North St. Paul City Council — Transcript
Sunday, September 14, 2025
Autumn Arts Festival Planning and Logistics
Public Art Projects and Murals
Utility Box Art Program Status
Art Cart and Art Night Program Updates
Food Passport Project Status
New Project Proposal Form Development
Unpaid Trading Cards Invoice Resolution
City Council Update on Community Center and Grants
Votes (2)
Subcommittee Updates: Utility Boxes
Dissent: None
Moved by Tom Sonic [23:17] · Seconded by Carrie Neto [23:23]
An estimate for a new utility box wrap at Casey Park was received, which was higher than previous projects due to the box's larger size and design scope. The successful completion of a utility box at Veterans Park, which received positive feedback, was also reported. The commission discussed and approved moving forward with the Casey Park project despite the increased cost.
Staff Report: Unpaid Trading Cards Invoice
Dissent: None
Moved by Sharon Clark Williams [43:55] · Seconded by Eliza Verma [44:07]
An outstanding invoice of $1,514.95 for trading cards from the previous year was identified as unpaid due to staff turnover. The commission discussed how to cover this unexpected expense. It was decided to allocate the funds from the Branding and Communications budget first, then the Art Cart budget, and finally the Art Night budget to ensure payment.
Notable Quotes (13)
It's a larger box. It's and it's going to So, it's a lot of the images will be included on this particular location.
it received a very very positive response from the veterans community and everyone who was there. So yay.
Well, we're making corns, fall corns out of beads and um like pipe cleaners.
Mhm. Yep. We're going to do watercolor bookmarks. It's going to be great. Cool. Do we How many bookmarks? Okay. Looks like greeting cards or something. That just Oh, maybe it is. There was the uh the It's watercolor something just came out. I think it's greeting cards.
Um last that we were still kind of waiting on the lawyer um to give feedback. Um however we noticed that the parks department is doing their own like park passport. So we kind of worried is there like going to be too much redundancy like.
there for the park for the record it's you're you're taking a photograph of yourself by the entrance to the park with the signage to the park and for ours it's getting a stamp. So, but it's kind of the same concept. Yeah. I don't I I I think it's really two different things. I I wouldn't see it as being too much of the same thing.
the intent is just kind of to give staff as much information in one consolidated place as early as possible so that we can can review it. Um, kind of act as a starting point um, for projects and kind of help with big picture planning for staff and the commission.
I was kind of thinking it would keep everything together because some I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I'm asking you the same thing again and if we had a I don't know if it was recorded in one spot then we would all know, hey, okay, so this is this is what the budget was. Oh, this was the estimate we got for this utility box. It's all right here.
we have to be careful. I mean, not to be a deboner, but for security purposes, we have to be careful about what we access in regards to the city, and we don't want to find ourselves in the situation as some other cities around that have recently found themselves in.
Um, so unfortunately that's going to have to come out of this budget from last year. Um, yeah. How did we not pay that? It just was not I think it was just from staff turnover. The invoice was sent the same month my left. So I think that got lost. I don't think anyone received the email and that's too bad.
because what we decided in July, no August was to decline the grant as it stood because the way the grant was written, the grant application was written in such a way that it was very limiting for what it could be used for, right? And so we basically have to decline that grant, reapply for the money as a different um and I know Brian has been uh sorry the city manager has been in contact with the grant people at the state and they said yeah we have a lot of people doing this so it's shouldn't be a problem.
one of the proposals that was put forth was to actually use the money. So in 2029 in the future um we are planning we need to buy a new water tow we need to replace water tower at at Tower Park. So the thought would be take the grant and use the money toward that which isn't necessarily a community type thing but what that would do is free up the money that we're setting aside for the water tower to be used towards other projects.
one of the proposals, the way a Mcnitefield proposal stands is it's broken into two phases. Phase one is basically the way I look at it, east of or sorry, west of that road that goes towards the batting cages. So what that proposal is is about I want to say $6 million. Um, but it would tear down Little Con, tear up that parking lot, tear out the tennis courts, put in a turf soccer field, uh, better parking, and put in a I and this is the proposal that they have. Um, but basically put in like a a skate skills park, not necessarily a skate park with like jumps and things like that, but a skills park. um some form of uh I don't want to say amusement parks, uh gym equipment, you know, for like teens kind of thing.
Ordinances & Resolutions (6)
Map outlining the new layout for the Autumn Arts Festival, including vendor and parking locations.
Document containing the event tab, roles, day-of schedule, and volunteer times for the Autumn Arts Festival.
A draft form designed to consolidate project information for staff and commission review.
An unpaid invoice for trading cards from the previous year, totaling $1,514.95.
A plan detailing proposed renovations for Mcnite Fields, broken into two phases.
Reference to a state grant application for the community center that was previously declined and will be reapplied for.