e e e s love me make sure my phone is go all right call the North St Paul arts and culture commission meeting to order at 6:32 it's Wednesday August 7th Al righty um uh we could take a roll call please if You' helps out my sure all right chair Tom Sonic here Vice chair ketto here commissioner Amanda black is absent today she's been excused and commissioner Sharon Clark Williams here student commissioner recal SoDo here and Laura string she is absent and she's excused commissioner Cy here and council member Li on Lisa Wong here and our staff commission secretary ma Jang is also here yes I'm here thanks hi Ma all right we uh look to adopt the agenda if anyone has any thoughts you want to change any thing otherwise I'll look for a motion to approve the agenda as listed I would like to move to approve the agenda as listed please Gary moves to approve we have a second I second that thank you Sharon all those in favor of adopting the agenda as written say I I opposed we adopted the agenda congratulations everyone it feels good all right the approval of minutes that everyone get a chance to read through the uh minutes from the July 10th meeting uh and if you had any thoughts edits changes please let me know otherwise we'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from July 10th I read the minutes they look great I would like to move to approve thank you Carrie we have a motion do we have a second I second that Sharon seconds all those in favor say I I opposed minutes approved meeting open to the public no one here today I'm sad that I missed the one meeting we had where we had someone from the public here sorry oh all the excitement public hearings we don't have any public hearings so we'll go to commission business action items and recommendations so subcommittee updates um do you have this uh is this listed in the packet or do you want me to bring it up otherwise we could just probably wing it because I think most of these um well project snowy is done yes right and it looked like from the minutes from last month that it was pretty well wrapped up but and see I saw you on TV that was pretty cool yeah kind of famous now if you've been getting representing yeah that was awesome well done um but and what am I hearing yeah I I heard something about noses missing from Snow's and people are just busting them off or what yeah I'm not sure what's going on but suddenly uh it's missing yeah the city hall one is missing uh two days after we put the snow out I went for a walk and the noses were missing and I sent out text message hysterical our noses are missing and I wa I had to walk around check them allowed to see the condition so two of them have noses missing so burwells had the big carrot one right and that is missing and North St Paul City Hall's nose is missing what's wrong with people and ours this this one here was just a little red kind of button or something was H um what do we do do we try and repair those or it's all just that so it's based off on what the contract said and if it's owned by the business then it's the business's responsibility to maintain it and for the other one that is donated to the city um it would be the city's responsibility to maintain it so we could take a look at that and see what we can do yeah that's just a bummer that that happen so wal has I'm sorry to interrupt across talk you bwal has colored a little button nose on theirs so ours is the only one that's looking kind of odd and when I say ours I mean the city of North St Paul there is a missing nose so I think it would be nice if we could try to find a way to put something on his little face yeah because it's obvious his little nose is missing I think what even if it what if we found like a red button or something and you use some of that gorilla glue or some of that weld glue or whatever you know there's some really strong epoxies and stuff I bet you could get something on there I would have to assume our fantastic public works department could figure out some kind of substance to adhere a nose on to right I'll talk to them and then maybe we can have a list of options on what the commission would like to have done we're probably driving Works Snow's NOS oh yeah yeah we could make a big thing and then have it to be like right around Christmas time or something his nose reappears I know Medallion hunt right there you go we'll bury it somewhere with a $25 gift card to Max right all right good St well so something to think about we got to think about replacing the nose okay um utility boxes any update there see I'll ask I'll leave it to my I have exciting news our vendor came out yesterday afternoon to rrap it oh great so if you would like some sort of a review or whatnot let me know we could try to schedule that and then Eva is on vacation she won't be back until next week but you know we'll do some sort of a social media release that way people would know cool it's fantastic yeah and it won't be long before school's starting and maybe some attention right around that time would be cool yeah yeah okay and then um I don't know if Sharon had any update on the heart Hand Project heart hands um Laura is still working on getting the heart hands with the backdrops put in and arranged making um arrangements to get them arranged so the idea is to use that one at Casey did I yes that was intended to be at Casey Lake Park cool so we we just need to to make some measurements um and then we'll reach out on on on wrapping and quotes and whatever else yeah that's so cool I like that oh that's good M good that I think that was me oh my God you're famous for having the worst heart shape well I W won't tell any I think the pictures are wonderful I like that they're not all perfect they're not all Cookie Cutter right I am excited for that project to get completed cool so and is that we still had enough money in the utility box definitely great excellent which one's next mhm that's the question the next one after Casey mhm oh I know a good one so when you're um heading East on 36 and you get off on mcnight there's one like there's one like right there on that exit so it's kind of like that's a way that a lot of people come into North St Paul I think and there's one somewhere I can't remember if it's which corner it's on but like if you took that exit you'd see is it by the China Chef yeah might be it's either on that side or it's on the other side where kind of in the corner where the uh quick trip is okay yeah and then uh I know we we still haven't wrapped uh the large switch gearbox also over by Silver Lake either so that's also an option oh yeah that's right yep and we still and what's what's the rodes one when are we going to do that one um maybe the following year okay and we can do that next year and also there's the one at the Veterans Park oh yeah okay um update on the mural project so our mural subcommittee met and we have a really great idea for a mural and we had a really great location that we thought was city property but it's actually not city property um so we can't do it on that one unless we got that property owner's permission but they already said they didn't want to do it but we do have a great idea we just have to find somewhere to do it so um we're just going to have to keep looking around and I've connected with the city manager and um so he'll think of other options as well but I think at this point we're just we're open to suggestions if anybody's got an idea of a location for a mural we've got a we have mural ideas um and this one that we talked about we think would be great because it could even be done in you know two parts in two different years can involve a lot of people um a lot of different styles of art could be done with it so um so anyway that's the mural update anything else Sharon I think that's pretty much it we're just looking for a great wall what a great mural idea on or even an all right wall yeah we'll take an all right wall have you tried contacting some of the tattoo shops in the city you see if they're we did talk with the tattoo fallen angel on 7th and they're not interested at this time and um and then love ice cream I don't know if every what we they're they're not interested either at this time because yeah so we'll just I have to just go for a walk and look for a wall just like I look for Missy noses uh what about that one right there that one looks good is there like a a a size of a wall you want something like really really big or something like it doesn't I think this one it it's doable no matter what size wall we have it is it can be accommodated to a we just want a wall I think yeah I don't know though like the picture that I sent you if I was to guess I don't know what that one is probably 8 by 12 ft maybe I don't know something like that I've seen this type of mural it can be huge it can be small it doesn't matter right we just think of it like a postcard at whatever size yeah anyway we're open to ideas suggestions you guys have an artist for that already no or is you just ww first and then yeah we have an idea and so we thought well you basically the idea that we have we could start with just like a graphic designer to kind of give us the basics and then we could you know engage with other artists that could do to kind of fill in some of the art you know the idea I'll just try to explain it but it's um you've seen these postcards like an old like postcard from like the 60s or something it says hello from Miami or whatever right and then in the letters there are depictions of things that people do in Miami or wherever right um and I was just at my uh wife's uh High School reunion in Far Western South Dakota and they had one of these painted on their wall and it so it was it's like howdy from lemon South Dakota and So within each of the letters you can have all sorts of different designs so if we had something like hello from North St Paul and then within the letters of North St Paul you could do all kinds of different things yeah true yeah I'm thinking just tons of snowmen I'm not actually thinking that but yeah so I think it'd be a really neat idea but we just have to find a place to do it um artart any update there um no big updates our next event is on the 15th um I believe believe that is rock painting um I was going to ask my did we get any um volunteer signups at the last event I had a very enthusiastic woman who was very interested in volunteering so I sent her to the or I told her to check on our website we had a volunteer page um so I don't know if we got I don't know if it's the same person or not but one person did reach out and then she's also definitely interested in Autumn Arts but you're speaking about the music in the park event right yeah yeah she was she seemed interested and I I forget her name now but um she told me she wanted to help out with the art yeah I had one other person that I spoke with and I forwarded our information over to them they haven't applied yet so okay not sure if we're speaking about the same person or not okay well I guess so that's next Thursday right mhm so we if possible if someone from the commission can sign up because on that day uh I can do it oh perfect all right that's too Manda was saying it is the what was it all the Mosaic things oh the Mosaic things sorry I spoke incorrectly we're doing the Mosaic cement thing cool that's cool what about yeah cuz I was always saying we should do that what is that plaster of Paris things it's just I remember doing that at the AR cart when I was a kid so that's what the next event is the little plaster Mosaic oh great yeah okay are you going to be there too um I said TVD on it cuz I think we need two do we need two people if we don't have a volunteer then I I can plan on being there okay okay um I'm just going to double check on my calendar right here you should see if your mom has a picture of you doing that at the art cart when you were younger and then get one on next Thursday and then put them next to each other I'm the eighth kid there are no pictures of me as a child our parents did not follow us they they just told us to go to the park they 123 at this park bye different got it okay thanks Sharon [Music] you're just too young I love you that's great okay so that anything else on art cart Rael no and I think that's the last one for the year great oh is it okay well hopefully somebody else will be able to join uh next Thursday cuz I don't know what to do yeah I just be there I know okay I mean I know how to be there and talk to people but I don't know what the well I think it's each time the one before in July we ended up not taking out the tables it was raining oh yeah so we had one table and one bench um but the art opens up like the huge Hood so we didn't open that part but I don't know how to do the yeah activity well we'll have to I don't really know either we'll have to read the Box oh there's a box all I know is we there's instruction somewhere there's water in the all right we'll figure it out we have we have what we need in the car okay Tom if you'd like you know you can set up an appointment with me and we can go over to Public Works to take a look at it before you that's a good idea in or is there even like were these are they each little kits individual kits so there should be I think two to four kits in each box oh and I believe we have I don't know how many boxes we have did we order them from Amazon or something they were ordered Manda said they were ordered I think last year but then last year we didn't I guess we didn't do art cart um Amanda had just joined and someone else previously I don't know things fell through the crack and now we oh okay from last year we'll figure it out yeah it'll be fun though it can't be that hard right if we're asking children to do it unless it's technology it is it's it's going to be a more timec consuming one though right I have to sit there and wait you mix up some stuff and then you put things in it and it dries and that's it yeah yeah okay we'll figure it out yeah um paint Knight I know there's I heard the paint Knight is sold out oh my god well this time right can I tell you about it yeah okay well we sold out the first paint night this is my first mandala I made for the first sold out paint night then we had the makeup paint night which was also almost sold up but it was also the night of that big rainstorm so a bunch of it was so out but everyone didn't show up there you go yeah we had one cancellation and then one person on the waiting list responded back saying that they were interested so that person showed up but but look at how much I improved from time to time they both look great right and they're covered just a little bit in cat hair so that's not so bad I was so proud of myself that's great yeah those are neat so these were our uh mandalas with suaa okay there we go got it um and then coming up we have have paint night with Jeremy on August 29th I don't know what we're doing yeah we you know we had people sign up so oh good so we don't to cancel that okay so oh yeah so I thought that I thought the one the coming up was full oh is it full you mean for sther or Jeremy for Jeremy um or that one's not maybe it was sther okay so that was what was in the in the um the minutes I did ask her to see if she's available to come back again because oh yeah last meeting you had specified yeah so waiting on that we'll see what she says and we can try to work out something good yeah cool but that's a great approach too to do something that you know I mean did everyone do the same design just different colors yes but you can pick whatever color you want and if you don't like the design you can do whatever else you want she she made it very open-ended so you could it was truly a paint your own adventure or you could follow her technique so I really enjoyed it I find it very relaxing yeah you didn't have to do happy little trees or anything like that so please sign up for Paint and Sip night yeah okay so paint but we do have some signed up for Jeremy yes okaye that Jeremy I'm sorry did we promote um yes we did we had AA work on that because we kind of emphasized that you know at his last class unfortunately we had to cancel it because no one signed up besides me yeah so we've got 829 with Jeremy and then 1024 with sua and then we're gonna have one more with her she has an idea for um a couple's painting where you each paint half of the painting so then you can put them together or you can frame them separately it's going be so fun and what is Jeremy that's going to destroy marriages left and right um do you we know what Jeremy's doing yep so Jeremy is on the 29th of August do we know what he's painting or what we're doing with him yeah um lake lake and a boat Lake scene Lake scene I'm excited thanks ma you're welcome all right um I'm just looking so I think the next thing is Autumn Arts Festival there we never did have that meeting did we we did um oh yeah we did oh yeah sorry uh we couldn't have more than sorry certain Commission time so we kind of left you out sorry I that's right I I remember now because I had mentioned that I can't be there yeah right yeah so um I do want to add to the volunteer list though so my wife is going to take my usual spot oh perfect at that and so my my main role at the last two of these has been to just help coordinate all of the performers so Tom we didn't really realized that your wife would be um interested in it so we had asked Ava to be the MC and she was thrilled about it oh who's Ava she is new Communications coordinator for this oh well fantastic that's totally fine but maybe so maybe Ava can be the MC and Chris can be the definitely Wrangler for sure yeah more help is needed so the more the mirrior yeah oh yeah oh that's absolutely great yeah if you don't mind me asking what is your name so that I could write her name Down Chris CH h r i s okay perfect we also learned that Amanda can't be at the yeah and I don't she was she at it last she was L last year right she was a huge component last year so I'm a little worried about but I think it's a lot of it is she still going to help arrange the yep okay cuz that's the thing then most of the time people come and they they set up their thing and and their hands off that's it yeah I mean you don't they know what to do good okay we just need a lot of volunteers and I think can I talk about this now yeah we're on this um so I think one of the activities we want to do during the Autumn Arts Festival is the my remind me what it is it's the thing with the canvases then we put them on the board right that was like the Arts commission event that we wanted to do at the Arts Festival yeah all the little canvases canvases and so we were talking about doing that in Casey like Pavilion I think it'd be really nice if we could have an Arts commissioner kind of be the volunteer in charge of that activity I I guess I would just feel more comfortable since it is a project that will represent us so I don't know what everyone else's day looks like I know you're available in the morning but not the afternoon I think that's great if you're available Sharon that'd be great um but yeah if everyone can make time to be there that'd be awesome that's all I wanted to say thanks okay be there thanks thank you very much so are you getting some more names here so we've got we got Sharon we have Chris um is there a signup genius for that yet Ma um I'm just taking notes okay all right sounds good I could probably be there in the morning um I know last year there was you know like an ask for I don't know if it was like the National Honor Society or there like a bunch of we've made yeah they' made the ask again the problem is it's summer so we won't really know until like a week before because they're high school students and kind of sure yeah high schoolly so yeah but they they came with like their papers ready to they were ready oh yep yeah a couple of people helped me with something I think it was the National Honor Society that's right something like that or Avid um um oh maybe that's what it was yeah I don't are we planning on having a bouncy house again yes there will be we are there will be yeah oh okay somehow I thought that was someone dragging that thing will someone be on tap to like kind of like to deal with it oh yeah like last year it was um like they were you know it was muddy people had it like drag it the sandbags and everything it was I believe the vendor would be their taking care of the tent we seeing yeah that makes sense yeah got it cool yeah and I'll try and see yeah did how do people volunteer just by contacting you oh there's a link that they can apply online well there is and once they do that I should be notified and I can contact them with more information okay um because I'll try and think of other people it's actually on the August 29th when paint along with Jeremy that's the that's moveing day for our son for so we'll be empty nest so I I can't recruit any of my own kids to come and volunteer either that's okay next time yeah okay anything else with the Autumn Arts Festival how did the meeting go I think it went well we have a list of to do here with our names next to it so if you want to take a look at it later too yeah I would just say that you know our the first time what was it called the fall frolic um you know we were Guided by a couple of our Parks Commission uh friends that that had do done the thing before that the fall frolic and and they said there's there's like nothing to it you know you give the vendors you get tell them where their spot is they set up they tear it down you and they they didn't really even have a lot of volunteers so the first year we did it kind of followed that advice and that's how it went it snowed the night before which was not great but um everything went very smoothly and then last year it was much bigger I thought we had a lot more people and also went very smoothly so a lot of that a lot of those people kind of take care of themselves especially you know the vendors and everybody so I think we'll be okay yeah yeah for sure staff has it all in hand yeah okay um so that's all the subcommittee updates and then we had preliminary events projects and budget ideas and proposals my do you want to walk us through this or how do you want to go through that so these ideas the ideas that were in the packet were from our last meeting I just sort of wrote everything down with the event name and description um I had asked you know some of the the commission to reply back to me so that we could kind of narrow down which topics to kind of discuss at this meeting um I only got a few response back so maybe we could use the time today to kind of go through to see what everyone's interested in I do know that at the next council meeting uh the preliminary ideas would be going to them for approval um unfortunately Eva um had to submit hers a little bit earlier because she has a different process and procedure for the events for the events yeah and you know and it's not finalized yet we still have September to kind of work through uh this is one of our goals for this month is to get everything down as much as possible so that I can give this to Eva yeah and then I I sent that budget to you um to get to Ava beforehand so I don't know if if you want me to talk through with the group here what I what I had just put out there as a proposal because then even when it comes to the ideas for projects I think we can just bundle some of those I mean we can probably call put put them into under a certain category of things because a lot of these probably wouldn't cost a whole lot and then we could just say okay well for this area of project ideas we could call it you know public art or something right and then that could include a lot of things in there um where is this arts and culture commission so do we want to just kind of do we want to talk through the did was there any kind of anything that uh that there was a lot of interest in as far as the events I'm trying to just I'm I'm bundling some of these things together right here so you've got you've got classes um so number 2 three5 s um and nine so the there you've got half of these events are classes that I would you know we could put those all under like the um paint night kind of category right so whether or not they're paint nights that you could say well this is going to be a build along thing this is going to be a soup bowl class whatever right y so I would recommend rather than us trying to say yes we're going to do an art class class know we're not going to do a soup bowls class tonight we've got tons of time to figure that out I think we just put down the budget that we want for that type of thing yeah maybe you should walk through that budget Tom if you yeah so I'll just this is you know totally preliminary but um my had a rush to get some numbers together so I threw some things together for 2025 and uh uh Carrie and I had a chance to at least uh connect on that a little a little bit um so for events what I had here um we have Autumn Arts Festival uh this year we had 6,000 and for next year I put 8,000 um there was I know Amanda's not here but you know when we were working on this in the beginning of this year um there were you know basically um the planning that had been done by the city at that time they was kind of a lot of the money was uh accounted for pretty quickly and so there were other things that we would have liked to have done like having a an outdoor tent or something in the case of rain um and but or even just to have a sitting area you know maybe it's even for shade or something like that but um but we just couldn't afford it at that point so I wanted to try and get a little bit more money into the uh event budget for the for the Autumn Arts Festival that way so I went 8 ,000 there um and then art classes so I just yeah here I had already done that art classes so it could include paint nights or anything else um I put 5,000 in that so we had 2500 for Paint and Sip for this year and I'm sure we can walk through that in a minute but I don't know once all of these artists are paid my I don't know what we're left within that budget 1,200 paint night we had 2500 so we're we're coming out to 1,300 after we pay that the October class there's still an October class that's going to happen and there might be one more but could be one more after that still so that's still Le yeah with $1,000 left over from that so it seems like if we went 5,000 that would be more than enough and we'd really have to amp up our classes I got ideas yeah watch well there's well here five are right here so that's great and so you know and I think that you know we have this hugee project out of the way which is snowy yep and so maybe this is something that we can lean into a little bit more or things like that love it um and then I just put a placeholder in here you know one of the one of my top things for ideas for events was the Asian night and I put 5,000 there for that but I don't know uh what people had in mind for what would be needed for that and if 5,000 is too much too little or what or how that would function but at least it's kind of a placeholder for now anybody have thoughts on that one way more than I thought you would allocate I don't know I mean well from what we're learning for having events um you know like the Autumn Arts Festival it costs money it does so depending on what you want to do like especially if we want to have performers or something like that you know that goes up quick and it's you know I'm really pleased that this year we're actually paying performers what they are asking you know instead of just saying hey we can give you a hundred bucks or the first year it was we can't give you anything is it can we change what you've asked for wait we can for the events for our next budget right even though you sent my something can we ask for more for that I feel like maybe we should been set in stone yet so maybe we should go a little higher on that go higher 7500 what what are the thoughts for the Asian night I think like you said like performers if we need a tent or if we need some kind of backup vendors yeah I also wonder about like are we going to ask venders to pay anything it's also not our parkings parking lot to do anything with we'd have to I don't know what's what parking lot there's a I mean the idea would be to be over by the Target area uhhuh yeah um in front of the M house that one yep okay the Asian mcnight market yeah mcnight I know I didn't actually get it until like I went home thought about it Asian KN Market Asian mcnight market okay gotcha okay uh I think it depends upon how big it is that you'd like to have it and um what is the description of how many vendors would be there what would be the expectation of attendance and you know how would you like to see this laid out and and that's going to really tell us what the cost will be for the city because a lot of this isn't cost from the city it's um vendors in my mind it's vendors that want to be there and have an opportunity to make money at this market and there's the question of how do you get the parking lot because it's a private parking lot it's not in one of the city parking lots yeah and then there's a lot of other questions that way too cuz then with the city involvement and I'm sure we would have to have conversations with Sauron about this mhm um but with with the Arts Festival it's a City Event holed on city property um with that it would be in effect like a City Event hosted on private property and then there's like liability questions and things like that and how that works so could could doesn't the city own mcnight field could we do something like cross the street because is there a new sidewalk we could be like try the new sidewalk and walk across the street I think the sidewalk has been delayed a little bit we're still getting it cool yes but this is next year so um should be the sidewalk will be there I hope so and are you talking about an evening event or a daytime event I think a afternoon to evening but not too late because you know things happen at if it's late so I wouldn't want it to be too too late let's so we don't have to figure out the details on this but I think we can ballpark so you know anyway what we had for we had 6,000 for the Autumn Arts Festival this year yeah so I think 5,000 is okay I don't think we need to make it too big I think we could you know pilot or test something um so I think 5K but the intention here too though is to partner with Asian businesses asian-owned businesses in town right which would be great because and then I think and then again we're can there could be like quote unquote sponsorship concerns like we have had in the past with these things but um but I mean like there's always things called public private Partnerships like why you know how is that okay but not sponsorships or I think it's probably just about defining the roles yeah okay largely and we've gone through that process we've got experience working through that making that happen you know I think we can handle it project snowy amen exactly right I mean if you can project snowy you can do it yeah I think it's doable and I I think not over promising from for the first foray into the Asian Night Market would be a good way to start out yeah okay I would love to see too uh not you know like at the county fair when you have like all the different artworks that people bring it I don't want it to be that regimented but it would be great just to have like an Arts area where people can bring it you know like quilts or beading or embroidery or I just I I love that aspect it would be fun to have that as well create your own Asian calligraphy like yeah she was like no I don't know anyone that does that no I was thinking though that you know some sort of Asian centered you know Arts yeah so much yeah so okay so 5,000 for first run and we'll figure things out as we go that sounds good to me okay um and then for funding requests then for the rest of the stuff so this gets into projects then um and unless we want to talk a little bit more about career pathway with local school H Holiday Lights trolley tour snowman hunt at the parks anybody have any thoughts on those or do we want to have those I mean it could still be bundled within the art classes kind of things or art classes and events which it's hard cuz some of these things like like you said they kind of happen organically as we move yeah I know and there's probably a million things we haven't thought of yet so what do we want to call it so events art classes and events or something like that yeah I think we have I think we can't call it paint night anymore because I've got so many ideas that evolve past paint night so that's just a Mis item two in our budget request under events would be that so we've got Autumn arts festival art classes and events and Asian night like it okay um um so let's move on to the projects then um so we've got veterans Rock little free art gallery rain activated art um sidewalk poetry micr murals utility box we got lots of stuff here so uh is there anything in here from the conversation that happened before where you go well this is a big one where we'd really need um some special money set aside otherwise let me just tell you what I have here right now so uh for 2024 we had utility box wraps Phase 2 $7,000 for 2025 same thing utility box wraps phase three $7,000 for project snowy I have zero and are we ready to take that off the list yes okay so there's you don't see any maintenance or anything like that with that no okay and we have art cart supplies um I cut this in half so this year we had $2,000 and I'm not sure I think we're like we've been kind of golden with art cart supplies and usually well we've got we've spent ,100 almost $1,200 so far of our 2,000 um allocating 500 of it though to snow we did we MH I have a question regarding the art cart oh that's yeah that's five I see that reallocated to snow right so we really should have spent like $600 $700 is it getting more popular are people hearing about it because if people are hearing about it and it's getting more popular then you do not want to take funds away from it yeah you know in my thinking too with it Sharon was that we've kind of stocked up you know we've used funds in the past to stock up and so we have a lot of stock in the cart in there that we could do a lot with yeah okay I just would hate for people to start thinking like oh this is a thing that's going to happen when we go to music in the park and I can get rid of the kids at art cart and then we're not prepared for the children when they show up yeah I think the only thing is if we added another like specialty project like with the the concrete things what did you call them plaster plaster apparis yeah I think like that's more of a specialty project and so if there was something throughout the year that you know we would want to do that requires special supplies then you know but otherwise there's lots of like crafty stuff in there build your own like popsicle sticks just's a lot of random but good usable stuff but and then also so the point being that we're now kind of through the season of stocking things and we've spent less than $700 this year could could I ask um and I wonder did we bring this up last time which is like could we give a stien for volunteers you know because I feel like we've been kind of scarce on volunteers is there any way we could incentivize volunteers to help out a little bit more I don't I don't know what the rules are about that I kind of hate to go down that road though too it gets very complicated very quickly we do stiens for research participants at my work and it gets very bogged down in a lot of accounting procedures and policies and taxes a lot of W9 Social Security numbers things people don't really want to share and it um kind of muddies the waters so I'd love the idea but if we could do it if we could incentivize people in a different way I think we might it might be easier from a city's perspective that's not monetary or correct yeah that would still have to go through saurin I'm sure yeah who poo Poo's everything so how do we feel about a thousand for next year sounds good okay okay with that um branding and Communications this year we had $2,000 and we currently have 1,500 remaining in that and that was after 500 being reallocated to snowy so we haven't spent anything this year but we were just about to I think we are yeah for what for our snowy cards oh the snowy cards oh cool so but branding and Communications nevertheless we had 2,000 I'm proposing for 20 251,000 great okay with that um mural project we had 12,000 asked for this year we haven't used anything we've reallocated 2,000 to snowy and are you know trying to use the remainder but struggling to find a location still possible but nevertheless for 2025 we put 12,000 again for that keeping hope alive and then Community engagement this would be the last line item we had $2500 for this year wait where is that that was the one that got chopped off by Council oh we didn't get it we didn't get that not that she personally said no to it I'm sorry I was just pointing at you as cultural representative Lisa ask that one geez Lisa why didn't you say something while we're were here I didn't know do we want to try for that we didn't we I I don't know yeah uh I didn't I didn't really realize that we didn't get that I forgot yeah that was the one thing they um didn't we pay your coworker that came in here or did she volunteer she volunteered oh can I ask what does that entail outside of The Branding and communication so the here's the what we put for the justification to engage with consulting services to help us develop relationships and incorporate ideas from North St Paul's diverse community and I think it was just I I think what the council felt was that that that was broader than Arts commission mhm and but I don't think that they did anything to pick that up though well is there something out there that could help us be a better Arts and Cultural commission any you know training whatnot that would help us do better I mean that's a worthy investment yeah that's what we're looking for yeah and and I don't know I mean yeah I mean there are there's lots of Consulting services but you can eat up $2,500 pretty quickly yeah it wouldn't cover very much yeah so those are yeah I mean we talked a lot about this I think last year because I think that you know it kind of centered around the culture part of arts and culture commission and what is it what does culture mean and starting to have some of those conversations and um and I think that somehow the conversation went that this should have been something that's more broadly taken up by the city and that it wouldn't be just one commission that would do that but we should have build that awareness um throughout so how does that happen though and you know is is anybody taking the lead on that and I don't I don't think so I don't know if you know anything about that Lisa but um no I think a lot of um council's Community engagement is usually By Invitation usually or um it's you know sometimes people just different council members will go out and just you know chat with people or whatever um so it varies there is um I would say very few opportunities for us to like engage with the community outside of like our meetings like ribbon cutting those types of of events but um in terms of us you know really engaging and having conversation or um creating an interactive um dialogue around something um specific say it's like the night market like that's not something we're doing so what do you what would you propose Lisa do you think we should just do should we have it in there is a budget request just to get the conversation going with the council again or is it uh but it sounds like there's an interest in continuing to have some Community engagement to get a little bit more Direction in how you know arts and culture wants to Define itself or evolve or you know what have you I think that's a pretty regular part of public government so I don't I mean I think it's appropriate in my opinion again I'm just one person I think you know I could see it with the city I mean this the council has often done you know workshops or things work I don't know if you ever did on weekends and things like that where we have full day Retreats or something like that and it seems like something like that would be a good opportunity and I don't I don't recall when I was on conso ever having something that was done in coordination with uh commissions um but it seemed like it seems like that would be an opportunity for Council and commissions to get together and have some conversations around the topic be a great opportunity I think but I again I think then then that would should be a a council budget item okay we'll discuss it all right I'll take it handing it off to you funding request $1 million okay so that has our budget request so utility box W 7,000 art cart 1,000 branding and Communications 1,000 mural project 12,000 gets us to $21,000 um our budget request last year was 28,500 however our events budget request last year was 8500 and our events budget request this year is 10,000 more than that 18,000 so uh grand total comes out pretty close Al together from what we had last year um but now I want to talk about making sure we have enough funding for a lot of these different projects here so um hang on one second do doing some Excel formulas quick so I can do Fair comparisons so 39,000 total where is last [Music] year 37,000 total last year all right so just so as I just mentioned so utility box wraps art cart and mural project are really the only three things that we're accounting for when you look through that list of projects that we have so I think we um better look back through these projects and say well how would we pay for some of these other things if we want to do them veterans Rock I don't I know we talked to somebody about does somebody have a rock okay remember it's the guy that comes around Paints the Rocks he does one in every state um and I I estimated that at like 5,000 just as a ballpark yeah I can't remember but we had a conversation that it would be quite a bit of money I don't know how much just because like even the logistics of getting a giant boulder to the overpass where the park is and placing it is you know a thing and expensive so um I think it's worth bringing up the conversation again and just checking in to see where they're at and if they're ready this year great if not like maybe get hold off yeah hold off on another year until they are ready so this what the artist has already been chosen for the veterans rock yeah there's a special there's a specific guy who goes around and does it I added um web links to my um Excel spreadsheet so his link is in here but yeah he's a but you pay the come oh I'm I believe that's what the veterans talked to us about when they came to that meeting but we could talk to them about doing something else so does he bring the rock or do we have to buy a rock and then he comes and paints it I don't know that we have a lot of rocks in the art cart we do have a lot of rocks make a maybe they're not big enough for what you have in mind maybe it could be different maybe it could be something else and I think that's something that we would coordinate probably with that uh isn't there a Veterans Park committee yep so I think we'd coordinate with them and there may even be funding available there or something like that um so question then becomes do we want to try and put budget aside for that or do we kind of group this in in some kind of bucket it's a multi- question like who who is who owns the park I don't remember know is it a city park because then that brings in it must be a city park and you know it seems like it would be a project for all of us not just the Arts and Cultural commission footing the entire responsibility for the veterans Rock I why don't we I'm going to throw something out there but what if this were kind of a longer term preparation to say there's an opportunity here to uh collaborate with the Parks Commission and the veterans commission Veterans Park commission and work towards something maybe even in 2026 love it yeah that makes more sense because otherwise it sounds like we're forcing a rock on the Veterans Park so nothing in the budget for this year for that then sounds good uh little free art gallery I know Amanda was very excited about this and would like to make this a priority for 20 25 um I would have to guess this would not be too huge of a budget item maybe building a few of the little Galleries and placing them around town or whatever it I have would that vision is bring their art and mhm I think we just need a space or a a repository for them to bring it to and take it out of so I don't know if they're like little Library sizes or if she was thinking in City Hall to make it a bigger option I think it's I think it's like free art Fridays that they have like in St Paul where it's hidden and they're usually just like 4x5 or smaller they're just tiny little pieces and I think that's like my understanding was it was just like the free art the free libraries but instead of books being in there people would bring their pieces of art that they have created and then you could take art or put a piece of art in there yes so I think they would be slightly bigger than those um free little art galleries though is a website in it of itself mhm yep so they have examples of you know what we could do and even some of them look as big as the the little free libraries I think it has to be anything crazy okay uh I didn't I didn't look at it I'm assuming there's just like shelves in there the same way so somebody could put something down here some of them have like a shelf or two and some of them are just a big open box with the glass door on it and people make little scenes or they just leave their art there okay um okay I want to [Music] um I want to maybe try and take some of these in bunches again because we have 20 of these things um there's so we have so I what I'd love for people to do is start thinking like if you see something here and you say yeah this one is we really want to go for this like the little free art Gallery what do we think we want to do maybe 500 bucks for that cuz then what I'm thinking is we have a a line item for public art and that would include little free art gallery and it could include rain activated art sidewalk poetry Etc yeah I think the reactivated art the turtle Crossings the little art libraries those were the things that spoke most to me I think I would I would make those my top three choices if we were bucketing them turtle turtle awareness project or Turtle cross is kind of similar I kind of see him as the same thing so I feel like the turtle awareness might be a multi-year project because it feels like we would need to do feasibility to discover what would be most helpful and then find an artistic way to implement okay and then we and and what was what else did you say the turtle thing and what else did you the rain activated rain activated poetry or umw thank you yeah sidewalk poetry isn't the sidewalk poetry where they put it they stamp it into this is different oh so um we were worried that the stamping might be um a burden on public works this is more of like a burning man style of sidewalk poetry where it lasts for a limited amount of time like 3 to 6 months and then it wears away but then you can do a new message so it could be like this is this month's poet this is next month's poet it's like uh what are those temporary tattoos it's u a temporary tattoo yeah but not that but you know what I mean the henna yeah right henna on a sidewalk yeah exactly I think that's really um engaging cool mhm okay not too and then like number five I look at micro murals and could that not be included in the mural budget yep okay and then like number six utility box would be included in the utility box wraps that one would that be a more expensive one though given that it's the waterfall implementing that water feature part of it I don't know if it's like actually adding a water feature it was so like there is a water fall water feature there already and okay perfect that's great using that so that would be in utility box mhm the music installation that would cost money that would be a a commission for a composer materials to build a sound bench if that's something that we wanted to do okay I you know I do you ever go to towns where they just have music piped in in the downtown yes mir's park has a rule that they have to have music piped in 100% cuz Hela Mir hugue is a very big music snob I mean loves music Sorry yep really oh yeah yeah well o Clair is like that oair Wisconsin you walk downtown they just have music playing all the time it's great stuff I like that um is that something we want to go for this year sounds like a very big project and we have a lot of project and that's not saying I'm an anti-music person but that sounds like another snowy so I think it I think maybe uh in the talking phase upcoming but not a financial I like that and maybe that's something we can engage with the parks department on and be more of a partnership with them but I then I see things like interactive sculptures solar powered park bench um wonder if it could be grouped as like inst like sculpture that's what I think public art like a public art would be an installation sculpture it public art could include just about anything right I mean but I think of that as being visual art that is installed somewhere whether it's a sculpture painting or something even the sidewalk you know even when they do a sidewalk you know the time to do those sidewalks is when they're redoing a sidewalk so that's why like even with the downtown project once they do the next stretch of the down of 7th Avenue say hey okay when you redo that sidewalk we want to stamp some stuff in there from the famous North St Paul poet I don't know there probably somebody yeah we to ask to but you know I think we can do that I don't think that would be it wouldn't be costly I don't think I don't know how they you just get the it's probably some uh iron stamps letter stamps you know similar to what they would use in you know for old newspapers or something you stamp that thing it's done it's in the concrete forever I think those are really cool I love it but that's coordinate with uh the city road reconstruction projects and whenever there's a sidewalk being redone mcnight mcnight sidewalk I know mcnight are they so what are they adding sidewalks on both is there a sidewalk on one side right now a sidewalk on one side and yeah so they're going to have that go all the way down to uh Ariel midnight to Ariel 11 mcnight to Ariel that's where the town homes are on 11th [Music] mhm yeah yeah I'm just I didn't think oh from mcnight 2 aerial on 11th mhm oh I I thought you were talking about the mcnight project oh no that's when is the up thead when is the yeah MCN yeah CU that's I'm like mcnight is parallel with Ariel but so so there's when are they going to redo that there's going to they're working on it right now yes oh really and so will there be sidewalk added to that that stretch then there's supposed to be sidewalk added to that that doesn't exist right now that's my understanding that be awesome yeah that's a county project though oh it is really okay we only have jurisdiction over the parking component H interesting um okay but interactive sculptur solar powered park bench some of these other things do seem like public art to me um and so I'm wondering do we want to try and ballpark a value there for some of these things uh well I looked up the solar powered park bench those are really expensive 25 to 5,000 ooh yeah hm wa wait why do you need solar power on a park bench um in case you have people that need to charge their materials oh it has like a USB oh I see um but and then I'm looking at some of these other things so we have number 17 is a class which could be included in the other thing yep holiday light design contest North St par already does that right really oh where local kids design holiday light for installation on light poles oh sorry okay I was thinking of the just the the house decorations oh yeah yeah um I'll be the Debbie Downer and say you know there's only so many of us well that's the other thing too I mean you know there's a lot there's the ideas are great huh but the ideas are great but there's only so many of us and this is starting to get um beyond what we have uh time to do but this is a great list to plan for the future we can do knock out what we can next year and move on right and I think what we want to do for myi right is to get some numbers here so I think it I think what you're looking from at here and people can have different ideas of what they think the project should be but even if you look at the like public art type of things or any of the other things that you see here and say you know some of this might be covered by the events right and some of it's already covered by murals or utility box traps but from all these other things how much money would you want to try and set aside to try and accomplish you know say three of those things mhm 12 thousand okay I think that feels High to me I was to say but I guess it depends on what you're going to do um way that we can like vote as a council on like our top three things that we want to prioritize for next year yeah that's what Ma was trying to get out of the email survey from us but apparently that didn't go so well but um I I I like Tom's idea where like we don't yet vote on it but we have like the big buckets so that we have the flexibility to be like okay you know actually this looks like right priority for us um just because it's still 6 months five months away MH yeah and we've got it all nicely articulated here so that when council is like what do you need this bucket of money for random stuff it's like no we this is our menu of items that we're going to work on and we'll see how far we can get with some of these and where we can take them right so just just to give you an idea here what if what if we were to say absolutely next year we got to do the the little free art gallery the rain activated art slidewalk poetry those are kind of related right and then the turtle project so those are three things what would your ballpark little free art gallery the sidewalk stuff and the turtle project costing 12 to 15 really yeah what was the middle one oh the sidewalk yeah I think the first two are not super huge but I think the turtle I don't know I I want to put a lot of time into this Turtle project the sidewalk thing could be big depending on I guess how many poetry pieces you pick and printing custom stamps for it um cuz they're not going to handw write each letter they're I don't see them mhm going they'd have to create the stamp yeah yeah and so that too I mean we probably have to pair you know how many poems we pick down to something you know MH so yeah you thinking you think 12 to 15 is too high it see yeah it seems high I was thinking more like 3,000 really yeah wow but I don't I mean I'm not sure what is involved in some of these projects but well I mean and none of us really do right I mean as we get into it it's going to be as big or as small as we make it right because it all depends on the effort that we put in Sharon you're the tiebreaker what do you say no pressure I think this is this is what I think honestly and I've only been on the commission for a few months but it it takes a lot of time to get things done and so I feel like some of these things just having them in the planning stage next year will be a lot of effort who's going to be on the subcommittee who how often you're going to meet to talk about getting this done and then I think you'll be in a better position to say we need X number of dollars to make this happen because like I am partial to the little turtle project but I don't know is that a partnership with the parks is that you know who who all he needs to be involved in that besides us I mean I don't I someh another I don't think Turtles are a weight that would be fully carried by the arts and culture commission that's a good point and so that's that's how I feel I am well could we go five just to round it out I mean three is just such a silly number yeah and you know and I don't and I don't want to be like a bummer on this too but what when I'm going through this too one of the things I'm trying to balance is that budget ask cuz when it comes time to um trying to justify the budget and whatever that increase will be to all of us um you have to make choices and one thing I want to look at here too is look how much money did we ask for for this year and of all that how much did we even use and not even half of it so far and so when we ask for that budget if it get if it all gets approved that does mean a certain percentage increase in taxes for the taxpayers that we have to be mindful of and I I just you know so hey it's great if we don't use all the budget it goes back into the general fund and then that's money that doesn't have to be raised again through taxes so so that's good but once you put it out there in the next budget it does have a direct impact on uh homeowners and businesses and so that's something that we just need to be um cognizant of and and be you know because it's it's nice to just throw out big numbers and say well let's just go for whatever and it's like well anything that we're saying we're going for mean that's that's an actual impact to people right and I also think that you know like when we later on decide what projects we do we also assess like the impact of it like there are some you know that are maybe not as impactful as others and I feel like we could prioritize some that are you know like would be more impactful like for instance what are we trying to achieve right are we trying to achieve you know drawing people into the city are we trying to yeah um have you know create a better space for people to enjoy you know like so then that I think yeah um so as far as like money I was thinking you know like for me I want to make sure that we'd be able to afford you know like some sort of like installation is what I was thinking um so yeah even though like we have 20 projects I do think we could probably only achieve like two or three MH maybe Max right um but yeah and I Wasing you know for us to at least have something to right and you could do you could do one public art sculpture installation downtown and it could be $10,000 easily right so it just depends on what you want to do we have a lot of I look at a lot of these projects and I think these are kind of smaller things um so you can do a whole bunch of small things or you can do a small amount of big things um but nevertheless it's you know when whatever numbers we put out there I just want us to be thinking responsibly respons L about the budget so and you know I'd be willing to come down on the mural project too just we could take the mural project to say 10,000 and then say public art 5,000 and then with the public art we still don't know what that would be and with the mural we still don't know what it would be um and but at the same time if it comes down to it and we say you know what we want to do one $15,000 sculpture at Silver Lake and it's going to be really cool we could do that and pull every all the money from the mural budget and all the money from the public art budget and do one thing I feel comfortable with that um also I think you know like utility box I um also you know like we might not use all the 7,000 next year either so well the utility wraps are are really cool and I also wonder too it's like do we hit kind of a saturation point on those cuz are we intending to do all of them um I would I don't think it's worth doing all of them no yeah and and so I think you know I think we got to think through that a little bit too but so we could I mean we could go down a little bit on that one and but I whatever we want to do is fine but I just I'm that's why I'm also kind of comparing you know some of these costs to what we looked at last year so let me just let me P punch in because the other thing too is like the events budget that's not our budget you know it's what it's things that we are influencing to come out of a different budget and I think the events we get by very cheap on we're not really putting hardly and I think those things have a big impact for a city to host any kind of event is going to cost money but so let's just say $5,000 what do we get there so if we had utility box wraps at seven art cart supplies at one mural 12 public art five branding and Communications one that's $226,000 for the for our budget uh last year it was $26,000 when you take out the community engagement thing that we didn't get so it's the exact same amount nice that becomes a a little bit of a selling point I think for people like Lisa who is still going to have to be selling this budget to the rest of the council um but uh to say hey our budget we're we're coming in flat we didn't we didn't even use all of our budget maybe this year um but we have lots of ideas and ways to move forward and so we're just we're asking for the same amount okay people feel okay with that mhm so and as we did this year we can always move money around as needed so if we say well we don't need as much from utility box wraps we need more in the art cart or whatever we can do that and I think we're certifying our maximum in September so whatever like next month right I mean absolute highest you would have also will say that we have a a healthy fund balance is what I heard a healthy fund balance for this for our general fund for the general fund okay well that's good we're sitting good my and what else um does this give you what you need yeah this is pretty good I think we accomplished that was such a motan yah yeah well we uh we accomplish a lot more than I had expected today because we had all these wonderful ideas but we kind of grouped them all together and we narrow down to some of the things that we wanted yes I like the numbers I like I liked the way how you categorize everything and just group them together yeah and I just I don't think this is the time to go through all all of those ideas ideas those are great ideas but then I think we have the whole next year to talk through all these [Music] things uh okay so does that take care of Item B under Section 7 my yes it does okay so unless there were any other proposals for 2025 anybody have any ideas okay uh reports from staff so then this goes to you my events planner calendar so we sort of talked about the volunteer I did follow up on some of the other volunteers that uh had kind of initially reached out I reached back to them um and then at the last meeting we had uh mentioned about maybe reaching out to North Haven again oh yeah yep I I did another followup with the event date information and then with Caleb um I sent him another email today because of National Night Out he had mentioned that maybe he could help you know like throw our uh yep um and then one volunteer for sure signed up another one express interest but no sign up yet okay and that's about it and I'm glad that Tom signed up for music in the park appreciate that yep and um the budget updates we sort of went through all of them already I'm glad that we took care of that for the most part um and this snowy trading cards I wanted I was hoping for a little bit more feedback about what your thoughts were on the quotes that I sent they could only do an increments of 250 or 500 for the amount that was listed um so it's $43 plus tax for 250 and that only includes one type of design so I don't know if you wanted to include all different eight designs that we had or can I ask a question so is it so like if you had a a trading card yep of all eight of the snow's MH um is there a minimum for each picture uh yep so the quantity is 250 per each picture so you would have to have at least 250 of of every one of them so then you get to two 2,000 yep you would have to have as a minimum and so it's $43 per 250 yep so we're looking at about 344 including taxes around that ballpark for all eight I think that's great I think it would be Fant I would I think I think this is a great idea and I think so we have 2,000 of these cards and you're handing these things out to all the kids and hey collect all eight whatever and at the parade and everything yeah it's great I love this and was the idea to only no only if they say hello to the right commissioner right I thought we discussed this so each commissioner has a snowy okay oh I don't remember it's not like a I was wondering if it was like a a event to event thing where we give only one snowy at like the parade only one type of snowy at the festival you know and then they collect throughout the year I thought that makes sense to me try to get them to do different activities yeah I think this is there's kind of a Mad Dash at the parade to get all eight I feel like you all the kids are going to go nuts yeah I think well somehow you get I don't know if you'd want to give out just one at an event cuz you want to get them out there in the world so then kids are getting together trying to and maybe I'm just dreaming that kids would even do this collectors type thing like the kids collect Pokemon cards oh sure do that oh my God they collect cards all the time everyone loves the card but nightm I I don't know that it's desirable enough that if we just give one at the parade they're going to to show up for something else you know so I think we've got to kind of think they yeah that that was that was my thought was each of us would have like a different card and then they'd have to and then they have to work amongst themselves to we we are bringing people together wait are are these holographic found any holographic yeah what are they called the what do they call they're not holographic no not holographic but if you insist well actually I think that would make give it more of a collector's appeal I can't I don't I really don't think they should be like average like card stock like I think they should be pretty good quality yeah you got a nice one it needs to be a the Shing company uh place within a few months they'll be selling a set of eight of them for 50 bucks we'll be on eBay that's right St well how about if the ones are all just regular card stock I mean like Pokemon they come on card stock but if the original snowman he could be holographic a ninth one a ninth card the ninth card yeah oo the mother of all Snow's yeah that's a good idea oh I like it well look so we we reallocated $2500 $2,575 to the project snowy account on on top of the 3,000 that it had and we ended up with now 2,000 left over yeah so we didn't need to allocate as much but there's there's obviously there's plenty of money there and I think this is a really great idea I think this is a fun way to capitalize on the thing and keep it going and would there have would it have information on the back like a baseball card or something like sponsor and the artist St oh that'd be cool on the stats I I almost feel traded to bwal Roofing 2025 I almost feel like we should do sp two seasons over at Premier Banks before being drafted 500 instead of 250 I really I feel like we're going to zip out of these before we know it I think there's that are there that many I do kids at the Sharon I run out of candy every parade it's ter I know I mean granted you're throwing out a lot of candy at a time and I think these you really have to hand them to kids but I I'm I'm with you I don't know if 2000 would be enough yeah I mean 400 bucks for because I think that you're going to have them Beyond just a parade right right yeah I think you could hand out a lot at the parade is there true like a and that ruins it is there a discount for getting the 500 versus the 250 um so the 500 is $56 plus tax too much more yeah3 so we might as well just go for the I think so and then can we get a couple of sheets that are just like the cards before their die cut because I'm thinking we need just a full sheet of cards framed in City Hall and maybe we can have our artists come back at some point and we can open up the frame and have them sign in I think that would just be so cool yeah so we need a front and a back of the uncut cards how would you how are we going to get the is someone going to take pictures and design all these things well that's what I was going to get to next would need some wonderful artistic people to design we have a bajillion pictures already from from when they were um painting and developed and in the end and we took them on the reveal day we should also get them in their natural habitat where they live right now that would be cool oh so you can see that background especially if you're they don't have their little noses oh that's true we'd have to fix the noses first nose on there cry out loud um Edition one because I think too like if somebody's going to search for them you they're following the map whatever they okay well oh yeah there it is okay so would this come out of The Branding and Communications budget or the project snowy because I see this more as a branding and Communications item what do you think I see what you're saying I I kind of see it coming out of project snowy but at this point I don't think it even matters I mean the money you can see it both ways it's it's keeping the project snowy alive after all that hard work see and it's also um it is also branding and Communications for the Arts and Cultural commission and some things some things are hard to you know clarify which is which I feel like did Amanda say she had some ideas for how something like this might work I mean I don't want to volunt tell someone that's not at a meeting like that's the worst thing ever but could we check with her first and see if she has ideas otherwise I you know we can pull something together yeah cuz I mean we'll need to going to have to we can't really like say yeah okay go ahead and order them now and Order what we don't have any we don't have designs yet you know I I will before I order anything I need to make sure that the commission approves it because I don't want to refund anything return to the vendor right well but then also so the the problem is the parade is the 19th yeah we'll need them by then how long does it take to print them um you know so this vendor is the one that we use for the utility wrap box and they're very responsive oh good so I'm not worried about the turnaround rate at all okay good deal but nevertheless it's still only month and 10 days away before we would need him so we need the design fast yes we need the design fast but I think he could use models from that exist you know just look at baseball cards or Pokemon cards and stuff like that and don't we have a lot of content for the website like wasn't that part of the project snowy was building out a website that had art artist bios and photos of them and link to their website or something the Vana little story yeah oh okay well yeah thanks for mentioning I'll look into it uh okay Ma what's next all right that's it for me budget oh we covered all those things okay well we're on to item nine which is uh reports from Commissioners uh Sharon you got anything for us I do not have anything additional okay Carrie you got anything not tonight okay um see none for meal nothing here okay I just wanted to say uh thanks everybody for the work I'm sorry that I wasn't here for the last two meetings because of I think for work or travel or something but um thanks for all the hard work and especially you know I don't think I've been here since we had the reveal of the snow's which I thought was just a fantastic night I mean it was a great event a lot of I was I was happily surprised said how many people showed up that was great um but the whole thing went so well and I'm just uh really proud of the commission for all that um commission's doing great work got a lot of stuff going on and um and appreciate everybody's uh work and dedication to everything that's happening I want to say uh Happy Birthday to Laura who's not here tonight yay happy anniversary to my wife I'll be home in a little bit and uh that's it so uh reports from Council liaison yeah I'll go quick um as I mentioned construction is going on on mcnight right now um howy Park pickle ball court is open so um we will also have an open house for that um August 14th um and I think the White Bear Lake U pickle ball team will be out there so I think they may be teaching people um is is my understanding so if you can make it out go ahead looks really good and we got it got that through a grant that's correct that's at 400 p.m. on that date correct I think so mhm and then we have a uh student built open Student built house open house yeah and that's yeah so that's coming up um I have to look back at the date but I think it's August 15th right th um and then Old National Bank is doing an opening in September on September 10th at 11: um there's a free shredding event tomorrow at KC Lake from 2:30 to 5:30 so if you want to get rid of those old paper records that's where you go um and then uh candidate filing is open right now and it goes through I think the end of this week um I can double check on the dates but if you're interested in Council there are two seats um up for um the election and then let's see there's an inflow and infiltration Grant out there for private residences for your home so if you have um any issues with maybe like water rainwater what have you getting into some of your um sewer pipes um there's a grant for it and it's 5,000 up to $5,000 and then if there if you meet income eligibility it's up to 10 so it's a great savings on your house um and then uh we also got more funding through the Metropolitan Council so we're able to do more water conservation rebates so I think that's like the 90% off for your toilet like a high efficiency toilet so um or dishwasher um I think it was like up to $400 for that so really good rebates um there's a new bakery in town I believe it opened the other day anyone go yet not yet where uh to Luther yep right on Seventh on Seventh downtown here yet y near shangula what's really y mhm what's the bakery they have baked goods nothing what's it called oh I can't remember I just saw it somewhere sweet nothing that's it yeah yeah so apparently they have good apple fritters according to the managers I got to get there though do they open late they're open six to six yeah every day but isn't there one day they're Sunday Sunday okay Monday they're not Monday they're okay I have to get there great um and then um let's see they're preparing the rfps for the feasibility study for the community center so I think I've seen most of you out there addressing Council so I appreciate you coming out um and so they're also preparing the RFP for the um development project that may be occurring right across from City Hall so there's a couple people interested or developers interested in that lot so um we might be seeing U likely we'll be seeing some mixed use so some mix of commercial and residential um and then let's see we're in budget season right now so um we saw the fire department's um budget and um they are looking at probably a very minor increase um just an adjustment for title change and things something pretty minor I would say overall um and then we also looked at our utility funds um and as for our rates we will probably see a change in our sewer rate but everything else will um not increase so that's pretty good um and then let's see I think that's all I have um and I'll take any questions um yeah yeah Leisa so sorry I wasn't able to attend the uh last meeting with the RFP um but for the community center RFP is there like how specific is the structure of that like are they saying uh we're requesting proposals uh for just for the community center to be um refurbished to a new condition exactly as is or are we looking for proposals for people to reimagine what that space could be or how does that work yeah so we have had like some preliminary Community engagement and um like a deferred maintenance plan plan from um our Consultants the the world project and that's the information that we had prior to going to the Grant and now it's getting more specific um about not just what a deferred Maintenance building would look like which would just bring it back up to what it is but um to try to reimagine in a little bit so that Community engagement is to drive home a little bit more specificity of what the functions of that would be um and some of the operations what does that look like what do Partners look like um and just trying to put that together um to see if there are viable options out there so it is a little I would say the scope is large and and very broad um and we might have a little bit of challenge in identifying somebody who can do all of it but we're seeking an entire team a firm probably with an entire team um but yeah I think we'll probably need to um focus a little bit more on the I would say the community engagement part and the viability through kind of like the partnership and operations piece are probably some of the most critical components but the people who would put together proposals would have to consider those things in their proposal um it's for kind of proposing that they've done like some of these St studies before or they had some of these examples or they've done community centers specific um architectural drawings and things like that gotcha okay uh here's an old question that has come up for years what about those old tennis courts on mcnight is you know I mean it's always between you know the city's the school says the city should fix them and the city says well the school is the only one that use them they should fix them but I don't think anyone uses them at this point but we did use them actually to put um snow ships yeah I mean nobody can use them now cuz they're in horrible condition but it would be unsafe yeah um we we are looking so last year we were we approved um funding to do kind of like a park plan or kind of dig a little bit deeper into that so um it was it's my understanding that they're kind of SC in back on the scope of that at this point cuz we just have had new staff since that proposal's gone out as well and so they're going to um take a a look at doing more Community engagement around that um but they are focusing I think on on placement what to put things and where I mean there is a plan um but focusing particularly with mck Knight um and also um focusing on a potential passive park right across from the m& town homes and then they were also looking at potentially a downtown park so I would imagine it would still follow that trajectory if those I that's kind of the ultimate Park needs right now I think is to really establish what where we're at with those yeah but that space is now it's just blighted um and and so it's the Parks Commission that is trying to look at work that into their plan of what to do with that those tennis courts yeah so the I think Community Development is taking a look and working at U working they've selected somebody to do uh kind of like designs I see I see so yeah they're going to be with that firm gotcha maybe the Arts commission could you know have a hand in design in reimagining the space of the community center you know good especially if there's more Community engagement stuff and an RFP comes back where there's me it kind of touches on some of the um placemaking you were talking about previously similar concept yeah cool anything else anything for council member Wong oh we did get our facilities assessment too so we like assessed all of our public buildings to see where they're at in terms of condition and whatnot and I think overall we're doing pretty well and like it I think it kind of surprised most of us that we're that we're um not in a as bad of a situation despite not having a capital Improvement um plan or deferred maintenance plan so we're we're not terrible so that's good congratulations okay that'll do it unless anybody's got anything else so look for a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn motion by C I'll second that motion second by Sharon all those in favor say I I oppos we are adjourned at 8:15 p.m.