lindström. But that's all it's also worth mentioning uh the role that family members play behind elected officials. Uh there is a tremendous amount of uh sacrifice and support and commitment that it takes for them to be uh watching us do the work that we do. And uh I just want to thank all the family members of not only uh my fellow teammates, but our staff and and uh and everybody that's involved with making the city work. You know, the city doesn't even though we may have staff at city hall from 7 to 5. The city never stops being a city. There are things happening 24 hours a day. And uh you know, it takes all of us to make this thing work. Um, one of the things that I think we can all agree on that in the environment out there today politically, it there it's nothing but chaos, right? There's there's a lot of division. There's a lot of um polarity and it's with great pleasure and conviction that I can start out tonight by saying that the state of our city is strong, stable, consistent, and unified. And we just don't see a lot of what you're hearing tonight. You're hearing a lot of redundancy in a lot of what we what you've heard from the council members and you're going to hear more from me because we we're we're we're unified in mission and purpose. We we don't have that polarity. We don't have that chaos. We have a good stable focused team that's focused on doing the work of the city and balance and and elevating residents concerns and working on the things that uh are all important to you and to us. This year we had the opportunity to welcome a new council member uh Katherine Smith. She has done a great job in her first year of learning the job and making decisions based on her beliefs and constituent feedback. And I'd like you to give her a hand. Julie Clark has completed her first full year and is starting her second year and is really finding her stride as a city leader. She has really embraced the role and taken on numerous commitments and challenges and is always willing to pitch in. I'd like you to give her a hand. Gary Milhouse has been a steady and consistent with his approach to infrastructure and the budget while keeping a fiscal mind and voice on the council. And ironically, I had no idea what he was going to talk about tonight, so this fit really well. I'd like you to give him a hand. And as you heard, Sher is closing out uh on her last year and she's been really focused on the quality of life items, community engagement, and bridging people together. And I'd like you to give her a hand. And finally, I'm coming up on my second year as mayor and the first my first full year and first term. Uh, and I'm just really grateful to all of you to giving me the opportunity to serve. It's really really humbling to wake up every morning and have the opportunity to to be the mayor of this city and I just can't thank you enough for it. Uh, I want to thank my council teammates for making this a place where we can do meaningful work. We have good discussions and we compromise while making good policy decisions for the city. And of course, I must thank our staff for all of their hard work in implementing our policies and working with us to give to give us reliable information to make good decisions. And I'd like you to give our staff a hand. You know, we really have a team here that I believe genuinely cares about each other and doing what's right for the city. The culture in our city is so unique in today's environment of calamity and chaos that it was recognized by the director of the League of Minnesota Cities in a personal letter to us highlighting the spirit of involvement, unity, and collaboration that we have with our citizens. and he said that this when he came here uh for the award presentation, he said that this is one of the best city council meetings that he had been to in a long time. And in a subsequent call I had with him, he brought it up again just how meaningful and impactful and how awesome the environment here was. Uh and we take that as extremely high praise considering they represent north of 700 cities in Minnesota. There's been a lot that's happened since the last state of the city. Last year, the keynote issue was organized collection and the upcoming vote around that. Though it did not pass, we did hear you in saying that price transparency matters. So, we subsequently passed an ordinance to change our waste hauling licensing standards to require haulers to submit a price a price sheet giving us their maximum price. This ordinance will take effect this year. And I want to be clear that we do not want this to impact anyone's service, but at the same time, we want everybody to have a level playing field for you all to make informed decisions about which provider is best for you. And to be fair to the haulers, we only ask that they give us their maximum price. So they can choose to publish whatever price they want on that sheet. It can be a $100 a month and we don't care. They can they can put that $100 a month on there and they can continue the negotiation uh that they do now. Um but our hope is that companies will put their best price forward and people will be able to choose accordingly. And I do want to let you know that we have seen some evidence, some early signs that some of the haulers may not want to participate and giving us a price sheet. And unfortunately, that means they're not willing to comply with what it means to be licensed to do waste collection within the city of Mounds View. We do hope that they do the right thing and produce a price sheet just like they do in any other environment where they have a contract just like they did when they bid on the contract for the city. We're just asking them to show you, the Mounds View residents, a price they are willing to stand behind for a year, and that's not unreasonable. Another issue that we spoke about last year was racial covenants and the role they've played in shaping our city with this disgusting exclusionary language that our community was built on. We set out to address the systemic injustices of those deeds by taking a truly historic effort to deal with them through a free voluntary effort and an ordinance to ensure they were discharged. In fact, we were recognized by the League of Minnesota Cities this year for our work on this issue, receiving the City of Excellence Award from them. And I'm happy to report beyond getting the award, we have actually discharged 270 of the 521 deeds that were found through mapping prejudice. We've done over half. And that's and I and I got to say uh I want to thank the staff. I mean we have people out here tonight notorizing the forms and I think we got a handful in this evening. We have Sharon who's been a citizen volunteer who will go to people's houses and notoriize them if they can't come to city hall. And this has been accomplished largely in part by all of you coming in and getting these deeds notorized and and taking care of them. And we cannot thank you enough for supporting this initiative. My hope is that by next year we can have most of them taken care of and we're well on our way. And again, I want to thank our staff and all of you for continuing to help us work on this and with your support. Another worthwhile mention is through this work and connections, DUTH is now going to get mapped and that's a big deal for that city. They have a lot of uh history and it will be really interesting to see what type of uh uh evidence that seeing Duth mapped will will provide. Falcon Heights has taken a proactive approach based on the work that we've done. I've had a conversation with a Minneapolis council member and they may try to take this on as well. So you must know that the work that was started here in our city has shown other communities and councils and entities what is possible through a little work and effort and people are noticing and I want to thank you. We have had many big things in the community happen this last year. We finalized our park and Rex master plan. We held our first community meal. We came back this year and held our second Junth celebration. We decide we dedicated the tribute park to the first responders and we'll be following through with veterans this November 11th on Veterans Day. We added a new fitness court to provide a free option for people to engage in fitness. We are in the process of moving the zipline and giving it a companion zip track with an accessible platform so people of all abilities can participate at Silverview Park. Replacing them at Hodgees Park will be the two dinosaurs and a swing set. We added off- streetet parking by the splash pad which will take pressure off the on street parking and just make it overall much safer. We undertook two massive pond restorations between Ardan and Silverview Park. We are host we will be hosting our second community meal on December 8th at the Mermaid and uh we just were able to finalize that today. So we'll be doing the community meal and likely we'll be able to follow it up with some bowling which will be very exciting. And did I forget anything? That's right. I thought I forgot about something. And what could that be? Of course, we welcomed the mermaid back this year. And we will able we were able after years to get our identity back as a city. Many people uh when I first moved here, when I said I lived in Mountains View and I didn't know much about the city, I said, "Yeah, there's that big mermaid statue." And they're like, "Oh, yeah. I know where that is." And you know, it's so wonderful to have our have her back and she truly does look stunning. So, in all, we've had a very busy and productive year. On the economic front, we've welcomed five new businesses to town with Planet Fitness, Turbo Tims. And I got to say, isn't Turbo Tims crushing it with these community events? I mean, they've been doing the RC racing. They've got pro wrestling in the parking lot and they just keep doing them and I'm just so glad and I feel like we're so lucky to have them here. Autozone will be opening soon. We welcomed CrossFit Northstar and the Big Dipper Ice Cream uh which by the way has some really really great ice cream. Uh we are excited to announce that the Mountains View Municipal Cannabis Store is in the home stretch and in and is looking like very early in 2026 that it will be open providing a new viable revenue source to the city for the first time in a very very long time. We always remain open to conversations to continue to enhance our retail and commercial base and are hoping that we can get something in the Simon space. We are always looking at these areas where we have vacancies trying to find creative community centered ways to fill them. My ask to all of you is that we go out and support these businesses as much as possible. they really need us to support them to be able to sustain being here. Uh so I ask that you just please do what you can. So what's next? As of right now, we don't we do not really have any big ticket items up for the next year. We're trying to figure out what to do with the community center. We are looking at options to fill space and increase rentals in there and potentially enhancing some service offerings. We are going to continue to working on reducing our exposure in the budget to funding cuts and we have a group of people studying park funding options for the parks and rec master plan. We will continue working on expanding our roster of community event offerings like where a community can come together and party with modern pirates and welcome a mermaid back in a parking lot. Together with the good people in our community engagement committee and other citizens who are involved in various aspects of running our community, we make Mounts View a place where everyone has a voice. Your ideas do matter. We are listening. And don't forget, any given Sunday at 8:30 in the morning, you can find me at Caribou Coffee where I'm there to listen to you, take your ideas in, and bring them back to council and work on them. Anybody is welcome to come. And uh I would encourage you to do so if you have something on your mind. Uh, and I got to say though there are not any real big ticket items that the city is looking at on paper next year, uh, we have not lost focus on what is important and at the heart of what we do, and that is our budget. And I'm just going to ask you all to hang with me as I discuss the budget. You know, I know that this isn't the most exciting topic, but last year we did something that had not been done in Mountains View for 17 years, and that was balance the budget. With all the uncertainty coming in the form of funding cuts from the federal government and the state government, which invariably is going to put pressure and trickle down on the counties and cities, we set our preliminary levy at 9% this year. Knowing that we had labor negotiations coming with all three of our unions, I am happy to report that two of them have signed and the third one is uh making very good progress and I do want to thank our staff and our team for getting these done. these labor unions and the work that they do is essential to the core services that we provide here in the city and having them locked up for the next three years is a very very important thing. Um this year you've heard me talk a lot about LGA and what that is as local government aid. Uh, and you've heard me talking about over time wanting to eliminate the city's exposure uh, in the budget from this. And what that means is right now, to put it into context for you, we get over a million dollars in local government aid. And if that were to go away, that would mean a 16% levy just to cover that. And we don't even have the ability to do that because our charter is capped at 9%. So you can do the math. If we can't levy to cover what's out there, that's a really bad thing. And it that money pays for a lot of the things that we depend on. Uh and so that's why we've been talking a lot about it is because we're concerned about what's on the horizon. These funding cuts are real. They're happening and LGA has been cut in the past. Cities all around us are doing double ditch double digit levies and you know despite you know I know tax season isn't a isn't a great time for everybody but we are one of the lowest levies in the area and we're proud of that and you know for those of you that don't know what a levy is it is the taxes that you pay to the city. It's your city portion of the taxes and the levy specifically is the percentage that we're talking about that would be the increase over what you're already paying the city this year. We understand that very uncertain times are ahead and we are strongly committed to overtime chipping away at our reliance on LGA. This year, I believe that we will be able to come in under 8%. So, under the 9% we set our levy at, I think we'll be able to come in under 8% on the levy and still reduce our dependence on LGA by 10%. Which, to my knowledge will be the first time in the city's history it has taken a proactive approach to minimizing its exposure to LGA cuts, which I had mentioned before has happened in the past. And in fact, LGA was cut from the city and that's what resulted in the charter cap because the city had to go and do back-to back 15 plus percent levies to cover it. And we're not in a space where we can do that. Our hope is that over the next five years we can have it phased out of the budget so we are not relying on it should it get cut. Um, many tough decisions are going to have to be made in the coming years by the state and we are looking at this eyes wide open knowing that this could be on the table again. Right now, Mountains View is in the best financial position it has been in in nearly two decades, and we are very proud of that fact. And we have the opportunity to thoughtfully put the city in the best position financially it's ever been in. So, we can weather any storm or cuts. And that is really something to think about. It's an amazing thing really given that we're 98% built out. We don't have new developments coming through the door creating new funding resources for us. This has solely been through scrapping, saving, and being very deliberate about our spending. This council is aligned on the fiscal safety and security of the city. No matter what is on paper, the budget is the one constant and was the one thing that has kept us all up many nights. And I'm happy to say each day, each year, we rest a little easier knowing that we have a team, Sherry, Gary, Julie, Katherine, and myself that is all committed to the financial stability and security of the city. Mountains View is a wonderful place to live. For these reasons and many others, we are lucky to live in a place that lives upon our slogan, "Welcome home. That said, we do not live isolated from the world around us. There is not a day that has gone by since the tragic event that took the lives of the Hortman's and forever changed the Hoffman family and threatened others on the list of a madman who prowled just miles away from our own homes. Life changes when one becomes an elected official. The state of the city immediately matters every minute of every day in an entirely different way. Suddenly, every child matters as much as those who were killed or wounded at Enunciation School just miles from where we live here in peaceful Mountains View. As your mayor, I felt called to soul search and reconcile the fact I would never ever want gun violence to negatively affect our community. What happened at enunciation could happen here. It could happen anywhere. Our own state house representative was on that same list as Melissa Hortman. Society has changed and not in a good way where a political discourse and a political viewpoint can now be a death sentence. And I must say the name Charlie Kirk out loud. And I want to use this moment to call for unity across the political spectrum. And I'm asking for people to have courage to address gun safety as a critical problem, not only to our safety, but as a public health threat as well. I do not believe it is wise or in our individual or collective best interest to sit back and do nothing anymore. It is incumbent upon us as citizens to address this issue just as surely as we have rolled up our sleeves and worked together worked together to address many others. State leaders are debating whether or not to have a special session to ban access to automatic wetlands specifically and it's not a secret that I believe it is their responsibility to do so and if they cannot agree to take action then I have personally advocated for them to get out of the way and put the question before the Minnesota voters as a constitutional amendment but we are not in charge of them. We are in charge of Mounds View. Our city council members and city staff will keep this issue of gun violence and sensible, responsible action front and center in the weeks to come. Here, we will continue to work with our police department and our school district to do what we can to keep our kids safes in their homes and in our community places and everywhere in between. Public safety of our children and residents is our core commitment is one of our core commitments and we will always work to do whatever we can to continue to enhance safety within our community. As we leave here today, I ask you to please join us in making Mounds View the best place it can be. Reach out with your suggestions, participate in meetings, get involved with one of our committees. Many nonprofits and school events need volunteers or donations as well as people to show up to make these events work. You may not know this, but many of the city n city or nonprofit events are pulled off with less than 10 people, and it's oftent times the same 10 people who are community doers. People of all ages are welcome. If you are home feeling the slightest bit lonely or isolated away from what's going on, the cure is to listen for an invitation and just say yes. We know we could do so much more with just a few more of you. Maybe that could be you. I want to thank all of our staff and nonprofit partners for the amazing work they do. And they do do truly amazing work with very, very few people. And I'd like you to give them a hand. [Applause] In conclusion, I'm extremely proud and grateful for the team that we have here in Mountains View. This council, the staff, and you, the residents, make this this an amazing place to live and to serve. I feel so fortunate to be able to do the work I get to do with the people I get to do it with. We have made great progress in the last year and as clichéous as it is, we still have more work to do. But I know one event, one more discharge of a covenant, one more conversation that we are building a community we can truly all be proud of and say to the next person, "Welcome home." I want to thank you all for being here, for your attention this evening, and I just invite you all to have a great rest of your evening. Thank you. [Applause] Questions? Have any of the larger orgs or committees that Mounds View participates in had discussions on local cyber security needs or solutions? I'm going to let you answer that. >> So, the city is part of a 26 city consortium, Metro Inet, and they have I think 23 people. Three of them are dedicated. Holy >> n >> Oh, you you're not getting me on the mic. Yeah. >> Yes. We have to take care of N North. So the city is part of Metroinus. It's a coalition of 26 cities, wersheds, communities. They have over two dozen employees. Three of them are dedicated wholly to security. We're tracking cybernet. They're tracking cybernet security. None of our cities, none of them have had a serious breach. Uh we get tested all the time. Sometimes they're very clever in the fishing is the the number one attack and uh they give us bar graphs of where everybody's at. We're mandatory testing. I'm very very comfortable with the level of security uh training and system controls on our system. Some of our partner cities in the area uh have not are not part of that and they've been attacked and some of them are still uh paying for that. And we're developing a policy in our strategic plan. >> Yeah, we we are uh working on a developing a policy for that as well. That's part of our strategic plan. And you know, this may be my f I haven't read all the other questions, but the next one up here could be one of my favorite ones. And it says, can we change our logo from the tree to a mermaid? And that is a really great question that I'm sure that we could put on the work session and have a very thoughtful conversation about. Uh understand that uh what that looks like is rebranding the entire city. uh which is not going to be cheap but very much worthwhile in looking at doing considering I'm of the opinion that there isn't much that differentiates suburban logos than what type of tree it is. A mermaid would definitely set us out for uh to be distinct and would embrace that identity that we uh just had returned to our community. Uh the next question here is has there been a conversation of an emergency plan for an abrupt LGA cut uh imple implement uh impacting the city before we reduce the reduce our alliance. And the question is yes there has and uh we we could survive an LGA cut. The city is very financially solvent. we have, you know, we're we're we're in a good place financially, but that being said, it it would hurt, right? Like it would hurt a lot for us to lose LGA. Uh we also have uh you know, the the the great part about cannabis coming on board is that it's coming on board at the absolute right time to be able to deal with that if that were to happen. And we're anticip I can't say specifically what we're anticipating revenue from that to be, but it might be enough to cover LGA if it gets cut. If not, it will be certainly enough to take a significant uh it would be enough to significantly ease the pain of it getting cut if it were to happen. We don't anticipate that a an LGA cut would come this next year, but in the next bianium where they have to start um really working through which would be 2027 where they're really going to have to start working through some of these deficit shortfalls that are out there. Uh we would be thinking that it could happen at that point which we'd have a much better understanding of what our revenue stream from cannabis would be. And we also will will also be in a position next year to uh take another bite at the apple to continue to reduce our dependence on LGA. So I feel I mean obviously losing that would be would be hurtful. But going into this eyes wide open having lots of conversation about it knowing that it's on the table is something that we talk about probably at least once or once a week. and I feel like we would be able to move nimly enough to be able to deal with it if it were to happen. Um, without a 15% levy. Uh, are there any plans to expand the community center after the defeat of the referendum? Um, I would say that there are talks of doing some minimal improvements of the community center. Uh, like our roof is leaking. We need to fix that. Uh, we might look at getting a few more pieces of equipment for people to use. Um really right now what our main focus is is looking at seeing if we can uh get more renters from s for some of the space we have and uh you know we're always looking at whatever the best thing could be for this building and what could be uh have more to offer for our citizens. But I would say that there is not any talks of a full-on expansion uh like the referendum was off offering. And I do not see anything like that on the horizon. I could see something where you know if there is a need in community which we know that there are some between uh us and the school district that we might look at seeing what a partnership would look like to do uh something but we are certainly not there and it's not anything that uh we'd be even close to remotely willing to even consider rolling out or talking about because we're we're just not there. But if that were to happen, like any time and anything, the you know, communication lines are always open and we would certainly make known what uh what we're doing and what's happening if that were the case. Uh would the city council consider allowing residents to rent goats to clean up yards to improve landscaping? >> Goats. >> Renting goats. I I I don't know that we I don't think we have a goat policy animal. >> Oh, that's only animals. That's a difference. >> My personal opinion is I don't have a problem with it, but we've not spoken about it. >> Is it specific to eradication of buckthornne? >> Uh yeah, then we'll have to get back to you, but uh buckthorn we would allow. I'd have to check and see what the code is on other Can a person get city funding or grants for a store? Uh, so we have uh we do have some funding options, not really in the form of grants, although we do I would say we have a forgivable loan program which is mainly for appearance related things. uh and that is uh $5,000 a year and that can be requested up to three times. We do have some loan offerings that are uh very low percentages, but uh and the city does have those. If those are something that people are interested in, I would recommend that you would contact the assistant of city administrator, Brian Beman, and he can give you every type of insight as to what we have available for business support. And uh if it's something that's outside of the scope of what we what we currently have, we're always willing to talk about whatever we can do to support and get businesses to grow within community. One of the things we hear frequently from our constituences is that we want more business, we want more stuff, and we're very focused on what we can do to try to make that happen. Um, we do have uh limited resources though as to what we have available to us, but certainly uh we'll do whatever we can to help. Uh, in the field in the field trip to St. Paul, the water Oh, this must be for Katherine. In the field trip to St. Paul, the waterworks department, did you learn about how to make our water better and cleaner? And if so, what changes will be done uh down the or will be done and when >> the city of Mountains View has their own wells and their own water system. So that is a question you would have to reach out to Don Peterson about at the public works department. I can just share with you that we take water samples twice a day, every day of the week, and those get sent into the state, I think, on a weekly basis. The next question here is, are there plans to install a crosswalk with flashing lights andor a stoplight at County Road Eye and Long Lake Road? And I won't out anybody, but there could be a county commissioner in the crowd. And uh I'm getting uh >> I'm getting an I don't know. And and we don't know. the city has not brought that forward to the county. And uh if that's something that somebody has a concern about, I'd encourage you to uh uh email myself or the city administrator and what's that >> or or or uh or Tara Jeban Singh who is your district 1 county uh uh Ramsey County Commissioner and we could certainly start the conversation. I don't know that anything uh you know things of that nature don't always move the quickest but if there is a concern and and data that backs up the need for that certainly please bring it forward and we'll take a look at it. Um between pedestrians, bikes, buses, traffic, and cars doing rolling stops at this intersection. It warrants uh it's currently dangerous. Uh you did but didn't answer this. Uh is the city planning to sponsor more program? Okay. So the yeah the this is just a an add-on to the first question and I do agree that that intersection does have its uh challenges from time to time. We do have a resident that rides the bus out there and has uh uh noted that that even from a visibility standpoint, they the bus can't even see him on the road when it's dark. So, I know that that's a tough intersection. I live on Long Lake Road, so I I do see a lot of what you're talking about there. And again, uh feel free to reach out to myself, the administrator, or county commissioner, and we can certainly start a conversation about that. Uh is the city planning to sponsor more programming for adults? um that isn't alcohol- based like a paint and sip or are here at the community center. 60% of residents are 18 to 64. As of uh 2020 and 2500 are not families. Plus, uh, as the comprehensive plan for the city notes, this city has no no social life things for adults to do. Example, other cities have done in Colombia Heights, Lions, uh, cities host a wrestling event um, monthly $10 per ticket. New Brighton Community Center offers a farmers market at their community center. and uh mounds view matters more frequent is a little the oh the new brighten bulletin okay so this must be a second question here okay no this is the new brighten bullet if it's it's difficult to know when and where events are happening in town and without constantly cross refering the city's website Facebook pages mounts you matter so some events slip through the cracks like the bonfire at the community center Uh, one of the things that we're working on doing with the new website is that there is going to be a community calendar on there that will have all the um all the events landing on that spot so we don't have to do that constant surfing between the the Facebook, the Mountains View Matters and and all of that. And my hope is is once we have that community calendar fully integrated that we'll we'll uh be able to hopefully QR code that into the Mount View Matters and then also make that available for social media so people can just kind of click and see what's going on. But uh agree that promotion of our events is something that uh we need to continue to work on. And I do think that the more frequent Mounts View Matters that was a a main point of focus for why we were looking at that because quarterly it just seems like it's very hard to connect with the events and we believe that with more frequent moy matters we should be able to have people seeing um stuff more frequently. Uh the last community survey we did, I think it was 57% of our people actually get their news via the Mount View Matters and like the next 17% is from their neighbor. It says that only 5% of people get their news from social media. So, we've taken that seriously and uh just the last work session we were having a conversation about how many um additions of that we wanted to do. And I think right now we're kind of uh we're kind of thinking by monthly might be where we start with it and see how that goes. And then it it's it's certainly something I know that we're open to doing whatever we need to do to communicate with residents and have them feeling like they're getting the information that they need. That is one of the things that's very important to all of us. Um will transit revisit Mountains View and when after visiting in 2021 MT adjust the whole thing just the question. >> Okay. Uh >> I know a question. >> Yeah. Um, I've had conversations with them and from my understanding is ridership hasn't changed much and so because like we even asked them about trying to see if there would be willing to give up some of the park and ride because that lot sits half empty every day and there was some reluctance on their behalf to do that. But at at the same point there was an admission that there hasn't been a lot of change in wrership. So, we I can't answer that question. Um, but next time we have a conversation with uh uh the Met Council, we can certainly bring it up and see if there are any plans for it. And if there are, we can provide an update for that. Um, in regards to the adult events, uh, I would love some ideas. Uh, we are always open to what those could look like. we uh uh you know not only just for the city but for our nonprofits as well like we're we're always looking for different ways to engage community and if people have ideas please feel free to bring them forward. Um will there be more projects to preserve Mountains View's history? Uh there aren't any currently on that are on the the plan list, but this would be something that we'd certainly could bring to a council meeting and look at. And if there are ideas specific to this, which I see you have some written here, um totally be open to uh looking at that. >> Now, we need to find the old video of the M history. >> I put it on the Wikipedia page. this and then we have book. >> Yeah. And that was a church that did the book. So, email me any suggestions, but in the next month or two, I believe we'll have the landing page done that will have the history of the tornado and the history of the pipeline explosion. The 35W, we had two residents killed, but wasn't our event, but we will have a smaller uh version of that. And so, we've been working, collecting, and can share that. We now have made contact with all of the victim survivors from the tornado. We had not done that on the day of the dedication, but the uh last family was found and so they've submitted stuff that we're going to include also in that. >> I think uh if there aren't any This was the last question I had. So if there if there's none none others, anybody else have anything? All right. Well, I just want to thank you all for joining us this evening. I'd like to thank uh all our all my teammates here for coming up here and sharing. And most importantly, I'd like to thank all of you for being here. And uh >> you got your wife. >> Well, she's she's one of the you. And of course, happy birthday to Mrs. Lindstöm. And I hope you all have a wonderful evening. Thank you.