[0:08] good evening and welcome to the August 19th 2024 meeting of the Oakdale Environmental Management commission very [0:15] glad to see each one of you here and to those online thanks for watching and [0:20] joining um we'll begin this evening with our roll call of commissioner members present and commissioner staff liaison [0:26] Hannah Dunn will now be taking role Hannah chair gerding pres commissioner dittle pres commissioner Yang pres [0:34] commissioner lash pres commissioner Brendan present great also joining us tonight in [0:42] addition to uh oakdale's Community Development staff is uh emc's city [0:47] council liaison and Oakdale mayor Kevin zel um next item is to move to our [0:54] Pledge of Allegiance so if we'd all please rise together [1:03] i al to flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it [1:11] stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for [1:24] all okay next item on our agenda tonight is [1:30] is uh to move towards approval of the agenda [1:36] itself um everyone did receive a copy prior to the meeting um one of our [1:42] presenters I will add is en route currently so um do we need pardon me do [1:48] we need to approve prior to moving or we just need to just approve the just [1:55] approve it as as as written and submitted thank you for the clarification mayor zel um so with that [2:01] you were all sent this in advance um of the meeting so assuming no amendments or [2:08] further discussion I'd like to ask for approval of the agenda for tonight's August 19th [2:13] EMC meeting move thank you get a second [2:20] second awesome all in favor to approve tonight's August 19th 2024 um agenda as [2:26] presented say I I I opposed great thank [2:32] you we will now move to our approval of our meeting minutes from our commission meeting um June 17th 2024 two months ago [2:40] these minutes were also sent prior to the meeting so assuming no other amendments [2:46] clarifications questions [Music] [2:52] discussion I will move to ask for approval of the minutes from the June 17th EMC [2:57] meeting so moved thank you get a sec second awesome thank [3:03] you all in favor of approving the June 17th minutes say I I opposed great thank [3:12] you now we will move to uh we would normally move to the public and open [3:18] Forum section but as I was starting to say one of our presenters is in route so we are just going to hold the [3:24] presentation from RCC which is resilient cities and communities um until our [3:29] second presenter arrives which should be in a a few more minutes so moving on to [3:36] the EMC review section which is 7.b of new [3:42] business Hannah will provide an overview of the status of our commission's continued participation in the adopted [3:49] drain program thank you y um for those that don't know the EMC adopted three [3:54] drains um out in the parking lot of City Hall in Walton Park um so in order to ensure that they are being cleared of [4:01] debris um leaves trash uh the schedule in your packet memo was created to help [4:06] organize when each commissioner is responsible for cleaning in August we have chair Gering in September [4:13] commissioner Yang is responsible for clearing October is commissioner dittle November is commissioner lash and [4:19] December is commissioner Brendan the level of commitment is relatively low um all that's needed um is to volunteer [4:25] maybe 15 minutes twice a month um sweep leaves trash and other debris off the drain service and if you'd like to um [4:32] and you remember to at each meeting you can report back maybe your estimated um total debris and we can track our impact [4:39] um chair gerding you're the only one um who's probably done this before do you have any tips or um things to share with [4:46] other Commissioners as they do this for the first time probably I think yeah think great question so tips for sharing [4:53] impact on storm sewer uh debris cleaning I would say just get in the habit of it [5:00] um I know this is only one time per month per year that we're doing this over five months 6 months five months I [5:06] think is what's been proposed but I guess my biggest tip is just to um think about when you're collecting uh if it's [5:13] sediment or solid in terms of what are you sweeping up like sand or are you like picking up trash and leaves and [5:20] more solid type stuff and just let the city know about how much of a rough guesstimate if it was like 2 lb or 5 lbs [5:26] would roughly be in each of those set categories if that makes sense yeah I [5:32] don't know I don't have any other any other Hot Tips really no that's great are there any [5:38] issues with the assignments um we can rearrange if certain month certain month you've been assigned doesn't work um I [5:45] just went ahead and took the liberty of assigning so please let me know um either now or feel free to email me and [5:50] we can work something out looks good good okay thank you Hannah [5:59] moving on in our agenda uh we've got I think we have the commissioner updates [6:08] um starting with staff liaison um updates of the I think the [6:15] content calendar is what we're going to yes move towards now on Communications thank you yes I'll uh be brief so first up for my [6:23] updates is the review of the editorial calendar um and once discussion on Communications content is finished um I [6:29] have a few Community Development updates to provide um looking ahead the theme for September is electric vehicles there [6:35] are lots of rebates and incentives out there that we could promote to Residents uh via social media uh the theme for [6:41] October is Energy Efficiency um I don't have any updated numbers uh regarding the usage of the Oakdale sponsored home [6:48] energy Squad rebates I know they're being used but I know we have um we still have some available so we'll [6:55] do another push on social media and hopefully in our Oakdale update newsletter um as room allows and then the theme for [7:01] November is reuse and recycling I'm hoping the pumpkin recycling drop off that was um available in the City Hall [7:08] Parking Lot will return that's a Washington County sponsored service um I [7:13] anticipate we'd be a host site again but I would need to confirm with them so hopefully that's something we can promote um that was uh really well used [7:20] last year and then um I'm not sure if you follow city of Oakdale social media but Shar ging was featured featured over the [7:27] weekend um he kindly provided Communications with a photo and quote about his and his family's experience [7:32] with the food scraps pickup program um so it's gotten really good traction it was nice to have a post with a personal [7:37] touch but I um I bet we'll we'll promote the food scraps pickup program again in [7:43] November um because like the count is really pushing this ini initiative they've invested a lot of um time and [7:49] resources into it so um we're doing everything we can to make sure that Oakdale residents are [7:55] participating so that's what I have in store for the next few months um if any Commission have ideas about content or [8:01] resources to share please feel free to offer them now or as always you can email [8:28] me all I just want to note and make a comment here um that this is this is great to see [8:35] into like November like a full three months ahead I know that it may depend on the content and the month but it's [8:41] just again it's just nice to see everything that's that's been done and that's coming up um tell a lot of work [8:49] has been put into the themes specifically around nove or October and Energy Efficiency so thank you for [8:55] always supporting us in this way as we support the city does anybody have any other comments for staff L undone about [9:03] the editorial calendar or questions or ideas n for [9:11] me all right great well I think our um our next guest [9:18] our last remaining guest has arrived yay so [9:24] we'll yeah so we'll now move to the public we'll now move to the public open [9:29] Forum time of our agenda and tonight we'd like to welcome Shan um and Steve [9:35] Sean and Steve are the executive director and the board president respectively of resilient cities and [9:41] communities or RCC as they're known um they will provide passw again they will [9:47] provide an overview of what they do and how cities and businesses and residents [9:52] can learn more about their work um and invite any questions from us Sean and Steve good evening the floor [9:59] is yours oh thank you and then by the way Noah is on our board also with RCC [10:06] and I was good buddies with Keith Miller for many years so he and I go way back I [10:12] just grew up on Highway 120 over white by Century College so I always used to [10:18] come down to Silver Lake and go down the slide in the summer and get would be so [10:23] hot with the slide you know so um anyway the uh kind of our main message with [10:29] resilient cities and communities is we want to make sure that every city in the Metro has a solid foundation for getting [10:37] things done on sustainability and climate so that's the tripod of your [10:42] citizen volunteers we also support a lot of Citizen environmental commissions as [10:48] well as citizen coalitions like for example the um sustainable still water [10:55] in the modern media area green initiative we also support City to get new teams going so we just helped [11:01] Badness Heights to get their team going and then having elected leaders that [11:06] care about this is also very important because if you're missing one of the three parts of the tripod either the [11:13] citizen support the elected leaders or the staff support you're kind of dead in [11:18] the water you can't move anything so we're really trying to help more cities [11:24] to get that triod of support and then the other part of it is [11:30] is sometimes you can lose momentum just as one city so we're working to get a [11:35] bunch of cities to team up together um so we for example Steve is helping with our Ramsey County cluster of cities and [11:43] we'd like to work with you guys to get a Washington County group of cities going [11:48] we were meeting quite a lot when they're getting the comp plans started like [11:53] about five years ago um but eventually it would be fun if Hannah could help us [11:58] to connect with the other green subsid staffers maybe quarterly to connect and [12:04] then with you guys we would love to team up with you to get together with the [12:09] other environmental commissions maybe twice a year with uh mon has a strong [12:15] commission there's a lot going on in Woodburry right now um so and then kind [12:21] of the big picture is you probably heard this is a bit of a scary news with the [12:28] hottest year on record and who knows if the the [12:33] currents across the Atlantic are going to start getting screwed up with uh anyway so it's kind of time to really [12:41] try to get these climate goals done on time and luckily there's tremendous [12:48] amount of incentives from the federal government with the IR tax credits and all that but if people don't use them it [12:55] doesn't do any good so that's where we're trying to help a number of cities [13:00] let's say in Washington County to team up to really promote a bunch of [13:05] residential customers to do the if you probably heard about the Electrify everything campaign where they're [13:13] basically encouraging homeowners to check out getting a airs Source heed pump um maybe an electric car maybe [13:19] putting an electric range and there's all these tax credits like with rewiring [13:25] America so if you did it over three years basically just have the tax credits pay for it so but there's no [13:32] need for all the cities in Washington County to kind of reinvent the wheel you might as well just kind of do the same [13:38] campaign so with the residential customers like with the home energy Squad as well as with the businesses as [13:45] well so maybe I'm going to turn over to Steve to just share how kind of they got things going with with um vness Heights [13:53] and kind of the vision we have for the Ramsey County cities that we would like to try to do with the Washington County [14:00] cities as well yep thanks Sean so I'm Steve joris uh I'm in vness Heights I'm [14:07] on their Green Team I'm also on their Planning Commission and I'm also on the board of RCC along with Noah uh and [14:13] Sean's our executive director um but with vados Heights we just uh we entered [14:20] the gold leaf program um back about a year ago now and I was on the kind of [14:26] the forming commission and Sean helped uh the the staff at uh uh invad Heights [14:33] get the thing going the gold leaf program we had to pick two impactful uh [14:40] deliverables uh that we needed to get done within um 6 months I think it was [14:45] uh the two de deliverables one was to form a green team uh which we did and I'm on that uh the other one was we we [14:52] organized a uh a uh um adopted drain uh [14:57] CommunityWide adopted drain program where we had about 15 volunteers we did over 100 drains um and did big [15:05] clean up and that was in the fall which I know you're doing the adapted drain the fall is a great time to do it and [15:12] because all the leaves accumulate and also in the spring we also we we organized a second one in the spring [15:19] when I don't know what kind of trees it are but they really drop a lot right into the gutters that we need to clean [15:25] up um so we've been working on that um the Ramy County cluster thing I've been [15:31] working been working with mostly the citizen uh groups so we had resilient [15:37] Roseville uh citizens for sustainability out of uh St Anthony and um St Paul 350 [15:45] and sustain St Paul and then my another thing I do I co-lead a group called Northeast metr climate action um so our [15:53] five groups got together a couple times and and uh prioritized [15:59] actions that would happen on the county level so we were given you know TR to [16:05] figure out what the jurisdiction is for the county including County Roads land [16:10] use uh food scraps uh those types of things the waste recycling and we we put [16:17] our heads together and got uh two meetings uh with both the Ramsey County [16:23] staff and the Ramsey County Commissioners two of the Commissioners were on there including the board chair [16:28] um Victoria Reinhardt and uh Trista Martinson um and to bring a coalition of [16:37] groups to the uh Commissioners is a powerful message they tell you that they [16:45] want to hear from you um about what what you would like from them on climate [16:51] action and when you can get a coalition of groups together prioritize and bring [16:56] that message to your County Commission that's a very powerful message to bring to them so those are the couple of [17:03] things that I've been working on that um Sean wanted me to talk to you about today great and so then I'm going to [17:09] just share this I actually brought out copy so we can pass these down [17:14] so one of the things we're GNA be working on the microphone yes okay [17:22] so it's so one of the issues that cities have is hey we have a climate action [17:27] plan but then number one who's going to do it and number two how are we going to pay for it and so there's two different [17:35] solutions for that and we're going to talk about them on September 25th which [17:41] is a Wednesday night with the we're going to have Kate canth with the mpca [17:47] climate Department talking about the new state of Minnesota climate action framework that they're updating and [17:53] they're trying to get ideas of how to accelerate City level actions so it's [17:59] going to be like at 4:30 at the um Minneapolis College Skyway Lounge so I [18:06] hope you guys can join us they're going to open up the registration link tomorrow on the eqb web page and so if [18:13] you make sure to get give a hand on one of these handouts too here yeah so then [18:19] um and then we're going to have a separate event the eqb event gets done at [18:25] 6:30 and we're going to stay in the room with anybody who wants to get together [18:30] with one of your County Commissioners from Washington County as well as maybe [18:35] about six or eight cities from Washington County are going to be there so you'll get to meet people from [18:40] Woodburry they just passed a climate action plan Still Water um we're trying [18:46] to get Cottage Grove to get back on gear man they're they're kind of falling behind a bit um but so then generally [18:54] what we're looking at is brainstorming what would be some action [18:59] that we could get going for example the Washington County Economic Development [19:05] Authority is a bit worried because they have so much Residential Properties in [19:10] Washington County but not enough commercial properties so they feel like they're tax bases kind of off whack so [19:18] one way of solving that is by getting you know more of the businesses to put [19:24] on solar panels to put in EV charging and to s switch out their old agac with [19:31] newer heat pumps so one of the thoughts maybe we could just work together with a [19:37] bunch of the cities to work on all of your little strip balls and forget who [19:42] owns the dang strip ball and how to get them getting connected with all these [19:48] incentives another big thing I've been hearing about is that people tell me I'm [19:53] going to still water but I can't plug in my electric car and so like like they to [19:58] go on a bike trip around still water but they they want to recharge their electric car when they're there so like [20:05] you could really work countywide to beef up the electric charging infrastructure and then another concern [20:12] people have had is um you know it's great to bike and I know Keith Miller is [20:17] a big biker but how are you going to get across Highway 36 or you know there's a [20:23] bunch of different places that are very challenging for bikes and pedestrians so [20:28] if all of the different city commissions could team up like sustainable still water is working on this uh Woodberry is [20:36] trying to become a bike friendly community so if you kind of team up and look at when is the County planning to [20:42] redo these various roads so they have to kind of repave the roads about every 10 [20:48] years so you could really take advantage of that to put in better bike Lanes put [20:53] in some storm water things like in Woodberry where they capture the water [20:58] off of the road and they capture it to water the golf course so instead of having to use Woodbury does not want to [21:06] pump any more groundw because of the dang 3M chemicals so they would rather use water off the street to water the [21:13] golf course so um so I'm just curious if you guys were had your magic wand and [21:20] could help you know a number of the cities and Washington County to team up to get things done well would be some [21:27] areas that you might be interested in trying to see actions that might be easier if you get them done all together [21:35] is any like does anybody have any Master water stewards here or people working on [21:40] water quality uh I think the like the adopted drain is a great one where you could have a bunch of cities doing that [21:46] together the tree planting because of the emerald ashb like all these trees are going to [21:52] get taken out um I'm just curious if if you guys any other thoughts you have of [21:58] things that you would like to see happen in Oakdale that could maybe be easier if a bunch of cities teamed up to get it [22:05] done across the [22:11] county I think you hit on a one thing which is well you mentioned get over [22:16] Highway 36 but just trails in general right no one cares about what city [22:23] they're in they just want to get from one point to the other so Trails any sort of a comprehensive more larger scale Trail progam program right and the [22:29] same thing goes for like Weds right Weds are doesn't matter what the boundary is for a watershed right and so having a [22:36] plan that sort of a watershed by Watershed basis um would would be [22:41] something that would unify people too yeah one of the things we talked to Ramsey County Commissioners about was more what we call four to three [22:47] conversions uh roads like mcnight Road between Beam Avenue and 694 is this four [22:54] you know two lanes each way and I bicycle that all the time and it's terrible for bicycling and what they've [22:59] done with a number of Roads is they uh make that three lanes one in each Direction with a middle turn lane and [23:06] then they have room on either side for bike Lanes um you know the really the gold standard for that if you ever been [23:12] on a Weck Parkway from faen Park to uh KO it's fantastic for bicycling and has [23:20] the they they made that again they're taking car Lanes they don't need they [23:26] really don't need four lanes two lanes each way out on these County Roads make them one lane each way put put one in [23:32] the middle for turning and then uh either a separate bike lane or have a uh [23:38] the shoulders that's something that you could bring to your Washington County Commissioners as a as a coalition and [23:45] look at the map and figure out where that would be uh really appropriate exactly and then also with [23:51] this issue of the the watersheds um the Met Council has a [23:57] great tool for looking at where there's potential for flooding and so when you [24:03] look at the different County Road improvements a lot of times the [24:08] infrastructure to replace whatever to deal with flooding is kind of expensive so if you could kind of team up with the [24:17] the county to reduce some of these flood prone areas um the other issue is with [24:24] all this rain seems to me like the water table might start going up and maybe people who didn't have a wet B [24:31] basement before might start having a wet basement um so one of the other things [24:37] you could do is work with your Watershed districts and others to figure out is there any changes in like where these [24:44] flood zones are with the FEMA maps are there new households that might start having a risk and then having some [24:51] different homeowner education things um to make sure if you have a su pump you [24:58] know to um I guess one of the questions is can you just have your some go into the stor [25:06] whatever um and then trying to prevent moldy basement and all that um but like [25:12] d has been doing a great job on dealing with their flood flone areas um I'm [25:17] curious Hannah do you know does Oakdale have a plan for dealing with your trees [25:23] and tree diversification as well as like the emerald ashard um yeah we have in public works [25:30] the city Forester um and that forestry division would handle all that so I um [25:36] you know right now at the fing my fingertips I don't know what's what we've got planned but we um you know we [25:42] take pride and in our tree canopy and um we I know we do a lot of work um to help [25:50] combat emerald ashbo and diversify our canopy excellent so I know one may add [25:55] one thing to that one we also have a tree board which which acts like a commission oh [26:01] great but it's it's the the structure is a little bit different but it feels the same as as this so they're they're also [26:07] in lock step with you know comp plan and oh great and bigger goals um and I would say that our annual uh gresy tree [26:14] giveaway in April around Earth Day I believe is a is something that we also do we're very proud of that one because [26:20] we give all trees to Oakdale residents at no cost well fantastic and it'll come out to your Earth Day I guess you have [26:26] your you live in Oakdale um no no I'm just going to come to be a vendor at your next birday event so um uh that [26:34] we'd enjoy right so then I think uh just in general when you're looking at your [26:40] environmental commission getting things done it's not just the environmental commission that has power to do things [26:46] it's also your Planning Commission and like your whatever your tree board some [26:52] other cities have their own Transportation Commission so like both Thea and Ridgefield have extremely solid [27:00] Transportation commissions and if you ever go to Richfield you can't believe the amount of great things they have [27:07] with the different turnarounds and crosswalks and it just Richfield is like [27:12] kind of an oasis for bikers um so one of the things that you could also get ready [27:19] for is the 2050 comp plans are going to ask cities to have more elements related [27:26] to climate mitigation and adaptation so um when you're doing that you could [27:33] begin to like deal with your Planning Commission about things like zoning and [27:39] new developments so I I do have a toolkit here for you if you I know you [27:46] already have your big development over atation but there's a lot of things that City you know your Planning Commission [27:52] can do to help shift developments into the correct direction and then the other component [27:59] with your Planning Commission is um are you going to be getting any Transit quarters coming out here brt or LRT so [28:08] like which Transit quars are coming out Gold Line brt so we'll have two stations serving Oakdale Greenway and helmo [28:15] station great so then that's that's a key thing to be considering is the [28:20] station areas around the Gold Line and how to have different High slightly [28:25] higher density development to be able to then have um more people kind of living [28:31] right there where the transportation is and with a lot of seniors needing to get [28:36] out of the individual homes you could put in some like four-story senior [28:42] co-ops or other things like that so so there is an issue of how to deal with the zoning trying to maybe reduce some [28:49] of the parking requirements and and then gradually trying to get developers to [28:54] put in um uh the new heat pumps so they don't have to deal with natural gas for [29:02] the next 50 years maybe Steve why don't you talk about what you're doing with that one multif family building downtown [29:08] yeah so we're getting affordable housing and and well it hasn't been approved yet by the Met Council but um we're hoping [29:15] that it's going to get approved uh and their City Council in September but there's a 58 unit uh [29:22] uh low uh affordable housing unit that's being uh R by our Walmart area near a [29:29] city center which is a you know we would want to see higher population density at our city center and with your Gold Line [29:37] Transit oriented development you know around there it would be perfect but I'm working trying to work with the developer on uh having them not put [29:44] natural gas into that building as a you know as a a representative from our [29:50] Green Team uh I'm working with them early before they get the approvals and everything and just saying you know [29:56] these uh what they call the fresh pack they're uh air source heat pumps air conditioners they work as well as the [30:02] the gas and then you don't have any worry about you know gas leaks blowups [30:08] no carbon monoxide detectors that type of thing of course they'll probably have to put them in anyway even though you wouldn't need them but uh that would be [30:16] great if they had no gas at all so um that's one of the things we're working on uh [30:21] so um yeah so yeah and so So eventually [30:28] um somebody has to keep the eye on the carbon footprint for your city to see if [30:33] it's changing and so this is where your commission can be really powerful for that the Met Council will give you a [30:41] report card every year of your carbon emissions from buildings Transportation [30:46] solid waste so that's currently available on the Met council's website [30:52] and they also have a separate calculator so you can figure out um if we did this [30:57] action how far would we get to reduce our carbon footprint so what I'm [31:03] encouraging which I think would be fantastic is if maybe sometime maybe [31:09] half a year from now um before you got to get into the 2050 comp plans um you [31:15] guys could meet up with Still Water um and um M wood bar um and dang what's the [31:25] little city Bap what's the little one that's right right across from still water in 36 bort yeah well there's [31:31] Bayport Oak Park Heights oh yeah Oak Park Heights is that always forget Oak Park Heights but anyway so there's no [31:38] need for you guys to all to have to hire your own high buuck consultant to work on your climate action plans because [31:46] basically the green step Gold Leaf program has all the actions laid out and [31:51] then if you um kind of look at the med council's climate tool can see how far [31:59] you're going to get with these actions and then another really fun thing that [32:04] you could do that would accelerate action would be if let's say Oakdale and [32:09] Woodburry join Partners in energy at the same time that's a program with Excel [32:15] Energy with Center for Energy environment where they give you something like $50,000 worth of free [32:22] staff time over two years to develop an energy action plan and then to help help [32:28] you get it done so but if you kind of teamed up like with Woodberry then you [32:33] wouldn't have to do as much work because you could have one committee working on Commercial Outreach another committee [32:39] working on residential Outreach and and so there's you know probably a lot of [32:44] overlap with the churches and things with Oak Deale and Woodbury anyway so that's on my my list of these on this [32:52] handout I gave you it basically has the event for the make sure to to join us [32:59] over at the St Paul College on September 25th and then the next thing is to um uh [33:08] you already have your solid tripod of support in your city here so then the next thing is we're hoping that maybe we [33:15] could work with you guys sometime perhaps in the fall to organize a Meetup some evening with the other [33:21] environment commissions across the county so they could kind of learn from each other and hear share what they're [33:27] up to so I can talk with Noah about seeing what would be a time maybe in [33:34] September October that wouldn't conflict with your normal meetings you have to see when all the other commissions meet [33:39] so you're not going on the same night or whatever but getting everybody together I think would be [33:45] fantastic and then this first opportunity here would be to join Partners energy so you could develop a [33:53] comprehensive plan to reduce energy usage within the commercial buildings and residential buildings the second [34:00] thing would be maybe sometime to have a multi-city workshop where everybody comes up with a three-year climate [34:06] action work plan and then um the next thing is to try to get money to pay for this stuff [34:14] and so there's there's a bunch of different federal grants that the county could maybe help you apply for and then [34:21] finally the getting stuff done together so that's where I would suggest like [34:26] looking at this Electrify everything campaign that um Minneapolis is involved [34:31] with like Eden Prairie and several other cities to get the homeowners to put in [34:36] like the airos source heat pumps using the tax credits and then this last resource is [34:42] this guide book we have for shaping any new developments you have so that they're Greener um so I've working on [34:51] this kind of thing for 20 years so I'm sorry I have maybe too much information to share um so I'm curious Justin um [34:59] what are any other issues of like that are kind of top of bind for you that or [35:04] things you get to work that you like to work on well I just joined the commission this my first [35:11] meeting great so I'm still kind of learning the Roop on the spot sure right we're [35:17] good and then so Tim someone's like okay I think we're pretty much done yeah yeah [35:23] yeah so we'll we'll circle around to figure out how we can get all the missions together this fall and then [35:29] I'll talk with Hannah about getting the city green step City staffers together [35:36] and then um how many people are free on September 25th that Wednesday night do [35:41] you think you could join us downtown at St Paul College that would be I think you'd be able to meet people from the [35:48] mpca who are working on the state's climate action plan so Sean when did you say the registration for that goes live [35:55] yes it goes to live tomorrow okay so so now the eqb will have about limited [36:00] spots but for the second part of it with RCC we're going to say anybody who comes [36:06] can can join us so but I think if you sign up tomorrow there should be no problem to get in there yep hey thanks [36:14] you guys thank you both so much thanks yeah thank you and then here's my extra [36:19] copies of our hand outs [36:26] that as thank you great thank you very much nice [36:32] to meet [36:42] you all right we shifting back and next up we're going to continue on our uh agenda item [36:50] number seven the EMC review and as we just finished talking about the editorial calendar um I believe that um [36:57] Hannah has some Community Development updates for us to learn about I sure do um I don't have too many to share um [37:05] first I do want to remind Commissioners that the Citywide fall cleanup event um is uh basically a month away um this is [37:12] an opportunity for Oakdale residents to uh conveniently dispose of furniture Electronics other hardto recycle items [37:19] this event is Saturday September 2st from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. um you'll be seeing more Communications regarding [37:26] this on social media and our Oakdale update newsletter um this is open to [37:31] only Oakdale residents fees will be charged for almost all items um and they [37:37] must be brought to Oakdale Public Works um and then Additionally the Willowbrook [37:43] Common's Park is coming along nicely there's still lots of work to do um but [37:48] we're on schedule um so I just wanted to give you a heads up to keep an eye out for um an invitation to a grand opening [37:54] that will occur this fall so we'll be sending a flyer out to all the commissions um and other other guests [38:01] it'll be open to the public um but I just wanted to give you a heads up to keep an eye out for that [38:06] invitation if anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer [38:12] them for the Willowbrook or Forefront development is there I I forall can you [38:18] remind us what the retail is is it I've been identified yet the Aldi and [38:25] Starbucks are going in yes right um in front of [38:30] Forefront thank you to my knowledge that's all that is confirmed there [38:46] great next we move to any any commissioner updates you like to share [39:03] wow all right yes I mean hearing none uh [39:09] Mr Mayor emc's city council leison that's we can give it to himy [39:17] May thank you Mr chair and Commissioners um I have a number of updates since we didn't meet last month so there's a lot [39:24] going on first and foremost uh a big welcome to Katie and atin our newest Commissioners here on the EMC we are [39:29] very excited to have you um we're always excited to see people willing to step up and serve in these roles so uh look [39:36] forward to uh providing valuable advice to the city council going forward so thank you for [39:41] volunteering um our City's Park system plan is still open it closes at the end of the month uh August 31st um this plan [39:49] includes different concepts for each Park in our city so I think we in total have 28 Parks um one area of interest to [39:56] the EMC you know part of this project is looking at some of our passive Parks um [40:01] and identifying those areas that might currently be turf grass figuring out a different use for those obviously [40:07] there's environmental benefits in converting that land to maybe a more natural use there's also operational um [40:14] benefits not having to mow that grass so that is something that the city is looking at and we we are asking [40:20] everybody to provide feedback on those concepts by the end of the month um my phone just went to sleep on me so um you [40:26] can find that on our city website um pick as many parks as you like there's one there's a different survey for each [40:32] individual Park um there's even some parks that we didn't even know where parks in Oakdale [40:37] so um we definitely want to figure out how to best utilize that land and be good land sewards um so please weigh in [40:44] on that uh Hannah mentioned the city cleanup day this is so exciting for us you know for Oakdale we haven't done [40:50] this in 15 years um it was an idea that popped up earlier this year late last [40:55] year um city council said we wanted to do it and we handed it off to Hannah and she's absolutely crushed it so um thank [41:02] you Hannah for all of your work on this um Council got A Sneak Peak at the the fee schedule there'll be a nominal fee [41:07] for for the items we got a sneak peek at that at our meeting last week I think it'll be finalized this week or next [41:13] week and we'll get that out to the public um there's a Facebook event created for it Hannah mentioned it's going to be at public works so easy [41:20] drive in drive out police will be out there directing traffic we want to collect a lot of trash um and for [41:25] anybody like me that's been working at home during the co Years A lot has built up so we are excited uh we have some [41:31] great Partners who are helping you know remediate that trash so um yeah it's definitely something we're looking [41:36] forward to bringing back and we definitely want to keep going in this community uh budget work continues this [41:41] is always the biggest lift of the city council's year usually we start in late spring um and it goes all the way [41:47] through December so our next milestone in terms of the budget um state law requires us to adopt our preliminary [41:54] Levy by the end of September we usually do that at our first meeting in September setember all this means is this is the ceiling for our property [42:01] taxes for the year from September through December the city council works with our staff to get that down as low [42:06] as we can um but that is the high watermark for for um our our property tax levy so uh work continues as always [42:14] we're looking at a few more staff additions we're growing city um other highlights you know we continue to fund [42:20] our vehicle equipment replacement program um this was something that we changed over a few years ago no longer [42:26] issuing debt for vehicle purchases and using cash instead um as interest rates have climbed over the last few years [42:32] that's been a very big benefit for our our financial planning as as a city um [42:38] we also have a development proposal at Tanner Lake this has been working its way through the through the process the [42:44] last couple of months um that parcel has been living in city government for 15 [42:50] years maybe in 20 years you know um you know for history it was the old toes and [42:56] black e site as well as Harmon autog Glass down there by Tanner Lake the city Eda bought it 2008 2009 2010 did the [43:04] cleanup and we have struggled to find a developer ever since we are very excited that we have a a very interested and [43:11] engaged development partner um of interest for the EMC you know the EMC has um shared concerns many times with [43:17] that parcel just in terms of storm water runoff so we are excited to get that parcel developed get all of that [43:23] buttoned up obviously that will be a big positive impact on the lake so we are looking forward to working that [43:29] development Pro uh proposal through the process uh I'm going to make a plug for [43:34] the home energy Squad audits uh the city is still offering rebates for that program I went through it uh June I [43:41] think I did it it was right when it opened um it is a it is an easy process residents should be taking advantage of this the city will pick up 50% of the [43:47] cost of the home energy audit I think the other 50% you can get a federal tax credit so it's a win-win it takes a few [43:53] hours um but you know like my home built in 1991 one I had never even been up into the crawl space in the Attic CU [44:00] that kind of creeped me out um just to have experts go up there and tell me do I need insulation up there are my walls [44:07] do I have good enough insulation in my walls what about my original Windows having somebody look at all that put [44:12] together a report that also includes um possible funding recommendations for Grants or or other funding sources to [44:19] make those repairs or upgrades is huge um I thought it would be a little daunting going through that report they [44:25] really made it so easy so uh MN ce. org you can just go ahead and sign up there [44:30] they already know oakdale's a partner so they'll take the 50% off right off the top and Bill us you don't have to come to the city and get your rebate um check [44:37] it out it's very worthwhile just knowing how we can make our homes more energy efficient last update I promise uh this [44:45] one's exciting the city has taken ownership of the new Public Works campus at 32nd in Granada we have complet well [44:50] the uh 3M the previous land owner has completed the pfast soil remediation it [44:56] has been certified by the mpca um they transferred the deed over to the city so we are the owners we will be breaking [45:02] ground on the new Public Works campus next month next month right yep September um and the new campus will be [45:08] opening late fall 2025 this has been a very long process we are excited to get a going at our last city council meeting [45:14] we approved a bulk of the bids for the project um $32 million project the [45:19] largest Capital project in City history we are very excited to get this going obviously getting that the past and the [45:26] soil room mediated is a huge benefit as well so um I want to offer a very big thank you to 3M they were tremendous [45:32] Partners in all of this um just you know owning up and taking care of the problem [45:37] and donating the land to the city saving us some money and land acquisition costs um it's going to be big positive for our [45:43] community so we are excited to keep that project rolling how about questions any [45:48] questions for me um I a question about the old public work site what happens with that one uh [45:55] the current plan is so the water filtration uh plant is going to stay there um and eventually will be expanded [46:02] using the 3M settlement dollars in between that you know the other project we have coming up I think next year is [46:09] an expansion of the police department so that we have looked at police temporarily relocating to that Public [46:15] Works building while the work is going on here and then once they move back here then we'll demolish the existing [46:20] building expand the water filtration and that'll be the sole purpose or the sole use down there [46:28] we're hoping all these Legos or dominoes or whatever toy you want falls into place that's the plan but the best laid [46:34] plans we know how those go so any other questions regarding the new [46:40] Public Works facility on Granada um is there a place that residents can go to check for status updates uh yes so we [46:46] have a City website um I think you I think it's actually probably on the the homepage of the city website um and then [46:52] once construction begins there will be more frequent updates so you can sign up under the notify me tab on the city's [46:58] website and get text alerts email alerts as things are going on um there was talk once upon a time about doing a site [47:05] camera don't know if that's still a thing where people people can watch the construction in real time um we we'll [47:11] check on that that'd be kind of cool um but yeah um that'll be the bulk of it [47:17] those text and email notifications as well as any you know updates I mentioned in the Monday Morning Minute yeah any [47:25] other questions all right thank you everybody thank you thank [47:36] you well this brings us to the end of the agenda for this evening our next [47:42] meeting of the EMC will occur on Monday September 16th in here in council [47:47] chambers if there's no further discussion I will call for a motion to adjourn tonight's August 19th meeting of [47:53] Oak Tales EMC please so moved there second [47:59] second all in favor of adjourning tonight's meeting say I hi hi I [48:05] post meeting is adjourned thanks everyone