[Music] Good evening everybody. Uh this is the Columbus City Council meeting. The date is May 28th, 2025. The time is 6 pm. Uh just for the record, I want to state who's all here for AI and we'll start with uh Brian from our engineer, JW, the public works director. All the council members are present uh our city administrator, our city assistant city administrator, and Ellie our uh planning assistant planner. Uh assistant planning. I always think you're the planner. I can't get over. But anyway, the first thing on the agenda is to say the pledge of allegiance. If everybody stand up. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. There's going to be a change tonight in the agenda. Uh item number C under C, we're going to move um the Lions Club lease up to number two after the public forum and equipment share will go drop down below that. And uh first thing on the uh agenda here is a motion. Anybody have a motion to uh approve the agenda? Uh this is Scott. I move to approve the agenda for the May 28th, 2025 city council meeting with the addition of items B4, B5, and D7 as presented by the email distribution and handouts to the council and including moving item number C3 to item number C2. Is there a second, Ron? There was there was one other thing we wanted to do too and that's move the planning commission report to right after the public forum. Okay. Right. I'm sorry. That's correct. Just for the record uh as Jack said, we're going to move the planning commission report prior. Uh well, not after public forum, but after the Lions Club. Correct, Jack? Correct. Okay. All right. We do we have a second on the motion for the adoption of the agenda? Rob, I'll second. We got a motion on the floor. Seconded. Is there any other discussion or questions? Hearing none, we'll call for a vote. Jenny, Jenny, I, Scott, I, Janet, I, Rob I, and Ron I. We'll go down to the item B. Well, we just did that. Uh, we'll go down. Yeah. Did we? No. No, we didn't do the consent agenda. No, we didn't. Uh, we'll go to the consent agenda. And um anybody like to make a motion on that? Uh so this is Janet. I would uh move to approve the consent agenda, excuse me, agenda items 1 through five um with the um minor grammatical changes that I discussed with the staff prior to the meeting on um minutes for February 26th uh 2025 and March 12th, 2025. There a second. This is Jenny. I second. We have a motion. It's been seconded. Anybody have any discussion? Any questions? Hearing none, we'll call for a vote. Jenny, Jenny, I. Scott, I. Janet I. Rob I. And Ron I. We're going to go to item C, the presentations for items for the city council actions. We're going to uh start with the public forum. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to get up and make any comments to the council? Miss sir, you want to come up and sit at the table and give your name and address? Yep. Thank you. [Music] Uh Rob Austerberg and uh Kathy Austerberg. We're uh our address is 14063 Lake Drive Northeast. Um, I would just like to thank uh Janet and Ron for coming out to our house and visiting with us Monday night, you know, and kind of going over our concerns that we presented to the planning commission a few weeks ago, you know, which was basically the hours and the noise, which kind of go hand in hand, the garbage and the lighting, the amount of traffic and you know, kind of the eyes sore with the booms in the air and containment of the equipment. Um, but I also just wanted to comment. I read through the agenda packet and I just wanted to make a few comments there. First of all, I'd like to commend whoever on the city council called the Scott County Sheriff's Office to see if there was any noise complaints on their office down there in Elco New Market. So, no, that was great. Mhm. Um, good job. But me and Kathy went down two Sundays ago and visited that site. The reason there wasn't any noise complaints, there was no residences around there, you know, anywhere near to be seen. Um, but what we did notice was a lot of boom trucks, probably probably 30 plus is what I counted up in the air. um which is kind of a concern to us as we've expressed in the past. And uh the other thing I wanted to mention I did, you know, we were talking about the noise at the planning commission and kind of the pat answer with noise with reverse beepers is that it's OSHA requirement. I did a little research on that. It didn't take very long. Um and on the backup beepers and according to the Minnesota uh Minnesota OSHA does not specifically require the use of reversing beepers on trucks. However, OSHA mandates employ that employers provide a safe work environment free from recognized hazards which may include the use of uh audible warnings such as reverse beepers. But then it also went in went on to talk about alternatives to that such as backup cameras and reverse lights etc which are acceptable and legal. So, I just wanted to bring that up. You know, I know you've got a lot on the agenda, so we're not gonna go into any of this any details on anything more to kind of discuss that. So, yeah, we just wanted to stop and again thank, you know, thank the council for reaching out and just making sure that the rest of the council knows that this is, you know, we are really close to this bu business. And when when we went out there, first of all, you had to drive a long way to even get there. was very very out in the middle of nowhere. The only I'm going to correct one thing there there there are residents there. It's a cemetery. So there there are no houses nowhere even close to it. So we're very concerned with the noise outside of the the 7 to 5:00 that they're in. you know, they've they've mentioned that if they have to have pickup, you know, of some of the equipment, it could be as early as 4:00 a.m., and that's just not acceptable. And the one other thing I want to mention, then we'll let you guys go on. I know you've got a lot on your plate tonight. Um, I read through the agenda packet, like I said, and I know, uh, Michael Schmidt had sent in a letter on the 23rd talking about how they were going to kind of lay their equipment, how they kind of stage that. Um, to me, after reading that, it's basically leaving it open to where they can put any of this equipment anywhere in their yard. And our biggest concern is looking out our front picture window. I don't want to see a bunch of boom trucks sticking up in front. And like we discussed, Ron and Janet with you guys, there's plenty of space in that uh salt enclosure right directly behind the building for the stuff that's going to be above the fence, you know. And I guess that's our ask is to drill down more on that cuz I reading that I thought it was very vague and open to anything, you know. So, okay. I think that's all we have. Well, thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Can Can we ask questions, Mayor? Uh, we're going to be talking. It's all right. Later. Very good. And we'll stay. Yeah. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Anyone else out in the audience want to step up? Seeing nobody, anybody online that would like to uh make a statement or comment to the council? Hearing none, we'll go on to the next item under C. Like I said, we switched this around tonight. So, the next item will be the Lions Club lease. Nope. Yeah, Lions Club lease. So, uh Gina, you want to come up? Sit at the Give your name, Gina. And oh, I'm Gina Shervin with the Columbus Lions. Richard Howard from treasur for Columbus Lions. Okay. Jack, you want to take it over? Yeah. I'll give a little report here and I've discussed some of this stuff already with Gina and Dick, but at the May 6, 2025 city council workshop meeting, council discussed a request from the Lions Club for an extension of their lease space in the public works building for meeting room facilities and storage space. Current lease expires October 31st, 2025 and is for two separate spaces totaling approximately 1,53 square ft. The outline of this is exhibited in attachment one of your packet. In November 2024, the city with approval of the lines reduced the lease space by approximately 200 square ft in the cold storage area to create an office for the ina county deputies. With the decrease in rental space, the city reduced the lease amount from $1,48 to $1,253 for the fifth and last year of the agreement. As a result of the renewal discussion, council requested that staff provide additional information as to the methodology for the determination of the initial rate set for the 2021 2025 lease, the justification for the inflationary increase per year, and the rationale for the proposed annual rental rates. Staff reviewed the records that are available for the rental calculations for the 2021 2025 lease. There was little information relating to the matter in which the initial rental fee was determined. The worksheet numbers which are included in attachment three of your packet do not match the rents on the current lease agreement. Based on the information on file, the 2021 rental rate of $1,250 has no correlation with the worksheet numbers exhibit in attachment three. Staff could find no explanation as to the reasoning for the rental rates established for the current lease. As for the basis of the selection of 3% as an annual inflationary adjustment, the following factors were considered. Uh Centerpoints gas prices increase could range from 2.4 to 3.75% for 2025. They did submit a request to the public utilities commission for a 2.9 to 5.4% increase. Uh the Nexus Energy 2025 budget includes a general rate increase of approximately 3% after holding their rates flat for several years. Building maintenance costs are very unpredictable and a 3% increase on these products and services is a conservative estimate at this point and as far as insurance we do not have any of our quotes yet for 2025. Rent costs are subject to many unforeseen variables that are beyond the control of the landlord and the renter. The impacts of these fluctuations make it complicated to assign a precise break even cost for rent that is equitable to both parties. The city's goal in this process is not to make a profit, but to ensure the city costs are covered and the rental chart is charges and reasonable variances for the renter. Staff is proposing that the city renew the lease to the space exhibiting attachment one containing 1,53 square feet to the Columbus lines at a rent of $1,200 for the November 1st, 2025 to October 31st, 2026. And this amount increased annually at the rate of 3% until the lease would expire on October 31st, 2030. At this time, no other changes to the lease have been requested by the lines. The proposed rent for 2026 is $53 less than the current payment. And even with a 3% annual increase over the 5-year term of the lease, the 2030 payment would only be $102 more than the current 2025 expense. So that's where we're coming up with this number. And at this time, staff would request that that be approved as the lease agreement for the cost of the space with the Lions Club. Thank you, Jack. Is there anybody on a council has a comment or question? So, this is Janet. Um, I have a couple. Uh, first of all, I went back um because I remember when we discussed this and actually in the minutes they explained how they got to that number, which was Elizabeth saying, I think we need to go 10% higher than what the last year's rent was. And that's how they did it. And it was actually during the attorney's report. So, I'm assuming you guys had something to do with that. So all that all those figures that you had provided us which I think were interesting I think that that was setting the stage for the the 5-year lease prior to that and then when that ended they increased it by 10% and with a 3% inflation. Um my question is how often how often do you use that space? I mean you're not there every day correct? We're not there every day. We have official meetings twice a month. Okay. Um but we use it for other like this weekend we have softball tournaments so we are there from last night until Sunday every day doing things. Um Fall Fest, you know, we're there for Yeah. But but it's the reason I'm asking is because some of the utility stuff I mean if you're not there I think putting it out there that we do a 3% increase seems more than we should because you I mean electric you have to be there. turn on the lights, use things to create an expense there. And if you're only there two days a month typically, unless there's an event, then I think that might be excessive. And we did take that into partial consideration. Like I says, it's not a precise science. Uh we did take the utility cost, and if you base it on square feet, they occupy 6% of the building, but for the gas and the electrical cost, we reduce that to 3% in figuring the averages out. No, I I I I I followed how you came up with it. I just think that if you're only occupying the space and using it two days a month on average, three days maybe if you include the events, you're not you're not utilizing the utilities like the rest of the building is being utilized where people are there six five six days a week, 8 to 10 hours a day. So, um I think the number that you arrived at to to start off with seems right. Um, I just think that instead of a 3% I'd go with a 2% inflation. That would be my recommendation. You're saying drop it from 3% to 2%. Correct. Right. Like Jack said, it's a hard number to No, I know. figure out. Uh like I said, we I think in our workshop or the last meeting we had, we we didn't want to make money on this deal. Just want to break even. So, and and then you know there's other ways to do it too. Even if you want to reduce it to there, you know, we can take a look at it each year and if we're going too high or too low, we can always readjust that. Could you put this is Rob? Could you put some sort of language about, you know, not to not to exceed 3%. If it's lower, we could assume that it's lower, right? But we wouldn't we wouldn't go higher than what we've set forth here in this kind of to accommodate what you're saying. Yeah. And I get where you're coming from though. Like there there's two there's two ways to look at this. Number one, I think what we're doing is essentially justifying the use of this space to the public for a non-public use. But the other thing way to look at it is if the lines weren't there, we wouldn't be getting anything for it. So there's a number of ways we can do this and either one of them is probably fair. Are we charging Anoka County for the space they're they're utilizing? We are not. We can charge them, but they'll back charge us on the contract when they I know. I figured that. Yeah. Um, so, you know, the other part that I wasn't quite sure is when it when it uh came to the maintenance of the building, how that might affect the space that they're in because I don't know I don't know what constituted the costs of those maintenance things. if they were, you know, things that don't really improve their space but had to be done or if they were repairs and and we don't have to get into that. I just I just think that I I'll just give you a quick overview. The way we kind of looked at that is the building maintenance costs are going to be really reflective like say on the HVAC equipment, the well, the water and sewer, anything that affects the whole building and uh they would benefit from that. So again, you know, there's a number of ways to cut that and try to get it more precise, but it's going to take a lot of work. And I think whatever we come up with is going to be a reasonable amount and a better way to do this than trying to nail it down to the penny. Well, I like your idea. I mean, we could say that we start at 2% and you can review what the real costs are and have a not to exceed of 3%. Everybody, are you making a motion? No, I'm just looking for a reaction. Yeah, this is Scott. I I mean, utilities are utilities. You got to heat and cool the place whether you're there or not. So, I think whether it's occupied or not, you still got to pay utilities. But I agree that, you know, 2% may be the the starting point. I don't disagree with you on that. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's that's true, but it's not true of all utilities. I mean, if you're not there, yes, you have to heat it, but and there's a fan on a blower that might blow the warm air or the cool air through, but you're not turning on on and off lights, and you're certainly not using things like, you know, garage door openers and whatever else uses electricity out in your neck of the woods. So, yeah. So, then I can make the motion if you'd like. Everybody's ready. Unless there's any uh Jenny, you have anything? No, I I think 2% seems fair. Again, we're not trying to make money off of the lines and we appreciate your everything you do for the city as well. Mhm. Yeah. So then I would say um I I Janet move to approve the extension of the Lions Club lease um of space in the city public works building um as exhibited in attachment one of the staff report for this item for an additional 5-year turn at an annual rate of $1,200 for the first year and increasing 2% per year for the remainder of the lease with a not to exceed inflationary value of 3% depending on um utility rates and maintenance etc. This is Rob. I'll second. We got a motion on the floor and it's been seconded. Uh, any other discussion or questions? Hearing none, we'll start take a vote. Rob, Rob I. Janet, I. Scott, I. Jenny, I and Ron I. So, the motion passes unanimously. And we'll move on to the next item. Thank you, Jenn. Thank you, Lauren. Thank you, Richard. We appreciate it. We appreciate you. Yes, we do. Uh I said earlier that the agenda was going to be changed tonight and what we're going to do now is we're going to go to the um report from the planning commission from last week. Uh Janet was the liaison there and she will go over that and after that we will go to the equipment chair PUD CUP. So so I don't my report's pretty short and sweet and it really kind of does lead into the equipment share. So, I think that this was a good call to uh to move things around. So, the planning commission um as you know because we passed it in our consent agenda elected a new chair and that was Robin Wood. Um and a new vice chair which is Susan Bosch. Um so that is those are the two new officers. Um Robin's been on the planning commission for he was um placed there in September of 2023. So he's coming up on two years. though he's well experienced and I think they were excited to take on on those new roles. There was also a public hearing on the Northwest Quad um uh for the preliminary and final plat and there was no comments on that and there was really not any discussion and they passed that and now is that going to come back to us Elanor or does that just stop with the planning commission? Yeah, so since it has a public hearing it does have to go back to the planning commission for a discussion. Okay. Yeah, I was a little confused because they approved it and then I thought they I thought well I wrote that down in my notes. Maybe I wrote them down wrong. Yeah, I think they passed a motion to continue discussion next week. Got it. Okay. So, we'll be seeing that coming forward, but that's city that's city property. So, Ellaner was the one that was in the hot seat for that and did a fine job. Um and then the most of the time um was spent talking about the equipment share cuppud. there wasn't um a a lot of discussion although they were concerned as well about the noise and one of the suggestions that was brought forth to them um by uh Miss Han was to request a noise study um after they've been on the property for 6 months and then if the noise from the backup beepers and moving things around exceeds what the federal um standards are then um we'd have to take some action at that point and just for the record, could you maybe explain what those standards are just so because I think that's going to guide some of our discussion going forward here tonight. Uh, absolutely. So, the federal and state um pollution control agencies set forth uh noise pollution um standards that are based on the distances from different types of uses. So, um this would be primarily based on the distance from the uh legal non-conforming residences that we're conf concerned about. Um, for this area, I believe that the maximum decimal limit for daytime use, which the standard is from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., is 60 dB. And that's measured as an average over an hour. Um, and then during nighttime use, it would be 50 dB. Um, also averaged out over an hour. And that's just what the what the um state guidelines for noise control are. Okay. Thank you. So I think um they did approve the cuppud with the addition of that um that condition. And now we get to talk about it. And so I'm done with my planning commission report. We want to talk about this. I have plenty more to say on on the topic. Okay. Now done with that, we're going on to item the equipment share PUB and as Janet said the uh you read in your reports here what the planning commission's recommendations are and they put a few conditions in here. I uh just uh state a few things here in the beginning. Uh me and Janet did stop out there. Memorial Day Monday night uh and talked with uh the Austerbergs about uh their concerns and uh looking at the property I think there's a lot that uh one of them is the lights uh the neighbor even next door to the Austerbergs James Hog is that how you pronounce his name? He uh he has lights that shine into his uh bedroom all night from the place, but I'm sure you could that uh you could resolve that by just shrouding them down or turning them off in the back area or something like that and looking at it. I also think that the 10-ft fences that they have there are all made out of metal. Uh, and it really creates an echo chamber in there, but that was empty when we were there. So, don't know what it's going to cause when it fills up. And, you know, Jack, I I I know sometimes we can open it up to a comment from the or Megan, we can open up to a comment from the uh applicant for a question. Absolutely. the um in particular, you can open up this matter to be heard by the applicant um and not uh and not take additional public comment should you so choose. Okay. I I just have one question and maybe maybe Rob knows that. Do these big lifts is are they required to be up all the time? Who can answer that? I can answer that for you. Could you give your name and Yeah, my name is Michael Schmidt. Uh I live in Wisconsin. My address is W308S8845 Woodland Drive in Maguano. Uh so the reason the lifts are up in the air is twofold. One, it's for safety and security. Um you know, if somebody were to climb the fence, get in the yard somehow, having them boomed up keeps them from being able to get into the basket and cause harm or danger to themselves. Um, well, honestly, there's really just that's that's really the biggest reason to be honest with you. Um, and and beyond that, it's also just the idea that when we have them boommed up, we're able to create more space. Um, some of those booms that we have can extend out to say 135, 150 ft. Um, the initial section is maybe 30 or 40 ft long. If we lay that down, um, one, we create a situation where somebody could run into it, and two, it obviously takes up extra yard space where sometimes, and it's probably seen in our Lakeville location, we'll back these in right up to each other. Um, so that we can stack them more or less so we can have two or three of them in line. Jack, do you want to show that picture I emailed to you because I think that might be helpful. Um, so people get a sense of what this looks like when you've got 30 of them up. So, and this is Rob. And while we're waiting, I I think it's more like uh like uh Mike's saying, it's more just to get get it out of the way. I don't think they have to be up as far as a security standpoint. You can still control that from the ground. There's a panel on the side where you can turn the power on and put the boom up and down from the ground. So, as far as a security standpoint, if they got a universal key, they're still going to be able to get into that boom. So, it's kind of a to me, it's more of a keeping things up in the air. When we be on construction sites, we put them up for the for the sake of we were leaving stuff in the basket that we didn't want to get stolen or something of that nature. So, well, there's no way to lower them in an emergency without power or you'd have I believe you'd have to turn the key on, Mike. Is that correct? That and maybe there's a release valve on the hydraulics, but yeah, I was going to say most of the units you'd have to turn them on, but there is a relief valve uh in the hydraulic pump if you had to. You could certainly bring it down in an emergency situation. Yeah, a little more cumbersome, but Yeah. And this is Scott Mike, a question for you. Uh, do you have a corporate policy or procedure that requires you to keep them up or is that just best practice on a local level? It's best practice. Um, and again, it also allows us to uh efficiently use our yard space. If we were to lay them all down, suddenly we're going to need twice as much yard space as we had before. Um, they obviously, like I said, they take up a lot of space when you have that boom straight out um or stowed down. So, it's uh you know, the base of a unit might be 12 feet, 14 ft. Uh with the boom down, you're talking probably closer to 60 ft, 50 ft somewhere in there. Sorry, about 45 to 50 ft to be realistic. Um so obviously it it changes our storage capacity quite a bit to have that down. Can I ask a question on that too? Yeah. So Mike, this is Janet. um on the off season, say January, I imagine there's not a lot of um people renting those. Do you put them down then or are they up all the time no matter what the season is? Well, during that time, obviously, we we're honestly we're going to have more in our yard at that time. So, we need to maximize our ability to use the ground space. So, they're up even in the winter time. Correct. Yes. So, this is a picture that the Austerbergs um shared with me of their site in Lake Lake View. So, this is what I don't want us to have visible from Lake Drive. So, this is what I'm hoping we don't see as people are driving down Lake Drive because that's a lot of them and it looks really terrible. Mike, do they have to be totally all the way up? No, they don't. They don't have to be all the way up. It's again um you know a way to maximize our real estate that we've got. What's the lowest they can be? I guess what I'm saying without being them down having them down. I'm looking at some of those and some of them got the piston sticking out a ways. Is it just up in the air and that's that? Um no. I mean it's variable how we have them set. Um and and obviously in in the Lakeville location there aren't any concerns of this. So they're able to just boom them up to whatever extent they need. Um we can certainly do what we can to bring them down a little bit, but no matter what we do, we're going to be over the 10t fence. Um I mean the unit itself, the back of some of those units off the top of my head, I want to say are probably already around 8 or 9 ft high at least. Um so you know, if we have a 10ft fence around that building, which is what it sounds like we have, um we're going to be above the fence line. how far it's going to depend on how many units we need to stack. But to the conversation of the layout of the yard that I mentioned in the email that I had sent uh late last week or early this late late last week, it's all blurred together with the holiday. I apologize. Um, we have, like I mentioned, we have a flow based on how we keep things efficient. And really with the concern of the sound, we're trying to keep the equipment that's going to be going out the following day or the next day. We want to keep that as far forward to the fence as possible in the front of the yard. Um, and let our trucks stage up there. That will keep noise down for the Austerbergs um, to the best of our ability. I did some measurements on Google Earth. It's 560 ft approximately from the front of that or from that fence in the front of our yard to their approximate front door. It was hard to see where their front door was on on Google Earth, but I did my best. Um, and running some calculations on sound um to touch base on that real quick. The loudest thing that we have um it's going to vary from from brand of machine to other brands, but the loudest according to my technicians and people I've talked to in my company is about 90 dB and that's just the backup siren is all that is. It has to be louder than the engine and that is actually an OSHA requirement. I'm not sure, Rob, where where your information was coming from. I know trucks are probably different. Uh pickup trucks, I noticed when you had mentioned that uh it did mention trucks. This is equipment and obviously when it goes onto a construction site, not just anywhere in general, uh it is required. I was actually looking it up while uh the other discussions were going on. But our loudest measurement is 90 dB. Um that again is the siren. Some of them are adjustable on some of the brands. I learned of that just last week. So we certainly can adjust those down on the brands that do allow that to help. Um, but with 90 dB and looking at a decibel rating chart that actually I have pulled up here on my computer right now, 95 dB at 1 meter away at 420 ft away, 128 m. 420 ft away, it's down to 53 dB, which means that's a 95 dB. It means at 90 dB, we're going to be below 50 dB with our backup sirens at well over 420 ft. Um, so not to sidetrack everything, but it all kind of goes together, but that's why we want to stage the equipment that's going to be going out the next day as far forward as possible to be as neighborly as we can in this situation. Um, the equipment that's going to be near the back of the yard, maybe equipment that just isn't as popular, doesn't go out as often. Um, really once we get the equipment in, we can start to see where we can lay things out um better. But we do have the four different stages of equipment that we attempt to um locate in different parts of the yard to keep our efficiency going. You know, obviously we drive more revenue um the more efficient we are. Our idea is that we want to get three truckloads a day per truck if possible. Um without being efficient, typically we would run two. This is Jenny. Hi Mike. One question for you. Can you talk about the frequency or how often you have vehicles and what kinds of vehicles coming in and out? Let's say on your maybe one of your busier weeks or busier days. Um, so you know, there's going to be some, um, contractors that come in with their pickup trucks, trailers, uh, maybe even some of their own delivery trucks that come in and pick up equipment, but most of the time it's going to be our trucks, which will be pickup trucks for management and sales, our service trucks for our service team, which are um, typically F450 or F550 size units. Uh, and then our delivery trucks. Uh, as far as frequency goes, uh, it boy, it it's hard to say. Um, I want I'm trying to think of one of our locations. So, Milwaukee, we have a location. Uh, we run five drivers, five trucks out of that on a daily basis. Those trucks all make two to three runs each. And then we typically have, uh, I would say three three to five other trucks that probably come through throughout the day to pick up equipment randomly. Okay. I think this is Jenny again. I think one of my major concerns is that unfortunately you do have residents living very close to you. And so I think the frequency for me is also kind of a challenge. Um and so I don't know how the rest of the council feels about that. But I think in, you know, being respectful to the residents that do live very near to the business, not only the volume of equipment, but the frequency of the vehicles coming in and out may be a disturbance to the neighbors that are obviously living in and near you. Uh Mike, I have a question. These uh bigger trucks, are they flatbeds? Tractor trailers? Yes. Yeah. Uh low boys and beaver tales are what we typically run. flat beds when you pull you're looking at the lot when you pull that in. Uh it's kind of tight in there a little, isn't it? Uh um not in that yard. I mean, we have we have a much smaller yard. Honestly, my Milwaukee yard is tiny and compared to what's there in in Columbus. Um you know, we run 2 and 1/2 acres in Milwaukee and the building is smack dab in the middle of a lot. And we run, like I said, we'll have five or six trucks in that yard at a time uh during the heyday. you know, first thing in the morning, maybe we have a customer show up early, wants to get something, and our guys are still loading up equipment at that point. Um, so with the yard in Columbus being much larger, it should not be much of an issue like that. So the I just want I know we just keep rattling these questions off but so the when you start staging and reading your literature and what I heard the planning commission so stuff you're not using is going to be to the far east up against Bowers potentially. It doesn't necessarily have to go that way. Uh we could certainly put it to the southeast by the building there. Um, you know, again, it's I was only there in August and I have the couple of pictures from the flyer of the building that we had. So, I'm trying to do this all off of memory. Um, you know, looking at Google Maps a little bit, too, obviously has been a little bit of a help, but not necessarily. And and even, you know, we're trying to be as neighborly as possible in this. I'll be honest with you, the discussions have already happened that obviously that road that we share, we will be clearing the snow on. If there's any issues with um, you know, the road getting, you know, tore up a little bit from us using it because of our utilization, we are obviously and and honestly going to be the ones that are going to be taking care of that. So, those are things that we've already um talked about making sure that, you know, we're going to do what we can to be as neighborly as possible. And as far as the storage of the equipment goes in the back of the yard, um you know, I would much rather put shorter equipment back there myself if if at all possible. And I think it will be mostly possible be able to do that. Um things that are ready to go, but maybe don't have an order yet. Um you know, if if we can put it back there and it's not going to be seen uh because of the fence, then great. Yeah, that's a much better picture than I have. For some reason, I can't find one with the fence on it. So yeah. Um so again that that front that front fence area is where we would like to stage our our ready to go out equipment trying to keep it as far as possible from from the Oyster BS. And then with that back fence, it doesn't necessarily mean we have to put boom lifts back there. We could honestly tuck boom lifts there uh where all those trucks are to the I believe that's southeast right next to the building. Uh there was another concern about dust. Do you think there'd be a lot of driving around in uh the that class 5 area? Um so I think we're going to be driving equipment on that dirt obviously to park it and bring it back out uh if it's going to go out on rent, but most of the work is going to be probably done on the concrete pad. So I would think that dust is going to be fairly minimal. Well, to be honest with you, oddly enough, we rent uh sweepers, so we would be able to stay on top of the dust that's on the concrete and help keep the dust down, kind of mitigate that a little bit. Uh Rob, you got a Yeah. Uh thanks, Ron. Uh questions for Mike. Um I just got a I got a couple here. So, in relation to the to the alarms and the noise, I know there's an alternative uh called white noise alarms, and we I believe I talked about it in our workshop, um which was just us here as council. Do some of your machines have those? It's more like a squashing squashing sound, less less abrasive, and you're seeing like, you know, ready mix trucks swings things of that nature. Is that something that is able to be adjusted to or they have not switched to those yet? um at least to the best of my knowledge and if they have we have not received any of those to the best of my knowledge at this point but I know the sound you're talking about every time my Amazon guy shows up I think his backup beeper is broken but it's just a new sound okay thanks um and then uh mayor had brought up about um possible dust issues and things of that nature is there availability to maybe spray that once a summer with calcium chloride to keep the dust down or something of that nature or maybe spraying it with water I'm sure you'll have a water truck there in the dusting season. Yep, I was going to mention we do rent water trucks as well. So, yeah, whether it's the chloride or water, we absolutely will find ways to keep that dust down. It's and honestly, it's a safety issue for our people. You know, that dust flying around, uh, you know, we've had safety incidents throughout the company at times where dust just gets in the eyes. It'll even get around the safety glasses. So, that's that's even a concern for our own people. Yeah. And I would like to see move in there. Just kind of want to mitigate some of the concerns that the residents have. Right. I think I think it's a much better option than what we had there before. The last people they they were possibly going to be doing some grinding noise with trees. Then the next one there was garbage issues and things like that. So I think there's less refuse or garbage with this and packing containers and things of that nature. Um I was recently approached by a highway heavy contractor that was interested in coming there and do pile driving training and I told them that that would be a no-go, right? There's residents there. Granted, they're at this point legal non-conforming. That's just nothing we want to do with our with residents nearby that are still going to reside there for a while. So, I I like the idea, but just mitigating the the noise concerns and and dust concerns for the residents. So, absolutely. And and to the to speak to the trash, you know, I I make sure that my my general managers are going around their yards and cleaning them up at least once a month, you know, like I don't like to see it out there. It doesn't it's not a good look for us. So, if we do happen to have loose trash, whether it blew in from outside the fence or it came out of our own dumpsters, then, you know, we certainly will go around and make sure that we're picking things up, and we will get outside the fence perimeter there, uh, specifically because we do have these neighbors that we're going to make sure that we're picking up the trash that may get out, but you're correct. Most of our garbage is larger. It's pieces of machinery that are, you know, no longer good to us and are getting thrown out or what have you. Thank you. Um, this is Janet. I have a couple more questions. Um, the dumpster that you plan to use, is that a rolloff dumpster or is it going to be like a dumpster that has a cover on it? No, they usually have covers on it. We might have a roll-off dumpster once in a while if for some reason we have and it it won't happen here. Um, but we have had some locations that were uh acquired, so we had to get rid of uh a bunch of garbage um things that we weren't going to use after the acquisition, but typically they're going to be covered. So I think I think that will solve the problem. I mean the I think the problem existed in the past because there's about I don't know somewhere between 8 and a 10 in gap from the ground to where the fence is and so stuff blew underneath there and blew all over the place because they just used rolloff dumpsters. So if you have a dumpster that has a cover on it, I don't think you're going to have a problem. And that actually would be something I'd like us to I mean I don't care if you have a rolloff dumpster too, but I would like to have it in the conditions that there's a cover on the dumpster, especially since there's not a a enclosure. Um, the other question I have is there evidently is some sort of weird alarm system that's on that building right now and when it goes off it's a it's like a voice conversation and I know that it's not yours. It's like a remnant, but can you give us some assurance that you'll get rid of it cuz it's really spooky? I don't think we want it either to be honest. No, I don't think you do. But if we could put that somehow. It is really weird. And in fact, I will second as we talked near the fence, you could hear our voices echoing back to us. So, I mean, just a normal conversation, you could hear because everything is metal there and it's all sort of just and and maybe it'll be different once it's filled up with equipment and stuff, but that would be really helpful because um that's that kind of freak is freaking people out. Um, in terms of the lights, I went by at 10 o'clock at night on on Tuesday and it was like Close Encounters of the Third Kind lit up and I think I think the lights look like they're downward facing, but all the surface is white there. You know, you got the white concrete, you got the white of the fence, you got the bu the glass, and it just like glows way over the fence. And in Mr. Hog's case, he's up higher um on higher ground. So, I do think I mean we we need to get a light meter out there and and check that. But the question came up as we were chatting the other night is well what if if if those are security lights, what if they were on a motion detector so that they only go on if there's motion and then that would make a big difference for the residents that are nearby. I don't know if that's anything you might consider. Yeah, we can certainly consider it. The shrouds will get put on. Um that's been discussed already, so that will get handled. Um, we could look at the idea of motion sensing. I guess my thought is, and the question again, I haven't seen this property since August, is are there lights along that northern border that are facing in? So, I guess my thought is is if we could leave those lights on that are facing away from the residency and have the other ones on motion that if, you know, we did have movement, we needed to pick it up. I mean, that that it's a possibility. There's no doubt about it. Again, we're we're trying to be as neighborly as possible in this by all. So, I think I know it seems like there's lights all the way around the building. Um, and I think um those ones that would be on the northerly side are the ones that are probably shining into James's house. Yeah, cuz he's he's to the north of where the Austerbergs are and up a little bit higher. Um, I know shrouds are part of the conditional use permit and that's that's already been documented that we're going to take care of that. We're also going to take care of the dead trees. That's all been discussed internally here. So, okay. There's also a hole in the fence that's alongside of the um property to the north. Uh I can't think of her name now. Copeland. Copeland property. You guys didn't do it, but there just letting you know there's a hole that got punched in the metal fence. You might want to fix that, too. Looks kind of bad. Yeah. Um, so my question really to get to the to the heart of the matter is, is it possible to restrict loading before 7:00? Like you can't load these trucks until 7? You you state your hours of operation are like 7 to 5, but if you really start working at 4 or 5 in the morning, then that's really your hours of operation because that's when the nuisance factor comes into effect. and I I just I just want to hear whether or not that's incompatible with business for you. So, what we're trying to do, what we've discussed, and what other locations are doing, some of my some of my locations are successful, some are not, but I think this one will be. Um, and the reason some are not is honestly it's just a staffing issue. It's how people are working internally. But I think for the most part, we should be able to load at night. we should be able to have the schedule set up enough that we can preload the night before and then in the morning it's a matter of coming in getting the trucks and and heading out. So to answer your question, for the most part, I think we should be able to not load early early in the morning by all means. I mean, we're certainly trying not to break this noise ordinance by any means. Um, you know, it's going to come down to whether or not we get like a last minute order. Somebody we get calls, I mean, there's times we get calls at 7 8:00 at night. Hey, is there any chance you can get this out? you know, obviously by then everybody's gone and home. So, in those situations, we're going to be doing what we can to try to take care of our customer, but also still try to be neighborly in this sense. So, I'm thinking like if you got that call at 7 or 8 at night, the answer could be hopefully yes, we'll get that for you in the morning, but we won't be able to get it loaded up until 7:00. Right. Right. No, absolutely. Okay. Um, let me see if I had any other thing I any other things I wrote down here. Well, I just had a question um about from your narrative. Do you only repair your own equipment or are you repairing other other companies equipment at this site? We can do both. Um I right now in my district um I don't have anybody repairing outside equipment because we can't seem to keep up with our own. So, we absolutely would uh if customers requested it and we were able to. we had the capacity, but most of the time we just don't have the capacity cuz we're too busy fixing our own stuff. Okay. And then the other question I had is I know that you've been really clear that you don't intend to have your trucks um idling on that shared driveway. Um I'm wondering if we there can be signs placed so if there are customers that are picking up things that they also know, you know, right now there's a semi being loaded up that they can't sit in that driveway cuz it blocks it. And that would be, I think, helpful for the people that don't work for you. Sure. Okay. We can get some signage out there and we'll have to do something beyond no parking. It'll almost be a no standing zone because people are going to, oh, I'm just idling. It's okay. So, we'll make sure the verbiage is right and we'll get some signage up out there. That's not an issue. Okay. Um, so what I would be looking for is conditions written to reflect those kinds of things. And I don't know if it makes sense to wait to do a final approval to see that or how how you guys want to move forward. I have a few questions yet. Oh, go before we get uh number. Do you kind of slow down in the winter like a concrete, do you? I mean, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Most people don't want to be up in a boom lift in the middle of December in Minnesota, I don't think. So, so your operations, you may be hauling out two or three drivers, driving, delivering this stuff, but when winter comes, you knock it down to maybe one truck or how does it No, we still we still do what we can to I mean, we our goal is to stay busy all year obviously, but we will slow down. But I don't I don't know of any location and I've been in and out of this industry since 2012. I don't know. I've never laid anybody off during the winter time or gotten to the point where we, you know, we might have a couple of days where a particular driver or drivers aren't working because we just don't have the work. But, um, I would say over a week span, they're still all going to get hours one way or the other. So, there's still going to be, um, you know, a few trucks running each day. Okay. I do have one other question. Sorry. Um, it has to do with the fuel tank. So I know you're planning to keep that and really this this question is more for Ellanar. So in one of the conditions it says there'll be no chemicals, odors, gases, hazardous waste or fumes on the property resulting from its use other than normal emissions. But I think the fuel tank would be contradictory to that statement. And so I just think we have to amend that statement to you know kind of like what we did for um yes like uh it was for the man caves where fuels and things that are of normal use for that kind of business are okay. Mr. Mayor, um this is assistant city administrator Aaron Bberg. Mike, I do have a question for you. Is your sale uh or your purchase of this property pending city approval? So, as if you're closing tomorrow, you need an answer whether the city's going to approve your use or not or you can't close tomorrow, right? Yeah, we're closing on Monday. So, it may be relevant to hammer out the conditions tonight so that they have an indication on whether they can move forward with the transaction or not to be able to move in. Good. Good. Good call. I I have one real quick question again. Mike, you use the word night, loading up at night. What's night to you if you close it before we close before our hours are up? So, um I would say typically at the houses that I that I'm in charge of right now, my drivers are done for the day around 3 or 4:00. So, they would load up their next day before they leave for the day. So, they would still probably be out by 5:00, if not sooner. Mr. Mayor has some questions if I may. Um, yeah, Mike, uh, a couple questions for you. Do you have, uh, a corporate safety manager or regional safety manager that you can bounce things off? Yes. Okay. Then I might suggest that you look up OSHA standard 29 CFR 1926.601 and 602. That's relevant to the backup alarms. The key word there is obstructed view. So that which would give you guidance on on that. That's federal OSHA. I know the Obergs mentioned minosha, but you are also under federal OSHA and you might find some some answers there about your backup alarms. Um I do know that it's not decibel. It just has to sound different and be distinguished. So it doesn't necessarily have to be loud. It's just got to be recognized as a backup alarm. And there are c certain conditions that you may not have to have one. So obviously I don't want to give you legal advice. It does have to be louder than the equipment. That's the only I think that's the one ocean requirement. It has to be louder than the equipment it's on. Yeah. I'll let you deal with your your safety manager on that, but that might give you uh uh some direction there that maybe you haven't considered. Um and then the the fuel tank, is that an above ground fuel tank? Yep. Okay. So, we're regulated by uh the state on the above ground fuel tank, too. Okay. Uh and then a question for the Osterbergs. Would that be appropriate if if I can? Sure. Okay. Um when you've had noise complaints, I was able to watch the uh planning commission meeting uh video. When you've had noise complaints in the past with the previous occupants, have you called and made noise complaints to the sheriff's department if it was outside the hours by state law and city code? No. Okay. Have you thought about that if somebody's starting work before 7 to call? We certainly will now. Okay. We did um talk directly with the owner. Sure. On on a couple occasions. um one regarding that alarm. Um that's so funky and then um when people came in after. So we we our first attempt was to talk to the owner, but then we have not we did not take it any further than that. Okay. Um, yeah, that's that's something in the future. You know, if if there's a legitimate noise complaint or maybe it's not legitimate, but you need to find out, that might be something that's, you know, call the sheriff's non-emergency number for a response. It is, uh, state code and it is, uh, city code uh, as well, too. So, that's an option. Um, I know you checked with Scott County. A question for staff. I know you checked with Scaff County and I you you're looking at me so you know I'm going to ask. Did we check about any noise complaints about the previous occupants in Columbus at that same location? Um we did not actually um for the sheriff's department in general and I mostly checked in with Sean uh our code compliance inspector who had been working with the previous uh businesses regarding those noise complaints and trash complaints. Um, and there hadn't been any um, in the last 6 or 7 months of them occupying that space, but Okay. And then a follow-up question for you, Ellie. Uh, would this be appropriate then for for the Austerbergs and other people to call code enforcement, too, or would this be a a law enforcement call? 100% be code enforcement, especially since it's laid out in their CUP. um so clearly regarding those noise complaints. Uh sometimes the sheriffs are busy handling um some more um timesensitive or intense situations. Um and Sean, our code compliance inspector can uh certainly be you'd get get a better response in in in these cases like this. If it were after hours, definitely call the sheriff's department because they're the enforcement arm of this issue of code. uh during business hours, they can definitely call here and we can forward the complaint on to the sheriff's department and and Okay. And Mike, so you understand, you know, if if if it does uh come to it, you know, that that's an alternative that the residents have, but I I believe you're trying to be a good neighbor here and and that it won't come to that. And and and again, if there are issues, I think the first step would be go directly to the owner and if that doesn't work, then that's the second alternative and option. And just for the record, it was asked, I believe in the email that Eleanor sent over, uh, we have not had any noise violations at any of our locations throughout the country. And that's currently it's 300 locations. So, just so everybody's aware, we um I did some digging into that through the corporate uh through our corporation and we have not had any noise complaints in any of our locations. So, Okay, good. Yeah. And and like you said, Jack, I I think that you know, owner to resident resolving these issues is best, but if push comes to, you know, there are other alternatives. So, okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Any other uh comments? But yeah, and I guess this would be for Eleanor. Do we know of any and you probably haven't had time to look into it or anything like that, but any complaints that have came from the lift store down the road at City View Electric? I think it's called Want to Lift. I mean, they're they're running just like this place here. they're running them same trucks in and out. Uh yes. So I haven't uh checked formally on Monolith um with the sheriff's or with our code compliance inspector. However, that CUP for those boom lifts that uh was approved I think just five or six years ago and it is in the same zoning district. Um and um I do think that that's a good point to bring up regarding that. Yeah. I I mean I personally haven't heard any is anyone else on the council currently. There's residents right up against that as well. Yes. We actually wondered if that was I didn't know that that was part of their approved business. Yes. I was wondering. So City View Electric came back for a CUP amendment regarding that want to lift facility. Um I think off the top of my head it was either it was 2018 18 through 2020. um don't have the exact year. I think it was 2019 that they came back to get that COP amendment. I bet it was before 2019 because I don't remember them. I remember them coming cuz they had a new business with that was like um security security things for the windows, but I I don't remember anything about boom lifts. So, that must have been before 2019. Okay. They have quite a few amendments on that property. There's a good packet of them. Um I think the only difference there is they're concealed by three sides of building or two sides for sure and they park them in between. Yeah, this is Jenny. They definitely have some barriers at their own building. So it's not necessarily right next to the resident. And so I think that that's I think a little bit of the difference here because um you do have this rentready equipment situation where you could have equipment pushed right next to um and near their home. I think that that is really my major concern is is there any ability to I don't even know how to to create a condition or I guess I'm going to ask you is there any ability to have a workaround next to their home? I I think that's trying to be very understanding of their concerns. So I I guess obviously I I don't want to try to mitigate what you do on your daily because your rare ready equipment I understand needing to push the equipment forward that you're going to use the next day, but at the cost of them being having peace in their home, that's I think a major concern for me. If I I'm right, they're work you're working 7 in the morning to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and after 5 nothing's moving. So this is just a visual that we're looking at. Any other comments before we uh move on here? I I mean I look at the conditions. We're looking at four things to either add or modify. One was lights, noise, dust, and hours, but hours are kind of like Mike said, kind of point blank. 7 to 5. Yes. I would like to um solidify those added conditions at this meeting tonight if that's okay. And so I was hearing things about fixing the lights. We can amend just to go through what's going on. Um our standard uh number 15 which is the downcast and shrouded as required by Columbus City ordinance for outdoor lighting standards. Um I believe that there is another provision in that um code that says directed away from residents. Um so we can definitely add that um and ensure that the lighting has been directed away from residents shrouded and downcast. Um Elanar, can I just ask a question? I just remember this coming up with another business and I thought there was like a in our ordinance it can't exceed more than one candle candle foot or foot candle at the property line. Yes. Which could we just have somebody I mean I've done it before. You can give me that light meter and I'll go stand out there at 10:00 and tell you whether it exceeds that or not. Yes. So, since this has been um brought up as a continuous concern, I'm going to amend that condition to include more of that uh referenced code, the section 7A813. um we sort of simplify it and just put in the section um code and then have that specifically mentioned as a compliance inspection followup to make sure with the um lumen um monitor to double check that and make sure that it does fit our city code. Okay. Okay. And is there a way to just, you know, consider having motion activated lights when it's possible? Because I do think that would go a long way towards, you know, still having having the security um benefit of the lights, but you know, keeping it um reasonable for the folks that are around it. cuz I I do think the the the white metal fence and the inside of the fence is a light color even though the outside of the fence it bounces that light off of it like a mirror. Um would you guys be willing to consider having those motion detected lights or Yeah, like I said, I would definitely look into it. Um the only question I have, I guess, while we're talking about this and I'm thinking it through, depending on how far apart the lights are, we're have to figure out where to put motion sensors. you know, we don't want a a blind spot, so to speak, that if somebody were to get in, it doesn't pick them up. That would be my only concern, but I'm sure we can figure that out. I don't know if you can like add extra sensors or, you know, series them together, that sort of a thing. But I don't see why we shouldn't be able to figure that out. Okay. Um, the other thing that I heard considered was the dust. would we like to add a condition requiring a yearly um dust treatment um with calcium chlorate or something similar or they can submit their dust mitigation plan which is I think what we've asked before and yeah perfect you know that they can choose whatever way they want to do it uh so the applicant will submit a dust mitigation plan to be approved by the city engineer okay um I will send you guys the details on that afterwards but that will be an additional condition, dust [Music] mitigation. Um, I also heard no spooky alarms. Um, get rid of the haunted house sound. No haunted house sounds. And um Megan, is there an ability to have the no loading before 7 a.m. um condition or is there some language that we can use for that? Yes. So, so I think what I hear the applicant saying is that um the applicant is willing for a condition uh that suggests that the hours of operation on the site will be from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and that no loading uh will occur prior to 7:00 a.m. and I'll just seek confirmation from the applicant on that or after 5. Yeah, again to the best of our ability. Um absolutely. you know, we we plan on pre-loading the night before and uh hopefully that's all I the only here's here's where it gets tricky with our business and this is the only thing and just again to be honest and transparent about this. Uh if we end up in a situation where a customer decides to call and hey we don't need that piece of equipment, we may have to offload a piece of equipment in the morning. Might have to, but that's few and far between. Um, and that's the reason that we typically don't preload because sometimes that's what's happened in other locations where uh the rental coordinator wasn't doing their job very well and messed up an order or something like that. But again, that's a few and far between thing and and I've even considered the idea that we may just simply have to take that piece of equipment with us and deal with it um to avoid obviously breaking this noise ordinance. I think that's really generous of you. Um, the other possibility, and I think this goes to what you were saying because I looked up the OSHA requirements too, and it sounded like, and again, I'm no expert on this, but if you have an obstructed view, but you have a a spotter, you don't need the backup beeper. So, like if you had to do that at 5 in the morning and you had another um staff person that could go out there to, you know, wave the flag and show them where they could be. I mean, that's another possibility where you could unload, but you just wouldn't have the beeper on because you have a person back there directing where that where that uh equipment's going to go. So, just another idea. The tricky part there, just again for clarity, is that we don't have a way of turning the beepers off on this equipment. Um, so it has to remain on, especially because once it does get on a job site on a construction zone, if they have a way to see that you you can turn that on and off, it's actually a violation if I'm not mistaken. I'm quite certain. I know on pickup trucks it's different, but on the equipment itself, it's not an option. Okay. Things that can go on the road usually have the ability um to bypass that and get around that, but if it's not roadw worthy, then it's it's not allowed. Yeah. And just from experience, this is Scott. Just from experience, from a liability side, the corporation may not want them to shut it off even if it was legally allowed. Mhm. Lord forbid you have a kid that hops the fence. I think that was alluded to before that they don't know is there and they back over them and they have disabled that device. There's there's a liability there too that they have to consider. Mr. Mayor, uh, assistant city administrator Aaron Berg. Um, not only does equipment share have this issue on their own site, but they're renting this equipment to someone else and putting it on a construction site. So, the receiver of this equipment and utilizing it could be liable for an OSHA violation on their own job site, which could lead to litigation against equipment share for not having an alarm properly placed. And so, we're looking at not only equipment share's problem, but the renters's problem as well. if you eliminate a backup beeper. I was just hoping they could turn it on and off. Obviously, that's not the way it it works. Of course, if we could, this whole thing would be a whole lot easier for all of us, wouldn't it? Y' be so simple. Um, so consolidating the hours of operations. I also heard that the dumpsters must be covered um at all times um except for occasional use. Um, and then regarding the booms being um held stored upwards up. Yes. Sorry, I'm stuttering over my words here. Um, I did not hear a solid consensus on what we wanted to do with that situation if we wanted to consider a condition for that. I couldn't hear what I didn't hear it. Oh. Um, regarding the boom lifts um being stored um raised and elevated. I didn't hear a full consensus on whether or not we wanted to put a condition or what we wanted to consider with that particular situation. I look at it, we like uh Rob said, down the road we have another company that has these that are lifted all the way up. I don't want to make a I don't think the neighbors are as close. I can see them on the road down the street as I go by. Mhm. I I hope that maybe we could work something out where if you're going to lift them up, you lift them up as short as possible and keep them away from that east fence. The farther away you're from it, the sight line should start going down, wouldn't it? or keep it I think you mentioned keep it like kind of behind the building which I think you mentioned like a a site where the um trucks were parked that you could maybe put it and that would really I think go a long way towards keeping it from being an eyesore from Lake Drive and it would also be I think um the best place for them in terms of the neighbors. Yeah. The only Yep. The only ones that wouldn't be there would be the ones that were staged ready to go for the next day for the most part. Yeah, that we will do what we can to to stow back there. Maybe we could just put that. Yeah, from what I've heard, that would be like the long-term storage of boom lifts would be stored um in the southwest southeast corner of the storage yard behind the building. The only exception to that would be, of course, boom lifts going out the next day would be stored in the front to avoid that noise situation that we're also trying to deal with. Think you got it. All right, perfect. Um, this is Jenny. Thank you for working with us on that. Yeah, I really appreciate this. Absolutely. You have anything else, Ellie? I think that was everything that was discussed. Please correct me if I missed anything. I have one more thing. We haven't discussed it, but I don't think it's that big a deal. So, um I don't think there's any um condition about requiring that the fence remains in good repair and since that's the that's the sort of option that is predicating the PUD. I wonder if we want to keep we want to add that condition. I can certainly pull it out. Our general um shall construct and maintain all site improvements. Um that would be good. Yeah. Yes, we do have the general uh maintain all site improvements and good repair. Um but I can pull out specific and specify that fence and then I think based on what we just did, you can probably take out the condition 14 that you had added based on the discussion at the planning commission because there'd be no need for them to do that study. Is there a consensus to remove the the noise study as well? Oh, the noise study? Yeah. Yeah, we could pull that up. All right, that works. I mean, that's my what's your consensus? Well, Rob's gone. No, this is Jenny. I agree. I think we've put enough other contingencies in place that it should mitigate. All right. So, Mike, you understand what all we've said here tonight? Absolutely. Okay. Okay. Well, that uh we have to wait till Rob gets back before we make a motion here unless anybody else has any other questions. Megan, are we okay? Yes. And I think um a condition that the applicant had offered up as well was creating um signage on the on the driveway there to allow uh so no idling or parking um along the shared drive aisle. I think that makes sense. Y thank you for remembering that. Thank you. I got it in my notes. This is Jenny. Do you are most of your customers that are coming on site um continuous customers or do you have a lot of one-off people coming to pick up equipment? It's really both. Um you know, obviously our our plan is to have return customers as much as possible, but we might have some some one-offs. either they're uh out of town contractors working temporarily in your area or maybe they you know just a we we do a little bit I mentioned this in one of the other meetings prior we do have some DIY homeowners that'll come through once in a while and maybe rent like a towable boom lift or something that they need for their home. So, those might be one-off customers, but typically it's return customers. And to be honest with you, most of my locations, if we see three, four, maybe five customers in a day, that's that's a lot. Um, there's times we will have none or one or two come through. So, um, but most most of them are repeat, I would say. Any other discussion? Hearing none, uh, I'll make the motion. Uh Iron Hanigraph moved to approve the equipment share PUD CUP with their conditions as recommended by the planning commission and presented in the staff report for this item. Also the conditions noted during this meeting to Ellie. This is Scott. I'll second that motion. We have a motion on the floor. Seconded. Any other discussion or questions? Hearing none. We'll vote on it. Jenny. Jenny I, Scott, I, Janet, I, Rob I, and Ron I. Thank you very much. Mike, thank you. Yes. Thank you all. Thanks for coming. The two gentlemen in the back. I recognize that we're at the planning commission, too. That we're silent today, but thanks for coming. And Rob and Kathy, thanks for Yes. And we hope it all works out for everybody. If you have a problem, give us a call. Absolutely. And welcome to the city. Yes. Very much appreciate that. You bet. All right, we're going to go on to um item number four, 2026 core grant. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Solid Waste Collection and Recycling Enhancement Program in Minnesota provides grants to counties and local governments to support waste reduction, reuse, and recycling efforts. It was established in 1989 by the governor's select committee on recycling and the environment. This is where the acronym score comes from and has been a key source of funding for these programs. These funds are allocated to counties for local distributions to cities and townships. The grants are funded from the residential and commercial county solid waste and recycling tax. 2026 grant funds in the amount of $31,60 are available to the city of Columbus. The funds are for the use for the following categories. Number one, the base funding amount in the amount of $19,125 would be used for recycling events, the Kamingle dumpster membership dues promotion. And in addition to this amount, the city's requesting the following supplementary funding for the program. This would include the enhancement funding in the amount of $5,800 which is used for the summer curbside event and the organics program and funding for the administrative cost of the program in the amount of $6,135. The city's base funding is a $10,000 allotment that each municipality in Oak County receives along with $5 per household allocation. The 1,580 Columbus household counts used for the allocation calculation are from the Met Council demographic estimates for 2026. The city's recycling goal for 2026 is 467 tons. The city met their annual goal requirements in 2023 and 2024. The tonnage goal is set by noa county, but there is no penalty if the goal is not met. However, those recipients that meet their annual goals receive additional consideration for supplemented grants available from this program. The SCORE grant covers the cost of the city's recycling program. No city monies are used to support this activity. Staff is requesting city council approval to submit the 2026 score grant application to the inoka county public health and environmental services to fund the city's recycling program. Thank you, Jack. Any discussion on this? This is Scott. Uh Lori wrote the grant for us. Yes. Right. Uh thank you, Lori, because this grant application looks like it's very long. And I could I tried to make the numbers work and could not. So, I just have a simple question. The the county says that we're eligible for $31,60 and that's what we're asking for. Isn't that right? That's correct. Okay. And we we don't get more than that because that's all they're saying we're eligible for. That That's correct. We're only That's what I remember from past years. So, I mean, when you start trying to add these up, the numbers don't work out, but I know she's done this a million times. So, that's really the important important uh numbers to remember. Other discussion? Anybody want to make a motion? So, I can um So, this is Janet. I move to authorize the city staff to submit the 2026 SCO score grant application to Anoka County Public Health and Environmental Services to fund the city's recycling program. This is Jenny. I second. Got a motion on the floor. It's been seconded. Any other discussion or questions? Having none, we'll go to a vote. Jenny. Jenny. I. Scotty. Janet. I. Rabbi and Ron I go to item number five city council AI uses and minutes discussion Jack or I'm sorry Aaron thank you Mr. Mayor uh Aaron, assistant city administrator. Uh at the May 6th, 2025 city council workshop, staff presented an overview of the exploratory use of generative artificial intelligence in city operations with an initial focus on preparation of city council meeting minutes. Following this this discussion, staff have continued to evaluate the tools effectiveness and have identified additional routine applications where AI can improve efficiencies and support administrative processes. Staff have found the use of generative AI particularly for meeting documentation to be functional and reli and a reliable alternative to existing practices. It shows promise in supporting other routine operational tasks such as drafting reports, summarizing content, and managing communication templates. At the May 6th workshop, council had some questions regarding transparency sources and accuracy, data privacy and ownership. Um, and so staff has done some as well as redaction of proprietary information and the use of verbatim transcripts. staff has done some research uh into um Open AI's use of information. There are several types of accounts available through open AI to include an enterprise account uh in which corporations can utilize AI uh for its its usefulness. These type of accounts uh have full control over data input and output. So the owner agency defines what comes in and what goes out. Uh there are strong privacy commitments by um open AI for end-to-end encryption of their their storage of information and they do not use data in sharing or training other enterprise accounts uh uh outputs. So, uh, whatever information under an enterprise account gets put in stays within our account. It doesn't it's not used on anyone else's platform. Um, the, uh, in order to explore the cost of an enterprise account, uh, Open AI requires that you submit a bunch of information. I have submitted that information. They responded back to me saying, "Based on your enterprises size, uh, we recommend your agency use what's called chat GPT teams, which also has the same protections as their enterprise account. It's just made for organizations the size of 1 to 50 instead of 100 to 200 PE uh occupants or users. Um in in terms of the question regarding redacting of proprietary information uh staff have have researched Minnesota state statute which classifies trade secrets as non-public data which identifies that the city bears the burden of proving whether provided data qualifies as a trade secret or not. If the city determines that it is, we have the right to redact that information and not make it public. Uh so if a applicant would come in with an application for a land use item uh and they disclose on their application that part of it is a trade secret before releasing that document the city can redact that information. Uh however data discussed at an open meeting uh retains although it retains its original classification uh the written materials or the recording are public data. So we would have to release those transcripts if they were requested. Um the other question was the use of verbatim transcripts. Uh verbatim transcripts generated by AI are not required by law for regular or closed meetings. So a written transcript is not required for closed sessions. Only an audio recording is required to be maintained. Transcripts of regular meetings are considered government data under the data practices act but are not classified as government records and do not require retention. So once official meeting minutes are approved and adopted the transcript can be destroyed. um draft AI generated transcripts are designated as unofficial uh and can be um identified as such when releasing that to the public via a data request. Uh as the use of AI tools expands, there is a growing need to establish guidelines and guardrails for city employee use. Staff note that multiple draft uh municipal AI policies exist and are available for reference and adoption. Staff recommends that the city council um approve the continued use of generative artificial intelligence for appropriate city functions and operations, including meeting documentation. and staff would recommend that city council direct uh staff to draft a city AI use policy to be brought up to a future council work session for further discussion and refinement. I did include a handout from the League of Cities on what decision makers should know about artificial intelligence. It is a little bit dated and there are some other um articles out there that provide more accurate information about um the use of AI but as you know it's a very fast changing world and so without having those guardrails I think we we have a little bit of risk but creating a policy on on employee use would be helpful. Well thank you Aaron. So you have a motion here. Do we have any discussion on this? I got to believe the attorney has something to say about this. So, so one of the things that I would just suggest and and it's document well documented in staff's memo as well as the uh as the league's memo and their associated policy um is you know any uh non-public data right and classification of data is always important for cities um any data um that is classified as either private data or non-public data you know should never should never get into the AI system um regardless of whether it's an enterprise system or a non-enterprise system um because there's just a level of control that the city doesn't maintain and it creates a legal risk for you. Um however, utilizing AI to effectively manage your uh meeting minutes, your uh creation of agendas, um compiling packets, so long as there's a a good staff member alongside to review those products, um is a a great way to increase efficiency. And we're seeing it utilized much more. uh regularly across cities in the Twin Cities area. Well, thank you, Megan. So, I have I I have some uh thoughts on this and you know, first of all, I just want to thank um Erin for looking into this because I do think it can it has great potential to solve our problem with minutes. Um, but it it really is it still requires someone to really carefully go back and look at the the minutes and what AI comes up with. And I think that, you know, you and I have talked about this, Aaron, and it maybe this is the right time to just bring it up and if it's not, we should put it on our workshop is, you know, I think part of the challenge for anybody who's trying to generate these minutes is how much detail or what really should be included. And, you know, I I have used my own experience in trying to go back to minutes to understand why certain decisions were made. And and that sort of is what informs me as to like here, you know, we need to have we need to have some explanation as to why these decisions were made, not just the motion or not just, you know, what what everybody um voted for. And I know, you know, Rob, you've talked about transparency and stuff. And so I think it's important to be able to um you know, have in our minutes, you know, if people vote yes or no, some sense of why they voted that way because I think it's really helpful to the public. And it's also helpful in terms of going back and trying to piece together why things happened. So with so my point is that you know how do we if we're going to use artificial intelligence to kind of give us our first draft? How do we um help the staff know how much is enough in that regard? And I'd like to hear what everybody else thinks. And actually I'd like to hear what Erin thinks too since he's been on the receiving end of my edits. That is actually item six after we discuss the the use of AI item. The next item is what do you want in your minutes? How detailed do you want them? Uh what do you want to see? What's required by law? What is officially are we required to retain? So that is actually the next item on the discussion. So good. If if the city's comfortable with using AI and I think I think it sounds like we are. Um we we're just looking for your approval to do that as well as bring back a policy and then if we want to dive into the deeper discussion on the next item I think that that's the appropriate time to do that. So I would I would like to switch the order of your recommendation. I think it would be great to have the policy first before we wholeheartedly embrace AI as the minutes. Um, I mean, I think it's fine to for you to continue to use it in the way that you've used it and it's clear that, you know, you're looking at it and and we should all be looking at it to kind of figure out what works and what doesn't. But there's been, you know, there have been examples in the couple that you've given um and and then reading this material, it's like, oh, this is why this happens where it just makes stuff up. It isn't what somebody said. It isn't what was actually on the transcript. It just made it up. And so um that that is why we all need to read it. So um so what I would say I'm fine with us going forward with this, but I'd rather before making it a formal policy that we use generative AI to generate our minutes, I would rather that we come up with the the AI use policy first. Um and you can continue, you know, since you're doing it, you can continue use it. And the difference in my mind is once you have the policy, then any of the staff can do it because it's guiding their their use. right now it would be just you because you're the one who's got the expertise. Yeah. Rob, thanks mayor. Uh the question is for Megan. Are we aware of other cities that are using this or is this something new that cities are using? I use it currently for like note takingaking and it and it punches out like a bullet bullet point format of notes but I've never outside of what we've seen here. Yeah. Uh absolutely. So, so we are seeing cities utilize it more in terms of creating transcripts of their meeting minutes or for their meeting minutes purposes. Um, and then certainly for uh records of their workshops um and just and just as you suggested um taking the uh just notes of the meeting itself. Um, and so, you know, in the last week, I've been on a number of city calls and there's an AI bot that's running in the background recording and um, summarizing what the takeaways are from the meeting and those are generally prepared and provided to all of the participants in the meeting. So, we are seeing it utilized on a on a much on a growing at a very growing speed. Sure. And and one other thing, could there be some sort of policy put in place that say there was two people meeting on a council or or talking about something that they need to be notified that they're being recorded? Because I've been in certain situations where this thing's under the table and then next thing I find out, yeah, that whole conversation was being recorded. I know it's kind of it's is the rules. It's kind of a one-way one-way state. You don't have to be notified, but I mean Yep. That's right. So, um, you know, I think that's something that would be incorporated within the policy is that, uh, you know, F city staff is going to have a meeting with a land use applicant, um, and is going to utilize an AI bot to, uh, record the transcript of that meeting and provide notes to all participants that, you know, we'd be notified that there's an AI bot that's part, you know, so that's something that you could absolutely dictate through your policy with the guidance of the council. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, m Mr. Mayor, if I could. Um, I I like the idea of AI. I'm just looking at the bills we approved tonight, and I'm looking at the city council meeting minutes. 10 hours for February 12th, 10 hours for February 26th, 5 hours for April 9th, 15 hours for April 23rd. Um, I would assume that we're not going to be taking, you know, Danielle is doing a as good of a job as she possibly can, but I'm assuming we are not going to be taking 10 hours with AI to record our city council minutes. So, I can tell you, Council Member Wendell, that uh as soon as the YouTube video of this meeting is uploaded to our system, I can have a draft version of minutes without a ton of detail in about 15 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. So, that's that's very appealing. Um, the other thing that concerns me and and I know I think Megan you hit on this too is um you know the private information that that's being redacted and that we have the right person in place to do that. Uh Aaron, I got a lot of confidence in you. But if if you move on and aren't here, we've got to make sure that the next person is familiar with the private data in the Minnesota Data Practice Act. So we're redacting all that information should it get in there. So, your city already has a data practices policy in place that dictates and identifies what all that data is and and how it can and can't be used and what needs to be redacted and how long it needs to be stored and when it can be destroyed that already exists. This this would just need to be classified as one of those categories that already exists. Sure. And I'm sure it exists, but we need a person who knows how to manage that that already exists. Yeah. And I would also say I know there's holes in that policy. Jack and I have talked about this because we just went through this on the sunrise and there's a lot of work to be done on that outside of the AI side of it. Yeah. Yeah. And I just say that having to work with data practice when cameras came out in police cars, it was a nightmare. So, and they have their own classification of data that we don't have. This is a whole another level that I don't even want to think about. So, thank you. And Mr. Rob, I just want to say that recording thing that was in a workplace setting. It wasn't here. I just want that clear for us, right? Like I want everyone think why the hell are they recording each other? So Jenny, you had something? Yeah, this is Jenny. One question for you, Erin. Uh when it comes to the minutes and reviewing after because I know that AI can fill in where it may have blanks or really not understand. Can you walk me through what that looks like? are are you going back and watching verbatim and making ensuring that everything follows correctly? Can you just walk me through that process? Yeah, and I think potentially at a workshop when we talk about the policy, maybe we can actually go through what it takes to do a set of minutes so you can see the steps of the process. But yes, after the 15 minutes are up and actually I can have a transcript in about less than 30 seconds once the the recording starts. Um but then prompting um chat GPT in these circumstances to to add items that match the agenda. Add items that match uh format add those are the steps that and then in the review process and I've had this a couple of times with some more um detailed minutes that I've asked for is it's not quite doing what I want it to do. Uh, and so I have to go back and either start over with the transcript and then prompt it to do what I want it to do uh or review the the uh YouTube video or the of the video um and pull out of the transcript so that it can be accurate. So yeah, there is staff review time, but um I would say in my learning process, the longest it's taken me to do one set of minutes is probably 3 hours. than that it was review as well as going back and but I'm learning the system and so once it that once you get that down it it there may be some prompt or trigger words that would work better. I just don't know what they are. Thank you for your work. This is Jenny. Thank you for your work on this too. I know we all appreciate the dedication and and also working with staff and training others on this as well. It's it's definitely I think a step in the right direction. So um obviously my bigger concern is where it fills in. I just want to make sure we're catching some of that so we're not creating misinformation if that makes sense. Any other discussion? Well, I don't want to scare the staff or nothing, but I was watching the news today. They say that in the next 5 to 10 years, this will knock off 20% of the jobs in the United States. AI, I will just remind you of when they said that computers would take away paper and there'd be no more paper in offices. And like we know that didn't happen. So that's about how much faith I have in that prediction. 10 hours. Well, but 10 I mean she's 10 hours because she's new. She doesn't have any background in this. And if you just sit through our two-hour media, I mean, if you just have to sit and watch a a video of us because you're not here. That's two hours of time right then and there. Yeah. Well, it's it's I'm just telling you what some economic person and maybe you got no more than him. I No, I'm just saying. And I just remember that there wasn't going to be any paper anymore. And there's more paper than there was even before computers. So, are we going to switch these around? Get moving here. Do you want Do you want to uh table this one until after the workshop and we can bring this back as a as a full item? Yeah, I like that idea. We're going to bring back both items, five and six. Do you want to have the minutes discussion now so we know which direction to go or we can also wait on that? We could just do it as a whole for the what? do it as a whole for the workshop. Well, we're we're loading up on a workshop here, aren't we? Oh, Jack, the workshop agenda has been a moving target and we've had several changes. That's why I just gave you a handout on some of the topics that we have to discuss or propose to discuss. This is one of them that's on there, though. Okay. So, we we can combine the two and it might make more sense to do it that way. I I mean I went through it and I wrote down my my notes, but I don't think we want to take the time to go through and do this here. Okay. So, we'll put it off to the next the workshop next Tuesday. Yes. June 3rd. Okay. We'll run down to item number D then. Consultants, leaison, and staff reports. City engineer Brian, you still awake over there? Consulting city engineer Brian Blackmmeer. Good evening, mayor and council. Uh no formal reports again this evening, but I can share what I've been working on for the last couple of weeks. Been working with the public works director on uh Hornsby street lighting plans with the design team on that project. Also confirming there's the absence of city utilities in some vacated rightaway that the city's in the process of selling. I attended the 102232 Rice Creek wershed district meeting yesterday. That discussion, collected some final paperwork for 2024 project so they can be closed out and then started working on that water appropriation permit draft letter, kind of gathering and generating uh the data that will be needed for that application and sharing it with Jim and uh going forward with that. So that's what I've been working on the last couple of weeks. With that, stand for any questions you may have. Any questions? Mr. Mayor, before we proceed with the uh those reports, could we go back? There's one last report item C7, and that's to adopt the agenda for the workshop. And I just gave you a handout that's changed two or three times since this was put out last Friday. Uh we've had one addition that's a time-sensitive matter from the Ina County Highway Department. They want to present the final review on the Kettle River Lake Drive roundabout project. Jim has participated in about three uh remote meetings with them. One of the things that was discussed in the last meeting which was yesterday was kind of some final design elements which we came up with is we've recommended this should be a rural design which would include no sidewalks because we've eliminated all the trail portions would be a three-legged roundabout which would improve traffic flow and also be more cost effective and reduce the cost of it. So they want to come here and present that to the council because this is a project that's going to have to start by 2027 because the federal funding has to be spent by a certain date. So uh we'll have Jerry OJ and Nicholas Dabda here to make a presentation and give us the final information and then we'll get some idea of what our cost share is going to be for the project. So that would be the one item. Paul Peterson was going to be here to discuss AI podcasts, but Paul had a conflict with the date and said he could come to the next workshop meeting. Uh we have the discussions of city AI use, which will be just a continuation of what we have briefly discussed tonight. Uh we discussed also to the location of the Columbus sign that was donated to us. we can provide you some information and recommendations and discuss potential locations for that. St. Clair State's HOA has requested to come to the council to go over a few things that they want to do on the access to the Howard Lake area that they have, which would require some city approval and some DNR approval. And then we had mentioned to we need to start talking again about what are we going to do about city hall? We've identified some structural problems and we need to start thinking about taking some action on those. So those those are the six items that I would propose we try to address unless you have any others you want to add or take away any any of those that are proposed. I think that's enough start with. Thanks again Brian for your report. Uh sorry about the uh item number seven there. So, do you need a motion to adopt that? Megan wants to talk. Oh, Megan, you were I thought we were moving on to the city attorney's report and I only had a joke to make so I got very excited. Jumping all jumping all over. Must be a good joke. Are you going to make that motion? I will. Um I I This is Janet. I move to approve the June 3rd, 2025 workshop agenda as presented in the staff report for this item. Anybody want to second that? Rob, I'll second. We got a motion on the floor. It's been seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, let's take a vote. Jenny, Jenny, I, Scott, I, Janet, I, Rob, and Ron I. Now, we'll jump over to our favorite Megan for her report. I will say that the city attorney was very impressed by the city engineers report, and the city attorney, uh, Mr. Griffith will, uh, try to make a better impression at the next meeting, but we have no updates for you at this point in time. You don't have the ball to tell us what's happening down in St. Paul. Exactly. So that's end report, huh? End report. Exactly. Right. Okay. We'll run to item number three, city council's report. Jenny, you have anything? Um nothing major to report. The only thing I wanted to update was that um our assistant city administrator um updated. I know online there were some questions and residents had some different questions about how they communicate to the city when they have questions, concerns, or otherwise. Um, and the city did put out a post uh with a link to our website. So, I just wanted to thank you for that uh because it quelled squashed some questions that people had and allowed them to have um easy access to the city and I know that that's monitored. So, I just wanted to thank you for that. Thank you. Uh Scott, uh just briefly, uh Paul Peterson, I just want to clarify it's not an AI podcast. It's a podcast and he's got some interesting ideas about AI. The whole idea behind the the podcast though is to get information out to uh the citizens of Columbus uh before um city council meeting so they're informed and they have the opportunity to provide us feedback at council meetings. So kind of excited about that and I can't wait for Paul to come in. I know he's come in and presented before here but uh now he's we've got some specific ideas. So thank you Janet. Um so I have a couple things quickly. Um Brian had mentioned the Rice Creek wershed meeting that we had. So just for the rest of you, this was a meeting that um excuse me, the city pulled together. We've been talking about this ditch 102232 for about 3 years. Um it's a ditch that runs from Carlos Avery down to Marshon Lake in Lionel Lakes and runs through Columbus. It's a main source of drainage and it has not been maintained and there's been multiple problems with properties flooding. Um and so there's been lots of talk about what what do we need to do about that? And this was a meeting that was um trying to take those three years of discussion and create some concrete next steps. I think there was some learning points for all of us there. The um DNR was available to be at that meeting. Uh Commissioner Reiner was there. um residents, uh Perry and Steve Wagaman and Dave Rybeck were there, Brian was there, um uh Mayor Ron and myself and um Aaron and Jack were there and uh Nick from the Rice Creek wershed. So, we had a good I hope I didn't forget anybody. Bill. Oh, and Bill was there. That's right. He was online. He was in the box. Um so, we had a really good discussion. there is um some uh kind of homework for folks and we will be doing another follow-up meeting in a few months and but nothing no action items that I can really report on there. The second thing is um I had called Cheryl this afternoon because I had some questions about the um bills. I just didn't know what they were and so we talked about that a little bit. One of the um things that she asks that I do is to get direction from the um council on what to do with uh residents who have dogs that get picked up and they get build for the um uh what do they call it? Whatever the the the kenneling charge and the pickup charge and they don't pay it. and neither of us could remember if we had actually given clear direction to staff on that and I think we talked about then they go to collection but she wasn't she just wasn't confident that that was the direction so I was asking her from our list of bills there was um an unclaimed um animal uh whatever you call it a dog that was out and the owner claimed them and so there's charge that we have to pay and this uh owner was build and she's not paying it and she's not going to pay it. So my question I think to to Cheryl is well now what do we do? And she goes I don't know. You tell me what we do. So I I'm happy to bring that up. I don't know Jack if you have a recollection that's different than hers and mine. But we did have the discussion and says this is our only option at this time. If they don't pay the bill then we'd have to turn it over to collection agency. But we never did act formally or give any direction. And I think we could just come up with a little policy to state this is the procedure we're going to use for an unpaid bill for a reclaimed animal if the owner doesn't pay the charge. Do you need anything more than what we just did or do you need a a formal direction motion or anything? I think the direction is clear enough. Okay. Um it'll be recorded in the minutes and Okay. I don't think it deserves a thing of going to a policy. It's just I just I just don't think that the rest of the city should be paying for somebody's dog who's running around and somebody decides they don't want to pay the penalty for that. So, good. Thank you. That's it. Rob, thank you, mayor. Um, just a couple things. Uh, fielded several phone calls in regards to the gravel roads. I got emails out to uh Jack, Aaron, and and Jim, and it seems that uh Jack or uh excuse me, Jim was already working on it that day. Um so, thank you for that. I'm sure the residents will be appreciative of that. Um and then also uh fielded some phone calls in regards to uh some roosters in a residential neighborhood, rooster chickens, as well as uh chickens uh ranging far from home and tearing up uh garden beds and things of that nature for people that are very particular about their gardens. Um they had address tried to address that their own. Um but we did bring I got him Sean's number and got him involved and it sounds like there's some resolution there already. So um that's all I have to report. Thank you, Rob. Uh, this wasn't on the agenda, but I'm going to use it right now while I got a moment. I was at the park board uh meeting on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025. Number item number one on the agenda was a dugouts. Uh, Leah Janetski, the president of LFA, which is Forest Lake Area Fast Pitch Association, which we have been dealing with about dugouts. uh she advised us that their board uh approve contributing uh monies towards two dugouts in our park and that would be uh field number three and four. Am I correct, Jim? Uh for the amount of $10,000 each. So, we kind of given an estimate on this that we were looking at maybe 20,000 and the city would put in 10 and they had put in 10. But, uh, it's starting to look better every day because, uh, a man by the name of Matt Revard, who is a resident in, uh, Columbus, says he's a resident in Columbus, is a member of the LFA, and he's going to do all the concrete work uh, free of charge for the for the dugouts. And our tenative plan right now or the tenative plan is once this gets rolling is to do one dugout this fall. That's to put up the century fence the whole works and then he was going to do the contract concrete on both fields this fall and then in the spring do the other field. uh Century Links would do the other field and all we have to do is come up with whatever money plus JWB's got uh the energy and the time to put the roof on it. You know, if not uh they they're very cooperative, weren't they, Jack? Uh and they they were and I sent him that information on those estimates. I'm waiting on his reply back. So hopefully we can have a written proposal for council hopefully by the end of June meeting and maybe start construction on two dugouts for whichever field we choose is the priority by the sometime maybe in September. And uh also u it should be noted that Matt made a comment that he thought he could get the concrete from Chemstone free of charge. So whatever it's it's cutting cost anyway. So that's looking promising. They also discussed the uh master plan and that's coming along right Ellie. And uh we also talked about couple trees that went down in the park and uh Jim and public director uh is going to look at replacing the one and that's the one on the line on Kettle River. The wind blew it down. One of those new ones we put up. So other than that, it was about it was a good park board, but it uh the Forest Lake Fast pitch association uh really came through I think and took a long time about two or three years, but looks like maybe we'll get it done. So that was uh my report and now we go to public works report. Nope, I take that back. We go to personnel committee report. We haven't met for a couple weeks, so no report. Oh, that's great. Well, at least I haven't met. I don't know, Erin, you you met with Ellen. I don't know if there's anything you have to report. Uh, nothing to report. We were just maintaining um uh updating job descriptions, kind of some lowhanging fruit that that are pending items while we awaited a formal meeting. Real quick question off the cuff. How many are we getting any applications to the planning commission? I we do have two, I believe. Yes, we've had two applications for the planning commission. um vacancies. Currently, we are leaving it open until uh June 3rd. At that time, we'll reach out to whoever has applied, start doing interviews, and hopefully have those vacancies filled. Thank you. Thank Jim, public works director. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. I only have one thing that is not on the agenda tonight. Um, a couple of meetings back we talked about me going out and getting a quote for a street light at the intersection of Howard Lake Drive and Kettle River. We just received that quote back from Kexus and it came in at $1,41 $141. So, my question to the city council tonight is, do you want me to move forward and have them install that light or do we want to wait? What was the cost of the other one on crossways? 1401. That dollar is suspicious. That's the only money they're making on the deal other than the $7 a month that it cost for the electric. Uh Jack, do we have the money to to cover those two? We don't have anything specifically in the budget, but I think we could probably find some way to cover those costs. Uh we've already approved the one for Lake Drive and Crossways. Uh I think the one at Kettle River is another one of those that's kind of a priority, too. And we should probably act on that and find a way to cover that. Uh because it is a difficult intersection to find in the dark. Okay. So, anybody have any questions, discussion? Do we have to make a motion on this then? Yes, please. I I'll make a motion that uh we approve the $1,4001 uh appropriations to the Howard Lake and Kettle River Drive for Kexus for the light at night. It's Rob. I'll second. We got a motion on the floor. Second it. Any discussion? Any comments hearing? None. Jenny. Jenny I. Scott I. Ron. Janet I. Rob I. Ron I. And And I will throw in one other thing. Um with the nice weather that we've been having so far this year, it allowed us to start graveling early. Um we started and finished Pine Street tonight and tomorrow we are going to start and hopefully finish uh North Rondo Lake Drive and that will be the extent of what we're graveling this year because of what we did last year um allowed us to burn twothirds of our budget last year and pay for it this year. So we're kind of ahead of the game at this point. So, that's kind of a nice feeling for us. But that's all I have. Thank you. More time to mow law on in the park. More time to mow lawn in the park. I got a question real quick. Jim, are you getting a lot of comments about the dust? Every year that it's dry, you get comments. I mean, we've had years that there was no snow in February and people call and ask when you're going to put calcium chloride down. So, I I mean, it's it's inevitable. If it's dry, they're asking for calcium chloride. If it's wet, they're whining because their roads are rough and sloppy. So, I mean, it's a double-edged sword no matter what for us either way. So, you know, just so everyone knows, we will at this point, I've had numerous calls already about two applications of calcium chloride. So, there may be some people that show up here. Um, but we're going to continue to do that um at the end of June as as normal until we decide that we're going to try to do something different. When you talk about two applications, are you talking about taking one application and splitting it in two or you talking about two actual load? It would be they wouldn't be the same if that makes sense. So it would be a lighter rate earlier in the year and then a So as a hypothetical, let's just say that this year we could have probably put some down in May, right? And then we would not do it in June. We would probably wait till the end of July or early August and then we would put down another rate at that point. So they would maybe only be half rate the first time and you know depending on what it looks like a full rate or you know maybe 3/4 rate or something but I I don't know what other people do. Some people do half rates some people do 3/4 rates. I mean it's kind of all over the map. It really is. So it's not there's not any like real standard out there. So So we budgeted about 65,000 for it. Yes. So, you're talking about like $32,500 for one load and then doing it again. If we were going to do it twice, I would ask you for an increase of probably half. So, another I would ask you for about 90,000 if we were going to increase it for next year and then do two applications at some rate. Okay. So, we won't do two applications this year because we don't have the money in the We don't have the money for it. We have the amount of money that we have will get us one application. Well, thank you, Jim. You're welcome. City administrator's report. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a proposal here for career enhancement options. That's Elder Hendrick. She provides human resource service to the city. uh they entered into a contract with us for a professional service agreement on October 30th, 2023. The second amendment to this agreement finalized the term to expire on December 31st, 2024. That uh contract was expired and it was intended to be continued. Uh it was recognized the contract wasn't reapproved. Uh so the city is requested to renew that agreement retroactive to January 1st, 2025 and to expire on August 31st of this year. The extension would allow the completion of certain outstanding items currently in progress. Specifically, these items are the compensation and wage study, final revisions to the employee handbook, two final job descriptions, and a performance evaluation template. City Council is requested to consider approval of the third amendment to the original professional agreement, services agreement, as exhibited in attachment one that was sent out to you today by email. And there's currently about $10,000 left in the budget to cover that cost. Any discussion? Um, I have a question. So, we had intended to pay for DDA out of this budget. It doesn't appear that there's enough money to do both. Is that right? Cuz that was $11,000 for No, there there is a currently enough money to pay DDA the $11,000 and the 20 There was a $7,000 carryover from last year's budget, a $24,000 appropriation. So that gave us $31,000. So with the 11,000 taken out for DDA, that leaves us 20. We've already spent about 10. So that would leave us $10,000 to finish out. Oh, good. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. That's good news. Anybody else have questions? Is is this in regards to the Ellen? Okay. Yeah. So, we've previously talked about this. Okay. Any other discussion, questions, comments? Anybody want to make a motion? I can. So, this is Janet. I move to approve the third amendment to the professional services agreement with career enhancement options incorporated as presented in attachment one to the staff report for this item. This is Jenny. May I second? We have a motion that's been seconded. Any other comments, questions? Hearing? None. We'll call for a vote. Rob. Rob. I. Janet. I. Scott. I. Jenny. I. Ron. I. Now, we're going to have to tell we're going to uh well, should I say the announcements first? Uh we have city council workshop meeting on June 3rd, 2025 at 6 p.m. We have a planning commission meeting on June 4th, 2025 at 6 p.m. And we have a city council meeting on June 11th, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. We're now going to close the session for a close session. So we're going to close the meeting to the public. So, [Music]