[Music] good evening everyone tonight is Wednesday August 28th 2024 it is 6:01 p.m. and I'd like to call to order the city of Columbus regular City council meeting our first order of business will be the Pledge of Allegiance please join us I pledge alance to the 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 would someone like to make the motion to adopt the agenda for tonight I move I make the motion to adopt the agenda for the August 20th 2024 city council meeting with the change of B3 to the amended payment summary and agenda item C4 to the amended work meeting agenda this Ron I'll second it any questions anyone if not I'll call for the vote Ron I I Janet I Jesse I our next item is a consent agenda uh I'll make the motion to approve the consent agenda as presented in items B1 through B3 on the August 208th 24 city council packet and attachments is there a second this is Su all second are there any questions or discussions I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I and Jesse I public open forum is there anyone online I don't see anyone here in the chambers who would like to speak hearing none we'll move on to the Columbus Lions Club temporary liquor license and I'll make the motion to approve a temporary on sale intoxicating liquor license for the col umus Lions Club for the Fall Fest event on September 21st 2024 at 16319 Kettle River bulevard Columbus Minnesota is there a second this is Ron I'll second it any questions or discussions I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I and Jesse I uh item or letter number three letter of credit release three Beacon Holdings truck align project and this is Pages 13-9 Kevin would you like to fill us in on that please so this is a uh release of the letter of credit um to three Beacon Holdings this is the project associated with bla Brothers 150th um Avenue the public improvements associated with that uh the developer represented by Dean D has made a request uh to release all of the letter of credit um however at this time we're still in um that one-year period where we hold 20% of the shity uh for a year and uh and looking back um we basically accepted that project back on October 18th uh so at this time um I'm only recommending a release of 80% of the uh letter of credit which is $600,000 and so once we get to that year period we could release the balance and so I'm recommending uh release of the letter of credit in the amount of $600,000 any questions anyone well this is so I just have I understand the reason for the 80% but is does Mr D understand that did we communicate that to him if he's requesting the full amount well that's part of the I I haven't communicated that with him directly but that's part of the developers agreement is that uh we hold 20% um for up to a year so and he just so it's in there okay yeah he's aware that's all I sue I've been in communication with Dean and he understands that oh okay good thank you so I'll make the motion to approve the letter of credit release for three beacons Holdings in the amount of 600,000 as recommended and presented in the attached August 2024 memorandum by the city engineer is there a second this is Janet I second any questions anyone I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I and Jesse I on number four a work meeting agenda for September 3rd and that's on page 20 of our packet Jack go ahead please thank you Jesse the city council Workshop meeting is scheduled for Monday September 3rd 2024 at 5:30 p.m. the following item is recommended for the meeting agenda and discussion the 2025 budget report and discussion staff recommends that the city council set the agenda for the item listed above or make a itions or deletions to this list as appropriate in your original packet the aceit meeting was on this but that's been deleted that meeting will be held on September the 4th at the Joint Planning Commission city council meeting oh so what what we have listed here is not that one's going to be moved to September 4th yeah that's the do you have a uh that was the amendment to the agenda that was being struck from that recommendation any other questions anyone if not I'll make the motion to approve the September 3rd 2024 work meeting agenda as recommended is there a second Yep this is Su all second any other questions or discussion I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I and Jesse I on to number five Li Columbus Lions Club raffle sales resolution 2410 Pages 21- 25 I think we went through this already at our workshop and so I'll make the motion to approve resolution 2 2410 a resolution authorizing the Columbus Lions to conduct a prize raffle at 1639 Kettle River Boulevard on September 21st 2021 for the Fall Fest event is there a second this Janet I second any questions I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I and Jesse I yep thanks for coming absolutely uh number six 2020 budget discussion pages 26 and enclosure thank you Jesse staff will review with Council the following budget schedules for tonight's meeting this includes the park land fund the Fire Equipment replacement fund the fire hall Capital fund the general Capital fund and the Public Works equipment Capital staff will be seeking direction from Council regarding inputs adjustments and modifications to the proposed 2025 budget [Applause] schedules anyone with specific questions well what as I was looking through I was trying to remember if we reviewed this before and had com I couldn't remember what our if we had made any suggested changes we did look at the one before this was the um let pull this one up first it's this one which is the Public Works equipment Capital Improvement fund we talked about some things in here one of the things that we will do we're going to run an analysis on the road grater uh it does have a scheduled replacement in 2031 425 we will have a schedule for that the only thing we're looking at here is really this is just an outline Beyond 2025 we're not looking to approve this tonight but we're looking for any inputs to see if this is what we want to include but what what what when we vote on this what we'll be including is what's in the 2025 year but we will provide you with that analysis it just wasn't ready for tonight's meeting so what this does is show you those equipment purchases that will be phased out over the years and the only ones that we're actually approving when this is done when we do approve the final budget in the Capital Improvements plan will be the 2025 years the others are just what the schedule is those can be modified adjusted or moved out further or even deleted from the schedule as we go on which schedule are you showing up on the screen right now now or is it this last page trying to figure out which page in the packet last page in the packet oh thank you it looks like you have somebody in the waiting room Jack okay we got [Applause] them there it is so regarding this schedule the biggest topic we had for discussion the last time we looked at this was the motor grader purchase the city purchased the motor grader in 2023 for a cost of 37,2 $50 it is on a 7-year replacement buyback schedule with caterpillar uh we've talked to the caterpillar people they're working on and giving us the details and the information on that buyback agreement as soon as we get that then we can provide you with that analysis which could affect the way we look at this for the future purchase uh going forward in future budgets though uh we may re want to revamp this replacement schedule and just just put it in a more tabular form because going out more than 5 years is kind of a little bit risky business in trying to predict the future I think I disagree with that I mean lots of businesses project out Way Beyond 20 20 years even so you do the best job you can you update it as you know as you get closer in but I don't think I don't think it's just cuz it's hard to predict and there's more variability going forward I I don't think that's a reason to not do it I mean it's not that we wouldn't do it we just do it in a different manner uh there'd still be an equipment replacement schedule out for at least 10 years but it wouldn't be probably part of is included in this it I'm sorry it wouldn't be what it probably would not be included in like in the spreadsheet form so when we presented a budget that probably only show five years but then there'll be a supplementary sheet showing what would go out beyond the 5 year period but we can take a look at that next year and determine if that's the way you want to do it okay it won't be done this year um and I know this is more of a housekeeping thing but on on the 2022 I thought we were going to add in the equipment sale on this schedule that's still to to be done I'll update that right now we can update that right now okay couple other notations on this going forward there's a project or an equipment replacement it's in the schedule for 2026 which is a track tractor storm water Pond mower before we go through with that we'll do an inventory of what we have and actually make sure this is something we need and get more information with that but that'll be a consideration for the following year on that on that topic we've been kind of kicking this can down the road for a couple of years now so do we have an estimated date when we might have a better sense of what ponds are our responsibility versus um private land owners isn't that the question that is the question and and and are we we ever going to have an answer we will we will have an answer okay when we will have an answer for the 2026 budget Janet this will be something we'll start on after it's probably something that's going to be done in December January and February trying to figure out how to come up with all that is a lot of it's literally going to be somebody sitting in front of a paper file and going through developer agreements trying to figure out who own what and who's responsible for what and that's just been kind of a timing thing at the moment so nobody's necessarily had time and I think it might be something that maybe Jack and I have to sit down and talk and maybe we just task somebody with it it may be me it may be one of my guys it could it may be an office staff we don't know who that is at this point but I think it's going to take a little bit of a Time little bit of time to try to power through that so I'm looking at bill I mean in a community like ours where they've you know it's wet everywhere and there are storm water ponds everywhere is there an easier way to figure that out I mean I can't I I can imagine having been part of uh treasure hunts here before for documents you will never be done um so I I just wonder whether or not a better approach would be to you know think about what makes sense and try to create a policy or something around that but or if there's any precedent anywhere else that of of cities that have been facing this and and part of the reason I ask is because you know I have two sitting on my property I've paid to have them dredged out myself there's a a culvert that runs under the road that goes into my yard one of the things you said is if there's a cul it should be the city's responsibility it's probably due to be done again and I'm not I mean I'm just a representative of probably who knows how many are like that here right so I I'm just I'm just curious whether there's a better way to do it than to try to go back and look at developers agreements um one thing we could do uh Mr mayor council member is um my recollection is that most of the the agreements provide that the property owner is responsible um so our default position could and should be that the property owner is responsible unless unless we find out otherwise the only case where that's uh you know in the in the rare instance where the um Pond serves more than one property multiple properties sometimes we've made that a public facility I'm guessing that we haven't been that careful um but uh so I think the default position without doing a lot of review is that that's the property owners responsibility if it's in the four corners of their property and and develop a program around that without having to check through all the documentation the another um approach would be to spot check you know to to pull you know a half a dozen over a half a dozen years or something and just say okay in this spot check we cons consistently found what we thought was the case which the property owner is responsible and then then you have to develop a system of sending notice that it's you know it's time you clean your pond or whatever and I don't know you know if we even have that in ordinance form certainly it would be in the in the development agreement so you could argue that runs with the land anyway um so that would be a way to shortcut it you know just not not have to look at every single property and and put it on a map I mean there must be hundreds of them I mean in my neighborhood alone there's probably I don't know 25 there they they are all over the place there's no doubt about it and and I and I would I would at least again in my neighborhood I think most of them do drain more than one property and we could have a simple excuse me we could have a simple ordinance that basically from this point forward you know covers that responsibility as well so you don't have to look to the developers agreements um and I I think that' be something we could you know check with the league pull out a model and then you know just start uh you know modestly in the next 12 months giving notices to the oldest ponds you know moving forward the oldest neighborhoods and just kind of roll it that way so are you so I just want understand this and I get that where this is just conversation but if I have a pond on my property I'm responsible even though it was put in during a development or would it be a so I was the lucky one that Drew the pond on my property and I'm stuck with potentially a $20,000 fix well again that's where um if you let's say you get the notice from the city clean your pond yep um you would then be able to provide documentation well no this is a community pond it's an HOA pond I don't know if you're within an HOA um but but that would then give the property owner the ability to say well um it's not just serving my property it's serving uh a development and in in that case there's likely an HOA or should be um and if or if there's an easement that that serves multiple properties so you know that's where that's where Jim's approach of investigating each and every property well then you'd have a you'd have a better record um but that's a lot of work and you know it's going to create a whole system of you know following up with property owners whereas I I think if you had a generalized ordinance if there's a if there's a pond on your property you need to clean it you know whatever the normal cycle would be so if that's 15 years 20 years I looked at the engineer on that but um so I'm just trying to give you some some shortcuts um I'm sure there's a little I'm not sure but I would guess there's some guys guidance on the League's uh kind of toolkit of things um if not we could certainly help come up with something a simple ordinance that makes this that not just it it doesn't supersede the requirements of the development agreement but it would um kind of uh supplement the requirements of a development agreement so that we wouldn't have to get into a tug-of-war with property owners who say well I don't have a development agreement well the ordinance you know covers that so um Jim and Kevin so we get you know we get cup puds for developments you know like like the one that went in St Clair lakes and stuff um those I mean the developer is required to drain the land drain the water properly in that development it's not kind of on a per parcel basis it's over the entire development so to me it seems like if your home is in a development that was you know you didn't just buy a parcel of land and put up a house and there was a Ponder or two you had to put in there because you built the house that seems like that would be a really clear case where the pond is the responsibility of the landowner but in a development it seems to me like that's you can't pin that on any one landowner because it's serving multiple properties so that's so that was my thought to you right so my thought was you look at somebody comes in and they build a development the development has 20 homes in it let's just use prer preserve right now that that one's private but they do contract the city to do the maintenance on it right but nevertheless that drains that whole development and that was built as part of that development to drain everyone's property or the roadway MH I mean my thought was you look at the you know each development right every every development around here has a name right St Clair Lakes primer preserve whatever you look at that and those homes that were built in that development in my head would be responsible for that cost how do you get there does the city drive that project and then they get assessed for it I have no idea what that answer would be but I'm more on your wavelength that it would be a whole development CU I I have a pond on my property at home there's a culvert that comes across the road from my neighbor's house I happen to be on the lower end everybody's property drains towards mine and then drains into a pond in my yard yeah so I mean hypothetically it's draining eight or 10 Homes at this point so you know what I mean so that that's my that was my thought anyways if if we're wrong on that then no you're not wrong I I think you know usually we would look at the either the um the development agreement the HOA documents the easement that established the pond in the first place and it should say something about maintenance and it should say who's responsible for maintenance I was trying to come up with a shortcut yeah um that that allows us to assign that responsibility generally to a property owner but that's usually where there's one Pond serving one property a commercial property owner for instance um you know obviously if you're part of a development then and everybody in the devel vment benefits system ofs then it then that responsibility belongs to everybody within the development it's hard it's hard though in a situation where there's no HOA I don't know how you I don't know how you do that you would um most of the time um and I have to look at some of the documents most of the time that becomes a responsibility of the successor to the developer which is everybody in the development and um it allows the city to come in and assess that cost so it's kind of like a road project you'd handle like a road project y so the city would do the maintenance like we do in prer preserve and then assess in prer preserve it's the HOA um but in the case of a development then we would assess each individual property in appropriate amount yeah and I think you would over time you'd have a rolling program uh based on the age of the development oldest first of course where you'd send out notice to the property owners it's time to to clean your ponds um here's here's a list of you know services that do that if it's not done within the next 12 months we're going to come in and do it and we'll assess you and and you know that gives the property owners the choice of going out into the private Market or waiting for the city to come do it but I would only do that if it was a private pond if it was a situation that we're talking about I think we have to come up with kind of like you would for a road project yeah I mean you you would almost probably have to have a neighborhood meeting call call that whole development and maybe some show maybe some don't but you know you try to cover as many people as you can and talk about what needs to happen and I I think I think this needs to be this this is a bigger conversation which is why we haven't really got into it yet because it's kind of hard to wrap your head around and well and and and I'm bringing it up cuz I've brought it up for the last few years but this year in particular it's been super wet M and if you know my pond is over flowed in my backyard is been pretty much underwater for most of the summer and you know you get another couple Summers or years like that and people are going to start having problems with water in their house oh no agree wholeheartedly so I I just and I'm not saying it cuz I'm worried about my house cuz I'm up pretty high I mean but it's going to be a problem so yeah we we've had some conversations Elizabeth and I had conversations ations with about it just trying to wrap our head around how to figure out I mean we know where the information's at but now I mean we're going to be flipping through paper to try to get there and and figure it out and it's just it's a it's a pretty big animal in that sense I mean we're trying to cover 48 square miles I get there's a portion of it that's you know DNR and you know that goes away but a fair amount of developments in town that we got to try to work through so a lot of the information can be easily found on the plats that would be the first starting point is to pull a plat of a subdivision if it's not in a subdivision there's probably not going to be any type of potentially public or private ponds unless they were required by Rice Creek in that case it would probably always be private so that would be a good starting point but like we say this is part of a larger conversation and a bigger problem but I think we need to start somewhere and somewhere is getting that inventory developed mhm yeah and I think you know it drives it drives the need for equipment and that was my purpose for bringing it up right and and May and maybe we start by identifying where all the ponds are and how many we have mapping those out and then try to figure out then try to break those out into developments and then you know name them so so I mean you just got to try to power through it rather than dig through every I I don't know how our files are here I know there's property files but I don't know if there's development files either I I I have no idea how our system works so I've got a question why why is this an issue now I mean how many years has Columbus been around have you ever cleaned out one of these ponds no I so so the pro but I do deal with water every year right so this year is obviously another exceptional year right where I get calls for water all the time so you know when a development's new nobody calls for water because everything drains the way that it's supposed to drain um But as time goes you know everybody has nice yards around here and you have this nice little pond on the side of your property I mean you drive through some developments and that's where everybody's yard waste goes so now the pond loses capacity and it doesn't doesn't drain the way that it's supposed to um and then it starts backing up or you know somebody puts in a driveway with no Calvert or you I mean there's all sorts of all sorts of things that happen I mean Columbus is flat you have 10 Gophers that dig in a ditch and now all of a sudden I'm backing up water so I mean there's all sorts of you know goofy little nuances that can happen and it's a problem that we've known about but just it's such a big animal and really to be quite honest with you not enough manpower to go after it in identifying or doing the work I just wondered if they changed the law or some state law no cuz I know that the forest lake does a lot of they do cuz Forest Lake is an ms4 Community we are not yet I I don't know I don't know that yeah I don't know if we ever will be or not I don't I think that's population driven 5,000 5,000 so so I mean there's some nuances for us to grow to 5,000 and some for us to stay under 5,000 so um you know it's just it's kind of one of those things I've talked in years past um about you know storm water assessment fees or you know different things because you know we got to do ditch cleaning and Culver work and you know pond maintenance and all of those things that to be quite honest with he is very expensive and we don't budget for that here so you know if if we run into something like that we're trying to you know pull money from something else and we and we've added money in budgets so I have a decent Culvert budget so I can do work that way or use that money to to try to remedy issues and things so we've been okay but you know we're not doing that type of Maintenance that other communities are are doing that that are required to do well another way and here here again we're probably getting a little off topic is to form storm water utility districts which is a means to do assessments especially for things coming in and maintenance of future projects but uh I really think the inventory would be very B able to have it's the first step in going in any direction okay sorry I didn't mean to open Pandora's Box it just it always I mean that always happens you know you somebody talks about something or you see something and it Spurs a conversation that you didn't plan on having but they're always good to have right so I'm writing down we'll start to work on this in December okay you got it I've got it written down here all right so was there anything else on this schedule that changed from the last time we saw it I didn't bring my old version so no okay so Jim that vent track there we don't have anything to do so so we have a skid steer and we have a brush mower on it but that's not something that I can take into prer preserve and moow because the houses are right there and you you know the mower that we have it it throws a lot of material out it's a it's a brush mower right so my fear would be that we would be in there you know trying to be as careful as possible but you know a branch goes and sticks into somebody's siding or breaks a window or you know what I mean it's not necessarily the right piece of equipment for that so you know we have to be uberly cautious when we're in there doing work and it's you know they're they're there are different pieces of equipment that you can use so different types of heads or different mowers or you know things like that so yeah I thought when you were cleaning out storm water I thought you using back RS if you so so you have the storm water ponds yeah but you also have the drainage ditches that get to them so all of that stuff and then you know also you got the maintenance areas to get to those so um there's more than just the pond so you know there's catch basins um that you need to identify you need to check culverts make sure they're clean free of debris I mean there's a whole list of things that you need to do um and it takes a little bit of time so you know you send a guy out there to mow potentially he's mowing for a couple of days and then you know when you're done with that then you're out there looking at the you know the drainage waves the ditch lines and the in the culs and the basins to make sure that you know they're not cracked or they're leaking or you know full of debris or you know have animal nests in them or whatever so I mean there's there's a lot of different things to do and I have I have a list of a checklist that says hey we're doing this this this and this and it to be honest with you it follows that ms4 policy we're just not required to do all the reporting so I figured I'm going to come up with a plan and that's what I'm going to use and if someday we are required to do ms4 Then I then I already have the paperwork that's that's how we're maintaining it so thank you mhm Janet that number has been added under the 2022 column for that resale it's actually in these notes at the bottom of the page we just hadn't entered it into the column I just assumed if you add it in the column then it's going to increase the carry forward mhm yes just by formula so that's that's why I wanted to see it there the only other item and I will mention this too in some discussions that we've had is moving forward is how much we Levy each year for our transfer for equipment replacement funding uh we want to make sure we have a budget that that's why we would go out and project this out Beyond 5 years but uh that's something we'll take a closer look at too to make sure that it's not over levied but it's not under levied either does anybody else have any more questions on this is the is the first um um page of this in response to a question of what the carry forward balance is I mean this isn't this isn't a budget right or is this no this is part of the capital Improvement plan for the the park assets I'm looking at the first page so you're doing the park land fund well I don't know did what order did you want to go through this I mean I'll do it however you want so you're looking at Schedule D yes sir yes this is part of the capital Improvement plan the only thing that relates to the budget on these things will be transfers in this budget their funding sources part dedication fees so if you'll look at beginning balance two items down from that says part dedications so this one shows no funding uh for the upcoming years generally because it's too varable to guesstimate uh we talked earlier when there was some hope about Reviving The Apartment Complex should that have gone through we've collected over $100,000 in park dedication fees so uh that's one we have to examine each year on a yearly basis to see if any of those projects going forward can be funded to this account so so the the current fund balance is 105,000 938 is that right correct and they don't and they don't anticipate spending any money in 2025 correct okay does anybody have any more questions on Schedule D Park land fund the next is schedule Fe which is the Fire Equipment Capital fund that's one that we got these numbers came from the Forest Lake Fire Department they provided us with the information on this uh Jesse and I met with them in March and Jesse and I and Ron met with them in March and then Jesse Rob and I met with them in July uh this is when we got this latest schedule so that's what they're projecting to be spending going forward the big ticket item in there comes out though in 2031 that's when they proposed to buy a ladder truck for what they're estimating now is at $3 million so our share would be 600,000 of that uh you know if you look at what we're leving going up to 2030 it looks like it's excessive but if they do purchase that that ladder truck is going to be quite a hit on what we have in that account but that would be more than enough to cover it is this the is this the budget that they were um earlier talking about having that robot that would put out EV fires it it is but it's not included in this that would come out of a special State Grant fund okay so we wouldn't have to pay for any of that all right Jack what was the total cost for the new ladder truck $3 million that's what they projected and our portion is 600 600,000 correct so why is the 600,000 across from other rather than at the bottom where it says ladder truck that's where it should be J it's the bottom where it says ladder truck it's just been misplaced okay this is an easy one I took that page pretty easy are there any other questions on this fund no questions just sticker shock but didn't he say they paid 800,000 when they bought it 20 years ago or 30 years ago or whatever that's correct hey yeah yeah yeah of course if you're on the top floor and there's a fire you're glad they have a ladder yeah mhm if there are no qu more questions on this one we can always come back to it if you'd like or if you have any questions you're looking forward you're looking to it in your spare time give us a call we we'll be glad to answer talk to you anytime moving to schedule F which is the fire hall Capital fund this is the fund where we paid the roof replace M cost from which we did earlier this year which was $70,000 and there are no projected projects here going forward in this these are probably going to be for things that come up one of the things that I can see that could happen if you had to replace a garage door there that would be a very expensive project uh other than that I don't see a whole lot of things that could possibly go wrong but you never know what can happen but garage doors are always a possibility uh that building's how old gy say again how old is the building 1998 1998 so uh that that's one thing that I could foresee Could Happen may not happen but it could happen in the future that we'd have to be prepared to pay some substantial money to get that replaced or repaired so I have a question maybe I'm just not reading this correctly so if you look at at uh proposed budget 2027 the ending balance is 95,7 in 2028 we Levy 18,250 there is no expenses and the ending balance is 79,500 so how come we went down when there's no expenses and we've added 18250 to the pot that that's a good catch when we went through this thing we found several erors errors in some of the formulas this is one that we missed then well I think and and I think there's a couple of other that look the same way you know in 2028 then you add another 20 you 189 and and the and the numbers don't change between 28 and 29 so there's a formula problem somewhere yeah we we we'll get that rectified so it'll all carry out consecutively the the only other comment on this too even though and there may be some slight changes in this but at the end of that period with what we're transferring we would still we would have about $120,000 in that fund uh and we currently had 104 starting out this year so uh there shouldn't be I think that's probably a pretty good allocation to keep it is in in an area where we need to be to try to cover any unanticipated cost with that if we want to move on if there's no more questions to schedule G which is a general fund Capital uh that relates to several items revolving things we need to do for maybe it systems security systems City Hall future repair generator uh the biggest change in that one was there was a category called New City Hall which was put out for about 2030 which had a $2 million price tag in it we've changed that potential City Hall repair uh the only the thing we need to do is in my opinion is to get some type of a an inspection of this building to check for any structural issues and maybe some issues in terms of maybe providing a few more things possibly in the future with maybe an extra office space in here or a conference room so the big thing in there would be to get some type of a certified building inspector or a structural person to come in and look especially some of the roof Tresses the post supporting this building and make sure that we're structurally okay and then come up with something if we need to do repairs then we can do that in the future so the other thing that maybe we want to look at is a generator for this building uh if we do ever have a major catastrophe in Columbus this is probably going to be command headquarters and uh having power and those situations is essential a generator or something like a fire Tru you only need it when it's an absolute emergency uh but when you need it you got to have it so uh that's something we might want to consider um when we met last time on this I thought that the new fiber line 15,000 I thought that was not needed anymore I talked with Phil and Phil said he was almost certain that it wasn't I would say that we leave that or just push that out in there just in case there's an issue but we can move that out into 2026 so that wouldn't be part of next year's budget well but if we I I thought um Rob had actually looked up kind of like what the lifespan of fiber was and it was like way out there again I'm just I'm I'm opposed to putting money in the budget if if we really aren't don't I mean if there's not some anticipation that we need it cuz then we Levy for it and then we sit on it we can we can remove it or we can push it out it doesn't really matter because we do have some fairly good certainties that there's no issues in the fiber line I'd take it out Jack what's that parking lot Paving City Hall finish in 2026 that would be something if we wanted to consider repaving finishing the parking lot out here that's just a something that's just a number for your consideration if you want to do it if not then we just take it out of there too I'm wondering if some of these things are better represented in a note section rather than actually plugging them into the schedule like you know kind of a note to yourself or to a future Council in 2025 readdress Paving the parking lot estimated at $150,000 and that way no one no one cuz when you put it in in a budget like or in a schedule like this it makes it look like well that's a done deal we're going to do it and we haven't actually decided we're going to do it so I I have two questions about that first of all when you say we Levy for it mhm do we Levy for this I didn't think we did the only thing we would Levy for is the transfer for 2025 what line is that and that's under budget under beginning balance and that shows we've levied $115,000 for this category but isn't the amount that shows there I mean in anticipation of the expenses that follow so if the expenses are there we're I mean we're not leving for things that are 5 years out but for the next year we're leving for them and I'm saying if we're not going to do it let's take it out and that's one thing that we could adjust the levy on to make sure it corresponds to what the scheduled improvements or approved improvements are and then and then the other one is more of a perception so you know somebody looks at this and they see $150,000 for parking lot Paving in 2026 when I see that in a budget like this I assume well than they're going to do it I mean that's what're yeah I I get that and I I didn't I thought we weren't budgeting for it or not levying for it correct so and that that is that is a very easy misconception to make with these Capital Improvement plans is you're thinking well this is going to be done in 2026 2027 2028 the only thing when we approve these it's only for the upcoming year subsequent years are just in there as potential projects and they're addressed in the year that they occur or projecting to occur yeah that's what I thought it was similar to the other sheet we looked at which had numbers in there but we're not budgeting for them they're just kind of on the horizon to that's that's correct so what's different on that one than this one should be the same what so yeah and you just said to take them out of the other one so I was wondering why to take it out of that but leave it in this no I'm saying take it out of this one too so so what I what I remember Elizabeth would do is she'd talk about cash flowing something so she'd plug in these numbers and estimate sort of a levy and then you know look at the bottom number and say when are we going to run out of money like when do we have to start plugging more money in this and I I realize that we're only talking about leving for the following year and that you'd have to make adjustments based on you know what these things really cost and stuff so there's there's sort of two things if you're putting a big expense out there 7 years from now and she look she and this is how she did it you guys might do it differently 7 years from now and she sees that you're starting to go negative 3 years from now she's going to up that Levy so that she's not negative and if that's something we're not certain we're going to do in seven years I don't want to do that because we now know that we we've got a good you know pretty good uh pot of money that we're sitting on probably because of that sort of methodology so I don't want to lose track of it though so I think that's where the notes section is helpful you know so you add it in the notes section so the next year you you talk about it and you decide are you going to do it or you're not going to do it you're going to kick the can down the road again but that way you're not you're not building it into the the the levying or C you know looking at it from a cash flow standpoint and panicking because you're going to you're going to go underwater in two years yeah and that's why I wanted to have this discussion and we talked about this briefly before is especially in this one some of these Levy projections could potentially be uced beginning for 2026 2027 or 2028 so going forward because this one shows right now that there would be a balance of $461,000 in this with what we have on here projected so my question would be then what projects do you want to do with what's on here and what don't you want to do because in past conversations we've always talked about going out to 2030 with with information M so now I'm hearing that we don't want to do that you didn't hear that from me I I that's just what I that's what I think I'm hearing right now is if we want to take this stuff off then we're not projecting out with things that we think are projects I'm I'm I am suggesting we take out the things that we've not decided we're going to do and we've not decided we're going to do the parking lot but if we decide tonight we are leave it in there that's not I mean that's not been we've talked about it but there hasn't been any sort of consensus that yeah we're going to do it which is why you only did half of it a year or two ago right we didn't want we did like 10% of it okay whatever but yeah no right yeah so so the so the reason that it's on there and the reason that we've talked about doing this a couple of years now is we rent out the facility and it's not necessarily cohesive to have people roll in and out of here in the winter time is when the Lions Club use it right so you know we try to maintain it as best we can it's painful the plow not being black top and portions of it being black top because you take last year the ground wasn't Frozen and we got a couple of snowfalls but not many and it's it's hard to move that out of here um in some cases but what happens then is it'll freeze cuz you don't you're trying to leave a little bit and then it gets icy so then you put some salt down or some sand down and then you know what I mean it's just not it's not a great place to move people in and out of at that point that was our thought process thinking you know we don't want anybody to fall down and get hurt um so you know we're trying to come up with things to be as safe as possible that was our initial conversation I'm going to say maybe two years ago and and it's kind of been sitting out here um we had some conversations I agree yeah we had some conversations last year and I think four out of the five members want to repave the parking lot but so I I mean it wasn't an official vote but we decided to leave it in there but if we don't have if we're not levying for that in this budget then why not leave it in so I'm just suggesting we decide if we're going to do it or not if we decide we're going to do it leave it in if we decide we're not going to do it or we're going to kick it down the you know to 2027 or whenever then we take it out because otherwise otherwise we're putting money in the bank for something that's not not certain that we're going to do it that's all I mean I and I'm not saying we shouldn't do it so if we took that out if we took the 150,000 out for the parking lot then our Levy would go down we we would just change the levy amount right so that would help reduce the levy amount on the total budget right so the figure the line across where it says budget and you see those Levy amounts for each year they start consistent at 115 beginning in 2024 across the page you could do a reduction in those well it would be zero or it would be so so so there's a couple of Big Ticket items like that that I don't remember us for sure I mean I remember that we had the new city hall out there and when it was 2031 or whatever I and I don't think it's a bad idea to put money aside cuz ultimately someday we're going to do it but the amount of money is dependent on how many years out you think you're going to do it right and I think that what Jack was suggesting in terms of getting an assessment of the structural Integrity of this building and stuff will help us figure that out right I mean if they come back and say you know you're not going to win any designer Awards but this this place is going to you know pretty solid and you don't have any big structural problems you could probably operate out here for another 30 years that might change your mind about when you want to build a new city hall or change a future council's mind whatever so I think that that's a really good plan cuz it'll give you solid information rather than us just kind of pulling stuff out of the air and I but I just I think we've you know we've kind of just been passively going along with whatever the numbers have been here and and I just think a better process would be let's just decide if we're going to do some of these things if we're going to do take a vote and if we say we're going to do it then put it in there and if we say we're not going to do it then either put it in the note section to readdress at a later time or push it out whatever the the direction is the four the $400,000 in the city hall renovation I mean I think that's too much in the absence of information well and again the these are just projections it could be a 100,000 could be more than that but and this is more of a perception thing Jack I get that that's you know it's not going to affect our Levy for this year but again somebody sees that there's going to be two new council members that come on next year we'll forget what we talked about today next year when we're doing this and somebody's going to think well that was already that's well we're doing that aren't we I mean what's what R what's what's the renovation what's the $400,000 for because there's no notes here that that tie to it so I just think we should be intentional if it's in this budget it's because we've decided we're going to do it if it's not if it's if if we're still thinking about it I think it should be in a note section that's my recommendation and I'm okay and voting on any of these things tonight or whenever you want to vote on them I just well for some of I think you need some more information before you vote on them and I have no problem with taking this out of the this I mean I think your I think your recommendation to get a generator yes I think we should vote on that tonight I think you should put it in the budget and we should do that because that makes a lot of sense to me we don't have backup power here that will sustain us for any length of time and that seems like a risky thing for a city to you know be banking that we're not going to have you know a situation where that could basically take us offline for days and if we're going to do that then I think we should move that the the only thing that you're voting to approve when you do vote to approve this is what's under 2025 so I would recommend if that's going to be something we want to consider a year early we move it over to that column the 400,000 under City Hall repair under 2027 we could put that under a note section I have no problem with that because that's one thing we really do need more information on before you can come up with a more solid number and then remind me is the $100,000 for wall mold was that I don't remember I mean I remember we talked about a problem with mold but I don't remember this the specifics is that a is that a for sure thing I'll let Jim update you on that so so we built the Public Works building there were some issues with it um we ended up doing a league of Minnesota City's claim they fixed the roof and they did some work to the walls but the walls are not fixed if that makes sense um they condensate and I've pulled a couple of panels off here in there to just check it cuz it's not that hard to do and the and the insulation in there is moldy which is not necessarily a good thing now the doors are open there's good air flow in there um it hasn't been an issue at this point like nobody's getting sick but not saying that um we shouldn't look at it and try to remedy that situation at some point that's why it's on there so $100,000 is a wild guess right so is this a is this something where you bring in someone who's an expert in and they come assess it and then they say here's what you need to do to fix this they say that one more time um is this a situation where you bring in an expert like you would for the the structural Integrity for this building so you bring somebody in who does mold abatement they look at it they say well here's what you need to do to get rid of it or to and then you budget for that so is that is that the plan is that what this $100,000 as for us to bring somebody in to do that assessment for us that would be the assessment in just an estimated place placeholder cost for the remediation so would it make sense to have the assessment in 20125 cost and not put anything in there for remediation until cuz I mean that can be really you could almost have to rebuild the damn building so I I don't know I wouldn't put anything in there for the REM remediation until you've got somebody to tell us how bad it is and what it's going to take to get rid of it or if it's not bad enough that you have to worry about it I don't know right no that would be that would be a logical step I bet you could tell us how much a mold assessment cost Jesse didn't you I said I bet you could tell us how much a mold assessment cost you just went through it didn't you I didn't do it but shelle's sister did and it was 350,000 no well that was to get rid of it but just to have some AC come in and test you just did that and that's just for a house his size so I don't know what it would cost in your in your situation but you know so our building in the summertime the doors are open all all the time so it's not not as much of a big deal in the winter time we run the air exchanger so we're we're moving air because we know that we have that trouble mhm um and and again knock on wood we have not had any issues but we know that there's some there so it's and and potentially the walls are com condensating so we we know that we have an issue we don't know what the fix is at the moment um we've just kind of talked about it for the last few years like we need to do something again um but but haven't haven't tackled it yet well I think I think you should get an assessment I mean it's it could probably be an oosha problem if you just know about it and you don't do anything about it so you should at least get it defined and then y I agree budget it for there I think it's kind of a dual project the walls are condensating is that needs to be fixed mhm and then everything else is a remedy after that cuz you're going to ultimately need new insulation and and that type of stuff too so it you know it's not necessarily a mold R mold remediation I think it's more of a we need to figure out the condensation problem the mold is the secondary effect to it which is you know a big problem but you know if we just replace the insulation that's not going to cure our problem we're just going to end up doing it again so so is it two different people coming in someone to say why is it why is there condensation and another one to come in and measure what mold is actually in the building so you know whether or not to me if if it was me I would probably call somebody in to say we need to figure out how to get rid of the um moisture coming in and then we just replace the insulation after that and so I I don't I don't think we go after the mold I think we go after the condensation problem and then you know once you when you're working on the condensation problem I think the mold problem goes away so you're going to ultimately end up replacing the insulation that's in there with something different potentially spray foam or something of that sort and it and it's you know then that problem goes away does that make sense mhm yeah I don't know I don't know I mean once you have mold you got spores going all over the place and then if you have spores going all over the place they might be going places where they're getting trapped in other insulation that's not wet and and then I don't know if that that creates the problem I don't know enough about this I think it's worth asking the question I mean maybe you do it do it in an in a order that makes sense so attack the condensation problem first and then have somebody come in and measure what the mold levels are we could that's what I think we should budget for in 2025 okay we will get some numbers and put in there what happens to the 35,000 that we budgeted in 2024 for the building security system cuz we're not we decided not to do that at this point we're going to relook at that uh again if we do it it would probably be something we wouldn't do till 2025 but uh I think it Bears us to reexamine that uh security systems are becoming more and more necessary uh what we're going to do I have a contact that's going to give me a call and kind of given a a proposal and outline some things which means we' also get some other quotes but uh this would kind of give a framework for determining what our basic needs are for camera systems and I would also like to include something in there too for an alarm system too for doors and window openings sometimes I think those are the best deterrent C cameras are something that are very reactive alarm system is more proactive y okay but the the dollars if we don't do it this year does that roll to next year we so then our correct the budget number would be up 35,000 correct correct but then are you going to put a dollar amount in 2025 then or are you just going to move it over Well what we'll probably do is just move it over because we probably won't have an opportunity maybe to do it this year uh so we can just roll that over to 2025 I do want to get the proposal first and hopefully we can get get something in there in about a week and get a better idea oh so we could maybe still do it this year so when we bring this back as a final we'll know exactly where that number go to go all right are there any other questions yeah I do Jack so so this mold thing is getting expensive so let's take that $150,000 for the parking lot and and do what take half that and designate it toward the mold no I mean the parking lot has been fine for 175 years right we just decided to take out the parking lot we're taking that out so yay but then but and we're going to reduce the other one to an assessment fee for both the condensation whatever and so change 100,000 to what zero or the 150,000 taken out and the 100,000 I don't know is whatever your going to be do an assessment so it's looking way better 10 or 20 I I they'll have to come back to us with that because I'm sure they'll have to call some people to find out for a building that size what it would [Music] cost but I think we should put it on the agenda of some meeting to look at what it would cost to do the parking lot and do a vote I don't know if needs to be this year because it wouldn't be in the budget for next year but I know every it just seemed like everybody was in favor of it most people were in favor of it we didn't have a estimate I don't think so just to make sure that everybody understands and I I don't want to make it sound like nobody does but we we put money away so get my glasses on here if we do all of those projects in 2025 our ending balance will be $456,000 in our Capital fund right that we've already levied for so this money is sitting in the bank if next year you decided that you wanted to do the black top project and it was $142,500 you have the money to do that so this sheet is merely a schedule to say this is what we would like to do the only thing that we are going to do is what's in 2025 everything after that is we'll call it a wish list we'll call it a project list we'll call it whatever we want just because is out there don't mean that we're going to do it and there may be something that we add to it because something comes up so it you know what I mean so this is just we're budgeting money to do things the easy one for me is looking at the equipment fund we have an equipment schedule 10 years for trucks 12 years for dump trucks the equipment is in that 10 to 12E range maybe 15 depending on what it is or if we talk about um buyback programs and we buy warranties like we talked about with the grader and the loader we're not tied into that but those are at seven years so we budget money and we Levy money to cover those projects that we've talked about and that we schedule out so that's why that's why it's important to have these conversations so we know what to put in here to make sure that we're levying enough or not too much does that make sense well it that makes sense but that's doesn't sound like what I just heard that if that 150,000 in the black in the parking lot is not affecting our Levy for this year because it's out correct so this year we're going to Levy $115,000 or for 2025 so if you look at that budget number on the top mhm that's the levy number that's how much money will get levied to go into this fund right so why are we leving 115 when we're not going to spend 115 I mean it's for the other projects in the future but we're not going be so so here's how so I have a little history and this as well as we and I understand how we've done it in the past and that's why we did it so the reason that this number is 115,000 it used to be we'll call it 15,000 the Public Works building was paid off I believe last year or the year before one of the two and we talked about at the council level during budgeting that we can either not Levy that $100,000 anymore that we bonded for or we could roll it into this for future stuff future city hall is what we kind of talked about at that point MH so and I do remember that conversation though so that that's why that number is as high as it is is because that 100,000 from the public sorry Public Works building came into this fund okay but you know as what we learned this year for the first time is that we're sitting on a pretty good pile of cash yep and more than what are what is the recommended amount per the auditor so what and I think you know that's a good problem to have right but I don't want to continue the process of accumulating way more money than we intend to spend cuz it's coming out of taxpayers pockets and they'd much rather have it sit in their pocket than sit in ours I I I no argument for me so so even though what we're really loving for is what you know we're expecting in 2025 the other part of that is again at least in the past it's projecting out these projects and how much are you going to need if you're going to pay it off in five years or you're going to I'm sorry do a big project in five years or S years or 3 years or whatever and then we would look at the the bottom number to see when it is that we start looking like we're going to go underwater and you adjust the levy accordingly correct so so my so I think you're right what we what I thought we just agreed on is we take the things out of these future years that we haven't said for sure we're going to do we put that in a note so we don't forget to talk about it the next time around and then we look to see what that does and if it and maybe we don't do 115,000 this year maybe we do 75,000 or maybe we decide we're not going to do any Levy for this fund because we're going to use cash that we already have on hand I'm not saying we should do any of those things I'm just saying that's the conversation we will have well that that is making more sense to me now and I agree we should lower it because if we don't have it for sure planned I mean we should at most Levy for what we plan to spend which is well I guess that does come to about 115 um for next year which is the 45 plus oh no it's just 65 MH yep then that's what we should love it's not even 65 cuz we're taking the fiber line out okay we decided that's probably not going to have to be replaced so it would be the 45 for a generator so 50,000 and that 5,000 may need to go up a little bit but that's that's pretty well in the Bol part so the other thought process in the and I'm not trying to sway anybody in any in any way shape or form here having having this Capital plan the intent is to Levy some appropriate amount to cover your funds so your budget doesn't do this so hypothetically let's just say somebody just made the statement that maybe we don't Levy anything this year because we don't have a project right so so now your your Levy is going to drop 115,000 and then next year you say shoot we're going to do the parking lot and now we only got 20 grand so we're going to so now we're going to Levy 150 so we can do it the next year right and that would be normal rid of the and valleys I I understand and that's why we were doing it until we found out what jenet just said mhm that we have some extra cash that's sitting there and we there's no reason to not pull from that if something came up that we didn't have planned right and then I think the important thing is to talk in in more definite terms about these projects rather than how we talk about it now like well I don't know here's the here's our wish list and then it's like well let's put it down you know we and and it's like no we should really decide if we're gonna we're going to you know have to do some major structural Renovations in here find out what it's going to cost figure out what if we don't have the money then plan for 3 years or whatever it is well so trust me too I want you to make a definite plan yeah because it's a lot of work to go through and figure out cost on all this stuff just for information well and I also think that you know every two years you potentially have new people sitting here and a lot Gets Lost in Translation a lot gets lost from turnover even with staff turnover I mean we're we're suffering through a lot of that right now um in various different ways and so I think we should be clear about what we plan to do and and by keep track of the stuff that's sort of a wish list somewhere else is there I I I get confused and I get back online then I get confused because we talk about this big pile of money but there's no number is there a number we've seen a pentative number just this there's there's we currently have a cash balance of about $1,300,000 of that though approximately 4 million is tied up for dedicated Bond payments some of it is in excess of what we have to do but we have to have those payments in the bank a year in advance there's potential in that though to pay off some of our bonds when they become callable the next Bond that becomes callable is in 27 we also have a set of funds that are highly restricted which is the tourism tax money which is $288,000 there's some deed money which is about $ 110 which can only be used for setting up revolving loan funds uh there's our Enterprise funds which are restricted the operation of our water and sewer project and then there's those things like our Park dedication fees and a couple of our other capital accounts and those account for about I believe close to $2 million so you take all that away from the $1,300,000 and we've got about $4.4 million which is ex which is essentially our budget for the Year let outside of any revenues from property taxes and I think it's more than that because I think a lot of those things that you just talked about with the bonds and stuff are higher than what I mean I I think it'll be I think it will be more than that maybe it'll be5 or $6 million but the recommendation is to have 50% of your annual budget in cash and that would put us at more like $2.5 million that we should have well I remember the account or whatever making that that number but I so it's really spread out it isn't like well we got this sitting over here 5 million it's little piece here a little piece there and it all adds up correct but there there is there is some things that we can do we've had looked at a few preliminary things and had some discussions one of the things that we called and checked on was okay we have some of this excess money in these Bond accounts can we use that to pay off a bond there's one bond that we have I can't remember what the name of it is but it was like $1.4 million that's the one we checked on but we can't pay anything off on it until 2027 so we'll be giving you some more options on how to use some of that fund but get getting back to this General capital budget worksheet one thing we can do is look at adjusting that Levy because as you can see beyond 2027 on this schedule and this schedule is just put on here as kind of a placeholder uh we show no projects I think one of the big things is going to be determined what we find out if there's any cost that we're going to have to put into this building or what the cost may be for the public works issue about condensation and mold and I think there is room to start looking at some of those other funds to see if they can be applied to other sources or even to reduce down the leving so that we're clear when we see the the next iteration of this we're going to take out the 150 we're going to take out the 100 I'm looking in 2026 right now we're going to take out the 400 and we'll put those in the note section do I have that right yep and take out the one more time J yep um the 150 I'm looking under the 2026 so the 150 that's going to go out the 100 is going to go out and in the 20127 the 400's going to go out okay I think the 10,000 that's in 2027 for is that for the copier printer that makes sense the 25 in the computer back is that the computer backup system I it's hard to see nope City Hall renovation I don't know I mean that's probably a fine number to start with if that's what you you know we we know that there's going to be some things we're going to have to do here so so I I would be happy with that and then and then carry that philosophy through all of these schedules all these Capital fund schedules and and then as we you know as things come up let's just make up our mind yes we're going to do it no we're not going to do it or we need this information first before we decide and then schedule whoever you have to schedule to come in and advise us um the other one was the uh under 2025 the 15,000 for the new fiber line that was either going to go away or be pushed out that's going to that's going to go away cuz we've been told we don't need that thank you that you I miss that one did did Rob say that was fiber was 40 years I thought he said that yeah that's what I remember too so that fiber line is about a if I remember right 2008 be a long time I won't be I won't be I won't be on Council then neither I won't be here either no that was the last one all right we'll make those changes and [Applause] adjustments and then in 2025 do you do you add an amount for the whatever the assessment's going to be when you find that out for the what you would add in the cost of the assessment whenever you find that out for the Public Works building yes so so the real Nuance for me on the Public Works building it doesn't condensate in the summer only in the winter so so I can have I can get a price on an assessment they just can't do it because it's not going to condensate in the summer but it wouldn't happen till next year anyway we're just yep so so they do it in the summer of 2025 huh they would do it in the summer of 2025 yes yes which is what we're budgeting for so that makes sense y so I I just want to clarify that that you know I can't I can't do anything with it till winter because that's you know it's cold outside and it's warm in the building so then we end up with condensation not not today okay and then I I think I'll so whatever money you need to put in there to have somebody look at this place structurally right that's the other piece that's not in there right now it's in there now it's listed as $5,000 I think it'll be more than that don't you I think we probably should bump that up okay [Applause] are we done with this unless anybody has any more questions that's all I have for [Applause] [Applause] this for we ready to move on to our next topic Mr Mayor sure okay hang on all right city engineer good evening mayor and city council member uh One update and then um an action item uh city of Forest Lake continues to work on their upgrade Improvement for Eureka Avenue which ties into our Hornsby Avenue um Street and uh they're also um doing some design work some preliminary design work on our portion of the road as well um they're looking at uh applying they' they're applying with the DNR because it's all under DNR property to get a permit to do this road Improvement um they're saying that's probably going to be a year approval uh process uh so they're looking at sometime in 2025 starting that project but it's going to probably roll into 2026 before it's completely done uh so they're also doing some of the environmental work on it which also includes our portion of the project and so what they're doing right now is applying for uh to the Local Government Road Wetland replacement program uh because of the some of the Wetland impacts that are involved uh since we're kind of tied in there uh they also requested that we need we need to um sign off on that application uh through through that program and so um what I'm requesting is authorization for the mayor uh to sign that application and we'll tie that in with with their application as well this is for wetland credits through the Bowser Bank basically so we use that on the west fre Ray Drive project as well so so they will apply they'll submit the application yeah on our next year they would hopefully do the get the application through 2025 and then do the project and end of next summer or the next year 2026 well there's some different processes here so this this particular Wetland replacement application um goes to Rice Creek uh but they're also submitting application the DNR for their permit uh for their for their portion of the road project so I'm told that's could be up to a year review process on part of the DNR so they're looking at sometime taking bids in in 25 uh and getting it underway and of course we'd have to make some commitment whether we can move forward with our project you know I know Bill worked hard last year to get us some money and I think we were on the list weren't we and then were and uh the list never got approved so I'm assuming what's the process their bill are we will we continue to be on that list or does that start all over again uh Mr Mayor and Council it starts over but um because the list was you know pretty far along and vetted um it's a good starting point uh but it does start over and the expectation is that there will be um funding because it'll B basically be two years since there's been any funding but would would that be early on do you think or was that going to carry out to the end of the session like or nobody knows nobody knows yeah that that's the right answer nobody knows especially in an election year so so anyways uh this is just a step in the process um to to apply for this Wetland bank and so um just asking for authorization for the mayor to sign that application any questions anyone so we're actually asking not we they are asking race Creek for wetland credits might be better to have our name off off that list we haven't had a really good track record in that in that regard this is through a different this is through the Bowser Bank basically okay and I would just mayor and Council remind you of the statements that were made that uh even though it's not on The Ledger uh they would view a request favorably so we might want to hold them to that well there you go so um do you need a motion yeah I think a motion would be appropriate so then I would move to authorize the uh engineer to proceed with um is it supporting we would need basically authorization for the mayor to sign the application okay authorize the mayor to sign the application for lrip money to do the environmental work Wetland credits it would be the hold on local government Road Wetland replacement program application that is there a second oh Ron I'll second all right any other questions I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I and Jesse I so so Kevin oh I'm sorry go ahead we're on our way it just probably will be two years what's s I said we're on our way yeah and it just be two years until yeah it would be probably 2026 before we'd have a completed project assuming that we're we're moving forward with funding on our part well and when do we have to sign on the dotted line that we're going to do this um I'll need to get a little better schedule on that cuz I don't have that right now so okay all anything else Kevin nothing else thank you uh City uh City attorney no formal report but uh the engineers questions uh remind me this is the time of year that we tend to look into to the legislative program whether there's going to be one uh what's included what's not included I I certainly do agree that it would be easy to revive the fairly modest ask um for that fix up on Hornby and there may be other things that that would be appropriate but no no need to decide tonight just want to put that into your your thinking thank you city council report Ron yes I have something I uh Matthew magad the young man who uh worked on the eagle scalp project he did a great job and According to Jim he put in 15 oak trees eight over here by us and seven at Hidden Park but uh anyway I the park board had asked one of the fact it was uh Brad started asking about if we are going to honor this young young man for accomplishing it and I thought that that'd be a great idea and uh I was wondering if the city would consider um making a plaque or dedicating a plaque near these trees or something noting the year that he did this project so that maybe oak trees what they grow 150 years maybe he can bring his grandkids over but we at least know that somebody did a project and brought an asset M uh an accomplish like that and I think it's a great job he did isn't it Jim yeah he did a did a really nice job and did he have help doing that or did he do most of it he had help I I I don't want to say how many people he had but he had a crew of people that helped him and he dug all those holes yep wow cuz those are good size trees they're very nice trees they it's a lot different than what I thought we were going to have um I thought they were going to be small trees but when I seen that I I was impressed yeah so that nice job he did and I I thought that uh we could if we could uh agree to funding a plaque or whatever if we could you know dedicate that to him like at the Fall Fest or at least note something there that this young man did this project and and it improved our city which is a plus plus but then Janet brought up what about four years ago somebody with the the other eagles Scout project that uh put a bench in the park um near the playground that had I think honored the four different um uh service areas you know Army Navy was it four or five I think well I thought I thought he added like Coast Guard too but Coast Guard Navy Marines Army Air Force Air Force Air Force I think there was five five yeah I I haven't looked at it I'm not I think it's I think a while since I there's probably five on there so that that also is a really nice bench I've sat on it many times when I've been training the dog and so we never really recognized that eagle scout either and it might be good to do that with a plaque that says where it came from so we're going to I think I I like the idea a lot and I think that it um in other nonprofits that I've worked on Eagle Scouts have done projects they've always done something like that and it also sort of encourages other Eagle Scouts to look at doing public service projects like that so I think it's a it's a nice way to say thank you but it's also a nice way to encourage others to get involved we look at it in the long run it's it's just like when wants the tennis court put in and we all kind of scratch our heads and don't know but it's like that bench in the park with uh I forget his first name grub El grubs yeah I mean it's got his plaque on it I mean even though you never get near that bench cuz it sits so far back but it's nice to see a little history with a date on it where this young man Matthew could come up maybe maybe he'll move in our live in our city and 40 years from now he'll say this is what I did yeah yeah I like that idea so I was wondering if uh we could uh make a motion or do something that would be appropriate what yeah do you want to make the motion it's your idea well I just like to make a motion that we uh I don't know what the plaque would cost it Jack do you know where we'd get something like that well there's several of these trophy places around that you can find those why don't we just come back and look and you want if you want to do the other one too we can get the cost for two and just approve them next get that at the next meeting I like that idea so I second it second that motion so you're directing staff to look into getting a plaque for both of those right but would it be possible to get this kind of on the road before to Fall Fest you know I vaguely remember us suggesting that he like be at Fall Fest to do education and I thought their family Wen were had a vacation or something but maybe Jack you could reach out to them or gym or whoever was their contact person and see if they're going to be around cuz we could we could do it at Fall Fest and if not we can do it at a council meeting after Fall Fest or else we could make a a board out there you know WR writing something that the these young men did these uh accomp you know accomplishments in our city I just think it's just the right timing just yep good idea so we have a motion well we could could we make the motion to have a dollar amount like not to exceed $100 or something that way you could get it ordered um I don't even know if they were going to engrave something if they could get it in 3 weeks so I was thinking that if we just direct Jack to come back with an estimate of what it would cost and to see whether or not they're available at Fall Fest I I kind I remember that I thought they weren't going to be around I actually you asked somebody asked the question of so I think we should just forget Fall Fest and just say it would be at a future council meeting and then we have a lot more flexibility to make it work with their schedule and to give you enough time to do the search are we looking at something like to put on the bench and something to put by the trees I think putting it on the bench or in the concrete that the bench is sitting on I mean you you probably have a better idea of where best place would be there um I think we have to see what our options are for flax and then try to figure out yeah okay well if you screw something to the tree it will kill it what nail it to the tree well I wouldn't do that they can screws and or what do you how do you I don't know how you would do it unless you put it on the fence there or you put it in the Pavilion noting at all the trees on the uh MH on the south side of Kettle River Boulevard those eight beautiful Oaks were planted there and in 2024 by this young man or you put a little sign up you know above so that they're not having to weed whip around it or whatever but a sign near it that would say it I I don't know you can see what's available well at least we got it going whether whenever we dedicate it or whatever but I think it should be something that's permanent that's you know mhm good idea to come that's all I have so we need to take a vote oh yeah we oh so we have a motion in a second I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Jesse I can I just take on to that really quick so I also gave Ron a flyer that I found between my front door and my screen door like maybe a month ago by him too so he I don't know how much of the city he did this to but he went around to describe the project and then on the back there was a frequently asked questions about Oak wlt which was part of what he was trying to do as education I'd love to see him recognized on our website and have that on the website as well and we talked about that with him so maybe when you when you call him jack you could also ask him about that flyer and whether we can put that on our website and pass that down to Y I mean I I'm curious like did he go around every every place or how did he decide who get gets one of those I didn't get one I don't think I didn't get one either but I I you know I wonder where he got the oak trees too where did he get the funding he fundraised yeah he fund ra for him and he got the oak trees down south somewhere you going to say South Southeast somewhere he had to drive a little ways to get him M well they beautiful trees though I I thought they going to have sticks but you look at them and they they've got to be 10 years old or something to that I don't know they're six feet tall oh all right soe all right well I I'm going to do part of the Personnel committee report um I think a couple weeks ago I mentioned um at our forest lake cable commission meeting that the Columbus representative the city representative has to resign his position um and he didn't give a lot of notice so we put um a posting up on the website uh for an applicant to come in and fill that vacancy and we did have one person who responded and applied and that is Jeff durin he a current Columbus resident and former Columbus city council member and former Forest Lake cable commission member um and he served on Forest Lake cable commission for 15 years so he has the knowledge and experience um to fill this position he's willing to start right away and it should be an easy transition so he was the only one that applied and so I make the recommendation uh for approval to appoint Jeff dur to the Forest Lake cable commission effective September 2nd which is next week in order to assume uh commission responsibilities at the September 19th 2024 commission meeting is there a second I second this is Janet and he's replacing Mr wood right yes just for the record for the minutes I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Jesse I anything else soe NOP okay um I just wanted to give you a quick update on Fall Fest um so things are moving right along uh Lynn has been out doing her fundraising and has been very successful excuse me I think we have or will have six um races sponsored out of eight that's one more than we had last year uh if everybody comes through who told her that she was that they would do it um I think she has I know she dropped off some a check today from biking but I think at when all is said and done will probably be somewhere around $10,000 that she will have generated and that would be in addition to 3,000 and it could be more than that there's there's a few question marks out there so she's done a great job with that um we had a volunteer committee meeting last week and got a lot of things decided got some signs ordered and we'll be asking our Public Works people to be putting those up for us when they come in so that um so it's all coming together and I think there's there's going to be some new exhibitors our um uh Minnesota veterinary neurology is going to be an exhibitor they're going to do a demonstration showing a dog that gets how they do neurological exams on on dogs and then she also sponsored a race so um muddy paw is going to be an exhibitor our paa is going to be an exhibitor we got the Master Gardeners coming in we got a lot of new exhibitors this year so that'll be kind of fun and then of course um some new uh um entertainment things and stuff for the kitties and the adults too and a craft vendor fair that will be in our city hall so lots of new things um one of the things that that Lori brought up to me this morning when we met was that on September 21st which is the Saturday of Fall Fest it is also the 18-year anniversary of Columbus becoming a city so she wanted to know should we do something at fallfest to commemorate that and so the only idea that I had is you know it's kind of hard to like make an announcement cuz there's never really like one Gathering Place or a place where you can speak that everybody's going to hear it so I was thinking we could do a big sign like we did with the um with the uh uh commemorating the sponsors like a happy birthday Columbus sign or something like that cuz that's that's with balloons yeah I mean we have a balloon artist he can probably come up with something something fancy but if you're okay with that then I will have um we'll start working on designing that and I was just thinking it's like Columbus this is coming of age we're legally we're of legal age finally okay that's a good one I had a refrigerator magnet forever in my office that that had the date so might want to Y there we go so um other than the Fall Fest stuff I I I I'll just do my my Personnel committee thing right now too is um and the only thing I was going to tell you is that we are very close to posting that assistant City administrator position we have had a a lot of set the only setbacks have been it setbacks trying to get permissions and licenses and all that kind of good stuff and it never ends so right now the plan is that it will go live on all the places that we're going to put it which is Le of Minnesota cities our own website indeed and Linkedin and that will be um on September 3rd and we'll leave a post until the 17th and then we'll see if we have a good pool that'll be it and if we don't we'll put it for another week or two that's it thank you no repart Mr Mayor City administrator thank you Jesse uh when Elizabeth resigned the city had a credit card but the credit card had to be in her name so that account was cancelled and the card was shredded uh we've been looking into getting what's called a community card card this would be a card which would not be associated with a personal guarantee or and would be able to be used uh without having to attach someone's name to it Cheryl's been working on that and uh we're just asking for authorization to proceed with that so we'll have a card to pay for things like the indeed and Linkedin accounts that we're working on now the reservation for the bus that we're going to use for the commute commuter transportation for Fall Fest some of these bigger things that you know we would rather not ask staff to have to pay for and put on their credit cards and have reimbursements made somebody like Cheryl we don't want her doing anything like that since she handles the money city council same thing we don't want any kind of things like that this would go a long way to addressing those issues so we're just asking authorization to get the new card to replace essentially an account which we had which would eliminate the personal guarantee so there'll be multiple people that will have a card when Cheryl and I talked about this and then there's three people that you need that would be overseeing it is that what you said yes you want to talk about that cuz I think the question was should one of them be a council person right so there needs to be three authorized individuals um one I believe would be myself um One Would Be Jack and then one we were thinking should be a member on on the council I was thinking it should be one of you check signers or running out two people that are left of me be around so that should be handier for everyone yes and easier for you yes writing reimbursement checks for $10 and whatever whatever mhm well and it came up because you know in order to get some of these like LinkedIn or whatever I mean we're like oh you have to write a check and then you have to cut the check and we have to approve the check then we have to mail it in by that time you know this person will be hired so I mean this is just and and in some places won't take check it's like reserving the bus they wouldn't take a check MH they had to have a credit card so yeah and this would be out of the US Bank branch in Forest Lake so there's a lady that's been helping us Allison she's very nice very kind um it seems to me this would be an easy credit card program to manage um so I think it's a great idea for us I I could do it if you if it's not I second that yeah I third that I mean you're going talking something once a month three and we would um have statements and then absolutely receipts would be required for every purchase so you know just oversight of that process and then Cheryl will write a policy so it's really clear what it can be used for and what kind of documentation you need to have um we we both grew up with purchasing cards at the University so we remember we remember some of those rules and I think there's some restrictions you can put on there and like the types of expenses like you can't go to the bar and charge a bunch of no no so don't even get just cuz you're unauthorized doesn't mean you get to do that yeah anything else check that's all I have I think you're going to do a motion y yes so I would move to uh approve uh Cheryl moving forward with um arranging for this uh organization uh purchasing card for the city I second any other questions would your motion include the designation of Ron oh yes the designation of Ron and Jack and Cheryl as the authorized what you what what representative Representatives yep I res second re second I re Ron I sue I Janet I and Jesse I thank you for doing that Cheryl now that we're 18 years old we can have a credit card right put that on the side there we go finally old enough to have a credit card and not even have a beer though another few years before we can sit in the beer garden yeah there we go take your credit card to the Beer Garden and party uh letter e announcement Sunrise August 29th at 6:30 at East bethl City Hall do you want me to do the Planning Commission report oh yep all right this will be quick there's only one one item um for the Planning Commission at their meeting on the 21st and that was a public hearing for mtw truck wash a cup which would be located on Hornsby Street um right across from the loves um so the applicant was James and Brenda SK ski how do you pronounce her last name ski sky sky sky um and they live in Columbus on Broadway Street and uh their um idea is that they would build a Industrials um semi truck wash it could also be used for um RVs uh likely to operate somewhere around 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. initially and then maybe 24 hours depending on on business um there was some there was no public comments no public opposition or anything that came up at the um at the open Forum the the Planning Commission had some really good questions and I'll just share some of those with you because we'll be discussing this at our joint meeting um next week so one of them um was related to the um the truckers who are pulling over in TR in in uh at loves because they're at the end of their number of hours that they can legally drive and could they then still drive do they there's some rule that says that once you're ex you know you're past your number of hours you can drive and you have to take your 10hour break that you can only drive 5 miles an hour or less I suppose to park your your truck or whatever so his concern was if they're going from loves to the truck wash and they're going down Hornsby Street and they're going at like 4 miles an hour is that going to be a problem and so um James said that he thought that there was a exception to the rule for things like maintenance and stuffff like that so I mean hopefully they'll look into that and bring some clarity to the discussion I think the other question um somebody asked whether or not they they confirmed that there would be no truck or trailer overnight parking in this place it's just come in wash your truck and and go on again um it will have a a a grease trap and things like that there was a lot of discussion about the amount of water that they will use I'm sure you're interested in this because the draw is pretty large um they had not decided whether or not they would be recycling the water some of that had to do with met counsel requirements and things like that so that's still an open topic and then the last thing which I think is is a really important concern is about a potential backup so if you I don't know like when when we have applications for a drive-thru I remember this with um Caribou there was a stacking plan so basically in the design you you knew how many cars could stack on their property before it would spill out onto the onto the road to try to avoid the idea that there's going to be this big long line of cars sitting on the road time up traffic so Robin had um raised that concern about if you get a bunch of semi 30 foot semis that are lining up on Hornsby Street to get into the car wash that's a problem so how many can actually line up on the property and they hadn't actually um I think figured that out yet so I do think that that's one of the things that would be really helpful to require as part of the application um is to have a stacking plan so that we don't have to worry about them hopefully spilling on on to Hornsby street so more on that you guys will hear about this as in more of the discussion hopefully some of these questions that got raised will have some answers by the um meeting next week so are you saying that at the Joint meeting next week they're are they going to finish the or close the public hearing and no they close the public hearing so now this is their discussion and then when they have their next uh Planning Commission they'll make a recommendation to us but it's it you know their next their next Planning Commission is the joint meeting so that's when they're going to have their discussion okay and will we get the notes from that meeting in our packet for the joint meeting the only reason I'm asking is cuz I wasn't able to attend that meeting and that was a really great update but maybe there was more information in there I'll see that you get the notes and or also a copy of the recording too if you wish to listen to that okay thank you Kev I was just going to mention that uh in regards to that stacking question their civil plan did in it show I'm just pulling it open now here uh a stacking plan on it whether it's accurate or not I guess I didn't check it that closely they they do have quite a bit of space one 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 they showed 10 trucks stacked on their driveway okay yeah I think when I he he didn't know the answer when it was asked during the public you know when the the commissioner asked him the question so yeah I think it's if that's what they have and it that seems adequate then that would be good to know yeah I mean that's a question I don't know is this supposed to be an automated car there's going to be there's an automated there's automated bays and then manual Bays so there's going to be both okay there must I think they have two bays right way there must be one of each yeah so yeah all right and the Planning Commission city council meeting September 4th at 6 city council meeting September 11th at 6 anybody have anything [Music] else then our meeting is adjourned at 8 a motion we need a motion to adjourn I move to adjourn I second Ron I sue I Janet I yes I our meeting is adjourned at 802 [Music]