[Music] um I will call tonight's city council meeting to order and start with Jolene and a roll call council member ericon here council member husnik here council member valento here council member Roberts here mayor Bane here let to invite everyone to rise and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance the United States of America na indivisible Justice all right Council we have an agenda before you I will entertain a motion to approve or any changes I'll make a motion to approve the agenda second we have a motion and a second all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose motion carries um open Forum open forum is any interested parties opportunity to address Council and any topic of your choice we'll see if there's anyone signed in this evening and if you are online for open Forum we will um take your comments here in just a moment uh we will start with Maron plots hello city council and mayor Bane um myON blz vice president of the flaw and I'm here to ask for some help from the city council on our predicament with our team our Sports using Fenway Fields um fla is a organization to run youth Athletics we're not a facilities management and we've learned this twice now because we tried it with the ice arena and we had to get out of there the school district bought it we started the Parks fedway Park going because the city council couldn't and we find out it's just too much work and we've been working with the city over the number of years the city has taking on more and more things and we would like to get to the point where the city takes care of the dragging and prepping because you just spent 100,000 plus last year out there to redo the fields and improve them and we'd like to continue on that path but the numbers were talking with we've dealt with Abby and Dave originally in September we started this and that lately it's been Kyle he's the one that's taken in that position as the parks person um the numbers are just going to kill our Sports it's ramping up too quickly we're having to like double and triple the amount of money they're spending to maintain the fields to get to this we're asking from help from the city council to reduce this cost and allow us to ramp this up over two years this year maybe 20 30,000 and next year 10 15,000 to help us move forward so that we can do this our softball organization has already formed their teams and they've already started paying okay so to go back and tell all those parents need to come up with another $100 so we can do the fields baseball is real close to starting and the other field out there is lacrosse we used to have football out there because the fields were closed last fall for this Improvement in maintenance they ended up going somewhere else they're not coming back so now we're spreading the maintenance of the fields out there across three Sports instead of four the maintenance isn't going to be much less and the and the dollars are still going to be way more now because you've eliminated 300 participants so I'm asking the council for some help on that we've helped very much in the city of forest lake with building the ice arena and getting that going and getting those fields open using them because when they originally built they sat the neighbors used them for a dog park they could close the two fences but their dogs run wild it was great for them okay that doesn't happen anymore they're used four nights a week and weekends they're very they're of the best things have and they're a huge income draw for the city talk to any of the restaurant owners they want to know when floss sports are having a tournament on weekends quick trip is like a zoo the restaurants gillium Stellas they all want to know because when baseball's in here fast is in here volleyball's in here basketball's in here they bring a lot of money to the community so if the city could find some way to move some money into that and dedicated to help us on the cost for a couple years now until we could get ramped up would be very appreciated thank you thank you Susan young hi my name is Susan young 9950 199th Street north um in your budget this evening you passed a new position in the community development department and I'm looking forward to finding out exactly what that position is going to be uh and what additional Services City residents will receive with the new position um as you all know 11 of the 22 Planning Commission meetings um for lack of need were cancelled this year um so you know that that implies that the workload may not have been as high um in addition where I'm I'm wondering if this will have some inspections if we will be able to have some um folks dedicated to enforcing the zoning code um on a more than complaint basis um a written complaint basis um I know that the zoning new zoning text amendments um and the rework of that has been contracted out so that is not um the bulk of that is more contract management than it is Personnel so I'm looking forward to hearing from the council exactly what the new position will provide Guide to the residents and businesses in the city um if it is economic development then yes I would certainly hope um that they will be a partner with flaw quite frankly when you have 10 team 100 teams coming in for a basketball tournament just the kids and the teams on there you're looking at a thousand folks every one of those has a family grandparents aunts and uncles cousins that come in to watch the games um if you're looking at economic development for the restaurants and businesses in the city they are huge draw and so I'm hoping that if it is an economic development position that they will be working with flaw even to uh as an economic development get the lights in so that we can have the state tournaments that would like to come here but can't right thank you all very much and I'll look forward to hearing CICS thank you that is the end of signups for open forum is there anybody else that would like to speak in open Forum this evening that's here and Julian is there anybody online for open Forum there is not mayor okay all right with that we will bring agenda back to council Council for your consideration this evening is our consent agenda we have on the consent agenda item 6A through 6m um I will ask Council um for any uh a motion to approve or any changes I will also note I did ask Ryan to just do a quick highlight of the Bolton and make year in review as part of Staff updates and so um no need to pull that from the consent agenda unless you have a change we will just hear a verbal update from him as part of Staff updates as well motion to approve or any changes I'd like to just pull uh consent C please very good motion to approve items a b and d through m is there a second second motion and a second all those in favor signal by saying I I oppose motion carries um next item is Mo um consideration of consent agenda item 6C approve the minutes from the November 18th Council Workshop I would move that Council approve the November 18th Council Workshop minutes is there a second second second we'll take a second from council member valento any discussion hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose abstain one abstention motion carries and we'll move on to our regular agenda uh first item for consideration this evening is item 7c which is a resident petition for a public road and Amanda I believe you are walking us through yes thank you and our Council uh this packet on your page 93 of your packet starts this item uh we did receive a petition from a residents on Iverson Avenue that is currently a a private road they are looking to open up a discussion around how to make that a public road I don't want to speak for the residents they're here and they can certain they'll be um invited up to the podium in a moment but I think it might be helpful for the council to look on page 93 there's a photo there that shows the residents properties and then the Iverson Avenue I want to preface everything that I'm about to say with everything is very preliminary we don't have title work we don't have survey so we're going after of what GIS looks like GIS is not always accurate the photo that we have is a GIS photo uh but it does appear as though Iverson Avenue the private road is located entirely on the property owner to the left I don't know that's Northeast south or west um but in the photo to the left um and it does not I do not believe that that property owner is a petitioner on the petition that doesn't mean that this isn't solvable but but I believe her name is Pam Omen she would need to be brought into the conversation because right now the property the the road excuse me appears to sit on her property it appears that it is currently titled as a private easement and that is how it is used and accessed today so um we don't in our code have a process a specific process for how uh the city would receive petitions of any kind um that's something that I'm actually asking tonight for C to give staff the green light to go ahead and draft an ordinance to that effect for petitions moving forward uh but when we're talking about roads specifically there's a lot of statutes around how to turn um a public road into a non-existent road you know just um remove your right away those types of things there is not a process to turn a private road into a public road from a statutory perspective so we don't really have any guidance there um so there are several topics tonight frankly around cost right various components of the cost but really we're talking about costs in terms of um how to make this road from a private road to a public road what what those costs would look like and who's going to to Bear those costs um I think with that set as sort of the setup I would ask for Council to invite the petitioners up here because they can certainly speak to their request uh better than I can very good um petitioners welcome to either I don't know if you have a spokes person that would like to speak or and and as many people can speak tonight as who would like to speak um whoever would like to start if you could come to the podium please hi I'm Rick van Oram I uh live on uh the Iverson Road we're talking about I think most of our party is here uh and represented uh I'm probably the least experienced out of all them we've only lived there we built just in 2021 but uh prior to that as I understand it the uh at one point the city did uh take care of our road where uh they uh graded it twice a year and plowed it and uh since I've been there that hasn't been the case it's been um very difficult and challenging I think so great Amanda that you sent some pictures we've got some more if you'd like to see the major holes and dips that get in the road it's pretty crazy especially in the winter time just to navigate it's actually in all of our opinions a public safety hazard as well was concerned about even if uh emergency workers had to get down that road so um I think this started for us when um a sign was put up that was blue and we're like huh blue we didn't have a road sign before that and Michelle one of our neighbors found out oh that's because it's a private road but when she called it was mentioned there might be a possibility that that could be turned or at least we should look into turning it back into uh a public road and maybe that grading and plowing could come back so cost-wise that's one option that we're certainly open to I know there's probably others as well that might be quite a bit more expensive but I think we're interested in the various options that might be available to us do you mind just describing um so it primary need is it grading and plowing can I give us your laundry list it's helpful to just hear sure what what brings you here yeah so it's dirt right now and so these potholes get to be massive and very deep and we end up uh all I think about all us at various times have brought in some some fill to try and cover that so our I I speak for the group but jump in if I'm wrong but I think the big thing would be boy if we could get it back to where it's it's graded and uh that plowing is done in the winter time you know if we get two feet of snow some of the residents that don't have four-wheel drive wouldn't be able to get out even so I think that's our our primary I think the laundry list would be long-term jeez I think just uh couple blocks up off of 97 I saw another road that was actually uh done by the city where it was uh turned into uh asphalt and uh that's certainly something else that we'd be interested in depending on what the cost would be those are our big things I think I don't I don't think it's realistic we don't have fire hydrants but I think that might be a little bit more that we're all Wells and I don't know if you can have fire Hy down that type of thing there's no lighting but again I don't think there is around the neighborhood so those are our big things we're looking for did I miss anything anyone else that would like to speak just uh since Rick is new to the neighborhood yeah we uh could have you start with your name and address for the record that' be great yep it's Jim Sherman and I'm at 21123 iers Avenue North it actually is and um there was uh uh in the past the city would plow or would grade the road with a road grader um twice a year and we had no issues um there's seven houses on the street um I know for my family we're down to four drivers but we had five driving over this road if You' seen the pictures every day multiple times with multiple drivers and uh one of the things we were told uh by the council in the past is the reason the road was no longer going to be graded is because they were grading another private road and they hit a mailbox and they had to replace it so I I understand that our mailboxes are out of the way they're not on the street they're in one location at the End of the Street off to the side so uh the other thing I think that's happened with the road not being raided away from the homes is we've seen water coming onto people's driveways because the road is no longer slope the way it was so I just wanted to add that history because you weren't there at that time but uh it's and then the other concern too is when the snow plaws come on the public road they leave a massive amount of snow there that if we can get through the street we still have to go through that um big pile of snow from the snow plows so I just wanted to add that detail hope that helps thank you thank you anything else don't go far but and is there anybody else that would like to speak Manda back yeah thank youor Council so uh one piece of information that I did not have until to tonight was that at some point in history the city took care of the road daab do you have some insight for us or is this also new information so how far do you want to rewind time back to Township days we can is that what we're is that how far back we're talking yes okay can you help us on time frame on when when did the road stop being when was the last time you saw a grater before the that's probably closer yeah okay so there's a number I mean I wish I had have brought the map and I don't know if probably doesn't have them maybe I have to but shows all of our private roads throughout the city and prior to 2013 we had a grer operator that liked to just go and grade everything so he was grading private roads people's driveways he was Full Service doing a little everything so uh around that 13 14 time there was kind of a a look through of yeah we probably don't need to be doing private stuff so that's probably accurate I'd say about 2013 2014 where kind of a whole study was kind of up for what what are the private roads what are the public roads you know you should probably still it could be a mailbox was hit I don't that part I don't know but there was yeah so there was a spot there where there was a lot of stuff happening where we probably shouldn't have been doing what we were doing so appreciate that thank you honor councel so that's a piece of information that we can talk about at a staff level but I just what that was new information for me tonight um so threshold really the threshold question is from the council perspective there would need need to be staff time money resources into um pulling the title work or frankly the property owners could you know provide us with title work um but getting the title work to confirm how the property that road is currently owned if it's a private easement they can't give us a public easement because if you think about real estate if I have fee title to something I have everything right I have all of the rights in my bundle of sticks for my property um and and if I have a right of way easement so if I have the public control then I get to do things as the as the government if I have a private easement though that's considered a lesser right than the government than a public easement and so I can't just give my private easement to the to the city in this situation and turn it into a a public easement it does not work that way we would have to purchase from the underlying property owner a public easement if it's the the individuals here to this evening they would probably just sign that over to us and wouldn't expect any sort of compensation if it's that adjacent property owner she does have the right under imminent domain law to to require a fair compensation just compensation for what we're taking uh so I I there's a lot of different kind of pieces the first couple of pieces are all right there needs to probably be a survey and there needs to be title work to figure out how is this Pro how is this actually owned that is going to cost some money um complete Ballpark and I am very much ballparking here um but I would ballpark that probably around for all of those properties plus a surve you're looking at about $220,000 in cost to get those that title work and that survey done it's not a small amount of money um which is why the question to council is right out the gate how do you want this to be set up in terms of who is paying these administrative costs to get to an answer of can this be done um and then so pin on pin in that but that would be the first question is who sort of paying for these costs um the second thing to Just note is this is a private road as the photo show um it's in tough shape um if we were to take it as a public road under our city code our city code has minimum Road requirements for public Street so it would have to be brought up to the level of a public Street which uh Dave correct me if I'm wrong but I believe does that require asphalt correct and kban gutter this would be rural so not curbing gutter but uh street so asphalt and I believe storm water uh facilities as well based on what the Watershed requires right this would trigger storm water permitting be over there be a full storm water permit with a previous area would be reconstructing so I don't I will not attempt to bellpark with backas um but it's not five figures um so so that is the piece to understand around there's definitely some hurdles here uh that said I there is some new information around the fact that we previously cared for this road that I do think Merit some conversation at the staff level in terms of the impact that that might have on some of what we need to do moving forward um but for the purposes of tonight what I'm looking for from the council is some direction on do you want the city to to pay these initial title fee costs you know survey costs do you want to set up some sort of a petition process that would have the applicants be required to Escrow something for those costs or do you want the instructions to to the petitioners to be you need to go get these things this survey this title work and bring that back to staff to analyze the ask and so then they would you know pay for that work and then bring that to the council so those are kind of the three options for that first bucket of costs the second is if if we actually do take on this road the cost of acquiring the public easement the cost of of of um bringing the road up to standards who's paying for that and we do have a road assessment policy but I'm not sure that it really contemplates situations like this so it's possible that our road assessment policy would require some review at a minimum um so I know that those aren't super fun answers um but those are the realities of the situation it is it is a little more nuanced does that make so to go back to the first question the first question is the initial review administrative costs and um quick point of clarification uh AA it sounds like that first point is down a pathway of of purchase and City maintained and what I heard public comment tonight was all options are on the table not necessarily that's the only option um you know is there an option for grading and plowing so is what you're suggesting as step one required for that pathway so if we um your honor Council if if you wanted to go down the going back to you grade it twice a year and you plow it um there is a weird statute that requires that if we plow private roads they must pay the actual like the real costs to plow relatedly and related maintenance so I would just say the grading and the plowing would need to be paid by the property owners for the private road it would get a little bit tricky because technically the property the private road is not on on on the petitioners property it's on that adjacent properties property so we would probably need to do some fancy uh documents to sort of make sure that they're being assessed to the correct property you know that the users versus that um that that adjacent property owner but that could be a feasible option as well that does require I would go back to the same question of that's going to require some legal research and some things and so who who do you want paying for that analysis as well can I just can I just ask a I have a hard time believing that the city's going to be the low cost provider for plowing and Grading Services um it it feels so then and I also appreciate I appreciate the interesting question of well can we just become a city street and let's start that conversation but given what we've just heard about the cost to even start the project um and that's before we've even entered into conversations with the property owner about those acquisition costs I mean we're in a bit of a bind where the the cost to even start the project start mounting fairly quickly um and I would hate to have everyone be overc committed if there is just if if the base need is we just really need some plowing and some snow removal I'm not sure we're going to land in a spot where we are the best option um we do great work work but I think you may have some other options out there and so I guess that would before we get too far down the road of something that's quite complicated and very very expensive um I I guess I'd want to better understand that we're heading down a path that you also want to head down the typically these costs end up be being bore by the property owners and so we're happy to do a big project and happy to have that become a city street if that's a path that financially you want to go down I just don't know if we're going to hit those marks that you want to do that so it's a little bit of chicken very much chicken and egg and um because again we're we're going to end in an answer here where even some of these initial $20,000 type costs for surveys that's going to have to unless Council has some other thoughts I think have to be a billback agreement I I don't feel great about us taking that on as a city born cost um we have a lot of private roads these questions come up okay occasionally but ultimately generally Property Owners end up like H we'll figure something else out just because the cost is you can just start to tell become very quick costly very quickly and I see a hand up in the back if you could though just come to the microphone just so we can all hear I think one of the concerns we have or questions we have in Amanda you had mentioned is this a publicly owned easement or private I believe it's private so one one of the things that we may be limited on is the owner of the property which by the way it's on sale right now they put it up on the market on Zillow and there there's some things in there about you know having some properties built on the 14 acres and having Lake access deed Lake access all these things up in the air but in the past when we asked about potentially doing for example recycled asphalt on the road the property owner says no you can't do that so that's one of our concerns is if it's a if it's a privately held easement which I believe it is um we could be at the mercy of the property owner and by the way it's Julie om man not Pam om man Julie om man thank you and and with all due respect you're at the mercy we also are at the mercy right or at least financially right like we have you know there is a compensation process that is just going to have to be the nature of the Beast because of how it seems like it's titled so Council I jumped in with some thoughts here um let's step back and as we're thinking about you know is this cost that would be part of a billback agreement is that a path that everyone agrees with is there a inkling that thinks that there's some City born costs here let's just open it up well so my first question was asked about the property owner so uh she sounds like not allowing to put any recycle down um so the likelihood of giving up this land probably is unlikely is that correct that could be that actually came from her late husband okay so I don't know and I think it's okay maybe we identify some things for the question list and maybe that's one of the things for the question list of we may not know tonight and might be part of what needs to be determined I I think the the other thing is you know I would be open a little bit open to have some kind of cost share on some of this to upgrade a city well what could potentially be a city street um which then maybe would add some tax value to those homes therefore the city would benefit from that um so I would be open to that it's not a hard no for me um but it does you you start talking Watershed district and it just gets out of hand and a hurry and so I don't even if we were to share a portion of that I don't know if if you'd have the appetite to to to go down that road um because it it could gets really expensive quickly yeah I guess I just really curious to know more about the private easement and I mean if the easements there and there's several houses built along there I mean how is it that they somehow can dictate that it has to be a mud pit that these people have to drive through remiss is that question is that question a um property owner to property owner question Dave go ahead this is kind of similar to Everton Avenue North if you know on the south side of Clear Lake we get that probably every couple years about maintaining that road that's another private road that is and way more disrepair than in this road not not me saying one is worse than the other but it's the same thing where it's a it's a private road and I think the easement is there cuz we have sewer that runs underneath both of these roads so that's probably the access point of why that happened of to to give sewer to these houses roadway easements then were created and they're just we're private you know and we're running the same thing on Everton Avenue North on that side nobody you can't get enough of them to ever create a petition to to turn it in but to your point as as well um there's a lot of other cheaper companies that'll I mean we're not telling the private owners that they have to shovel this out themselves I mean they have more than the ability to have somebody come and grade the road twice a year or come and snowplow in the winter you know it's it's not like I mean there's tons of contractors out there that that can do it we have hookstra Avenue that's just a little to the South them they've hired a contractor that grades it twice a year and and they do the soring rulle so I mean there's there's companies out that do that and like and they can do it cheaper than us and they'll do it at different intervals and and all that so it just gets dicey if we start going into private property and and plowing so not that we don't have that capacity to do it we just don't want to set that pressing because we have a a lot of Private Road areas that if we start jumping in private roads where do you stop with that too and and what is your threshold for that yeah what do you want to take us next uh so one another fun piece of information that I just learned tonight was that the property is for sale um the that the sounds like this private easement is on that um is a large parcel we've talked about that at development meetings that that seems like there could be some development on that parcel obviously if that parcel were to be developed in a couple homes were put on it that completely changes the dynamic in terms of if they're also accessing this as part of the requirement under our current code they would have to make that a p a public road right I mean so so they would have to dedicate that as part of a future development so I I hesitate to suggest to the council maybe it's a wait and see but if it's on sale right now um May maybe it's a wait and see maybe it's a reeval you know come back in 60 days or 90 days or whatever or maybe it's initially reaching out to the the current property owner just to have a conversation to see if there's any any appetite about giving dedicating a public easement through their um I'm not suggesting that that's the best course of action but sometimes you can cut a lot of wasted time and money and energy out if you just have a phone call with somebody um so those are my two reactions and I don't like doing math at the table like this because I usually get it wrong but those are my two off-the-cuff thoughts the conversation with the prop property owner in light of that property being up for sale who who best position to have that is that a is that a resident conversation group of residents with that property owner is there a should the city be at that table what what should that be I I say that because as soon as the city's at the table the dynamic always changes um but there is a point there city has to be at the table this is going to be a city project and so how would you thread that needle yeah I so I would defer back to the petitioners in terms of if they want to try to go solve this privately first um then obviously we would stand down and there would be no speaking um about it if it's something that they thought that it would be more beneficial if if the city reaches out to the adjacent property owner then I would suggest that it would probably be Abby um just given her you know community development director hat so sorry Abby um um I can be on the call too um so I would suggest that she maybe just and just from a friendly like development perspective we see it set for sale are you getting development interest what does that look like and and having a conversation from that perspective might be the softest City touch unless the petitioners are looking to exit stage left right now I think great a city reach over development call just seems to me that that if that road was public and it should be as far as I'm concerned that would benefit both sides it potentially could right and so I don't know how far back this goes when was the house first house built in there do you know Dave by any chance and all long that's been going on the reason I'm asking is that just it's it's backways I mean right because you talked about sure in point being is thatly 50s sure point being that that nowadays I'd never be allowed to not have public access from a from a residents and so there's got to be some kind of a compromise we can make that work it seems to me and uh don't know exactly what that is or what that path is but um just seems to me that that public road if it was a public road would benefit both both sides both sides of the road so something we I I would like to I would like to see the city at least do the survey on it and and and see where it's at and maybe reach out to the other land owner there and find out what we can do with it sure for selling the land they said the lot size which is adjacent build we think isim and surve to well maybe Abby I think you were I I will say in just a cursor review everything that's been said tonight lots of facts that it is the 14 acres is over half of it's encumbered by Wetlands um so the even the idea of maybe being able to put an improvement such as a linear Road through here might not be able to happen not saying that's the case I do think that the best thing for the city to do is to reach out to the land owner especially now that it's listed that was news to us even I think when we first brought this up a week or so ago and just see if there's been any sort of movement on the property and to keep us posted if anyone's interested we get inquiries all the time when there's properties for sale people looking at buying them so I definitely will also alert my staff if we start to hear of um potential interest in the property um I do agree that a improved roadway through here could enhance the other side of the roadway and the developability there but those lots already access on have access onto iers as well so we there are some there's some opportunities through there but also some constraints so go ahead any other comments I do have question 21165 iers Matt D um thank you for taking the time for this it's like been a long time I moved in like 2012 I'd say they did like a year or two following but um regarding that saying a private easement and drink AG you know what recommendation would you get for that we've had companies out there like we won't touch it because we need their the property owners blessing as well so that's something I look for advice on um and then also if those lots were sold what would that look like for us to kind of plan ahead if those lots were sold if um can you can somebody just give um the property owner just a very high level of what that development agreement would look like and like the city the city process for easements and what that would look like if they were to parcel off that those current at current Anchorage sure if there was going to be a subdivision the neighborhood everybody within 350 500 Susan might know the exact foot distance better than I would be noticed that there'd be a planning application submitted and a consideration by our Planning Commission we'd look at uh there would be three different applications but you'd be noticed at the time of preliminary plat in preliminary plat we look at what kind of the lot configuration would be but also any sort of public improvements such as a roadway or any other public infrastructure needed in the area um the city would enter into a development agreement so that the developer would be obligated to make certain improvements as part of the subdivision now our ask of developers though has to be a rough proportionality to the development if somebody came to me today and said hey I want to split this I just want two lots both of them accessed off of Iverson that's a harder cell for us to say oh you have to put in a public road behind you um with regard I did just do a spot check on a few of the Deeds on the properties it looks like most of them have been deeded that 33 ft in the easement with your question with grading I would suggest you do it within the 33 ft or or you'd call Julie Omen and talk with her unfortunately it's a private property owner issue at the moment I didn't mean to speak for our legal counsel but I mean that's what if somebody came to me and asked these exact things that's what unfortunately it would be um I think that doing a little bit of Exploration with Julie um seeing what would happen could happen there frankly I don't know that getting a survey right now makes any sense I think the only thing that could probably be of a benefit is some title work but I think the title work is still going to find they have a 33 foot private ement that's just a hunch from doing this for a little while suggested next action have Abby reach out with a phone call have a conversation with current property owner about potential sale options um and then Abby I'm I'm assuming you have a primary contact for the resident group is that right oh yeah we yep I happily can get that from Amanda and Jolene so just a quick followup question on that so if they have a 33 foot easement could they do some recycle or do maintain the road at all or is that still property is that that's something they should probably contact their legal counsel and ask you're you're onor Council it depends on what the words are in that private easen so it's in our understanding so far is that that they're inde Deeds versus like in the in the actual you know deed versus a what we call paper easements in paper easements you can put in more rules around you're responsible for the maintenance you're responsible for you get to put up a fence you get to you know all of these special things usually in In Deed language it's much more abbreviated and unfortunately it's not as clear so um I'm assuming that's the situation here generally you'd have to go by what the words are there and if if the property the underlying property owner tell you know you do it at the risk of getting sued essentially by by that property owner the the one issue so I just looking at GIS it it kind of looks like I I understand that everybody has a 33 foot easement but it isn't like it's the end of her it doesn't look like it's the end of her property it looks like the road is sort of you look on page 93 it it looks like frankly her property line comes into some of the these properties front yards and maybe on one or two of them even their home I don't think that's correct but that's where a survey could confirm that the 33 feet is actually where the road is versus the 33 ft is some location that's not even where the road is sitting today but it's exp the a survey is very expensive it's the bulk of that upfront cost compared to title commitments if if ab's willing to reach out to to Julie I think that's good first step and and see where we can go from there I hopefully this property being up for sale is a bit of a transition point and an opportunity for some new options to be on the table you know Amanda one of the things that you asked of us is um the question was going to be um if the underlying property owner does not want to sell right away to the city will the city use condemnation to make the road public I'm not going to be here for that vote but I can just imagine that's going to be a really tough sell um to use some level of cond condemnation to force that transaction um given that this has been a a transaction between private property owners for decades um and so the the turning point is the condition of the road and there are some other solves for that that wouldn't have to involve the city I appreciate why everyone's asking but there are some other options on the table that I I just no one has a crystal ball but I think it's going to be challenging for future counil to um say yes we're going to do a condemnation and we're going to force that transaction so I think finding options of agreement is probably the best course of action right now let we can somebody's is already willing to sell then there's a great open door to maybe some options to come forward other I yeah just I have one other um I think we have clear direction for where to to start um that General petition process is that something that Council would be open to staff bringing forward an ordinance that just sort of spells out here's how it works to do petitions in the city um so that's there's a clear process where when people come we can point them to it it saves time it saves everything is that something that you're open to us bring you back yes agree okay thank you I would assume that process would include kind of clear delineation of what the plan is for um esro costs and what could yes I would agree any other guidance either Abby or Amanda that you need from Council on this topic I'm right now petitioners I know we didn't get you a final answer today hopefully we've given you some additional information anything else you'd like Council to know before we close this one out very good thanks for being here thanks okay um we are going to move on to our next um agenda item which is consideration of 7B uh certification of delinquent utility accounts Uh Kevin I believe are you walking us through this uh yes I am mayor Bane uh mayor Bane and City Council so in front of you tonight is a resolution to approve certification of delinquent utility accounts along with that resolution before that is approved uh the city does hold a public hearing for anyone who wishes to speak regarding this topic so this is the annual process that the city does this time of year where uh utility bills are unpaid um notices are sent out to the homeowners uh via letter and those were sent out this year at the end of October early November uh they are notified that they have not paid their utility bills and um they have the opportunity to come in and pay come in tonight to talk at the public hearing and then if it is unpaid on this year by December 12th then those would will be sent to uh the county by the end of the year to be paid along with their property taxes uh there is an 18% uh be added on to any delinquent balances if it is sent to the county um if it is paid before December 12th then that 18% fee is not added uh so with that if Council has any questions I'd be happy to answer those otherwise um I would request that you open the public hearing very good thank you Kevin Council any questions of Kevin before we open public hearing not seeing any questions all right with that we will open up the public hearing is there anybody that would like to speak on this topic if so please join us at the podium anyone that would like to speak in public hearing Julene anybody online and wishing to speak uh no one indicating they wish to speak all right anyone else not seeing anyone come forward we'll close public hearing bring consideration back to council Council for your consideration is resolution 12 92405 I would move that Council approve resolution 1292 2405 is there a second second a second we'll um we'll take a second from council member Ericson any discussion just uh just a couple questions on this is do staff take on some of these like ones up to 25,000 is there any individual reach out to some of these people on some of these larger dollar months because we're at a half a million dollars here in delinquent so is there Proactiv do we hire a contract you know sub contract out to a collection agency or something because these substantial dollars and U so in these cases this is the we are the collection agency with these bills that are unpaid um they are noticed every time they get a quarterly Bill there is a previous balance on there um I did specifically talk to our Utility Billing staff on these larger amounts has there been any direct contact made they have tried they've tried to um reach out to what the information we have um some homeowners we have an email and a phone number number so we're able to others we just have an address so we send them the notice for the public uh for a public hearing and that is unpaid so there are instances where we do look at this we try to be as proactive as we can because ultimately at the city we rather have them pay than have these um get sent to their taxes um any other discussion hearing none we have a motion on the table with a second all those in favor signal by saying I I oppose and motion carries our next item this evening is consideration of the 2025 fee schedule and ordinance 745 Kevin thank you mayor Bayon city council so again annually uh in front of you is some proposed changes to the annual fee schedule uh before I get started I just want to note that it is ordinance number 745 there is a typle on the actual fee schedule where it says 74 six but the correct ordinance number is 745 so part of the city's annual process uh this time of year is looking at the CH uh the city fees schedule uh so working with all uh department heads they reviewed the fees that are charged specifically to to their department and come up with any recommended changes that they have regarding the fees um one real consistency I with the fees this year for changes have been increases to areas where um there there's staff time involved there's more staff um involvement and time to process um certain fees so there are some increases of those fees being uh proposed this to reflect um the increase in those wages as a lot of these fees have not been adjusted for uh quite some time uh there is um Abby did add some administrative citation language into the FEI uh schedule as well which is new this year uhu so that's up for your review um but other than that is really an in it's really a reflection of how long are these fees taking City staff time looking at the time spent the wages have increased since these since um they've last been increased and also in some cases with regards to the park and recreation and Rental facilities um they haven't been increased in some time in roids is um getting those up to Market and the maintenance that goes along um with those so with that I'll turn it over to city council if you have any specific questions for myself or there's questions on Pacific fees um I turn those over to the department heads as well thank you Kevin Council let's open it up for Council questions discussion points I have a um so I have a question kind of related to some of the feedback we heard in open Forum um refresh my memory on I know we've had um a long relationship with flaw and that agreement and those fees associated with flaw have taken on multiple paths Through The Years um the the the is I guess my question is I'm not quite sure how to phrase it is is there a pathway to um have as consideration of part of what we adopting tonight some sort of a um I like the way myin phrased it which was a a two-year phasin that does something that um specific for the fla Fe that um provides some transition time um and I'm just there's a lot on this particular fee agreement I'm just not sure how to best um um I guess pose that question but I'm open to some sort of a phase in there are a lot of moving pieces on both of our both of our organizations um and so I you know I think landing on something that makes sense is something that we we all want to do um but also I don't want to hold up an entire fee schedule for that particular question so again is you hear my question Dave yep so the Fe the fee schedule those those costs for um chalking Fields doing that maintenance is for anybody that's not in our so flaw hasn't a like a priority use agreement with the city so these those fees are all waved so that's when they do their scheduling and their field priority use that that doesn't go along with this field scheduling Fe so so that feedback is a conversation on a different day it's it's a different different conversation the the the fees on here is for if another entity wants to come in and use a field this is what we would charge them to prep the field it has nothing to do with flaw that's it's asessed out that it's it doesn't their agreement supersedes the fee schedule or we don't do a per time like that okay and and where are we with for that agreement are we in I'm drawing complete are we in pre-negotiation for next year's schedule cor not yet finalized right not yet finalized not yet finalized okay yep okay that was was my specific feedback on the fee schedule happy to open it up for any other points at Council might have any of these increases are I would assume are still in line with what our comparable cities are doing for the most part there's nothing that's really out there that you don't mind Kevin I would jump in I've only been here for a couple years now I know I haven't been able to take the time to really do the best market rate analysis in the community development fees get something that it's we've intended to do it's just wasn't able to be done this year um I don't think that our line our fees are are exorbitantly higher or even super low compared to those but it is worth uh dedicating some resources to that uh I think in in another go round of this other questions comments specific to the feag or Fe schedule all right it is a foundational document that you know impacts um beginning of the year items so it is important that we are able to take action tonight if we're able um anyone ready for a motion I'll make a motion to approve ordinance number 745 an ordinance repealing and replacing city code chapter 35 fees and service charges motion is there a second second we have a motion and a second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose and motion carries our next item this evening is item 7D consideration of the Cannabis registration ordinance which is ordinance 745 and resolution 129 2410 um Amanda's walking us through this yes thank you honor this one will not be as long as last time I promise it's a quick one okay is that showing up there jene you should be uh what view are you in right now on your PowerPoint mhm are you you have your PowerPoint up yep can you go to uh start from the beginning yep anything nothing let me go back I and go back in oh there we go just needed to be patient oh no what did I do do I need [Laughter] to I don't I know just unplug yeah I go back out it did just show up right it was showing close this is not that complicated where did my mouse go there no oh it wants to it's trying to fight with that okay sure acted like it it you want a thumb drive H you want a thumb drive yeah do you want to maybe give it to me and yeah I mean I I can just talk and you know I mean this is not a complicated one you start okay here you go see so okay I really can just talk about it it's not that complicated NOP sorry this goes yes yeah do you want to do that I have two I have this one I have the next one sorry about that technical difficulties your honor councel well that's getting um set up I will just try to remember what I said on there and we'll go from there uh so if you recall at the last council meeting you approved the cannabis use ordinance and that was the zoning ordinance about where cannabis business businesses get to go uh tonight's ordinance is the Cannabis business registration ordinance and that is the ordinance that is allowing the city to register retail cannabis businesses as a reminder ocm the office of cannabis management gets to do all the licensing and what the city gets to do is register the retail businesses retail businesses being cannabis retail cannabis meso businesses and cannabis micro businesses um so those are the three businesses that get to be uh registered with the city um for uh the ordinance itself um just kind of it's in your packet um but generally speaking the ordinance is we are not limiting the number so we are not limiting the number of registrations if you recall Council decided to do some limiting through distance requirements between stores distance requirements um from schools parks that type of thing and then the zoning districts and which it they are allowing these businesses oh here we are thank you okay yay I already talked about that all right um so the the ordinance if we'll kind of walk through it in in terms of the time for the applicant so the applicant has some pre-registration requirements these are things that they need to do before they can register their business um they need to have a compliance check so that means that somebody from City staff is going out to the business and making sure that it complies with city code they also need to get all of their related zoning approvals so if you recall all these businesses need to have an interim use permit so that's something that they're going to need to get before they can register and then they also need to pay a registration fee the registration fee is set by Statute it's going to vary depending upon the business um but it will range from about $500 to about $11,000 that is an annual fee because they do need to renew this every year here we don't have control over it though it's what's set by Statute um so in addition to demonstrating that they already have the uh the the interim use permit and they've done a compliance check they also need to provide the following documents to the city staff for review and approval that's the security plan that's going to go to PD the odor mitigation plan as we talked about at the last meeting we're not entirely sure how we're going to vet these but we know we want them um so we'll cross that bridge when we get to it um and then a photometric plan so if it's going to be in a greenhouse we want to see ensure that it's not going to be um shedding light you know into a neighbor's property and being a nuisance in that way so these are additional documents that they would need to provide with their completed application um so once they've provided all these documents the uh application is going to be reviewed and approved administratively in other words it's not going towards before councel or uh Planning Commission and that is because you will have already seen it via the interm use permit and of course any other um approvals that would need to you know be had at that time that interim use permit really has a lot of the exact same things that this uh registration requires so it's it's really redundant and we didn't want to add an extra 60 days to you know like their ability to open um so that's why we're doing it administratively um and so uh they do need to have we will need to do annual compliance checks on these retail businesses it's going to be exactly like the PD does for tobacco and alcohol so they'll have somebody under um 21 go in and try to purchase and and that's how they'll they'll run the compliance checks those need to happen annually they also need to renew uh the registration annually okay so that is um that's the ordinance in a nutshell there's a little bit in the ordinance just so you know around um what we can do to to uh terminate a registration it is 100% regulated by Statute so it is quite literally a copy and paste from what's already in statute um and we have to sort of run some things through the office of cannabis management if we need to revoke a registration uh I stand for questions otherwise if you're looking for next steps the steps are on the screen in front of you motion to approve and is this actually orance 1 745 not 746 it's 746 in the packet yeah okay um so motion to approve ordinance 746 and then the motion to approve the resolution for summary publication if you recall we're doing that so we do not have to publish the whole ordinance Council open it up for questions the initial um in the ordinance the very the the initial section of course I just lost it um upon license upon issuing upon issuing the registration we call that a compliance check I don't I'm not so much I don't necessarily care what we call it but it's more of a building code inspection right right correct and and then later in the ordinance we also do reference a more traditional compliance check around age requirements yes you're right so and that's just using the words from the statute is that the is that was what okay yeah so the the first one is a compliance check with city code yes and then the second one is these annual compliance checks that are really age verification and we do not are there does the statute require us to or does our our ordinance um contemplate us doing more of the traditional building code on an annual basis or is that a one-time pre-opening and then it's just age verification it's pretty much a onetime uh pre-opening and then it's just age verification okay a um there was a given the nature of the product and given the sensitivity because there's not ever I guess maybe what I'm getting at um there's not ever uh they they will do an initial plan of operations and they're going to say here's our order mitigation plan here's our photometric plan do we have subsequent followup checks to confirm that they're doing what they said they were going to do or is that just complaint based that's just complaint-based right now so those are all documents that are required to get the registration but I will also be putting all of those into their interim use permit as conditions and so really the tool that you have to uh the code enforcement tool if you will for these business businesses if if they are producing odor or if they're doing they're violating their security plan is to pull their interim use permit and then they cannot operate um and that's a mechanism that has that we've designed because we don't have the ability to pull a license right so to Alcohol Tobacco we can we can decide that we're going to pull their license because the state is is not allowing local control over the license we're getting a little creative and so we're kind of creating if you will a li through that interim use permit understood so this is this is very light touch because we have a bigger more effective tool so would there be a mechanism where we could also call that a make those that beginning inspection also part of the annual process and if they fail yes it's a failure of the inuse permit but can we also then do that reporting up to the state and say oh by the way we had a photometric plan and they're not not in compliance with that either can we do that on an annual basis or just not advised yeah so they have to renew every year and so that they have to give us the same paperwork every year and renew and then we have to send to the state every year yes they've renew their registration or no you know we failed their registration or whatever so we will be in very uh frequent communication with ocm I'm not entirely sure how that's going to work it feels like it's pretty rid done it we'll see right that the I think there's going to be some changes in terms of how this is all structured in the next within the next couple of years because there's some weird overlap those are my only questions Council other questions you may have all right we may be ready for a motion if anyone's ready yeah I'll make a motion to approve cannabis business registration ordinance 746 motion is there second I'll second motion and a second all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose and motion carries I'll make a motion to approve resolution 12092 2410 the summary publication of ordinance 746 second we have a motion and a second any discussion hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I oppose and motion carries we will transition next to item 7e which is the building citation fee and this is Amanda whenever you're ready I'm sorry I said building citation administrative citation fee yes thank you your honor councel uh so tonight um we have an ordinance for your consideration regarding the administration administrative citation fee um if you recall in 2024 uh the beginning of last year Council approved a package of enforcement related ordinances and one of the tools in those ordinances was the administrative citation um and so the administrative citation is a tool that we can use to deal with non-criminal city code violations so we're talking about the weeds not mowing um you know plowing or not not not plowing violating in a watering require or watering ban um Building Maintenance just sort of those types of things you can use it for any code violation but really it's sort of designed to get at those um public nuisance type things uh so right now as you as you know from um Kevin's presentation there's a list of administrative citations uh fees in the fee schedule and so for example if you uh don't shovel your uh driveway when you're supposed to your sidewalks it's a $50 fine for the first time and it depends on what the infraction is the the dollar amount is based on you know the severity of the infraction essentially um the fines are assessed after compliance notices are sent out so first the property owner has the opportunity to mow their lawn or put away the garbage that they had or whatever the situation is if they fail to do so then we can issue this administrative citation what the ordinance in front of you is asking for it's a short ordinance um it's asking to increase the fines for repeat offenders this is very common in fact I don't have a single City that doesn't have an administrative citation ordinance that doesn't also have this escalator in it um because what you will find and what we have found is that there are some chronic offenders and so 50 bucks fine they'll pay the 50 bucks and they're just going to kind of keep doing it but when that amount doubles each time you can get their attention faster and more effectively uh so what the ordinance is asking for or what the ordinance changes is it says if you are a repeat offender of the same city code or you know violation so it can't be a different one but the same one within a 12-month period that citation amount doubles it maxes out at $2,000 so the most that you'd ever pay for a citation would be $2,000 um this is the actual language of the citation it's what I just told you um this is and then I I'm sorry I sounds like it's not on your dasis so you can't really see it and you definitely can't see it up here but this is the city code section or the fee schedule section that lists the viol uh the administrative citation violation amount it's also in your packet I don't have the patient R the top in my head but as you can see it does vary so if it's a if it's an abandoned vehicle that's going to be $200 because keep in mind we have to potentially might might be Towing that event and some there could be some cost for the city in that um if it's the um Building Maintenance just root just a kind of a minor thing that can that's a $50 citation if it's um wow these are really hard to read public nuisance including noise it's $100 sidewalk I think I mentioned that row or a RightWay snow and ice removal that's a $50 citation so you can see where some of these are start very fairly low um and might need to be eligible for escalation if somebody doesn't comply I am available for questions otherwise I am looking for aemotion to approve ordinance number 747 thank you Amanda Council open it up questions you may have or a motion if no one's got questions I'll make a motion uh to approve ordinance number 747 to amend City Force Lake City code section 36.029456 fees to increase with multiple citations I'll second we have a motion and a second any additional discussion hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose and motion carries thank you and there's no resolution because this is a very short ordinance so no summary publication okay we have a series of donations uh we will consider next um just start at the top here item 7 m um a motion and and I'll just I I'll just make the motion a motion Council will um approve with gratitude resolution 12 9249 a donation from um Brenda kading and this is um specifically for make sure I have this right 06 Mar oh I'm sorry just so we get it right 12946 I thought you said 09 12 12092 246 um motion our motion accepting uh resolution or motion accepting donation from B brenting specifically for the veterans memorial project and uh motion made um very awkwardly but with lots of gratitude is there a second point of clarification I think there's two donations on that motion are you going to call out separately there was uh Mary Lindberg trust also had a donation in the same resolution it just didn't end up on the title of the agenda Sor yes look at page can I can I just start over I would like to make a motion with gratitude to approve resolution 1292 2406 accepting donation for the veterans memorial project from both Brenda cading and the Mary lyberg trust is there a second second I have a motion and a second any discussion hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I I I oppose motion carries I'll attempt a second uh I motion Council approve resolution 129 2407 accepting donation from tired iron Collision Center uh in the amount of $1,000 with gratitude for um the 2024 Shop with a cop is there a second I'll second we have a motion and a second any discussion hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose motion carries all right we are I would next like to um motion for Council approval with gratitude 12948 a resolution um of gratitude for the 2024 Hometown holiday event volunteers as listed in the resolution I'm not going to name all of them is there a second second Motion in a second all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose motion carries and last but not least resolution 129 2409 with gratitude um a donation of Hometown holiday and this is for the specific holiday sponsors is there a second second Motion in a second all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose motion carries let's move into staff updates and let's start with Jolene thank you mayor um as you may know our next regularly scheduled Council um meeting or Workshop is on the 16th that happens to be the actual last meeting that's officially adopted on our calendar that Council considered at the beginning of the year so um at this time we have nothing on that agenda so it's looking like this may be our last gathering in this year and we would be coming back together January 13th as we seat our new Council and say thank you and share our gratitude for mayor Bane and council member husnik on the 13th of January sounds like a plan Abby um the only thing I have to say is on your agenda you had a resolution of gratitude acknowledging a ton of volunteers that came out tomt holiday but I also want to just note for the record the work that ch Newman and his crew did um helping maintain and put out the fire pits get those safely put away for the night um staff from the fire our Police Department both Julie and two officers were there that night and then Dave and all of Public Works and Kevin Warner for really helping make the park look great we really could not have done this event without um their support so I just wanted to at least acknowledge that effort well said great event thank you Abby Dave uh just just want to touch a base back uh from open Forum about the comment about flaw and the negotiations just want to put a little in context um this last year's agreement the the city had with fla was $30,000 as you recall we we credit them back $115,000 because uh football left um that $30,000 basically covers fertilization and the scheduling software so the mowing the irrigation the Iration the thatching everything else out there is done with City staff that doesn't get charged back to flaw so um not saying that we're not helping out but I I think the city is really is still putting a lot of time and effort and cost into uh Fenway complex and cooling Camp so I just wanted to comment back that it that the city is doing doing a lot out there and I think we are doing a very good part in in staff time and costs out there so that was a just my One update and just wanted to comment back on that thank you Dave Chief Peterson uh yeah we're looking forward to December 16th the 2024 shop of the cop and then also I just want to thank um all the city council members for their service uh during 2024 no updates no updates excellent um Amanda no updates are we down the line here Ryan uh mayor city council it's been asked to just uh bring out recogniz to recognize the year in review obviously this is not a comprehensive list by any means and I'm sure every department head would test to that greatly as their list could be pages long of things that they've dealt with through the year but it's good to just see some of the stuff on paper uh some of the bigger projects that have been completed that have been in the works for a very long time County State Highway 33 or everington Avenue a lot of great safety improvements there and I've already seen a lot of residents using the trail so that's always great to see that activity after a Project's been completed at that magnitude and the effort and time that took into going into that uh and then just kind of looking at a lot of the commercial and housing site improvements that occurred here some came up quickly but a lot of other great new options for residents uh here in Forest Lake so I think it's just a good list to kind of look back and reflect on on some of the things that we accomplished and some of the things that we had to really work through to get to that point um so with that being said I also just want to thank Kevin been a pleasure working with you going to miss that's uh coordination and organization that we had and some of the things that we were moving forward on just how things were documented and uh we was very nice to have that and then Council mayor Bane and council member husnik obviously we go back way back so long track record accomplished a lots wish you the best of luck in your free time what free time what free time we always say that right we always find something else to do Kevin I'm mayor B city council I just want to take uh take this time to uh say I enjoy my time at the city here as this will be my last uh city council meeting and I wish nothing but last scheduled what's that last scheduled last scheduled yes I should say should say that um but I enjoy my time at the city and wish nothing for the best for the city as you move forward thank you Kevin you we you are leaving your position in much better position much better place than I think when you came in um we had were coming out of just having a contractor in a role for a very long time and there's somebody in that seat for an interim period and um we're just sitting in much better shape so thank you for all of your work much appreciate it good luck start with Council updates and council member yeah a couple things I really do appreciate the work you've done Kevin you know coming into on the conso two years ago 10 your plan in place was huge and I know you're an instrumental part in that so appreciate that uh let make a quick comment about Friday uh's activities at the park it was incredibly looked fantastic um I had a friend stopped by my office today who had been in attendance with a couple of his grandkids and he had nothing but awesome things to say and in fact he doesn't live in Forest Lake but he says this is our adopted town because we we just do it right so that was great feedback I enjoyed thank you well done council member husnik yeah thank you I first of all I want to thank Kevin for all his years of work here past few years especially and and U I know that we're going to lose our billing inspector too uh Bob Pro but he's not here tonight but good people have always done hard work here in the city of forest lake and and uh and a thanks to uh all the folks here that worked in the office also I want to congratulate the winners of the last election Mr Robertson our new mayor and Jeff Larson sitting out he's our new council member and and Hannah uh being reelected and uh to uh thank our ban for eight years of service to this city I think I hear everybody hope so anyways so that's it thank you um council member valento I want to give an update that the cable commission we are having our last meeting for the Year this Friday starts at 4: and then we do kind of like a holiday party with food and everyone is welcome at 5: and I just want to appreciate the staff for the work for the budget since we passed that tonight um so so that is just always an accomplishment and um give appreciation and thanks for HomeTown holidays as everyone has mentioned it was a great event and it's always fun to just see where that has where that started from when I started Council to where it's going and I think it's growing and the amount of people that go there it's just it's becoming such a wonderful event and then the appreciation of Kevin um just like life said the amount of work that you put in for the 10 year bu bu plan is was instrumental and I don't think we'd be where we are and I know staff puts their hard work into the 10year budget plan and I'm just a huge fan of the 10-year budget plan I couldn't speak more about it and it it just helps us moving forward with Council goals but also Community goals and um we couldn't have gotten there without you so and good luck on your next adventure just to Echo the hometown holiday very Norman Rockwell es it was just a beautiful evening and especially to thank all the sponsors uh want to butes on the council here that had a consider amount of of effort in that so appreciate that um and Kevin thank you you know for your hard work it's I don't know how numbers guys like you guys work but thank God we we have have you guys um and so um then you know appreciation to Mayor Bane and councilman husnik I look forward to a little bit of recognition on the 13th but U thank you for your service thank you um just real quick um couple things Hometown holiday event just we knocked it out of the park if we could do that every single year it would just be wonderful um your description of a Norman Rockwell event was perfect um well done um just quick note that no one's mentioned already we do have the recycling center opening up Grand Opening next Monday um I hope you all will come and take a tour there'll be tours available um opportunity to speak um I believe um uh our commissioner Miran will be there um we'll keep comments to AIT bare minimum and we'll keep the focus on what's important which is we're opening up a great recycling facility um so great to have that on the calendar um quick moment of acknowledgement um council member husnik thank you for just your just you were on Planning Commission when we um merged with the township or Annex the township or whatever we call that thing that happened years ago um you were very involved in that were various phases yes it was not a short project um and then also your work on the airport commission and ultimately on Council for the last eight years it's just been a pleasure and thank you well done you wel um thank you to staff for all of the work that you do um we know that you are all wearing multiple hats and your grit without your grit none of this gets done and so with just really immense gratitude I'm going to get emotional and I wasn't going to um I just want to say to this Council that um I encourage you to make the hard decisions early so that you can look forward um eight years ago I ran to be able to um move Forest Lake forward and we spent a lot of time looking backwards and trying to catch up um soon after I was elected it might have been the night I was elected Susan young said to me I don't think you know the amount of work you had ahead have ahead of you um and I spent the first year um ask sitting down in Patrick's office saying what's the plan for what's the plan for what what what are we doing about what's the plan for and he finally just I'd walk into his office and he'd say God damn it there is no plan and so I just we have a plan thankfully there's a plan but when you look at what is on that plan these are it's the backlog list turned on its head and at least we've got things on a plan there's so many things we want to do in this town that we just haven't even gotten to yet and I know these budget numbers are hard it's hard to fund it but do it early so you can get to the good stuff we've got I wanted to do so much with our downtown and I still walk through our downtown I'm like gosh what an unappreciated underutilized just gem um we've got this entire Southwest Corridor that's opening up and I'm sorry I'm emotional but these were things that we need to do and we want to do but you can't do it if you don't have a plan for streets you can't do it if you don't have Public Safety fully funded and staff in place and all of the things and so I am very grateful to this community supporting um us getting to where we are but we've got a lot of work and so do it early like catch up make the hard decisions nobody spoke in our truth and Taxation hearing tonight um we probably could have gone a lot further and it takes one year to catch up we took a giant increase to streets last year we got one year of gosh does it have to be that far and then it's built into the base and you get you just get to move on and I know those words don't win elections and we all have to be elected and I have the freedom of not needing to be elected anymore but do the hard work get it done so that you can then start looking forward and doing the really fun stuff that we all want to do um and but it has to go in the right order I'm a big believer and you have to go in the right order and we have and I'm just immensely grateful we have so thank you for getting us here and my apologies for being a bit of a mess um that is the end of our planned agenda I will manage to wish you all a very very very happy holiday and nothing but the best in all of 2025 you are all in really great hands and you're going to do great work um please somebody motion to adjourn so moved second is there a second all right all those in favor sign by saying I I oppose and we are adjourned [Music]