Good evening and welcome to the Shakipi City Council regular meeting for November um Wednesday, November 5th, 2025. Um, city clerk, if you could please take the role. >> Council member Delaney >> here. >> Council member Whiting >> here. >> Council member Contrarus >> here. >> Uh, Council Member Laura and Mayor Layman. >> Thank you. Um, and Mayor Layman and Council Member La will not be here with us. That's why I am sitting in for them tonight. Um, second, I'd like to invite everyone um, number three for the pledge of allegiance. Please, if we could all stand 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. >> We did have a special presentation for tonight that has changed and will be coming at a later date. Um, we will be moving to our the approval of the agenda. Do we have any changes from >> Nothing from staff, ma'am. >> Thank you, councilors. >> Well, I'd like to pull number uh >> that would be for Yep. >> I'll make a motion to approve the uh agenda. >> Second. >> Second. Thank you. We have a motion by um councelor Whiting and a second by councelor Delaney. Um all in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. Now consent agenda >> like to pull a 6D. I think we tabled that last meeting. >> Okay. >> Is that all? >> That's it. Yeah. >> Okay. >> As amended. >> Um I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended. >> Okay. >> A second. >> Second. >> It's only two. >> It's it's only us. So we're going to have to work this together. All right. So, we have a motion by Whiting, a second by Delaney. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Motion passes. All right. Um Oh, I should have asked to read that. >> Sorry. >> I can do it if you can still do it. Go for it. >> All right. Here we go. >> Ladies and gentlemen, these are the consent agenda items for Wednesday, November 5th of 2025. 6A is the operating budget and financial reporting policies. 6B is a surplus property. 6 C is the rejuvenation of the employee handbook updates. 6E is the monthly financial report for September 25. 6F issues a negative declaration on the need for an environmental impact statement for the Minnesota Riverbank stable. 6G is the approval of the October 21st, 2025 city council minutes. 6H is the Walmart Foundation Spark Good Local Grants Program application and award. and six I is the approval of the 2026 NEOGV contract renewal. >> All right. Thank you, sir. Um, now we got the motion and we got it all passed. So, number seven, time for a public comment. Anyone in the audience who has anything that is not on the agenda? This is your time. Anyone? >> There's candy. >> Yeah, there's a table. Come on. >> All right. Um, one more time. Anyone who's not here that has anything for um that is not on the agenda. All right. Um seeing none. Yes, sir. >> Did we have any communications, Mr. Reynolds? >> Yep. Any communications? >> No, we did not. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. All right. Number eight. Um business removed from consent. >> Let's see. 6D. That's our capital improvement plan. In our last meeting, I think that was uh tabled because we thought it was going to be a two to two vote and moved to this meeting. So, um, we're basically I'll make a motion to accept the 2026 to 2023 capital improvement plan. >> I will second it. >> Um, so we we have a motion and a second. Um, all in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed? >> I. >> Um, motion does not pass. Um, >> but that >> motion does pass. It does pass. Yes. Yes. Majority. >> It still passes. I didn't know we needed all three. Okay. >> Yep. >> All right. Thank you. Sorry. Sorry about that. Um Okay. So, that does pass. That moves us to so public hearing. >> Do I have a motion to open? Thank you. >> I make a motion to open a public hearing. Second. >> Thank you. Um All right. Public hearing. Who is >> uh Good evening, council members. Um public hearing tonight is on the issuance of revenue bonds for the benefit of St. Francis Regional Center. Uh the bonds are considered conduit debt. Uh again, that means the city has no liability to pay off the bonds or financial impact on the city of Shakipi. Uh nor does it impact our credit rating at all. Uh the city does receive a fee as part of this transaction. Uh if approved tonight, the bomb bond issuance would be up to 70 million. Uh part of the bond sale would refund uh bonds that were issued in 2014 uh which also went through the similar process and and were issued by the city of Shakipi. Um and a part would be for for uh funding new improvements. Uh Julie Edington from uh Kudok Rock representing the city's bond council is here and can answer any specific questions related to that transaction. And uh Amy Jerty who is the president and CEO of St. Francis uh and Angela Gutsmer, the director of finance uh representing the applicant are here uh in attendance as well. And assuming it's okay with council, uh I'll invite them up and they can talk a little bit more about the project and uh the botan shows. >> Please. Thank you. >> I already invited I'm sorry. >> Thank you. Go ahead. >> Good evening. My name is Amy Jerty, hospital president and chief executive officer and here tonight to present on our bond financing 2025. And so this bond financing is to support an emergency department renovation and expansion project and the refunding of seriesiri 2014 bonds as well as other capital needs, but primarily our emergency department renovation and expansion project. And so as always, I like to start with um just sharing our statement of partnership. Um just laying the foundation that St. Francis is a not for-profit Catholic hospital. We were founded in 1938 out of a spirit of love and concern for the community shaped by our roots uh by the Franciscan sisters and then Benedicting traditions and by the values of our partners Essentia Health, Alina Health and Health Partners. The partners believe that by working together we can apply the resources of three nationally recognized healthcare systems in the pursuit of providing the highest quality healing experience and broadest range of services to our communities. And that is truly what we aim to do every day. On the next slide, you can see our mission is at St. Francis. We work together to provide all people the healing experience we would expect for ourselves and our families. Our vision is through our actions and accomplishments to be consistently recognized as one of the best community hospitals in America. And then our values of stewardship, respect, justice, partnership, joy, and hospitality. And so it truly brings me joy actually to be bringing you this project tonight because you'll see on the next slide, it was originally um intended to break ground in May of 2020. So, we've got some of the history here that talks a little bit about how we've evolved as St. Frances as our community has continued to grow and we've needed to really expand and think about um how we make sure that we're providing access to the needed services for our community. And so, I won't go through each piece of this, but you can see we were originally built with eight rooms actually. And the plan in 2019 um the design was complete and we plan to break ground in May of 2020. At that time we were held up and the project was paused because of the pandemic. Uh we did proceed with phase one uh which is six new mental health safe rooms. And so we essentially lifted that out of this renovation and expansion project to allow us to build those additional six mental health safe rooms which has really been helpful for the flow of our patients and as we've continued to see higher numbers of mental health patients in our emergency department. So that phase one was opened in 2022 and it did allow us to go from the 21 exam rooms we had since 2006 to 27 exam rooms. And then today our ED continues to have significant space constraints. If you have been in our emergency department, um our current size and design really does not support the community needs at this point in time and we continue to monitor the expected increase um that we'll see over time with our aging population. And so we are really preparing for that and finding um the best way that we can be sure to accommodate access for our growing community. And so like I said um was going to break ground in May of 2020 and we have now broken ground. You'll see on the next slide. This is a picture of what will be our new emergency department and some more details on that on the next slide. This will add seven additional new clinical exam rooms. So, we're going from 27 with the seven new to 34 total uh exam rooms. Revising our triage area at the front um right behind our registration desk. So that will allow flow through the department without necessarily having to put patients in exam rooms, but will let us fasttrack patients as needed and provide urgent care um treatment if necessary and make sure that they're getting the right services and care um on the front end so that we can um be sure that we're providing them the best care possible. We are also adding an ambulance garage. Um, so right now our ambulance garage has two stalls that you drive into and then back out of. This will allow four ambulance ambulances at one time to be covered and inside that drive-thru ambulance garage. And so much improved from the current state. Um, there are times right now where we have two or three ambulances actually backed up trying to get into our ambulance garage. And so this will be a a major improvement to our ambulance um ability to get in and out of our space. We'll add new isolation rooms. Uh we learned a lot in the pandemic, of course, and so we're really preparing to have all the things that we need um to be able to care for patients quickly and have the right um HVAC and all the things um required for isolation, equipment storage, break room, support space. And so in total, it's 8,500 square feet of new construction. A lot of this really is taking that existing uh emergency department area and remodeling. So again, if you've been in our emergency department, there are some parts of it that are from 1996. And so really do need um that renovation and improvement. So the next slide has a couple more pictures of the new waiting room area. Um the flip to actually move the front entrance to the north allows a a circular drive. um so that you can actually drop a patient off versus having to park and then walk. And so much more convenient for patients to be able to be dropped off. And then there will be a canopy that connects the front entrance of the emergency department all the way to the cancer center doors. And so cancer center patients as well can that circular drive be dropped off and then proceed to the cancer center. And so just really much more convenient uh for the drop off and that's why we um moving that front entrance to face north. And so the next slide kind of shows you a little bit more of that entrance that circular drive. The cancer center is on the left side. And then the last slide is just another view of that. And so, as I mentioned, the phase one of the project was completed um and is now in service. That was square footage of 4,000 square feet and completed in January of 2022. And now this phase 2 plus and it's really six phases um with a target completion January 1 of 27. It's underway now. 25,400 square ft. Um 8,500 new. Like as I mentioned, the 4 bay ambulance drive-thru circular drive and drop off increased to 34 exam rooms. The budget for the project is 36.2 million. Groundbreaking was March of 2025. So under construction now with the support of all three of our owners um that um fully support the project and um this plan going forward. And so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Angela. >> Hi, good evening. I'm Angela Gutsmer, the finance director at St. Francis. And I'm just going to cover this last slide just gives you an overview of the financing. Um so obviously we're the borrower. Um our corporate council is Dorsy and Whitney. Issuer City of Shakipi. Um bond council Cout Rock and Julie's here with uh representing them. Our purchasers JP Morgan Chase Bank. Our financial advisors Kaufman Hall and um again amount of 770 million. This gives you an overview. Thank you. >> Yes, thank you. Um, >> we don't talk about it's just public hearing. >> We can ask other people to comment questions. >> So, this is the public hearing. If anyone in the public has a um any questions or would like to ask in regards to the project, they can ask now. Seeing none, Nate, anything else you'd like to before? >> Um, no. It's just if you have any questions for the applicant while they're up here before you close the public hearing. Go ahead. >> Uh, no questions. You know, I think this project is, you did a great job explaining it and I've seen some of it, so I'm looking forward to some of the upgrades. Uh, um, we're glad to have St. Francis in our community and and I personally want to thank you for the mental health beds that you've added to the the that doesn't only help Shakip, but it helps our whole county and our whole region to have those extra uh needed bed space. So, thank you for that. But I have no further questions. >> Awesome. Um, and just outside thank you too. I seriously live across the street and I've seen the changes throughout the years and it's always great. I mean our community growing so always it's always good to see the hospital growing with the community. So thank you. And again yes to the mental health. It's something um that is much needed now nowadays. So I do appreciate that you guys are staying on that. Um counselors please. >> I'll make a motion to close the public hearing. >> Perfect. Thank you. Second. All right. Um, we have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. >> Oppos? Motion passes. >> Thank you. Um, >> what would you like to do? >> I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution R2025-125 authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds of the city of Shakib for the benefit of St. Francis Regional Medical Center and authorizing the execution and delivery of documents in connection therewith. >> Second, Matt. >> Thank you. So, we have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Motion passes. Thank you ladies for coming tonight. All right. Um Right. We're going to recess for our economic authority motion. >> Um I'll make a motion to recess for economic development authority meeting. >> And I'll second that. >> Good evening. We'll call to order the Shakabe Economic Development Authority meeting for Tuesday, O says October, let's see, November 5th. That's the wrong one. Uh please make note of the role. Uh item two, we're going to look at our agenda. >> Members, >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. >> I second. >> Motion and second. Uh discussion, discussion, discussion. All those in favor say I. I. >> Those opposed. Our agenda is adopted. Uh item number three is our consent business and that's the approval of the EDA minutes. >> I'll make a motion on that, please. >> We have a motion on the approval of the EDA minutes. >> Second. >> And a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Uh, any opposed? Motion carries. Um, on to item 4A, the purchase agreement for 124 Somerville property. Somerville Street. The property. >> Summerville property. Yeah. >> Mr. Kursky, chair and board members. So, we had this before you a few months ago. Uh, we did work with the property owner who cut the price in half. Um, in anticipation the building cannot be reused. our engineers looked at it and actually we're not very happy to be standing in it. So, um the price is now $75,000. Uh look, if approved tonight, the closing would actually be Friday and we would begin the demolition um as soon as we can. The interesting fact is I know you were concerned about the environmental issues in the building. There's very little asbestous they found in it and um most of the contamination's only in one foot. It was interesting to see that this has been everything from a horse table to a hardware store and then it was a garage and then small engine repair. Thankfully, most of the contamination came from spark plugs and brake pads and it's in the 1t of soil. So, as part of this, the demolition contractor will remove that 1 foot of soil and it'll be sent to appropriate landfill. >> Thank you, Mr. Kirsty. I'm fairly certain it was a a livery stable longer than it was an automotive repair. And I know when it rained real hard, you could smell the the >> former horses living in there, but uh um all right, we have this. We've seen this before. >> Miss Contrarus, >> I if we could um I mean, seeing that the price is, you know, price went down and it's ready to go. I I don't feel that we need to wait. I'm I'd like to make the motion to approve the purchase agreement with Kim Robson for 75,000 for P number 270011810. Um, and it is it's at 124 Somerville Street South and Shakipi. >> I'll second that. Uh, discussion. >> I still don't think public funds should be used for this. I think it should be more of a private sale. Put it on the market and let it see if it sells from there. Again, I don't think it's something the city needs to spend tax dollars on. >> My comments would be that uh we have adjourned from the the city council. Now we're sitting here as the economic development authority and that's a different hat. The economic development authority is charged with taking properties that are in a deteriorated state and contaminated especially and upgrading them for public use along with uh you know our other duties of trying to bring in jobs or big companies uh uh and develop our e economy. So um this is not out of the realm of what we do and this is one of our charter issues. So with that um >> all those in favor say I. I think I >> opposed. >> I >> uh passes two to one. Uh thank you. >> And then we will uh move on to the next portion of this discussion. Mr. Kursky, chair and board members. So we um got numerous proposals uh to demolish the building. This is the low bid who also happens to be the uh contractor to remove the house in Jennifer Lane. So, we've had experience with them. They did a really good job there. Um and they did find someone to remove the asbestous. So, >> so it wouldn't be the same contractor. >> It would be the same contractor. Yes. And the same same asbestous contractor we used there. So, >> any questions? >> No, I don't have any questions. >> Questions of the board? >> Yep. Um I'll make the motion to approve the contracts with um how do you say that? Sher >> Sherburn >> Sherburn Companies for a total of $55,736 for the building demolition and the site red how do you say remediation and with Virgo environmental for $1,514 for asbestos removal >> again I second it I can't support >> discussion >> I can't support again that's using tax dollars to buy property understand the economic development side of this but you haven't turn showed me or prove me there's any return on investment for this city for buying this? >> Uh I can think of one. We haven't made that discussion but we've heard all the rumblings about downtown parking. This could event we're not there yet but this could be that. It could be a whole new tax base and a whole new uh opportunity for somebody to build in downtown Shakipi. Uh so we have a motion and a second. Uh all those in favor say I. >> I. >> I opposed. I motion passes two to one. Thank you Mr. Kursky. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh the next thing on our item is uh 5A, the EDA bill list. Is there any questions on the bill list? >> So if we can agree on none. >> Okay. Seeing none. All right. Um I I think we'll just move that as passed with no uh you want to move that. >> Yeah. I'll make a motion to adjourn to December 2nd, 2025 at 7 p.m. >> Second. >> All right. Uh all those in favor say I. I. Uh we are standing adjourned. Oh, I keep forgetting. >> Did I break that? No. >> All right, we are reconvene um to our regular city council meeting. Oh, we're on 12 reports uh liaison and at um administration. >> All right, start on the sentence. Okay, what what has happened since the last meeting? We had a um I did the 5K 5K Jalac Jolo ladder run. That was a great event. Thank you city staff for putting that on. It was really fun. It was really rainy. I I didn't come in last, but I definitely didn't come in first. It was It was enjoyable. And the t-shirts are fantastic. I meant to wear mine tonight. Uh what else? We had a uh Shak Public Utilities meeting. Well, out of that, we did make a decision to change our uh our opt out policy. We added an additional I guess path for opting out where you can uh have the current equipment modified so it's no longer um reporting. And then we would have staff go out and and read the meter. It does would be a charge a month to do that to cover the cost for traveling out and also the manual entries. I think we have two families that may take advantage of that. We only had three families that were holdouts and one we came to to an opt outside solution. The other two I think are probably going to opt for this. We're waiting to hear back from them on that. Um let's see. Uh we had a uh meeting with the I met with the commissioner Brennan or with our GM at Spock and Commissioner Brennan. had a a zoom call to talk about nuclear reactor support uh for clean energy going forward and also met with our uh commissioner beer just to kind of after our last meeting we decided we're going to meet discuss we haven't really touched base on a lot of things so that was a good meeting uh and that was all all the activities so >> great uh Mr. First, >> it's a meeting. Sorry, I had the last part. Sorry. Uh MBTA did meet. Uh we did do some discussions uh on some things. I'd rather have bring that back to the full board because I know Mayor Layman had some questions on that. So, uh you'll you'll hear back from me on those issues uh in the future. >> No worries. And then I had no report. Mr. Reynolds, >> nothing from me, ma'am. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Um 12A, any questions on the city bill list? Anybody? Anyone? No. All good. All right. And 12 of the um news and announcements. >> You get to choose. You're the boss. >> My goodness. >> Got to find it in my notes here first. >> I'll just say, do does everybody have it? I for somehow didn't get mine. No. No. Well, I'll let you start. You got the voice. >> This is great. This is the Mary's Town Road update. and I thought it was going to be open and then it wasn't. But oh, Mary'stown Road reopened to traffic on Friday, October 31st, following the completion of the first stage of the project, which included construction of the single lane roundabout at Mary'stown Road and 169 North Ramp. Uh the roadway will remain open throughout the winter. The second stage of the project is expected to begin next April. Thank you to the community for their patience during these important improvements. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Delaney, you're up. >> Okay. Holiday Fest 2025. Holiday Fest is Saturday, December 6th, 2025 from 2 to 6 downtown Shakabe. Holiday Fest is a celebration to kick off the holiday season. There will be a a winter vendor marketplace. Pictures with Santa, tree lighting, and fireworks. Come join the holiday fun. More information can be found at Shaki Chamber of Commerce website. This is always a great event. It's um if you haven't been, it's definitely check it out. It's it's a great event. So, >> thank you. And I wasn't going to leave you behind, Mr. Reynolds. Go for it. >> Social district's dates of operation. The Shakby Social District has closed for the season. However, fear not. It will temporarily reopen for December 6th through the 7th and then close again. It will reopen in May of 2026. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Reynolds. Local bars are still open though, correct? >> The local bars are still open. They are not closed. >> Can't take it outside. Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um, other business. Anything? Anyone? God, we're >> Quick. Great job. >> All right. Thank you. And who'd like to make the motion to adjourn for tonight? >> I'd like to make a motion to adjourn to November 18th, 2025 at 7 p.m. >> Mr. Thompson, I'm uh sorry we interrupted you this evening, but uh >> thank you for being here. >> Julie on a public hearing. You know, >> we were going to bring Julie up and pay her your salary. >> Come through and delay this thing. >> So, we have a second. Second. Sorry. Second. All right. The comment period. >> No worries. Um, so we have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. >> I. Motion passes. Thank you for everybody for showing up tonight. >> Thanks everyone.