call the meeting to order of the city council meeting. Uh clerk, please do a roll call. Council member Walsh >> here. >> Council member Gerola here. >> Council member West here. >> Council member Edberg here. >> Council member Angstran here. >> And Mayor Necclausski here. All right. Will the honor guard please present the colors? City White, the flag of your nation, and the pledge to follow. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, >> and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thank you, Color Guard. Welcome to everybody here and online. It's exciting night tonight. Um where we uh welcome our new police chief. So, welcome to everybody who all our visitors and people who came just for the regular city council meeting. Welcome. Uh we're going to start right away with item 2A, approval of the minutes of the regular city council meeting on May 12th, 2026. I'd accept a motion to approve the minutes. >> Second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right, we the minutes are approved. Item 2B, approval of the minutes of the city council work session on May 19th, 2026. Is there a motion? >> Move approval. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? And those are passed. Item three, the agenda. Does anyone have any changes to the agenda? >> Seeing none. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> Is there a second? >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. All right, we have an agenda. Item four, the consent agenda. Does anyone have any changes to the consent agenda? Is there a motion to accept the consent agenda? >> So move. >> A second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Consent agenda is adopted. Okay, visitors and presentation. Miss Crawford. >> Thank you, mayor, members of the council. Uh, tonight we are going to swear in our new chief of police. So, I'm going to do an introduction here um of Chief Eric Johnston uh before he comes up and gives does his oath of office and then uh his uh wife Stephanie pins his badge. So, uh Eric Johnston started as the Wiper Lake Chief of Police on May 9th. Following a career change as a computer repair technician for IBM, he started his career in Columbia Heights uh in 2002. During his time there at Columbia Heights Police Department, which some are here tonight, thanks for coming. Um he served as a school resource officer in the street crimes unit, as an investigator, sergeant, captain, and most recently as deputy chief. Along the way, he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration, a master's in police leadership, and completed the Northwestern University's School of Police Staff and Command. He also serves on a newly formed statewide peer support group for command staff, uh, which is a unique and necessary group for the law enforcement industry. His personal career highlights include helping create youth and community engagement programs that brought Columbia Heights police and the community together, which helped build and maintain positive relation relationships that withtood challenging times, especially earlier this year. Eric and his wife Stephanie have a blended family of five kids, ranging in age from high school to college. They have two golden doodles which he enjoys spending time with in addition to being outdoors, deer hunting, learning golf, reading, and playing video game video games when he can find the time. Last summer, I hear he picked up a a new barbecue smoker. So, he's also been enjoying experimenting with some recipes. When it comes to law enforcement, he most enjoys the opportunity to actively partner with the community to not only increase their safety, but to improve the community's sense of well-being where they live, work, and play. Being able to respond and help others during a time of need need is deeply important to him. So, when asked what his values and priorities were for his new role in Wiper Lake, he told me they were simple. treat people right, be professional, keep learning, work hard and have fun, and take care of oneself and each other. As he gets settled into his new role, he looks forward to continuing the strong uh tradition of community engagement and getting to know members of the police department, city, and community. He shared that he's excited to work with, and I quote, these amazing people and great group of professional law enforcement uh officers. So, with that, um, the city clerk is going to now issue Chief Johnston, uh, the oath of office. Um, and then, uh, following that, as I said, his wife Stephanie will pin his badge before he shares a few words with the group. So, city clerk, please raise your right hand. Repeat after me. >> Hi. I >> state your name. >> Eric Johnston. do solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support >> that I will support >> the Constitution of the United States >> the Constitution of the United States >> and the state of Minnesota >> and the state of Minnesota >> and will discharge >> and will discharge >> and faithfully execute >> and faithfully execute >> the duties devolving upon me >> the duties devolving upon me >> as chief of police >> as chief of police >> for the city of White Bear Lake >> for the city of White Bear Lake >> without fear or favor >> without fear or favor To the best of my judgment and ability. >> to the best of my judgment and ability. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. Welcome. >> Congratulations. You're welcome. I told my wife Stephanie as I was sitting there and now I just need to figure out what to say when I got up here. And uh I would just like to uh you know really uh thank everybody for the trust and the honor to to lead this department. It's uh it has been amazing uh since the day I got here uh and even before I got here. Uh everybody has uh spoke very highly of of White Bear Lake and of the police department, of the professionalism, and I'm honored to have the uh the privilege and the trust to continue that tradition. I'm going to be out there. I'm going to be active. Uh you're going to be seeing me at community events. I'm just a phone call or or a visit away. And I just want to be connected with the community and and be here to serve and uh and that's what this police department is going to do. So, thank you again for the opportunity and the trust and look forward to working with everybody. Chief and and welcome to White Bear Lake. We're very excited to have you here and I know that uh you'll do a great job in leading our fabulous police department and thank you. Thanks for being here. Yeah. Thank you. >> Unlike the rest of us, they all get to go celebrate and have cake while we while we work a little bit longer. But >> and thanks police for all coming. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thanks. Is there anyone left? Oh, they're nice and quiet as they leave. All right, moving on. Um, item six, public hearings. We have nothing scheduled. Item seven, unfinished business. We have nothing scheduled. Item eight, new business, residential refues and recycling collection contract. Mr. Copy, Mr. Juba, thank you. Council members, I will say that was one of the quietest exits I've ever experienced. >> Out of these situations. >> Wow. Uh that was special. Uh all right. Um thank you very much. The city's contract for Republic Services for refugees and recycling collection is expiring at the end of August. Republic has been our uh our hauler for residential recycling and uh refuge collection since 2017 when the former hauler Troy's trash filed for bankruptcy. As the city's hauler Republic collects trash and and recycling 5 days a week from over 7,500 residences. It's a very uh busy task if you think about it that way. They also offer yard waste and bulky item um bulky item pickup. Okay. Uh, all the refues they collect is delivered to Ramsey Washington Recycling and Energy in Newport and all the recycling is delivered to Eureka Recycling in Minneapolis. We'll talk about that here in a little bit. Also, uh, after review of the service and rates, city staff and Republic have negotiated a 5-year extension um with a rate increase of 3% per year on um, collection, bulky item pickup, and yard waste. So per staff's review of similar contracts in the area, uh even with those increases, we will remain below market for what we compare to in our area. So uh we're excited about that and uh that's um again why we talked with council earlier in the year about opting for extension versus uh going out for a full RFP. So we are recommending approval of that contract tonight and there's a resolution uh for execution of that. Um, but before we do that, I've invited Beverly Matisen here from Republic to uh give a quick update and then answer any questions that uh mayor Council might have. >> Thanks, Rick. I'm Bev Matis. I'm the municipal sales manager for Republic Services, and it has been a pleasure serving this city for what did you say? Since 2017. I can't believe how quickly this has gone by. Um, this evening I just wanted to share some highlights about our industry, what's going on with Republic Services, and we'll get to it. I think >> Keep going. Keep going. >> Keep going. Okay, there we go. Okay. When we started this contract, largely we were a hauler. we would come collect, transport the material for processing. And and over the years, what we've done is we've really evolved into a sustainability company. And um and I'm going to walk you through that in just a moment. At Republic, we have a number of different city contracts that we manage. Um, I manage 25. The majority of them, we collect the material and we process the material. For White Bear Lake, um, Eureka does process year recycling. So, some of this will be a little bit different, but we're all making big advances in the industry here in the Twin Cities. So, the first thing that I wanted to point out is um our Midwest Polymer Center. What this is is we're now transporting 100% of our our plastics to our polymer center in Indianapolis. What's really neat about this is for so long a lot of plastics were downcycled into textiles, lawn furniture, carpets, and now with the polymer center, we're able to recycle those bottles in jugs six to seven times with a turnaround of about 120 days from the time the material gets to our center to the time it's back on the retailer's shelf. So, that's a really big advancement and something that we're really excited about at Republic. Another piece is we're leading the charge when it comes to electric vehicles. I think we've all seen a lot a lot of news lately about and probably even with some of the city vehicles going to EV. Um, by 2028, half of our new truck purchases will be EV. And I'm happy to announce that even today we are installing EV charging stations at our Eden Prairie division and where we're able to pilot our EV fleet um sometime in 2027 to that that area south of here. So uh there will be some updates coming your way on how we progress through that. Minnesota winters can be challenging. Another area where we've really evolved is in in um emergency response services. I think we've all seen headlines in the news about a trail der, you know, derailment, a tornado strike, hurricanes, all of those sorts of things. We have acquired companies where now Republic Services within two hours can come and help a city um in time of need. I'm sure most of you have heard about EPR. Um, this is this has made a lot of local headlines here in Minnesota. The extended producer responsibility. Um this started in early 20 um 2024 and the goal with EPR is by January 1st 2032 all packaging sold in Minnesota must be refillable, reusable, recyclable, or compostable. And this is a big this is a big commitment for our state and we're really excited about this. I did list a couple of um of of uh websites where you can get more information on this. This is a big topic in itself when we could probably talk hours about it. Um but it is coming and there is a timeline posted on the state site if you'd like to take a look at that. And what's even more exciting, I think, right now is for the city of White Bear Lake, you and a number of other cities will be able to participate in Ramsey Washington County's food scrap program beginning July 6. So, we're excited to be part of that and I hope you're excited as well. It's been very successful in other cities. Lastly, I wanted to touch on some of the um technology enhancements we've made. We've made these investments and enhancements to make it easier for your residents to reach us when it's convenient for them online. And with our app, residents can reach out. They can set up um alerts, notifications. they can schedule a special pickup. If you have a big DIY project going on at home, you can order a rolloff with a couple of taps of the finger. Very easy. And then also you can get um real live updates and we'll talk about that on the next slide. And you can report a cons uh a service concern. Gosh, I was missed today. And we can then dispatch a truck out to come get you. So, um, that has been for for our folks who who really like these services and like to conduct business outside of normal business hours. This has been a very nice and convenient tool. Lastly, I wanted to touch on Track My Truck. This is the the latest, newest, and greatest with Republic Services. Um, I've used it myself. Um, I live in a city with organized hauling and um, I'm able to know if gosh, has my trash truck come yet? Oh, well, it's 25% of the way there. Um, but my recycling was there. Um, and it's it's just convenient if you're out of town and you have somebody else that's going to be bringing your carts up for you while you're out and um you know when it when it is or if you need to tap on junior and go don't forget after football practice bring those carts up. They're empty. So very convenient. But then also there are times where gosh that my stuff is still in my cart. What happened? If you go on the app or go on that online um uh online program, you can see that okay, I wasn't serviced. My cart wasn't out soon enough. I brought it out a little too late. At that point, the customer can then report a miss or get in touch with us on the app or call if they choose. Also with White Bear Lake, we do have a customized inbox for you, so residents can email us if need be. Um, and our local staff gets those emails and responds to them quite quickly. So, a number of options for people to reach us. And of course, city staff handles a lot of different calls as well, and they do a great job. Um, I've had the privilege of working with Missy for a number of years, and she's great. So, those are my updates. If you have any questions, let me know. If you ask me a lot about EPR, I will tell you. We'll learn together. >> Does anyone have any questions? >> Yes, Corola. >> Yeah, I was wondering about the Indianapolis Polymer Center. So, if ours go do we send any there then if ours goes to Eureka or do they take not one to deliver all of your material to Eureka and um and they process it. Okay. So, the polymer center ours doesn't. >> No. And that's why Yes. And that's why I was I was hoping that I preface that correctly. I was in that. Yes. We have just a we have a few cities that do contract out their own processing and um we have a number of cities where we provide both services. Where we provide both services that material is taken to our polymer center. Is the polymer center able to do plastics other than one two and fives? >> They're one, two, and fives. >> Okay, >> recap. >> Yes. >> And then I had one more question and that was how do your trucks have anything to monitor contamination rates? I know some haulers have like cameras and other things or do you run into that often or if you're aware of any like wipers? Um how we do with our recycling contamination? your recycling contamination is is very good is the residents do a nice job. How do you compare amongst other cities? I would say that you're in the the top portion, not the bottom portion. So, you you've always done really quite well. A lot of that has to do with the education that is done by city staff. They do a really great job. Um, I know I've seen a lot of work in the in the past that Conniey's done and uh it it's been good. Um, with with contamination, like I said, uh, technology is really evolving. So much so that all of our trucks have cameras inside the hopper outside. In fact, when someone calls in a miss, we can look up on Sam Sarah a camera to see, okay, what happened here? Did Did we have a new driver who didn't realize this was out here or it's just kind of an odd stop or on a private road? What happened? And um we can clearly see what happened or oftentimes what we find is it was not out. The cart was not out. But then we can grab a picture of that, send it back to city staff or volunteer of course to call the customer. Um I've talked to a number of your residents and um and provide that picture with some very nice gentle education. >> Yeah, that's great. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. When I'm sorry, when did you say that the food waste um pickup is going to start? >> The food waste program starts July 6th. >> Okay. Thank you. So, what that will entail is residents can sign up with the county. That's a countyrun program. All of the haulers are are involved with the collection of this. And in White Bear Lake, um your residents will um get bags when they sign up for the program. And you know, they they're certified bags. They're compostable and they'll set those in their trash cart. So they're not going to need another cart, which is very convenient. So the food scraps will go in those bags and then we take that to the processing center and they pull it out. The county, they've they've got it down. They've been doing it for quite some time. >> So you just put it in your regular trash. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. Awesome. >> In that special bag >> and and people have to sign up. They'll sign up for that if they >> Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you. >> Yeah. With the county. >> Okay. Any other questions? No. Okay. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming in. Really informative. >> All right. >> All right. So, council, any any discussion? Council member Eggbird. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, Mr. Juba, so we're exercising an extension opportunity. Do we have that same extension opportunity after the end of this contract or what what's the what's next? Um that should be on our radar. >> Thank you, mayor and uh council member Edburgh. It's my understanding and the city attorney can correct me, but it's my understanding that we would have the opportunity to extend also at that time. uh prior to this uh last uh contract with Republic I I don't think that we had gone out for proposals in nearly 20 years mid 90s to 2014. >> Uh and the the reason that we did that at that time was dissatisfaction with the service. >> So I personally have been satisfied with uh as a homeowner user of the service. Um I've been satisfied with that. Do you find that our citizens are equally respectful of Republic? So, for example, I appreciate that they will come out and pick up when they are at fault, but it's kind of like not fair. Sauce for the goosees, sauce for the gander. For those that don't get their stuff out to the curb on time, what what's the consequence or uh and do we have a substantial amount of that? >> Thank you, mayor, council member Edberg. I I don't think when one of the reasons that I put in there the number of of accounts we service a week was 7,500. Uh and we do we do have issues. we have issues that pop up and I think that we would no matter who our hauler service provider is at at that magnitude. Um, a lot of the technology that Miss Matis pointed out helps I think uh with response to that. >> Um, but for the most part I I feel like the the issues that come up the real issues that come up on a weekly basis are rather minuscule uh in the grand scheme of things and their local staff is very good about responding when we get a hold of them. So, if somebody uh calls uh our utility building clerk and is very frustrated and she can't resolve that, a lot of those times those escalate to me. And I'm very confident and have been uh in my history here with Republic saying no matter what, it'll be taken care of in 24 hours. So, if it's 4:00 on a Thursday afternoon, leave your card out. They'll be there in the morning. Uh if not yet today. And uh I I'm have very few cases that that uh that has not come to fruition. >> Cool. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other questions or discussion? Okay. I'd entertain a motion to adopt the resolution renewing the contract with Republic Services for 5 years for the residential refues and recycling collection. >> So move. >> Second. >> Any further discussion? All right. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay. So, the resolution passes. Thank you. All right. Item 8 B, recycling process contract. Mr. Juba. >> Thank you, mayor and council members. Uh so very similar story here. Uh the city uh contracts with Eureka Recycling to process our recycling and we've done so since 2006. Eureka is a local nonprofit organization that relies on local markets to ensure that materials are handled responsibly. The strategy has been helpful in recent years when uh global markets or overseas markets have closed. Uh the city's contract with Eureka includes revenue sharing. So when recycle markets are good and uh our processing costs can be paid for by the sale of those goods and then city receives revenues also. That's not always the case and hasn't been the case recently, but that does rebound uh and and go back and forth and um so sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not, just like any other market, I suppose. Um, but right now, uh, we have been paying for recycling processing. Um, but nonetheless, the city sta and city staff and Eureka have negotiated a 5-year contract extension with the same exact terms that we had on the former contract, which is a 2% annual increase, or CPI, whichever is greater. Uh, and again, that's been in place for quite some time. So, we are recommending approval of this contract with Eureka Recycling. But uh like the last time around, we have Miriam Hzinger here from uh from Eureka to give an update and uh answer any questions you have on our recycling processing. >> Hinger. >> Hi, thank you for having me. >> Okay. I am Miriam Holting. I'm the co-president at Eureka. Uh really excited to talk to you about our organization today. As Mr. Juba said, we are a nonprofit mission-based Minnesota based organization. Um, so that means that all of our decisions are really driven by what is best for our community. Uh, that said, we are about 99% fee for service. So, uh, we really aim for our operations to be self- sustaining. So, we're different than other nonprofits and that we're not sustaining our operations by grant funding or anything like that. Instead, they are self- sustaining, but we use the information gathered from our operations to advocate for a better system for everyone. Uh, a little bit about our operations. We process around a 100,000 tons per year. Um, and our residual rate is about 10% which is really low. It's about what White Bear Lakes residual rate is too, which is definitely the lowest in the country. When I speak around in other states, they're very envious of Minnesota's excellent recycling programs and how good our residents are at putting the right thing in the bin. Um, that said, there have been many studies lately that indicate there's probably a lot more recycling that could be put in the bin. So, we're really excited to try to figure out, okay, how can we get more of the right stuff out of the trash and into the recycling cart. Our organization has over a 100 employees. They're all paid living wages with benefits. It's really important for us not to use temp workers except for as a recruitment strategy. Um, and to make sure we are really doing the safest best practices because we know, you know, that as we're reducing waste, uh, we want to make sure we're not taking advantage of employees at the same time. Uh most recently, our MURF, that's where all your stuff comes and gets processed, processed, sorted into over a dozen categories, uh was upgraded. We did about an 11 million upgrade last year, added a whole bunch of new equipment that just helps sort everything a little bit better. We did this because we've seen the composition change over the years as people are reading less newspapers, getting less magazines, and we're seeing more and more like smaller bottles and cans, like your single serving yogurt cups instead of the 32 ounce or your soda cans instead of the 2 L. So, it just means that every once in a while you have to do a little bit of upgrade to make sure everything sorts processly. All of the recyclables are sorted into over a dozen categories that then we sell to what we call end markets where they get turned into new products. As a missionbased organization, it's really important that these materials are going somewhere where they will get turned into something that is going to be its highest and best use. So, similar to what uh the previous speaker said about their Indiana center, we've been doing that for years around really making sure material gets turned back into bottles when it can. Additionally, uh the majority of our stuff stays in our region. So currently about 52% of materials we sort actually stays in Minnesota. So often people think recycling goes away and it really doesn't. It actually stays here nurtures the economy in our region. And then 95% of what we sort stays in the upper Midwest. So similar, we really try to keep things local as much as we can. Um that both helps our economy but also reduces the environmental impact of shipping. Um, and then 100% of our material stays in North America. So we very rarely ship anything overseas. Occasionally when markets are really bad, we have to, but we really try to limit that when possible. Um, so Mr. Juba asked me to talk a little bit about recycling markets. uh often I say they are like the index fund because it's over a dozen different categories and so sometimes things are up sometimes things are down ideally not at the same time as he mentioned you know when everything is up then uh the city gets a revenue share back which we love it when that happens unfortunately when everything's not up we still have to cover the cost of wages and such at our facility so then we uh ask the city to cost to cover the dis the difference um so Most uh cardboard stays really actually very close either stays in Minnesota or goes to Wisconsin where it gets turned back into cardboard boxes. A lot of our paper does as well. Um those markets tend to follow the economy because when people are buying more things we need cardboard boxes to put them in. Um interestingly when they decrease a lot of times the decrease is only shortterm because when people are buying less then there are less cardboard boxes to be turned into boxes. So even though people need less boxes, there's also less boxes to get turned back into boxes. And that's the beauty of a circle, right? Is that it can shrink or it can grow as needed and it just keeps feeding itself. Um, a lot of our plastics really go back into bottles. So that also helps with that circle. Uh, I will say recently your water bottle and pop bottle markets have been struggling. And that doesn't have to do with uh where or what they're getting turned into, but rather import markets that have been undercutting the um local markets. So about 25% of uh water bottle and pop bottle markets have closed in the last year. This is something that we've been advocating and talking about. Um and the industry as a whole is trying to figure out how to solve this issue because it's affecting all of us including Republic, including everyone. Um and that the solutions to that are both uh ensuring transparency because not everybody is sure that the imported material is recycled content and then also um if there needs to be some other method to really protect our local markets. So that's just something that uh people are concerned about. other um plastics industries uh can be impacted by farmers because a lot of plastics does get turned back into drainage tile um or they can also get impacted by the housing market because it can get turned into carpet. And so even if we're not sending material to get turned into carpet because it all works as a whole that can impact the price that we get because it's an open market. Um, interestingly, aluminum often is impacted by energy pricing or even the price of the dollar because of the um how much is exported. So, when the dollar is I'm trying not to get this week wrong. When the dollar is um strong, that actually depresses aluminum pricing, oddly enough. So, it's like great, our economy is going well. Oh, but aluminum is down. So, as you can see, like all of this stuff es and flows. So, it's really hard to predict where it will go in the long term. Um, but that said, EPR will definitely impact it. Happy to answer questions on this. I am on the advisory board at the state on this subject. I am not speaking here in that capacity, just to be clear. Um, but it is something that Eurek Recycling pays very close attention to because we know it has such a huge impact in our state. So, this is a timeline. I'm not going to go through the whole thing. Uh it was really nice that the previous speaker talked a little bit about this. Some of the key things right now the needs assessment is happening and that is very important because that's setting the baseline for the costs and the capacity of recycling in our state. Uh soon there will be a collection list. So the state will move towards a unified collection list. This is something we've all actually been doing on our own quite a bit. Minnesota has the recycling education committee which we're part of which many members both in city and counties as well as processors around the state have been getting together trying to synthesize this uh because we don't want recycling to be so confusing. My favorite headline was uh people thought recycling was more confusing than doing their taxes. And so we're just like okay let's see if we can all get on the same page about what should go in the cart and like synthesize our education so it's a little bit easier. Um the really exciting thing though is in 2029 the reimbursements will start. So as the previous speaker mentioned the city will start getting reimbursed for their recycling processing costs if there are any as well as collection costs and additional education and outreach costs too. So if there's more drive to go out to residents to talk about what can go in the cart and make sure they're recycling right, that is another thing that will then be covered. And this program is getting covered by the people who are making the products. So that's where EPR has moved away from taxpayers paying for this to like wait all this stuff in our cart comes from someone. Those people who sold us that stuff should be responsible for getting it back to the right place. And so that will help them incentivize them to both redesign it so it's a little bit easier for those of us trying to figure out what to do um as well as help make sure that it's easier for everybody to recycle as well and that's why the cost will be covered. It's about 50% in 2029 and then it will gradually increase up to 90% in 2032. So there's a gradual rate increase. Um and then also as she mentioned by 2032 the idea is everything sold in the state will need to be recyclable or compostable. I should say all packaging. This is a product packaging and paper act. So not like your electronics or anything like that. All of that is exempt. There's also a lot of other exempt things like baby food, medical supplies, you know, anything that we're like no health is very important. Uh let's put that first. Uh so I'm happy to answer questions on this too if folks have. Um, and then the other thing I wanted to end with is we're having our open house this Saturday. Uh, we were closed yesterday because of the holiday and so we realized that because we have to run on Saturday to make up for being closed yesterday. It's a great day to invite people to our facility and see how recycling is actually sorted. So, of course, if you can't make it and you want to come another time, don't hesitate to reach out. We love bringing people through our facility. It's just such an eye-opening experience to see all the people and the equipment and how everything gets sorted. But sometimes Saturdays are easier for folks, which is why we do this. We're doing about 10 tours between 8 and noon this Saturday. And that's everything. >> Thank you. That's great uh for the community to know that they can call and come and tour it because yeah, be a fabulous opportunity. Does anybody have any questions? >> Council member Edberg. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have three or four. Um, so if you could wave your magic wand over the city of White Bear Lake and cause us to collectively do better to enhance outcomes, what are the things that you would uh ask the recycling genie to do for us? Or maybe it's the recycling fairy godmother. Um, what would you have us do? Uh the easy answer is probably to definitely reduce some of the really hazardous contamination. Like things like black plastic are not a big deal, but tanglers like plastic bags and cords or scrap metal, those really slow down the system and cause problems. But uh I was listening to a speaker the other day who pointed out that if we just increase the amount in the cart and didn't increase the contamination, it would decrease by proportion. And I really like that idea. Minneapolis did a cart study and they found that residents are throwing out about half their recycling including aluminum cans, which really surprised me because Minneapolis also does a lot of education. They have a big cart and every household. So I was like, if they're not recycling more than half of their material, then what are the rest of us doing? Um, and so I think that too, like really encouraging people. A lot of people don't think recycling works. I see billboards that break my heart because they're promoting reuse but they're denigrating recycling at the same time and it's like no don't don't Trump over that like reuse is best don't get me wrong if you can do that 100%. But really like letting people know it works when you put it in the cart and it we can keep it simple. It's your bottles, cans, paper, cardboard, right? Put those in the cart. So I would say the more that we can really encourage people to take advantage of that program and reduce their waste by recycling the right things. >> Is any part of that um does that require new knowledge? Has the story changed? Have the items that are recyclable? Is the industry changing in ways or um is it pretty much the same recycling rules, ideas that we've had for some time? We just need to con be more consistent in doing that. >> I I think it's the same because of my job. I hear like people tell me things and I found that the people who recycle often think that everybody recycles and the people who don't recycle think that nobody recycles. >> And so like if we can just make that a little bit more common place. The other things I found is that there uh many places overlook recycling. Um, like I get annoyed every time I go to a game and they have all these beautiful labeled bins, but they don't they don't do any like education encouraging people how to use them correctly, especially when they have a compostable cup. And I'm like, most people don't know that this clear plastic looking thing is compostable. And so, a lot of times people don't want to talk about recycling education. Same within the workplace. Um, for eight years we ran a commercial composting program in the city of Minneapolis where we helped restaurants and small businesses implement composting as well as recycling and um, garbage in their business. And so we offered a training and like so many of them were really excited to get that training. Um, and we get all the basic questions that we answer on our tour as well because it's just something that people don't talk about. It's not it's not that exciting unless you're kind of geeky like me. So, >> thank you. So, you mentioned that we have a statistic of 10% residual. I'm assuming my assumption was that that means 10% of all the stuff you collect should not have gone into the bin. Is that a correct interpretation of that data? >> Yep. That's pretty. There's a few things that maybe got broken too small in the truck compaction or, you know, there's a little bit of loss in the system, but yes, the vast majority of that is stuff that shouldn't have been put in the bin in the first place. seem to indicate that 10% was good among within the industry. Should it be better or can it is it feasible that it gets much better or how do we think about that? >> Better. >> I think it could be better. There's a there's a city we've been collecting uh because we do collection as well and when we were collecting in the blue bins residual was under 2%. And then when we moved to carts, which was really incredible because it allowed so many more people to participate in the program, that residual jumped up to like 6%. And then it's been creeping up every year since then. And we've seen that in a lot of the cities. It seems to have flattened out around 10 or 11% in our region. Part of that is because that is really hard to see on a truck level. We have cameras in our trucks as well and they're really great for like someone puts a bag of trash, but that's not what that 10% is. That 10% is it's uh like your little someone cleans out their car maybe and they throw everything in a shopping bag. It's that kind of stuff or um other like small like uh toys and you know random plastic things that shouldn't be in the amount of bowling balls and tennis shoes that we see. Just things like that that you know, you think they're big, but if you think about the whole cart, you're like, "Oh, it's really hard to identify, you know, one random thing." I'll never forget one time I did a tour and a whole bunch of potatoes started coming down the line. >> Food scraps. >> Yeah, >> got it. >> Sometimes. Yeah, >> sometimes. So um clearly Republic has uh is making some uh and the the rest of the industry is making some advances at least along the the polymer chemistry uh components. How what does Eureka see? You guys have been locally grown. you have served this community and you did this a whole lot longer for a long time long before any of the industry I'll call them giants um got the got religion um what's your competitive advantage or what do you see as the something extra that you bring that cause clients like us to say this is Eureka and these are the folks that um are able to do this that or the other at a slightly better margin or a slightly better level of quality or whatever. And conversely, what's your greatest what's the greatest threat you're facing? >> Wait, what's the greatest >> threat to your business to your business model? >> Our business. Um, I mean, it it is hard to stay competitive in the market. I think as a nonprofit, we're fortunate because we don't have to have the same profit margin. I mean, we still have to run it in the green. Um, but we're not answering to shareholders. We're really answering to our community. So that allows us to both pay our staff really well, which enables us to have incredible longevity. The average turnover rate in our recycling facility is about eight years, which is unheard of. Many other facilities say they're lucky if their staff lasts a year because it is very hard, dangerous work. Um, similarly, we uh do a lot of training for our staff so that if they have the capacity and interest, they're able to move up into supervisors and managers and such. And so I think that really helps us maintain a competitive advantage because our end markets know that our material is quality because we have this staff who've been with us for so long and they care. Additionally, it helps us price competitively because even though they may be paid a slightly higher wage because they've been with us so long and living wages are so important to us, we're not having that same turnover, the recruiting cost, the training costs. Same with our accident and injury costs. This year we're celebrating because our injury rate is below average, which is a good thing, right? It's the one of the few times when you want to be below average. Um, which is not easy. The recycling processing is in the top 10 most dangerous jobs because there's just a lot of ways to hurt yourself in that facility, unfortunately. Um, and so I think all of those really build together uh to allow us to offer that advantage. Um, and then the the cherry on top, which honestly I don't think we win any contracts with this, but I like it, is that then we're using this information to advocate for a better system for everyone. So, that's part of why it was really important to get me on the EPR board and to use the information we gather from our recycling facility. Like right now we're really looking at how can we do um electronics uh recycling a little bit better because that's another huge threat to us as well as everyone else in our industry is the threat of we call them the f-words uh because our staff's a little superstitious otherwise known as thermal events just so your mind goes in the right direction um due to people putting you know cell phones, electronics, batteries in their recycling carts. Um and so that's a huge concern for us. So, we're trying to figure out, okay, how can we create policies and programs that make it easier for people to return those to the right place instead of putting them in their cart? >> Any other threats you would want us to know about? >> And if not, that's fine. But >> that's a really good question. I think I covered the big ones. Um, I think the other one that we're really monitoring is just how does the extended producer responsibility, the EPR legislation roll out? We're the fifth state to pass it and we like to think we've learned from the other states and so we have the best policy but it is still you know a little bit new and we're kind of figuring out how that's going to look for everyone. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. Anyone else? Miss Council Member Gola. You answered most of them, but just for clarification I was going to ask you um one about the county's initiative, right? Because they're funding like recycling is not a unicorn, not a myth. It works. But with the EPR now passing, you're saying that will go to the producers and they'll be the ones pushing most of that >> information or No, >> most likely not. They're not supposed to be doing the work. So, they will be paying into the producer responsibility organization which is circular action alliance. They've already been selected by the state and then they are creating the allocation system that will go out to the people who do that. And this is where the >> but they're the covering the costs. >> Yep. So the law is still getting figured out, but the idea is that it will most likely still be cities and counties who are doing that education. Um but then it will get covered >> Yes. >> by CIA. >> Yes. That's what I was >> Yeah. Which is great because that that um ad campaign that they did was mostly covered by a grant that they got which I'm so glad they did. It's such a I really like it when I see it. It's such a cute ad. But it's like yes, let's do more of that for sure. >> Yeah, that's great. Um, and then my other one was you talked a little bit about the downstream markets, the impacts. Have you all h struggled at all like with the paper mill closing, right? I don't know if Smi Glass is still oper or some of those. How has that been to try to find local? Where is it going now? >> Yeah, so Smi is still operational. Not good. Hope they're not going anywhere anytime soon. Um, it's it's okay. There's always a little bit of indigestion, I would say. Like when Westerrock closed, uh, prior to them closing, 75% of our material stayed in the state, or no, it was 80%. So, a lot. And then we've had to shift a lot of that material to Wisconsin. So, it took us about a month or two. Excuse me. We always try to have multiple markets, though. Even when we have one that we really love, we do aim to have at least three. um when we have enough material quantity to support that. Uh just because you never know when someone's going to close. >> Yeah, that's great. And then my last question was just I know you talked and it kind of plays on what council member Edberg was saying about um people about how some I know you've there's some AI and robots you all use, but you've really found I know what people from Eureka have told me that the human minds are the most effective when it comes to this. and if you're still even with AI advancements and things, it sounds like you still kind of hold true to that. But I was curious if since a couple years ago when that was true if that's changed at all or still pretty much just >> Yeah, I actually have studied AI and the recycling system extensively. So I'm we're now working with our third company on a pilot to test it. I have to say it ne it never works as well as they say it does unfortunately. Um we did have robots on our lines helping do quality control on our paper. With this most recent upgrade we found they were redundant because the optical sorters we installed are just doing a much much better job. So we actually just um uninstalled them. They're at the end of their lease anyway. Um, and we did in working with them, we did find that there were a lot of issues with the just it's it's minds and hands. Like hands are incredible technology. And so I wouldn't say that AI and robots are never the solution, but we're still figuring out what that solution is. And that's something that's where we do get grants to study that kind of thing, which I personally love doing. So like right now we're using it to do a water bottle capture rate study where we have a separate audit line where we have AI on it and then we're testing that against human counts and like I said this is the third study we've done with AI units. So yes, we will continue researching and evaluating that. Absolutely. >> Excellent. Thank you. Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Al. >> Any further questions for Mr. Juba? No. Any further discussion? Okay. I'd consider a motion to adopt the resolution authorizing a five-year contract extension with Eureka Recycling for recycling purposes processing. >> So, second. >> Any further discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right, the resolution passes. Thank you. All right, item 8 C, first reading of an ordinance amending the zoning code regarding the zoning designation at 1900 Weber Street and planned unit development amendment. Mr. Lindall. >> Thank you, mayor, members of the city council. As you mentioned, the item before you um is a request from Serenity Senior Care at 1900 Weber Street. Um to amend their existing plan unit development or PUD approval. Um the the amendment is necessary to allow them to expand their parking lot. Um, this item uh should uh seem fairly familiar to the council because uh just at your uh last meeting you uh received a briefing on their concept plan proposal. Um and um now the applicant is coming through um with their actual um entitlement application. Um so in this case um what's before the councils tonight is the first reading of the resoning ordinance. Um and then the second reading of that resoning ordinance and action on the plan unit development is scheduled for your next meeting on June 9th. So again um just some quick uh reminders about background on this issue. The site was originally developed in 1956 with expansions um over the years. In 2012, uh the site received a PUD to uh repurpose and renovate uh the site to add transitional care and assisted living. Part of that improvement included uh 31 stall offsite uh parking lot uh just to the east of the site and 26 um angled parking uh stalls in the Florence Street right away uh south of the site. Serenity purchased uh two adjacent properties along the north and west side of the site for where this parking lot expansion is proposed. um in 2024 they demolished those houses and combined those lots into their property. Um and again the PUD amendment here um is required to allow that parking lot expansion that they're proposing. Um just as a reminder um the purpose of a PUD is to really allow flexibility in some development standards in exchange for a higher quality development. And so back in 2012 that PUD um based that um the the exchange or the flexibility in the standards based on uh that the uh Serenity facility served a critical need for an aging population. And again tonight uh the first reading um is necessary of the resoning ordinance uh because of the way the new code structures um plan unit development approval. So we actually are reszoning the site to specifically to that plan unit uh uh development designation and so that's why our resoning is uh ordinance is before us tonight. So um just a quick uh couple of talking points of overviewing the site. Um the comprehensive future land use map and the comprehensive plan guides the site as public semi-public. Um the zoning map guides it as R3 tra traditional residential institutional uses are allowed under those two zoning uh or those two designations. um and the civic building type um um provides the details of the development standards um including the surface parking lot. The PUD overlay uh permits that senior care uh campus facility. Um the planning commission reviewed this item at their last meeting, held the public hearing um and recommended uh approval without any uh comments from uh uh during the public hearing. So again, staff and the planning commission are recommending approval, but again, tonight is just the first reading to uh uh review that ordinance and provide feedback um on the application. As I mentioned, um the applicant recently went through the concept plan approval process. So back in April, they held a neighborhood meeting. Um they had uh four attendees to that to that meeting. Um it also then the concept plan moved on to the planning commission meeting in April and also was before the city council. Um residents during the uh that uh app that concept plan review process um raised issues uh about on street parking lighting um maintenance issues and uh the construction timeline and practice was really probably the most uh concerning for some of the residents that were in attendance. Um there were really no significant concerns about the parking lot design itself. So um just to give you an overview of the site and that parking lot design that we've been talking about here. Again, it reconfigures the existing parking lot to expand it to the west and to where those uh uh former uh residential properties were and um does a net gain of adding uh 35 stalls to the site. Um, three new parking lot islands will be installed in there and you can see those in yellow outline on this uh on this slide. Um, the again the PUD approval allows for some minor deviations from the zoning standards. Um, and again that is the zero foot setback along the north or Weber uh street property line. Um so that allows the parking lot design to continue at the same basic uh um extension east and west. Um as you can see on this slide, um the uh the part the then the the um standard late the second standard, excuse me, that the applicant is getting a deviation from is um the code requirement that there is a landscape island in the parking lot uh one for every 10 stalls. In the southern uh portion of this design, we'll see a detail of this in a minute. um the applicant has 13 stalls uh without an island rather than 10. And that really um can has more to do with the this the general design of the southern edge of the parking lot. And we can talk about that again here in a second. And then um the park the islands themselves, the three islands that are mentioned in there that are designed into the new parking lot. Um the minimum requirement in the zoning ordinance is 8 ft wide. In one case, uh the one furthest to the west you can see here is slightly longer and slightly narrower. Um um again doesn't meet that 8 foot requirement. So zooming in on the portion of the parking lot where the it's going to be expanded. This is actually the landscaping plan that the applicant has submitted. Um so staff has um taken from um one of their other plans that they submitted and indicated uh locations where trees that are existing on the site are going to need to be removed as a result of the parking lot um expansion. Um there was some questions in the past about whether or not those could be incorporated into the existing parking um lot islands or design and you can just see on the lo general locations here. It's just difficult to do that based on where they're located in the parking lot and how the parking lot is designed. Um the applicant is proposing to um preserve some trees on the south edge of the parking lot uh between the south edge of the parking lot and the building. Um and so that's noted on the southern edge of the landscaping plan. And then you can see um the assortment of landscaping that's um in uh proposed to be installed on the perimeter of the parking lot and in the parking lot. uh islands as they're proposed here. Um so with that, staff um is available for questions, but recommending that the council conduct the first reading of the resoning ordinance. Um um and then um the second reading is scheduled for uh June 9th. Um and for the second reading, staff intends to bring forward resolutions approving both the PUD amendment and the reasonzoning ordinance that you're holding the first reading on tonight. And so with that, I'd stand for questions. All right. Does anyone have any questions? Council member Edward. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, so we're addressing the zoning issue tonight on and that's related to the PUD, but are the are questions and conversations about tree preservation or the uh are those relevant to this conversation or is that are is that conversation uh most appropriately held at the next meeting when we're dealing with both both issues? what's what's fair game in this specific action that we're uh being asked to take tonight? >> Mayor, members of the council, I would say um that any feedback you would like to provide the applicant at this point on the application um could help them prepare the final uh uh uh response to you during the second reading. So, I would say anything uh tonight you'd like to ask them is fair fair game as you put it. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Could you tell me are the the trees that are going to be preserved is that a change to the original? So, they're kind of trading. >> Uh mayor, members of the council, no, those were intended to be uh originally intended to be preserved as part of the process. It just was, you know, in the concept plan application. We don't get into that level of detail. >> Okay. Uh any other questions, Council Member Gerilla? Yeah, when I went through I know last time there was some discussion saying, "Oh, well the trees they're healthy or that or maybe not." But I drove by today, not an arborist, but one of them like the one closest to the road looks like a mature maple to me. And so I'm just wondering if we can get confirmation because if in one public setting it was said, well, those trees might not make it anyways, but kind of if we're cutting down healthy, mature trees, then we need to be on it. then the developer needs to be honest that that's what's happening in our plan. Um so that's something I would just be um curious to see. Again, not saying they need to be evaluated, but just if we're saying that they're not healthy in any way, we should um publicly confirm that. And then my other um kind of comment is even if possibly looking at if it's needs to be 32 or if preserving the ones closest to the right of way like that um maple which I couldn't tell from the picture but it looks like then in the second one that it would be one taken down cuz even one even if you're planting 10 um young trees it doesn't necessarily replace mature trees especially like mature trees can withstand drought and disease and other things much e easier. easier often that even if we're planting 10 in 30 years, those 10 might not make it all the way through. So, those are just kind of my thoughts mainly that I understand the ones in the back are preserved already, but even if there's a way to Yeah. preserve one of the six. I'd be >> Can we go back to the picture so I can see what >> Yeah, the one I'm talking about is the one closest to Is that the red star there? >> Yeah, the red stars indicate um the general location of those trees. So, the the applicant did submit a plan that details this um provides more detail to this, but in the interest of um trying to consolidate slides for the presentation tonight, staff just put a general location of the six that were intended to be removed. Um I think the applicant could speak um in more detail about some of uh uh the council's questions regarding tree preservation. >> Can we hear from him? Yeah, I know he's here. Comes to all our meetings. >> Hi, thanks for coming. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, council and mayor, I appreciate the the time. Um, thank you for putting that slide up with the trees and >> excuse me, could you state your name and address? >> Jim Johnson. I'm the senior project manager at Pope Design Group. We're the architect for this project. Um, not the civil engineer, the architect. So, we did look at the the tree preservation. Um, we did have uh Ben Hartberg, who is our uh certified landscape architect. He was out there. He certifi he he surveyed all the trees. Um, I'm just going to read kind of his his his summary. He said these trees are mostly in fair condition with many having multiple trunks, some dead branches and thinning canopies due to due to lack of maintenance including nutrient supplements and and crown pruning. So the trees were not in great shape. I mean they're not bad. Um I would like to point out that there are four of them if you can see in the slide but there is a bio infiltration basin that we're required to put in. Um there would be four trees that would we we have to excavate and would cut into the root system there. So that makes it uh it's going to be tough to save those trees because that that bio infiltration pond's got to be that size because of the volume of water. The the the sanitary line going out um is pretty shallow. So it's got to be kind of big. Um we did look at some drawings that did there's two trees in the parking area. um they would lose about 12 parking stalls if we did try to salvage those trees. So I' I can't speak for any but that's a fair amount of parking spaces lost. So, we did we did address that, I think. So, >> Council Member Gorilla, >> yeah, I just really appreciate you taking the time to do that. And again, it's important, I think, that we're honest and transparent, especially um because in White Bear, we really do value our tree canopy. >> So, I appreciate the further information and efforts to look at that. >> There'll be some nice trees going in, too. So, >> okay. Any other questions? No. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions for Mr. Lindall? >> Council member Ecberg. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh, Mr. Lindall, the zero zero foot setback, how does that is that a setback from the right of way? Is it a setback from the actual street? What's the I'm just trying to get my head inside the spatial orientation of that. What does that setback apply or how what what's that do? >> So, uh, mayor, members of the council, setbacks for zoning purposes are always measured from the property line. So um you could think about it as that line that divides the private property, the edge of the private property from then the public right ofway which is the right of the public rightway is the land that the road sits in which is larger than the road surface that you see. So, um the sidewalk and and other um you know boulevard areas um are are included in that um right ofway land that the road sits in. So, it's the the parking lot will not be directly abuing the curb for example in this case there is still some distance in there. Okay, that's what I was cur I was just trying to picture what um how far toward the t the curb the um uh prop but if it's only going to the property line uh there's going still going to be distance sidewalk some boulevard probably and then the curb etc. and mayor, members of the council, um, for anyone who, um, might be listening or watching and trying to picture what this looks like, if they were out on site today and looked at where the current street surface is, where the current sidewalk is, where the current surface of the parking lot is, it will just extend to the west where the current line of the existing parking lot is. >> Got it. Thank you. >> Okay. Any any other discussion, questions? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Linda. All right. Moving on. Item nine, uh, discussion. Nothing scheduled. Um, item 10, communications from the city manager. Miss Crawford. Thank you. I don't have an update, but we have a I have a slide for you, mayor. Oh yeah. Uh we're having an upcoming community and coffee on June 6th from 9 at 9:30 a.m. at Steller Park. All are welcome. Um just to meet the mayor and if any council members would like to come as well, that'd be great. So it's just a way for us to highlight different parks around the comm in each ward. Um, I'm going to pick one park each month and uh highlight those parks and have people come on out and just way to communicate with people, get to know. >> So, um, all are welcome. I have a just a little shout out. I want to give a shout out to the parks commission who uh did planting trees at Podin last week and that was really fun. I think we planted seven trees so that was great. And also uh shout out to the um VFW who did a great job um yesterday for the Memorial Day parade and the memorial day at at uh Union Cemetery and then also um at the VFW uh laying a stone for Sergeant Amore. So um it was a great service and a great showing from our community and I know the family appreciated it greatly. So, um, thanks to all those out in TV land who came to that. Um, and that's all I have. Does anybody else have anything they would like to share that they did or? Nope. All right. I would accept a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? We are adjourned.