[0:17] well good evening everyone I'd like to welcome our community to the February 10th 2025 meeting of oakdale's

[0:23] Environmental Management commission uh we will be begin this evening by um do we any call to

[0:32] order chair gerding present commissioner Anderson present commissioner Brendan

[0:39] present commissioner Yang present commissioner lash present commissioner fener maker

[0:47] present great thank you next up on our agenda is

[0:53] the Pledge of Allegiance so if we can all rise and recite

[1:01] I to flag of the United States of America to the Republic for it stands

[1:09] one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for

[1:24] all all right moving right along our next item on tonight's agenda is the approval of the

[1:32] agenda as everybody was sent it in advance I'm looking for a motion to

[1:38] approve the agenda as presented for the February 10th 2025 meeting of the EMC so

[1:44] moved wait a second second all in favor of approving tonight's agenda for

[1:49] February 10th 2025 say I I I opposed awesome thank

[1:56] you passes next up um approval of minutes these are from our November 18th

[2:03] 2024 EMC meeting right here in council chambers you were all sent a

[2:10] um you so there any comments questions

[2:25] amendments no hearing none hearing none I would ask for approval of the November

[2:31] 18th 24 2024 meeting minutes of the EMC so

[2:37] moved need a second

[2:43] second in favor of all in favor of approving the minutes from November 18th from the EMC meeting say I I

[2:51] opposed great thank you now we've reached the point in the

[2:57] meeting where we invite the community members is present to uh step

[3:03] forward i' open that open the Forum now anybody

[3:12] present all right we're here Community hearing none

[3:18] seeing none uh open uh open forum is now closed moving on to the EMC

[3:25] Environmental Management commission review first item is the eair update

[3:31] Hannah take it away thank you the ecoair is about 3 months away um and I just wanted to provide the Environmental

[3:37] Management commission with an update since we haven't met since November um the ecoair was discussed at the June and

[3:44] October meeting so in your packet you'll find the memos from those meetings as well as the minutes from those meetings just to refresh yourselves of the

[3:51] discussion discussions that were had um we're currently in the process of securing and finalizing vendors and

[3:57] Communications and promotion of the event will start to ramp up shortly this meeting is another

[4:02] opportunity for Commissioners to discuss the event and share any Communications ideas for reaching a wide audience uh

[4:08] the event has already been shared in the Oakdale update newsletter that is sent to households and then um starting soon

[4:15] we'll use social media to promote the event and we'll also consider sharing the event through the so the school

[4:20] district's family communications platform um but if Commissioners have other ways to spread the word about the

[4:25] ecoair either generally or to specific groups um please share we'd love to have

[4:31] as many Comm Communications channels as possible um so I'll I'll open up the floor for discussion if anything has

[4:38] come across your mind in the last two months about the ecoair um in March we'll um be just about a month away and

[4:44] then we'll um discuss assignments and and now please let me know if if any Commissioners are unable to make the

[4:50] event just so that we can plan accordingly yeah I have an idea well I

[4:57] do a lot of community engagement and um you know we do use a lot

[5:03] of we have a different a lot of different ways right social media and then the paid advertising about

[5:10] especially about like how do we advertise for people to come to our events because I work for men do right A

[5:17] lot of it is career Affairs and job opportunities and since I'm there um to

[5:24] talk on behalf of the uh of menot and you know why I promote people uh to work

[5:30] there one of the things I started asking them was well how did you know about this event right and you know social

[5:37] media everything's great but one of the things that um we always try to do at the events with mad is we just stick a

[5:43] road sign along the side of the road basically saying the event is this way

[5:48] and then we have other signs saying it's this way because sometimes truck stations are kind of hidden is that

[5:54] something that's possible for us to do I know we're not supposed to begin in a way of MOT right away but you know you

[6:00] stick it there on sun on Friday it's going to be they're not going to take it down because mot doesn't work on the

[6:07] weekends unless they have to yep our our Recreation Department

[6:13] uses yard signs for their farmers markets or the indoor market on you know city city streets so that definitely is

[6:18] an opportunity and I know they put those out there um not just on the day of the event but leading up to the events so

[6:24] that's certainly something to consider well you know since it's the same time as the Arbor Day right we can put up

[6:29] there too yes there definitely will be a plann for some sort of sign since they're only a block away that anyone

[6:35] who's picking up a tree at the Arbor Day will know about the event just down the

[6:42] road I had some ideas um one was the local chamber will they be notified or

[6:49] yes okay um I was thinking churches um I thought about the fire department

[6:57] like are there groups within the city that maybe do their own e newsletter or something to

[7:04] people so I was thinking that um WCCO and Carol 11 news always have a um

[7:11] calendar of events that we could get on maybe um and I was wondering about

[7:17] Washington County what what do they do do they have a a calendar of events page

[7:23] or an e newsletter or something I know they have variety of things that go out so I was thinking about that yeah I can

[7:28] certainly reach out um the county and the food scraps pickup program will be a vendor at the event so I'm sure it'll be

[7:34] a good opportunity to promote their presence as well as the ecoair that's cool I um I know it says to I was trying

[7:42] to think about for the Youth that might be coming right we're trying to focus on

[7:47] some of them too MH um I just watched this video before I came it's called

[7:54] composting 101 for kids I don't know if you've seen that or not don't think I have um anyways it was

[8:02] great it was really cool this person um used a 2 L bottle and had cut the top

[8:09] off and then just had you know kind of the brown and the green and the different stuff and she had um eggs and

[8:16] leaves and the composting dirt and whatever and it was just I don't know it was maybe 15 all of 15 minutes but it

[8:24] showed literally the benefits first how to do composting and then she talked

[8:29] about the benefits of it I thought it was really cool and I thought wow we could have somebody do this and maybe you do it a couple I don't you know

[8:36] throughout the time period that we have maybe she can do it three times with three different groups or something I

[8:41] say she but that's who the person was doing it it was an easy demonstration and um I can get you the

[8:48] link to that um so I thought that was kind of cool and then um the only other

[8:54] question that I had was about the one food truck are we only doing one food truck

[9:01] that does that make sense to do one I was just wondering if there was just one or there we specifically talk about

[9:06] quantity of food trucks yet we have not um I always envisioned one um okay I

[9:12] just didn't know like if we had I think the question maybe a dessert one and then you had a main one you know

[9:18] one that does two or three different types of foods C can I ask what the hours are for the fair 9:00 a.m. to 1

[9:25] p.m. I think the question with the food truck has to do with how many people are we expecting mhm right

[9:32] sure right so how how many people are we expecting that's a great question um

[9:38] since it's the first one it's kind of hard to ask oh is that okay this is the very first one okay gotcha okay I

[9:47] don't depends how many of these other things we can get I'm I'm happy to help too with any reaching out communication

[9:54] wise yes so let me know sounds good okay I have one more thing with the

[10:00] communication stuff um cuz I did I did attend a training on community uh based

[10:07] Outreach and actually getting out to community one of the things we talked about was being more intentional on

[10:13] communicating in ways that how the communities um communicate right and a

[10:18] lot of it had to do with the um the Asian community and the small communities that were around here and

[10:25] part of it was well you know with social media everything shared a lot of it was

[10:30] they get a lot of their news through the radio right especially the small radios and the Mong radio and is that something

[10:36] we can look into yeah because um I used to be in radio and that's what that's another thing I had down was public

[10:42] service announcements right on the radio I don't know how much that's done today but um that is another option yeah yeah

[10:51] absolutely something to explore and can I just give one more

[10:57] idea um on a kids project thing that we could do tooo is um just thinking about the young people because they are what's

[11:04] coming up behind us um I was thinking you we could do a um uh making bird

[11:10] feeders you know just out of nature products pine cones peanut butter string

[11:18] real simple but fun so those are my

[11:25] ideas yeah I can talk with Recreation um department they are going to organize some kids activities see if that's an

[11:32] option um and then we'll also look for other Partnerships maybe the library or the

[11:39] county see what other sorts of activities at this point it's um whether people are available just with Earth Day

[11:44] being on that Tuesday and Arbor Day and the Friday there's it's kind of a heavy event week so just um seeing who what

[11:50] organizations have capacity and availability well if you need somebody to do the composting I can watch the

[11:57] video again and then I can do the composting if you'd like I can be the designated kid

[12:05] composting person yeah yeah Hannah do I've seen some some fun

[12:13] confirmations come through over email in terms of you know um vendors that have moved from Prospect to confirmed for

[12:20] instance how are we feeling generally I know we're like N9 weeks is 10 weeks out but how are we feeling now and then is

[12:26] there anything that this commission can do uh feeling pretty good um we've um had some people some organizations say

[12:32] that they're unable to because they've got other events going on um but we're slowly getting yeses so I think we're

[12:39] looking pretty good okay great

[12:48] good other comments from Commissioners on our first ever formal

[12:56] ecoair I can't remember is this event outside or inside inside that's great

[13:02] thanks the food truck will be the only thing outside you never know if April yeah you don't

[13:18] Fair it's right there um that there's a church right in the same parking lot are right next door to Castle Elementary

[13:25] School too what is it hope hope church I think I mean that's another person to maybe

[13:31] get the information

[13:43] to great well we know it's it's a lot of work to organize an event for the first time

[13:49] so thank you for you have Partners in your corner as commission members so thank you for helping us see this one

[13:56] through from Vision to implementation one more question do we have flyers or

[14:01] are we going to have Flyers made up we will be working on Flyers um when our

[14:06] communication specialist is on maternity leave um I've tried to to draft uh one

[14:12] um but when if if it's not done by the time she return she'll help get that get that finished up so I was going to say

[14:18] you know there's boards like at buger and um cub and things like that we could

[14:24] all say we're going to hang a few up around you know yeah

[14:30] Burgers is in Wood Berry but it's

[14:37] okay have you guys figured out what you're doing as far as like the kid

[14:43] family or the kid and family friendly activities for the ecoair has those been decided yet or still figuring all that

[14:50] out that that that piece is a little bit um not quite as worked through at this

[14:56] point we're just trying to kind of get the vendors lined up and then we just know recreation department will organize

[15:02] some activities gotcha so you can get in on it though you could make the nature

[15:07] yeah bird feeder I love it yep I'm all about that stuff so cool all

[15:19] right any other comments about the

[15:24] eare great discussion thank you everyone um moving on to I think new

[15:33] business it is February at our meeting which means it is election time uh and

[15:39] we are going to be looking for an election of a chair and vice chair I

[15:45] believe it's an annual process yes so in your packets uh there

[15:50] are ballots and the process for the election of of uh chairperson and vice

[15:57] chairperson positions and so for the ballot portion we asked you to write

[16:04] in your choice first first we will nominate we

[16:11] will all right so people can make nominations for a chair and vice chair thank you um uh somewhere in your packet

[16:17] if you keep going there's kind of the process number one um it states how you

[16:22] can make that motion and you can just insert a name um for whoever you would like to

[16:28] nominate for chair or vice chair um and then once there are no more nominations we will close the nominations and then

[16:34] move to using the ballots so right now we're on step one got it no second is required so for verbal

[16:43] nominations no second is required correct correct

[16:50] okay shockingly nobody ever wants to go first all right um yeah I'll go I uh

[16:59] motion to nominate um commissioner Gering for the position of chair person

[17:24] MH oh thanks more pens good pens

[17:37] do we ask if anyone has an interest in these positions or does anyone have an

[17:42] interest in being the vice chair contesting for chair contesting

[17:50] for chair for chair is is the vice chair of somebody who is going to serve like Miss America

[17:57] if you are not able to serve or what's is there a difference in duties yeah we're new so we don't really

[18:03] know right that's essentially it yeah okay all right in in function it's that's what it

[18:09] is M we are missing a commission member he is still eligible to be nominated and

[18:15] elected uh for any position I just wanted to point that commissioner ditt commissioner D was also somewhere

[18:21] warm tonight is Mr dittle the one who's been

[18:28] your Vice chair correct yes okay that's what I thought and as far as you know

[18:34] would that commissioner would like to be Vice chair again do you have any

[18:41] sense I I do have a sense is that I don't know if that's my place to say okay I would like to move that

[18:48] commissioner dittle um be nominated for vice chair

[19:03] there any other nominations for chair or vice

[19:15] chair can anyone make the motion to close I'm so new at this no I make a

[19:22] motion to close the nominations and the motion does require a second a

[19:30] second

[19:35] okay great thank you now we we move to formal ballot is that

[19:42] correct because there was only one nomination for each position we can we can verbally we can verbally

[19:50] really okay you really want to I mean we have the pens mayor the

[19:56] pens were passed out already here

[20:04] do you want us to write it down or do you want toos WR just totally verbal verbal it's totally fine

[20:11] okay so we have a motion to elect uh commissioner gerding for the position of

[20:18] chairperson um of the EMC for a period of one calendar year commencing with the

[20:23] February 10th 2025 meeting

[20:30] and we my apologies do we do one at a time and we have a motion to elect uh

[20:37] commissioner dittle for the position of Vice chair of the EMC for a period of one calendar year commencing with the

[20:44] February 10th 2025 EMC

[20:51] meeting we need to do we need to May

[20:57] yes is was there a motion you you made it is there a second

[21:04] I just asked if I could second it oh I'm sorry I totally missed that part is there a second a

[21:11] second all in favor of um the motion the motion as presented

[21:18] for electing commissioner Gering for the person of chairperson and commissioner doitt for the position of Vice chairperson say I I

[21:26] opposed great thank you

[21:34] everyone thank you ustria staff done for your excellent [Laughter]

[21:39] help next up on new business is our 2025 adopted drain schedule there's a memo

[21:45] presented by Hannah you want to walk us through that yes at the beginning of each year uh the EMC determines the

[21:51] schedule for clearing three drains that the EMC adopted in the city hall and Walton Park parking lots uh this is done

[21:59] through the adopted drain program the proposed schedule in your packet will help ensure that there is regular clearing of leaves trash and other

[22:06] debris the level of commitment per month for each commissioner is low all that is needed um is volunteering maybe 15

[22:12] minutes uh a couple times during your assigned month to collect and remove leaves trash and debris from the drains

[22:19] and kind of the immediate area and then it would be great if Commissioners after their month at the you know the next EMC

[22:25] meeting share their experience and um you know you know estimate how much debris they cleared um so taking a look

[22:32] at the schedule do any Commissioners have conflicts with the months that have been assigned I just moved down the list and started over once we had everyone

[22:39] was assigned so I have a question um how frequently during your month do you

[22:46] clean them and maybe somebody who's done it could you just say what that process

[22:53] is I mean you said you clear it do you put the debris in a

[22:59] composting bag and I just don't know what the process is sure sure I'm I'm

[23:04] happy to speak speak to it so the drains that I've we adopt three drains and as you can see from the map and generally

[23:11] what I find is limited to no compostable items so it's a lot of like plastic

[23:19] bottle caps plastic bottles that are crunched driven over cans those kinds of things there is some sediment um and

[23:27] leaf leaves if you will and just maybe some tar chunks or something but in

[23:32] terms of supplies I use I bring gloves of course and a grabber if I have one if I get really in there um but really it's

[23:39] it's a pretty simple process and gloves and a light broom and some you know

[23:44] maybe not plastic bags but something to dis something to dispose of the items in

[23:51] safely um and depending on the month I will add that um as it's proposed

[23:58] commissioner gang you have the duty of Summerfest which the city does a great

[24:03] job of cleaning up so but these three the three drains do get some action I'd

[24:08] say May June July and August because we have a lot of points of Entry to our city and great activities and events

[24:14] that are happening so it's the only thing to to to monitor but yeah I don't

[24:19] know if that helps answer the the question it did how far down do you go is it is it just kind of the oh it's

[24:25] surface on the surface entering the drain you don't reach into the drain

[24:32] okay that requires very long draer gloves a license yeah okay

[24:38] probably wasn't sure yeah okay got it you can if you are

[24:45] really into it you can go every week but I think maybe twice a month okay it's

[24:50] really all that we're expecting but feel free to do more if if you have time if

[24:55] you're so inclined okay I will that the drain in the roundabout uh the West

[25:01] drain by the first field um I I have found over the last few years uh does

[25:07] not have as much debris as the drain U adjacent to City Hall and the parking lots up front

[25:16] so full disclosure I've done once a month on that other drain but twice a

[25:23] month because I'm just here more often for the other two drains by the skate

[25:28] park and the tennis

[25:34] courts

[25:44] okay any other questions on adopted rain this one needs no vote it's a voluntary

[25:50] thing we love doing it thank you for putting together the schedule thank you for doing

[25:55] it uh moving on to the next new item of business bus we have our 2025 EMC environmental commissions environmental

[26:02] commissions communication strategy discussion yes again at the beginning of

[26:07] each year the EMC discusses the environmental communication strategy plan and develops an editorial calendar

[26:14] um it's a flexible strategy that can be rearranged things can be added if something um is more relevant or timely

[26:21] um so it's certainly not set in stone in your packet I included the 2024 Ed editorial calendar many of the theme

[26:28] and the months that go with the themes can be repeated in 2025 however we can also Veer and mix things up if there's a

[26:35] desire so I did not put together a draft 2025 plan um I figured we could just

[26:41] discuss 2024 um what we want to carry over what we want to stay the same if there's

[26:46] completely new ideas new resources that people have come across um I know April

[26:51] um of last year that's when the food scraps pickup program was rolling out to Oakdale um so obviously that's not happening in 2025

[26:58] um but we could make April a just a food scraps pickup program we can still keep

[27:04] that as a theme for the month um or if there's something else that people think would make more sense in April we can

[27:11] switch it up but I will open up for

[27:18] conversation just don't want to get too complacent with just repeating the same calendar year to year and not digging

[27:25] into it

[27:40] well look looking ahead a little bit to April um I know that this year we have our ecoair event um that may be

[27:48] something we want to Market probably earlier in the month if it ties

[27:53] into a theme

[27:59] yep we will start advertising the ecoair more probably before April but we can

[28:05] certainly have a concentrated effort for that month to really drive it

[28:12] yeah or maybe it could be even and one other idea could be even February just because it's recycling is a theme and it

[28:18] seems like some of the vendors were prospecting towards may may have a recycling Bend to them yes

[28:42] do we and so even well strike that never mind we are in February I was looking at

[28:49] January my fault are we going month by month yeah

[28:54] we look uh yeah when at at the first meeting when we do this we look generally over the course of the year

[29:00] and then each subsequent meeting we kind of look a quarter ahead at the time is how

[29:11] we've how would we feel about potentially moving water conservation to

[29:17] like May or June potentially just driving around the city the amount of water waste I see with sprinklers going

[29:23] off like maybe promoting time sprinklers or humidity sprink sensors on sprinklers

[29:29] that they have so it already rained you don't have those sprinklers going off at all all hours of the day

[29:35] um just you know limiting water usage throughout the summer as well I like that might be a

[29:42] good I like that good opportunity to remind people of our odd even process

[29:47] that we have I don't think anybody actually uses

[29:53] or follows that rule good reason good reason good reason to

[30:00] promote it right y y and I'm with you it's really irritating when you see

[30:06] people one when sprinklers are going off and it's raining or whatever and two when they're doing it at 3:00 in the

[30:12] afternoon In the Heat of the day I'm

[30:19] like good idea so when did you want to propose

[30:26] that for me did you say may either May or June I think probably May because you know people are excited about their

[30:32] lawns and getting everything nice and green for the year and kind of

[30:38] forget proper etiquette with that

[30:55] so looking at July just thinking of visual content surrounding plastic

[31:00] single-use plastic and um plastic bag recycling is there how does that stream

[31:06] look how if somebody were to follow that stream you know where does that plastic

[31:11] bag if someone brings it to Target and leave yeah or like when we for example when we go to the Environmental Center

[31:17] we have our our plastic bags of plastic bags and we drop them

[31:23] off I personally don't know much about that but um kind of like what was done with uh the composting years ago with

[31:31] didn't the EMC put together a video that showed where the kind of Journey of the compost

[31:38] U bag we can see if there's if the county has information on what happens to plastic bags when they go to the

[31:45] Environmental Center um one good resource and not for plastic bag recycling specifically but six of the

[31:52] seven Metro Counties have this recycling exists campaign that's currently going on to um

[31:58] and it was in our Oakdale update newsletter um to kind of break down myth

[32:04] the myths that when you put something in the recycling can it's not being

[32:09] recycled so um I wonder if that campaign has any good information on and what's

[32:15] the campaign called recycling exists did see that I did see that yeah we

[32:20] definitely wouldn't have to recreate any Wheels here if there's already content or copy that's out there with any visual assets we could reshare frame them yep

[32:28] absolutely [Music]

[32:38] mhm and I think when we talk about this in February as a commission I I believe August we've always held just open for

[32:45] anything that's topical is just what why it's miscellaneous and what the strategy has been behind it I think yeah yep okay

[32:58] intentional vagueness yes other comments on content calendar

[33:06] or editorial calendar excuse me in April are we highlighting the food scraps pickup program again we can um

[33:15] April it's not rolling out so it doesn't um doesn't have to stay there for April um ecoair will probably end up being

[33:24] maybe the theme for that month just um since it's the event is at the end of April um we'll probably be doing some

[33:30] big pushes so I'm guessing there might not be a ton of social media room for other things

[33:37] um unless something timely comes up we could always move food scraps to August

[33:43] yeah where did we move bicycling and walking some of these themes line up

[33:49] with days in the month side there okay may is National Bike month but we can also have multiple themes if there's if

[33:57] Communications has room in the social media calendar we can promote multiple themes throughout

[34:02] gotcha cuz we're going to do Sprinklers and biking right yeah and the food

[34:07] scraps prick up program is just something that ongoing it's ongoing we want to continue to boost our

[34:13] participation numbers for sure um yeah well one of the things I thought about

[34:19] instead of having a call out with the Eco day was sustainability right because that's not on the list

[34:26] yet right yeah yeah just general sustainability yeah plus I'm working

[34:31] with the uh sustainabil and public health office in

[34:37] transportation and I know they have a lot of communication okay

[34:45] great I know that for the month of October we talk a lot about Energy Efficiency and having just gone through

[34:51] uh at our house a home energy audit I'm wondering

[34:57] would it how would Commissioners feel about

[35:02] sharing that maybe in like June I us be able to do better cuz I

[35:08] think that would be better cuz you know I know fall is when people start thinking about it but um they really

[35:16] should be doing it ahead of time before it gets cold also I mean I think of like air flow and flow rates and people also

[35:23] close up their house and turn on their air conditioning too so there may be another opportunity to Market or to

[35:29] educate the program also the uh rebate program is

[35:35] going to end correct at some point or no there's still money and the contract

[35:41] with Center for Energy environment still has over a year okay so it has a time limit though yes so the sooner though we

[35:47] tell people again the more chances while people use the money so I think June's a

[35:53] good great time yeah

[36:10] okay any other comments on the communication

[36:15] strategy

[36:21] calendar do we do anything here um and maybe this was what happened at the

[36:27] cleanup day do we do any type of um cardboard recycling like if a person is

[36:35] just moved or a person wants to move and needs boxes do we do anything at the

[36:40] city with cardboard the county and the Environmental Center would be the place

[36:47] that we direct people to bring cardboard I don't know if their free product room or their reuse room has right I was just

[36:53] wondering how that worked if like yes if they break down the boxes and put them

[36:58] there in case people want to come and get boxes yeah know okay don't know if the

[37:05] if the county and the Environmental Center consider does that with cardbo boxes or if they just simply put them in

[37:10] the recycling but that um the two count two environmental centers the one in Forest Lake and the one in Woodberry

[37:16] would um be the place that we direct people or would tell them to call um if

[37:21] they want to bring large amounts of cardboard okay I don't know if anybody's moved recently but I think next store

[37:27] and Facebook are where everybody goes for boxes and where everybody gets rid of their boxes just yeah you know people

[37:34] just show if you need boxes let me know they need to be gone and the next person says yay picks them up and so I don't I

[37:41] mean I don't know if anybody actually just throws them in the recycle yeah versus doing that because most people

[37:46] don't take them apart they'll show you pictures and they're all ready to go and they'll just say come get them so again

[37:52] I don't know percentage wise how many people do that versus not but that seems to be the way get a box these

[38:00] days I usually go to hiy and ask and go in the morning when they've just done

[38:05] their fruits and vegetables then you get the best boxes but I was just curious

[38:11] yeah if we did anything with them the liquor store's good too probably so

[38:18] yeah I mean the bigger issue is people with Amazon getting so many boxes versus

[38:23] moving I think it's when you're having you're buying something it's being shipped to you that's where I think there's cardboard

[38:29] Galore but yeah and then there's also the shipping boxes that are coming with the stuff that you can't recycle inside

[38:35] the box right the the styrofoam stuff the TVs and stuff yeah yeah yeah yeah and that's

[38:43] where I'd go down to Woodbury though with like the big um styrofoams and stuff any other comments on the

[38:50] editorial calendar great well as always thank you

[38:55] Hannah for preparing this thank you comprehensive annual snapshot of what we're going to be sharing this year um

[39:03] any other themes or ideas I think it's safe we can just get them to you yes as we digest all this

[39:09] right great moving to the next section in our EMC um meeting we have staff

[39:16] liaison updates starting with Community Development Hannah yes I just have a few um Metro Gold Line you already heard

[39:23] about this um at our work plan discussion prior to the meeting um that's service for the Gold Line brt

[39:28] begins March 22nd um so there will be opening day activities and as um I hear

[39:34] about them or or were informed of them um I will pass information along to you if you want to participate in those

[39:40] Opening Day activities um there's also a new shared ride service through Metro

[39:46] Transit micro Mobility Metro micro um I don't know if you heard about that we promoted on Facebook a few weeks ago so

[39:53] through this service you can book a ride from wherever you are within a designated service area and then an ADA

[39:59] accessible mini buus will pick you up and drop you off anywhere within that same designated um service area the

[40:05] Metro micro recently started operating in parts of Woodbury Oakdale and Lake Elmo um and they already had service

[40:11] areas in North Minneapolis in the Roseville area um the Woodberry service

[40:17] area includes many schools Parks Park and rides clinics and Retail areas so if you Google Metro micro Woodberry

[40:23] Woodberry area there's a web page dedicated to that service area and it shows a map and it has lots of um

[40:29] answers and questions so um just wanted to share that that is a a new shared ride service in our area and then also

[40:36] the 3MP fast priority to settlement money the DNR finally opened that RFP up

[40:43] um so I don't have the timeline right in front of me but um we've been talking about that over the past couple of years

[40:49] so um City staff is going to meet and um I'll review previous ideas and

[40:54] conversations that the EMC has had around that money um but just wanted to let you know that that that's finally

[41:00] open after many many months of um hearing that it would the RFP would open soon

[41:05] so some news to share great thank you

[41:12] Hannah moving to commissioners of this group any updates from anyone

[41:20] here no I will put a plug in again I did let

[41:26] the cat out of the bag but we went through the uh the home energy Squad the audit and it was delightful it took

[41:33] functionally probably 3 and 1 half hours because of their thoroughness I was astounded at

[41:40] every every inch of the house they they checked with a heat gun and it it was and they taped everything off and they

[41:46] were clean and nice and they respected our animals and respected our kids' rooms like it was

[41:53] really really intentional so if anybody has yet to do it it is mind-blowing pardon the expression when

[41:59] they tap into your HVAC system but it's really neat to do and it gives you a wonderful report in terms of things you

[42:05] can think about and how to prioritize these Investments because so many of them have rebates that we've talked

[42:11] about here at this at this commission so it's a great great experience for us as a family to go

[42:21] through updates all right well another update we

[42:27] have here tonight is our esteem mayor our liaison mayor zabel the floor is

[42:33] yours thank you thank you Mr chair thank you Commissioners uh I want to make a plug on that home energy audit so if you're watching from home and you want

[42:39] to learn more or take part go to the city website just search for Home energy audit um and the information will pop up

[42:45] the city picks up 50% of the cost of it so um and the other 50% I think it's

[42:51] just $50 right $100 total we pick up half the resident picks up half um but the half covered by the resident is is a

[42:57] tax deduction the feds will give you that as a tax credit so for doing home energy audits so um go to the city

[43:03] website lots of great information I've done it myself um I agree very thorough I also appreciated just the laundry list

[43:10] of suggestions and here are the credits to go pay for it they do all the leg work for the residents to make those

[43:15] important improvements on your homes as for the city um we typically

[43:21] start each year a little quieter you know we have two new council members so we like to ease them in and not scare

[43:26] them um and so uh typically it would just be kind of our organizing items you know

[43:32] getting our our commission assignments figuring out where the bathrooms are all that good stuff um but uh the interest

[43:38] from developers has we laided that a little bit so we have fielded uh a

[43:44] number of development requests um so many so that we had to have a special workshop last week to uh meet with a few

[43:50] developers so uh development is still hot um housing is still off and running

[43:55] um Willow Brook is quickly wrapping up which is great um and so developers are looking at other areas of the city which

[44:01] is pretty exciting so um we continue to to work our way uh through those development applications with our

[44:07] Planning Commission so um a big thank you to them for their work on that as well um otherwise big things going on in

[44:13] the city the first walls went up at the new Public Works campus today um so that is very exciting to see that building

[44:20] materialize um as far as I know they are still on track to complete construction this fall and then they will be moving

[44:25] in so very excited about about that um the other big development at the city council level is our Park system update

[44:32] we've been working on that for Hannah Year yes close um and it's been a very

[44:38] methodical process going through every single one of our 28 parks in this city

[44:44] 27 28 now 29 with willbrook Commons yeah this is growing um but residents may

[44:50] have seen you know um public engagement opportunities over the any number of

[44:55] months um we have compiled all of that feedback from our residents incorporate Incorporated it into a park system

[45:02] master plan and then um council is starting to look at the dollars and cents associated with uh doing a lot of

[45:09] that work so um in the coming month or so we will button up that plan get it adopted get it out for the public to see

[45:16] um and then over the next number of years we'll be slowly implementing all of those changes into our city parks

[45:22] which is pretty exciting everything from uh getting rid of some unused turf grass making at Native pollinators to new

[45:28] playground equipment so and everything in between so it's pretty exciting but um definitely a long time coming um it

[45:34] has been there's been a lot of really great public feedback along the way um a lot of great feedback from our

[45:40] commissions as well so thank you um and now we need to put it into action which is pretty cool so with that I am happy

[45:47] to answer any questions you may have also Keegan welcome you thank you

[45:53] glad to have you here what do we got

[45:58] question about the Public Works building yes um only it's because it's less than 10 blocks from our house um in terms of

[46:05] it means your roads will get cleared first did I say that out loud I would like the record to show that mayor

[46:12] Z if you're next to the plows where there are parks you know that's just how it works order of operations exactly um

[46:19] what how how is the city thinking about Landscaping erosion water things any

[46:24] other kind of Environmental investment that could be a showcase for Oakdale at

[46:30] the new Public Works campus yeah so a full environmental and Landscaping plan was designed when the building was

[46:35] designed so um obviously with um site constraints you know the pfast cleanup

[46:42] was a big Endeavor that had to that had to take place before construction so that was all taken care of um

[46:49] fortunately unfortunately we pretty much had to clear out all the trees you know a lot of them were just scrub trees

[46:55] anyways um so really did give us a clean slate to think about you know 30-year

[47:00] environmental happenings on that site so um all of that has gone through the the

[47:05] bidding process and this uh the design process so um it'll be it'll be

[47:11] something pretty cool when Once the building is open but um you know obviously with big vehicles going in and

[47:16] out of there that does limit size of trees and all those types of things um I know one area of focus for the tree

[47:23] board and this uh commission has talked about it in the past is having the brush drop off site so residents can go and

[47:28] dispose of their unwanted brush um so that was something incorporated into the site as well um in terms of storm

[47:36] runoff or storm water runoff I don't think there will be much

[47:42] because we tried to limit the the asphalt and concrete as much as possible so there is still um Green Space and

[47:48] buffer around the building as well so hopefully that limits it as well and then things like the salt storage those

[47:55] are going to have enclosed toine spaces for for that to live um that you know anybody that's been to the current

[48:00] Public Public Works campus knows that's a challenge cuz it's right next to a wetland well as land settles it yep so that will

[48:10] be a huge Improvement at the new campus thank you any other

[48:17] questions all righty well thank you everybody thank you mayor thank

[48:25] you well Commissioners it brings us to the end of

[48:32] the February 10th 2025 meeting of the EMC our next regularly scheduled meeting

[48:38] will be held on March 17th 2025 at 7 p.m. here in council chambers at City

[48:44] Hall I will look for a motion to adjourn tonight's EMC meeting for February

[48:50] 10th seconded is that what you say no

[48:56] soon you can move to accept the motion and then I will look for a second

[49:03] please SEC second awesome there we go all in favor of a journey tonight's February 10th EMC meeting say I I

[49:11] closed awesome thank you everyone thank you I

[49:25] don't e