[Music] the third item on the agenda tonight is the adoption of the agenda and there a motion I move to approve the March 12th 2025 city council agenda with the additions of items C6 item D1 item D2 item D4 d8 and the removal of item F which is a closed session I'd like to also add into the record tonight a uh email that was sent from one of our um council members Jennifer Laten uh making statements or comments about some of the items we're going to talk about tonight I'd like to put that in the record and then item number two the consent agenda I'll let Janet handle that um so I would uh move to approve the consent agenda as presented and the supplemental Bill list which was distributed to the council prior to the meeting with one edit two minut minutes of 1223 24 um the edit that I am suggesting is on page two of seven at the bottom it's the um paragraph that I had um asked for clarification on related to whether or not the city um compliance inspector had to start all over and wait for a new complaint if a property that he had worked on bringing into compliance was falling back out of compliance and we had a um statement that was a clarifying statement that was provided by um attorney Griffith and I I'm just suggesting that we strike the sentence prior to that clarification because they're kind of contradictory and it's confusing so it would be striking the sentence this means that if a case is closed and the problem resurfaces later on staff will have to wait for a new complaint in order to reopen the case and the sentence that was added can stand which is however Griffith explained that the policy does not have the force and effect of Law and allows leeway to monitor long-standing issues on a case-by Case basis to ensure that they don't resurface that's my motion and I'm sticking to it anybody want to second that motion I'm fine with it I'll second it okay we have a motion on table any discussion I have none either take a vote Rob Rob I Janet I Scott I was not able to attend the October 23rd 2024 meeting and the video was not available on lakes area TV so I'll have to abstain and Ron I we down to item number before we go any further Mr Mayor did we make a second to the motion to adopt the agenda and vote on it oh and to to to adopt the agenda I think we just had the motion you didn't have a second yet we didn't oh oh on my motion yeah sorry okay good catch I waited for we were waiting to see if you're going to catch that thank you so I made the motion who second it this is Scott I'll I'll second your motion okay we're talking about the motion I approve with all those consent agenda yeah no no it was up above and the deal with Jen minutes with the adding of Jennifer for email uh and it was second we have a motion on table a second by Scott any discussion hearing none we'll take a vote Scott Scott I Janet I Rob I Ron I now we'll go we've gone through b Item B and now we'll go to item C presentations is the favorite part of the whole day public forum is there anybody out there like to get up and say anything to the council there's a limit on what you can say but anybody online hearing none we'll close the public forum we'll go on to item number two the public hearing liquor license approvals for holidays loves and running acis horse track Pages 5 through 22 Jack are we going to do these all at once or are we doing each one separate we can do them all at once as far as the public hearing but on the Motions those we can do them all at once in the Motions too okay so we're going to open up the public hearing on this that's correct the first thing we'll do is open the public hearing and take comment and then I'll read the recommendation okay all right so we're we're opening a public hearing is there anybody in the office uh audience that would like to make a statement or any comments and would you state your name and your address thank you Mr Mayor and council members Aaron B us some with Running Aces uh Casino Hotel and racetrack 15201 Running Aces Boulevard uh and I just like to say you know um we we've had a good year overall we've had some changes of where the bar has been during our renovation but we are excited to end the renovation coming up here at the end of the month and then having a grand opening uh with a new bar area our everything in our liquor license is still the same overall area we've just reconfigured the bar made it a lot more user friendly so after 17 years knowing what some of those hurdles were I think you guys all all love to see it and and I just want to point out our goal is to really be a place where the community can come have bite to eat drink watch the game uh we've got a 10t by 54t LED TV wall um and and we're just you know excited for these next steps we've got a lot of training that goes through in our liquor compliance we have been you know passed all of our uh compliance regulations so uh just we're excited to bring what we can to the community here and and to be a a good resource to relieve some stress and have some good food and some drinks sounds great when are you opening uh Grand Opening again uh the official grand opening will be on April 16th we're hoping for a a soft launch here April 2nd so take that off the Record but um so we should be open about then as long as everything our booths and some of the tables and chairs we're waiting on uh but everything's looking pretty good here for these next couple of weeks to finish it up you got the TV running yet uh yes and then it's been off uh while we finish some work around it so we don't get too much dust in it but it'll be back up on Monday St Patty's Day as we go through all the programming and and getting that final stages of it and then hopefully we'll have just added some wiring so we can play some video games on it and you know really have some fun with a giant TV Great any comments anybody I saw it it is giant what I said I saw it it is giant yeah well I didn't see it I just seen it when they put the panels up they started doing that what that bar will set what 24 people ah the bar itself uh I believe it's 20 and then the seating area it's it's reconfigured to have a little bit more than it did before moving the bar from the center oval to the back wall it is a very large Long Bar but the seating area we've we've increased I think it'll be about 24 people from where we were and then the restaurant dining and and fine-tuning some of that so it's all on one level um but yeah it's that's great it's looking really good that's that's nice of running a is to invest keep investing in the city I always think so that's a lot of money they spend what what do you what's what do you guess they spent on it's about 7 and5 million on the interior you know so it's it's a an investment in the property and ownership sees growth and and the potential to keep driving that into our area so we are putting together a big plan uh as we open April 16th for that uh Kentucky Derby is April or I'm sorry May 3rd and then we lead into our opening racing on May 18th and then as we go we're kind of going to see how things line up but our goal is after racing we'll we'll add some fun things during racing uh whether it's some different specials some featured nights such as like a bacon and beer pairing type of dinners or uh things like that but the goal is after racing to bring back uh charitable Bingo can we bring back some trivia nights should we have some live music so we're looking at all the options right now on integrating some of that during racing but really planning on after knowing that racing is our busiest time and then we're already busy on Friday and Saturday night so it's kind of tough to add too much more since we're already busy oh great that's great any other comments no I just say I I stopped in uh last week just to take a peek at how things were going things look great it looks really nice a lot more open in there and I think once all that poly comes down it's really going to be great yeah so especially I think we're the only you know card room or area that we've got big windows and it's just you know the goal is to maintain the friendly and you know whether you're coming on a date night or whether you're off coming right off the farm working and and everybody's welcome how you are and we're working on a lot of guest service training and just some different options that truly is a spot where anybody can come for the night yeah it's nice to get rid of the steps they were all over the place it'll make our queue lines and everything a little bit easier so so we're really hoping yeah we think we hit a lot lot of the key points of just making it operationally smoother so we'll really test it on Kentucky Derby Day well great great Aaron thank you thank you thank you very much there anybody else that' like to are you from loves or holiday uh loves loves okay and we say your name and your address yeah thank you go fall him now so um Zach England um in the was it 15402 Hornsby uh Street Northeast uh down here at the Loves Travel stops um and the new uh GM just uh became took over that location back in uh December um so I'm excited I'm originally from Arizona so I'm excited to actually be up here my whole family moved up here um so it'd be cool uh haven't G to Aces yet I actually work actually cross street so I'm excited to look at the casinos and everything around here um and everyone around here so uh it's a great culture I've already noticed a lot of community um coming from Arizona to here uh excited to be over here um and then uh I think I spoke to was it Janet or Lori L Lori probably a phone um but yeah uh currently we don't sell liquor yet um in loves uh just here to renew our license um they may or may not uh in the future that's up to corporate so I'm just here to represent and I'm just excited to meet all you guys well thank you thank you are you a lifelong Arizona uh originally from Nevada oh so born and raised in Nevada um Las Vegas um and then Reno area up there uh moved during the pandemic to Arizona that's where I started with gloves and then just got the promotion to General Manager here um and move my whole family up here wow oh great big move you like the weather uh I mean everyone's like oh wow you come from Arizona it's a it's a big extreme so I go from the very hottest place in the you know the Earth to one of the coldest places in Earth so uh then I moved up here in December and it was 8° that morning uh when we were unpacking our U-Haul so that was a that was fun time you must be getting accustomed to what you got a short sleeve shirt on I love the cold originally from uh Nevada uh more in the Reno area I live most of my life too so snowboarding skiing getting the outdoors um so I I'm a big polar bear um my wife not so much well great great thanks for uh coming coming up here thank you appreciate you guys thank you Mr Mayor I'd like to add on all three of these applications that all their materials have been submitted the background checks have been completed their fees have been paid for both the off and on sale license for the applicants there were no ISS issues with any of the submittals that would be reason for denial of the license renewals uh these license are and renewals and they expire each year on March 31st uh these expire March 31st 2025 final approval of the license will be contingent on approval from the state Commissioner of Public Safety but approval of city council is required prior to action by the state so as the public hearing I guess we better close the public hearing before we go any further just thinking of that we didn't ask anybody online would like to say anything here nothing there I'm Josh I'm representing holiday uh first time council meeting uh not exactly sure what I'm supposed to do here well you're supposed to give your full name and your address Josh and okay uh Joshua Ingram uh holiday stations 9944 for Lake Drive Northeast here in Columbus well that's great Josh uh it's usually just to discuss a little about your your company and maybe I can ask you a question how long have you been working there at holiday uh I started in August of just last year oh there was rumor that you guys are going to build a bigger building there is that true uh yeah we're the last that I heard we shooting for the middle or end of May going to do a complete rebuild and add in a car wash uh this year yeah it's going to I do believe it's going to start sometime this year uh everyone was saying may but I'm not quite sure is the exact date well it's great that you're doing it or your company's doing it thank you very much I'm sorry to put you on a spot like that oh yeah not not a problem well thank I'm excited to hear about the car wash cuz I have to drive to Wyoming to use the holiday car was and I would rather spend that money in Columbus so well there you go that's great toar and by Z Zach's ears picked up on that too so great great well thank you for having you on the board you got any questions us Josh uh no sir okay well thank you then we're going to close the public hearing and Jack yes the public hearing has been closed and there have been no matters brought forth relating to local ordinance or state statutes for non-compliance council's requested to consider the approval of the 3.2 off sale liquor licenses for holiday and loves and an onsale intoxicating Sunday 2 a.m. license for Running Aces casino and horse racing track okay so then I'll make the motion then I make the motion I move to approve the renewal of the 3.2 offsale liquor license for Holiday Station Store number 2746 408 and loves travel stop uh number 832 and and on sale intoxicating Sunday and 2 a.m. a.m license for is that Running Aces casino and horse racing track okay they they put this down as an acronym and I for Running Aces okay all right anybody want to second that motion Rob all second we have a motion any discussion any questions hearing none Scott Scott I Janet I Rob I and Ron I thank you all thanks for coming in and we'll go on to the next item which is thanks for bringing a restaurant back too yeah that's huge good give it give us some time though too yep baby steps well I'm sure it'll be great thank you we stop in and see you over there at loves too uh item number three under C is sunrise watershed management organization jpa Amendment and 2026 budget Pages 23- 34 do you want to read yours or do you want me want to Dive Right In I I I'll go ahead and introduce it and then you can add to what we need to finish up with the sunrise River Water Management organization is a joint power special purpose Union of the government composed of member communities of Lynwood East bethl Columbus and Ham Lake collaborating to manage water resources this Arrangement is based on the recognition that water related issues and management do not stop at Municipal boundaries Sunrise River boundaries are defined by the West Branch of the sunrise River Watershed to the West the South Branch of the sunrise River Watershed to the South and to the north and east boundaries are defined by the inoa county Corp or the county boundaries it does not expand into other counties because Watershed organizations are only acquired by law within the Twin Cities metropolitan area the sunrise River watershed management organization has prepared their draft 2026 budget as requesting ratification by each member municipality directly related to the budget approval is a joint Powers agreement Amendment relating to allocation of member cost and requires these actions to be taken in unison the sunrise River wo does not have any taxing power and depends on the individual members for funding allocations is established in the joint power agreement for their budgets attachment one explains the jpa amendment and its corresponding effect on member cost and the sequence of motions for approval attachment two in your packet reviews and outlines the 2026 draft budget so excuse me so I will um give a little bit of explanation uh as we were working with um on our board to create the new 2026 budget um one of the suggestions that came forth was to start allocating funds um each year in preparation for the uh 10-year Watershed um plan that we have to do every year it's kind of analogous to our comp plan and it costs about $50,000 to do it about what our comp plan costs so um instead of waiting until a year or two before it's it's due and then hitting the cities in the jpa with a big expense the idea was to you know to um kind of PR rate those expenses and we do that here in the city for for our own comp plan um in doing that the question came up as to what type of expense um preparation of the watershed management plan um what category it would be in and that matters because in the joint Powers agreement um it designates sort of two buckets of expenses one is an operating expense and one is a non-operating expense and the four communities have agreed on how they split up the um their share of those of those expenses so if it's a if it's a um non-operating expense then they are um allocated I always forget which one is which non-operating expenses are the ones that are um split up by the percentage of the land and Water Mass and there's a percentage designated um in each of the um or in the uh memo that I wrote so East bethl pays 30% of those costs hamlake pays 4% Lynwood pays 47% and we pay 19% and there is a Formula that took into account the amount of land mass and um water lakes and streams to come up with those percentages then the um other expense are operating costs and those are it uh evenly by four so each Community hits 24 or pays 25% the operating costs are things that are I kind of think of them as fixed costs or the cost of doing business so they're things like the cost of the audit the cost of you know posting um uh uh meeting uh notices paying our recording secretary things like that what we so when we rewrote the jpa we we kind of put some examples of those kinds of costs but nowhere in the JP did we talk about how we would um what category the preparation of the watershed management plan should um be and so it it wasn't really called out in the jpa in the current watershed management plan it referred to it um as a I think it was a non-operating expense and um so there's like three three different places that it either referred to it in conflict or it didn't refer to it at all so the board unanimously felt that it should be treated um as a operating expense and split evenly but when the budget went out that's not how the budget represented represented that cost so the way forward on this is for each of the four communities to um contemplate the proposed amendment to the jpa which would include the watershed management plan um updates and other works like that so that we don't have to do this every time we come up with one that we didn't think of um as an operating cost and then those will be split according to the formula and the percentage that that we um have defined in our jpa so the first question is whether or not you agree um with the board's recommendation to consider that cost as a operating cost and then have it be um I'm sorry I said that wrong an operating cost and it would be split equally four ways rather than being split by the percentages um as defined in the jpa and as defined in the budget document that got sent out by Jamie that's pretty clear well I I think the memo actually actually as clear as it can be but you're right it's pretty convoluted kind of mixes you up so in other words most of the people on the board want to go with the 25 25 25 all of them did all of them even even ham Lakes representative voted to split it evenly even though that would hit them harder okay I can't I mean we'll see what their Council says about that but on our board that was that was what the recommendation is and if we if we vote to go along with that then we would vote on the budget but then we would add uh language to the motion that would clarify that we would that we're approving the budget as presented in the total amount but that the allocation would follow the recommendation that would be um put forth in this new jpa language and I included a table so you could kind of see what the difference would be for each of the communities if we adopted that new language and for this new expense and you can see for um for Columbus it would cost us $332 more in 2026 than it would if we if we had it allocated in using those percentages the 19% would be for Columbus instead of 25% so it hits us a little harder but it makes it consistent that we are treating like expenses like well do you want to make a motion I just got a question so as far as Lynnwood being that's like the bulk of it it appears looking at the map M they're going to get they're going to get a credit almost yeah because instead of 47% they would pay 25% of that of that cost so their their proportion would go down a little bit than what was originally presented in the budget that jam don't so um East bethl and Lynwood would be the winners so to speak and us and Ham Lake would be the losers Ham Lake more than than us Ham Lake would be looking at about $1,100 more sure yeah no lywood still paying a sizable amount and we still have a good chunk of that so it seems it seems to be Apples to Apples yeah and I I I have to say I appreciate the district allowing us to basically acrew this over 10 years rather than getting one lump sum at the all of a sudden after 10 years so I think all four cities should appreciate that that was done um and my experience with JPS is there's always perceived winners and there's always perceived losers and um we're about as Equitable as anybody can get at that $332 Mark so so it sounds like people are pretty much in favor of that and if they are I can make the motion I don't know do you have draft language you want me to read it off my memo there is draft there's a draft motion at the okay great um so I would move to approve the sunrise River wmo joint Powers agreement section 3.7 Point c.2 operating cost budgets of the sunrise River wo jpa to add the following language um in quotes audit watershed management plan updates other work and Associated expenses required by the state in order for the wmo to exist this is Scott I'll second there's a motion is there any discussion any comments sir having none we'll take a vote Scott ey Janet I Rob I Ron ey um and then the second motion we need to make is on the budget so the budget total um for the entire um for four communities is uh 50,000 643 and yep 643 so we would um approve that budget and our allocation which would be um as represented in this memo uh it would be Columbus 10,000 uh 92843 a second Rob so yeah I haven't made the motion but that's oh so if everyone's okay with that then I'll make that motion okay all right um then I would move to ratify the 2026 Sunrise River wmo budget of $506 43 modified to treat the Watershed Plan update as an operating expense um if all member communities approve the jpa amendment I'll say that again second Rob we got a motion and we got it seconded I do have a question on this and probably go to Bill or what what if one of these cities doesn't approve this I believe that all four cities have to ratify the action is that right or did you change that no no they have to ratify the budget and they also um have to ratify I think the jpa amendment so if if one of them says no um then they they can say no on the amendment and then if they say no on the budget they have to say why and then we would we there's a process that's defined in the jpa for how to resolve that so it start over again somehow it'll be back in our vote again to vote my guess is my guess is that if anybody's going to object to any of this they'll object to the language in the jpa but they'll accept the budget with the current language instead of the new language I don't think it's going to come back to us okay well we got a motion out there uh that was only my comment any other comments we'll take a vote Rob Rob I I Scot I Ron I thank you I know that was complicated it was good too many numbers yeah I know it's you know and I wrote it and I still couldn't get through it without stumbling Jack do you want to take item number four there C4 thank you Ron city council has been reviewing a rental policy to establish guidelines for reservations rules for use and the application process for reservations for the City Senior Community Center at the March 4th 2025 Workshop meeting staff was given direction for finalizing edits address fees and insurance requirements the purpose of this policy is to ensure the senior Community Center remains in functions as a community space for meetings and Gatherings by adopting reasonable costs for rentals and regulations for use for Columbus residents in the broader Community the draft policy is presented in attachment one is offered as a means to achieve this goal staff requests that city council consider the draft policy for approval as presented with edits that address any concerns that may remain thank you Jack I uh I had a comment I wanted to make oh on page 44 number three there when we talk about reservation fees I I'd like to I think we should drop that down $100 the one on item where it says $250 cleaning SL damage deposits I just think $250 is a lot of money for someone to rent the place for uh for the cleaning fee I was actually I I I kind of Zoom zoomed in on that too but I was wondering if Jack could explain how they came up with these fees we just combined the two from the previous there was a cleaning fee of $140 and the Damage deposit I believe was 110 so just to simplify it we just rolled them in together again this I have I have no problem lowering the fees but remember this is a fee that will be refunded if they clean the place up properly or there's no damage done but to lower the fee I think one of our major discussion items is how do we encourage people to use this we make the cost reasonable and I mentioned that to Ron before that was one thing that I just put in there hoping we would discuss that and if we want to consider lowering that $100 I don't think it'll be an issue we did have somebody come into the city here earlier this week if I'm correct like on Monday and they wanted to rent it and their purpose was for a celebration of life and they've been residents here for probably a hundred years because they got a farm you know the family stays over and uh I you look at it and you say $250 and 50 it seems kind of kind of high and stuff like that I don't think they're going to uh follow through through it but they were just wondering about dates but you've had a lot of people that have been commenting about running the place Jack that's the first inquiry we've had since we had an HOA that wanted to rent it back probably last fall I thought Lori or somebody made a comment there somebody else that had called on it but but anyway back to the the celebration of life it's pretty hard to and and you have the right discretion to take the insurance off of it we we we made that as generic as possible and said the city reserves the right to weigh the requirement for insurance on a casebase basis so uh I notice too that a couple of other cities had that as their standard I know that it's not definitive and it opens it up for some interpretation but uh I think those insurance requirements are going to be a big factor in people deciding on whether or not they want to try to rent or Reserve this facility for their use so that's the item I would like to knock down to 150 okay I'm good with that are you I I have a couple more than a couple questions and comments too but if somebody wants to go first that two no more sorry um somebody else can go first if they want no no all right so um I'm on page 36 I think we need to Define political groups differently cuz I don't like using the name in the definition that we're trying to Define so if it's I have a definition I can suggest that comes from the dictionary it's not my words so it says people assembling together in order to promote a common ideology and Achieve particular objectives in the public um or government sphere if that if you're okay with that I like that better than saying a bunch of people getting together for a political nature because it the whole question is what is political so I think this does a pretty nice job of defining that um the my second my second one was a question and I and I had brought this up before but I don't remember if we ever like landed on an answer so instead of listing all of these um individual holidays can't we just reference that when the city hall is closed for a holiday then that that's closed too and that way you only have to update it in one place rather than remember to come back and amend this policy to to that point in case we close it on a day that you know say it's the day after Thanksgiving or the day after Christmas we often City staff is asked to take that day off yeah so that covers that like that but we do have it open on weekends right yes yes yeah um and then are we requiring that the person who I I couldn't really tell for sure are we requiring that the person who applies is a resident of Columbus or no cuz we talked about that but then we have a non-resident fee in here so then I'm thinking well we must we must have decided that they didn't have to be a resident at Columbus I think that's what we did just so because we talked about even if we do require that they may have somebody here that's a it's a resident they make the application I think the non-resident fee is more for people that are easily identified as non-residents well I think you're going to run into the same problem that you did you do with the park I think the difference is that there's some skin in the game if you're the one being signing off on this because you're then responsible for any damage and blah blah blah so um I guess my question is did we want to restrict this to residents only or did we decide we couldn't do that I just don't remember I I didn't look into it uh Mr Mayor and council member uh I do know that most of the cities that I interact with have resident and nonresident fees okay so for that reason they probably have decided that they have to make public facilities available but they can charge on a different basis all right so we're all okay with that yeah all right um then underneath the fees and deposits where it says they has to be made by uh check or cash I didn't know if you wanted to put that since you're trying to work towards being able to take credit cards too so I don't know that you have to be that specific you can you can work that out when people come to pay I guess but it's up to you I just thought if you put it this way then you're going to have to remember to go back and change it if you're able to take credit cards well we don't have that system set up yet so that's why we specified check or cash when we do get the system set up one of these days to take credit cards and be an app I thought I thought it was fairly imminent that's why I'm bringing it up it's not no okay all right and then um in the next paragraph I would just say it's the reservation fees that are waved for governmental meetings or presentations or 501 c3s do they still have to do the damage deposit yes okay so then I would say reservation fees so that it's clear that that's what's waving and not the damage deposit um in the part that you had on the next page in the part that you have um highlighted what I would recommend is that you change that Lang which to say that if they cancel um more than 10 days they get a full refund and less than 10 days it'll be pro-rated so if they were on 9 days they get 90% if it's 8 days they get 80% so down because if they otherwise they if they cancel 10 days in advance or they cancel the day before they still get their 90% the way this is written yes so I would do a pro-rated so that they're incentivized to cancel as soon as they know they aren't going to use it so anybody else could get in and then in the next paragraph I would bold this the last sentence the applicant is responsible for any damage expense that exceeds the deposit so that they really see that and then I had a question under the smoking tobacco and alcohol use um because you included non-smoking tobacco products and I think of our former mayor so do you really want to do that well everywhere I've seen where tobacco products are restricted they L it down to both smoking and non-smoking that's up to us so I'm throwing it out there for discussion some some people use nonsmoking tobacco products are very neat with it some are not so what do you guys want to do I'm just saying if if if you have this then someone like Jesse can't be sitting there with his cup like he does well I don't I don't I just don't see us policing sitting in there watching I mean we're not going to have anybody in there uh other than they got to police themselves you know I mean I'm sure if you rent a hall or whatever and you know your uncle comes in with a case of beer you tell them you no alcohol you got to go but somebody comes in chewing it's it's their discretion I mean so take it out I'd say if you're taking that out you might be able to take out that vaping thing too cuz that's a lot less invasive than per se cigarette at smoke right you don't you rarely smell it even yeah I mean that's why I'm bringing it up so what do you I mean the only thing is if if you're putting that snoo down a urinal or a toilet you can cause problems with it m i don't it doesn't matter to me I'm just bringing it up there just because of well I I understand we have a user yeah who's here a lot no different if somebody was out there chewing right now and went in the bathroom and spit it now we wouldn't know who did it to Scott's Point that's kind of a common thing chewers will just go in and spit it in the urinal and now our cleaning staff has to clean that out whether it's pouches or yeah not everyone's as courteous as the mayor was but using a cup and a napkin right yeah so what do you want to do leave it in or take it out we could leave it in there I I don't see a need to take it out okay that's fine we could leave it in there and nobody's going to police it any anyway at least that way if someone's real nasty with her right and they're spitting it on her floor we can enforce something right all right um so I want to ask the question about if a if a organization comes in here and they have a communal dining dining license just like the Lions do and they have the permit and they've got the person that's trained and they're an organization like that are we going to say that they can't use the kitchen because the way this is written right now it says nobody gets to use it well we know we're going to let the Lions use it and the reason they can use it is because they have they've gone through the training they have a person who's been trained and they have a communal dining license I'd have to look I thought there was one section in there that did allow commercial Caterers but maybe that was related to a liquor license we can certainly add that in there if you want to include that so so what I would suggest is in that first uh second sentence where it says the kitchen and the community Cent uh food catering facility only and not a preparation unless a communal license um is held and the use is approved in advance by staff that way if another organization comes in that's got all their ducks in a row and they you know they can uh responsibly use those those uh um the stove and things like that and they are they've gone through the training so that the food they're preparing is hopefully not going to poison anybody um we you know it' be okay can I ask a question yeah um I I'm quite certain that the Lions when they do their breakfast an NOA County comes in and checks them so would that be something that would have to happen here then too so I mean just for what you're saying right now they would have to do the same thing that the Lions do because I think what the Lions do is they buy they buy their permit allows them a a certain number of these events and they have to see where they're going to be held and if that kitchen has been inspected I think in a isn't it yearly that that thing gets inspected so then so then they're good so so what the Lions have to have is they have to have the permit and they have to have a person that's preparing it that's gone through the training so any other organ and that's Julie and Julie also did it for the seniors and they would have to show that in the approval by the staff and and then you guys would have to approve it too I mean you'd you know you'd have to maybe you'd want to check and see where they've done it before and make sure that you know everything's I'm just thinking like you know if you have the I'm making this up the Rotary Club come in and they want to do something and they've got all those things in a row we you say no to that I and I I guess I think well if they have all those things um why not let them use it and if you're allowing one group you really do have to allow gr that are similarly situated y as part of the Lions agreement and I'm going back from a while ago when we talked to them did we not say to them that if something breaks they're responsible from here on out they they yep we did do that you're absolutely right so we told them that we were not going to maintain the equipment in the kitchen and if it broke and they wanted to continue to use it then they had to repair it and they they agreed to that and the reason I think that they agreed to that is because this is their preferred place to do their pancake breakfast but I would in Vision that you know if the stove broke and they said nah we're not going to you know we don't care we don't want to repair it then we take it out of there and nobody gets to use it I mean we we don't want to maintain this the kitchen just for the sake of maintaining it but as long as it's there and it's working and the people have the right credentials to to prepare those meals I just don't know why we don't have that built into this policy and is that not part of another agreement that we have with them that provision for they're responsible for the equipment it's in it's in the agreement we have with the Lions Jim is right and I think we made it really clear because we at the time I think the sanitizer was broken right and we talked about like who's going to who's going to pay to have the sanitizer fixed and what happens if it's the you know the the stove in the oven you know who's going to pay for that and they they agreed that they would be responsible for that because they want to continue to use the equipment and that we do not see that as a city responsibility and we weren't going to allocate funds to to repair or replace the kitchen so how would that work then I'm just playing devil's advocate here if if I rented it and I'm a caterer so I have a license and it breaks when I use it mm then what happens then you don't have that agreement with me well I know that but I you know I don't know that I mean how do you break a stove I mean it's I have no idea it breaks I mean that just happens to be what we're talking about know but I'm just saying that it's not the kind of equipment that if you misuse it it's really going to break it's going to break cuz it's cuz things break right so it still goes back to the same question so something broke whether it broke when the Lions used it or it broke when another group used it City's not going to replace it Lions if you want to continue to have your your um breakfast in this then you know you got to bring somebody in to fix it or or replace it and that's I don't think that in the agreement it says that they're the sole users I guess that would be something to check on so that's where I'm going so if if we have I guess where I'm what I'm asking is if we're if we're Towing the Lions to say that if something breaks you're responsible totally fine with that thought process they're the only ones using it at the moment but now if other people use it and it breaks then the Lions pays for it or we pay for it well wouldn't that come out of their damage deposit I maybe I'm just asking that question I I think logically what would happen is the equipment would be removed unless a regular user like the Lions wanted to replace it that's right okay y because I mean we were ready to haul it out of there and just not have you know when the when the seniors weren't coming back we just like let's just you know not do the and they and they agreed that they would be responsible for replacing or repairing it and um so I think I think that I mean I think it's un I think it's unlikely that somebody's going to come for but I think in the it's a policy so I think we should have language that handles that if they do okay um and then I wrote and the and the use of the oven stove sanitizer is not allowed unless prior approval um and the above conditions are met meaning the having the communal license and stuff I'll give you this so you don't have to try to write all this down if you agree with it yes um and then uh no decorations ban or sign shall be attached AED I had one um resident ask me to also um prohibit helium balloons because they're they escape and you know you don't hang on to them they float up into the air and then they create uh environmental and risk to Wildlife so he asked that we also say no helium balloons I'm bringing that up as a suggestion anybody else I think I think that Forest Leake Senior Center has that in theirs does it we were talking about yeah what no he healing balloons yeah okay so it sounds like everyone's okay with that um and then I like that you added the wall safe tape or wall safe device but I'm thinking don't you want to approve that first to make sure you agree that it's wall safe well and again it says you know if you do anything even if you use that there's damage to the walls you're responsible for it now whether that's enforceable or we could ever collect from it but we could we could do that but uh um we'd have to we' probably really need to define the products wouldn't we well like they have 3M products that are meant for that you could you know if they showed if they said well we we're going to use this 3M you'd probably be okay with it just thinking like you know somebody comes in here with a big old Ru of duct tape cuz they think that that's all safe we know but we we could had the statement if approved by City St that's what I'm saying prior approved and then the next sentence says no tape screws and the sentence before says that you could use wall wall safe tape so I'm just saying no regular or ad no regular adhesive or duct tape can be used so that it makes sense with the sentence before it um and when it comes to the cleaning part I would highly recommend you guys make a checklist I think we talked about that the year or two ago when we were like make a checklist so it's really clear here are all the things you have to do and here's and here's the products that you have to use to clean we we do have a checklist that we put in one of the packets in our previous discussion we just didn't add this but we didn't add products to clean okay um and then I saw so and when it says that uh all lights will be turned off and the applicant will immediate so sorry I'm now on page 41 um will immediately notify the city when the building becomes vacant I know in the further on it says that there'll be a number so do you want to say immediately notify by calling or texting the phone number provided and then I would also suggest that if you don't get a phone or a text that you close them down you lock the doors at the time that they say the event is over cuz I can just see if somebody's here and they're having a good old time and it's 9:00 and they're supposed to be done by 9:00 and they don't text you and they keep on going at 10:00 you know I think I think whoever is going to be responsible for doing it remotely can lock the doors at 9:00 they walk out the doors are locked so even if they don't text you you're going to lock them at the time that the event is said that they were going to be um done so now I'm on 42 sorry I know you're looking like you're pained by all this no I'm not I'm enjoying it oh good okay as long as you're enjoying it um now I'm on the reservation form I I think you should have on here what you want them to tell you so right now you just say a detailed description of the requested use and I think about like well we have that like on our cup and iups and you get not much information so tell them what you want to know do you want to know the number of people do you want to know you know if they're going to have food or or beverages do you want to know if there's going to be anything hanging I mean put the things down that you want to know maybe have a checklist or something and that way you'll get the information you need other than leaving it up to them to guess what you care about and then on the bottom where it says time requested I'd have a beginning and an ending time starts at this time ends at this time then you know when you can lock the doors um and then the cancellation policy we already talked about that so if you'd modify that according to what we just talked about and um I might might I had a question about how do they how do they cancel do they have to do it in writing is it a phone call what's the way that you want them to notify you if they're cancelling I would want it in some form of writing even an email would be sufficient it's time stamped and so why don't you say how all the ways that they can do it um in the general rules it says coffee and food are permitted but earlier it says beverages so if you want to make it that consistent with your earlier language I change coffee to Beverages and let's see um I would not let them use chafing dishes that was mentioned in a previous edit that's why I had that in there yeah would say they can use electric uh warming plates or steam tables I mean crock pots things they can plug in but chaffing dishes have those little sternal things underneath them I don't think you want that in there that's why there's no decathlon Athletic Club in Bloomington was the chafing dishes yep so you had that as an exception I would just take that whole thing out they don't get to use open flames of any kind um and then on the alcoholic beverages um if they have a license will they be able to do it if they have if they come before us with a with a license alcohol so do you want to add that unless that they they can't have alcoholic beverages unless they um come forth and get a license approved alcohol license approved in advance and I think we should provide the cleaning supplies otherwise I mean then at least you know that they're using something that's going to you know not not a wet rag or some rig that they pulled out of their trunk to wipe down the tables so I think we should we should provide the supplies and the cleaning materials for them to use instead of telling them that they have to do that they have to provide it and on the um reference to the LMC handbook chapter I'd give some way for them to I mean they that doesn't mean anything to the public so if you're going to reference that I would do a URL or something so that they could go look it up if they so desired and um and the page 45 it says by signing this application any group individual organization using the Columbus Center agrees to compensate I thought it was just the person that was pulling the application that's obligated not the group not the organization so that I was confused by that um because it starts getting more expansive than what we had said earlier and when it says agrees to compensate I think what you mean is you lose your damage deposit and if there's damage over and above you're on on the hook for that so I think you can make that a little clear what what you mean by compensate and I was a little squeamish about this the city reserves the right to deny change or cancel meeting room reservations without anything following that so I thought we should add something like reservations that do not comply with the rental policy as stated or something like that so it doesn't sound so arbitrary and those are all my changes so like the workshop are we going to wait then get this format back and then re approve it next time so we can look it all over with all the changes we'll get the ad made and let you review them to make sure that that's exactly what you wanted and have that on the next meeting or you could approve it with those changes and I can just give them what I wrote down I might have swn out minutes ago sorry you're not as enthralled with it as as Ron huh well I kind of looked over Ron he's like uh I was worried about Jack I mean i' nothing I'm fine with it we want to run out of ink and his pen over there I got a number two P maybe that he's yeah I don't care either way I mean if you want to get it done that would be one way to get it done you don't have let's get it done so we can run it out right if there's need I'll give I'll give you all my notes you can okay that would be very helpful thank you and I'll even be willing to look at it again after you're done if you want me to yeah was more just so that yeah make sure they got it right no yep we we'll we'll get the edits and give it to Janet if there's anything that needs to be changed you just bring it up at the next meeting but uh that way we'll just postpone the approval to the next meeting we've gone over this we'll table it if everything's ready then you can bring up the motion to approve it and we'll be ready to go or you could or we could approve it with these suggested changes and then you don't have to bring it back at all up to you to yeah and if anybody needs to check they're recorded in the record yeah I would I would I would move to to do that yeah go go for the motion oh great I I I make a motion to approve the senior community rental policy and application form has presented in attachments number one and number two in the March 12th 2025 city council packet with the edits recommended by council member hegland and the mayor and the mayor I had one yep sorry that was so long ago I [Laughter] forgot this is Janet I second that I hate to ask this is there any uh questions or discussion you want me to start bra having none we'll take a vote Scott ey janed Rob Ron we're going to move on to item number uh five Planning Commission chairperson Jack each year the city of Columbus Planning Commission recommends a member to serve as the commission chairperson by city code section 3-14 this position must be approved by the city council it's on the back the Planning Commission unanimously recommended member Lynn Carver Quinn to serve as the 2025 chair person at their March 5th 2025 Planning Commission meeting Mrs Carver Quinn has served as a chair for the previous two years and staff recommends that city council consider this recommendation you want to me yeah I can make the motion uh so I'll make the motion I move as recommended by the Planning Commission at their March 5th 2025 meeting I move to approve the appointment of Lyn Carver Quinn as a chairperson of the planning commission for the remainder of the calendar year 2025 this is Ron I'll second that any discussion any comments take a vote I mean Rob Scott Scott ey Janet I Rob I and ronai that went by so quick I know who's on first I have a question do we have to also um approve the vice chair no that's just internal to them okay who did that end up being Robin robinin okay cool all right now we're on item this resolution 254 uh number six a resolution approving the sale of real property and granting of a temporary easement to the Minnesota Department of Transportation for Highway improvements Jack you want to yeah the Minnesota Department of Transportation is scheduled to start a reconstruction project at State drunk Highway 97 this spring project will include a number of improvements such as median islands and a multi-use trail along the south side of Highway 97 that will provide access to the hardwood Creek Regional Trail in order to complete the project menot requires an expanded rideway and temporary easements of and on city property menot is proposed to purchase 1,487 Square ft of unimproved city land at the intersection of Highway 97 in Hornsby Street for the rideway acquisition a minimum damage acquisition report was conducted on May 6 2024 appraising the valuation at 15 cents per square foot mot is proposing to pay on that basis two $223 for the land in addition to the land purchase m is requesting to rent 144 square ft of unimproved city land in the form of a temporary easement until December 1st 2028 for construction staging the MDA provided a valuation of 18 18 cents per square foot what should be totaling $500 City staff recommended the approval of resolution 2504 Rec a resolution approving the sale of real property and granting of a temporary easement to the Minnesota Department of Transportation for Highway improvements to allow the Reconstruction of Highway 97 this was brought up at our last meeting it was requested that we contact menot and advis them that we thought this was too low an estimation and the request that we receive $11,000 essentially for the purchase of the property with the temporary easement to remain the same so I attached an email from menot which is in your handouts which in a very nice way they said this was Wetlands it wasn't worth anything and they weren't going to change their offer so I'm looking for direction on how you want to proceed I guess we kind of talked talked about like try for it and if not or do we want to go back I think I think you weighed in too Bill you thought that was pretty low on their end yeah it is it's it's not actually Wetland it's it's above the the bond but at this point you know probably you would end up stopping the road project you know because and I'm sure that's what they're betting on is that you want to cooperate you want to have inter agency cooperation on the road project so for the the dollar amount I I don't think it's worth haggling if if it was a larger area you know maybe if it was a higher dollar value perhaps but um I'm I'm kind of surprised that they wouldn't go up to $1,000 yeah I am too yeah but it it probably is not worth quibbling over because you know what would you do you you'd say no we're not going to accept it and then they'd have to go through condemnation to get it and their costs would be so much more which is why I thought for them to throw in another $700 or whatever the difference was was really not a big ask but that's up to you to to make the decision I I do think there is something about inter agency cooperation and we do have a request in for Road funding at the legislature so um you know I think we're all in the soup together well that's the way I feel a th bucks whatever but I don't want to stop the road from get going yeah I I I was at that public hearing yesterday in Forest Lake over the project there were couple people from Forest Lake that wouldn't mind us stopping it but yeah I agree with you I don't think it's worth it for us they want to stop the project there were a couple unhappy people there huh they but they don't like the median they didn't like the left turn oh the left turns or the lack of left turns yeah well anybody else have any comments I'm just irritated by it I mean I I feel like we could say gosh that seems too low and not try to stop their project and see if because they would look at it and go well this isn't worth going through condemnation give them a thousand bucks you know if it were me that just if it were up to me and I were Queen that's what I would do Mr Mayor and Council you know when I'm wearing my property owner hat uh I would definitely take a more aggressive position just because you know they need the per they need the right of way for the project now maybe they could design around it um but you just say well we're taking under advisement and make them you know they're betting that you're not going to hold up the project and but but I'm not wearing my property owner hat I'm wearing my governmental lawyer hat and we do we do work with them the whole interchange project was about working with you know five governmental agencies to get it done five or maybe six and my my other question is if we want to contest this what will be the extra cost to us to do that there will be additional staff time will there be any attorneys fees that will go along with this I I wouldn't go to that extent I would just say responding back to this memo to say it's still kind of it's It's low we we really think that we were asking a fair price I'm I'm not asking that to respond to them I'm asking that as a question to us is this something we might eventually spend more money than we would get back from the ,000 we'd get no because you can settle at any point yeah you it it it's it's it's saying to them there's a principle here I I don't I I don't recommend it just because we've got a lot of uh you know we've got a lot of good faith working with the Department um but it wouldn't take much for them to say oh now we've got to get assign an attorney general we've got to spend time the state has to spend time to dra draft papers so not suggesting that's where we go but that's certainly if you wanted to say send a message back to them you could not my recommendation I my opinion on it is is why don't we just write a an ask to email and say we regret to but we will take what you said the initial price is but I I still look at Hornby and the $762,000 on that road and not I think they'd be thinking that far ahead but they could stop that well too different I mean you you're talking to the people that are building roads versus the people who are making laws about building roads so I don't know that the two messages are going to cross but I get what you're saying I'm I'm just I don't think it's as I don't think it's a big deal to just respond to the message that you got saying you know we really want to cooperate we're in favor of all this but we really feel like our our price was a fair price and see what they say and if they say well we don't so this is our last offer then I don't think we should fight it no not at that point I thought we sent them that letter already didn't we jack we we sent them what we thought we said we don't think this is an adequate offer and here's what we're proposing is compensation and that's when we got this this was the reply to that message that we sent them my opinion is we just accept what they got and move on make the motion huh make the motion I'll make the motion right here uh I move to approve resolution 25-4 resolution approving the sale real property and granting of a temporary easement to the Minnesota Department of Transportation for Highway improvements to allow the Reconstruction of Highway 97 anybody that seconds that I'll second it Rob thank you I was going to say hearing none we got a motion on the floor any discussion comments hearing none we'll take a vote Scott Scott I nay Janet Rob I Ron I and I don't know if I want to put that in the record but uh if you say it's in the record Mr Mayor well you already you already put her Memo in the she agreed to it too so whatever it's Miss laon oh okay got it all right we go on to section D consultant city engineer Brian yes good evening mayor and Council following up on last meeting's agenda where we discussed the Hornsby uh Wetland banking credits for the Trail improvements associated with that project um there was a question if we had any credits available at the Rice Creek Watershed District so I did reach out to the Watershed district and Patrick Hughes did respond and indicated there are no available credits to the city of Columbus on previous roadway projects that the city has done we've been eligible uh to use the local government Road Wetland replacement program so there was no opportunity to create banking credits um so and as we've indicated Trail projects are not eligible uh for this local government Road Wetland replacement program I also checked with the board of Soil and Water Resources to say Bowser if we had any credits that created on other projects and uh there's we do not and they do have a kind of an inventory on their website and you can query it by a County and in NOA County does have several sites but none of them are in Columbus so it doesn't appear that um there's any history of any Wetland banking credits available either through Bowser or the Rice Creek Watershed District so we're kind of back asking for approval of the city share of the Wetland banking credits for the project it was $1,652 who did you ask at race Creek Patrick Hughes who is the uh regulatory manager I think it should go to their board because they were the it was the board that said that they would work with us on projects in the future mhm I mean I you did the right thing you went to staff but I just I don't know I'm not I feel like we should do one more round with them at the board level and remind them of that do we have any documentation on that was in a meeting and I think it was in actually wasn't it in a letter back to you um I I we had one meeting here right we had one meeting or meetings there but I think I think that they wrote a letter back to you saying you know because we felt pretty strongly that they had um promised us credits when we worked with them on the you know the multi- channel um tradeoff to get you know to get that uh Bridge done and so I just feel like going back and reminding them of their willingness to do that and they said if you have a project bring it to us and we'll consider it and I just feel like that needs to be done at a higher level than the staff level because maybe that staff person doesn't remember that or didn't know about it I don't know I do think he was in the mix at the time but I I I also can check our files and see if we can pull something out that looks like a commitment are we up against the clock on this we see when did we approve the 60 day was um in your meeting in February so I think we could probably get to the next meeting and still be within the 60-day can we do that yeah I'll I'll look this week for that okay I'll look too but I I'm pretty sure there was something in writing saying and I recall us talking about it being here at that time and talking about you know you and others being at the meeting that they gave a commitment that hey we'll help you out on the next one but we can't do anything on this one they they didn't want to just take and give us three or whatever we asked for and just put it in our name but they said if we had a project to come back to them and ask for it and this is this is the project and I would ask Brian so that we can't use them for the trail portion of the project but we could use it for the road portion the we can't use the local Road Local Government Road Wetland replacement program that can't be used oh I see but if there are any Wetland banking credits available at the Watershed District they could apply to the trail it's just not the one that's available for road projects but I think that's an important thing to say that our other alternative would be to apply for those kinds of credits and we can't cuz it's for a trail right correct so the only way we the only thing we can do is either pay up or see if Rice Creek will right provide them right okay I'll check this week Brian for any documentation I have in my files so our next Council me will be April 9th is that correct March so yeah looks like April 9th would be the last week before the next expiration okay on the application okay that all you have Brian yes thank you I got a quick question MH we have a backup plan in case the we don't get attached to the uh bonding issue or I think that was the request of the administrator and engineer to to use local funds you mean for the whole the whole 762 th000 right I mean no use buying Wetlands credits if we're not going to if we don't if we don't get State money for our 1,200 ft of Hornsby and what we'd have to do is decide what we're going to do if we don't are we going to withdraw from the project or we going to try to find alternate means to finance it I think that's what Ron is asking right sorry what that's what you're asking correct and we we've had a few discussions at staff level on ways to do it and of course the one option would be okay we don't participate in it we leave that last quarter mile unfinished but if we want to go ahead and participate even if we don't get the bonding bill approved we'd have to look probably at bonding for this project we bonding a portion of it and maybe committing some Surplus general fund Monies to it but uh those would be probably the only things that we'd be available to utilize just a thought uh City attorney so the I'm going to hand out the uh purchase agreement that we're going to talk through and walk through and maybe the administrator would like to just give an update on his discussions we do that thank you Bill as we discussed previously we had we've had several meetings with Mr Saunders about the purchase of the 7.7 Acre Site which is directly AB buts the highve side on the North and is directly across the street from the Caribou Coffee property through a series of negotiations we reached a partial agreement that Mr Saunders would purchase that property for $1.4 million the city would pay the special assessments uh the closing would be concluded within the next8 months and that uh we would separate this property discussion not bundle it with the property on the northwest side just do this one individually it'd be less complicated uh we've had some discussions with Mr Saunders too about his intention to purchase that uh Janet had a discussion with him and he has indicated that he is willing to purchase or enter into a purchase agreement on that site once he gets this purchase agreement concluded so uh we do have a purchase agreement for the 7.7 Acre Site uh before us that's been reviewed by his attorney and Bill and it's ready to be considered for approval if that's your wish Mr Mayor and Council um since you you didn't didn't have this before tonight I'm going to walk you through I've done this before um the good news is this this is the form of the agreement you approved excuse me for the ne Northwest site so the terms are really very very similar so I'm going to walk through the things that are specific to this site um the reason we're doing this in an open meeting is because if you agree with us which is is in line with the direction you gave us on the negotiations then we can approve it tonight the council can approve it tonight and we can go forward uh we actually have authorization to attach signature pages um of the buyer so let's start on page one of the agreement you see the purchase price is $1.4 million which is actually close to the appraised value um so it's it's what we would call a full price offer um I think one of the considerations is Mr Saunders wants to get moving on this and we'll come back around to the the project on the northwest quadrant the earnest money is $10,000 that's in paragraph five that earnest money is actually the what you'll see reference to the Westside earnest money so they're simply they left that with the title company they could have gotten it back uh that's the same earnest money amount that we used on the other one uh on page seven I'm going to take you all the way to section 11 physical inspection of the property it's 240 days um that's a little longer than we were looking at across this Highway at the Northwest Quadrant the reason for that is they want to make sure they have enough time to do a 1031 property exchange we've talked about that previously um that's going to be plenty of time at least in my view to get that done that would take us into mid November it's likely that uh this this will close before November I shouldn't say that you know we've had purchase agreements that have gone on for years but um that would be my my best guess is that this will be done before the end of the year uh another item that we should talk about is also consistent with uh the direction previously is on page nine and that's in section 13B and what it provides for is the sellers shall pay the special assessments that have been levied and pending prior to the closing that's the roughly 300,000 in special assessments for the road the ponding and whatnot that was something we discussed previously and we had Council um consent on that or consensus on that and I believe that's all of the the terms that I wanted to highlight the rest of it we had negotiated on the Northwest Quadrant and so it it actually was very efficient to have uh this document ready to go because it it conforms with with the prior agreement I have a quick question so the earnest money that he has um with the title company that was originally for the duckhead is he just transferring that for this Pro for this purchase agreement okay I thought that's what you said but I just wanted to make sure you understood it and since they can get it back anytime up to the 240-day period you know we could have asked for twice as much because this is a more valuable property um but basically it it it doesn't matter it just goes against the purchase agreement or purchase price or he gets it back so it could be 10 20 $30,000 sometimes you scale it up when you when the you know the value goes up any comments no no jet no I'm good he'll I'm sure he'll be glad to get this wrapped up all right I uh I make a motion I am moved to approve the purchase and sale agreement for Outlet a Northeast quad pin or p 24- 32- 22-11 d006 as exhibited as attachment one item d.2 in the March 12th 2025 city council packet this is Janet I second Janet second it we have a motion on the table any comments questions statements rob you want to start off sure Rob I Janet I Scott ey and Ron I yay so with that um we have signature pages that can be attached and we can get this wrapped up and signed this week it's dated as of tonight U maybe that was a little presumptuous but we thought why why fill in the wrong date if we get it done so good these are the signature pages in this copy correct that's great y thank you for all your hard work on this I know there was some back and forth with with Mr Saunders but I'm glad we finally finally got to this point it's very interesting negotiation it's part of it's it's part of the chase yeah you have anything else bill just um maybe looking to those who attended the day on the hill since I did not I did check in with Margaret today I also have a little update on the status but just wondering how everybody thought it went and [Laughter] it I can speak about the meeting we had with Thea County that was a bit disappointing um and it's also disappointing that we haven't heard anything from them yet so that meeting was um uh set up to be with with commissioner gash and commissioner Reiner and the um government relations staff person and it turned out that it was just commissioner gamh and their lobbyist that was there and their lobbyist was not um very receptive to anything we were really talking about um he suggested that we consider going after changing the LGA formula instead of the fiscal disparities formula and Margaret's like I think that's a mountain we don't want to climb um but what the way that it was left I mean we went through we went through our argument for what the problem was and and um Senator KW was very articulate about you know he felt very strongly that this needed to be addressed and he didn't want to work in opposition to Anoka County so he wasn't looking for them to endorse it but to really just not oppose it and um they uh said that they had uh instructed staff to look at the situation and see if there was anything at a county level that they could do and they were surprised that we hadn't seen anything from the staff yet and he uh commissioner gamh said that he would go back so this is on Thursday and he would hopefully get us something by Friday but we've still not seen anything so I think um Jack is going to call tomorrow or tonight or leave a message or rattle cages or whatever to find out where we are with that um but I know that uh Senator KW was you know like we got to move forward with this we got to move on this in both the house and the Senate if we're going to if we're going to put this up for a hearing and so he needs an answer so I think we do have to Rattle their cage and I don't know if you have any other update or any in more insight on that um not not here because it it deals with legislative strategy and I don't necessarily want to broadcast that um particularly if the County's not going to you know yeah okay remain neutral so I more on that yeah and I think I mean in terms of the rest of the meetings it was it felt a lot more chaotic than normal I think that's just sort of the feeling down there right now I know that Margaret said she could not get appointments with she tried to get appointments with some of the Democrat um legislators and just could not break through the staff to get the I think we had one that we met with but that was it um there was a lot of instead of meeting in offices we were like grabbing people in Halls and meeting people in cafeteras which I don't know how um effective that is in terms of them really understanding or listening to what we're saying but I I will say that we had a really good meeting I think with um the chair on on the house side of the tax committee and he listened and promised that we would get a hearing and the vice chair also did a really nice job of listening and taking notes and and being supportive of it so I thought that was that was promising but I think every all the rest of them that was just sort of like you know yep yep y okay thanks bye yeah and I know Rob and I spent some time together including with Greg D representative Greg Davids the house chair of tax I thought that went well um and I'll let Rob speak for himself but I thought some of the other um um representatives were open to listening to us but we're very non-committal in my opinion Rob I don't know what you thought yeah no just like what Scott said it was when it came to the heart ask or the where are you on this it was oh the kind of waffled well we'll go back and talk to Nolan since he'd be carrying this we want to get more info um I think when Greg Davids was in the room he had was it a staffer that was there in the back I think that staffer was in charge at the administration of the tax committee and he he kind of said I like what I look here what I see but we ultimately we need to talk with Nolan um going through the hall with Margaret Margaret pulled me and said cuz everyone got far ahead in the hall she pulled me and we went and met with Nolan we ended up being late because David's and Nolan were supposed to be a joint meeting right um so Nolan said I Got 5 minutes turned into 10 15 minutes um but something he he brought up another another type of funding I believe it was Wetland funding that we get through the DNR um it's a small something long long a $10,000 taxes yeah pilt funding um and that was another another thing that uh the representa off the range I don't have his name in front of me that Scott and I talked to um he was heading to a a trail trail committee so he had to run but he brought up that pilt funding as well and I hadn't been familiar with it until we came back to as a group and talked about that we actually do get it and it's not a lot but it's something um but mainly expressed our concerns about everything right that we were down there for and they listen but it seemed very little commitment per se other than from it even seemed less commitment from Nolan at this point than we've had in the past and and you know one of the things that I've been hearing and certainly heard from Margaret today is you know with the election the special election being concluded now there's a balance of power in the house right and so they expect to I won't say things to go to normal because I don't think this is going to be a normal session but a lot of things were being held up until last night so hopefully that dust settles quickly um it it isn't a normal session by any stretch but I I think you know I've been up there most you know some at some point most of my career and I've had those kind of meetings where it's really disappointed it feels like a pat on the head but but your presence there is really important because otherwise there's nothing there's there's nothing registers when when you know Nolan West you know says hey you remember the Columbus bill or you know the fact that you were there uh representative Davids is a great guy uh Senator Weber same you know and so the fact that you're there and you're showing up you know with your talking points and you know it's I think it's Al very helpful it's pretty rare in this point in the session to get the office meetings you know that's usually early in the session and of course early in the session nobody was doing anything so I I just I'm grateful I'm sorry I couldn't be there but I'm grateful when my clients can show up and and with FaceTime they listen to constituents more than they listen to lobbyists believe it or not so so another takeaway to is um Greg David said he thought we could likely get a hearing on it right and I don't think that was the way we were planning on going initially um but talking with Nolan Nolan stated he it's not often he says I'll get a hearing so if we can get a hearing we probably should push it to a hearing so we don't have a missed opportunity right and that's one of the things that I would talk to Margaret about and and so there's some some discussion with the authors about whether that should or shouldn't happen the other the other person we talked to briefly um was Patty Anderson so she represents Forest Lake and so I did bring up the ask about Hornsby with her and she's like well how'd that happen it's like I don't know you guys Forest Lake's the one that did the grant so she goes yeah they forgot about you that's how that happened it's like well I wasn't going to say that out loud to anybody she was like yeah well so she was on board with um you know the ask to try to get the rest of Hornsby done and then we talked about fiscal disparities and then she went on to talk about the uh State overreach on the zoning and she's like I'll tell you what she goes I'll support your stuff if you support us on that overreach she says it's a bad thing and I said I don't think any of the Cities want that so I mean I don't think you can you don't have to worry about us being in favor of that so she might be someone to follow back up with because she she she did say she would sort of um trade favors was that on the missing medal Bill she was talking um they help us with it's the one that they had last year where they were going to you know try to push higher density and they yep that's a missing and I don't know what form it's in yet this year but she thought it was going to be definitely brought up again they had their day on the hill today I believe that group okay so yeah it's I don't know if it goes anywhere this year but it's it's being introduced again yeah and I think it will be introduced again again again until there get some movement and at some point the league of Minnesota cities and the cities are going to have to reach a grand bargain with the housing Advocates yeah you can't just have a standoff year after year yeah and she did say that she says you know you guys you guys got to put some pressure on the league to you know take a strong stand on this well bill I I was there for a little while but I didn't stay that long but I want to say kudos to Senator KW I think he's put a lot of effort in in our city and and promoted a lot of our issues so I think he's a great person and he's fighting for us yeah I agree and you know to that end I think it it would be nice um to to actually have a note go back to both of them because they're very very busy and whatever amount of time they can take you know just reinforcing that relationship great good idea is that it bill that's all I have thank you uh we'll go to the city council do you have any report uh no I think I just touched on it with with that portion so and Scott anything nope same as Rob I think we got it all out jet um nope I'm going to talk about Personnel committee at the next one so next agenda item so and I have nothing else we'll go on to item number four the Personnel committee report okay so you all received a email from aronberg um last Wednesday wednes a week ago and um we talked about this at the council Workshop about um what the the work of the Personnel committee is and how we are in the process of updating our um employee policy manual but also uh embarking on this compensation study and part of the compensation study I shouldn't say part of it um part of what guides our compensation study is what this council's compensation philosophy is and you're going to hear more about that at in an upcoming meeting but to kind of take another step back from that it goes back to what um we would see as the mission um what the mission of the city is so he got some feedback from us at that at that um workshop and took the mission statement that we developed a couple years ago for the Eda and then threw out I think six different possibilities he emailed it to us and asked you know what we all thought about that um the reason this matters is because it's sort of the first step to us then fi you know finalizing a draft of a compensation policy which then you would see at your next meeting that's what we would give back to the consultant that's doing our study so that he can align his recommendations for for um compensation to be harmonious with what our what our philosophy is so if you had a chance to read the memo or the email that Aeron sent out there were six different proposed mission statements and I told him that I would bring it up at this meeting because he hasn't heard back from anybody and and give him feedback on um which one you feel is closest to what our mission should or is and if you had any um edits to them and then you know it doesn't have to be I'm not looking for a motion to accept any of these but really like just feedback so I can say yeah he they all like number pick a number the best but they'd like to see these changes so if you need a chance to kind of skim over them um or if you need more time let me know but I I just we're trying to move it forward so that we have everything in place for our next Workshop which is when we have um DDA coming in and doing a presentation of their proposed compensation um study or plan so what's the ask that we respond with which one of the six I would I I told him I would bring it up today so if we wanted tonight so if you had if you have the ability to tell me of these six that he put out here if there's one or two that you like the best and if there's edits to them if you need more time because you haven't had a chance to read this then we can we don't need to take time tonight but then I just want you to commit to when you'll be able to give feedback to Aaron so that we can keep moving this forward yeah I I would like more time and do you have a a a deadline for us um well we have uh a meeting set up next Tuesday with the Personnel committee to um draft finalize the draft of the compensation philosophy and we were hoping to have this as a guiding sort of one of the guiding uh uh statements so that's that would be the ideal but we can certainly do it without this and would it be fair to just uh say respond back to the email by Friday Friday midday or something with our you can if you can do that if you can do that if you want to just respond back to Aaron by by the end of the day Friday that would work I think okay okay thank you and then maybe Jack maybe you can let Jennifer know that too so she can respond back are you finished Janet yes uh we'll go to the Planning Commission report and that's documented in uh council's report that's was put in record here and we'll go on from that to uh the park board report we have nothing there unless you have something Jack no but we'll be talking about several important items at the next meeting on the 25th so uh we'll have something definitely to reported or April meeting okay uh Public Works report Jim report Mr Mayor thank you oh you need to let everybody know you've got the sign up on the door so we all know which door is the council chambers now I just want you guys to see it and be happy it's there I am I think it looks great I walked right by it I saw it looks nice when I was printing off the purchase agreement the guy looking in and I what there you go oh good point for there you go can't read this yeah uh City administrator report uh yes before we get to discussing and requesting some fund transfers I want to report that mtw car truck wash came in and did pick up their building permit so they'll be starting construction hopefully within the next four to six weeks yay good and we heard from the gentleman from holiday but we haven't heard anything from them the first thing they have to come in and get a demo permit so we'll be looking for that now that he's assured us that this project is going to commence this spring uh the main thing I want to report on and request is we're going through our audit now and as part of the audit there were some fund transfers that were identified and recommended by our auditor to be made uh the first request is to transfer $15.84 of remaining funds in bond for fund 340 to bond fund 308 and this way we could clean up and deactivate bond fund 340 this is the Hornsby Street ponding grading and utilities project the second request recommends a transfer of $175,000 from fund 142 Public Safety to fund 406 fire equipment and vehicles the this fund transfer is due to a change in the chart of accounts that was was done early in 2024 and we're just cleaning some of those up the accountant recommended this be done the third request recommends a transfer of $346,000 $346 $422 from what fund 100 general fund to 407 general city capital fund and this is also due to chart of account changes in 24 and this would separate capital accounts from general fund accounts so these are things that should be accomplished to make sure our audit's clean so I would request that those be approved in the form of a motion if you're so inclined okay and I do have those listed as separate motions you want you want them R AO separates yes please okay I'll take the first one then uh I move to approve the internal cash transfer of 1584 remaining in bond fund 340 to bond fund 308 Scott second we have a motion any discussion hearing none we'll take a vote Scott Scott I Janet I Rob I Ron I we'll move on to the second one then uh motion two I move to approve the transfer of $178,300 406 fire equipment and vehicles I would second that but did you say 178 yeah you want to amend that to 175 did you say 17 yeah well 175 316 okay amen I'll second that thank you sorry for the mispronounce any other discussion on it having none Scott Scott ey Janet I Rob I and Ron I I can do the next one sure I move to approve the transfer of $346,500 from fund 100 general fund fund to fund 407 general city capital funds Rob I'll second that any motion or discussion any motion any discussion or question hearing none Scott Scott I Janet I Rob I and Ron I is that it Jack that's it thank you can I ask one question before you read the announcements sure not not on what we just did just one question yes it has to do with the uh presentation that we had last week or two weeks ago whenever it was um at our at our Workshop by in NOA County on the road projects oh yeah I have a question for Bill actually um so there were several projects that they presented um some which we knew and some which we knew of but we hadn't actually been in any um specific conversations with the NOA County the total cost share that they kind of floated by us at that point was 3/4 of a million dollar within the next year or so one of the big ticket items is a Regional Trail out on Lexington so the we knew that they were making Lake Park a regional park and this is part of that process and if I understood it correctly and you guys correct me if I'm wrong looking at the communities that the park runs through which is US Ham Lake and East bethl to pay for that trail and also maintain that trail and our share was about $320 some thousand if I'm remembering that correctly um I don't recall them coming before us with this uh information in the past I mean I know that they were working on the regional Park I know that the trail was part of it but the fact that the trail would fall on the local municipalities I don't I would have remembered that and I don't remember that ever coming up so my question is I'm a little worried that like should there be a a meeting or something I don't want this to get too far down the road and then have it be like well it's too late now I mean you know we went out for bid and you didn't object they didn't ask us whether we approved or we didn't they just sort of like well you know the numbers aren't really final right now but this is about what we're looking at I don't know if it's if it's prudent for us to you know respond back that you know while we appreciate the trails and stuff this is not going to work in our budget I mean it would have to be put in our next year's budget um or if we should request another meeting how would you go forward with something like that how would you recommend yeah Mr May and councel you know I I've heard this um this statement by the county on several projects I don't remember it with regard to the Regional Trail uh but they've talked about and they've been more aggressive and saying there there will be a city share and so the question is you know that's their policy it's not you know they can't legislate that for you so the question to the county is what if we can't pay that and you know what are the Alternatives and we don't want to be the you know the problem in your project but we need understand you know whether it's a workshop or otherwise what you know how did this come about um certainly I remember the presentation when they presented the whole the options for the park and everything else I think they probably showed a trail but I don't ever remember them saying and and here's your share they probably didn't have that number at the time right or or even to say that it would be the it would be the community you know the cities that would pay it and as they presented this they talked about well they weren't really sure what side of the road of Lexington it was going to to be on if it was on one side it was Columbus if it was on the other side it was East bethl slam Lake mhm and then they suggested well in the way that you guys would figure out the um the maintenance costs and responsibilities you you'd form a jpa and it's like oh no cuz I said you know who who's who's going to be driving that jpa is that going to be you guys at the county well H I suppose we could and it's like oh no so and and I know certainly you know in the more populous cities in the county there's there's more of these public facilities and you know the larger cities are used to kind of ping up but this is probably one of the first times that we've been asked as a city to you know for a sixf figure contribution like this we've done some I can't remember uh Jim you might remember the roundabouts we we agreed to take on that responsibility you know and so there's some examples where this played out and and we and we did our part on The Interchange project because we acquired all that real estate and we didn't come out of pocket uh but we certainly contributed a certain amount of real estate to all those projects so this is the first time in my tenure which is fairly long um that they've said six figures numbers of this size and just kind of oh by the way you know so I think it it is fair to ask some questions and ultimately I think what would happen is if Columbus just said no thank you they' have to consider whether the trail goes through with without us you know maybe there'd be a b we'd have to ride around it or something well I I think that you know I mean the reason they were here is because Jim you heard the presentation and said you know I don't think our Council knows anything about it might be good if you come so I have no idea if the other two communities so so we have meetings and and we talk about these projects and you know they start talking about what Our obligation is to their project projects and I know that I don't plan for them and you guys don't know anything about it so I asked an NOA County to come here and say you need to specifically talk about your policy that says communities need to pay because our community our city council is not aware of this and if I go to him and say hey I need 3/4 of a million dollars over the next I think it was 5 years yeah but I think I think they're going the biggest chunk was for um Lexington which is in the next year or two um but I wondered whether they're going to group the projects you know when they go out for bid and that's why they needed cuz I asked Jerry when when are you going to need this money and he said oh like in a year or so yeah so I I mean I really pushed on him hard and I and I know that I'm not the only you know representative of Columbus pushed on them but other communities have as well okay and I just told them that you need to come here and talk about it because we're not planning for that in our budgeting so I mean I I agree at some point give us our fiscal disparities back or we ain't doing Trails I I mean there's some argument there right but you know you sit in those meetings and and I bring up the fact that we don't have that kind of money and an NOA County with a massive budget says well we'll just negotiate and I'm like you can negotiate all you want I have zero so that's that's the negotiation I don't have anything to bring to the table so um I I don't I don't know where you go either but I think that we need to push back pretty hard on what their policies are I mean we don't make I mean maybe we do make policies we have taxes and stuff like that but I mean we're not making policies to burden other communities so let me reach out to those two other cities would be part of this to see if they've been approached what their stand on it is is I think it's probably going to be the same thing that we're saying and um I'll reach out to Ham Lake and East bethl and see if they've had the same presentation or been presented with the same information I'll get you a copy of that presentation that an NOA County gave us it's a PowerPoint you can kind of take a look at it and you know again what they said was those projects that involve federal funds that have to be spent by a certain date which would be this Lexington thing would be the ones that would be upcoming shorter short but some of the others that didn't have the federal funds attached to them they could put those off down the road for a couple more years but we're correct we're going to be faced with a huge amount of dollars potentially a huge amount of dollars we've already told them no to the bomic trail and no to the Lake Drive Trail the Regional Trail seems to be a different animal but to me if it's a Regional Trail and a County Trail then it should be their expense yeah I agree and you know the the cost shares on the you know um Kettle River roundabout at like I mean we we knew about those and we agreed to those conceptually so I have no problem with those um and and I think the pomac they had a really nice presentation and we you know we we I think we pretty clear on that too and I was I mean that's really how they all should be is how they did patomic um but those other two kind of came out of nowhere for me been talking about them but I never they never saw any specific F yeah one other little update and it doesn't relate particularly to these but go to the Forest Lake website they have a drone visual overview of the development or the Reconstruction of the Highway 97 project that shows what it's going to look like from 61 all the way to Hornsby which is very impressive and uh I think you'll like it and again we we are not required to pay anything on that mhm this is only partly t and cheek but maybe after you have these discussions if they're not very satisfying you might adopt your own policy you know that we've got to preserve our our local resources for our local facilities and and then well here's our policy you know MH yeah particularly when uh you know we want to get something done at the legislature and they to fly in the ointment yes particularly okay thank you sorry I I should have brought that up some other place but I didn't really know where it fit good question anyway any other no comments before we I'll make any announcements then uh it's not down here yet but on March 16th the Lions will have their breakfast and uh community center on Sunday and the Planning Commission meeting on March 19th 2025 at 6: p.m. Plum Biz March 20th 2025 at 8: a.m. and that's at blame Brothers truck Aline I take that back uh then Park board meeting March 25th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. and city council meeting March 26 2025 at 6: p.m. that's all I have Fall Fest committee meeting tomorrow right yes okay I I had a question on that Columbus do we need to have that posted on a City website because when I was looking for the time on there I couldn't find it on the calendar at least as a of earlier this week we we can let me check with them to see I don't know that this is open to the general public it's more open to invitation to business I can check with them and see if they don't mind us putting that on there okay but this is posted so we can all be there right that's what I was getting at we don't have to have it on that website do we for it to be okay that's all move to adjourn well you make the motion I just did second oh that was quick he all Shan R Ron boy you [Music]