“Good evening and welcome to this Prior Lake City Council meeting of Tuesday, March 10th.”

Opening remarks for the council meeting.

“Good evening and welcome. It uh so wonderful to see so many in our council chambers this evening for this very very important meeting.”

Welcoming attendees to the council meeting.

“Seeing none, let's go ahead and move along to item three on our agenda, council, which is the approval of the agenda itself.”

Moving to the agenda approval item.

“All those in favor say I.”

Requesting a vote on the motion.

“Bringing us to item four on our agenda, and that is the approval of the February 10th, 2026 city council meeting minutes. Again, council. Um, are there any additions, modifications to those meeting minutes? If none, I would entertain a motion to approve as submitted.”

Introducing the minutes approval item.

“We have uh three eyes and one abstension, and that is council member Brad.”

Announcing the vote tally for minutes approval.

“Uh I'll go ahead and turn this item over to uh city manager Woodell who does have his water with him as the l the list is rather lengthy this evening and you feel free to take a break in the if if need arises.”

Handing over the consent agenda to the city manager.

“Council, are there any items before us this evening uh on the consent agenda that you would ask be removed and taken up under item 10? If not, I would um entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as submitted.”

Asking if any consent agenda items need separate consideration.

“That motion carries. Council, are there uh for the consent agenda items that we just approved, are there any for which you would like to make comment? Um seeing none, let us u move forward to an important presentation um this evening, and that is a a presentation honoring new hires of the Prior Lake Police Department.”

Concluding the consent agenda and introducing the next presentation.

“I call the uh council into recess at 711.”

Calling the council meeting into recess.

“I'd like to call the uh meeting back to order at 7:14 and uh again uh presentation uh this evening um life- saving presentation and again uh I hand it over to uh Chief Dugen.”

Resuming the council meeting and introducing the next presentation.

“At this time, I'd like to ask Fire Chief Rick Steinhouse and Police Detective Sto Cody Steinhouse to come up uh center, if you would, please.”

Inviting awardees to the podium.

“We will call the meeting into recess at 7:19.”

Announcing a recess for the meeting.

“At 7:21, we will call the council uh back in session. That now brings us to item 7A this evening, which is a public hearing for a new on sale intoxicating liquor license application of Chula's Mexican Latin restaurant.”

Resuming the meeting and introducing the liquor license public hearing.

“With that, um I would entertain a motion to open that public hearing.”

Opening the public hearing for the liquor license.

“That motion carries. The hearing is now open at 7:23.”

Announcing the opening of the public hearing.

“Seeing none, I would entertain a motion to close that public hearing.”

Closing the public hearing for the liquor license.

“That motion carries. The hearing is closed at 7:24. Council, is there any discussion on this item?”

Concluding the liquor license public hearing.

“That brings us tonight to item 7B, which is a resolution adopting the assessment role for the Northwood Road area project phase 1, 2026-01. Uh resolution receiving bids and awarding the contract uh for the Northwood Road area project phase 1 again 20261.”

Introducing the Northwood Road project assessment hearing.

“Council, are there any questions?”

Asking for questions from council members.

“Council member Brad.”

Identifying a council member to speak.

“Um, so the city of Prairie Lake is AAA bond rated, right? We work really hard to get that to keep the interest rates as low as possible. So, um, when we go to sell these bonds, if we get a lower rate than what you had on that board, right, um, you would add the 2%. So, if we got 2%. Right. Then it would be 4% would be the finance amount. Is that correct?”

Questioning the bond rating and interest rate calculation.

“Mr. Schwarz, if I could have you pull up the map of the project with your pink, your blue, your yellow. Um, and what I'd like you to do again is speak to Here we go. Perfect. So, this represents phase one of the project? Yes. Which is what this hearing that we're about ready to open up is just for for this phase of the project. if you would again now quickly going blue, pink, um, uh, yellow, the blue being the the millon overlay and there is this, uh, project and again the costs I know were broken out for the different areas. Um, in the blue area that's our our unit assessment that is it not? Yeah. So the the blue area is set by the fee schedule. So, which is fixed based on either a single family home or a town home multiplier. So, for the blue, it's fairly straightforward if I may relative to what we're talking about. Um, on the yellow um on the yellow, if you would share with me um how the assessments on the yellow parcels um were calculated, how different that includes both reclamation accessible. So, that's full depth, is it not? Yeah. So the yellow areas are reclamation and that means we're taking the pavement and the first layer of aggre aggregate base and grinding that up into one material. Um so that's kind of like a 12 in section we're replacing. Um then we take 40% of that cost and apply that over all the homes in the reclamation area and therein that's the the assessment for that again for the yellow how that was calculated. Y and finally let's go to the pink. So the pink was the area where initially um it went into the assessment subcommittee for the pink area. Um the calculated was on the order of 19,000 is what the um came in and you took that into the assessment subcommittee and what if you could share with us the discussion that assessment subcommittee had that resulted in I'm going to call it a $5,000 I think my math still holds true $5,000 reduction in that assessment to 14,000. Is that correct? Yes, that's that's correct. um if you could just share with us how that assessment subcommittee came to that conclusion. Yeah, so we initially got the as calculated estimate back from the consulting engineer. We thought it was you know higher than we've generally had in Prior Lake. Um so following that we did a benefit appraisal with an outside consultant takes a look at the home and or the area of homes and um determines what an appropriate assessment amount is. Um we then took that to the committee. Uh we presented both values. We said here's what it came in calculated. Here's what what it came in with the appraised amount. and we uh ended up ultimately deciding on the appraised amount which was significantly lower. Excellent. And and if I can just have you pull up for the final exhibit I'd like to to share um total cost in this project 9 Yep. 9.1 million roughly. I'll get it here if you can. Beautiful. And as we look at this, the contributing um sources of funds, again, a good number of these funds fortunately now flow either through the adorum tax andor other funds andor our pavement funds um that that fortunately now relative to total assessments um the council's done a good deal of work to see to it. And again, manager Wedell, I don't know if you want to make comment. You and I had a conversation around how a couple of these numbers just flat out didn't exist or Yeah. as recently as Yeah. eight years ago. Yeah. So, yeah. Thank you, mayor and counselors and members of the audience. So, when you're looking at some of these funding sources, franchise fees, for example, eight years ago, we did not have a dedicated franchise fees for streets. The city council had reviewed our franchises agreement. So that's with um gas companies and electric companies. Um and so there is now an extra fee on those bills that increased from a $150 to to $5 on a single family home. All of that money gets funneled into this franchise fee fund which can only be used for streets. It can't be used for anything else. So that is a dedicated funding source that was established not that long ago. The other source of funding is the PI which is our pavement involvement improvement revolving fund. So when the city bonds for projects uh we we issue debt um but then we have some people prepay their assessments. In the past those prepayments would just come back into the city general fund and be used through for general expenditures. We have now established a pavement improvement revolving fund. So those prepayments come right back into that fund to be used specifically back for future road projects. So we're trying to minimize how much we're bonding for projects and limiting how much debt issuance the city is doing annually for road projects. So that that PIR assessment, that PIR dollar amount and those franchise fees, that's for this project, you know, over $3 million. Those funding sources didn't exist eight years ago.”

Discussing project details, assessment calculations, and funding sources with the assistant city engineer.

“With that, council, if there's no further questions, uh, I would entertain a motion to open the public hearing.”

Asking for a motion to open the public hearing for assessments.

“That motion carries. The public hearing is now open at 7:39”

Announcing the opening of the public hearing for assessments.

“Second.”

Seconding the motion to approve the agenda.

“Second.”

Seconding the motion to approve the February 10th meeting minutes.

“Second”

Seconding the motion to approve the consent agenda.

“Second.”

Seconding the motion to close the public hearing for the liquor license.

“Second.”

Seconding the motion to approve the liquor license application.

“Second.”

Seconding the motion to approve the agenda.

“So, moved.”

Making a motion to approve the February 10th meeting minutes.

“Second.”

Seconding the motion to approve the consent agenda.

“Second.”

Seconding the motion to open the public hearing for the liquor license.

“Second.”

Seconding the motion to open the public hearing for assessments.

“So moved.”

Making a motion to approve the consent agenda.

“I would just like to to thank the uh the owners and uh investors in that um new Mexican restaurant. It's going to be a really nice addition to our downtown. And thank you for your investment into Prior Lake. It is appreciated. And uh we look forward to uh the grand opening soon. And with that, I'll make a a motion to uh approve the liquor license application for Chula's Mexican Latin restaurant.”

Expressing appreciation for the new restaurant and moving to approve its liquor license.

“So moved.”

Making a motion to open the public hearing for assessments.

“All right, sounds good. Thank you mayor and council members and members of the audience. So, our consent agendas for those items that are considered routine or non-controversial, they're placed all together on the consent agenda. So, unless the mayor or council member asks for an item to be removed for separate consideration, they're all approved together under a single motion, second, and a vote. If an item were to be removed for separate consideration tonight, it would be placed on item number 10 on the agenda. So, tonight we have the following items on consent, so bear with me. We have a lot of them. Approval of the claims listing. An ordinance amendment to extend the cable television franchise with New Vera. An ordinance amendment to extend the cable television franchise with Mediacom. An ordinance approving a franchise agreement renewal with Centerpoint Energy. An ordinance approving a franchise agreement renewal with Shockby Public Utilities. A resolution ratifying the 2026 to 2028 collective bargaining agreement between the city of Prior Lake and Law Enforcement Labor Services, LLS, Local 461, for the police sergeants. A resolution ratifying the 2026 to 2028 collective bargaining agreement between the city of Prior Lake and Law Enforcement Labor Services LS local 100 for the police officers. A resolution approving a work order to conduct a feasibility study for the next phases of the Lakeside sewer lining project, city project 2027-04. A resolution receiving quotes and awarding a contract for SCADA hardware and software upgrades at the water treatment plant. A resolution receiving quotes and awarding a contract for building maintenance at city hall. A resolution approving a work order for boardwalk inspection and evaluation. A resolution approving a work order for the General Engineering Services. A resolution ordering the preparation of the feasibility report and approving a work order with WSB LLC for the Green Heights Reconstruction Project, City Project 2028-03. An ordinance amending section 10-789 of Prior Lake City Code related to election signs. An ordinance amending chapter 5, article 6 of Prior Lake City Code related to portable toilets. A resolution accepting permanent easements for drainage and utility purposes from Spring Lake Township. A resolution extending the deadline to record the final plat and development agreement for the residences at Crestwoods. Approval of the animal control services report. Approval of the building permit summary report. A resolution to approve a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources outdoor recreation program grant application for Thomas Ryan Park playground. a resolution approving the purchase of property at 13995 Hidden Lake Trail Northeast and authorizing the city manager to execute the purchase agreement for the Marsh Drive Extension Project City Project 2022-27. And finally, a resolution approving a purchase of replacement ballistic helmets for the Prior Lake Police Department.”

Presenting the lengthy list of items on the consent agenda.

“Thank you, mayor and councilors and members of the audience. So, when you're looking at some of these funding sources, franchise fees, for example, eight years ago, we did not have a dedicated franchise fees for streets. The city council had reviewed our franchises agreement. So that's with um gas companies and electric companies. Um and so there is now an extra fee on those bills that increased from a $150 to to $5 on a single family home. All of that money gets funneled into this franchise fee fund which can only be used for streets. It can't be used for anything else. So that is a dedicated funding source that was established not that long ago. The other source of funding is the PI which is our pavement involvement improvement revolving fund. So when the city bonds for projects uh we we issue debt um but then we have some people prepay their assessments. In the past those prepayments would just come back into the city general fund and be used through for general expenditures. We have now established a pavement improvement revolving fund. So those prepayments come right back into that fund to be used specifically back for future road projects. So we're trying to minimize how much we're bonding for projects and limiting how much debt issuance the city is doing annually for road projects. So that that PIR assessment, that PIR dollar amount and those franchise fees, that's for this project, you know, over $3 million. Those funding sources didn't exist eight years ago.”

Explaining new dedicated funding sources for street projects like franchise fees and the pavement improvement revolving fund.

“Mr. Mayor, members of the council, and to our audience, our uh sisters and brothers also in uniform. Uh it's an honor to have everyone here taking your valuable time and appreciate the support here. Tonight, we'll be putting a shield on Officer Brady Gable, shield number 70. Officer Gable was hired in October of 2025 and comes to us by way of the St. Cloud PD, where he served for two years as an officer. being only 23 years old now, that puts him starting at about 21. And I feel obliged to say at that point, I had been on the job about six years before he was born. And that's just an exact example of where we're at in our in our field these days and proud of it. Officer Gable uh since a kid spoke of his dream to be a police officer and after high school joined the army where he still serves today saying he takes pride in his work and knowing that he represents a community both on and off duty is important to officer Gable and talks about his interests including fishing, hunting, football, and spending quality time with his family. Those of you that know our agency, our mantra of people first in mission always is exactly how we approach everything, including our hiring. When I sit down with our first interview panels, we set the tone that we are looking for excellent humans first. We can build skill sets, but we can't change the fundamental person that someone is when they come to us. We simply just don't have that time. When Brady left the command interview, I turned to the panel and I distinctly I distinctly remember saying, "I like that kid." Meant very respectfully. We want team members who look at the world and say, "I'm going to find work and do the very best that I can." Brady has shown commitment and has already brought ideas and thoughts to help improve our operations and systems along the way in his short time. And we're a better team because of it. We use the word shield instead of badge because it's where our roots lie. In the very beginnings of community, the very best were chosen as warriors and protectors to guard the members of villages and towns. The role of protecting is never a single person. It's always a team. Next to Officer Gable, tonight you see one of our field training officers, Officer Kelm, representing that nothing we do is alone and that our actions always speak for all. Standing behind uh I'm sorry, the protectors stood at the edges of the towns with a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. The message was clear. Stand behind me and I'll protect you with my shield. Today, these symbols are only a few ounces of tin and metal, but represent the tremendous privilege of protecting our community. And today will be our honor to present Officer Gable with shield number 70. Officer Gable, if you'll raise your right hand. I state your name.”

Introducing Officer Brady Gable and presenting him with his shield.

“Yen, mayor, members of the council, and our audience, our community and family and friends, appreciate your continued opportunity here to recognize not only new work and people coming to join our team, uh, but also the work of, uh, people in both of our fire, uh, in the case of tonight, our fire and police agencies. That's long overdue. For our next presentation, I'm going to ask you to think of the word foundation and what comes to mind when you hear that word, when you envision what it means in your life and perhaps a time when it was challenged, a time when it was shaken or maybe it was shattered. For every one of us here, likely you've included family in that thought of foundation. For our first responders, our medical, fire, and police, their days and nights are filled with entering other people's lives. Generally, when our community members foundations are shaken, maybe it's something as simple but impactful as a stolen item, maybe it's a family dispute or something more personal, each and every time it's an ask for them to help or something is wrong or broken. And these proud women and men in different uniforms step up and say, "I will answer that call." To the honor and difficulty of a night like tonight, our responders don't want the recognition and often are incredibly uncomfortable with even the thought of it. stretching that even more is that oftentimes our police, fire, and medical responders arrive on scenes and step into lives where they are faced with a very harsh reality that there are things they cannot change and things they can no longer fix. And yet, these brave souls still make the choice to continue on doing everything they can to turn lives shattered into lives stabilized or even saved. Tonight, we are doing our best to both recognize the unfathomable loss of a father and son, and also honor the selfless acts of a firefighter, a police officer, a doctor, and others, and miraculous the miraculous recovery of another son. At this time, I'd like to ask Fire Chief Rick Steinhouse and Police Detective Sto Cody Steinhouse to come up uh center, if you would, please.”

Introducing the life-saving award presentation and setting the context for the bravery of first responders.

“I”

Responding to the oath of office.

“do solemnly swear”

Responding to the oath of office.

“that I will support the Constitution of the United States.”

Reciting the oath of office.

“the Constitution of the State of Minnesota”

Reciting the oath of office.

“and the ordinances of the city of Prior Lake”

Reciting the oath of office.

“and that I will faithfully perform and discharge the duties of police officer.”

Reciting the oath of office.

“I will never betray my shield, my integrity, my character, or the public trust.”

Reciting the oath of office.

“I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. So help me God.”

Reciting the oath of office.

“Where? There we go.”

Assisting with the shield placement ceremony.

“Thank you, mayor and councel. Um, we're here today for the Northwood Road area street and utility improvements phase one public assessment hearing. Um, just before we get started, just want to stress this is for phase one only. Phases two and three will have their own assessment hearings in their respective construction years. Um, quickly I'm going to focus on the assessments here, but just quickly want to go over the project again. Um, there's a varying degree of degradation in the streets and utilities out there. So, as you can see on the map, we have three different pavement treatments with this project. Um, as you can see, the red is street reconstruction, the yellow is reclamation, and the blue areas are milling overlay. uh to touch on the public engagement. To date, we have had two open houses during the feasibility stage. Um and those were to gather input and feedback from the residents. Um we heard from them what they're seeing out there, what improvements could be made on the project. Um and then we had the improvement hearing in September 2025. And just before this meeting, we had our third open house kind of to set the primer for construction, hear any other concerns um from the residents. And here we are at the assessment hearing. Uh pending council approval. Um Ryan Contracting is looking to get going in um March with tree clearing and April for more of the heavy construction. So here we're going to look at the project cost. um we broke it down by the three different utilities and streets. So you can see the streets are estimated to cost um just under $6 million and that's more heavily weighted on this one because a lot of the project is reclamation and milling overlay. Um and then the storm sewer is 600,000 and the sanitary and water man are each between 1 and 2 million for a project total of just over $9 million. Um and how are we going to fund that? So we have a variety of funding sources as you can see here um off the top the utilities as mentioned in the previous slide are funded directly from the utility funds. Um those are set aside by the city to pay for those specific items. Um and then assessments at the top which is what this presentation is about. Uh the one that you see the second line there is for the recon and reclaim assessments. Um just under 1.4 4 million and then the PI assessment at the bottom is the mill and overlay specific areas which are um assessed by fee schedule. So to go through our assessment policy um Prior Lake does assessments on a residentially equivalent unit basis. So each property on the project of that type will be assigned a value. Um single family properties carry a value of one and town home properties carry a factor of 0 75. Um so for reconstruction areas for example we'll take all of the reconstruction areas all of the homes on that area we will take 40% of the street cost and divide that by the number of reus um so it's the same process for both reclamation and reconstruction and then mill and overlay pro projects are just assessed at the rate adopted in the current fee schedule. Um since reclamation reconstruction assessments are generally a little higher, they can be assessed over a 10-year period and the millan overlay projects can be assessed over a 5-year period. Uh the interest rate is then set at 2% higher than the most recent sale of city bonds if uh the resident does not choose to prepay without interest. So, getting to the proposed final assessments here. Um, they were all actually calculated in a little bit of a different way. So, I'm going to go through them one by one. Uh, the reconstruction assessment as calculated for the street cost was actually closer to 19,000 per single family home. Um, as staff and the assessment review committee, we weren't uh fully comfortable with that number. So, we had a special benefit appraisal done um which showed 14,000 per single family home being a more appropriate number and the assessment review committee uh decided that actually lines up better with previous reconstruction projects we've had. Um so that's the reconstruction proposed assessment for reclamation. Um the number that came through the calculation actually is very very close to the last reclamation we did. So the assessment review committee was comfortable with that. And then the and that's 5,680 as you can see here. And then the millon overlay is set by the fee schedule as mentioned before which is 1,62 per single family home and 1,2150 per town home. Just to highlight who's getting assessed what here. Um the pink areas as you can see on the map are the reconstruction areas. The yellow areas are the reclamation areas and the blue areas are melon overlay. Finally, I have one of these on here for each type of payment. Um, I'm not going to walk through them all in detail, but you can see here $14,000 over 10 years at a 5.75 interest. Um, year one, 2027 would be the first payment, and that would be just under $3,000. and then it kind of gradually goes down till a year 10 where it's paid off in 2036. So similarly here for the reclamation is 5,680 paid over 10 years. Um in a similar way it starts just under $1,200 and ends up around 600 in year 10 where it's paid off. Um the millon overlay is 1,6002 over five years. So, similar thing here. Um, starts a little higher and tapers off and then the town home is just 75% of that. Um, getting into the important important assessment dates. Uh, so today, March 10th, 2026, the notice of intent to appeal must be submitted in writing. Um, following that, residents will have until November 2nd, 2026 to pay full or partial without interest. Um, they can make that payment to finance the finance department. And then after that on the third, uh if it hasn't been paid or there's some is outstanding, um that will be certified to the Scott County tax role and will include interest for 296 days in 2026 and for the entire following year in 2027. And then 2027 to 2036 would be the payment time frame. And with that, I would take any questions.”

Presenting the Northwood Road area project phase 1 assessment details, including project scope, funding, assessment methods, proposed amounts, and important dates.

“Yeah. So the the yellow areas are reclamation and that means we're taking the pavement and the first layer of aggre aggregate base and grinding that up into one material. Um so that's kind of like a 12 in section we're replacing. Um then we take 40% of that cost and apply that over all the homes in the reclamation area”

Explaining the reclamation process for the yellow areas of the project.

“Yeah, so we initially got the as calculated estimate back from the consulting engineer. We thought it was you know higher than we've generally had in Prior Lake. Um so following that we did a benefit appraisal with an outside consultant takes a look at the home and or the area of homes and um determines what an appropriate assessment amount is. Um we then took that to the committee. Uh we presented both values. We said here's what it came in calculated. Here's what what it came in with the appraised amount. and we uh ended up ultimately deciding on the appraised amount which was significantly lower.”

Detailing the process and discussion that led to the reduced assessment amount for reconstruction areas.