call the meeting to order. Let's stand for pledge of allegiance. Please allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible and justice for all. Thank you, please. >> Council member Nordby >> here. >> Council member Woods >> here. >> Council member McKenzie >> here. >> Council member Schwar >> here. >> Mayor Monkey >> here. >> Thank you very much. I got a motion to adopt the agenda, please. >> Make a motion. >> So move. Council member Schwar. >> Second. >> Second. Council member McKenzie. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you very much. We're off to the >> Thanks, sir. No presentations this evening. Uh so cons consent agenda is item A May 19th 2026 city council workshop and regular meeting minutes. Item B general claims of $653,735. Item C h claims of $21,957.91. Item D, a no change policy. Item E, special event permit for St. Peter's Church bonfire. Item F, League of Minnesota city's waiver for Economic Development Authority liability insurance. Item G, letter of support for the Highway 120 and Highway 36 interchange. Item H, Teamsters Public and Law Enforcement Union supplemental agreement 2026 summer hours. And item I, approving of training room AV project. >> Thank you very much. Would anybody like to pull anything at this time? If not, >> I would like to pull >> items >> ENG, please. >> ENG. All right. Thank you very much. If nothing else, can I get a motion on the rest? >> So moved. >> So moved. Council member Normy. >> Second. >> Second. Council member. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you. >> Open to the public. Josh. >> Hey John. >> Evening. >> Good evening. >> I missed that. I wasn't listening. Uh uh John Schwall, 2750 Chisum Avenue. Uh I would just like to repeat what uh council member Woods had said at the last meeting. I'm not an accountant and I'm not an accountant times two. And the situation that I uh that I don't want to refer to is that the information from the financial officer saying that uh we wouldn't we would reduce the rates for electricity and it was not the rate it was a amount off of the uh power adjustment which I've never really understood but who knows. Um, and in these times at the chaos that has uh visited energy prices, I know we probably don't run our electricity off of uh oil come out coming out of the straight of Hormuse, but it's all one big picture and there are prices that are going up and the thing is is that the reduction is from the power adjustment and I had submitted a data request years back to figure out what the power adjust uh was and were we paying that to MMPA and whatnot and yes that power adjustment is based on costs that we've incurred as the producer the MMPA and they pass it on to the city and the PA uh the city passes it on to us the the residents. So, how can you say, well, we're going to reduce that amount, that power adjustment amount. That's what we're going to give as a benefit to you as residents. But wait a minute, that you've incurred that cost. How can you say that that is reduced unless you have some slush fund somewhere that is you can use? This is, you know, not an accountant plus two or two times. I haven't got a clue as to how you can do when you are being charged something and you can say to the residents, you don't have to pay that total amount, but we'll give it to someone or we'll get that money from somewhere else. Uh secondly, the deal that's going on in Casey, uh they're still hauling tonight and they still have the pumps going. And why didn't they put pumps in uh three weeks ago when they shut the whole operation down? the dewatering and uh those pumps ran for four or five six straight days to get the water out of the area. Why didn't they have the pumps going before? And I talked to one of the guys. I like talking to the guys, you know, they'll give you the straight skinny. And said, "What happened?" Oh, they were trying to get by on the cheap. That was the story. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next. >> Thank you. >> Um, city business action items. We have two on the agenda for tonight. Uh, first one up is the division street department's resolution of support. Uh, item A. I'll turn that over to Ken Rabbits. Pardon? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. I apologize. I jumped ahead. We have two that we pulled. >> I >> That's right. So, item E, special event permit for uh Church of St. Peter bonfire. >> Um, so I'm the one that pulled this. This is a permit for the St. Peter's bonfire. I would just um really appreciate it if Ken could take a moment to explain because this is something we recently changed and I just wanted to understand it. Um, I was hoping he could explain a did this permit now fall under the free or was it paid and b if he could explain what because some of some of these permits I believe now were being able to be approved administratively and not come to us. So I was also curious what on this permit triggered it to have to come before us and not come before us. So I was just hoping we could understand what we changed and why we changed it. But I'm I'm fully in support and plan on approving it. Mayor, members of the council, the reason this is before you this evening is because the permit to have a bonfire. Fire department's clearly very concerned and very cautious and they may require to be on standby and there would be a fee or potential cost for that. That's the primary reason why this permits before you. But you're right, uh, Council Member Nordby, we did change the ordinance. There are some permits that can be approved administratively. We will notify the council, but you don't have to approve them. This one, because there will be some public expense by the fire department, we want to bring it before you to make sure you're aware of it. >> Thank you. >> And did did this permit still fall under the free category? >> No. >> Yes, it did. Okay. >> Special event permits for um nonprofits are still at no cost. Thank you. I I appreciate you taking the time for that explanation so I can understand what we changed. >> So let's vote on that one. All those in favor for the church permit for the special bird for the church. >> So moved. >> So moved. Council member Norby. >> Second. >> Second. Council member Swear. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Thank you. All right. Next one. >> Next item is the letter of support for the Highway 120 and Highway 36 interchange. We have >> um I pulled this as well. I was just hoping Morgan could speak to us some about what this truly means. Um, and especially because I don't believe there's a finalized project, what a a letter of support means on something that isn't finalized. Just want to know what we're voting for. >> Sure, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, Council Member Norby. Um so what is before you is uh simply to approve or authorize uh staff to complete and transmit a letter of support basically for a funding application. This has happened uh just off the top of my head twice before uh for the interchange u maybe different councils but uh there have been two past solicitations for corridors of commerce funding that the city council has supported by way of a a a letter of support and uh this is no different although it's a little different program. So this is what is considered a a regional solicitation. So those dollars pass through from either the feds or the state and are distributed by by the Met Council um for a variety of different things. Transit is one certainly transportation is another transportation projects and the future interchange at 36 and 120 is a transportation project. Um, so the lead agency here in terms of who is contemplating submitting the application, uh, oh, and I should mention that the regional solicitation is competitive. So just like corridors of commerce, there'll be an application, uh, information on the potential future project, even though the scope is not totally definitively set, there's enough information there to uh, request additional funding. And the lead agency is uh, Washington County. And because we're, you know, 36 and 120 is right on the border there. So, Washington County has decided to take the lead in making the application for regional solicitation dollars for the interchange and they are requesting letters of support from Ramsey County, from North St. Paul and also Oakdale. My understanding is that all communities are contemplating, you know, completing a similar letter of of uh support. Uh, and that is a requirement of the application. They they are going to require uh that all the governmental bodies that are impacted by any kind of uh regional solicitation type of improvement and this is no exception that they uh sign off with their support of the application letting the Met Council know that they're aware uh and that sort of thing. Right? The uh request or the solicitation as communicated to me by Washington County is for $20 million. that does not cover all of the cost or contemplated cost as far as I understand for the interchange, but it is a major component, a major chunk. Uh, and so I think Washington County is contemplating um regional solicitation dollars uh combined with potentially county or other state dollars as well too. There's no request for uh city funding at this point. Although if you read that letter carefully, I think there's some language uh that just clarifies that if there is something that is, you know, within the city right of way that's impacted that just like we own and maintain that today that we would own and maintain that in the future, even if that does get improved. I mean, one example could be if it extends as far down south on 120 to the intersection of 7th Avenue and 120. If that becomes a part of the overall project, even though the interchange isn't going to be right there, they just want to know that we're in support of continuing to maintain 7th Avenue like we have always done, even if they put some of those dollars into improving that intersection. Right. So, um, other than that, uh, it's a fairly straightforward letter of support. Uh again, $20 million. Ramsey County, Oakdale, and North St. Paul uh were requested to supply letters and Washington County is the lead agency at least at this point. Um and so we will have to see how the solicitation goes and the competitive uh scoring goes. Uh we were on corridors of commerce. We were close but not quite above the line for fundable. So uh there could be a good chance that uh the 20 million gets funded. We'll just have to see and I don't think we will find out until like the end of this year. I don't know the exact date but uh deadline for the solicitation I believe is June 25th. Um and they take some time to sift through all the applications. So later in the year for sure we will find out. Hopefully we'll be able to provide an update if not formally in front of council but by way of the city manager in terms of what the outcome was. >> Question is the city has the city of Oakdale provided a letter as well? Yeah, they're planning on it is my understanding. They're I don't know if it's going in front of the council or being done administratively, but I did see an email that uh confirmed for Washington County that they're working on putting their letter together. >> Excellent. >> Could Could you also touch on um because I believe this is going to have some impact on the Gateway Trail. Will will the governing body of that need to do a letter of support as well or how will that tie into this because I believe it could possibly impact them greatly. >> Yeah. So that would be the DNR is the um authority in charge of the gateway trail if you will uh from a recreational regional trail standpoint. Um they were not included in the uh request for letters that I saw. Um so I don't know that that is a I think it's more looking for what um the region considers local agencies which would include cities and counties. Right. So, uh, I think the DNR has been involved with, for example, the 120 corridor study and there's been some interaction between Mindot staff or county staff and the DNR, but I can't speak exactly to whether or not they will or will not add a letter of support. They certainly will be impacted, right? And I know that one of the goals uh of the interchange project stated goals is to um maintain if not improve uh multimodal transportation which when you hear that that means not just cars right so it it could include mass transit but mostly what they're talking about is bikes and pedestrians and as you know we have a strong interest in um presenting and and uh continuing pedestrian movements and bike movements across the highway. way with the interchange in some fashion and even further north uh links into Madameidi and the Lake Links Trail and up along Silver Lake before you even get to that point. So, I'm not saying that the interchange will will build the trail, but it certainly will set the stage for north south uh connectivity from a multimmodal standpoint and and you know the the we're still in um it's not even preliminary design. We're still in the very early concept uh discussions of what an interchange might look like and what alternatives are going to be evaluated. However, as funding starts getting added into the pot and we get closer to a fully funded project, um those things are going to ramp up, right? and and there's going to be a need uh by Mindot or the county or whoever is going to lead the project to really start digging into more detailed design and and so we'll learn more as we get closer and and if there is again a block of funds that is identified through this solicitation that will certainly move things forward to a certain extent but it isn't going to mean that instantaneously we're going to know exactly what the design alternative is or what the time frame is. Oh, they did mention in an email, again, this is to be taken with a grain of salt, but the the solicitation has a time frame with it. And right now with this application, the funds would be programmed for 2031. So again, that's subject to change, but that's just what Washington County is saying as a FYI right now. >> I remember from our meeting, I think it was March when they did the update with us for the corridor is that Mindot doesn't have a budget for stuff like this. It has to be a ground swell coming from, you know, grants and everything else. So that's where it has to be. Yes. >> And um I thank Brian because part of it was they just wanted a letter from the city, but Brian said, you know, we got to bring it in front of the council and, you know, have us show support for it. So I'm glad we're able to talk about it and be able to uh continue and, you know, show our our full support to try to get that moving. We we do have that land where the old BP station used to be that we didn't do anything with cuz we knew someday something like this may happen. And so we do have a card to play with down the down the line here as well. >> That's great. >> All right. Thank you. >> Y >> any more questions? >> All right. Does somebody want to bring up the motion? >> So moved. >> So moved. Council member Norby. >> Second. >> Second. Council member Woods. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you. >> All right. Onto our regularly scheduled >> There you go. Items. >> Uh first up, uh Division Street Apartments, a resolution of support to Ken Roberts, our community development director. Thank you, Brian. Mr. Mayor, members of the council, this request is similar to the one you just spoke about. It's a this is a resolution of support rather than a letter of support uh for the division street apartments. And those apartments are this will show it better on the corner of 17th and highway 120 just up the road from the intersection in this location. And uh Mr. Uh Ruby is the owner of 612 651 properties. He's made this request of the city uh as he will be submitting a funding application to Ramsey County to get assistance to rehabilitate the existing apartments there. >> And part of his application to the county is to get a letter or resolution of support from the city. And so he, as I said, he's in the process of buying the property. He's proposing to invest over $200,000 into them primarily in the interior mechanical systems and improvements to the parking lot. He would be mis plan is as I show on the screen and in the report keep four of the units with a rental income or with a rent of no higher than 30% of the area median income and the rent for the other 17 units at 50% of the area median income. So, he will be submitting an application to Ramsey County to get grant funding to help uh make this project happen. The important thing for the city to know is that there would be no monetary commitment or contribution expected with this. Again, it's a letter of support saying we think it's as I say, it's a good thing to rehabilitate these projects, >> this project and support it. Uh so staff has found that this proposal to rehabilitate and renovate this property is in the public interest of North St. fallen as residents. And we have a resolution uh in the packet uh supporting the application to Ramsey County for the acquisition of the Division Street Apartments located at 2726 2720 17th Avenue and 2633 Division Street North. Uh Mr. Ruby is here. Uh be happy to answer questions if you have any. want to hear a few words from him about his vision of the property. I think that' probably be a good idea. >> Mhm. >> Sounds good. >> There he is. >> Welcome. >> Thank you guys very much for your time and for allowing me to take a few minutes to field some questions. Uh would you like me to maybe give a high level exposition on kind of my vision? Uh so a little quick background and context. Uh, I own 612651 Properties. Uh, we are an affordable housing developer based here out of the Twin Cities. Uh, that is one of my jobs. I also work for the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, which is a affordable housing nonprofit lender, um, non-bank lender. So, affordable housing is very important to me. It's very near and dear. Uh, I'm a big believer in it. Um, so this application and this request to you is coming with the purpose of, as Ken was mentioning, uh, submitting to a RFP at Ramsey County. Uh, essentially, they have funds available from various pots of money, uh, local affordable housing aid, uh, state affordable housing aid, and some other pots of money for the purpose of constructing new affordable housing, preserving affordable housing and rehabilitation of affordable housing. That is kind of like the highle overview. My intent with the division streets and apartments is that we currently have accepted LOI and we are negotiating a purchase agreement. Um I actually just sent it over to the uh seller right now and we will work once purchased to uh renovate each of the interior of the units of the building. There's 21 units total. Uh, and I think perhaps, you know, I spoke with the fire inspector who's also rental the rental license inspector, and I think what he said best kind of sums up kind of the state of the building. It's well-maintained, but it's tired. Um, you can tell that it is uh it's inongruent. You know, there's a lot. You go inside and there's different flooring from like the living room to the bedrooms to the bathroom, different coats of paint, the cabinets are tired. So, what we propose is essentially to renovate these units while not displacing the residents. So essentially, there's going to be a couple of units vacant at closing. We will renovate those units first, give those residents the opportunity to move over to a new unit in the building without increasing their rent, uh, and then continue on with those renovations kind of systematically over the course of a year. Uh, additionally, something that's also very important to me is uh, energy efficiency, uh, carbon reduction. So, we'll be installing high efficiency boilers at the building to replace the old original boilers, high efficiency hot water heaters. Um, all lights will switch over to LEDs. Uh, all fixtures will be switched over to kind of low flow, high efficiency, but not like the ones that you use and you're like, why I don't get any water out of the shower head? Like ones that are are are comfortable for tenants. Uh, and then we'll also work with other uh providers. Uh, there's something called the multif family building efficiency program which we can utilize to upgrade appliances in the building. Uh, weather seal. So again, basically recapitalizing the building and bringing it back to essentially as close to brand new as you can without having a new construction. Uh I've done this project before in other places. Uh most recently in White Bear Lake over at 3637 Bair. Um that is an 18 unit apartment building that we have just finished stabilizing and doing the same exact thing. Um we'll be investing some of my own money, some of our own money from the um business and then utilizing money from Ramsey County as well. and then a loan from Bridgewater Bank who is our finance year partner who we have a very good relationship with. Questions, concerns, comments? I try to be an open book and make sure that uh you guys are comfortable if you decide to support this. >> Um the exterior on those buildings right now are pretty they're they're stuck if I'm not mistaken. Are they going to do a restuckle? Are they going to put some new type of material on the exterior? >> Nope. There's no intention right now to do anything with the exterior. The roofs are new as 2025 uh because there's a big storm and from my understanding there is a tree that fell through the roof of one of the buildings. So those have new roves. The exterior stuckle on my inspection is in pretty good shape. Um we'll most likely the only exterior work we'll be doing is most likely some window replacement of some of the older windows that have kind of lost their seals and or are just kind of in bad shape. So, uh, we would most likely also be doing some resurfacing of the, uh, or at least, uh, topping the black top there just to kind of make it look a little newer. It's a little bit >> It's a little rough. >> Tired. >> So, >> tired is a great word, right? Exactly. Tired out there. >> Yeah. I think that's the what the fire inspector said is like it's just a tired building. >> So, >> my question was more based on the beautifification of the exterior. >> Yes. Yeah. Um so yeah, in terms of beautifification of the exterior, um I don't have plans to paint the exterior right now, but we'll probably do some basic landscaping along the edging. Um you think I kind of low impact kind of hostas, uh mulch, other stuff along those lines around the exterior of the building and then some additional work to keep water away um from the uh foundation of the building at this time. So >> are they are they lower level? The second the lowest level that's underground just a shame. >> It's like a garden level. Yeah. So it's like partially underground. It's like half underground. Correct. >> I've driven by them for the last 50 55 years. >> When you get that far, we have our own electric utilities. So there are rebates available. Some of the work that you're doing. >> Yes. Ken was nice enough to let me know that and and yeah, so uh we would be working with them. And then also since Centerpoint uh supplies gas, we'd be working with them through the MFBE program again to kind of do that comprehensive like look and see what all can we touch there to kind of like make this as new as possible. Nice. >> No, it's XL Energy. >> Excellent. I think it's great. >> Thank you. >> Thank you guys very much. >> Excited to see it uh get revitalized. >> Fingers crossed. It's a competitive RFP. We've done well in the past, but always the letter of support from the city. Uh just is indicative of uh kind of another piece of the puzzle that's necessary to kind of create a very competitive application. So, thank you guys very much. I appreciate you. >> Plus, you got the dairy cream right there. How can you go wrong? >> I said that in my application, actually. I was like, "It'll be really great just to stop by afterwards or bring the kids by and Yeah. >> Yep. >> Be careful. Just be careful in the driveway." >> Yeah. >> All right. >> So, we have a resolution. >> All right. Turn the mic. There's a resolution for council support division. Yep. >> I'd like to make a motion. >> Yes. >> Council member Swear is making the motion. >> Second. Council member McKenzie. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. All right. Thank you and good luck. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Much appreciated. Mhm. >> Second item up this evening is the solid waste recycle and yard waste collection service contract approval. We'll turn that over to Ken. >> Thank you again, Brian, mayor, members of the council. We have before you this evening the proposal for the new contract for our solid waste recycling and yard waste collection services. So, as the council knows, we've been uh working on this for several months with uh FA Environmental and our team here at the city to uh work through and find a go through the RFP process for the new contract. Our current contract uh ends the end of August 2026. And so, we're we've been in the RFP review process. There's been a committee of uh city staff working on this with Chris Churnney, Dan Winnick, Barb Helman, Taylor Lily, and myself. Uh we worked with FA to put the RFP together. Council approved the RFP back in December. We put it out on the street, so to speak, to see contractors that would be interested. And we received seven proposals and we brought those to the council in on April 7th for a little overview and review uh based on the scoring and the tabulation. It was the consensus of the council at that time to have the uh review team here interview the two highest rated vendors. If you remember, that was vendor A and vendor B on this table with the highest scores. So, we did that. We had interviews with the two vendors in May. We had each of them in for hour, hour and a half with the team and we had good conversations with both of the vendors, heard from each of them, uh had good dialogue back and forth with each and exchange of ideas. At the end of each interview, we encourage each vendor to send in to the city an alternative pro proposal with prices for bulky pickup services. The initial proposals had some information on that, but we uh as a team, as a city, really were stressing that that was an important thing to the city. And so each vendor did do that. And uh vendor B just to for comparison uh they were offering four bulky pickups per year at a cost of 75 cents per month per household. Uh that would have included all bulky items including mattresses would not include appliances and electronics because those services are available elsewhere. The other the other vendor was tennis and their bulky waste option would allow the each household to set up set out six approved bulky items per year at no additional charge and up to two appliances per year at no additional charge. And each of those was waving the uh labor charge that they would have charged normally. Uh and with both of these in any of these cases, uh we as a city need to remember that the collection and the pickup is no charge, but we still pay for the tipping fees uh for their proper disposal at the facility down in Newport. So, it's not completely free, but it's certainly at a reduced rate. So going through that and looking at the proposed contracts, uh we took a hard look at the tennis contract that was proposed. They would be for five years with three one-year extensions. The garbage and recycling rates will increase 3% each year. They are not proposing any proision uh provisions for fuel search charges. The city will continue with the billing and customer service responsibilities as we have been doing. We have the bulky waste component in there and most importantly both the city attorney and tennis have reviewed and approved the proposed contract. So when we put it all together, uh it was the team's recommendation based on the rates, based on the bulky service pickup, and I think to some degree the success the city has had with tennis that we're recommending uh approval of the proposed contract with tennis for the solid waste recycling yard waste collection. And if so, we have a resolution in the packet that awards the contract and allows for the signatures of the city manager and the mayor to proceed. Tennis representatives are here if you wish to hear from them, but that's our recommendation. >> Any questions? Anybody >> on my end? I do have a question. How is the city because we're providing we're contacting you as residents letting you know we have a bulky pickup and you all the city is providing us the customer service piece. How are you tracking how many items are being picked up by each resident in the house? >> Mr. Mayor, members of the council, that's one detail we have to figure out yet with tennis and we're going to figure that out in the next three months before this starts in September. May I ask you to bring that back to council just to discuss that and see what that looks like? >> Absolutely. Because the calls come into the city and then we in turn then contact with uh tennis so figure out the most efficient way of figuring that out of keeping track of you know the bulk pickups and then the appliance pickups that are allowed. So it's a good question >> and abusing of it. Yeah. >> Yes. >> I guess I want to say thanks to all the tennis guys that came out and helped the city cleanup on um what was it? May 9th. >> Yeah. That was where all you guys come up last year and this year and that was a really big help and I know our city helps and thanks you very much. >> What I appreciate about tennis and I appreciate that you guys are here too, Troy. I've worked with you in the past just with cleanup days. Um I lived in many moons ago I lived in the city of St. Paul Park and we were um dedicated to tennis as our provider and what I appreciate about them is they're very small town oriented which provides pretty high quality uh service and I actually called tennis about a month ago and said I was I was actually driving to bring my girls to school and just down the hill um off of County Road B and Mcnite there is a home on the corner that has a ramp and the individual is handicapped and unfortunately that they can't bring their garbage can back and forth and your gentleman um it was a male. He went up to the house, grabbed the can, brought it down and um then brought it back up and I thought that was the neatest thing to see that piece of customer service out there. Um I've seen other uh employees of yours go above and beyond, too. So, I'm excited that you came in and we're competitive with this. Uh, and I'm glad that we are this is at the table to vote on tonight. >> If I could just add quickly, uh, yeah, our staff has been very happy to work with them. They've always had good customer service. Um, it's really great to have a locally and family-owned business who has just recently celebrated 60 years of service. >> Congratulations. Very good. >> All right. >> Does that mean you're all 60 years old then? to adopt this. >> Council member Schwar. >> Second. >> Second. Council member Norby. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you. Thank you for your service. We appreciate the >> Oh, yeah. >> Looking forward to the future. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> So, your drivers get uh little pins and bonuses, huh? If we call them. >> Good. >> Yeah. Turn it in. >> Very nice. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, guys. >> Thanks. Thank you. >> All right. Very good. >> A lot of good stuff tonight. >> Moving on to reports of city management departments. Um did get the report from Metropolitan Council this week on they do the annual population estimate. This is for 2025. They do housing units and households. So um from the 2020 census to the 2025 estimate, it went from 4,984 to 5393. So up of 400 for in the last five years. Um households went from 4,83 to 5,132. So that went up about 330. And total population went from 2020 like our signs say coming into town 12,364 to 12,983. >> So 620. So >> just need another 17 people so we can hit that 13. Huh? It's like your car waiting for the odometer to flip. >> Yes. Um we got the departments working on their budgets right now. That'll be uh turned in later this week. Then we'll be moving on shortly to the CIP. Um city hall summer hours have started this week which is Monday through Thursdays 7 to 4:30 and then Thursdays 7 to 11. We shut down early on Fridays. So just let the public know. Um department's been busy. They're got a contractor working out there at Northwood including installations of they're doing the installation of transformers and switching out equipment there. Um they do have a new employee that starts next week. Uh communications, they've got all the preparations complete for the June 25th community event for the uh time capsule event. Um and the actual ground digging and pulling up the capsule is on June 15th. Um HR has been working still with uh new hires and job postings uh continuing through Paycom doing a good job with that. U finance is working with the new cash payment policy which goes into effect August 1st for that uh no change. Um which just means uh pennies no longer accepted. Uh customers must either pay the exact amount or if they have a balance credit it just goes onto their account. Um there is no rounding that happens with it. Um we had a new employee that started this week on Monday for Jackie's retirement. So so far so good. Um department's uh yeah like I said the budgets are due the end of this week and then moving on to the CIP. Police department they have the their Motorola system is up and operational. So staff's working just through the minor issues and uh pleased with the perform performance so far. So things are going good. Uh got the car show planning. They're going to make a couple of officers available for the car show, which is great. Um, they have sergeant interviews scheduled for next Monday. Uh, looks like they're having seven candidates, two internal, five external. Um, and the police officer position remains open for applications for two more weeks. Uh, public works has two additional seasonal employees that they started this week. We got, I think, a couple next week, and then we're at full capacity for the summer help. Um construction on the pond project at Casey is ongoing. Uh they're still looking at a completion of July 4th, but that's of course weather permitting. Um 7th Avenue got a good cleaning earlier this week for the car show. Everything and span for that. Appreciate them coming in early and doing that. Um fire department has uh fire inspector applications closed tomorrow for that. Um their May volume of calls has reached another record. They had 208 calls in May. Um, and the access control project or the new door security systems is up and running. Just a few little things are working out, but uh, it's all in and working well. That's all I got for you. >> All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right. Council Commissions, you're up, kid. >> Thanks. Um, Parks and Recreation met last Wednesday. Uh, thank you Brian about just mentioning the CIP and that the departments are getting ready for the CIP because Sarah did bring and we got the CIP information and talked through just what are the plans and what does the future look like for parks and recck for 2027. So that was the main focus at the last meeting was what do we want um what does parks and recck want to look want to propose to the council. So um good meeting our first uh meeting in June. Yes. Sorry, I had to think about what day it was. Um, our first meeting in June will be held at Casey Lake at 6:30 on uh the third Wednesday. I don't know the day off the top of my head. >> Um, so 6:30 at Casey Lake. >> Great. It's good to see you're out and about, too. >> Yes. >> Uh, the EDA meets next two Tuesday on the 9th at 4 o'clock here in the chambers. >> Thank you. Arts and Culture will meet tomorrow night here in council chambers. >> All right. >> Planning Commission will meet two days from now here in council chambers. >> Look at that. A lot of stuff coming up. General business. Anybody? >> Yes. I um first and foremost want to give a shout out to the history museum. They actually did um a story and a meeting on my house. So, that was the last meeting at the history museum. It was a lot of fun. I was invited by Sue Springborn um to attend because they were talking about my house and people would be driving past it. Um and it was very interesting. Learned a lot of new things about my home, but also um it was cool to see just some of the structure that I thought somebody put in. It was actually original, but it came with the house. So, um it was really neat. I That was a good event to go to. >> It would be. >> Yeah. So, it was You can view it if you'd like to view it. Um, and you're welcome to drive past the house. It's 10 and >> you have cookies. >> Yeah. Well, I do not have cookies, but maybe there's the leftover pecan bars from the event that's that night, too. So, um, but I gosh, is it 2020? The house is 110 years old, 115 years old. So, >> um, yes. So, feel free to drive by. I won't I won't promote my address. You can go to the history museum and take a look at it. >> There you go. >> Um, the other thing I want to touch on is the uh car show. Car show is coming up on June 12th. It's pretty exciting. This is a big event for our city. We take a lot of pride in it. Uh, we are super grateful for the history cruisers and to continue um the partnership with us. We appreciate their volunteering. Um, the way they run the program, it's fantastic. Um, I think it's important for our residents to know that yes, they've decided to go every other weekend or week, yeah, excuse me, at every other week. Um, and they call it out online. They're just getting older. They don't have a ton of volunteers. We sought out and found another group, the Invisible Wound Warrior Invisible Wound Project, excuse me, who is a nonforprofit. We are super excited to have that partnership to to continue to build off of something that is so exciting in the summer and for our residents and for the community. Uh I would like to personally ask our community and those that are associated with the city of North St. call and I asked them to reach out to the city, reach out to the council members if you have any issues or have a lot of questions about these partnerships and our relationships with these partners, please talk with us about those. This is why you have the ability to communicate with us. Uh we're looking forward to an exciting summer and an exciting partnership with both the history cruisers and the invisible wound project. >> Very well said. Very good. Thank you. >> Thanks. Uh, when was the polar park? Was that two weeks ago or was that before our last council? >> Boy, that's a tough question >> cuz I know I we you were just there. >> You and I were there. I Yeah, we were the council or the folks there. >> That went really well. >> That was really actually a nice looking park in >> very hidden back there in the corner. It's a little hidden gem. >> It is. Yeah. >> Great. Anybody else? >> Uh, I've got nothing. >> Okay. >> Just uh Cassie Wells said, um, just one clarification. Is it the first car show this Friday? >> Yeah. No, next week. >> It's the 12th. >> No, it's fifth. >> Fifth. >> The fifth. >> Oh, good. I thought we had to wait. >> Is it? >> This Friday. >> Okay. History. Is it the wound? >> History. Yep. >> They're the following. The 12th is a >> Thank you. So, let's Yeah, please. >> The first car show is the 5th and that's the one put on by the Invisible Wounds Project. The first one from the North St. Paul history cruisers is on the 12th and >> Okay. Personally looking forward to great partnerships with both those organizations and hopefully a long history. >> Excellent. Thank you for that confirmation. >> Yeah, >> I'd like to add one thing to that if I could please. One thing they did make a change. Um they are going to make it open to all years. Um but they are for show cars during that time. So traditionally they were going to do two different times of uh all open up to all years. They have now changed that to every u every car show just for the sake that they seems like some of the concerns with the car show were some of the people that were coming in were trying to bring in those newer vehicles and that's where they're head some kind of conflict so they're trying to avoid that and just want it to be a nice uh familyfriendly event. So yeah >> and that's the invisible wounds that is correct >> is going to >> any year >> all years >> all of them correct >> excellent >> show cars. Yep. So, I wish I would have my would still have my 1985 Plymouth Reliant. That would have been a show car. Um, also the parking lot looks great all striped up and against there. So, our public parking over there on 7th, it really makes that that area look much neater and cleaner. Uh, also on the way home today, I saw that the electricians were at the student build home. So, I stopped over and I did a tour of both of them, looked at them. They're coming along nicely. They're very nicely laid out. They're they're nice looking places, so it's going to be exciting to have that done. But yeah, there was uh they did well with the space in there. >> And when will those go up for market? >> We're hoping um what mid to late July. >> Yeah, hopefully July. >> And the plan is to do the open house before we put it on the market or put it on the market and do the open house. >> I think the school is talking August. >> They push it to August. Okay. Okay. So, that was >> looking towards August here at home. Okay. >> For this for the unveiling. So, that's going to be something to look forward to. Good stuff. >> All right. Our next meeting is June 16th. If I have a call for >> Troy, I interrupted you, but you were going to say something about general business. >> No, you said you had nothing. >> Yeah. No, I had nothing to say. >> All right. So, all right, everybody. Good meeting. Yeah. Call for German. >> What? >> Oh, we had signed up earlier. >> I didn't sign up. >> Oh, okay. >> I had to sign up. >> All right. Come on up. >> My name is Eileen Stever. >> Yeah. Yeah. We'll put on this microphone for you. You got three minutes, please. >> Excuse me. >> Three minutes. >> My name is Eileen Stever. I live on the corner of South Avenue and Second Street. And um the city uh has been mowing my yard. It's a very steep uh boulevard on the second side, second street side because I live on the hill. And um when that street was put in um I was I'd asked for a retaining wall why we didn't get a retaining wall put in because it's very difficult to mo to mow and uh they thought it was prohibitive at the time. So uh several years later I I kept on mowing it. I planted grass and kept on mowing it. And one day when I was mowing it, I tipped almost tipped over with my lawnmower and fell uh and uh was a lawnmower running. >> Oh. >> So I came back to city hall to hear to a council and told them about something that's got to be done because it's just too steep for for to push a lawnmower. And at that meeting, they decided to uh have the city move mow the lawn after that. And they have been mowing it until last spring. And uh then the secretary said, "Well, we're not going to mow it anymore because we have no letters stating that it has to be mowed." And I said, "Well, I don't." I looked for a letter and I didn't have a letter either. And um so I guess maybe they just did the somebody in the council told the the public works department that they had to mow the lawn. So they didn't have a letter. I don't at least they're telling me they didn't have a notice. And so I'm asking for a copy of that meeting so I can give them a paper in my hand. and show them that that they're responsible because I've lost the the person who had been mowing my lawn for many years quit. He said, "I'm not mowing it again as to steep." And now my son helps me mow it. And he said, "It's dangerous. It's just too dangerous." >> Okay. Well, we'll have the city manager. So, I would like a paper cop that I could >> send them so that they have it in writing. >> Can that be done? >> I'll get your contact information and I will contact you and we'll figure this out of what I will get your uh contact information from you after the meeting here and then we will figure this out. I will we'll figure out what happened and why it's the way it is. Is your address on a South Avenue address or is it a >> It's on a It's on a hill, a corner of South and Second. It's a big house on the hill. >> Do you face South? Is your address South or is it Second? >> It's South Avenue. >> South. Okay. County Road. Okay. >> Along South Avenue. When they built put that in, they had all these beautiful retaining walls in on the on the houses that were on hills. And uh when they put in Second Street, the new and put the curb in, they didn't have a curb. That was way back in 1991 or something like that. >> Okay. Well, we'll take a look. You know, it's also a county road, too, south. So, there's a different there's a bunch of different territories with it. So, >> anyway, they they put in new sidewalks and and um driveways for the people across the street, but they didn't do anything on the hilly side of the street. >> Okay. >> Except the curb. So, Oh, >> we'll look into it. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate Thank you for listening to me. >> Yeah. Well, thanks for coming up. >> Thank you. All right, call for adjournment. >> I'd like to make a motion to call for adjournment. >> Thank you very much, Council Member Schwer. >> Second, Council Member Norby. All those in favor say I. >> I. We'll see you June 16th, everybody. Thank you.