[0:09] okay welcome everybody uh welcome to the April 2nd 2025 Oakdale Economic

[0:16] Development Commission this is our regular meeting um let's have a uh call roll um

[0:25] I'm Jeff Bates uh here tony Jenkins here frank Orello

[0:32] frank yes stacy Penn robert here and

[0:38] Ping Vang is not here tonight okay um All right let's do the pledge of

[0:45] allegiance frank would you lead us please sure

[0:50] i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

[0:55] republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and

[1:01] justice for all

[1:07] thank you Frank all right uh the agenda is been handed out in front of us here uh can we

[1:14] have a motion to approve the agenda as presented i'll make a motion okay and second i'll

[1:22] second all in favor i I anybody opposed

[1:28] okay motion carries all right for the minutes um any discussions or

[1:33] corrections i have one uh myself i know i saw on the uh staff lays and updates

[1:40] second paragraph uh that first sentence was incomplete so I've already talked to

[1:46] Max about this and he'll update that any other

[1:55] corrections okay you have a moment to

[2:11] review all right uh a motion to approve the minutes with the corrections that I

[2:18] stated to the page two of the or the second paragraph of the staff lays and updates motion so moved a second okay

[2:28] and all in favor i I Okay uh motion carries okay now uh we move on to the

[2:36] open forum are there any members of the audience of the public that would like

[2:41] to speak and right now I see no members of the

[2:46] audience i'll close the open form then all right

[2:52] um for our business old business uh we have the Economic Development Commission

[2:58] 2025 work plan max can you speak to that sure

[3:05] thing good evening folks give me just a moment to get the presentation up here

[3:10] um so as a reminder the economic development commission and other city commissions are required to prepare an

[3:17] annual work plan that outlines the priorities goals and activities that the commission wishes to focus on for the

[3:23] year uh generally staff prepares a draft based on the upcoming projects for the

[3:29] year and what we've been hearing from our commissioners and then the commission will provides additional

[3:34] input and adjust the goals and priorities the 2025 draft plan is located in your

[3:40] packet and will be shown on the screen in a few moments as well um last November we did take a look at the

[3:47] initial draft of the work plan now given that we've had the appreciation dinner and the opportunity to chat with the

[3:53] city council um I want to open back up the work plan to any additional

[3:58] adjustments ideas that you might have um we want to make this open and if you do have ideas we're very much looking for

[4:05] things that the EDC can focus on so I'll have these up on the screen and it's in your packet as well towards

[4:12] the beginning um so here we just have the first few goals of the plan highlights include continuing the Bria

[4:20] program participating in business visits and other business development events

[4:25] advising staff on how best to market the city for economic development and assisting with redevelopment efforts and

[4:32] area plans towards the bottom of it we have additional goals which include

[4:38] collaborating with other local economic development groups on projects and programs promoting resources and tools

[4:44] related to economic development participating in city studies including the upcoming 12th and Geneva study

[4:52] participating in trainings and integrating educational topics from guest agencies and

[4:58] organizations um so this is the draft work plan and with that if there's any

[5:03] other ideas at all I'd be happy to adjust that going forward

[5:17] what are the next steps so formal adoption is no not required at

[5:22] this point anymore um we would just look to make any adjustments and otherwise

[5:27] send it back to the city council for consideration okay uh do you need a um any kind of a

[5:34] decision tonight on this um I don't need a formal decision again if there's just any out there ideas anyone wants to

[5:41] float please feel free you can also email me or call me at a later date as well i think the idea is to still have

[5:47] the 12 for the BR the business retention expansion 12 visits again is there a

[5:52] recommended amount of people i know you go on them frequently right is there a recommended amount of people that need

[5:59] to go on there or ideal three four what's a typical amount that go on usually there's about four

[6:06] people yeah we we try to have one representative of the business community who's not a part of the city um or can

[6:14] be a part of a city commission obviously but um less we would want to make sure

[6:20] as visits restart that some folks who haven't gotten to go yet get a chance um so once we start those visits up we

[6:27] would um email folks do do Last time what we did was a random drawing and

[6:32] just reached out to see uh based on who we drew and if they said yes we invited

[6:38] them along so I I think we would look to do that again i was able to go on one a while ago now

[6:46] and it was very u interesting i think it was the um home home furniture opening

[6:53] when that first opened up and that was interesting to hear about and then it was there was also one for one of the

[6:59] local motel hotels uh we got to talk with the general manager at that one

[7:06] learned a lot he was looking at that time he was looking forward to the gold line uh just to even bring in workers

[7:13] for him for his place so could see a lot of things coming together it's really

[7:18] interesting and fun to see this do we ever run around back with any

[7:23] of those visits like a like you said like maybe like a year after you know to see like if somebody like that was

[7:28] excited with the goal line to follow up with them at the end of this year once it's been active and see how what impact

[7:34] it's had or anything just curious yeah I can speak to that um Commissioner we

[7:40] have recently tried to really explore uh that option if you I actually gave you a

[7:45] phone call if you recall um to follow up on your visit to CCF Bank um we've been

[7:52] calling some of our firstear participants asking them questions if there's anything the city can still do

[7:58] how business is going um inviting further discussion if they wish to have it and we look to continue to do that um

[8:05] we're exploring some contract options right now for the Bria program and uh

[8:11] exploring different opportunities by which we could follow up on old businesses and really highlight the

[8:18] retention component of business retention

[8:25] is there a formal um plan when a new business comes into

[8:31] Oakdale um does anybody from the city you know step up and say hey welcome to

[8:38] the city and you know like offer we've been cutting or anything or is it do they have to come to the city

[8:46] yeah um thanks commissioner uh we have a program that I actually operate where we

[8:52] drop off business welcome folders and offer up our contact information to new businesses that open it can be a little

[8:59] tricky to find new businesses sometimes just given especially if it's in an industrial area we might not know when

[9:05] someone moves in we usually rely on certificate of occupancy uh certificates

[9:11] which many businesses do get when they move in uh you're required to but the

[9:17] reality is not everyone does and it can be hard to track that we don't require a

[9:23] registration of businesses like some other cities may so um when it becomes

[9:28] on our radar we will reach out and then if they want further discussion we can

[9:33] refer them to the city council to see if they want a ribbon cutting or a groundbreaking of some

[9:45] sort all right any more discussion on the um economic development commission

[9:50] um 2025 work plan all right the next item up we've

[9:56] already started working on uh talking about the business retention expansion and attraction program the Bria program

[10:03] um uh year two report max you have that yep thank you vice chair uh next up we

[10:10] have the Bria report for the second year of the program over the last year city

[10:15] staff elected officials chamber and EDC members attended 12 visits uh with local

[10:20] businesses and now nonprofits in the community as well as a result um St paul

[10:26] area Chamber staff have prepared a report which summarizes what we heard from businesses on the second year of

[10:33] visits the presentation summarizes the report identifies different trends that we heard and then concludes with

[10:39] recommendations on how to support Oakdale businesses as a city with that I'm excited to walk through these

[10:45] findings and please feel free to stop me with questions throughout uh just a reminder and

[10:53] introduction to new members the BRIA program has four primary goals including express appreciation to businesses and

[11:00] build relationships connect businesses with resources to help them grow

[11:05] understand real estate and workforce needs and understand how our policies

[11:10] impact the business climate of Oakdale as stated earlier and as we've talked

[11:17] about a bit uh each visit is usually attended by an elected official city staff members usually one or two uh

[11:24] chamber staff and EDC commissioners uh with the program we

[11:31] wanted to ensure that we visit a diverse array of businesses so some priorities

[11:37] for business selection we used included bipok or womenowned businesses legacy

[11:42] employers and geographic diversity uh generally we were able to reach many sectors across the 12

[11:49] businesses including quite a bit of retail restaurants and services so more health care than last time uh

[11:55] distribution services science entertainment nonprofits and real estate

[12:03] so here we can see the businesses we located on uh on this map something we

[12:08] ran into the first year at Bria was we found that a lot of the businesses were really focused on the south side of

[12:13] Oakdale uh just given that there's so much commercial land along the 10th Street corridor and some other parts of

[12:19] the city so we tried to spread it out a bit this year and I think we did succeed in that um were able to make it up to

[12:26] North Oakdale as long as well as portions along 34th

[12:33] Street in general we did follow a survey approach to each visit asking questions about business details facilities

[12:41] information workforce issues transportation and transit insights and general satisfaction with the city

[12:49] um also each each visit includes a facility tour and group photos and then

[12:54] sharing photos later on social media and any questions that came out of it uh myself or Andy will reach out to the

[13:02] business afterwards and make sure we can connect them with resources they need or help walk them through a permit

[13:11] etc the next several slides uh combine photos of each visit with some key takeaways from the report

[13:18] generally most businesses were retailers or restaurants though we were able to visit more industries this year than

[13:24] last year the oldest business we visited was Marcus Theaters which opened in 1935

[13:31] though the Oakdale location didn't open till 2000 the newest was Central Bark

[13:36] which opened in 2022 um Pace was our largest employer

[13:41] with at the time 220 full-time employees uh though Canvas Health was similarly

[13:47] large with 140 in Oakdale and 320 overall with the Oakdale office being

[13:52] their primary location and then game related which is a trading card and board game store in

[13:59] the northern end of the city was our smallest at just two employees or

[14:07] three so during the visits we asked about facility investment plans we're

[14:12] happy to report that 10 of the 12 businesses were planning on general improvements including expansions

[14:18] remodels and facade improvements for workforce matters in

[14:25] the first year of Bria we heard from businesses that they were having trouble with filling open positions especially

[14:31] lower skill positions uh generally we heard this as well from the second year of the program not hearing many

[14:37] differences in that though some businesses also reported finding it hard to recruit for some higher skill

[14:43] positions as well uh most businesses were still planning to expand their work workforce

[14:49] and it's worth noting as well that for the majority of businesses we interviewed mo they reported that most

[14:56] of their employees come from relatively close distances uh including cities like

[15:01] St paul and Woodbury transportation uh for those results we

[15:09] heard uh results that were pretty similar to the first year generally most businesses liked the convenience of

[15:15] highway access in Oakdale with easy access to 694 94 and 36 um felt that

[15:21] many communities don't have that much access to primary arterial roads like that uh most business owners said that

[15:28] their employees arrived by personal vehicles but did think that more customers and employees could arrive via

[15:34] transit if it were more accessible and showed some interest in the new gold

[15:40] line we did ask each business what they liked most about being in Oakdale we

[15:46] heard a few general themes including its central location proximity to big employers and the uh small town feel of

[15:53] the community other themes that we heard included the city being generally easy to work with uh relatively low tax rate

[16:01] and praised the public safety departments and here we just have a graph showing that uh based aggregating

[16:09] them based on what we heard from each business again the central location was the most popular followed by public

[16:16] safety and the community feel during visits we also asked

[16:23] businesses what we could do to improve uh most of the comments we heard were actually keep doing what you're doing uh

[16:29] but we do want to focus on where we can improve generally we heard a lot of

[16:35] businesses uh mention that we need to improve our brand and reputation uh

[16:40] which we're looking to explore more in depth and we did highlight in the EDC work plan other feedback included better

[16:47] business support not overregulating um improving traffic and partnering with

[16:53] other organizations on workforce resources so there you can see the

[17:00] desired improvements mapped out um again with many saying uh keep doing what

[17:06] you're doing followed by business support and branding

[17:12] so based on the feedback from businesses uh the St paul Chamber staff did prepare

[17:17] several recommendations for the city these included partnering with other organizations for workforce development

[17:25] purposes improving transit stops and pedestrian infrastructure to allow for

[17:30] greater connectivity to businesses for customers and employees partnering with organizations offering

[17:37] property enhancement incentives and streamlining uh permitting and zoning processes to

[17:43] support business which is a major component of what we're working on with the zoning code update project which we

[17:49] did bring to EDC last year as well and then last enhancing the city's identity

[17:54] by marketing itself as a destination uh which again is identified in the work

[17:59] plan and staff is interested in pursuing so that concludes the B Bria

[18:05] presentation for the second year of the program and as a reminder the full report with more details is located in

[18:10] the packet as well i'd highly recommend a read if you're interested with that I'd be happy to answer any questions

[18:16] about the Bria program and as we prepare for future possible business visits if

[18:21] you have any ideas for businesses to reach out to or you might have a connection with be happy to hear that

[18:30] i have a question on the key takeaway page you had um one of the takeaways was needs better business support that's one

[18:38] of the bullet points yeah I was looking through the packet and I agree that that's a bit general um whether or not

[18:44] that could uh be partnering with an organization on support programs or if

[18:49] that's just being more readily available for businesses to contact us it's it's a

[18:55] bit general admittedly so there's ideas on that we'd be happy to listen

[19:02] that would be kind of my guess right like if they've have some startup companies and they're looking for some

[19:07] maybe some financial assistance or maybe before they're even open like a business plan sitting down with somebody from the

[19:14] city like to be able to provide some financial guidance would that would be kind of my guess at what that would mean like I said it's pretty broad but um

[19:21] because you see that in some of the other cities I think they have programs where business owners can go meet with

[19:27] somebody from the city and discuss what their you know plan is and they'll help

[19:32] them go through a business plan a little bit maybe something probably something like that have um options available so

[19:39] you know being an IT guy I look for how can I support myself in different work environments working from home hybrid

[19:46] work okay if I got to go into the office the office is here what kind of connections do I need what kind of

[19:52] support can I get for when things go wrong what happens if power goes out i mean all kinds of options here's some

[19:59] things to think about you know you have to build your own business you have to decide how your thing works but here's

[20:04] some things that we can either point you to or provide right

[20:11] actually um is the St chamber going to take the lead on that again for this

[20:16] year or Yeah um I would need to check with the city council um we're exploring

[20:22] some different contract options so my goal is to keep the EDC up to date as we

[20:28] look into that more um I think one of Yeah I maybe

[20:36] already a question is how about a followup so we've been on year two now

[20:44] um has any followup been done for the one first few that we um went to visit

[20:50] say how how's how's it been since our last visit any updates thought of anything you know

[20:56] because they say you know what can you do well nothing well they may have just been caught off guard not thinking about

[21:01] it um now that you've had a year working with this um anything that you thought

[21:07] of since then yeah um as I mentioned a bit earlier we built in a um new system

[21:13] where we're checking in with these businesses um a year after um we

[21:18] recently did it with the first year and we're working on doing it with the second year or we will do it with the second year businesses after some more

[21:25] time has passed yes okay um now that we are getting further along if we're looking at future business visit

[21:32] opportunities I mean some of these very large employers or just businesses where there a lot might have changed in two

[21:38] years that could be an opportunity to revisit or at least offer it up

[21:45] and I can kind of speak to that too because we were like one of the first visits and he had reached out with an

[21:50] email but then also just you know or you know because if it is catches you off guard give me give him a call or email

[21:56] you know if if you think of something down the road so um obviously a little bit smaller less employees in Oakdale um

[22:03] in our in our branch but u certainly if there's changes or anything uh is very welcoming right just to know that you

[22:10] don't need to respond like right now but give them a call or email down the road so I'm guessing you guys will eventually

[22:15] get to like you said year two as you go on so

[22:22] um if you're looking for ideas um one I thought of was maybe some of our restaurants like Sergeant

[22:29] Peppers or the Boore um just you know that they're kind of a staple in our

[22:36] community but also been you know in existence for a long time so there could be some needs

[22:43] that yeah we'd be happy to look into those could be another one

[22:48] I think we did do beers tube and sergeant peppers in the first year though it was uh either right as I had

[22:54] started with the city or just before so late 2022 22 or early 2023

[23:03] because that'll also provide a good gauge for employment and what what they've seen over the 20 years that

[23:09] they've been here for needs too and usually provide some pretty good feedback those businesses that have been

[23:14] here a while and there's a new restaurant down by you Frank isn't there

[23:20] again a newer restaurant restaurant by the out in the shopping center in front of my building there there's a muddy cow

[23:30] and it is excellent place nice hamburgers it's cheap $8.99 hamburgers

[23:36] and they're delicious too it's a good place it's They They remodeled the inside and not had nice floors and

[23:44] cleaned and painted and it's really in good shape nice place buddy cow there's

[23:50] a one of those um in Still Water there's several of them there's one in St paul

[23:55] too yeah yeah yeah go visit my mother-in-law out there in Still Water and once in a while we stop off there

[24:02] and you're right those are really good burgers excellent i go over there for lunch a lot with customer atmosphere is

[24:08] great yeah neat and clean and cheap $8.99

[24:13] hamburgers how can you beat that commercial

[24:20] all right all right any other um any other questions or comments about Bria

[24:32] all right uh new business then um we'll get to updates and all that after after

[24:40] our new business election of chair and vice chair every year we do this uh in

[24:45] your packets at the um end of the packet you'll have a ballot have a pen uh Max

[24:55] I'll make sure I stay on the narrow path here for uh the proper language to use here then I can help us walk through the

[25:02] election process uh just with Robert's rules we do have to stick to it pretty close and I'll be looking at the second

[25:09] to last page if anyone wants to follow along for this first phase um we're

[25:15] going to be nominating candidates for the chairperson and vice chair positions

[25:20] um so the motion is written out on that second to last page uh written as motion

[25:28] to nominate commissioner X for the position of chairperson or vice

[25:33] chairperson so we can open it up then to see uh who would like to who would like

[25:39] to run okay um any motions for let's go with

[25:45] the commission um with the chairperson first i'll make a motion to elect uh

[25:52] Commissioner Jeff Bates for the position of chairperson uh for the

[25:59] 2025 period of one calendar year from today April

[26:06] third all right for this next uh next term all

[26:12] right um do I need to accept or anything i can just say or so we do have to go through a election process um so we're

[26:19] looking for nominations at the moment all right it's just nominations right now okay yep all right i'll um I'll

[26:26] nominate um for the vice chair motion to nominate the board member commissioner

[26:31] Tony Jenkins uh for the position of vice chairperson

[26:38] are you okay with that being so new on the board are you okay okay

[26:47] all right okay with me all right uh okay when there are no new

[26:53] motions um someone make a motion that the nominations close

[27:00] make nomination okay and a second second that okay all right motion to close the

[27:06] nominations uh or we have the motion to close the nominations for a chairperson and vice chairperson all right all right

[27:13] now using the ballot provided uh write your choice your name uh write in the

[27:20] choice of names for those positions nominated and then pass the ballots over

[27:25] to Max please spell his last name B A T E S

[27:40] how you spell your last name right there boss jenkins got it

[27:52] okay oh I wanted to be chair i'm kidding okay give your mind

[27:58] back no I'm kidding we have

[28:03] a We have a vote countdown here okay max will tabulate the results

[28:10] right now

[28:15] gary do you have any music queue up for us like Jeopardy

[28:31] all right commissioners the results are in and Jeff Bates has been elected as chair of the EDC and Tony Jenkins has

[28:39] been elected as vice chair of the EDC we do still have one step left we do need a formal motion to elect each member uh

[28:47] the template of which is item five on the election process sheet so for

[28:53] example the motion would be uh for chair motion to elect Commissioner Bates for

[28:58] the position of chairperson of the EDC for a period of one year commencing with the April 2nd meeting

[29:07] so we need a motion for the first one a

[29:13] motion to read it out

[29:18] motion to elect Jeff Bates for the position of Jeff did you make the motion she's reading it i'm reading it oh okay

[29:25] yeah you have to be They have to be specific on this one the period for one calendar year commencing today on April

[29:34] 2nd need a second 2025 we need a second for that second thank you all right

[29:41] um I guess I'll motion to elect board member commissioner um Tony Jenkins for the position of vice

[29:49] chairperson of the economic development commission for a period of one calendar year commencing with the current meeting

[29:55] of April 2nd 2025 um all in favor wait do we got a

[30:03] vote for each one so moved i move that we Okay yes so

[30:08] moved all right need a second all right um so for the uh um I guess

[30:16] we'll do this one at a time for the chairperson all in favor i Okay that's

[30:21] passed and then for the vice chairperson all in favor i

[30:27] that's passed as well all right Max how do we do perfectly good so we are good

[30:35] to continue election is complete all right

[30:40] all right speaking as chair personnel all right um staff leazison and updates

[30:46] max you're up again yep i do have a good chunk of updates for you i won't try to

[30:51] keep us here too long i know we had the dinner beforehand for one if you recall at the

[30:56] last EDC meeting um I introduced the 12th and Geneva redevelopment study in

[31:02] this study uh we we will be looking at the land use

[31:08] and transportation and perhaps redevelopment opportunities in the area around Geneva and Highway 120 10th

[31:16] Street and 14th Street so during that meeting I mentioned we were exploring using an intensive two-day workshop

[31:23] approach rather than a traditional 6 to9 monthlong study so I'm excited to let

[31:29] you all know that we will be pursuing the workshop approach in partnership with the Urban Land Institute and as a

[31:36] part of the workshop we will have a public reception for the project where we'll invite input on the study area and

[31:42] I do want to formally invite the entire EDC to it um while the exact start time

[31:48] has not yet been determined the reception will be held on the evening of April 28th uh at the Oakdale Discovery

[31:55] Center so I will send out final information on this once I'm able to confirm it ideally later this week or

[32:01] early next week um so please let me know if you have any questions regarding that study and I'd love to see you all there

[32:10] where is that going to be again it'll be at the Oakdale Discovery Center um and

[32:15] I'll send out more formal information as well once I can formalize the exact start

[32:22] time yep additionally a few other things i want to note that the gold line opened up a few weeks ago on March 22nd and the

[32:30] opening ceremony was well attended and I do believe I saw a few of you there so from an economic development perspective

[32:37] I do want to highlight just how much development has occurred as a result of the gold line something that was brought up in the mayor's speech at the event

[32:44] for example uh since the Helmo station transit oriented development district was created we've had more than 600

[32:51] multifamily units approved a new coffee shop plans for a new park and more

[32:57] opportunities in the way so another thing we are seeing an

[33:02] extraordinary amount of development interest in the last few months we've we had we even had a special council

[33:08] workshop earlier this year where we just talked through developments so as a result if you're interested in keeping

[33:14] up with it I'd encourage you to keep checking the development map and even consider looking at planning commission

[33:20] packets to see as the public hearings roll in what those plans look like and

[33:25] what'll be up for consideration uh one more thing the

[33:30] zoning code update which we brought to you guys last year um the code draft the

[33:36] entire draft hundreds of pages is currently written and under legal review

[33:41] we expect to have the legal review done by the end of the month and then we'll hopefully begin sharing the final draft

[33:48] with council um at the end of the month ideally so with that I would open the

[33:54] room to any questions with community development or anything else I can answer

[34:01] is the uh majority of the development apartment

[34:07] we have some commercial interest the majority is residential in nature but we're still getting some commercial

[34:14] interest what kind of industry is the commercial

[34:20] is it like soft I don't know what to call it soft commercial like hardware

[34:25] store auto store that type of thing or Yeah we we have some uh one opportunity

[34:32] for multi-tenant commercial and then um there are some other projects where I'm just not sure if it's public information

[34:38] at this point okay yeah sure do you know if there's any the uh daycare is going

[34:43] to go ahead on Helmo the one uh next to

[34:49] my office yeah the the one next to your office does have all its formal approvals in place and they could start

[34:56] construction um they were coming up on the expiration of their permits and did

[35:01] extend it just with financing conditions right

[35:11] now any other questions for Max okay let's move on to uh

[35:19] commissioner updates um so let's start with Bob i don't have anything traditional okay uh I have one just one

[35:27] update regarding the gold line i was there i was all the ones that Max talked to and uh I was there with uh some

[35:34] friends and and my family and we um rode the gold line all the way down to St

[35:39] paul and back and this was that was a

[35:45] very pleasant unexpected experience it was really nice and now of course we're imagining is um uh the the cost to ride

[35:53] $2 one way and $2 the next way and thinking about it drops you off right near where the Saints ball field is so

[36:00] think of this called the Saints game instead of paying $30 to park down there and all that traffic have to mess with

[36:07] you go park at the um end of the line up here for $2 get a free ride okay it's

[36:12] really just park for free but get $2 ride $2 back and you spend just as much time walking around

[36:19] then you don't have to worry about finding finding your car it's all back

[36:24] out here so opportunities uh we just see that as being a huge thing so we're kind

[36:29] of looking for it farmers market's right there too you know the St paul farmer market i like our farmer market that we

[36:35] have here in the summer know there's another one that we can go to sure let's bring that out make everybody aware of

[36:41] that that's just a nice option chair I would note as well that there will be parking available in Oakdale at Helmo

[36:47] station eventually as well so you can don't have to travel quite as far yeah and that's um that's under construction

[36:54] you can see all the dirt be moved around what's expected finish date on that do we know that I'm not sure of but I can

[37:02] get back to you okay there's a small uh small hard surface that's in now oh all

[37:10] right good how often do the buses run every I think during the weekday it's

[37:16] every 10 minutes and during the week on week nights and weekends it's 15

[37:24] minutes they have I think four or five buses running on that route so it's just a just a handful of stops so it goes

[37:32] pretty quick and I noticed too on the way back when there's nobody at the bus stop and and nobody is ringing the cord

[37:40] you know went right on through and they told us that it has the ability to um uh

[37:46] change the lights so it gets close to the stop lights chang it for my I wish I had that button going right through so

[37:55] it um it has some features that are are really nice so last Thursday my two sisters and I

[38:02] they all live in Oakdale here so we took a ride on the bus picked it up 11 o'clock in the morning and I mean it was

[38:09] a fun easy ride i mean it was just really nice and I know you guys did it last

[38:15] Saturday but I had to work so I couldn't make it but Oh sure yeah and and it's you know free and all that but um my

[38:22] goodness those buses are double buses i What do they hold 80 people 30 80 60

[38:28] people something like that yeah god are there going to be that many people riding those buses every 10 minutes i

[38:34] just I question it not sure i'm not sure about the

[38:39] viability long term i mean there's I don't know that's all people going back to work downtown that probably will

[38:46] happen more then it's going to take a while to rebuild that it will trans

[38:51] transit and I think too uh just as people realized hey that bus is there

[38:57] it's this type of transportation people started saying I could use it you know just like what I

[39:02] just did with hey the Saints game the farmers market but where did you pick the bus up at we went to the uh uh the

[39:10] wood wood lane station in Woodbury so at the end of the line that's where all the festivities were happening so that's why

[39:16] we started there so what's the bus cost going to be for

[39:23] regular timeout uh I a buck a person $2 $2 a person $2 a trip and I think that's

[39:29] a timed period so um it took I timed it it took 35 minutes to get from St paul

[39:35] this the last stop in St paul back to the Wood Wooddale station Woodlane Station and it cost $2 for that trip and

[39:43] I think the Well I mean it will and they said that the $2 is good for three hours

[39:48] so you could pay two hours go down get something real quick and come back i suppose

[39:56] heck of a deal i hope it works i really do cuz we got a

[40:01] lot of money tied up in this a lot of money in this bus ride private lanes i mean no cars no bikes no pedestrians

[40:09] just the bus that's it we've gotten some good press on it so that's good did you go You wrote on I have not yet

[40:18] be a family outing all right um that's all I have for an

[40:25] update i have nothing um have nothing either there's the

[40:32] Oakdale Chamber lunch tomorrow there is and I'll mention that um tomorrow we

[40:37] have the Oakdale Chamber and it's going to be at Oak Marsh Golf Course starts at

[40:43] 11:15ish good time to get there and I have as a guest speaker Major General Charles Kemper

[40:52] he's a good customer good friend of mine and I've got him he's going to be the

[40:57] guest speaker and talk about they the uh the guard had just been deployed to the

[41:03] Middle East and so they were out there they got back last December they were over there for nine months so he's going

[41:10] to talk about it and of course being a major general he's pretty well organized and I've seen the itinerary and he's got

[41:15] it all written out and he knows what he's doing it's going to be a good program so if you you all got it you're

[41:22] free to come should all be there you should be there you going to be there mhm

[41:30] okay all right all right thanks all right uh next on the list is the uh

[41:36] council uh leaison update who's that that'd be you dude thank you Mr chair

[41:44] nice to see you all wearing a different hat than the last time I saw you you're

[41:49] in luck because Max um hit on about half of the things on my list so we shortened

[41:54] it down quite a bit gold Lion was there on Saturday as well um wrote it on Friday i think they had a special ride

[42:01] for policy makers that it's impressive i encourage you to try it

[42:07] um I'd also just on the business retention expansion program Max talked about it but I would encourage all of

[42:14] you on the uh on the economic development commission to particip participate in that as well um really

[42:19] pushing to strengthen the rel I am personally really pushing to strengthen the relationship between the city and

[42:26] our local business community so more participation we have the better uh just a couple of things uh the council's

[42:31] worked on you guys haven't met since November and I've only been on the council since January but we've covered a lot of area in that time and just a

[42:38] couple things I'll mention uh we looked at the park plan updated park plan for the city and that was really about

[42:44] looking at um the needs of the parks and funding dollars available and prioritizing where we're going to spend

[42:51] those dollars in what order so that was interesting a bike and pedestrian plan we talked a little bit about that at

[42:58] dinner um and then also uh you might recall the Willowbrook development is

[43:03] building like crazy up there but we're working on uh the park plans for for Willowbrook as well um last couple thing

[43:10] just uh just commercials for City of Oakdale uh the EcoFare will be held on April 26th at Castle Elementary that

[43:16] might be an interesting um event for you to attend um the Arbor Day tree giveaway

[43:22] the Oakdale giveaway 200 trees the registration for that started yesterday and it filled in two hours you had to

[43:28] register in advance for your tree and within two hours they had had filled that so that has been closed um and

[43:36] lastly um we had a presentation from the Summerfest folks last at our last meeting um would encourage you to

[43:44] consider volunteering for Summerfest they're they're in need of coordinators

[43:49] workers not so much ideas but they are in need of people to help out with that festival and it's important to our

[43:54] community so I'd encourage you all to if you can to um participate in that and if

[44:00] you're interested in that you can reach out to me or to city staff and they'll put you in touch with the Summerfest folks

[44:05] um other than that that's all I have you have any questions for me there was an article in last Sunday's paper I believe

[44:12] about Pete Gratsky's tree giveaway see that yes a nice article it was a great

[44:18] article yeah very nice article i was surprised to see it but it was very nice to see picture of our mayor there I think pitching a tree in the back of a

[44:24] car two hours of closed yeah I was surprised

[44:31] because I think I was told it would take about two days to fill up those 200 registrations in guess it was two hours

[44:38] um if you're interested you can still get on a waiting list because I know a number of people register I think

[44:43] historically and then they never they don't uh show up or they cancel and you might still have a tree available so

[44:50] but anything else thank you all good to see you again

[44:56] thanks Gary okay last item on the agenda is

[45:03] adjournment nothing else can I have a get a motion to adjurnn

[45:08] so moved second all in favor

[45:13] okay anybody opposed all right motion carries meetings

[45:20] adjourned